Tag: Ric Flair

Remembering VCR’s and VHS’s…

Posted on by anele25

“In a New York Minute, everything can change, In a New York minute, things can get really strange.”

-Don Henley on New York Minute

This past week, I decided to dig up some old tapes that I had. Now, these tapes ranged from this TV show I used to watch that was called El Chavo Del Ocho, Vicente Fernandez concerts, as well as Alejandro Fernandez concerts, and also old wrestling tapes. What was surprising was that I also dug up some old Christmas tapes as well. I was thinking in my head that this was everything was simple and technology had not advanced. The reason we use the technology we have now is because it is convenient and accessible. Everything is so different than it was 3 or 4 years ago when I was still taping things on a VCR. I was surprised when I especially found the old wrestling tapes and the amount of wrestling I had on there was stupendous even to me. I found stuff I don’t even recall taping such as this street fight between two very accomplished wrestlers in Edge and Shawn Michaels. I thought about what was going on in my life at that time. I remember I was still in my Junior in High School and I was engaged in reading Catcher in The Rye. I was also busy trying to get ready to pass my license test that I prepared for at least 3 months in advance (taking into account that this was in February. I was astonished that watching the Christmas tape as well as to how much of a spoiled little kid I was. I wasn’t proud of what I saw on the tape because I was trying to get all my presents first before anyone else. I was hogging the camera spotlight trying to be something I wasn’t. I also saw myself in the tape speaking English and Spanish, yet Spanish was not as advanced as English. I look back on that and see how much things have changed since we had that Christmas in 1997. That was one of my favorite years in my life as many great things happened that year to make my life a pleasure. I had my mom, my dad, my brother, my uncle, my aunt’s husband, my uncle’s wife and his kid, my other uncle, his wife, and their daughter, and also our next door neighbors there as well. That was one of the last times that we were all together as we have kind of drifted apart to different parts of the the San Jose area, and/ or moved away to Mexico due to economic circumstances. I was also happy to watch some parts of a El Chavo del Ocho tape I found too. When I started watching El Chavo in 2003, I had just moved to the West part of San Jose and I had little to any hope of actually staying in contact with my old friends from the old apartments. I completed my first year of high school at Homestead High School and that was the only time I got to see them. However, when I would take the ride home it was fun and exhausting  because most of the time I would take two buses to my house and I remember being a little tired from starting at 7:30 in the morning to almost 3 P.M. I didn’t have anybody to talk to when I got home but I just remember the year before, my mom and I went to Mexico in August of 2001 and this show came on that was both funny and educational. My Grandma, myself, my mom, and my grandma’s brother would watch the show when it would come on at night for about a week or tow before we had to leave. I always laughed the hardest when Chavo would would say something dumb to Don Ramon and Don Ramon would hit him on the head. I also laughed a lot whenever the kids (Chavo, Quico, Chilindriana, and Nono) would cry for whatever reason. I was amazed watching the show because it taught me a lot about comedy and how it doesn’t need to involved sick,crude jokes, and it doesn’t need to involve cuss words to bring about humor as well. I was a little sad when we had to leave to come back home because I didn’t know if I would ever watch the show again. Well, one day I was flipping through the channels and I saw El Chavo on and I started watching it a bit. There wasn’t much of a choice as to what I could do because my friends had were now away from me. I thought to myself ‘hey this is pretty funny’ and then I had the idea of taping the show which low and behold I ended up with 12 tapes of El Chavo del Ocho, which, I told my dad were for sort of a time capsule from a period in my life. I can say that recording those episodes were apart of what got me through the early part of high school because I looked forward to see what the antics would be Don Ramon, Dona Florinda, El Chavo, Quico, and the rest of characters as well. Watching the concerts a bit also surprised me because I forget I had even recorded some of Don Vicente and Alejandro Fernandez. But, above all the wrestling still shocked me when I found some stuff that I don’t recall taping at all. For example, I found a match with the legendary Ric Flair against a guy that was supposed to be one of WWE’s future stars in Carlito. Now, granted Carlito never made it huge, and rightfully so being a wrestler with a “bright future” does not guarantee anything and yet he still managed to have a wonderful match with Flair. I still get a bit of nostalgia when I think of a live event I went to here in San Jose where these two put on almost a similar match yet the one on TV went a bit longer. After watching a few matches, I realized that taping stuff (whatever it may be and NOT on a DVR) really makes you think back and say: I remember that or ‘I taped that, really’? I felt better watching those because I realized even with stuff we have now, it is simpler, yet our kids will never know that we actually had to sit in front of a TV to wait for something to come on. It feels better to wait for something to come on because it is that much sweeter and much more satisfying. We have everything at the touch of a button now, or we have phones that can bring food to your house, and we also have the ability to pay things electronically instead of actually paying it in person. It’s not at all bad, yet some things were better when we had the ability when we could actually do things in person. It goes back to the whole Facebook argument in that we don’t have to see these people face to face we just have to send them a message and then they’re our friends. I’d like to end this by adding that if “Life wasn’t a challenge it wouldn’t be fun” good day to all (Go A’s):

