The end of chapter 9! HEAT Volume 1 had 7 chapters and clocked in at 100 pages, including Classic Wrestling Moments. Volume 2 is composed of only 3 chapters and will be somewhere in the 120 range, I think. For my own sanity I will hopefully be smart enough to divide up volume 3 a bit better. But up next, chapter 10, the final chapter of volume 2! The last panel of this comic tells you pretty much all you need to know about what that chapter is going to be about.
I think this might be the first time the Super Max Challenge Cup has been shown in the comic, so I guess I’ll talk a bit about it. The idea of having a bit event which awarded a trophy was stolen from Japan by TNA to create the various X Cup tournaments that they used to run when they were watchable, which are the events which inspired the Super Max Challenge. I remember watching the X Cup for the first time on one of TNA’s Wednesday night PPVs from the Asylum, which I would have friends over to watch once in a while. I think it was the second one, which featured Team Mexico against Team UK, and a really fascinating clash of styles, as the Mexican team wanted to fly all over the place and the British team was all about ring psychology and chaining holds together with only a few big moves to punctuate matches. It was a very different affair than the later X Cups in which all of the teams seem to have agreed that flying around and hitting big moves every ten seconds would be the mutual strategem, and my first exposure to the British style of wrestling (other than commentators mentioning it every time somebody threw a European uppercut). I really liked the tournament format that they had set up, particularly because it was the kind of simple, tight storytelling that I love in wrestling.
Also, while I was writing this I got a retweet from former ECW World Heavyweight Champion Steve Corino. Fucking sweet. It was about people putting Paterno’s contributions to Penn State football over the fact that he was aware his assistant was raping kids and let it happen. Significantly less sweet.
AND FINALLY: I’m taking a week off from posting comics because my school semester has seriously burnt me out and I need a week to recharge. I’ll be back with Classic Wrestling Moments #10 next Wednesday!
