Corey_Lazarus

I got it $9.99 at FYE. Best bang for my buck I've ever gotten from FYE.

Of the ones released this year that I'm either sick of entirely, or are downright terrible... SICK OF: System of a Down - "Question?" Shadows Fall - "The Power of I and I" TERRIBLE: Green Day - "Jesus of Suburbia" (Some fucking epic...IT'S FOUR SONGS PRESSED INTO ONE FOR THE SAKE OF HAVING A LONG SONG!!!! An EPIC song is one that is lengthy, has a few time changes, and has one or more connecting parts, not just moving from riff to riff to generic pop/punk riff. Fuck Green Day.) Green Day - "When September Ends" (Fuck Green Day.) System of a Down - "Hypnotize" (Bland as hell.) The new Staind song...whatever it's called. Everything WHITE STRIPES.

In truth, neither the X-Division nor WWE is REAL professional wrestling. REAL professional wrestling, as in the booked, "fake" kind we all love, died with the advent of wrestling characters. Pro wrestlers were men wearing trunks that traded headlocks, armbars, and a few forearms for anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes. To be honest, two men trading headlocks for 20 minutes is more realistic to a REAL FIGHT than a couple of guys punching each other and then nailing suplexes. Thus, your base of "WWE is more realistic" is thrown off. Also, if WWE was more realistic...then why are TRAINED AMATEUR WRESTLERS, who have a vast knowledge of submission holds and pinning combinations that make most men cry, losing to STREETFIGHTERS (Angle/Cena, Benjamin/Carlito)? I mean, if it was realistic, it'd be more like a Shamrock/Tank fight from UFC, where Tank is all about punching, and Shamrock shoots in and owns his ass in quick fashion. Again, if WWE was more realistic, then why was a man with a 3rd-degree black belt in Judo losing to a 50-something retired wrestler (Tazz/Lawler)? Sorry, but WWE is BARELY more realistic, if more realistic at all. You simply prefer it because you like wrestling for different reasons (and more narrow-minded reasons) than we do. You prefer characters, soap opera-ish drama, and promo's that lead to long matches with little action and hot finishes, and we prefer...well...we prefer what's called workrate, where you can tell the guys in the ring are busting their asses to keep the fans watching. Also, if you're too dense to realize the psychology of even a match like Joe/Sabin (which I doubt you've even seen), then you're pathetic, sir. Like I've said a few times already, there's more psychology in your average "big" X-Division match (ie. one that involves Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, or Christopher Daniels) than in the entire WWE main event scene put together (Batista, JBL, Cena, Angle, HHH, HBK, Kane, Big Show). Styles sold more damage being done to him in the Ultimate X match at Destination X this past March (at least I do believe it was March, though that may have been Lockdown) than Angle has sold since the feud with Benoit ended in '03. See, selling is about more than going "hey, it's late in the match, I'll get tired here and there." It's about certain parts of the body being in more pain than others because it's been focused on more. You'll notice how Styles always makes it look as though he's forcing out moves later in a match from sheer will, oftentimes biting his lower lip and closing his eyes tightly, later in his matches. That's a form of selling. It's not body part specific, but it IS selling. And psychology? Lemme guess: you think Cena hitting punch after punch after punch to somebody's head is psychology because a punch to the head can knock somebody out, right? Well, you're right. But it would make that much more sense if, say, the F-U focused on his opponent's head. It doesn't. It focuses on their back. So...why does all of his other moves focus on the head when his finisher hits the back? That's similar to how Angle doesn't work over his opponent's ankle before locking in the AnkleLock, or how HHH doesn't bother working over his opponent's arms for too long before looking for that Butterfly hold to set up the Pedigree. Son, don't try to argue wrestling with most of the people on this board. A lot of us have been watching since we were in diapers, and know more about the in's and out's of the sport (especially since a decent number of the posters of TSM do work for indy feds as either office, in-ring talent, or refereeing) than you could.

Daniels works best in RoH. Even from the few matches I have of RoH (all of which are from its first year in business), Daniels is by far the most interesting man. His character was great, his promo's were solid, and his matches were very, very good.

