WWE

Ric Flair celebrates his 71st birthday today… WOOOOooooo!!!

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Ric Flair, legendary wrestler celebrates his 71st birthday today. Yeah, the man definitely had a lot of problems over the years like his struggle with alcoholism, relationships with women, dealt with the death of his son Reid Flair and all kinds of things as he has confessed in his book that he wrote with Charlotte, “Second Nature”… which is his only tell-all book pretty much. Anyway, no matter what you think of Ric love him or hate him, he is a wrestling legend.

Other than Hulk Hogan, Macho Man and Andre The Giant being a few of the biggest names in pro wrestling history… Ric Flair is right up there with them. I mean, Ric is a guy who worked for every professional wrestling company you can think of. He worked for old school WWF, then he worked for WCW for many years, then he returned to WWE later on… he also worked for TNA Impact for a long while.

In the early days, though, Ric started out wrestling in the AWA and he wrestled in Japan for a lot of years too. He worked for Jim Crockett’s “World Championship Wrestling” before it became Ted Turner’s “WCW” later on. Ric worked for the NWA in the 80’s before making his way into the old WWF in 1991.

Ric Flair’s entire life was based on wrestling… that was all he ever did and all he ever knew. That was the only thing that he made a living on pretty much… he made his money through wrestling over the years. Ric definitely loved wrestling ’cause he kept at it until Vince forced him to retire in 2008 where he had his last wrestling match against Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 24. Ric never wrestled again after that.

Why did Ric retire from wrestling? Well his age for starters and his body probably couldn’t take it anymore, plus he had some big health scares not too long ago so he would probably never wrestle in a ring ever again. He still does make WWE appearances occasionally, though.

Ric is the one who started the Four Horsemen group which is the biggest wrestling faction of all time… the original Four Horsemen with Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard and JJ Dillon. The Horsemen group started in the NWA and then went on to WCW with different members.

Ric is a legendary wrestler who is a 16 time world champion… and he had many classic matches that we’ll never forget and he had some pretty excellent feuds. He had many great matches with Ricky Steamboat.

I got to see Ric Flair wrestle live in person… it was at the Royal Rumble 1992 ppv in Albany NY when it used to be called “The Knickerbocker Arena”. Yeah, I got the opportunity to witness Ric Flair winning his first world title that night and it was an amazing night and probably the best Royal Rumble and I was glad I got to see it live. I didn’t get very good seats, though, I remember sitting at the very top of the arena but I could still see the ring pretty good. It’s definitely one of the best Rumble’s in the history of wrestling for sure.

Ric is one of my all time favorite wrestlers other than Hulk Hogan, the Warrior, Owen Hart, Sting and Randy Savage. Ric was the best.

Even though Ric is a retired wrestler now, he still finds ways to stay involved in the business like make occasional appearances in WWE, I know Ric had his own podcast show for a little while, he still does autograph signings sometimes and things like that. He still has pretty strong passion for the business even though he doesn’t wrestle anymore.

Happy birthday, Ric and I’m sure he’s enjoying it with his family and friends. Wooooo….

Kev

Random/off topic posts

Think I’m capable of writing some pretty cool hard rock and metal riffs, been messing around with that stuff…

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For the past couple of months or so, I’ve really been studying and practicing on how to become more of a hard rock and metal musician. That’s the kind of musician I’ve always been to be honest with you and it is the whole reason why I picked up the guitar to begin with ’cause I wanted to play hard rock/metal like all my favorite bands that I grew up listening to.

I’ve been playing along with a metronome a lot lately… just messing around and noodling… making my own hard rock and metal riffs and I realize I seem to be doing fine. When I make hard rock and metal riffs, I do more than just power chords… there will be lead fills and lots of intervals too… and of course, lots of full chords as well. Been practicing my rhythm chops even more and experimenting with syncopated rhythms so I can make my riffs sound even more interesting.

I’ve been trying to build up my speed with my rhythm playing ’cause if you want to play hard rock and metal gotta play fast rhythm guitar and I’m working on that. Yeah, I would like to make a hard rock/metal/prog type of album someday in the future and it’s being planned in the early stages right now.

I think this week, I’m gonna plug in the electric guitar so I can see if I can come up with riffs with a distortion or an overdrive pedal.

I’ve always wanted to make full band rock music and it’s going to happen at some point. Will I make the full band tracks MIDI? Not sure yet. I’m thinking about looking for real human musicians to collaborate with ’cause I think that will be awesome. Find out if there will be bass players and drummers willing to work with me. Just swap mp3’s through e-mail and do it that way. Do it as an online collaboration kind of thing, ya know?

I’m dying to make my first metal/prog album. I’m thinking a lot of it would be heavy rock and some of it will be pretty mellow/slow. Just think of Opeth and Dream Theater. I think I’m capable of making that kind of music… ya know, that proggy/metal kind of stuff you’re hearing a lot nowadays.

I’ve been playing a lot more guitar than ever ’cause it’s all I mostly do pretty much. Always looking to improve. Making rock and metal riffs isn’t really that hard… just gotta know your theory, your scales and have good rhythm chops then you should be all set.

Kev

movies

Ben Affleck doesn’t realize that he has many fans who love him as Batman… wish he would wake up and realize that…

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Yes, Ben Affleck is a die-hard liberal but he’s still a very talented man and I’ve admired his work through the years in his films. I love him as Batman when he did “B vs. S: Dawn of Justice” and “Justice League”, I thought he did surprisingly fucking awesome. I thought he made a great Batman and he was fantastic.

Yeah, yeah, yeah… Affleck’s Batman got mixed reviews. Many hated him as Batman but at the same time there are also many fans out there who thought he was great. I also thought he played Bruce Wayne extremely well too when he didn’t have the batsuit on.

Originally, Ben was going to continue to play Batman and Warner Bros. wanted him to write and direct “The Batman” but he pulled out and the project went to Matt Reeves instead.

Ben’s first explanation of dropping out was that he couldn’t come up with a good version of the film even if he worked with a good screenwriter and said he couldn’t “crack it”. Next thing you know Ben admits the film could make him go back to being an alcoholic again.

cinemablend.com/news/2490416/ben-affleck-elaborates-on-why-he-exited-the-batman

I appreciate Ben trying to be honest with himself and trying to stay humble but I don’t think he realizes that a lot of people loved him as Batman and fans want him to keep playing that iconic character.

I don’t think Ben knows that he’s loved by many Batman and DC fans. I know Ben’s been going through a lot of problems and struggles in life but he needs to stop being so down about himself ’cause that’s not healthy.

Wish he would wake up and keep making Batman movies for the fans. I think he should have stayed on for “The Batman”. I think he would have made it a great film.

What’s gonna happen with “Justice League”??? I don’t think there’s gonna be a “Justice League 2” now that WB’s wants nothing to do with Superman and Ben wants nothing to do with Batman anymore. All of this is really sad.

Even though Ben is a die-hard leftist politically, I still wish him well ’cause he is a talented man. He made some good movies over the years.

Kev

WWE

Pro wrestling doesn’t get any respect anymore when it should…

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I am not ashamed at all to be a lifelong wrestling fan. I’ve watched pro wrestling all my life… ever since I was a little child and my love pro wrestling never stopped. I’m still a fan and still watch obsessively even to this day. I remember in the 80’s everybody respected wrestling ’cause that was back in the days when everyone thought it was real but then the WWF/WWE lost its respect once they noticed that wrestling is “fake” and “scripted”.

The WWE was pretty hot in the Golden Era… that was back in the days of Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Macho Man, Ultimate Warrior, Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Jake Roberts, Shawn Michaels, etc. were all around. That’s when everybody in the world loved wrestling but like I said above people started to lose interest around the time people started to notice it was fake. The people also started to lose interest in the WWE over Vince’s steroid trial back in the day.

