Future Classics - NXT and CWC Quarterfinals results and praise

After a sub-par episode last week, NXT was back to being pretty awesome this week, with two great matches and a pair of showcase matches for Ember Moon and Shinsuke Nakamaure. New guy Steve Cutler got a brief chance to shine as well. CWC did its thang, as usual, and delivered two fantastic matches. WWE Network is killing Wednesday nights.

NXT started with a really great tag match between TM-61 and the team of Tony Nese and Ariya Daivari. Nese and Shane Thorn in particular were impressive in terms of mixing power and agility. The upcoming cruiserweight division on Raw is going to give the main event guys something to really compete with. Thorn and Miller picked up the win with their Thunder Valley double powerbomb thing. It's a slick finishing move.

The next match was where I realized how much I really like Ember Moon and should look up her earlier work in Ring of Honor. She seems like an all around good wrestler with a variety of offense; almost half high-flying anf half- power moves.. Moon took down Leah Von in a near-squash match here, but I'd like to see what she can do in a longer match.

Andrade "Cien" Almas took on Austen Aries again. This match was very good and I would have liked it to go on a little longer actually. Aries is one of the best bumpers this side of Dolph Ziggler and he bounced off of Almas's offense nicely. The match shifted in main event mode with the two exchanging blows while staggering. Aries won with a smoothly applied Last Chancery submission. Great match, and I think the crowd may have cooled off on hating Almas.

Steve Cutler got a shot at the NXT champ Shinsuke Nakamura for some reason. Maybe now he can afford to wash that vest. Shinsuke toyed with him for a bit then Cutler got to have the upper hand for a minute. The King of Strong Style turned it around and finished him off with a crunchy inverted exploder suplex and a knee to the dome. Samoa Joe (on commentary) got to watch the champ raise his former title belt at the end. Joe and Nakamura has such an intense main event and I don't know how they'll top it short of turning things into a bloodbath.

Meanwhile, the Cruiserweight Classic chugged along with quarterfinals action between odds-favorite Zack Sabre Jr. and his longtime rival and training partner Noam Dar. This was a well-paced wrestling match between two technically sound and very patient competitors. There is a stigma against the cruiserweight style among some of the "old school" and it centers around an imagined lack of psychology in matches like this. ZSJ and Dar proved them wrong with this encounter, building to a crescendo by having both men pick a limb and work on it in ways that were effective looking and made sense. Daniel Bryan even called it a "chess match" on commentary, and he wasn't wrong. The technical stuff built to some great near-falls and then some desperate submission attempts by ZSJ. When they rolled out of the ring together in a leglock, I marked out. ZSJ finished off Dar with a brutal Rings of Saturn submission and advanced to the semis to face Gran Metalik.

Rich Swann took on T.J. Perkins in the second match of the show. This was more of a trapeze act than the first match, but they settled into a nice story about Swann's leg giving out over the course of the match. It kept him from scoring several potential pinfalls and it made Perkins' win a bit bittersweet. While the display of respect at the end bordered on touching, it didn't have the personal feel of the ZSJ/Dar match. Perkins goes on to face Kota Ibushi next week.

I'm think Ibushi vs. ZSJ in the finals, but as the news of WWE's cruiserweight signings revealed, we haven't seen the last of the others either. Neville seems like the obvious pick for an inaugural Cruiserweight champ, but will the title be awarded to the winner of this first tournament? Whatever they do, I can't wait to see the cruiserweights on Raw and NXT moving forward.

As always, thanks for reading and follow me on Twitter (@ChrisBComics) for more heedless commentary on geeky things.

