Original Title: Survivor Series!
Original Date Sent: November 18, 2012
Sent to: Anyone who has ever said the word "wrestling" to me in a sentence.
Context: Survivor Series is tonight and I wanted to write about it, damn it.
Hey All,
One of WWE's big four PPVs is tonight. It's the forgotten child of the
bunch, Survivor Series. The buildup to the show has been an absolute
mess on WWE's part but it should still be a solid show with a lot of
fun matches. Plus, the road to Wrestlemania could be heavily
influenced by what happens in the main event tonight. So here's a
quick little preview of the card.
WWE Championship Match
CM Punk (c) vs. John Cena vs. Ryback
CM Punk and John Cena have had an on-and-off feud going for the last
year and a half that has been arguably the most compelling thing about
the company in that time frame. It's essentially an argument over the
soul of not just WWE, but professional wrestling as a whole. Cena
represents professional wrestling as a business and Punk represents
its tenuous existence as an art form. And if you don't believe that
it's an art form to be parsed and studied in the same way as a book,
painting, or film I encourage you to go check out some of the
treatises over at DVDVR that do just that. The third man in the match
is Ryback, the current flavor of the month who can best be described
as Goldberg without the size, charisma, or awesome move set. Punk
narrowly slipped past Ryback at the last PPV thanks to interference
from a crooked referee. There could be a similar mess of a finish here
as WWE would love to find a way for all three guys to leave the match
strong and preserve the CM Punk vs. The Rock WWE Championship match at
the Royal Rumble that they've been setting up for six months now.
World Heavyweight Championship Match
The Big Show (c) vs. Sheamus
Big Show beat Sheamus clean at the last PPV and their issue continues
here. It should just be two big guys beating the imaginary crap out of
each other. The one wrinkle here is that Dolph Ziggler still holds the
Money in the Bank briefcase and could be cashing it in here if the two
big guys do enough damage to each other.
Traditional Survivor Series Match
Team Foley (Randy Orton, The Miz, Kane, Daniel Bryan, Kofi Kingston)
vs. Team Ziggler (Dolph Ziggler, Alberto Del Rio, Wade Barrett, Damien
Sandow, and maybe Cody Rhodes)
The Traditional Survivor Series Match is basically a five on five
elimination match. But the set-up has been anything but traditional.
See if you can follow all this. The match was originally set up as
Mick Foley's team against CM Punk's team. The Miz was chosen for CM
Punk's team but dropped out because Punk abandoned him when Punk's
team was attacked by Ryback (who had just replaced Foley on Foley's
own team). Punk's manager Paul Heyman then recruited Wade Barrett to
replace The Miz. Then, Vince McMahon came out (in character) and
declared that Punk would be defending his title against Cena and
Ryback, leaving two vacant spots. Raw Interim/Temporary/Whatever
General Manager gave Punk's spot to her sometimes boyfriend Dolph
Ziggler and the team then took on his name. Foley filled the slot on
his team with a newly turned good guy version of The Miz. And now this
past week Cody Rhodes was concussed in a match and may miss the PPV,
leading to yet another replacement. And all this took place over the
course of three weeks. On top of everything, the teams are constructed
in such a way that no one gets along. On the Ziggler side, Del Rio
thinks the team should be named after himself instead of Ziggler,
Barrett had to be talked into being on the team in the first place,
and Del Rio's manager/personal ring announce Ricardo Rodriguez has had
a weird side feud going with Ziggler's cougar benefactor Vickie
Guerrero. The Foley side is even worse. Miz had been feuding with
Kingston before his turn and is now coming between the Tag Team
Champions Kane and Daniel Bryan (whose testy and hilarious
relationship has been the best thing on WWE TV the past couple
months). And Randy Orton is just a hater (Don't believe me? Check out
what my buddy Coach and I wrote about him in our various Raw recaps
back in the day:
http://pcandcoachwatchwrestling.blogspot.com/2010/04/42610-wwe-raw-draft.html).
All that being said, this should steal the show. No less than seven
out of the ten guys are great and giving the lack of matches on the
card this should get a ton of time to breathe.
US Championship Match
Antonio Cesaro (c) vs. R-Truth
Cesaro rules. He ruled when he was Claudio Castagnoli and he rules
now. Cesaro is doing the "smug European hates America" gimmick to
perfection, complete with fluency in multiple languages and a bitchin'
man purse. Meanwhile, R-Truth is a solid wrestler with an imaginary
friend. Again, this looks like it could get a solid bit of time and be
a great platform for Cesaro's continued rise.
Divas Championship Match
Eve (c) vs. Kaitlyn
Yep, this certainly is a match.
Pre-Show Match
3 Man Band (two of Heath Slater, Jinder Mahal, and Drew McIntyre) vs.
Tyson Kidd & Justin Gabriel
3MB is a great little set of guys who just floated around not doing a
hell of a lot. Then they got packaged as something along the lines of
an aging 80's band (despite the fact that I don't think any of them
are over 30). Kidd & Gabriel are two high-flyers who are an on-and-off
tag team. Should be a fun little seven minute match to get the crowd
going.
There are a bunch of guys on the roster not being utilized as of yet,
so I expect a match or two to get added during the show as well (maybe
even a second Survivor Series Match).
Last time I did one of these previews I included a prospects list.
Well, since then Cesaro graduated to the main stage and the others are
still floating around. But there's a new number one: Dean Ambrose.
Holy crap this guy is awesome. He is going to tear through the WWE
like Buffalo Elmo at a Muppet Convention.
Oh, and for those who are going, start getting pumped for Wrestlemania!
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Friday, November 9, 2012
The Email of Sleazy 80's Movies
Original Title: Sleazy 80's Movies
Original Date Sent: January 17, 2012
Sent to: An inquisitive friend who happened to be a film neophyte.
Context: This friend had recently seen Drive and really enjoyed it. We got to talking about the mood of the film and how it had been influenced by a number of sleazy 80's sex thrillers. When I learned that he was unfamiliar with the genre I offered to write him an email. And by "offered" I mean that I told him that I would be sending him an email. One note: At this time I hadn't yet seen Paul Schrader's Cat People. That movie would definitely be on this list. First of all, it's practically a porno. Second, it has a level of cocaine-fueled 80's insanity that puts it right next to Cruising as far as asking the question, "how the hell did this movie get made?" I mean, it's about people who turn into panthers when they have sex and can't turn back until they kill someone. I want this movie to be remade with Colin Farrell ASAP. Anyway, I'm going to go work on that while you guys read the rest of the list.
...These movie are much more fun though. I picked movies that all had a similar vibe - that slick veneer over a gritty plot. Several of the directors have been nominated for, and even won, Academy Awards. Many of the actors and writers are in the same boat. So these aren't crappy movies that are sleazy by necessity. These are master craftsman who have decided to wallow in the seedy depths of sex, drugs, and crime.
To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) dir. William Friedkin - Critics labelled this as a trashy big screen version of Miami Vice. It has since gone on to be considered a cult classic. The story revolves around two Secret Service agents hunting down a counterfeiter. It's a very simple-sounding scenario that could have been made in any decade (this could have easily starred Tyrone Power in the '40's or Ryan O'Neal in the 70's). The difference is in the way that this movie is shot. You really feel like you're entering the underworld. The sexual content and the violence are still semi-shocking 25 years later. And even though much of the film is moody and cerebral, there is also an out-of-this-world car chase that is my personal favorite of all time.
Manhunter (1986) dir. Michael Mann - This is sort of an informal companion piece to the previous film. Despite having a different director, different source material, and different production crew, this really has an almost identical feel. The link between the two is star William Petersen (best known for his later work on CSI). This was later remade as Red Dragon (yep, it's a Hannibal Lecter movie). But while Red Dragon focuses more on the relationship between the FBI agent and the world's most famous fictional cannibal, this is much more about the FBI's search for the serial killer. Like To Live and Die in LA, this is a film experience that is mostly based on mood (a mood later employed by Drive). However, this also has a big action scene that rivals anything else from the decade in style and intensity.
Body Double (1984) dir. Brian De Palma - De Palma made a lot of sleazy movies in the 80's - Scarface, Dressed to Kill, Blow Out. But his sleaziest by far is Body Double. It revolves around murder, porno, and voyeurism. There is a long segment of the movie that is set to Frankie Goes to Hollywood's camp classic "Relax" which is played in its entirety (in fact, it's an extended version). The plot has elements of Rear Window but is so much more bizarre. The key is to not take this movie too seriously. If you can get past the cheesy opening and Melanie Griffith's purposely ridiculous character, you'll be able to really enjoy the movie. Besides, there is a ton of nudity to help things along.
American Gigolo (1980) dir. Paul Schrader - This movie has a famous nude scene. Unfortunately, it involves Richard Gere. That being said, this movie has some real attitude. I'm a really big Paul Schrader fan. He tends to write movies about loners who are forced into extreme situations (Taxi Driver is his most famous script). As the title suggests, this movie is about a gigolo (an American one, at that). Gigolo + murder + 80's = Awesome. The opening montage alone is worth a spot on the Netflix queue. Oh, and the way I usually sell this movie to friends who are film buffs is that it features a young Bill Duke (with hair!) playing a gay pimp. If you know who Bill Duke is, you're now really excited to see this movie.
Cruising (1980) dir. William Friedkin - Oh boy. What does one say about Cruising? Actually, I've said quite a bit about it. I love this movie beyond words. I love this movie so much that I wrote a feature length script with Fidel Castro playing the lead role. I love this movie so much that I have forced girlfriends to watch my favorite parts. Al Pacino plays a New York City cop who goes undercover in the gay rough trade (that is, leather bars) underground. I am amazed that this movie was made at all, and the talent involved is staggering. Not only Pacino and Friedkin, but the other above-the-liners and the who's who of character actors. You wanted atmosphere, this movie has it. It also has some of the most unintentionally funny lines in movie history. I regularly quote this movie with the other New York guys. I recommend that you sit back and bask in the bizarre insanity of this movie. If nothing else, it's memorable.
Thief (1981) dir. Michael Mann - Okay, back to serious movies. Reviews of Drive tended to relate it to a few different past films: To Live and Die in LA (discussed earlier), Le Samourai (a French movie that I'll write about in a future email), and Thief. Thief stars James Caan as a thief. Not like a pickpocket (though there is a great movie called Pickpocket) or a guy who steals Porches (though there's a really bad Charlie Sheen movie about that). He's a guy that does heists. And he's really good at it. His personal life...not so much. But he's really good at heists.
After Hours (1985) dir. Martin Scorsese - This is probably the least sleazy movie on the list. An office drone goes out for a late dinner, meets a girl, and finds himself on a Kafka-esque journey through the streets of Soho. It touches on many of the things that make sleazy 80's movies great: drugs, prostitution, underground music, violence. It just doesn't revel in them the way some of the other films on this list do. But wait! If it doesn't revel in sin, why is this movie even on the list? Because it shares the bold cinematic style, the unsettling atmosphere, and the pulsing music of the other films. Plus, it's super underrated, especially in the Scorsese canon.
That should be enough to get you started.
Original Date Sent: January 17, 2012
Sent to: An inquisitive friend who happened to be a film neophyte.
Context: This friend had recently seen Drive and really enjoyed it. We got to talking about the mood of the film and how it had been influenced by a number of sleazy 80's sex thrillers. When I learned that he was unfamiliar with the genre I offered to write him an email. And by "offered" I mean that I told him that I would be sending him an email. One note: At this time I hadn't yet seen Paul Schrader's Cat People. That movie would definitely be on this list. First of all, it's practically a porno. Second, it has a level of cocaine-fueled 80's insanity that puts it right next to Cruising as far as asking the question, "how the hell did this movie get made?" I mean, it's about people who turn into panthers when they have sex and can't turn back until they kill someone. I want this movie to be remade with Colin Farrell ASAP. Anyway, I'm going to go work on that while you guys read the rest of the list.
...These movie are much more fun though. I picked movies that all had a similar vibe - that slick veneer over a gritty plot. Several of the directors have been nominated for, and even won, Academy Awards. Many of the actors and writers are in the same boat. So these aren't crappy movies that are sleazy by necessity. These are master craftsman who have decided to wallow in the seedy depths of sex, drugs, and crime.
To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) dir. William Friedkin - Critics labelled this as a trashy big screen version of Miami Vice. It has since gone on to be considered a cult classic. The story revolves around two Secret Service agents hunting down a counterfeiter. It's a very simple-sounding scenario that could have been made in any decade (this could have easily starred Tyrone Power in the '40's or Ryan O'Neal in the 70's). The difference is in the way that this movie is shot. You really feel like you're entering the underworld. The sexual content and the violence are still semi-shocking 25 years later. And even though much of the film is moody and cerebral, there is also an out-of-this-world car chase that is my personal favorite of all time.
Manhunter (1986) dir. Michael Mann - This is sort of an informal companion piece to the previous film. Despite having a different director, different source material, and different production crew, this really has an almost identical feel. The link between the two is star William Petersen (best known for his later work on CSI). This was later remade as Red Dragon (yep, it's a Hannibal Lecter movie). But while Red Dragon focuses more on the relationship between the FBI agent and the world's most famous fictional cannibal, this is much more about the FBI's search for the serial killer. Like To Live and Die in LA, this is a film experience that is mostly based on mood (a mood later employed by Drive). However, this also has a big action scene that rivals anything else from the decade in style and intensity.
Body Double (1984) dir. Brian De Palma - De Palma made a lot of sleazy movies in the 80's - Scarface, Dressed to Kill, Blow Out. But his sleaziest by far is Body Double. It revolves around murder, porno, and voyeurism. There is a long segment of the movie that is set to Frankie Goes to Hollywood's camp classic "Relax" which is played in its entirety (in fact, it's an extended version). The plot has elements of Rear Window but is so much more bizarre. The key is to not take this movie too seriously. If you can get past the cheesy opening and Melanie Griffith's purposely ridiculous character, you'll be able to really enjoy the movie. Besides, there is a ton of nudity to help things along.
American Gigolo (1980) dir. Paul Schrader - This movie has a famous nude scene. Unfortunately, it involves Richard Gere. That being said, this movie has some real attitude. I'm a really big Paul Schrader fan. He tends to write movies about loners who are forced into extreme situations (Taxi Driver is his most famous script). As the title suggests, this movie is about a gigolo (an American one, at that). Gigolo + murder + 80's = Awesome. The opening montage alone is worth a spot on the Netflix queue. Oh, and the way I usually sell this movie to friends who are film buffs is that it features a young Bill Duke (with hair!) playing a gay pimp. If you know who Bill Duke is, you're now really excited to see this movie.
Cruising (1980) dir. William Friedkin - Oh boy. What does one say about Cruising? Actually, I've said quite a bit about it. I love this movie beyond words. I love this movie so much that I wrote a feature length script with Fidel Castro playing the lead role. I love this movie so much that I have forced girlfriends to watch my favorite parts. Al Pacino plays a New York City cop who goes undercover in the gay rough trade (that is, leather bars) underground. I am amazed that this movie was made at all, and the talent involved is staggering. Not only Pacino and Friedkin, but the other above-the-liners and the who's who of character actors. You wanted atmosphere, this movie has it. It also has some of the most unintentionally funny lines in movie history. I regularly quote this movie with the other New York guys. I recommend that you sit back and bask in the bizarre insanity of this movie. If nothing else, it's memorable.
Thief (1981) dir. Michael Mann - Okay, back to serious movies. Reviews of Drive tended to relate it to a few different past films: To Live and Die in LA (discussed earlier), Le Samourai (a French movie that I'll write about in a future email), and Thief. Thief stars James Caan as a thief. Not like a pickpocket (though there is a great movie called Pickpocket) or a guy who steals Porches (though there's a really bad Charlie Sheen movie about that). He's a guy that does heists. And he's really good at it. His personal life...not so much. But he's really good at heists.
After Hours (1985) dir. Martin Scorsese - This is probably the least sleazy movie on the list. An office drone goes out for a late dinner, meets a girl, and finds himself on a Kafka-esque journey through the streets of Soho. It touches on many of the things that make sleazy 80's movies great: drugs, prostitution, underground music, violence. It just doesn't revel in them the way some of the other films on this list do. But wait! If it doesn't revel in sin, why is this movie even on the list? Because it shares the bold cinematic style, the unsettling atmosphere, and the pulsing music of the other films. Plus, it's super underrated, especially in the Scorsese canon.
That should be enough to get you started.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Wrestling Documentaries
Original Title: Wrestling Documentaries
Original Date Sent: October 8th, 2012
Sent to: Pretty much anyone who had ever said the words "professional" and "wrestling" to me in the same sentence.
Context: Explained in the first paragraph. However, it's worth adding that this was sent a couple hours before CM Punk back-fisted a fan on live TV in front of his boss.
