sek69

How was Baroni able to walk out of the ring after that? I know adrenalin lets you do crazy things, but damn.

Ironic that the match that put MVP over the top in a lot of people's eyes is now effectively erased from history. If one day MVP ends up a star and the inevitable career retrospective DVD comes out, WWE will have it that one day he just magically became viewed as a A level player.

I think a case can be made that Angle was let go for general craziness as well as drugs. since I got the vibe that WWE thought Kurt was going to do what Benoit ended up doing. Wanting to keep working despite having severe muscle tears is abnormal behavior to say the least.

We all kind of figured it would end up that way, but it's undeniably clear now that the "Wellness Policy" was nothing more than a empty PR move in response to Eddy's dying while under contract. It kind of makes you wonder if the people who failed were stupid or set up by the company, as it seems that a brain damaged chimp could find a way to beat the testing. It's going to be interesting if WWE loses any sponsors or TV due to this.

From Tim Graefe's review of the ROH PPV: Homiesaywhat? I think I heard something snap in my head when I read that. How can you watch everything a company has ever done but pretend to be a total newcomer for the PPV show? Of course the review is capped off with this: I think my nose is bleeding.

It would appear that the 7/4 update didn't take place for us here. I'll have to check when I get back on Friday if it was due to the holiday or due to WWE request.

One thing mentioned in the WON is that Vince (with Stephanie's support) is in total us-against-the-biased-media mode where EVERYTHING is going to be spun like crazy to deflect as much heat off the WWE as possible.

What stuff has been edited off Nitros? I can tell when watching that something was cut, but I don't remember what. I just assumed it was ads for those contests they were always running/Nitro Party cut-ins/etc.

Bix, how many times were one or both of us involved in the "who's on steroids" threads that would pop up on DVDVR and mention Benoit, only to get shouted down by people who would post his workout schedule and go on about how it's COMPLETELY POSSIBLE to be that ripped despite traveling most days of the week? I know it's unlikely at this point, but what more is it going to take to make people deal with their own bullshit when it comes to the truth about their favorite pro wres fighter?

In one swoop this pretty much destroys any and all defense the WWE has come up with and has revealed the Wellness Policy to be a huge embarrassment to the company. Surprisingly, no one I've seen has made the connection between the drug testing being a joke and the Chairman of the company being jacked out of his gourd. The Muscle and Fitness cover alone would come back to haunt him right about now.

It just occurred to me that if they stick to the "no Benoit family" policy, there will be nothing left to show but NWA Saturday Night, WCCW, and AWA (if they even remember that they own those anymore). Plus the old school (W)WWF stuff. Chris would elminate all the recent WWE ppvs and the Monday Night War shows, and Nancy makes appearances on ECW and Florida. They could still show the stuff from before or after her time in Florida, but Kevin Sullivan's run was really the best run of the territory.

There currently isn't a test for growth hormone. That's a problem legit sports are running into now.

You know, considering his history, Superstar Graham was both the best and worst guest they could have had on tonight's WOL. Certainly no one can speak more on the mental strain caused by the business and the effects of drugs, but maybe they could have had someone on who didn't participate in an embarrassing campaign against Vince that probably ended up enabling him to continue WWF/E's policies of implicitly allowing steroid/HGH.

Here in Pittsburgh all the shows that were supposed to be taken down are still up. I can pretty much picture the folks that run the VOD service here getting the memo to remove stuff and being all "LOLZ, no". Unless the wrong show is being broadcast, they never remove shows early. I really hope this was just a one week thing and there's not going to be an effort to erase Benoit from history. But then the WM XX DVD listing on wwe.com has the main event as HHH vs HBK so who knows.

It all goes back to what nearly got Vince put in jail in 1994: WWF/E doesn't go around jamming a needle in the wrestler's asses, but they make it clear that you won't get higher than a certain level on the totem pole unless you bulk up. To get the big time cash you have to start with the injectables if you weren't lucky enough to be born a bigger guy. It's really a scummy deal since Vince always has the out of "I didn't FORCE anyone to take steroids" despite clearly not pushing anyone who wasn't obviously taking them.

Not to mention the stigma of smaller guys in wrestling is part of the reason a lot of guys died with enlarged hearts but Kevin Nash will probably live a long life with minimal side effects of being a wrestler other than probably needing knee replacement surgeries.

