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Thoughts on Payback

I attended IWC Wrestling's Payback event tonight. The following are my thoughts:

Overall, it was a very entertaining night. Once again, I got front-row seats, close enough to get high-fives from the wrestlers, for a very reasonable price of $20. The pageantry of the wrestlers continues to be good overall, although there was a bit more dead air tonight between matches. I don't know whether there were pacing problems or what. Also, it may seem a bit odd to mention, but two things jumped out at me. A) There seemed to be more vulgar language from the wrestlers. Not over the microphones, but on landings, I heard a lot of quiet "f*ck me" or "aw, sh*t" either during or after moves. I honestly couldn't tell if it was the wrestlers or their personae using the language. B) There was a lot of declaration of the rules during the match with the referees reminding wrestlers "no hair" or "get him out of the corner". I know that when I watched Winner Takes All, I was thoroughly confused over some aspects of what was going on, and posted as much on their Facebook page. I wonder whether they noticed similar confusion from other new fans and figured they'd clarify.

We opened with a three-way between Alex Reynolds, Mike Rayne, and a debuting Shane Strickland. Honestly, I think this was one of the best matches of the night. All three athletes demonstrated considerable athletic skill, and the action was believable. The difficulties of handling three people at once was nicely covered by first Alex Reynolds waiting outside the ring with a shit-eating grin watching the others wear themselves out and later one person or another lying outside of the ring ostensibly recovering. There were some very impressive moves being pulled out, and I never found myself sitting there, waiting for the action to continue, or inwardly groaning as one wrestler tried to maneuver himself into the right place for his opponent to land their signature move. I look forward to seeing more from Shane.

Second match was Blue Collar Slaughterhouse versus Jon Bolen and... some guy (Ed: Brian McDowell). Apparently HD Cannon was out with pneumonia (no idea whether it was a matter of the actual wrestler having pneumonia), so Bolen put out a call for a partner for the match, and some guy volunteered for it. I'm pulling the names off of the official cards, so I have no idea who the guy was. Prior to the guy showing up, Bolen had the microphone and made some comment about how he's been described as a man of few words, but he was trying to change. Honestly, I think fewer words is better for him. It was kind of painful with him completely failing to find good insults and obviously hoping the audience would yell out something he could use (eventually going with a yelled suggestion of "Brokeback Outhouse" for the other team). The match itself was a bit of a mess. Apparently BCS are seen as heels in the promotion and we were supposed to be rooting against them, but I got the impression that Jon Bolen was similarly a heel (or maybe they were aiming for antihero) and Bolen and whoever he was teamed up with basically spent the match beating on BCS in or out of the ring whether or not they were the valid partner in the ring. What really bugged me about that, is that last event, BCS impressed me with how they stayed entirely inside of the rules for tags, not entering the ring unless tagged in. This match, they deviated from it a bit, but were largely honorable. So... are we saying that following the rules is bad and should get you cheered against? This is an overall issue with this promotion in my opinion, albeit also with wrestling in general these days. If you're just going to shrug when teams break the rules about only one person in the ring at a time, why bother having the rules?

I think it was between these two matches that former owner Norm Roberts and current owner Chuck Kuzniewski had their spot. At the last event, while Chuck was out tending to Facade, who'd been injured, Norm scheduled the match where McChesney got the IWC Indy title off of Logan Shulo and also announced that, due to a contract loophole, he now owned IWC. Things were mildly explained. Apparently, there was an option for Norm Roberts to buy at the end of three years, but only if Chuck consented to the buy, which he refused to do. Some grievances were aired, with Norm feeling that Chuck only ever contacted him when he wanted something done, Chuck countering that Norm always said to call when he needed help and that he's put his life into the company, Norm saying that Chuck cared too much about the bottom line and not enough about the fans... long and short of it, Chuck is still the owner, Norm extended the hand of friendship and had it slapped away, and after Norm said that he planned to keep showing up if he had to buy a ticket, Chuck said that's the only way that Norm would get in.

I think it was the third match of the night which was W.A.R. (We Are Rockstars) versus Team Big League (currently composed of Jimmy Nutts and Joseph Brooks, Team Big League being sort of a stable, I think). It was a fun match. Jimmy Nutts lived up to his name and W.A.R. were their usual well-choreographed and acrobatic selfs. I think that Team Big League won near the end due to some tag team chicanery involving the off tag partner beating up a fallen opponent while the other guy distracted the ref. Honestly, W.A.R. wasn't much better about respecting the tag team rules. I did like how Aiden Vale starting things off with a nicely flashy backflip splash. It gave us an idea of what we were in for.

I think it was after that that Elgin and John McChesney had their match for the IWC Indy Championship belt. Outside of the drama, it was a certainty that the belt wasn't going to change hands to someone who was in for a guest spot, but they had to find a way to show Elgin's prowess as a guest. Elgin did a good job of selling being the big guy who was largely unstoppable and John McChesney is, I think, at his best when he's selling hits. He makes getting thrown across the ring look good. Team Big League showed up for some good old-fashioned interference whenever it seemed like the referee was looking the other direction. Bit by bit, McChesney wore Elgin down. There was one odd bit where Elgin held McChesney up in a vertical suplex position as everyone counted (it went up to sixty-four, although Elgin and McChesney were visibly trembling holding it there. Funniest bit was seeing how much of the audience stumbled in their counting when it hit 30 or so. Insert a joke about Pennsylvania's educational system). A little bit of delay would add some drama, I suppose, but it seemed a bit gratuitous. Ultimately, McChesney smashed Elgin in the face with the belt, securing a DQ, which meant Elgin won, but the title didn't change hands.

