Tag: TV

Coffee Talk #599: When Wrestling Used Real Music

There’s a whole generation of pro-wrestling fans that have no idea that wrestlers made their entrances set to popular music. That used to be one of my favorite aspects of pro-wrestling. There were certain guys that I liked or hated because I liked or hated their entrance music. These days, the vast majority of pro-wrestling entrance themes are in-house creations (with most WWE songs being penned by Jim Johnston). Back in the ’70s and ’80s, wrestlers  (and management) picked popular songs that felt appropriate for their characters. Instead of paying for music licenses, the WWF/WWE started writing in-house songs that they could sell. It makes total sense on a business level, but I still miss wrestlers using…continued

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There’s a whole generation of pro-wrestling fans that have no idea that wrestlers made their entrances set to popular music. That used to be one of my favorite aspects of pro-wrestling. There were certain guys that I liked or hated because I liked or hated their entrance music. These days, the vast majority of pro-wrestling entrance themes are in-house creations (with most WWE songs being penned by Jim Johnston). Back in the ’70s and ’80s, wrestlers  (and management) picked popular songs that felt appropriate for their characters. Instead of paying for music licenses, the WWF/WWE started writing in-house songs that they could sell. It makes total sense on a business level, but I still miss wrestlers using “real” music. (To be fair, ECW used real music prior to landing on TNN and several indie promotions continue to do so today.)

Let’s take a look back at some popular songs used as pro-wrestling entrance themes back in the day.

Hulk Hogan “Eye of the Tiger” — Even though I sometimes use “Real American” as my ringtone, Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” is still my favorite Hulk Hogan entrance theme. It’s a high-energy song and it always got the crowd going. Plus, it’s a nice homage to Hogan’s appearance in Rocky III, which helped take his career to a new level.

Junkyard Dog “Another One Bites the Dust” — JYD was awesome. Queen was awesome. Ergo this pairing was awesome.

Kerry Von Erich “Tom Sawyer” — Lyrically, this pairing made total sense. Before he was “The Texas Tornado,” Von Erich was “The Modern Day Warrior.” Musically, it wasn’t the most riveting entrance them, but I love Rush and I was a mark for Kerry in the WCCW days.

The Road Warriors “Iron Man” — Before the WWE neutered them and made them the lovable Legion of Doom, The Road Warriors were — by far — the most bad-ass tag-team in the world. Using a bad-ass Black Sabbath song was an outstanding choice.

The U.S. Express “Born in the USA” — Another appropriate pairing, the tag-team of Barry Windham and Mike Rotundo was pushed as a couple of all-American boys. Too bad they never turned into cowardly heels and used Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run.”

Jimmy Garvin “Sharp Dressed Man” — Something of an ’80s Gorgeous George, “Gorgeous” Jimmy Garvin was a flamboyant wrestler that wore tacky robes and had an outstanding ’80s perm…that could almost pass as a ZZ Top beard.

Rick Rude “Smooth Operator” — The Ravishing One could do whatever the hell he wanted, which apparently included walking to the ring to a Sade song.

Bruiser Brody “Immigrant Song” — Wrestling marks know that Brody was one of the original “monster” wrestlers that has influenced today’s monsters. It’s a shame that he was murdered by a shady promoter before the big wrestling boom. Still, he’s a legend and using a legendary Led Zepelin song totally works.

Lord Humongous “War Machine” — Before Taz used this Kiss classic as his ECW entrance music, Lord Humongous used it in Mid-South Wrestling. For those of you not familiar with Lord Humongous, it was a masked persona used by several wrestlers, including the man that would become “Psycho” Sid.

Midnight Express “Chase” — Of course the Midnight Express used a track from the movie Midnight Express. It actually worked really well as a pro-wrestling entrance theme.

The Steiner Brothers “Welcome to the Jungle” — There are many wrestling fans that have no idea that Scott Steiner used to be the smaller Steiner brother. They probably didn’t know that they marched to the ring to this Guns n’ Roses song too.

Austin Aries “Personal Jesus” — Yeah, this isn’t from the classic era, but I’m putting it here because he’s a pal and the song fits. He didn’t like the idea of using Depeche Mode for his entrance music, but saw that it made sense for his Ring of Honor character. The crowd loved it too.

Anyway, those are just some of my favorite real songs used as pro-wrestling entrance themes. What are some of your favorites? Kindly list them in the comments section when you have a chance.

