Showing posts with label daniel bryan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label daniel bryan. Show all posts

Thursday, September 20, 2012

The Mercy Side: I'm Going to Disneyland!

Here's my first wrestling article in nearly two months. Enjoy.

I may not be writing as often as I used to anymore but that’s because of time, not because of my lack of interest in doing it. I still play video games, listen to music, watch football games and watch wrestling. I just don’t often get the chance to jot my thoughts down on anything anymore, which is a shame. But in the wrestling world, one of the most intriguing, most entertaining, and most unpredictable storylines in recent memory is the program that’s occurring between Kane and Daniel Bryan.

I’m a huge Kane fan. I have been for a long time. And while Daniel Bryan individually is by far my favourite wrestler at the moment, and has been for about half a year now, this article is actually in homage to Kane. You see, Kane is a character and wrestler who is always overlooked by both his peers and the younger talent. Back in the late nineties, there were far more popular wrestlers than Kane. He was a medium fish in a huge tank in those days, in comparison arguably larger fish in The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Mankind and The Undertaker. Then when that tank got smaller, new talent were still considered bigger fish; Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit. Then the new breed came in when the fish tank was getting smaller still; John Cena, Randy Orton, Edge, Jeff Hardy, Brock Lesnar and now CM Punk. At this time Kane’s medium sized fish was shrinking. He was getting older, slower, less interesting.

One thing they tried to keep Kane’s character fresh was take Kane’s mask off. This was a huge angle. I never thought they’d get Kane to take his mask off; it was key to his character and a fundamental part of his look. Kane was supposedly burnt in a fire as a kid so the idea behind the mask was to cover up his scarred face. And while Glen Jacobs, the man who portrays Kane, has a menacing look on him, it took away a huge part of Kane that made him so scary in the first place. The only reason why I’d have been happy for Kane to lose his mask was if the WWE were to actually give him the push to the top he deserved for such a long time. They never really did.

Something that always used to annoy me about the WWE was that they burderned Kane with a one day title reign for so long. I never thought he deserved to lose the title in one day, after finally getting to the top and get a win over Stone Cold Steve Austin in the process. I thought that was terrible; at the time Kane was still one of the most interesting characters on TV, even in the fruitful attitude era. He didn’t deserve that. No one does really. It’s one of the reasons why I feel sorry for Dolph Ziggler and Rey Mysterio and their terrible title reigns. What’s a bigger crime though is that it took over 12 years for him to not only get another World Heavyweight Title reign, but for him to have a good crack at the top. Kane had a decent run as champion a couple of years ago, and his program while wasn’t great, his character was pretty damn entertaining.

It's hard to remember this ever happening.
Who was he in a program with as World Heavyweight Champion? Oh yeah, some guy called The Undertaker. Kane has the unfortunate title as being an Undertaker-lite. In nearly every way possible, Kane is inferior to The Undertaker. He’s a big guy like The Undertaker, but in the ring he can’t compare to Big Evil. The Undertaker is unparalleled when it comes to big guys and their ability in the ring. He’s untouchable. Kane however, is a damn good wrestler, for a man of 7 feet and 320 pounds; he can fly across that ring and put on a very good show. His moveset is distinctive despite him sharing his finishers with The Undertaker. On the microphone, The Undertaker, when on form, floors Kane in this respect too. Kane isn’t often given much time on the microphone, not because it’s a weakness, but because it’s against his character to talk too much. But he’s still very good; one of the highlights of the disappointing program between Kane and The Undertaker for the World title two years ago was Kane’s “reveal all” promo where he explained his plot for the title all along and how The Undertaker fell for it. That promo was gold, and he was on the microphone for a good 10 minutes then, a rarity for Kane. His character is inferior to The Undertaker’s as well; in the respect that The Undertaker’s Deadman gimmick has lasted an incredible 22 years, bar the few years as The American Bad Ass, with few tweaks here and there. Kane has had to change his character over and over again, to avoid being too similar to The Undertaker, and yet maintain the entertainment value. Kane is less popular than The Undertaker in every other way possible too; fan opinion, backstage respect and reputation, merchandise, everything. Kane is exactly that, The Undertaker-lite.