I want to say that there were only four matches in the first half, but I know that Andrew Palace had his match against Justin Idol... I may have gotten some matches out of order. Anyhow, it was an amusing match. Palace is an enjoyable heel. There was a lot of emphasis on hair, including Palace accusing Idol of being jealous of Palace's lustrous locks, while Idol is obviously going bald. Ultimately, while Palace prevailed for a decent amount of the match, he lost after one too many times of forgoing a chance for a pin to instead taunt his opponent, despite the exhortations from his partner and his valet to just finish the match. This was one of the cases where the end was kind of a foregone conclusion because Idol's storyline involves him having to maintain a certain win ratio to keep his contract, and losing this one would have meant they'd need to find a way to sell him still being there. One other thing about the match, Andrew Palace does the best ragdolling I have ever seen in a match. The guy must be hyper-flexible, because every time he got knocked around, his limbs fell into positions that looked actively painful. Honestly, it did a lot to sell his fights, because he looked like he was genuinely getting knocked silly.

After intermission, Norm Roberts returned with ticket in hand, punctuating his movements with a whistle to emphasize that he was back as a paying customer. He wound up in a few different locations as he worked the crowd.

The match between the returning Gambino Brothers and the new tag team of Kevin Haught and Colin Delaney was a disappointment for me. I first saw Delaney and Haught at the last event, and they came off as cheerful idealistic guys who were trying their best to win under the rules, and almost succeeded despite their opponents, The Founding Fathers, having to cheat to win. This match, they were... well, honestly, kind of pathetic. I'm kind of wondering if maybe too many people expressed sympathy for them last event, and the people scripting the matches wanted to try to keep anyone from thinking they were valid competitors. After a squash match, The Founding Fathers proved themselves to be sore about nearly getting beaten last time, and proceeded to curb stomp the fallen underdogs before sweeping out in a huff.

Between the last match and the next one, there was an interview by Justin Plummer of Anthony Nese, who was annoyed at Plummer's attempts to ask anything substantive, and insisted that the only important thing was his upcoming match with Logan Shulo. Cheap heat was secured by Nese by him accusing Plummer and the IWC fans of being idiots for caring about anything but Nese's "perfect athlete physique". Also, Norm Roberts wound up on my side of the arena and I invited him to move from his second row seat to the empty first row seat beside me. He paid more attention to his cell phone than to the match, but was able to explain an aspect of the Castle/Fish match that I missed.

Bobby Fish versus Dalton Castle was very amusing. Bobby Fish came off as a StopHavingFunGuys persona with him being annoyed with Castle's hyperactive {{Cloudcuckoolander}} entrance as "The Party Peacock". The match itself was probably my second-favorite of the night. Refreshingly, Fish was shown to have a point, as Dalton's somewhat spastic fighting style left him visibly winded by the end of the match, and Dalton frequently walked right into Fish's attacks. Ultimately, it all came down to a situation where Fish put Dalton in a figure-four leglock and they rolled over and... there was a three-count and Dalton was declared the winner. Norm explained to me that the leglock had failed and, despite all appearances, Fish had his shoulders pinned down in the process. Honestly, it was a confusing end to the match for me. Shortly after that, Norm left again, whistling to show his progress.

The final match of the night was the Shulo/Nese one. It was good. Both wrestlers obviously knew their stuff and the moves transitioned pretty seamlessly with it looking believable that one side was prevailing at any given point or time. There was one hilariously mistimed maneuver where Nese clotheslined himself a good three inches before Shulo's arm, but overall, it was good. Near the end, the lights went out, a whistle was blown, the light went back up, and Facade Jason Gory leapt into the ring, spitting red mist into Shulo's eyes. Whistle, lights go out, then back up again. Nese secures a win while Shulo is blinded. Afterwards, Shulo confronts Norm, who's ringside (and no longer carrying the whistle...) and punches him out, and proceeds to assault Chuck as well, shouting that he's done "everything Chuck asked" and still he gets treated like this. I think that the intent is to paint Chuck as having engineered a lot more shady deals in the past. One minor oddity was that, when Nese was giving his speech about winning the title, there were three different people clustered around Shulo, splashing water on his face and dabbing away at his eyes, which makes me wonder if maybe something didn't quote go right, and Logan had been genuinely hurt (I also noticed that Shulo's eyes were funny after about halfway through the match, when he took a nasty hit on the head, so unless he's really good at acting injury, he might have been mildly concussed). The night ended with Norm stalking off, threatening to sue, and Shulo apparently ready to start a vendetta against Chuck and Norm.

Overall, I enjoyed myself again. I probably looked a proper rube, cheering and shouting as if it were a real fight (my favorite moment of the night was where Joseph Brooks was executing some sort of weird rear bearhug attempt on one of the members of W.A.R., I shouted something about him trying to hug his opponent to death and Jimmy Nutts, in his corner, turns and says in a very aggrieved voice, "It's a very aggressive hug"), and there's a part of me that keeps thinking that the shenanigans people pull in the ring would have resulted in disqualification not so long ago if seen by the ref (I suspect it's not much different from the people who complain about the NBA changing the rules to allow a few steps without dribbling in preparation for a dunk), not to mention how cheating is no longer the province of heels. I'm planning on trying to attend the March 9th event, also in Elizabeth.

Edit: The "new guy" in the Bolen / Blue Collar Slaughterhouse match was Brian McDowell who apparently debuted in July 2012.
Further Edit: It was Jason Gory who punked Shulo, not Facade. I made a mistake based on the blonde dreadlocks and the hooded costume.

Back, sort of

Och, that was a depressing entry to have as my most recent news. It all blew over, of course. We settled our dispute on how to furnish the house (in part by me realizing that I was quibbling over something that cost less than taking her out to dinner). Jamie and I got married in September. We still have our occasional disagreements, but we're learning how to argue with each other. It's a learning process. Christmas was great. My only real regret was that I didn't make it down to Ashland for Christmas, but I have two families now, and the agreement is to split Thanksgiving and Christmas between the two. This year, my side got Thanksgiving and her side got Christmas. Last year and next year are the reverse. That's all the news currently print to fit, I guess. I wish I got around to writing more on here, but time and focus are lacking. 

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In Limbo

So, my fiancee got mad at me and asked why I never remember things she tells me. I responded as straightforwardly, saying that I genuinely have a very poor memory for spoken conversations and that it's not in the least personal, just that I have difficulty remembering things if I haven't written them down myself, particularly when they're mentioned offhand without any notice drawn to them. I've tried to change that in the past -- I'm actually trained in a number of mnemonic techniques for memorizing things when I put a conscious effort into it -- but after 32 years of being like this, I don't know that there can be a change. After I withdrew from a conversation that was getting very rancorous, I got a message saying that she needs to rethink things.

I hope that I don't lose her over something that I have no control over, particularly something I thought she was fully aware of. I guess I'll find out soon.

Review - Martial Arts: Capoeira

Martial Arts: Capoeira is a 2011 sports/action game by Just A Game. Despite the claims on their website, it's not the first Capoeira PC game (there's been three iterations of the Flash game Capoeira Fighter and there was also Capoeira Legends. That said, I think this is the game that's come the closest to reproducing the style of Capoeira. That said, it still falls short.

First off, the flow of the movements is good, and the actions are well-animated. The characters are interesting story-wise and differentiate nicely. The game mechanics... I'm kind of up in the air on that. The controls are stiff and mildly unresponsive. Also, the game only accepts keyboard input, but also requires being able to press up to three keys at the same time, something the keyboard works badly for (for historical reasons and reasons of hardware limitations). I'll explicitly state that because of my difficulties with the controls, I've gotten almost nowhere in the game... which means I can't really talk much about the career mode or the story mode. On a side note, the game eschews a traditional health bar in favor of determining the winner by a combination of landing the attacks, dodging one's opponents, and avoiding unnecessary movements.

And, of course, as with every fighting-game implementation, including Capoeira Legends, which claims to be tracing the history of Capoeira, they take a style that's about demonstrating ability as much through artfully just missing one's opponent while showing off one's skill and turn it into a game about beating the other person up. *wry grin* You really can't escape it, I suppose. It's like trying to make a game on philosophy debate... sooner or later, you have to introduce a mechanic for determining who won, and combat is an easy way to solve it. The aforementioned avoidance of a traditional health bar does help a bit. And frankly, Capoeira is sometimes practiced as an actual martial art complete with victory being determined by beating down the other guy. Lastly, the game does portray the bouts as violent street fights. That said, it still feels a bit odd.

Ultimately, the game is an excellent attempt. It's not going to become a best-seller I suspect, but I hope that it makes back its budget at the least. I gave it a solid B, possibly toward B-.

Like An Unexpected Song That Only I Remembered

It was such a minor thing, a song by Matthews (I vaguely remember there being more to the name. Maybe it was that Dave Matthews band?), part of the Christmas music of the season. It was 99% extant, but 1% corrupt and the universe was trying to fix the damage by making it disappear as if it had never been. Somehow, I'd cottoned to it and so I'd begun taking my 99% complete file of the song and archiving it so that it would survive the purge. In doing so, the world's past became fragmented in four directions from the time of the file's corruptions and in each of these splinter timelines, I would again go through the same set of events, trying something slightly different in a vain attempt to save the song. In the dream, I knew that I had done this hundreds of times, sometimes having to evade authorities seeking to free the world from this deadlock by hunting me down and preventing me from sending the song back. Almost every time, I evaded them due to my prior knowledge of incarnations of the world. Not always.

Strangest part of this all? I didn't even like the song, felt that it was banal and overplayed, but it was a song and I felt that the loss of even that song was a loss of our humanity and so I had to bend all of my efforts to save it.