Gavok posted:

One of my favorite obscure wrestler TV appearances is All Star Rock 'n' Wrestling Saturday Spectacular. Back in the day, networks would sometimes do TV specials based entirely around promoting the upcoming Saturday morning cartoon season. Like having Steve Urkel tell Carl Winslow about the new episodes of Winnie the Pooh, followed by a clip of the show.

In 1985 they went bonkers with it. The plot was that Fantasy Island's Hervé Villechaize was supposed to get his own talk show, but somehow Roddy Piper locked him out of the building and took over. So you get an hour of Roddy Piper hosting a talk show with such guests as Pee-Wee Herman, Patti LaBelle, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, New Edition, etc. Just so every few minutes, someone like Captain Lou could go, "Here's a clip from Muppet Babies!"

Nehru the Damaja posted:

How can I both learn what 90s AJPW matches are crucial to appreciating the period and then actually watch them?

Quinntan posted:

What is the best drawing comedy gimmick?

MassRafTer posted:

Nigel McGuinness turning heel by getting Bryan Danielson to agree to an ROH title match with no strikes to the head (the bad ROH fans turned on Nigel because he missed a match with a concussion) and then repeatedly striking Bryan Danielson's head.

oldpainless posted:

Jeff Jarretts catchphrase was him spelling his own name in an annoying way. That tells you everything you need to know about him.

poemdexter posted:

This surprises me, but I don't really know the difference between Vince the character versus Vince the owner besides what I am told. The whole wrestling world is still very new to me and all the info I get is from fiancee who is more than willing to look the other way wrt people doing bad things as long as she likes the person/brand.

Big Coffin Hunter posted:

Hoss Corncave posted:

Unless you're Ivelisse where it's apparently the most important thing along with mandatory respect to the veterans.

Spuckuk posted:

Not only do they wrestle more, and a stiffer style, they generally start younger as well.

Mei Suruga is 22 and has wrestled 468 matches.

Starlight Kid is 20 and has over 400 matches

Riho being the most extreme outlier, had her first match at age 9, and at 24 has 979 matches under her belt, more than Roman Reigns.

SatoshiMiwa posted:

AEW really needs a crossover star/guest that could get people that normally wouldn't watch wrestling watching and following the product but given how splintered everything is with Streaming/niche interests I'm not sure what that would be. They tried it with Shaq, Snoop Dog and Tyson and it helped somewhat but it still wasn't a major home run.

Suplex Liberace posted:

I worry about peoples memory and hearing in this forum.

CopywrightMMXI posted:

I honestly found KOR going over JB was a bit of an upset.

Dr. Quarex posted:

I will never forget having Colt Cabana hyped up to me as hilarious and my first time seeing him being the Chicago Ring of Honor blowoff match against Homicide

"He's like the funniest indy guy!" *murders a man*

EdsTeioh posted:

I haven't watched any actual GLOW in a while, but from what I remember, she was one of few that was actually good in-ring.

Cavauro posted:

ventura keeps on making GBS threads on excalibur for not being in the ring and excalibur mentions a match he was in where something similar happened to whatever he was talking about. ventura says, "horse poo poo" afterward, uncensored. that's a good bit to do over and over. horse poo poo

CommonShore posted:

I didn't follow it that closely when it happened but reading recaps makes me think that the WCW treated heel/face turns as the plot rather than as reconfiguration when plots ran out of steam.

Ganso Bomb posted:

I thought he pissed his pants from fear?

Gavok posted:

Claudio Castagnoli was a huge deal in the indies in the 2000's due to his size, amazing strength, charisma, and insane versatility as a worker. In a time when WWE didn't want any tiny indie wrestlers, Claudio was seen as a can't-miss prospect. WWE hired him and after a good run in NXT, he went to the main roster. There, as Antonio Cesaro (later just Cesaro because Vince is weird), he had such gimmicks as "angry rugby player," "yodeler," and "foreign guy who loves the potential of America, but hates Americans."

WrestleMania 30 was his big breakout moment where he turned face and won the first Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal by straight-up picking up Big Show and bodyslamming him out of the ring. He was immediately given Paul Heyman as a mouthpiece, which not only made him a heel again, but was also for the sake of advertising the existence of part-timer Brock Lesnar ("MY CLIENT BROCK LESNAR ENDED THE UNDERTAKER'S STREAK! Also, here's Cesaro."). Cesaro became an afterthought and a bit of a jobber to the point that when Steve Austin had Vince as a guest on his live podcast, he grilled him over absolutely loving up Cesaro's push. Vince shrugged and stated that Cesaro 1) is Swiss and 2) couldn't grab the brass ring. Whatever that means.

Cesaro remained a staple in the midcard until feuding with Sheamus. They were having a Best of Seven series where the winner would get a title shot. They ended up being 3-3 and their last match ended on a draw, so they became a tag team instead, calling themselves The Bar. They were a solid team and big part of the tag division, but it's WWE and WWE doesn't care about tag teams. Afterwards, Cesaro would occasionally get the hints of a big push in order to trick him into re-signing with the company, including a big singles win against Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 37. Then he'd fall back down the card.

His contract was up yet again and while Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, and AJ Styles were getting huge money to stick around, Cesaro just had the regular offer. He left and while there were reports that he was going to go back to WWE, Bryan Danielson's injury leading into Forbidden Door gave Tony Khan reason enough to open his wallet.

Halloween Jack posted:

He found something that worked, and then just kept running it into the ground. Some would argue that he became a mark for the manager-workers he was hanging out with and ultimately himself, which led to stuff like Road Wild and his DQ victory over Vince McMahon, Jr.

Barry Bluejeans posted:

they're already halfway there with Butcher and his pork chop

Lunatic Sledge posted:

In an alternate timeline, would Austin have eventually just been Chilly or would he have been McFreeze

DMorbid posted:

Space Tornado Ogawa, after its inventor Naoya Ogawa.

NikkolasKing posted:

What are some heel spots which just make perfect sense yet piss people off so much?

I'll never get over how some heels can get a ton of heat just by leaving the ring when they're getting beaten on. It makes all the sense in the world to get out of dodge, slow the momentum and gather your bearings, but it enrages the fans about as much as blatantly cheating.