sek69

So it looks like Damien Sandow's gimmick on Smackdown is to be the 2012 version of Mr. Backlund, down to the towel-around-the-neck-and-robe outfit.

I just saw that as (beside the obvious) as them just putting over how epic the match was. It was so great even the loser of the match goes up a notch. I did lol at guys in that video package trying to sell it as this era's Hulk-Andre. I get what they were trying to do, but it was a real "come the fuck on" moment for me.

Dave and Bryan had a great wink-wink "this guy's roided out of his mind" conversation after the return of Skip Sheffield/Ryback to Smackdown. Dave even mentioned that he might replace Mason Ryan as his "c'mon now" example of how strictly they manage the Wellness Policy.

This strikes me as a somewhat unfair caricature of Dave's actual point, which is that MMA has become successful largely by using promoting concepts that had been successful for wrestling in the past and that modern wrestling has inexplicably abandoned. I think most people realize that MMA and wrestling (and boxing too, for that matter) can all draw from the same well in terms of building a star or hyping a match. Dave loses the room when he takes that point and uses that to affirm that means they should be interchangeable, and that anyone who thinks otherwise is dumb and/or a mark who doesn't know what they're talking about. The easiest counter to his argument is that most sports (football, baseball, basketball, etc) promote their stars and big events the same way and no one tries to make the claim baseball = football or anything like that.

So I was at the Pirates' Opening Day game yesterday, and when hometown guy Neil Walker was introduced there was a small but noticeable chant of YES YES YES popping up.

I think the Titantron shot was to make the fans think Rock would be coming out (since Cena called him to come to the ring right before). The fans chanting We Want Brock kind of added to it for me, since at first it came off like "aren't we smart, we read the sheets and know you're talking to Brock but we don't really expect to see him" to marking out like a 5 year old when his music actually hit. This angle has the potential to be awesome since Brock's exactly the guy most Cena haters want to see fighting him. I loved him kicking Cena's hat after the F5, made it look like he was saying "fuck you, and fuck your stupid hat too".

Was it weird to anyone else that they acknowledged Lord Tensai was a WWE superstar from years back who went to Japan? They mentioned it like everyone watching in 2012 would remember Albert, it was almost like a gimmick they would give in the 80s to some newcomer to make it seem like they were more experienced than they were.

JR coming back to call HITC really made it hit home how much he's the Rock of announcing in terms of how far above everyone else he is. In fact, with the group I was watching with it turned into a major point of discussion during Rock/Cena how much the commentary was killing the epic feel of the match. There were times where you know JR would be selling his ass off making it seem like one or the other guy was in serious mortal danger, but Cole was like a wet blanket the whole time. Vince or someone else producing must have noticed too, since it seemed Lawler was trying to work harder than normal to hype things up and it didn't seem like he was comfortable doing it/

So Green Lantern Fan managed to get himself arrested this weekend: http://www.jailbase.com/en/arrested/fl-bso...owski-571202456 I'm guessing a cop asked him to move but he had to stop his stopwatch before doing so.

What I don't get is I've always heard Paco Alonso doesn't like having active wrestlers involved on the booking committee in CMLL, yet Ultimo Guerrero has been involved in booking *and* a main event guy for a while now.

Also I think the pic came from Shawn's Playgirl shoot with Bret photoshopped in.

Perhaps the beginners to lucha the topic was geared toward would be interested, you uppity cunt.

Pretty sure Vampiro in his prime was a big draw for female fans, perhaps Mexico was ahead of the curve on the whole "women love vampires" trend?

Considering he's the first guy to bash someone for being sloppy, hearing Bryan defend Low Ki for knocking that Evolve dude out (missing the point that the issue was him trying to do spots after the guy was clearly knocked the fuck out) was amusingly baffling. In his opinion, if you knock out someone with a move like a rolling kick, it's the fault of the guy taking the move because the guy doing the move is rolling forward and can't see where he's going.

