I was thinking about wrestling back in the day.... you know, Sting vs. Flair to a 45 minute draw, the original 4 horsemen, Nikita Koloff vs. Magnum TA best of 7, Steamboat vs Savage....
Maybe I was too young to know it was all a work, but damn, it was fun.
Aah, the good old days when the 'competition' was the the point of wrestling. The last time I felt that way was when Booker T and Benoit had their "Best of" series in wCw...
I'd like to see a 15-minute match that wasn't on PPV sometime. (like that'll ever happen...)
(edited by KilljoyTX on 7.2.02 1714)
Bruce Wayne: "We've met." Selina Kyle: "Have we?" Bruce: "Sorry, I mistook me for someone else." - Batman Returns
Originally posted by KilljoyTXAah, the good old days when the 'competition' was the the point of wrestling. The last time I felt that way was when Booker T and Benoit had their "Best of" series in wCw...
I'd like to see a 15-minute match that wasn't on PPV sometime. (like that'll ever happen...)
(edited by KilljoyTX on 7.2.02 1714)
Hmm..Some Angle/Benoit or Angle/Austin or Austin/Benoit matches last year might have been that long on Raw or Smackdown..
I bet on one hand it might have to do with your age/mark-ishness.. Yet I would say things have changed. It went from wrestling to sports entertainment..
"...And I use that to fuck them some place fairly uncomfortable." "What, like the back of a volkswagen ?" -Mallrats
I was actually thinking that the 10-minute Angle/Austin match from two weeks ago wasn't -that- bad, except that there was so little actual 'wrestling' in it.
Bruce Wayne: "We've met." Selina Kyle: "Have we?" Bruce: "Sorry, I mistook me for someone else." - Batman Returns
Originally posted by KilljoyTXI was actually thinking that the 10-minute Angle/Austin match from two weeks ago wasn't -that- bad, except that there was so little actual 'wrestling' in it.
Nod. I wonder though..how good were all seven of these matches..no wait..there were eight right? Other than the usual spots they probably did in pretty much all of them.. There must have been some that were not brilliant, but the whole feel and build of this feud is what made it awesome. Damn, I need to get a tape of that stuff somewhere..
"...And I use that to fuck them some place fairly uncomfortable." "What, like the back of a volkswagen ?" -Mallrats
Fortunately, the magic of video tape can prove whether your memories hold up after all this time.
I KNOW that I'd rather watch vintage Crockett or Bill Watts Mid-South than what's on most Monday or Thursday nights.
The only thing about watching old stuff now is that my attention span has been so decimated by our Short Attention Span Culture that I have to force myself to watch a good 20+ match.
"And that little boy that no one liked grew up to be ... Roy Cohn. Now you know the rest of the story." -- Pesudo Paul Harvey, "The Simpsons," Cape Feare
My main complaint these days is what seems to be lack of planning when it comes to angles. I also don't like the many face/heel turns--they happen so often now that it really is meaningless.
"I'm not on some big ego rush. I'm not after the bright lights and the little women."--Stan Hansen.
But I think good wrestling now is better than good wrestling back then. Sometimes I'll go through some of my old NWA tapes that I made during those years--some of the stuff is good, but a lot of those matches are longer because of all the damned restholds! I think all the squash matches they used to show were better than the supposed "good" matches that you'd see on TV.
"I'm not on some big ego rush. I'm not after the bright lights and the little women."--Stan Hansen.
Originally posted by ScarDoes anybody know what was the longest match on t.v. in the last few years?
I'm thinking Bret and Beniot cause that was almost half an hour.
Here are the matches I have in my text archive I timed at over 15 minutes...which turns out to be a nice round Top 15 (plus one match I didn't recap but did include a time for). I didn't provide match times until the WrestleManiacs start, April 1998...there are probably some nice long matches at the early part of RAW, but I don't have times - besides the question was "the last few years" so this'll work.
Just for fun, I've only included the line of text the time was in. Try to guess the matches - click on linx for the answers.
nitro.981221 : count is made. Now, that - THAT was a great match. (16:13) The rest of nitro.981228 : (16:23) Another GOLDEN match from these guys. nitro.980810 : (16:29) KONNAN, KEVIN NASH, and (THIS IS) STING come out to celebrate as nitro.990628 : (16:29) Hey, at least we got a finish this week! Here's some replays. nitro.990517 : him off into Saturn - Spicolli driver! 1, 2, 3. (16:48) Kanyon collects raw.011008 : Federation champion. (17:21) "That Regal is a no good bastard! And nitro.990215 : - Riggs taps out with the speed of light. (17:25) Tag team wrestling CAN thunder.001018 : Havoc. And that's that. (17:33) nitro.990222 : T. is the #1 Contender. (17:43) Is there ANY chance a Booker T./Scott nitro.990215 : but this match rocked the free world. GIVE ME MORE. (17:45) nitro.000904 : retains. (18:56) Credits are up and we're out. smackdown.010531 : (19:39) Austin grabs the belt and heads up the ramp...and collapses. But nitro.990426 : Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new World Heavyweight Champion. (19:45) nitro.980727 : going to get anything new out of this. Segment takes (20:18) - funny, I nitro.990419 : Champion! (20:40) AND IT'S ABOUT FUCKING TIME. Psychosis rocks your nitro.991004 : nowhere to go! Benoit gives up! (27:34) Hart gazes skyward and
This probably doesn't count, being that it is ECW, but I remember a match between RVD and Sabu that must have lasted 40 minutes or more. It took up just about the entire 1 hour show.
I agree with WTF13 100% -- the old stuff seems better because the angles today are so poorly-written and paper thin, nothing makes an impression. The 4 Horsemen-vs-Dusty and whoever was so over as a blood feud, we still remember it today. I watch old tapes, and those matches were boring on their face, but exciting because of the solid angles.
Here's what I came up with looking through those shows: For WCW only two of all of their matches were main events. And the main events in those two were a War Games match and a Battle Royal. One match came directly from their P.P.V. and another between DDP and Sting was for the Championship but on the undercard. Both matches for the WWF were main-events.
Because I have too much time on my hands, here's the guys the showed up in those above matches most frequently (not counting wargames and battle Royal matches):
BLITZKREIG (2) PS(I)YCHOSIS (2) EDDIE GUERRERO (2) STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN (2)
BRET HART (3)* MALENKO (3) DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE (3) JUVENTUD GUERRERA (3) REY MYSTERIO, JR. (3)**
BENIOT (4)
*Bret showed up during the War Games match but I don't if he was really involved. Would be 4. **4 matches if you count the battle Royal.
(edited by Scar on 11.2.02 0044)
Don't believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see.
the flair-sting 45 minute draw was something to see. something that made it even better - they always had other matches ready to go, just in case the match ended early. i don't remember what they named off and the matches would probably sound like a joke today, but it's just another example of the little things that added to the illusion.
HHH-TAKA was good, i was really into the near falls. the austin/hhh - benoit/jericho tag match was a masterpiece as it happened because it had that flair-sting feel to it.
for old school, they weren't on free tv, but ric steiner beating mike rotunda for his first tv title was out of this world. he was running around the ring yelling "i beat you! i beat you!" it was fucking great. cornette versus dangerously was another good from the old nwa ppvs.
It's just you against the group mind. I like weiners.
This is one of the better Smackdowns in weeks. I only caught the end of the Hogan/Edge vs. Billy/Chuck match. Damn. Years ago, Fit Finlay would slap some sense on Steven Regal for talking smack like UT did to him.