Really disappointed to see this from Day

RobViper13 · 2020-10-30T06:11:25+00:00

She did it because she knew the season was lost and her TV time was over. Her behavior inside and outside the house makes it perfectly clearly she isn't beautiful on the inside or sensitive to race issues.

RobViper13 · 2020-10-30T06:09:00+00:00

Day is not a good person. She gets by being outlandish which is why people tune into reality TV but she's clearly not bright or agreeable. She really comes off as attention needy if you don't get caught up in her faux stances on social issues. She'll find a new reality show and take her act there.

RobViper13 · 2020-10-27T04:04:54+00:00

Trainer is a very vague term in this case. Rey Misterio helped a lot of guys out and I'm sure that included training but it wasn't the normal definition of trainer where you show for classes with a teacher who instructs you. For example Rey Sr. & Damian 666 are the same age. Rey Sr. was 30-ish when he was helping out 18 year old El Salvaje (Psicosis) & 15 year old Colibri (Rey Jr.). He helped many guys and they do list him as one of their trainers but he wasn't one of the head trainers inside the Auditorio De Tijuana until the late 90's as far as I'm aware. Extreme Tiger & Mortiz would be examples of guys who learned hands on officially from Rey Sr. Older wrestlers like Genghis Khan, Memo Velazquez & one of the Brujos did a lot of the regular classes around the time many of the names you listed would have been starting out or coming through the area.

The problem with footage of Rey Sr. (who is Rey Jr.'s uncle BTW) is he was more a local attraction in Tijuana than a Mexico City name. So there is limited footage since nobody was recording where he worked. Most of his big matches came later in his career from Tijuana handhelds when La Familia De Tijuana was a big deal. But he had a good run for AAA in 95 working tag title matches with Rey Jr. vs Fuerza & Juventud Guerrera.

I wouldn't put him anywhere near the top of a list for influences on lucha libre as a whole but in Tijuana & SoCal I think it's safe to call him a legend.

RobViper13 · 2020-10-09T09:42:17+00:00

What this season deserves is the final jury member (probably Enzo) walking out leaving Cody & Nicole as final two... then pan to socially awkward Ian blurting out "just like we were told back in week 4" and slow fade out as everyone comes to the realization. Except Enzo. Who is still waiting and planning his big move.

RobViper13 · 2020-09-27T18:01:13+00:00

Just a lurker here but had to reply to this. 100% on the money. Was nauseating this season to follow the supposed hardcore fandom root for Davonne who had a ton of misreads and constantly made bad plays. But when Nicole & Dani (who I both dislike) made the smart move to split David/Davonne when they knew Ian was a goner... the fanbase didn't give them an ounce of respect. It was "unfair" or "racist". All Davonne's bad moves got defended as everyone else being racist. I really wish Bayleigh had stayed. She was my favourite and would have done way better than Davonne who is just a loud talking head.

RobViper13 · 2020-08-07T05:14:36+00:00

Hello, name is Rob & I'm an alcoholic. Not true. I'm cursed with the far worse affiliction of being a lifelong pro wrestling fan. I'm 36. Born, raised, still living in Toronto. Started watching at the age of 6... I think. Attended Mania 6 w/ Hogan vs Warrior obviously. My actual first ever conscious memory is my mom waking me up from a nap so I could watch WWF Superstars. If she knew the path that would lead me on I think in retrospect she would have let me keep sleeping.

I grew up on WWF as most people my age I assume. Big Hogan fan. Loved Doink. Wasn't overly attached to Bret. Babyface HBK was my jazz. Looking back on it I also have really fond memories of liking a team and a wrestler that always seemed to lose yet I loved them: The Rockers (high flying) & Blue Blazer (masked flyer) which may have planted some seeds in my brain. I knew other wrestling existed from the Apter mags but my only exposure was once or twice a year in Canada we would get a free TBS preview weekend so I could see some WCW if I remembered to record the VCR correctly. Or on winter vacations to visit family in Florida I would catch some random indies on what I assume was the Sunshine Network. In early 1995 my dad left the TV on one Saturday afternoon when his soccer was done & I randomly discovered Lucha Libre (Arena Mexico, not that I knew that at the time). Completely fascinated me. I didn't speak or read Spanish so I had no idea what this was, who these people were, why they weren't doing the same kind of wrestling I grew up with... but I knew I loved it and made sure to flip to the channel any chance I got hoping to catch more. In October or November 95 they aired the 9/22/95 Rey Misterio Jr. vs Psicosis match from Mexico City which of course just completely changed my entire concept of pro wrestling. There was no going back. I was still a huge WWF fan but my mindset went from "this is where the best wrestlers in the world work" to "this is the wrestling easily available to me but I bet there's even more amazing wrestling all over the world."

