garretta
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Having seen only two joshi matches, I'm really not familiar with the workers and their styles yet. But compared to what we see in North America, this stuff's a revelation. To see women actually executing holds and maneuvers more complex than clotheslines and dropkicks is worth the price of admission alone. For that reason, I look more kindly on joshi than I do shoot-style or lucha, the other two styles I'm not so familiar with, and look forward to learning and seeing more about it as the Yearbooks progress. This was a breath of fresh air, even if I didn't always know exactly who I was watching.
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I'm not the puro expert that some of you are by a longshot, but even I could tell that there was more wrong than met the eye. Thanks for the backstory, but that still doesn't completely explain how lethargic this bout is outside the few minutes right before and right after the unmasking. I've seen plenty of guys who were leaving a promotion put forth more effort on the way out than this. Outside of the crazy headbutt barrage that led up to the unmasking, Fuyuki and Yatsu did nothing, and Kawada only a tinge more. Then out of nowhere, Yatsu has to be helped to the back with a rib injury (which I guess was his excuse for leaving). Even the former partners Kawada and Fuyuki show no emotion whatsoever during their time in the ring together. This was riot-inducing territory, and I wouldn't have been surprised if I'd found out that this was a desperation move in order to save all four guys from being booed out of the building for non-performance rather than a planned spot. Maybe the worst match on the Yearbook to this point, regardless of promotion.
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Two falls I never even saw, and the third where one rudo almost allowed himself to get pinned once he saw that his first teammate had already lost. That's about all I got from this. Seriously, once someone on a lucha team (either technico or rudo) gets pinned, the second pin that wraps up the fall almost always happens within five or ten seconds. Why is that? Shouldn't the team who's already had a member pinned fight like hell to avoid the second pin, or maybe even pin one of the other team? I have a feeling that lucha and I will never dig each other, no matter how much other fans pimp its matches.
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In the end, Choshu goes over, but I think this was a nice return showcase for Mutoh as well. I heard the announcers putting over his time in WCW, and it looks like they're really positioning him as a top player in New Japan going forward, as he refuses to tap out to Choshu's scorpion twice, and it takes three of Riki's most ferocious lariats to put him away. Choshu and others will definitely hear from Mutoh in 1990. I loved seeing a bull like Choshu bust out planchas in order to try to beat Mutoh at his own game. I'd almost call it a tribute, in fact, since Mutoh had gone to America and done so well.
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Almost shoot-style with the kicks early on, this became a nice little straight-ahead brawl later. Three DDTs seem a bit much from Hash, but I'm still used to Jake using it as a killer finisher. I thought the powerslam was the finish, but it's the leg lariat that puts Choshu away as the fans go wild. This one definitely did what it was designed to do, as the fans went wild for Shinya's victory.
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They flew Eddie Marlin in from Memphis for this? It's not that the match was bad for the short angle-mover that it was, but it sure didn't have to have more time spent with the officials keeping them apart than actual wrestling time. This brawl, unlike the last one, was entirely around ringside, and more than the Kerry/Borne issue, it revolved around Kerry accidentally tearing Percy's suitcoat, which of course outrages him enough that he gets on the apron to confront Kerry, leaving him open for Borne's winning rollup. Sort of a weird ending to a match that most people thought would either blow this feud off or lead to the blowoff. There isn't even any mention of Chris, whose beating triggered (or at least intensified) the feud in the first place. I've read ahead, so I know what this feud ultimately turns into, and unless it comes off a lot better on screen than it does in the threads, it's going to be a crying shame. It seems to me that as we head into the summer, Texas is the hotter of the two branches of the USWA, with three top-level feuds (Kerry/Borne, Dundee/Tatum, and Adams/Austin) as opposed to one that's only starting (Lawler/Snowman) in Memphis and not a whole lot else. I'd still like to see the two sides exchange talent a little more and provide fresh opponents, especially for Lawler in Memphis; why they couldn't have brought Adams in for a loop around Memphis with the King instead of trotting out Jimmy Valiant, or even brought the Superstar home for Round 546,237 in their endless game of "loves me/loves me not", I can't begin to say. It's almost like Jarrett's so busy with his shiny new toy down in Dallas that he's counting on Lawler's charisma alone to hold down the fort back home. If that's the case, the plan's working, but just barely. I wonder what would have been next for Lawler if someone hadn't had the Snowman idea. I'm asking seriously, were there any major babyfaces left on the Memphis side, or would we have bounced around from Kerry rematch to Valiant rematch to King Cobra rematch until Lawler got so tired of it that he would have just jumped on a random heel one Saturday morning out of nowhere and turned himself face, which he always was in the eyes of the fans to begin with? I just remembered one other question: Would the Dallas fans have known or cared about who Eddie Marlin was, since there was so little continuity between Memphis and Dallas?
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You knew this was going to go south when John Brazille and Max Andrews had to hold Kerry and Borne apart before the bell, and boy, did it ever. As terrific as the brawl was, though, the match's highlight was Kerry diving off the apron to slap the claw on Borne before they went outside; that's a move I never thought Kerry would even attempt with a prosthetic, let alone be able to hit. Outside, we get a classic Memphis parking lot brawl, complete with Brazille getting slugged by Kerry, then calling for the camera to be cut off in a vain attempt to shield the children of Texas from any more needless brutality than they'd already seen. I actually liked the fact that there were no lights out in the parking lot; it added to the spontaneous feel. I told myself that I wasn't going to wish for Marc during these matches, since he left of his own accord for far better things than wrestling, but we needed someone who'd been around the Von Erichs, had seen what they'd gone through, and could let us in on Kerry's emotions as he tried to avenge Chris by beating Borne's brains out. Instead, Craig calls it just like any other brawl between two wrestlers, which is understandable in a way given that it's just his second week on the job, but still not what the match needed. Percy tries, but he's already blamed Kerry for the whole mess several times, plus his high voice just doesn't resonate. Maybe Craig will get better as the weeks wear on, but that doesn't help this particular match. I wonder why Bill Mercer wouldn't come back? We still hear Marc on the Nintendo voiceovers, which is a small satisfaction. Can't wait to see the next chapter in this one. It's fair to say that USWA Texas just might be the best in-ring promotion in North America at the moment.
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This match certainly raised JR out of his lethargy, didn't it? Seriously, I have to think that this may have been his audition tape for the job he eventually got with the Falcons, because the football references are not only more numerous than usual, but more obscure. On the plus side, you could tell he was having flashbacks to his Watts days with all the talk about Butch Reed and his soupbones. This was a great power match, and I like how Caudle put over that Doom didn't expect a match like this from a couple of amateur wrestlers. Whoever decided to take the masks off of Simmons and Reed deserved a raise, because they were never this good with them on. Peanuthead fits with them a thousand percent better than Nancy did too. Speaking of rapid improvement, Reed is back close to his Mid-South best here after sleepwalking through his WWF stint. Maybe it was the bleach in his hair. I was also surprised that this job was relatively clean, but at least the Steiners weren't getting buried like Pillman and Zenk, and they'd be back on top again soon. For the moment, it'll be interesting to see who else besides Rick and Scotty is on the champions' radar now that Pillman and Zenk are through. Congratulations to the team of DOOM!
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The match itself was very good, particularly Pillman as FIP, but it wasn't only the crowd that was dead. JR seemed not to give half a damn either, sleepwalking through spots that would normally have him, in Cornette's phraseology, "throwing babies in the air". It's as if he knew that Pillman and Zenk were losing the belts (which of course he did) and thus decided to save his energy for the important stuff, like Robocop. Caudle tried to make up for it, but if JR hadn't been able to tell us about Pillman's football career, I think he would have fallen asleep. Also, I don't get why you're burying your second-best working tag team so far this year if you're WCW. The Steiners may be champions, but up to this point in the Yearbook, their biggest claim to fame has been stinking out the joint on Family Feud. It's Rock 'n' Roll and Pillman/Zenk (especially Pillman) who've been delivering the goods in the ring. Even if you wanted them to drop the US belts to put the MX back in the mix, they could have been tremendous challengers for Simmons and Reed. This wasn't their last TV match as a team; they got one last chance at the MX on the syndicated version of Main Event three weeks later (weekend of June 9), with Zenk once again getting pinned by Lane, this time off of a Cornette distraction. Which markets even got that show? Was it just ones where TBS hadn't penetrated yet? Great win for the MX, but a sad end for a team with tremendous potential.
