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The Attitude Era Thread Vol 1

BruiserBrody

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[quote author=BRODY link=topic=7317.msg606823#msg6
strummer said:
yeah I just read an interview with Snow a week or two ago where he was bemoaning wrestlers worrying too much about star ratings and good matches and not enough about their characters. Seemingly completely missing that it was the quality of his matches that got him noticed 25+ years ago
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Which in turn didn't lead to him making major cash in any consistent manner, which is ultimately the point. He headlined in SMW in front of 400 people, headlined one (?) ECW PPV, and had a run with Foley on the upper card in WWF. Most everything else he was a guy on the roster.
In all seriousness where was he from 1982-1992? He made some jobber shots in the AWA, but otherwise??? I can't recall seeing his results in Windy City Wrestling or Pro Wrestling America which were two prominent midwest indys (Based on Al's Ohio base). The WWA w/ Bruiser and even Memphis should have been viable spots too. His size wouldn't have been an issue in Memphis, as Snow couldn't be any smaller than the Eddie Gilberts of the world.
 
Big Papa Paegan

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BruiserBrody said:
Which in turn didn't lead to him making major cash in any consistent manner, which is ultimately the point. He headlined in SMW in front of 400 people, headlined one (?) ECW PPV, and had a run with Foley on the upper card in WWF. Most everything else he was a guy on the roster.
In all seriousness where was he from 1982-1992? He made some jobber shots in the AWA, but otherwise??? I can't recall seeing his results in Windy City Wrestling or Pro Wrestling America which were two prominent midwest indys (Based on Al's Ohio base). The WWA w/ Bruiser and even Memphis should have been viable spots too. His size wouldn't have been an issue in Memphis, as Snow couldn't be any smaller than the Eddie Gilberts of the world.
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This is the basis for his cynicism, but it speaks to his overall inability to be a draw (sans Paul E's booking) that he spent 20+ years being a cult favorite of a small portion of the audience and, now that the minority of wrestling fans have become the overwhelming majority, he doesn't even know how to connect with them.
 
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It's been a long time and I could have this wrong. But weren't moonsault spots a big part of his slow rise on the small indie circuit?
 
BruiserBrody

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[quote author=BRODY link=topic=7317.msg606823#msg6
snuffbox said:
It's been a long time and I could have this wrong. But weren't moonsault spots a big part of his slow rise on the small indie circuit?
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Only thing I recall is that the first time I saw him getting PWI buzz was Snow vs Sabu in a 20 (30?) foot ladder match. So that would likely be mid 1993.

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One could argue the fact that the flippy guys are the top guys now is part of the reason the business is less than stellar. (Sub 3 million viewers for the most watched show of any company). Places are selling out because the ones who stuck around through all the bad booking and HHHate and what not are willing to spend their money on the current product regardless.
If an act catches mainstream fire, we'll have a barometer.

You could almost compare it to a smaller youtubers Patreon, where although they struggle to hit 100K on videos, they have a loyal base who gives them a living wage.
 
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You could argue that, and you'd have your points (a lot of wrestling's draw was in the blurring between fantasy and reality, and seeing guys do a dozen flips and kick out of being dropped on their head is a bit more ridiculous than a redneck who throws punches and curses), but the counter to that is that the audience for everything is smaller now. That's what happens when the options grow.
 
Valeyard

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Snow/Road Dogg is one of my favorite hardcore matches though. That early period, the Road Dogg run specifically, was really fun and always had some of the best matches of the show. It's just in hindsight everything I liked about Al Snow the most had more to do who he was interacting with at the time and not actually him.

That Road Dogg match lead to classic Foley bit about how Al almost got a lucrative deal with Lay Z Boy but turned it down because he didn't sell chairs.
 
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I had a Billy Gunn figure in 1999 and the box was labeled B.A. Billy Gunn and on tje back of his trunks where it usually read Mr. Ass, it read Mr. B.A. What a rip!
 
Cackling Co Pilot Kamala

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It's weird how much WWF was still marketed to kids in '98/'99. In fact, I feel like Attitude Era WWF might have been the last explicitly grown up kid that was marketed towards kid (Like how Robocop and Rambo and Terminator stuff was marketed to kids in the '80s/early '90s).

Like I wouldn't say kids were WWF's target demographic but they definitely still catered to them some.

I'm just saying maybe the PTC had a point in retrospect. #ConservativeKamala
 
Valeyard

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It was when the marketing was exactly right: teens with younger siblings who wanted to be cool like their older sibling. Rock N Wrestling was the same, and the dropoffs aren't dissimilar.
 
Valeyard

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THE INFORMER teased it in the magazine. and it sounded so stupid. I didn't want all the penis and assmen in one stable. Gotta have it throughout the card.
 
Cackling Co Pilot Kamala

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Cackling Co Pilot Kamala

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It's easy to forget now since we've had almost a quarter century of some of the blandest most rote big man wrestling and some awful storylines (plus now him being a dunderhead libertarian mayor) but I still maintain that Year 1 Kane was a great, great monster heel.
 
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