thee Reverend Axl Future

That kid is the perfect age group for that style of wrestling. Now show me a rugrat doing some Memphis-style stalling or wielding a Mr. Pogo style sickle or milking an entrance like Ric Flair, and I will be impressed. - RAF

I mildly disagree. When Cena started doing springboard maneuvers and would throw more "Modern" moves into the mix he pacified a big segment of his "smart"/online critics - not because of the moves, but because he showed he "got it" and was in on the work/joke. He expressed his (always there) self-depreciation. Cena is over with the vast majority of the fans, who are casual, young and not-supersmart. I would venture that Cena was the face of modern wrestling and more over - but not as mainstream famous - as Hogan. - RAF

By Jupiter's beard, she is a treasure, - RAF

Holy Mother Russia, that match is so great that I am convinced that if everybody in Amerika watched it at once, the quarantine would be over and we would have a new President who made pro wrestling the new national sport. - RAF

In the "Wrestling Not From The sad Now" folder, I was digging the WAR card with Doink vs. Onryu (run don't walk and viddy). Borne is so good. his moves are textbook. Look how he runs the ropes - that is a worker who has been doing this a good while. He would have made a great trainer, RIP. Thinking about him led me to this, please check my perception: do a bigger percentage of indy workers have comedy gimmicks than in years past? If, for arguments sake, you divide up the worker pool in straight workers (no gimmick (relatively speaking), Lesnar, Rollins, I am a wrestler)), gimmick workers (I am a mean Russian, or I'm a witch) and comedy workers (straight/gimmick but played for laughs). The divisions are fuzzy, obviously. Anyway it seems to me that a lot of the more popular workers do comedy stuff now (Orange Cassidy, Warhorse, Colt Cabana, Effy, et al). Now, these kids can go, have paid their dues and deserve their top spots, but I see a lot more comedy everywhere (New Day, Otis, even Adam Cole and Jericho and Matt Hardy play with an unserious vibe most of the time). Not the majority but a lot more than any other time period. Is it me, or is this how wrestling gets over in a new post-modern, post-kay fabe age, with a new "smart" hip interWeb crowd? - RAF

Jim Ross channeling Big Bill Watts and his commensurate hard-on for college athletes and/or tough guys is my major objection to Ross' career overall. As a pasty team-sports-avoiding, East Coast leftie/anarchist/nihilist, it alienated me. That, and the killing of the sack of puppies but we didn't know about that at the time. - RAF

He stole those from Terry Funk anyway. - RAF

I haven't seen this before (big joshi voids in my watching habits) , and it was great. I love the passionate underdog vs. bigger vet, angry from the bell, type of match. MToyota is a frickin' international treasure of 'rassling. - RAF

I had a pal from the Missouri area who would go see underground tough man cage fights, and he says he saw Williams a couple times and he was the real deal (grain of salt alert). I can't imagine he would have done these while he was wrestling, maybe before? This whole part of the thread, this is all I can think of: Man, I miss the newsstand magazines. - RAF, who only advantage in a fight was being able to take a punch (that, and fighting dirty)

Damn, I love that jacket. - RAF

I still think Rick Rude's 1983-87 WCCW/CWF runs are amazing in that they contain they gestating seeds of his gimmick and after that his ring skills just improved. I even remember stories about him when he was in (Lawler's) Mid South in the Apter mags, as "Rick Rood" until he turned heel. Remember when the mags had a three month publication lag? Anyway, Rood/Rude was already noticed by the bookers and mag writers even at that early stage of his career. Rude was so good, that even his half-assing it was brilliant, and he certainly went above and beyond more times than he had to. - we are all sweathogs, RAF

Hogan matches made me appreciate Bob Backlund. It cemented Young RAF's heel predilection (which was inevitable really), Eddie Ellner was right all along. - RAF

Y'all are acting like pills grow on trees or something... - RAF

I grew up in Greenwich Village, and have always been comfortable if not fascinated by subcultures, especially gay culture and subcultures. I worked in clubs alongside my queer brothers and sister for most of my wild years. However, I never appreciated the gay/wrestling crossover until I worked the day bartending shift at a Chicago leather bar. Some of the monitors showed porn, but I was allowed to play my own tapes on the rest, and it was usually pro wrestling, which was received enthusiastically by the patrons. Almost all of the older customers loved wrestling in their younger days and most still followed it. Brother, there was a goldmine of stories and it helped my tips too. It helped me be able to see that there were different ways to watch wrestling, and that you could watch with different perspectives simultaneously. Those grizzled leathermen knew their grappling as well, and I learned how to wield several different kinds of whips. Amerika: what a country! - RAF