The WWE got pretty hot once again once the Attitude Era came around thanks to the legendary Austin vs. McMahon feud that helped put the WWE on the map again. It stayed like that for a while but when the Ruthless Aggression era came in the 2000’s years, people started to lose interest some more due to its edgy storylines and controversial content.

Not only that, the real life tragic incident of Chris Benoit of where he killed his wife and kid and then himself after. There are other reasons why people continued to lose interest in wrestling… the Hulk Hogan sex tape is another one, all that Gawker stuff turned people off and the WWE continuing to do shows in Saudi Arabia.

Like always, the WWE continue to struggle in the ratings ’cause the writing, the booking of matches can’t get any better. The WWE continues to suck creatively and they don’t give us good wrestling anymore like they used to.

Whenever fans like myself continue to watch wrestling, I always get judged and criticized for it… it’s like, “Why do you watch that garbage? It’s so fake…” I try to talk wrestling online like my blogs and social media pages and nobody cares most of the time. The only people that cares are other wrestling fans that are out there whether they are “marks” or “smart fans”, I’m cool with either one. “Marks” are the type of fans who believe wrestling is real.

We all know that pro wrestling is “fake” and “scripted”… we aren’t stupid, duh. We watch because it’s fun. We find it entertaining as hell seeing good guys and bad guys going at it in the ring. It’s all theater. That’s what it all is pretty much.

And is wrestling fake like they all say it is? They’re not really hurting each other in the ring sure but one thing that wrestling haters will never admit that it takes a lot of physicality in their bodies to do what they do. There’s nothing fake about jumping off the top turn buckle of the ring and landing on announcer tables. There’s nothing fake about all that high flying stuff they do. Plus, it takes a lot of training and skill to become a wrestler which takes a lot of physicality…. so in reality, pro wrestling that we see on TV today is a sport whether you want to admit that or not.

Yes, “injuries” can happen for real as many stars over the years were forced to take time off of performing to heal up. Injuries can happen by accident ’cause these wrestlers are real people and real human beings, there’s nothing fake about that either. Ya know, another thing to think about… all these wrestling legends can’t wrestle anymore ’cause they got too burnt out over the years of wrestling and plus too many injuries. The Undertaker can’t wrestle full time anymore. Undertaker only wrestles like once or twice a year ’cause his body can’t take a full time schedule anymore. He had too many injuries and surgeries over the years. Same with Hulk Hogan… I know how fans want Hogan to have one last match but unfortunately it’s looking it’s never gonna happen ’cause of his bad back and he just had his 10th back surgery not too long ago. Sting who is from WCW, it looks like his wrestling career is just about done ’cause of his bad neck… although it seems he does want to wrestle some more in the future. Shawn Michaels aka HBK, he can’t wrestle ’cause of a bad back. There were wrestlers over the years who were forced to retire ’cause of a serious injury like Paige for example.

Okay, I think you get my point now. Wrestling maybe fake but not all of it.

I watch wrestling because I just respect the hell out of what they do. I’m not one to sit here and hate this wrestler and hate that wrestler. I’m not that kind of guy. I love and respect them all… even the ones that everybody hates. They sacrificed so much just to entertain fans in arenas and stadiums all over the world. Leaving their real life behind so they can perform for us, they don’t get much respect for that when they should. Giving all their blood, sweat and tears for what they do.

While I think the WWE is an amazing company, I’m not so picky when it comes to wrestling companies I support them all and try to watch them all as much as I can. I just love pro wrestling, ya know? I support it all ’cause they need it and they deserve it. When TNA Impact was on TV, I used to watch them a lot… I also try to watch ROH on TV when I can. I’ve also been watching a lot of old school WCW Nitro on the WWE Network still. I’ve watched a lot of Japan wrestling too.

Wrestling is awesome. I don’t know why people hate it so much. I almost wanted to become a wrestler myself but I can’t ’cause of my scoliosis… I can enjoy wrestling as a fan, though. What these people do is pretty amazing.

