What do you miss most about "Classic" Wrestling?

[Guest Iceman03]

What do you miss most about "Classic" Wrestling?

 

I miss "Classic" WWF Wrestling the most and think it was so much better than current Wrestling is now. My favorite years were: 1980-1992.

 

I miss:

 

Piper's Pit (Roddy Piper)

Mr.T

Saturday Night's Main Event

Saturday and Sunday morning Wrestling (just relaxing in the morning watching it was great)

Jesse the "Body" Ventura doing commentary.

Bobby the "Brain" Heenan overall.

Macho Madness (Randy Savage w/Elizabeth)

The Skits and Interviews before the matches.

 

Skit: Roddy Piper, Bob Orton, and Vince go to the Doctor's office to discuss Bobs Cast and look at X-Ray. "Quack, quack, quack"

 

The Managers: Mr.Fuji, "Classie" Freddie Blassie, Captain Lou Albano, Cindi Lauper, Bobby the "Brain" Heenan, Jimmy Hart, Elizabeth, Slick, "Scary" Sherri, Paul Bearer, Brother Love.

 

And what I miss the most was all the Superstars in Wrestling back then. Now Wrestling has no Stars and half of us could Wrestle just as good as them in my opinion, and anybody that juices regularly is a Pro Wrestler all of a sudden.

 

WWF Classic Stars: Bruno Sammartino, "Superstar" Billy Graham, Ivan Putski, Nikolai Volkoff, Tony Atlas, Ken Patera, the Moon Dogs "Rex" and "Spot", the Iron Sheik, Andre the Giant, the "Magnificent" Don Maruco, Jesse the "Body" Ventura, Brutus the "Barber" Beefcake, Big John Studd, Adrian Adonis, Jimmy "Super Fly" Snuka, Hulk Hogan, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, "Cowboy" Bob Orton, "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorf, George the "Animal" Steele, Sgt Slaughter, Kamala the "Human Head Hunter", Mr.T, Junk Yard Dog, King Kong Bundy, Ricky the "Dragon" Steamboat, Hillbilly Jim, Uncle Elmer, Cousin Luke, "Leaping" Lanny Poffo, Corporal Kirschner, the Missing Link, Randy "Macho Man" Savage with Elizabeth, Jim the "Anvil" Neidhart, Billy Jack Haynes, Jake the "Snake" Roberts, Haiti Kid, Terry Funk, Hercules, the "Natural" Butch Reed, the Honky Tonk Man, the One Man Gang, the "Model" Rick Martel, "Ravishing" Rick Rude, the "Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase, Virgil, "Mr.Perfect" Curt Hennig, the Ultimate Warrior, Akeem the "African Dream", HBK, the Undertaker, Razor Ramon / Scott Hall, Tatanka.

 

This was when Wrestling was real, or at least real good.

[Si82 0]

I can't for the life of me think why you would miss people like Mr. T, Brutus Beefcake, Kamala, King Kong Bundy, Hercules or Virgil. I mean, what the hell did they offer in the first place yet alone now?

[Team Angle Pusher 0]

Managers, not stupid ass "personal" storylines like custody papers and that kind of crap. Announcers that can send shivers down your spine. No internet spoilers.

[JMFabiano524 0]

Quite simply. Kayfabe. Treating it like an athletic competition and not entertainment. Not knowing about the politics too. THAT is what really killed wrestling today for me...I'm sure it was almost as bad in the '80s at times, but it really sucks to know that so-and-so will never be allowed to get over because of what so-and-so thinks of him, people with talent being held back, etc. etc. I can't watch mainstream wrestling knowing that like every other form of entertainment now, talent means next to nothing.

[gwf0704 0]

Having a world champion that traveled from territory to territory defending his world title ala NWA champ and to an extent, AWA champ.

[Guest]

I miss wrestlers actually being over.

[Aero 0]

I really wish Survivor Series PPVs were still only made up of elimination tags, with maybe only one or two regular singles matches.

[CanadianChris 0]

Squash matches and jobbers. Every match now is between "name" wrestlers, and it makes the bigger events less special. Plus it leads to the even-steven booking we have now, which leads to really bad feuds.

[Guest Zarock]

Oh yeah, nothing's better then seeing one guy dominate a match for 2-3 minutes. It's a shame that I can only be bored out of my mind during Velocity and Heat, or whenever The Big Show is on.

