BE FAIR TO FLAIR

I think I'm the last of the four of us to post this on our individual blogs, but Jason Mann of Wrestlespective, K. Sawyer Paul of Footnotes of Wrestling and Razor of Kick-Out!! are all joining forces and bringing you Fair To Flair. Why? Well, to be honest, I couldn't put it better than Jason did in the site's introduction. I'm PUMPED you guys. There will be articles, podcasts and a quarterly for purchase. This is the most grown-up thing I've done in my life and it's about fake fighting in your underwear, so that should give you a glimpse into my existence.

I'll still be posting here as well, much of which will also appear on Fair To Flair. My RAW review is one of those things (which will be up tomorrow morning).

If you are interested in pro wrestling discussion that isn't about news and scoops, or ratings and rumours, or spoilers and unjust cynicism, then look no further than Fair To Flair. If you like hyperbole and caps lock, then just stay here, because I have more of that than you could fit in a BILLION MATT HARDY TUMMIES LOL. See?

So always remember, be Fair To Flair.

PIZZABODY SLAM ON THE FOOTNOTES OF WRESTLING PODCAST

Listen to me and K Sawyer Paul of Footnotes of Wrestling talk about wrestling for over an hour (or you could plan your day more reasonably and listen to just a bit of it, because holy crap c'mon what). Click here to listen to the episode.

We talk about a lot of things, including:

- The impossible task of being a writer for a wrestling show

- Wrestlers as both the actor and the character in a story

- The WCW World Title being vacated eleventy billion times

- We mention Toronto a lot

- I read aloud the most offensively hilarious tweet by Kevin Nash and immediately regret it

Definitely check it out, and make sure to subscribe on iTunes.

Also, in case you missed it, I'm on tumblr now too. I can't talk about wrestling in enough different ways apparently. Maybe I'll just start postering telephone poles with top ten lists of my all-time favourite dropkicks or something.

I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

So once again, this here blog is gonna run dry for an extended period of time. I'm sorry blog, I wish I could give you all the attention you deserve, especially at times like this (not talking about the holidays, somehow, this blog has been seeing more hits over the last week than it ever has - thank you, whoever you are).

But I think I'm going to try and do some serious ghost tweeting while I'm gone. You see, I'll be gone from today until halfway through January, as I'm travelling to Australia, which will be awesome - but isn't exactly a place you go to blog. Yeah.

So, just like I did earlier this year, I'm going to try and set up some tweets to send out while I'm gone. So while I'm unwrapping Christmas presents or digging into the holiday bird or piledriving Koalas a billion miles away, I'll be tweeting about David Otunga's lip-biting promos! Isn't technology grand?!

Have fun without me. But not too much. Here's what I'd read if I were you and I was gone (but don't get addicted to how awesome these blogs are, please come back to me... ME!!!!):

Brandon Stroud's recaps on FanHouse

TH's The Wrestling Blog

Jason Mann and Seth Roy's WrestleSpective

Footnotes of Wrestling by K. Sawyer Paul (although I believe he's gone for the holidays as well)

Enjoy. Happy holidays. Merry Chrimbus. See you soon.

Signed,

Mitch,

PIZZABODYSLAM

FINDING MY SMILE ONCE AGAIN + MY FAVOURITE THINGS OF RIGHT NOW

Yes, it's true. I'm away yet again. This time it'll be an entire month (gone 'til November like Wyclef) of infrequent posts, but hopefully I'll be able to get some stuff up every now and then. It'll likely be random stuff and not many reviews, although I will be keeping up to speed with what's going on in the wrestling world via Wrestling Bay (highly recommended for those who don't have a DVR/miss a lot of wrestling on TV).

So while I find my smile, I'll leave you with some of my favourite things of right now:

NUMBER ONE

FOOTNOTES OF WRESTLING

By K. Sawyer Paul

Footnotes of Wrestling Tumblr

K. Sawyer Paul on Twitter

This recommendation (a truly sincere one - definitely check this out) comes via the Drop Toehold Tumblr, which I just added to the sidebar. It also deserves it's own exclusive post, but since I'm trying to get a bunch of stuff in here at once, this will have to do.

Reading this blog/tumblr/whatever I should call it fills me with the same elated relief and simultaneous jealous rage that I was be filled with (to the absolute brim) when I discovered FanHouse's Brandon Stroud's wrestling recaps. I was both relieved that there was another wrestling fan on the internet writing about wrestling in the exact same way I felt, and jealous that this writer is so good and I could never capture that same profound style.

While I admired Stroud for his ability to write about wrestling in a hilarious AND positive way (I find it so impossibly difficult to be funny without being negative when it comes to wrestling, it's literally what I strive for), I admire Paul for his knowledge, grace, honesty and focus. Those aren't words you hear in describing a wrestling blog almost EVER. And I mean that.

Nothing makes me happier than finding a blog/writer/tumblr/twitter/ANYTHING that talks about wrestling in a way that speaks to me. Nothing makes me angrier than a blog that is constantly reprimanding wrestlers or companies like a fucking parent, or being overly, gimmickly (not a word) negative in constant failed attempts at being funny for people who don't know what funny is when it comes to wrestling, or anyone that places themselves above wrestling or being a wrestling fan or being an indy wrestling fan or not liking what they see on TV.

This guy does none of that. He offers observations and solutions and just general thoughts about wrestling that never feel like he's turning his nose up at it, or even upset with it. I can't stress this enough. Another one of my goals when I started my blog was to be as positive as possible, because the IWC/wrestling blogosphere is running rampant with unjust negativity, snarkiness and cynicism that drives me up the wall.

This post has turned into quite the virtual BJ, but I can't help it. Just go there and read everything he's written and promise to come back to my blog and don't leave me forever. That's all I ask.

NUMBER TWO

THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN

As sung by Michael P.S. Hayes - Watch now on YouTube

Via Fuck Yeah Wrestling!

Between this video, the Freebirds' montage from the WWE Allied Powers DVD and the "I'm A Freebird, What Was Your Excuse" video/story from the Rise and Fall of WCW DVD (or maybe it was from a Legends' Rountable, can't remember), I've discovered that Michael P.S. Hayes may be the world's most accidentally hilarious man. Watch all of these things if you can find them.

NUMBER THREE

THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS & JIM CORNETTE'S 25TH ANNIVERSARY SCRAPBOOK

Available at Cornette's Collectables

I've had this book for a quite a while now, but I've only been able to really dig into it while I'm travelling, since there's tons of downtime. It's the perfect book for that, since it's a book that essentially documents the Midnight Express' life on the road, with thorough (almost entirely complete) results of their entire career together. From the gates they were pulling in, to pictures of paystubs and authentic show posters and newspaper clippings to stories of riots and ribs and all that you could want in a wrestling book, it's like readable crack cocaine. It's incredible to see that these guys were on the road pretty much every day out of the year, wrestling every night of the week (twice a night some nights) and driving from city to city in between that. Just insane. It's hard enough travelling that much period, so add in getting the shit kicked out of you daily and you've got a rough life on the road.

Those are some things I'm digging right now. I'll be back in full effect soon - but first, I'ma get the Prediction Game post up for Hell In A Cell tomorrow night.