Wrestling

[Brandon]

The Andre the Giant doc is on youtube...   it was decent but definitely had 15  - 20 minutes of unnecessary time spent on the rise of Hogan and WWE.         I found the first part of the doc great where they spoke of what the man was like away from the ring.    I wish they would of focused more on his troubles of being a giant in the real world and less on how he could fart for 30 seconds.     

 

[ediger]

3 hours ago, Brandon said:

The Andre the Giant doc is on youtube...   it was decent but definitely had 15  - 20 minutes of unnecessary time spent on the rise of Hogan and WWE.         I found the first part of the doc great where they spoke of what the man was like away from the ring.    I wish they would of focused more on his troubles of being a giant in the real world and less on how he could fart for 30 seconds.     

 

The farting bit really should be it's own documentary.

[ediger]

3 hours ago, Brandon said:

The Andre the Giant doc is on youtube...   it was decent but definitely had 15  - 20 minutes of unnecessary time spent on the rise of Hogan and WWE.         I found the first part of the doc great where they spoke of what the man was like away from the ring.    I wish they would of focused more on his troubles of being a giant in the real world and less on how he could fart for 30 seconds.     

 

The farting bit really should be it's own documentary.

[The Unknown Poster]

On 4/13/2018 at 5:46 PM, SpeedFlex27 said:

I only watch WWE. TNA I never watch. ROH if nothing else is on.  As Sweep The Leg said, if Omega's name didn't come up here, I'd have never heard of him.

Good point...so as a casual fan, you have heard of Omega because people talk about him in a wrestling thread on a sports forum. 

On 4/14/2018 at 4:18 PM, wbbfan said:

That makes sense.  the punches always seemed kinda poor quality to me, that or like they legit snuck a punch in. but then its gotta be really hard to fake a punch like that. 

there are many talented guys that cant throw a worked punch to save their lives lol  If anything, I'd have had Ronda lay hers in even more.  I bet they told her to throw punches like she would in MMA and they'd cover up so she's only hitting their arms anyway.  They looked good from a realistic perspective which is the point although I think Hunter & Steph could have taken some stiff shots (but you risk someone getting knocked loopy for real...which makes Brock/Roman look even stupider with their shoot elbows).

20 hours ago, Brandon said:

The Andre the Giant doc is on youtube...   it was decent but definitely had 15  - 20 minutes of unnecessary time spent on the rise of Hogan and WWE.         I found the first part of the doc great where they spoke of what the man was like away from the ring.    I wish they would of focused more on his troubles of being a giant in the real world and less on how he could fart for 30 seconds.     

 

It was excellent.  Could have been a two partner really.   I would think the hogan stuff was simply to build up the importance of Andre losing to Hogan at WM III which, young people today probably cant imagine how big that match was.  All the talk in the doc about them not knowing what Andre would do was myth though.  The doc did come across a bit of a rehab of Hogan as he came across great.  I believe the Andre doc will end up on WWE Network once its HBO run is over.

If Im WWE, I'd do a Hogan doc in the same vein and deal with the sex tape/n-words/lawsuit stuff.

[Brandon]

To much on Hogan...   I would of liked them going a bit more about his struggles during this time with him barely being able to walk and if physically if he could do the match.     It would of been interesting to see more about his time in France and more stories from guys who were around him.    

One story I liked was about the Warrior stiffing him and then one time he stuck out his fist and KO'd the Warrior after he came off the ropes.

[The Unknown Poster]

9 minutes ago, Brandon said:

To much on Hogan...   I would of liked them going a bit more about his struggles during this time with him barely being able to walk and if physically if he could do the match.     It would of been interesting to see more about his time in France and more stories from guys who were around him.    

One story I liked was about the Warrior stiffing him and then one time he stuck out his fist and KO'd the Warrior after he came off the ropes.

Yeah Im sure WWE has tons of backstage video that could have shown how hurt and pained Andre was.  Perhaps HBO chose to go more general to make it more accessible to the public.  But I think you're right, the struggle aspect was most interesting.  WWE did a lot to protect the myth of Andre has a tough guy though.  Im sure most people here could have taken him by the late 80s.  Its a shame he got bad medical advice as far as not getting help for his acromegley. 