Hello All,
It's been a little while since I bothered everyone with an email, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. Tomorrow, CM Punk's WWE DVD will be released. The centerpiece documentary is already getting the kind of buzz usually reserved for Palme D'Or winners (well, within the wrestling community anyway). You can see the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K9nH42bIro The set will feature extensive footage from Punk's days on the indies (including his most famous feuds in IWA and ROH) along with his honest thoughts on his time in WWE. It should be a fascinating look at a guy in whom I have felt personally invested for well over a decade. In fact, during his rise to prominence I wrote this email: http://emailsihavesent.blogspot.com/2011/08/cm-punk-email.html
But even if the documentary is as good as it's being made out to be, it doesn't mean that it will automatically be the best one ever produced. There is actually a surprising amount of competition for that distinction. Luckily, almost all of them are easily available on Instant Netflix. Both WWE and independently produced films are represented. Here is a list of the ones that I think stand above the rest. These are in no particular order and some are better than others. I also decided to cap it at fifteen. I'll try to keep each one brief, but no promises.
Beyond the Mat (1999) - Unquestionably the best of the list as a film. Give a real director an interesting subject and a classic pops out...funny how that happens. Beyond the Mat looks at all levels of the wrestling industry from the young and hopeful (Droz), to the prime of one's career at the top of the world (Mankind), to the sadly washed up (Jake "The Snake" Roberts). This is the epitome of a movie you should see even if you're not a wrestling fan.
Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling (2007) - The "No Country for Old Men" of wrestling documentaries. This one takes a look at the Dallas-based WCCW and the Von Erich family. To give you a preview, Fritz Von Erich had six sons. Five died young. The "Tragedy" portion of the title could not be more appropriate. Also includes tons of great footage from one of the forgotten titans of wrestling in the 1980's.
It's been a little while since I bothered everyone with an email, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. Tomorrow, CM Punk's WWE DVD will be released. The centerpiece documentary is already getting the kind of buzz usually reserved for Palme D'Or winners (well, within the wrestling community anyway). You can see the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K9nH42bIro The set will feature extensive footage from Punk's days on the indies (including his most famous feuds in IWA and ROH) along with his honest thoughts on his time in WWE. It should be a fascinating look at a guy in whom I have felt personally invested for well over a decade. In fact, during his rise to prominence I wrote this email: http://emailsihavesent.blogspot.com/2011/08/cm-punk-email.html
But even if the documentary is as good as it's being made out to be, it doesn't mean that it will automatically be the best one ever produced. There is actually a surprising amount of competition for that distinction. Luckily, almost all of them are easily available on Instant Netflix. Both WWE and independently produced films are represented. Here is a list of the ones that I think stand above the rest. These are in no particular order and some are better than others. I also decided to cap it at fifteen. I'll try to keep each one brief, but no promises.
Beyond the Mat (1999) - Unquestionably the best of the list as a film. Give a real director an interesting subject and a classic pops out...funny how that happens. Beyond the Mat looks at all levels of the wrestling industry from the young and hopeful (Droz), to the prime of one's career at the top of the world (Mankind), to the sadly washed up (Jake "The Snake" Roberts). This is the epitome of a movie you should see even if you're not a wrestling fan.
Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling (2007) - The "No Country for Old Men" of wrestling documentaries. This one takes a look at the Dallas-based WCCW and the Von Erich family. To give you a preview, Fritz Von Erich had six sons. Five died young. The "Tragedy" portion of the title could not be more appropriate. Also includes tons of great footage from one of the forgotten titans of wrestling in the 1980's.
Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows (1998) - This was originally supposed to be a puff piece for A&E that dealt with Bret Hart's life in what looked to be the final phase of his career. But as the filming schedule began to wind down, so did Hart's contract with the WWF. Now the documentary had a legitimate conflict and is interesting just for its first hand look at the backstage politics of the time. The crew stuck around for what was to be Bret's penultimate show: Survivor Series 1997 (with Raw the following night his last scheduled date before leaving for WCW). What happened that night is one of the most fascinating events to ever occur in wrestling. This is the famous Montreal Screwjob that led to bad blood between Bret Hart and WWF/E owner Vince McMahon for well over a decade (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Screwjob). This documentary covers all the fallout that night including the real life fist fights that occurred in the back.
WWE's Greatest Rivalries: Michaels vs. Hart (2011) - The Montreal Screwjob also served as a fitting climax for the rocky personal relationship between two of the biggest stars of that era, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. This set chronicles their rivalry both in and out of the ring. It doesn't shy away from any of the causes of resentment between the two. Both guys shed tears during the sit down interview segment over their behavior in the past. It comes off as two hours of honesty in a business literally built upon lies, misdirection, and stagecraft. Quite simply, this is about two men coming to grips with how many years they wasted on hatred for each other.
Hart & Soul: The Hart Family Anthology (2010) - More Bret Hart but mostly about the family. The Hart Dungeon is one of the most famous training facilities in of all time (producing dozens of top wrestlers throughout the world including the likes of Chris Jericho, The British Bulldog, and Jushin "Thunder" Liger) and the movie isn't shy about that fact. This is better than the solo documentary WWE did on Hart upon his return mostly because the family as a whole is much more interesting than Bret as an individual. Plus, it's probably the closest we'll ever got to an Owen Hart documentary.
The Shawn Michaels Story (2007) - To round out this Montreal Screwjob arc, we have the story from the villain's perspective. And to his credit, Shawn acknowledged the part he played in the whole incident. This retrospective covers a whole lot more than that but the theme of Shawn as the bad guy never really goes away. From his torpedoing of other wrestlers to his fake injuries to his substance abuse issues, Shawn comes off pretty badly here. It's all part of the Christian retribution thing he has going on, but that doesn't mean that he's not genuine in taking responsibility for his past.
The Rise and Fall of WCW (2009) - Oh man, this might be the best one they've ever put out. Not only is it a great look back at all the things that set WCW apart as a company, but it's also hilarious. WCW was famous for its inefficiency and made more news for its epic failures than for anything it did right. The nWo was great, but WCW managed to drive it into the ground. Goldberg got them a lot of buzz, and they made sure to derail his popularity just as it was about to hit its peak. They alienated and marginalized a generation of wrestlers who would then go on to see incredible success in WWE. The best part is seeing the genuine relish which people use to badmouth the management of the company leading to the feeling that this is something like an out-and-out roast of WCW.
The Rise and Fall of ECW (2004) - This is the polar opposite of the WCW documentary and deservedly so. Everyone interviewed seemed to love their time there, even if the checks bounced on occasion. ECW is one of the most beloved institutions among wrestling fans because of its brash style, its violent matches, and its acceptance of guys who were well outside the mainstream. It embraced the emergence of both grunge culture and urban culture to produce a brand of wrestling that felt fresh and unique. A lot of the stuff in the ring doesn't really hold up today, but the attitude of the company still lives on.
Stone Cold Steve Austin: The Bottom Line on the Most Popular Superstar of All Time (2011) - Maybe the best documentary on an individual wrestler produced by WWE to date. This owes largely to the fact that Austin was a guy who had failed numerous times before finally catching fire and becoming the biggest wrestler in the world. Other guys who reached that level (The Rock, Shawn Michaels, Randy Orton, etc) had a much more linear rise to the top. But Austin had to scrape and claw for his place at the top. The Attitude-era is obviously excellent as well.
Card Subject to Change (2011) - Documentary on independent wrestling and all its trappings. Necrobutcher gets interviewed for this, which immediately and automatically makes it worth your time. The real standout for me was Trent Acid (who died of a drug overdose in the middle of filming). Acid was a guy that I was a huge fan of when I first got into the independent scene. I would buy CZW shows just to see his matches (both individually and as one half of the Backseat Boys). Looking back, he's certainly not the best guy of that era. But he should always be considered the epitome of Indy Scum, almost like one of the self-destructive figures from the early days of punk. I wouldn't go so far as to compare him to Sid Vicious, but he could at least be considered the Darby Crash of indy wrestling. I still think that some WWE tag team should steal the Dream Sequence. Tyson Kidd and Justin Gabriel, I'm looking at you.
The Big Show: A Giant's World (2011) - Surprisingly good and the best example of how WWE has got the formula down for making interesting documentaries on guys who are not necessarily interesting in the ring. The "sad Big Show gets demoted to the minors" music is probably my favorite piece of WWE stock music. That mediocre sax solo just screams, "Poor Big Show! He got too much too soon!"
Breaking the Code: Chris Jericho (2010) - Just as WWE's cookie cutter framework for these documentaries can make me care about the likes of The Big Show, it also provides room for a guy with something to say and an interesting story to tell to do so. Jericho certainly qualifies as one of those guys. Like Austin, Jericho's success was far from assured. Despite a standout career in Mexico, Japan, and ECW, WCW managed to erect a glass ceiling right over Jericho's head and he encountered similar issues at the beginning of his WWE run. Jericho also offers a unique perspective on his success in the business and why it's not the be-all-end-all that people think.
Bobby "The Brain" Heenan (2010) - Heenan was the best manager of all time and arguably the funniest person ever associated with pro wrestling not named Andy Kaufman. This doesn't offer much deep introspection or anything, but it's a lot of fun. Why WWE didn't slap a ridiculous title on the one documentary that deserves it is beyond me.
Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story (2004) - This is sad to begin with. It pulls no punches in looking at Eddie Guerrero's substance issues and how they nearly derailed his career, his marriage, and his life. Hell, I remember when Eddie got fired from WWE and was working matches with CM Punk at high school gyms in Indiana in front of fifty people (pretty sure I own that match on a bootleg VHS somewhere). But he battled back and eventually became WWE Chamion and had this DVD celebrating his career and redemption. Then Eddie died of the all too common "Wrestling Related Heart Failure" shortly thereafter. I haven't re-watched this since Eddie's death. But "bittersweet" isn't nearly strong enough a word given the circumstances.
The Life and Times of Mr. Perfect (2008) - Curt Hennig was never a guy who became an international superstar. He was AWA World Champion and WWF Intercontinental Champion, sure. But his career was never as accomplished as one would expect from the subject of one of these WWE DVD sets. What set Mr. Perfect apart was just how fucking awesome he was. The towel throw, the gum catching, the cocky attitude. The introduction vignettes of him being perfect at everything he did are still the best character videos that WWE has ever produced. He's also tremendously influential and one can see echoes of him in many wrestlers today (especially Dolph Ziggler). I suppose that makes him a little like The Velvet Underground ("not many people bought that album, but everyone who did started a band..." or however the supposed Brian Eno quote goes). Among those who give their thoughts on the late, great, Mr. Perfect is Wade Boggs, of all people.
That's enough for now. Happy watching.
WWE's Greatest Rivalries: Michaels vs. Hart (2011) - The Montreal Screwjob also served as a fitting climax for the rocky personal relationship between two of the biggest stars of that era, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. This set chronicles their rivalry both in and out of the ring. It doesn't shy away from any of the causes of resentment between the two. Both guys shed tears during the sit down interview segment over their behavior in the past. It comes off as two hours of honesty in a business literally built upon lies, misdirection, and stagecraft. Quite simply, this is about two men coming to grips with how many years they wasted on hatred for each other.
Hart & Soul: The Hart Family Anthology (2010) - More Bret Hart but mostly about the family. The Hart Dungeon is one of the most famous training facilities in of all time (producing dozens of top wrestlers throughout the world including the likes of Chris Jericho, The British Bulldog, and Jushin "Thunder" Liger) and the movie isn't shy about that fact. This is better than the solo documentary WWE did on Hart upon his return mostly because the family as a whole is much more interesting than Bret as an individual. Plus, it's probably the closest we'll ever got to an Owen Hart documentary.
The Shawn Michaels Story (2007) - To round out this Montreal Screwjob arc, we have the story from the villain's perspective. And to his credit, Shawn acknowledged the part he played in the whole incident. This retrospective covers a whole lot more than that but the theme of Shawn as the bad guy never really goes away. From his torpedoing of other wrestlers to his fake injuries to his substance abuse issues, Shawn comes off pretty badly here. It's all part of the Christian retribution thing he has going on, but that doesn't mean that he's not genuine in taking responsibility for his past.
The Rise and Fall of WCW (2009) - Oh man, this might be the best one they've ever put out. Not only is it a great look back at all the things that set WCW apart as a company, but it's also hilarious. WCW was famous for its inefficiency and made more news for its epic failures than for anything it did right. The nWo was great, but WCW managed to drive it into the ground. Goldberg got them a lot of buzz, and they made sure to derail his popularity just as it was about to hit its peak. They alienated and marginalized a generation of wrestlers who would then go on to see incredible success in WWE. The best part is seeing the genuine relish which people use to badmouth the management of the company leading to the feeling that this is something like an out-and-out roast of WCW.
The Rise and Fall of ECW (2004) - This is the polar opposite of the WCW documentary and deservedly so. Everyone interviewed seemed to love their time there, even if the checks bounced on occasion. ECW is one of the most beloved institutions among wrestling fans because of its brash style, its violent matches, and its acceptance of guys who were well outside the mainstream. It embraced the emergence of both grunge culture and urban culture to produce a brand of wrestling that felt fresh and unique. A lot of the stuff in the ring doesn't really hold up today, but the attitude of the company still lives on.
Stone Cold Steve Austin: The Bottom Line on the Most Popular Superstar of All Time (2011) - Maybe the best documentary on an individual wrestler produced by WWE to date. This owes largely to the fact that Austin was a guy who had failed numerous times before finally catching fire and becoming the biggest wrestler in the world. Other guys who reached that level (The Rock, Shawn Michaels, Randy Orton, etc) had a much more linear rise to the top. But Austin had to scrape and claw for his place at the top. The Attitude-era is obviously excellent as well.
Card Subject to Change (2011) - Documentary on independent wrestling and all its trappings. Necrobutcher gets interviewed for this, which immediately and automatically makes it worth your time. The real standout for me was Trent Acid (who died of a drug overdose in the middle of filming). Acid was a guy that I was a huge fan of when I first got into the independent scene. I would buy CZW shows just to see his matches (both individually and as one half of the Backseat Boys). Looking back, he's certainly not the best guy of that era. But he should always be considered the epitome of Indy Scum, almost like one of the self-destructive figures from the early days of punk. I wouldn't go so far as to compare him to Sid Vicious, but he could at least be considered the Darby Crash of indy wrestling. I still think that some WWE tag team should steal the Dream Sequence. Tyson Kidd and Justin Gabriel, I'm looking at you.
The Big Show: A Giant's World (2011) - Surprisingly good and the best example of how WWE has got the formula down for making interesting documentaries on guys who are not necessarily interesting in the ring. The "sad Big Show gets demoted to the minors" music is probably my favorite piece of WWE stock music. That mediocre sax solo just screams, "Poor Big Show! He got too much too soon!"
Breaking the Code: Chris Jericho (2010) - Just as WWE's cookie cutter framework for these documentaries can make me care about the likes of The Big Show, it also provides room for a guy with something to say and an interesting story to tell to do so. Jericho certainly qualifies as one of those guys. Like Austin, Jericho's success was far from assured. Despite a standout career in Mexico, Japan, and ECW, WCW managed to erect a glass ceiling right over Jericho's head and he encountered similar issues at the beginning of his WWE run. Jericho also offers a unique perspective on his success in the business and why it's not the be-all-end-all that people think.
Bobby "The Brain" Heenan (2010) - Heenan was the best manager of all time and arguably the funniest person ever associated with pro wrestling not named Andy Kaufman. This doesn't offer much deep introspection or anything, but it's a lot of fun. Why WWE didn't slap a ridiculous title on the one documentary that deserves it is beyond me.
Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story (2004) - This is sad to begin with. It pulls no punches in looking at Eddie Guerrero's substance issues and how they nearly derailed his career, his marriage, and his life. Hell, I remember when Eddie got fired from WWE and was working matches with CM Punk at high school gyms in Indiana in front of fifty people (pretty sure I own that match on a bootleg VHS somewhere). But he battled back and eventually became WWE Chamion and had this DVD celebrating his career and redemption. Then Eddie died of the all too common "Wrestling Related Heart Failure" shortly thereafter. I haven't re-watched this since Eddie's death. But "bittersweet" isn't nearly strong enough a word given the circumstances.
The Life and Times of Mr. Perfect (2008) - Curt Hennig was never a guy who became an international superstar. He was AWA World Champion and WWF Intercontinental Champion, sure. But his career was never as accomplished as one would expect from the subject of one of these WWE DVD sets. What set Mr. Perfect apart was just how fucking awesome he was. The towel throw, the gum catching, the cocky attitude. The introduction vignettes of him being perfect at everything he did are still the best character videos that WWE has ever produced. He's also tremendously influential and one can see echoes of him in many wrestlers today (especially Dolph Ziggler). I suppose that makes him a little like The Velvet Underground ("not many people bought that album, but everyone who did started a band..." or however the supposed Brian Eno quote goes). Among those who give their thoughts on the late, great, Mr. Perfect is Wade Boggs, of all people.
