Cobra Commander Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 kinda nice that both members of the Eddie Gilbert/Unibom tag team will have run for office in Tennessee 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zakk_Sabbath Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 This might be controversial but honestly if you put a gun to my head and asked me to name top 3 guys best at stalling, I'd have to throw Hollywood Hogan 96-98 on there. Sure, it was basically all he did, but those crowds ate it up man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 3 minutes ago, Zakk_Sabbath said: This might be controversial but honestly if you put a gun to my head and asked me to name top 3 guys best at stalling, I'd have to throw Hollywood Hogan 96-98 on there. Sure, it was basically all he did, but those crowds ate it up man. It worked because we were getting all these dream matches with Hogan as the heel, and as a fan, we just wanted to see them go at it off the jump. I wanted to see him mix it up with face Luger or face Savage because it was a whole new dynamic, but the bastard was too busy ducking between the ropes and standing outside, yelling abuse at his opponent from a safe distance. It was a tactic for the right wrestler at the right time against the right opponents. Hogan was withholding a matchup that I wanted to see for five more minutes, and I couldn't wait five more minutes, damn it. I don't think that it would work now because the builds are so much quicker and every big match has been done (and half the big matches that they do are face vs. face "I respect you"-style matches where stalling wouldn't work). The crowds don't have the patience for stalling, but neither does the booking or scheduling of the shows, so... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joseph2112 Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 17 minutes ago, Zakk_Sabbath said: This might be controversial but honestly if you put a gun to my head and asked me to name top 3 guys best at stalling, I'd have to throw Hollywood Hogan 96-98 on there. Sure, it was basically all he did, but those crowds ate it up man. I'm pretty sure Hogan is one of the all-time greats for a number of reasons and if you look at what he did vs what he could do it fits right into this conversation. Check out some of his Japan matches and he did way more then he ever did in the states. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Lord Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 Man, if Miz would add the spinning back kick that Larry did to his arsenal of moves that would be amazing. But yes, people really don't appreciate the stall anymore. It would help if matches at least in the WWE had time limits again. Opening matches on house shows going 20 mins and half of them just being an old stoogey heel avoiding a lock up just to get the crowd pissed would do so much. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 17 hours ago, mattdangerously said: I won't link to them because fuck them and their shitty, malware-ridden site, but PWInsider is apparently reporting that Finn got concussed by Jinder Mahal last night. Damn it to hell, why did they ever bring back this sloppy, unsafe piece of excrement in the first place? Unlike Seth Rollins, (who I also think is sloppy and unsafe) Mahal can't draw flies with two hands' full of shit. I hope Finn's okay, he's one of the most talented guys on either roster and deserves far better than the shitty hands he keeps getting dealt. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 2 hours ago, Oyaji said: I kept laughing and laughing at the cart moving a little bit after the ol' DBS powerslam. That segment may not have been innovative but the level of destruction and the timing between Braun leaving and returning was so perfect. All-time segment up there with the best Austin stuff. Didn't have the emotional payoff of something like Bryan turning on Bray in the cage but it's legitimately one of my favourite WWE angles I've seen. The Youtube clip is now almost at 5 million views. Edit: I forgot to say how much I loved the useless security guards and refs standing with their arms out towards Braun and then cowering when he looked at them. So stupid and awesome and wrestling. One of my favorite parts was... Security Guy #3: Braun! Braun! Stop! Come on Braun! Braun: RAAAAWWWWRR Security Guy #3: Ok! Ok! I just can't stop watching that video. It is so freaking awesome. And about the numbers, holy shit, yeah, nearly 5 million views! A quick browse of other Braun videos has his confrontation with Brock at 4 million, 2.5 million for the match with Big Show, nearly a million for the workout video that didn't play nearly enough on TV, and other videos hover between 1.5 to 3 million views. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 On 4/11/2017 at 10:45 AM, Curt McGirt said: As much as I enjoy Shibata's work (and those of all great wrestling "meat-choppers" and crowbars) at times, Tana's on the mark. There's no future in it when you can't pull off an exciting match without a shoot headbutt that busts yourself open hardway and possibly seriously injures yourself or your opponent. It limits you to being a special attraction like Lesnar and if you're only getting your jollies stiffing people, there's probably a bar you can go to that can provide that instead. Meltz is saying "angle" and I do hope that's the case, but this head-butting shit needs to go far, far away. It's a stupid move in either a real or worked fight as it causes pretty much the same amount of damage to both parties. If used at all, (which I don't advocate), it should only be a desperation move to get out of a bear-hug (ala "True Detective") certainly not as part of an offensive arsenal. It's equally as disturbing as the AJPW head-dropping spots, I really don't need to see anyone else die or be crippled for life by doing stupid spots. I can barely watch AJPW and NOAH stuff after what happened to Misawa, it's about as uncomfortable as watching Benoit. Shibata's far too good to have to rely on career-threatening crap like that to get his character across. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 I've really wanted to do a John Studd reclamation project along these lines. He's a guy who got such a bad rap in the workrate era and has been a big surprise to me when wrestling other big guys. He's very memphis. Watch the first 5 minutes of the Andre/Studd match on this card. His stalling is exceptional. The rest of the match is problematic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurningBeard Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 Along these lines, is stalling what Steve Austin frequently calls "taking a powder" on his podcast? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 Just now, CreativeControl said: Along these lines, is stalling what Steve Austin frequently calls "taking a powder" on his podcast? Yes. Taking a powder is when a heel bails to the outside usually after he/she has been outclassed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 As long as we're talking masters of stalling, I think we should include Naito's slow saunter to the ring and painfully slow strip-down to his wrestling attire; as he gets more heat just from that than most guys can generate with a week's worth of heel promos. Just a fucking master of psychology, right up there with Larry Z. and Terry Funk as far as being able to infuriate a crowd with very, very little, Funk could do it just walking to the ring and sneering and by the time he got on the mic and started with "All you simple-minded people..." the crowd was out for blood. Hogan is underrated for just how smart he worked and just how good he could be when he had his working boots on. I recall George Mayfield calling me up back in the day to tell me that he had a new tape featuring Hogan vs. Muta, so of course I asked "Which Muta showed up, worker Muta or lazy Muta?" George replied, "Never mind about Muta, wait until you see which Hogan showed up!" He wasn't wrong in the slightest. Hogan had absolute classics in Japan against both Muta and Stan Hansen, when he wanted to he could go. US audiences wanted the "hulking up" and the big leg drop and so that's what they got. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victator Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 35 minutes ago, Matt D said: I've really wanted to do a John Studd reclamation project along these lines. He's a guy who got such a bad rap in the workrate era and has been a big surprise to me when wrestling other big guys. He's very memphis. Watch the first 5 minutes of the Andre/Studd match on this card. His stalling is exceptional. The rest of the match is problematic. Heenan said the issue with Studd and Andre was that Studd could not bump the way Andre needed him to on the comebacks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 Larry was so great at stalling i would change the channel when he came on the show. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyanide Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 9 hours ago, Craig H said: Ugh, now it comes out that Shibata suffered paralysis (although temporary?) to the right side of his body and his future career is in doubt. This comes from his doctor. This doesn't exactly sound like an angle to me. 7 hours ago, Craig H said: I'm still thinking about Shibata this morning. Maybe it's because I really got into his work over the last year, but this sucks. And who knows if it was the headbutt that did it. It could have been a combination of things, but now I almost regret being a fan of someone who went that hard, sacrificing his own health in the process. 7 hours ago, CreativeControl said: ...and that's also why I stopped watching puro after the Misawa incident. I felt almost complicit because I'd enjoyed that hard hitting style so much 3 hours ago, Smelly McUgly said: I don't think that it would work now because the builds are so much quicker and every big match has been done (and half the big matches that they do are face vs. face "I respect you"-style matches where stalling wouldn't work). The crowds don't have the patience for stalling, but neither does the booking or scheduling of the shows, so... 2 hours ago, OSJ said: Meltz is saying "angle" and I do hope that's the case, but this head-butting shit needs to go far, far away. It's a stupid move in either a real or worked fight as it causes pretty much the same amount of damage to both parties. If used at all, (which I don't advocate), it should only be a desperation move to get out of a bear-hug (ala "True Detective") certainly not as part of an offensive arsenal. It's equally as disturbing as the AJPW head-dropping spots, I really don't need to see anyone else die or be crippled for life by doing stupid spots. I can barely watch AJPW and NOAH stuff after what happened to Misawa, it's about as uncomfortable as watching Benoit. Shibata's far too good to have to rely on career-threatening crap like that to get his character across. All of this is stuff I've still been working through the last few days. (Also, sidebar: if the surgery is still thought to be a work in some parts, how far through the looking glass are we if a life-threatening injury requiring emergency brain surgery is considered a good angle to put over a contest?) I tried to put together all the things that have been running through my head, but it came out as a long, rambling diatribe that felt way too dramatic. The key points, however: 1) Going back to the WCW cruisers and the original Super J-Cups and M-Pro in the mid-90s, I've basically always liked an athletic style of wrestling that is inherently dangerous and has the body count to show for it, while in recent years I've boycotted football and MMA for years over long-term participant health and well-being in an era of concussion and head injury awareness (among other reasons). 