Living The American Dream (Not Dusty Rhodes)

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

Since it's once again Independence Day, I asked our Facebook friends which wrestler or entertainer (since this blog is expanding) best embodies the spirit of America.  As usual, we got some excellent answers.  Thanks for participating, and thanks for reading.

Eric: Jack Swagger #wethepeople

Jade: "John Cena keeps his word, he fights to the end for what he believes in, his slogans are hustle, loyalty, respect, and never give up."

Matthew & Dennis: "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan

Adam: "Iron Sheik.  B!tch about everything and believe your thoughts are always right."

Way Back WhensDay: Burger Chef

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

When I was a kid in the 70's and early 80's, we didn't have a whole lot of choices in terms of restaurants, especially in the area I grew up.  The area is now overflowing with grocery stores, fast food restaurants, and sit down places.  But back then, we had to drive several miles just to go to grab a hamburger.

That being said, one of my favorite places to eat as a kid was Burger Chef.  I loved the taste of their burgers, but I think what I remember even more fondly is the company's mascots and the toys that came with the children's meals.  Don't get me wrong, I loved Ronald McDonald and his cast of characters, but Burger Chef and his sidekick Jeff hold a place in my memory too.

The record

I vaguely remember this dynamic duo from the TV commercials, but I have a very vivid memory of their voices on the colorful plastic records that came with the meals.  We'd have to tape a penny to one side of the record to help keep it balanced on the record player.  If you don't know what a record player is, click the video below.  Someone actually uploaded a video of one of the classic records.

Each record was a few minutes in length and told a story featuring Chef and Jeff and their friends.  Those records provided hours of entertainment for my brother and I, as this was an era before we were really into video games, cable TV, and of course smart phones.

Chef & Jeff

I think I was in the third or fourth grade when the local Burger Chef became Hardee's.  I was disappointed when it happened because Hardee's didn't have any kitschy mascots or fun kids meals.  But I do remember very vividly the introduction of Smurf drinking glasses.  (That's a future blog)

That transition must have been about 1983 or so in the St. Louis area.  You can imagine my happiness when I arrived to college at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau and discovered a Burger Chef in the mall.  I think it stayed open for the first couple years I was there, so I got to enjoy those burgers and fries all over again.

What I wouldn't give for one more found with Burger Chef and Jeff and to listen to those old records.  Now, thanks to YouTube, I can.

Sting to WWE? Will Fans Get Stung

Sting
Photo from TNA

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

On the July 1 episode of Raw, WWE highlighted past WWE and World Heavyweight champions as they counted down to the main event between John Cena and Alberto Del Rio.  One of the packages featured Sting.  He and Lou Thesz are the only two wrestlers in those pieces who never wrestled in the WWE.  Thesz is now deceased, but I would imagine at some point he'll be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.  The inclusion of Sting in the champion series has led to speculation that the former WCW champion is headed north from TNA.

The buzz about Sting leaving TNA and signing with WWE has been going on for years.  Remember back in 2011 many believed that Sting was the man in the 2-21-11 promo, which ultimately ended up being the Undertaker? Fans everywhere thought the Stinger was finally signing with the WWE and facing the Undertaker at Wrestlemania that year.  It was not to be.  I don't think it will ever happen (Sting vs. Undertaker at Wrestlemania, that is)

Sting is already a member of the WWE alumni site, although he's never set foot in the company's ring.  He's without a doubt the biggest name to have never signed with the WWE.  As a teenager, I was shocked when guys like Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Arn Anderson, and Tully Blanchard all made their way to Titan Towers.  For whatever reason, Sting never went, even after Vince McMahon bought WCW in 2001.

"Beach Bum" Sting
Photo courtesy: WWE

At age 54, clearly Sting's best days are behind him.  That being said, I would still MARK OUT if he signed with the WWE, even if for just one match.  I'd mark out even more if he wrestled it as "Beach Bum" Sting.  While I wouldn't want to see him get a championship run, I think it would be fun to see him have a few matches and eventually retire and go into the WWE Hall of Fame.  But part of me also finds it cool that he's really one of the only guys to never work for the WWE in some capacity.  However, the mark in me wins out and yes, I'd like to see at least one match in a WWE ring featuring the superstar from Venice Beach.

I do know Sting extended his contract with TNA back in March 2012.  I don't know how long he extended it for.  I have learned as a fan, never say never.  I wouldn't be surprised to one day see Sting on WWE TV and wrestling at a Wrestlemania in the near future.

Thoughts?  Share them here or post on Facebook.

Wife Swap: Wrestling Style

Courtesy: ABC

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents

On June 30, ABC aired an episode of Wife Swap, which featured WWE Hall of Famers Ric Flair and Roddy Piper.  The two have had a great past in the world of wrestling, and this project let us get a closer look into their personal lives.  Flair's girlfriend Wendy, who you may remember as Fifi the Maid on "Flair for the Gold" in the mid-90's, swapped places with Piper's wife of 30 years, Kitty.

