Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Snobbery, Wrestling and Needlecraft

Long ago I wrote a thesis on snobbery (doesn't it look fancy?). The basic gist was that snobbery is usually the result of ignorance and the need/desire to feel superior to others. Anti-snobbery on the other hand is often expressed by those who have an understanding, appreciation and knowledge of the subject matter. My thesis dealt specifically with the wine world but these snobby rules can be applied to other topics... like wrestling for example.

Chris Jericho is on Dancing with the Stars this season. I adore Chris Jericho. He's really funny. He's charismatic. He's from Winnipeg. If you haven't heard of Chris before you're probably not a professional wresting fan. He's the best in the world at what he does! He's the man of 1004 holds! He'll save us all! Y2J!

Chris' appearance on DwtS has spurred an awful lot of snobby comments about wrestling and wrestlers. The depth of hatred some people feel toward this form of entertainment (we all know it's entertainment right?) is both laughable and disturbing. Anyway, in an attempt to combat the negativity I've decided to profess my love for those men in tights through craft. :P

When I was a wee gal (in the days of the very first Wrestlemania) I was a big wrestling fan. I'm not a hard core follower now, I only catch a bit of it here and there, but I do find myself quickly sucked in. The crazy story lines, the good guys and baddest baddies, the costumes, faux fur, glitter, explosions, muscles and high flying action to boot... really, its the perfect source of crafting inspiration!

So I've spent the last week or so stitching up some of my favourite old time wrestlers...

Andre the Giant
"Macho Man" Randy Savage
Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka
Sgt. Slaughter

And unframed and wrinkly...

Iron Sheik

Big Show - Okay he's not an old timer... sue me *lol

Stitching these guys has been a ton of fun. These are the first 'real' stitchy projects I've worked on and I'm sure I'll be doing more. Besides, I've got to get an homage to Jericho in somewhere (he did inspire this set of stitchery after all) ... and then there's Undertaker, he'd be fun to do... and maybe Kane... and ... oh, you get the idea :)

7 comments:

  1. When I was a youngster, back when dinosaurs roamed the planet. My uncle would take me to the wrestling matches here and it was so fun. Almost circus like. Every once in awhile I will catch a bit of this or that about wrestling but to me it is a great childhood memory. And the young man you are speaking of on DWTS dedicated his dance to his Mom....oh my stars, I was a gonner. He's so sweet. The Olde Bagg, Linda

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  2. thank you so much for immortalizing Macho Man Randy Savage in thread! absolutely made my day :)

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  3. Oh, those first couple take me back to being a kid and having to watch wrestling with my big brother! I would have preffered watching The Little Mermaid for the millionth time! But, truth be told, I kinda liked it, too! Used to call my dad's best friend Rick Flair.... he had dark curly hair... I have NO idea what made me call him that! LOL!

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  4. Macho Man is my favourite too, but they're all great. And it's nice to see Andre the Giant in black and white, because I always remember him from Stampede Wrestling. (Yes, I'm that old!)

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  5. Thank you so much for bringing such a giant grin to my face; these fellows take me back to my younger days when Hulk Hogan, Macho Man, Andre the Giant and Captain Lou Albano were the stars of the wrestling world.

    If you ever stitch up a Rowdy Roddy Piper, I insist you mail it comes and lives with me. He was always my favorite baddy!

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  6. These are great! Hubby and I are always talking about our favorite wrestlers from back when we were kids. It's great to see a few of our favorites in thread!

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  7. Wonderful! As a little girl I still remember running around with my Hulk Hogan action figure. ;)

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