The Thread Killer

Who is TJ related to?

According to an interview he did at WWE.com, he wants to go to Japan. He says the style over there fits him better, and he wants to get some seasoning and come back. I think Johnny Ace and Muta have some sort of deal where any "hoss" that gets released from WWE automatically gets a shot in AJPW...if you look at Palumbo, A-Train, Morgan, Jamal, etc. Sadly, if you have seen any recent AJPW it looks nothing like the AJPW we all know and love...that aura has gone to NOAH...but it's work I guess.

Or they could bring Chyna back, and she could try and apply it to her, only to find out the horrible secret that Sean Waltman found out... The horror...

SILENCE FOOLISH MORTAL! THOU SHALT NOT MOCK THE KING OF KINGS AS HE SITS ON HIS MIGHTY THRONE! OFF WITH YOUR HEAD I SAY!

That picture of Triple H actually made me bust out laughing sitting here at my computer. That is one of the most ridiculous things I have seen...and I actually saw The Gobbedlygooker hatch LIVE. Of course, I have no comment on this show. The day McMahon gets 50 bucks of my money is the day I start writing a column with Dave O'Neill. I'll be watching Lockdown, thank you very much. I was impressed to see that they gave the Smackdown World Title Match a whole NINE minutes. WOW.

I think the time off did him some good, plus that smaller six sided ring was practically made for him. It really cuts down on his blown spots.

I'm ordering this show, and I am really looking forward to it. I love TNA. I've ordered every PPV since they got on Spike, and I've never been disappointed. F all the haters, and you know what? I'm looking forward to Joe vs. Sabu. Sabu has looked good since coming back from injury, his series with Abyss was damn good. I still like Sabu, so F all the smarky types who like to take shots at him because they think it's "cool."

I can think of about a zillion things I'd rather buy than a championship belt. I think if you buy one for yourself...not an autographed one, or one that actually belonged to somebody...I mean if you buy a duplicate belt just because you wanted to have one...you need to sit down and have a serious look at your life. You either have money to burn...or another more serious problem. Like, time to legally change your name to Lou Zer. I was once in line at an ECW show in Buffalo, and Balls Mahoney and Axl Rotten were working the tables. Balls was selling that chair that he smashed over Steve Corino's head, the one that was shown on the clip at the start of ECW on TNN every week. They were selling it for 100 bucks...and for about one second I considered buying it. Then I said..."What the HELL am I thinking?" I have a piece of smashed table autographed by Sabu. I have a Funk U T-Shirt that Terry himself sold me at an indie show. I have a ticket stub from the last show the Road Warriors ever worked before Hawk died, and it's autographed by Ted DiBiase. That's as far as I go with memorabilia.

I saw a shoot interview with him where he claimed he knew he was being tested, so he deliberately flunked the test, so he could get his release...but then WCW wouldn't hire him because of it...so that's when he got cleaned up. Then again...rumor has it that wrestlers sometimes lie.

Is anybody credible reporting this? I know that some guy known as Glensoe has been making the rounds of all the boards spreading this as "news" but he is notorious for posting fake news items. He even got banned for it at TSM. Not that I care anyhow, because I've never even SEEN Kenzo Suzuki, nor do I wish to, but I'd just be careful how much weight I put in this until somebody like Meltzer reports it.

Ugh me either! I've seen that match a bunch of times and I figured that Kobashi just busted open Tenryu's leathery old lumpy hide. Yeeech. Then again, I just found out that Terry Funk and Dusty Rhodes used to blade their arms and ears for effect, so I guess anything is possible.

What...you mean putting the not so talented Hart family members over other more talented workers? Owen I always bought as the best in the promotion. Bruce? Not so much. And the other brothers? Yikes.

I'm curious Will. Did you dislike the "head dropping" style because it was dangerous to the workers, or did you feel that those moves were being done at the expensive of more sound, mat based psychological wrestling moves?

This is one of the rare cases where my being Canadian is a problem. I followed Stampede, the Montreal Territory and of course Frank Tunney's Toronto office.

