Professional Wrestling

I'll admit that part of my issue is deciding who's really "an IWC wrestler". All of them are constantly moving around promotions. Half the time, I don't even know when one of them has left for good (or gotten kicked out). Although, arguably, that's been the state throughout most of professional wrestling history.

On a side note, Aftershock 39-1 with Plummer's rendition of the results of the two cage matches. Next video is supposed to be of the unveiling of the Faces of Change.

Possibly useful for figuring out characters, a retrospective video from 2003 to 2005.

edited 26th Aug '14 7:19:08 PM by FuzzyBoots

Delirious's page doesn't describe him as a Ring Of Honor wrestler, or a Chikara Wrestler or an IWA M-S wrestler. Jimmy Jacobs page is equally non specific on promotions. If you only can draw tropes from Cartel appearances, so be it, someone else should know something.

That said, I would advise against launching new pages until you've got at least 30 bullet points. I know that reads like a lot, but look at the two pages I used as examples and its really not. You can just save the ones you think of on the to do list until you think you've got enough...or maybe I'm being unreasonable? I'm just sick of stubby pages that get next to no traffic. Seems like wrestler pages just get over looked unless they have 30 points (or are currently doing something on Raw)

Anyway, if you haven't seen this Dragon Gate USA match, you should take a peek

A reminder why Maffew loves AR Fox.

edited 29th Aug '14 10:34:15 AM by IndirectActiveTransport

That's why he wants you to have the money. Not so you can buy 14 Cadillacs but so you can help build up the wastes

I just wanted to show one of the reasons I love CHIKARA:

Of course, don't you know anything about ALCHEMY?!- Twin clones of Ivan the Great

You know, it's getting incredibly annoying and depressing to see Seth Rollins Curbstomp Dean Ambrose week after week.

While on that topic, most of those weekly Curbstomps are after Rollins ambushes Ambrose with help from Kane and or Orton.

The thing that bugs me about that is this:

• Ambrose gets ganged up on by the Authority's Three Stooges
• Ambrose has a friend, who also is a mutual enemy of the Authority, Roman Reigns
• but Reigns almost never decides to intervene, even though it would be killing two birds with one stone (saving Ambrose and attacking R-K-O*)

Despite having mutual enemies (namely Rollins and the Authority as a whole), there has been no interaction between Ambrose and Reigns, not counting that time it was supposed to be 3-on-3 tag team match between R-K-O vs Cena, Reigns and Ambrose (before Ambrose got ambushed and taken out of the match, resulting in a handicap match).

• R-K-O = Rollins, Kane and Orton.

What was in your right hand is hope; And in another hand is something else to fade.

I had a similar complaint about Impact last week "why did no one help Gail Kim". Also, I forgot Impact came on Wednesdays now and missed most of it. I really hope I didn't miss that debut after that decisive Last Stand leading up to it.

That's why he wants you to have the money. Not so you can buy 14 Cadillacs but so you can help build up the wastes

Jake Roberts is in the hospital with double pneumonia. Hopefully, he recovers...

And here in Las Vegas, even. I noticed a local sign at the mall's sports memorabilia store advertising him signing some autographs a day or so from now.

Was watching some WWE stuff on youtube, And one thing I noticed that amused me is that when The Hurricane first beat The Rock, AND when the Lightning Kid beat Razor Ramon and became the 1-2-3 Kid, both times, as soon as they got the three count, they tore out of the ring and backstage like their tights were on fire.

Of course, don't you know anything about ALCHEMY?!- Twin clones of Ivan the Great

I always thought that was hilarious in the latter instance. Haven't seen the former, but I'd wager it's about as funny. Really any case where a dude books it out of the ring when he wins because he knows it was a fluke is good for a few laughs.

Well, in the Hurricane's case, it's because Stone Cold came out and distracted the Rock, Hurricane was out of there so fast that they didn't have time to stop Austin's music and put his own on. He did stop at the stage to celebrate a bit, though

Of course, don't you know anything about ALCHEMY?!- Twin clones of Ivan the Great

Oh wow, I'll have to look at that some time.

That's really off to me. Phenomena is the last thing on my mind with how hot and dry its been over here. Wonder what happened to Roberts. There is some good news in wrestling though, it's Impact.

