The Majesty of Wrestling

The Daily Liger #2: vs Eddie Guerrero (or is it Silver King?)

2012-02-02T10:09:00.000-05:00

As anyone who has watched puroresu for longer than a few minutes, the Tiger Mask lineage is something to be beheld. From Satoru Sayama to Mitsuharu Misawa to Koji Kanemoto, it's always been a place for young rookies that the Japanese system sees something in to get their career started on the right foot. But just as important has been Tiger Mask's eternal rival, the evil Black Tiger. Now the lineage of this whole thing is far too complicated for me to go into now, but believe me when I tell you that it's as equally valuable a lineage. Some of the best of the best have slipped on the Black Tiger mascara and embraced their inner heel. Here is a perfect example of that. Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Black Tiger. From the J-Cup in 1996.

The Daily Liger #1: An Introduction and a 20th Anniversary

2012-02-01T10:00:00.000-05:00

Because I am the sort who likes to create new content for this blog, here we go. Every morning I'll post a match from the man, who for my money, is the best junior heavyweight to ever lace up a pair of boots.

We'll start with this video:

And i know what you're thinking. We need a match here right? Easy. We'll start with the best match to really introduce this man to American fans. It's not nearly enough for it to be a good match. WHat you need is someone that the fans can get behind, someone that the fans can care about. This match is that time. Liger was coming in to WCW presented as the foreign menace, out to keep the World Light Heavyweight Championship from WCW's all-american phenom Flyin' Brian. Even now, 20 years after it happened, the match is still compelling. The way they structured it still works.

Brian Pillman vs. Jushin Liger 2/29/92 by Hook_Line_and_Sinker

Music Videos: Aerial Pyrotechnics.

2012-01-24T21:49:00.000-05:00

I am a huge fan of wrestling music videos as an art form. The trouble you have is when they somehow inform the way in which you actually watch wrestling, or what it is that you expect out of a particular worker. But just as an art form, they're glorious. So glorious in fact that i'm going to try and make this a new feature. So, please, journey with me into the world of music videos.

First up is a video about one of mexico's true lucha aerialists. strangely, you'll find the high-flying style best exemplified by the luchadores for reasons I'm not qualified to explain. Maybe it's the grace in which the style has always been built upon, the emphasis on footwork and artistry over strength and brawn. But whatever the reason there are few high-flyers anywhere in the world who are as gifted in the air as Mr. Aguila. I want to marry his Asai moonsault. It's so beautiful it defies logic.

Next Up, another luchadore. And in an era in Mexico wehre it seems like the top stars are either mat wrestling wizards or aerial maestros, Aero Star fits the 2nd half of that argument about as well as anyone in Mexico right now. I can't even describe what he does, and I dn't really want to. You deserve to see this for yourself.

But don't make the mistake of assuming that all the good high-flying action that happens, or can happen, takes place only in Mexico. The video below is of Kota Ibushi, one of the brightest young junior heavyweight stars in Japan. He's the kind of phenom that seems purpose-built to do exactly what he's been doing, which is wowing crowds in tournaments, doing some Rock N' Roll Express-type stuff with Kenny Omega, and being just the most exciting junior in Japan.

Wednesday Night Wrestling: Rugged Ronnie Garvin vs Greg "The Hammer" Valentine

2012-01-18T20:59:00.000-05:00

This is a new feature. Spend your wednesday night watching wrestling on youtube. Here is our first choice.

when you think of the kind of wrestling that the territories contributed to the late 80's and early 1990's WWF to WCW this is the match that they were working on. Everything makes sense. You can literally feel the hatred pouring off of both of them. But, unlike a certain ROH champion, the selling is just as important. When Greg Valentine lays in those big heavy chops, you get the idea that Garvin realizes just how important his training is. Nothing's neglected. There's not a single spot in this match that doesn't feel important or designed to cause some sort of a reaction. You don't see people haphazardly doing dumb spots just to do them. And the one or two ha-ha spots are to serve a purpose, which is what they should do. I enjoyed this match and I hope you do too.

The Majesty of Wrestling: Rey Mysterio: The Alternate Universe

2012-01-18T14:09:00.000-05:00

The Majesty of Wrestling: Rey Mysterio: The Alternate Universe

Rey Mysterio: The Alternate Universe

2012-01-18T12:30:00.000-05:00

In the long history of pro wrestling, there have been few prodigies on par with Rey Misterio Jr. Before he even hit the age of 21, he had already worked in Mexico for AAA (Asistencia Asesoría y Administración), in Japan both as part of the Super J-Cup and on the occasional tour with WAR (Wrestle and Romance) and New Japan Pro Wrestling, and in America with ECW and WCW. That’s a run. But he did all of that in the mid-1990’s, when there was much more of a depth of opportunities for unknown luchadores to make a name for themselves. The question is this: What would Rey Misterio Jr. have become if he was coming up now? If he was the aerial phenomenon that he was from 1991 to 1997 from 2006 to 2012, how would his life, career, and the way we view him change? Would it even?

Firstly, before we go any further, let’s explain to you hardcore devotees of “sports-entertainment” exactly what watching a young and prime Rey Misterio Jr. was actually like. Here watch these 2 videos:

Now imagine if, in the height of the internet era, if a guy like that suddenly appeared on television and YouTube, if his best work could be easily found? How would his career have changed?
Now when I did this exercise I was assuming facts in evidence, namely that Rey would have the benefit of his touring partners Psychosis and Juventud Guerrera around to help him get over during his travels. However, I can only take the alternative universe theory so far. Therefore, he doesn’t have Eddie Guerrero or Dean Malenko, 2 of his most well-known rivals. So where does he start? Where does this era’s Rey Misterio Jr. go to get his career started outside of Mexico, keeping in mind that he’s not going to get a realistic chance in the WWE without getting on a massive drug regimen that would put bodybuilders to shame?
Easy. He goes Here.

Not just because it’s an easier trip for him to Los Angeles than traveling to Philadelphia for ECW would have been, but also because frankly, outside of Chikara, PWG would be the most welcoming of the Lucha style. Also, imagine Rey Misterio Jr. in his athletic prime, reeling off hurricanranas like they’re nothing, against El Generico, Roderick Strong, or PAC in the spotfest to end all spotfests? It’d be all kinds of fun. Him playing his underdog role against Kevin Steen? Even more fun. But I'm not stupid. I know that bookings in PWG aren’t going to be nearly enough to break him out in the same manner that he was breaking out when he was in Japan. So how do we get him to be noticed, to be hyped, and to have Vince Russo stupidly want to hire him and then have him lose to a WWF reject in 90 seconds? Easy. We’re sending him into the hotbed of indy wrestling on the northeast.

Now what I would love is to be able to say that I'm sending him to Ring of Honor, which is the unquestioned #3 behind the two big-box American wrestling companies. But I can’t. Simply put, Ring of Honor has always had a problem with Lucha Libre. I'm not sure why this is the case. But it is. Some people have debated that the reason for this was due to ROH’s stand as the SRSBZNESS~! Indy whose fans would never accept anything less than American Strong Style. Maybe it’s that, from their very beginning, they patterned themselves as a puroresu-styled promotion and thus had no desire to delve into Lucha save when it melded with puroresu (this proven by the fact that they brought in Dick Togo as soon as they could, and yet it took them until a show in 2009 to think that bringing in luchadores was a good idea.) Some people even point to a terrible match Konnan had with Ghost Shadow on one of their first shows that led to Gabe Sapolsky vowing he’d never book lucha again. Whatever the reason here is the truth: ROH is not lucha-friendly. So They are out. Chikara, though, is in.

Now we have the fun part. Rey Misterio Jr. in his athletic prime against the likes of Hallowicked, Ultramantis Black, Mike Quackenbush, and Eddie Kingston. Buys~!

But again as we have learned the USA isn’t enough to make a guy a huge deal. You need to go over to Japan, sort of the holy grail for internet wrestling fans. But where to send a guy who so heavily is lucha, during a time where Michinoku Pro (which is where I originally planned on sending him) isn’t nearly the place that it was during its peak. Where is he going then?

Now, here we get to see him work different opponents. Teaming with Dragon Kid in a “Masters of the Hurricanrana” tag team, facing Masato Yoshino in a blinding super-fast thing, or even being the ultimate tecnico against the gleefully smirking CIMA. It’s a great career.

In conclusion, feel kind of bad that Rey Misterio Jr. was forced to go to WWE, become a bloated shell of what he was world-famous for, and generally be there to pop the kids and do a stale offense while the WWE tells you how daring he is. But remember what he was. Remember how cool he seemed.

Dream Match #2: Mike Quackenbush vs Blue Panther

2012-01-13T14:41:00.000-05:00

It's back again. Our friendly neighborhood Dream Match series.
This is our first singles match, and it would be an absolute technical master class. Let's introduce the participants.

One of the true shames of the world is that here are true masters who, for whatever reason, are ignored. This is an example of a guy who was brilliant, is brilliant, and will remain brilliant.

For as long as I can remember, I liked technical wrestling. Still do. it's just so more appealing to me than brawling is, or high-flying (although I will freely admit my endless admiration for the Sasuke Special). but whenever I try to explain my love of technical wrestling, I can't help but point the Blue Panther to people, and his peers like Atlantis, El Hijo Del Santo, and Dos Caras Sr and Jr. (Jr you might know better as Alberto Del Rio.)

But who do I put him against? What wrestler on the American indy scene could I reasonably expect to give him the kind of challenge that would be worthy of his talents.

It's perfect. One of the true llave maestros against a man heavily influenced by that style. In fact, without having even asked him, I imagine this would be a match that he would like to have for real, not just here on the pages of this blog.

But the bigger question is this: Who would win?

Simply, while Quack is inspired by the style, in a lot of ways the Blue Panther IS the style. Blue Panther wins in a technical wrestling dream match.

The Majestic Recipe Box: three-cheese Panini

2011-12-15T21:28:00.000-05:00

If you follow me on Twitter you'll soon discover that as much as I love talking about wrestling, I also love talking about what I'm making for dinner. So i figured that I would start writing down my lovely sandwich options. First thing up: three-cheese panini with homemade arrabiata sauce.

ingredients:

high-quality bread. pugliese and ciabatta are the best for this, but if you want to tempt fate and use a baguette, I am not going to be the one to stop you.
arrabiata sauce: recipe can be found here
cheese: 2 grated oz each of cheddar, queso quesadilla (found in the mexican\ethnic foods aisle in most supermarkets), and monterey jack. swiss, muenster, and colby jack are also all acceptable substitutes.

recipe:

cut the bread lengthwise. spoon on enough of the sauce to cover the bottom portion of the bread, then add the cheese. stuff and place on a steaming hot panini press. press until the cheese is melted. eat and enjoy.

TMW Dream Matches Pt. 1

2011-11-28T23:03:00.000-05:00

It's an old habit of wrestling fans, no matter what kind you're thinking of. Give us some time, and we'll immediately start trying to figure out dream matches. And if nothing else has become apparent about this blog, it should be this. I pride myself on being a wrestling fan. So, these are the matches that I have always thought about. Am I gonna pick winners? Sure. Why the hell not?

First up, is a match that could and should interest fans of top-notch tag team work.
The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley\Chris Sabin) vs The British Bulldogs

In a lot of ways, this is the kind of huge gigantic opener that you would need to have on many indie shows. But honestly, i'd love to see this be a main event.

The Machine Guns are, when both men are healthy and sharp, a terrifyingly innovative tag team. And while they are most famous for the stuff that they did in TNA, their best work has come not on national television. Not even by a little bit. Check out the stuff they did in Japan, or PWG, or even Border City Wrestling. It's awesome.

This is kind of the same way with the Bulldogs. In a lot of ways, their best work was not the stuff we saw on WWE TV. It was those house shows they did with the Hart Foundation when they were trying to prove a point. It was the stuff they did in Stampede and Japan. It was all of that which made them such a big deal, and it's all of that which will make this so easy.

The Bulldogs are your winners in a 45-minute classic.

The First Ever TMW Trivia Post

2011-10-09T22:37:00.000-04:00

I like very much to keep this place humming. And I have not been. I'm sorry for that.

So, with that in mind, I decided to do the best thing to keep things going. A trivia post.

Answer if you dare~!

Question 1: In what American City, and on what holiday, did Jushin "Thunder" Liger defeat Brian Pillman to win the WCW World Light Heavyweight Title?

Question 2: What was the main event of the When Worlds Collide PPV?

Question 3: What was the name of the team of Manami Toyota and Toshiyo Yamada? Bonus points for naming the tag team she had with Mima Shimoda.

Question 4: Name the original members of Kaientai DX.

The Conversion Progress Featuring ESPN Columnist Jemele Hill

2011-09-09T22:31:00.000-04:00

It's amazing the things you think about doing when you have a bunch of free time.

One of those things you think about doing is bothering all of your friends on Twitter to watch some wrestling matches, and tell you what they think of them. But that wasn't enough. Rather, I wanted them to watch stuff that wasn't from the WWE. I'm doing this in the same way that Dirty Dirty Sheets is trying to show people good wrestling anywhere that you can find it is just as valuable and important to get the enjoyment you should out of this watching hours upon hours of corporate wrestling where the template for what you see is made in cement. And after some internal debate about who I could convince I went to the one person I know would try this and enjoy it. ESPN columnist Jemele Hill.

It's not that she's written some really acclaimed articles (although she has). It's not that she's been on First Take, the Sports Reporters, Rome is Burning, and Around The Horn (although she has). Truthfully, this is because when she's on twitter I always got the sense that she was open-minded, a sense that was proven right when she agreed to do this.

A pair of quick ground rules because this, Hashimoto willing, is not going to be the last time that I do this:
1: I burned these videos from my own collections before they were give to Ms. Hill. If you want to see everything she saw, go on youtube or find a tape trading site. I'll link the best at the bottom of this post. Ok? Good.

