Comments that don't warrant a thread - Part 4

[Log]

There would be no current WWE without Captain Lou Albano. I just realized that while laughing about how Lou would refuse to be fired. I usually attribute it to loyalty to his Dad's guys, but Lou in the Lauper video is the real spark that ignited everything.

This is so true. Albano was the bridge between Vince and the Rock side of Rock n Wrestling. He doesn’t buddy-up with Lauper and the WWF never gets the mainstream exposure to blow up.

 

The McMahons really owe their entire fortune to that old drunk.

[Laz]

 

 

MLW seemingly made an attempt to get guys who weren't already signed elsewhere under contract before going on TV to prevent the usual "they got a TV deal let's raid them" WWE ploy. Funny how they stayed clear of ROH after they got their fingers slapped with tampering threats, and immediately started doing the same thing to the next company that came along.

I guess MLW started putting people under contract after WWN pulled guys like Riddle and Darby? I haven't watched MLW tv but have they aired any Filthy Tom or Jeff Cobb matches? As for guys WWE would be interested in, the guy that immediately comes to mind is Brody King. That guy could be special and seems to be popping up in a lot of indies.

Riddle doesn't appear on Fusion (the weekly TV), but he's appeared on the non-televised cards. Not sure on Darby or Cobb, but Filthy Tom has been on pretty much every episode of Fusion, and it looks like they're building a program between him and Jimmy Havoc.

 

Brody King, right now, is a bum. He's got size but that's about it.

[Edwin]

The odd thing with Darby as that he was being built up in a feud with Joey Janela and Sami Callihan before he got injured at WM weekend.

He was at the following event after WM weekend, but didn't participate at the show. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

WWN pulling all of their guys from MLW hurt them a bit. It killed the Priscilla Kelly vs. Santana Garrett match they were building, it killed the Darby Allin and Jimmy Havoc vs. Joey Janela and Sami Callihan they were building to, it killed the Black Friday Management faction they were building with Stokely Hathaway, etc.

[Victator]

 

 

Yeah, I would agree with that. Wrestling is like comic books. You have to get in young and get attached to it so that you can forgive the shortcomings that come with it.

I started reading graphic novels about 3/4 years ago. I'm 33 now.

 

I started comics at 25.

 

I stand by what I and he said.

[Robert S]

 

I think this was covered before but why was the WWF so popular in the U.K. in the early 90s when business was dying domestically? I still see a lot of U.K. fans online say that was the golden age of their fandom

It's interesting because I heard an interview with Cesaro once where he talked about 1993-1994 being the glory period, which is when the bloom came off the rose in the UK, but it coincided with the WWF getting on TV in Switzerland and Austria and those kind of places.

WWF actually got on TV in the German market in 1989. I don't know if dish-distribution started earlier in the UK than in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, but one important factor why it took longer for US wrestling to get big here was the time slot. I cannot speak for pre-93 (though I assume the time slots were about the same), but when I started watching in 93 WWF was on at 10 pm to 11 on and WCW about the same (maybe sometimes an hour earlier). The TV stations were not allowed to air it earlier. When in the summer of 96 the then host of WWF (RTL 2) tried to put WWF on Saturday afternoon they almost lost their concession (and as a result moved wrestling to 2 am in the morning).

I would say the boom period here was from 93 to 96. Besides the short shelvetime a wrestling boom usually has, there were additional factors for the end of the boom:

(1) For some time there was wrestling on basically every night, so the market became oversaturated.

(2) WWF lost their TV slot in early 98 (well, not lost per se, in 97 they were on the same channel as WCW and production company of the German WCW shows created a recap show where they mixed WCW and WWF programming, needless to say that WWF did not like this) and did not find a replacement until December or so. I think it took them quite some years to find a stable home / timeslot (I stopped watching the German shows by then, both the shows themselves and the commentary became unbearable).

(3) I assume that attitiude programming starting in 97 put quite some people off.

(4) First reducing and later completely stopping running shows in the German market (due to WWF drawing less and less over here) probably was some vicious cycle.

[Mrzfn]

 

Brody King, right now, is a bum. He's got size but that's about it.

 

 

Strongly disagree with this, I've really enjoyed most of the Brody King I've seen. I think he brings a lot to the table and will probably only get better.

[C.S.]

Seth Freakin' Rollins lived up to his name of Freakin' by freakin' out in an interview when he said the Under-Freakin'-Taker should freakin' retire.

 

The Freakin' Interviewer: "Should The Undertaker retire?"

 

Seth Freakin' Rollins: "Yes"

 

The Freakin' Video: https://twitter.com/GMS_WWE/status/1000831769048952832

 

Freakin' Excerpts: http://wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2018/0529/641309/seth-rollins-says-that-the-undertaker-should-retire/

[Victator]

Don't know where this goes. But been watching a ton of Georgia wrestling.

I think its a disgrace Ole is not in the Observer HOF, unless he went in and I missed it.

I would think creating the Road Warriors and being a founding member of the Horsemen puts him at worst on par with Ultimo Dragon and slightly under Angle. But he drew a lot of money as a performer and a booker. Why should WCW be held against him? In the first few years, Herd sabotaged everyone trying to draw in WCW.

Also some questions on Vince buying the Georgia territory, He obviously got the tape library. But when Jim Crockett paid for the time slot, did he buy the company and get the tape library? I do remember occasionally seeing Georgia clips on WCW TV. Does anyone know how that worked.

