Angle #1: Daddy Showdown

This is a new project.  I hope the project proves to be more durable than a few other projects I have set my sights on in the past year.  I want to catalog the various angles (wrestling storylines) that most appeal to me.  Not analyses of specific matches or a scrapbook of favorite holds, but archetypal situations (betrayal, revenge, etc.) that tend to excite me, if done well.  Some angles just don't work for me, though they may work well for you.  For instance, the substitution of another fighter (usually the size of a Mack truck) at the last minute before a long-anticipated match, usually done as a surprise reversal to amp up the drama in the match and give the guy in the ring the chance to explore the full range of his acting skills by looking shocked and terrified.  This one has left me cold every time I have seen it used--and it's been used a lot.  (I don't mind cliches in general, though.  Some cliches get me hot, and an angle is, by definition, almost always a cliche.)

I don't expect to have photos or videos to accompany each one of the angles I will attempt to record here, so neither should you, but this first angle was inspired by a video I saw on YouTube this morning (via WrestlingExcellence, a new must-see channel that features shoot wrestling contests between burly, experienced wrestlers).   In it, two fathers wrestle to submission or pinfall on mats at the climax (supposedly) of a father-son tag-team match.


The Daddy Showdown starts off as a tag event between two pairs of fathers and sons.  At first, there is no clear delineation between face and heel, and both pairs seem evenly matched in size, skill, and determination.  They shake hands and engage in what promises to be an up-and-up exercise in scientific wrestling.  For the first half, most of the action centers on the competition between the two sons, strapping youths, full of confidence, thrilled to share some quality time with their daddies, doing something the two of them enjoy.  As a sop to the old guys, the young ones occasionally tag them in, but, as I said, the real energy in the fight appears to be between the youths.  Then at some point one team starts double-teaming on the other team's son.  The other daddy objects, but the ref ignores him and sends him back to his corner.  The drubbing of the hapless son accelerates, until catching a lucky break the kid coldcocks the other son and rushes to his corner to tag his daddy in.  This moment when outraged daddy faces off with the heel who's been beating up his boy is delicious for me.  Of course, I want the good daddy to kick the bad daddy's ass, but exactly how that happens makes less difference to me than the drama of this moment.

Comments

  1. This project must be pursued! The two burly dads...whew!!! Do it, Joe, just do it! ;-)

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  2. Yes, yes, yes! Daddies fighting over/on behalf of/in defense of sons in tag action is an incredibly appealing angle! Tag teams without much of a story between the partners isn't all that interesting to me, but give it a daddy/son dynamic, and I'm suddenly a fanatic.

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  3. I TOTALLY agree with Bruno and Bard, Joe! MORE, MORE, MORE of Daddy/Son tag teams!

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  4. Ohhh! Did you do this? It's a great sceario. I've run it in my imagination many times. And once I think there was a YouTube vid of something much like it. One of those you see and decide to go back for and then can't find it again!

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