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April Wrasslin' |OT| The Spirit of the Ultimate Warrior Will Run Forever!

B

BronsonLee

Member
Vince McMahon said:
That guy doesn't look anything like my avatar, pal.

Also wow Strongbad still exists? I had to reach back into my teenager years to remember that ish.
Click to expand...

Remember, I've got avs/images turned off, so I didn't see what they were referring to.

You asked and I delivered! And ya he just made a big return too
 
D

Deleted member 47027

Unconfirmed Member
BronsonLee said:
Remember, I've got avs/images turned off, so I didn't see what they were referring to.

You asked and I delivered! And ya he just made a big return too
Click to expand...

You need an avatar that isn't your face. Something that defines what you're all about.
 
S

strobogo

Banned
Gonna take some stuffs back to the library, hit up the Mexican place I didn't go to yesterday. Probably get a margarita. Gonna be dope.
 
A

Aiii

So not worth it
So I'm watching WrestleMania Fallout 1 on the Network and they have Bray vs. Cena on there, full match and then there's this weird press conference thing after that, that apparently happened at Mania after the match (hearing Taker's theme, so right after the match it seems). Who are these reporters? Are they WWE plants?

What? How? When? Is this normal?

This is so weird to me.
 
K

Kaladin

Member
That mainstream press:

Drag Is Raw: Wrestlers, Queens and Gender as Performance Art

Every Monday night, TV gives itself over to a mass of preening, posturing men, indulging in petty backbiting. Also, RuPaul's "Drag Race" is on.

Both shows contain the shadows of ancient entertainment forms: large groups of men coming together to put on elaborate, out of the ordinary performances, many of them performing as women. From ancient Greek theater to Japanese Kabuki to Shakespeare, it's not hard to see the trickle-down effect that's led to a single night of programming featuring men acting out the most extreme archetypes of masculine and feminine with big, broad strokes. Conflict need addressing on Raw? Resolution most likely comes with a steel chair to the back, if not a choke slam through a table, if not both. Spat brewing on Drag Race? Someone's almost certainly been disparaging someone else's sewing skills. Or makeup. Or wig. One man's steel chair is another queen's sharp tongue.
Click to expand...
 
S

Sblargh

Banned
Aiii said:
Feud is not kayfabe, so that I get. Belt is a bit weirder, but I remember Punk spend a long time saying to interviewers "It's not a belt, it's a championship title:" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHSwZm_pWTc

So, he either caused it or he was mocking WWE.
Click to expand...

It's a cool mindset, tho. You see Bryan on the end of WM or Paige after RAW and they didn't win no belt, they got a championship title. He is the world champion of the male division and she is the world champion of the female division.

Stuff like "belt" or "strap" is cool to talk among fans, but I like the notion that, to the people who hold it, it is an accomplishment, because backstage politics aside, it really should be.
 
D

Deleted member 47027

Unconfirmed Member
Mr. Sandman said:
That mainstream press:

Drag Is Raw: Wrestlers, Queens and Gender as Performance Art

Every Monday night, TV gives itself over to a mass of preening, posturing men, indulging in petty backbiting. Also, RuPaul's "Drag Race" is on.
Click to expand...

"Bryan's tale is that of a classic, recognizable underdog. (Think Rocky, if Rocky looked like a member of the Drive-By Truckers.) Rising through the ranks of the indie wrestling circuit, he was denied serious consideration by WWE powers that be due to the perception that he was too small and couldn't serve as the face of the company. But ultimately what changed Bryan's course in the WWE was something outside of his control: He made a connection with the fans.

What those fans responded to was what fans respond to in any art form: recognition. In Daniel Bryan, fans found something they understood and could relate to. They identified with that sense of being judged and found lacking based on wholly inconsequential criteria. He was the embodiment of what the Haves perpetually denied the Have Nots. He took his inborn good-guy, hard-working, everyman personality and blew it sky high. He took something true and made it larger, until believing in Daniel Bryan became not just a fandom, but a movement. Performers who take something honest and intensify it are the ones that resonate in any field.

In Daniel Bryan, fans found something they understood and could relate to. They identified with that sense of being judged and found lacking based on wholly inconsequential criteria.

lmao. "He's just as shitty as our fans"?
 
P

Plywood

NeoGAF's smiling token!
Hasney said:
maddox.gif
Click to expand...
Where is this from because I would like to see more of it.
 
