sek69

Didn't Tony leave for the WWF because he was expecting to get some production job that went (I think) to Jim Ross? Either way, he just didn't fit in with their style at all. Vince likes his announcers to be more of an in your face type, Tony's approach came off like a librarian at a metal concert. As far as his style goes, I can see how it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but I liked it probably because he was the voice of the first wrestling show I watched on a regular basis. He always cracked me up as the put-upon host of the show trying to maintain a serious tone while David Crockett was marking out like a five year old, then in interview segments it seemed Flair and Cornette would have a weekly contest to get him to crack up on camera. I agree that once Hogan and Friends came in to WCW, you could see Tony no longer gave a shit anymore. He spent over a decade as a Serious Wrestling Announcer as contrast to those wacky WWF guys, and now the king of those wacky guys was in his company and he clearly wasn't enjoying having to put the guy over. That's why the end of Bash of the Beach is one of his all time great moments, you get the impression he finally got the chance to say on air what he'd been saying mentally since 1994. I always wonder why no other company ever brought him back other than that awful "shoot" promo he did in TNA. He must have soured on the business, since I can't imagine being a small market sports radio host/minor league baseball commentator are going to get a guy lots of disposable income.

what was the deal here? He said that Punk was "considered dangerous around the women" without any analysis, qualification, or objection. Gonna go out on a limb and guess Punk probably earned some enemies since he's long been known to have a list of "acquaintances" that reads like a who's who of female indy pro wrestlers. Plus it's also known that WWE has a slotting system where it's not considered kosher to fuck above your paygrade. Mix in the high-school like culture of pettiness and I wouldn't be surprised if someone was mad Punk took a run at a Diva that another one of the boys had eyes on. All it takes is someone to blind item it to the sheets that Punk is "dangerous" around women, and then it gets repeated as fact even if it gets corrected later like the "Punk got punished for not following the dress code" story. I'm sure something like that is the reason. Someone at that one board should ask Byron Alvarro to issue a long overdue retraction and apologize to Punk. Bix, do you and Alvarez have legit heat over something?

what was the deal here? He said that Punk was "considered dangerous around the women" without any analysis, qualification, or objection. Gonna go out on a limb and guess Punk probably earned some enemies since he's long been known to have a list of "acquaintances" that reads like a who's who of female indy pro wrestlers. Plus it's also known that WWE has a slotting system where it's not considered kosher to fuck above your paygrade. Mix in the high-school like culture of pettiness and I wouldn't be surprised if someone was mad Punk took a run at a Diva that another one of the boys had eyes on. All it takes is someone to blind item it to the sheets that Punk is "dangerous" around women, and then it gets repeated as fact even if it gets corrected later like the "Punk got punished for not following the dress code" story.

In wrestling it's all about what you're pushed as. Chief Jay Strongbow was actually Italian, Billy White Wolf was from Iraq, and Eddy and Rey (in WCW at least) were pushed as being Mexican by nationality when both were born in the US. Rock is kind of an anomaly. They obviously acknowledge his father but most of the time the Samoan part of his heritage was played up. When they interview his family it's always his mom (and his grandmother when she was alive), when's the last time anyone heard from Rocky Johnson? Other than his HOF induction (which in retrospect seems like it was only done to get Rock to come back for an appearance), they barely even mention him. They always mention his connection to the great Samoan dynasty when in truth Chief Peter isn't even a direct relation to the Anoai family, only "blood brothers". I guess my point that of course Rock is black ethnically, but in the scope of WWE he seemed to be pushed more as part of the Samoan legacy of wrestling, especially when he got the tribal tattoos which they compared to his grandfather's.

It's probably best to wait to see what it looks like on air, but I read it more as giving Cena extra motivation to make sure Punk doesn't leave with the belt since it was Cena going to bat for him to Vince. That wouldn't necessarily mean the focus was off of Punk.

The interesting thing about Punk's promo compared to the other two famous worked shoots is how personal this one is. The other two were more or less "sports entertainment sucks, wrestling 4 life", while Punk was calling the head of talent relations a douchebag and referring to Vince's idiot daughter and doofus son in law. Not to mention you have an actual wrestler doing the promo instead of an announcer or in Heyman's case an announcer/former promoter. All three of course were designed to perk the interest of the longtime fans who feel the current product no longer speaks to them, but there was something about Punk more or less calmly stating that he knows that WWE is all bullshit that seemed more genuine than Styles or Heyman screaming over stuff. The spoilers for the second show weren't too bad. I mean, if we're going to go on the assumption that the angle is that Punk's promo was a shoot, then of course Vince/WWE would suspend him since that's what you'd expect the "real" reaction to be. I don't like the addition of the extra stipulation on Cena, but considering I don't expect it to come into play it shouldn't be that big of a deal.

The best part of that promo may have been him wearing a Stone Cold shirt while doing it.