I’m not ashamed to be a wrestling fan and I’ll never grow out of it. It’s just a blast. It’s fun to watch it on TV but even more fun seeing it living in person, though. That’s why they do what they do… they want us to have fun and it’s why they are called “entertainers”.

Kev

WWE

“Ruthless Aggression” documentary series on WWE Network… really good…

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So this week on the WWE Network, I’ve started watching the new documentary series that the WWE has been releasing on their streaming service lately. The new docu-series is titled, “Ruthless Aggression” which is about the “Ruthless Aggression” era in WWE which took place between the years 2002 – 2008.

Some of you may ask, what is the “Ruthless Aggression” era? Well to explain it real quick, the “Ruthless Aggression” era came when the Attitude Era was just ending in the late 90’s – 2000’s years. Stone Cold quit the WWE toward the end of the Attitude Era and the Rock Dwayne Johnson was just transitioning to become a Hollywood actor at that time. Since two of the most biggest main eventers left WWE… the company needed new main event stars… so that’s where the “Ruthless Aggression” comes in. They wanted stars to step-up and hopefully become even bigger stars.

“The Ruthless Aggression” era… saw the purchase of WCW during that time which this era included in the WCW Invasion angle which means that this helped bring back Hulk Hogan during this era. This era also saw the return of the NWO wrestling faction toward the end of this era.

In the “Ruthless Aggression” era was also the introduction of John Cena. Keep in mind, that Cena didn’t get main event status over night. He started off as a rookie/mid carder type of wrestler like everyone else… it took him a while to become the big main event star and Cena was huge back in the “Aggression” era. I used to hate John Cena back then but I don’t anymore. I respect the man so much now. Cena is the greatest of all time and you’re definitely looking at a future Hall of Famer here for sure. I’m a huge fan of Cena, my respect grew pretty slowly for him over the years, though.

Also, the Ruthless Aggression era helped give main event status to new stars at the time: Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, JBL, RVD, Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar, etc. Yes, they may have already been around WWE before then but they all became bigger stars during this era.

The Aggression era was also the era of the Undertaker as the American Badass biker gimmick. It was also the era of Edge & Christian, Matt and Jeff Hardy, the Dudley Boys, Trish Stratus and Lita.

Watching the first two episodes of “Aggression” on the WWE Network, I remember everything shown on it. Brings back a lot of memories with me being a lifelong wrestling fan and I’ve watched WWE throughout my whole life pretty much.

The “Aggression” era wasn’t always good, though… it had some good moments and terrible moments. I hated the Billy and Chuck gay angle for example and the awful Kane vs. Triple H feud (ya know, the Katie Vick necrophilia stuff that sparked a lot of controversy).

The “Aggression” era also saw the introduction of “The Money in the Bank” ppv’s.

This series on the WWE Network is interesting and I’m gonna keep watching. It looks like they’re only releasing one episode a week, though, a new episode after RAW on Mondays.

I’m a lifelong wrestling fan and I love looking back in the old days. It’s good to refresh your memory and re-learn wrestling history ’cause it’s all pretty historic stuff. That’s one reason why I subscribe to “WWE Network” ’cause I love looking back at old-school wrestling.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Trying my best to get a great bodybuilding physique even though I don’t compete for the bodybuilding stage…

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Even though I’ve gotten into powerlifting full time, I still do bodybuilding too. Although, my goal is to get real strong, I still want to become the best shape of my life. I still want to have a great bodybuilding physique even though I don’t compete for the bodybuilding stage and don’t plan on doing that ever. I just treat bodybuilding like a lifestyle.

The whole reason I got into bodybuilding is ’cause I wanted to look great… I want look like those pro bodybuilders, I want to look like those guys you see in action movies and in pro wrestling. I want to have a huge body like Arnold had back in the day. Some people may think I’m already there but not really, I still feel kind of small and still got plenty of work to do. Still got bodyfat to drop and all that stuff.

Yeah, I want to look sexy for the ladies and look intimidating for the men. I want people’s jaw to drop and want people to glance over at me when I take my shirt off publicly. That already seems to be happening still… I get great compliments on my physique and people seem to be impressed that I’m getting bigger in size but I got plenty of work to do still.

I’m happy with most of my physique but trying to really build my pecs. Trying to get a huge chest and trying to get full six pack abs still.

To build my chest even more, I’ve gotten into benching full time. Doing barbell flat bench and doing barbell incline bench. Both seems to be helping me. I’ve also gotten into dumbbell bench press and dumbbell flies on the bench too. For flat bench, I do strength training like heavy sets and few reps but everything else I do is hypertrophy type stuff. Doing heavy bench pressing on the barbell seems to be helping me more. I’m starting to get that bodybuilder look finally ’cause of it. I don’t know why so many bash the bench press. I love doing flat bench and incline bench and both seem to be helping me. I learned that if you really want to grow your chest more, you do more incline bench and I have. Concentrating on the upper chest more will really help.

I used to do lower chest like cable crossover but I’m gonna stop those, I think ’cause there is no such thing as lower chest anyways. I want to have giant chest pecs but it’s gonna take me several more years to get there but I’m working on it. Some make the mistake thinking that doing heavy flat bench pressing like heavy sets and few reps won’t grow your chest but I disagree. That seems to be helping me greatly and I can feel my chest getting bigger… slowly but surely.

It is possible to get a big bodybuilder look without use of steroids and supplements. All it takes is hard work, consistency and good eating. Do all three of those and you could look like a young Arnold easily.

Another reason I’ve gotten into powerlifting is that I’m hoping strength training will help get me bigger in size quicker and it is kind of helping a little bit.

To make my bodyfat drop even more, I’m gonna make my nutrition a lot more strict. I’ve eliminated potato chips of any kind from my diet and don’t eat potato chips anymore. I’m going to avoid cake and ice cream completely, I think. No more Cliff Bars. I think all this would help. My nutrition is mostly clean but it’s going to be even cleaner.

Be in great shape all year round. No off-season for me.

Kev

music

Ozzy Osbourne cancels 2020 solo tour to seek further treatment on his Parkinson’s Disease… it’s getting worse???

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Hate to be the one to say it but it looks like Ozzy’s music career is gonna be done for good. I admire the guy for trying to get back out there ’cause he loves performing but I think he should hang it up for good and looks like he’s gonna have to.

His Parkinson’s Disease is getting so bad that he’s unable to perform? Yeah, his shaking is probably getting a lot worse which sounds like.

https://www.loudersound.com/news/ozzy-osbourne-cancels-2020-tour-to-seek-further-medical-treatment

Once again, thoughts and prayers go out to the Ozzman. I’ve always been a fan of his through Black Sabbath and his solo career. He is a talented man and whether you like it or not, he is an icon and legend.

Kev

music

In the music industry, it used to be album & tour but now it’s tour & album nowadays…

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Like the title of this topic says, the old way of doing tours and albums, national bands used to make the album first and they would go on tour in support of the album. The way the music industry are doing things now, they don’t do that anymore. Now it’s the other way around… major label bands doing tours first before the album. Why is that?

Well the obvious reason is that tours & concerts make more money than albums. Nobody’s buying albums anymore. Yup, that’s right… nobody cares to listen to full albums from start to finish… due to Ipods with the shuffle play and all that crap. While albums are tanking and major label bands are getting less and less interested in making albums, the industry are more obsessed with concerts. Live concerts are getting bigger and bigger… which is why a lot of bands are going on some very lengthy and excessive tours, it’s fucking crazy.

In the old days, bands didn’t go on tours that were that long and now a lot of bands seem to be going on tour all year long and all year round pretty much. They’re on the road almost everyday now. A lot of major label bands selling out arenas, stadiums and even small theater & club shows. Concerts are getting bigger and bigger more than ever nowadays.

Bands are getting less interested in making albums and when they break-up and retire, they don’t do final albums anymore… they do final tours. That’s because tours make big money and it’s why concerts are getting so ridiculously expensive. Which kind of sucks ’cause I love live music and I would like to continue to go to major label concerts but I don’t anymore. High ticket pricing is a problem and getting much worse. Last time I saw a national concert was Metallica in 2009 for their “Death Magnetic” tour… Lamb of God and Volbeat opened that show.

