sek69

Just got the April 1981 MSG show, and boy does the timekeeper enjoy his job. He rings the bell before and after every sentence spoken by Howard Finkel to the point where you want to shove his little bell hammer up his ass. The show also has Patterson vs Slaughter and the Backlund-Hansen match seen on the Cage Match DVD so it all balances out.

I decided to start a little thing here if you will, where I ask questions and hopefully spur debate on selected topics. There was discussion on how someone like Andre would never succeed in today's wrestling at the level they did back in the day due to more TV, PPV, and whatnot. My question is could Hulkamania have worked had Hogan started in 2004 instead of 1984? I'm going to say no. A big part of what made him special is that Hogan almost never wrestled on TV. When he did it was a special occasion. Hell, I'd even go as far as to say he was the most protected person on WWF/E history as guys who could potentially overshadow him were generally kept far away. In today's world Hogan would have to wrestle every week, quickly burning aura out to the point even his charisma couldn't save him. While I'm sure he'd get over, I don't think it would be on the scale he ended up reaching. Agree? Disagree? Thoughts?

They need to start next week's RAW with a Vince montage set to "Tell Me a Lie".

The only thing that could top this is finding out Divari wired the limo to explode as payback for getting removed off TV every time the guy he's managing gets over.

Considering how Steph/HHH have pretty much cemented control, I think this is going to happen. Maybe not the putting them out of business part, but I totally see Shane getting tired of being squeezed out by his little sister and telling the both of them to GFY. If he's got any of Vince's genetics at all there's no way I'm seeing him content with being the puppet the company puts out to dance for the stockholders.

Come on now, I know Sid's a big guy and therefore deemed to be of no use to the people who are into wrestling as an art, but I don't want to be a fan of wrestling if there's no place for Sid.

Read in the latest WON that Sid wants to return to WWE. He's still in shape and with the rash of injuries in WWE I'm sure they'd be open to it. THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN. Especially if they bring back the sparklers spelling out SID above the ring. I'd pretty much mail my wallet to Titan Towers if during a Cena promo he got powerbombed out of his camo shorts by the Master and Ruler of the World.

Did Carlito drop his accent when speaking of his own family or did they edit/fix that?

Reading in the WON how the plans for succession in WWE after Vince are to depict Steph and Shane to be equal co-owners, but Shane would be more of a figurehead who would be the one who would talk to the public. After the latest victory over her brother with the website (Shane thought it was stupid to keep kayfabe and get beat out on real stories by NOOZ sites), it's pretty much finalized now that she's going to be the new Vince both in temperament and total control of the company. It's funny how the kids seemingly will end up assuming the roles of the parent they seem to take after. Also, all the talk of a post-Vince WWE made me wonder what the first episode of RAW after his death would be like. I'm picturing his coffin going up the rampway while bagpipers play "No Chance In Hell", all leading to him being shot into space from a cannon molded to look like a 30 foot penis.

I'd like to throw Brazos vs Villanos on the pile just because it's one of my personal Holy Grail matches.

Al hits a good point, people don't get turned off of wrestling because the in ring product is fake, they get turned off because the booking makes them feel stupid for watching something so obviously fake that they turn it off rather than be insulted. My question is why can some dudes on a message board figure this shit out but people actually in the business never seem to?

I don't know if this deserves a separate thread or not, but apparently the DVD release not only removes the boos from Big Dave's entrance (why? he was the de facto heel in the match) they also reshot the Trump-Boogeyman skit according to the thread at DVDVR.

But wait, I thought building characters and solid promotion was the Lesson of 2006. I mean, isn't that why Tito & Ken drew such big numbers when everyone knew it was gonna suck as a fight? Such is the Meltzer Paradox: boxing and wrestling need to act more like MMA, but MMA gets its best buyrates when they do what boxing and wrestling have done for the last 100 years or so.

I just watched the Dela Hoya vs Maywether fight on HBO On Demand I realized a few things: 1. The "24/7" hype shows that Meltzer went on about as the new gold standard of PPV promotion are nothing more than the Rock/Brock "PURE SPORTS BUILD" videos stretched to 4 episodes. 2. The main draw for the PPV was the clear heel vs face dynamic that has worked in pro wrestling since forever, and if you read the WON it was if boxing had discovered the magic formula for hyping shows. 3. It really exposed the flaw in his basic mindset that boxing and wrestling all need to act more like MMA to survive in modern times when both this fight and Wrestlemania scored huge buyrates pretty much entirely on the tried and true method of building characters and solid promotion. I don't get why he thinks everyone needs to try to reinvent the wheel.

Speaking of Lanny Poffo, does it weird anyone else out that he looks like a completely different person without facial hair? Exhibit A: My brain can't wrap around that being the same guy who pranced around throwing frisbees and competing in battle royals in a suit of armor.

