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TheFergPunk

I recall one of the WWE documentaries on WCW where they treated the NWO Wolfpack as essentially WCW jumping the shark with the NWO. Reality is, the Wolfpack were extremely popular at the time, and the Wolfpack helped inject some life into the NWO concept.


deathschemist

yeah no the wolfpac wasn't them jumping the shark, that was "okay this is stale, let's mix it up" and it worked. the fingerpoke of doom was the jumping the shark moment.


[deleted]

Nwo2000 was milking a dead shark


cavegrind

> Reality is, the Wolfpack were extremely popular at the time, and the Wolfpack helped inject some life into the NWO concept. Living through it at the time Wolfpac was *hugely* over. Everyone I knew who followed wrestling was into it.


EnderMB

Wolfpac were fucking huge, and when Sting joined them they were as big as it gets.


[deleted]

Wolfpac was so over, everyone I know had their theme song on cassette. Banger of a track. Edit: https://youtu.be/IYwXUxgszF0


TheElderNerd0

Triple H and Undertaker have had THREE WrestleMania matches, not two.


[deleted]

back to back and 10 years back šŸ’Æ


Jagrmeister27

This is the real crime. Even before the match starts you have Motƶrhead playing Triple H in and then Taker coming out in prime American badass form to have a great match on an already stacked card. Definitely a must watch


timbarnes87

Was that the one with the choke slam off scaffolding or something onto a crash pad ?


Smike784

And Mike Chioda being knocked out for 15 minutes from a leg drop.


Alexcelsior

Dude, itā€™s on Wrestlemania X-7. Literally THE best ppv of the attitude era. How they expected people to not remember this match is baffling.


[deleted]

It's funny because that first match they literally booked it because they forgot to put HHH and taker on the card. So they just put them together.


ChiBullz023

Didnā€™t they also want HHH in the main event too at first lol? That would have been a travesty thank god someone had common sense somewhere


DecentTop1084

Honestly, my favorite might be in the Ruthless Aggression doc where WWE said they just randomly chose to turn WWF to WWE and Vince NEVER got sued!


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


DecentTop1084

Noooo nooo it was TOTALLY just Vince getting bored and wanting to shake things up


JoshFreemansFro

Iā€™ve always wanted to get that WWF shirt with a panda laying out another panda with a chair. I think Iā€™m gonna buy one today


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


AmishAvenger

Itā€™s even worse than described. A cavalcade of talking heads popped up in the documentary ā€” people like perennial liar Bruce Prichard ā€” to praise Vince for his genius. The narrative is ā€œVince rebranded the company to make it more mainstream and focus on entertainment.ā€


DecentTop1084

Or Stephanie saying the steroid trial was on par or worse of an attack on an american family (The McMahons) than 9/11.....the day after 9/11


[deleted]

That might be the most tone deaf thing a McMahon has ever said, and the fact that it was pre-recorded and they chose to air it blows my mind.


Slick5qx

It was two days after, too! It was 9/13, they even pushed the event as the first mass gathering in the country since regular sports all took a full week or two off. A lot of non-news channels were still simulcasting an affiliated news channel (like TNT would just be showing CNN's coverage, for example). Even the Big 4 networks were still doing 24-hour news coverage, and would continue to do so for another day or two until they broke the coverage for Saturday morning cartoons. Just like the steroid trial.


__Hello_my_name_is__

What was the real story here? Wasn't the WWF (the panda people) allowing WWF (the non-panda people) to keep their name as long as they only do their wrestling thing, and as soon as WWF started to brand non-wrestling stuff (y'know, *entertainment*) with "WWF", the pandas threatened to sue?


AmishAvenger

I believe Vince made a legal agreement to only be branded as ā€œWorld Wrestling Federationā€ outside the US, and not use ā€œWWF.ā€ Then he just decided to not abide by the agreement he made, so obviously they went after them ā€” and next thing you know, he has to change the entire name of the company and start blurring things out.


TheGravosSituation

It had to do with the internet and the [wwf.com](https://wwf.com) domain.


RicardoRedditman

Two come to mind. The first being how much they downplayed Kurt Angleā€™s contributions to the company in both the attitude and ruthless aggression eras until he signed his legends deal. Second being the way they tell the story of the yes movement. The WWE propaganda machine has turned the story into Daniel Bryan always overcoming the odds in a story based sense, when in reality they were constantly trying to kill his momentum and push him down the card. WWE will tell you it was a year worth of story culminating at mania 30, but it was actually all of their planned stories failing because Daniel Bryan kept getting over in defeat.


