Interview Questions 12

If you could be a cartoon character for a week, who would you be?

I grew up on cartoons and I still watch cartoons on a weekly basis because animation is such a fun genre of television and film and the stories it is able to tell are so interesting. I immediately wondered what the question means by cartoon character. Does it just mean a character who is animated or an actual, original cartoon character? For the purposes of my answer, they are the same thing. My first inclination was to pick Bugs Bunny because he is so confident, funny, and he always succeeds somehow. However, he also is constantly getting into trouble that he has to get himself out of. That sounds like a hassle. Off the top of my head, I think I would pick Maui from Moana. With the aid of a magical artifact, I could change into different animals at will. I would also have super strength and speed. I would spend the week seeking out adventure and helping people out. That would not only be rewarding but it would also make me feel even more powerful. I assume I would be spending that week here in modern times which seems like it would be a lot of fun. Being extraordinary seems like it would be fun for a while but being able to go back to normal after a week sounds like the ideal opportunity to have my cake and eat it too.

If you could be an Olympic athlete, in what sport would you compete?

There are a ton of Olympic sports between the Summer and Winter Olympics. The Olympics are all anybody can talk about for a week or two every two years. Some of the most memorable televised moments in the world are from the Olympic Games. That right there does not appeal to me. I have never been the guy who grabs the spotlight and I do not really like performing in front of huge crowds. So, competing in a sport like ice skating, gymnastics, or any other fan favorite would be absolutely nerve-racking. Besides, a lot of those sports rely on judges who hold subjective opinions as illustrated by stuff like I, Tonya. Instead, if I had any athletic prowess, I would love to compete in one of the lesser televised sports. Judo comes to mind. Judo is a fascinating martial art that deals heavily with momentum to throw one’s opponent rather than punching and kicking. Similarly, competing in Wrestling would be fitting. I wrestled for two years back in grade school and it is a sport that requires brains, brawn, and reflexes. Both of these sports do not get as much publicized attention but both are also very prestigious sports to compete in. I think that would take a bit of the pressure away while still providing the thrill of intense competition. Proving myself in a sport like that would be amazing.

When you’re having a bad day, what do you do to make yourself feel better?

My answer for this used to be that I would eat. I remember many times where I would make up for depression with a snack or a fast food or take out meal. It really was not healthy and I am glad to have kicked the habit, especially when it comes to sugar. Anyway, now I try to pour that same emotion back into writing. Getting a lot of writing done makes me feel like I accomplished something and makes me more confident about myself even if I do not always feel like I have written well. One shot short stories often allow me to get some of the anxious emotions out of my system. I also have a long history of watching something fun to lift my spirits. I used to have go to depression movies to try and shake myself loose from my funk. Tangled, Enchanted, Ghostbusters, Twister, and many more were movies that I watched to try and get happier. Now I am more interested in watching something new but I often search out something I feel will be lighthearted and cathartic. Often, I will have it on in the background as I write. If I do not have time for either of those two things, I really like to listen to music. On the really bad days, it is great to put on hard rock or heavy metal that I know the words to and just sing my heart out. This is done in private since my singing is not so great.

What 3 famous people, living or dead, would you want at your fantasy dinner party?

This is always such an interesting question because when I think of actually meeting famous people, I get intimidated. Will they like me? Will I say something stupid? However, I have met and gotten along with plenty of people. I know how to talk to people. I should not allow myself to have that frozen feeling inside. I think the first person that I would love to have over would be Mick Foley. Foley is a former professional wrestler who moved on to become a New York Times Bestselling author and stand up comedian. The guy is highly intelligent for somebody with so many head injuries and I would love to talk pro-wrestling, writing, or whatever with him. Another fun person to have around would be Justin Roiland, one of the creators of Rick and Morty. Justin just seems so energetic and, if Rick and Morty and his other works are any indications, he is a pretty smart and funny guy. He seems like an interesting guy to joke around with or talk about science-fiction with. The final one has to be Arthur Marx aka Adolph Marx aka Harpo Marx. Harpo had a reputation for being a fascinating guy. While he never finished third grade, he was still intelligent in a lot of ways and he gained a unique perspective during his life. He was part of the Algonquin Round Table which was one of the most famous groups of talkers in history. Famously, he was the best listener in that group. I would love to talk about whatever with him and feel like we are both truly listening to each other.

