Resident Evil

I think the music is also what made ECW special. From the ECW I watched, their music selection and the way they used it was terrific.

Yeah, I know. It's an easy scapegoat to go to when anyone wants to get into an arguement. Don't worry. I just talk wrestling here. Speaking of which, I really liked this thread that DEAN started over on Deathvalley entitled ECW Memories http://board.deathvalleydriver.com/index.php?showtopic=45925 It's an entirely positive ECW piece and why it worked for everyone. I thought it'd be interesting for everyone to take a look at it and comment on it since ECW is not looked at as fondly here. Thoughts?

Doesnt this statement hold true for whatever you want to be in life? I am terrific friends with an IWC poster who is a great professional wrestler. Knowing the way she was/is, CC becoming a wrestler did not surprise me in the least. If someone beforehand were to bet on wether she'd make it or not I'd definitely put my money on her making it. I don't have contempt for most posters. In fact, I like to read what most people have to say. I only have contempt for the posters who have nonsensical contempt for all posters and the wrestling industry. These tend to be the deluded elitist wrestling snobs/sometimes trolls But the fact remains, 99% of the IWC and 99.9% of the IWC wrestling snobs won't be able to make it as wrestlers. That's not a slight against IWC posters. 99% of the rest of the world wouldn't make it either. Ok, so you're better than me because you don't throw out "stupid" stories to get attention? Aren't you doing the exact same thing (seeking attention) you're accusing me of? Coming out and attacking me reeks of attention getting on your part. If you know me and you certainly seem to, you should know that I stand up for myself. Anyway, I haven't told any stories for a long time despite having a million crazy, unbelievable stories. I have one great story about afterbirth, guns, running through fields, revenge and life endagerment. Maybe I'll send it to you via PM since I only talk wrestling here.

In whatever way that allows an IWC poster to think they can make it. Well why not? If a person is stupid enough to want a life of the professional wrestler, he should be allowed a shot. It's not the NFL or MLB or NBA where you have to be credible to become a "true" (read: accepted in some form) professional. Wrestling is made up of bodybuilders, amateur wrestlers and other kinds of athletes, schoolteachers, plumbers, and so forth. Is an "IWC poster" that much lower on the totem pole? Nevermind, I forget, ejaculating on a weight bench makes you THE MAN, and the superior option, right? I have no idea on earth on what you mean by "and the superior option". And to be honost, I don't even know who you are. It was just a harmless little joke man. Lighten up. Are you looking for trouble or something by attacking me? You want it. You got it than. Your response actually gives total credibility to the joke t I said. Anyway, to your points. Out of curiousity, do you think it's stupid to want to be a professional boxer, hockey player, Mixed Martial artist or other contact preformances? Because if you don't, than you come off like some other posters whtere they love wrestling to the point of where they post on message boards but than on the other hand tear it down at every over opportunity they can to the point of nauseum. Obviously an extremely bitter concious or subconcious effect of knowing they don't have the talent and/or toughness to make it and can only ever be the fan. If you do think it's stupid to want a life out of those professions than maybe you're not a bitter fan and are just a good ol' wrestling snob. I'm only parly sure of what you're trying to say here so forgive me if I"m off base. Sure, anyone should be allowed a shot to be a professional wrestler. Most people are allowed to. 99 percent of the people can't make it or hack it though. You seem to be saying that anyone if they decide they want to should be put in the ring. Wow, that's going to make for make some great wrestling. Well, I guess you'll be there buying tickets. Ok, from what I gather here, I think you're trying to say that NFL, MLB, an the NBA have some kind of legit talent level to be able to make it while with wrestling it doesn't have that. Anyone can make it and as evidence of that we have lowly forms (and I disagree with calling those people lowly forms) of people populating it. And when we compare those "garbage" athletes to the average IWC poster than what does wrestling have over the IWC poster? NOTHING!! Let's populate the whole WWE with IWC posters or even better elitist wrestling snobs. Yeah, like that'll will work. On a serious note, it's well known that it takes a lot of toughness and a lot of talent to be a professional wrestler. Most people can't make it. That includes people from MLB, NFL or the NBA. Wrestling is its own seperate thing where it takes a special kind of person to make it and an even more as you put it true talent to thrive in it. Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio Jr. being great examples of this. You're not going to find too much talent like that anywhere in life. So wrestling is made up of bodybuilders -- EVERY sport is made up of bodybuilders. Every single last one. Wrestling has more than its share of bodybuilders which is a good thing. Bodybuilders have the mindset of toughness that is needed for wrestling and other sports. Most people can't even be bodyuilders. Almost every guy "does" it or wants to at one point in his life but almost everyone quits. Why? Because they can't hack it. They're not tough enough. Just like how a girl or woman wants to be pretty every guy wants to be more powerful and stronger. Yet they don't have the guts to go for it. So yeah, for what's needed in the wrestling world bodyuilders are higher on the totem than the IWC poster. Way higher. Amatuer Wrestling -- Amateur wrestling is arguably the most pure sport on earth. It's also extremely taxing to preform and takes talent. So yes, for what's needed in the professional wrestling world, IWC posters on average certainly are lower on the totem pole than amatuer wrestlers. Plumbers -- What does plumbing have to do with anything???? Wrestling has people in it who know how to be plumbers so they're not as true as other sports? Anyway, they do a great service for mankind. My hats off to them. Other Kinds of athletes -- Well yeah, the average IWC poster is lower on the totem pole here for what's needed in wrestling because the average IWC poster is not an athlete. Class, man. Pure class trolling. Well yeah, now that you mention it, I am the superior option for humankind. Thank your for the compliment. Now go get a life. I don't have time for people leeching off of my IWC heat.

