El-P

At least, Bret was colorful, which is more than what you can say about the dull and bland generic look that has been the rule for the past decade. Austin and Rock's black tights were a breath of fresh air in the late 90's, but the 00's have been the decade of blandness also in term of look. More bland than HHH or Orton, you can't do. I miss the times when wrestlers had tons of differents and colorful outfits (Savage, Bret, Jake Roberts, Rick Rude, Ric Flair etc...). I don't think the "look" aspect of wrestling would capture my imagination if I was a child now. Not enough variety, not enough color, expect for Rey Rey.

I can definitly see Brody work a match with Onita. They would have packed the Kawasaki stadium and made shitload of money. Hell, Onita did get Tiger Jeet Singh to do a job, so Brody, for a last big payday and match as he was getting old, could very well have done it. Like Tiger, two match program, with Brody killing Onita the first time, and then do a job in a deathmatch in which Onita takes 99% of the big bumps and Brody only bleed a lot and barely touch the wires.

You mean, her charisma ?

From his appearance on european tours, Bret looks miserable. I guess he does lust for a spot under the lights again.

Forgot about Kerry. That's another one. If no motorbike accident and both feet ? Bigger career in the WWF ? Goes straight to WCW ?

Sometime I wonder what would have happened with the careers of workers whose careers have been cut short because of injury or death. What would have happened in the career of : Magnum TA Art Barr Eddie Gilbert Brian Pillman (if no car accident that fucked up his ankle) Bruiser Brody Adrian Adonis Crash Holly I wonder how they would have fit in the scene...

I guess. Current WWE fans have been raised in a WWE only environment, which is why they can be fed so much shit, in term of the supposed history of wrest.... pardon me, sports entertainment, and in term of product, since there's no alternative (TNA, yeah, right...). Anyway, Bret signing back with the WWE is kinda surreal to me. It's been 12 years since Montreal, 10 since Owen died. I feel old... No idea what Bret can do. Maybe works something with the young Hart generation. Bret was really the hero of my young mark days in the early and mid 90's. Yeah, makes me feel kinda old.

Well, there's a big difference though. Misawa did take headrops packing the Budokan and making shitload of money. Onita got blown up packing Kawasaki stadium making shitload of money. The imbeciles getting sliced up in some osbcure indies for 200 peoples, and the idiots of ROH taking a hundred headrops so that "strong-style" fans can jerk off to ***** matches don't make shit and destroy themselves for nothing. Not that I justify the abuse, but there is a difference between them. I've not heard about Toyota being physically impaired at all BTW.

Even worse, to think that Dawn Marie of all people suffers from chronic head pain because of the bumps she had to take, for basically no reason at all... It's scary.

Well, me neither, but sometimes there are something to read through the lines. ANd I admit I would have marked out huge for such angles. A little bit of complexity is always good. That's why the Bret vs US angle was so great. Bret was basically right about the US fans turning their back on him and the values he carried for years. It was not a black and white heel turn like Hogan with the nWo. It was more subtle and that's what made it so fun. The fact that RAW was taking place in Canada from time to time made things even better, as the entire dynamic with the audience was turned upside down despite both performers (Bret and Austin) playing the exact same role. Anyway, I'm rambling. Wrestling is most of the time more like porn...

That there was nothing wrong with Goldust being (or not being) gay wasn't the point of the gimmick. The point was, his outrageous homosexuality (or at least what he projected) was seen as a menace and as an agression by the babyface, which was even better since the babyface in question was super macho Razor Ramon. In case of Adonis or The Genius, the homosexuality was just ridiculed, it was just "look how this fag looks stupid and effeminate". With Goldust, it was threatening, which is what made it different and a lot more interesting at first. Of course it was never used to its full potenial, even with Razor, but still, the seeds of something really disturbing for the audience was there. It lasted like 3 months or so before becoming your usual gay-bashing crap with Roddy, but it was there.

