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I guess it belongs here since it's a result of them trying to close a loophole in the Wellness program, but Meltzer has mentioned almost in passing a couple of times now how WWE is cracking down on pot use. Before, it was seen as harmless pain management and guys were just paying the small fine. Now with Congress asking more questions they don't want to be seen as allowing any drug usage. Of course with weed taken away, I'd wager most guys will just end up drinking more and/or getting mark doctors to give them legal pain pills.

Depending on the blood alcohol level of the parties involved, the women's match could have been fun.

Despite the evidence that would indicate the former, I'd be willing to be it's the latter. I have no doubt based on Vince's beliefs that it it was instilled in her early on that steroids is a Thing We Do Not Discuss.

Obviously not every 80s wrestler ended up like Randy the Ram, but when you have the biggest star of that era (possibly ever) working small indy shows it kind of illustrates what happens to guys after the business is done with them. Think about the guys who were superstars in the WWF in the 80s, which is what Randy is clearly based on. How many of them went on to live lives either the same or not much better than his? The only ones who don't end up like him are mostly the guys who end up taking an office job with the company. When you consider it's a career that doesn't offer any type of medical or pension coverage, and it all but guarantees a lifetime of pain and medical costs, the Ram's fate would be pretty hard to avoid.

They used that as the intro bumper to one of the shows on WWE 24/7. Ironically I think that's still the best bump Nash ever took.

Actually it came off as someone (Waxman maybe?) read a bunch of Observers in preparation but didn't really know what any of it meant.

I just read the transcript and it's Vince at his most Vince-est. I love how he acts like a mob boss on trial and claims he has no knowledge of pretty much anything that goes on in the company. Now I believe he doesn't get involved in the developmental stuff but I have a hard time believing (as Vince contends) that anything Wellness related was at Dr. Black's sole discretion alone. There was also a moment where they seemed to have Vince over a barrel by pointing out the Wellness Policy was a result of Eddie's death, only for Vince to basically say "NUH-UH" and no one followed up on that. It was irritating to read how it seemed that the people asking the questions seemed to know enough to tell that they were being completely bullshitted, but not enough to actually call anyone on it. McDevitt cutting top level heel promos in the halls of Congress on anyone who dares suggest WWE does anything other than put smiles on faces is just classic stuff. The end where it goes between McDevitt in full Tully Blanchard mode and Vince no-selling any and all questions regarding him personally using steroids/HGH was like something out of a Godfather movie. Not that it should come as a great surprise, but Vince coming out and saying it's all PR and he doesn't give a shit if guys are dying from drug use was kind of shocking considering he made mention of the public reading the transcript earlier in the interview. The whole thing came off as a more restrained version of the "Vince goes apeshit on Costas" interview, where it was all about Vince having to suffer the indignity of having to speak to the common folk. Someone (Stupak or Cook I think) once posted that Vince is like the Superman speech from Kill Bill where he acts the way he thinks normal humans act, and that's all I could think of reading that transcript.

I always wondered about Adonis getting fired, it's the only mention I ever heard of a WWF dress code that far back. I always got the impression he was given the Adorable gimmick as a punishment for letting his weight get out of control and then he made them mad by getting it over as well as he did. I also wonder of any footage of those matches with Dick Murdoch exist anywhere. I agree 100% with Dave's comments on Ed Whalen. When they show Stampede shows or matches on WWE 24/7, he almost singlehandedly succeeds in making it unwatchable to me. It's one thing to be the Lance Russell style voice of calm in a sea of pro wrestling insanity, but Whalen just comes off as nerdish. out of place and, vaguely child molester-looking.

I don't know if it was intentional but to me it always seemed like PE was imitating Amos & Andy "feets don't fail me now" black stereotype comedy, with a wigger gangsta twist.

Other than NOAH and possibly CMLL, I don't really see the economy having too much of an effect on wrestling. I can see the ongoing drug wars in Mexico having an effect on Lucha since it seems a lot of the violence is happening in the outlying towns that wrestling down there seem to frequent. I think WWE will actually do better this year. With Cena, Edge, and Orton making bigger contributions. Wrestlemania is a mixed bag, I'm sure since it's in Texas they are going to want to pull out the stops since I'd say this is the year for Steve Austin to go in the HOF probably along with Hayes and Kevin representing the Freebirds and Von Erichs. Maybe they can dig up one or both of the Funks (I'm sure Dory would do it). I think ROH could be the story of the year. If The Wrestler gets the mainstream attention at awards time people think it will, they could be in a prime position to possibly leapfrog TNA as the #2 promotion. Being featured in a movie that treats wrestling seriously (compared to WWE produced movies) may get the attention of that mythical audience that left after the Monday Night Wars.

I don't recall that particular scene in the movie, but no, Hansen definitely was involved in some of the wrestling scenes. It was actually quite funny considering how awful the rest of the movie was. Hansen comes up behind 2 TV executive types taking a wizz in a dive bar bathroom with the memorable line "WHATTA WE GOT HERE? A TINY WANGER!!"

Not to rehash the Lawler thing, but I thought it was common knowledge that Uncle Jerry liked the not-quite-legal girls but gets away with it because he's basically Jesus Christ in Memphis. Like, the one who sued him, I seem to recall at the time that the story was she recanted because Lawler (or his representatives) pretty much told her there's no way anyone in Memphis would convict the "King".

