Jingus

Wait, do they mean the NWA itself? If so, whoops, looks like the feces just got thrown in the general direction of the fan for indy companies everywhere. Now if the IRS ever figures out that 95% of them pay no taxes... Bullshit argument. Since the drug use takes place behind closed doors and isn't even referred to on-camera, there's no way kids could emulate it. This ain't exactly like Snoop puffing a blunt in a music video.

An old hippie girlfriend once gave me some pajama pants that looked like that. Except the leggings were attached to the waist, of course. Looked like those cheap hospital pants that orderlies wear. Also, just cuz I feel like saying it again: Xavier. Security guard. Mwahahahaaa.

...I can't even tell for sure, who is that? It looks like Billy Gunn stole Sabu's gear and then did his own custom alterations.

So, did you guys just forget/ignore the part where he's nominated in the non-wrestling category? As for the boa thing, hey, by then I was just making up stuff. But I do think that a guy who announced the first six Wrestlemanias, won a lawsuit against Vince, and is a legit household name deserves to be in the HOF.

Anybody else notice former Ring Of Honor World Heavyweight Champion XAVIER as one of the security guards yanking the Iron Sheik offstage on Raw last night? My favorite ROH punchline just got even favoriter.

His analogy's wrong. We don't have a common PC term for kids born out of wedlock. This is kinda like bitching about calling someone black if African-American had never been popularized.

That's pretty much where my eyes glazed over. Chikara or somebody needs to have an evil heel gimmick of a nosy federal investigator.

Part of why I'm making this argument is because his nomination is on the Non-Wrestler list. He's being inducted for his announcing career, not his in-ring one. And most of that transpired after he was already famous from Predator and the like. And, like I said, only one of three guys to do commentary for both Wrestlemania and Starrcade, and the other two (Ross & Heenan) are already inducted. Also: he's one of the few guys who ever attempted to set up a union, and one of the VERY few to ever sue Vince and win. Plus, as for "influence", I don't recall Superstar Graham wearing those feather boas that Hogan later became so fond of. Along similar lines, why is Rock a slam dunk if Ventura is a no-go? Rocky's way better known for his movie career than anything in the ring. Yeah, he drew a lot more money than Ventura, but his career was shorter (and who knows what kind of business a Ventura-Hogan program for Wrestlemania might've done if Jesse hadn't been forced into retirement). That's an irrelevant and tasteless comparison.

If he wasn't so well known for being a wrestling personality, I doubt he would've ever been in movies and then had the name recognition to run for governor. I mean, this guy is easily in the top 5 most recognizable wrestlers on earth, there are probably millions of people who've never heard of Ric Flair but know exactly who Jesse the Body is. And regardless of where they first heard his name, they all know he was a wrestler. Why wouldn't that be HOF-worthy?

But isn't "mainstream fame" supposed to count here? Governor of a state, regular cast member in big movies, best-selling autobiographies, so forth & so on. Plus, he's one of only two guys to do color commentary for both Wrestlemania and Starrcade.

Plus he helped back Vince Jr. in his buyout of the company. Without Monsoon, the WWF and wrestling as we know it today might've never come about. Why isn't Ventura an easy gimme? He's the only worker to ever achieve that kind of political office in this country.

Well, he was the original KISS "Demon", so clearly he was into devil worshipping just like Woman. Oh, and can someone fix the title? Brian Adams is a prematurely dead wrestler. Bryan Adams is a regrettably alive singer.

Yeah, but Jake and Grizzly HATED each other. Plus iirc Roberts left the company not long after the Ali incident anyway. (And Nord btw was one of the guys taking huge bumps for Ali.)

What, being the #2 man when Feinstein got busted? In all seriousness, I think lots of ROH's success comes from the fact that they run in the most crowded part of the country. When you're in a city the size of New York, you're doing something wrong if you've got a decent show and AREN'T drawing a thousand people. That, and the fact that with RFVideo's backing they basically sprang from Jove's forehead as the best-financed company that benefitted from the most free advertising just by being run by the biggest tape dealer in the land.

Well, it's all manipulation. Just different degrees of it. If Andy had gotten a writeup in the Voice, then he woulda got an Oscar for Enemy Gold guaranteed.

Well, that's true. Okay, I was narrowing it down too far: let's say Keith and Hyatte and Scaia and CRZ and the whole Scoops crew. They at least had real definable styles and personalities. All the ones running around today seem like young whippersnappers who either ape an older guy's writing or have no discernable personality whatsoever.

Until I see another guy Rey's size (and ethnicity) hold a world heavyweight belt, I'd say he was the exception and not the new rule. What I wonder about the whole thing: what's the point of a HOF, anyway? It doesn't provide any extra money or bookings. It's not an across-the-board list that's accepted by everyone in the industry (as the WWE's even more pointless HOF demonstrates). Every year the inductions tend to turn into one big popularity contest. Hell, I bet half the guys on the nomination list have never even heard of it. It's like if some obscure fan newsletter held their own version of the Oscars. I understand the desire to have these wrestlers remembered for their contributions, but all it would take for this HOF to disappear forever would be for the Observer to go bankrupt.

Yeah, I've never understood the "Joe shoulda gone to New York" bandwagon either. He's not a bodybuilder, not a great talker, and not part of the extended Samoan family up there. Why would they have done anything with him? Terry Taylor, Red Rooster: 'Nuff said.

Well, it worked for Blair Witch Project. Of course, worked-shoot angles like this have been proven money losers ever since Russo killed WCW with them.

Okay, maybe I should be more specific. How would she know about it from an insider's perspective which would make her want to pursue the job that made her an orphan as a career? The DVD, her family's history, that's all stuff any smark can pick up. And we don't know whether she was the type of kid who was backstage at every show, or if she didn't even watch wrestling. Plus, don't most people "know" something besides what their dad did for a living many years ago? "All she knows" is a logical fallacy.

Flair can still have a damn good match on occasion. One he had a couple years back on Raw against Angle comes to mind, where he really went all-out with the cheating and for one night only was once again The Dirtiest Player In The Game rather than just the old guy who chops a lot.

All she knows? Her dad's been dead for fourteen years, and iirc World Class has been out of business for longer than that. How would she know about it?

...jesus christ, she's absolutely beautiful. We're SURE this came out of Fritz's gene pool? On the one hand, I'm glad that the WWE has been on a second-generation hiring spree recently, as it's much preferable to their usual policy of hiring a football player, shoving a needle in his ass, writing promos for him, and hoping he picks up the whole "working" thing along the way. But, on the other, she's a goddamn Von Erich, the only wrestling family that the Harts can look at and say "At least we've got it better than those poor bastards". What on earth would make her want to go into the business that killed her father and almost the whole rest of the family too?

Am I the only one who actually misses the days of guys like Hyatte and Keith? Yeah, they were biased, but at least they were their own biases. All the new reviewers these days always sound like they're either trying to imitate someone else's style, or writing specifically to impress other people. What does Dave have against Backlund, anyway? Is it some kind of "he wasn't as good as Bruno" crap?

So, you didn't like his matches at One Night Stand and Summerslam, or you just forgot about them? Of course he's broken down. Shit, with a career like his, what do you expect? The reason why he can't take those bumps anymore is because he took them in the first place.