RavishingRickRudo

Indy Wrestling (ROH in particular) is like "Monkey-see, Monkey-do". Those guys (and yes this is a generalization) see the Japan stuff and copy it - they do the stiffness, they do the headdrops, they do the submissions, they do the sequences... but it all feels so forced. It's them pretending to be Misawa or Kawada or Vader or Lyger or Ohtani whereas the Puro guys (yes, another generalization) pretend to be real. So we have one group pretending to be real, and one group pretending to be fake - can you see the problem this creates? I dl'd the American Dragon vs. Paul London 2/3 falls match and I had to turn it off immediately after one of the announcers said "THIS is how you do a collar-and-elbow tie up!". Crap like "American Strong Style", or those scramble matches (I know, they're meant to be spot-fests, but that doesn't mean they have to be stupid), it's all monkey-see, monkey-do and there's no rhyme or reason to it all other than "pretending to be (insert puro-star here)". That's ROH to me. If I wanted to see Japan, I'd buy Puro. They take the moves and the "style" but forget the content - they forget that it's supposed to be "real", how it's supposed to be "sport" (sure, the announcers love to brag about how it's not Sports Entertainment -a line that should have retired with Joey Styles- but in reality the majority of these matches are spotfests like the WWE; just less punches and flashier moves than their more-successful counter-part) and that is part of the appeal (at least for me) of Japanese Pro Wrestling. I made the mistake of watching a Vader in UWF-i tape and All Star Extravaganza in the same time period - Vader's Powerbomb was made-out to be the deadliest weapon on the planet, his punches were unstoppable, his chokeslam and powerslam were finishers, his german suplex = death... and that's about all of the moves he did in these matches... and the crowd eats it up because it's made to be real. I eat it up because they established right-off-the-bat that this is a universe where you can get KO'd by a punch, or a kick. Maybe it's the MMA fan in me, but I love that sort of style where every move has a meaning. Then there is ASE where a powerbomb is a transition move, a powerslam is non-existant because it's too weak, and a chokeslam has to be off the top rope or apron to have any effect; it's just not smart. It's all gratuitous spots whose only effect is to show that the Wrestlers can do it just as good as the Japanese guys which means it the same... but it's not. It's copying. It's pretending. When the match gets heated and somone does a big time move, I don't get that feeling that he "needed" to do it - and that's ultimately the main point. The need. In Japan there's the need, in American Indy there isn't. (Yes, Generalization - the case could be made against many Japanese wrestlers for overkill, and you wouldn't be wrong.)

Well there is a great amount of Puro out there. All Japan, New Japan, UWF-i, RINGS, Mich Pro, Toryumon, etc. etc. and different eras and decades - a lot of which I would recommend getting before "dropping down" to the majority of the indies out there today. I don't want to be called a "puro-snob", but it's quite simple - Japanese Wrestling (for the most part) tries to be like a real sport. Indy wrestling (FTMP) tries to be like Japanese Wrestling and completely misses out on that "sporting" aspect.

The Rundown has been promoted for like a MONTH in advance - I see it everywhere. At least 10x's more than anything else out there right now. 20 mil is certainly disappointing and it doesn't look to be breaking 100 mil or even make back the money put into it (well, I'll bet that Worldwide and on Video it should, but not by a lot - I wonder if that 80+ mil accounted for advertising.)

Get Puro tapes - it's what ROH tries to be...

"Shades of Pokerface" made Tazz and Josh the best announce team in the WWE. Tazz is too much Tazz-of-Heat and not enough of Tazz-of-Smackdown with his goofy remarks. I mean, it's fun because he clearly doesn't care and knows that no one watches Velocity, but it sucks cause Tazz-of-Smackdown is the only good announcer the WWE has. Josh does the smark routine better than the ROH guys, though I don't think that's much of the complement...

But Arnie also said... "Let off some steam, Bennet."

I thought that Bridget Nielson was the star of that, with Arny in a bit-part.

Arnold says that all of his movies have made a profit. I am talking about their debut films... or at their equivalent to what the rock is doing now. Like Arnolds Conan or JCVD's Bloodsport or Segals Under Siege or whatever...

I'm so stealing those last words.

How did the "other" action hero's do in their first films?? Of course, I don't think they at-the-time were billed as "the next ____" like The Rock is, but I would be interesting to compare.

No fuckin shit... RRR: Feeling a bit older today.

Yeah t'was. Maybe they're thinking about Alvin and the Chipmunks or Teddy Ruxpin.

Shane is a McMahon. They can get knocked down but they can't get knocked out... unless they knock themselves out.

They both played Football. Duh.

Well, not from the Canadians, but from other Americans you could make some good, legitimate, money

Yeah, I'd come down from Canada to see that... You should sell tickets.

Bender could move back in time and kill Homer...

That's the single greatest thing I have ever fucking heard in my life... you guys MUST top that! http://www.highspots.com Buy Mask Now!

Now who's more odd... Them doing what they do, or me being jealous of you for being in the same diner as them???

I'm not going, but I'm expecting you all to wear Lucha Masks and eat at Pancake houses like the DVDVR crew.

No, it was "I can't believe there's someone whiter than me"...

I like Bret Hart. (won't comment on the "Angle is a good storyteller" remark)

It's quite simple... Wrestlers have no spines.

APRIL

"You're outta control!" "YOU DAMN RIGHT!"