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Akiyama vacated the title in order to get treatment for his herniated discs instead of ignoring it, so perhaps what happened to Misawa will prompt guys to take the time to have injuries looked at.

For a guy who's supposedly a bad worker, I don't ever recall seeing a Greg match where I thought "wow, he really shouldn't be in there with these guys". Even toward the end of his career, he was able to hang in there with whoever the AWA had left to offer. Also to the "overpushed by Verne" point, watching the AWA on ESPN shows it's clear that Greg was used to put over Curt Hennig and groom him to be "the guy". The feud with Greg that was pushed as the continuation of the Verne vs Larry was the one that established Curt as a main event guy.

So based on his appearance at Slammiversary, I guess Kurt decided the blowoff to his "I'm doing MMA" gimmick would be to grow his hair and beard out to look like Randy Couture?

Greg was a great tag team worker, he just wasn't all that good in singles after a certain point. He wasn't overpushed by Verne since he never held anything but the tag titles (which no one complains about) and the TV title (which was created when the promotion was dying and didn't matter). Plus Greg was the one guy Verne knew wouldn't jump ship, so it would make sense he would keep him in the upper card just in case someone else bailed on him. I think a lot of the anti Greg stuff comes from the fact he was skinny and had a terrible physique most of the time and a lot of smarks are size queens at times. Of course Greg's probably going to live a long life like his dad while guys with acceptable builds are dropping dead in their 40s, but if that's the price that needs to be paid to satisify people then so be it according to some folks.

You know, I think that "female Ralph Wiggum" might be the most apt description of Candace Michelle I've ever heard. I await her TNA debut when she tells Mike Tenay her cat's breath smells like cat food.

In a weird way, it's probably better that it was Maria on the DVD and not some front office WWE guy slagging him the whole time.

There is in how that in Japanese culture (and even more so among wrestlers) there's such a strong sense of being stoic in the face of adversity. Misawa spent his whole life being taught not to let pain get to him plus the extra burden he added on himself as being the owner and top guy of the company. Not to draw comparisons between their two fates, but Benoit had the same mindset drilled into him and he wasn't born into it like Misawa was.

According to the new WON, the cause of death was a fracture to the C1 and C2 that in essence dislocated his head from his body. Had he survived, he would have ended up a quadriplegic. Dave points out that Misawa's neck was probably in the same shape Austin, DDP, and Ted DiBiase's necks were when they retired with the difference being that Misawa never had actual treatment for his. He did the stoic Japanese "never admit you're in pain" deal which led to him never getting it repaired like a US wrestler would have even if it meant ending his in ring career.

As far as USA Hogan vs Japan Hogan, yes the opponent quality was vastly different, but let's not forget Hogan is a pretty smart guy business wise. He knew his standard US formula of "start on offense, heel comes back, Hulk-up, finish" wasn't going to fly with audiences in Japan who expected more than that from top level guys. He just did what any good performer does, changes his act up based on the room.

So the Japanese press is saying the cause of death was a broken neck from the suplex and not a heart attack? Is that legit or is that just kayfabe to cover a heart attack?

Who?

Anyone else wonder if before yesterday, that JR only knew of Misawa as "that guy in the green tights in those tapes John's always making me watch"? I mean, JR strikes me as a dude who's not aware of Japan as a country let alone their pro wrestling scene.

I think the HHH bashers were always a small but very vocal segment of the wrestling fanbase in total. Especially when it started to look like they would bash him for things that seemingly only existed in their imaginations. I think it was good business for him to keep the belt, but not the way it was done. If the plans were to have a Goldberg feud then it wouldn't have made sense for Triple H to get beaten, even if they'd do a Ric Flair deal and have him win it right back. Considering the buildup to WM XIX had so many racial undertones, the way Triple H was decisively put over put a bad taste in people's mouths (not to mention adding to the previous myth as well).

Recent events made me wonder, what made them think he'd be the right choice for the next Tiger Mask? The original was an innovator of high flying moves, and while Misawa could fly in his younger days, I don't think that was ever going to be what his calling card would be.

