It was just the other night that I was watching a DVD of Survivor Series, in this DVD Hulk Hogan lost the belt to the UnderTaker. Awile after this Mean Gene Okerlund went down in to the catacombs to interview thr new Champion the UnderTaker. Throught the whole DVD I was pretty much sat going to my daughter oh this is The Mountie, this is the Beserker and going on to give her mini histories of each individual including things such as how long there careers went on, what there highlights were. Then like the very next day I was reading through stuff on the internet and I was very sad to learn that good old 'Mean' Gene Okerlund had passed away.
WWE posted the news of Okerlund's death on their official website but no cause of death has been given as yet, Mean Gene was 76. The man had a career within the wrestling industry which spanned over five decades, I dont think I would be wrong in saying that within the wrestling industry Mean Gene was one of the finest ever interviewers and
presenters. Yes the wrestlers have always done a great job in providing entertainment but people like Mene Gene were always there to add a layer of polish and professionalism to procedings, if it wasnt for Mene Gene then the WWF/WWE would not have been as enjoyable as it was for kids like me, if it hadnt been for the work of those around the ring in none wrestling roles such as Mene Gene, Gorilla Monsoon, Bobby the Brain and various others then we all proberbly would have been a lot quicker to realise that what we were essentially watching was a bunch of oily men performing pantomime slap fighting. Mean Gene made not only mine but so many other peoples childhoods just that little bit more magical.
Mean Gene was Born Eugene Arthur Okerlund
on the 19th of December in 1942 in Sisseton, South Dakota. Originally he started out as a radio broadcast
journalist before becoming an interviewer forthe AWA (American Wrestling Association). When Vince McMahon began purchsaing the territories in
the mid-'80s, he ended up being Okerlunds new employer. As an announcer Mean Gene would
turn out to be one of McMahon's most valuable employees. Mean Gene would stay with the WWF for nine years as
their top interviewer, and was also the host of various WWF shows. In a world full of cartoon wrestlers Okerlund was the perfect touch of class brought to procedings, and his presence would be much appreciated on shows such as Prime Time Wrestling and he would appear in some capacity at pretty much every major PPV, he even sang the national anthem
at the first WrestleMania. Stupidly WCW failed to offer Okerlund a new contract and so he was snapped up by the WCW in 1993, something which I think really helped lend the WCW as a company a real sense of legitimacy.
Okerlund would return to
WWE at WrestleMania X-Seven for the 'Gimmick Battle Royal' following the
WWE's purchase of WCW, he was given a contract from there on and would sparodically appear, in 2006, he was very rightly inducted into the WWE's Hall of Fame.
Rest in Peace Mr Okerlund you will be very much missed
Showing posts with label WWE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WWE. Show all posts
Thursday, 3 January 2019
Monday, 22 January 2018
My Review of WWE TLC 2011 Part 1: 2 belts and a Cowboys son
OK so as a youngster I was into my wrestling, I grew up through the
whole Hulkamania Era, I did watch a lot of the New Generation and
Attitude stuff, I basically hung around up until Kurt Angle left and
then my attention just shrunk and shrunk, it was nothing against the
product at the time but we all have our favourates who keep us coming
back for more. When I was Young the people I really liked were
Demolition, the Big Bossman, Jake the Snake ecetera, then when it hit
the attitude era and beyond I found myself getting behind the Rock and
Kurt Angle. I dont really have the time to keep completly up to date
with the world of Wrestling but I did decide I would visit my local CEX
and see what semi recent pay per views I could get on the cheap. for the
grand price of £8 I managed to pick up TLC 2011 and 3 2012 Pay Per
views so figured why not look at them and rate them through the eyes of
an 80's fan.
OK so the one I am looking at first is TLC 2011 now bearing in mind that according to the back of my blue ray its 4 hours long (not sure if this is just the event or all the extras as well) I am going to span this over a few posts so this will be part 1.
The Pay Per view started with one of the don't try this at home promos and I could only think two things one of them being that as a kid I used to do back breakers on everyone at school and get them done on me to so I wonder if this actually puts anyone off, that and the fact that Rey Mysterios voice sounds like a kids, why not get someone like Brock Lesner who might actually intermediate little kiddy winkles tell them that if they do this kind of stuff to each other then he will come and F5 them through a table.
The commentators were Michael Cole and Jerry the King Lawler. The thing hasn't even started and Vickie Guerrero comes on giving a big speech introducing Dolph Ziggler the United States Champion, shes totally not convincing the only thing shes does is make me wish some one would shut her up, you could say that in itself is heat but its not earned heat. As Zack Ryder comes to the ring and his music plays there is a notice in the bottom corner of the screen telling you that you can buy it on I-tunes, its a decent enough song but I really don't want them trying to flog stuff to me this soon. They announce some of the Counties who will be watching this starting with the UK. This flogging stuff thing is not new though, I remember old WWE/WWF events trying to sell upcoming events and other bits and pieces but it still feels a bit in your face for my taste.
Cole is obviously a heel commenter and is trying to be all current with hash tags and the like. The King doesn't seem as good as I remember having heard him be in the past, he is very much on the faces side and a bit immature at times but I am sure I remember him being a lot cruder and having a much more laser like wit, maybe he has been intentionally neuterd? The match starts slowly with a lot of circling but they then start to show off some pretty decent ring work. Both of the guys are working pretty well but Vickie seriously needs to watch some old tapes of Bobbie the Brain and Corenette, heck id even rather have her watch some of the jive soul bro Slick than act the way she is here, she is an absolute void of charisma. There is a headlock section which I know some people would argue is a rest spot but wow are the crowd eating it up, there is soon another one but it works for the story Zack Rider is clearly being shown as an underdog with a lot of heart. A lovely missile drop kick from the top rope looks like a charm and results in a sort of 2 and a half count. Then there is another pin soon after and Vickie Guerrero puts Zigglers foot on the rope causing the ref to have her removed from ring side. Latter on there is a Hurricarana from Rider from off the top rope which I really enjoyed. Eventually after a very even feeling match Zack Ryder gets the 3 count and becomes the new United States Champion and clearly the fans love it, in all honesty with the work he had put into this match I was glad to see him win. It also needs to be say that Ziggler took bumps and sold like a boss. Of course now as an adult I know this is all sports entertainment but I think if I had been a kid when I had seen this I would have absolutely marked out. It is pointed out that one of the guys covered in merch is actually Zack Ryders dad which I thought was pretty darn cool. All in all I really liked this match and both competitors get a standing ovation from me. This match set me up to think that you know what maybe I am going to really enjoy this pay per view.
After this the show cuts to Booker T talking with Alicia Fox backstage. He’s quickly interrupted by Cody Rhodes laying a pearl harbor on him as some of the old announcers would say. Cody gives him an absolute kicking ending this by shouting“Merry Christmas!” on his way out while Booker tries to sell being really hurt. I think Booker is great I have always been a fan of him but I must say WOW did this make Cody look like one hell of an awesome son of a bitch, I bet his Dad the Common Man, the American Dream Dusty Rhodes was so proud of his son. (RIP Dusty).
I found it really weird to move straight from a contest involving a belt to another belt related one. Straight after the United states Championship match we have a Tag Team championship match. Yeah we had a bit of filler between but no matches.
So the next match is a WWE Tag Team Title Match between Air Boom (Kofi Kingston/Evan Bourne) and Primo & Epico. Epico and Bourne start us off, trading a few cradle and arm lock attempts. Bourne delivers a hurricanrana on Epico and then tags Kofi. Primo tags in and he and Kofi wind up trading huge monkey-flips. We get to a point where Epico and Primo isolate Bourne in their corner and work him over, they give him a devastating tilt-a-whirl back-breaker and this gets them a two count. I have to admit that I had no idea who anyone in this match was except for Kofi Kingston, this made me naturally kind of side for his team which I worked out from the commentary was the face team of the match.
Primo hits a back suplex, rolls through into another one, and then rolls through into a third suplex, this time a German, but it only nets him a two count, maybe its the love I have for Kurt Angle but I always like to see this sort of thing where you get suplex after suplex. There is really an element of story here that fans of old school wrestling will like Bourne is clearly being kept in the ring and being punished and your just waiting for him to get a chance to reach Kofi so when he gets the hot tag to Kofi you just want to jump up and scream ''YES''.
Kingston hops in the ring and becomes a dropkick delivery service absolutely cleaning house. Epico hops in but Bourne hits him with a soaring cross-body off the top rope. Primo turns around and gets nailed with a move I have learned is called Trouble in Paradise from Kofi and well thats all she wrote, the champs win and retain there belt. This match was really good but I felt like it could have used a little bit of extra time, but then again maybe it was short and sweet as it was.
We take a moment to check backstage with Josh Matthews for an update on Booker T, Josh Matthews might as well be made from card board, sure some people in the old days like Sean Mooney or however its spelt didnt exactly drip with personality but Matthews could be replaced by a cardboard cut out. Apparently Booker is being checked over to see if he is fit to compete and Josh tells us that Cody was walking around with a big grin on his face, so the match might be off tonight. More than likely this is just so that Booker can get a hopefully bigger pop when he comes out later.
Elsewhere backstage Teddy Long is dressed up as Santa Claus, alongside Hornswoggle who is in a elf suit. Teddy starts saying how if Horn has been a good little boy he will get presents to which horn replies that he is not a kid he has a beard and dropped testicles the works and asks Teddy Long when Santa Claus became black. Long responds by saying that living in the neighborhood he did no white jolly men ever came down his chimney. Long gives Hornswoggle a Rosetta Stone book on how to learn Ebonics stage 1 as a Christmas present. Horn asks Teddy to hug it out but instead it looks like he clips him one straight in the balls and then runs.I have to admit yes sometimes WWE is very unpolitically correct but I see it a lot like that charming old uncle who happens to be very funny but only because he is basically so backwards and out of date that he is the joke not the things that he says, still it gave me a good little chuckle.
So next we have a tables Match between Randy Orton and Wade Barrett. This is the point when I need to say that I have never ever liked Orton he feels like a cookie cutter wrestler, I don't think he has any real substance or personality he is like the default avatar from a wrestling game with some tattoos stamped on him quickly in a cheap attempt to add a touch of character. This very simply fact makes me instantly root for Wade Barrett even though I essentially have no knowledge of who he is. I think is was Winston Churchill that said he would give a favorable reference to the Devil himself if he helped him fight the Nazi menace, this is a bit like how I feel here anyone slamming Orton is OK in my books.
Orton quickly hits his signature backbreaker on Wade and once Wade is down the first thing he does is to exit the ring and grab a table, only to have Wade kick it right back into his face. Randy returns the favor by smashing Wade’s face into the steel steps at ringside. There are tables set up just about everywhere they are all the way down the aisle and rampway, its pretty much at the stage where they wouldn't have been able to turn around without seeing a table. I cant help but think that I would have found it so damn funny if one or both of them had fallen over and gone through a table by accident and finished the match.
Wade tries for a pump-handle slam through a table, but Randy counters and the table is knocked aside and this is basically how the match goes from here, one of them tries to put the other through the table but the other gets out of the way or reverses the situation and the match carries on. They end up setting up tables in the corner of the ring and outside the ring and this leads to the point where it is teased that Orton is going to get booted from the apron through a table, but he hangs onto the ropes to save himself. I really really couldn't keep my attention during this match I just didn't care about it and that might be due to my dislike of Randy Orton. I cant really pin down why I dislike him so much maybe its because I just find him bland and boring but get the impression that he sees himself as gods gift to the world of wrestling. Maybe this is a gimmick heat thing but if it is its not having the desired effect of me wanting to see him beat its just making me want to go to sleep. I saw Orton put Barret through the table and all I felt was a great sense of relief that the match was over and this is the point where I decided to turn the blue-ray off. I had up until this point really been enjoying this show but this match just killed all of that dead for me and I felt that I needed to take a break so this is where I will end this review for now...
OK so the one I am looking at first is TLC 2011 now bearing in mind that according to the back of my blue ray its 4 hours long (not sure if this is just the event or all the extras as well) I am going to span this over a few posts so this will be part 1.
The Pay Per view started with one of the don't try this at home promos and I could only think two things one of them being that as a kid I used to do back breakers on everyone at school and get them done on me to so I wonder if this actually puts anyone off, that and the fact that Rey Mysterios voice sounds like a kids, why not get someone like Brock Lesner who might actually intermediate little kiddy winkles tell them that if they do this kind of stuff to each other then he will come and F5 them through a table.
The commentators were Michael Cole and Jerry the King Lawler. The thing hasn't even started and Vickie Guerrero comes on giving a big speech introducing Dolph Ziggler the United States Champion, shes totally not convincing the only thing shes does is make me wish some one would shut her up, you could say that in itself is heat but its not earned heat. As Zack Ryder comes to the ring and his music plays there is a notice in the bottom corner of the screen telling you that you can buy it on I-tunes, its a decent enough song but I really don't want them trying to flog stuff to me this soon. They announce some of the Counties who will be watching this starting with the UK. This flogging stuff thing is not new though, I remember old WWE/WWF events trying to sell upcoming events and other bits and pieces but it still feels a bit in your face for my taste.
Cole is obviously a heel commenter and is trying to be all current with hash tags and the like. The King doesn't seem as good as I remember having heard him be in the past, he is very much on the faces side and a bit immature at times but I am sure I remember him being a lot cruder and having a much more laser like wit, maybe he has been intentionally neuterd? The match starts slowly with a lot of circling but they then start to show off some pretty decent ring work. Both of the guys are working pretty well but Vickie seriously needs to watch some old tapes of Bobbie the Brain and Corenette, heck id even rather have her watch some of the jive soul bro Slick than act the way she is here, she is an absolute void of charisma. There is a headlock section which I know some people would argue is a rest spot but wow are the crowd eating it up, there is soon another one but it works for the story Zack Rider is clearly being shown as an underdog with a lot of heart. A lovely missile drop kick from the top rope looks like a charm and results in a sort of 2 and a half count. Then there is another pin soon after and Vickie Guerrero puts Zigglers foot on the rope causing the ref to have her removed from ring side. Latter on there is a Hurricarana from Rider from off the top rope which I really enjoyed. Eventually after a very even feeling match Zack Ryder gets the 3 count and becomes the new United States Champion and clearly the fans love it, in all honesty with the work he had put into this match I was glad to see him win. It also needs to be say that Ziggler took bumps and sold like a boss. Of course now as an adult I know this is all sports entertainment but I think if I had been a kid when I had seen this I would have absolutely marked out. It is pointed out that one of the guys covered in merch is actually Zack Ryders dad which I thought was pretty darn cool. All in all I really liked this match and both competitors get a standing ovation from me. This match set me up to think that you know what maybe I am going to really enjoy this pay per view.
After this the show cuts to Booker T talking with Alicia Fox backstage. He’s quickly interrupted by Cody Rhodes laying a pearl harbor on him as some of the old announcers would say. Cody gives him an absolute kicking ending this by shouting“Merry Christmas!” on his way out while Booker tries to sell being really hurt. I think Booker is great I have always been a fan of him but I must say WOW did this make Cody look like one hell of an awesome son of a bitch, I bet his Dad the Common Man, the American Dream Dusty Rhodes was so proud of his son. (RIP Dusty).
I found it really weird to move straight from a contest involving a belt to another belt related one. Straight after the United states Championship match we have a Tag Team championship match. Yeah we had a bit of filler between but no matches.
So the next match is a WWE Tag Team Title Match between Air Boom (Kofi Kingston/Evan Bourne) and Primo & Epico. Epico and Bourne start us off, trading a few cradle and arm lock attempts. Bourne delivers a hurricanrana on Epico and then tags Kofi. Primo tags in and he and Kofi wind up trading huge monkey-flips. We get to a point where Epico and Primo isolate Bourne in their corner and work him over, they give him a devastating tilt-a-whirl back-breaker and this gets them a two count. I have to admit that I had no idea who anyone in this match was except for Kofi Kingston, this made me naturally kind of side for his team which I worked out from the commentary was the face team of the match.
Primo hits a back suplex, rolls through into another one, and then rolls through into a third suplex, this time a German, but it only nets him a two count, maybe its the love I have for Kurt Angle but I always like to see this sort of thing where you get suplex after suplex. There is really an element of story here that fans of old school wrestling will like Bourne is clearly being kept in the ring and being punished and your just waiting for him to get a chance to reach Kofi so when he gets the hot tag to Kofi you just want to jump up and scream ''YES''.
Kingston hops in the ring and becomes a dropkick delivery service absolutely cleaning house. Epico hops in but Bourne hits him with a soaring cross-body off the top rope. Primo turns around and gets nailed with a move I have learned is called Trouble in Paradise from Kofi and well thats all she wrote, the champs win and retain there belt. This match was really good but I felt like it could have used a little bit of extra time, but then again maybe it was short and sweet as it was.
We take a moment to check backstage with Josh Matthews for an update on Booker T, Josh Matthews might as well be made from card board, sure some people in the old days like Sean Mooney or however its spelt didnt exactly drip with personality but Matthews could be replaced by a cardboard cut out. Apparently Booker is being checked over to see if he is fit to compete and Josh tells us that Cody was walking around with a big grin on his face, so the match might be off tonight. More than likely this is just so that Booker can get a hopefully bigger pop when he comes out later.
Elsewhere backstage Teddy Long is dressed up as Santa Claus, alongside Hornswoggle who is in a elf suit. Teddy starts saying how if Horn has been a good little boy he will get presents to which horn replies that he is not a kid he has a beard and dropped testicles the works and asks Teddy Long when Santa Claus became black. Long responds by saying that living in the neighborhood he did no white jolly men ever came down his chimney. Long gives Hornswoggle a Rosetta Stone book on how to learn Ebonics stage 1 as a Christmas present. Horn asks Teddy to hug it out but instead it looks like he clips him one straight in the balls and then runs.I have to admit yes sometimes WWE is very unpolitically correct but I see it a lot like that charming old uncle who happens to be very funny but only because he is basically so backwards and out of date that he is the joke not the things that he says, still it gave me a good little chuckle.
So next we have a tables Match between Randy Orton and Wade Barrett. This is the point when I need to say that I have never ever liked Orton he feels like a cookie cutter wrestler, I don't think he has any real substance or personality he is like the default avatar from a wrestling game with some tattoos stamped on him quickly in a cheap attempt to add a touch of character. This very simply fact makes me instantly root for Wade Barrett even though I essentially have no knowledge of who he is. I think is was Winston Churchill that said he would give a favorable reference to the Devil himself if he helped him fight the Nazi menace, this is a bit like how I feel here anyone slamming Orton is OK in my books.
Orton quickly hits his signature backbreaker on Wade and once Wade is down the first thing he does is to exit the ring and grab a table, only to have Wade kick it right back into his face. Randy returns the favor by smashing Wade’s face into the steel steps at ringside. There are tables set up just about everywhere they are all the way down the aisle and rampway, its pretty much at the stage where they wouldn't have been able to turn around without seeing a table. I cant help but think that I would have found it so damn funny if one or both of them had fallen over and gone through a table by accident and finished the match.
Wade tries for a pump-handle slam through a table, but Randy counters and the table is knocked aside and this is basically how the match goes from here, one of them tries to put the other through the table but the other gets out of the way or reverses the situation and the match carries on. They end up setting up tables in the corner of the ring and outside the ring and this leads to the point where it is teased that Orton is going to get booted from the apron through a table, but he hangs onto the ropes to save himself. I really really couldn't keep my attention during this match I just didn't care about it and that might be due to my dislike of Randy Orton. I cant really pin down why I dislike him so much maybe its because I just find him bland and boring but get the impression that he sees himself as gods gift to the world of wrestling. Maybe this is a gimmick heat thing but if it is its not having the desired effect of me wanting to see him beat its just making me want to go to sleep. I saw Orton put Barret through the table and all I felt was a great sense of relief that the match was over and this is the point where I decided to turn the blue-ray off. I had up until this point really been enjoying this show but this match just killed all of that dead for me and I felt that I needed to take a break so this is where I will end this review for now...
Saturday, 6 January 2018
A look at the WWE hall of fame 2008
Ok so you have most likly gatherd from the title of this thread that I am back to talk once again about the WWE hall of fame and about those who were inducted in to it in 2008. Now as always I will be talking about the people based on my knowledge of them and my opinion on them so I apologise if anyone thinks I dont do a person justice I fully admit that others might know far more about an individual or hold them in far higher regard than I do. I also feel that I need to add that this is not a great Hall of Fame year for me, sure I have witnesed most of those involved do there thing but its a little short on individuals I hold dear.
Ok so I have decided to keep the person I know the most and whoise career I have enjoyed the most to last as I will proberbly have the most to say about them and I would like to end on a high as apposed to end this post just dribbling and rambling about stuff I dont really know much about so without further adu here goes.
Gordon Solie was inducted in to the hall of fame this year and he is one of those people who managed to get inducted despite never as far as I know having actually worked for the WWE in any capacity. He had however worked as a play-by-play announcer for Georgia Championship Wrestling, Championship Wrestling from Florida, USA Championship Wrestling, Continental Championship Wrestling, and WCW (World Championship Wrestling). I am not very familiar with his work at all but I do know that he is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential wrestling announcers with good old JR (Jim Ross) stating that he was the most significant influence on his own career as an announcer. I kind of have to say with this one that if JR believes he belongs in the hall then he belongs in the hall.
Eddie Graham, was inducted into the hall of fame this year, during his time in the world of wrestling he was a wrestler a promoter and a booke. The guy had a long career debuting in 1947 and retiring in 1980 but as he retired before my birth and before wrestling really started to be regularly recorded and saved he is not a person I am very familiar with at all, sure I have heard the name come up but I dont really feel qualified to talk about him. I will say however that I am glad that the WWE recognises people whoise glory days predate the company.
Mae Young, unfortunatly for a lot of people she will be known as that old Lady who had a think with Mark Henry and gave birth to a hand. Yes she was used by WWE a lot in her latter years as joke fodder but when it comes to female wrestlers she is actually a pretty darn important one and one who I think is worth a spot in any wrestling hall of fame. Young is believed to have competed wrestling in seven diffrent decades. There is some debate about when exactly she started but it is known that she was wrestling in Memphis, Tennessee on December 7, 1941, which just so happens to be the day that Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese. During World War 2 with many men absent fighting overseas Young not only flurished herself but also helped other Women get into the world of wrestling expanding their role in the sport. While working for Championship Wrestling from Florida, she became the NWA Florida Women's Champion(1 time) and she was also at one point the National Wrestling Alliance's United States Women's Champion, as well as also once holding there World Tag Team Championship (with Ella Waldek), I know some people will stop me and say that anyone can be given a belt but look at it this way people are not given belts unless companies know the belts are safe in there hands and that they will bring asses to seats. Yes her latter days in the WWE might have ended up a little comical but she was a trail blazer helping to open up the world of wrestling for Women and helping it to grow and change.
"Soulman" Rocky Johnson (Wayde Bowles) is a Canadian retired professional wrestler. During his wrestling career, he became a National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) Georgia Champion and a NWA Southern Heavyweight Memphis Champion, as well as winning many other championships. Along with his partner Tony Atlas, Johnson was a part of the first black tag team to win the World Tag Team championship in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Nowdays most people proberbly have no idea who Rocky Johnson was despite his impressive career if people even know who he is then they possibly just know of him as the father of American actor and professional wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as his sons achievments have sort of eclipsed his.
Even a certain degree of credit for the Rock can be placed on his fathers shoulders as he was one of the people responsible for training his son Dwayne to wrestle. He initially didnt want his son to enter the world of wrestling because he knew it was extremely difficult, he agreed to train his son on the condition that he would not go easy on him. The Soulman helped Dwayne get signed to a WWF developmental deal. Initially, he appeared on screen in angels connected to his son but when his son went from wrestling under the name Rocky Mavia and became the Rock this stopped.
Johnson was also hired as a trainer for the WWE developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling, in early 2003 but this appointment only lasted for a few months. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame by his son, The Rock and strangly enough he wasnt the only person connected to The Rock inducted this year. As part of the first black tag team to win the WWF tag team belts and with his other acheivements I believe he is worthy of his spot in the hall of fame.
"High Chief" Peter Maivia AKA Fanene Leifi Pita Maivia (born Peter Fanene Anderson)was an American Samoan professional wrestler. He is the maternal grandfather of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, part of the famous Anoa'i wrestling family and was a promoter for the National Wrestling Alliance in Hawaii. His acomplishments were all in the NWA so his place in the hall of fame is one more gained from his contribution to the world of wrestling rather than to the WWF/WWE as a company. In fairness he is not someone who I feel qualified to talk about in depth but I can certainly understand his place in the hall of fame.
2008 Saw one team inducted into the hall of fame and that was The Brisco Brothers, which was comprised of Freddie Joe "Jack" Brisco an American professional wrestler who performed for various territories of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), becoming a two-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, and multi-time NWA Tag Team Champion and his younger brother
Gerald Floyd Brisco is an American retired professional wrestler, currently employed by the professional wrestling promotion WWE as a talent scout who later in his career become an on screen stooge to Vince McMahon. I find these two a little hard to talk about as a lot of there most impressive things are stuff I have never seen. In a way I think that they would have been better being enterd in the hall seperatly Jack Brisco on the strength of his in ring career and Gerald Brisco more for his back of house work such as his role as a talent scout etc.
Now the next and final person I am going to be talking about is "The Stylin', profilin', limousine riding, jet flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin' n' dealin' son of a gun!" The Nature Boy Ric Flair a man who I feel needs little in the way of introduction yet here I am trying to sum up his career and his entitlement to a place in the WWE hall of fame, lets just put it this way if Ric Flair wasnt in the hall of fame then it would make most people stop and ask if the hall of fame had any credability what so ever. Flair was an American professional wrestler and manager who is currently signed to WWE under its Legends program.
Flair is widely regarded by a great many people as the greatest professional wrestler of all time and the best American performer of the 1980s. Flair had a career that spanned 40 years this includes time with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later WWE) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). He also spent a whole lot of time in Japan and has pretty much been a major pay-per-view attraction throughout his whole career, Flair headlined at the premier annual NWA/WCW event, Starrcade, on ten occasions, as well as co-headlining its WWF counterpart, WrestleMania, in 1992, after winning that year's Royal Rumble in what can only be described as an incredable performance entering at number 3 and ending up the winner. PWI magazine awarded him their Wrestler of the Year award a record six times, while Wrestling Observer Newsletter named him the Wrestler of the Year eight times. Ric Flair is also the one and only two-time WWE Hall of Fame inductee he was inducted this year for his own individual career and in 2012 he was inducted as a member of The Four Horsemen. Flair is not only in the WWE hall of fame he is also a member of the NWA Hall of Fame, Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame, and Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame.Unlike many other wrestlers even if you havent seen or know of the events in this or that federation if you have even a passing intrest in wrestling then your bound to have come across the work of Ric Flair.
Now I dont agree with Flair's almost constant alchol consumption or his cheating on his wives, his drunken helecopter dick airplane beahaviour (apparently what he got up to during a plane journey referd to as the plane ride from hell) but I do think that he would easily be one of the greatest wrestlers to have ever lived and I have to thank him for all of the wonderful memories he provided not only me but so many people over the years. So often he was so busy playing the villian role that he didnt get the respect he deserved, I remember wanting people like Hulk Hogan and Sting to rip his head off but now as an adult I can see the very important part he played.
Over all there was no one really in 2008 who I really felt didnt deserve to be inducted in to the hall of fame, even if I would have handled the Brisco's diffrently. Its personally not the best year for me as there is only really Flair who I grew up watching but its not a bad year at all.
Ok so I have decided to keep the person I know the most and whoise career I have enjoyed the most to last as I will proberbly have the most to say about them and I would like to end on a high as apposed to end this post just dribbling and rambling about stuff I dont really know much about so without further adu here goes.
Gordon Solie was inducted in to the hall of fame this year and he is one of those people who managed to get inducted despite never as far as I know having actually worked for the WWE in any capacity. He had however worked as a play-by-play announcer for Georgia Championship Wrestling, Championship Wrestling from Florida, USA Championship Wrestling, Continental Championship Wrestling, and WCW (World Championship Wrestling). I am not very familiar with his work at all but I do know that he is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential wrestling announcers with good old JR (Jim Ross) stating that he was the most significant influence on his own career as an announcer. I kind of have to say with this one that if JR believes he belongs in the hall then he belongs in the hall.
