182 posts tagged with wrestling.
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"Music and humor are for the healing of the nations"
This post started as a single video of veteran musicmaker Leonard Solomon performing Skrillex's "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" on a homemade "Squijeeblion."
That led to discovering his YouTube channel @Bellowphone, full of similarly whimsical covers on a collection of bespoke instruments hand-built in his Wimmelbildian workshop, from the Emphatic Chromatic Callioforte to the Oomphalapompatronium to the original Majestic Bellowphone.
Searching for more videos led to his performance in the Lonesome Pine One-Man Band Extravaganza special from 1991, where he co-starred with whizbang vaudevillians like Hokum W. Jeebs and Professor Gizmo.
But what was Lonesome Pine? Just an extraordinary, award-winning concert series by the Kentucky Center for the Arts that ran for 16 years on public radio and television -- an "all things considered" showcase for "new artists, underappreciated veterans and those with unique new voices" featuring such luminaries as Buddy Guy, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, k.d. lang, Koko Taylor, and hundreds more. You can get a broad overview of this televisual marvel from this excellent half-hour retrospective, see a supercut of director Clark Santee's favorite moments, browse the program directory from the Smithsonian exhibit, or watch select shows in their entirety: Lonesome Pine Blues - All-star Bluegrass Band - Nashville All-stars - Bass Instincts - Zydeco Rockers - Walter "Wolfman" Washington - Mark O'Connor - Alison Krauss & Union Station - Sam Bush & John Cowan - Maura O'Connell - Nanci Griffith - A Musical Visit from Africa [more inside]
How Vince McMahon Explains the 21st Century
The Hideous Spectacle of Vince McMahon Tim Marchman and Tom Scocca discuss Vince McMahon + The WWE, what makes a scandal, and what it means that the ringleader of wrestling has been an absolute monster this whole time. (SL: The Indignity on Substack) [CW: sexual abuse]
TAG TEAM WITH DESTINY
WrestleQuest [Launch Trailer] “WrestleQuest fuses turn-based gameplay of traditional fantasy RPGs like Final Fantasy or Earthbound, with the fantastical world of pro wrestling. In WrestleQuest, players explore a fantasy realm dotted with gyms, arenas, and even shrines to the legends of yesteryear. Combat takes place in the ring (usually) and follows a familiar turn-based cadence, with wrestling moves and action points nimbly taking the place of spells and mana. Land a particularly devastating move from the top rope, and a guy’s plastic arm might pop off. No worries, he just sticks it back on. [...] The characters — 12 of them playable, 400 of them NPCs, and about 30 of those real-life, old-school heroes from the past 40 years — are all action-figure representations. Some aren’t even wrestlers. The world in which the main protagonist “Muchacho Man” lives is a fantasy realm of toys, the kind a middle-schooler would spread out on the bedroom floor and mash up in glorious crossover, non-canonical throwdowns.” [via: Polygon | Game Review]
How Queer Pro Wrestlers Are Handling America’s Anti-LGBTQ+ Heel Turn
Pollo del Mar wants to be hated. As a bad guy (or heel) in the NWA—the National Wrestling Alliance, a professional wrestling company owned and operated by the Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan (no shit!)—it’s her job to get heat, i.e. the boos and jeers and chants that separate professional wrestling’s villains from its heroes. There’s just one problem: She’s a drag queen, and it’s made her too popular. (archive.today link)
The Unreality of Pro Wrestling
SuperEyepatchWolf details Roman Reigns' journey from The Shield to The Bloodline , perhaps one of the most bizarre and disastrous stories in pro wrestling.
As God is my witness, he is broken in half!
Twenty-five years ago today, The Undertaker damn near killed Mankind. Twice. It was one of the most memorable matches in the history of professional wrestling, and now Mark Calaway and Mick Foley are far enough removed to laugh at it as they rewatch the infamous Hell In A Cell match that redefined each of their careers in an instant. (CW: premeditated violence that resulted in real injury to both participants, blood, teeth, thumbtacks)
RESPECT THE LEGEND FOREVER
Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, a.k.a. The Iron Sheik, one of the most hated villains in professional wrestling history, has died at the age of 81 according to his official Twitter account, where he had enjoyed a second career of rants and insults. [more inside]
In American Indie Wrestling, Bodies Are Cheap And Healthcare Is Not
This is the gamble every wrestler makes: that someday he or she might be the one flat on their back watching the world collapse upon them. Everyone knows this. Everyone’s seen it. Nobody stops working. (archive.today link)
In the ring, vulnerability is everything
Wrestling turned me cis, then it turned me trans by Abraham Josephine Riesman [Polygon] “Wrestling is built around masculinity, but in its own way it is also transgressive — even queer. Men in wrestling wear bright colors. They intimately touch other men in public. When they’re allied, they speak of each other in the warm terms of life partners; when they’re at odds, they issue ambiguously sexual threats such as “I want your ass.” Most importantly, they show pain. The essential, irreducible element of a wrestling match is the ability to show suffering — the very thing drummed out of every boy by high school, if not earlier. It’s the heart of the art form. No matter how skilled a wrestler is technically, it doesn’t count at all unless they can make the audience believe they’re being hurt. Every wrestler has to spend a significant amount of every match showing nothing but raw, visceral agony. They have to show their secret face, the most vulnerable one of all. Wrestling is an art form, one that turned out to have also planted seeds in my mind about how fun it is to dress up, show tenderness, be vulnerable, and do the things you’re not supposed to.”
