Pro Wrestling Topics!

[OneNineSix]

I'm a fan of wrestling, too. I, too, loved the colorful stars between the 80s and 90s. Big fan of the old AWA, NWA and Mid-South stuff, too. I have quite a few old tapes from that era and it's crazy to see people before they became huge stars like Scott Hall and Kevin Nash wrestling as Diamond Studd and Vinnie Vegas. The Road Warriors are one of my favorite tag teams as well as the Steiners, Money, Inc., the Dungeon of Doom stable and the Varsity Team.

I'm a big fan of Joshi, too, SWL. I've followed it for a while and Japanese wrestling in general. I think the matches are a lot cleaner, especially All Japan's. NOAH tried to capture some of that, too, but it's hard to beat early 2000 AJPW and before. All Japan Womens was pretty awesome and even FMW's garbage indie featured some mega stars like Megumi Kudo and Combat Toyoda. I think my top faves are probably Megumi Kudo, Chaparita ASARI and Manami Toyota but I'll watch most Joshi stuff. I love the mismatched matches, too, when they pit the smaller top Joshi stars against Bull, Aja and Combat. They always pull off an insane match with the against all odds believability and epic storytelling.

I LOVE Bray Wyatt. His gimmick is awesome and I love the fact that he's a legacy wrestler being the son of my favorite wrestler of all time, Mike Rotunda AKA Michael V.K. Wallstreet AKA Captain Mike AKA Irwin R. Schyster AKA I.R.S.. Him and Ted Dibiase were the epitome of style and substance with their highly marketable heel gimmicks and their incredible in-ring ability made me learn to cheer the heels. I can't think of many guys who can wear a dress shirt and dress pants and still pull off a 5 star match. Mike's finisher's were so simple, the Write-off (a flying clothesline), the Stock Market Crash (fall away slam) and the Tax Penalty (the STF) but he did each with such style and precision, it made it a thrill to watch.

You guys ever hear of a video game series called Fire Pro Wrestling? It's a 2D sprite graphic timing based pro-wrestling game featuring huge rosters (sometimes around 500 guys) from all over the world. All the wrestlers are real and the rosters usually feature guys like Undertaker, Rick Rude, Bret Hart, Great Sasuke, Antonio Inoki, Abdullah the Butcher, Vader, Tatsumi Fujinami, Mitsuharu Misawa, Tenzan, Chono, Kenta Kobashi, Jinsei Shinzaki (Hakushi), Great Muta, Keiji Mutoh, etc. It also usually has the grandfathers of prowrestling like Rikidozan, Tiger Mask, Lou Thesz and Karl Gotch. They also have a mess of MMA guys from UFC and Japanese PRIDE, UFO, UWFi, Fighting Network RINGS, etc. Guys like Akira Maeda and Aleksandr Karelin. The last game they made was back in the early/mid-2000s and had Petey Williams, Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan) and AJ Styles and some other newer guys. The timing and controls take a bit of getting used to but once you do, you will not regret trying such a great game.

[BrandonDaCollector]

I'm a fan of wrestling, too. I, too, loved the colorful stars between the 80s and 90s. Big fan of the old AWA, NWA and Mid-South stuff, too. I have quite a few old tapes from that era and it's crazy to see people before they became huge stars like Scott Hall and Kevin Nash wrestling as Diamond Studd and Vinnie Vegas. The Road Warriors are one of my favorite tag teams as well as the Steiners, Money, Inc., the Dungeon of Doom stable and the Varsity Team.

I'm a big fan of Joshi, too, SWL. I've followed it for a while and Japanese wrestling in general. I think the matches are a lot cleaner, especially All Japan's. NOAH tried to capture some of that, too, but it's hard to beat early 2000 AJPW and before. All Japan Womens was pretty awesome and even FMW's garbage indie featured some mega stars like Megumi Kudo and Combat Toyoda. I think my top faves are probably Megumi Kudo, Chaparita ASARI and Manami Toyota but I'll watch most Joshi stuff. I love the mismatched matches, too, when they pit the smaller top Joshi stars against Bull, Aja and Combat. They always pull off an insane match with the against all odds believability and epic storytelling.

