sek69

I finished watching the Jake DVD, and I love how after going into (sometimes horrifying) detail about his childhood and his subsesquent abuse problems, they then do a 180 and bash "Beyond the Mat" for, and I couldn't believe they said it, a one sided view of Jake's life. Christ, they spend pretty much the entire program saying the same thing Beyond the Mat does yet they still have to bash it because Vince doesn't like it. Also, according to Jake, he was tricked into participating in it by Terry Funk (who doesn't exactly come off all that good in the film either). It's also interesting to hear Vince say that Jake was one of those people who was good at hiding it when he was drunk or on drugs. That Heroes of Wrestling disaster would suggest otherwise, but I guess that's what happens when Vince gets to tell history.

Man, 10 minutes into watching the Jake Roberts DVD and I was ready to stick my head in the oven. I completely understand his drug problems now.

Ditto. As stated elsewhere, I've been sucked in by the Boogeyman. The worms can be a bit much but for some reason him bashing the big ass clock on his head cracks me up everytime.

An underdog babyface beating the seemingly insurmountable odds is what wrestling is all about.

I might lose my smark cred but I dig the Boogeyman. He's really ran with the gimmick and seems to enjoy it. He's gone from ridiculous to entertaining just from the effort he puts into it. He reminds me of Sid in the sense that he knows he sucks, but he's going to go ahead anyway and give it his best.

After watching a match like this, it's sad that people still think Rey isn't big enough to be on top. Here he is, working with a guy who has a "strongest man in the world" gimmick, and the crowd *TOTALLY* buys him as a threat. Shockingly good match. Your statement is correct if by "people" you mean "Vince McMahon". I don't think anyone ever made the argument that Rey wouldn't make a deserving champ, just that the man who makes the calls doesn't think so and as such it'll never happen.

Alvarez is the Ed McMahon of the Internet community to Meltz's Johnny Carson.

I don't know if it's laziness or if it's the ego of being a big shot on the net. I see a lot of people who get well known start to develop the "I don't have to defend my position because I have a column/newsletter/etc" attitude. I keep reading what Loss posted and I swear if it wasn't Alvarez himself I'd think it was someone trolling the board by being obtuse on purpose.

Your description of Rave could also fit almost everyone who's got a big push in wrestling.

The 80s WWF seemed to have something for everyone: there was usually an entertaining opener, maybe even featuring one of their famous jobbers like Pete Doherty or Iron Mike Sharpe (who had more personality than most of the OVW callups of late), an entertaining mid card match featuring someone like Tito Santana, and depending on which tour came to your town either a Hogan match to send the kids home happy or an IC match that usually featured the best workers in the company.

When guys had a bad gimmick in the 80s they usually had a manager to help them talk. Even the Red Rooster had Bobby Heenan for chrissakes.

The way WWE currently is booked sets the young talent up to fail. If they aren't given a dead-end gimmick they're expected to cut promos and very few people have the charisma to not look like a doofus the first time they are handed a live mic on TV.

Captain Redneck a bigot? What's the world coming to?

The mid 90s might have been the best top-to-bottom wrestling era in WWFE history. You were most likely going to have at least a decent match from the opener to the main event. It also happened to be one of the worst drawing periods in WWFE history which is what must have cemented it in Vince's mind that the fans want Sportz Entertainment instead of wrestling.

It's seriously subscribe to the L4W newsletter too. If chuckleheads like Alvarez can have one, why not someone who knows what the fuck he's talking about?

Well I know Steamboat was busy breaking up fights on the road, so I think his hands were full when they were filming.

I hate how HHH acts like he's the BIGGEST FAN EVAR~! of whoever the subject of the DVD is. As far as hearing from people who knew Superstar while he was active, I don't know who else they could have gotten. Bruno certainly wouldn't have taken part, and from reading his website lately I think Bob Backlund is living his 1994 heel gimmick still. That's probably why it seems Dusty had the most to say, since I don't think anyone else from the 70s WWWF gives Vince Jr. the time day.

I'm fairly certain that his 1987 comeback was supposed to be a full time (or at least part time) return to wrestling but his body couldn't handle it and he ended up a manager. I'm convinced that Vince must be a legit mark for Graham, since we all know how he holds grudges and the whole steroid hooha in the 90s was pretty much started by Superstar's admission of roid use causing his health problems and how easy he obtained said roids in the WWF.

I know JR was booking at some point, at least by 1989.

Well for Bret and especially the Road Warriors, JR did call a lot of their big matches. I don't know why he'd be speaking about the Superstar other than the fact that JR probably doesn't have a whole hell of a lot else do to these days.

The HIAC spot was a work that built off his previous cameraman hissy fits, same with the match with Sid where the camera ended up getting used as a weapon. WM 11 seemed like a shoot to me, HBK snatched the one dude from behind by his collar and fucking flung him like a sack of potatoes. The second incident involved a cameraman getting in the way of a ringpost spot and HBK forcibly moved him out of the way. You can see Sid (who was in his corner) trying to calm Shawn the fuck down afterwards since even he could see what was going on.

Watching Wrestlemanias 9-11 made me realize how good Yokozuna was for someone so enormously huge. It's ridiculous seeing a five or six hundred pounder hitting savate kicks and legdrops, not to mention bumping like he did. Most superheavyweights bump like an old building slowly teetering to the ground, but Yoko was bumping like a cruiser in his match with Owen vs the Gunns at WM 11. To top it off, he got some huge air on the Bonzai drop as well. Work or not, I'd shit my pants seeing an ass that big careening towards me.

Joe, thats about all I can think of.