I disagree. Team Canada for me, have the perfect mix of what all good heel stables should have. Four distinct personalities, and wrestling styles, with a mouthpiece for a manager. They have Roode, the Old School "Enforcer" or technician. They have Williams the High Flyer. They have Eric Young, the Comedy Relief. They have A1 the big powerhouse, musclebound goon. To top it all off, they have the loud mouth, bragging, cheating, illegal object using manager, Scott D'Amore. I don't think Eric Young would get over as a face, because he's over now for being such an over the top coward who is scared of his own pyro, and runs away. That's fun to cheer as a heel, but wouldn't make him much of a face. I couldn't agree more. Bentley is a total and utter waste and needs to be cut. He has no charisma, and sucks down the quality of every match he is in. He is too big to be in the X Division, but too small to be a heavyweight. He needs to go. Now. I disagree for now. They still haven't beat AMW and that feud needs a payoff. They are WAY over, so that move can be stalled for a while. I agree. She's useless. I think they have booked Joe very well so far. I think this feud with Sabu will be perfect for getting him over into the Heavyweight Division. I agree. The proof is in the ratings every week. When Sting is on TV, the ratings go up...it's a fact. They are stuck between a rock and a hard place here. The roster is so big and they only have one hour a week to do what they need to do. They need at least 90 minutes at once, or two one hour shows. Totally disagree. Mitchell is GOLD. I love that TNA uses old school managers. Agree. Generic knock offs don't do it for me. I agree. Tenay is awesome but he needs to stop shouting, and West is fun but he also needs to relax. I disagree. Strong and Aries are awesome, but they made a dumb choice and I bet they don't do it again...especially when you see how much air time Shelley has been getting since then. This is why they need more TV time. There isn't enough air time for more stories. And Siaki sucked anyhow, so he was no big loss. I wouldn't mind another belt though. I agree, but I have come to accept that TNA will always be full of Jarrett. I don't mind him half as much as most, but he shouldn't be the #1 heel in the company right now. I think that was done fairly well. It was dumb to take him off television, but the whole angle did show a side of him we never saw in WCW. WORLD X CUP BABY! It's coming up! I agree that Homicide could be doing much more. Lethal is getting quite the push though. And random X Division Matches are part of what makes TNA seem different, so I am okay with them. His promo last week was surprisingly good. But he does need to wear a shirt. He looks disgusting as yeah...that tattoo don't help. I agree. They should set up a small tour schedule for venues to tape at, even if it's only 6 or so. Too much Orlando is not so good. Meh. All three guys are doing what they've always done, no? I am still undecided on him. I agree that the leopard skin jackets and tights are DUMB. Just being the Alpha Male should be enough.

I don't think sek is saying the rating is good. What I take from what he is saying that running a WWE show against March Madness will take away a lot of the WWE's desired demographic. Most males 18-30 are going to choose NCAA over WWE any day of the week. If that show would have got a better rating if CBS had been showing reruns is a matter for speculation. I don't think that the NCAA running opposite WWE HELPED the rating, that's for sure. Then again, as other people pointed out, WWE lost to a movie and Cops as well. So maybe the rating would have been bad either way. As far as the show goes, I see both sides of the argument. I don't like Sports Entertainment. So I didn't even bother watching the show, because I knew ahead of time that if I was looking for wrestling, I'd be out of luck. I haven't heard anybody who liked the show argue that there was good wrestling on the show. What I am hearing is that the show was entertaining. Which is fine if you like that kind of stuff. So if you like WWE, you would probably like this show. If you don't like WWE, this show wasn't going to make you like them any MORE, it would probably just confirm to you why you dislike them in the first place. I saw Vince McMahon give an interview once where he said that they had discussed ways to have the WWE do their shows, and get rid of the ring. Vince Russo confirms that in his book. The titles are just props, and they would get rid of the ring if they could. Remember Vince's famous quote in Beyond The Mat? "We make movies." Anybody who tuned in last night expecting to see wrestling was bound to be disappointed. Anybody who tuned in wanting to see a slick produced Sports Entertainment show got what they wanted. It sounds that simple. The WWE used this show as their chance to present the product that they want you to see. Not the product that the fans want to see. They say that they give the fans what they want, but they really don't. They let all sorts of outside factors, including Vince McMahon's own whims influence what they put on television. They have decided they want to present Sports Entertainment, and that's what you're going to get, dammit. If that's what you wanted...or if that's what you will accept from them...that's what you got. If you wanted wrestling, you would have been better off buying a ROH DVD, or even watching IMPACT instead.

I'd get a lapdance from Star Jones before I'd watch any WWE event. Even if I didn't have good plans for tonight, I'd not watch TV before watching this crap. Watching WWE supports Vince McMahon and I will never do that again, as a wrestling fan so long as I live.

