Hey Scott,
Long time blog reader all the way from Pakistan currently its my only link to wrestling now , keep up the great work.
Stone Cold tweet reacting to Heyman's hart attack
"I believe in pushing the envelope in an aggressive fashion. But when a guy damn near dies at ringside, let it go. You look at all the contributions Jerry Lawler has made in this business: from a work standpoint, a promo standpoint and then as a broadcaster. I think that's pushing the envelope in the wrong direction. There's better ways to go get real heat than that."
I reckon he genuinely felt offended and not doing it to add any heat to possible Punk feud what do you and blog of doomers think?
cheers, Zohaib
See again, I wasn't offended by the bit at all. I've seen way stupider stuff from them, and I'm 100% sure that Lawler himself was totally fine with the angle. What bothered ME was Vince airing footage of a man who was clinically dead at the time getting revived and packaging it like a "Last time on Impact" pre-show video. That was way beyond the pale for wrestling, because now I wonder if there's footage of Owen Hart out there that might get shown in that context someday. But Paul Heyman faking a heart attack in the ring and CM Punk laughing it off on Twitter? That's nothing.
I had 2 issues with it.
ReplyDelete1) It was Lawler's first night back. Give Lawler a nice moment, tease Punk & Heyman being jerks (maybe backstage watching on a monitor) and then do the tasteless stuff next week. They couldve had something and they sped through it.
2) The LAST company on Earth that should be mocking death is the WWE. Imagine if the NFL started mocking concussions this Sunday.
I know that Lawler was fine with it but that doesn't mean it's a good idea, ya know? The whole thing was just stupid, more than anything, and they could've done a lot more with Lawler's big return.
Par for the course for the WWE these days - always going in the wrong direction.
Why do people even get upset about Vince doing this stuff anymore? This is the guy who constantly makes fun of Jim Ross' health problems, had Muhammed Hassan do a terrorism angle at the height of the London bombings, did an exploitative sit-down interview with Melanie Pillman when her husband just died and had his daughter compare their family's business struggles to 9/11.
ReplyDeleteWe all love WWE, no matter how shitty the project is right now. But Vince McMahon is a scumbag, pure and simple, no matter how many times people trumpet his "genius."
You had me at Melanie Pillman.
ReplyDeleteIf Lawler had died, Vince would have had Punk and Heyman tape a "Weekend At Bernies"-style vignette with the King's body.
ReplyDeleteThanks Vince! (Or whoever had this bright idea)
Punk & Heyman should have came and & at the moment it looked like they were going to start making fun of Lawler, Cena or Ryback should have stormed the ring and chased them off. Cos, you know, Punk's wrestling them on Sunday, not Jerry "The King" Lawler, not Mick Foley
ReplyDeletecan you imagine any other show or sport doing this? I really can't.
ReplyDeleteWe missed a great opportunity here at the BOD to have some fun with the Lawler heart attack.
ReplyDeleteWe totally should of placed an over/under bet on how long it would take Vince to use Lawler's heart attack in an angle. The night it happened, some folks were furious that the show continued...I can't imagine what those folks think now that they made light of what happened just to get an angle over.
PS For the record, I was not offended in the least, but thought it was lazy booking as Stone Cold said.
Anyone who has watched the WWE for years knew this would probably happen. This is the company where they had the top guy violate a "corpse", made fun of a man's struggle with a serious illness(J.R.'s Bells Palsy), did a miscarriage angle involving a woman who was forced to have sex with the man in the first place to save another man a beating, and have had characters making light of everything from mental handicaps to stuttering and had others openly mock them. Nothing Vince does anymore is shocking, because he has basically desensitized his audience to anything that normally we would rise up and object to. Sadly, not to beat a dead horse, but the fact that there are no options for gainful employment for most these guys keep the objections quelled inside the company. TNA can't hire everybody, and seems to have veered away from hiring a lot of ex-WWE guys unless they can plug them in to a story they would make sense in, hence Luke Gallows as a biker, because he has the look for the part. And Brisco is a good choice for his youth and upside. But there's a slew of guys not in either like John Morrison. I'm a chef, and at a decent upscale restaurant, but if the only other cooking job I knew I had available in town was part-time grill cook at McDonald's, and my boss told me to name a menu item the "Incest Special" and give deals to father-daughter dinner parties, I'd have to consider swallowing my moral or sensible objections to consider my family's financial health. That is a ridiculous scenario, but my point stands the same.
