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Your most "Against The Grain" thought on wrestling?

Liam O'Rourke

By Liam O'Rourke
in UK Fan Forum

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Kaz Hayashi Grand Master

Kaz Hayashi

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I don't actually know if he's liked or disliked, not much gets mentioned about him as this character, but due to me being a fan I suppose it's against the grain......(superintendent Chalmers voice)... Skinnerrrr.

Yup, the gimmick was as good as you all remember.

I've forgotten which video it was on, possibly a rampage vhs, but it was my first time seeing the tobacco spitting, knife wielding, alligator boot wearing son of a gun. I thought he looked absolutely boss. On top of that, he was a scary looking bastard who really seemed like he could snap at any point.

We all remember him as fodder for the upper mid card for Bret and... Errr.. the others, but looking back, they had a brute of a heel ready and waiting with him.

His vignettes in the swamp... they were awesome. His actual wrestling ability was really good if you consider others around his level on the card at the time (warlord, bezerker, nailz, Demento and co) were utter shit. He was the only character to share the same mold as the ultimate warrior #3 Hasbro figure.... yes, that's right.

I feel old Stevie Boy was unlucky as I believe his character was before its time. Yes he's a simple swamp man, but he had the devil in his eyes man. With a minor tweak he wouldn't be out of place in the Wyatt's. Anyway fuck it, bring him back, put a bra on him and call him Abigail.

As a kid, I was pretty scared of him, as an adult I look back and think... unlucky Steve, unlucky. Such a shame 'they' turned him in to the shit doink.

 

 

And if I won you around with that, I will ruin my own achievement by saying 'man mountain rock'.

He had a guitar shaped in the old school wwf logo... that is all.

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unfitfinlay Mentor

unfitfinlay

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I hate Rey Mysterio. Hate him.

 

I'm not going to deny that he's a great wrestler, and was revolutionary twenty years ago, but he just seems like such a cunt that I find it impossible to cheer for him. Since he's too small to be anything but a sympathetic babyface that ruins most of his matches for me.

 

Seriously though. Is there anything actually likeable about Rey? For all the criticism people like Foley get for being a money grubbing sell out, I think even he would've baulked at exploiting his mate's death for a shit World Title run. I can forgive, and even respect, people like Mark Henry for the humiliating shit they've had to do to keep their jobs but there's no way Rey couldn't have said no to that storyline, or at least got them to take out the "Eddie's in Hell" stuff. Speaking of Eddie, who the fuck agrees to a storyline that involves telling your six year old son that you aren't his real Dad on worldwide television? For that matter who lets their six year old bleach their hair? A cunt that's who.

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Phil Austin Collaborator

Phil Austin

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I remember jokingly cheering for A Train doing a mid-2000s WWE UK house show, and then becoming a huge fan of his during a period when nobody was praising him.

 

Also, I never 'got' Misawa. I can see he is good, but I was never engaged by him at all.

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The Gaffer Grand Master

The Gaffer

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I'm sure I've missed the podcast but here goes...

 

1995 WWE

 

It's one of my favourite years ever to go back and watch. Even at it's most childish in retrospect it's far less mortifying than some of the real dregs of the Attitude Era and I guess the whole thing feels a bit like cotton wool. And honest to god this isn't one of those post irony it's-so-shit-it's-good things. I really genuinely enjoy it. Here's some reasons why:

 

-The Royal Rumble is fantastic. Bret and Diesel's match is underrated and I loved the interference heavy finish. Bam Bam attacking L.T. is a fine, respectable start to what I thought was a pretty decent celebrity involvement despite the fact that it didn't draw. The Royal Rumble goes down a treat. When I saw clips of Bulldog and Michaels being the last two left covered in buckets of sweat on the Fab Four VHS when I was a youngster it registered to me as one of the ballsiest, coolest match moments in WWE ever. It's the definitive move Michaels made for me to being a main event player. It's almost in the wrong year. I assumed when I was first discovering this stuff that his big impressive Rumble was before his big impressive WrestleMania XII win.

