The Conquistabores Dirt Sheet #002
Conquistabores Dirt Sheet 002
Intro
So, since the last newsletter went out we posted a show AND recorded another one. That’s good going. The next one should be edited and up soon, going to try and turn this one around in a week or so which should be easy.
Note: that was two weeks ago, so going well so far
I say that because the show we just recorded was on WWF Brawl For All, which despite taking up time across two months of Monday Night Raws in actual length of time would barely count as an In Your House. This means that finding sound clips and whatever shouldn’t take that long.
To continue the peek behind the curtain, that’s what tends to get me in the edit; whilst watching a show I’ll note down a quote to talk about but don’t write down the time stamp. This is because whilst I watch the PPV on the network, I usually find a torrent of whatever show we're doing and use that as my basis for audio clips. This means that whatever time the line is dropped on the Network version of the show, it won’t match the torrent file. So queue a whole heap of skipping around trying to find the right bit, or I’ll decide I need to paste in multiple of the same line when it’s used (“That damn Test!”) so I’ll have to watch the whole match again to get out the clips.
Ideally, I need a way to watch the Network on my mac and get the audio as I watch but can’t find a good way to do it. But anyway, that’s my problem and not yours.
Wrestling!
-Phil
Lovely to have a bit of insight into the process of the edit from Phil there. Just for the completists out there Euan and I usually just spend this time sending increasingly longer text messages to Phil to tell him to get on with it. This is normally done at 2am because that’s the best time to remind him, when he’s good and sleepy.
Alan spends this time whittling spoons out of trees.
-Cam
Jim Johnston vs CFO$
So Jim Johnson was released from WWE a while ago, and this week he did an interview going on about how he didn’t like the current WWE music.
Well.
I have pretty much no issues with the current music being used for the current crop of wrestlers, highlights being Nakamura, Roode and Asuka. And I also have no real issue with Johnston, after all this is the man who came up with the Undertaker’s entrance music, Stone Cold’s glass break and Fandango’s Cha Cha La La.
Also, don’t forget Jake the Snake’s theme aka The Best Song John Carpenter Never Wrote.
But then he did take Bret Hart’s original theme, composed by one Mouth of The South Jimmy Hart and absolutely murdered it. I mean, properly destroyed it.
And we can’t discount Jimmy Hart’s contribution to WWF music; The Million Dollar Man’s theme? Sexy Boy? The theme to WrestleMania VI, our very own theme?
Point is, Jim did a lot of good but also bad (hello Right to Censor!) so he shouldn’t be so quick to judge.
-Phil
I’m possibly making this up off the top of my head but I’m pretty sure there was a bit of legal wrangling in the past as to who owns the rights to Jim Johnson’s music. Part of the problem as far as WWE are concerned is that he still held part ownership of each piece of music. The new guys they have, who have made music for Bobby Roode and Shinsuke Nakamura among others, have no say over the further distribution of the music so therefore the WWE can do as they please.
We’ll know this is all true if all the previous WWF/E shows are put back on the Network with overdubbed and dodgy version of old entrance themes.
-Cam
The Sad Ballad of 205 Live
We’re not going to touch that part of the story, but more focus on this division that just keeps on hammered by the bad luck.
Remember the Cruiserweight Classic? The old CWC? It was ace wasn’t it. The Ciampa/Gargano match, Jack Gallagher taking a bored crowd and turning them into cheering maniacs with one escape move and Cedric Alexander earning himself a contact in one match.
So taking that and moving it into an actual show seemed like a great idea. The marks love a cruiserweight (“but the cruiserweights were awesome” being the standard line of defence for a mid-nineties WCW fan) and a separate division would be a good way to use those smaller guys fresh of the indie scene do have space to breath on TV.
But then it never really takes off to a huge degree, so you take one of the roster fresh back from injury and chuck him in there. That is what happened to Neville and, with one heel turn, he started turning in the work of his life.
So he ended up walking out of the company over contract issues. And then one of your guys who looks to be the next face of the division gets suspended.
So where does it go now? There is undoubtedly a huge crop of talent there (Itami! Gallagher! Eight abs!) so it should be pretty easy to turn it into something must see, like it was with the CWC.
And this seems like a good time. It’s going to have a general manager (with one of the most wrestling names ever), a new champion, a fresh start. Lets hope it brings back some of the magic it had previously.
-Phil
Japan Wins The Royal Rumble
I mean, they did didn’t they?
Whilst there wasn’t a moment like in previous years (like when AJ Styles showed up) this was still a cracking Rumble. It was well paced, had some spots and built to a proper climax. One favourite image being towards then end where you had Nakamura, Balor and Reigns on one side of the ring facing off against Cena, Orton and a returning Rey Mysterio. It looks like a proper changing of the guard moment and, hopefully, it actually will be this time.
As for the woman’s rumble, that was also great. My problem with this one was that a lot of the people brought in as a surprise were from the period when I wasn’t watching so I had no emotional connection to them. Still, the sight of Asuka’s entrance was enough to counter balance any and all negatives which was then surpassed by her face when she saw Ember Moon’s arm bandaged up. Seriously, Asuka is one of the most expressive wrestlers I’ve ever seen which easily gets her over the language barrier than Japanese wrestlers face in the US.
And then Ronda Rousey came out in a jacket three sizes too big and walked around awkwardly pointing at stuff. There’s time to turn this around but this does feel a bit too late, given it was, what, two years ago when we had the whole Triple H/Stephanie/Rock/Rousey moment at WrestleMania? If they can get the Rock back in for this, great, but I’d much rather see Asuka kicking the soul out of anyone daft enough to get in the ring with her.
But still, two great Rumbles on a show where the rest of the matches were almost totally blown away by Aleister Blank and Adam Cole (BAY BAY) on the previous night’s NXT Takeover. Probably should have talked about that one a little, I guess.
-Phil
It was the best Royal Rumble in years. The Women’s Rumble was full of surprises, the Men’s was actually won by a guy that both deserved and needed the profile of a Rumble win to his name and that opener with Zayn, Owens and AJ was a wonderfully worked match. My only problem with the Rousey appearance is that, if she’s the baddest women on the planet, then why didn’t she enter the Rumble itself?
Or did Kelly Kelly arrive in the building before her?
-Cam
Picture of The Week
Thanks to Euan for supplying this picture of Tomohiro Ishii aka The Stone Pitbull, one of the most fearsome competitors in New Japan Pro Wrestling shopping in a Hello Kitty store:
What a hero.
-Phil
Next Time
The next show has been decided, but not recorded as yet. It’s Cameron’s pick so blame him; it’s ECW One Night Stand 2005. Yes, we’re going there. So, if you have any thoughts or opinions on that then let us know and we might read it out on the show. After that we have another of our roundtable challenges which, oh boy, is going to be a fun one. More on that soon.
-Phil
Hush your mouth Phil, it’s going to be loads of fun. Jericho busting out his ‘Lionheart’ persona, Mike Awesome being…awesome, Rey Mysterio getting booed out of the building for using his WWE moveset and JBL being a dick.
It’s going to be something for everybody.
Including Al.
-Cam
Generic signing off phrase!
-The Conquistabores