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X JAKK posted:Sid Justice heard a loud noise and imploded into a singularity I feel awful for him but goddamn this is true
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Feb 21, 2022 04:41
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Trollologist posted:Maybe that?
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Feb 21, 2022 05:02
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So, let's talk about something much more ridiculous for a change. A good kind of ridiculous, like the Room as a movie. FOR IT IS ETCHED IN STOONNNEEEEEE... --- This, back in the 70's, was Kevin Sullivan. Someone commented on this thread that he looked like "George from Seinfeld became a wrestler", but much like how in porn Ron Jeremy didn't start as a pudgy-fat hairy ratty faced guy who got work based on a large penis and exceptional control-sorry, getting off track, Sullivan was actually a former power lifter and looked like this.  Though by the time the 80's had begun, he'd dyed his hair and begun a popular heel gimmick on the territories, calling himself the Prince of Darkness and presenting himself as a stereotypical Satanist who worshipped the Satan that would drive the Satanic Panic shortly into the decade. He was managed, among others, by the "Fallen Angel", Robin Green, nee Nancy Toffoloni, later and better known as 'Woman', who would be first Kevin Sullivan's wife, and then, tragically, Chris Benoit's.  When an image like this speaks of 'better days', you know something went terribly wrong somewhere. Ironically, by the time that Sullivan made it to WCW, he would go in a completely different direction and form a popular heel stable called the "Varsity Club", which was based around the fact that its members all had collegiate wrestling experience and hence were better than everyone else in WCW. I said that Mike Rotunda was best and maybe only known for playing wrestling tax agent Irwin R. Shyster in the WWF, but maybe that's unfair: he was also a member of this team, so he was pretty well known under his real name. Of course, after the stable had run its course, they booked a storyline where Rotunda got knocked on the head and got confused and decided that he was no longer 'Captain of the Club' but now "Captain of the Ship" and began a sailor/naval gimmick. Or maybe that was just Mick Foley. The knock on the head part: Rotunda actually WRESTLED with the naval gimmick, unlike Foley who just used it in the infamous "Lost In Cleveland" WCW vignettes, but I'm getting off track. After the Varsity Club disbanded, Sullivan spent the next several years moving through other federations, doing some stuff in Smoky Mountain Wrestling and ECW back when it was still Eastern Championship Wrestling, before returning to WCW in 1994. This was around when age and injuries had made Sullivan look...less than intimidating now. Interestingly, Kevin Sullivan was first portrayed as a face...because he was coming back in to team up with his storyline brother Dave Sullivan. Who was storyline dyslexic. And said his name as "Evad Sullivan". And I think even the official chirons called him that a few times. Yeah, pro wrestling is unenlightened, ain't that a surprise. Anyway, The Nasty Boys were picking on the childlike good natured (mentally disabled) Dave, so Kevin teamed up with him to get revenge. Then Dave Sullivan (nee William Danenhaur) got injured, so Kevin teamed up with Mick Foley/Cactus Jack to beat the Nasty Boys for the titles. They then lost them, Cactus turned on Kevin, and Kevin beat him in a 'Loser Leaves WCW' match that would send Mick onto ECW and then his greatest glories in the WWE. Mick actually speaks about this in his first book, not wanting to go out as a heel, because heels didn't sell merchandise and he wanted every penny he could get. He was informed by...someone backstage to just do it: Sullivan might have 'officially' been a face, but he was the least sympathetic person by nature and that no matter what was 'official', the fans would treat Mick as the face. And they did. Anyway, while this was happening, Hulk Hogan had joined WCW and was starting his reign of terror by utterly destroying Ric Flair in repeated PPV matches. His injury healed, Dave Sullivan would return as a storyline superfan of Hulk Hogan, dressing up as him, getting the truly terrible song "I Want To Be A Hulkamanic" as his entrance music... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2ndIhkA_ss ...and even being gifted by Hogan the boots he supposedly wore when he defeated Andre at Wrestlemania III. This drove Sullivan nuts, because deep down he was an evil black hearted monster or something (hey, the 80's gimmick gave him a basis for it, at least) and he hated how pure and good Hogan was, and so he began teaming up with Flair in his battles against Hogan. It didn't help Flair, and Hogan beat him in a 'Retirement Match' at the October 1994 PPV. But before this, for months Hogan had been suffering from numerous attacks by an unknown masked man (originally played by Arn Anderson, and originally was going to be revealed as "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig (until he changed his mind to try and let a persistent back injury heal)). With the original masked man not coming in, Hogan seized the opportunity and inserted his best friend Ed Leslie in the spot: having been appearing at Hogan's side as "Brother Bruti", Leslie would be unmasked as the attacker in October, turning heel and claiming that Sullivan had convinced him to do it. Renaming himself "The Butcher" and also bringing in John Tenta, formerly known as Earthquake in WWF and taking the similar name of "Avalanche" in WCW, the three formed the THREE FACES OF FEAR and vowed to destroy Hogan.  