Explain WWE to me

>>1935524
If MMA is Bob Dylan, then pro wrestling is when he went electric to get the mainstream moneys.

>>1935532
But the wrestlers dont really get hurt?

Even thought the competition is fake, it kinda isn't. Because you can't fake being a pro wrestler. Similar to how you could say acting is fake but it doesn't make it any easier. Wrestlers are still athletes who have to put on a performance and there's loads of different things that go into that. You 'win' by being better than everyone else and getting to the top.

>>1935524
you need to get to know the wrestlers and their personalities/what their fighting about, because pro wrestling isn't really about the wrestling part

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>>1935524
>Can you tell me what makes it worth watching?
Imagine a really shitty soap opera with massive guys showing superior strength or smaller guys doing flippy shit. Either one, they're still so much more athletic than you.

Many only still watch because we watched it as a kid and it's hard to break the habit. It's entertainment. It's watched for the exact same reasons why someone might watch The Walking Dead.

>>1935552
Do they practice the fight beforehand so they know that the other one is doing?

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>>1935524
All sports have predetermined outcomes, pro wrestling is the only one honest about it.
>>1935541
They get injured just like all the other athletes.

>>1935559
>All sports have predetermined outcomes
I find that hard to believe.

>>1935541
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZKhEcoaHTs

>>1935556
Some spots/segments are heavily choreographed. But there are also wrestlers who perform everything as it happens.

Most famously a guy called Macho Man used to spend hours rehearsing every move in the ring with his opponent beforehand. Yet more recently, a guy called Shinsuke Nakamura fought Sami Zayn in a match where they rehearsed nothing and had only met one prior.

>>1935556
Depends, some (like Stone Cold Steve Austin) did it all on the fly while others (like The Rock) rehearse meticulously. One anon compared it to acting and I'd say that's fairly accurate. I personally watch wrestling for the death defying stunts and coreography, you can't really get that anywhere else.

>>1935524
>I'm a huge UFC fan
>Somehow knowing it's fake makes it seem pointless.
You're sending mixed signals here, OP.

>>1935541
They try not to. Wrestling's not about hurting your opponent, but working with him. Moves are designed so that nobody get hurt if both perform them correctly. Most of the punches and kicks you see don't even touch the body but they are really close and they're so fast they seem real. Sometimes shit happens and when it happens things can get really ugly. Just write Sycho Sid Leg on YouTube and see for yourself. Or Owen Hart piledriving Steve Austin and breaking his neck, leaving him half paralyzed in the middle of the ring.

>>1935564
If you want to get into wrestling, Nakamura V Zayn is a really good place to start.

>>1935572
Explain please

>>1935576
The only thing real in MMA is the fights.

The build-up, the promos, the pressers, the interviews, the feuds, almost everything else is fake to generate money. Could say the same about boxing as well, to be fair.

>>1935584
Sure, I'll give you that.
The fights are what excites me.

Listen OP, don't get into WWE. Its a downgrade. I've been slowly getting more into UFC than WWE.

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>>1935574
>>1935574
>If you want to get into wrestling, Nakamura V Zayn is a really good place to start.

>>1935524
Watch some bret hart matches

Still the only wrestler to always make it look like a real fight

>>1935592
OP here
Most of my friends who like WWE have watched it since a child so I wonder if it's even possible to get into it in adult age. Obviously it has to be for other reasons than for the fights themselves. MMA is just so much more fun.

>>1935597
>Still the only wrestler to always make it look like a real fight
you mean New Jack

>>1935524
>Can you tell me what makes it worth watching?

nothing. we watch because we liked it as kids. you luckily can't

>>1935598
That was a different era. The wrestlers were more free to perform and talk however they wanted to.

Nowadays its the same old moves and boring promos. Get into it if you want but I'd say don't watch anything passed 2008

>>1935599
New jack isnt a wrestler

>>1935524
It's probably too late for you to become a fan. Most of us were fans as kids and watch out of nostalgia and escapism. I do recommend watching the Undertaker vs Mankind at Hell in a Cell or Hollywood back lot match at Wrestlemania 10.

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>>1935552
the state of that webm

Do you enjoy anything fictional, or do you get all your entertainment from sports?

>>1935598
Fights aren't what made me a fan when i was a kid. The storylines that lead to the matches, that's where the magic happens and when you finally see the match you're pumped as fuck and you just want to see who wins. Nowadays, the only word that can describe WWE is "shallow". Like some people in the thread said, it's nothing more than tradition. It was so cool when we were kids we're just here waiting for things to get great again, even though we know things aren't going to change with the flow of money WWE is making. We just hope.

