sek69

Meltzer was more of a fan of the NWA than the WWF in the 80s, and from the admittedly few examples of WONs from the time period, he goes to great lengths to shit on anything the WWF did during that time. Gorilla was always saying stuff like "you'll only see action like this in the World Wrestling Federation" in his commentary so he became the focal point of people who were anti WWF. I'll grant that Gorilla wasn't that great at the tail end of his career, but I don't see how anyone could say he was the worst Announcer any year in the 80s.

So most of you probably know how the WB and UPN networks are merging into the CW, right? Well part of the area served by the call center I work in extends to West Virginia (home of Jamie Noble). Their UPN station went dark last week, and the CW doesn't start programming till next week. So no UPN, on a Friday night, in West Virginia. Ho-lee shit. I think the whole state called in asking what happened to SmackDown.

I find that hard to believe unless Shamrock has had several neck injuries I'm not aware of.

I was watching Prime Time Wrestling from 2/23/87 on WWE 24/7 and during the "WrestleMania Report" segment Mean Gene threw in a tease about a big name possibly being in Hulk's corner. Considering the WON reports posted over at TSM saying how fucked Andre was at the time and how the main event was in doubt, was this just the WWF hedging their bets?

I marked for Roddy Piper tonight, I just can't help myself.

That whole match was hilariously unprofessional on both men's part. Hogan's before the match and HBK's during and after it. True enough, but HBK's oversell of the Big Boot is like a million times worse than anytime anyone ever stopped co-operating in a match.

After rewatching it tonight, I think HBK's oversell of Hogan's big boot at Summerslam 2005 might just be the most hilariously unprofessional moment in wrestling history.

Was watching some WWE dvds today, and I just noticed how often Kurt Angle appears in the "Don't Try This At Home" PSA thing that's on every disc.

Missy Hyatt mentioned something about Rick being in a car accident that left him with some sort of brain damage, but then Missy's probably not too much brighter herself so who knows.

By the time I started watching the WWF, Pedro was already halfway between midcarder and jobber. I always had a hard time squaring that he was a former world champion.

I know the original incarnation of the Harlem Heat gimmick (in Global, wasn't it?) involved them carrying chains.

Wow, "parodying racial stereotypes" from the same folks that brought us the Wild Samoans, Umaga, Saba Simba and Gang Warz 97. I can't wait to see how mind bendingly offensive this will be. Considering it's a team of two black guys (Shad Gaspard and The Neighborhoodie from OVW) that's being called "Cryme Tyme", I can just imagine the possibilities. Of course, they already have their bases covered to play the "OMG ITS JUST A JOKE" card whenever they really go overboard.

Chris Masters didn't look nearly as bad as those pics from OVW indicated. He looked obviously slimmer, but definately still buffed and defined.

What's funny is it seems WWE has gone back to its strategy of pretending the competition doesn't exist. Maybe UFC should start giving away the endings of WWE matches top get their attention.

Somehow I find it hard to believe that Hogan was the one who turned down the AWA belt *unless* by the time Verne finally decided to put it on him Hulk already had a deal with Vince. I just watched an AWA documentary on 24/7, and Hogan looked somewhat normal compared to the extremely bloated moon face look he had by about 1985. Maybe his roid connection in Minnesota was getting him weak stuff? Who knows, but he certainly got a lot more puffed up in relation to how big Hulkamania was getting.

It's pretty funny to see WCW matches where Tony is having a one sided conversation with himself, yet you can see Jesse sitting at ringside at some point. Also, anyone have a release date for this DVD yet?

Also, hilarious tidbit from said WON is the latest words WWE have banned announcers from saying on TV (and in DSW and OVW too) is "belt" or "strap" to refer to a championship belt because Vince thinks those words are linked to "old-time" wrestling. That was also the reason Ken Anderson's name was changed to Ken Kennedy, the name Anderson is too old school for Vinny Mac.

Got my first issue of the WON today....when Meltz talks about the latest issue having 35,000 words or whatever, I didn't realize they were in 2 pt font. All in all, it was a pretty good read once I busted out the maginfying glass.

What board? Not many people have acted like he's fine and dandy of the threads I've read... I know over at DVDVR it seemed like half the posts in the thread about it were of the "OMG NOW HE CAN GO TO ROH AND FIGHT AMDRAG~!" variety. About a quarter of the rest were of the "you don't know how bad of shape Angle's in despite all the reports of WWE fearing for the man's well being" sort.

I had a sick thought: Vince fired Angle knowing he's got THE SICKNESS and would take an offer to work for TNA or ROH or some random indy so he can die on their watch. Can't you just see the DVD now? JR and Vince with their kayfabe-breaking voices talking about how working for Company X was a sad end for Kurt since they just didn't have the resources to help?

My first thought was "looks like they pulled a Kerry on Angle". Yet some folks will continue to say nothing's wrong.........

Even better was HHH suggesting that WCW should have let them in, since it would have made for better TV than Raw.

Finally got around to getting the Monday Night War DVD the other day, and while the main program is mostly WWE revisionist bullshit, the extras are freaking awesome. Ric Flair's return to Nitro is probably the greatest promo in wrestling history. First you have Arn Fucking Anderson doing what he does best, even making Mongo look more than the goof he was, before cutting a classic Arn promo about everyone wanting the Horsemen back and being careful about getting what they wish for. Then he goes on to intro Flair, which has become famous again thanks to that Youtube video (MY GOD, I ALMOST FORGOT! RIC FLAIR~!). THEN if that all wasn't enough, we see what becomes the bridge from Classic Flair to current Crazy Old Man Flair with the famous "ABUSE OF POWER! FIRE ME, I'M ALREADY FIRED!" rant. Then you have Rick Rude proving to all the doubters why he was the coolest motherfucker ever in wrestling by appearing on RAW and Nitro on the same day. JR is hilarious in this segment, since he goes into that hybrid language of legalese and carny he lapses into when he's trying to explain something without breaking kayfabe. What's great is they pretty much decide that despite everyone in WWE thinking he agreed to a new deal he showed up in WCW because he's Rick Rude and he fucking felt like it. They show DX invading WCW, which was funny for featuring a STONED AS HELL X-Pac commenting on the angle looking like someone who couldn't remember where he left his car keys, let alone something that happened years ago. I was expecting the next words out of his mouth to be "Dave's not here, maaaaaaaaan".