RAW and Impact from last Monday Night aka Wrestling is Dead

This past Monday night saw the 'revival' of the period of time referred to in wrestling circles as the Monday Night Wars. The period from 1995 to 2001 saw two competing wrestling programmes on at roughly the same time on Monday night, both fighting for the same viewers. Ratings were through the roof for both shows. This period of time ended with the ending of one programme and the subsequent closing down of one of the promotions. It could easily be argued that wrestling has not been the same since. It has been less interesting, less creative, less watched. This past Monday saw a company, TNA wrestling, the spiritual successor to the cancelled WCW, run a special show up against the WWE's long time Monday night show RAW. TNA was celebrating the fact that Hulk Hogan was showing up in their promotion and 'pulled out all the stops' to make it a special show. This was to compete with the fact that Bret Hart, long estranged from WWE owner Vince McMahon and WWE star Shawn Michaels, would be guest hosting on RAW. I DVRed both shows with the intent of watching, or at least skimming, through both on Tuesday and reviewing them. Instead I watched bits and pieces of both shows, mostly TNA's Impact show, on Monday night.

I have yet to go back and watch either show.

What I saw of RAW was the same old show that I stopped enjoying and watching a few years ago. While I give them credit for not acknowledging their competition by bothering to do anything more special than Bret Hart, there was still nothing out there for me to care about. The incident that caused the conflict with Bret Hart was a little over twelve years ago. Is it nice to have him 'back', even though the man can't wrestling anymore? Sure, I guess but the WWE has been aiming their programming primary at a younger audience again. Most of the fan base they are aiming at weren't alive when this happened! So, whatever.

Impact was a train wreck. Poor storytelling, random cameos by wrestlers, dumb ideas, poorly developed ideas and, apart from the main event, poor displays of wrestling. It was like an episode of WCW's Nitro from near the end of the run when the promotion was desperate for something to stick, desperate to find a direction and willing to try anything until they found something that worked. It was entertainingly bad but otherwise just bad.

There was nothing in either show that made me want to watch another episode. For that matter, there was nothing in either show that made me want to watch the full episode! As a result, I consider them both failures.

That doesn't mean I didn't learn something from the shows.

For more than a year now, I've been working on a short story collection featuring my character El Hombre de Silla. He is a wrestler that also gets involved in different adventures. While there are wrestling related storylines in some of the stories, he's not constantly in the ring. After 'watching' the shows on Monday it occurred to me that by writing was filling most of my 'need' for wrestling, in a way similar to the 'Doctor Who' fan fiction I'd written when the show was off the air in the 1990s. Rather than suffer through something I wasn't enjoying, I was creating something I was enjoying, with the hope at the end that others will enjoy it as well.

In the end, it wasn't a completely wasted Monday night afterall.

Bring on the Muppets!

Lesson Learned

I need to remember to blog before I go to the comic book store on Wednesdays. I talked all the thoughts out of my head.

Bother.

Quick review of Siege #1 - nicely assembled beginning but not very exciting.

'I may be Dumb but I'm not Stupid'

We all have our own personal bag of expressions that is filled up with things we heard as a kid, things we made up with our friends, things from the media we enjoy, and things from our local environment. The title of this entry is one of my favorite expressions and receives regular use. I believe I got it from my dad but don't know its origin beyond that.

On the surface, the expression is clearly a lie. All humans do things that are dumb and things that are stupid. I believe the difference between the two is some things we do although we know better and some things we do out of our ignorance regarding a situation. The point of the expression, or at least the way I'm used to using it, is that the speaker is not claiming to be the smartest person in the world but that they're not the dimmest brain either. I will honestly tell you that I do a lot of dumb things.

Some times those dumb things turn out to be not so dumb.

Years ago when the concept was relatively new, I saw one of those TV commercials for an ab exerciser, the sort of thing that claims to sculpt your muscles while you sit on the couch. The principle was sound enough: the belt supplied an electric charge that caused your muscles to flex. I bought one, not so much expecting to melt the belly, which was considerably smaller at the time, but more from the idea of 'taking the dare'. What the heck?

Feel free to chuckle at this point if you are not already. 'Steve bought something as seen on TV! Mock him!' Fair enough. Dumb idea as I knew better.

However, upon receiving the item, I saw that it had value. Not as exercise 'equipment' but the charge was enough to engage the muscles and flex them as advertised. It did wonders for loosening up stiff muscles. It had a therapeutic value. Maybe not so dumb.

I found the thing this afternoon while tidying up. My back's been stiff for the last month or so and I aimed it at the muscles that seemed to be causing the most discomfort. After a half-hour or so at varying intensities, I went to warm up a heating pad. While the microwave worked its magic, I walked a little and stretched. My back cracked about three times, just the sort of thing I'd been trying to make happen but the muscles had been too tight to allow it. I'm not magically all better but I do feel more relaxed already.

A dumb purchase? Perhaps. Stupid? Perhaps not.

Music Monday - 9mm Solution

These guys are from Milwaukee. I used to work with the guitarist and bassist. I'm Facebook buddies with the lead singer. I'm at the show on display below, not that you can see me.

So, you know, it took me long enough to get to them. They are full of THE ROCK! Or maybe THE METAL! Or both.

From One Basement to Another

I get out of the Archive for awhile today and what do I do? I spent the afternoon in the basement of Collector's Edge South, a branch of the comic book store I visit on a weekly basis. I hung out with a group of guys I don't get to see often, dug through boxes looking for treasures, and cheered for the Packers. It was a good time.

The highlights of the haul, limited as it might be, were a replica animation cell from Disney's Peter Pan and a wrestling magazine cover dated the month of my birth. Andre the Giant, Dick the Bruiser, Jack Brisco, Dory Funk Jr and others adorn the cover. This looks like good stuff.

I got to hear the stories from Celebration again and was reassured that our 'brilliant' idea to transform one into a comic had been considered and was being worked on. Good stuff.