I mentioned this to Loss during an IM discussion earlier, but reading the updates to this thread really made something stand out. The latest Legends show updated on WWE 24/7, and it's all about "heatseekers" aka "people we don't like in the business". One thing that really stands out is how much the panel hated guys like Lex Luger or Bill Goldberg (who they went out of their way to praise for his non-wrestling enterprises), and the main reason is because they came from outside the wrestling business. They were both ex football guys and didn't grow up as fans, which is a bad thing since you're not as susceptible to falling into the trap of believing your character to the point where it totally takes over your life if you didn't grow up idolizing the business. In light of current events it really sheds light on the mindset of the business. The guys on the panel were getting visibly mad because guys like Luger and Goldberg weren't as devoted to wrestling as they were and they took it as an insult. You would think with those guys (especially Luger) it would be like shooting fish in a barrel when it came to things not to like about them, but the consensus was "they didn't appreciate the business". It reminded me of when I worked in retail while going to college and I'd run into managers who spent 20+ years with the company who would take major offense if you weren't as gung-ho about The Store as they were. Any lack of enthusiasm was at risk for exposing how they wasted their lives working for a company that would throw them out on their asses in a heartbeat. I actually had a store manager tell me I better get my priorities in order because I asked for less hours when I first went back to school. I was bettering myself and was only working this job as a means to an end and it only served to remind the manager that he was probably never going to leave the company. The bottom line is that wrestling is an entire industry based on constantly needing approval, and an atmosphere like that can't help but breed the insecurity that the starting point for any number of mental problems, drug issues, or combination of the two. It's honestly a little surprising that it took this long for something of this magnitude to happen.

This will be a HUGE mess for WWE if this becomes public knowledge. I hate to sound alarmist but this is so far beyond the usual "cover up something potentially bad for business" wrestling bullshit that I really see this becoming the one thing that could potentially bring down WWE as we know it, or at least open a lot of people's eyes. Of course that being said, WWE will cover it up and most media outlets will probably never investigate since it's not as lurid as tales of roid rage or whatever.

I don't know if Meltzer counts, but he was able to hold his own (while looking like he was hit by a bus) against a windbag like John Gibson who was trying to interrupt him every 5 seconds with the "OMG STEROIDS~!" bullshit.

I tell you one thing that was impacted by the tragedy: my online habits. I can't thank Loss enough for providing us with shelter from the stupids during all this. I tried reading DVDVR again and there's *still* people making the claim that Benoit is innocent and it's wrong to assume otherwise just because the cops say so. This is pretty much the only wrestling board I read/post at now, just because I'm reasonably confident no one here is going to spout some silly bullshit that is going to make me want to kick my dog. I'll admit when the details started to slowly surface, I thought at first the murder-suicide aspect was something being wrongly reported by the media. Pretty much by the next day I realized what was being said really was what happened and dealt with reality. It sucks, but sometimes facts get in the way of what you wish was true. That can be applied to almost any kind of fervent fandom, so it seems somewhat unfair to single out wrestling fans, but then again we're all being conned into suspending belief in what we watch is legitimate sport. If you can buy that, the sky's the limit I guess.

Not to threadjack, but from just a cursory glance (especially at the Politics forum) it seems the Pit is primarily made up of people who were banned from other boards for reasons other than the jackboot thuggery of the vaunted PC Police. I am glad that TheMikeSC found a place to continue fighting the good fight against the Liberal Menace. Anything to keep the wackoids off the streets.

Upon reading the Maven story, I'm shocked any self respecting gay man would allow his eyebrows to get that out of control.

It will probably be difficult to watch Benoit matches for a while when everything's fresh, and it will probably be a little jarring when Woman comes out to manage someone for a little bit, but honestly anyone who throws out all their Benoit tapes but still watches WCCW is a hypocritical douchebag. Maybe I'm just jaded but it's just part of the job when you're a wrestling fan to have to compartmentalize the fact that 3/4ths of these guys are batshit insane. Now the situation this time is a little more extreme than the usual circumstances of a wrestling death, but that will just end up meaning it will take a little longer for things to get back to normal.

Not to mention the slo-mo replay right after.

It's not unheard of for women who marry wrestlers to end up using the same drugs they do. Just saying.