Hello, world. I’m MacDara Conroy, and this is my blog.


Category: Wrestling

The Four Women Saving Wrestling

GQ gets in on the Four Horsewomen business. But is the change they herald really a sure thing? With matches still being booked in the Divas-era ‘girly’ style (catfights with hair-pulling, basically), we’re a ways off yet. #link

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The Smart Fan’s Guide to ‘SummerSlam,’ the Smart Fan’s PPV

I like Shoemaker but I don’t agree with the premise of this piece at all. When did SummerSlam become ‘the smart fan’s WrestleMania’? Isn’t that still WrestleMania? Also, it’s comical in hindsight, what with this year’s SummerSlam being such a drag, and the subsequent minor PPVs being stronger in both ‘workrate’ and entertainment value. #link

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We Must Change: A Message To All Professional Wrestling Fans

There are variations of this kind of thing all over the web, and they’re indicative of a growing frustration with wrestling fandom that’s hard to articulate (in this case, the writer makes a category error in cleaving the fanbase between ‘casual’ and ‘smart’) other than saying that some people — the type who demand five-star matches, and only appreciate the ‘entertainment’ with ironic detachment — take things way too seriously. #link

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Hell night: Hell in a Cell previewed

Hell In A Cell

More than three months into the ‘New Era’ brand split and it’s a bit late now to give you a full-on essay on the whats and whys and wherefores. Suffice it to say it’s hard to call it a disappointment when the overall results are about as much as I expected. Does that mean they can’t do better? Of course not. But with the people WWE has in charge right this minute, change for the good is at best piecemeal, or accidental.

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RUMBLEMETRICS

‘Poetic impressions’ of the annual Royal Rumble. Just three months till the next one! #link

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The Story of Vince McMahon

I saw some ragging on this piece for being a lift from Vince’s infamous Playboy interview, and not even a lift of the juiciest quotes. But the point of it is more as a sampler for people to go read all of these sources in greater depth, is it not? Take it for what it is, not what you think it is, people. #link

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How Japanese Wrestling Is Body Slamming the American Mainstream

Just in time for the G1 Climax tournament that's five days old as I write (and has another three-plus weeks to go). Could have done with a more judicious edit (apart from the odd typo, there are quite a few factual errors a quick Google search would fix) but it's still nice to see wrestling get attention from non-wrestling media, and especially attention of the 'this is cool' rather than 'this is stupid' kind. #link

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Some thoughts on NXT TakeOver: The End…

Too long since I’ve written about wrestling. Here’s something, a few stray thoughts from last night’s NXT TakeOver special:

  • Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas has a mouthful of a moniker (does he need the nickname in the middle?) and his entrance gear is Los Boricuas cosplay. Leave the goofy hat, braces and linen trousers at home, and you might be on to a winner with the former Sombra.
  • Also, didn’t Tye Dillinger look great in that opener? Someone’s angling hard for that main-roster call-up.

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Japan's women wrestlers fight to win

High-brow re-acceptance of wrestling as an idiosyncratic art form takes its inevitable detour through the Japanese puroresu underground with this beautiful photo essay. #link

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On ‘The New Day and Being Black in WWE’

There’s a problem with this article on Vice Sports, editorially speaking. It sets up a kind of straw man argument: that The New Day, as singin’ and dancin’ black folk, are perpetuating a decades-old racial stereotype befitting an unfortunate longtime trend in wrestling. The fact of the latter, that wrestling has a problem with race and “being black is the gimmick”, is inarguably true, to varying extents. But that intro doesn’t credit Xavier Woods, Big E and Kofi Kingston with any agency in the way their characters, as they are now, are portrayed. I mean, the quotes from their own voices confirm that they know exactly what they’re doing, and always did.

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The Great Wight Hope

David Bixenspan on The Big Show's ill-fated foray into boxing, one that appears to have come at a serious cost to his health. (And Hulk Hogan's involved? Why does that not surprise me?) #link

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How the WWE Is Taking Concussions Seriously

But are they really? I could make a decent-sized list off the top of my head of active roster talent who'd likely find themselves in the 'at risk' group if they were tested to the same rigorous degree. And that's the real problem. WWE needs an off-season, but achieving that will be difficult, requiring significant changes to its live touring business. #link

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Why Wrestling Matters

Despite dwindling TV ratings and PPV buy rates, wrestling -- or to be more specific, WWE -- has never been more popular. It's simply suffering from the same changes affecting all media: the surplus of choice and the shifting of platforms. #link