Giving someone the Benoit treatment as part of an angle is fucking fantastic (not being sarcastic here). They should start showing clips from previous RAWs and have the audio mute when anyone says "CM Punk".

I guess getting blamed for the Sin Cara match put Chavo over the edge, which is understandable since their reasoning seemed to be little more than "hey, he's a Mexican guy, he should be able to work lucha style" without seeming to realize/remember he's spent his entire career in US feds. I wonder what kind of terms came with his release, since as stated he knows where a lot of bodies are buried. I also wonder if the humiliation stuff with Vickie will get worse now.

Back to more twitter fun: Retweeting re: NY state voting to legalize gay marriage: (from reading his tweets I'm not surprised he's in favor, but he's also been in pro wrestling a long time and we all know it's not the most progressive industry in the world) In reply to a fan not sad to see him leaving WWE (and indeed has a profile pic showing off her fat triceps) Re: the Hulk vs Warrior shoot video fight, and getting a zing in on Hulkster:

I'd be fine with that as long as "casual" didn't end up being used like the n-word like it tends to in some gaming circles.

I think people are getting hung up on the word "community". When most people use the term "IWC" it usually is a blanket term for people on the internet who follow behind the scenes stuff and maybe (but not always) have a WON or Torch sub. Someone who only visits WWE.com or likes them on Facebook certainly wouldn't be in that group. If anything, perhaps there needs to be a revamp of terminology to come up with a term for that type, like how gaming has "hardcore" and "casual" groups.

I can't look at him without thinking of the quote someone (Loss?) here came up with where his "angry" face looks like he always has to poop.

Alvarez has been beating the drum for a while now that WWE is largely getting a pass for everything because TNA is there to set the bar for terrible wrestling impossibly high. His argument is that people would be ripping Vince/WWE left and right if they were the only game in town. I don't completely disagree, but WWF was doing some awful stuff at times in 1999-2001 while WCW was at its very worst and was still getting called on it.

The story at the time was that Shane left because he saw the writing on the wall that Steph and Hunter were the new Heirs Apparent and he was going to get squeezed out. Didn't he want to re-enact Vince's WM3 intro at WM 23 only to have Steph veto it? Seemed like he wasn't as enthusiastic towards the company after that.

What was the deal with that show, I remember watching it when it happened thinking this company is just pulling some bizarre Andy Kaufman type shit on everyone.

I lol'd: Punk and Austin take their little exchange from Raw to Twitter:

I think the foodstamp story is a little overblown because Jesse Neal was hurt and out for a while, and in TNA if you don't work you don't get paid. Now that still is scummy for a company trying to make itself the better option to WWE for fans and wrestlers alike, but people are making it sound like his base pay qualified them for welfare.

Hindsight is 20/20 and all, but to be fair there was absolutely no reason to believe things wouldn't work out the way people expected at the time. Hell, it was amazing Umaga was able to make the Umaga character work as well as he did. I'm not sure Joe could have pulled off the "savage" gimmick as well. Also you could play Devil's Advocate and argue that leading a stable of nobodies and having your wins overshadowed by R-Truth and his Little Jimmy of the week isn't that far from being a JTTS.

South Park said it best, You're Getting Older. *plays Landslide*

TNA doesn't even call itself TNA anymore, it's IMPACT! Wrestling.

Considering the amount of women wrestlers he's gone through, I wonder what the Straight Edge stand is on penicillin.

Nothing takes me out of something WWE is trying to do faster than a guy who's obviously concentrating extremely hard to make sure they remember every word of their promo correctly. It's funny sometimes, seeing someone who's supposed to be upset/enraged and they are yelling at someone with that over enunciated diction one tends to have when reciting a large piece of memorized speech. No one would talk like that in a real life situation, if you're pissed you stumble over words sometimes. A related issue would be after said promo (whether if it was done convincingly or not), there's always that awkward Telanovela-esque long stare into space while the camera holds on the scene well past the point of a normal end of a conversation. Nothing conveys SERIOUS PRO WRES WRITING like an idiot staring into space like my dog wondering where the ball went that I faked throwing to her. I guess my biggest thing is that everyone involved with the creative side at some point seems to forget the Keep It Simple, Stupid principle. While WWE gets singled out for this a lot (and they do it a lot), pretty much every wrestling company seems to have a period where they forget the best wrestling draws from the same root it always does: two (or more) people have an issue to settle and fight until that conflict is solved. Obviously a lot of real life issues have been turned into major angles through the years, and for good reason. Storylines drawn from someone's real background or from something anyone can relate to are the ones who garner the most interest.

Yeah, Punk's hardly being ungrateful to the fans to point out that sitting in the dentist chair isn't the proper time for a meet and greet. Back to the topic at hand: If anyone is wondering, he is Twitter friends with Jim Ross so that may have been a rib on Punk's part. His ongoing Twitter feud with Maryse: The tweet mentioned before about tassels:

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