Tag: wrestling

I feel like a lack of time is all part of being adults

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Whenever I take the time to write, it’s usually because I’ve built myself a nice little cushion of time to where I can write, fairly uninterrupted, for anywhere from 45-90 minutes.  That, has not happened in quite some time, and therefore I have not really taken the time to write, which in itself gives me a little bit of anxiety, because I don’t ever want to fall out of the habit of writing, because writing is important to me, and it makes me anxious when I haven’t done it in a while.

It’s literally been two weeks since the last time I sat down and did any sort of writing.  This isn’t to say that there’s been nothing interesting or worth writing about, although I will say that the usual bullshit that occurs in Atlanta and/or Georgia itself has been a little on the dull side or a little too darkly serious side, like the prehistoric anti-abortion laws they’re pushing, which are things that I don’t really feel remotely capable of speaking about.  I ran in my first-ever official half marathon, the Star Wars half at Disney World.  UVA won a national championship in an actual sport (basketball).  Women, main evented Wrestlemania, with Becky Lynch winning both women’s championships from Charlotte and Ronda Rousey.  Tiger Woods won the Masters and proved that winning shit in sports absolves anyone of their personal indiscretions because they’re totally related.  Game of Thrones embarked on their final season, and the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris almost burned down, because bad shit always tends to happen this time of year.

Things, have most definitely been happening all around the world; it’s just that I really haven’t been able to build that cushion that I always tend to want in order to do some writing, because it never seems like there’s ever any time in the day for me do such.  Whether it’s the increased responsibilities and the seemingly endless parade of little and large tasks that I have at work, meetings after meetings, I barely have the time to have proper lunches on a daily basis, much less be able to eat food and type words at the same time. 

And then when I get home, whether or not I have to cook dinner or an endless litany of small tasks and daily chores that I feel the need to do in order to have a somewhat kept house, that by the time I’m done with everything, I’m at that awkward point of the day in which I don’t feel like I have enough time to write, or watch anything other than a 30-minute program on Netflix, because I should probably start considering going to bed in order to be a responsible adult and not be tired during work.

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Not sure how I feel about a Hulkamania biopic

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Source: Netflix to develop a Hulk Hogan biopic with Chris Hemsworth playing the role of Hulk Hogan

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this.  My knee-jerk reaction is “oh fuck no, how dare someone try to profit on my nostalgia??”  But when I take the time to read about the details of this project, there are more reasons to feel like it might not be as terrible as I initially would assume it would be.

Namely the fact that Hulk Hogan himself is overseeing the whole thing, and that it’s going to be distributed by Netflix.  And Netflix is pretty solid when it comes to creating original content that doesn’t always suck beyond belief; and it’s funny that I hold more stock in the fact that Netflix is helming this over the fact that Hulk Hogan is consulting over his very own biopic as reasoning it might not be terrible.  As much as I love the Hulkster, the guy hasn’t always been the bastion of good decision making throughout his career and life.

Don’t get me wrong, my optimism for this is kind of at like a… 40 out of 100, in that I think there’s only a 40% chance that this is going to be any good.  Netflix or not, it’s probably going to be a trainwreck all the same, because although Hogan and Netflix are involved with this, it’s worth mentioning that one of the producers in this is still Eric Bischoff.

Look, nothing against the man himself, but as history has shown, combining Hogan and Bischoff has led to a notable amount of failures.  They basically tanked two separate wrestling federations when they got together, and who knows how many other business ventures they’ve sabotaged, inadvertent or deliberately.  It’s no secret that both could probably benefit from the payday of a Netflix project, but if this is the only reason why they’re doing it, it’s doomed to fail before it even gets off the ground.

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Even across the pond, WWE can’t stop being WWE

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Since the second annual WWE UK Championship tournament and the creation of the NXT UK brand, I’ve actually grown to enjoy the exploration of the UK wrestling scene.  I think they did it fairly smart, building it mostly around UK Champion Pete Dunne, but bolstering it with a few recognizable names and faces like Tyler Bate and Toni Storm for recognition to the American fans, but then intermixing them with all the talent more native to the UK scene.

