ronda rousey is definitely a legit name w/ the general public, at least younger ones

 

even if not by name, plenty of people know her as "that chick who beats everyone with an armbar, right?"

Yea I'd agree with Rousey. Even I've heard people at work say "Hey have you seen that bad ass fighter chick" ?

Yeah, Rousey is the biggest star in the company.

Very minor thing, but I did enjoy Dave not knowing that "frenemy" is a thing

Just wanted to double check, is Richard Meltzer really Dave's uncle?

He definitely is, but good luck finding people who know who Richard Meltzer is.

 

Mike Watt fan or "The Aesthetics of Rock"?

That's amazing on so many levels. A Watt's fan. Haven't read Aesthetics as I went with A Whore Just Like The Rest to get an overall sampler of his writing career, not sure if I will go beyond that. Does Dave ever talk about his uncle? From his interviews and writing, I know Richard was a wrestling fan so they did have that in common. Any chance they have similar music taste or is that a long shot?

Marella is running shows of his own in Ontario. He may be using the Battlarts name, from his gym. What’s notable is one of the instructors at his gym is Yuki Ishikawa, who headed the Battlarts group in Japan and he’s apparently a hell of a coach. Ishikawa was a protégé of Yoshiaki Fujiwara, who was Karl Gotch’s top student. Marella’s neck is in really bad shape and at some point he will have to undergo fusion surgery. He wants his Battlarts shows to be like the promotion in Japan, which is shoot style but still be worked, but working a realistic in-ring style with more based around submissions. New Japan’s Davey Boy Smith Jr. worked shows for him this past week.

 

 

From this week's Observer. God, let this get off the ground.

That's amazing on so many levels. A Watt's fan. Haven't read Aesthetics as I went with A Whore Just Like The Rest to get an overall sampler of his writing career, not sure if I will go beyond that. Does Dave ever talk about his uncle? From his interviews and writing, I know Richard was a wrestling fan so they did have that in common. Any chance they have similar music taste or is that a long shot?

 

I think that's a long shot, lol

Funny. I actually learned of the guy from Blue Oyster Cult songwriting credits. Never really thought to look into it more aside from noticing it his Wikipedia page.

Lebron James? Messi?

The question's silly, but it starts off, "Which of these personalities..."

 

Dave isn't claiming that any of those guys are more publicly known than the most famous athletes.

The story in the latest WON about the behind the scenes stuff leading up to Black Saturday is absolutely fascinating. It kind of makes sense that Ole is a bitter old fuck now after reading that.

Got a quick overview of that for those without subs?

Ole does come off pretty sympathetic given everything that happened and it sure explains his animosity towards Vince. I didn't know that he strong armed Barnett like that either.

I don't think Ole is that sympathetic of a character given that:

 

(a) He didn't allow Jim Barnett to save face in the local community by allowing him to retain a title in the company (with no power or salary) when Ole caught him embezzling funds.

( He drew a huge salary for the standards of the time, whilst allowing profits dwindle to a pittance.

© He himself was secretly trying to buy out some of the other stockholders stock to gain majority share of GCW, so he could control the company without answering to The Briscos.

(d) He threatened to send The Road Warriors to Tampa to break The Briscos legs.

(e) Vince McMahon ended up paying $100,000 for Ole's stock, anyway.

 

The only thing that seemed like a dirty trick was that it sounds like Jack Brisco took advantage of Ole leaving the territory for a week for his mother's funeral to get the ball rolling on the takeover negotiations while Ole was out of town.

I don't think Ole is that sympathetic of a character given that:

 

(a) He didn't allow Jim Barnett to save face in the local community by allowing him to retain a title in the company (with no power or salary) when Ole caught him embezzling funds.

Didn't read the article so maybe I'm missing something, but why should he have if Barnett was embezzling funds?

 

I don't think Ole is that sympathetic of a character given that:

 

(a) He didn't allow Jim Barnett to save face in the local community by allowing him to retain a title in the company (with no power or salary) when Ole caught him embezzling funds.

Didn't read the article so maybe I'm missing something, but why should he have if Barnett was embezzling funds?

 

 

It just wasn't a wise move on Ole's part. Barnett was respected in the local community and also had a wealth of connections and experience, both inside and outside the business (like Ted Turner). Barnett quickly jumped ship to the WWF, which certainly didn't help Ole's cause in the long run, even though Dave believes Barnett "had nothing to do" with the sale and forcing Ole out in the process.

 

Marella is running shows of his own in Ontario. He may be using the Battlarts name, from his gym. What’s notable is one of the instructors at his gym is Yuki Ishikawa, who headed the Battlarts group in Japan and he’s apparently a hell of a coach. Ishikawa was a protégé of Yoshiaki Fujiwara, who was Karl Gotch’s top student. Marella’s neck is in really bad shape and at some point he will have to undergo fusion surgery. He wants his Battlarts shows to be like the promotion in Japan, which is shoot style but still be worked, but working a realistic in-ring style with more based around submissions. New Japan’s Davey Boy Smith Jr. worked shows for him this past week.

 

 

From this week's Observer. God, let this get off the ground.

 

 

His gym is in Mississauga, which is a suburb of Toronto. Technically, it's "Battle Arts". http://www.battleartsacademy.com/

Got a quick overview of that for those without subs?

One of my favourite Dave audio's ever:

 

Peach State Pandemonium: Black Saturday Special with Dave Meltzer and Mike Mooneyham

:http://www.blogtalkradio.com/PSP/2009/07/15/Peach-State-Pandemonium.mp3

 

 

I don't think Ole is that sympathetic of a character given that:

 

(a) He didn't allow Jim Barnett to save face in the local community by allowing him to retain a title in the company (with no power or salary) when Ole caught him embezzling funds.

Didn't read the article so maybe I'm missing something, but why should he have if Barnett was embezzling funds?

 

 

It just wasn't a wise move on Ole's part. Barnett was respected in the local community and also had a wealth of connections and experience, both inside and outside the business (like Ted Turner). Barnett quickly jumped ship to the WWF, which certainly didn't help Ole's cause in the long run, even though Dave believes Barnett "had nothing to do" with the sale and forcing Ole out in the process.

 

Wisdom or not, I thought Ole was in the right there. Barnett is stealing from the company and a big part of why it was bleeding in the red. Ole stood up to him and said "no, screw you, you don't get to save face, you thief." There's a certain bravado to that which I respect. Yeah, maybe it killed him in the long run, but I still think it's commendable.

Barnett would have moved to make a deal with Vince to screw Ole anyway, whether he would have been given a chance to save face or not. All that did was give Barnett slightly more justification to make a move he would have made regardless.

Everything I've read about Barnett suggests to me that he wasn't the most ethical guy in the world. More like someone out of an Oscar Wilde play -- more or less a professional Bunbury-er.

 

Marella is running shows of his own in Ontario. He may be using the Battlarts name, from his gym. What’s notable is one of the instructors at his gym is Yuki Ishikawa, who headed the Battlarts group in Japan and he’s apparently a hell of a coach. Ishikawa was a protégé of Yoshiaki Fujiwara, who was Karl Gotch’s top student. Marella’s neck is in really bad shape and at some point he will have to undergo fusion surgery. He wants his Battlarts shows to be like the promotion in Japan, which is shoot style but still be worked, but working a realistic in-ring style with more based around submissions. New Japan’s Davey Boy Smith Jr. worked shows for him this past week.

 

 

From this week's Observer. God, let this get off the ground.

 

 

Seriously.

 

When I read that blurb in the Observer on Wednesday I hurried over to their website hoping they had some match footage or maybe even full matches, but nothing. Definitely a style that needs to make a comeback and could use a good "home" like this (Santino and Ishikawa are two pretty great guys to help cultivate that style given their respective backgrounds).

Some people here are going to hate this but I was never a fan of the later Battlarts and Futen style stuff where it was just a spotfest of potato shots. To me, Battlarts was at its best when it was either shoot style matwork or guys doing regular obvious cooperative pro wrestling spots with UWF/shoot style pacing. Something like Carl Greco matches or Ishikawa-Usuda for the former and Ikeda-Otsuka or the stuff with the Michinoku Pro guys was a lot more entertaining to me than Ikeda-Ishikawa was.