 

-WrestleMania is fun. It's nothing as a WrestleMania but otherwise entirely inoffensive. Double J and Razor was a great IC title match, I thought. Shawn and Diesel was great. The L.T. match was a minor miracle and I loved the panto of it. It was the WrestleMania with about 27 photographers around the ring and even if they were plants I thought it looked cool.

 

-There was no King Of The Ring that year. Fantastic, right? I don't think it would have worked.

 

-In Your House was a welcome, cool new concept. I thought the first two were the business. The rest that year did suck but the first two had Bret/Hakushi and HBK/Double J. I liked the scaled down, fun vibe to them.

 

-SummerSlam was great. 123 Kid/Hakushi, Triple H's first PPV, the ladder rematch, Bret and 'Taker in stupid pantomine shit I enjoyed.

 

-Survivor Series was another great A show. Loved all the stuffed undercard traditional matches and the main event was I think now a recognised little classic. Bret gets Diesel's second best match ever out of him and has possibly the first 'Attitude' main event in company history. Shawn would top it with Good Friends, Better Enemies.

 

-I LOVE RAW. Raw from this year is super fun. I love the tiny school gyms and the disco lights everywhere and the weird jobbers and fun characters that never went anywhere and insipid commentary and how it's usually over before you know it anyway.

 

I think 1995 was the year I watched on tape the most when I had sick days from school. It's a bit like chicken soup. It's warm, fun and inviting. Big ups the New Gen!

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Killjoy_Gee Enthusiast

Killjoy_Gee

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I hate Rey Mysterio. Hate him.

 

I'm not going to deny that he's a great wrestler, and was revolutionary twenty years ago, but he just seems like such a cunt that I find it impossible to cheer for him. Since he's too small to be anything but a sympathetic babyface that ruins most of his matches for me.

 

Seriously though. Is there anything actually likeable about Rey? For all the criticism people like Foley get for being a money grubbing sell out, I think even he would've baulked at exploiting his mate's death for a shit World Title run. I can forgive, and even respect, people like Mark Henry for the humiliating shit they've had to do to keep their jobs but there's no way Rey couldn't have said no to that storyline, or at least got them to take out the "Eddie's in Hell" stuff. Speaking of Eddie, who the fuck agrees to a storyline that involves telling your six year old son that you aren't his real Dad on worldwide television? For that matter who lets their six year old bleach their hair? A cunt that's who.

Agreed. Respect him as a wrestler - but perhaps the worst World Title and WWE Championship reigns ever. Made to look like a chump with his first reign jobbing to Khali and Henry, best part of his second reign was losing to Kane (there's that name again ;) ) and with his WWE reign...wins and then made to look like a right cunt by giving Cena a title shot the same night and losing!

 

I truly hope he never returns - I'd much prefer seeing more of Kalisto

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Rey was ace but the Eddie Rumble definitely killed him off, though I love his Jericho feud in 08. But the divine intervention cheap ass story presented so disingenuously was just horrible booking that really put me off wrestling as a whole at the time, with the Benoit incident later killing it off for the time being. Bad times. Imagine Rey winning a Rumble on his own terms? Could've been a brilliant moment

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Michael_3165 Mentor

Michael_3165

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I remember jokingly cheering for A Train doing a mid-2000s WWE UK house show, and then becoming a huge fan of his during a period when nobody was praising him.

 

Also, I never 'got' Misawa. I can see he is good, but I was never engaged by him at all.

 I have to admit Misawa is another funny one who I never really got into. He came across as a bored, miserable old man with dodgy green and white tights. He was hardly the life and soul of the party (especially nowadays) 

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wandshogun09 Grand Master

wandshogun09

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I absolutely love the Schiavone/Ventura commentary team. Probably more than most. Thought they had great chemistry. I'd probably go so far as to say they're my second favourite wrestling announce team ever behind Monsoon and Heenan.

 

When I got into wrestling we never had Sky so I started with early 90s WCW Worldwide on ITV. And Schiavone and Ventura were the announce team. Then when I got my first taste of WWF shortly after, it was SummerSlam 89 on video (one of my favourite wrestling shows ever) and there they were commentating on that as well. I think at the time I must've thought that Big Tone and Jesse The Body were the commentators for ALL wrestling.

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