PhilTLL

An Oprah style hiring policy--YOU get a job, and YOU get a job, and EVERYBODY GETS A JOB!!!--would also be right in line with the WCW aura.

I could have been at this live????? For probably just a few bucks??? God damn it all.

Bret had a whole series in 1989 against Perfect on TV. The matches from MSG, Boston, and Toronto in the spring and summer which one may count as house show work were very good draws, but the one on PTW in November was definitely a TV match, was excellent, and had a real finish. Way back when in the first-ever DVDVR '80s poll, it finished in the top 10. I think that poll would be a lot different these days, but that match would still do fine. There's also a Foundation/Rockers match from MSG 11/25/89 that Superstar Sleeze called "the most underrated match in WWF history." I haven't watched that in a while but I remember enjoying it.

In the first episode of Marvel's new What If, the very first big-time superhero move that (our newly minted hero) pulls off is backdropping a Nazi car.

I think Jim is mad about exactly what he says he is, the fact that Dave can no longer just disagree with him like they did cordially for many years, but instead has to attack his credibility and him as a person--and then Dave has the gall to act like that's all a work and they're still friends. I'd be mad too. (But yes I am quite positive he takes the Bucks comparison as a sarcastic dig.)

I have to admit I am the same. The sheer number of wrestling fans in the US, the relative amount of money available to make in wrestling, and the number of people making that money have all shrunk decade after decade in exactly the way that Cornette describes, and he was there and involved during a bunch of the better times, so it's probably worth listening to why he thinks that is. He's not always on target with how he would restore the business, possibly because that is a lost cause at this point, but he's frequently right in describing what's wrong with it and how crucially it differs from what was once right/profitable.

Somebody asked. Take it or leave it.

Cornette recently unblocked Meltzer on Twitter to ask, "Hey Dave, why do you feel the need to constantly slander me behind my back and continue to email me about innocuous random shit like we're still friends?" People asked why he didn't do it privately, to which he says he tried over and over but Dave just doesn't understand that Jim no longer considers him a friend. Jim says it's fine if Dave wants to bury him and love AEW, but he can't stand the constant two-faced attempts to maintain a friendship. Jim makes it clear that this is definitely not a work to him, he thinks Dave is a "backstabbing prick," and quotes emails from Dave on everything from wrestling trivia to "thank you for the political talk," that last one coming after Dave had just compared Jim to Donald Trump (yet again) in the WON. Jim brings up how Dave on Twitter defended him from blame in the immediate aftermath of the AEW fan incident, but changed his tune in the WON after Omega and others blamed Jim, when Dave started suggesting that the fan's claimed inspiration was proof enough of the problem with Jim. (Jim notes that would place the blame on Jodie Foster for the Reagan assassination attempt.) Dave called Jim a "shock jock" (which Jim says was right out of Omega's mouth) and said Jim is just bitter because the success of Omega and the Bucks proves that times change. Jim and Brian think Dave is just thrilled that the young cool kids have let him into their circle, and Dave can't handle affronts to his new gospel and his power to anoint. They touch on the Trump comparison again, and point out since Dave knows exactly where they stand politically, it's just a cheap attempt to piss them off and fire up his own fans, as are Dave's direct insults to Jim's fans. They also take down Omega's "smarmy, smart-aleck piece of shit" notes to Jim. Jim tells Dave, since he knows he's listening, to think back to the last time Dave was a guest on the show, about 3 years ago. Jim couldn't get Dave to knock all the stuff Jim thought was silly, but they didn't curse each other out and they had a perfectly nice conversation. They've known each other over 30 years, and they both have a good idea of each other's thoughts, personalities, and modes of expression. Three years ago, Jim still thought highly of Dave's commitment to reporting the news and telling the story of wrestling in balanced and accurate ways. Unlike the Bruce Prichards and Eric Bischoffs of the world, Dave was a truth teller. (Briefly, Jim admits that he was wrong about AEW going off the air during the pandemic, which Dave harps on constantly, but says he's still right about the shit being terrible.) But at some point when Jim continued the detailed criticisms of AEW, he thinks Dave went from simple disagreements to discrediting his opinions: Jim just says shock jock attention stuff, he's out of touch, his experience doesn't mean anything. At this point Jim sent Dave: Okay back to summarizing! Jim asks an incredibly simple question, why did they not arrest the guy who jumped in the ring? He was on Twitter and YouTube the next day bragging about it, apparently not from jail. If he caught charges, Jim says nobody's reported it yet. Jim reiterates that Dave is acting like a jilted lover who doesn't seem to understand that Jim has no interest in his friendship because of his backstabbing tendencies, that he thinks Dave is just mad that Jim won't apologize for the way he talks about AEW, and that Dave has largely become a mouthpiece and ad outlet for them. Brian says Dave's credibility is at an all time low, especially his inability to analyze modern wrestling, both the endlessly overrated matches and his lack of insight about the business. He calls Dave a 60-year-old man trying to fit in at a K-pop concert, and thinks Dave hates Brian and Jim because they don't bother with that. He says Dave has no business attacking Jim's fans when his own forum community is an embarrassment. They go into a little aside: Bryan Alvarez's "100 things every WWE fan should know and do before they die" won Observer's book of the year over serious, heavily-researched biographies about Buddy Rogers and Andre the Giant, which doesn't say great things about the intelligence of even Observer award voters, much less the great mass of Dave's fans. Brian Last is trying to be nice to Bryan Alvarez, but Jim slides in a nice dig about how "that's some potato-chip picture book that you read on the toilet." Brian thinks it's funny that Dave suggested Brian should cut bait with Jim, much like Brian said Kenny Omega should cut bait with Don Callis. Jim and Brian blow Dave up for this because of unreported harassment stories about Callis. Brian says "Dave is in a midlife crisis in a wrestling bubble. ... He is completely in love with Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks, he anointed them, and if you have a problem with them, he comes after you." They point out how vicious and rude Dave is to perceived critics on Twitter, which makes him a hypocrite. They do another four minutes about how Dave is a two-faced, condescending, backstabbing prick who's either oblivious or unconcerned about how his actions drive people away. Brian says he watched Jim bite his tongue over and over on this. Jim says he has never seriously cursed out someone in that way before and completely burned a friendship, only to have someone no-sell it, which they deem Costanza-esque.