Makes me wonder why they never pushed him in the WWF. I guess they did in the sense where he was a jobber with a defined gimmick (the "Poet Laureate of the WWF" stuff) but he still lost all the time. I know his size was probably the main thing against him but Randy wasn't any bigger and they still pushed him to the moon.

I know sometimes there's some hidden gems to be found, but Jesus the late 70s-early 80s WWF house show style of giving jobbers 20 minute competitive matches can just be soul crushing at times. It's really hard to get into a match between two guys you know the company doesn't give a shit about, and sometimes it seems like Andy Kaufman style performance art to see how long they will let a match like that go on before the audience starts committing seppuku to end the boredom.

It's funny how people think having guys "toned down WWE style" is a concept that only started in the 90s or later. Show someone a tape of Jim Duggan in Mid-South and jaws tend to hit the floor. As far as ECW TV goes, it's the only thing on 24/7 I haven't been recording. It's not their fault really, most things from the 90s haven't really aged well and the hardcore style is so beyond played out in 2007 it's hard to watch it in the "this is all cutting edge and new" mindset of the time. I've also discovered a newfound respect for the JCP jobbers. Every episode of World Championship Wrestling so far features a jobber getting destroyed and taking ridiculous bumps for mid 80s squash matches. It's been a kick watching Gerald Finley die for our sins every week.

I would be up for this, especially with Loss running it, since I can tell by his taste in wrestling there'll be some real hidden gems and not the sometimes cookie cutter match lineup that tends to pop up in these sort of things. I'm also million billion percent in favor of the aspect of including angles. Especially since WWE 24/7 is building up to the Flair-Kerry cage match which was the kickoff for arguably the best territorial angle ever.

There's also something to be said for people who get way overdefensive when it's pointed out that GH and fat burners have made a lot of the current Divas gain masculine features. Post-jaw surgery Chyna wouldn't stand out amongst today's WWE diva roster. Regardless, I find the near total lack of social skills and graces to be the most alarming feature of a lot of wrestling.

I just realized that at least 2 of these matches (The Blackjack Mulligan Sr/Jr tag and the Lawlers/Putskis tag) were just on WWE 24/7 in the Shorties section a few months back when they had a families theme.

If anything, wrestling's more up front about it's general fucked up-ness than most real sports, which in a way makes it easier. Especially since wrestling already carries the "everyone knows its fake" stigma, it makes it easier to explain to a child that what they're watching is make believe. I know my mom actually took the time to explain to me that wrestling was like movies or TV, and the wrestlers were trained to do what they do. Ironically she ended up keeping kayfabe that way, because she never came out and flatly said "it's fake" since she thought that would mean I'd try to do wrestling moves on people since it wouldn't hurt if it was fake. I mentioned the 30 year old foam finger wavers because I think that's the real problem. Most kids know the deal with wrestling and a lot of them grow out of it when they either graduate high school or college. The emotionally stunted manchildren you see populating message boards (not here of course ) really scare me, especially with their views on women. It's not just WWE Diva types either, they routinely refer to women as sluts and whores to the point it really starts to come off as lashing out for their own stunted social lives. Their lack of real-life social skills ends up manifesting in internet arguments that end up coming off like someone with autism since they can't handle anyone challenging their views on their beloved promotion/wrestler/whatever. I don't know if it's because the Venn diagram of wrestling fans and social misfits has a large overlap or what, but it would make for an interesting study.

My thoughts except maybe CMLL. Why would you hope your kids hate wrestling? I could see not wanting them to like the post Attitude Era stuff, but a world where kids grow up hating 80s territory wrestling makes me a Sad Panda.

I was wondering something today, the kind of thought that only pops into your head while you are standing outside with your dog waiting for her to decide if she's going to answer nature's call or hit the snooze alarm. Most of us are about the same age, and as such, a lot of us either already have kids or are in a position in life where kids could become a possiblity. What are you going to tell them about wrestling? I'm assuming any kids that would have us as a parent would be around wrestling, even if it's DVDs of old 80s territory stuff. I remember back to when I was growing up in the 80s, watching wrestling with my grandfather. I don't think I was ever specifically told about fake and real, it was just one of those things I just started to notice on my own. That was a time where it was a lot more popular too, so being late on something like that would be akin to being the last kid in class to believe in the Tooth Fairy. There's a fine line, I would think. I'd kind of not want to spoil it since part of the fun is having that emotional investment you only get from believing what you're seeing is 100 unscripted (I really enjoyed the Taker-Batista cage match live since I had no idea what was going to happen). You also don't want your kid to be that 30-something guy you see at TV tapings who still has the HULK RULZ shirt and homemade John Cena chain.

In the interest of not starting another Meltzer-centric topic, anyone ever order any of the Observer 80s Yearbooks? They look interesting but that Canadian dude who sells them (and pre 90s back issues) was A) irritatingly vague when I asked about them and charges out the ass for shipping on them. If I'm expected to pay 50% shipping on a book, at least tell me something other than "I make 'em myself!!".