Angle is going to have Eric Young and Bobby Roode fight it out. MVP shoots on New York. Angle eventually tells him to shut up and puts Lashley in a street fight with Tommy Dreamer. Kenny King is a Leeroy Jenkins if I ever saw one and nearly costs Lashley the match but the big man bounces back and wins with a spear. I question the logic of having your world champion compete in Bellator but evidently the mistakes of New Japan Pro-Wrestling, The Brawl For All and the Inoki Genome Federation haven't made enough Impact on this sport yet. It can't be helped, I wish nothing but luck to Bobby Lashley.

Samuel Shaw is still creepy.

Havok is coming to TV today. She will save TNA if anyone can. So Madison Rayne threw away a chance to beat Taryn Terrell, who is now the number one contender to Gail Kim. Well, uh, that's nice (if slightly inconsistent with how little Layne's been in previous months and the camera man spent too much time up Terrell's butt). Guess I shouldn't have assumed Havok would be going straight at the champion but who knows? (maybe she'll join the X division to fight Low Ki and Joe?)

Sorry London but Tigre Uno just might have the greatest dropsault I have ever seen. The X division really pleased, unsurprisingly. What did surprise me was DJ Z grouped with Homicide and Manik, what's up with that? Manik was also unusually aggressive against Low Ki, but I like that. Ki and Joe is always great but I'd really love to see some more Low Ki-Manik. As far as I know, Low Ki only wrestled him before he was Manik once but you'd think they were long time rivals already. The spot were Manik caused Tigre Uno to accidentally do a Homicide dive was funny. I suppose Freak, Rebel and Knux will be happy Steve was on the winning side for once.

EC 3 gets disqualified when he hits Rhino with a chair, a whole lot. At least Rhino looked better here than last week.

The Great Sanada is a Muta expy? Why did I not see that coming? He was up against the always amazing over Austin Aries. Great match, though James Storm kind of killed some of the excitement.

Chris Melendez will soon be wrestling for TNA. Good luck, that's all I got to say there.

It was really refreshing to see tag teams in the main event of a major promotion and the main event really delivered. The talk of greatest tag team in the world was a little premature in my mind, who still thinks its reDRagon but these guys do keep delivering. I think the main event was even better than Lashley and Dreamer's opener (though that was interrupted by a commercial), the only thing that really equaled it in enjoyment for me was the X Division (naturally). So Team 3D is up one point. Who will be the first team to win three? Them, the Hardy's or the American Wolves?

All in all. TNA expected issues were at a minimum. There were a few segments where I got up to use the bathroom or something but only the talking sessions, which were all kept under ten minutes. I will try to catch Impact when it actually comes on tonight this time.

That's why he wants you to have the money. Not so you can buy 14 Cadillacs but so you can help build up the wastes

DOUBLE POST! Well, that was underwhelming, after all the hype TNA (and myself) were giving it. Oh well.

Opening segment, Samoa Joe mocks MVP for being Lashley's hype man. Kenny King does what he does, all three attack Joe until security breaks it up. Champion vs Champion main event. Now that's more like it, Option See Your Ass Later should stick.

Samuel Shaw is still creepy, but he does seem genuine in his concerns for Gunner, who hurt his knee against Magnus and Bram. Maybe tag teams suit him, this is the most interested I've ever been in Shaw, despite how little he actually did tonight.

The Bromans are dating the Beautiful People. That'll end well.

The ring is still stained green? Apparently TNA doesn't wash its stuff.

Six Man X division. Ha everyone got a jobber entrance except Low Ki. It was tag team rules but a free for all where only one person could win, that was interesting, to say the least. Homicide won, which was unexpected. With a one armed VertebreakerCop KillaGringo killer too. That was impressive. Sanada and James Storm kidnap Manik. Mike Tenay and Tazz were way too casual about that. Don't you know kidnapping is a kind of serious crime TNA?

Gail Kim and Taryn Terrell both clothesline flash point style. I guess that makes their rivalry a bit stronger. Tazz doesn't like Terrell for some reason. Now here's a match where I didn't mind them chanting "better than the divas", because Terrell actually put up quite a fight. She seems really partial to hard bumps. She kicked out of eat defeat after a particularly nasty one. Gail slipped out of a cover after an Diamond Cutter Ace Crusher like thingamagig. Good stuff. Gail won.

Havok comes out and attacks them both. Silly me, expecting TNA to (re)debut her in a match. Havok sold, which shows she's beatable but then gave Gail an air raid crash, guess well that'll help their rivalry along but still, it was kind of underwhelming, as far as debuts go. (so Brittany's bad, I guess, Rayne just turned bad, apparently, but Havok couldn't squash Rebel, wrestle Tessmacher or something? At least show us a video package of her ring work? Well, lets see where this goes). I get the reasoning but beating up people who just beat up each other isn't very impressive.

