Long time real life friend and IWC gent @TopRopeElbow sent this Fast Three Count.
Jerry Lawler
During the early 90's I hated The King. He was just an old guy pretending to be a member of royalty by giving himself a fake King moniker, what a bell end!...On second thoughts...There's nothing wrong with that is there?
During the Attitude Era I loved him! He liked violence, I liked violence. He loved boobs, I loved boobs (still do! Tits are horrible and sound sharp, boobs are beautiful!). He enjoyed company of young girls, so did I!
But then came the day when I realised he was the Fonz of the WWE and it all went cack. Respect to his career and the legendary feuds he was the forefront of but it's time to be a special guest now Jerry mate.
Elimination Chamber
Makes Hell In A Cell look like a Polly Pocket and is easily my most played match type of any wrestling it has featured on.
Maybe had one to many appearances too early in its life but and lost a bit of its allure and mystique.
I think HBK wearing the dodgiest unfinished tights and little girl bob haircut lifting the World Heavyweight Championship will be a wrestling memory that will stay with me until I forget how to put my socks on.
Mean Street Posse
Easily one of my guiltiest of guilty pleasures in wrestling! I was never sure if these guys were kayfabe or real, but I did know I didn't care. I just dug these guys.
As odd as it was cool reggae entrance music, cashmere sweater vests and believeable gimmick. How could you not get into these preppy and spoiled bastards!
Also if they were around today I would bet left eyebrow that Jack Swagger would be in this dapper crew!
Give Steve a shout, he's a gent comedian who will talk wrestling until the internet switches off.
This week Kinny Killa and Sugs over at Sunday Segue podcast celebrated their 52nd weekly episode... quick maths... That's a year! Happy first birthday!
Yeah the guys invited me on their birthday show, which as always was genuinely happy accept so if you have already listened to the show have heard me give all the box ticking birthday pleasantries. But now that I've listened to the episode... Yeah I listen to myself. It's a way of trying to get better at the podcasting malarkey.
Anyways, now I've listened to the show and had a chance to think about things I really want to give a big thank you to the lads.
Fast Three Count is something I'm gonna try to do now and again to keep my brain active, talk wrestling with the IWC and hopefully learn a thing or two about the great industry we love.
Three random suggestions from Twitter followers will get a quick post in reply with my thoughts on the suggestions.
Without further ado, the first Fast Three Count with @timvicious
Fan Reaction
Fan reaction is as big a part of wrestling as knee pads and turnbuckles. The sound and sight of an absolute electric crowd just going nuts for what they're seeing always gets me pumped.
One of my favourite matches is Rock vs Hogan at Wrestlemania X8, yeah it was amazing because it was Rock and Hogan but also because of the fan reaction to every drop of sweat the two poured.
Standing ovations are something that chills me like nothing else, the first one I really remember was for The Hardy Boys and Edge and Christian for their tag team ladder match and I can just remember getting goosebumps and knowing this is what all wrestlers should be aiming for.
Put it this way, without fan reaction you are just Brian Christopher.
Merchandise
Does a superstar have to be good to shift merch? No. Do they have to shift merch to be good? Often it seems so.
If a guy happens to resonate with the money spenders be it parents for their kids or fans for their own collection/wardrobe he will be pushed no doubt.
I personally have purchased T-shirts for myself and got some as presents when I was younger, worn with pride because of my love for WWE. Also buying heaps of videos, DVDs and games I'd like to think I've made a small ripple in the ocean that is WWEs bank account.
Promos done in ring gear and not actually performing in a match that night on the show at any point
Sure sometimes it can't be avoided for instance masked Kane, Umaga, Big Boss Man, Undertaker and so on but when it comes to the likes of Cena, Hogan, Rock, Orton why would you get all dressed up, knee pads n'all to talk it up?
If gets them in the right frame of mind, thats cool but it doesn't stop them looking a bit odd. Be it a in backstage segment, in ring promo or match run in it just seems like extra effort for what?
yeah yeah you got a character, but we all know if you're a wrestler you love Under Armour so just chuck some of that on clothesline someone over the rope to stop a match.
Whatever you choose to wear, just don't get it from Batista's wardrobe.
After last nights escapade and crash on the first junction on The Road to Wrestlemania tonight is already proving to be a huge night. If not on screen but everywhere else in the world.
A few things that we can be sure of are we have a Royal Rumble victor whose name isn't Victor at all, it is Batista.
Bray Wyatt is moving on up to the guillotine by feuding with Cena.
The New Age Outlaws are the WWE SIX TIME TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS OF THE WOOOOORRRRLLLLDD!
And Randy Orton is still the WWE World Heavyweight Champion.