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I might be among the few, but I didn't care for this one much. The camera work was sloppy, particularly at the finish, the announcing was lazy (Craig calling a flying bodypress a big splash was at least in the ballpark, but Percy calling forearms to the back punches in the stomach just shouldn't happen on a taped show) and while the guys all did their night's work, they were overshadowed by Gossett. Look, I'm no prude when it comes to managers getting physically involved, especially if they've been wrestlers. The idea bookers seemed to have where all former wrestlers who managed immediately forgot their ring training was total nonsense, and one of the few ideas I was glad to see Vince ignore (at least for the most part). But unless Gossett's actually training for a career in the ring, the idea that he can beat up Jarrett and Travis as badly as he did, even with help, is nonsensical. Throwing clotheslines, splashes, and even an avalanche? What was next, demanding a five-count on Jarrett like King Kong Bundy? This isn't even a situation like in SMW, where Cornette was his own top heel, the only one whom he could trust not to leave, and he took most of the heat in any given angle he was involved in on himself so someone would be there to take the final beating when the time came (which it always did). Gossett had two perfectly good heels to do his dirty work for him, but whoever booked this slop decided to be different. All I can say is that this better have led to a Jarrett/Gossett match that didn't make the set, or Jeff's credibility in Dallas is shot. Beaten to a pulp by Porky Pig? Come on, Jerry (Jarrett), just how did your son piss you off? Couldn't he have simply apologized? Texas has been hot lately, but this is a pretty significant blip on the radar.
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I didn't think you could work a barbed wire match well without major bleeding from at least one of the participants, but I was wrong. This was a beautifully worked match, with psychology you don't often see in a stip match like this. From Austin busting open his back just getting into the ring to the lengths these two guys go to avoid getting cut to the fact that Jeannie wore one of her best outfits, which subtly got over the idea that she wouldn't be a factor during the body of the match, this was well done from start to finish. The limits of television actually helped the quality of the work, which doesn't happen very often. Speaking of which, the finish itself was inspired, as Chris manages to avoid the wire and score a pin out of nowhere at the same time with the crucifix. Austin's not satisfied, and after laying Chris low with a pair of brass knucks courtesy of Jeannie, he murders him with one of the stiffest-looking chair shots I've ever seen, then drives the chair into the back of Chris's neck at least three more times. Just terrific stuff all around. Craig and Percy are gelling on commentary, and even though this was almost certainly unintentional, I couldn't help but snicker every time Percy referred to "Mean Jeannie". No matter what else you say about her, you have to admit that she's prettier than wrestling's other Mean Gene! Now that Chris has asserted himself, what's next for this feud? Can't wait to find out!
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This was about as close to an Austin squash as you can get without binding Adams hand and foot before he gets in the ring. Sloppy or not, Austin gets almost all the offense, and nothing Adams tries slows him down for more than a second or two. The only reason this feud can even continue is because Jeannie pulls a Bobby Heenan and trips Chris on a suplex attempt to get Steve the win. I'm not even sure that was needed; finish aside, we can call this a clean job. Chris can't even get up the energy to chase Austin and Jeannie up the aisle. It'll be interesting to see how he recovers from this. I know we like to pick on the announcers, Kevin, but Craig can't mention a ringside chair taking a beating? There's such a thing as putting the wrestlers over too much; it's called shilling, and some of us like to bury and degrade guys like Gene Okerlund for it. Context and atmosphere are important if you're going to call a wrestling match with the same level of seriousness that you would a baseball or football game, which is the ultimate goal if a promotion wants wrestling to be seen on that level (which they did back then). If Joe Buck can mention the weather during an NFL playoff game or Vin Scully can read a list of birthdays between (or even sometimes during) the pitches of a Dodger game, surely Craig Johnson can take two seconds to talk about a chair taking a beating, particularly when Austin's about to use said chair on Adams' head.
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As I said in an earlier thread, as nice as this was, Vince did it better with Savage and Liz, although I will say that Bill Dundee makes a better knight in shining armor than George Steele ever did. As far as the commentators go, Percy continues to straddle the line between face and heel. I'll need to hear more of Craig Johnson, but if they couldn't bring back Bill Mercer or fly Dave Brown in from Memphis, it's to the point where one announcer's about as good as another.