This isn't a review of the show, instead I wanted to point out a couple of things.  First, on the lighter side, I think the WWE Network (once it's up and running) could do a similar style show. I found this particular episode entertaining for a number reasons.  Imagine all the fun they'd have  using the laundry list of superstars, divas, and legends.  It would be epic.

But the more serious reason behind this blog is what the Pipers pointed out at the end of the show.  Ric Flair needs help.  I know that with editing things can be manipulated, but with the stories we've all heard about  Flair in the past, he seems to live the "Nature Boy" character 24/7.  The lavish lifestyle has caught up with him.  He's always on the go.  Always spending money.  He looked like a tired man to me on the show.

I hated to see Flair retire.  I hated to see him return to the ring even more.  That may not make sense, but I really wish after his retirement match against Shawn Michaels, Flair would have found some comfort in working as the WWE Ambassador as he had started doing.  I think the company could have easily worked him back into an on-screen character too.  I would still love to see him come back on a full time basis as a manager.

The Flairs & The Pipers
Photo from WWE.com

But is that what Flair needs in terms of his own personal health and happiness?  Should he be more focused on his family (and Wendy's) as we saw on Wife Swap?  After more than 40 years in the spotlight, it's tough to hang it up.  Flair needs something, and I really hope and pray he finds what it is he's looking for.  I fear since this taping and the death of Reid Flair, he's even more depressed than he appeared on the show.  He's an icon, a legend, and my all time favorite and I hate to see anyone, especially someone I hold in such high regard hurt.  I hope the Pipers stay in touch with him and help Flair get better.

How I Spent My Unemployment

By Chad Smart

@chadsmart & @my123cents on Twitter

With the shift in focus here at my123cents, I figured this might be a good time to start blogging again.  Dealing with pop culture opens up new avenues for thoughts and means I can go at least a month before I start recycling the same topics over and over.

For those that don’t know me, I freelance in the Reality Television world. This means I don’t have steady employment. Work one show and when it wraps up, I have to hustle to find a new job. Thankfully for the past three years, I’ve worked on a popular network show.  This means when we wrap out we know when the next season is starting. In the past, there was an average of seven weeks of down time. Since we would wrap out at the end of March, beginning of April, I had the opportunity to meet up with Kevin for our yearly Geek Week trips and then spend some time visiting family before going back to work.  This year was a bit different. Instead of seven weeks, we got three months off. That’s not really enough time to work on another show. In fact I had to turn down (technically I was turned down due to not being available through September) the new E! Network WWE Divas show.  That was a heartbreaker. Since I wasn’t working, I needed to find a way to spend my free time. Enter Movie Pass.

If you’re not familiar with Movie Pass, it’s kind of like Netflix for the theater. For $29.99 a month you’re allowed to see one movie a day. Based on movie prices here, that means if I see 3-4 movies a month, I'll break even. The limitations are you can only see a movie once, can’t buy advance tickets, can’t see Imax or 3D and the movie has to be showing at a theater that accepts Movie Pass. Here in Los Angeles, Movie Pass works with AMC theaters and most of the Independent theaters so there’s never a shortage of films to see. Or so I thought.

I returned from a trip to Illinois on April 29 and knew my next trip was on June 6. Since I didn’t have anything better to do with the days in between, I decided to see if I could see a different movie every day.  With the number of multiplexes and different theaters, I thought seeing a different movie every day for 37 days couldn’t be that hard.

Since I had had been traveling most of April, I had only seen two movies in that month. This meant I had a lot of movies to catch up on making the first two weeks easy to pick a movie and see. It wasn’t until the last week that I was running out of movies and going to see films I knew nothing about just to keep the streak alive.  I realized during this time that just because a theater has 15 or more screens, that doesn’t mean they are playing anywhere near 15 films.  In this age where every movie has to have screening in 2D, 3D, Imax, and 3D Imax, on average, a theater is only playing about 8-9 different films. Each week they may have 2-3 new films. So seeing 35 different films in 35 days was harder than I imagined.  Thankfully LA has several repository theaters so I could supplement new films with older films. 

Here is the list of films I saw from April 30 through June 5.

Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Pain and Gain, The Croods, Escape from New York, Oz: The Great and Powerful, The Goonies, 42, Mud, Place Beyond the Pines, Trance, The French Connection, No One Lives, Desperate Acts of Magic, GI Joe 2: Retaliation, And Now A Word From Our Sponsor, The Iceman, Back to School, The Outsiders/Rumble Fish, The Great Gatsby, Ghastly Love of Johnny X, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Free Samples, Cleopatra, Black Rock, Hangover Part 3, Super Mario Brothers, Epic, Stand By Me/Kings of Summer, Fast 6, Stories We Tell, Kon Tiki, Sightseers, The East, After Earth, From the Head, Sirius ,Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani

After a three-day delay from June 6-9, since I still wasn’t working I continued to see movies. Even though I did do another week straight of hanging out in the theater, I haven’t felt the need to make sure I saw a movie a day. If it happened, fine. If not, then that meant I actually had something else to do that day. Since June 10 these are the movies I’ve watched.

