Joey Styles' Twittering:work or real?

[sek69]

I think a lot of it is that WWE guys get it drilled into their heads by management (ie: Vince or one of his sockpuppets) that Democrats are going to tax their income away, so most of them believe it or at least would not want to say anything contrary on the record and end up giving the boss a reason to dislike you.

[goodhelmet]

Stan Lane said that Stan Hansen was a tried and true liberal. In a shoot, Lane said he was fucking with Hansen, arguing politics, and Hansen got so pissed off at Lane, he thought he was going to get a lariat.

[Dylan Waco]

Wrestling is a heavily integrated

Really?

 

I mean I guess there are more black wrestlers than black jockeys but I woulds be surprised if someone could prove that wrestling was as integrated as horse racing.

 

Integrated probably isn't the best word. Multicultural?

[Guest jaedmc]

Random Wrestling Political stat I learned from 20/20: More Democrats watch wrestling than Republicans and more Republicans watch Monster Truck Rallies than Democrats.

 

At least that's how they put it.

[sek69]

Stan Lane said that Stan Hansen was a tried and true liberal. In a shoot, Lane said he was fucking with Hansen, arguing politics, and Hansen got so pissed off at Lane, he thought he was going to get a lariat.

 

That's so bizarre considering he's probably spent most of his life in either Texas or Japan, which are two of the most conservative areas you could find.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Has anything ever come out specifically that Verne Gagne ever did that implied "He doesn't like the coloreds" I read that now and again and I just don't recall him ever being quoted with any racist statements. If he did, please, enlighten me. But if it's all, "he never pushed black wrestlers to the top" then that just doesn't scream "racist who hates black people" to me. That seems more, "I'm gonna give the audience who I think they want based on who THEY are", thinking. It's dopey, but not racist.

I'm serious though, did Verne ever come out and say or imply that he "wasn't a fan of the coloreds"?

[Boondocks Kernoodle]

Supposedly, after Tony Atlas came into the AWA and got over huge in his debut, Verne told someone backstage, "See, I told you a black guy can't get over" or some words to that effect.

 

I guess he also pushed Col. DeBeers pretty hard but, to be fair, almost all wrestling promoters push racist gimmicks. It's not like he pushed him as a face.

[Bob Morris]

Don't know where Punk sits on the political spectrum.

 

Forgot to mention Jericho. Heavy conservative. Made a comment to TMZ about Obama when asked which of the two has better abs: "I do, but Obama is going to give 65% of my abs away to other people."

 

I somewhat also think JBL is less conservative than most people think. Not saying he isn't a conservative at all, but he isn't the hardcore heavy right winger that people may think of him. He expressed congrats and support for Obama when he won, and before, really only thought that Obama's stance versus big business was the only thing he didn't really like about him. There was also something where he visited either the Arctic or Antartic for studies and came with the conclusion that global warming is a bigger threat than its critics imagine. The guy strikes me as more of a strong fiscal conservative than all-round hardcore one. He seems hateful of Congress in general than certain Democratic ideas and views.

That's probably how I would imagine plenty of wrestlers are these days. Given that they don't get any benefits such as health insurance, pension plans or other items that many people enjoy at their jobs, that's more of their own money they have to put aside for these things. Hence, they are likely more sensitive to taxes.

 

Also, given that WWE treats wrestlers as independent contractors, the wrestlers are responsible for their own taxes. So yet another reason for wrestlers to be leery of taxation, as it's more money they have to set aside to eventually pay Uncle Sam when they'd likely rather just spend money as they please.

[jdw]

I feel for Joey, the poor moral Catholic boy who is forced to earn a living against his will in the den of sin that is Pro Wrestling.

 

Oh wait... it just means that Joey is still the whore that we all knew he was.

 

John

[Guest The 3H's]

JDW, I always wanted to ask you this. What is your beef with Styles?

 

I'm just curious.

[jdw]

It's a laundry list of things.

 

 

John

[Guest The 3H's]

Well, ok

[jdw]

A few:

 

* Overrated Announcer in his prime

 

* Silent Partner in Bob.com

 

* ECW.com

 

* Rips the WWF until the 180 of them handing him a paycheck, then busting out the kneepads

 

Not that I love the WWF, and the company certainly deserved to be ripped. But Joey was kind of obvious in selling out.

 

Granted, none of that is any different from lots of people in the business being out for themselves, or getting run that somebody disagrees with. Just that Joey is one of those old ECW Folks who was part of the "Us vs Them" mentality of ECW, Paul, their House Organs and their Fans back when I came online and until the promotion dropped dead. I was very much in the "Them" camp of not drinking the Kool Aid. So there is some legacy fun in poking Joey.

 

 

John

[Guest The 3H's]

Thanks, John.

[goodhelmet]

Stan Lane said that Stan Hansen was a tried and true liberal. In a shoot, Lane said he was fucking with Hansen, arguing politics, and Hansen got so pissed off at Lane, he thought he was going to get a lariat.

 

That's so bizarre considering he's probably spent most of his life in either Texas or Japan, which are two of the most conservative areas you could find.

 

Hmmmm.... Texas is not THAT conservative. TX is so big it has huge conservative playgrounds and Democratic playgrounds. Also, the types of conservatives vary with your WASP Christian conservatives in North TX and your give me my guns/stay out of my backyard/no taxes conservatives in West TX. Then South TX is pretty heavily Latino and trends Democratic. East TX is heavily segregated and as close to old South as you are going to find here. TX is like 4 states in one.

[Dylan Waco]

Austin is one of the most liberal cities in the country.

