Well, we poke fun of wrestling a bit. I guess that's why you had a problem with mixing the wrestling part with the MMA part. But that's just it. Wrestling can be silly and ridiculous (penis tossing, finger poke of doom, midget wrestling, etc) it can also be very technical and athletic. The compiled wrestler injuries over the years is testament to that.

For every Hulk Hogan or Ultimate Warrior who might be pure 'character products' of a brand, there's plenty of guys out there like Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, or Chris Benoit would could put on one hell of a wrestling match. There's something for everybody, and I certainly don't mind the silly fun stuff or the technical wrestling stuff either.

Speaking of the Ultimate Warrior, I got to meet him back in 1987 when he was still the Dingo Warrior. I had a rocking mullet at the time and he told me not to cut it, that my hair was where I got my power from. Those crazy Ultimate Warrior promos? Yeah, that's not a script. That was really the way that dude talked.

Yes I much prefer the Pride ruleset over UFC. One FC uses a very similar ruleset. Pride was amazing with no weight classes. This style of match up was of far more interest to me, as it really highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of body types, styles and techniques.

Rizin is the organisation put together by the old boss of Pride. Was it popular in Japan?

Watching the 2008 film, The Wrestler, really opened my eyes up to how much went into the entertaining aspect of professional wrestling. I did some research afterwards and found out how much real drama actually goes on in wrestling. There's also a lot of interesting stories, tragically, to do with deaths, steroid abuse (common in MMA and many other sports, although "use" and "abuse" are very different), criminal records etc.

I think my perception of wrestling has been skewed by thinking fans believe it is 100% real and not scripted. I've seen so many heated arguments about it! I guess they were the equivalent to passionate arguments my friends and I would have in school making up our own "What If?" comic plotlines.

Steroids appear to be a prerequisite for modern wrestling? I cannot remember the last time I saw a wrestler who did not show signs of heavy steroid use.

Re your comment on athleticism and technique, yes I can see a lot of evidence of people who come from well trained freestyle wrestling backgrounds, and the athleticism speaks for itself. I was amazed by the speed with which Brock Lesnar could move for such a huge man!

Have you got a photo of that mullet? What a classic hairstyle :D The belief in the vital power of hair has been in many cultures and stories. I had a similar little story going in my head until I shaved it when mourning in 2010. Short or no hair is sooooo much better for sparring and fighting. The best hair for a fight is a beard :D

So...looks like WWE is basically hiring the Bullet Club from New Japan. This is the kind of thing that is exciting and yet causes trepidation because those guys, especially Nakamura, aren't exactly the types that float Vince McMahon's boat.

Steroids can show up anywhere but WWE is the place that really pushes them harder than any other promotion. Vince McMahon, who is himself an avid steroid user, is a bodybuilding fanatic who thinks the top stars should adhere to the aesthetics of bodybuilding, with huge, ripped and greased up muscles and fully shaved bodies. There's been an increasing amount of tension building over the years as wrestling fans increasingly favor smaller, more agile and knowledgeable wrestlers while WWE insists on doubling down on their "bigger is better" standard even to the apparent detriment of business. At this point, WWE is pretty much trolling their own fans.

Your Monday morning needs this. YOU need this.

WWE-WWF Best Ultimate Warrior Promo Ever!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF4ZTcuhixc

Jim Cornette refuses to let this thread die.

Wake up with some coffee and a clip of the biggest mouth in the history of wrestling.

Jim Cornette makes a public plea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_rzV2wOwuc

The reaction to Fastlane is just depressing. Instead of being angry, everyone just sounds hopeless and defeated. Thank goodness for...pretty much every wrestling promotion that isn't the WWE main roster. There is no joy in Raw-ville.

Just imagine if the WWE was putting on that kind of swill during the Monday night wars. Result may have been a bit different. Hell, WWE is so bad now that I'm starting to look back fondly on Thursday night Thunder shows. When wrestling fans are saying that WCW Thunder was a better show than current WWE RAW, you've got a problem.

You know how WWE always makes fun of WCW in their retrospective propaganda? "Oh, they really thought that was going to draw? HAHAHA, no wonder they went out of business!" WWE is doing the exact same stupid crap on their shows right now.

I don't really think it's the talent. Dean Ambrose or Bray Wyatt in an attitude era promotion would have crushed it. Dean Ambrose is a perfect ingredient for a 90s ECW. Bray Wyatt and the dark hillbilly gang vs the Undertaker or the Brood? Insane possibilities.

