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Brody
Sept 13, 2007 22:25:02 GMT -5
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 13, 2007 22:25:02 GMT -5
There was also a rumor in 1985 that he would run-in on the main event at Wrestlemania and ruin it. I totally forgot about this, is it in the book? I remembered hearing that old-school territory promoters were going to chip in and pay Brody $25,000, $50,000 or something to hop the rail, beat up Mr. T and ruin WrestleMania, but Brody refused. I always figured this story was a tall tale, but if it's true, it should be in there. |
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Brody
Sept 13, 2007 22:19:24 GMT -5
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 13, 2007 22:19:24 GMT -5
Brody's awesome. He's definitely worth seeking out if you've never seen much of him. His work obviously influenced The Berserker, but that was a cartoon version of it. He was a big influence on guys like Mick Foley, Scott Hall (because he said so), and "Loose Cannon"-era Brian Pillman.
Meltzer wrote that the original seeds for Pillman's "Loose Cannon" character were planted at the Stu Hart Tribute show in 1995, when Pillman was hearing Bruce Hart and The Funks reminiscing over wild Bruiser Brody stories in and out of the ring...so Pillman returned to WCW unpredictable in every way (like Brody) and became the wildest wrestler on TV.
Really exciting worker, and had the best big leg drop in history. Brody could catch amazing air before dropping the leg.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 12, 2007 1:07:49 GMT -5
I've said it before, but to me, most of the bad/cheesy stuff in TNA seems like Memphis rasslin' at its worst (which is where Jeff and Mantell probably learned everything they know) more than Russo fingerprints. Not to say Memphis wrestling was bad, but there was some really cheesy stuff, and loads of run-ins, manager interference, swerves, and turns. But still, every time something sucks in TNA, it's somehow automatically Russo's fault. Tell me if this clip from 1988 Memphis doesn't feel like a 2007 TNA angle... www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNVnlS6W_AEFrom the clip, just... 1. Replace young 1988 Scott Levy with "Showtime" Eric Young 2. Replace Hyatt/Gilbert with Kurt/Karen Angle 3. Replace Curt Hennig with Christian Cage 4. Replace Jerry Lawler with Samoa Joe ...and you've pretty much got a textbook TNA angle ready to book. Russo wasn't in 1988 Memphis, but Jeff Jarrett and Dutch Mantell were...hmm... They were chanting "Fire Russo" at the end of the PPV, yet most of the angles with Abyss are stuff Dutch Mantell's already booked with Abyss in Puerto Rico. And I could be wrong, but I think Mantell even originally conceived the Abyss character down in PR...which would kind of prove that Mantell's not with the times. Such a 1990s gimmick. I guess one positive of Mantell's stint on the creative team is that the Observer said Mantell booked Alex Shelley to start following people around with a video camera (Paparazzi Productions is an old gimmick from Mantell's booking in PR, too). Shelley ran with that. |
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 13, 2007 2:33:15 GMT -5
James Storm. Chris Harris. Blindfold Match. ....In a cage. STILL the worst match I've seen ALL year. Winner. Yeah, when you have two talented guys who have worked together for so long, know each other like the back of their own hand, and it's still the worst match of the year...something went terribly, terribly wrong in the creative process. That match made Team 3D/LAX's electrified cage match look like Magnum/Tully from Starrcade '85 in comparison. |
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 12, 2007 15:03:40 GMT -5
Yeah but how is he elevated by being immediately beaten, again? I'd say that beating someone coming off of a huge upset of your world champion would elevate the third person, too. Not as much, but by proxy. In the NFL, if a team is coming off of a huge upset over the Colts, come out too confident the next week and get upset themselves...then some people will start to believe that the third team could be a contender and eventually give the Colts a great game too, if they should face down the road. But hey, that's just how perception works in sports, where there are clean winners and losers. And usually in sports (football especially), a team is very vulnerable to a huge letdown the week after scoring a big upset. But alas, on a wrestling message board, everything is considered a burial...like somebody else's credibility wouldn't receive a boost by beating somebody that just beat Kurt Angle (since you already spoiled it). Man, it really is a shame that they're trying to rebuild the credibility of all these X-Division guys that the kids seem to like so much.  |
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 12, 2007 14:40:16 GMT -5
1. roode didn't have to have the authority to fire young. we found out at the end that he didn't have authority. the point was eric young thought he was going to get fired, playing up on his gimmick of already being paranoid and gullible. that one could be a bit confusing but i didn't find it outrageously abstract. 2. it doesn't matter sting still wants revenge. plus that is more of a sting flub than a tna flub. 3. hmmm... how about jay lethal going clean over one the biggest champions (on paper) tna has had just past sunday? 4. wwe can repeat things because they have five times the time that tna does. if you multiplied impact by five things would be mega hyped up. I dont want to reveal spoilers if you havent seen them but 3 gets put to bed soon Without revealing spoilers #3 isn't put to bed. #3 has a new opponent created for him, and the manner in which the new opponent is created is Booking 101, and people have been doing that in wrestling for 50+ years that wrestling's been on TV. |
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 12, 2007 14:35:39 GMT -5
