I have some time this week to review a long shoot interview so I have four recent releases that I am selecting for review. Most of these guys have an association with the WWE Developmental process, with two of them working behind the scenes. The final choice is the Tracy Smothers shoot, which there is no trailer for, but is hysterical and full of crazy stories and I would rate as a top 10 shoot of all-time. Here are the four choices:
Nova, Part 2
Chris Hero, Part 2
Steve Keirn
Tracy Smothers
http://www.rfvideo.com/tracysmothersshootinterview.aspx
Vote by clicking on the link below. Voting ends Saturday at 7pm
http://vote.pollcode.com/22945776
Nova, Part 2
Chris Hero, Part 2
Steve Keirn
Tracy Smothers
http://www.rfvideo.com/tracysmothersshootinterview.aspx
Vote by clicking on the link below. Voting ends Saturday at 7pm
http://vote.pollcode.com/22945776
How you gonna say you have time for a long shoot and not finally do the Flair one? Anyway, vote Hero people.
ReplyDeleteIts over ten hours. The others are less than half of that and still long.
ReplyDeleteAll I'm hearing are excuses.
ReplyDeleteI voted for that filthy pig, Skinner (tm Gorilla Monsoon).
ReplyDeleteTEN HOURS?! Holy crap, that better be the best shoot ever or I'd want my day back.
ReplyDeleteIt's probably entertaining but a lot of the recent interviews I hear with Flair, it's as though he shares Hulk Hogan's view of historical accuracy.
ReplyDeleteI should slowly work on it though so I can release it piece by piece when Flair passes away, which will happen before the next Olympic Games
ReplyDeleteVoted Smothers. Can't tell you exactly why.
ReplyDeleteReigns is getting the Batista push, not only is his physically more dominant, he's also just smarter and gets to break the cliches and conventions of regular wrestling shows.
ReplyDeleteThe pipe in 4-2 isn't right... and the last pipe he goes down before the water part of 8-4 isn't right either.
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget:
ReplyDeleteBilly and Chuck
His "The One" entrance music
One of the best matches I've ever seen in person was a 15-minute draw that Danielson and Tyler Black had on ROH TV. I was with @Mar Solo and it was a great job of telling a story in the ring as they built in intensity. It made me wonder why they don't do time-limit draws more often instead of DQs.
ReplyDeleteHe does sell the "chopping the tree down" offense extremely well
ReplyDeleteI think Hunter Johnson and Cornette did okay considering the talent they had.
ReplyDeleteHah! Great minds. It was 2009 though. I DID see the Briscoes and Austin Aries main event a show against the Age of the Fall and was certain the Briscoes would be HUGE stars.
ReplyDeleteMy sister who hasn't watched wrestling in years, saw that Stephanie segment and was like, "Is she trying to sound like Vince?"
ReplyDeleteI really don't think I would believe anything Flair said. Sad but true.
ReplyDeleteFor me it was until 2005.
ReplyDeleteMan, the heat machine was in overdrive for this show. The crowd looked like they were bored. It wasn't that bad of a show. Are Pittsburgh crowds normally this way?
ReplyDeleteThey weren't at the Royal Rumble.
ReplyDeleteIf I was at a live Rumble, I would be JACKED!
ReplyDeleteNo way he survived all of that.
ReplyDeleteI remember liking Trevor Murdoch more towards the end of his run, when he busted out the Canadian Destroyer and was a goofy face. I miss him.
ReplyDeleteHuge fan of:
ReplyDeleteAbdullah
Gangrel
New Jack
Sandman
Big Dick Dudley
3-Minute Warning
Gotta be TAS. The reflexes are fucking perfect.
ReplyDeleteI hated Trashbag Vis but Love Machine Vis was great.
ReplyDeleteMy personal best is 5:25. Not too shabby.
ReplyDeleteI bought the Flair 3-4 disc set. Honestly, it's just far too long.
ReplyDeletePlus, I just didn't really care for how he come across. Yes, he's a legend, but a bit of humility goes a long, long way.
The Nova one is pretty decent. He's fairly candid. He does come across like a little bit of an unlikable guy, though.
ReplyDeleteI thought Kane was respected by the IWC, if not universally loved. Kane is a guy I have a soft spot for, it's amazing to see how far he's come since the days of Isaac Yankem.