But there is one thing that Kane can revert to that The Undertaker can’t. There’s one thing that Kane has the ability to do that The Undertaker can’t even begin to compare with, and that’s the ability to be funny. You can call it an underrated trait in a wrestler, but the ability to make an audience laugh is important. It’s entertaining; it’s an often overlooked quality in a wrestler. I can give you two very easy examples to back myself up on this. The first, Santino. Santino will never be a World Heavyweight Champion. He’s not good enough in the ring, not popular enough overall with any age demographic, not even kids. But if you remember The Elimination Chamber earlier this year, Santino was amazing. He was put into the match due to a concussion to Randy Orton, he was a surprise entrance really, and no one expected him to be given the spot in the match. But how the fans reacted. They knew he had no chance of winning the Elimination Chamber. They knew he was a huge underdog. And they supported him in his underdog role. Why? Because they knew his value as a comedy wrestler. And you know what? Santino delivered big time in the Elimination Chamber. He got by far the biggest pops in that match when he dug in deep and survived to the final two in the chamber, with Daniel Bryan. It was a simple story, but if it wasn’t for Santino playing the funny guy so well now for a number of years, we wouldn’t have got that great performance from Santino.

Secondly is Daniel Bryan himself. Daniel Bryan is a great story in today’s WWE. A little indie guy who happens to be the best technical wrestler since Chris Benoit, gets his chance at glory by winning Money in the Bank, and cashes in. But he’s still one of the most entertaining wrestlers in the roster, in my opinion; he’s been the most entertaining wrestler for a good half year now. And why? Because he’s just so funny. He knows how to garner a reaction. And his in ring ability is unquestionable; it’s always been the ability to play a character that people questioned. And how he’s backed that ability up. He gets probably more time on TV than any other wrestler nowadays. It speaks volumes, it really does. And it’s the comedy element to his character that makes him stand out, even when he’s not heading into a World Title at the moment. Because he’s such a good wrestler, the true best in the world I’d say at this time, and because he’s so entertaining and funny, it’s inevitable he’ll be given that reward at the top again very soon.

I admit it, I'm a huge Brothers of Destruction mark. I have no shame.

Because Kane is immediately compared in every way to The Undertaker in everything he does, not only because he’s the storyline brother of The Undertaker, but also because he too has an evil streak, is a big guy that has a similar move set, Kane has to adjust himself in a way that’s different to The Undertaker. I think deep down Glen Jacobs knows that he’s just not as good in most ways to The Undertaker. Sometimes it’s good to accept that you’re not #1 and just be the best you can, and be better in ways others can’t. And Kane does that by being funny, in usually inappropriate or unexpected ways.


Kane has a great career in comedy segments. Because it’s not every week, every time we see him and a little unexpected when it does happen, it’s often absolutely hilarious. Kane does evil and sinister segments, he does horror slapstick segments (usually badly, take the Paul Bearer freezer storyline as an example), and he also does comedy. One of my all time favourite funny moments from Kane is when he’s preparing a six-man tag team match with The Rock and Hulk Hogan, and his partners are discussing how they’re not too sure how to deal with The Big Red Machine. Kane walks in and just tears the roof off with his amazing impressions of The Rock and Hulk Hogan, hulking up, posing, everything. It’s just brilliant. It came out of nowhere and was just one of my favourite segments ever. What about the celebratory Santino trumpet segment from last year? Kane was just turning into a good guy but wasn’t quite there yet at the time, and was in an eight-man tag team match with Santino, Big Show and Vladmir Kozlov; his three partners start doing the trumpet celebration and Kane just stands there in disgust. Then all of a sudden he just starts joining in. It’s just moments like that that Kane can get away with, in a way that The Undertaker can’t, and he’s just so good at it.

Which brings me to his current program with Daniel Bryan. I truly believe that the paring of these two unexpectedly funny guys wasn’t planned long term. I believe everyone thought they’d have a program that ended with Daniel Bryan being put over by Kane to the top again, because Kane has spent long periods of his career putting smaller wrestlers over, which is another trait he’s better than The Undertaker at. But the segments have been just so funny consistently over the last couple of months that they’ve started to pair them and even gave them the Tag Team Titles. The Tag Team Titles were almost inevitably being readied for Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara to the point that the writing was pretty much engrained on the belt, but with Kane and Daniel Bryan working so well together with their fantastic chemistry, plans have changed. And while Daniel Bryan is a really big part of why this team is so successful on TV, Kane needs more credit in his role.

