Shoot Interviews

[StudioStu]

I've been hooked on them lately. My favorites so far are Jake Roberts and Ted Dibiase. They perfectly explain what is missing from wrestling today. After listening to them I was like man I wish these guys were a road agent or head booker somewhere, Jake especially. Has anyone else heard them or any other shoots?

[NickC13573]

a bunch are on youtube in segments. Iron Sheik is hilarious in shoots

[StudioStu]

lol yeah, Sheik is pretty funny. I also liked Warrior's shoot just to see his side of things.

 

Another thing that really stood out on the Jake shoot is his stance on turns. He says that your character should remain the same and you let the fans get behind you. When he turned face and heel, he was the same throughout, his speech and walk and everything, but his actions determined his alignment. He cited Lex Luger as a bad example, saying when he was face he looked all happy then as soon as he turns heel he comes out all grimmace faced and stuff, lol. It totally kills the beleivablilty. Blew my mind man, that kind of stuff is near absent today.

[ampulator]

lol yeah, Sheik is pretty funny. I also liked Warrior's shoot just to see his side of things.

 

Another thing that really stood out on the Jake shoot is his stance on turns. He says that your character should remain the same and you let the fans get behind you. When he turned face and heel, he was the same throughout, his speech and walk and everything, but his actions determined his alignment. He cited Lex Luger as a bad example, saying when he was face he looked all happy then as soon as he turns heel he comes out all grimmace faced and stuff, lol. It totally kills the beleivablilty. Blew my mind man, that kind of stuff is near absent today.

Jake's comments don't surprise me the least. He's one of the pre-cursor's to Stone Cold. Stone Cold Steve Austin was originally a heel, but when he turned he face, he remained Stone Cold.

[StudioStu]

Jake's comments don't surprise me the least. He's one of the pre-cursor's to Stone Cold. Stone Cold Steve Austin was originally a heel, but when he turned he face, he remained Stone Cold.

 

Exactly, I don't know why wrestling today cannot grasp these simple concepts. Like another thing both Dibiase and Roberts talked about is building the match. Start slow, tell the story in the ring, build it up and then finish. They talked about how today guys will kick out of finishing moves which then destroys that move's credibility, as well as getting slammed off the top rope, go through tables and then they're beaten by a school boy roll-up, lol. They say when you do that you're calling the crowd stupid, and I agree.

 

I always wondered why back then I would be glued to a match beginning to end, and nowadays I can barely sit through one. It's because they were telling a good story, who cares if they didn't do as many cool or crazy moves as we see now, they sold that match and I bought it.

[Moderndaywarrior]

Yep that's pretty much it....when you see guys getting lifted up and dumped straight on their head or falling off a top rope to the outside or taking a nasty chair shot then they kick right out it basically says "forget what you just saw,it didn't matter"....you best here is probably Nick Bockwinkle,even if he was scheduled to win after he took he big move he never just kicked right out,he would always struggle then get a foot on the rope right before a 3 or just barely lift his shoulder off the mat to see it or something,basically saying "I just got beat down and only avoided losing by sheer luck,if this guy gets me good again I'll lose for sure."

 

Jake and Ted's comments on turns are classic wrestling psychology at work...when a bad guy goes good,he never turns around and become some happy guy shaking hands with the hands...he stays the same mean,nasty,shady character he was before, the difference is now he is doing evil deeds to and screwing over people the fans want to see these things happen to.

 

It's those little touches like that,that little bit of extra effort, that are sorely lacking in the modern product.

[Remianen]

Jake and Ted's comments on turns are classic wrestling psychology at work...when a bad guy goes good,he never turns around and become some happy guy shaking hands with the hands...he stays the same mean,nasty,shady character he was before, the difference is now he is doing evil deeds to and screwing over people the fans want to see these things happen to.

 

It's those little touches like that,that little bit of extra effort, that are sorely lacking in the modern product.

 

What I especially like is how the workers who came up in the days where you had to compose and perform your own promos (how many stories have been written of folks writing and practicing promos while on the road traveling between shows?), can seemingly come up with catchphrases without even meaning to. Like, I saw a Jake shoot where he said something like, "I'm not from the old school. I'm from the school that burned down before they built the old school." Are you freakin' kidding me?!

