Joined: 8 Jun 2011 Age: 35 Gender: Male Posts: 15,319 Location: United Kingdom
22 Jan 2022, 12:47 am
Stone Cold Steve Austin, an idiot to many people, but in reality, a physically broken, bald man, hella strong, with good social skills & crowd control abilities and who ultimately had a good heart, despite his beer-swilling apathy.
McMahon has always had way more power & money than Austin - he achieves this by being a showman, which is what politics is about. But nobody really likes McMahon - and WWE loves Austin.
Joined: 1 Jun 2014 Gender: Male Posts: 78,192 Location: United Kingdom
09 Mar 2022, 11:49 am
I used to enjoy watching wrestling on TV in the 1970s. The big names in the UK included Mick McManus, Kendo Nagasaki, Giant Haystacks, Shirley Crabtree (aka 'Big Daddy'), Mark 'Rollerball' Rocco, and others. Wrestling was shown on ITV's 'World of Sport' show on Saturday afternoons, at around 4 pm as I recall, the commentator being Kent Walton. For a while there was also a midweek wrestling show broadcast at around 11 pm.
Here we have McManus, whom the fans loved to hate, against one Catweazle. I don't think I ever saw McManus lose a bout. Typically he would concede an early fall or submission, look for much of the fight to be on the brink of defeat, then score two late falls, or a knockout, often by apparently dubious means. Only half the contest is shown here - I don't know who won, but I would put my money on it being McManus.
_________________ On a mountain range I'm Doctor Strange
Joined: 1 Jun 2014 Gender: Male Posts: 78,192 Location: United Kingdom
14 Mar 2022, 1:25 am
One or two reflections on the wrestling I used to watch, which may or may not be applicable to the more modern stuff, which I don't watch:
There was a widely held view that it was all 'staged' or 'fixed', not to be regarded in general as genuine. I mean, look for example at the way Catweazle wriggles out of the hold that McManus had on him at the 1:50 mark in the video above! Also you would often see people like McManus apparently slapping or punching their opponents violently in the face, yet you never saw anyone with a bloody nose.
Another thing is that very few matches ever ended in a draw, unlike, for example, in football (soccer). You had the feeling that one or other contestant was always supposed to win. More remarkably, in contests that were decided by two falls/submissions or a knockout, you NEVER saw a final result of 1-0, always 2-1, very occasionally 2-0, or a knockout.
_________________ On a mountain range I'm Doctor Strange
Joined: 1 Jun 2014 Gender: Male Posts: 78,192 Location: United Kingdom
14 Mar 2022, 1:50 am
Here's Mick McManus v Bill 'Tornado' Torontos. I remember watching this live on 'World of Sport', must have been 1976 or 1977. Unusually, this ends in a 2-0 result. Very entertaining rounds 3 and 4. Torontos died relatively young in 1981, no idea whether this had any connection with his wrestling experiences.
_________________ On a mountain range I'm Doctor Strange