would you be opposed to backing up your statements and clarifying them? i would just like to understand what you are complaining about. i have a few questions if you don't want to answer them that is fine but, 1)what booking makes no sense? 2)what angles run out of sequence? 3)do you honestly believe no one is elevated? 4)you say they don't make anything sound important ever. what makes other companies, the wwe would be a good example, sound more important? 1. Easiest example Eric Young and Robert Roode but there is tonnes more 2. Just this last week Sting saying he's glad he got the title shot because it gives him a chance to get revenge on team Pacman, they only attacked him after he got the title shot and only because he got the title shot. 3. Tell me who is? 4. The WWE make things important by replaying and repeating them, some times to the point of annoyance, but at least you know when somethings a big deal. 1. The Eric Young/Robert Roode angle was insulting to the intelligence of the viewer, but I can hardly say it made no sense. Roode had a fake corporation, is greedy and obsessed with money. Roode saw that the fans really liked Eric Young, saw dollar signs in Eric Young's popularity, so signing Eric Young to be part of his fake corporation would help his bottom line. Eric Young didn't like this, so he and Robert Roode fought way too many times because they never got their issue fully resolved. It's a total 1980s angle, insulting to our intelligence, but it hardly made no sense. 2. You basically explained Sting's motive, whether you meant to or not. Of course Sting would be glad that he got the title shot in retrospect after Pacman and Killings attacked him. Before, he had no reason to want to fight Pacman and Killings so it was just another match to him...that is until they tagged him. Then he was glad. Human beings often reflect and put things into a new perspective when provided with new information...wrestling characters should be able to do the same. That's not non-linear. 3. Jay Lethal and Motor City Machine Guns were elevated quite a bit on Sunday. James Storm and Ron Killings have been elevated since Slammiversary when they were jobbing to former NFL lower-midcarder Frank Wycheck. 4. WWE re-runs, re-caps, and stresses their important angles from one show on RAW, ECW, Smackdown. TNA does not have three television shows during the week to let people know that Donald Trump showed up on RAW, or whatever major happened. |
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 12, 2007 14:00:23 GMT -5
I think it's funny when people say they're confused by stuff that happens in TNA storylines, like they're incredibly hard to follow. There's a difference between not liking something and being confused with what's going on. I haven't liked a lot of stuff in TNA's storylines, but Impact doesn't blow my mind. It's a wrestling TV show, not "Mulholland Drive" or some of Godard's work.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 11, 2007 7:28:27 GMT -5
Of course that means Angle had to get his heat back via Abyss. But I'll take that over Angle going-over Lethal or losing to Lethal via screwjob then another screwjob to put Angle over Abyss. Which is what I thought was coming. (sorry for double posting) I still have to hand it to TNA for that match too, though. Although the crowd was dead for it and it was really slow paced (something I don't mind, but still) it was a very convincing match. They actually had the monster/brawler play the part and the mat technician play the part as well. Again, no screwjobs, and instead of "burying" Abyss, it made it look like a valiant effort that came up short. Kayfabe-wise it was great, too, since Angle was supposedly in his "ECW-Nutty mode" before the match, thus making him trying to break Abyss' ankle make sense. I haven't been Angle's biggest fan during his TNA run, but yeah, his work was pretty awesome on Sunday. In the Lethal match, he was a technical bully. In the Abyss match, he was working a textbook Ric Flair title defense, but even stronger and more modern, taking out the leg but trying to put a slower, larger opponent out with high-flying stuff like moonsaults once he's grounded (which he didn't need to try while beating on Lethal). Very sound, cool, believable psychology. Kind of makes me wish Angle could've main-evented PPV singles matches against a wide-variety of opponents over the past year, rather than fighting Samoa Joe so many times, and fighting in six+man tag matches, or King of the Mountain Brawls. Joe and Angle should've been each beating on the rest of the roster this entire time, not each other. |
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 10, 2007 23:31:51 GMT -5
As much as I love Lethal, I wonder how Samoa Joe felt. "Wait, I can't beat Angle, but Jay Lethal can!? A few months ago I'd be squashing him on Impact in five seconds flat!" In character, anyway. Kayfabe I'm sure Joe was happy for him. Kayfabe-wise, the Lethal/Angle/Joe scenario isn't much different than stuff that happens all the time in sports. In college football, Appalachian State (Lethal) can beat Michigan (Angle), and theoretically, Michigan could turn right around and beat Ohio State (Joe)*...even though Ohio State should easily squash Appalachian every single time, though in the back of your mind you think Appalachian would have a realistic outside shot. It's too bad that mainstream wrestling's bad booking and backstage politics (or guys not wanting to do jobs) have led to educating us that it takes a screwy finish or some sort of interference for an upset. Upsets happen all the time in real life. Good sports teams and good athletes have bad days every now and then. Wrestlers shouldn't be any different. Appalachian State's upset over Michigan wouldn't have meant as much if App. St. was also feuding with Georgia Southern University, who ran out to hit them with a chair but accidentally hit Michigan. Instead, Appalachian State beat Michigan fair and square, just like Jay Lethal, which got them more attention and respect. *-Michigan's kind of a bad example considering how bad they're playing right now, but hopefully the point still works. |
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 10, 2007 2:51:52 GMT -5
Now that Lethal holds a clean win over Angle, that will pay huge dividends for TNA leading up to a future re-match. If Lethal would've won by Kevin Nash running in, missing a big boot and accidentally hitting Angle, it wouldn't have meant a damn thing.
