Author: Dan Ryan

Kung Fu Fridays 

Kung Fu Fridays: 8 Diagram Pole Fighter/Invincible Pole Fighter

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If you’ve ever wondered why the bo staff is the coolest weapon a martial artist can use…

Based on the generals of the Yang family, a Cantonese legend, 8 Diagram Pole Fighter was released in 1983 by the legendary Shaw Brothers  and starred the absolutely incredible Godon Liu. (most readers will recognize him as Pei-Mei from Kill Bill vol.2 and Johnny Mo from Kill Bill vol.1) The film, known as Invincible Pole Fighter outside of Hong Kong, was hit with tragedy as Liu’s costar, Alexander Fu Sheng, was killed in a car accident before filming wrapped. 

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Why I Love Wrestling 

Why I Love Wrestling: Beast in the East – Predictions

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Bit of a weird one this week

Bit of a weird one this week as this post will go up either a few hours before or a few hours after the latest WWE Network special, Beast in the East, airs live from Japan. Being that it is airing live that means that for those of us on the East coast, well, let’s just say that 5:30 AM is way too damn early to wake up for a wrestling show (2:30 AM West coast… eww). And while this is nothing more than a glorified house show it does mark the return to in ring action by one Brock Lesnar (and Chris Jericho!). We’ve also got an NXT Title match and some fun undercard stuff. Who will win and who will lose? Read on humanoids and find out.

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Kung Fu Fridays 

Kung Fu Fridays: Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow

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Jackie Chan is the kung fu version of Groucho Marx

Directed by Woo-Ping Yeun and hitting theaters in 1978, Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow made a star of Jackie Chan and introduced the world to two things that would become staples of Kung Fu cinema; one, the notion of the kung fu movie as comedy and two, animal style kung fu being one of the greatest things in the history of makind. While Chan had been in a few films before this, the attempt to make him into the new Bruce Lee failed miserably.

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Why I Love Wrestling 

Why I Love Wrestling: Chris Hero

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Everyone needs a Hero!

The once, and possibly future, Kassius Ohno (come on WWE, get over the body thing), Chris Hero is one of the biggest stars on the indy scene and has been for at least a decade. Originally from Dayton, Ohio, Hero debuted in 1998 after graduating from high school. He was okay at first but really started to come into his own after moving to Florida to train under Dory Funk Jr. In what would become a theme throughout his career, Hero would undergo further training as he traveled the country adding Japanese and Lucha to his repertoire.

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Articles Kung Fu Fridays 

Kung Fu Fridays: Feature Presentation

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Weekly Kung Fu recommendations start here

Summer for me, as a child of the 80’s/90’s growing up in suburban New Jersey, was a time spent equally split between outside activities, bike riding or skateboarding or playing baseball or just getting up to general mischief, and inside activities, video games or tv shows or movies or comics.

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Articles Why I Love Wrestling 

Why I Love Wrestling: Kyle O’Reilly

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Let’s just get this out of the way, Kyle O’Reilly is a future superstar.

There is no doubt in my mind that one day Kyle will have a nation of fans tuning in every Monday night to watch him perform, IF that is what he wants. The sky is the limit with his kind of talent. He reminds me an awful lot of Daniel Bryan and that is not a comparison I make lightly. He is cut from the same cloth, an incredibly hard worker who is better than most in the ring. He has a good look in regards to WWE as well. He has future champion written all over him. The very thought of him joining NXT, and the matches he would have, and subsequently WWE, and the big time PPV matches he could have is as tantalizing as could be.

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Why I Love Wrestling 

Why I Love Wrestling: Money in the Bank predictions

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Boy, these WWE events keep on coming, don’t they?

Another week, another PPV. Man these seem to be coming at a furious rate recently. I expect us to be at a every other day schedule by September. (oh god no, please…) In all seriousness, Money in the Bank, MITB, has to be a great show. WWE is running the risk of event fatigue, hey just like in comics which you can hear about weekly on the Paper Cuts Podcast brought to you by your friends at Geekade, and must have a solid show top to bottom this time out. What are the odds of that?

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Why I Love Wrestling 

Why I Love Wrestling: Dusty Rhodes

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Legend barely scratches the surface

Dusty Rhodes the American Dream, born Virgil Runnels, died today at the age of sixty nine. And that, quite honestly, was way too soon. I was not ready. As a fan of professional wrestling, I can tell you that my heart breaks at his passing. Legend barely scratches the surface of what Dusty has meant to the professional wrestling world. His influence can be seen on every wrestling show around the world and will continue to be seen for the foreseeable future. (Just two weeks ago the finish of the Dean Ambrose/Seth Ambrose WWE Championship match was a “Dusty” finish)

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Bits & Brews 

Bits and Brews 004: Stone Green Tea IPA & Portal 2

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Unexpected pairings producing greatness

IPA’s, India Pale Ales, are not my favorite style of beer. Not my least favorite, but outside my top ten for sure. There are a few that I love but they are not something I usually take a chance on. The recent trend, started in part by the brewer of the beer we are about to discuss, of obliterating the drinker’s palette with hop bitterness for the sake of hop bitterness never really sat well with me. (thankfully, like all trends, it seems to be dying somewhat) It turned me off to Stone as a general rule. But then, they started to do some things a bit differently.

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Why I Love Wrestling 

Why I Love Wrestling: Ricochet

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Maybe the most athletic wrestler to ever compete

Born Trevor Mann, the man known as Ricochet (or Prince Puma if you are watching Lucha Underground) is one of the most exciting wrestlers in the world today. The things he is able to do in the ring, the moves he can pull off at will, are nothing short of incredible. I have been watching professional wrestling for the better part of thirty years now and I have never seen anyone quite like Ricochet.

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