sek69

Reading the lucha section in the new WON made me wonder something. Clearly guys like Niebla and Shocker have serious alcohol issues, why do they A: keep them around, and B: allow things like Niebla having a match where he could barely stand and fell asleep on the floor make TV?

That's pretty much CJ Parker's gimmick in NXT. Kinda more environmentalist than vegetarian. I always thought a modern take on Cactus Jack heeling on ECW fans by being anti-hardcore would get over, but WWE as a company is too much of a mushy, amorphous blob of corporate speak to rebel against.

I remember Colt saying something about how Steve Williams made everyone read his Jesus book as part of the training in OVW, which of course led to some awkward moments. Daniel Bryan might be a contender for the nicest person on Earth, to the point you wonder how has he not got eaten alive in the wrestling business yet. Not a major league name, but Count Grog is a manager in NC indies and from my time on the interwebs he's been nothing but great. He's been around for a while and avoided getting what I called the William Moody Entitled Fuck on the Internet Syndrome.

WWE's ability to actually pull any of this off aside, they live in so much fear of upsetting sponsors I doubt we'll ever see anything remotely edgy for that reason alone.

Well having all the Divas repeat the "we're all strong and powerful women" mantra when they're usually (only?) presented as something fuckable and nothing more would make any feminist type gimmick pretty awkward. We bemoan the state of women's matches in WWE when the hard truth is they are only purpose they serve is to be eye candy and to give fans a chance to go to the bathroom between big PPV matches.

Entertaining in all the wrong ways probably. WWE already struggles with the idea that the only adults they appeal to are misogynistic, misanthropic, backwards, socially awkward nerds. Having an angle where a liberal, progressive minded young woman gets booed for talking about institutionalized sexism in the wrestling industry would only contribute to that perception. WWE still hasn't had a gay character where their homosexuality wasn't used for comedy value or as a brow for commentators and performers to snidely insult them over. Even an openly effeminate character like Fandango has to be accompanied by a woman to prevent any suggestion he is 'that way inclined'. That is a problem with all male sports, not just wrestling - but it is a lot easier for WWE to do something about it rather than soccer, as it controls the product. Not only does Fandango have to be accompanied by a woman, he has to be put into angles where two women fight over him to prove how hetero he is. Of course they end up turning into a pseudo lesbian duo, because pro wrestling. I'm not expecting WWE or any wrestling company to be socially progressive or cutting edge, but in 2014 there's no reason not to have characters that are gay/black/Asian/Hispanic and that doesn't compromise their entire gimmick. I think Big E is one of the most charismatic people on the roster, and watching those New Day promos make me cringe at how badly he's being wasted. Maybe the gimmick will work, but seeing black guys shucking and jiving on WWE TV doesn't usually bode well. Also it was touched on before, but one of the main reasons heels have a hard time getting heat in WWE is how the babyfaces tend to be bigger assholes than the heels. John Cena's character was booked so poorly leading up to Survivor Series he made 80s Hogan look like a nice guy. They established he was in the building, yet he did nothing to prevent his entire team from getting destroyed on the go home show. The crowd (who at least half of them hate his guts) was chanting for him to come out and save Show and Sheamus, and he did nothing to help his guys. When Show knocked him out it made perfect sense in storyline since Cena hung him out to dry.

So I guess if/when Bryan comes back his gimmick will be Vegan Jesus.

I have to admit I lol'd when they pointed out he looked like Vader.

I wanted to back you up on Mongo here. Watching Nitro again and it was stunning how while, yes he's clearly dumber than a box of rocks, he has so much PASSION after years of Cole/King/JBL bantering to keep themselves from falling asleep.

Well I suppose I was just hoping the post-Vince era of WWE would mean we wouldn't have to put up with an over-sensitive jacked up guy in charge using TV time as therapy for his insecurities. I get he's under pressure, but it's not like this is a recent trend either. His passive-aggressiveness toward the Rock has been a thing ever since he left to make movies.

Well that would certainly be quite the payoff for the FREE FREE FREE stuff all month.

Someone really should do an in depth piece on Hunter's crippling insecurity about not being seen as a top guy in the Attitude Era. I mean, FFS man you're going to run the whole fucking company one day, does it really matter you were seen as a B+ player in 1999?

In the same show Dave also mentioned how he doesn't feel there isn't anyone in the HOF who doesn't belong there, which I'm hoping was him trying to be trollish because he can't seriously believe that.

That reads like a pitch for a movie I really, really want to see now. Broken Legs and Feeling Boobs: The Johnny Sorrow Story.

Other than UK tours I believe they will be TV only. I would hope talent would be allowed to do indy dates, I can't imagine they're going to be making more from TNA when the company is bringing in less money.

It's mind boggling how many people 50 and above think the only way to access a website is to type it in a search bar and click on the top result. I can't even imagine those folks trying to use any kind of streaming service.

So from the breakdown posted in the issue it looks like Carlos Colon didn't get in because no one in the former wrestler category voted for him. Kind of odd there's sort of an unofficial blackball going on yet Benoit skated on his recall vote. Say what you will about the Brody deal but it's not like Carlos was the one who killed the guy.

It's all rasslin' to TV execs. Not even WWE could get an offer from anyone when their deal was up. There's pretty much zero interest anywhere, ROH happened to get lucky to be bought by a TV company looking for low priced content for their stations.

When you think there's nothing that could lower your opinion on Fritz Von Erich, there's the story in that bio how he was living vicariously through Kerry's high school discus career to the point of making sure he had access to steroids in 10th grade.

So reading the latest back issue up on the site (Fritz Von Erich bio issue), and I came across an interesting tidbit I've never heard before. It's been mentioned numerous times how David was being groomed as the next NWA champ, but here it's mentioned that one of the key factors that was never answered was that Fritz just suddenly stopped pushing for it even after there was some idea in place for it to happen. I wonder if that was because plans started being made for the first Starrcade, or was word getting out about the boys' partying and the NWA board put the kibosh on it?

Crisis on Infinite Boards!

Perhaps I was exaggerating a little, but seeing HHH and Steph come out and bury the whole roster week after week, having babyfaces get beat up with no one coming out to save them is starting to look mighty familiar.

I don't disagree with anything you said, but the Authority winning again would really push this close to "WCW never gets its win against the nWo" level.

I love how they mainly lost out on getting more money on their TV rights renewal because of the long held stereotype that WWE fans are all broke ass rednecks......and then they announce Larry the Cable Guy will host Raw next week.

I think it's more of a situation that it's part of the NBCU deal than Hulu. NXT was only on Hulu pre-Network and there wasn't any issues putting it up immediately. I believe the Network was part of the renewal talks, so perhaps when the new deal kicks in shows will be up sooner.