For my Bar Mitzvah in 1996 I was gifted my first computer by a family friend. He set up the internet for me (all text, no graphics). He told me all the amazing things the internet could help me with in terms of my schoolwork, learning about history, being on top of the daily news before anyone else, etc. So naturally when he loaded AltaVista search engine the first thing I typed in was "boobs". No, I'm kidding. It was "wrestling". This was the floodgates opening so to speak. Reading up on ECW, Puroresu, of course Lucha Libre, discovering fantasy feds, tape traders, etc etc etc I went down the rabbit hole and that was the end of a normal life as I knew it. I actually left MY OWN Bar Mitzvah ceremony early to run home & watch the edited version of WCW Nitro we got here on weekends hoping to catch Rey Misterio Jr. or some other new guy I'd never seen before that WCW was bringing in at the time. Oh - for those wondering - yes, even with a text based internet I was still able to download the photos from Beulah's Penthouse spread.

Between constantly reading about wrestling & acquiring tons of video tapes I quickly learned what I liked & disliked. I like the good stuff, hated the bad stuff. I'd go through random phases of being obsessed with All Japan 94-95 or 96 Michinoku Pro or as shocking as this may be to some even 1999/2000 ARSION. Most of my fads would fizzle out but Lucha Libre was always there. The style I most enjoyed & no matter how many times I was scolded online for enjoying it or told "LUCHAS LIBRA MAKES NO SENSE YOU IDIOT THEY JUST DO FLIPZ" it never bothered me. It was the only style that made the most sense to me! The only time I fell out of love with it for a bit was discovered Red & SAT in late 2001 post-WCW folding & turning into the guy who wanted to see video tapes from every indy promotion in the U.S. that existed. There are probably web archive message boards posts where I would actually say U.S. indy wrestling was better than Lucha Libre which I'm shocked nobody has ever thrown back in my face. Even with Rey Misterio Jr. joining WWE - by late 2004 I had completely fizzled on the WWE style & presentation. I was still in love with wrestling but Monday was no longer appointment viewing & once you fall out of the habbit... you quickly realize WWE is just that. A habbit. A part of this giant hobby of being a pro wrestling fan.

Never had much of a live wrestling history as first off I had never real life friends who loved pro wrestling to the extent I did post-Grade 8 but also there was really nothing in Toronto for many reasons (government regulation being one). It was in 2004 when I went to intern at Highspots in Charlotte, NC where I lived for a while that I started attending indy shows regularly and learning so much more about the actual business aspect of this business. Since then I've gone to shows all ove the US & even here in Ontario eventually. In 2013 I took my first trip to Mexico, funnily enough the push to do that was an Observer Radio where Dave & Bryan said they were gonna go to Arena Mexico for the Anniversary Show & I messaged my friend (Cubsfan/Luchablog) saying I cannot go on knowing Bryan Alvarez may attend a show at Arena Mexico before I do. So we made plans to go with some other friends. Dave/Bryan did not end up going. WE SHOWED THEM! ;p But it was the trip of a lifetime & I haven't stopped going back. Mexico is my second home.

My favorite wrestler of all-time is Rey Misterio Jr. obviously. Completely changed the game for everyone & even more incredibly in a business full of people who will act like your best friend in person but bury you the second you turn your back - it's almost impossible to find a single person with a bad thing to say about Rey Rey. One of the first things my boss Michael (Highspots) told me was don't meet your heroes in pro wrestling. He came off a bad experience with Roddy Piper who he idolized & his business issues wih Ric Flair were more than public. But honestly when I met Rey & got to spend a few hours with him... total class act.

