Bring back the old days!

I was watching an old Royal Rumble a couple of days ago, and it got me thinking…

I really miss the old days of wrestling. Before the Attitude era, when the main event was guys like Hogan, Savage, Ultimate Warrior. When kayfabe existed, when everyone had a gimmick, when it was a real treat to see a cage match. When WWF would sign a new guy, give him three months of promo videos to launch a new wrestler, and think about what to do with him before he debuted. When the IC Title meant something. When the tag division had actual teams, not two wrestlers put together because the writers had nothing for them to do. When The Undertaker was a wrestler, not a ‘sports-entertainer’. When wrestling surprised us!

I only found out wrestling was fake when my older sister told me, after I’d talked for about an hour of the damage the cage match between Owen and Bret Hart could do to their parents, and how the Hart family could be torn apart. I think I was about 13 at the time. Now, it’s common knowledge it’s all pre-determined, no-one really tries to pretend it’s anything else. I miss the innocence of it.

I remember the pops even the mid-card guys got. I remember the overselling of blows at every moment. I remember when promos didn’t last 20 minutes, and the crowd never yelled ‘What?’ after every sentence. I remember when Savage turned on Hogan, Hogan and the Warrior at Mania 6, Shawn Michaels putting Jannetty through the Barbershop window, Lex Luger slamming Yokozuna… these were all iconic moments. What moments are there for guys watching WWE for the first time now to remember and talk about in 20 years time on a forum somewhere?

‘Jeez, I remember when Batista won the title again. Amazing!’. I think not.

If I wanted to be an ‘entertainment’ fan, I’d watch Big Brother. I want to watch wrestling.

I don’t want ridiculous storylines, I don’t want a ‘Legends’ Belt to be created, I don’t want 20 minute promos by the guy who puts the rest of the roster down because he married the boss’s daughter. I don’t want the talented wrestlers to be buried in the mid-card, I don’t want guys to be pushed on how big they are, how ‘in’ they are with the office. I don’t want main events on any show to be ended with a run-in all the time.

I want a World Champ to be booked as such, whether heel or face. I want a tag division to mean something. I want to sit and watch wrestling, be entertained by it, whether it’s TNA, Ring of Honor or WWE. I want to be surprised, I want to be able to watch a show and not be able to guess the outcome, I want decent commentators who do not detract from the product.

I want kayfabe back. Most of all, I want WWF back.

It is a shame that there's not one person (as far as I know) who prefers wrestling now to "back then". I watched Summerslam 98 yesterday and the thing I noticed most was the crowd and their response. Fair enough, an in their prime Rock and HHH in a ladder match would make most wrestling fans cream but it wasn't just that match the crowd loved. The opener with D-Lo and Venis got the crowd going from the very start. Considering now they don't even wake up before the main event it seems like somethings been lost along the way.

I know the attitude era is when it kinda became common knowledge that it was staged but they didn't play to that like they do now. Austin never came out with that bollocks that HHH has been saying recently and breaking the "fourth wall" as it were, talking about "promos" like some smart ass gimp. There's just no need for it. Dot Cotton doesn't turn to the camera in Eastenders and whisper "it's only a basketball up her jumper" because it would spoil the mood and the same applies with wrestling, we don't need that shit.

Every wrestler today seems to be themselves really. I mean, what character does HHH have that doesn't apply to him in real life. Same with Batista, Punk, Jeff Hardy etc. All boring bastards. The older characters like Hogan and Savage might seem corny now but who gave a shit, it was entertaining, more so than the generic crap now.

Also 100% agree with the matches too. Gimmick matches mean shit today because they get used all too often. Cage matches don't even make PPV's now. Hell in a Cell while a good concept has been done far too often. This coupled with 100 PPV's a year make everything that little bit more un-special and now there's hardly anything that means anything now. The way WWE has gone has turned everyone (except marks lol) into cynical buggers who hark on about the good old days but there is a reason for that.

(Great Thread)

(Great Post)

Great article Grec, I guess it will be lost on the younger guys on here who have grown up with Batista Cena and Triple H dominating the WWE along with The Undertaker doing the same old same old.

There was a time right up until the early 90s, (until the Kilq formed) that Vince was against Heels and Faces even hanging out with one another as it killed the good guy bad guy image, I like you miss and want back the WWF, I don't think we will ever see the return of that again, not the F, we know that's gone, but all the World WRESTLING Federation actually stood for, I think our only hope would be if Vince passes the torch and allows Shane and Stephanie to dictate the direction of the WWE, hopefully with Triple H involved he will also have a big say because Triple H for all people have to say about him does love the old days, or so he says whenever he talks about it.

I don't blame Vince McMahon for the state of the business, buying WCW with no intention to run with it was always going to mean one loser, THE FANS, however not one of us would do anything any differently, WCW nearly put the WWF out of business, it was touch and go around 96 and 97, Vince knows that himself, having a chance to firmly establish your business as the current and long foreseeable future as the only serious wrestling company in America, however doing this killed the business as we knew it, Vince tried and failed in my opinion to start from scratch with the WWF and create two brands, all this done was completely starve the tag team division and the midcard division and now instead of having four possibly five main eventers the WWF/E now had to make 8-10 main event guys, and inm doing so had to accommodate those 8-10 guys and something had to give, unfortunately for us that meant the midcard and the tags taking a back seat.

Everything these days is done at 100mph, we see guys, good guys getting lost in the stampede, we don't see any slow build ups nowadays, we don't see the bad guys getting enough heat to have the full crowd baying for his blood, to often the writers and bookers are so fast to look for the quick fix it leaves most of us believing we can do better, so what do we the fans do when this happens?????????? we go against the writers completely, perhaps its meant perhaps its unintentional but we end up cheering for the bad guys and booing the good guys, we don't want Cena anymore, they have absolutely killed anything this guy had with poor booking, we don't want Batista either, again with poor booking and the non existent kayfabe we know to much about him to see he is no face.

Chris Jericho and Randy Orton are the best in the game right now for heels, they seem to be the only guys who can get it right, even Edge was booked shabbily for most of the year and its hurt him big time.

So to get back to what it once was there is only one thing we can hope for, Vince McMahon to pass the torch completely, in the same way he revitalised the industry when he took over from his old man, its time for him to step aside completely, not the aside that can easily have a major input, once he is gone he needs to remain gone, then and only then do I think the ENTERTAINMENT will get back to what it once was

Vince McMahon made it what it is, however there is only so much you can do before you try and outsmart yourself with continual tweaking