sek69

I guess it's mainly because most people have the ability to simultaneously enjoy something while realizing that thing may have had a dark side? It's like enjoying a certain style of music while acknowledging your favorite band was coked up and doing degrading things to prostitutes while recording the album. It's not like everything is black and white. The world is shades of grey, and as such you can't expect there not to be things you don't 100% agree with. In an attempt to bring things back on topic by way of tying things together, it shouldn't be forgotten that JR got his start in the biz from Bill Watts. Dude probably saw people who thought they knew about the business get locked into a room and get the shit beat out of him. I'd wager that would probably be a main reason he's so dismissive of what gets written to him by people visiting his website.

You said states. Remember he died in Japan. Right, but was the autopsy done there as well?

I was reading Meltzer's review of the DVD in the latest WON, and I thought of something. With all the controversy surrounding David's death, why can't someone go to the source to get the death certificate? In most states you can request a copy since they are public record. The family might be able to cover up the autopsy (which I don't see how since those are usually public record too), but the death certificate should be easily attainable.

What prompted that? Guard rail whips are such a random thing to ban. Morally outraged Dave is always the best. Ironically, Vince would probably sacrifice a puppy on RAW next week if it got him on the local news like this did for Fritz. Oh man, even before it was officially called such, it was still WCW. After building the Warriors/Powers feud, the blowoff never happened since the PoP didnt want to do a scaffold match and jumped to WWF......the forerunner to the "feud never gets a proper ending" that became a trademark.

You seem to be coming at this from the perspective that it's somehow bad to not be an apologist. Is it so hard to accept that some people have squared the concept that something they enjoy watching has a dark side that has done hell of a lot of damage to some of the participants? I mean, surely you haven't gone this long as a fan of wrestling with access to the internets and not heard the Bill Watts stories so I don't know why you seem to think only certain wrestling groups get criticized.

HHH can get by on a 2 disc set since he has a match on almost every other set that's released.

I would think that if someone didn't like a thing, they wouldn't waste their time criticizing it. That may just be my take on it. Back to JR, I just love how he reverts to the whole "aw shucks" routine when someone calls him on his hypocritical BS. Along that same note, it's hilarious to suggest someone who's been around wrestling for 20+ years would not know how to "wink wink" suggest to someone that they need some chemical enhancement. Pretty much every company that exists has some sort of "code" that conveys the message that you can't just come out and say.

The new Legends Roundtable is up, and it's about the Territories. What struck me is how the consensus seemed to be that wrestlers today are hurt by not having different territories to hone their craft in, with Hayes in particular talking about visiting OVW and being disgusted at how poor the wrestlers were at cutting promos that weren't spoon fed. I mean, you have Patterson, Hayes, Ross, Foley, and Tazz going on about how WWE overscripts promos and don't give guys a chance to get over. You'd think at least a couple of those guys would be in a position to suggest changing that.

I'm surprised to see the "guy on one leg" comments in regards to Kerry. I thought that was kept pretty hush-hush until after he died.

Not to mention Lawler has been on TV in Memphis for the entire time he's been in the WWF/E, and lest we forget Vince himself did a whole angle down there.

Projects and lists, if you please. PM'd you. -- Loss, 01/10

When Armageddon was here in Pittsburgh, the staging was frigging huge and took up a hell of a lot of seats. Mellon Arena set up for wrestling with the usual Titan Tron/rampway set up seats about 15,000. I think they had probably 12,000 at Armageddon due to the stage setup.

This week's NWA episode marks the birth of the Big Gold Belt, and Ron Bass doing fill in duty for a no-show jobber in what probably was intended as a MX squash.