A tale of two nut shots - Smackdown Live marches toward Backlash

Smackdown's first brand exclusive network special (are they still called "pay-per-views"?) is this Sunday and last night's edition of the blue show was all about hyping those new titles and progressing a few feuds that are starting to take off. The first segment saw Daniel Bryan host an "open forum" where all six women in the Smackdown Women's Championship scramble got to plead their case. This led to the heels, Natalya, Alexa Bliss, and Carmella cornering poor Becky Lynch before her fellow babyfaces Nikki Bella and Naomi could make the save. This set up a six-woman tag match for later in the night. I'll echo what I said last week: it's good to see all the Smackdown women get a chance to display their characters and evolve a bit from where they were pre-brand split. Lynch is the obvious fan favorite here, and it's hard not to love her. Carmella's heel turn has done wonders for her, but her in-ring stuff is still a bit soft. Alexa tried some interesting stuff in her brief promo during the forum, but she still feels underdeveloped, a la Dana Brooke on Raw.

Daniel Bryan continued to be a thorn in the Miz's side, putting him in a title match against Dolph Ziggler at Backlash. Ziggler sat ringside for Miz's match against Apollo Crews. Crews put in some work here, still impressive as an athlete but lacking in the intensity that I think would make him a real contender. Miz used Ziggler's distraction against him, scoring a pinfall in a formulatic villainous famous. I loved the bit where he used his wife Maryse to retrieve the title for him; she's a human shield against Ziggler's superkick. Shades of Macho Man and Miss Elizabeth. Miz might be Smackdown's best heel right now.

Bray Wyatt sent a spooky message to Randy Orton via pre-taped video. Nothing new here, it's the same shtick Wyatt's used before. This feud seems like a good idea on paper, but I don't know what it'll do for either guy going forward. The outcome of Orton's upcoming rematch with Lesnar might add an interesting wrinkle to the story line.

The six woman tag match got a lot of time, which is always a good sign. Everyone played their parts well, but obviously Becky and Natalya were the stand-outs. Carmella did secure the win for the heels by getting a submission victory over Nikki Bella, so management must be high on her. Nikki got a questionable reaction when she got the hot tag, leading me to think some crowds aren't exactly going to embrace her as the main babyface. Not having Bayley or Sasha or Charlotte around makes this division look second rate, but if they keep giving the women time to grow like this, they'll be able to give the Raw gals a run for their money.

The Smackdwon tag title tournament continued. American Alpha beat The Usos in a surprisingly short match which led to a heel turn attack from the Samoan brothers. Their heel turn has been telegraphed for some time, and I look forward to a long feud with many awesome matches. Expect them to cost American Alpha the titles in the tournament finals.

Randy Orton responded to Wyatt's message. "At Backlash, Bray Wyatt won't know what hit him." He looked sleepy during this segment.

Kane squashed Fandango. The crowd really ate this segment up. Kane's beatdown of the week is becoming a recurring segment until his thing with Baron Corbin takes off.

AJ Styles was acting like a jerk backstage, repeating the mantra he stole from John Cena. "I'm the face that runs the place." Good stuff. Heel AJ has been fun to watch thus far.

Heath Slater and Rhyno beat The Hype Bros. to advance to the finals of the tag title tournament. Slater's saga seems to be catching on with fans, and there was some endearing stuff with his family and kids at ringside. Hopefully he'll get that contract and Rhyno will get that above ground pool he mentioned a couple weeks ago. So . . . if the Usos cost American Alpha the match at Backlash, then that means out inaugural tag champs will be Heath Slater and Rhyno. Huh. What a world we live in.

 WWE champ Dean Ambrose and his challenger AJ Styles faced off in the ring before their match on Sunday. Dean presented AJ with an old bowling trophy and taunted him about getting crotched on the ropes last week. There was a heated exchange of words and both guys are competent enough on the mic to pull it off. AJ paid him back with a kick to the nuts which left the champ lying. I'm liking this feud and I hope we get more than one match out of it. The show ended with Styles doing his "gun to head" Bullet Club gesture over a prone Ambrose. Sunday can't get here soon enough!

While Raw was the easy pick for top show last week, this week both brands seemed to be on equal footing. There are some good talkers on Smackdown and a few talents that are great on their own, but seemed to be locked into feuds that don't work (Wyatt vs. Orton). Overall, good show.

