Richmond Blog

Big Deal, I Was Doing That When I Was Eight…

Remember “Wrestling Buddies”? If not, here is a commercial from the eighties starring one Danny Tamberelli of “Pete and Pete” fame. (Before his dancing lady forearm tattoo).

I never had one of these wrestling buddies. If I did, I probably would have had Hulk Hogan so I could beat up on him all day. My friend and I used his pool and jumped off the railing of the deck like it was the top rope to land that big “Macho Man” elbow drop on the Hulkster. Anyway, I give you all that information so that I can give you this truly interesting concept that the Japanese wrestling company “DDT” implemented last year. One of their most popular wrestlers, isn’t even a wrestler at all. In fact, he’s just a life size “Wrestling Buddy.” He goes by the name of Yoshihiko and he has actually won a title in the “DDT” company. You must be thinking that this is some sort of joke, but alas it is not. First, below is the “Top-10″ moves of Yoshihiko:

Sometimes he takes the form of former professional wrestlers, and in this case, the “Wrestling Buddy” I wish I had owned:

What amazes me more, is that someone can have a 30-minute match between a human and Yoshihiko and keep the crowd excited the whole time. Below is a match between Yoshihiko and great Japanese Wrestler Kota Ibushi.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

However, Yoshihiko has taken some pretty devastating moves that he may never be able to come back from:

Knee Drop Of Doom:

Giant Giant Swing:

Zangief’s Atomic Buster

I present all of this to you, because frankly, it is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen, but at the same time, quite brilliant. In some of the matches, the human does a pretty good job of making it look like Yoshihiko is actually performing the moves, which adds a nice complexity to the whole absurd situation. Too bad, I had better five star matches beating up on my friend’s Hulk Hogan “Wrestling Buddy.” Sign me up DDT!

Can’t Sleep, Here Are Some Funny Wrestling Videos

Funny? Maybe not, but they made me laugh.

1) Ceilingcanrana – It’s your average hurricanrana, except when you’re hanging from the ceiling, drop down and deliver the move.

2) Badd Boyz/2.0 become 3.0 – This promo made me literally laugh out loud. Skip to the 1:36 mark for the promo to begin.

3) The Cold War – CHIKARA Style… U.S.Ape vs. MosCow the Communist Bovine, this needs no explanation.

4) Human Tornado Dunks On Matt Sydal (Evan Bourne)

5) Wrestling Baseball Game

6) “The Kentucky Gentleman” Chuck Taylor Makes Little Girl Cry

Bryan Danielson: The Man Too Violent For Television

Video by: That Wrestling Show

I woke up Saturday morning to horrific news.  I turned on my PW Torch iPhone app to discover that Daniel Bryan (Bryan Danielson) had been released by the WWE.

Why was he released?  Some believe that it is part of an angle and that he’s not actually released.  Others have speculated, and this is the front runner in reasons of why he is no longer in WWE, is that he is too violent for TV.  The action in question is when Danielson choked the ring announcer with his own tie. Image after the jump. Apparently the act was too violent for TV-PG according to the WWE.

My question for WWE: If it was too violent for television, why did your cameraman not have the sense to not film it? There were seven other people doing things during that invasion angle, if the camera man saw something that shouldn’t have been on TV he should have turned to someone else. Also, there are multiple cameras at ringside. Did the director not see it and go, “ooooh, that’s probably not something we should show.” Some speculate that any choking may have people resemble the Benoit Incident. I’m quite confident that maybe 1% of the audience thought of that, while the other 99% thought that Daniel Bryan was finally showing some promise.

WWE, you messed up, and now, hopefully people will see this incident come back and bite you!
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Hey, I made it on the Ring of Honor DVD again…

So another trip to Dayton for Ring of Honor Wrestling, and another successful appearance on the DVD.  The person in the ugly shiny jacket is Shane Hagadorn.  He is the manager of the “Kings of Wrestling”: Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli.  You might remember Claudio from such conversations as:

Richmond: “Roger Federer Sucks!”
Claudio: “Hey, who said that?” (Knocks hat off my head)

However this conversation with Hagadorn went as follows:

Richmond: “Hagadorn, looking good tonight…”
Hagadorn: “Appreciate it, but completely unnecessary…”
(All of this audible on the DVD)

So, for sitting in my current seats in Dayton, I am currently 2-for-2 for getting on the DVD.  John Hall and I will be sitting front row at “The Bluegrass Brawl” in Louisville on July 22.  We’ll see if I can get on the DVD there too.  The current plan? Bringing a Kentucky state flag and draping it over the railing in front of us. (It’s only fitting because it’s the first ROH show in Kentucky).