APRIL 2020 WRESTLING DISCUSSION

[Technico Support]

1 hour ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

I don't think Ventura is hardly the only one Jim bothered with that. I listened to the Something to Wrestle episode for WM XI, and Bruce unloads on Ross for that because they did some type of special prior to Mania and Ross wanted Diesel to be presented as just a relatable guy who played basketball or whatever.

LOL I've never heard of that, but I'm sure it's true.  JR never met a "this guy has a real sports background, not this fake shit" story he didn't like.  You put Ric Flair and Snake Brown in the ring and Ross will tout Snake's one season run as a third string placekicker on the Tuscaloosa Fightin' Possums before he says one word about Flair's 27 title runs.

Edited April 29, 2020 by Technico Support

[Elsalvajeloco]

32 minutes ago, Zimbra said:

My opinion re: Joey Styles is that he was a really good match for what ECW was doing at the time and I never want to watch or hear any of it ever again.

When I went on my ECW 1995-96 binge some months back, it's really tough putting up with the constant shots at WCW. I know it was likely a Heyman directive, but it's just flat out almost intolerable. Otherwise, I didn't mind Style all that much.

Edited April 29, 2020 by Elsalvajeloco

[nate]

4 hours ago, Technico Support said:

Do the weird-ass random announce teams from the 80s Coliseum Video tapes count?  When you get Mike McGuirk, Billy Graham, Pete Doherty, Rod Trongard, Ken Resnick, etc etc rotating into the booth, things get real bad real fast.

Didn't Schiavone hate working with Ventura in WCW?  Or was that Ross?  Somebody had a major complaint that Ventura did no prep and just winged it for a paycheck.

I like Excalibur a lot and really regret he can't be in AEW's commentary booth shaped like a table in this period of joke commentary.  If you like Jericho and Schiavone, Excalibur and Chuck Taylor or anybody else in the locker room who's slightly witty would be your thing.  Back in the days when PWG did funnier commentary (Excalibur stopped doing that because he felt it started to take away from the efforts of the guys in the ring), his stuff with Steen, Rick Knox, Chucky T, Joey Ryan, etc was amazing.

El Generico is a big boy.

Jeff "Butt Stuff" Cobb

TM Chucky T

[(BP)]

6 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

When I went on my ECW 1995-96 binge some months backs, it's really tough putting up with the constant shots at WCW. I know it was likely a Heyman directive, but it's just flat out almost intolerable. Otherwise, I didn't mind Style all that much.

It’s weird because Heyman was constantly either suing or threatening to sue WCW for ECW’s entire existence. I know they were mostly shakedowns or saber rattling, but it still seems like it’d be a bad idea to drag them on tv during legal entanglements. 

[odessasteps]

And yet he was working with Sullivan at the same time. 

[Matt D]

Obviously I hadn't proofread/edited that article at the time and I haven't seen it in years. So much of it is about JR and Tony and how that really didn't work. But really, what reinforces to me is the value of a close analysis of a single match (or multiple things to find patterns), as opposed to just going with broad rememberences or conventional wisdom. I'm rereading my own stuff, but that announcing in the Steiners vs Hughes/Vader match sounds absolutely brutal when broken down "spot by spot."

[Raziel]

My biggest issue with Ross is indeed, his tendency (which he got from Watts), to push OTHER sports as superior to "legitimize" guys.  He made damn sure you knew that Wrestler A PLAYED THE GREATEST SPORT OF GODS AND KINGS GRIDIRON FOOTBALL~!~! and that automatically made him more superior than someone that didn't.  Like Matt wrote, Ventura did a fantastic job of reeling that in, and Ross didn't let that bleed out during his WWE tenure the way he did in Mid-South/UWF/JCP/WCW, and that was probably in the long term due to Jesse beating that out of him.  

[Brian Fowler]

My favorite weird JR quirk was how he always pointed out Albert's hat size

[Zimbra]

Just now, Brian Fowler said:

My favorite weird JR quirk was how he always pointed out Albert's hat size

To be fair, that dude does have a massive dome.

[Brian Fowler]

2 minutes ago, Zimbra said:

To be fair, that dude does have a massive dome.

Oh no doubt. His melon is huge.

I just found it funny how JR was stuck on that fact for, like, years.

[MavsFan77]

1 minute ago, Brian Fowler said:

Oh no doubt. His melon is huge.

I just found it funny how JR was stuck on that fact for, like, years.

As someone that wears a size 8 fitted hat it always made me laugh when JR would refer to Albert’s 8 and 3/8 inch head. 

[Loki]

11 minutes ago, MavsFan77 said:

As someone that wears a size 8 fitted hat it always made me laugh when JR would refer to Albert’s 8 and 3/8 inch head. 

Dude I have the same size fitted hat as you. The struggle is real. You can never walk into Lids and get anything. 

[SorceressKnight]

1 hour ago, MORELOCK said:

 

Almost certainly the most overrated announcer of all time, but it's ECW so that comes along with the territory. 

Most of his more obnoxious habits live on in his influence on Mauro. 

