Boondocks Kernoodle

I don't think he meant that Benoit never had any good traits. Just that his neuroses were present his entire life, not just after breaking his neck/Eddie died or whatever breaking point one wants to point to.

Arent you him? lol u got dirt on me doggy BAAAAALLLLLLLLLIIIIINNNNNNNN. I wish! My name at the F4W board is Sensei John Kreese, but I only have like 5 posts there.

That BWT guy was just trying to rile people up. If you've ever seen his work at DVDVR or his brief tenure at TSM, you know he's pretty great troll. One thing MRV got wrong in the book is when he referred to the "Owen Voice" as a sort of secret code that lets the fans know that what they are watching is a shoot. No, the Owen Voice is what WWE announcers (and formerly WCW; I'm not so sure about TNA because I can't imagine Mike and Don not shouting for more than 10 seconds at a time) use to make the fans THINK what they're seeing is a shoot. It's used to add extra gravity to situations like Chyna's neck injury, Stacy Keibler collapsing after her mud match with chest pains, and Hogan LAYING THE SMACKDOWN ON THE ROCK'S CRIPPLED ASS NWO STYLE via a big damn truck, so that the fans will say "Oh wow, they're talking all soft like when that dude fell from the ceiling. It must be real."

Shit, I DID say that, didn't I? You've been a one-man PolishBobStupak Defense Force here, at TSM, at F4W and DVDVR. You clearly don't take criticism of the book well. And S.L.L. made that bizarre comment that Meltzer comes off as someone who would rather see Daniel Benoit die than see WWE go out of business. I didn't think there were too many mistakes in the book. There were some typos and mistakes about dates and such, but less than many other wrestling books I've seen. The thing about Nitro being started as a result of someone playing a joke on Bischoff is something I've never heard before. And shoot interviews aren't exactly the perfect source for information due to the inherent trustworthiness of wrestlers, but who the fuck else is going to tell you about what goes on in wrestling? I doubt that there are too many wrestlers who exaggerate how bad the business is as opposed to those who kayfabe all the awful shit that goes on in an attempt to "protect the business." I also liked the way he seemed to provide a counterpoint to everything Paul Heyman said, because, you know, you don't want to take that guy's word on its own. I still don't get the Kevin Cook and tomk quotes. They just seem like an attempt to say "Hey, I'm going to give a shout-out to my DVDVR budz!" Quoting message board posts for expert analysis in a published book? Well, it IS wrestling. I guess that's the best you're going to get. At least he didn't quote from LordsofPain.

Steiner was seriously injured in '01, so he couldn't have been part of the Invasion anyway.

Nowhere. This book is infallible and anyone who has the slightest criticism of it is an asshole. Dave Meltzer is a sociopath.

You may call it grouchy, hateful and vile. I choose to call it

Bix isn't exactly well-liked at that board.

I didn't know Dave ever published his brilliant idea that would have saved the invasion. I wish I had that issue.

Oh, that's gotta be it.

I have no idea what this is. Someone enlighten me.

That wasn't a year ago, and I think he was referring to an incident in which they had a wrestler attack two legends. I just can't think of what that incident would have been. I don't think they did a "heel beats up Moolah and Mae" angle for a couple of years before Moolah's death, and I can't think of anything else. EDIT: Oh, I see, you thought I meant a year before the '95 Bash. I'm sorry, maybe I didn't word it so clearly.

From Dave's update today: Oops, someone hit the blacklist a little too late! With four months left however, there's still time to replace the Hulk with Steve Keirn, and Jimmy with WWE Concierge Harvey Whippleman.

I think you're kind of exaggerating in portraying Flair as someone Hogan wouldn't even touch if he didn't have seven years of WWE exposure. But he owes a lot to the fact that WWE worked so hard to educate their fanbase, many of whom wouldn't have known who he was or might have known the name but wouldn't have cared about what he did, that he was the greatest ever. A lot's been said about how un-WWE-like it was to promote someone who spent most of his career elsewhere as the greatest ever, but the truth is that any of the other options that they would portray as the best ever are either dead (Andre) or constantly on the outs with Vince (Hogan). The fact that they could have the "greatest wrestler of all time" as a regular member of their roster had to quite appealing to the marketing-conscious Vince, especially when the guy you're giving that role to is willing to kiss your ass full-time and your favorite wrestlers (HHH, Shawn) love him.

