OT - Simmons Macho Man article

Submitted by ciszew on

Simmons can be hit or miss for me, however I know many people love him.  I have to give him his credit for this article. 

For any of you who are old 80's wrestling fans or less specifically of that generation it would be hard to sum of that era better that he does in his tribute to Macho Man Randy Savage.  It is an oddly touching read: 

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/110524

 

 

VaBeach Wolverine

May 24th, 2011 at 3:30 PM ^

since spiderman came out, everytime Michigan sacks an opposing quarterback I have enjoyed quoting this... Always seemed to be a pretty big hit when I was in the student section

Beavis

May 24th, 2011 at 3:32 PM ^

Simmons hit or miss?

He's the voice of a generation and most of his articles are great.  Just like any writer, you're going to like some of his stuff more than others.  But that doesn't necessarily mean he's "hit or miss". 

The internet - where everyone is a critic and an asshole. 

ThWard

May 24th, 2011 at 3:53 PM ^

It's also super weird to respond to someone that calls a writer "hit or miss" by saying (1) that "you're going to like some of [the writer's] stuff more than others" (acknowledging the poster's point, more or less); and then (2) calling the poster impliedly an asshole.

bronxblue

May 24th, 2011 at 4:08 PM ^

I like Simmons enough as a writer, but there is absolutely no writer in the history of the earth that is loved by 100% of the readership, and Simmons definitely has his flaws.  He sometimes relies WAY too much on dated pop culture references, ofentimes acts like his points are "unique" even when I've seen them on fairly prominent sites before, and he fixates far too much on Boston/NBA teams despite the fact that he is nominally a national writer.

All that said, the guy can bring his A game when he feels like it, and this is the result.  A very good article.  

M-Wolverine

May 24th, 2011 at 7:14 PM ^

Stuff like this article I love. But when he thinks people other than his ego and himself love a play by play of the latest Celtics-Lakers game (where the asides about the crowd are far more interesting than the basketball analysis), it loses me. It's also hard to set you up as an arbiter of all things NBA when you have such ingrained fan bias. I mean it works when Laker hating (who doesn't outside of LA?), but vs. every other team that Celts fans don't like, it's just silly.
<br>
<br>It all also worked a lot better when Boston was more of a downtrodden sports town, with just fading memories of the 80's Celts. Now with the Sox, and Celts back, and Pats, and even HOCKEY, it's more gloating than suffering. And suffering, to a fan, is always more relatable than gloating.
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<br>This was great, though.

BRCE

May 24th, 2011 at 8:35 PM ^

He's a good writer. I agree, this article was great. But you can tell he ACTUALLY thinks he is the conscience of the NBA fan. He's gotten way too big for his britches. That is why so many people hate him. He's bought his own hype.

His knowledge of sports outside the NBA is actually very shallow. He can't even talk baseball, he only knows the Red Sox. He seems to view pro football through a gambling prism. He has more or less eschewed hockey. College sports, forget about it.

 

 

BRCE

May 24th, 2011 at 4:41 PM ^

Your post exemplifies why I have a much harder time stomaching Simmons' fans than Simmons himself.

"Voice of a generation." Wooooow. Talk about inflating someone's worth. The guy writes about stupid, wasting-of-time, memory lane bullshit. He's an expert of junk culture. If he's the voice of a generation, it's far more of an indictment on the generation than it is a compliment to him.

Every time he links a youtube article, the virgin parade hits the comments section, saturating it with meaningless "Simmons!!!" posts. It's dudes like that and Beavis that have allowed his ego to get so out of control.

BRCE

May 24th, 2011 at 5:15 PM ^

In this case, yes. I can't stand people who wax poetic about a guy who waxes poetic about NOTHING, all day long.

Percentage of dudes who post variations of "Simmons sent me here" on youtube that have actually had sex with a woman. I'm setting the over/under at eight.

 

cmd600

May 24th, 2011 at 10:48 PM ^

Man. 1000x this. I get that Simmons is popular, but nowhere near to the extent that he actually is. Somehow people have been tricked into thinking he's insightful and that repeating the same set of 80's movie references is absolutely freaking hilarious.

tk47

May 24th, 2011 at 5:02 PM ^

You can count on Simmons to kick ass on the wrestling front, especially whenever he waxes nostalgic about the glory days of the late 80's and early 90's.  Probably because wrestling is so similar to his other passion, the NBA.

 

R.I.P. Macho Man

wolverine1987

May 24th, 2011 at 4:54 PM ^

Excellent read, and really captured the strange attraction that some people have to wrestling. Looking at the video, they did it so much better then than they do now as well.

robpollard

May 24th, 2011 at 6:45 PM ^

Yes, that was right in Simmons' wheelhouse and he pretty much nailed it.  I enjoyed his depth of feeling on the topic and the good writing.



For a more "reported" take on Randy Poffo, here's a nice article on SI.com which talks about what a freak of nature athlete he was and how much he loved baseball (playing in the minor leagues for a few years, incl with Larry Herndon).

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/the_bonus/05/23/macho.man…

Tater

May 24th, 2011 at 7:09 PM ^

I like it, but the title is dead wrong.  When pro wrestling was at its apex, Hulk Hogan was pro wrestling.  Anyone else, even those with more talent such as Savage, were riding his coattails. And while Simmons cites the Savage-Steamboat match as the best match in WMIII,  which I also feel it was, it was overshadowed by Hogan's historic bodyslam and pin of Andre the Giant.  

There are and were tons of people who wrestle better than Hogan, but none have every approached his status during that era.  Does that take anything away from Randy Savage?  Of course not.  Second-biggest star in the Hogan era was still better than everybody else.  Except, of course, Hogan.

duffman is thr…

May 25th, 2011 at 2:25 AM ^

I met Macho Man in Cancun when I was 16, back in 2000. Went there with a friend and his family over Spring break. The first night there we went to Carlos and Charlies for some food and I wound up sitting almost back to back with him for over an hour while we ate. He had a large crew with him, and what looked like a Nitro girl, but he let us take a picture with him, and he autographed my paper driver's license. RIP Randy "Macho Man" Savage.