Creative Blogger Award

 

I am once again humbled to be a recipient of another blogging award, this time it is the Creative Blogger Award and again I am indebted to Medieval Otaku for the nomination. I thank him most kindly and I encourage you to check out his blog which features some of the most incisive investigations into anime you never thought it possible to read. 

These awards always come with a set of rule which are to be adhered to, so here is the procedure for accepting this particular award:

 

• Thank the person who nominated you and include a link to their blog.
• Share 5 facts about yourself.
• Nominate 10 – 20 bloggers and add their links.
• Notify the bloggers you included.
• Keep the rules in your post to make it easy for everyone to know what to do!

 

Since I have received a number of previous awards that required me to impart personal information I feel I have exhausted my pool of “interesting” facts about myself, from the silly to the serious. I shall however oblige this time by following Medieval Otaku’s example and attach these revelations to a single topic purely to make it easier for myself.

So, the topic shall be….Wrestling!!

1. I have been watching wrestling ardently for about 25 years now, although  I do have memories of watching the old World Of Sport shows prior to this as a kid in the 80’s.

2. My all time favourite wrestlers are Bret “Hitman” Hart, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, Ric Flair, Kenta Kobashi and Jushin Thunder Liger,  and my current favourite wrestlers are Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, Daniel Bryan, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles.

3. I have seen the WWF/WWE live on six occasions, including the 1998 UK only PPV Capital Carnage, and WCW just the once in 2000, a year before they shut down.

4. My favourite wrestling show of all time is the New Japan Super J-Cup from 1994, an oustanding card of wrestling from top to bottom featuring many future legends in both Japanese and US wrestling, including Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, Great Sasuke, Taka Michinoku and of course Jushin Liger.

5. Having followed the business from both a fan’s perspective and from reading the “insider” (or behind the scenes) publications and learning how it works, it is exceedingly irksome to hear the accusation of “fake” being levied towards wrestling. Yes it is pre-determined, yes they play out scripted stories and develop gregarious TV persona  but the athleticism is very real as is the punishment the wrestler’s bodies take on a nightly basis.

And when you take into account that wrestlers don’t lead all expenses paid luxury lifestyles on the road, such as first class flights, five star hotels, limos, tour buses, entourages, etc.  like pop stars do (paid for by their record labels) who then go on to mime on a TV show (or even a live concert), when wrestlers fund their own car hire and lodgings, find a gym, eat, do promotion, work out then perform a match with no tricks, find a place to eat in the early hours, get some sleep  then do it all over again, which would you say was the most fake? 

Sorry for the rant there!

Onto my nominations and I doubt I can stretch to twenty so I shall just do ten but they are all very deserving in my book. In no particular order:

Abbie Osbiston

The Creative Fox Den

Sophie’s Japan Blog

Emma K Wall (Explains It All)

Cinema Parrot Disco

Emily Guido

Vanessa Chapman

Silents Please!

Genkinahito’s Blog

Outspoken & Freckled

Sorry for any omissions but I find things hard to do in the first place. Congrats to the nominees for always being so entertaining and of course creative!

So there it is. My thanks again to Medieval Otaku for the nomination and thanks to you all for reading! 🙂