Jingus

No kidding. At the PPV last night, the debuted the lovely and talented female indy wrestler Nikki Roxx... as the fucking Outlaws' new valet, to feud with Christy Hemme, doing a VOODOO QUEEN Mama Shango gimmick as "Roxxi Laveaux". How sad is it that, as corrupt and incompetent as the WWE often is, their closest "competition" is a hundred times worse? About five seconds after his no-compete clause is up.

Yeah, Matt and Jeff Hardy, if you consider Matt being "pushed" in 04-05. Dustin's been in TNA already, several times. They never did anything with him, he was always feuding with someone completely random and having bad matches low down on the card.

As far as I can tell, Necro does the deathmatch stuff because he likes it. It's sure as hell not for the money. Forget relatively high-paying (bwa ha ha) gigs like IWA Midsouth, I've seen him do the same crazy lightbulb shit on li'l indy shows with about sixty people in the crowd.

I think the point was sound enough. Almost every wrestler uses steroids. Not every wrestler abuses drinking, pain pills, street drugs, etc. But in all of these "wrestling" deaths, the toxicology comes back with a whole pharmacopia of drugs besides steroids.

I'm not saying his technical skills were what made him a top guy, it's a combination of his selling and general athleticism you can thank for that. He could've been the exact same guy and relied on a Hoganesque moveset and still gotten 90% over as he did anyway. But you said he never did "basic wrestling", which, well, was wrong.

Dory, maybe not, he did rely on about five million euro uppercuts in a row in a lot of his matches. Brisco, perhaps. But to make it simple & easy, just say Malenko and leave it at that. And how can you guys say Steamboat didn't use wrestling moves? Firstly, from this very board: And then, there's the 27 different rollup variations from Wrestlemania III. And if you need more proof than that, just pop in a tape of him vs. Flair 2/3 at the Clash, at least 15 minutes of that is Steamboat working arm holds.

Where did Regal say that? On the tribute Raw, he said (in a cryptic manner) that he refused to comment on Benoit the person, very briefly praised his work ethic, and then walked off. Of all the people on the show, you could most easily tell that he at least suspected that something was up.

...are you kidding, Phil? Yes, he was often quite the Armdragon in the WWE, but Steamboat did all kinds of holds, counters, and pinning predicaments that would just leave Cena scratching his neanderthal brow.

Hell yes. On some of the various crappy li'l indy shows I worked (I know I KEEP bringing that up, but spending five years "in the trenches" as it were gives someone a lot of new perspective on stuff) the bosses would actually put more effort into "protecting the business" and "keeping kayfabe" than they would on actually just running a good show. They'd actually hold little locker room speeches where they'd bitch at the heels for going out in front of the crowd and talking to people. Not necessarily talking about wrestling, just talking to people period, like heels aren't supposed to crave human contact like every other sapient being on the planet. And then they'd book a five-match card full of retarded gimmicks (sometimes literally), racism, gay-baiting, run-ins, DQs, "he pulled my hair!", and many examples of how wrapping a dog chain around your fist apparently gives you the ability to knock out another person with one punch. Personally, I think giving the people their damn money's worth in the matches is much more important than endlessly worrying about how These Damn Kids Are Exposing The Business, but it seemed like I was in the minority.

Here's a thought: CAN they sue TNA, considering they're based in different countries, and as far as I know never signed any sort of contracts with each other?

It has nothing at all to do with the NWA. They're a scam to make money, not spend it (it costs a cool $3,000 for a promotion to join up and use the NWA name). This case, the promoter probably found some rich moneymark who's willing to bankroll a huge show like this. I'm amazed that this is the first I heard about it, 5,000 is a HUGE goddamn number of fans for an indy show. Yeah, it's cute. Sometimes. Come on down to any local indy show in the Nashville area, and you can watch it in Every. Fucking. Match. ...not literally, but damn sometimes it sure felt like it. Half the card was always a variety of guys who were either old, out of shape, untalented, or just plain lazy, and they all lean on that ancient southern schtick like GWBush talking about staying the course. It got to the point where sometimes it was almost a relief when it was time for the half-trained young rookies to come out and hit a billion lung blowers, shining wizards, moonsaults, spinning headscissorseseses, etcetera.

The weirdest part? Necro's actually a perfectly normal guy while not in the ring. Even seems pretty smart, not "smart for a wrestler" but actually intelligent. Too many people dismiss him on the "he's just hardcore, he can't work" theory. I once watched him have non-hardcore match with a gooseshit green trainee in which they used not a single weapon, and I think they never even went to the floor. It was mostly just the trainee working over his leg Flair-style and Necro selling it. To steal an old Joey line: "He CAN wrestle, he just prefers not to."

