No matter what it is you'll find it covered here. From sports to the problems with 3rd-wave feminism, and all points in between, this is the best place to get incisive reaction to what you want to see. This is a Hot Take-free zone.
Misawa vs Kobashi: Just as fun as Misawa vs Kawada, but for entirely different reasons.
Part of the fun of being a wrestling fan, at least for me, is watching EVERYTHING. Some stuff you watch once or twice and then get tired of except for something really transcendent (shoot-style fits this for me, with the transcendency exception being Volk Han.) And then, there is some stuff that you can watch again and again with no hesitancy whatsoever. The 4 Corners of Heaven era of All Japan is one of these eras for me. Kawada, Kobashi, Misawa, Taue. Those 4 names, and the endless iteration of matches they produced, are some of the best and most fun heavyweight matches I have ever seen.
And quite frankly, while everyone talks about the Misawa-Kawada rivalry and how important it was, there is one I enjoy just as much, because it has a slightly different aesthetic to it. Misawa vs Kawada is largely a battle of two stoics, and while that is fun, it can get tiresome (the exception of course being 6-3-94, which is as perfect a match as anything that has happened anywhere.) Kobashi is a lot of things, but a stoic is not one of them. He bursts free with energy, excitement, and charisma. And with Misawa vs Kobashi, you get someone who seems to have no emotion versus someone who defines all of his successes on it. It's a fascinating counterpoint. What I am watching now is their best match together, a match so good that Jushin "Thunder" Liger and Shinjiro Ohtani patterned their own classic of February 9th, 1997 after it.
This is one of the matches that young wrestlers should be watching, and studying. Don't just watch the MOVEZ~!, although those are plentiful. Watch how the crowd cares. You can make that work, people in wrestling school. Just try a little harder.
Darren Young: Sexuality be damned, he's an excellent heel.
With Summerslam a few days away, noted bottom-of-the-barrel "journalism" site TMZ decided that they would ambush a pro wrestler to see if they could get them to make some silly statement to run on their equally silly website. Instead, Darren Young did something cool. Darren Young came out of the closet.
Now, to be honest, there have been gay wrestlers before. Kanyon was gay, as was Pat Patterson. (Side Note: If you really want to put the lie to the "gay guys can't be tough" meme, show someone Pat Patterson vs Sgt. Slaughter from MSG. That was a war.) This is the first time we're doing it in a more forgiving climate. I, for one, can't wait to see how the WWE handles this. My hope? Nothing changes. Darren Young is still a jerk and a giant heel you want to see punched in the face all the time. My fear? They turn him into some caricature of the worst homosexual stereotypes just to make their jockish male audience smile and laugh.
When i wrote this blogpost, I left it as it was. Namely, an idea for something cool that I thought you could do in the WWE if given enough time and inclination. But as I think about it more, I realize that if I want a chance for younger fans to be dazzled by pro wrestling beyond what the 'E gives them I have to really sit down and try to make this work for both promotions. Because, if it's done right, what the WCW cruiserweight division meant to so many, and what Michinoku Pro and Dragon Gate mean to so many now, these two divisions can mean now if they're done right. That last sentence, though, is the important part. Because, for both the large company in Stamford, there are lots of things that need to be explained, and fixed, about the way that the juniors have been viewed during all of the previous times that they have tried this.
Now I know that this is my white whale, and i accept it. I am, if nothing else, a man who loves wrestling big and small, past and present, and I'd like very much to see something I know could work done the right way.
I've been to about 16 states, Canada 3 times, England once, and Italy once. I haven't traveled all over the world but I've been to enough places to fully understand the small differences in language from one place to another. And frankly there are all manners of speech, everything from management seminars to love poems. But there's always one problem: WHat happens when the other person you're talking to never hears what you're saying in the way that you want them to hear it? What do you do then?
If you're going to write a multi-part tribute to the finest era of junior heavyweight wrestling that has existed anywhere in the world, which was 1990-to-2000 in New Japan, there really isn't a better place for anyone to start than with the man who was, and still remains this in some ways now, the personification of what the junior heavyweight ace is supposed to be. We're starting with the king, the gold standard, the guy who is to junior heavyweight wrestling what the 4 Corners of Heaven are to heavyweight wrestling: Jushin "Thunder" Liger.
Now to be fair, the title up there and the first paragraph might very well give you a very real expectation that somehow the junior heavyweight division of New Japan just sort of went into thin air in 2000. It didn't. Right now, Prince Devitt is doing some good work as is matinee-idol in training Kota Ibushi and a lot of other people. But when I, and the people who love this era, talk about the New Japan Juniors we mean the Liger, Kanemoto, El Samurai, Pegasus Kid, Shinjiro Ohtani, and Great Sasuke era. That's the era everyone means, and that's the era I'm talking about here.
