Hello blog readers. Long time no see. Yes, it has definitely
been a while since I took the time to type some of my heads inner workings onto
here. I wont come up with some elaborate excuse as to why I haven’t posted. My
schedule has been ridiculously crazy and I have been doing a lot of cool
things, so much so that I haven’t shown this blog any love in a while. First of
all, I got to write for an awesome website called “The Mandible Claw”, curated
by the great Danielle Matheson. I also wrote an excerpt for Danielle’s
acclaimed “Best & Worst Of TNA Impact” column for With Leather. So go check
out both of those through the links below, especially “The Mandible Claw”,
which features tons of amazing pieces from awesome people. I am still in shock
that a couple paragraph piece I wrote about the douchebag “Say Something” guy
is on the same website where Chikara’s Ophidian listed his Top 5 bad horror
movies. It’s a weird dream of mine that I never thought existed until now. But,
the point is, I am here now and I cannot wait to keep writing. So let’s jump
right into it.
I have mentioned before on this blog about Absolute Intense
Wrestling out of the Cleveland area, and how great they have become at
releasing a steady stream of content to their audience through Youtube and
other forms of social media. Too many companies fail to embrace their internet
community by dolling out content, whether it is in-ring action, promos, teasers
etc. But AIW has made sure to not shy away from releasing tons of great videos
for their fans, and as of late they have released a couple of full matches from
their past events. I gave them a watch and I thought they would be perfect
discussion topics for another edition of “What Wrestlefan Watched”.
The first match I witnessed was released by AIW to hype
their most recent “Girls Night Out 8” event, which from what I hear was a giant
success with it being AIW’s first iPPV. So as a treat, the company released the
match between American turned Joshi stars Hailey Hatred & Jenny Rose from
“Girls Night Out 6”. I have seen very little of both Hatred and Rose but they
definitely opened my eyes with this encounter. This was the first appearance
for Jenny Rose in AIW, which made it very difficult for the crowd to get behind
her in the early goings, since she would be facing home grown talent in Hatred.
Both ladies are the definition of “hard-hitters”, providing some cringe worthy
moments, including one of the hardest short arm clotheslines from Hatred that I
have seen in a while. Both competitors switched throughout between striking and
technical wrestling, and after a series of near falls, Hatred was able to put
away Rose with a nasty tiger suplex.
A Couple Of These Guys Should Probably Read This Column
Ok, this is a post that I actually wanted to do for a little
while now. I’ve seen a lot of blogs that deal primarily with the product that
is on television or the independents. Even on the podcast I am apart of (The
Wrestling Mayhem Show), that is what a majority of our time is spent talking
about. While there is definitely a place for it, I wanted to make this blog
from the perspective of a fan, so I thought it would be a great idea to give a
guide of what to do as a independent wrestling fan. Some of these apply to
mainstream pro wrestling as well, but these are mainly meant for attending
independent wrestling shows. Luckily, Texas has some really awesome wrestling
fans that I have gotten to know, and they really don’t need to learn these
rules. But I hope that these things that I have learned from frequenting the
independent scene can be passed onto others who want to be even better fans.
So, lets start it off.
Pro wrestlers are known for being the absolute best or the
absolute worst when it comes to social media. But I decided I wanted to
highlight some of the week’s best in a column that I call “Tweets Of The Week”,
a compiled list of all of the 140 character maximum postings by pro wrestlers
that made me laugh, made me think or made me question why I ever loved two
people rolling around in tights in the first place. So let’s start it off.
#5: Robert Evans reiterating the fact that he is a true
renaissance man. (Wrestler turned barrister manager of wresters, turned
marching band wrestler, turned Mixed Martial Arts wrestler, turned cowboy
wrestler, turned screenwriter)
#4: The monstrous Mr. Touchdown working on possible
rehabilitation. Keep a close eye though.
#3: I give you the light sense of humor of William Regal.
#2: Chuck Taylor explains it better and more succinct than I
ever could.
And at #1: I know I’m already breaking the rule for this
column the first week in, but the “Tweet Of The Week” is actually gonna be
“Tweets Of The Week” courtesy of the Ring Of Honor World Champion Kevin Steen. This
past Saturday in Baltimore was the most recent Ring Of Honor TV Tapings, and
throughout the night, Steen kept his Twitter followers updated with all of the
weird on goings occurring backstage, which birthed these gems.
And the winner of all tweets for the visual alone:
So there it is, the first week of “Tweets Of The Week”,
which I plan on doing every Monday. What are some amazing tweets from pro
wrestlers you think I should include? What pro wrestlers are your favorites to
follow on Twitter? Leave a comment below answering those questions or to tell
me anything else you’d like to see me talk about.