That's enough for now. Happy watching.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Tanahashi vs. Okada - Match of the Year
Original Title: Quick Japanese Wrestling Email
Original Date Sent: September 2, 2012
Sent to: The usual cadre of unwilling readers
Context: Watched this late one night and then stayed up even later writing the email. Needless to say, I was excited...
Sorry, have to do this. Had to tell someone about it and the
recipients of this email are bearing the brunt of it. I watched a
match and felt compelled to write about it. So here it is.
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada
IWGP Title Match
New Japan Pro Wrestling
6 - 16 - 2012
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xt4qzu_hiroshi-tanahashi-vs-kazuchika-okada-c-njpw_sport
*If you're going to watch try to do it on a browser that will block
those annoying Daily Motion ads that interrupt every five minutes.
Google Chrome seems to do the trick.
When this match first happened, the folks on the internet bitched a
little based on the result. I will be so kind as to not reveal it on
the (very) off-chance that you decide to watch it. But then a clipped
version of the match came out and that tune changed. All the sudden,
this was getting talked up as a strong possibility for the match of
the year. Then a couple people were able to get bootleg copies and
suddenly it was the best match to take place in Japan in the past five
years. And now it's hit the internet. And I watched it. And it was so
good that I felt compelled to write about it. I can safely confirm
that not only is this the best match to take place so far this year
(easily topping John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar at Extreme Rules) but it's
also the best match to take place in Japan since at least 1998 when
Kenta Kobashi challenged Toshiaki Kawada for the Triple Crown.
It used to be that Japan pumped out classics on an almost monthly
basis, whether it was the epic King's Road battles of All Japan or the
innovative, eye-popping encounters of the New Japan junior
heavyweights. But those years are long gone. The stalwarts of the
1986-1997 era are well past their primes or even in their graves. The
blue chippers from those years like Akiyama, Tenzen, and Kojima never
seemed to reach their full potential. The Dragon Gate kids were fun
and exciting but their matches always seemed more like dance
exhibitions than fighting competitions. Even the internet sainted
KENTA never really busted out a match considered to be on par with
those hallowed matches of the mid-90s.
It seems odd then that this should be the match to break that spell.
Tanahashi has never been considered one of the elite workers in Japan
despite his popularity and multiple runs with the IWGP Title. Think of
him as a faster, floppy haired John Cena. Okada is a guy who has
pretty much come out of nowhere this year. He took the title off of
Tanahashi back in January and has been tearing it up since then. The
rap on Okada was that his character caught fire and then was thrown
into the main event scene too soon. But he delivered in big matches
time and time again. He's the perfect bad guy in that he's an arrogant
little shit who can back up his cockiness. He's one of those assholes
who you'd love to see get destroyed despite that sneaky feeling in the
back of your mind that it would be a hell of a lot more fun if he won.
Okada is, and I can't believe I'm about to say this, like the best
possible version of Dolph Ziggler. He even throws a better drop kick.
To start, this has the requisite big match feel. The crowd is alive
right from the entrances and chant for Tanahashi from the onset. They
take a couple minutes to feel each other out and establish the story
for the rest of the match. Tanahashi works on the knee and Okada goes
after the neck. It's all well and good up to here. The goal of pro
wrestling is to tell a story in the ring. In a way, it's a form of
live theatre. And like all stories, it has a structure and builds to a
climax. This match follows a three act structure to perfection. At one
point, Okada dropkicks Tanahashi while the latter is seated on the top
rope. Tanahashi goes tumbling backward into the abyss in the first of
at least five jaw dropping moments. Thus, we are in the second act of
the match. Things become harder hitting and faster paced. All the
while, Okada does a fantastic job of selling the damage to his knee.
At one point Okada uses his knees to counter an aerial maneuver by
Tanahashi and follows it up with a display of agony worthy of an
operatic death scene.
The biggest problem of the modern era of Japanese Wrestling has come
in the third act of the high end matches. As the finishing sequence
progresses, guys tend to kick out of too many big moves and forget the
body part that they're supposed to be selling. It's a common and very
valid criticism. The matches are still fun to watch but they lack the
depth of the intricate King's Road matches that played out like novels
in the wrestling ring with each character coming to their particular
end in a logical and sometimes tragic way. And that's what really sets
this match apart. It's controlled and yet contains as much drama as
any match with endless 2.9 counts. There are several great sequences,
the best of which is a struggle over a Tombstone Piledriver. By the
time the match ends the crowd seems completely drained from thirty
straight minutes of non-stop cheering (in addition to the rest of the
show).
It's a really special match and a great blend of everything I love
about wrestling. It tells a story and pays off things at the end that
were built up in the beginning. It's tremendously physical, sets a
blistering pace, and made me yell "Holy Shit!" loud enough to wake up
my roommate if he wasn't already an insomniac. I didn't really have a
dog in the fight but found myself rooting for one of the guys
(Okada...after all, I described him as a better Dolph Ziggler) and
hung on his fate the whole way. It's actually quite similar to the
John Cena vs. CM Punk match that was the Match of the Year last year
in that it took an oft-criticized top guy and confirmed that he could
have a classic match (Cena, Tanahashi) and a guy who was on the rise
and showed that he had the star power to be the top guy in the company
(Punk, Okada). I don't know if they'll ever be able to replicate it,
together or separately, but for this night at least everything clicked
and they delivered perfection.
Thanks for indulging my rant.
Mike Coast
PS - I titled the email before I actually wrote it. Once again, things
got a little out of hand. So I guess it's a (Not So) Quick Japanese
Wrestling Email.
Original Date Sent: September 2, 2012
Sent to: The usual cadre of unwilling readers
Context: Watched this late one night and then stayed up even later writing the email. Needless to say, I was excited...
Sorry, have to do this. Had to tell someone about it and the
recipients of this email are bearing the brunt of it. I watched a
match and felt compelled to write about it. So here it is.
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada
IWGP Title Match
New Japan Pro Wrestling
6 - 16 - 2012
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xt4qzu_hiroshi-tanahashi-vs-kazuchika-okada-c-njpw_sport
*If you're going to watch try to do it on a browser that will block
those annoying Daily Motion ads that interrupt every five minutes.
Google Chrome seems to do the trick.
When this match first happened, the folks on the internet bitched a
little based on the result. I will be so kind as to not reveal it on
the (very) off-chance that you decide to watch it. But then a clipped
version of the match came out and that tune changed. All the sudden,
this was getting talked up as a strong possibility for the match of
the year. Then a couple people were able to get bootleg copies and
suddenly it was the best match to take place in Japan in the past five
years. And now it's hit the internet. And I watched it. And it was so
good that I felt compelled to write about it. I can safely confirm
that not only is this the best match to take place so far this year
(easily topping John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar at Extreme Rules) but it's
also the best match to take place in Japan since at least 1998 when
Kenta Kobashi challenged Toshiaki Kawada for the Triple Crown.
It used to be that Japan pumped out classics on an almost monthly
basis, whether it was the epic King's Road battles of All Japan or the
innovative, eye-popping encounters of the New Japan junior
heavyweights. But those years are long gone. The stalwarts of the
1986-1997 era are well past their primes or even in their graves. The
blue chippers from those years like Akiyama, Tenzen, and Kojima never
seemed to reach their full potential. The Dragon Gate kids were fun
and exciting but their matches always seemed more like dance
exhibitions than fighting competitions. Even the internet sainted
KENTA never really busted out a match considered to be on par with
those hallowed matches of the mid-90s.
It seems odd then that this should be the match to break that spell.
Tanahashi has never been considered one of the elite workers in Japan
despite his popularity and multiple runs with the IWGP Title. Think of
him as a faster, floppy haired John Cena. Okada is a guy who has
pretty much come out of nowhere this year. He took the title off of
Tanahashi back in January and has been tearing it up since then. The
rap on Okada was that his character caught fire and then was thrown
into the main event scene too soon. But he delivered in big matches
time and time again. He's the perfect bad guy in that he's an arrogant
little shit who can back up his cockiness. He's one of those assholes
who you'd love to see get destroyed despite that sneaky feeling in the
back of your mind that it would be a hell of a lot more fun if he won.
Okada is, and I can't believe I'm about to say this, like the best
possible version of Dolph Ziggler. He even throws a better drop kick.
To start, this has the requisite big match feel. The crowd is alive
right from the entrances and chant for Tanahashi from the onset. They
take a couple minutes to feel each other out and establish the story
for the rest of the match. Tanahashi works on the knee and Okada goes
after the neck. It's all well and good up to here. The goal of pro
wrestling is to tell a story in the ring. In a way, it's a form of
live theatre. And like all stories, it has a structure and builds to a
climax. This match follows a three act structure to perfection. At one
point, Okada dropkicks Tanahashi while the latter is seated on the top
rope. Tanahashi goes tumbling backward into the abyss in the first of
at least five jaw dropping moments. Thus, we are in the second act of
the match. Things become harder hitting and faster paced. All the
while, Okada does a fantastic job of selling the damage to his knee.
At one point Okada uses his knees to counter an aerial maneuver by
Tanahashi and follows it up with a display of agony worthy of an
operatic death scene.
The biggest problem of the modern era of Japanese Wrestling has come
in the third act of the high end matches. As the finishing sequence
progresses, guys tend to kick out of too many big moves and forget the
body part that they're supposed to be selling. It's a common and very
valid criticism. The matches are still fun to watch but they lack the
depth of the intricate King's Road matches that played out like novels
in the wrestling ring with each character coming to their particular
end in a logical and sometimes tragic way. And that's what really sets
this match apart. It's controlled and yet contains as much drama as
any match with endless 2.9 counts. There are several great sequences,
the best of which is a struggle over a Tombstone Piledriver. By the
time the match ends the crowd seems completely drained from thirty
straight minutes of non-stop cheering (in addition to the rest of the
show).
It's a really special match and a great blend of everything I love
about wrestling. It tells a story and pays off things at the end that
were built up in the beginning. It's tremendously physical, sets a
blistering pace, and made me yell "Holy Shit!" loud enough to wake up
my roommate if he wasn't already an insomniac. I didn't really have a
dog in the fight but found myself rooting for one of the guys
(Okada...after all, I described him as a better Dolph Ziggler) and
hung on his fate the whole way. It's actually quite similar to the
John Cena vs. CM Punk match that was the Match of the Year last year
in that it took an oft-criticized top guy and confirmed that he could
have a classic match (Cena, Tanahashi) and a guy who was on the rise
and showed that he had the star power to be the top guy in the company
(Punk, Okada). I don't know if they'll ever be able to replicate it,
together or separately, but for this night at least everything clicked
and they delivered perfection.
Thanks for indulging my rant.
Mike Coast
PS - I titled the email before I actually wrote it. Once again, things
got a little out of hand. So I guess it's a (Not So) Quick Japanese
Wrestling Email.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Professional Wrestling Styles Primer
Original Title: Professional Wrestling Styles Primer
Hello,
If you are receiving this email, it means your spam filter is broken. I suggest you fix it. In the mean time, here is what is likely (okay, definitely) the dorkiest email yet. And probably the longest. Not the longest yet, but the longest that I will ever write. This thing may crash your phone. So hold onto your hats and get ready for the...
PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING STYLES PRIMER
For most, Pro Wrestling is just a fake fight between two freakishly big men. But it's so much more than that! There are several different permutations of how people can fake fight each other. This is a rough guide to navigating the myriad styles of pro wrestling throughout the world.
WWE Main Event Style
Main Practitioners: Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker, Stone Cold Steve Austin, HHH, John Cena
This is what most people think of when they think of pro wrestling. It's very basic "work the crowd, good guy vs. bad guy" formula has been going strong for over three decades now and shows no signs of stopping. When French philosopher Roland Barthes wrote about Professional Wrestling in the 50s, he posited that people reacted so strongly to the in-ring actions because wrestling appealed to their sense of justice. The bad guy did something to knock the universe for a loop and the good guy beat him up to correct it. It's the most basic of human theater. And it's also made WWE into one of the world's foremost entertainment enterprises. Sure, Hulk Hogan isn't one of the greatest in-ring performers in the world. But WWE Main Event style is about connecting to the fans on a more primal level. Don't you love America? So does Hulk Hogan! Boss giving you problems? Live vicariously through Stone Cold! Is your penchant for spitting water in the air frowned upon by society? HHH has no such problem. These matches have no problem with guys recovering from injuries faster than Wolverine, copious amounts of interference, and ridiculous stipulations. This is also a style that is very good at concealing the weaknesses of limited workers. Ironically enough, one of the prime examples of this type of style is Goldberg when he ran roughshod over WCW. And yet when he came over to WWE they were just never able to recapture the momentum that he had during his initial WCW run.
Hallmark Matches:
The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan (WWE, Wrestlemania 18): A perfect example. Barely anything happens, but the crowd is absolutely rabid for the faceoff between two legends. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUrxFzynrjs&feature=fvst
Triple H vs. Undertaker (WWE, Wrestlemania 17): From the best Wrestlemania ever. This was from Undertaker's ridiculous Biker period. This was just before HHH became the most hated man on the internet. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q8-rNkbx_c&feature=related
Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant (WWE, Wrestlemania 3): Again, there's not much to the match if you're watching it in a vacuum. Fortunately it's not in a vacuum, it's in front of 93,000 fans. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPM6Wplm3iM
Southern Style
Main Practitioners: Ric Flair, Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes
The rival form of WWE Main event style in America. The Southern Style is also about building crowd heat and making an emotional connection with the fans (this will be a familiar refrain). But the contrast comes in the personalities. WWE has long been criticized for being a human cartoon with broad gimmicks and outsized personalities. The NWA (the one without Dr. Dre) and later WCW featured characters that were slightly more true to life. As ridiculous as Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes were, they still were grounded in some kind of reality (and yes, I'm aware of the epic awfulness of a lot of WCW's characters in their later years. But to their credit, they usually kept these guys away from the main event). The matches themselves are usually based around the bad guy picking out a body part and just going to work on it. The good guy then either overcomes the odds and makes a big comeback or the bad guy decimates him and leaves him crippled on the mat. The best example is Ric Flair working over his opponent's leg as a set-up for the Figure Four leglock. Another good example is Harley Race punching his opponent in the face until said opponent no longer has a face. The enduring legacy of Southern Style matches is that the tag format is used in pretty much every tag match on this continent to this very day (match starts even with the good guys frustrating the bad guys, bad guys cut off one of the good guys and work him over for a long time (called the "Face in Peril" segment), good guy finally tags in his partner and all hell breaks loose). Trust me, watch any tag match in the last twenty years and it will probably have this format.
Hallmark Matches:
Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat (NWA, Chi-Town Rumble): You could pick any of the three high profile matches these two had in 1989. I picked this one because I was able to find it on youtube. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDRlJFWvEfY
Dusty Rhodes vs. Harley Race (NWA): Just the finish to the match. But you get an idea of how the crowd reacted differently to what these guys were doing than to what the WWE was doing up North. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H99R1QcgbVw
Midnight Express vs. Rock n Roll Express (NWA): This match has the raddest collection of mullets you'll ever see. And it's a great application of the Southern Tag formula by the teams that perfected it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2Z2OkpvpF0
Memphis Style
Main Practitioners: Jerry "The King" Lawler, Randy Savage, Junkyard Dog
Memphis has long been a hotbed of pro wrestling, peaking from a pop culture standpoint as the location of the famous Andy Kaufman vs. Jerry Lawler matches (which actually went on way longer than people realize. I saw a special on it once when I was a kid and it looked like the most awesome thing ever and included Kaufman making peace with Lawler only to betray him later on). The Memphis Style is a precursor to the WWE Main Event style, but with more punching, more interference, and more race baiting. Back in the late 90's, WWE would send their young guys to Memphis to learn that style because it translated so easily to what they did at the top level. I'm not sure that I've ever seen a top-level Memphis match that had a clean finish (that is, an ending without outside interference, cheating, a referee error, or some other shenanigans). Also, if you take a piledriver (Lawler's finishing move) in Memphis, you're dead. You won't appear on TV or at a live show for another month. If you go out to lunch without a neck brace on during that time period, you won't be welcome back in Tennessee for the rest of your life. Certain territories have built up moves like that in the past (Kobashi's Burning Hammer, Hogan's Leg Drop, etc.), but nothing like the piledriver in Memphis (again, Andy Kaufman gets mucho points here for doing his broken neck bit on Letterman).
