Jingus

You keep making some sort of "you're just a smart mark you don't know" argument. I'm not. I spent five years on the indy scene primarily as a television commentator, but also as a ring announcer, manager, referee, and even had a few (bad) matches. I'm not some armchair quarterback talking shit about something I've never done. No, I never made a living off it, and I never worked for anybody too important, but I've still got so many friends involved with wrestling that I DO have a pretty big interest in the condition of the business. And while I've never had a conversation with Orton that lasted longer than twenty seconds, I know other people who have known him, and the general consensus is that he's an egomaniacal prick. So you're saying that no story reported about the backstage workings of wrestling is ever to be trusted? Ever?

So, beyond "we don't really know and we shouldn't really care, STOP COMPLAINING AND BE ENTERTAINED DAMMIT" you don't have an argument here? I care because the last thing wrestling needs right now is for Randy to pull one of his typical stunts after they inevitably put the belt on him sometime soon. The WWE couldn't afford a situation now like they had with RVD last year. Also, I think it's ironic that he's yet another example of watching the smarks go from despising someone to loving them for no real reason; the only difference between Randy '04 and Randy now is that weak koncussion-kick, and yet all over the message boards you've got people screaming for him to take the title off Cena (which even I think is a bad idea at this point).

I just wonder what kind of incriminating photos Randy possesses, and which top WWE exec they feature. How this guy keeps getting a second chance for the seventh and eighth time, I have no idea. He trashes hotel rooms, he sexually harasses the women til they quit the company, he doesn't bother to tell anyone about his dad's contagious blood disease, he walks around in the locker room smoking a joint, so forth and so on. Why do they never punish him beyond the weakest of temporary slaps on the wrist? "Well Randy, we know you went around publicly smoking the reefer right after we instituted our new drug testing, so we're going to have to show you some tough love." "I'm out of the Wrestlemania semi-main?" "No, but you're gonna take the fall."

Oh, I totally believe that people in China would do something like that, after all this is the country where partial-birth abortions are more common than pretty much anywhere on earth. I'm just astounded that Bodog would make their book's plot such a hackneyed Captain Planet remix in this Garth Ennis age.

Anyone else getting visions of those shitty old WWF comics? Or hell, almost any comic book based on intellectual property from another medium, since they all tend to suck? I once actually spent money on a Mortal Kombat comic, and I still want my $1.25 back. Martinbrough's the real deal, he's worked for Marvel and DC, created a few minor characters here and there. But "top talents" Slutsky and Illidge are so obscure that Wiki's never heard of them. Really? I mean... jesus... really?

Yeah, he tagged up with Lanny Poffoff* and briefly feuded with Tricky Steamboat. *I actually ran into a backyarder once (going by the most perfect yardtard name ever, "Kid Extreme") who claimed to have been trained by Leaping Lanny Poffoff. Let's just say he got one tryout match, his legit opponent stole his lunch money and then rammed it back up his peehole, and he was never heard of again.

Arn's insistance on never shooting is pretty annoying. Whether it's on a WWE doc or an RF shoot interview or his own fuckin' autobiography, it just gets really frustrating how this guy who obviously has a shitload of great stories to tell just refuses to tell them.

Wow, that's some serious hate. Why? I used to despise the dude with a passion back when he first came in and his offense was 80% chinlock, but he did improve a hell of a lot since then. Not the best wrestler to ever walk the aisle, but definitely better than, say, former tag partner Chris Masters. Decent talker too.

What about from 2001-2005? They went Rock, Austin, Angle, more Austin, Jericho, HHH, Hogan, more Rock, Brock, more HHH, Goldberg, more Brock, more HHH, Eddie/Benoit, Bradshaw, Orton, more HHH, Batista, and then finally settled on Cena and have mostly stayed there ever since.

I'm just commenting on how unusual Cena's push is. Not saying a word about the guy himself. Just how odd it is for any wrestling company in this fast-paced, swervapalooza, post-Attitude wrestling zeitgeist to go for two years straight without changing the one guy as their figurehead. Admittedly, a lot of that might be due to the fact that Cena hasn't ever suffered some serious injury to put him on the shelf. In fact, the WWE would be in an awfully tight spot if John blew his knee out or something, since they've put so many eggs squarely in one basket.

And, do you have a goddamn thing to add to this discussion besides pointless smartass comments?

