Real Talk 16: Looking back at the BRAVE disaster, Cornette vs. PWG

In this special edition of Real Talk, I talk about the BRAVE situation, Jim Cornette vs. PWG, and the Match of the Column.

I hadn’t planned on writing this, but after the recent BRAVE incident I wanted to touch on certain parallels between this and another famous incident that occurred in SoCal 15 years earlier.

The Brave Disaster, Learning From The Past

One of the biggest things over the years that has been a common complaint has been how easy it is to get into wrestling. Anyone can rent a venue, ring, and book wrestlers with money, and sometimes without. People with no experience can just promote a show, and often times those people fall hard like the promoter of BRAVE did on Sunday.

I discussed the EPIC “Wrestle Roots” disaster of 2002 in Part 2 of my three part series about SoCal and Puroresu. To this day, it was the biggest blunder in modern SoCal history. It was supposed to be Ultimo Dragon’s return show, and the Japanese media was there to cover it. All of this could’ve been avoided had Gary Yap been able to secure a venue before the show. Instead it was a black eye on the scene. Despite this, a lesson was learned and the death of EPIC would lead inspire the birth of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. In the end, something positive came from that negative.

BRAVE had been advertising names for awhile such as Teddy Long, Hernandez, D’Angelo Dinero, Michael Tarver, Scorpio Sky, Dezmond Xavier, Keith Lee, Lio Rush, Jax Dane, and Shane Strickland to name a few while also adding names like Jeff Cobb at the last minute. On paper, BRAVE was shaping up to be an interesting card.

Unlike EPIC, BRAVE had a ring in the venue it had been advertising. They were also in the midst of a fan meet & greet before the show with the wrestlers. As the show was about to happen, it was called off. The promoter would then claim it was due to a poor turnout. Cops were called, wrestlers were angry, and fans who bought tickets in advance were left wondering if they’d be getting refunds.

The promotion also picked a bad day to run.  BRAVE had been running the day after Finest City Wrestling’s 619 with Rey Mysterio Jr. It also wa on the same day as WWE’s Extreme Rules event. The odds were stacked against them from the beginning, and a more experienced promotion would’ve known this would hurt attendance.

In the weeks leading up to the event, I had been wondering about who the promoter of BRAVE was. People I had asked had no idea who he was. This should’ve been one of the first sign this whole thing wouldn’t end well. On the day before the event, BRAVE announced several names scheduled to appear (including Teddy Long) were no longer appearing. This should’ve been another sign that things weren’t right with this promotion.

Now some people might be reading this and wondering to themselves “why are people so surprised this fell apart based on what you just said?” Well, it’s because a lot of fans in SoCal don’t question things. Instead of caring about the credibility of promotions, they spew the tired “support indy/SoCal wrestling” line and demonize those like me who aren’t blindly praising or shilling every show out of obligation. Another problem is the lack of an athletic commission to regulate pro wrestling events. With no regulation, anyone can put on a show.

Fans and workers alike need to be smarter about things. Fans need to look into who they patronize. Workers need to look into who they’re doing business with. This is the reality we live in when it comes to SoCal wrestling. We’re in the wild west of promoting. If nobody wants to see something like this happen again, we as a scene need to ask questions and get answers instead of offering blind support to people because “bro support indy wrestling.”

To every worker and fan reading this, be more vigilant when it comes to new promotions starting up. If someone with no experience in any aspect of the pro wrestling business run a show, don’t patronize their show.

Since Sunday, the social media pages for BRAVE have been radio silent. This is obviously not a good look for the promotion and very irresponsible of whoever was running the show. BRAVE’s reputation has now been tarnished, and the promoter has nobody to blame but himself.

If you’re a fan who bought a ticket through PayPal and hasn’t been refunded, file a dispute ASAP. No use in waiting around hoping someone gives you back your money after they disappeared.

Old Man Yells At Cloud

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGmhDHtfXNo

Irrelevant pro wrestling relic Jim Cornette went on another rant about modern wrestling. This time he targeted Chuck Taylor and PWG.

For those who don’t want to listen to his inane rant, Jim bitched about a video he saw of Chuck Taylor doing an invisible grenade spot. After that, all Jim did was yell about how PWG is run by “marks,” how the crowds are all wannabe wrestlers, and that PWG makes the “industry look bad.” The funniest part of all this was Jim going on about how he wants to physically assault Chuck Taylor. Like he legitimately made graphic, violent comments about wanting to, which came off really petty.

Jim’s rant about PWG mostly centered around how none of the workers are talented, how he’d have fired these guys if they were working for him, how they won’t make any money, PWG is full of joke wrestlers who don’t deserve to be in the ring, how none of the guys will ever make it to major promotions (which is hilarious considering PWG’s track record), and how people should be ashamed of PWG. He also cried about how Cody Rhodes took Joey Ryan’s dick spot at APW, which was pretty amusing but yet sad at the same time.

This delusional old man thinks the only “right way” to do pro wrestling is to do a style of wrestling that looks way more fake and is more embarrassing to watch than guys sodomizing each other with their thumbs. Now I agree, there’s a lot of shit in PWG that’s just dumb. At the same time, that shit is over and it connects with a large audience. People actually want to pay to see that, and it drives that old man insane. Jim and whoever his co-host is are obviously entitled to their opinions, but to get so angry over this shit is just sad at this point.

Let’s be real about Jim for a moment. He’s a bitter old man who is irrelevant in the eyes of fans today and hasn’t done anything good in his career. Fuck his stupid promos from the 80’s. Smokey Mountain Wrestling was overrated as fuck. Unlike Jim, Paul Heyman made OVW watchable. Did I mention his promos were lame as fuck? The only entertaining thing Jim Cornette has ever done was lose his shit at a Wendy’s drive-thru window. The only people who take his words seriously old people who think Jim Crockett Promotions was the apex of pro wrestling and wrestling nerds who are trying to come off as being against the grain.

Again, Jim Cornette’s opinion on modern wrestling should mean nothing to anyone. He’s an old man who says shit for attention because the little value he had in the 80’s is now gone. He’s bitter that WWE doesn’t employ him, he’s pissed that TNA did nothing with him, he can’t get over the fact his time in ROH was a bust cause he’s clueless, and most of all the the guys he shits on (like Kevin Owens, Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks, etc.) are all making money in major promotions and traveling the world while he’s busy trying to raise money on GoFundMe to get booked on shows.

Bottom line, everyone should just ignore Jim Cornette. His opinion is worthless.

Match of the Column

Adrian Quest, Jack Evans & Sammy Guevara vs. Leon Blanco, Dicky Mayer, & Jake Atlas vs. Shamu Jr., Durango Kid, & Dr. Maldad vs. The Souless Assassins (Steve Pain, Laberinto, & Blood Eagle)

This edition of Match of the Column comes from Lucha Wrestling Puroresu’s June 4th, 2017 event in Los Angeles. International star Jack Evans and rising independent star Sammy Guevara teaming with SoCal’s Adrian Quest against three other teams in one match. The spots in this are crazy and there’s some fun crowd brawling. I highly recommend everyone check this out if they got time to kill.