June 2022 Wrestling Discussion

[Nice Guy Eddie]

My favorite Spears AEW moment was him doing the Mr. Blonde dance before hitting someone with the steel chair. I don't remember who was on the receiving end of that chair shot. 

[matt925]

Wow that’s cool. Every aspiring American wrestler should be trying to get into the shibata’s camp. The guys he’s turned out already are all really great. 

[Curt McGirt]

Three hours of neck bridges and Hindu squats. Welcome to pain, Los Angelinos. 

[Shartnado]

4 hours ago, caley said:

I LOVE his theme song and get the "I will not allow" part stuck in my head for hours. Actually his whole AEW presentation IS pretty great.

And I really like the hood-thingy he wears to the ring. I have one just like it, with the exception that it's made of reindeer leather, not whatever that shiny material of his is?

[zendragon]

6 hours ago, The Natural said:

What a shit way to treat family.

too cool dance? I always see him with an imaginary shovel like he's on his way to bury his  opponent 

[The Natural]

12 minutes ago, zendragon said:

too cool dance? I always see him with an imaginary shovel like he's on his way to bury his  opponent 

Yes, Too Cool dance. When I think of Triple H burying people, it's that and:

[zendragon]

9 hours ago, kafkonia said:

 

And a wildcard fourth pick that will get me roundly laughed at:

-Shawn Spears. I don't know why. I just love his whole deal in AEW.

From a guy who kept getting repackaged to really finding his stride as MJF's flunky

 

also I may not believe wrestling is real but I sure as shit believe Eddie Kingston is real

Edited June 7, 2022 by zendragon

[Technico Support]

9 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

My favorite Spears AEW moment was him doing the Mr. Blonde dance before hitting someone with the steel chair. I don't remember who was on the receiving end of that chair shot. 

I feel like the "whistling" part of his entrance theme is very Kill Bill inspired, as well.  Really, wrestling needs more sly Tarantino references.  And fewer overt ones like Vince's IRL Monsieur Candy act.

[Technico Support]

Hey!  Here's some more talk about stuff I watched recently as I exorcise my 80s WWF nostalgia by working through their early stuff in order!  Subtitle this one "Wrestlemania 2 is pretty bad!"  OR "I waited hours at the video store as a kid for THIS?"  (RIP Axl Rotten, best video store clerk and preternaturally good at Konami's The Main Event.)

Roddy Piper vs Mr. T boxing match: this was horrible!  It's not like we hadn't had FOUR Rocky movies before this that could have laid the blueprint for how you do a worked face/heel boxing match.  SHIT, one of the guys in this match was in one of those films!  HEY WOMAN!  HEY WOMAN!  This was shit and both guys gassed about halfway through.  I don't know a lot about boxing mechanics but if Piper is a "former golden gloves boxer," why is his stance so shitty?  Are you supposed to stand square to your opponent with one arm down and the other by your chest?  Anyway, it goes to round four where both of these amazing athletes are beyond gassed and swinging like garbage, then PIper bodyslams T for the DQ because of course Piper can't do a fucking job.  Total shit.

For all the shitting we do on Hogan for being a politicking POS, Piper was just as bad.  You can't tell me his career would have suffered and would have been any different if he'd taken the money and done a clean job for Hogan at a big show or series of houses.  Piper was a huge talent and would not have been one of these monsters of the month that Hogan just beats and sends back down the card and out of the company.  Come on. 

Now we go to the Chicago portion of our event and it still sucks! 

Ooooh, back to the weird refs and ring from The Wrestling Classic.  How I missed thee!

Fabulous Moolah vs Velvet McIntyre: FUUUUUCK!  Moolah was already 62 here.  Velvet must have been one of her "girls."  Poor kid.  Jesus.  Women didn't even have wrestling gear back then!  Just one piece swimsuits.  It literally looks like a brawl broke out at your local pool.  Moolah with HAIR MARES for fuck's sake.  Velvet comes back with some quick, high flying offense but misses a dive in which one of her McIntyres comes halfway out of her woefully inadequate gear.  Yes, that's all I remembered from this match from watching it on tape as a prepubescent.  Moolah pins her off that as the ref ignores BOTH of Velvet's feet on the ropes.  Moolah then gives Velvet maybe a shoot stomp to the chest?  WTF was that?  Smoke a turd in hell with Epstein, Moolah.

