Did everyone have a great weekend? Get what you wanted? XD
Closing out the last week of intermissions, starting with Krystin and her role with the company. Do you agree or disagree?
Voting Incentive!
Wednesday’s update has everyone’s favorite australian bad girl. Vote to get a sneak peek!
Hope you had an awesome holiday weekend, my friend.
Hope everyone had a great Christmas!
So, according to Brooke’s interview, she and Krystin aren’t cool. That’s interesting… very, very interesting. Oh well. I’m sure we won’t see any drama resulting from that little mess in Season 2.
Hehe. Hehehe.
Wow, more talking down on Brenda. Again, I don’t think Krystin has nearly as big an advantage that she thinks she does, and the Champ’s got advantages of her own. And while both Krystin and Brenda are badasses in their own way, I think Brenda’s both more personable and the more dedicated warrior-type, while Krystin has excessive elements of high-maintenance diva. Odds aren’t good for Krystin taking the Rival Angels PR spotlight from the Champ before Brenda decides to retire or something. Even a share of the duty seems unlikely.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Def Tech. She’s just… not being entirely rational right now! (I’m not saying it to her face, so I have the luxury of saying it without worrying about getting attacked. Wheee!)
Why thank you! You summed it up pretty good. Krysten’s good. Right up there. But she can’t beat me. So she’ll just have to wait till I’m ready to move on. In the meantime maybe she can buy a clue
And a personality…
Krystin, you’re too smart to put any faith whatsoever in Brooke. She’s gone crackers, and any past alliances were null and void when she joined up with the Belles. Probably poor Amanda Breaker will experience that disloyalty soon, too. Don’t get your feelings toooooo hurt.
Yyyeahh. Brooke’s your girl. She’s gonna stay out of your way and you’ll all be cool. *sigh* Better break open that six-pack o’ whuppass your gonna need it.
Definitely feeling dwindling love for Krystin here. While it isn’t unexpected, she has shown herself to be a pragmatist, and she DEFINITELY has an inflated sense of her own ability and standing in the company. Hell, right now I would say that Sun is a much hotter commodity than her, both in terms of win/loss and popularity.
She’s also blinding herself to the fact that Brooke needs very little incentive to turn on someone. Think about it… at the PPV, she and Sabrina seemed to be over their differences. Then when she has her shortcomings pointed out to her, she immediately went and blamed Sabrina for all her woes.
Also, note this… Krystin is Brooke’s training partner, and yet in all this time Brooke has shown very little growth in technical ability. That tells me at the very least that Krystin isn’t as good at communicating with ‘her girl’ as she believes.
In any case, it’s odd… I don’t usually mind egotistical heel behavior, but Krystin’s attitude is really rubbing me the wrong way for some reason I can’t put my finger on. Rather than being confident, she’s just coming off to me that she’s lost sight of the fact that she has a ways to go up the ladder before her boasting can sound like she can back it up.
Hope you had a great Christmas, man.
Okay, I think Def Tec is a little confused about something, it takes 2 major things to be a success in Proffessional Wrestling. 1) A Solid In-ring game, which she has completely. I doubt there’s anyone in Rival Angels as technically sound as she is. But what she’s missing is the 2nd thing, and that’s charisma. Kristin’s missing that intangible factor that’s had so many wrestlers reach the upper eschelons of super-stardom. Out of the 4 Upstarts, only two of them really have that “It” factor, and that’s Sabrina and Sun, and they both back it up with solid in-ring performances
Donny I think I dropped you on your head too hard. As technically sound as she is? You’ve been dipping too deep in the wassail. And not sharing…
Please, you haven’t dropped me on my head in months. Anyways, you’d have to admit, as far as sheer technical, submission wrestling goes, Kristin’s in the top 5.
Okay, I’ll agree on the Top 5 thing, on those terms. The “don’t think there’s anyone as technically sound” bit is the only thing that gave me trouble.
I’ll grant you that, Donny. She’s good. Someday she might be tops.
“Technically sound”? I disagree.
Let’s assume that Krystin lives up to her hype and knows ALL the submission moves, and can perfectly execute each and every one. The problem she runs into is that, honestly, how many do you really need? Is having a thousand really any better than having a dozen? Diminishing returns is a nasty thing.
You could always say that knowing that many is indeed better, because nobody will know the counters for ALL of them. But let’s be honest. No one will have specific counter-techniques ready for each of your first seven moves anyway. What they might have, like me, is a general counter-plan for submission techniques, but in that case your opponent doesn’t care how many you know, either their approach works or it doesn’t (and the vast majority of the time, it does).
I have one (very versatile and very scary) submission technique that I use with any kind of regularity. Just one. But grappling with me is no one’s idea of a good time – in the combat sense, at least. Ahem. I’m technically sound with one technique and a counter-plan. Knowing a thousand moves doesn’t help.
What it comes down to is, it’s polish that matters, not numbers, and I think there’s a number of people in Rival Angels who have technical wrestling skills at least as good as Krystin’s. A match between her and another crafty technical wrestler, like Xtina, would be a real nail-biter. Going up against Brenda would be a nightmare, because the Champ is just as smart and just as mean, but stronger and tougher and more versatile than Moline. I don’t even know what she’d do against the massive bruisers like Rampage, or even Amanda Breaker. If Black Widow was still on the roster, I suspect that would be the worst possible matchup for Krystin.