 

But the main problem with the industry in general, is pride (I think). A lot of younger guys start drinkin' their own Kool-Aid and think that the guys who paved the way have nothing to offer them. The Jake shoot I saw basically detailed that. Learn your craft. The guys who were successful and had longevity fueled by their ability and performances still have wisdom to impart. Now while I don't agree with Jake's view on why his finisher isn't a finisher anymore (that happens, it's progress), I do think that some moves can be made to appear dangerous when used properly (even if they aren't).

[Jennie Bomb]

I do think that some moves can be made to appear dangerous when used properly (even if they aren't).

 

To give a fantastic example of this: thanks to smart, strong booking, at one point during the last decade, WWE managed to make the Full Nelson the most feared, deadly and over wrestling move in the entire company.

[BHK1978]

To give a fantastic example of this: thanks to smart, strong booking, at one point during the last decade, WWE managed to make the Full Nelson the most feared, deadly and over wrestling move in the entire company.

 

Funny thing is they did that exact same gimmick like twenty years before that with Billy Jack Hayes and Hercules Hernanadez.

[wrestlingfan1]

Love shoot interviews especially the ones RF Video puts out, I've seen Kevin Nash, Shawn Micheals and X-Pac. I find them great and very informative. I'd like to watch the one by Jake and agree whole heartedly that since the incorporation of mass storylines and over produced mic time the ring action has seriously suffered. In other words they don't need to tell the story in the ring anymore that's why they talk.

[StudioStu]

Love shoot interviews especially the ones RF Video puts out, I've seen Kevin Nash, Shawn Micheals and X-Pac. I find them great and very informative. I'd like to watch the one by Jake and agree whole heartedly that since the incorporation of mass storylines and over produced mic time the ring action has seriously suffered. In other words they don't need to tell the story in the ring anymore that's why they talk.

 

Which wouldn't be as much of a bad thing if they were good at it. I swear sometimes it's like they're reading Q-cards. We need guys like Jake and Ted to teach these guys how to cut a promo. On the note of finishers, one match that stands out is Wrestlemania X-7 between Austin and Rock. As good as this match was, the ending started to get ridiculous. They hit each other with their finishers like 3 times a piece, and even with their opponents finisher, and they still kicked out of all of them. Then it took hitting The Rock with a chair like 20 times before finally getting the pin. That makes them seem invincible. I would much rather them be portrayed as good and smart wrestlers than invincible. You know like instead of them being hit with a finisher 3 times, have them find a way out and escape the finisher 3 times before being hit with it.

 

Sorry I have a lot to vent about current wrestling, I think that's why I play this game so much, lol.

[wrestlingfan1]

Which wouldn't be as much of a bad thing if they were good at it. I swear sometimes it's like they're reading Q-cards. We need guys like Jake and Ted to teach these guys how to cut a promo. On the note of finishers, one match that stands out is Wrestlemania X-7 between Austin and Rock. As good as this match was, the ending started to get ridiculous. They hit each other with their finishers like 3 times a piece, and even with their opponents finisher, and they still kicked out of all of them. Then it took hitting The Rock with a chair like 20 times before finally getting the pin. That makes them seem invincible. I would much rather them be portrayed as good and smart wrestlers than invincible. You know like instead of them being hit with a finisher 3 times, have them find a way out and escape the finisher 3 times before being hit with it.

 

Sorry I have a lot to vent about current wrestling, I think that's why I play this game so much, lol.

 

 

no need to be sorry, i could go on for hours about whats wrong with wrestling today ( yet I still watch ) and what was so great about wrestling in a time lost. Jake Roberts, Ted Dibiase, Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair and love him or hate him Hulk Hogan were some of the best people on the mic before you had to be good on the mic to have a job.

[wrestlingfan1]

Funny thing is they did that exact same gimmick like twenty years before that with Billy Jack Hayes and Hercules Hernanadez.

 

Didn't they have a "blow off" match where the loser had to find a new finishing move?

[BHK1978]

Didn't they have a "blow off" match where the loser had to find a new finishing move?

 

That I do not remember (as I was like seven when that happened), Moderndaywarrior would probably remember that.

[StudioStu]

Someone showed this to me in a thread a while back, Kota Ibushi vs YOSHIHIKO. The dude is wrestling a life-sized doll, and it is more believable than just about any current match in WWE, lol. Part 1 of 4 is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU_-fVNs70w

 

That is what wrestling is about, making the match believable. I'm not sure when it became about how many high spots or moves you can pull off. It's very similar to comparing a CGI crapfest to a movie with a great story.

[Genadi]

But the main problem with the industry in general, is pride (I think). A lot of younger guys start drinkin' their own Kool-Aid and think that the guys who paved the way have nothing to offer them.

 

Hit the nail right on the head dude, agree completely.

[BurningHamster]

What I especially like is how the workers who came up in the days where you had to compose and perform your own promos (how many stories have been written of folks writing and practicing promos while on the road traveling between shows?), can seemingly come up with catchphrases without even meaning to. Like, I saw a Jake shoot where he said something like, "I'm not from the old school. I'm from the school that burned down before they built the old school." Are you freakin' kidding me?!

 

But the main problem with the industry in general, is pride (I think). A lot of younger guys start drinkin' their own Kool-Aid and think that the guys who paved the way have nothing to offer them. The Jake shoot I saw basically detailed that. Learn your craft. The guys who were successful and had longevity fueled by their ability and performances still have wisdom to impart. Now while I don't agree with Jake's view on why his finisher isn't a finisher anymore (that happens, it's progress), I do think that some moves can be made to appear dangerous when used properly (even if they aren't).

 

 

I think a lot of this is true, but I think there is also this weird element these days. Guys coming up do drink their own kool-aid about their in-ring skills because they can do MOVEZ!!!1 or they can wrestle for an hour but at the same time they seem to maybe hold back on the creative side as they know once they are in the WWE that part is going to be taken out of their hands so a lot don't really create enough of a character or persona or promo style. I mean how many guys in the '80s could deliver a really good promo? I could probably name a couple dozen.

 

Compare that to now? The number of guys around today who can cut a really strong promo I could probably count on my fingers. And most of them are indy guys who heavily emulate the old school or who pretty much create their own characters. I mean I do love a few guys from recent years like Cabana, Punk, Larry Sweeney and Eddie Kingston but in terms of WWE promos ... they are just so forced and horrible. The catch phrases are too obviously inserted. This kind of cuts down on having any of the really abysmally lost promos which you also got in the '80s where a guy just had no clue what he was doing ... but it also removes the chance for creativity or the genuine craziness of large, drugged up, not particularly articulate men screaming about pretend fighting against fake Russians or fake African madmen. Vince needs to just let guys go nuts again and I am willing to bet that after a while a higher percentage of the poop they throw will stick.

 

 

Phew ... okay. On the topic of shoot interviews - Jim Cornette did a 4 hour long shoot that I would recommend. Lots of detail and really interesting stories about the '80s. I also really enjoyed Marty Janetty, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash shoots. They all got some good anecdotes and all three guys are pretty entertaining and seem fairly honest.

[ampulator]

Jim Cornette and Paul Heyman always make good interviewees. Technically, it's what they have done all their life - talk. (And talk well they do!)

 

The real problem with promos these days is they shouldn't be scripting EVERYTHING, and not everyone reads a script well. Reading a script well is a skill in-it-of-itself, and how many of the WWE's workers can do that well?

[Moderndaywarrior]

To give a fantastic example of this: thanks to smart, strong booking, at one point during the last decade, WWE managed to make the Full Nelson the most feared, deadly and over wrestling move in the entire company.

 

I am also pretty sure that even now you can still get some heat in Tennessee by attempting to apply a Piledriver,same thing with the Tombstone Piledriver in Mexico.....I believe it was Jim Cornette who once said "It's not the move itself, it's how you educate the people about it."

 

I think that may be the biggest problem today; they don't educate the people about the moves or characters anymore, they just go out and do it.

[Adam Ryland]

To be absolutely fair, there's a huge element of nostalgia clouding people's opinions in this thread. For all the talk about how very few people nowadays can build a match or a character like Jake and DiBiase could, there's one thing that's gone unsaid - very few people back in the "good old days" could either!

 

This thread makes it sound like everyone back then was a solid wrestler who could cut a promo, which is nonsense - there were just as many guys who were awful at both as there are nowadays, it's just that when you look back you naturally and automatically tend to only remember the good stuff.

 

If anything, the average match quality on a major PPV is way higher than it was back then, and the booking isn't a great deal better or worse.

