sek69

Also about the Stampede thing, the 1988 NHL finals featured Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers finishing up their dynasty by winning the Stanley Cup, so there's no way anyone in Canada was going to be watching anything else.

Pillman was part of the main heel faction at the time of his death and also was involved in an angle with Goldust that was also pretty major. He wasn't a main eventer, but it would hardly be the equivalent of Snitsky today.

So the latest episode of RAW is the Brian Pillman Tribute show, and man does it show how much times have changed. It starts with the announcement of Pillman's death and the 10 bell salute, and the very next segment is the infamous HBK/HHH skit that gave birth to the Degeneration X name. It then leads into Jim Cornette doing a shoot promo on WCW and the nWo, and of course the Melanie Pillman interview which is still the most uncomfortable TV moment ever. They of course would learn through experience to devote the whole show to the guy who died. Also it's kind of creepy that the show is in Kemper Arena and seeing Owen on stage as part of the Pillman tribute.

You know, there probably is some questionable things going on in general re: the WWE and the Stamford PD. Lord knows the things they probably had to sweep under the rug. Having said that, this whole project of Irv's is turning into You're Doing It Wrong: The Book.

Is there any footage around of Adrian from this time? The last I remember seeing was his AWA stuff where he was still way overweight and still doing the gay gimmick. Also, and I'm sure Dave will go into this when we get to that point in the WON, but how did Jim Crockett Jr. manage to sell his territory to Turner and still remain President of the NWA? Was it one of those deals where there was no one else?

Then he should stop with the lame *wink* *wink* stuff and say what he's thinking rather than do the whole GEE I WONDER WHAT IS AFOOT WITH YOUNG MASTER RANDY? routine.

Perhaps I've been reading too many 1991 WONs where he spends the non steroid trial portions ranting on No Shows:Scourge of the Wrestling Industry.

I don't know if they were going to release him, but he seemed destined for "creative has no ideas for you" until (as the story goes) Steph heard him rapping backstage and made it his gimmick. Also that Rodimer dude who she was seriously into pushing but he was so bad that even Vince's gaggle of yes-men couldn't sell that with a straight face. Considering some of the stiffs they let on TV, it's no wonder the "Steph must be banging him" rumors start.

Well there's yet another internet rumor about Cena about to get wished well on his future endeavors until Stephanie "discovered his talents" and pushed him to the moon. I seem to recall our pal Scooter implying that in a few of his rants so I'm sure that will one day become Accepted Internet Fact.

Irv doesn't say that at all. Sek's just setting up a straw man argument. I got the feeling Dave (and Irv by proxy) were suspicious that Orton wasn't in an accident at all. But that blog entry was written before Orton came back to TV. Irv needs to stick to covering THE CASE OF THE BENOIT WIKIPEDIA HACKER. I'm not setting up any strawmen. I'm just wondering why Irv would include a *wink* *wink* in the title of a post about Orton's motorcycle accident and also mention his alleged suicide attempt. I was being a little glib, sure, but IMO it seemed like Irv was implying the accident story was a cover for something else. Also I found it kind of odd that Dave mentioned it in like 2 or 3 WONs in a row that it doesn't make sense that a local celebrity can almost die in a bike wreck but the media/police have no mention of it. then seemed to drop it quickly. Did he hit a nerve with someone and get told to STFU? It seems un-Meltzerlike to sniff around a story like that and then drop it.

I decided to put this here since it was more of a JR thing than a WWE 24/7 thing, but in the latest Legends of Wrestling episode (the one about Greatest Factions) is just chock full of JR grouchiness. First, he just looked pissed off to be there the whole show, and was the one guy who wouldn't use the "insider talk" and kept referring to heels as "antagonists". Plus he tried to say that DX made Sean Waltman, which kind of contradicts the fact that the whole point of his joining DX was because he was in the nWo and was able to do SHOOT PROMOZ~! on Hulk Hogan.

I just happened to glance at Irv's blog for the first time in a while, despite the fact it seems like he's completely gone off the rails after the Benoit stuff. This entry caught my eye: Now while it's no secret that there were some questions about Randy's accident, there seems to be a million other more likely scenarios other than some kind of suicide-by-bike-wreck theory. Irv seems to be referring to an incident after Wrestlemania 22 (April 2006) where something "serious" happened at Randy's home in St. Louis and John Laurinaitis investigated and discounted the suicide rumors (which of course Irv writes off as "what WWE wanted to believe"). After the Signature Pharmacy scandal broke, Meltzer was puzzled as to why Orton was the only name mentioned that wasn't suspended, and Irv seems to be trying to make some sort of connection between that and Randy's alleged suicide attempt. He's quick to discount it and instead blame WWE not wanting to thin their main event scene, which is the far more likely reason, so then why even mention the alleged attempts? It's like those political ads that mention A and B and leave it to the viewer to make the association that A happened as a result of B, yet they never directly made that claim. Even if Irv's insinuations are correct, then it probably would be best if the WWE didn't suspend a guy who's psyche was fragile enough to try to kill himself. It's cold and crass to think, but from a business side that would be disastrous. Especially if the media dug up things like them firing Kerry Von Erich before he ended up killing himself while a WWF performer.

