sek69

You know, people have asked me why I've never tried to get into the wrestling business in some capacity since I've had a passion for it for so long. This story's the reason why.

That's seriously one of the saddest things I've ever read. WTF was Flair thinking anyway? I could see him living large like this back in 1986, but he went thru a divorce already and he's getting older, why is he still blowing money like he's still got a fat Starrcade paycheck waiting for him?

You know what's messed up? If you watch the shows back when it was still an NWA territory, you know who shows up? Jake F'N Roberts. Of all people to still be alive...

You know when you have your first real girlfriend, and you think it's going to last forever? Invariably life gets in the way, and you end up drifting apart for whatever reason. You move on, find love elswhere. Maybe even get married. Then, years later, you come across a photo or some keepsake that reminds you of that first love and the memories come back. That's how I felt watching the WCCW TV comps I got from KZ this past week. WCCW was the very first wrestling promotion I ever watched thanks to the 4 pm airings on ESPN every weekday. Everything was just like I remembered it, that rolling drumbeat themesong, the somewhat-dumpy looking Sportatorium with the red hot crowd inexplicably only being held back from the ring with what looks like your Gramma's clothesline, Marc Lowrance running for his life as the main event starts while he's in the middle of his ring introductions. It's amazing how well everything holds up all these years later, the crowds they drew were so hot you still get sucked into every feud and angle even though you know how they turn out. And come on, who still doesn't mark out to "Badstreet USA"? It's amazing that SK used to use the Hayes/Garvin Freebirds as his measuring stick of suck, when all they did was try to do what the 'Birds always did: They used to just stand there and get insane heat from the crowd. For some reason, despite early 90s WCW still being almost exclusively Southern, the act didn't translate to a national level. It's still a sight to see the Texas crowd go nuts just at the mere sight of the Freebirds just because they dared to challenge their local heroes. It is interesting watching my first wrestling experience with smarked-out eyes now. It's hard to watch a Kerry match and not try to guess if it's before or after his foot was amputated or try to see if he's visibly intoxicated. It's kind of funny seeing Gordy execute the Asian Spike (which was pushed like it was an almost fatal move) and see how it's clearly just a run of the mill nerve type hold. It's also kind of creepy at times watching and realizing everyone in the match currently playing is dead except for the referee. I've moved on to other loves in wrestling, like ROH or TNA, but it was a nice trip down memory lane watching these discs and going back to that time where I'd rush home from school just in time to turn the TV on during the opening credits of WCCW. *bum-dadda-bum-dadda-bum-DUN-DUN-DUN-DUUUUUN-DUN*

I think ROH takes a beating because they have a vocal segment of fans who hype everything the company does as the BEST EVAH~! which starts to create a "boy who cried wolf" sitiuation where even when they do have a top quality match, people get skeptical because every match was said to be top quality. Still, I've enjoyed what I've seen of the in-ring product so far. Not everything has been gold, but ROH's crap is at least better than WWE's crap if that makes any sense.

My opinion of Waltman has gone up scores after reading this.

I have to admit, the crowd wasn't overly smarky for the Joe/Kobashi match.

I guess we could safely assume that top guy wasn't HHH.

TNA's my favorite promotion right now, it's not perfect but it's pretty much exactly where it needs to be at the moment. They've been smart to resist the "OMG GOTTA BEAT VINCE~!" mindset that drives so many would-be challengers out of business. They're doing their own thing and just letting their product do the shit-talking for them. I like what I've seen from ROH for the most part, but I definately agree that you don't have to be a hoss mark to notice they really need to stop having guys who look like the before pics in weightlifting mags in the undercard. ROH has too many guys who look like they should be bagging groceries in the opening matches. The too-cool-for-school attitude the crowds have irks me too. I like when fans get into the action but like savagerulz said it's like the fans are trying to get themselves over more than the wrestlers. As far as WWE goes, Joey Styles has made RAW about a zillion times easier to watch now. I always was a mark for him just because he reminds me of Gordon Solie in how when he called a match he knew the histories of everyone involved and the name of any move that could possibly be busted out in a match. Little stuff like him mentioning HHH's quad injury when his opponent was working the leg is something you haven't heard in WWF/E commentary since Gorilla and Jesse called the action. You may have noticed I have yet to mention the WWE in ring product so far, and for good reason. While there's guys who I dig on both brands, I'm afraid to get emotionally invested in anyone on the roster without knowing they've passed the msyterious approval test and won't just get cut off at the knees and released.

One thing I noticed in my newfound exposure to ROH is they tend to have a lot of wrestling exibitions, to the point of looking like the guys are in slow motion in order to ensure every spot is done correctly, rather than giving the appearance of a competitive match.

He apologized because he caught shit for it. He came out the day after jobbing to Hogan and basically called him a piece of shit. The Masters feud was a different tantrum. I'll believe he's grown up when he stops having tantrums over doing jobs or being programmed with guys not HHH, and demanding that he gets every job back. When HBK first came back and played well with others, I was thinking maybe he did turn a new leaf. Then he was back to his old ways (on a smaller scale admittedly) a few months later.

For the record, I don't believe for a second that HBK is a changed man other than being smarter on when to throw his tantrums. His actions on RAW after putting over Hogan the day before speak volumes.

You could have made the same argument about Mark Calloway in 1990.

Since I've tangled with people who think Flair > Jesus, I wonder how many of those opinions would change if Meltz would ever have covered stuff like this in depth.

I actually copied that from WO.com

Maybe HHH was making an in-joke by saying Flair's "not wanted here"....

Also, and this may be too high concept for wrestling, did Vince use that word to Cena to underscore the "wannabe" aspect of his gimmick? I didn't watch SS, just asking.

Out of curiousity, were you offended when Rock was doing that bit where he was basically calling people gay with that "italian word and side to side hand motion" deal?

Wrestling's always had a high threshold of offensiveness. Diehard fans have put up with so much foolishness it takes a lot to offend one. "Going there" racially is one of those things that still crosses the line becaus it's the one thing that even Vince has steered clear of over the years. As far as Lashley goes, I don't know if we can consider him buried yet, SS was pretty much fucked due to the card getting shuffled after Eddie. To me, they messed up with him by shooting the wad too early. In OVW he was just kinda in the background until he got tired of everyone's shit and when he finally snapped it was like a crowd-wide orgasm. In WWE he's an unstoppable monster right from the jump (until yesterday). There's really nowhere for his character to go except as Goldberg V2.0.

For the record, I don't think it was cool for Flair to say he was going to "Jap slap" someone either. This is just one of those things wrestling shouldn't even get close to broaching.

Ordinarily I'd say you're right but that probably wasn't the most offensive thing Vince did that day. As far as the word goes, it is just a word. I subscribe to the George Carlin theory where its all about context. The word "nigga" itself doesn't offend me, the asshole saying it to be a racist does.

It's probably not helping that SmackDown had more of the younger. hip vibe and Cena's gimmick seems painfully out of place on RAW. I personally thought that taking Cena out of the environment that was more suited to him took a lot of wind out of his sails.

Oh I know that, but he's always rattling on with this "the fans come first" bullshit when he makes it painstakingly obvious his pet projects come before what the fans may or may not want to see.