Strummer

the guy at Keith's blog is really grating on my nerves. This time it's "If you think any movie or actor pre 1970 is worth anything you don't know shit" Man this guy

this is a fantastic match underrated gem during the WWF down period

somewhat ashamed to admit I didn't realize it was Bill Dundee until I read it in PWI it was the glasses!

This is a peripheral issue to the real problems I guess but the underlying theme of the company is that Vince Russo is obsessed with Vince McMahon and in his warped mind he thinks he can still bring him down. Every angle and every segment is an attempt to one up Vince at being Vince. It's quite pathetic.

more TNA fun The "Network Representative" was going to be Mick Foley. In typical TNA fashion they came up with the angle before asking Foley just assuming that he would agree to it. Well he turned it down. Either because he wants out or he just didn't like the direction of the angle. Well anyway now they don't know who it's going to be and are in panic mode trying to find a replacement. The idea was to "one up" WWE on the anonymous GM angle. from Keller

didn't Bischoff mention this in one his smarmy Nitro rants circa 95/96? and JR on the booking team is like a lost period in WWF history. I think Bill Watts lasted longer later in the year

to me this is a big one. Not that every PPV needs to end in a Russo type swerve but man they just don't seem to know how to pull off a suprising/jaw dropping ending angle anymore. The Nexus angle last summer was pretty close but other than that it's just pedestrian stuff. To me most of this is just who Vince is and that's not going to change. He's been pushing people on size and looks for the most part since 1984. In all honesty he doesn't like to shake up the top of his card unless it's done out of desperation or necessity The WWE since 2006 has kind of felt like a different company because they are doing less shock/gross out TV stuff and overall it has a more relaxed feel to it (which I prefer). The look and setting are beyond stale but again I don't see that changing

what is the significance of adding "Miss" in front of every female personality in Memphis and in Southern wrestling in general? was that a wrestling thing or just a southern custom?

Keith's article at Cageside reminded me of T & A (the tag team that is). Poor Test and Albert their titantron was just a bunch of shots of Trish in bikinis while they are in tiny insert screens. Hmm I wonder who they wanted the star to be

Meltzer has said the feeling was mutual on how the company thought of him

Pettengill actually started his career up here in Albany/Capital Region NY on Fly 92.3 in the mid late 80s. I used to listen to him on the way to school very surreal to see him wind up in the WWF apparently he hated every second of his WWF run

I can remember PWI killing the gimmick right out of the gate and how they were disappointed in Dustin Rhodes for going along with the gimmick

the last time I recall WWE magazine being used in an angle was a deal with Eric Bischoff and Lita. Lita had done an interview saying she preferred SD to RAW and Bischoff started heeling her. I think it also involved him "forcing" her to do Playboy after she said she never would pose in the interview. This was sometime in summer/fall 2002 edit: actually it was the April 21, 2003 edition of RAW http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/resu...raw/030421.html

Hillbilly Jim?

Comedy Central never re-ran the Hogan/T episode which pissed me off as a kid The first Rock show is great despite getting inexplicably shit on by the net at the time (the boys at the oratory didn't like it much)

as for the last couple of years, Edge had grown extremely stale. He didn't change up his character much and the booking didn't help either. It does put a tarnish on a pretty awesome 5/6 year run on top but overall I enjoyed his work. I think the injury explains a lot of his work being loose and dainty the last couple of years

Just to put things in perspective about Arn: Ole Anderson is 16 years older than him Flair is 9 years older DDP is 2 years older When Pillman and Austin were on Flair for the Gold making fun of Arn for being old, Arn was only 35 (Pillman was only 4 years younger)

yep Arn was born in 1958 so he was only in his mid-late 20s during the Horseman heyday in the 80s. I couldn't believe it either. Dude has always looked much older than he is

yeah it's pretty eery how similar this is to Arn's injury and retirement both retired at 38 (Arn looked like an old 38) well Edge will be 38 in October

on the free show today when discussing Edge Dave made a crack about Hogan and Warrior (Edge was at WM 6) and Bryan's no sell reaction made me laugh. It was sort of like a "wrong time dude" reaction

very dignified way to end a career I'm sure the company will try and bring him back in a non-wrestling capacity in the future as for on-air angles I just can't see Vince putting Christian in main events so it's going to be interesting to see who is paired with ADR in the near future

still makes me laugh uncontrollably

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbfbevnkUYk...feature=related .30 seconds in says it all on Russo's philosophy

Russo was right that the WWF was behind the times in 1996 and needed to change their philosophy. But 15 years later he's the one who can't change with the times. His style seemed fresh in 1997 and parts of 1998 but by 1999 it was getting out of hand to the point where RAW was tough to sit through without feeling, I don't know, "dirty" Russo in WCW was never going to work. WCW just didn't have the production staff to pull off Russo's vision of wrestling. Who can forget that Nitro in (I think) November 99 with all the disastrous backstage vignettes that were flubbed where the production guys could be heard on camera and talent was interacting thinking the segments were over. I recall a story where a WCW staffer went up to Bill Banks and said something to the effect of "we're not cut out to do all this". So from a presentation standpoint they were doomed from the start. And the booking was more about being clever for the sake of being clever than to get anyone over. as for TNA. It's a joke and I don't even know if any promoter worth a damn could turn it around as long as Dixie is in power. If Russo were gone the younger mid card workrate guys would get more time for their matches but I don't know if all of a sudden a bunch of new stars would be created

Pulp Fiction came out in October 1994 and I believe the ECW promos started in late 1995. That's not *that* bad by wrestling terms One that I never realized as a kid was Ricky Steamboat's WWF character in the mid 80s being loosely based on the Karate Kid