Schneider Heim posted:

PWR did a year-long story that was based on the silliest in-joke.

In the pre-show, there is a masked jobber stable named El Consejo de Trabajadores (basically, The Council of Jobbers) who is led by Trabajador Supremo, a wheelchair-bound fat man with mic skills suspiciously similar to a main roster member (spoiler: they're the same person). They claim to "work in the shadows so that those in the light may shine" so you know what they're going for. But there was this Trabajador who dared to win: Quatro. After showing some incredible skills and almost winning his match, Supremo punished him for daring to step into the light by having the rest of the Trabajadors beat him down.

But Trabajador Quatro started to win his pre-show matches. He was just drat good (he has a slick Destino as his finisher). So Supremo decides to personally face him at the promotion's biggest show of the year, (where the light is strongest, casting the deepest shadows), granting him the power to walk and wrestle. In that match, Supremo's might was almost too much for Quatro, who was unmasked, but he managed to scrape a win. After the match, Supremo proclaimed him to be The Lightbringer, The One Destined to Shine, and he graduated to the main show, eventually becoming champion a year later.

One of the most satisfying storylines I've seen, and it was told entirely over the pre-show of an indie promotion!

Breitbart Is Rightbart posted:

Am I dreaming or did Triple H have a t-shirt design between 2005-2009 which was based around the hemorrhoid cream preparation h? Like a "apply some of this before you get your rear end kicked" vibe.

MrBling posted:

Admiral Joeslop posted:

Who else has had injuries or surgery covered up by clothing and gear while still wrestling, acknowledged or not?

Undertaker had the Phantom mask.
Jericho wrestled with a cast on his arm, kinda counts.

D'lo had that chest protector and Bob Orton had his arm cast but I don't remember if either of those were legit at the start.

CopywrightMMXI posted:

What are some examples of wrestlers recovering well after undefeated streaks? It seems like most guys either flounder or lose their lustre after their first losses.

IceAgeComing posted:

The first is as old as time: there's evidence from as far back as 1870 of newspapers openly discussing the rigged nature of Pro Wrestling. Would like to say that tag team wrestling developed in the 20s but I could be wrong and misremembering something there; and I also imagine racism in wrestling is also as old as time as well.

BrigadierSensible posted:

I have a question about wrestling outside the US.

Given how there are Seth Rollins-style WWE bootlickers/apologists, are there big stars for NJPW, or AAA or any other Japanese/Mexican promotion that have so completely swallowed the company Kool-Aid and are prepared to continually suck up to their corporate overlords/bosses in order to appease them, or for other reasons?

Or is that sort of thing more linked to WWE's cult like culture, and that Vince is a crazy man?

Davros1 posted:

Mark Henry has to be considered.

Lamuella posted:

Think of it like this: people are still doing stand up comedy online. Most compensate for the lack of audience by working around it and not leaving awkward pauses. I've seen one or two of compensate for the lack of audience with canned laughter, and unless you're using it to highlight artificiality it ALWAYS sounds like poo poo.

Lamuella posted:

How much would you have to be paid to sit in catering?

Like, if your job was to keep yourself in good physical shape, be enthusiastic on social media, fly around the country two or three times a week and be constantly ring-ready, and lose a match that made it onto TV about once every 6 weeks, how much money would you have to be offered to take that deal?

Red posted:

It's an old mindset that needs to go.

The approach should be to make wrestling appear more legitimate. Matches can be stopped for injury, and it doesn't hurt kayfabe or storylines. Referees should wear gloves. And if something like Owen's fall happens again, the show should be stopped.

MassRafTer posted:

Here's the opposite end of the question:

What's a move you wish everyone would steal?

Before the huricanrana became popular American wrestlers would do a much different headscissors and it looked really cool. If you played WWF Warzone (or maybe it was Attitude?) Shawn Michaels did it in the game. I believe it dates back to Carpentier, where the wrestler scissors the head while laying out parallel to the shoulders and both roll forward.

It looks really cool and gravity defying. I wish more wrestlers would do it now.

ICHIBAHN posted:

was there an AEW show last night?

disaster pastor posted:

Vader v. Mutoh, 8/9/1991

Bushmeister posted:

After some Discord talk about Jericho's impending retirement and how he's obviously going to go out as a babyface in the end, made me think: what big names, if any, have retired from in-ring competition as heels to the end? Career heels like Abdullah The Butcher seem, if they make it that far, to become kind of beloved figures in the end so you can't really count on that. Did anyone ever walk away from the ring for good while doing the full MJF shtick?