That’s not taking anything away from Def Tech. Those opponents are serious business for anybody. But she’s not as unique and special as she’d have us believe.
I just get a real “Dean Malenko” vibe from Kristin, well her in-ring style anyways. On the mic, she’s nothing like the Ice Man. With Malenko, that guy could not only lock you in a submission from any position, but he could beat you with it. I just picture Kristin being able to do the same thing
Respectfully disagree on the issue that having a wide and versatile arsenal of holds is not an asset. Holds come in all shapes, sizes, and positions. Your positioning, the opponent’s condition, your own condition… all play a part. It’s the whole principle of catch wrestling… whatever body part you can get a hold of, you try to turn it into a submission hold. As Donny says, if you have a large arsenal, you can attack from more angles and get more opportunities to win, plus your opponent can never be quite sure what move you’re going to do.
That said, you do have a valid point. Bruce Lee said that he’d be less concerned about a man who knew a hundred different punches than a man who knew a single punch very well. So it’s a balance… be very good at your best moves, but don’t neglect variety. Because if your only tool is a hammer, you’re SOL when you need a wrench.
Simplify, man, simplify. Knowing a thousand holds does almost nothing, because there is a very limited number that the human mind can hold ready to use at once – that’s why I kept saying “best seven.” To cycle through them and re-select, you need a second’s thought.
I, on the other hand, know one set of principles. I can apply them in a thousand nasty ways, to any of my opponents’ extremities – or, if I’m feeling extra-frisky, the spine – using any part of my body. I’ve used my thigh, my backside, my ribs, my shoulder, my bicep, my chin, and the crown of my skull as a fulcrum. Some might call it different moves, but it’s really not. It’s the same move applied any which way.
I call it “the wrench,” by the way, so thanks for the setup!
Boss it sounds to me licke she’s calling me out. What do you think? How hard should I put her down?
Krystin, hon, Brooke has rubbed off on you more than you’ve rubbed off on her. Please have dinner with a Mr. Anton Ego, he will find you a nice bistro where you can have yourself a meal of fresh, well-seasoned perspective.
Krystin has skills, but no charisma? Where have I heard this before? Oh yeah, I said that over a year ago! And she decides to prove it with today’s strip! While Krystin thinks she’s already a main eventer, the truth is that the Valentine match exposed her so much she’s back at square one. Her first Q&A session was a start that she has already forgotten. Oh well, back to lower midcard hell with her if she won’t learn to be interesting.
Ever since I made the guarantee that Brenda Rua will lose the Rival Angels championship, the paper champ has been jawing at every Upstart she could find. I thought they were below her. Not only does she not realize that she’s the pot calling the kettle black, but she manages a Freudian slip in her trash talking. Well, she does like to borrow the Silly Lilies’ shoujo-ai novels…
Anyway, she’s scared. She knows that without the title, there’s really nothing about her that’s any better than the rest of the roster. But this is what I’ve been saying all along: Rival Angels has too few bankable wrestlers to put their top belt on. Did they really think we were going to believe that the Black Widow was a credible main eventer? After Season 2, this is the last we will see of her as champion.
Instead of just telling you that you’re full of crap, on drugs, or other readily apparent things, I think I’ll just address your points.
I disagree with the idea that Krystin has “no charisma,” not that you’re the only one who says it. She has plenty of Hell’s Belles-style snooty-heel charisma. It’s just that the things she’s saying this time are so plain silly that we can’t take them seriously at all. Most of us thought the last Q&A was good, if over-bold – now she’s just being silly and naive.
While I think she may have the skills to hang in the upper midcard, the fact that she had to feud and struggle with the rather unimpressive Sara Valentine is a mark against her.
The Champ’s willingness to take on every snot-nosed punk to come along and claim they can beat her might look like weakness, in a way, yeah. Personally, if I were in her shoes, I wouldn’t do that. But this is Brenda. A willingness to fight anyone who wants to fight is her nature, I think, whatever the contender status of the offender.
Your low opinion of the top end of the Rival Angels roster continues to be a mystery.
JSN, out of curiosity, what’s wrong with the mid-card? A lot of wrestlers think that’s a fine position to be, especially in pro wrestling where the matches are set up ahead of time. Not every one can be a regular main eventer. I’m starting to see why Rampage Jackson doesn’t like certain fans.
And as for your prediction of the Champ losing her belt? LOL So, she had it the whole of Season 1, and that’s your really big prediction? Clearly, you’ve never, EVER heard of GSP or Anderson Silva. I’d honestly say that I hope you’re not disappointed, but that’s sort of your schtick. You get really puffy about how smarky you are and then when someone calls you on it, you try and get real by dropping some legit knowledge, and then, just like Krystin, you revert. And you attacking Bren and the Catgirls is close to trolling. You only target them because you think they’ll give you attention. And it’s fine if they want to, but as you can see, you’re not getting anything out of Snowy.