Random Thoughts on The Newsroom Season 2, Episode 7

I skipped out on recapping last week’s episode of The Newsroom because I found it a bit dull (yet still watched it 11 times). Will had a sweet moment on ACN Morning and the Operation Genoa story continued to unveil, but too much of it was tiresome. I was tired of Lugubrious Will, Cock Blocked Jim, and Not Getting Any Action Don. Thankfully, this week’s episode was thunderous. It was dramatic and ended with a stentorian roar. Let’s start at the ending.

Leona Lansing is Mariano Rivera: Jane Fonda came in at the end of this episode of The Newsroom and made it her bitch. She completely owned it and starred in the best scene of the season (possibly the second-best Newsroom scene ever behind Will’s speech at Northwestern in s1e1). Her character, Atlantis World Media CEO Leona Lansing, dominated the last three and half minutes of the show with a passionate, charged, and hilarious diatribe. It showed so many sides of her character — her toughness, her wonderfully harsh sense of humor, and her hidden love for Atlantis Cable News. It was a thrilling way to close the show and reminded me of Mariano Rivera closing out an exciting Yankee game.

Don Keefer Lights it Up: Naturally, the best episode of the season kicked of with The Newsroom’s best character. Don was at his sardonic best, “working” with ACN’s lawyer. He also had several great moments in the “Red Team” meetings — sharp lines that only Don Keefer can deliver with the proper bite. While Don is no closer to a relationship with Sloan Sabbith than he was in s2e1, he’s still the coolest cat in the newsroom. This character rules.

A Few Good Men (and Women): One of the reasons I enjoyed this episode so much was that it was a legal drama. Twelve Angry Men, A Few Good Men, and Primal Fear are some of my favorite movies of all time. In this episode, The Newsroom’s use of real-world events and romantic comedy took a backseat to the legal drama. Having ACN’s lawyer played by the excellent Marcia Gay Harden helped too. Hmmmm, the people that say that The Newsroom portrays women as fools need to look at the characters played by Jane Fonda and Marcia Gay Harden. Those ladies are tough.

Shot-Clock Violation: Brian Fantana Jerry Dantana doctored some raw footage of a key Operation Genoa interview so that it would tell the story he wanted told. When the interviewee insisted on leaving March Madness basketball games playing in the background (s2e6), I knew that the shot clock would play a role in the Operation Genoa report unraveling. Honestly, I thought it was silly that nobody caught it. You had the news teams from two shows and 30 ACN lawyers combing over the material. While I understand that the enormity of the story was foremost on their minds, I don’t see how all of them missed the shot clock jumping back and forth. I was kind of disappointed that MacKenzie was the one that eventually spotted it. It seemed like something Slumdog Millionaire would have sleuthed.

Sloan Dislocates Her Shoulder: Sloan Sabbith didn’t do a lot in this episode, which means that Olivia Munn didn’t have many opportunities for unbelievable acting (playing a character that has two doctorates is one thing, but playing someone embarrassed by naked photos is completely unbelievable). Since dear Olivia was denied the opportunity to offend, you should watch her dislocate her shoulder. The video is a week old, but it’s still frickin’ hilarious!

MTV Video Music Awards 2013 Highlights (VMAs)

There were several memorable performance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs). From Lady Gaga to Katy Perry to Justin Timberlake, the VMAs had something for everyone. Let’s take a look at some highlights and kindly talk about your favorite performance at the 2013 VMAs in the comments section.

‘N Sync Reunion
There were so many things that I loved about this VMAs performance. It started with Justin Timberlake repeatedly saying, “You asked for it.” To which I wondered, “Really?!? That’s news to me.” The celebrity crowd reactions were excellent. Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga looked like they were genuinely marking out (though Swift could have been salivating at five potential boyfriends/songwriting toys). One Direction looked positively bored. As for ‘N Sync, I was a little worried about the ones not named Justin Timberlake; Joey Fatone looked more like Joey Fat One and I was impressed/relieved that he made through the act. While Timberlake also had a solo performance, I thought it was incredibly generous of him to share the stage with the four other clowns members of ‘N Sync. Good on him.

Miley Cyrus Medley
If Cyclops from the X-Men and Gizmo from Gremlins had a giant lovechild, it would be the thing that Miley Cyrus emerged from at the beginning of her 2013 VMAs performance. Amazingly, that wasn’t the strangest thing in this bizarre set. I was amazed by how much unintentional comedy Cyrus packed into this act. Her outfit was garish, her dancing was whorish, her vocals were poor, and the stage was full of funky stuffed animals. Some of it was just uncomfortable and I felt bad for Billy Ray Cyrus; it was half a step away from him seeing his daughter perform at a strip club. It was awful, but also mesmerizing — the musical-performance equivalent of a car wreck.

Lady Gaga
You guys and dolls know that I’m a mark for Gaga. I love what she does for people that feel different and I love how she treats her fans. While I enjoy some of her music, there’s a lot of it that’s just okay to me. “Applause” fits into the latter category. That said, she put on a great show at the VMAs. It started with Gaga channeling Liza Minnelli show-tune vocals before shifting into the pop version of the song. Halfway through the act, she unveiled a seashell bikini, which is always hot (you know you wanted Ariel from The Little Mermaid). I thought it was a well-choreographed number and I really enjoyed watching it.

Katy Perry
Closing out the 2013 VMAs was Katy Perry singing “Roar.” It was cool to see an outdoor performance under the Brooklyn Bridge, but I didn’t enjoy this one was much as Gaga’s. The set looked like a LEGO version of the MGM Grand and putting Perry in boxing gear negates her sexiness. The most interesting part of the act was the silly jumprope exhibition in the middle of the song. I figured that there was a 69-percent chance that Perry would knock herself out with one of her boobs. Sadly, that didn’t happen.

Watch Olivia Munn Dislocate Her Shoulder!

My sexy friend Tricia just sent me a video of Olivia Munn dislocating her shoulder…and it is awesome!!! In the video, the woman formerly known as Lisa is playing around on a makeshift swing indoors. Generally speaking, swings are used outdoors and supported by sturdy metal poles. That’s not the case with this homemade concoction and the results are fantastic — first there’s a wicked snap that’s quickly followed by a sickening thud. And there’s our dear Olivia Munn, splattered on the floor with a dislocated shoulder. Ha!

Yes, I know that we’re not supposed to revel in the misfortune of others, but it’s Olivia Munn! Besides, she posted the video on Twitter, so fair game, right? Now please excuse me, as I’m going to watch this video 50 times in a row.

Source

WWE Make-A-Wish Charity Event

Yesterday afternoon, I received a call to do some red-carpet interviews at WWE’s “Superstars For Hope” charity event for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. WWE fans know that the company does a lot of work with this outstanding charity. John Cena makes a lot of appearances for Make-A-Wish and as much as I dislike his character, it’s awesome to see how happy he makes children with life-threatening medical conditions. Most of the talent I spoke with put Cena’s charity work over in a major way, which is completely deserved. While I was mostly stuck with scripted questions, I did have some fun off-camera chats with some WWE Superstars and Divas. Here are some random notes and photos from the event.

Triple H
I’ve interviewed Hunter a few times, with my first interview being at E3 ’98 (I think) when he was European Champion. He’s always been good to chat with, but was usually very serious about his character and the WWE business. This time around I got goofy Hunter — the Triple H from Degeneration-X. While many fans know him for his intense pro-wrestling character or as a serious behind-the-scenes worker, it seems like time and fatherhood has mellowed him out. For example, one of the questions in my script was, “What makes Summer Slam different from other WWE events?” His answer caught me by surprise:

“Well, it’s in August. None of our other pay-per-views are in August. That’s different.”

He did follow up with a more serious answer, equating Summer Slam and WrestleMania to the All-Star Game and World Series, respectively. Still, that deadpan opener made me laugh. It was goofy and I love goofy humor.

Daniel Bryan
This one was a lot of fun for me as a longtime Bryan Danielson fan. He told me a story from his indie days, about sleeping in his car on Wilshire Boulevard in order to save money. He was parked in a restaurant parking lot and the police told him to move. He didn’t want any trouble, so he drove to a residential area and slept in his car’s trunk. Going from that to the main event of Summer Slam has been quite the journey. I’m really thrilled for his success.

That said, it has come at a price. While he’s an amazing wrestler, red-carpet walks and press-conference speeches are relatively new things to him. The jacket-and-tie combo was definitely not his thing. His outfit was put together by his girlfriend, WWE Diva Brie Bella. She was proud of the ensemble she put together. When I asked Danielson if he had to buy all of it or if he had any parts of the outfit already in his closet, he looked at his clothes and said, “Just the cords. I’ve had these cords for a long time.” The cords were, of course, the scraggliest part of the ensemble.