I think Japanese fans never had the model of wrestling being defined as one company who's goal was putting everyone else out of business by any means. Sure, New Japan and All Japan were rivals but you don't really have the situation that you have in the US where non fans consider all wrestling to be WWE (or WWF to non fans who still aren't aware of the name change). I think the different mindset helps smaller companies in Japan since it's pretty hard for US indies to overcome the perception that since all wrestling is WWE, people expect WWE style matches.

Thanks to my local game shop, I spent the day today washing the memories of a bad Steeler game away with some Smackdown vs Raw 2007 and ended up with something that reminded me of this thread. First there's a storyline where Trish helps Chris Masters win a ladder match for the WWE title by grabbing the belt off the hook herself. That results in a 3 way match with Masters, Trish, and whoever wrestler the player chose where she stays on the floor as a manager until it all ends up a SWERVE~! where she ends up punting both guys in the nards and winning the match. I thought they were going to do a Million Dollar Man style angle where she gives the belt to someone else but instead they have her going around claiming to be WWE champion while the announcers are practically having strokes over how women can't hold the WWE title, even going as far as comparing it to a 300 pounder winning the Cruiserweight title. Of course this is the same company that has had Harvey Whippleman win the Women's title and also had Chyna win the IC title. Finally it ends in Stephanie coming out and cutting a promo saying her family created the WWE title and she was taking it back because she's the dominant female and whatnot. The whole thing had a real "we gotta keep these bitches in line" vibe to the point it was starting to get (hopefully) unintentionally hilarious how hard they were pushing "women can't be champion" deal. Even when Lawler as the heel announcer would try to put her over, they would have JR be all "WELL YOU KNOW SHE CAN'T BE THE CHAMP NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY". It almost takes you mentally out of the game since you start thinking "holy christ, someone has some issues with women positions of power".

Wasn't it just mentioned in the WON when discussing Gabe's dismissal that ROH is basically OK as long as Cary keeps funding it?

I don't know if I'd say ROH was close to the grave. If anything, it seems like Cary finally got sick of Gabe running the company like an e-fed and making masturbatory trips to Japan that cost a buttload of money for little return. I read that they're expecting one of their largest crowds ever for the next NYC show, so perhaps they made the right move at the right time to avoid getting in too deep of a hole. As far as 2009 goes, could this be the year we see one or possibly several major companies folding? NOAH is reeling and All-Japan seems to be hanging on by the thinnest of threads.

So in celebration of Hanukkah they are having 8 days of Goldberg matches starting on 12/21, complete with a special all-Hebrew match against DDP dropping on Christmas Day. Maybe next year we'll get the long awaited tribute to the all time greatest Israelite sports-entertainer, Barry Horowitz.

I don't know if Joey Styles one punch taking out Bradshaw is the funniest story of the year, but I'm really willing to entertain other candidates for my personal amusement. Oh man, someone needs to make a Punch-Out pic with Joey as Little Mac and JBL as Bald Bull.

That whole gimmick was actually pretty entertaining for a while until it started to get too ridiculous even for Attitude Era pro wrestling, with stuff like Dustin dressed in neon bodysuits and wearing a ball-gag.

You know it's kind of funny how we're discussing this stuff an on the 11/3/97 RAW up on WWE 24/7 there's two men-being-evil-to-women storylines with Marc Mero bullying Sable and Dustin "dumping" Terri for someone else in one of those uncomfortable shootstyle promos. Didn't the "one" he ends up with turn out to be Luna which started the Artist Formerly Known As Goldust gimmick?

Honestly, the Savage/Liz stuff worked because I don't think a woman in wrestling was ever given a classy character like Elizabeth. Most women are eventually given an angle where they stand up to a man and try to fight them as equals but Liz was always portrayed as the 1950s housewife type who knew her role.

It would be an interesting sociology experiment, I wonder if the people there who fap to bloody joshi pics would find that exciting or do the women have to be Japanese? Also I second what John asked, was this an accidental cut or did she for some reason decide to go full Muto at some indy show?

So one of my e-friends was all "have you seen the Terri Runnels chairshot pic?" and I said no, expecting some hilarious upskirt pic or something along those lines but instead saw this: So does anyone know the story behind this?

Dave's opinion on the nWo stems from two things: 1. WCW was never allowed to get any significant wins over the nWo, and any time they did it would just get overturned the next night. It ended up being the Dusty Finish of the late 90s where no one bought a WCW guy winning anymore since everyone knew it would just get reversed on the next TV show. Obviously they wanted to keep the momentum going as long as they could but they ended up making the WCW side look like punk asses who couldn't get the job done. 2. Dave's been consistent in having the opinion once heels become "cool" and popular you basically ruin the point of having heels. You end up having the guys who are supposed to be popular and draw money for your company again look weak, and the entire point of the wrestling business is to have the faces eventually gain revenge on the heels for their heelishness and that was never going to happen.

I always wondered about that, was Piper really brought in just to be a manager? I just assumed he was just in that role while recovering from an injury (the ear thing from Starrcade maybe?), but was it the plan for him to stay a manager? If so, what made them decide to have him wrestle after all?