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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2021 16:55:09 GMT -5
I've been watching clips on youtube over the past couple weeks and I've concluded my favourite wrestler as of this moment is.....Brock Lesnar.
I used to adore Jericho but ever since he went to AEW he's gotten horribly out of shape.
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Post by Batflunkie on Jul 9, 2021 16:56:58 GMT -5
NWA Power was a lot of fun but the pandemic basically killed it dead. Returning with a diminished roster and a no longer free TV show? No thanks. I was into AEW pre-pandemic too, but had no interest in watching crowdless wrestling, and by May of last year I completely stopped watching wrestling, new or old, anyway. I've been a big fan since the summer of 86, with numerous breaks over the years. With this break, I basically replaced wrestling with comics as my main obsession (had taken a 10-12 year sabbatical) and dont really miss the squared circle at all I was super into wrestling for a long time in my early 20's, but kind of dropped off after Lucha Underground ended. I still have a taste for it, but it's much more causal in nature these days I've been watching clips on youtube over the past couple weeks and I've concluded my favourite wrestler as of this moment is.....Brock Lesnar. I used to adore Jericho but ever since he went to AEW he's gotten horribly out of shape.
Since his recent documentary on Peacock/WWE Network, I'm kind of taking a shine to Rob Van Damme. He was always a great wrestler in my eyes, not exactly technical like say Beniot or Angle, but he has more of a "spectacle" element to his in-ring performances
Brock is just a monster in-ring. I was watching early 00's Smackdown and he just ate people alive in a minute flat
I've always liked Jericho as a talker, but I can't recall ever watching him wrestle much. Great theme song though
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Josh
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Post by Josh on Jul 9, 2021 17:31:18 GMT -5
I have really grown to despise Jericho during the Inner Circle/Pinnacle storyline. And not because it’s the angle they’re working. I’m sure some of it is due to Covid and maybe Sammy’s suspension (not sure on the timing there), but it’s felt like they’re spinning their wheels and holding MJF back for months now.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 9, 2021 17:48:11 GMT -5
While it's not the same as the territory days, I think there's some pretty different flavors out there... AEW is very different form WWE style wise... then there's Ring of Honor and things like NWA Hollywood that definitely have a small fed/territory feel. I don't watch Impact really, but from what I have seen, it seems kinda in between. AEW was never totally crowdless.. they have the other talent as the 'fans' at the height of the pandemic, then slowly brought them back. I think this week was the first time they're back on tour after being in Jacksonville for the last year+ That's mainly what I watch (and just the main TNT show, none of the youtube stuff). I'll watch WWE or RoH now and then if I flip by it on the TV to see what's going on. My random AEW Thoughts I still love Jericho, though I agree he's starting to show his age both physically (he definitely looks like a 50+ year old man now... whereas he was still pretty thin and young looking even as late as the angle with Kevin Owens in WWE), and in repetition of his promos. He's still appointment TV though, IMO. I agree the feud has gone on too long.. that's definitely my main beef with AEW.. they have this huge roster and could do a ton with it, but they spin their wheels alot. Why haven't we have a PPV level match with Hangman Page v. Kenny Omega? That should have been at the last PPV, not the silly fill in 3 way title match. MJF definitely should be doing SOMETHING.. that 'campaign' for a title shot was silly and too 4th wall breaking... just let him win some matches and have a meaningful feud already. I don't like the Pinnacle at all.. I don't think any of those guys are a good fit for MJF lackeys... because that's what he needs. I'd not a 'first among equals' personality.. he's a leader, and definitely needs lackeys . Having him hire Butcher and Blade made alot more sense...or maybe Bear Country (who they seem to have signed for the sole purpose of cross promoting Godzilla v. Kong). The QT Marshall v. Cody feud is terrible.. bordering on flip the channel bad. I love me some Dark Order though.... Darby is great (his teaming with Sting has be surprisingly entertaining). The angle with Daniels and Kazarian was really good (would have rather seen them win the title then drop it a couple weeks later, but that's because I'm a a big Daniels fan). They're doing a great job making the fans want to see the Elite taken down.. I do fear it'll run too long though. If I was booking, I'd have Page