Clinton, Obama, and McCain sent video clips, and then WWE ran a "Hillary" (w/ "Bill") vs ""Obama" match.

To add what Bix said, in the match: Obama was played by Deon Davis (of EWA-CWA). Hillary was played by Lexie Fyfe (of SHIMMER). The Clinton impersonator was the same guy they've used several times before.

Jeuron Dove thinks Batista's gay biker look is cool.

 

His attire even went up a notch. Remember that jean outfit with the cutoff jacket he wore with the hip shades when he delivered that awesome promo (where he was flanked by security on the ramp) to Cena leading up to Wrestlemania this year. He looked like the coolest guy in the company when he cut that promo.

Jeuron Dove also thinks that Babinsack is a great writer.

Listening to the Ariel Helwani interview and I don't know what was funnier.

 

1) Ariel saying that he loves MMA because the guys are real in real life and wrestlers still live their gimmicks outside of the business. What do you expect it's been like that forever. The statement totally came across to me that he wants pro wrestling to be real and MMA is his real pro wrestling so he is justified.

 

2) Ariel comparing Rampage vs. Rashad to Ali-Frazier I. That is a total overstatement as the African-American fanbase for UFC is worlds different than what Ali-Frazier was in 1971 plus that was a cultural phenomenon as it was portrayed as Uncle Tom vs. Black Panther basically which he was saying that Rampage/Evans was echoing that same sentiment. I mean it's hard to push this fight as that when the fanbase there is a good 90% white. All my PPV friends that come and watch WWE & Boxing are black and there is no buzz for this among them at all as they don't get MMA mainly because UFC doesn't know how to market their product to them.

 

3) Dave mentioning the great African-American stars of UFC such as Anderson Silva.

3) Dave mentioning the great African-American stars of UFC such as Anderson Silva.

*jaw drops*

 

The Ali-Fraizer I comp is beyond funny.

 

John

2) Ariel comparing Rampage vs. Rashad to Ali-Frazier I. That is a total overstatement as the African-American fanbase for UFC is worlds different than what Ali-Frazier was in 1971 plus that was a cultural phenomenon as it was portrayed as Uncle Tom vs. Black Panther basically which he was saying that Rampage/Evans was echoing that same sentiment. I mean it's hard to push this fight as that when the fanbase there is a good 90% white. All my PPV friends that come and watch WWE & Boxing are black and there is no buzz for this among them at all as they don't get MMA mainly because UFC doesn't know how to market their product to them.

That is....a really depressing analogy.

1) Ariel saying that he loves MMA because the guys are real in real life and wrestlers still live their gimmicks outside of the business. What do you expect it's been like that forever. The statement totally came across to me that he wants pro wrestling to be real and MMA is his real pro wrestling so he is justified.

To be fair to Ariel, he also cited Kurt Angle walking into walls backstage because he was so messed up on pills as another reason why he fell out of love with the wrestling business. That said, I'm not sure the Dan Miller story threw the best light on the MMA business either (Dana White allowing him to fight days after his baby daughter died), though that seemed to be lost on Ariel.

1) Ariel saying that he loves MMA because the guys are real in real life and wrestlers still live their gimmicks outside of the business. What do you expect it's been like that forever. The statement totally came across to me that he wants pro wrestling to be real and MMA is his real pro wrestling so he is justified.

To be fair to Ariel, he also cited Kurt Angle walking into walls backstage because he was so messed up on pills as another reason why he fell out of love with the wrestling business.

Was he saying he witnessed this personally somewhere or talking about Lesnar's eureka moment?

1) Ariel saying that he loves MMA because the guys are real in real life and wrestlers still live their gimmicks outside of the business. What do you expect it's been like that forever. The statement totally came across to me that he wants pro wrestling to be real and MMA is his real pro wrestling so he is justified.

To be fair to Ariel, he also cited Kurt Angle walking into walls backstage because he was so messed up on pills as another reason why he fell out of love with the wrestling business.

Was he saying he witnessed this personally somewhere or talking about Lesnar's eureka moment?

This was his own personal eureka moment when he used to work for Spike TV briefly, got to go backstage at TNA and interviewed Kurt for his website around the time of Kurt's DUI problems.