In whatever way that allows an IWC poster to think they can make it.

That's evil. No comments on the steroids. But this reminds me how big and strong Rey got around 2002 or so. My brother and I would refer to him as mini Big Poppa Pump just because he added on so much muscle.

Steiner would also be an influence on hard work, intensity, innovation and heart or in other words just being awesome. The same things Rey is known for.

I may vaguely rememberhim saying something about Steiner. I wouldn't be surprised though since Steiner was one of the most aweinspiring wrestlers out there in his prime. I do remember Rey and I think he said this in WCW magazine once citing the creative Tiger Mask vs Dynamite Kid matches as being a humongous influence on him. IIRC, he has said in the past they're an inspiration for not only their moves but for their thoughtful creativity and imagination in putting a match together.

I will second this. Tiger Mask is named as an influence for a lot of the WCW lucha wrestlers. I've seen Dynamite's name a good bit too.

If you doubt his toughness Bix, go up and test him. I don't agree with some of the things Holly does either. But I think his toughness rep comes from those who know him, being able to take a stiff beating in the ring, being a wrestler for so long, having gone through some serious complications from injuries, wrestling with a broken arm against Angle/that match where he had the severe back cut and so on.

Man alive, I'd love to see those Stampede house show matches especially knowing how extremely hard people worked up there. Simply and elegantly put -- They just sound so freaking awesome. Or as Whalen would say it sounds like we have some ring a ding dong dandys.

What was it rated before?

So everybody's been just drooling at the mouth over how awesome Jericho has been in every aspect of professional wrestling lately. I don't have much to say other than that I'm happy that Jericho is doing well and everybody is noticing it. Good for him

I think it'd be more of a news story if they didn't freak out and get excited.

Yeah, to HHH at Surivivor Series 2000. I don't know if he did it any other times.

At the beginning of some show, The Giant tried to run over Hogan one time with a big monstor truck. The monstor truck battle on top of the building wasn't too safe either.

Wrestling is a tough occupation. Overall, you're going to have to look long and hard for something that's tougher. It's the realism of the toughness of wrestling which allows us to have feelings for the wrestlers combined with the drama of the fake aspects of wrestling that make a lot of us fans. Wrestling can only be done by people with the strongest will and the strongest hearts. Those who have the eye of the tiger. No wimps allowed. So it comes to no surprise that you will find many of the strongest hearts ever in wrestling. This is a "sport" for true men. Who in your mind has the biggest hearts in wrestling? Some but not all of my picks would include Kenta Kobashi -- No explanation needed here. One of the hardest working wrestlers ever he just doesn't quit. Every match is filled with the utmost passion. Like the Energizer Bunny he goes on and on and on. He is also known to be a training nut. El Hijo Del Santo -- Santo has been around quite awhile now and from what I've seen gives it all every time out. Of course, that goes without saying as any wrestler listed here will be the same way. Ric Flair -- It's amazing that Flair isn't more beat up than he is because his journey through the wrestling world was exceptionally tough. The multiple long tilte defences per week gave him as hard a go at it as almost anyone Sabu -- Toughest man alive? The insane bumper can make a case for it. He has gone through more painful stuff in one night than normal people do their whole lives. The heartache he goes through allows people to get behind him all the more therefore making his matches all the better. Sabu is a mystery greater than any known to man or woman. That's just a start but I'll stop there so I can leave picks for other. So which wrestlers' hearts do you admire? Whose passion for the art of wrestling allows you to emotionally get behind them and cheer them on? Write them down.

