Dan

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30316.html Edit: Also, you have to love the comments:

Sure, why not. One of the reasons trotted out to prove that pro wres = MMA is that they share common roots. If you go back far enough, boxing allowed some stand-up wrestling. That was over 100 years ago, but who's counting?

I was more bemused that they had to inform us that Fatu was under contract at one point. As if no one remembers that he main-evented Wrestlemania two years ago.

A new Quinnipiac poll is out saying three Reps could beat Dodd including McMahon. http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1296.xml?ReleaseID=1395

Meltzer and Heyman have, actually. And Cornette might agree since it fits with his quote.

Why do I get the feeling that if Dave had to explain atomic theory or WWII or something, he'd use a Roller Derby analogy?

I thought it was kind of funny that Linda's people said to focus on the real issues (i.e. not rape or necro pro wres angles). You would think she would prefer superficial stuff like that. It might keep questions like "How did Chris Benoit pass your Wellness tests while having in his body enough testosterone to kill a blue whale?" from being asked.

Actually I think the boys convinced Dave of that talking point. It's the new kayfabe. I mean we now have Greg Gagne claiming he and his father invented MMA and pitched the concept at a U.S. wrestling convention in Las Vegas in 1992, but had the idea stolen by Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell, who took the concept to Dana White and the rest is history. Patently ridiculous, but it shows the whoppers old carnies will tell to pretend it's the same business. I think wrestlers know the difference. They might think MMA is worked, but that doesn't matter. All sports are worked if you're a wrestler, but wrestlers don't claim NFL is pro wrestling.

I like Cornette a lot less when he's not talking about politics.

From the '92 Penthouse article: "...Cole says Phillips wasn't the lone perpetrator. 'Patterson would walk by while I was setting up the ring, and he'd grab my balls. I'd hate it, but there was nothing I could do. He's the boss.' " A quick look-see at my WONs finds: "Tom Cole, the WWF ringboy who was largely responsible for much of the negative publicity that surrounded the WWF last year, filed a $1.6 million suit against Titan Sports, Pat Patterson, Mel Phillips and Terry Garvin this past Tuesday. This is a long, involved story with many twists and turns. The lawsuit is a three-parter. Part one re-opens the claims of sexual harassment of a homosexual nature by top WWF officials. Cole first brought forth these claims last year in a front page article in the San Diego Union. The story didn't name any names, but did detail certain situations and had other ring boys claim sexual abuse was prevalent. Almost immediately, Patterson, Phillips and Garvin, who were the three men Cole's initial claims were about but whose names had yet to be brought out in the public, resigned their positions. Patterson was brought back several months later but Phillips and Garvin never returned. Cole's attorneys brought forth a complaint that was settled before a lawsuit was ever filed..." ---6-7-1993, WON.

Tom Cole claimed Patterson inappropriately grabbed him. And Cole was apparently believable since he got paid off.

He also said that Michaels shoot pinned Bret. And that Undertaker injured his neck with a tombstone in the 1970s.

Well, Hogan wrestled in Austria in '93. Close enough.

I'm also mildly thunderstruck by this: So Big Daddy is a whiter, fatter El Santo, but voters aren't familiar enough with him (presumably even in his own region) to vote him in.

Mo Chatra on Big Daddy on the F4W board:

Hypothetical question: If Angle hadn't already been voted in, would the fact that no one watches TNA help or hurt him?

Linda getting into an even more sleazy business? http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/58653...cement-imminent Buh?

Just noticed this now. Did a pdf of the script ever make it onto the internets?

I don't know for sure, but I get the feeling that Vince is the type of Republican that cares only about money, taxes, regulation and that sort of thing. I seem to remember reading that he paid for Pat Patterson's boyfriend's funeral. I don't see him going crazy (well, more crazy) over abortions and the black president having an Arabic name.

From WON:

For what it's worth, Gorgeous George said Savage wanted to have a three-way with her and her 17-year-old sister. And then two posts later:

I don't know how much of this was sources and how much was readership. I never got the sense that his sources were upset with hislucha coverage, and knowing the nature of the industry I imagine his sources are flattered by thinking that what they are doing is somehow linked to MMA. Objections came from readers. The response to his lucha coverage in the early 90s from his readership was negative. Maybe not largely negative maybe just the negative was more vocal. But you read those issue in like 93/94 and you really get a sense that he was forced to spend more time having to come up with new defensive explanations for lucha coverage than he spent actually getting lucha sources. Read the first page in this thread. Dave says Stan Hansen thought Japanese women's wrestling ain't pro wrestling. Cornette doesn't think garbage is. And unnamed people, apparently in wrestling thought AAA shouldn't count.

Meltzer thinking Pride and stuff is pro wres is kind of silly but I can live with it. I'm more concerned with his covering of boxing last year as if it was wrestling, complete with analysis about it's supposed angles and gimmicks and faces and heels. And this "when AAA came to this country and did business, you know that so many people wanted to ignore it on the guise it was not pro wrestling." He really needs better sources if they can't even understand what pro wrestling is.

I don't know if that really matters. Spitzer supposedly paid his whore $15,000 over a period of time. And she was just a relatively attractive nobody, as far as I can tell.

Off the top of my head there were two other dojo deaths. In W-J and the old UWF. Also the training in the U.S. could be bad, especially in back in the good old days. Someone (Gene Anderson, maybe?) pulling out trainees' eyeballs and stomping on them comes to mind. Hiro Matsuda breaking Hogan's leg. Billy Robinson fucking up Iron Sheik's hip on purpose at Verne Gagne's camp. Stu Hart crushing Mongolian Stomper's balls. George Tragos destroying some trainee's arm to the point it had to be amputated, etc...