[artDDP]

Joey Styles was beyond overrated his entire career. I have no idea why anyone thought he was good.

[Jingus]

I always thought he was damned good on a variety of levels. I've never understood why people say he sucked.

[goodhelmet]

What levels?

[Guest The 3H's]

Low ones?

[Jingus]

Firstly, I thought he had great timing and rhythym. Which are absolutely subjective things, I will admit. But I admired that sometimes Joey was brave enough to just shut up and let some moments speak for themselves during a match. That's a hard thing to do; any time you've got dead air on commentary, the mental pressure to fill it with chatter is very strong.

 

Another thing is that I genuinely think he did a good job of explaining the psychology of what was going on. Don't make some dismissive joke about ECW and psychology. Sometimes he would invent it if it wasn't there to begin with. I don't know how many times during various matches, some wrestlers either blew a spot or did something illogical, and Joey instantly covered for them with some fairly plausible-sounding explanation that he pulled out of his ass.

 

I liked his mix of humor and seriousness. Once again, a subjective thing. But I think he tended to get the proportions right, and didn't mind it when he did both within the same match.

 

For whatever reason, Joey has gotten painted hard with the brush of "he only said what Heyman told him to say". Well no fucking shit, announcers always put over what the booker/promoter wants them too. Joey didn't do anything to indicate he was being fed more lines than anyone else, and I don't think it's like Paul E. was using him as a sock puppet like Vince tends to do with his commentators nowadays. So I'm often puzzled as to where this net meme of Styles being Heyman's ventriloquist dummy came from.

[artDDP]

Styles' high-pitched squeals of, "One, two, HE GOT 'IM!!!" were way worse than any of Vince McMahon's commentary.

 

Saying the phrase, "Beautiful hoo-dan-canrana by..." in at least every match.

 

Every time he used an "insider" term to get a storyline across, he had to stress it like some desperate kid who so badly wants attention. To wit, "In this business, that's what we call A RECEIPT." "You can ask THE BOYS what they think of..."

 

His commentary was the same every match. He sounded as if he was more trying to get himself over than any ECW talent or angle. He was willing to expose the business as he explained why the competition sucked, then in the same five minutes would expect us to suspend our disbelief to get wrapped up in ECW storylines which were supposed to be "more real"?

[Jingus]

The first two complaints were things that didn't bother me, but I guess I could see how they could bother others.

 

But the insider stuff, I don't think was that bad. Sure, now in this post-Russo smark era that's become terribly overdone. Every Dave Prazak wannabe on the indies drops the insider terms, I've done it myself, and it does typically sound pretty lame. But at the time, it was practically unheard of; Styles was the only guy doing that. The company's product was very deliberately aimed at smart marks, and that was just one of the many methods they used to try and get the newsletter/RSPW crowd to feel like ECW was on their side. It was a marketing tool, and one which I don't think hurt their show in any significant way.

[Guest jaedmc]

I think some of those problems you named weren't just problems with Joey, but problems with how the company presented itself. They were the insider type fed that used the smarty lingo. Think about all the promos from nearly every wrestler who stopped by in between jobs. Commenting on people's "pull" and "politicking". That was a regular element beyond Styles. Which doesn't make it right, but I wouldn't throw poop on Joey for basically fitting in with the atmosphere. I'm a big ECW fan and I really liked Joey Styles. He just seemed prepared and knew what the hell was going on when wrestlers wrestled, which seems to be hard to come by these days. But I can totally see how he could turn people off.

 

It's kind of what Taz said when people asked him about Cole's commentating ability....."If you work at McDonald's and they tell you to make Big Macs. You make Big Macs."

[Sean Liska]

Joey was perfect for ECW. With the whole "us vs. them" thing the company based itself on, it was important that the people that represented the ECW establishment be liked and respected by the fans. If the fans didn't identify with guys like Heyman and Joey, the whole premise the company was built on wouldn't have worked. His smart-ass remarks towards WCW and WWF endeared him to the fans and furthered ECW's marketing campaign.

 

It was especially important that the fans respected Joey in his role as straight man because he was such a big part of the TV show during the earlier years. In 95 and 96, it seemed like he got more face time than anyone in the company. He was always on camera explaining angles, narrating recaps, expressing disgust for the heels, previewing upcoming segments, and so forth because of the way the show was produced.

 

In this age of indy wrestling and nerdy announcers that grew up trading tapes, it's easy to forget that it was a big deal back in 94-95 when Joey was calling Malenko-Guerrero or Mysterio-Psicosis matches and took the time to learn most of the moves and show the guys respect. Nobody else in America was doing it back then (outside of Tenay and Cruise with When World's Collide).

 

I don't get the complaint that he tried to get himself over at the expense of the wrestlers. Part of his appeal was that he put so much work into properly getting over the guys. I thought he was pretty good at conveying emotion. He could give a two minute speech about how repulsed he was by Raven stealing Sandman's son, or the Dudleys taking out Beulah, and he'd have me sucked in by the end of it. His best work, IMO, was when he did PPV's with Cyrus. They played off each other really well and he seemed more relaxed once he knew he didn't have to fill three hours of PPV by himself.

 

I liked his first night in WWE at Taboo Tuesday 05. One of the other great things about Joey was that you could tell he was a huge fan just like his viewers. And one of my favorite Joey calls was from that Taboo Tuesday show after the HHH-Flair cage match. Flair looked really good in that match and you could tell Joey was marking out over calling it, and after the match he yelled, "Still the IC champion, still the man, still, in my opinion, the greatest wrestler ever to lace up a pair of damn boots!" That was classic Joey. Every big wrestling fan could identify and feed off of the emotion behind that call.