Hallmark Matches:
Tommy Rich vs. Jerry Lawler (CWA): Typical Memphis. Tons of punches, some blood, and a lot of extracurricular activity. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuYx_R6te3c
Jerry Lawler & Randy Savage vs. King Kong Bundy & Rick Rude (CWA, No DQ): Worth clicking on just for Randy Savage continually walking in front of Jerry Lawler while Lawler is giving an interview before the match. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g_wr21Gp3w
Bonus Clip: Andy Kaufman and Jerry Lawler face off on Letterman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSn-pvZopns
Stampede Style
Main Practitioners: Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Chris Benoit
Basically, this is the style of the Hart Family and the people that trained in the Hart family dungeon (seriously, they called it a dungeon). The name comes from the Canadian wrestling promotion run by the Harts, Stampede Wrestling. For lack of a better definition, this is what Bret Hart used to do. Technical wrestling, exuding professionalism, and having your character be best described as "Serious Professional Wrestler." These guys tend to be from Western Canada, know every move in the book, and have traveled the world twice over before heading to the big leagues. If you're like me, you consider the most appealing part of wrestling to be how the participants tell a story in the ring. If the Stampede guys were a movie, they would be an intense docudrama. If you've ever seen the movie Hunger (about the hunger strike in prison by IRA member Bobby Sands (played here by Michael Fassbender)), you'll remember a scene where all the imprisoned IRA guys dump their piss into the hall (spoiler alert!). This is followed by a very long drawn out scene where a janitor mops up the piss. All of it. Down the whole hallway. In one unbroken shot that goes on for a long, long time. That's sort of like Stampede. It's wrestling in perhaps its most pure form. It is art imitating life. Real life, in all its disappointment and casual horror. This is how, we imagine, George Hackenschmidt and Frank Gotch would wrestle in front of 30,000 fans at the Comiskey Park in 1911. I don't want it to sound boring. It's really not. But there is certainly a refusal to resort to over-the-top theatrics.
Hallmark Matches:
Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart (WWE, Wrestlemania X): A bitter brother vs. brother battle. Like a Canadian Civil War. One of the great wrestling matches to take place on this Earth. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbZL56QEgcE
Bret Hart vs. Chris Benoit (WCW, Owen Hart Tribute Show): In a raw, emotional moment in Bret's life, he turned to wrestling and delivered one of his greatest, and yet still somehow cold and stoic, performances. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJCtJyKdy4w
Lucha Libre
Main Practitioners: El Hijo Del Santo, Negro Casas, Atlantis
One of the most misunderstood forms of wrestling. The common conception, even among most wrestling fans, is that Lucha is mostly short skinny guys who wear masks and flip around a lot. This is true to a certain degree. Lucha tends to be much more democratic in terms of who is able to succeed and move up to the top spots, so there is less emphasis on height/weight perfectionism. And yes, masks are a big part of the Lucha tradition. And sure, there's quite a bit of flipping around. But what most people think of as Lucha is embodied by Rey Mysterio Jr., Juventud Guerrera, and Psychosis due to their work in ECW, WCW, and later WWE. But these guys are kind of a style in and of themselves and are much more synonymous with the WCW Cruiserweight style that developed in the mid-90s (we'll get to that later). Lucha Libre is probably the most ceremonial of the wrestling forms. Watching it for the first time is a totally foreign experience (and not because of the language barrier. Japanese wrestling translates pretty easily). It is full of weird submission holds, guys getting knocked out seemingly out of nowhere, and stuff that looks way more choreographed than what you would normally see on American television. But once you're used to the nuances, there are very few things more compelling. Mask ripping, blood, twisting a guy apart until it seems like his limbs will fall off...it's all part of high profile Lucha Libre matches.
Hallmark Matches:
The Torneo Cibernetico (EMLL): Unfortunately, I can't find the legendary 1997 one on youtube. It featured some of the greatest luchadores ever in a 16 man elimination tag match that features some of the most freaked out stuff I've ever seen. It's worth scouring the internet to see it, if you're into that kind of thing.
Atlantis vs. Villano III (CMLL, Mask vs. Mask): The Mask vs. Mask match is always a violent, emotional affair and this is no exception. It was unthinkable for either guy to lose his mask at this stage, which makes the crowd all the more crazy for every near fall. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVETCPDjDj4
Eddie Guerrero & "Love Machine" Art Barr vs. Octagon & El Hijo Del Santo (AAA, When Worlds Collide): The famous Masks vs. Hair match that made Eddie an international superstar, forever colored the reputation of the late Art Barr, allowed Santo to emerge from his father's massive shadow, and, umm, Octagon was there too. Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KJ3jqqVRBs
Puerto Rican Lucha Libre
Main Practitioners: Carlos Colon, Bruiser Brody, Abdullah the Butcher
This is deeper down the rabbit hole than even I like to go. But from my experience, these matches are bloody as hell. And even then they're barely able to satiate the rabid San Juan crowds. This is actually much closer to Memphis style than traditional Lucha Libre (at least from what I've seen). Carlos Colon, the legendary figure of the style, has a forehead even more scarred and jagged than that of The Necrobutcher (more to come on him). Puerto Rico is also where a lot of the crazy guys of the 70s and 80s achieved their greatest fame (such as Abdullah the Butcher and Bruiser Brody). I'm pretty sure Atsushi Onita did a bunch of exploding cage matches there too. Unfortunately, Puerto Rican wrestling's association with violence got all too real when Bruiser Brody was stabbed to death during a backstage altercation with another wrestler (who was found Not Guilty in controversial fashion. He's wrestling's OJ).
Hallmark Matches:
Carlos Colon & Abdullah the Butcher vs. Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen (WWC, Lumberjack Match): As I said before, I'm not all that well versed in this type of wrestling. But this gives you the feel of what they were doing, especially after the match moves outside of the ring. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9glzWkFUt1g
European/British Style
Main Practitioners: Dynamite Kid, Mark "Rollerball" Rocco, Claudio Castagnoli
The British Bulldog, despite the name, is not at all an example of British wrestling as a style. In fact, despite marrying into the Hart family, he's not really even a Stampede type guy. Rather, he is a purveyor of the WWE Main Event Style that never quite made it to the main event (call it the Intercontinental style, if you like). Real British wrestling is wacky as hell, especially the early 80s World of Sport type stuff. It had rounds. Rounds! Like, they would take breaks in the middle of the match and stuff because the round was over. It seems odd to me that the sports that the Brits are so enamored with, soccer (sorry, Association Football) and rugby, are free-flowing sports with few stoppages compared to their American counterparts. And yet their wrestling (at least back then) is full of stops and starts and has a disjointed feel. Another hallmark of British Wrestling (and European wrestling in general) is that a lot of the holds and counterholds appear as if they're from another planet. For instance, the way that an American (or Mexican, or Canadian, or Japanese...) wrestler gets out of headlock is pretty standard. The way someone like Johnny Saint gets out of a headlock involves a twelve step process that involves stepping over his opponent twice and spinning around in a circle. It's weird and seems counter-intuitive at first, but it's a lot of fun when you get used to it. Oh, and before I forget, Mark Rocco probably has the best nickname ever. If I were about ten thousand times cooler I would insist on being called Mike "Rollerball" Coast. Actually, I wouldn't need to insist. It would just happen.
Hallmark Matches:
Dynamite Kid vs. Mark Rocco (World of Sport): In addition to being an awesome match, this is just so odd to watch. Half the people in the audience look like college professors. If you like this, youtube is chock full of World of Sport stuff. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb_beuE76aA
Johnny Saint vs. Jim Breaks (World of Sport): The previous match looks as if it could have been contested on the planet Earth. This one does not. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZpjqD_E71I
Puroresu
For most emailers, speaking about Japanese wrestling in general terms is good enough. But I've decided to break it down into several more categories. Oh, and if you're wondering about the odd name, it's short for "purofesshonaru resuringu" which is the Japanese pronunciation for Professional Wrestling. Fact of the Day! (not to steal Downtown Nick Brown's thunder)
Strong Style
Main Practitioners: Antonio Inoki, Shinya Hashimoto, Masa Chono, Keiji Mutoh
Strong Style is similar to modern MMA without all the terrible tattoos. In fact, a lot of the guys either came from or would go on to legitimate martial arts competitions. But the thing about simulated MMA is that there's an incredibly high degree of difficulty in pulling it off. Every strike has to look devastating, every submission hold cinched in for maximum effect. If not, the illusion immediately falls apart. Wrestling is all about suspension of disbelief, but Strong Style posits that wrestling is a sport (rather than entertainment or physical theater) and should be watched as such. There is no winking or nods to the audience. This shit is real and Strong Style dares you to say it isn't. The flaw, to me, if that MMA is fairly dull when the matches are long, drawn out affairs. It's much better (for me, anyway) when there are sudden, unexpected bursts of violence. But if a matched is pre-planned, it's hard to have those bursts of violence be truly convincing. But, to their credit, these guys are able to pull it off. And when they do, there are few things better. Oh, and it's not really that close to MMA in how it looks. It's still clearly pro wrestling. It's the mindset I'm talking about really.
Hallmark Matches:
Tatsumi Fujinami & Keiji Mutoh vs. Akira Maeda & Yoshiaki Fujiwara (NJPW): A perfect example of the mindset and structure that I'm talking about. It's about ten minutes of real wrestling moves and submission holds with a finish full of kicks and suplexes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZcVJV-hz4c&feature=related
Masa Chono vs. Keiji Mutoh (NJPW, G-1 Climax): The pinnacle of the style and one of the few times the NJPW heavyweights could look across town at All Japan and say that our guys are as good as your guys. It's sort of like how Donovan's "Season of the Witch" is as good as anything Bob Dylan ever did, but Donovan is still dismissed offhand as being the guy who tried to be Dylan but failed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-wC_Im7Qfo
Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki vs. The Steiner Brothers (NJPW/WCW, Starcade '91): One of the great things about the bizarre WCW/NJPW alliance is that you got ridiculous pairings like this. Kensuke, arguably the wea link in this match, would eventually grow into one of the most badass guys in the next style when he hit his forties and switched promotions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKrAm-hyYtM
King's Road
Main Practitioners: Jumbo Tsuruta, Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, Kenta Kobashi
King's Road is the 700 page novel of the wrestling world. The whole point of these matches is to tell a deep story with several layers of nuance in the ring. This is as close as pro wrestling gets to being performance art (if you're one of those that doesn't already subscribe to that assertion). The top feuds on the late 80's-1999 raged on for years. Most of the time, this leads to a stale product. Especially with the WWE Main Event Style. How many times can you really watch John Cena vs. HHH? But, to contrast that, how many times could you watch Misawa vs. Kawada? The answer is endlessly. King's Road is a close cousin of Southern Style thanks to an influx of American talent into All Japan in the 80s (Terry & Dory Funk, Stan Hansen, "Dr. Death" Steve Williams). Plus, the godfather of the style, Jumbo Tsuruta, spent time travelling in the South as a young wrestler. In most American wrestling contests, the beef is usually something like "You have the title and I want it," or "I'm a brash guy and you're a brash guy and this place ain't big enough for the two of us." With King's Road, everyone is stoic. No amount of cheering or booing will change their stone visages. These matches just feel more important. You can tell that they are about failed friendships, mortality, hatred, jealousy, nationalism, and the emptiness of glory. Oh, and the matches themselves kick ass. These guys hit harder, drop people on their heads at sharper angles, and unleash more physical destruction with their bare hands than anyone else in the world of pro wrestling ever. This is the pinnacle.
Hallmark Matches:
Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (AJPW): Misawa has just ditched the Tiger Mask gimmick and decides to step in the ring with the top dog of the day. A match that reverberated for the next decade. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMpHibYk4f8
Mitsuhara Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (AJPW): My pick for the best match of all time. Kawada at his most badass, Kobashi crying, a crowd beyond rabid for Misawa, and Taue doing his Taue things. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoWnvDSXM7A
Mitsuhara Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi (AJPW): I previously linked to the best of the Misawa/Kawada matches in the CM Punk email, so I decided to spread the recognition around some. This is where Kobashi transitions from plucky young lion to full-on King of the Jungle. It's not so much because of the result, but because for the first time in half a decade it feels like Misawa is the underdog. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSFkWJIuUiQ
Joshi
Main Practitioners: Manami Toyota, Aja Kong, Akira Hokuto
Another rabbit hole that I rarely venture down. Joshi is Japanese Women's wrestling. Some people don't use the term King's Road, but Royal Road instead so that they can incorporate the women of that time period as well. I've never really been comfortable watching this stuff. I'm sure there's some deep-seeded sexist reason for this, but I just find it hard to sit through. It's not because of the quality of the matches themselves. It's because these women DESTROY each other. Plus, they are more innovative move-wise than anyone else, which leads to the feeling that someone could break their neck at any time. If you watch a match today and you see a cool, unique move, chances are that it was invented by a woman in Japan.
Hallmark Matches:
Manami Toyota vs. Toshiyo Yamada (AJW, Hair vs. Hair): Like I said, this stuff is tough even for me. But this is about as well put-together a match as you'll ever see. These girls trade shots like Micky Ward and Arturo Gatti (if the traded shots originated from the top rope). Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sMla5Q3qUg
Akira Hokuto vs. Shinobu Kandori (AJW): As brutal, intense, and great a match as you'll ever see. Notice that I did not qualify that with "Women's Match." This is just flat out amazing. The ending is unexpected and yet somehow perfect. It became one of the more indelible images among the dorkiest of wrestling fans. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyxvGMJ2IBY
New Japan Juniors Style
Main Practitioners: Tiger Mask, Jushin "Thunder" Liger, Koji Kannemoto, Shinjiro Otani
Originally, I was going to do an email about the New Japan Juniors style. My brother was thinking about doing some exploring in this style, and I figured it might be worth doing a full email. But that quickly spiraled out of control. To really do it justice, I felt that I had to go into where the style came from and that involved describing all these different styles. So I decided to do this email instead (which also quickly spiraled out of control). New Japan was the home of Strong Style. The Original Tiger Mask (there have been four at this point, including the aforementioned Misawa) was no exception in the early 80s. He wrestled a hard striking, submission heavy style that focused on realism. But then he began feuds with two British wrestlers: Dynamite Kid (later of WWE's British Bulldogs) and Mark "Mike Coast's Nickname" Rocco (Wrestling under the guise of Black Tiger). As we mentioned earlier, the British wrestlers had holds and moves that seemed as if they were handed down from an alien civilization who were born with three more limbs than homo sapiens. Throw in that Dynamite also spent time in Stampede learning the Hart way of wrestling and you get an amalgamation of wrestling goodness that was completely unique to what people had seen before. Due to the incredible success of these matches, the Junior Heavyweights (defined as being under 225 lbs, but the weight classes aren't exactly as strict as those of boxing) of New Japan took up the new style and routinely outshone their heavyweight counterparts for decades. 1994 is often looked at as the peak year of Professional Wrestling. Wrestlemania X (with Bret vs. Owen and the Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon ladder match), the best of the Misawa vs. Kawada matches, the AAA "When Worlds Collide" PPV (with the legendary Hair vs. Masks match I linked to in the Lucha Libre section), and Shane Douglas throwing down the NWA Title in favor of creating the ECW World Title. The NJ Juniors are no exception, peaking as a style during the Super J Cup '94 Tournament. The lineup is a who's who of international superstars that includes two future WWE Champions (Eddie "Black Tiger II" Guerrero and Chris "Family Man" Benoit). The tournament included several classic matches and is perhaps the most influential night of wrestling of all time that doesn't end in the suffix -mania.
Hallmark Matches:
Dynamite Kid vs. Tiger Mask (NJPW): This is usually rated as the best of their matches. These guys had better chemistry than Nils Bohr. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn7QNZPYMP8
Jushin "Thunder" Liger vs. The Great Sasuke (NJPW, Super J Cup '94): Liger was the king of this period and pretty much became the definition of the style. Sasuke was an outsider and Liger gives him an appropriate welcome into New Japan. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnzcGpYSPNQ
El Samurai vs. Koji Kanemoto (NJPW): Oh boy. Kanemoto was formerly the least popular Tiger Mask and reinvented himself as a glorious asshole. El Samurai vacillated between "much maligned" and "that guy's pretty good." So, he averages out in the "tolerable" range. These guys really took it to each other and proved they could put on a match just as good as what everyone else was doing. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EpG8c66bUQ
Lucharesu
Main Practitioners: Ultimo Dragon, Great Sasuke, Ricky Marvin
The hybrid of Lucha and Puro that had its beginnings in New Japan but gradually matured into its own form in the latter half of the 90s. Lucharesu abandoned the pageantry of pure Lucha and the pretensions of Strong Style to form a fast-paced, exciting style that is a joy to watch when done well. I don't think it's in the rulebook or anything, but I'm pretty sure every one of these matches is required to include at least one ridiculous, life-shortening top rope dive to the floor. This style really got crazy with the establishment of the Japanese Indie Michinoku Pro. The company regularly featured crazy six, eight, and ten man tag matches that blew up the primitive internet at the time. The matches featured a loose alliance of goody-goods like Great Sasuke, Ultimo Dragon, and Super Delfin against the ridiculously balls out awesome Kaientai DX (yes, the Kaientai name (and a couple wrestlers) was later co-opted by WWE, but the DX has nothing to do with Degeneration X). KDX was beyond awesome and it's too bad they became such a joke in WWE. It's a little like watching Warren Oates putz around in Stripes when he should have been strangling John Candy and banging the two chicks. After M-Pro faded away, the style was taken to even more ridiculous levels in Toryumon and Dragon Gate and continues to blow people's minds today.