ReplyDeleteyou forgot to mention the use of Eddie Guerrero's death in storylines for a whole year after he died.
ReplyDeleteThe "Incest Special" made me laugh...hard...not sure why? lol...
ReplyDeleteI think an angle can be distasteful regardless of whether or not a performer is okay with it. Plus, we're talking about a WWE employee here: any issue he has = a criticism of the company and the man who's running it. We'll never be sure how he really feels.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading Blassie's book and he talked about the Invasion angle and Stephanie said he was like the WWF because they would both die soon, and he had no problem with it. It is just part of wrestling. It is in bad taste, but again, wrestling. I'd only have serious issue if it was done without Lawler's approval.
ReplyDeleteI think an angle can be distasteful regardless of whether or not a performer is okay with it. Plus, we're talking about a WWE employee here: any issue he has = a criticism of the company and the man who's running it. We'll never be sure how he really feels.
ReplyDeleteFew wrestlers seem to have a better big-picture instinct for the business than Austin, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.
ReplyDeletehad Muhammed Hassan do a terrorism angle at the height of the London bombings
ReplyDeleteIh fairness, that was pure coincidence.
This blogger gets it.
ReplyDeleteIf Zohaib wishes to graduate from mark to smark, he'd be well served to remember the golden rule:
If a wrestler is speaking, tweeting, or using any form of social media, that wrestler is working you.
Whether you thought it was offensive, or wasn't offensive, it was definitely unnecessary. Punk & Heyman making fun of Lawler has nothing to do with his title match on Sunday, and I don't think it convinced anyone on the fence to order the show.
ReplyDeleteAlso, wasn't it rumored that they wanted to run an incest angle with Vince and Stephanie?
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm not surprised that WWE did it, my issue is with the audience. Not anything they did, mind you, but the fact is this: the fans themselves watched, in real time, Lawler going through his heart attack. Fans remember the eerie silence on commentary, watched it again on YouTube, got updates from an upset Cole, and lived through the frantic and panicked live response on Twitter from other fans.
ReplyDeleteI'd say this was worse than Eddie-sploitation, because we didn't see Eddie slump to the floor and die. But we have video of Lawler on the stretcher, video of him in his chair being attended to, etc. I'm as jaded of a know-it-all fan as you'll meet, and I've ripped Lawler for his boring, hacky style these days, but even I was fearing for his life, as were many, many others.
The fans who lived through it have their right to be outraged, especially those who were deeply affected by it. Anyone that went to bed that night, hoping they wouldn't wake up to news that Lawler had died, has a right to be angry.
1) It wasn't Lawler's first night back. He got a very nice welcome in Memphis.
ReplyDelete2) WWE wasn't mocking death. CM Punk and Paul Heyman's character was. The "sane" voices of the WWE were all pointing out what a despicable act that was.
It got buzz and a ratings bump (seems like those are moving in the right direction to me...), and that's really all that sports entertainment has ever been about.
I would watch that segment and slow clap to it.
ReplyDeleteI have no problem with with it if lawler gave the a-ok. It just came off as a cheap and desperate way of justifying punks heel turn imo.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's just it, they'd make it work.
ReplyDeleteSounds like some sort of wacky submission hold.
ReplyDeleteI think it convinced some people that Punk & Heyman are dicks.
ReplyDeleteJBL tried to compare it to when he had no heat as a main event heel, so they had Eddie's mother have a heart attack after JBL grabbed her. Except Eddie's mother didn't have a heart attack before that angle.
ReplyDeleteAnd in all honesty, having Punk and Heyman mock the heart attack that Lawler survived really flies in the face of all the wrestlers in the business who did die of a heart attack.
I'm really impressed with Stone Cold's grammar. Twitter is difficult due to the character limitation, but he used proper punctuation, verb tense, everything. Very well done, Stone Cold.
ReplyDeleteWell, Sanford and Son basically did the bit in reverse....
ReplyDeleteYep, that was supposed to be the original storyline of their feud in 2003. Hilariously enough, the CrankyVince Twitter constantly makes reference to the idea that Vince wants to sleep with his own daughter.
ReplyDeleteThis screams of Austin trying to get a feel of just how worth his time it would be to come back for a program with Punk. I'm sure he's not thrilled about the angle, but he's sat through (and participated in) far worse.
