Whoa, Nellie! is a 3-issue series that spawned from Jaime, Gilbert, and Mario Hernandez’ indie comic, Love and Rockets. It focuses on the friendship of main characters Xochitl “La Terible” Nava and Gina Bravo and the world of women’s professional wrestling. If you dug the documentary Lipstick & Dynamite, you’ll definitely appreciate Whoa, Nellie! If you’ve only seen the GLOW documentary, you still might like the comic book. But it definitely draws its inspiration from the early days of Fabulous Moolah and Mildred Burke. Sorry dudes, no petite models with fake boobs. Just full-figured women beating the crap out of each other.
Author: James Martinez
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Wrestlemaniac (2006)
Finally, a wrestling-themed horror film. Minus all the things that make horror films good. Sadly, the wrestling concept is the least campiest thing about this movie. At least it stars a killer in a lucha libre mask! Although to be fair, it’s probably the least intimidating lucha libre mask ever. WCW’s Ciclope had a much scarier mask. Read on if you dare!
“Macho” Mike Haggar
Height: 6’7″
Weight: 309 lbs.
Hometown: Metro City, USA
Finisher: The Pothole Plugger
Video Game: Saturday Night Slam Masters, Ring of Destruction: Slam Masters 2, Final Fight 1-3, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds
I’m not that big a gamer, but being a huge wrestling fan I always made sure to play every wrestling video game I could get my hands on. While this feature won’t go in depth about certain wrestling games, for that you have Joe Gagne’s Funtime Pro Wrestling Arcade, I will highlight some of the more popular fictional wrestling characters in video game culture. First up, the former Mayor of Metro City, “Macho” Mike Haggar.
That 70’s Show
“That Wrestling Show”
Season 1 Episode 15
2/7/1999
As the Attitude Era continued growing in popularity and wrestlers were fast becoming household names once again, it wasn’t strange to see WWE or WCW guys make cameos on other TV shows. One of the better ones involved a few WWE wrestlers showing up on That 70’s Show as old school wrestlers. Most importantly, it had The Rock in his first-ever acting role. He was portraying his dad, Rocky Johnson, a former wrestler, so really there wasn’t a whole lot of acting involved. Still, it’s one of the better wrestling-themed TV episodes out there. Plus, it had Ken Shamrock and The Hardy Boyz in awful wigs.
The Assimilated Foreign Wrestler
Oftentimes, a foreign wrestler who has such a strong hatred for America that it could only be remedied by moving to the U.S., joining the WWE, and fighting American wrestlers in American cities, with the occasional tour to other countries where they’re still booed, will sometimes turn babyface once they realize that America isn’t as bad as some people make it out to be. Usually, the foreigner’s xenophobic stance on American culture is gradually pacified by an American friend. Or, in the case of Tajiri and Kozlov, someone who speaks English better than they do. More often than not, despite how talented the wrestler is, assimilating to American culture means letting your guard down and becoming the comic relief. Because when we Americans aren’t busy trying to run foreign people out of our country, we’re usually laughing at them.
Garfield and Friends
“Canvas Back Cat”
Season 5 Episode 8
10/10/1992
In case you’re wondering if this cartoon still holds up after all these years, the answer is yes. Yes, it does. And the fact that there’s an episode that involves pro wrestling makes it all the better.
Paid for by the Following: Miller Lite
First off, props to Miller Lite for acknowledging that pro wrestling not only appeals to small children but also grown men. Skeptical dads, please be aware that if your child drags you to a wrestling show you’ll at least be able to drown your frustrations in a 20 oz. cup of beer. Shitty beer, but beer nonetheless.
All-American Attire
Two 10 Counts! in two consecutive weeks? 100 views, here I come. Rather than honoring our Independence Day by taking out aliens and dragging their dead carcasses across the desert taking a look at some of the most patriotic moments or wrestlers in the history of wrestling, let’s take a real close look at the clothes they wore while wrestling in the name of the U-S-A. A patriotic close look. Continue reading “All-American Attire”
Defunct Wrestling Championships
With this Sunday’s Money in the Bank being the first where the actual WWE World Championship is also in play, aside from the usual briefcase, I thought it appropriate to do a 10 Count! list for… Defunct Wrestling Championships. There’s plenty of Top Ten MITB matches, or MITB winners floating around the internet, so why bother? If anything, the inclusion of the unified WWE titles being up for grabs made me think of previous championship belts that were no longer active. Some gimmicky, some pointless, and some worth falling off of and climbing a ladder for. But all of them defunct.
Jackie Chan Adventures
“The Mask of El Toro Fuerte”Season 1 Episode 3
9/23/2000
9/23/2000
Due to the waning days of my adolescence, I was not hip to the action-packed cartoon series that was Jackie Chan Adventures. Given that most of the stunts Chan pulled off in his live-action movies were so damn awesome they blurred the lines of reality, real-life Jackie Chan was definitely better than the animated one anyway. I’d give the cartoon props for sticking to the unbelievable style of Chan’s martial arts, but then again, every action sequence/fighting scene in a cartoon already tends to stretch the limits of real world physics. I will give the creators props for attention to detail, like Chan’s broken English. Why else would this cartoon series be called Jackie Chan Adventures and not The Adventures of Jackie Chan? Early on in the first season of this series the creators introduced El Toro Fuerte, a character that I came to find out, after some clever sleuthing on IMDB.com, is actually a recurring character throughout the cartoon’s run. But seeing as I’m not going to review all ten-plus episodes that feature El Toro Fuerte, I figured I’d go with his aptly-titled debut episode.
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