It's amazing how easy clean finishes like that add to the product. Now there's money to be made if/when Lethal ever decides to challenge for Angle's world title. Maybe that's not a PPV match, but it'd be a good Impact main event when they get two hours. And I'm not a huge Lethal mark, but I popped at home when he pinned Angle. Such a surprising finish. Sadly, I can't remember the last time I popped watching the finish of a match on TV.
That was an awesome moment to watch on live PPV. Plus, after winning, it looked like Lethal broke character for the first time in months getting caught up in it. Looked like it meant a lot to him. Cool stuff.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 11, 2007 3:09:24 GMT -5
Considering their director missed like 90 shots in three hours of a live PPV, and they can't find an audio engineer to make a live audio mix that isn't either...
1. The crowd at full blast and you can't hear the announcers.
2. The announcers are at full blast and you can't hear the crowd.
and...
3. You can only hear 65% of any backstage interview that isn't 100% shouting 100% of the time.
...it's probably a lot of us to ask for them to tape TV out of the Impact Zone. Hell, any time they go outside of the Impact Zone for a PPV, it's a crapshoot, and a general production debacle. I think the time they were in St. Louis for PPV, A.J. Styles did a crazy diving bump jumping off of something in the main event, the biggest spot in the entire show, and they completely missed it, and most of the pre-show had severe technical problems.
They even went to a taped pre-show the past few months, and I swear that before No Surrender they were showing that taped match with Shark Boy, Petey, Sanjay, and for NO REASON during the middle of the match, the camera cut to people filing into the Impact Zone live for 1.5 seconds. As a director of a live broadcast, you have to actively try to screw something up that bad. Makes no sense.
Going on the road to tape TV would be a money drain, but it might not hurt to tape outside at Universal Studios at night in the park during the summer. It's cheaper to move all of your production equipment and talent 1,000 feet than it is to move it half-way across the country. You'd get a better walk up crowd, and it'd look cool on TV. Maybe it's too WCW Monday Nitro, but nobody does that type of stuff anymore, and it looks like a happening on TV.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 11, 2007 3:48:32 GMT -5
I think that was decent on Angle to put Lethal over cleanly, especially if he was given the option not to. I don't really think Angle is as egotisical as he's sometimes made out to be. Well, it was more that Angle forced the bookers change their plans to put over Lethal cleanly, moreso than just given the option if he felt like it. I think that's more than decent of Angle, especially since it came out with Jay Lethal smelling like money. |
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 11, 2007 2:52:34 GMT -5
Keller was also saying that Angle's reputation backstage is that he generally pretty much rolls along with whatever TNA's creative team gives him, and tries to make the best of it. For example, the pushing of Karen Angle and the "Total Non-Stop Angle" we sometimes complain about is Jeff Jarrett's doing, and Jarrett's way of trying to get the most out of TNA's huge investment in Angle. That sounds a lot better than a situation where Kurt's running around like Hogan in 1994-95 WCW trying to get his face all over TV and his cronies hired (which I kind of assumed).
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 11, 2007 2:30:29 GMT -5
Credit PWTorch audio update for 9/10...
1. Many people backstage at TNA (including Kurt Angle) were upset that Jay Lethal was one of the guys thrown around by Samoa Joe on camera when wrestlers came out to break-up the Joe/Christian, feeling like it made Lethal look very weak just an hour after the big victory. The "heatzz" was not directed at Joe, but at agent Terry Taylor, who just rounded up a bunch of guys backstage to go get Joe off of Christian after the DQ...and picked a bunch of young guys from the X-Division that were standing around. The feeling was that it was accidental incompetence and an oversight on Taylor's part more than sabotage of the X-Division.
