Invading and Evading: The Buffalo-Themed Disgruntled's Real Tag Team Champions - Part 5

*Blog written on February 10, 2020.

The Daily Buffalo Resolution winded up costing me $100 this past weekend. You cannot just go to Slim Chicken's on 50-cent wing day and just go back home for the rest of the weekend.

Were any of the items stuff I should have passed up. Maybe the Wii U copy of "Bayonetta 2" (with the original "Bayonetta") would qualify, but when most places charge 20 bucks for that combo, how do I resist 10? It also seemed to be the perfect accompanyment to the Nick Fury with Goose Funko Pop.

On the opposite end of the comic spectrum, perhaps I should have just stuck with Volume Two of "Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity" instead of committing to Volume Three as well, but we do not want Warner Bros screwing with those characters again. Any purchase towards Gotham's criminal royalty should stop that, right?

I guess I cannot blame Slim Chicken's for the Bloomington trip the next day. And, it ended up being a good trip when I found the $40 yellow-soled, pastel tye-dyed All-Stars to replace the black ones that are still mudcaked from Riot Fest. What else would be appropriate for my fuschia pair to match with?

In the end, the only thing worth bitching about is that 20 wings were not enough. I rarely feel like a glutton, but there were no leftovers. It felt like I was placed in a tough spot. You do not want to advertise yourself as a fat ass by ordering 40 and then have a seat to dine. With only four TV's, behaving like it's a Hooters is wrong.

Oh how I miss Hooters. Why did I not just drive to Springfield instead? The better quarter likes to see new places.

At least there was no complaining about the one who is second to Eva the Cat. The shoes and underwear (Super Mario from H&M) she lead me to makes it seem like we are a good team. We are at least a better arrangment than the post WCW/ECW scene that follows.

The 72nd Real Tag Team Champions:

WWF's Brothers of Destruction (Kane and The Undertaker) - 4/1/01 to 4/29/01

The idea behind the title change was to set up the two main event heels to hold all of the championships at one time, so they were getting the most exposure possible (far more than the NWA's Bad Attitude [David Young and Rick Michaels] and Heavenly Bodies [Chris Nelson and Vito DeNucci]). It would also tease the Hardy Boyz as main eventers.

The 73rd Real Tag Team Champions:

WWF's Two-Man Power Trip (Triple H and Steve Austin) - 4/29/01 to 5/21/01

The 74th Real Tag Team Champions:

WWF's Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho - 5/21/01 to 6/19/01

The 75th Real Tag Team Champions:

WWF's Dudley Boyz (7) - 6/19/01 to 7/9/01

The 76th Real Tag Team Champions:

WWF's The Acolytes Protection Agency (Ron "Farooq" Simmons and "JBL" Bradshaw) - 7/9/01 to 8/7/01

The 77th Real Tag Team Champions:

WWF's Diamond Dallas Page and Kanyon - 8/7/01 to 8/19/01

The 78th Real Tag Team Champions:

WWF's Brothers of Destruction (2) - 8/19/01 to 9/17/01

Also the WCW Tag Team Champions at the time.

The 79th Real Tag Team Champions:

WWF's Dudley Boyz (8) - 9/17/01 to 10/22/01

The 80th Real Tag Team Champions:

WCW Champions: The Hardy Boyz (4) - 10/22/01 to 10/23/01

The Dudleys dropped their belts to feed into The Rock's and Jericho's feud over the WCW World Championship. They in turn lost the belt to Booker T and Test (WCW's top star and the turncoat). So, no real teams held the WWF belts until the Hardys regained them.

The 81st Real Tag Team Champions:

WCW Dudley Boyz (9) - 10/23/01 to 1/7/02

The Dudleys would win the WWF titles from the Hardys. When the Alliance was forced to disband, they were recognize only as the WWF champions.

