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| Kansas State is Regal Photo Credit: WWE.com |
First up, Trey Irby of the Crimson Mask Blog asks which wrestler I think is most analogous to Kansas State football.
The first step here would be to ask what is KSU's personality is. They're coached by a curmudgeonly old coot by the name of Bill Snyder. He's ancient, but he's better at his job than anyone who's tried to replace him. In a related note, #RonP4RingofHonor. The team, led by quarterback Colin Klein, is an efficient offensive machine with defense enough to come out on top. They've always come close to getting the big prize, but have had to settle for minor prizes and moral victories. It's clear that Kansas State is the William Regal of college football. Of course, this is all null and void should KSU do the unthinkable and win the BCS this year, but then again, who knows. Maybe Regal as WWE Champion is in the cards as a major surprise down the line?
@OkoriWadsworth wants me to step in the time machine and pluck a wrestler from back in the day to bring back now.
Bam Bam Bigelow would be my answer because he was before his time and in the wrong company. If he had been in Vader's spot in WCW, we would be remembering him differently right now. His time in WCW was after he was used up and spat out by the WWF, a company that didn't know how to use the athletic hoss the way that they do even now. Besides, imagine the matches he'd have now with Sheamus? Mark Henry? Even the Big Show vs. Bam Bam would be a spectacle and a possible pay-per-view main event.
Stephen T. Stone of the Complete Shot Blog asks what I think the dirtsheets should be or shouldn't be doing in regards to their reporting.
My disdain for their overreliance on spoiler and ratings reporting is well-known and cliché. So, here's what I think they should be doing in lieu of that. Everyone knows that journalism is still the best way that wrestling can be disseminated. Kayfabe publications like Pro Wrestling Illustrated were so important back in the day because they helped people in disparate regions know more about hotbeds that weren't in their areas. Right now, there's a new kind of territory system in place that could use a boost from more in depth reporting.
Everyone knows what Ring of Honor and Chikara are nowadays, but who knows promotions like Anarchy Championship Wrestling or Absolute Intense Wrestling? How about promotions that are even more obscure than those? Instead of reporting on who might be in hot water with WWE management based on something a friend of a secretary of an underling to John Laurinaitis said, how about focusing on the true future of wrestling? Or better yet, instead of reporting on MMA in the Wrestling Observer, separate the two and have staff dedicated to putting the spotlight on more wrestling promotions than the popular ones? Maybe if more promotions did better business, then Bryan Alvarez can get his fucking gold boat instead of him waiting for Impact to "turn it around."
Jason Mann of Wrestlespective Radio asks how I've changed as a wrestling fan since starting the blog.
The biggest difference is the scope of wrestling that I look to consume. When I started the blog, I hadn't even begun watching Smackdown, ECW or TNA on a regular basis and had just gone to my first indie show. Now, I watch everything I can and spend a good chunk of my disposable income on wrestling tickets, DVDs and videos on demand.
I'd like to think my actual perspective on the art has become both more and less mature so to speak. Regarding the former, I think I've learned to focus less on the "business" aspects of the art and instead go for things like the artistic merits of what is being displayed rather than how much money it could make for the host company. Regarding the latter, I've felt like I started to watch more with the eyes and the mind of what people might derisively call a "mark," and really, that's made me derive more joy out of my Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and random viewings than I did before.
@Rider4Real asks what my favorite autumn beer is.
Well, what is an autumn beer, to get started? Fall brews are traditionally brown ales, either Marzen-style (or Oktoberfest) or more popularly in the last few years, pumpkin ales. I'm actually not the biggest fan of Oktoberfest-style beers, to tell the truth. Fall is actually my least favorite beer season, which is odd because it's the season that has THE traditional beer holiday/celebration in Oktoberfest. That being said, my favorite autumn beer is Wild Onion Pumpkin Ale. Wild Onion is a brewery from Chicago that really doesn't travel too far out of that area. I don't think you can get it retail in Philly, but Stephen Starr's Jones Restaurant actually brings it in. That's where I had it during my anniversary dinner, and it was pretty darn spiffy. It actually tasted like a savory pumpkin pie. The spice notes weren't too overpowering, and it finished smooth. Chicagoans, seek this out. Everyone else, well, I dunno what to say except maybe order brewery direct?