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This match's main purpose is the reintroduction of Barry Windham into the Horseman fold, and it works superbly. I don't think anyone actually expected a title change this close to the pay-per-view, but the very fact that this match is on World Wide just two weeks before Capital Combat is a huge deal. Luger dominates from beginning to end, although this isn't quite a squash, mostly because of the looming Horseman threat and Sting's vulnerability. This is one of the few times we see the babyface use the figure-four on Flair without Flair using it first. We get the superplex instead of the Torture Rack as Lex's almost-finisher, and then here comes the cavalry. Kudos to Sting for allowing his knee to be attacked; even though he was no doubt cleared for action before participating in the angle, accidents can happen, and it was an accident that put him on the shelf in the first place. For one of the few times since Dusty put the original group together four years before, the Horsemen look unstoppable, as the faces flood the ring to break up the attack, and even then, there's serious concern about Sting's leg. Just tremendous stuff. Tony makes his return to World Wide and picks right up where he left off, but who decided on Teddy Long as a color man? Heels that make stuff up in their own heads turn me off completely; if you can't spin what the fans know they've actually seen to your advantage, you're in sad shape, and Teddy's baloney about how Luger should have been disqualified for launching himself over the top rope cast a pall on the match that took me a few minutes to completely shake off. I guess Terry Funk was out of the company by now, since he shows up in Memphis to rekindle his feud with Lawler later in the year. Still, they could have done better than Teddy to take his place. Anyone but Missy Hyatt! That aside, a superb TV match and a way to bring interest in the actual human beings involved at Capital Combat to a fever pitch.
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Thanks a lot, Loss. Now I'm really looking forward to seeing this all play out.
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I realize you guys didn't have the space for it, but I would have loved to see the main games and try to figure out how anybody won. Seriously, it's tough to tell how much of the ineptitude was lack of intelligence and how much was nerves, because mental exercises like this aren't what these people are used to. On most episodes of Feud, there's a bad answer or two during Fast Money, but here they seem to come one right after the other, especially from Rick and Animal. Maybe they just weren't paying full attention. I think Gene Wood would have made a splendid guest ring announcer for a WrestleMania if he'd had a big enough name outside of game shows. I'm guessing Johnny Olsen (from The Price is Right) might have made it if he'd lived a little longer; he died of a stroke in October 1985. Ray Combs was good, but you could tell by the fifth show that he was getting a bit weary of all the stupidity. These shows taped all in one day, as is the custom for game shows, so you can imagine how he felt having to hear these wacky answers all day long. Pete, they'd have never made it through a show if Richard was still hosting; he'd have fallen on the floor stone dead from laughter after Rick said that $9000 was one of the costs of owning a car! (Seriously, he was well-known for either breaking up at contestants' bad answers or insulting them, so he'd have had a field day with this crew, and not necessarily in a good way.) I was explaining this segment to my dad, who's also a wrestling fan, and he suggested that everyone might have been answering the way they thought their wrestling characters would answer so as not to break kayfabe. This doesn't mean that the shows were rigged (which would be a federal crime), but it might explain Ray's irritation if he suspected what my dad did. I know he was a guest ring announcer at Mania VIII, so if he knew a little about the wrestling business, he might have realized (or at least thought) that the wrestlers weren't answering honestly. Great stuff. Hope we see more in the future!
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Another tremendous segment, but like the first one, it lacked something. Last time it was a non-worker taking a bump to heighten the feeling of chaos. This time it was a principled stand from Lawler. If he truly believed that the only way to stop Snowman was to give him a title match and Eddie Marlin didn't agree, all he had to do was threaten not to defend the belt against anyone Eddie ordered him to wrestle, including Jeff Gaylord. He's threatened to take his belt and go home before; why not now? It would have been dramatic as anything to see Eddie resist and resist until the very last moment before the show goes off the air, then reluctantly grant the match in the interest of keeping the peace. Would it have made him seem a bit wishy-washy? Maybe, but you can't tell me that there weren't certain black fans who thought, "I'll be damned, they really are racists. Why am I watching this instead of the WWF?" It may not have been many, but in a case like this, even one is too many. Of course, they do (presumably) get in the ring, so at least there's that, and if Snowman beats Lawler in the non-sanctioned match, Eddie would presumably have no choice but to grant him a title match. I found the actual dialogue kind of hard to follow, with people constantly interrupting each other, and Eddie was a bit over the top with his demands that they "get back to wrasslin'". Every move he made seemed to prove Snowman's points, and I doubt that's what they really wanted, particularly against the hometown hero Lawler. I realize that he had to come off as the authority figure, but it seemed at times as if he wanted to give Snowman a forum on one hand and take it away with the other, like they didn't know just how far they were willing to go with all of this quite yet. In the end, if what I've read in future threads is correct, the answer is "Not nearly as far as everyone hoped". It sounds from the names of the guys Snowman had beaten that Norvell's brother rattled off like they were trying to say that Snowman had spent time in Mid-South. Was this true, or did they just pick those four names out because they were all with either the WWF (DiBiase, Jake) or Turner (JYD, Doc) at the time? Who is this Bohemian Brother, and should I have heard of him? He didn't look familiar, but I'll probably kick myself for not recognizing him. Is it Snowman himself, perhaps? One thing I really liked had nothing to do with wrestling; Dave took time out from the hottest angle in Memphis to briefly reassume his meteorologist duties and pass along a thunderstorm warning to eastern Arkansas. You won't see that on Saturday Night's Main Event, folks! Great stuff so far. We'll see where it heads in June.
