i_love_pro_wrestling stork daddy i really love pro wrestling. there, i said it, i'm not ashamed. 031014 ... notme turkish oil wrestling 031014 ... The Spork Shit, why not love it? At it's best it's conveys all the drama of genuine competition on a more personal level than most "legitimate" professional sports. I mean, seriously, other than the chance that the Cubs and Red Sox may face off in the world series, there hasn't been anything too incredibly exciting in pro sports lately, At it's worst, it's "theatre of the Absurd" and that can still be quite entertaining. About the only thing i don't like about the one promotion i can actually get is the political overtones on one of their shows. Knowing my political views, i have to agree that some of the flag-waving (and a few of the other occasional story elements) validates the criticism that pro wrestling plays to the lowest common denominator. If I was Rob Van Dam I'd be pissed that instead of being used as the guy at the top of the midcard tier, I was getting used on TV as barely more than a plot device in someone else's angle, first as a prelude to the Shane McMahon - Kane weirdness and second now as just a set-up to something between Steve Austin and Scott Steiner. And on the other show they are totally going to fuck up the fan support that Eddie Guerrero has built up with stunts like last week and the week before. I love it, but lately I keep watching just because I'm hoping Vince McMahon will pull either his or his future son-in-law's head out of his ass and quit stroking his own ego over those of the people who make his shows worth watching. 031014 ... The Spork as Dusty Rhodes Watching Smackdown and Raw lasr week, I had to wonder precisely wHHHo was booking some of the really lame angles? Ultimo Dragon squashed in under 4 minutes like he was a jobber? Eddie Guerrero being wasted in a feud with Paul "Big Show" Wight and the whole stupid Sewage Truck angle? The "I Quit" Match pitting Vince McMahon and his Daughter against each other? (I am SO not buying that PPV) Why is Chris Benoit not in the Main Event situation right now? One of the best performers in the company and he's stuck against Matt "A-Train" Bloom. Who'd he piss off? On a positive note, I think i detect a slow build toward what could be an interesting match-up down the line in having Austin behaving like more and more of a Heel (or at the very least a bigger loose cannon than his character has been in a while) I fully expect Austin to be the one who eventually is proven to be the man behind the mystery "attacks" on Bill Goldberg, even so far as collecting the money that HHH has put up to take Goldberg out, and in the meantime, i think the Shawn Michaels Goldberg match this Monday should be interesting at the very least, a bit of a style-clash, but there was something nice and old-school about the set-up preceding it. The downside of the whole angle is that it means any of the Heels who advance in any way are really just keeping Hunter's spot warm for him until he gets back from the set of Blade III (where he'll be playing one of the vampires - a fact that I imagine many in the WWE locker-room of late would find Highly Apropos - yes, sleeping with and being engaged to the CEO's daughter in real-life has its perks, apparently) 031017 ... stork daddy well austin vs. goldberg at wrestlemania wouldn't be a surprise. i'm just hoping the kurt angle bret hart rumors are true (despite what i know of bret's injuries). 031017 ... oldephebe dusty rhodes was probably one of the last truly charismatic figures in wrestling..even bloated and spavined and ravaged by the rigors of his "sport" and the attendant amelioratives and dissolution and distractions that attended his profession.. i really looked forward to his extemporaneous sermonette's..almost felt like i was listening to an old school baptist preacher or something..Dusty was remarkable..still though..it takes a lot of guts to admit an affinity for pro-wrestling particularly in these pages rife with the hue of hubris and really inspired people (myself the drumajor, waving his aesthetic baton maniacally) itching to impress and cite any referance innaccurate or not to the whole crowded cosmos of "isms" particularly those borne upon the learned spumes of idle conjecture in the hey day of the salon in from the mid to late 19th century.. i used to like wrestling until ed mcmaahon turned it into this garish promenade of the burlesque... that is of course relatively speaking.. 031017 ... reflexively opining oldephebe i posted this w/o reading through the ah posts..now i shall actually read what everyone had to say.. 031017 ... oldephebe yeah so..like i said..ed mcmahon has pretty much ruined wretling in his effort to pay back nbc over the whole xfl debacle ... 031017 ... The Spork NBC already wrote him off. (for the second time since the last of the old Saturday Night Main Event programs they used to carry back in the mid '80s) Vince McMahon is screwing himself, his performers, his media partners at Viacom and his fans lately. And really the XFL was really just the beginning of the trainwreck... It was bad enough that they totally blew the chance they had to make a huge impact with the acquisitions of the ECW and WCW trademarks and rosters... everything about the "Invasion" angle was done wrong. Part of the problem was the management's decision to bury even the most popular of the WCW talent and McMahon's peculiar fetish for Super-Heavyweight type performers over the more agile and infinitely more entertaining Cruiserweight performers is another problem. The big guys wouldn't be so bad if more of them were technically sound mat-wrestlers with the same kind of credentials as Brock Lesnar or Kurt Angle or even if they mixed good ratio of a bit of the legit amateur wrestling technique with a bit of the high-impact strength and power moves... as it is, most of the big guys in WWE are not terribly agile and it would be best if their matches were kept short. On a whole other note, I could compare the Yankees dominance in Baseball to that of Paul "Triple H" LeVesque in WWE, but where LeVesque uses office politics and family ties to dominate the program beyond where he really deserves to be, Steinbrenner uses the sheer weight of money. The Red Sox were Chris Jericho to they Yankees HHH and the fact that they were poised to win it and had it slip through their fingers was like any "hope spot" that they guy who has to "do the job" might work in where the crowd is convinced for that moment that the challenger might walk out with the title only to get clobbered when the ref gets distracted. And the Cubs... Well, they are to Baseball what the Phoenix Suns are to basketball, doomed to be midcard players who get elevated as a gag every now and then but aren't likely to ever be given the big push to wear the Title WHOOOO! 