It seems TNA exists simply as a tax write-off for Panda Energy, and also has the benefit of keeping the CEO's daughter distracted. So rather than judging it as if it is intended to be a profitable company, how does it hold up if we judge it as a book-keeping item?

 

 

1:30 in

 

Vinny would make a great ironic babyface

 

and Bryan as the George in the George and Lennie relationship

Got three pages on Angelo. Doc is still dead.

 

John

Doc died the wrong week I guess.

I suspect the Doc obit got bumped by the Tony Halme and Jim White obits. Then Bob Shamrock died. Then Jack Brisco. Then Poffo. Now, Sandy Scott and John Hill.

Sandy Scott actually has the potential for being a very interesting bio. Guys like The Crazy Wrestling Classics Director use to pimp Sandy as a HOF candidate. Of course they pimped everyone involved with Mid Atlantic in the 70s as a HOF, spreading the "credit" around like butter. But Scott sounded interesting, and a good opportunity to give an overview of Mid Atlantic in the 70s. Don't quite know if Dave has that type of bio in him at the moment.

 

Doc is... just strange. His career lined up with the WON Era. He had that "legit sports background" that Dave gets a woody over. Double since part of the background was amatuer wrestling. Interesting career path:

 

* in Mid South at a time when it had a strong hardcore following

 

* and example of Crockett's issues with UWF

 

* both major Japanese promotions, and moving up the gaijin ladder in All Japan

 

He's also someone to explore themes such "how do we promote this guy".

 

Really an chance for an interesting bio.

 

John

Didn't he win the "Strongest Wrestler" WON award at some point, too?

Don't quite know if Dave has that type of bio in him at the moment.

Dave did do a nice Johnny Weaver bio not so long ago. Buddy Rose's was very good too. So I think he's still got it in him. However, I suspect Scott may get a bit shortchanged, due to Dave having to write two bios this week.

If the heels dominate, and cannot be bested, what is the future of the company? History, in the form of Buddy Rogers and his crew, bore that out in the 1950’s.

Can someone explain what Joe Babinsack is talking about here?

Buddy Rogers crew (besides Rogers himself as booker and top heel) was Johnny Valentine, Arnold Skaaland, Billy Darnell, Johnny Barend, and Magnificent Maurice. He took the booking job for Al Haft in Ohio, popped the territory, and then left when they had a blow-up, taking the crew with him. He may have done this with other promoters, as well. That's all I've ever heard about Rogers and his crew. Maybe most of them worked heel and never got beaten by babyfaces in blowoffs? I've never heard anything like that, though, just that it was a case of most of the top stars leaving with the booker like with Ken Mantell's crew leaving World Class for the UWF in 1986, and that Rogers' crew always drew really well.

Yeah, that's what puzzled me. Rogers has a rep for being one of the best heel draws in history, yet in the context of the article (talking about the nWo and Sting) and the following sentence "Having a faction of cronies around to squeeze the life out of the fanbase, to suck up the profits, and to bleed a promotion dry?", Babinsack made it sound like Rogers killed territories like the nWo eventually killed WCW.

Sounds like something Bruno told Babby, no?

A page and a half on Henry Wittenberg? Clearly Dave is now fucking with all of us that want a Dr. Death obit.

 

John

Which is not to knock the piece on Wittenberg. Nice little piece.

 

Just... want... the freaking Doc bio...

 

John

Babbinsack on Mike Graham pulling a knife on an employee:

 

And the story about how Human Resources tried to come down on Mike for 'threatening' an employee is priceless.

Um...

This was what Babinsack was talking about last week regarding Buddy Rogers:

 

I loved hearing how he claims that Buddy Rogers was one of the worst for booking himself to the detriment of the promotion. I’ve heard those stories before. Graham explains how in one night, Rogers beat two main competitors and the champion, and Eddie wondered aloud what he was doing.

 

Rogers was fired the next day.

Yeah, so sounds like rovert was right about the origins of his Buddy booking hate. I came to the conclusion from that DVD review that Babinsack's just another columnist who doesn't really care all too much about the truth, as long as it makes for a good story and matches his biases.

And this week we have the Baron Mikel Scicluna bio. I don't think we're getting a Doc bio.

 

I don't think he's dropped the ball this bad since Hashimoto's bio.

I don't think he's dropped the ball this bad since Hashimoto's bio.

What happened there?

 

Also, has anyone ASKED him about a Doc bio?

I remember the Hashimoto bio being really short, like he was going to write the second part the following week, which often happens. Except part two never came.

I don't think he's dropped the ball this bad since Hashimoto's bio.

What happened there?

 

Also, has anyone ASKED him about a Doc bio?

 

I asked him about it when we were at UFC 109. He was already on to Jack Brisco and things didn't seem promising.

I don't recall the Hash bio being overly short. I'll have to dig it up and take a look. My recollection is that the two things that jumped out to me were:

 

* Dave never quite "got" at the time Choshu's long term booking of Hash from back to 1989 and then through 1997

 

* Dave was always less negative on the Hash-Ogawa feud than I was

 

I think on the first one, there was a more recent comment by Dave somewhere in some piece that seemed to get some of the later stages. On the second, I don't think Dave and I will ever agree on Hash-Ogawa. There was a funny thread (or perhaps just a subsection of a thread) where we "talked" about it.

 

John

Hashimoto was short changed when you consider that he was an Eddie/Misawa level star and didn't get the same level of coverage as those deaths did. IIRC, even Chris Candido's obit was significantly longer than Hash's.

Apparently Alvarez is going to Wrestlemania, while the editor of the Wrestling Observer is going to some UFC thing this weekend. What's the world coming to?

Apparently Alvarez is going to Wrestlemania, while the editor of the Wrestling Observer is going to some UFC thing this weekend. What's the world coming to?

 

That Dave finally has a paying gig that doesn't involve pro wres?

Dave is being sent to UFC by Yahoo so that takes precedent.