Comments that don't warrant a thread

[rovert]

Two best things about ECW in the main: the music and editing.

[Indikator]

I really noticed this watching ICW Poffo. Whenever "Chase", the MX theme by Giorgio Moroder was used ICW felt like a predecessor to ECW and I came to appreciate this style

[Eduardo]

Meltzer is reporting that John Cena has a serious neck injury and it is making one of his arms numb.

[Loss]

Anyone else find the whole story about people in WWE suspecting Randy Orton did not have a motorcycle accident at all funny stuff? For those who don't know, there was apparently nothing in St. Louis news about it, and the police had no record of it. If that's not what happened, something tells me WWE knows the truth.

 

WWE has gone out of their way to hide quite a few things about Randy Orton -- failing a third drug test, a suicide attempt (if you believe Irv), and maybe now this. Lots of secrets surrounding the guy that are always threatening to come to the surface.

[Bob Morris]

Randy Orton is the project WWE just doesn't want to give up on, even when there are plenty of indicators that suggest it's probably for the best WWE cut ties with him.

 

Either that, or there's always the joke about incriminating photos of Vince.

[Dylan Waco]

Bill Bennett and David Kuo have a new online magazine www.culture11.com

 

It launched today and I have an article up on the corporate takeover of pro wrestling.

 

here is the link http://www.culture11.com/node/31716?from=flash

[Guest DaDirtiest]

OK, I'm not sure if any of you guys have seen this, but the steroid/sports documentary Bigger Stronger Fast has leaked to the net in DVD Screener form with a slight blurred watermark in the top of the screen. My big question is - is one of these guys the Bell (family name) jobber that Perry Saturn stiffed and threw onto his head in order to earn the Moppy gimmick as punishment?

Bell. Seems awfully common, but there was at least one of the brothers that had been a jobber for WWE/F

 

Oh, and is it me, or does Primo Colon sound like some cheap Latin men's eau de toilette?

[Boondocks Kernoodle]

Yes, Mike Bell is the guy Saturn roughed up.

[kjh]

It launched today and I have an article up on the corporate takeover of pro wrestling.

Interesting article, though I'm not sure I buy the argument that the territorial system was somehow inherently more humane than the modern wrestling industry today. In many territories like Mid South, Stampede, the Maritimes and Amarillo, the wrestlers were wrestling every day of the week and in the process having to drive several hundred miles a day, which, while obviously easier than the WWF schedule of the mid to late 1980s where wrestlers flew cross country and often worked for 28 straights days, I'd argue that the schedule of those territories was much harsher than today's schedule where they work for 4 days and then have 3 days off except for overseas tours. Really, most territorial promoters worked their wrestlers hard and drug abuse was going to escalate to some extent, as recreational drugs like cocaine and performance enhancers like steroids became more widely available and popular in the 1980s. I mean the worst drug cultures in wrestling in the 1980s and 1990s weren't the major national promotions, but World Class and ECW.

[Dylan Waco]

The pre-edit version included a lot of that info.

 

The key difference of course is that back then wrestlers could leave territories fairly easily and go somewhere else if the schedule or conditions were fucked (as they often were). No such option exists now.

[World's Worst Man]

So, Shinya Hashimoto vs. Hiroshi Hase (12/13/94) was more or less awesome, and I love Hase. Dude seems to be in some really unique matches - not unique in general, but unique for the promotion they take place in. This match was like one half UWF, one half AJPW. Tons of hard-fought matwork to start, followed by an epic stretch run of hard-fought struggles for big moves. Hashimoto was awesome too, of course. He did a lot of stuff I've never seen him do before, like going after Hase's mid-section with sentons and the nastiest double stomp of all time. It's quite a shame that Hase didn't get more big matches like this.

[Bix]

Since I just had to dig it up and I find the situation fascinating, here's a post I made at Kayfabe Memories 2 months ago explaining the "merger" of the USWA and CWA at the beginning of 1990:

 

The "merger" happened on TV at the beginning of 1990. The original plan was to drop the live studio part of the WMC show and air Dallas footage in its place while only running the original circuit's main towns once a month, but they couldn't change the WMC show for contractual reasons and thus plans changed. WMC kept the live 90 minute Championship Wrestling studio show, which at times was treated as a distant B-show at times compared to the USWA Challenge syndicated show from Dallas.

 

The other towns that got the 60 minute version of the studio show on a 1 week delay (like Evansville, Nashville, and Louisville) got a different version of Championship Wrestling hoste by Michael St. John in a control room, claiming that now every town on the circuit would get a live TV show like Memphis did. The "live" footage was made up of the key matches & angles from the week's Challenge and WMC shows, only with a frantic St. John throwing to the clips like they were live in an absolutely ridiculous premise, even by the standards of a territory that ran the same title changes over and over.

 

Eventually, things went back to normal, though I forget if it was before they pulled out of Dallas or not. When they pulled out of Dallas for legal reasons, they taped 3 months of Challenge in 3 nights around the circuit (Memphis, Louisville, and Nashville I believe), starting with the Unified title tournament where Lawler beat a turning Idol in the finals. I believe there was another Nashville taping a few months later, and then they got back into Dallas, starting with the taping that served as the GWF pilot w/ the Lawler-Funk match that had Scotty the Body scouting at ringside. With the USWA back as having 2 circuits, the old Memphis based territory became the priority with Dallas in the distant second role, a reverse of a year before.

It was really something to learn that they considered dropping the live show. Also, Michael St. John is not nearly the level of announcer that you'd want to try selling as ridiculous an idea as the "live" cutaways to WMC and the Sportatorium. Granted, I'm not sure if Lance Russell could've handled it, but St. John made a bad situation worse.

[Cox]

It would have been interesting if they could have dropped the 90 minute live show, because from the looks of things, Jarrett was trying to set up a clear #3 promotion, and with the ESPN slot, they might have eventually had designs of challenging WCW for the #2 spot (since WCW was far from a sure thing in the early 90's). I wonder how history would have been different had they gone in that direction, as clearly the weekly territory was dead by this point, but USWA would continue to run Memphis weekly or close to it until they closed down.

[Bix]

From the (awesome) WON obit for Sonny Fargo:

 

At the peak of the Gulas territory, he was part of the headliner crew that worked what would today be considered an insane Saturday schedule. They would be in Memphis early for the television show that aired live from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. They would drive several hours to Nashville, and then catch a single engine plane flight to Chattanooga, where the live TV aired from 5-6 p.m., where they would shoot all the angles for the 8 p.m. house show every week. During that period they would often draw 6,000 fans just from the people who watched the television and made their decision to drive and buy tickets to the arena show that night. The main event would go on second at the house show, because the big draws would then have to drive to Huntsville, AL, where they did another live television show at 11 p.m.

Yikes.

[sek69]

Meanwhile, in the "I hope this doesn't come off as bad on TV" department, from the quick Raw/Smackdown spoilers on WO.com:

 

 

Taker out to cut promo on Vickie and says he'll put her in coffin and burn it

[Cox]

From the (awesome) WON obit for Sonny Fargo:

 

At the peak of the Gulas territory, he was part of the headliner crew that worked what would today be considered an insane Saturday schedule. They would be in Memphis early for the television show that aired live from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. They would drive several hours to Nashville, and then catch a single engine plane flight to Chattanooga, where the live TV aired from 5-6 p.m., where they would shoot all the angles for the 8 p.m. house show every week. During that period they would often draw 6,000 fans just from the people who watched the television and made their decision to drive and buy tickets to the arena show that night. The main event would go on second at the house show, because the big draws would then have to drive to Huntsville, AL, where they did another live television show at 11 p.m.

Yikes.

 

What's even crazier is that since the boys didn't get paid for TV, that means they were working as many as four times a night for as little as $25 (maybe more for the headliners).

[Jingus]

I still have no idea how those guys worked those insane schedules. Yeah, a lot of drug use to keep up was probably involved, and to be a successful wrestler in the first place you've usually got to have a high natural level of energy. But still, sheesh, four shows in one day? My record was doing four shows within one 48-hour time period, and I was just announcing and refereeing, not wrestling, and I was still pretty wiped out by the end.

[Indikator]

On either WCMB or KFM there was a newspaper report from I think 1932 where Wild Red Berry was arrested for sitting on a tree high on some kind of drugs. Things like this make me laugh when people say how much the business supposedly has changed

[Eduardo]

So the latest inductes to the WON HOF for 2008 are:

 

 

Paco Alonso and Martin Karadagian

 

 

EDIT:

 

Oh, also Benoit stays in and Meltzer posts a lot of voters comments. Including one voter wanting Benoit out of the HOF for the EVIL actions of almost getting the government involved in pro wrestling and for making pro wrestling look bad in the media.

[Bix]

Geez, did Kurt and Jose get carte blanche with the HOF this year? Good picks though.

[Tim Evans]

Who exactly is Martin Karadagian?

[Bix]

Titanes en el Ring promoter/founder/star.

 

Old Kurt Brown articles about Titanes:

http://www.1wrestlinglegends.com/column/lucha-03.htm

http://www.1wrestlinglegends.com/column/lucha-04.htm

[tomk]

I thought luchawiki had a bio of him instead they have one of William Boo:

 

http://www.luchawiki.org/index.php?title=William_Boo

 

In a year where I was sure Moolah was going to make it in, pleasantly surprised by two legit good candidates making it instead..

 

Hey here's my Cholitas Peru/Bolivian link on DVDVR:

 

http://board.deathvalleydriver.com/index.p...mp;#entry912041

 

On some level it is weird for Meltzer to acknowledge the importance of a guy who while incredibly influential in South American wrestling (the Titanes Del Ring influence that gets ignored in mainstream stories that I was trying to hint at in the link dump) which is something that the rest of the Observer ignores. Also influential to the parts of AAA that Meltzer on some level wants to ignore.

 

Will this eventually lead Meltzer to contemplate putting Jack Pfefer or Maurice Tillet in the HOF?

Or is the burluesque and ridiculous only acceptable in foreign styles of wrestling?

[kjh]

Not that I'm complaining about Moolah not getting in, but it seems odd to categorize her as a modern candidate. I don't see how you can argue that Moolah's prime as a performer was post 1975. I mean she was born before most of the wrestlers considered historical candidates were born.

[Cox]

Among American candidates, I am somewhat surprised that Rey Misterio Jr isn't getting more support - to me, he is the only "slam dunk" on the ballot at this point. I mean, I'd support the MX or Murdoch getting voted in, but Misterio not getting votes despite so many positives for him astounds me.