Boondocks Kernoodle

Todd Martin writes for ESPN.com? Jeez!

I think anyone who clicks on a thread called "Raw tonight" not expecting to find out what happened on Raw tonight gets what they deserve. It was pretty cool to see the kind of chaotic, "this isn't supposed to happen" angle that we so rarely see in wrestling today, but I don't think it will go anywhere. They can't push the NXT guys as outsiders because we've already seen them interact with the WWE wrestlers for the past three months. They laid out Cena, but can you see Cena vs Barrett headlining a PPV this early? They also laid out Punk, so are they supposed to be faces or heels? Plus is a group of rookies really going to last in the "he can't work," "he can't draw money," "he hasn't paid his dues" WWE environment? Sorry to play the role of the super cynical internet wrestling fan, but I don't think WWE's track record makes such a standpoint unreasonable.

Douglas wanted to bring in Pillman to wrestle him at November to Remember '97, but Heyman told him Brian wouldn't be alive by then, and he was right.

XWF had a money mark named Walter Frank who supposedly was willing to invest $30 million or more into the promotion. For his sake, I hope he didn't.

I never heard that Hogan "saved well," (obviously from watching his reality showe you can tell he lived a pretty opulent lifestyle) but there was always a hell of a lot more money coming in for Hogan than Flair. It's absolutely astounding to think of the amount of money Hogan was being paid in WCW - consider that Starrcade '97 received 650,000 buys, multiply that by 29.95, take the 40% that goes to WCW and give a quarter of that to Hulk - that's nearly $2 million for one match. The Rodman/Malone match probably made him over $1.5 million, Superbrawl VIII around a million, he was gauaranteed a minimum of $600K, plus he was making 5 figures for every TV or house show appearance, surely collecting heavy royalties off of the nWo shirts, and apparently he and Sting were even getting paid when toy stores sold Jericho & Malenko figures. He and Flair aren't even in the same stratosphere financially, or at least they weren't before. I'd be curious to learn what Flair's best year was, money-wise. I don't think he ever got a million-dollar contract in WCW, which is sad because he probably could have played hardball and gotten one.

Did the party really believe WWF was to blame for Gore's loss, or was that just a Keller theory? I suppose the totals in Florida were close enough that any number of factors could have swung the election one way or the other, including Lawler's comments.

Blake Norton once wrote a 117-page, 31,500-word booking plan on how Booker T's TNA debut should have been handled.

I always thought WWF generally used non-alcoholic beer on TV.

Of course it doesn't, I just want to hear him say "TAG. TEAM. ACTION" one more time.

This might be a little self-serving.

New WON: This is the most exciting thing I've read about TNA in a long time, which probably says something about TNA and probably says even more about me.

I'm amazed at Dave calling for a Sting/Vader title feud in '88.

For what it's worth, Dave didn't bash Keith based on the opinionz4u aspect of his writing, but rather all of the erroneous facts he gets e-mails about stating "Well Scott Keith said..."

I'm shocked at how high some of those Luger-Flair numbers are, particularly since this was a time period when Crockett was bleeding money and would have gone under if not for Turner. It shows how into Luger the fans were, and I've often wondered if Flair winning at Starrcade was the right decision. I don't know how hot the feud was by December, but I do know that a month after they drew 13,700 at the Omni, they did a rematch there which drew 6,700. They would have been better off doing one cycle of house shows headlined by Flair-Luger, then held off until Starrcade for Lex's real honest to God we mean it this time last title match ever and had him win. I don't see how Luger as champ in '89 would have done any worse business than the disappointing Flair feuds with Steamboat and Funk.

I just did a brief search of the F4W board and all I could find in defense of Todd by Bryan was:

Also, LOL at how he's offended at the VERY IDEA of spoofing commercials, but movies or TV would be acceptable. Hello dummy, they were spoofing commercials because it's a commercial-free Raw. I suppose you could argue that doing so kinda defeats the purpose of a commercial-free Raw (in fact the show was still formatted for ad breaks since it didn't air commercial-free in Canada) but to complain about the medium itself not lending itself to parody is an odd talking point, for sure. Also, to complain that what WWE is spoofing "isn't high art?" Did he expect a Thomas Pynchon parody on Raw? AND ALSO: It wouldn't be a spoof then, would it? Jeez.

Angle & Abyss had a match at Turning Point 2008 which Dave gave ****1/4.

I thought boxing only became wrestling after HBO started airing the 24/7 specials.

When exactly did Dave's MMA = pro wrestling talking point begin? I didn't start reading the Observer until 2006, and the first I remember of it was when Dave referred to Tito Ortiz as doing a Ric Flair heel act because he was seen on a UFC event wearing a suit.

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2010/04/10/13537671.html An article about Borne's new gimmick.

Yeah, his kids are named Cody and Carly. How very Kathie Lee of him.

Yes, and "Beach Patrol" too, though "street" is changed to "beach" and "rock n' roll" is changed in both verses to "rap rap" and "heavy metal" respectively.

Wow, I had no idea that Jimmy Hart released an album of his own. Bix, have you heard this album, and does it contain a lyrical reference to walking/driving down the street looking for some action while the radio is set to a rock n' roll station?

From Wade's Raw report: He's never heard Paradise By The Dashboard Light?

I'm sure D&B were just taken aback by the absurdity of his statement.