sek69

Found this gem while perusing back issues of the WON, from 1991 when the Zahorian scandal was about to break:

I keep hearing Joey Marella used as an example of a wrestling death that shouldn't be on the list, but didn't he fall asleep at the wheel? Wouldn't that suggest either he had to drive a ridiculous distance in a short time or perhaps the other people in the car with him weren't in driving condition? I'd really like to find the WON obit on him because I've always heard there was more to it than just a simple accident but there's no details anywhere I can find on the net.

See what gets me is if say Dean Malenko (not suggesting they're equal in talent mind you) was doing deathmatches people would be in an outrage over someone wasting such talent in garbage matches. Because Necro looks like a crazy homeless dude it seems ok for him to spend 90 of his career getting ripped to shreds. I don't see why with the talent I saw him display, he couldn't have been a straight wrestler w/o the insane stuff and have a decent by indy standards career in a place like ROH where the crowd pops for SKILLZ.

The only thing that's worse than wrestling's attitude towards its problems is the attitude anyone in any position of power has. It's just what Whitlock touched on in his column, it's like no one cares because its just some silly rasslers doing their fake fighting who are the ones dying. In a warped way, Vince is doing what he thinks he needs to do to keep his company alive. These state commission types who say they don't want to regulate wrestling because their plates are full with MMA and boxing are more scummy because they're basically saying "fuck those wrestling guys, who cares if they die and/or kill others".

Anyone else think WWE/Vince is going to go completely nuts when the toxicology results come back? Surely Benoit won't be clean and it will pretty much torpedo every argument WWE has made so far. Of course Vince will see this as proof the media is out to get him. That's what's going to end up hurting the company in the long run. If they would have just shut the fuck up and let the investigation lead to wherever it would go before sending employees out to cut wrestling promos on cable news shows, they would end up looking 1000000% better than they do now.

After watching the Hulkamania Forever! video on 24/7, clearly what we need is more Lanny Poffo.

Partly that and partly when someone in UFC fails a drug test Dana doesn't go batshit crazy and act like it's a personal vendetta against the sport. He's made it clear that UFC doesn't tolerate drug use and they've punished guys who've failed without the play-the-victim bullshit.

Dave's latest WO update, as he seems closer every day to saying "fuck this shit": He actually touches on something I tried to mention on the DVDVR thread and got no sold, that Finlay as an agent is in a different category than Joe Wrestler who has no say on who gets pushed (and lacks the benefits agents.........err......"producers" get).

I don't see why wrestling couldn't go back to kayfabe, at least at some level. I mean it would require some retraining but wrestling fans don't seem to remember much beyond the last couple of years max so a 2-3 years of treating everything as legit would probably work on most of the fanbase.

To further answer the question, that was around the time the Guardian Angels started becoming well known and this was the WWF doing its usual attempt to try to cash in on something popular with the mainstream as anyone on the NYC area would have recognized the name.

I think it's just a matter of Dave getting frustrated/disgusted at guys defending the company when they're on top at 30 then doing a 180 when they get thrown out with the trash (unless like he mentioned with DiBiase they're trying to get their kids a job).

People will eat up comments like Kennedy's because it's basically what they want to hear. No one wants to be told their heroes are all drug addled freaks, so they will sport titanium blinders and only believe what fits in their worldview. Also, I can't wait for Kennedy to have a match on RAW against a jobber named "David Bicks" just so Ken can get his interweb heat back.

Also don't forget that Kennedy has become a disciple of Steve Austin, so that would at least somewhat explain his views.

Survivor Series 93 is just hilarious to watch. Shawn's mullet is out of control and threatens to take over his interview segment. Also it's funny to notice that the 3 guys who are still active wrestlers in 2007 are HBK, Taker, and Mable/Viscera/Big Daddy V.

After watching the latest NWA episode on 24/7 where he single handedly tries to break up a fierce Magnum-Tully brawl, I've decided David Crockett is one of the main reasons to subscribe to the service right now. His indignant tone at any and all heelishness and is quasi-homoerotic love for Magnum T.A. are the kind of things sorely missing from wrestling today.