The "hug it out" segment was comedy gold.
That’s the purpose of this article. To pay homage to Kane, something that isn’t done enough. Sure, there have been better wrestlers than Kane, in many different ways; in ring ability, on the microphone, everything. I’m not taking anything away from these wrestlers. I’m not taking anything away from The Undertaker, who in most ways is better than Kane. I prefer The Undertaker to Kane myself. But Kane is just not praised enough for the role he’s done consistently since 1995. That’s fifteen years service. He’s a scary monster, he’s a big wrestler but can wrestle really well, he’s decent on the microphone, he’s put more smaller wrestlers over in that time than most other wrestlers (Chris Jericho may trump, but I doubt many others do in the past 15 years). But he’s also a very, VERY funny guy. I don’t know if it’s Glen Jacobs the man who has decided that comedy segments are good for his character, or if it’s Vince McMahon, or multiple other people over the years that have created storylines for him, but it works. It’s always worked. And Kane, I thank you for your fantastic work throughout your career. You’ll always be one of my favourite wrestlers. And one more thing Kane, I really, truly, deeply hope you enjoyed Disneyland. Thanks for reading.


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Monday, January 30, 2012

Q&A with Johnny Mercyside: Part 8

Hey there, welcome to my newest Q&A session. Before I get to that I want to plug once again the fact that I was on TV last week, you can see my appearance in the top right of this page if you haven't already. Also at the top right of this page is a link to my epic 31,000 word article on my amazing journey to appearing on TV to do Winter Wipeout. If you didn't know that already and are interested, definitely check it out. My article has been well received universally, although people have said it was too long and they're not wrong!

In other news, I've hit a new site record this month, it's possible I could hit 6000 pageviews by the end of the month tomorrow, which will be a first. Thank you all so much for all the support you give me, I love doing this and the more support I get the more likely it is I could actually do this as a job one day. We can all dream.

Back to the actual topic at hand, Q&A Part 8. I do these every month and as always, these questions are all taken off my Formspring account, which you can find here. These were answered a while ago, and I've changed the answers if the situation has changed since then. Enjoy!

Q: What is your favorite cartoon character?
A: Difficult, I'd probably go with Captain Caveman, or Dick Dastardly. Both very old school, retro cartoon characters.

Q: How much TV do you usually watch in a day?
A: Not that much anymore, if video games count then maybe three or four hours. If we're talking watching television then it's extremely rare now. I spend more time on the computer than watching TV.

Q: Do you believe in ghosts? Why or why not?
A: I don't believe in ghosts, it's difficult to explain why, I just think very scientifically, and don't think it has a place in science. I know that people say "science can't explain everything" but I disagree, I just think we don't understand certain things yet.

Q: If you could live in any house you wanted to, what would it look like?
A: Difficult question, the possibilities are endless! I've always wanted a big gaming room, and a pool. I've wanted to collect fantasy swords too so probably a room for that. There's probably more but I can't think of them at the moment.

Q: What's more important - who you know or what you know?
A: It depends, if it's work related, who you know. Anything else I'd say what you know.

Q: If you had a day to volunteer, where would you volunteer?
A: I'd volunteer as creative writer for WWE, and hope that my day volunteering got me a permanent job there with my "amazing" ideas.

Q: What things do you do to stay healthy?
A: I don't try that hard, it's not as important to me as it is to other people. I try to eat fruit every day.

Q: Best wrestling match whose story wasn't told inside the ring?
A: The CM Punk/John Cena storyline, otherwise known as "The Summer of Punk" was a great one recently. I'm also really enjoying Daniel Bryan's slow heel turn, which is a better story out of the ring than in it.

Q: When you're lost, are you more likely to ask for directions or find your way without help?
A: It depends on the scenario, I usually try to find a place on my own but if I'm really stuck, I'm not afraid to ask.

Q: Olof Mellberg is what would result if Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Chuck Norris had a love child. Agree?
A: Odd question but definitely. Although the image of Olof Mellberg even though he hasn't been in the Premier League for a few years now still scares me.

Q: Would you rather watch a movie in the theatre or at home?
A: At home as I can get comfortable easily, but watching a movie in the cinema is a great experience as well.

Q: What are you most excited about today?
A: I'm about to put on the Royal Rumble, my favourite PPV of the year. Excited!

Q: What's your favorite kind of snack to eat?
A: Chocolate.

Q: What do you think the world will be like in 50 years?
A: I think the world won't change much in terms of advancements in technology in 50 years time, as time moves on less impact is happening. Same applies to science. England probably still not winning the World Cup is still a high possibility.

Q: What movie are you most looking forward to seeing?
A: The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, although I might not be able to afford to see it.

Q: What's your favorite clothing brand?
A: Primark? I really, REALLY don't care for brands of clothing.

