John Pollock andWai Ting discuss the latest news in wrestling/MMA including Ric Flair threatening legal action with WWE over “The Man” trademark, Raw and SmackDown receive new lead writers, and UFC’s return to Abu Dhabi this weekend.
At 30:14, Pat McAfee speaks to John Pollock about working with WWE, the creation of Watch Along, his WrestleMania incident with Michael Cole over a pair of shorts, and launch of The Pat McAfee Show.
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Music: “Down In New Orleans” by Giorgio Di Campo for Freesound Music
I want to play devils advocate against the calls that said All Out (and wrestling in general) is getting too dangerous.
Wrestling gets a bad rap being “that fake stuff”.
So then performers up the ante and start to take greater risks - realrisks. They perform highly athletic maneuvers and use their bodies in ways few athletes do.
Now it’s too dangerous. What gives? Is Gymnastics too dangerous because the wrong fall off the bars or high beam could result in a broken neck?
All of a sudden stiff “strong style” matches are too dangerous - but UFC and Boxing both present competition where the goal is to actually knock your opponent unconscious (sort of).
The most popular sport is known to result in massive damage to the brain. But we are going to cringe over how reckless the wrestlers are?
Did most people watch Havoc and think the tacks were real, not ginmicked? I assumed they were gimicked and the visual was the important part
Are we looking for weak punches, kicks that miss, and rest holds?
At the same time - it’s not like I’m into some of the reckless spots on necks. They are unnecessary. But largely I suspect these are highly trained professionals trying to protect each other and they know how to execute a move to get the most visual impact. Sure I cringe when they look over the top but isn’t that the point? For the performer to evoke an emotion or reaction? Yes, accidents happen - in every sport. I don’t fully appreciate the sentiment things are getting out of hand.
Hardcore wrestling doesn’t scream “we’re trying to make it look real” to me. It screams “we’re co-operating with each other as usual but with weapons”. The argument that it’s “less fake” doesn’t stand up in my opinion. The positioning of weapons, and how they’re used, further underlines the choreographed nature of wrestling if anything.
Personally I don’t mind it. I’d say I’m a fan of it if it involves wrestlers that know how to work and are having a hardcore match as a special match. When it comes to someone like Jimmy Havoc though, I don’t get it. There’s not much talent there in my opinion and it becomes the equivalent of watching Jackass. Which was shit.
I was generally speaking about the non hardcore stuff and then referenced my assumption the Havoc stuff was gimicked, but yes, use of weapons now is very staged. As for the non hardcore stuff, I stand by my argument.