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter (@ChrisBComics) and check out my other blogs like Back Issue Diving, Age of Mega, and Gotham Animated.

The K.O. Show

This week's Raw wasn't quite the emotional roller coaster that was last week's, but aside from a rough segment between Gallows/Anderson and the New Day, it was a pretty good show and a nice start to Kevin Owen's reign as Universal champion.

The show started with some backstage politics between Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley. Foley has a little more gravel in his voice this week and seems to be weary of Hunter and Stephanie's possible scheming. Is this the first sign of a return to the ring for Mick? Probably not, but he could nominate a surrogate in his place or even take Seth Rollins under his wing; we'll see how this unfolds.

With K.O. poised as the top dog for the time being, this week was about establishing his challenger, Seth Rollins, as a babyface. I'd say it was a success, especially after his match with Jericho. Rollins has that kind of dynamism built into his move set that works great for a fan favorite; I like the new role for him. Jericho is still playing besties with Owens, but I expect that to implode in on itself. That's two great challengers and countless great matches to look forward to. Factor in Roman at some point and Finn's return sometime next year and I think it's safe to say the Owens title reign could be epic. 

The Charlotte/Dana Brooke stuff isn't going as well as I'd hoped. Dana might need to temper her skills a bit longer in NXT. Bayley came out looking strong for the third week in a row, scoring a victory over the women's champion Charlotte. This match got almost fifteen minutes, a far cry from the Diva matches of yore. Good stuff between the competitors, but like I said, Dana isn't adding anything here.

A more intense version of Bo Dallas got a quick win over a jobber last night. I don't know what the ceiling is with Bo, to be honest. I loved the "Bolieve" gimmick and his upbeat, oblivious mannerisms, but they seem to want to try him out as a more serious heel. He's got the mic skills, and if given time to build his character, could be taken seriously as a U.S. title contender.

Sheamus pulled ahead 3-0 in the best of seven series with Cesaro. Apparently, some of the future series matches will take place at live events. Coupled with the upcoming Orton/Lesnar rematch, I see the 'E is taking serious steps to make their live events matter. The ongoing story here, with Sheamus slowly wearing down Cesaro's back and shoulder, has been great. It feels very old-school, no doubt the brainchild of some of WWE's great backstage talent and road agents like the legendary Pat Patterson. Cesaro has to start picking up some V's here or he's done. It should make for a very tense couple of match to finish the series.

The Shining Stars, Primo and Epico, picked up a surprise roll-up win on Enzo and Big Cass. (I hope this isn't a sign that management is cooling off on these two.) This sets up a TV feud that may get a pre-show match at the next PPV or something. This week's Enzo promo was especially strange. I love it when they go really far outside the box with their trash talk. It's refreshing and a nice change from the usual jibber jabber you here between feuding teams. 

Nia Jax destroyed another local girl, then started a tiff with Alicia Fox. I like Jax calling out the Total Divas girls and destroying them one by one; could be a fun role for her. Like her song says, "She's not like most girls." Braun Strowman also beat up another smaller opponent, although he seems to be making some progress on the card since he actually got to take on someone on the main roster (Sin Cara) rather than a jobber. We have two archetypal monster heels for both the men and womens' divisions. Jax is food for Bailey or Sasha, but I don't know where Strowman is headed yet. Maybe fighting with Roman over the U.S. title if he takes it from Rusev? I dunno . . .

Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson led a segment with the New Day that nearly put the otherwise peppy crowd to sleep. Follow that with another chapter in the Darren Young/Titus O'Neil feud no one cares about, and you have your mandatory half hour of lackluster wrestling content. Both segments were a bust. (WTF are they doing with my former Bullet Club guys? C'mon, man!)

Sasha Banks pulled a fake-out on Twitter yesterday, teasing "bad news". It turned out the bad news was for Charlotte because Sasha is back! (I feel like she never left, but hey.) Dana Brooke came out and they started talking and I got kind of mesmerized by the two beautiful women on my screen and forgot what was going on. 