The 82nd Real Tag Team Champions:

WWF's Spike Dudley and Tazz - 1/7/02 to 2/19/02

The 83rd Real Tag Team Champions:

WWF/WWE's Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo - 2/19/02 to 5/19/02

The 84th Real Tag Team Champions:

WWE's Rico and Rikishi - 5/19/02 to 6/4/02

The 85th Real Tag Team Champions:

WWE's Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo (2) - 6/4/02 to 7/2/02

The 86th Real Tag Team Champions:

WWE's Hulk Hogan and Edge - 7/2/02 to 7/21/02

The 87th Real Tag Team Champions:

WWE's Un-Americans (Lance Storm and Christian) - 7/21/02 to 9/23/02

Kirk Gillespi - Pinterest kirkg78

The 88th Real Tag Team Champions:

NWA's America's Most Wanted (Chris Harris and James Storm) - 9/23/02 to 11/13/02

The WWE had only one tag team title at the time, and they decided to use it only to put over Kane in his main event jobber role to Triple H. "The Hurricane" Gregory Shane Helms was his partner and proved to not be needed when Kane won a TLC match to defend the titles on his own.

And Total Nonstop Action Became the American Wrestling Association

And you wonder where the joke promotion reputation came from. TNA/Impact's heavyweight division is primarily the reason for that, which is sad when the undercard was at least trying to innovate. Like Verne Gagne's AWA, the promoter (Jeff Jarrett) seemed to start the promotion to get himself over at the expense of everything else. It is kind of poetic that Jarrett only has daughters. Grandma Jarrett never tried to do that shit.

90-minute Walmart - "Near Dark": The Teenage Vampire Standard

A young man reluctantly joins a travelling "family" of evil vampires, when the girl he'd tried to seduce is part of that group. JP Bazinet

Is it weird to say that director Kathryn Bigelow is an innovator? She deserves the title being the first woman to with the Best Director Academy Award, but she was not the first nominee, and she is best known for her genre flicks "Near Dark" and "Point Break".

These genre films are what make her an innovator. Nothing brilliant has come from the extreme sport FBI genre (Sorry Vin Diesel), but when it comes to the vampire love story genre, "Near Dark" showed Hollywood how it should be done.

Check out the rest of review at "Ninety For Chill: A More Acceptable Runtimes

Mark Dacascos the Booker: A Call for a Zombie-Themed Wrestling Podcast

I have recently thought about removing The Tennis Channel from my favorites list on my Comcast receiver. It is a sport I've never played with the exception of my first stint at Camp of Champs (an amateur wrestling/Christian camp ran by Olympic Champions Ben and John Peterson, if it is still in operations, send your kids there [tell the youngster to think of the religion as "philosophy"]), because our cabin needed someone to fake it. Fortunately, other sports weren't the proficiency of the campers, so we faked our way to third. If it wasn't for Nintendo, would I have a reason to respect the sport?

Why am I messing with the sport best known for douche bags (Agassi, McEnroe, Riggs, Waluigi)? Because they are preempting the sports talk TV shows that I listen to as podcasts at work. Does anyone have some cool, raw rock n' roll suggestions? If it is popular on any station that uses Rocks (as a verb) in its title, I won't give it my time.

Short on tunes and talking heads for my ear balls, I've been made to search for other podcast to listen to. So I got scared to find Nerdist has their guys for my field of expertise: wrestling wisdom. Then I listened to them.

If you aren't confident that the concept of "Main Event of the Dead," my B-movie script about lower level indie wrestlers versus in-politically correct gimmicked zombies, doesn't translate into its original intended format, it may as part of a podcast. Please leave me some feedback to tell me otherwise or how to tweak it.

My nerdy gimmick to podcast is to perform a table read of a non-wrestling scene from my screenplay, going for the Cut Scene feel from the NES "Ninja Gaiden" series, after the first promotional break. I guess I'd be trying to top Colt Cabana's "Song of the Week" and trying to encourage more of his "65-year old Jewish Mother Recites a Classic Wrestling Promo" segments.

