flyonthewall2983

https://www.instagram.com/p/DMgCNk1JDPC/?igsh=MXI2cWN5dTAxeXM0OQ==

https://youtu.be/qGwHxpdYskE?si=jJz5pI9IfNH_hQXb

I see this in two perspectives. People Vince should have kept, against who should have stayed. The first one is probably less arguable, but if there’s anybody who embodies both of these statements it’s Bret Hart. But I’m thinking more along the lines of who should have been kept during the lean years of the early-middle 90’s when it was revolving doors in Stamford in the middle of the heat being brought on by Washington. I personally think that even more than Hogan, they needed Bobby Heenan and Gene Okerlund during that time. Their replacements but one had a clear disconnect to the wrestling business. The exception to this was Jerry Lawler, who was only ever made better by someone firmly in the first camp maybe to this day, Jim Ross.

I have the commentary shut off on 2K25. Just not the same for me without Jerry and JR. Takes me back to the older games like Super WrestleMania when there was just a little funny frames of animated Vince and Bobby calling the action. I’ve seen a few things on YouTube of more recent custom games that have lines from Vince, Gorilla and Jesse tailored specifically to the guy on screen in such a way that it had an arcade game feel to it. The 91 and 95 games are works of art if you ask me. I really like that Jesse’s back.

I read some offhand comment that they possibly filmed this in consideration of the federal heat on Vince at the time. I haven’t seen the documentary the company put out using this footage but I’m kind of guessing there might be some half truth to it. It was said to be very unusual for behind the scenes stuff to be filmed like that at the time, I know that much.

How much has changed

Me and my brother agreed it would be cool if they showed old matches before big stadium shows, ideally from the same city they’re in. We noticed this before the Royal Rumble in Indy, as we were piling in they had all these screens just showing nothing interesting. The one match they should have put on at least there, is Hogan/Andre ‘88 with the Hebner brothers saga. It was the debut of the winged eagle belt (a prop for that nights title match), had the biggest television audience for a wrestling match, and emanated from the same city.

I love the bodysuits the women wear. They’re awfully comfy with fetish aesthetics these days.

My brother and I agreed if this came out 30 years ago we’d never leave home. Poking up against the games limitations has also weirdly inspired creativity. They don’t have Survivor Series matches, but with what tools are handy I was able to reinvent the formula a bit. 4 on 4 tag team 1-hour (or 3 on 3 half hour) iron man matches, and every pin or submission is a point added to each wrestler. One aspect I am impressed with is how 8 can be in the ring at the same time. For a long time it seemed you couldn’t have real battle royals in games but now they seem more possible with the AI limit now.

Loser has to eat Nick’s rejected pie crust

It could possibly interest them to put up older stuff, if they catch on at least. That’s my hope anyway.

Does Billy own much archival footage?

The preface to this is I only started playing video games on my own as an adult last year. I quit doing it in my teens but watched my brother and maybe joined in if I was too bored to do anything else but the new systems impressive as they were didn’t have a whole lot of sway towards my attention. That was 20 years ago and in understanding how much has changed, I found last years game to be a bit of a wake up call. I also got tired of playing stuff on my phone to be honest. I see this years game as an opportunity to be as creative with how I pull things off as I do talking here. I have found playing it to be invigorating to my sense of history with the custom roster I have now, largely of guys from the 80’s and 90’s I grew up watching over and over. And had action figures of. Most of them anyway, Brutus Beefcake and the Bushwackers didn’t last long with me this time around. Universe Mode is where I am paying most attention, building up card after card of dream matches never seen but could have feasibly happened, if history changed. The what if’s are fueling the brain jibing well with my knowledge of what is a deeply fascinating history, as well as things going on right now. Real recent highlight for me was having a six man Iron Match with more recent stars I know instead of the guys from childhood I admittedly prefer building angles with. Sort of enforces my respect for them all (Cody, Roman, Priest, Gunther, McIntyre, and Ethan Page) that I was able to be as invested in what I was doing on screen, and how well it all seemed to click. But as much fun I am having playing it, it’s the aesthetic aspect of changing around characters looks that has me interested in some creative directions. Especially since I can have two different gimmicks with the same guy in each battling it out. That lends itself to some absurdism perhaps but it does blow my mind a fair bit just talking about it, but also speaks a lot more to how much I can feel myself in the game now. Weird as it may sound this might be the cultural high point of the year for me. It’s rejuvenated my love of professional wrestling, which I can’t ever describe as waning but can and will often lay dormant if nothing connects. I like some of the directions WWE is taking this year, if even I find some of their recent decisions as a proxy to their corporate overlords, not to mention the ongoing saga of the McMahons, distasteful. This isn’t reflective of how I feel about the product but it has to be mentioned, as much as it should that I always found wrestling as a common bond between me and my brother. We have more now as older men but our shorthand about this stuff is what has kept me going, because it is way more than just about the corporate side but appreciating the artistic value still to be had in it. And of those who practice it at the highest levels.

Wonderful idea. And I can’t think of a better match to start this wing of the institution with.

Maybe not exact to Harley’s physicality and mannerisms but I could see casting Gene in a role that reflects the kind of guy Harley was as a champion, and the level of creativity he brought to the ring. As well as the business side of what he did and perhaps too the aspects of his character only those who knew Race could speak to.

