THE FIGHTING NARCISSIST

This was originally intended to be a post about how "Dashing" Cody Rhodes' gimmick is that of Narcis Prince from Super Nintendo's Super Punch-Out!! Instead, after doing a quick search to see if anyone else had drawn this pretty obvious conclusion (obvious if in your formative years, you spent more time with Super Punch-Out!! than you did with girls - like me!), I found that I'd been beaten to the punch (out)... uh, kind of.

There's a site that has a description of the "Fighting Narcissist" archetype, as well as several examples of the archetype that appear in pop culture. The examples, if you go by their definition of a "Fighting Narcissist," aren't super accurate. But they did list a handful of wrestlers with this gimmick. And the list is hilariously varied:

GORGEOUS GEORGE

"THE VERY FIRST PRETTY-BOY HEEL"

Photo - The Sport Gallery

THE MODEL

RICK MARTEL

WILDMAN/MARVELOUS

MARC MERO

Photo - Marc Mero Body Slam Institute

I don't know why they included the "Wildman" moniker, seeing as he wasn't a narcissist until he became a chauvinist boxing douche.

THE REFLECTION OF PERFECTION

MARK JINDRAK

THE MASTERPIECE

CHRIS MASTERS

Photo - Chris-Masters.com

THE NARCISSIST

LEX LUGER

RAVISHING

RICK RUDE

Photo - Online World of Wrestling

And of course...

DASHING

CODY RHODES

Photo - WWE.com

The site defines a "Fighting Narcissist" as "arrogance and pride incarnate. He is the most beautiful, the most perfect, your superior in every way. And should you doubt this fact, he will make you pay for your folly, severely."

A few things about that: one, that description disqualifies every one of those wrestlers with that last sentence - I can't see Marc Mero making anyone pay for any folly, unless if he plans on learning to counter the Sable Bomb sometime soon. And two, I want more wrestlers to use the word "folly" in a serious promo.

I know that there's more to get into on this (like have there been any Fighting Narcissist World Champions?), but this stuff definitely seems more suitable for Footnotes of Wrestling than here. I'm more caps lock and swear word oriented.

THE WRESTLE SPECTIVE POWER POLL: 08/18/10

Every week I, along with several other wrestling blogs (including my blogging Broseph Mercury, TH of The Wrestling Blog), will be sending in my top ten wrestlers to WrestleSpective. My votes are compiled with those of the other bloggers and that gives us the Power Poll. Here's this week's rankings (go to WrestleSpective to view the full write-up, and check out all of the other awesome wrestling content there - you'll find it especially awesome if you're a stat-geek (or any other specific-type-of-wrestling geek) like me):

NUMBER ONE THIS WEEK

WRESTLING'S SUPERMAN JOHN CENA

Photo - WWE.com

NOT RANKED THIS WEEK

WRESTLING'S SUPERBOY LEX LUGER

WRESTLESPECTIVE POWER POLL: 08/18/10

1. John Cena (2)

2. Kane (6)

3. Randy Orton (5)

4. The Miz (1)

5. Daniel Bryan (NR)

6. Sheamus (4)

7. Alex Shelley (NR)

8. Chris Sabin (NR)

9. Wade Barrett (NR)

10. Rob Van Dam (3)

PIZZABODYSLAM POWER POLL VOTES: 08/11/10

1. Daniel Bryan

- IN KAYFABE: Returned at SummerSlam as the 7th member of Team WWE; eliminated Darren Young and Heath Slater via TAPOUT; was eliminated second to last, thanks to the Miz; lost to the guy with Big Show's KO gimmick despite never having knocked anyone out, Michael Tarver (also thanks to the Miz).

- OUT OF KAYFABE: Got the world's biggest rub by being the surprise member of Team WWE, fighting alongside John Cena and leading the team to victory; put me in cardiac arrest when he showed up at SummerSlam; was in the segment of the night on RAW when he had his head bounced off of Miz's MITB briefcase, denting the GD thing.

2. The Miz

- IN KAYFABE: Was replaced by Daniel Bryan in the SummerSlam main event; cost Daniel Bryan a victory on RAW, and had a hand in eliminating him from Team WWE.

- OUT OF KAYFABE: Cut an untouchable promo at Summerslam; made me legitimately hate him for costing Daniel Bryan a win over Michael Tarver; and once again had the promo of the night on RAW (is he ever NOT the promo of the night?) when he and Alex Riley dealt some real talk on Daniel Bryan; looked truly betrayed and upset at both SummerSlam and RAW, which is hard to pull off; phew!

3. John Cena

- IN KAYFABE: Lead Team WWE to victory at SummerSlam; eliminated both Justin Gabriel and Nexus leader Wade Barrett when down two men to one; def. Darren Young on RAW to effectively exile him from Nexus; never gives up.

- OUT OF KAYFABE: He's purple now. ... I guess that's still in kayfabe too.

4. Randy Orton

- IN KAYFABE: Lost to Sheamus at SummerSlam via DQ, despite having the victory in reach; lost to Justin Gabriel on RAW via countout, thanks to Sheamus; still had the last laugh on both nights with his brutal attacks on Sheamus.

- OUT OF KAYFABE: Looked fucking INSANE in his murderous beatdown of the Celtic Warrior; has the crowd in the palm of his hand night in, night out; terrified Michael Cole, he probably peed a little.

5. Dolph Ziggler

6. Kofi Kingston

- IN KAYFABE: (Grouping these two together) Both had good showings on Smackdown in losing efforts to both members of the World Heavyweight Title match at SummerSlam; had a great opening bout at SS until being thwarted by the seven dudes who always stand in a line making them look like a human slot machine.

- OUT OF KAYFABE: In retrospect, I wish I voted for the Motor City Machine Guns. I totally forgot I watched the Whole F'N Show this week, and their match against Beer Money pulled out every stop in the book without one misstep. While Dolph and Kofi have been putting on some great matches, they really cant touch the Guns. DAMNIT. (Although, me instantly forgetting that I watched TNA should be some kind of detriment to the show, I guess?)

7. Wade Barrett

- IN KAYFABE: Lasted the longest of anybody in the Nexus until being tapped by Legendary's John Cena; def. Chris Jericho in fine form on RAW; beat Darren Young into obliteratitry (rejoice!).

- OUT OF KAYFABE: Beating Jericho clean was exactly what he needed to continue to be believed as a strong heel; he also beat up Darren Young (rejoice!) which earns bonus points with me every day of the week.

8. "Dashing" Cody Rhodes

- IN KAYFABE: Continued his winning streak on Smackdown with a clean win over Christian.

- OUT OF KAYFABE: Displayed the best facial expressions in pro wrestling, which I talk about here. (And I talk about how awesome he was on NXT this week, but that's for the next edition of the Power Poll).

9. Matt Hardy

- IN KAYFABE: Lost to Drew McIntyre. Again.

- OUT OF KAYFABE: HE HAD A BLOODY SOCK. Seriously, that was my favourite spot of the night. And he's saying some cryptic shit to Hurricane Helms on Twitter right now.

10. Kane

- IN KAYFABE: Def. Kofi Kingston on Smackdown; def. Rey Mysterio to retain his World Heavyweight Title at SummerSlam; def. Undertaker in a choking contest.

- OUT OF KAYFABE: Continued touching caskets and speaking out loud to nobody.

You can watch the non-dubbed version of the Lex Luger Superboy video here. I just found the dubbed version hilarious.

WRESTLESPECTIVE INFO TO KNOW:

WrestleSpective - The Blog

WrestleSpective Radio - The Podcast (now on iTunes!)

WrestleSpective Power Poll Voters - The Twitter Feeds