Wednesdaymania 213: Sumo and Belts and Tables Oh My!

It has been quite the week for my little Indies that could, but first I want to talk about this season's basho! If you want to catch up on the whole basho yourself, I'd suggest you do so now and then come back to the blog (please come back when you're done)!

Holy cow, even though Hakuho's win was basically assured, what a wild ride! The thrills, the spills, the nearly-kills... it was a great basho from first tachiai to last throwdown! Now, I was disappointed that Takayasu didn't get the final crack at Hakuho during the basho, but I wasn't disappointed that, even though he didn't win the match he did have against the young Yokozuna, he really, really gave him a hard time!

It was an edge-of-your-purple-cushion match!

The final match of the basho was Yokozuna vs Yokozuna (highest attainable rank in sumo). Hakuho fought down Kakuryuu and took him out, but...

Such a victory does not come without cost...

It's strongly suspected that the arm injury Hakuho suffered during this final, awesome bout is a muscle tear, which could destroy him if it's bad enough. It certainly did so to Kisenosato, who was on fire and then... sputtered out. Muscle tears are no joke. If you're an active person and this kind of injury happens to you, don't do what Hakuho is doing because he's just resting it, and the window of time to get the injury properly repaired without loss of strength is fairly narrow for a sports injury.

Dude was in so much pain and so week that he couldn't lift the Emperor's Cup trophy at the end of the ceremonies. He couldn't lift a glass of water the next day. That's bad. (For more info, go here).

But enough about sumo and how epic it was this basho!

Let's talk little guys in wrestling!

First, I want to talk about how cool the new belt design for AEW is:

And yes, it has been pointed out that it kinda resembles the Mid-South Championship belt.
I'm 100% for this.

It's a very classy design, though I'm surprised they're not going for more of an angular design, based on their logo. I'm not disappointed in the least - merely pleasantly surprised. I'm more of a curves & conchos kind of person myself, so this is nice. If a little hard to see.

AEW is looking cooler every day, to me, so I can't wait to see what they come up with!

I'm also fascinated by the idea of "The Librarian", which is an open casting call made on Being the Elite for anyone to send in a 60 second (or less) video of why they should be "The Librarian". At no point do they specify that "The Librarian" must be a wrestler. If I had a means to travel to them, any skill at improvisation, camera & sound skills, and any courage in my flabby body, I'd try it. Also, I'd need a Twitter account which... I haven't got. Also, I think someone with actual skill should be the one to take this job :)

Now, I find it difficult to talk about AEW without talking about the other Indie wrestling promotion they've been sniping major talent from - MLW. Now, MJF is in MLW, and so are Pentagon JR and Rey Fenix, which is... maybe not the best news for MLW. Is that too many monograms in one place? I think that's too many. Especially with the letter M involved.

The way MJF is being portrayed on Being the Elite, and the way he's on fire in MLW right now, I'm a little curious as to what his career path is going to look like. No matter what, he's going to be fine, because he's a consummate heel, and I hate him. Thank you, MLW & AEW. I hate him real good. He's the perfect combination of obnoxious and offensive talker & good hand in the ring. He's not a perfect ring-spider like Zack Sabre Jr or a spot monkey like the Bucks, but he does what he does well and it looks really good!

MLW may be losing some talent to AEW's seemingly bottomless pockets (thank you Tony Khan), but they're still putting on one hell of a show. The latest I've seen involves a guy who seems like a bizarre and wonderful combination of Jeff Jarrett & Stone Cold named Mance Warner. It's... it's a fabulous gimmick, and I have a hard time deciding why I like it so much. Probably because, like Jarrett & Austin, he's pretty darn decent in the ring on top of his ace promo skills.

He was sent against LA Park because he ticked off manager Selena De La Renta.

SDLR came out to LA Park's new theme (because even MLW can't get away with putting an unlicensed use of Thriller on YouTube) and even did the dance!

Which was freaking hilarious.
It's not every day you see a deliriously gorgeous woman do La Parka's ridiculous dance.
In a mesh top, too!

By the way, yes, LA Park is the real La Parka. Accept no substitutions. There is only one chubby Mexican Chairman, and he is LA Park.

So he comes out, does his dance, and they bring it to Mance Warner, who also does the dance (badly) at one point just to tick them off.

Finding good pictures can be hard, but this should help you get an idea of the intensity.

The match is a Hardcore one, so I'll admit, I mostly watched it from one eye while hiding behind my hair and hands...

Weirdly enough, I don't remember much blood though, and I know that's not a BeIN Sports mandate, since a previous episode showed the villainous CONTRA Unit driving a railroad spike into Maine man Ace Romero's forehead (which was gross as heck).

There were, however, many, many broken tables.

Terrifying.

I have to say, I dug Mance taking off layers as he got down to business (to defeat the Huns). I like it when people have their own way of doing things - their own spin on ring presence.

Overall, I'm going to continue looking forward to whatever Mance Warner brings next!




I think that'll about do it for me today!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC