El-P

That's exactly what I was referring to.

Well, I think Roma is underrated as a worker. But he's still a douchebag, and that's the reason he was fired by WCW.

Hey, that brings up an interesting thought. Andre's national heritage was never made into any kind of big deal. In 1980s WWF. When has any other heel from a foreign country EVER had his birthplace just barely mentioned in passing like that? When you're a foreigner, in Vince's world that automatically means that you're given a (usually heel) gimmick which is entirely centered around your foreign-ness. Even most Canadians at some point have a xenophobic slant to their character, despite the fact that most Americans tend to view Canada as basically the 51st state. By the standards of this industry, Andre should've been forced to wear a beret and a stripey shirt and hit people with baguettes. I understand that he was an unique character and treated differently, but it's odd that Vince didn't do even the slightest bit of France-bashing when Andre was a heel. I think the reason is that Andre was bigger than this. He was basically the biggest travelling star worldwide before Hogan, and his status went beyond his nationality. He was *The Giant* first and foremost. I do get a major kick each time I hear Howard Finkel introduces him being from Grenoble, in the French Alps. Usually foreigners can be glad if they get the name of the capital of their country in their introduction. Not only Andre got the name of his city, but the fact they didn't say France but "in the French Alps" was kinda cute. I guess it sounds more exotic or mysterious to American ears, at least that's what I always thought. Well, Frenchy Martin was pretty xenophobic and a total outdated French stereotype, but he was another Quebecois. The reason why their hasn't been I think is simple, because there was no French wrestler on the circuit. Wrestling was big on french TV in the 50's and 60's I think. I know my Father used to sneak in to watch wrestling matches with L'Angle Blanc when he was a teenager. I believe it died in the 70's. So, there was no one to work for Vince anyway. I'm sure he wouldn't have been opposed to make a stereotypical French heel, seen as most Quebecois ended up being heels anyway (Dino Bravo, the Rougeaus, Rick Martel although he asked for it, Pierre Oulette, and the guys from la Resistance). Picking up guys from Quebec was the easiest way to go. Although I wasn't following the scene at the time, La Resistance was just a baffling gimmick. Calling a heel team like the armed force which fought the nazi occupation during WWII is like, WTF ? Was that during the infamous "freedom fries" era when there was some strong anti-French sentiment at least in the American media like Fox ?

I figured you'd say Wrestlemania XXVII.

It doesn't, at all. According to the most recent TVN study of sports fans over the age of 12, not only is the percentage of fans with no interest in wrestling higher than it's ever been, the ones who call themselves avid fans are disproportionately poor and uneducated. I just watched Danny Doring & Roadkill vs Nova & Jazz, and now I'm gonna read a Samuel Beckett play. I feel like a total schizoïd freak.... Maybe. But it's something that just doesn't exist today, and is to invent. One can argue ECW was by some aspect the first post-modern wrestling promotion, although it mostly appealed to young male metalheads who wanted blood and nekkid girls I believe. Roh is another post-modern wrestling company in that it's been self-consciously trying to get snowflakes (which doesn't quite work). And appealed to geeks, I guess. So, we're not there quite yet.

Ok, I see. That would be the ultimate progressive attitude for a wrestling promotion, and I think it's a stretch. It would be cool though. There's no such thing as indifference in these matters.

so many jokes...so little time... Surprised no one did it earlier.

Well, if it's barely mentionned, I don't see much of the point, although I do agree with you on theory. I'd like to see a gay babyface who doesn't act like Zaza Napoli feuding with a heel bigot. That said, I don't see the wrestling crowds, not exactly the most progressive (Cena is clearly a babyface making homophobe jokes) cheering the right guy. With good enough booking I'm sure you could get the people to side with the gay wrestler, but WWE mentality won't ever allow that (Kanyon humiliation...). In the same vein, I'd like to see a babyface American-arab wrestler, and hell, muslim to boot, feuding with a despicable right-wing jingoist dirtbag. Again, not the kind of stuff that would be easy to book by the WWE idiots, but really, wrestling needs that kind of stuff to evolve. Oh, and French speaking wrestlers that aren't coming to the ring to the sound of La Marseillaise, wearing beret and acting like old stereotypes. There are so many ways to poke fun at French people while being both funny and current.

