S.L.L.

Well, keep in mind that one of the big lessons of wrestling's history that no one ever learns is that people in and around the biz tend to think they're bulletproof until they got shot...and sometimes not even then. All the anecdotal experience in the world won't do a thing once you've tricked yourself into thinking it doesn't apply to you.

I was really pleasantly surprised by the support Karloff Lagarde got. I don't know how much of that was because of his death, don't know whether or not most people had their votes in already when it happened. Still, that support didn't translate to Enrique Torres, which may or may not mean anything.

Well, I imagine sleeping with WWE Divas is a pretty good intermediate step to coming out of the closet.

Meltz indirectly confirmed in yesterday's update that The Rock got in. Also...

It is so typical of cold, heartless corporate America to deny men their God-given right to murder their families.

Dynamite Kid telling wrestlers to "suck it up" really is the real life version of The Black Knight telling King Arthur that it was "just a flesh wound" when he cut his arms off.

At least it's a change of pace from the usual hangings. Well, that and he didn't succeed. God, this is creepy.

Most of what I feel about this match has been said already, so I just want to say that watching this match makes me think that of all the things Vince McMahon did wrong from a booking standpoint, the worst might be his failure to protect the cage match. This was a great match, really only tarnished for me by Sandy Scott's reffing, but it could never happen today.

I don't use the "MOVES~!" line very much when talking about wrestlers or matches, but I use it pretty frequently when talking about other people's opinions on wrestlers and matches. I'm in the same boat with you guys, more or less. I've got no problem with high-end offense, I just think there's a time and a place for it. And I think you can work a high-end match with or without high-end offense. Both are valid, they're just different. And I like variety, so different is good, IMO. I really only use "MOVES~!" when I'm dealing with stupid people and their stupid pro-MOVES~! opinions. It's not really a serious criticism of high-end moves on my part. Really, two of the wrestlers most heavily defended by "moves marks" are Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle, neither of whom have particularly deep or high-end offenses. The 80's equivalent of this group were rabid Ric Flair supporters. It's not really about moves. It's about the faulty ideology applied by "moves marks". If it means anything when I say it, consider it shorthand for "your opinions on pro wrestling are deeply flawed, and are roughly in line with these other people with similar deeply flawed wrestling opinions".

This was filmed before he signed with WWE, if I've got the timeline right.

Yeah, the hideous accident didn't really deter everyone else from brawling on the other side of the ring. There are a lot of better matches than this, but like you said, it is a good introduction to some of the more pimped older luchadors. Dandy, Fuerza, and Estrada are three of the all-time great workers, and Dandy's exchanges with both of those rudos are amazing. The recently deceased Angel Azteca and slightly less recently deceased El Texano weren't exactly slouches, either. Azteca might throw the best armdrags I've ever seen. He has a million different ways of pulling them off and they all rule. Pierroth didn't get to do much before the accident. I'm just surprised he didn't beat Azteca and Texano to the graveyard.

I'm not. Denial is a powerful thing.

I had seen the rematch a number of times. While I always felt it was very, very good, it never quite hit me the way it was supposed to. It was the finish, I think. I knew why they did it, and this match illustrated it even further, but it just never looked right to me. Chigusa nearly gets KO'd again, gets up, flash pin, it's over. I dunno. There's nothing wrong with it, technically speaking, it just didn't feel right to me. So I'm not surprised I liked the finish to this match better. What did surprise me was how much better I liked just about everything else. Everything else in the rematch was great, and I had always assumed that was the big match, whereas this was mainly notable for the finish. Nope. As good as the rematch was, this blows it's doors in. I don't know if I've ever seen a wrestling match with the level of organized chaos here. Every moment is a life or death struggle. The brutality of Dump, the spirit of Chiggy, the madness, the blood, the weapons shots, the seconds, the rudo ref, the hysterical schoolgirl crowd, and the greatest head shaving in wrestling history. This is one of the best matches I've ever seen.

I think - at least theoretically - they're allowed. They just don't happen to have any there right now. That said, I'm told certain powerful figures within the nation do not respect the gay, or even the fag.

Well, a lot of it has to do with the type of stories they're telling these last few years, I'd imagine. When Austin hit, a wave of dangerous loners came behind him, and when he left, it kept coming. I've gone on at great length elsewhere about how successful wrestling promotions tend to mirror the style of their top stars. I think Cena is a Sting-esque enough figure that if they wanted to pull that off again now, they definitely could.

This is a really good point. One thing watching this match reminded me of is that since he became a notable singles wrestler, Bret's character has pretty much always been presented as a tragic one. Certainly, he's far from the only wrestler to have bad things happen to him, but the general story for Bret's character is that he wants to be Jack Brisco, having clean, straightforward wrestling matches, but something always goes wrong for him. And the response often isn't rage, it's a bitter depression. Bret doesn't know how to cope with wrestling his brother-in-law in his home nation. Bret feels powerless to stop the constant humiliation he and his family are put through at the hands of Jerry Lawler. Bret is heartbroken over his little brother turning against him. Bret doesn't know how to deal with some of his fans turning to Michaels and Austin, even though he feels they aren't worthy successors. And of course, Bret, already aimless in WCW, is forced to soldier on even more aimlessly after his brother's death. So in this match, it is interesting to see what the character of Bret Hart must have envisioned as the light at the end of the tunnel. He seldom actually got there, but of the rare occasions he did, this was the best.

Got mine. Shall commence viewing shortly.

Man, you throw in a couple of ghosts of dead wrestlers, this is like the best episode of "The Twilight Zone" ever. Vince is so far removed from reality at this point that I don't know whether to hate him, laugh at him, or pity him. With all the talk over the state of wrestler's brains, Vince's might be the most fascinating of all. Not so much because of the physical damage, but the man seems to be completely mentally unstable. I don't mean to play armchair psychologist here, but his actions scream antisocial personality disorder, and a pretty severe case at that, and likely severe hypomania as well. In all likelihood, the man belongs in a straitjacket, locked away in some place where society is safe from him - and where he is safe from himself. I think wrestling is something you either get or you don't. The second Vince and the gang get trotted in front of congress, that's gonna be illustrated like a motherfucker.

Man, that dude is a piece of work.

Is there any context to this, or does Ross just wish depression and death on anyone who mentions Haystacks Calhoun to him?

Oh, wow. I didn't even consider that angle of it. RAW didn't even have the best six-months of work in a WWE demi-promotion in 2007.

Yeah, one thing that's been crossing my mind during all of this is what this all means to/for/about Dr. James Andrews. I'm not part of the medical profession myself, though I have a lot of relatives - my own father included - and family friends who are doctors, and I can't really answer your question, but a guy like Andrews would have to have seen all the injuries to all the guys he was treating and put two and two together. The Hippocratic Oath says you must do no harm to your patients, not just directly, but indirectly as well. If he knew something was amiss - and surely, he must have - he would've been required to say/do something. I mean, he couldn't stand by Triple H all day slapping syringes out of his hand, but he couldn't just stand by silently, either. Not legally, anyway.

1994 Michaels smokes 2007 Michaels like a cheap cigar.