2014 Pro Wrestling Thread

Grantland writer The Masked Man David Shoemaker has a great supplement called the Cheap Heat podcast. Here's the exact fucking opposite in which clueless, snarky guys discuss wrestling with a guy who follows the product: http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-organizations-everyone-hates-for-stupid-reasons/

I mean, I did find it on Cracked.com ...

 

Coming soon to Fort Hall in eastern Idaho: Micro Championship Wrestling.

http://shobanhotel.com/Micro%20Wrestling%20Promo%20Page.jpg

A nice way of saying "rasslin' midgets!"

 

Here is Adam Rose's NXT debut: http://videos.sapo.pt/PVBZclqygOGTO2fhpIjd

And here's his full theme song:

No clue how sustainable it is, but it's hard not to get caught up in the moment. The entrance is Harlem Shake inspired, but not so much so that it feels like a way-too-late ripoff. And the song is so infectious, Walgreen's is offering free immunizations for it. Very easy to join along with (Jesus, the Europeans are going to go BONKERS for this, because it screams soccer chant).

Semi-related: Saw in one of the dirtsheets that WWE is starting to look at NXT as its "pure" wrestling brand and promote it as such, which might be the greatest thing ever. It'll be like plucking golden era MTV's Unplugged and dropping it into the middle of the current network. It also potentially touches on a thought I've long held about wrestling, that as with musicians, some acts just play better to more intimate crowds. As of now, if you want to be a star, you have to be able to play arena and stadium shows, and if you can't, you're screwed. But some bands and singers make a lot more sense in a 1,000-seat venue with committed fans that pay good money to be there, and I think NXT could really be something like that, if they were of a mind (or they could spin it off so as to keep NXT a developmental show).

 

About to watch a potentially lame boys basketball consolation game ... but first a review of a lame pay-per-view concept: WCW Fall Brawl: War Games 1998!

First of all, I don't think anyone understood the concept of the match. For those who don't know what War Games was or need a refresher, here's the rundown: two rings, side by side, covered by a giant steel cage with a roof. So, part steel cage, part Hell in a Cell. With me so far? There are teams for War Games. The first few editions featured feuding factions, like nWo against the Horsemen. Then when nWo splintered into Hollywood and Wolfpac, it became three teams. Three members per team in the 1998 edition.

nWo Hollywood: Hogan, Stevie Ray, Hart
nWo Wolfpac: Nash, Luger, Sting
WCW: Piper, DDP, Warrior (yes, Ultimate Warrior)

Two men, one from each team started the match. Five minutes later, another person enters the match by random draw. From there, a new competitor every minute. So part Royal Rumble/Elimination Chamber.

The winner who scores a pinfall or submission (escaping the cage does not count, nor does going over the top rope since there's a cage) earns a shot at the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at Halloween Havoc.

So, no one was really sure why there were teams since it was every man for himself.

Anyway, DDP won after Warrior chased Hogan away when it looked like Hogan was about to win, thus continuing their brief feud into Halloween Havoc.

There were other matches, but I'll get into those later. About to tip off for the game I'm covering for MILLIONS OF DOLLAS! MILLIONS OF DOLLAS! MILLIONS OF DOLLAS!

 

Two thoughts:

1. How the hell didn't Congress and the NCAA make that list?

2. That wrestling fan looks like he may have Asperger's or some other disorder, which makes the girl filming him a royal idiot. Why video something like that?

 

Re: Adam Rose, it's good to see the Berserker and Godfather's hoes getting work again! And also, that was good stuff.

 

BTW,

I was talking to a bartender/acquaintance of mine. He was streamlined for a WWE developmental contract before he jacked his shoulder up six ways to Sunday and had to quit.

I was talking to him about the Taker/Lesnar match. It's a well-known fact they don't like each other outside the ring. My buddy was telling me the rules of the Open-chest slaps (ala Rick Flair WOOOOOOOOOO!). He said the usual is two chops like that. Anything more and the other guy feels like you're taking advantage of him and trying to hurt/embarrass him.

He said he wouldn't be surprised if Taker tries to do that to Lesnar 5 times and to expect one of the stiffest matches you've ever seen.

 

The video is fake. The guy is part of the Angry Grandpa YouTube show. They play trailer-livin' white trash characters. So I'm amused by the people who use this to mock wrestling fans, unaware that the video is as fake as the rasslin'.

 

Additional thought on WCW Fall Brawl: This was the only PPV to showcase Jericho's "feud" with Goldberg, which could have been brilliant if Goldberg hadn't been such a mark for himself. On this show, Jericho pinned midget Goldberg.

This evening, after wrapping up the last of state hoops, I enjoyed WCW Halloween Havoc 1998. My favorite part of this event is the giant bat-creature shaking the pumpkin. That's a fantastic set for 1998. Now, it would be just another graphic on a giant LED screen. Yawn.

Show highlights:
- Kevin Nash vs. Scott Hall. Da Bad Guy is in the middle of his "drunk Scott Hall" storyline, and fans are wondering "is he really wrestling drunk?" Probably.

- Sting vs. Bret Hart. What could have been a classic match between two of the best WCW main event-quality workers, this was a stinker. Foreign objects, knocked out official, didn't really tell a story because by then it was really obvious that creative didn't know how to book Hart.

- Hollywood Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior. This was the type of shit that people point to when asked why WCW sucked so much.

- Goldberg vs. Diamond Dallas Page for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. This isn't the most technical match ever put on, but it was a great main event for these guys because they had two established characters tell a story that made sense. Not always the norm in WCW, so don't discount this match just because it's these two guys and late '90s WCW. I forgot how much I enjoyed this match. You've got the People's Champion, the regular guy, who's finally getting his shot at the top title. The only problem is he's got to beat a guy booked to be indestructible. How does the match go down? DDP cannot beat Goldberg because of his sheer power, so he uses his veteran experience to make Goldberg make a huge mistake: spearing the metal ring post. Goldberg can bounce back from a suplex, but flesh and bone will always lose to a solid metal post. Goldberg sells the injury properly, DDP takes advantage by hitting big moves, but the moves damn near kill Page in the process. Page could win, but he'll come out of the match worse for the wear. This is what Undertaker and Triple H did at WrestleMania 28: the winner was more beat to shit than the loser. But, Goldberg prevails and retains his championship. This match was the most compelling Goldberg match he'd ever have with WCW. (And not because he didn't have the physical talent. The guy is as big as he is and does a standing backflip just for the hell of it. Had Goldberg been trained differently and allowed to grow as a performer instead of doing nothing but squash matches, who knows how compelling his matches could have become? Oh well.)

Unfortunately, Halloween Havoc is one of the last decent WCW pay-per-views, and things are about to really turn to shit soup. Why? Soon, Kevin Nash takes over the book, pencils himself in as champion, and then ... THE FINGER POKE OF DOOM. The death spiral is about to begin.

 

Was that Halloween Havoc the one where the PPV feed cut off a couple of minutes into the Goldberg-DDP match?

 

Damn. Not just another one off the market -- one of the hottest ever.

Stacy Keibler secretly hitched.

http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/118-daily-updates/35827-stacy-keibler-surprise-wedding-yesterday-in-mexico

 

Yes. Fortunately, the WWE Network does not cut off the match after the first lock up.