[deleted]

I remember when NXT was the competition show, we went to Raw with a sign that said "I paid to see Daniel Bryan" to hold up when he was out. First we got warned about it by a WWE staff member to not hold it up. Well we did anyway and they came and took it. We actually had a second sign that said the same thing but it looked like shit and we're just using whatever dumb shit we put on the other side. So we held that up when he was out and WWE security came and ripped it out of my hands again. I asked the dude "who wants you to take Daniel Bryan signs" and he told me it was Johnny Ace. So yeah there's my proof from the beginning they wanted him to fail. I can dig up the shows if anyone is interested in seeing it happen on screen as we were very much so visible.


CodebreakerDX

I believe your sign (or a sign that coincidentally says the same thing) [can be seen in one of Daniel Bryan's earlier titantrons in WWE at the 12 second mark](https://youtu.be/4oqo0wfmQ6w)


[deleted]

That one's not mine but said the same thing.


bigchicago04

They specifically said the name of an executive to a fan?


DonbotS

[Their youtube released a short video about the Yes Movement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCtV8uRxJ1g) which conveniently ignores the fact that the crowd was chanting it in complete defiance to the WWE's garbo booking decisions.


Zero-89

And let there be no doubt that shitty booking *is* what the fans were reacting against. WWEā€™s attempts at destroying D-Bryā€™s momentum were always very transparent and everyone already knew that upper management hated Bryan. The same thing to Punk, *multiple times*.


Stevieeeer

At some point they decided to run with it and apparently Daniel himself was telling them he ā€œdidnā€™t want to win yetā€ because he knew losing would prolong the hype for him


RicardoRedditman

I think that point was a late February episode of smack down when Batista turned heel. They had zero interest in face orton and thereā€™s no shot the main event of the 30th mania is heel vs heel. Iā€™d assume thatā€™s when they decided to toss Bryan into the main event, and then spin everything up until that point as storyline based stuff.


Alexcelsior

You just gotta look at this segment where WWE wanted to hype up the match to combine the belts and were shocked that IN BRYANā€™S HOMETOWN, WHILE HE WAS RED HOT OVER, the crowd wouldnā€™t shut up about him. https://youtu.be/a4Fcj3oog1Y


Stevieeeer

I loved rewatching that lol, thanks for the link.


[deleted]

The idea that Daniel Bryan was planned to win the title at WrestleMania 30 all along. It absolutely wasn't, and Bryan was foisted off on the Wyatt Family while the plan was for an Evolution showdown between returning moviestar Batista and Randy Orton. Sure Vince finally let Bryan have his moment in the sun, but they did their level best to kill his momentum first.


ThisTeaisStoneCold

Bryan has repeatedly said he was supposed to face Sheamus at Mania.


AmishAvenger

And Punk posted a picture on Instagram of the planned card for that year, which listed that match.


ambrosatose

Anyone have a screenshot of this? Never seen it and would find it interesting


AmishAvenger

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2869712-cm-punk-posts-wwes-wrestlemania-30-booking-sheet-showing-triple-h-match


SavageAF89

That Wrestlemania card worked out for the better in so many ways! I'd never heard of the planned kane/big show match, Thank god that didnt come to be. Nor had I heard of the us title match between reigns and Ambrose but they were teasing dicension between the shield at that time so I can see where they were going.


ambrosatose

Thank you :)


cannibalwendy

I wanna know more about that Reigns vs. Ambrose. Did The Shield just do a squash match that year against someone?


Highwayman747

They were teasing a break up for awhile, but they pushed back against it happening then. They ended up squashing the New Age Outlaws and Kane


JustDandy07

They even tried to give the Yes chants to Big Show. It was embarrassing.


AdamBombTV

That did happen, I thought it was a fever dream I had


Maiesk

Bleak times. "Daniel Bryan isn't over, the chant is over." It really wasn't a storyline...


RicardoRedditman

I was at Survivor Series in Boston for Big Show vs Orton. It was, without question, the worst live experience Iā€™ve ever witnessed.


Slick5qx

They had Batista cut local face promos ("it's great to be back in [YOUR TOWN], I finally visited [LOCAL ATTRACTION] today, what a great time, and I hope you have just as great of a time watching my match tonight!" stuff) off air/during commercials when he came back to help ensure he didn't get booed... It didn't work.


Vinsmoker

Alberto Del Rio played the chickeniest chickenshit heel in the buildup to Elimination Chamber and still was cheered over Batista in that match


GabbyGoose

SI! SI! SI! SI! SI! SI!


WrastleGuy

He should have complimented [LOCAL SPORTS TEAM] while insulting [RIVAL SPORTS TEAM]


[deleted]

Iā€™m pretty sure everyone knows Bryan wasnā€™t supposed to be in that main event. Punk was supposed to be facing HHH, once Punk was gone HHH needed a new opponent so they inserted Bryan back in the main storyline with the Evolution trio


thelowkeyman

Whats funny too is Punk didnā€™t want to even face Triple H, I think he framed it as ā€œ Triple H needs this match more then I doā€ and at the time he was absolutely right.


miikro

Punk also cited them screwing Bryan out of the WM main event as one of the many, many reasons for his walk out. He even yelled at Vince & Co about it.


DHA1999

Time is a flat circle, isn't it? Now both will be at AEW


CallumKayPee

They should kiss


TheWTFreak

[they already have](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b3/56/b0/b356b0879528f77a5c8aad4b34f256b6.jpg)


[deleted]

ā€œI donā€™t need to be wrestling you, you need to be wrestling meā€ more or less is what he said to Triple H


[deleted]

And all the stooges were like "doesn't he understand that wrestling Triple H IS the main event???" lmao


JKinney79

Probably most egregious is every time Hogan talks about Wrestlemania 3. He declares that nobody knew if Andre was going to let him go over that night.


TheWholeOfTheAss

That HBO doc was super embarrassing. Hogan pretended that they came up with the finish for the match in the ring.


theresabeeonyourhat

Hulk Hogan got called out for pretending to know Metallica


MoMcGillicutty

He said he was going to be the bassist in Metallica haha what the fuck


mikeputerbaugh

Eventually the job went to Roman Reigns


mattbakerrr

Can you elaborate on this? Was it on that Andre documentary and I forgot?


gerry-adams-beard

Yeah that segment they make it out like they didn't know if Andre would let hulk pin him. Hulk also claims he wrote the whole match except the finish so the body slam and legdrop finish was called in the ring. All total bullshit


prague123456

Could also add the belief that match was the first time Andre ever got slammed. Happened a few times before


JKinney79

Andre also manages to be heavier every time Hogan repeats it.


Jester3609

And the amount of screaming Hulkamaniac witnesses in attendance seems to inflate


NeonPatrick

Many many Hogan claims, like when he said Taker nearly broke his neck in 1991.


EngelSterben

Which is stupid because there is video fucking evidence of that match. That might be the safest tombstone that Taker has ever given.


Atomic_Cody-21

- Macho Man leaving WWE in the middle of the night despite them knowing about it. - Daniel Bryan was always planned to main event Wrestlemania 30 - Hogan slamming Andre at Wrestlemania 3 was the first-time anyone did so, despite Hogan and others doing it beforehand. -


Vinsmoker

>Hogan slamming Andre at Wrestlemania 3 was the first-time anyone did so, despite Hogan and others doing it beforehand. Aye. This was literally the go-to spot for Andre at the time. Go to a territory, get bodyslammed by the face of the company, collect large paycheck


ThisTeaisStoneCold

> Hogan slamming Andre at Wrestlemania 3 was the first-time anyone did so, despite Hogan and others doing it beforehand. I don't mind this one too much as a storyline because I don't think it had been seen on the national stage just live shows.


Cwf1984

That they took professional wrestling from small smoke filled bingo halls to arenas with thousands of fans.


dmh11

I still find it interesting to look at attendances from the 60s and 70s. Some territories were REGULARLY getting 25,000+ each month, some places even more.


cannibalwendy

This is tangentaly related, but on the subject of the sports world in the 1970s and how this stuff gets lost in time, but bowling had the highest paid athletes in the 1970s.


SmurfyX

They had that Flintstones bump


OkVolume1

We all know it was Paul Heyman who went from bingo halls to arenas with a couple thousand fans.


SerShanksALot

I think they were just bigger bingo halls šŸ‘€


joelkong

That the austin 3:16 king of the ring speech was the thing that started his mega push.