Deceptive Practices, The Internship, Rapture-Palooza, This is the End, Frances Ha, Battlestar Glactica, Man of Steel, Now You See Me, The Purge, Dazed and Confused, Monster’s University, Berberian Sound Studio, Compulsion, World War Z

I’m writing this on Friday morning. I’ve got three more days before returning to work. I will probably try and see at least one movie this weekend. Factoring in two months of paying for Movie Pass as well as the three movies I had to pay for due to not being able to use Movie Pass on those screenings, I spent $99 on tickets.  The cost of the actual tickets, had I paid for all of them, is $488.50. So even if I don’t see another movie this year, Movie Pass has paid for itself for the year.

I’d like to say after watching so many movies I had some deep analysis to offer up. I don’t.  I do feel the bigger the explosions in the movie the thinner the plot.  I don’t understand why studios make low budget movies and then don’t promote them or release them for wide viewings. Movies I would highly recommend are Mud, Kings of Summer and From the Head. Simple stories yet wildly entertaining.  Fast 6 is easily the most entertaining film of the summer so far.

That’s how I spent my time on the unemployment line. Now it’s time to get back to work and make some (hopefully) good TV. In the words of the late Siskel and Ebert, the balcony is closed. 

Way Back WhensDay: You Can't Do That on Television

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents

(Note: I know I spelled Wednesday wrong, it's a play on words.)

I was about 9 years old when cable television reached our community of High Ridge, a small town about 20 miles outside of St. Louis.  I still remember the dial boxes sitting on top of the TV in our kitchen and family room.  Instead of using a remote to zip through the channels, we had to turn the dial and click through each channel.  Life was so brutal.

I have two strong memories from that time period.  One was MTV and all the music videos that featured the stars I'd listened to on the radio for years.  The other was Nickelodeon, the network for kids.  The show that attracted my attention back then was called You Can't Do That On Television.  For people who have never seen it, if you're older, it was a kid version of Saturday Night Live.  If you're younger, it was the precursor to All That.

Slimed!

YCDTOTV featured a variety of child and teenage stars, telling jokes, doing skits, and getting slimed.  The sliming was always my favorite.  Whenever someone uttered the phrase "I don't know" a bucket of green slime was dumped on their head.  I remember at one point they actually teased a show that would feature different colored slime.  It was monumental in my tween years.  If someone said "Water" on the show, you guessed it, they were doused with a bucket of water.  Some stars had the double whammy of getting slimed and watered.

My friends and I would actually make our own slime and take turns playing dumb and saying those three famous words.  While it wasn't as epic as the sliming on TV, it was a memory of my childhood that stands out to me.

The cast when I watched was great.  I had a crush on the main star, Christine "Moose" McGlade.  Lisa Ruddy, Kevin Kubushekie, and Alasdair Gillis were also favorites of mine.  But perhaps the most talented member was the only adult male on the show, the late, great Les Lye.  He played so many awesome characters including stage hand Ross, Barth (owner of the health code violating Barth's Burgers), and the dad.  Music star Alanis Morissette appeared in five episodes of this Canadian hit.

I wish Nickelodeon would go retro and run episodes of YCDTOTV at some point, or even release the show on NetFlix or DVD.  Everytime I see a locker, I have the urge to climb in and start telling jokes.  Thanks for the memories.

Chris Benoit: Six Years Later

I got to meet Benoit in early 2007, months before his death

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

It's been nearly two years since I've written a blog specifically about Chris Benoit and the days leading up to his death and the murders of his wife, Nancy and young son, Daniel.  My thoughts have not changed in that time either.  While the last couple of days of Benoit's life were heinous, I still can't look past the fact that he was one of the most gifted athletes to ever step into a wrestling ring.

I really struggle with that mindset at times.  I ask myself regularly if someone who I wasn't a fan of committed the same acts, how would I feel.  This is where the "wrestling hypocrite" comes out in me.  And let's face it, we all have a little (or a lot) of the hypocrite in us.

The WWE has for the most part taken Benoit out of their history books.  I was surprised to see him included in the first volume of the WWE Encyclopedia.  I don't know if he's in the latest edition.  Chad and I have discussed before how the company would have handled things had Benoit faced the Undertaker at a Wrestlemania.  I suspect they'd continue to edit him out of those highlights, just like they do with the first Money in the Bank ladder match.

I found this online, sums my thoughts up the best.

While Benoit seems to be gone from the website and DVD releases, (his name was edited out of Ric Flair's Hall of Fame speech in 2008), I can't help but notice a lot of similarities between Benoit and current WWE superstar Daniel Bryan.  The diving headbutt, the "No (or is it Yes) Lock", and his dives through the ropes remind me of the Rabid Wolverine.

So as I've always done, I won't celebrate the monster who killed his wife and son and then himself.  Instead, I'll remember one of my favorites and continue to wonder "What if" on many aspects of his troubled life.  Rest in Peace, Nancy, Daniel, and Chris.