Q: What's the biggest risk you've ever taken? Are you glad you took it or do you regret it?
A: Meeting my wife. I travelled as a sixteen year old over 300 miles down the country on the train, on a nine hour ride. And fuck yes it was worth it.

Q: What qualities do you look for when you're dating someone?
A: Honesty and to be able to tolerate me and my extremely set ways. I will do the same in return.

Q: What's the first thing you check when you turn on your computer?
A: Like most people, Facebook

Q: What would you do if you won the lottery?
A: So many things. Most importantly, make every person I love unconditionally financially secure and have something that they love.

And that's my latest Formspring update. Once again if you want to follow me on Formspring you can do so here. I'll be back on Wednesday for my 1993 in Music review. Have a good night.

For the latest updates on my work, 'like' me on Facebook here!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

The Mercy Side: The Royal Rumble and The New Movement

I haven't written much about wrestling recently, and thought I'd do a new piece on it. Another big announcement from me, it's the date the Noughtie project will be begin. It will all kick off on the 26th January. Stay tuned...
13 days to go...

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This year, let's be honest, has been substandard, ever since Wrestlemania last April nothing has really stood out immensely. To be fair to WWE, they have lost a lot of star power either to injury (Triple H, Undertaker) or to retirement (Shawn Michaels) or to contract expiration (Chris Jericho, Batista). That's a lot of star power to lose, it's the equivalent of losing half starting eleven in football. Anyone would suffer with that. For months people thought that WWE would have to depend on a lot of their newer talents, the likes of The Miz, John Morrison, Kofi Kingston, Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler. For months, The Miz aside, it looked as though either these wrestlers weren't given the right opportunities or that they weren't taking them when given. For months WWE has quite frankly, sucked. The only thing that was given any momentum was The Nexus angle, which has been mixed, and was definitely waning until CM Punk has given the angle a bit of fresh air. Apart from that WWE haven't done a great deal.


But it's suddenly Royal Rumble season and we all know that WWE pay great attention to their product from January to April, The Road to Wrestlemania, basically. All of a sudden, momentum has been made, and things are getting a bit more excited again. The two biggest stories for me, are that of John Morrison, and Dolph Ziggler, on Raw and Smackdown respectively.


John Morrison has always been seen as this guy who has an unusual and inventive moveset, is decent in the ring, yet can't back that on the mic, and can't draw the crowd in much. Good 'ol J.R. hinted a few months ago that JoMo needs more intensity in his work, he needs to make the crowd believe him when he is kicking that guy in the face, he needs to be aggressive. After working with Sheamus, who is quite stiff anyway, it's given JoMo exactly what J.R. thought was lacking. The crowd digged that feud between Sheamus and JoMo, and you have to give it to Sheamus for actually putting JoMo over... three times is it now? Great stuff from the relatively new guy. This gave JoMo a great push from WWE, and put him in the spotlight against his long term rival and friend The Miz for the WWE Title. They put on a better match on the first Raw of 2011 than the majority of matches in the whole of 2010. The fans have been right behind JoMo for this entire push, and it's really paved the way for the guy, I'm hoping this will actually fully elevate him to the main event status, a status I truly believe he belongs in. I've been a good fan of him for a few years, I liked his authentic in ring ability, in the ring he really does remind me of Shawn Michaels (although he doesn't compete unfortunately, HBK is the king). Does this mean that WWE will give him the Royal Rumble win? I'm not sure.


The other guy I mentioned is the awful named Dolph Ziggler, man he needs his name changed. Call him Nick Nemeth, or something, oh wait, WWE won't let him as they can't copyright someone's real name. Anyway, he was always considered an up and coming wrestler with large potential. I monitored him a lot last year, and failed to see how he could become a big star. I didn't likle much about him, especially that damn Sleeper finisher. The Sleeper is a move used to give the face a recovery phase, to let them turn the tables in the match and gain momentum lost earlier. As a finisher it doesn't spark the intense "tap!" chants and excitement as say, the Crossface, the Sharpshooter or the Walls of Jericho does. Anyway, I saw glimpses of what I'd consider greatness, particularly his great matches with JoMo last year, and Rey Mysterio. Either way, the past few months have been ridiculous for him, he's stepped up his game immensely. He really has made the Intercontinental title have a boost in its degraded reputation. He made it mean more significant than any champ since Chris Jericho. He's now passed that onto Kofi Kingston, and is the new #1 contender for the World title, against Edge, who is exactly the type of wrestler who can really make Dolph look better than before. I really hope he does too. Does that mean that he will win the title at the Rumble? I doubt it, but I'dbe happy if he did. He's got more chance of losing, then Vickie making an announcement in the Rumble that Dolph has been drafted in, and he wins that.


