Raw Spoilers for 5/19/14

[thee Reverend Axl Future]

 

What's your favorite Kurrgan match???

 

 

As Frankenstein (sic) vs. The Wolfman:

 

Or vs. Sherlock Holmes:

 

movie magic!,

RAF

[Hokuto in Winter]

 

 

 

 

I see absolutely nothing wrong with a crowd having fun and doing chants they like and singing and dancing during matches. The WHAT! chants are dumb but they fill in the white space when people talk and have that pause. Like someone said earlier -- an easy way around that is to have guys get some more acting chops and not take that pause break to move on to the next narrative bullet point. It's really not that hard to get past that with some acting training.

 

 

Onos not the dreaded 'white space' I know when I go see Shakespeare performed I'm glad the actors have the chops to stop the audience screaming 'what!?' during a soliloquy.

 

 

What Shakespearean theater lets the audience scream anything at the performers?

 

 

Sorry, I think the point I was trying to make got lost a bit with the Shakespeare thing. What I'm trying to say is the idea that wrestlers need to go to acting class to learn to alter the cadence of their promos to prevent what chants is ridiculous. Plus it's stupid that we find ourselves in a situation where someone can't cut a promo using dramatic pauses and the like because of the crowd wanting everything to be an audience participation bit. Go on youtube and watch some of the great talkers doing promos in the 70's through 90's and imagine a 'What!?' at every pause. Did those guys lack 'acting chops' - would the promos have been in anyway improved if they had to work around them by altering cadence or would they in fact be worse?

 

Lance Storm has made the point before that people chanting for CM Punk or singing a theme song during a match that involves neither Punk nor the performer who's music they are singing is disrespectful to everyone who came to the show and wants to enjoy that match. I'll extend that to everyone watching at home also. By allowing and encouraging these kind of crowds the WWE has created a Tragedy of the commons situation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

[Hokuto in Winter]

 

Wait, do Americans know what Pantomime is?

 

 

Americans don't have Panto and I dare say most do not know what it is.

[Greggulator]

 

 

 

 

 

I see absolutely nothing wrong with a crowd having fun and doing chants they like and singing and dancing during matches. The WHAT! chants are dumb but they fill in the white space when people talk and have that pause. Like someone said earlier -- an easy way around that is to have guys get some more acting chops and not take that pause break to move on to the next narrative bullet point. It's really not that hard to get past that with some acting training.

 

 

Onos not the dreaded 'white space' I know when I go see Shakespeare performed I'm glad the actors have the chops to stop the audience screaming 'what!?' during a soliloquy.

 

 

What Shakespearean theater lets the audience scream anything at the performers?

 

 

Sorry, I think the point I was trying to make got lost a bit with the Shakespeare thing. What I'm trying to say is the idea that wrestlers need to go to acting class to learn to alter the cadence of their promos to prevent what chants is ridiculous. Plus it's stupid that we find ourselves in a situation where someone can't cut a promo using dramatic pauses and the like because of the crowd wanting everything to be an audience participation bit. Go on youtube and watch some of the great talkers doing promos in the 70's through 90's and imagine a 'What!?' at every pause. Did those guys lack 'acting chops' - would the promos have been in anyway improved if they had to work around them by altering cadence or would they in fact be worse?

 

Lance Storm has made the point before that people chanting for CM Punk or singing a theme song during a match that involves neither Punk nor the performer who's music they are singing is disrespectful to everyone who came to the show and wants to enjoy that match. I'll extend that to everyone watching at home also. By allowing and encouraging these kind of crowds the WWE has created a Tragedy of the commons situation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

 

 

Here's the thing, though -- The What chants have been going on for a decade. The CM Punk and theme songs chants aren't going away. I don't like them. I think they're dumb. Is it fair to the performers? Nope. But there's absolutely no way to stop them. Does Lance Storm expect to have arena security kick out 150-200 people chanting What or what have you?

It's up to the performers to finds ways to "defeat" those chants. The audience isn't changing.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Wyatt's singing would be better if Harper and Rowan were backing him up with a washboard and some spoons.

