Marty

I don't know what kind of athletes the cast and crew of The Wizard of Oz were. They probably don't compare favorably to wrestlers or mixed martial artists. That said, all very motivated people, competitive, similar mindset. I don't know, S.L.L. I heard a rumour that those flying monkeys owned and operated by the Wicked Witch of the West were a HUGE influence on Rey Mysterio Jr.'s career. Also...look! A heel stable!

I ended up having the priviledge of meeting Bret Hart today at a book signing. Gotta say that, in spite of having a stroke several years ago, the guy looks great and looks happy, like he's finally content and relaxed. Really nice to see. It's not like he's completely weak or anything (when we shook hands, he definitely gripped my hand harder than I did his) but he's one of the few that can definitely say he can walk away from wrestling. It was nice to see and experience. I think this was the type of thing I would've enjoyed more 15 years ago, because I would've had more fandom appeal for the signing, but I got some other satisfaction out of it: That someone I watched for years is back to pretty good health again. He'll never be in "wrestling shape" again, but I don't know if he needs to be right now.

I guess the rest of that tour is cancelled, so to speak.

So...would that mean the APA reunion was a mere one-shot deal? Or would they lean towards turning Jericho heel? It's the Torch, though, whose history of reporting about Jericho is well-documented.

There's a reason the term "Vince-logic" has made its rounds on the internet. He thinks quite differently than a lot of other people do. I actually think he legitimately believes he was backed into a corner at that time, in the same way he believes that Ted Turner was out to get him.

I hear ya and Shawn did say he's not sorry, but Bret's publically said that he'll never forgive anyone involved, and especially not Shawn or HHH. I'm not trying to take Shawn's side of things, but it's not like Bret hasn't been close-minded in his own way. I think he also said that he doesn't think Shawn would be serious in his apology. While he hasn't apologized, either, Shawn did congratulate Bret on his WWE Hall Of Fame induction, inspite of Bret threatening to walk out if he saw Shawn there (which, I understand, Shawn instigated). I think it's things like that where Ted DiBiase is referring to where Shawn is attempting to make peace with Bret. At the same time, while Bret said he wouldn't forgive, he doesn't come across as being bitter still, which was what was implied in the Shawn documentary (including by DiBiase). So that part doesn't help things either. It's too bad, because once upon a time in the early '90s or so, these two were almost the best of friends backstage and respected each other greatly. (In his book, Bret tells a story about all 8 guys in the Survivor Series '93 match planning things out, Bruce getting indignant about something, and Shawn telling Bruce, "Look, if my brother was one of the best wrestlers in the world today, I'd be listening to him!")

I wouldn't say that's completely accurate. I mean, yes, that's what happened, but Bret would have initially gone with the higher WCW offer if he was only out to get more money. Vince told him he was going to intentionally breach his contract and to go to WCW, which is the reason he got that deal back. According to Bret's book, he did con Bischoff for more money. Well after Vince told Bret about breaching his contract, WCW offered Bret $2 million, well more than anything he would've got with the WWF. I don't remember the exact quote, but he told Bischoff something along the lines of, "If you can't get me $3 million a year, don't bother talking to me." He managed to get another million a year out of it even though he knew he wasn't staying with the WWF. So the original post is half-accurate.

I think you're correct on the Piper set. I don't mean that they've had tape traders in mind fully, but tape traders/historians/hardcore fans/whatever you want to call them are a portion of the WWE fanbase and, whether a lot of them want to admit it or not, are a pretty loyal bunch at that. They know this and while they aren't exactly releasing stuff the equivalent of Goodhelmet's stuff, there have been some things (the AWA set, the World Class set, the Horsemen set, the Flair set, etc.) that are, well, aren't exactly designed for newer fans. That's the point I was getting at and how those sets contrast with the Cena one. It's like FH said about the Horsemen doc: All these DVDs about shit that happened 20 years ago aren't being bought by 12 year olds.

About the way the DVD set is made up: Don't forget the fanbase that Cena is responsible for bringing back to the WWE and how to make a DVD set directed to them. How to make a DVD set for women and children (or, in general, your casual fanbase) is not the same way to make a DVD set for tape traders. (Heck, even though the Cena hate has gone down a little, from what I've seen, I still doubt that tape traders make even 10% of Cena's fanbase.) Not that the tape traders were totally ignored here, but women and children aren't going to purchase 3 discs filled with Cena matches, I'm betting, even good ones. But they'll purchase a set with a greater part of a disc having Cena matches if they can get some other variety. Thus you have stuff like the car collection bit (Cena's knowledge of muscle cars amazed me, in fact) and the 5 Questions stuff. Sek, you mentioned about how the 5 Questions segments offer a different side of Cena, well, that's what that fanbase is likely looking for with a DVD set like this. Anyways, I think I saw the Cena set hit the Top 10 best sellers on Shopzone at one point, so I'm sure the set's been noticed. I think it's gone under the radar a little bit on the web because of the set-up and because Cena's not exactly the most popular guy on the intra-web. Then again, WWE DVDs, for some reason, haven't been heavily talked about in general. The most you hear about the subject, unfortunately, is "When will you-know-who's footage be used again by the WWE?"

I don't think they piled on Bret that much. Sure, there was Hunter's comment, but that was the same thing that was said in Shawn's book, but I think that was the worst of it. The "Bret should forgive" comment was really only from Ted DiBiase, IIRC, and he said "to my understanding" that Shawn was the only one trying to mend fences. Bret's been buried far, far worse by the company. I also liked how Steve Austin said how Shawn Michaels, leading up to WM14, didn't want to lose the title to anyone and I wasn't aware about how Michaels' actions during that outdoor segment with Austin, DX, and Tyson pissed Vince off. Also, HHH bringing up Undertaker having it to here with Shawn after he showed up loaded was unexpected to hear as well in this documentary, so kudos to the WWE for those additions. Agreed on Jannetty. Even worse, he was very incoherent in his comments. Very slurred speech. Watching that, then watching his old footage, shows you how far that guy has fallen over the years.