I just got into him a few weeks ago and bought Live at Stubb's. Fucking great.

Apparently, TFP, you must've missed that paragraph at the end of my last post where I said every wrestler needs their signature moves. And why should somebody change how they make their money? Because it won't make them money forever. And Joe should get out of the X-Division so he can go to something better? Are you fucking kidding me? Sorry, but the fact that you think the workers of the World title scene are better than the top X-Division guys is laughable and proves to me that you shouldn't even be watching TNA in the first place.

Well, let's talk about one man that is a favorite of just about anybody: Ric Flair. Ric Flair has wrestled the same match for 20+ years. He has had the same character for 20+ years. In fact, the only thing that has changed in 20+ years for Flair, as it comes to wrestling, is his look (and that is all due to age and a few different haircuts). Now, is he a GOOD WRESTLER because he can sell? Of course he can sell. That's one of the reasons his act has put over more people than most technical greats have put over: he makes everything his opponents hit him with look fantastic by either bumping his ass off or selling it long-term. Can he work the mat? Yeah: amateur wrestler in high school, turned pro and learned psychology from other NWA greats like Funk and Race, and had some amazing chainwrestling sequences with Ricky Steamboat and Sting. Great promo's? Yeah: Flair is known for the "money promo," that one interview that makes a match worth watching regardless of the expected quality. Building drama? One of the best: there's been more drama in all of Flair's biggest matches throughout his entire career than ever thought possible for any given wrestler. However, one thing that is a BIG detraction from Flair is innovation. He hasn't tried anything knew since the Steamboat feud in the late 80's, really. You know what you're going to see in every Flair match (flop, Figure-4, rake of the eyes, minor legwork, chops, WHOOOO, slammed off the top, back body drop, etc.), and to me that's just not good at all. I want to be able to be surprised by a wrestler at least once a month. I've never been surprised during a Flair match once I started watching wrestling. Ditto Austin. Ditto Hogan. Ditto (insert name of "great" wrestler here). And why? There's no innovation. Sure, every wrestler needs their signature spots, their own personal "5 moves of doom" if you will, but without keeping the fans on their toes and saying "wow, I can't believe he could do that" now and then, there's no real need to watch the MATCH as opposed to the final few minutes of the match. That's the one thing the X-Division can guarantee: you're going to see something you don't always see in wrestling, especially if you're not used to high-flying workers. As for Joe, I agree: he needs a competitive match on Impact at some point in the near future to help put him over, put over a possible challenger for the X-Division title, and to get fans going "wow, this guy CAN work and not just destroy people." Monsters sell, yes, but they only sell for so long.

Everything by Zombie Apocalypse. Dimmu Borgir - "Progenies of the Oncoming Apocalypse" (or whatever it's called) Shadows Fall - "A Fire in Babylon"

I'm with MisawaGQ entirely. Daniels has poor selling? Please, sir, check out the 4-man Iron Man match between Daniels, LowKi, Spanky, and Doug Williams. 60 minutes, 4 men, and you will see more psychology, storytelling, and selling in that one match than you will see in ANY WWE match of the last 5 years. Here is why I feel that Daniels is the better wrestler/worker: Angle is too one-noted in how he works a match. The only thing that changes when he is heel or face is his pacing, which I will say is very good (as it pertains to the crowd reaction; a good example being yours from a show in Dublin), as he still uses the same moves, the same taunts, and still doesn't sell very long-term. For example, take the 60-minute Iron Man between he and Brock. Halfway through the match Angle was acting as though he just started wrestling. That's BAD selling. In fact, that's HORRIBLE selling. And let's not forget his usual spot of playing dead as his opponent goes up top, jumping to his feet and then to the middle rope, and delivering an armdrag or a belly-to-belly suplex off the top. Daniels can work any style. It's true: ANY style. I've seen him work matches that are all mat, all air, and even brawls. And they've all been very good, and some even great. While it's true that he does look fairly awkward in the ring, this is more because of his body than his talent. Please check out Daniels/American Dragon from RoH Round Robin Challenge to see Daniels work a WWE-style match that surpasses most of the WWE main events in terms of quality of work (though not in terms of how much drama there is). And no, you are not old-school. If you were old-school, you would be more about the WRESTLING aspect and actually less about the character/gimmick aspect. I readily admit I'm not old-school. In fact, I'm not any school. I like wrestler for a variety of reasons. But to flat-out say a style of wrestling that you do not prefer is NOT wrestling is preposterous, especially when some of your favorites undoubtedly make the same mistakes as many X-Division workers.

