Best heels and faces in cricket/on cricketweb

[GIMH]

Freddie = Stone Cold. The beer drinking best of all time

 

[harsh.ag]

Freddie = Stone Cold. The beer drinking best of all time

Also this

= Stone Cold giving The Corporation the legendary beer bath

 

[MW1304]

tho I don't enjoy it much anymore, during the heyday of wrestling ('97-02) it was an amazing combination of characters combined with ridiculously OTT storylines and hardcore matches with some great athletic wrestling still sprinkled throughout across 3 companies competing with each other and openly acknowledging there was a war for ratings. The behind the scenes politics are almost as interesting as the stuff on the screen too. It's like a travelling circus from hell. When one wrestler(say Jericho in '99) would jump ship from one company to the other it was huge news. The crowd were super loud and mega excited every night which made it really enjoyable to watch at home. There's something special watching a heel come out and work a crowd into hating his guts with a few spiteful comments and some cowardly behaviour.

Also Jim Ross the commentator made everything seem super important, with his Mankind and Austin commentary in particular being super engaging. At the very worst it's entertaining to laugh at.

Thanks for this, my question was actually meant in earnest. I know it's meant as a weird kind of theatre, like a combination of soap opera melodrama, athleticism and absurdly macho homoeroticism but it just feels like it should be niche entertainment rather than the dutifully-followed sport it is. Like, it seems like it should be really hard to find an entry point into it but I come across a surprising amount of people who are really knowledgeable and up to date with it.

 

[MW1304]

And no I'm not calling you all gay, I'm merely suggesting you aren't necessarily all 0s on the Kinsey Scale. Based on the way Mads Mikkelsen makes me feel I'm pretty certain I'm not.

 

[indiaholic]

But then you can call any sport which has athletic men as homoerotic. Are England's super tight test whites catering to my latent homosexual? Just seems lazy man.

 

[harsh.ag]

Thanks for this, my question was actually meant in earnest. I know it's meant as a weird kind of theatre, like a combination of soap opera melodrama, athleticism and absurdly macho homoeroticism but it just feels like it should be niche entertainment rather than the dutifully-followed sport it is. Like, it seems like it should be really hard to find an entry point into it but I come across a surprising amount of people who are really knowledgeable and up to date with it.

Um... no. At least for me. Their divas stuff, especially from the Stacy-Torrie days did get my jollies, yes.

 

[Spikey]

Its great when someone asks "how can you be a grown man and like wrestling" because inevitably it becomes casually homophobic

And god knows wrestling itself is homophobic enough

 

[mr_mister]

i'll accept any criticism of wrestling you have but lol @ the gay comment. pretty dumb

 

[Spikey]

It's not typically anything too sinister, but it's like "yeah I was wrestling fan as a kid. but then i discovered girls" and it's like so? but they think it's a killer point or something

 

[kiwiviktor81]

It's not typically anything too sinister, but it's like "yeah I was wrestling fan as a kid. but then i discovered girls" and it's like so? but they think it's a killer point or something

This is pretty much exactly what happened to me though. Hence my wrestling knowledge ending in about 2001 or so.

 

[dfrinku]

Once you get to a certain age, wrestling becomes less about the actual product and more about the insider stuff. It's genuinely a fascinating industry and the behind the scenes stuff can really become addicting. Who they are going to push, which young guys are making an impact, how long the older guys can remain relevant. It's all quite interesting once you get invested.

And then of course, actually seeing the culmination of a great story line, with a great build and great promos lead to a great pay-off in a great match in the right setting can be quite awesome and on par with many other art forms.

The thing that got me back into wrestling after I stopped watching as a kid (and I imagine this is true for a lot of people) was the CM Punk Money in the Bank '11 storyline. And even though only a few things have come close to topping this since then, the thought that something so perfect might happen once again is tough to deny. It's definitely addicting.

 

[mr_mister]

^yep. I got back into after many years the wrestlemania just before that due the rock returning(though he didnt do much) but yeah cm punk's pipebomb was perfectly timed and i kept watching for a few more years. pretty bored of it again though

 

[MW1304]

i'll accept any criticism of wrestling you have but lol @ the gay comment. pretty dumb

Why? My follow-up post was somewhat tongue in cheek, but can anyone deny that it's a homoerotic sport? Like I said, not saying 'lol everyone who watches it is gay' but the homoeroticism is surely part of the appeal for some people, which is cool. Especially as there is a sheen of overt 'masculinity' that appeals to a conservative, reactionary (and yes, potentially homophobic) crowd.

But aside from that, because clearly it seems some people don't consider that a factor, I'm still interested in why people watch it for various other reasons.

 

[MW1304]

And then of course, actually seeing the culmination of a great story line, with a great build and great promos lead to a great pay-off in a great match in the right setting can be quite awesome and on par with many other art forms.
.

Yeah so this makes sense, it's basically the soap opera line with the melodrama ramped up and any sense of reality completely reined in. It has to be the best marketed sport other than maybe boxing.

 

[harsh.ag]

Why? My follow-up post was somewhat tongue in cheek, but can anyone deny that it's a homoerotic sport? Like I said, not saying 'lol everyone who watches it is gay' but the homoeroticism is surely part of the appeal for some people, which is cool. Especially as there is a sheen of overt 'masculinity' that appeals to a conservative, reactionary (and yes, potentially homophobic) crowd.

But aside from that, because clearly it seems some people don't consider that a factor, I'm still interested in why people watch it for various other reasons.

The part in bold is true for many sports. Does not make those sports homoerotic.

I watched it in the late 90s and early 00s because it was incredibly fun, and The Rock and Stone Cold were off the hook in providing entertainment.

 

[GIMH]

Pro-Wrestling isn't a sport. If you see it as one then i can see why you'd question the interest in it

 

[MW1304]

Pro-Wrestling isn't a sport. If you see it as one then i can see why you'd question the interest in it

For what it's worth, I don't see it as a sport. Yet it is often marketed as a sport and is shown on sports channels in this country at least. The labelling doesn't reallyhave much to do with why I'm questioning it, I realise almost all fans know it is non-competitive, and yet the faux-competitive nature of it is clearly part of the appeal. It's interesting.

 

[Athlai]

Not by the WWE itself, they actively try to avoid even calling it wrestling.

 

[Spikey]

hey let's not talk about WWE's ****ing insane vocabulary they insist on using. worst thing is all the T20s comps saw what they were doing and thought "that's a great idea"

 

[kiwiviktor81]

worst thing is all the T20s comps saw what they were doing and thought "that's a great idea"

Here's an idea - all reviews that end in umpire's call are settled by a best of one fall bout between batsman and bowler.