Lastly, we chatted a bit about Austin Aries (the best wrestler in TNA and the greatest man that ever lived). The two worked together for years on the independent circuit. Thanks to going to Aries’ shows, I was exposed to awesome wrestlers that are making it big in the WWE. It was fun watching wrestlers like CM Punk, Claudio Castagnoli (Antonio Cesaro), and Danielson perform in bingo halls and high-school gyms. It’s a testament to their talent, hard work, and perseverance that they are where they are today. Hopefully Danielson wins the WWE Championship at Summer Slam and Aries captures the TNA belt soon. That would make the world a better place.

Stone Cold Steve Austin
It’s always awesome seeing a pro-wrestling legend. For many people, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin represents the pinnacle of the WWE. I’ve been watching this guy for a long time, back from when he was “Stunning” Steve Austin. When he was part of the Hollywood Blonds with Brian Pillman and when he feuded with Ricky Steamboat, I always thought, “This guy should be way better. Why isn’t he a star yet?!?” As you know, he went on to become one of the biggest stars in WWE history.

Austin seems happy doing movies and television. With his Hollywood experiences, he was easily the smoothest red-carpet interview of the night and it’s clear that this is his world now. I do wonder if working with Sylvester Stallone has influenced him. I don’t know if Austin has had plastic surgery, but it sure looks like it. His skin appears remarkably taught for a man his age and he has the telltale sign of limited mouth movement. I get that it’s part of Hollywood and everyone does it out here, but it kind of takes away from his completely kick-ass character from the WWE Attitude Era. Can you imagine the guy that beat the crap out of his boss with a bedpan getting Botox and collagen injections? Ha!

Then again, Austin has made it clear that he loved his time in the WWE and has moved onto other things. Oh well, at least his (supposed) plastic surgery makes more sense than Garry Shandling’s.

Assorted Notes
The Uso brothers are really chill and fun. Hopefully they get to show this side of their personalities in their characters in the future…. Nattie Neidhart is really charming in real life. I dig her sense of humor. I remember laughing at her use of the phrase, “You better settle your tea kettle,” when I interviewed her in 2010…. Funkadactyl Cameron is super-cute in person…. CM Punk is so polished now. He’s gotten so good at these types of interviews — very different from the guy that posed with my Pokemon toys in 2008…. Interviews I was bummed to miss: Mick Foley, Dolph Ziggler, and Brodus Clay…. I love shaking hands with the Big Show. It’s like sticking your hand in a turkey…. Hornswaggle is one helluva gamer. We had a nice chat about PlayStation 4 vs. Xbox One…. Speaking of which, it seems like most of the WWE gamers are going with Xbox One over PS4…. I was sad that Fandango didn’t correct my pronunciation of his name….

The Pirate Bay Launches PirateBrowser

The Pirate Bay has launched PirateBrowser, a barebones web browser that helps users reach the popular torrent-file service when using Internet service providers (ISPs) that block it. PirateBrowser is a mix of Firefox, FoxyProxy, and Tor. Here’s the description from the company’s blog:

Do you know any people who can’t access TPB or other torrents-sites because they are blocked? Recommend PirateBrowser to them. It’s a simple one-click browser that circumvents censorship and blockades and makes the site instantly available and accessible. No bundled ad-ware, toolbars or other crap, just a Pre-configured Firefox browser.

While PirateBrowser should unblock The Pirate Bay for many users, it’s important not to mistake it for a product that offers truly anonymous browsing. It’s a potentially useful tool for people that like to…uhm share files, but a good virtual private network (VPN) is the way to go if you want your Internet activity masked from your ISP, the government, nosy martians, etc. Don’t get me wrong. I love that this free product is being offered, but I fear that some people will overestimate its capabilities.

Any of you thinking of giving PirateBrowser a whirl?

Source via BGR

Random Thoughts on The Newsroom Season 2, Episode 5

This week’s episode of The Newsroom used a pair of emotionally heavy real-world events as the backdrop — Trayvon Martin’s murder and Tyler Clementi’s suicide. Unfortunately, the impact of those stories was overshadowed by Olivia Munn’s horrendous acting. While she can be entertaining in comedic roles, this week her character dealt with a situation that…well, let’s just jump into it Continue reading “Random Thoughts on The Newsroom Season 2, Episode 5”

Random Thoughts on The Newsroom Season 2, Episode 4

Things are moving fast in The Newsroom. A lot happened in s2e4, so let’s jump right into it.