I really don't think Ariel was trying to justify "MMA is his real pro wrestling". He was pretty much saying that after finally being able to spend time with some of the guys (like Kurt Angle - that kjh already mentioned), that it was pretty depressing to be around all these delusional guys living in a bubble with drug problems and crippling injuries (something Brock has also said in the past). Ariel mentioned that he had already known the depressing and dark side of pro wrestling since he was a hardcore fan, but it never really affected him until he got a up close personal view.

 

That said, I'm not sure the Dan Miller story threw the best light on the MMA business either (Dana White allowing him to fight days after his baby daughter died), though that seemed to be lost on Ariel.

Yeah, I'm pretty confused that he would bring up this story and try to use it as a positive for MMA. What's even more sad is that if Dan Miller loses on Saturday, he'll probably end up being cut.

MMA is soon to be heading in the direction of guys walking around dazed out of their minds on pain meds with the more these guys are fighting. Meltz has even said that in the past.

The greatest golfer in the world appeared to be addicted to painkillers after various injuries. I don't think any of us would be surprised, nor should Dave be shocked, if a large number of MMA guys have (or end up having) pill issues. It's pretty common in a lot of sports. Lord knows what Wayne Rooney has been on for the past several months since the injury against Bayen... or likely long before that given Wayne's long history of injuries.

 

Not justifying it. Just not terribly spurprised. Nor thinking that more painkillers in MMA would make the MMA = Pro Wrestling claim anymore valid, anymore than Pro Football = Pro Wrestling since we all know the NFL and major College football were far more advanced on painkiller usage and earlier than pro wrestling.

 

John

Case in point: Tito Ortiz had neck fusion surgery over two months ago, should retire.

There is a German soccer site that has had some features about players who retired prior to 1990 who told stories how they abused medications, it even shocked me who knows quite a bit about substance abuse through wrestling. Somebody who debuted in 1972 said jokingly to his wife "If I die don't don't bother to bring flowers to my grave, nothing will ever be able to grow there". It couldn't have been healthy not to train for weeks but to play in every (weekly) game where they were getting shots prior. I wonder if there are features like that in other sports media.

Some years ago, I thought meds and drugs only became popular after 1990. With this and especially the Tour de France in mind I am beginning to think that pro wrestling wasn't more drug-ridden than other sports . The communists certainly outdid them.

From today's WO update posted by Bryan:

 

-- I will be flying to Atlanta tomorrow to conduct the first-ever Wrestling Observer Shoot, which will be available on DVD both online and in major retailers around the country. Our first guest will be Abdullah the Butcher, and he's promised to talk openly about everything in his career and even things that happened before he got into wrestling. I'll also be touring his famous HOUSE OF RIBS and sampling some of the fare. The DVD will include other extras including never-before-seen matches from Abby's private collection. If you have any questions for Abdullah on any subject email them to me ASAP at [email protected] and we'll ask as many as we can. We'll have much more on this project in the next few months, and we've got several other guests lined up for future DVDs. I'm very excited about this project and want to thank The Cancer on our board for making it all possible.

 

I'm a little nervous about Dave letting Bryan use the WO name for this.

I broke this story on here two weeks ago. I’m looking forward to Abby kayfabing Bryan and the resulting 5 minutes of usable footage that it will produce.

 

 

I thought I saw this here but couldn't remember, so I put up a post on the Comments thread with this update.

 

My thoughts there seem to be echoed by those in this thread.

Wrestling Observer Shoots Yeah, this doesn't look good. The trailer is full of fluff (Bryan eating ribs), softball questions, BS claims "I'm the one who started hardcore" and general silliness (Abdullah ranting about not being in the WWE Hall of Fame and Bryan breaking the news to him that he's in the Observer Hall Of Fame).

lol, just made some points about this in the Random comments thread. Mine were more about how poor the audio seems to be. I couldn't hear what Abby was talking about to rate the content.

Don't know if this is ridiculous, but I thought this was kind of funny:

 

Don't know if this is ridiculous, but I thought this was kind of funny:

 

A list of thoughts wurling around in Dave's head at any one time lol

Dave's polls are the worst, he does these crazy huge polls with like ten options, and then when something wins with like 18% of the vote, he's all "SEE, THE CONSENSUS SAYS UFC IS PRO WRESTLING" or some shit.

It's all about juking the stats

Bryan opens WOL with talking about what a great RAW we had and then him and Dave basically rip the show apart in their review

Heh

 

I thought that was Dave's head photoshopped onto the body until seeing the caption.

 

John

Todd Martin writes for ESPN.com? Jeez!