Archive for the ‘wrestling’ Category
The Rock Concert 1, 2 and the encore;
While some of ye may recognise the Rock from his roles in the ‘Scorpion King’ series of movies he got his start in the (now)WWE. Watching him do these skits you would have to wonder why he hasn’t done better as a movie star, I mean, he’s funny, sings, dances and acts! And in fairness,watching this is less effort than my current attemts to read up on ‘introducing ethical theory’ and ‘Islamism and Occidentalism’…
Part 1 - the sound quality on this clip isn’t great which is very very annoying..
Dave ‘Fit’ Finlay v William Regal
Amazing to hear the commentators saying that they want this match pulled ‘wide’ so you can’t see things too closely - really a sign of how different ‘mainstream’ pro wrestling has gotten in many ways. These days that match would have twice the blood and would be as up close as possible. Still a good fight though.
ECW: the most extreme matches
While I am a somewhat lasped wrestling fan I still have to admit that ‘classic wrestling’ (which for me means the 90’s) still holds a place in my heart. While I have no idea who most of the ’stars’ of the now-WWE are seeing many of the wrestlers I grew up with on the magic of DVD still brings a little thrill to my heart. Especially the guys of ECW, who I never saw when they were on TV with that company but saw in WCW or the WWF - and I still feel I missed out, especially given the quality of some of the matches.
So, was this DVD the one to bring this thrill back to my heart? Well its not bad. Was it worth the money i paid? Yeah, just about, there’s just enough material on this DVD to keep it going. Its just 10 minutes short of being six hours of material - which does lead me to wonder why somebody didn’t find another match just so the boxest could say ‘six hours of material!’ Granted, thats not six hours of matches, and not all of those matches are good but….
Well I should qualify that statement a little bit, the matches are some very ‘exteme’ matches and to be honest, if your expecting great wrestling from that you really are always going to be looking in the wrong place. The simple truth about exteme matches is that they are gimmicks - the idea is to give the fans either blood, or some crazy moves. With something like this the wrestling becomes somewhat secondary.
And there is a lot of blood - in particular the taipei death match between Ian and Axel Rotten where they pound each other with glass and the barbed wire match between Sabu and Terry Funk where towards the end of the match (as you are told in some of the special features) Terry Funk couldn’t move as the barbed wire was wrapped around his throat. Meanwhile some matches are there becasuse of a few moments - the Tazz v. Bam Bam Bigelow match is ok, but made memorable by the fact that they fell through the enterance ramp because they were hitting each other so hard, while a tag match between the team of Spike Dudley and Balls Mahoney v. The Dudley Boyz is simply notable bacuse it was the first time that ‘flaming tables’ (i.e -tables that had been set on fire) were used in ECW.
But, lest you think that there are no quality wrestling matches in this - the four corners match from heatwave ‘96 features some very good wrestling as does the 3 way dance between Tajiri v. Little Guido v Super Crazy. but oddly enough, in a sort of reverse complaint these matches are not very ‘extreme’ - they’re very good but not what the DVD advertises itself as being about.
A final complaint is the element of overlap - while the only other wrestling DVD I have is Mick Foley’s one there is one overlapped match from when he won the tag championship with Mikey Whipwreck. That would be ok, except those that are going to buy an ECW dvd are most likely going to buy the Mick Foley dvd too given the place of ‘hardcore wrestling’ in both - but lest I be accused of nitpicking with that match - could someone explain why the Mike Awesome v. Masato Tanaka match from ‘One Night Stand’ is on this boxset? I mean, the Mick Foley thing could be a genuine overlap, but when there are few enough ECW dvds out there why exactly is the WWE putting new ones together by using reacent dvds? There are more than enough Mike Awesome/Masato Tanaka matches out there that very good without having to go to such a reacent one. It’s just a small thing, and I know that some ‘overlap’ is likely in a compilation (which is what this DVD is after all) but some thought would be nice.