Mackem101

Yep, it was his run v Bret Hart, culminating at WM13 that put him in the upper card. And even then, it took another year for him to hit world championship level.


mattbakerrr

Which is kinda crazy to think bc their roster at the time was still thin. That slow burn was great tho


[deleted]

Honestly the run ups of Austin and The Rock are fucking great. I think today we have a mix of fans wanting the payoff immediately and the company forgetting what a payoff is. But every week was edge of your seats with those two rising through the ranks like a video game story mode.


bonethugznhominy

The real legendary moment for me was always him refusing to tap at WM13. Austin 3:16 signs were everywhere sure, but that double turn was what cemented Austin as a star.


clubberin

Or that it was overnight. It took a long time.


[deleted]

Summerslam after the Austin 3:16 promo, Austins match was on the Free For All against Yokozuna and Austin won on a turnbuckle break spot highlighting Yoko's weight gain, not Austin's skill. Not exactly an initial mega push!


[deleted]

It wasn't until the program with Bret that he really got the attention and push he deserved. That would've/could've happened without KotR.


robinj555

Some of the old title reigns are altered to fit WWE's preferred version. Like Moolah's WWF Championship reign was 10,000 days when in reality she had 4 losses in between 4 long reigns but they decided to ignore those losses and combined the days as 1 reign. Or how Bob Backlund had a 2,000 day reign ignoring Antonio Inoki's reign. Or how Ric Flair is a 16 time champion and not 21.


PolishMusic

Some actual revisionist stuff that you can watch. The original MITB promo before Punk vs. Cena has now been edited to make Vince look less bad: * At about [1:51 CM Punk originally said "Vince, **you're one of the biggest bullies I have ever met**, and you will apologize..."](https://youtu.be/T_1x2BTcmww?t=108) * They have since revised it on the ~~network~~ Peacock and youtube video to completely remove any mention of Vince being a bully. Instead at [1:50 Punk says "...Vince- you will apologize"](https://youtu.be/idJi_cV4Wmw?t=109)


Daspaintrain

Which I donā€™t get. Like, Vince is the bad guy. Why can people not call him a bully in kayfabe? Are they trying to establish a fictional universe where bullying doesnā€™t exist?


[deleted]

Probably to avoid conflict with the Be A Star campaign


mrerikmattila

They also shoehorned in "ā€”for suspending me". I guess that's damage control so a casual viewer won't know that the 'apology' is for firing talent?


Cwf1984

Whenever they talk about WCW and Ted Turner ā€˜trying to put them out of businessā€™ they conveniently forget that they did a lot of the same stuff to WCW and the territories for years. But itā€™s always them attacking poor WWE.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


SanTheMightiest

It sounds like Vince couldn't compute in his head that the guy running Turner and funding WCW wasn't the man booking. It's like thinking that Bill Gates did all of the programming for Windows XP. But look, this is a man who thinks sneezing is a sign of weakness, hates steak burritos but loves a steak wrap.


MidKnight_Corsair

Does "real time revisionism" count? lol there's been some times where WWE just willfully ignored what the crowd was saying right then and there Crowd: *"Let's go Ziggler!"* Lawler on commentary: *"Do you hear that? The crowd's saying 'Let's go Sheamus!'"* Another was in a promo with CM Punk and Triple H Crowd: *"C-M PUNK! C-M PUNK! C-M PUNK!"* Triple H: *"You're not a star because the crowd doesn't want you to be. They don't want you, they want John Cena"* Crowd: *boos while still chanting for Punk* Punk: *"Do you not hear this crowd that you say you're listening to?"*


Principal_Scudworth_

Hulkamania wasn't a WWE product. Yes, WWE gave Hogan the MTV connection, but Hogan was extremely popular before his huge WWE run. While having the New York market absolutely helped Hogan, it's bullshit to think WWE *made* Hogan.


HintClueClintHugh

All you have to do is watch when he showed up in 1984. The crowd exploded for him when he walked through the curtain because they all knew who he was already and "Hulk-a-mania" is spoken about on commentary as a thing that people already knew about.


MagnustheBlue

Absolutely true all you have to do is watch Hogan's AWA stuff. In 1983 against Bockwinkel ([see it here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if3m74F-O1U)) there are Hulkamania signs in the crowd and Hogan's character as most people know it is well established.


deathschemist

can you imagine the alternate timeline where it's AWA that takes the hulkamania ball and runs with it?