Zero One was always a small company, it's going to be difficult for a company like NOAH that was once the #1 fed in Japan to not only adjust to life as a smaller group but also life without their founder/top star. They weren't in the best of shape before this happened, and this is obviously not going to help. Everyone's talking about his in ring legacy, and rightly so, but who's going to run the company now? I would hope they'd have had a guy groomed to take over one day considering Misawa's health probably would have had him stepping down sooner than an average 47 year old, but I know Japan tends to run their businesses differently. I can see the political infighting for control more of a devastating blow than the in ring loss.

If anything, it was the complete opposite of the "myth", Strike Force was over and the Can-Ams were largely viewed as pretty boys.

I don't think HHH ever was concerned about Jericho unseating him, wasn't he already established with Stephanie by the time Jericho started in the WWF? It always seemed to me to be a case of that classic high school scenario where someone spreads some BS about a person and then that person's circle of friends has a negative opinion of the person based solely on the lies that were told. The flip side to that, is eventually it becomes obvious that the things said were false, and it makes the people who believed them look silly.

For those who are into the shoot interview thing, the Brickhouse Brown one is just amazing. If you can get past his use of "fuck" and its variants as every part of speech, it's one of the most entertaining ones I've heard in a while. I legit LOL'd at him talking about his reaction when World Class booker Eric Embry told him he was dropping the Texas title to that "Ronald McDonald lookin' motherfucker" Gary Young.

I think WWE just takes personal affront to someone who decides for themselves when to leave rather than waiting to get endeavored/Wellness'd/released while cancer'd. I think it's the same mindset we see with the potshots toward Rock for leaving to do movies. How dare Vickie decide something is more important than wrestling. We'll show her by spending her last month telling people how fat and ugly she is.

I always seen Bret as being rather eccentric, but I don't know why that of all things would drive him crazy. Because he was always so obsessive when it came to anything regarding his character. He's obviously ok with it since they mentioned his name several times putting Kidd over as his only protege, which I guess is a better way to establish his connection to the Harts than "here's a kid who grew up on the family farm and is currently fucking Natalie".

It would be hilarious if Punk got the belt because he's the one guy you wouldn't have to worry about Wellness issues with, considering Stephanie was basically making fun of his look in the Waxman hearings.

Vickie got the most heel heat of anyone in WWE of the last 10 years not named McMahon. To think otherwise is almost being willfully ignorant. Not to throw Jingus under the bus, but I think his reaction is typical of today's fan since everyone is so used to cool heels. If someone makes you actually hate them, that's what a heel is supposed to be doing.

Was watching ECW for the first time in a while, and I know it's his family, but I wonder if Bret Hart goes crazy over the fact the Hart Legacy theme begins with his signature guitar screech.

On WO Radio after the show, Bryan did a Dave-eqsue tease of a blind item where he had heard before last week's Raw that "something was up with Dave" but it wasn't an injury. The way he said it made it seem like he was implying a Wellness issue. I don't know what else would be worth making a coy non-statement about.

Well ok, cheerleading was me trying to exaggerate to make a point. When VKM was taking the company national, it seemed clear that Dave did not like the product nor did he think what Vince was doing was good for the business. Now that may be due to his sources in the territories bitching about Vince taking their talent/TV time/whatever, but once the writing was on the wall that Vince's way was the long term winner he changed his tune about WWF wrestling. Maybe that was due to WMIII proving they could have quality wrestling when they wanted to, maybe Dave just smartened up that the territory guys were trying to work him, who knows. As far as the "WWF hating" I referred to, it sometimes came across like Dave was more interested in if these scandals were going to put Vince out of business instead of the fact he was employing a known pedophile for years. Also his obsession with the Gulf War angle with Sgt. Slaughter was a bit overblown. Yes it was a stupid and tasteless angle, but Dave devoted several issues almost entirely to this as if Vince had him out there shitting on the American flag. There was a good stretch of at least 3 years where he was just hammering everything WWF did.