sek69

That may be true, but if Dave came out and said "this book, while maybe not 100% factually accurate, is a prime example of how the mentality that exists in wrestling can lead to horrible things", I'd wager that there would be some people who would stop talking to him. I don't mean to attempt to insult Dave's integrity, but the guy's livelihood depends on a group of people who embody the "LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU" mindset to the fullest. I don't even know if it's self censoring either, I really think that Dave has convinced himself that everything he's saying is impeachable truth.

He owned part of Capitol Sports, right? Also I'll cop to not knowing a whole lot of WWWF history, buy wasn't he also involved with booking some of the areas outside of NYC back then? Like I said, I'd say he should be in just for his announcing work alone and anything else would be icing on the cake.

Also, Gorilla not being in as an announcer/backstage guy is ridiculous and probably due entirely to Dave's weird hate boner for the guy in the 80s. Monsoon was the voice of the WWF for anyone who started watching in the 80s, and should probably be in for that alone not even taking into account his work behind the scenes.

I think you can make a case for The Midnights/RnRs for changing how tag team matches were looked at (weren't they the first tag teams to main event that wasn't two main eventers paired up?), and maybe Ivan Koloff, but after that I think what Loss said is right.

I tend to agree with the opinion that a lot of people in "TEH BIZ" are pissed off over the book on some level and Dave's review comes across as him trying to put out the fires so he doesn't lose any of his sources. Also, he's been around wrestlers and the wrestling business for so long it's not out of the question to think he'd share some of the defensiveness wrestlers show when an "outsider" criticizes their profession. Consider our very own Jingus, who never misses a chance to remind us of his involvment in wrestling, still clinging to the "there's no proof wrestling caused anything" point so imagine what people who actually knew/worked with/talked to Benoit must think.

At this point, anyone who manages to not die in their 30s or kill anyone can claim to have successfully negotiated their way through a pro wrestling career.

I got that vibe as well. I could tell from Dave's review of the Pillman DVD that he felt pretty strongly about Brian (and maybe a little of "maybe I could have done something more" as well) and that almost all of his issues with Ring of Hell seem to stem from him catching feelings over anyone even suggesting mean things about him. Also it kind of alarms me that Dave dismissing so quickly the fact that Benoit idolized one of the biggest psychopaths in wrestling history. It's not as if he didn't meet him until much later and not know what a tremendous asshole Dynamite was. It's one thing to find out your hero is a jerk. It's quite another to find that out and continue to hold him in high regard as if nothing happened. For a guy who usually is fast to point out the twisted mindset that seems to thrive in pro wrestling, Dave really bends over backwards to drive home his point that completely patterning your career around a guy who not only was a dick but also ended up in a wheelchair has no connection at all with Benoit ending up with brain damage/becoming a family annihilator. It's like he'll fully acknowledge the messed up side of the business in a "lol, wrestling" kind of manner, but once there's a hint of it leading to serious shit he's almost as bad as the Justice for Benoit people.

Again, the key part isn't what she jumped off of, but that she landed on one leg because she was selling the leg injury from earlier in the match.

It's only 10 matches. The WWF MSG shows of the time seemed to have around 9 to 11 matches each. MSG shows were pretty much just houseshows. This was supposed to be the kickoff to the biggest event of the summer and you have Black Bart vs Todd Champion? Major WWF shows didn't load up the jobbage like that.

Reading that lineup made me realize one aspect of the NWA vs WWF battle that seems to go unnoticed: NWA shows were always entirely too fucking long. Outside of TV tapings, major WWF shows always had the pacing to build up the enthusiasm , leading to the crescendo of the main event. NWA shows were always jam packed with guys who really didn't need to be on card, or trying to have every territory represented no matter how long it made the show run.

It's funny to hear someone from WWE giving UFC tips on how to build their brand when they've been forced to go more kid-oriented since UFC has pretty much taken all their fanbase over age 21 or so.

Jumping from a height and landing on one leg is pretty much guaranteeing bad things will happen, especially to bigger folks.

I think Fox just wants Smackdown to give MNTV something close to a respectable rating. If they get anything close to what they did on the CW, it would put WWE in a position of calling the shots of sorts. Although not moving SD back to Thursdays is a sign that MNTV execs must be happy with the barely measurable ratings they currently get.

Smackdown wasn't part of the NBC Universal deal (which includes RAW/ECW/SNME). WWE wants to have a show on network TV as well as cable, and MyNetworkTV is really the only one that would take them. Plus they have the option of being far and away the #1 show on the network, since MyNetwork has pretty much zero in terms of marketable programming. Even though SD was the highest rated show on the CW, they at least had other programs with somewhat of an audience.

So the 1995 Wargames match that was supposed to be in the Shorties section never appeared, so I used my HAWT INSIDER CONNEX to find out what happened. I got this reply: The match was Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Lex Luger, and Sting vs Kamala the Ugandan Giant, The Zodiac, The Shark, and Meng so I wonder what kind of legal issue it might be. I wouldn't think it was any music related stuff, since the guys involved all had plain vanilla WCW themes (at least as far as I remember).

So I'm watching the WarGames matches in the shorties section, is the 1989 one (Midnights/Road Warriors/Dr Death vs Freebirds/Samoans) the only time Hayes, Gordy, and Garvin teamed as the Freebirds?

I've never seen this match, the AWA shows running on ESPN Classic picked up with Hennig and Hall already as champs. Was this any good? Who would have bet on Roddy Piper being the last man standing in that group?

There's no accolade that can be lauded upon "Ring of Hell" better than it being the one thing to make Lance Storm show emotion after 18 technically-sound-but-boring-as-shit years in the business. Also, Loss is dead-on in saying that Storm is basically the anti-Benoit so it's no surprise the book offends him.

By the way, Dave mentions in the last WON of June that if you subscribe to the print WON, you can get a discount on that if you sign up to the website. Sets of 4 issues for $7 each, so if you combine that with an online sub it works out to be like $4 more than just getting the print version. I signed up for the website last night, and man is the F4W horrible. Well, maybe that's not fair, but the WON is so much better it's not even funny. Alvarez must be making some serious coin on this deal since now all his subscribers that were F4W only now see what a inferior product they had.

Also there are so many stories of JR being a monumental asshole when he was the HNIC of talent relations, you can't help but think that this is karma coming back around.

On a somewhat related note, seeing Magnum's porn 'stache sticking out of the mouth hole of his James Boys mask (on the latest NWA episode) is just hilarious.

Yeah, Ric Flair and Bobby Eaton were like twins. I can't tell you how many times I turned on TBS and mistook the two of them. That "less muscular" Ric Flair with the giant arms was just the picture twin of Eaton. He wasn't suggesting they were twins, he was saying that they were being phased out for dudes who were more ripped. I didn't think there was any doubt about that very thing going on in wrestling at that time especially.

It cracks me up to this day that Bruno's mom was my Sunday School teacher. Even funnier is that they look alike so it was like Harvina was teaching me about Jesus.

So how exactly does this work, do you have to subscribe separately to get the print WON and access to the website?