ReplyDeleteThey could've edited it out of Smackdown and chose not to.
ReplyDeleteNot only is a a BMF, he's a SMF
ReplyDeleteShouldn't they have already known that?
ReplyDeleteI think Discus may have to cut me off mid-paragraph if I tried to actually list all the examples, but the Eddie thing always bugged me because you would think if they were gonna use the "Inspirational Eddie" crap to give someone a mega-push it would have been Chavo, ya know, since he actually is a Guerrerro. I mean, yeah they probably saw more upside with Rey in the main event, but still bugged me in a small way.
ReplyDeleteThat last part is a bit dramatic. But it was lazy, exploitative, and low-brow.
ReplyDeleteYeah but the backlash from that was the likely cause of a quick squash by Taker at the PPV and the disappearence completely of Hassan.
ReplyDeleteoh you must have HATED the Chavo--and then Vickie--heel turns, then.
ReplyDeleteRandy Orton telling Rey that Eddie was rotting in hell still makes me nauseous
I read during the coverage after his death, that when Redd Foxx had his fatal heart attack on the set of his new show, it took a few minutes for people to realize it wasn't a bit and get him some help.WWE should take note of that.
ReplyDeleteIn my defense, it was kind of a flowing of ideas just coming out one after the other. It went from mentioning JBL's reaction to the angle, to remember that Eddie's mother never actually had a heart attack, to remembering that Eddie died of a heart attack, to remembering all of the wrestlers that did die of a heart attack.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm depressed.
I did at first, because Vickie should have been one of the most sympathetic characters in years, but over time I realize that Vickie is in the role she's best suited to. But yeah, when Rey and Chavo fueded it was ludicrous to me, as you would think Chavo would have been proud to see Rey with the belt since it was won in Eddies "honor". The whole thing was just contrived to me.
ReplyDeleteI hated everything about Orton at that time. He has to mock the dead to get any heat, on top of already using that dead man's lowrider in order to actually attempt to kill the Undertaker.
ReplyDeleteHilariously enough, that same show had Big Show spitting on Eddie's lowrider in his match with Rey in order to get people to boo him, then later he wishes Rey good luck and saying that Eddie's watching down on him before the Rumble match.
But there was a lot of people who were still cheering the Punk-Heyman combo, and this seems to be the thing that puts them in reviled territory. Not that I like how they did it at all, but I see they accomplished what they tried for months.
ReplyDeleteOh there's absolutely footage of Owen in the archive somewhere.
ReplyDeleteI'm ok with seeing it if Owen's ok with it being shown.
Makes perfect sense.
it wasn't just a rumor. Stephanie tells the story on the "McMahon" dvd.
ReplyDeleteYeah, and all that tells me is the writing is shit
ReplyDeleteUGH I forgot about that thing with the Big Show, and then Orton with the lowrider. I was FUMING in my dorm when I saw that...they milked every last bit of cheap heat out of poor Eddie, didn't they
ReplyDeleteWell yeah, Vickie as a heel is obviously great, but when it first happened it was like are you fucking kidding me? The dead guy's nephew & widow are the villains?
ReplyDeleteI think some, but not all, of the cause is they don't allow anyone to really be a true heel. Everyone has to have "Hall and Nash" disorder, where its like "yeah we're the bad guys, but how cool are we"? As much heat as Orton takes for his blandness and dullness in the ring, he was the last guy I really saw as a man to hate during his run against the Mcmahons. He had nothing about him you wanted to like. He RKO'd Stephanie and then kissed her while she was out, all the while glaring at her husband who he had handcuffed to the ringpost. He would kick people in the head, and he made sure we knew he was trying to hurt them. He was remorseless and a coward when it came time to fight. And when the time came, he got whooped. No one today really has that hated vibe the way he did. The problem with heel Punk is yeah, he tells true things, but thats not gonna get him booed if we agree with him.
ReplyDeleteExactly, heels are assholes.
ReplyDeleteHBO isn't pro-incest because of Cersei and Jaime's relationship, they're villains, and they're creepy.
Word. This is building up more heat between Austin and Punk.
ReplyDeleteIt's been so long since people have seen a true heel in wrestling that people have forgotten what they're like.
ReplyDeleteVince is a pretty charitable guy so it's hard for me to assume he's a scumbag. However, he does come across like a heartless capitalist at times.
