Bix

Patreon.com/BetweenTheSheets Kris and David are back with a special look at the 25th anniversary of Vince Russo Becoming a Thing. Take a trip back a whole quarter century to Spring 1992, when Vince Russo, barely in the wrestling business for 90 days, suddenly finds himself in the middle of the WWF sex and steroid scandals. What did Vince Russo do when John Arezzi's wrestling radio show and newsletter, which he had become a partner in, started heavily covering all of the nuts and bolts of the scandals? He certainly didn't stand his ground. Hear all of the details, including Russo's abominable writing from the period, Arezzi's rebuttal, coverage of the Russo/Arezzi split in the Torch and Observer, and much more Also: The Observer's coverage of the rise of Russo through the WWF office, a couple surprises, and much more. You will NOT want to miss this show! Free preview available on the regular Between The Sheets feed which includes discussion of: How Vince McMahon probably played Russo like a fiddle in their first meeting. The repercussions Russo’s first conversation of note with Dave Meltzer, playing “mediator” between Russo and business partner John Arezzi, is also discussed…was this the root cause of Russo’s animosity towards Meltzer? More! Timestamps for the full show: 0:00:00 Prologue (Pro Wrestling Spotlight Weekly 3/2/92) 0:28:42 The Protocols of the Elders of Russo (Wrestling Observer 4/6/92, Pro Wrestling Torch 4/2/92, & Pro Wrestling Spotlight Weekly 4/13/92) 1:27:32 Interlude (Pro Wrestling Torch 4/16/92 & Wrestling Observer 5/4/92) 1:42:13 Rebuttal (John Arezzi’s Pro Wrestling Spotlight Newsletter 5/11/92) 2:36:19 Epilogue (Wrestling Observer 7/17/95, 4/22/96, 10/14/96,12/30/96, 1/27/97, 11/3/97, & 2/16/98)

http://deadspin.com/fbi-records-show-vince-mcmahons-dad-caught-on-tape-brag-1793690848 My first piece for Deadspin, featuring stuff I got via the Freedom of Information Act. It revealed that the FBI caught Vince McMahon Sr. on a bug admitting that he threatened to blackball Dr. Jerry Graham over Graham offering to help Elephant Man run opposition. More details at the link, and much more cool stuff to come at Deadspin.

I guess the question is if those "produced by" notices count, then.

It's less that and more the copyright notice thing, which I had no idea was an issue until a few years ago. If nobody registered those shows, they're public domain. Which is probably why Highspots and whoever put that stuff on Amazon now have Memphis up without a care in the world.

I don't buy it. Unless Jerry Jarrett was registering copyrights on the shows, which aired without copyright notices when that mattered, then the '77-'89 stuff is public domain.

Which reminds me: It never came out why they fired Andrew Martin when he was recovering from neck surgery, did it?

That's not really what he said. What he said was WWE can't fire Paige for performing in a sex tape and then bring back Hulk Hogan who also performed in a sex tape.Unless you're doing the conspiracy thing, Hogan didn't perform in a sex tape. He was secretly recorded having sex.

I definitely should have considered that.

What do you mean by the real title? I'd be shocked if that wasn't the house show belt. What's the likelihood of them buying a replica specifically for sex?

Not counting people with Madonna/whore complexes, I think it's more that it's purportedly the thing most likely to set off WWE.

I keep coming back to this. I know Maddox is an AV geek. I'm pretty sure I remember hearing he was known for producing elaborate pitch videos on developmental. But to me, this is actually the most legitimately shocking part of the whole thing. Even the belt thing you know had to have been routine in some form with wrestlers forever. But professionally lighting the video and shooting it with multiple cameras is not exactly the norm for this kind of thing.

I enjoyed the match, but other than maybe the Westerners who made the trip and watched live just living in the moment, I really don't get the "best ever" thing at all. Even by the standards of the modern NJPW style, I have no idea what it has to take it so far above, say, Nakamura vs. Ibushi, other than some people losing it for the dangerous bumps. Omega did have one really fantastic false finish with a jumping knee near the end, though.

For whatever it's worth, according to Bruce Prichard, the line was fed to Tony as a way of building heat early for the invasion. I believe it, if just because it always seemed so random of a thing for Tony to say.

I get Cox's point, though: The runtime may scare off potential listeners before they even see there are timestamps. So I'm curious what people think about adding a 2nd feed.

Patreon.com/BetweenTheSheets The Patreon-exclusive shows pivot to some of the great interviews in the history of pro wrestling newsletters, starting with 1993 Wrestling Flyer Yearbook. The Flyer was put out by John Clark, who’s now a long-tenured Philadelphia sportscaster, but back in the day, he did the best insider/shoot interviews in wrestling. The first half of the show focuses on John’s roundtable with numerous pro wrestling notables on the state of the business, including Chris Benoit’s thoughts on steroids, Terry Funk’s psychic powers as the pro wrestling oracle, Paul Heyman hinting at his plans to revamp ECW, and much more. After a quick detour to Ted DiBiase talking about how he was dealing with his career-ending neck injury taking him off the road, we get to the main event: Sid Vicious. Clark interviewed Sid twice in 13 months, first when he was between promotions, and then in the aftermath of the altercation where he and Arn Anderson stabbed each other. Hear Sid’s version of what happened, his thoughts on newsletter columnists blaming it on “‘roid rage,” his assessment of WCW’s drug testing policy, his desire for respect from his peers, and MUCH more. This is a unique, must-listen show. Sign up here. Patrons can click here for the show. We also have a free preview of the episode centering around reactions to Vince McMahon's indictment. Hear what John Clark got out of Paul Heyman, Bill Eadie,Tom Brandi, Jerry Lawler, Jerry Lawler, Dave Meltzer, and Matt Borne on the most powerful man in wrestling being charged as part of a drug dealing conspiracy. Kris and David also try to decipher why the Justice Department pursued a seemingly unsinkable version of the steroid case when there was a much more serious scandal out in the open.

This was all Kris's fault.

This is the match from Beyond the Mat where Vince Russo teaches Sable how to sell her back. Which explains a lot.

It's a gimmick. I don't blame him for running with it, though.

Having not listened yet, do tell.

Weekly?

I know Hogan has implied it but has more ever gotten out about the Kate Kennedy stuff? She filed a sexual assault lawsuit and he countered alleging extortion.

Only real weak spot was Bruce claiming that it made a small profit after they liquidated all of the unnamed assets. The thing is...I don't think he was intentionally working here? Especially since he outright said that everyone can just check the SEC reports because they're a public company. He's noticeably toned down the rhetoric as of late and I came out of the show thinking it was something WWE staff was told as opposed to Bruce trying to work the listeners. Am I being totally naive here? As the show has gotten more popular it's come off like Bruce has gotten more comfortable and not needing to tell tall tales nearly as much. So in this case, where he outright told people to look up the documentation contradicting what he said...he has to be repeating something he was told or confusing it with another WWE non wrestling project, right?

But don't do it through Patreon so we can avoid those reedickalus fees.

It was very obvious at the end of Elimination Chamber that they were going with Bryan so that can't be it.

I did an article for Vocativ laying out the evidence (and calling out the media outlets who got the facts of the case most wrong): http://www.vocativ.com/falsestart/395847/jimmy-snukas-lies-murderer-legacy/