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Brandon Stroud, writer and editor of the two-time RSPW award winning With Spandex blog, on the Uproxx site, wrote the film Meet Me There. Yes, when he’s not busy updating The Best & Worst of Raw posts, or borrowing this site’s Ringside Cinema feature or What the World is Watching, Stroud works on non-pro wrestling endeavors. In case you were hoping this was another entry in the growing wrestling horror film subgenre, I’m sorry to disappoint you.
Not long ago on NXT, the Vaudevillains introduced the Full Sail University crowd to the mini Lucha Dragons. Unfortunately, they left a lot to be desired of as far as lucha libre minis go. They were pretty much small guys in Nacho Libre masks and Lucha Dragons t-shirts. And even though Hornswoggle has done an okay job portraying smaller versions of Heath Slater and The Miz (although defeating the purpose of Damien Mizdow), he has a lot to learn when it comes to mimicking his much larger counterparts. Here’s a few WWE mini wrestlers who got it right.
Thanks to his Oscar win for writing and starring in Rocky, an untouchable Sylvester Stallone decided to become an auteur of sorts with regards to films about prize fighters and grapplers. Despite going all-out and not only writing, starring, but also directing, and signing the song in the opening credits, Paradise Alley was definitely no Rocky. This film pretty much explains why Stallone milked the hell out of Rocky. He was a one-trick pony. Nonetheless, not many Hollywood studios were lining up to make movies about pro wrestling. So, we can thank Sylvester Stallone for that. Also, thanks to Stallone, it’d be a long time before Hollywood warmed up to making another one. But I don’t want to rag on him too much seeing as he’s sensitive and all.
It’s often a good idea to have posts with tie-ins that are current and/or relevant, and seeing as October is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) History Month, this week’s Art of Gimmickry will focus on the effeminate wrestler. What’s that? Halloween’s also this month? Shit.
Since the Golden Age of Television, pro wrestling fans have been indoctrinated to boo anything and everything that’s remotely gay…or at the very least laugh at it. Granted, it’s rare that the wrestler is actually referred to as being gay, but the insinuation is usually there. For example, when Vince McMahon would throw around the phrase “mind games,” whenever referring to a feud involving Goldust, what he really meant was “gay shenanigans.”
The pro wrestling and comic book connection is hard to miss. The parallels are all there: good vs. evil, outlandish characters/costumes, superheroes who virtually never die, or in wrestling’s case lose (Cena, Hogan) and storylines that can change on a dime given little reason (except in comic books these tangents are justified by having multiple universes, whereas in wrestling they simply undermine the fans’ intelligence). Point is, the two mediums go hand in hand, several wrestlers even incorporate certain comic book aspects into their persona/costumes.
This list will look at the top wrestlers whose characters would fit well inside the pages of a comic book. I’m not saying they would be successful, as most pro wrestling-comic book crossovers aren’t considered to be very good (although I’ve heard great things about Headlocked), but once mentioned you’d scratch your chin and think to yourself, “Yeah, I guess that makes sense.” However, before I continue with the list, there are a few conditions that would restrict the most obvious of choices.
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