thee Reverend Axl Future

Marone, DZ - are you trying to talk our ears off? - RAF

The business is changing, and we are entering an era of new different money streams. It will be interesting. However, I believe that true pro wrestling has to do with emotional resonance, a bonding with the sport, workers and company by becoming emotionally involved as a fan. The best way to do this, as my aged eyes see it, is via live events. That is where the magic happens, if you will. The socialization, the communion, the power of the moment, the immediacy and the crowd is was makes memories. Kids going to an event with their parents and/or friends, adults bonding over this shared experience, and the power of a wrestler making you feel something right there - TV/streaming/DVD/YouTube/etc is secondary to this. TV is a cold medium, no substitute for the live experience. Going to a card is what makes lifelong fans, be it a TV taping, indy show in a gym or bar, or a Starrcade. Yeah, yeah, the COVIDs, the Saudi petroblooddollars, the costs - all I know is what worked before. I don't know from stocks and investors but I have been to plenty of rasslin shows and there isn't one that would have been more memorable on tape or PPV than it was for me live. - RAF "I'd rather be in the bleachers than on my couch, dammit"

I get that Cody wants these names and concepts because they were attached to his Dad, but wrestling has gotta move on. Nostalgia will only get you so far, it is high time to invent some new traditions. Easier said than done, I realize, but the concept of a PPV as a monetary stream is outdated - the titles (especially the ones not connected to particular match types) can rest as well. - RAF, iconoclast (except for Starrcade, maybe)

Killer Khan has some of the best ring noises - squeals and grunts of Mongolian bloodlust. In my dream fed, KK comes to the ring for our big PPV played out by these guys: - RAF, hypnagogic booker

That was deliciously stoopid. I dig MLW, looking forward to the restart. I am glad they waited but really hope they have a good COVID protocol. - RAF

I have stated it many times: I have never heard an entrance pop like Hogan coming out to "Eye of the Tiger". It is a great entrance song. In my ears, "real" songs will always be better than the ones written for wrestlers - there are obvious exceptions, of course. This is one of the reasons that ECW was great, and the sanitized re-dubbed reruns that are around now are so heart breaking. I have always booed Hogan, and resented him for his backstage shenanigans. Such a boring champ. He never impressed me pre-Hulkamania, Mr. Blassie notwithstanding. - RAF

Is this from thee Sir Mix-A-Lot Championship Wrestling fed? - RAF

The inventor of the match, Dutch Savage, did not foresee the use of the pole - the ref just woulda tossed it up, basketball-stylee. He was representing the coal mines of his home town, bragging that the miners were tougher than the lumberjacks of the Pacific Northwest, who had their own specialty matches. I think Don Owen came up with the use of the pole for the first one (early '70s). In a box in my basement on a VHS tape there is a copy a great doc called Savage about DS, Portland wrestling and the CMG match, spotlighting the feud between Dutch Savage and the Iron Sheik and really breaking down the psychology of the Coal Miner's Glove gimmick. I think there were other "on a pole" matches before that, but more of a battle royal, grab a check/bag of cash thing. I dig those IWA-Japan kendo stick matches where the rasslers start out at the top of opposite aisles and after a countdown gotta race into the ring where there is a lone kendo stick laying on the mat to use as a weapon. A couple years later that would be extraordinarily sparse compared to the over gimmicked coffin/glass/barbed wire net/scorpion/thumbtack/piranha/whatnot matches that were also fun in a nothing succeeds like excess manner. Scranton PA, RAF p.s. - no need to cratedive in my cellar thanks to thee miracle of thee YouTubes (highly recommended):

Maybe you are Tommy Chong in "Cheech & Chong's Next Movie". Spoilered for hilarious but racy C&C content that still makes me laugh. TB, your lyric dilemma is no problem, you are in good company and I for one would listen to your tunes. - the same thing only different, RAF

Oy, how soon until he is wearing green trunks with a question mark on them? Mr. Helms, reading that exchange (click on the link from Andy In Kansas) made me smile. I owe you a beverage. This is all symptomatic of why I mourn the death of kay fabe and the rise of social media. GIVE ME BACK MY DREAMS! - dammit, RAF

"Okay, we gotta goooo --- uh, we'll take some time..." Oh, Lance, you have such aplomb. - RAF