...damn, this really reminds me of all that wrestling I still need to buy & watch. (Whenever I have money/time). Also, since Loss said "Favorite", not "Best", all these are to be my extremely subjective choices for the matches I was most entertained by, for a wide variety of reasons. So if I have something on you don't like, well, go watch more Cena matches or something. Also, I don't know the dates on most of these, sorry. 3PW: Raven/Sandman vs. Zandig/Wifebeater AAA: Eddy Guerrero & Art Barr vs El Hijo del Santo & Octagon (WWC) All Japan: Misawa/Kobashi vs. Kawada/Taue 6/9/95 AWA: Rose/Summers vs. Midnight Rockers (not the cage match) BattlARTS: Bob Backlund vs. SASUKE Central States (Kansas City): Bruiser Brody vs. Ric Flair 2/3 Chikara: Chuck Taylor vs. Ricochet CZW: Cage O' Death 6 ECW: Dreamer/Sandman/Gordy vs. Raven/Stevie/Lee (cage) ECWA: Daniels vs. Aries, Super 8 final Florida: Brody vs. Luger, cage shoot FMW: Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka Georgia: any Midnight Express squash Global: Lightning Kid vs. Jerry Lynn IWA Japan: Terry Funk vs. Cactus Jack, no-rope barwire (not the KOTDM) JAPW: Teddy Hart vs. Homicide Maeda's UWF 2.0 (1988-1990): Bob Backlund vs. Nobuhiko Takada ('88) Memphis/USWA: Jeff Jarrett vs. Eddie Gilbert, Texas Death Match Mid South: Steve Williams vs. Terry Gordy, UWF title change New Japan: Jushin Liger vs. Great Sasuke, 1994 J-Cup NWA (JCP 1985-1988): Tully Blanchard vs. Magnum TA, I Quit NOAH: Chono/Misawa vs. Kobashi/Taue ROH: Joebashi SMW: Tracey Smothers vs. Chris Candido, ladder match TNA: Red/SATs vs. Low-Ki/Daniels/Skipper, 12/03 WAR: That Murdering Bastard vs. Chris Jericho, 1995 J-Cup WCW (1989-Present): Flair vs. Steamboat, Chi-Town Rumble W*ING: Bart Sawyer vs. Mr. Pogo, barbwire bat WWWF (Pre-1981): Bob Backlund vs. Stan Hansen (not the cage match) WWF (1981-2002): Bret vs. Owen, WMX WWE (2002-present): Shawn Michaels vs. Kurt Angle, WMXXI Zero One: Steve Corino/David Young vs. Masato Tanaka/Shinjiro Ohtani

The only time Sabu talked in old ECW: "Taz! MOTHERFUCKER, TAZ!"

Note to self: actually put together announcing demo tape like I've been meaning to do for two years now. Send tape to WWE. Pray they don't notice I'm going bald. Now THAT'S funny. A guy who's entire comedy gimmick is to get trampled by the visiting guest stars? Finally, someone found a loophole to the whole "how do you book a star who's big enough to be a draw but small enough to job to one of your guys?" indy dilemma.

Nah, at least he's not a Standardized SKeith Clone like most recappers these days. Besides, Dan Wahler's "thinkpieces" have gotta be the most ridiculous thing on the WO site since Dave claimed that MMA = rasslin. I don't pay all that much attention to ROH, so correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Silkin just the fuckin' money mark?

One major problem is when such a match isn't saved for the main event, or an important feud, or whatever. I spent five years doing play-by-play for an indy TV show, and jesus CHRIST I had to call a million opening matches where some barely-outta-training greenhorns thought they would pop the crowd by kicking out of a bunch of finishers, do the move tradeoff and Indy Pose Stance thing, badly execute a fish-out-of-water spot, all kinds of bullshit. Maybe the toothless "RASSLIN IS REAL" marks popped for it, but meanwhile the cameraman, the music girl, and the "smart mark section" were all rolling their eyes and making fun of them.

The cards they've got for those two shows are alright, but nothing special. Just like with the PPVs. That's the problem: ROH clearly has no idea how to book a Bigtime Supercard type show. It seems like they insist on squandering every new opportunity with "just another ROH show". And while just another ROH show is hella better than just another Impact or just another ECW On Sci-Fi, I don't think it's so staggeringly good that large numbers of new fans will be instantly converted after their first glimpse.

Yeah, guys as diverse as Mick Foley and Bill Goldberg have called a torn groin muscle the most painful thing they've ever experienced in their lives. But considering it's a case of muscle detaching from the bone, well, there's a reason that's called The Steroid Injury.

Nah, they'll say it was his epic series of cult favorite matches with Kane that put 'im over the top.

They basically helped start the modern trend of doing high-impact flashy moves at a high rate of speed, without worrying too much about selling it all. If you like that, you'll like them; if you're more into the psychology aspect of wrestling, then probably not so much.

One semi-insider told me that the failed test firings were basically just an excuse to can that person, the real reason was often something else entirely.

Although, truthfully, it goes back farther than that. I recall Dynamite Kid and Tiger Mask trading tombstones on the floor and damn near shrugging them off, for one example. Harley Race had this weird tendency to let jobbers kick out of his piledrivers, too.

I've referred to the 2.9 syndrome as "Finisher Burn" for a few years now. But ya know what? It's not even in Japan where it's most annoying. It's in America, in ROH and even moreso in its various clones, where American indy guys repeatedly kick out of the most ridiculous finishers, and then just get up and no-sell mere seconds later. And they don't do it with anything even resenbling the style and storytelling that the AJ classic dudes did it in the mid-90s. Intstead, it's "Wrestler A hits murderdeathkill finisher, cover, 2.999!, they get back up, boot to the gut, Irish whip, OMG Wrestler B reversed it, B with murderdeathkill finisher, cover, 2.999999999!" As much as I like the rest of his work, Jack Evans can be real bad about that, kicking out of every damn thing under the sun like he's a li'l flippy Cena.

But he WAS injecting Daniel, the police found the needle marks on him. And hell, if you've seen the pictures and/or video, Daniel didn't look like a normal kid. He was seven years old and still in kindergarten, that's not average.