The Thread Killer

This is HILARIOUS. While I was watching Destination X on Sunday, and was forced to sit through the Shannon Moore/Cassidy Riley match on the pre-show, I said to my friend: "DAMMIT! THIS GUY SUCKS! He looks like an IDIOT with his "Prince of Punk" gimmick, he's boring and brings nothing to the table! If people are upset backstage about TNA bringing in guys who aren't "homegrown" talent, then rather than bitching about Sting or Steiner or whoever...why don't TNA start by getting rid of this moron?" And then...Vince does it for TNA! YES! No more Moore on TNA! Thank Gawd! I HATED THAT GIMMICK! Anything that means I don't have to look at THIS anymore... Is good! On Sunday, he was wearing black eyeliner and nailpolish. GAH!

See, from the way that show was booked, I really saw one of two things happening... Christian vs. Abyss for the title and Jarrett vs. Sting OR Christian & Sting vs. Jarrett & Steiner I think Jarrett has backed out of the World Title picture for a while. He came out tonight saying he wanted a shot, but that was just a pretense to set up the Sting deal. Besides, it looks like Joe COULD be moving into the Heavyweight Division after tonight.

I for one don't know who "Puma" is. I don't watch NJPW, but I've never even heard of him, and he looked suspiciously non-Japanese. Tenay even said that he was from the dojo in LA. But having said that, I really liked the match. EDIT: Okay I googled him. Apparently he is from the LA Dojo, and he won the American Young Lions tournament last year. You know, he was okay...but he hardly counts as an "international" superstar! And I had no beef with Jarrett's role tonight. I can live with him feuding with Sting, especially if the World Title has nothing to do with it. Methinks that the next challenger for Christian will be Abyss, and that could be very good.

Yeah I saw it, and really liked it. I may post a detailed recap tomorrow. Of course I went to TSM when I got home from seeing it, and all the morons over there were crapping all over it. It had: - Jay Lethal vs. Alex Shelley in the opener in a VERY solid match. - An AWESOME Fatal 4 Way X Division match - A very good Ultimate X match, in which the X division gets a new face but Joe loses NO heat. - Jeff Jarrett in the midcard. - Christian in the Main Event, as the World Champ, and he goes over CLEAN... And they STILL complain. Freaking people.

Damn dude. You're annoying. Of all the boards around to act like a "know it all" at, this ain't the one. You should do it at TSM. Hell, they'll probably make you a mod. It worked for HTQ. If your OPINION is that JR is okay to do this, then that's fine. Say that it's your feeling or opinion. But if other people think that JR is shooting himself in the foot or ruining any sympathy he may have gained from his storyline firing, then they can share that opinion without sanctimonious sermonizing from a jackass.