Industry changes every now and then but that’s the way it goes.

Kev

movies

Robert Pattinson as the Batman in cowl and suit revealed… freakin’ awesome so far…

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This just dropped out of nowhere today. Dropped by Matt Reeves himself  on his twitter account and the internet was already all over it. It quickly went viral.

This is just a camera test… probably just Robert Pattinson in the batsuit before the movie begins filming, just trying things out and testing it, ya know? Robert in the batsuit in a dark room with red light. Looks like Pattinson is the Dark Knight for this one ’cause the suit is made of armor it looks like.

I just love when Pattinson looks down, you can’t really see his mouth and eyes yet but when he slowly looks up, you start to his mouth and eyes. Omg, his look through the cowl looks freakin’ awesome and very intense! I can now see why Matt Reeves and the crew badly wanted Pattinson ’cause I can see them getting blown away when they first saw Robert in the batsuit. Pattinson’s mouth and eyes looks fantastic through that cowl, though. I love that look.

This video doesn’t show the whole costume just his upper body and they won’t let you show his ears yet either. I’m sure they’ll give us another first look at his full costume real soon. What about Batman’s utility belt? I’m sure he’s gonna be wearing one, of course with all kinds of cool bat-toys… but the utility belt will not only have his weapons, it will also have all kinds of tools giving you a hint that he would be a detective too.

Looking great so far and I’m already impressed!

Unfortunately, though, we’ll have to wait until the summer of 2021 for us to see it, though but they’ll keep giving more and more first looks from the film ’cause it’s filming right now. They’ll give us pictures of Catwoman, The Riddler and the Penguin. They’ll give us pics of the Batmobile, Wayne Manor (Bruce’s home) and the Batcave.

I’m already feeling that this movie could be a huge box office smash. Could end up being the biggest Batman movie ever. Hope Robert is ready for this.

Kev

AEW wrestling

Vince McMahon tried to talk Chris Jericho into getting out of AEW contract so he can re-join WWE… Jericho refused…

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I can’t blame Chris Jericho for leaving WWE for AEW simply because WWE has been using him like shit for the past several years. In the past, Jericho used to be a pretty hot star in the WWE… he used to be very big but later in the years during the 2000’s – 2018, the WWE was using him like shit… making him lose matches, not giving him enough TV time, giving Jericho shitty matches, etc. I can go on and on.

Jericho did the smart thing making the transition from WWE to AEW ’cause I’ve been watching AEW ever since they started and AEW is using Chris way better than WWE ever had.

Vince McMahon was all for Jericho joining AEW but now he is against it? He wants Jericho to get out of the AEW contract to rejoin WWE?

Check out the story in this article:

https://www.republicworld.com/sports-news/wwe-news/vince-mcmahon-rejected-by-chris-jericho-after-aew-success-let-go-wwe.html

It is my belief that Vinnie Mac has been quietly and very secretly watching AEW so he knows what’s going on with that company, Vince knows everything going on with AEW. Jericho is doing great things in AEW…. first AEW champ and he has a new wrestling faction called the Inner Circle. Even though, AEW has been around for a year or a little over, Jericho is already pretty huge there. I’m sure all that has been driving Vince insane and making him all jealous. That’s why he quickly flip flopped on his feelings about Jericho joining AEW.

If WWE did bring Jericho back, would they treat him right the same way AEW is treating him? No. Jericho did the smart thing staying at AEW and rejecting Vince’s offer ’cause if Chris went back to WWE, they would use him like shit again. The WWE wouldn’t give him main event status like they used to in the past.

I love professional wrestling and support all wrestling companies but I honestly find AEW way better than WWE. AEW is awesome stuff and I’m about to watch “AEW Dynamite” tonight on TNT.

Kev

The Official Music Website of Kevin Brock – Brocking N' Rolling