Fresh Linen Scent: The Clean Sheet
Volume 1, Issue 1
Welcome to the new wrestling “newsletter” with no rumors or dirt: only fun, “what-ifs?” and positives...The Clean Sheet! A rotating series of mini-features here will highlight all sorts of things in the world of pro wrestling: people making change in the sport, charity and fund-raising efforts, trail blazers of the present, a bit of fantasy-booking and much more! So breathe deeply, relax and inhale the wonderful scent of fresh linen: this is The Clean Sheet.
Give ME The Book!: WARHORSE on AEW Dynamite
Setting the stage:
Since winning the AEW TNT Championship, Cody stated he would defend the title as much as possible. He offered a standing open challenge, even going so far to say that ANYONE could step up: AEW-contracted or not. In the past two weeks, Cody has taken on two of the biggest names on the independent scene, Eddie Kingston and WARHORSE. While his match with and the before match promo by Eddie Kingston received a lot of praise, Cody's match with the IWTV Independent Wrestling Champion was met with mixed opinions. So...what exactly here went right and what went wrong? That sounds like a cue for my humble opinion...
What went right:
·
The bit of social
media chatter back and forth on Twitter between the two helped build excitement
for the match. It was handled with ease
by both men.
·
The pacing of the
match was done well. They had a match
that made them both look good and told two underlying stories: WARHORSE did his
due diligence in preparation for the bout and Cody is continuing to be a
bit too cocky.
· WARHORSE's entrance. A fresh thrashtastic theme and huge pyro flames everywhere...thus, much headbanging ensued. Well done and definitely on brand.
What went wrong:
·
Bringing out Matt
Cardona immediately. I'm not necessarily against the post-match
shenanigans and the story that was told, but roughly 1.5 seconds after WARHORSE
gets Cody out of the Dark Order's way my TV screen only had Matt on it.
To me, it sent the message that as soon as the match concluded, WARHORSE
mattered no more.
·
Not letting WARHORSE
come out with the IWTV Title. I have no idea whose call it was but if AEW
really wanted to get across the idea that the indies matter, he would have came
out with that belt. It also would have given WARHORSE more credibility to
viewers not familiar with him or his work.
In hindsight, this seems to be even more of a slight after Thunder Rosa
appeared on the program, NWA Women's title in tow.
·
No before match
promo for WARHORSE. It worked so well for Eddie Kingston that I thought
for sure he'd get some time on the mic. He did squeeze in a quick quip to the
ringside camera about the three truths: water is wet, grass is green and
WARHORSE RULES ASS!
How I'd fix it:
·
Recognize WARHORSE
as IWTV Champion. A quick bit of his background on commentary about his
impressive reign. I guess I was left wanting more of "legitimate,
tough contender" than "this is what you internet people wanted, so
here you go".
· Just a smidge more time for the post-match. I would suggest this: WARHORSE attacked on his way out by Dark Order, who are en route to Cody in the ring. Cardona makes the save. As the great Asuka would say, "Easy Peasy!".
A reasonable alteration? Way off base? Feel free to let me know at olskoololfool@gmail.com. Topics in "Give ME the book!" may be revisited with your feedback included!
Now (Virtually) Live!
In
this corner of The Clean Sheet, we will highlight those wrestlers and
promotions who have branched into the wide open frontier of the interwebz.
Who's all out there streaming? Where can I find them? What are they
actually streaming? Answers to those questions will all be presented here
in "Now (Virtually) Live"!
Wrestlers/ Wrestling Personalities:
· With almost 100,000 YouTube subscribers in roughly 2 months and over 1000 subscribers on Twitch, the former Rusev of WWE (Miroslav Barnyashev) has gone all in on content creation and streaming. Unfortunately, he received a 24-hour Twitch ban on July 30th which he explained on Twitter as: "I was too sexy for Twitch. I learned my lesson." (It was reportedly for his bikini-clad wife in one of his streams.) Miro also recently commented that he has no plan to return to wrestling, choosing to focus on his online platforms. Where to find him: MIROtwch on Twitch, ToBeMiroTV on YouTube. What does he stream? A wide variety featuring many pro wrestling stories, COD: Warzone, FIFA 20, retro arcade games played on MAME, and Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath.
· The Glitch Buddies are a stream team featuring many of the folks associated with the Indiana wrestling scene: Glitch/Kai Fayden, Hawlee Cromwell, Big Perc, Dr. Nephalim, Otar and Wes all contribute in some fashion, whether on Twitch or YouTube. With a crew like this, they cover all sorts of different games and genres. The WNRN Cyberspace Title has even been defended through fighting game challenges on YouTube! Where to find them: Glitch Buddies, G L I T C H, and Hawlee Cromwell on YouTube, killadeath911, drnephalim on Twitch. What do they stream? A bit of wrestling content, the main YouTube channel has playthroughs of FF VII Remake, RE 2, Spyro the Dragon and more. On Twitch, drnephalim has played party games like Jackbox and Town of Salem as of late as well as Fall Guys and Pokemon. Wes (killadeath911) has been rocking Monster Train, Bioshock and Amnesia. We (Me, Myself, and I) here at the Clean Sheet also wish Wes nothing but the best as he recovers from a surgery.