At first, it was almost like becoming a wrestling fan all over again, watching programming of a bunch of guys I’d never really seen or heard of before because I’m too filthy casual and American to pay attention to the UK scene, like Ligero, Travis Banks, Jinny, Isla Dawn, Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster.  But at the same time, it was kind of refreshing and there was something almost grass-roots charming about seeing something new to me that kept me watching the product, and I’ve grown to really enjoy the NXT UK brand; and seeing as I don’t have cable and watch RAW or Smackdown, two episodes of NXT UK a week helps fill the gaps for whenever I feel like watching wrestling, as opposed to a single episode of NXT each week.

I’ve enjoyed watching the cream of the UK pool rise and stand out like Jordan Devlin, and in true smark fashion, I’m appreciative of the sheer heat and reaction-evoking Zack Gibson, and really wonder just what he’s done in his career to be just such a rabid heat magnet to UK crowds.  The women’s division still has a pretty large talent disparity, but is still young enough to be solely anchored by Toni Storm and Rhea Ripley, with the occasional cameo from Dakota Kai.

Needless to say, I was pleased and excited when they announced their first TakeOver event, with NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool, and if they handled it like regular NXT handles their American TakeOver events, there was plenty of reason to be optimistic about it.

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Happy trails, Gene Okerlund

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

It’s somewhat interesting to me that I’m often times more saddened and upset by the passing of wrestling personalities over wrestlers themselves.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m always sad to hear of when familiar wrestler names to the wrestling I grew up watching are announced as being among the recently departed, but there’s no denying that it’s the guys that weren’t even full-time wrestlers, or even wrestlers themselves, are the ones to elicit the most reaction out of me, because I think often times, wrestlers come and go, but it’s the guys like the announcers, commentators and managers that are the spice that makes professional wrestling so intriguing to a nerd like me.

The passing of “Mean Gene” Okerlund basically means to me, that the voice of professional wrestling has died.  Obviously, I’m not old enough to have really heard other iconic voices like Gordon Solie, and today’s wrestling industry is a microcosm of society itself, and no one voice is ever allowed to stick around long enough to become the icon that Mean Gene was.  Make no mistake though, Mean Gene was a prominent voice all throughout the 80s, into the 90s, and even kept his career going well into the 2000s, for WCW before returning to the WWE for his eventual career wind down.

As I often wax poetic, Mean Gene was there before I even got into wrestling, as the unnamed interviewer interviewing the troika of the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase, Andre the Giant and even Virgil in the WWF Superstars arcade game that was basically my gateway into wrestling fandom.  And as I often cite, it was a random Sunday afternoon in which I watched my first ever wrestling telecast, an episode of WWF All-American Wrestling, hosted by none other than, Mean Gene Okerlund.  The main event was Superfly Jimmy Snuka versus Black Bart.

And over the next three decades of watching wrestling, Mean Gene was always there.  Whether it was being immortalized in the aforementioned greatest wrestling game ever, or being at Hulk Hogan’s side after he won the world championship at Wrestlemania VII before getting a fireball thrown in his face by Sgt. Slaughter, or when after my sabbatical from wrestling in the 90s (my parents cut cable and I couldn’t watch 😢) and I watched my first episode of WCW Monday Nitro, only to see Mean Gene still present, schilling the WCW 1-900-909-9900 Hotline but only with your parents’ permission.

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Thoughts on WWE Evolution

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Warning: there will probably be spoilers; not that it really matters because who knows how many eons past Evolution it will take before this ever sees the light of day on the internet.

When it was announced that WWE was going to do an all-women’s pay-per-view show, I had a couple of knee jerk reactions.  One was that it had the capability to be the best show of the year, due to the kid gloves that the WWE would undoubtedly have to treat a show of such a nature, and two, that it was a show that could not absolutely afford to fail.  Failure would wreck a tremendous amount of work and equity that the women superstars have put forth to building their brand, and would send things back in time at least a decade.

Fortunately, with the level of talent and the volume of it now present in the WWE, it didn’t seem like failure seemed very likely, especially since the WWE is known to be capable of putting a good show together when they actually give a shit about it.

To no real surprise, Evolution was an outstanding show that I feel lived up to the hype, and truly delivered on what the primary goal of the show was supposed to be: this is women’s professional wrestling.  Sure, there were some booking choices that I probably wouldn’t have made as an armchair booker, but when the show had ended, I can confidently say that the good of the show far outweighed the negatives.

