Cox

Wait, when did WWE sign Quiet Storm?

The only problem is, WWF in 1994-5 did not have a need for any new babyfaces. They had Bret, Undertaker, Luger, and Razor Ramon, and Nash and Shawn both turned in late 94/early 95. Sting was not very effective in his (admittedly short) run as a heel in WCW, so I can't imagine him coming in as a heel. Maybe they don't turn Shawn if Sting is there (the crowd was heavily cheering heel Diesel around this time and I think they would have turned him no matter what), or maybe they turn Razor or Luger heel, but I don't know if there would have been a place for Sting in WWF around that time.

I don't know if anybody would argue that Joe would have for sure been better off in WWE, but I think many of Joe's contemporaries during the super indy era of the mid 00's wound up having better careers than Joe in the end, even though Joe was arguably the best of the group from 2003-2006, and all of those guys are in much better spots than Joe these days for sure. Even a guy like Aries is arguably in a better spot with TNA than Joe has been in many years.

I think Sting is one of the few people that has benefitted from the existance of TNA. I don't think he ever would have gone to WWE if they required him to work any sort of road schedule, so he's been able to have a second career working a handful of matches per year and getting paid reasonably well for it. Hard for me to call that a bad decision, even if a Wrestlemania match against Undertaker would have been pretty cool. And I still think after he's done with TNA, we could still see Sting in the WWE Hall of Fame, a Sting DVD set, etc.

I'm not sure he would have had a better WWE run either, but if you look at the ROH roster from 2003-2005, Joe was pretty much the undisputed top guy there, and here we are ten years later and he has been passed by a lot of guys who were there at the same time. In fact, of the top guys who were there while he was there, arguably the only guy who has it worse than Joe these days is Nigel McGuinness, and that's only because the reckless style he adapted wound up destroying his body.

Kona Crush had a pretty awe-inspiring blond mullet.

I wouldn't say I'm offended by them, and I give them a pass for all the wacky Chumlee stuff since he was clearly the breakout character of the series. And like MARTYEWR said, I generally like the Old Man because he clearly doesn't give a shit. I think it's more the younger Harrisons that make the show unwatchable for me anymore. Corey is just completely unlikable to me, and Rick might be the worst actor out of everybody. I respect Rick's devotion to carniness, including taking advantage of the poor marks that walk into his pawn shop, but the mix between Beetle Bailey shenanigans and cool things brought into the shop has changed since the first few seasons, and not in a way I find particularly entertaining anymore.

I stopped watching Pawn Stars when I realized how badly scripted it was getting. I know it's silly to stop watching reality TV because it's fake, but when they are that obvious about the work, it becomes harder for me to get lost in the show and enjoy it. Maybe that's the real problem with pro wrestling; for some people, it's too ridiculous to get lost into the work to really enjoy it.

Bumping this. I went to a wrestling convention over the weekend, partially because it was 15 minutes from my house, and partly because Robert Fuller and Stan Hansen (two of my all-time favorites) were going to be there and I wanted to get my picture taken with them, because I'm a huge mark. The three big draws for the weekend, apparently, were Sting, Bruno Sammartino, and Edge. Fans were paying a minimum of $100 (for a picture/autograph or two autographs) and up to $250 (for five autographs and early placement in line) to meet Edge. And, what's crazier is, people were actually paying this much to meet Edge! This utterly baffled me. I realize I'm not an Edge fan and never will be, but I can't even fathom Edge resonating that much with fans to where people would shell out that kind of money just to meet him. He did not main event WWE during a particularly important time in the company's history, nor was he a true main eventer for very long. I would not say he was one of the top 5 most memorable wrestlers of the past 12 or so years in WWE, and may struggle to be top ten on that list. On a weekend where there were some actual legends in the house like Hansen and Bruno, I found it odd that the guys getting $100 to meet with them, Sting and Edge, both can't even get 50% of the vote in the WON Hall of Fame balloting. And then there are blurbs like this from this week's Observer: So...maybe I'm the crazy one for not seeing the big deal about Edge, I don't know. I just see him as a guy among a bunch of other guys who was occasionally good but often groan-worthy when I watched him over the past several years. He can be carried when in there against guys like Cena, but rarely would I say an Edge match was good because Edge was in it. So am I crazy, or are the many people willing to fork over that kind of money just to get an awkward 30 second conversation with Edge the crazy ones?

Listened to this over the weekend while making various 45 minute trips across New Jersey during the weekend. It was the first time I listened to the Wrestling Culture podcast and overall I'd say it was a very interesting listen and one I will make more of an effort to listen to in the future. This was a good topic for me to listen to, since I'm a huge Paul Heyman mark. To me, Paul Heyman is one of those guys who I would say is the wrestling business, for better or for worse. Just a guy who was put on this Earth to be a part of the carny con game that is pro wrestling, because his ability to adapt and survive (as was the theme of the show) made him a great fit for this business. I see him as a guy whose cons are constantly blowing up on him in one way or another, yet always finds a way back in no matter how badly it looks like he's burned all of his bridges. Eddie Gilbert fired by Continental? Go to the AWA. AWA about to die? Get into WCW. Fired by WCW once? Work indies until a new spot opens up. Fired by WCW again? Sue the company and go back to work for Eddie in ECW. Eddie out in ECW? Get the book and remold the company in his image. Etc, etc. He's a guy who always finds a new job even when you can't fathom how that will happen. Between that and his on screen work (which I have found to be consistently excellent, except during last year's HHH/Lesnar stuff that was scripted for him to look bad at the hands of Stephanie McMahon for reasons that should be obvious to anybody who has followed Heyman's WWE career), I will always be a big Paul E. fan. One nitpick: the Steiners were not in the Wrestlewar '92 War Games match. They were busy on that show briefly ruining poor Takayuki Iizuka's life on the undercard. It was Ricky Steamboat and Nikita Koloff in that cage match. Normally wouldn't even bother bringing it up but since it is one of a handful of matches considered one of the greatest matches in WCW history, thought it was worth a correction.

