Scott,
Lincoln was never NWA champion, the first champion was crowned in 1906 when Karl Gotch double-crossed Dennis Corraluzzo by throwing down the American Collar-And-Elbow Brass Knuckles title after a shoot with Lou Thesz and crowned himself first ever NWA World champion. And then Paul Heyman's check bounced.
1. "Ass" has started to work its way back into the product again, but honestly I don't ever need to see bloodbath matches and crazy table bumps and stuff every week. Using them exceedingly sparingly makes stuff like the Shield six-man all the more special.
2. Nope.
Big fan ever since you first ranted on Lincoln being crowned NWA Champion. I thought your **** rating was a bit high, as Lincoln could have employed more psychology, but a fan nonetheless. Anyway, as a long time fan, I have a quick question and favor to ask of you and the BoDers.
1. With Linda's second consecutive loss in her best 2 out of 3 falls Senate bid, do you think we'll see any real, actual change in the WWE product going forward? Obviously we'll never return to the bawdy days of the Attitude Era, but is it possible we'll see a less politically correct, sanitized RAW?
2. I'm currently writing my final paper for my College Course on Video Games Studies (yes, that's a thing) and my chosen topic is "The History of Pro Wrestling Video Games." You or any of the BoDers have any idea where I can find solid info on this, outside of the fine work from the boys at Joe vs. The World?
1. "Ass" has started to work its way back into the product again, but honestly I don't ever need to see bloodbath matches and crazy table bumps and stuff every week. Using them exceedingly sparingly makes stuff like the Shield six-man all the more special.
2. Nope.
Scotsman can help you with info about WCW Thunder.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I honestly don't want to go back to when we had unprotected chair shots on a weekly basis and blood just to have it. WWE's problems are way bigger than just adding blood and weapons and language. Sure I'd like to see blood in special times when it's needed to enhance a feud, and a little more edginess here and there. But I'd rather they fix their booking problems first and foremost.
ReplyDeleteHonestly they should give Heyman some role in creative. He's already there. And Heyman was always phenomenal at effectively using the talent he had-whether good or bad. Well imagine what he'd do with the roster they have now. He may not dramatically move ratings but I'd much rather have a good show earning low ratings than a bad show earning low ratings.
There's a really good website for info on his second question:
ReplyDeletewww.google.com
Yeah, I'd like for blood and crazy violent matches to be at their disposal but not on a regular basis. Not even regularly on PPV. (Not that those things were ever truly commonplace on free TV.)
ReplyDeleteThe sanitized product wasn't just because of Linda running for Senate; recall back in 2006-2007 all the heavy shots WWE was taking in the media with the 1-2 punch of the Sports Illustrated steroids report and the Benoit murder/suicide. Every media outlet at the time portrayed the company as the same sex-and-violence filth they were a decade ago, which would be fine with Vince if they were pulling the same numbers they were, but they didn't. They pretty much needed to rebuild the goodwill of the brand, so now we've gone back to the superhero era (albeit more of a realistic kind). That's fine by me; whatever you may think of Be a Star or the Komen Foundation, it's good news for the company to be looked upon in a positive light, and the family-friendly product gives the WWE that opportunity. Now it's no longer a negative thing to be associated with WWE; instead of being in the crosshairs of Nancy Grace et al., they're being shown on ESPN or The Soup or Access Hollywood and not as a deviant product. The numbers haven't saved themselves, but that's more about the booking, and the main thing is they saved the brand from getting crushed from bad publicity. Plus, blading's stupid.
ReplyDeleteI don't really know where you'd get enough substantial information to do a paper on wrestling video games. It's not like Duke Nukem Forever where it has an interesting developmental backstory. You might as well take it from a personal perspective or just scuttle the project for a better topic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yozKW1nuoes Joe gagne has a bunch of good videos on the subject
ReplyDeleteHistory of wrestling games is a pretty deep rabbit-hole, bro. In addition to Fire Pro (and all it's iterations) the Acclaim games (Legends of Wrestling, Attitude, Warzone, ECW games), the THQ/AKI games (and they're iterations here and abroad) as well as the sub-par NES and SNES games for both major promotions, There's dozens and dozens of one-off brawlers or independent games that ABSOLUTELY need to be included in the discussion.
ReplyDeleteThe Extreme Warfare Series for example, Mdickie's Federation Online / Booker / Booking MPire / Wrestlimg MPire / and his IOS games is a whole other can of worms, and if you leave out GA's "WWE With Authority" you're missing out on one of the first successful online CCGS that predated Magic The Gathering: Online, by a few years.
It's an incredibly exciting topic, but I'm worried your thesis is too broad. What are you trying to say with your paper?
WCW Thunder is a hot piece of ass good work.
ReplyDeleteHuh, i'll have to write that one down. Seems helpful.