There's also all the stuff we know about his backstage behaviour that wasn't mentioned either, like throwing Matt Striker out of the locker room, the infamous hack squat incident, etc. Also wasn't mentioned was a lot more about Benoit's past, such as the DUI he had in '98. It was definitely well-written and easy to read (although not exactly easy to visualize), but it could've been more complete with items like those. Loss, thanks for your reply. I'll reply to it later.

I actually bought the mag, mainly because of the existence of Sarah Michelle Gellar in the issue ( ) and read the article. Definitely felt it was very well-written and descriptive, as there were things written that I (not speaking for others) wasn't aware of. The general early statements of the article in that reading it leaves more questions than answers is definitely true. When they discuss the phone call between Chris and his family friend, why, if Benoit's brain was as messed up as it was, did he sound normal and fine to his friend? Is this an affect of pro wrestling (where guys work people so much that they get in tune with working their friends in order to present themselves as stable)? Or is it something else? The article did very well summing things up, but (and this might not be at fault of the writer, because he did a good job presenting the reader (the average one of which may not have a clue about wrestling's inner workings to begin with)) as usual, we're still left with many, many questions, because some things (e.g. Benoit having a brain of an 85-year-old with Alzeimers + Benoit acting fine heading into that weekend) just don't add up. I wanted to bring up something that has to do with the situation, but not with the article. Earlier this week in the city I live in (Ottawa), a triple-murder suicide happened (a man of Indian descent killed his wife and two daughters before killing himself). It's obviously been the biggest story here all week, as the part of town they lived in was very peaceful, and the neighbours mention how they wouldn't have suspected anything. What did the man do for a living? He worked for the local public transportation company, which is unionized, publically ran, etc. Simple job: Drive a bus all day. If someone like that, who has good, solid working conditions like that, can wipe out his family, than there may be more to these cases than what they do for a living. While regulation of wrestling is definitely worth a look for many, many reasons, ask yourself (that is, the strong supporters of it) this: Do you honestly think it would've stopped Chris Benoit for doing the deeds he did? Somewhere along the line the general personality of the subject takes over, no matter what his situation is (and heck, aside from any possible health issues, it's not like he was living in a bad situation). I think, one way or the other, and this article proves it, there's still more to Benoit we don't know, and that we may never know.

Maxim's webpage is actually blocked at my workplace, but Michael Lewis wrote the article?? Cool! I have to agree with the last few posters. He's a fabulous writer. I'll check this out later tonight.

Wrong.

Not sure if that last part is necessarily true. Is Jericho going to work a full-time schedule? Or is he going to work an HBK-esque schedule? Also, how different would TNA money to Jericho be compared to what WWE is paying him?

Not going to argue the sleaziness of dogfighting, but wouldn't backyarders be more comparable to illegal porn?

So, I'm browsing WWE.com out of boredom, and they have a special section discussing the 500th issue of WWE magazine. They have a neat list of past covers from the magazine too (which they're calling the greatest covers), which is notable for a couple things: 1. There's at least three covers I've noticed where the "WWF" initials are NOT edited. This in spite of the editing of the scratch logo from some of the 1998-2002 covers to the current logo. 2. On page 2 of the greatest covers section is the one in 2000 featuring the Radicalz, with you-know-who surprisingly not edited out or anything like that.

From what I've seen, bbfc tends to be very accurate in their listings. I think what you see is what you'll get.

Found this on bbfc.co.uk:

....couldn't possibly be real, could it? I thought that excerpt has been shot down already? Yeah, it was.

If I had to bet on what will happen, they'll give it the Benoit treatment (no Rey matches, any reference to Rey at that time, or Rey losing the mask will be censored out). I will note that in the DVD set being talked about, they forgot to take out one Benoit reference, but it was during the first match versus Malenko, when Tenay was running down a list of junior heavyweights. There's lots of commentary removed in some matches, though. (The most was removed in the Spring Stampede 97 match versus Ultimo. Also, in the WM22 match, they reference Orton becoming the youngest world champ, but remove the Benoit part too.) I'd be remiss to note that one of the cool things about this set is the inclusion of all the entrances. This is significant because it shows, more than any other WWE release, IMO, how far ahead of the game Eric Bischoff was in 1996. They had some really, really cool sets and backdrops (at HH96, it looks like Malenko and Mysterio are literally walking from a dark grave site towards the ring, for example). Compare that to the lame sets the WWF had for the major PPVs and the even more lame backdrops for the IYH sets.

Always has been, to an extremely large extent (the only time I ever saw Rey footage from that era in a WWE production was on that Monday Night Wars DVD, where they showed a rear shot of him waving goodbye to the crowd).

It's on there, according to the liner notes, making the total 29 matches. It's not listed in the chapter menus, is it an easter egg? Really?! It's listed for me, both in the notes and the chapters menu on Disc 3. (I also looked around, but couldn't find any easter eggs, which seems common for these types of WWE sets that are a 3-disc main program.) It goes right after the Judgment Day '05 match (Rey introduces it as one of his favourite matches with Eddie) and it's followed by the Eddie Tribute match with Michaels.

It's on there, according to the liner notes, making the total 29 matches.

Picked this up today, and already got a laugh: In the liner notes (that list each chapter and such), whereever it's supposed to say "Guerrero" (e.g. Eddie, Chavo), it says "Guerrera". Pretty funny considering they have a Guerrero in their own Hall Of Fame and should be able to notice shit like that.