As I said, Hogan basically giving his best friend the main event slot in WCW's version of Wrestlemania after spending several months utterly stomping WCW representative Ric Flair into the mud went over like a lead balloon. Leslie would lose at Starrcade, and when 1995 came around Avalanche would leave the group after failing to destroy Hogan and Sullivan, in frustration, would turn on the Butcher and beat him up. Which would seemingly cause the Butcher brain damage (there's that again...) and he became known as "The Man With No Name". So Sullivan beat 'The Man With No Name' on PPV as well, as Hogan was by now busy destroying Vader's credibility and career. But, after the match, a very strange man would appear on the ringside TV screens and call out to Sullivan, who, in a trance, would run out of the arena. And so it actually began, as WCW fans were 'treated' to a series of filmed vignettes that began with Sullivan running through the woods as a floating head called for him...  Where he found a cave and entered it, to discover a man on a throne, the MASTER. Played by retired wrestler King Curtis Iaukea and about 20 pounds of pancake batter.  Though some of that was legit the utter mess Iaukea's forehead was after many years of blading. Calling Sullivan his son, or rather, "MY SOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNN", because the Master yelled every single word he said, he told Sullivan that he had brought him here to destroy Hulkamania. Sullivan, defeated, said it was impossible. The Master said he needed to be reforged in fire, and directed him through a crack in the wall, where Sullivan would re-emerge as THE TASKMASTER, reborn with a fresh new fire to destroy Hogan. What did this new identity entail?  Getting a new track suit with lightning bolts and having ram esque horns painted on his forehead (not seen here), basically. The Master declared that Sullivan (who was now calling the Master 'Father', so I guess he adopted him or vice versa or something or it was metaphorical who cares?) would gather a legion of deadly, dark foes that would do what the three Faces of Fear could not. They would DESTROY HULKAMANIA! FOR THEY...WERE...THE DUNGEON OF DOOM! And who would be the first members of this terrible force? Why, the exact same two people Sullivan had just spent several months teaming up and then breaking up with! First, there would be...THE SHARK!  Played by John Tenta, again. You'd think going from a natural disaster to a mere maritime animal would be a downgrade. He's not just holding his wrist there by the by, he was supposed to be trying to mimic a shark's fin. Also he had his face painted with teeth, this picture shows it more clearly. And with the Shark, would be joined,  (Because some things just need to be animated) Which was Ed Leslie. Who was no longer the Butcher, Brother Bruti, or the Man With No Name. So what was different now? Well, all he did was say the words "Yes." and "No." That was it. He'd constantly ramble "YES! NO! YES! NO!" Truly a nightmare cast in flesh. And soon allied with them, the terrible Ugandan giant, Kamala!  Who Sullivan was so pleased to 'get' as an ally he sounded like the Master had gifted him a whole evil army instead of a big fat wrestler who'd always been bad in the ring and whose days where he could have gotten by via his size and gimmick were long gone. And also, they would be joined by, THEMONSTERMENG! (You can't just say Meng, or "The Monster, Meng", you have to yell-slur all the words together. Always)  (Meng, seen here with his newly gifted new mask and misapplied Chinese finger trap. Never mind that before this, Meng was presented as a besuited bodyguard for another WCW manager, Col. Parker. Amusingly, even after the Dungeon was long done, Meng would keep the 'savage warrior' gimmick for the rest of his WCW career.) And for final insurance, they would be joined by Hogan's current mortal foe, the man they called VADER!  Two notes here. One was that that metal elephant mask preceeded the Dungeon: they didn't inflict it on Vader. He wore it to the ring as part of his entrance gear: sometimes he'd even get a fancy version that shot steam. The other is that Vader got himself back out of the group as fast as he could. This would mark a trend for how members of the Dungeon would be there one week and gone the next.  SO THE DUNGEON WAS FORMED! TOGETHER, THEY WOULD DESTROY HULKAMANIA! Next: The Dungeon utterly fails to destroy Hulkamania. --- And because images don't do some of these things justice, video clips. Sadly, I couldn't find any standalone clips of Sullivan meeting the Master/becoming the Taskmaster. But I did find the Shark! And you can meet the horrendous Zodiac! (But not in the way I suspect the people who had to do this wanted.) And Kamala! Linked mainly for just how EXCITED Sullivan gets. Vader in the Dungeon. (With bonus extra WCW nonsense and 90's commercials) Cornwind Evil fucked around with this message at 08:24 on Feb 21, 2022 |
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Feb 21, 2022 06:41
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Alright, I'm gonna come out and say it. As an adult, I can say this is dumb as poo poo. If it was acted right, and you leaned into the camp, it could be fun-dumb like that time The Undertaker tried to crucify Stephanie McMahon. But if I was 10.....I would have full on revolted until my mom bought me every Dungeon of Doom shirt, action figure, poster, anything. This poo poo was little Trollologist's loving jam and I would have Marked out hard.
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Feb 21, 2022 07:27
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Lmao Hogan's lawsuit against Russo - Russo denied Hogan's right to creative control by telling the audience that Hogan's creative control shenanigans were ruining the business
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Feb 21, 2022 07:31
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Earlier in this thread, there was mention of Chikara and I figured, what the hell, let’s give this one a history effortpost. Chikara was an indie promotion that ran for nearly 20 years that dove headfirst into humor, silly gimmicks, and bizarre storytelling. While most promotions are fairly grounded in reality (er, relatively), Chikara was doing storylines that involved time travel, murder, resurrection, super powers, cloning, evil doppelgangers, hypnotism, possession, and so on. It was low-budget and needlessly destroyed itself, but when it was on, it was goddamn magic. The company was headed by Mike Quackenbush, a veteran indie wrestler who was incredibly talented in the ring, but was also a colossal dork. He can’t talk without sounding like a hammy doofus. But drat was he good at writing a long-running wrestling show. At least for the most part. Plus, for a wrestler booking his own promotion, he was remarkably competent at walking the line as a top tier threat in the ring who isn’t overly pushed. Even his biggest wins were ultimately about putting the spotlight on others. The company started as a wrestling school started by Quackenbush and a couple other guys, who would peace out sooner than later. They were training students, but where were these guys supposed to compete with an audience? And so, in 2002, Chikara was born. It took a few years for them to figure themselves out, but by 2006 or 2007, they had their own footprint in the US indies. The company was known for its “family friendly” nature and goofy gimmicks, usually involving the wrestlers to be masked. There was a group of guys dressed as ants, two clowns made of ice cream, an old timey baseball player, frog Thor, a crossing guard, breakdancers from Ancient Egypt, and so on. Quackenbush got pissed at CM Punk for no-showing some shows and ghosting him, so he had someone wrestle in a chipmunk mascot costume under the name CP Munk. DVD covers were regularly classic comic book covers redrawn to feature Chikara wrestlers. There was a running gag that the unseen authority figure was “Commissioner Bob Saget” and then one day footage of Bob Saget at his desk was shown to announce a major match. Despite the silly poo poo, the storylines were just well done in a regular wrestling sense, if a little too intricate for their own good at times. Quackenbush depicted each year as a “season,” giving him a structure for the bigger storylines. The promotion was more about tournaments and special match events than just titles. Early on, the only title was a rookie championship that was decided in an annual tournament, defended like a belt, then vacated for the next tournament with a rule that former title holders were not allowed to challenge for it ever again. It took a few years for them to introduce a tag title and it wasn’t until the end of 2011 that Chikara had a main singles championship. In early 2007, Chikara started their biggest tradition, an annual tournament called King of Trios. Over the course of three days, 16 teams of three (28 teams when they tried to go bigger in 2008) would compete in a tournament. It would include Chikara guys, wrestlers from other promotions, and wrestlers from other countries. Sometimes old wrestlers would return and reuse their older, forgotten gimmicks (Sean Waltman as the 1-2-3 Kid or Justin Credible being Aldo Montoya the Portuguese Man of War). To give the eliminated teams something to do, there was a smaller tournament over the weekend for flippy dudes and a gigantic tag team gauntlet match that acted like a celebratory parade of all the talent who made the week fun. So the company was starting to pick up steam, but they weren’t without some controversies. The 2007 season ended with a mask vs. hair match between Lince Dorado (mask) and Mitch Ryder (hair). At the very end, Lince did a flippy move off the top rope and hit the mat so hard that he went into a seizure. Ryder just kind of slid into position to be pinned and the ref counted it. As medics came out to help Lince, Quackenbush was allegedly adamant about them not removing his mask because he wanted to protect kayfabe. Then a disgruntled Ryder sat there while they shaved his head to the awkward silence, save Lince’s mother screaming in horror backstage. Even getting past how badly Quackenbush paid his talent, or how controlling he was with their outside bookings, the guy couldn’t help but burn bridges. Head trainer, top heel, and co-booker Chris Hero left at the end of 2007 and never came back. As a teacher, Quackenbush would regularly send out mass emails to the students after shows, which involved lots of poo poo-talking to non-students. That guy Mitch Ryder I