2: I'll be adding my own comments on these matches below Jemele's. Her comments, then, will be in blue to differentiate.

Manami Toyota vs Toshiyo Yamada:

Jemele: I swear I'd wear that pink unitard to a party. In fact, I'm already planning to wear it for Halloween.

When I watched wrestling on a regular basis, female wrestlers didn't wrestle this hard. They were mostly there to be male eye candy and if they executed a few moves, fine. By my unofficial estimation, there were 67 flying drop kicks in this fight. Maybe 12 body slams. I thought I witnessed something that looked very similar to the Iron Sheik's Figure Four. He did that, right? Still, lots of classic wrestling moves in this match, which I appreciated. What was that move where she wrapped her leg around her waist and then bent both of her arms backward? Or the one where Pink Unitard had her leg bent from here to Kansas City? Pink Unitard emptied the whole playbook, I'll give her that. I thought she'd lost the match at first, and then all of a sudden, she was being given a trophy, a certificate, a wreath and a belt. Surprisingly, no key to the city. I was totally confused. And how can you not love any wrestling match that ends with both opponents essentially barfing in a bucket? I'm fairly certain both of these women have severe bone damage and probably won't be able to sit upright for the next 30 years.

Heckuva match, though.

Okori: The thing about this match that I remember from when I watched it was the tremendous pace and intesity. At no point, when I watched it, did it look like they were blatantly trying for a rest. I' m sure they got rests in there somewhere, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out where they did it. Also, if this is your introduction to Joshi Puroresu as it quite clearly was for Jemele, I want to send you on a mission. Go to my friend Ditch (link: Ditch's Wrestling Page ).
Find all of the Joshi that you can. You'll be amazed by what you see.

Fit Finlay vs Lord Steven Regal

Lord Steven Regal vs Fit Finlay by GratienHetu

Lord Steven Regal vs. Fit Finlay

Do we really know if this guy was a lord? I love that he came out dressed like Paul Revere. And was that Dusty Rhodes helping to call the match? Dusty was my guy back in the day. Best lisp-having, country-sounding wrestler in history. But I like how both of these guys set the tone for the match early. The Belfast Bruiser slapped the mess out of Lord Regal's little minion, otherwise known as the dude that was dumb enough to complete the Revolutionary War costume with a white wig. Anyway, the Belfast Bruiser was brutal, and I mean that in a complimentary way. He kicked Lord Regal in the back. Slapped him a bunch of times. Yanked down on his arm. He was truly punishing this guy. I suppose that's why they call him Bruiser, right? But after awhile, I didn't find this match as exciting as the one between Toyota and Yamada. It was more physical, yes. But a lot slower. The pace was, OK, let's watch this guy elbow this guy in the face. OK, now, let's watch Lord Regal retaliate with a clothesline. How about an elbow? The match started to lag. I think I prefer the high-flying action over the slow, leisurely brutality of an eye poke. Does that make me a communist? Is that too "chick-ish?" Arguably one of the high points of the match was when Dusty -- or at least I presume it was him -- tried to pronounce Glueteus Maximus. He sounded like Daffy Duck. My final verdict
: I needed a little more finesse.

Okori: The thing that happened with a lot of the Finlay-Regal matches is that they were slow, not sprints in the same way that Toyota and Yamada were, because stylistically that wasn't what they could do (or even should do). Rather, this was a hate-filled brawl filtered through a combination of two masters of british-style wrestling and decades upon decades of a feud between the irish and the English. Without even trying, it's high concept.

And that's the end of our story. This conversion process isn't done however. By all means tweet me or post something in the comments about who you want to see do this next.

Also, one last thing before we go. I mentioned earlier that I was going to link to some legit tape-trading sites, because I don't want you to see this as an excuse to go patrolling around the vast world wide web looking for stuff to illegally download.

For Japanese puroresu: try www.ivpvideos.com
Another good option is highspots.com and quite frankly, just search on the internet for tape selling sites & you should be able to find what you're looking for without too much work.

Thank you very much for your listening.

Technical Wrestling Master Class: The USA

2011-09-04T15:58:00.000-04:00

I have a massive library of wrestling on my computer. It's not anything to be ashamed of to my way of thinking. Rather, I'm proud of it. And in the course of one day reviewing what I have I came to a sort of conclusion about the sort of wrestling i like. It's not the mindless WWF Main Event Style, and it's not the head-droppy OMG MOVEZ~! stuff that passes for main event work in Ring of Honor currently. What do I enjoy at its core? Technical wrestling. and the high-end stuff. Curious as to what I like and how you could find some of it for yourself? Follow me.

First off, technical wrestling takes a variety of forms depending on who personifies that specific aesthetic for you. If, like me, you grew up in the United States with the WWF, WCW, and (to a far lesser extent) ECW on your televisions, then guys like this were the guys you were into.

Nick Bockwinkel: The real interesting thing about Bockwinkel is that, in a lot of ways, his best work was happening when the fewest amount of people were seeing it. By the time that the AWA got its TV deal with ESPN, Bockwinkel was in his late-40's. Did that matter? Not even a little bit. He was still as sharp as he had ever been.

Ric Flair: Now I know what you're thinking, and yes it's true. Ric Flair was known for his flossiness, the fact that he seemed to be incapable of rolling anywhere without 10 to 20 ladies, a suit that cost more than your paycheck, and his boys the Four Horsemen. But make no mistake, when the "Nature Boy" got in the ring, he could go. He wrestled that 70's style where every hold was treated as though it was death, and the biggest strike that you were going to see was some blistering chops. And when i say blistering, i mean BLISTERING. Add to his technical skill his almost-superhuman cardio and the fact that most of his best work happened in the NWA during the 1980's and you had one of the cooler wrestlers ever.

Bret Hart: And the last man on our list. If you were a kid in the WWF enclave of the Northeast during the 80's and 90's and didn't have fond memories of Gorilla Monsoon telling you how Bret Hart was the excellence of execution, and that every single manuever he did was applied to absolute perfection, you must have been watching different wrestling than I was as a kid. Bret Hart was always presented to younger fan of the WWF (sorry WWE, but you were the WWF at this specific point in my childhood) as a master, the guy every other wrestler knew could not just beat them but hurt them badly. And the chief tool in his toolbox? The Sharpshooter.

Again this was portrayed as the be all and end all. And if, as a kid, you didn't try and put the sharpshooter on your friends or your family, you were either not a big wrestling fan or liked different wrestlers than I did.

In closing, this is only the beginning. As time goes on, i'll introduce you to guys you may have not seen yet, and masters from far-off lands. Thank you for reading.

A love letter to my favorite style of wrestling, and my favorite promotion.

2011-07-05T21:32:00.000-04:00

In this age of "pop" wrestling, where all anyone knows or cares to know is the WWE, finding and promoting really legitimately good indie wrestling is a bit more impossible than you might imagine it to be on first blush.

Wherever you might be reading this blog from, there's a realistic chance that there's an indy fed running shows sometime this weekend. Sure, you might not know all the names on the card, or even any of them, but that isn't the point of this. The point is that when you go out there to that armory, or highschool gym, or wherever else, you're going to get the chance to see stuff you won't see on TV.

But where is the best place to go? Where's the best place for your money? The answer to this question is easy. Chikara Pro.

To be clear, they don't run all 50 states. But if you live in the Northeast, or the Mid-Atlantic, or the Midwest, they've been where you are. And largely, I can find something that any person watching Chikara Pro might like. Interested in cool, unique characters and storylines you can get sucked into? Chikara vs the BDK. It's extraordinarily complicated, so complicated in fact that to describe it here would take too long.

Wanna see high-level actual wrestling? Mike Quackenbush, Claudio Castagnoli, the criminally underrated Hallowicked, and a phalanx of guest stars.

Speaking of those guest stars, we get to my favorite type of style which you will get to see July 30th and 31st. British Lancashire style. Here is the description of it that I sort of cribbed from my earlier article on the subject (http://themajestyofwrestling.blogspot.com/2008/10/three-countries-main-styles-of-japan.html): Now then to the fun one. The British Lancashire (Or World Of Sport as it is more commonly referred to) style practiced extensively in Europe is in a lot of ways more closely resembling amateur wrestling than anything you will find with the possible exception of the UWF and RINGS stuff. It is entirely based upon wrestling skill and technique in applying a variety of holds, pinning combinations, and locks. Striking is at a minimum, and there are very few “gimmicks”. Out sized personalities do exist, in the awesome heel work of Jim Breaks and the babyface skills of Johnny Saint, but by and large it is about the skill inherent in the men who choose to compete in it. There are five 5-minute rounds in non-title matches with victory being achieved by one person who can get 2 falls by pin, 3 submissions, or 1 knockout. In the title matches there are 10 rounds of 5 minutes each and the same basic rules apply. Any participant who is knocked down to the mat has a 10-count to rise back to his feet and continue the battle.

Another interesting distinction is that the referee does not audibly count the pin falls, meaning that the crowd and the viewing audience is fully expected to figure out on their own steam that the 3-count is occurring.

Largely this style has been consigned to the mists of history and DVD’s, with only a few stars left from the era still capable of performing it. However, the current generation of American independent workers has mastered many of the spots, men like Mike Quackenbush, Chris Hero, Alex Shelley, and the Best Wrestler in the World, Bryan Danielson. If you wondered where Hero’s cravate came from, for instance, it’s in the time that he spent studying under the British style.

Thank you for listening. Thank you for reading. And go support CHIKARA PRO

Why I Have Stopped Watching The WWE, And A New Mission Statement.

2011-05-27T19:41:00.000-04:00

Here's the thing. I started this blog wanting to talk about all kinds of wrestling, and i correctly assumed that the WWE was going to be a huge part of it. I mean, after all, this is the biggest wrestling promotion in the world, despite their protestations to the contrary that they are an "entertainment" company or whatever such nonsense. And initially, this blog was exactly that. It's not a smart-marky blog really. It's more of a remembrance and tribute to all of the various things that I love about wrestling, and that I sincerely hope my readership loves as well.

But something happened recently to make me change my mind. And while part of it was Randy Savage, the rest of it had almost nothing to do with him. It had to do with Vince McMahon, and his idea of what professional wrestling should be. And I could take no more.

It wasn't just the fact that us professional wrestling fans could do a better job of providing a proper obituary to the Macho Man Randy Savage than Vince McMahon was able to, with 3 days of lead time and a world-class production staff. It was that we had to wait through multiple intelligence-insulting angles. Because, quite clearly, the idea of massaging angles that made no sense and appear to do absolutely nothing positive for the bottom line is tremendously more important than paying tribute to a man upon whose shoulders you built an empire. And that was what did it.

To Vince McMahon, and his cadre of painfully underqualified writers, professional wrestling doesn't exist. Their wrestlers aren't wrestlers anymore really, but rather superstars and entertainers. Their fans aren't fans, but mermbers of the WWE universe. And as I continued to think about it I came to realize that the way Vince McMahon wants me to see wrestling, and the way that wrestling actually is, are wildly different.

I have no false assumptions about what I do here. I am not the Wrestling Observer, or any of your more respected news sources. What I am, though, is a rabid fan. I like who I like, and over the coming weeks and months, you will see who that is and what that is. Thank you for listening.

The Majesty Of Wrestling Interview with "Lightning" Mike Quackenbush

2011-05-13T13:16:00.000-04:00

Since this blog went on hiatus because I write for The Starting Five, It felt sometimes like there was no interview that I could do which would bring me back to where it was that this blog had intended to be. And then, bam, like a bolt from the blue, here came my chance. Chikara Pro's apparently new press outfit offered people the chance to do publicity with any member of their roster that I chose. And of course, like a good boy, i chose someone I follow on Twitter. So with that said, and in the interest of doing business, here is the first in a new feature I'm calling Way Too Brief Interviews.

Quack, do you think it is possible for you to explain exactly how the procurement of the Chikara special guests actually work? Is there a guy in the office who literally pores over every single copy of Pro Wrestling Illustrated, Box y Lucha magazine, and Fighting Spirit magazine, and then makes a series of phone calls?

---We are quite fortunate in that, not only does our magazine research/telemarketing department work a lot of hours, but that we have cultivated great relationships with so many international wrestling offices. When you ask these groups to send you the best representatives, you have to trust that they know their own core strengths well enough to make the right decision.

As someone who went to the King of Trios weekend and enjoyed all 3 nights of it, do you think that this is a sign of what independent pro wrestling has to do in order to succeed in 2011?

---I do not think the success of independent wrestling in 2011 hinges on your enjoyment. That's a very strange thing to ask me, Okori. How could groups located far away from you gauge your enjoyment? That's very egocentric of you.

Do you think that the way CHIKARA presents the Osirian Portal is proof that African-American wrestlers can be presented as much more than caricatures? I submit Saba Simba, Kamala, Mark Henry, and several others for emphasis.

---I think a lot of the age old wrestling stereotypes need to be put to sleep like a disease-ridden pet. Women can fight men. Smaller guys can fight bigger guys. The old rules only matter to the old.

While I am thinking of it, is there any tag team past or present that you would like to defend your World Tag Team Titles against alongside your partner Jigsaw?

---Now that they have three points, it's just a matter of time before Osaka Pro's Atsushi Kotoge and Daisuke Harada return to CHIKARA, and I for one hope we're holding those belts when they come calling. I'd also like to take on the likes of Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi, title defense or not.

Finally, Are there any upcoming events that you would like to promote?

---You can keep up to date with everything I do through chikarapro.com, like live events where I appear and that sort of thing. I also host a variety of podcasts about all manner of topics, and you can find them all here:

http://grizzlybearcafe.com/

Boy is this ever weird.....

2011-04-22T20:47:00.000-04:00

I kind of forgot that I had this blog. But no more. I'm going to write a lot of stuff here, about the kind of wrestling that I enjoy seeing.

Hey, I might even do some more interviews. Follow me on twitter at @okoriwadsworth and ask me to interview someone, and I'll try to make it happen.

The TMW J-Cup

2009-12-20T22:14:00.000-05:00

A tradition as old as time: (http://themajestyofwrestling.blogspot.com/2008/09/super-j-cup-2008-dream-version.html) gets redone here. A slight modification: no countries represented. Instead, 4 brackets of 6.

The first bracket is named for Tiger Mask 1, and will be known as the Sayama Bracket This bracket will consist of the following men:

Tyler BlackTurbo
Taiji Ishimori

El Generico
Dragon Kid
Brian Kendrick

Bracket 2 is the Guerrero bracket.

Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Minoru Tanaka
Kota Ibushi
Katsuhiko Nakajima

Kenny Omega
Scott Lost

Bracket 3 s the Billington Bracket.

Davey Richards
Jushin Liger
Roderick Strong
Kaz Hayashi
El Pantera
Masato Yoshino

Bracket 4 is the Thatcher bracket

Mike Quackenbush
Negro Navarro
CIMA
Johnny Saint
Prince Devitt
Takeshi Suguira.

The first-ever TMW Awards. First up: Most Improved Wrestler of the Decade

2009-12-09T10:12:00.000-05:00

Has there been a wrestler over the past decade who has improved himself more than Chris Hero? No I mean really think about it.

At his first breakout..... he was chubby, wore indytastic wrestling gear, and did half-speed Johnny Saint stuff mixed with American Strong Style. Then you sort of forgot about him for a while. Before you knew it... he was back. This time as a cocky heel with a penchant for mind games and much more of a strike-based offense. But then..... he disappeared again, at least to the point where he was a huge deal.

And now look at him. He's become a tremendous deal. He's in great shape. wears real gear now, not the long cargo pants. And has been in the ring with elite guys and not embarrassed himself. c

Just think about it. If I had told you that 2003 Chris Hero would be in the ring with KENTA you would have thought I was drunk. Clearly insane at a bare minimum. But he was, and it was damned good.

Chris Hero: The TMW Pick for Most Improved Wrestler of the Decade.

Ok.....

2009-12-02T06:46:00.002-05:00

I do not ask for a lot from you honestly. But if it's not too much trouble would you mind clicking on the ads on this page. It gives me some money. And I need some money.

And while I'm posting here.....

2009-12-01T21:50:00.002-05:00

I'd love to have some of you submit your dream matches.

My List:

1: Bryan Danielson (2007)\Davey Richards(2009) v. Bret(1994)\Owen Hart(1991).

2: Shinya Hashimoto (1996) v. Samoa Joe (2005).

3: CM Punk (2005) v. Roddy Piper (1986)

4: Mitsuharu Misawa (1994) v. Ric Flair (1989) v. Ricky Steamboat (1989)

5: Dynamite Kid (1982) v. Jushin Liger (1996)

Join The Majesty of Wrestling on a Bus Trip

2009-05-02T20:37:00.001-04:00

CHIKARAFans NYC Bus Trips

The CHIKARA NYC Bus Trip Initative is proud to announce two exciting excursions over the next three months…

~~~~~~~~~~

ANIVERSARIO YIN @ The Palmer Community Center (aka "The FunPlex") in Easton, PA

SATURDAY – May 23rd, 2009

Bus departs NYC at 3:00 pm (please arrive by 2:30).
**Meeting for pick-up on 9th Avenue between 42nd & 43rd, a block away from Port Authority.**
Bus arrives back in New York City by 1:00 am that same evening.

~~~~~~~~~~

DRAGON GATE USA @ The Arena in Philadelphia, PA

featuring a special CHIKARA Atomico (8-Man Tag) showcase!!!

SATURDAY – July 25th, 2009

Bus departs NYC at 2:30 pm (please arrive by 2:00).
**Meeting for pick-up on 9th Avenue between 42nd & 43rd, a block away from Port Authority.**
Bus arrives back in New York City by 2:00 am that same evening.

~~~~~~~~~~

Each trip includes luxurious charter bus service to the arena door. Why drive and waste money on gas and tolls, when you can relax, congregate with other wrestling fans, and take part in on of our CHIKARA Q&A's (guests pending)?

Estimated arena arrival times leave a little over an hour for pre-show dining, stretching, what have you.

Tickets for each show, including transportation, driver gratuity, and one general admission seat to the matches are only $50.

Fans who pre-purchased their DGUSA tickets in advance can buy JUST a round trip bus ticket for $30.

Bus reservations will be confirmed on a first come, first paid, first served basis.

~~~~~~~~~~

SPECIAL COMBINATION PACKAGE & DISCOUNT!!!

