3 posts tagged “wrestling”
(SPOILER WARNING : IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE WRESTLING IS FAKE, STOP READING NOW)
I doubt I'm the first person to figure this out, but...
I was watching the ending of the 22 Jan edition of WWE Raw, when Shawn Michaels plays Sweet Chin Music on Kenny Dykstra, Carlito and Randy Orton in quick succession, and I was amazed by how loud the 'slap' sound of his trademark superkick was.
Now obviously he doesn't really kick them that hard in the chin, so there has to be another way they generate that sound, like the way wrestlers turn a 'chop' to the chest into an open-handed slap at the last moment, to make it sound louder.
So, being the obsessive that I am, I replayed the three superkicks several times, and I figured out how they do it.
See the Heart Break Kid's hand in the middle of the picture? It's clearly visible in white, because it's bandaged. That's Shawn SLAPPING HIS OWN ASS to generate the sound of the superkick. So HBK's finisher should really be called 'Sweet Ass Music'...
Wrestling may be fake, but it takes a helluva lot of skill and timing to do it well. And these guys also have to be darned tough, because despite the clever tricks like the one described here, ultimately a lot of what these guys do to each other and themselves really hurts.
So yeah, in case you didn't know, I'm a big wrestling fan.
OK, so I've lost count of the number of Rockys they've made, but apparently so have the producers, because they're naming this new one Rocky Balboa instead. You can check out the trailer.
Interesting - Rocky does a Foreman-esque unretirement to fight the hot new thing, but the trailer focuses on the fact that Rocky is old and broken-down. I've heard good things about the script, so could it be that he actually loses? There's also a brief shot in the trailer of what looks like Paulie bending towards flowers on a coffin...hmmm.
I always preferred Stallone to Arnie, because the first two Rockys proved that he really had creative talent. Even III (Mr T) and IV (Drago) were pretty good escapist fun, in the context of their era.
---
Incidentally, I watched UFC 61 a few days ago. It was the first UFC show I watched from start to finish. Got a bit squeamish about the blood, but I like the fact that the ref steps in really quickly to stop the fight when serious head injury is threatened - even if the loser is able to stand up immediately afterwards.
I was never a boxing fan, but I can see why UFC is rapidly gaining popularity (and mainstream credibility) in the US. Because the fights are legit (as opposed to openly-fake wrestling and obviously-fixed boxing), it really grabs your attention quickly. And they do a good job of building up the fighters as real personalities.
It also made me realise what one of the big problems with WWE is nowadays. If you go back even just 3-5 years, WWE was on a high because wrestlers like Stone Cold and The Rock were like rockstars - their personalities spoke for themselves. Nowadays, the new 'superstars' WWE is trying to build up are more like 80s-style cartoon caricatures, with no real personality.
That's why I enjoy the new ECW on Sci-Fi, despite the negative reaction from ECW traditionalists. I was never an ECW fan in the first place, but I like the way that the new ECW cuts out the excessive showbiz (pyros, etc.) of the regular WWE shows. Of course, it also helps that they are giving a good slow build to the wrestler I think is the most promising new talent around today...
I've just started watching my second batch of Ring Of Honor DVDs. Now this is wrestling!
For those who can't be bothered to click through to the Wikpedia entry I just linked, ROH is a relatively young independent wrestling promotion in the US, that has built its reputation on being back-to-basics, in the sense that the emphasis is on the wrestling and winning titles, instead of WWE-style soap operatics. "Run-ins" (when other wrestlers jump in to affect the result of matches) are rare and frowned upon, and most matches end with a winner and loser, instead of the messy, frustrating DQ (disqualification) non-endings so common in WWE.
Initially, I found it hard to get used to the handheld, grainy video look of ROH DVDs (and that is basically the only way to watch ROH, other than flying to the US and attending their tiny shows), but the more I watch, the more I like it, and the more I realise how xian WWE has become. Incidentally, two of ROH's top stars - CM Punk (who has just signed for WWE...damn) and Samoa Joe (also seen on TNA on ESPNStar) - have their own LiveJournals.
Watching ROH reminds me that, ultimately, good wrestling is when two guys manage to convince you that they are beating the hell out of each other, basically by really beating the hell out of each other. Good wrestling looks real because the wrestlers are giving their all, risking life and limb and suffering real pain to put on a good show. The ending may be predetermined, but the effort is real. ROH wrestling looks like fighting, not dancing or acrobatics, and you can't help but respect the energy that these guys put into their work.
I still watch and follow WWE, but more for the storylines (like reading comics!). For real wrestling, ROH - or even TNA - is the thing to watch.