Eddie Graham, was inducted into the hall of fame this year, during his time in the world of wrestling he was a wrestler a promoter and a booke. The guy had a long career debuting in 1947 and retiring in 1980 but as he retired before my birth and before wrestling really started to be regularly recorded and saved he is not a person I am very familiar with at all, sure I have heard the name come up but I dont really feel qualified to talk about him. I will say however that I am glad that the WWE recognises people whoise glory days predate the company.
Mae Young, unfortunatly for a lot of people she will be known as that old Lady who had a think with Mark Henry and gave birth to a hand. Yes she was used by WWE a lot in her latter years as joke fodder but when it comes to female wrestlers she is actually a pretty darn important one and one who I think is worth a spot in any wrestling hall of fame. Young is believed to have competed wrestling in seven diffrent decades. There is some debate about when exactly she started but it is known that she was wrestling in Memphis, Tennessee on December 7, 1941, which just so happens to be the day that Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese. During World War 2 with many men absent fighting overseas Young not only flurished herself but also helped other Women get into the world of wrestling expanding their role in the sport. While working for Championship Wrestling from Florida, she became the NWA Florida Women's Champion(1 time) and she was also at one point the National Wrestling Alliance's United States Women's Champion, as well as also once holding there World Tag Team Championship (with Ella Waldek), I know some people will stop me and say that anyone can be given a belt but look at it this way people are not given belts unless companies know the belts are safe in there hands and that they will bring asses to seats. Yes her latter days in the WWE might have ended up a little comical but she was a trail blazer helping to open up the world of wrestling for Women and helping it to grow and change.
"Soulman" Rocky Johnson (Wayde Bowles) is a Canadian retired professional wrestler. During his wrestling career, he became a National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) Georgia Champion and a NWA Southern Heavyweight Memphis Champion, as well as winning many other championships. Along with his partner Tony Atlas, Johnson was a part of the first black tag team to win the World Tag Team championship in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Nowdays most people proberbly have no idea who Rocky Johnson was despite his impressive career if people even know who he is then they possibly just know of him as the father of American actor and professional wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as his sons achievments have sort of eclipsed his.
Even a certain degree of credit for the Rock can be placed on his fathers shoulders as he was one of the people responsible for training his son Dwayne to wrestle. He initially didnt want his son to enter the world of wrestling because he knew it was extremely difficult, he agreed to train his son on the condition that he would not go easy on him. The Soulman helped Dwayne get signed to a WWF developmental deal. Initially, he appeared on screen in angels connected to his son but when his son went from wrestling under the name Rocky Mavia and became the Rock this stopped.
Johnson was also hired as a trainer for the WWE developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling, in early 2003 but this appointment only lasted for a few months. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame by his son, The Rock and strangly enough he wasnt the only person connected to The Rock inducted this year. As part of the first black tag team to win the WWF tag team belts and with his other acheivements I believe he is worthy of his spot in the hall of fame.
"High Chief" Peter Maivia AKA Fanene Leifi Pita Maivia (born Peter Fanene Anderson)was an American Samoan professional wrestler. He is the maternal grandfather of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, part of the famous Anoa'i wrestling family and was a promoter for the National Wrestling Alliance in Hawaii. His acomplishments were all in the NWA so his place in the hall of fame is one more gained from his contribution to the world of wrestling rather than to the WWF/WWE as a company. In fairness he is not someone who I feel qualified to talk about in depth but I can certainly understand his place in the hall of fame.
2008 Saw one team inducted into the hall of fame and that was The Brisco Brothers, which was comprised of Freddie Joe "Jack" Brisco an American professional wrestler who performed for various territories of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), becoming a two-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, and multi-time NWA Tag Team Champion and his younger brother
Gerald Floyd Brisco is an American retired professional wrestler, currently employed by the professional wrestling promotion WWE as a talent scout who later in his career become an on screen stooge to Vince McMahon. I find these two a little hard to talk about as a lot of there most impressive things are stuff I have never seen. In a way I think that they would have been better being enterd in the hall seperatly Jack Brisco on the strength of his in ring career and Gerald Brisco more for his back of house work such as his role as a talent scout etc.
Now the next and final person I am going to be talking about is "The Stylin', profilin', limousine riding, jet flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin' n' dealin' son of a gun!" The Nature Boy Ric Flair a man who I feel needs little in the way of introduction yet here I am trying to sum up his career and his entitlement to a place in the WWE hall of fame, lets just put it this way if Ric Flair wasnt in the hall of fame then it would make most people stop and ask if the hall of fame had any credability what so ever. Flair was an American professional wrestler and manager who is currently signed to WWE under its Legends program.
Flair is widely regarded by a great many people as the greatest professional wrestler of all time and the best American performer of the 1980s. Flair had a career that spanned 40 years this includes time with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later WWE) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). He also spent a whole lot of time in Japan and has pretty much been a major pay-per-view attraction throughout his whole career, Flair headlined at the premier annual NWA/WCW event, Starrcade, on ten occasions, as well as co-headlining its WWF counterpart, WrestleMania, in 1992, after winning that year's Royal Rumble in what can only be described as an incredable performance entering at number 3 and ending up the winner. PWI magazine awarded him their Wrestler of the Year award a record six times, while Wrestling Observer Newsletter named him the Wrestler of the Year eight times. Ric Flair is also the one and only two-time WWE Hall of Fame inductee he was inducted this year for his own individual career and in 2012 he was inducted as a member of The Four Horsemen. Flair is not only in the WWE hall of fame he is also a member of the NWA Hall of Fame, Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame, and Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame.Unlike many other wrestlers even if you havent seen or know of the events in this or that federation if you have even a passing intrest in wrestling then your bound to have come across the work of Ric Flair.
Now I dont agree with Flair's almost constant alchol consumption or his cheating on his wives, his drunken helecopter dick airplane beahaviour (apparently what he got up to during a plane journey referd to as the plane ride from hell) but I do think that he would easily be one of the greatest wrestlers to have ever lived and I have to thank him for all of the wonderful memories he provided not only me but so many people over the years. So often he was so busy playing the villian role that he didnt get the respect he deserved, I remember wanting people like Hulk Hogan and Sting to rip his head off but now as an adult I can see the very important part he played.
Over all there was no one really in 2008 who I really felt didnt deserve to be inducted in to the hall of fame, even if I would have handled the Brisco's diffrently. Its personally not the best year for me as there is only really Flair who I grew up watching but its not a bad year at all.
Thursday, 21 September 2017
RIP Raymond Louis Heenan AKA Bobby "The Brain" Heenan
So its been a while since I have posted anything most of this is due to my broadband modem dying and me having to get a new one and set it up and sort everything out. This hasnt only meant that I have posted on here it has also meant that I have been missing out on a lot of news, lets face it the stuff on TV and in the papers doesnt really cut it when your after the more geeky kind of info. This meant that I gave a very loud cheer when I got on the internet again but it soon turned into shedding tears when I foudn out that Raymond Louis Heenan better known as Bobby "The Brain" Heenan had passed away on September the 17th 2017.
Bobby Heenan was an American professional wrestling manager, wrestler, and color commentator, best known for his time with the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He was often called the Brain or the Weasel. In all honesty his wrestling career was well before my time, my earliest memories of him are seeing him manage Andre the Giant after he turned heel. He was amazingly skilled when it came to getting both himself and his guys over, if you wanted a wrestler to be despised and hated and considerd a real villian pretty much all you needed to do was put them with Heenan and he would get the job done for you double quick. He had an amazingly sharp mind and tongue, he could run circles around others with his quick delivery of epic put downs and no matter who he insulted even if they were your favourate wrestling hero you couldnt help but laugh at his lines, even when you really really hated him you couldnt help but also love him just a little. He also made more than his fair share of heroes of wrestling, you see everyone wanted to see Heenan get hit so all you needed to get someone over was to have them give Heenan a little bit of a bump and the crowd would go mad.
The thing is you always got the impression as a smart fan that Heenan was a real team player, not only would he give it his all to draw hate and heat for those he managed he also made sure to take good real looking bumps to help get the heroes over. He played a character who was at times a down right dirty cheat but deep down the guy basically wreaked of honesty, playfullness and a want to do not only his best but to help and inspire everyone else around him to do the same. He was and shall always be an absolute credit to the industry. His work as a color commentator lifted even some of the dullest of matches up to a highly watchable level, youd watch two useless meat heads throwing the worst fake punches at each other just to hear Bobby insult there intelgenece, or accuse them of being inbred or otherwise tear them to pieces and when you had this man comment on a good match well you lifted that up to a level of pure perfection.
I could talk about the man forever but I think I can some it all up with what I wrote about his Induction into the WWE Hall of Fame ''As a kid I absolutely hated Bobby the Brain but as I have gotten older I realise just how much of my enjoyment of the WWF/WWE came down to this man. It was his motor mouth speech his on the spot insults, he knew how to get the kind of heat on a regular basis that most people in the world of wrestling would dream of striking once or twice in there career.''
RIP MR Heenan and thank you for the memories.
Bobby Heenan was an American professional wrestling manager, wrestler, and color commentator, best known for his time with the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He was often called the Brain or the Weasel. In all honesty his wrestling career was well before my time, my earliest memories of him are seeing him manage Andre the Giant after he turned heel. He was amazingly skilled when it came to getting both himself and his guys over, if you wanted a wrestler to be despised and hated and considerd a real villian pretty much all you needed to do was put them with Heenan and he would get the job done for you double quick. He had an amazingly sharp mind and tongue, he could run circles around others with his quick delivery of epic put downs and no matter who he insulted even if they were your favourate wrestling hero you couldnt help but laugh at his lines, even when you really really hated him you couldnt help but also love him just a little. He also made more than his fair share of heroes of wrestling, you see everyone wanted to see Heenan get hit so all you needed to get someone over was to have them give Heenan a little bit of a bump and the crowd would go mad.
The thing is you always got the impression as a smart fan that Heenan was a real team player, not only would he give it his all to draw hate and heat for those he managed he also made sure to take good real looking bumps to help get the heroes over. He played a character who was at times a down right dirty cheat but deep down the guy basically wreaked of honesty, playfullness and a want to do not only his best but to help and inspire everyone else around him to do the same. He was and shall always be an absolute credit to the industry. His work as a color commentator lifted even some of the dullest of matches up to a highly watchable level, youd watch two useless meat heads throwing the worst fake punches at each other just to hear Bobby insult there intelgenece, or accuse them of being inbred or otherwise tear them to pieces and when you had this man comment on a good match well you lifted that up to a level of pure perfection.
I could talk about the man forever but I think I can some it all up with what I wrote about his Induction into the WWE Hall of Fame ''As a kid I absolutely hated Bobby the Brain but as I have gotten older I realise just how much of my enjoyment of the WWF/WWE came down to this man. It was his motor mouth speech his on the spot insults, he knew how to get the kind of heat on a regular basis that most people in the world of wrestling would dream of striking once or twice in there career.''
RIP MR Heenan and thank you for the memories.
Monday, 3 July 2017
A look at The WWE hall of Fame 2007
Well it has been far to long since I have
talked about the WWE hall of fame. Last time I talked about the inductions
for 2006 so no prizes for guessing that today I will of course be talking about 2007. 2006 was a brilliant year in my opinion so I guess we will have to see if 2007 is anywhere near as close by looking at the individuals who made it in. Id like to add that as much as I do try and fact check everything if an error slips through then I apologise in advance, also I try not to go too in depth about wrestlers I don't have any major memory or feelings for , so if someone was an absolute star but there before my time or spent a lot of time in promotions I never had access to then forgive me for kind of quickly skipping over there accomplishments.
Ok so to start things off lets talk about one of the inductee's "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes or to use his birth name Virgil Runnels Jr. You can talk about the mans accomplishments after all he was a three time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, one time NWA United States Heavyweight Champion two time NWA World Tag Team Champion, two time NWA World Six-Tag Team Champion, and a one time NWA World Television Champion but a wrestler is not defined by the belts he held there is so much more to look at than that. I had no idea who Dusty was before his stint in the WWE (at the time WWF) so I could be forgiven for just thinking of him as the big poka dot coverd guy who had a rivalry with the million dollar man, but lets stop and look right there Dusty was given the role of a working man and made to wear poka dots and yet he pulled it off he was an epic face loved by so many who lit the house on fire with his charisma, you followed him from feud to feud hanging on his every word wanting to support him and see him win. Throw on top of this his lengthy stint as lead booker for WCW, yes they were the WWE's rivals but it takes a good rival to keep a company truly on its toes. I personally think the guy is very deserving of the honour of being in the hall of fame. I will always remember the fact that my mum adored Dusty Rhodes, I have many a happy memory of being a youngster and hearing my mum scream at the TV for Dusty to get up or beat someone.
So next lets look at "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig, now I have to admit as a kid I thought he was a perfect dick, but as I have said in the past that only goes to show just how well he was playing his part, I wanted to see him get beat up and I would tune in hopefully that this would be the night it would happen so basically the guy did his job Perfectly. The truth is eventually even though he was a heel I started to develop a growing respect for Mr Perfect, I had to admit that he was a very talented athlete who performed perfectly executed moves in a way very few other wrestlers could. When I look back now and rewatch a lot of the pay per views from my youth I get very excited when they announce Mr Perfect because I just know I am going to see some real quality wrestling. Unfortunatly Curt Henning was a Posthumous inductee and so he was represented by his wife Leonice, his four children, his mother and his father the wrestler Larry "The Axe" Hennig. Curt Henning was a
One time AWA World Heavyweight Champion, two-time WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion, one time WCW United States Heavyweight Champion, one time WCW World Tag Team Champion but he was so much more than just these reigns he was a fantastic perfomer both in ring and on the mic and he will never be forgotten. Like Dusty above him I love to see his Son wrestle because you can see there father through them as well as seeing the incredible wrestlers they have become (this is true for Curtis Axel, GoldDust and Cody Rhodes).
This year also saw the induction of Jerry The King Lawler who well to me he was just the King, when I was a kid he wrestled a little in the WWE (then WWF) but I would come to know him mostly as a commentator, a great one who despite being a heel commentator quiet a lot of the time would have me in fits of laughter, little did I know he was a One time AWA World Heavyweight Champion, a 35-time AWA Southern Heavyweight Champion, a three-time WCCW World Heavyweight Champion, and a 28-time USWA Unified Champion. I learned more about his past and his place in the industry later in my life and I appreciate the roll he played but have to admit I dont feel quite as much for him as I do fo the likes of Dusty and Perfect I still can more than understand why he belongs in the hall of fame and fully agree with it.
