clintthecrippler

I dont think I have ever heard the story of how he came to be Paul Bearer in the WWF to begin with. We he already on his way to come in as Percy and Vince heard about the funeral home background and pivoted him to being Paul? Or did someone in the office (maybe Bruce?) tell Vince about his background and he was specifically brought in to be Paul Bearer from there?

On the topic of Striker commentary, I am reminded at how audibly annoyed Jim Ross was getting at Striker when they called the one Wrestle Kingdom traditional PPV some years back, most notably when Striker noted someone as "swerving" their opponent, a former stable mate, and JR just goes "I dont know anything about a 'swerve'...what you are saying is that he is a LIAR!" I look forward to your reviews and recaps on this watch project.

I saw Incredibly Strange Wrestling at Warped Tour 2001. If I recall correct, the band Less Than Jake worked an angle with...Uncle NAMBLA. During the wrestling portion Less Than Jake saved Uncle NAMBLA's opponent from a post-match attack where Uncle NAMBLA was attempting to do..."Uncle NAMBLA-type things", and then Uncle NAMBLA came out during Less Than Jake's set and failed to get his revenge and got beat down one more time by the band. And may that never be a sentence that I type anywhere ever again. P.S. also, if I recall correctly, this was how Incredibly Strange Wrestling would subsequently claim attendances of 10,000 people or more for a time, they would just fail to mention that they had been a side attraction at Warped Tour.

I rewatched Dr. Strangelove over the weekend for the first time in about 15 years and boy oh boy, does a movie where the global population is destroyed in a nuclear catastrophe all because of one mentally ill person that is drunk with power, suffering from sexual inadequacy, and babbling about flouride poisioning hit a lot harder in 2025 than any other time in my life since I first saw it during my teenage years thirty years ago. It was also a bit of a mindfuck watching Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning the next day and seeing parallels in the way the topic of "acceptable death" came up during discussions of preemptive nuclear strike in both movies. Between that and Ethan's journey inside the Entity Mask/Coffin having some "eye closeup" shots that reminded me of Dave dealing with HAL's meltdowns in 2001: A Space Odyssey, I wonder if Cruise and McQuarrie went on a Kubrick kick while in pre-production of the final M:I flick. I also did a second watch of Friendship over the weekend. A woman sitting in the row behind us kept going "Oh God" or "Oh No" every ten minutes like she was watching a horror movie, and that was absolutely the best cinematic viewing experience for a second watch of that movie. Also, A24 announced the Blu-Ray release this week, and one of the special features is:

I had a similar experience with my first time viewing of Tetsuo The Iron Man. First time I think I was prepared for something that might be "fucked up" but still a traditional movie, if that makes sense. Second time, I approached it with the mindset that I am basically watching a 70-minute long music video, and it absolutely clicked and washed over me from there. And agreed with whoever recommended Tokyo Fist earlier, that might be my second favorite Tsukamoto work next to the first Tetsuo flick.

I was in the crowd for Wrestlemania 2023 and the remainder of my life will be a little empty because I will never again experience the simultaneous emotions of feeling bad that someone just got hurt while also knowing that I just saw the funniest shit I will ever see in my entire life. Thank you, Shane McMahon, for giving me that moment.

Okay that makes sense a little bit to me. It still seems like two redundant titles since the Evolve program is 90 percent ID wrestlers, though I guess having a separate Evolve Championship opens that up to whoever they decide to send down from main NXT/Orlando here and there like Nikita Lyons. Its just very 1986 JCP to me where there was that lengthy period where the United States, National, Television, and Mid-Atlantic championships all existed at the same time. Losing two of those belts by the end of 1986 was very much needed.

Watching the all-time classic 7/4/1983 match between the Von Erichs and the Freebirds and it really isn't talked about enough how the Freebirds were so over as heels those rat bastards got thousands of fans in TEXAS booing at the sound of WILLIE NELSON's voice. https://youtu.be/zZiY92IVdrs?si=hrdmaIhfPJKz2bce

Poked my head into the WWE Evolve show on Tubi for the first time. Why the fuck is there both a WWE EVOLVE Championship AND a WWE ID Championship?

Awesome, Monsoon Classic to the rescue! Thanks!

Well damn, whatever YouTube account posted a 4 minute supercut of Finkel announcing Jose LUIS Rivera after his death got taken down ☹

Sabu was my favorite wrestler for a solid two years before I even got to witness a match of his thanks to magazines like Pro Wrestling Illustrated running pictures of him putting his opponents through tables and other chaotic scenarios every month in the mid-90s before I was on the Internet, before the WWF flipped to "The Attitude Era", before WCW got "invaded" by the nWo, and before tables became commonplace on TV wrestling. So far today I have seen him noted as wrestling's analog to how mythical The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was for horror movies and how Slayer was for heavy metal, and both are absolutely accurate. This one hurts.

Great Muta, NWA in 1989, was my ground-zero for cheering for a heel. I was 11 years old. The mist, the face paint, and the moonsault. How could I NOT think "this dude is fucking awesome, I dont care that he's a 'bad guy'?"

Only if the movie starts with him reffing Minour Suzuki vs Butterbean and does the record scratch/"you may be wondering how I got here" gimmick.

I think there is something to be said for the argument that WWE is mirroring how society moves these days. I am not the biggest fan of WWE product these days and certainly shook my head at the decisions made with the Wrestlemania main event (for me, it was the Travis Scott thing combined with Cody looking like a weenie when he hesitated hitting Cena with the belt), but most of modern social media culture, entertainment culture, and even legit sports culture to some degree is dedicated to capturing a "MOMENT." It ties back into what has always come off as hollow to me whenever a Cornette type starts ranting that the way to "fix" modern wrestling is to go entirely back to the old ways. I grew up on Hulkamania WWF and Crockett-era NWA, and 1983 is one of the most incredible years in American wrestling history across the board. But the only way that "do what worked in 1983 and ONLY what worked in 1983" would be successful would be if EVERYTHING in the world was exactly like it was in 1983. Fuck, "do what we did in 1983" wouldnt have worked in 1995 for any entertainment or sports related industry, let alone 2025.