Showing posts with label wrestling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wrestling. Show all posts

Friday, December 08, 2017

ESPN 30 For 30: The Nature Boy Ric Flair (2017)


 

The film traces his epic career-from the creation of his blond Adonis character, through the glory days of the NWA and The Four Horsemen, to his poignant last years in the ring. Serving as witnesses are a Who’s Who of wrestling: Triple H, The Undertaker, Baby Doll, Shawn Michaels, Jim Ross, Ricky Steamboat, Sting and Hulk Hogan. As a pure wrestler, he was truly beloved. His “Woooo” showmanship was imitated by athletes from other sports, as well as the hip-hop community. But as interviews with family members and Flair himself reveal, his frenzied lifestyle masked the loneliness of a man who could never please his physician father and then ran away from his own wives and children-and toward an almost unbearable tragedy.  It was Ric Flair who popularized the boast, “If you want to be The Man, you gotta beat The Man.” In this film, you’ll get to meet the man


Friday, November 10, 2017

Wrestling on the AVE: MoJo McQueen "Fighting for His Mask: The Life of a Lucha Libre Wrestler"




Just wanted to repost and show my friend Josh from High School some love. We met in division class, and during our introductions we both mentioned wrestling being an interest of ours. Glad to see him realize his dreams of wrestling in the squared circle come to life. He's came a long way, with his evolution in the ring from mirroring two of his faves from WCW, Chris Jericho and Diamond Dallas Page, into creating a successful gimmick of his own creation, MoJo McQueen !!!  I'm proud of you man, I haven't always made it to your events, but I will make an effort going forward to support you in any fashion that I can !

CHICAGO, Illinois — It all started with a little channel surfing when Joshua Robinson was a kid.
"One fateful Saturday, flipping through the channels, I land on Galavision," recalled Robinson. "I see wrestling, and my eyes just got so big, because it's wrestling that I haven't seen before. I'm seeing these guys with these colorful outfits with these masks, and they're doing these flips and these rolls, they're doing all these cool moves. I'm like, oh my God, what is this?"
Fast forward several years, Robinson was at a wrestling school learning American-style wrestling. But then there was an opening at Galli Lucha Libre, "a hybrid of American wrestling and Lucha Libre," Robinson said. Since then, Robinson has been training and transforming himself as Mojo McQueen, his masked Lucha Libre persona.
"Mojo is a powerful wrestler, he also can be very technical, he can also fly in the air. He's a jack of all trades in the ring."

 Joshua Robinson, when he's not in his Mojo McQueen outfit, in his quest to become a Lucha Libre champion. Melanie Bencosme

Robinson spoke to NBC News as he was getting ready for a crucial Galli Lucha championship win.
"I've worked hard to build Mojo McQueen up. I've worked hard to become one of the best luchadors this company has to offer," he said. "I'm working hard to become the breakout star of Lucha Libre. Me losing this match, no, that's not going to fly."
Robinson then became Mojo McQueen and entered the ring.
He won.
Robinson's quest has encouraged others.
"I had a cousin actually tell me that Mojo McQueen inspired him to chase his dream of being a comedian, because he see what I did, how I started, he knew me ever since we were little, and I'm always wrestling, wrestling, wrestling, wrestling, wrestling on the brain."
His family proudly supports his Lucha Libre quest, including his 10-year-old daughter.
"Most of the shows, she actually sells my merchandise. She sets up the table, she'll put the stuff out there. She might ask me, "How much are we selling these for?" Or she'll just go ahead and do her thing, and that's that."
Robinson hopes his hard work and training pay off into a self-sustaining career.
"I just think that I'm just going to keep putting in the work, keep grounding, hitting the ground running. That's one of my goals is to make it there, but also, I want to go to Japan, I want to go to Mexico," he said.
"If I hit any of those goals, I think that would be a way for me to get, maybe get over to the WWE."
And as he works toward his goal, he's doing what he loves.
Check out the original piece here on NBC NEWS website with video:

Monday, February 06, 2017

Wrasslin' on the AVE: ROYAL RUMBLE 2017 RECAP by Alan Peterson

 




Royal Rumble 2017 Highlights


The Royal Rumble is widely considered to be the second biggest pay-per-view event held by the WWE each year. There is just something exciting about watching a 30-man battle royal decide the future headliner of WrestleMania. There was a lot of hype leading into this event with several huge stars set to appear in the main event, and the show easily surpassed the high expectations. These are the four biggest highlights from the 2017 Royal Rumble event.


Universal Championship Match


Kevin Owens was forced to defend his WWE Universal Championship against Roman Reigns in a no-disqualification match. Owens' best friend Chris Jericho was also suspended above the ring in a shark cage to stop him from interfering in the match. WWE fans love to criticize the wrestling ability of Roman Reigns, but he may have had the best match of his career at the Royal Rumble last week. This highly entertaining match featured a frog splash through a table, a powerbomb through the announce table and a brutal fall through a stack of chairs. Unexpected help from Braun Strowman helped Kevin Owens narrowly escape with his title.


Ty Dillinger Debuts


Ty Dillinger is one of the most beloved wrestlers on NXT, and he finally got to make his main roster debut in the WWE during the Royal Rumble match. The crowd went absolutely crazy the second his entrance music started, which is something rarely seen for someone that has never appeared on WWE television. While Dillinger did not last very long in the match, it was still nice to see him get honored for his great run in NXT. It should not be too much longer before we see a lot more of Ty Dillinger on WWE television.


WWE Championship Match


John Cena and AJ Styles had an epic match at the Summerslam event last year, but they may have topped that great match at the Royal Rumble. The two great wrestlers gave everything they had for the 52,000 fans in attendance in a match that will be remembered for many years to come. A series of finishing moves were landed by both wrestlers that led to multiple near victories, but John Cena ultimately got the best of AJ Styles. This was the 16th time Cena has won the WWE Championship in his great career.


The Wyatt Family Prevails


The Wyatt Family has been one of the best stables in the WWE since they debuted, but they have rarely gotten a chance to shine. That all changed when Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt were two of the final three wrestlers left in the Royal Rumble match. Goldberg, Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker got all of the attention leading up to the event, so it was nice to see two great full-time wrestlers get to showcase their skills. Randy Orton secured his second Royal Rumble victory by eliminating Roman Reigns. The idea of Randy Orton headlining WrestleMania may not appeal to some wrestling fans, but it should set up a great story with Bray Wyatt over the next two months.



 


 - Alan Peterson

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