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OCTOBER 2015 WRESTLING DISCUSSION


RIPPA

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I love emotional drama in matches, but I think that for me, two things hurt the match, one of which is a criticism for the match itself and one of which is just my personal tastes:

 

1. Shawn does a terrible job at drama like this. He's far too overwrought. You take someone like Dusty Rhodes and put him in Shawn's spot in that match and it doesn't come off as so self-aware that it's cheesy. It comes off as extremely authentic. I think Flair was great at it, but if I were going to make a list of wrestling's best natural actors, Flair would also be on that list and ranked very highly, like a top twenty-five sort of ranking. Michaels, on the other hand, is abysmal at communicating an emotional performance without making a Days of Our Lives actor say, "Whoa bud, I think you're overdoing things here."

 

2. I am not as invested in Flair's career as I needed to be to get all the way there. Personally, I started watching wrestling at about 1986 WWF when I was four and didn't see any other wrestling until AWA and WCW maybe a couple years later, so I have the strongest emotional connection to guys from that specific time and place. For me personally, you'd have to have Randy Savage in that Flair spot for it to connect with me in the way that it did for some of you. 

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I think Shawn had the perfect finish for that part. I sure as hell wouldn't have wanted it to end with Flair tapping to the Scorpion. Maybe as an alternative Orton the Legend Killer RKO'ing him into retirement would have worked, but I think it worked out fine as is, especially with Shawn's number coming up 2 WrestleManias later.

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It's a pretty joyless position to take.

I'm not a joyous person. I don't deal in emotions. I deal in facts.

That match was okay at best. Which is actually pretty good considering Ric Flair was legit 15 years past his "past his prime" point. 1988 Ric Flair would have made it a five star match. 1998 Ric Flair would have made it a four star match. 2008 Ric Flair made me kinda sad that this happened about 15 years too late. I wasn't sad he was retiring. I was happy. He should have retired a long time ago.

The build up was weird for me? I remember minutes before the show thinking "This is going to be the last match Flair ever wrestles" and realizing it would piss me off if he came back. The match was okay. The ending with Flair begging for more was great. The Raw afterwards was probably the most emotional moment in that shows history.

It definitely is the epitome of an angle I really didn't dig until the very end because the payoff was solid.

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For me the best thing about that match was that, for one night only HBK brought back the Nature Boy. Instead of looking like a broken down shell of what he used to be, Flair looked like the Naitch of old thanks largely to Shawn carrying him masterfully.

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It's a pretty joyless position to take.

I'm not a joyous person. I don't deal in emotions. I deal in facts.

That match was okay at best. Which is actually pretty good considering Ric Flair was legit 15 years past his "past his prime" point. 1988 Ric Flair would have made it a five star match. 1998 Ric Flair would have made it a four star match. 2008 Ric Flair made me kinda sad that this happened about 15 years too late. I wasn't sad he was retiring. I was happy. He should have retired a long time ago.

The build up was weird for me? I remember minutes before the show thinking "This is going to be the last match Flair ever wrestles" and realizing it would piss me off if he came back. The match was okay. The ending with Flair begging for more was great. The Raw afterwards was probably the most emotional moment in that shows history.

It definitely is the epitome of an angle I really didn't dig until the very end because the payoff was solid.

 

 

 

I don't know, dude. No one else in modern WWE got that kind of sendoff, save for maybe Shawn himself, possibly Foley had he not come back.. Hogan, Bruno, Backlund, Savage, Warrior, Bret, Diesel, even Austin, go down the list, none of them have gotten that. If you weren't sad that Flair was retiring, then why the shit didn't you dig the angle leading up to it? I don't mean it insultingly, but I gotta ask it so harshly because, to me, it always ended with him retiring, whether we got the finish we got, or he beat Shawn and "went out on top." It was always more about the how than the what. And if it's truly all about the match itself, then let me say, while I respect your right to have that opinion,  I honestly don't understand how you don't grade that shit on a curve given the guys involved and the stage of their careers they were in. 

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I did though. I said that it was amazing that Flair at that stage was able to give a three star match.

My issue was that if he had done it ten years before hand it would have been better and had a better impact.

I didn't dig it for two reasons.

1. It was a sad reminder that the best pro wrestler of all time was 15 years past his past his prime point.

2. I figured he would need money and wrestle at some point.

Fool me once, shame on...me?

You fool me once you won't fool me again.

As for all the other names, I'm fairly certain that most if not all didn't get that same treatment because they pissed off McMahon at one point or another enough for him to hold it personally.

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I actually think Flair being way past his prime and clearly out of his depth is part of what makes the story so good.

We know Flair should retire. Michaels knows that Flair should retire. FLAIR knows that Flair should retire. Its just that nobody has the courage admit it openly and tell him that his time has come. That he doesnt have to be the "kiss stealin, wheelin and dealin, son of a gun" anymore.

That match is Shawn, on behalf of the fans and the boys in the back, saying; You have given us everything for the best part of 40 years. We wont ask anymore from you. Its ok to go home now.

