sek69

I think - and I'm only maybe 25% joking here - is the appeal was he threw a lot of clotheslines (excuse me, "lariats") so it reminded smarks of their favorite puro guys.

I for one think it's great, I'm getting tired hearing the internet bitch about the same things ad nauseam. At least this will be something new.

It was one of Dave's main avenues of banging the "all sports where dudes fight, real or simulated, should be promoted the same way" drum.

I don't get it. Every time HBO does one of these, Dave devotes at least a page of the Observer to how it's the Greatest Program in the History Of TV, and also how This is How Wrestling Should be Promoted.

He comes off that way everywhere, I've never seen a guy with such an overinflated sense of his importance to the business. Even the Von Erichs seemed to realize they got where they were largely because of their father owning the company, Mike seems to think he was a legit superstar who's dad just happened to be the boss.

I realized today that Ranjin Singh is my favorite person in WWE right now. He just seems to be enjoying every second he gets to be on TV, and his "THE GREAT KHALI SAYS" sportcoat is the greatest manager attire since the days of Jimmy Hart co-ordinating suits based on who he was managing at the time.

WWE was insulting the legacy of ECW by paying guys with checks that didn't bounce and having a Wellness Policy.

Also TMZ is now reporting Helms had a Soma on him when he was arrested, so this might end up as a bigger story than just a couple of the boys goofing around.

It looked like big Dave forgot the no head bumps rule with Bret and was trying to powerbomb him until it was obvious that Bret was sandbagging so he couldn't do it.

I wonder if that means they'll acknowledge him as a former champion now.

I'll grant that WM matches tend to get overrated because they're on such a big show, but to say HBK hasn't had any good matches since coming back is a bit much. In fact, it sounds like you still have a grudge against the guy for stuff he did in the 90s. I'm not a guy who sees much use for religion, but by every account I've seen he's legit changed since finding Jesus, but most people look at him sideways for the things he's done in his past - and I guess you can't really blame anyone for doing that. If anything, things seem to have come full circle and Shawn's largely HHH's flunky these days. It's not like it's 1997/8 and he needs to be threatened with physical violence to do a job, other than the Hogan deal, I haven't even heard of him putting up any fuss at all since his return.

Perfect was known for his over the top bumping, Michaels was basically having a match long hissy because he ran into the one guy he couldn't out-politic. Yes it was funny, and the crowd loved it, but that doesn't mean it wasn't unprofessional to do it. If it wasn't for the fact that Hogan was such a dick himself, everyone would have been screaming how terrible it was for him to embarrass one of the all time greats. It never would happen because the circumstances needed wouldn't happen, but if he had gone out there and oversold and overbumped like that for Flair we would have seen an entirely different reaction.

To me it seems like they are trying to book Cena as if he was the Rock, where it didn't matter (no pun intended) who he jobbed to since he would be able to get his heat back and then some just by cutting a promo. I like Cena more than most since I realize a lot of what people hate about him is a result of shitty writing rather than anything he himself does, but even I don't see him at that level.

I'm not necessarily defending Dave, but I did find it kind of funny that pretty much all of the HBK hatred went away when he came back and had great matches. Kind of proved the point that a lot of people will look past any and everything if a guy can bring the goods. As funny as it was, his famous SummerSlam performance vs Hogan was just as bad if not worse from a professional standpoint than any of his pre-injury backstage stuff. The only reason that didn't vilify him for life with the sheet/smart crowd is because it was done against one of the guys they hate most in life.

Obviously he "saved" them....

Somehow TMZ scooped Herb on this one: http://www.tmz.com/2010/01/28/wwe-star-chr...ed-in-kentucky/ WWE wrestler Chris Jericho was arrested at a gas station in Kentucky early Wednesday morning after cops say he and a fellow wrestler were both "extremely intoxicated" in public. Chris Jerico mug shot 39-year-old Jericho was taken into custody in Kenton County around 5 AM for "alcohol intoxication in a public place." Jericho -- who was arrested along with fellow wrestler Greg "Hurricane" Helms -- was forced to smile for cop cam -- and TMZ obtained the mug shots. Jericho and Helms were released on $120 bond -- each -- no that's not a typo. Read more: http://www.tmz.com/2010/01/28/wwe-star-chr.../#ixzz0dsyKCKiA The photo:

This, basically. If everyone is booked to look like an idiot, then no one is ever seen as worthy of a main event push.

My brain wants to remember that it was Championship Sports. The now-MyNetworkTV affiliate was an independent station back then and was somehow always getting this stuff that no one else had. Pittsburgh had two independent stations back then (the other is now the Fox station) and they were always in a game of "can you top this" in terms of wacky programming.

Who: My grandfather got me interested. He was a fan going back to Bruno and the old Pittsburgh territory, and when he retired in the 70s he'd spend winters in Florida watching CWF. When he was up here, he'd watch the NWA on TBS since it was most of the people he'd watched in Florida. In the summertime I'd spend a lot of time at my grandparents' house and one of the few things he'd ever turn the TV on for was wrestling. What: I was a big NWA fan, but the build to WM3 got me hooked on the WWF too. I noticed it was more cartoony, but it didn't take any enjoyment away from the show. I may have mentioned this before, but when I was starting to figure out the whole "wrestling is a work" thing, there was a time I believed only the WWF was fake and the NWA, AWA, etc was legit since they'd have more blood and violence in their matches. When: I don't think I was even in school yet when I started watching, maybe 5 years old. My mom tells the story of seeing me sitting in front of the TV watching wrestling and being alarmed, but she thought I wouldn't like it and turn it off. 25 years later, I'm still watching. Where: Here in Pittsburgh in the 80s it was kind of weird to be a wrestling fan. It seemed like we were the last place on Earth to get PPV, but we did have cable. That meant we had all the NWA shows on TBS, WWF syndication everywhere, AWA and WCCW (and later Global) on ESPN, and at times we had WCCW's Ft. Worth show and Watts' UWF shows running on the independent stations here. Why: I was just the right age for what the WWF was producing, I was 9 years old when Hogan beat Andre, and everything they were coming out with was something right down my alley. In fact, one of my pet peeves of fans my age and older is how they don't seem to understand what WWE does now to attract kids is the exact same thing they did when we were little but it doesn't appeal to us the same way since we're no longer 8 or 9 years old.

To me at least the issue is that he obviously does know who these people are, and pretends not to in order to appear above all this nonsense taking place on his beloved pro wres show. I could give less of a shit if Todd Martin knows who Jon Heder is, but acting like the dude who played Napoleon Dynamite is somehow too low brow to appear on WWE TV is just begging to be mocked.

Yes, he pulls people (plants) from the crowd and gets them to convert to being Straight Edge. He seals the deal by shaving their head. This supposedly is going to lead to a hair vs mask match vs Rey at Wrestlemania.

The worst part is he's not even creatively obnoxious. He could have referred to Johnson as "Nash Bridges", but instead went for the oh-so-inventive "Miami Vice Guy".

Except now she's presumably a bald chick working for a company that wants all their females to be long haired Barbie Clones (unless ethnicity prevents it).

So according to Herb the latest person to get their head shaved by CM Punk is Serena Deeb, who just signed a developmental deal back in July. Considering the look WWE wants their women to have, this is a pretty ballsy move on her part. Odds are they'll get tired waiting for her hair to grow back and endeavor her in a few months for looking too butch for them.

Todd Martin pretends to not know who Don Johnson and Jon Heder are for his entire Raw recap.