In 2014, a new wrestling promotion is going to appear out of the mind of the guy who ran Arena Door Bus Trips, and is currently running Taking Back Queens. I hope to have a role in this promotion in some way, even if it's something as simple as just providing them with free publicity here on the Majesty of Wrestling. Watch this space.
I admit this freely. I am a huge junkie for top-notch technical wrestling. But here's the problem: So much of what people understand as top-notch technical wrestling really isn't. It's not just knowing a billion million holds. It's knowing how to apply them. It's being slick and artistic without having it look forced, and making your trademarks look like you were smart to get your opponent in that position rather than you and your opponent both were playing off of the same script. This is harder than it seems. And two of the masters of this style are perhaps best known as partners, but I'm watching one of their matches when they were as opponents. The only trouble with this is that I can't find this match, and I'm not about to send you off to torrent it. I like the people at Chikara too much for that. So what I would suggest is google Mike Quackenbush vs Johnny Saint and then buy the match. It's worth it. It really is. To whet your appetite, here is a video of Johnny Saint doing what he does followed by a video of Mike Quackenbush doing what he does.
In my last post, I showed you a burly heavyweight tag team war between two teams who were literally purpose-built to have a Hoss Fight, as my friend Thomas Holzerman says. Frankly, that was a match in the wrong country. You put the Steiners at the peak of their powers, and Williams and Gordy not too far off from theirs, in Japan at any point in the 1990's and that match is huge. Huge feels like a disservice to it quite honestly. But this match isn't that. This is a match of the 21st century. And yet, this feels a bit.... empty. Not because the teams aren't good. They are. It's that, at their apex, they remind you of someone else more than they seem to be unique. When the Motor City Machine Guns are really humming along, they seem like a combination of the Rockers and the Midnight Express. Conversely, with the American Wolves, their aping of the British Bulldogs is stunning. So really, what this match is at its core is a tad bit of wrestling karaoke. But it's not bad wrestling karaoke. In fact, it's very good. Just as long as you understand that the original songs should be seen and heard too.
The Bill Watts era of WCW is widely, and correctly, regarded as a bad one. Despite the ridiculousness of his top rope rule, and his promotion of his feckless son Erik Watts to a level that would make Shane McMahon think pushing someone that much was a bad idea, there were highlights. And at the very top of that list is this match here. This is from the apex of the Steiner Brothers as a tag team. Watch and Enjoy.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have not spent nearly as much time watching WWE or televised wrestling as so many of the people with whom i have some sense of kinship in the wrestling blogosphere with. But I'm still a wrestling fan regardless, and the reason for that is simple: Corporate wrestling no longer speaks to me.
To be sure, I'm not overly precious about this. I'm not saying that you should never watch Raw if that's what you like. I'm not saying that if you are enthralled by the majesty of the Undertaker, or captivated by every promo CM Punk has ever done, that you're a bad wrestling fan or a bad person. The first one doesn't really exist, and you'd have to do a whole hell of a lot worse than like the Undertaker or CM Punk to make you a bad person.
But what I am saying is that for me, WWE no longer gives me what I want. And rather than watching them with all of the love gone and nothing but hate in my heart, I think it's better for me to move on.
To be sure, there was a time when it did. I am still a Rockers completist, constantly looking for the matches they had that made me believe they were the team of the 1990's. Bret Hart was my gateway drug into all of that high-end, slick without seeming forced, technical wrestling that has grown to be the thing I absolutely love more than anything else. And Randy Savage was explosive and kinetic in a way that few wrestlers NOW could ever dream of being, much less when he was at his possibly cocaine-addled apex having great matches.
But those days are gone. Instead, I find the things I love in other places (with the exception of Randy Savage. He was as Sui Generis as any wrestler could ever be. There will never be another like him.)
If now I want to watch tag team artistry at its highest level, I can watch the Young Bucks ply their trade in PWG. I can also go in my DVD's from the not too recent past and see Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw, or watch the Colony or the Canadian Ninjas. Tag team work, of the kind perfected by the Midnight Express and the Rock N' Roll Express, is no longer practiced on your TV in the same way as it was during even the Monday Night Wars, much less that period when WWF Superstars and WCW Saturday Night was all that you got and you liked it.
Technical wrestling is a different matter. The trouble with technical wrestling now is that too many people Malenko-ize it. (Which is to say, nothing ever looks like it was particularly hard to get. Also, occasionally brainless.) The masters make slickness never seem forced. That old wrestling announcer cliche about how they never waste a move? That's what Mike Quackenbush does, and what Colt Cabana does, and what KANA does.
So to sum up, just because I no longer watch televised wrestling doesn't make me any less of a wrestling fan than someone who still does. it just means we're different.
