thee Reverend Axl Future

KM is very much doing the "70s lady in a menthol cigarette ad who is FEELING HAPPY & FREE" pose, thusly: alive w/pleasure, RAF -

I will give them a shot, but based on past WWE-sponsored efforts, I might desire a bit more objectivity & varied voices and less tendency to rewrite history, as well as less obvious subjects. I used to enjoy the WWE Classics roundtable a lot (a lifetime ago, it seems, pre-Network) and the Dinner For Three gimmick to a lesser extent. Let's get Ken Burns involved! Forget your Civil War, Jazz or Baseball - I want KJ's take on thee Kevin Sullivan/Dusty Rhodes feud, Mick Foley and thee NWA National Television Championship! - RAF

Again A.M.B., good topic. I have accumulated a few HTs. Here: - The best HHH was the star-turn HHH of Blade: Trinity. - Street Shaman Boogie Woogie Man Jimmy Valiant's feud(s) of endless foreign monsters and turncoat friends courtesy of Gary Hart & Paul Jones' Army is one of the best feuds ever. - There are more good workers than ever before, but fewer great ones, and too many overrated (especially on the interWeb) ones. - Enzo Amore was the best talker of any NXT talent, and could have been huge under different circumstances, and if he wasn't such a trash human. - Wrestlers should look, act and carry themselves like wrestlers (excepting some exceptional exceptions, of course) , i.e., intimidating, large, bigger than life, unusual, un-markish. Greg Gagne used to get shit on, and he comes off like Mike Tyson compared to some of the nerds playing pretend these days. I got some other even more cranky crotchety salty senioritis ones a-brewing, so maybe more later. - RAF

I own relatively few wrestling shirts. I will forever brag on this one. - RAF

JR Benson is namedropped here, who I believe went on to do the early incarnation of Incredibly Strange Wrestling (and who also burned me on a tape deal - it included the "Foley jumping off a roof" clip - but I have since invoked my Buddha nature to forgive). This letter is wild, I have never seen it before. It's like shooting about kay fabe with a schmear of smarky elitism on top. - RAF, oohhmmmm...

Not for nothing, I would be all over a show that spotlights a particular wrestler, era, promotion, feud or whatnot and just waxes enthusiastic about it. A bunch of old workers and historians and celebrity fans just gushing & kvelling and explaining why *such&such* is ssooo great, with references for further study. I am sure that there are podcasts like this (don't listen to them, I am on one) but a streaming show with a budget would be festive. - all about thee positivity, RAF

Just watch thee whole show - you can be inspired. WrestleMania who? Gimme gimme thee Edward Einhorn, buckin' the establishment! - Young Tommy Young! - Thee Continental Nobleman is always stylish, but Frenchie Martin's tights are otherworldly. Turco looks like a melding of Cheech together with Chong. There is even some early head-dropping in the opener for you puroresu marks. Luis Martinez obviously does not know what working to the hard cam entails. The flat planes of his cheeks make him appear to be wearing a COVID mask. I have the long haul trucker COVID. In my brain. - Bulldog Brower always pulls some good faces. He should have given Martinez some lessons in camera awareness.. - I love thee reaction of "That was uncalled for!" from the announcers upon heel shenanigans. - Hot Take: Mil Mascaras - what a maroon. - Socks above boot tops is a popular look in the IWA. - The ring announcer looks like he is about to nod out on a Xanax jag. Or Quaaludes, more contemporaneously. - The love Brothers are woefully underappreciated by today's fans. Your Millennials could better themselves easily by studying them; Hartford & Reginald > the Young Bucks. - Whiny-ass Jim Wilson is useless as always. - Dean, please tell me that your Ellis Worship has culminated with you sporting some shirts like the Cowboy wears, for special occasions of course. - Ellis/Ladd - the tension is palpable. Get a room, boys, that turn had, um, overtones in my eyes. Tex McKenzie, obviously jealous, does not help his fellow cowpoke. - I must own some garment with "I AM RIGHT" on it, a la GCannon. I will enjoy and promote more old rassling whilst comparing modern stuff to it unfavorably. This is my new mission. RAF

Maybe this is a hot take, or an under-researched brainflash, but in regards to pro wrestling, the worker that gets over more in a match is rarely the better worker - the lesser light is usually the general/carpenter/veteran/leader who is making the other fellow shine. Getting to book your own stuff is an art, cf. Hogan, (forgive me) Dusty, Inoki. The list of chickenshit into chicken salad guys is short - Flair, Race, Danielson, Foley (?), R&R Express, TFunk, off the top of my head... I do so love heel Slaughter and he was a GREAT big man but I gotta go with Patterson here. - RAF

Mmmmm... french fry. - RAF

Steve Blackman was underappreciated, and still so much better than we have ever deserved. - RAF

I am shocked - SHOCKED AND STARTLED, I tells ya - at your TOTALLY UNEXPECTED position on this HoTake.. Actually, I am surprised at your restraint. - RAF

I am blown up just watching this. AND the shrieking! - RAF

Classy Freddie Blassie's b&w "Showcase of the Immortals" was poetic thrilling genius for me. I can't find it on the youTubes or such butn it was so good that WWE used it a couple times. - RAF

I have been thinking on this day, what if Baron Mikel Scicula opened up a wrestling school in 1985ish, and that became the dominant indy style down the road - punches into the breadbasket instead of moonsaults, selling of the ear always instead of 2.75 kickouts, stomping the mat in place of slapping the leg, capes in place of kickpads, hammerblows to the back over World of Sport reversals, sideburns not wet hair, Maltese folk music for entrances instead of nu metal... What a world that would be! Virtute et Constantia, RAF

George Steele - ANY ERA - underrated these days. - RAF

Whilst I do not agree with all of yer Takes, they are all excellent talking points and good starts for a debate (although the interWeb is the worst place for that, in my (correct) opinion). In this thread, I would like to hear more from other ffolkes, rather than get bogged down in arguing any particular one, but do what you like, of course. i may have to come up with a dozen off the cuff, outside the mainstream, pithy terse contentious HoTakes. - RAF

Dusty Rhodes: American Treasure. - RAF

Alright, my partners are really pulling their weight getting festive guests and doing the social media thang and making with the TickityTocks and graphics and such, so I gotta do somethin'... Looky here: and And same as above, but so pretty I can't waste 'em -- Rhese folks are good people and made for a couple great 'casts. I should know: I was there!!! We are on Spotify and Apple and a bunch of other places to find such interWeb talky product. Please listen, y'all will learn something, I vow it. Thanks to Jay G and Arik and Jason. help a brother out, DVDVRers, RAF

I'll bite: Cherry blossom ring - from the Heavens to the Earth, body/petals float. - RAF

J'aime la lutte française! Zut alors, RAF "In battle, as in life, style is all-important." - Batroc the Leaper

Peacock censoring WWE Network footage has the potential to inspire 1,000 sardonic memes. Congrats on getting there first over here. - RAF

...And don't sleep on his gusseted flares. Add in the boxer's nose, and you know My Man Dick had style, baby. He often got a small pop at the intros, so the NE crowds recognized his game, and he could work a mean midget match. - DW mark, RAF

Alexander Hammerstone's Nightmare Pendulum is a great movename. - RAF

Are you trying to kill me? - RAF

There is no doubt in my cold dark longhaul COVID19 brainpan that The Great Khali is the WORST wrestler in the WWE HoF. This includes the workers that RAF cannot stand (Putski, Mascaras, Beefcake). And it's a shonda that Mr. GTASteele was mentioned, he was awesome. I gettin' all het up in this place... - RAF