Austin Aries wants to fight Sanada and James Storm (so why wait till now?) Storm brags about kidnapping Manik, which no one else seems to care about. Aries takes offense to the idea that Sanada is "Great", Yoshihiro Tajiri runs out, he and Aries attack Storm and Sanada, Storm and Sanada run.

Bobby Roode vs Eric Young. I can't buy these two as best in the world when their on the same roster as Austin Aries but they did put on a very good match. Roode won.

Rhino squashes Rock Star Spud. Honestly, this could have been bumped off the card to give Havok a match. I know what that reads like. Anyone thinks they can book a show but seriously, they've been hyping Havok debut and then don't give her a match. Maybe push back Shaw or something? Teases TNA are.

Remember when I said Bobby Lashley was a better wrestler than Batista? This match is good demonstration of that. This guy may not be allowed to talk much due to the way his voices sounds but he has natural charisma. His body language alone speaks volumes. He's technically sound, he's agile, he's powerful and he's hanging in there with Joe. Great stuff. Never realized just how large Joe's head really was. Kenny King interferes, Lashley wins. Good luck at Bellator Friday, Bobby.

That's why he wants you to have the money. Not so you can buy 14 Cadillacs but so you can help build up the wastes

Yes.

"Somehow the hated have to walk a tightrope, while those who hate do not."

Huh. I would agree that the wrestlers need to have the personality to carry their own interviews. That said, it can also backfire when wrestlers run their mouth a few seconds faster than their brain. I'm not surprised that the televised shows are keeping a tighter leash, especially since people are likely to record choice mischosen words and put them up on YouTube...

Okay, none of you care about Impact. Really, no one has any opinion at all?

So WWE it is. Cornette didn't blame "PG Scripts", he blamed 28pg scripts, as in Twenty Eight pages. If any of you have membership from such sites, tell your webmasters to stop looking for confirmation to their bias! Chikara, which was already mentioned on this page, has great wrestling and it is pretty much a Y-7 program. Hell, PG Smackdown was usually miles ahead of TV 14 Raw in enjoyability (and ratings) even after they dropped Heyman from a creative role until it was Screwed by the Network.

As for Booker T, the resulting response the youtube video is worth it in my opinion. I do happen to agree with Cornette. New Japan has almost as much "entertainment" as WWE but they let athletes do their job. They'd never retire an entire division in favor of Hornswoggle skits. They have celebrity BS but they get celebrities of baseball, mixed martial arts, sumo, of sports. They bring in athletes who can at least work on paper. They don't cut title bouts off wrestle kingdom for concerts, they'd never have an IWGP champion pinned by Kevin Federline!

Chikara has probably as much "entertainment" as WWE, the difference being it never substituted rational human beings for tank of sea monkeys WWE calls a writing staff...that's hyperbole, WWE writers likely are nice people but disappoint too often to convince me they are good at what they do. I'd take another Lince Dorado run over "The Authority", at least it's funny watching other wrestlers mock the Dorado. I'm guessing Chikara's team, having been wrestlers, know what it is like to work an audience. Even when they miss (Team WWF, Saturyne) I can at least appreciate something about it, imagine how it could have worked or see myself making the same mistakes. Whose idea was it to have Zack Ryder and Eve spend all show changing a tire while Kane was apparently coming after them? Whose idea was it to repeat that Kane angle? To repeat that Mae Young angle?

That's why he wants you to have the money. Not so you can buy 14 Cadillacs but so you can help build up the wastes

So, for Night of Champions we have:

• WWE WHC: Lesnar vs Cena
• IC: Ziggler vs Miz
• US: Sheamus vs Cesaro
• Tag Team: Usos vs Gold-Star*
• Divas: Paige vs AJ Lee vs Nikki Bella
• Rusev vs Henry

Sigh, Henry's gonna job, isn't he? Or will he actually be the one to put a stop to Rusev's spree?

• Gold-Star = Goldust and Stardust. Quicker to say/type.

What was in your right hand is hope; And in another hand is something else to fade.

I'm nearly at the end of Terry Funk: More Than Just Hardcore and it's got me thinking a bit about gimmicks and how important they are. Terry is all over the map (I sometimes get the distinct impression that he wrote the book over a large span of time and he wrote whatever he felt at the time as his firm decision even if it gets contradicted in the next chapter) but he makes some good points about how the gimmicks tend to push people toward cartoony caricatures versus letting each wrestler essentially play themselves. I also like his idea that wrestling should move more toward the technical and controlled instead of the wild acrobatic spots, although I also look back on the review I made of this year's IWC: Night of the Superstars and how I knocked Anthony Nese vs AJ Styles for being overly technical... I think the difference is that there, it just didn't seem to flow in any narrative fashion and it was marred by what I perceived to be actual fighting between the two performers. The match needs to tell a story.