mentioned a second ago saw that Quackenbush was talking poo poo about his new in-ring gear and told him off before quitting the company. Relationships with other indie promotions eroded over time. One of the funnier stories with Quackenbush clashing with talent was King of Trios 2009. One of the trios was Team Epic War, made up of Epic War representatives Austin Aries, Ryan Drago, and Tony Kozina. Quackenbush had the idea that Aries would be a face, Drago a heel, and Kozina a confused tweener to give them a unique dynamic. Aries, himself a total piece of poo poo, wasn’t happy with this because in the indies, he was a heel. Quackenbush explained, yes, sure, but for this tournament in this promotion, he would be a face. Aries acted unprofessional in the most entertaining way possible by not only acting like a face during their opening match, but by laying it on extra thick. Just the most over-the-top good guy you’ve ever seen in a wrestling match, giving everyone high fives and thumbs up with the biggest poo poo-eating grin. Then for the rest of the weekend, he was back to being a heel with commentators having to explain that he had a bad hotel experience and it set him off. Chikara hit its peak from 2010-2012. 2010 was based around their own version of the nWo called the BDK (Bruerschaft des Kreuzes), who popped up at the very end of 2009 and quickly ran roughshod over the company. The storyline was great, but not without its issues. For instance, BDK member Lince Dorado was being set up for a climactic mask vs. mask match. Then he appeared on Scott Hall’s vlog unmasked and identified himself. Quackenbush got pissed at that, Lince started no-showing events, and he was quietly removed from the roster. Plus the faction’s leader Claudio Castagnoli got signed by WWE (where he’s now Cesaro) before he could get around to losing to Chikara’s top face Eddie Kingston. Early 2011 was rough due to the tragic suicide of Chikara regular Alex Whybrow, otherwise known as “Sweet and Sour” Larry Sweeney. He was someone who was a big part of the company for the early years, fell out for a while, then was making the beginnings of a comeback. A truly charismatic performer, he had a role as manager in Ring of Honor, but rarely got to perform as a wrestler and that didn't help his mental issues. His death came just days before the 2011 King of Trios, which was treated as a big tribute show. They also showed tribute by doing a 12-person round robin tournament to crown the first ever Chikara Grand Champion in 2011. It was called the 12 Large Summit, named after Sweeney’s catchphrase of “12 Large, brother!” The tournament was won by his good friend Eddie Kingston, who was crowned champion at Chikara’s first iPPV. Eddie Kingston’s title reign was...weird. He spent the better part of a year defending against all the top heels in Chikara with few decent builds. He was supposed to drop the title twice, but real life poo poo got in the way and they kept the belt on Eddie for way longer than they should have. Soon he was beating the top faces of the company and getting booed for it, despite the storyline being that he was a face defying the heel authority figure. It was messy. Other than the Kingston stuff, Chikara was doing fantastic. 2012 gave Chikara one of its greatest King of Trios shows and the momentum kept going. Then, midway into 2013, Mike Quackenbush unleashed a truly ambitious idea for a storyline. Something so huge and out of left field that it would make everyone realize what a creative genius he really was. He was going to close down Chikara for an entire year. It was an idea so crazy it just might work. I mean, except it didn’t. At all. But I’ll get into that next time.
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Feb 21, 2022 07:58
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it's a shame val venis is a chud because he had one of the greatest entrance themes ever https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeat0l1_scQ
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Feb 21, 2022 08:10
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Stealth Tiger posted:Kevin Nash is hilarious. He always had the attitude that you should do as little work and take as few bumps as possible, but he still ended up with a million injuries. He took that advice from Hogan and Hogan ended his in-ring career around the same time as Nash despite starting a whole generation before him. I just realised this might be why the knight dude in Ultimate Muscle is Kevin Mask.
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Feb 21, 2022 08:39
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Ghost Leviathan posted:I just realised this might be why the knight dude in Ultimate Muscle is Kevin Mask. A distinct possibility. 
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Feb 21, 2022 08:55
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FullLeatherJacket posted:ok, so I was waiting on Cornwind to finish, but to answer the TNA question: Wasn't TNA also the place where AJ Styles just went out and dropped the f-slur during a segment?
