Cross Face Chicken Wing

The network is getting a lot more buzz than I thought it would. Will that transfer to subscriptions? We'll see.

There are about 10000 Linda McMahon political campaign jokes that could be derived from above sentence. It might not be all that different from a political campaign. If WWE can't get people who are interested in wrestling (past or present) to subscribe, it's going to flop. Kind of like political candidates fail if they can't build support and drive turnout among people who agree with their positions. I'm sure WWE's marketing efforts will reach further in scope eventually, but for now, they gotta get wrestling fans to buy into this thing.

Loss? Goodhelmet? Ban this person.

https://mobile.twitter.com/missannielynn/st...e=missannielynn Ric Flair just went from my favorite wrestler of all time to the very bottom of my list. I also demand that all Flair matches I voted on in the DVDVR projects be moved to the bottom of my ballot and the results re-tallied. I don't care who Flair rips off or how many wives he cycles through. But cashing a check from the 49ers and speaking to them the night before they play my Packers in a playoff game, that's over the line and unacceptable.

That's a really great analogy. Except shit in your mouth isn't exactly like spending a couple of minutes reading an article. One is no big deal... with the other is shit in your mouth. A couple of minutes to read an article. That's nothing. I watched every episode of Sopranos, and I think the series went to hell at some point in the 3rd season. I spent two hours watching Oliver Stone's Savages, and that is far worse of a movie than Shoemaker's writing. We all watch and read and participate in a lot of stuff that's bad / mediocre / boring / subpar. 2-3 minutes on a Shoemaker piece is nothing. Good lord... I watched Ohio State play tonight, and I tend to spend the entire college football season watching 8-12 hours of games each Saturday while actively trying to avoid Big 10 games unless it's an upset special of a team Lacy and I hate. Which is what tonight's game was all about... and it was still painful to watch OSU. 2-3 minutes a week on Shoemaker is that much of a life altering chore to you that you think not only you should skip it, but that the rest of us should as well to avoid becoming Snuka and killing our girlfriends? Tourture? I had a five hour flight delay this Wednesday, spending it sitting in those shitty airport seats that are meant for 30 minutes tops for your rear and back. Then 5+ hours on the plain, reminding myself why I haven't flown AA in a decade with their shitty, squshed chairs. Then an hour drive home past midnight on a day when I woke up at 7am ET / 4am PT, trying to stay awake and not look like a drunk for the Chippers to pull over. Then crawling into bed with a massively sore back, a muscle pull in the right arm and hoping the crib will heat up quickly since I'd set the thermo low while out of town... and trying to doze off... A couple of minutes of Shoemaker isn't torture. A couple minutes a week catching up on what nonsense the likely most read wrestling writer in the country is tossing up is pretty easy. I think most of us hear have read deep thinking, scholarly stuff either in our college days or in our professional days, or both. This is just a place where folks are shooting the shit. At time people put some thought into it, and we hash stuff out back and forth. But you're wildly overthinking things if you believe anything on the site is remotely at the level of deep thinking of say what I was re-reading before going on vacation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Roman_Revolution If the place was at that level of writing and deep thinking, there would be no posters as it would bore the shit out of everyone. And that comes from someone who finds Syme's work rather interesting even if it's a chore (and well nigh torture!) to get through. Well, I just read your entire reply so I guess I do have time to read shitty mindless drivel. Maybe I will give Shoemaker another shot.

Akeem doing his hand jive/dance (or whatever the hell you would call it) while Slick cut promos makes me laugh my ass of every time.

Aw... the classic old "If you don't like it, why do you watch/read it" meme. I can't speak for anyone else, by my reasons for reading it are pretty simple: 1. I read Grantland regularly 2. I'm a Wrestling Fan 3. he was chosen to be The Wrestling Writer at Grantland 4. of course I'm going to click on his pieces when they pop up there I find Barnwell's pieces hit and miss: some good, some decent, some skim material, some a waste. But I'm an NFL Fan. I read Grantland. Barnwell is their NFL writer. So I'll click on his stuff when it pops up on a visit there. Not complicated. As far as "deep thinking"... we're the board that had a thread on 1984-92 Hogan really being a Heel that was nothing but jokes on Hogan... and that's before there even was that subthread on cartoon characters and what an asshole Tweety Bird was. We tend to talk about all sorts of shit, some of it "deep thinking" and some of it just busting balls. I like steak. If I go to a restaurant and choose to order a steak instead of chicken, seafood or something else, and the steak tastes like shit, I'm not going to order steak from that restaurant again. I sure as hell won't order steak just because it's on the menu and I like steak, or I want to bitch about how bad it tastes. I also read Grantland. I'm also a wrestling fan. I read Shoemaker's stuff when he started there and thought it was terrible. Of course when I go to Grantland and see his pieces pop up I am NOT going to click on them solely because I like wrestling and read Grantland. Shoemaker isn't any good. Why waste my time? There's plenty of good wrestling writing/analysis out there to waste time on the bad stuff. Does torturing ourselves with bad wrestling writing/analysis have something to do with bad wrestling being enjoyable? Sometimes I enjoy watching bad wrestling, then coming on here and cracking wise about it. Perhaps others get the same joy out of mocking bad wrestling writing/analysis. To each their own. And this is a deep-thinking board. If you think otherwise, you're overthinking.