It would also be a podcast that acknowledges WWE does not necessarily (a stretch to use a term that lacks confidence) have the best wrestling. It will work better than any of the podcasts dedicated to the wrestling business presented by marks.

I'm not saying that only wrestlers can have wrestling podcast. The two I've come across are amusing for the most part, at least they were before the Bella Bitches (I'm just using alliteration) are dominating the majority of WWE's programming. "Legends House 2" beware of twin black magic.

Cheap Heat - Cheap Promotion.

"Cheap Heat" has gone out of their way to trash wrestling fans for not approving the angle. They claim, and base it on Jim Ross's philosophy (the best podcaster in regards to the business), that it's a great personal issue so it will put asses every 18 inches. Poor acting without great wrestling won't sell a pay-per-view. Both hosts watch "Total Divas" and Peter Rosenberg's livelihood is based on ridiculous, mostly fictitious, and sadly ironic real-life drama, so maybe he no longer knows any better.

I'm lead to theorize that Vince McMahon may have made the network to eventually avoid the big budgets for pay-per-view sets since the subscribers get so much content for...okay, because you need the WWE Network to be a happy wrestling fan...$9.99, they can't bitch about the Raw/Smackdown set being used an extra day a month? Also, it allows him to get away with his overly scripted product because fans of bad television will certainly like forced acting. The advertising revenue will be greater, just look at TNA Impact.

If you look at the ratings of pro wrestling, when compared to the Monday Night Wars (if you call it the "Attitude Era," that means you didn't watch the promotions not ran by McMahon [and you may have a future as a booker in Central Illinois]), it's evident that only true professional wrestling fans are watching wrestling. True fans or worse, only fans who Mark Madden suggests dedicated themselves solely to the product from the town of Jerry Springer's studio. The PG-Era has not increased the number, so this product isn't working to draw new fans, so let's not insult the majority of your audience.

And let's not insult your listeners so that the McMahons will respect you enough to let you be part of the company in an on air capacity. You're not a wrestler Heel Rosenberg. You're definitely not Bobby Heenan. Thus, we cannot get the satisfaction of seeing you get your ass kicked and/or stuffed into a animal costume and thrown into a Furious Furry Fuck Fest.

The WWE's chauvinistic agenda as channeled through Micheal Cole resulted me in not watching televised wrestling the from the conception of the NXT TV show (not the Network exclusive that has all its events available on Hulu) to the Pipe Bomb. And I'm thankful because it spared me Cole's Wrestlemania Moment.

Wrestling Compadres Slamcast - Nerdist Needs No Soundboard.

I thought I had to surrender my latest concept for promoting "Main Event of the Dead" when I discovered that The Nerdist Network has a wrestling podcast. After two episodes, I've determined that they may be able to support a second.

It isn't a bad podcast, but it feels like a morning radio show. Can wrestling fans stomach five days of wrestling? I suppose since Howard Stern has a station, fans cannot get enough of their bullshit. So, does anyone need "Java with Jedi" to get you AM ratings? If I can't direct, maybe I can host.

The "Wrestling Compadres Slamcast" is fun. They're interviews are entertaining, but not really enlightening which I think every nerd wants when they listen to a show dedicated to their fix. Their main device for amusement is to overplay the "best" soundbite. So if I didn't get enough Bella bull-bowel release, I get the clip I switched the channel from over 10 times. This week: "I wish you would have died with the womb," Nikki Bella.

Thanks for making us fear Chris Hardwick. What if he get the voice box that Duke Phillips tried to make Jay Sherman use to boost ratings. Would Matt Weiner appreciate any dialogue from "Madmen" or "The Sopranos" being repeated throughout his 90-minute interview? To Weiner's credit, his scripts are not ridiculous enough to supply such a soundbite.

