good. The penalty shoot-out in football is, in any sport

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- Twenty years after the New World Order first invaded WCW to kickstart the most lucrative era in pro wrestlings history, the nWo is still over with fans.Way over, in fact.It was evident in 2015 at WrestleMania 31, when a surprise nWO run-in during a?Triple H?vs. Sting match elicited arguably the loudest reaction from the crowd of the night. It was?just as evident on Friday, as fans gathered to celebrate the legendary heel faction during an nWo night promotion at The Ballpark at Harbor Yard.The affection of the crowd served as no surprise for nWo founding members and WWE Hall of Famers Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, who joined stablemate Sean X-Pac Waltman as guest managers of the Bridgeport Bluefish independent minor league baseball team.But none of them were willing to take it for granted -- not after the highs and lows each has experienced, both personally and professionally. This was especially true for Hall, who has dramatically rebuilt his life over the past three years after substance abuse nearly ended it.I always find it really flattering when people are going to line up and wait in line for hours to tell you how cool you are and to take a picture with you, Hall said. I always have time for that. It makes you feel good.The towering Nash, a former college basketball player at the University of Tennessee before coming to fame more than a decade later as Diesel in WWE, didnt hesitate when asked what the high point was for the nWo since its dramatic 1996 debut at the WCW pay-per-view Bash at the Beach.I think its right now, managing the Bluefish at 57 years old, Nash said.I was just going to say the same thing, Hall interjected. Here we are still getting paid to be with our buddies to fly to New York and hang out in Bridgeport for a few hours, all because of this thing we did 20-something years ago? Yeah, its pretty special.Despite what became a rotating door of members during The Monday Night Wars era, Nash considers the core of what made the nWo so special to be Hall, Waltman and himself, along with Hulk Hogan, whose shocking heel turn provided the backbone to the factions success. Hes also well aware of the influence the nWo has on todays wrestlers.One has to look no further in WWE than?Luke Gallows,?Karl Anderson?and?A.J. Styles, members of the The Club, who previously made a name for themselves in New?Japan?Pro?Wrestling as The Bullet Club, alongside?Finn Bálor. The heel faction not only carry themselves in a nWo-like manner, they adopted Hall and Nashs iconic too sweet hand gesture that The Club still uses today.Waltman, 44, who still wrestles on the independent circuit, has been surprised by how many nWo fans are upset that Gallows and Anderson have borrowed the gimmick. But neither he, nor Hall and Nash, agree.In fact, its quite the opposite.Little kids come up to me now who couldnt have been a glimmer in their fathers eye during the nWo run, Hall said. And they come up [doing the hand gesture, and say] Hey, whats up Scott? Im like, Hey Buddy.Nash sees what The Club is doing as a tribute, saying that in music there are cover bands all over the place. He also made light of the idea that Gallows -- whom Nash calls a sweetheart -- is performing any kind of gimmick infringement on his character. He did so by referencing the bald head of the 6-foot-8 Gallows.I had five moves and one was the hair flip, Nash said. I was known for my hair. If [Gallows] cant do one of my five moves, he cant really infringe me.Few ideas, if any within the world of wrestling, are truly original concepts pulled out of thin air.We stole cutting the T-shirt like Mike Tyson and now I saw?Big Cass?the other day with a T-shirt cut like Tyson, continued Nash. Everything gets stolen from somebody. We stole?from Tyson, they steal it from us.The full-circle irony in this situation is that even the nWo concept itself was borrowed. Its creator, former WCW president Eric Bischoff, saw the success of a similar invasion angle while attending a New Japan show in early 1996 and adapted it soon after.For Hall, 57, the connection with Gallows and Anderson goes deeper as his son, 25-year-old Cody Hall, was signed to New Japan in January 2015 and debuted as a trainee, or young boy, of The Bullet Club.Im happy for anybody who gets an opportunity or a break in the wrestling business, Hall said. Those guys were part of the Bullet Club in Japan and my son Cody said they treated him good. If you treat my kid good, youre in with me.Over the past two decades, Japanese wrestling has played a factor in where all three of these guys have been and where they continue to go -- and it has been making a big impact of late in the modern WWE as well. When it comes to which of todays WWE superstars the nWo members believe can be a crossover superstar for years to come, Waltman had one name in mind above the rest.Im going to go with a little bit of a different answer than some people say, Waltman said. I think Shinsuke Nakamura is going to be a really big deal. Besides the in-ring skills, the charisma is amazing. I dont compare him to anybody because hes like the original.Hall was just as quick to mention Bálor and current WWE Universal champion?Kevin Owens?as young guys who are really delivering the goods. But he backed up Waltmans words?on Nakamura, a native of Japan who captured the NXT championship last month, saying he could become the first foreign-born wrestler to be the true face of the WWE.Hes kind of like Liberace and Prince stuffed together, hes just crazy, Hall said, before Waltman added the names of Michael Jackson and Freddie Mercury. One of the biggest struggles that a wrestler can have is fighting their way to that kind of relevance, and it certainly didnt come that easy for any of the members of the nWo.Hall, who went on to tag team fame in WCW with Nash as The Outsiders, recalled the hits and misses of his early characters and how difficult it was to feel comfortable in the mid-1980s as top babyface Big Scott Hall in the AWA.For me, I was really struggling because I was Scott Hall in the gym, and Scott Hall in the grocery store, and in the ring, Hall said. Until I got a gimmick, a look, and got to be a character, thats when I started making strides. As Scott Hall, I didnt have a gimmick so I didnt know what to do. Once I became the Bad Guy [as Razor Ramon with WWE in 1992] it was a little easier for me to gain insight.Nash, who has transitioned to acting in recent years with memorable roles in a pair of Magic Mike films, believes his most forgettable wrestling character to be Oz -- a short-lived WCW gimmick, memorable only for the epic entrances.But Nash believes each stop on his journey was equally important, with the Oz character getting him a match in Japan at the Osaka Dome in October 1991. The show marked the first time wrestling fans of any kind had chanted his name.When I came out and the smoke cleared I was like, What are they saying? Nash said. I thought, Oh my God, for the first time in my life Im over. So you never know. You go 12 hours in the opposite direction and not exactly kosher becomes [accepted], so I dont know. If you make it, all the pieces fit in the puzzle. I do believe in the butterfly effect where if you take some piece out of it, you dont end up here.Asked whether the nWo could have the same impact had it debuted today with WWE, considering the evolution of the business and the difference in backstage politics, Nash had no doubt.I think once you know how to get over, you know how to get over, Nash said. I mean, it would be at everyones expense but we would get over. I mean, it would be guaranteed money. It wouldnt be [Ted] Turner [WCW] money though, Ill tell you that.On this night, the home team won, 8-6, over the South Maryland Blue Crabs, with the entire Bluefish team wearing special black nWo jerseys. Nash, the most outgoing of the trio, jokingly gave himself the credit, saying he had never been brought to a baseball game as part of a promotion (he estimates 50-to-60 games in all) without the home team winning.This may not have been the bright lights of WrestleMania or a venue as large as the Osaka Dome, but 20 years after the nWo debuted, theyre still drawing nostalgic crowds.Nash could only chuckle when asked why.Ask Paul McCartney why he still puts 60,000 people in the seats, Nash said. Theres only one, baby! Theres only one! For life. Were not dead yet. Wholesale Authentic Air Jordan . Coach Tom Thibodeau says the former MVP will probably start travelling with the team in the next few weeks. Rose tore the meniscus in his right knee at Portland in November and was ruled out for the remainder of the season by the Bulls. Cheap Jordans Shoes . Goals from Jerome Boateng, Franck Ribery and Thomas Mueller extended Bayerns unbeaten run to a record 37 matches. "This record is incredible," Bayern coach Pep Guardiola said. http://www.wholesaleairjordanchina.com/ . Now, with Game 6 set for Fenway Park and an 8:07 p.m. ET first pitch, the Detroit Tigers face the unenviable task of having to beat the Boston Red Sox twice, on the road, to advance to the World Series. Wholesale Real Jordans . World champions Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov of Russia won the gold medal with 237.71 points, Moore-Towers and Moscovitch followed at 208.45 and Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov of Russia were third at 187. Discount Air Jordan . Ashley Youngs cross was inadvertently headed by Chester into his own net in the 66th minute, allowing United to claim a third straight league win. "We had to dig deep with our fighting spirit and weve done that," United striker Wayne Rooney said. Everybody wanted Andre Agassi to win the 1999 mens singles final at Wimbledon, because he was a showman, because it would be a better story, because it would be a nice change. No one wanted Pete Sampras to win, because he was boring.Im still capable of feeling rage on the subject. Back in the days when Wimbledon courts were seriously fast, Sampras was the ultimate master. He won that final in straight sets and Agassi was brilliant throughout. The problem was that Sampras was perfect. And people still found that boring.The same dilemma exists in cricket. Some people who will tell you that Virat Kohli (44 Tests, average 45) is a better Test batsman than Rahul Dravid (164 Tests, average 52). The reason is that Dravid was boring. He was as near a complete player as you can get, so why did he get nicknamed The Wall? An excellent defensive method was just a part of what he did.But the power of the word boring is very considerable in 21st-century sport. At its heart is the question of whether a professional athlete is required to offer entertainment or whether his only obligation is to pure sport. Is sport a jolly day out? Or is it the pursuit of victory and excellence?I have always inclined towards the purist view that sport is not entertainment; it just so happens that sport is, quite often, entertaining. But then you must ask yourself what would you rather watch: an immaculate display of highly skilled defensive football in a 0-0 draw, or a ten-goal thriller full of mistakes?The Olympic Games is packed with events that we normally consider boring, but once every four years they become essential viewing, sometimes from local patriotism, sometimes because the quest for excellence is in itself compelling. For one week in four years, swimming ceases to be boring.But thats a response Ive always distrusted a little. Shouldnt the audience be participants, making some kind of effort to understand, to meet the athletes halfway? The modern consensus has the audience as passive - sitting back and waiting to be amused.Sport v entertainment: an ancient dilemma. In 1973 the American League brought the designated hitter to baseball. The DH bats instead of the pitcher, who, like fast bowlers, is traditionally weak with a bat in his hand. The idea was more hits and more home runs. The subtler issue of the pitchers versatility was regarded as boring. The National League ddidnt accept this, however, and the two sides snipe at each other every October when the champions of the two leagues meet in the World Series.ddddddddddddBut cricket has gone further than this. Much further. Cricket hasnt tinkered with the rules, cricket has changed the game - all in the attempt to escape any accusation of being boring. Cricket is the incredible disappearing game, shortening itself from five days to 65 overs, then 60, then 50, and then 20.It was decided by some cosmic agreement that batting is exciting so long as it involves a lot of boundaries, but bowling is boring. So pitches became batter-friendly, boundaries were brought closer to the wicket, and any number of rules were brought in to keep the flow of boundaries - free hits, fielding restrictions and one ball at each end to make things easier for the batsman. At the same time batting technology was revolutionized, while ball technology remained static. At one time a six was a rare and thrilling thing, so people felt that if there were more sixes, cricket would be less boring. As a result the six is now a run-of-the-mill sort of thing. Shahid Afridi has 351 sixes in ODIs all by himself.But the debate is not really about the future of cricket. Its a deeper and wider issue than that. The extent to which sport must go out of its way to please its audience, and what sport loses when it does so. Some changes are good. The tiebreaker in tennis has worked out well as a way of deciding a tight set. Other changes are less good. The penalty shoot-out in football is, in any sporting or logical terms, absurd.If you let the mass audience - the least thoughtful sections of your clientele - dictate terms, then you are in danger of losing the more profound and meaningful parts of sport. But that is precisely the kind of audience that sponsors and advertisers love. It comes down to one question: is sport about making as much money as possible, or about seeking the highest level of excellence that humanity can achieve?If you happen to find excellence boring then seek something more your own size, say I. Im told that professional wrestling is very entertaining. In fact, it sometimes seems that cricket adopted this activity as a role model. What could possibly go wrong? ' ' '