It all depends. I attended a lot of ECW shows, and I never ONCE chanted "You Fucked Up." I wasn't inclined to do it before, and after reading Foley's first book where he talks about how JT Smith practically killed himself trying to entertain the fans, knocked himself out, and then the fans chanted that at him...let's just say even if I HAD chanted that before, I wouldn't have done it again. I respect the business. I LOVE the business. I respect a lot of guys in the business, but then again I loathe a lot of guys in the business too, especially when they do things that hurt the business. Sometimes I wonder...do fans like US here at NMB respect the business MORE than some people in the business, like Kevin Nash, or Bill Goldberg? It's funny you mention that. I can't STAND Hogan. I hated him as a teenage fan during his prime in the 80's and I hated him from a smark's perspective during the 90's...however during his brief post WM18 run, I actually liked the Hogan character. I cheered for the Hogan character then. I would have been one of the ones cheering that night, swept up in the emotion. I think that was probably as close to honest as you'll ever see Hogan. And what did he do? Put over a ton of guys, like tapping to Angle. I actually respected Hogan during that period. See, if I had been at that show I probably would have booed Konnan. Even though he was coming out in his pre "lemme speak on dis" persona, I find him annoying and I would have booed, because I don't enjoy seeing him wrestle. I don't see where just because somebody wrestled, and they were a draw they automatically deserve the fans respect. Respect is something you earn, it's not just handed to you on a silver platter. You cannot possibly be dense enough to think that I would boo a man for limping. You know what walk I was talking about, read the quote in context. Have you ever SEEN the way he used to walk to the ring in WCW? What about now, when he walks to the ring in TNA? Wearing a bandana over his face, and waving his arms around like a wannabe gangsta rapper, with his pants hanging down around his kness? Terry Funk can barely walk to the ring nowadays. I wouldn't boo him for that. I WOULD boo him if he was trying to act like some sort of reject from Grand Theft Auto, and tried to cover up his injuries by acting all cool. Nobody can argue Konnan has been a huge draw. As I said earlier, I wouldn't even argue that behind the scenes he has done a lot to advance Lucha in North America. However, when you strip all that away, and watch one of his matches, in my opinion he is not entertaining to watch. So I boo him. I don't think that makes me a bitter smark, or above the business. Let's look at the other side. I don't know about any of you, but I have spent thousands of dollars on pro wrestling. Literally thousands. - I paid for EVERY wrestling WWF PPV from WM 12 all the way up to WM XIX. (When the Triple H/Booker T angle made me swear off WWE for good.) - I bought EVERY ECW PPV, and tons of their other shows from (shudder) RF video. I used to happily drive from Toronto to Buffalo to see them live. - I ordered every WCW PPV from Starrcade 93, until Halloween Havoc 1998 (when I finally gave up on them because I couldn't take it anymore.) - I paid hundreds of dollars for Lucha from Bob Barnett. - I paid hundreds of dollars for ROH. I have been buying TNA PPV's since almost day one. - I don't even want to GUESS how much I have spent on Puro, but if I did know, and my wife found out, she'd probably kill me. NONE of that is counting what I've spent on books, T-shirts, and tickets for live events, which we all know are not always cheap. I would probably have enough money for a down payment on a house if you added up all the money I have spent on wrestling in my life. I am a paying customer. I would never throw an object at a wrestler, or spit at them, or even chant something at them which was disrespectful, personal, or racial in nature. To a degree, I respect anybody who has the guts to get in there and put their bodies on the line to entertain the fans. I remember the argument that came out, when Kobashi came to ROH to fight Samoa Joe. Some fans started chanting "This is awesome" about three seconds into the match. Online I saw some fans complaining that ROH fans are too smarky, and that they think they're part of the show, and that they ruin the shows, and blah blah blah. Guess what? If I had been there, you can bet your ASS I would have been chanting "this is awesome." For my money, Kenta Kobashi is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. He's past his prime now, and wrestles pretty much the same match every time he fights...but at his best HE might have been the best in the world. (Hell even now he's better than most of the WWE IMO.) Here he was, in a small little hall in New York, fighting the man who might be one of the best NOW, in North America. The very idea of being able to witness that in person, in front of you, knowing that it was likely a once in a lifetime thing. Knowing that Kobashi had never toured the USA before? And he might not again? You're damn right I would have been chanting "this is awesome." I would have been in full on fanboy mode, and fuck anyone who thought I shouldn't be. I am a pro wrestling fan. I'm a mark I guess. "IT'S STILL REAL TO ME DAMMIT!" Well, maybe I'm not that bad. However... Too many wrestlers look at the fans like cash machines. There is a core audience for wrestling that will never go away no matter how bad the product gets, because they love wrestling that much. The fact that the WWE still has an audience right now proves that point. Far too many wrestlers think fans are stupid marks who will take whatever they give them, and like it. I don't think that wrestling fans should be expected to just sit there and take whatever is thrown at them quietly, and be so happy for the privilege of seeing it, no matter how bad it is. There is nothing wrong with booing a bad match, and I don't care WHO is in it. There IS something wrong for having no respect whatsoever for the business...and that goes for fans and wrestlers.

Yeah but here's the thing. He sucks. And YES, I own Bob Barnett's ENTIRE Classic 90's Lucha collection, so I saw him in his so-called prime. He sucked then too...except he was on steroids. If you pay to buy a ticket, you can boo the guy. I wouldn't deny him his constitutional right to suck, but the fact is that his act is stale, stupid, and annoying. In the name of all that is good and decent...the man wrestles with his pants hanging down around his knees and throws his freaking SHOE at people. What's to respect? I don't think I'm above the business...but if I pay to see a show that you're on, then put some damn effort in, rather than walking like you have spinal injury, spouting the same old "Lemme speak on dis, where my dawgs at" crap, and then hurling your footwear. Or don't. If you want to suck, go ahead and suck...but don't cry when people boo you. I respect the fact that Charles Ashenoff helped broker the deal that brought many legends of Lucha Libre to North America. I respect the fact that he was hugely over in Mexico, and made a ton of money. He drew some major houses there, no doubt. But that doesn't make him good. I've seen probably over 100 matches with Konnan in them, and I can't remember enjoying his work in any of them. Sorry. Regarding the first post, the reason that DK got so much respect in AJPW before he retired is because Japanese fans have very good memories, unlike many North American fans. If you were once good, or if the fans know that you destroyed your body giving them you best, like Billington did...they will be loyal to you and never forget you. In North America, it's much more what have you done for me lately, and out of sight, out of mind.

