Bix

Yes, he did. And I believe him when he says this is what happened, but I see it more as a way to "let him down easy" even though it comes off as a dick move.

Combination, but it was something I considered long before I ever heard any rumblings of it. While bicep tears can happen to guys who aren't on steroids, and he did throw more hard clotheslines per match than anyone else we've ever seen, if you combine the tears (remember, he tore the bicep in BOTH ARMS) with the drastic changes in size and curious WWE dispute and it's hard not to think he was gassed up for his whole workrate indy run. No, normally I wouldn't call someone who looked like that (devoid of any other context, he'd just look realistically muscular, not like a walking pharmacy) as "juiced to the gills" but I think it's fair given the injuries and huge swings in size. To be clear, with no inside knowledge of what led to Nigel's ascent in ROH beyond the little he muttered to me about his mindset, I don't blame Gabe, I just get the feeling Nigel does. Was the main event style much harder than what Nigel was doing? Yes. Was it already full of injuries? Absolutely. This was in the ROH Newswire to sell a new DVD released a few days before "Unified," talking about a match I saw live from a month and a half earlier: Even then, though, this was just guys working way too stiff. It was bad, but it wasn't anything wrestling had never seen before like the barbaric garbage stunts that have destroyed Nigel's brain. Nigel was the constant in the worst stuff. All of it was him finding new ways to bash his head in. I've had pretty a low opinion at Gabe at certain points, but I honestly can't see him actively suggesting any of Nigel's stupider stunts. And yes, if Unified was just a great match with that hot British crowd, Nigel probably would've been on the same path to the top of ROH. But since he made the switch in the match that launched him, it's really hard nail down how likely it was, and what he felt he needed to do is clear.

To be clear do you mean that he sold the doc on the basis of finally telling the Hepatitis story or that he was refusing to open up to friends who were practically begging him to let them support him emotionally? Or both? With the latter, it was jaw dropping that Les Thatcher, his fucking trainer and mentor, tried to give him an opening with "You know, I had Hepatitis in the early '70s..." and he just stayed mum. Same goes for the conversation he has with one of the other HWA guys (I think it was Cody Hawk) about Andre Hart. The best parts of the documentary aren't Nigel's clearly staged "emotionally naked" monologues about not going to WWE that got all the praise, they're the parts where he's an asshole who: - Shuts down emotionally around his friends when they try to help him and he pushes them away. - Doesn't disclose, explain, and clarify his illness to friends and colleagues who were clearly worried that he could have infected them.

In light of that I should add this: From the second he showed up in IWAMS having improved dramatically, I was a huge fan of Nigel. Even bought the "McGuinness" mock beer logo T-shirt at a ROH show. Adored the guy's work, especially once he found himself as a heel in ROH. When he took such a dramatic turn stylistically, while I did like the first match I saw (vs Marufuji in NYC), I soon tired of it, and it got very messed up as he did so much stupid shit.

Men At Work was a great band.