Which brings me to the main point of the article, the Rumble itself. The Royal Rumble is a fantastic tool at giving someone an opportunity to win the big one, similar to the Money in the Bank at Wrestlemania. However since Benoit-gate, and Lesnar/Lashley-gate, the latter just in case you're not entirely sure what I'm referring to, is giving young new wrestlers a big push for the title, only for them to leave the company disrespectfully after, WWE are very sceptical for a wrestler who is new to get the spotlight. Even Sheamus, the only talent to get a major push quickly since (does Swagger count?), wasn't given an opportunity to shine at Wrestlemania. They rarely do it unfortunately, as it's risk to their company they believe.


But with The Miz having reached the big one finally, and John Morrison and Dolph Ziggler getting nice big pushes recently, and Kofi Kingston, Jack Swagger looking more refreshed in recent weeks than recent months, is this their time? Can one of the latter four win the Rumble? Or is it just going to be used as similar to recent years, to make an already established star get another title shot? Please WWE, give one of these four great up and coming guys a chance, they are all more than capable of being champion.


Remember how great Kofi Kingston looked last year, after his fantastic feud with Randy Orton? How hot was he at Madison Square Garden then? You know, the biggest venue in WWE? Man, that was fantastic. Then they decided to give up on him. No reason really, obviously there were rumours goign around that he botched Randy's planned finish on one of the Raw episodes (Stupid! Stupid!) but nothing concrete. But he now has the Intercontinental title again, I hope they give him a big push again. As for Jack Swagger, well, how bad was his title reign? It was terrible, and it wasn't even his fault. He was just booked so badly. I don't get that at all, they did it with Rey Mysterio too. But recently he is looking okay again, after being part of horrendous comedy segments. I hope they can really make a good case for him again because he's a fantastically gifted wrestler. He has a great physique, he is good on the mic, he is a fantastic mat wrestler. I never got why they decided to treat the guy so badly.


These five guys, as well as Daniel Bryan, Alberto Del Rio and Wade Barrett, are the future of the company. They are all main event material, Bryan, Del Rio and Barrett willare also contenders for the Rumble, or at least will make a mark on Money in the Bank, these eight will be the "new breed" of WWE. The company needs to trust them, and hope to depend on them when the going gets tough, like the way it is at the moment, with so many injuries and big guys going. Also the majority of the major stars are 40+ now, and that's not healthy. The last time so many major stars were so old was the early nineties, '92 I believe. This needs to change, the WWE have had their hand forced to try and change it. The fans have spoken, will the WWE listen? I hope the Rumble will answer the question favourably. We'll see.


Date: 13/1/11

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The Mercy Side: Me and Wrestling

Hey everyone,


Welcome to my next article, I'm writing this more as a preview for my next listing, which is the Top 50 Greatest Wrestling Catchphrases. That will be up in around a weeks time. This article is merely stating my bond with this "sports entertainment", why I still watch it as an adult and father, and why it will probably never leave my life.


My interest started in the spring of 2001, I used to go to my friends house, his name was Matt (still good friends with him), he watched Smackdown! on a Saturday morning repeat. I told him I didn't like it, because it was fake, but he didn't care. As the weeks went by I got sucked into this world of wrestling and bad acting, sucked into the world where it was okay to put on baby oil and grapple men in their underwear. It was stupid but I loved it. I still do. I've got my fiancee into it, and my daughter likes it. I wrestle her, just like I also wrestled my siblings all those years ago, on my parents bed. The different between me wrestling and Matt wrestling is that I wasn't stiff, he used to beat me up, not that he hated me, he was just stiff. I remember one time he got me in a Walls of Jericho and he went further back than he anticipated, it felt like I had broken my back. I was obsessed with The Undertaker and Kane, The Brothers of Destruction, and always decided that if I were to be a wrestler I also would be a masked wrestler called Flesh, a crap ripoff of Kane.


My first ever PPV was WWF Invasion, but unlike everyone else, I watched this late, on S4C (the Welsh Channel 4), who played the PPV for free, just many weeks after it actually was on live. I remember hating Stone Cold for turning on the WWF and joining the Alliance. I remember thinking how hot Trish Stratus was, and how I hoped she would lose her match so I can see her in her bra and panties. But most surprisingly, I was hooked on Rob Van Dam vs Jeff Hardy for the Hardcore title, to this day one of my favourite matches. RVD hit a sick DDT on Jeff in that match, it was fantastic.


