sek69

Basically Linda has no positions of her own. She's just adopting the teabagger and far right conservative positions. Seriously... that's a boilerplate level response that I could have written. John You know it's probably a good thing for her that the media by and large ignores wrestling. Anyone paying attention would have jumped all over her being involved with a multi-million dollar company that goes out of its way to avoid calling the people who perform physically damaging stunts "employees". Especially ones who are for all intents and purposes uninsurable due to their jobs as pro wrestlers.

Explain. They did an angle on Smackdown where Michelle McCool did a promo dressed as a farm chick and calling Mickie James "Piggy James". Whoever did the Friday update on WO.com did a mini rant on how this was such an obvious example of the company calling Mickie a fatass and how mean that was to do. Only thing is when it aired, it looked like a heel doing a heel promo. That didn't stop Dave from posting a letter on the site from a reader up in arms at how terrible it is for them to do such an angle. edit: Found the quote from Dave: " They also do a personal angle with Mickie James which was clearly a message at her and one that to me makes the company look real bad."

So everyone on the site seems to be up in arms over the whole "Piggy James" angle. Is there any actual proof that this was one of those Vince Sends A Message deals, or is everyone just jumping to conclusions?

Everyone's assuming the building is going to be torn down, but I think in this climate (especially in Michigan) it would cost more to demolish and build something else than whatever maintenance is needed on the dome itself.

What's sadder still is fat Brian Knobs is maybe the 4th or 5th most embarrassing aspect of this show.

It's funny how Hulk always seemed to try to undermine or sabotage the guy the company was trying to push as the new main guy (like how he overshadowed Savage and Warrior's title reigns), yet the one guy he went the furthest on by making him think he caused an injury due to sloppiness ended up the biggest star.

I've noticed both Dave and Bryan (but especially Bryan as you note) seem to have been under the impression that Regal was going to get pushed to the moon in ECW when he's clearly in the "established vet helps out the youngin's" role. Also I kind of get why they would have expected Regal to win in England but they've done that a few times and there really wasn't a reason to take the title off Christian unless they're planning to move him to a different show, and clearly they don't seem to be.

Alvarez updates are always funnier to me since I always read them as if Bryan was reading it out loud in his usual exasperated-at-everything voice.

I can accept the analogy in terms of stating since both are promoted there are some common traits, but Dave and the people who parrot him go as far as saying the product is basically the same except for the work/shoot stuff. Dave is always talking about fighters (boxers too, he does it with Floyd Mayweather) being heels and cutting promos. Again, it's a business, yes. They sell tickets, yes. So do many other forms of sports and entertainment and that does not make them similar in any way to each other. It's to the point now that anyone who believes MMA=wrestling almost has to be willfully ignorant or someone in the wrestling business who wants to latch on to something that has the mainstream popularity pro wrestling always craves for and never gets. Also, I don't believe OJ would actually resort to pulling out Pride as an example of MMA running angles. Japanese MMA has always been alleged to not be on the up and up at worst (how many fights over there have been alleged to be works or at least had guys cooperating?) and at best they book freakshow/one sided bouts that clearly favor someone they want to win. Japanese MMA is clearly more similar to pro wrestling due to how it evolved in that country.

Just because MMA is promoted doesn't mean it's the same as pro wrestling. Boxing has been promoted just as much as wrestling (and at certain times better than wrestling promoters were doing) and no one ever made the argument that boxing and wrestling are the same thing. Concerts are promoted as well, no one says concerts are the same as pro wrestling. Anything that has tickets to sell has some form of promotion behind it, it doesn't mean the events being promoted have any connection between them, If people made the argument that MMA=boxing, that would be much closer comparison. Both of those sports drum up interest in fights and personalities, but wrestling promoters have a very obvious advantage since they are the ones who determine the winners and losers. Since MMA and boxing promoters don't have that luxury (or they shouldn't, at least), the difference is sometimes subtle but very distinct. MMA fighters aren't manipulated into situations where they want to fight each other, they fight each other to contend for or to win championships. You're not going to see a main event booked on a MMA PPV because Brock Leasnar smashed a coconut on someone's head or because Fedor clotheslined someone with a chain and draped a Russian flag over him. If you really want to make a comparison, I'd buy that today's MMA is a real combat version of wrestling say, in the 1960s, when it more resembled a "real sport". The day they start running angles on a MMA PPV I'll start buying into the MMA=wrestling meme.