[justtxyank]

To be absolutely fair, there's a huge element of nostalgia clouding people's opinions in this thread. For all the talk about how very few people nowadays can build a match or a character like Jake and DiBiase could, there's one thing that's gone unsaid - very few people back in the "good old days" could either!

 

This thread makes it sound like everyone back then was a solid wrestler who could cut a promo, which is nonsense - there were just as many guys who were awful at both as there are nowadays, it's just that when you look back you naturally and automatically tend to only remember the good stuff.

 

If anything, the average match quality on a major PPV is way higher than it was back then, and the booking isn't a great deal better or worse.

 

Absolutely. You look at some of the old cards and they were full of terrible matches. We just remember the greats at it and forget how many losers were working at every stage.

[James Casey]

Have to agree with Adam here. We automatically hit on the highlights of the past - Midnights vs. Rock and Rolls, say - and forget the lowlights - unless they're woreth remembering. The Shockmaster was great, great wrestling - a true legend. But then you have Charlie Norris, Firebreaker Chip and Todd Champion, Thunder and Lightning, Ice Train...

 

It's like looking back down the years and saying they don't make movis like they used to. Well, they do. It's just we define the 70s (say) by Easy Rider, Godfather, All The President's Men and so on. We define the 2000s by Sex Lives of the Potato Men and Sharkboy and Lava Girl in 3D.

 

For every Jake Roberts, Ted DiBiase and Jim Cornette, history has given us an Iron Mike Sharpe, a Charles Austin and a Brother Love. We remember Little Richard and Michael Hayes, but forget Johnny B. Badd and Van Hammer.

 

And let us never, ever forget that at the same time NWA/WCW was headlined by Flair, Luger, Sting, the Steiners and the Horsemen that it also produced a pay-per-view based around Robocop, and that Flair's shonky victories over Luger to retain the World title went on for something like four years.

 

The average show over the last five years is so far ahead of the average show of twenty years ago in terms of all-round match quality that the comparison doesn't hold water.

 

I do agree about the promos, though. Some people should be trusted to go out and do their thing without a script. Saying that, can you really trust a Chris Masters to improv his way through a segment with Carlito?

[BurningHamster]

To be absolutely fair, there's a huge element of nostalgia clouding people's opinions in this thread. For all the talk about how very few people nowadays can build a match or a character like Jake and DiBiase could, there's one thing that's gone unsaid - very few people back in the "good old days" could either!

 

This thread makes it sound like everyone back then was a solid wrestler who could cut a promo, which is nonsense - there were just as many guys who were awful at both as there are nowadays, it's just that when you look back you naturally and automatically tend to only remember the good stuff.

 

If anything, the average match quality on a major PPV is way higher than it was back then, and the booking isn't a great deal better or worse.

 

I'm not sure how much of it is nostalgia and how much of it just has to do with that certain feeling of predictability that has crept in. I know a lot of that has to do with the fact many of us were children when we watched this old skool stuff and therefore it seemed new and fresh to us while others are more familiar with the current product but enjoy the older stuff as it's something of a novelty.

 

For me, I like things being a little looser like they were in the '80s. I also liked the atmosphere a bit more whether it was family friendly or very regional and southern or whatever. I just hate the current day pseudo reality TV, everyone is a superstar, slick and polished but predictable and dull vibe that wrestling has.

[Adam Ryland]

I'm not sure how much of it is nostalgia and how much of it just has to do with that certain feeling of predictability that has crept in.

 

I think the modern day product is far less predictable than it was in the good old days, both in terms of in-ring action and booking - not that that's always a good thing, as shock-for-shock's-sake is just as bad as being predictable, but during the peak of Hulkamania you could often predict turns - and even individual matches - a good six months before they actually happened because they were basically sign-posted. But as you said, a lot of that is because a lot of people on this board were kids during that period, and so kayfabe was still in effect.

[Hive]

They talked about how today guys will kick out of finishing moves which then destroys that move's credibility, as well as getting slammed off the top rope, go through tables and then they're beaten by a school boy roll-up, lol. They say when you do that you're calling the crowd stupid, and I agree.

 

Yeah. While I enjoyed, say, the match between AJ Styles and Kurt Angle from Impact Jan 4th, it really hampered my enjoyment to see them each apply their finishing moves 3-4 times before it ended. I'd like to see some stronger emphasis on make-believe.