One of my fave tag matches I saw live was in FLA (1983-4ish?) when a green but game Wild Eyed Southern Boys took on the accomplished PYTs (a super underrated but short-lived team). The heat was nuclear - either team could have moved that crowd of crackers, but against each other it was perfect. Just the entrance musics got people frothy. He was a treasure and a gem all throughout his career. RIP, cowboy. - RAF

I don't remember who just name-dropped it here on this wonderful board recently, but the 'RASSLIN! streaming channel (I get it on the Rokus) is super-genius. I was feeling sickly and COVID-paranoid (update: all is "well", I am just old & broken) so I call into work and crawled back into bed after a miserable attempt to start my day. Some Sport of kings is always what the doctor ordered, so to remove any complicated choosing and button pressing, I turned on thee RASSLIN!. Whoever programs this - YouTube grabs with no copyright consideration - is in my mindset: lotsa Flair, Memphis, random '80s & '90s indies, ECW starz, Georgia & WCW TV action. I even saw the Lawler/Funk Empty Arena match, and I was buoyed, my friends, spiritually physically and in the brain department. good for what ails ya, RAF p.s. - I looked, and it was that plucky lad Shane a couple pages back who reminded me I have this channel so who needs a Hulu? Thanks, man...

Governor Ventura had the best insults and mockery for Ivan Paduski, I know this is a hoary and much recycled angle but they pulled it off with aplomb. - RAF

In rassling, a spin, twist or flip make everything hurtier. - Professor RAF

I get more enjoyment from reading a Dolfan essay on a HHH match, than I would actually watching said HHH match. I acknowledge the importance of said matches but I rarely enjoyed them the first time, let alone rewatching them. hats off, sir, RAF

I love a festive blood'n'paint medley. Does anyone have the pic a Flair, with half his hair & face bloody from a Terry Funk attack and the other half green courtesy of some Muta mist (post GAB '89 maybe?) It was like you needed 3-D glasses WWHHHOOOO!!!! - J-Tex 4Ever, RAF

I dig Stevie as well, including his ringwork. No throat-injury SR could not have saved ECW, but if somehow (and that is a whole 'nother thang) ECW was not doomed to sink and he stayed uninjured I could see him as a big babyface main eventer there, in that early geek-like-you mode, and I could believe that momentum carrying over to WWF/E or WCW if that is still there as well in that dimension. A lot of fandom, wrestling included, went from wanting their heroes to be bigger than life, to being just like them. He definately was a worker who paid attention and tried to innovate and improve. Stevie jumped up and down after Beulah said she was pregnant (one of my fave stoopid angles) is hysterical still. - RAF

Mr. Sting also revealed a couple of the boys extra-marital doings upon his conversion to Xianity whilst wiping his own slate clean (supposedly). That is not a good form of lockerroom etiquette. I, for one, would never buy a house from that man. - RAF

Jerry Lawler would be in my "Top 5 To Lay Out A Match That Involved A Non-worker/wrestler", cf. Andy Kaufman. - RAF

Hey, don't interfere with our marksplaining! The bodybuilder angle is spot on for the shaving, but both the shaving and ladies tights have a lot to do with convention, in the sense that that's just what wrestlers do so to look like a wrestler, you do it. Any after-the-fact reasonings are just conjecture. - my conjecturing about thee conjecting, RAF

Dammit, I was supposed to guest on the Rock & Wrestling Connection podcast tonight (following in the footsteps of previous yakkers Bill Alfonso, Effy and Techno Destructo - a high bar indeed) but the studio was booked. Maybe next week. RAF is in demand, baby! It's a good podcast, check it out before I lower the standards. - no autographs, please, RAF

Yahweh forgive me, but Shawn Michael's overacting is perfect, and honestly in my Top 20 things that delight me about thee pro wrestling. It is sui generis, tho' - I honestly don't mind when folks are inspired by Michaels to the point of imitation in the ring, but no one can copy his dramatic thespian techniques without looking like a goofball (ACole & SRollins are two that come to mind, and -hey- even Mr. Triple HHH). - RAF

AND I dig promo photos wherein the wrestler has his/her eyes rolled back into their skullbone. The usual rogue's gallery delight me with this: Sullivan, Brody, Abdullah, Lewin, Sheik - Undertaker is the modern example but he did it in the ring more than in pictures. - "it's thee manifestation of their Evil!", RAF

I <heart> <heart> <heart> Satanic Kevin Sullivan. I really do. - RAF