That night, there I was in in the Squared Circle in Chicago, grappling with myself about why I didn’t like John Cena when I should. No, not the Squared Circle you’re thinking, my friend. This is a bar restaurant on 2418 North Ashland Avenue in Chicago, near the long stretch of Kennedy Expressway and its run of traffic that seems to go into eternity. Place for fans and wrestlers alike, with framed championship belts and…
Tag: John Cena
I’m thinking about writing a longer piece about the genre of contract signings in wrestling. Really, I never would have thought the signing of contracts could be such a compelling thing to watch, but I perk up every time I hear there’s going to be one. They represent the tension between WWE’s carny and corporate elements so perfectly: two employees meet in a ring-turned-boardroom to sign a legally binding document to fight for a prize,…
I’ve been working on keeping my cool. Not letting disappointments bring me crashing down, maintaining a consistent vibe when everything goes into a tailspin. I also caught a spoiler that Kevin Owens lost to John Cena as I was running about an hour behind in my watching of Battleground, so I was prepared for the unfortunate eventuality. Kevin Owens’ #1 fangirl here didn’t riot when Cena won, because I’m practicing non-attachment, rising above the fray,…
Wow, things are fairly groundbreaking, even game-changing, in the feud raging between Kevin Owens and John Cena. This stuff gives me chills! I am working on an editorial about the Cena/Owens duality for Tim Kail to read on his Work of Wrestling podcast, but I need to transcribe these promos to work from so I’m sharing them here. Notice how literary these words are when you see them in print. Kevin Owens speaks in precise,…
UPDATE! I was totally wrong here! Somebody who speaks Bulgarian corrected me on Twitter, check it out: @AndreaGregovich when he screams “aaa predavam sa” this means i qiur — Mario (@bloodicha1) May 18, 2015 So thank you to Mario for setting me straight on the words that I struggled with (predavam sa), and I owe Lana an apology. But now the match seems even more hokey. This means Rusev forgot how to speak English, he…
Sami Zayn’s shoulder injury will be for us one of those memorable heartbreaking moments in WWE history. Perhaps the best everyman underdog of all time, on an iconic RAW debut against John Cena (that very much echoed Cena’s own iconic debut against Kurt Angle a decade ago), dislocated his shoulder before he even entered the ring as he swung his arms to rouse the crowd. He wrestled the entire excellent match on a bum shoulder…
Hello friends! I’m still trying to get a few things finished before I start blogging like a fool again, but RAW this week was so chock full of memorable promos I’m compelled to transcribe as many as I can over the next few days. On the topic of a compelling RAW, have you noticed that at this stage in the monthly pay-per-view storyline cycle, there is almost always a compelling RAW? What is it about…
Is anybody doing analytics on the number of cell phone lighter apps people are putting up for Bray Wyatt? Some nights it’s stunning. Doesn’t this count for something? Bray Wyatt is amazing. Can we set him up on some kind of sensible narrative trajectory? Couldn’t he aim toward a Jake the Snake-style babyface run? I remember the Jake the Snake of my junior high years was the same exact crazy dark madman as babyface or…
I have precious little to say about TLC which is a shame, because I think so fondly of the days when tables, ladders, and chairs meant something huge. A ladder match used to fill me with fearful excitement, and the crunch of a split table would stir in me a primal thrill. I used to try to write poetry about the iconography of hardcore, hardcore being a kind of revolution, a period of anarchy in…