The original Goldust could have been an amazing character, playing with gay stereotypes that homophobic people are afraid of to fuck with the mind of his opponents and win matches. The fact that Marlena could have been bisexual too would have made the entire thing even better since there was basically nothing *wrong* with them being gay/bisexual, it's just the fact that the audience and the babyfaces would have been uncomfortable with it. Of course that would have sent back the entire audience to think about them being uncomfortable, about them maybe being homophobic, that would have been something quite deep infact. So of course it had no chance of happening, and before you knew it, they brought Roddy Piper and his gay bashing face act. And then you got Goldust "in depth" interview in which he comes "out of the closet", revealing that Goldust was just a role and that him and Marlena are in fact husband and wife and that they have a beautiful daughter and whatnot, the typical great american family cliché. Goldust was dead by then, it was stripped of anything but his makeup. Same thing could have happened with the arabian guy they had (forgot his name). The idea of a guy that was booed just because he was from arabian heritage, and yet being an american-born citizen, was great, because it sent back the picture of the prejudice arabian people (and indians, sikh etc.. whatever could be put together with muslims) had to deal with after 9/11 in the american society. But of course, they made him a "terrorist" soon enough, so there's no ambiguity and to confort their audience into booing the evil arabian guy. These are two missed opportunities of having some relly deep, interesting angles in wrestling that would go beyond the stupid homophobic and xenophobic aspects that is usually promoted. But then again, Vince isn't exactly a progressive guy, and the casual wrestling audience isn't the brighest either. I wonder if we'll see some social progress of that nature in wrestling, or if it'll always be very low end entertainment using the same tired and insulting clichés about gays, woman, ethnicity other than white and foreign lands...

I agree in theory, but the wrestling scene and audience is way too homophobic for this to work though. Gay bashing has always been a sad part of pro-wrestling, just like xenophobia. What they would gain in gay audience, they would loose elsewhere in their traditionnal audience who probably don't want to watch "gay stuff" despite the fact that two grown men in their underwear touching themselves and pretending to fight, well... The other thing is, I don't think the performers would be able to deal with it. I'm not sure what is the % of gay performers in wrestling. It doesn't seem to be that much, but maybe we don't know everything. I'm not familiar about the japanese and mexican promotions would dealt with this niche audience. Well, joshi puroresu with Chiggy had clear lesbian thematics (LLPW was basically a promotion for lesbians), but in men's promotion I can't think of anything that clear. It's an interesting case tough. Not familiar about Dragon Gate, although I heard the audience was mostly feminine thanks to the good boys-band look of its performers, so I guess there's something there that could be done.

Sexual desire ? I knew wrestling had strong gay overtones, but I never knew it was that strong. So, basically you mean Vince fetish of big muscular guys like Orton, Batista and Cena is only a way to promote sexual desires to his audience ? You mean 12 year old boys ? Well, I know the divas are jerk-off material for 14 years old virgins, but I'd never guessed that was the case of Orton and Batista. Still, WWE needs to promote more bears like the Andersons. Bears promote sexual desire too you know. Most absurd post I've read in a long time, and that covers a lot of ground !

Classy tribute as always aka "Wrestlers don't die under our watch anymore." I'd never guessed Umaga of all people would be the next one... 36 is awful young...

The worst hair offender is Micheals though. He's already looking ridiculous doing the Heartbreak Kid gimmick at his age, but the long hair + balding make sit look even worse. The guy will look terrible at 60 if he lives that far of course. Meanwhile, guys like Riki Choshu or Kawada don't seem to age that much.

Flair looks awful and bloated, and there's nothing more embarrassing than trying to hide the bad hairline. Cut a haircut already... Compare Flair vs Inoki at the same age, it's day and night. Inoki was still fit and looked great.

Andre got miserable toward the last part of his life fpr the reasons that have been mentionned. I remember watching a documentary about him (I don't think it was a WWE produced feature), in which his closest friends (including Tim White) told the story about him being in constant unbearable pain and being treated like a freak made him a miserable wreck in the end. At that point Andre was only happy when he was on his ranch with his close friends who treated him like any human being.

And Hogan looks fat. Look at those love handles brutha, this is where the power lies. And it seems Hogan is bringing Sid to TNA. What's not to love ?

Weight issue ? What a joke. This company is fucking embarrassing. It's so sad that nobody ever had the balls to pull off a wrestlers union...

What a delusionnal piece of crap Hogan is... The 400 nights a year is just baffling. He doesn't realize it makes him look like a buffoon ? Taker's story is interesting too...

This never gets old... Gotta love Terri who got the sense of gently kicking Bell out of the ring once the match was over. Maybe Saturn would have dumped him once or twice more just for the heck of it...

Dedicated to JDW, who thought Flair blading at 60 was kinda embarrassing like... Well, you know... This is from the pres conference for Flair vs Hulk. Look how good Knobbs look BTW...

It's not lupus.

Cracked me up too. So, what's really wrong with Brock already? Complications from mono ?