'Chris'

Well, being a fan of old school wrestling and the tradition of the past. I want to give some insight to why I am that way and give the younger fans some insight of what they missed.

First thing that comes to mind is the legendary feud between the Nature Boy Ric Flair and The American Dream Dusty Rhodes. Without question or shadow of any doubt, this was a significant piece of old school wrestling. It was a basic feud that even in this day in age would get over. If you don't think either is as good as the praise they receive, then I'd suggest you do some research. However, to get back on track, let me explain the simple basic logic of the feud and why in my opinion it can be attested to how great old school wrestling was. By old school wrestling, I mean not the attitude era.

Ric Flair, the cocky, high class, arrogant, life style I'm better than you personality. The thing that was so frustrating is he could actually back it up, so you basically had to sit there and digest. On the other hand, you had Dusty Rhodes. The hard working, blue collar, come from hard times man who had to fight, scratch and claw his way up and earn whatever he got and earned. It really wrote itself to be honest. However, the effectiveness of both individuals is what set this feud on fire and made it become one of the best feuds ever.

In smark talk or view, I guess it'd be "how can an overweight jumbo dumbo with a lisp wrestle good?" mindset, well, back then and I still am a firm believer in this type of method of wrestling or psychology of wrestling and that is Dusty knew how to tell a story in the ring using basic moves. He knew how to work the crowds. Even though he wasn't a "chain wrestling god" like some cream themselves over, Dusty knew how to get it done in the ring without having to be that type of wrestler. Flair on the other hand was good with the technicalities of the in ring abilities, so his style of that meshed well with Dusty's and thats what made their matches good and apart of the best ever list. I didn't say best ever, I just said they were good enough to be apart of the best ever list, meaning on the list of best ever with other matches.

How did it attest to old school wrestling being great? Well, simple really. It is a big example of how wrestling can be effectively successful and good and even great in some cases without having to be ***** "pure wrestling". Not only the in ring aspect is what made it great, but the effectiveness in storytelling with the simplest basic storyline or plot or whatever you want to call it. I guess with that I can understand why the older fans than I am love the old days more.

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Killswitch

Out of all the matches on the Flair DVD and the Horseman one, I just can't get in to the ones involving Dusty. And I really like a lot of the guys of that era. Flair, the Andersons, Blanchard, Magnum.

The Road Warriors are almost like that too, but there's a handful of their matches I've really enjoyed. Never dug a Dusty match.

McQueen

I have a hard time getting into Harley Race to be honest, I don't know what it is but he just leaves me so disinterested.

Regardless, I'm at a point where I really prefer old school stuff too. Theres a lot of good stuff floating around from the territory days but most people don't even know about it because it's not so commercially available. I actually think the territory system is a lot of reason that old school wrestling was so great, guys were able to jump from fed to fed and still feel so fresh to the fans. Not to mension the fact that Kayfabe was protected by the guys so fan involvement/emoition was much better than the "This is awesome" crowds of today (not as much a problem in WWE to be fair as it is in other american feds).
And finally in the old school days you didn't have guys having to resort to doing crazy shit just to get a huge reaction, even really basic stuff like a plain old vertical suplex or a dropkick was a big move. The best example of how spots have been raped by todays working style is the simple but effective superplex. By all means getting suplexed off the top rope should be enough to put someone down but now it's just a commonplace spot that really means nothing to the fans because its been so overdone or topped by even crazier spots. Brings up an interesting debate in whether or not the Wrestling business has truly evolved in the way matches were worked back then as opposed to how they are worked now.

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Phenomenal One

One guy I have tried to get into for a long time and I watched his match from Starrcade 83 with Naitch inside the cage is 'Rugged' Ronnie Garvin. Another guy I cant get into from that same Starrcade 83 show is Nikita Koloff. He reminds me a hell of alot of Bill Goldberg which does not help matters out at all. (The reason I say Koloff reminds me of Goldberg is because I saw Goldberg before I saw Koloff in action)