4/10.I hope Bret never sees a Vikingo match.
Bret Hart shytting on modern wrestling once again: says if you gotta do 1000 chops in a match, you're a trash wrestler.
- Thread starter JasoRockStar
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Nothing annoys me more than unnecessary chops specifically the ones that Eddie Kingston does, back-and-forth chops or forearms and guys waiting an absurd amount of time to catch someone diving.
CBoz
We Are NXT!
I meant for his health concerns, it might actually give him a heart attack.
Saysumthinfunnymike
VOTE!!!
HitGOAT ain't never lied. You work snug but safe. You don't hurt your opponent
The chop spots in AEW are cringe. Way too many of them.
In an interview with Fox Sports, Bret Hart had a lot to say about the state of modern wrestling, calling it ‘phony’, ‘rehearsed’ and ‘baloney’. However, he still had some kind words for Rhea Ripley. Here are highlights:
On Rhea Ripley: “I really like her a lot. I really like her poise, her staying in character and sort of living her – she seems like she’s adapted a character that’s fun to play, and she’s playing into that, full tilt. She’s putting that realism into it; that’s what I miss in a lot of wrestling today, just making it feel more real, and she makes it feel pretty real all the time.”
On how things have changed since his time: “It’s hard to criticize something that seems to be going through the roof. Wrestling has had a surge in the last little while, the last few years. And even in my case I seem to be as revered or popular as I’ve ever been – and it’s maybe because of the salutes I’ve been getting from guys like (CM) Punk, and FTR, different wrestlers have mentioned my name, or do something that I did in the ring as a nod or a salute to me, and I appreciate all that. I think CM Punk alone has done a lot to remind wrestling fans to take a look back at some of the stuff that I was doing, and how good it was. And I think it’s starting to stand out now where it’s like – in my honest opinion, without trying to sound too boastful, they’ve pulled the curtain back on wrestling so much. So now we know the whole thing’s a show, and they’re just really good physical actors, and that is what it is. But you watch my wrestling and you go, jeez, he was the best. I think I made it look more real than anybody all the time. I made your stuff look good, I made my own stuff look good, nothing looked rehearsed. There’s so much I think in today’s wrestling that’s so badly rehearsed, over and over.”
On what he doesn’t like about the current product: “I saw something just a few days ago in a wrestling match where all the girls were lying in the middle of the ring together and they were doing the big belly flops on all of them. And you think they would get away from that kind of phony rehearsed kind of wrestling? Who wants to watch that? I don’t want to watch that, I know my kids don’t want to watch that. The best pro wrestling has to always pretend to be real, and that way it’s fun – but when you basically say it’s not real, and it’s all just a performance, it loses some of that what I think was in my style. My punches, my kicks, my dropkicks – if I dropkicked somebody I hit him right in the face, but I didn’t hurt him, but both feet pushed his face hard enough to know jeez, I’m guessing that might’ve hurt. And the thing I take so much pride in is every wrestler I ever worked, every single one, came back and he shook my hand to say thanks for the match.”
“I was a technical wrestler that made you, you know, when I put a headlock on, it look like a real headlock. Not like John Cena or somebody that’s got a headlock that looks like he has it on a tire. The headlock has to be tightened – real. You know, I that’s what I pride myself on. And I also pride myself on the fact that I never injured anybody, ever. I find a lot of the wrestlers today are like, when they land where they land, they realize 30 seconds later that they’re in the wrong spot, and they start wiggling all the way across the ring to get in the right position. That’s a fail. You get an F in my wrestling academy when you do stuff like that. And when these guys dive over the top rope onto the 20 wrestlers on the floor – they’ve gotta stop doing that. It’s just not real … and with the chops, and everybody chopping themselves. What a bunch of baloney. Nobody ever won a match with a chop. All the wooing. It’s really taking away from the beauty and the art of great wrestling.
There’s a lot of great wrestlers out there that can deliver great matches. But there’s so many wrestlers out there that are subpar in my opinion, that don’t know what they’re doing out there. And they allow themselves to rely on things like chops, which I think is sort of like cheap heat – you get a reaction, but what’s your reaction? You’re whipping a guy across the chest with your hand? Okay, so you’re hurting some guy for real, for some stupid reason. And the crowd sort of reacts to it. In my understanding of pro wrestling, anytime anyone does anything to you that hurts, for real – chopping, putting blisters on your chest when you go to your room or bed, anytime anyone does things to you for real, they’re in the wrong business. They’re doing it wrong. Because you’re not supposed to get hurt. You’re not supposed to come back to your dressing room that night, or to your hotel room and have a big lump on your head and a black eye and your teeth are knocked out. That’s Bill Goldberg wrestling. That’s not how it’s done.”
On Rhea Ripley: “I really like her a lot. I really like her poise, her staying in character and sort of living her – she seems like she’s adapted a character that’s fun to play, and she’s playing into that, full tilt. She’s putting that realism into it; that’s what I miss in a lot of wrestling today, just making it feel more real, and she makes it feel pretty real all the time.”
On how things have changed since his time: “It’s hard to criticize something that seems to be going through the roof. Wrestling has had a surge in the last little while, the last few years. And even in my case I seem to be as revered or popular as I’ve ever been – and it’s maybe because of the salutes I’ve been getting from guys like (CM) Punk, and FTR, different wrestlers have mentioned my name, or do something that I did in the ring as a nod or a salute to me, and I appreciate all that. I think CM Punk alone has done a lot to remind wrestling fans to take a look back at some of the stuff that I was doing, and how good it was. And I think it’s starting to stand out now where it’s like – in my honest opinion, without trying to sound too boastful, they’ve pulled the curtain back on wrestling so much. So now we know the whole thing’s a show, and they’re just really good physical actors, and that is what it is. But you watch my wrestling and you go, jeez, he was the best. I think I made it look more real than anybody all the time. I made your stuff look good, I made my own stuff look good, nothing looked rehearsed. There’s so much I think in today’s wrestling that’s so badly rehearsed, over and over.”
