sek69

Hall, Roberts, and Hardy have all made public spectacles of themselves because of their drinking/drug use. Most guys are better than that when it comes to keeping their partying on the down low. Also how long were those guys doing what they were doing before it became public knowledge? All of them were in the business for at least 10 years before the really wild tales started coming out. The steroid stuff I agree with you 100%. I can't tell you how many times I would get into arguments with people who would insist that guys like Eddie couldn't be on enhancement drugs because they weren't ripped like Batista. Or that all the women on the WWE roster could have washboard abs (and also start to develop mannish features) without taking any kind of supplement.

I would expect that Bryan or whoever inherits the WON from Dave would probably put him in the HOF at the first opportunity. As much as we give him shit (deservedly more often than not), I don't think there are too many people ever who actually cared about wrestling more than Dave. His writing during the steroid trials probably would have won him awards if it was written for a mainstream newspaper, and that's why it was really sad when you could see there was a point when it was obvious things were never going to change and Dave was just like "fuck it". You could chalk it up to youthful Dave thinking he could play some part in changing the world, but there was something heartbreaking over seeing the exact time someone's spirit was broken being commemorated in print.

Not saying that it's correct all the time, but considering how widespread cocaine use was in the 80s among people with high incomes plus the usual connection between wrestlers and substances that relieve pain, it's not entirely a stretch to suspect a large amount of pro wrestlers active in the 80s did cocaine. Especially since, you know, a lot of them have admitted they did either directly or wink-wink between the lines style. You don't need to be an MD or have vast personal experiences with cocaine to be able to tell that someone is off their gourd high. I mean, I guess it's possible that Roddy Piper just might have had a lifelong struggle with ADHD, but I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that he just might have been riding the rails once or twice prior to cutting a promo.

So I guess in another week you'll come back and apologize like the last time you snapped out on the board?

Apter is a no brainer, IMO. His magazines promoted territories better than half of them promoted themselves. I remember following angles in Florida and Oregon solely by their coverage in the Apter mags since they weren't on TV here.

Not to mention Domino's is running a campaign now where they basically say their pizza has been shitty but they improved it and it's better now. They aren't a family business but it's essentially the same tactic.

The thing about the Sleaze Thread at DVDVR is that it got a lot of people to join the board, and a lot of the old timers were pissed that people were starting threads about Jimmy Valiant's shitting habits instead of discussing the latest Japanese indy fed. That led to the mods doing things like banning people for even mentioning it, which of course only increased interest since making things taboo never makes them go away. Also DVDVR was hacked and/or had server issues more than any large message board I can recall. I guess that's what you get when your IT guy was a creep with a Transformers and POV blowjob fetishes.

Hell, his angle in 1989 in the NWA was that he was a crazy old man wanting one more run on top.

Terry's second career as a brawler/hardcore legend wasn't painfully embarrassing to watch as Flair's second act has been at times.

I just assumed Sonnen was trying to get people interested in purchasing the fisticuffs event he was taking part in. If that's considered "working" now, then anyone who ever tried to get someone interested in anything ever can be considered a "worker".

I realize the cartels are more powerful than they've been before, but any company who operates in Mexico has to be aware that they've existed in some form or another for quite a while now. I just find it amazing that a company that has been at times the #1 company in the world and a solid #2 (instead of a TNA style by default #2) at others runs basically month to month. I know the economy hasn't been the greatest in Mexico, but how can they run PPV and TV tapings if the budget is that tight?

The thing about Flair is that he certainly should be considered the greatest ever, or #2 at the very least, but there's going to be an entire generation of wrestling fans who see him as the equivalent of Jordan playing for the Washington Wizards. I could imagine how difficult it would be to convince someone that started watching wrestling in the 2000s that Flair is one of the all time greats.

Cubsfan has a post up on his blog about AAA having to do cutbacks due to having an entire gate stolen by a drug gang at a show that didn't have enough "protection". AAA pays their talent directly from the gate, so losing a whole show meant they had to cut back on other things. My question is how can a major company like that (in a part of the world where drug gangs are not a new concept) still operate that way? If you ran a business in a place where you know at some point you're going to get shaken down, shouldn't you do the business equivalent of hiding some money in your sock?

The Halloween one he did for (I think) TNT is my favorite whacked out Piper promo, even more so since I believe Steph was one of the kids in it.

Certainly when watching WWF programming from the 80s you can tell some guys are a lot more revved up than others. Piper for one comes to mind immediately, some of his promos from back then were done under the influence of at least one if not several substances. Even more so when you contrast it to ones he did in the 90s on up to today where he seems like a LP played on a slower speed by comparison.

Huh? I know people say he's a coke fiend, but is there any suggestion that he actually has any addictions? Or is that just a throw-away line? There's been a lot of people who worked behind the scenes that have similar tales of Vince being coked out of his mind a lot of the time, not to mention the stories of his legendary work ethic/schedule that would be nearly impossible to maintain as long as he has without some kind of chemical assistance. Also the tons of examples of Vince exhibiting inappropriate/weird behavior both on and off screen. In short, there's never been any conclusive proof but there seems to be enough circumstantial evidence to assume he's not just getting by on Red Bulls.

Did it ever come out what Antonio Pena died from? The WON always seems to use weird code words, the gist was always that it was something resulting from Pena's lifestyle. It seems like he was implying AIDS, but he also would always mention his drug use so it was never clear which part of his lifestyle we were supposed to draw our conclusions from.

From today's Herb: What job has Linda created? Doesn't the WWE usually increase their profits by doing a post-WrestleMania endeavoring almost every year? A lot of behind the scenes jobs have been cut from their internet/new media/whatever Shane was in charge of as well. So what proof is there anywhere that Linda can create jobs other than other Republicans saying she can?

Just the fact that Vince would make a drug joke about anyone else short of Keith Richards pegs the needle on the Irony-O-Meter.

I've thought for a while that if they are going to bring him back, a great way to do it would be like that. No one would remember, but they explained his disappearance by having (I think) Barrett say a throwaway line about Bryan having a conscience over the first beatdown and not wanting to be a part of that. It would be a great callback to that if the only way the WWE team could win is by recruiting someone who used to be part of Nexus. I have a feeling if that was ever pitched to Vince, he'd have one of his weird moments of not wanting WWE guys to look inferior, but if they did it in a ROH friendly city like NYC or Philly the pop would be huge.

I was thinking, and this may be cynical of me, but isn't it funny how Dave had all these "he doesn't want anyone to know he does all this good stuff" stories about Cena in the WON not too long after he pretty much outed him as the guy Mickie James was fired for fucking/stalking?

I think it stems from him wanting to have a fresh start in the IWC since he (allegedly) burned some people in tape deals.

He's like the internet version of the Midnight Rider. I responded to him on another board with a comment that made it clear I knew who he was and he had a mini flip out over it.

Wasn't Tom Cole the one who was planted in the audience of the Donahue show to be the big "gotcha" against the WWF, only to have him basically apologize to the McMahons for the embarrassment it caused their company that he got molested by their employees. Kind of how Hector Guerrero was apologizing for Eddy's death. Also Cole wasn't exactly 100% credible pre-(alleged) payoff if I recall correctly. Didn't he name Patterson as one of the perpetrators just because he was openly gay?

Also because of those, he had to get off whatever steroids/HGH he was on so now he's way less muscular and of course can't work out as much due to the hip surgeries. If he's just standing at ringside he doesn't look too bad. Anything that requires him to move is painful to watch.