December 2023 Wrestling Talk

[Elsalvajeloco]

12 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

 

On the opposite side, Ric Flair only trained one guy (or did he also train David?).

He gets credit for David, but I am going with the Power Plant doing the primary training. 

[odessasteps]

Don’t infringe on Stan’s gimmick.

[The Natural]

 

Congratulations to Gunther and Jinny having a baby boy xxx.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

On 12/24/2023 at 2:15 PM, Curt McGirt said:

Watching Iron Claw does kind of feel like an obligation, doesn't it? As wrestling fans this is kind of a big thing whether you want to deal with it or not. I've got people that aren't wrestling fans asking if someone wants to go see it with them on Facebook. 

Circling back to this, we went today and it was a pretty decent crowd in the theater. Obviously we all know the story, but hearing a dramatized version of some of the specific verbiage we've all heard/read about over the years (vague as not to spoil for anyone) was a real f'n gut punch. On the other hand, there were a handful of moments where I kinda smiled to myself because they were obviously a matter of "Zero percent chance this conversation occurred, but we desperately need this exposition to explain the significance of the next scene to the audience without re-enacting several weeks of World Class TV." Super enjoyed this, and I'm happy for everyone involved in it. I hope above anything that this whole experience has been positive for Kevin, man.

[zendragon]

Board still won't let me post pics but this Seth Rollins C4 ad campaign has him looking even more of an asshole than I thought possible

[odessasteps]

As I said, I think Fritz gets off relatively easy in this, knowing everything we know about the real story. The guy who played him was great. 
 

you can tell Mike is doomed by his haircut. 

[AxB]

Booking idea: You're building up a Wargames match. You do the thing where instead of a coin toss, the man advantage is determined in a match on the penultimate show. 

In that match, the heel is DQed for weapons use immediately, and the heels beatdown the face until his team make the save yadda yadda.

Later, the rest of the heel team are freaking out on the guy who got DQed and complaining about not having the man advantage. He responds by saying that if you study wrestling history, the team with the man advantage only goes on to win the match 12% of the time, whilst losing the man advantage means you have an 88% chance of victory. So he's actually the smartest guy in the match for figuring that out, and we already did our damage to that guy we beat up earlier anyway.

Edited December 29, 2023 by AxB
Study, not Stufy

[Cobra Commander]

3 hours ago, odessasteps said:

As I said, I think Fritz gets off relatively easy in this, knowing everything we know about the real story. The guy who played him was great. 
 

you can tell Mike is doomed by his haircut. 

I think I made the comparison between Mike Von Erich and James Robert/Jim-Bob Walton in one of my 1983 WCCW reviews on the WWE Network thread.

The Mike/Akbar match was surprisingly good (for what it’s worth) which might be a “Skandor Akbar had a bunch of entertaining matches that never made tape” thing

[odessasteps]

I mean, given how long Akbar worked with and then against Hodge, you know he’s a good hand, even if he has to wrestle as a manager. 

[odessasteps]

It turns out the worst thing about the Von Erich movie is enabling the people who now think there should be a movie about Benoit. 

[Cobra Commander]

Just saw a clip of Jerry Lawler talking during the Liberty Bowl halftime as Jerry is the Distinguished Citizen Award honoree for this year's Liberty Bowl.

Jerry will be losing and regaining his award from the Soultaker in the upcoming weeks of USWA action.

It was a very brief soundbite but it is what it is considering Jerry had a stroke like 11 months ago.

Edited December 29, 2023 by Cobra Commander

[odessasteps]

Did he still have the gray beard

[Cobra Commander]

I think I can't rewind to that part of the halftime because I turned the channel to the Sun Bowl for a minute. But I don't recall Jerry having a beard in the clip. It's also possible the clip is from over the summer since Jerry got the actual award in June (which would be like 4-5 months after the stroke).

It's possible that the stroke sorta inspired some people give some extra awards to Jerry while they still could.

[zendragon]

1 hour ago, odessasteps said:

It turns out the worst thing about the Von Erich movie is enabling the people who now think there should be a movie about Benoit. 

there's certainty a cautionary tale about the dangers of head trauma but that's kinda what Concussion was

[Elsalvajeloco]

21 hours ago, zendragon said:

there's certainty a cautionary tale about the dangers of head trauma but that's kinda what Concussion was

Also, given that we've had miniseries, TV movies, actual theatrical films etc. about serial killers and/or cold cases, I'm not sure why a Benoit movie would off the table. Am I missing something?  Hell, given that we're talking about the Von Erich movie, we're only a few years removed from folks fetishizing Zac Efron playing Ted Bundy. So anything can happen now.