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A Brief Olympic Commentary

Everybody is big on the Olympics lately. I myself have watched some of the events because the Olympics can be a little inescapable, especially when my mother is so excited about them. I have enjoyed watching Gymnastics events, Diving, Volleyball and Football. I loved watching the US Women’s soccer team fight it out in the trenches. I loved watching Simone Biles winning along with Aly Raisman and just enjoying each other’s victory. I even loved the Williams sisters getting smoked in the first round because it meant a passing of the torch. I also loved Fu Yuanhui’s surprise at having won a medal and not knowing because of less than stellar eyesight. There have been a lot of great moments so far.

To a certain extent, I have also enjoyed watching Swimming. I especially enjoyed Simone Manuel’s genuine reaction to winning her gold medal and her comments afterward. However, there is a lot of stuff that has surrounded the sport of swimming that has annoyed me. Most of them surround one name because, unfortunately, when you discuss Olympic swimming you must eventually talk about Michael Phelps. While many might assume that because I am a proud Baltimorean that I would support Phelps. Not automatically true. As we learned with Brock Turner, being good at swimming does not guarantee that you are a good person. While I don’t actively hate him, I have come to resent several stories that have surrounded him.

First up in the Phelps round up is the stupid Chad Le Clos story. I did not see the first airing of the incident that launched a million memes. However, it was interpreted that Le Clos was messing with Phelps and Phelps was glaring at him in return. A few minutes of research told a different story. The two guys have had an off and on friendship and constant rivalry since Phelps’ return to the sport following his “dark period”. Le Clos has lashed out at Phelps a little but only in the way most athletes trash talk their opponents. Why Le Clos was jiggling in front of Phelps, we may never truly know. It looked like he was trying to be funny and Phelps was trying to concentrate and not get distracted. What we do know is that Phelps has said that after the Olympics he is visiting Le Clos in South Africa for shark cage swimming. This was such a non-story that it was kind of ridiculous.

<img src=”https://queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com/content/docs/2016/08/09033344/michael-phelps-670×377.jpg&#8221; alt=”Maybe he was just trying not to laugh?”>

However, that annoyance pales in comparison to the stupidity that I really want to discuss. Let us talk of cupping. Cupping is an ancient Chinese “therapy” that leaves Phelps and other gullible athletes looking like they lost a wrestling match with a squid. It is the act of lighting fires in cups pressed to a person’s skin. The fire causes a vacuum to be formed in the cup and skin to be sucked up into the cup. This causes the characteristic circular bruising and, on some people, also causes the skin to be burnt. The Chinese said that cupping promotes the flow of chi. Now, Chi is supposed to be energy flowing through the body but that energy has never been observed by science. When cupping took off in the Western world, they dropped the word chi and replaced it with blood. However, cupping does not promote blood flow. By bruising you, it actually disrupts blood flow by damaging blood vessels.

<img src=”http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/files/2016/08/MichaelPhelpscupping.jpg&#8221; alt=”Losing a fight to a squid would be more acceptable.”>

Somebody believing in pseudoscience is something that is regrettable and should be cured by proper scientific education. However, people look up to these athletes. They assume that since these people are amazing physical specimens with athletic skill, that they know stuff about the human body. This is not necessarily true. This problem is compounded by the media who tries for a “balanced” look at things. Instead of looking for the truth, they present both sides of the debate equally which gives undue credibility to the pseudoscience. The problem here is shortcuts. Everybody loves finding shortcuts and there is certain manic pride in finding one and sharing it with others. This also applies when you think you have found a shortcut that isn’t one. These people think that because this “therapy” has existed for thousands of years, that it is a shortcut to enhancing their bodies. Instead, they are damaging their body and they just look foolish.

So, while you’re watching the Olympics this year, remember to think for yourself. Remember to do your research before you spread myths and rumors. Enjoy the awesome moments because those are way more fun than the manufactured ones. Also, choose your heroes wisely because some of them might be really gullible.

Why I Love Pro-Wrestling: Real Wrestlers 2

So I have been thinking about doing this post for a while but it takes a little more research than most editions of What I Love About Pro-Wrestling. I love the storylines of sports entertainment but sometimes the stories behind the scenes can be just as entertaining. We live in a new world where we can see farther behind the curtain than we ever could before while carefully maintaining suspension of disbelief. I am not comfortable with the term “Amateur Wrestling” because it implies that what they do is lesser than Professional Wrestling. While professional wrestling is incredibly impressive athletically, it is scripted and improvised with full cooperation between “opponents”. I do not use the term “amateur” and instead, I call them “real wrestlers”. So here’s another list of sports entertainers who were real wrestlers before their careers took off. The premise here is that real wrestling helps to make you a better athlete and therefore a better performer. It is one part of a three-part equation.