Want to save $10? Were planning on going to BOTH events? The CHIKARA NYC Bus Trip Initiative, in celebrating the just-announced partnering up of both promotions, is offering a special discount for passengers who reserve tickets to both show. For just $90, you can experience the best of both worlds at CHIKARA celebrates their 7th anniversary in May and Dragon Gate USA presents its stateside debut. Reservations for both must be made and paid for by 5/23/2009 (the date of Aniversario Yin) to qualify.

~~~~~~~~~~

Don't be left off the bus! Dragon Gate alone sold out its first three rows in a short afternoon!!! We have pre-ordered a limited number of General Admission tickets specifically for NYC fans interested in riding down with us. There are no guarantees for he who hesitates…

The CHIKARA NYC Bus Trip Initiative currently accepts PayPal, checks, or money orders. Please contact Richard J. Parker – (347) 531-7947 or parkersbighead@yahoo.com – to arrange your reservation and payment, or to inquire about more information.

To sign up for our mailing list and receive constant Bus Trip updates, either e-mail parkersbighead@yahoo.com or join our Facebook group.

Running Up That Hill: Why ROH’s Death Knell has already been sounded

2009-04-20T23:19:00.001-04:00

Perhaps, if you were not the sort who followed the indies, you'd assume that the ROH championship around Jerry Lynn would be a positive development, something that would be necessary to make their belt have more mass appeal. And you'd be wrong.

See the ROH title was the thing that developed the men who held it, not the other way around. Who knew anything about Samoa Joe? He was, at first blush, a chubby guy with a terribly bad blond dye job. But the belt made him a killer, made him this walking embodiment of a champion who attacked his challengers at his peak, and then near the end, showed heart and fire in continuing to go on driven perhaps only by the desire to hold on to what was his.

Austin Aries was made by defeating Joe. 21 months, 31 challengers, and it was Aries who finally put him away. And then Aries, the explosive dynamo, made his own reign stand out by wrestling everyone everywhere.

And so it went, through the Summer of Punk, James Gibson's resurrection, Bryan Danielson's ascendancy, and so on. The point is that the belt made the man.

Now…. With Gabe Sapolsky out the front door, and Adam Pearce in, we are stuck with this. Jerry Lynn. A 45-year-old veteran whose best days, such as they were, exist when he was being carried by Rob Van Dam. He is a spot monkey. No matter what the match, no matter the opponent, Jerry gets his spots in.

He is the champion of what was a workrate company. And it means that that company is just about dead.

A desperate shill.....

2009-03-17T11:42:00.002-04:00

As a general rule I do not particularly use this space to shill for anything I’m doing. But this is different.
Next Friday I will be (the good lord willing) on a bus to Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Why you ask? I am going to see Chikara at the ECW Arena (or as Ultramantis Black likes to call it The Chikara Dome). I’m going there courtesy of this fine operation, run by an upstanding man named Richard Parker: http://chikarafans.com/?page_id=2240

So I’m asking, nay BEGGING, for anyone who reads this blog and lives in the NY\NJ\CT area to contact Parker and buy tickets on the bus. If you want tell him you got referred by the Majesty of Wrestling. Thank you again for your time.

The 2009 Hall of Fame Class: Why Ricky Steamboat killed something that is already dead

2009-02-24T09:45:00.001-05:00

By now you’ve probably already heard and read the 3 names in the class of 2009 for the WWE’s hall of fame. Try as I might to ignore them I’m actually happy for one man in this class: Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat. Not because of his skills, although those are tremendous. Utterly tremendous. rather this tribute, to me at least, serves as the last shovel of dirt on a concept that has been the walking dead for a long time now: the virtuous face.

Think about it…. Name the most popular guys from the last decade. Steve Austin drank beer, cursed, and generally acted like the a-hole you sat across from at a local bar. Shawn Michaels played a male stripper. Need I say more about that? Rey Misterio Jr. even spent a time as a foulmouthed heel.

No, with Ricky Steamboat becoming a hall-of-famer, the era of the proud babyface always doing the right thing and standing up against jerks and bastards is dead. And I for one miss it.

I happily remember watching WCW Worldwide at 12:05 on a Saturday night on CBS 2 here in NYC and wishing Sting, Dustin Rhodes, and the rest of the good guys would shut up the Dangerous Alliance. It was comforting to root for people like that.

Sad to see it gone. But, Ricky, Salud. Enjoy your induction.

Welcome to the noobs

2009-02-22T20:58:00.002-05:00

I know that you guys, some of you at least, are coming over here from the MMA debate that was held over at SOMM. Thank you for reading, thank you for listening.

And the MMA content will continue as will the Pro Wrestling. thank you again for reading

Sorry....

2009-02-18T09:45:00.001-05:00

I know that I’ve neglected this blog. It was wrong of me to do, and I’m sorry that I did do it. But it’s going to end. Later today I will try and debut a new feature and I will begin to put out feelers for a few interviews. Again…. Sorry you haven’t seen anything from TMW in a minute.

Sorry for the long delay....

2008-12-19T11:08:00.001-05:00

This is, by no means, the easiest post that I have ever written for this blog. That honor falls to me taking apart Glen Gilbertti’s ridiculous arguments. However, this one, for the pure joy that the words make me feel, comes close. You see every person who is a fan of Pro Wrestling has their “gateway wrestler”, the person they mark out for above all others and the one who introduced them to this intoxicating world that they now live in. My first gateway wrestler was…. Jushin Liger. I, as so many of our peers did, grew transfixed with hearing the stories about this brilliant star with his innovative style who we could never see because he worked only in Japan, save for a few appearances on pay-per-view which we could never afford to see or a Clash of the Champions which was on a cable channel that not a one of us got. Nevertheless, the stories we heard, the tapes we procured as we grew older, made us endlessly fascinated by the brilliance we saw.

Well today…. I say that I have found a new person to mark out over, a new source of great intrigue for not only his style but the way that he conducts himself. Ladies and gentlemen…. The Majesty of Wrestling is proud to announce that we, proudly and with every last fiber of ourselves, announce that our new mark-out subject is none other than….. “Lightning” Mike Quackenbush. Let’s see if I can’t explain to you the meaning of why I like him so.

First, to understand Quack as his fans call him, it is perhaps in your own best interests to understand what he isn’t. First off, he isn’t packed head-to-toe with useless muscle mass. Standing at just 6 feet tall and weighing in at 191 pounds, he is, by the oft-cartoonist standards of the sport that he competes in, perhaps skinny. While us having to use this designation says perhaps more about the often size-obsessed world of Pro Wrestling than the man we are speaking of here the truth is this: In today’s modern world of pro wrestling he’s skinny. Capable of making you believe he is a pro wrestler, but still not someone who will at any point be on the cover of a bodybuilding magazine.
Secondly, he’s smart, and not in the way that people fool you into thinking that Triple H or Batista are. He’s actually intelligent. Like he can put together a sentence well and can reasonably carry on a conversation about matters that have nothing to do with his sport, a fact that is a welcome oasis in the way non-fans manage to treat pro wrestling, when they deign to think about it at all. Proof of this is in his podcasts, and they are many.

Now that we have gotten what he isn’t out of the way let’s dwell heavily instead on what he is. First I would submit to you that there are few wrestlers in the world today who show as much of a desire to learn about other forms of pro wrestling as he has. Name me someone who went, on their own dime no less, and learned about the fast-paced lucharesu of Michinoku Pro, and then took several camps with the llave master Jorge “Skayde” Rivera (another person for whom this blog has a great appreciation), and then melded that with the best of the American style and the European technical wizardry into something that worked for him.

Simply put…. He’s tremendous. And I’m proud to say I’ve seen him in action, live, twice. And I hope to tell him so next time I get the chance to interview him.

Lesnar-Couture: The reason why MMA matters

2008-11-11T21:26:00.005-05:00

if you listen to certain corners of the internet blogosphere like this, or this, you would be well within your rights to assume that anyone who enters MMA as a career is, to quote the first article that was linked here, "doing nothing more than buying into a fantasy." And while this blog has, with regrettable results, tried to prove the point that those who have a bias towardss MMA should consider themselves to be as shameful as those who have biases towards athletes because of the color of their skin, the big fight coming up between Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar drove me to revisit this thought. Because, after all, I am going to try and watch the fight.

So with that in mind I figured I'd explain why the persons in the main event of this show are better role models for your children than you think they are.

1: All of the american-born MMA fighters are at the very least high-level collegiate athletes.

The men in the main event of this show, Randy Couture, a three-time Olympic team alternate (1988, 1992 and 1996); a semifinalist at the 2000 Olympic Trials; a three-time National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division-I All-American and a two-time NCAA Division-I runner-up at Oklahoma State University. What else could you want someone to do? World-class wrestler, got his degree from a very reputable institution.
Brock Lesnar, on the other hand, finished his amateur career as a two-time NJCAA All-American, two-time NCAA All-American, two-time Big Ten Conference Champion, and the 2000 NCAA heavyweight champion with a record of 106-5 overall in four years of college. Both of these men are well-spoken, capable of representing themselves and their sport well, and are well-rounded men. Hell... Randy Couture got the nickname "Captain America" for goodness sakes.

Two: Competitive grace.

To be sure Lesnar and Couture will try their best to mine their arsenals as deep as they can to ensure the victory. for themselves but i can also guarantee to you that when the night is over, whether one of them wins or loses, they'll treat each other likes sporstmen. No Tito Ortiz-like grave digging here.

Three: Can Randy Couture do it again?

Every time anyone with even a casual interest in MMA has believed that Randy is done, that the new young bull is finally going to knock the old bull off, Randy refuses to die. Whether utterly dominating Tim Sylvia, out-striking Chuck Liddell, or battling through a broken arm to beat Gabriel Gonzaga, it has gotten to the point where there are few things that you believe he can't do.

In the days to come I'll add more listings to this list. Enjoy.

Explanation......

2008-10-24T10:11:00.000-04:00

I do not do this normally but an addendum to the post just below this one.

When I wrote it, I was angry at what I thought was a series of cheap shots made purely because the writer knew he could take them with no one to call him on them. In the course of me trying to disprove those cheap shots, I did the one thing I should not have done: I took cheap shots of my own. The truth is this: D.K. Wilson of Sports on My Mind knows nothing about MMA, nor does he want to. That is his right. After all, there are things he is likely expert on that I know nothing about, nor that I would want to. Moreover, I vow here…. No more cheap shots on the subject of race, and for that matter no more cheap shots period. But I also hope that you hear this: Do not assume, that just because I have vowed not to take a cheap shot at you, that you can continue to tell your audience flat-out falsehoods about MMA. I will be watching.

And on the subject of racism in sports media this is the argument that I was trying to make, and I hope that if you have stumbled over here from Sports on My Mind you will listen to it. This blog, whether you wish it to be or not, is largely about pro wrestling, MMA, and amateur wrestling. When one of those three things intersects with something else I am going to cover both the original thing and the intersection. However, do understand, for I would not expect this of those of you who have a blog that details something in specific to detail from the things you enjoy discussing to come and cover the differences between T2P and Toryumon X, it will only be when there is a motivation that I find. Let me have this little corner of the blogosphere all to myself, to speak in my voice. And that voice doesn’t NOT care about ESPN, and doesn’t NOT care about other things that have nothing to do with all manners grappling. It’s that those opinions are private, left to me to discuss with comfortable AND uncomfortable company on my own terms.

Sincerely,

The Majesty of Wrestling

Puncturing Bubbles

2008-10-22T10:06:00.003-04:00

I take no joy in doing what I am about to do, but know that if I didn’t do it, I’d find myself regretting every morning. Here we go.

Recently D.K. Wilson over at Sports on My Mind, who got this written about him the last time he tried to speak on something about which he has no great sense of knowledge, decided he’d keep the damned thing going. So, because we here at The Majesty of Wrestling like puncturing self-important people’s bubbles just as much as we like Torneo Ciberneticos, puppies, and American Dragon, here we go: A FJM-style dismantling of every single last one of Mr. Wilson’s points in his latest notes article found here

(Author’s Note: My Comments are in Bold. Helps to keep things clear.)

Brock Lesner was featured by Tom Ferrey in one of Tuesday’s E:60 segments. And Lesner was the recipient of some serious ESPN “White Pass” treatment.
OOH….. Racism. I’d love to see how we prove this one.

For those who do not know him, Brock Lesner was an NCAA champion wrestler at the University of Minnesota. He then entered the world of professional wrestling and became a multimillionaire. For his efforts he blew out both of his knees and has chronic back pain.
After leaving the ranks of pro-faux grappling he tried to parlay his wrestling fame into making the Minnesota Vikings as a defensive lineman. Lesner lasted until the final round of cuts and found himself lost and without work. So he turned to mixed martial arts for salvation and in a rocket rise through the ranks reminiscent of Kimbo Slice, is set for a championship fight against 45-year old Randy Couture in November.
The only difference between Lesnar and Slice is that while Kimbo got there because he was discovered by some faux boxing promoter looking to drag himself into the MMA mainstream behind the wing of a parody of a street fighter, Brock lesnar actually has and always had the credentials necessary to be a good MMA fighter. NCAA Champion, one of the most dominant college heavyweights in recent memory. And I will say that your dismissive attitude towards Pro Wrestling will not be treated as it normally would here.
It is a true, your 15 minutes of fame is up, story.
But not for the WWL and its continued efforts to make good on its bet that MMA is the next big deal in - sort of - sports, So to force MMA down the throats of sports watchers, we are introduced by Ferrey to 6′3″ 265-pound Brock Lesner:
“Brock Lesner has always wanted to fight. Four years ago he was labeled the next big thing - but in the make-believe world of pro wrestling.”
Former pro wrestler Bill Goldberg then says:
“He’s a genetic freak. If god were to sit down and build a warrior I think he would come out to be Brock Lesner.”
Wonderful imagery there, ESPN. This is, after all, the sports news outlet that played and replayed Kellen Winslow’s U of Miami locker room tirade where he mentioned being a warrior ad nauseum. They highlighted and debated Winslow’s quote on every show possible and slagged him for using the word at a time when America was at war.
Ok. Where to begin? Brock was actually named the “Next Big Thing” by the WWE and proved it, and then after an ugly split with the WWE, went over to New Japan and did pretty much the same stuff (although him leaving and taking the belt with him was kind of shady.) But, to somehow imply that Brock Lesnar isn’t a genetic freak is just plain dumb. The dude’s got massive strength, great speed, and is agile for someone who is built basically like a big house.

And ooh… the Warrior quote. Apparently Kellen Winslow, who at the minimum was an 18-year-old kid discussing a penalty he had incurred for a cheap shot and how he was tougher than everyone who was on the other side of the field, is perfectly alright. But Bill Goldberg, who meant it in a way of describing the boundless athleticism of Lesnar, is somehow deserving of the same criticism that Winslow got.
Well, we’re still at war, but it apparently is just fine to air Goldberg’s quote and flaunt Lesner, who until recently, was just another WWE goon participating in that arena of predetermined outcomes, as a warrior.
“He got the fame, the fortune, and the girl… better known as “Sable,” wrestling diva and Playboy centerfold.”
