It may sound like I'm memeing, but WWE has reached the point

>>2167497
>but WWE has reached the point were, depite being a wrestling company, the least important thing is wrestling itself
That's been true for like 20 years.

It's been that way since like 1985 m8.

Storyline over wrestling is literally what Vince built his empire on. This was always his vision of "sports entertainment".

Seriously, go back and watch the beloved Attitude Era for example and see what I mean. It was far more story than actual in ring wrestling. Hell, Attitude was more story focused than even what we see today.

>>2167497
That is the biggest load of bs I've heard of week. WWE is MORE about wrestling than ever and it's killing the company. It's filled with vanilla charisma vacuums who flip around and have le 4 star matches while not selling a damn thing

Sports ENTERTAINMENT

>>2167497
VInce and Kevin Dunn hate wrestling, they're not creative enough for even B movies

>>2167508
It was more story focused but since it wasn't PG and WWE wasn't afraid to throw money at certain moments, it was great

also crowds were way more into it

when did wrestling start being fake and were people in the 30s really that stupid to believe it was real?

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if what you say is true, then explain why RAW and SD is largely 90% filler wrestling matches where they go through the motions and rarely any real storyline progession.

>>2167519
It's been a work since day 1. People have known it was a work for ages, but wrestlers everyone the industry kept it hush hush until Vince let the cat out of the bag it in the 80s.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_professional_wrestling_in_the_United_States

Professional wrestling in the United States, until the 1920s, was viewed as a legitimate sport. This view did not endure into the 1930s, as professional wrestling became identified with modern theatrics, or "admitted fakeness" ("kayfabe"), moving away from being a showcase for true competition. The scripted nature of the art has made critics view it as an illegitimate sport, particularly in comparison to boxing, mixed martial arts, amateur wrestling, and the real sport itself, wrestling. No major promoter or wrestler denies that modern professional wrestling has predetermined match outcomes.

Through the advent of television in the 1950s and cable in the 1980s, professional wrestling began appearing in powerful media outlets, reaching never before seen numbers of viewers. It became an international phenomenon with the expansion of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Throughout the 1990s, professional wrestling achieved highs in both viewers and financial success during a time of fierce competition among competing promotions, such as WWF, World Championship Wrestling, and Extreme Championship Wrestling.

The nature of professional wrestling changed dramatically to better fit television, enhancing character traits and storylines. Television also helped many wrestlers break into mainstream media, becoming influential celebrities and icons of popular culture. In the United States, in the First Golden Age of professional wrestling in the 1940s–1950s, Gorgeous George gained mainstream popularity, followed in the Second Golden Age in the 1980s–1990s by Ric Flair, Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Sting, The Undertaker, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Kurt Angle, and Triple H.

>>2167515
>It was more story focused but since it wasn't PG and WWE wasn't afraid to throw money at certain moments, it was great

Oh yeah, I wasn't shitting in Attitude by any means. I'm a huge fan of the era.

For me the difference has always been that they actually went balls out back then. They had their own brash bizarre style that they weren't ashamed to flaunt in your face. It was fucking amazing.

Now everything is scripted and neutered. Boring and predictable. Safe and sanitary. You get the idea.

>>2167525
That doesn't mean that is good

>>2167530
Especially with cookie cutter promos where everyone sounds pretty much the same. It hurts basically everyone, from wrestlers to the actual product itself.

Honestly I switched to LU and I'm not looking back.

>>2167525
tell me any TV show that has ran for decades which has stayed consistent?

>>2167497
Literally the opposite, which is why it's so shit now. I want my soap opera tier WWE back

>Wrestling performers were arranged in a pyramid hierarchy of fame and money, based strictly on athletic talent. The lowest were the journeymen, young performers with promise and some skill, but who relied mainly on showmanship to gain fans. The actual wrestlers, called "shooters" because of their ability to "shoot", or fight real matches competitively, were more successful and less common. At the top were the elites, or the hookers, named for their ability to use arcane wrestling hooks to inflict damage and serious injury on the competition without much effort.[1] Wrestlers considered themselves among a select group, and often kept the fact that their sport was commonly faked—to an extent—in high secrecy.[3] They used a jargon of their own (often shared with carnies) to communicate so the audience would not understand them, including the word "kayfabe.


Wrestling has always been known to be fake, but they were more secretive back in the day and took things more seriously.
The heel and faces were even separated by locker room and werent allowed to be see in public together, real funny and interesting time.

Anyways, from an actual wrestlers perspective, that one dudly is right, all that matters is how much money you make.
Wrestling is fake, the belts dont matter, its all a show.

>>2167541
Those 3 shitty brit shows middle aged women love

>>2167539
LU is pretty damn good. About the closest you can get to a modern Attitude like product.

Again it's all about them having their own style. They're not trying to replicate anyone.

I swear nearly every indie fed in their early years try their hardest to be WWE, and it fucking kills them. So good on LU for being its own thing.

>>2167559
Exactly. I honestly love gimmicks especially if they keep it heavy on kayfabe, so I enjoyed LU right from the start. Watching yet another "wrestling federation" is just boring with the reality-like gimmicks. Watching shit like Mil Muertes vs Matanza is just better in every way.

And the fact that they have non-pg commentary, blood, chairshots to the head and curbstomps through cinderblocks, it's pretty damn nice

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>>2167548
>the belts don't matter

t-t--t-take that back

>>2167563
There are some belts that care and others that not, look at the Universal or the Raw womens champions, the actual storylines could go on with or without the belts, the tag team championship with AA its like non-existing (but I hope this changes since they haven't got them too long ago), and don't let me get started with the CWC.

In the other hand we have the ones like the intercontinetal, the WWE, Smackdown womens and RAW Tag team and the US since Jericho has it, these belts actually have their stories arround the belts, that's what a championship is for

Also the reason no one talks about why wwe was so edgy in the 90's is because of ECW's influence.

Just like how today wwe will see ROH, and make NXT, and they will see lucha underground and bring back the cruiser weight division

>>2167497
Which is extremely unfortunate, because the wrestling is the only positive thing they have going for them right now.

>>2167578
>no one talks about wwe being edgy in the 90s
You're an idiot

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>Implying that this wasn't always the case.

>>2167519
Around post WW1 it became exclusively a work, but even in the days of legitimate catch wrestling and general grappling contests there were a ton of worked matches for profit and ease of schedule and even legitimate matches had the wrestlers work some to generate crowd interest.