Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 28, 2023 6:29:05 GMT -5
Ole Anderson had a ton of respect for him, and wasn’t ashamed to admit why. Being a Minnesota guy, when Ole wanted to break in, he obviously went to Vern Gagne. Ole had wrestled in high school and college and was a bit of a power lifter, which was a little unusual for the time, so he walked into the gym confident that he could either take anyone there or at least put in a good enough showing to be brought in for training. Gagne pointed towards the guys gathered at the gym and said, “Take your pick.” Ole saw the smallest of them and thought, “I can take that guy easy,” and picked him. He didn’t know he had just picked Danny Hodge. The tryout didn’t go the way Ole expected, to the point that years later Ole had kidney stones so bad he was hospitalized and when a nurse asked how much pain he was in, Ole replied, “This is the second worst pain I’ve ever been in.” The nurse asked what was the worst and he simply replied, “Danny Hodge.” Keep in mind, Ole was slashed by a fan with a hawkbill knife so badly that he required 4 hours of surgery to repair tendons in his arm and 70 stitches in his arm and chest, but in that situation, he was back at TV and in front of the camera 2 days later. Ole was brought in for training when, after healing from the initial encounter, he returned to the gym and told Gagne, “Okay, maybe I can’t beat Danny Hodge, but there’s someone in here I can beat, let’s find out who that is!” In 2010, I was at the NWA Legends Fanfest in Charlotte, where Ole usually held court in the hotel lobby. He hadn’t made it yet, but several people were gathered already, including Bob Caudle and Danny Hodge. I was sitting there listening to stories when someone yells, “Where’s that son of a bitch Hodge? I’m gonna stretch him!” We all looked and it was Ole, using a walker and being assisted by his wife due the effects of MS, with a big grin. Hodge went to meet him, and as they embraced, Ole said, “I couldn’t do it then, I damn sure couldn’t do it now!” This is honestly the first time in my life I've ever heard of Ole Anderson liking or respecting another human being. Great story though. Hodge was always a name I'd heard from the old days and mentions of how incredibly tough he was. I don't think I'd ever seen any footage of him either which made him seem a bit more mythical. Reminds me of that compilation someone made of Ole burying various people in disgust in shoots, and when it gets to Arn, it's something like, "Arn's okay", and then him shitting all over other people some more afterwards. So, I guess it's Danny Hodge and Arn.
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 28, 2023 6:08:25 GMT -5
Sabu and Raven. Never crossed paths in ECW but had one match in TNA partially based on the fact that they never wrestled in ECW. Jericho and Foley never wrestled in WWF/E. You'd think during one of Foley's many comebacks that would have been a money program. Although they had one match in ECW. Punk and HBK. Aside from teaming at Survivor Series 06. Jericho faced Foley on Smackdown in December of 1999. I wonder if Jericho was happy to have a big name in WWF who wasn't pissed off at him in 1999. I at least assume he wasn't mad at Jericho, I seem to recall him putting him over some in Have a Nice Day and saying he was stoked to have their ECW match since Heyman had been slow to give Jericho an opportunity, with Jericho grinding away in Mexico and Japan, waiting for any foothold in the US, so Foley wanted to make it count with a good match, something along those lines.
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 28, 2023 5:52:48 GMT -5
Evil Uno and Stu begin teaming again.
Willow and Swerve win title belts.
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 28, 2023 2:19:33 GMT -5
Promoters shouldn't promise shit to fans or wrestlers and then not deliver it. I also would have liked to see Big E get his wish before they possibly ended his career on a stupid spot that a greenhorn had no business even attempting.
But what's done is done, and such a match would probably be a bad idea. Like, I don't even know who I'd give a Goldberg retirement match to these days.
If Tony Khan wants to give him some cash to squash a guy so he can retire on Turner with Schiavone calling it, sure, f*** it, there's some novelty in that, but I am struggling to think of anything WWE could scrounge together with Bill that'd be of interest we haven't seen 40 times already.