I will forever say Ellis > Palahniuk. That said...what IS the real message of Fight Club? Is it one of the many novels that bring up fairly solid anti-establishment battle cries while simultaneously satiring the anti-establishment scene, or is there a deeper meaning that I myself am missing?

I'm definitely going to trust people that have worked with him (ESPECIALLY Punk, who tore the house down with him in RoH) over some fans on the 'net.

I'm still waiting for a valid argument of Angle/Daniels from TFP. Re: Joe's ability to work Guy's fucking amazing. He can't chain-wrestle? Really? So that wasn't an assload of chain-wrestling I saw in the opening stages of the first Joe/LowKi RoH match? That wasn't a decent amount of chain-wrestling I saw in the first Joe/Homicide RoH match? And I highly doubt that his series with Punk was devoid of chain-wrestling, too. I also highly doubt how stiff he actually works. He's likely of the mold where he works so that it IS stiff, but looks a lot worse than it is. I'm sure his chops kill like a motherfucker (look at the size of his hands, for Christ's sake), but as far as the Muscle Buster, Ole Kick, and other signature spots go? Well, the Muscle Buster is an upper-back bump that Joe does perfectly so it appears as though the opponent lands on their head (slow the tape down and you'll see they land on their upper back), the Ole Kick is something the opponent can put a hand up or just take the bump right before the kick is landed (think Yakuza Kick), and the facewashes and such don't hurt as much as they look like they do thanks to the padded soles of wrestling boots. Also, in regards to the Angle/Joe argument, I'll throw in my two cents, as it branched off of a question raised by me. All in all, I do feel Angle is the more complete package, but that comes from the fact that he had some of the best mic and ring workers around to help raise him when he was given the baptism by fire (he had Benoit, Guerrero, Malenko, and Jericho to help his in-ring game, and Austin, Rock, and 2000 HHH to help him on the stick and to form a character). Joe, I feel, is MUCH better in the ring, as he is more believable as a threat due to his size, how well he disguises the fakeness of professional wrestling (via stiffness), and how fast he can move for a man his size. I'll never say Angle is anything less than extremely above-average, because the man has given me more very good/great matches on free TV than most other wrestlers will give in their lifetime (and he also has a very good sense for pacing the match around the crowd's reactions), but he's not close to Joe in terms of ringwork. Mic work? Far beyond, but Joe's mic work has been pretty limited throughout his career.

This is why I like Carnival: even though he readily admits all of Jarrett's negative aspects, and knows that quite a few of them hurt the product in general, he still admits he's a mark for him. You rock, dude.

...yes. It runs deeper than Varg thinking Euronymous wasn't "true enough" to the scene anymore? As far as I've always known, it was because Varg felt Euronymous was taking the style that their bands pioneered and trying to make a buck off of it more than he was trying to further it as an artform. Then again, I think any musician killing another is fucking petty and hilarious, so hey. Want to get revenge on a band/artist that fucked you over when you were starting out? Don't off 'em and possibly make them more popular than ever before: outdo them. I'd say go the Dave Mustaine route, but Megadeth never did as good as Metallica financially (or even critically until the mid-90's...and then Risk ruined everything), so don't go that route.

