Friday 26 November 2010

The Indy World

I've decided to look at one of the aspects of wrestling I really love, that being the Indy wrestling scene in America. I probably follow this more than the mainstream (WWE & TNA) and it's mainly because it's pure wrestling, they are some of the best shows you will see and this seems to be a constant. Now this isn't gonna be a shot at WWE or TNA who still put on great shows but I truly love the indy wrestling scene. So in this blog I'm gonna look at the indy companies that I love and will recommend/review a show that would get you following the company itself.

IWA Mid-South
Now recently IWA MS has been going through a rough patch, after returning from closing they have promoted lots of shows however recently many of them have been cancelled/rescheduled. But nonetheless this is a company that got me hooked into the indy scene. IWA MS has been famous for making talent into superstars, guys like CM Punk, Chris Hero, Tyler Black and so many more have had legendary programs in the company. The shows can suffer from low attendance however the in ring quality is amazing.
When it comes to shows which you should watch there's a lot. Any Ted Petty Invitational tournament is worth a watch there are some of the best shows ever. I would also recommend We're No Joke which features Low Ki vs. Necro Butcher and A Rotten Farewell which was Ian Rotten's retirement show and saw Eddie Kingston win the World title in an amazing 4 way featuring Chuck Taylor, Mike Quackenbush and Chris Hero.

Combat Zone Wrestling
This company scared the hell out of me the first time I watched a match from it, mainly because it was my first look at death match wrestling which I am now a fan of. This company is a great mix of violence and great wrestling. Now when it comes to shows there a mixed bag. If you like the hardcore violence then Tournament of deaths and Cage of Deaths are the shows for you, however Cage of Death is also a great wrestling show which makes it a perfect balance. I would also recommend this years Tangled Web 3 which was an amazing show. This years Cage of Deaths is already looking like an awesome show and can't wait to see it. One of the best wrestling shows I've ever seen has come from this company the show When 2 Worlds Collide was amazing top to bottom, it had a crazy 6 man ladder match, an amazing arena wild brawl pitting Justice Pain vs. El Generico and a 'white hot' match which saw BLK Out & Necro Butcher vs. Generation Next, this is a show you have to see.

CHIKARA
What can I say about this company? It is a great mix of comedy, fantastic wrestling and great story line development. This year in particular has been amazing, the BDK storyline has been great to watch and interesting to follow. They do pull in the big names for one of weekend shows, including Manami Toyota this year! When it comes to shows you can pretty much pick any of them and you'll have a great show to watch. The King of Trios tournament is one of the biggest tournaments every year but it's also one of the best. The Young Lions Cup is also a great tournament for different reasons, it allows young rookies to make a impact and they do. This years tournament saw excellent matches from Adam Cole vs. Kyle O'Reily and the finals Frightmare vs. Lince Dorado. Seriously pick up any Chikara show from this year and you'll be hooked.

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
This company has a Ring of Honor feel to it, by which I mean that every show is great from top to bottom. Now they do have a problem when it comes to their world champions as they haven't been able to keep one for long over the last year, they pick the best wrestlers but they are always busy working over seas that they don't have time for the company. Hopefully that's settled now with Claudio Castagnoli as champ. Anyways this company has one of the best rosters you'll find and they always make a impact in their matches. This company never uses talent that doesn't deserve a spot on the show, for example at the recent Seven show a match featured a wrestler called Brian Cage. At the beginning of the match the fans chanted 'Who are you?' at him but at the end they chanted for him to come back and chanted his name. PWG can make stars in just one night if they want. Since I've mentioned Seven I would highly recommend it, it features some amazing matches including Chris Hero vs. Davey Richards and a wild triple threat tag war which saw Paul London & El Generico vs. The Cutler bros vs. The Young Bucks. This is another company that you could pick up any show and fall in love with the company.

Ring of Honor
Finally we come to ROH, the top of the indy world. This is a company that has always put on some of the best shows you will ever see. Some of the greatest talent in the world is in this company and some of the greatest wrestlers ever have pasted through and left their mark. Now when it comes to shows to watch there are a ton, I could literally be here and fill pages of shows you should watch. But my personal favourites are the 100 show which features a wild 6 man tag pitting Chris Hero, Necro Butcher & Super Dragon vs. Samoa Joe, Adam Pearce & BJ Whitmer. Any of there PPV/iPPVs are a great watch as well especially this years Death Before Dishonor iPPV which saw the Kings of Wrestling brawl with the Briscoes and an amazing main event which saw Tyler Black face Davey Richards.

Overall
Now didn't want to go into loads of details here so only hit some of the key points. The indy scene is massive and it can range from good to bad but the companies I've pointed out are some of the best companies in the world in my view, they deliver great shows one after another and they do have some great stories involved in it as well. Some of the greatest talent in the world in and many of them are gonna be the next big break out star and you can see why. I love watching these companies and I don't think that will change any time soon, as much as I like the mainstream companies to me I will pick a indy show over them any day of the week.

