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March Wrasslin' |OT2| The Rollercoaster to WrestleMania XXXIII!

Sephzilla

Member
Both of these are my current feelings on things. I loved 80s/90s because it tried to come across like a sport (which is why I like NJPW), but the golden era is also pretty shit and I much prefer the more advanced move sets.

This is why I quietly have started to believe that the New Generation era might be one of the best eras of WWE ever. Despite there being some pretty cartoony gimmicks there was still the "it's pretending to be a sport" suspension of disbelief in place. You had more advanced movesets than the 80s but didn't have the over the top move sets we have now. The ridiculous Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior bullshit was gone and we had yet to escalate to the Attitude Era level ridiculousness.

Bret Hart's influence is pretty strongly felt in that era.
 

Anth0ny

Member
competent story telling w/shit work rate >>>>>>>>> mindless 3.5* matches for 3 hours every monday, 2 hours every tuesday and 96 hours every wrestlemania
 

Recall

Member
The increasing fallibility of The Rainmaker is one of Okada's main points of character progression, not to mention one of the running themes of the later stages of his feud with Tanahashi - he's talked multiple times about not knowing what he'll do when The Rainmaker doesn't work any more, and as a result you see him become increasingly more desperate to make the move count. The Suzuki match was a great example of that, he just Rainmakered the crap out of Suzuki and wouldn't let go until he got the job done. But eventually someone will survive regardless, and then Okada will have to come up with something new (although a few years ago he did mention another move he has in reserve that we've yet to see).

Yes the desperation move! The true final form.
 

Mahonay

Banned
All I'm saying is that the WWE has like 40 things wrong with it and kicking out of too many finishers might be 39th on that list.
Match finishes are extremely important in pro wrestling. It's the thing that people remember the most and leaves the biggest impression.

Which puts protecting finishing moves pretty high up on the list.
 

klonere

Banned
The other story is of course, who finally breaks The Rainmaker as a finisher completely. Omega? Naito? Shibata?

It's almost as big a deal as winning the title.
 

Kaladin

Member
W12945.jpg


Why is he hard to follow though? Is he a hard act to follow? Is he hard to follow because you can't understand him? Why?

W13217.jpg


Not a bad Orton shirt....I guess.
 

Heroman

Banned
The increasing fallibility of The Rainmaker is one of Okada's main points of character progression, not to mention one of the running themes of the later stages of his feud with Tanahashi - he's talked multiple times about not knowing what he'll do when The Rainmaker doesn't work any more, and as a result you see him become increasingly more desperate to make the move count. The Suzuki match was a great example of that, he just Rainmakered the crap out of Suzuki and wouldn't let go until he got the job done. But eventually someone will survive regardless, and then Okada will have to come up with something new (although a few years ago he did mention another move he has in reserve that we've yet to see).

0fWX9t.gif
 

Mahonay

Banned
This is why I quietly have started to believe that the New Generation era might be one of the best eras of WWE ever. Despite there being some pretty cartoony gimmicks there was still the "it's pretending to be a sport" suspension of disbelief in place. You had more advanced movesets than the 80s but didn't have the over the top move sets we have now. The ridiculous Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior bullshit was gone and we had yet to escalate to the Attitude Era level ridiculousness.

Bret Hart's influence is pretty strongly felt in that era.
97, which was the end of New Gen and the beginnings of Attitude Era, is hands down the best era in WWF/WWE for overall product quality. It saved the company.

It sucks that Vince didn't hold onto the lessons learned from that time period.
 

Sephzilla

Member
97, which was the end of New Gen and the beginnings of Attitude Era, is hands down the best era in WWF/WWE for overall product quality. It saved the company.

It sucks that Vince didn't hold onto the lessons learned from that time period.

I'd expand it a little from about 1995 to 1998. That entire timespan and was great, especially once Austin becomes Austin.

Austin vs Bret is still the best rivalry ever.
 

Recall

Member
The other story is of course, who finally breaks The Rainmaker as a finisher completely. Omega? Naito? Shibata?

It's almost as big a deal as winning the title.

Omega might be the one to avoid all rainmaker attempts and actually finally hit the One Winged Angel and capture his gold.
 
I just can't wait for Kenny to hit the One Winged Angel on Okada, tbh - they've built it up so well with the WK11 match, that move's a title winner.

Here's a GIF of Buzz Sawyer murdering some poor fool with a suplex;

OpV3GD5.gif
 
This is why I quietly have started to believe that the New Generation era might be one of the best eras of WWE ever. Despite there being some pretty cartoony gimmicks there was still the "it's pretending to be a sport" suspension of disbelief in place. You had more advanced movesets than the 80s but didn't have the over the top move sets we have now. The ridiculous Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior bullshit was gone and we had yet to escalate to the Attitude Era level ridiculousness.

Bret Hart's influence is pretty strongly felt in that era.

YESSSSSSS.....Come to the dark side with Blue and myself.

93-97 is the best period of wrestling for WWE/WCW. It's filled with some bullshit (The Mummy, The Goon), but you're literally watching the world of wrestling transform. It's the easiest period, IMO, to see this going on.

Only reason I don't include 98, IMO the true start of the Attitude Era, is because its filled with so much Russo and it's pretty painful to enjoy.

All I'm saying is that the WWE has like 40 things wrong with it and kicking out of too many finishers might be 39th on that list.

So much of the match is about suspense and "will the match end here" and so much of that is tied to finishers. When you see finishers used every 3 minutes you begin to lose the suspense.
 