2) Obviously arenas like NJPW (the whole reason we're talking about this, as perhaps the zenith of what the art has been trending towards for decades in Japan) and the US/UK indies (where workers have the most pressure to get themselves over and the least degree of a safety net when it comes to the risks they take) are a problem here. But, fuck, how many clips of people almost getting seriously hurt were there from Monday's Raw? In, while increasingly influenced by the influx of puroresu and indy icons, the most prominent, commercialized, safety-emphasizing promotion in the business. (Which is also run by a ideologically repugnant and creatively bereft braintrust, relies on squeezing money from a schedule designed to ensure everyone breaks down eventually, and is rapidly reasserting a monopoly on the business. Just to sweeten the pot.) 3) If these are issues I care about, how can I keep squaring the circle? Aside from just accepting that, as a human being, I have a limitless capacity for hypocrisy and self-deception and rationalization. This is something I've gone back and forth on as a wrestling fan for a long time. My last departure from day-to-day enjoyment of the medium came after a four-year period where (along with life stuff taking over) my second favorite wrestler's heart exploded at 38, my favorite murdered his family, and another top-fiver died in the ring. After that it was years of on-again, off-again fandom before really jumping back into things over the last two years (and especially over the last year after breaking my ankle in three places while skateboarding, so I'm not of the mentality that people should only confine themselves to activities which can be completed within the safety and comfort of an impervious field of bubble-wrap). It's beyond naive to think pro wrestling is never not going to be scummy and exploitative (of the health and well-being of talent, and otherwise) to some degree, but with the genie being out of the bottle on where the state of the art is today, is there any sort of outlet or movement that can create a happy medium at this point, or will I just be riding the line of cognitive dissonance until I get out of the game for good? 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 9 minutes ago, Cyanide said: or will I just be riding the line of cognitive dissonance until I get out of the game for good? In all honesty, this. A flat back bump is really bad for the human body. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MADCAP Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 The King is literally the king of stalling: ans took a majority of his bumps off of one move...after the match. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shibata Is My Homie Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 Ken Patera back in his old WWF days was great at stalling. Hell, it took him 5 minutes just to take off his ring gear before a match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shibata Is My Homie Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 48 minutes ago, MADCAP said: The King is literally the king of stalling: ans took a majority of his bumps off of one move...after the match. Both wrestlers were also good at liking underage kids. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Green Meanie Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 I'm digging that green ring. Other then NOAH it's a pretty rare color scheme. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zac_Fu Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 You gotta love this. From the "It's still real to me, dammit" department - literally. click here for funsies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zakk_Sabbath Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 30 minutes ago, The Green Meanie said: I'm digging that green ring. Other then NOAH it's a pretty rare color scheme. With that username, I feel like you've been waiting for years to make this post. Ironically, my favorite color scheme is the NXT/Shotgun black mat (lets ignore Zakk Wylde has only appeared on WSX and TNA) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianS81177 Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 4 hours ago, L_W_P said: So this JBL thing isn't going away... Story now making headlines on the top news website in Australia - http://www.news.com.au/sport/more-sports/how-long-can-wwe-ignore-troubling-story/news-story/c363749b58d3cd2fa49f6be014901a2f Wasn't JBL the one who ran off that network executive character that was messing with Teddy Long? Palmer Canon I think his name was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victator Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 7 hours ago, Shibata Is My Homie said: Both wrestlers were also good at liking underage kids. Well Sweetan was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Natural Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 DEL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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