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
Earlier today I posted an
since spiderman came out,
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
Really good read. Well done, Simmons.
BTW, pwtorch sucks. pwinsider or f4wonline are the way to go.
"... never forget that Ohio is still a four-letter word."
-Bob Ufer
Wow...
Confrontational much?
I'm glad you like him. He is just hit or miss for me. I don't think that is worth calling me an asshole over. It is just my opinion. Chill out.
Not just you
I think he just called everybody here an asshole. He must live in a shitty world...
The internet - where everyone
The internet - where everyone is a critic and an asshole.
How appropriate for you to close your comment with this.
wolverineliberationarmy.com/blog
Good read
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.
I like Simmons enough as a
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.
The last one is his Achilles heel to me
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.
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.
This was great, though.
"I love him, he's a great coach, he's a great mentor, he's a great friend. He's every single thing you want a college coach to be, and he does it flawlessly." -David Molk
Get off your lawn?
Also, get off your lawn?
Percentage of dudes who read
Percentage of dudes who read comments on youtube and think "Simmons sent me here" degrades the rest of the dreck that have actually had sex with a woman. I'm setting the over/under at zero.
Man. 1000x this. I get that
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.
Voice of a generation
Writing 3000 word articles? This generation is all "RIP MCHOMN, U pwned @ MW3, <3 ms Liz tho."
Macho Man was Awesome
Oh yeah!
I don't agree with all the
I don't agree with all the points Simmons makes, but the man can write. I could read his articles all day.
RIP
RIP Macho Man.
A big part of the youth culture I grew up with in the 1980s
Nice piece by Simmons, brought back memories
Help My Friend Allison Fight ALS
MSU/IU at the JCB
You can count on Simmons to
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
Sometimes I think it's a sin
When I feel like I'm winnin when I'm losin again
Simmons really captured it.
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.
"Everyone gets dumped Gabe. Let me give you some advice: a little coverup on your Adams Apple will make it appear smaller. Which will make you appear less like a transvestite."
A heartfelt article ; here's a baseball article on Randy
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/...
It only ends once. Anything that happens before that, is just progress.
I like the article
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.
But wait, there's more...
Here's an SI article remembering when he was "just" Randy Poffo, the baseball player.
R.I.P Macho Man
I was pretty young when he was big, but good memories regardless.
"To hell with Notre Dame."
"You're my boy Lloyd!"
Simmons' article is fine.
Simmons' article is fine. Deadspin's is excellent: http://deadspin.com/deadwrestleroftheweek
I met Macho Man in Cancun
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.
"We alway's did feel the same, we just saw it from a different point of view"
Another good article in SI...
If this hasn't been posted yet, this is a really good read, too...
Focuses on his baseball career and how hard he worked. And he got baited in to doing an atomic sit-up.
Earlier today I posted an article analyzing Michigan's linebacker depth chart over at pwtorch.com.