thee Reverend Axl Future

Ah, the first (?) Tim & Eric indy gimmick. Original or derivative? Post-modern or ironic? Or.... all of the above??? - RAF

Brother, the more greatness I can insert into my grisly life, and the less room for the Infuriating Idiocy there will be. Thanks for the assist. - RAF

My Way of the Blade tome was delivered yesterday, and I have already dove into it. I was stymied by the absence of a table of contents or index, but quickly settled into the chronological format - it works. It is so much fun. It's written in a format for the exact audience for the book - it's assumed you are hip to the whole rasslin' scene and have some knowledge of history and working BUT it's not smarky or smary or ironic at all. So many wrestling books are written for the lay consumer and often I find myself reading the same explanations and definitions over and over. I promoted it on my podcast recorded yesterday (up soon, The Rock and Wrestling Connection). A job well done, Mr. S - I would assign it to all high school readers and leather up some of these pencilnecks we are churning out into This Scary World. - RAF p.s. - monstrously picayune pet peeve of mine: "grizzly" means grey-haired, or maybe a flavor of bear. "Grisly" is repulsive or disgusting, or even "gristly" to describe The Original Sheik's forehead.

He had best bring his chum Buxx Belmar with him. I dig The Dirty One. I don't care if he is "retired". - RAF

There's something about blood that can take a routine professional wrestling match and turn it into a work of art. Blood spilled, pooling on the mat or painting blonde hair red, immediately raises the stakes of any match. In the business, they used to believe red turned into green—when the blade emerged from its hiding place to scrap the forehead, box office receipts grew right alongside the scar tissue. It's visceral and inarguably real, a physical repudiation of the age-old heckling every fan has heard a million times—"it's all fake, isn't it?" In Way of the Blade, Segunda Caida's Phil Schneider, a leading wrestling critic and internet wrestling pioneer with the Death Valley Driver Video Review, looks at 100 of the best, bloodiest matches in the sport's history. Starting in the 1950s and spanning the decades and continents, Schneider tells the story of a very weird sport. You'll meet wrestling chickens, Nazi doctors of philosophy and Japanese death match specialists. You'll relive classics everyone knows and discover some hidden gems previously witnessed by a mere handful of fans lucky enough to have been in the building the night the carnage went down.  Gorgeously illustrated by Chris Bryan, this book is destined to become a classic in the burgeoning field of wrestling criticism and a handy guide for fans looking for insight into their favorites and to be introduced to new matches, complete with the context necessary to explain why and how they became legendary. Man, I ordered it as soon as I saw it. You had me at "pooling on the mat"... - RAF

Now that's a cover! (Amazon) - RAF

The gimmicks are big. It's the wrestlers that got small. - "Nasty" Norma Desmond - RAF

Some people have charisma, some folks a lot and for some folks it doesn't work on everyone. A worker can get by on just charisma (and a push) easier than just "workrate". - RAF

Maybe this should be in the hot takes, but more likely there should be a new thread "Things That Were Garbage Save For This One Shining Factor" (too lazy to start) - I don't think about XPW too much, but I am still amazed at how bad it was. I mean, if they tried to make it bad, they could not have done worse. There was more quality fun in GWF or (shudder) AWF. BUT------ Damn, I like me some Homeless Jimmy - good name, good gimmick (Spike Dudley manque'), fun worker, good entrance, very of the times. - RAF p.s. - bad finisher name: the Homeless Slam. C'mon, off the point of my head there is the Shelter Slam, the Squeegee Slam, Crusty Crunch, Hobo Havok, Tramp Stamp... I don't remember him ever hitting it anyway.