I love me some good lockup, takedown, roll out float over, shoot the half wrestling and don't mind some submissions, strikes or fancy lucha stuff(even though a good deal of what we call "lucha stuff" was invented in USA). However, sometimes that style doesn't exactly work for me when it is supposed to be a blood feud. People complained that the American Wolves weren't kicking the crap out of each other on Impact and it was a sign of TNA's weak booking...perhaps but as set up, it made sense for Edwards and Richards to have a mat based just pin the other guy match. That is the most efficient way to end it, when its simply three counts instead of knockouts and why would they be trying to hurt their own partner when there was no real gain?

By contrast, the last Amazing Kong Mercedes Martinez match I remember, or more recently, Tajiri vs "The Great" Sanada on the last televised Impact, just didn't seem to work for me. They were technically sound, borderline brilliant in my opinion, but it didn't make sense that they would be that calm and collected considering they both Kong and Tajiri entered Shine and TNA for the sole purpose of taking this person out (granted, the former had been long overshadowed). I could still buy it if the crowd was into it, as said, borderline brilliant, but they mostly sat on their hands until Tajiri started flipping and really kicking heads. Then and only then did he get the "You still got it chants." But some people just seem to hate technical wrestling in general, which seems oxymoronic to me given this IS wrestling.

I remember Yoshi Tatsu and Wrestling/William Regal putting on some sensible, great stuff on WWECW and they got chants of "This is boring!" To me that was exactly how the two should have been wrestling and the kind of wrestling I like so the chants did not deter my enjoyment of the match but WWECW's ratings showed I was in the minority. Then those hypocrites had the nerve to complain about WWE's use of Tatsu. Is he a better wrestler than they present as, treat him as? Yes he is but you didn't support him when he was proving it!

Of course Ring Of Honor did not have a pure wrestling title because they couldn't get crowds into technical matches. Quite the opposite actually. Technical wrestling was AJ Styles, Bryan Danielson, and CM Punk's bread and butter. It just seems there are some people who don't like it, but hey, some people won't be happy unless there are tables.

Impact's table match was really good by the way. I expect the Hardy's to lose the ladder match, since The Wolves, who at least individually are the most technically sound team lost the "standard" triple threat tag and the Dudley's lost the table match...but you never know.

Anyway TNA won't be going out of business, I don't even think they will be losing Spike TV (as long as they don't do anything else particularly stupid) and Dixie Carter going through a table is going to be good for business in the long run. Now she knows what it is like to get hurt in the ring. Perhaps not to still try to rehab and work afterwards in that ring without medical coverage but I highly doubt there will be anymore Jesse Sorensen or Daffney Unger cases now that at least has an idea what people in TNA were put through.

As for Lashley and Bellator, I've seen this kind of thing crash and burn before but it would be great for wrestling if it succeeded. The Japanese wrestlers fought for respect and there were some setbacks on that path, but ultimately I think it paid off. More guys like Ken Shamrock, Rodney Mack, Ta'Darius, Lashley and yes, even Brock Lesnar, may just get pro wrestling some respect back yet in USA...the fact the latter got a negative response for beating Taker is already a good sign in my opinion that people can take wrestlers seriously against other athletes. Its funny though. In Mexico and Canada (which are themselves two good macrocosms for the Technical vs Acrobat debate) wrestlers didn't have to beat up other athletes to get accepted by them. What's wrong with you, "America" and "Nippon"?

Modified Ura-nage, Torture Rack

I think one of the harder parts to read were where he described, in 2005, how amazing Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit are and what a long and brilliant future they have before them...

Don't feel like talking about Dynamite Kid 2.0...

Um, Drew Galloway(ahem, Drew McIntyre) has been Champion of Evolve for over a month now? Where are all you WWE fans who said he needed a push now that he's getting one that seems to be lasting? The East Coast Wrestling Association is resurrecting Chick Fight, seemingly without Cheerleader Melissa? Thoughts? You know what, its only halfway through September but I think I'm going to go and predict the 2014 award winners, PWI style.

