sek69

If for some reason Jeff Hardy left WWE today, you can damn well guarantee ROH would ask him to make an appearance at least. Also, it's hilarious that ROH fans are now turning on Adam Pearce's booking because he wanted to tone down all the ridiculousness that ROH tends to get made fun of over.

I wonder what kind of reaction Jeff Hardy would get if he showed up at a ROH show today.

Conversely, it could be said that the movie could be seen as an extreme version of a washed up 80s wrestler because not too many 80s wrestlers got the chance to live long enough to end up like Randy.

None of what you list could be determed a "mistake" though. I know as far as "How would a fading 80s relic get booked in all the Northeastern smark federations" goes, the scenes with Randy doing hardcore matches reminded me a lot of Terry Funk in ECW. Also Randy's big historical match was told as being in 1989 and there's a lot of guys from that time period puttering around on the indies now. What strikes me the most is that of all the wrestlers who've posted their reviews on the internet so far, the only thing most of them take issue with is the open drug dealing, which seemed to be more of the director showing the audience that drug use is common rather than something intended to be an accurate portrayal of the wrestling drug scene.

That's who it was widely reported to be at the time, so I guess she pretty much confirmed it.

His review of the 9/12/87 Boston house show has some classic SKeith misinformation, as he states the Hercules-Davey Boy match was due to Dynamite Kid no-showing for reasons unknown and robbed the world of a Harts-Bulldogs match since they ended up defending the tag belts against the unlikely duo of Sika and Mr. Fuji. Of course none of that is remotely true, since Dynamite was dealing with the back injury at that time and a five minute search on Graham Cawthon's site informs you that Mr. Fuji was subbing for Kamala that night. What's especially sloppy about that is A. Scooter's a fan of all things Hart and or Stampede related so surely he knew why Dynamite wasn't there and B. He's pimped Graham's site before so he's clearly aware of it's existence and how simple it would have been to find out who Fuji was subbing for (as I did when I was watching and wondered who was supposed to be in that match).

Not disagreeing with you in theory, but there was a pretty big gap between realizing that WCW was going to be run by a bunch of Turner corporate fuckups and WWF/E turning into something more in line with the style Dave likes. I'd wager he wasn't a real fan of their PRODUCT~! until around 2000-2001 since he certainly wasn't a fan of the early 90s cartoon era or of anything Russo is, was, or ever would be involved in.

Half of the "Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic" winners were just stupid booking ideas and not disgusting by any definition. The only reason the Pacman Jones thing won last year is because Dave was OFFENDED~! at all of it since the guy paralyzed in the shooting was a former job guy and therefore TNA was disrespecting THA BIZ by hiring him. After reading the WON for the last 2 years it seems that Dave makes it clear what he expects to win all the awards, and for the most part they do. I guess it comes from being around wrestling for so long, but it's funny to see Dave doing a little "audience education" of his own. I've still never come up with a decent explanation of his Backlund hate boner other than Dave just didn't like his style of wrestling (ironically he would love someone doing the All-American shooter gimmick now) and also the impression I get that he really thinks Backlund is shoot retarded. Also having Hogan as Most Overrated in 85 and 86 really show the anti WWF bias he and other smart fans had until sometime in the late 80s early 90s. I guess it was around the time Turner bought out JCP that it was time to admit their beloved NWA wasn't going to win the war and it was time to accept the WWF style. The WONs Loss posts seem to bear that out, as you can tell Meltzer barely hiding his disgust as he details the bungling going on behind the scenes.

Not really. I mean, Mick can be nailing every porn star he comes across and it wouldn't make the top 100 scummiest things ever done by a wrestler, it's just that some people tend to get bent out of shape over things like that more than others is all. I totally expected SLL or someone to be cutting and pasting something from DVDVR where people were angry about it or something.

I'm surprised there hasn't been more outrage on the interwebs over Foley constantly mentioning how he's best pals with a porn star despite his constant shilling of kids's books and other family friendly ventures.

So in the Shorties section they have a Savage/Sherri (w/ Brother Love) vs Dusty/Sapphire (w/Elizabeth) match up now as part of the Royalty theme. Who would have thought that by 2009 all the women would be dead, Savage would be walking around looking like a leather daddy version of Santa, Bruce Pritchard would be fired, and Dusty would be employed by WWE as part of the creative team?

I wonder how many wrestling fans watched that movie and felt uncomfortable with the reality that the guys they cheer for will probably end up like that some day. I don't want to start another "club the heartless wrestling fan" debate, but it does seem like there's a large amount of cognitive dissonance involved in watching it. Most people (who are being honest with themselves) realize they are watching mostly horrible people in a tremendously scummy business, and that's ok as long as the matches are entertaining. There's always a subtext of "I don't care about you as a human being, entertain me you meat puppets" when it comes to being a fan I guess. Watching the movie kind of made me remember what it was like to be a big Jake Roberts fan growing up and then finding out later about his horribly screwed up upbringing that led to his substance abuse issues and estrangement from his family.

The non-NBC national games are on Versus, which is on the sports tier of most cable companies, but most local market games are on the regional Fox Sports affiliates which are on the standard lineup for most providers. Also, this could be a good time for WWE to launch a channel as long as they don't ask for a ridiculous carriage fee from providers. Cable and satellite companies are getting tired of being held hostage by the large conglomerates that own most local stations, so WWE offering a proven commodity for a fair rate would probably get some attention.

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".