031018 ... oldephebe well said spork..thanx for the edification and clarification..if i can use clarification w/o being reduntant..cause i already used edification..this compulsive qualification thing (or acute exacerbation thereof) probably stems from the legal writing i used to do for a now defunct import/wholesale/retail and fundraising partnership..i will probably never scour that impulse from my writing style.. anyway thanx for the edification Spork 031018 ... stork daddy personally i think chris jericho lost what motivation he had to be creative when he was repeatedly held back in the WCW. It takes a certain type, a Stone Cold or a Mick Foley to keep creating and recreating engaging characters despite little recognition or encouragement by the matchmakers. Frankly, Paul Heyman was the best thing to ever happen to those two, and he really should be brought back on as head writer for at least Smackdown since he seems to be the only one who is capable of not deflating every other storyline for one character or one angle. Vince is at his best as a performer, but as a writer he sometimes does make bad decisions. Personally, i think the thrill of pro-wrestling is that it amplifies the thrills of legitimate competition, it is able to distill the comebacks, the mismatches, the favorites and underdogs to a sort of ritual. They are able to concentrate on the moves and moments which are most exciting. Believe it or not, Hulk Hogan proved you don't need to be a great technician to have exciting matches, you just have to play to the crowd's desires. I think that McMahon is wrong in thinking that the crowd does not desire an element of uncertainty and surprise, however. One of the strengths of a more "legitimate" style wrestling is its imitation of the way a real wrestling match can end at any minute on any given move, and that even the person you don't like often has a chance of winning. Instead, we have the unstoppable and the cheat. This is an old gimmick and it works when the cheat also happens to be respected as a wrestler who could win on his own merit but resorts to cheating just to make it that much more difficult, ala ric flair. However, nowadays we see the Goldbergs and you know that no matter what, he's going to win with his finisher. Even Stone Cold who i have much respect for as a entertainer, rode this kind of status for a long time (and who can blame him as the money was good and it was working). The Hulk Hogan era was a reaction, an overcorrection of the lack of sensationalism that attended wrestling when it was perceived as legitimate, but the current sensationalism deflates what made wrestling so engaging in the first place. Certainly more technical matches are a good thing, as they bring an aesthetics to the matches, but truly the performers must first understand the psychology of the game they are playing. The best matches are the ones where both wrestlers leave the ring with more intrigue. It seems as if one person is built up as unstoppable at everyone else's exspense these days. Also, there is no consistency, and yesterday's badass is today's chicken. Pro wrestling fans don't all have the memory of a goldfish and so unless such a change of attitude is earned, it is going to be hard to buy, and the artifice behind match will be all too clear, the cliche will just be playing itself out again. The pro-wrestling I love isn't mere soap opera, it's tragedy, it's comedy, it's greek drama. By the way, if any of you are interested, there is a fine deconstructionist essay by Roland Barthes on the ritual of pro-wrestling. Also, i bet you Dick Ebersol still has faith in McMahon as well he should. Mcmahon consistently makes as many ppv buys as the most hyped boxing matches. Personally, i miss the Mick Foleys, the Andy Kaufmans (yes he was a prowrestler at heart). Spork, do you watch any Japanese pro-wrestling? It helps that i speak a little Japanese, but in the ring they tend to have a story telling style that emphasizes what is best in pro-wrestling. 031018 ... celestias shadow my brother loves to watch this shit. it makes me sad. whenever i walk by and see him watching it instead of That 70's Show it makes me weep inside. *snif* i can feel my brain cells dying just thinking about it. 031019 ... The (WHOOOOO!) Spork I've watched some, but not enough. I was just thinking about how the Great Sasuke was elected to the Japanese Parliament and refused to take his mask off when the session convened, it means that much to him to keep it on. 031020 ... stork daddy ah poor confused celestias shadow, we dismiss that which we do not understand. 031020 ... The Spork I am one bummed puppy today. I just found out that Eddie Guerrero passed away in his hotel room somewhere between Saturday night and yesterday morning. 4 years of being clean and sober after all of the issues he went through. Dammit, it just ain't right. Rest in peace, Eddie, you were one of the greatest. Eduardo Gory Guerrero 1967-2005 051114 ... el chorizon "If you're not cheating, you're not trying" adios, Eddie 051115 ... stork daddy man. that's a hard hit across the boards. 051116 ... TROUBLESUM aaaaww, nothing like a soap opera for the gay comminty. a bunch of sweaty, walking sticks, rubbing eachother in choreographed ways 051116 what's it to you? who go blather from