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Jumpin said:
That’s true, I don’t disagree with what you’ve said about earlier wrestling and can’t really comment on WWE for the past few years. I think my take on that is that there were some absolutely putrid matches in the past. 98/99 had very few good matches, perhaps even the lowest concentration of them. Rewatching the entire Attitude era was a real eye opener in just how much better things got after late 1999 or so. Jericho and Angle came in, but I think it was Angle that really lit a fire under their asses because Jericho didn’t seem to have anything spectacular under his belt until he became involved with the Radicalz in early 2000. Also, I think Edge and Christian, The Hardy Boyz, and the Dudley Boyz really stepped up the quality of the tag division which before was kind of a shock-TV side show featuring Outlaws, DX, and the Nation—and later on stable stuff like the Ministry and the Corporation and the Corporate Ministry—IMO, so lacklustre and anti-climactic that it made the Alliance vs WWE seem brilliant by comparison. My main recent experience is with AEW, and I’ve noticed that a lot of wrestlers take really brutal moves and don’t sell it a great deal. The athleticism and move complexity is outstanding, don’t get me wrong, but it seems (to me) that the consequences of spots don’t really impact the stakes or tension—if I’m talking in storytelling terms. It’s like a blockbuster film, all flash and little to no tension. To me, top tier selling is 1990s Japanese wrestling, moves look like they hurt and have consequences, they build and build until they have trouble delivering moves—they look exhausted. Then they execute the big desperation spots that look insane, until finally someone is destroyed. I think a lot of modern wrestling was influenced heavily by that, in that they get the hierarchy of moves down, but there’s a bit of a difference in “how do I put this guy down? Let’s try a bigger move!” than “OMG! If I don’t win now I might actually die!” type tension. When you’re looking at a less brutal match (than an exploding barb wire death match, for example), like Jericho be Benoit Ladder Match at Royal Rumble 2001, the way they sold gave the match a level of authenticity, even if it’s only subconscious. To be fair, I haven’t really been watching much wrestling in the past year or so. I also think there are some great wrestlers still around who know how to sell, and I probably do have a large bias given I was a teenager back when the Attitude era, and have a lot of nostalgia for it. But, the wrestling I think I enjoyed the most, ever, was NXT during the time period in the era when Asuka, Gargano, and Ciampa were at the core. Something happened to the quality when it moved from 1 to 2 hours, or maybe it was just too much wrestling. There was something great about NXT, as well, when it wasn’t an equal brand, but a brand where if someone became good enough, dominant enough, they’d eventually be raised to the Smackdown and RAW rosters. That added a whole level of intrigue, even when some were sticking around for a few years at the top (like Asuka). EDIT: Removed my original quote from the post. |
Pretty much agree with your take on AEW. Just think it's a little broad to say that encapsulates modern wrestling. There may be other complaints you can validly make against WWE style, but I don't think that particular criticism would apply.
I'd really recommend looking up Gunther (Walter at the time) vs Ilya Draganov. Despite having absolutely no idea who either was before hand, I was on the edge of my seat. All done solely through in ring work.
| BasilZero said: Wrestlemania weekend boys!!!! |
Yup. I will get very high and watch lots of wrestling. Obviously, looking forward to the bloodline stuff since that's basically been the best story in wrestling over at least the last 5 years. I think the final face to face with Cody and Reigns could have been better but what can you do.
The card actually came together pretty nicely. Less celebrity involvement and novelty matches than last year, which is a good thing to me. I do wish they had one really good pure wrestling match on the card. Along the lines of Owen/Bret or Steamboat/Savage. Maybe Charlotte and Rhea can kind of fill that void, although Rhea is great but not really a "technical" wrestler.