It's the PG era. Political correctness. Never insult, never challenge, never innovate. Just keep mass producing the same generic shit over and over again. WWE going public back in the early 2000s didn't help things either. WWE was fighting for their very existence in a highly contested arena vs Ted Turner and his WCW machine. Now... the only thing WWE has to fight for is the smiling faces of the shareholders. Wrestling fans, especially older ones, have become very cynical... and for good reason.

Eh, I'll have to agree with Raven and say that it IS the wrestlers fault to be honest. Most modern/younger wrestlers seemed to be focused exclusively on doing as many moves as possible in the shortest amount of time, almost none of them are even close to being even "decent" on the mic, and selling is apparently a thing of the past. I'm finding almost every single promotion to be unwatacheable, although that might just be me being left behind, heh. I don't care if they have five or fifty moves in their moveset, just make me care about the match and storyline, ya dolts!, haha.

Don't get me wrong, the actual in ring product could often be terrible in the Attitude Era too but the show as a whole made up for it just like it did in the eras before it. Anyway, I agree I could see someone like Dean/Bray in the Attitude Era, maybe Ziggler..well maybe not Ziggler, we already had Billy Gunn.

In other news: "Debil Worshipper/Cult Leader" Florida territory Kevin Sullivan>every version of the Undertaker. It's pretty sad that Sullivan is just remembered (thanks to WWE propaganda) for the god awful Dungeon of Doom crud in WCW, he really pulled off the "prince of darkness" gimmick better than 'Taker ever did (and I say that as a fan of Taker).

Imagine if Steve Austin hadn't been able to flip the bird, drink beer, or stick an enema up Vince's butt. How would Stone Cold get over if he didn't have room to breathe the character to life? The atmosphere at WWE is too controlled. The wrestlers' lines are scripted. Everything is gone over with a fine tooth comb in order to please the fans but not piss off the soccer moms and ratings people. It's too safe for anyone to paint on their own canvas.

It's the stifling downside of success. Vince beat everyone, now he's left with no challenges. There's no reason to push the limit. That's not Dean Ambrose or the Miz's fault. They're doing what they can in a very restrictive environment. I'm not sure any new talent could get truly over in that kind of climate.

And yes, Kevin Sullivan is a genius. Such a genius in fact that many people really do think he's Satan himself. If Satan was going to manifest himself in human form, he'd probably pick someone taller and better looking.

Vince is a doddering fool who needs to step aside. He employs a staff of 24 writers who give him a complete Raw script every Monday only to throw out most of their work in favor of rewriting the whole thing by himself at the last minute (or sometimes even during the show). He doesn't know the first thing about storytelling fundamentals, that heroes have to show vulnerability and frailty so that it's interesting to see them overcome their obstacles, which is why his attempt to get Roman Reigns over is blowing up so spectacularly. Vince's idea of a story is "The smiling hero fought the cowardly, cheating bad guy and won. Everyone was happy. The End." I read somewhere that Reigns hasn't been pinned cleanly in three years. That's absurd!

He does interviews in which he whines about "lazy Millennials" not grabbing the brass ring only to rig the system in favor of his chosen ones while punishing guys who actually try to get over with fans, like Zack Ryder. He ignores the success of guys like Cesaro because of vague notions that "they don't look like a star". When someone threatens to break into the zeitgeist, like CM Punk or Daniel Bryan, instead of running with it management tries to sabotage them to keep them in their place. Imagine following up Austin 3:16 by jobbing Austin in every storyline?

No one outside of the main event scene even has a storyline, and most of them don't have proper characters to play. Despite having five hours of TV per week, lower card wrestlers are constantly told "Creative has nothing for them". Triple H brings up talented wrestlers out of NXT only for Vince and Kevin Dunn to treat them as geeks who aren't ready for "the big leagues!" Vince doesn't seem to grasp that you don't need to "break in" the NXT wrestlers because that's what DEVELOPMENTAL is for. Instead, Vince sees NXT not as his own property but the same way he used to look at WCW - as a lesser competing promotion whose talents need to be humbled before they're allowed to succeed on his watch.

I mean, I could keep going...the man has lost it.

MMA going full-clickbait by matching a 68y old lady vs some youngster..... Well at least she lasted 84 seconds.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVjnV4vGXl0

Haha. Hey, those two put out as much energy in their short fight as the entire Kimbo vs Dada 5000 bout.