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I spent part of today writing up a presentation to convince a fellow goon to start watching wrestling (don't judge how I use my time). I wanted to share it with people I know would appreciate it so here's a thread! Together let's discuss the ways in which we've been able to get our friends hooked on our favourite prograps. Maybe that's the best intro matches, the best intro characters, the best intro stories, the best intro shows or whatever. Hopefully we can use our collective knowledge to bring many new friends to our fabulous forum  Rarity posted:Why You Should Watch Wrestling, A 10-Point Presentation Rarity fucked around with this message at 21:10 on Jun 19, 2020 |
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Jun 12, 2020 15:11
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This would be the best wrestling post of all time if it had The Butcher and also Nyla in the horny section. Otherwise top marks would send to a friend
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Jun 12, 2020 15:30
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For me personally, Kota Ibushi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura at Wrestle Kingdom 9 was my gateway to getting me hooked on NJPW, and I feel like that would be my suggestion to get people to check it out.
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Jun 12, 2020 15:34
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This is an amazing presentation, Rarity. The next time someone is curious about pro wrestling I'm going to show them your post. Saying "well done" is an understatement.  Also, I like how you only have a single WWE clip and it's just two people hugging. It shows there's more to wrestling than the global leader in sports entertainment.
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Jun 12, 2020 15:52
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This is the greatest thread in the history of our forums. Thanks rarity!!
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Jun 12, 2020 16:00
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If someone asks me why they need to start watching wrestling I show them an image of Minoru Suzuki and tell them that this man will murder you unless you watch his matches. So far this has worked in 100% of cases.
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Jun 12, 2020 16:10
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Great thread, Scoopsgal! For me, the biggest hurdle for introducing friends to wrestling was always a lack of access to...well, let’s be blunt, GOOD wrestling. WWE, for all it’s cultural entrenchment, is typically one of the most embarrassing wrestling products out there. For every amazing match put on by incredibly talented performers, there’s a corresponding awful storyline that would make anyone ashamed to watch (specifically thinking of some of the incredibly gross stories of the past 15-20 years). “Rasslin’” had been such a stereotypical trashy tv show for a long time that it’s had to be a weird, dark secret interest that I could never really discuss outside of these forums. What’s helped over the last few years is the ease of access to alternate, high-quality products. AEW and NJPW have tons of content readily available to show off to a new fan, with AEW in particular having a pretty easy learning curve to it (being a newer product and all; in addition, a new fan could watch any show and immediately understand what’s happening through detailed commentary/promo videos). In addition, I guess wrestling has gotten less scummy? There’s plenty of shady poo poo that happens behind the scenes in some companies, but overall it’s gotten away from the Russo/T&A-style of presentation and now has generally favorable stories and characters (even WWE, to a degree). It’s a lot easier to recommend to new watchers now that there’s less garbage to wade through.
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Jun 12, 2020 16:13
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Cerebral Bore posted:If someone asks me why they need to start watching wrestling I show them an image of Minoru Suzuki and tell them that this man will murder you unless you watch his matches. Did you tell them he will also murder them if they do watch his matches? 
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Jun 12, 2020 16:17
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Rarity posted:Did you tell them he will also murder them if they do watch his matches? I think they figured that one out on their own.
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Jun 12, 2020 16:18
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After witnessing far too many false dawns from WWE to realise that almost anything good in the company is done in spite of it rather than because of it and the whole Saudi propaganda crap I thought I was done with wrestling for good but these past few months watching AEW Dynamite might be the first time I've actually been looking forward to weekly wrestling programming for the first time in nearly 20 years
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Jun 12, 2020 17:08
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Wrestling seems like it's finally getting clear of the "literally every guy is a long-haired hardass and some have beards" and going back to the cartoony kabuki theater type of stuff and goddamn it is soooooooo much more fun that way
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Jun 12, 2020 17:32
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lets face it anytime you introduce a friend/family member to wrestling you get this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcSH78UG96s&t=197s and not all the cool things in Rarity's post.
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Jun 12, 2020 17:36
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Rarity posted:4. Wrestling is equal You know they say all men are created equal, but you look at me and you look at Samoa Joe and you can see that statement is NOT TRUE! See, normally if you go one-on-one with another wrestler you got a fifty/fifty chance of winning. But I'm a genetic freak, and I'm not normal! So you got a 25 percent at best at beat me! And then you add Kurt Angle to the mix? You-the chances of winning drasticy go down. See, the 3-Way at Sacrifice, you got a 33 and a third chance of winning. But I! I got a 66 and two thirds chance of winning, cuz Kurt Angle KNOOOWS he can't beat me, and he's not even gonna try. So, Samoa Joe, you take your thirty three and a third chance minus my twenty five percent chance (if we was to go one on one) and you got an eight and a third chance of winning at Sacrifice. But then you take my 75 perchance-chance of winnin' (if we was to go one on one), and then add 66 and two thirds…percents, I got a 141 2/3 chance of winning at Sacrifice! Señor Joe? The numbers don't lie, and they spell disaster for you at Sacrifice!