This reminds me of the "Cheap Heat" issue they had discussed after their discussion about the authentic Bret Hart shades from Montreal 97 and why there should be no criticism of the diva disaster. They did discuss why the heel authority still do the corporate charity events. Since the First Family of Fake Fighting (it is a real sport, but the premise clears me using THE F WORD) participates, none of the evil shit that is spoken has any value. But at least Stephanie McMahon was raised to be involved in the business. Even if it is unbelievable, she has had practice to make you still want to hate her instead of wondering if "The Daily Show" could start a few minutes early.

The Bellas are models turned wrestlers. Models who like, the stereotype, were never intended to promote any thoughts. They were cursed because of the twin angle. That makes me think, did the Harris Brothers ever have a successful feud? Any attempt to make twins individuals will fail because the differences are forced. The twins cannot work as individuals because they were never meant to be individuals. And, until they needed drama on a TV show, they never got the chance to be nothing more than eye-candy. Sanitized eye-candy.

Diva's who cannot wrestle (or exploit their "natural" strengths) are the equivalent to fast food in commercials. They look great. Foodies may say they look beautiful. But there is a reason why Taste scores more points than Plate Setting and Originality on "Iron Chef." It's better to have a 15 point tasty, original meal than a 10 point original and pretty plate.

But you can't sell taste, so podcasters do not.

I'd like to give it a try. It's my nature. Everything I try, no one believe I can pull it off. Thus, my mental issues. Is it me for not being realistic, or it no one believes I can succeed unless they want me to.

 

"Innocent Blood" Screwball Vampires (Pre Taika and Jermaine)

For those who thought "An American Werewolf in London" was too dark, John Landis's return to the horror genre was a screwball homage to the cheesy horror films of the 50's to early 70's. If "Innocent Blood" does not entice the horror fans, this film ventured into the mafia and softcore porn genres. Can the "Blues Brothers" and "Animal House" attitudes glue these two concepts together, or was this just a prelude to "Blues Brothers 2000".

Read the rest of this blog and other stories at Main Event of the Dead.com and determine if this thought process can be translated into a B-movie comedy about pro-wrestling 

Productivity in the Time of Lockdown: 20 Questions

Tag Team Wrestling Is the Only Future: The Disgruntled's Real Tag Team Champions Summation (Part 6 and 8)

After reversing course, it turns out that the amount of tag team champions was not as vast as I thought. It seems once a reliable secondary promotion or two arose, they knew they needed something that the WWE just was too busy to offer. This makes the current landscape with two successful televised promotions interesting.

Can AEW stick to the formula of having meaningful tag team wrestling headline weekly or will ratings dictate that they need a sellable superstar to get up them to two million viewers a week? With ROH seemingly being on the decline and Allysin Kay deciding to keep Impact's status as the promotion for abusive pariahs at the cost off woman empowerment (Your petty self could not wait till Tessa Blanchard's reign ended to unleash your bitterness and not spit on a step forward?), AEW may be the only place for the style. I am just curious about who AEW will name their cup after. Has WWE trademarked the word "horsemen"?

What is more pressing to me right now is finding out if I can complete this series of blogs in one entry? Only three years to go.

43rd to Last Real World Tag Team Champions:

NWA World Tag Team Champions: The Naturals (Chase Stevens and Andy Douglas) - 4/26/05 to 10/5/05

WWE had makeshift tag teams dominating both promotions before MNM took over Smackdown. RAW's champions were more or less celebrations of a successful angle (William Regal with Eugene/Tajiri and Hurricane and Rosey) and the Smackdown champions were more or less away a way to maintain the title of champion for Eddie Guerrero. ROH was focusing on BJ Whitmer as their tag team champion which seemed more like a recognition award instead of a top championship.