ReplyDeleteThere's a ton of games that you can focus on and this paper can end up turning into 50 pages. If I were you I'd lump the NES/SNES games together; talk about the great games like Revege and No Mercy, then talk about the SvR stuff from the best better part of a decade before concluding with how they've gone to a Sports like route naming the games '12, '13 etc
ReplyDelete^Some random fag
ReplyDeleteBut you need a thesis! Why are they important! WHY do Pro-Wrestling games, which, mind you, fabricate competition when in actuality there is none, continue to endure?
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget the crazy, almost mario party-esque AJPW game for SNES, "Zennihon Pro Wrestling: Fight Da Pon!"
ReplyDeleteNor the ICP inspired Backyard Wrestling: There Goes The Neighboorhood.
ReplyDeleteI know they are on The Soup a lot but when is WWE ever featured on ESPN?
ReplyDeleteLincoln is making enough money that Spielberg should aim for a prequel that details Abe's pre-politics wrestling days. Day-Lewis can still play Lincoln, he's a good enough actor to convincingly play a 25-year-old at age 55. Young Lincoln can be trained by Mickey Rourke, playing Randy the Ram's great-great-grandfather.
ReplyDeleteBecause of humanity's need to suspend disbelief. We're creative creatures with an innate desire to construct stories and give meanings where they don't exist or aren't needed so we can conform illogical concepts like fake competition to logical thought processes. We want Man A to fight Man B because that's what humans have traditionally done for thousands of years, fight to prove dominance. But in wrestling that's irrelevant because there is no dominance since it's a give-and-take performance more akin to theater than to combat sports, so over the past hundred years we've crafted the concept of professional wrestling to fill that void as combat sports are being seen more and more as barbarous. Video games are an extension of that conscious desire to make an illogical act a logical one, and to a greater extent reaffirm the illogical nature of wrestling's fake competition as a real one because unlike a wrestling match the competition in the wrestling video game is real. Players One and Two aren't gliding through a performance, they're competing with each other to assert dominance. So, in a way, the video games are "more real" than the very thing that inspired their creation.
ReplyDeleteVideo Game College Course Guy, you can totally paraphrase me if you want. I'm pretty sure your prof would be cool with you citing an Internet message board as a source.
They usually got a mention during the guest-host era, when Shaq or Big Ben would go on, showing highlights of doing whatever it is they did.
ReplyDeleteHmm, didn't know that. I actually didn't mind the guest host thing. You get fresh interactions every week, and you never know whether the host would be awesome or a train wreck.
ReplyDeleteHardcoreGaming101 has a slew of articles, just ctrl + f ''wrestling''
ReplyDeletehttp://hardcoregaming101.net/alpha.htm
They mostly were awful. At the time the Anonymous GM actually became a breath of fresh air. The authority figure in general is idiotic in wrestling outside of Vince
ReplyDeleteSounds Swedish.
ReplyDeleteBob Barker almost made it worth it on his own. He was great with Y2J. Big difference with him and the other guest hosts, since he was used to working on the fly with an audience.
ReplyDeleteBut it's sooooooooo forced.
ReplyDeleteIt's like "Hey we're gonna do this cancer thing so that we'd don't get bashed in the media and so that my wife can win this election so that she can feel like she has purpose in life".
Susan G. Komen/any vanity project= These are not the vulgarities you're looking for.
the "fabricate competition" really is a non-factor. because otherwise you pretty only much only would have sports games. I mean Star Wars or Lord of the Rings are not "real" as well.
ReplyDeleteLets not forget the TNM wrestling simulator.
ReplyDeleteI loaded this up on my college lab computer and played during lectures.
ReplyDeleteTNM was a good one for E-Fed, there was an "EDGE of wrestling" Simulator that was kind of cute, too.
ReplyDelete...Would anyone be interested in an RSPWFAQ E-fed?
Yeah, you gotta mention TNM. That was a pretty huge deal back in the mid to late 1990s.
ReplyDeleteDon't ignore the non-console releases either, there were a ton of games on the computers of the day.
A couple of seminal titles were "Championship Wrestling" from Epyx and "Rock'n Wrestle" from Melbourne House from the mid 1980s. Another one from the same time frame that might be worth a mention is the first WWF licensed game, Microleague Wrestling, which came out a little before WrestleMania on the NES.
Then of course you have the big arcade games, the licensed ones like WrestleFest and Superstars, plus non-licensed ones like Saturday Night Slam Masters and WrestleWar.
But what I'm saying is I'd rather play a game where the goal is to have the best match, not win it!
ReplyDeleteThat game was not half bad.
ReplyDeleteAs I've said, WWE's problem isn't that they aren't "adult" like blood and sex, it's that they aren't "adult" like "not insulting to the intelligence of an adult, or fun for an adult to watch."
ReplyDeleteIt introduced me to one of my favorite bands - Bowling For Soup - too!
ReplyDelete*meekly raises hand*
ReplyDelete