Longtime rivals Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn met in the main event. These two could wrestle every night for a year and have a unique match each time. Needless to say, it was a good match and a nice epilogue to their spring feud, this time with Owens wearing gold around his waist. Zayn has been teasing a leg injury for his last couple of matches, and he continued that here. I like the week-to-week continuity as it makes the whole thing look less like a circus and more like a series of contests. Plus, with people still reeling from Balor's injury, it stokes the flames of Sami's sympathy inferno. Roman Reigns interjected himself at the end, and Foley gave him the opportunity to fight his way into the title match between Owens and Rollins at Clash of Champions. Do not like. Keep Roman where he was; Owens, Rollins, Jericho, Zayn, and Cesaro will be just fine.

Good show, but obviously not as memorable as last week's with the huge fatal four way and Owens winning the title. Raw has two weak spots right now, in my opinion. One is the undercard stuff that doesn't seem to be catching on and the other is the wonky New Day feud with Gallows and Anderson. Both can be remedied by canning the bad acting and letting the guys tell physical stories in the ring. Look at what Zayn is doing. Or Cesaro. Their providing the weekly soap opera, but without the corny skits.

Thanks for reading! I can be found on Twitter (@ChrisBComics) and on my myriad other blogs, including but not limited to, Gotham Animated. See you tomorrow for some Smackdown results! 

Wrestling word vomit to start the week

That's not a "worked" hug. That hug is a shoot.

Time to play catch up with some recent WWE happenings. First up, the Cruiserweight Classic, which is down to six competitors as of the most recent episode, delivered two big matches last week that were on par with anything you'd see in ROH or New Japan. Gran Metalik defeated Akira Tozawa, eliminating the man who eliminated my favorite, Jack Gallagher. This makes Metalik my new favorite to win. After a fifteen minute highlight reel of both wrestlers' best moves, Metalik finished Tozawa with his finisher, the Metalik driver, to win. I hope Gran Metalik makes future appearances, since the 'E's recent attempts at having a lucha presence on their roster with Sin Cara and Kalisto have kinda flopped. Rey Mysterio left big shoes to fill for anyone taking over the masked man role. Metalik could also probably pull off the "super hero" gimmick that they like to saddle other wrestlers with.

The second match of the show started with a pretty emotional backstage interview with Brian Kendrick. Kendrick has managed to draw some sympathy from the viewers, although he's wrestling like a heel. The announcers have also done a good job of detailing his life story in little bits during his matches. He's had run-in with the WWE's wellness policy before and that's hampered him, but I think he has a lot to offer as a Chris Jericho-esque mid level villain who can put on great main event style matches when called upon.

His opponent, Kota Ibushi is on the opposite end of his career. I've only seen a handful of his matches (most notably his recent Wrestle Kingdom appearances), but it's pretty obvious this guy is wellspring of potential and if treated seriously as a contender the way Shinsuke Nakamura and Finn Balor have, he could be a main event level star.

Kendrick switched from a heel role to an underdog babyface role as the match wore on. Ibushi played the young lion while Kendrick used opportunistic tactics to stay on top, eventually culminating in a wicked Bully Choke submission. Despite wrestling like a heel, Kendrick's promo before the match and his ties to Daniel Bryan and Shawn Michael's wrestling school swung the crowd in his favor. Ibushi was able to play to this without turning himself either; he's a young internet darling foreigner wrestler that the hardcores want to see make a big splash, but those same hardcores also want to see Kendrick succeed. It must've been a tough call for the "smarkier" members of the audience.

The CWC kicks ass. I'm all for presenting the King of the Ring tournament in this fashion or even a second Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. The short run "season" format of airing a tournament this way is a nice compliment to the weekly soap operas of Raw and Smackdown.

NXT was alright too, with the Revival being more dastardly and Shinsuke Nakamura starting off his reign as champion. (The Revival interview on Steve Austin's podcast was great; both guys are wrestling nerds who come from families of wrestling nerds. They're very old school in their thinking and are trying to emulate old southern wrestling more than Japanese strong style or Lucha Libre.)