If my name was Kwak Kwang, I think I'd change it regardless of the circumstances. Then again, what sounds funny to us is common for them, and they might laugh at our names...who knows. That's the difference in culture. We eat Hot Dogs, which are full of who knows what kind of "meat." They eat actual dogs. Yikes.

Choshu changed his name when he moved to Japan to hide his Korean heritage. I read his real name in "The Top 100 Wrestlers of all Time" but I forget what it is. I know that it has always bothered me that the rumors are that Misawa and Kawada both "hate" Americans. I even read that Kawada refuses to shake hands with Americans, and the only non-native Japanese he ever has been seen publically shaking hands with are Lord James Blears and Stan Hansen. I also read that Kawada can actually speak half decent English, but that he refused to speak with any American wrestlers when they were planning matches. He reportedly always used Yoshinari Ogawa to translate for him when communicating with Americans. Then again, the source for this information was from second hand recaps of shoot interviews from guys like Steve Willams, so who knows. (Dr. Death and Kawada reportedly hated each other for ages, but Kawada worked that tribute show for Williams in the IWA last year, so maybe they're okay now...or Kawada felt sorry for Williams being so sick and losing his voice box to cancer.) I do think that one of the issues Misawa had with Mrs. Baba was that she had no qualms pushing Americans into the Main Event spots in AJPW, or seeing them with the Triple Crown. I think Misawa didn't mind having Americans on the roster, or even holding minor titles, but not the big one...which is why we've never see a major American star in NOAH...but guys like Steve Williams and Vader did hold the Triple Crown in AJPW. I would be interested to hear Mike Modest interviewed about Misawa, since he was bringing some of his IRON guys over for a while. Now that IRON is closed, Misawa is using Harley's Race's school and league, WLW. Now Modest and Morgan aren't even being booked in NOAH and are begging TNA for work. The only other real negative thing I read about Misawa was in an interview with Steve Corino. Corino claimed that he had always looked forward to working with Misawa because he thought he was a legend, but when he did work with him, he found Misawa to be lazy, stand offish and indifferent. I dismissed this, because DUH. He's Misawa. Corino is Corino. Why the HELL would Misawa get amped about working with CORINO? They ain't exactly on the same level. So that just goes to show that what you hear can be tainted by somebody's own odd perspective. (That's like Foley complaining to Meltzer about Jumbo not giving him enough offence in their match in 1991. Why the hell would Jumbo Freaking Tsuruta want to have a 50/50 match with the 1991 version of Cactus Jack? At that point he was a total nobody...Jumbo was right to allow him to get a few spots in, and then squash him.) When I look at my favorite Puro stars not liking Americans, I have to say that although it disappoints me that I hear these things, there are other factors to consider. Firstly, it's all second hand information on the internet, so it could be bullshit. Secondly, it's a sad fact that most of our heroes are different off camera than on. I remember how disappointed I was when I found out what guys like Brody and Onita were like backstage. You want to think that when somebody is fun to watch and plays an inspiring character, that they are somebody you will like if you met them, but so often it's not true. Finally, let's be honest. Although the U.S. was quite justified in dropping bombs on Japan, you can see where the Japanese people would bear a grudge. And look how America treats Japanese wrestlers for the most part. Sneaky heels who throw salt, sumo wrestlers, or guys who spray mist. When was a Japanese wrestler ever given a real high profile spot in an American fed? Muta in 89, is the biggest I can think of. I don't think it's wrong that Misawa would want NOAH to feature native stars, and that he would want Japanese fans to cheer Japanese wrestlers. That makes sense. But I would still hate to think he "hates" Americans. The way Kobashi was recieved in ROH, that is how I would like to see Puro legends treated. That's why I was okay with the fans chanting "this is awesome" three minutes into the match. If I had the chance to see one of my all time favorites live, I'd be pretty pumped up as well. And there you go, Kobashi is one of those Puro stars that you never hear a bad word about. He apparently speaks half decent english and is very polite and kind to all of the other wrestlers, regardless of their cultural background. Hell, even Dynamite Kid puts the guy over huge in his book. When Tom Billington likes you, that must mean something, since I have heard both Diana Smith and Bret Hart say that DK was the meanest person they ever met.

From some of the things I've heard this might not even have anything to do with TNA. Some people claim that Lethal's heel turn in ROH was flopping, and that he has been dogging it in the ring...so who knows.

Hogan had working boots?

Hey...Sabu has looked not too bad since coming back from that career threatening injury. The feud with Abyss in TNA was good...for what it was.

Are you serious?

The thing is, there were three trials. The first was the trial of Dr. George Zahorian, the doctor that the WWF used at their arena shows. This "doctor" would give the wrestlers their steroids and painkillers. Graham testified at that trial, and Zahorian got 3 years in jail. Graham told the truth at that trial. Then there was the Federal case against McMahon for pushing roids on his workers. Graham feels guilty about that because he wasn't actually subpoenaed to testify. He tricked Brian Blair (who WAS subpoenaed) into telling him when and where the trial was and then basically forced his way into the trial. He did this for the sole purpose of trying to extort money out of McMahon. He wanted McMahon and his lawyers to pay him to go away. Blair (and a lot of other wrestlers reportedly) are still pissed at Graham for doing that. As we all know, Vince got off in that trial. Then finally there was Graham's personal lawsuit against McMahon and the WWF for forcing him to take steroids to stay popular. Graham lied or distorted the facts at this trial. He didn't win a cent from McMahon. Graham feels no sympathy whatsoever for Dr. Zahorian, who he feels is a drug pusher. He DOES feel guilty for tricking Brian Blair into helping him find out the details of the federal case against McMahon, and then going to that trial to try and extort money from McMahon...and then for his lawsuit. McMahon's lawyer claims in Graham's book that he thinks that Graham should have sued all the pharmaceutical companies, because he would have won. Back when Graham started taking steroids...they were totally legal, and the drug companies knew or suspected the long term effects, but they didn't warn anybody about them. McMahon's lawyer claims that with his skills and Graham's ability to smooth talk on the stand, they would have won millions, but Graham was obsessed with getting even with Vince for firing him in 1989.

Actually Loss, I don't think that Punk is great all the time. From a storyline perspective I liked his ROH feud with Raven, but the matches were pretty awful and you can't blame all of that on Raven. It's just that Punk has had better matches than I've EVER seen Triple H have, at least since his quad injury. Yeah, I agree 100%. That was my point but you made it better than I. I wonder if it's true that one of the reasons Samoa Joe didn't sign with WWE is because he knew they'd have no idea how to book him, and end up making him into some sort of Kamala type character or something. You KNOW that there is no way they'd allow him to work the style he does in ROH and TNA. Not WWE style. Too stiff. Regardless of what people want to say about TNA, I daresay they can't argue with the way Joe has been booked. And with Danielson? FORGET IT. His promos are weak, and in my opinion, he needs longer matches to get in his best work. Both Joe and Danielson would never get over in the WWE. Hell, they had Danielson jobbing on Velocity, didn't they? Then again, for Punk TNA wasn't really an option. They had him and didn't do squat with him. He's a great promo guy and they had him saying "yes boss" to Raven for 3 months. I hear his best fight in TNA was with Teddy Hart in the parking lot.

I haven't seen his reality show, (we don't get VH1 here in Canada and even if we did I doubt I'd watch it) but I have heard that Hogan actually comes off as kind of sad in the show, like he is working the cameras constantly and is desperate for attention. Although that's just what I've heard, as I said I've not seen the show, so I don't know...but it sounds like him.

Yep, that was Mel Phillips. He used to do the ring annoucing on a bunch of WWF shows back in the day. Sad as it is to say, I can actually remember the show when Terry Funk beat him up for putting on the cowboy hat. If memory serves, it was during Funk's feud with JYD and I can only assume it was done to further the racial aspect of the feud. (As if the fact that Terry Funk wanted to BRAND JYD with white stamp from his branding iron was somehow too subtle for wrestling fans.)

No doubt, in teeny tiny small doses, the man is still bearable...and within very specific confines, he can even work an entertaining match. I actually liked his match with The Rock. Although the match was not to my taste, I thought Hogan worked a smart match against Michaels. I thought it was well laid out and executed. One of my guilty pleasures as a wrestling fan is...Abdullah The Butcher. Yes, really. When I was a kid he scared the hell out of me, and as I grew up I always liked seeing his all around the arena brawls with the likes of Terry Funk and Bruiser Brody. On 5/26/82 in New Japan Hogan fought Abby, and I actually really enjoy this match. The crowd was crazy hot, Hogan is one of the few guys who is bigger than Abby so doesn't look scared of him, and it was a fun popcorn brawl all over the place. I like it. So it's not that I think Hogan is totally useless, it's his constant BS that drives me nuts. If he would just tell the damn truth once in a while when he gave an interview, it would be so refreshing...but he really is the ultimate wrestling politician.

You know, I think Punk is a big mouth jackass a lot of the time, and if (or maybe I should say when) he gets buried by the WWE, it's not going to surprise me, or anybody, and it shouldn't even surprise him. Having said that, I still mark out for good wrestling. Having watched Joe vs. Punk I and II recently (still haven't gotten around to III) I have to laugh at the whole "doesn't know how to work" theory. Triple H should have to sit down and watch those two matches. I defy anybody who has seen Joe vs. Punk I and II to name any match that Triple H has been in since his comeback from the quad injury that are as good as those matches. I don't think any such Triple H matches exist.

The guy's name alone is pretty much synonymous with wrestling, and he's moved more merchandise than anybody but Austin...but here's the thing. We all know that if they do another documentary, it will be 99% of Hogan's dellusional bullshit. He'll claim that the 900 pound Andre who died shortly after WM3 (which had 100,000 people in attendance) only liked Hogan and agreed to lose to him because he saw Hogan defend himself in a shoot in New Japan that...uh...may have never actually happened. He might say that he didn't work a feud with Jake Roberts not because Jake was as over as Hogan himself was and that people WANTED to see Hogan get the DDT...no...because Hogan and Jake had "no chemistry" together. His whole post WM18 face run wasn't a total and utter rip off of Superstar Billy Graham. No, of couse not. Superstar who? I swear, every time the man's mouth opens nothing but bullshit comes flying out...and unlike with many wrestlers, Hogan's isn't even BELIEVEABLE bullshit. Now that we live in the era where fans are for the most part "smartened" up, sooner or later, if Hogan keeps talking all this nonsense, somebody is going to go back and look at other DVD's and videos, and call him on his shit. I think Hogan still thinks all fans are "marks" and clueless...if I was him and the WWE, I'd either use the documentary they shot for Hulk Still Rules, or the A&E Biography (although both of them are full of crap too.) Then there are his matches. Sooner or later, after watching two or three discs of his "work" even the most dense Hogan mark (except maybe Rudo) will figure out that he sucked most of the time, and EVERY MATCH HE HAD IN THE 80'S WAS THE EXACT SAME. I'm sure a new Hogan DVD will sell. I just think that the more he talks, and the more people go back and watch what he did in the ring...the more it exposes him. He's smart enough to know that people don't want to see him on TV every week. Hogan's stuff just doesn't stand up to the test of time very well...so I'm curious as to the market for this stuff. Look at his "book." I don't know if it ever went to #1. Wouldn't you think that a book by the most popular wrestler of all time would sell better than one by Mick Freaking Foley? But it didn't...because just like a lot of his ring work, it was phoned in and insincere...and just like his stories, it was full of shit. In short? Hogan needs to go away already, dammit. Then again...look at the buy rates for the last SummerSlam. Record setting...so what do I know. There must still be plenty of rubes out there wanting to get soaked...brother.