Hallmark Matches:
Kaientai DX vs. Random Michinoku Pro Guys (M-Pro, 3rd Anniversary Show): I don't mean to be dismissive of the guys across the ring as there are some fine wrestlers among them. But this is all about Kaientai DX and how awesome they are. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNqkwY4pP2Q
Crazy MAX vs. Dragon Kid & Magnum Tokyo & Ryo Saito vs. 3 other guys (Toryumon): Again, not to be dismissive, but Crazy MAX (CIMA/SUWA/Don Fuji) were like my favorite thing in wrestling when I was sixteen. I even met CIMA once at a Ring of Honor event years later. This is nine guys just doing crazy shit for your entertainment.
WCW Cruiserweight Division
Main Practitioners: Rey Mysterio Jr., Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko
Throughout the 90's, WCW had a loose relationship with New Japan. This included some talent exchanges, joint PPVs, and, most importantly, gave WCW an inside track on a lot of the hot young North American talent who were making their names in Japan at the time. WCW signed a lot of these guys (some of whom had also been lighting it up in ECW): Benoit, Guerrero, Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, Juventud Guerrera, Psicosis, Steven Regal, Fit Finlay, Dean Malenko, and Ultimo Dragon. WCW then, like most times in their history, had no idea what to do. So they decided to just have these guys fight each other. The revived the Cruiserweight Title in 1996 and basically let these guys put on a show two nights a week. Not all these guys were in that specific division, they were all on relatively the same tier, that is, the one right below the glass ceiling that Hogan, Hall, Nash, and Flair stood on top of. The style was basically a more mainstream hybrid of what had been happening in New Japan with a couple tweaks. More emphasis was placed on matches being "a clash of styles," while it was really more the opposite. Most of the guys in the division were well versed in the various styles and this supposed "clash" was in fact the very heart of the style.
Hallmark Matches:
Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. (WCW, Halloween Havoc '97): Often considered the peak of this style. Both of these guys would go on to be World Champion in WWE (Rey multiple times). And in WCW's infinite wisdom the main event of this PPV was a 44 year old Hollywood Hogan losing in a steel cage match to a 43 year old Roddy Piper. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W28jXlmyImc
Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko (ECW, 2 out of 3 Falls): I labeled this the WCW Cruiserweight Division style because that's the most famous iteration. But many of these guys were already doing the same thing in ECW and SMW before signing on to WCW. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzQn1pj5zhU
Blitzkrieg vs. Juventud Guerrera (WCW, Spring Stampede '99): For years, WCW had matches at this level multiple times per week. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK3KZQsFLSg
Spotfests
Main Practitioners: Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy, Shane McMahon
For lack of a better term, this is the style that cares little about story telling and logic and focuses on ridiculous stunts. A "spot" is a segment of a wrestling match and often has the connotation of something dangerous or high-flying. You would think that someone would eventually not catch a chair tossed at them by RVD, but it's been happening for over fifteen years now. These are sometimes derided for being shallow and needlessly ridiculous, but they are fun and certainly have their place. There are plenty of examples of guys dabbling in this, but it really did become a style in and of itself. Those ladder/TLC matches in 2000-2002 WWE have no other proper category. Sabu's Triple Jump Moonsault cannot exist in any other category. People getting excited about Shane McMahon is as illogical as any of his matches. But watching him deliver a Van Terminator to his aging father at Wrestlemania? That deserves at least a little recognition.
Hallmark Matches:
Hardy Boyz vs. Dudleys vs. Edge & Christian (WWE, Wrestlemania 17): Their second TLC match and probably the most ridiculous match this group was able to pull off. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1qWBfy1T8g&feature=related
Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn (ECW, Hardcore Heaven '99): These guys had several matches together, most of which consist of RVD jumping around for no reason other than the fact that it's what RVD does. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEaCe83BIzA
Shane McMahon vs. Vince McMahon (WWE, Wrestlemania 17): I thought about doing the match where Kurt Angle drops Shane on top of his head while trying to throw him through glass, but Shane doing a Van Terminator is too ridiculous to pass up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8o1shJoK54
US Indies
Main Practitioners: Bryan Danielson, Chris Hero, Samoa Joe
The tape trading generation. These guys watched all the previous stuff that came before them and then made their own amalgamations of those amalgamations. It all became very inadvertently post-modern (and if Thomas Pynchon were going to write a wrestling book, he would definitely create a subject similar to Bryan Danielson, a vegan nerd who one day dreamed of being the next William Regal). This is the generation that is just now starting to get mainstream exposure (at the head is CM Punk, who you can read my pithy thoughts on here: http://emailsihavesent.blogspot.com/2011/08/cm-punk-email.html ). The style itself is actually relatively recent in its inception. Early on, it was guys like Reckless Youth touring up and down the east coast hoping to catch the notice of one of the bigger promotions. But in 2001, both WCW and ECW folded and the indies exploded. Well, maybe not exploded. But they became the "it" place for the cutting edge wrestling fan to find new talent (much like music fans are always in search of the next hot band before they break). This ended up in a cycle that fed into itself and eventually turned guys like Punk, Danielson, Low Ki, and AJ Styles into huge names before they had ever appeared on national television.
Hallmark Matches: Unfortunately, the Indies closely guard their youtube clips since they make much of their money on tape sales. If you really want an extensive list of US Indie matches worth watching from the last decade, let me know and I'll send a different long winded email.
Hardcore
Main Practitioners: Sandman, New Jack, Balls Mahoney
Sometimes referred to as "Garbage Matches," partly due to the quality (in the eyes of the wrestling establishment (which does, in fact, exist)), partly due to all the garbage that ends up in the ring throughout the course of the match: trash cans, folding chairs, tables, etc. The Hardcore style is synonymous with ECW (though is by no means contained to ECW). Hardcore matches had been done before ECW. Plenty of old Memphis/Southern matches featured foreign objects and blood and brutality. But it never really had a name. ECW branded it "Hardcore" and then acted as if they invented it. A little like Grunge. Sure, it existed before Nirvana and Pearl Jam. But it was never really categorized or emphasized. These matches were pretty extreme at the time. But they had nothing on the next evolution.
Hallmark Matches:
Sabu vs. Sandman (ECW, Stairway to Hell): It's a ladder match where the suspended object is barbwire. Classic ECW. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSQ1SBenJ_0
Raven & Stevie Richards vs. The Pitbulls (ECW, Double Dog Collar Match): Typically cited as one of ECW's high water marks. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Om5fgdCRbo
Triple H vs. Cactus Jack (WWE, Royal Rumble 2000): About as violent as WWE has ever gotten (with one upcoming exception). HHH takes a lot of shit from the internet fans, but the guy was willing to go all out for this one and keeps up with Foley every step of the way. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGasHD3Mfuw
Death Matches
Main Practitioners: Necrobutcher, the young Mick Foley, Tomoaki Honma
Remember that scene in Event Horizon? I probably don't even need to describe it. If you've seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about. But in case you don't, it's the scene where they finally unscramble the video tape and they see the previous crew being butchered and tortured. Well, that's kind of like the experience of watching a real Death Match for the first time. These are like the graphic horror movies of the wrestling world...but with far more blood. Like most things in the wrestling world, Death Matches were first hatched in Japan. Barbed wire had been used before, but mostly as a Boogie Man whose use signaled that the match was nearing completion. Death Matches were about using the weapons from start to finish. Barbed wire, light tubes, scissors, thumb tacks, weed whackers, fire, panes of glass...all have been used extensively in the last decade. So, if stomach turning violence is your thing, there's nothing better than watching the Necrobutcher carve up some meth addict at a fair ground in Delaware (unfortunately, I cannot find footage of this on youtube).
Hallmark Matches:
Mankind vs. The Undertaker (WWE, Hell in a Cell): If you define a deathmatch as a match where you legitimately thought one of the competitors would die, this certainly fits the bill and is by far the most high profile deathmatch of all time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJGF01k9wkg
Tomoaki Honma vs. Ryuji Yamakawa (Big Japan): Big Japan was on the cutting edge (get it?) of deathmatches and the epic Honma/Yamakawa bouts were the sleazy version of Misawa/Kawada. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l22l1SYAAh0
Divas
Main Practitioners: Trish Stratus, Lita, Kelly Kelly
"Divas" are what WWE calls their female wrestlers. Their priorities are to 1) look good, 2) be willing to demean themselves, 3) have big breasts, and Last) be competent in the ring. Pretty bleak. But believe it or not, there was a semi-golden age of Divas wrestling in WWE not too long ago. Trish Stratus went from being a fitness model who was forced to literally bark in the ring to a shockingly good female wrestler. Also on the roster was Lita, who, in addition to being really good at dating other wrestlers, could move around well in the ring. And they got to main event Raw one week. And it was really good. And then WWE remembered that they don't give a shit about women's wrestling and went back to the Divas formula. Oh well.
Hallmark Matches:
Trish Stratus vs. Lita (WWE): The aforementioned match. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buh7PLMRlLo
Comedy Wrestling
Main Practitioners: Ebessan, Colt Cabana, Buffalo Elmo
Even Greek tragedies had Satyr plays. I have no idea where these things evolved from. I just know that they exist. In Duck Soup, there's a scene where Chico and Harpo Marx get into a scrap with a lemonade vendor (actually, there might be two scenes where that happens...whatever). It goes on and on with the lemonade vendor getting increasingly frustrated. That's kind of like what happens in every Ebessan vs. Kuishinbo Kamen match. And there are a lot of them. And it's usually the two of them frustrating the hapless referee. Here in New York there is a full on comedy wrestling league with weekly shows and bi-monthly "pay-per-views." Only in wrestling could I be sitting in a comedy theater and get all worked up about Marz "The Black Planet" losing a retirement match to a guy who does a racist/homophobic Beastie Boys character.
Hallmark Matches:
Ebessan vs. Kuishinbo Kamen (Osaka Pro): I'm pretty sure these guys have wrestled each other like 300 times. Here is one of those matches. This takes place in a high school gym or something where a good chunk of the crowd is sitting on the floor. Now that's a wrestling venue! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W65MrwTqusQ
Backyard Wrestling
Main Practitioners: The weird guys you knew in high school, Insane Clown Posse fans
I got up to 19 and decided that I needed a nice round number. Backyard wrestling exists, people buy the tapes, and some of the guys have ended up being legitimate wrestlers. So, despite the WWE "Don't Try This At Home" campaign, trying it at home ended up working pretty well for guys Mick Foley, RVD, Matt & Jeff Hardy, and numerous others.
Hallmark Matches: You probably won't believe this, but my knowledge of backyard wrestling is not quite extensive.
Phew! That was exhausting. Let's put this one to bed.
If you know someone that might like to read two dozen paragraphs of pro wrestling minutiae, please feel free to forward this on.
If you'd like to read about other minutiae that interests me to a pathological degree, please visit my half-assed, seldom updated "blog" at www.emailsihavesent.blogspot.com
Mike Coast
Original Date Sent: November 7, 2011
Sent to: The usual group.
Context: This one is a perfect example of my attitude toward these emails. One of my brothers (biological brothers...not one of the "bro's") had gotten into Japanese wrestling. He liked what he saw, but he said something along the lines of how he enjoyed the New Japan Junior Heavyweights and what matches would I recommend. Well...that of course got my wheels spinning. "I should write an email about that!" However, to explain what made the NJPW Jr.'s so special, I would have to go into the history of how the style developed AND the influence it had on later forms of Professional Wrestling. Well, I got so deep down that rabbit hole that I decided to scrap the initial idea and just write about the different Pro Wrestling styles. So I picked out 12...and then it went to 16...and then it further inflated to 20. This is the result.
If you are receiving this email, it means your spam filter is broken. I suggest you fix it. In the mean time, here is what is likely (okay, definitely) the dorkiest email yet. And probably the longest. Not the longest yet, but the longest that I will ever write. This thing may crash your phone. So hold onto your hats and get ready for the...
PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING STYLES PRIMER
For most, Pro Wrestling is just a fake fight between two freakishly big men. But it's so much more than that! There are several different permutations of how people can fake fight each other. This is a rough guide to navigating the myriad styles of pro wrestling throughout the world.
WWE Main Event Style
Main Practitioners: Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker, Stone Cold Steve Austin, HHH, John Cena
This is what most people think of when they think of pro wrestling. It's very basic "work the crowd, good guy vs. bad guy" formula has been going strong for over three decades now and shows no signs of stopping. When French philosopher Roland Barthes wrote about Professional Wrestling in the 50s, he posited that people reacted so strongly to the in-ring actions because wrestling appealed to their sense of justice. The bad guy did something to knock the universe for a loop and the good guy beat him up to correct it. It's the most basic of human theater. And it's also made WWE into one of the world's foremost entertainment enterprises. Sure, Hulk Hogan isn't one of the greatest in-ring performers in the world. But WWE Main Event style is about connecting to the fans on a more primal level. Don't you love America? So does Hulk Hogan! Boss giving you problems? Live vicariously through Stone Cold! Is your penchant for spitting water in the air frowned upon by society? HHH has no such problem. These matches have no problem with guys recovering from injuries faster than Wolverine, copious amounts of interference, and ridiculous stipulations. This is also a style that is very good at concealing the weaknesses of limited workers. Ironically enough, one of the prime examples of this type of style is Goldberg when he ran roughshod over WCW. And yet when he came over to WWE they were just never able to recapture the momentum that he had during his initial WCW run.
Hallmark Matches:
The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan (WWE, Wrestlemania 18): A perfect example. Barely anything happens, but the crowd is absolutely rabid for the faceoff between two legends. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUrxFzynrjs&feature=fvst
Triple H vs. Undertaker (WWE, Wrestlemania 17): From the best Wrestlemania ever. This was from Undertaker's ridiculous Biker period. This was just before HHH became the most hated man on the internet. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q8-rNkbx_c&feature=related
Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant (WWE, Wrestlemania 3): Again, there's not much to the match if you're watching it in a vacuum. Fortunately it's not in a vacuum, it's in front of 93,000 fans. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPM6Wplm3iM
Southern Style
Main Practitioners: Ric Flair, Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes
The rival form of WWE Main event style in America. The Southern Style is also about building crowd heat and making an emotional connection with the fans (this will be a familiar refrain). But the contrast comes in the personalities. WWE has long been criticized for being a human cartoon with broad gimmicks and outsized personalities. The NWA (the one without Dr. Dre) and later WCW featured characters that were slightly more true to life. As ridiculous as Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes were, they still were grounded in some kind of reality (and yes, I'm aware of the epic awfulness of a lot of WCW's characters in their later years. But to their credit, they usually kept these guys away from the main event). The matches themselves are usually based around the bad guy picking out a body part and just going to work on it. The good guy then either overcomes the odds and makes a big comeback or the bad guy decimates him and leaves him crippled on the mat. The best example is Ric Flair working over his opponent's leg as a set-up for the Figure Four leglock. Another good example is Harley Race punching his opponent in the face until said opponent no longer has a face. The enduring legacy of Southern Style matches is that the tag format is used in pretty much every tag match on this continent to this very day (match starts even with the good guys frustrating the bad guys, bad guys cut off one of the good guys and work him over for a long time (called the "Face in Peril" segment), good guy finally tags in his partner and all hell breaks loose). Trust me, watch any tag match in the last twenty years and it will probably have this format.
Hallmark Matches:
Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat (NWA, Chi-Town Rumble): You could pick any of the three high profile matches these two had in 1989. I picked this one because I was able to find it on youtube. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDRlJFWvEfY
Dusty Rhodes vs. Harley Race (NWA): Just the finish to the match. But you get an idea of how the crowd reacted differently to what these guys were doing than to what the WWE was doing up North. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H99R1QcgbVw
Midnight Express vs. Rock n Roll Express (NWA): This match has the raddest collection of mullets you'll ever see. And it's a great application of the Southern Tag formula by the teams that perfected it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2Z2OkpvpF0
Memphis Style
Main Practitioners: Jerry "The King" Lawler, Randy Savage, Junkyard Dog
Memphis has long been a hotbed of pro wrestling, peaking from a pop culture standpoint as the location of the famous Andy Kaufman vs. Jerry Lawler matches (which actually went on way longer than people realize. I saw a special on it once when I was a kid and it looked like the most awesome thing ever and included Kaufman making peace with Lawler only to betray him later on). The Memphis Style is a precursor to the WWE Main Event style, but with more punching, more interference, and more race baiting. Back in the late 90's, WWE would send their young guys to Memphis to learn that style because it translated so easily to what they did at the top level. I'm not sure that I've ever seen a top-level Memphis match that had a clean finish (that is, an ending without outside interference, cheating, a referee error, or some other shenanigans). Also, if you take a piledriver (Lawler's finishing move) in Memphis, you're dead. You won't appear on TV or at a live show for another month. If you go out to lunch without a neck brace on during that time period, you won't be welcome back in Tennessee for the rest of your life. Certain territories have built up moves like that in the past (Kobashi's Burning Hammer, Hogan's Leg Drop, etc.), but nothing like the piledriver in Memphis (again, Andy Kaufman gets mucho points here for doing his broken neck bit on Letterman).
