sek69

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.

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.