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Feb 21, 2022 10:30
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Gavok posted:an excellent rundown I remember reading an article about Chikara shutting down as a storyline gimmick. It is just as crazy as it sounds. Found the article. It's by Vice (lol), but it's still a pretty fun read if anyone wants to dive into it while Gavok writes his post. https://www.vice.com/en/article/aem8aj/the-true-story-behind-the-craziest-pro-wrestling-stunt-ever
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Feb 21, 2022 10:42
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My brother wrestled in the UK indie scene for ~5 years or so and one of his bucket list things was working a match with Mike Quackenbush. It's one of the few names I remember that wasn't a WWF/WCW tv superstar. He spent two weeks getting the poo poo kicked out of him by William Regal.
sassassin fucked around with this message at 10:52 on Feb 21, 2022 |
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Feb 21, 2022 10:44
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John Tenta, mentioned above, wrestled and played football for the LSU Tigers, and thus got a big tiger tattoo on his arm. Then he went over to Japan to try sumo, and was moving up the ranks but a combination of the training and lifestyle and that if he wanted to go any higher he'd have to get the tattoo lasered off meant that he switched to pro wrestling. Then when he was in the short lived Shark gimmick there... he got a shark tattooed over the tiger to try and fit the gimmick.
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Feb 21, 2022 14:34
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Dumb idiot should have been Tigershark and never touched the tattoo.
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Feb 21, 2022 16:13
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I am not going to venerate myself to participate in the art of Sumo, but I am going to cover my LSU tat with a lovely shark so I can be on a tag team for 3 weeks,
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Feb 21, 2022 16:20
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MrQwerty posted:I am not going to venerate myself to participate in the art of Sumo, but I am going to cover my LSU tat with a lovely shark so I can be on a tag team for 3 weeks, Yet another testament to the dark mind control powers of Kevin Sullivan.
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Feb 21, 2022 16:23
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I loved Earthquake as a kid, Tenta rules
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Feb 21, 2022 16:30
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Cornwind Evil posted:And so it actually began, as WCW fans were 'treated' to a series of filmed vignettes that began with Sullivan running through the woods as a floating head called for him... SilvergunSuperman posted:I loved Earthquake as a kid, Tenta rules  One of the first matches I remember seeing was Earthquake vs Hogan, it must have been 1990/1991. I don't remember a drat thing about it though. ZogrimAteMyHamster fucked around with this message at 16:49 on Feb 21, 2022 |
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Feb 21, 2022 16:45
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John Tenta is also known for being a genuinely cool, nice, and good guy. One of the few people in the business who, if he ever mistreated someone or had any skeletons in his closet, we never heard about. I've read nothing but positive stuff about him. He was well liked by pretty much everyone.
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Feb 21, 2022 16:55
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Elephant Ambush posted:John Tenta is also known for being a genuinely cool, nice, and good guy. One of the few people in the business who, if he ever mistreated someone or had any skeletons in his closet, we never heard about. I've read nothing but positive stuff about him. He was well liked by pretty much everyone. being a good person and stupid as hell are not mutually exclusive qualities, which is what this thread is about
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Feb 21, 2022 16:59
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What would you use to cover up a Kevin Sullivan tattoo on John tenta?
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Feb 21, 2022 17:04
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SilvergunSuperman posted:I loved Earthquake as a kid, Tenta rules He was apparently one of the nicest people ever, and towards the end of his life he did interviews with a website called wrestlecrap and he hated all of that stuff, but needed to put food on the table and just sucked it up.
