Matt D

CMLL. Mask. Stilts.

Good post from overbooked. I think that one element related to this is the fans' ages. When you're young and on the internet and caught up in the moment and discovering the freedom that comes with having the veil lifted and the inner working of the business and tapping into the Meltzerian culture of workrate it leads to a too cool for school attitude where you become part of something fresh by rebelling against the establishment (even if, numerically, you ARE the establishment online). Wrestling is a bs carny business where athleticism is not necessarily the most important thing and there are plenty of territories where a guy like Bulldog Bob Brown or Verne or whoever used power and politics to keep himself on top. That led to a certain ease of resentment which isn't necessarily based on facts, and, a counter-reaction of circling the wagons whenever something new does come around.

Jerry Flynn would solve all of your problems.

OVW has a ridiculously fun roster.

I'm good. Everyone drop what you're doing and watch Hayes vs Doc - Cage Match that just went up. Holy shit, was that great.

Drew a house? Got both guys a payday? Got a little guy to look strong against a monster and former world champion even in losing? Showed that he's willing to do business despite his big mouth?

This couldn't really have lived up to my expectations for it. I'm really glad we have it though. Great novelty. It just didn't really know what it wanted to be. Obviously, Tatum had huge reason to go after Gilbert, but they seemed to be transitioning forward so there wasn't going to be real payoff here. While Tatum portrayed a wronged man with a just cause, he was still John Tatum with his stooging, bumping, and over the top facial expressions. They work so well as a heel positioned as a heel, but this was far more nebulous. Some of the best stuff here was when they were trying to out heel one another. The rest of the best stuff was the punching at the end which was really heated. There was just too much in the way of armbars for a match like this, and really, even though he worked well from underneath and was full of fury (for the most part) when on top, the crowd just never got behind Tatum and that hurt the match. Still really glad we have it though. The post match was, indeed, awesome.

Jesse, I'm not part of the project and will continue not to be, but I will also be thoroughly disappointed if you go in any direction other than this: Scene: A palatial poolside in lush, wealthy Greenwich, Connecticut. Vince McMahon sits with his inner circle, including Howard Finklel,and the newly signed Steve Austin. Finkel is the only one of the group in soggy clothes, for he had been tossed into the pool twice by McMahon. Vince has food in front of him, the others do not. There is a spattering of pictures on the table. Vince: So Steve, welcome. Steve Austin, huh? Steve Williams. It says here your real name is Steve Williams. Did you know that? I wonder if Steve Williams' real name is Steve Austin. Ha. Ha. We tried to sign him once or twice. Keeps getting caught in airports. They do it to themselves, you know. It costs us all money when they do. Well, what can you do? So you're a Hollywood Blonde, huh? A Hollywood Blonde. Sort of an old time character, don't you think? Something from the 1960s. It's not what we do here. We're in the entertainment business. Plus there's the.. well, you know, the hair issue. Austin: I've got to admit that the gimmick worked pretty well until the god damn hair started to go. It's all I've ever been though. Vince: It happens to the best of us. Well, not the best of us. Ha Ha. Let's look at some new characters that we have in development. Ah, look at this. A plumber. No, you don't want that? That's understandable. Ah, this one's good, but not for you. You know Ron Simmons, right? Good talent. Do you think he'd like the name Flash Funk? What about this? The Ring Master? Master of the Ring. Our trademark people say no one's ever used it. The hair's a problem, but could you do this with your tongue? Austin: That's good, Vince, but what's this one down here? Vince: The Ring M... ah? That's a new one that our team drew up. Had something similar with Keirn years ago. He was from Florida, you see. Skinner. Gator hunter. Was supposed to hunt Ricky the Dragon Steamboat, but Steamboat didn't want to make money. Again. Probably his wife's fault. Ha ha. It's the Stalker. Hunts the most dangerous game. I'm not sure what a Hollywood Blonde would know about hunting though. Austin: There's nothing like it, going out by that treeline, and sitting there for hours, waiting, watching, feeling at peace with the world. Hell, it's not even about killing the god damn deer, Vince. It's about the peace of it all. It's about making a pact with nature. The blood, well, that's just the god damn price nature asks for. It's got to be paid. There ain't no way around it. It's just got to be done. Vince: Well, that's a surprise. I think we're onto something here. Now talk about your opponent. Austin: Yeah, sure, well, ok, it'd be like this. It's the same in the ring. You go out there, in front of that crowd, and there you are, at peace with the world. It's nature, but it asks for its god damn price. It's the wild, just like being in the woods, and you got to make that pact and got to pay that price, and there's got to be blood. I don't know, Vince, that seems like bullshit. That's bullshit. Vince: That's perfect. We cut out the swearing and I think we have our Stalker! The Stalker, Steve Austin! Yes!

Quick, someone take Mocho Cota!

