Huffy Flounce

Very interesting article on the rise of pro wrestling from the old regional territories to McMahon's national (and international) monopoly. Adam, you'll like this:

https://deadspin.com/pro-wrestlings-gre ... 1619415553

Awesome! Thanks!!

Adam54 wrote:Also, the Money In The Bank PPV is this weekend. I remain firm in my belief that there isn't a major sport in existence which wouldn't be improved by the addition of a Money in the Bank briefcase.

I'd honestly forgotten that I brought this up over here. Sorry, Negs. Guess I could've kept it contained.

Holy Shit. Roman Reigns is suspended for a month for a drug violation.

http://wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2016/06 ... violation/

Conveniently enough, he'll still be back in time for the main event of the next PPV! What shocking timing of this announcement!

Adam54 wrote:When the fresh, rested challenger can run in and demand a match against an exhausted champion after or even, in at least one case, during his own match, of course it makes sense. Would it really devalue the championship to lose it to an opponent who rightfully won that contract and wisely picked the right spot to execute it? I don't think so, but I guess I can see where one might.

What the fuck are you smoking, Adam?

In true European fashion, I am against playoffs to begin with and think that the champion should be the one at the top of the table at the end of the regular season (i.e., at the end of league play). You've got 20 teams in the league, each plays a home and away match against all other teams, and after 38 matches the one with the best record is the champion. Simple. Pure.

Now, I can see the appeal of a no-name contender being given a shot at the title against the champion, but even if that were to happen, any true fan of a real sport would be disgusted at the proposition that the champions should play the contender on the spot right after playing their final match of the season. It totally skews the performance of the team that's being challenged and makes the whole scenario much less interesting, in my opinion, because you're not getting a contest in which each side is performing their best. I concede that every team or athlete has off days and might not reach their usual form on certain days, even though they're rested, but at least when that happens it's not because an artificial handicap has been introduced.

And that's what it boils down to: Most sports fans actually want a contest played under fair conditions (or at least what would appear as fair conditions or an even playing field) because winning a contest under such conditions indicates that one team/athlete was objectively better than another team/athlete during that particular season/playoff series/tournament. What would it prove if a soccer team challenged and defeated another soccer team right after the latter just finished playing a 90-minute game? Only that a rested team could defeat a team whose players just finished running an average of 7 miles each. It would be an uninteresting match to watch because it would either be very slow or completely one-sided.

And in the end, what self-respecting athlete outside of professional wrestling would even want to win a title that way anyway?

Adam54 wrote:I'm scared to reply to this here on the grounds that Negs might yell at me again.

You have no excuse now.

Bumping this as a reminder to myself to reply to Mal. I haven't forgotten, I haven't been ducking it, just been having an extra busy week and have been unable to give my response the full attention it deserves.

But my week clears up after tomorrow so I'll get there!

But first, he wants to put the finishing touches on his Dance of a Thousand Goiters!

Out of cruelty.

Just watched the Resurrection of Jake the Snake...outstanding, and uplifting. He was one of my favorites growing up, and a lot of wrestlers looked up to him. Was there any Era better than the 80'standard? The Rock vs Stone Cold was a great Era as well. Today I watch sparingly but still enjoy, always good entertainment.

I just discovered that was on Netflix only a couple days ago! I can't wait to get to it! Even more so after that glowing review!

Mal Shot First wrote:

Adam54 wrote:When the fresh, rested challenger can run in and demand a match against an exhausted champion after or even, in at least one case, during his own match, of course it makes sense. Would it really devalue the championship to lose it to an opponent who rightfully won that contract and wisely picked the right spot to execute it? I don't think so, but I guess I can see where one might.

What the fuck are you smoking, Adam?

In true European fashion, I am against playoffs to begin with and think that the champion should be the one at the top of the table at the end of the regular season (i.e., at the end of league play). You've got 20 teams in the league, each plays a home and away match against all other teams, and after 38 matches the one with the best record is the champion. Simple. Pure.

Now, I can see the appeal of a no-name contender being given a shot at the title against the champion, but even if that were to happen, any true fan of a real sport would be disgusted at the proposition that the champions should play the contender on the spot right after playing their final match of the season. It totally skews the performance of the team that's being challenged and makes the whole scenario much less interesting, in my opinion, because you're not getting a contest in which each side is performing their best. I concede that every team or athlete has off days and might not reach their usual form on certain days, even though they're rested, but at least when that happens it's not because an artificial handicap has been introduced.

And that's what it boils down to: Most sports fans actually want a contest played under fair conditions (or at least what would appear as fair conditions or an even playing field) because winning a contest under such conditions indicates that one team/athlete was objectively better than another team/athlete during that particular season/playoff series/tournament. What would it prove if a soccer team challenged and defeated another soccer team right after the latter just finished playing a 90-minute game? Only that a rested team could defeat a team whose players just finished running an average of 7 miles each. It would be an uninteresting match to watch because it would either be very slow or completely one-sided.

And in the end, what self-respecting athlete outside of professional wrestling would even want to win a title that way anyway?

As a general rule, I'm also against playoffs. Or I'm against long regular seasons. There shouldn't be both. Baseball, for example, is ridiculous for playing 162 regular season games and THEN at least another 15-20 in the playoffs before crowning a champion. They could run the whole season in two months. One month of a regular season to determine seeding for the playoffs which will be played in the second month.

