The Professional Wrestling Thread

yeah i didn’t think it could come off as slimy on video as in text, but yep. sure did. jesus

Paul Heyman describes a scene where Vince and Shane get into a heated argument over a creative decision that culminates in Vince barking, “not while I’m alive!” then handing Shane a knife and daring him to kill him, followed by a declaration that Shane would be a coward if he didn’t have the guts to follow through.

I’ve been listening to Lapsed Vince too long, since this barely phased me.

Anyway, it’s not a great series. Lots of wrestling history that any wrestling fan already knows about, loses focus on specifically Vince for long stretches of time. It’s well-produced and there’s some good stuff, but it’s far from must-see.

How good is it for a casual fan or non-fan?

I mean it’s not bad, but even a casual is probably going to remember a lot of the historical stuff, and anyone tuning in is mostly going to be interested in a focus on Vince that strays too often.

Three episodes in and there’s literally nothing I haven’t seen before. John Stossel, Richard Belzer, Rita Chatterton, Mel Phillips, the steroid trial, Billionaire Ted, the Montreal Screwjob…even the old “taking wrestling out of smoky bars and into family-friendly arenas” trope was there.

I’ll finish it because I’m curious to see how they tie a bow on this given the most recent news, especially with Vince’s statement asking people to keep an open mind (lol), but I don’t ever need to see it again.

just finished it, i’m probably a non-fan now but watched when i was a kid. it was good.

kinda got fucked up bc he stopped filming/interviewing after the last allegations happened, they weren’t (still aren’t?) resolved and they’re asking everyone what his legacy is and their answers are from 2022. wasn’t a proper ending.

interesting enough for me to watch all 6 episodes at once :man_shrugging:t3:

haha whoops. yeah there wasn’t much they could do with the ending unfortunately.

Bruce Prichard bitching that the series was being overly harsh on Vince was classic Prichard. What a lump that guy is.

Did you know that Gorilla Monsoon was lined up to buy the company instead of Vince? That’s just so weird to think about. I’m sure he would have just kept it regional until reality eventually forced everyone’s hand.

I want to say I did know that, but I’m not sure where I heard it from. It makes sense given that Gorilla was one of Vince Sr.‘s financial partners in the WWWF when he sold.

Why was AWA’s territory so random? The others seemed to more or less cover a couple states grouped together. Also, what’s the deal with the area with no territories? Was it that wrestling just wasn’t that popular at all, or that there wasn’t a territory controlling it so anyone could go in there?

The doc is ok, but as others said, nothing really new if you followed wrestling somewhat closely.

I wonder if Vince would have succeeded anyway without Hogan? I think probably not. He took a ton of massive risks early on, that just barely came in and allowed him to keep going. They paid off obv, but he probably ran red hot winning a bunch of 55/45s in a row.

I’m always baffled by some of the older guys that were huge stars. Backlund and Valentine in particular aren’t interesting looking and just seem like huge charisma vacuums.

Mr. McMahon isn’t made for fans. The target is general audiences. No surprise it’s a bunch of stories that we all know about.

To be fair, I’ve only seen the first episode so far.

3 episodes in. I guess it’s good for a bit of history/nostalgia, but there’s nothing really here for wrestling fans.

Like LKJ, the only revelation to me was the possibility of Gorilla Monsoon buying it instead of Vince Jr.

This is really annoying to me to an irrational degree.

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They need to stop reaching for the stars like this. Wrestling stuff is predominantly watched by wrestling weirdos. Making your stuff in a way that might better appeal to 10% of the people who will watch it doesn’t seem great.

The last two episodes were much more interesting than the first four.

I honestly can’t help but like Shane McMahon. You’d think he’d be a psychopathic sexual deviant like his dad but he genuinely seems like a good guy.

I agree that Shane at least comes across as though he has successfully avoided becoming Vince 2.0. Hopefully that’s the right read.

Im the cynical type and think the only lesson he’s learned from Vince is how to hide it better.

My sister-in-law went to middle and high school with Shane and they hung out in the same circle of friends. She always said he was very nice, and has insinuated that his relationship with his dad was always strained, whatever that’s worth.

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