evilclown

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1800198...oting-on-lawler

Grantland, as a whole, is not really very Simmons-ized. They don't seem to ape his style for the most part at all. Their serious writers in other sports are nothing like Simmons.

He was writing in the same style at Deadspin. I suspect he's a pretentious douche who saw pro wrestling as fertile ground with little competition. I know a guy like that....

Well, someone bought into hype. http://www.amazon.com/The-Squared-Circle-P...f=zg_bs_16594_3

Good news on the Gamecock fandom. I would have hated to leave the board in a huff!

Lots of Carolina boys around! Which leaves only one real question: Carolina or Clemson?

Here's what I came up with. I took a number of questions from here, but most ended up scrapped when he cut things down to 20 minutes and then threatened to kick my ass if I actually held him 20 minutes. So, to the delight of possible no one but me: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1795613...-mcmahon-family

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1795613...-mcmahon-family Not sure the value to you guys, but it was great fun to talk to the man himself.

Well, at least someone bought into Bob's tall tales.

As the parent of two kids with autism, please go ahead and fuck off.

So, it looks like I'll be interviewing Dusty Rhodes. You guys are probably as good as it gets when it comes to hardcore fans. Any ideas for moments and stories I should ask him about? Also, what questions do you have about his career that he might be able/willing to answer? Things that have been bugging you? I will have to mix these in with stuff about his current storyline, but I'd love to try to make some of this for "us" too. Help appreciated.

My ballot: I FOLLOWED THE HISTORICAL PERFORMERS ERA CANDIDATES Gene & Ole Anderson Enrique Torres I FOLLOWED THE MODERN PERFORMERS IN U.S/CANADA CANDIDATES Ivan Koloff Ken Patera Rock & Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) Mr. Wrestling II I FOLLOWED WRESTLING IN JAPAN CANDIDATES Volk Han Kiyoshi Tamura I FOLLOWED WRESTLING IN MEXICO CANDIDATES ABSTAIN I FOLLOWED WRESTLING IN EUROPE CANDIDATES ABSTAIN I FOLLOWED WRESTLING IN AUSTRALIA/PACIFIC ISLANDS/PUERTO RICO CANDIDATES ABSTAIN NON-WRESTLERS Jerry Jarrett Takashi Matsunaga Gorilla Monsoon Stanley Weston

A guy I don't look like. Although I can see the superficial similarity I guess. Not sure why the guy is so hostile. WWE needs a better defender. The trick is balance. If everything is great, nothing is.

I don't disagree that Gary Hart was an important figure. He deserves consideration.

I don't think you hang your hat on the Hall of Fame with what you almost did.

The toughest guys you'll ever meet all reside on the internet.

I'm not saying the book wasn't interesting. It was. But it also reeked of bullshit, like most wrestling stuff. Only, for whatever reason, it seems to have been taken as gospel. Even in the best case scenario, assuming he did everything he said he did, does that make him a Hall of Famer? Being a secondary part of a string of good, but not Hall worthy acts? Being an occasional booker, who can't hang his hat on any significant run? I'm trying to see the case.

The real problem was degradation. After a couple of generations stuff was practically unwatchable. Imagine if every DVD burned or download resulted in a deterioration of quality. That's what tape trading was like.

I can't recall any discussion of his secret booking genius before his book where he basically takes credit for any and everything that happened in his vicinity. I wonder about that.

His book was an extended self high five. Had he been Hogan or anyone else it would have been mocked mercilessly. He was the smartest and the toughest, with his razor blade, guy in the whole business. At least when he had the pen in hand.

While Hart was standing outside the ring, Sergeant Slaughter was drawing all over the country and wrestling in some pretty good matches. While Hart was the secret booker in Texas (per Hart), Ole Anderson was main eventing Georgia and Crockett. Not watching other people in the semi-main or midcard. Actually doing the thing. Why would Hart be a Hall of Famer for his role managing talent that isn't in itself Hall of Fame worthy? There's no doubt he had a full career. Was it a Hall of Fame career? It always kind of tickles me that he somehow gets credit for "creating" all the talent he worked with. We don't pretend that's the case with every manager. With any manager. The wrestlers you mentioned he managed, almost to a man, did as well or better before and/or after Hart. I'm not sure he was integral to the success of good talent. They did well because they were good.

I'm considering voting for him too. He was the booker who sparked business in Texas in late 1983. He was instrumental in the successful babyface turn of Dusty Rhodes in Florida a decade earlier. Under his guidance he turned a lot of struggling journeymen into drawing stars (The Great Kabuki, The Spoiler, Pak Song, etc). I think the only arguments against him are that his record is too spotty and that the plane crash limited him as a performer, as from that point on he couldn't take any bumps. The booker didn't spark business in Texas in 1983. The talent did. I think it's telling that the only one talking about Hart as some kind of booking genius was Hart himself. Also, the fact he was terrible also has to be considered. What was special about him as a performer?

How did they address the Keller stuff?

Here's a great shot with super slo mo in boxing from the Matthysse v. Garcia fight.

Vince hired him the first time around to stick the middle finger to WCW as it enabled him to appear on Jim Ross's WCW sponsored radio show and announce that he had just stolen WCW's top announcer. Second time around was because he was busy with his steroid trial and he desperately needed a fill-in announcer. Third time JR wasn't brought back to be an announcer, but to work as Vince's assistant on the creative team and he had to work his way from the bottom up as an announcer. Really, if the Montreal screwjob hadn't have happened and the Mr. McMahon character hadn't been created, the best Good Ol' JR could have aspired to would have been being the third man in the booth to call the moves Vince didn't know and discuss the amateur sports backgrounds of all his cartoon characters. You are leaving out the part where J.R. becomes the third most powerful person in wrestling and serves as a key cog in the WWE machine.