Corporal Kirschner vs Nikolai Vlkoff, flag match: Nothing match in which Corp blades for no damn reason and wins in two minutes via errantly-thrown cane from Blassie.  Isn't the face supposed to blade to draw sympathy?  He bladed and then went right to the finish!  Useless.  Or Nikolai bladed him?  I rewound it and it's really a mystery blading, as neither was wearing wrist tape.  It looks like maybe Volkoff was holding the blade the whole time.  This is way too many words about how a bladejob happened but fuck it, speculating over this is better than the match.

Two matches: total match time 3:30.  This card is so bad.

WWF vs football players battle royal!  This was a battle royal.  You get what you get.  Random thoughts:

• Pedro was WWF's first triple crown champion when that was a big deal!  To show you how titles used to mean something and weren't just passed around willy nilly, the gap between Pedro accomplishing this and the next person to do it (BRET!) was almost 12 years.
• Jim Brunzell wresting with his arm in a cast because you can't miss that Mania payday brother
• I forgot Bruno was in this
• Is Bill Fralic the guy who was Meltzer's friend and was with him at that one Flair/Steamboat match?
• Refrigerator Perry is wearing a singlet and pants.  The pants start falling down EARLY so you see a whale tail the whole match and he's the world's worst Lita.
• Neidhart takes the dumbest bump off an Andre big boot, taking it and then running to the side and jumping over the top.

I watched the entrances for Bulldogs vs Dream Team but not the match yet.  Who, in 1986, would have guessed Ozzy would outlive both Bulldogs?  I wouldn't have taken that bet.  Ozzy comes to the ring with a mic for no reason.  I was hoping he'd start belting out Crazy Train or Suicide Solution.  Wine is fine but whiskey's quicker. 

Edited June 7, 2022 by Technico Support

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

Was listening to a segment on whether or not Cody should have been cleared to wrestle on Sunday and it was mentioned that Kenny Omega has been suffering from bouts of vertigo since 2018.  I had never heard that before and am really surprised he gets cleared to wrestle.  Meltzer said something about Omega wrestling with vertigo, Alvarez said something, and Dave then kinda backpedaled and said something like "oh, he doesn't wrestle with vertigo.  Except for that one big match and maybe a few other times."

Yeah. don't believe that for a sec.  I googled "Kenny omega vertigo" and the first article that popped up had him talking about how he's had to learn to wrestle in a spinning ring.  And I dunno how you can guarantee that the guy won't get hit with an episode in the middle of a 25-minute match.  Putting him in the ring seems like a dubious idea, at best.  Especially since Omega was working through multiple injuries last year and, at one point, couldn't raise his arm above his head.

[Technico Support]

35 minutes ago, Tarheel Moneghetti said:

Was listening to a segment on whether or not Cody should have been cleared to wrestle on Sunday and it was mentioned that Kenny Omega has been suffering from bouts of vertigo since 2018.  I had never heard that before and am really surprised he gets cleared to wrestle.  Meltzer said something about Omega wrestling with vertigo, Alvarez said something, and Dave then kinda backpedaled and said something like "oh, he doesn't wrestle with vertigo.  Except for that one big match and maybe a few other times."

Yeah. don't believe that for a sec.  I googled "Kenny omega vertigo" and the first article that popped up had him talking about how he's had to learn to wrestle in a spinning ring.  And I dunno how you can guarantee that the guy won't get hit with an episode in the middle of a 25-minute match.  Putting him in the ring seems like a dubious idea, at best.  Especially since Omega was working through multiple injuries last year and, at one point, couldn't raise his arm above his head.

This is why I appreciate the perspective Alvarez, a trained worker, brings to these shows.  Not being a Lance Storm here and saying you can't criticize something unless you've done it, but Alvarez having done it does add a lot.