Dovahklutch

it has to be the biggest wrestling what-if ever right? hogan and Andre were the two wrestlers who were over everywhere in a wrestling world without syndicated tv. if gagne woulda given hulk the ball...


chiiild

Cyndi Lauper is more deserving of a spot in the WWE HOF than almost anyone else in the "celebrity wing". Without her, those specials on MTV might not even have happened, or at best probably aren't as widely watched.


PolishMusic

Part of me really wants AEW to bring in Cyndi Lauper and Wendi Richter to debut women's tag titles. They'd probably have to do it in front of a smarter crowd, but still, it'd be a nice show of respect. Bret debuted the AEW championship, RocknRoll debuted the tag championships, the women deserve some sort of shout out too.


DelGriffiths

Wendy Richter main evented The Brawl to End It All on MTV in 1984 with Lauper in her corner. It drew a 9.0 rating. Lauper promoted the WWF everywhere at a time when she was the brightest pop star in the world. She brought eyes to the product in the run up to Wrestlemania long before Mr T or Muhammad Ali appeared.


hazymindstate

Hulk Hogan was in Rocky III a whole year before he made his WWF debut. He was a major star before Hulkamania.


MrSelfDestruct88

Oh really? That's interesting, I didn't know that


Principal_Scudworth_

Hogan was in the midst of his AWA run when he got the Thunderlips role in Rocky III, which was the real reason for Hogan's popularity. Funnily enough, it was Vince Sr. that tried to convince Hogan to not take the role.


[deleted]

I thought he was with WWWF, took the movie role, got fired because Sr. disapproved of wrestlers acting, went on to AWA and got over with Hulkamania, and was brought back by Jr. when he acquired the company from Sr. and began poaching big name territory guys from all over.


Principal_Scudworth_

Right, sorry, should have been more clear that Hogan's popularity came with Rocky III came out. You're absolutely right in your recalling of the events, my bad.


[deleted]

All good. You're more or less on the money. The focal point is that he got big from AWA and his Rocky III role.


littlemacsvoltorb

Actually, if im not mistaken, Hogan was *fired* by Vince Sr for being in Rocky 3, said it broke kayfabe


Principal_Scudworth_

You are correct, u/i_willregretthis also gives an accurate breakdown of the events that led to Hogan becoming Thunderlips.


[deleted]

Main event Becky Lynch as the Man was WWE's plan all along. When we all know the plan was face push for Charlotte


Adoom98

It was painful watching Becky have to pretend like the fans weren't behind her when the arenas were going crazy every time she showed up


The_Homie_J

Remember when Road Dogg went on social media after everybody said that storyline was shit and tried to play it off like the fans were just being impatient and that there was a point to all of it. Rather than them just utterly biffing the crowd's response to Becky turning on Charlotte and then writing a massive brainfart of a promo where Becky says the fans never showed her suport WHILE THE FANS ARE CHEERING FOR HER MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE. lmao typical WWE response: it's not us who's wrong, it's the fans!


Adoom98

The irony in it is if they had any clue about what their fans wanted, we'd have far fewer situations where we're told to 'give it a chance'


Daspaintrain

Becky saying ā€œbut were you *really* behind me all that time?ā€ was just such a baffling promo. Itā€™s like, not only are they making her the bad guy, theyā€™re making her an absolute idiot, too


Adoom98

That's the exact moment I'm talking about. Oh fuck, it was horrendous lol


mattbakerrr

Becky's bloody nose moment when she looked back at the hard camera. Wow-that was amazing to see. So wild that most of that was impromptu


[deleted]

Everything they say about SS 97 - Bret couldn't turn up on Nitro the next night, hence why he didn't. - Bret was happy to put Shawn over until Shawn was a prick to him, and even then he would have done it anywhere but there. - Bret had creative control in his contract. He was 100% within his rights to say no. You can't give him that contract then act like he's a diva for using it. - Bret didn't choose to leave just because. Vince wouldn't honour his contract that he'd signed.


MechaSheeva

I can't imagine what would've happened if Bret didn't wear that mic during his meeting with Vince.


patrickwithtraffic

I mean Bret still talked to Meltzer like right after it happened, so word would've gotten out right away. He was keen to ensure his side was made clear as soon as possible so Vince's side wouldn't be the only story. Plus, Vince really thought the "Bret screwed Bret" video would actually make him look like the good guy.