Nick Bockwinkel was inducted in this year but I have to admit he was someone who I had only really heard of in passing, he was big in the AWA and apparently Hulk Hogan was annoyed by what he saw as Bockwinkels book room politicing. He was a Four-time AWA World Heavyweight Champion and three-time AWA World Tag Team Champion. Lots of people speak highly of him and credit him with helping them in one way or another but there is not a lot I can say about him as really due to my age and what I was exposed to he has largly flown under my radar.
Now back to someone I really appreciate and that is Mr. Fuji (Harry Fujiwara), Now Mr Fuji the devious one might have been a Five-time WWWF/WWF World Tag Team Champion but what I really knew him as was a manager and what a heck of a manager he was, he could get you to hate anybody he took under his wing, and the company could easily and convincingly make anyone a face by getting Fuji to turn on them. I will always remember him with Demolition Axe and Smash, I will always remember the salt and his cane , unfortunatly he passed in 2016 but he is a very worthy entrant to the hall of fame both for his work as a wrestler and for his work as a manager.
This year also saw the induction of The Sheik (Edward Farhat), seeing as he started in the 70's a lot of his stuff was quiet a bit before my time but he was one of the originators of what would go on to be known as hardcore wrestling and he was the uncle of the ECW legend Sabu. He didnt only wrestle in America he also did a lot of wrestling in Japan and trained several notable names including Rob Van Dam, and Scott Steiner. He also trained Muhammad Ali before Ali`s famous boxer vs wrestler match with Antonio Inok. The guy certainly deserves to be in the hall of fame not for a long and wonderful WWF based career but more for his contribution to the world of wrestling in general.
One group made there way in to the hall of fame in 2007 and that was The Wild Samoans, Afa and Sika, who were Three-time WWF Tag Team Champions. Now if you ask me if these men deserve to be in the hall of fame as The Wild Samoans thats where things get a touch tricky. You see yes they worked togther as the Wild Samoans but they also worked as singles wrestlers, as managers, in diffrent teams (not togther) both of them have quiet a long list of accomplishments and I am not sure if they should have gone in seperatly or as a team thats my only question about there place in the hall of fame. During the late 1970s, Afa Anoa'i opened the Wild Samoans Training Center, and the school's graduates include Paul Orndorff, Junkyard Dog, Luna Vachon, Michael P.S. Hayes, Yokozuna, Bam Bam Bigelow, Rikishi, Sherri Martel, Virgil, Billy Kidman, Gene Snisky, Chris Kanyon and Batista if you stop and take a look at that list even just as there trainer doesnt the guy deserve to be in under his own name instead of in under a team name? In 1999, Sika started up XW 2000, an independent wrestling promotion based in Pensacola, Florida. From 1999 until 2008 and again since 2010, the promotion has run family-oriented wrestling shows. The point is that clearly both men have put a lot into the world of wrestling and I kind of feel they should have both gotten individual moments to shine in a hall of fame ceremony.
OK so I left Jim Ross till last, he was a longtime lead announcer for WWF/E, WCW and other regional promotions; he was the Head of WWF Talent Relations during the Attitude Era,and he signed many well known wrestlers. Good Old JR is often considerd one of if not the greatest wrestling commentators of all time and for good reason the man is a real head of his field. Is he my favourate not quiet I think I would have to give that honour to Bobby the Brain Heenan but I still hold a whole heap of respect for Ross. Ross is a legend not just in the WWE but in the world of wrestling in general. His career in the world of wrestling started in NWA Tri-State tettitory and stayed there from 1974–1987 (the name for this promotion changed to Mid-South Wrestling) he started as a referee and then became a commentator as well as there Vice President of Marketing. He was also a commentator for Crocket promotions, world championship wreslting, Smokey Mountain Wrestling. The majority of his career was spent as a commentator with the WWE though, and it wasnt just wrestling, when they tried to branch out with the XFL, a professional football league Ross, who had previously gained experience announcing for the Atlanta Falcons was used. Entire books could be dedicated to what the man did for both the fans and the business while in the WWE. The truth is that when Jim Ross was put in the Hall of Fame he fully deserved it but he didnt stop there he did so much after and id like to draw some attention to a little of that. In 2013, Ross began to coach and produce new announcers at the WWE Performance Center in Florida.The man wasnt content with having been possibly the greatest announcer of our time no he wanted to try and make sure that fans in the future would get to experiance exciting profesional commentery. Ross also went on to become an English Language commentator for New Japan Pro Wrestling and to also provided commentary for What Culture Pro Wrestling's iPPV Refuse to Lose, True Destiny and for some of WCPW's Loaded tapings.
I cant be very critical of this year at all, I think it was another very impressive set of inductees any year that see's the introduction of talent on the levels of Dusty, Curt Henning, Mr Fuji and Jim Ross clearly has a lot going for it.
Ok so to start things off lets talk about one of the inductee's "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes or to use his birth name Virgil Runnels Jr. You can talk about the mans accomplishments after all he was a three time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, one time NWA United States Heavyweight Champion two time NWA World Tag Team Champion, two time NWA World Six-Tag Team Champion, and a one time NWA World Television Champion but a wrestler is not defined by the belts he held there is so much more to look at than that. I had no idea who Dusty was before his stint in the WWE (at the time WWF) so I could be forgiven for just thinking of him as the big poka dot coverd guy who had a rivalry with the million dollar man, but lets stop and look right there Dusty was given the role of a working man and made to wear poka dots and yet he pulled it off he was an epic face loved by so many who lit the house on fire with his charisma, you followed him from feud to feud hanging on his every word wanting to support him and see him win. Throw on top of this his lengthy stint as lead booker for WCW, yes they were the WWE's rivals but it takes a good rival to keep a company truly on its toes. I personally think the guy is very deserving of the honour of being in the hall of fame. I will always remember the fact that my mum adored Dusty Rhodes, I have many a happy memory of being a youngster and hearing my mum scream at the TV for Dusty to get up or beat someone.
So next lets look at "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig, now I have to admit as a kid I thought he was a perfect dick, but as I have said in the past that only goes to show just how well he was playing his part, I wanted to see him get beat up and I would tune in hopefully that this would be the night it would happen so basically the guy did his job Perfectly. The truth is eventually even though he was a heel I started to develop a growing respect for Mr Perfect, I had to admit that he was a very talented athlete who performed perfectly executed moves in a way very few other wrestlers could. When I look back now and rewatch a lot of the pay per views from my youth I get very excited when they announce Mr Perfect because I just know I am going to see some real quality wrestling. Unfortunatly Curt Henning was a Posthumous inductee and so he was represented by his wife Leonice, his four children, his mother and his father the wrestler Larry "The Axe" Hennig. Curt Henning was a
One time AWA World Heavyweight Champion, two-time WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion, one time WCW United States Heavyweight Champion, one time WCW World Tag Team Champion but he was so much more than just these reigns he was a fantastic perfomer both in ring and on the mic and he will never be forgotten. Like Dusty above him I love to see his Son wrestle because you can see there father through them as well as seeing the incredible wrestlers they have become (this is true for Curtis Axel, GoldDust and Cody Rhodes).
This year also saw the induction of Jerry The King Lawler who well to me he was just the King, when I was a kid he wrestled a little in the WWE (then WWF) but I would come to know him mostly as a commentator, a great one who despite being a heel commentator quiet a lot of the time would have me in fits of laughter, little did I know he was a One time AWA World Heavyweight Champion, a 35-time AWA Southern Heavyweight Champion, a three-time WCCW World Heavyweight Champion, and a 28-time USWA Unified Champion. I learned more about his past and his place in the industry later in my life and I appreciate the roll he played but have to admit I dont feel quite as much for him as I do fo the likes of Dusty and Perfect I still can more than understand why he belongs in the hall of fame and fully agree with it.
Nick Bockwinkel was inducted in this year but I have to admit he was someone who I had only really heard of in passing, he was big in the AWA and apparently Hulk Hogan was annoyed by what he saw as Bockwinkels book room politicing. He was a Four-time AWA World Heavyweight Champion and three-time AWA World Tag Team Champion. Lots of people speak highly of him and credit him with helping them in one way or another but there is not a lot I can say about him as really due to my age and what I was exposed to he has largly flown under my radar.
Now back to someone I really appreciate and that is Mr. Fuji (Harry Fujiwara), Now Mr Fuji the devious one might have been a Five-time WWWF/WWF World Tag Team Champion but what I really knew him as was a manager and what a heck of a manager he was, he could get you to hate anybody he took under his wing, and the company could easily and convincingly make anyone a face by getting Fuji to turn on them. I will always remember him with Demolition Axe and Smash, I will always remember the salt and his cane , unfortunatly he passed in 2016 but he is a very worthy entrant to the hall of fame both for his work as a wrestler and for his work as a manager.
This year also saw the induction of The Sheik (Edward Farhat), seeing as he started in the 70's a lot of his stuff was quiet a bit before my time but he was one of the originators of what would go on to be known as hardcore wrestling and he was the uncle of the ECW legend Sabu. He didnt only wrestle in America he also did a lot of wrestling in Japan and trained several notable names including Rob Van Dam, and Scott Steiner. He also trained Muhammad Ali before Ali`s famous boxer vs wrestler match with Antonio Inok. The guy certainly deserves to be in the hall of fame not for a long and wonderful WWF based career but more for his contribution to the world of wrestling in general.
One group made there way in to the hall of fame in 2007 and that was The Wild Samoans, Afa and Sika, who were Three-time WWF Tag Team Champions. Now if you ask me if these men deserve to be in the hall of fame as The Wild Samoans thats where things get a touch tricky. You see yes they worked togther as the Wild Samoans but they also worked as singles wrestlers, as managers, in diffrent teams (not togther) both of them have quiet a long list of accomplishments and I am not sure if they should have gone in seperatly or as a team thats my only question about there place in the hall of fame. During the late 1970s, Afa Anoa'i opened the Wild Samoans Training Center, and the school's graduates include Paul Orndorff, Junkyard Dog, Luna Vachon, Michael P.S. Hayes, Yokozuna, Bam Bam Bigelow, Rikishi, Sherri Martel, Virgil, Billy Kidman, Gene Snisky, Chris Kanyon and Batista if you stop and take a look at that list even just as there trainer doesnt the guy deserve to be in under his own name instead of in under a team name? In 1999, Sika started up XW 2000, an independent wrestling promotion based in Pensacola, Florida. From 1999 until 2008 and again since 2010, the promotion has run family-oriented wrestling shows. The point is that clearly both men have put a lot into the world of wrestling and I kind of feel they should have both gotten individual moments to shine in a hall of fame ceremony.
OK so I left Jim Ross till last, he was a longtime lead announcer for WWF/E, WCW and other regional promotions; he was the Head of WWF Talent Relations during the Attitude Era,and he signed many well known wrestlers. Good Old JR is often considerd one of if not the greatest wrestling commentators of all time and for good reason the man is a real head of his field. Is he my favourate not quiet I think I would have to give that honour to Bobby the Brain Heenan but I still hold a whole heap of respect for Ross. Ross is a legend not just in the WWE but in the world of wrestling in general. His career in the world of wrestling started in NWA Tri-State tettitory and stayed there from 1974–1987 (the name for this promotion changed to Mid-South Wrestling) he started as a referee and then became a commentator as well as there Vice President of Marketing. He was also a commentator for Crocket promotions, world championship wreslting, Smokey Mountain Wrestling. The majority of his career was spent as a commentator with the WWE though, and it wasnt just wrestling, when they tried to branch out with the XFL, a professional football league Ross, who had previously gained experience announcing for the Atlanta Falcons was used. Entire books could be dedicated to what the man did for both the fans and the business while in the WWE. The truth is that when Jim Ross was put in the Hall of Fame he fully deserved it but he didnt stop there he did so much after and id like to draw some attention to a little of that. In 2013, Ross began to coach and produce new announcers at the WWE Performance Center in Florida.The man wasnt content with having been possibly the greatest announcer of our time no he wanted to try and make sure that fans in the future would get to experiance exciting profesional commentery. Ross also went on to become an English Language commentator for New Japan Pro Wrestling and to also provided commentary for What Culture Pro Wrestling's iPPV Refuse to Lose, True Destiny and for some of WCPW's Loaded tapings.
I cant be very critical of this year at all, I think it was another very impressive set of inductees any year that see's the introduction of talent on the levels of Dusty, Curt Henning, Mr Fuji and Jim Ross clearly has a lot going for it.
Friday, 20 January 2017
Wrestling: It has been announced that Kurt Angle is being inducted in to the WWE Hall Of Fame:
It has been announced that Kurt (Steven) Angle
will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame (2017) during the
WrestleMania 33 weekend. Now I have to admit that I am utterly
thrilled about this. Kurt Angle is one of my favourite wrestlers of
all time, in fact I would go so far as to say he is my favourite
singles wrestler ever. I remember watching him through the years, I
remember watching his first few matches I remember watching his
awesome match against Shane McMann, I remember watching his brilliant
angles with Brock Lesnar, in fact whenever people try and tell me
Lesnar can not wrestle I tell them to look up the matches between him
and Angle they are absolute spectacles. I even watched TNA just to
see Angle (I admit once Angle drew me to it there were other
individuals I enjoyed but without Angle I wouldn't have even given it
a moments notice).
Before Angle joined the WWE (at the time WWF) he
had already made a very big name for himself he was a two time
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I
Heavyweight Wrestling Champion, then he won a gold medal in freestyle
wrestling at the 1995 World Wrestling Championships followed by
winning a freestyle wrestling gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Angle is one of only four people to complete what is called an
amateur wrestling Grand Slam (junior nationals, NCAA, World
Championships, Olympics). You may wonder why I am mentioning all of
this when I am talking about him being inducted into the hall of fame
for an entertainment based wrestling company but the truth is that
his background is very important, it formed a large part of the basis
of the various characters he portrayed over the years in WWF/WWE. I
know someone will question my use of the term characters and claim
that Kurt Angle was always just Kurt Angle but its far more complex
than that and to say Kurt was only ever Kurt would be selling him and
his contribution to the company short. Let me explain myself, during
his time with the WWE Angle was so many different things, he was a
hero, a villain, a serious wrestler, an overgrown naive man child.