A

Aiii

So not worth it
Sblargh said:
It's a cool mindset, tho. You see Bryan on the end of WM or Paige after RAW and they didn't win no belt, they got a championship title. He is the world champion of the male division and she is the world champion of the female division.

Stuff like "belt" or "strap" is cool to talk among fans, but I like the notion that, to the people who hold it, it is an accomplishment, because backstage politics aside, it really should be.
Click to expand...

But then you have JBL mocking a woman for getting a tattoo because she accomplished winning the highest title in her division and there you go. Or you have a guy win a US Championship and then have him never defend it. Or you have a person holding a title and then make him lose every single non-title match (s)he has.

I'm sorry, it's just weird to me that a company can care so much about giving off a certain image, yet also manage to completely demolish it in every other way.
 
K

Kaladin

Member
Vince McMahon said:
"Bryan's tale is that of a classic, recognizable underdog. (Think Rocky, if Rocky looked like a member of the Drive-By Truckers.) Rising through the ranks of the indie wrestling circuit, he was denied serious consideration by WWE powers that be due to the perception that he was too small and couldn't serve as the face of the company. But ultimately what changed Bryan's course in the WWE was something outside of his control: He made a connection with the fans.

What those fans responded to was what fans respond to in any art form: recognition. In Daniel Bryan, fans found something they understood and could relate to. They identified with that sense of being judged and found lacking based on wholly inconsequential criteria. He was the embodiment of what the Haves perpetually denied the Have Nots. He took his inborn good-guy, hard-working, everyman personality and blew it sky high. He took something true and made it larger, until believing in Daniel Bryan became not just a fandom, but a movement. Performers who take something honest and intensify it are the ones that resonate in any field.

In Daniel Bryan, fans found something they understood and could relate to. They identified with that sense of being judged and found lacking based on wholly inconsequential criteria.

lmao. "He's just as shitty as our fans"?
Click to expand...

It gets better.....

Then, in light of the myriad similarities, perhaps it's not so surprising that what viewers respond to in a drag queen and what they respond to in a professional wrestler aren't so different. Drag fans and wrestling fans are made of much the same stuff. They come to the activity not necessarily as a specific fan of only one queen or only one star. They come as appreciators of the form at large. Alliances shift, and appreciations vary, but what doesn't change that which gets butts in the seats: the art. Perhaps you're excited for an episode because drag queen Courtney Act is sickening or The Shield wrestles the Wyatt Family, but you're there for the experience, for the eleganza, because you're a mark.

To be a mark, to suspend your disbelief and to believe in what you know to be unreal, remains the crux of so much entertainment. It's entering that movie theater and immersing yourself in another world for two hours. It's investing in the exploits of fictional characters in a made-up land that spans both page and screen. And it's sitting down every Monday night and cheering for the face to triumph over the heel and marveling that some men make the most beautiful women in the world.
Click to expand...
 
D

Deleted member 47027

Unconfirmed Member
Aiii said:
But then you have JBL mocking a woman for getting a tattoo because she accomplished winning the highest title in her division and there you go. Or you have a guy win a US Championship and then have him never defend it. Or you have a person holding a title and then make him lose every single non-title match (s)he has.

I'm sorry, it's just weird to me that a company can care so much about giving off a certain image, yet also manage to completely demolish it in every other way.
Click to expand...

If AJ really wanted to win an important title, she should have wrestled for a Stardom championship!

AJ would get eaten alive anywhere else though, real talk. She's not a bad talent in WWE, but she comes up as sorely lacking if you compare her with most other places with a serious female presence.
 
A

Aiii

So not worth it
Browny said:
We all know that's Vince in the back...
Click to expand...

Nah, plenty of Vince voice in JBL, but that one is JBL all the way.

Wrestler's court wasn't a JBL thing for no reason, that guy feels like everyone should act a certain way and if they don't (like what he perceives as being a mark for WWE), you get buried.

Vince McMahon said:
If AJ really wanted to win an important title, she should have wrestled for a Stardom championship!

AJ would get eaten alive anywhere else though, real talk. She's not a bad talent in WWE, but she comes up as sorely lacking if you compare her with most other places with a serious female presence.
Click to expand...

Real talk? I think AJ is a lot more assertive then you give her credit for. You don't get to that position in WWE if you're a pushover and only do exactly what's scripted for you and shut up and be a good little girl listening to the bras backstage.
 