No, they didn't. What happened was this... When Vince still worked for his dad, he loved Superstar Billy Graham. He saw in Graham the same things he saw in Hulk Hogan, and thought his dad should put the belt on Graham, leave it there, and then build around him. Vince McMahon Sr. didn't see the same things in Graham that Vince Jr. did, so he put the belt on Backland instead. Vince Sr. didn't think that a musclebound, balding blond power wrestler could draw as a babyface...he would only do well as a heel. He didn't think Graham would get over and stay over as a face. The fans wanted somebody clean cut and respectable, like Bob "duck walk" Backlund, dammit! (This whole debate actually valdiates the whole "Vince could have done it with anybody in the 80's" argument. People have claimed that Vince would have done with Superstar Billy Graham what he did with Hogan, if his father would have let him.) So when Vince Jr. took over the WWF from his dad, and started to go national, one of the first things he did was hire Superstar Billy Graham back. Many of you will remember this brief run in 1986 or so. The only problem was that Graham was SO worn down from years of steroid abuse, his body was literally breaking down. Both his hips were going, and his liver was shot. (Keep in mind that Billy Graham didn't do the same kind of steroids that many of today's guys used...injectable ones...he sometimes took PILLS, which are uber-toxic and kill your liver. Dynamite mentions this in his book, that some old timers took that type of steroid, but he wouldn't. Also keep in mind that back then roids were perfectly legal, and nobody really knew or understood the long term side effects of doing them. In this way, sadly, Superstar was a pioneer.) Once Graham came back in 1986, he immeadiately hurt himself. He needed a hip replacement. Vince gave him the time off to get it, and paid for it. While Graham was off, a lot of Vince's flunkies got into Vince's ear, and claimed that Graham KNEW that he needed a hip replacement when he came into the WWF, but he signed the contract so that Vince would pay for it. Back then, as now, one of Vince's right hand men was Pat Patterson. The thing is, Pat Patterson and Graham used to be close friends, and Tag Team Partners in the LA territory. Graham came back, and tried to wrestle with the fake hip. He couldn't do it. So, Vince gave him a job as Don "The Rock" Muraco's manager. Graham still couldn't handle the walking around at ringside. Vince gave him a try on color commentary. His big try out was SummerSlam 88. He was AWFUL, which shocked Vince because Graham was one of the best talkers in the business. He actually chewed Graham out for saying "brother" too much...which was ironic to Graham considering Hulk Hogan's interviews. Anyhow, Vince couldn't come up with anything for Superstar Billy Graham to do, so he fired him. Graham claims that Vince had promised him a job for life. Vince denies ever saying this. Graham (who was already hooked on pain killers) went into an even worse downward spiral and sued McMahon. He also blamed his old friend Pat Patterson, feeling that Pat had helped convince Vince that Graham had used Vince to get the surgery, and that Pat could have gone to bat for him with Vince, but didn't. According to Graham, the straw that broke the camel's back was when Hulk Hogan went on Arsenio Hall, and claimed that he had never used steroids, except to heal injuries. He also stated in that interview (and quite a few times afterward) that Superstar Billy Graham might be a steroid abuser...but Hulk Hogan wasn't. That made Graham nuts...because aside from the fact that Hogan ripped off Graham's whole look and act (hell...with the tye dye and two color goatee now, if you squint you'd swear Hogan WAS Graham) but also that Graham actually had to TEACH Hogan how to cycle his roids, because before Graham showed him, Hogan thought you took them every day. On top of this, there are a couple of Hulk Hogan promos where he literally ripped off Superstar Billy Graham WORD FOR WORD. Billy Graham had no issue with Jesse The Body, because Jesse freely admits that he stole from Graham. Both Graham and Ventura think that Hogan stole their style and wants uninformed fans to think HE created it. Hogan being Vince's former lap dog, and slagging Graham made him go nuts, as I said. When the Federal Government brought charges against Vince for supposedly making his workers use steroids, Billy Graham actually contacted the prosecuter and ASKED to testify. He was flat broke, and was hoping that in order to avoid having Graham testify, Vince would buy him off. Vince didn't. When Graham testified, he used the fact that he was crippled and his liver was failing as PROOF that using steroids made you sick. That worked, but then under cross examination he had to admit that he started taking steroids LONG before he ever worked for the WWF, and that Vince had never asked him to, or even spoken to him about steroids. Right around this time, the ring boys scandal broke. Donahue decided to have Vince on his show, along with a panel of people who hated Vince, Bruno Sammartino, that female ref that claimed Vince forced himself on her, some announcer that got fired...and Billy Graham. Graham claims that at this point he was getting desperate for money, and to get even with Vince. So once he heard about the ringboys scandal, and the announcer claimed that Pat Patterson made a pass at him, Graham claimed that he had personally witnesed Pat Patterson molest a ringboy. As I said earlier, Mel Phillips and Terry Garvin were both fired for this scandal, but Vince stood by Pat Patterson because he believed that Patterson never did it. Superstar Billy Graham now claims that he thought that Vince would have to buy him off to shut him up about this...so he did every interview show he could with these allegations...A Current Affair, Hard Copy...whoever would talk to him. Vince wouldn't back down, because he felt that Pat Patterson was not guilty. Graham even claims his wife almost left him because he became so obsessed with getting even with Vince. Pat Patterson had been a friend of the family, but Graham lied about him just to get even with Vince. Graham's lawsuit against Vince finally got to court, and Vince won. Graham continued to spiral downward, he went totally broke, continued to be drug addicted, etc. Finally, he hit rock bottom and sobered up. He wrote Vince a letter and asked forgiveness for lying. He also has publically apologized to Pat Patterson many times, however Patterson refuses to speak to Graham, to this day. Vince and Graham never spoke, even after the lawsuit was over and Graham apologized. However, when Vince heard that Graham was about to die because his liver shut down, and there was no replacement, he did call Graham and forgive him. At the last minute, a transplant donor was found, and Graham's life was saved. Vince brought him back, and inducted him into the Hall of Fame. He signed him to a legends deal, and agreed to promote the book and DVD. He even asked the Triple H be the one to induct Graham into the WWE Hall of Fame, since Triple H is a family member, which indicated that all was forgiven. Jim Ross even states in the book that there is still a large segment of the current WWE roster who will not speak to Superstar Billy Graham, or even go near him when he is in the arena. This is out of loyalty to Pat Patterson. I think Vince McMahon is a total scumbag, and I have no sympathy for anybody who works for him...but in this case, I do actually believe that Billy Graham made up the Pat Patterson stories in an attempt to get money and revenge on Vince.