The man has worked as a face and as a heel and has done well as both,
he has dealt with serious and silly story lines. It was pretty
obvious from his back ground that he would be a good technical
wrestler and it would have been very easy for him to have a decent
career based purely on this fact but he actually proved himself to be
good on the microphone, to be able to act and to be able to sell
moves both in the sense of making his moves look painful without
needlessly injuring others but also while being able to make other
wrestlers moves look like they are effective.
Now days Brock Lesnar lends the WWE some level of
credibility, when people start all of this ''oh the WWE is fake its
all guys pretending to slap each other'' people look at Brock and see
him as legitimately scary they see his background, they know he has
actually competed in the UFC and they kind of stop and go ''oh well I
guess some wrestlers are legitimate tough guys and athletes'' and in
a way this seems to raise the actual stakes of the company and with
Angle having been a legitimate Olympic wrestler this is exactly the
kind of thing his name and presence did as well after all he had
competed at the Olympics and own gold with a freaking broken neck
that's not something anyone with half a brain can say is not
incredibly impressive.
This is not the first honour to be bestowed upon
Kurt Angle as in 2006 he was named by USA Wrestling as ''the greatest
shoot wrestler ever'' and ''one of the top 15 college wrestlers of
all time''. He was inducted into the International Sports Hall of
Fame in 2016 for his amateur accomplishments (and he is also in the
TNA hall of fame but I am sure the WWE would like everyone to forget
that little nugget of information). Add the Olympic gold to this and
he is pretty much one of a kind when it comes to legitimate shoot
wrestlers who have gone on to make it in the world of professional
wrestling, this is why I think it is more than time for him to be put
in the WWE hall of fame, in fact I would argue putting Angle in does
more for the WWE by making there hall of fame look more legitimate
than it does for Angle himself as an individual.
A far as the WWE(WWF) goes well Angle made his
official debut in November of 1999 and received his first major push
in the company in the following February. Now I don't want to do a
play by play of the man's whole career but I do want to briefly talk
about the start of his time in the WWE as I think it shows just how
much and how quickly he understood the business.
Angle made his televised WWF in-ring debut on
November 14th at the 1999 Survivor Series at the defeating Shawn
Stasiak In his initial push, he remained undefeated for several
weeks, before losing to the debuting Tazz. Angle's character at this
point was "American hero" gimmick based on his gold medal
win at the 1996 Summer Olympics. In his promos, Angle presented
himself as a role model and stressed the need to work hard to realize
one's dreams, stressing what he called the 3 I's, "Intensity,
Integrity, and Intelligence". In his promos and ring entrances,
Angle was always seen with his Olympic medals (actually replica's of
them to be precise). Despite Angle being legitimately good and
essentially pushing good values and morals he was being booed. The
way he had been billed as the first 'real athlete' in the WWF, seemed
to really piss people off and Angle expertly played this, instead of
getting disheartened that he was being seen as a sort of baddy and
getting heat he played to this, he realised something which is key to
the world of professional wrestling any loud and passionate reaction
from the crowd is a success, if they turn up and pay big money to see
you every night it doesn't matter if they are paying to scream that
they love you or that they hate you, your getting a powerful
emotional reaction from them and your doing a good job.
Angle had a great many amazing matches and moments
and I could talk about them all day but I think for now I will leave
this with a list of his on paper accomplishments within the WWF/E (I
could of course go in to what he has done elsewhere but that is
another story).
- World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- WCW Championship (1 time)
- WCW United States Championship (1 time)
- WWF/E Championship (4 times)
- WWF European Championship (1 time)
- WWF Hardcore Championship (1 time)
- WWF Intercontinental Championship (1 time)
- WWE Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Chris Benoit
- King of the Ring (2000)
Sunday, 4 December 2016
Should The New Day beat Demolitons record of 478 days as tag team champions?
If there is one thing fans of wrestling have
learned it is that the WWE have a major hard on for getting members
of there current roster to break title records, heck we are even
teetering on the edge of getting to see Cena beat Rick Flairs record
of 16 world title reigns. This is not the record I am going to be
talking about now though.
If you have been paying attention to the things
they have been saying on Monday Night Raw then you will have heard
mention that The New Day are getting ever closer to reaching/beating
Demolition's record of 478 days as Tag Team champions. Now The New
Day have proved themselves to be incredibly popular with sales of
there merchandise being a real money spinner for the WWE, so I can
see why they have been given such a long run and come December the
13th they will have equalled Demolitions Record and if
they can make it to the 14th then they will have beaten it
but should they?
I was and always be a massive fan of Demolition
and I think given that they hold this record and that they were one
of the most important tag teams during a period in the WWE's history
when the tag division was very talent rich it is a huge shame that
they are not in the hall of fame, heck the bushwhackers who were a
very comedy heavy team from back then have made it to the hall so why
haven't Demolition? Well I think part of it is the fact that both
main members of Demolition have had some disagreements with the WWE
in the past in fact both of them are currently a part of what I would
refer to as the Concussion lawsuit (a bunch of X-WWE wrestlers taking
WWE to court in connection to the WWE allegedly ''neglecting the
health of there performers'' which I have previously mentioned on
this blog. By letting The New Day beat the record the WWE would
practically eliminate the need to talk about Demolition in the future
when it comes to long impressive title reigns as they would from this
point forwards refer to the new day instead, it also allows them to
manufacture big moment when the streak is beaten. The truth is as
great and loved as Demolition was to some of us to Vince they were
pretty much just his rip off version of the Road Warriors/Legion of
Doom who he was happy to make vast piles of money from until he could
get his hands on the real thing. I personally would argue that even
if in some ways Demolition started out as Road Warrior clones in some
ways they went far beyond this and became a wonderful historic team
in there own right and its a darn shame if people don't see them in
this way.
In answer to the question of if The New
Day should beat the record or not how do I feel? Well if they are
being made to beat it in an attempt to try and erase demolition from
history then no it shouldn't happen, as that would be a very shitty
spoiled baby move by the WWE as despite who wins or losses the
lawsuit Demolition was still a great team who brought some absolute
fantastic moments to WWE television/Events and they should be placed
in to the Hall of Fame were they belong instead of being airbrushed
out of history. If the streak could be broken without negatively
effecting Demolitions legacy then I don't really have an issue with
it, however I would argue that it would be an even bigger swerve to
have them loose at the very last moment surprising the fans and
robbing the New Day of the record, there is so much you could do with
this from a story point of few so many ways you could use it either
to change the group or well lets face it there have been whisperings
for a long time about the group splitting up because WWE sees a
particular member as having a future as a single wrestler, maybe make
the loss this persons fault and see him thrown from the New Day?
Regardless of it the record is broken or
not I will never ever forget Demolition, it is time for them to go in
the Hall of Fame because there comes a point were if you keep the
best of the best out of the hall due to personal grudges and petty
squabbles then you actually majorly damage the credibility of the
hall itself.
Monday, 21 November 2016
Brock Lesnar Vs Goldberg, Survivor Series my oppinion... (SPOILERS)
I remember when I used
to watch the Royal Rumble back when I was a kid, I would love it
every time they would throw a few statistics in there, they would
tell you the amount of times someone had won when entering at a
certain number, what the record for the quickest elimination was, how
close someone was to beating the record for longest time in a rumble
or the most eliminations, it just seemed to add to the spectacle of
it all.
So am I talking about
the Royal Rumble? No it just seemed like a good way to start this one
sided conversation, lets face it that's what a blog post really is,
it is me talking to you my reader, I just talk and talk at you and
sometimes if I am very lucky you might leave me a response. The
response could be that you agree with me, that I have taught you
something or made you think about something or you could be telling
me that I am an idiot that you don't agree with me, that I am talking
crap but in truth there could be an argument for saying that any
response is a good response in a way? How is this relevant well it is
because I want to talk about the match between Bill Goldberg and
Brock Lesnar which just took place at Survivor Series , for those of
you who haven't seen it well basically Goldberg crushes Lesnar. The
entire match can be described as Lesnar picks up Goldberg and throws
him into a corner, Goldberg then pushes Lesnar over, spears him twice
jack hammers him and pins him match over with only 2 minutes of
actual wrestling time and 1 move performed by Lesnar and 5 by
Goldberg if you count the push, the 2 spears, the jack hammer and the
pin as moves. Now the internet is obviously full of people debating
this match, who won, who should have won, if it should have gone down
the way it did, how it makes the two men look so I figured I should
give my opinion on it all.
For a start I am not
going to be talking about Brock being a legitimate MMA fighter and
saying ''oh man he could kill him'' I don't care about what either
man has or can do outside of the world of wrestling I just want to
talk about them as wrestlers. Looking at wrestling go back and look
at a lot of Goldberg's old matches and they were basically short
squash matches in which the guy was a monster who beat people up and
did it quickly, his matches seldom went that long and he seldom was
subjected to a real competitive worker going all out to try and make
a match look like a believable struggle, if you want to see his
limitations then I strongly recommend you watch Goldberg versus
William Regal, its not a long match but Regal really does put him
through his passes on the one hand it makes Goldberg look a little
bad in places but I think it actually makes his win all the sweeter
and shows with some work he could have been capable of more than we
have seen from him. Brock has had a lot of squash matches where he
just power moves people and quickly puts them to bed, but if you
watch some of the matches he has had you can see that with his
amateur wrestling background he is actually capable of doing a whole
lot more, just watch some of his matches with Kurt Angle if you want
to see a good example of what he is really capable of the man can do
the power moves but he can also be very technical and surprisingly
agile for a big guy. I have to admit that I think Brock is the
better wrestler and that he is actually capable of 5 star matches
under the right circumstances, in fact I would rate some of his with
Angle that highly, I also love the match where he lost the belt to
Eddie Guerrero, yes he lost but it was a great match and matches are
pre-determined and it takes 2 athletes working hard to make them feel
real.
The thing is though
that wrestling is both entertainment and a business, you can say
Brock is better on paper or that with his MMA skills he should be
able to rip Goldberg's head off but is that the best outcome to
provide the most entertainment value to the most people and is it
going to be best for business? You can claim its not realistic but
then look at most of the entertainment we consume, are films like
Rambo 3 realistic where one man seems to be able to almost single
handedly defeat the armed forces of an entire country and be back
home in time for tea? Of course not sometimes you have to accept
something whether it is likely or even possible in order for a piece
of entertainment to work to its full potential. You need to factor in
the story they are trying to tell and the facts at hand. Goldberg has
not properly wrestled for a long time, he apparently minorly injured
himself in a recent spot on TV and even when he was at his prime he
wasn't exactly known for his long matches, so allowing him to finish
things off quickly minimising the potential aggravation to any
injury's he might have recently sustained was a good move. If Brock
had been the one to win he would have had to have done at least a few
powerful looking moves to a potentially currently fragile Goldberg
risking the chance of hurting him which goes against the wishes of
both the WWE and Goldberg as he has signed up to appear at the next
few main events. It might make Brock look weak but this is not
irreversible, you can have him face Goldberg again latter when he is
physically more able and regain his honour, there are so many ways
you can make a whole story out of this.
The match was kind of
disappointing but I think you need to take a step back and look at
the bigger picture, this match and its outcome kept everyone safe and
left the book open for another chapter, not only that but it has
everyone talking about it and that kind of heat is good, you know
what they say no publicity is bad publicity.
Monday, 17 October 2016
How when Rewatching Wrestling its often the Villians I appreciate the most
I have to admit when I was young I was a total mark as far as wrestling goes, as a young boy I really believed that it was all real and true and I loved most of the guys you were suppoed to love and I hated most of the guys you were supposed to hate.
This meant as a kid I couldnt stand Ravashing Rick Rude, I couldnt stand the Model Rick Martel, I hated The Nature Boy Rick Flair, I couldnt stand Ted Debiose but then when I got older and began to learn more about things I began to really appreciate the art of being a bad guy. It must be really easy to walk out a hero and be met with cheers love and appreciation, to see people wearing your T-Shirt screaming your name but for someone to be a good hero they need good villians to defeat. To be a good Villian you need to go out there and hear people boo and you need to not be discouraged by this, this is your aplause, this means you are doing your job well and to do it even better you need feed the crowds aggression, you need to learn what they respond to and you have to do your best to magnify whatever it is they hate about you to the degree that the crowd needs to see you get your ass kicked and that they will see whoever does it as a hero.
The Model and Rick Rude both showed a cocky arrogance about there own apperance going so far as to talk about how superior they were to not only other wrestlers but to people in the crowd but they both did it in very diffrent ways, Rick Rude was a master at talking on the microphone winding people up talking about how good his body was and how fat and unnatractive the average man in the crowd was, he did it so well that everyone just believed he was a huge asshole no one ever seemed to feel like he was just saying it for shock value or as part of his job everyone seeemed to believe that it was a true reflextion of who he really was and how he felt about himself. I would argue that the Model although he could deliver a darn good promo did the same kind of job of getting people to hate him more with his body language, the way the guy strutted and stroked his own face the more it made you want to see someone punch him straight in his face, plus throw in him spraying people in the face with his own brand of perfume.
If I hadnt hated Rick Rude as much as I did then I wouldnt have enjoyed seeing the Warrior crush him, If I didnt want to see The Model punched in the face so much I wouldnt have been so excited about his match with the Heart Break Kid. As I sat and watched a box set of Hulk Hogan matches It was very apparent that it wasnt just Hulk Hogan who built Hulkamania it was all of the villians they lined up for him to beat. So if you go through your old wrestling tapes or dvd's then give them a watch again as an adult and really study the bad guys all of the effort they go to and you might just find its them who you really want to applaud this time round.
This meant as a kid I couldnt stand Ravashing Rick Rude, I couldnt stand the Model Rick Martel, I hated The Nature Boy Rick Flair, I couldnt stand Ted Debiose but then when I got older and began to learn more about things I began to really appreciate the art of being a bad guy. It must be really easy to walk out a hero and be met with cheers love and appreciation, to see people wearing your T-Shirt screaming your name but for someone to be a good hero they need good villians to defeat. To be a good Villian you need to go out there and hear people boo and you need to not be discouraged by this, this is your aplause, this means you are doing your job well and to do it even better you need feed the crowds aggression, you need to learn what they respond to and you have to do your best to magnify whatever it is they hate about you to the degree that the crowd needs to see you get your ass kicked and that they will see whoever does it as a hero.
