C.S.

Watch what you like, Bubba. No need to apologize for it.

Finished this the other night, and I highly recommend it. The opening chapter(s) - an overview of the early carnival days of wrestling - is slow going and no longer interesting to me because I've read it all before. After that, the book switches formats, with the remaining 90% being a series of bios. Most of those are great. I wonder if the early historical overview should've been dropped entirely, with the book just diving right into the bios. The author is sometimes guilty of being in love with his own bullshit interpretations and pretentiously trying to find artistry and meaning where there is none. But that kind of adds to the appeal of the book in an odd way. Despite my nitpicks, this is definitely worth reading. It's one of the better wrestling books I've read in a while. Granted, I've been reading shit like Mayor Kane, so that's not a hard bar to climb, but this is still genuinely good. Shoemaker can write, even if it's obvious he knows it too and likes to show off with heavy-handed college paper philosophizing. I haven't started the Andre book yet. I decided to tackle In the Pit with Piper first. I know it has been accused of being heavy on BS, but does anyone have any details on that? Piper admits he's going by memory, which is bound to be faulty at times. The worst I've seen so far is an epic misspelling of Roy Shire's name, which his co-writer should have caught and fixed. Otherwise, it seems far more credible than Hulk Hogan's Whopper Jr. with Fries of a book - but I'm only a few chapters in, so there's still time for Piper to bedazzle me with bullshit.

I don't give a fifth of a shit about Pat McAfee or this angle, and while it doesn't do Cole any favors, none of it will matter - none of it - when the reset button is hit and Cole and the Undisputed Era are called up to the main roster and all of this is instantly forgotten about.

Ironically, if Mauro Ranallo posted here, that's exactly the kind of pop culture reference he'd make.

Yes, and it's happening more frequently today. I've been locked out of the board for minutes at a time.

That would actually be great. Sleaze Thread and Meltzer Worst Promotional Tactic great, but still great.

Thanks. How is this? (Update: I read the first chapter through the "Look Inside" feature on the book's Amazon page, and I'm sold. Bought!) I'm pretty sure I read the other Andre book - the one put out by WWE - but I don't remember a thing about it. BTW, spend $30 on Kindle books and get $8 in Kindle credit between August 5th and 12th. https://www.amazon.com/kr/d6e5aa28-fc2d-4f8e-916d-bf49f2a9e6e6 Wish I didn't buy the Piper book yesterday, before the offer, but it is what it is. I doubt I'll find $30 worth of books to buy anyway. The Vader and Sabu books are $10 each, so if you want those and the Andre and Piper books, you've just spent $30. (Edit: Actually, because the prices end in .99, you'll need to buy another book. That's how they get you. It is impossible to spend exactly $30.)

Maybe this? https://www.hamiltonbook.com/wrestling-underground-dvd

In the Pit with Piper is currently $4.99 on Kindle. It's supposed to have its fair share of BS, but I'll get it anyway because I'm sure it's entertaining BS. Note: This is NOT the recent book written by his kids - it's the older one Piper wrote with Robert Picarello.

I posted the video above. Apparently that's the new faction and not Tozawa's ninjas like we all thought.

Woulda helped if they weren't dressed so similarly to Tozawa's ninjas though. I legit thought it was them. (BTW, is anyone else getting constant SSL handshake error message screens on this board?)

I guess this was the new faction?! Whom else thought those were Tozawa's ninjas???

Was Drake Maverick in one of them getting beat down, or just some dude who kinda, sorta looked like him?

Should've hired a completely different camera crew instead of using Dunn and co.

Yabba Dabba Doo Kato is the worst name is ever.

The acoustics for this suck. What is Babatunde's name now?

The Raw Underground shit does indeed seem goofy and dumb on the surface. Here's a halfhearted defense: If the third hour becomes this completely different presentation and it's not an actual shoot-fight, I'll give it a chance. We've all been saying for years that Raw is too fucking long. A completely different third hour can't hurt at this point.

Dominick Mysterio: If anything thinks I'm struggling to memorize badly written lines now, they're really going to think that when I challenge Seth Rollins to a match at SummerSlam.

Raw Underground Oh lordy...

What the hell is this stupid shit with Nia Jax and the bastard baby of Sami Zayn, Mike Kanellis, and Heath Slater?

Someone needs to be honest with poor Ric and say enough is enough.

So, to add to this, what's the point of trotting him out there just to smirk and nod? If you're going to use Ric Flair, let the man do what he does best and speak!!! Edit: After hearing him mumble incoherently during this backstage segment, maybe I spoke too soon.

Ric looks like a corpse.

Liv and Ruby are shockingly good actors. I wish this board had dark mode.

A lot of people really believed that bullshit about being in a "post-racial" society though. The movie "Get Out" was made in part to criticize that belief. This is, of course, not a defense of Human Tornado and shouldn't be taken as such - he sounds like a fucking schmuck, and so are all the people who went along with it at his urging.