Monday 8 November 2010

Youshoot DVD series review

Last time I looked at Kayfabe Commentaries Guest Booker series, this time it's the same company but a different series. The idea behind the Youshoot series is that it's basically a shoot interview but all the questions are submitted by the fans. There have been a lot in this series and I haven't watched all of them but will review the ones I've seen and give a overall view of the series. So lets begin with one of the first ones they did.

Sandman
The name alone should let you know that this has the potential to be entertaining and it is. From the very first second you know that Sandman is drunk and through out the shoot he continues drinking. Now this adds to the shoot in the humour department however it effects it in many ways. One thing that happens a lot is that the Sandman forgets what he's talking about and has to ask the host (Sean Oliver), he's also hard to understand from time to time as he's slurring his words. So this does effect the shoot however the Sandman's honesty and outrageous stories more then make up for it. It's not the best and you probably won't watch it over and over again but it's still good.

New Jack
Speaking of outrageous we come to the next volume, New Jack. Jack doesn't hold back one bit and really funny because of it. However like Sandman he's hard to understand from time to time and seems to talk a mile a minute meaning that you can miss out some key facts of some of his stories. Now you do get the feeling that some of what he's saying is rubbish and it's said to make himself look good or in the right. This probably happens when he's asked about his infamous incidents e.g. Mass Transit, Gypsy Joe and the indy wrestler he stabbed several times. Jack goes into details about all of these incidents, not in great detail which is probably a good thing when it comes to how gruesome they've been described in the past. This is a great combination of funny and serious however Jack seems to spend more time insulting the people who have asked the questions to me and you nothing in an answer because of it. Like Sandman's it's worth a view but not repeated viewing.

Kevin Sullivan
One of the biggest names in the business and one of the most controversial superstars is in the next volume. The amount of subjects covered is huge from his in ring career, to his gimmicks, to his booking, to Brian Pillman and lots more. Sullivan shows that he doesn't have a ego at all, which you think he would have considering what he's done, and he shows a great amount of details about the backstage of the wrestling business. This is one of the DVDs where you will likely learn some details which you thought wouldn't be true so it's a great watch. The DVD takes a very serious turn near the end when the subject of Chris Benoit and Nancy is brought up, Sullivan answers every question and is even given a chance to just express himself at the end.

Jim Cornette & his lost Questions
This is 2 separate releases, this was done because after the 4 hour first volume was released many fans apparently emailed and asked where their question was during the shoot so they got Jim back to do another one. Now the first DVD set focuses around wrestling and his career because Jim Cornette has worked so many places this takes about 4 hours as he gets lots of questions from each company. The 2nd DVD is more about random stuff that fans wanted to know, just general questions really. Both are amazing to watch, Jim Cornette is one of the best interviewees in the wrestling business, he's always entertaining and the time flies by because of it. I've watched both shoots several times they are that great, I would easily recommend these to anyone. You could probably watch these everyday and still be entertained. And some of the best bits are him cussing people out, including a classic part at the end of volume 2 where he asks for just 5 minutes to express himself about Vince Russo and 25 minutes later he finishes. This is way I love Jim Cornette.

Dixie Carter LIVE
This is probably one of the worst DVDs in my view and is for a simple reason. Now either Dixie has deluded herself into believing the answers she's giving or she's giving them to make TNA not look like the waste land that it actually is. The fans hold nothing back and the amount of times WCW 2000 is brought up, Hogan & Bischoffs awful running of a company and Vince Russo's booking is great. A video is also shown where Jim Cornette asks about why Vince Russo is still hired there. The answers are awful and not believable, at one point she says that it's not Vince Russo's booking and she was gonna fire everyone except him from the booking committee. You can give it a view, you may learn something about TNA but Dixie not entertaining in my view and the rest of the series easily out shines this volume.

Bob 'Hardcore' Holly
Now I don't like what I've heard about Holly and I only watched this as it showed the fans really giving it to him about how awful he is in the ring and how he's a bully. Now Holly covers the bully issue several times and it sounds believable however my theory is, of course a bully would make up reasons for what he did and not see himself as a bully. So either what he says is true or I'm right and personally I'm shooting with me. But back to the DVD itself. It's not a bad watch, a lot is covered and like many others he holds nothing back, you get to see how badly WWE can treat some of it's wrestlers who are not the their 'main' stars. The shoot gets a little disturbing when during a game he's asked how he'd kick a guys as, they go through several, it starts with a very detailed and long account of how he would KILL Mr. Anderson and he does skip some names but nothings he says "I'd just cut their throats", now Holly that's not beating someone up that's murder and it was not nice to watch. This again is probably worth one watch but not repeated viewing.