On what he doesn’t like about the current product: “I saw something just a few days ago in a wrestling match where all the girls were lying in the middle of the ring together and they were doing the big belly flops on all of them. And you think they would get away from that kind of phony rehearsed kind of wrestling? Who wants to watch that? I don’t want to watch that, I know my kids don’t want to watch that. The best pro wrestling has to always pretend to be real, and that way it’s fun – but when you basically say it’s not real, and it’s all just a performance, it loses some of that what I think was in my style. My punches, my kicks, my dropkicks – if I dropkicked somebody I hit him right in the face, but I didn’t hurt him, but both feet pushed his face hard enough to know jeez, I’m guessing that might’ve hurt. And the thing I take so much pride in is every wrestler I ever worked, every single one, came back and he shook my hand to say thanks for the match.”
“I was a technical wrestler that made you, you know, when I put a headlock on, it look like a real headlock. Not like John Cena or somebody that’s got a headlock that looks like he has it on a tire. The headlock has to be tightened – real. You know, I that’s what I pride myself on. And I also pride myself on the fact that I never injured anybody, ever. I find a lot of the wrestlers today are like, when they land where they land, they realize 30 seconds later that they’re in the wrong spot, and they start wiggling all the way across the ring to get in the right position. That’s a fail. You get an F in my wrestling academy when you do stuff like that. And when these guys dive over the top rope onto the 20 wrestlers on the floor – they’ve gotta stop doing that. It’s just not real … and with the chops, and everybody chopping themselves. What a bunch of baloney. Nobody ever won a match with a chop. All the wooing. It’s really taking away from the beauty and the art of great wrestling.
There’s a lot of great wrestlers out there that can deliver great matches. But there’s so many wrestlers out there that are subpar in my opinion, that don’t know what they’re doing out there. And they allow themselves to rely on things like chops, which I think is sort of like cheap heat – you get a reaction, but what’s your reaction? You’re whipping a guy across the chest with your hand? Okay, so you’re hurting some guy for real, for some stupid reason. And the crowd sort of reacts to it. In my understanding of pro wrestling, anytime anyone does anything to you that hurts, for real – chopping, putting blisters on your chest when you go to your room or bed, anytime anyone does things to you for real, they’re in the wrong business. They’re doing it wrong. Because you’re not supposed to get hurt. You’re not supposed to come back to your dressing room that night, or to your hotel room and have a big lump on your head and a black eye and your teeth are knocked out. That’s Bill Goldberg wrestling. That’s not how it’s done.”
Imagining him doing solo commentary talking his shyt from near the entrance ala WCW/Ruthless Aggression RAW or when JR briefly turned heel in the early Attitude Era
CBoz
We Are NXT!
I mean Cena deserves it where it is due. I'm sure he'd accept Bret's criticism. We've all seen Cena's STF.Cena catching stray slugs @NoMorePie
"The business used to be legitimate asskickers making it look like they're killing each other while not doing any damage and now it's guys who can't kick ass for real doing phony looking stuff that causes real damage."
That said, Bret's matches didn't look realistic either, it's just that at the time most of us didn't know what a real fight looked like at the time. But in 2024, with a quarter century of MMA fights, most people know what a real prizefight looks like and wrestling has almost NEVER looked like it. The Irish Whip alone deads this argument (I'd personally prefer far fewer of these AND for people to actually do them off of a standing shoulder lock as it was originally done, since it makes more sense for you to run if you don't want your shoulder dislocated or humerus fractured).
We don't want realism, we want believability. I'm good with Gunther/Drew/Sheamus level chops, ya'll have covered the ones that are trash. Gunther/Dragunov... guys like that are top level in believability to me. Everything is a struggle, nothing given to them and they don't give anything to their opponents. Everything is TAKEN. They don't do anything that takes a long time to setup. They give you fatigue, looks of concussions, anguish... They sell the things that should be sold the whole match. They win with all manner of finishing sequences. That's my ideal in terms of modern day in ring work.
That said, Bret's matches didn't look realistic either, it's just that at the time most of us didn't know what a real fight looked like at the time. But in 2024, with a quarter century of MMA fights, most people know what a real prizefight looks like and wrestling has almost NEVER looked like it. The Irish Whip alone deads this argument (I'd personally prefer far fewer of these AND for people to actually do them off of a standing shoulder lock as it was originally done, since it makes more sense for you to run if you don't want your shoulder dislocated or humerus fractured).
We don't want realism, we want believability. I'm good with Gunther/Drew/Sheamus level chops, ya'll have covered the ones that are trash. Gunther/Dragunov... guys like that are top level in believability to me. Everything is a struggle, nothing given to them and they don't give anything to their opponents. Everything is TAKEN. They don't do anything that takes a long time to setup. They give you fatigue, looks of concussions, anguish... They sell the things that should be sold the whole match. They win with all manner of finishing sequences. That's my ideal in terms of modern day in ring work.
The guy with the japfro's (around the 18 second mark) face needs to be a smiley!
Thanks, Breh! I got you as soon as I knock out 25 more people.
Thanks, Breh! I got you as soon as I knock out 25 more people.
If you're really gonna take this route, make sure you and your opponents never punch in matches. In kayfabe it's supposed to be illegal and anytime a guy is down you would start punching him in the head if you were actually trying to win.