sek69

Wasn't the "Onita baits Invader I to Japan" angle a setup for a potential Yakuza hit? I've always found it such a uniquely Japanese thing that promotions always seem to like having Yakuza dudes attend their shows, but any actual involvement in a company is scandal of epic proportions.

My point was while Meltzer was wrong about this particular article, that doesn't mean there isn't a tinge of "MMA fans are all tatted up white trash dudes" in a lot of the articles written about MMA events. It's like MMA fans are the new pro wrestling fans in terms of stereotyping, and part of me wonders if that isn't deliberate so boxing dudes can be all "see, they take fans from wrestling, not us". Upon reading that article, it doesn't seem to be the fair piece you seem to think it is. I mean, they establish that UFC is really the only major game in town then infer they have paper champions because they don't fight non UFC guys. Then later he lists one of boxing's flaws is having multiple champions in the same weight class, which happens when you have 3 main sanctioning bodies (and scores of minor ones) that have title matches with the same pool of fighters. He is pretty honest going over boxing's faults and shortcomings, but then asserts that boxing would still be in the shape it's in even without MMA. I would argue that without MMA to give it some motivation, boxing might be worse off than it is now. The article also seems to smack of the sense of superiority that boxing in general seems to feel is warranted for no apparent reason. Rather than address the real problems of gross mismanagement and refusing to keep the product up with the times, boxing seems willing to just keep hoping people will just start watching boxing because their fathers/grandfathers did. The whole "it's boxing, of course people will watch it no matter what stiffs we throw out" mentality is what will turn the major sanctioning bodies into boxing's version of the current NWA.

Man, watching Maria intro her gift in the Shorties made me sad to see how far she's progressing to the typical hardened WWE diva look. You can almost see the life being sucked out.

This article may not say it, but I've definitely heard variations on the "MMA is for low class white people" bash in many other articles. A lot of them seem to think UFC is the same as fat, untrained dudes having a "Toughman" tourney at the local bar. Also it seems equally racist when the decline in boxing gets subtlety blamed on white people not wanting to watch negroes/hispanics fighting all the time. Hell it seems to me that the most devoted boxing fans are crusty old white dudes.

Oh man, the new NWA episode up has the promo from Ric Flair that was the bulk of the famous "I can't help it" Youtube clip from a while back. You just can't ask for anything more than that. *edit* I found a link to the clip here:

Well they almost caused riots with the false finishes they did with Hogan-Bockwinkel.

By the way, there's a great story in the Bad Asses roundtable where apparently Kurt Angle bought Tazz's gimmick 100% and was concered about if Tazz decided to shoot on him during their match. I have to wonder if this isn't the old "bury the opposition's champ" routine, I just can't imagine an Olympic level wrestler being that scared about the possibilty of a shoot. The daily "gifts" in the Shorties section have been pretty good too, however I have to wonder if Wendi Richter vs Lelani Kai from Wrestlemania I is *really* Mickie James' favorite match. If so, she may be the only person on Earth who'd say that. Rock vs Hogan was selected as one of the gifts, and IMO it's the perfect wrestling match. Yeah, MOOVZ-wise it may be lacking, but the whole point of wrestling is to engage the crowd and those two are the best in the history of the entire industry in that aspect. I don't know what more you could ask from a match than what they delivered there. No matter how many times you watch it, you find yourself getting into it. Also, I have no idea who Jack Korpela is (the description said he was an announcer, ECW maybe?), but he picked Hogan-Savage from WM 5 so he's ok in my book.

Maybe he meant in a larger "LOL @ WWE for making an anti drug statement when their guys keep lying about their drug free status" way, but that's probably giving the writer too much credit.

I've always had the theory that Shawn seemed burnt out (both figuratively and literally) and the injury gave him the opportunity to go out without the questions that went with the other times he'd conveniently disappear. Even the documentary on the new HBK DVD pretty much says that he was drugged out nearly 24/7 at that point. I think after the injury he probably just didn't have the fire to come back and would probably have ended up another OD casualty without his religious experiences. I also believe 100% he saw the writing on the wall and knew the company was going to make Austin the top dog, and there's no way I can see 1998 Shawn being #2 to anyone. Hell, that might have even added to his drug habit having to realize the company was moving on.

Well there was no way Bret could have shown up on Nitro with the physical belt, but I'm sure Eric would have done something to rub Vince's nose in it, which is probably the real reason all the bullshit went down.

Seriously, fuck this guy. I mean, I'm sure 99.9999999% of the people buying the WCCW DVD know the dirty details, does anyone really think WWE was going to do a Heroes of World Class style "look at the destruction of a whole family as well as a promotion" take on things at this particular point in time? If anything, it's kind of admirable in a somewhat awkward way that they're trying to use this as as Say No To Drugs lesson. I mean, what would an all-out slam job on Fritz do at this point? Kevin may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but the fact that he didn't go all Benoit is frankly one of the amazing things I've ever heard. The story is what it is, and trying to make it a cautionary tale is probably the best way they could have handled it IMO. Maybe it's just me, but the way this guy has such a sarcastic tone over the WWE apparently trying to make the WCCW story into something....well I don't know if you'd call it "positive" , is kind if sickening. It's like he was disappointed there wasn't more gory details.