Hallmark Matches:
Tommy Rich vs. Jerry Lawler (CWA): Typical Memphis. Tons of punches, some blood, and a lot of extracurricular activity. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuYx_R6te3c
Jerry Lawler & Randy Savage vs. King Kong Bundy & Rick Rude (CWA, No DQ): Worth clicking on just for Randy Savage continually walking in front of Jerry Lawler while Lawler is giving an interview before the match. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g_wr21Gp3w
Bonus Clip: Andy Kaufman and Jerry Lawler face off on Letterman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSn-pvZopns
Stampede Style
Main Practitioners: Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Chris Benoit
Basically, this is the style of the Hart Family and the people that trained in the Hart family dungeon (seriously, they called it a dungeon). The name comes from the Canadian wrestling promotion run by the Harts, Stampede Wrestling. For lack of a better definition, this is what Bret Hart used to do. Technical wrestling, exuding professionalism, and having your character be best described as "Serious Professional Wrestler." These guys tend to be from Western Canada, know every move in the book, and have traveled the world twice over before heading to the big leagues. If you're like me, you consider the most appealing part of wrestling to be how the participants tell a story in the ring. If the Stampede guys were a movie, they would be an intense docudrama. If you've ever seen the movie Hunger (about the hunger strike in prison by IRA member Bobby Sands (played here by Michael Fassbender)), you'll remember a scene where all the imprisoned IRA guys dump their piss into the hall (spoiler alert!). This is followed by a very long drawn out scene where a janitor mops up the piss. All of it. Down the whole hallway. In one unbroken shot that goes on for a long, long time. That's sort of like Stampede. It's wrestling in perhaps its most pure form. It is art imitating life. Real life, in all its disappointment and casual horror. This is how, we imagine, George Hackenschmidt and Frank Gotch would wrestle in front of 30,000 fans at the Comiskey Park in 1911. I don't want it to sound boring. It's really not. But there is certainly a refusal to resort to over-the-top theatrics.
Hallmark Matches:
Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart (WWE, Wrestlemania X): A bitter brother vs. brother battle. Like a Canadian Civil War. One of the great wrestling matches to take place on this Earth. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbZL56QEgcE
Bret Hart vs. Chris Benoit (WCW, Owen Hart Tribute Show): In a raw, emotional moment in Bret's life, he turned to wrestling and delivered one of his greatest, and yet still somehow cold and stoic, performances. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJCtJyKdy4w
Lucha Libre
Main Practitioners: El Hijo Del Santo, Negro Casas, Atlantis
One of the most misunderstood forms of wrestling. The common conception, even among most wrestling fans, is that Lucha is mostly short skinny guys who wear masks and flip around a lot. This is true to a certain degree. Lucha tends to be much more democratic in terms of who is able to succeed and move up to the top spots, so there is less emphasis on height/weight perfectionism. And yes, masks are a big part of the Lucha tradition. And sure, there's quite a bit of flipping around. But what most people think of as Lucha is embodied by Rey Mysterio Jr., Juventud Guerrera, and Psychosis due to their work in ECW, WCW, and later WWE. But these guys are kind of a style in and of themselves and are much more synonymous with the WCW Cruiserweight style that developed in the mid-90s (we'll get to that later). Lucha Libre is probably the most ceremonial of the wrestling forms. Watching it for the first time is a totally foreign experience (and not because of the language barrier. Japanese wrestling translates pretty easily). It is full of weird submission holds, guys getting knocked out seemingly out of nowhere, and stuff that looks way more choreographed than what you would normally see on American television. But once you're used to the nuances, there are very few things more compelling. Mask ripping, blood, twisting a guy apart until it seems like his limbs will fall off...it's all part of high profile Lucha Libre matches.
Hallmark Matches:
The Torneo Cibernetico (EMLL): Unfortunately, I can't find the legendary 1997 one on youtube. It featured some of the greatest luchadores ever in a 16 man elimination tag match that features some of the most freaked out stuff I've ever seen. It's worth scouring the internet to see it, if you're into that kind of thing.
Atlantis vs. Villano III (CMLL, Mask vs. Mask): The Mask vs. Mask match is always a violent, emotional affair and this is no exception. It was unthinkable for either guy to lose his mask at this stage, which makes the crowd all the more crazy for every near fall. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVETCPDjDj4
Eddie Guerrero & "Love Machine" Art Barr vs. Octagon & El Hijo Del Santo (AAA, When Worlds Collide): The famous Masks vs. Hair match that made Eddie an international superstar, forever colored the reputation of the late Art Barr, allowed Santo to emerge from his father's massive shadow, and, umm, Octagon was there too. Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KJ3jqqVRBs
Puerto Rican Lucha Libre
Main Practitioners: Carlos Colon, Bruiser Brody, Abdullah the Butcher
This is deeper down the rabbit hole than even I like to go. But from my experience, these matches are bloody as hell. And even then they're barely able to satiate the rabid San Juan crowds. This is actually much closer to Memphis style than traditional Lucha Libre (at least from what I've seen). Carlos Colon, the legendary figure of the style, has a forehead even more scarred and jagged than that of The Necrobutcher (more to come on him). Puerto Rico is also where a lot of the crazy guys of the 70s and 80s achieved their greatest fame (such as Abdullah the Butcher and Bruiser Brody). I'm pretty sure Atsushi Onita did a bunch of exploding cage matches there too. Unfortunately, Puerto Rican wrestling's association with violence got all too real when Bruiser Brody was stabbed to death during a backstage altercation with another wrestler (who was found Not Guilty in controversial fashion. He's wrestling's OJ).
Hallmark Matches:
Carlos Colon & Abdullah the Butcher vs. Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen (WWC, Lumberjack Match): As I said before, I'm not all that well versed in this type of wrestling. But this gives you the feel of what they were doing, especially after the match moves outside of the ring. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9glzWkFUt1g
European/British Style
Main Practitioners: Dynamite Kid, Mark "Rollerball" Rocco, Claudio Castagnoli
The British Bulldog, despite the name, is not at all an example of British wrestling as a style. In fact, despite marrying into the Hart family, he's not really even a Stampede type guy. Rather, he is a purveyor of the WWE Main Event Style that never quite made it to the main event (call it the Intercontinental style, if you like). Real British wrestling is wacky as hell, especially the early 80s World of Sport type stuff. It had rounds. Rounds! Like, they would take breaks in the middle of the match and stuff because the round was over. It seems odd to me that the sports that the Brits are so enamored with, soccer (sorry, Association Football) and rugby, are free-flowing sports with few stoppages compared to their American counterparts. And yet their wrestling (at least back then) is full of stops and starts and has a disjointed feel. Another hallmark of British Wrestling (and European wrestling in general) is that a lot of the holds and counterholds appear as if they're from another planet. For instance, the way that an American (or Mexican, or Canadian, or Japanese...) wrestler gets out of headlock is pretty standard. The way someone like Johnny Saint gets out of a headlock involves a twelve step process that involves stepping over his opponent twice and spinning around in a circle. It's weird and seems counter-intuitive at first, but it's a lot of fun when you get used to it. Oh, and before I forget, Mark Rocco probably has the best nickname ever. If I were about ten thousand times cooler I would insist on being called Mike "Rollerball" Coast. Actually, I wouldn't need to insist. It would just happen.
Hallmark Matches:
Dynamite Kid vs. Mark Rocco (World of Sport): In addition to being an awesome match, this is just so odd to watch. Half the people in the audience look like college professors. If you like this, youtube is chock full of World of Sport stuff. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb_beuE76aA
Johnny Saint vs. Jim Breaks (World of Sport): The previous match looks as if it could have been contested on the planet Earth. This one does not. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZpjqD_E71I
Puroresu
For most emailers, speaking about Japanese wrestling in general terms is good enough. But I've decided to break it down into several more categories. Oh, and if you're wondering about the odd name, it's short for "purofesshonaru resuringu" which is the Japanese pronunciation for Professional Wrestling. Fact of the Day! (not to steal Downtown Nick Brown's thunder)
Strong Style
Main Practitioners: Antonio Inoki, Shinya Hashimoto, Masa Chono, Keiji Mutoh
Strong Style is similar to modern MMA without all the terrible tattoos. In fact, a lot of the guys either came from or would go on to legitimate martial arts competitions. But the thing about simulated MMA is that there's an incredibly high degree of difficulty in pulling it off. Every strike has to look devastating, every submission hold cinched in for maximum effect. If not, the illusion immediately falls apart. Wrestling is all about suspension of disbelief, but Strong Style posits that wrestling is a sport (rather than entertainment or physical theater) and should be watched as such. There is no winking or nods to the audience. This shit is real and Strong Style dares you to say it isn't. The flaw, to me, if that MMA is fairly dull when the matches are long, drawn out affairs. It's much better (for me, anyway) when there are sudden, unexpected bursts of violence. But if a matched is pre-planned, it's hard to have those bursts of violence be truly convincing. But, to their credit, these guys are able to pull it off. And when they do, there are few things better. Oh, and it's not really that close to MMA in how it looks. It's still clearly pro wrestling. It's the mindset I'm talking about really.
Hallmark Matches:
Tatsumi Fujinami & Keiji Mutoh vs. Akira Maeda & Yoshiaki Fujiwara (NJPW): A perfect example of the mindset and structure that I'm talking about. It's about ten minutes of real wrestling moves and submission holds with a finish full of kicks and suplexes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZcVJV-hz4c&feature=related
Masa Chono vs. Keiji Mutoh (NJPW, G-1 Climax): The pinnacle of the style and one of the few times the NJPW heavyweights could look across town at All Japan and say that our guys are as good as your guys. It's sort of like how Donovan's "Season of the Witch" is as good as anything Bob Dylan ever did, but Donovan is still dismissed offhand as being the guy who tried to be Dylan but failed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-wC_Im7Qfo
Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki vs. The Steiner Brothers (NJPW/WCW, Starcade '91): One of the great things about the bizarre WCW/NJPW alliance is that you got ridiculous pairings like this. Kensuke, arguably the wea link in this match, would eventually grow into one of the most badass guys in the next style when he hit his forties and switched promotions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKrAm-hyYtM
King's Road
Main Practitioners: Jumbo Tsuruta, Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, Kenta Kobashi
King's Road is the 700 page novel of the wrestling world. The whole point of these matches is to tell a deep story with several layers of nuance in the ring. This is as close as pro wrestling gets to being performance art (if you're one of those that doesn't already subscribe to that assertion). The top feuds on the late 80's-1999 raged on for years. Most of the time, this leads to a stale product. Especially with the WWE Main Event Style. How many times can you really watch John Cena vs. HHH? But, to contrast that, how many times could you watch Misawa vs. Kawada? The answer is endlessly. King's Road is a close cousin of Southern Style thanks to an influx of American talent into All Japan in the 80s (Terry & Dory Funk, Stan Hansen, "Dr. Death" Steve Williams). Plus, the godfather of the style, Jumbo Tsuruta, spent time travelling in the South as a young wrestler. In most American wrestling contests, the beef is usually something like "You have the title and I want it," or "I'm a brash guy and you're a brash guy and this place ain't big enough for the two of us." With King's Road, everyone is stoic. No amount of cheering or booing will change their stone visages. These matches just feel more important. You can tell that they are about failed friendships, mortality, hatred, jealousy, nationalism, and the emptiness of glory. Oh, and the matches themselves kick ass. These guys hit harder, drop people on their heads at sharper angles, and unleash more physical destruction with their bare hands than anyone else in the world of pro wrestling ever. This is the pinnacle.
Hallmark Matches:
Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (AJPW): Misawa has just ditched the Tiger Mask gimmick and decides to step in the ring with the top dog of the day. A match that reverberated for the next decade. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMpHibYk4f8
Mitsuhara Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (AJPW): My pick for the best match of all time. Kawada at his most badass, Kobashi crying, a crowd beyond rabid for Misawa, and Taue doing his Taue things. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoWnvDSXM7A
Mitsuhara Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi (AJPW): I previously linked to the best of the Misawa/Kawada matches in the CM Punk email, so I decided to spread the recognition around some. This is where Kobashi transitions from plucky young lion to full-on King of the Jungle. It's not so much because of the result, but because for the first time in half a decade it feels like Misawa is the underdog. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSFkWJIuUiQ
Joshi
Main Practitioners: Manami Toyota, Aja Kong, Akira Hokuto
Another rabbit hole that I rarely venture down. Joshi is Japanese Women's wrestling. Some people don't use the term King's Road, but Royal Road instead so that they can incorporate the women of that time period as well. I've never really been comfortable watching this stuff. I'm sure there's some deep-seeded sexist reason for this, but I just find it hard to sit through. It's not because of the quality of the matches themselves. It's because these women DESTROY each other. Plus, they are more innovative move-wise than anyone else, which leads to the feeling that someone could break their neck at any time. If you watch a match today and you see a cool, unique move, chances are that it was invented by a woman in Japan.
Hallmark Matches:
Manami Toyota vs. Toshiyo Yamada (AJW, Hair vs. Hair): Like I said, this stuff is tough even for me. But this is about as well put-together a match as you'll ever see. These girls trade shots like Micky Ward and Arturo Gatti (if the traded shots originated from the top rope). Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sMla5Q3qUg
Akira Hokuto vs. Shinobu Kandori (AJW): As brutal, intense, and great a match as you'll ever see. Notice that I did not qualify that with "Women's Match." This is just flat out amazing. The ending is unexpected and yet somehow perfect. It became one of the more indelible images among the dorkiest of wrestling fans. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyxvGMJ2IBY
New Japan Juniors Style
Main Practitioners: Tiger Mask, Jushin "Thunder" Liger, Koji Kannemoto, Shinjiro Otani
Originally, I was going to do an email about the New Japan Juniors style. My brother was thinking about doing some exploring in this style, and I figured it might be worth doing a full email. But that quickly spiraled out of control. To really do it justice, I felt that I had to go into where the style came from and that involved describing all these different styles. So I decided to do this email instead (which also quickly spiraled out of control). New Japan was the home of Strong Style. The Original Tiger Mask (there have been four at this point, including the aforementioned Misawa) was no exception in the early 80s. He wrestled a hard striking, submission heavy style that focused on realism. But then he began feuds with two British wrestlers: Dynamite Kid (later of WWE's British Bulldogs) and Mark "Mike Coast's Nickname" Rocco (Wrestling under the guise of Black Tiger). As we mentioned earlier, the British wrestlers had holds and moves that seemed as if they were handed down from an alien civilization who were born with three more limbs than homo sapiens. Throw in that Dynamite also spent time in Stampede learning the Hart way of wrestling and you get an amalgamation of wrestling goodness that was completely unique to what people had seen before. Due to the incredible success of these matches, the Junior Heavyweights (defined as being under 225 lbs, but the weight classes aren't exactly as strict as those of boxing) of New Japan took up the new style and routinely outshone their heavyweight counterparts for decades. 1994 is often looked at as the peak year of Professional Wrestling. Wrestlemania X (with Bret vs. Owen and the Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon ladder match), the best of the Misawa vs. Kawada matches, the AAA "When Worlds Collide" PPV (with the legendary Hair vs. Masks match I linked to in the Lucha Libre section), and Shane Douglas throwing down the NWA Title in favor of creating the ECW World Title. The NJ Juniors are no exception, peaking as a style during the Super J Cup '94 Tournament. The lineup is a who's who of international superstars that includes two future WWE Champions (Eddie "Black Tiger II" Guerrero and Chris "Family Man" Benoit). The tournament included several classic matches and is perhaps the most influential night of wrestling of all time that doesn't end in the suffix -mania.