beat Omega next PPV, then do Page-Moxley after that, which both should be awesome. I'm liking the Christian-Matt Hardy thing too... should be a good blow off, and I'm glad it's a mid card thing (since neither guy really should be in the title picture at this point). MAYBE Christian could be.. but I'm not sure he can work at the AEW pace against the top guys. Private Party doesn't work as heels, but now we know that. They also need to decide if they want Jungle Boy to be a singles star or Jurassic Express to be a tag team... if they go with the former, he needs to be the next TNT champ so Miro can get into the heavyweight title picture (maybe after a feud with Sabian). Personally, I'd have Santana/Ortiz beat the Bucks to give the Inner Circle some credibility.. then touch that feud off.. .Jericho/Omega after Omega drops the title to Page would be good (not sure Jericho would be willing though, since he's fought him before and he's not one for revisiting), but Omega feuding with Sammy wouldn't be bad either. I like Orange Cassidy, but he doesn't need to be in the title hunt to get over. Trent is just too injury prone to give the Best Friends a push, even if I do like them (Trent is a very underrated worker imo)
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 10, 2021 0:37:19 GMT -5
New Japan is fine for what it is; but, I am so far removed from the Japan stuff that I have never had an interest in seeking it out. My days with New Japan were the Tiger Mask era and then Jushin Liger and The Great Muta and the crew there, By the 90s, they were watered down. The Japan scene has changed a ton, since my day, with so many lesser promotions watering things down. I preferred it more when it was mainly New Japan and All-Japan, and a few indies. I sampled some of the shoot promotions, after the fact (didn't have access to tapes, until later) and Universal Pro, the lucha-oriented promotion run by Gran Hamada, that featured young Yoshihiro Asai (the future Ultimo Dragon), Great Sasuke and Super Delfin, plus Mexican luchadors, like Blue Panther and Black Warrior. I also watched tapes, later of AAA and CMLL. Loved the Arsion women's promotion that was centered around Aja Kong, and featured Ayako Hamada, Fabi Apache, and Mika Akino. I caught bits and pieces of All-Japan Women, especially Manami Toyota. Didn't care for the garbage promotions, except for Hayabusa's non-garbage matches, in FMW, as well as Megumi Kudo and Combat Toyoda. Genichiro Tenryu's WAR promotion had some great matches, with the likes of Ultimo Dragon, Lance Storm, Rey Mysterio Jr, and Gedo and Jado.
The current product just isn't the same to me, either, though New Japan still presents it as major league. Still, the quality of their gaijin isn't what it once was.
That was the other thing, when I was younger; wrestling was still strong in many countries: Japan, Canada, Mexico, France, the UK, Germany, Austria, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Guatemala, Nigeria, South Africa, India and a few other places. You could follow some of it in the magazines (more Canada and Japan, but some had results from other countries). You might read about some of the international stars, before they came to the US. I had been following Steven Regal and Fit Finlay long before they turned up in WCW, and new about guys like Marc Rollerball Rocco, Otto Wanz, Dave Taylor, Luc "Rambo" Poirer, and Leon "Bull Power" White, when he wrestled in the AWA and for Otto Wanz's Catch Wrestling Association, in Germany & Austria, before he also went to Japan and became Big Van Vader.
The wrestling mags are also something I miss, even with the fake articles and interviews of the Apter magazines. You could keep abreast of other territories and a few, slid under kayfabe. I used to get Wrestling Eye, when it came along, in the mid-80s, and featured more behind the scenes history and developments. It was there I read about the birth of the AWA title and not the promotion's official history, about the Omaha version of that title, and things like Rockin' Robin, in the WWF, was Jake Roberts younger half sister (already knew about Sam Houston being his half-brother, and Baby Doll his sister-in-law). Wrestling Eye also covered the newer independents, like a promotion in Philly, called Eastern Championship Wrestling, as well as the Savoldi ICW and Killer Kowalski's IWF, with his school. i saw photos of a masked wrestler, the Cheetah Kid, who would become Flyboy Rocco Rock, of Public Enemy, two guys called Perry Saturn and Terra Ryzing. Saturn went on to ECW and WCW and Ryzing started with that name, in WCW, then became Jean-Paul Levesque, then turned up in the WWF as Hunter Hurst Helmsley, later shortened to Triple H. I got my first glimpse of Bret Hart in one of the old Starlog Group wrestling magazines, in a feature about Stampede. teh Apter mags talked about Dynamite Kid, in Portland, Stampede and New Japan, before the Bulldogs came to the WWF.