Big Show did.  That guy in NXT who's name escapes me right now, just had surgery for the same thing.

[The Unknown Poster]

Forget Roman, Drew McIntyre is the guy they should build around. 

[Taynted_Fayth]

12 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Forget Roman, Drew McIntyre is the guy they should build around. 

meh totally forgot about drew since he was on TNA.  IMO he reminded me of a darker haired Big Cass. Nothing really standoutish about him other than him having like a foot on Ziggler. He did get a nice pop though when they attacked titus world wide.  I guess rolling with the pop makes sense to put him more over the Reigns

[The Unknown Poster]

31 minutes ago, Taynted_Fayth said:

meh totally forgot about drew since he was on TNA.  IMO he reminded me of a darker haired Big Cass. Nothing really standoutish about him other than him having like a foot on Ziggler. He did get a nice pop though when they attacked titus world wide.  I guess rolling with the pop makes sense to put him more over the Reigns

He was NXT Champion.  He was actually really good when he was in WWE years ago as Vince's "Chosen One" but pushed too hard too fast.  When he left WWE, he worked all over and became a lot better.  His run in NXT was very good.

He has everything.  He's gigantic, has a great look, is a good worker and decent promo.  Way way better than Cass (which isnt a knock on Cass since he's not nearly as experienced as Drew).  They might be going for a Shawn/Diesel dynamic with Ziggler and Drew.

But its interesting how WWE thinks.  Of course, their unwavering desire to push Roman but in the main event of RAW, they presented Roode and Lashley like top guys and neither guy got a reaction from the crowd.  Drew did though. 

I was really thinking they should do Lashley/Brock.  But man...next week, if they want to shake thing sup, have Drew interrupt and confront Brock.  Crowd will go wild.

[Atomic]

I think Drew/Ziggler will join the tag division.  That ZigZag/Claymore move is a winner.

Or .... Mahal, Slater, and Macintyre are all on RAW now.... just sayin...

[The Unknown Poster]

9 minutes ago, Atomic said:

I think Drew/Ziggler will join the tag division.  That ZigZag/Claymore move is a winner.

Or .... Mahal, Slater, and Macintyre are all on RAW now.... just sayin...

[SpeedFlex27]

On ‎4‎/‎16‎/‎2018 at 7:35 AM, The Unknown Poster said:

Good point...so as a casual fan, you have heard of Omega because people talk about him in a wrestling thread on a sports forum. 

 

Absolutely. If it wasn't for you & others here I'd have never heard of Kenny Omega. 

[SpeedFlex27]

6 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

He was NXT Champion.  He was actually really good when he was in WWE years ago as Vince's "Chosen One" but pushed too hard too fast.  When he left WWE, he worked all over and became a lot better.  His run in NXT was very good.

He has everything.  He's gigantic, has a great look, is a good worker and decent promo.  Way way better than Cass (which isnt a knock on Cass since he's not nearly as experienced as Drew).  They might be going for a Shawn/Diesel dynamic with Ziggler and Drew.

But its interesting how WWE thinks.  Of course, their unwavering desire to push Roman but in the main event of RAW, they presented Roode and Lashley like top guys and neither guy got a reaction from the crowd.  Drew did though. 

I was really thinking they should do Lashley/Brock.  But man...next week, if they want to shake thing sup, have Drew interrupt and confront Brock.  Crowd will go wild.

Yeah,  those 2 got a small reaction that's for sure.

[SpeedFlex27]

On ‎4‎/‎16‎/‎2018 at 9:42 AM, The Unknown Poster said:

Yeah Im sure WWE has tons of backstage video that could have shown how hurt and pained Andre was.  Perhaps HBO chose to go more general to make it more accessible to the public.  But I think you're right, the struggle aspect was most interesting.  WWE did a lot to protect the myth of Andre has a tough guy though.  Im sure most people here could have taken him by the late 80s.  Its a shame he got bad medical advice as far as not getting help for his acromegley. 

Big Show did.  That guy in NXT who's name escapes me right now, just had surgery for the same thing.

I think Big Show would be dead by now had he not have had surgery.  He's a lucky man that he was diagnosed & was taken care of.

[Brandon]

The documentary did say that Andre was warned but he was afraid about no longer being a giant and losing his stardom in the wrestling world.   

Paul Wight was diagnosed at a time where this kind of surgery was much more common and it was much more of a no brainer decision for him.  

 

[The Unknown Poster]

This is a big one 

 

[Atomic]

Sammartino was the longest reigning champion of all time wasn't he?  True legend.

[The Unknown Poster]

1 minute ago, Atomic said:

Sammartino was the longest reigning champion of all time wasn't he?  True legend.

Yup his first reign was almost 8 years.  And then another 3+ in his second.  He was Vince Sr's pick as World Champion when they broke away from the NWA.   Buddy "Nature Boy" Rogers was NWA World Champion and lost to Lou Thesz but the WWWF (Vince) didnt recognize it and declared him their first World Champion after winning a fake tournament in Rio (they said the same about Pat Patterson winning the first IC title).

Rogers was just a transitional champion to link the established world championship of the NWA to the new WWWF World title and lost to Bruno 22 days later in 48 seconds.  Rogers always claimed he had suffered a heart attack a week earlier and was dragged from the hospital to do the match because it was so important.

Bruno finally wanted a break after almost 8 years so dropped the belt to Ivan Koloff which the shocked audience reacted to with silence.  As I recall, they didnt even announce the decision in arena for fear of a riot.  Ivan transitioned the title to babyface Pedro Morales.  The thing back then was to have an ethnic babyface champion who appealed to the working class of New York.  He had it for almost 3 years and then transitioned it back to Bruno through Stan Stasiak

When I was a kid in the 80's era and saw tapes of Bruno, I wondered how he was such a huge star compared to Hogan and the ore colourful guys I knew.  But he was massive.  Massive talent.  A hero to the people of the North East.

And a very interesting life.  From Wiki:

Quote

During his childhood, Sammartino's family hid from German soldiers in a mountain called Valla Rocca, during the latter stages of World War II.^[7] During this time, Sammartino's mother, Emilia, would sneak into their German-occupied town for food and supplies.^[7] In 1950, he moved to the United States and settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where his father had already lived for several years.^[7

He also set a bench press record.  I believe there is a movie about his life in development.

He was VERY outspoken against Vince Jr and the WWE in the 90's, speaking out against steroids and the attitude era.   The idea of Bruno returning to WWE was basically unheard of.  It was Hunter who made it a personal goal to mend fences and bring him back into the fold.  Which he did, of course.  Anyone who has not seen Bruno's Hall of Fame speech should go out of their way to see it.  Really good.

[The Unknown Poster]

 

[The Unknown Poster]

Add Styles vs Nak at SaudiMania next Friday. 

[The Unknown Poster]

A few more

 

[The Unknown Poster]

New York Times 

 

[The Unknown Poster]

 

[The Unknown Poster]

“#1” Paul Jones also passed away today. 75 years old. Probably won’t be known to many. I believe he managed the Powers of Pain in Crocket (WCW) in the early 90’s

[Taynted_Fayth]

While he may not have been the first wrestler i associated with wrestling - being an 80s kid Hogan, Macho Man and The Ultimate Warrior were the cream off the crop,  I would always hear that Bruno was like THE guy back in the day basically braking wrestling from a travelling sideshow to a sporting event as his title reign was so long people would fill madison square garden everytime just to see if that was gonna be the night he lost it.  Cant say I ever watched him wrestle but I would have to say he gets some o the most if not the most accolades from anyone and everyone associated with wrestler past or present.  I assume they will do something more extravagant to honour his legacy than others who've passed before him, probably change the WWE Hall of Fame name to something akin to the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Pro Wrestling HoF  but like Bruno Sammartino Sports Entertainment HoF