1994 AJPW A lot of people claim that 1993 was the best of all of the glory years that All Japan had during the 90's. That might be, but All Japan still had some all time classics during this year. Let's review, shall we? Yes we shall. I am going to list the matches that I have seen from that year, that Dave Meltzer listed as Four Stars or higher: 01/29/94: Giant Baba/M. Misawa/T. Kobashi vs. T. Kawada/A. Taue/M. Fuchi To start off the year we had Baba making a rare appearance in a non-comedy match, helping Misawa and Kobashi in their feud with Kawada and Taue. This match is a lot of fun in my opinion, and shows that even in 1994, when he booked himself in the right kind of match, Baba could still be in a 5 Star Match. 03/27/94 Taue vs. Kobashi This was a match in the 1994 Champion Carnival tourney. The two matches that Taue had with Kobashi for the Triple Crown in 96 (when Kobashi beat Taue for the TC) & 98 (when Kobashi beat Taue in his second defense) were probably better matches that this, but this is still a very good match. 04/16/94 Williams vs. Kawada For my money, this is one of the best matches of all time, and probably the best match Dr. Death ever had during his entire career. This is the finals of the 1994 Champion Carnival. A must see. 05/21/94 Misawa & Kobashi vs. Kawada & Taue See above. This is for the World Tag Titles, it's another must see, and in my opinion the greatest Tag Team Match of all time. That's right. I said it. I like this one more than 6/95 and 12/06/96. Don't get me wrong, I love both of those matches, but this one kind of set the tone for the ones that followed. They slowly build for the first 20 minutes or so, and then have you on the edge of your set for the last 20 minutes. I've never had 40 minutes of action fly by so fast. 06/03/94 Misawa vs. Kawada What else can be said about this match that hasn't already been said? For many, many people this match is the absolute pinnacle of the 90's in AJPW, the greatest match in the Misawa/Kawada feud, and for countless people, this is the greatest match of all time. As soon as Loss wrote "1994 in AJPW" I instantly thought about this match. This is Kawada getting his second (or third maybe, I forget) shot at Misawa for the Triple Crown. They had met before for the Title(s) and they had also met during the Carnival, but the friendship was well over by this point and the rivalry was in full swing. The crowd was super hot, and there was a real sense of history in the making during this match. Mike Campbell (aka: "Black Tiger") wrote an excellent review of this match at 411, which can be found HERE. Now, I'll go on record and say what I have said before...this is not my favorite match of all time. This is not my favorite match of 1994, (that would go to the match listed above) and this is not even my favorite match in the Misawa/Kawada feud. That distinction would go to their Triple Crown match on 06/06/97. I have taken a lot of shit from fellow Puro fans for this opinion. Chris Coey once went off on me like you wouldn't believe (well...actually if you know him you would believe) for saying that. Other people tell me that if I only saw Jumbo vs. Tenryu on 6/5/89, that I would "get" this match. I have seen that match, and yes...it helped me appreciate this one. I've been told that the 06/06/97 match is too reliant on the "head dropping" style and not as "smart" of a wrestling match. Duh. Head dropping, intensity and hard hitting "holy shit" action was a large part of what the Misawa/Kawada feud was all about, in my opinion. This is a smarter wrestling match...but for my money, I can pop 06/06/97 into my VCR, show it to somebody who has never seen Misawa or Kawada before, and they STILL get blown away by it. This starts the whole "stand alone" matches vs. "back story" matches debate, and I am not getting into that one. The fact is that this match is my second or maybe third favorite of the Misawa/Kawada singles matches. It doesn't matter, because no matter how you look at it, this match is STILL easily a 5 Star Match, and one of the greatest matches of all time. I agree with that totally, it's just not my "all time" favorite. This is still a must see, and is one of the matches that made 1994 a banner year in AJPW. To say that this match is great would be an understatement. Just because I don't think it's the greatest match ever doesn't mean that I don't think that it's one of the greatest matches of all time. It would make my all time Top 10 List, no doubt about it. 07/28/94 Misawa vs. Williams Dr. Death was probably having the best year of his career in 1994. He had the outstanding match against Kawada, and then there was this...where he manages to do a little something...like BEAT MISAWA FOR THE TRIPLE CROWN! I really like this match. For whatever reason, Misawa and Williams never clicked together for me like Kawada and Williams or Kobashi and Williams, but this is still a helluva match. 09/03/94 Williams vs. Kobashi Here's good old Dr. Death again...having another classic. This time, he defends the Triple Crown against Kobashi, and manages to hold him off. I would say that this is a very good match...in fact I think this is the best match that Williams and Kobashi had against each other. In my opinion, Kobashi busted ass in this match to make Williams look like he was a legit champ. 