Post by The Sound Guy on Aug 7, 2009 16:10:24 GMT -5
A Night of…Too much Vanilla (isn’t always best) by SG
I have been a casual wrestling fan on and off since I was a kid dating back to the eighties. I started on WWE(F) at the time, then NWA, some GLOW, UWF, and then for some reason I stopped watching wrestling until that one late night working at a bar I happened to catch ECW by chance. ECW changed my views on wrestling and brought me back to at least watching it or taping the TV show every week. What caught my attention about ECW was the setting, and the match going on in the ring which was a two out of three falls match maybe Rey Mysterio and Psychosis, I don’t remember exactly, but I do know I had never seen anything like it. Now even before ECW I never went to shows, but I really wanted to go to a few at the Civic Center in Philly. I especially wanted to go to NWA’s “Great American Bash” featuring Flair and Road Warrior Hawk in the main event. Damn I still remember Hawk’s promo that played for weeks leading up to the show. “You think you’re big Ric Flair, you think you’re tough, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” blared Road Warrior Hawk.
I stopped watching WWE as my younger brothers started to watch and like it, and it began to become cheesy to me. I found NWA and it just seemed rougher, tougher, and more real, especially the build up and climax at the end of the show when Tony Schaviony uttered that famous line of “we’re out of time, we gotta go fans.” I and my friends were excited every Saturday to watch NWA. We would then call each other and talk about what we saw, etc… We never bought tickets to shows, as we all worked and wanted to make money, and didn’t want to lose our jobs. We didn’t buy figurines, t-shirts, or videos. However, we did occasionally buy a wrestling magazine here or there.
We watched GLOW on Sunday’s as it featured some hot chicks and some great camera work lol. Occasionally, GLOW would feature a storyline that would inspire us to really get into it, but let’s be real –we watched it for the chicks. I got a GLOW VHS off eBay a few years ago, you know to relive the old days. I can’t believe that they used sound effects, a boxing ring, and all the old people in the crowd from the casino. It’s amazing how hot women can make you not see those imperfections. Ahh GLOW, the good old days.
The UWF invaded our TV airwaves and at times was even better than NWA as they gave away more quality matches on TV and were just overall more entertaining. NWA usually started off good, and ended well, with the in between bouts being utilized for talent enhancement matches. UWF brought a big time, raw entertaining show every week with JR doing his thing, building and putting over talent and storylines. I remember seeing Sting & Ultimate Warrior short lived tag team as the Blade Runners.
Then ECW. It was totally different in the respect to how they delivered their events and TV Shows. It was raw, and it was definitely edgy. The wrestling was crazy, as I was introduced to the lucha style, the technical matches, the hardcore and gimmick matches, with a sprinkling of some hot, sexy women. The characters were real and not too gimmicky, and it was must see TV as the Raven / Dreamer feud really reeled me. Also during this time the Monday Night Wars were getting hot and I must admit I started to flip between WWE and WCW –but I rallied around ECW.
Living in the Philadelphia, PA area I got to experience a lot of different independent type wrestling shows and some were good, ok, and some just plain bad. It all depends on what you like, as there was something for every kind of fan out there. From CZW, 3PW, ROH, GLOOW, DWOW, WEW, and PWU to name a few, and only ROH & WEW doing anything noteworthy as far as landing a TV and PPV deal for themselves.
Yes, now WWE & WCW have/had the production values of big time live events and TV shows, but it wasn’t all about that for me, thus the reason I’m typing this today. It’s still not the reason I like wrestling; as I was at WWE’s Night of Champion’s Pay Per View at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, PA. TOO MUCH VANILLA!
First, I admit I do not watch wrestling at all these days and haven’t in a long time. On a rare occasion I may catch Friday night Smack down, or TNA’s uninspiring TV show aka WCW II. Maybe it’s just me and I don’t get it, but here are my observations.
WWE is the promise land for Wrestlers as far as exposure and pay days, with TNA probably and maybe even at times exceeding them overpaying certain talent. I sit in my seat with my 11 year old nephew, as it was his idea to go as no one else in the family would take him –not even his own dad. I look around to and I see how many children are actually in the audience. Take away those kids, and I wonder how many of those parents would actually still be in the building –probably a third. Merchandise was everywhere. What a mega-merch powerhouse the WWE brand(s) really is! T-shirts, Hardy sleeve-arm bands, replica belts, hats and more, just crazy to think about how much money is generated from the hours of brainwashing WWE TV programming is broadcasted every week to get these characters over with the audience so they can move all this merch onto these kids and mainly their parents. I also saw plenty of over-the-top, hormone raging, pimple faced, super wrestling fans that really take wrestling too seriously –I think? I witnessed these two teenagers in front of me probably 16 & 19 who knew everything about every character, and they voiced it, as well as made various hand gestures, as well as sticking out their tongue (probably like their favorite wrestlers), it was amusing and disturbing to say the least. Also grown men in the audience should not be wearing replica or real title belts, it’s ok for children (a tad expensive) –but not grown men. But if your WWE management, there is a target demographic for you from candy companies, zit creams, soda, energy drinks, and even that great WWE merchandise. These kids had on the “Night of Champion T-Shirts”, plus had a Jeff Hardy T-Shirt, and John Cena shirt –all new and bought at this show. Their tickets were probably $90 bucks, and they bought food, soda, popcorn. I either want their job, or their parents, because these kids were spending money, and lots of it. So much for the summer or bad economy excuse, the Wachovia Center was sold out and people were buying foods, drinks, beers, and merchandise! Someone is making money, and spending it!