CMLL doesn't need to sell out to make money, they own all the arenas so even a so-so crowd is profit for them. AAA on the other hand seems to be heading down the route to become Mexico's WCW. They're doing good business wise but there's tons of backstage politics to the point of there being fights backstage. It seems like without Pena there's very much an "inmates running the asylum" quality to the company.

My question would be, what benefit would Stephanie get from a sham marriage? It's obvious what Paul gets out of it, but I don't see the incentive for vice-versa. A couple of things come to mind....maybe she really wanted kids, maybe that's how she thinks marriages are supposed to work (considering what she had as an example growing up that wouldn't surprise me). I mean, look at all the "Vince being Vince" stories over the years. If even a fraction of them were true then it's no wonder his daughter would think that having sex with everyone in the company is one of the perks of being in charge. Also there's a lot of circumstantial evidence out there to suggest that HHH might be playing for the home team. He's probably #2 after Vince in the "is he overcompensating for something?" sweepstakes.

Since Comcast decided not to carry Canal 52MX On Demand anymore, is there a place where one could view CMLL matches online?

Man, the Flair promos they are putting up this month are just gold. Not only do they go in the vaults for some early 80s Mid Atlantic/Florida/WCCW stuff, they also managed to include the promo from the famous "I can't help it" YouTube video, which is pretty much the perfect Ric Flair promo of all time IMO.

I have no doubt Dave could give less of a shit about Scooter, but he does seem to take issue with Benoit-related books that may have a detail or two inaccurate.

Horrible opinions and questionable values aside, dude is a terrible writer. Even if it wasn't chock full of errors it would still be unreadable shit since he writes like the pro wres equivalent to a know-it-all academic who talks out of his ass. It also shows how terrible his publisher must be since obviously no one proofread it before it went to print. Someone should email Dave a copy just so we can look forward to an entire WON devoted to him tearing the shit out of ol' Scoot.

Well a couple of things about our pal Scooter: 1. He's got so much of a fanbase (yes that is scary but apparently true) that it doesn't matter how shitty his books are, there will be enough sold to get him another book deal. 2. Pre Crippler-Crossgate, Benoit was this man's personal Savior. The compartmentalizing and justification he does are probably what keeps him holding on to his last grip of sanity. We like to bust wildpegasus' balls over his fandom but I'm almost positive Keith had a shrine and a wall covered with Benoit photos. The whole great worker + Canadian thing was basically stroke material. Also he's currently on a kick of watching recent shows/PPVs and then trying to sound above it all. Like the last PPV he "ranted" on, he tried to sound too cool for school and make a comment on how the women in the Smackdown divas match (Michelle McCool and Maryse) were interchangeable just because they were both blonde. Even his commenters had to point out that they have 2 very different gimmicks and the only way you could think they were interchangeable would be if you didn't watch Smackdown and were just trying to score generic "women are teh suxxorz" points.

Anyone else think Mexican stars who were before the mid 80s or so get screwed when it comes to the HOF? Outside of no brainers like Santo and Demon, it seems like any of the guys who were stars in the 60s or 70s are out of luck since there's no footage of them. You'd think Dr. Wagner Sr would be a shoe in, but I doubt most of the people voting ever saw him wrestle.

I wonder if they went ahead and taped the shoot interview as scheduled with Flair sporting the big ass swollen eye from his fight.

Or maybe it was an 81 year old man who had a massive heart attack he wasn't going to come back from and the doctors didn't want to give the family any false hopes? I can tell you from personal experience that when someone that age has an episode they aren't going to come back from, they make every effort to impress upon the family the finality of it all. In the end, what does it matter other than it giving people on the internet something else to argue about? I will say that Meltzer using jobbing in a match as a metaphor for death got somewhat creepy when he extended it as far as he did. Describing someone fighting off death as "refusing to do the job" is some sub-Kayfabe Memories shit I'd expect to get lampooned on a thread at OLC.

Honestly, a lot of the times doctors tell the family someone is brain dead when there's nothing more that can be done and the end is pretty much near. People tend to accept the finality of "brain death" more than anything else so it's a lot less likely the family will want heroic measures done like people in vegetative states tend to get put through.

Yet still, 99% of the population will hear its a movie about pro wrestling and assume it's a zany screwball comedy.

So the local morning show was discussing the upcoming movie "The Wrestler" as part of its news segment, and once it was determined the movie was about pro wrestling they surmised it must be a comedy (hint: it's not). The one news babe actually said "well it stars Mickey Rourke so it should be funny".