Lesner tells us that he “lived the world of a rockstar” replete with “two Hummers, a Mercedes, Corvette - airplanes, four or five houses…”
And they say black athletes are the only people to squander their earnings on luxury items while acting like petty, transparent, consumer-addicted whores.
Am I going to sit here and argue that Lesnar’s lifestyle wasn’t reckless and consumeristic? Of course I’m not. That’d be silly. Almost as silly as going through an entire friggin article calling someone Lesner when his name is Lesnar. Nitpicking I know but hey….. it’s only going to get worse. And re the spending thing: One of these days I’ll take you to the homes of some white players in major sports and we’ll see how big they’re living. Deal?
But ESPN attempts to trick us into believing this is just another story of an All-American kid from the heartland (Lesner is from South Dakota). Just after showing a snippet of one of Lesner’s MMA bouts, there is a jump cut to a sunset-lighted field with infinite rows of corn and luscious green trees in the background and a tractor creating furrows and kicking up perfectly wind-blown dust (out of video camera view) in the foreground.
And baleful country slide guitar is serenading us to a sleep filled with pro-white America dreams.
Lord have mercy Jesus Christ. Because someone is from South Dakota, and a country guitar is played, it’s… let me get this right…. PRO-WHITE AMERICA? Oh god. He actually said this? *Sips a bottle of water, trying to calm down.* Oh that’s better. God forbid there are people in this country, even in Lesnar’s South Dakota, who like country music who happen to not be waving confederate flags in the backseat of their pickup trucks. And regarding the field and the tractor and the corn: It’s actually a good shot of the Midwest. Things like that happen out there. People use their fields to grow things. Like Corn… Wheat…. Rice. People don’t call the Midwest the breadbasket of the USA because it sounds nice. It’s true by and large.
Ferrey intones:
“Webster, South Dakota, a town near the Minnesota border with fewer than 2,000 people.”
And a solitary man - Lesner? - stands next to the town sign on the edge of railroad tracks - obviously going out of Webster.
“Lesner grew up on this dairy farm, struggling to help his family hold onto a property headed to foreclosure.”
It is Sarah Palin’s America.
Lesner then tells the tale of a broke family and knowing he needed to get out and make something more of himself (damn those people sure know how to pull themselves up by their bootstraps).
Wait a minute. We’re now clowning Brock Lesnar because he was able to get out of a bad situation because he was good, NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP-LEVEL good, at something and used it to get a college degree from a pretty good academic institution? Come on now man.. Besides, in Webster, farms exist. You know like the ones you might have seen (cursing under your breath that the men in them have GOT to be racist). Now you’re just Nat X, tilting windmills and seeing racism behind every corner. What’s next: “I demand to know why the black shoelaces are behind the white ones!”
If all of that wasn’t insidious enough to turn your mind’s eye queasy, the punch line is.
Ferrey then says:
“So Lesner literally fought his way out.”
Cut to childhood friend, Matthew Baumgarn, who is bright-eyed remembering a young Lesner:
“He likes to beat on people. He grew up beatin’ on people. Him and his brother were fightin’ all the time.
And then Ferrey asks Lesner:
“What is it like to simply maul somebody?”
To which Brock Lesner replies in a very matter-of-fact fashion:
“Ahh, it’s a good feeling. Handling another human being and makin’ ‘em feel less than you is, uh, I don’t know, somethin’ I got a thrill out of.”
The music turns minor chord serious folksy and Ferrey begins to pave the road to creating a respectable man out of Lesner by letting us know how he “channeled his aggression into football and wrestling.”
Really? Channeling your aggression into doing something safe, in a controlled environment, instead of beating up random people all the time is a BAD thing? That’s what wrestling is at its core Mr. Wilson. You try and impose your will on someone, make them do what YOU want them to. And as someone who had older cousins allow me to let you in on a little secret: We fought… A lot. I’m sure if I polled your readership the ones who had bigger brothers could tell chapter and verse about the times they got into it with their brothers. It happens.
But there is no humanizing this —— is there?
Those were not, when I was a fool stories Lesner told. The man loves to physically damage other human beings with his fists or in any other way he can.
Today.
Imagine if that was ———– Kimbo Slice?
Remember the animalistic poses ESPN coaxed out of Slice during his E:60 segment with Rachel Nichols - with the up close camera views that distorted his features even more; the sweat, the bare footed bearded black barely human-looking…. thing we laid witness to - dwarfing Nichols who, though she held up trainer’s mitts for Slice’s punches, she also appeared hesitant, frightened to enter too close to his space during the interview (another silent nod to King Kong?) – hailed as the possible future of MMA?
Lesner was interviewed by Ferrey in a clean as a whistle barn on Made in the USofA hay bales, baby - and don’t you forget it, brother.
I try very hard to make this a family friendly blog but this is too far. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? Forget the fact that before anyone knew Kimbo Slice existed he did this same parody-of-a-black-man shit on youtube, knocking cats out at NothingToxic purely for fun. Again so we’re clear Brock Lesnar, who was a national champion wrestler and a college-graduate from the University of Minnesota, is as much of an animal as Kimbo Slice, who got into MMA because he wanted to make money and because boxing wouldn’t have him. Again… DK Wilson= Nat X.
Lawrence Taylor referred to himself as a “crazed dog” on the football field and has been forever remembered as the animal “other” who didn’t know the defensive scheme but made the Hall of Fame by being “turned loose” by his head coach Bill Parcells to decapitate the quarterback. Never mind that Taylor could also be found covering a running back on a circle route 40 yards down the field after recognizing that the offense was designed to have a tight end chip block him, a tackle block him, and have that running back chip him on his way out into his route. Oh, LT was a thinking man’s football player, all right, but you’d nbever know it listening to media members descriptions of the man.
Think of the portrayal of Mike Tyson, before the Evander Holyfireld ear biting incident. Tyson as a champion was depicted as a killing machine, a brutal human sub-species - part rotweiler, part shark, and only human through the fact that we walked upright and on two legs.
Think of the fun ESPN would have today if a black athlete described himself as does Lesner. He’d be a thug, a goon, a monster. He’d be deemed too brutal for whatever sport in which he participated.
He would be dehumanized.
But Brock Lesner? Brock Lesner is an American Tail, human, not mouse. Brock Lesner had it all but turned down a seven-year $45 million pro wrestling contract to try to play the honorable game of football for $230,000 per season; who now lives as he really always wanted to all along, simply and with the woman he loves. And all the while he is once again called “the next big thing,” this time of MMA. And should he defeat Couture, Lesner will have millions once again.
Not bad for an All-American warrior from Webster, South Dakota.
Right Tom Ferrey? Right ESPN?
For the last time it’s Lesnar. And if he defeats Couture Lesnar will have done an incredible thing. Do you know who Randy Couture is? Do you have any idea what he’s done? Thank you. Your silence speaks volumes.

Is the way that Mike Tyson and LT were portrayed for the vast majority of their careers racist by some? Yeah, I’d he honest and say for some media members it was. But remember…. Race didn’t make Mike Tyson say he wanted to drive someone’s nose bone through their brain. Race didn’t make Mike Tyson act like Godzilla in Japan. Race didn’t make LT fail drug test after drug test. And Race didn’t make LT into what he is now, a guy trading off of his fame.

This is not a wholly racist society. And if you think it is, if you imagine it to be a place where no black man can get a fair shot at anything unless he “sells out” or “Acts white”, I’m sorry. Your hopelessness saddens me.

I get publicity....

2008-10-16T16:22:00.002-04:00

Come and join the conversation.

A discussion about Jushin Liger over at friend of this blog The Starting Five.

Three Countries: The Main Styles of Japan, Mexico, and England

2008-10-14T09:53:00.001-04:00

Since I am spending a good bit of my time at the moment trying very hard to convince one “Lightning” Mike Quackenbush to deign to give this blog another interview I figure that now is as good a time as any to discuss my fondness for a particular style that he has shown an ever-increasing aptitude in, and that’s the British Lancashire style. This week on TMW…. British Wrestling. Pip Pip, Cheerio, and all that crap. We go across the pond.

Internationally Known: The various styles inherent in Pro Wrestling, and why British Lancashire needs to be revived.

As it goes, there are the three main styles that most American fans are familiar with: Mexican Lucha Libre, Japanese Puroresu, and the amalgam of both styles that is American pro-wrestling. Considering that most of what you see in American wrestling is a mix of the best of the two styles here I’m not going to give you the American listing. In addition, inside those two other macro styles there are various and sundry sub-styles. I will separate them for you now by country and give you the best matches to show you the form.

Puroresu:
The traditional style of New Japan called Strong Style. It tends to place high emphasis on matwork, submissions, and stiff strikes. Despite changes over time, it is always called 'strong style’. This is not the same thing as the imitators that have sprung up throughout the United States, the foremost of which is American independent promotion Ring of Honor followed closely by IWA Mid South. They are practicing what is referred to commonly as American Strong Style. Best Example: I’d say…. Takada v. Koshinaka from New Japan in 1986. A high-end contest for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title, a belt that would rise to new prominence with the arrival of the “Holy Influx” of juniors in the 1990’s led by this man: http://themajestyofwrestling.blogspot.com/2008/08/japanese-thunder-parable-of-liger.html

All-Japan and Noah’s contribution to this list is in the King’s Road style, a layered approach based on the escalation of maneuvers, lengthy striking duels, and fighting spirit in abundance. Incidentally, the stars of the era’s matches build one on top of another, each encounter requiring the winner to come up with some new attack to keep the loser off of him. For pure drama, there are few styles that convey as much as King’s Road. Best Match: Misawa-Kawada 6-3-94. The graceful, cerebral, and smooth Misawa, who already had a good run as the second Tiger Mask, against the hard-hitting and rough-hewn Kawada, nicknamed “Hard Luck” by the fans for his inability to catch a break.

Dragon Gate and Toryumon, and their stylistic ancestor Michinoku Pro, bring to us lucharesu. A fast-paced blend of the best of Japanese junior heavyweight and Mexican Lucha Libre (and we will get to them later.) The best way to describe the lucharesu style is to imagine blindingly quick mat work and insane aerial tricks, mix them up in a package, and out comes lucharesu. Best Match: 10-10-96. Kaientai DX (Taka Michinoku, Dick Togo, Funaki, Terry Boy, Shiryu 2) v. Gran Hamada, Super Delfin, Gran Naniwa, Yakushiji, and Tiger Mask IV. A 10-man tag from a show called “These Days”. You think a 10-man tag is hard to follow? With this one it moves quick, with non-stop spots and a breathtaking pace still awe-inspiring 12 years after the fact.

UWF, UWF-I, RINGS, and so on. Theirs is a shoot style. More matwork than even Strong Style does, and lots of submissions. Crazy submissions that prompt you to say “Ow Fuckity Ow” like you were Juno McGuff. Best Match: With this, there isn’t a best match. More of a guy whose work you need to seek out. Volk Han.
Mexico:

Lucha Libre:
This is a bit harder to do because of the nature of what Lucha is, sort of a free-form art based entirely around timing. However, we wouldn’t be a blog called the Majesty of Wrestling if we didn’t try so here we go.

Lucha-core. A strange amalgam of traditional junior heavyweight daredevil spots, hardcore brawling, and dashes of the traditional Lucha style. It’s more commonly the style performed by the AAA luchadors. Best Match: Mexican Powers v. Las Hermandad v. Familia de Tijuana v. Teddy Hart\Jack Evans from the most recent triplemania.

Llave-Style. Think holds circled into holds in interesting way. It is maybe the hardest style to master, but the most aesthetically pleasing to this writer’s eye. A heavy influence on what would later be the T2P promotion in Japan. Best Match: Anything Skayde did in CMLL. Seriously go look that guy up. His work is awesome. If you cannot find any of his stuff in Mexico or in Japan, where he was the trainer for Toryumon and Dragon Gate then find his matches against Mike Quackenbush in the states.

Now then to the fun one. The British Lancashire (Or World Of Sport as it is more commonly referred to) style practiced extensively in Europe is in a lot of ways more closely resembling amateur wrestling than anything you will find with the possible exception of the UWF and RINGS stuff. It is entirely based upon wrestling skill and technique in applying a variety of holds, pinning combinations, and locks. Striking is at a minimum, and there are very few “gimmicks”. Out sized personalities do exist, in the awesome heel work of Jim Breaks and the babyface skills of Johnny Saint, but by and large it is about the skill inherent in the men who choose to compete in it. There are five 5-minute rounds in non-title matches with victory being achieved by one person who can get 2 falls by pin, 3 submissions, or 1 knockout. In the title matches there are 10 rounds of 5 minutes each and the same basic rules apply. Any participant who is knocked down to the mat has a 10-count to rise back to his feet and continue the battle.

Another interesting distinction is that the referee does not audibly count the pin falls, meaning that the crowd and the viewing audience is fully expected to figure out on their own steam that the 3-count is occurring.

Largely this style has been consigned to the mists of history and DVD’s, with only a few stars left from the era still capable of performing it. However, the current generation of American independent workers has mastered many of the spots, men like Mike Quackenbush, Chris Hero, Alex Shelley, and the Best Wrestler in the World, Bryan Danielson. If you wondered where Hero’s cravate came from, for instance, it’s in the time he spent studying under the British style.

I hope this has been as fun for you to read as it has been for me to write. Thank you for reading

Super J Cup 2008... the dream version

2008-09-23T23:25:00.003-04:00

Super J-Cup 2009: The Dream Version

The Super Junior Cup is a single-elimination tournament which has been held over 2 nights and has 4 blocks, each block having 8 wrestlers. Usually it’s mostly Japanese junior heavyweights who get the invites (and a few gaijins and luchadores thrown in for flavor.) But in my version it’s a World Cup team-style affair. There will be 4 teams of 2 singles wrestlers and 1 tag team: US, Canada, Japan, and Mexico, plus one alternate in the event of an injury. The only restriction is that no one who has a WWE contract is on the team (no CM Punk, Rey Misterio Jr, and so on.)

Team USA:
Captain: “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson. If you cannot conceive of a Team USA made up of all indy guys where Bryan Danielson is the captain…. Then I'm sorry but it is clear you have not been watching wrestling in recent years. He is, without question, one of the best technicians that independent wrestling has seen in the past 20 years. The technical skill he has shown, and the very fact that he has competed against all of the top stars on the other countries, makes him a perfect captain.

2: Mike Quackenbush. My friend Aaron Glazer at Pulse Wrestling literally became a rabid dog at the mere prospect that Quack would be a no. 2 and not Austin Aries or Roderick Strong from ROH. While a part of this is purely because I didn’t want to make this Team USA an all-ROH affair the main reason is that Quack fits the second-in-command bill to a tee. He’s just a sliver below Bryan Danielson when it comes to being technically sound and he also has a great deal of experience in international style, having worked extensively for WXW out of Germany and numerous federations throughout Mexico including CMLL. While Aries and Strong might be more talented Quack is the better guy to work alongside Bryan Danielson, dissecting the singles participants.

TT (Tag Team): Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin, the Motor City Machine Guns. Again… this pick is based pretty heavily on the concept of finding a unit that fits. Shelley and Sabin have vast international experience as a unit, having faced off against some of Japan’s best tag teams during their stay in Zero-One and their work in UWA Hardcore and Border City Wrestling where they faced off against some of the best Canadians out there and separately (Sabin getting a title shot in All Japan, and Shelley doing the same against Ikuto Hidaka in Zero-One.) In addition… all 4 men on this team have faced the other at one point, meaning they can all provide valuable experience in scouting each other’s strengths and weaknesses during the course of the tournament.