Flair mentions, while talking about how at the Great American Bash '95 Hogan wanted Vader to beat up Bockwinkel, that about a year ago in WWE they tried to get someone over at the expense of "two people who deserved their moment." Anyone know what he was talking about?

If he's doing a favor, it's more likely to Knobs and Hart.

Maybe Highspots is going to do a Hogan shoot. That would be one for the ages.

BONUS BISCH CONTENT: Here he is totally SONNING one of his favorite targets:

On Bret Hart in WCW: "He only worked about 5 times. Then he went home 'cause he had a concussion." Yep, 5 times.

Amazing that Jimmy is so well-liked that he was able to pretty much work for WWE and TNA concurrently, but he goes on "Tough Enough with 80s B-listers" and all of a sudden he's on Vince's shitlist forever? Side note: Am I the only one who thinks TNA should try to work a cross-promotional deal with the Celebrity Wrestling show where the winner would wrestle a few matches? It would actually provide a tangible goal for the winner of the show (and let's face it, most of these people don't have much else to do, so TNA could probably afford them) but more importantly, it would finally get them Hogan. (One would think that in his current situation he can't afford to be so picky with the "they're too low-rent for me" stuff, plus Universal Studios is less embarrassing than the Nashville Fairgrounds.) I hope Bonaduce wins, because that dude cuts wrestling promos in real life, too, or at least in his reality show ("If there are men in my wife's room wearing less than a turtleneck, I WILL SHAKE YOUR FOUNDATION. I WILL SHAKE THE FUCKING RAFTERS. NOBODY WILL EVER BE THE SAME") and and he kinda has a voice like the Sandman.

Apparently Vince is very upset over the Celebrity Wrestling show. He thinks it exposes the business and, well, you know that weird thing he has about Hogan. On the new Observer Radio show tonight, Dave reported that Vince was freaking out on the plane yesterday (during the flight from Stamford to Boston. Yes, he took a plane from Connecticut to Massachusetts) and saying that no one involved with the show would ever work with WWE again. Bischoff has a new blog up in which he describes Vince's hurt feelings as well as hilariously inflates his show's popularity.

Yeah, but assuming HHH only married for power and not for love (I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt here), wouldn't you saying that marrying into the family just to fall into Vince's good graces is working a little too hard?

I don't necessarily think that's true. The thing that everyone praises about Hogan and Nash is that they realize that the point of wrestling is to make money, not to leave a lasting body of work that gets 4 and 5 star ratings from the Netcop. Wrestling isn't art, it's a business. Of course Hogan and Nash were driven to succeed in wrestling, but they also didn't destroy their bodies beyond what was required or asked of them. Well, they did, but that's a side effect of too many steroids in Hulk's case, or old basketball injuries destroying Nash's knees. But they didn't do diving headbutts after breaking their necks because they thought not doing it would be cheating the audience. One thing that gets overlooked in the Nash & Hogan > Benoit & Eddie arguments is that Nash and Hogan obviously have huge physical advantages over the other two, and Benoit and Guerrero if they half-assed it in the ring were unlikely to get the "YEAH BUT HE'S TALL" benefit of the doubt from Vince. Benoit and Eddie also didn't have the benefit of there existing a huge rival promotion throwing huge sums of money at WWE main eventers and not caring when their new signees half-assed everything and used their show as a vehicle for their own amusement. Nash and Hogan got so much for doing nothing because they had a lazy mark boss. It's a lot harder to cheat the system when you're working for Vince.

Now there's no need for that! Jim Steinman wrote the Hogan "Rock n' Wrestling" theme. Tomk should show some damn respect. Actually, Hogan & Steinman are a good match. What's more of a "Bat Out of Hell of wrestling" than Hogan/Rock or Hogan/Warrior?