Ask Dylan. Although you'll have to suffer through way too much bad Dudley stuff, including that annoying freak Spike, and probably won't get enough Raven goodness, but that's subjectivity for you (I guess, I haven't seen the match list, but I know Dylan's tastes). Outside of that, I think you'll be fine with the set if you don't want to subject yourself to watch everything (which I wouldn't recommand to anyone unless you've got way too much time on your hands like I did. ECW had tons of really good and fun stuff, but quite a bit of really terrible shit too). Well, the yearly sets do have the best of ECW thus far from what I've seen.

Well, at some point in 1995 Foley was doing the anti-hardcore gimmick, which is as meta-prowrestling as you could ever get. Using restholds to get heel heat from the ECW mutants was pure genius. At one point I think he threw his opponent to the ground, foreshadowing the beginning of the wild brawling, only to get back into a resthold on the floor. Brillant. Foley the anti-hardcore wrestler was amazing. He cut his best promos during that time too.

Not really. More like "I'm old-school and I don't go for your hardcore crap.". But Corino in ECW was tons of fun anyway. The last bright spot of the promotion with the emergence of Rhino.

Isn't it a bit ironic and depressing to think that today the lamest indy show with a bunch of bakyarder ends up on youtube or homemade DVD, and footage of all this great stuff doesn't exist ? When I was a history student, I was thinking about how nightmarish the future will be for historians of contemporary history, with the über multiplication of sources. Everything is documented now, including 99% of useless stuff. This is the same thing for wrestling. You'll have every bit of WWE NXT matches on HD, yet we won't be able to see that many Calgary Stampede matches in full, ever. Frustration.

What ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_dysmorphic_disorder She's done so many interviews & junk over the years that I can't remember which one it was she mentioned it in. I want to say it was in one of her columns on wrestling observer or one of her podcast aperances on the site whear she talked about it but i'm not 100% on that. That's so sad. She ruined herself with the surgeries. She was so gorgeous, she didn't need any work done.

It has happened already. In 1993. It's called Dreamslam.

Love that theme. I believe someone had it before Rey, but I don't remember who. Oh, yes, it was actually a reworked version of Brutus Beefcake's as Zodiac. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dwy13X7_xY...feature=related I loved the rip-off themes too. DDP's "Doesn't smell like teen spirits." Chris Jericho's "Unevenflow". Raven's "Don't come as you are". Guerrero's last theme was awesome too, to the point it was picke dup by WWF. The late 89/early 90 "real" music theme were incredible : Funk to Morriconne was one of the greatest entrance ever, but it's almost cheating with such a masterpiece of a theme. I always liked Kanyon's, with the ominous organs at the beginning, and the cool riffs : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Jz1dffvInw Of course, one of my all-time favourite : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVe1O_Iccrc...;feature=fvwrel

Which begs the question : what if Bret had stayed with WWF ? It can mean huge changes. There's no way Austin mania doesn't happen, but what's with Mr. McMahon ? And despite Shawn being on top until WM14, then he's forced to leave because of injury, and Triple H on his own doesn't have the huge political power yet, does that mean Bret gets back into the light by the Summer of 98 ? If McMahon vs Austin still happens (as the seeds were planted before Bret left and the infamous "Bret screwed Bret" promo), does Bret Hart, as a heel, gets in position as McMahon's corporate champion (that could have been awesome) and renew his feud with Austin ? Bret wasn't hot about the new direction of the company, does that mean that the stuff gets less raunchy ? When you think about it, Bret not leaving could have opened a lot of interesting possibilities. Bret vs Rock would have happened...

Making a pause with WCW, I'm filling the void of my ECW watch from a few year ago, basically the Hardcore TV that aired at the same time as ECW on TNN. Always heard HCTV was better than TNN, which was indeed pretty bad. No Joel Gertner co-hosting makes it already a huge plus. Getting back into ECW from that era sadly reminds me how much the promotion had sunk. Thankfully the Dudz just left, and Taz was on his way out (couldn't stand Taz as babyface ECW champ). Hopefully not too much of Balls will air on HCTV. And I get to see more Tajiri which is always pretty awesome.

Of course. But it's still lame as hell.

Well, Ric Flair trying to steal Liz from Savage and pretending he had her before Savage certainly smokes Rock and Cena exchanging dumb ass insults on Twitter as far as a pro-wrestling angle goes.

How exciting. I hate wrestling in 2012.

What ?

Rock and Cena have a "twitter war" ? ..... ..... ..... .....

Oh, that promo. It was Hogan giving it to WCW doggystyle in the ass. Brillant. Destructive, but brillant.

When I was a kid, I thought Sega was American, because Sonic sounded American to me. Dumb kid.

Ok. I admit I have no idea of his status today.