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Josh
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Post by Josh on Jul 10, 2021 8:16:39 GMT -5
I think Omega/Page hasn’t happened yet because they were waiting for crowds. They’ve always been building to that, and doing a good job, I think (given circumstances). My guess is Page wins the belt at the next PPV and then Omega takes a long time off. I don’t think Omega/Jericho is going to happen. My guess is Jericho is going to take a lot of time off too and they’ll have MJF “end his career” to help give him more of a push now that crowds are back. Extending the Sammy/MJF feud makes some sense, but I don’t know how they do that without involving the rest of those stables, and those stables are not interesting at all to me. I kinda like Dax Wheeler, but the rest are whatever for me. Some of that could be burnout from the storyline, but I can’t stand Hager, Spears or Wardlow. And as much as I recognize Sammy skill, I’m not big on him either.
The Tag Titles are a bigger problem. Young Bucks are just head and shoulders above the rest of those guys. You can’t put the belts on The Acclaimed, because Caster is just obnoxiously awful and Bowen is more a sidekick than a partner. Varsity Blondes are good, but not “take the belts off the Bucks” good. Sydals and Top Flight are interesting in that I think Matt is pretty great and Dante Martin’s in ring work is absurd given his age. But, I don’t know how either is on the mic, and Mike never seems to wrestle and Darius is still out. I think they’ll do more Matt/Dante matches (maybe let Dante beat Mike) and then when Darius is back do a Too Flight/Sydals thing for awhile.
Which leaves Lucha Bros/Death Triangle. The only issues with Death Triangle is AEW seemed to want them as heels, but people absolutely love Lucha Bros and Rey got hurt. I think putting Penta with Kingston is a way to establish him (and by extension Rey) as a face so when Rey comes back they don’t need to spend a lot of time setting that up. Santana and Ortiz could absolutely benefit more from getting the belts off the Bucks, though.
Dark Order is weird to me. Other than 10 (who is another guy I think is destined for greatness) they don’t really seem to do anything. That they were all wrestlers AEW didn’t know what to do with before Brodie Lee recruited them is still really obvious a year out (again, other than 10). It’s real weird to me, especially with AEW rankings, that Evil Uno and Silver have both gotten TNT Title matches. In both cases, their title shot was the first time I’d seen either solo (and in Uno’s case the only time I’d seen him wrestle other than the tag battle royal). That said, I absolutely love how they’ve handled Negative One since his dad died, so if they stay together forever I’m fine with it. But 10 has absolutely got to start getting more of a push outside of the YouTube shows. The man is using a Full Nelson as a finisher in 2021 and making it look like the most brutal submission hold ever.
I’d hate to see Jurassic Express break up, because I feel like they’ve already got a loaded singles roster, but Jungle Boy is so over that I’m not sure they can keep them together much longer with how little they wrestle.
Completely agree on Cody/QT. I love QT as a heel, but I just don’t care about his matches. And their handling of Ogogo is by far the worst thing they’ve done. Absolutely huge mistake not to have Rhodes put him over at DoN. You build him up as some huge threat without beating anybody and then have him lose his first PPV. Now what? They need to have the Rhodes brothers and QT take a back seat and see what they can do with the other guys in those stables.
Love heel Matt Hardy so much, but man his matches kinda make me sad. The years of TLC matches have really taken a toll on his body. Christian’s arc has been weird. I thought they were building to him beating Omega, especially when he was the first one in the ring for the Casino Royale (glad he didn’t, though). Then he was feuding with Team Taz and that went nowhere. The Hardy angle does feel like a better fit, but I wonder if maybe Christian was hesitant to go that route initially because it was done in WWE.
