Two Things I Think I Know: The NBA Season preview

We're Playing Basketball!

With the NBA season quickly approaching, a quick look around the sport reveals an interesting phenomenon.

It is not difficult to argue that the 2 best teams are already set in stone. Golden State was a juggernaut of absolute destruction, losing 1 game all playoffs long behind some truly gorgeous representation of offensive basketball genius the type of which we couldn’t have imagined seeing. 

If you love ball movement, slick offensive sets, and elite shooting, the Warriors are your baby. In fact, it would not be ridiculous to say we should just send the Warriors as our reps for the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020 and have that be that, as it were.

But all is not good in the kingdom. The Cavs have rebuilt their armaments for what everyone believes to be their last strike at the throne by trading for Isaiah Thomas, as LeBron James is widely expected to be leaving after this upcoming season. Boston has Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward, and still a good part of last season’s #1 seed coming back.

Out west, the Thunder and the Rockets have restocked as well. Oklahoma City added Paul George and Carmelo Anthony to the human personification of dark matter that is Russell Westbrook, and Chris Paul and James Harden joined together in Houston to provide us with either the sort of offense Mike D’Antoni wishes he could have had in Phoenix, or a massive blow-up of chemistry.

For this season, there will be questions. Here, on this blog, I do my best to answer some of them.

The Rationalist: A Primer On How To Think, Pt. 2

In the last edition of the Rationalist, I explained what I thought were good principles upon which you should base your entire intellectual life. To be clear, it’s not that I wish I could control you into thinking a certain way. I know I can’t, and to be quite honest, I don’t particularly want to.


But what I do want, what would make me happy, is if you took the advice I gave you seriously. In this world, nuance is in short supply. Being willing to admit you are wrong when the evidence points you in that direction is a skill both vital and in shamefully short supply.

More to the point, there can be no greater danger to the American civil religion than the sentence I am about to write. If Americans no longer believe there is anything that unites us, the endless striving towards right and good that we attempt as Americans are meaningless and pointless.

Now if you believed that before, and will consider anything I say as serving “white privilege” and “white supremacy”, there is nothing I can do to change your mind.
There is a chance, even, that you will be one of those people who look at this and proclaim it no longer necessary for America.

You might even not say America how I say it, instead preferring to say Amerikkka as though this is some original thought.

But that is not the point. The point is that I promised to tell you who you should avoid. In my last article, I showed you how by not following certain patterns of thought you could fall into being snowed by those feigning intelligence. This time, though, we’re going to be a little bit more blatant. This time, I’m naming names.

The Rationalist: A Primer On How To Think, Pt. 1

There are things about political discourse in 2017 that are right, perfect, and wonderful.

For instance, we now have more ability than ever before to know what our ideological allies and opponents are using as the underpinnings of their research. This is vital, as eliminating bad ideas and finding good ones is key to an increasingly educated citizenry capable of handling, and properly understanding, the detailed and complicated problems of both foreign and domestic scope that define the world in 2017, and for years to come. 

In fact, if you were so inclined, you could watch full-length debates between some of the world’s sharpest minds discussing truly complicated issues.

All of this, every bit of it, is wonderful.

The trouble with all that knowledge, all those educated thinkers being a literal fingertip away, is that no one tells you how to tell the truth from the fiction. In fact, there are men, and women, who will speak the language of the intelligent, of the well-read and well-educated, to fool you with ideas that are not researched to rigorous completion.

Finding them is easy. Pointing out the mistakes so you don’t fall into the same trap so many others, your humble scribe included, have already fallen into once or twice? Well, that’s the noble thing. Noble is valuable and vital.  So, it’s with that standard in mind that we begin this edition of the Rationalist.

My Personal White Whale: Revisiting The Best Way To Build A Light Heavyweight Division In The WWE

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.

The New Japan Juniors 1990-1999 Pt. 1: Jushin "Thunder" Liger

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.

How to Build A Light Heavyweight Division In The WWF Part 1: The Roster

This Could Be A Big Deal.
Photo Credit: Stock Image

There was a time, maybe in the heyday of WCW, where the Light Heavyweight or Cruiserweight Title was a supremely important belt. Through a combination of WCW's gigantic talent budget, and their affiliations with New Japan and AAA, the end result was that the championship seemed like a huge deal even with what was WCW's dismissiveness towards it. But with the demise of WCW, and the confusion about who could step into the breach,  one thing died.  And that was the relevancy of the Light Heavyweight Title. Sure, WWE paid lip service to the idea for a little while but since, at its core, WWE is run as a "big man's territory" it was only too long before the cruiserweight champion became a joke.

But I want to fix it. I want to make it work again. Sure, this is probably a 1-man crusade. But it's my crusade. Want to join me?

The Dream Match To End All Dream Matches, Or Discussion Of Them

KANA. 1\2 of the greatest dream match ever.

(Full disclosure: I root passionately, unabashedly, and shamelessly for both KANA and her opponent in this match. I don't think that will change the way I write this match, but I needed to clear that up before I kept going in this piece.)

One of the beautiful things about this blog is that I get the chance to spitball ideas for this blog of mine on Twitter. For some reason, my mind and my heart has been drawing me to discuss dream matches. For whatever reason, they've always captivated me. The idea that 2 wrestlers who are clearly stars coming together to figure out which one of the 2 is the better has always interested me. And when I think about what dream matches are left, there's really one left. And it's so beautiful that I had to talk about it, write about it, and hopefully do my small part to make it happen.