The Model and Rick Rude both showed a cocky arrogance about there own apperance going so far as to talk about how superior they were to not only other wrestlers but to people in the crowd but they both did it in very diffrent ways, Rick Rude was a master at talking on the microphone winding people up talking about how good his body was and how fat and unnatractive the average man in the crowd was, he did it so well that everyone just believed he was a huge asshole no one ever seemed to feel like he was just saying it for shock value or as part of his job everyone seeemed to believe that it was a true reflextion of who he really was and how he felt about himself. I would argue that the Model although he could deliver a darn good promo did the same kind of job of getting people to hate him more with his body language, the way the guy strutted and stroked his own face the more it made you want to see someone punch him straight in his face, plus throw in him spraying people in the face with his own brand of perfume.
If I hadnt hated Rick Rude as much as I did then I wouldnt have enjoyed seeing the Warrior crush him, If I didnt want to see The Model punched in the face so much I wouldnt have been so excited about his match with the Heart Break Kid. As I sat and watched a box set of Hulk Hogan matches It was very apparent that it wasnt just Hulk Hogan who built Hulkamania it was all of the villians they lined up for him to beat. So if you go through your old wrestling tapes or dvd's then give them a watch again as an adult and really study the bad guys all of the effort they go to and you might just find its them who you really want to applaud this time round.
Wednesday, 20 July 2016
WWE to face lawsuit about the long-term neurological damage of 50 of its former employees
The WWE faces a very serious lawsuit this week. More than 50 ex-wrestlers say in a Connecticut lawsuit that World Wrestling Entertainment Inc aka the WWE. is responsible for their long-term neurological damage and failed to care for their injuries. Now when you stop and think about this the result of this case could have very far reaching effects on the world of wrestling and the future of it in general. If the WWE is found to be responsible for these injuries and therefore liable for any medical bills and compensation then this could be a pretty high bill to pay, it would also set a president not only meaning other names not on this list could step forward and make claims but also meaning that current stars may have a very strong base to stand on if they wish to make simmilar claims in the future.
Now you might think that the list of those claiming would be filled with discruntled never made it guys but that is not the case the list actually contains hall of famers and main eventers including WWE legends like Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, Road Warrior Animal and Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff. This raises an intresting side question though will this case cause anger and resentment in the WWE head office that leads to other ''legends'' not getting there Hall of Fame day. Now I know that everyone has a diffrent idea of what a legend is in the world of Wrestling but I personally find it a hard pill to swallow that the team of Ax and Smash Demolition despite holding the record for the longest tag title reign have never made it in to the hall of fame a joke, and wonder will there involvment in this case make it less likly that they will ever be included? Also with some of the younger names it can be argued that it makes the liklyhood of any future return seem doubtful.
As for the WWE and there stance on this well the company denies the allegations and draws attention to the fact that the attorney for the ex-wrestlers previously has made ''false claims'' against the company and filed lawsuits that ended up being dismissed.
What do I think about it all? Well if your job involves you being repeatidly hit in the head for any reason be it on purpose or by accident then your employer should definetly be responsible for the result of these blows. I used to be a bar manager and I was actually hit around the head with a crowbar repeatidly during an incident which led to me developing PTSD and well time will tell if I have any more effects in my latter life, but from this perspective I can certainly find it easy to relate to and side with the ex employes involved in this legal case. Below is a list of all of the Wrestlers/Talent named in the lawsuit.
JOSEPH M. LAURINAITIS, a.k.a Road Warrior Animal, JIMMY “SUPERFLY” SNUKA, by and through his guardian, Carole Snuka, PAUL ORDNDORFF, a.k.a. Mr. Wonderful, SALAVADOR GUERRERO IV, a.k.a. Chavo Guerrero, Jr., CHAVO GUERRERO, SR., a.k.a. Chavo Classic, BRYAN EMMETT CLARK, JR., a.k.a. Adam Bomb, |ANTHONY NORRIS, a.k.a. Ahmed Johnson, JAMES HARRIS, a.k.a. Kamala, DAVE HEBNER, EARL HEBNER, CHRIS PALLIES, a.k.a. King Kong Bundy, KEN PATERA, TERRY MICHAEL BRUNK, a.k.a. Sabu, BARRY DARSOW, a.k.a. Smash of Demolition, | BILL EADIE a.k.a. Ax of Demolotion, | JOHN NORD, a.k.a. The Bezerker, JONATHAN HUGGER a.k.a. Johnny The Bull, JAMES BRUNZELL, a.k.a. Jumpin’ Jim, SUSAN GREEN, a.k.a. Sue Green, ANGELO MOSCA, a.k.a. King Kong Mosca, JAMES MANLEY, a.k.a. Jim Powers, MICHAEL “MIKE” ENOS, BRUCE “BUTCH” REED, a.k.a. The Natural, CARLENE B. MOORE-BEGNAUD, a.k.a. Jazz, SYLVAIN GRENIER, OMAR MIJARES a.k.a. Omar Atlas, DON LEO HEATON, a.k.a. Don Leo Jonathan, TROY MARTIN, a.k.a. Shane Douglas, MARC COPANI, a.k.a. Muhammad Hassan, MARK CANTERBURY, a.k.a. Henry Godwin, VICTORIA OTIS, a.k.a. Princess Victoria, JUDY HARDEE a.k.a. Judy Martin, MARK JINDRAK, BERNARD KNIGHTON as Personal Representative of the Brian Knighton, a.k.a. Axl Rotten, Estate, MARTY JANNETTY, and JON HEIDENREICH,
Tuesday, 19 July 2016
WWE The brand split GM'S and the draft.
So the
WWE is currently going through some changes with the reintroduction of the brand split making Raw and Smackdown two properly seperate entities again, two programmes witth two diffrent rostas of talent competing against each other.
We have known this was happening for awile, first we found out that the Raw Commissioner wouldd be Stephanie McMahon and the SmackDown Live Commisoner would be Shane McMahon, then we were told that they would have to both pick a general manager responsible for the day to day runnning of each of there respective shows. Now I have to give some kudos to the WWE they have done a very good job of keeping the audience guesssing, of making every single little bit of this process something for people to debate something to keep there fanbase discussing things talking about what they think will happen, what they hope will happen. I was in this situation myself I was paractially jumping up and down when I heard that Shane would be Smackdown Live Commisoner and I couldnt help but hope that the General Managers of both shows would be people who made me just as excited I rememberd people who had been General Manager in the past and I started compiling mental lists thinking oh wouldnt it be cool if one of them turned out to be Kurt Angle or Paul Hayman and then the actual GM's were announced.
So Raw has ended up with Mick Foley as General Manager, and SmackDown Live has ended up with Daniel Bryan as there General Manager. How did I feel about this? Well I was over the moon to find out that Mick Foley would be a GM, I adore the guy he is just one of those personalities inside the wrestling world that I jusst cant get enough of, I have to admit I partly wish he was the SmackDown GM as I well I just kind of have a SmackDown bias, every time the shows have been properly seperated with there own rosta's of talent I have ended up finding myself very much Team SmackDown but I can understand why they would put him on Raw. You see the thing is I dont think the WWE is dumb, they know that most people tend to prefer Shane over his siter after all the man has put his health and well-being on the line countless times for the fans, there has been locker room story after locker room story about how Shane is the one who all of the wreestlers respect, how he is the one McMahon that pretty much no one has an issue with so a lot of people will have a natural bias to side with him and if you want to run two good inderpendant shows then you have to stack the cards evenly, if you give everything good to one show then everyone will just follow that and ignore the other and this would not be a good thing in the long term.
So who did Shane get as his GM on SmackDown Live? He got Daniel Bryan. Now the thing is I am not a massive fan of his but I have to tip my hat and note that when he was announced the crowd went wild, the guy is a fan favourate, people were sad that his wrestling career was ended early and are generally happy to see him back in a diffrent capacity, I think this is a good thing the WWE have noticed peoples love for the guy and for once instead of being pig headed and doing whatever they want to do have actually done what Vince claims should be done and that is ''whats best for business''.
OK so what about who got who in terms of wrestlers well as SmackDown Live is going to be a 2 hour show and Raw will be a 3 hour show basically it went like this in every round of drafts Smackdown would be able to pick wrestlers where as Raw would get 3 given the fact that with the extra hour of programming Raw would need more to fill it with. below I will give each round of the draft complete with a little of what I think about it here and there.
Round No. 1
1. Seth Rollins - Raw
2. WWE Champion Dean Ambrose - SmackDown Live
3. WWE Women's Champion Charlotte - Raw
4. AJ Styles - SmackDown Live
5. Finn Bálor - Raw from NXT
Well to be honest the only guy here who I really like personally is Dean Ambrose and with my SmackDown bias I am very happy to hear that this is the programme he will be on. As for what is best for business well with Raw getting Rollins and Smackdown getting Amrbose things are nice and equal, I dont like them the same but I see them as having a simmilar percieved value and fan base. Also intresting to note that Raw has taken the Womens champion, is Raw going to be our main source for female wrestling in the WWE?
Round No. 2
6. Roman Reigns - Raw
7. John Cena - SmackDown Live
8. Brock Lesnar - Raw
9. Randy Orton - SmackDown Live
10. WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day - Raw
Again Raw takes belts by taking the WWE Tag Team champs leaving me to wonder if Raw will have more or the majority of tag team matches. As for individual wrestlers again I feel with Raw tking Reigns and Lesnar and Smackdown grabbing Cena and Orton things are being kept very even.
Round No. 3
11. Sami Zayn - Raw
12. Bray Wyatt - SmackDown Live
13. Sasha Banks - Raw
14. Becky Lynch - SmackDown Live
15. Chris Jericho - Raw
Round No. 4
16. United States Champion Rusev (with Lana) - Raw
17. Intercontinental Champion The Miz (with Maryse) - SmackDown Live
18. Kevin Owens - Raw
19. Baron Corbin - SmackDown Live
20. Enzo & Cass - Raw
Round No. 5
21. Gallows and Anderson - Raw
22. American Alpha - SmakDown Live from NXT
23. Big Show - Raw
24. Dolph Ziggler - SmackDown Live
25. Nia Jax - Raw from NXT
Round No. 6
26. Neville - Raw
27. Natalya - SmackDown Live
28. Cesaro - Raw
29. Alberto Del Rio - SmackDown Live
30. Sheamus - Raw
Round No. 7 (announced during WWE Draft Center Live on WWE Network)
31. Golden Truth - Raw
32. The Usos - SmackDown Live
33. Titus O'Neil - Raw
34. Demon Kane - SmackDown Live
35. Paige - Raw
Round No. 8 (announced during WWE Draft Center Live on WWE Network)
36. Darren Young (with Bob Backlund) - Raw
37. Kalisto - SmackDown Live
38. Sin Cara - Raw
39. Naomi - SmackDown Live
40. Jack Swagger - Raw
41. The Ascension - SmackDown Live
Round No. 9 (announced during WWE Draft Center Live on WWE Network)
42. The Dudley Boyz - Raw
43. Zack Ryder - SmackDown Live
44. Summer Rae - Raw
45. Apollo Crews - SmackDown Live
46. Mark Henry - Raw
47. Alexa Bliss (from NXT)
Round No. 10 Picks (announced during WWE Draft Center Live on WWE Network)
48. Braun Strowman - Raw
49. Breezango - SmackDown Live
50. Bo Dallas - Raw
51. Eva Marie - SmackDown Live
52. Shining Stars - Raw
53. The Vaudevillains - SmackDown Live
Round No. 11 (announced during WWE Draft Center Live on WWE Network)
54. Alicia Fox - Raw
55. Erick Rowan - SmackDown Live
56. Dana Brooke - Raw
57. Mojo Rawley - SmackDown Live from NXT
58. Curtis Axel - Raw
59. Carmella - SmackDown Live from NXT
Everything feels quiet nicly split with neither brand having all of the good talent so I have to say that it is a case of so far so good but only time will tell with only 59 names mentioned so far and the WWE trying to court new and returning stars it is obvious that there will be names added to both shows as time goes on. I guess now its just a case of waiting to see how this all pans out.
We have known this was happening for awile, first we found out that the Raw Commissioner wouldd be Stephanie McMahon and the SmackDown Live Commisoner would be Shane McMahon, then we were told that they would have to both pick a general manager responsible for the day to day runnning of each of there respective shows. Now I have to give some kudos to the WWE they have done a very good job of keeping the audience guesssing, of making every single little bit of this process something for people to debate something to keep there fanbase discussing things talking about what they think will happen, what they hope will happen. I was in this situation myself I was paractially jumping up and down when I heard that Shane would be Smackdown Live Commisoner and I couldnt help but hope that the General Managers of both shows would be people who made me just as excited I rememberd people who had been General Manager in the past and I started compiling mental lists thinking oh wouldnt it be cool if one of them turned out to be Kurt Angle or Paul Hayman and then the actual GM's were announced.
So Raw has ended up with Mick Foley as General Manager, and SmackDown Live has ended up with Daniel Bryan as there General Manager. How did I feel about this? Well I was over the moon to find out that Mick Foley would be a GM, I adore the guy he is just one of those personalities inside the wrestling world that I jusst cant get enough of, I have to admit I partly wish he was the SmackDown GM as I well I just kind of have a SmackDown bias, every time the shows have been properly seperated with there own rosta's of talent I have ended up finding myself very much Team SmackDown but I can understand why they would put him on Raw. You see the thing is I dont think the WWE is dumb, they know that most people tend to prefer Shane over his siter after all the man has put his health and well-being on the line countless times for the fans, there has been locker room story after locker room story about how Shane is the one who all of the wreestlers respect, how he is the one McMahon that pretty much no one has an issue with so a lot of people will have a natural bias to side with him and if you want to run two good inderpendant shows then you have to stack the cards evenly, if you give everything good to one show then everyone will just follow that and ignore the other and this would not be a good thing in the long term.
So who did Shane get as his GM on SmackDown Live? He got Daniel Bryan. Now the thing is I am not a massive fan of his but I have to tip my hat and note that when he was announced the crowd went wild, the guy is a fan favourate, people were sad that his wrestling career was ended early and are generally happy to see him back in a diffrent capacity, I think this is a good thing the WWE have noticed peoples love for the guy and for once instead of being pig headed and doing whatever they want to do have actually done what Vince claims should be done and that is ''whats best for business''.
OK so what about who got who in terms of wrestlers well as SmackDown Live is going to be a 2 hour show and Raw will be a 3 hour show basically it went like this in every round of drafts Smackdown would be able to pick wrestlers where as Raw would get 3 given the fact that with the extra hour of programming Raw would need more to fill it with. below I will give each round of the draft complete with a little of what I think about it here and there.