10/22/94 Williams vs. Kawada Here we have Dr. Death going for revenge against the dude who beat him in the Carny finals. This time he is defending the Triple Crown, after doing what Kawada couldn't do on 06/03/94...beating Misawa. I got the feeling Kawada was none too pleased about that fact, and he retaliated by beating Dr. Death for the TC and becoming the champ for the first time. This is a very good match, but it's not as good as the Carny finals, and it tends to drag on a bit. Still, it's Kawada vs. Dr. Death, Kawada wins the TC, and it's still a very good match. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - So, there are eight matches alone which I have seen that make 1994 a banner year in AJPW. However, according to Dave Meltzer (whose star ratings I have included below since I haven't seen this fights listed...so I can't say what I thought) there were quite a few more matches that year that were very good to great. They are: 01/16/94 Misawa & Kobashi vs. Kawada & Fuchi: (****) I need to get this match. I didn't order this match originally because I didn't appreciate Fuchi, but after seeing the total Jumbo & Co. vs. Misawa & Co. feud I really grew to respect him. I am going to get this. Anybody seen it? 01/30/94 Misawa & Kobashi & Akiyama vs. Kawada & Taue & Omori: (****1/4) With the participants involved, I can see this being good...but I will be honest and admit the reason I've never gone out of my way to see it is because or Omori. I don't like him. I'd say he's over-rated except I don't know anybody who rates him. His style doesn't do anything for me, he's awkward, and he carries himself (especially when he was in NOAH) like one of those guys who thinks he's tough because he's tall...but then the first time he gets in a real fight he ends up getting his ass kicked. Pass for me. 02/13/94 Omori vs. Akiyama: (****) See above. I don't go out of my way to see Omori matches, plus I could take or leave Akiyama, to be honest. Even now, he still strikes me as a guy who is either awesome when he's on his game, or uninspiring when he's off it. Back in 94 he was trying a lot harder than he tends to now...but still. If he's in a Tag or 6 Man Match that I think will be outstanding I'll get it, but I had no desire to see this and still don't. 02/20/94 Kobashi & Asako vs. Kawada & Omori: (****1/2) And once again...Omori = pass for me. Now if he and Kawada had been on seperate teams, I would have gotten it to see Kawada kick his ass. That's why I got their TC match on 7/18/04, and enjoyed seeing Kawada win by a mighty KAWADA KICK TO THE FACE! 03/06/94 Misawa & Kobashi vs. Baba & Hansen: ****1/4 You know what? I actually want to see this. I forget where, but I remember reading somewhere that Baba and Hansen were a lot of fun as a team in the Tag League in 94. Maybe I'll order this one, and the first match I listed here with Fuchi on a comp. 04/23/94 Misawa & Kobashi & Akiyama vs. Hansen & Baba & Omori: (****1/4) I'm as generous as the next guy when looking for the bright spots, but young Akiyama, Baba and Omori all in the same match? I think not. Meltzer gave it 4 1/2 snowflakes, but I have also heard that he madly over-rates every match that Kobashi is in...which was evidenced by his rating for this past year's Kobashi/Joe match. 06/25/94 Kobashi & Akiyama vs. Taue & Honda: (****) Yikes. Honda alert. I don't mind Honda in small does, but the thought of him and Taue as a team makes me think they just might have been the least gracefull and mobile team of all time...with the exception of maybe Baba and Andre. Maybe. 10/15/94 Misawa & Kobashi & Akiyama vs. Kawada & Taue & Ogawa: (****1/2) Hmmm. Don't know why I don't have this one. I don't hate Ogawa as much as most, and these exact same teams had a HELLUVA match on 7/2/93. I need to add this to my list of potential orders. 11/05/94 Misawa & Hansen vs. Kobashi & Taue: (****1/4) Weird. I'm sure there is a story behind why these teams got booked this way. I thought I had this match but checking my list...I don't. Added to my shopping list. 12/10/94 Misawa & Kobashi vs. Williams & Ace: ****3/4 May I roast in hell for a million years before I spend one penny on any match that has Johnny Ace in it. There, I said it. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - So there you have it. 18 matches that either according to this Dave (me) or that Dave (Meltzer) were worth seeing rated at Four Stars or higher. So was 94 a great year in AJPW? Damn skippy. Discuss. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - EDIT: My old bud Marty pointed out that some of the match dates I have listed here might be off by a day or two in some cases. Thanks for the heads up Marty. My list is out of whack because in some cases I have the dates the matches took place, but in others I have the "air date" so I could order them from the TV tapes. My bad if I got any dates wrong, and thanks again to Marty for heads up!

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.