Random Thoughts III.

[LaGoosh]

How many times do you reckon Masato Tanaka took that power bomb out of the ring through a table on the floor spot from Mike Awesome? At least seven times. Fucking mentalist. One of the most brutal looking bumps imaginable and he took it over and over on concrete floors. How he isn't crippled I've no idea, the tough crazy bastard.

[WyattSheepMask]

52 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

How many times do you reckon Masato Tanaka took that power bomb out of the ring through a table on the floor spot from Mike Awesome? At least seven times. Fucking mentalist. One of the most brutal looking bumps imaginable and he took it over and over on concrete floors. How he isn't crippled I've no idea, the tough crazy bastard.

He wishes he only took it 7 times.

According to WrestlingData, Awesome & Tanaka were on opposite sides 21 times in the original ECW on top of 2 times in Zero-One, 2 matches in Hustle, once in the original MLW and  146 matches in FMW.

That’s not to say that he took it every time, but it’s certainly more than 7

[Wrasslin]

On 12/1/2020 at 1:34 PM, WyattSheepMask said:

He wishes he only took it 7 times.

According to WrestlingData, Awesome & Tanaka were on opposite sides 21 times in the original ECW on top of 2 times in Zero-One, 2 matches in Hustle, once in the original MLW and  146 matches in FMW.

That’s not to say that he took it every time, but it’s certainly more than 7

Although it does seem that turn about was fair play:
 

 

[Dai]

On 12/1/2020 at 12:35 PM, LaGoosh said:

How many times do you reckon Masato Tanaka took that power bomb out of the ring through a table on the floor spot from Mike Awesome? At least seven times. Fucking mentalist. One of the most brutal looking bumps imaginable and he took it over and over on concrete floors. How he isn't crippled I've no idea, the tough crazy bastard.

I just rewatched the ECW matches a few days ago. Worse than the table spot Id say is the chairshots to the head, at least three times, no sell he does in all of them. You get the feeling that those two guys did the exact same stuff on the non recorded shows in ECW, which is insanity. You do wonder how he can still be working shows with all the damage hes done, and to add to the insanity, he was still doing the chair no sell in his match with PCO last year (with added nasty powerbomb through a table too, just not on the outside).

[The King Of Swing]

There was also that match Masato Tanaka had with Balls Mahoney on an ECW PPV in 2000.

No table spot that I recall but as expected some horrible chair shots. 

[LaGoosh]

Hardcore Heaven 2000. It was a great match but yeah, absolutely brutal. 

[Scott Malbranque]

Shame on me for what I'm about to say, I know, but I was watching a load of old ECW matches with the boy a few weeks ago and one of them was said Tanaka/Awesome match and I found myself secretly missing times like that when I didn't really think about their well being and genuinely thought these boys were just superheros who existed in my Truman Show life solely to entertain me, and could take those shots with no repercussions.
Then I got old and twigged that I am not here for the worlds' entertainment.

 

[SuperBacon]

1 hour ago, Scott Malbranque said:

Shame on me for what I'm about to say, I know, but I was watching a load of old ECW matches with the boy a few weeks ago and one of them was said Tanaka/Awesome match and I found myself secretly missing times like that when I didn't really think about their well being and genuinely thought these boys were just superheros who existed in my Truman Show life solely to entertain me, and could take those shots with no repercussions.
Then I got old and twigged that I am not here for the worlds' entertainment.

 

That's a fair thought. I always liken it to being nostalgic for a time where you didn't HAVE to worry about so much, or anything at all. I enjoyed seeing people get smashed in the head with a chair when I was 15. It makes me sick when I see it now, but I still remember how I felt at the time.

It's like when Maradona died. Obviously I was upset that a global icon/dad/gran dad had passed, but the thing I was most upset about (selfishly maybe) is that another part of my childhood/younger years was gone. Nostalgia is a weird thing.

[CavemanLynn]

1 hour ago, SuperBacon said:

That's a fair thought. I always liken it to being nostalgic for a time where you didn't HAVE to worry about so much, or anything at all. I enjoyed seeing people get smashed in the head with a chair when I was 15. It makes me sick when I see it now, but I still remember how I felt at the time.

Back then, I always assumed, being pros, that they'd found a 'safe' way to do it, like a gimmicked chair or taking the bump on their forearms. It's only in the years after, when you find out how ropey health and safety is, and how little regard for their personal welfare both the promoters and workers had for themselves, that you realise there was never a 'safe' way.

[Guest]

The most mental thing about wrestling is that they're often hurting more, not less, than you think, such as when they need an adrenaline rush just to walk to the ring, or when they cover up a genuine injury sustained in a match because it would distract from the fake injury driving the story.

[LaGoosh]

It's that weird distinction wrestlers have between being "hurt" and injured that interests me. Your knees might be completely fucked by any normal persons understanding but you can get through a match "working hurt", but if you break your wrist or whatever you're injured and off the road. I pulled my back out a bit last year and took a week off work and didn't get off the couch. These guys are regularly working matches, travelling and going to the gym with issues with their bodies that would ruin a normal person's life. My mind boggles at their ability to keep pushing through it.

Edited December 3, 2020 by LaGoosh

[Carbomb]

5 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

My mind boggles at their ability to keep pushing through it.

That's the crux of it, though. They don't really have that ability, not to that degree; the sadly all-too-common reality, as we've often discussed on here, is that they just end up popping painkillers to help them ignore injuries that need to be rehabbed, until they end up addicted and physically wrecked.

[tiger_rick]

It's not a wrestling thing. It's an American sports "jock" mentality thing. Everyone plays hurt. It shows balls. It shows you've got what it takes.

So what if your career is over before you've even made the pros. So what if you live with brain damage for the rest of your life. So what if your addicted, penniless and often dead after retiring in your 20s.

It happens in all sports to some extent. It fuels the "remember when men were men?" attitude you get from old men who can't limp from their seat to the bar without wheezing. 

While it's true most sportspeople will always have niggles and discomfort, the pressure to perform injured in some sports is insane.

[BomberPat]

15 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

It's that weird distinction wrestlers have between being "hurt" and injured that interests me. 

There is a genuine distinction, but it's not the one you're talking about, which unfortunately is how wrestlers tend to interpret it.

If I take a forearm or a chop that lands a little too snug, it's going to hurt, but I'm not going to be injured. "Hurt" is basically anything that's a brief shock to the system, but isn't going to impact on you in any long-term sense. The moment anything is torn, sprained, broken or any other long-term, lasting effect, you're injured, and shouldn't be in the ring. And I say that as someone who has really stupidly continued working after injuries in the past.

In wrestling even more than other sports, it's not always just a pride thing, though. More often than not, it's that they can't afford not to. If you don't wrestle, you don't get paid. 

[Carbomb]

3 hours ago, BomberPat said:

In wrestling even more than other sports, it's not always just a pride thing, though. More often than not, it's that they can't afford not to. If you don't wrestle, you don't get paid. 

Also, the working culture that says "If you take time off to properly recover from what are currently minor injuries, all the hard work you've put in to be noticed and get closer to a better-paid, higher-profile position will be wasted and go to someone else".