2012 Pro Wrestling Thread

Great guys, lots of fun to talk to, particularly about their old-school days as The Sheepherders.

 

The Grantland article on Cena reminds me so much of how former comics editors complained about writing Superman in the 70s, before he was "de-powered." As one editor put it: How do you challenge a guy who can blow out a star? You give him emotional conflict. Sure, he'll lose some battles, but he'll win the war. We keep saying Cena is the WWE's Superman. So, I say they're at least attempting to give his character interesting challenges to keep him interesting to his fan base.

Of course, that goes in hand with the appeal of Superman: some comics fans, bred on 90s X-Men and Frank Miller, absolutely hate Superman. These are the same type of people who hate Cena.

If I go for my masters, I've got to try to work this into a dissertation topic or something at some point.

 

"The Evolution of Thuganomics"

 

Lesner did some amazing spots in the ring for a big guy, hell, a huge guy. And he's just a monster, which is easy to sell. But, somehow, even though they know that the creative team has trouble carrying any storyline well, they decide to take guys like Lesnar, Brodus Clay, etc, who can physically tell stories in the ring, and turn them into verbal storylines. Then they take someone like Prince Albert (whatever the hell they are calling him now) and use him as a physical being. Even though nothing he does in the ring is buyable for the fans. He can't even hold onto the claw. Heck, at this point, I would be more intrigued by a Lesnar/Big Show storyline of them beating the hell out of each other than I am with anything they have going on now.

 

"John Cena and the American Wrestling Mark: Why Can't You See Me?"

 

Man, back in the day, Brock Lesnar came thisclose to doing a shooting star press on Kurt Angle in their Wrestlemania match. IIRC, he landed just a bit too short though on the final rotation and smoked his head, giving himself a concussion and almost completely effing up the match. As a result, the move was banned in the WWE for a couple years, until Evan Bourne proved to them he could do it safely 10 times in a row without a botch.

 

I don't think they banned the move, because Billy Kidman was in WWE at the time and I don't remember him not using the SSP as a finisher. In fact, he gave Chavo Guerrero a concussion with it toward the end of his run in 2004, and they used that as a catalyst for a heel turn.

Apparently Lesnar pulled off SSPs like they were hip tosses back in OVW, but that was the only time he ever attempted the move in WWE.

 

Just youtubed that. Ouch.

 

Yeah, it was not pretty. IIRC, they were worried Lesnar had broken his neck.

 

"How Five Moves of Doom can make Thousands Hate You"

 

In a few interviews, Lesnar said the WWE knew he could do the move, but wanted him to save it for a major spot. Main-eventing WM was that spot.

He said he almost changed his mind during the match because he was exhausted, but decided to go through with it anyways, and chalked up his tiredness to not being able to properly execute the move.

 

The Perils of Planned Perfection: A Study on Oversaturation of Scripted Dominance and its Unintended Effects on the Targeted Audience.