Well everyone points to letting Hogan get away as the big "Verne losing touch with the buisness" moment, but he seemed to have absolutely no idea he had anything with the Rockers. Verne was such a "wrestling over flash" kind of guy and he let one of the all time great in ring performers slip away because he didn't understand their team name and just didn't get the kids these days. At least with Hogan, he seemed to at least realize that Hulk was something special, he just got outfoxed by Vince. Also, wasn't Sarge in the AWA till the end due to being defacto blackballed from the WWF? I seem to recall their parting wasn't exactly on frendly terms.

Just because Mutoh wrestled as Super Ninja in Florida back in 1986 or so, Scooter thinks every Super Ninja is Mutoh despite it being a pretty common Generic Japanese Wrestler name of the time. Honestly, I think missing out on the Rockers was just as big a blunder for the AWA as losing Hogan. At least Verne seemed to realize Hogan might be something, nothing showed how out of touch he was as the famous story of them trying to explain their team name and Verne thinking they meant "rockers" as in "rocking chairs".

So would that mean HHH overruled Steph on something? That would be a first....

I thought the APA was just a one shot deal since JBL was with the RAW group going to Iraq after the show. Plus also I saw it as part of the Carlito farewell tour, since he's now been beaten by a midget and two guys who've been retired for years.

How exactly was he backed into a corner? Well he really wasn't, but in Vince's mind he was. I don't know if WCW was really in his head that much, or if it's more WWE revisionist history, but he seemed convinced at the time that Bret going was the key of some fiendish plot to bring the WWF to its knees. Has it ever really come out why Vince went from being OK with Bret dropping the belt at the December 97 PPV to "OMG LOSE NOW"? Was it all HHH/HBK convincing him?

Seriously, Bret shouldn't have been surprised that Vince ended up doing what he did when backed into a corner. I mean, anyone here has a sense of how crazy he is, surely a 12 or so year employee would have known.

Maybe he had a legit reason for having it. He sure seems like a woman with all his crying and drama. "I HAD A STAPH INFECTION AND I ALMOST DIIIIIIIIEEEEED." Oh lord. To be fair, staph infections ain't nothing to fuck with. That is true, but I'm fairly certain they don't prescribe estrogen inhibitors for staph infections. Also, there's no reason they should keep letting him talk when they seem to send babysitters with everyone else who gives an interview.

So I guess that means there will be 3 pages of American Gladiators coverage in the WON now?

I guess all the discussion of the clique for the HBK DVD made HHH yearn for the days where he was a prick to everyone. What kind of example must this set for the young wrestlers? The guy who's probably going to be the boss one day is trying to goad someone the company is pushing as a top guy into a fight, like he was some message board troll.

One thing that really helps Jericho is that with everyone off the gas now, he doesn't look all that different size wise than anyone else. In fact, he seems to have one of the better physiques since it seems half the roster seems to have assumed the Wellness Policy bans going to the gym as well. I mean, not to come off as a muscle queen but I haven't seen this many dudes with potbellies on TV since Jake Milliman retired.

I don't think WWE ever had tape traders in mind for any set they've ever made. If they did, they would make far more use of the vast libraries they own and not have so many repeat matches across their DVD releases. The only other time I can recall them releasing a multi disc set and having a disc full of just promos is the Roddy Piper set. In that case it made sense since 90% of what Piper's famous for happened in a Piper's Pit segment.

I guess it's because of Cena's injury, but this has surprisingly flown way under the radar considering the guy was WWE champion for the better part of the last 2 years or so. The way they arraigned this set is kind of weird: Disc 1 is the standard documentary stuff, with the extras being a look at all the various cars Cena owns. Disc 2 is the matches, which for a 3 DVD set is kind of odd that this is the only disc that has any. Disc 3 is entirely (unless I missed some easter eggs) "5 Questions With the Champ" segments from WWE.com. That's right, they devoted an entire disc on a DVD release of the company's biggest star to a throwaway joke segment on the company's website. Now they are pretty funny, and show a side of Cena you don't get to see by watching him do his best with horribly written material on RAW, but it's the biggest "WTF?" I've seen on a WWE DVD release. Having said that, the segments kind of remind you of watching Bob Saget's stand-up routine as Cena seems to channel equal parts George Carlin and Vanilla Ice during those bits. He'll go on a Aristocrats-level rant then end it all "NAHMEAN???" The documentary part is actually pretty good, and it makes it hard to hate Cena after watching it. He comes off as a genuine dude, which I'm sure is exactly the intended effect, but still it was good stuff.

I think part of the reason Kennedy got so much love (and still does to some extent) is that he was far and away the best thing in OVW when he was there. However time has shown that was more a reflection on how shitty the rest of the OVW roster was at that time. When Kennedy was on the main roster surrounded by people who could hold their end of the bargain, he was exposed as merely decent-to-good instead of OMG AWSUM~!

The new NWA episode has maybe the best jobber name ever: Benny "U-Haul" Trayler.