Brett Clendaniel, Jr. of WrestleChat asks if it's time for the death match to go the way of the dinosaur, citing the suicide of Brain Damage this past week.
First and foremost, my condolences go out to the family and friends of Brian Damage (Marvin Lambert) as well as to those of Mike Graham, both of whom reportedly committed suicide within 24 hours of each other. Terrible losses for the wrestling community.
Second, I'm not an unbiased source here. I have a weak stomach for hardcore wrestling in that I'm not sure why these guys do it to each other to the degrees they do. I may be a hypocrite since I never batted an eyelash to it in ECW, and when other promotions have done it, I was fine with it if they didn't go too far. That being said, images like the ones fictionalized in The Wrestler and the ones in real life promotions like Anarchy Championship Wrestling with Masada jamming skewers into the top of Matthew Palmer's head and in his inner cheek make me cringe. So yeah, I wouldn't cry if it went away.
That being said, I'm not sure everything needs to go. I'd be against a company forcing their wrestlers to wrestle in a high-risk style, but if these guys are coming up with the spots themselves, well, they're their bodies. I don't have to approve of it verbally. I make that decision with my dollar. I will say that anyone who hasn't learned the awful lesson of He Who Shall Not Be Named in terms of taking the chairshots to the head ad nauseam is playing with fire here.
I feel like I danced around this question, but I don't think there's an easy answer.
@dash8dx asks what one major addition and one major subtraction I'd make from Impact Wrestling to improve it.
I think the subtraction is obvious. If I were Bob Carter, I'd take my daughter Dixie out of the chairwoman position as fast as I could. This isn't even a "business" decision either. She's made so many personnel moves that have affected the creative side, plus she has this annoying habit of making appearances on TV without really having any talent to do so. Is there any worse character in wrestling history than Dixie Carter? I can think of maybe three – Mike Adamle, Linda McMahon and Brooke Hogan. All of them were/are NPCs and all of them were stiff as robots. Big shock there.
As for the addition, there are a lot that I could go with here, but I think if I'm going to do one thing to spark Impact Wrestling, it would be to revamp their Knockouts division and center it around Jessicka Havok. At one time, the Knockouts were the hottest part of the company in terms of wrestling and story. Now, they're almost vestigial in how they're used. Bring in Havok, let her do her thing and she'll become the next big thing in the mainstream. Bank on it.
@GayWrestlingFan wants to know why for a progressive wrestling company Chikara is so white male-heavy.
The demographics of Chikara do skew a bit white guy to the naked eye. The knee-jerk answer is to say that sometimes, demographics mirror society's, but that's not true just looking at the roster. However, here are two reasons why the makeup of the main roster shouldn't really be of concern to anyone.
The first is that most of the regular roster consists of people who came up through the Wrestle Factory. For whatever reason, maybe there weren't a whole lot of women or minorities who came through and made it. I can't speak for Quack and his trainers, but that's the commonsense answer to me.
The second, and most important, is that the roster page isn't going to do Chikara's history of progressivism and tolerance really any justice. Before she left for WWE, Sara del Rey was one of two women on the roster, which might seem pretty paltry except for the fact that she was arguably the top star in the company, was treated as the top star regardless of what kind of genitals she had and was going to win the Grand Championship in all likelihood before she went to Florida to whip wrestlers into ring shape. Most companies have women's divisions that have more population but often end up as seeming inferior to the men rather than their equals.