He's Not The Greatest Because He Did It For Less Money
In case you didn’t know, this is Antonio Cesaro, the current
United States champion of the WWE. And if you follow me on the internet, you
will know that he is one of my favorite wrestlers currently on WWE television. I’ve
said before that I will wait throughout whatever WWE wants to place in front of
me for three hours on a Monday Night (including John Cena quite literally
pooping on peoples parade), just to get to the Antonio Cesaro match and watch
him go straight beast mode on someone. He has brought great matches out of some
not so great wrestlers, to the point where I am actually excited for the match
he is having on Main Event with The Great Khali of all people. But as many of
you know, Antonio Cesaro use to go under a different alias. He was once Claudio
Castagnoli, former multi-time champion in companies such as Ring Of Honor,
Chikara, Pro Wrestling Guerilla, Combat Zone Wrestling and many, many more. And
in those companies, Claudio exhibited all the traits that made me such a fan of
him currently.
This brings me to the point of this post. I follow
independent wrestling a great deal, to the point that I am the spear-header for
the indie wrestling news segment on the Wrestling Mayhem Show. When my fellow
Mayhem Show co-hosts bring up a name of someone they have heard of for the
first time, I am usually able to give them a brief synopsis of the stuff that
they have done and some of their attributes. It’s very pro wrestling
hipster-esque of me, but I like to share my knowledge with other people. But
let me say that just because I spend a great deal of my time following
independent wrestling and wrestlers, does not mean I automatically think that
all indie wrestling is great.
Normally, I tend to get behind certain wrestlers as opposed
to certain companies. While certain companies on an independent level can be
defined as better than others, there is great talent intermixed throughout, and
that also goes for televised wrestling products. However, I do feel very
strongly that in order to develop your own opinions about what is good and what
is bad, you need to see a little bit of everything. I watch everything from
WWE, to TNA, to local promotions, to promotions states away, to international
promotions, because your best pro wrestling experiences and your worst teach
you about what you love and appreciate. That being said, not every indie
wrestler is the greatest pro wrestler in the world. I’ve been to small
independent shows where the best on the show is still not as great as WWE’s
worse and vice versa. At the same token, just because a wrestler is on
television does not automatically make them better than someone wrestling in
front of only a fraction of the crowd.
And just because you have wrestled for those smaller crowds
does not mean you are automatically my favorite. Take for example Dean Ambrose,
the newest arrival from the independents to WWE television. As much as I appreciate
Ambrose, while I followed his stuff on the independent scene, I was never that
compelled by his work in the way most other fans were. A large portion of it
occurred in Combat Zone Wrestling, and looking back on his matches, they were
no different than a lot of the infamous wrestling that occurred in CZW at the
time. Then there are his widely talked about promos, where he pulls his hair,
rubs his face, talks in a mumbling voice and then starts to scream, and at
times I found them more comical then truly serious. One of my favorite examples
of this is a promo he cut for a IPW storyline he was doing with Drake Younger,
where Moxley continually harasses and gropes this female interviewer and says
weird stuff to make you think that he is crazy. When I watched it for the first
time, I couldn’t help but laugh the entire time because of how ridiculous it
was, which was not the goal of the promo. Rather than me thinking he was a
deranged psychopath who is dangerous, I thought he was ridiculously hilarious
and over the top. And just because something makes you laugh in wrestling,
doesn’t always mean its good.
Don’t get me wrong though. I am very happy for Dean
Ambrose’s recent success and opportunities in a company that pretty much every
pro wrestler desires to be in. But I tend to hear a great deal about how
bringing in Ambrose to the main roster is a way for the WWE to make the
internet wrestling community “wet in the pants”, and for me, that’s just not
the case. The same goes for Cesaro, who I would be enthralled with whether he
was wrestling in front of 18,000 or 180. Claudio Castagnoli and Antonio Cesaro
are the same phenomenal wrestler and no sole company that he has worked for has
defined him. However, I am still devout in keeping up with the independents and
talking them a great deal. But that is because they are the ones that need
people talking about them. WWE doesn’t need us on the internet discussing their
on-goings to be successful. In fact, they may be more successful without. I am
lucky enough to see amazing independent athletes like ACH, Davey Vega or Rachel
Summerlyn every month, and I make a strong effort to tell as many people as I
can about them. But they are as much my favorite wrestlers as the likes of
Cesaro, Damien Sandow, Daniel Bryan, Cody Rhodes and so many others on TV.
Overall, the moral somewhere within this is to love the
wrestlers you wish to love, no matter how the environment around those
wrestlers defines them. Great wrestlers are great wrestlers and bad wrestlers
are bad wrestlers. I encourage you to explore all of the wide variety that
professional wrestling has to offer and decide for yourself which are which.
Those are just my thoughts. I would love to hear what yours
are so leave a comment telling me what you think. What equates a good wrestler?
Do you tend to follow wrestlers or follow companies?