ReplyDeleteAnd I would have laughed my ass off at the incest angle. That shit would have been hilarious. "It was me, Hunter! It was me all along!"
And they'd FINALLY give Lawler a run with the WWE Championship!
ReplyDeleteThe problem for me with the charity work is does Vince genuinely care about causes like bullying or breast cancer or whatever before (I seem to remember Somalia donations)...or is he just doing it for the publicity? Sadly, I think it's the latter.
ReplyDeleteThese dislikes seem to imply this blog really doesn't like anyone coming here and pointing out their character flaws...
ReplyDeleteDoes it matter?
ReplyDeleteYou come across like you just want to hate him for the sake of it. I don't know the guy and can only say I'm glad things like breast cancer research are getting money.
ReplyDeleteZombie Lawler vs The Ghost of Andy Kaufman. Book it.
ReplyDeleteOMG! CHEERING PUNK IS UNCOMFORTABLE CAUSE HE'S A DICK!
ReplyDeleteNo, no...that's not the case at all. I'm glad that the causes get money, believe me. But Vince has done so many despicable things that it's hard to see him as genuinely caring, especially considering how he won't pony up for ailing wrestlers who helped bring him his fortune.
ReplyDeleteImo people are just pissed punk turned heel. If cena had done this to turn or ziggler did this I think either no one would care (about the "tastelessness") or it would be applauded. For some reason a large number of the iwc want to see punk replace cena as the #1 face.
ReplyDeleteI've seen cm punk play a face and it's pretty underwhelming. Cena is much better suited for that role. Punk is one of the greatest heels I've ever seen. Sxs, the new nexus, he was a heelwhen he cut the mitb promo. Punk is a great at playing the heel, and they are giving him one hell of a heel push. He gets more tv time than cena, has beaten every single top guy on the roster and is going to be the 2nd guy after cena to work with the rock. Punk is destined to be a all time top heel. His current heel run has been fucking glorious. We saw what he was as a babyface and it sucked imo. (Hey Jericho I can still go to a bar and be straight edge...ugh) So I think a lot of the blowback is that people just want cena and punk to switch.
I haven't seen what they did, so I'm not in the best position to comment on this, but the use of actual footage of Lawler being tended to screams exploitation, reduces what was a real scare and almost a tragedy into just another part of the show.
ReplyDeleteIt being used to give Punk heat is fine, he's a villain, people are meant to be hate him. It's cheap, but permissible. Though as was said in a comment below, someone involved in the main event of the PPV should have immediately ran out and interrupted.
THREADJACK~! Because some people don't think that WWE Main Event deserves a live thread.
ReplyDeleteMan, that was a hell of a Rybackdrop that Cody took. I'd be shocked if he's able to compete at Survivor Series, unless it's to just stand on the apron and do nothing.
Just curious, what do people here think the sleaziest thing vkm has ever done for ratings is? Imo this lawler shit isn't even close to top 10 which is why I ask. For my money its putting pillmans wife on tv
ReplyDeleteAtt uverse needs a hd ion
ReplyDeleteI just didn't think it was a particularly amusing, clever, or salient point.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that he should take better care of his workers. It's just that "scumbag" should be reserved for people that cause real damage in the world. Murderers, rapists and racist people deserve that more than a guy who makes classless wrestling angles.
ReplyDeleteWell...if you want to split hairs, you could say that Vince has ALLEGEDLY done stuff like murder (covering up the Jimmy Snuka/girlfriend thing) and he's done tons of racist angles. 8 )
ReplyDeleteThat guts my vote too, I can't think of anything else that come close.
ReplyDeleteOr a mixed tag team finisher.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of things people can do for positive publicity. Vince goes WAY beyond any of that. And there are a lot of stories of how he's taken care of people who were loyal to his father and to him during his early years taking over the company. Why go to this extent if he doesn't genuinely care?
ReplyDeleteDislikes are delicious candy.
ReplyDeleteHHH screwing a corpse and getting brains all over himself.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the saddest thing about it was that nobody else came to Paul Heyman's aid, mere months after Lawler's near-death experience. Surely they should err on the side of caution?