[CanadianChris 0]

Oh yeah, nothing's better then seeing one guy dominate a match for 2-3 minutes.  It's a shame that I can only be bored out of my mind during Velocity and Heat, or whenever The Big Show is on.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It beats seeing a top-half guy like Christian lose twenty-five televised matches in a year. Squash matches served a purpose; they let guys get their moveset and character over without having it be at the expense of a name guy.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

But they also made for bad television. What's more important: getting somebody over by just having them squash somebody, or getting somebody over while also entertaining the majority of the audience?

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

But they also made for bad television. What's more important: getting somebody over by just having them squash somebody, or getting somebody over while also entertaining the majority of the audience?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Squash matches don't necessarily make for bad television. A good wrestler or tag team can have an entertaining squash match.

[Guest Dumb Monkey]

Squash matches existed on WWF Television for decades. It obviously didn't make for bad television.

 

If you didn't have cable in the 80's-early 90's to see PTW and Raw, you got squash matches galore with the ocasional feature match, usually between JTTS' and midcarders, because putting your main eventers in matches on network TV would sooner or later effect house show attendance.

 

On the same topic as my last comment, can anyone honestly say they remembered Hulk Hogan wrestling on Superstars or Challenge? I'm sure you don't, because I can only think of 1 time he did, and I only know that because of a tape I purchased about 15 years after he did it. I'd be amazed if he wrestled any more than a handful of times on either show from the mid 80's through his run ending in 92-93.

[CanadianChris 0]

I remember him beating Bob Orton in a match where the top rope broke. Aside from that, I got nothing.

[alfdogg 0]

I never saw Hogan on either show, and I only recall seeing Warrior on Challenge once.

[Guest Dumb Monkey]

Taken from Cawthon's History of WWE...

 

5/23/87:

WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan pinned Bob Orton Jr. (w/ Mr. Fuji) with the legdrop at around the 9-minute mark; during the bout, the top rope broke when Hogan sent Orton into the corner

 

The other time I was refering to was a match v. Boris Zhukov before Hogan left for the Summer of '88.

[snuffbox 0]

Hogan was so over in the 80s that if he simply did a runin or a promo it would be the main event for the entire month.

[Guest wildpegasus]

Hogan wrestled Bravo on I believe the Superstars of Wrestling.

 

 

We've already got bad writing/booking with wrestling these days. We don't want bad writing/booking along with squash matches.

[The Robfather 0]

Vince McMahon, the wrestling announcer... for along time I didn't even know he was the owner. heh heh heh

 

Lord Alfred Hayes cheering for the heels

 

Stunning Steve Austin, the WCW TV champ

 

Jake Roberts/Randy Savage feud... this was the feud that really made me mark out like I never marked out before

 

WWF President Jack Tunney and the sometimes mentioned championship committee (alot less messy back in the day, none of these evil owners and the like, it really felt like there was an independent structure who decided things)

[Ravenbomb 0]

I kinda miss being a mark

[BruiserKC 0]

If I remember right...when Orndorff turned on Hogan after WM 1 wasn't the match on Superstars where Hogan and Orndorff were to wrestle Studd and Bundy but Hogan didn't show up at the start?

 

 

Anyway...the one thing I miss about wrestling was me just enjoying wrestling and the fact there were so many options on TV. When I lived in Kansas City I could get up at 6 AM on Saturday mornings, slip downstairs, fix a bowl of cereal, head for the TV room and watch 6 hours of wrestling on Saturdays on KZKC in Kansas City, channel 62. They started with UWF, then went to AWA, NWA, Central States, WWF, and finished with World Class.

 

Plus...I wasn't worried about what was going on with who was pushing who and who had all the rub backstage, etc. I had no clue what there was in regards to that. I watched just to watch.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

I miss a real tag team division. I miss high-flying ultra-risky Cruiserweight matches. I miss 12 PPVs a year that were all joint brand.

[Black Lushus 0]

other than nostalgia and a number of good matches, it's hard to go back and watch 80s WWF since getting so used to Attitude, post-Attitude product...

[nl5xsk1 0]

I can't for the life of me think why you would miss people like Mr. T, Brutus Beefcake, Kamala, King Kong Bundy, Hercules or Virgil. I mean, what the hell did they offer in the first place yet alone now?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I was a huge mark for both Kamala & Bundy. I found them more entertaining than a lot of the current wrestlers. The others, though, I agree ... I don't miss them at all.

 

The thing that I miss most about classic wrestling is that they used quick angles to advance the wrestling, rather than using quick wrestling matches to advance the angles.

[Rendclaw 0]

Gorilla Fucking Monsoon.

