Wrestling

[|iR|Focalor]

So much for Wrestlemania being Undertakers last showing. I downloaded and watched the "Greatest Royal Rumble" tonight. It was held in Saudi Arabia... which had me curious as FUUUUUUCK to see how it would turn out. Doesn't surprise me that Undertaker would be on the bill. The Saudi government has more money than they know what to do with. They threw a fuckload of money at the McMann's and I bet the McMann's said, "Show up and wrestle... or ELSE."

They make a big deal in in-between clips during the show that Saudi Arabia is becoming more progressive (they just allowed women the right to drive cars, don'tcha know... because they explain it to you proudly in the clip). And yet... during the whole fucking show, not a single female star was present. Triple H walked out... without Stephanie... totally inconspicuous, huh? Miz walks out... without his old lady who is ALWAYS with him no matter what. No female wrestlers at all. No female ring announcers. Renee Young isn't even part of the pre-show and mid-show and panel like she ALWAYS is. Yes. Saudi fuckin' Arabia is so progressive that they apparently banned ANY WOMEN from making any fucking appearances during the show. In all of the shots they showed of the crowds, you hardly saw ANY females in the seats unless they were probably 8 or younger.

You know, it kinda pisses me off that the WWE makes such a big to do about the very first all women's Royal Rumble that went down at Wrestlemania and how great it is that WWE is so progressive giving women equal attention to the men... and they go whoring themselves out to the Saudis and their money which was an obvious political PR ploy.

Fuck Saudi Arabia and their bullshit royal family. And fuck WWE and the McMann family too. Greedy assholes with no principles or conscience.

And furthermore... how many of you have been to Saudi Arabia? I used to know a guy who was a chemist for Dow and every once in a while, he'd have to fly to Saudi Arabia for business. The fucking horror stories he'd tell... and he was always terrified that he'd fuck up and make a mistake over there and they'd end up throwing him in jail for something. But it seems more likely to me that the Saudi's allowing women to drive cars was more like a PR thing rather than a real gesture. I'd guess that if you went there, you'd NEVER see a woman driving a car. Probably like if they decided to take the "Whites Only" signs off of water fountains back in the 40's but then they'd still beat the shit out of any black people who tried to drink out of it.

"Look at us! We are progressive! You can trust us! Give us money!" is basically what's going on, in my opinion anyway. They realize their economy is much better if they have a relationship with the west, but they still wanna remain backwards religious assholes.

But in lighter news...

'Twas definitely the "Greatest Royal Rumble" if only because of how Titus Oneal tripped while running down to the ring, and did a chest slide until he completely disappeared under the ring. An unscripted moment for once. I almost pissed myself laughing. So did the 3 guys announcing the match. They just kept running the slow-mo replay over... and over... and over... and over...

 

[|iR|Focalor]

I don't watch AEW wrestling - the weekly shows or the PPV's (if they have any, I dunno). I don't watch the WWE weekly shows either, but I do still try to catch the PPV's when I can. It's not like the old days anymore. When I was growing up, you could tune into the weekly shows and see actual title matches, etc. Seems like the weekly shows these days are all bullshit talking skits and "filler" matches, with only the important shit ever happening on PPV's.

Seems like most of the old WWE wrestlers have taken enough bullshit from McMahon and left for AEW. Cody Rhodes left WWE years ago, reinvented himself, and finally came back to WWE as a big time face with his American Nightmare persona (a nod to his famous dads American Dream persona). But he's the ONLY one who's actually come back that I can recall. Everyone else seems happier to be the fuck out from under WWE.

Sting, former WCW favorite... current "probably too fuckin' old to still be doin' it" wrestler... came close to an "involuntary retirement." He did a frog-splash move from the middle rungs of a ladder setup in the ring down to a man laying on a folding table sitting in the announcers area. The table the man was laying on broke, the second table beside it DID NOT. Stings face hit the edge of the table. Apparently he busted some teeth out, possibly concussed. Yikes.

Timestamped to start at about 2:00. If it doesn't just FFW to the 2min mark to see the whole thing unfold.


https://youtu.be/BAJKk8aCeoc?t=122

[yahoo]

professional wrestling err entertainment wrestling aint like what they used to be.. their skits are becoming more predictable, stupid, slapstick comedic in the verge of being pathetic.. idk if kids nowadays like it that way but for me mehhh. gotta admit that old school is way better maybe coz im old or what.. Maybe lots of people kinda feel same as I coz from time to time they tend to resurrect old retired wrestlers..

[|iR|Focalor]

Can't speak to what happens in other wrestling orgs, but WWE has become largely predictable due to how they seem to be showing favoritism to anyone who has started in and stayed with WWE. For example, I was watching the last PPV they did from Saudi Arabia, WWE Night of Champions (from May 27). They had a big match between Seth Rollins and AJ Styles for the newly created "world heavyweight title", whatever the hell that's supposed to mean (they already had a heavyweight title I thought).

Seth Rollins originally started in several independent orgs before joining Ring of Honor. But the whole time, he was never really a big character until he signed with WWE and worked his way up through FCW and NXT, earning his spot within WWE itself. So basically he's thought of as a WWE original.

AJ Styles on the other hand... he started with NWA out of Georgia (he's originally from Gainesville GA, near me). Early 2000's before they went out of business, he was part of WCW. Mmm hmmm. If you came from WCW especially, you ain't gonna get to win as much vs WWE originals. The McMahon's seem to still have a bug up their ass about the old WWE/WCW rivalry. They also seem to reward loyalty by making it to where the WWE original wrestler comes out on top usually. Anyway, throughout the 2000's he wrestled for several companies, Ring of Honor, NWA, Impact, TNA, etc, before moving on to Japanese companies (around 2013 I think), and then finally WWE (2016-present).

Knowing this... I predicted Rollins to win. Aaaaand of course he did.

Use this same method to figure out who will win any given PPV match. I'd estimate it's about 95% effective.

[rikwad]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIIQGsnvzn8&ab_channel=NikBali

Before they were the "British Bulldogs" and before they were on the juice. Wasn't the WWF (now WWE?) but my brother and I waited for this every Saturday.

J.R. Fully, the Cuban Assassin, Iron Sheik, and crew.     Good times.

Wham bam thank you Ma'am.


https://youtu.be/T3UEo69cw78

[|iR|Focalor]

Wasn't the WWF (now WWE?)

Yeah, I forget the exact details of the story, but apparently when the "World Wrestling Federation" began using the abbreviation WWF, it was already trademarked by the World Wildlife Foundation. I think there was a legal battle over it, and McMahon lost. In the ruling, it was acknowledged that the World Wrestling Federation had been using the abbreviation long enough that an abrupt change might've been detrimental to their business, so they were given a certain period of time before they were forced to make the change. They continued to try to find a way to keep the WWF abbreviation, but couldn't. So eventually, they decided to go with WWE, they kept the familiar stacked W's logo, but shaved off the part that formed the F.

[yahoo]

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66613784

[|iR|Focalor]

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66613784

Bray Wyatt: WWE champion dies aged 36

That sucks. I hadn't heard of him until he moved up from NXT to WWE. I sort of liked him when he first showed up with the hillbilly Manson-esque "Wyatt Family"... and their family became even more interesting when they added the big man Braun Strowman to the roster. But after the Wyatt Family broke apart and Bray started doing his own thing as "The Fiend", it got to be too theatrical and over the top for me. I was kinda hoping he'd get shit together and work out a good direction for his character, kinda like Cody Rhodes did during his time away from WWE. Bray Wyatt was one of the only wrestlers they had who might've been capable of having a scary character rising to the same level as Undertaker to fill that role, but... not anymore.

Didn't realize it before now, but old 90's WWE wrestler Irwin Roy Schyster (aka IRS) was his father, and ex-WWE wrestler Bo Dallas was his little brother. I miss Bo Dallas, he was a good comic relief kinda wrestler.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZfq7XUBBXA

[yahoo]

what surprised me more is his age vs his CoD.. seems young to have such heart problems. Dunno if he is into steroids. His physique aint like most of his colleagues that you can immediately suspect.  I kinda like his WWE persona with the rest of WYATTs.. Guess he was one of those last acts that I really enjoyed and await before I quit avidly watching wrestling. 

[|iR|Focalor]

what surprised me more is his age vs his CoD.. seems young to have such heart problems. Dunno if he is into steroids. His physique aint like most of his colleagues that you can immediately suspect.  I kinda like his WWE persona with the rest of WYATTs.. Guess he was one of those last acts that I really enjoyed and await before I quit avidly watching wrestling.

He's always been kinda overweight. In fact I think I was reading on wiki about him one time that back in his NXT or pre-NXT days, he was known as "Husky Harris", lol. He kinda had that classic beer-belly strongman physique, like Vader (r.i.p.), Bam Bam Bigelow (also r.i.p.) and most of the guys you ever see competing in the reruns of strongman competitions on ESPN2 late at night.

Bray wasn't even the biggest (aka ROUNDEST) guy WWE had.

Meet Otis. He can't even put his arms all the way down at his sides.



He's sorta funny. I still think Bo Dallas was a better character. And now that I think about it, perhaps Elias was funnier, although he was more in the love-to-hate-him "heel" category than Bo Dallas was.

But NOBODY was a better heel than Rowdy Roddy Piper. LOVED Piper. If you have Peacock Premium, I think WWE Network comes with it. Check out some of the old collections of episodes when he did his little "Piper's Pit" skits. It's hilarious! He almost killed a guy bashing a real coconut over his head in one of the skits.

edit: Haha, found the clip on youtube:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKXpSyjfIik