The Thread Killer

Off topic for a second, but both Lance Storm and Test have posted on their sites saying they are disgusted by this Eddie angle, and according to SD spoilers, it continues this week. I am truly disgusted by this, I really am. How Eddie's family must be feeling, I can't even imagine. I won't go as far as saying this is the worst thing the WWE has ever done...I've been a wrestling fan for 27 years and that would be a tough call...but I can say that it will be a long fucking time, if ever...before they ever get another dime of my money. I can pay for TNA shows, like the one this Sunday, knowing that my money is supporting a struggling company which doesn't do stuff like this. The need for a real alternative to the WWE has never been bigger. And I agree that the chance this blog is a work is there. The only thing that makes me think it isn't, is that Foley reportedly has a creative control clause, and I can't see him willingly agree to something like this. He went on record as being against the Katie Vick storyline, and cancelled a Byte This appearance over it, and he also bad mouthed the Big Show's Father Dying of Cancer angle, until they turned it into an obvious comedy bit, when the Bossman crashed the funeral in the Blues Mobile. I do think Mick is a bit of a hypocrite on many levels. He has morals, but ignores them when there is yet another pay check in it for him. I think he could have done loads to help get TNA off the ground, and he pulled out of that deal so he could get Orton and Edge over? Feh. I'd like to think he's real about this blog, I would. If it turns out he isn't, then the little respect I have left for him goes out the window.

I used to love Mick Foley. I wasn't any bandwagon jumper either. I followed Foley during his first WCW run...when I saw Sting kick his ass during his infamous "sit down" strike. I loved his Tag Team with Max Pain, and actually paid real money for Spring Stampede 1994 to see the Street Fight with the Nasty Boys. Being a fan of both ECW and IWA/FMW I followed him after WCW. King of the Death Match was the first Japanese Tape I ever bought. I was thrilled when he came to the WWF as Mankind, loved the feud with Taker, and was there watching for his career peak in 1997-2000. I own an autographed first addition of "Have A Nice Day." I wasn't upset when he came out of retirement at WM2000 to be in the Main Event. I own "The Three Faces of Foley" "Hard Knocks and Cheap Pops" and "Greatest Hits and Misses." I've paid a great deal of money to see his DVD's and tapes, get his books, and see him live. Around the time "Foley is Good" came out, I started to get a little tired of Mick. His bitching about all sorts of things in that book, and the fact that it was half sermon defending Vince McMahon, and half attempt to make money from the people who bought Have A Nice Day bugged me. The fact that he constantly refers to his fans as losers who have no life and no girlfriend started to bug me. My wife is plenty hot, thanks Mick...and she liked you too. Then he started showing up everytime he had something to pimp. He wrote two or three new books, and there he was on WWE television pimping them. He came back to fight Randy Orton...somebody who I thought didn't deserve half the rub that Foley gave him. He started to look less and less like the Hardcore Legend and more and more like the cheap shill that he is. When he turned down a chance to help TNA, and went back to Vince, even though he was sick about the WWE direction, that sealed it for me. The man wasn't getting another dime from me. He's already a zillionaire, his constant greed was getting under my skin. I felt like he needed to shut the fuck up and go away. I felt he was turning into a bloated pimp who looked nothing like the man who won the King of the Death Match, cut the "Cane Dewey" promo, or even who fought Triple H at Madison Square Garden twice. I heard he was planning on fighting at WM this year, and for the first time as a one time Foley fan, I didn't give a shit. Then I read this on WWE.com... I reprinted this, because for all I know, the WWE will take it down once they see it. He might be a greedy pimp and a shill, but it's nice to know he still has morals and will stand up for them. Thanks again, Mick.

The problem is that I've never seen any Joshi, and my only major exposure to Lucha has been from Bob Barnett's AAA Classics Set. I have all 25 discs, but they only really cover the 90's. So I have seen the best of the seventies from Japan and North America, I have seen all of the best 80's and 90's stuff from Japan, North America and Canada (Stampede and Montreal.) Without having seen any pre or post 90's Lucha, and without having seen any Joshi, I wouldn't feel qualified to vote. From what I have heard and read, if I haven't seen the likes of Shinobu Kandori, Akira Hokuto, Manami Toyota, etc. etc. then I wouldn't be able to give an educated opinion. If it was the top 10 male wrestlers of the 90's or something...then I could probably be very confident in my picks, having seen the best of all over the world in that time period.

I wouldn't mind a couple of the matches with The Hollywood Blondes vs. Steamboat & Douglas from WCW. I wonder if they're going to have Stampede footage as well?

I'm confused...if Rey won the Rumble, why wouldn't he get a Title Shot at WM? Isn't that the rule still?

Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada (Triple Crown - 1/19/95) This is Kawada's one successful Triple Crown defense after he defeated Steve Williams on 10/22/94 at the Budokan. People who love the first two Joe/Punk matches should watch this one. I saw Joe/Punk I & II last weekend, and watched this match this weekend. The first two Joe/Punk matches are praised as classic matches, and they are excellent no doubt...but this match is another example of a very well paced "broadway" match, where the two participants slowly build to a 60 minute draw, and it doesn't become obvious until the last 8 minutes or so that there probably won't be a winner. You can tell by about 55 minutes in, when both guys have hit all of their big moves, and Kobashi starts to crawl around the ring on all fours that they are kinda killing time...but still in all there are a great series of near falls in the last 15 minutes. A lot of people crap on this match because there isn't "a finish" or clear winner...especially because Kawada ended up losing the TC to Stan Hansen at the Bodokan that March so this is the only match where he retained. You can debate that Kawada should have ended up beating Misawa in 94, or that he deserved a better reign or whatever...but looking at this match on it's own you can't deny that it is a very good if not great performance, especially by Kawada. The no selling is at a minimum, and some of the near falls are great, as I said. You won't get any argument from me when you say that Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi on 06/12/98 for the Triple Crown is the best match these two guys ever had...however for those that think that Joe/Punk are the GREATEST MATCHES EVAR~!!! or that Flair had some great 60 minute matches with Steamboat or even his one in St. Louis with Brody...watch this match. I wouldn't say this is a "forgotten" classic...but it's funny that Kawada/Kobashi/Misawa etc. had SO many great matches, that people tend to think of the top 5, and forget that they had some lesser know matches like this one, which still blow away anything that happened in North America for the most part.

That makes both of you.

A look at my sig should show you my guilty pleasure.

Here's the thing though...are they even losing money? From what I remember (and correct me if I'm wrong) they're still making money because they are making cuts and layoffs and whatnot. I agree that the product is pure ass, but they aren't bleeding money like WCW was, are they?

He did bust out the Scorpion Deathlock on Sunday...although that's not what got the win.

When I saw that match with Martel (then AWA World Champ) and Flair (then NWA World Champ) as a team against Jumbo and Tenryu I was blown away by how good Martel was. As a Canadian, I was used to seeing him in boring matches with Dino Bravo and bloody brawls with Abdullah, both from Montreal, and of course his run as "The Model." I want to get some more Martel from AJPW.

Didn't he blow out his knee in that triple threat match with Booker T and Saturn for the TV title? And wasn't it just one of those things, rather than somebody else causing the injuries?

This child must be named Damien. There is no other choice.

I remember Beef (or Biff) Wellington well from my days watching Stampede on TSN. He and Benoit were a great team, and I always wondered why he never made it big.

I agree that Juvi should have a mask vs. mask match even though he doesn't wear one anymore. It would be as good as the Hair vs. Hair match that Paul Ellering and Teddy Long had back in WCW...when both of them were almost bald and were looking for an excuse to totally shave their heads.