The ur-pro-wrestler of the 1970s dies
"Superstar" Billy Graham, a one-time WWWF Champion and the man who essentially invented the professional wrestler of the 1980s a decade earlier, has passed away at the age of 79. [more inside]
UFC, WWE to Merge; Emanuel to Serve as CEO, McMahon as Executive Chair
Endeavor Group Holdings and sports entertainment powerhouse WWE made things official on Monday, unveiling a definitive agreement to form a new, publicly listed company consisting of two “iconic, complementary” global sports and entertainment brands: UFC and WWE. Endeavor will hold a 51 percent controlling interest in the new company, with existing WWE shareholders owning a 49 percent interest. [more inside]
"In the context of this wider lie."
Pro Wrestler Jay Briscoe Dies at 38
Professional wrestler Jay Briscoe has died at age 38. Briscoe (real name Jamin Pugh) and his brother (IRL and on-screen) Mark were mainstays of the Ring of Honor promotion, appearing at its first-ever event. They would go on to hold the ROH Tag Team Championship 13 times over the next 20 years, including reigning as champions at the time of Jay's death. Jay also won the ROH World Championship on two occasions from 2013 to 2015. [more inside]
WrestleWeeb
Professional wrestler, AEW executive, and unabashed geek Kenny Omega made a splash at Wrestle Kingdom by entering the ring dressed as the One Winged Angel, Sephiroth. [more inside]
“The crowd has taken on a more violent approach towards me."
Two pro wrestlers developed ‘The Progressive Liberal’ to be the bad guy at matches. Then the atmosphere turned far darker (previously on MeFi)
Vince McMahon retires from WWE amid allegations of sexual misconduct
Barely a month after the start of the latest round of allegations of bad behavior by Vince McMahon, majority shareholder in World Wrestling Entertainment, he has "decided" to "retire" from his roles as (suspended pending investigation) Chairman and CEO and (still in place pending investigation) head of creative. [more inside]
John Cena makes a wonderful new friend
John Cena meets Misha, a teenager with Down syndrome who fled Ukraine after his home was destroyed (YouTube). To motivate Misha on their journey to safety, his mother told him the fantasy that they were on their way to find Cena. They spent the afternoon building blocks and eating cake. [more inside]
Hard work pays off, dreams come true; bad times don't last, bad guys do.
He was the man who kicked off the biggest boom period in the history of professional wrestling. Along with Shawn Michaels, he innovated the ladder match, now a staple of the sport. He wrestled a desperate battle with alcoholism for almost twenty years, and in his twilight appeared to have finally beaten it into submission, and was known throughout the business for a keen mind and for being generous towards his fellow wrestlers to a fault. Whether you knew him best as the Diamond Studd, as Razor Ramon, or simply as himself, "Da Bad Guy" was always one of the coolest wrestlers to ever set foot in the ring. Scott Hall passed away today after being taken off life support following complications from hip surgery. He was 63.
ChocoPro Wrestling: Rock, Paper, Suplex
Professional wrestling, to most American viewers, is a big-budget, mass-market, massively-muscled-lunkheads kind of product. The connoisseur, however, may opt to check out a rather different kind of wrasslin' experience... such as one that doesn't need ropes, or an elevated ring, or a live audience, or much of anything beyond a strong spirit, an emptied-out dentist's waiting room, and a dream. [more inside]
Lucha Libre Wrestler "enforce" mask and sanitizing rules in Mexico
In Central de Abasto market, Mexico City, Mexico, a group of lucha libre wrestlers are "enforcing" mask and sanitizing rules... perhaps that's a bit too strong. Let's just say (jokingly) encouraging the use of masks and hand sanitizers.
