Loss Posted July 17, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2009 Matsunaga died? Yeah, it really got buried in all the constant (and boring, might I add) BROCK LESNAR TALK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted July 17, 2009 Report Share Posted July 17, 2009 True. I'm not sure what Dave is talking about really, since Bull was still heavily protected during the 90s boom and was still one of the top stars. Almost every AJW show in that era began with Bull addressing the crowd. It was pretty clear that she was still a top dog. Smart girl really. Got out of the business at exactly the right time and never looked back. If there was ever an MVP in wrestling, it was Bull Nakano from Chigusa's retirement in '89 up until the first Dream Slam in '93. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 17, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2009 I also just don't get comparing Bull Nakano to Jumbo Tsuruta. I think Jaguar Yokota is a better womens' comparison to Jumbo Tsuruta. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted July 17, 2009 Report Share Posted July 17, 2009 I also just don't get comparing Bull Nakano to Jumbo Tsuruta. I think Jaguar Yokota is a better womens' comparison to Jumbo Tsuruta. I guess that's an apt comparison, though Jaguar may be more famous now than she was in her prime. Dave always forgets that Jumbo had that period where he was the biggest pro-wrestling star in Japan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert S Posted July 17, 2009 Report Share Posted July 17, 2009 I'll tell you who's a shitty commentator and that's Akira Fukuzawa. Think clueless colour guy.You don't know what a really shitty commentator is until you heard some of the German commentators. Just one example: The last time I bothered watching a WWE show on German TV (about 5 years ago) one of the commentators (who is doing this job for about 20 years and still has no clue about it) complained about someone (I think it was Charlie Haas) doing some working-the-body-parts because he thought it was stupid. His reasoning was that in 15 years of wrestling he has seen working-the-body-parts has always ended in a comeback of the worked-on guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsurutaman Posted July 17, 2009 Report Share Posted July 17, 2009 I'm surprised that the words "Shitty commentator" have gone on for about a page and the name "Ed Whalen" hasn't been uttered yet. Man, I love the Harts and it was one of the first TVs I saw in the 70s (along with Tomko's All Star Wrestling) but damn could he hack up an interview match or angle like nobody else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted July 18, 2009 Report Share Posted July 18, 2009 I read the whole Matsunaga obit. It was OK as an overview, but Dave tends to generalise a lot. I appreciate that he took the time to write the obit (since I hadn't even heard about it in the Japanese news), but it read more like the obit he wrote for the company when they closed. Would've liked a bit more insight into the Matsunagas themselves, but I guess Dave's Japan connections aren't that strong anymore with the weekly magazines folding. There's more he could've written about the way they ran the company, etc. He was way off the mark about a lot of stuff, especially the "success" of Big Egg Universe, the old line that Sato wasn't a good worker, the lesbian references, the workers post-retirement profiles, the stuff he wrote about Kyoko Hamaguchi and so on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert S Posted July 18, 2009 Report Share Posted July 18, 2009 Wikipedia is awesome: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=...302518322#Death Alvarez' reaction: -- For those wondering, Dave did not die of asphyxiation after storming the cockpit door and being held down by seven passengers during a flight from New York today as was reported on his Wikipedia. Although he did read the MMA section on our board today, which might have felt similar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jkeats Posted July 18, 2009 Report Share Posted July 18, 2009 I'm surprised that the words "Shitty commentator" have gone on for about a page and the name "Ed Whalen" hasn't been uttered yet. Man, I love the Harts and it was one of the first TVs I saw in the 70s (along with Tomko's All Star Wrestling) but damn could he hack up an interview match or angle like nobody else. Agreed. Not only bad and corny but he would also severely cut the legs out from under the heels as well. As much as I loved the Pain and Passion book, I thought he was a little too kind to Whalen. Even with how fondly McKoy remembered him, Whalen still comes off as a guy who felt he was above wrestling and really undercut the promotion to suit his own beliefs at times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted July 18, 2009 Report Share Posted July 18, 2009 I can't agree more on Whalen. Pretty much all the Stampede stuff I've seen has been dampened by having to listen to him announce the matches (and the fact that the ring they use looks like something they found in the Hart's backyard, which it probably was). A lot of people who grew up watching Stampede have some kind of emotional part-of-my-childhood attachment to big Ed, and I get that, but good lord is he terrible if you don't have that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Thread Killer Posted July 18, 2009 Report Share Posted July 18, 2009 As somebody who actually is of an age and lived in a place where I was able to watch Stampede on a regular basis, allow me to say that you couldn't be more right. Whalen sucked. He was a terrible play by play guy, his cliches were beyond tiresome, and he was so patronizing and condescending to the wrestlers it was pathetic. He once whacked one of the heels over the head with his microphone during an interview...seriously. That dude freaking sucked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jkeats Posted July 18, 2009 Report Share Posted July 18, 2009 As somebody who actually is of an age and lived in a place where I was able to watch Stampede on a regular basis, allow me to say that you couldn't be more right. Whalen sucked. He was a terrible play by play guy, his cliches were beyond tiresome, and he was so patronizing and condescending to the wrestlers it was pathetic. He once whacked one of the heels over the head with his microphone during an interview...seriously. That dude freaking sucked. I think that was Bad News Allen IIRC!