FEBRUARY 2021 Discussion of Wrestling

[odessasteps]

Personally, I used to put in the same kind of work for my Awards ballot every year that I used to when I filled out my Gillette MLB all star ballot. I haven’t done an awards ballot in a few years, but I do put in the same kind of work for my HOF balllot these days. On the other hand, most of my March Madness voting here was mostly who do I like better.  

[ka-to]

 The Observer awards generally go to quality wrestlers/wrestling. I object to support of some individuals like Randy Orton or HHH because they are boring to me. However the one (now defunct) award that was way off to me was the worst tag team award. I loved watching Baba & Andre, The Oddities, Boogie Man & Bugsy and most of the other winners.

[Ziggy]

Melzer is a reason why AEW became a thing in some form or another whether he wants to admit it or not. He's been putting over Omega and the Bucks heavy before AEW existed. It doesn't bother me that he puts that company other so heavy because I'd be lying if I said I didn't value his a opinion but I don't agree with everything he says. I'm not one of these AEW superfans but I want them to succeed as far as they possibly can and if Melzer putting them over so much helps then I'm fine with it. The same way Cornette burying them every week is helping them too whether he knows it or not. It's been almost 20 years without a second major promotion. I don't watch AEW as much as I'd like to but I'm happy that they are on a major channel that supports them. I'm not into this promotional Tribalism, but I understand it because when I was younger I was all about ROH over everyone else. I'm at the point now where I want every promotion to seceed as far as they can. There are guys every company that I'm a huge fan of even if they aren't used how they should be 

[TheVileOne]

I saw a lot of people on Twitter losing it over the Observer Awards, including Wrestling Bios, which disappointed me. I could definitely argue some of the winners, but I don't get all the people getting bent out of shape over the winners. This isn't the Academy Awards, and it's all opinion at the end of the day. What it all really comes down to, IMHO, WWE fans feel like WWE is getting under-served and overshadowed by the upstart AEW. 

And I will give fair play because there were some positive booking moves by WWE in 2020, ie Roman Reigns' heel turn, Sasha Banks and Bayley's feud, etc. But plenty of other bad booking decisions stick out. Not to mention, WWE's presentation and promo style has just become so stale, homogenized, and over-produced, from the camera work, to the promos, to the announcing. I can understand being refreshed by a promotion like AEW offering something different. 

Edited March 1, 2021 by TheVileOne

[username]

I do think it is kinda funny how people get hung up on these awards (myself included sometimes) as I look at most other awards/award shows that happen for tv, movies, music, video games, books and so forth and I would wager in many situations they end up picking things many either didn't care for or wouldn't consider better than anything else. Some are decided by letting only certain experts vote, some by just going with a straight popularity contest and... well how many times have you went "yes, that was clearly the best movie/show/album/book/game/etc" compared to how many times you went "no way was that the best of the year"?

 

I think the observer awards cause more consternation not because of Meltz himself, but because there is only really Meltz. If you didn't agree with what Ebert thought about movies there were dozens of other top critics who you could find a top 10 of the year from, if Pitchfork kept praising music you didn't care for there were other respected sites or publications that would promote a different view or taste of music. With wrestling only Meltzer is really on that top level of renown and influence, you can find a Segunda Caida that looks for different things in wrestling but there is really no other big/known other figure of that type out there anymore, there were some others at earlier points but they for the most part faded away. In those other media even if the awards seem to go to poor choices there is likely a big enough community that agrees and offers counter options you may find more agreeable, in wrestling these are the only choices and they are being recorded as fact by the main historian of the medium.

 

 

[Eoae]

I can't find it now, but while catching up on my Twitter feed this morning, I stumbled across a random interview with Raven where he talked about how he once mistook chunks of drywall for cocaine and snorted them.

I'm still speechless.

 

[Niners Fan in CT]

44 minutes ago, Eoae said:

I can't find it now, but while catching up on my Twitter feed this morning, I stumbled across a random interview with Raven where he talked about how he once mistook chunks of drywall for cocaine and snorted them.

I'm still speechless.

 

That's some prime real estate. 

[ka-to]

1 hour ago, Eoae said:

I can't find it now, but while catching up on my Twitter feed this morning, I stumbled across a random interview with Raven where he talked about how he once mistook chunks of drywall for cocaine and snorted them.

I'm still speechless.

 

I remember the first time that I met him. "Hi I'm Scotty, Do you have any pills?" 

[Shartnado]

It's a New Month, yes it is!!!!! Hopefully the one that brings an end to this shitty winter!

[Elsalvajeloco]

4 hours ago, ka-to said:

I remember the first time that I met him. "Hi I'm Scotty, Do you have any pills?" 

Decent way to end this thread:

Not too long ago, I was listening to a segment from Stone Cold's podcast with Raven talking about the creation of the Raven gimmick. Between Raven casually talking about being on a coke bender before he got the call from Paul to come in, Steve ignoring he just said that, and Raven also saying he went to the wrong high school for the spot show where the character was suppose to officially debut, I can believe just about any Raven drug story that can be told.