When he says "I love you. Im sorry." I didnt feel like he was saying "Sorry I have to end this." I felt like he was saying "Im sorry we didnt do this sooner so that you could have more time with your children and family".

Just my take of course but as a 28 year old who has only been a fan since 1998 (Survivor Series that year was the first show I ever saw) I admit I was bawling my eyes out for that whole end sequence.

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I did though. I said that it was amazing that Flair at that stage was able to give a three star match.

My issue was that if he had done it ten years before hand it would have been better and had a better impact.

I didn't dig it for two reasons.

1. It was a sad reminder that the best pro wrestler of all time was 15 years past his past his prime point.

2. I figured he would need money and wrestle at some point.

Fool me once, shame on...me?

You fool me once you won't fool me again.

As for all the other names, I'm fairly certain that most if not all didn't get that same treatment because they pissed off McMahon at one point or another enough for him to hold it personally.

 

I'll give you #2, although it doesn't necessarily "taint" the match if watched in a vacuum (though I myself did bring up Foley sort of lessening the impact of his retirement by coming back, so totally fair). But as for point #1, I've gotta agree with L_W_P: Flair being way past his prime was a feature, not a bug.

 

 

 

 

 

On a way different note, I saw this video on reddit and thought it might be appreciated here, with Hell in a Cell tonight:

 

https://instagram.com/p/9P4v02Otfs/

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- Wrestling reporter and author Scott Keith, who broke the unconfirmed news that John Cena is likely taking time off to host a fitness reality show for FOX, reports that he received an e-mail saying Daniel Bryan was on a flight to Los Angeles, California - the site of tonight's WWE Hell In a Cell pay-per-view.

This should be taken strictly as a rumor for now, but the reader claimed to act like he didn't know who Bryan was and claimed to be a neurologist. This led to Bryan saying he had actually just been cleared from a concussion and was going back to work this weekend.

As mentioned, this should be taken as a rumor, but Scott Keith has been reliable in the past. There's now speculation that Bryan may be the one to answer Cena's US Open Challenge for the WWE United States Title. Stick with us throughout the day for the latest updates on Hell In a Cell.

 

http://wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2015/1025/603049/rumor-on-daniel-bryan-returning-to-action-at-wwe-hell-in-a-cell/

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Yeah, right. The guy that doesn't know who Daniel Bryan is knows who Scott Keith is and how to email him? I barely know who Scott Keith is.

 

I had to read it a few times, too, but this is the way I understand it: Some guy saw Daniel Bryan on the plane and pretended to not know who he is so he could get him to spell the beans, because he probably thought he would not say the truth, if he knew he was a wrestling fan.

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The fuck? Scott Keith thinks he's Meltzer now or something?

 

To be fair, Scott didn't claim to be breaking any news. Someone emailed him and he posted it on his blog. Here was the exact post

 

Q--I landed in LA about 2 hours ago. It was a fairly empty flight, but one Bryan Danielson happened to be sitting a few seats in front of me. Yada Yada Yada, I feigned ignorance as to whom he was, chatted him up. I lied and said I was a neurologist and he told me that he had actually just been cleared from a concussion and was going back to work tomorrow. He didn’t tell me what he did, so it’s not as if he confirmed it, but it doesn’t take rocket appliance to put two and two together. Do with this info as you wish, worst case Ontario you post this email, I’m wrong, and Bix talks about how dumb you are for the Nth time.

 

SK--Well its not like I’m not used to it.  Fingers crossed that Bryan answers the challenge tomorrow!  But I’d still bet on Brawny Strongman.

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The trick to getting Bryan Danielson to tell you personal information is to pretend to be a neurologist.

Maybe WWE has been sending him to a fake one all along in hopes that they'd get some information about his sex life that they can use to humiliate him in a "comedy" segment and kill his heat.

GENIUS

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The fuck? Scott Keith thinks he's Meltzer now or something?

To be fair, Scott didn't claim to be breaking any news. Someone emailed him and he posted it on his blog. Here was the exact post

Q--I landed in LA about 2 hours ago. It was a fairly empty flight, but one Bryan Danielson happened to be sitting a few seats in front of me. Yada Yada Yada, I feigned ignorance as to whom he was, chatted him up. I lied and said I was a neurologist and he told me that he had actually just been cleared from a concussion and was going back to work tomorrow. He didn’t tell me what he did, so it’s not as if he confirmed it, but it doesn’t take rocket appliance to put two and two together. Do with this info as you wish, worst case Ontario you post this email, I’m wrong, and Bix talks about how dumb you are for the Nth time.

SK--Well its not like I’m not used to it. Fingers crossed that Bryan answers the challenge tomorrow! But I’d still bet on Brawny Strongman.

Well, fooling the IWC isn't exactly rocket appliance either.
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Daniel Bryan vs John Cena essentially pushes Rollins vs Kane down to 4th on the card. At this point, if I were Sheamus I'd almost be wondering if I could cash in on the US Title.

 

Giving Daniel Bryan the real No. 1 Title ahead of the Rumble might actually be quite smart though. They can leave him out of the match and people will accept it if he's defending the US Title.

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