Even some of the matches on the undercard that I didn’t really expect to be that great were better than expected, as if viewers could feel the sheer will and empowerment of the superstars, or the WWE actually let a lot of these women unleash a little bit more from their arsenals than they normally would be allowed to on television.

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The Mae Young Classic, or just Toni Storm?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

After the semi-final match between Toni Storm and Meiko Satomura, I thought to myself: man, I can’t remember the last time I ever felt so vested in a match before.  Usually, whenever I have a that thought, my mind races back way in time in order to exaggerate how long it’s been, which took me back to like Wrestlemania XX, when Chris Benoit (pre-psychotic murderous suicidal breakdown) had Triple H in the Crippler Crossface, and I’m on my feet at my friend’s house screaming at the television TAP TAP TAAAAP.  Then I realized that I was pretty vested and captivated by the Andrade Cien Almas vs. Johnny Gargano match that happened just earlier this year, but the point is, matches that manage to capture the suspense and excitement of a jaded smark like me are still few and far between.

Toni Storm vs. Meiko Satomura managed to do just that, have a match where I had an idea of who I thought was going to win, and I like think I have a good read on professional wrestling direction, but still managed to execute a match that was able to make me unsure of my choice, scoot me towards the edge of my seat, and make my eyes widen with what-ifs.  Several close calls, repeated kicking out of signature maneuvers and just plain great work from two very competent wrestlers made for an extremely good match that might not get five stars from Dave Meltzer, but damn was I pleased with it.

And for the second year in a row, I have this thought that this is why the Mae Young Classic is so great, is because they put on center stage, a bunch of female wrestlers whom the casual WWE audience probably isn’t aware of, so the idea of predicting things is kind of negated and it creates this completely fresh wrestling environment for fans to indulge in.  However, when I think of the matches that stood out the most from last year’s Mae Young Classic and this one, I also realize that there’s a correlation between those too: Toni Storm.

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Does the show always have to go on?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

One of the first thoughts that went through my head when I heard the news that Roman Reigns had leukemia and was going to relinquish the Universal title and take a leave of absence from the WWE was: this is what the WWE was going to start the show with?

Sure, I’m as surprised as the most casual of wrestling fans are, because I don’t use Twitter nor do I have any sort of sources be on top of every little tidbit of wrestling news, and it’s certainly surprising and sad to hear of one of the top guys in the industry to be derailed like this due to a terminal illness.  Obviously as both a wrestling fan and a human being, I would like to see Roman Reigns beat leukemia back into remission again and return to the ring, and I hope treatment is both manageable and successful.

But my skepticism and disappointment, as cliché as it may seem, remains with the WWE itself, whom as all die-hard wrestling fans know about the business, is that the show must go on.  No one man or woman is bigger than the industry, and the show does not stop for anybody.  The Royal We get it; however that’s more applicable to the unpredictable and unexpected, the things that cannot be controlled or anticipated, like injury, emergency and death.  The fact that the WWE continued on with Over the Edge in 1999, even after Owen Hart fell to his death in the middle of the show is proof to this staunch and concrete mentality.

Roman Reigns’ leukemia announcement though, that’s different.  Despite the fact that the biggest tryhard internet smarks probably all knew what was up before the cameras started rolling, as much as the WWE might not want to believe it, there are more casual fans out there that do not live and die with the minutiae of the internet and might not have been aware of the news.  The choice of when to air the Roman Reigns segment was entirely controllable, and I have to question the WWE’s choice to emotionally powerbomb the audience in the first 25 minutes of the show, and then expect business to go on as usually for the remainder of a three hour program.

I see both sides of the coin, because it’s no secret that the third hour is kind of a drag, and the WWE often times phones it in, in hour three.  It’s later, fewer eyes might be on the tv by then, and if the goal is to get as many eyes on the segment as possible, then hour three is not the logical placement, even if the idea of “the main event” is supposed to be saved for last.  An announcement of this importance should be done when peoples’ attentions are at their peak.

However, this is the kind of announcement that absolutely derails everything.  Reality doesn’t often permeate into the world of professional wrestling, and when it does, it’s very much a big deal.  And as much as professional wrestling is full of trolly smark fans who love to troll live shows and act contrarian to fuck with the business, they’re still going to these shows and buying merchandise because at the end of the day, they’re still fans; and still human beings, who will most likely be impacted by the very real news of a cancer diagnosis of a very prominent figure in their preferred entertainment.

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