Pro Wrestling

http://www.memphisdailynews.com./Editorial....aspx?id=100606 Legal types: Does he have a case?

Having watched RAW and Smackdown a bit over the past few weeks, I've been rather shocked by the drop in production values, at least in their television. I was watching an Edge/Chavo vs. Punk/Mysterio, Jr. match and there was a spot where Mysterio, Jr. did a moonsault, IIRC, to Edge on the outside... I swear they used four or five shots to show this, when really it's a two shot sequence, three at the most. And it wasn't as though it cut well, either. It was incredibly jarring. Then, for some reason, the replay showed the whole move in one shot. I thought Smackdown was taped these days? Whoever edits the WWE these days is trigger happy. The camera is too close in to be…

Whether you agree with what he said completely or not, Lance Storm did a commentary about the Undertaker's new finisher and there are some interesting points made. http://www.stormwrestling.com/021908.html I don't know that I'd have even really paid attention to this all that much if I hadn't been watching all the Mid South lately, simply because Bill Watts was the type of booker who put a lot of thought into things like this. Doing a wrestling submission where you can't see either guy's face is not something that would have been encouraged in wrestling in the past. But I thought we could use this thread to talk about what have been good things wrestling has inc…

http://www.declarationofindependents.net/d...aythefword.html The booker can't remember anything that he booked. Wonderful.

This was obviously meant to remind people of the Tyson-Austin encounter, but it came off even better (to me at least) since the announce team went silent - which is usually wrestling code for "oh shit, this isn't supposed to be happening". Also props to Big Show for taking what appeared to be a legit punch from a world champion boxer to set up what will probably be a huge angle for the company. This could be record setting for WWE, since the Tyson bit did monster business and Iron Mike was for all intents done in 1998. Mayweather is a big PPV draw on his own, so this could be the forumla for a ridiculous buyrate if everything works out. Also, I don't know if i…

Saw this on another board, thought it was very interesting.

From WO.com: I find it hilarious that there's no sign of the Rock on here due to Hunter's ridiculous hate/jealousy of him. I guess once Vince finally kicks it, Rock will end up being the next generation Bruno Sammartino in the sense of a major draw from a previous era practically erased from history due to a dispute with the owner of the company.

Remember the stories about Georgia trying to create new athletic commission rules to oversee wrestling? Well, they're here. I understand how they feel the need to take action since Benoit lived there and all, but these rules show either a very shallow knowledge of pro graps, or it's a calculated attempt to put wrestling out of business forever in that state. Some of the highlights: -a "surety bond" of at least $10,000 must be filed before each and every show -the commission gets paid 5% of all ticket sales -a doctor, two EMTs, and an ambulance must be on hand at all times throughout the show; the promotion has to pay for it all -no blading or a…

There seems to be some kind of popup at the site so I'm posting the interview here http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport...ticle762131.ece Paul Heyman: Why I left WWE By Simon Rothstein HE’S the man who revolutionised the wrestling business. The outspoken leader of a hardcore cult that will never die. The creative genius forever synonymous with the letters E-C-W. But for more than a year no one has heard a peep out of Paul Heyman. Where was he? Why did he walk out of the WWE in December 2006? And most importantly what does he really think of Vince McMahon’s ‘new’ ECW? Now, for the first time Paul an…

Seeing him appear on the UWF shows airing on ESPN Classics reminded me, wasn't Foley in WCW during 91-93 when the promotion was running? Am I getting the timeline wrong?

Because it amuses and sometimes disturbs me which wrestlers will get sexualized (and how they are) to sell tapes on eBay and such. Gay or straight, doesn't matter. I don't care about dudes swooning over Tom Zenk, just the stuff that makes you go "WHAT?" in good-natured fun. For example: I mean really, a dude wants to put it to The Bullet? Does he not want to but think other dudes would? Sometimes, I wonder if they're just writing these to make me laugh: So basically, for the GAYS, search eBay for "jobber" or go to http://www.jobberuniverse.com/Jobbers/MainJobberVolumes.html and for a straight dude with major issues, go to http://impacthosting.com/manzerman/ …

Former World Class referee James Beard is going to be my guest on Smart Mark Radio this Sunday, and while I'd obviously rather have you guys call in your questions, I figured I'd give you guys who can't call in the opportunity to get your questions in.

Cena enters at number 30 and wins the Royal Rumble!! I haven't been that shocked by a wrestling result in years. Kudos for the company for keeping this under wraps.

from WO.com: That combined with Bonnie Hammer no longer running the Sci Fi channel seems to point towards ECW no longer existing whenever the year or so deal they negotiated ends.