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Feb 21, 2022 17:06
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Double Posting in 2022, magical
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Feb 21, 2022 17:06
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SilvergunSuperman posted:I loved Earthquake as a kid, Tenta rules by all accounts he was one of the nicest men in wrestling too also for fun if you go back and watch the WWF "sumo" match between earthquake and yokozuna, it becomes hilariously obvious in hindsight that it's the big white canadian dude who's the one who knows how a sumo match actually works and legendary japanese sumo star yokozuna is just copying along step for step
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Feb 21, 2022 17:08
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john tenta was so nice that not only did three people simultaneously post about it, but that also he didn't come up with exciting new steps in the sumo ritual where you do the hokey cokey and turn yourself about just to gently caress with yoko
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Feb 21, 2022 17:11
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Right, so where were we? As the match that started the Dungeon of Doom storyline happened during the May PPV, by the time the June PPV rolled around it had been mostly formed. Ironically, the thing that set this off (Dave Sullivan) and the person Sullivan initially tried to aid (Ric Flair) were now off doing completely different things, with Dave trying to woo Kimberly Page/The Diamond Doll away from Diamond Dallas Page and Flair now involved in a blood feud with Randy Savage due to Flair attacking Savage’s RL father during that same May PPV (a feud that is suggested to actually have been something that laid fertile soil for the NWO seeds to bloom in, depending on who you ask) Only Meng would have a match, though it would be against Sting, who’d end up on Hogan’s side as an ally during the Dungeon of Doom ‘war’. Speaking of Meng, the Dungeon also managed to lure The Barbarian away from Col. Parker as well, the two forming a tag team that outlasted the Dungeon; said team ended up inheriting the ‘Faces Of Fear’ name.  It also gave Barbarian one of the dullest named finishers in the history of the sport: The “Kick Of Fear”. Really? That’s all you can come up with? How about the Dread Tread? Terror Firma? I’m sure there’s SOMETHING better. Also hired specifically to join the Dungeon was Bill Demott, who would be dubbed “The Laughing Man” Hugh Morrus.  Of course, despite being the only newcomer specifically hired to join the Dungeon, I don’t know if Morris ever fought Hogan. Maybe in a tag or group setting, or maybe on a random Nitro, but the PPVs, oh no, they would be saved for Hogan’s buddies. (Much, MUCH Later Edit: Having discovered Cage Match, I was able to consult Bill DeMott's in ring career, and discovered that yes, he did wrestle Hogan one on one...once, on a Nitro. He lost in less than four minutes. So, absolutely no surprise there.) Anyway, Vader took his post Dungeon shot at Hogan at the July PPV in a Steel Cage match. He failed, again. However, it seemed that this was ALLLLLLLLLL part of the plan, as the Master declared that it was ETCHED IN STONE that A GIAAANNNTTTT would be the one to destroy Hogan. Shortly thereafter, Paul Wight would officially debut, being the biggest thing (ha ha) that the Dungeon was ever associated with. Well, besides this segment. I don’t know exactly WHEN it happened, or if Giant had made any solid appearances before it, but I like to think this was his actual debut. As for the actual video, those who know it, know what I’m about to post. Those who don’t… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx8Xb5VJulQ No words, really. No, I don't know how Hogan escaped this seeming death trap. Probably by sensing the presence of Hulkamaniacs and moving towards them. So, the Giant was set up to be the ultimate danger to Hogan, and would do things like…run his motorcycle over with a monster truck.  This greatly pleased him. When Hogan and his allies fought the Dungeon at the September PPV, Hogan’s team winning meant that Hogan got five minutes alone with Sullivan in the War Games cage. But no sooner did Hogan start beating him up than Giant emerged, tore down the cage wall, and promptly murdered Hogan by snapping his neck.  Hogan refused to let murder go over him, so Sullivan and Giant went ‘even further’, ambushing Hogan at a later date, knocking him out, and then…SHAVING HIS MOUSTACHE.  This was a step too far, and Hogan swore that he would make them pay, and go to ‘The Dark Side of Hulkamania’ to do it.  Also by this point Kamala had left the Dungeon AND WCW because they weren’t paying him. WCW, that is. Figures. It would all be coming to a head at the October PPV. The Master, guaranteeing Kevin Sullivan that it would be the end of Hogan, arranged even further insurance, a monster even mightier than the giant! So terrible it was barely human! Frozen in a block of ice! THE YET-TAY!  Okay, it was “The Yeti”, but that’s never how it was said. It was THE YET-TAY! THE YET-TAY! THE YET-TAY! Maybe considering what the ‘monster’ turned out to be, maybe it was supposed to be some brand new sort of creature called a Yettay. And the October PPV? It would have all that! And more! Including a Sumo Monster Truck match to avenge Hogan’s motorcycle! Someone else no-selling death! Most of Hogan’s friends turning on him because he’s a terrible friend! Dry humping! And probably even more! Words and pictures cannot do it justice: I linked it earlier to demonstrate just one part of it, but I link it again because you must see ALL of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_Fs0pk3bjk Bobby Heenen said it best. You’ll never see the end of a PPV like this again. For drat good reason. Next: Hulkamania is still not dead. --- Video: The 'debut' of THE YET-TAY. Cornwind Evil fucked around with this message at 08:52 on Jul 12, 2023 |
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Feb 21, 2022 17:46
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Also, poo poo man, whoever bought me the title after carrying around the Newbie one for 17 years, thanks a million. Will try and prove it accurate, thought I'm sure there's people over in the Pagoda that put me to shame.
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Feb 21, 2022 17:52
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Lol what the gently caress did I just waaaaaaaaaaaaaaatch!