I would say that in 92 up until the casket match he was intimidating. I was 8 and this my only exposure to him but I have no doubt he was surely intimidating before. I liked the matches he had respectively George “The Animal” Steele than 20 years later with Umaga, where he paid it forward the sell job Steele had done for him leading up to the brief run he had with Hogan in between the Orndorff and Andre feuds.

I had no idea he interviewed Oswald, until The Iron Claw movie was released and it was mentioned somewhere and I watched the footage. Lee wasn’t to thrilled to be talking on camera I could tell as much.

Video says October 5, 91. Probably shown on Prime Time after he won the Rumble.

Still on HBO max, too. I have only seen it once, but the further along I think about it the more disappointed I am. The entire story is such to me that diluting it for dramatic purposes makes the whole thing less dramatic. It’s perhaps this way with a lot of movies but if someday something is made with the authenticity of Oppenheimer that within what makes it great is also that it is as detailed about these events as possible. It is a lofty comparison as since he hasn’t cast either Cena, Batista or Dwayne yet that it’s a safe bet Christopher Nolan probably doesn’t like pro wrestling. It’s just that to me this story as a whole and how and where we have gone since the 80’s, with wider awareness of topics like suicide and abusive families in America. How it is reflected in the audience for wrestling is maybe too close to the bone to get at, but could still be dramatically interesting to approach. The screenwriter David Koepp mentioned writing the Forest Whitaker part in Panic Room for as if it was for Bogart. If I can do some crossing over with the “Wrestler=Actor” thread, Lee J. Cobb would have been perfect as Fritz. 12 Angry Men and particularly the tv production of Death of a Salesman, and those characters in the mold of an old man using his children to chase dwindling glories would be certainly at the center of the way this story could be told. And without the kinds of exaggerations even Oliver Stone got away with a few times. A long time ago. Do we as Americans need to see our former Disney stars beat with belts or scolded for not being brave enough to take their own lives? The Letterboxd reaction to the movie itself is a little more satisfying still because despite it being overwhelmingly positive they do recognize from it the themes I am going on about. One just straight up asked how much worse was it and I sent a link of Meltzer’s Kerry obit from 93. It is such an amazing piece of writing that I still think about the optics of the Mavericks/Lakers game not being at full capacity with the Celtics not far behind, because of the Texas stadium show. To the lingering question, I don’t know but within the spectre of potentially or obviously abusive men in power, whatever cultural wake up call is needed might be too late now. I do have hope for some greater resistance to the rot of previous generations in favor of nothing but love. Any good art should strive along with that in mind. To that end this movie does that, but more as a reflection of the myth rather than a plain look at the truth, itself compelling enough for me to go on like this about.

Aprops of the MMA talk, I highly recommend this

Good chance this phrase has been thrown around in mainstream media more in one weeks time than maybe ever. The reaction from the outer circle of even the most fairweather of fans have expressed opinions on it. But I am less interested in that then what something like this means now. Around a decade ago REM broke up. It felt so weird for a big band to announce it as they did that it felt like in no such time nobody else went about it, like perhaps what happened when more and more people in America divorced their spouses. When such connection is lost, and new expectations form of what was lost in one respect engages in something new and still relatable. I wasn’t a bonafide Hulkamaniac but the turn in 96 sure stunned me to think immediately that this guy is kind of throwing away his image for an angle. Before I waffle around too much on the topic, I’ll just ask. Of all the great legendary or otherwise underseen heel turns, which one were you wrapped up in the most? I think when Crush turned in 93, was devastating. Easy to look back and point where his push went awry, specifically the Doink angle (making the kids cry, brah). But the way, after Yoko laid him out and putting him out of action for months, and how Vince, Randy and especially Bobby Heenan were selling it in the booth all those weeks leading up to the betrayal was fantastic storytelling.

A WCW Vault channel went up today, lot more than this on there

The F bomb, clearly scripted, is as key a moment here. How almost therapeutic that moment was in light of speaking truth to power, was amazing to watch even as just a instagram reel because the crowd just erupted for that response. It reminded me most of Hogan’s “Hell No” to DiBiase in 1987, and serves to remind me how much things have both changed and stayed the same.

Except I wouldn’t call AEW an empire at all

I was there. First PLE since being a fan starting when the hype for WrestleMania 8 began on a local level. It is a show not widely remembered as a great WM, but lot of us still remember it. I saw two separate fans wearing ring attire from that show while walking around yesterday. Went with my brother and with really awesome seats we were rather blown away for almost the entire show. I have not been to a live WWE event in over a decade, and while the shows I went to in the previous two decades had decent crowd response this was on a different level the kinds of which I have not felt since the late 90’s. Women’s Rumble was great, piling up and almost dizzying in how many great spots there were. The tag team match really did feel akin to night and day as far as the reaction but I liked the pace of it, though maybe not how it ended so much. The title match had the big fight feel it has been building up to, the passion within given the more visceral spots lifted my already healthy respect for both men. Cody’s a tremendous figurehead, while Kevin I respect the hustle and also the fact his aura is that if one if the Ghosts of Christmas Past was an attitude era mark. The Men’s Rumble felt like it went by pretty quickly, to start with at least. Cena was my pick to win but I should’ve suspected it would have been Jey, given how hot the crowd was for him even on the cold Indy streets. Plus John felt a bit absent in plain sight (ikyk) for some of the match long enough, to cast doubt on his chances.