I realize as I write this I'm only reaching the three or four people I know who still watch wrestling. That's fine. This has to be said even if I'm only talking to myself.
NXT on Wednesday night proves the WWE can put on a quality show if it wants to.
NXT was moved to USA on Wednesday nights to provide direct competition for AEW (All Elite Wrestling). Even if NXT, which was designed as a start-up brand for characters deemed not ready for primetime, didn't pull bigger numbers than AEW, it would cut into the new promotion's viewership, which was all Vince McMahon wanted.
NXT was always the best show when it came to the in-ring wrestling. The athletes at NXT don't have watered down move sets. They don't go through the motions. Every match seems like a big deal, not just to the fans, but to the wrestlers themselves. The storylines at NXT are basic and simple but consistent and easy to follow. There's a reason Wrestler A dislikes Wrestler B. It makes sense to see them fighting.
Don't get me started on the storylines on RAW and Smackdown.
Anyway, everyone was so excited about AEW's big television debut a couple weeks ago. I was, too. AEW drew good numbers and filled a large arena with vocal, engaged fans. The wrestling on the show is OK. I'm not into watching a bunch of 150-pound guys doing flips and choreographed gymnastics. If that's your thing, it was really good, I guess.
But this week, WWE showed how good it could be when it upped the ante on NXT. It was two hours of jelly-filled goodness. From the first match to the main event, which was off the charts. The show ended with a heel turn by Fin Balor, which no one saw coming.
I've re-watched most of the show twice, already.
Watching it again made me realize, this is what the WWE can do when it has competition. When it really wants to put on a good show, it can. It makes it that much more frustrating thinking about the shows on Monday and Friday, when they don't even make a decent effort to be entertaining or to make sense.
I tried to watch Impact, or whatever TNA is called now. It's unwatchable, for me. I gave AEW the old college try but it's not my thing. But, I will give AEW credit for one thing, it has made WWE put in the effort and made NXT, by far, the most entertaining wrestling show on television.
Ain't it amazing what a little competition can do?
Friday, October 25, 2019
Monday, October 14, 2019
Bite me, Red Hickey
It’s Red Hickey’s fault.
Hickey is credited with creating the shotgun formation in football in 1960. I’m sure he was a brilliant human being, but the shotgun formation is really ruining football for me.
I’m an old dude, watched football since I was about 8-years-old. And no, I’m not one who believes everything was better in the 70s. Innovative thinkers create evolution and growth.
Mr. Hickey’s shotgun formation was progress for football. It created a new dimension for both passing and running the football and helped introduce the spread offense. But I wonder if he envisioned his invention eventually becoming the primary formation in football.
I’m an old dude. Did I say that before? I forgot. Anyway, I’m an old dude. When it comes to football, I like fullbacks and tight ends. I like offensive linemen in a three-point stance, and I want to see my quarterback with his hands under the center.
When I see an offense line up in the shotgun on first-and-goal from the 1, an icy chill oozes up my spine. My vision blurs and a tiny blip of drool seeps from the corner of my mouth.
When I share my point of view with young football coaches, they laugh and shake their head in disbelief. I ask why the shotgun all the time and they respond like a parent would answer a child who asked why dogs bark and cats meow.
It’s way too complicated for a guy like me to understand.
Damn you, Red Hickey.
The shotgun formation is great. I just don’t get teams that can’t line up traditionally with a fullback and a tight end and push forward for two yards on third-and-1. Yeah, on third-and-10, get in the shotgun. Dazzle me with your sophisticated crossing routes. Baffle me with your jet sweeps and bubble screens.
But if you can’t get a yard a fourth-on-inches, you suck.
I’ve talked to 300-pound offensive linemen who would rather pass block than run block. What? Seriously?
You’d rather get on your heels and fend off a charging defensive end, playing paddy cake with your hands than put your hand in the dirt, lower your pads, fire off and knock a %$#*&@ on his *&^%#2!?
Really?
I hate you Red Hickey.
Offensive linemen have become fat ballet dancers. Running backs are receivers. Receivers are scat backs. Fullbacks are extinct. Tight ends are too small to block and too slow to play receiver. And the quarterback has become the most important person on the field. That’s what the shotgun has done. Everything revolves around the quarterback and if your quarterback struggles, the offense struggles.
Football used to be the ultimate team game. I liked it.
Now, it’s all about the quarterback and the spread offense and chunking the pigskin around the yard. It’s about hurry-up offenses and pistol sets. The basic center-quarterback exchange now requires an accurate snap from center and a clean catch by the QB before the actual play can even commence.
Should it really be so complicated? So intricate?
Football was never meant to be a dance. It was a manpower sport where players tried to impose their will on their opponents. You’d run the same play over and over until the defense manned up to stop it. Play-action used to mean something.
The sport has evolved, you say. Stop living in the past old man. Those days are gone and they’re not coming back.
And before you ask, no, I don’t miss black-and-white televisions, too.
I like innovation. I love a sophisticated passing attack. Jet sweeps make me giggle with delight.
But if you can’t get a yard on fourth-and-inches … in my opinion, you suck. If you can’t push the ball into the end zone from the 1-yard line, you don’t deserve to win.
That’s football. Or, that used to be football.
Bite me, Red Hickey.
Hickey is credited with creating the shotgun formation in football in 1960. I’m sure he was a brilliant human being, but the shotgun formation is really ruining football for me.
I’m an old dude, watched football since I was about 8-years-old. And no, I’m not one who believes everything was better in the 70s. Innovative thinkers create evolution and growth.