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Feb 21, 2022 18:01
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wrestlelore: the reason that the YET-TAY is a MUM-MAY is because it was originally supposed to be the shocking return of Giant Gonzalez, but they couldn't get him in time for the show so they hired local tall wrestleman ron studd and wrapped him in bandages on the hope that they could unwrap gonzalez later and no-one would notice that he'd grown six inches overnight gonzalez went to argentina and never came back, ron studd went through various jobber gimmicks before ending up as reese in raven's flock
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Feb 21, 2022 18:14
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Cornwind Evil posted:Also, poo poo man, whoever bought me the title after carrying around the Newbie one for 17 years, thanks a million. Will try and prove it accurate, thought I'm sure there's people over in the Pagoda that put me to shame. That forum is full of joyless dipshits, don't post there
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Feb 21, 2022 18:16
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I know someone who helped train Great Khali pre-WWE. Apparently his feet were so big and he was not very coordinated so he had trouble doing spots that required more than one step in any direction. So basically he'd just be in one place and his opponent would have to work around him and bump/sell.
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Feb 21, 2022 18:57
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Peggy Edson posted:That forum is full of joyless dipshits, don't post there No, they find a surprising amount of joy in laboriously documenting every wrongbad thing they see on the screen and dedicate entire threads to going back in time to pretend to be offended by things like a paramedic with large boobs. Pinche Rudo posted:I know someone who helped train Great Khali pre-WWE. Apparently his feet were so big and he was not very coordinated so he had trouble doing spots that required more than one step in any direction. So basically he'd just be in one place and his opponent would have to work around him and bump/sell. Fezzik was being honest when he broke down the different tactics when fighting entire gangs for charity vs just one person.
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Feb 21, 2022 19:09
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Peggy Edson posted:That forum is full of joyless dipshits, don't post there shadow puppet of a posted:No, they find a surprising amount of joy in laboriously documenting every wrongbad thing they see on the screen and dedicate entire threads to going back in time to pretend to be offended by things like a paramedic with large boobs. LMAO Get help
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Feb 21, 2022 19:12
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Hefty Leftist posted:it's a shame val venis is a chud because he had one of the greatest entrance themes ever Thats not the one I remember. The one I distinctly remember had a bunch of images used as various innuendoes. Like a hotdog in a bun (for sure) and then a rocket taking off, train going in to a tunnel etc... You can kinda see the hotdog part here when he's walking in to the ring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpmyxqq7tjk wesleywillis fucked around with this message at 19:39 on Feb 21, 2022 |
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Feb 21, 2022 19:36
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Elephant Ambush posted:LMAO *has a hissyfit about saudi arabia every week while tuning in slavishly and then getting upset on Alexa Bliss' behalf about something* "Get help!"
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Feb 21, 2022 19:42
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just cage match and gently caress already, you two
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Feb 21, 2022 19:43
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Thanks for all the effortposts, the context behind the shows is incredibly interesting. I went to school with a girl who'd had Randy Orton as a babysitter growing up, long before his wrestling career I guess.
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Feb 21, 2022 20:31
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FullLeatherJacket posted:
https://twitter.com/dustinrhodes/status/1351266182163267587?s=20&t=K5hd6Vis1s-FnjG77H3W8g
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Feb 21, 2022 21:05
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It is good manners upon entering a room to announce as loudly as possible if there are any Hulkamaniacs present and whether or not you have been there before. The guest is then expected to test the temperature of any liquids in the area.