I always thought it was bizarre from people inside or outside pro wrestling (especially after The Wrestler) that we still have the stance that we gotta protect pro wrestling like a mama bird protecting her nest. For what? Like pro wrestling is adversely affecting by the cinematic arts and not...you know...the actual pro wrestling.

[Matt D]

The cautionary tale of emulating Dynamite Kid.

[Elsalvajeloco]

With The Rock doing basically the film version of The Smashing Machine for A24 and playing Mark Kerr, I feel like the best thing The Iron Claw (and before that even though it fell way under the radar Foxcatcher w/ Carrell and Channing Tatum) could do is open the doors for combat sports to have actual films and ones that could be potentially intriguing.

 

[Cobra Commander]

a snippet from the days when your only hope of finding out information involved writing a newspaper columnist. Dateline January 4th, 1984.

[Technico Support]

“Dear Dick” sounds like a column I would have stumbled across “reading” Hustler back in the day.

[Shartnado]

On 12/29/2023 at 4:57 PM, AxB said:

Booking idea: You're building up a Wargames match. You do the thing where instead of a coin toss, the man advantage is determined in a match on the penultimate show. 

In that match, the heel is DQed for weapons use immediately, and the heels beatdown the face until his team make the save yadda yadda.

Later, the rest of the heel team are freaking out on the guy who got DQed and complaining about not having the man advantage. He responds by saying that if you study wrestling history, the team with the man advantage only goes on to win the match 12% of the time, whilst losing the man advantage means you have an 88% chance of victory. So he's actually the smartest guy in the match for figuring that out, and we already did our damage to that guy we beat up earlier anyway.

Along with the percentages backing his theory up, the first time heels won a WarGames match, it was by beating the guy they had weakened prior to the match. Incedentally, this also happened to be the first time the team with the advantage actually won the match in the end.

Winning isn't dependent on the entry advantage, as much as it is dependent on overall strong team and a smart order of entry. These days it also seems to be about what kind of weapons you bring in with you, but it wasn't always like that.

[Go2Sleep]

The NWO was the only group to figure out how to win with the man advantage in Wargames.

The secret is making sure one extra guy from the other team abandons them mid-match.

Edited December 30, 2023 by Go2Sleep

[Shartnado]

10 minutes ago, Go2Sleep said:

The NWO was the only group to figure out how to win with the man advantage in Wargames.

The secret is making sure one extra guy from the other team abandons them mid-match.

The Horsemen w/ Larry had the advantage and also won in '91. Pillman who was banged up before the match was also the man who ended up losing due to stoppage. But if you are referring to an actual one man advantage the NWO team had due to Curt turning, then yes absolutely. That was a first.

[Infinit]

1 hour ago, Shartnado said:

The Horsemen w/ Larry had the advantage and also won in '91. Pillman who was banged up before the match was also the man who ended up losing due to stoppage. But if you are referring to an actual one man advantage the NWO team had due to Curt turning, then yes absolutely. That was a first.

There's also WarGames 96 when Sting walked out.

[Shartnado]

19 minutes ago, Infinit said:

There's also WarGames 96 when Sting walked out.

It's actually possible I've never actually seen that one, but yeah, that would be the first time an advantage like that took place and maybe it gave Nash an idea how to win next year as well?

[Elsalvajeloco]

1996 is the first year they start messing with the rules by making it "suspenseful" and having guys come out one at a time like the Royal Rumble. It did kinda telegraph what was going to happen. However, IRL, an NFL team doesn't walk out with just 11 people (either the starting 11 on offense or the starting 11 on defense depending on the coin flip) and keep all the opposing side of the ball, backups, and the coaching staff in the locker room. I mean they did get past that whole thing by having the real Sting show up briefly, but from that standpoint, it's weird cause they could have done that by having the babyface/tweener Horsemen team show up down a man at ringside anyway. Even when they did the "Can Sting actually trust Nikita?" in 92, they still had Nikita go to ringside with Sting's Squadron. If Sting was just going to do that, you have him come out with the 4 Horsemen and lag behind the rest. Then, when it's finally his turn, he does that and abandons the team. Who the fuck shows up to a multi man match not sure if ALL the necessary people for that match are there or doesn't try to look for a replacement right then and there. BatB 1996 it made sense cause of the swerve, but not so much at Fall Brawl 96. In storyline, it wouldn't make sense for WCW to not approve TEAM WCW to have a substitute against the invading NWO. Well, maybe the NWO wouldn't approve the substitute? Well, WCW wins by forfeit.