ReplyDeleteI'm just as amused as ever by the phoniness. The same horseshit that was on display that night when this blog exploded with "Vince is the biggest piece of shit imaginable for continuing this show and I will never ever...complain about Michael Cole now...." Hahahaha, oh my god it's wonderful.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, the idea of CM Punk as a face is silly, the dude seems like a natural douche (it's like looking in a mirror) and isn't a decent enough actor to really pull off the "Golly Shucks" face that the publicly traded multi-million dollar corporation requires.
It all speaks to the same problem, Vince has no need or use for the IWC and the IWC cannot fucking cope with growing out of the demo.
Ooooh I like this game, you should e-mail it to Scott and see if it can get a proper thread.
ReplyDeleteMy mind went immediately to the post-9/11 SmackDown but I don't think that's actually my answer. The Hassan thing not being edited is a pretty good one too.
I KNEW George R.R.Martin was a theif
ReplyDeleteThe whole "lets have an arab terrorist" gimmick is pretty bad. I've read that the justification was he wasn't a terrorist, and he was just saying its bad to hate arabs but I never saw them do shit to put that over, and writing like that is way outside wwe creatives wheel house.
ReplyDeleteThe same with the slaughter turn. That is classic vkm sleaze. The Billy and Chuck gay wedding was a nice ratings stunt also.
I've thought about it.
ReplyDeleteAnd Paul Heyman shouldn't be at Survivor Series. At all. Not as punishment, but as a sly dick move by Punk and Heyman to have "Heyman resting after his ordeal." Even have him tout from a fake hospital bed.
Then in addition to Punk continuing to count the days in his reign, he counts down the days until Heyman returns (let's say the go home show to TLC). Then do a mocking version of what Lawler's return was.
Go the full monty. Except this doesn't lead to a match with Lawler, due to his condition, but to a potential match with Foley at Mania (which this seems to be building to).
The LAST company on Earth that should be mocking death is the WWE. Imagine if the NFL started mocking concussions this Sunday.
ReplyDeleteTHIS, that perfectly sums up why no one in the real world takes wrestling seriously
I do agree with Scott, the recap was WAY worse then anything Punk and Heyman did
ReplyDeleteI didn't think the 9/11 show was bad, I thought the comments made by some of the Superstars was borderline idiotic (the obvious Stephanie comments and JBL saying they should the Middle East into a parking lot).
ReplyDeleteSeriously, how does Stephanie not have a job flipping burgers a McDonalds? She knows nothing about proper storytelling for a person who is supposedly the head of Creative, and to compare Rock and Cena to Edward and Jacob, as opposed to, oh I don't know, Mayweather and Pacquio is beyond the R-word.
Sorry, got off track there for a bit.
You're right, Scott's recap sucked!
ReplyDeleteIf Heyman did not really have a heart attack, then he has to be at ringside to sell concern for his guy fighting two opponents with the WWE title on the line.
ReplyDeleteI think vince think he is marketing to the iwc. And kids, and women, and whoever else. I really believe that they think they just have a buffet of entertainment that gets everyone. You have Cena fighting Big Show or Johny Ace or whatever, brodus dancing, saturday morning slam etc for the kids, but then you get this cm punk run which I feel is marketed towards smarks. Other than ryback he hasn't been booked against any guys who can't work good matches, and this heel run feels very 80's nwa to me (in a good way). Then you get shit like shameus and wade barrett and I would bet you a dollar they think those guys are there for mma/sports fans, and lastly you get shit like the vickie/aj/cena thing or the team hell no stuff for variety hour raw which they think pulls in the casual tv audience.
ReplyDeleteLike I don't know the exact demographics this vickie/aj thing is aimed at but it can't be kids.
It's already taped. Not much difference between watching it Wednesday on Ion and watching it Thursday on YouTube.
ReplyDelete*whisper voice* I think it's because her dad owns the company?
ReplyDeleteThen have him in a wheelchair attached to an oxygen tank.
ReplyDelete*whisper voice* IT WAS RHETORICAL!
ReplyDeleteOh God, BIlly and Chuck was dumb as shit I forgot about that one. The Bischoff payoff was kind of awesome though.
ReplyDeleteDo people still give a shit about the crucifixion angles? I know I never did but I don't really get offended at much of anything, I'm too lazy to be outraged.
RAW is the mainstream "catch-all" show. WWE Main Event is for old-timers and MMA fans. Saturday Morning Slam is for kids. Superstars is for diehards. NXT is for international fans (and true diehards)
ReplyDeleteBut, for the life of me, I really can't figure out what niche Smackdown is supposed to fulfill.
