Mad Dog

It should also be mentioned that OVW was the best drawing indy promotion in the early 00s as well. They obviously had WWE talent for the big shows but there were shows where they drew thousands for a couple of years.

Does anyone remember that Texas pitcher from the mid 2000s that threw the chair into the crowd and hit some woman during a game?

If you are ever bored some of the Detroit vs. Colorado brawls from the late 90s in the NHL are insane. Even the goalies got into it in those.

Have you ever seen Malice at the Palace?

Long and short of it. Detroit won the championship his rookie year. He was only ever used in garbage time if they had a big lead. So he always got massive cheers if he was coming into the game because it meant Detroit was winning.

This is bullshit. Darko was over in Detroit because if he came off the bench that meant the game was well in hand.

Imagine thinking people want The Miz as champion.

Making his podcast debut. The Thread Killer came on my show and we had a chat about a variety of topics. We talk a bit about Toronto Wrestling and The Sheik. He talks about being a fan in the 80s and some of the promotions he followed. We also talk about early wrestling websites, efeds and a lot of other topics. I hope you guys enjoy because we had a lot of fun:

I may not be remembering this right. But wasn't there some VHS tape in the late 90s that mentioned his streak. I feel like I had seen some mention of it there first.

Jacqueline also would just fuck with you because she wanted to. Half the time she didn't even need to and I think that helped her sense of danger. It was kind of like getting tossed out there with Meng. She was just a bad motherfucker. Even her promos were good. When she debuted she said she was going to whip Woman like she stole something and it felt 100% sincere. It's a real shame WWE never quite captured the same magic with her.

Eaton lasted until that big culling they had in August of 2000. I remember because he was working some ECW shows within a matter of days.

Maybe Bo is like Bobby Eaton and people like him so much they just keep paying him.

I would say his age works against him too. Lee is a leg injury away from losing mobility and he's probably already in the early stages of physical decline. If he was 26, you have all the time in the world to rehab him but at 36 you're on the clock and have 5 years to get a run out of him.

Mark Henry did salvage Smackdown ratings during his run as champion. But they also had ECW as a place for him to test run a title reign. I think the problem with Keith Lee run a little deeper. He's not particularly good at the style they prefer for the main event scene and that's been kind of obvious. I actually don't know what the point of NXT is if they didn't teach him how to adapt to that. I think that is easily fixable or you could adjust for style. I think the bigger issue for Lee is no one in WWE will get over any time soon.

Watching some 1997 WCW. I think Jacqueline was a far better bodyguard than Chyna was. Chyna obviously had the look but Jacqueline being able to actually work and her attitude made her a more intimidating presence at ringside. Chyna would just do whatever arranged spot she had while it felt like Jacqueline would beat your ass if she got the chance.

Thinking about the racial breakdown of shows I have been to attendance wise the last 5-6 years. RoH actually had the most African American fans in attendance but barely any women. NXT was probably the whitest show but also had a heavier female attendance especially when Bayley/Charlotte/Sasha was there. Chikara probably had the most children and oddly enough old ladies there.

I don't know anyone under the age of 35 that watches wrestling. It's a lot like comic shops for me. I'm still the youngest guy there and I'm 40.

I am a bad judge of that. I used to go with my wife and then realized I could go alone and get a better seat.

I'm more likely to see flyers for the local indy in comic shops or boardgame shops than I am at a gym these days.

Cole and Phillips are such common names that I think it would be impossible to draw any sort of conclusion.

The indy boom of the 10s largely came about with the nerd culture boom. I've talked about it here briefly but wrestling is neatly wrapped up in nerd culture now and owes a lot of the recent success to that. Even WWE was benefitting from that before chasing everyone away. I go to a lot of sports in my city and I go to a lot of wrestling. The two crowds are not the same other than some old timers and some hockey crossover.

There's actually a fun Steve O match from 1984 All Japan TV where he challenges Jumbo for the International Title. That's the only thing I've ever really retained memory wise of him. Edit: 100% agree on St. Louis. That might be my fault for reading Wrestling At the Chase, the KayFabMemories stuff and other books and thinking it was going to be better than it was.

As someone that has taken their niece to anime conventions the last 5 years. Wrestling and anime fans have a lot of crossovers. One of the conventions even has a local indy run shows there on one of the days. If you wore a Bullet Club shirt to one you would hear about it all day.

I side with Sami on that. RoH wasn't paying him enough for that to be his only gig so he gets the final say on his gimmick. Pay the guys bills if you want him to take his mask off and potentially damage his future earning power.

Oh, I agree. It just hurts his credibility as a critic to me and makes his rant wear out really quick. You often watch something good and wonder "gee, I wonder how Cornette is going to twist himself in a way to say that sucked." and then you move on because it's just tiring.