• Wrestler of the year: The Rain Maker Kazuchika Okada, because he deserves the thing already for everything I've heard and seen.
• Wrestler of the year: This one's harder for me. I'm going to go with Ivelisse Velez but would not be surprised if La Amapola won.
• Tag Team Of The Year: Going to go with the American Wolves, especially if they win the TNA series, though reDRagon or The World's Cutest Tag Team wouldn't surprise me.
• Match of the Year: This one's really hard for me, especially since I don't see nearly enough matches in my own opinion to guess accurately but I'm going to guess AJ Styles vs Okada, with Ricochet vs. Johnny Gargano at Open the Ultimate Gate and reDRagon vs The Young Bucks War Of The Worlds as alternate guesses
• Feud of the Year: The Shield vs The Wyatt Family was this year right? WWE will probably win something and that's the biggest non Daniel Bryan non CM Punk thing I've heard about.
• Most Popular Wrestler of the Year: Tanahashi, that seems like a no brainer. New Japan's fanbase basically demanded he be at the top of the company...well, Daniel Bryan is injured, otherwise he'd be the first pick
• Most Hated Wrestler of the Year: MVP
• Most Improved Wrestler of the Year: Cheeseburger. Alternatively, Monster Pain.
• Most Inspirational Wrestler of the Year: Chris Melendez
• Rookie of the Year: This one's even harder for me than match of the year, and the one I should most likely be waiting till the end of the year to judge. But I'm going to guess León from the ROH academy, who already has an individual title. Akiba Shiori from Reina/Ice Ribbon might win too...who am I kidding? Chris Melendez is the most likely on principle.
• Comeback of the Year: Chick Fight. Assuming promotions don't count, Low Ki, it's good to see you back.

edited 14th Sep '14 9:17:55 PM by IndirectActiveTransport

That's why he wants you to have the money. Not so you can buy 14 Cadillacs but so you can help build up the wastes

Melissa may not be in the current tournament, I really don't know, but she and APW were promoting Chick Fight's return earlier this year. Matches from it are still on sale. As for best of the year, not only is it early but I think we all realize the unlikely hood of PWI putting anyone from a Mexican promotion in the number one spot, much less a Puerto Rican one. Correct me if that has ever happened but I don't think a single worker from a Mexican promotion cracked the top ten of any category last year. Seems you have to work Japan, USA or Canada to be considered.

Impact's been really good lately, for the most part, though it is sort of sad seeing TNA give away their pay per views for free...sort of until I remember ethically its still better than the company deserves, I guess I just feel bad for the athletes. The Wolves were probably the highlight of the night, though Lashley and Roode were really good too. They really made Bobby Roode look like he was the toughest man in the world, so hopefully this Bellator thing works out. (Has anyone been watching Bellatrix while we're on that subject? The cheerleader's been as busy as the destroyer)

Still, I'm prioritizing the World Wrestling League pay per view on my budget next month. Depending on what everyone else does I might see TNA's too but I take my eye off ROH for what seems a couple blinks and Elgin is no longer World Champion, might just be playing catch up there. I also have to take back my criticism of SHINE's match making. The next show looks to be really good and I haven't even been keeping up with what matches will be on it. I just know SNS is gone, So Cal is teasing a new stable and Legendary seemingly is a new stable.

Modified Ura-nage, Torture Rack

[1].

Now, read this...

SPOILER for the second article...I know Reigns, Bryan, and Bella have not actually quit.

"Somehow the hated have to walk a tightrope, while those who hate do not."

Apparently Luther Reigns has already volunteered to stand in for Roman.

Tonight is IWC's Saturday Night Fights, but sadly, I've got a performance of Oklahoma! to perform in, so I will be unable to attend.

Bellatrix? Have no idea what they have to do with Bellator or Melissa, unless you meant type LCF, which I know I won't have any plans to watch. I think Lingerie Combat Federation is less risky for SHIMMER than Bellator is for TNA though. For one, they are not directly associated with one another, for another, their schedules don't run together. TNA has a little more to gain if they are successful but they have a lot more to lose if something goes wrong. Still, I wish success for all.

As for Fuzzy, $12.00 live doesn't really match up to $18.00 on tape does it? But the tape is available and you can watch it more than once. Since you're in state you might be able to get it without a shipping charge too. I'll be sure not to spoil anything for you.

edit:Guess I should address Roman Reigns too. Um, I only knew one other wrestler before him to use the superman punch as a finishing move, so I'm glad he introduced it to a new audience. Get well soon.

edited 21st Sep '14 1:30:12 PM by IndirectActiveTransport

That's why he wants you to have the money. Not so you can buy 14 Cadillacs but so you can help build up the wastes