2. Kurt Angle was presented with a non-clean finish to the Black Machismo title match and refused, didn't feel like his character needed that kind of protection, wants to help create stars, and do clean finishes, and 100% stressed that Lethal needed put over cleanly if there was going to be a title change.
...It's too bad that Kurt's too crazy to book this crap (SEE: his idea to make some of the X-Division guys like "Peanuts" characters), because he seems really smart with the basics. The finish of that Lethal-Angle match is even cooler after hearing it came from Angle, because that was the textbook way to put a guy over.
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U-Gene?
Sept 11, 2007 6:05:36 GMT -5
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 11, 2007 6:05:36 GMT -5
He isn't a guy like Dustin Rhodes, who is nowhere without his Goldust gimmick. He could definately make a living as Nick Dinsmore and seeing how the crowd got tired of Eugene, they might actually want to see him as Nick Dinsmore. Dude, Dustin Rhodes was a name on TV for years without the Goldust gimmick. Yes, Dustin's a bigger star as Goldust, but it's not like Nick Dinsmore was wrestling as himself (and the son of a legend) for six years for WCW on a Saturday night show that pulled 2.0s-3.0s in the ratings before he became a gimmick in WWE. I apologize, but that's just a poor analogy when you have a myriad of other workers that WWE/WWF ruined to choose from. As bad off as Dustin Rhodes is in his career, he has far more to play off than Dinsmore does with Eugene. Right now, Dustin Rhodes is "nowhere" without Goldust, but in comparison, you can say that Nick Dinsmore is "lesswhere". |
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U-Gene?
Sept 11, 2007 1:35:07 GMT -5
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 11, 2007 1:35:07 GMT -5
This is ridiculous He just needs to go to ROH or TNA and do some shoots Seriously, this is one time where I think it's appropriate Sadly, he'll probably make more money on the indies playing a faux special person than trying to start over and relaunch his career as a serious wrestler. Plus, WWE will bring him back every now and again as a skit punchline and nostalgia pop for the next 15 years, with a few short runs here and there. If I were him, I'd don a mask and call myself "Mr. Wrestling III" or something and try to get a job in TNA, ROH, or Japan as a serious singles wrestler, but that's not an option if he wants to make a living working indy dates on the East Coast with a character that's run its course and can't even be spelled properly. I've pitched the masked man angle for Conway before on here, but I think it could work for Dinsmore. An old school masked wrester that's an intelligent, technical heavyweight...and wears a suit during interviews, speaks well, and takes apart his opponents like The Destroyer, Mr. Wrestling, or Masked Superstar. A new masked star is far more interesting than bringing in a non-Eugene Nick Dinsmore. Along the way, you re-build Dinsmore's credibility, and later you can unmask him if you want. I'm weary of this working in a place like TNA or ROH, whose live fans would probably know newz that "Nick Dinsmore's coming in doing a masked gimmick" before he even wrestles a match and chant "Eugene" during his matches. But it should work. And even if they chant his name, you could have fun with that too. In Ron Simmons' shoot, he said he'd walk out to the ring as Doom #1 and some guy would always go "Hey you're Ron Simmons". The interviewer asked how he handled it, and Simmons just laughed said he'd always reply, "No I'm not!". But Doom re-built Simmons and Butch Reed, and when they unmasked again, they were bigger stars and taken more seriously than before they were under the masks. |
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 11, 2007 0:54:41 GMT -5
At least they framed this Pacman angle in a way where they can get the names of Sting and Kurt Angle out into the media as associated with TNA. In the past, when TNA gets coverage like this, the athlete's involved with someone along the level of "Diamonds in the Rough", which makes TNA look even more bush league to outsiders.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 12, 2007 14:47:03 GMT -5
How could Robert Roode fire Eric Young if Eric Young had a TNA contract? He couldn't. Jim Cornette said so. This isn't the first time that a heel has ever been booked to be power-hungry and/or delusional, or just flat in the wrong. Eric Young's character is stupid, naive, and goes along with everything...so he believed that Robert Roode could fire him. And besides, since Eric Young was obsessed with not being fired from TNA before that angle started, who's to say that Robert Roode wasn't playing mind games with Eric Young that whole time just because he was pissed at him for not joining his stable? I thought the angle was dumb, drawn-out way too long, and boring, but it was hardly confusing. |
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 11, 2007 19:49:03 GMT -5
Signing people like Test, Goldust, The Bashams, and other midcarders that are either too old or bad in the ring is not going to do a thing to attract anyone. Goldust is the only one of those people in TNA right now. |
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