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resident Evil Posted July 19, 2009 Report Share Posted July 19, 2009 I understand why some people don't like his commentary and were frustrated at what he'd show on TV but he had upside too with his commentary. And he was proud of wrestling when it came to legit ring a ding dong dandys like DK vs Bruce or Bret, Benoit vs Smith or Owen/Basserb vs Viet Cong Express. The passion would show there. His commentary helped out Benoit and Smith tremendously. I also liked his "shootish" comments he'd drop ever once in awhile as they gave an air credibility to some of his other praising comments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeCampbell Posted July 19, 2009 Report Share Posted July 19, 2009 I also just don't get comparing Bull Nakano to Jumbo Tsuruta. Actually, when I first started watching Josi in 2004 or so, that was the comparison that I was given when comparing the AJW to the AJPW roster in terms of roles and whatnot. Bull was Jumbo in the sense that she was the ace of the company in the beginning of the '90's and passed the torch to the new ace Aja Kong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Posted July 19, 2009 Report Share Posted July 19, 2009 As somebody who actually is of an age and lived in a place where I was able to watch Stampede on a regular basis, allow me to say that you couldn't be more right. Whalen sucked. He was a terrible play by play guy, his cliches were beyond tiresome, and he was so patronizing and condescending to the wrestlers it was pathetic. He once whacked one of the heels over the head with his microphone during an interview...seriously. That dude freaking sucked. Yeah, as someone who got Stampede regularly too, I back up TTK's opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted July 20, 2009 Report Share Posted July 20, 2009 There's one ep of WCW SN with Jake Roberts on Color and it was just awesome. He brought a ton to the matches. I wish there was more of that out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Talon Posted July 20, 2009 Report Share Posted July 20, 2009 So yesterday on ESPN Classic they had an AWA marathon as I turned it on I caught the end of what was a REALLY awesome High Flyers vs Tito Santana & Rick Martel match that the High Flyers won on countout when Tito hurt his knee. I take it that the match had to have taken place sometime in 1983 before Tito returned to the WWF, and I know it was at The St. Paul Civic Center but does anybody else have any details because from what I saw it was a great little match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2009 7/8/82. Sadly, only 8 minutes are available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Posted July 20, 2009 Report Share Posted July 20, 2009 The on-again, off-again relationship between Superstar Billy Graham and Vince McMahon is off again, as Graham is selling his WWE HOF ring on eBay. UK Sun story: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport...ng-on-eBay.html eBay link (current bid at $11,500): http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...ME:B:EF:US:1123 Found it rather amusing, as it comes across like Vince saying to Billy: "Uhhh, Wayne...the HOF is a work, like everything else we do". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stunning_grover Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 There's one ep of WCW SN with Jake Roberts on Color and it was just awesome. He brought a ton to the matches. I wish there was more of that out there. Could you tell me which episode it was (or at least what some of the matches were on that episode)? Because I want to check it out... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted July 24, 2009 Report Share Posted July 24, 2009 According to the Observer, Beth Phoenix is pregnant. Wow that's the first time I can ever remember an active female wrestler getting pregnant while she's still on the roster She'll be out a year (and a half ) minimum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted July 24, 2009 Report Share Posted July 24, 2009 This is the WON tidbit: Phoenix has disappeared from view. I’m told she’s on the Raw roster, not hurt, and no heat on her. Just she’s not in the title picture right now and they are going more for the bikini look women to focus on Raw right now. She also hasn’t been working the house shows. Nothing there mentions her being pregnant, but I guess you could read between the lines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted July 24, 2009 Report Share Posted July 24, 2009 Yeah I read that on another board. Reading between the lines it does seem to be the case Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted July 24, 2009 Report Share Posted July 24, 2009 I read it as they don't want someone out there with the bikini babes that makes it more obvious they don't know what they're doing. It's kind of a leap to go from "she's not being used right now" to "OMG PREGGERS~!". It's not the first time a woman on the roster went a long time between appearances, it's just never been someone as high up on the food chain as Beth was. After the angle with Santino ran it's course, it seems like she's Just Another Victim of the dreaded we-don't-have-anything-for-you-itis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Morris Posted July 24, 2009 Report Share Posted July 24, 2009 If it is true that Beth Phoenix is pregnant, WWE better be careful how they handle it. Last I heard, Dawn Marie's wrongful termination suit against WWE was still pending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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