When I was in 2nd grade, we actually had a spoonman come to our school and perform. Every time I listen to Spoonman by Soundgarden I picture this old redneck guy in what were probably his "dress" overalls on stage playing the spoons and hamboning for a bunch of 7 year olds.

Was that "Mr Spoons" from Waretown NJ?

[Johnny Sorrow]

Americans know what fucking pantomime is. We also hate mimes, just like any right thinking person does .

"Oh Sam, everyone loves a mime."

"No, everyone loves a clown, everyone hates a mime."

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

Americans know what fucking pantomime is. We also hate mimes, just like any right thinking person does .

"Oh Sam, everyone loves a mime."

"No, everyone loves a clown, everyone hates a mime."

I feel like you don't know what a Pantomime is, because it has nothing to do with a mime

[Brian Fowler]

It's a distinctly British form of live theatre.  Includes musical numbers, slapstick comedy, and I think a few other things (it's been over a decade since I spent a couple days of class covering it, so my memory is a bit sketchy.)  At any rate, it really doesn't have an American counterpart to easily point to.

[Hokuto in Winter]

 

 

It's up to the performers to finds ways to "defeat" those chants. The audience isn't changing.

 

 

 

 

A wrestling audience can always be educated. They confiscate signs they don't like, they sweeten crowd noise on taped shows. They're not new to changing the way a crowd comes across.

 

You can do allot with good babyface promos - back when the what thing was new Undertaker paused in an in ring promo said 'Idiots say what?' and after that they stopped for the rest of the segment. Plus simple stuff like not having the announcers acknowledge and praise 'JBL' chants when a match is going on. I'm not even putting any thought into this, creative people employed by WWE could come up with many ways to work on this stuff.

[Victator]

 

 

Not the talent, the booking. Nothing ever seems to matter below the top three feuds so these matches are just time killer. They also need to find ways to get fans invested into lower card guys. Too Cool being the eternal example.

OK. I agree largely with that, though I think 2000 is a perfect storm of circumstances which would be very hard to recreate. Too Cool was pretty lucky; noone saw that coming. It's not like Head Cheese really got over, or T&A, or a bunch of other stuff. It is possible to over-romanticise a little.

What's your favorite Kurrgan match???

 

Survivor Series 97, dismantling DOA.

[Cristobal]

It's a distinctly British form of live theatre.  Includes musical numbers, slapstick comedy, and I think a few other things (it's been over a decade since I spent a couple days of class covering it, so my memory is a bit sketchy.)  At any rate, it really doesn't have an American counterpart to easily point to.

I'd say Vaudeville. They're not precisely similar, but it is the same type of thing, a variety of entertainments all brought together in one show.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Americans know what fucking pantomime is. We also hate mimes, just like any right thinking person does .

"Oh Sam, everyone loves a mime."

"No, everyone loves a clown, everyone hates a mime."

I feel like you don't know what a Pantomime is, because it has nothing to do with a mime

I just felt like dropping a "Cheers" line.

And I fucking know what "pantomime " means.

[psyclicksecret]

 

 

 

And I fucking know what "pantomime " means.

 

 

 

 

Maybe YOU fucking do but after looking it up on wikipedia, I'm not sure I did. I mean, people use it to say someone is imitating things. They're pantomiming. But do the people who use that word know anything beyond that? I'd guess that most Americans don't really know the origins of the word they use. Not that most Americans use that word. Who even does? I don't know. When does it even come up? It doesn't because it's rarely relevant to America. I don't even know how I know it. Who DOES use that word? People who write reviews and got their degree in theatre criticism? I studied theatre, I know what pantomime is and that actors attempt at pantomime sucked! Criticized!

 

Except I think I heard a sports announcer use the word recently but whatever, they probably didn't know there was more to the word than imitating something.

[Big Rob]

 

 

Americans know what fucking pantomime is. We also hate mimes, just like any right thinking person does .

"Oh Sam, everyone loves a mime."

"No, everyone loves a clown, everyone hates a mime."

I feel like you don't know what a Pantomime is, because it has nothing to do with a mime

I just felt like dropping a "Cheers" line.

And I fucking know what "pantomime " means.

 

"Oh no you don't..."

[thee Reverend Axl Future]