Maybe instead of using the F word Forrest should be insinuating that Quinton Jackson is gay or spray painting the word poopy on his limo, because that would be so much more high brow and sophisticated? Next he'll be complaining about Nick Diaz flipping the bird at KJ Noons! To be fair, I believe Ross has spoken out against bad language in the WWF before even during the 98 attitude era. I'm pretty sure he doesn't like it no matter where it comes from.

http://www.stormwrestling.com/063008.html Ring of Hell June 30, 2008 For those of you who haven’t heard about Ring of Hell yet, it is a recently released book that covers the life and death of Chris Benoit, as well as offering a rather scathing expose on the wrestling business as a whole. Ring of Hell is the first book written by one Matthew Randazzo the 5th and based on this offering I hope his last. When I originally heard about the book I had no intention or interest in reading it. I seldom find books like this offer me anything I don’t already know, or more often than not, tell stories I know to be inaccurate. The only reason I picked up a copy was because a fan I regularly correspond with on my website asked me to read it because the book disturbed him and he wanted my opinion of the book and it’s over all accuracy. The book arrived last Wednesday in the mail and by the second chapter I was ready to throw the thing in the trash. If not for my desire to offer my online friend a complete review and the encouragement of Bryan Alvarez to finish the book (which he has HUGE heat with me for now that I’ve finished) I would have never bothered to finish reading Ring of Hell. Before I get into specifics let me offer this quick over view. Ring of Hell is the Jerry Springer Show of wrestling books. In my opinion it is a complete waste of paper and a HUGE load of crap. Matthew Randazzo the 5th (MR5) is in my opinion a pathetic researcher, a terrible writer, and in several instances, throughout his book, guilty of the same things he condemns the wrestling business for. What I find even more disappointing than the $18 I wasted on this book is that there is in fact a darker side to the wrestling business that can and should be improved upon, but instead of writing a serious expose of the businesses legitimate shortcomings, MR5 seems to sell out and write a sensationalized load of crap in hopes of shock valuing his way into a writing career. I am not saying that there is no truth in this book. There is in fact a fair bit of truth in it, but it is presented very unprofessionally, and in conjunction with a lot of exaggerated, overly sensationalized, and in some cases outright fabricated stories. Had MR5 put in the due diligence to ferret out the real truth and presented it in a professional manner, this could have been a very good book. As it stands it is about as factually based and professional presented as many Jerry Springer episodes. There is one rather scathing story in the book that I know for an absolute fact is incorrect, several that I have heard told by numerous first hand sources that vary wildly from MR5’s accounts and countless tales that are so obviously “bull shit wrestling stories” that the boys always tell, to put over how tough they are or how rough it was when they broke in. I was often reminded, while reading this book, of my favourite Monty Python skit. The skit features four rich guys sitting in a cabana bar drinking cocktails with each trying to top the hardship stories of the other. The climax is a rant by Graham Chapman that goes like this, “Right…. We had to get up in the morning at 10 o’clock at night, half an hour before we went to bed. We had to eat a lump of cold poison, work 29 hours a day down Mill, and pay Mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home our dad would kill us and dance about on our graves singing hallelujah.” To this they would all respond in unison, ”You try and tell the young people of today that, and they won’t believe you.” I guess they should have told their stories to MR5 because if Ring of Hell is any indication, he’d have not only believed their stories but wrote a book about how terribly run the Mill industry was in England. I could go into far more detail about things I hated in this book but I fear to do so might actually create enough interest for you to buy this book, which I whole-heartedly encourage you not to do. If you want to read an accurate wrestling book pick up a copy of “Pain and Passion: The History of Stampede Wrestling” by Heath McCoy, which is my next Book Marks book club selection and is a far better read than Ring of Hell. Before I wrap this up I want to point out one last specific flaw which bothered me the most and I think best represents how poorly researched this book was. Throughout the WCW portion of Benoit’s career MR5 talks endlessly about how horrible and unprofessionally run WCW was and for the most part dumps that blame on Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Hulk Hogan. MR5 goes on quite a bit during those chapters documenting how self serving, unprofessional, dishonest, and unreliable both Hall and Nash were. Then in the WWE portion of Benoit’s career when MR5 is burying WWE and what goes on there, he uses endless quotes by Hall and Nash to support those claims. How can an author spend several chapters in his book burying the credibility of two people he actually quotes and uses as major sources of reference in that very book? If I were his editor I’d have thrown the book back at him so fast and so hard he’d still be rolling from the impact of catching the book. Perhaps much like MR5 his editor realized that if he did that they wouldn’t have been able to get this on bookshelves in time to best financially benefit from the Benoit family deaths. I could have sworn that was something MR5 was very critical of the WWE for doing. MR5 or even MR #1 thru #4 are welcome to direct their hate mail to me at: [email protected] Lance Storm