Also mentioned in the WON daily update is how WWE is going on the attack, which is the exact opposite of what the company should be doing right now.

Again, a lot of people were only surprised about Daniel, not Nancy. The idea of him killing his wife was not an out of the blue concept for at least some of the people who knew him. Sometimes the people closest (parents, spouses, etc) are the ones deepest in denial. I have no doubts Chris's parents would be taken completely by surprise. I also have no doubts that they also didn't know a lot about Chris and Nancy's marriage either. I mean, my marriage is perfectly fine and I don't tell my mom very many details about it. If I was having problems I don't think I'd tell my folks and have them worry. Now commenting on it online is certainly easier than having this happen in our own families, but I don't think anyone here ever wanted to be having this discussion. Dave said it best in his WO update:

From today's WO update: I say we start a betting pool on how long before he gets himself fired again.

Knowing someone has domestic problems doesn't mean you saw it coming. Those that knew about them sure didn't seem surprised to find out Nancy was killed. That can't be stressed enough. You can argue that you don't know what someone else was thinking but all this talk that this was completely out of character and how Benoit was the last guy you'd suspect would do something like this is bullshit because there are people working for WWE who knew about the dark side of the Benoit family.

A lot of people weren't surprised to hear he killed Nancy, the only shocking thing for them was Daniel. I would wager that Regal, Chavo, and probably Malenko knew what happened as soon as they were told the bodies were found. This Larry King show is just aggravating me. No one mentions how people in WWE knew it was a murder-suicide well before the tribute aired. No one mentions how the company is run by a jacked up 62 year old with a daughter who shares GH with her jacked up husband. Hey, HHH has a wife and child too. There but for the Grace of God and all that. No one mentions all the horrible no talent stiffs WWF/E has pushed down people's throats just because Vince liked their build and ignored the fact they couldn't work for shit. Jason Whitlock's column was the only one to say outloud that it's as if no one gives a shit because it's only wrestlers. If it was any other profession (sports or entertainment) that had half this many deaths, there would be massive investigations. Yeah, it's a scummy carny-ass business but that doesn't make it right that it's an open secret so many people know this shit goes on and do nothing because it's just the business. Also, fuck Jericho for using himself for an example of guys not being pushed on build when he's about half the size he was when he was wrestling. That was a jump-out-of-the-chair-and-yell-fuck-you moment for me.

You also have to suspect this "no one saw this coming" stuff is all bullshit, especially from people who knew him in WCW. Regal was one of the guys who lived in the same plan as Benoit and knew about the domestic problems they had, which was probably the main reason he looked the way he did on the tribute show.

OK, maybe I should ask what happened to that place. Hack? Server crash? Rob finally said "fuck this place"?

Cause, you know, WWE would never attempt to profit from tragedy or personal issues (like having them be discussed in books, which is what I assumed he was referring to, a potential book deal). Jesus, JR is rapidly moving up the all time douchebag list.

I was going to ask what happened to that place.

See, the fact that Necro can wrestle when he wants to makes it all the more baffling to me he'd rather tear himself to bits in front of small deathmatch crowds. I get the old "different strokes for different folks" argument, but like Bobby Heenan said if you're in wrestling for anything other than to make money you're in the wrong business. Doing deathmatches won't make you a lot of money. That style has a lot of devoted fans (which kind of scares me, but that's a different topic), but it's not the path you'd choose for financial security. In fact, it lends itself to serious injury that would wipe out any money you'd make. Necro is really good at what he does, he's also good when he wrestles without gimmicks. I've seen a couple of his matches and they were indeed quite good. I guess my argument is while someone like Ian Rotten pretty much has only the deathmatch gimmick to go with or be out of a job, Necro has shown he doesn't need to do that stuff to have a good match and still does it. It just seems a waste of talent IMO.