Tonight of all nights the fans in attendance have to be heard. From start to finish they have to be the entire IWC and Universe's voices. They have the chance to really show WWE what we think and get someone to take notice.
I'm hoping they'll blow the roof off for the entire 3 hours while us at home can do the same from where you are right now.
I want to give a huge thank you to Erik over at the The Wrestling Chronicle for giving me the chance to be a guest on his Piledriver Podcast show. This really is a big deal for me.
After finding a good use for Twitter by tweeting as KBW I soon stumbled upon @WrestlingChron and we had a few interactions and he read a couple of my tweets out on his show. This was a real compliment, because he didn't have to take the time out of his show to spread my tweets.
Tattoos are now a very much socially acceptable trend. Once being tattooed was just for a "certain type of person" such as punks, bikers, thugs & hooligans or the occasional veteran with a stamp of duty or souvenir of their time in the ranks. Tattoos had a stigma of general toughness and roughness.
Now getting inked is sexy and fashionable and they've been around in everyday life for a couple of decades, everyone from Grandmothers to their grandkids have them.
Having tattoos now is somewhat of a trophy to show you've endured full sleeve work and have the wallet to do so. Also it seems that more and more of the lady folk are impressed and into guys with a splash of ink.
Wrestling is no different. Tattoos can be found all over any roster from the shocking jesters (See Anderson) to some of the most elaborate sleeves and back pieces. Here is a quick list of 10 of the best and few honourable mentions. So if you like wrestling or tattoos take a scroll.
10
Rey Mysterio Jr
Rey has many tattoo all over his body with lots of meaning, his childrens names of his biceps, his hometown dial code and finisher on his forearms and Mexican across his stomach. However you can't look at Mysterio without noticing his spine on his....spine.
"Eighty percent of the falls we take are on our backs" Rey explains. "I thought it would be cool to design a tattoo on my spine showing how each vertebra should be aligned. Something I found cool is that when they filled it out on me, they said everything is pretty much as it should be. So it's all pretty much in place."
John Cena squaring off against The Undertaker has already happened a few times through the mid 2000s but John Cena vs The Undertaker at Wrestlemania has never happened.
Will this ever happen? Could this ever happen? 'Taker may not have too many matches left and with the somewhat ambiguous situation involving The Shield, the white hot Daniel Bryan and Brock Lesnar looking for trouble there could be some other opponents for 'Taker to go for.
Would WWE or its fans benefit from pitting super Cena against The Deadman?
I believe given the right angle it could be oh so more than epic.
Personally I would love to see this match happen and have spent a few commutes to work thinking about how this could go down.
Respect
Hustle, Loyalty and Respect. It's what Cena is all about and it could play a part in this match up. If Cena decided to take the challenge to Undertaker he say it's all about respect and wants to have the honour to try and beat the streak.
As a wrestling fan you have, with out a doubt been told wrestling is fake.
I have been told that wrestling is fake fighting with fake blood, fake stories and I've even had someone tell me the ring is fake.
From here on in let's call these people Sheeple. That is what they are, right? Just a bunch of know it alls who want to ruin your fun. Sheeple for some reason will nonsensically spew their closed minded opinions for as long as you want to defend your own opinion.....They seem to have a lot of spare time and energy for this, so be careful if you want to take them on.
Now when I have some one telling me that I'm a childish fool for liking WWE or pro-wrestling I don't feel the need to justify my self, but I do feel the need to give them a few reasons to think about wrestling a little different. Not wanting to be a salesman, spokes person or ambassador but just giving a couple of facts that may make Sheeple look at it in a new way.
It Doesn't Hurt
First and most prominent argument that people tend to go with is that the "fighting" is staged and choreographed. Yeah sure it is predetermined and spots are planned, even some the moves and throws you see may have very little if any impact. But can you imagine a WWE match where every punch, kick and throw is real? It's called MMA and I, for one, am not a huge fan of watching men completely knock the snot out of each other.
So that means WWE doesn't hurt, right? EGH-UGH! Of course it does, the men and women that entertain us fans on a weekly to nightly basis go through ridiculous amounts of physical abuse. The recent case of Edge having to hang up the boots and retire in such Hollywood story fashion was down to injury. The injury was not like a one off career killing moment but more of a breakdown after years of using his body to entertain us.
Edge is one of many wrestlers who have had to retire due to their bodies being one bad landing away from a drastic life altering injury from taking bump after bump, night after night for a good 300+ days a year plus travel.
OK, OK Sheeple I hear you! How could anyone possibly go night in night out getting beaten up for real all year long? Not even Mikey Whipwreck could really do it. Boxers and UFC fighters could really max out 2-3 big fights a year but our guys must be fake because they get up the next day and do it all again.
