Saturday, June 30, 2012

New Website

My official blog has moved to HankPym.com 

Hank Pym.com pays tribute to one of my favorite superheroes Dr. Henry Jonathan “Hank” Pym, Ph.D. and serves as more thorough companion to my Tumblr page HenryPym.com.

In this site you will find reviews on a number of my interests such as: basketball, books, collectibles, movies, and toys (PymParticles.com).

Friday, October 12, 2007

Friends in high places


Sulking after losing the WWE Championship during an impromptu match up with Triple H at No Mercy didn’t stop the Legend Killer Randy Orton from pulling a fast one on The Game that very same night. In an interview in wwe.com, Bryan Robinson shares some of Orton’s thoughts on his recent victory.

Robinson wrote:

“My time is now. I’m in my prime,” Orton said. “I’m in a state of mind I’ve never been in before. Everything around me is just right. I’m focused. I’m healthy. I’m on my game. And when I’m on my game, I beat The Game.”

Don’t you just love it! “When I’m on my game, I beat The Game.” Now how redundant is that? You can even take it a bit further and say, “When I’m on my game, I play the game, then I beat The Game.” Just playing…

Robinson’s interview also mentioned the intricacies of rematch clauses in the WWE.

Robinson wrote:

“It was unfair,” (referring to the aforementioned impromptu match up with Triple H at the beginning of No Mercy) Orton continued. “And Mr. McMahon knows this. That’s why we have rematch clauses. And in a Last Man Standing Match, I knew I would have the speed, agility and most importantly, the endurance that Triple H doesn’t have. Triple H has two bad legs for chrissakes.”


Yeah, and a last man standing match to boot! It really helps if you have friends in high places (let’s just give him the name, Mr. McMahon), an opponent that’s already had two matches that evening, and the best part—two bad wheels (e.g., legs).

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Bret "Hit Man" Hart: The Best There Is, The Best There Was, The Best There Ever Will Be. (DVD)


Category: Documentary

Watching the DVD compendium, to the very mention of the name, Bret “The Hit Man” Hart, brought back a lot of childhood memories. From his signature catch phrases such as “The Excellence of Execution,” and “The Best There Is, The Best There Was, The Best There Ever Will Be” (Lifted from “The Natural” (1984) movie line) to his metallic visor, leather jacket, and even images of “Monday Night Raw” being the only Brand of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) (Known then as the “World Wrestling Federation” (WWF)) out on television every week.

Probably my greatest Bret Hart memory would be an episode of Raw wherein Bret stepped into the ring as his estranged younger brother, the late Owen “The Rocket” Hart and his ex-brother-in-law The British Bulldog (the late Davey Boy Smith) were about to come to blows. Bret took it upon himself to patch his relationship with the two men by focusing on the importance of family and his “It’s us against America” stand. This lead to the birth of the new Hart Foundation which also included another brother-in-law and former Tag Team partner, Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart as well as the only American in the group, “the Canadian sympathizer,” the late Brian “The Loose Cannon” Pillman.

During this period in the history of the WWE, recognizable names such as Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Degeneration X, and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin rose to prominence as “faces.” But it was the new Hart Foundation, led by an aggressive, vindictive, and sadistic (by way of an illegal ring post figure-four leglock that Hart would apply on his opponent entangled legs during matches) Bret Hart that I believe carried the show as “heels.” America hated them! But Canada and Europe sure adored the new Hart Foundation!

In the end, despite 23 years in the wrestling business (Stampede Wrestling, WWE, WCW, and various other international productions), I believe that Bret Hart’s career ended prematurely (due to a post-concussion syndrome brought about in 99’ by a Bill Goldberg Mule Kick to the head).

I guess I am still waiting for that magical moment wherein the electric guitar intro of Jimmy Hart’s and JJ Maguire’s famed “Hitman” theme would be blazing over the arena’s PA and out of the shadows would be Bret Hart, clad in his familiar Pink and Black, ready to take on all comers for one final match.

Cheers Bret! Best of luck in your new life and thanks for the memories!

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

The Prophetic Ken Kennedy!!!


Caught the replay of the episode of RAW (10/1/07) prior to No Mercy. As most of you already know, the main event featured “then” WWE Champion John Cena going one-on-one in a non-title match for the first time against Mr. Kennedy.

But the story here is that prior to the match up, the ever “braggadocios” Ken Kennedy, mouth the words, “what a better way than to take down the top dog,” referring to besting the WWE Champion Cena that evening and giving notice to his championship aspirations.

And how prophetic was that? Inadvertently, Kennedy did take down the “top dog” in less than two to three minutes into the match when John Cena executed an arm drag gone bad and tore his right pectoral tendon—effectively keeping him on the shelf for the next six to twelve months.

But fans at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland paid good money to see Cena and he didn’t disappoint as he actually finished the match (for those of you who watched it, did you see the mini-conference Cena, Kennedy, and the referee had at the top-left turnbuckle in the next sequence following Cena’s two arm drag’s?) and got the blindsided and mauled right after by Randy Orton.