D

Deleted member 47027

Unconfirmed Member
Mr. Sandman said:
It gets better.....
Click to expand...

Interesting.

I dated a drag queen for a little bit when I was younger. There's a lot in common. Lots of enjoyment of pageantry (literally in their bidness) but it's all about performance. Article rings true on many levels.
 
B

Browny

Banned
Aiii said:
Nah, plenty of Vince voice in JBL, but that one is JBL all the way.

Wrestler's court wasn't a JBL thing for no reason, that guy feels like everyone should act a certain way and if they don't (like what he perceives as being a mark for WWE), you get buried.
Click to expand...

Another good reason to "freshen up" the commentary team (since we haven't bitched about them yet today lol). Where the hell is Scott Stanford when you need him?
 
S

Sblargh

Banned
Mr. Sandman said:
That mainstream press:

Drag Is Raw: Wrestlers, Queens and Gender as Performance Art

Every Monday night, TV gives itself over to a mass of preening, posturing men, indulging in petty backbiting. Also, RuPaul's "Drag Race" is on.
Click to expand...

Loved this artcile. I don't watch Drag Race because I can't stand this kind of show (like American Idol, America's next whatever, and on); but I do like to see what is going on there now and then as I think those people look pretty good.

And to Sunny, it is not that Bryan and we (the people) are shitty, it's that the shitty people on the top evaluate us by arbitrary and incorrect measures. Bryan is the best in the ring, you don't like him because he is not the best powerlifter. A lot of times people put us down because we are not the best of what they expect us to be.

bo_dallas.jpg


You are the best at something great, but they come and tell us that something great is not good enough, because it is the wrong kind of "something". Fuck them. You can be the best wrestler in the world without being a powerlifter. You can look the best wearing the most gorgeous dress without being a biological woman.

It's not impossible.
I'm possible.
 
B

BronsonLee

Member
Vince McMahon said:
If AJ really wanted to win an important title, she should have wrestled for a Stardom championship!

AJ would get eaten alive anywhere else though, real talk. She's not a bad talent in WWE, but she comes up as sorely lacking if you compare her with most other places with a serious female presence.
Click to expand...

I'm of the opinion that AJ is how she is because she got signed -very- early in her career, so she knows WWE style very well, compared to, say, if she stayed on the indies and learned that style first.

If she stays on the indies for a few years instead of getting signed, who knows?
 
D

Deleted member 47027

Unconfirmed Member
Sblargh said:
Loved this artcile. I don't watch Drag Race because I can't stand this kind of show (like American Idol, America's next whatever, and on); but I do like to see what is going on there now and then as I think those people look pretty good.

And to Sunny, it is not that Bryan and we (the people) are shitty, it's that the shitty people on the top evaluate us by arbitrary and incorrect measures. Bryan is the best in the ring, you don't like him because he is not the best powerlifter. A lot of times people put us down because we are not the best of what they expect us to be.

You are the best at something great, but they come and tell us that something great is not good enough, because it is the wrong kind of "something". Fuck them. You can be the best wrestler in the world without being a powerlifter. You can look the best wearing the most gorgeous dress without being a biological woman.

It's not impossible.
I'm possible.
Click to expand...

Agreeing only with the bolded because I'm in character, I gotta hate on Bryan's looks. But there's still a shard of truth there.

I always felt like wrasslin'...there's two types mostly. Larger-than-life characters ala Andre, Hoke Hokan, etc - or there's everyman-style stuff like Dusty's work in Florida and some of WCCW's stars and other territory stuff.

Which do you prefer? Something that you watch and feel like you can never, ever be a part of it and just get a taste by seeing it? Or something where you say "I want to be a part of that"

Or both?

BronsonLee said:
I'm of the opinion that AJ is how she is because she got signed -very- early in her career, so she knows WWE style very well, compared to, say, if she stayed on the indies and learned that style first.

If she stays on the indies for a few years instead of getting signed, who knows?
Click to expand...

She's gonna pull a Beth Phoenix man. :/
 
D

Deleted member 47027

Unconfirmed Member
I liked Brock's red tights. Felt more collegiate, somehow. I liked his IWGP title run, brief as it was.
 
D

Deleted member 47027

Unconfirmed Member
I poke a lot of fun at WrassleGAF making up shit to fill in the blanks, how none of us REALLY know anything, but...

Nothing compares to gaming-side's level of speculation and how far they run with it.
 
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