Random wrestling thoughts


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Today I wore my Flairouette shirt to the local Fall Fair and got like seven Woos from people, so tonight I decided to drink my ass off and watch the Ric Flair DVD instead of podcasting.

I'm pretty good with 80s 90s and a little bit of 00s wrestling, and starting to pick back up right now, but the early early 80s stuff I'm catching up on* but the first three matches on this DVD are odd. The first versus Jack Briscoe starts off oddly and gets decent but then kind of farts out when Flair loses. He's a heel here, but there's a clear "Go Ric Go" chant somewhere in the middle of the match. Then there's the best of 3 match, only a few weeks later, with Kerry von Erich (especially delightful seeing as I'm reading Gary Hart's book right now) which is fucking brilliant. The crowd HATES Flair with every fibre of their being.

Less than a year later, Flair takes on Harley Race in a badass fucking brawl where the crowd adores Ric. 

It's a real testament to his versatility, even though I understand most of his best matches were before this era (though none of those are on this DVD set) it's been pretty solid to see Flair matches I'd never seen before, and if it wasn't WWF or WCW, then I'd never seen them before.

*I would absolutely enjoy some tips of matches to watch, BTW

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Flair had versatility and could make a crowd turn from booing to cheering and back at will. The last 15-20 years, it was impossible for him to be a heel. Not that he wasn't good at it - he was - but decades of being an all-time great has made it impossible to get fans to boo him. That, to me, is the ultimate show of respect.

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So the Mae Young classic is over.  And now I can state fully that I disliked pretty much everything about it, except for the actual wrestling.  The wrestling was fine to very good.  The actual tournament was well done with enough surprise winners to keep things interesting.  I don't like the fact a lot of focus was put on a famous person sitting in the front row, but I get it and it is what it is.

But I did not like how they presented the series at all.  The 'binge' watch rollout was a horrible idea.  Going the CWC route of one episode a week after NXT worked so much better.  I was given time to digest, think, anticipate and want more.  This did not. When the second set came out, less than 24 hours later, their own WWE youtube page uploaded interviews with winners. In my head, that implies that they expected me to watch on Monday.  And now I have spoilers by just opening an app.

And having the finals come off as some thrown together afterthought, sandwiched in between two other shows.  Give it more of an event feel, instead of showing the four in the crowd, have the other competitors have a tag match.  Showcase some of this new talent you have coming in.

But the in ring was good.  Hopefully this breathes some life into the very stale women's divisions on all three shows.

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On 9/17/2017 at 7:11 PM, The Master said:

The man was a master at his craft, making everything he touched shine. Be it at ringside or in the commentators' both, he sold the entertainment, the wrestlers, and the stories like no one else.

Pro wrestling badly needs managers today. There will never be another Heenan, but imagine how many people who can't deliver good promos would be aided by a manager. Would Brock Lesnar be as over as he is without Paul Heyman? He would be over, no doubt, but Heyman is a huge part of that. Without Heenan, the WrestleMania III main event would not have been as big or as memorable as it was.

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  • 4 weeks later...
14 hours ago, Professor said:

I'm scared.  Angle is insane.  I hope he doesn't do anything overly risky.

Yeah, I saw this on @D.W.'s twitter feed and I just cringed. This man should not be in a match. I don't want to see him hurt. The excitement of seeing him in a match just isn't worth the risk to his health. If I had a Network subscription, I would cancel it over this.

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Angle was on the indies between TNA and his WWE return and wrestling normal matches without problems, so I don't think him simply being in a ring should be THAT concerning.

Yes, a multiman TLC match is a slightly different beast, but I fully expect Ambrose & Rollins to be taking on the majority of the legwork for their team and Angle to be protected as much as possible.

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  • 1 month later...

OK, this was a while ago, and since I don't have a TV subscription I missed this when it happened.

It still deserves to be called out.

Anyway: One of the parts of the Alexa Bliss vs. Mickie James feud earlier this year was mocking James for her age. Really.

WWE has come a long way with the women's division, but this is incredibly misogynistic. How many men on the WWE roster are older than Mickie James?

Mickie James was born in 1979.

That makes her two years younger than Brock Lesnar, AJ Styles and John Cena. She is one year younger than Sheamus. She is one year older than Randy Orton.

We don't see anything about those five men being senior citizens. But because Mickie James is a woman, it is unacceptable for her to age past 30 years old.

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Yes, I know it's a storyline and Alexa Bliss is a heel. (I cannot believe I have to say this.) But that makes it worse. Because this misogynistic idiocy was approved by management.

Did Stephanie McMahon - who is three years older than Mickie James, by the way - approve of this storyline?

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On 12/16/2017 at 1:12 PM, S-T said:

Yes, I know it's a storyline and Alexa Bliss is a heel. (I cannot believe I have to say this.) But that makes it worse. Because this misogynistic idiocy was approved by management.

Did Stephanie McMahon - who is three years older than Mickie James, by the way - approve of this storyline?

At least its much better than LayCool’s Mean Girls act body shaming her.

Too be honest, IDK, you do get “new guy mocks an old vet’s “age”” in promos often.  Maybe not as “Mean Girls” bullying as Bliss was to Mickie.  (How many times has Undertaker’s veteran status been brought up in his WM match build) 

Or maybe we’re being too hyper sensitive when it happens to a non-white male, IDK.  But they, or something akin to “get out of my way old timer”, do occur as part of match builds.

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It does happen, but I don't think it happens when the man is under 40 years old. And my point remains about all the men on the roster who are older than Mickie James is right now.

You're right that the LayCool thing was worse. The angle with Molly Holly was even worse than that, because this time the "mean girl" was a babyface. I remember ranting about that on The Oratory about 15 years ago.

On 12/24/2017 at 10:58 AM, SteveJRogers said:

Too be honest, IDK, you do get “new guy mocks an old vet’s “age”” in promos often.

 

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In WWE I hate that stuff because it's actually detrimental to Mickie.

However in Stardom the age range of performers is about 15-40, and the teenage up and comers frequently call older talent Grandma. That's because the audience is involved enough to know better and because it's a women's promotion the older talent have a lot more respect to begin with.

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I finally had a chance to watch WK12 yesterday.  And good lord that was a marathon.  WWE gets a lot of flack (and deservedly) for their 'more is more' stance on their big shows.  NJPW gets a pass and they really shouldn't.  Yes, the New Japan shows are better top to bottom. I feel that is not debatable.  But WK12 took me all day to get thru.  I had to take several breaks.  I hit an absolute wall during Tanahashi/White.  Not sure I recovered for the main events.  I just makes the entire experience less enjoyable than they should be.

As for that card itself, it was quite good.  Don't think I am as blown away as some of the reviews I have been reading.  My best match was probably the Jr 4-way.  Worst matches were both tag matches; traditional and 6-man.  Jericho/Omega was good.  Okada/Naito was better.  Okada's pants were the best.

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