I loved it as a youngster. It's obviously pretty crap, especially now. But i think i award a NOT CRAP to wrestling for giving us Mick Foley / Mankind / Cactus Jack. The documentary i saw about him was a fine piece of character study filmaking, and he seems like a genuinely decent guy with a true love for what he does/did. His book was really good too. Well worth a read.

Mick Foley i salute you!


ps - Undertaker scared the poop outta me when i was little, but Ultimate Warrior had my back.

I watched wrestling as a kid also and really enjoyed it, can't imagine following it now. I avoid it in the same way I avoid nastycar.

I love wrestling. I liked it as a kid and I love it now. It is very vaudeville to me. There is a ton of crap in wrestling but there are some real gems as well.
Not Crap for Edge, Chris Jericho, HHH, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, Mick Foley, CM Punk, Carlito, Mohommad Hassain, Brock Lesnar, Shane McMahon, Eddie Gurrerro, Chris Benoit, Paul Heyman, Mickie James, and many more.
The good heel characters are worth it to me.
There is a lot of horrible gimmicks and stupid skits that are total trash TV. I sit through the campy shit for the HOLY SHIT moments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Hassan

Wait a sec. I just realized i haven't voted in this yet.

NOT CRAP.

I won't repeat what most of the not crap voters have said already except to add that if you voted crap, i doubt anyone would be able to change your mind about it, and that's fine, although i'll bet the Ric Flair three-DVD Best Of set could come close. His one hour best-of-three falls match with Ricky Steamboat from 1989 is epic, as is his performance in the 1992 Royal Rumble, and pretty much all of his interviews.

Not Crap, big, steroid flavoured waffles.

Has anyone seen Beyond The Mat?

Also, see http://www.wrestlecrap.com/ for good commentary on the worst parts of pro wrestling, which, as it turns out, often happen to be the best.

Both my parents were professional wrestlers in the late '40s/early '50s, and my father continued wrestling into the '60s part-time and got back into it again for a couple of years in the early '70s.

Of course it has changed quite a bit since then. It used to be hugely popular entertainment. I remember going to Marigold Gardens in Chicago as a kid and the place would frequently be sold out. I met most of the old-time big name wrestlers, and my father used to tag-team with Vern Gagne. The Crusher, The Bruiser, Mad Dog, etc. etc. my dad was friends/opponents to all of them.

My father said that fairly frequently, a wrestler would do something that they weren't supposed to do, and it would turn into a genuine fight. I've got some pretty bloody pictures of my dad. My mom even had to wrestle a man one time in Mexico, in a bullring. They lived on the road travelling and wrestling, my father wrestled in Cuba, Venezuela, etc.

Why would this be crap at all? It's entertainment. It's funny.
And like my dad would say when asked if it was "fake".

"Jump into the ring with me and I'll show you how fake it is".

I wish my parents ruled that hard.

"Jump into the ring with me and I'll show you how fake it is".

No kidding. There's a documentary about Bret "Hitman" Hart called Wrestling With Shadows that follows him around up until the 1997 Montreal Screwjob. Early in the film the crew is filming his dad, Stu (who's in his 60s or 70s at that point), as he's bringing some local early-20s jocks into the "dungeon" to see if they've got the moxie to be wrestlers. The jocks are being total douchebag blowhards--"yeah, we'll try on some holds, gramps," etc. In the next shot one of the guys is on the ground wrapped up by Stu in a headlock and he's SCREAMING in pain as Stu is very calmly explaining how moving his hand a few inches puts pressure on this point, this vein, etc. After the lesson the guy's all calling Stu "sir" and stuff. Fucking awesome.

zom-zom wrote:Why would this be crap at all? It's entertainment. It's funny.

Ahem

Nico Adie wrote:

zom-zom wrote:Why would this be crap at all? It's entertainment. It's funny.

Ahem

Your point being...?

Your disparaging remarks towards the use of turntables to provide musical entertainment. I happen to agree with some of them (your comments). However, you've contradicted yourself here.