 

Xavier Woods

I have known of Xavier Woods as a performer for quite a long time. I first noticed him when he showed up in the Total Nonstop Action promotion as a young and eager performer. He wrestled under the name Consequences Creed, originally so he could pair with Ron “The Truth” Killings for a tag team with an obvious name. He later teamed with Jay Lethal and wrestled on his own as a high flier with an Apollo Creed kind of gimmick. The next I saw him, he had shown up in NXT under the name Xavier Woods. He still had that high energy and great work ethic but he had embraced his geeky side. He yelled “It’s Morphin Time!” on his way to the ring and had “Over 9000” written on his tights. Now he’s one-third of the mega-popular tag team The New Day and helps to come up with the geekiest ideas in sports entertainment today. However, back in the day, he was a real wrestler at Sprayberry High School in Marietta, Georgia. He was reportedly the best at his school and actually had a high school feud with the next guy on the list. Obviously, the conditioning and technical know-how have stayed with him into his career and helped him to the top.

 

Cody Rhodes

I have spoken of Cody Rhodes before in this blog but it has been a while. Cody is the son of a son of a plumber as his father is the legendary Dusty Rhodes and he is also the brother of Goldust. Cody recently transformed his on-screen persona into Stardust, a creepy and insane version of himself that mixed his father’s legacy, his brother’s persona and a lot of additional creativity. He is one of the strongest workers in the business as he has done nothing but improve his skills over the years. Just this week, Cody decided to end his employment with the WWE and become probably the hottest free agent in the business in a long time. Whatever he decides to do, he will be excellent at it. I am sure of this because he has a strong work ethic and undying loyalty to whatever he is doing. Part of that comes from his history in real wrestling back in high school. He got up before dawn and started working out in order to be the best his high school had at the time. He has glowing words for the sport of Greco-roman wrestling and was appropriately a local hero of Marietta, Georgia. He also credits the sport with reuniting his family after a period of estrangement between his dad and his brother.

 

James Storm

I first saw James Storm in the mid-2000s through the Total Nonstop Action (TNA) promotion which was still kind of in its infancy. He was part of the tag team America’s Most Wanted for a long while and was a mainstay on the roster. Storm gained even more popularity during a singles career and also in the awesome tag team Beer Money. He was a little bit of a high flyer but, as his career progressed, his became more of a brawler and more of a technician. He projected an aura of toughness that was both blue collar and roughneck. However, every move felt like it was perfectly timed and executed with a high level of skill. He had a lot of legendary (but poorly attended) matches that were long and brutal. We can owe a lot of this skill and conditioning with the same attitude that put him on his high school wrestling team. Those lessons stick with you for the rest of your life, especially if you are an athlete. Unfortunately, Storm decided to remain a star in the constantly ship called TNA rather than make the jump to the WWE. It’s a shame but he’ll continue to be a star wherever he is.

Alberto Del Rio

I never followed the early career of Alberto Del Rio who got his start in Asistencia Asesoría y Administración but it is hard to see Mexican promotion’s matches in this country. He is the son of Dos Caras and the nephew of Mil Mascaras. While I have heard a lot of criticism of Mil Mascaras, I do know that all three men are part of one of the most famous sports entertainment families in the world. Del Rio comes from the world of Lucha which is a pretty different style from traditional United States styles. Eventually, he made the move from Mexico to the United States when he debuted in the WWE where he has had a lot of success as both a heel and a face. Arguably, he’s a better heel than he is a face but it cannot be argued that he is a great technician in the ring. He took a break from the WWE and headed south once again and eventually found himself in Lucha Underground as Alberto Patron. From what I’ve read, he decided to take up real wrestling for a challenge as a kid and to prove that he could hang in that world. He was part of the Mexican national team and would have gone to the Olympics but Mexico could not afford to send him that year. Still, that training is clear in a lot of his movements, especially his vaunted cross arm breaker hold.

 

Matanza Cueto

The man who plays Matanza Cueto (Jeffrey Cobb) on Lucha Underground is a monster of a man. He is not extremely tall but he is thick, muscular and explosively fast. I honestly do not know much about his career but I do know that it has not been a long one so far. He has really just started under the Matanza Cueto gimmick but he has made an immediate impact, taking their big championship by defeating several men in one match. He has also shelved or matched some of the best competitors in the company in a very believable fashion. He is extremely athletic and did I mention that he is deceptively fast for a big guy? His reflexes, strength and size do a lot to let him portray a monster who used to be a man. Cobb is actually the first person I have heard who is listed as Guamanian which means he is from the tiny nation of Guam. It was in Guam that he began his career as a real wrestler where he learned the skills needed to become an International competitor. He competed in international tournaments and eventually went to the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Unfortunately, he finished nineteenth out of twenty-two wrestlers but just to compete on a stage that huge shows that he was skilled as Hell. I look forward to seeing just what this guy can do with those skills and all of the new skills he is probably learning.