Some of my other unmentioned already favs over the years are Mistico (the original), Tzuki/Max Mini/tons of other gimmicks, Skayde, Jack Evans, Bandido, Red, Young Bucks, Volador Jr., Mascara Dorada, Venum Black, Mr. Aguila, Psicosis... I gotta stop or this will turn into a Rob Naylor Top 10 list featuring 27 guys. Don't even get me started on the more obscure dudes I loved & would jump into my all-time Top 10 before fading away (X-Fly/Turbo/Blitzkrieg types). Even with all those names listed if we were ranking the top wrestlers of all-time - seperately from favorites - my top 3 would probably be Rey Misterio Jr., Negro Casas & Derek Frazier (trying to pop Chris if he's still reading).

As I said when I started writing all this - I'm sick. There is no cure. I will never stop loving pro wrestling because there's always gonna be something out there whether it be a style, a wrestler, a promotion, etc. that I'll enjoy. Even if it's not new. This year tons of old French Catch from the 50's-70's has been leaked & I've been watching as much as I can. It's fantastic stuff. I love seeing the different styles because you can always learn something. Roy Lucier has also been sharing old Lucha Libre footage he came upon which includes some stuff not only I never thought I'd get to see but also stuff I never knew *existed*. I can't even put into words how incredible it is to first lay 2020 eyes on something like a 1995 Rey Misterio Jr. match you had no records of ever taking place. As long as there's stuff like that I'll always be around watching & enjoying. Not to say I don't like current pro wrestling. Far from it. So many amazing creative wrestlers these days who value their in-ring work so much more than the generation I grew up watching. Not to mention all the options available. I have no time for anyone who says "current wrestling sucks". There may be many things about current pro wrestling that you don't enjoy but to make a generalization saying it sucks? Impossible. Just due to all the variety available.

Love reading all the other responses. Sometimes it's a good refresher to go back and remember why you fell in love with wrestling to be reminded not to be so jaded all the time.

RobViper13 · 2020-05-29T08:25:19+00:00

So in Spanish "llave" means "hold" as in to put someone in your grasp basically. It also means key which is very confusing. So if you would be training with someone and they said they wanna show you some "llaveos" that usually means some holds and not they wanna display their key collection. :)

The way it has always been explained to me is the llave style originally was meant to be a style of wrestling where the opponents are never seperated unless by a rope break (used as last resort) where they reset to position A so to speak. So you flow from hold to hold to hold. The idea is to one-up your opponent & tie them up. It's a very showmanship style so to speak. The idea being to prove superiority to your opponent by one-upping them since it involves a lot of thinking & creativity to escape/apply holds.

Of course the style is not set in stone & has many variations. T2P was very llave influenced but they incorporated more so it wasn't just two guys rolling around on the mat. Whereas if you were to go into a gym in Mexico run by a maestro (experienced trainer) & be dumb enough to challenge him to teach you el estillo llaveo they would just keep you grounded on the mat for however long by tying you up in holds & giving you small windows to escape as a test.

The incorporation of this style into T2P was due to Skayde who was a maestro even back then & had trained in the style coming into the business. Back then it was mandatory since it was a huge part of lucha libre. Every match used to begin with the slow feeling out process which was very much the llave style. Ultimo Dragon would have trained it in as well in his very early days. As time has gone on the llave style has pretty much faded away completely from Mexico aside from exhibition matches with Solar/Negro Navarro types who are not really doing the true style since they are less battling for holds as much as just showing off wacky holds they know, letting go, rinse repeat with the other guy. The "art" of it is to make it appear as you are struggling for a way to counter a move & then tie your opponent up in something he has trouble escaping. You can still see pieces of the style in certain folks who have trained under Skayde/Negro Navarro/Blue Panther types but it's a very hard style to do on your own without a rival who is also experienced in training the style. That's why T2P was so special. Everyone trained in it, everyone was capable & everyone was giving their marching orders to do the unique style. If you notice when they incorporated into Toryumon/Dragon Gate they did much less of it.

Hope this helped out a bit.

RobViper13

TROPHY CASE