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TNA's obviously not going to change based on the complaints of one person unless this turns out to be someone like Sting, so Dixie must think she can pull a snow job on whoever this is.

I wonder if anyone ever pointed out that's one of the reasons it's hard to defend being a wrestling fan with the "it's fake like every other show on TV" logic. Only wrestlers try to walk around like their gimmicks are real. It's one thing for someone like Stone Cold to maintain the aura that he's a beer drinking redneck. It's borderline retarded for Delirious to keep kayfabe on whatever the hell his gimmick is supposed to be.

Also I think another example of everyone aping WWE (intentionally or not) is how they react to the internet. Surely guys in ROH would be more aware of the internet than say, Vince or HHH, but they end up hating the internet because they think that's what they'll need to do to be on RAW one day. I would imagine if a guy posted a lot on a message board and somehow got signed by WWE he would get buried fast if word got out he posts on the internet.

I remember I tried posting on the board at the official NWA site (where a lot of the posters were wrestlers and local promoters) and it was 100% kayfabe. At first I thought it was some weird e-fed role playing stuff and was all "OK, we're really not all pretending this is like 1980s PWI: The Forum are we?" and I got shouted down with the quickness. Also re: ROH school's no internet policy, maybe they don't want any asshole trainer stories coming out? I haven't heard anything bad about their school but pretty much every wrestling school ever has tales of assholery and douchebagginess.

IT WAS ME TWITTER IT WAS ME ALL ALONG Whoever it is posted another tweet slamming the "dirt sheet writers" who are allegedly afraid to mention him, not realizing that like most things involving TNA people just don't give a shit.

I mentioned TNAnonymous returning to twitter in another thead, well it looks like someone narc'd on him and management is giving him his release. He promised to post a video Monday on YouTube both revealing who he is and giving a full detailed explanation of his tale.

Probably because Nick and Bruno are in better shape as 70+ year old guys now than some of the 50 year old guys still trying to hang on today.

An alternative reality ? Ok, this makes it even worse. We got a random Dusty promo, a Million Dollar Man appearance, and Vicki carrying on the time honored tradition of all cakes shown on a wrestling program ending up in someone's face. To me, that's kind of awesome.

That was amazing.....how does that happen in this day and age? It's not like people are still able to capture production feeds from WWE events with one of those C-Band dishes like you used to (I assume WWE has protected that shit by now). Also pretty funny to hear him during that match calling back to the truck to edit out the botched corner spot and not even paying attention to the finish.

From today's update: Please tell me someone grabbed this or it's uploaded somewhere else.

By the way, TNAnonyomous is back on Twitter. They're stating that their contract ended last month and they are working on a per appearance deal, and whoever it is feels free to speak again because they were offered a gig as a trainer somewhere and no longer needs TNA. The gist of what he's been tweeting about is that Dixie has let the old folks take over and now young talent realizes there's no place in the company for anyone who isn't over 40 and was a star 15 years ago.

So Dixie Carter is wishing Linda good luck on Twitter, saying she'd make a good Senator. If that's not a microcosm of why TNA is where they are I don't know what is.

I guess my point here is that while Vince shouldn't expect to get an NAACP Image Award any time soon, WWE has done better in terms of ethnic stereotypes in recent years. Sure, it's probably more economically motivated than any sense of human decency, but sometimes you just have to accept right things done even if it's for the wrong reasons.

What about Yoshi Tatsu? Or Santino even though I don't think he's Italian. Tatsu doesn't seem too ethnic other than his Generic Asian Guy theme music, and I'm pretty sure Santino is of Italian descent. Plus Santino's gimmick has pretty much been "random dude who got picked out of the crowd during a show in Italy and somehow managed to win the IC title despite not being a wrestler". If you go all the way back to his debut, he's been pushed as a non wrestler in a wrestler's role. Also, Cryme Tyme was undoubtedly racist, but it was racist in a way that it was too over the top to be taken seriously. The intro vignettes of them with white women was like a million times more offensive because it was being presented more like them being scary black guys stealin' yo women. As far as Shelton goes, I always thought JR speaking in code with stuff like "best pure athlete in the WWE" came across as a way of them saying "LOOK, A BLACK GUY" more than all the Shelton's mama stuff just because it seemed to be more the kind of thing older white guys (ie: Vince and the creative team) don't realize sound racist to other people.

FWIW He did some work in the AWA in and around 1988, both in singles and tags. Well past his "prime" (I hate that using that word regarding wrestlers since it's so subjective) at that point. Hector/Mando/Chavo vs Cactus Jack & the Rock and Roll RPMs at SuperClash III was a nice little six man match, even though at least 2/3rds of the Guerreros had probably seen better days in the ring by that point.