Well, Bret did give him a warning beforehand. Not that it justifies hitting someone. From what I understand, Bret just didn't go up to Vince and punch a willing, standing still Vince. They locked up or wrestled or something for 30 seconds before Bret punched him. According to Vince himself, he has a fighting background and if what he says is true he is a very dangerous person. From that perspective, it's hard to disagree with Bret punching Vince. As far as the original Bret and Oliver topic goes, that's a story where it's impossible to know the clear, complete story.

Yeah, I gotta disagree with Bix too. I think he's being way too hard on Jim Ross here. In fact all things considered, this situation makes me think more positively of Ross than it does negatively

Hmm, interesting. I have never seen Arn do it -- will have to watch out for it. I imagine KENTA would not be tributing Arn, though, so he might be doing it for Muta. Good times. Yes, Anderson and Muta used it. So did the Undertaker.

It's true that on average ECW created an atmosphere that pushed people into a more destructive working style. It's ture that workers would feel an obligation to be extreme and to take more risks than normal. It kind of reminds me of the WCW in years past before that being the workrate/real wrestling fan promotion. One could say WCW created an atmosphere that pushed people into a more destructive wrestling style especially compared to the tamer WWF. Than there was the extra money thing to whoever had the best match. A move which everyone praises which is kind of weird because ECW did a similar thing in promoting the bar to be raised but they get criticized for it. I guess because they went too far. However, looking at it from the other side of the coin -- in ECW in its beginning years they had a bunch of wrestlers that wanted to push themselves past their own personal pain barriers. They were largely responsible for creating the ECW atmosphere of all out or nothing at all. You put 2 Cold Scorpio, Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero, Terry Funk, Sabu, Rey Mysterio Jr., Chris Benoit (who actually had it easier in ECW than what he was used to), Chris Jericho, Cactus Jack, Mikey Whipwreck and others on a card and you've created an atmosphere already. These people in particular would set the bar higher than any wrestler promoter could possibly do. They're going to push themselves. And when you people pushing themselves, it causes others to work harder. You will see this in sports and in physical labour in particular. It's contagious. Ricky Steamboat in the WWF alone caused this effect. Imagine what all these guys could do together especially if they're more featured in a promotion. We saw it in WCW too. The Steiners, Sting, Pillman, Luger, Steamboat, Austin, Flair and others all created a harder working atmosphere. You see it in Japan a lot. Hard workers make others work harder.

In all seriousness, I like JDW too. He has a sensible head on his shoulders.

Good heavens! Why not? It's got a really nice structure: Building from Tiger Mask working the headlock and them coming up with various creative ways for Jumbo to get out of it. When they get into the high impact stuff building toward the finish, it's all believable within the context of it being Jumbo The Unstoppable vs. The New Guy. Jumbo sells really well and makes Misawa look great. They draw the crowd into it and the heat builds impressively as the match develops. For a match of the type "Company Ace vs. Young Athletic Upstart" I don't see what else you'd want. Completely agree. This match rules all.