I don't really like the term puro. It derives from "puroresu", which means "pro wrestling". "Puro" just means "pro". Calling wrestling "pro" is silly. I prefer just calling it all wrestling, because that's what it all is, regardless of where it takes place.

 

There are good and bad of every type of fan. We've seen a good side and a bad side to all of them. ROH fans tend to have high standards, which is fine, but it also sometimes seems like every year, they forget about the previous year's great matches totally, which shows that maybe the great stuff in ROH isn't going to age as well as we think. Remember when people were comparing London/Danielson from 04/12/03 to Flair/Steamboat? Who even talks about that match now?

 

More later.

I don't really like the term puro. It derives from "puroresu", which means "pro wrestling". "Puro" just means "pro". Calling wrestling "pro" is silly.

That's if you're anal enough to choose to take it all literal. We all know what puroresu means and what parts of the word mean what but to us "puroresu" means "japanese wrestling" not the literal translation "pro wrestling." I don't think it's out of order to shorten it to merely "puro." We're not japanese so we're not just calling it "pro." We're calling it a shortened version of the word we know to represent japanese wrestling.

Lucha Libre, or lucha, is still wrestling but it's wrestling from Mexico. The term gives it a specific identity. I see nothing wrong with using Puroresu or Lucha Libre to identity AJPW or AAA wrestling.

I'd just like to add one thing: Tim Cooke has come a long way from his early days at TSM.

You must've read a lot more of Tim's posts than I have, because I can't recall ONE post of his where I either haven't learned something new about wrestling or where I found myself shaking my head. He's one of the few posters I do a post search query on every now and then, just to see if there's a new match I should track down, if there's something about a match I had already seen that I should re-watch, etc.

I think one of the reason the whole elitist bit has toned down in the last year or so, is because the product simply isn't as good as it used to be. As a result people have just moved on to something else be it TNA, ROH, Lucha, etc.

 

While there is no doubt that some guys are just assholes, others like to cling to the ideology that their opinion can never be questioned, debated, argued, etc like it's some kind of security blanket. It's not as bad as it used to be, but another ideology that people like to use is to just sit back and enjoy it, without bothering to analyze and criticise. And if the match, show, promotion, whatever is just so bad, then why not stop watching entirely? All three of lose schools of thought can be debunked fairly easily.

I did lots of trolling back in the old days at TSM. Even trolled out Loss for saying that the 5/21/01 Austin/Trips vs. Benoit/Jericho match was a fantastic, great, incredible match (THOUGH I WAS RIGHT!!!)

Meh, most of us all thought it was a great match at the time for various reasons (Canadian Chrises go over, crowd heat, the whole internet believing that it was the start of something great, etc.) even if those reasons may have had nothing to do with the match itself. Time gives some perspective of matches like those, I guess.

 

Since Sass brought up Tim's dressing down of SK's Eddy/JBL review, I should point out (this being the Puro Elitism thread) that Chris Coey throws in a very fine and eloquent ripping of SK at the tail end of the comments, in case anyone forgot or never read it.

Coey could be a thread all his own.

Coey could be a thread all his own.

I actually like him and his reviews...

 

*runs*

 

*eventually returns*

 

...just brought him up because of what Sass mentioned.

Coey makes me mad because he's a great reviewer and knows his stuff like no one's business, but he's exactly the type of fan Coffey talked about. He's calmed down lately but his old forum had a folder devoted to him and his crew trolling other wrestling forums and mocking people who's intellect didn't match up to his.

 

It's not like he would explain why (he did sometimes, but not usually), it was just post after post of "OMG ST00PID NEWB~!"

Back on the Tim Cooke love, I think it was Tim who I argued with about ***** ratings one time long ago. He maintained that the Kobashi/Kikuchi vs. CanAms match was ***** and I maintained (and still do) that we can only assume because it was never shown in full. In my opinion, it is an awesome clip, not a ***** match. Then again, it may have been someone else but I am pretty sure it was Tim.

I've argued with everyone at some point. People I like and people I don't like. It's just how it goes.

I just love it all. I watch it because I think it's brilliant. People like Coey (and more specifically, Coey) suck the enjoyment out of it for me- the only time they ever post is to say someone's stupid for liking match X.