They were on quite a kick there, 1995 was also the year of Orndorff's rebirth and Jim Duggan's family taped fist legend. Heck, one might even say they were better at it than WWF was at the same time.

Oh no! I loved everything about Beautiful Bobby. He'll always be one of my all-time favorites. I'm thinking of poor ol' Jim Cornette today, whatever you might say or think about him he loves his friends deeply, and they stayed very close. And he sure wasn't the only one, if you go through the legends' socials today, be prepared to get teary-eyed. Bobby could barely cut a promo to save his life and there are quite a few funny stories about that, but with someone like Cornette or Regal to bounce off of, he could be hilarious. It's a shame the Blue Bloods didn't get more to work with in the ring; I've been slowly rewatching WCW and just finished their run, with virtually no memorable matches. He was also a quietly great singles wrestler--start with his three Flair matches.

I realize the chances of this are remote, but maybe the company is taking the heat by leaking that to take some traction off the voluntary release talk? It's definitely a new era when it comes to mental health awareness, but not everybody is comfortable being the face of the cause, especially when they're really hurting. WWE generally doesn't care about blowback over their shitty release decisions, and once in awhile they do pull a random act of kindness out of their hat.

Dementia at age 71. What a shame. He was a great blustery heel, the perfect Florida asshole, with an all-time great look, legit athleticism, and of course that incredible jumping piledriver. Not an "all-time classics" machine or a brilliant structure or psych guy, but a good solid hand in the ring, and a truly underrated draw. I ought to watch more of his pre-WWF runs. It's hard to imagine he didn't even have the Mr. Wonderful nickname until WWF.

Assisted living isn't even a nursing home, it's an apartment building with aides and a bunch more wheelchair traffic than most.

Oh hell, my straight-shooting Texan grandma hung on for over 10 years in assisted living. She didn't have 50 years of rassling on her, but she did raise four baby boomers...

It was lost around the time that the spinning toehold fell from popularity and became the setup to the figure 4.