[Indikator]

I started in mid 94 (KOTR airing) so I am a bit unsure when the hype started in Germany. AFAIK RTL only had WCW on "Catch Up", Eurosport and Tele 5 had WWF. I have yet to hear anyone say that any European hype had started due to the Eurosport timeslot. The Sunday afternoon fiasco was IIRC around August 1995, maybe it was two Challenge episodes that they aired. Currently I would assume that the Bravo involvement (#1 teen magazine, nothing like the US Bravo network) was a big part of the hype and probably when they went from Tele 5 to RTL 2 in early 1993. The last WWF show in late 1997 was the Survivor Series of that year and. I think it resumed (on RTL 2 again?) with either Survivor Series 1998 or Wrestlemania 1999. I think I remember that they showed an older, yet to be broadcasted PPV before the new PPV. Alas, it did not get anywhere near as over as the previous RTL 2 run. I have accumulated a good number of newsletters and because all the random tiny Euro shows of that era I want to go through them anyways. Robert, do you have some of them still in your possession? In a way it is really weird that almost nothing from back then is in a private collection, I wouldn't know anyone who could still have DF1 airings. I want my drunk New Years Eve WCW marathons. And I think that "the" dj_ddt recorded the Pittsburgh PWX, so if we are ever so lucky and he emerges from the shadows who knows what he could give into circulation. Hopefully I didn't traumatize you writing his name

[NintendoLogic]

So WWE fired one of their executives after it was revealed that his wife is a notorious far-right Twitter troll.

 

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/anti-muslim-twitter-troll-amy-mek-mekelburg_us_5b0d9e40e4b0802d69cf0264?7z

[sek69]

Don't know where this goes. But been watching a ton of Georgia wrestling.

 

I think its a disgrace Ole is not in the Observer HOF, unless he went in and I missed it.

 

I would think creating the Road Warriors and being a founding member of the Horsemen puts him at worst on par with Ultimo Dragon and slightly under Angle. But he drew a lot of money as a performer and a booker. Why should WCW be held against him? In the first few years, Herd sabotaged everyone trying to draw in WCW.

 

Also some questions on Vince buying the Georgia territory, He obviously got the tape library. But when Jim Crockett paid for the time slot, did he buy the company and get the tape library? I do remember occasionally seeing Georgia clips on WCW TV. Does anyone know how that worked.

 

 

Vince was only concerned about the time slot, so he probably didn't care about the tape library then. Also I was under the impression that Turner owned the rights to at least everything Georgia taped at the WTBS studios as Dave has mentioned several times that WWE owned everything from 70s Georgia to Florida/Central States/UWF with the WCW purchase.

[sek69]

So WWE fired one of their executives after it was revealed that his wife is a notorious far-right Twitter troll.

 

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/anti-muslim-twitter-troll-amy-mek-mekelburg_us_5b0d9e40e4b0802d69cf0264?7z

 

 

Not only was he a WWE exec, he apparently was the one negotiating Middle Eastern deals for them. Oof.

[KawadaSmile]

How crazy is it that Batista became a much bigger star than The Rock in way less time?

[Mad Dog]

In Hollywood? Rock was headlining movies from day 1. Batista lucked into getting cast as Drax which was a role with a lot of legs across multiple movies.

[KawadaSmile]

I'd argue that "lucking out" in record breaking Marvel movies tops headlining Jumanji remakes.

[Ricky Jackson]

Batista is doing well, but the Rock is a legit huge star in Hollywood who everyone knows

[flyonthewall2983]

And Dwayne has been a producer for some years now, which means he has a foothold on the other side of the business too.

 

That said, Dave is making much more interesting choices, working with more creative directors, and seems to have genuinely embraced acting by not taking the obvious route.

[Mad Dog]

I'd argue that "lucking out" in record breaking Marvel movies tops headlining Jumanji remakes.

Yeah but he starred in Jumanji and it's one of the highest grossing movies of all time. It made like 950 million.

[Mad Dog]

And I'm not taking away from Batista. Drax is a good role for him and he's excelled in that role.

[Mad Dog]

Fast and Furious franchise also absolutely exploded when The Rock joined the movies as well. 7 did 1.5 billion worldwide.

[BBscout]

Big Dave about to blow up in next role. More true to himself

[Laz]

I'd argue that "lucking out" in record breaking Marvel movies tops headlining Jumanji remakes.

People see movies because the Rock is in them. Batista is a great support character but not the main draw.

[KawadaSmile]

Give Dave a couple of years. Considering how he's (or his agent) is picking some more varied movies than you'd expect, I can see him getting to Rock's overall level pretty soon in terms of presence.

 

Rock does benefit from being one of the top stars when wrestling was at one of its all-time peaks and he did make that transition nearly seamlessly, making use of his already established name, while not having D-grade movies like Hulk Hogan did. Scorpion King still rocks.

 

He does have merit, and a lot of it, but I think Batista was even smarter than Rock with his movie selection - being featured in some action schlock, in some of Marvel's best movies, in spy thrillers and in sci-fi classics like Bladerunner 2049 is some very smart selection. His upcoming movie Hotel Artemis sounds fun, too.

 

 

Happy for him.

[EricR]

Also, not choosing a Rock/Dave side, but Rampage is the best dumb action movie I've seen in years.

[flyonthewall2983]

I think Cena's going to get huge. He's gotten some good notices lately, mainly for supporting roles but I think he'll be able to carry something himself soon enough.