(I don't know if I related this story here, but...) In the late '80s, a young Paul Heyman was booking for Sam DeCero's Windy City Wrestling, and bringing in some classic vets and setting up some dream matches that would later be echoed in ECW (Battle of the Bam Bams, Gordy/Bigelow, for one). Dick Murdoch was there, and scheduled to go over one of the up-and-comers (young, handsome, jacked, full of DeCero's KoolAid) but also give him the rub. This kid (who was the perfect body type and look for the times) vocalized in the lockerroom upon getting the finish that "no one will believe that this fat old guy could pin me". Heyman raised an eyebrow, Murdoch shrugged and the finish was changed. In the ring, Capt. Redneck stretched this arrogant ignorant gym rat from turnbuckle to turnbuckle, using only legit wrestling and hooking moves. Eventually, mercifully, he tied the callow youth up into a pinning predicament, the ref counted one, two and hesitated, Murdoch barked "Three, jackass!" and the hand went down. The kid was made to apologize to DM and he never went anywhere in the business. "Lifegaurd" Sonny Rogers, who was there, told me that story. - RAF

EVEN THE CAPTAIN OF ALL REDNECKS, DICKIE MURDOCH, WAS MAN ENUFF TO OWN UP TO GLOBAL WARMING. always ahead of his time, RAF

Believe you me, living in Philly often feels like a Bunuel cinema, and more than a bit of Fassbinder as well. Have you seen the parade of chromosome damaged grotesqueries that make up the wrestling fans around here? 215! 215! 215!, RAF p.s. a bit of "Even Dwarfs Started Small"-era Herzog as well.

The Golden Lion AKA Dick the Bruiser Jr. (DTB son-in-law) - RAF

That whole card makes my heart hurt with how good I am sure it was... - RAF

Where is she now? - RAF

Two of the things that carnies/workers hate are people that believe their own work and folks who haven't paid their dues. Example for #1 would be, say, Hulk Hogan which doesn't matter because if you are working with him you are gonna make money, and that trumps all (carnies). A more negative example of that would be a fellow with a tough guy gimmick who isn't. If he doesn't show deference to a real shooter who may be doing the job for him, the real tough could legit get away with humbling the pushed man. Also, I saw vets convinced that they were the reason they drew those houses for Vince, and not the people they were working who didn't have a drug problem or weren't past their prime or didn't cause problems in the lockerroom. Even in my stunted career, I saw endless examples of the second instance. "I don't break down the ring, I gotta belt (in his backyard fed)" "(My trainer who nobody had heard of) told me I should be main eventing (after my check cleared)". You never try to work a worker, because if you do and the sucker believes it, it is the victim's fault: he is now a mark and has lost face.Wrestling attracts the damaged, and very often the people who may be used to lying to others (and themselves) and getting away with it, but when you take that weak mess to some real workers, it is a whole new world. brother. Kulas did both of those above things. I am not blaming him for what happened, but the scenario was perfectly set up for that shitshow. I understand that carny mentality that justifies it and even sympathize/agree with it still. Ima bit dizzy from talkin' so much jingo now, RAF

I will state the GMonsoon was no joke in the ring, to spur to more intrepid DVDVRers to dig up some Manchurian gold. - master manipulator, RAF

Dolfan, I rally am digging these and you are doing a great job but I fear for your sanity in the near future, my friend. The 45 minute chunks is a fresh way to do it. I love reading people's show reviews (live or taped) where they talk about their reactions to the card and matches, and put it in context, rather than a play by play or smark flexing. Here's a WM story: (about 12 years ago) New owners at a club I used to asst. manage, and and upon being introduced to the new boss (younger than me) he's giving me the chest puffery, friendly but ???, a very -ummm- "guido"/paizan kinda thing. No preamble, he gets right up and says "I've been to the past 8 WrestleManias, I own every one on DVD and I get tickets for every RAW, SmackDown and PPV in the region. (...more markish braggadocio here...) How many WrestleManias have you been to?" younger RAF, thinking that this turkeyneck just cut a promo on me but I need this job and aware of all the folks watching us now :"Aaaw, man, I've just went to one WrestleMania... (...long pause, less is more...) --- THE FIRST ONE." We got on great after that. true story, RAF

Brother, you made my day with this post. - RAF

All three of those kids are. The Stronghearts are amazing babyfaces and great workers. Machine, machine, machine... - RAF