The General Wrestling Thread

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

I totally forgot about them asking El Hijo Del Santo to unmask when they had that short lived Lucha Stars show in 1996 or whaveter. Talk about having ZERO understanding of the culture & fan base.

Vince is pretty ignorant to anything outside of the WWE Bubble.

Triple H less so...so, in the future, hopefully that is something to build upon for them. H's seems like a straight wrestling guy, not afraid of it, not afraid of the word or business. Has no problem understanding that someone built something for themselves outside of the WWE bubble (you put together a solid list involving this in an earlier thread). H's will never reinvent the wheel, but it'll at least always be a wheel and he's not afraid to call it a wheel.

[Warner2BruceTD]

I was thinking about this earlier, of all the "indie darlings" to come down the pike, is Generico the most universally praised?

What I mean by that, is i've never heard anybody say "Eh, i don't get him. I don't think he's that good." It's pretty much 100%. If you've seen him, you think he's special.

CM Punk obviously has his detractors, always has. And the negative arguments have merit. I can see why some people think he's shit, even though I disagree.

Low Ki, same thing, totally get where people are coming from who don't like him, and there are plenty.

Even Bryan Danielson, you heard people say he was overrated, boring, etc.

Davey Richards, pretty much half the world thinks he sucks and does too much/doesn't sell.

Samoa Joe was probably the closest to universal love when he was peaking 2004, 2005, but he took heat for his body and some people thought the MMA heavy style was shit.

Everybody thinks Generico is awesome. I don't recall reading/hearing/whatever otherwise from anybody.

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

How can you dislike Generico?

Its not like he doesn't have faults or weaknesses...he does, surely...but, he was one of the best in the business at covering them up. He could also work any style, so it further covered up any weaknesses or people getting on him for being "heavy" into a certain style or match formula.

One of the best things Generico did was going on his little worldwide tour when he finally ascended to the top of the mountain as one of, if not the premier Indie guy. Didn't expose himself to criticism or show chinks in the armor when he's fighting a million styles versus a million guys throughout the world and putting on nothing less than 3*'s for over 3 years.

We are all kind of bummed that Generico isn't Generico in the WWE (well, at least not yet)...but fuck...its not like he can never go back to it. He's kind of exposing himself more than ever before...if be takes the ball and runs with it now, I think you gotta consider this guy one of the true all-time greats. Going into the WWE is going to be an arena for him to show off every last frontier of his repertoire.

[JimLeavy59]

Looks like they have Davina Rose working as a ref during diva matches even though she is most likely the most talented female not named Sara Del Ray working in the WWE.

[s@ppisgod]

CM Punk was THE can't miss prospect, much moreso than Generico. Generico is pretty much universally praised, but by a much smaller (seemingly) Indy fanbase. Many, many more casual fans and even hardcore fans, were more aware or even fans of ROH. Now, ROH isn't half the deal it was in the golden age of wrestling prospects. So while it is a very vocal majority, it is a much smaller majority than supported Punk, Joe, or even Danielson. Punk was the guy that had all the tools to be the best at any level. Not good, not elite, but the outright best. And I wasn't a big fan of Punk personally before, or even after signing with WWE.

[Warner2BruceTD]

CM Punk was THE can't miss prospect, much moreso than Generico. Generico is pretty much universally praised, but by a much smaller (seemingly) Indy fanbase. Many, many more casual fans and even hardcore fans, were more aware or even fans of ROH. Now, ROH isn't half the deal it was in the golden age of wrestling prospects. So while it is a very vocal majority, it is a much smaller majority than supported Punk, Joe, or even Danielson. Punk was the guy that had all the tools to be the best at any level. Not good, not elite, but the outright best. And I wasn't a big fan of Punk personally before, or even after signing with WWE.

I agree, Punk was always the total package to me, but he had detractors all the way up the ladder. He still does. There are a lot of people who think he's sloppy in the ring, "copies Japan" (when he basically was mimicking KENTA, which he doesn't really do anymore), etc.

I remember being at ROH shows and talking to people who couldnt stand Danielson's matches. "Too slow". Now, he was super over to everybody else, but there was definitely that contingent of people who didn't like him.