In the shadow of Wrestlemania, and the Raw after Wrestlemania, some of you might have been wondering where to go to see wrestling. I mean, big box corporate wrestling may or may not be coming to your town in the future. And even if it does, there's a very real chance that it's going to be in a crowded arena and you'll have the kind of seats that make you think you are watching two specks wrestle each other.
Instead, what I'm going to recommend instead for you to try is something that feels counter-intuitive. Don't go and see John Cena. Instead, go and see a smaller indy show in your town. The reasons to do this instead of putting your money in Vince McMahon's pockets are innumerable.
A: You see the stars before they become stars.
You know that guy CM Punk that people fawn over, and proclaim him to be the "Best in the World"? Well, before he was the WWE's big deal, he was wrestling on smaller shows. Same thing with Rey Mysterio and Alberto Del Rio in Mexico, and look at how important they are to the WWE now. The indies are where kids, of both genders, fresh out of wrestling school refine their craft. Right now, at the show being held at your local armory or church, there may very well be someone who could be a big deal in a couple of years. And you're seeing him when he was just starting out, rife with potential. Does that honestly sound like something that you want to miss.
B: We are in a bumper crop right now.
With the Wrestling Is.... projects, the Dual Anarchies in St. Louis and Texas, PWG on the West Coast, AAW, Shimmer, AIW in the Midwest, Chikara traveling the country, and the south becoming a breeding ground for awesomeness, there's really no good reason for anyone to say with a straight face that they can't find an indy show that's good. But if you can't find something near you, or if you're the sort who needs to know what you're getting into before you head out, this should help you find what you're looking for.
Also, believe me when I say that the talent level is as good as it's been in a while. This is a generation of wrestlers schooled on all different styles. There are too many good wrestlers right now for me to name them all. But believe me when I tell you, they're out there. All you have to do is go find them.
C: You are a part of the Show.
It's a simple thing. Might not seem like much. But I can guarantee you: It is a lot harder to feel a part of the show in an arena packed to the brim with people with pyro and propane going off every 20 seconds than it is in a hotel ballroom with 1000 people. When you cheer or boo at one of those big-box corporate shows, the chances that the object of your words hears it? Pretty small. You become part of a low keen at that point.
But on an indy show? This can happen. So can this:
Go. Be entertained. Honestly.
And that's that. Thank you for reading, and go and support your local indy.
When you're a young wrestling fan, the things that boggle your mind sometimes feel embarrassing. Maybe, you were completely gobsmacked by the Ultimate Warrior, or Jake Roberts's DDT. For me though, it was one of my friends in junior high showed me this:
As you might understand, I was through. Jaw on the floor, mouth open, and everything.. As time has gone on, people have added variations to it, twists and planchas with it. But honestly, the simple act of heading to the top rope and hitting this maneuver proves you are, if not the king of the high-flyers, than someone not too far off. It remains the true apex test of a high flyer, the one thing that separates someone who is billed that way by a lazy promotional structure (looking at you Kofi Kingston) and someone who actually has the go
With that in mind, here are the best Shooting Star Presses ever.
Paul London's bad-ass, and for my money the best, SSP.
And the new king on the throne, Matt Sydal\Evan Bourne
(Side note: You'll notice I didn't put any of the variations in here. The Shooting Star Presses i loved the most are the classics. Find the standing variations as you need to.)
I have a confession to make. As a young wrestling fan, I was not a huge fan of the heavyweights from Japan. Hashimoto, Chono, Hase, Muta never intrigued me. The juniors, on the other hand, changed what I wanted out of pro wrestling and in many ways changed how I watched it. (And trust me when I tell you this, there will be a huge appreciation post on the New Japan Juniors coming soon. Liger, Kanemoto, Ohtani, even................ Kendo Kashin, who i think no one likes.)
But when i was a young wrestling fan, I thought like a child. Not to say that there's not a place for the kind of junior pyrotechnics that i remember, and still love, but more that there's something more there, and there should be. And what did i discover as an adult? That the New Japan heavyweights were kind of awesome, and they were the reason why New Japan during Hash's prime was one of the most complete promotions ever.
If you needed excitement, top-level matwork, and some pretty bananas high-flying, the juniors were going to give it to you. If you needed pathos, stiffness, and the kind of "epics" so many people try to pursue but can't come close to, the heavyweights were going to give to you. While Hase was the technician, and Chono the hard-luck "almost" champion, Hashimoto was the king. He was the standard-bearer everyone pursued. And I will freely admit that I feel bad for not realizing how awesome he was earlier. And hopefully, his son Daichi can keep that legacy alive. It's not the legacy of the Von Erichs, the Harts, or even the Guerreros. But it is a legacy nonetheless.
This is a match to watch if you want to see two serious professionals work the kind of old-fashioned match we don't see a whole lot of anymore. in an era of sanitized big box wrestling, where titles mean less than they maybe ever have, this match is the ultimate palate cleanser. From Michael Buffer announcing the combatants with gravitas and the kind of personal facts you would never have realized, to both men fighting like crazy for a title with a rich history, they clearly understand that this is a match that MEANS something.
