Tag: wwe

Setting the value of today’s WWE titles

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Watching wrestling these days, I can’t help but think about how much has changed throughout the decades I’ve been watching this crap. I’m amazed and aggravated at just how over Ryback is, considering he is the verbatim second-coming of Bill Goldberg, but somehow worse because he has an even more limited arsenal of moves, speaks too much during matches, and has the annoying habit of bobbing his head to his own music.

I’m also concerned for the WWE in regards to just how many shows they have now. Off the top of my head, they have RAW on Mondays, Smackdown on Fridays, and I believe they have shows on Wednesdays occasionally and also a Saturday morning program. I don’t know if they have any reality television shows at the moment, but they have developed a fairly prominent YouTube channel, which now puts the onus on WWE performers and personnel to provide content for, while they’re not being pressured to engage the “universe” with their seemingly mandatory Twitter accounts. The level of saturation they’re reaching at this point is enough to kill WCW twice over at this point, and I know the WWE is very adaptable and a smart-operating company, but it still heeds an orange-level warning as far as I’m concerned.

But anyway what this post is about is in regards to the seemingly excessive number of titles that are circulating throughout the WWE at this point. And I guess this would be useful for an older fan hoping to pick up watching wrestling today, despite the fact that I’m pretty sure nobody reading this would fit that criteria, but it seemed like a good idea to write at the time. But what I’ll basically be doing is taking today’s current array of WWE championship belts and achievements, and appropriately providing an equivalent from an older generation, to help provide perspective for today’s viewers.

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The inadvertent humor of wrestling sabotage

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

A long time ago, for whatever reason, there was some sort of beef between Hercules Hernandez and Sid Justice. I don’t care to know the nature of this beef, but regardless when they were put together in a singles match, it turned into this hilarious 30-second squash match where Hercules refused to flat out sell (pretend to get hurt) by anything that Sid did, before the match concluded quickly with Sid delivering a powerbomb where Hercules dead-fished it and popped right back up and walked away upon the three count. Supposedly Herc was fired after this display, but aside from making the smarks laugh, he made Sid’s persona look weaker than it was arduously built up to be.

Not quite as long ago, when Bill Goldberg was rising in WCW, he was slated to have a match with former English circus shooter, Steven Regal.  I say “have a match,” because Goldberg couldn’t actually wrestle, so I couldn’t really say “wrestled.” But it was something that Regal felt the obligation to exploit, to the fans, to management, and to the other boys in the back whom might also be jaded by the rapid and aggressive pushing of Goldberg. Whereas Goldberg had been having 30-180 second squash matches for weeks on end, Regal put him through a gauntlet of basic wrestling holds and chess moves that Goldberg was completely incapable of, on national television, getting out of or countering.  After the display, Regal was fired, and soon after jumped to the WWF, but the damage was done; most everyone knew definitively that Goldberg couldn’t actually wrestle.

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Simple wrestling math

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

What’s new is new and what’s old is eventually new again, at some point.  Even if it means unapologizingly combining two wrestlers not even one full decade old yet, to create one entirely new persona.

To no surprise, Ryback is getting over, because he’s completely, without any hitch, re-using Goldberg’s gimmick.  But wearing all of Rhyno’s old ring attire.  If you close your eyes, the theme even sounds like a bastardized version of both their themes combined.

To no surprise, smarks like I are not the least bit impressed by this whole schtick, because frankly we’ve already seen it before.

Jimmy John’s, Snickers, and Brock Lesnar

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Ever since Brock Lesnar came back to the WWE, there’s really only one thing I couldn’t ever get around. Not the fact that he still can’t cut a promo to save his life, not that he’s obviously using the WWE again for his personal agenda, and not the fact that he doesn’t actually perform in anything other than pay-per-views, but the fact that he has been a walking advertisement for Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches.

I’m guessing that Lesnar has had some sort of pre-existing sponsorship contract with the company that had been grandfathered in and strategically maneuvered into his current WWE deal, because no individual has really pimped a product out like this since X-Pac pimped some energy drink but he had pull with the company then, but the point remains is that it’s unusual for any wrestlers to have sponsorship. The company as a whole, is a different story, but typically you just don’t see individuals having such types of deals, let alone wearing fucking company logos on their apparel, three times larger than their own personal branding.

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The WWE needs to be careful now

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Since the 1,000th episode of RAW, the WWE has gone and made RAW into a three-hour show now, up from the previous format of two hours.  Nowadays, three hours is just way too long to be watching wrestling, and I can’t help but think back to how I did on such a regular basis when I was in high school.  Clearly, this is one of those situations where I feel like I’m showing my age, and I already don’t feel like I have enough time in the days sometimes.  Also, I think the fact that wrestling often conflicts with baseball during the summer has something to do with it as well.

But anyway, the fact that RAW now demands its wrestlers and personnel to be present for a three-hour program, I can’t help but feel a little concern for the direction of the company.  Now I’m sure that the WWE will be fine, because unlike its former competition in WCW, they’re run by smart, competent people.  But the concern does have to do a lot with WCW, because with a three-hour show on Monday, and a two-hour on Friday, WWE is currently riding the same kind of blueprint that essentially ended up being the death of WCW.

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Photos: Meeting Hacksaw Jim Duggan in Frederick

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Without much question, the highlight of my weekend was getting the opportunity to meet WWF legend, Hacksaw Jim Duggan at a minor league game in Frederick.  What made it better was getting to share the experience in the company of good friends who like me, grew up watching Hacksaw punch and clothesline bad guy wrestlers, mostly, before unfortunately jobbing, and pretty often, in the most memorable ways (getting sat on and “injured” by fat guys like the late greats, Earthquake and Yokozuna).  Regardless, the overly patriotic super face has always remained a lifelong favorite amongst us, and a very easy choice to make the trip up to see him, regardless of the baseball game involved.

Prior to going to Frederick, I couldn’t help but wonder of what the meeting was going to be like.  After a great experience meeting Sgt. Slaughter, who was gracious, friendly and great with all the fans, I was sorely disappointed when I met Jerry “the King” Lawler, when he turned out to be a pretty apathetic and obviously money-seeking prick who didn’t so much care about the fans that wanted to see him as much as his head was already wondering when the meet and greet was going to be over.  Honestly, I was just kind of hoping for something in the middle, and hovering more towards Slaughter than Lawler.

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Among other things, the internet ruins wrestling

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

When the fans were chanting for Brock Lesnar fifteen minutes before he was supposed to “shock the world” with his return, I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on in John Cena’s head, since he was the guy in the ring trying to cut a promo, but being drowned out by the Lesnar chants.  Also, I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on in the minds of WWE upper management and Vince McMahon at what was transpiring before their very eyes and ears – every single person in an arena, completely already in the know of what was probably carefully prepared, scripted and planned to be a big surprise.  I wonder if someone got fired as a result, or even more meta, this was all perhaps an even bigger elaborate ruse!  But I kind of doubt it.

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