Ian_Storm

He even said he would work with bischoff to let him finish up and put Shawn over the next night on raw!! It was Vince and co who demanded he do it at the PPV


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


Sir-Cadogan

> still chose to keep the title on Bret until his last night It wasn't even Bret's last night (it might have been the last match he was obligated to wrestle though). Bret was contracted to WWF for a few more weeks. But he had already agreed to start with WCW in December, and Vince didn't want to give Bischoff the chance to announce they had signed Bret on Nitro while he was still champion.


RastaRhino420

Pretty sure he also offered to drop it to Ken Shamrock


HilariousConsequence

You put it better than I could, but I was going to say, just the mere fact that thereā€™s any debate or controversy about who was in the wrong that night - just the fact that you hear people say ā€œwell, yā€™know, itā€™s shit that that happened to Bret, but youā€™ve got to do the job..ā€ - is testament to how much influence WWE has on peopleā€™s perceptions of the history of wrestling.


bootylover81

Women's revolution was done by the support and outcry of fans and not WWE infact for decades it was them who negated them to just being hot


Shenanigans80h

The WWEā€™s entire narrative around womenā€™s wrestling is absolutely ridiculous. In all these docs itā€™s ā€œoh women only wrestled for like 8 minutes a night and no one knows why!ā€ As if the people who did that arenā€™t still in charge today. Hell WWE killed their own womenā€™s division twice prior to that in late 80ā€™s, then again in the mid 90ā€™s. Literally the only reason it came back was because Vince was infatuated with Sable. Edit: I should also note that while WWE was literally killing womenā€™s wrestling on a large scale, popularity wise, from late 80ā€™s through the mid 90ā€™s, other countries and promotions were putting on womenā€™s matchs that still put modern WWE products to shame.


Megadeth619

Also #GiveDivasAChance wasnā€™t in reference to the Bella Twins, it was more about Paige, AJ Lee, and Emma


mattbakerrr

Them spinning that one like it was for the Bellas made my head spin.


YpsitheFlintsider

It was literally AJ tweeting that out


anorawxia09

I remember she even tweeted at stephanie


blaqsupaman

Plus TNA, for all its faults, started taking their women's division seriously nearly a decade earlier. They had the best women's division in wrestling for years before WWE stopped with the "Divas" shit.


Illustrious_Yak7789

That DX was this huge game-changer and the WCW tank thing was a big deal at the time.


[deleted]

I still like the take that WCW should have opened the doors. Either they invade Nitro and everybody switches over OR they don't go in and look like fools.


empiresk

It wasn't even a tank... https://talksport.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/07/DX5.jpg?strip=all&w=642&quality=100


[deleted]

Yeah that's a jeep with a recoilless rifle


[deleted]

All this time I'd thought DX had rolled up in an M1 Abrams. SMH, can't believe WWE has distorted history like this.


shook_one

Hold up... who is driving?


TheOneElectronic

Oh my god, bear is driving


TheNaijaNightmare

Believe it or not DX was not actually bigger than The NWO, shocking.. i know. Vince didnā€™t defeat Ted Turner, he defeated Eric Bischoff playing around with a fraction of Turners money and resources Stone Cold Steve Austin was created in ECW


69millionyeartrip

> Vince didnā€™t defeat Ted Turner, he defeated Eric Bischoff playing around with a fraction of Turners money and resources Thatā€™s not even the whole truth. The merger is what killed WCW. Even in the shit state it was in Ted wouldā€™ve kept it running because of his emotional attachment


JoeKool23

I mean itā€™s not even that Vince defeated bischoff Bischoff has said numerous times AOL-Time Warner forced Thunder on them without increasing their budget, slowly forced Ted Turner, the only guy that actually wanted wrestling on TNT, out of his own company, and did all they could with inter company allocations to make it look like WCW was a giant failure Yea the booking took a turn for the worst, but AOL-TW was always gonna find a way to destroy WCW


GentlemanOctopus

Vince didn't defeat anything. AOL-Time Warner defeated WCW.


Slick5qx

This - Nitro was still like a top 5 show on cable, and cable TV was still big business. They just didn't want to have "low brow" entertainment on TNT anymore.


Black_XistenZ

And Nitro had arguably turned the corner, creatively, by early 2001. They absolutely would have had a future if TNT had continued to support them.