· The 7'4" behemoth Andrew Everett has been running a Fire Pro Wrestling World E-Fed called Whole World Wrestling (W3) on Twitch to a rapidly growing following. The fed even has it's own Twitter account already! Rankings, twice weekly shows, show poster graphics...a lot of love has been poured into his project and it shows. W3 also features the absolute best live commentator I've ever heard on a Fire Pro stream, Dino Winwood. Where to find him: The Drewniverse on YouTube, andyeplays on Twitch. What does he stream? Currently it is all W3-related content.
Promotions:
· The top dog of independent wrestling on YouTube is Beyond Wrestling. With over 2.5 million subscribers, their channel has playlists of past events, highlights and promos. If someone you're a fan of has ever set foot in the ring for Beyond, you'll find plenty of their matches here. Where to find them: Beyond Wrestling on YouTube.
· - With production values and promo packages that rival any company, let alone the indies, AAW Pro's YouTube channel is one of the slickest around. Trailer, matches and updates on the promotion's status are all available on their online home base. They have also occasionally streamed events and other content on Twitch in the past. Where to find them: AAW Pro on YouTube, aawpro on Twitch.
Why I Like... Pro Wrestling
To start off this section, we'll paint with the biggest brush first.
Strangely, I'd guess my love of pro wrestling could be related to a fear of loud noises and explosions as a young child. I remember the fear and anxiety that would come over the much-younger-than-now me before a cannon was shot off in town for Memorial Day services. I remember leaving my seat and going to the arena's concourse on a school trip to the circus because the human cannonball act was going on next. So what the heck does any of that have to do with the wrassles?
My Grandpa was a gunsmith: shop in his basement, range in the backyard. Family visits to the grandparents never made me happy as a child, knowing what awaited on arrival. I liked my grandfolks but never was big on the environment. Did I mention the quarry behind their lot that would call to let them know they were actively blasting? I always wanted something to talk to Grandpa about that wasn't always firearms. Enter stage left, through the TV screen, the American Wrestling Association.
He often went to the matches in La Crosse, WI, to see the Bruiser and the Crusher, heckle the Weasel and boo the heck out of Sheik Adnan. The lightbulb went on in my head: watch AWA All-Star Wrestling, have something fun to talk about with Grandpa. He could never figure out why I liked the heels and always gave me a hard time. I guess the huge ruffians with their equally huge characters just spoke louder to me: Stan Hansen, Road Warriors, and King Kong Brody were all big favorites of mine.
So this is how I got my start watching the wild, wooly and unreal sport of professional wrestling. In a related story, I never stopped. My youth was filled watching anything that was in syndication I could get on my TV: AWA, WWF, UWF, World Class ... if some channel by me carried it, I'd watch. I fondly remember when our family first signed up for cable, because now I could watch TBS for WCW at 6:05. Far more important than wanting my MTV, I guess.
I still consume roughly 5-10 hours of wrestling programming a week. I desperately wish to go to a live show again. I have far too many wrestling-related T-shirts. All these years later, albeit with a bit less child-like wonder, I'm still a fan. I maintain it's mostly, (indirectly), Grandpa's fault.
And
all those dang loud guns.
My First: PPV I watched live
WCW Halloween Havoc 1989
To put this into a personal timeline perspective, I was a High School Freshman at the time. Along with my buddies Mike and Matt, we pooled together funds to order this event. I had just started to make friends who watched wrestling too and was very excited to geek out with my buds over a big show.
Why was this one the first PPV we decided to spend our scarce monies on? One word. Thunderdome.
What in the world would the Thunderdome match look like? How would it go down? Four of the absolute best in the game would enter a structure that looked like the love child of the 80's “big blue” cage and the modern day Hell In a Cell: Sting, Ric Flair, Terry Funk and the Great Muta. Each team had a corner man to throw in the towel and it was the only way to win. The top of the cage was “electrified”, though that only came into play once with Muta being the unlucky victim. There was also a “Tarzan rope” to swing from and the special referee was the legendary Bruno Sammartino. 22 minutes of chaos ended up in a win for the good guys in one of the craziest and convoluted matches attempted in its era.
Other than the big Thunderdome main event, there was enough on the undercard to keep things entertaining: A Steiners versus Doom ruckus, The Road Warriors taking on the Skyscrapers, and Lex Luger against Brian Pillman. There was also some duds too...Cuban Assassin facing Tommy Rich comes to mind.
In the present, with hindsight
and fond memories to aid me, this was probably the kind of show I'd still order
to this day. I would just be far too
curious to see how another Thunderdome match would work and that would
definitely be reason enough to get my money.