Maybe one or two of those Best Chef cooking shows, but probably not them either. Refuse to believe that the two people from that recent Kitchen Nightmares USA are real. Possibly two of the most insane people ever to appear on television. It was sold to us as having been "news" over there, was it? "The show that has everyone in America talking about it". If it's the episode about Amy's Baking Company, then yes it was news to a degree, in that people like me who don't really watch Kitchen Nightmares have heard of this particular episode and how particularly crazy those people are.

Just checking, but you mean Nitro Girl Spice, right?

This is why I love pro wrestling. http://www.ebay.com/itm/251285882991?ssPag...9#ht_190wt_1058

I wonder if WWE quietly acquired the rights to air some or all of the ESPN wrestling library within the last year? When Booker T was named to the Hall of Fame a few months back, they showed Ebony Experience footage as part of his video, which I believe was the first time they had ever aired GWF footage. One would think it would be a good idea, since the USWA '90 stuff alone would be worth it for a future Steve Austin DVD.

Can't wait for Quack to open up his next group, Wrestling Is Adultery.

I'm not really a Chikara guy, but I watched tonight's show, since the build seemed, if nothing else, interesting. I say I'm not a Chikara guy based on having only seen one recent show, which was part of the WrestleCon show that my friends and I left early because we just weren't into it. I respect that the rest of the crowd was into it, and that Quack does a good job promoting to his base, but the overall jokey/ironic vibe didn't work for me. So I'll preface my comments with that. That said, I thought the show was generally good. The in-ring was decent or better for most of the night, save the Sarcophagus Match, which went on for WAY too long and for a feud-ending grudge match, really lacked fire from either guy. Everything else was good. I mostly enjoyed the Colony six man tag, although I also felt like they overdid that match in a lot of spots, and the tag title change was pretty good too. The Tim Donst/Gavin Loudspeaker match was a highlight for me, because that match was worked almost exactly as it should have been (granted, I think the match was helped by Loudspeaker legit being scared out of his mind in there) with a satisfying finish for most fans (me, I wanted Loudspeaker to get his head shaved, partly because his name is Gavin Loudspeaker, and partly because of his insistence at WrestleCon at referring to intermission as "intermish"). As for the main event, I have to admit, I'm just not sure where this is going. They seem to be putting a lot of heat on this Wink Vavasseur guy, which is all well and good, but he's not a wrestler, and he's not even managing wrestlers. It's another evil commissioner/evil owner storyline, which is beyond played out in 2013. Maybe that's the idea in "wink-wink, nudge nudge" hipster-ass Chikara, so maybe it's just another instance of Chikara not being for me, or maybe this is going in an even weirder direction. Who knows. Anyway, no regrets on getting the iPPV. I was home, I had nothing else to do, and the wrestling was generally good. That said, I'm still not much more certain I'm a Chikara guy now than I was two months ago. Maybe I'll follow things online just to see where things go, but I don't necessarily see me shelling out for another iPPV or going to another Chikara live event anytime soon.

Not exactly. Being the greatest pro wrestling journalist ever has allowed Dave to make a six figure income for over 20 years. That's enough to buy a LOT of grande lattes.

I would not assume that Dave and Bryan think Babinsack's writing to be awful. This is a website that allowed Todd Martin and Dan Wahlers to write for them for years, and posts some absolute horseshit writing on a regular basis.

From Bryan Alvarez's daily update today: How does this kill off a TV angle that not a single fan cares enough about to believe is true?

I never would have thought WWE would have started this month's version of the Harlem Shake, but there you go.

I actually thought Chikara had the best timeslot of the weekend. It was later in the day, so anybody who spent the day at WrestleExpo could finish the day going to Chikara, and if the show had ended when it was supposed to, it would have given fans 90 minutes to get to New York for the Hall of Fame. They also didn't have to go head to head with ROH, PWS, or the Hall of Fame. Really, what screwed them over was Shimmer running so late, which set them back time-wise to where most of the crowd left at intermission, but they still had the best live attendance of any show of the weekend, and set their own live attendance record, so they must have done something right. Really, I'm surprised Gabe didn't fight for that time slot, as his three promotions seemed to get the worst slots of the weekend (Evolve at 4 PM on a Friday night in an area with awful traffic problems, DUSA on Saturday night at 7 against the Hall of Fame, and DUSA on Sunday afternoon in a venue that had already hosted seven wrestling shows the previous two days alone).

So Dolph Ziggler won the WWE Hardcore title tonight?

How could they have cut America the Beautiful for time when it would have opened the show?

Robert Gibson is awesome. I went over to the Rock 'n' Roll Express table on Thursday to get a picture with them and Robert was trying to get me to buy everything they had. T-shirts, bandanas, you name it. Finally bought a random DVD that I'll probably never watch, but hey, for $20, I got a DVD, picture, and an autographed picture, so I can't complain, even if all I really wanted was the picture with them.

That's strange - I was freezing most of the night. Then again, I was in the next to last row of the upper deck, which may explain why I was cold. Honestly, it hurt to clap at points. As far as the show, I thought it was a show. Nothing stood out as particularly good or particularly bad. I think I'd have preferred to have watched this from home, both because my seats were so far away (but ironically, despite being behind the cage, there were no obstructed views and I could see the ring fine, it was just really far - even stranger because I was actually behind the stage) and because I'd have preferred to stay out of the cold. But still, it's Wrestlemania and it's 30 miles from where I live, so I have no regrets on going. But as a show, it felt a little underwhelming.