I'm at a loss as to why anyone would be intimidated by Low-Ki. Just because he has a deep voice and is a sloppy worker? It's not like he's a physical giant or possesses any legit shooting skills that I'm aware of to make people think he could beat anyone's ass legit.

To show how quick he was gone, I actually had to look up Undertaker's Wrestlemania matches to remember Nathan Jones's name. They ran tons of videos hyping his debut, and he was so bad they ended up pulling him from Mania and putting Taker in a handicap match.

I can't recall a time where WWE seems to make such an effort to try to embarrass "the sheets" which is pretty much always code for Dave. Joey Styles in particular seemed to be the point man on Twitter, really belaboring the point that the sheets are always wrong (except those times where they aren't wrong, which is more often than not). I got the impression Vince was standing behind him looking over his shoulder while he was typing. What's weird is even if Dave is wrong and they aren't getting rid of FCW entirely, why cancel the TV show? Half of the point of developmental is getting guys comfortable working on TV. Local TV, but still.

Everyone who was around the WWF at the time of the first Wrestlemania hates Mr. T, or at least thinks he was a pain in the ass. Piper's just the most vocal about it because, well... he's Piper, and he seems mad still over having to do the boxing match at WM2.

So I've been watching CMLL on a regular basis for over a year now since we got the Hispanic channel package up here, and I have to wonder why they keep using Porky as much as they do. It's one thing if it was an occasional "special attraction" type deal, but it seems like he's on nearly every card these days. I realize the family connections and how there's at least 3 members of his family getting at least somewhat pushed, but watching him in the ring is getting scary. He's always been kind of a lucha Buddy Rose in the sense that even when he got morbidly obese he could still work fairly well for someone his size, but now when he gets whipped in the ropes it seems like it takes 10 minutes for him to get to the other side. Almost every move the opposing team does on him has to be a double team, and even then sometimes they have a hard time getting him up. He's been big for a while, and I know they've run angles based off it before, but he's looking more and more like a ticking time bomb.

So that wasn't an angle and they left for real? Doesn't Damien do a lot of work behind the scenes like bookkeeping for them?

Ego maniacal or not, if I owned "Eric Ritz's Drywall Installation" and my sister's shitty kid started up "Ritz Drywallers" and were doing a bad job installing drywall, I would be pissed and tell my nephew to stop being a fuck up and go to DeVry and learn a different fucking trade. True, but Santo did it because he wants his kid to be the one to claim the third generation legacy. It would be like suing your nephew because you wanted your son (who's not even old enough to do drywall installation) to be the only one who could use the family name in the business. It's not like Axel was making false claims, Santo *is* his grandfather, it's not his fault his uncle is a douche. Didn't other family members have to step in before over things he's tried to do with the name?

My impression is that Michael's there more or less to agree with JR to make him seem less like a grouchy hateful human being. If you notice, at least on prior episodes (I haven't watched the new ones yet), every time JR says something that comes off even somewhat dickish Michael will jump in with a related story.

The twist was that the Dr. Wagner gimmick originally was that he was not just an evil doctor, but an evil Nazi doctor (hence the German pronunciation of Wagner). I think that part was more or less phased out long before Jr. came along. What's funny is his son is wrestling now and I think he's going by Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. You'd think just going by III would be easier, but I guess that would make people think he's just the third guy doing the gimmick instead of third generation.

That's Hijo del Medico Asesino, and yeah it's sort of a ripoff of Wagner but the evil doctor gimmick is kind of a trope in lucha.

The comments I've heard was how the cartels shake down companies for a substantial cut of the house for protection, not that they bankroll the shows themselves. As far as Konnan's comments, I just thought it was odd for him to kind of make that accusation when Santo and AAA are tangled in lawsuits over the DVDs made of his appearance on their big show a few years back. I know Mexico's legal system does a lot of things differently than most places, but I figured not slandering someone you're in litigation with was a universal truth.