So UFC made deals with TNA and WWE to promote Lesnar's MMA debut, and while I get why TNA would want to help, what does WWE get out of it? They won't directly hype the show, but fans at MSG last night saw signs everywhere for it, and they're supposed to do something on WWE.com as well. I don't see how this helps them at all. Even if they want to act like UFC isn't competition, promoting them also sort-of promotes TNA as well since they are actively hyping this match.

Just got the Observer in the mail here's the results. Forgive any mispellings, I can't type very well..: Lou Thesz/Ric Flair Award (Wrestler of the Year): 1. John Cena (437 #1 votes) - 2,459 pts 2. Bryan Danielson (77) - 928 3. Hiroshi Tanahashi (42) - 728 4. Shawn Michaels (32) - 579 5. Takeshi Morishima (41) - 565 6. Mistico (6) - 510 7. Mitsuharu Misawa (33) 8. Cibernetico (28) - 290 9. Kurt Angle (7) - 202 10.Edge (16) - 196 MMA MVP 1. Randy Couture (334) - 2,254 2. Quinton Jackson (105) - 1,446 3. Chuck Lidell (116) - 1,209 4. Frank Shamrock (3) - 353 5. Anderson Silva 6. Geirge St. Pierre 7. Kid Yamamoto 8. Forrest Griffin 9. Yosh…

So I doubt there's anything to the rumors, although the WON said that all the Britney talk on TV lately has been planned, and the feeling is that Michael Hayes and Brian Gewirtz know things they're not telling anyone. But between the ridiculous amount of TV ratings it would draw, along with the sure-to-be hilarious stories of her having heat in the WWE locker room for showing up in Shawn's colors or puking on the Undertaker after a drinking binge, I sure hope there's something to it.

G+ aired a Kobashi special to break in the New Year, and it included a nearly-complete (19:00 of 22:11) version of Danny Kroffat & Doug Furnas vs Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi. There's a low quality WMV of the show uploaded to Sendspace and I presume that the usual suspects will have it on DVD within the next week or two. W00t!

Ric Flair v Lex Luger - 09/13/90 (WCW) These two typically worked the same very good match every time out between 1988 and 1990. The problem was that if you'd seen one, you'd seen them all, at least if you were watching to see what Flair does. He had a clear formula that he created with Nikita Koloff and perfected with Luger, and it was a formula he used to carry the growing number of limited muscleheads to good matches in the late 1980s. This match is more abridged because it's on a live Clash and it's not the main event, which one might think would hurt it, but it doesn't at all. In fact, if anything, it helps it. That's not to say this is the best Flair/Luger match…

I don't see a topic here for matches from 1998 so I thought I would start one here. Last night I watched Benoit/Malenko vs Jericho/Eddie from the 1/29/98 Thunder episode on youtube. A few months ago I revisted their tribute match for Brian Hildebrand and was blown away. All this inspired me to write a little something down about this match. A short match but what an excellent bout. The work here was so advanced that it caught me off guard. So much stuff in here makes it stand out from the pack. Even the ways the heels get foiled is advanced work (which I looved) and different from your typical bout. Lots of teases of stuff (including teases of save…

I know I'm a week and 1/2 late, but I was just wondering what you guys picks are for the best matches of 2007? Any must see matches? Any sleeper matches that didn't get noticed? Also what do you think will win WON's Worked match award? Either ROH or NOAH has won the award last fours years, Will 2007's be the same?

Vince apparently hates War Games because it was a NWA/WCW idea, but "Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal" is a perfectly okay gimmick to reuse? Really?

Even being someone who greatly enjoyed WWE during the period and understands that Bryan's a huge Michaels mark...really? This is his latest utterance of it. Is there any reasonable explanation other than it being proof that he hasn't watched a whole lot of wrestling? He seems flabbergasted when other time periods are pimped to him, including this statement when I pointed out the insane quality level of the early '90s: "I guarantee that if you took the number of high-level matches in any company worldwide over the past five years (**** or above) and compared it to 1990-1995, today would blow that period away. And if the answer is that All Japan alone had more…

I had no idea there was footage of this title "switch." The only thing that ever comes out of Jack Veneno is that he once won the title from Flair. Is he a wrestler of any note, or just a one-time Dominican star? Can anyone shed some light on him in general?

I don't know if the WCW project will happen, but I've been watching a lot of old matches recently, so if you have the time please respond. 1. How big of a WCW fan were you during the company's actual run? 2. Are you a bigger fan of WCW now or then? 3. Best Year/Period for WCW 4. Best World Heavyweight Title run 5. Best United States Championship run 6. Best Tag Team Championship run 7. Best Television Championship run 8. Best Cruiserweight Championship run 9. Best feud 10. Most Underrated Feud 11. Best Angle or Storyline 12. Most Underrated Angle or Storyline 13. Best Booker 14. Wrestler who had the most surprising r…