Speaking of Team Taz, and I can’t believe I forgot them, but Cage and Hobbs should absolutely be a tag team vying for the belts. They both have great looks and are good combination of power and agility. If they hadn’t wasted too much time already, I’d absolutely have them take the belts off Young Bucks.
I hope Miro holds the TNT Title awhile longer. He’s been an excellent champion, and while I’d like to see him get the Heavyweight belt eventually, I think he needs a really good feud first. Maybe Tommy End will be the guy?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2021 12:03:20 GMT -5
Are the live audiences coming back to WWE this month?
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Post by Ricky Jackson on Jul 10, 2021 13:35:32 GMT -5
Are the live audiences coming back to WWE this month?
Yes, starting this Friday with a Smackdown taping I believe
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 10, 2021 15:26:32 GMT -5
I liked Jericho's work in the Big Leagues, but he is turning into more than a bit of a tool, since joining AEW. He obsesses over criticism, which he then tries to dismiss as ill-informed or irrelevant, but won't let it go. He and his wife have also been involved in negative politics, when makes him look more like an idiot. By contrast, former partner Lance Storm is always level headed, articulate and on point. Jericho had more personality, but Lance had the maturity and, in my book, was the better in-ring worker. I liked Jericho's work; but, I think he is losing touch with reality, outside the ring.
I like Cody Rhodes, but the stuff I saw in AEW, when I sampled it, seemed to lack a logic to it. It was the best booked stuff there; but, there were still elements when I just shake my head and say, "You're dad would have never allowed that in his promotion." I really liked the stuff he did with Nick Aldiss, trading the NWA title, when he was with Ring of Honor. Good matches, with a major sport feel, and good booking to the angles.
Even the NWA, which I enjoyed, has the same problem I see in every modern promotion, from the WWE on down: too many high spots with no logic to them. The WWE matches look cookie cutter, because they are all being trained to work the same way and they are lad out the same way. AEW is nothing but spots, for the bulk of the roster and they are sloppy. The NWA had a lot of this, too. Not so much the sloppy spots, but moves done that so obviously needed cooperation it took you out of the match. You had the same corner spots and saw them from everyone on the card, except the veterans who were there, like the Rock N Roll Express. Some were better than others at it; but, you still really didn't get the ebb and flow you got in the old days. I'm not talking a slower style and working a chin lock for 10 minutes. I mean a heel gets a cheap shot and exploits it and tells a story. The babyface misses in the corner and slams an elbow into the turnbuckle. The heel then works over the arm and elbow. The babyface tries to fire back, but the injury makes it hard and the heel exploits it. the babyface makes an escape and gets taken down again and worked over some more. Then, the babyface exploits a mistake from the heel and makes a fiery comeback. He battles back and takes it to the heel and they build to the finish.
A lot, and I mean A LOT, of modern matches have guys trading moves, with no real logic to the sequence. It's more "You do your stuff and I'll do mine." Flair and Steamboat had their signature spots; but, they pulled them out at the right time in the match, not just to show them off, but because they would get the crowd to react a certain way, that they would then build on. Steamboat would do his martial arts chops and the crowd would go nuts; but, he varied when he did it. Sometimes, he was getting the better of the heel, early on, and you think he has the match won, until the heel pulls a fast one and Steamboat would be in trouble and have to battle through it. Other times, it was a "hope spot," where he exploits a weakness and takes down the heel, then gets fired up and makes his full comeback and they go into the finish. He and Flair were masters of when to do their signature spots and no two matches were the same. They also didn't practice them ahead of time; they went to the ring with a finish and a time limit and improvised the entire thing. Yes, he and Savage planned out their Wrestlemania 3 match; but, Steamboat preferred not to work that way and Savage did it for that match, but used to improvise his matches, too. he had a reason for laying it out, as he wanted to steal the show and that's what they devised.
I was weaned on mat wrestling and I love to see real technicians go at it, with chain wrestling, counter moves, and then a high spot for emphasis. Not many modern guys can do that. Lesnar can, if he has an opponent who can. Angle was phenomenal at it, but rarely got to display it to the full effect, unless he was in there with someone like Chris Benoit who had been trained that way. I love watching Regal and Fit Finlay because they were both well schooled in it. The match from the Brian Pillman memorial Show, between regal and Chris Benoit, was off the charts. they put on a wrestling seminar that had veteran Les Thatcher, the promoter and former wrestler, cheering and telling the audience "That is wrestling!"