>>1935588
Cool, wrestling is the pagentry of MMA turned up to 11. The interviews, feuds, promos etc. to biuld fights are the same, but instead of two relatively similar athletes, it's an undead wizard, beer swilling redneck, obese samoan and a dorky olympic gold medalist fighting inside a steel cell.

>>1935618
I know. Had to convert it down from the original because of Mr. Hiroshima's new restrictions. Didn't want to upload to another site though either.

>>1935615
Could be. I think most people who practice martial arts eventually start watching MMA instead of WWE

>>1935552
I don't mind any degree of flippyshit but my problem with this is that it doesn't look remotely like they're fighting, aside from the one headscissors. They deliberately let each other run by, and stand there like idiots waiting for a catch. I hate most outside dive spots for this same reason.

>>1935626
>It was so cool when we were kids we're just here waiting for things to get great again, even though we know things aren't going to change

Damn. Story of my life.

>>1935560
Not that anon but
Baseball
Basketball
Football
Soccer
Boxing
MMA
Kickboxing
All at the professional level have been proven to have been fixed at one point. They just do a better job at sweeping things under the rug.

If you want to get into wrestling, then WWE is a bad promotion to start with.

I'd recommend Dragon Gate, New Japan, PWG, PROGRESS, etc.

These promotions have great wrestling, but also have great storytelling & characters at least DG, NJPW & PROGRESS do).

I also recommend watching this match: https://vimeo.com/109053397

>>1935674
Damn dog, do less

>>1935559
>all sports have predetermined outcomes

HAHAHAHA ok guy. I'm sure the whole of the olympics are fixed. No country really wants those gold medals.

>wrestlers get injured just like all other actors

Fixed that for ya'

>>1935716

>>1935674
Also, Lucha Underground is awesome.

>>1935716
>wrestlers aren't athletes

>>1935552
I don't like wwe wrestling, but this .webm is very nice.

>>1935524
Wrestling is fake. There is as much relationship to BJJ as there as a Jackie Chan movie.

Actually less

>>1935524
It's basically a glorified dance routine

>>1935780
That webm is from New Japan Pro Wrestling.

>>1935788
How is wrestling more popular here than martial arts?

>>1935629
It's because wrestling is about attitude and MMA is about discipline. Our wrestling heroes are not the best athletes in WWE, but they have the biggest personalities. Wrestling is a former shelll of itself but the memory old larger than life characters keeps us watching in fear of missing out.

>>1935798
women with big tits are in it

>>1935798
If you immediately pardon the "hurr durr leddit" memes, /r/MMA is a really fantastic subreddit for anything pertaining to mixed martial arts. The moderators remove immediate shitposts, UFC/MMA fighters as well as journalists regularly talk with people, and the genuine nonsense in comments get downvoted to oblivion. It's everything that's opposite of what reddit stereotypically is. I assume most people go there over 4chan.

Compare it to /r/SquaredCircle or other wrestling forums, they are all absolute shitholes with moronic people involved. A good discussion is hard to come by. At least on 4chan, shitposting is expected.

>>1935820
Ronda Rousey's ass > any tits

>>1935716
Turns out that actors are pretty good at fighting, considering Bobby Lashley has a 15-2 MMA record in Bellator and Lesnar has a 6-3 record in UFC. Do I even have to mention Kurt Angle's Olympic gold medal? Try harder with your bait, and you might get a couple more (You)s.

up

>>1935882

That's literally the only 3 you could name.

>>1935993
>Baron Corbin-Two-time Amateur Kansas-Missouri Golden Gloves regional champion
boxed for 4 1/2 years
Boxing amatuer record of 6-1
Played football for the Arizonal Cardinals (not much in terms of fighting ability, but what the hell)
Beat up a few guys during football career
Has competed in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (no credibility, only some sources claim this)
Wrestled in Shawnee Mission North during senior year
>Alberto del Rio-he fought for Triple A and had a respectable record of 9-5.
his three most famous fights were both extremely exciting: he fought Mirko Cro Cop and got kicked unconscious. He later used did the same thing to Arthur Bart. His first fight saw him break Kengo Watanabe's arm with a suplex.
Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler were collegiate wrestlers, Wade Barrett was a legit bare knuckle boxer in the 90's, Goldberg, JBL, Ron Simmons, Lex Luger, Roman Reigns, The Rock, etc. all played pro football. Do I need to go on? I will m8, I have nothing better to do.

>>1935596
What would you recommend? Roman vs. Triple H?

>>1935993
>Matt Riddle
>Dan Severn
>Ken Shamrock
>Shinsuke Nakamura
>KUSHIDA

Idk I lost faith with traditional sports. at least wrestling is transparent with their fixing.

>>1935716
Olympics are extremely rigged and the medals go to the highest bidders. Only marks still think that it's about muh athleticism

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>>1935524
Real fighting is boring, less flashy, and pretty gay at times with half naked homos rolling around on the ground trying to suck each others dicks while slapping each other in the ass.

Wrestling has a fag disabler doing flippy shit and having the best fake fighting matches all over the world while a bunch of homos try doing his flippy shit and break their necks.

Or in japan they don't give a shit and start beating the shit out of each other.

>>1935524
It's like watching live action super heroes fight.

>>1935524
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYvMOf3hsGA

It's a fictional show ABOUT a wrestling show.

Wrestling has more in common with Game of Thrones than UFC.

>>1935882
>>1936043
>these actors did real sports at some point their life. That means their stage play is now also a sport

Keep crying, lol.

>>1936043
>Has competed in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (no credibility, only some sources claim this)

There's a photo of Corbin with a trophy from some judo conference.

>>1935524

>Somehow knowing it's fake makes it seem pointless.

You watch movies like James Bond or those Marvel flicks that used to be halfway decent but are becoming more and more of some half-assed, poorly plotted spot fests, right?

It's kind of like that. In GOOD pro wrestling, the casuals can have fun following the storylines that always end in exciting matches and shit, and the smarks (smark = someone who takes being a fan of wrestling too goddamn seriously) can enjoy the skill of the "wrestlers" in how they work a match to suspend the audience's disbelief and get them invested in the angles and matches and shit.

In the WWE, none of this happens, because it's run by a senile, narcissistic, micromanaging control freak who long ago lost what very few marbles he started with, with assistance from his glad-handing suck-up director, and useless twat daughter.

It's fiction, sure, but that's not the problem. People generally like GOOD fiction. With the exception of early teenage girls, people generally don't like BAD fiction (and the early teenage girls prefer the Sappy Bulllshit Romance type of bad fiction, like Twilight).

WWE is bad fiction. There is hardly any actual characterization, and what very little there is tends to be way too fluid for any viewer to possibly give a shit about. Because they have 27 writers (I shit you not) putting this shit together, every character ends up being the same bland mishmash of bad writing. The only thing differentiating most characters are their stupid, corporate assigned "nicknames" (Seth Rollins = THE ARCHITECT, Dolph Ziggler = THE SHOWOFF, Dean Ambrose = LOONY TOONS FRIDGE, etc), which is a level of characterization most Saturday morning cartoons would be embarrassed about. If anyone ever DOES develop a personality and get over, the dipshits running the show make sure to cool them off as quick as possible so that fucking Stephanie can be in the spotlight some more (Ryder, The Ryback, CM Punk multiple times, etc)

>>1936441

Short version, watch Ring of Honor, or Lucha Underground, if you want some entertaining pro wrestling with characters that have consistent backgrounds and motivations and shit, and angles that make internal sense and have continuity and all the other hallmarks of Good Fiction.

>>1936415
You heard about Ken Shamrock?

>>1936445
To add to your post anon, DG is great at the story & characters aspect of wrestling, & even better with the in-ring stuff.

>>1936441

So much this. For all the WWE goes on about being "ENTERTAINMENT," their storytelling is utter dogshit and the VAST majority of the shit they air is not entertaining. It's tedious, goddamn tedious.

For example, the entire angle Sasha Banks vs Charlotte feud was literally "OMG LOOK WIMMINZ CAN RASSLE TOO!!1!"

Seriously. They never took time to tell us who Sasha Banks and Charlotte are, why they are feuding, why the feud requires the blow off match to be inside a cell (there was no special animosity between them, they had not been previously attacking each other with weapons, they hadn't had a lot of people interfering in matches, not one fucking storyline reason this feud needed a gimmick match as a blow off), or why we should care. At least not beyond "MUH HISTORIC WIMMIZ HECK ON A DECK MATCH!!1!"

This utter lack of storytelling or build up doesn't touch on the fact that mentioning how FUCKING SPECIAL it is for tiny little women to be able to do a gimmick match kind of has the opposite affect that these retards intended it to. It doesn't seem like women are "equal" in any goddamn sense, it makes it seem like they're fragile cupcakes and it's super amazing that they'd try to have a Hell In A Cell match.

Just utter retardery all the way around with this fucking company. They are seriously TNA tier with their booking and writing. If it wasn't for the name recognition they had from when the WWF/E was good in the mid-late 80s and late 90s-early 2000s, they would have gone out of business years ago. If some indy shop like PWG was booked and scripted like WWE was, they'd fold by New Years.