In addition to noticing a lot of children under 16 in attendance, I also noticed a lot of young girls with their parent(s). Is this a new demographic for WWE? Remember I don’t watch it. I figure hmmm Women’s Wrestling seems to be big these days with all these “divas” maybe girls are watching now and getting into it. Well I must tell you during both Women’s title matches the girls in the crowd were silent as can be, as well as the entire building –and hey I like Women’s Wrestling, but I really think too much vanilla. It seems that WWE pushes new female talent very quickly and don’t allow them time to build up and develop. It seems Melina carried her match against Michelle, and Mickie carried her match again Maryse. I would’ve much rather seen Melina vs Mickie, as it looks like a good match on paper. Again I don’t really know what it is, but I do know this, the crowd was not into either one of the diva matches.
The crowd was into the bigger stars of the WWE roster, and there were some good matches with good spots, but as I sat in my seat I just wasn’t thoroughly entertained as I kept seeing all these new guys (to me anyway because I don’t watch on a regular basis) who basically look the same, have the same build, and same cockiness. You have all these hot women (not that there is nothing wrong with hot women!) who are either wrestlers or model-turned wrestlers. They all are in shape, all cut up, hair done, breast implants, whatever, etc… I would comment to say that they are too perfect in some instances, and are really an unrealistic reality to the youth of America, especially with the marketing of the super-size era. There’s too much vanilla in the WWE, and from the one show I’ve seen of TNA is guilty too –but their vanilla is stale, stale, stale with all those legends they try to draw off of.
Too much vanilla you keep saying? Most people before the A.D.D. era would say that Vanilla ice cream is their favorite flavor of ice cream. But if you eat too much Vanilla, you eventually get sick of the flavor, and/or don’t want it no more. That’s what I kept saying to myself throughout the show. I mean I know the WWE is the “big show”, and people are there to see a show. Personally, I just think the WWE are missing something, and are serving their audience too much vanilla. Hey I like vanilla, but I had too much at Night of Champions.
I have been a casual wrestling fan on and off since I was a kid dating back to the eighties. I started on WWE(F) at the time, then NWA, some GLOW, UWF, and then for some reason I stopped watching wrestling until that one late night working at a bar I happened to catch ECW by chance. ECW changed my views on wrestling and brought me back to at least watching it or taping the TV show every week. What caught my attention about ECW was the setting, and the match going on in the ring which was a two out of three falls match maybe Rey Mysterio and Psychosis, I don’t remember exactly, but I do know I had never seen anything like it. Now even before ECW I never went to shows, but I really wanted to go to a few at the Civic Center in Philly. I especially wanted to go to NWA’s “Great American Bash” featuring Flair and Road Warrior Hawk in the main event. Damn I still remember Hawk’s promo that played for weeks leading up to the show. “You think you’re big Ric Flair, you think you’re tough, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” blared Road Warrior Hawk.
I stopped watching WWE as my younger brothers started to watch and like it, and it began to become cheesy to me. I found NWA and it just seemed rougher, tougher, and more real, especially the build up and climax at the end of the show when Tony Schaviony uttered that famous line of “we’re out of time, we gotta go fans.” I and my friends were excited every Saturday to watch NWA. We would then call each other and talk about what we saw, etc… We never bought tickets to shows, as we all worked and wanted to make money, and didn’t want to lose our jobs. We didn’t buy figurines, t-shirts, or videos. However, we did occasionally buy a wrestling magazine here or there.
We watched GLOW on Sunday’s as it featured some hot chicks and some great camera work lol. Occasionally, GLOW would feature a storyline that would inspire us to really get into it, but let’s be real –we watched it for the chicks. I got a GLOW VHS off eBay a few years ago, you know to relive the old days. I can’t believe that they used sound effects, a boxing ring, and all the old people in the crowd from the casino. It’s amazing how hot women can make you not see those imperfections. Ahh GLOW, the good old days.
The UWF invaded our TV airwaves and at times was even better than NWA as they gave away more quality matches on TV and were just overall more entertaining. NWA usually started off good, and ended well, with the in between bouts being utilized for talent enhancement matches. UWF brought a big time, raw entertaining show every week with JR doing his thing, building and putting over talent and storylines. I remember seeing Sting & Ultimate Warrior short lived tag team as the Blade Runners.