Alberto Del Rio has stepped away from the WWE, this time even allegedly turning down a hefty sum to stick around. (They're all hefty sums to me, so maybe it was a low-ball offer, I dunno.) As a fan, it's a shame to see him go, but the roster isn't short of talent right now, so I don't think this is a huge blow. If the WWE is worried about their Latino demographic (as they should be, or any North American content generator for that matter), they have Kalisto doing not much at all and he's already proven himself as a guy who can pop the crowd. (Or give Gran Metalik a call!) I like Del Rio, but I feel like he isn't being used when he's there anyway, so it's for the best. Maybe he'll have a real run at ROH this time . . .

Both the possibilities of a Lesnar/Goldberg match or a Lesnar/Shane McMahon match are both pretty tired. As a longtime fan of the WWE, there are always, regardless of which "era" we're talking about, there are always things you can see on the horizon that you know are going to get shoved in your face for months and months of buildup. I never though the Lesnar saga (especially with Paul Heyman on the mic) would become one of those things. I liked when he destroyed John Cena and made a mortal enemy of the Undertaker but I feel like he's hitting that point that Triple H hit for me in the early 2000's where I just can't bring myself to care about his matches. He should be having real matches with Orton, or Rollins, or even a rematch with Reigns. Lesnar vs. Shane is guaranteed to be my sandwich break segment of Raw and/or Smackdown. Same with Goldberg. Do Goldberg fans remember watching Goldberg? Don't let the rose colored lenses of the Monday Night Wars era fool ya.

Thanks for reading my ramblings and follow me on Twitter @ChrisBComics where I shake my groove thing and plug my other blogs.

"Ow, my balls!" - A touch of Idiocracy on Smackdown Live

After a humdinger edition of Monday Night Raw, Smackdown came out of their corner swingin' with a couple of fun Dean Ambrose/AJ Styles confrontation, some new feuds teased, and the continuation of the Smackdown tag title tournament.

First off, the women's divison on Smackdown is starting to define itself through some great character tweaks. Naomi's new look and entrance is very "fire", as the kids say, and hopefully that will help her stand out from the pack. Also, I just like glow in the dark stuff. Carmella's heel turn seems to be working, as picking on Nicki Bella week after week is slowing turning her into a heat magnet. They have an uphill battle ahead of them, with fan favorites like Bayley and Sasha Banks on Raw, but protraying these women as fierce competitors rather than eye candy is a good start. I'll admit I was worried the Smackdown divison was going to be the more "Total Divas" of the two, but there's some good rasslin' in there bah gawd.

Ziggler called out Miz while he continued his ranting that started on last week's headline-worthy edition of Talking Smack. Miz played his part perfectly, portraying the hypocritical heel while I *think* people still want to love Ziggler after his brief title feud with Dean. The Dean/Ziggler match never lived up to the build, but this is a good spot for him right now since Miz talking trash about the beloved Daniel Bryan makes him a hated man in the eyes of fans, and Ziggler's style represents the opposite of the "cowardly" style Miz has been accused of employing.

A little bit of 90's Attitude entered the tag title tourney this week in the form of the returning Headbangers. This is a tag team I'd forgotten about almost completely, but once they got in the ring and mixed it up with Slater and Rhyno, I was immediately transported back to the good old days, when all I had to worry about was a spelling test and whether daddy would come home drunk or not. Slater and Rhyno went over (as they should) and Heath's quest to earn a Smackdown contract continues. I said it last week, but I like what they're doing with Slater.

Apollo Crews challenged AJ Styles and came up short after a backstage confrontation. Crews is wasted potential at this point and I think he'd be better served by a character change, as his smiling babyface persona lacks intensity and he's building a losing streak. The point of all this is really just to put over the fact that AJ Styles wants to remind us every chance he can get that he sent John Cena packing at SummerSlam a la Paul Heyman when Brock broke The Undertaker's streak. I like the story, but the crowd loves AJ too much to ever boo him, as least for the time being.

