Random Musings of the IWC

[franticloser]

So, I've been a fan of wrestling since I can remember. I was a preteen during the attitude era, and we got the internet at this time and I found the IWC in it's infancy. I cut my teeth on wrestlinginc, found lordsofpain, and have followed 411 for longer then I care to remember.

 

I was recently reading some comments on 411 and here and it got me thinking. I remember being a teenager and into my early 20s and reading about ROH and how awesome they where (O to be young and reading about future greats like Bryan Danielson, Samoa Joe, and sadly cut down in his prime Nigel McGuiness.) I remember joining in on the snark of hating on the WWE, with the rise of John Cena, the terror of Evolution era Triple H. The boring and bland booking that slowly took over as WWE left behind the idea of a small group of people with wrestling knowledge, to committees of Hollywood writers.

 

But somewhere a long the line something changed, as I've grown older (32 now) I've lost some of that snarky nature and have come to find ways to appreciate little things in the middle of the crap storm that is the WWE. NXT/UK is always of course a bright spot. Usually hopefully there is some good thing that happens on a PPV (weekly shows are more hit then miss.)

 

Now though as I read comments I see a new generation of snark coming up, while my generation lambasted Triple H and Cena (who have come full circle and either are respected or at least appreciated in some way since they are being shoved down our throats. as long as H isn't wrestling that is.) This generation has Reigns and terrible booking in general.

 

Now that we may actually be coming into somewhat of a rebirth of the Monday Night Wars in a way. I am seeing it more. With shots fired from both sides. People hating on AEW before it even starts, people hating WWE for being well WWE. And I feel like if I was just a few years younger I'd be right there. But now I am content to sit back and just enjoy what hopefully is going to be another golden age, after about 20 years of stagnation.

 

WWE will always be there to offer something to the masses, they have NXT to cater to hardcore fans. MLW has a mix of entertainment with hard hitting in ring action, iMPACT is slowly rebuilding itself into a more adult orientated product, NJPW and to a lesser extant ROH (what a weird ride ROH has had) offer solid hard hitting in ring action, and AEW hasn't fully found it's identity but is offering a solid alternative that will be the most accessible of any company not named WWE.

 

So, long ramble over the tl;dr of it, I used to be one of the smarks now I am content to just be a fan and be here to offer sage wisdom, and stories from the back in the day, like any good old person should

 

 

And as a side note, I've been around long enough to pick up EWD when it came out, and hang onto every diary entry as EWR was coming out. The only game I missed out on was the first TEW due to not having the finances at the time. So, if anyone wants to chat wrestling or the EW franchise I'm always up for conversation!

[BHK1978]

<p>I am about almost a decade older than you, but yeah I went through that phase as well. I remember hating Hulk from probably when I was around ten years old or so and making fun of my friends for loving him so much. I do not recall exactly how old I was, but I recall there being a match between Hulk and Nikolai Volkoff and I stood and saluted the USSR flag as Volkoff sang the Russian national anthem.</p><p> </p><p>

There was an older guy there that I think wanted to fight me (had I been older I think he would have) who kept on yelling out, "Sit down you commie bastard!" Throughout the match anytime the USA chant would get going for Hogan, I would starting chanting USSR.</p><p> </p><p>

When Hogan fought Warrior at WM 6 my mind was blown because I hated both of them and did not know who to cheer against. Flash forward to the age of the internet and I sent Warrior an email (Well the email he had on his site) asking if it was true that the original Warrior had died and he was the replacement. At the time I thought it was hilarious and I am not going to lie I am still chuckling just thinking about it.</p><p> </p><p>

When I was in Junior High there used to be a wrestling radio show and the host would have various wrestler's on. One night he got Moolah on there and my friends and I proceeded to prank call the show asking her all sorts of dumb questions. It got so bad that the host stopped taking calls.</p><p> </p><p>

The same thing happened when the show had GWF's Rod Price on. We kept on cranking the station (telling Rod he sucked, asking if he was going to get hair plugs) all throughout the interview until the host stopped taking calls. </p><p> </p><p>

I am not sure if what I did was snark or being an butt hole (leaning more towards butt hole) but yeah I enjoyed doing it at the time.</p><p> </p><p>

Nowadays I see Hogan on a WWE show and I get all nostalgic. I like seeing him on there. Which is funny because just a few years ago whenever he would pop up on TNA I would fast forward anything he was involved in. Which was a great way to watch the show because it usually ended up taking me a half and hour to watch a two hour show.</p><p> </p><p>

As far as modern day wrestling goes, I just feel blah about the whole thing. I tried watching TNA and the roster has changed so much that I cannot get into it. I have had a love/hate relationship with the WWE going back to when I was a kid in the early 90's. ROH just does not excite me anymore.</p><p> </p><p>

I will say MLW has really hooked me on their product. It helps that they put their weekly show on YouTube each week. I will say this though, one thing that takes me out of the immersion of their product is when I see them pushing Simon Gotch as a badass heel in their outlaw heel faction.</p><p> </p><p>

I am like, "Come on dude this is the guy who was in The Vaudevillains. There is noway I can take him seriously as a badass outlaw heel." To me at the end of the day he still has that dweeb stink on him and I just cannot take him seriously.</p><p> </p><p>

As far as AEW goes, well I am biased. I highly dislike the Bucks and Omega and (I have said this a thousand times on here) I just do not get what people love about them. There is nothing cool about them. They come across as three dorks to me.</p><p> </p><p>

With them having such big roles in the company I am probably not going to be a fan. Also, I just have not been impressed with what I have watched of AEW thus far. A lot of it has been hit or miss for me.</p><p> </p><p>

I loved the Cody/Dustin match but then they have that goofy battle royal on the same card.</p>

[BHK1978]

<p>I could not think of a better thread to put this in, so I shall put it here. Yesterday I was watching an old Progress pay-per-view that they posted on YouTube. At the start of it they did a two minute (might have been more/might have been less) skit saying how you should not pirate their events. Fair enough.</p><p> </p><p>

But then the theme song for this event was Drake's Started from the bottom. Now I do not know if Progress paid Drake for the rights to use his song or not. But I am strongly guessing that it is a hard no. Which is funny because they did the hole skit lecturing viewers about not pirating their stuff but I guess it is okay for them to pirate other folks stuff.</p>