It is SSOOO much better than what his name usually was. Intentional typo on the part of the newspaper? The "Rodirigus" makes me think they were taking the info over the phone. Also the way Bounty Hunter no. 2 is laid out make me think of perfume. don't call me chickenhead, RAF

They keep pushin' me and pushin' me... - RAF

It's like a reflex by this point... - RAF

Don't swerve us, Dean: that is the footage I shot in 1987 of Greg Valentine vs. Buddy Rose on my Pixelvision camera. You know I was saving this for my BLUR Fest (Bootleg Lo-rez Underground Rasslin) Film Festival, aka BFFF. Now I gotta find another opening night feature. Dammit, Dean... - RAF

Treasured Memories pt. 147- Mitch Page and I bonded because his cat was named Dusty and my cat was named Abdullah. RIP Mean Mitch, RIP Abdullah (the cat), and RIP Dusty (the cat, probably; the man, for sure) - RAF

Rikidozan was a no-sellin' mother trucker. - RAF

The amount of head shaking from the boys in the back watching on monitors after this "move" probably ruffled everyone's hair in the arena. - RAF

Animal Jr. has a Hebrew tattoo? - RAF

Those ps'ghetti ropes look DANGERous I flinched every time some hit them. Steve Simpson is a useless pretty boy on any continent apparently. BB carries him so much he should have charged the promoter a luggage handling fee. I figured out one reason I like Black Bart - he has an ideal mid-level heel body and appearance. He's tall enough to make the smaller babyfaces underdogs, and still make the big faces intimidating. He's big so he's strong (wrestling logic) but he's fat so he's weaker than the gym boys. His gimmick allows him to carry gimmicks but there is room for other Western themed fan favorites to "out cowboy" him. He's hirsute so he's masculine and savage but he's balding so he's no competition for the heartthrobs. It makes sense if he wins and it makes sense if he loses. I pretended that a young Die Antwoord were all in the crowd, cheering the local workers. - RAF

In gym shape, but still not strong enough to hoist a doughy Hak unassisted. no judgements, RAF

Oh, you know Black Bart, sir. The Long Riders with Ron Bass and frequently JJ Dillon? Florida, Mid-Atlantic, GWF??? Brass Knux titles?!? BB is one of my low key lower tier favorites: a superb carpenter, great second partner in tags, fun promos, vigorous blader. On the other hand, Wanz has always been a grosse pile of cold schnitzel for me and never shown me anything. He was over like diner breakfast eggs, tho', and for many many years, so there's that. I lurv the whole scenario after the pin here, like a deutsche Onita thing without the crying. - RAF p.s. - Big shout-out to Bart's handler's super manicured and dyed sideburns, so good (y'all know how I fixate on these things). -RAF

I disagree. Murdoch could still go. His cardio was still strong, and his ring generalship and psychology were top notch. Rhodes, Hansen, Lawler and Flair were a similar age, and Hogan and Steamboat not far behind. Sure, too old to be considered for a long-term top spot in a national federation even back then, but he had many years of great matches left in Japan and maybe another short top heel run in the U.S. I have never seen a match were Murdoch phoned it in or took shortcuts, let alone wasn't in contention to be the top guy in that ring..Pshaw, I say with politeness and conviction. - smoldering fury, RAF

Like most NWA WCW shows from this era, just move this over to the "Conmplete Shows" thread because it is all 24k GOLD, BABY! So much genius level stuff, with my highlight being BWMJValiant's trunks saying "ONCE A NIGHT" but his tights read "ALL NIGHT LONG". Mercy! Lots of "just look at him"s from you-know-who. - RAF Addendum - And JJ Dillion is so great at ringside, a very underrated manager. I love the slow Lex Luger introduction into thee Four Horsemen leading to the eventual ouster of Ole Anderson, such a great angle.

This is my vote for thee Hottest Take Of All. Congratulations. But, Pretty Wonderful would have worked as Horsemen. PW was a great tag team and what you said above. Therefore, using the maths, I conclude that Paul Orndorff is one of the best, Q.E.D. (not a hot take at all). - RAF

- RAF

Maybe Charlotte Flair is just addicted to implant surgery. Sorry. I do have to go to the dentist next week because one of my (dental) implants is infected. These things can be a hassle. It could be worse --- I could be Buff Bagwell... - RAF