Why I Love Pro-Wrestling: Real Wrestlers

Real Wrestlers

I have touched upon this before but I have great respect for High School, Collegiate and Olympic wrestling.  I cringe every time that I see or hear it referred to as “amateur wrestling”.  There is nothing amateur about what can often be a high-speed, physical chess game with a crowd watching.  I wrestled in middle school and high school and it was probably the most physically demanding thing that I have ever done.  Training to wrestle competitively is an exercise in conditioning and adding to your physical memory.  When you’re out there facing an opponent, you must pull the correct series of moves out of a mental Rolodex in order to win.  You must learn about leverage and at least a little about human anatomy and how to dominate another human being.  That’s why I call it “real wrestling”.

I am especially proud of my little brother who went to several local and state championships and dominated because he combined fitness with intelligence.  My own career paled in comparison because he truly had a passion for the sport.

That being said, I wanted to pay tribute to just a handful of the real wrestlers who decided to become sports entertainers when they retired from the sport. There are more guys than are contained in this list but I don’t want to take that much of your time up. By and large, those who were wrestlers first have a larger list of moves their capable of doing, adapt easier and have the best conditioning.  This makes them the best performers in the ring and if they are blessed to have charisma, they usually excel in the business.

Even those who have just dabbled in amateur wrestling did better than their bodybuilder co-workers.  To name just a few dabblers: Ric Flair, Mick Foley, The Rock and Owen Hart.  All of them wrestled in high school and are some of the best at putting a solid match together.  Compare them to guys like Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior and you can see where the benefits of being a real wrestler come in.

Dolph Ziggler

I have three words about Real Wrestling’s effect on Dolph Ziggler’s in-ring style: Conditioning, conditioning and conditioning.  It really seems to me like the man could wrestle forever.  His athleticism is unquestionable and he portrays a vicious tenacity.  He is currently one of the best at showing pain in his body language and facial expressions and I bet he got a lot of practice during his real wrestling career.   After all, he was an All-Mid-American Conference champion three times and is second all-time in victories at Kent State.

Shelton Benjamin

Look at the bottom of this post to see who Shelton Benjamin first teamed with when he hit the mainstream.  The WWE immediately embraced Benjamin’s real wrestling career and brought him in as a trained tactician who had speed and agility on his side as well.  Benjamin’s career shone bright as he used a combination of kicks, high-flying and mat skills to take on opponents.  Unfortunately, he left the bright lights of the WWE when they dropped the ball but he still continues in Japan and independent promotions in the US.  He won the South Carolina State High School Championship two times and had a win-loss record of 122-10.

Jack Swagger

There is no questioning that Swagger was involved in real wrestling.  His build and the way he moves are clear indicators and he obviously understands leverage a lot.  There have been some bumps in the road of Jack Swagger’s career because he lacks some of the necessary charisma but nobody has ever questioned his skill or athleticism.  He does his best work when paired up with a mouthpiece so that he can do all of his talking in the ring.  He was a two-sport athlete at The University of Oklahoma but once he quit football he was an All-American.

Brock Lesnar

A controversial success story like no other, Brock Lesnar keeps taking the time to stop by and dominate the world of sports entertainment.  Brock Lesnar is a physical specimen and it shows with how easily he picks up and manages a human being.  Even with the power game he has had since day one, he has tried to update his list of moves every so often.  Unfortunately, this resulted in him blowing a shooting star press and landing on his head but everybody has setbacks.  I wish Brock would either stick around or leave sports entertainment but I like his current run as champ.  He was a two-time NJCAA All-American, 1998 NJCAA Heavyweight Champion, two-time NCAA All-American, two-time Big Ten Conference Champion and the 2000 NCAA heavyweight champion with a record of 106–5 overall in four years of college.

Kurt Angle

I have been pretty impressed by Kurt Angle since day one.  He showed up in the WWE during the late nineties at the height of the attitude era.  He became a heel because he was a legit athlete and was not afraid to tell everybody in the building at home about it.  His gold medal was shoved down our throats so much that we hated him for it.  However, looking back his accomplishments are amazing and completely impressive.  He is from a pretty exclusive club of real Olympic athletes and there aren’t many of them in the business.  It’s a shame his later career was marred a bit by drug abuse but he seems to be mostly past that and still outperforms younger guys. He is one of only four people to complete a Grand Slam in amateur wrestling (junior nationals, NCAAs, World Championships and the Olympics).