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 28, 2023 1:05:40 GMT -5
And yet, the Keith Lee Him deal was also used to do Keith Lee vs. Shane Taylor, a match that was significantly longer in the making. Granted, that's because neither man was in the same company for most of the time, but it's still funny that the feud was unresolved for like five times longer. Next, Keith Lee will face Scorpio Sky to get revenge for Scorpio calling him "gaywad" on X-Box Live 14 years ago.
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 27, 2023 15:12:54 GMT -5
In the next six months. And IF down the line they want to turn him face, it should be a situation where he comes to the defense of Prince Nana. The time-honored effective wrestling face turn move of entering our hearts through the person we also love. I feel like what happens whenever he turns face is them pulling a Buddy Landell, when Buddy ordered Cornette to not interfere for him in a match ahead of time, and then the night of, he swings his racket at HBK but hits Buddy instead, and then blames him for losing instead of owning that it was entirely his fault. Just, Nana's crown to Swerve's head instead.
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 27, 2023 14:52:32 GMT -5
Meltzer bringing up the majority vote thing re piqued my interest in who wanted to leave and who wanted to stay. Either way, kind of a dodged bullet with how things played out. Pretty sure it was brought up before they re-signed. Probably not something we will know for a long time Yeah, all we know is that some wanted to stay, some wanted to go, and that they came to a decision to all stay.
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 27, 2023 1:10:01 GMT -5
Give AEW this, that Sting snowglobe is giving me real, "Bravely Default 1 Agnes figure," vibes and Square actually released that. Yeah, there is a ton of shit that can go wrong with manufacturing, especially once paint is involved. I can believe that talent have been frustrated about merch, like Evil Uno had been very open since practically day one that they were trying to get Dark Order masks made and that getting someone who was equipped to manufacture them was proving to be very difficult to near impossible for the right price point, but that's been a lot of industries since the pandemic began. AEW's not unique in that respect, they just have the hindrance that a lot of those relationships weren't already firmly established like WWE had with Mattel already, etc, to simplify matters.
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 26, 2023 23:52:41 GMT -5
The best part is that Wesley Snipes legit trains a bunch of different martial arts and would for sure whoop HHH’s non-fighting ass. Jericho outing Alfonso Ribeiro as a sex creep is always kind of amusing. Carlton is a sex creep?! What's the story there? Unless there's more to it, I think it amounted to him bragging he'd banged 1000 chicks after asking Jericho if he liked sex. Like, it's not fantastic, but I thought it was going to be worse before I googled it.
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 26, 2023 23:46:14 GMT -5
As funny as the snow globe is, it makes sense conceptually why it'd exist, with his debut at Winter is Coming with the fake snow.
Unless she personally drew a weird balding Sting and said, "yeah, make it like this", I have no idea why this would be on her that the manufacturer would turn out something like that.
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 26, 2023 22:50:11 GMT -5
I recall Ray Traylor calling Curt Hennig “Mr. Perfect” at least once in Nitro. I have to give AEW a lot of credit that I haven’t heard them slip up and say “Edge” once. Yeah, not on TV, though they've slipped during scrums at least once, nothing too major.
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 26, 2023 22:44:40 GMT -5
I remember "hoss" being one for a strong guy who mainly just had size going for him, often a green athlete. Jim Ross would use it as a compliment, putting over a dude's size, but fans took to using it derisively for the Mongo types, people who lacked fundamentals even if they had size or even enthusiasm like he did.
Of course, it over time has sometimes been used more neutrally or even as a compliment, especially since those types of wrestlers have become less common than in like 2003.
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 26, 2023 21:24:12 GMT -5
Tanahashi said that one of his goals as president is to sell out The Tokyo Dome So we’re getting a new booker? It's possible, but haven't people been saying Dick Togo's been doing some of the booking, and Jushin Liger booking the juniors? In any case, it's probably not just Gedo these days. Still, I do think Gedo did some great booking once upon a time, but he's been at the post for too long. It's like when Delirious really badly needed to step away from ROH's booking entirely, or Vince's creative decay spanning years and years.