Kane beat a jobber calling himself The Milkman. I'm loving the use of jobbers on both shows; that's another throwback and it's better than burying guys on your regular roster. He had a little staredown with Baron Corbin as they crossed paths on the ramp. They did pretty much the exact same thing with Corbin while he was on NXT. He likes to hit his music before the other guys have cleared the arena. Expect alpha male shenanigans to ensue.

Corbin's match with the champ Dean Ambrose was a timid affair compared to Raw's main event last night, but both guys put in some work. Styles was at ringside for this match and his attempted interference at the end concluded with him getting crotched and Dean mocking him with a handshake. It was a funny ending to a so-so match. I think these two are going to knock it out of the park when they finally meet, but for now everything they do is going to rest in the shadow of Owens surprise victory on monday.

In conclusion . . .

Smackdown tried valiantly, but I'd say Raw put on the better show this week with that huge four way main event and the surprise turn with Hunter and K.O. at the end. Still, both brands are doing things that make me happy as a viewer and the emphasis on both brands has been on WRESTLING. It's a good time to be a fan and a hard time to be a hater.

Thanks for reading!
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Surprise eliminations - Raw hits Houston, Tx

WWE Raw invaded Houston, Texas this week. Big doings with the main event being a four man elimination match for the vacant Universal title. Let's see how things played out.

The show started with a promo from the four men in the Universal title match: Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Kevin Owens, and Big Cass. Rollins took easy jabs against his other competitors while Owens and Cass killed it in the comedy department. Reigns opted for deeds over words (good move) and cleared the ring. This was a nice way to set up the main event, and it was wise to let the talkers talk and not cap things off with an awkward Reigns promo.

Chris Jericho took on Neville, coming out on top with a Lion Tamer submission. Jericho did a great backstage interview before the match, mixing his usual pomous "gift of Jericho" stuff with some amausing antics. This is that match on Raw; the good one you want to see more of where they stick a commercial smack dab in the middle of it.

Nia Jax beat down another local gal. Like he entrance music says, she's not like most girls. Similar to Braun Strowman, they haven't put her in a proper feud yet, she's just squashing smaller wrestlers every week.

Gallows and Anderson did another skit, this time about sending the Dudleys to a retirement home. I've heard these guys on the Talk is Jericho podcast and they are quite funny when left to their own devices, but stuff like this doesn't always translate well with wrestling fans. I hope it doesn't hurt their momentum.

Sami Zayn beat Jinder Mahal in a short match. Mahal is already jobber status with his lack of a televised entrance.

Bayley and the New Day beat Dana Brooke, Gallows, and Anderson. This was a formulatic six person match designed to keep Bayley looking strong. This one got some time so everyone got to contribute a little something to the match. Nothing mind-blowing here.

Backstage, we learn that the winner of Cesaro and Sheamus's best of seven series gets a title shot. (I forgot this feud was even happening, silly me.)

Throughout the night, they aired video packages about the four men in the main event. Nobody does video packages like the 'E. NOBODY! But seriously, these were all pretty good.

Sheamus furthured his lead in the best of seven series by defeating Cesaro using a slam against the ring post and a Texas cloverleaf submission. Cesaro is starting to sell the wear and tear on his body. I like the progression of that and I hope both men keep it up as the series continues.

They showed a video honoring Mr. Fuji, who passed away on Sunday. The man was a legendary manager with a lengthy in-ring career of his own. Combine that with Gene Wilder passing yesterday and it's been an emotional week so far. 2016 has been harsh.

Braun Strowman beat and unmasked a wrestler named Americo. He's continuing to dominate guys until they find a babyface for him to feud with. I heard Strowman interviewed on Steve Austin's podcast and he sounds like a guy who really wants to develop his character and do something unique with his size. We'll see if he gets the chance; for now he's just your usual monster heel.