I only caught Metalik vs Tajiri (and thought Tajiri looked really great), but one of my favorite things in this tournament has been the post match selling as they raise the hands. It feels so different from the instruction given to the main roster. I'm not spoiled, but part of me has hopes up far, far too high for Gallagher vs Metalik in round 3. I'm half inclined to spoil myself so I'm not let down when they put Tozawa over him Jack instead.

They'll probably give you Brutus Beefcake for free.

RVD is a tool. Stan Hansen is a better tool.

I liked Bryan's reaction during the CWC when he was going nuts over Ciampa chopping Gargano in the face. They sure made that one mean a lot.

"Slightly injury prone journeyman whose impending hair loss means that he can no longer portray the gimmick he's had for most of his career." would be a decent way to describe him, no?

The Austin thing seems like way too much foresight to me. Even AFTER his ECW run, he was brought in to WWF to be a mechanic in a gimmick they had come up with independent of him.

I just assume that most top-level MMA fighters in 2016 are so used to fighting within the current confines of the sport as it has developed that Heath Slater charging at them with flailing arms like this would befuddle them into getting smacked in the face repeatedly.

My point is this: Nothing in wrestling, including stiffness, is great simply for the sake of itself except for maybe lucha mascots.

I know it's not 2017 yet, but I'm kind of ready to talk about this stuff more, to be honest.

Let's take a look at what Zenjo said: So he didn't give us a lot to work with here. I think any opinion can be explored so long as it's backed up. "Someone who was never a star, never a draw, and not an influence" and not "a worker who stands out from the crowd." Really, the "star, draw, influence" things, whether true or not, are not major things people voted for in GWE (some voted for all of those but I would think they were a minority). Then, not standing out is a particularly frustrating argument because it's not saying what he does poorly, just implying that he didn't do anything particularly well. It shifts the onus back on the people defending him, sort of from ground zero.

Current favorite wrestler to watch: This is a tough one. Maybe Pat Patterson, due to all of those Richard Land uploads? No, let's go with Marty Jones, because I saw some of his heel work in Stampede and it was a lot of fun and just added another dimension to him. Rey Escorpion is up there too for modern guys. Last fun match you saw: I saw the Kendrick CWC match last night and that was fun but for pure fun, nothing this month beats Escorpion vs Dorada from Elite. It was a dive a minute but still managed to mean something. Wrestler you want to see more of: Raul Mendoza looked like a guy worth seeing more of in the CWC. Let's go with him. Last live show attended (if applicable/different from last time you answered): Ha. I'm not driving to Joppa to watch wrestling. Forget that. It's like... 40 minutes away. Match you're most looking forward to watching: I know it'll be short, but I'm not spoilered on Dorada vs Tajiri and that sounds like a blast. Past that, Reigns vs Rusev probably? Last fun interview/promo you saw: I really, really loved the Ambrose/Ziggler exchange from last Tuesday. Yes, I get that Ambrose was partially no-selling him and it could be long-term damaging, but I loved the fact that he took Ziggler's completely disingenuous boyhood dream speech and just shit on it. It was cathartic. Marty Jones' promos in Calgary are not all that good though. Last interesting thing you read about wrestling: Probably the saccharine commentary from Foley on the Sasha win? Some of the tidbits about backstage were sort of interesting, I guess? I haven't read much this month apparently. Oh, I liked Dylan's dad's article. When was that? Last worthwhile podcast you listened to: I'm slowly working through the 6:05 stuff, and really liked episode 13(I think) with the second part of the Scott Teal interview an the Ric Ratchet stuff. Did Teal's book on Chavo Sr ever come out? Most fun you've had watching wrestling lately: NWAOnDemand, definitely. It's just so great when new matches pop up. You never know what you're going to get. It's like wrestling combined with opening a pack of baseball cards when you're ten. Who knew Bull Ramos was so explosive? It's way better than this "indy wrestling" stuff people seem to be watching. Favorite recent post on this board: What the hell? Let's go with Stacey's CWC post. Favorite thing about the wrestling landscape in the past three months (if you live in the past, then go with your past three months of time-traveling): It's a conservative answer but the brand split (and live Smackdown) does feel like it's shaken things up and energized them a little bit. We'll see how long that lasts. I really like the Rush vs LA Park feud too, just in general.

The reason why Striker was exciting to people wasn't Grisham holding him back but the fact we had a snarky announcer on WWE tv for the first time, mostly unsupervised. He'd reference companies other than WWE or Cure songs or whatever. I think people take for granted how crazy that was in 2009.

I meant that them making Styles support... ah, I blew the joke, nevermind.

I wonder if supporting Trump was a bridge too far?

If nothing else, they should have pushed Barton as a challenger to Shamrock's IC belt in November. It could have been inconsequential but would have probably had some interest and kept him at least partially in view before the Butterbean thing.