I don't mind high spots; Tiger Mask and Dynamite Kid pioneered a lot of the modern style; but, they made it look sharp and snug. Liger did, too. The Best of the Super Junior tournaments, in New Japan, were filled with flyers, but they could also work the mat and chose when to pull off the spectacular stuff, with the possible exception of Great Sasuke. I watched him and Ultimo Dragon go at it, in the J-Crown tournament and their rematch, and Sasuke was less capable on the mat than Asai. He was more reckless, prone to missing spots and getting hurt, like cracking his head open in (I believe) the 1994 Super J Cup.
All of that is why I tend to spend more time (such as it is, which isn't much) watching older stuff on Youtube, from the territories, Japan and Mexico. The modern flavor just isn't my thing, with the exception of a few performers. I prefer the older style of storytelling and watch that when I can catch it. If there was a modern promotion like Bill Watts Mid-South, from 1981-85, I'd be all over it. Or Mid-Atlantic wrestling, from the same period. No matter how slick the presentation, nothing on tv today holds a candle to Crockett NWA, on TBS. For me, those were the pinnacles of pro wrestling.
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Post by commond on Jul 10, 2021 19:45:14 GMT -5
The good thing about pro-wrestling is that like movies, music, or comics, if you're not interested in the latest stuff, you can immerse yourself in the past. Pretty much all I watch these days is 1950s French Catch, Golden Age 50s American wrestling, and older lucha libre. I've spent the last week or so watching old 7mm Florida footage.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2021 21:16:01 GMT -5
The good thing about pro-wrestling is that like movies, music, or comics, if you're not interested in the latest stuff, you can immerse yourself in the past.
For the first time in ages, I looked at part of Monday Night RAW earlier this week.
Didn't like it...who is this Riddle clown and why does he look like a barefoot girl in the ring?
Have no idea who Mansoor is...
Jinder has yet to impress he's still a clown.
All I can say is, 1/2 hour of the Attitude Era is better than anything current.
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Josh
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Post by Josh on Jul 10, 2021 22:17:39 GMT -5
Riddle’s gimmick is awful, but I enjoy his wrestling. I’d love to see him and ZSJ work together.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 11, 2021 18:09:25 GMT -5
Speaking of Old School vs Modern, I was just re-watching GLOW, the Neflix series.
Back in the day, I watched any wrestling I could, though the few womens matches you saw were pretty bad. Not that they were bad workers, but that Moolah's troupe dominated things. They did the same boring spots, with hair mares and butt drops and not much that the guys did. I would read about the All-Japan women and wish they worked in the US. The earliest stuff I saw was Debbie Combs vs Lelani Kai, for the Poffo ICW. Kai was one of Moolah's girls, but Debbie Combs was 2nd generation, both as a wrestler and an independent. Her mother, Cora Combs, had worked separate from Moolah, though she had been part of Billy Wolfe's girl wrestler troupe, same as Moolah. Debbie still did the traditional stuff; but, she could do more and would, when given the opportunity (and she did work in Japan).
Of Moolah's wrestlers, booked into the WWF, the best, for my money, were Wendy Richter and Velvet McIntyre. Both were more athletic and tried to work more like the guys, moving away from the traditional spots. However, Moolah controlled things and was loyal to Vince and helped concoct the first WWF Screwjob, when she double-crossed Wendy Richter out of the womens title, in a pay dispute. Richter was supposed to wrestle Lisa Sliwa, who had been training and working as The Spider Lady, under a mask. When Richter got to the ring, she knew it wasn't Sliwa, but claims she didn't know it was Moolah, until she took off the mask. That part I don't buy, since Moolah, as the heel, would have been calling the match, unless Richter was calling it, as the veteran.