Oh boy.

I wonder if Linda running as a Republican will get the WWE to drop their "we're all bipartisan" stuff that everyone knew was BS.

This also may be a touchy subject depending on whatever the current family dynamics are, but I wonder did the kids realize Vince was only interested in buying out Stampede as a way to get the talent he wanted for a discount. It seemed like based on stories from various Hart related books that Stu was under the impression he could carry on running shows.

Speaking of Dusty and the NWA title, was there any truth to the legend that the reason Dusty's reigns were so short (at least the first two) were because the Giant Baba wouldn't have approved someone looking like Dusty touring Japan as champ and the NWA didn't want to piss Baba off? Also that reminds me of Dusty's promo on the freshly heeled Dick Murdoch (which is on the NWA TV ep now up on WWE 24/7) where Dusty mentions his 3 world title reigns when listing the reasons he's better than Murdoch despite the total of all his time with the belt put together adding up to what, a month or so?

Obviously WWE has been going after stuff on YouTube forever, but it's also equally as obvious that they are putting extra effort into removing anything involving Linda and all the embarrassing angles she's been a part of over the years.

I would have expected a lot of folks here, SLL in particular, would be feeling a certain way at this set pretty much only existing to cement the current WWE history of the Raw title = NWA/WCW title.

ITT it's once again proven most of Dave's opinions on guys are based on things he's never seen personally.

I love how Dave (that was his post, right?) seems to enjoy rubbing it in everyone's face that Hogan in 2009 isn't the same draw he was in 1986. I think pretty much everyone had that figured out after his last WWE run at the very least, if not before. Also re: the whole Snowden/Dave wars....it seems that Snowden's raging against the machine and he will never be able to convince anyone on that board since they desperately hope UFC going mainstream will legitimize pro wres since one of "theirs" is heavyweight champ. That's really all it seems to boil down to, wrestling fans hoping to finally be able to have a comeback when a non fan starts busting their balls over liking that fake wrestling stuff.

From today's update: I wonder who convinced who, either way the talking point lives on.

I think Foley's just the only guy in wrestling who doesn't make Missy Hyatt jokes (he counts her as one of the ones who helped him break in the business) so that's a sensitive area for him.

I just can't put any credence into a book written by a guy who's blog started to resemble Jack Nicholson sitting in front of a typewriter in The Shining. I half expected the book to be 300 pages of "ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES IRV A DULL BOY". All the tireless research and investigation he put into it and the only thing he seems to have really dug up is that the timeline of the text messages was mis-stated by WWE and that higher ups in the company probably knew Benoit was the killer long before the tribute show. Both are things you would also have learned by reading the WON, which Dave managed to uncover despite obviously softballing his coverage to protect sources/friends in the biz.

Someone really needs to establish that one great performance =/= a star being made. You would think people who spend so much time watching pro wrestling would be aware of that.

I was thinking today, has there ever been someone booked on top who's such a mis-mash of prior gimmicks as John Cena? WWE is so quick to repackage guys as soon as they decide to give them the big push, but Cena's still out there in his baggy-shorts-and-tennis-shoes from his original rapper gimmick, dog tag chain (which somehow has become a treasured item he must kiss before handing to the ref) from his "promoting The Marine" phase, and his t-shirts still reference the "Hustle, Loyalty, Respect" motto from his Chain Gang gangsta period. Then you have guys like the Miz, who once they get blessed from above ditch their Cena-with-a-Bedazzler pants for an outfit that if WWE was CMLL would make him look like Jerichocito.

I didn't see any mention of 40+ old meat curtains, so yeah....

Strange article. No mention of Liz at all. John Maybe they're finally getting up off the guy and not doing the ridiculous "you killed Liz" stuff. I'm just glad to see the guy's looking better than those emaciated post-paralysis pics.