sek69

To be fair, messing with Jericho has been a hobby of HHH for a while now.

So that means nobody has high levels of power, because Vince can veto things? Ummm, no. I'm saying that you can promote people and give them all the fancy titles you want, at the end of the day only one person has final say so. WWE tends to make it sound like other people in high ranking positions are in a position to make decisions when everything has to be approved from the top down in near-micromanaging detail.

None of them, not even Stephanie, have veto power if Vince says no.

I see her getting some role in the company, if nothing else just for symbolic purposes so they can still brag about having women in high levels of power despite none of them having final say-so about anything.

I guess the obvious one would be how does he (and the family) feel about Bret returning to WWE? I would assume they'd be generally OK with it being a carny family and all that, but I always forget who was on which side in the Bret vs Martha fiasco.

I can see that as a DID YOU KNOW? on Raw.....

So either Linda gets trounced in the primaries, or gets trounced by Blumenthal in the main election. The question is, how does WWE spin it when she retreats back to the company?

I always thought Stu Hart's distinctive voice was just the result of old age, but the Stampede show from 1961 on WWE 24/7 now proved otherwise.

My first impression watching TNA last night was, even if the whole Homicide getting stuck ordeal hadn't happened, that the whole cage setup looked like it was made by Fisher Price. The second thing I realized right after was "how the fuck is anyone supposed to climb up and over to that opening?".

Well Dusty was the booker/top star of the competition, and we all know how offended he gets when other companies run against him. What really struck me is how when they were doing the DustyDust bit , JR made sure to mention how Dusty was okay with it. That seemed odd, considering it was the middle of the Monday Night Wars and all.

I seem to recall the Sheik telling that story long before Hogan became famous for being a professional bullshittter.

Oh man, I forgot how great DustyDust was. Dustin really does a good impression of his dad.

I haven't heard anything to suggest that he wanted to be more involved with WWE outside of hosting RAW, but maybe I missed the memo. My only comment is why do people want so badly to minimize his movie career? Sure, he's not going to be Oscar nominated anytime soon, but most of his movies have been moderate to major successes and I don't think any have been considered flops.

The real main event in terms of what gets the most hype will probably be Bret vs Vince, followed by HBK vs Taker in what I'm betting will be some sort of "loser must retire" match.

I tend to think Dave keeps Babbysack around for the Bruno connection, as I'd gather it's a lot easier for him to just email the Sackster "hey ask Bruno what he thinks about this" instead of waiting for Bruno to reply via carrier pigeon. Also this thread is reminding me that I need to go on a IRL Babinsack hunt since he lives somewhere around here.

I think that's what really gets me about the whole MMA=wrestling deal, wrestlers who buy into it are all "it's like pro wrestling, only real" while Dave and company are all "man wouldn't MMA be awesome if it was predetermined like pro wrestling". On one hand, yeah a lot of things would be more awesome if you could book the outcomes to your advantage, but then a lot of the appeal of MMA is that it is real.

Yeah this has to be one of the most puzzling urban legends in wrestling, especially since the video is out there. I would hear people say Luger was screaming like a girl, or that he got his ass kicked legit, then you watch the match and there's maybe 2-3 attempts to get Brody to sell and it's pretty clear he isn't playing ball. Lex just looks at him llike "what the fuck?" and walks out. Personally I think Brody's career would have more or less ended once the territories died out. His whole MO was getting a promoter to pay him to roll in to an area, have some crazy brawls, and then leave without putting any of the regulars over. It sounds harsh to say, but he died at the perfect time to get the Cobain/Hendrix-esque "one of the greats who died too soon" aura where no one would have to see the mid-90s "burned all bridges and is either jobbing in the WWF or main eventing indy shows in high school gyms" Brody. Also, wasn't the whole deal with him taking aspirins to bleed better the main reason he died? I always heard he bled out because he took a shitload of aspirin to prepare for his match where it was expected he'd be doing a five alarm bladejob.

Most WON columnists got their introduction to MMA via Japanese groups, Bob Sapp was a huge star in Japan, this seems to have caused the WON crew to think anyone who gets big in MMA in the US must be a huge star too.

You also live in Japan. Where, it should be noted, to be a nationally recognized MMA fighter all it takes is to be black. I don't get it.

You also live in Japan. Where, it should be noted, to be a nationally recognized MMA fighter all it takes is to be black.

I would expect it from someone married a woman who, as a preteen, wrote in her diary that she would marry him when she was old enough. I never knew that. Who'd have guessed Bret would have something in common with Tom Cruise?

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.