God, maybe I COULD get into soccer.

Anyway. I think "disgust" at the Money in the Bank briefcase concept is a strong word. People love rooting for an underdog, yes? There would be those rooting for the briefcase holder and those rooting for the champion trying to defend against him/her. Either way, I strongly disagree that there would be any disgust felt towards the match in question.

Also, how much DO we want a contest played under fair conditions? Sure, that's what everyone will tell you when asked and yes, it is ideal. But to go back to baseball, no one really seemed to mind McGwire/Sosa/Bonds hitting home runs like crazy while pretty obviously using PEDs in the late 90s/early 2000s, did they? Everybody just had fun watching and really got into the spirit of the thing. It took YEARS for us to collectively get together and go "Oh wait. That was bad! Cheating is bad!"

I'm not saying the Money in the Bank briefcase would be cheating, of course. I'm also not saying most sports NEED this. They don't. I'm just saying that fundamentally we don't REALLY want an even playing field. We all have favorite players/teams which we root for and would love to see them win every match/game. We want people to cheer for and against. This just makes it easier and makes the "cheating" more straightforward. No cheering for Lance Armstrong/Roger Clemens/Barry Bonds/Every American and Russian Olympic Team and feeling bad about it later. This would provide suspense, drama, and a fundamental sense of honesty: Andy Murray will use his Money in the Bank briefcase at some point, every tennis player would know it's coming, no one would know when.

But at least we'd know. We're not going to find out years later about a secret advantage he had. It's out in the open and the inherent drama of sports would be heightened at least by a little.

This ends my incoherent rebuttal from the edge of sleep deprivation. God Bless America.

He asked. I promised a response, so I delivered a response. Stifle yourself, Meathead.

The brand split/WWE Draft is on Tuesday. I'm less than enthused, but still sad Master Skywalker seems to have disappeared before we could talk about it.

I'm all alone again!

He's not really disappeared. As long as we remember him.

(It was either that or something about being one with the Force.)

I'm mildly amazed there's never been (to my knowledge anyway) a pro wrestling stable called The Force.

The amateurs are using it:

Adam54 wrote:The brand split/WWE Draft is on Tuesday. I'm less than enthused, but still sad Master Skywalker seems to have disappeared before we could talk about it.

I'm all alone again!

Ask, and ye shall receive!

Did you see RAW last night? I saw the recap. Foley was announced as the RAW GM, and his pop was promptly obliterated when DANIEL FREAKIN' BRYAN was brought out as the Smackdown GM shortly thereafter.

I really hope they don't break up any of the better tag teams, like New Day or Enzo & Cass.

I really hope they DO reintroduce the Big Gold Belt, or its successor, because this new brand-split-they're-not-technically-calling-a-brand-split needs a second world heavyweight title. Otherwise, Smackdown's still going to feel vastly inferior, even if the wrestling is better.

Pa! You're back! Don't scare me like that, thinking I'm alone again to talk wrestling with Goiter.

I actually figured out how to live stream it and saw the first half hour! I was going nuts in my living room when Foley came out! D-Bry's new job had previously been spoiled for me so it wasn't really a surprise, though still pretty darn cool to see.

I'd be all right with them splitting up New Day, honestly. They're fun but starting to get a little stale for me. Just a little though. Lucha Dragons are officially breaking up, but the writing's been on the wall there for a while now.

Who's your #1 pick tonight? Rollins?

Adam54 wrote:Pa! You're back! Don't scare me like that, thinking I'm alone again to talk wrestling with Goiter.

I actually figured out how to live stream it and saw the first half hour! I was going nuts in my living room when Foley came out! D-Bry's new job had previously been spoiled for me so it wasn't really a surprise, though still pretty darn cool to see.

I'd be all right with them splitting up New Day, honestly. They're fun but starting to get a little stale for me. Just a little though. Lucha Dragons are officially breaking up, but the writing's been on the wall there for a while now.

Who's your #1 pick tonight? Rollins?

You'd think it'd have to be, right? Considering Steph controls RAW, she'd want the top heel on her show. Ambrose should be the #1 pick since he's the WWE Champion, but he's a face.

I'm curious to see who they make the top star on Smackdown, though. I could see Reigns getting sent there, to move him off RAW after his suspension.

Six NXT stars are going to be drafted, as well. Got to believe that means Balor, Bayley, Nakamura, and maybe Aries? Joe's still the champ, so would they draft him?

Nah, I'd bet they give Joe a call as well. They tape NXT so far in advance he can still carry the title into Brooklyn next month and drop it to *sighs dreamily* Nakamura who will stay down there and dominate NXT for a while. SO excited for those call ups! Balor and Bayley seem obvious, I'll go with American Alpha (not sure if they count as one or two of the six), Samoa Joe, Austin Aries and maybe Carmella? Nia Jax?

Would it be a stretch to have AJ Styles as the face of Smackdown? Or the top heel, as it were? Ambrose/Styles leading things there, Reigns/Rollins/Cena leading Raw? Love the possibilities! Especially of a Balor/Styles feud! Ahhhhh!!

SPOILER: BAYLEY IS COMING!!!!!


YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!

FINN BALOR TO RAW!!!!!!! YES YES YES YES!!!