It's not just about jobs, it's about his entire push. For over two years now, he's been pushed as THE top guy. No other top face has gotten pushed that long and that hard in recent memory except Austin. Between injuries, heel turns, going away to make a movie, politics, or whatever, the WWE has rarely ever leaned so hard on one guy as their top draw. No matter who the other champion on Smackdown was at the time, it's been the WWE's general position that Cena is their #1 star with no real competition. Hell, since HBK and HHH went down with injury, it was really hard to say exactly who the next-highest babyface on the Raw roster was. I just wonder how the exact same type of push would work if you just plugged a different guy into that spot.

Then again, Cena has been booked as the unstoppable superman for so long that it's unprecedented in recent wrestling history. You have to go back to Hogan to find someone who lost fewer matches. I know it's just a fantasy booking scenario, but I find it interesting to wonder what might've happened if the WWE had put that insane god push ("he's gonna be the top guy and be popular whether the fans like it or not!") behind a different wrestler. If they'd ever had one ounce of confidence in Jericho especially, things might've turned out different. Or, more importantly I think, since WCW and ECW both went out of business.

What is this, an "it's just common sense!" argument? You're not getting anywhere on this board with that. I had specific reasons why I didn't like Cena, and still got shot down like a Scud missle circa 1991.

I think this is it. Part One Part Two

TNA can afford anything it wants, as long as Panda signs off on it. It's whatever Dixie can convince her daddy to spend. (That's an oversimplification, but it's basically what it boils down to.) Which makes their claims of not being able to afford stuff absolutely laughable. They just haven't begged hard enough to get a bigger allowance.

I vaguely recall hearing that Angle's current contract was bigger than his old WWE one. But even if that's true, he's the only one, TNA's main draw to stars is its ridiculously light schedule.

No. You couldn't. Because I never once said he didn't have a manager. I'm perfectly well aware of the existence of Indian Bischoff as it were. Like I said before, I watch every wrestling TV show every week. Why I think Khali not speaking English is bad? Firstly, I've always thought that it's better for someone to be able to cut their own promos than have a manager do it for them. I know that's not always possible, but I find it always preferable. Secondly, the WWE rarely keeps any one manager with their client for long. I don't know why it is, but I can't think of anyone in the E who's kept the same manager for a single year, let alone more. Hence my pontificating on why Daivari was yanked from the spot as Khali's manager. Thirdly, it must be hard for the dude to live and work in America if he can't speak the language. It makes improvising anything at all in the ring a lot harder, obviously, when you can't tell the other guy what you want to do.

Until either Hogan or Nash starts whispering into his ear, anyway. Then he tends to transform into a hand puppet.

Point out where I said Khali doesn't have a manager.

That brings up something: what was the point with taking Davari off that detail? I thought he was doing just fine, but apparently the office thought he "shouted too much" or something. I do watch the shows, every week. Just not live. Usually I record 'em onto a tape and watch the whole thing once it's filled up. So I haven't bothered to watch ECW this week yet.

Yeah, and the WWE seems allergic to them much of the time. None of the ones they have now ever seem to last very long. When's the last time Estrada was on tv (not counting standing in the background of a "Vince walks past the whole company" scene)? Wrestlers don't NEED to talk to get over, but it sure does help.

It's just yet another reason for me to dislike him, about #7 on my laundry list. I'm not saying I have a problem with foreigners; my problem is with a non-English speaking foreigner who makes his living as a piece of on-screen performance talent in a medium which traditionally requires some form of talking, in English, from most of its employees.

I don't like giant freak attractions. I prefer wrestlers to bring something to the table other than just being really good at grabbing groceries off the top shelf. I'm just slightly elaborating on what I already said: he's generally clumsy. His offense often looks horrible, in multiple ways: sometime he looks like he's about to drop the other guy during basic power moves, sometimes it just looks like he's barely making contact at all. His selling is sometimes inconsistent; he'll randomly play Undertaker superman, like he often did with Booker, but other times he'll let relatively small hits floor him. He's a sloppy bumper, he frequently lands predominantly on his lower back, which ain't good for long-term health. His jerky movement style is part of his gimmick, but personally I don't like it, it just looks to me like a guy who's concentrating on being weird. So why the hell are you railing on me for saying he's bad?

What did it "mean" in the first place? Were there trophies given out, or an induction ceremony? It seems like this is the world's most glorified version of Meltzer sitting around with a bunch of buddies arguing over which wrestlers were better.