WrestleMania Rewatch Thread 2024

[Valeyard]

I somewhat disagree. Kreski booking is a huge difference maker. Business is hobbled for the next ten years but it isn't a nosedive.

 

[King Kamala]

You just don’t turned your top guy while he is still in the peak of his popularity.

Honestly, I feel like they were almost at the point of Austin fatigue in ‘01. Nothing was stopping the downturn in wrestling popularity. Trend was over but they sure could have stabilized the audience they had left by not boffing things so badly in ‘01-‘03.

 

[BUTT]

I was having Austin fatigue in late '99 but coming back after a year off revitalized him for me. I can't imagine a scenario where popularity doesn't drop in 2001 but there were still fresh opponents for a face champion Stone Cold. Angle, heel Jericho, DDP, Booker. "Goldberg." No I already explained why that couldn't happen. RVD, but the crowd would have turned him face no matter what. I think they (Austin himself and WWF management) looked at Hogan in '96 and thought "yeah, the top face turning heel, that's what draws." Not when the fans actually like him!

And yes, heel Austin was entertaining. Long before we got two hours of irony and meme wrestling every Wednesday it was kinda funny to see the badass Stone Cold suddenly playing guitar, singing "Margaritaville" and getting beat up by his wife with a cookie sheet, but...that stuff actually sucked? And everyone knew at the time how lame and stupid it was? And maybe in 2000 we wouldn't get such a comedic portrayal since it wasn't until Steph took over creative that every segment had to have laboriously scripted comedy. But if it wasn't the time in 2001, it sure wasn't a year earlier.

 

[King Kamala]

‘02-‘03 face Austin ended up being worse than ‘01 heel, creatively and athletically. Plus it’s easier to hide your physical limitations when you’re working heel.

I think heel Austin might be remembered more fondly if they stuck with it for longer than 7-8 months (and even then he briefly turned face in the middle of it) but yeah, it was done too soon in any estimation except Vale’s and Austin himself.

 

[BUTT]

Plus it’s easier to hide your physical limitations when you’re working heel.

Not so sure about this. Working as a WWF heel was pretty physically punishing since the style was built around feeding the babyface's comeback with rapidfire bumps. That was a big issue for Eddie near the end of his life.

 

[Valeyard]

I just will need to know how they intended it to go. I think there's definitely a better chance of it working however it still is not advisable. This did make me remember a nagging doubt I had way back and thinking about Austin turning on Rock at Backlash though.

I never had Austin fatigue as much as Crash TV fatigue. 1999 got way too stupid. If anything I had Rock fatigue.

 

[King Kamala]

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I guess this is how WWE currently would like to remember WrestleMania XXX. Their weird looking fans (and weird looking Paul Heyman)

 

[Valeyard]

Every winner of a Mania ending in 0 goes through a period of blackballing. Cody's time will come.

And Cody needs to win by submission dammit.

 

[alfdogg]

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Savage and Elizabeth reuniting at WM7

 

[King Kamala]

I wonder where that crying kid with the glasses wearing a big puffy yellow hat is doing now.

 

[Valeyard]

Fell into a vat of toxic waste, posts as "David Bixenspan" on x.com

 

[King Kamala]

https://www.facebook.com/100066969734097/posts/749483850627266

April ‘86…Nassau Coliseum.

 

[King Kamala]

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[BruiserBrody]

Thought that was obscure gamer Retro Bird at first

 

[BruiserBrody]

The Wax Pack author says George Scott was part of a meeting where Vince announced his big show would be named "the Colossal Tussle". Scott was brave enough to be the one to tell Vince it was an awful name.
Finkel is credited with the Wrestlemania name, but it was another one of the bean counters at these early meetings who dubbed it. The name is obscure and I didn't write it down this AM

 

[King Kamala]

 

[King Kamala]

Three weeks late but finally listening to John McAdam’s WrestleMania grab bag Q&A podcast and him viscerally hating Hogan Vs Rock is some classic old school, bad smark takes. I’m sure @BruiserBrody was aflame with rage.

McAdam hated the match cause he was angry at the idea that anyone would cheer for Hulk Hogan in 2002. He said it was a negative three star match!

 

[Valeyard]

If you hate that match, you don't understand wrestling.

 

[King Kamala]

I’m definitely not one of those people who think it is a five star match but thinking it is negative three stars is one of those takes that is so bad that you just have to shake your head and chuckle.

 

[Valeyard]

It's a five star match the same way Hogan/Andre or Taker/Foley is.

 

[King Kamala]

I mean if you give those matches five stars then you are giving Face/Off five stars which I don’t agree with but I get, you know?

 

[Valeyard]

They're bigger than any of the work involved. They changed the business. That's worth five stars. Besides, workers working smart and telling an epic story is worth every bit as much as workrate and that's what the Hogan matches do tenfold.