Alternate: Austin Aries. In the event of an injury to anyone on this team, Austin Aries is the alternate. A tremendously explosive wrestler with a vast moveset he is well suited to be a no. 2 or even a captain of Team USA. The only strike against him is that he is not well versed in Lucha Libre, and this could be a strike against him against the stocked team from Mexico.

Team Japan

Captain: Koji Kanemoto. In the long history of New Japan juniors there are few who are nearly as accomplished as Koji Kanemoto. He won a Best of the Super Juniors tournament, was the third man in the Tiger Mask line, and wrestled in Mexico when he was Tiger Mask 3. In addition… Koji also has great leadership experience having marshaled the New Japan forces in a bloody war with Zero-1. While you might not realize it Koji is the perfect leader for a Japanese team that is NOT about to lose this cup without a fight.

No. 2: KENTA. The Japanese team is represented with a wide variety of styles, and here in Koji’s lieutenant we have perhaps the best striker in Japan today. But that’s not the only reason why he is here. KENTA has competed extensively and with great skill for American promotion Ring of Honor, facing off against Team USA captain Bryan Danielson and alternate Austin Aries. His knowledge of the American stars will be valuable for a prideful Japanese unit not in the mood to lose this tournament.

TT: Speed Muscle (Naruki Doi\Masato Yoshino.) When picking this tag team choice the Japanese contingent has many choices from which to pick… Jedo and Gado for instance, the polished duo of Ikuto Hidaka and Minoru Fujita, and the Kaientai DX team of Taka Michinoku and Dick Togo. But when it came down to it Speed Muscle is the best unit. Having teamed extensively against the best teams that the other countries have to offer Speed Muscle also provides a great array of offensive options for Kanemoto to utilize whenever they face the tag team offering from another country.

Alternate: Jushin “Thunder” Liger. If you have to ask refer to this…. http://themajestyofwrestling.blogspot.com/2008/08/japanese-thunder-parable-of-liger.html.

Team Mexico

Captain: Ricky Marvin. Unlike Team Japan and Team USA Team Mexico could well be regarded as the dark horse team. Their style is utterly unique from anything else out there, to the point where Team Japan and Team USA picked their teams based on who would be the best adaptable to the Lucha style. And with this in mind… Team Mexico picked the msoit well-rounded wrestler they could find, Ricky Marvin. A long-time star for Pro Wrestling NOAH, and a former prodigy for CMLL who now works for AAA, Marvin is one of the best wrestlers in the world and a worthy captain for Team Mexico.

No 2: Jorge “Skayde” Rivera. This is an interesting problem. Jorge Rivera is a legendary trainer who works very well in the classic Mexican llave style, a fact which will help him as he tries to work with his Mexican pupils. In fact it’s a style that is so unique, so difficult to prepare for, that really when he's on anyone will have a very hard time dealing with him and his ability to isolate a body part and wear it down.

TT: Hell Brothers (Chessman\Charly Manson.) This is the weakest part of the Team Mexico unit. The Hell Brothers are a solid tag team, capable of holding their own against most tag teams. The problem here is that they have not left Mexico in a very long time, and as such might not be accurately prepared for the different styles that they will more than likely to be facing in this tournament. This is a gamble for Team Mexico. One has to question whether it will pay off.

Alternate: Juventud Guerrera. The only reason that Juvy is in this position and not as the no. 2 is because of attitude problems. Simply put… he could reasonably cause 2 or 3 international incidents by the time that he gets there. As pure talent goes, though, Juvy takes a backseat only to the Team Captain Ricky Marvin.

Team Canada

Captain: El Generico. There have been few wrestlers who have become more well-known over the past few years than El Generico. And for Canada, a proud country with a strong wrestling tradition, Generico is the next in a long line to lead his country’s best to win this trophy.

No 2: Christian Cage. You might be asking why it is Team Canada decided to put Christian as the no. 2 and not El Generico. Well that’s because Christian is the perfect second banana in an environment like this. He can get under the skin of his opponents, is an excellent tactician when it comes to finding and exploiting weaknesses, and would be more than comfortable in this position.

TT: Super Smash Brothers (Player Uno\Player Dos.) You might be asking yourself why in the world this team was picked when there are better teams out there (Hart Foundation 2.0 as an example.) Well firstly… Hart Foundation 2.0 is disqualified due to Jack Evans being American. And secondly… Team Canada is looking to surprise the Americans with a tag team that they might not have seen yet. and the Current Chikara Tag Team Champions fit the bill.

Alternate: Teddy Hart. See the Juventud Guerrera page for explanation.

Results:

Aaron Glazer of Pulse Wrestling was all too capable to help out with picking these. Each singles match has 1 point, and the tag matches have 2 points.

Team USA beats Team Canada 5-0. Danielson beats Genericon in 45 minutes with a Triangle Choke (USA 1-0), Quackenbush defeats Christian Cage in 25 minutes with the Alligator Clutch (USA 2-0), Danielson beats Christian in 30 minutes with a Crossface Chicken Wing (3-0), Quackenbush defeats El Generico with a top-rope Tiger Bomb in 35 minutes (USA 4-0), and the Motor City Machine Guns beat the Super Smash Brothers in a 30-minute match with a double superkick (USA 5-0).

Team Japan beat Team Mexico 4-2. Kanemoto beats Marvin with a moonsault at 28:25 ( Team Japan 1-0), KENTA beats Skayde with a Go 2 Sleep at 16:35 (Japan 2-0), Kanemoto beats Skayde with a heel hook at 20:00 (Team Japan 3-0), Kenta beats Marvin with a Go 2 Sleep at 28:45 (Team Japan 4-0), and the Hell Brothers beat Speed Muscle with a spear\moonsault for Mexico’s only victory in the tournament (Team Japan 4-2).

Finals: Team Japan beats Team USA 4-3, Japan winning an 8-man tag as the tiebreaker . Kanemoto beats Danielson with a heel hook in 40 minutes (Japan 1-0), Quackenbush loses to KENTA with the Go 2 Sleep in 35 minutes (Japan 2-0), Kenta loses to Danielson with a small package in 45 minutes (Japan 2-1), Quackenbush loses to Kanemoto with a Falcon Arrow in 30 minutes (Japan 3-1), MCMG beats Speed Muscle with a double enzuigiri in 45 minutes (Tied 3-3). KENTA is the sole survivor for team Japan, last pinning Bryan Danielson with a Go to Sleep at 75 minutes (Japan wins 4-3.)

one of the best articles I have ever read....

2008-09-19T16:02:00.000-04:00

http://www.czwfans.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=2008

Welcome Page....

2008-08-21T14:08:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the Majesty of Wrestling. This site will be, in coming weeks and months, the main source you can have for independent non-mainstream wrestling news. Sound funny? I bet it does. But trust me when you see what we do, and how we do it, you’ll be happy to consider us your first place to go to get answers on questions, read interviews with the important names in the industry, and have a good time. Welcome Aboard and see you at the matches.

Technorati Profile

Japanese Thunder: The Parable of Liger

2008-08-18T07:23:00.003-04:00

Japanese Thunder: A Parable for the most important Jr. Heavyweight of the last 25 years.

In American pro-wrestling in the year 2008 the idea of a strong junior heavyweight division is either a joke (WWE), a tantalizing reminder of what could have been (TNA), or good but unfortunately not presented to the mainstream (ROH, IWA-MS, assorted NWA Indies). So when I mention that in Japan the weight class is treated with respect, and never frittered away for the purposes of making a big muscle-bound slug a new star, people seem to have a great dral of trouble with this concept. They tell me “But wait a minute. You mean those little guys get a chance to do what they do best without being overrun by Triple H every 60 seconds?” Yes actually, and a great deal of credit for this mindset staying true over the last 25 years goes to one man and one company. The man is Jushin “Thunder” Liger, and the company is New Japan Pro Wrestling.

To understand the brilliance of Liger, and how he directly or indirectly influenced pretty much every lighter-weight (and a few of the heavyweights too) guy you see on TV right now, you need to go back a good way. See when the character was created, a sly nod to the anime of the same name just as Tiger Mask had been, it was assumed that New Japan was simply trying to catch lightning in the bottle with another wildly popular children’s hero just as Tiger Mask had been for them in the early 1980’s. And the hope was that this time, unlike the 1st Tiger Mask Satoru Sayama who left in a huff over the direction of the company, that the man behind the Liger myth would stay for a good long while. So they had to pick the right guy, a hungry young guy who would do what was needed to keep the character alive and who wouldn’t run in a huff and force them to extend the gimmick back to someone else as they had done with Tiger Mask after the original left in a fit of pique. So who did they pick?

Keichi Yamada, a guy who they had sent away for being too small, and got pissed off enough about it to go to Mexico on his own dime and learn while almost starving in the attempt. And while New Japan figured bringing him back in was a good idea they never figured how good of an idea it would end up being. And after he won the company’s Junior Heavyweight Title in a war against the salty veteran Naoki Sano he embarked on one of the longest and most consistent runs in the history of puroresu.

But on this run he would have help from his home promotion, New Japan Pro Wrestling, who saw him and his rivals the chance to build a marked difference from their promotional rival All Japan Pro Wrestling. And, largely, it worked. The best way to explain this is that All Japan is known for the 4 Corners of Heaven heavyweight unit of the 90’s which any puroresu fan worth his or her salt can name in a moment: Toshiaki Kawada, Kenta Kobashi, Mitsuharu Misawa, and Akira Taue. And each one of them had their own distinct personality traits meaning that fans could identify with the intensity of Kobashi, the coolness under fire and grace of Misawa, the unlucky and rough-hewn Kawada, and the dynamism of Akira Taue. Conversely the juniors of the 90’s get the same treatment although not nearly as snappy a nickname: Koji Kanemoto who is the surly veteran, the superhero in Jushin “Thunder” Liger, the graceful and perfectly skilled Minoru Tanaka, the evil Shinjiro Otani, the masked supervillain Black Tiger, and so on. But if you asked a puroresu fan to try and ascertain who were the All Japan juniors during the same period you’d get several seconds of deep blinking and then this: “They had junior heavyweights in All Japan?” To be sure they did, and some of them were talented, but there is in no way the same mythos surrounding them as does the New Japan Juniors.

New Japan understood, clearly where All Japan didn’t, that you could have a strong junior heavyweight division and it could be to the benefit of the company and not to its detriment. So when the top guys started to slow down new guys could come in and be accepted by the fans, as Wataru Inoue and Ryusuke Taguchi were, without fear that the promotion’s momentum would stop dead in its tracks.

But back to Liger. Liger’s brilliance is that even now, far past his prime, he is still finding ways to have matches on par with at least some of his best work and his name still means as much as anyone does. If you have never seen Liger at all, including his prime in America with WCW, go out of your way to do it. It’s worth it.

Videos

The Jushin "Thunder" Liger tribute video. footage from every promotion he's wrestled in recently.

JUshin "Thunder" Liger v. Ultimo Dragon from the Super J Cup.

The Best Promo Ever......

2008-08-10T00:19:00.002-04:00

Watch this and try and see if you don't get emotionally involved and scared for his opponent. I dare you.

Your Bare-Bones Olympic Wrestling Preview

2008-08-10T00:09:00.001-04:00

This is just a short post because I wanted to make a point about something. The 2008 Olympics in Beijing are happening right now and this blog cares not at all about swimming, gymnastics, or (Sorry TSF Nation), basketball. Instead here we care about the Greco-Roman and Freestyle Olympic Wrestling Tournament. And this will be a fun thing to watch, if you can somehow find it.

While the Americans are the defending World Team Champions in Freestyle the Russian unit is, without question, the current colossus of the freestyle branch of the sport now. Having won five Olympic gold medals in 2004 and seven titles at the Azerbaijan world championships last year, including a near-sweep of the freestyle fights, the Russians are trying their best to put a blanket around the freestyle side of the tournament. But this will not be easy as Cuba, Turkey, the United States, and Uzbekistan lead a crop of hungry teams looking to stop the tide.

This is what Russia does best.

However, in the Greco-Roman discipline, things are far more up for grabs with wrestlers from 41 countries having qualified. Nonetheless the Iranians, Georgians, and others look to dominate the upper-body only wrestling technique.

Watch the wrestling. Get into it. For here are the true toughest men in the Olympics, the men with more self-discipline and toughness than anyone on the US Olympic unit.

GEAR!

2008-07-27T21:16:00.003-04:00

I have found that without a single exception, that the first way you notice a wrestler is by how he looks, and more specifically what he wears. Think about it. When you see kickpads and shiny pants you think Indy. This post is about the gear that is truly “iconic”.

First off, the patron saint of the iconic gear. As much as I hate to say it it’s Hulk Hogan. To this day mention Hulk Hogan and the first words out of your mouth will be “Red and Yellow.” And to think he managed to completely blow that straight out of the water with the Hollywood Hogan gimmick later.

Next up is the modern version of this. He used to say this about himself, and it's accurate. While Hogan's gear was iconic in that it was one basic color scheme for the entirety of his run, our next subject was famous because he had about 25 different combinations of the same idera and they all looked perfect because they all fit his gimmick. This man.... is "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair. I'm not going to even try to explain this. Just watch and enjoy the magic.

Before we go on further there is a honorable mention. This was contributed by Aaron Glazer of Pulse Wrestling, and he did such a good job of selling it that I decided to put it in. Whether it is his current camo-influenced stuff, or the Superman gimmick he has worked with for the vast portion of his career, Chris Hero has remained where he wanted to be: at the forefront of innovation. He does earn my respect.

And finally... the penultimate Japanese guy for this: Mitsuharu Misawa. He has never changed anything about himself from the time of his unmasking as Tiger Mask II in 1990. Some would argue that this is a bad thing, and it more than likely is.But here is not the place to argue that point. Instead it's to argue that he is the best heavyweight of his era. Thank you Misawa.

An interview with Pulse Wrestling's Aaron Glazer

2008-07-23T21:39:00.000-04:00

When I think of people who know a lot about ROH there are very few people I would speak to before the person I am now, Aaron Glazer from Pulse Wrestling. In fact he’s on the blogroll. This is a live real-time conversation done over IM. Enjoy.

Okori: Ok... here's the easy question I would ask of you. If you had to try and explain ROH to someone who had never seen it before, and in fact hadn't seen much wrestling since the heyday of the NWA, what would you try and sell them on?
AARON GLAZER (7:56:35 PM): That's totally fine
AARON GLAZER (7:58:45 PM): The key things to remember about ROH where it comes off so superior to other products and compares favorably with the past is that the matches are significantly longer and the wrestlers are all treated with respect.
AARON GLAZER (8:00:25 PM): While not everyone is trying to steal the show and ROH will give a complete card, everyone is in the ring long enough to tell a real story with an accurate measure of their skill. The feuds are logical and long term, without necessarily a hundred matches each and as they progress the matches get both longer and more brutal, usually culminating as a gimmick match, rather than a number of gimmicks for gimmicks sake, it all ends up happening for a reason.
AARON GLAZER (8:01:27 PM): With a variety of styles to appeal to all fans, your preference will be highlighted by a number of different wrestlers and while there is comedy, there will not be wrestlers looking like jokes or they don't belong. Even top guys go out of their way to make sure everyone and everything stay credible.
AARON GLAZER (8:01:32 PM): There, that'll do =P