In the end, I may not be a big John Cena fan (13 months of the same thing…over and over and over…can really get tiring) but I do respect his professionalism. For that, he will be missed. Here’s to a speedy recovery!

Monday, October 8, 2007

Vindication (Results and Fallout of No Mercy 2007)


Who would have guessed that WWE Chairman Vincent Kennedy McMahon would award the WWE Championship outright to Randy Orton? I didn’t see it coming but I surmised that Orton would eventually become a two time champion (one time World Heavyweight Champion and now WWE Champion) – but not without a fight.

It turns out that Orton didn’t have to wait long for a match as Triple H immediately challenged him and won his 11th WWE Title (5 time World Heavyweight Champion and 6 time WWE Champion). That sucks, but Orton had the last laugh as evoked his rematch clause (ala the ultimate opportunist Edge) later that night and defeated Triple H (who has just come off a match with The Samoan Bulldozer Umaga) for the WWE Championship in a Last Man Standing Match.

Two Last Standing Matches for Randy Orton in the span of a week – that is if you include the drubbing he gave an injured John Cena at the end of RAW last week.

What I Think Series -- Featuring Hunter Hurst Helmsly (WWE)


At 37 years of age, Jean-Paul Levesque has had a number of aliases since his entry into World Wrestling Entertainment in 1992 from the eloquent but snobbish Hunter Hurst Helmsly to his present incarnation Triple H. A number of other monikers and titles have also followed him and fueled his career: A 10-time Champion (5-time WWE Champion and 5-time World Heavyweight Champion); The Connecticut Blueblood; The Cerebral Assassin; The King of Kings; and probably the most recognizable of them all, the aforementioned acronym—Triple H.

In all honesty, I am no fan of The Game’s move set (e.g., Knee Drop; Jumping High; Knee; 180 degree spinning spinebuster; and of course, his finisher known as “The Pedigree.”) with the exception of a couple of submission moves such as Ric Flair’s Figure-Four Leglock. But as an athlete, you have to respect his drive and determination to make back to the ring from the two separate career threatening quadriceps tears that he suffered on his left leg (2001) and right leg (2007).

As a “ground and pound” wrestler, the foundation of most, if not all, of “The Cerebral Assassins” moves come from his legs. One would think that much like the fictional Anakin Skywalker who had to change his lightsaber technique upon his rebirth as the mechanical Darth Vader, Triple H would be wise to do the same to avoid the possibility of future injury to is already damaged limbs. But not “The King of Kings,” as his routine has remained the same in every event that he has participated in through the years.

Last October 2006, Triple H, Batista, The Undertaker, and the rest of the Smackdown roster, held a two-night show in Manila, Philippines. During the second show, Levesque broke kayfabe (or the admission that wrestling is just one big business and that wrestlers are really friendly with one another outside of their “babyface” (good guys) and “heel” (bad guys) public personas) for what I know to be the second time in his career (after a Madison Square Garden “curtain call” with Big Daddy Diesel; Razon Ramon; and Shawn Michaels in the mid-90’s) when he came out of the performers area to greet and hug Ric Flair in public as the latter was celebrating his birthday that evening.

Fast forward to August 26, 2007 – SummerSlam: “The Biggest Party of the Summer” which incidentally also marked the return of Triple H to the ring after “8 or so months” of surgery and rehabilitation to his injured right leg. I cringed when he executed his patented spinning spinebuster (the move which ruptured the quadriceps muscle in his right leg early this year) and “The Pedigree” finisher—scary, gutsy, but that’s The Game and he is not about to change.

Note:

Levesque has been a longtime fan of the rock band Motorhead, the group responsible for cutting his signature entrance themes, “The Game” and “King of Kings.” Motorhead is also responsible for theme of Evolution (Triple H’s now defunct group) entitled, “Line in the Sand.”

Saturday, October 6, 2007

New Music...At Least for Me - Alter Bridge


Inspired by the guitarist Mark Tremonti memory of a bridge, which he was not allowed to cross as a child. (Located on the controversial Alter Road, at the intersection of Korte, “which forms the border between the city of Detroit, Michigan and the city of Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan.”) Alter Bridge is composed of Myles Kennedy (Lead Vocals; Guitar) and former Creed band members Brian Marshall (Bassist), Scott Phillips (Drummer), and Tremonti.

Unknowingly, I have been listening to Alter Bridge for quite some time now as their single, “Metalingus,” off the album, “One Day Remains” (2004) is the entrance theme of World Wrestling Federation (WWE) Superstar Edge.

Recently, during a road show of WWE Raw, “Rise Today” (Alter Bridge’ first official single of their sophomore release, “BlackBird”) was given some airtime and announced as the official theme song for Unforgiven 2007, a WWE per-per-view wrestling event.

It catchy…definitely something I can use at the gym :)