I guess it’s a fine schtick, I mean, it IS a pro-wrestling webcomic. I’d be delusional if I said I didn’t expect it.
It’s totally trolling, dude. Don’t feed him. Sure, I respond, but I’m just another fan. The boss and those members of the community who actually have in-comic counterparts should probably just let Cole be Cole. Let the other commentators handle him.
Maybe you guys should handle him like a pet howler monkey? “Oh, look, he crapped all over himself again, isn’t he cute” and whatnot.
Blitz speaks true, especially when it comes to the comments about Brenda and the Catgirls. He goes out of his way to mock them and knows very well that they will see his comments sooner or later. His entire tone comes off as wanting to get a rise out of people, and to be fair he’s good at it… I know I’ve risen to the bait more than once. Though that may just be me being stupid than him being skilled at trolling… I never claimed to be the sharpest tool in the shed. I just know a lot of wrestling trivia. >.>
You said it bretter than I could Blitz. I have to lay on some smack and that gets in the way of facts. Bottom line is I’ll fight anyone who’s got the right stuff, even if they don’t have enough of it. You only get better by fighting your betters. I’ll also fight anyone the fans want to see. They pay the bills and have the good taste to know who’s tops *glares at JSN*
Don’t worry about that diaper stain, Champ. He doesn’t know the true power of Crag Dhu. You just keep going in there, and doing what you do best, kicking ass and taking names.
Krystin does indeed have charisma! Why should charisma matter anyway?
Yes, Krystin does have charisma. She showed it in the last intermission. The problem is that now, we get to see the real Krystin, the Krystin that we’ve seen in Season 1. The Krystin that struggled to find herself and is just now getting an idea of what it takes to get noticed in Rival Angels. If Diva Krystin takes over for Season 2, it will be easier for her to get noticed and get ahead in Rival Angels. If the real Krystin shows up, she will have another hard season that ends with her going nowhere fast.
But looking at the comments, anything other than “Golly gee whillikers! That [name of wrestler] sure is a real toughie, but I know with the help of all my fans, I can win for sure!” is too mean of a promo for a face, and therefore is not allowed. Few people can pull that off without sounding hokey, but it can be done. Yet the majority of the people want every promo from every wrestler to be like that, and that’s just impossible to do and still run a good wrestling show.
Now this would be that part where the Dragon Man disagrees and says that charisma does not matter at all in wrestling. To that I have to ask: “Why isn’t Shelton Benjamin the top face of the WWE by now?” He had all the tools, according to the Dragon Man’s standards, to rule the WWE for many years, and all he needed to do was cut a good promo to seal the deal. Yet, he was unable to do it and went back to the midcard to get another Intercontinental title reign so he can try again. Charisma matters a lot more than you give it credit for.
Why are you so down on the midcarders?
In pro wrestling, the main goal every wrestler has is to be at the top of the promotion for as long as possible. If you are a midcarder, then one of two things happened:
1) You’ve already been at the top, yet you love wrestling so much, you want to spend the twilight of your career doing it.
2) You don’t (or didn’t) have what it takes (or took) to be at the top.
Looking at the RA roster, I’m seeing a lot of the latter despite the open positions at the top waiting to be filled. Yet for some reason, there isn’t that much mobility or flow between the ranks. It reminds me too much of the other feds where who gets elevated is often arbitrary and isn’t even based on fan interest nor wrestling ability. If RA is going to be like that, then it’s useless to fight it. Only this time, they don’t even know they’re lacking at the top.
Why are you so sure Brenda’s going to lose the title?
Chloe de Sade is “retired”. Sabrina is “suspended”. There’s only one top wrestler left to make things interesting in the world title picture: Yvonne Carmichael.
Looking back at the list of challengers Brenda took down, they got less and less prestigious. Why? At first, I thought it was a plan to build up more stars by having them go for Brenda’s title, but after Katherine, that plan fizzled out. But when Brenda keeps discouraging the newbies and midcarders from reaching for the stars (and her title), that’s when it hit me: What if Gabby’s not giving Brenda these matches to make new stars, but she’s really doing it to protect Brenda because she’s getting a swelled head about being champion? She’s going about it the wrong way because Yvonne knows this. She realizes this is the perfect opportunity to strike and get the title back for Damage Inc. And what better way to end the second season than to have Sabrina come back to the real big bad out from the shadows as champ and holding Sun hostage unless Sabrina joins the dark side?
As for Brenda, she’ll learn that all of the RA roster is pretty good, and that any differences in wrestling ability are negligible at best. In other words: midcard hell. I know it hurts, but the goal is to be the best. Anything less is just settling, which is bad in that profession.
Man these reader questions seem to be revealing tha Krystin has taken Ultragirl’s spot for talking big. Learn from Sabrina’s mistakes, Def Tech: earn it first.
Y’know, JSN would be fabulously entertaining if we could have “LET’S SETTLE THIS IN THE RING!” moments. But we can’t, so the gag is wearing very thin.
Lora – huh? When did Ultragirl talk like Krystin? Yeah, she boasted about her own abilities, but everybody does that, and Sabrina was less over-the-top than most. Her antagonistic comments about opponents were limited to her upcoming opponents and the stable she was feuding with.