Still though, the DVD is nearly six hours long and even removing the ‘talking heads’ special features and Paul Heyman’s overly long intros into every match there is still a good 5 hours of wrestling in this DVD. Its worth a look.
Just as an example here’s a match between Awesome and Tanaka from Heatwave ‘98 (I think) It’s about 15 minutes long and is very good - so why not put that in? Read the rest of this entry »
TNA - first X-division title match
Astonishing match for the first TNA X-division title. Its funny how they keep emphasising the ‘NWA’ connection considering how that worked out but… Anyway enjoy.
classic wrestling - Dynamite Kid vs. Tiger Mask
Watching this you could understand why the matches between these two are still talked about. From 1982 in Japan I think. Interesting to note how they manage to have elements of a technical, high-flying and hardcore (see the parts where they’re outside the ring) in this match but most modern wrestlers are hard pressed to do one at a time…
Ok, so I’m posting too much wrestling but … Chris Benoit v William Regal
Here’s a clip of the late Chris Benoit against William Regal - it’s more like a traditional carnival or ‘real’ match than what most people would be used to seeing, well at least at the start anyway… Good stuff.
And:
D-Generation X as the ‘Nation of Domination’
Really funny stuff.. Wanted to do a proper post tonight but I’m not sure if I’ll have the time… Waterford match tomorrow to prepare for.. Anyway, enjoy…
Heading Away…
For the weekend anyway… Damn my brother for ‘making’ me go drinking last night - especially the heading to Trafest part….. Getting out of bed to get the bus to Cork is proving somewhat difficult at the moment.. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll survive… There probably won’t be any posting until early Monday I’d guess at this rate though my plans are pretty fluid. I’m fairly sure my results are out Tuesday but is anyone certain? And just to leave you all with something to watch here’s Ric Flair vs Terry Funk from the Great American Bash ‘89 - gotta love those ring entrances of Flair’s …
The rise and fall of ecw
Just read this book over two days (more than two days ago though because finding the time to write posts is getting troublesome) and realised when I saw it that the DVD ‘the Rise and Fall of ECW’ was the exact same thing word-for-word nearly. Well, at least the clips of it I saw seemed to be. D’oh! But anyway, I have some notes on it that apply to either (though I would recommend the DVD - wrestling is a visual entertainment so…). The book by Thom Loverro is pretty good overall I have to admit - apart from a somewhat weird piece at the start which links Greek/Roman/etc. traditional wrestling games with the modern version (technically true but… seriously like) the book gives a very good history of what Paul Heyman then moves onto his work in Eastern Championship Wrestling before it morphed into Extreme Championship Wrestling.
In general Loverro has a pretty good feel for the work and the people involved and through the many interviews really manages to flesh out the feelings of the people involved and what happened at various points. There are the odd moments of confusion though which is kind of annoying. A major example that I couldn’t get my head around was how the NWA was double crossed by Paul Heyman - I get that right after spitting in their faces (metaphorically anyway) getting Dennis Coraluzzo (on behalf of the NWA to agree to some of the things he did agree to looked bad for the NWA but double-crossed? The general explanation may make more sense if your a major wrestling historian but… The same happens later regarding Mike Awesome and his departure - how exactly was he involved in a title match barely weeks (which is what the books timeline seems to suggest) after he left the promotion under very bad terms? Again, someone who remembers this from the time or is a major, major fan may know but given that ECW is in many ways better known in death than life it seems a bit much….
The other major fault with the book seems to be in its assertion that ECW could never have been big - while I understand that a book dealing with the people (and written to tie into a WWE production) would never be too critical the book never quite explains how ECW went ‘wrong’. There a few obtuse references to bad decisions by Paul Heyman on a business sense but these come out of nowhere and are never really gotten into.
Despite these flaws the book is still pretty interesting and gives a fairly good feel for the whole thing so for any wrestling fan looking for some good reading for the summer (wonderful as it has been in Eire) I can happily recommend it…..