Don't feel bad that you don't like to watch WWE. Judging by the ratings, no one goddamn else does either.

>>1936461

>They never took time to tell us who Sasha Banks and Charlotte are, why they are feuding, why the feud requires the blow off match to be inside a cell

No shit. Anyone who didn't see them in NXT couldn't possibly have known who these chumps were or why they should care, and anyone who DID see them in NXT could only have thought about how much better their feuds were back when someone competent was in charge.

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>>1935524
>I'm a huge UFC fan but can't seem to get into wrestling.

it's too late pham.

with UFC, you're pretty much watching because of pure competition. there maybe a guy or 2 you watch because of their technique and you will have your favorite fighters to watch but other than that, most of the guys are dull and don't have much to offer other than fighting for 15 minutes 3-4 times a year. Pride FC had the perfect mix of MMA competition with the rock concert aspect you get from pro wrestling. UFC has like 550 fighters under contract to keep casuals watching.
>btw, MMA has the highest number of casual fans while WWE has a pretty consistent hardcore fan base and they've been keeping the WWE alive for the past 10+ years

at the peak of it's popularity in WWE during the attitude era, they had engaging characters and """""edgy""""" storylines. they would do a beautiful job of building up matches to get people to buy PPV's. they were pretty much on their own when cutting promos and weren't as scripted as they are today since the show wasn't geared towards toddlers. they are nothing like that today. but you could watch the attitude era on the network to see why there's so many fans that are sticking around hoping that WWE returns to it's former glory.

>>1936278
>pretty gay at times with half naked homos rolling around on the ground trying to suck each others dicks while slapping each other in the ass.
That's a lame excuse man.

>>1935627
This.

If it was still only this, it would be fantastic. This is what it was when we were kids. And it is what we want it to be again.

>>1936879
You could try watching promotions that aren't WWE.

>>1936523
Don't forget UFC has the most entertaining commentator, Joe "bigfootisreal" Rogan.

>>1936466
Im going back and watching their feuds in NXT and its jarring to me how much more gripping their feuds are. Your post helped me realize that RAM has not given us any relevant context as to who Charlotte and Sasha are.

call me crazy but it feels like I'm watching the WWE make a lot of the same mistakes that tanked WCW. Namely Narcissistic booking that ignores the angles fans connect with in favor of Whatever dumb idea management has concocted.

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>>1936957
I miss The BFFS.

bupmp

>>1935632
Well considering that match was the finals of the "Best of the Super Juniors" tournament, it was literally the two flippiest men in NJPW trying to out flip each other and countering their opponent's flippy moves with more flippy moves. I don't know what's so hard to understand about that.

Also Ospreay shouts "motherfucker" at least twice in the dead silence of the Japanese crowd so there's that too

>>1936073
>>Shinsuke Nakamura
Source: My ass

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The only reason I'm on this board now is because I started watching Lucha underground last year. I guess I did watch a bit of wrestling when I was younger, but I wasn't much of a fan.

If you really are interested, watch that, because it's pretty much the best thing going right now and the easiest to get into as well.

>>1935541
That's not true whatsoever

>>1937349
Honestly I can't bring myself to watching WWE after finishing two seasons of LU, it's just so much better in every aspect it's insane.

>>1935524
Movies and most of tv shows are fake, do you watch them? Oh Santa is fake too btw.

>>1937349
>>1937459

Basically this and this.

LU are taking the idea of 'sports entertainment' and actually doing it well. It's the perfect show for people who grew up with the attitude era and miss the days when wrestling actually had characters and storylines and stuff actually happened every week instead every single non-PPV show being 100% filler.

>>1937482
>stuff actually happened every week instead every single non-PPV show being 100% filler.

This is what bothers me the most. There's so much content and a major time commitment and yet you get so little in return because there's hardly any semblance of a plot anymore. It isn't that entertaining to me all in all, either. SmackDown is doing a better job with this, but still.

>>1935658
uh huh, that's why the same team goes to the playoffs every year right?

>>1935524
Wrestling basically sucks because none of the wrestlers make you invested in their matches/feuds and when they wrestle its just a bunch of guys trading moves. Guys like HBK told a great story in the ring, their promos made you invest in the matches, and they did other little things to make you suspend your disbelief. This clip is from two great wrestlers, spots similar to this happen frequently on the product but don't get anywhere close to the reaction because the current guys lack the ring psychology and can't make the audience invested beforehand
https://youtu.be/N_DnRxJmhik