WARNING: VERY TL;DR Since this has come up in two unrelated threads this week, I might as well devote a topic to it. While I have plenty of sympathy for him, I've been surprised that the reaction to his documentary and the information he gives therein has been what it is. I fully believe that WWE told him they weren't clearing him for the reasons he gave in the documentary, that they felt one of his bicep tears hadn't fully healed (his doctor disagreed) and wouldn't clear him to be hired unless he had it repaired surgically at his own expense. But I don't believe that's necessarily why WWE made the call. We can say what we want about Ryback or The Rock or whoever having artificial looking physiques, or the stories of guys diagnosed with enlarged hearts still wrestling. Still, it's clear from both from anecdotes and the changes in the physiques of guys who are undergoing pre-hiring testing that they take both the drug and overall health aspects of the pre-hiring screening seriously. On the drug side of the coin...Nigel was a guy coming off of two very obvious steroid injuries (one of which may not have healed completely) and he shrunk dramatically from a thickly built wrestler you could see fitting in as a WWE Superstar to an athletic looking, but very skinny indy tall guy. As for his general health, Nigel was and is a wreck due to working a recklessly stupid style. I get why he felt the need to work a more "ROH main event" friendly style when he was stuck in the mid card doing the safer British style that got him noticed. Still, he went about it about as stupidly as possible: - Shoot headbutting the ringpost. - The "ram" headbutts where he and Danielson ran into each other head first at full force over and over. - Taking Austin Aries' bullet tope blind, causing him to crash into the guardrail head first at a high speed. - Throwing a zillion clotheslines in every single match as hard as humanly possibly while juiced to the gills. And that's just the stuff we all remember. When it became clear he wasn't acknowledging steroid use or taking any responsibility for the shape he's in, that's when I checked out of the already grating and repetitive (Nigel kvetches about not making big money, Nigel evades talking to a friend about having Hepatitis, insert extended clips of a match on Nigel's retirement tour, repeat cycle for two hours) documentary. I made time to record a podcast with Nigel a little while back (and for now, let's set aside the jokes about how I haven't posted what I promised). After his last appearance on WOR, where he was eloquent and thoughtful, I was stunned with what I got: A bunch of short, one sentence answers (and he'd brush off follow-up questions) from a guy whose memory is completely shot. I don't mean wrestlers forgetting small details or mixing a few stories into one. I mean he outright said he doesn't really remember his run in ROH, a several year run that was the creative peak of his career and got him noticed by WWE & TNA. On top of that, he was so outwardly bitter (a huge contrast to the "fans love me and sent me money so now I am happy yay" ending to the doc) that he was really off-putting. The interview was so bad I decided to just delete it. I understand I may have caught him on a bad day, but even if so, geez. For some reason, aside from some weird anger (I feel bad for him, but if he KNOWS he can't remember stuff, he should tell people), the big takeaway I had was that it really put the documentary in perspective. He takes responsibility for nothing. He won't admit that he used steroids and that it led directly to WWE not hiring him, or that it's possible the whole "can't remember 5 years of his life" thing was a contributing factor. It almost seemed like he feels the injuries are Gabe's fault for only pushing him as a main eventer once he switched from a moderately safe style to a very dangerous one, even though that's not exactly how it happened. To be fair, maybe the memory issues are responsible for that. More than anything else, he bitches about never making big money in wrestling. I'm sure everyone who deserved a big run but never got one feels that way, but the way he talks about it, it's like he was banking on it. That's the stupidest possible attitude you can have in wrestling. You should be driven. It should be your goal. You can be upset about it for both "dream" and financial reasons, but voicing his issues the way he does, he sounds like every muscle head who goes into wrestling solely because he thinks he can get fast tracked to WWE and become rich and famous.

@ColtCabana @RJPennyweather @JRsBBQ

Yeah, he's still around. Hilariously, he sent out a tweet on Raw about Kofi beating Cesaro for the IC title I think. He's been injured for a good while. I think he may be scheduled to return soon. He was at Axxess doing one of the secondary photo opportunity things, so one would think he's due back soon.

Duggan is already in. Danny Hodge was more of an Oklahoma star but 2014 needs to be the year he goes in. Jake (assuming he's sober, which actually seems likely at this point), Freebirds, Hodge, and Doc feel like the best choices, but then you have two deceased inductees (Doc and Gordy) and they don't like to do that.

The second Michaels match was pushed as the main event and went on last.

Dave is saying they got a court order to seize ALL merch (bootleg and legit) within 5 miles of mania, which...wha?

Off the top of my head, they most likely went after: - A specific DVD vendor who I won't name. - A guy who had custom action figures along with official merch - Barber Shop Window (I should be glad I got my IcoPro shirt yesterday, although it looks like that trademark's expired...how much of their stuff would fall under satire/parody?) - The people that gave me the NHB poster. - Other T-shirt vendors like whoever had stuff like the classic Savage shirt.

