I’m about to
enter the world of the Internet Wrestling Community (IWC). It’s basically people who discuss wrestling
on the internet and by discuss I mean complain, but in all seriousness most of
the time with good reason. Wrestling
just isn’t like it once was. I.E. fun, unpredictable,
compelling, continuity, red-hot crowd, actual care for mid-card, an announce
team that made things feel important, not pandering to the people who will
never ever understand and watch wrestling, not an absolute chore to sit through
3 hours of constant recaps. What I
wouldn’t give for a sit down interview with Vince McMahon. I’m starting to get off track here back to
the IWC. If you don’t know anything
about the IWC, please understand that they are not happy with anything. Like any large group they can never agree on
anything and there are many factions within the group. Just by talking about wrestling online Triple
H has put me on his hit list. Triple H
is the executive vice president of the former World Wrestling Federation (sorry
I just can’t bring myself to say WWE). His
insecurities are very real and will probably never eat a pretzel again or stomp
on a bunch next Monday as his way of burying me and this site. Oh who am I kidding, he only buries people
when they make it big time.
Now,
picking an actual episode among the 1000 plus was a little tough. However, you need to remember I’m not trying
to pick the best episode of all time, but the one that starts a run of can’t
miss episodes. May 26th 1997
is the winner. An almost pretty
inconsequential episode that’s smack dab in the middle of two ppv’s. Usually the show after or right before a ppv
is the most memorable. Let’s go through some of the reasons why raw
pretzeled at this time. One, there was
no jobbers (wrestlers that are inconsequential to a storyline and always lose
to make the other look better) used this night and began a move towards ending
the practice of using jobbers. Two, we
are in the midst of the Monday night wars between WWF and WCW. The show was actually renamed Raw is War and
War Zone for the first and second hours.
We are in the attitude era the greatest wrestling era of all time. Three, Mankind’s part 2 interview with Jim
Ross gives the audience a look into the Mick Foley’s alter egos Dude Love and
Cactus Jack. The three faces of Foley
were an instrumental part during the attitude era. Four, Stone Cold in the main event spot. Stone Cold and Shawn Michaels defeated Owen
Hart (R.I.P) and British Bulldog (R.I.P) to become new tag team champions. Stone Cold is the greatest superstar of all
time and I will defend that until my death.
Coming off of his great WrestleMania match with Bret Hart at WM 13,
Steve Austin has the crowd and the company behind him. This show is a precursor to some great points
in wrestling Canadian Stampede, SummerSlam 97, Badd Blood, Survivor Series 97
and of course WrestleMania 14.
Pretzel Moments
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Saturday, October 11, 2014
2007 New York Giants
I think the Giants pretzeled during their last loss of the
season. In the last game of the season,
they played and lost to the undefeated New England Patriots. The Giants fell to 10-6 and the Patriots went
to 16-0. What followed over the next
four weeks was nothing short of incredible.
At the time, the Giants had sewn up the 5 seed in the NFC playoffs. No matter what the outcome of the game they
weren’t moving any higher or lower. Yet,
still Tom Coughlin played it as if it was a playoff game. He played all his starters even the banged up
Plaxico Burress. They gave the Patriots
their largest deficit they had to face all season. By hanging tough with the Pats, the Giants
had their pretzel moment. It spurred
them on with confidence and momentum for the playoffs. They beat the Bucs in the wild card matchup
in a game that was never really in any doubt.
Had a 4th quarter comeback win against the Cowboys that included an end
zone interception on a defensive stand on the last drive. In the NFC title game, the Giants won in OT
following a classic Favre choke job.
They then avenged their last loss in the Super Bowl against the Pats
that had one of the most famous sports plays in history with the helmet catch. Tell me what other pretzel moments you think the 07 Giants had in the comments.
Monday, October 6, 2014
Seinfeld
Well here it
is, the show the site/term/idiom gets its namesake from. Season 3 episode 11 “The Alternate Side” is
where I think the show pretzeled. I know
some people think it was the very beginning and a case can be made for the
Chinese restaurant episode or the parking garage, but I feel like those just
don’t hold up and really weren’t engrossing from the start. You could also make an argument that it pretzeled
when Andy Ackerman took over directing in season 6 and the gang got into even
more over the top crazy hi-jinx. This
episode had it all. All the characters
have their own stories going that intertwined by the end. George takes over the odd job for parking
cars, Kramer is in a Woody Allen movie and Elaine is taking care of her elderly
boyfriend. Kramer’s kookiness in this
episode really shines through and becomes a staple for future episodes. Also, of course the famous quotable line of “these
pretzels are making me thirsty” was said by all four main characters. Seinfeld
really started to find its groove after this.
Some great episodes followed and the plots began to allow each character
to have a subplot that gets tied up at the end.
What is this all about?
Welcome to Pretzel
Moments. Here at Pretzel Moment,
we try find that moment in time when your favorite tv show or sports team
really came together to begin its ascent into greatness. You know, before they go off the rails and
jump the shark. No show ever kicks ass
in the first season because characters aren’t fully formed yet We are not looking for the best episode of
all time, but that first real superb episode that made you say I’ve got to
watch this series until I can’t anymore.
We have our own takes, but we also look for your input to really
pinpoint that pretzel moment. We would love to be able to write/speak freely in
the vein of a site like barstoolsports, but we’ve got careers to think about
and can’t be out there flamethrowing every day causing outcry from the
masses. The name comes from “the
alternate side “episode of Seinfeld during season 3. All four characters use the line “these
pretzels are making me thirsty”. It’s an
episode that started a great run of memorable moments in a string of future
episodes and the line we think just fits perfect with what we are trying to do
here. When you hear the term “pretzeled”
or “pretzel moment”, it is referring to the time when everything kind of just
ties together. It helps when it begins a
string of classic or memorable episodes that directly follow it. You might not be able to tell when it happens,
but looking back on it you can definitely tell.
So when did your favorite show pretzel?
When did that championship team have its pretzel moment? Click around and find out. As always drop a line to pretzelmoments@gmail.com to request shows/teams.
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