ReplyDeleteI liked his debut, he was positioned as a jobber, but I remember it was a random no DQ match for some reason. I don't think too many wrestlers have ever debuted as a stealth jobber.
ReplyDeleteIt's far from a great shoot. I'm just saying it would be good for all the discussion it would generate.
ReplyDeleteHe is as arrogant as you can get but the shoot is good
ReplyDeleteI was about to post the same thing. That TV match was my first exposure to Tyler black and it was awesome.
ReplyDeleteI liked Big Texan Bradshaw but it's amazing how much they didn't let him talk and how much of a personality he was hiding behind that shtick.
ReplyDeleteThe Pens trading Neal was a more relevant event at the Igloo 2.0 this week than two hours of SD
ReplyDeleteHHH's roids are finally affecting her.
ReplyDeleteI was at Final Battle 2006, Homicide/danielson. The bash 89/ WMX7 for ROH. And I was certain that Bryan was going to be a massive star. I had never been part of crowd where I felt that if Bryan won, we would have a legit full blown riot. The biggest heel in the world to that crowd.
ReplyDeleteI don't mean to sound like a total smark, but Daniel Bryan is the best professional wrestler I've ever seen in person. He has a really intrinsic sense of what the crowd will want and how to tell an amazing story in the ring.
ReplyDeleteThere was a Kane post a few days back and all sorts of people were saying they didn't like him at all.
ReplyDeleteI'm tempted to agree. I've never Shawn or flair live, but DB is everything Benoit was but knows how to connect to the crowd on a very visceral level that I haven't seen since Austin.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who tears into Mark Madden, is alright by me.
ReplyDeleteI feel like 6 is the right amount.
ReplyDeleteA better midcard would also solve this midcard.
ReplyDeleteI thought Cena was the worst winner. Totally unnecessary. Sandow was set up for failure so him losing was no big deal.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I got to the 2nd Bald Bull without looking. And even then, I know I *SHOULD* have gotten him. UGH...
ReplyDeleteI call foul.
ReplyDeleteHe skipped at least five entire worlds and several levels on the worlds he did visit.
Frankly, I'm surprised that no one else has noticed.
HIT ME!
ReplyDeleteAlthough his drug issues and his many firings is convincing evidence that he really is legitimately insane.
ReplyDeleteI always liked David Young when he
ReplyDeleteworked in TNA. He almost never won but he was so oddly sympathetic that I would look forward to his matches, thinking that maybe, just maybe he'll finally win a match.
Its not TAS, TAS world record is .38 of a second faster than this.
ReplyDeleteSerious speedrunners are starting to get the timing down for some of the formerly impossible bullshit tricks TASes used to use in order to pare down the difference.
Well, for l8ke the last year hes been beyond useless but it's been better lately
ReplyDeleteRD EVANS IS NOT BAD.
ReplyDelete#THENEWSTREAK
Geez, can't they just pay some local guy to lay down for Rusev? He's squashed Sin Cara 4-5 times now.
ReplyDeleteHe was the architect of Team Extreme!
ReplyDeleteBut if you're a heel or turning heel via the briefcase, it makes total sense to cash in only after the champion just finished wrestling. The problem is in the prize more than anything, Of course you could have them NOT go the Edge route, but then they just look stupid.
ReplyDeleteNothing wrong with that.
ReplyDeleteIt's the same J.O.B. Squad every time now with every new guy they want to push: Sin Cara, Kofi, Woods, Ryder, Truth, Titus ... maybe Santino, Slater or Fandango thrown in to mix it up.
ReplyDeletePPV predictions:
ReplyDeleteGoldust & Stardust beat Rybaxel
Summer Rae beats Layla (reluctant slow count by Fandango)
Paige beats Naomi (+Cameron turns on Naomi)
Rusev beats Big E
The Usos beat Harper & Rowan (via DQ)
Seth Rollins wins MITB contract ladder match (with several hope spots for Ziggler)
John Cena wins MITB championship ladder match
Edge is the best casher inner. COME ON
ReplyDeleteNot at all, Roman is as Jimmy E would say "Not a guy who can be throwing armdrags in the second match."
ReplyDeleteRoman Reigns is main-event or bust, he's not a guy who will be floating around the mid-card being a solid hand. And I'm glad that WWE is putting in the work and actually making him that guy. They dropped the ball with the other opportunities they had for that (Ryback, for example).
There a crap top on people in this world that really, REALLY need to get a life.