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

2 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

This is why I appreciate the perspective Alvarez, a trained worker, brings to these shows.  Not being a Lance Storm here and saying you can't criticize something unless you've done it, but Alvarez having done it does add a lot.

I enjoy listening to Alvarez more than Dave, tbh.

[Mister TV]

1 hour ago, Technico Support said:

Hey!  Here's some more talk about stuff I watched recently as I exorcise my 80s WWF nostalgia by working through their early stuff in order!  Subtitle this one "Wrestlemania 2 is pretty bad!"  OR "I waited hours at the video store as a kid for THIS?"  (RIP Axl Rotten, best video store clerk and preternaturally good at Konami's The Main Event.)

Roddy Piper vs Mr. T boxing match: this was horrible!  It's not like we hadn't had FOUR Rocky movies before this that could have laid the blueprint for how you do a worked face/heel boxing match.  SHIT, one of the guys in this match was in one of those films!  HEY WOMAN!  HEY WOMAN!  This was shit and both guys gassed about halfway through.  I don't know a lot about boxing mechanics but if Piper is a "former golden gloves boxer," why is his stance so shitty?  Are you supposed to stand square to your opponent with one arm down and the other by your chest?  Anyway, it goes to round four where both of these amazing athletes are beyond gassed and swinging like garbage, then PIper bodyslams T for the DQ because of course Piper can't do a fucking job.  Total shit.

For all the shitting we do on Hogan for being a politicking POS, Piper was just as bad.  You can't tell me his career would have suffered and would have been any different if he'd taken the money and done a clean job for Hogan at a big show or series of houses.  Piper was a huge talent and would not have been one of these monsters of the month that Hogan just beats and sends back down the card and out of the company.  Come on. 

Now we go to the Chicago portion of our event and it still sucks! 

Ooooh, back to the weird refs and ring from The Wrestling Classic.  How I missed thee!

Fabulous Moolah vs Velvet McIntyre: FUUUUUCK!  Moolah was already 62 here.  Velvet must have been one of her "girls."  Poor kid.  Jesus.  Women didn't even have wrestling gear back then!  Just one piece swimsuits.  It literally looks like a brawl broke out at your local pool.  Moolah with HAIR MARES for fuck's sake.  Velvet comes back with some quick, high flying offense but misses a dive in which one of her McIntyres comes halfway out of her woefully inadequate gear.  Yes, that's all I remembered from this match from watching it on tape as a prepubescent.  Moolah pins her off that as the ref ignores BOTH of Velvet's feet on the ropes.  Moolah then gives Velvet maybe a shoot stomp to the chest?  WTF was that?  Smoke a turd in hell with Epstein, Moolah.

Corporal Kirschner vs Nikolai Vlkoff, flag match: Nothing match in which Corp blades for no damn reason and wins in two minutes via errantly-thrown cane from Blassie.  Isn't the face supposed to blade to draw sympathy?  He bladed and then went right to the finish!  Useless.  Or Nikolai bladed him?  I rewound it and it's really a mystery blading, as neither was wearing wrist tape.  It looks like maybe Volkoff was holding the blade the whole time.  This is way too many words about how a bladejob happened but fuck it, speculating over this is better than the match.

Two matches: total match time 3:30.  This card is so bad.

WWF vs football players battle royal!  This was a battle royal.  You get what you get.  Random thoughts:

• Pedro was WWF's first triple crown champion when that was a big deal!  To show you how titles used to mean something and weren't just passed around willy nilly, the gap between Pedro accomplishing this and the next person to do it (BRET!) was almost 12 years.
• Jim Brunzell wresting with his arm in a cast because you can't miss that Mania payday brother
• I forgot Bruno was in this
• Is Bill Fralic the guy who was Meltzer's friend and was with him at that one Flair/Steamboat match?
• Refrigerator Perry is wearing a singlet and pants.  The pants start falling down EARLY so you see a whale tail the whole match and he's the world's worst Lita.
• Neidhart takes the dumbest bump off an Andre big boot, taking it and then running to the side and jumping over the top.

