More Proof That I Am A Loser

It's time again for an easy blog, that won't take more than 5 minutes, you know the type, a sort of thoughts of the week if you will. So, with out further adieu, start the clock.

- Jose Bautista better be fine, if that ankle is facked, so are the Jays hopes of any type of success, and my hopes of looking some what smart with my VERY lofty predictions...... 91 wins.... really? I am a loser.

Joey Bats, please be ok!

- The British Open is going on right now, I don't care about Mcilroy, or no Tiger, or anything like that, what I care about is why in the hell did they change the name to "The Open Championship". Who the shit do they think they are that they can go and change the name of my second favorite golf Major. We all know it's the British Open, we all call it the British Open, so why would they change it to The Open?? That's like me changing my name to "The Nickel" Imagine if I did that? What a HUGE loser right?

C'mon Man!

- Time Check - 1 minute and 45 seconds, good pace Gary, keep it up!

My Favorite Rider, Lance Frazier

- The Riders are 0 and 2....... and I honestly don't care, but Lance Frazier is my new favorite Rider, because he said my name, sort of like when a girl becomes my favorite girl, by saying my name....... They will win tomorrow though, because I picked Hamilton.

-  The NFL lock out looks to be all but settled, that's great news, I think running a Fantasy League through Madden 12 would have been a really big sign of how big of a loser I am.

- Time Check - 3 minutes, almost home big guy, don't let me down know!

- Roger Clemens is a free man thanks to a really dumb prosecution......... I don't know what to think of this, I guess the fact that it only took two days for the trial to become a mistrial says a lot about how money talks right?

Can't you picture Roger going up to all of them and saying "All right fuckers, I will give each of you 2 million dollars each to present this evidence, that they TOLD you not to, and then we will all walk away happy, and if you say no, a fastball to the head, seriously, I still throw in the high 90's, so don't fuck with me!"

Count Cockula rides a mean bike!

- The Tour De France is awesome, in highlight form anyways, those crashes are fantastic, sort of reminds me of riding the bumps over at Meadowlark Park with Verno and Count Cockula.

TIME

4 minutes and 20 seconds, well played kind sir, well played.

This weekend's Podcast is going to be HUGE! Be sure to check it out.

http://kyleandgary.podbean.com/

If you want to join the blog party, feel free to do so by clicking on the beautiful piece of Man Meat here:

So, until next week,  Trojan Horse says "I miss my little Silky! " Take Care.

An Interview With Deadspin's Masked Man

I used to be a HUGE wrestling fan, nowadays, not so much. A favorite website of mine called Deadspin has a column that they run called "Dead Wrestler Of The Week". It is probably the most well written column I have ever come across, so I decided to get to know the author of the column, David Shoemaker (aka The Masked Man of Grantland and Deadspin).

Hulkamania? Yes Please!

1. I have been a Hogan/Warrior fan since I was a little kid, but I am sure someone way more informed like you must have a nice list of favorite wrestlers, so who is your favorite wrestle of all time and why?

The answer was always Mr. Perfect (for reasons outlined pretty well in my Deadspin piece on him: http://deadspin.com/5467760/dead-wrestler-of-the-week-mr-perfect-curt-hennig ), although when Savage died, in researching him and writing about him, I realized that it’s hard not to have him at the top of the list.  He had a sort of psychopath super-stardom that ages really well – he was epic when I was a kid, of course, but he’s even greater in retrospect.

The Masked Man's favorite ever.... tough to argue!

2. What was your favorite Feud of all time? I loved the build up to Micheals and Razor in the first ever ladder match.

This is a tough one.  I’m sure I’ll forget something really obvious, but:

Flair vs. Steamboat, maybe?  That seemed like the biggest deal of my life when it was happening, and it really holds up to this day.  

Nothing from my childhood approaches the Von Erichs versus the Freebirds -- there was something so real and vital about it. 

Bret vs. Owen is probably the cream of the crop for modern storylines – it lasted a long time (probably out of necessity, since the WWE’s roster was pretty thin then), weaving in and out of other feuds.  Maybe it was accidental, but it was really well done.

And I’m tempted to say Austin vs. Bret, but I really only think of the one double-turn match when I think of that feud.

The cream of the feud crop.... the guy on the left was not a nugget!

 

3. I am sure you have a great story about a wrestler that the world needs to know about, can you share one of those with me?

Maybe this will come as a shock, but I know nothing that’s not already out there.  My few unique stories have mostly found their way into the writing I’ve done so far.  My writing is largely a product of watching wrestling and reading about wrestling, not conducting interviews or the like.  Although, who knows – that could certainly change over time.

4. What do you think about the current state of wrestling as a whole? I was an 80"s / 90's super fan, so I think wrestiling is pretty shitty right now, of course I am right... right?

I think it’s okay.  The WWE is really doing some things now that have me hopeful.  (It’s lucky that this coincided with my Grantland gig, to be honest.)  I don’t know if it’s Triple H’s backstage influence as a lot of folks are saying, but I feel like there’s a lot going in the right direction there all the sudden.  

TNA has been sort really up and down, but maybe some of these X-Division guys they’re focusing on now will stick; It’s trite, I know but focusing on those guys may be the only way they’re going to break out.  (Although personally, I think it’d help to not ghettoize them, but what do I know?)  
  
ROH has some incredible stuff going on, though when I watch them I’m mostly compelled by the guys who I think could end up in the WWE someday – not out of some WWE fetishization, but probably because WWE and NWA/WCW are so firmly rooted in me as a frame of reference.  

So in all those cases there’s a lot of optimism for the future built in.   It’s not as great as it has been, but we may be headed for something a whole lot better.  We can always hope.

Could this guy be the reason for the WWE's resurgence?

5. Anything else you want to add?

Nah, not really.  Thanks for reading though.  And for the record, here’s where to find me:

http://www.grantland.com/search/_/query/the-masked-man

http://deadspin.com/5805167/the-dead-wrestler-of-the-week-archive

themaskedman01@gmail.com

Twitter at @AKATheMaskedMan

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There you go, thanks again to the Masked Man for taking the time to do this! He is awesome.

This weekend's Podcast is going to be HUGE! Be sure to check it out.

http://kyleandgary.podbean.com/

If you want to join the blog party, feel free to do so by clicking on the beautiful piece of Man Meat here:

So, until next week,  Trojan Horse says "I miss my little Silky! " Take Care.