ReplyDeleteThat's all that I'm saying.
It's just weird 3 months after the Royal Rumble
ReplyDeleteThat's why it's not called a 100% run.
ReplyDeleteOhh I thought we were doing the Mean Gene Scott Hall bit.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course this lands right below the "more comments" cutoff.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm responding to one of them, so good for you.
ReplyDeleteI think MITB is better off as a separate PPV just because WM is going to do the same business anyway, with or without MITB and MITB has now earned the reputation of being one of the good B-PPVs of the year.
ReplyDelete1) The original at Wrestlemania 21, although the 2011 one that Bryan won comes close.
ReplyDelete2) The Smackdown MITB in 2010. Too long, too much down time, and Kane won. Bleh.
3) Benjamin in the original, seemed like he was a breakout star at the time.
4) Benjamin running up the ladder at WM21.
5) It's own show, as it has become a reliably good B-show over the years.
6) Jack Swagger. He wasn't a favorite to win it, so it seemed random, and then he had the most cookie-cutter, half-hearted, bland "main event" run I can recall. At least Sandow got what should have been a starmaking match out of Cena.
7) 7 is perfect.
8) Edge in January 2006. Complete shocker of a moment.
9) Rollins.
Still terrible. "I can't write so I'll just copy the comments section."
ReplyDeletePathetic
Pretty sure every man and their dog knows the title wouldn't change hands on a house show. Might work for tv ratings though.
ReplyDeleteKofi? Hahaha
ReplyDeleteA bunch of people have mentioned New Jack.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is hell yeah--his in-ring matches were garbage, but everything he did with the Gangstas (especially their early promos) drew absolutely nuclear heat, especially in SMW, the redneckiest promotion that ever rednecked.
Yeah. Even Bret Hart watched it and was like, "Whoa, take it easy there".
ReplyDeleteTill all are one.
ReplyDeletePeople forget how insane that moment was. They've repeated it so many times to diminishing returns.
ReplyDeleteWhy not, at least for one show, bring back MITB all stars like John Morrison and Shelton Benjamin? You don't have to bring them back full time. Just hype them up as making an appearance in the MITB.
ReplyDelete#LOLMARIOWINS
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I'd rather the QOTD guy not try to turn cutesy clever phrases or ask us questions about dating or bodily functions.
ReplyDeleteThis was on an emulator or something. It was too glitchy. Anyone see Mario after he landed on the flagpole in world 8-2? He got 100 points, but was actually standing in front of the flagpole and behind a tree while the flag was coming down. Also how did he get Mario to double jump/wall jump up to that pipe in the final castle? And I never knew you could get to the world 8 warp zone without climbing up the vine.
ReplyDeleteNova looks remarkably like this "rapper" that lives in my home-town.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see that shoot to see if he's the asshole pretty much anyone who talks about him claims he is.
You can only listen to how stupid WCW was for not pushing the Horsemen until the end of time for so long.
ReplyDeleteIf you thought the nWo shirt was a hit with teenagers in the 90's, can you imagine how the Arn Anderson shirt would have done? Rebellious teenagers all over the world would be walking into class with a new swagger with Arn Anderson on their chest.
ReplyDeleteI know, I know, but as I said, the "lesser" MITB match always seems to have a very unexpected winner - Kane, Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, Damien Sandow. Sure, some of them seem like obvious or expected picks in retrospect, probably because we got used to them carrying the briefcase (or, in Kane's case, the title) around, but at the time, nobody was picking these guys to win. With this year's field, I'm thinking Kofi is that person.
ReplyDeleteSkinner is my choice
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I was watching a lot of ecw hardcore tv back in the wwe 24/7 days and I always got a kick out of that.
ReplyDeleteI liked it as a one-time thing, and it definitely was a big win for Cesaro, but the match itself wasn't anything special; a lot of those guys really could have been better utilized.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I'd be all for another "Andre Battle Royal" if it were just for the big hosses on the card - grab ten big guys like Show, Kane, Henry, Khali, Ryback, Langston, Harper, Rowan, Rusev, etc. Maybe throw some other "big guys" that are more multi-dimensional like Barrett, Sheamus, and (again) Cesaro in there. To me, the point of the "Andre Battle Royal" was to find who the biggest and baddest was, and having guys like Brad Maddox and Fandango in there just undermined the point. I say do it one more time, but make it a big hoss affair.