So kind of like we give ex jocks a pass for being bad TV analysts, we should give Austin a pass because he used to be a wrestler? I enjoy Austin's podcast, so I don't mean to shit on it. But sometimes I wish he'd go beyond simple lead-ins in his interviews like "Tell me about the time...." or "Do you have any good road stories?" I know, I know. It's wrestling, not foreign policy, but still....

It's more about the audience he's presenting this stuff to and the platform he's doing it on. Basically, he's a guy presented as someone with "inside knowledge" about pro wrestling, yet his interviews are full of fluff. It's pretty obvious in the Triple H interview that he was putting him on something fierce, and here, he's given time with one of the best stories in pro wrestling in a long time and doesn't really get into the parts of his backstory that aren't easily accessible on the WWE website. That's not an "elitist" take. It's more about why a guy like that is being given time on a major website when there are many other prominent writers on the subject (some that post on these forums) who would do much better. You mean a company that has Skip Bayless, Colin Cowherd, Stephen A. Smith and Chris Berman as some of its most visible personalities trots out a lead pro wrestling voice who pushes fluff over insight? I am shocked. Shocked, I tell you.

I never understood how people can listen to someone like Rush Limbaugh or Howard Stern for the sole purpose of complaining about what they hear. I don't care for Shoemaker's Grantland work, so I quit reading it. The Shoemaker hate in this thread is getting a little silly. I suppose you can say he's well-known so he's worth reading and taking to task on a deeper-thinking board such as this one, but at this point, it's starting to sound elitist. Regarding the DB interview: Why do we jump all over Shoemaker for asking bad questions, but give Steve Austin a pass for not asking the right things on his podcast (i.e. Flair claiming he worked a match after Brody was stabbed)?

I hate CM Punk. Every now and then I get sucked into watching RAW while flipping channels because I see Punk cutting a great promo or having a good match. This inevitably leads to me giving modern WWE yet another chance, and I end up disappointed in pretty much everything that doesn't involve Punk. Screw you, CM Punk.

You had a Japanese Santa?

Count me in the group who grew up liking old(er) music and movies over the new stuff. Most of the kids I grew up with were the same so there was always chatter about about older stuff. I can still remember talking about Black Sabbath's debut album with my 4th grade teacher. This would have been around 1991. TV was a different story since I lived out in the sticks and didn't get cable until I was 17 or so. A lot of us only got the newer shows that popped up on the networks. But nobody ever really talked about TV shows -- mainly wrestling (WWF) and sports. I wonder if kids today buzz about the verbal battles JDW and JVK wage against each other on PWO?

Athletic is a stupid word. I hate it. What does it mean? You ask 10 different people and they'll give you 10 different definitions. It's an easy fallback word used by lazy sports writers and TV personalities when they're A) talking about college prospects they know nothing about or talking about a black guy who runs very fast but isn't very good at whatever sport he plays.

Congrats, Loss. This is great news because it ensures that once you and Will are too old to continue doing podcasts, your children will be fully trained in their 80s and 90s wrestling knowledge and will keep the shows going.

At what point in his career did Valiant begin sexually assaulting various people around the ring before, during and after matches?

Just did a Google search for "Slayer Harley Race" and the photo appears. Is there any way to ban Brick from posting words, but allow him to post Harley pictures?

With Brick escorted out of the building, does this mean the Harley Race thread is dead? I enjoy most of the long drawn out debates that happen around here. Sometimes it does get a little mind numbing when the people debating go around and around on the same point for multiple posts when it's obvious that neither will change their mind. It's not a huge deal, though. In those instances, I say have a mod bud in and ask to move the conversation forward. If that doesn't work, close the thread and move on. Also, longtime posters should be given a little more leeway than newer members. If name calling ensues or someone has a meltdown like Brick, don't waste any time, just ban them.

Is it more difficult to to be the swinger or swingee during a giant swing? (I'm talking about the wrestling move. So no snide remarks, perverts.)

I feel like I should know this but I don't, so I'll ask it here. Was there a lot of boozing and drugging in Japanese wrestling like there was in America?

This is good discussion and all, but the answer is still Triple H. (I forgot about Randy Orton, though. He might challenge Steve Regal for the No. 2 slot)

Triple H wins by a nose over Steve Regal.

Yeah, someone needs to actually read this thing and then share with the rest of us how bad it is. That way when we all rip it without actually reading it, we won't feel guilty

Warrior climbing back in the ring, clotheslining two dudes who had nothing to do w/ him getting eliminated, then sprinting to the back was fucking hilarious.