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Jun 12, 2020 17:37
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Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssss
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Jun 12, 2020 17:41
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This is loving awesome, but I also kinda feel like things like “matches” and “promos” should be included in why someone should watch wrestling. To add to this: I recently had a similar thought to what Rarity is expressing here, except sorta went the opposite direction. One of the things I believe is crucial for someone to get invested in wrestling, is to get them invested in a match. And it has to be the right match. Not too long, not too short, somewhere in the 10-15 minute range. It needs a good, easy to understand story, “underdog baby face challenges for Championship”, something like that. Most importantly, it needs good wrestlers, specifically the kind that people can easily understand and care about, whether face or heel. Cool moves help but are less important than character/story in this instance. If you can get them to watch that match, all they have to do is pick a side. Cheer the guy you like, boo the guy you don’t, and ultimately don’t take it too seriously and you’ll probably have a good time. Assuming they’re still interested I’d follow up with some promos, try to show them the buildup to a specific match. And then watch that match. If they still think wrestling is fake and bad well then they are probably a terrible person. Perhaps even a chud.
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Jun 12, 2020 17:42
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How to get invested in a match in two steps: 1: Make sure that Tomohiro Ishii is one of the competitors. 2: Watch the match.
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Jun 12, 2020 17:57
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I actually put together a document of 10-15 minute matches that are on YouTube to demonstrate the different roles and wrestling styles for a game of World Wide Wrestling that I ran. It's couched in a lot of the mechanics of WWW (I tried to label each wrestler with one of the Gimmicks that you can play as) but I still stand by the list. Also Orange Cassidy vs David Starr is a perfectly told story in like 25 minutes (20 minutes of actual wrestling): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcL4a4ohS-g
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Jun 12, 2020 17:57
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every person i show scott steiner to gets into wrestling. i start with steiner math, show some various promos, show some old tag matches. then i transition into kenny/okada and broken matt hardy saga
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Jun 12, 2020 19:48
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My wife has become a pro wrestling fan through 3 major forces: 1) Becky Lynch 2) AEW Dynamite 3) Orange Cassidy We watched Smackdown back when it was still good and you had like Moxley and Styles fighting over the belt and steampunk Becky slowly building her momentum. My wife went NUTS for Becky because she could flip between legitimately funny backstage segment and serious in the ring. Then WWE got really bad and we stopped watching. But then AEW Dynamite started. We went to the show in Pittsburgh, she fell in love with the whole thing, now we watch every single episode together. She likes the variety of wrestlers in terms of wrestling styles, personalities, and body shapes. It's not all cookie cutter WWE-style. It also helps that there hasn't been a women's story that boiled down to "I'm better looking than you", which was one of the things that killed her interest in WWE. Also Orange Cassidy is channeling that same steampunk Becky Lynch energy in a more refined form. He can be hilarious, he can be sympathetic, and he can loving go when he needs to. I think the key to grabbing a new fan is to show them how much stuff is out there. Dynamite is generally going to showcase at least one serious promo, one comedy bit, and a good mix of tag and singles matches. Everybody gets to show enough personality that you'll probably find at least one person you really enjoy after an episode or two. I know it sounds like I work for AEW but I'm just really happy there's a wrestling show I can enjoy again and that I can watch with my wife.
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Jun 12, 2020 20:04
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Cerebral Bore posted:How to get invested in a match in two steps: What if we combined your two thoughts Minoru Suzuki...Tomohiro Ishii... 
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Jun 12, 2020 20:10
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PunkBoy posted:For me personally, Kota Ibushi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura at Wrestle Kingdom 9 was my gateway to getting me hooked on NJPW, and I feel like that would be my suggestion to get people to check it out. It's also finally up on World with English announcing in case that's a barrier.
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Jun 12, 2020 20:44
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extradite THIS! posted:What if we combined your two thoughts https://www.cagematch.net/?id=111&nr=9873
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Jun 12, 2020 20:46
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Cody vs Jericho from Full Gear seems like another good match to get people invested. Especially if you show the promos and vignettes leading up to it.
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Jun 12, 2020 20:50
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As much as old timers whine about comedy wrestling, I've found it's the best thing to introduce non-fans. It shows that wrestling is self-aware enough about how fundamentally ridiculous it is, and often times shows the creativity that makes wrestling great. Also Lucha Underground. Seeing wrestling presented like a normal TV show also helped my friends wrap their heads around the idea that wrestling is just incredibly physical performance art.
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Jun 12, 2020 21:04
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The presentation worked and my friend is now interested in seeing some matches 
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Jun 12, 2020 21:21
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hello i'm the friend here to see one or more wrestles
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Jun 12, 2020 21:29
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The last 2ish years, I've found the easiest way to introduce friends to wrestling is to just bring them to a show. I know that's not as easy for everyone, but, I've probably brought about 15-20 different people to a Blitzkrieg show in CT/MA and a Beyond show in Foxboro and have been near perfect in getting people interested. (although it might just be interest in Blitzkrieg and not pro wrestling  )
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Jun 12, 2020 21:29
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Relax Or DIE posted:hello i'm the friend here to see one or more wrestles Hi everyone, this my friend Relax or DIE. Please be gentle with him, he's very shy 
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Jun 12, 2020 21:33
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Rarity posted:Hi everyone, this my friend Relax or DIE. Please be gentle with him, he's very shy HEY RELAX OR DIE WANNA WATCH SOME WRESTLING ITS REALLY GOOD THERE'S GUYS WITH MUSCLES AND PRETTY GIRLS AND THEY GET ALL SWEATY AND PUNCH EVERYTHING
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Jun 12, 2020 21:38
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 The best part of this sequence was when everyone stopped to just gawk at Pieter, both the wrestlers doing the rowboating and the guys taking the move...all except for Kenny. He's an oblivious dork who only has eyes for Kota (at least back then).