El Gallinero Gros posted:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f6HR1-gknQc

Toukoudan, as shown by one Colton Aloysius Cabana

Also MiSu's store in Harajuku, called Piledriver

Zombie Lemur posted:

Reminds me of a buddy of mine back when we were in high school. He got a job at some kind of warehouse, I don't remember the specifics of what they actually did there, but his job was basically to push a broom all day.

But no one ever needed anything cleaned, so after a while he'd just clock in and then leave to go do whatever before coming back and clocking out.

This went on for at least a month before someone noticed and he got fired.

Admiral Joeslop posted:

It's not a title change but Mark Henry and Matt Hardy had a relatively hot feud going that kept getting derailed by injuries. When they finally had a big blow off tag match, someone forgot to kick out of a pin in time; Henry never even got into the ring and the refs had been instructed lately to count pinfalls and such even if the wrestler messed up the finish.

The ref was fired for it.

MassRafTer posted:

Here is the real one I am sorry for my deception that no one has called out but I don't want to forget I posted the fake one and never post the real one.

rujasu posted:

Originally, the carny stuff actually was real wrestling, or at least ostensibly was, but they were charging admission and paying people and turning a profit and stuff, and they billed themselves as professional wrestling. They didn't have to "earn" the name any more than professional baseball clubs did. So the carny stuff was always "pro wrestling" and over the years it resembled actual wrestling less and less.

Big Coffin Hunter posted:

To be fair, I did have friends the same age or one year younger that thought the point of Goldberg's entrance was to protect the audience from HIM because he was so powerful and badass.

I was born in '89, so for 7 and 8 year olds it just made him look awesome

Karma Tornado posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEIUIHMveRI

for life eeeh ha ha ha

EdsTeioh posted:

Ironic considering HHH was awarded that belt initially.

Pope Corky the IX posted:

I can recall people complaining about themes that don't fit or songs being used in general (like for a PPV) but now all I can think of is a bunch of examples from the 80s.

apophenium posted:

I find myself wanting to know more about the history of the various major wrestling promotions and their predecessors. As told through like the major storylines and feuds and title reigns and important matches, good or bad and how viewers at the time thought about them. But the thing is I don't really have the kind of free time to watch decades of wrestling while new stuff is coming out too. Nor do I really have the time or patience to listen to 4 hour long podcasts about specific events. I'd love to be able to both of those things. But I'm hoping there might be a collection of sites or blogs or books that could get me where I want to be. Something a bit more detailed than a Wikipedia article.

Is there anything like this that y'all can recommend? I do intend to watch some stuff. Like I just watched Triple H and Cactus Jack No Way Out 2000. And I watched a Ricky Steamboat match a couple days ago. But I'd also like to just read a little bit here and there, you know?

Dawgstar posted:

Is Brian Gerwitz's book worth reading?

quote:

Once I had made some off-the-cuff comment asking someone why [Bob Holly] changed his tights from blue and yellow to blue and pink. Nothing against the color pink; I just thought the yellow worked for him. Next thing I know Bob’s confronting me backstage in the arena hallway.

“Hey! I heard you’re going around telling everyone I’m a [redacted]! How ‘bout I [redacted] you in the [redacted]?! Would that make me a [redacted]?!”

There’s really no right way to answer that question

NutShellBill posted:

Hideously overrated is a bit harsh.

He was asked to work with some guys who were non-wrestlers, immobile or completely unsuited to the job and those awful, awful matches were usually in high-profile situations. And he was also asked to stay at least 5-10 years past the age he should have retired.

(I mean, he could have said no, but those Trump campaigns aren't going to fund themselves? I guess?)

He had great matches with the guys you would expect him to have great matches with.

I'm not sure anyone was better at pageantry and "sports entertainment".

As a worker, I'd say he was great for a big man of the 80s-90s... which would firmly put him as average today. It is somewhat telling that when allowed to bring in his own guys, he had one of the worst tag matches of all time.

As a person... I really want to dunk on him. He brutalized Chris Kanyon for the reasons you'd expect, hangs out with the Harris Twins and had a rep as Vince's personal muscle... which he definitely abused.

As a performer, when people tell me the Undertaker is the best and get that gleam in their eye, I just let them have their moment, and let them like who them like. And die a bit inside.