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Feb 21, 2022 21:08
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So continuing with Chikara, getting into the big event from mid-2013 that I left off on, some things to know about : - In-story, Chikara had been bought out by a company called WMD Corp. The owner's failson Wink Vavaseur was put in charge of the company. He was meant to be a gender-flipped parody of TNA's Dixie Carter. He gradually became more unhinged and WMD Corp was starting to seem increasingly shady. - There were events and promotions that were basically part of Chikara, but depicted as being separate. Like an annual charity show called National Pro Wrestling Day that "showcased" Chikara talent. There was a promotion called Wrestling Is Fun, which was like Chikara's developmental, but was treated as its own thing. At the beginning of 2013, more of these promotions started popping up, like Wrestling Is Cool, Wrestling Is Art, Wrestling Is Intense, etc. These were more on the regional side. - Icarus was one of the original students of the Chikara wrestling school who was a prolific heel. Fans hated him, mostly because he was completely average in the ring, but consistently pushed through the years. Also, he has the worst back tattoo known to man. It looks like absolute dogshit and the fans would boo him just over removing his shirt. Going into one of their big iPPV shows, Icarus was slowly turning face and was taking on Eddie Kingston (slowly turning heel) for the title. Halfway into the show, a referee showed up claiming he was fired for coming too close to the truth and that WMD Corp is involved in war crimes or some poo poo. Wink Vavaseur's security goons dragged him off. Then, during the main event, when Icarus was right about to win, a fed-up and insane Wink had the same security drag everyone out of the ring and tear the entire arena apart. Fans were told to get out. And... that was it! Suddenly, all the future shows were cancelled. It was this huge WTF situation. There were rumors going around that Mike Quackenbush's wife was divorcing him for fooling around with a female student and that she was going to get the rights to the Chikara name, hence him closing it down. Even those with an axe to grind with Quackenbush will say to this day that this was not true. In the end, it was just a guy who insisted that his really bad artistic idea was a really good artistic idea. Every few months, a video would appear online of Icarus trying to convince others to help him fight back or do something. Everyone else had just moved on, including Kingston, who knew that if Chikara never came back, he would be champion forever. There was other stuff involved, like an impromptu wrestling show in a park where a fan was kidnapped by WMD Corp's security and a scavenger hunt for fans to save said kidnapping victim. There were some fun moments in all of this, but the problem was that it lasted AN ENTIRE YEAR. You can't do wrestling with just story and little-to-no in-ring stuff. People just didn't care anymore and those who stuck around were like Tom Servo, screaming, "END!!" I mean, we were missing out on King of Trios due to this garbage. On the other side, at least they had the Wrestling Is shows to give the Chikara talent something to do. The problem there was that fans weren't given a reason to care for those either. They didn't have the Chikara name, nor were they directly following Chikara storylines, so nobody came to these shows. You would see like ten people in the audience to watch wrestling with no storylines. Essentially, Quackenbush created a situation where there was wrestling with no story and story with no wrestling and it just wasn't working. But then something kind of cool started happening. At these Wrestling Is shows, the promotions started getting shut down due to the actions of various anti-Chikara factions from throughout the years (anti-Chikara factions invading was a well Quackenbush went to a lot). Like, one promotion would do a tournament to crown tag champions, then a heel outsider group from years earlier would show up out of nowhere, beat up everyone in the ring, steal the belts, take the promoter's money, storm off, and the promoter would be all, "Oh no! My company is ruined!" This wasn't just a heel faction causing this. This was a bunch of heel factions bound together as a heel mega-faction. Later on, they were just called the Flood. Again, this sounds pretty rad, but this poo poo was going on in front of maybe a dozen people. This led to National Pro Wrestling Day 2014, where it all came to a head. The main event was Wrestling Is Heart having a tournament finals, the Flood came to mess it up, Icarus led an army of Chikara wrestlers to fight them off, then Chikara's return date was announced. Finally, things were going back to normal. Quackenbush tried to turn the whole storyline into a movie called Ashes of Chikara. It took the existing YouTube segments, added new scenes, some close-ups during the National Pro Wrestling Day segments, and tried to edit it into a narrative that made sense. Since they shied away from using the "Flood destroys an indie promotion with eight people in the crowd" footage, the movie's story came off as a confusing mess and the underpaid guy who filmed a lot of it feels ashamed of the situation. Plus outside of a subplot involving a time-traveling DeLorean, the whole thing was WAY too self-serious. Quackenbush did pay for advertisements for the movie to appear on the back of comic books, so that was neat. The remainder of 2014 focused on finishing off the Chikara vs. Flood storyline. At the first show back, Icarus won the title off of Eddie Kingston. Then Deucalion, the never-before-seen leader of the Flood, showed up, looking like post-apocalyptic Bane. Because the roster was absolutely overflowing during this time, the following months would have Deucalion regularly show up as this invincible monster and "murder" someone with a chokeslam/backbreaker combo. As badass as Deucalion came off, he never really wrestled. The big blow-off was Icarus vs. Deucalion in a cage at the season finale. And, um, cage matches in the indies are a very different beast in terms of assembly than in WWE. In WWE, you just lower it from the ceiling, readymade. In the indies, you have to put it together on the spot and the finished product isn't going to look so fancy. That means that after an otherwise strong iPPV undercard, the show suddenly had a half-hour intermission to prepare for one match between a guy who was okay and another guy we've never seen wrestle. And it turned out Deucalion was not very good! But he lost and he was "killed off" and they were able to move on from that story. Chikara never regained the momentum they lost from the year-long closure. But they were back, for a time. During this time, Quackenbush had a couple more unique ideas up his sleeve. Some would work, others wouldn't. And then it all came crashing down. More on that next time.
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Feb 21, 2022 21:12
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