44th to Last Real World Tag Team Champions:

NWA World Tag Team Champions: Americas Most Wanted (2) - 1/16/05 to 4/26/05

Team Canada (Bobby Roode and Eric Young) - 12/5/2004 to 1/16/05

3 Live Kru (Ron "Truth" Killings, Jesse "BG" James, and Konnan) 11/15/04 -12/5/04

48th to Last Real World Tag Team Champions:

World Tag Team Champions: La Resistance (Robert Conway and Sylvain Grenier) - 11/1/04 to 11/15/04

They were the constant of the Raw tag team division once Evolution's time with all the championships had passed.

49th to Last Real World Tag Team Champions:

ROH Tag Team Champions: The Havana Pitbulls (Rocky Romero and Ricky Reyes) - 8/7/04 to 11/1/04

Romero is the greatest tag team specialist of a generation and if the team had a brighter appearance, they would probably attracted the NWA's attention. La Resistance's reign started with them regaining the championships from partners who won it to start a feud between them. Smackdown's Kenzo Suzuki and Renee Dupree were essentially La Resistance lite.

50th to Last Real World Tag Team Champions:

ROH Tag Team Champions: The Second City Saints (Colt Cabana and CM Punk) - 5/31/04 to 8/7/04

51st to Last Real World Tag Team Champions:

World Tag Team Champions: Chris Benoit and Edge - 4/24/04 to 5/31/04

This was the conclusion of Evolution (Batista and Ric Flair)'s as the holders of all the gold. It was to push a main event angle, but it was better than Kid Kash and Lance "Dallas" Archer. Smackdown's offering was either Too Cool (Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty) redux or Charlie Haas and Rico trying to catch that Billy and Chuck vibe. The Saints would still be ROH champions, but lost them to the Prophecy (BJ Whitmer and Dan Maff) and won them back from the Briscoe in one night. Judging they had the advantage going into the final bout, how strong of champions were they?

52nd to Last Real World Tag Team Champions:

ROH Tag Team Champions: The Briscoe Brothers - 10/21/2003 to 4/24/04

It was either these brothers or the Basham Brothers.

53rd to Last Real World Tag Team Champions:

WWE Tag Team Champions: Los Guerreros (Eddie and Chavo) - 9/16/03 to 10/21/03

World's Greatest Tag Team (2) [Charlie Hass and Shelton Benjamin] - 7/1/03 to 9/16/03

Eddie Guerrero and Tajiri - 5/18/03 to 7/1/03

Team Angle (3) [Charlie Hass and Shelton Benjamin] - 2/4/03 to 5/18/03

Los Guerreros (2) - 11/17/2002 to 2/4/03

59th to Last Real World Tag Team Champions:

WWE Tag Team Champions: Rey Mysterio and Edge - 11/13/02 - 11/17/02

This was when Smackdown had their four and the Guerreros. Putting them all into one program instantly legitimized this title. If only WWE had determined their initial champions sooner, they could have had the chance to blog the NWA and TNA from being remembered.

Pinterest - Ra's Al Ghul 

 

Imagine We Still Had VHS (Instead of Depressed Trolls like @CfuFreedom) - Agent AIKa - Naked Missions

  *Blog post started on September 29, 2020.

Adulting can be pretty hard. Yes, I know. That is common knowledge. Everything is probably just a blur to me because I have worked everyday since the 21st and even fit in the time to put 180 miles on the car to visit my parents during this stretch.

...

Because I was reviewing only the first 90 minutes of series, I feel it is best that I not open anything up new and revisit what I had not reviewed. In essence, an entire series is being represented by three episodes, thus I do not want to give the wrong impressions of products that I have yet to have an all encompassing opinion on. The Blu-ray series have all been taken care of in the past four weeks, so lets go through my DVD's, starting at the letter A.

Unfortunately, this leads me to "Agent AIKa" a series I remember for its obscene amount of fan service and objectification of women. The worst thing about that is that I purchased it "used" from an FYI. I do not feel cool just selling it back. If it was a once defective DVD sold at Big Lots or a truck stop, mine opinion about reselling a resell is different.

