Friday, February 28, 2020

Twitter Request Line, Vol. 287

Where'd Wani go?
Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein
It's Twitter Request Line time, everyone! I take to Twitter to get questions about issues in wrestling, past and present, and answer them on here because 280 characters can't restrain me, fool! If you don't know already, follow me @tholzerman, and wait for the call on Wednesday to ask your questions. Hash-tag your questions #TweetBag, and look for the bag to drop Thursday afternoon (most of the time). Without further ado, here are your questions and my answers:

Jigsaw would be my answer if he didn't keep coming back. Seriously, I love it when he comes back, but it's always baffling when he leaves because it's without a trace. I guess the answer is Wani, who was just starting to win move over when he disappeared. I wonder if he just took his mask off and became someone else, but Chikara kayfabe is tricky.

Sports shows, there's not a bad seat in the house unless you're at Fenway and have seats behind the stupid support beams that obstruct the view. Sports are goal-oriented. You don't need to see in intricate detail how someone scores a touchdown or hits a home run. Wrestling, conversely, is process-oriented for the most part. Sure, people get mad when, say, Bill Goldberg beats The Fiend in Saudi Arabia, but honestly, people watch wrestling for the matches, for the promos, for the moments that punctuate the experience. So for wrestling, you probably want to be as close to the action as possible. Nosebleed seats for wrestling suck. Lower floor or mezzanine seats are the best.

I do not recognize anyone after Jose Garces, by the by.

6. Bobby Flay - Every chef has their go-to well, but Flay's is so boring and rote. Plus he's a big dork.

5. Jose Garces - Garces was where the show started to decline, although I can't hate on him too much because he's a Philly guy.

4. Cat Cora - She was the most intimidating American competitor, that's for sure.

3. Michael Symon - Symon was great because he basically beat people by making bar food.

2. Mario Batali - He doesn't seem like a great guy in real life, but man could he cook.

1. Masaharu Morimoto - My wife and I would make fun of him for doing the double cleaver fish chop every episode, but he was so innovative and fresh. Just the best.

That they're pedantic. The idea that the sideways reality was Purgatory was perhaps the worst part of the final season, but it doesn't violate the showrunners' promise that the Island itself wasn't Purgatory. There's a distinction. Even with the heavy-handed theological imagery, it was a satisfying end to the show. People expected the show to answer questions when what it was best at was telling a story. The ends of character arcs, even if bittersweet, were done superbly. I see no major qualms with the final season.

It was both not a major reboot and also the inevitable endgame of the character, but Doink's face turn marked the steepest dropoff in quality from one character-style to another. The face Doink was saccharine and trite. Evil Doink was the closest Vince McMahon ever got to true trope subversion. It makes me mad even 25-30 years later. Christ.

I certainly haven't cooked anything, but I think everything this week that I've eaten has been bog standard. I did finally try ceviche over New Year's, which is big for me. Anyway, hopefully I will be able to brag about trying Moroccan, Ethiopian, and West African food soon. The moral of the story is always expand your horizons.
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , ,