Talk:Reggie Parks/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Usernameunique (talk · contribs) 18:49, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Lead

• Are any photos of him available?

  Unfortunately none that are free, I did not feel that a non-free file met NFCC personally here.

• "before branching out into belt design." — I would make this the start of a new sentence, and give a short explanation of how he got into belt design.

  Reworded with some extra detail.

• As below, any word on who gave him the nickname?

  Nothing in the sources to indicate who coined the name, unfortunately.

• "may be" — See WP:Manual of Style/Words to watch#Unsupported attributions. Also, this is somewhat inconsistent with the article, which also mentions the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship belt.

  Reworded, let me know if this works better for you.

Early life

• Perhaps clarified that those he admired were professional wrestlers.

  Tweaked.

• Anything else to say about his early life?

  Thin on the ground, I'm afraid.

Professional wrestling

• What do you mean by "territories"?

  I've added a link to List of National Wrestling Alliance territories here for clarity.

• What are "legitimate" matches? Are there also illegitimate matches?

  Legitimate as in not "worked" like professional wrestling usually is; perhaps this is a case of jargon not being easily understood by a lay reader. I have clarified a little further by explaining that they were "unscripted" bouts, but if you think there is a better way to word this I am open to changing it.

• Are audience challengers ever actually competitive?

  Generally yes, this is one of wrestling's old carnival roots, it's "competitive" in as much as any untrained volunteer grappling a trained competitor will be.

• "Parks also wrestled under a mask" — What's the significance of wrestling under a mask?

  It's normally a sign of playing a different character, especially when someone who doesn't usually wear one starts to adopt one. In some countries like Mexico there's a lot of significance but in this case it's just that wearing a mask and calling himself "The Avenger" meant he was appearing as a "new" wrestler.

Belt designing

• Who dubbed him "the King of Belts"?

  As above, unfortunately I couldn't see any source noting who coined the name, it's just one which appears in retrospective sources.

• Anything else that can be said about his belt designing?

  Honestly I was surprised to have gotten this much details, having some information on "how the sausage is made" such as the electroplating or the zinc base is more than I thought would be available at first.

• Any other photos (particularly detailed ones) of his belts?

  Nothing that would be free--the commons category Commons:Category:WWE championship belts was where I scoured but his designs aren't well-represented here and this was what I felt was the clearest shot of one. I don't know that NFCC would be met by a clearer non free image as it's largely just a matter of clarity.

• Is there anything that indicates how pervasive his belts were? For example, was he one (albeit a significant one) of several belt makers for wrestling, or the primary one?

  Anecdotally, he seems to have been the primary engraver for North America for about two decades, designing most of the belts for the largest companies of the 1980s and 1990s, but unfortunately that's mainly original research. I can demonstrate from the sources that he was significant, but not necessarily how significant beyond the quotes provided.

Personal life

• Did he ever retire from belt design?

  I do not believe so--any sources which describe his retirement speak only about him retiring from wrestling. I believe he was still engraving until his death. ᵹʀᴀᴘᴘʟᴇ ꭗ 17:03, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

Footnotes

• Any other references about him?

  There are a few additional obituaries from non-reliable sources (wrestling has a lot of fan-journalism with no editorial oversight) but at present I think this is as comprehensive as the material allows. I would not be surprised to find that more material becomes available in the coming years—unfortunately it's an industry where stories are often not told until someone passes, but I think it's likely that people will give interviews or testimonials in the future which may allow for further expansion.

• Sorry about the delay in getting back to this; thank you for having a look at it. I am about to start addressing/responding to your above points now and am leaving this just to let you know I have started. ᵹʀᴀᴘᴘʟᴇ ꭗ 16:40, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

  I hope I have addressed or at least discussed the above points to your satisfaction but please let me know if anything else needs attended to. Here is a diff of any changes made. Thank you again for your time on this. ᵹʀᴀᴘᴘʟᴇ ꭗ 17:03, 24 January 2022 (UTC)