Also what about Kamala. Now I know that it wasn't an original vkm creation but he did put him on tv. The gimmick was a big dumb savage from africa who was so stupid he didn't even know to pin the guy on his back. And this was 1993!
ReplyDelete*whisper voice* WWE became a publicly traded company in 1999.
ReplyDelete*whisper voice* How did you pull off whispering in all caps?
ReplyDeleteThat could work. Then use the oxyget tank as a weapon!
ReplyDelete*whisper voice* VENTRILOQUISM!
ReplyDeleteDid the undertaker do one on raw? Do I remember that right? That had to get some Christians really fucking worked up. A zombie putting people on the cross...nice
ReplyDeleteYou two have really done something here.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I love your horsey dance!
ReplyDeleteYeah he did it to Steph and Stone Cold if I remember right. I don't think Stephanie was actually hung from the ceiling though.
ReplyDeleteI remember it being a very big deal on the internet but I never knew anyone that gave a shit for real.
*whisper voice* whoops I meant controlling share holder of WWE
ReplyDeleteSlick giving a promo while eating a bucket of fried chicken?
ReplyDeleteLawler ran an alcoholism angle in Memphis with Austin Idol. He had a litany of racist gimmicks throughout his running the Memphis territory. He was okay with making light of Jake Roberts' alcoholism on national TV going so far as to pour whiskey down the guy's throat. He called Goldust a fag during their angle. He constantly made racist jokes at Ahmed Johnson's expense by implying he was a criminal because he was black.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure Lawler would be okay with a tasteless angle at his expense. He ran enough of them in Memphis, and took part in enough while with WWE, that I don't think he even gave it a second thought.
You're a man...you're a man...you're a man
ReplyDeleteI recently watched the 1993 raws and I can't believe they did that.
They call it memphis heat for a reason, and lawler was the king of getting it. I'm sure jerry loves it.
ReplyDeleteSmackdown is the saturday morning wrestling show for smarks who wake up and get high on saturday mornings.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Scott. I could understand if some people felt uncomfortable with it if they had a loved one who recently had a heart attack. But Sanford and Son had the fake heart attack thing down 35 years ago, and I find this just as funny.
ReplyDeleteIt was that WWE production treatment of a man clinically dead that had me squirming. If they wanted to show it that badly, they could've at least abstained from doing it that way (without the music and slow-mo effects).
I just hate how they are completely anonymous. I want people to know when I down vote (or up vote) them
ReplyDeleteVince wanted to run angle where he fucked his daughter and got her pregnant. Is anything else making it on his tv show really a suprise?
ReplyDeleteEven though it drew no ratings the nation of domination as an all black supremacist group is offensive because it led to 20 minute ahmed johnson matches
ReplyDeleteI'd watch it on tv Wednesday if I got the channel in hd
ReplyDeleteA show dedicated to honoring Chris Benoit, Randy Savage, and Bruno Sammartino would be a surprise.
ReplyDeleteYou are well aware that's not what I meant
ReplyDeleteProve it!
ReplyDeleteHow great would it have been if the payoff for the incest angle was savage coming back and saying the baby was really his, and it was payback for vince making steph get an abortion at 14.
ReplyDeleteThe most offensive thing about the Nation split up is that it gave us Los Boriquas, who got more and more terrible as time went on. First, they wore all the same outfits (white pants, colored tank tops, with fedoras on top), then they went full Hispanic gangster with their outfits (baggy jeans, bandanas, jackets), and then they started rapping their theme song to the ring.
ReplyDeleteAnd the crowd just didn't care. Splitting the Nation was a terrible idea.
*whisper voice* Hey bitch, wait til you see my dick
ReplyDeleteNormally I wouldn't get sucked into this bullshit-but I have a comment count to acheivment whore over damn it!
ReplyDeleteWhat bothered ME was Vince airing footage of a man who was clinically
dead at the time getting revived and packaging it like a "Last time on
Impact" pre-show video. That was way beyond the pale for wrestling"
This was the Scott quote I was referencing and you know it
When vkm dies I bet he puts his autopsy on ppv
ReplyDeleteI remember reading that vince wanted to also do an incest angle with katie and paul burchill but I guess they balked. Big mistake as I don't know what either one is doing now
ReplyDeleteWhat ratings bump? The show did a 2.9. It did a 2.8 last week.