Then ECW. It was totally different in the respect to how they delivered their events and TV Shows. It was raw, and it was definitely edgy. The wrestling was crazy, as I was introduced to the lucha style, the technical matches, the hardcore and gimmick matches, with a sprinkling of some hot, sexy women. The characters were real and not too gimmicky, and it was must see TV as the Raven / Dreamer feud really reeled me. Also during this time the Monday Night Wars were getting hot and I must admit I started to flip between WWE and WCW –but I rallied around ECW.
Living in the Philadelphia, PA area I got to experience a lot of different independent type wrestling shows and some were good, ok, and some just plain bad. It all depends on what you like, as there was something for every kind of fan out there. From CZW, 3PW, ROH, GLOOW, DWOW, WEW, and PWU to name a few, and only ROH & WEW doing anything noteworthy as far as landing a TV and PPV deal for themselves.
Yes, now WWE & WCW have/had the production values of big time live events and TV shows, but it wasn’t all about that for me, thus the reason I’m typing this today. It’s still not the reason I like wrestling; as I was at WWE’s Night of Champion’s Pay Per View at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, PA. TOO MUCH VANILLA!
First, I admit I do not watch wrestling at all these days and haven’t in a long time. On a rare occasion I may catch Friday night Smack down, or TNA’s uninspiring TV show aka WCW II. Maybe it’s just me and I don’t get it, but here are my observations.
WWE is the promise land for Wrestlers as far as exposure and pay days, with TNA probably and maybe even at times exceeding them overpaying certain talent. I sit in my seat with my 11 year old nephew, as it was his idea to go as no one else in the family would take him –not even his own dad. I look around to and I see how many children are actually in the audience. Take away those kids, and I wonder how many of those parents would actually still be in the building –probably a third. Merchandise was everywhere. What a mega-merch powerhouse the WWE brand(s) really is! T-shirts, Hardy sleeve-arm bands, replica belts, hats and more, just crazy to think about how much money is generated from the hours of brainwashing WWE TV programming is broadcasted every week to get these characters over with the audience so they can move all this merch onto these kids and mainly their parents. I also saw plenty of over-the-top, hormone raging, pimple faced, super wrestling fans that really take wrestling too seriously –I think? I witnessed these two teenagers in front of me probably 16 & 19 who knew everything about every character, and they voiced it, as well as made various hand gestures, as well as sticking out their tongue (probably like their favorite wrestlers), it was amusing and disturbing to say the least. Also grown men in the audience should not be wearing replica or real title belts, it’s ok for children (a tad expensive) –but not grown men. But if your WWE management, there is a target demographic for you from candy companies, zit creams, soda, energy drinks, and even that great WWE merchandise. These kids had on the “Night of Champion T-Shirts”, plus had a Jeff Hardy T-Shirt, and John Cena shirt –all new and bought at this show. Their tickets were probably $90 bucks, and they bought food, soda, popcorn. I either want their job, or their parents, because these kids were spending money, and lots of it. So much for the summer or bad economy excuse, the Wachovia Center was sold out and people were buying foods, drinks, beers, and merchandise! Someone is making money, and spending it!
In addition to noticing a lot of children under 16 in attendance, I also noticed a lot of young girls with their parent(s). Is this a new demographic for WWE? Remember I don’t watch it. I figure hmmm Women’s Wrestling seems to be big these days with all these “divas” maybe girls are watching now and getting into it. Well I must tell you during both Women’s title matches the girls in the crowd were silent as can be, as well as the entire building –and hey I like Women’s Wrestling, but I really think too much vanilla. It seems that WWE pushes new female talent very quickly and don’t allow them time to build up and develop. It seems Melina carried her match against Michelle, and Mickie carried her match again Maryse. I would’ve much rather seen Melina vs Mickie, as it looks like a good match on paper. Again I don’t really know what it is, but I do know this, the crowd was not into either one of the diva matches.
The crowd was into the bigger stars of the WWE roster, and there were some good matches with good spots, but as I sat in my seat I just wasn’t thoroughly entertained as I kept seeing all these new guys (to me anyway because I don’t watch on a regular basis) who basically look the same, have the same build, and same cockiness. You have all these hot women (not that there is nothing wrong with hot women!) who are either wrestlers or model-turned wrestlers. They all are in shape, all cut up, hair done, breast implants, whatever, etc… I would comment to say that they are too perfect in some instances, and are really an unrealistic reality to the youth of America, especially with the marketing of the super-size era. There’s too much vanilla in the WWE, and from the one show I’ve seen of TNA is guilty too –but their vanilla is stale, stale, stale with all those legends they try to draw off of.
Too much vanilla you keep saying? Most people before the A.D.D. era would say that Vanilla ice cream is their favorite flavor of ice cream. But if you eat too much Vanilla, you eventually get sick of the flavor, and/or don’t want it no more. That’s what I kept saying to myself throughout the show. I mean I know the WWE is the “big show”, and people are there to see a show. Personally, I just think the WWE are missing something, and are serving their audience too much vanilla. Hey I like vanilla, but I had too much at Night of Champions.