Tag: wrestling

College football and wrestling logic, revisited

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Ultimately, if it were up to me, I would have liked to have seen Oregon win the National Championship, because when the day is over, it’s always fun to see Ohio State get shit on.  But when the mighty Oregon offense simply could not accomplish anything against Ohio State’s defense, even after halftime, the writing was on the wall and I frankly didn’t even have to stay up until the finish to know that the Ducks were toast.

As a consolation prize though, however, I can apply the aforementioned wrestling logic that Virginia Tech are the uncrowned National Champions, by virtue of being the one team that actually beat Ohio State throughout the entire season.

This is where Rick Rude with Frank Beamer emerges from the curtain to shit on the championship parade being held by the Ultimate Warrior after beating Hulk Hogan to remind the Warrior that he still has his own championship victory over him, and that BCS Redemption sponsored by Snickers, the National Championship should be on the line against the Hokies.

Continue reading “College football and wrestling logic, revisited” →

A piece of my childhood died when I saw this

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Aww, how cute.  The big tatted man got 99 problems, but his bitch ain’t one of them.  What a clever play on popular rap lyrics from almost a decade ago!

What’s that?  The big tatted man is the Undertaker?  THE Undertaker?  The WWE’s legendary tough guy with the gimmick of being the partially dead undertaker Undertaker?  The one professional wrestler that lived and breathed his character for nearly 25 full years, and despite the fact that it became known that wrestling was scripted, predetermined and for all intents and purposes fake, was the guy that fans and non-fans alike seemed to agree upon was “actually tough” Undertaker?

The same Undertaker that I met in an airport hotel in Cleveland, Ohio who refused to take a picture with me, but shook my hand and fulfilled a wrestling fanboy’s achievement in a way.  I often assumed the anti-photos was to protect the integrity of his character save for stuff like Make-A-Wish campaign kids or something, and I didn’t think much about it because I was kind of in awe of being able to say that I met the Undertaker.

Continue reading “A piece of my childhood died when I saw this” →

Ohio State and wrestling logic

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

A funny thing happened with the first-ever College Football playoffs: two teams notorious for being chokers have broken through, and will play for the National Championship in ten days.  For better or worse, between Oregon and Ohio State, one of two teams that have been known for being #2 ranked, or should’ve beens is actually going to come out of the game as the National Champion of college football.*

*Speaking of should’ve beens, not to be ignored are the losses suffered by both Mississippi State and Ole Miss in their respective bowl games over the weekend.  The sound of bandwagon football fandom in the state of Mississippi is a lot like the sound of a hearty toilet flush.

Honestly, I don’t really have much care for either team going for the National Championship.  Oregon is a team that I always felt has been kind of overrated, playing in a patsy conference, and has never really truly been tested by an SEC school in like, ever.**  Sure, they’re a high-tempo, exciting team to watch, but I think there’s a clear reason why they’ve never actually won the whole thing, in spite of their perpetual top-5 rankings every year.

**1-2 since 2010, with the one win coming against Tennessee, which is the equivalent of a wrestler beating Virgil, and then bragging about having a win against an nWo member.

Continue reading “Ohio State and wrestling logic” →

Wrestling’s insufferable era

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I haven’t really been paying as much to wrestling as much as I had been in prior months, but I recently watched a match because my friend brought up an interesting observation that piqued my interest and made me want to see it for myself.  It was during the Big Show vs. Roman Reigns match on the 12.22.14 edition of RAW, where the crowd inexplicably turns on Roman Reigns.

Up to this point, Reigns had been built up as a face (good guy) that was rapidly ascending through the ranks, and had potential World Champion contender written all over him.  He’d been derailed for the better part of the last few months with more or less a back injury, but has returned to television in recent weeks.  His character gave no reason for the crowd to turn on him; contrarily, WWE even had his character have a minute or two during a live event to telecast “an update” on his health, and a general cheeseball face message that he’d be back and working hard ASAP.

But (a noticeable contingent) the crowd still turned on him anyway.  During his match with the Big Show, at moments of the match where he would signal for his signature maneuvers, brief periods of time where both performers could catch their breath and let the crowd react, the reactions from the crowd were not (all) the expected cheers of fans supporting the good guy, but that of boos and jeers of people voicing their disapproval.  More than once, a puzzled look can be discerned from Reign’s face, and even at the end of the match, Big Show himself looks a tad perplexed by the unexpected crowd reaction throughout the match.

Continue reading “Wrestling’s insufferable era” →

This stuff writes itself

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Long story short: WWE wrestler Daniel Bryan comes home, discovers two men fleeing after breaking into his residence, gives chase, catches one, takes him down and puts him in a chokehold until authorities arrive.

I know people think wrestling is all fake and all, but it’s stories like this that I always get a ton of enjoyment out of, because in spite of the scripted storylines and predetermined match outcomes, the physicality of wrestling is still very real.

It’s apparent that the burglars had to know they were breaking into Daniel Bryan’s home, because it’s implied that they might have been the ones to have done it ten days prior. Clearly, they had no fear of robbing a person who emulates violence for a living, or the repercussions that could have occurred if they ran into said person, since they tried.

What’s funny to me is that Daniel Bryan’s first instinct to do upon catching the crook, was a wrestling maneuver. Sure, he does it for a living, but in the land of reality, a physical strike of some sort would be my first instinct. When I chased off the two thugs that broke into my house while I was home, I ran at them with a metal baseball bat, and thoughts of putting them into a LaBell Lock with it were the last thing in my mind.

Continue reading “This stuff writes itself” →

When winning titles is a bad thing

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

It was once said that the WWF Intercontinental championship was given to the best worker in the company.  This was a very easy thing to declare when the context behind it was talking about the late great “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig, who is widely regarded as one of the strongest performers in the modern era.  However, in a prior wrestling era, there was some merit to the statement, because when you look at the list of names of guys who held it prior to 2000, it pretty much has been nothing but stars who have achieved success in the business.

WCW’s take on the United States championship was that it was again, for particularly standout talents, but also a means of declaring a potential number one contender for the more prestigious World championship.  And again, like the Intercontinental championship, with few exceptions (David Flair), the list of names of guys who held the US title are pretty noteworthy.

What I’m getting at here is that the Intercontinental and United States championships, the second-tier titles that were once no-less important and prestigious to hold, are pretty much worthless in today’s dynamic wrestling industry.

Continue reading “When winning titles is a bad thing” →

The Booker T crime tour

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

For those of you who actually look at the pictures I take on my random travels, whom might have been curious to why there were pictures of me in front of a Wendy’s while I was in Houston, this was not a coincidence, nor was it a spontaneous moment of having to take goofy selfies right then and there.

That particular Wendy’s was the Wendy’s where former five-time, five-time, five-time, five-time, five-time WCW champion Booker T worked at for two years when he was a teenager. This is notable, because it was around this time when aside from working at Wendy’s, he also had a separate career going on simultaneously, robbing them.

Yes, the wrestling Hall of Famer, Booker T, was a convicted felon in his youth, and this information is ironically riotous to a guy with a twisted sense of humor like me.

Continue reading “The Booker T crime tour” →