Okori (8:01:39 PM): and what I’ve noticed in my watching of ROH, which goes back to the old remastered versions of Road to the Title and A Night of Appreciation, is that everyone on the roster clearly has something they do that is special... something that they are at the very least quite good at doing. It’s a real good thing to see each wrestler looking like they're all talented and getting some offense in.
AARON GLAZER (8:02:40 PM): Exactly. Squashes are extremely rare. Talent will move on but because of how well everyone fits and is treated finding and just as importantly elevating new stars is made far easier.
Okori (8:07:35 PM): and when I was discussing ROH with a couple of friends of mine it became kind of apparent that the RF-video era ROH was markedly different than the Reborn time and the Reborn time was different than the Summer of Punk, and so on. How much credit for that goes to Gabe Sapolsky, the booker of ROH and how much to the much more fluid top card than there are in the other big 2?
AARON GLAZER (8:15:37 PM): Well, Gabe is generally the best if for nothing else due to adaptability and logic. For ROH every show has to be a ppv caliber to sell DVD’s and doing that with WWE or TNA's limited talent allowed to go to the top of the card, the poor treatment of the midcard would cause the shows to fail. Think of it this way, the mainstream promotions are like movies or television shows, wherein the main characters get all the big plots and cool stuff. If they contact someone below, it’s still inexorably about the main characters. ROH runs more like a sport, where each different team might not be on the same skill, but they're always improving or falling back to the pack. The best teams, like the Yankees, would be like Danielson, usually at the top of the card, but sometimes the Rays, say Tyler and Jacobs, gives him a run for his money and comes out on top. That never happens in the mainstream, because the stars are the commodities. That's just how ROH has to run though. The real brilliance of Gabe is in his adaptability
AARON GLAZER (8:17:49 PM): The main storyline of 2006 was the CZW war. That was originally scheduled as a short feud, but due to outstanding fan reaction, it became the biggest and most memorable feud in ROH history. The same can be said of the huge Briscoes vs. Steen and Generico feud of 2007, based on a breakout performance by the latter duo at a major show, and Danielson vs. Morishima which was all based upon Morishima, quite accidentally, breaking Danielson's orbital bone. In 2005, the Summer of Punk is booking on the fly since there's no way to know Punk gets signed and really, who knows how Aries reign ends besides? All huge successes that make ROH what it is, all due to Gabe's adaptability.
Okori (8:19:30 PM): and to piggyback on that point if anyone had told me that a lanky spiky-haired Brit who was the Euro second banana to John Walters would eventually become the ROH World Champion, a classic jerk heel, and before that the sympathetic babyface.
Okori (8:20:50 PM): I think Nigel, in a lot of ways, is one of the biggest Gabe success stories
AARON GLAZER (8:23:32 PM): Its almost hard to pick just one success story to go with, Nigel's certainly as good as any
Okori (8:26:32 PM): and I think we have achieved our limit of questions in this interview before we go to the stars that moved on. I think while people notice Punk and Joe because of their current stations in their respective companies the first real guy from ROH who people were actually happy to see make it was Paul London. Two-part question: Did you chant "Please Don't Die" at any point during London's ROH run, and have you found yourself missing Paul's babyface work now in ROH?
AARON GLAZER (8:29:04 PM): More?
Okori (8:30:02 PM): more now if he was against a guy like Aries, who despite his current face run still resembles an excellent heel
AARON GLAZER (8:31:14 PM): Oh there's a lot more lol 2 seconds.
Okori (8:31:42 PM): sure
AARON GLAZER (8:35:13 PM): Paul is the ex-ROH guy I'd most want back and, sadly I was a poor grad student back then so I wasn't live for "please don't die." Paul is a special worker. He connects with the fans innately through selling and desire. He had nothing fancy making him stand out; he got over and got to WWE based on pure skill and connecting with the crowd. Shame that's going to waste as the Epic Encounter 2/3 falls match with Danielson is my second favorite ever ROH match. I would kill to see him against current heel Nigel, as well as a long match with Aries and rematch with Danielson. Hero and Strong also strike me as guys who had look amazing against London’s awesome selling.
Okori (8:36:57 PM): you know what? I agree with you. I think I find myself having trouble figuring out who would give London an actively BAD match. And, and this might just be me, but I think that is Danielson's best ROH match pre his return from England
Okori (8:41:05 PM): and that includes my personal favorite ROH match which is Testing The Limit which is Danielson v. Aries
AARON GLAZER (8:41:15 PM): Agreed there, though I enjoy it more than even Unified by a hair. More than anything but that first KENTA match, my favorite in company history.
AARON GLAZER (8:42:15 PM): It took me awhile to really get "Testing the Limit" but its a special match that, sadly, due to its extreme length, is really only for the hardcore
Okori (8:42:57 PM): and strangely enough Testing the Limit is an excellent concept although no one else could do it but Danielson and Aries I think
AARON GLAZER (8:44:24 PM): London could likely and Punk has done similar stuff with Hero (though not as good), but that might be it.
Okori (8:45:13 PM): although for what it is worth Punk v. Hero is an entirely different baby because it's so slow.
AARON GLAZER (8:47:12 PM): Right. That's Hero for you, though. Oh, I really want to plug Danielson vs. Hero from WxW's 16-Carat Gold Tourney this year. The heat is off the charts and Danielson is an amazing heel, while Hero is the conquering face. I can't believe how well it comes together and it’d be MOTY if enough people saw it.
Okori (8:47:38 PM): I own that DVD. A Quack-Saint match on there is epic.
Okori (8:48:31 PM): I actually interviewed him and while it wasn't as good as this one is turning out to be he seemed really enthused about the idea of British wrestling.
Okori (8:50:05 PM): which, funnily, brings us to your favorite wrestler and mine: Bryan Danielson. While you and I both dealt with Glen "I badmouth Puro even though I worked for Toryumon X with Magnum Tokyo and Latin Lover" Gilbertti's idiotic statement that Bryan couldn't wrestle I wonder if you share my opinion that Bryan's run in England made him the really good wrestler he is now
AARON GLAZER (8:50:31 PM): I'm really starting to get into it myself. Someone needs to explain why Quack can't be used as a special attraction in ROH. He changes the dynamics of everything wonderfully.
Okori (8:51:19 PM): I never got an answer from him on it, but I guess he's too busy
Okori (8:52:08 PM): although I agree.... In addition, I’d even like to see him defend his NWA JR. Heavyweight Title against like Aries or Tyler Black
AARON GLAZER (8:55:28 PM): Quack would be great against literally every single person in ROH. And Bryan was going to be good no matter what, he had the desire. It was learning the ins and outs in England that made it happen so quickly and had him a competitor for the best.
Okori (8:56:03 PM): I agree. and you and I both agree: Glen Gilbertti could be considered a moron
AARON GLAZER (8:59:03 PM): Hah, actually, he just wanted attention.
AARON GLAZER (8:59:15 PM): I don't think he meant or cared about a word of it.
Okori (9:01:46 PM): and here's my last question for you, because as someone who lives AND works near a target (Atlantic Center for work, and the new one in the Junction for living) that it can be a transfixing place.
how long do you think it will be before we see more of a Lucha influence in ROH? and if so.... can we beseech Gabe for Cibernetico v. Nigel for the title
AARON GLAZER (9:05:00 PM): Brb
Okori (9:05:06 PM): k
AARON GLAZER (9:20:55 PM): I doubt lucha will influence ROH since he's said it doesn't interest him. Quack was the best hope for lucha influence and that didn't happen. Big Andy Mac sees Claudio taking the belt and getting the face run that was desired for Nigel. Personally, I hope Tyler takes it at the Hammerstein.
Okori (9:21:55 PM): personally.... I agree with you. I think Tyler is going to take it in NYC
Okori (9:25:29 PM): and thank you again for giving me this interview
AARON GLAZER (9:27:05 PM): If you have any more questions I'd be more than happy to answer them tomorrow. This was fun, thank you.
Okori (9:27:27 PM): you're welcome.

le sigh doing this again....

2008-07-22T15:07:00.000-04:00

Honestly, Glenn, you make this too easy.

http://www.wrestlezone.com//column.php?articleid=218587680

For the sake of expediency, I’m going to copy and paste everything he said about the “Best Wrestler in the World” Bryan Danielson. And my responses will be bolded. Helps differentiating the idiocy.

I read a few weeks ago on one of the sites that the "best wrestler in the business" had a dark match with the wwe. So I you tubed this guy and checked him out. No offense to him, but I didn't think he was the "best wrestler in the business" from what I saw. He was decent for the style that he worked, but unfortunately, that style caters to a very small niche audience. Here’s a few of the problems.

Whee. This should be entertaining.

Most people watch professional wrestling because it's professional wrestling. I would profess that there is zero chance that you're going to draw from the mma crowd by doing fake mma. I think most mma fans would be more entertained by the disco inferno vs. the honkytonk man, because at least they know they're watching a pro wrestling match and not some hybrid ridiculous let's do the mma moves and pretend that the moves hurt and insult my intelligence style. Wrestling fans pop more for Mr. socko and the people's elbow than they would for a fake guillotine choke hold.
Ok. First off, if someone was drunk enough to put the Disco Inferno and Honky Tonk Man in front of a MMA crowd then they would deserve whatever kind of foolishness would erupt. And if you think that he’s doing fake MMA fine. That’s your opinion, no matter how utterly misguided it might be. However, he’s not trying to draw from the MMA crowd. He’s playing to his own audience, rabid fans of what happens IN THE RING. And I am not even going to respond to your theory on what wrestling fans pop for. Must explain that epic 1.0 rating you’ve been meaning for the past 4 months.

The guy needs a gimmick. I’m sorry, but you can't sell a plain joe to fans that want sports entertainment.

So the concept of a smug jerk of a guy firmly believing that he happens to be the very best wrestler in the entire world who fights everyone in front of him, and occasionally bends the rules to prove his own superiority, is not a good enough gimmick for you? Or, later in his current run, as the top guy in the company who can make a tag team specialist into a star just by coming close to beating him? That a guy in need of a gimmick? Oh that’s right. I forgot. You work for TNA. Jay Lethal’s Macho-Man impersonation there must be drawing TONS of money. And all the WWE guys that instantly get pushed. (Although, in the interest of full disclosure, Beer Money is pretty cool as a cut-rate Southern Heel tag team.) Subtlety is to you as profit is to TNA. You don’t know what it looks like because you’ve never seen it.

Also, for as good as everyone says this guy is, tna has at least ten guys better. everybody puts over these roh matches like they're the greatest thing ever, but if you put aj and Christian cage against the motor city machine guns for 25 minutes, and told them that you needed at least four stars, I’d bet my life that it would be better than anything roh has ever put out. Once guys like aj and the mcmg's got out of roh, look how much better they got. There’s something to say about the art of selling, which isn't really being taught to the up 'n comers. It makes matches so much more dramatic. It’s what causes the fans to suspend the disbelief to a higher level, because now they become emotionally involved subconsciously when a wrestler can convey suffering and despair to them. I really should open a school someday and teach people how to work. I actually managed to make a pretty good name for myself by dancing around like some schmuck pretending to be john Travolta for the past fifteen years. I think I know what I’m doing.

So hmmm… who could the “everyone” you’re referring to be? Are they the… gasp…. Internet smart marks? You know, the guys who have blogs about wrestling and sleep in their mother’s basements? Or is it the ever-common you tube shooters? Are they the ones who wax rhapsodic about Bryan Danielson? Hmmm… No. Everyone includes William Regal (who gave the guy his ring boots as a show of respect for how good he thought he was), Shawn Michaels (who trained Danielson), Jim Ross (who said that “I watched ROH’s Bryan Danielson wrestle in Oakland and I told any one who would listen that the young man is a keeper. Great work ethic, unique skills, lots of character, and he wrestles like he is a "star" which is not something all wrestlers can do.), and finally the WWE who offered him a developmental deal.

And on the subject of TNA having at least 10 guys better… go ahead and try. Just go ahead and try. Name them all Glen. I’ll give you a week. But before you do that go and ask Samoa Joe how good he thinks Bryan Danielson is, and Homicide, and AJ Styles, and Alex Shelley.

And AJ being better in TNA than he was in ROH? Hmm….. AJ is equal now in both places. And the MCMG’s had a tag match against the Briscoes in ROH that blows away anything that TNA did back to the AMW-XXX tag match.

Finally…. If you open up a school…. Anyone who trains there should be required to immediately be retrained by Mike Quackenbush at Chikara. That guy knows what he’s doing.

The Challenge to Ron Glover and Michael Tillery

2008-07-18T19:36:00.000-04:00

Considering your humble scribe recently got roasted over at www.thestartingfive.net in an argument over who was the best player of the early 2000’s I think it only fair that I am going to return the favor here and this one is a much more light hearted thing.

I beseech these men, if they think they have the stones to try, to seek out 3 matches from the following 3 stars each: Jushin “Thunder” Liger, Mitsuharu Misawa, and Johnny Saint. And perhaps even to report on what you saw, and learned, at your own monolithic blog. If nothing else this will be the chance to show you can have fun.

This one is to help you understand who Misawa is...

2008-07-10T21:25:00.000-04:00

this post is for someone who recently favorited this site. Misawa is special, and the video above will show you why. if you can't see it fire me off a comment or an e-mail and let me know.

Unappreciated: Why Jumbo Tsuruta is the most unknown star of his era.

2008-07-07T21:20:00.000-04:00

(Author’s Note: I have deliberately left out certain facts about the legend of Tsuruta. This is more of a worshipful piece to a guy I think gets ignored than a nuts-and-bolts encyclopedia-type article. If that is what you are interested in I recommend these 2 articles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumbo_Tsuruta and http://slam.canoe.ca/SlamWrestlingEditorial/may18_molinaro.html .)
As a general rule you can ask most slightly dedicated wrestling fans what they would know about wrestling in Japan. And most answers would be, in no particular order,: Jushin Liger, Great Muta, Antonio Inoki, Tiger Mask. Now what do all of those names have in common? They all competed for New Japan Pro Wrestling, known in the United States for its long-time talent sharing agreement with WCW and the WWF before that.
But, for hardcore fans of the art form known as Puroresu, there is another promotion. One with just as much history, just as tightly woven a partnership with a major American promotion, and just as many epic stars. This promotion is All Japan Pro Wrestling. And for most fans their salad days, if you can even remember the difference between All Japan and New Japan, is the era of the 1990’s where Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, Akira Taue, and Toshiaki Kawada seemed intent on putting on one epic match after another and eventually earned themselves the moniker of the “4 Corners of Heaven”. But who was the guy who made it possible for those stars to become stars? Easy. The most under appreciated puroresu star of his era. Jumbo Tsuruta.
All Japan is different in that most of, if not all, of its main stars stayed home for the entirety of their runs at the top of the promotion. Kobashi’s sole trips to the United States took place after he left All Japan, as did Misawa’s while Taue and Kawada never left. Meanwhile, during the same time period, their promotional rival New Japan Pro Wrestling sent Jushin Liger over to WCW to blow the mind of the gaijin fans with an exceptional series of matches against the American Brian Pillman, and the Great Muta over to do the same thing with the all-American superhero Sting. Even recently, in the past couple of years, New Japan gave American fans Liger one more time by allowing him to be booked in Ring of Honor for a 2-match series.
But, while All Japan was strictly isolationist in its approach, Tsuruta was different. He actually flowered as a wrestler in the United States, having been sent to train in Texas with the legendary Funk Brothers and given the name Tommy Tsuruta. In fact, shortly after his training began, he was thought to be so good that he was put in a 2-out-of-3 falls match with the reigning champion Dory Funk Jr., and even managed to win a fall. After his apprenticeship in the states was done All Japan came calling, and he quickly returned home where he became a tag team champion with the promotion’s top star Shohei Baba. Eventually though Jumbo became the top man in All Japan, and held that title pretty much without interference or contest until 1990.