It's true our guys are entertainers, working for a entertainment company, but they take some serious damage. The history of pro-wrestling is littered with injury, from the "small" finger breaks, to the Sids of the ring going all jelly legged, to the Brets and Edges having to walk away for good.
Pro-wrestling is predetermined, the matches are called but the action takes its toll in a big way and as cliche as it may seem, the risks are very real.
It's all soap opera with added baby oil
Yes. Baby oil. My only answer to that is there is less now than in the 80's and 90's.
But the soap opera part does have some weight behind it in all fairness and truth. Just like I have already pointed out for the Sheeple, wrestling is pre-planned, predetermined, choreographed, scripted so can it not be soap?
I'm sorry to tell you sXe_Punker20-1's, CenationsGurl16's and WWEfanmaniac's but wrestling you watch is not a documentary. The stories, rivalries and feuds you see are written to make you think it could all be real because of the blurry line they create between fact and fiction, sometimes these lines get ripped to pieces with the likes of the Montreal Screw Job, Austin vs McMahon, Edge-Lita-Matt Hardy love affair all of which make art imitate life and life imitate art.
With todays vomit inducing batch of "reality" TV like Jersey Shore, Made in Chelsea and tripe like Wife-Swap it has become increasingly harder to seperate what's real and what's not on TV.
So WWE maybe scripted like a soap opera but can be as real as any reality show on TV today, if not more so due to the fact that the people performing these stories can some times have their very real lives played out on screen.
Is It Real?
Even as a life long fan, I don't think I have the vocabulary or law school teachings to give an accurate conclusion for myself let alone the Sheeple of this world due to the often blurry line of reality that wrestling carries. Sure I can agree that a huge part of it is on paper before it hits our screens but such a huge compelling part is still kinda real.
Well maybe not as much as happy chappy here.
The fact that wrestling does have this blurry line I think leaves it open for us to make up our minds on its authenticity. I will still give Sheeple a gentle reminder of what these performers go through physically and some of what you see on its programming can be as close to life as any reality show out there.
One thing these Sheeple do need to learn is,
Even if wrestling is fake, it doesn't hurt for anyone to suspend their belief of reality to enjoy what they're watching. Just like most humans do when watching Eastenders, Days of Our Lives, House, Breaking Bad, Bridget Jones' Diary or Die Hard. Every now and again we just like to leave our real world and immerse ourselves in something we enjoy. It's just wrestling has more baby oil.
This week on Twitter I got involved in a conversation with @IfinRatedR and @VegasKustom about WWE ignoring its core fan base and investing too much time and effort in the younger fan base.
I'm 26 years old, I have been watching wrestling (mostly exclusively WWE) for the best part of 21-22 of these years and I was questioning do WWE care about people in the same bracket and older? Or are they focused solely on the CeNation Army munchkins?
Honestly, I feel it is both.
Unless you've just crawled out of the boiler room of you will know that WWE is PG. This simply means, of course it is directed at the young audience. Over the past several years WWE has changed from the blood soaking - boobie bouncing - weapon wielding - bird flipping - gritty - bonkers world it once was. It now prefers the family friendly - hand clappy - lady skipping - shiny glossy world.
This to me still doesn't prove that WWE has lost touch with the older bunch. Not even close.
Sure we can bang on all day about Cena running the place in Superman mode for the kids to cheer and adore, but we had Hogan doing the exact same thing! Sure the Hulkster only had two colours at the time but he still came out in the brightest yellow and reds, was all wholesome and all patriotic, put across messages of goodness and was cleaner than a DDP smile.
Being a wrestling fan you may of heard of a guy who has won championships, been on TV almost every week over the past 10 years, appears on least 11 out of 12 PPVs, gets mixed reviews from fans around the world and has worked as hard as anyone in the WWE today. In my opinion he's still not given the credit he deserves, the guy is a work horse and does whats asked of him, in what seems to be, every instance. You know exactly who I mean, but before you go saying "Ugh! Had enough of reading about this guy and what everyone thinks of him" don't worry. I'm not gonna bang on all day about Michael Cole, as the title suggests I'm here to talk about John Cena. To be exact I wanna talk about the potential and idea of Cena turning heel. If you have ever been on twitter and seen anything about Cena on there, chances are it's about one of a few things; 1. Cena is WWEs god and can do no wrong and is the best of the best of the best of the bestest best! 2. Cena sucks and needs to be heel by next week or I'm tuning out 3. Cena sucks and needs to die. Now point number 3 needs to stop. If you are wishing death upon a performer for doing their job, a job you would wear your own testicles as earrings to do, you are a shabby human being and need to do some thinking about your own life. Points 1 and 2 have some real merrit to be discussed further. Whether you like him or not, whether you buy into the character or not, there is no reason to totally discount the first two points.