Rovert posted this in the Dylan reviews full shows thread:

As for the WrestleCon Expo, it was very good as far as these things go. Highspots' tables were basically what you'd expect, except with magazines all ridiculously overpriced since they're the most high profile table and seeming banking on people rushing to them first to have something cool to get signed, not realizing there was at least one vendor with a good variety of magazines starting at $1. At Cox's instruction, I made a beeline to Gary Cappetta's booth. "He has this amazing WrestleWar '92 poster: if it's still here, I will get it later." Actually, he had multiple WCW PPV posters from '91-'93, and not just single posters: He had a bunch of each, all unused. I grabbed Starrcade '91 (which was on really thick paper to the point it wouldn't fit in a tube, thankfully it should be fine on its own) and his last Bash '91 poster (LEGEND VS LEGACY! Whoops.). PLUS he had his original cassette copies of WCW entrance music he would take to the shows in bags of 8, so I grabbed one that was all circa 1990 except for Hogan's theme. Stan Hansen! Lex Luger! MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE! He threw in a signed photo of him with Bruno & Andre at Clash 20 ("I haven't signed any of these all day...") because he liked the way I was enthusiastically looking all of the goods over. Had a nice selection of WWWF show posters too but they were too expensive for me. Then I found someone with a pretty great array of magazines (video store trade with Hogan/No Holds Barred on the cover! WBF MAGAZINE! and of course your usual Apter and WWF mags) mostly priced based on condition. He ALSO had the WrestleMania 2 program for $25, which I had to buy on the spot as its the coolest program they ever did with lots of fun artwork of everyone on the card. Looking at eBay prices its hard to gauge if it was a good price: Definitely better than what's up now, but others have gone for less recently more or less depending on the starting price (plus one was a newsstand edition). He also had WM1...for $70, which is way too much for me. So since I unexpectedly spent most of the cash I took out at Cappetta's, I had to go back to the ATM while they held my pile of magazine. Already a pretty slow AT,, there was a woman in front of it who had been waiting for seven minutes for it to do something. Yup, the ATM ran out of cash. Thankfully I was able to convince the vendor to let me Paypal them from my iPad. There was a table I didn't spot until late selling a bunch of vintage WWF posters (reprinted bootlegs it looked like since they were on photo paper but they looked perfect). By the first time I got there, there was nobody there. When I came back, they were packing up. I wanted the No Holds Barred movie poster...which she gave me for free! Including a tube AND extra tubes for the stuff from Cappetta. Non-stuff i bought related notes: Said hi Cabana again and he introduced me to Marty DeRosa. Finally met IVP, Arda Ocal, Joe Gagne, & Bryan Alvarez. Bryan was super nice, to the point of apologizing to me later on Twitter for not being able to talk longer. Devon Storm/Crowbar/Salem/Chris Ford PT was with his family walking around as a fan and catching up with guys. Some fun wrestler interactions as you always get at these shows, like Luke Gallows & Serena Deeb meeting up for seemingly the first time since she got fired by WWE and a Tommy Dreamer/Brian Lee reunion. Jake Roberts looked and sounded great. DDP is a miracle worker. If he can get Scott Hall anywhere close to where Jake is, then WWE needs to seriously consider working with him in setting up some kind of aftercare program for wrestlers who they send to rehab. And DDP should probably consider becoming an actual addiction counselor. It's one thing to get Jake Roberts clean, since he's always been someone who wanted to he clean. Scott Hall is an even bigger challenge. I don't think it's just the yoga as much as they needed a support system and the yoga helped with their overall health, lessened their chronic pain, and gave them structure.

"Please do not touch, grope, or grab any of the wrestlers." THEY ACTUALLY SAID THAT DURING THE PRE-SHOW ANNOUNCEMENTS AT SHIMMER. Other than that and it starting/running late, fucking up some people's autograph plans, it was a fun show. The matches that were good on paper delivered for the most part, with Ayako Hamada vs Athena being excellent, the best match I've seen so far this weekend. For a theoretical workrate promotion, though, a lot of the women on the show were way too green. The Saraya Knight vs Cheerleader Melissa (she doesn't do the gimmick anymore and everyone knows her last name, so why isn't she just Melissa Anderson at this point?) cage match main event was good, and I was relieved nobody did any dives off the top of the cage because it was REALLY tall, literally three times the height of the top rope. Seems weird that Melissa isn't in WWE: Great look that wouldn't be out of place, excellent wrestler, pretty charismatic, etc. Did that OVW tryout camp where they thought she did great until she went into crying jags thinking her matches weren't good enough (apparently a byproduct of her time in Arsion's dojo) scare them away for life? This was my first time seeing Athena and she came off like someone who should be a star. The match with Hamada was considerably better than the last time I saw Hamada live (vs Sara Del Ray, which was very good). Just really, really good at everything, and her finisher a top rope diving stunner/Ace Crusher called "The O Face," is awesome. Surprisingly awesome: If the move was explained to me I'd think "Wow, that must look awful," but it looked perfect. Also: I saw a guy in a SlamminLadies.com shirt. Is that REALLY something you want to wear in public, even at a a Shimmer show? You might as well wear a shirt that says "Yes, I spend exorbinate amounts of money on custom women's wrestling matches where I choose what they wear and how long they head scissor each other. Why do you have that look on your face?"

Went with Cox to PWS Supercard Night 1 on Thursday. Meeting the Rock & Roll Express and seeing them wrestle live was definitely one of the highlights of the weekend so far. They hit all of their trademark spots and still have excellent physical timing. Double dropkick finish looked great. Jushin Liger vs Davey Richards vs Anthony Nese was pretty bad whenever Liger wasn't in. There was one wacky three way spot where he somehow ended up getting DDTed by Nese where he fed into it more obviously than the heels running at The Undertaker at Raw 1000. Nese is just a random Indy flyer who happens to be jacked. Liger's body language and reactions were superb as always. Simon Dean > Nova. By a lot. He is great at doing bullshit comedy matches, and he had one here with THE DRUNKEN SWASHBUCKLER. Unintentional funniest moment of the night: The angle with Fake Alex Reynolds distracting Starman (who is literally just a ring entrance) not getting over because nobody knew Alex Reynolds. Most indie wrestling moment of the night: The awful fake Bruce Buffer ring announcer cutting a promo on infamous UCW/ICW promoter and sometimes local wrestling merch store owner Jac Sabboth for leaving without paying for his gimmick table (PWS doesn't ask for gimmick table money up front). Then he proceeded to throw whatever merchandise Jac left into the crowd. A kid in front of be got a WCW Bret Hart Hot Wheels type car.

It could have been a Field House at a High School. Our Field House at my High School, (also in Jersey) was fucking gigantic. I d imagine there were a few more like mine. This show was in Bergen County, which is a wealthy area near NYC, so the "family influence" theory may hold water, It's still considerably more stacked then the A-shows were back then. It's definitely weird.

Capetta explained the Flair situation at the beginning of the show. It's on the handheld and the crowd reaction is nuts.

Seemed like it was written around New Year's Day but he didn't have room for it until now. There's a reference to something happening in February in future tense so he's probably had it ready to go for months.

Jerome, have you read Bret's book? He goes pretty in-depth into why he started wrestling again not too long after the speech in Atlanta. The short version is that with all of the family turmoil over the lawsuit and how great Hogan and Bischoff had been to him in the aftermath of Owen's death, the WCW locker room (full of guys he good friends with from the WWF like Savage, Piper, Hennig, Rude, & Knpbbs) quickly became the most comfortable place for him to be. It went from the reaction of the locker room to seeing him for the first time since Owen died (or the funeral in some cases) to working a few house shows to coming back full time.

I think on Art of Wrestling Justin Roberts outright said that it's a banned way of announcing someone in WWE.

Why don't I remember what the actual goat at WrestleMania is from?

HA. It was indeed weird how they had a huge rush of merchandise during this period, both direct response and moreso at retail. Granted, they had a merchandise catalog before this but I don't remember ever seeing it plugged on TV.

Unified MIGHT be a replica, as that's the one Snowman sold. Dave Millican owns it but since he's friends with Lawler it could be the original.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1585925...tailsfloor-plan This was kinda neat.