Big John Stud VS The Wild One

Back in 1986, Wild World amusement park, now Six Flags America, unveiled their big and white wooden roller coaster the “Wild One.” What better way to promote this ride than with a big and white wrestler, namely the late Big John Stud.

For those interested in roller coasters be sure to check out our sister site CraveCoasters.

Gimmick Garage: Ron “Home Run” Derby

Welcome to the Gimmick Garage, where Crave Cravak stores his original wrestler gimmick ideas. If you happen to like any of them, comment below.

Picture a bulging baseball player entering the ring. The bell sounds and instead of putting his bat aside he winds up and hits a home-run on his opponent.

Encore

TYPE: Heel (possible face)

LEVEL: Lower card

COMPATIBILITY: Has a baseball manager as a pseudo manager. Could be placed in a tag-team or stable.

Theme: Baseball / Roid Rage

BODY TYPE: Chris Masters / Rob Terry –> Bulky/Bulging but not overpowering or too tall (Batista/Matt Morgan).

RING STYLE: Brawler / Classic wrestling

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TNA 2012 MAXIMUM IMPACT IV Manchester date review (27th January)

TNA 2012 MAXIMUM IMPACT IV Manchester poster

I was already looking forward to seeing Sting on this tour – it’s been his first visit to the UK in a decade, and probably his last ever appearance here – but then days before the tour began Hulk Hogan announced he would also be making his first visit to the UK since 1994. This was going to be unmissable.

We set off to arrive at the MEN Arena in plenty of time, enjoy a beer and browse the merchandise before watching the show, but we ended up stuck in traffic just outside Manchester. The show’s starting time of 7:30 came and went, and although we were getting constant updates from friends at the show, sitting in the car waiting for the traffic to improve was painful. We eventually made it to the arena around 9, parked the car and rushed down to our seats, just as the interval was ending and the second half of the show was beginning. We’d missed four bouts, including Austin Aries, Crimson, A.J. Styles and Mickie James, but the real good stuff hadn’t happened yet.

The first main event of the evening was for the World Heavyweight Championship, with current holder Bobby Roode up against Samoa Joe. Roode was getting some big boos and Joe was getting just as many cheers, but Bobby managed to successfully defend his title in a well-paced match. Joe stayed in the ring for a while afterwards, pulling out an English flag and showing his appreciation for the fans’ support.

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Hulk Hogan appears on UK TV show Loose Women

This is one of the last TV shows you might expect a wrestler to show up on, but yesterday Hulk Hogan had a chat with the hosts of Loose Women to promote the TNA “2012 MAXIMUM IMPACT IV” Tour. That’s taking place in the UK over the next three days and I’ll be attending the Manchester show tomorrow, so I’ll have a review to bring you shortly. I’m looking forward to seeing Sting, Kurt Angle and Hulk Hogan in action.

Gimmick Garage: Encore

Welcome to the Gimmick Garage, where Crave Cravak stores his original wrestler gimmick ideas. If you happen to like any of them, comment below.

What do you get when you take a wrestler like Drew McIntyre, mix him with a scary looking Superman 2 villain and place him in an arrogant thespian’s shoes as a modern theatre themed incarnation of Goldust? You get…

Encore

TYPE: Heel

LEVEL: Midcard, possible one-time shot at a face heavyweight champion

COMPATIBILITY: Could have a theatre themed manager, could also be useful in a bizarre-esque stable, or to form a freakish tag team.

Theme: Theatre/Drama/Acting

BODY TYPE: Drew McIntyre / Golddust –> Tall, lengthy, athletic

RING STYLE: Technical / Matt Wrestler / Submission Specialist

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WRESTLEMANIA XXVII CARD

Before you think you’ve stumbled upon the spoiler card for Wrestlemania, please understand this is merely a realistic fantasy card for the 28th installment of WWE’s superbowl of sports entertainment. Back in May, I pictured myself in Mr. McMahon’s seat as I penciled in possible matchups. First let’s put all those wet dreams of Sting signing a WWE contract to job to the Undertaker and Brock Lesnar leaving a lucrative deal with the UFC for a one time shot at Wrestlemania. Sure we can all have our dream matches, but let’s try to be realistic here. More importantly, to save my creative skin, please consider how this was thought up back in May.

DISCLAIMER: RingWriters is not affiliated with WWE and by no means is promoting or representing their products.

In all, there are eleven matches, not counting the dark match, and would ideally fit into a 4 hour PPV broadcast. Though given how some of the matches are not likely to occur, I think it would be safe to cut one or two of them and fit it all in a 3 hour format. Even if some of the matches are short, the WWE can always give the fans a prolonged rematch on the house show circuit. It pains me to leave out a traditional tag match for the title, but given the current state of tag teams in the WWE, it’s doubtful there would even be teams worthy to compete on the card. Overall I’m excited at the prospects and would definitely trek to Miami and buy myself a seat in Miami. The matches appear in reverse order from the main events to the opening matches.

PLEASE COMMENT WITH YOUR THOUGHTS, CONCERNS, AND OTHER IDEAS FOR MATCHES.

Champion of Champions Match

WWE Champ Alberto Del Rio VS World Heavyweight Champ Randy Orton VS US Champ Miz VS IC Champ Christian

Championships need to be important again. This match would in fact close the show and would feature the four current champions in an elimination match with every title on the line. Therefore, titles could change hands throughout the match with the idea being that the winner will hold all four titles, which in fact would happen. Then following wrestlemania, the champ can parade around and possibly have a feud with Chris Jericho (first ever undisputed champion) before three of the titles are put up for grabs in meaningful tournaments. You may also be wondering how the winner of the rumble factors in here. Well, they don’t. I would have had the winner of the rumble becoming either the WWE or World Heavyweight champ, thus no longer using the Rumble as a mere stepping stone towards Wrestlemania. I want the Rumble to stand alone on its own. The wrestlers chosen can easily be switched with others, but the match itself should stand. In this version I’ve got two heels (Del Rio & Miz) going against two faces (Orton and Christian). Among them there is enough presence, fan buy in, and talent to put on an epic match. I would have Orton win it all.

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Raw Thoughts – January 2nd, 2012

Monday, January 2nd 2012

RAW NOTES:

Recently I’ve attempted to watch RAW, but honestly it’s painfully dull. In order to occupy myself I’m going to actively blog during tonight’s broadcast.

DISCLAIMER: RingWriters takes no responsibility for the grammatical content as this was penned simultaneously USA Network’s Monday, January 2nd broadcast of WWE’s RAW Supershow.

TEASER: The teaser shrouding Cena in “Cena Sucks” chants was mystifying.

IN RING PROMO: Jon Cena

The theme song is done and now Cena already? At least let us anticipate the expected Cena-Kane altercation. The point of a teaser is to build up suspense. TV tabloid shows do this perfectly. Any scoop on “hot celebs,” a thrilling new coaster, or a feature on a man and his love affair with a hippo are always teased throughout the show but aren’t aired until well after a commercial break or two.  Read the rest of this entry

Candid Crave: Squared Circle Dreaming

When your body turns off the lights what does your subconscious cinema play? Do your childhood fears manifest themselves into a nightmarish broccoli stalking you down the street in your underwear? Or do you get the nerve to ask out that beauty behind the bar? For me, it’s different. My real life dreams manage to work themselves out in this unrealistic but believable context. A solid 25% of all dreams involve professional wrestling; the majority featuring me being hired to work for WWE Creative. This occurs usually by a chance meeting with Vince McMahon. When these dreams started a few years ago I was hailed as a genius, though lately I’m treated more like a peon. The realization that someone as imaginative as me will never get the chance to create freely under a one-man show operation (WWE) has seeped its way in. It took a heart felt talk with one of the sport’s top stars to break it to me that as long as Vince McMahon holds all the cards, it’s just not worth my time.

Though, somewhere in my veins there must be an optimistic sap. The dreams just won’t go away. For instance, last week one had me watching TNA’s Impact Wrestling attempt to boost ratings with the questionable opening bout of Bret Hart vs. Roddy Piper. Then today for the first time I made an appearance as not a writer, but as a…wrestler. I was on tour with WWE, but what must have been a “minor league” operation for none of the talents were from real-life and were unrecognizable to me. Plus, we were performing in an arena with barely enough seats for a girl scout meeting. But what’s stranger is that I was walking around in tights. You may not know, but I’m a 6 foot 1 man in the body of a 160 pound boy. If I have muscles, I’ve never seen them. Maybe they’re on loan at the Smithsonian, or my parents pawned them before I was born.  Though I’m proud of my dream director for not casting me in some far fetched gimmick. You can’t exactly see me “Goldberging” my opponents, in fact I wouldn’t even fit the bill for Gillberg. I was named “Steve Slimmer,” and I paraded around as a body builder yet I obviously had never lifted a weight in my life let alone any past lives. The intentional contrast of my persona was certainly fuel for a comedic heel role to the tune of a heel Zack Ryder or Mike Bucci’s Simon Dean gimmick.

I’m not sure what my future dreams hold, but whatever they are, I’m going to take notes. And you never know… maybe one day they’ll be playing in your reality.

Non-Title Abuse

On the October 31st edition of WWE’s Raw Supershow, three reigning champions lost in non-title bouts. Talk about scary. While fitting for a Halloween episode it most likely only motivates viewers to tune in less frequently. WWE officials have been keen to show off the top stars on both Raw and Smackdown Super Shows, but apparently they have no regard for the championships they hold. As each belt represents their respective wrestler’s supremacy, every competitor wants to reach that peak. Consequently, the audience is pre-subscribed with the notion that no climb is compete until they strip the title -holder of their belt.

In a cartoon world, the belt is like He-Man and Lion-O’s swords. Without their swords, they’re just another cast member supporting the main character(s). The children and this 30-year old know that as long as those hyphenatedly named heroes have their sword they’re never going to lose. Skeletor and/or Mumm-Ra will have to take it from them in order to reign supreme. So tiny tikes will lose their allegiance to their heroes when they sip their cereal broth watching He-Man single-handedly beaten in a fair hand-to-hand combat with Beast Man. The same happens when Read the rest of this entry

WWE Belt Makes Unlikely Appearance

While scanning YouTube for the latest K-Pop songs, I came across a most unlikely prop: the WWE championship title. The Korean girl group, 2NE1 does not appear to have any affiliation with the WWE, though respect for them prominently placing the belt. In addition, I couldn’t help but notice one of the singer’s sporting a Rene Dupree esque poodle. Enjoy!

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