flyonthewall2983

I've sampled several episodes so far and have noticed that Jesse isn't doing color commentary with Jim Ross. My memory is a little fuzzy as to specifics but did he start on SN once Ross left?

I wonder if it was Bill Eadie's health problems that made Demolition turn as opposed to the Harts. A Hart Foundation heel turn in 1990 would have made things interesting for Bret's singles run the year after, if it happened at all after that. Bret and Jim in a feud with the incoming Legion of Doom could have had way more potential than nearly any program they were in the whole time there (definitely in their later run for the company).

The launch date and first topic will be revealed sometime this week. They have a poll going on their official Twitter and it's looking like the topic will be about "The Third Man", referring to who Hall and Nash's partner would have been at Bash At The Beach '96. Should be fascinating whether or not Eric defends the idea of bringing in Mabel for that spot.

Crow Sting would have definitely faired better. You got as much earlier that year with the brief feud with Undertaker that saw Jake's exit. I heard that the plan after was to program him with Bret, which would have resulted in some good matches but may have ended up the same as the sole program he was involved with at WCW. The only course that Sting could go to counter is just tell everyone Jake is crazy and ignore the hidden, ugly truths in what he's saying. There's a catch-22 in wrestling I see over and over when a heel actually says the truth, the automatic response is to make it about something else. Or at least make it about his nefarious actions which neutralizes the morality in whatever he otherwise says. There was a lot of that goody-two-shoes mentality in both companies in the early 90's, with brief shafts of unbearable light of truth like this (Jake even makes a nod to AIDS paranoia in this without saying it) that makes you realize why something like ECW was needed for that segment of the audience that saw well past all of that, even without the assistance of the headlines wrestling made during this time.

There's some really great camera work here. Early on there's a nice sweeping shot going from the ramp to the top of the cage, and later on with the story being told between Sting and Nikita Koloff. It lasts no more than 20 seconds but it's a great bit of storytelling, burying any tension from their previous feud.

Davey Boy Smith's son Harry wanted for assault after a confrontation with Jake Roberts that lead to a cup of coffee being thrown in Roberts' face.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2ZEA7XYIEY

I seriously believed deep down that he'd outlive Vince. I hope he made up with David.

7 virgins and a mule

I think Michael Hayes is friends with Skynyrd so it probably wasn't as hard

I can understand that when you're taking out Hendrix and basically everything that was ever used in the territory days or ECW, but why that song isn't available to them is a mystery to me. I think Koko B. Ware's theme is like that too.

I applaud you all for not making a Mick Foley joke by now

I wonder how much of that, as it stands now, is due to them being a publicly-traded company. In 1993, it was likely an ass-covering move since the feds were breathing down their necks.

It is important to people, for medical reasons.

That's the bottom line for me. Especially how he got Vince to open up on camera, and realizing that pulling-his-ear thing is a real trait of his. It's clear to me more than ever now that he regards Andre as the guy that made him, and that maybe he feels guilt for not paying it back to him during his lifetime. Same goes for Hogan. Not sure how I feel about this whole notes debacle, but I think his respect and love for Andre came through. And mostly his awe, of what he meant in the ring and out of it.

According to Bill Simmons and director Jason Hehir on the latest episode of Simmons' podcast, this was shot just hours before he fell into his coma.

The part where he says he immediately puts away negative things, is symptomatic of his childhood trauma from the abuse he endured from his mother and step-father. Somehow it's helped him as a businessman in this regard too, bringing back people who made him money before but left on sour notes (Warrior, and maybe even Brock too).

The whole segment on WrestleMania 3 was the highlight for me. In the context of the documentary I got goosebumps watching clips from a match I've seen many, many times.

Yes it is. Simmons had the director and his film guy talk about the movie on his podcast this morning. I'm halfway through the interview and I get the feeling I should have waited until I saw it, so a word of warning if you planned on listening to this soon.

They don't talk about it a whole lot, except for Conrad to bring it up a few times occasionally in the show to subliminally tell the audience how stupid he thought it was like he does regularly on the show. I can think of worse things they did, like not having him squash Christian in his debut match or having it pointed out later on that Batista is much bigger than him on commentary.

He does. The basic synopsis is that despite resistance and seeing clearly that he was all about business with little love for the industry after what happened to him before, Vince wanted to show him that this wasn't WCW and perhaps could make Bill Goldberg more of a team player through his company's more familial approach. I watched the special on him on the Network, and looking back I can see how misused he was in 2003-4 and how much of that landed on everyone, not just Goldberg. That's certainly evident in how they got it right more recently.

The Goldberg episode was interesting. I recently watched the special WWE produced on him for the Network, and didn't realize just how bad the situation was for him in 2003-4. I was a reluctant fan by then as I was still pretty sore about WCW going under, so seeing him on their show was a highlight for me and I was sad that he left, but it all makes a lot of sense now especially in the light of his latest run when they seemingly figured how to use him correctly.

The Rousey debut might be the best WM match I've seen since Undertaker/Michaels. Just a really fun, intense, old-school wrestling match. Everyone played their parts perfectly, and it was just personally great for me to see Kurt Angle in a WrestleMania match again. Even the fact that he's slowed down considerably played right into the psychology of the match. Kid Rock wasn't even there, was he? I heard a rumor that he was told not to come because he went political in his HOF speech after being asked not to. Don't ask me where I saw that - WM was too damn long and I have a splitting headache. The reaction shot of AJ and Angle laughing like idiots after Kid Rock's comment about beating up Democrats did no one any favors. I don't know, it worked out for this guy. Considering he was there in spirit because that stupid song was playing on all night, I don't care that he didn't show up with the rest of the class.

Simmons is on WTF With Marc Maron today

HBO's Twitter feed has been all about Andre tonight