The Return of Dick Don: After getting Sensitive Don, Passionate Don, and Jar Jar Don in the first three episodes of the show, I was starting to wonder if the lovably roguish Dick Don (DD) was gone for good. In episode four, DD made his return, but it wasn’t as triumphant and glorious as it could have been. Before I get to that, let’s go over some DD highlights. Continue reading “Random Thoughts on The Newsroom Season 2, Episode 4”

Random Thoughts on The Newsroom Season 2, Episode 3

After a first episode with heavy setup and a second episode with a lot of setup, season two of The Newsroom appears to be hitting its stride in the third episode. Most of the characters played to their strengths and turned up the volume. The lone exception was Don, who is disturbingly and frustratingly stuck in “Nice Guy Don” mode. Here are some assorted thoughts on episode three.

Ballers: Several characters got their balls back this week (metaphorically speaking). After two episodes of being an insufferable woe-is-me whiner, Jim fights back on the Romney campaign and even manages to charm Meryl Streep’s daughter. Slumdog Millionaire gets frustrated that his Occupy Wall Street coverage keeps getting shot down and uncharacteristically barks back at MacKenzie. Sloan, played by our not-the-least-bit beloved Olivia Munn, slices up her executive producer in a way that would be sexy if the character wasn’t being played by one of the worst people on Earth. There was a lot of fire in this week’s episode and it was quite enjoyable.

J.A.W.: Will McAvoy was at his best this episode — Jumbled Amazing Will (J.A.W.) — which is to say that he was all over the place. He gleefully tore apart the republican candidates for not sticking up for a gay soldier, irrationally terrorized the newsroom over a press leak, angrily laid into Mac over their turbulent relationship, charmingly asked Nina Howard (played by the awesome Hope Davis) to kill a story, and softly denied that he was still in love with Mac. To top it all off, the episode ended with him getting laid. He showed a wide range of emotions and got a lot done. This is why he’s the show’s hero.

Charlie Returns…Almost: Although the head of ACN’s news division had some funny lines in the first two episodes of the season, they lacked the bite and impact of his best lines from first season. Charlie had better moments in episode three. While they didn’t quite pack the punch of his best zingers, they were a step in the right direction. Hopefully this trend continues.

Don’s Regression: I’m still trying to figure out what the hell happened to Don Keefer. He used to be the Han Solo of ACN’s news division. This week he was Jar Jar Binks. He unsuccessfully put tire-like wheels on his chair, leading to a bit with physical comedy. His chair is way to low and causes him to fall if he leans back. Where is the roguishly dickish Don that ruled the show in season one?!? That guy ruled. Now we have this sensitive fellow that keeps falling out his chair. *sigh*

Maggie is a Mess: Things are coming to a head for Maggie. Don dumped her, Jim’s treating her “like a sister,” and her best friend (that she has to live with for financial reasons) isn’t speaking to her. To prepare for her trip to Uganda, she started taking meds that have lots of side effects — irrational fear, suicidal thoughts, homicidal thoughts, itchiness, etc. Never mind that these side effects aren’t supposed to show up for another week. Maggie is an emotional mess now and is using the meds as an excuse to act out. It’s very cute (though not cute enough to help you figure out why Jim fell for Maggie over Lisa).

The Salami Story: The investigation of Operation Genoa (the sail, not the salami) is ramping up. Mac and Brian Fantana Jerry Dantana met with a soldier that was allegedly part of the black-ops mission that involved chemical warfare. Jerry has the staff combing through Twitter to find a second source for the story. They’re using translated tweets from a random source? No wonder the crew gets in legal trouble over this coverage.

Danica McKellar Gets Sexy in Avril Lavigne Video

I’m excited for Avril Lavigne’s video for “Rock N Roll.” I don’t care about the song. I’m excited because the video features Danica McKellar showing off her stomach, wearing leather, and sporting turquoise fishnet stockings. Danica McKellar is hot because she was the adorable girl next door in The Wonder Years and grew up to be a published math geek. That’s so sexy. Check out E! for a pair of photos of Danica dolled up for the video. That’s definitely not the Winnie Cooper Continue reading “Danica McKellar Gets Sexy in Avril Lavigne Video”