I had the idea years ago that there should be an "Edge Clause" to the MITB now - basically, that you have to give the champion at least one week of notice beforehand.
ReplyDeleteI thought it would work especially well for someone to do the post-match cash-in, and then have the GM come out and say "umm, you didn't read the new contract, you can't do that anymore". It would take the heel by surprise, build some heat, and lead to an actual PPV match.
Yup, at "WM26". Not a bad match at all, but definitely overcrowded.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. The first time I saw him was at Unscripted 3 where he interrupted a Jimmy Jacobs promo for an impromptu match. The moment he entered, there was an energy in the air. It felt like I had chills the entire match. It was one of the best performances I've ever seen in any medium, and I've seen plays, honest to God, PLAYS!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm really surprised that Tracy Smothers is killing this poll.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I did. If it doesn't win the vote, I'll probably just buy it.
ReplyDeleteYou have rappers in Canada?
ReplyDeleteNot a chance. Kofi is just their as a spot guy. He's pretty much enhancement talent now.
ReplyDeleteSandow was the only surprise for me.
The shoot is great. Is safely say top ten. He was just about everywhere in his career.
ReplyDeleteSurprised that the Hero shoot always gets killed in these polls.
You must have replied as I was editing. I originally noted that the Hammer Brother before the final Bowser was a pain in the ass when I was a kid. I think you're right about the randomness but I'm not sure. I haven't played the game in forever.
ReplyDeleteI think they were heading that direction with Jeff Hardy at Wrestlemania 24, but then Hardy got wellnessed.
ReplyDeleteThat was the year it was originally an 8 man match, but McMahon kept forcing Teddy Long to add people so Drew McIntyre could get into the match.
ReplyDeleteI think it was WM 26, but whichever one Swagger won was the worst I've seen. I remember all the spots being so contrived, and then Swagger took like an hour to get the damn briefcase off the hook.
ReplyDeleteThere are different categories for tool-assisted and done in real time by humans. This was done in real time by a human.
ReplyDeleteThe record using tools to frame by frame optimize the route is (obviously) faster, but not by much!
Lots. Great ones, too. There is almost nothing to do for half of the year in most areas, so we get quality musicians of every stripe.
ReplyDeleteEven if this was on an emulator, the glitches still exist on the actual cart. That flag one is a glitch done to save a bit of time because its slightly faster than lowering the flag.
ReplyDeleteAgain, this was likely done with loads of practise and retries. Whoever did this prolly has a blooper video of them accidentally dying at the hammer bros/due to risky jumps/etc.
I get people's cynicism over these runs, but these guys are serious, hardcore speedrunners, and they've taken tricks that can only be done with slowdown, savestates, and extensive game knowledge and honed their skills until they can do them in real life.
The one with Super Punch Out is even better cause the guy CALLS THE KNOCKDOWN TIMES OF THE FIRST FEW FIGHTS. He can't see the clock, but he knows those scrubs so well he can predict when they go down. Not to mention he takes zero damage in the last two fights, only loses once, and bounces back from being knocked down twice in the Hoy Quarlow fight.
ReplyDeleteMy hometown is a small Atlantic Canadian shit-hole and for some reason people living here seem to think we're in the hood.
ReplyDeleteI'm not doubting this guy's talent, and it's amazing whether it's on an original NES, a toploader, a Retron 5, or an emulator. I'm not a purist by any means, butparts of this run in particular just don't seem accurate to the original game, as if it's been slightly modded for an advantage.
ReplyDeleteEither way, the guy is a helluva better SMB player than me.
I would be fine with an hour notice. Just not right after a match. that's just nonsense to me and cheapens the whole thing.
ReplyDeleteEVERY GAME? Wasn't Battletoads unwinnable?
ReplyDeleteTyson's hard to beat when you CAN see. *bows down to this guy*
ReplyDeleteCheck out the two links. He beats the game with warps, and without.
ReplyDeleteCombined time: 37 minutes, and 21 seconds.
*bows down*
ReplyDeleteHe didn't beat Tyson blindfolded. He beat everyone else but couldn't beat Tyson (it's freaking impossible). He did beat Tyson's ass afterwards for good measure though.
ReplyDeletethey kind of did this with RVD, didn't they?
ReplyDeleteX-Men 3
ReplyDeleteYeah but they let him hang around and languish in the midcard afterwards.
ReplyDelete