Round No. 1
1. Seth Rollins - Raw
2. WWE Champion Dean Ambrose - SmackDown Live
3. WWE Women's Champion Charlotte - Raw
4. AJ Styles - SmackDown Live
5. Finn Bálor - Raw from NXT
Well to be honest the only guy here who I really like personally is Dean Ambrose and with my SmackDown bias I am very happy to hear that this is the programme he will be on. As for what is best for business well with Raw getting Rollins and Smackdown getting Amrbose things are nice and equal, I dont like them the same but I see them as having a simmilar percieved value and fan base. Also intresting to note that Raw has taken the Womens champion, is Raw going to be our main source for female wrestling in the WWE?
Round No. 2
6. Roman Reigns - Raw
7. John Cena - SmackDown Live
8. Brock Lesnar - Raw
9. Randy Orton - SmackDown Live
10. WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day - Raw
Again Raw takes belts by taking the WWE Tag Team champs leaving me to wonder if Raw will have more or the majority of tag team matches. As for individual wrestlers again I feel with Raw tking Reigns and Lesnar and Smackdown grabbing Cena and Orton things are being kept very even.
Round No. 3
11. Sami Zayn - Raw
12. Bray Wyatt - SmackDown Live
13. Sasha Banks - Raw
14. Becky Lynch - SmackDown Live
15. Chris Jericho - Raw
Round No. 4
16. United States Champion Rusev (with Lana) - Raw
17. Intercontinental Champion The Miz (with Maryse) - SmackDown Live
18. Kevin Owens - Raw
19. Baron Corbin - SmackDown Live
20. Enzo & Cass - Raw
Round No. 5
21. Gallows and Anderson - Raw
22. American Alpha - SmakDown Live from NXT
23. Big Show - Raw
24. Dolph Ziggler - SmackDown Live
25. Nia Jax - Raw from NXT
Round No. 6
26. Neville - Raw
27. Natalya - SmackDown Live
28. Cesaro - Raw
29. Alberto Del Rio - SmackDown Live
30. Sheamus - Raw
Round No. 7 (announced during WWE Draft Center Live on WWE Network)
31. Golden Truth - Raw
32. The Usos - SmackDown Live
33. Titus O'Neil - Raw
34. Demon Kane - SmackDown Live
35. Paige - Raw
Round No. 8 (announced during WWE Draft Center Live on WWE Network)
36. Darren Young (with Bob Backlund) - Raw
37. Kalisto - SmackDown Live
38. Sin Cara - Raw
39. Naomi - SmackDown Live
40. Jack Swagger - Raw
41. The Ascension - SmackDown Live
Round No. 9 (announced during WWE Draft Center Live on WWE Network)
42. The Dudley Boyz - Raw
43. Zack Ryder - SmackDown Live
44. Summer Rae - Raw
45. Apollo Crews - SmackDown Live
46. Mark Henry - Raw
47. Alexa Bliss (from NXT)
Round No. 10 Picks (announced during WWE Draft Center Live on WWE Network)
48. Braun Strowman - Raw
49. Breezango - SmackDown Live
50. Bo Dallas - Raw
51. Eva Marie - SmackDown Live
52. Shining Stars - Raw
53. The Vaudevillains - SmackDown Live
Round No. 11 (announced during WWE Draft Center Live on WWE Network)
54. Alicia Fox - Raw
55. Erick Rowan - SmackDown Live
56. Dana Brooke - Raw
57. Mojo Rawley - SmackDown Live from NXT
58. Curtis Axel - Raw
59. Carmella - SmackDown Live from NXT
Everything feels quiet nicly split with neither brand having all of the good talent so I have to say that it is a case of so far so good but only time will tell with only 59 names mentioned so far and the WWE trying to court new and returning stars it is obvious that there will be names added to both shows as time goes on. I guess now its just a case of waiting to see how this all pans out.
Saturday, 23 April 2016
RIP Chyna the "Ninth Wonder of the World" Rest in Peace.
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2016 Feels like it has been a bad year to be a famous legend of yesteryear, we have lost lots of great people and I could talk about them all but with this forum being about the kind of things its about I have chosen to write about two who have recently departed one because of there impact on the world of wrestling and the other because he was the star of one of my favourate films, a film which like a lot of the films I like has a sort of B movie style reputation.I will handle the first today.
So who am I talking about? Well I am talking about the '9th Wonder of the World, AKA Chyna or to go by her real name Joanie Laurer. Now I have been meaning to write about Chyna for a long time basically for two reasons one would be her contribution to the Attitude era of the WWE, one of my favourate era's and the other would be because of the WWE Hall of Fame. Basically she is not in the hall of Fame because Triple H the big dick weasel that he is does not think that she should be in it because ''she did porn films'' or at least that is his story and he has been sticking to it for years, Chyna is actually his X girlfriend though, His X girlfriend he cheated on with Stephanie McMahnn his current Wife. Lets ignore this bullshit, the truth is I havnt seen her porn, I have no desire to see her porn not because I am a prude or anything just because I have no desire to see Chyna like that, I see Chyna as an awesome wrestler and thats how I will always see her. Apparently both HHH and Stephanie have posted condolences and this makes it more likly that she might end up in the hall, but thats little bit of too little too late, it seems like the Woman has basically ended up dead from a broken heart, from the fact shes been shunned so much in life and had her name pulled through the dirt... Yes she did porn, she used her body to make money, but it was her body and it was her business what she did with it, no one should have the right to shit on her and drag her through the dirt for it, if you dont want to see it, then dont watch it, if your scared your kids might see it as HHH claims well if it wasnt Chyna's knockers they saw it wouldnt erase the whole porn industry it would just be a diffrent set of knockers.... put aside that and remember her for her career and what she gave to the wrestling industry.
Ok so a bit about her career, this is to both pay respect to her and show I think she had a Hall of Fame worthy career and should have got in for it as apposed to a post death sympathyentry.Laurer first rose to prominence in the World Wrestling Federation in 1997, where she performed as Chyna and was billed as the "Ninth Wonder of the World" which in of itself was a pretty big deal as they hadnt used the wonder of the world gimic since the late great André the Giant who wass billed as the eighth wonder of the world, if they were willing to put Chyna in to the same category as the Giant I think that shows something from the get go about how they viewed her skills and talent potential back in the day. She was a founding member of one of the most popular wrestling stables D-Generation X (even if this seems to have been downplayed in recent years with history being alterd in the editing suit), she held the WWF Intercontinental Championship a typically male belt in fact she is the only female performer to have ever done so and more than that she did it twice. She was also the WWF Women's Championship once. She did a heck of a lot of firsts for a female wrestler, she was the first Woman to participate in both the Royal Rumble and the King of the Ring events, and was the first and to my knowledge only woman to become the number one contender for the main WWF Championship. She didnt just beat rubbish has been or never was male wrestlers either she had singles victories over several prominent male wrestlers including several multiple-time world champions the likes of Triple H, Kurt Angle, and Chris Jericho.
I know people will retaleate against this with ''she did porn'' but I think the woman was a role model for women, no I am not saying every woman should be a wrestler and should choke slam a man from the top turnbuckle, what I am saying is a woman should be what she is inside regardless of if its deemed normal by society or not. Chyna had one of the best theme songs in wreslting in my oppinion and its because it reflectd her so well particularly the line ''Dont Treat me like woman, dont treat me like a man, just treat me for who I am'' if thats not a cry for equality then I dont know what is. I dont see Chyna as a good wrestler for a Woman I see her as a Legend of the industry and from all the times I have seen her talk I actually think that despite her hard exteria she had a soft center to her and I am deeply saddend to hear that she passed when she did and that she never got the recognition or support she truly deserved.. If my kid looked up Chyna and saw that she did porn Id say ''Yes she did, but she also was a legendery wrestler and a teacher, and a woman, she owned her life and did what she thought she had to and wanted to do when she did it and there is nothing wrong in that'' maybe Triple HHH should worry less about a Woman doing porn and worry more about how he raises his kids, you raise your children to view Women as more than a life support system for a Vagina, you raise them to realise people make choices in life and then live with them, you also raise them to know that its not your job to judge other people for what they may or may not have done.
Thursday, 26 November 2015
The WWE hall of fame Inductions for 2004 and 2005
So the last time I looked at the WWE Hall of Fame I went over its first 4 years, which was around the first 22 people or so to enter it. I also talked about how there was not an actual physical hall and how the WWE had considered making one and had special items in storage and I also said that the whole idea would be pretty much forgotten and not mentioned until 2004. So I am pack today to take it from there and talk some more about it.
So to recap or just bring someone up to speed who is reading this without having read my prior post on the matter the WWE Hall of Fame is basically a list of professional wrestling personalities who are being honoured for there contribution to the world of WWE, people who they personally feel have had a major impact on the WWE brand and company.
Well Vince McMahon decided to bring it back in 2004 and he brought it back in a big way. It was televised and went on to be released on DVD. This was a real turning point for the hall of fame in my opinion, now it was more than just a list or an event tagged on to another event, it is here that it became something in its own right.
The 2004 Hall of Fame ceremony runs around the three hours mark on DVD and apparently people who attended it have claimed this is a trimmed version and that the actual ceremony ran for far longer. It doesn't feel as long as it is though, its a nice look at the stars who are being celebrated and a chance to see them get the respect they deserve.
Those added to the Hall of Fame list in 2004 were Jesse "The Body" Ventura, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, "Magnificent" Don Muraco, "Big" John Studd, Junkyard Dog, "Superstar" Billy Graham, Sgt. Slaughter, Tito Santana, Harley Race, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, and Pete Rose. It is great to hear what those who were still alive had to say about there careers and about being put in the hall of fame. In the case of "Big John Studd and Junkyard Dog, family members accepted the awards on their behalf as they were being inducted after they had already passed on.
The camera doesn't just sit on them though, sure you will see shots of them talking and giving there acceptance speeches but the camera also pans and shows you who is in the audience, and in the audience you will notice younger still active wrestlers (at that point) wrestlers who were most likely inspired by some of the people on the stage to enter the squared circle.
This is also the point where people I really felt I knew were beginning to be added, sure I knew Jesse Ventura more for his work on the mic than for his wrestling but this was the first time when I didn't have to really stop and think who people were, Id seen or heard all of them on events like wrestlemania. Greg Valentine I had seen both as a solo wrestler and with the Honky Tonk man as a tag team called rhythm and blues. Tito Santana as well I had seen on his own and with Rick the Model Martel as the fast high energy tag team Strike Force. As a kid I absolutely hated Bobby the Brain but as I have gotten older I realise just how much of my enjoyment of the WWF/WWE came down to this man. It was his motor mouth speech his on the spot insults, he knew how to get the kind of heat on a regular basis that most people in the world of wrestling would dream of striking once or twice in there career. With the exception of the celebrity inductee I would find it hard to really argue that any of these men didn't deserve there spot.
The 2005 Hall of Fame can best be described as the one where a whole bunch of the people responsible for making the first wrestlemania the huge event that it was as good as it was get inducted. Literally every single person inducted this year was involved in the first ever Wrestlemania.
Hulk Hogan (Terry Bollea),"Rowdy" Roddy Piper (Roderick Toombs),"Cowboy" Bob Orton and "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff who all featured in the main event bout of Wrestlemania. On top of this Jimmy Hart, Nikolai Volkoff(Josip Peruzovic), and The Iron Sheik (Khosrow Vaziri) who were all involved in other matches at wrestlemania were inducted. Now I dont think I need to tell anyone who Hulk Hogan is, he is the wrestler that even people who dont know or care about wrestling know of. The WWE might have removed him from the hall of fame since this because of the recent controversy around him but they will never get people to forget him. I was never that in to Hogan though, sure I enjoyed some of his matches but he was too squeaky clean, all of the say your prayers and take your vitamins stuff and that big weight lifting body just didn't appeal to me. Now Piper that was a guy who was one of my Heroes, he had a believable body but more than that he had the mouth and the will to win at whatever the cost, I respected him as a Villain but when he started to become a hero well he was my hero an anti hero, a hero who didn't care if he had to fight dirty and take it to the villains with all of the same dirty tricks they would pull.
I didn't see the first wrestlemania when it happened as I was about 4 at the time but I did get my hands on a Video Tape of it and the next few wrestlemanias when I started watching all of the main events which was around the time of Wrestlemania 3, so I really knew what all of these guys had done for the world of wrestling and wouldn't question any of there inductions. The 2005 Hall of Fame can also be got on DVD.
Well for now I will leave it here, next time I will pick this up by continuing to work my way through the years, but I also plan to at some point take a look at my pick of the top 10 Wrestlers who are not in the hall and who I really believe should be by now.
Thursday, 5 November 2015
Wresting News: Rollins Injured, Survivor Series tournament winner to get the WWE gold.
Ok so I didnt intend to be talking about wrestling again so soon, I intended to put a game review or a horror review in before this, not to mention I missed my Games I have complete this month thread largly because the only thing I completed was Forza 5 and most people proberbly did that years ago but then ESPN went and broke the news on Twitter that WWE's top titleholder Seth Rollins suffered tears to his ACL/MCL/medial meniscus while performing at the WWE Live Event in Dublin, Ireland. Now this is when I have to admit that I think the guy is a dick. First I think he is overrated as far as talent goes, then there is the fact that his girlfriend Zahra Schreiber is a racist nut-job and he publicly defended her racism online (on social media) racism which saw her fired, yet his part in it, saying that what she was saying was OK was ignored with seemingly no slap on the wrist for him. The truth is I was never much of a fan of the Shield, Rollins has a face you want to punch repeatedly, Roman Reigns has all of the charisma of a lawn chair, the only one of the three of them I ever really liked at all was Dean Ambrose.
I think Ambrose on his own with the right push could be something truly special, maybe its because I see flashes of Piper, Brian Pillman and Jake the Snake but still I digress. As a direct result of Rollins injury Survivor Series will host a tournament of some kind the winner of which will be crowned the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion.
So far they have not announce which Superstars will be participating in this event. I think however it is safe to say that the current number one contender, Roman Reigns, will be involved. In fact I have a sneaking hunch that he will win it and then when Rollins gets back there will be a whole thing about how you might have won the belt but you never beat me Reigns and Rollins main event in the closest main event to his return.
The ending aside though I think this kind of vacant title event could be a really good idea, there are so many routes to go down in terms of who to involve and how to decide the victor and even without letting them win it letting certain wrestlers put on a really good showing and get a certain degree through proceedings could really help give a few people much needed pushes.