Sephzilla

Member
Austin's rise in popularity by being an anti-hero who showed up and kicked the shit out everyone's Saturday morning cartoon characters was expertly done. You could just look at him and tell he was hungry to make a name for himself. And Bret's slow transition from ultimate babyface to justifiably pissed off heel is the best heel turn ever done, in my opinion. The best thing about Bret's heel turn was that it completely made sense, you could understand why he had enough of this shit

As much as everyone talks about Vince being the ultimate nemesis for Austin, Bret felt like he was a more perfect foil for Austin since they were opposite sides of the same coin.
 
Count me in as someone who wants finishers to matter. It's why NJPW is so good. Finishers end matches

Okada hits at least 3 Rainmakers a match.
Takahashi hits 5000 High Fly Flows a match.
Nakamura hit 1 million Bom-a-yes a match.

The only protected finisher is the One Winged Angel.
 

Kaladin

Member
Austin's rise in popularity by being an anti-hero who showed up and kicked the shit out everyone's Saturday morning cartoon characters was expertly done. You could just look at him and tell he was hungry to make a name for himself. And Bret's slow transition from ultimate babyface to justifiably pissed off heel is the best heel turn ever done, in my opinion.

As much as everyone talks about Vince being the ultimate nemesis for Austin, Bret felt like he was a more perfect foil for Austin since they were opposite sides of the same coin.

Then combine Austin / Shitman with Austin / DX / Tyson and you have some of the best wrasslin' angles you can come across. I love how they slow burned Austin / McMahon during the Tyson stuff too.
 

Barrage

Member
95 was the worst period in wrestling history. I would take 2016 WWE over 1995 WWF every single time.

The love for 97 is on point, tho.
 

Sephzilla

Member
Then combine Austin / Shitman with Austin / DX / Tyson and you have some of the best wrasslin' angles you can come across. I love how they slow burned Austin / McMahon during the Tyson stuff too.

Austin/Vince was a remarkably long slow burn. They started setting that up since before the Montreal Screwjob even happened. Honestly in hindsight the actual Austin/DX/Tyson thing feels a tad overrated mostly because Austin carries the entire feud since HBK is hurt and acting like a petulant little shit the entire time because he can't accept that his time is up. I wish Montreal didn't happen so we could have gotten the third and final Austin/Bret match at WM14
 

Tall4Life

Member
Ah yes, the New Generation era, the sport era, where it was such a sport that Lawrence Taylor main evented Wrestlemania against Bam Bam Bigel---wait what? And there was a Doink vs Doink match? And Hogan main evented Wrestlemania 9? Hmm, well.
 

Sephzilla

Member
Ah yes, the New Generation era, the sport era, where it was such a sport that Lawrence Taylor main evented Wrestlemania against Bam Bam Bigel---wait what? And there was a Doink vs Doink match? And Hogan main evented Wrestlemania 9? Hmm, well.

I don't consider WrestleMania 9 New Generation era, honestly. I think the New Generation properly started the moment Hogan was gone.
 

Recall

Member
When Austin got hurt at Summerslam and they continued to push him, feature him and let him stay hot was the smartest thing Vince has ever done.

They never missed a beat with him, and the fact Austin could carry himself so fucking well with presence and promos totally made something that would kill any other career an almost non entity.
 
Part of the reason I liked NXT during the Sami Zayn era was because finishers were protected as fuck down there. I'm pretty sure nobody kicked out of the Red Arrow or the Helluva Kick in NXT
To be fair I don't think anyone's kicked out of the Red Arrow on the main roster either. It's treated as super strong. It's arguably the strongest finisher currently going around WWE.
 

Sephzilla

Member
When Austin got hurt at Summerslam and they continued to push him, feature him and let him stay hot was the smartest thing Vince has ever done.

They never missed a beat with him, and the fact Austin could carry himself so fucking well with presence and promos totally made something that would kill any other career an almost non entity.

And it's a scenario that wouldn't happen at any other point in time either. Austin in all honesty should have been sidelined and possibly retired after that injury. But Austin was hungry as fuck and Vince was desperate because WCW was eating away at him
 
The best way to get Omega back in the title picture would be to turn the Elite face and have omega run through all of Chaos leading up to the Dominion Show or one of the G1 USA shows
 
This is why I quietly have started to believe that the New Generation era might be one of the best eras of WWE ever. Despite there being some pretty cartoony gimmicks there was still the "it's pretending to be a sport" suspension of disbelief in place. You had more advanced movesets than the 80s but didn't have the over the top move sets we have now. The ridiculous Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior bullshit was gone and we had yet to escalate to the Attitude Era level ridiculousness.

Bret Hart's influence is pretty strongly felt in that era.

Seph's fave wrestler is mantaur confirmed
 
I'd do it like this: Omega attacks Okada post-match at Sakura Genesis, then probably gets a pin on him during a Road to Dontaku show. Omega beats Okada for the belt at Dontaku (with help from the Elite, or Bullet Club if the Bucks are still out of the picture at that point), then Okada gets his rematch at the G1 USA shows. Omega loses the belt to Okada, blames Bullet Club, Fale & Tonga turn on him and kick The Elite out of the club. Okada enters G1 as champion, Omega & The Bucks turn face and Naito wins the G1 to face Okada at WK12.
 

Sephzilla

Member
The New Generation era and the transition into the Attitude Era also is when the entire rise of Mankind happened and you get to witness Undertaker and Mick Foley simultaneously saving each other's careers, plus at the tail end you see Kane debut.

95-98 is probably the best chunk of storylines Undertaker ever got in his career
 
It's safest not to expect a decent run for someone's first time with the IWGP title, tbh

Naito, 70 days
Styles, 163 days
Okada, 125 days
Makabe, 161 days
Nakanishi, 45 days
 
While the matches were pretty bad, the Kane and Undertaker feud of the late 90's was awesome. Kane's amazing debut, Taker trapped in the coffin set on fire only for him to not be in there when it opened, Taker's refusal to fight his own brother over and over again until he finally had to do it.
 
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