MFK: The Wrestling Compadres, Ivan Drago, Sylvester Stallone...is Soccer More Interesting

2/2/19

If all goes as swimmingly as it has, I may be able to go back to blogging just once a week. Migrating my "No Hards Barred" Tumblr to Blogger (Rip 'Em System) may be the next way to kill time at work. Here's to hoping that Tumblr may still be a thing.

Optimism from me, one would be safe in presuming there is a catch. With me being talked into working three nights of the IHSA state wrestling championships, writing may not be an option. But, since someone is being allowed to be unavailable during that weekend despite rules are suppose to deny that, my precedence of skipping move-in weekend for Wizard World might be recognized. It is about picking battles I suppose.

Update 2/9/19

This optimism thing is proving to treat me well. I was able to play in my first indoor football game in 19 years with no immediate preparation. Bruised the hell out of my left insole when I failed to remember that turf shoes have no traction on linoleum. These Nikes acted like I was Clark Griswold sledding in "Christmas Vacation" and only the a warehouse support beam stopped me. Perhaps that is why my mom was boycotting them.

My surgically repaired right wrist that prevented me from unifying Peoria's Light Heavyweight Championships 15 years ago (to hell with the Backyard Wrestling Entertainment's championship) was being constantly reaggravated because laying out on defense is not the same as bumping. But a nice hard challenge and a minus two for my 18 minutes of play was worth it (final was an 8-3 loss).

A little Icy Hot and two weeks of scheduling conflicts, Russ "The Bus" should be ready for a return to Real Mediocre CU. Eventually, I may otain the shape I need to actively seek out Friday night bookings. But lets not get that far ahead of ourselves.

Back to 2/2/19

Let us hope that my hospitality chess is better than my efforts against "Chessmaster 3000." How else am I going to be able to move on to Las Vegas (four hours from Tinseltown?)? It seems the Wrestling Compadres' patience may be wearing thin when it comes to:

Podcast's Favorite Caller
The Lister Film Lover
The Double-Dipping Dandy (Scott Narver inspired)
The Scoop (Danny Daniels bestowed)
RUSS STALEY

And I was only two nicknames from matching Apollo Creed (nine from "Your Wrestler's Favorite Wrestler" The Product David Starr. But with that suggestion to lay off the titles leads me to think of two things:

1. I am probably not going be able to rely of them to set me up on the West Coast to fulfill the second half (optimism) of my life closer to people who would more likely get behind projects like "Main Event of the Dead," my B-Movie Zombie Comedy about Pro Wrestling (email russthebus07@gmail.com if you would like a treatment).
2. Since Apollo was so annoying (The Count of Montefisto), was Ivan Drago truly the villain in "Rocky IV"?

Apollo invited Drago for the fight. Rocky Balboa let pride kill his friend. If the referee was Mills Lane, the outcome would have been different. A psyched up Soviet would not have thrown the judge out of the way when he was going to deliver a standing eight count.

We were conditioned to call bullshit on then Mrs. Stallone wife's post fight promo about America's assumption of superiority. I will not go to deep into Cold War politics but from Obama to Bernie to AOC, socialism ages better. And don't get me started on Drago's supplement program. Every wrestler in the 80's would have told you it was legal at the time. If Drago had a case of the flu that kept him from his minimum wage gas station job, no one would bat an eye at a needle or two.

Sylvester Stallone's middle sequels of the franchise might also be about holding the black man down in a sport they dominated. Thank the gods for Damon Wayans and "The Great White Hype".

• Rocky II: Rocky is the great white hope.
• Rocky III: Rocky learns how to bounce back from a true loss to beat up the black champ. Where was Clubber's rematch clause?
• Rocky IV: The black man cannot save the world from communism, so the white man has to step up.
• Rocky V: The black man is out to make white men fight among themselves.

After that rant, I might finally agree that the fifth installment is worth forgetting.

I need to be careful with my next steps. Calling Stallone a racist may be unfounded. He may just be writing to see a hero he can relate to. Or that Hollywood is racist.

You can say that the rules were established when the only Expendable to effectively being written out of a movie was Terry Crews (I am not counting Miley's husband). Unwritten movie rules dictates that the black guy has to be the first to go. But that film opens with the white savior again as he breaks motherloving Blade out of a black ops site. A guy who was best known as the best black villain of the nineties before he became the Daywalker. Let us not overlook that Stallone also demolished Wesley Snipes 20 years earlier.

And it does not seem that Stallone has much fate in Asian action heroes. I believe Jet Li would have won his bout with Dolph Lundgren, but Sly had to shoot his adversary before that could happen. To Stallone's credit, he has never allowed himself to go toe-to-toe with Li or Jackie Chan. An even greater credit is that he has not made a trained pro wrestler put him over (I think, I haven't seen "Paradise Alley").

Then again, why wasn't Tiny Lister in an "Expendables?" Mel Gibson needed a decent heater in the third film. Racism will show up at some point if you like it or not.

I really should submit this blog as a Patreon idea for The Wrestling Compadres Slamcast, but I think trying to put over Tanahashi versus White next week is the best use of my 40 seconds on air. Can't shake my optimism, just three of the nicknames.

Well two nickname, since I added the Concise Contrarian. Too bad I cannot play minus 2 in the Lottery...and that these guys will not cover NJPW.

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