I'll say this to your ROH point. It definitely doesn't have the cache and dork fan seal of approval that it had from 2002-2007 or so, but there are more eyeballs on it. They have TV in like 70% of the country and draw something like a million viewers total. Hard to compare the Gabe era taped PPV's to the live iPPV of today, but I remember a Gabe PPV infamously doing SIX total buys in Canada. iPPV now does around 2,000 for a big show. They still draw in Hammerstein. House shows are generally down. DVD business, formally the lifeblood, is dead. I'd say overall thanks to (sort of) national TV more people watch ROH now then they did in the glory years. But some of the hardcore wrestle nerd crowd has been replaced by some casuals flipping channels for sure.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Hey, thanks to this ROH talk, I just thought of somebody who doesn't like Generico.

Jim Cornette. LOL. If there is one thing that exemplifies how out of touch Cornette is these days, look no further than his dismissal of Generico from ROH.

[FedEx227]

I was thinking about this earlier, of all the "indie darlings" to come down the pike, is Generico the most universally praised?

What I mean by that, is i've never heard anybody say "Eh, i don't get him. I don't think he's that good." It's pretty much 100%. If you've seen him, you think he's special.

CM Punk obviously has his detractors, always has. And the negative arguments have merit. I can see why some people think he's shit, even though I disagree.

Low Ki, same thing, totally get where people are coming from who don't like him, and there are plenty.

Even Bryan Danielson, you heard people say he was overrated, boring, etc.

Davey Richards, pretty much half the world thinks he sucks and does too much/doesn't sell.

Samoa Joe was probably the closest to universal love when he was peaking 2004, 2005, but he took heat for his body and some people thought the MMA heavy style was shit.

Everybody thinks Generico is awesome. I don't recall reading/hearing/whatever otherwise from anybody.

It's very strange. I've been to a few ROH shows where the guy next to me hated him for whatever reason but pretty much 95-97% of the crowd friggin adores him. We talked about it on the show but he is without a doubt in my mind one of the best babyfaces in recent memory. He's amazing at getting the crowd behind him and sympathize with him, without even saying a word.

Also as we mentioned before, the dude is a guaranteed match of the night candidate every single night. I went to a CHIKARA show, he was the best. Went to a DGUSA show, he was the best match. Been to multiple Ring of Honor shows where he's the best. The man just knows how to work, knows how to get the crowd behind him and just understands his role and the role of a babyface better than anyone I can recall in recent memory.

[MrBill]

Hey, thanks to this ROH talk, I just thought of somebody who doesn't like Generico.

Jim Cornette. LOL. If there is one thing that exemplifies how out of touch Cornette is these days, look no further than his dismissal of Generico from ROH.

Jim Cornette? I didn't realize he was running ROH. I used to hate that guy's manager schtick...lol

[JimLeavy59]

I can't think of many people who dislike Austin Aries.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Jim Cornette? I didn't realize he was running ROH. I used to hate that guy's manager schtick...lol

He doesnt anymore.

[BigBiss]

Dave Meltzer responds to Kevin Sullivan RE: El Generico

https://twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/status/309852067697152002

https://twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/s...52187234811904

The old man don't have a Twitter or a Facebook ... Why would Sullivan who has not worked there since Vince sr was in charge have the new wwe title as his advatar

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

I can't think of many people who dislike Austin Aries.

His knock was always that he was small.

Hell, TNA didn't even give him a real shot his first time around. Was a token X-Division guy.

TNA just happened to catch Aries at his most motivated on this second go-around. If you recall, he had tried out for Tough Enough and they passed on Austin fucking Aries for the likes of 'Melina and Alicia Fox' chick, Silent Rage, and other mopes. He was about ready to call it a career and move on to something else before TNA called upon him during some X-Division thing. He took the ball and ran with it...but ol boy had his detractors for a long time.

[Warner2BruceTD]

The old man don't have a Twitter or a Facebook ... Why would Sullivan who has not worked there since Vince sr was in charge have the new wwe title as his advatar

Not The Taskmaster.

Its the Kevin Sullivan who works for Vince. Wrote the WWE Encyclopedia thing.

[Warner2BruceTD]

There were plenty of fans who thought Aries flat out sucked in his ROH days.

I thought of another one. Claudio Castagnoli. Him, Joe, and Generico are the closest to universal i've seen.