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I LOVE Bray Wyatt. His gimmick is awesome and I love the fact that he's a legacy wrestler being the son of my favorite wrestler of all time, Mike Rotunda AKA Michael V.K. Wallstreet AKA Captain Mike AKA Irwin R. Schyster AKA I.R.S.. Him and Ted Dibiase were the epitome of style and substance with their highly marketable heel gimmicks and their incredible in-ring ability made me learn to cheer the heels. I can't think of many guys who can wear a dress shirt and dress pants and still pull off a 5 star match. Mike's finisher's were so simple, the Write-off (a flying clothesline), the Stock Market Crash (fall away slam) and the Tax Penalty (the STF) but he did each with such style and precision, it made it a thrill to watch.

You guys ever hear of a video game series called Fire Pro Wrestling? It's a 2D sprite graphic timing based pro-wrestling game featuring huge rosters (sometimes around 500 guys) from all over the world. All the wrestlers are real and the rosters usually feature guys like Undertaker, Rick Rude, Bret Hart, Great Sasuke, Antonio Inoki, Abdullah the Butcher, Vader, Tatsumi Fujinami, Mitsuharu Misawa, Tenzan, Chono, Kenta Kobashi, Jinsei Shinzaki (Hakushi), Great Muta, Keiji Mutoh, etc. It also usually has the grandfathers of prowrestling like Rikidozan, Tiger Mask, Lou Thesz and Karl Gotch. They also have a mess of MMA guys from UFC and Japanese PRIDE, UFO, UWFi, Fighting Network RINGS, etc. Guys like Akira Maeda and Aleksandr Karelin. The last game they made was back in the early/mid-2000s and had Petey Williams, Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan) and AJ Styles and some other newer guys. The timing and controls take a bit of getting used to but once you do, you will not regret trying such a great game.

This great, I am so glad that you are a wrestling fan! Oh yes, I remember seeing Diamond Studd and Vinnie Vegas when they first became them! Yes, Mike Rotunda was a great wrestler and so was Ted Dibiase! I absolutely loved the Dungeon of Doom!!!!!!! No, I never heard of that game Thanks for your comment

[BrandonDaCollector]

So are you satisfied with the Network so far? I've been seriously considering a subscription. I already have subscriptions to Netflix, Hulu, and Full Moon Streaming, but after I plow through the rest of the movies on FMS, I'll be ending that sub and was thinking about getting the Network.

I grew up with late 80s and early 90s WWF, which I still love (the colorful personalities, the awesome ring gear and entrance music), but I've found over the past few years that I really adore stuff like 80s NWA and Mid-South. Blood feuds and impossibly great promos from guys like Flair, Funk, Cornette, and Dusty - it's really hard to beat that style.

I'm also a huge, huge fan of joshi, as well as American women's wrestling. I'm hoping that WWE's going to incline more towards female wrestlers now and let the Divas concentrate on Total Divas. There's a place for personalities like the Bellas, but it's as valets, not as wrestlers. Trish really messed with their system for awhile; she was a one-in-a-million talent, a model who really could give killer promos and wrestle, and they've been trying for years to find another model who could pull that transition off like she did. I've been a Paige fan since I saw her in Shimmer, and I'm hoping that they try to find more women like her, wrestlers who can model, rather than models who sorta wrestle.

The WWE has a killer roster now, but way too much TV time and too many demands from the network and shareholders. I'd love for them to go back to a less-is-more approach, and bring back squash matches (the Divas division could especially use them, considering how small it is), and limit the amount of marquee matches on a single show. Everything gets so overexposed. Three hours is a ton of time to fill; it's so easy to get sick of the same guys and matches, because there's only so many variations they can throw out there before they start repeating themselves.

Oh Irmember seeing Trish in the MuscleMags before her WWE days, she was My fav back then! I am so glad that you like wrestling too!

Thanks for your comment dude OK, about the Network. YES I am pleased with the Network ,however, they do not have every ever produced on there yet like NO Prime Time Wrestling, NO WCW Saturday Night etc. They just put ALL of 95 and 96 WCW Monday Nitros on FINALLY! If you got questions about certain things about it please don't hesitate to ask Me

[Illiasc]

Fan of wrestling right here, too! Although I've seen a decent share of wrestling in the current day (especially when I catch things like WWE Raw on random nights) I'm far more familiar with and find I much prefer the performances and wrestlers of the late 80's and through the 90's. I mostly find myself enjoying just about anything Japan had to offer, but of course also love the more well-known American productions/performances, too.