Why the same patterns in wrestling always work…

Posted on by anele25

On Thursday afternoon, wondering if I could get wifi in my car, I read something interesting while I was sitting there studying for my Speech 8 midterm while I was able to actually find a connection, and that was in the wrestling organization TNA Hulk Hogan has proposed that TNA will no longer be doing fake story lines and they will be in fact shifting to real story lines. I was kind of taken aback by this because for one, no one will buy and two it’s something that can’t be helped out by the fact that wrestling formality is and always will be what draws people to it for the sake that it’s like a soap opera. Let’s make an analogy here, if on one of my favorite TV shows, The West Wing, they made it known that the original main character, Sam Seaborn, who is played by Rob Lowe, was upset because his role on the show was dwindling and they made that real, it would feel strange and upsetting because I want to know about the character Sam Seaborn and not the actor who actually ended up feeling upset because his role was downgraded to a supporting role instead of a main one. For all intents and purposes, wrestling has always relied on several things to keep it alive which makes it simple and yet still exciting for “hardcore” wrestling fans to tune in. For example, I always joke with my brother Jesus about the oldest tricks in the book in wrestling and it still keeps us entertained, Some of the examples for this would be (but not limited to)

1. The idea of good vs. evil: There have always been two forces in the universe that triumph and that is good and evil, that is the basis for wrestling and it doesn’t get anymore simple than that just watch it and that’s what you get.

2. A battle for pride or “who’s better” series of matches between two competitors: One of the best examples of this is when way back when in the 1980’s Ricky Steamboat and Ric Flair put on one of the best rivalries I’ve seen through matches that just wow’ed me when I viewed them on DVD because they were crisp and the psychology and storytelling put on by both men made me appreciate just how hard these guys have to work in order for the crowd to buy into what they were doing because they were not only working their asses off but they were also trying to show that wrestling can be a sport if it wanted to be.

3. The heel stable against the group of disgruntled babyfaces: I have mixed feelings about this one because it can be really good if executed correctly. The best example of how this may work is with the Hart Foundation in 1997 and the way it happened was awesome because for years Bret Hart was the beloved hero but he ended forming a heel stable because now things were a bit different and people wanted to cheer for the bad guys instead of the typical bland babyfaces. What ended up happening was you got Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, Mick Foley, The Road Warriors, Dustin Rhodes, and others to form an alliance against this rugged group of individuals. What ended up happening was a U.S. against Canada and for everything for what it was worth it was and is one of my favorite times in wrestling because it showed what life demonstrates sometimes: ideals, righteousness, and the supremacy to see who is number one in the world matters to some.

4. The build up of the chase for the world title babyface: I like this one in part because some really good stories have come out of this one. Several examples include the Steve Austin rise to the top in 1998 when he was facing Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 14 and he ended up winning, another one is when Sting wrestled Hogan at Starrcade 1997 which was built up with a year’s worth of promos and what not, and another one of personal favorites is when Eddie Guerrero won the championship here in San Francisco from Brock Lesnar which was made even better by the fact that I was there live and I couldn’t have been prouder of one of the little guys that was a great wrestler and he had a great persona.

5. Building up something without the babyface even being on TV: I have seen this numerous times throughout my years of watching wrestling and it seems difficult to execute but once it’s done I feel proud to be a wrestling fan. The master of this is Chris Jericho who feuded with Dean Malenko over a title but in hindsight Malenko was off TV for several weeks which resulted in Jericho insulting him, his family, and even his famous 1000 holds moniker. Looking back even 2 years ago, he had one of my top 10 favorite feuds with Shawn Michaels in which he may have ended his career and for weeks he bragged about it which made the fans even more furious because they wanted to see their hero Shawn return and show Jericho that he was in fact not retired. Michaels did in fact return after being off TV and once he did the crowd just ate it up because he was back for revenge.

Looking at these, I realize wrestling would be impossible to actually have as being real with real storylines. The basis for wrestling is to have it be fake but these guys are athletes that are integrated with storylines that sometimes have real life implications. For example, we always root for the underdog in any situation  which is something wrestling is excellent at because writers and agents want us to feel enthralled in what they do instead of actually seeing the bad guy come out on top all the time. I don’t want to know what goes on behind the scenes, it’s juicy and funny when it they talk about it on TV but too much is overkill and it just makes me think how they can allow these inside things onto a “wrestling” show. Anyway, wrestling will be and always will be using the same formula because without it not many new ideas can be come up with. Have a good afternoon everybody and here’s a demonstration of why I love wrestling( insane heat 101)