sek69

I know the original incarnation of the Harlem Heat gimmick (in Global, wasn't it?) involved them carrying chains.

Wow, "parodying racial stereotypes" from the same folks that brought us the Wild Samoans, Umaga, Saba Simba and Gang Warz 97. I can't wait to see how mind bendingly offensive this will be. Considering it's a team of two black guys (Shad Gaspard and The Neighborhoodie from OVW) that's being called "Cryme Tyme", I can just imagine the possibilities. Of course, they already have their bases covered to play the "OMG ITS JUST A JOKE" card whenever they really go overboard.

Chris Masters didn't look nearly as bad as those pics from OVW indicated. He looked obviously slimmer, but definately still buffed and defined.

What's funny is it seems WWE has gone back to its strategy of pretending the competition doesn't exist. Maybe UFC should start giving away the endings of WWE matches top get their attention.

Somehow I find it hard to believe that Hogan was the one who turned down the AWA belt *unless* by the time Verne finally decided to put it on him Hulk already had a deal with Vince. I just watched an AWA documentary on 24/7, and Hogan looked somewhat normal compared to the extremely bloated moon face look he had by about 1985. Maybe his roid connection in Minnesota was getting him weak stuff? Who knows, but he certainly got a lot more puffed up in relation to how big Hulkamania was getting.

It's pretty funny to see WCW matches where Tony is having a one sided conversation with himself, yet you can see Jesse sitting at ringside at some point. Also, anyone have a release date for this DVD yet?

Also, hilarious tidbit from said WON is the latest words WWE have banned announcers from saying on TV (and in DSW and OVW too) is "belt" or "strap" to refer to a championship belt because Vince thinks those words are linked to "old-time" wrestling. That was also the reason Ken Anderson's name was changed to Ken Kennedy, the name Anderson is too old school for Vinny Mac.

Got my first issue of the WON today....when Meltz talks about the latest issue having 35,000 words or whatever, I didn't realize they were in 2 pt font. All in all, it was a pretty good read once I busted out the maginfying glass.

What board? Not many people have acted like he's fine and dandy of the threads I've read... I know over at DVDVR it seemed like half the posts in the thread about it were of the "OMG NOW HE CAN GO TO ROH AND FIGHT AMDRAG~!" variety. About a quarter of the rest were of the "you don't know how bad of shape Angle's in despite all the reports of WWE fearing for the man's well being" sort.

I had a sick thought: Vince fired Angle knowing he's got THE SICKNESS and would take an offer to work for TNA or ROH or some random indy so he can die on their watch. Can't you just see the DVD now? JR and Vince with their kayfabe-breaking voices talking about how working for Company X was a sad end for Kurt since they just didn't have the resources to help?

My first thought was "looks like they pulled a Kerry on Angle". Yet some folks will continue to say nothing's wrong.........

Even better was HHH suggesting that WCW should have let them in, since it would have made for better TV than Raw.

Finally got around to getting the Monday Night War DVD the other day, and while the main program is mostly WWE revisionist bullshit, the extras are freaking awesome. Ric Flair's return to Nitro is probably the greatest promo in wrestling history. First you have Arn Fucking Anderson doing what he does best, even making Mongo look more than the goof he was, before cutting a classic Arn promo about everyone wanting the Horsemen back and being careful about getting what they wish for. Then he goes on to intro Flair, which has become famous again thanks to that Youtube video (MY GOD, I ALMOST FORGOT! RIC FLAIR~!). THEN if that all wasn't enough, we see what becomes the bridge from Classic Flair to current Crazy Old Man Flair with the famous "ABUSE OF POWER! FIRE ME, I'M ALREADY FIRED!" rant. Then you have Rick Rude proving to all the doubters why he was the coolest motherfucker ever in wrestling by appearing on RAW and Nitro on the same day. JR is hilarious in this segment, since he goes into that hybrid language of legalese and carny he lapses into when he's trying to explain something without breaking kayfabe. What's great is they pretty much decide that despite everyone in WWE thinking he agreed to a new deal he showed up in WCW because he's Rick Rude and he fucking felt like it. They show DX invading WCW, which was funny for featuring a STONED AS HELL X-Pac commenting on the angle looking like someone who couldn't remember where he left his car keys, let alone something that happened years ago. I was expecting the next words out of his mouth to be "Dave's not here, maaaaaaaaan".

The real kicker is Rey is supposed to finally have his knee surgery that he's been putting off after the Chavo angle, so most likely by the time he comes back it will all be forgotten anyway. Which kinda makes the angle that much more pointless....

When WWE 24/7 launched here, the updates to our VOD system kinda didn't work (they found out when they tried to do the content update for this week and all sorts of hilarity ensued). They're putting in a fix tonight and now I can finally watch SummerSlam 96.

.........And his excuse of "well look at her, I can't help it" when called on it.

Considering other discussions on Vince's attitudes towards women and other general creepyness, it's pretty disturbing that Kane's been a rapist twice (didn't HHH accuse him of raping Katie Vick?) and ended up the face both times. Bonus points for the "make Trish bark like a dog in her underwear" stuff as well.

Nothing will top the interview with Melanie Pillman on my personal WWE-Disgust-O-Meter. At least Vince waited longer than a day to put Vicky on TV.

There seems to be a ratio where the more smarkish someone is, the less perception they seem to have. I remember people snickering when Stacey was being told by B and C listers on "Dancing" that wrestling was beneath her, not realizing that being known for pro wrestling puts you on the Z list. I mean, yeah Vince's behavior paints all of wrestling fans in a bad light to the mainstream and you can argue that it's not fair, but the fact remains that in Hollywood working as a third banana on a formulaic sitcom is higher up the food chain than being the leggy broad on the pro wrestling show.

Isn't Batista married to a woman battling cancer?

From the latest WO update: Looks like they're doing the usual route of pretending that the WCW runs of guys they feature in DVDs barely existed, but this is probably going to be worth whatever they charge for it just for the Piper's Pit segments.

Calling it the most disgusting thing EVER covers a lot of ground, but it's certainly the most unnecessary heel turn. There's no need to get widowed wives involved in storylines.