Ross also has not been part of the creative process since 1995. Come on, do you REALLY think they were trying to find a way to rip off WCW's idea when they came up with this? I don't think they had and conscious effort to rip off WCW. I just felt it humorously ironic that they shit on the idea of a War Games match, but will occasionally build a while episode of RAW the concept that was arguably the most WCW (in both a good and bad context) thing ever. I mean there was an article in WWE mag a while back that buried the War Games match as confusing, so it's probably safe to say that Vince isn't fond of the idea. Hell, didn't Hunter try to convince them to do one and even HE got turned down?

JR did, several times in fact. Another thing that makes my nose bleed if I think about it too much: Vince hates anything that reminds him of 80s (read: NWA) wrestling, but pretty much all the key players of that era work for the company now in some capacity.

Vince apparently hates War Games because it was a NWA/WCW idea, but "Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal" is a perfectly okay gimmick to reuse? Really?

Also on the Pyramid, Wolf proved you *can* use a Canadian Destroyer in a non-wrestling context.

I don't know if anyone watched, but the two hour premiere was tonight. They brought back most of the original games and added a few new ones that fit in well. The Eliminator is still way more exciting than like 99% of pro wrestling. Now they have a pool with fire on top and the contestants have to swim under the fire. They had a former Marine/current mom who misjudged the bars that the fire sets on and finished the course with the veritable crimson mask. Hogan and Ali were decent as hosts (I guess they have good editors), and I can see this being a decent hit considering there won't be much competition. Also at one point the commentator made a joke about what gladiator Crush's (Gina Carano) other likes were. I could almost hear Dave jumping off his couch.

I love how JR somehow can be both a crusty old Okie who appreciates criticism and loves people expressing their opinions, while also becoming extremely thin-skinned and passive aggressive whenever anyone not in TEH BIZ~! questions his abilities or uses insider lingo. I mean come on, it's 2008. I think it's time to stop with the outrage whenever someone uses wrestling-speak on the internet.

LOL (for those wondering, Loss and I were discussing a fellow on DVDVR who posted gems like those in practically every match thread over there. We still don't know what any of them meant.)

Does anyone else appreciate the irony that if TNA had this very same match on the next Impact, people would be absolutely screaming at what an overbooked mess it was? Granted, if TNA did it the quality of the people involved would be vastly different, but still. If the first match is the one I'm thinking of, didn't she have short hair before? I seem to remember that she was sporting that bowl cut style every woman in the world had at some point in the 80s. Meltzer was pretty anti WWF in general and Hogan specifically during that time frame. Hell, he still has snarky moments about Hogan like the aside he did a few issues back where he envisioned Hogan Knows Best as done by the Rey Mendoza (Villano) family.

I don't know, but I'd think that him acting crazy and possibly/probably abusive towards Elizabeth > history and match quality. I mean, it'd be kind of hard for a documentary on him to not paint a negative picture since it seems everyone that ever worked with him is of the opinion he was a crazy sumbitch.

I'm wondering what other folks opinions are on the statement I made in the WCW thread that the Flair-Bischoff spat is what really ended the run of Ric Flair as a top level performer. His in ring work was on a slow decline, but to me it seems as the combination of losing so much steam from being off TV and then being booked in humiliation angles after returning was the end of people viewing him as a credible top level guy.

The Triple H DVD should be interesting if there's a documentary portion, since they seem to have an alternate universe set up for DVD releases. While the marriage to Steph is teased and hinted at on TV, it's openly discussed on DVDs. One memorable example was Triple H talking about doing the whole "going home to meet your fiancee's parents" deal with Vince and how it was more awkward than usual on the Greatest Families DVD. Not to mention Hunter seems to be the type who gets all kayfabe-ish over the strangest things. He's not quite at the level of an Arn Anderson where it's as if everything in wrestling is a real occurrence, but he seems to slip in and out. I'd wager the Chyna era will be excised from history as well.

Well considering the whole reason Zodiac unmasked was because Orton was going to jail, there wasn't much point in building him up as a major heel. Not that Whelan didn't constantly cockblock the promotion with his Ward Cleaver sensibilities, but in this case it was justified.