Mr. Hickey’s shotgun formation was progress for football. It created a new dimension for both passing and running the football and helped introduce the spread offense. But I wonder if he envisioned his invention eventually becoming the primary formation in football.
I’m an old dude. Did I say that before? I forgot. Anyway, I’m an old dude. When it comes to football, I like fullbacks and tight ends. I like offensive linemen in a three-point stance, and I want to see my quarterback with his hands under the center.
When I see an offense line up in the shotgun on first-and-goal from the 1, an icy chill oozes up my spine. My vision blurs and a tiny blip of drool seeps from the corner of my mouth.
When I share my point of view with young football coaches, they laugh and shake their head in disbelief. I ask why the shotgun all the time and they respond like a parent would answer a child who asked why dogs bark and cats meow.
It’s way too complicated for a guy like me to understand.
Damn you, Red Hickey.
The shotgun formation is great. I just don’t get teams that can’t line up traditionally with a fullback and a tight end and push forward for two yards on third-and-1. Yeah, on third-and-10, get in the shotgun. Dazzle me with your sophisticated crossing routes. Baffle me with your jet sweeps and bubble screens.
But if you can’t get a yard a fourth-on-inches, you suck.
I’ve talked to 300-pound offensive linemen who would rather pass block than run block. What? Seriously?
You’d rather get on your heels and fend off a charging defensive end, playing paddy cake with your hands than put your hand in the dirt, lower your pads, fire off and knock a %$#*&@ on his *&^%#2!?
Really?
I hate you Red Hickey.
Offensive linemen have become fat ballet dancers. Running backs are receivers. Receivers are scat backs. Fullbacks are extinct. Tight ends are too small to block and too slow to play receiver. And the quarterback has become the most important person on the field. That’s what the shotgun has done. Everything revolves around the quarterback and if your quarterback struggles, the offense struggles.
Football used to be the ultimate team game. I liked it.
Now, it’s all about the quarterback and the spread offense and chunking the pigskin around the yard. It’s about hurry-up offenses and pistol sets. The basic center-quarterback exchange now requires an accurate snap from center and a clean catch by the QB before the actual play can even commence.
Should it really be so complicated? So intricate?
Football was never meant to be a dance. It was a manpower sport where players tried to impose their will on their opponents. You’d run the same play over and over until the defense manned up to stop it. Play-action used to mean something.
The sport has evolved, you say. Stop living in the past old man. Those days are gone and they’re not coming back.
And before you ask, no, I don’t miss black-and-white televisions, too.
I like innovation. I love a sophisticated passing attack. Jet sweeps make me giggle with delight.
But if you can’t get a yard on fourth-and-inches … in my opinion, you suck. If you can’t push the ball into the end zone from the 1-yard line, you don’t deserve to win.
That’s football. Or, that used to be football.
Bite me, Red Hickey.
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
An honest mistake?
Almost every day something reminds me just how differently Americans view the world. This might be the only country on the planet where two people can grow up during the same time period and have completely opposite views of the same picture.
It’s weird. But I think it’s kind of cool, too.
I didn’t follow the case closely in Texas of the female police officer who got off work and, accidently, walked into the wrong apartment. I’m sure you heard of it. She was tired and, I guess disoriented a bit. I don’t know. But she walked into a black man’s apartment by mistake and shot him dead. Did I mention he was in his own apartment?
Anyway, she was convicted of murder on Tuesday and the verdict was met with differing opinions. Some thought it was a just decision while others insisted it was some sort of overreaction.
One person said, “It was an honest mistake,” by the police officer.
I’m not sure how to even respond to that. But, again, we all come from different situations. We don’t have the same views because we all have our own sets of eyes.
When I see or hear people rush to the lady’s defense, obviously, they’re seeing something different than what I’m seeing. That’s fine. I’m not mad at them. I don’t share their views because I didn’t grow up in their household. I haven’t walked in their shoes or watched in their eyes.
I guess it’s the old, I see a glass half full and you see it half empty sort of thing.
As for the police officer convicted of murder, I can only offer an opinion based on my own point of view.
If I walked into a white woman’s apartment and shot her twice while she was eating ice cream, there wouldn’t be a murder conviction. The authorities would bring the electric chair to the apartment, unplug the toaster, plug in the chair and I’d be dead before they could get the police tape set up.
I’ll respect your opinion if you respect mine.
It’s weird. But I think it’s kind of cool, too.
I didn’t follow the case closely in Texas of the female police officer who got off work and, accidently, walked into the wrong apartment. I’m sure you heard of it. She was tired and, I guess disoriented a bit. I don’t know. But she walked into a black man’s apartment by mistake and shot him dead. Did I mention he was in his own apartment?
Anyway, she was convicted of murder on Tuesday and the verdict was met with differing opinions. Some thought it was a just decision while others insisted it was some sort of overreaction.
One person said, “It was an honest mistake,” by the police officer.
I’m not sure how to even respond to that. But, again, we all come from different situations. We don’t have the same views because we all have our own sets of eyes.
When I see or hear people rush to the lady’s defense, obviously, they’re seeing something different than what I’m seeing. That’s fine. I’m not mad at them. I don’t share their views because I didn’t grow up in their household. I haven’t walked in their shoes or watched in their eyes.
I guess it’s the old, I see a glass half full and you see it half empty sort of thing.
As for the police officer convicted of murder, I can only offer an opinion based on my own point of view.
If I walked into a white woman’s apartment and shot her twice while she was eating ice cream, there wouldn’t be a murder conviction. The authorities would bring the electric chair to the apartment, unplug the toaster, plug in the chair and I’d be dead before they could get the police tape set up.
I’ll respect your opinion if you respect mine.
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