Tag: WWE

What the World is Watching

City Guys

James Martinez

IMG_1171“El-Trainmania IV”
Season 3, Episode 10
10/16/1999

Peter Engel, famed TV producer who brought us Saved by the Bell and California Dreams decided he needed to extend beyond suburbia and reach these keeds living in the big city. Basically, AC Slater and Lisa Turtle weren’t “urban” enough so out came City Guys in 1997. City Guys was a more diverse Saved by the Bell set in the concrete jungle of New York City. This particular episode came out in 1999 during the height of the Attitude Era and features ECW’s Rob Van Dam.

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10 Count!

Decembers to Remember

James Martinez

IMG_3265Wrestling, in particular the WWE, is full of cringe-worthy goodness when it comes to the entertainment aspect of sports entertainment. Christmas-themed segments on Monday Night Raws or pay-per-views are quick to reassure you, the fan over 18, that you are clearly watching a program aimed at children. Sometimes there’s a gem amongst all that coal, but usually they’re bad. They’re so bad, I decided to watch Christmas with the Kranks last night on Netflix, rather than stream another holiday episode of Raw and watch guys like Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt go from killing themselves in TLC matches to tumbling over empty, novelty-sized, Christmas presents. Still, I was able to put together this list of other memorable Santa-filled moments.

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Paid for by the Following

Paid for by the Following: Foot Locker

James Martinez

IMG_3074Here’s another WWE attempt at shoehorning itself into some place where it doesn’t belong. For Foot Locker’s “Week of Greatness” promotion they released a bunch of commercials with different athletes. The funniest being the Manny Pacquiao promo. Granted, the commercial does poke fun at the very tired fact that wrestling isn’t real. And it does feature the WWE’s official sneaker spokesperson, John Cena. Unless this was another sponsor CM Punk had gotten all on his own and was then taken away from him. In any case, it puts the WWE in a mainstream commercial and makes it somewhat relevant again to the casual viewer.

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Ringside Cinema

Delta Farce (2007)

James Martinez

Many might think Larry the Cable Guy’s foray into the world of wrestling was something new that only happened a couple of Raw’s ago in order to promote his movie, Jingle All the Way 2, which “co-stars” Santino Marella. But before he started unnecessarily making sequels to movies that shouldn’t have been made in the first place, Larry starred in the “comedy” Delta Farce which, unlike Jingle All the Way 2, was actually released in movie theaters. But more importantly, Delta Farce had a wrestling scene. Or, more specifically, a lucha libre scene. Unfortunately, it doesn’t involve Larry bumping all over the ring or working a cable guy gimmick.

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10 Count!

WWE Mini-Me’s

James Martinez

94_SUR0027Not 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.

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Art of Gimmickry

The Native American Wrestler

James Martinez

IMG_3038In keeping with the theme of having themed Art of Gimmickry posts, today’s post will feature the Native American gimmick in honor of this past Thanksgiving Day. While few actually achieved national prominence, the reason why the Native American wrestler has been a staple in the media’s representation of stereotypical wrestling gimmicks is because back in the day it seems every damn territory had someone working a Native American gimmick. Whether they actually belonged to a tribe or not.

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Ringside Cinema

Pro Wrestlers vs. Zombies (2014)

James Martinez

In keeping with the theme of Halloween, this was originally going to be posted in October, but I found it difficult to sit through an entire viewing of this movie despite its best efforts to move forward the zombie wrestler movie sub-genre movement. So themed-posts be damned, any month is a good month to watch zombie wrestler movies. Here’s a look at Pro Wrestlers vs. Zombies from the man who brought you Lucifer’s Unholy Desire and Breeding Farm.

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What the World is Watching

The A-Team

James Martinez

The A-Team NBC tv show image“Body Slam”
Season 4, Episode 7
11/12/1985

80’s Television. It was nonsensical, over the top, cheesy, and most of all, terribly awesome. So it would make sense that a show like The A-Team would have wrestling’s Hulk Hogan guest star as wrestling’s Hulk Hogan. This episode alone could serve as the sole time capsule that epitomizes everything 80’s about 80’s TV shows.

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It's Clobberin' Time!

Nightmare Pro Wrestling

James Martinez

IMG_2671I’m not sure how I stumbled upon Nightmare Pro Wrestling, but I’m glad I did. Jon David Guerra is an awesome artist. Like many other artists that like to share their work online and give things we love a new twist, he’s taken to mashing things up with pro wrestling the same way Ramon Villalobos and Mike Kendrick have done. In this case, mashing up the world of professional wrestling with every type of monster from the Universal classics to the Japanese Kaijus.

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Art of Gimmickry

The Supernatural Wrestler

James Martinez

IMG_2664What’s wrestling without its larger than life characters? It’s the only medium outside of a comic book where clowns, space travelers, battling cats, and mythical man-beasts can all do battle in the name of good vs. evil. Sometimes those characters are so much more larger than life that they exist outside the parameters that govern the real world, and extend to the great beyond. Or somewhere great beyond adjacent. These paranormal grapplers may call upon the spirit of the dead, live off of human blood for sustenance, worship the devil himself, or just like Bray Wyatt showed us at Hell in a Cell, produce hologram images via possessed lanterns. And as cool or absurd as it might seem at first if it’s at least moderately successful, like all other wrestling gimmicks, it’ll certainly be done to death (Thank you, thank you).

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