I am surprised

[beaker]

>>>In reality, they started about six or seven years ago (possibly more) as fozzy osbourne, a joke on jericho's website. They had a fictional album called blizzard of fozz that was the blizzard of ozz album cover with fozzie the bear's head. <<<

I knew the name was Muppet based, however inside joke it may have been. As for what Luke said...what Mr. inside man has to realize is there is a big difference between the world of WWF 1997 and the world of WWF 2002. Back in 1997 there was WCW and ECW(ecw, which pretty much reshaped modern wrasslin on tv as we know it) so it was much more entertaining times on tv.

I think the lack of competition thing might be an excuse, but how can anyone truly be a "WWE" fan these days? They totally botched the WCW, and later the nWo angle...these were dream possibitlities and they ruined them. No wonder those angles turned sour quick. For real pro wrestling fans, the real choice is Japanese wrestling, as that stuff is light years beyond the dookie ya seen on TNN. One of the most interesting things about WWF in the recent years was the ECW guys...virtually M.I.A. now.

Its like this...WWFE shows suffer from three things that hurt it badly, to the point where its stll pretty embarassing to admit watching it:

*The backstage Saturdy Night Live antics. Been going on for the last few years, totally ruins what happens in the ring,. After every match the camera goes back to show that surgically enhanced melon head Stephanie Mcmahon and company...totally ruining any sense of interest. The backstage antics and skits have been my major gripe, along with HORRIFIC Scripting. Remember a time when the line between real and fake was blurred? In the business its called breaking 'kayfabe', but its what made the product interesting. The Bret Hart/Shawn Michaels feud was great because ya never knew what was scripted. And the DX invasion of WCW on the air was great too. Those adventurous days are gone.

*Luke says vince and Linda couldnt be nicer...yet its company policy to all but force all women athletes to have surgical breast enhancements. Any interview with Sable or Sunny will show its been going on for 5 years in the company. We know baseball players are roiding' it up, and we know some choice wrestlers are...but man, its bad enough the only woman ya see on WWE tv are half naked wrestling in a puddle of pudding. Once again, I point to Japanese wrestling, to show what can be done with any women wrestler angle in a good way.

*Short Attentionspan Theatre: I ask any WWE fan on here this.
Does the WWE think the fans are stupid? Kane or Stone Cold(whoops, he quit because he got tired of the WWE's BS)
is gone for two weeks...then they have fireworks a month later and say 'OMG! Hes back Hes back!) Very sad.
I will say there is more 'spots' then back in the day when I was a fan. Back then it was all mullet sporting roided' up guys with mistress valets who mostly fake punched and bodyslammed to the tune of hair metal. So for awhile we had the coolest action spots ever, ladders, cages, etc. Now even those cool tag teams are no more...and a lot of the interesting wrestlers have left.

So what we have here...in 2002, is a WWE that while not as stomach chruning bad as the 94-95 period, is pretty darn close.

 

[Luke]

Originally posted by beaker
*Luke says vince and Linda couldnt be nicer...yet its company policy to all but force all women athletes to have surgical breast enhancements.

It goes on all over the place in media babe, not just wrestling. Business means making money and sex sells - whether thats a girl trying to establish herself as a presenter, a singer trying to break or a female wrestling personality. They all have managers - they are NOT directly told what to do, they have the choice and know the pro's and con's. As for female wrestling - it's boring, Japanese wrestling is more technical and less story based which would also be boring to most WWE fans.

As for the WWF in 1997 compared to the WWE now - as i said, they go through up and down periods just like any longterm company do (just look at JHC for proof of that) - now isn't an easy time for them but they'll get hot again. The people backstage are pretty much the same as 1997 (mostly ex-wrestlers as tour managers and things) and i know the people in the company have a very happy time and atmosphere - especially the blonde babes you refer to. Stephanie also knows a lot more about the business than her on screen 'character' makes out - she's called the shots over talkback at PPV before, written some of the angles and shows and did talent booking at one point. She's actually a very smart girl.

 

[beaker]

Well, unlike a lot of fans I as well have known about the politics, 'real' backstage, and other ins and outs of the business for many a year. Not near to the extent of you, but lets face it...
from a business side, the WWE is not about the fans.

I know what ya mean by ups and downs, but its painful to read the words "JHC" and "WWE" in the same sentence. The WWE in recent years have made some mind boggling bad decisions. Look, I wont even go into how horrid the backstage angles are...Ive seen better scripting at 4th grade talent shows.

But man...from the XFL, to fudging up the wcw and nWo angle, to "splitting" the company into two poperties(to fool fans into thinking its like wwf vs. wcw again) is just sad.

I have zero respect for the modern state of professional wrestling, which is sad to say as I had been a truly hardcore fan for quite some time. As for Japanese wrestling...the boys at WWE need to watch some FMW, NJPW, and BJPW tapes...they could learn a thing or two about match pacing and excitement.
Heck, even the 'ecw' feel is gone from WWE, the last remaining reason to watch WWE in my opinion.

Wrestling is suppose to be exciting, and the current WWE is anything but.