Hallmark Matches:
Dynamite Kid vs. Tiger Mask (NJPW): This is usually rated as the best of their matches. These guys had better chemistry than Nils Bohr. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn7QNZPYMP8
Jushin "Thunder" Liger vs. The Great Sasuke (NJPW, Super J Cup '94): Liger was the king of this period and pretty much became the definition of the style. Sasuke was an outsider and Liger gives him an appropriate welcome into New Japan. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnzcGpYSPNQ
El Samurai vs. Koji Kanemoto (NJPW): Oh boy. Kanemoto was formerly the least popular Tiger Mask and reinvented himself as a glorious asshole. El Samurai vacillated between "much maligned" and "that guy's pretty good." So, he averages out in the "tolerable" range. These guys really took it to each other and proved they could put on a match just as good as what everyone else was doing. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EpG8c66bUQ
Lucharesu
Main Practitioners: Ultimo Dragon, Great Sasuke, Ricky Marvin
The hybrid of Lucha and Puro that had its beginnings in New Japan but gradually matured into its own form in the latter half of the 90s. Lucharesu abandoned the pageantry of pure Lucha and the pretensions of Strong Style to form a fast-paced, exciting style that is a joy to watch when done well. I don't think it's in the rulebook or anything, but I'm pretty sure every one of these matches is required to include at least one ridiculous, life-shortening top rope dive to the floor. This style really got crazy with the establishment of the Japanese Indie Michinoku Pro. The company regularly featured crazy six, eight, and ten man tag matches that blew up the primitive internet at the time. The matches featured a loose alliance of goody-goods like Great Sasuke, Ultimo Dragon, and Super Delfin against the ridiculously balls out awesome Kaientai DX (yes, the Kaientai name (and a couple wrestlers) was later co-opted by WWE, but the DX has nothing to do with Degeneration X). KDX was beyond awesome and it's too bad they became such a joke in WWE. It's a little like watching Warren Oates putz around in Stripes when he should have been strangling John Candy and banging the two chicks. After M-Pro faded away, the style was taken to even more ridiculous levels in Toryumon and Dragon Gate and continues to blow people's minds today.
Hallmark Matches:
Kaientai DX vs. Random Michinoku Pro Guys (M-Pro, 3rd Anniversary Show): I don't mean to be dismissive of the guys across the ring as there are some fine wrestlers among them. But this is all about Kaientai DX and how awesome they are. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNqkwY4pP2Q
Crazy MAX vs. Dragon Kid & Magnum Tokyo & Ryo Saito vs. 3 other guys (Toryumon): Again, not to be dismissive, but Crazy MAX (CIMA/SUWA/Don Fuji) were like my favorite thing in wrestling when I was sixteen. I even met CIMA once at a Ring of Honor event years later. This is nine guys just doing crazy shit for your entertainment.
WCW Cruiserweight Division
Main Practitioners: Rey Mysterio Jr., Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko
Throughout the 90's, WCW had a loose relationship with New Japan. This included some talent exchanges, joint PPVs, and, most importantly, gave WCW an inside track on a lot of the hot young North American talent who were making their names in Japan at the time. WCW signed a lot of these guys (some of whom had also been lighting it up in ECW): Benoit, Guerrero, Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, Juventud Guerrera, Psicosis, Steven Regal, Fit Finlay, Dean Malenko, and Ultimo Dragon. WCW then, like most times in their history, had no idea what to do. So they decided to just have these guys fight each other. The revived the Cruiserweight Title in 1996 and basically let these guys put on a show two nights a week. Not all these guys were in that specific division, they were all on relatively the same tier, that is, the one right below the glass ceiling that Hogan, Hall, Nash, and Flair stood on top of. The style was basically a more mainstream hybrid of what had been happening in New Japan with a couple tweaks. More emphasis was placed on matches being "a clash of styles," while it was really more the opposite. Most of the guys in the division were well versed in the various styles and this supposed "clash" was in fact the very heart of the style.
Hallmark Matches:
Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. (WCW, Halloween Havoc '97): Often considered the peak of this style. Both of these guys would go on to be World Champion in WWE (Rey multiple times). And in WCW's infinite wisdom the main event of this PPV was a 44 year old Hollywood Hogan losing in a steel cage match to a 43 year old Roddy Piper. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W28jXlmyImc
Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko (ECW, 2 out of 3 Falls): I labeled this the WCW Cruiserweight Division style because that's the most famous iteration. But many of these guys were already doing the same thing in ECW and SMW before signing on to WCW. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzQn1pj5zhU
Blitzkrieg vs. Juventud Guerrera (WCW, Spring Stampede '99): For years, WCW had matches at this level multiple times per week. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK3KZQsFLSg
Spotfests
Main Practitioners: Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy, Shane McMahon
For lack of a better term, this is the style that cares little about story telling and logic and focuses on ridiculous stunts. A "spot" is a segment of a wrestling match and often has the connotation of something dangerous or high-flying. You would think that someone would eventually not catch a chair tossed at them by RVD, but it's been happening for over fifteen years now. These are sometimes derided for being shallow and needlessly ridiculous, but they are fun and certainly have their place. There are plenty of examples of guys dabbling in this, but it really did become a style in and of itself. Those ladder/TLC matches in 2000-2002 WWE have no other proper category. Sabu's Triple Jump Moonsault cannot exist in any other category. People getting excited about Shane McMahon is as illogical as any of his matches. But watching him deliver a Van Terminator to his aging father at Wrestlemania? That deserves at least a little recognition.
Hallmark Matches:
Hardy Boyz vs. Dudleys vs. Edge & Christian (WWE, Wrestlemania 17): Their second TLC match and probably the most ridiculous match this group was able to pull off. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1qWBfy1T8g&feature=related
Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn (ECW, Hardcore Heaven '99): These guys had several matches together, most of which consist of RVD jumping around for no reason other than the fact that it's what RVD does. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEaCe83BIzA
Shane McMahon vs. Vince McMahon (WWE, Wrestlemania 17): I thought about doing the match where Kurt Angle drops Shane on top of his head while trying to throw him through glass, but Shane doing a Van Terminator is too ridiculous to pass up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8o1shJoK54
US Indies
Main Practitioners: Bryan Danielson, Chris Hero, Samoa Joe
The tape trading generation. These guys watched all the previous stuff that came before them and then made their own amalgamations of those amalgamations. It all became very inadvertently post-modern (and if Thomas Pynchon were going to write a wrestling book, he would definitely create a subject similar to Bryan Danielson, a vegan nerd who one day dreamed of being the next William Regal). This is the generation that is just now starting to get mainstream exposure (at the head is CM Punk, who you can read my pithy thoughts on here: http://emailsihavesent.blogspot.com/2011/08/cm-punk-email.html ). The style itself is actually relatively recent in its inception. Early on, it was guys like Reckless Youth touring up and down the east coast hoping to catch the notice of one of the bigger promotions. But in 2001, both WCW and ECW folded and the indies exploded. Well, maybe not exploded. But they became the "it" place for the cutting edge wrestling fan to find new talent (much like music fans are always in search of the next hot band before they break). This ended up in a cycle that fed into itself and eventually turned guys like Punk, Danielson, Low Ki, and AJ Styles into huge names before they had ever appeared on national television.
Hallmark Matches: Unfortunately, the Indies closely guard their youtube clips since they make much of their money on tape sales. If you really want an extensive list of US Indie matches worth watching from the last decade, let me know and I'll send a different long winded email.
Hardcore
Main Practitioners: Sandman, New Jack, Balls Mahoney
Sometimes referred to as "Garbage Matches," partly due to the quality (in the eyes of the wrestling establishment (which does, in fact, exist)), partly due to all the garbage that ends up in the ring throughout the course of the match: trash cans, folding chairs, tables, etc. The Hardcore style is synonymous with ECW (though is by no means contained to ECW). Hardcore matches had been done before ECW. Plenty of old Memphis/Southern matches featured foreign objects and blood and brutality. But it never really had a name. ECW branded it "Hardcore" and then acted as if they invented it. A little like Grunge. Sure, it existed before Nirvana and Pearl Jam. But it was never really categorized or emphasized. These matches were pretty extreme at the time. But they had nothing on the next evolution.
Hallmark Matches:
Sabu vs. Sandman (ECW, Stairway to Hell): It's a ladder match where the suspended object is barbwire. Classic ECW. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSQ1SBenJ_0
Raven & Stevie Richards vs. The Pitbulls (ECW, Double Dog Collar Match): Typically cited as one of ECW's high water marks. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Om5fgdCRbo
Triple H vs. Cactus Jack (WWE, Royal Rumble 2000): About as violent as WWE has ever gotten (with one upcoming exception). HHH takes a lot of shit from the internet fans, but the guy was willing to go all out for this one and keeps up with Foley every step of the way. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGasHD3Mfuw
Death Matches
Main Practitioners: Necrobutcher, the young Mick Foley, Tomoaki Honma
Remember that scene in Event Horizon? I probably don't even need to describe it. If you've seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about. But in case you don't, it's the scene where they finally unscramble the video tape and they see the previous crew being butchered and tortured. Well, that's kind of like the experience of watching a real Death Match for the first time. These are like the graphic horror movies of the wrestling world...but with far more blood. Like most things in the wrestling world, Death Matches were first hatched in Japan. Barbed wire had been used before, but mostly as a Boogie Man whose use signaled that the match was nearing completion. Death Matches were about using the weapons from start to finish. Barbed wire, light tubes, scissors, thumb tacks, weed whackers, fire, panes of glass...all have been used extensively in the last decade. So, if stomach turning violence is your thing, there's nothing better than watching the Necrobutcher carve up some meth addict at a fair ground in Delaware (unfortunately, I cannot find footage of this on youtube).
Hallmark Matches:
Mankind vs. The Undertaker (WWE, Hell in a Cell): If you define a deathmatch as a match where you legitimately thought one of the competitors would die, this certainly fits the bill and is by far the most high profile deathmatch of all time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJGF01k9wkg
Tomoaki Honma vs. Ryuji Yamakawa (Big Japan): Big Japan was on the cutting edge (get it?) of deathmatches and the epic Honma/Yamakawa bouts were the sleazy version of Misawa/Kawada. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l22l1SYAAh0
Divas
Main Practitioners: Trish Stratus, Lita, Kelly Kelly
"Divas" are what WWE calls their female wrestlers. Their priorities are to 1) look good, 2) be willing to demean themselves, 3) have big breasts, and Last) be competent in the ring. Pretty bleak. But believe it or not, there was a semi-golden age of Divas wrestling in WWE not too long ago. Trish Stratus went from being a fitness model who was forced to literally bark in the ring to a shockingly good female wrestler. Also on the roster was Lita, who, in addition to being really good at dating other wrestlers, could move around well in the ring. And they got to main event Raw one week. And it was really good. And then WWE remembered that they don't give a shit about women's wrestling and went back to the Divas formula. Oh well.
Hallmark Matches:
Trish Stratus vs. Lita (WWE): The aforementioned match. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buh7PLMRlLo
Comedy Wrestling
Main Practitioners: Ebessan, Colt Cabana, Buffalo Elmo
Even Greek tragedies had Satyr plays. I have no idea where these things evolved from. I just know that they exist. In Duck Soup, there's a scene where Chico and Harpo Marx get into a scrap with a lemonade vendor (actually, there might be two scenes where that happens...whatever). It goes on and on with the lemonade vendor getting increasingly frustrated. That's kind of like what happens in every Ebessan vs. Kuishinbo Kamen match. And there are a lot of them. And it's usually the two of them frustrating the hapless referee. Here in New York there is a full on comedy wrestling league with weekly shows and bi-monthly "pay-per-views." Only in wrestling could I be sitting in a comedy theater and get all worked up about Marz "The Black Planet" losing a retirement match to a guy who does a racist/homophobic Beastie Boys character.
Hallmark Matches:
Ebessan vs. Kuishinbo Kamen (Osaka Pro): I'm pretty sure these guys have wrestled each other like 300 times. Here is one of those matches. This takes place in a high school gym or something where a good chunk of the crowd is sitting on the floor. Now that's a wrestling venue! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W65MrwTqusQ
Backyard Wrestling
Main Practitioners: The weird guys you knew in high school, Insane Clown Posse fans
I got up to 19 and decided that I needed a nice round number. Backyard wrestling exists, people buy the tapes, and some of the guys have ended up being legitimate wrestlers. So, despite the WWE "Don't Try This At Home" campaign, trying it at home ended up working pretty well for guys Mick Foley, RVD, Matt & Jeff Hardy, and numerous others.
Hallmark Matches: You probably won't believe this, but my knowledge of backyard wrestling is not quite extensive.
Phew! That was exhausting. Let's put this one to bed.
If you know someone that might like to read two dozen paragraphs of pro wrestling minutiae, please feel free to forward this on.
If you'd like to read about other minutiae that interests me to a pathological degree, please visit my half-assed, seldom updated "blog" at www.emailsihavesent.blogspot.com
Mike Coast
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Horror Movie Email
Original Title: Horror Movie List
Original Date Sent: April 13, 2010
Sent to: An old co-worker
Context: I was asked to provide a series of movie recommendations to a co-worker who had just gotten Netflix. This was the first of those. The other two, documentaries and film noir, have previously been posted. Names redacted to protect the innocent.
Here is your list. XXXXXX and I compiled it this afternoon. Blurbs are mine:
Halloween (1978) dir. John Carpenter: My personal favorite. Started the "slasher movie" genre, but doesn't delve into the trashy, exploitative depths that later imitators did. The classic opening scene sets the tone for the whole movie. And the music...wow.
The Thing (1982) dir. John Carpenter: Quite possibly the best in-camera effects of all time. But it's quite a bit more than that. Carpenter creates a feeling of claustrophobia and paranoia that few other movies can touch. The blood test scene is particularly tense. Plus, it has Kurt Russell in the early 80's. You want to see this.
An American Werewolf in London (1981) dir. John Landis: On second thought, maybe this has the best in-camera effects of all time. One of the better examples of the horror-comedy sub-genre (without having "unnecessary violence" like Re-Animator or any number of Troma movies). Plus it will remind you of the Warren Zevon song, if you're into that kind of thing.
Night of the Living Dead (1968) dir. George A. Romero: This movie gave me nightmares as a kid. The grainy 16mm B&W cinematography adds the sort of atmosphere that other horror movies envy. Sure, by today's standards the zombies are slow and fat and not very menacing. But the (copious) images of their pale bodies emerging out of the darkness are not something that you'll soon forget.
Creep Show (1982) dir. George A. Romero: A XXXXXX favorite. It's based on a horror comics series and is made up of several shorts that are loosely fit together (through a frame narrative of a kid reading the Creep Show comics, of course). Highlights include Stephen King "acting" and Leslie Nielsen playing a douchebag.
Rosemary's Baby (1968) dir. Roman Polanski: An upper-crust NYC couple just moved into a new apartment. They throw classy parties, discuss theatre, and get to know their elderly neighbors. The wife gets pregnant. It's not the husband's baby. The father is, well, you'll just have to find out. The whole movie is probably an elaborate allegory for class struggle or something. It is also creepy as hell.
Alien (1979) dir. Ridley Scott: Essentially a Haunted House movie in space. As the title suggests, there is an alien involved. I hope you've already seen this. And the sequel (which is happens to be one of the best films in the 80's Action sub-genre).
The Descent (2005) dir. Neil Marshall: I saw this in the theater and it scared the crap out of me. A group of female friends decides to go cave-diving for a weekend. This will really get to you if you're at all nervous about tight spaces. Or if you're at all nervous about being attacked while in these tight spaces.
That's all for now. I CCed XXXXXX so that he can add any comments or correct any mistakes that I've made. See you tomorrow!
Mike Coast
Original Date Sent: April 13, 2010
Sent to: An old co-worker
Context: I was asked to provide a series of movie recommendations to a co-worker who had just gotten Netflix. This was the first of those. The other two, documentaries and film noir, have previously been posted. Names redacted to protect the innocent.
Here is your list. XXXXXX and I compiled it this afternoon. Blurbs are mine:
Halloween (1978) dir. John Carpenter: My personal favorite. Started the "slasher movie" genre, but doesn't delve into the trashy, exploitative depths that later imitators did. The classic opening scene sets the tone for the whole movie. And the music...wow.
The Thing (1982) dir. John Carpenter: Quite possibly the best in-camera effects of all time. But it's quite a bit more than that. Carpenter creates a feeling of claustrophobia and paranoia that few other movies can touch. The blood test scene is particularly tense. Plus, it has Kurt Russell in the early 80's. You want to see this.
An American Werewolf in London (1981) dir. John Landis: On second thought, maybe this has the best in-camera effects of all time. One of the better examples of the horror-comedy sub-genre (without having "unnecessary violence" like Re-Animator or any number of Troma movies). Plus it will remind you of the Warren Zevon song, if you're into that kind of thing.
Night of the Living Dead (1968) dir. George A. Romero: This movie gave me nightmares as a kid. The grainy 16mm B&W cinematography adds the sort of atmosphere that other horror movies envy. Sure, by today's standards the zombies are slow and fat and not very menacing. But the (copious) images of their pale bodies emerging out of the darkness are not something that you'll soon forget.
Creep Show (1982) dir. George A. Romero: A XXXXXX favorite. It's based on a horror comics series and is made up of several shorts that are loosely fit together (through a frame narrative of a kid reading the Creep Show comics, of course). Highlights include Stephen King "acting" and Leslie Nielsen playing a douchebag.