Vince gets his fingers slapped for trying to troll the elections people in CT, responds as you would expect: STAMFORD, Conn. Not so coincidently after President Obama's visit to Connecticut this past weekend and on the eve of the midterm elections, WWE is being threatened by the U.S. Department of Justice of the Obama Administration with potential criminal activity for distributing WWE T-shirts near select polling stations tomorrow on Election Day. “This is clearly heavy-handed bullying from big government and would appear to be desperate political activity in closely contested elections in Connecticut, said Vince McMahon, Chairman and CEO World Wrestling Entertainment. “This is consistent with some Attorney Generals’ tactics that threaten litigation for political gain. Under this ambiguous threat of legal action by the U.S. Department of Justice, WWE has reluctantly decided not to give away WWE merchandise near select polling stations tomorrow. The controversy began with Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz's directive stating “if poll workers feel like the wearing of WWE paraphernalia is in any way interfering with the voting process, they can ask the individual to cover it up or come back with something else on". The directive was ultimately overturned by a Federal Judge last week. Subsequently, to celebrate the victory of restoring voters' rights, WWE had planned to give away WWE merchandise at select polls to anyone regardless of political affiliation or whether they intended to vote. Yes Vince, it's heavy handed bullying that you were trying to hand out free merch to voters outside polling places your wife is on the ballot at and you got told to knock it the fuck off. Poor, poor, picked on WWE. *edit* if you haven't been keeping up with the comments on WWE's Facebook page, you really should. Every election related story has comments that are 25% I STAND FOR WWE, CENA RULZ! and about 75% "I can't wait for Linda to hurry up and lose already so we can get back to wrestling and forget this stupid political stuff". If Vince ever sees this, WWE will probably remove all traces of their presence off the Internet since it seems that a majority of their precious "WWE Universe" is sick of hearing about it.

In the past on Wrestling Classics this was certainly true, but that isn't really the case anymore. He's certainly not 'above the fray' on the f4w board. It's too bad most of his time is spent battling with obvious trolls. I wish they would start a new Observer forum and plug it in the newsletter, instead of it being a continuation of the F4W one. I guess the end result would probably be the same, but I always thought an Observer forum would be pretty cool. I can only handle the current one by having about 27 people on my foe list. I've only been on the board a few times, and there's definitely some trolls afoot, but it doesn't help that Bryan doesn't seem to be able to handle criticism AT ALL. Even during episodes of Observer Live if Dave tries to correct him on something, Bryan will try to no-sell it as long as possible before Dave usually has to cut him off in order to say what he's trying to say. It sort of sets the tone of a forum when one of the people in charge is more or less antagonistic towards the group in large.

It should be mentioned too that Regal was playing a British nancy-boy type character long before he was in WWE. Hell, his first run he was A REAL MAAAAAN'S MAN (which was probably closer to his real life personality) and it came off as dumb. The only wrestler I can recall who was British that wasn't portrayed foppishly was Chris Adams, and he was still a "Gentleman". Even Wade Barrett's NXT gimmick was of a dashing gent who wore his coat on his shoulders. One thing that I did notice is that guys who are kayfabed to be from South Africa are usually military, Col Debeers types with underscores of pro-apartheid. Guys who are legit from South Africa seem to always be pretty boys (the Simpson brothers from WCCW, Justin Gabriel).

I know this seems like a fairly small nit to pick, but as someone who is of Irish descent, Northern Ireland is still part of the island of Ireland. I would wager anyone from there would consider themselves Irish even if they are officially British subjects. Maybe billing him from "Belfast, Ireland" is too simplistic but I don't expect WWE to worry about international politics vis-a-vis the billed hometowns of their middle card wrestlers. After Poitier won in 1963, no black actor won an Academy Award until 2001, so movies haven't been too much better than WWE in recognizing people of color.

Not for nothing, but Belfast *is* in Northern Ireland, so referring to him as Irish isn't incorrect on their part. Also yes, most if not all non white wrestlers in WWE had some kind of ethnically based gimmick but your original question was is there anyone on television now who doesn't have a racially motivated gimmick so pointing out that there were a bunch of them years ago doesn't seem germane to the topic at hand but whatevs.

The only non white wrestler I can think of who's gimmick is based on their ethnicity would be R-Truth doing the "white guy's idea of how a rapper acts" gimmick. WWE has really toned down the ethnically based gimmicks as of late, the only one I would think comes even close is Alberto Del Rio being a Mexican JBL, but it's more a rich guy gimmick with a guy who happens to be Mexican instead of the opposite like it usually is. Mark Henry, David Otunga, MVP (he originally at least was a spoiled athlete gimmick), even Alicia Fox....none of them have a ethnically based gimmick. I guess you could make a case for Darren Young since the only identifiable thing about him was his Buckwheat hair and looking like John Cena's black twin.

Considering how every one of those seems beset by technical difficulties, I don't think even the folks who watched it were able to watch it.

So according to Tuesday's daily Herb update, WWE is mad at Melina. Did she do something to warrant it or is this another case of Vince pulling a Monty Burns "cut those sideburns" routine?

So I wonder if/when the Democrats will unleash their secret weapon of dirty McMahon laundry.

Road Wild was definitely important to him, as it was an excuse to go to Sturgis on the company dime. Who can forget the hilarity of Harlem Heat trying to be babyfaces to a crowd of bikers?