Trying to get back into wrestling, help fill me in...

Hey, the Rock is on! Guess I picked a good night to watch.

Lita used to be a valet for no-hoper Essa Rios, they turned him heel specifically so they could align her with the Hardy Boyz, who were hot at the time. She got over with her tomboy attitude and really sloppy moonsault and visible thong. She played an important part in whatever the Hardyz did over the next few years, then Jeff got fired, her and Matt stayed apart for a while, they turned Matt face for some god unkn own reason, and thus this really bad feud with Kane.

The only other ??? I saw tonight was Batista. What's his story?

of course, all of this is probably the result of not seeing a steady stream of monsters over the last decade - last night was the first time i've seen the people's elbow dropped for instance. so who wants to bring me up to speed on the past eight or nine years?

Hogan turned heel
ECW delivered a minor revolution
WWF Attitude stole all of ECW's ideas and made money out of them
Steve Austin and Mick Foley, who had been WCW midcarders merely 6 years earlier, became the WWF's two hottest faces
WCW got overflooded with aging main eventers and lost viewers heavily.
The Rock happened
HHH happened to a lesser degree
ECW went bankrupt
WCW went bankrupt
The invasion angle sucked
WWF changed it's name to WWE
Not enough Al Snow

That's the past 8 years in wrestling.

i could probably google this but how did triple h come to be at the top of the heap?

since i really only knew the rock from movies, i found his ring persona kinda surprising. the rousing motivational speaker delivery didn't really convince me but he did seem quick on his feet with ad libs and such to the crowd and divas. and, y'know, i'm totally impressed he isn't a sell-out hollywood dude now or something. so, yeah, immediately unconvinced but quite optimistic!

i wish i wasn't so long out of it :/

For one thing he's currently Vince McMahon's son in law. He reportedly has a hand in writing and match bookings.

One theory for why he keeps himself at main event status is the fact that in his earliest wwf days he was ordered to lose badly to the Ultimate Warrior in order to get him over in the ring. He managed to recover but he's very protective about his career since becoming a star.

He's been an effective heel though and less effective babyface. However I couldn't stand his promo last night. It was too long and his tone was too enraged. They should have given Evolution some time to be cocky after giving Orton the beat down and possibly add a new member to the group so they become a more believably threatening force. They're rushing the story so quickly though. It's bad if they're planning the story only on a week to week basis without an eye for how it will play out down the road.

HHH works best as an angry pissed-off heel. I'm thinking some of his star-making matches with Mick Foley in 2001.

Shortly afterwards, he went down holding his leg, and the ref did the Proper Non Kayfabe Injury Serious This Time signal, and then Trips gets up, twats Eugene from behind, and the ref goes up to him and shouts really angrily and this superb delighted grin just spreads across his face. That was totally fucking awesome.

That's Interesting, I wasn't aware that is what led to HHH jobbing to Warrior. I remember a weird early DX era Monday Night Raw opening segment when HHH and Shawn Michaels were goading Vince McMahon and they played a crude camcorder footage of the Clique embracing on the titantron. McMahon begins to explode with shocked rage while DX point at each other sarcastically saying, "b-but you were a good guy I was a bad guy."
I didn't get the smart mark reference at the time, and I'm frankly surprised they expected many people others to, so I found it strange, dark, and confusing. At the same time I paid closer attention to wwf programming than I had been because I knew they had the potential to surprise me.

Goldberg happened.
Brock Lesnar happened.
Hulk Hogan wouldn't go away.
Brock Lesnar quit to play football.

Except Scotsman, obv.

Turns out it was Chris Hyatte's late '90s Raw/Nitro Mop-Ups I was thinking of.
I didn't end up getting into WWE again after making this thread.
Worth another try? What about TNA?

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