Men in tights: the wrestling thread

[Meister]

Spinoff from the worst thing ever thread.

Originally Posted by POS Industries

That's hardly the worst thing from WCW alone. This is a company that gave David Arquette a World Heavyweight Title reign, hyped up an appearance by Robocop for at least a good couple weeks only to have him just walk awkwardly down to the ring, unlock a cage, and leave, and created The Shockmaster.

Originally Posted by Satan's Onion

Oh, bless the WCW. They used to be so delightfully batshit crazy. Now all there is is the WWE and its little brother ECW, and it seems like you can only tell one xxxtreeeeeem bitchin kickass ass kicker yeeeeaaaahhhh from the other by the placement and content of their tattoos. It's kind of sad

You could always watch TNA! It's just the same but their ring has two more sides!

Delightfully batshit crazy, eh? Have you heard of CHIKARA? They're a lucha libre-based indie promotion and they seem to have a pretty good sense of humour about basically everything.

To wit: Player Uno.

[POS Industries]

Originally Posted by Meister

You could always watch TNA! It's just the same but their ring has two more sides!

I have a couple friends that absolutely swear by TNA as the actual quality of the wrestling itself is a bit better than what McMahon's little circus is putting out, but if I said I was someone who watched purely for the "sport," I would be a filthy liar. I appreciate WWE's eye for showmanship above all else. The promos and commentary, which really are what make or break the business, are better than TNA's. Especially the commentary.

However, TNA has a guy named Chris Sabin whose signature move is the Bum Rush, so it's not like they aren't doing anything right.

I miss the off-the-wall gimmicks, though. I fell out of love with the business for a while when Gregory Helms stopped being The Hurricane. I got back into it recently, but much of it is still pretty dull. John Morrison and The Miz are the best thing in WWE right now, with Edge, Santino Marella, and The Brian Kendrick not far behind. Also, we're getting close to Triple H's yearly career-threatening quad injury, so that might at least give the place a breath of fresh air for a bit.

[Meister]

Botchamania is a video series everyone should watch. I never knew there were so many ways to goof up in professional wrestling, or that people did it so much. (Don't worry, the guy who does these has enough decency to leave the gruesome injuries out.)

I miss the off-the-wall gimmicks

No seriously, CHIKARA.

[Lumenskir]

I still stand by my friend's theory that your chance of caring about professional wrestling is directly related to when you find out it's all staged. I had never even seen a match before someone 'spoiled' it for me and it just never had any appeal.

However, a few of the vidgames for it were fun. MANDIBLE CLAW!

Also, The Wrestler is supposed to resuscitate the careers of both Darren Aronofsky and Mickey Rourke, so I guess the profession isn't all bad?

[Meister]

The Wrestler is said to be really, really great. I hadn't seen that trailer before but it does look pretty amazing.

Fun fact: the guy who gets put through a table at around 0:30 is Necro Butcher, real life hardcore wrestler and completely nuts. oh god never noticed referee not wearing pants why would he do that

[Corel]

Did anybody else think the thread was about this when they read the title?

...Actually if stage Wrestling was in the form of a Broadway musical, I would so watch it.

Mm, if anyone still watches Wrestling has it changed all that much from The Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan days? It also brought us Andre the Giant to star in a certain wonderful film.

[Si Civa]

This came to my mind and of course I thought that Meister was sure fast to start this thread with tittle being "men in tights". It surely explains about wrestling, but how much does it explain about Meister himself?

And there's not Curt Hennig anymore.

[Archbio]

Playing a videogame based on pro-wrestling is getting pretty close to Futurama's gag about virtual virtual skee ball.

[OctoberRaven]

First of all, Meister is right about CHIKARA. It's not just crazy gimmicks but great wrestling to boot. Take Mike Quackenbush, who is undoubtedly THE best American wrestler.

Also, Player Uno is one-half of a tag team with Player Dos (formerly Stupified) called the Super Smash Brothers. Their theme music? THE PUNCH-OUT FIGHT MUSIC.

The commentary is also top-notch. And unlike most promotions, who stick with two guys for the whole show, they have multiple commentators who change constantly, and usually at least one if not both are wrestlers.

There's a local promotion here called ICW, most notable because of a guy called J-Biggs who is a phenomenal brawler (has a kind of Eddie Kingston build with a Samoa Joe look, and his style is a mix of both) and has the stiffest lariat I've ever seen.

If you want good serious stuff, your best bet is to go to Japan, where they have some of the best workers (Minoru Suzuki, Keiji Mutoh/Great Muta, Kenta Kobashi are people to look for) in the world. They also have women wrestlers who are better than most mainstream US male wrestlers. Most of them aren't photogenic (Megumi Kudo was a cheif exception) in fact most of them look like petit men.

If you want batshit crazy stuff? Well, we all know Japan has it's share of craziness and their indy wrestling is no exception. DDT and Triple Sixxx (aka 666) are good bets: DDT is a parody of WWE/American mainstream wrestling (Including a title that's defended 24/7 like the WWE's hardcore title was, only this one has changed hands over 500 times and has been won by people who aren't even people: 3 different ladders, a Hello Kitty doll, and the referee's pet chihuahua have all won the title at one point). Notable Japan comedy gimmicks include Poison Sawada JULIE (Whose gimmick is that he's from the Island of Makai and has supernatural powers whose origins involve the Easter Island statues), President Ramu (A preteen girl, I think she's 9 years old now, who is basically The Undertaker as a little girl. She even chokeslams people), MECHA Mummy (Yes, a robot mummy, who also uses prop weapons in his matches, including a drill, a giant fist that doubles as a rocket punch, and a jetpack) and Kikutaro (basically an all-around wacky character who is known for all sorts of hijinks, including imitating other wrestlers).

EDIT- Good pro wrestling game, in fact the best: Fire Pro Wrestling Returns for the PS2

[POS Industries]

Additionally, I recommend HUSTLE in the vein of crazy-ass puroresu, if for no other reason than it created Hard Gay and has Tajiri. The Great Muta and the Dudleys have also passed through there, as well. Really hilarious stuff.

EDIT: HOLY SHIT JEFF HARDY JUST WON THE WWE CHAMPIONSHIP I'M KINDA MARKING OUT.