Rosemary's Baby (1968) dir. Roman Polanski: An upper-crust NYC couple just moved into a new apartment. They throw classy parties, discuss theatre, and get to know their elderly neighbors. The wife gets pregnant. It's not the husband's baby. The father is, well, you'll just have to find out. The whole movie is probably an elaborate allegory for class struggle or something. It is also creepy as hell.
Alien (1979) dir. Ridley Scott: Essentially a Haunted House movie in space. As the title suggests, there is an alien involved. I hope you've already seen this. And the sequel (which is happens to be one of the best films in the 80's Action sub-genre).
The Descent (2005) dir. Neil Marshall: I saw this in the theater and it scared the crap out of me. A group of female friends decides to go cave-diving for a weekend. This will really get to you if you're at all nervous about tight spaces. Or if you're at all nervous about being attacked while in these tight spaces.
That's all for now. I CCed XXXXXX so that he can add any comments or correct any mistakes that I've made. See you tomorrow!
Mike Coast
Friday, November 11, 2011
Documentary Email
Original Title: Documentary List
Original Date Sent: May 3, 2010
Sent to: A former co-worker.
Context: A co-worker had requested a series of movie recommendation emails. I have already posted the one about Film Noir (and truthfully I had forgotten that there was one about Horror Movies and was legitimately confused when I re-read the first line of this email). I sent this a year and a half ago and obviously I would add a few more that I've seen since then if I were to write a similar email today.
Here is my third promised list for you: Documentaries. I've decided to omit music/concert docs since those tend to be the most subjective of all movies (besides Comedies, I suppose). Once again, in order by director, not quality:
Grizzly Man (2005) dir. Werner Herzog: Herzog is my favorite director, hands down. I could do a whole list just with his movies. Even his stuff that fails is at least interesting in doing so. This is the best of his documentaries. I think you may have said that you've already seen this, so I won't go into detail. All I'll say is that this is one of those perfect matches between director and subject.
Lessons in Darkness (1992) dir. Werner Herzog: As the Iraqi Army was fleeing from Kuwait after the first Gulf War, they burned the oil fields. Werner Herzog travelled to Kuwait and filmed the burning oil fields. He then married that footage to a terrifying score and a Science Fiction narrative about an alien planet that had destroyed itself. It's truly a unique work and captures images unlike anything I've ever seen. One of my friends from college who is a Herzog fan thinks that this is his best movie. Not best documentary, best movie.
La Soufriere (1977) dir. Werner Herzog: An island community sits on an active volcano. That volcano is about to erupt. One resident decides to stay rather than evacuate the island with everybody else. Who better than Herzog to then travel to the island and find out why the man is staying. Herzog had already established himself as one of the world's craziest film makers, but this was the most fully-realized evidence of his death wish. This one is only 30 minutes long, so perhaps this is your best starting place for Herzog movies.
My Best Fiend (1999) dir. Werner Herzog: Chronicles Herzog's relationship with mercurial German actor Klaus Kinski. Despite making five movies together, they were never friends. In fact they traded several death threats. To make the degree of difficulty even higher, two of the movies they made together were filmed in the Amazon rain forest and a third in West Africa. The results are incredible. Kinski delivers some of the most intense performances ever caught on screen and Herzog was rarely better than when he was working with Kinski. This is essentially Herzog's love letter to his recently deceased muse and nemesis.
Burden of Dream (1982) dir. Les Blank: Herzog is so fascinating that several documentaries have been made ABOUT him. This is by far the best. The subject is Herzog's frequently doomed production of Fitzcaraldo, the story of a white colonist in South America who wants to bring an opera house to the small town where he lives. The original actor got sick and dropped out...Herzog pushed on. A border war broke out in South America (the border where they were shooting, of course)...Herzog pushed on. Klaus Kinski was so maniacal that the natives that were being used as extras tried to kill him...Herzog pushed on. Several of the European crew members left the shoot when they thought that their lives were in legitimate danger from the elements, the war, and (most of all) the director...Herzog pushed on. What makes this great are the interviews where Herzog rails against his opponents and insists that he would rather die that leave the film incomplete. An absolutely harrowing look at a type of filmmaking that we will probably never experience.
Gates of Heaven (1978) dir. Errol Morris: The greatest documentary ever made. Morris was a Herzog disciple, but his films are much different than Herzog's. They are more grounded in reality, more interested in the humanity of the subjects, and never use voiceover. The subject of this one is Pet Cemeteries; the people who run them, the people who pay to have their pets buried there, and all sorts of others in the periphery. What makes it so great is that this could easily have been a point-and-laugh movie. Instead, you get real people telling their real stories with very little interference and no editorializing (besides the editing, but that's a whole sticky subject of its own). You laugh when the characters are funny, for sure, but it's a much deeper look about why we love our pets. I could go on and on about this but you really just have to see it.
The Thin Blue Line (1988) dir. Errol Morris: I once had an AD tell me (and the rest of the staff) during a production meeting that "We're not curing cancer here." For the most part, that's true. Very few movies matter. Very few movies can change the world. This is a movie that matters. It tells the story of a Dallas police officer's murder and the bungled investigation that followed. This wrong man was convicted and sentenced to death. This movie got him out of jail and led to an overhaul of the whole Texas criminal justice system. Of course, the guy later sued Morris for the film's profits. In addition to being important, it's also a great piece of entertainment filmed in a really unique way (the milkshake part comes immediately to mind). Plus the Phillip Glass score is a great piece of film music that totally captures the mood of the story.
The Fog of War (2003) dir. Errol Morris: Morris breaks out his brand new Interrotron camera to grill former Secretary of Defense (under JFK and LBJ) Robert S. McNamara. McNamara recounts his involvement in firebombing Tokyo during World War Two, his presidency of the Ford Motor company, and, of course, Vietnam. Again, Morris never puts in his two cents. He lets McNamara tell his own story and leaves it to the viewer to decide if he is a great hero or a great villain of history.
King of Kong (2007) dir. Seth Gordon: One of the funniest, liveliest, entertaining documentaries I've ever seen. It is about one man's fight to set the Donkey Kong world record and the videogame establishment that stands in his way. The true star is Billy Mitchell, the long-time world record holder who is worshipped in the videogaming community. He carries himself with a menacing accomplishment and compares himself to both the Red Baron and the Abortion Debate. Great subjects, great soundtrack, infinitely rewatchable.
American Movie (1999) dir. Chris Smith: The story of a broke, pathetic independent filmmaker trying to finish his low-budget horror movie while simultaneously trying to piece his life together...and pretty much failing at both. Despite the fact that the film almost openly mocks the subject, there is a great undercurrent: why we make movies. Mark Borchardt doesn't WANT to make a movie, he HAS to make a movie. The kind of desire is certainly commendable and a trait that he has in common with the greatest of filmmakers, even if he doesn't share their talent.
Pumping Iron (1977) dir. George Butler & Robert Fiore: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno (TV's Incredible Hulk) battle for the Mr. Olympia title. Arnold is the long-time champion and Ferrigno is the young upstart from Brooklyn trying to make his mark in the competitive bodybuilding world. The best part is Arnold discussing how weight-lifting is like sex. One of the few documentaries that can be considered "star-making."
Street Fight (2005) dir. Marshall Curry: Who knew the 2002 Newark mayoral campaign was so interesting? Corey Booker (sort of a small-time Obama) takes aim at Sharpe James (sort of a small-time Al Sharpton) contend for the position using what can only be described as Third World tactics. The lingering question: Who in their right mind would want to be mayor of Newark?
Hoop Dreams (1994) dir. Steve James: Two black highschoolers (one from a private school, one from a tough public school) in Chicago gun for basketball scholarships and a future. Dives headfirst into the underhanded world of college sports recruiting and camps. The film is especially good (in a heartbreaking way) in hindsight since neither kid was ever able to make it to the NBA and instead were spit out by the machine that they so desperately wanted to be a part of.
Brother's Keeper (1992) dir. Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky: Berlinger went to Colgate and this movie was filmed in that area. So perhaps I'm a little biased. This is really great. Four elderly brothers live together in squalor on a farm in upstate New York. One of the brothers dies under mysterious circumstances. When the police come calling, the community rallies around the outcasts. No movie better supports my assertion that Upstate New York = The South.
Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006) dir. Chris Paine: Paine is also a Colgate grad. Again, maybe some bias. The film talks about how GM released an electric car that was so popular that...it was taken off the market. The film explores the possible culprits and interviews several former owners (including Mel Gibson). It's a bit heavy-handed at times and jumps to a few conclusions too quickly, but makes up for it by being legitimately entertaining.
Man with a Movie Camera (1929) dir. Dziga Vertov: One of the first documentaries and one of the strangest. Vertov took his camera around Moscow and basically just played around with it. In the process he discovered the possibilities that the moving image could have. He also captures some incredible images of the daily workings of Moscow.
I'm sure there are many more that I'm forgetting. And a few that I excluded due to your "no excessive violence" decree. This will get you started at least.
Mike Coast
Original Date Sent: May 3, 2010
Sent to: A former co-worker.
Context: A co-worker had requested a series of movie recommendation emails. I have already posted the one about Film Noir (and truthfully I had forgotten that there was one about Horror Movies and was legitimately confused when I re-read the first line of this email). I sent this a year and a half ago and obviously I would add a few more that I've seen since then if I were to write a similar email today.
Here is my third promised list for you: Documentaries. I've decided to omit music/concert docs since those tend to be the most subjective of all movies (besides Comedies, I suppose). Once again, in order by director, not quality:
Grizzly Man (2005) dir. Werner Herzog: Herzog is my favorite director, hands down. I could do a whole list just with his movies. Even his stuff that fails is at least interesting in doing so. This is the best of his documentaries. I think you may have said that you've already seen this, so I won't go into detail. All I'll say is that this is one of those perfect matches between director and subject.
Lessons in Darkness (1992) dir. Werner Herzog: As the Iraqi Army was fleeing from Kuwait after the first Gulf War, they burned the oil fields. Werner Herzog travelled to Kuwait and filmed the burning oil fields. He then married that footage to a terrifying score and a Science Fiction narrative about an alien planet that had destroyed itself. It's truly a unique work and captures images unlike anything I've ever seen. One of my friends from college who is a Herzog fan thinks that this is his best movie. Not best documentary, best movie.
La Soufriere (1977) dir. Werner Herzog: An island community sits on an active volcano. That volcano is about to erupt. One resident decides to stay rather than evacuate the island with everybody else. Who better than Herzog to then travel to the island and find out why the man is staying. Herzog had already established himself as one of the world's craziest film makers, but this was the most fully-realized evidence of his death wish. This one is only 30 minutes long, so perhaps this is your best starting place for Herzog movies.
My Best Fiend (1999) dir. Werner Herzog: Chronicles Herzog's relationship with mercurial German actor Klaus Kinski. Despite making five movies together, they were never friends. In fact they traded several death threats. To make the degree of difficulty even higher, two of the movies they made together were filmed in the Amazon rain forest and a third in West Africa. The results are incredible. Kinski delivers some of the most intense performances ever caught on screen and Herzog was rarely better than when he was working with Kinski. This is essentially Herzog's love letter to his recently deceased muse and nemesis.
Burden of Dream (1982) dir. Les Blank: Herzog is so fascinating that several documentaries have been made ABOUT him. This is by far the best. The subject is Herzog's frequently doomed production of Fitzcaraldo, the story of a white colonist in South America who wants to bring an opera house to the small town where he lives. The original actor got sick and dropped out...Herzog pushed on. A border war broke out in South America (the border where they were shooting, of course)...Herzog pushed on. Klaus Kinski was so maniacal that the natives that were being used as extras tried to kill him...Herzog pushed on. Several of the European crew members left the shoot when they thought that their lives were in legitimate danger from the elements, the war, and (most of all) the director...Herzog pushed on. What makes this great are the interviews where Herzog rails against his opponents and insists that he would rather die that leave the film incomplete. An absolutely harrowing look at a type of filmmaking that we will probably never experience.
Gates of Heaven (1978) dir. Errol Morris: The greatest documentary ever made. Morris was a Herzog disciple, but his films are much different than Herzog's. They are more grounded in reality, more interested in the humanity of the subjects, and never use voiceover. The subject of this one is Pet Cemeteries; the people who run them, the people who pay to have their pets buried there, and all sorts of others in the periphery. What makes it so great is that this could easily have been a point-and-laugh movie. Instead, you get real people telling their real stories with very little interference and no editorializing (besides the editing, but that's a whole sticky subject of its own). You laugh when the characters are funny, for sure, but it's a much deeper look about why we love our pets. I could go on and on about this but you really just have to see it.
The Thin Blue Line (1988) dir. Errol Morris: I once had an AD tell me (and the rest of the staff) during a production meeting that "We're not curing cancer here." For the most part, that's true. Very few movies matter. Very few movies can change the world. This is a movie that matters. It tells the story of a Dallas police officer's murder and the bungled investigation that followed. This wrong man was convicted and sentenced to death. This movie got him out of jail and led to an overhaul of the whole Texas criminal justice system. Of course, the guy later sued Morris for the film's profits. In addition to being important, it's also a great piece of entertainment filmed in a really unique way (the milkshake part comes immediately to mind). Plus the Phillip Glass score is a great piece of film music that totally captures the mood of the story.
The Fog of War (2003) dir. Errol Morris: Morris breaks out his brand new Interrotron camera to grill former Secretary of Defense (under JFK and LBJ) Robert S. McNamara. McNamara recounts his involvement in firebombing Tokyo during World War Two, his presidency of the Ford Motor company, and, of course, Vietnam. Again, Morris never puts in his two cents. He lets McNamara tell his own story and leaves it to the viewer to decide if he is a great hero or a great villain of history.
King of Kong (2007) dir. Seth Gordon: One of the funniest, liveliest, entertaining documentaries I've ever seen. It is about one man's fight to set the Donkey Kong world record and the videogame establishment that stands in his way. The true star is Billy Mitchell, the long-time world record holder who is worshipped in the videogaming community. He carries himself with a menacing accomplishment and compares himself to both the Red Baron and the Abortion Debate. Great subjects, great soundtrack, infinitely rewatchable.
American Movie (1999) dir. Chris Smith: The story of a broke, pathetic independent filmmaker trying to finish his low-budget horror movie while simultaneously trying to piece his life together...and pretty much failing at both. Despite the fact that the film almost openly mocks the subject, there is a great undercurrent: why we make movies. Mark Borchardt doesn't WANT to make a movie, he HAS to make a movie. The kind of desire is certainly commendable and a trait that he has in common with the greatest of filmmakers, even if he doesn't share their talent.
Pumping Iron (1977) dir. George Butler & Robert Fiore: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno (TV's Incredible Hulk) battle for the Mr. Olympia title. Arnold is the long-time champion and Ferrigno is the young upstart from Brooklyn trying to make his mark in the competitive bodybuilding world. The best part is Arnold discussing how weight-lifting is like sex. One of the few documentaries that can be considered "star-making."
Street Fight (2005) dir. Marshall Curry: Who knew the 2002 Newark mayoral campaign was so interesting? Corey Booker (sort of a small-time Obama) takes aim at Sharpe James (sort of a small-time Al Sharpton) contend for the position using what can only be described as Third World tactics. The lingering question: Who in their right mind would want to be mayor of Newark?
Hoop Dreams (1994) dir. Steve James: Two black highschoolers (one from a private school, one from a tough public school) in Chicago gun for basketball scholarships and a future. Dives headfirst into the underhanded world of college sports recruiting and camps. The film is especially good (in a heartbreaking way) in hindsight since neither kid was ever able to make it to the NBA and instead were spit out by the machine that they so desperately wanted to be a part of.
Brother's Keeper (1992) dir. Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky: Berlinger went to Colgate and this movie was filmed in that area. So perhaps I'm a little biased. This is really great. Four elderly brothers live together in squalor on a farm in upstate New York. One of the brothers dies under mysterious circumstances. When the police come calling, the community rallies around the outcasts. No movie better supports my assertion that Upstate New York = The South.
Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006) dir. Chris Paine: Paine is also a Colgate grad. Again, maybe some bias. The film talks about how GM released an electric car that was so popular that...it was taken off the market. The film explores the possible culprits and interviews several former owners (including Mel Gibson). It's a bit heavy-handed at times and jumps to a few conclusions too quickly, but makes up for it by being legitimately entertaining.
Man with a Movie Camera (1929) dir. Dziga Vertov: One of the first documentaries and one of the strangest. Vertov took his camera around Moscow and basically just played around with it. In the process he discovered the possibilities that the moving image could have. He also captures some incredible images of the daily workings of Moscow.
I'm sure there are many more that I'm forgetting. And a few that I excluded due to your "no excessive violence" decree. This will get you started at least.
Mike Coast
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