ReplyDeleteYou know why CM Punk isn't a "true" heel? Because true heels draw money. They don't just act like dicks to get people to boo.
CM Punk as a heel is NOT drawing money. Everyone wants to blame everything except Punk for the ratings hitting the lowest level in 15 years. 15 years!!!
Punk is not a good heel in this current role. He's just annoying. And not the good "McMahon in 1998" annoying where you want to see someone smash his face in. The type of annoying where people change the channel.
And that's how you end up with a pathetic 2.9 rating being considered a "ratings bump."
Punk's the problem right now, not the answer. And mocking a dude who was actually dead is the latest sign that EVERYONE in Stamford knows it.
*whisper voice* I'll show you mine, if you show me yours first!
ReplyDeleteI know nothing! And many Blog of Doomers will vouch for that!
ReplyDelete*whisper voice* walk around the club with ya thumb in yo mouth, put my dick in, take the thumb out
ReplyDelete(I just realized there might not be a lot of ying yang twins fans that post on here...wait til you see my dick is the chorus in the "whisper song")
*whisper voice* DEAL!
ReplyDeleteRemedial math says that 2.9 > 2.8
ReplyDeleteno buys unless Austin hits his dead body over the head with a bed pan, you know, his way of saying goodbye
ReplyDeleteYou know more then some give you credit for, and less than others-is that not the nature of Human relationships
ReplyDeleteLawler seriously thank God, and the skilled EMTS that God graced with their life-saving abilities for giving him a chance to get a another chance to repent of his sins - instead of joking like the whole thing was a work.
ReplyDeleteA stupid angle is not even close to harassing a woman who's husband just died in real life.
ReplyDeleteMocking a guy who was actually dead=higher ratings than not mocking a guy who was actually dead.
ReplyDeleteSeriously dude, you have no better idea what wrestling fans want to see than Vince does. You're speaking your personal opinions as fact.
Repent of his sins?
ReplyDeleteUh...I mean, I know his commentary was bad...
They should have done it with Ken and Ryan Shamrock. After all, they were fucking each other in real life anyway.
ReplyDeleteAsk your ass.
ReplyDeleteI bet that's what keeps Vince alive. He refuses to croak until he finally gets to run with one of his incest angles.
ReplyDeleteNFL is not wrestling.
ReplyDeleteWrestling is like Hollywood Sport's Movies, we all really know that the other team wouldn't really try to bulldoze your grandfathers home and use genetically engineered cyborgs to win a baseball game. Did you send a letter to the editor when Ivan Drago killed Apollo Creed? I mean, murder is wrong, how dare they promote murder.
Vince is more Tywin than Craster, and Tyrion is a (mostly) sexless individual.
ReplyDeleteVince McMahon as Tywin, Shane as Tyrion, Triple H as Jaime and Steph as Cersei? That...kinda works. I guess WCW is the Tagaryen's, and TNA is Danyerys. Hrm, I guess Jorah is Vince Russo?
He won't pony up for ailing wrestlers?
ReplyDeleteHe paid for Jeff Hardy's rehab, while Jeff Hardy was the number one heel in TNA.
Fuck you.
Anyone think Stone Cold's response is just part of he and Punk building to an eventual match? (Still saying my prayers to JBL and the wrestling Gods that I get to see Punk-Austin at my first live Mania. And an extra prayer that HHH tears a few quads so I don't have to see him beat Lesnar.)
ReplyDeleteAlso, I loved every second of the Punk-Lawler segment. (Until Foley came out— I am 110% sick of his act at this point.) I've read things online about people getting offended by WWE turning this into an angle rather than letting Lawler have his "feel good" moment. But to me, that WAS the greatest feel good moment possible for a guy like Lawler— the guy was thisclose to being dead, and now he's back in the ring doing what he loves, which is being at the center of a hot wrestling angle. The fact that Lawler was able to participate in a segment like that is a feel-good enough moment for me.
The behind the scenes near-death footage from that night, though, that's not something I needed to see. Yeesh.
i am.
ReplyDeleteA greatest hits of Memphis class:
ReplyDelete"We are imperial, supreme Japanese!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr9E5NFujjs
Jerry supports GLAAD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99N62akUqM4&feature=related
Memphis sets back race-relations by a few centuries. