https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfYze8JTxm0&feature=player_embedded Poor guy, how can anyone do this?  I still find it mind-boggling that someone from WWE hasn't just stepped up and paid the 10,000 or whatever it would cost to get the second leg removed.  They shell out ridiculous amounts of money for their drug-addicted ex-employees and millions for Linda's campaign, the least they could for the poor guy is pay for his surgery. That would be a much better PR move than their endless Twitter and self-congratulatory bullying campaigns would be.  

Hey Scott. Which titles would you have in WWE? Bringing back a title or titles is fair game. Personally I would have 1 world title, keep both the intercontinental and US title, and bring back the cruiserweight. Yah, I know they are all pretty meaningless at the moment, especially the U.S. Sheamus and Punk are off to good starts at the top at least, even though I hate the idea of 2 world titles. Oh, and I guess keep the tag titles:  hire back Team Angle, bring in the Outlaws for a little nostalgia, and get some current teams over! How would you book the stagnant tag division? This e-mail is just all over the place, man.  Pick a topic and focus!  Anyway, the first question is more interesting to me. I really liked the setup in 2002.  You had ONE World title with a champion who was multi-brand, and then the idea was going to be that the Intercontinental title was exclusive to RAW as the #1 belt when the World champ wasn't around, and the US title was going to be the #2 belt on

I don't know if you've seen/heard of this yet, but this is a link to the Rod Pod - a podcast with Roddy Piper and Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Pretty hilarious as they just tell stories and answer twitter questions. http://www.toadhopnetwork.com/f/RodPod C Parks Nope, but I'm a big podcast junkie (bought both of Karl Stern's "Stern Sticks" in fact!) so I'll be sure to add this to my list.  

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Thought this was an interesting article. Value of WWE has gone down by $500 million in the past 2 years. Think it's interesting how people still buy the WWE company line that they are still wildly successful. Although it's really an indication of the failure of non-wrestling projects than the PG era having a terrible effect.   http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Freefall-of-WWE-stock-costs-McMahons-500M-3743680.php ----------------- Yup.  That's why he's a millionaire who should be a billionaire.

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Brendon Slee" " I feel like I missed a week here – what exactly did Bryan do to AJ that was so horrible? Try to have her committed for being crazy? She IS crazy! CM Punk said so!"     What you're are forgetting is that Bryan is the one who drove her crazy. She was perfectly normal when they started dating, but Bryan treated her like crap, dumped her in a public and humilating fashion, and then kept verbally berating her for weeks after until she snapped. Basically Bryan is Dr. Frankenstein and now he is feeling the wraith of the monster he created. ---------------- Say what?  DB was nothing but a perfect gentleman who repeatedly stressed how much he cared for AJ.   It's hardly his fault that she continually dragged him down and cost him the World title.  And the ring was in the back! Blame AJ, not DBry.

by Logan Scisco - Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Jerry “the King” Lawler are in the booth and they are live from Syracuse, New York . - The Undertaker’s plancha on Vader on last week’s Raw is the Playstation Slam of the Week.

Hi Scott; As longtime wrestling fans, many people online tend to like the "Good workers" first, and everyone else second. Many guys fabled for crappy matches are utterly HATED in many places online too, especially by "smart fans". But every once in a while, these fans will come out in support of the bad workers if they're entertaining in other aspects. For example, I see a LOT of people online who love the crap out of Sid Vicious/Justice/Sycho in all his forms, despite admitting that he stinks in the ring. His natural charisma, look, and attitude tend to rub off well on some people, even if he can't seem to get out of his own way in the ring. Now I know you dig the matches first, but are their any guys you're a big fan of, despite them sucking at the "in-ring" side of the business? It could be guys who are just funny mic-workers, shitty wrestlers who just try their asses off, or some kind of "X-Factor" you can't really e

I Have Issues (9) By. Lostscribe (J. Ryan Buck)

The SmarK RAW Rant – 07.30.12 No longer the Supershow, apparently. Live from Cincinnati, OH Your hosts are Michael Cole & Jerry Lawler

http://www.tout.com/m/enlfgc?ref=twt68bw3 I knew that no good would come of that Nickelback song.  Maybe R-Truth and Evan Bourne left their blunts too close to the Titantron's flammable screen?  At any rate, not a good omen for the 3-hour RAW era.  

WWE Polls Fans on Future DVD Projects – WCW, IYH, Goldberg, Foley | WWEDVDNews Some interesting possibilities in here, like obviously the Wargames one that people have been clamoring for forever now.  Lots of "Volume 2" stuff, and the Best of IYH set that people have said might be cool.  

Waiting for the Trade By Bill Miller Marvel Adventures: Spiderman vol. 6 – The Black Costume by Fred Van Lente and Cory Hamscher Collects Marvel Adventures Spider-man 21 – 24. Why I Bought This: You can get most of the Marvel Adventures Digests for $4 off Amazon (including shipping) so I’m occasionally willing to sample them. This one has Venom in it and as I’m firmly in the Venom is the coolest villain ever created in comics’ history camp, so for that price it got my money. My thoughts on the new movie follow the comic review.

I may have posted this before but I can't remember. Source

I'm going to admit something that I'm not proud of, but at least your readers can have fun ridiculing me.   Do you ever dream about wrestling angles?   Occasionally I will.  The other night I dreamed I was watching TNA and the Aces and Eights unmasked and it was Jeff Jarrett and Eric Young.  I was SO pissed off.  Now if I'm getting this and don't even write reviews, what must the great Scott Keith be having during the midnight hour?  I'm not alone in this right?   RIGHT?   I checked a dream manual, and it means you might be gay.  Sorry to have to be the one to tell you.  

With so many attempts at comedy week after week from the WWE (and a lot of them failing), the one constant performer who hits the mark most of the time is Santino Marella, who for my money, has been the funniest guy they've had since The Rock in his prime. From his tea party for Sheamus ("Let's see, we have green tea, we have ginger tea--oh.") to getting laughs even when encountering Kane ("Where's Punk?!" "Did you try the Pepsi machine?"), Santino seems to get the job done every time. So I was wondering about who Scott Keith had in his pantheon of comedy-act wrestlers, as well as the Commenters of Doom. First up, if you're reading this, I've managed to figure out a fix to the e-mail posting situation, so HUZZAH! Second, I laughed heartily at Billy Gunn's entire career, so that might count.  If not, Mick Foley used to hit it out of the park when called upon to be the comedy guy, especially the classic stuff with E&C.  He had

Funny video of Kurt Angle training for the 2012 Olympic games. Though having Rob Van Dam as your trainer is a sure way to be drug tested. http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/636c3d08e1/olympic-trials-with-kurt-angle? playlist=featured_videos Could be worse.  Could be the Sheik training him.

Five days now with no resolution of the Blogger post-by-email problem in sight.  Now I’m starting to wonder if they’ve just decided to phase out the feature completely and pretend like it can’t be fixed.  Either way, it’s messing with my mojo. On with the questions… Scott, I know of bookers and the way WWE handles booking in terms of agents/producers and creative.  What I was wondering was, who would you have in a booking role if you had a company that needed booking (and you couldn't use yourself)?  Example, for marketing and sheer spectacle I'd have Vince McMahon at the helm.  From a storyline standpoint, I'd put Paul Heyman and Jim Cornette.  The agent I'd have who would build the matches with the wrestlers I'd put Pat Patterson.  So in my company, my booking team would consist of McMahon, Heyman, Cornette, and Patterson.  Now that is in a perfect world where no one is bigger than another and trying to throw their weight around (as hard as it would seem for V

Ratings show that the most popular non-wrestling segment in WWE history was Rock: This Is Your Life, but my personal favorite was The Alliance singing Wind Beneath My Ring to Stone Cold and Kurt Angle spoiling their fun with the old time-y Milk Truck.  What do you consider the greatest non-wrestling segment in WWE to be? You know that angle was just a ripoff of the beer truck angle from three years earlier, right?  To each their own. My personal favorite is the reunion of Bret with Owen and Bulldog from 1997, where they took the standard heel team breaking up angle and completely turned it on its ear by having the heels pull together in a heartfelt moment that actually turned them into even BIGGER heels.  I loved the nuance of Bret’s disgust at the fans booing him while he was trying to have a real moment with his brothers, which was made all the better because that was exactly the reaction Bret was looking for.  People wanted to the Owen-Bulldog team implode for the Bulldog face tu

Hey Scott, Awhile ago (a few years I think), I sent you an email describing my system for rating workers in pro wrestling.  Well, I recently expanded on that and figured rankings for every wrestler who's ever had a 3-star one-on-one match rated in the Observer.  I came up with a Top 50 (51, actually, because of a 50th-place tie), and I'm so proud of the system that I decided to start a blog and release a countdown. Basically it works like this:  I take the wrestler's 10 best matches, total the ratings, and double that to get a number out of 100.  Ties are handled by comparing 11th-best matches, then 12th-best, and so on. The ratings are taken from this blog, which compiles all 3-star ratings from the Observer: http://starratingslist.blogspot.com/ .  The reason there is a 50th-place tie is that there are only ten rated matches for each of the two wrestlers tied for 50th. As far as using Meltzer's ratings and not yours, don't feel bad, I've read you online for 1

http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-blogs/blog=olympic-talk/post/iron-sheik-talks-team-usa-wrestling-london-olympics-2012.html This will be fun for everyone. You can play mad libs with all the deleted expletives. I’m shocked he didn’t mention his fake experiences in the Olympics in 68 or 72 or whatever year he’s remembering this week.  Or maybe he did and we couldn’t tell, who knows. 

Hi Scott, I'm about to move in with my girlfriend and she's giving me the old 'justify being nearly 30 and having 300 wrestling figures on display' nag. Hence this blog: http://oldwrestlingfigures.com/ Any chance of a link? Might buy the guys on the shelves some time... Cheers mate, Michael Hey, my wife doesn’t mind that I collect UFC figures.  In fact my daughter stages battles between Randy Couture and Kimbo Slice all the time.  Kimbo usually loses and then shows up on Sesame Street looking to pick a fight with Elmo.  It’s been kind of a downhill slide for him, I’m not gonna lie.  Also, it’s weird for me to see people getting nostalgic about the 90s Hasbro figures, because I had no experience with those.  It’s the giant molded rubber LJN figures that were my childhood experience, and they were MUCH more challenging to do any kind of useful finishers with. 

God dammit Google, get your fucking e-mail-to-Blogger gateway fixed!  I’ve got e-mail questions piling up and it takes me way longer to sift through them when I can’t just forward it to the blog and answer off the top of my head.  OK, got that out of my system. Hey Scott, curious about your thoughts on a few WWE topics. 1)Punks long term plans?  As much as I like Punk (especially heel Punk), it seems that he never has really moved the needle in terms of PPV buys or ratings.  Do you think it's due to an issue with Punk, or that NOBODY besides Cena or an Austin Rock full time return is gonna increase business.  As hot as he was last summer, I can't help but feel either WWE or Punk himself dropped the ball on turning him into a bigger draw then what he is. 2)Do you agree with the idea of the reported Rock/Cena for title and Brock/UT headlining 29?  I know it's a long time away but I hate this idea.  If this was the plan why not have Lesnar run through Cena, HHH, Punk, and

The SmarK DVD Rant for WWE Superstar Collection: Sheamus Maybe it’s my old age talking, but I much prefer these 90 minute bite-sized collections to the mammoth 9 hour marathon sessions that WWE pumps out on a monthly basis. Five matches, and it’s only $7 on Amazon right now, no fuss no muss. Yeah, the cheaply produced cover makes Sheamus look like he’s constipated, but it’s the content that counts. Plus this is the kind of disc that’s perfectly suited to Netflix or PPV. And there’s no documentary or anything, just a quick video intro and then the matches…

Smackdown Date: July 27, 2012 Location: Sprint Center, Kansas City, Missouri Commentators: Booker T, Michael Cole, Josh Matthews Reviewed by Tommy Hall With Raw 1000 over now we can actually start building towards Summerslam and we'll begin that with finding a new #1 contender. There's a fourway tonight and the winner gets Sheamus at the PPV. Other than that it's hard to say what we'll get tonight as things will have to be reset from MITB but we had a throwaway show last week. Hopefully things pick up from last week. Let's get to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ii2gt0yJcE&feature=player_embedded If WWE comedy was this good, a three hour show would be far more tolerable, methinks. It'll take a LOT more than good comedy to make a three hour RAW tolerable.

Movie: AdventureLand So I’d be lying if there wasn’t some subconscious urge that drove me to see Adventureland again. From just moving back home after College, to visiting my local theme park Canobie Lake Park in Salem New Hampshire, to recently having one of those unrequited romances that never end the way they do in the movies, something inside me, my soul, my brain, my love of Jesse Eisenberg’s Jew-Fro, or whatever, drove me to seek out and watch Adventureland again. woops.  

On the subject of Hogan at Summerslam 2002 and whether Edge was rumored to win the RAW chamber as a surprise at Survivor Series, I shot a quick Tweet to Seth Mates and here’s what he said: We first got word the Vince wanted to the put titles on Shawn and Big Show at Survivor Series while on tour in Europe, which was late October. The only alternative for HBK I heard about was RVD, which was pitched hard. Big Show was still a punchline then, so we pitched a million scenarios, Edge & Benoit among them. It was originally supposed to be Brock beating Hogan, but Hogan said that he wanted the title and Vince told him off.  Also - no idea what the plan for Austin would have been for Summerslam, but he'd been programmed with Guerrero & Benoit at the time and wanted to work with them.  I did some translation from Twitter to English there, by the way.  Thanks, Seth, you rule as always! 

--------- http://www.rspwfaq.com/2011/12/04/starrcade-countdown-1989/#more-6405 End of the first paragraph.  Nice call, sir. ------------ Is bloggy even a word?

July 3, 2002 Live from the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville , TN Your hosts are Mike Tenay, Don West, and Ed Ferrara The announcers plug the NWA-TNA Tag Team Championship Tournament and the main event, Scott Hall & Brian Christopher vs. Jeff Jarrett & K-Krush

  The SmarK Rant for TNA Impact – 07.26.12 Live from Orlando, FL Your hosts are Mike Tenay & Taz Sting joins us to start, acting as GM tonight in Hogan’s place. And he’s calling Aces & Eights out! But first, Austin Aries answers, and he’s on Sting’s side. And so is Kurt Angle. Bobby Roode comes out as well, but it’s because he knows who’s behind the attacks: James Storm. He’s apparently jealous of Aries winning the title first, and he was scheduled to face Angle when the attack happened. Makes sense, actually. Storm of course comes out and beats the hell out of Roode for that kind of slanderous accusation, while the other guys just kind of let them go.

Hey Scott!!! Writing to you once again! I stumbled with an interview of Zack Ryder, where he said that the Kane-Cena-Eve killed his late 2011 momentum and career for good. Among some things, he also mentions he is looking in the future to tweak his character to try regaining that momentum he had once. I think the damage to the Ryder's character is deeper. Not only did he end up looking like a joke after the whole Kane fiasco, but he's been used pretty much like a jobber ever since, draining the remaining heat he had. Hell, not even the recent "Zackdown" was as well received as some of the stuff he was involved in November-December 2011. 

Blogger’s e-mail posting system is currently fucked, so if multiple posts start popping up randomly tonight, blame that.  Scott, A few random questions for you...

Scott, A few random questions for you... 1. Was SummerSlam 2004 the right time for a Randy Orton title run?  When they rushed Brock Lesnar to the top a couple years earlier, it made some sense because the guy just seemed so dominant that having him wait to go after the title would not have made sense.  Orton seemed like a guy they really wanted to rush to the belt as well, but I was on hiatus at that point and have no idea if the guy was over to that point. He was not.  He was a popular heel Intercontinental champion, but pushing him to the World title almost killed him off for good as a main eventer.  It was WAY too soon.  It wasn't until his second run at the top in 2006 that he was legitimately a guy who could carry the belt.  Basically it was only done to spite Brock Lesnar and make Orton the youngest champion.     2. Were there earlier plans for Edge to get his first world title?  The briefcase cash-in after Elimination Chamber was a perfect way for an unpredicta

--We're back into new matches this time around, although at this point this particular taping is getting close to a month old. Tonight we have some fallout from Best in the World: Hostage Crisis, and "The Prodigy" Mike Bennett pairs up with his trainer, Brutal Bob Evans, to take on "Die Hard" Eddie Edwards and Adam Cole. Plus, Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team is in action, and Jim Cornette chooses a challenger for Kevin Steen's ROH Championship.

Hey Scott!!! Writing to you once again! I stumbled with an interview of Zack Ryder, where he said that the Kane-Cena-Eve killed his late 2011 momentum and career for good. Among some things, he also mentions he is looking in the future to tweak his character to try regaining that momentum he had once.  I think the damage to the Ryder's character is deeper. Not only did he end up looking like a joke after the whole Kane fiasco, but he's been used pretty much like a jobber ever since, draining the remaining heat he had. Hell, not even the recent "Zackdown" was as well received as some of the stuff he was involved in November-December 2011.  At the same time, since the get-go, things didn't look as bright for him I think. Remember that Raw match where Ryder faced Cena, and if he won, he could go on to face Ziggler at TLC for the US title? Cena wasn't even going to be part of TLC '11, and WWE didn't bother to put over the guy! Incidentally, as time g

Event Comics By Lostscribe(J. Ryan Buck) For two reasons I have decided to reread and review different “Events” of the comics world.

....I just wanted a catchy name like Princess. Anyhow, Aces & Eights? We dunno. What we do know is that it's Chavo Guerrero's debut and we have AJ Styles vs. James Storm and Kurt Angle vs. Bully Ray.

NXT Date: July 25, 2012 Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida Commentators: William Regal, Byron Saxton Reviewed by Tommy Hall We're back with the sixth week of NXT and it barely feels that long at all. We've got some stories coming together and tonight it's Cesaro vs. Riley which should be a decent match. It really is remarkable how much better this show is with just some minor adjustments to it, like giving us stories and matches consisting of more than about ten people. Let's get to it.

As requested, a thread to discuss Dark Knight Rises with spoilage at will.   My take:  it was awesome and anyone who disagrees is objectively wrong.  QED.

Decent installment. Rikishi sure loves his Gatorade and Mark Henry doesnt like to pay for gas. Also, some nice stories about hunting with Ted Dibiase and encounters with Mike Rotunda and Glacier. http://deadspin.com/5928979/the-million-dollar-man-has-no-time-for-your-hangover-more-wrestler-run+ins

Considering he isn't really a wrestler anymore, why are you so sure HHH will politic his way into a victory on SS? I always assumed, back when he was an active wrestler, that HHH kept himself dominant because of the whole "can't lose my spot thing". But at this point, if anyone has a secure spot it's him. Why does he care whether he wins or loses? Exactly.  Why DOES he care whether he wins or loses?  The answer is "Fuck if I know," but clearly he does because he made sure to put himself over CM Punk last year.  He could be out there doing jobs every night if he wanted to and making guys into stars, but he chooses not to, and it's kind of baffling.  Well, not really, but baffling based on regular person logic.  Considering the bromance he has with Sheamus, you'd think at the very LEAST he'd go out and lay down for the brogue kick if he wants to be a part-timer, but no, he won that one too.   I dunno, people would defend him saying "Wel

Monday Nitro #77 Date: March 3, 1997 Location: The Omni, Atlanta, Georgia Attendance: 13,693 Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Larry Zbyszko Reviewed by Tommy Hall We're closing in on Uncensored and we need to get the main event established already. So far we know it's Team WCW vs. Team NWO but if my memory is right, tonight we'll hear about a third team being added. This show would be going against Raw in Germany which had Bulldog vs. Owen in one of the best TV matches ever, so I think Nitro is going to lose in the quality war tonight. Let's get to it.

Hey Scott -  Since you were so complimentary in both words and plugs for my Spider-Man overview some weeks back, I though maybe you would be interested in the Epic, Two Part Batman Overview - to read and/or share with your readership as you may see fit: Animated: http://wp.me/p1y3vo-qO Live Action: http://wp.me/p1y3vo-ry   PS - To warn you and anyone else...if you though the last ones were long...you may want to bring your lunch. Thanks! That's OK, I like reading them at work at lunch.  Thanks for all the hard work!   

Waiting for the Trade By Bill Miller X-men: The Asgardian Wars by Chris Claremont, Paul Smith and Arthur Adams Collects X-Men and Alpha Flight 1 & 2, New Mutants Special #1 and X-Men Annual #9 Why I Bought This: While I was never a big fan of the X-men’s corner of the Marvel Universe: I am more or less indifferent to them and I actively dislike both Alpha Flight and the New Mutants; I had read New Mutants Special #1 when it came out, probably because it was shortly after they had been part of Secret War II (which sucked but hey I was in junior high and the marketing tricked me into buying all 42 parts of that nonsense), and it was one of the greatest comics I’d ever read. So I decided to track down this trade on Amazon to see if that chapter held up, and not liking Alpha Flight I’d never read the first two chapters of this so I was hoping for a nice mix of old and new.

1. How bad of a sign is it that HHH got the upper hand against Lesnar on RAW after Lesnar had been off TV for so long? It's not a GOOD sign, but I don't think you can read anything into it.     2. If you had to guess, is HHH beating Brock at Summerslam? It's looking like Brock's fate is to be the most expensive jobber in WWE history. Not that he cares, but still. The only time you can bet on HHH not winning is against Undertaker at Wrestlemania.  And even then, you never know.  Otherwise, I'm pretty sure he's winning.  

The SmarK RAW Supershow Rant – 07.23.12 Live from St. Louis, MO Your hosts are Michael Cole & Jerry Lawler & Jim Ross (for one match)

Waiting for the Trade By Bill Miller The Infinite (volume one) by Robert Kirkman and Rob Liefeld Collects The Infinite # 1 –4. Why I Bought This: This was the last of my Free Comic Book Day pick-ups (although I still have another I haven’t reviewed yet). In this case I had just finished Walking Dead volume 1 about a month prior and between that and some Marvel Team Up I had read late last year I was quite impressed with Kirkman’s writing. On top of that Rob Liefeld is my all time favorite comic book artist, so this seemed like a marriage made in Heaven. Throw in the 20-percent discount for FCBD and I decided take chance on it. The Plot: The short version is some dude with over-sized guns and body armor (because it is a Liefeld/Image comic) loses a war in the future but manages to travel back in time to before the bad guys took over. He meets up with his younger self and begins to form a resistance cell against the incoming invasion. Much time travel shenanigans e

Hey Scott, After reading about the crap of the pre-raw WWF tv tapings, what aspects would you bring back from the 1980s/early 1990s WWF/NWA TV shows? I always liked the weekly interview segments like the Brother Love Show and the pre-match promos that were in the corner of the TV because you can explain reasons for a feud in a few minutes not twenty. I also liked that the big stars especially Hulk Hogan were not wrestling on TV every week which made it very special when they did wrestle. Thanks, David I have always considered NWA's weekly TBS show to be the perfect template of exactly what I want in a TV show.  Recap of a big angle to start, promo, squash, promo, squash, promo, Midnight Express, promo, hype upcoming big show, done.  Memphis was also much the same.  Early Monday Night RAW was probably #2.  I'd like to see more off-the-cuff promos, where someone wins a big match and then just talks themselves up or calls someone out.  Kind of like what UFC fighters do now, hm

http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/118-daily-updates/26699-raw-numbers-through-the-roof Guess I'm gonna have to hurry up and do that review already.  Now if only they could remember how to do the whirlwind of media to build up PPVs, which actually generate MONEY for them.  But regardless, this site did record numbers yesterday for a RAW episode, so obviously the show was a huge deal.  

by Logan Scisco - We get a new television intro and theme song for Raw, as this is the debut of Raw is War.  We also see the debut of a new entrance set, with the Titantron and entrance ramp . - Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Jerry “the King” Lawler are in the booth and they are live from Worcester, Massachusetts. - Ross interviews WWF Champion Sid, who says that he’s very skeptical of teaming with the Undertaker to face Vader and Mankind tonight and says that he thinks the Undertaker will reunite with Paul Bearer.  The Undertaker comes out and says there is no hidden agenda because if Sid was injured he couldn’t face him for the title at WrestleMania and in a twist, the Undertaker says he doesn’t want Sid as his partner because if he got injured in the tag match then Sid would remain WWF champion.  Paul Bearer, Vader, and Mankind then appear and Bearer calls Sid and the Undertaker cowards.  A brawl breaks out between the two sides and although the faces stand tall, the Und

http://www.avclub.com/articles/wwe-monday-night-raw,82832/ I always enjoy the AV Club's rare forays into reviewing RAW, just to get the outsider perspective on it.  Although in all fairness, Lita's miscarriage wasn't forced, it was an accident that WASN'T SNITSKY'S FAULT.  

First, I would like to deny the rumors that I am a masochist. I only say this because not only am I reviewing WCW Worldwide from 1993 and ECW but now I will review the Best of RAW starting from 1993 as well. My pain is your pleasure. Let’s go back in time and enjoy the birth of Monday Night RAW!

Hi, Scott, had a quick question for you - I've been watching a lot of the old Wrestling Challenges lately; when I was really little, I would catch these every Saturday, but they were mostly squash matches, and you were lucky if you got a few WWF regular guys facing each other. My question is how were these old shows set up? They couldn't possibly have expected a crowd to pay for a few hours of squash matches, right? Did they just snip a handful of matches for TV but actually have some competitive matches for the live crowd? Thanks! Scott It makes me feel very old that there are people writing me who have no memory of the hell that TV tapings used to be.   They in fact did expect a crowd to pay for a few hours of squash matches, often up to five hours of squash matches in fact.  Generally you'd get one or two dark matches to start with local guys (like today), then up to four hours straight of TV tapings, sometimes broken up by COLISEUM EXCLUSIVES like IRS v. Jim Duggan or

Working late tonight, plus some extracurricular wackiness in the neighborhood means I'm not going to get a chance to review the HISTORIC RAW 1000 until tomorrow night sometime, so don't wait up constantly refreshing the website.  Unless, you know, that's the kind of thing you want to do.  Although I've had a bunch of e-mails already giving me a rough idea of what I'm in for.

Ahhh we've come a long way since January 11, 1993. Some say too far, others say not far enough and some even think we've moved backwards. I don't expect many storylines to be advanced but we'll see a lot of old, familiar faces and hopefully the WWE will give us plenty of reasons to forget about the current unsatisfactory product for a night and enjoy the good times. So for three hours I want you to come out swinging but try to keep it clean. Enjoy the show.

Apparently there's a PHRESH new logo!  And I bet there'll be DUBSTEP!  Kids love that!   Obviously Steve Austin is the final payoff for the Heath Slater angle, but if you've got any other predictions, now is the time!

You da man, been reading you forever, all that good stuff. 1. What do you see for Ryback in these next upcoming months? They didn't even let him squash Jack Swagger, as if they need to protect that doofus's heat. I see Ryback continuing to squash jobbers and low-level curtain jerkers.  Perhaps he'll get new airbrushed tights somewhere in there too.     2. How can the WWE save Lesnar's run? Obviously he is still going to be over huge regardless of if he loses all four/five matches he is going to do in his run, but they flushed a lot of money down the toilet by not giving him the monster "path of destruction" push. Ahh, WWE egos. I think WWE and the fanbase are just on different planets as far as what each side expects from the Lesnar return.  I honestly think WWE just wants to use him to put their own guys over in short-term programs and maybe pop a number against Undertaker at Wrestlemania, and that'll be that.  I still find it hilarious that Chr

http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/118-daily-updates/26661-officially-wwe-developmental-television-show-fails-to-air Whoever had 4 weeks in the pool, you win.  Bizarre, especially since they already taped the NXT championship tournament for the next run.  I guess we'll see what airs here in Canada on Wednesday.  

Hey Scott!!! Long time reader. Third time that I write to you. I was reading an article you posted on the blog where Vince McMahon brought the funny! Well he kept it coming, just make sure to read this article. Sometimes I wonder how a man in such denial of the performance of his own business can be such a millionaire. Well that's how life works sometimes... http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/WWE_News_3/article_63583.shtml Take care and keep the good work up! Funny how Vince is STILL claiming 1.3 million buys for Wrestlemania.  It did 1.1 million, which is absolutely impressive but far from the biggest of all time, and further it's kind of ridiculous to just add 200,000 buys (or $10,000,000 gross revenue give or take) simply because that happened to be the number they invented the week after the show.  Like, people have actual money invested in their company, they can't just do interviews where they make up numbers and hope no one calls them on it.  At least I'd ass

Hi Scott, Wrestlemania X-7 and Great American Bash '89 tend to dominate the talks of greatest wrestling ppv ever, but with your recent bumping of the HHH/HBK Street Fight to *****, I wanted to raise Summerslam 2002 as another candidate. The aforementioned match received the full monty, you've upgraded Rock/Brock to ****, RVD/Benoit falls just shy of 4* at ***3/4, Rey/Angle was a fun opener given *** by you (which I politely disagree and think it needs like a 1/2* more), and the other matches are completely serviceable. So wrestling wise, seems to be a really good show. Historically, we've got Brock's rise to the top of pro wrestling (which leads to his success as a UFC draw), the end of The Rock's last WWE championship reign; Rey's ppv debut; and Shawn Michaels' return after a 4 year layoff, launching a comeback that skyrocketed past everyone's expectations. I find the pace is of the show is good, nothing drags, and the Long Island crowd (almost un

Hi Scott   I wanted to get your opinion on the future of WWE home video releases.  I'm amassed a fairly large collection of wrestling footage over the years and I was wondering what's going to happen to it with all the talk nowadays of streaming/digital video and such.  How much longer will my DVDs be good for?   How would I be able to convert my collection to streaming/digital if it comes to that?  Will WWE offer a service to do that or am I SOL and have to find a way on my own?  Will WWE continue to do home video releases if we move to digital?  How would they be delivered to us?    I don't know if you have the answers to this question, but considering your contacts in WWE, it's worth a try, I figure. Uh, I assure you that if WWE had any interest in no longer making money from DVD sales, they would have switched to digital delivery many many many many many many years ago.  Collectors and obsessive wrestling nerds will ALWAYS want s

Hi Scott,   A fantastic documentary aired tonight in the UK on Channel 4 called The Wrestlers: Fighting With My Family. It's about a family who own a small wrestling promotion and academy.   The family's daughter is FCW/NXT wrestler Paige, and shows her rise from wrestling in front of a few dozen people for her father's promotion, to getting invited for a WWE trial all the way to moving out to the states and debuting in FCW. It also shows the family's son and his struggle to achieve the same success as his sister. He has had a few WWE tryouts but was said to be underweight, although he did appear on Smackdown in a squash against Big Show.   It's well worth watching and can be watched online at the following link: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-wrestlers-fighting-with-my-family/4od#3386001 Unsure if it can be accessed in Canada or US, if not its worth hunting for on youtube. It cannot be accessed, sadly.  But I'll

--Since ROH TV this week is a Road Rage featuring clips from Best In the World, I thought I'd do something a little different and recap a classic ROH dvd from their glory days. Motor City Madness from October 2006 wasn't necessarily the most important show in ROH history but it was a fun one nonetheless, and featured a hot double main event: "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson (or as you know him, former WWE World Champion Daniel Bryan) defends his ROH title against today's current TNA World Champion Austin Aries, and The Briscoes take up the mantle of defending Jim Cornette in his conflict with "The Notorious 187" Homicide, who is partnering with Samoa Joe.

Hey Scott. Long time reader. You've probably fielded this one before, but I think it's worth re-asking. How much is the importance of entrance themes in the development of a character? Can an otherwise talented performer suffer with lame or inappropriate music, or does it have little to no bearing in the grand scheme of things? Are there any examples you can think of to support your opinion? Thanks. Man, now I've gotta provide EXAMPLES to support my opinion?  I'm already grumpy at not being able to afford a trip to Calgary for UFC 149 tonight, don't make it worse for me. Entrance music can be huge.  Rock never would have gotten quite the pops he did without "If you SMEEEEELLLLL...." hitting the PA system when he came out.  Hogan also had an awesome theme that held up well for nostalgia purposes later on as well.  Instantly recognizable riff and it couldn't help but get a crowd jacked up.   As for hurting the character, yes, definitely

Well you knew I couldn’t let this one go by without commenting. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-07-20/the-vince-mcmahon-school-of-productivity Some choice quotes here: Listening is a lost art. I have a unique ability to listen to myself as I’m talking. That’s somewhat unique, but I think that to listen is to learn. Once you make a decision, you go with it, and everyone gets behind it. There’s no second-guessing. Certainly the best way to fail in management [is to be distant and imperious]. You shut people down. If you have all the answers, why is anyone around you? If your ego is so big, then there’s no room for anyone else’s. The fear stuff—that is so rotten. Yes, this is all stuff said by VINCE MCMAHON.  I think this might explain the problems in creative they do have, given the level of denial coming from the top. 

The SmarK DVD Rant for Star Trek The Next Generation – Season One (Blu-Ray) (2012 Scott sez: I have been anxiously awaiting the delivery of this one since the initial announcement. Basically, CBS/Paramount has gone back and repaired the film stock frame-by-frame, converting it to high definition 1080P, albeit still in the original full frame presentation. Much like the original Star Trek’s conversion, it’s obviously a labor of love for the people involved. Luckily, I had already reviewed all 7 seasons many years ago…) And now, we go flying back in time to the beginning of one of the greatest sci-fi series in TV history, as Gene Roddenberry took a shoestring budget from Paramount in 1987 and created a monster. It was a pretty unlikely story, too, for those who know the whole backstory with Star Trek: Phase II and the problems that spawned from that (covered in a GREAT book for Trekkies of the same name). In short, Star Trek was supposed to be reborn in the late 70s, with Kirk at the

@MeekinOnMovies On Gaming Ego Trippin’ “If I’m going to have a past, it might as well be multiple choice” - The Joker “The Killing Joke” I’ve been pretty sick of things lately. Most recently I’ve been working a marathon (for me) 60 hour work week marathon, where every day I get up at 6, drive to work, tool around for 8 hours, drive home, and barely have enough energy to get out of the car before taking a nap, waking up for a couple of hours, then going to bed and doing it all over again. During these relatively mundane and soul crushing portions of my life that are becoming more and more common with each passing year, I tend to seek out gaming experiences from my youth to dally around with in my fleeting spare time.

Scott, Long time fan of course. This might make for interesting blog fodder this weekend before the 1,000th show, some dude ranked the top raw openings of all time, he included way too many versions of the same song which makes it a long list but really cool to look back on: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1264513-wwe-monday-night-raw-ranking-the-shows-theme-songs-opening-montages Also, off the top of your head and in the spirit of nostalgia...Would you attempt to do a TOP 5 Raw matches of all time? Thanks for making my days at work go by quicker with your blog. Off the top of my head? 1.  Bulldog v. Owen, March 97. 2.  Benoit/Jericho v. Austin/HHH, May 2001. 3.  HHH v. Shawn, December 2003 4.  Benoit v. Michaels, May (?) 2004.  The Phoenix match. 5.  The 10 man.  You know the one.  

I normally prefer to review books and movies from years or even decades in the past, but no one I know has seen The  Dark Knight Rises yet, so I had to discuss it somehow: http://autoboticasphyxiation.wordpress.com/2012/07/21/a-tearful-haunted-verdict-meh/   Warning: while there are no specific spoilers, it's nonetheless spoiler-ish. Cheers, Monte The movie seems to be polarizing the internet nerds.  I fell on the side of wanting to yell "PLAY IT AGAIN!" at the screen when it was over, but others seem to disagree.   I will say, however, that clearly what should have happened is that Batman beats Bane the first time they meet and then spends the rest of the movie making jokes, while Bane has his balding Jewish manager make legal threats at Commissioner Gordon instead of doing anything.  Because, like, who knows if Bane would have bailed in the middle of the movie?  Plus then they used him to let everyone know that Batman is the biggest star!  They'd make BILLION

Smackdown Date: July 19, 2012 Location: Valley View Casino Center, San Diego, California Commentators: Michael Cole, Josh Matthews, Booker T Reviewed by Tommy Hall It's just after MITB and the only major change is that Ziggler is the MITB case holder for this show. Other than that we're just in a holding pattern tonight as everything is likely to be shoved forward on Monday at the 1000th Raw. I'd be surprised if we found out anything about Summerslam tonight but it's possible. Let's get to it.

10 minutes into this clip, Cornette sums up why, and everything I dislike about Russo and his attitude towards wrestling:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P-lWiiHvc4&feature=related To be fair, it's not like Cornette is exactly running a successful promotion these days himself.     

Why review the movies, when you can review the food?

Hey Scott-- Love your thoughts, love your rants. Hope you can weigh in on something here. It is my thinking (and many other members of the IWC) that a wrestler needs three things to become a legend/huge success. Those three are: 1) Charisma/Look  2) In-ring skills  3) Mic work.  The best of all time have all three of these (Flair, HBK, Angle, Savage, Austin...), many other have become legends with only two of them, but my question is this---Can you name the wrestler that has "gotten the farthest" in terms of overall respect by fans, status among the boys, reputation and everything else who only possessed ONE of the three factors. Here are mine: (again trying to find the biggest disparity b/w their "status" and their talents) 1) Legendary wrestlers with tons of charisma and a great/memorable look but no in-ring skills or mic work. My pick is Andre the Giant. The man is one of the most recognizable and well known wrestlers of all time, and he did i

These shows are pretty easy to watch but every now and then you get a go-home show for the Bunkhouse Stampede and well...it requires you to listen more than normal.

Recap of last week’s show, with 95% of it revolving around Jeff Jarrett. They also showed a few seconds of Shamrock winning the title. Live from the Von Braun Civic Center in Huntsvile , AL Your hosts are Mike Tenay, Don West, and Ed Ferrara, who is still proudly sporting his shitlocks.

After you read my review, then you have my permission to die....er, wait, buy my book first, then you have my permission to die.

The SmarK Rant for TNA Impact – 07.19.12 Live from Orlando, FL Your hosts are Mike Tenay & Taz

Hey Scott, Have a question for ya. I saw the famous Octagon/Santo vs. Love Machine/Guerrero match from TripleMania recently and was blown away at how good a worker Art Barr was. I had never seen him wrestle before and thought he was just as crisp, quick and as athletic as Eddie was. If this guy didn't pass away, could he have been among the next crop of elite workers that were coming like Benoit, Malenko, etc? His frog splash was SICK! I don't think he was an elite WORKER, but he was an elite heel and he would have been a giant star because he had all the personality and charisma that Eddie and Dean were lacking for years.  He was just too big of a risk for any of the promotions, however, for obvious reasons.   

Dear Scott, I'm sure plugs are a dime a dozen, but I hope I have one that resonates with you. I ask you because you seem to really give some a fighting chance out there as big fish in the large pool of the internet whether it is wrestling related or not. I purchased your first three books in hopes of one day being able to ask for a favor. Kidding aside (I really do have the books), perhaps if I present myself as an ex-worker of 8 years with a match or a few hundred under my belt who became fed up with the industry once he had to do things like eat and support a family, it would help. Hell, I'm rambling and really don't know how to beg you for a plug other than my site is truly a labor of love and the chances of me ever losing intrest in it are null and void. It's the most ambitious thing I've ever tried and know gamers frequent your site so thought what the hell, I'd give it a whirl. I've been a fan for years and even if no plug/mercy is given to my fl