I watched the entrances for Bulldogs vs Dream Team but not the match yet.  Who, in 1986, would have guessed Ozzy would outlive both Bulldogs?  I wouldn't have taken that bet.  Ozzy comes to the ring with a mic for no reason.  I was hoping he'd start belting out Crazy Train or Suicide Solution.  Wine is fine but whiskey's quicker. 

Isn't the story with the Piper-T match is that neither really physically trained for it, boxing shape is way different from pro wrestling shape(Piper) or body building shape(T). Did they do 2 or 3 minute rounds? You'd think someone would audible and have them go to the finish in the 3rd round, or maybe it was supposed to go longer!

I'm assuming the weird ring and weird refs were due to the Illinois State Athletic Commission, one of those you have to use a certain ring from a certain guy and have to use local refs.

I believe late 80's Bears Fullback Brad Munster was Meltzer's friend. Fralic used the threat of becoming a pro wrestler to get a Bobby Bonilla style contract from the Falcons, he would have been a huge star if he became a pro wrestler.

 

[Curt McGirt]

My best friend had a bout of vertigo once and said it was like your worst hangover times ten. Another guy I know ended up on crutches from it. How can you possibly wrestle with that?! 

[Technico Support]

38 minutes ago, Mister TV said:

Isn't the story with the Piper-T match is that neither really physically trained for it, boxing shape is way different from pro wrestling shape(Piper) or body building shape(T). Did they do 2 or 3 minute rounds? You'd think someone would audible and have them go to the finish in the 3rd round, or maybe it was supposed to go longer!

I'm assuming the weird ring and weird refs were due to the Illinois State Athletic Commission, one of those you have to use a certain ring from a certain guy and have to use local refs.

I believe late 80's Bears Fullback Brad Munster was Meltzer's friend. Fralic used the threat of becoming a pro wrestler to get a Bobby Bonilla style contract from the Falcons, he would have been a huge star if he became a pro wrestler.

 

That was the story Bix told on BTS but I'm not sure how true that was.   Because I listened to that ep, I watched this match with that in mind, but it was the opposite.  T had his hands up at least to the sides of his head while Piper had his down most of the match.  And both guys looked really exhausted.

I thought the same with that ring and refs while watching The Wrestling Classic.  At least the ring had turnbuckle pads this time!  And just like the wrestling classic, they used mostly Illinois refs with one WWF ref in a match or two.  I think the actual WWF ref was in the Volkoff match because a bump was needed.

Brad Muster!  Yep, you're right.

Edited June 7, 2022 by Technico Support

[Loki]

13 hours ago, Horangi said:

A bit late with my 4 current wrestlers which represent what I enjoy at the moment, found it so hard to cut down to 4 as I have 6-8 (and I only really watch NJPW, AJPW, GLEAT and some local Australian stuff), but here goes..

El Desperado: Surprised he didn't make the list of guys having an amazing 2022, always tells a great story and can feel his passion in the ring. Might have my favourite moveset in wrestling currently and I'm a sucker for an awesome masked wrestler. 

Hiromu Takahashi: Possibly the most charismatic wrestler in the world, he has the ability to just draw me into his matches through his fire and character. I think its his insanity and randomness that I enjoy the most with him. 

Shingo Takagi: When I think of who in the companies I watch looks like the ideal wrestler, to me it is Shingo. He looks like a badass and backs it up with some incredible hard hitting matches. I do agree that sometimes things can feel too choreographed but that is a very minor criticism. 

Matt Hayter: Robbie Eagles really isn't my Australian representative on my list! Matt Hayter is a wrestler out of RCW in Adelaide that does wrestle in Melbourne a lot, so this is really based on live experiences so I don't really know how he translates on camera. He's an absolute blast as a cocky, arrogant shit-heel. Decent in the ring but his character heel stuff is off the charts (at least live). 

I don't think I ever appreciated El Desperado until the last few months. He's had a great year.

For me,

Kevin Owens: He gets put into some of the legitimately dumbest segments on WWE television, yet to me, he never is worse for it. He reminds me of the people guests on the Muppet Show. He's still himself, even though he's put in an environment of sheer lunacy. 

Shingo: I think he does everything well in his matches. 

