Official "Dark Side Of The Ring" Discussion Thread
- Thread starter Bonefan32
- Start date
alot of revisionist history here. thats not how it went. i remember it vividly.
warrior was the most over wrestler & biggest draw they had in '96. they were going to put the belt on him by the fall. vader was supposed to go over hbk at summerslam and transition the belt to the warrior.
the audience didnt shift away from warrior. the only place the audience shifted was over to WCW, who wanted the warrior so bad that they creqted a clone. and the warrior was the last ditch effort to keep that audience in the WWF. once he got deavored, it was a wrap.
but of course, they aint gonna tell you all that chit, when the only people speaking on it are dudes who hate the guy. they acknowledge the huge pop at wrestlemana 12 because they have no choice. its a high-profile show and he clearly shut it down. but they wont tell you that hes the one who sold the show, and the fans started leaving after his match, not really caring about the rest of the card. the overrated bret/hbk iron man match that the WWF glorifies, ended up taking place in a half-empty arena because nobody cared.
he was beating owen hart on the house shows and was getting the biggest pops. i wouldnt say that he was starting a program with owen. it was moreso a lead-in to the hbk/ahmed/warrior vs camp cornette 6-man tag at the upcoming ppv. then vader was supposed to get the strap at the following ppv, and warrior was gonna get the belt off of him. if the warrior was such a flop in '96. these plans wouldve never existed.
the only thing lukewarm was the fact that warrior didnt do much on TV. he would show up on raw twice a month, to either cut a promo or shoot an angle. so basically all we really got from him in the bright lights was the triple h squash, the bullchit storyline with goldust ducking out of their match or whatever, and the silly feud with jerry lawler. by the time they gave him something worthwhile. the fallout happened. NOBODY talks about this in-depth. instead they talk around everything and push their agendas. its easy to take that resume and manipulate it into a burial for people who werent around. same way its people on here that werent around but are influenced by the docs. they'll run to google to post ratings, but werent around so they dont know that the warrior wasnt even on raw like that, so of course his return wasnt gonna boost ratings for too long in that time period.
warrior was gone by the time austin started taking off. and the warrior wouldve had absolutely no problem fitting in with the attitude era, seeing how the warrior always did edgy chit. not to mention, the undertaker of all people was prominently featured thru the entire attitude era for pete's sake.
a warrior title run wouldve def been competition for WCW, and vince knew it. hence, the reason why vince tried to bring the warrior back less than 2 years later.but they aint gonna tell you all that.
breh I was a big WWF fan at the time, prime age and exactly the mark they were targeting with the Warrior comeback
I’m telling you there was something off about his return and he wasn’t THAT over
why do you think they had to give away his comic book for free with WWF magazine? it was a HUGE flop. so was his wrestling school they were promoting, so was his destrucity line as a whole. Did you ever see fans in the arena rocking it? it just wasn’t popping. I guarantee WWF/ Warrior/ whoever funded it lost tons of money on it
I won’t argue about the plans to push UW into the main event/ title picture but I think that says more about WWFs lack of star power as a whole around that time - and there’s no telling as to whether or not those plans would have changed, title runs are never set in stone
you are crazy to think UW and Stone cold would have co-existed. He would have buried stone cold politically backstage, it would have changed the trajectory of the attitude era and WWF as a whole and not in a positive way. Taker was humble backstage and put guys over, Warrior was not
agreed hitman/ HBK was overrated but you are exaggerating about the arena being half full. It was WM, not a house show, who leaves before the main event? Maybe a decent amount of people left mid way through since it was a long ass match but I’m calling duck tales on the arena being half full
Warriors run in 96 was just not that good by any stretch nor was it primed to be a success. Even if he stayed longer it would have ended poorly
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Warrior coming into Attitude Era, he was a colorful character with promos based on the old school rant and rave. There is no way you can run a serious program with him, which is why he ended up working with Golddust, Lawler, etc. Golddust being an edgy character didn't mean those types of gimmicks were what they wanted in the main event and to hold titles. He would have been bushed like he was eventually, alas Macho Man.
Even into the late 90s, Warrior tried to revamp his gimmick to be a little more "new millennium", and even with the atrocious WCW booking/storyline, a "can't miss no matter what" fell short.
It's kind of the same thing as Hulk Hogan, he was for the kids, for a specific era, once that era was changing and people werent messing with him as much, he had to change it up.
I'ma make a spinoff thread about what booking ideas people would think of for him with Shawn Michaels, Austin in long term feuds for the world titles, because that shyt woulda been terrible in the late 90s and totally made a mockery of the new movement.
Even into the late 90s, Warrior tried to revamp his gimmick to be a little more "new millennium", and even with the atrocious WCW booking/storyline, a "can't miss no matter what" fell short.
It's kind of the same thing as Hulk Hogan, he was for the kids, for a specific era, once that era was changing and people werent messing with him as much, he had to change it up.
I'ma make a spinoff thread about what booking ideas people would think of for him with Shawn Michaels, Austin in long term feuds for the world titles, because that shyt woulda been terrible in the late 90s and totally made a mockery of the new movement.
CBoz
We Are NXT!
Between the imaginary 91 title run and wanting to run the fade at the Hall Of Fame we might have to start a Snake-Tales category
Never trust a snake.
El Poyo Loco
Akrassikauda = Black Scorpion
Elim Garak
Veteran
The quality of these dark sides of the ring are really falling off not sure they should do any beyond season 3.
Cartier Murphy
Apathy’s a Tragedy & Boredom is a Crime
The bigger something gets that always becomes a real possibility. Plus I think by now mostly every interesting topic has been covered in some way minus some of what we’re getting still this season
Elim Garak
Veteran
They skipped things that could have easily made it more interesting. If they talked about the wcw run and that comeback match he had this would have been far better.
GOAT
The bubble was fraudulent
Just catching up on this season. Melanie Pillman taking that woman's daughter away from her and driving her to suicide might be one of the most unjust and depressing stories I've ever heard. 
Props to the daughter for not murdering her. I feel like that would be a perfectly reasonable response.
Props to the daughter for not murdering her. I feel like that would be a perfectly reasonable response.
LastManStanding
Veteran
here's the thing, Dark Side of the Ring is a great series. it is well done, the musical score is always on point, and even the weaker episodes are worth a watch. with that said, seasons 1 and 2 are going to be hard to beat.
everything reaches a peak, and Dark Side of the Ring has clearly peaked and is on the downhill slide. there is only so much doom and gloom to be covered until they have to start watering down the series with not so "Dark" episodes and/or exaggerating and rehashing topics that have been covered Ad nauseam.
everything reaches a peak, and Dark Side of the Ring has clearly peaked and is on the downhill slide. there is only so much doom and gloom to be covered until they have to start watering down the series with not so "Dark" episodes and/or exaggerating and rehashing topics that have been covered Ad nauseam.
krackdagawd
Inspire.
Dude's were in a communist country not able to do shyt for days but they got to see Ali shadowbox and were like "worth it 
" GOAT shyt
" GOAT shyt