You can't wait for me to give a lesson to you in basic psychology? Okay. Here it goes, as far as I understand (from chatting with local indy workers, and from my years as a fan)... 1. Engaging the crowd The most important aspect of psychology is to make the crowd, be they live or viewing at home, get into your match. You can do this subtley, by throwing in several barely-noticeable gestures or demeanors (ie. Foley, Raven, Funk), or do it overtly, by performing either a tremendous chainwrestling sequence (ie. American Dragon, Benoit, Malenko) or a highspot (ie. Amazing Red, Jack Evans, Sabin). 2. Suspension of disbelief After properly making the fans interested in your match, you must make them forget that professional wrestling is fake. You can do this by either continuously keeping them wanting to see what you will do next (as is the case with most spotfests), by making your match seem very realistic (working stiff), by being that entertaining (Hogan, Austin, Rock, etc.), or by long-term and short-term selling (Benoit, the late Eddie Guerrero, and others of the technician ilk). 3. Selling (long-term and short-term) Now that the fans forget that wrestling is fake, it's time to make them question whether or not parts of it are REALLY real. Some masters of the art of long-term selling would be the various Japanese workers in the mid-1990's that churned out classic after classic (Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi, etc.), Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, and Bret Hart. For example, by limping when you walk after taking a series of moves to your left knee, you can plant the idea in the fans' heads that you are truly injured (despite that you are not), and will then change your moveset to accomodate your weakened limb. Short-term selling masters are often smaller workers that can bump very good and make individual moves seem more powerful than they are (Rob Van Dam, Amazing Red, and even The Rock are masters of short-term selling). By even just grabbing your back and wincing after being bodyslammed, exaggerating it more if the move occurs later in the match, then the fans will believe, again, that you might be injured, and that your opponent has a better chance of winning once you've suspended their disbelief. Long-term selling is what the majority of wrestlers lack thanks the growing popularity of spotfests and what WWE has considered "great matches" for the last 20 years. 4. Strategy It makes little-to-no sense for a wrestler whose finish focuses on his opponent's neck to be doing legwork (the exception being that their opponent is very fast in the ring, and takes to the top rope often) throughout the match. It makes equally less sense for a wrestler larger and stronger than his opponent to try to take to the top rope outside of proving to his opponent that he, too, can fly (it wouldn't make sense for Kane to attempt a flying elbow drop against Shawn Michaels, for instance, as Kane would not need a high-risk maneuver to put away somebody that gives up nearly a foot in height, and likely well over 100 pounds in weight, to him). ...you know what? It's fucking 1:35 in the morning, I gotta be up at 9 to get my ass to the garage so I can get my new car inspected, have gotten maybe - MAYBE - 12 hours of sleep in the last 3 days, and have band practice for a good portion of tomorrow afternoon. You're wrong, we're right, spotfests ARE professional wrestling but just aren't your standard "oooh, punch/kick" bull. I do have a BIG question for you, though: Who is better, in your opinion, at the art of professional wrestling: Kurt Angle or Christopher Daniels? Why? (And yes, this is an important question to determine how you think about what constitutes pro wrestling.)

Finisher of the Year: Musclebuster - Samoa Joe Knockout of the Year: Traci (only one that's been in TNA for more than a couple months) X-Division Star of the Year: Samoa Joe (thisclose to voting Styles, though) Tag Team of the Year: Team 3D (fuck AMW, Ray and Devon are awesome) Who to Watch in 2006: Christian Cage Memorable Moment of the Year: Christian Cage debuts (Genesis) Match of the Year: AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe (Turning Point) Feud of the Year: Sabu and Abyss Mr. TNA MVP of 2005: AJ Styles (he always deserves it since he's always gonna be with TNA, most likely)

Ah...so this explains your stance. I guess you don't read Raven's rants/blog on his site, do you? I remember an old one where Raven talks about the negative aspects of spotfests...and then says that although they lack psychology and fans won't remember them for very long, they DO have their place in wrestling (to get the fans wound up).. So, in other words, you're completely missing Raven's points about spotfests and high-flying workers. He knows that they have their place in wrestling, but he also knows they won't be anywhere near the main event of a respected promotion unless the workers can either develop characters or throw psychology into the match. Also, the fact that you can't see some basic psychology in the X-Division makes me think that you don't actually GET what psychology. I'd explain the little bits of psychology right now (like how Bentley's whole schtick is that he acts like his older cousin, Shawn Michaels, in order to makes himself seem bigger/better than he is, a way of intimidating his opponents; or how your average psychology-devoid spotfests actually has its OWN form of psychology based on topping one another's moves), but I have to go to work in 5 minutes.