Would never happen in the US, of course.
The Legacy of Khabib Nurmagomedov
Pious Dagestani-Russian mixed martial arts champion Khabib Nurmagomedov defended his 155-pound title this past Saturday, and promptly retired. The capstone on his career was another textbook grappling "smesh": a buttery-smooth wrestling takedown which led to his late father's favorite submission trap: a triangle choke that put the heavy-hitting Justin Gaethje to sleep. Journalist Karim Zidan writes eloquently about the popular Muslim athlete's mixed legacy. [more inside]
Hot Tires… Hot Burgers!
Bigtop Burger is a clown-themed food truck. These are their adventures.
Stove
Elk
Kid
Zomburger [more inside]
#SpeakingOut
After a week of numerous sexual assault allegations against WWE, AEW, Impact, and independent wrestlers, the industry needs to evolve. [content warning: sexual harassment, violence, abuse] [more inside]
On Dead Wrestlers
[Content Warning: death, suicide, self-harm] Last week was a tragic one in the world of professional wrestling, with former WWE wrestler Shad Gaspard giving his own life to save his son from drowning and second-generation joshi star Hana Kimura dying of suicide. Between Gaspard and Kimura's death, Vice on TV aired the last episode of the second season of Dark Side of the Ring, which told the story of the death of Owen Hart live on pay-per-view on May 23rd, 1999. Colette Arrand notes, "there are few forms of art and entertainment that breed tragedy at the same rate as professional wrestling." [more inside]
Kana Chan TV
Kana Chan TV is a Japanese youtuber/vlogger like many others, she records herself preparing and eating food or playing video games like American Truck Simulator (badly).
oh yeah, as of about a week ago, she's also the current WWE RAW Women's Champion
oh yeah, as of about a week ago, she's also the current WWE RAW Women's Champion
WWE Essential, Employees Contractors Not So Much
Reports surfaced this week of WWE being labelled an "essential business" by the state of Florida, allowing them to continue airing live wrestling shows in an empty studio. When asked about the decision, Governor DeSantis delivered a word salad for the ages, citing Disney gardening staff, content, Nascar, Woods and Mickelson doing "the golf," and Tom Brady being in Tampa Bay before ending his press conference. Then, a couple days later after getting the go ahead to continue, billion dollar company WWE began releasing wrestlers, as well as furloughing and laying off producers, and other employees. Many people have been wondering what the hell is going on. [more inside]
COVID-19 Forces WrestleMania to Tap Out
In the midst of quarantine and lockdown and curfew, one might think that professional wrestling is uniquely suited to an all-television format, and indeed, WWE's decision to air its Smackdown program from a makeshift empty arena at its Performance Center drew better ratings than usual (if only to see wrestlers using microphones to yell at each other while standing a few feet apart without having to play to a huge crowd). But the big news came late Monday when WWE announced that its annual extravaganza WrestleMania will also emanate from an audience-free Performance Center, rather than the 65,000 expected to fill Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on April 5th. [more inside]
Til We Make It
Be the Locker Room Diplomat. Solid advice on how to navigate tense professional situations, whether you're a pro wrestler or not. [more inside]
Progress in Professional Wrestling Marred by (Real-Life) Controversy
Over the weekend, Tessa Blanchard won the Impact World Championship, making her the first female champion of a major wrestling promotion in the U.S. The victory -- coming as the culmination of a months-long feud with Sami Callihan that was marked by sexist remarks from Callihan (and from the worst parts of wrestling's notoriously gross fandom) -- should have been a triumph not only for Blanchard but the entire industry. But the result of the fight in the ring was soured by a fight that Blanchard didn't see coming... on Twitter. [more inside]
The Decade That Professional Wrestling Died
The demise of professional wrestling -- an ancient and storied, highly competitive, 100% legitimate sporting endeavor -- began with the Most Illegal Thing I've Seen in the History of Wrestling! in February 2011 (co-murderer Ophidian recently apologized for his heinous crime). [more inside]
Shakedown Smackdown
Last week, WWE presented its second Crown Jewel event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This was the fourth of 20 planned biannual events in the Kingdom, for which the House of Saud was allegedly ponying up as much as $2 billion. The deal is part of Saudi Vision 2030, a program by Crown Prince Mohammad Bin-Salman to modernize the Saudi economy and improve the repressive regime's public image. That PR effort probably wasn't helped when flight delays held most of the wrestlers on the ground for more than 24 hours... or possibly the wrestlers were hostages in a disagreement between WWE owner Vince McMahon and the Crown Prince over payment. [more inside]
'I am really shy'
Promotional War and Peace
With the launch of AEW, WWE has real competition for the first time in years. As history shows, this is great news for wrestling fans. [more inside]
Equality in Women's Wrestling Goes Below the Belt
Late last month, independent professional wrestler Priscilla Kelly had an interesting new move to try out against her opponent: she pulled a "bloody" tampon out of her trunks and shoved it into Tuna's mouth. A clip of it exploded a week later, with various wrestling luminaries weighing in, generally disapprovingly, but with many comparing it to famed indie wrestler Joey Ryan's "dick flip". [more inside]
Let me tell you something mean Gene
The Man takes center stage
"Broken Face" And All, Becky Lynch Is Suddenly The Biggest Star In WWE: How Rebecca Quin seized the moment to create one of the most iconic photos in women's wrestling history and became one of the biggest things in professional wrestling despite being out of action for an unknown amount of time. (content warning: real blood)
"My real name is Joe, and I've been living with leukemia for 11 years."
