 |
| The best WrestleMania HOSS FIGHT ever Photo Credit: WWE.com |
First up, Scott Holland of Irresistible vs. Immovable asks what my favorite HOSS FIGHT in WrestleMania history is.
This is tough, because there weren't a whole lot of really good hoss fights in Mania history. I count three, and one of them is very controversial. The most recent hoss fight for me is Batista vs. John Cena. We can all agree John Cena's a hoss, right? He's just an overexposed, smart-alecky hoss, but you can't deny his credentials. The most controversial one? Lawrence Taylor vs. Bam Bam Bigelow. For a guest star, Taylor wasn't half-bad. That's damning with faint praise, but one, that's how good Bam Bam was, and two, well, it doesn't have a whole lot of competition.
However, the mother of all WrestleMania hoss fights is the first, most famous one. Hulk Hogan. Andre the Giant. Pontiac Silverdome. From memory, I'm not sure how good a match it was, especially since Andre the Giant was setting the standard on the Khali immobility scale at this point. However, there's a history factor, a memorability factor, and a sheer ham factor for Hogan doing his best to make sure that crowd stayed invested in the match, and more importantly, the big moment of the Slam Heard Round the World. So yeah, that's my pick.
@DouceyD wants to know how the Shield sizes up to other notable WWE trios.
It's a bit early, but they have to be up there. They're above Legacy because holy shit, Legacy was kinda awful as a functioning stable. The Brood had kitsch factor, at the very least, although they were lesser than the sum of their total parts. That potential wasn't unleashed until after Edge and Christian dumped Gangrel, so maybe they're past the Brood? Hell, Edge and Christian were possibly part of two trios better than that with both Kurt Angle and Rhino as thirds.
Are Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns more impressive than either of the WrestleMania I trios in the main event? (Yeah, Snuka and Orton didn't wrestle, but point stands) Team Angle? Randy Savage, Zeus, and Sherri for just crazy factor? I actually think they do. There's no trio that has worked in identity AS a threesome the way the Shield has so far. So if they're not the best, I think they're at least seriously in the conversation.
Eamon Paton of The WrestleFan Writes asks what the craziest, most hardcore stipulation match I'd ever dream up of would be and who'd be in it.
Let's take out fatal items, right? I mean, what'd be more hardcore than bringing a gun to the ring? The life sentence that would follow from it, that's what. So with that in mind, I'd say the only way to make things crazy would be to stack stipulations. Barbed wire replaces the ropes. Scaffolding around the ring. Ladders. Tables. Surround the whole thing with a cell. Lock the door. Electrify the cage. And put Matthew Palmer and Masada inside it because no other people would want to be in that environment than those two guys.
@JohnJohnPhenom asks if Colt Cabana were to be picked up by WWE whether he'd keep the Art of Wrestling under WWE's advisement/influence or whether he'd be forced to give it up.
I would have said WWE would have made him ditch it, but the company has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to technology, at least on the product distribution end of it (a point raised by the International Object podcast). WWE doesn't currently have a podcast. Cabana has only scratched the surface of WWE guys he's interviewed. Imagine if he got a shot to talk to John Cena? Undertaker? The Rock? Sure, he wouldn't be able to do the interviews with Cliff Compton or your Austin Arieses and Eddie Kingstons anymore, which would take a lot of the options off the table. So that puts another possibility that Cabana wouldn't even want to do the show if he got to WWE. But this isn't about Colt, it's about WWE. I think that there'd be people in the .com department who'd be savvy enough to know that the Art of Wrestling isn't something you treat lightly. If he wanted to keep doing it, I think he'd be able to keep doing it.
Dirty Dirty Sheets staff photographer Gregory Davis wonders aloud whether the viewpoint that "all women's promotions are as sexist as all men's promotions" is weird or not.
It's very weird, and it comes from a place of dishonesty. In order to understand women's promotions, you have to think about why they exist in the first place. It's an unlevel playing field out there, and it's only starting to get slightly better. Back when SHIMMER and WSU started, women were lucky to get a shot in IWA-Mid South as part of the show, and there were very few outlets for women to be able to get the experience en masse the way men could. In a way, that situation still exists, although it is getting better.
What critics think is that equality is a static thing that can be gained by legislating quotas across the board. That ignores the problem women face in the wrestling industry across the board. In a perfect world, SHIMMER wouldn't be needed. But it still is, so the justification for wanting women to be in PWG or whatever other predominantly male promotion while keeping SHIMMER separate is more than valid.
@GayWrestlingFan asks if a Dasher Hatfield rudo turn is imminent and whether he'd work as a bad guy.
I haven't seen the Florida shows yet, so I don't know if I can catch the lean. I also know that Chikara can fake one way for who the rudo turn is going to be. They did it in 2009 with Claudio Castagnoli, they did it last year with Mike Quackenbush, so it's not surprising that they might do it this year with Dasher Hatfield. Maybe this plea for help that Mark Angelosetti is making will turn him tecnico. Who knows, but I'm not putting my eggs in either basket right now.
However, he can work as a heel. Jeff Hardy taught me that anyone can work as a heel except for maybe Ricky Steamboat. I don't know how they'd play it, but if you follow @OldHossRadbourn on Twitter, you can see how an old-timey baseball player can be portrayed cantankerously.
Who has the worst sports fans in America asks @mjones99?
To tell you the God's honest truth, I am sick to death about referendums on the fans about which ones are good, bad, passionate, indifferent, lactose-intolerant, etc. Are we that bereft for sports stories that we have to turn on the fans? This isn't just because I'm a repressed Philadelphia fan who wants to be left alone. Well, that's part of it. It's fucking annoying when I used to turn into ESPN and see every time something happened in Philly, they'd go and bring up Santa Claus or booing Kobe Bryant. I don't know how it is now, because I don't watch that fucking cesspit except when they actually have sports on.
There are bad fans in every city. There are some cities where larger groups of fans take sports super seriously. Philly fans aren't bad because there are more incidents of assholes playing the fool. New York fans aren't more passionate than everyone else because they boo the loudest. Atlanta fans aren't awful because they don't sell out every game. Fans are fans. Get over it.
@mikepankowski asks how I feel about the announcement that there'll be Grand Championship defenses on each card for the foreseeable future.
I don't see negatives in it. Chikara has a deep enough roster where the only people who couldn't conceivably challenge for it credibly are Saturyne and Los Ice Creams. They also draw on some pretty heavy duty guest stars as well. Who'd object to ACH challenging for the title? Or Arik Cannon? Even Sean Waltman (shut up guys)? In a story sense, it works. Yeah, I'm sick to death of authority figures, and Wink Vavasseur is the dirt worst of them right now (not because he's worse character than Booker T or Hulk Hogan, but because Chikara should be better than this). I'd rather not see him around, but hey, at least make it interesting if you are keeping him.
Lee Spriggs of Wrestling Is Teleology asks two questions. First, if I had to wear a wrestler's mask around for one week, whose would I wear?
I already own the Jigsaw mask, so that's the first answer, but it's also boring. I think I'd probably go with the Tucor, because if I had to wear the mask, I'd want to scare the shit out of people while doing it.
Second, if I were a hot dog, and I were starving, would I eat myself?
You know you would.
@anthonytaylor_ wants my opinion on Barry Windham.
Man, you guys are going to kill me for this, but I've never really sat down and watched a bunch of Windham stuff. He was before my time (I was a WWF kid who didn't see a lot of WCW while he was active), and I barely get a chance now to watch the current stuff I want. But I do have a lot of respect for him and his contributions to wrestling.
@Thaliono poses a choice: Veronica Ticklefeather or Sammy Geodollno?
Man, Sammy reminds me too much of street tough Philly girls with attitudes. There's a certain amount of empowerment, and she's certainly got a better grasp on her own independence. But man, Veronica, she's classy. More refined... well she was until that idiot Tim Donst got a hold of her. I dunno. It's hard, but I'll go with the one I actually got a picture with.
@ajuarez_thatSID asks whether 3MB defending the Tag Team Championship in the Freebird Rule would bring some buzz to the titles.
Well, there are plenty of ways to bring buzz to the Tag Team Championships, the easiest of which being actually building a tag team division instead of having Team Hell No razing over everyone en route to their inevitable break up. However, 3MB with the Freebird Rule reign? I can dig that. If anything, it would give Drew McIntyre time to wrestle. They'd have to be built back up, but that's easy.
Finally, @Kenzaki24 want to know what I think about NHL realignment.
There are a few problems with it. One, I'm not a fan of unbalanced conferences at all, but I think expansion will probably take care of that. It also telegraphs that expansion will end up putting teams in Seattle, Kansas City, or even... LAS VEGAS???? Two, not that I really care about the Florida Panthers or Tampa Bay Lightning, but they got boned in the name of "preserving rivalries." However, is there a better way to align the divisions without really pissing off everyone? Columbus could have moved from "Division C" to "D" with no problem, but what other team makes the sacrifice? The closest geographically would be the Penguins, but that would lessen the league's best rivalry. Washington could go over, but that would defeat the purpose. I guess you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, and it just seems that those eggs are located in Florida.
That being said, I dig the spirit of it. I hate the whole "more than 2 divisions" paradigm anyway for any league that isn't football (and the only reason I don't mind it in football is because of the paucity of games compared to hockey, basketball, and especially baseball), because you end up with a shit team getting the 3rd seed, and then the playoffs go all pear-shaped. Flaws aside, it should be good for the NHL.