Nakamura/Boogs: The WWE-ized version of Nakamura is kind of boring, but teaming him up with a sidekick/bestie who looks like Freddie Mercury who shreds the guitar on their way to the ring shouldn't be this entertaining. I could watch them forever. It is definitely a case of the sum being greater than the parts.

CM Punk: One of the things that that has impressed me the most about his comeback is how he sticks out, for all the little things he does in his matches. Not that he's phoning it in, but it doesn't seem like he's trying to kill himself in every match.

I'll give an honorable mention to Cody Rhodes. Like he's done changed anything, character/promo/work wise. But a new change of scenery has done him wonders.

[Loki]

double post

Edited June 8, 2022 by Loki
double post

[Kropotkin's Beard]

2 hours ago, Tarheel Moneghetti said:

Was listening to a segment on whether or not Cody should have been cleared to wrestle on Sunday and it was mentioned that Kenny Omega has been suffering from bouts of vertigo since 2018.  I had never heard that before and am really surprised he gets cleared to wrestle.  Meltzer said something about Omega wrestling with vertigo, Alvarez said something, and Dave then kinda backpedaled and said something like "oh, he doesn't wrestle with vertigo.  Except for that one big match and maybe a few other times."

Yeah. don't believe that for a sec.  I googled "Kenny omega vertigo" and the first article that popped up had him talking about how he's had to learn to wrestle in a spinning ring.  And I dunno how you can guarantee that the guy won't get hit with an episode in the middle of a 25-minute match.  Putting him in the ring seems like a dubious idea, at best.  Especially since Omega was working through multiple injuries last year and, at one point, couldn't raise his arm above his head.

What I remember is the vertigo problems Kenny talked about in a WOR interview with Dave. I think it was February this year if you want to hear him in his own words but I believe he was dropkicked by Okada & Okada's knee clipped Kenny when he landed and that started it. My memory is real bad though so I could have details wrong. 2017 G1 Block final? And then despite it all he went out the next night and had a match that's top 15 all-time on Cagematch against Naito, despite the vertigo. Kind of ridiculous to put it mildly as he definitely shouldn't have been wrestling if it was that bad

[Krone]

Somebody I wasn't that familiar with til recently, but have become a huge fan of is Mike Bailey. I love how crisp his strikes are and would love to see him get a shot on a stage like AEW, WWE, or even NJPW. Having read up on him, it's disappointing he had five of what could of been his real money making years stripped from him. He would have been an awesome guy to have on board for AEW when they launched back in 2019. For some reason, he reminds me of a more serious, better Steve Blackman, and that's not a knock on Blackman cause I love his work - but Bailey seems like a guy who could see a higher ceiling than just the X-Division title.

[Curt McGirt]

For those who don't go in the Japan folder, Blue Dragon answered my question about Timothy Thatcher -- he's working for NOAH now. Which if he's not in the Blackpool Combat Club is a pretty perfect place for him. If they ever have him vs. Murakami the faces they pull will probably make the ultimate wrestling match.

[zendragon]

7 hours ago, Technico Support said:

I feel like the "whistling" part of his entrance theme is very Kill Bill inspired, as well.  Really, wrestling needs more sly Tarantino references.  And fewer overt ones like Vince's IRL Monsieur Candy act.

A guy named "QT" who exclusively wears bowling shirts?

[JLowe]

3 minutes ago, zendragon said:

A guy named "QT" who exclusively wears bowling shirts?

Is he obsessed with feet?

[zendragon]

Really should be using the spinning toe hold

[cwoy2j]

10 hours ago, Technico Support said:

I feel like the "whistling" part of his entrance theme is very Kill Bill inspired, as well.  Really, wrestling needs more sly Tarantino references.  And fewer overt ones like Vince's IRL Monsieur Candy act.

See I get more of a "Omar whistling The Farmer In the Dell before robbing a bunch of drug dealers" vibe from that entrance.

 

Edited June 7, 2022 by cwoy2j

[dragonzombie]

I have nothing against Shane and Steph, but if anyone is not working out business wise for WWE.... they're done.