Because at that point someone new came along, someone the brass believed would be the promotion’s next top guy but needed just that little push. His name was Mitsuharu Misawa, and up until a little while before this point, he had been the second generation of Tiger Mask who was originally portrayed by the freakishly innovative Satoru Sayama.
But, as all fans would soon discover, he was more, much more, than just the next in the Tiger Mask line. And on June 9 1990 that dawning of what Misawa really was became evident. But, as things went on, we learned that while Tsuruta’s time at the top was ending he still had enough left in himself to put on one last epic. And he did just that. Putting on a performance that was so magnificent, so brave, that it left fans in the audience crying Tsuruta went down on his sword, and after that left.
In closing Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi, and Taue would not have become what you know them to be without Tsuruta. But hopefully, and with a little love, care, and attention, you have learned a little more about Jumbo than you did before you read this.

My First Interview ever.... With "Lightning" Mike Quackenbush

2008-06-25T16:18:00.000-04:00

When i started this blog there were a few people I wanted to get in touch with, and pick their brains on what they thought was good wrestling. And chief amongst those was the subject of my first interview... "Lightning" Mike Quackenbush. The current NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion, Mike is one of the most erudite guys on the scene today and is also a solid businessman considering that he runs his own successful promotion called Chikara Pro which is a mix of the best of lucha libre and puroresu. My questions are coded in blue, and his answers follow below. (Ed.Note: There can be no doubt that Quack is one of the nicest guys on the scene. Support Chikara and wherever else he is at.)

Q: If you had the chance to make a mix tape of your favorite matches to watch that DON’T include you what would they be?

Here's some easy ones:
1) Michinoku Pro 10-man tag from October 10, 1996 (Delfin/Naniwa/Hamada/Tiger IV/Yakushiji vs. Togo/Shiryu/TAKA/Teioh/Funaki)
2) Ken Joyce vs. Tony Costas (World of Sport...circa 1979?)
3) New Foundation vs. Orient Express (1992 WWF Royal Rumble)
4) Dean Malenko vs. Eddie Guerrero (ECW Farewell match)
5) Johnny Saint vs. Mike "Flash" Jordan (World of Sport)
6) Rey Misterio/Juventud vs. Psicosis/La Parka (WCW Monday Nitro 12/15/97)
7) Owen Hart vs. 1-2-3 Kid (King of the Ring 1994)
8) Jushin Liger vs. Dick Togo (Skydiving J 1997)
9) A crapload of 2005 & 2006 Mistico matches from CMLL
10) Jorge Rivera vs. TARUcito (T2P 1/23/2002)

Q: Based on the relative success of the World X-Cup concept for TNA if you could book your own Super Juniors World Cup with the same basic idea (Team USA, Team Canada, Team Mexico, Team Japan) who would they be?
I don't really follow TNA, but if I could pick a team to represent each of those groups, and budget was no object:Team USA would be Claudio Castagnoli (he is a citizen, after all) & Christopher Daniels
Team Canada would be the Super Smash Bros. (I love those guys! And they're from Canada!)Team Mexico would be Mistico & Incognito
Team Japan would be Naomichi Marufuji & Stalker Ichikawa

Q: And in what will be our last non-CHIKARA question of these proceedings….. Where do you get your ring gear? I ask because all of it looks fantastic. ---

Coco Verde in Mexico has made the lion's share of it in the last 4 years. Some bits and pieces come courtesy Daizee Haze and Dustin Rayz as well.

Q: Now to the CHIKARA questions. When was the last time you saw Gran Akuma busting out laughing?---

Is this a trick question?

Q: How often do you watch the Colony stuffing Vin Gerard in the garbage can at King of Trios and bust out laughing? ---

Not as often as you might think. I stay rather busy. My favorite moments from King of Trios, in no exact order, are the Team IWS vs. F1rst Wrestling tournament match, the random selection of Glacier as Los Ice Creams' partner, the wonderful moment when Hydra and Crossbones think they've won the tag team gauntlet only for the lights to dim and Demolition's music to come blaring over the sound system, and the inevitable meeting of Dr. Cube and UltraMantis Black.

Q: Which one of the alumni of CHIKARA would you most like to have back in your rings? ---
I'd love to have either Milano Collection A.T. or El Oriental pay us another visit. A lot has changed since we saw them last.

Q: Did you watch with your hands over your eyes, horror-movie style, when Eddie Kingston beat the stuffing out of Tim Donst? And did you stare at Chikarason like he shot your dog in the stomach when he booked the rematch?---

Luckily, I didn't see it until the DVD came to my house, so I could watch it in bite-sized chunks so as not to upset my stomach. But any time you get a crowd response like that, for reasons good or bad, there is almost always a rematch coming.

Q: What is the official relationship between Chikara and the NWA? Or is there even one, and you just defend the title in Chikara with a nod of understanding from the NWA?---

There is no exact relationship. When a title defense comes to CHIKARA we have to go through the same channels to get approval that anyone else would. We get no preferential treatment whatsoever.

Q: Do you speak Delirish? Does anyone, with the exception of Cheech and Cloudy, actually speak the language? ---I suspect Hallowicked does. Every once and again, I think I understand it a little, but you can never be sure.

Q: Here is the space that you have to plug all of your various and sundry projects upcoming?---

Come see CHIKARA live on Sunday, July 13 if you are in the Philadelphia area, or wait for us to come to the Midwest in September. If for some reason you do not live in those areas, you simply must watch our free, weekly podcast entitled CHIKARA Podcast-A-Go-Go via iTunes, YouTube, etc

A Challenge for DK Wilson

2008-06-06T22:42:00.000-04:00

Sometimes by virtue of having this blog which makes no secret of the fact that I am a pretty good fan of wrestling people make the assumption that all this is about is pro wrestling, although that’s not even close to the truth. Here I'm going to be covering MMA, and amateur wrestling which will be especially interesting considering that the Beijing Olympics are coming up.
But this becomes the problem: http://sportsonmymind.com/2008/06/02/it-called-mma-him-name-kimbo-%e2%80%93-you-love-both/. A cheaply biased piece that trades in the same stereotypes about MMA fans that are held by people who honestly ought to know better. MMA is an art form, a craft, and yes a sport. But people, like the man who wrote this article, refuse to see that and instead continue to trade on the worst of what they imagine MMA fans to be.
While I could quote and rebuke the most inflammatory portions of the article, including his mistaken belief that anyone who can enjoy MMA at a real honest level is somehow some desensitized barely-human child, I'd instead make this offer to the man who wrote this.
DK Wilson from Sports on my Mind… the next Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Grappling Championships here in the United States will be on October eighteenth and nineteenth. I extend you an offer, when the time comes, that you and I go together and you can see what the real influences of MMA are. And how people who are the real fans can see everything but the vicious brawls you imagine them looking for.
I'll be waiting for your response.

the TSF special: Why Chris Benoit.

2008-05-29T15:06:00.000-04:00

Chris Benoit: 1 Year Later. Why it hurts, and why the mainstream media stopped covering it, and how the internet shaped what we know about it.

Recently the HBO program “Costas Now” had a 4-part roundtable discussion on sports media. There were programs on Sports Talk Radio, Sports TV, Sports Journalism, Race and Sports, and the internet. However, all anyone remembers is the internet because of one man: Buzz Bissinger and his self-immolation in the segment flanked by Deadspin founder and seeming eternal frat boy Will Leitch and an utterly confused Braylon Edwards of the Cleveland Browns. His point, near as it could be determined underneath a haze of profanity and disagreement, was that the internet is populated by-and-large with people ill informed about the concept, much less the principles, of strong journalism. I will leave it up to you to decide if that is the case with this blog. However, as I heard him, and recently read an interview on friend of this blog The Starting Five, I am reminded that the “old media” which Buzz is a part of clearly knew nothing of what they were talking about when it came to a case. In fact, it could be argued that without a blog, and more than one, that what we know about this case would be far less than now. The case I am speaking of is Chris Benoit.

First, for those of you who come to this blog having no clue as to who Chris Benoit is or what he represented, I will try to sum it up. Simply put… Chris was the wrestling fan’s wrestler. He had busted his tail in Canada, and Japan, and Europe to be thought of as the best wrestler that he could be. In many ways his aggressive style was the template upon which an entire generation of junior heavyweights based their work. He was the bright shining light for fans of WRESTLING, not sports entertainment, throughout the 90’s and up until his death. His was a legacy of brilliance up until the last time we saw him alive.

The way his life ended, and the way he ended the life of his wife and his son, hurts because we never believed this to be from him. Admittedly, we never believed it to be from anyone, but especially not him. Not when all you heard was about how nice of a man he was, how sweet, how caring to his child. And when he had seen his best friend die in just the same way, and wept openly on a live tribute along with us, we assumed he would calm down… that he would be the guy we could say we grew old watching.

But this is not intended to be an elegy. Rather it is a reminder of what he was on the day before his death, and what he became the day after. You see on his day after… Chris Benoit was a monster, a tragedy, and the best case for increased vigilance about concussions. All depending on whom you believed. But do you know who knew nothing? The mainstream media. Buzz Bissinger’s media to be exact.

Nancy Grace, who before this episode was perhaps best known for knowing nothing and driving a woman to suicide, believed Chris Benoit was demoted from the 4 Horsemen to Raw, and that his death was due to steroids exclusively. NBC’s Today Show allowed Vince McMahon to go on their air that By contrast…. The Wrestling Observer, a newsletter run by the estimable and highly qualified Dave Meltzer, had already sniffed out that this was a murder-suicide by the time of the west coast rerun of Raw and within 72 hours had found out that he had a high amount of concussions, enough so that his brain was like a 90-year-old dementia patient.

But even the internet gave up… because after a time there was nothing new to say. No survivors existed, and the WWE excised Chris Benoit from its entire history. So what do you do when there is nothing left to report? You move on.

And that’s what I am going to do. Move on. See you guys around next time.

Footnotes....

2008-05-29T13:50:00.000-04:00

T2p= Toryumon 2000 Project, a brief but highly influential wrestling promotion out of Japan noted for its heavy reliance on lucha libre and the submission style.
Ace= japanese term meaning the top man of a particular promotion.. e.g. Koji Kanemoto is the ace of New Japan.
4 Corners of Heaven= Akira Taue, Kenta Kobashi, Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada. The 4 men who were, at any point, the 4 greatest heavyweights in the world and all wrestled in the same promotion at the same time frame (All Japan in the 1990's)
World of Sport= the term commonly used to define British Wrestling in the 1960's to the early 80's. Named so because all live matches were televised on the BBC's World of Sport programme.
Special= A hold usually invented by the man that uses it most commonly. Rumor has it that once it is a special it is considered a vast insult by anyone to use the hold other than the trainer, save in rare instances. e.g. the figure-4 leglock could be called the Ric Flair Special.

more facts to come.

A Primer for Puroresu.

2008-05-29T12:44:00.000-04:00

Today’s article: “a primer on Puroresu.”

As is sometimes the case people might say something so stupid, so utterly deviant from the basic concepts of truth, that they must be dealt with. This is the case with Glen Gilberti. He has forced me to explain Puroresu, calmly and slowly.
First off, I will deal with Glen Gilberti’s assertion that somehow Puroresu is nothing more than people elbowing each other in the face non-stop is beyond ridiculous. It is not strange to hear this from him though, considering that he works for a promotion that has a roster who by-and-large enjoy Puroresu as an art form, and have in some cases worked in it. Furthermore, it is also not strange to hear this out-and-out dismissal of a non-American art form from someone that works for a promotion whose head booker alienated an entire promotion by booking a title change for one of the most respected titles in the world with a tequila bottle used by a Mexican wrestler as the base for the finish.

Let us be clear though: Puroresu is not merely the concept of no-selling violence that Gilberti and the other detractors of it seem to think. Matter of fact Glen should know this better than most, considering that he was once upon a time booked in WCW with a young man named Tokyo Magnum and then returned the favor by flying over to Japan to appear in Magnum’s Toryumon X promotion. Truthfully Puroresu has influences in a vast majority of styles, whether it be the layered escalations of maneuvers commonly found in All Japan during their “Four Corners of Heaven” period in the 90’s or the serpentine and heavily involved submission work of Toryumon, Toryumon X, and their forerunner T2P and most of all the rapid-fire exchanges found in New Japan’s stocked Junior Heavyweight Division.

The trouble with Puroresu is not what people think it is not, but it is what people think it is. Truthfully… Puroresu achieved its exalted space in the minds of wrestling fans because of its greatest moments. The passing of the torch by Tsuruta to Misawa in 1990 that left fans crying in their seats, sad that they had seen their previous hero felled but happy that a new one emerged. The Benoit\Sasuke classic of the 1994 J-Cup where the man who would sadly later be known for a horrific crime proved that he was a worthy heir to his own idol’s throne. THAT is Puroresu, not what Glen Gilberti imagines it to be as he listens to his boss down everyone who is not American.

The First Post ever on this blog....

2008-05-01T19:04:00.000-04:00

Hi I'm pretty sure you're going to be wondering what in the hell I'm doing here, and why I posted this blog.

Simple.... I like wrestling, all kinds from all different places. And it was past time, I thought, for people to know about it.

I'll be posting on everything from recent DVD's I have ordered to matches that I downloaded, to maybe even a few interviews with some of the indy stars I think are worth watching.

Welcome aboard. Hopefully you will enjoy this blog.

The Majesty of Wrestling

The Daily Liger #2: vs Eddie Guerrero (or is it Silver King?)

The Daily Liger #1: An Introduction and a 20th Anniversary

Music Videos: Aerial Pyrotechnics.

Wednesday Night Wrestling: Rugged Ronnie Garvin vs Greg "The Hammer" Valentine

The Majesty of Wrestling: Rey Mysterio: The Alternate Universe

Rey Mysterio: The Alternate Universe

Dream Match #2: Mike Quackenbush vs Blue Panther

The Majestic Recipe Box: three-cheese Panini

TMW Dream Matches Pt. 1

The First Ever TMW Trivia Post

The Conversion Progress Featuring ESPN Columnist Jemele Hill

Technical Wrestling Master Class: The USA

A love letter to my favorite style of wrestling, and my favorite promotion.

Why I Have Stopped Watching The WWE, And A New Mission Statement.

The Majesty Of Wrestling Interview with "Lightning" Mike Quackenbush

Boy is this ever weird.....

The TMW J-Cup

The first-ever TMW Awards. First up: Most Improved Wrestler of the Decade

Ok.....

And while I'm posting here.....

Join The Majesty of Wrestling on a Bus Trip

Running Up That Hill: Why ROH’s Death Knell has already been sounded

A desperate shill.....

The 2009 Hall of Fame Class: Why Ricky Steamboat killed something that is already dead

Welcome to the noobs

Sorry....

Sorry for the long delay....

Lesnar-Couture: The reason why MMA matters

Explanation......

Puncturing Bubbles

I get publicity....

Three Countries: The Main Styles of Japan, Mexico, and England

Super J Cup 2008... the dream version

one of the best articles I have ever read....

Welcome Page....

Japanese Thunder: The Parable of Liger

The Best Promo Ever......

Your Bare-Bones Olympic Wrestling Preview

GEAR!

An interview with Pulse Wrestling's Aaron Glazer

*le sigh* doing this again....

The Challenge to Ron Glover and Michael Tillery

This one is to help you understand who Misawa is...

Unappreciated: Why Jumbo Tsuruta is the most unknown star of his era.

My First Interview ever.... With "Lightning" Mike Quackenbush

A Challenge for DK Wilson

the TSF special: Why Chris Benoit.

Footnotes....

A Primer for Puroresu.

The First Post ever on this blog....

le sigh doing this again....