To me, it's always sad when I find out that a character I bought into was a jerk when the cameras weren't rolling. I was sad when I heard that Brody and Onita were both jerks...since both of those guys were characters I liked. I was also saddened when I heard that both Misawa and Kawada hated Americans. Sometimes it's better not knowing what your favorite stars or wrestlers are "really" like off stage. The myth is almost always better than the truth.

I agree about Missy Loss, but doesn't Stephanie draw bad heat simply because she's annoying and most people know what she does backstage? To me, she always got "change the channel" heat, not "kill the bitch" heat. I never saw Stephanie as being terribly effective at her on screen role.

Back when I was a lad, the WWF used to run a huge show on Boxing Day every year at Maple Leaf Gardens, and I went for 4 years in a row I think. It was good times...and since Jack Tunney was the promoter he would sometimes book matches that you'd never see elsewhere. I remember one year he ran Psycho Sid (with Harvey Wippleman) vs. The Undertaker (with Paul Bearer) and they were both heels. It was awesome. Then again...I was younger then.

It's looks like she's mining for boogernuggets, and smoking at the same time!

I would say that All Japan from 1990-1999 or so produced the longest streak of high quality matches that any organization could ever hope to. Hell, I was looking over my collection the other day, and noticed that I have no less than 260 matches from AJPW during the 90's in my collection. I honestly don't know how anybody who has seen any of the 90's AJPW stuff could argue that any other fed put out this quality of work over this long a period of time. If you are the kind of person who puts stock in Meltzer's star rating system, then check out THIS and you will see all the proof you need.

I guess a lot of that depends on how good this new "King's Road" promotion ends up being. If it comes off as planned, then it sounds like it might take what little fan base AJPW has left with it. Then again, AJPW still has Kojima and he's pretty popular. What I'd love to see is Kojima end up in NOAH.

I love what Jim Ross said in that column he did on wwe.com, that McMahon has totally lost touch with what wrestling fans really want, and what real people are interested...that he is so out of touch he takes a limo when he gets his haircut. I guess when I look at WM20 as a single event, I saw that at least for that one night, Triple H tapped out in the middle of the ring to Benoit. It was the Main Event, the 20th Anniversary of their greatest event ever, in their holiest of holy arena. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I'll plead ignorant about what happened before and after. I was at somebody else's house watching the show, and I never watched one episode of RAW after that...I wouldn't watch that crap if you paid me.

I dunno sek. Their relationship with the NWA (such as it is) is pretty shaky right now, from what I understand. I don't even know if the NWA has a sitting president right now, I think the old one stepped down and their website is hopelessly out of date...or it was last time I checked. I am pretty sure that this announcement is going to be about going on the road, doing IMPACT tapings or house shows around the country, not just at Universal Studios anymore...OR that they are getting a new more viable time slot, maybe even opposite WWE.

My argument against Miavia is this...at that particular time in wrestling history I think if Hogan played his 80's schtick in the WWF he would have been booed out of the building. That was right when he was finding that out in WCW...and Austin was about to explode in the WWF. That was around the birth of the anti-hero. For the record, I thought Rocky sucked too...mostly because of his hair and ridiculous ring attire. I also don't think that the anti-hero thing has been good for wrestling...it makes the heel and face roles much less defined and results in almost everybody wanting to act like a badass and not look cowardly. Obviously I would be a moron to say that Hogan didn't draw money, the man was a human cash register for gawd's sake. If you are saying "who is the most popular wrestler ever with the fans" then I would probably say Hogan or Austin. But my point is that in the overall package, he was not as convincing at playing that role as other people were...people who didn't get the publicity he did. It brings up an interesting argument. McMahon once said that he could have done what he did with Hogan with somebody else in the 80's but he "chose" Hogan. I wonder if that's true...or if Hogan was as good as some people think he was. In the 90's in WCW before turning heel, Hogan proved that his tried and true formula didn't always work...but could somebody else have done what Hogan did in the 80's if not Hogan?