This week's episode of WWE Monday Night Raw started like many others, with Universal Champion Roman Reigns walking purposefully to the ring, title belt over his shoulder, microphone in hand, to address the audience. Instead of his regular boasting and selling of the next big pay-per-view event, though, Reigns broke kayfabe, surrendering his championship and announcing that he would be taking a break from the ring to battle leukemia. [more inside]
I'll take that bet Dave.
Equal Fights Movement
WWE, the company that dominates professional wrestling in the U.S. (and most of the world), mostly hasn’t allowed men and women to face off in the ring for more than a decade. But intergender wrestling is thriving on the independent scene, 170 fans at a time.
RIP Professional Wrestler Leon "(Big Van) Vader" White
Easy! Easy! Easy!
For over twenty years of Saturday tea times in the UK, World Of Sport Wrestling on ITV was essential viewing for grapple fans until interest in the British version of the sport waned and it was taken off the air... but interest in UK wrestling has grown in recent years and now World Of Sport Wrestling is back! [more inside]
DEAD MAN RISING
On the eve of his 26th ‘WrestleMania,’ we talked to friends, colleagues, and victims of the WWE’s longest-reigning superstar about the making of the amazing career and (after)life of
THE UNDERTAKER [more inside]Wrestling Rhodes to Rhodes
Cody Rhodes lived and worked in the shadow of his father, Dusty Rhodes, one of the greatest professional wrestlers who ever lived. Now he’s carving his own path in his father’s memory.
Smarkly criticize something that isn't wrestling
Wrestling fans on Reddit are taking a break from talking wrestling to criticize things other than wrestling in the same way they criticize wrestling. Spoiler warnings after the break. [more inside]
you’re the one who paid to see sweaty men in underwear grope each other
Oh my God, I can’t wait to see his face.
Shanquis loves Charles. Charles loves Shanquis. Charles and Shanquis love wrestling. (SL Washington Post). [more inside]
“On Nov. 9, 1997, the professional wrestling industry changed forever.”
Twenty years later, Shawn Michaels reflects on the Montreal Screwjob. [ESPN] “In the midst of the most heated days of the "Monday Night Wars" between World Wrestling Entertainment (then the WWF) and World Championship Wrestling, money and contract issues led Bret Hart and Vince McMahon to an impasse. McMahon needed to get the title off of Hart before he left for WCW, and Hart refused to lose the title to Shawn Michaels, his most bitter rival, in front of a pay-per-view crowd in Montreal, feeling that a loss in such a Canadian stronghold would be devastating for his on-screen persona. In the lead-up to Survivor Series, there were several different ideas thrown around as solutions. Hart suggested he could instead lose to Steve Austin, or perhaps drop the title to Michaels at a live event in Detroit the night before. But once it became clear that they couldn't come to terms on a solution, the wheels were set in motion for a moment that would forever alter two companies, countless wrestlers' careers and, ultimately, set the WWE on a path toward becoming a multibillion-dollar brand.” [WWE][Autoplay Video] [more inside]
Requiem for a weasel
Bobby "the Brain" Heenan, widely considered to be both the greatest manager in professional wrestling history and the greatest colour commentator in professional wrestling history, has died following multiple battles with cancer. He was 73. [more inside]
TURN ON THE FOG MACHINE
"235 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal": Sputnik Monroe
Appalachian wrestling's greatest villain, 'The Progressive Liberal,' may be making waves these days with his liberal agenda moves, but let's look back to the man, the myth, the legend: Sputnik Monroe, “235 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal," the most hated wrestler in Memphis, and a champion of integration in the Jim Crow South. [more inside]