And then the match actually begins. Watch how Arn Anderson works the arm. Watch how every chance he gets, he goes right back to the spot he knows he has weakened. And then watch a match from big-box wrestling today. People don't work weak spots as well as they used to anymore on the big-box wrestling. Is this because no one is allowed the time, or is that one of those things that have been scrubbed out of those shows due to over-reliance on skits? I'm not sure. And frankly, I don't much care. I just want you to watch this.
I am a huge, unabashed, mark for Mike Quackenbush. But as I heard him say, perhaps mark isn't the word. That still holds a pejorative tone in my mind. Rather, let me say this: I am a huge fan of the type of wrestling that he presents, both as a wrestler himself and to whatever degree he has control over Chikara Pro. But I think, that more so than just him, Chikara has given me back something I loved dearly, only to fall out of love with for a while: tag team wrestling.
When I was a kid, I was a frantic, rabid devotee of the Rockers (I still maintain that the Rockers were the best tag team of the era and only got jobbed out of a tag team title run due to politics). Eventually, though, the Rockers became a gateway team for me to maybe my favorite team of all-time. They only had a few martches together, and were perhaps best known as opponents. They were the junior heavyweight dream team of Flyin' Brian and Jushin "Thunder" Liger. To be honest, even though they teamed together a couple of times,they were my favorite. And then, as I got older, I fell in love with the Steiners, and the Rock N' Roll Express, and the Midnight Express. but WWF tag teams never had the same dynamism to my eyes that the Rockers did. Maybe it's because the DNA of southern wrestling is tied together with tag team wrestling, thus making it endlessly important. Maybe it's because the WWE slowly drug the blade across its own throat with the myriad of crappy tag teams they gave us in the post Hart Foundation era. But whatever the reason, tag team wrestling in the WWF didn't seem to mean as much to me as it did other places. Chikara, though, gave me something to care about again. And this is the match that did it.
What you'll notice when you watch the match here is the degree to which both teams involved know the job they are supposed to play. The Young Bucks are supposed to be the invaders, the people no one likes, and they do it well. They don't look for cheers. They cheat, A LOT. Meanwhile, Quackensaw (one of my favorite portmanteaus in the last little while in wrestling) are the heroes. They understand it, and play up to it. Watch this match sometimes when tag team wrestling on big-box TV disappoints you. I hope this one doesn't.
I e-fed. Still. (If you want to find out where I'm fedding at the moment, ask me on Twitter and I will tell you.) But the biggest problem with e-fedding is watching, and reading, these promos that never feel organic. Like they are just doing what they know sounds cool, instead of sitting down to take the time to honestly write from their heart. I've been guilty of this sin myself, so don't think i'm throwing stones from a glass house.
But as I watched the Rock this monday I kept thinking: "I've seen this before." While CM Punk seemed genuinely arrogant, reveling in the knowledge that he was the anti-hero, The Rock seemed to be simply..... trying to be everything. Tough guy for those sections of the audience who want macho tough guys, and funny for the kids who need to be drawn into a feud with sugar and honey. I hated this. And maybe, for the first time, i wasn't alone. Casual fans throughout the internet found themselves watching that entire thing and feeling...... disappointed is the word that comes to mind. Now I am not, despite the impression I give off, some snarky guy who hates all things corporate wrestling. My heart is still warmed by certain things on big-box wrestling. Chief amongst that list, however, is in fact CM Punk. Because in a promotion filled to the brim with nihilists, and men claiming to be one thing while being another (I am looking at you on this one, John Cena), CM Punk has found his way back to himself. And that's something to be treasured.
(Editor's Note: Yes I know I said I was going to keep this blog active and didn't. I had a retail job from December to January that kept me from this blog, or doign anything other than sleeping. That changes now.)
A lot of times, especially on Twitter, the current big-box WWE corporate product draws grunts of annoyance over this bad booking decision, or that sophomoric promo by John Cena over there. It's understandable. I've done it myself too. The trick is, when you feel yourself starting to walk down that road of annoyance, crack open a DVD or turn on your Real Player or VLC Player and watch wrestling you know you enjoy. Wrestling that speaks to you. That is what this series is designed to do.It's the stuff I'm watching, the matches I turn to and download the second big-box wrestling gets under my skin.
Now, with that said, another small note before we get into this. This is what I, ME, am watching. Perhaps, once I show you these, something about the style here won't speak to you as it speaks to me. If that's the case, then by all means, you don't have to stay here. Delve into the magic of youtube, or Ditch's Wrestling Page and find something that you know you'll like more. The point here is not to enjoy what I enjoy, because I know some of you won't. The point is rather to find the things you enjoy.