 

He was about as near perfect as an announcer could be. He knew when to get excited during a match, he knew when to explain something, and as good as he was, Ventura and Heenan made him even better.

 

And Hogan did a few squash matches during the 80s.... I can;t remember his name but he was a fat jobber and Hogan actually gave him some offense before coming back to win with the hulkup/big boot/legdrop.

 

I think it was 85 when Orndorff turned Hogan, and that was one of the best heel turns I ever have seen. Of course I was a mark back then, or at least a semi-mark after that 20/20 expose, but I still watched wrestling because it was entertaining.

 

And yes I agree with the previous comment that kayfabe made wrestling better than it now is. Though I will point out that with the advent and subsequent explosion of the Internet, even if Vince hadn't shattered kayfabe, it would have been a matter of time before it would have been broken for good by the IWC.

 

I miss the hell out of it being more of a competition, though.

 

Bundy was excellent for what he was, though after WM 2 when Hogan powerslammed him (an almost perfectly executed one, no less), he lost a lot of his mojo, and nothing they did with him afterwards could equal his initial success.

[CanadianChris 0]

If I remember right...when Orndorff turned on Hogan after WM 1 wasn't the match on Superstars where Hogan and Orndorff were to wrestle Studd and Bundy but Hogan didn't show up at the start? 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It was after WM2, and the Hogan & Orndorff/Studd & Bundy match was on Superstars, yes. Hogan didn't show up late, though.

 

They also had a Hogan & Orndorff/Moondogs match the week before (but Orndorff wrestled the whole match).

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

II miss it being portrayed as a real athletic competition. Matches occuring because they were booked to occur, rather than simply because two wrestlers are feuding. Certainly feuds are a part of wrestling, but do we need to see them be so restrictive. These days when Chris Benoit comes out on Smackdown you immediately know that Orlando Jordan is going to be involved somewhat. As a result the shows tend to resemble each other. They never have say Christian fight Benoit unless Jordan comes out to interfere, so we see the same matches over and over again until the feud is over. And when they actually do something different, how many times have we seen the opponent doing commentary only to cause the guy he's feuding with to lose. It has nothing to do with the amount of TV time because WCW never had this problem during its peak. Things are so nauseatingly predictable now because of this. If Vince was booking the NFL the Eagles & Falcons would be playing each other every week.

 

Do we really need to waste time on feuds for matches 7th from the top to begin with? It isn't like they sell a show. Everything needs a story these days for some reason, and it often gets you to wonder what these wrestlers actually do for a living, since they seem to only be on tv when they are pissed with someone else. There is nothing resembling rankings and championship divisions anymore. Feuds should be built around big matches for the most part, not the other way around. Blood feuds are not as meaningful when every match on the card has a similar background.

[Rendclaw 0]

II miss it being portrayed as a real athletic competition.  Matches occuring because they were booked to occur, rather than simply because two wrestlers are feuding.  Certainly feuds are a part of wrestling, but do we need to see them be so restrictive.  These days when Chris Benoit comes out on Smackdown you immediately know that Orlando Jordan is going to be involved somewhat.  As a result the shows tend to resemble each other.  They never have say Christian fight Benoit unless Jordan comes out to interfere, so we see the same matches over and over again until the feud is over.  And when they actually do something different, how many times have we seen the opponent doing commentary only to cause the guy he's feuding with to lose.  It has nothing to do with the amount of TV time because WCW never had this problem during its peak.  Things are so nauseatingly predictable now because of this.  If Vince was booking the NFL the Eagles & Falcons would be playing each other every week.

 

Do we really need to waste time on feuds for matches 7th from the top to begin with?  It isn't like they sell a show.  Everything needs a story these days for some reason, and it often gets you to wonder what these wrestlers actually do for a living, since they seem to only be on tv when they are pissed with someone else.  There is nothing resembling rankings and championship divisions anymore.  Feuds should be built around big matches for the most part, not the other way around.  Blood feuds are not as meaningful when every match on the card has a similar background.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I agree, and some of the best feuds sprung from just being put together in a match.... when a filler or even a mid-card match could turn into something that gained the right kind of heat, and could stretched out over a series of matches. Again, I point to the Best of Seven Series with Booker and Benoit.

[benoit4hor 0]

Everything about it and the fact it will never be like that again.

[Annabelle 0]

1. squash matches

2. 4 PPVs a year

3. matches that meant something

4. gimmick interview sets (brother love, barber shop, ect)

5. saturday mornign squash shows

6. saturday night tbs squash shows

7. old people in wheelchairs in the front row