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Most of my thunder has been stolen, but I'll reiterate a few things: 1. Eddie Marlin is the star here, a man trying like hell to save the USWA from the utter chaos threatening to descend upon it. Snowman accuses Lawler of hiding behind Eddie, and in this case it's true, because Eddie makes it true. He clearly wants to deal with Snowman purely at an executive level without letting him near Lawler before what he feels is the proper time. 2. Snowman has several points about racist Lawler, but he's also perpetuating a stereotype by demanding a title shot before he's earned it and claiming that the reason he's not getting it is because he's black. I hope Lawler or Eddie will address this in future segments. 3. I wonder what the heckler said that caused Lawler to go off. The only thing I can think of is some type of racist slur, although the heckler's white, so that really makes no sense. 4. As real as this looked, the one fatal flaw, as Pete mentioned, was that Snowman was subdued far too easily. What this really needed, and I'm absolutely serious here, was for Dave Brown- not Lawler, not even Eddie- to do a stretcher job. Have Snowman break the one cardinal rule of wrestling TV: Never mess with the announcer. Hit him with a chair, knock him out with one punch, ram his head into the post so that he bleeds, something. Have WMC send him on vacation, and really sell this by having various Memphis wrestlers come in to read the weather for him for at least two weeks, and let Michael St. John fill in for him on Saturday mornings. I realize that that may be the exact reason that they didn't go there- being the weatherman for Channel 5 was (and still is) Dave's primary duty, not the wrestling show- but that might have also been the one way to convince the viewers that there was absolutely nothing fake about this whatsoever. If Dave's unwilling, which would have been completely understandable, find a non-worker who will bump (just once) for Snowman. Aside from that minor flaw- and for all we know they asked someone to do it and couldn't find any takers- this was perfect. I can't wait to see how this angle unfolds. Congratulations to one and all.
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I watched this before the other two long segments just to get a small glimpse of what was going on. Boy, they sure picked a big sucker, didn't they? And he looks more than capable of kicking Lawler's butt, too. Dave looks totally out of sorts here, which I guess is exactly what they wanted. It bears repeating that Memphis, maybe more than any other wrestling TV show, acknowledged the constraints of TV and the necessity of a tight format with everything coming off as expected and on time. That adds to the announcers' exasperation for so-called "unexpected" interruptions, and both Lance and Dave are masters at selling that exasperation. I don't know how much of it may be real, since the show was live, but they both make it seem as if all of it's real, and that's part of the show's unique feel. Lawler's off his verbal game a bit here, which is again as it should be if they're selling this as a shoot; he doesn't have the time or the foresight to go to his standard lines and gags. Can't wait to see the rest of this!
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A lot more honest than the Connie Chung piece; I felt that Lawler opened up as much as he could without breaking kayfabe. The $300,000 a year figure's probably inflated, but you'd expect that. I liked that Lawler admitted that he carried Jimmy Valiant, which we fans all knew but must have been a shock to those few people who still thought wrestling was completely on the up and up. Who was the caller on the radio who said that Lawler's done more for the positive image of Memphis than Elvis? I hate to be cynical, but it almost sounds like a USWA office worker. Are there really people in Memphis who believe that? I enjoyed seeing Paula, as it made Jerry seem just a tad more human. I can believe the Plowboy Frazier story, but considering how wild Memphis was in the old days, I have a hard time believing that that was the one and only time she ever got involved. Maybe physically, but she had to cut a few promos in her day. I also liked the finale, where Jerry admits that sometimes he just wants the crowd to leave him alone. I'm sure all the boys have been there a time or hundred. I can't find anything about the program as a whole (even on Wikipedia), but I want to say that the narrator/host for this particular piece is Paula Zahn.
