kjh

I think there's a place for everything. Though the only thing with the behind the scenes/gossipy stuff is that I prefer it to be based in reality. The Melina thread was a bad one as it was a BS story with no foundation in reality. I think the Linda thread isn't really all that gossipy and was a useful resource for people interested in the race, those not interested can easily avoid it. I'm way behind with my viewing of the yearbooks, but think those discussion threads will be a great resource to look at when I start watching more of the footage.

Dave said this on the F4W board about the story:

Dave said the same thing in the Observer. Geno did a good post regarding this at Cageside Seats: You mad? Vince McMahon reportedly pissed off at Raw on Sept. 19 in Cleveland

Dave when issuing his initial denials that there was concern that Flair had a heart issue during the match, should have made it clear that these concerns weren't completely baseless, even though there was nothing to them in the end. It makes it look like Dave got worked initially and only found out the truth later. Also, Flair blew up long before his elbow disintegrated. The superplex that caused it was one of the last spots in the match.

From the latest Observer apparently there was good reason to suspect Flair was having heart problems after all: Really, they should have called an audible at that point and went to the finish.

Reby Sky is going to give us regular YouTube updates. This is not allaying my fears that this is just a PR / publicity stunt and Matt isn't really taking it all too seriously.

The first WWE performer to do something stupid! ;-)

And now we get Reby Sky spinning the situation to TMZ: Um, you called the cops, what you didn't think that would come without consequences?

Previewing WWE Linda McMahon's second Connecticut campaign for US Senate Here we go again...

Has anyone got the source for this?

The timing would suggest that. I wouldn't be surprised if all the police charges he was facing was the catalyst for him finally going to rehab.

The British wrestling scene began struggling in the early 80s. Even before World of Sport was taken off the air, Joint Promotions was running fewer shows. The defections to All Star Promotions left it looking like '93 CMLL. Yeah, that's true. But the way Bruce talked it was like Joint Promotions had a monopoly on the British wrestling scene.

WTF? Mike Bell as in the dude that Saturn freaked out on? Yeah, the same one. I think he was under contract to the WWF as enhancement talent for a short period of time in 1995.

My post on the matter at Cageside Seats

I must point out that the article at Cageside Seats would have been written very differently if I got there first!

Konnan on the other hand...

Isn't that a slight problem? Working even with Hunter doesn't hurt Punk, but nonetheless it keeps him at the same level slightly below the more established Hunter, Cena and Orton. Which shouldn't be surprising as this storyline has been more about putting over Hunter first and Punk second. I'm not sure staying the course with a pat hand is what's needed at a time when house show attendance and ratings are both flagging.

I don't think we can complain too much about Hunter beating Punk in their first match together when the stips made it obvious that Hunter was going to win and Hunter is *hopefully* going to put over Punk before the end of the feud, but reading about Trips thwarting the interference of Nash with his trusty sledgehammer and basically defeating two birds with one stone brought a wry smile to my face.

Ugh, at Bruce Mitchell talking on his Torch radio show about how Big Daddy killed the British wrestling scene by being pushed on top for too long and left people with a sour taste in their mouths. It was a lot more complicated than that and had a lot to do with how ITV handled wrestling in the late 1980s (after World Of Sport was taken off the air, wrestling had its own show, but the time slot changed on a regular basis and eventually was axed even though it still drew pretty well) and the exposure of American wrestling in the market during that time period. Also, if you talk to casual fans from that era about British wrestling they often recall Daddy with fondness. I'm not the biggest Daddy backer for the HOF, but it's bad when a voter in a particular region shows such a biased understanding of the history of that territory.

Just because it was always the plan to subsume Strikeforce into UFC, doesn't mean that completely tanking the promotion was a smart thing to do. Given that the likes of Josh Barnett, Antonio Silva, Luke Rockhold, Ronaldo Souza, King Mo, etc are all going to end up in UFC soon enough, you want as many eyeballs as possible watching their fights, so when the merger happens those guys fighting on UFC cards will mean something. We need to see how the FOX deal pans out, but by the sounds of it UFC will be running about the same number of live special for FOX/FX next year that they did for Spike TV and Versus this year. So without the Showtime deal, Zuffa will have to do a massive purge of their roster, and with Bellator likely ending up on Spike TV and Showtime finding replacement MMA programming, we're back to square one. They should have let someone else pay through their nose for the tainted brand.

The superplex spot was really the saddest moment of the match. No way should he be taking such a dangerous bump at age 62 on a bad shoulder. Given the reports of how bad the match was, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting, though that's probably thanks to the magic of editing.

Flair was thrown off the top, bumped for Sting's clotheslines and did the Flair flop. He was huffing and puffing a lot and had to take his time.

Will Showtime pull the plug on Strikeforce within six months? Well, that didn't take long for everything to go sour. I'm looking forward to the future finger pointing back and forth between Dana White and Ken Hershman.

I agree it's silly to pack on the pounds for a retirement show and then have to diet to shed them all off again, but I suppose this isn't too unusual in Japan with the sumo culture.

I think Hardy was probably under the influence of more than one drug, with Xanax being part of the mix.