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 25, 2023 19:57:46 GMT -5
Not to mention, that AEW began with the idea of giving wrestlers and wrestling-related people jobs making the shows, that unless they couldn't fill a position with a wrestler or someone who already understood the industry, that they would avoid hiring people who had no relationship to it. It obviously changed some over time, but it does feel like they were really trying to avoid any Kevin Dunn situations of people who seem mortified at what puts food on their table and they treat it with disdain. And also if you’re entering a locker room, it’s easier to feel like you can communicate with someone who knows what you’re going through to get stuff done rather than some middle man whose only experienced in doing live events for, like, eSports or something of that nature whose only impression of the industry was when his friends channel changed between USA and TNT in the late 90s and he didn’t know what they were on about. Like you said, this has changed over time when new demands are needed but that was the idea behind it I am reminded of Jon Moxley giving a quote of something to the effect of, "If they hire writers, I f***ing quit." After the jerking around in WWE near the end, he and others were delighted with a return to basics.
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 25, 2023 19:54:42 GMT -5
I want him to introduce like, four new Kamen Rider crossovers.
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 25, 2023 19:48:15 GMT -5
I really have no clue on if she was good at her job, but my god was AEW filled with nepo hires. This is generally a really stupid thing to do while running a business. Sure, you can hire people in mid level productions roles, who cares. But people with little-to no corporate experience were given pretty big roles. Remember how big a deal it was in 2017, 2018 when Bullet Club & Elite tshirts started showing up HEAVY in Hot Topic and ignited (or reignited in the case of some lapsed fans) a new wave of fans that lead to a ground swell of the most known faces of that wave of wrestlers deciding to strike out on their own and form a competitor to the Monopoly? That doesn’t happen without Dana. As has been said already in this thread, she is critically important to AEW even getting off the ground. She was always more than just a quote un quote ‘nepo hire.’ Not to mention, that AEW began with the idea of giving wrestlers and wrestling-related people jobs making the shows, that unless they couldn't fill a position with a wrestler or someone who already understood the industry, that they would avoid hiring people who had no relationship to it. It obviously changed some over time, but it does feel like they were really trying to avoid any Kevin Dunn situations of people who seem mortified at what puts food on their table and they treat it with disdain.
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 25, 2023 18:25:09 GMT -5
I’m okay with Tama’s placement at Wrestle Kingdom only under the idea that this is his farewell. If not formally, maybe one of his last "big matches". He's been given opportunities as a singles guy, both face and heel, and always underwhelms.
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 25, 2023 4:09:33 GMT -5
I've had so little exposure to Utena stateside (mostly saw it in old Animerica magazines as a kid) that I had always assumed it was older than Sailor Moon. Some of that is very likely the art style, which is deliberately evocative of Osamu Dezaki's work from the 1970s and early '80s, like Aim for the Ace, The Rose of Versailles, and so on, especially Rose of Versailles. This definitely contributes to it looking like a relic when it came out.
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 25, 2023 3:03:58 GMT -5
By "Monster" are you talking about a big power house heel like Vader or Undertaker? No They're not really THAT big or physically imposing I do think you can Book them like Cactus Jack/Early Mankind where they're presented as a scary/sadistic threat on the other hand I can get behind giving them a Monster Booty gimmick Yeah, Mankind is a good choice to model after. A monster, but a more cerebral one, not necessarily just a power thing. (Though, people often forget that Mick is actually a pretty sizable dude, the slouching and higher average wrestler height kind of masked that a little.)
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 25, 2023 3:00:12 GMT -5
Sure is a placeholder plain black attire meant to represent a heel turn. Talking about boiler plate heel turn stuff, I am just thinking of that period where, every time someone turned heel in WWE, they tended to get their theme remixed to be slower, which it feels like most of the time just made it sound more boring.
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