[Why wrestling?]
Earlier today, I was at the bus-stop, chatting with an acquaintance. For one reason or another, he asked me about my interests, outside of school. I said I liked pro-wrestling, and he gave me a bewildered look. I don't blame him. Now that wrestling is not shown on free-to-air TV stations here, some people may not remember that it still exists. And anyway, that was a pretty typical response.
I went on to tell him that for most people who are really into something (anything), it's usually not something people around them could understand. My Dad spent $30 on two pieces of calligraphy during the Chinese New Year. Apparently, the guy who did the calligraphy in The Curse of the Golden Flower was selling his art in Singapore at the time and my parents ran into him. I don't understand why he would buy two pieces of (extremely) thin, flimsy paper which he would display for only about a week every year, but to him, it's money well-spent. Just as he doesn't understand why I spent so much on my fish-tank, buying fertilisers, setting up the CO2 injection systems, etc. Just like I don't understand why YQ wants to buy that $900+ sound card, but it's really important to him.
But I digress. We both agreed that it was difficult for others not having the same interest/hobby to understand why or what's so great about that particular interest/hobby. Which made me wonder, why did I like wrestling so much?
At one point, I was actually about to stop watching wrestling altogether. WWE's getting insanely boring. Most of their wrestlers can't put on a decent match. All they know was how to punch and kick. Insanely boring.
Then two friends of mine urged me to try watching TNA, specifically, their X-Division. I did, and I was hooked. The guys in the X-Division were terrific. They weren't the pumped up steroid type of wrestlers you see on WWE, and the way they performed those moves in the ring...It was like watching a Jackie Chan movie live. It's not a bunch of talent-less fucks walking around trying to look mean (The Great Khali, anyone?) and know less than five moves. For the guys in the X-Division, they need to co-ordinate with each other, or none of the moves would come off and someone could get seriously injured. They would need to trust their opponents with their lives, to protect them while at the same time making their moves look good.
And yes, it's "fake". The results are planned in advance. But it's not fair to call wrestling fake, because the risks they take are very real. You want real? Watch UFC or MMA. It's real, but it's boring (to me anyway). I'd pick the X-Division over them any day.
That said, I'm particularly interested in the older X-Division matches. I don't know what the hell the bookers are smoking in TNA, but their X-Division has gone to hell recently. The guys were not being booked right, and the focus was shifting to their heavyweight division, which sucked because the guys over there were...ordinary. Sting, Christian, Abyss, Rhino, etc...Those guys are nothing fancy. And don't get me started on Scott Steiner. Who the hell gave him a contract? He pulled off a grand total of four moves in his match last year.
And putting AJ Styles against Rhino is an absolute waste of talent. There's no way Rhino could keep up if Styles unleashed his full arsenal, so he had to tone it down and kept to a lot of punches/kicks/chokes. I never thought I'd say this, but some of Styles' matches with Rhino actually...Sucked.
Put Styles back in the X-Division. Let him feud with Petey Williams. Put Samoa Joe back in. He's 280-pounds and he can jump and kick your head from a standing position and easily clear the top-rope while running and fly over onto his opponents (if someone like him's charging at me, I'd probably shit myself). He is so X-Division. Put him back, let him feud with Chris Sabin. Put Christopher Daniels back in, instead of letting him feud with Sting (please, it's time to pack it in).
Anyway, someone uploaded an old (2005) X-Division match on Youtube recently. If you have 14 minutes, check it out. It's a pretty good match, and you'll see what I mean.
Listen to the audience. Listen how into it they were. And the thing about X-Division matches...There isn't really any faces or heels. The fans cheer for them both, because they know and appreciate both parties' skill and showmanship.
EDIT: To think I forgot the Ultimate X match...Silly me.
Couldn't find a decent compilation video. Most of them had a stupid song in the background inserted by the person who made the compilation.
Broken for now. :( If anyone knows of a good way to display tweets without using Twitter's awful looking widgets, please let me know. Preferably something that allows me to retrieve my tweets in plain-text format.
What's this about?
Anything and everything under the sun. I write about my day, my thoughts, things I see in public, things to get off my chest, or sometimes just some senseless rants that make sense only to me.
About Me
30 year old male. Always with too many ideas in his head and too little time. For my 15 minutes of fame, I want to be a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman.
Interests
Movies, TV, cycling, computers, planted tanks, cherry shrimps, P2P legal issues, Manchester United, WWE, TNA, UFC, etc...
Disclaimer
Best viewed @ 1280*1024 or above. Views are expressed are mine and mine only, and are not meant to offend or influence anyone. Designed for readers with a sense of humour. If you can't laugh at yourself, you probably won't like my style of humour.