Maria Kanellis
This is a great shoot. This really brings Maria out into a new light, many people would of stereotyped her as just another Diva search girl who was in wrestling for no reason but after watching this that view is changed. You get to see her true personality, something WWE never showed and gave her nothing after nothing after he 'stupid girl' gimmick. You also get to see a real knowledge and love of pro wrestling which again WWE never took advantage off, how different things would be if they took up some of her ideas. Now like the others Maria holds nothing back and goes into great detail about anything she's asked about. Some of the best bits are the section focused around CM Punk and a section on weird fans. If you didn't like Maria before this you'll likely end up falling in love with her at the end of it. I love this shoot and this is another one that you can watch over and over.

Overall
Lets start with the bad points, there's not a lot. The biggest downer of this series is actually the video submitted questions, not all of them though. Now you'll see a lot of familiar faces if you watch several DVDs which can be good, the guys from offthemarkshow.com usually submit questions that are good and can be funny, however one of the guys from the show the 'Hez' (I believe) express is really hard to understand and his questions are sometime skipped. Also there videos of guys trying to be funny which is dreadful and guys pretending to be wrestlers and doing promos which are meaningless in the long run and just take away from the shoot.
However that is the only bad point about this series. The fact that the questions come from the fans mean there usually great questions which you'd like to know the answer to. Another good point is the games that Sean Oliver plays with the guests, these range from the Hoe Bag, to name the object to 'F', Marry, Kill and more. This don't take away from the shoot and are really funny, they also show the true feelings of the people playing them. Also the games are rather specific to the interviewee so they do have a purpose and are placed in the shoot very well.
So overall I find the series hit and miss, as much as you have to see the shoots as they are good some don't deserve repeated viewing which makes you question if you should pay out for them. I'm 50/50 on them as 4 are worth repeated viewing while 4 are probably just a one off watch. So it seems that I'm undecided on it. The real test will be the most recent releases in the series which is Sean Waltman, which should be good, and the next one being shot, which I've submitted a question to, including the Iron Sheik. Anyways the series is a great watch, I love many of them and like some of the others. I only dislike 2 really so the series is good in my view.

If you've read this thank you for taking the time, feel free to leave me a comment on the link on Facebook or on here if you have a blogger account.

Tuesday 2 November 2010

Forgiving

I've had this idea in my head since Friday morning after my first lecture of the day was focused around the idea of forgiving people. However I didn't write it as I was busy Friday, Saturday and Monday, and to be honest I was in a complete lazy mood on Sunday. So I've got some spare time today and will write it up.

I have to say that the lecture about it was interesting but it lead me to think more about myself then the subject we're meant to be thinking about. You see the lecture started by asking who in the room is a forgiving person and I was one of the people who put there hands up. I believe I'm generally a forgiving person and I can only think of a few people that I just can't forgive and I feel that I have good reason to feel that way. Let me explain with a story about one guy. We were having a night out and a friend of ours brought a friend with them, so we proceeded to have a good night. However as the night went on this guy go drunker and drunker, my buddy who is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet trying to help asks what was up. The guy then went on to threaten him and smash a glass on our table, he then went out found a bridge and threaten to jump up or so I've been told. Now ever one can get drunk I'm not bothered with that but that behaviour is ridiculous to me. When I saw him next I didn't act friendly to him and pretty much try to ignore him as I wanted nothing to do with him however during the night he came to me and asked if I liked him, I was honest and said 'No, frankly you broke a glass that hurt my friend and threatened another one' he then went round the rest of our group and complain about the fact I didn't like him.

The point of this story is really just to demonstrate just how much it takes for me to not forgive a person. Now you can argue if the guy was a actual friend you'd be more forgiving however I don't think I would of been friends with someone like that. Anyways, there's only a few people who I can't forgive and in my view with good reason. Besides that I'm generally forgiving, my friends can do something that really bugs me and gets me cross however after a day or so it'll be old news and everything will be fine.

I also wanted to tell another story that a saw on a DVD documentary I have. The documentary was on Gary Ridgeway the 'Green River Killer'. While he was being sentenced for his crimes the victims relatives gave a impact statement, Ridgeway killed about 40-50 women. Now many were what you expected 'I hate you', 'I hope you get killed' and 'You've got what you deserve' etc. however there was one man who did something different. He came to the stand and said 'You've made it difficult to do what God asks and that's to forgive. However I will try and you are forgiven sir' in response Gary Ridgeway broke down and cried. This to me is amazing as I can't imagine ever being in that mans shoes and not be anything but angry, how can you forgive something so horrible? How can you look at someone who has killed someone you love so much and forgive them? This makes anything I can't forgive people for look petty!

At the end of all this I believe that you can forgive pretty much anyone for pretty much anything however I truly believe that some people don't deserve to be forgiven. Luckily for me the people who I think don't deserve to be forgiven I basically cut out of my life as they don't deserve to be in it.

If you're giving this a read, thanks a lot and let me know what you think by leaving me a comment.