Personally, I thought there's more Styles in Matt Striker than anyone, since Striker has the same "they can be very good as an announcer", tempered with "they can be too smarky for their own good on there- using smark talking points for the sake of using them, even if it makes no sense in the match." Mauro uses a bunch of cheesy pop culture references, but he doesn't have the same "reference backstage info and talking points for the sake of using them".

Even then, Mauro, Striker, and Styles aren't the worst example of this. That'd be Don West, with his "he never met a inside joke he couldn't strangle the reference out, beat you over the head with it, and in the process take any sense of humor away."

[GodzillaPerez]

3 hours ago, AxB said:

The only thing I didn't like about Ventura was his continued inability to accept that Brian Pillman played as a Nose Tackle in college. If it had just been a one time thing then fair enough, but to challenge it every time it's brought up?

My one criticism is how he couldn't tell the Rougeaus apart. Ray had a mustache for their entire run, shouldn't be that hard to remember.  

[MavsFan77]

56 minutes ago, Loki said:

Dude I have the same size fitted hat as you. The struggle is real. You can never walk into Lids and get anything. 

I’m glad to see someone else that feels my pain.  Going into Lids is the worst. I’ve been able to find a hat maybe three times in the last twenty years there.

[SirSmUgly]

I disagree with @Matt D re: downsides to Ross's tendency to go on about sports connections. To me, it always made it seem like these dudes in the ring picked wrestling over those other sports because of the pay and the prestige of being the world champion. All the accolades that Ross would go on about would cement this for me, and further, legitimize not the wrestlers in the ring (they were great amateur and pro athletes, obviously they were legit), but Ross himself, who seemed like a dude who knew everything about these wrestlers and which gave him a certain gravitas as an expert. 

[Matt D]

Always a good idea to go on about Rick Steiner's degree in education when he was portraying a buffoon. 

[SirSmUgly]

1 minute ago, Matt D said:

Always a good idea to go on about Rick Steiner's degree in education when he was portraying a buffoon. 

Sure, that's a bad idea, but that's not a sports-related example!

[Matt D]

1 minute ago, Smelly McUgly said:

Sure, that's a bad idea, but that's not a sports-related example!

I mainly am disappointed someone like Heyman didn't respond by going on about Arachnaman's college sports credentials in Web City. 

[SirSmUgly]

1 minute ago, Matt D said:

I mainly am disappointed someone like Heyman didn't respond by going on about Arachnaman's college sports credentials in Web City. 

I think a heel commentator just being like, "Apparently at Ann Arbor, the "special tutoring" the athletes get expands to tests and exams" or "One of my kids has  a teacher who also graduated with an education degree from Michigan. If that's the type of person who can get one of those, I'm pulling my kid out of that classroom right now" would be enough.

But Heyman talking about Arachnaman being a standout in his college's spin class would be excellent, too. 

On another note, I think Jesse Ventura works a bit better in WCW than he did in WWF on color because I think he had a tendency to undermine Monsoon on PBP by rightly pointing out what dicks most of the faces would act like; this happened less in WCW because WCW's top faces weren't consistently acting like  complete bullies and assholes. 

I mean, I love Ventura on commentary no matter what, but I just think his schtick was a better fit in WCW for that reason. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

22 minutes ago, Matt D said:

Always a good idea to go on about Rick Steiner's degree in education when he was portraying a buffoon. 

There are a number of buffoons in the field of education.

[Phantom Lord]

I really miss Ventura doing commentary. I know he doesn't watch wrestling these days, but it would be fun hearing him on any number of shows.

[sabremike]

26 minutes ago, Matt D said:

Always a good idea to go on about Rick Steiner's degree in education when he was portraying a buffoon. 

*Insert Michigan joke here*

Oh dear, @Brian Fowler is outside my apartment with what appears to be a very large axe. This isn't going to end well..

 

[Brian Fowler]

Just now, sabremike said:

*Insert Michigan joke here*

Oh dear, @Brian Fowler is outside my apartment with what appears to be a very large axe. This isn't going to end well..

 

You're lucky I'm social distancing and don't know how toshoot a bow.

[BobbyWhioux]

26 minutes ago, Smelly McUgly said:

I think a heel commentator just being like, "Apparently at Ann Arbor, the "special tutoring" the athletes get expands to tests and exams" or "One of my kids has  a teacher who also graduated with an education degree from Michigan. If that's the type of person who can get one of those, I'm pulling my kid out of that classroom right now" would be enough.

But Heyman talking about Arachnaman being a standout in his college's spin class would be excellent, too. 

On another note, I think Jesse Ventura works a bit better in WCW than he did in WWF on color because I think he had a tendency to undermine Monsoon on PBP by rightly pointing out what dicks most of the faces would act like; this happened less in WCW because WCW's top faces weren't consistently acting like  complete bullies and assholes. 

I mean, I love Ventura on commentary no matter what, but I just think his schtick was a better fit in WCW for that reason. 

Refer to the aforementioned Mr. Schiavone highlighting Hacksaw Duggan’s college background, and Bobby Heenan’s Ace of a Heel Response, for an excellent illustration of this dynamic in action.