Scott's Blog of Doom

Changing with the Times

In the latest edition of TWP e-magazine Phil Austin examines the varying wrestling trends of the 1950’s to modern day. From wartime bad guys to MTV inspired entertainers to freakish musclemen; wrestling fans have seen them all. But what’s next for an industry falling out of favour with a mainstream audience? Phil might not be able to predict the future but he is certainly adept at recalling the past.

Also in this issue a former ring announcer relives the moment his blunder enraged a wrestler so much she flew into a rage in front of a live crowd.

WWE skits involving racism, sexism and homophobia have come back to bite Linda McMahon square on the backside! The Cynic gleefully reminds us why Linda cannot achieve legitimacy in the political arena.

From Ric Flair to the Rock, Shannon Rose has worked with them all. Here he discusses how he overcame a crippling disease in order to achieve his goals and live his dreams.

All the latest Hulk Hogan news is detailed, as well as thoughts of those in the industry regarding his alignment with TNA.

Also included: Extensive UK News & All Star Interview, World News, Women’s Wrestling, Indy News, Heel/Face Dynamics, AAA Wrestlers Fighting The Good Fight, Bigotry in Wrestling, Consequences of Shane McMahon’s WWE Departure, and much more.

Read this November issue for free at www.thewrestlingpress.com

 

I’m not in this issue because I just don’t enjoy writing columns and decided to bow out, but I’m thinking of trying again with something like the Wrestling Challenge rants, which are easier for me to write.

The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW - November 29 1993

- Live from White Plains, NY.

- Your hosts are Vince and Bobby.

Read the rest of this entry »

So I’m moving the UFC retro rants over to Heavy.com, where I’ll continue moving in order through the original shows.

http://www.heavy.com/post/the-smark-rant-for-ufc-9-1534

Michael's Extreme Review #18

November 9, 2009

Sheffield, England

-Well folks, I haven't even finished watching RAW yet from last night, nor does it seem like a priority at this point.  Nonetheless, I am looking forward to a very big card tonight.  Plus, I'm going spoiler-free, so I'll be as surprised as you.  On a side note, I have a review for last week's show floating around somewhere, but the board went haywire last week.  Let's head down to the ring and wrestle.

Read the rest of this entry »

Much better show this week than last, thanks to a couple of great TV matches to carry things.  Frankly I’m not all that interested in the Bryan Danielson “final countdown” tour thing they’re pushing, but then I’m not a huge fan anyway.  Quickie thoughts:

- Steen & Generico over Super Smash Brothers was a pretty tremendous tag match for what could have been a much sillier thing.  The Smash Bros. are an interesting conceit with the “Player Uno” and “Player Dos” cutesy thing going, but I liked that they just let them have a match and stuff.  Good storyline, with Steen and Generico seemingly having an off-night and the newer team trying to take advantage with some high-energy double-teams and good near-falls, but the (relative) veteran team pulls it together and finishes them off.  Good stuff, ***1/2

- Chris Hero is interesting for me to watch because I remember his geeky act from ICP’s goofy promotion and now he looks and acts like a real pro wrestler.  Not fond of “That Young Knockout Kid” as a nickname that rolls off the tongue, but the elbow thing can get over if you make the fans buy into it, so great.  He needed to squash someone more convincingly, but it’s getting there.

- Man, Austin Aries is the king of reinventing his look, isn’t he?  I hope it doesn’t bite him in the ass by reducing his star power in the process if people can’t remember who he is. 

- Rasche Brown is what it is.  If you’re gonna build a TV promotion and not a DVD “great matches only” one, you need the occasional scary black guy to squash people and scowl.  You just do.

- American Wolves v. Danielson & Strong was a hell of a deal, actually.  Eddie Edwards is nothing, but Davey Richards has IT, a kind of twitchy charisma that just makes him look like a star and draws your eye to him.  He’s gonna be something, bet on it.  Match was great, an easy **** deal.  I really loved the little old-style spot where Strong’s got Edwards in the crab and Danielson is the old-time babyface holding young punk Richards in the sleeper on the apron to keep him from interfering…these are guys who get pro wrestling, ya know? 

So yeah, much better effort than last week’s rather dull offering.  I still don’t feel like it’s trying to sell me anything because really there’s no PPV and no shows that I as a fan in the middle of nowhere, Canada, could attend, but as a use of an hour, it’s well worth a watch.

Sorry for the bit of an anticlimax to an otherwise entertaining tournament, but it’s a total rout for the Hart Foundation (on both the real and pretend ballots) so there’s no point in dragging things out and someone stuffing the ballot boxes.

Your winners of the first ever Lou Albano Memorial Tag Team tournament (and a shiny trophy to boot):  Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart, The Hart Foundation!

This poll of course isn’t anywhere near scientific, but the Harts were as good of contenders as any.  They are a rare breed from that era, not only surviving their initial heel push as a team and without the usual breakup angle to make Bret a star, but then coming back together during Bret’s initial singles push and actually becoming bigger stars again as babyfaces.  They were both solid workers who could have a good match with nearly anyone, and a great one with many people, and best of all weren’t afraid to work heel when needed, even as babyfaces.  Their legacy might have been aided by Bret going on to become one of the biggest stars in the world, but I think people would still remember them even without Bret’s later success. 

So thanks to everyone who participated, and a singles tournament of some sort might be next as long as I can be convinced that it won’t be a long and contrived way to come down to the guy who goes Woo against his balding current employer.  Because really, we’ve all read PWI and been down that road before, and I want to do something fresher than that.

Since the E&C win seems to have stirred up some controversy (and by the way, there’s no controversy – vote totals on both polls were nearly exactly the same and were consistent through the day, sorry), let’s run an alternate universe poll and see what would have happened if the Steiners had advanced to the finals against the Harts and see if it would have made a difference…

So after 64 teams and seemingly endless polls, here’s the final showdown…

- The Hart Foundation is your first finalist, crushing the British Bulldogs with 67% of the vote, probably thanks to a crooked refereeing job from Danny Davis. 

- And in a stunning result by my count, with a 52% upset win, your final match is:

This vote will automatically close on November 11 about 9:00 EST, maybe sooner if it's a blowout one way or the other. Good luck to both teams!

Sorry if this is seeming compressed, but voting totals are pretty consistent each time and we have decisive winners, so I’m wrapping this up so we can move on and get it done with.  I will say, two of these results shocked me.

- The Steiner Brothers (59%) take out the Road Warriors (41%) in something of an upset, as I was thinking that the Roadies would have cruised to victory in the end.  But then this match actually happened and the Steiners won, so maybe that influenced things.

- In another mild upset, Edge & Christian (59%) defeat the Midnight Express (41%), as I had thought that E&C’s huge run was coming to an end and we were headed to an all-NWA final.  Guess not. 

- The Hart Foundation (78%) crushed the Hollywood Blondes (22%) in a result that I completely agree with.  I’m as big of a Blondes fan as anyone, but they were in far over their heads at this point. 

- The British Bulldogs (65%) beat the Guerreros (35%) to end the other flukey run of the tournament.  I should not that vote totals were 50% higher on this one than any other match of this bracket, which might mean someone was trying to powervote and screw with the totals.  However, I’ve been monitoring the voting all day and the Bulldogs were clearly the winners the whole time even without another 300 votes on their side, so it didn’t affect anything.