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Jun 12, 2020 21:40
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Relax Or DIE posted:hello i'm the friend here to see one or more wrestles Hello new wrestlefriend, have you heard the good word of Minoru Suzuki?
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Jun 12, 2020 21:44
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uATQ-fmduMQ hello friend Relax Or DIE this is a wrestle featuring Mr Toru Yano and Mr Colt Cabana they are both quite silly
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Jun 12, 2020 21:45
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Lumbermouth posted:I actually put together a document of 10-15 minute matches that are on YouTube to demonstrate the different roles and wrestling styles for a game of World Wide Wrestling that I ran. It's couched in a lot of the mechanics of WWW (I tried to label each wrestler with one of the Gimmicks that you can play as) but I still stand by the list. I've kind of always liked wrestling, albeit on & off. I can't remember what inspired me to rent a WWF tape one Saturday afternoon as a kid. So I can't really use my own starting point, instead I'll use the match that reinvigorated my love of pro rasslin' after a few years of just not feeling it. All the hype I was seeing around Jericho coming to New Japan for WK12 was what made me watch the show, but what I was left thinking about afterwards wasn't Omega vs Jericho. Instead what left the strongest impact was a match featuring a dude I'd never heard of (Hirooki Goto) & a guy I only knew because of MMA (Minoru Suzuki of course being a founding member of Pancrase). I had some loose knowledge about Japanese wrestling but it was almost all All Japan & NOAH related, except for the obvious big names of New Japan, Liger, Tiger Mask, The Three Musketeers. But here's a match which was the conclusion to a feud, a hair vs hair match with a title also on the line, & everything about it just pulled me in so hard. loving hell, the dropkick Suzuki does in this match; somehow Minoru Suzuki had made a dropkick look stiff. The end of the match. The post-match. To be blunt I'd seen nothing that emotionally connected with me in wrestling like this since I stopped watching ROH a decade prior. It's so loving good. It changed radically how I watched wrestling, and it's give me the bug hard, there's 4 promotions I try to keep up with now, all in Japan, it's so easy to be a fan of this stuff now that younger me is painfully jealous. Then I'd just go right in & show off two of my all-time favourite matches. Kenta Kobashi vs Kensuke Sasaki from NOAH's 2005 Tokyo Dome show. Sure, it's Japanese commentary. But watch it. Listen to the reception that Sasaki gets & then get chills down your spine as the crowd erupts at the thought that Kenta Kobashi is about to arrive, tens of thousands cheering Ko-ba-shi. You don't need to know anything but what your eyes & ears can tell you to get this match. It starts hot, it stays hot, maybe someone not familiar to wrestling would be put off by the chops but with the crowd going as mad as they are I don't see how that could be. The other match would be Hiromu vs Will from the Dome, because after 2 slugfests it'd be nice to showcase the flippier side of wrestling. After that, Okada vs Shibata. And maybe have to throw in something shorter. KENTA vs Ricky Marvin or Owen Hart vs 1-2-3 Kid. And then it's really time to just jump in, watch a full show.
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Jun 12, 2020 21:46
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Minoru Suzuki's dropkick is a thing of beauty  
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Jun 12, 2020 22:06
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Gaz-L posted:It's also finally up on World with English announcing in case that's a barrier. Making someone listen to Matt Striker will turn them off wrestling all over again
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Jun 12, 2020 22:08
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVEd5GisVgY
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Jun 12, 2020 22:10
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i've got so much wrestling homework to do nowStarkRavingMad posted:HEY RELAX OR DIE WANNA WATCH SOME WRESTLING ITS REALLY GOOD THERE'S GUYS WITH MUSCLES AND PRETTY GIRLS AND THEY GET ALL SWEATY AND PUNCH EVERYTHING hell yes bring on the sweaties Cerebral Bore posted:Hello new wrestlefriend, have you heard the good word of Minoru Suzuki? not yet but i feel like it's only a matter of time
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Jun 12, 2020 22:16
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Benne posted:Making someone listen to Matt Striker will turn them off wrestling all over again Nah, it's Kelly doing it in post.
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Jun 12, 2020 22:17
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The true way to get into wrestling is to repeatedly chant "this is wrestling" like a mantra during a match regardless of it's quality until you actually start believing it
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Jun 12, 2020 22:20
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Rarity posted:Minoru Suzuki's dropkick is a thing of beauty God that rules so hard. I just remember walking through the village a couple of hours after the show had ended and basically that gif was just playing in my head and I was smiling. It was so good. Goto takes it like a king too.
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Jun 12, 2020 23:06
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