Monday, 2 November 2015
WWE NEWS: Jimmy Superfly Snuka's first day in court
Around about the beginning of September I wrote a post talking about a few controversial things which had happened around the world of the WWE, one of them was that the SuperFly Jimmy Snuka had been arrested On September the 1st 2015 In connection to the death of Nancy Argentino his girlfriend 32 years before on the night of 10 May 1983. Well this post is a bit of an update on that situation.On the 2nd of November Jimmy Snuka was officially arraigned on charges of involuntary manslaughter and third degree murder in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh County Court.
Now I had been reading here and there for awhile that more or less since his arrest Snuka age 72 had been claiming to have various issues relating to his memory, and I had theorised that perhaps this was a way to try and claim he was unfit to face charges. Yes I am thinking this purely on the basis of when he has started saying it and I had no proof when I would raise the possibility of this to friend but this seemed to be one of the very first things raised in the case. Snuka claimed to be suffering from some form of early-onset dementia as well as complications from post-concussion syndrome.
If this is true then it would mean that he began to develop these symptoms over seven years ago, as early-onset basically refers to before 65 years old in this kind of case. The Judge (Kelly Banach) asked some standard questions which are usually used in order to determine if someone is mentally competent to stand trial and apparently Snuka didn't even know what day of the week it was or what city he was in. According to Snuka’s lawyer (Robert Kirwan) Snuka has good days and bad days and this response had come on a good day. Now this is a hard situation to argue about because there is onyl one person who really knows what its like inside Snuka's mind and that's Snuka, his brain might really be damaged and swiss cheesed or he could just be faking it, I am pretty sure his family would think I am a heartless arsehole for even suggesting that he is lying but equally if he did kill there daughter/ sister etcetera then Nancy Argentino's family wont want to see him escape justice due to his age/issues. Its also important to remember that Snuka has wrestled as recently as the 11th of May 2014, when he teamed up with The Patriot to defeat the team of Brodie Williams and Mr. TA at a Big Time Wrestling event, so now he cant remember the day of the week but just over a year ago he was competing as a sports entertainer.
There are also other important things to mention one is that the judge has issued a gag order on the participants as well as the Argentino family as he does not want the trial to essentially end up being judged via the press, which is understandable. Also the judge has added that If the case does go to trial with Snuka deemed as being mentally competent, Snuka's lawer is pushing for an out-of-county jury, so that they are dealing with the facts instead of hear say and such.
Its hard to know what to think at the moment. I hate to be a prick but being able to perform as a wrestler/sports entertainer one minute and then next claiming that your not mentally competent when you find yourself up for a murder trial seems a little too coincidental.I guess we will all just have to see how this plays out.
Now I had been reading here and there for awhile that more or less since his arrest Snuka age 72 had been claiming to have various issues relating to his memory, and I had theorised that perhaps this was a way to try and claim he was unfit to face charges. Yes I am thinking this purely on the basis of when he has started saying it and I had no proof when I would raise the possibility of this to friend but this seemed to be one of the very first things raised in the case. Snuka claimed to be suffering from some form of early-onset dementia as well as complications from post-concussion syndrome.
If this is true then it would mean that he began to develop these symptoms over seven years ago, as early-onset basically refers to before 65 years old in this kind of case. The Judge (Kelly Banach) asked some standard questions which are usually used in order to determine if someone is mentally competent to stand trial and apparently Snuka didn't even know what day of the week it was or what city he was in. According to Snuka’s lawyer (Robert Kirwan) Snuka has good days and bad days and this response had come on a good day. Now this is a hard situation to argue about because there is onyl one person who really knows what its like inside Snuka's mind and that's Snuka, his brain might really be damaged and swiss cheesed or he could just be faking it, I am pretty sure his family would think I am a heartless arsehole for even suggesting that he is lying but equally if he did kill there daughter/ sister etcetera then Nancy Argentino's family wont want to see him escape justice due to his age/issues. Its also important to remember that Snuka has wrestled as recently as the 11th of May 2014, when he teamed up with The Patriot to defeat the team of Brodie Williams and Mr. TA at a Big Time Wrestling event, so now he cant remember the day of the week but just over a year ago he was competing as a sports entertainer.
There are also other important things to mention one is that the judge has issued a gag order on the participants as well as the Argentino family as he does not want the trial to essentially end up being judged via the press, which is understandable. Also the judge has added that If the case does go to trial with Snuka deemed as being mentally competent, Snuka's lawer is pushing for an out-of-county jury, so that they are dealing with the facts instead of hear say and such.
Its hard to know what to think at the moment. I hate to be a prick but being able to perform as a wrestler/sports entertainer one minute and then next claiming that your not mentally competent when you find yourself up for a murder trial seems a little too coincidental.I guess we will all just have to see how this plays out.
Monday, 26 October 2015
The Early years of the WWE Hall of Fame
So what is the WWE Hall of Fame well put simply it is a hall of fame for professional wrestling personalities maintained by WWE. Or to put it more simply its a list of people who it is felt have had a major impact on the WWE brand and company.
It was first mentioned and officially created on the March 22nd 1993 episode of Monday Night Raw. André the Giant, had died around about two months prior to this, and he was announced as the sole inductee.I don't think there is really anyone who would debate whether the Giant deserved his place in the hall,so he was certainly a good starting point. He was a Posthumous inductee as it was held after his death, there was no actual ceremony but a Video was made and shown to announce his induction and celebrate his career, a career which included an undefeated streak lasting nearly 15 years, as well as being both a former WWE Champion and WWE Tag Team champion.
The 1994 and 1995 ceremonies were held in conjunction with the annual King of the Ring pay-per-view events. The 1994 ceremony saw the following added to the hall, Arnold Skaaland, Bobo Brazil, "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers, Chief Jay Strongbow, "Classy" Freddie Blassie, Gorilla Monsoon and James Dudley. Now I wont talk about all of these in turn as I would be here all day and a lot of them are either before my time or I know of them for there other work, for example I know Gorilla Monsoon for his stint as a WWF announcer and on-screen President rather than for his actual in ring career, all of them with the exception of Buddy Rogers were alive at the time of there induction.
The 1995 ceremony saw the induction of stars such as Antonino Rocca, "Big Cat" Ernie Ladd, George "The Animal" Steele, Ivan Putski, The Fabulous Moolah, The Grand Wizard, and Pedro Morales. Again a lot of these wrestlers were before my time, with the only one I really hold a lot of memories and affection for being the lovable monster heel character of George The Animal Steele. The year is proberbly most worthy of note for being the first time a Woman found her way in to the WWE Hall of fame.
In 1996, the Hall of Fame ceremony was held with the Survivor Series event that year. This year would see "Baron" Mikel Scicluna, "Captain" Lou Albano, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, The Valiant Brothers (the first tag team to go into the hall) Johnny Rodz, Killer Kowalski, Pat Patterson, and Vincent J. McMahon AKA McMahon Senior. Captain Lou Albano was obviously very well known particularly as a manager and many kids will know him as being the real life Mario who featured at the start and end of episodes of the Super Mario Bros Super show. Jimmy Snuka will also most likly be known because of firstly the fact that he achieved super fame in the company and has kept popping up again and again but also unfortunatly because of the fact that he is currently facing a court case in relation to a death around 20 years ago. This makes it the first year in which we have a super star entering the hall who will latter be removed from it in at least some capacity (As of September 2015, Jimmy Snuka's profile is no longer in the Hall of Fame section at WWE.com. However, this does not necessarily mean that Snuka has been removed from the WWE Hall of Fame completely as no statement has been made by WWE yet in regards to this, nor do we know if one ever will be).
So there we have the first 4 years of the Hall of Fame and by my reckoning around the first 22 people to enter it. At this point it felt like the Hall of Fame would just keep going, getting bigger and bigger but suprisingly it stopped being mentioned and no new blood would be inducted in to it until 2004. None of these early ceremonies were televised with the exception of the video made to induct Andre.
So is the Hall of Fame a real physical thing or is it just a list, well technically a building has never been built to represent/house the Hall of Fame, although I have heard that WWE has looked into constructing this kind of thing, however In 2008, Shane McMahon, who was at the time Executive Vice President of WWE, stated that they had been storing wrestling memorabilia in a warehouse for years, with all items categorized and dated in case a real Hall was ever made. Now while I am very glad to hear that they are at least storing significant items its a shame we dont get to see them. I would argue that if they cant or do not at present want to create a real physical hall then maybe the next best thing would be a virtual hall of fame, let us see and virtually interact with this pieces of wrestling memrobelia, photo them from every angle and let us virtually turn them around and study them while reading about the greats that they are connected to, this way if they are ever lost or damaged they will live on in this way.
Saturday, 3 October 2015
SNES Game Review 97: WWF Royal Rumble
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It was released for both the Super NES and Sega Megadrive. Like its predecessor but in this case the Megadrive version hit about 3 months later, once again despite being pretty much the same game it was decided that they would give the games different roster’s, I am not sure if this was maybe because they thought it might inspire some people to buy both or because of changes in the WWF and in who was important at the time, after all 3 months could be a long time back then with wrestlers moving to WCW or mid-carders moving up in to more main event status. Either way the two versions share seven wrestlers: Bret Hart, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon, Randy Savage, Crush, and Lex Luger. Then each version has 5 exclusive wrestlers. On the SNES people got to play with Ric Flair, Mr. Perfect, Ted DiBiase, Yokozuna and Tatanka. Whereas on the Megadrive/Genesis there was Hulk Hogan, IRS, Jim Duggan, The Model and Papa Shango. Who got the better deal kind of depends upon how much you value the individuals involved. I like the fact that the SNES version got Ric Flair, Mr. Perfect, Ted DiBiase as they were all excellent heel characters but I have to admit if they were removed I wouldn’t really miss either Yokozuna or Tatanka. As for the megadrive version well it’s kind of cool to see Hulk Hogan and Jim Duggan as strong hero types from that period, and I also have a lot of respect for The Model so it’s nice to see him in a game. The strange thing is that IRS and Million Dollar man found themselves on oppersit sides of the format.
Yes once again I am here pointing out that old wrestling games didn’t have the large amount of wrestlers we are used to receiving in a modern game so again the same question I asked before about Super Wrestlemania can be asked. If they were going to do the work on all those characters why split them between platforms but this could be due to all sorts of things such as the size of cartridge they were trying to fit it on or again offering unique reasons for people to buy it on more than one format.
So with this only coming out a year later than Super Wrestlemania lets stop worrying about format differences and look at what was done to improve the game over its previous entry, was anything changed or was it just a quick cash grab? Well while WWF Royal Rumble still has the old bang/tap the buttons on your pad like crazy with the faster person winning grappling style this time they added an on screen meter to show how it was going. As small as this sounds I think this was a great little addition, you could now see if you were going to win or lose a grapple and it would make you try that bit harder. Steel chairs could now be found outside the ring and used which as small as it might sound at the time was a cool addition. Also after knocking the referee unconscious, the player can now use illegal tactics such as choking to get the advantage. In the last entry in the series wrestlers could only enter the ring from the left or right side but now you can roll into the from the bottom part of the screen, meaning far less bouts being ended by count out. More moves were added to the basic move makes the game feel a bit less repetitive. It’s not a bad little list of additions even if some of them are quiet subtle.
For me the main draw of this game is in the title, basically it is the fact that there's a Royal Rumble mode. I always loved watching the royal rumble every year when I was young, thirty men enter only one man leaves the winner usually with the promise of a shot at the title at the next Wrestlemania. It wasn’t always the winner who was the coolest though, it was great watching who would eliminate the most people who would last the longest, who would be the quickest person eliminated. I could talk for hours about my favourite moments from Royal Rumbles over the years including the moment when one of the bushwhackers marched to the ring jumped in got immediately knocked out and then marched back to the dressing room without missing a beat. There are of course some amazing things about the rumble this game cannot hope to emulate. You never really knew who would run to the ring next in a royal rumble, sometimes it would even be someone you hadn’t seen wrestle in a long time, or a surprise guest but in this game it is obviously one of the 12 playable characters, and that’s the other thing it’s only a 12 person rumble not a 30. Also there is only ever a maximum of 6 people in the ring at a time. Once you hit that magic number no one else will enter until someone has been eliminated to free up a space. I can see why this happens and to some degree wrestling games still do it now. There are of course a limited number of characters the console can handle at one time without it either causing slow down or just making things far too chaotic to play. For those less versed in the way of the Royal rumble it’s basically a multi competitor event where instead of pinning opponents you eliminate them by throwing them out over the top ropes, the winner being the last man left in the ring. Personally I think this mode alone actually adds buckets more to this game than the past entry in the series. I remember as a kid playing this game again and again with my brother and I honestly think for the time it wasn’t too bad. Sure it has been surpassed now, there was the excellent Royal Rumble game on Sega’s Dreamcast and then of course pretty much every modern wrestling game has a rumble/battle royal mode now but at the time this was a really neat little addition.
The graphics are pretty decent for the time, and the wrestlers although some of them don’t look quite right, Yokozuna for example does not look anywhere near big enough in comparison to other wrestlers. The important thing though is that you can tell people apart and you never get confused about who is who so the graphics are at the least highly functional. The Sound is average, all of the expected wrestler grunting is here with probably the best audio being the wrestler’s theme tunes which are all here in accurate midi style.
Would I recommend this game? Well I certainly think that there are better efforts on the machine and I would probably try to push you to something like Saturday Night Slam Masters first, but I also recognise this as a big step up from its prequel, I recognise the strength of its royal rumble mode for short bursts of fun, and I recognise the effort they went to in order to improve it. I would give this game a 6 out of 10. Should you actually go out and buy it though? Well with all of the carts of it I can find hugging the £10 to £15 price range and how much this type of game has advanced I would find it hard to recommend a purchase unless you’re dying for a new SNES game. As I said before with Super Wrestlemania you would be much better served going in to a shop and looking for a modern wrestling game with at least 3 times the characters, additions we now have like create a wrestler, and online play. In fact you can walk in to somewhere like CEX and find a copy of something like Smackdown Here comes the pain, Or one of the other early PS2 WWE Wrestlers for under £3 and you would probably get a great deal more fun from them. So really that would be my recommendation in this case, although it’s certainly fun to see how much WWE/WWF games have changed and developed over the many years they have been released.
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