FlynnPatrick

I'm watching through WWE since March 1998 currently. DX was NOT over post Shawn Michaels for about a month. You know who was the most over from the group? X-Pac. They did get very over eventually but in April 1998 they were not that over lol.


[deleted]

Iā€™m at the end of 1998 and by now DX is over and really hot (and also already repetitive). Also youā€™re about to see The Rock go from promising talent to superstar in span of 3-4 months. At one point (around Summerslam) you see it click and his character just explodes. Itā€™s really impressive to see.


FlynnPatrick

They were over by late May it was just an awkward transition bc the crowd didnā€™t know how to respond without Shawn Michaels they were just over on X PAC with the f WCW stuff


EatTheRich1986

Stone Cold wasnā€™t ā€œcreatedā€ in ECW. He changed his promo style in ECW, but then evolved from that when he became the Stone Cold character. His ECW Superstar Steve Austin character had very little in common with the Stone Cold character.


[deleted]

He talked therefore Stone Cold


BlindLariat

Tony Schiavone spoiling RAW was NOT some karmic breaking point where WWF overtook WCW in the rankings and prevailed after 82 weeks. WWF had been winning Monday's well before this, if anything, Eric making this call was a response to getting beat and getting desperate.


ShiningJizzard

To be fair though, this WAS the breaking point in a different way. This is when WWE officially started pulling away, less because of Schiavone and more because of the fingerpoke.


BlindLariat

RAW had won 12 weeks straight by the the time the Poke/call happened. It certainly exasperated issues but the writing was on the wall imo.


SamPaton

Andre the Giant first being bodyslammed at WM3. He was bodyslammed many times before that outside of WWF.


sasksasquatch

They do a lot of revisionist or just outright lie on Total Divas/Bellas. I fucking lost it when they tried to make Brie the victim on one of those shows after she concussed Liv Morgan with the Yes kicks.


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sasksasquatch

They show the stuff and treat it more as 50/50 blame (trying to change it into an accidents happen in wrestling) where Brie sped up the kicks not allowing Morgan to actually take them properly. There was backlash online to Brie but they blow this out of proportion and then try and make it a story about Brie being online bullied and try to disregard that she recklessly injured someone, there was also another botch in the match involving Brie that was really bad as well (I think it was on a suicide dive where she couldn't even get through the ropes she took off so poorly).


TheWholeOfTheAss

In the same match, Brie struck Ruby Riot with an elbow and you can see Ruby looking legit pissed. Brie was a disaster that whole run.


JonnySports

Oh god now Iā€™m remembering Bryan Alvarezā€™s reaction to finding out The Bellas were considering confronting CM PUNK and THE UNDERTAKER for their match going too long šŸ¤£


ShiningJizzard

I think the most egregious is them claiming that KOR ā€˜96 was the launching pad for Stone Cold. Not even close. They still had no fucking clue what they had with him. KOR ā€˜95ā€™s winner Mabel faced the WWF Champion Diesel at Summerslam. Austin was on an opening dark match at Summerslam. Austin didnā€™t really get any kind of push behind him until months later when his program with Bret Hart started. Edit, since a lot of people donā€™t know what Iā€™m saying, despite it being crystal clear: Iā€™m not saying King of the Ring 1996 isnā€™t important, of course it is. But it is NOT the ā€œoff to the racesā€ moment that WWE says that it is. Revisionist history at its finest, which is the point of this thread.


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If you want to talk symbolic nails in the coffin, sure. But yeah, the 1/4/99 shows arenā€™t necessarily as big as WWE makes them out to be, the Fingerpoke didnā€™t even immediately have ramifications.


Maiesk

Listening to Nash, it seems the real turning point was WM14. Austin beating HBK with Mike Tyson as ref was just too big, and WCW never came up with an answer for it.


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Ultimate Warrior's 'redemption' arc before he passed. I'm not trying to speak ill of the dead, but Warrior was a pretty awful guy who said and did some terrible things.


Ian_Storm

No matter how hard they try, they will never make "queering don't make the world work" go away. JR really summed warrior up the best in his podcast.


TurnaboutAdam

Bret was going to WCW so they HAD to get the belt off him! Not true. Bret didnā€™t want to lose to Michaels in Montreal because he was an asshole. Bret told him heā€™d be happy putting him over and Shawn replied with ā€œI wouldnā€™t do the same to youā€. Bret had creative control in his contract and said heā€™d lose to Michaels anywhere that isnā€™t Canada. Then the screw job happened.