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This was clearly done with the non-wrestling fan in mind. Loss asked how WCW could allow this to air; my best answer is that those who were fans were either on the Wrestling Hotline or watching the Capital Combat replay (this was aired the night of May 19), and that WCW knew that those who weren't fans wouldn't give a hoot how many secrets were revealed. It's CBS and Connie Chung, for God's sake. Who would dare say no just to protect the rapidly vanishing and outdated concept of kayfabe when there was national exposure to be gained? What is this, 1960? All that said, I didn't like the wink-and-a-nod tone Connie used here, although I guess it's inevitable that people in the mainstream media see themselves as above such obvious bullshit as wrasslin'. Even Bob Costas, who's actually a fan (or was, at any rate), had to ham it up like that on his SportsWorld special in 1985; I suspect that a show that took pro wrestling totally seriously (which is definitely not the same as claiming that it's real) would be denied airtime by a "serious" news organization, then and now. The one thing that kind of disturbed me, even more than Herd's claim about not putting popular guys in with guys who would tear them apart (which is sound business, if you think about it) was Sting saying that he had no interest in wrestling until he learned about the money he could make out of it. Look, no one's expecting a promo, Steve, but you sound exactly like Flair and the Horsemen here. You know, your sworn enemies? Next time you do something like this and the same question comes up, you might want to throw in a bit about making all the little kids happy and showing off your physique, that sort of thing. Just a friendly tip. This wasn't a hatchet job, but it wasn't exactly friendly either. In other words, it was like most mainstream media pieces on wrestling at the time.
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Griz does get a brief mention here, as Robin says that he never whipped the kids; it was always his wife. That's not the way brother Jake tells it, I don't think. Speaking of whom, I was waiting for them to mention that there's one other child in the family, but I don't think everyone was on the best of terms here, though I have trouble sorting out precisely who Jake was/still is mad at. I don't think there's a problem between him and Robin; he mentioned that he protected her from beatings when she was little. But I can't recall him talking about Sam even in passing during any of his interviews. Of course, Sam is nobody's winner in the sainthood sweepstakes either. At any rate, this segment's about as fluffy and feel-good as you expect, with lots of touches and kisses between everybody. If this family was as dysfunctional as Jake says they were, they hid it expertly here. I liked the joke about Robin not putting her belt on the line against Sam; it's the type of joking you'd expect between normal brothers and sisters (though, granted, this family's hardly normal). I'm glad someone found this, and I wish the big promotions had paid more attention to stuff like Mother's Day.
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And I recognized his voice right away, for some odd reason. Oh well, it wasn't like they had a whole lot of other cheap options.
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That depends on what you mean by "a better situation", Cox. While Saba Simba was a lousy gimmick, it paid more than what he was doing here and allowed him to get out of debt. At any rate, "The Man" cuts a promo on a worthy named Chief Thunder Mountain here, and does so with style. Yes, the gags are stolen directly from Jerry Lawler's jokebook, but the fact that they're coming out of Atlas's mouth makes them at least somewhat less stale. I wish that he had more to work with too, but the other big star in ICW (Heyman) just left for WCW, and he was a heel anyway, so Tony had to make do with this kind of stuff. I agree about Atlas being a better surprise for Flair than JYD. Here's another for you: Atlas instead of Tiny Lister as Zeus in No Holds Barred.
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Pete, the line referred to the fact that the winner of the SuperClash match (Lawler) was laying flat on his back in the middle of the ring unable to move, his face a bloody mess. Notwithstanding Kerry's own bloody face, I think I'd agree with him. I don't know what happened to Kerry here, but he actually made more sense here than in all of his other promos this year put together. His only slipup was that his motorcycle accident was almost four years ago (June 4, 1986) not two and a half as he said here. Other than that, he keeps it short, simple, and to the point, which is always a good move for him. I think the "Tennessee/Texas/vice versa" stuff may have been his extremely weak attempt at a joke. To paraphrase that noted wit Mean Gene Okerlund, if he threw it in, maybe he should have thrown it out.