sek69

Off the top of my head, I'd say this:

Bryan was doing a segment-by-segment review of RAW and when he got to the point where they announced next week's host he stated based on the pic they showed it looked like he had no charisma. Listening to Dave have to explain that Damon is not only a charismatic dude (for baseball) but also a pretty big star was awkward to say the least. It seemed like he was trying very hard not to clown him for not knowing, but still had a "dude, don't you fucking KNOW who this is?" tone to his voice.

Of course backstage nonsense has affected what you see on TV as long as wrestling has been televised, it's just more obvious now because there's only 1 real major company.

Wow, Vince must have been really pissed to see a host on RAW bomb so badly, especially one espousing the same political views he has. It was kind of funny to see him being all "liberals, amirite?" to a crowd of wrestling fans in Texas and getting crickets as a reaction. He must have really been yelling in the headsets too, since "Dennis Miller must be writing your jokes" became everyone's comeback to a corny one liner.

This should be interesting. A large part of the internet crowd hates Cena with a passion, yet they feel obliged to hate Sheamus because he's a Friend of Hunter. Also those same folks constantly decry the WWE for not pushing any new blood into the main event, yet when they do so there are complaints that the guy they push isn't any good and/or doesn't deserve to be pushed.

What is someone who wants to be a wrestler supposed to do? Doesn't seem fair that a guy should be expected to shoulder responsibility for the people running the industry they want to go into being heartless dicks. Also, what's to say everyone who wants to be a wrestler is fully aware of how the business is run? Maybe they think it's just the indies that run this way and once they get to WWE everything will be different.

I still don't know why it being a risky profession means it's all on the person who's doing the job. Most jobs aren't 100% safe, hell a TV set could fall on my head where I work and kill me instantly. That doesn't mean my employer has no reason to make sure the mounting brackets aren't attached properly. The fact that I accepted a TV could fall on my head doesn't absolve the company of doing whatever it can to minimize the chance of it happening. Shit happens, we all know that. Construction workers sometimes fall off high buildings, soldiers get shot at, and sometimes NFL players get career ending knee injuries from their cleats getting stuck in the turf when they get hit. All of those people also benefit from working in fields where millions have been spent in making sure anyone entering that line of work is as safe as possible. What's been done in the last five, ten, or even thirty years in wrestling to make things safer other than mats on the floor? I think Loss is on to something when he mentioned a lot of it comes down to is the poor training most wrestlers are getting. I remember back when Tough Enough was running, most of their training consisted of them taking thousands of back bumps and running the ropes. Obviously some of that was done for TV, but I remember watching the show and thinking "wow, this is all the training they can give these guys?". Looking at the guys who have come up through the recent developmental system, the ones who were mostly trained by WWE are the ones who ended up with injury after injury (Batista and Orton come to mind) and guys like Cena who were mostly trained out of WWE have a lot better track record.

Another point that I see largely being slept on, everyone's up in arms over CM Punk being a heel for telling people drugs are bad, but to me the far more reprehensible thing is how every babyface he's faced has the same response of "everyone's free to live their life" which seems to be a way to say it's OK to do drugs if that's the choice you decide to make in life. I mean, when you think about it, how fucked up is it where you have babyfaces implicitly endorsing recreational drug use on a show that is supposed to be PG rated programming?

I guess there's something heroic about a guy like Misawa taking the punishment himself to keep his company afloat, but it just underscores how messed up the profession is.

Misawa's neck probably wouldn't have broken had it not been subject to the abuse it took over the years. Let's not let his death cause people to use revisionist history to erase the last few years of broken down zombie Misawa continuing to wrestle because he was the only sure draw his company had.

Didn't Harley Race try to get Benoit to stop doing the diving headbutt at one point? I seem to recall him saying he was afraid Benoit was going to end up in a wheelchair since he had problems from it and he didn't do it nearly as much as Benoit did.

I seem to recall it being something about they didn't want to to the job and it ended up being a quick joke match.

I'm still puzzled by the random ad hominem attack on liberals in the middle of all that. I guess maybe it was intended to be more outrage porn for the littlegreenfootballs crowd?

I think everyone knows why WWE does that, it's just that there's a less douche-y way to do it and they aren't even the slightest bit interested in doing it that way.

If I had to guess, Afa likely wished to devote time to his wrestling school. I thought of that, but then Afa did come back to manage for a short time.

Not to be smart, but when someone has a history of obesity and drug use, you really can't call it shocking. Not to mention family history of weight issues and heart problems.

In light of recent events involving his family, it reminded me of something I always wondered about Afa. Was there a reason he left the WWF and Sika stayed? They were a team for so long it was odd to see Sika as a JTTS and fill-in guy when someone would no show.

At this point I have to hope Irv is just trying to troll Dave and really isn't trying to suggest that he had a hand in the Great Benoit Cover-up (the existence of which is another highly suspect thing but that's another point). At worst I think Dave was just not willing to admit he got worked by WWE in regards to Benoitgate and as far as the Umaga death it seemed just as clear that the hospital was just keeping him alive until the family arrived and Dave didn't want to confirm his death until he was sure the family had a chance to say their goodbyes. Most people who've lost a loved one have experienced that, and it's actually kind of crass for Irv to insinuate anything.

I think Dave doesn't want to officially say he's dead until he's sure the family was notified (and we know how big his family is). Also all the reports had him found by his wife with blood coming from his nose, so I would wager he took one toot too many rather than a painkiller OD.

Excusing wrestlers' obvious drug use based on their workrate has always been one of my main peeves with wrestling journalism. When guys like Eddy/Rey/Benoit went from WCW to WWF and suddenly got twice as muscular, no one batted an eye. I'm not naive enough to think they weren't on stuff in WCW either, but watching them on Nitros from 1998 on WWE 24/7 and then seeing them in the WWF about a year or two later really drives the point home what Vince's expectations are. At least Dave just has a kind of resignation where he doesn't approve of it but just reports it as "well that's what they want their guys to look like". Guys like Bryan just rag on anyone who isn't built like a bodybuilder.

I'd also wager that he had access to better stuff in WWE as well. Not to mention Flair's well known money problems probably have him shopping at Wal-Mart rather than Macy's these days.

Meltz pointed out that Rey gave an interview where he discussed his pain pill problem that led to him having to go to rehab in 2008, the elephant in the room being how did that not show up on WWE wellness tests? I mean, we *know* how, but I guess it's another item on the pile of things no one in the press ever looks up when accepting Vince at face value that WWE testing is even somewhat legit.

I never understood why he started going with the wet hair look, that only makes it more apparent that your hair is thinning. Besides, I don't think even in a looks-oriented business like wrestling that people would hold it against you if your hair wasn't as thick at 60 as it was when you were 30.

It's probably bullshit, but the story of Andre flipping over the car of people who were hassling him at a bar is one of my favorite parts of rasslin' mythology.

Flair's actually in not bad shape for a 60 year old dude. Hogan's body is what happens when your at an age where working out to keep fit is essential but your body is too broken down to do it properly.