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The Second Act of CM Punk

Kind of a loaded interview, and I can see why Punk got upset: would any other fighter be asked about being intimidated in the octagon? Most likely not, because the default assumption is that they're serious athletes who are only there because they're tough enough. But a pro wrestler? That shit's fake, right? #link

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WWE's Sexism Problem Is Just Getting Worse

Getting worse because the history is becoming more visible, yes. I don't think Vince gives a shit one way or the other, though; he just goes along with Kevin Dunn's (alleged) misogyny. #link

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Some notes on a bad night at the matches

I seem to have irked some people with my Thumped review of last Saturday and Sunday’s wrestling weekender. I’ve blocked a few arseholes for bullying tweets, because I happened to have a different experience of the evening than them (missing the point that I was reviewing the whole experience of both evenings, not just the matches or ‘workrate’, but that’s nothing new for the dregs of the IWC) and I’ve somehow injured their little hardcore clique or whatever. Fuck that noise.

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A tale of two WWEs

Tables, Ladders and Chairs in Boston on 13 December was nothing to write home about, although I’ve just written about a thousand words on it that you’re about to read. But let’s go with the spirit of that figure of speech, shall we?

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My wrestling diet

If you’re a regular reader of this blog (do I even have any regular readers anymore? Ah what does it matter) or you follow me on Twitter, you should know that I’m a huge geek for pro wrestling. Have been for 25-odd years, in fact; a bit longer than The Undertaker‘s been around. They told me I’d grow out of it, but despite my interest waning here and there, it hasn’t happened yet. I might never have been a hardcore tape-trader or a dirt sheet subscriber, but I’m a lifer nonetheless.

And in 2015, it’s really never been a better time to be a wrestling geek. There’s the WWE Network, of course: every major show live in HD, no sports channel subscription, dodgy stream or next-day torrenting required. But in the last couple of years especially, the whole wrestling world beyond WWE has become accessible to those who wish to explore. Just a glance at YouTube shows indie promotions like Ring of Honor and CHIKARA making the most of online streaming to get their goods out there.

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The Necessity Of Intergender Wrestling

"Antiquated notions of gender-based wrestler capability need to dissolve. Women can be and are the same kind of wrestlers as men. Wrestling is for everyone, and wrestling is better if men and women can do it together." I think the mainstream is, what, decades away from this? Which is weird because Chikara does it just fine. [c/o @atomic_elbow] #link

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The Past and the Future for WWE Pay-Per-Views

A good piece by David Shoemaker (AKA The Masked Man) from over the summer, exploring the differences in wrestling culture between the beginning of the PPV era and now. Identifies most of the things I've noticed and thought about myself, so saves me the trouble. #link

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Vive la revolution! Hell in a Cell reviewed

Is the so-called ‘Divas Revolution’ finally paying dividends? Maybe so, going by the impressive clash between new champ Charlotte and the dethroned Nikki Bella at last weekend’s Hell in a Cell pay-per-view (or special event, as they’ve now been branded in the WWE Network era). That came two months after the amazing Sasha Banks and new NXT Women’s Champion Bayley tore down the house in Brooklyn the night before SummerSlam, and again more recently in a superb 30-minute iron man — or rather, iron woman — match in the main event of NXT TakeOver: Respect.

But it also came after a middling few weeks for the Divas division on the main roster — the wrestlers that populate the weekly flagship Raw and the more lowly but still high-profile SmackDown — where the ‘Revolution’ has manifested in an awkward triangle of trios in lieu of any real character development.

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Here's a cool documentary short on Sarath 'Mikaze' Tan: long-time indie wrestler, Sasha Banks' other half, and seamster to WWE's superstars. [c/o the Voices of Wrestling forum] #video

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Kill your enthusiasm: SummerSlam reviewed

When all you really recall is the crappy ending, it doesn’t matter how good the preceding match was. And SummerSlam‘s main event was indeed a very good match, if not a great one. We were teased the big Undertaker comeback, the Dead Man getting his revenge on the dastardly Brock Lesnar for ending his WrestleMania streak 18 months ago. But Brock was having none of it, not even letting Taker remove his hat and trenchcoat before launching his assault. The rest of the match was a pure fight, playing to Brock’s strengths as a ring bully while hiding Taker’s weaknesses as a performer well past his prime, and making them both look like they belonged in the main event of the second-biggest show of the year. Also, there was this:

Brock and Taker laugh it up at SummerSlam 2015

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