It's not Working: Jim Cornette & ROH

I know a lot of people who would argue vociferously that somehow everything from the current era of wrestling is superior than what came before. But that isn't true all the time. Yes, in terms of innovative offense, 2012 has it all over 1988. But are the workers better, smarter, more capable now than then? Depending on who you ask, you'll get a different answer.

Jim Cornette is one of those people. He has argued, in the multitude of shoots that he's done, that wrestlers today are less qualified, less skilled, than their peers from eras past. Combine this with his admitted obsession with making pro wrestling more like MMA, and you have a very strange booking philosophy. How do you fix it? And what are the problems?

Brian Pillman And Jushin Liger vs Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw: A Dream Match.

When I was a kid, as I was sure the case with a lot of people, I wanted to be a Pro Wrestler. The only problem was that, as I got older, the knowledge of my low pain threshold outweighed that desire. So what i decided to do instead was become a pro wrestling fan. And ever since I became a fan, I had 2 favorite wrestlers. One was Jushin "Thunder" Liger. I like him so much that I started a Daily Liger feature, which you may or may not have read on this very same blog. But the other favorite is a bit more complicated.

The other favorite hasn't been around nearly as long, and he is perhaps best known not for his workrate apex but rather for a persona. And this is a shame. Because make no mistake, if we didn't have Brian Pillman, we wouldn't have the 1-2-3 kid. And thus we wouldn't have Rey Misterio Jr.

So what do I do with my 2 favorite wrestlers you might be asking? Easy. I do what WCW did with them. Team them up.


Pillman & Liger vs Benoit & Wellington by Hook_Line_and_Sinker

But question: Who in the world do I team them up against? What team could I trust to do this junior heavyweight dream team justice?



That's easy. The team that is, for a lot of people, the junior heavyweight dream team of this decade. Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw. The former Campeonatos de Parejas of Chikara, and tag team specialists on par with any team in the world. But it isn't just that this dream team of the '00s was brought together to face the dream team of the 1990's because Quack's dream was to face Liger, and Jigsaw reminds me of a prime Flyin' Brian (although thankfully,without the bengal-print speedos.) It's also because Quackensaw is perhaps the tag team most suited to studying these 2 men, and finding a weakness. In fact, Mike Quackenbush was kind enough to submit to the Majesty of Wrestling what his strategy would have been. 


 Pillman is the weak link. His flying moves never had the precision that Liger's did. You just have to wait for him to make a mistake, even if you bait him a bit. Both those guys are stronger than Jig and I. In their primes, they were faster than us. But they were never really good teammates, and so you wait for a mistake and lay on the double teams. Smother them with double team moves. That's the way to win. 

LMQ

 

How would Liger and Pillman win this match? Use their experience, and extend the match. Because while Quack and Jigsaw are the equals, and perhaps superior, to Liger\Pillman in terms of tag team work their bodies might have trouble keeping a long and demanding pace. Quack's back and wrist problems are well-documented, as are Jigsaw's knee issues. If the Liger-Pillman tandem can cut the ring off and attack one of those weakened body parts, they might have a chance. 

Will we ever see this match? No. And that's a shame. But believe me when I tell you, if any promotion would ever put it on, it wouldn't be WWE or TNA. Curious to the promotion that would have the foresight to do it, and do it with the care and love that a match like this would require? Good. Because I am about to tell you.

Chikara. That is the company with the foresight to book a match of this quality, the respect to give it to you with a minimum of fluff, and the environment where that match means as much as it should. 

Thank you for reading this. I hope you enjoy the perspective I brought to this.

Tag Team Wrestling: A Gushing Appreciation, And Announcing The First Annual TMW Tag Team Tournament

There are many things i find troubling about current WWE. Many many things. But chief amongst them is the way that they de-emphasized what was once one of the coolest things about old WWF, and the thing that got me into modern wrestling: Tag Teams.

Now to be clear, the "Rock 'N Wrestling" era didn't have the tag team situation all to themselves. It was the southern wrestling scene that started it, and you could argue, perfected it. The southern tag structure is still the basis upon which your best tag matches have always been built. And Jim Cornette, no matter what you might think of him as a man with anger issues, does know how to make tag team wrestling work. The Midnight Express were state-of-the-art tag team wrestling for decades. And ever since the Midnights and the Rock N' Rolls, teams with the mastery of this art have always had a special place in my heart.

So it's in honor of that aesthetic, and frankly because I need a few more hits on this blog, that I am announcing the first-ever TMW Tag Team Tournament. If I knew someone who made trophies, I'd hand one out to the winner. But I don't. So instead the winner will just have to be confident in the knowledge that they were the first-ever winners of the Tag Team Tournament on the Majesty of Wrestling.

Here are the 4 regions of the Tournament.

East. First-Round matches to be held in the Asylum Arena, Second-Round Matches to be held in Madison Square Garden, and the Regional Finals to be held in the Barclays Center.

Midwest. First-Round matches to be held in the Frontier Fieldhouse in Chicago, 2nd-round matches to be held in the AllState Arena, and the Finals to be held in the United Center.

South. First-Round matches to be held in the Mohawk in Austin, TX, 2nd-Round Matches to be held in the Philips Arena, and finals to be held in the Fed-Ex Forum.

West: First-Round Matches to be held in the American Legion Hall in Reseda, CA, 2nd-round matches to be held in the Rose Garden in Portland, finals in the Great Western Forum.

Where will the final four be you ask? The Tokyo Dome.

But i know what you're thinking. I haven't listed any teams yet. And you're right I haven't. Because in the next couple of days, I am going to release the names of the teams who have made the cut. And believe me, you will be surprised as to who does make the cut as well as who DOESN'T.

Thank you for reading.

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

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

Rey Mysterio: The Alternate Universe

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?

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

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.