Actually, it turns out that Pat Patterson had nothing to do with that. Superstar Billy Graham totally made that up in an effort to extort money out of Vince McMahon. Former ring announcer Mel Phillips and WWF agent Terry Garvin were both guilty of sexually molesting ring boys. Both were fired and investigated by the police, but Patterson had nothing to do with it. I only know this because I just finished reading Graham's book, where he totally comes clean about the smear campaign. That's why Patterson wasn't fired and the other people named in the scandal were.

That's the thing...who even cares? If Eddie's widow does something disgusting or wrong, does that make Vince's actions any less wrong? Look at Martha Hart. One could easily say that she and even Bret attempted to capaitalize on Owen's death to further their own agendas (although that is debatable.) I hate to use a cliche here, but "two wrongs don't make a right." Rey has already proven that he's not beyond using his family to get over. Hell, Eddie himself used his wife and kids in that angle...which was in terrible taste...and irresponsible as parents...but at least they were all ALIVE. No matter what anybody does during or after this angle, it can't retroactively excuse it.

I can't imagine that anybody can actually play off or defend this crap. That just goes to show how de-sensitized WWE fans have become. The arguments "We all know Vince is scum" or "This is wrestling what do you expect" are excusing inexcusable behavior, empowering people like Vince McMahon and validating this kind of so-called "storytelling" (and I use that term in the loosest possible sense of the word.) There is this idiot over at The Pit who is trying to claim that since we don't know if there is a Heaven or Hell, and even if we did we can't know where Eddie is...that's it's no big deal. People keep missing the point. A man died. A man who was proud of his spiritual beliefs. That man's death, and his beliefs, are now being used to further a fictious wrestling story. There is NO excuse for that. I question the intelligence of people who are enterained by that type of wrestling. It does not take skill to exploit a tragedy for financial gain. It's wrong, and that's all there is to it. It's not an opinion, it's a fact. To exploit somebody else's personal loss for your own gain is morally wrong. Look at the actual definition of the word WRONG. Not required, intended, or wanted. Not fitting or suitable. Inappropriate or improper. Unacceptable or undesirable according to social convention. Something contrary to ethics or morality To discredit unjustly; malign. To treat dishonorably. To be unfaithful or disloyal. Is this required? MUST they do this? Do people WANT this? Is it fitting, considering this situation? Is it suitable? Is it appropriate or proper? According to social convention, is it acceptable? Is it ethical or moral? Does it discredit what Eddie did, and stood for? Does it malign him? Is it honorable? Is it faithful to his memory? Loyal to what he did for the WWE? No. It's wrong. That's it, that's all.