I can see respecting a mix tape more than respecting a mix CD, since if your tracklisting for the mix CD is on your computer and you can just listen to the songs from the comfort of your favorite desk chair and see if the order is right, but on a mix tape you need to put it on the tape and then see if it flows as good as it can, or listen to all of the songs off of the different records/albums individually in different orders to get the best feel. That said, I'm with a few others here in saying fuck tape. I've made mix tapes, and I've made mix CDs, and the lack of time it takes to make a mix CD has allowed me to make it flow better than a mix tape could. Plus, I enjoy knowing exactly how much time I have left on a disc than just guessing how much time I have left on one side of the tape.

The CoF bashing comes from the fact that Dani Filth and co. are the biggest offenders in the "stealing the black metal style without believing in it" case. Dani has been quoted numerous times saying that he enjoys black metal MUSIC, but can't get into the ideals behind it, and doesn't even want CoF to be considered "black metal" because of the negative stigma attached to that style. I can't say I don't blame him, because, personally, I think anybody that takes to burning down churches and murdering other members of the scene just because they aren't "true enough" needs to sit back and realize how big of a joke they are themselves (hence why I think Varg is fucking hilarious), but that's just me. I see where a lot of the black metal elitists are coming from, as all of the ideals of my once-beloved metalcore have been washed away by newer bands looking to make a quick buck and cash in on the trend that Shadows Fall spearheaded.

In all truth, if you think the X-Division sucks because it isn't like "real fighting," then you've never seen a fight between two people that know eastern martial arts or capoeria. In real fights? Not every punch hurts. Adrenaline rushes, poorly-thrown punches, stronger parts of the body over others, higher pain tolerances, etc. Hell, while we're on the subject, let's look at it like this: Hogan matches are not professional wrestling. Hogan/Angle would not be professional wrestling, considering Hogan has no traditional fighting skills beyond basic inherent brawling (punches, kicks, chokes) whereas Angle won an OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL in freestyle amateur wrestling. If the match were to go for more than 5 minutes without Angle owning the hell out of Hogan, it wouldn't be realistic (and that's not even taking into account the health of either man, or the age). Tazz/Lawler was not professional wrestling, since it wasn't realistic. Tazz has a 3rd-degree black belt in judo, a form of martial arts that wrestling is very closely tied to as it is based off of submissions, chokes, and throws. Lawler is a man in his 50's that, although in relatively good shape, has little shoot experience. The feud saw Lawler constantly get the better of Tazz, so if we're going by the "it's not pro wrestling if it isn't realistic" mindset, than that feud wasn't pro wrestling. Hell, any match that goes for more than 10 minutes isn't realistic, as by then somebody would either be knocked out, choked out, or have submitted. There wouldn't be too many elbow drops or suplexes, because most people automatically go for a knockout punch or a choke in a real fight. That's why the original poster's argument was flawed, and that's beyond the fact that he trolled by speaking of all of us in a demeaning manner. ((Sorry if this seems rushed and if my points meandered too much, I'm dead tired.))

Very good read. And while you know, Tack, that I'm not a fan of black metal, I do have to agree with the writer in that the original ideals of the style have been lost due to the commercialization of it. That happens to all scenes of music, however, and is something that cannot be avoided. It can, however, be ignored by finding the truly different bands and praising them, the bands that "get it," and strictly listening to the bands that don't for either musical value (since some bands that don't "get it" could write great music, but it lacks the depth) or for nostalgic purposes.

Wait...w-w-wait... Okay, I know you're a Jarrett mark. It's obvious by the avatar, and by how you defended Jarrett a few times when the rest of us here were pretty much calling for his head. But...you admit he's stale and could use a break...so why would you stop watching when the main reason the main event is boring and predictable is gone? That'd be like not watching WCW because Hogan was on one of his hiatuses.

That...and magical powers don't count. Did you not read the first post?

One's an Iron Cross, and another is the keyless entry for my Outback.

That's one of the reasons I refer to it as X-Mas. I'm not celebrating the birth of Christ, I'm celebrating being alive and in good company for another year, and trying my best to show my loved ones how much I appreciate them and just generally give stupid pieces of shit a break for once. That...and I like buying stuff with no religious undertone and not having to type out the extra 4 characters.