After that PPV I was hooked. I pleaded with my parents to get a Sky box, so I could watch it every week. It didn't take long for them to oblige, my mum is a softie, still is, but she wants what's best for her children even if it doesn't make financial sense. I love her eternally for that.


I didn't watch WCW, or ECW, I unfortunately started watching wrestling after they got bought by the WWF. But I did watch the end of the Attitude era, and I'm proud to say I experienced it first hand, many younger fans envy us for experiencing wrestling in its gimmick, shock value high. I was your typical casual fan for a few years, probably going up to the point where I started to read John Canton's articles, which was around 2 years later.


Eddie Guerrero was reincarnated around this time,he was in a great tag team with Chavo Guerrero, forming Los Guerreros. Unfortunately Chavo tore his biceps muscle right before the pay per view Judgement Day. Eddie needed a new partner. Around this time I discovered John Canton, an online freelance wrestling journalist and Rajah.com, a website that focuses on backstage rumours and notes. These two have since become staples in my wrestling interest even now. Rumours were abound about who Eddie Guerrero could tag with, with Tajiri's name being the focus. It turned out the rumours were true, and they won the tag titles together at the PPV. It was then that I discovered that wrestling had a real life edge to it, not that I didn't know before (I took the micky only two years ago that it was "fake"), but injuries are inevitable, and adjustments have to be made.


From that moment on I used Rajah.com, and was intrigued about how people formed their opinions wrestling. I found myself disagreeing with Canton a lot, because I liked the big guys like The Brothers of Destruction, but he taught me about kayfabe, about why wrestlers are as good as the are, and about "booking" a wrestler correctly. Slowly I started to understand. Wrestling isn't just about a moveset and a promo, it's also about backstage politics, it's about being "over" with the crowd, and being able to draw money for the wrestling company. I then started to appreciate the smaller wrestlers who had to pay their dues due to their size, the greats like Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit, and started to resent the bigger guys with no talent, like the A-Train, Heidenreich and Gene Snitzky. I had become a smark.


Now, nearly 10 years later, I still see wrestling in many ways. I try not to call myself a mark, a smark, or a casual fan. I try to see why wrestling is the way it is. Daniel Bryan won't become champion overnight, he may be the best wrestler in the US right now but he has a long way to go. Wade Barrett will become champion before him, because he can draw heat and because he is a big guy. Wrestling is about making money, not about pleasing the fans, that's a bonus. If you can't make the company money, you will be sent down the bathroom plug. Some wrestlers have to pay their dues for unfortunate reasons, life isn't fair and neither is the wrestling world. We learnt that with Chris Benoit, who took many a year to finally get a championship reign all the smarks said he deserved nearly 10 years before. Where as The Great Khali never should have been champion. But he is big, and is foreign, just because of what part of the world he came from he got immediate heat. Vince capitalised on that because it was easier. Wrestling can be simple sometimes.


My favourite wrestler now is Chris Jericho, and has been for sometime. Yes I still have a feeling for The Undertaker and Kane, I mean The Undertaker is great for how big a guy he is, but I appreciate everything about wrestling, and Jericho is the complete wrestler. He can be a face, he can be a heel, he is great on the mic, he is great in the ring, he can draw money. He is popular with the casual fans and the smarks. That is pretty much it about being the complete wrestler.
My favourite feud is Eddie Guerrero vs Rey Mysterio. Eddie Guerrero for me was the best heel I've ever seen, no matter how short his heel reign was. He was a sick bastard, and he knew how to draw that crowd against him. His feud was brilliant, when he suplexed Mysterio on the ring steps my heart came out of my mouth. When he did his disturbing promo with Rey's mask I cringed. It's a shame the matches weren't as good as they should have been.
Which brings me to my favourite match. The best match I have ever seen is probably Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker at Wrestlemania 25. That was just a brilliant showcase between two great veterans. I also appreciated that match to its fullest as any type of wrestling fan, it was a great spectacle for anyone to watch. Their rematch this year was almost as good.
I just wanted to write this article just as an introduction for myself into writing about this thing called wrestling. I hope to write a good few articles about recent events from now on. But for now, get ready for my Top 50 Catchphrases next week.


As Foley would say, have a nice day!


Date: 30/11/10