Those initial statements maybe harsh. I did not have my critical lenses on. Being caught off guard seeing an upskirt shot of every female character, my opinion of the story may have been tainted and I could have missed enduring details. This rewatch should give this series a fair shake. More importantly, it warrants this series being a purchase instead of a rental or a torrent.

Agent AIKa - Episodes 1 to 4 (Naked Missions)

Check out the rest of this critique at AnimeRuss.blogspot.com - For those curious about anime but hate the geeks

 

Agent Aika (1997) - IMDb

 

Does Being Goldberg Free Mean Too Much Prestige?: Disgruntled's Modern Poser Championship - Part 3

*Blog post started on September 23, 2020.

It has been a tough couple of days, but I think I am over all the obstacles. My fingers are crossed that I will get a day off next weekend at my retail gig, but I should not set my expectations too high.

Saturday featured a flat tire that barely survived the drive to my nine-hour shift at the retailer. I did not account on the time that would be lost. When I attempted to change the tire during my lunch, the screw securing the spare would not budge. So a nine-hour shift with no food turned into a 10 and a half hour ordeal. Here is to hoping roadside assistance will forgive me the $95 service call I had arranged, which I cancelled a half hour later after my manager's tire tech friend volunteered to save the day.

Needless to say, Sunday was a long day since the ex-girlfriend must visit Skimble before noon, I had to get the tire replaced, and time was needed to be reserved for the laundromat. Thankfully the NuEra Dispensary is next door to the laundry. But between that and the exhaustion, I failed to notice one of the SnapChat girls I have been flirting with waiting to be picked up at the laundromat.

Monday was just a wash because I had to try and look good for my practitioner appointment on Tuesday. It was not an overly attentive ordeal, which left me without showing her notes asking about self pleasure affects blood sugar. Some new pills were assigned to me and I was given a flu shot. Then I decided to drive to Morton to fix my sister's Fire TV Stick and any other electronic malfunctions my family faced. As this is being typed, the aches from the shot and drive are finally wearing off.

I would like to blame my worn out state of TNT and the debut of "AEW Late Night Dynamite". Of course the NBA programming did not end when it should have. With the 22nd being "National Voter Registration Day", it is nice to know the NBA is doing its damnedest to get Trump out, but the post game could have been 10 minutes shorter. My DVR will only record the scheduled time slot. When I caught on to the show running late, the knowledge that I had to watch it live sank in. That is not a great way to end the day that started an extra two hours earlier than normal.

Especially when there was not a major draw for the show. Matt Sydal versus Shawn Spears was a good main event, but with none of The Elite or a title holder, I just do not think it is the time filler TNT was looking for. It almost makes me wish we had more tertiary titles to make the show seem significant. That is why there were European and Television titles right?

The NWA still needs to get back on its feet, so a blog about unnecessary championships seems like a fools errand at this time. Tertiary titles lack an impact at this time, unlike the poser championships that claim to be the end all be all.

The Disgruntled's Modern Poser Championship (2015 to 2020)

The 34th Modern Poser Champion:

Evolve Champion Timothy Thatcher (10/4/2015 to 2/25/2017)

This is a tough spot to figure out in the lineage. The TNA Championship was vacated in October 2015. With the Universal Championship established in August 2016, I though bigger names were going to be left out if we let Timothy Thatcher carry the title despite it was established as the DGUSA placeholder. In the end, only one name gets left out if we use the Evolve Championship in the lineage since Fin Balor only held the newest belt for a day.

The 35th Modern Poser Champion:

WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens (2/25/17 to 3/5/17)

Owens won this title after it was declared vacant, but was able to hold on to this championship for six months. Bobbly Lashley had only just won the Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship a month prior. The biggest problem for Impact at the time, a side from dealing with Jeff Jarret's GFW, was the Hardys had taken attention away from the title when the Broken Universe was established. If you do not care about a championship, where is its importance.

Zack Sabre Jr. was the man who ended Thatcher's reign, but he was established as a cruiserweight stateside.