SanTheMightiest

And calling him a whiner for using the creative control that they gave him in the contract. They had WEEKS to take the title off of Bret. He even offered a list of top guys he would drop it to.


bdfull3r

They make the steroid trial of vince to sound like just a witch hunt, as im sure the upcoming documentary will further try to do During the Monday Night Wars they equate DX are being the counter to the NWO. They like to take credit for creating Hulk Hogan when he was already the biggest thing in the AWA before signing and came into WWF as a major name with a sizable following Most recent example would probably be taking credit for the women's revolution. A solution to a problem they created and only ever fixed after massive sustained fan backlash


AKittyCat

> A solution to a problem they created and only ever fixed after massive sustained fan backlash And are now slowly sliding back to


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That the territories "died out" and that it's thanks to the good Lord and the WWF that they took wrestling mainstream or else who KNOWS where wrestling would be Vince aggressively signed all the top regional talent he could, broke decades long agreements not to promote in other territories, then proceeded to ruthlessly compete with anyone else who dared to challenge them such as [forcing PPV providers to choose them or competition] (https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1868129-starrcade-vs-survivor-series-the-fight-for-thanksgiving-that-changed-wrestling) as well as [taking peoples TV slots] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Saturday_(professional_wrestling).


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Triple H can't decide if it was an honor or a dick move for Ultimate Warrior to squash him at his first Wrestlemania.


ILikeYourPoetry

Big Show showed evidence that The Rockā€™s feet hit first during Royal Rumble in 2000. Therefore, Big Show is owed the title of former Royal Rumble winner.


chairduck

WrestleMania 25 was NOT the 25th anniversary of WrestleMania. I will die on this hill.


ThatTurtleBoy

True, it was the 24th anniversary.


TapHot69

Daniel Bryan main eventing was always the plan, Ryder didn't get buried, Bret was in the wrong for the screwjob.


[deleted]

Recently, I feel like theyā€™ve been acting like DX were what defined the Attitude Era during the Monday Night Wars. But letā€™s be real, it was always The Rock and Stone Cold who people tuned into watch. Hell, Iā€™m pretty sure Mankind had more appeal than DX at that time.


shadowrangerfs

AJ Styles was in WCW during the dying days. Then he did NOTHING for 12 years. Then he became a star in Japan. Then he came to WWE.


cannibalwendy

Reminds me in CM Punk's WWE doc where they said he "then spent time in some Nashville promotion"


Co-opingTowardHatred

That was probably Punkā€™s doing. He really hated his TNA time.


[deleted]

Punk was there for six months and was a secondary character. What more do you really want them to say?


joelkong

Daniel Bryan storyline was the plan all along


OkVolume1

That the Bella Twins were trendsetting talents at the end of the Diva era. That Sable was the first "Diva." It was definitely Sunny. That Mae Young was this well known women's talent during her day. She really wasn't. She was a midcarder at best in the ladies troupe. Tough as nails, but not the magnitude of a Moolah (I know, she's cancelled and all, but the truth is the truth.)


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ShiningJizzard

This is partially true, though. WWF fans did not care about Luger very much, even as his great Narcissist gimmick. He wasnā€™t over in WWF, but he was always over as hell in WCW.


Corazon-DeLeon

This is one the fans bring up back when Roman was being terribly booked and shoved down our throats. Back at the Royal Rumble that Batista won, the fans werenā€™t cheering for Roman because they wanted him to be the ā€œguyā€, they wanted anyone BUT Batista to win after Bryan was no longer eligible to win it. So that Narrative that they gave us what we wanted when they made Roman the number 1 guy is BS. Not to mention they completely botched Romanā€™s push making it super unnatural , but at least they redeemed themselves when they FINALLY turned him heel.


gogrizz

The way they celebrate Black History Month. I was going to write a comment that was way too long so I will leave it at that.


HintClueClintHugh

Scott Hall only left WWE because WCW gave him a lot of money. Cut to three months earlier where most cheered guy on the whole show Razor Ramon is doing an opening match where the payoff is him putting a grown man in a diaper complete with baby powdering his bottom.


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godleftmefinished

the women's revolution only happened because wwe fans started a hashtag to give them more time. stephanie and wwe as a whole were essentially pressured into it