Sasha Banks did a pre-taped interview about her lingering injuries and was shut down by Charlotte. Banks didn't look very strong here, but Charlotte got some cheap heat and I guess that's what matters.

It was announced yesterday on social media that Brock Lesnar will have a rematch with Randy Orton at an upcoming live event in Chicago. That was never mentioned during the in-ring segment with Stephanie McMahon and Paul Heyman. This soap opera continues, probably culminating in something lame like Shane vs. Brock. I really don't want to see that. Heck, I've been bored to tears by Lesnar in his last couple of matches. He's going to need to give us a little more than Suplex City next time around.

Finn Balor status report: He'll be out for six months at least. He'll be back by Wrestlemania, so take that as some minor consolation. The Raw "brand" is really missing something special without him on it.

Dareen Young beat Titus O'Neil and no one seemed to care. This feud would be much more impactful is the Primtime Players had gotten a title run or at least been a team for a longer period of time. Bob Backlund has been the best part of all of this. I wrote a little about Backlund vs. Greg "The Hammer" Valentine the other day. You can find it HERE.

The main event elimination match started with 20 minutes left on the show. Owens capitalized on Reigns kicking Cass in the head and Frog Splashed him to score the fir elimination. (I like how they set that up earlier.) Then things got interesting when Triple H appeared and hit a Pedigree on Reigns on the outside. This helped Rollins eliminate Roman. (I guess we know where they're going with Reigns for the time being.)

Wait. Nevermind!

Hunter turned on his old protege Rollins and helped Owens win the title. I guess Owens is Triple H's "guy" now. That caught me off guard, whoa. Raw ended with Owens celebrating his win and the crowd chanting "you deserve it!" That was great, I really thought Reigns was going to win. Good stuff, WWE.

Alright Smackdown Live, you have your work cut out for you this week! Thanks for reading, and as always, you can hit me up on Twitter @ChrisBComics.

I'm not crying, I have salt in my eyes

The wrestling world lost another legend yesterday. I knew Mr. Fuji as the heel manager of wrestlers such as George "The Animal" Steele, the tag team Demolition, and of course, Yokozuna. He would toss salt into the eyes of his opponents, "blinding" them and helping his client score an underhanded victory. Yeah, he was often portrayed as an "evil foreigner", but hey man, jingoism is all part of the grand tapestry that is professional wrestling.

I'll be the first person to admit I'm a dumb mark. It's only in recent years I've come to appreciate wrestling from the pre-WWF era. Wikipedia has informed me that Mr. Fuji got his start by partnering with the gruesome King Curtis Iaukea and winning the NWA Hawaii Tag Team Championships in the 60's. A Google image search shows me they were quite a fearsome pair. 

This is going to perhaps seem like a weird tangent, but whatever. When I was born my mom was already in her late forties and my pop was even older than her. My dad was already an "old man" by the time I was around. We had a house fire when I was very little (pre-kindergarten) and one of the worst things about it is we lost a lot of pictures and personal effects. There weren't many photos of my dad from his younger years. 

(Oddly enough, friends and family would often tell me my mom and dad looked a lot like Sam and Diane from Cheers when they started going out.)

As a teenager, I finally got to see some pictures of my dad from "back in the day". My brain couldn't handle it. My dad had always looked a certain way, and this suave-but-rugged guy in the photograph just looked like an entirely different person. Cognitive dissonance much?

I had that same reaction to seeing the younger Mr. Fuji. This mean little man, who tormented my childhood heroes and occasionally parodied old TV shows with Don Muraco was once a fierce competitor. This man, who accepted his WWE Hall of Fame induction from a wheelchair due to having over nine (!) knee surgeries was once a cobra clutch applying, lariat throwing badass.

Respect your elders, and if you see an old timer you like at a con or a wrestling show, make the effort to say hello and let them know you appreciate what they've done. Some of these guys and gals don't make it out of the buisness with a lot of money, but they can at least know that someone cared.

Rest in peace, Mr. Fuji. I loved to hate you.