Richter left and was married, for a time, to Puerto Rican wrestler/promoter Hugo Savinovich and worked for the World Wrestling Council, the local promotion in PR. She then went to the AWA and won their womens title. The AWA, at that time, had some better workers, with Sherri Martell, Madusa Micelli, Candi Devine and a few others booked in womens matches; basically, not Moolah's troupe. they had some good matches.
While that went on, inspired by the movie All the Marbles, an Indiana announcer and would-be promotoer, David McLane, hooked up with a Hollywood director, Matt Cimber, tv exec Irv Holender (who provided the tv distribution) and Meshulam Ricklis, who bankrolled it and provided the Riviera Hotel as both living and training quarters and a venue to stage and film the matches. mcLane called his show Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, or GLOW.
I first heard about GLOW on Entertainment Tonight, which showed some footage and some of the performers. I had never heard of any of the women, especially with the gimmick names; but, I knew the announcer, David McLane. McLane had been a photographer and then announcer for Dick the bruiser's All-Star Wrestling tv show, for his WWA (Indianapolis) promotion. McLane had an iconic and annoying speech style, which made the horrible matches even worse, as he was too over the top, but tried to sound serious doing it. By that point, the WWA was a few old timers who were never big deals (except Bruiser and Snyder) and some young guys who never went anywhere (except a little later, they had a rookie, named Scott Rechsteiner, who became Scott Steiner and joined brother Rob, aka Rick Steiner, in WCW). McLane just grated on your ears and, in my opinion, was one of the worst announcers, ever, in pro wrestling (in my lifetime, anyway).
The show wasn't aired in my area and I didn't catch a match, until I had graduated from college and went off to Athens, GA, to go to school for 6 months, for the US Navy. Along the way, I helped my parents move to Charleston, SC and caught an episode of the GLOW tv show there. Instead of exciting wrestling, I found sloppy matches, with women who didn't really know how to work, but were much better looking than your average lady wrestler in the WWF, NWA or AWA. What I also found was a LOT of really bad comedy skits, so hokey and cornball that it made Hee-Haw look like SCTV. It was excrutiatingly bad, though it was popular enough with kids (especially young girls) and horny teenage guys and college students, to last for 4 years.
meanwhile, after 2 seasons, David McLane, frustrated with things, sold out his interests and went back to Indy and formed a new promotion, with a handful of key performers, calling it POWW, POwerful Women of Wrestling. They did a more traditional style of womens wrestling and had some of the better performers, like Lisa Moretti, aka Tina Ferrari, and Ursula Hagen, aka Babe the Farmer's daughter (who later bough the GLOW rights). They gave it a go and did some cross promotion, with the AWA, but it fell apart quickly. They couldn't use the names, so Tina Ferrari became Nina, and Babe became Goldie Rae. They ran for about 3 years, before shutting down. McLane later tried again, in 2000, with Women of Wrestling, which managed a horrible pay-per-view and a short-lived tv show. POWW included other women wrestlers, like Selina Majors, aka Bambi (who wrestled for the remaining southern promotions and the AWA), Candi Devine, Heidi Lee Morgan, and Luna Vachon.
There was also the short-lived LPWA, which had involvement from Joe Pedicino (Global Wrestling Federation and the Superstars of Wrestling bloc, on Atlanta tv, showcasing hours of wrestling from several promotions, as well as Pro Wrestling This Week, a highlight show of wrestling from around the country and some international matches) and Jim Cornette, with stars like Reggie Bennett, Teri Poch (aka Terry Power and Tori, in the WWE) and some others, who also worked in Japan. Again, it didn't last long.
Many years later, a documentary was put together about GLOW, with the participation of most of the performers, though not David McLane....
The documentary is really, really good and it covers a lot of what went on and the price some of them paid. It is lacking for not having McLane interviewed, as he had declined, when approached, though he later regretted it. he said the producers didn't articulate what they were trying to do and he didn't want to be involved in a hatchet job or something that ridiculed it. However, when he saw the finished product, he complimented them and ended up getting in touch with Little Egypt (Angelina Altishin) and appeared on her podcast, for Buzz Feed, about the first season of the Netflix show.
The documentary was seen by the Netflix show creators and they pitched the idea of doing a comedy/drama, based on things in the documentary, and the rest is history.
The show is really, really good. It isn't a faithful representation of what really went on; but, it is within the spirit of what happened and uses the reality as a guide to things. There were a lot of accidental accuracies. The original group of women cast for the pilot of the original GLOW, were trained by Mando Guerrero, of the famous wrestling family (brother of Eddie Hector and Chavo Sr and son of Gory Guerrero). The actresses in the series were trained by Chavo Guerrero Jr. Chavo's connection to the original was unknown to the producers, when he interviewed to be the trainer. He brought up to them that Mando had been the original trainer. In the series, the pro wrestler trainer Salty the Sack Johnson, who stands in for Mando, leaves and Cherry Bang takes over the training. In real life, the training for the additional performers of the original series was done by Princess Jasmine, an experienced lady wrestler, who had worked in the WWA (and performed in the show as Pepper, along with tag partner, Salt). Then, the other performers trained the next batch of rookies (which is why the matches were sloppy, as each batch was trained by people with less experience).
The matches in the show are very well staged, far better than the actual GLOW and the show actually "gets" the psychology of wrestling and what attracts fans to it. It is respectful to the performers and the actual injuries they suffer, and the sacrifices they make in search of success.
The performers are all great; but, I especially love Mark Maron's Sam Silvia, who gets the best lines, Allison Brie and Betty Gilpin as the central characters, Ruth/Zoya and Debbie/Liberty Belle, as well as Chris Lowell, as Bash. I also enjoy the fact that they focused more on the ensemble in the second and third seasons, especially Gayle Rankin, as Sheila and Sunita Mani, as Arthie, who finds herself attracted to a new performer. The show is very sympathetic to "outside" characters, like Sheila, the closeted Bash, and the very open Yolanda (aka new Junk Chain), to whom Arthie becomes attracted.
The wrestling becomes more complex as they move forward and they deal with a lot of issues, like offensive stereotypes, injuries, fear of losing their position, and failure outside what they are doing. The third season, in Las Vegas, gets into a lot of elements about identity and there is some really strong stuff there, especially revolving around Sheila, Bash's sexuality and family, and the relationship between Ruth and Sam.
I was psyched for the 4th season, until the pandemic put it on hold and they then announced they were cancelling the series, without it, even though it was supposed to wrap up the series. Cost and length of time before they could reasonably finish and air were cited. Who knows, maybe they can figure out a solution, as things have moved forward with the pandemic.
One of the delights of the series was seeing Kia Stevens, known in wrestling as Awesome Kong, turn out to be a really great actress, though it shouldn't be surprising, as she grew up around Hollywood. Her mother did some acting and appeared in a low budget film with original GLOW performer Americana (Cindy Maranne), and she had watched the series, as a child, inspiring her to become a wrestler. On Little Egypt's Buzz Feed Show, she got to meet Americana her and relate her family connection and she immediately recalled Kia's mother and hooked her up with a tape of the film, as they had lost most of her mother's memorabilia, in a fire.
If you haven't watched it, I encourage you to watch both the Netflix series and the documentary. You can also find Little Egypt's after show recap, from Buzz Feed, on Youtube...
(Warning, NSFW language and some nudity, in the series)
(and more potty mouth)
(and some more)
Love the second season episode, where they do it as an actual episode of the tv show they are producing (very much like the original GLOW tv show, with better writing and performing) and the third season, where they do a Christmas Carol and also swap gimmicks.
Finally, the show uses iconic 80s music brilliantly and it captures the look and feel of the period, without shoving it in your face.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 11, 2021 18:30:37 GMT -5
ps The Best Trailer of All!
and, the music video, "Makeover", from the second season episode-within-an-episode...
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Post by Batflunkie on Jul 11, 2021 19:33:42 GMT -5
The good thing about pro-wrestling is that like movies, music, or comics, if you're not interested in the latest stuff, you can immerse yourself in the past. When I got back into wrestling in 2010 (which I remember well because it was an episode of smackdown where Alberto Del Rio first appeared) and I was awestruck at how bad everything had gotten since I stopped watching in 2007-08. If I hadn't discovered early to mid 90's ECW through less than legal means, I might have given up on wrestling all together
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