I didn't get into wrestling a long time ago like most of you did, but I still do for some reason prefer the older stuff. My favorites among the wrestlers would have to be The Great Sasuke, Hayabusa, Jushin Liger, and Ultimo Dragon, Rick Rude, The Ultimate Warrior, Randy Savage, Taka Michinoku, The Great Muta, and I have to admit, Gregory "The Hurricane" Helms is entertaining to watch and makes me think I'm watching a cross between the Green Lantern and Robin in the ring as well as before the actual match. Wrestlers like The Great Sasuke are espeially a favorite of mine. His moves, style, maneuverability, all of it, is incredible to watch each time. When I think of favorite matches, I easily think of ones that he took part in. Off the top of my head, a couple that were always incredible to watch were both Ultimo Dragon vs The Great Sasuke. Admittedly I don't follow the storylines much, although I do keep a little more track of character roles in America than I do for Japan. And when it comes to the stories and how they go between matches, yeah, I often enjoyed the shows some of them would put on, especially Randy Savage, Rick Rude, Shawn Michaels, and classics like Hulk Hogan. Although I still do watch today's modern WWE wrestling from time to time, I honestly haven't been keeping track of who's who as much. It doesn't catch my attention enough, I guess. I think the big allure for me with wrestling of the 90's and before was, as stated previously in this thread, the showy and colorful personalities, costumes, and stories that came with the wrestling. It added to it in a great way for me.

I'd post images of some great matches I loved, but I've never seen actually good quality, non-pixelated examples.

On the question of dream matches. . . Honestly I think the only thing I could ask for is to see more of the matches I loved from before the 2000's. And in better quality video than what the 80's and 90's had to offer. Especially from Japan. Also, I'd love to see more of Japanese wrestlers face Americans of the old days. Also, tag teams and matches that never happened, especially between different countries. I love seeing the contrasting styles go head to head. When I do see matches like that, they're always amazingly surprising with how comes out winner in the end. And speaking of great matches that always keep me guessing - I'm hardly very with the individual wrestlers, but I do love watching Joshi from time to time. That's some insane and amazing wrestling right there. Possibly with the most surprising outcomes I've seen in wrestling, too.

I actually have heard of the Fire Pro Wrestling games. Sadly I only know two other people who have ever heard of or played, but it's pretty awesome. Yeah it's old (although there's a slightly recent version I've never tried, Fire Pro Returns), but I'm a nostalgic type, even somehow at times for games I actually didn't play in my earlier life. (Firepro was introduced to me less than a year ago) It's still that feeling and the visuals from the same era where nostalgia springs up for me. Anyway, the game, especially for its time, was really well put together. What OneNineSix said, I'm quite in agreement with! The diversity in moves, the AI and full on stats (which are customizable) for each wrestler, which by the way yes, the rosters are incredibly diverse and seemingly endless, and the campaign too - it's all quite amazing. In conclusion on that, I'm still working up getting fully used to the controls. Because it is very dependent on good timing, it's taking me a while to become decent at the game.

Speaking of wrestling on a DC forum. . . I have actually done a digital doodle combining the two before.

[Avalon]

Great thread, Brandon. Lots of awesome information in here. I grew up with the 80s and 90s wrestling, too. Man I loved tuning into those. I never got a chance to watch much Japanese wrestling but I loved it when Chono, Liger, Yuji Nagata and Muta appeared in NWA/WCW. After all the hype I played Fire Pro Wrestling too but I couldn't get the hang of the controls. WWF RAW was more my speed. I have no idea how to win a hook up in the other game.

I dug the Fabulous Freebirds. Badstreet USA baby. And Dungeon of Doom, oh yeah. Kevin Sullivan was a real sicko villain. That was some stable.

[AcidDragon]

Nice picture man! I too am a big fan of wrestling and I have been following wrestling for a long time. I was always a fan of the smaller guys like the Rougeaus and the Rockers in the 80s. I think WWE has changed a lot of things for the better and they are allowing talent of all sizes to get a chance at the top which they never really did much in the past. Vince always liked the big guys and that meant the smaller guys had to take a backseat.

The wrestlers who are really impressing me right now are the Usos, Dolph Ziggler, Punk and Daniel Bryan. I'm happy to see Christian back, too. I would definitely recommend WWE Network. It's well worth it if you are interested in having access to a large wrestling library. By far my favourites are the Royal Rumbles which I can just watch again and again and again.

I actually played Fire Pro Wrestling as well! I got an import cart of this when I was a kid and I had to modify my Super NES with a pair of pliers just to play it but man was it ever worth it. The Create A Wrestler mode was so ahead of its time. The one I owned had UT, Hulk Hogan, Great Muta and a bunch of Japanese guys in it I never even heard of except Hakushi and Great Muta. I had not played a deeper wrestling game until the WCW vs NWO Revenge for Nintendo 64. They made a game like Fire Pro Wrestling called Virtual Pro Wrestling for the Nintendo 64 based on the same THQ No Mercy and WCW Revenge engine but I couldn't play it because it was Japanese and you had to buy an extra attachment to get it to work. These days, I'm spoiled by the amazing games that WWE is putting out year after year. The Create A Wrestler mode has really evolved and the career modes are really deep. I love the gameplay and the inclusion of various legend wrestlers makes it fun to put on dream matches.

It's hard to pick a favourite wrestler but I think I need to go with my main man, Ricky the Dragon Steamboat. The dude just knows how to put on an exciting match. Favourite match would be Sting, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat and Nikita Koloff vs. the Dangerous Alliance (Stunning Steve Austin, Rick Rude, Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton and Larry Zbyszko) at WrestleWar: WarGames. If you've never seen a WarGames match, you need to do yourself a favour as a wrestling fan and watch one. It is so chaotic as only NWA can deliver with all their crazy gimmick matches.

[BrandonDaCollector]

Wonderful pic dude I am so glad that you are a fan and great stuff that you have posted indeed!!

[BrandonDaCollector]

Great thread, Brandon. Lots of awesome information in here. I grew up with the 80s and 90s wrestling, too. Man I loved tuning into those. I never got a chance to watch much Japanese wrestling but I loved it when Chono, Liger, Yuji Nagata and Muta appeared in NWA/WCW. After all the hype I played Fire Pro Wrestling too but I couldn't get the hang of the controls. WWF RAW was more my speed. I have no idea how to win a hook up in the other game.

I dug the Fabulous Freebirds. Badstreet USA baby. And Dungeon of Doom, oh yeah. Kevin Sullivan was a real sicko villain. That was some stable.

Thanks a lot! I am so glad that you are a fan! You are so right about Kevin Sullivan His Dungeon of Doom were so great to watch, I loved that time so much

[BrandonDaCollector]

Nice picture man! I too am a big fan of wrestling and I have been following wrestling for a long time. I was always a fan of the smaller guys like the Rougeaus and the Rockers in the 80s. I think WWE has changed a lot of things for the better and they are allowing talent of all sizes to get a chance at the top which they never really did much in the past. Vince always liked the big guys and that meant the smaller guys had to take a backseat.

The wrestlers who are really impressing me right now are the Usos, Dolph Ziggler, Punk and Daniel Bryan. I'm happy to see Christian back, too. I would definitely recommend WWE Network. It's well worth it if you are interested in having access to a large wrestling library. By far my favourites are the Royal Rumbles which I can just watch again and again and again.

I actually played Fire Pro Wrestling as well! I got an import cart of this when I was a kid and I had to modify my Super NES with a pair of pliers just to play it but man was it ever worth it. The Create A Wrestler mode was so ahead of its time. The one I owned had UT, Hulk Hogan, Great Muta and a bunch of Japanese guys in it I never even heard of except Hakushi and Great Muta. I had not played a deeper wrestling game until the WCW vs NWO Revenge for Nintendo 64. They made a game like Fire Pro Wrestling called Virtual Pro Wrestling for the Nintendo 64 based on the same THQ No Mercy and WCW Revenge engine but I couldn't play it because it was Japanese and you had to buy an extra attachment to get it to work. These days, I'm spoiled by the amazing games that WWE is putting out year after year. The Create A Wrestler mode has really evolved and the career modes are really deep. I love the gameplay and the inclusion of various legend wrestlers makes it fun to put on dream matches.

It's hard to pick a favourite wrestler but I think I need to go with my main man, Ricky the Dragon Steamboat. The dude just knows how to put on an exciting match. Favourite match would be Sting, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat and Nikita Koloff vs. the Dangerous Alliance (Stunning Steve Austin, Rick Rude, Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton and Larry Zbyszko) at WrestleWar: WarGames. If you've never seen a WarGames match, you need to do yourself a favour as a wrestling fan and watch one. It is so chaotic as only NWA can deliver with all their crazy gimmick matches.

Thanks for you comment Acid, I am so glad that you are a fan too! Oh loved the Rougeaus and the Quebecers, Jacques is one of My favorite wrestlers of all time! Oh yes, the Network is great and the Royal Rumble is one of My favorite events as well!

[BrandonDaCollector]

Just got done watching Night of Champions of the WWE Network! It was an amazing event earlier tonight. Totally worth the $9.99. Some surprises and big moments. Just in case you don't want to know, I will not spoil anything