Besides, Chikara's roster is only going to be a small portion of wrestlers they bring in. Within calendar years 2011 and 2012, they've had or will have the following list of wrestlers who aren't white men on the show: Saturyne, Sugar Dunkerton, Willie Richardson, Acid Jaz, Trauma, Marshe Rockett, Amber O'Neal, Dash Chisako, Sendai Sachiko, Meiko Satomura, the black member of the Devastation Corporation, Ebessan, Tako Yakida, Yoneru Sanders, Manami Toyota, Kaori Yoneyama, Tsubasa Kurigaki, Commando Bolshoi, Tadasuke, Kikutaro, 2 Cold Scorpio, Meng, ACH, del Rey, Leah von Dutch, Kagetsu, Crossbones, Remi Wilkins, QT Marshall, Gami, Portia Perez, Cherry, Toshie Uematsu, Mio Shirai, Mayumi Ozaki, Sawako Shimono, Hanako Nakamori, Aja Kong, Ayako Hamada, Atsushi Kotoge, Daisuke Harada, Kana, Jessie McKay, Amber, Makoto, Tsukasa Fujimoto, Mima Shimoda, Daizee Haze, Louis Lyndon, Flip Kendrick, Shiima Xion, Hieracon/Jonathan Gresham, Amasis, Great Sasuke, Jinsei Shinzaki, Dick Togo, Ultimate Spider Jr., Akira Tozawa, Super Shisa, KAGETORA, Madison Eagles, Tama Williams and Rich Swann. (That's counting the Latinos as "white," which actually may be problematic if you tell them that.) Almost all of them were made big deals of when they were there for whatever period of time they happened to sojourn there. So yeah, I think the diversity issue that Chikara "has" is a bit overblown here.
@ButchCorp wants to know if I think there's a correlation between the sheer amount of programming WWE has and the people tuning out.
I don't think it's volume, I think it's quality. Those first post-RAW 1000 shows were pretty goddamn terrible. Terrible two-hour RAWs can be dealt with. Terrible three-hour RAWs can feel like an eternity. Hell, even GOOD three hour RAWs like the ones we've been having lately can be a bit daunting to get through. Plus, WWE always dips at this point.
@el_spriggs asks if anything in the universe would be better than ACH vs. El Generico.
THINGS BETTER THAN THIS MATCH:
- Kate Upton's breasts
- Corgi butlers who bring you bacon
That's about it.
@OkoriWadsworth is back and wants my dream War Games lineup if WWE were to bring it back.
It would have to be with a longterm feud with a lot of hate, right? Or maybe intermingling feuds. Anyway, it would have to be a CM Punk/John Cena affair, so here are the teams:
Team Punk: CM Punk, Colt Cabana, Brock Lesnar and The Big Show
Team Cena: John Cena, Daniel Bryan, Kane and The Ryback
Norko Kipte of the A1 Podcast asks what my favorite potato chip, soda and wrestler are at the moment?
Chips and soda right now are kinda hard for me because I eat very little of the former and only drink zero calorie variants on the latter. However, drawing from my fat days, my favorite potato chip has to be Munchos. They've got different texture than most chips, but they're so addictive. Soda would either be Mountain Dew or Stewart's Root Beer.
My favorite wrestler right now is Daniel Bryan. YES! YES! YES!
Finally, @robot_hammer asks what WWE needs to do with Randy Orton, as he's been treading water lately in his words.
Well, the reason for that might just be because he's splitting time between the road and filming movies. I think they'd be better off letting, say, Alberto del Rio or Dolph Ziggler or THE RYBACK "injuring" him and letting him freshen up a bit. But yeah, I almost feel like he's running in place now too. I almost feel like he's like John Cena, but not as annoying because he's always stashed away in the middle of the card, even on his own show.
Finally, @robot_hammer asks what WWE needs to do with Randy Orton, as he's been treading water lately in his words.
Well, the reason for that might just be because he's splitting time between the road and filming movies. I think they'd be better off letting, say, Alberto del Rio or Dolph Ziggler or THE RYBACK "injuring" him and letting him freshen up a bit. But yeah, I almost feel like he's running in place now too. I almost feel like he's like John Cena, but not as annoying because he's always stashed away in the middle of the card, even on his own show.
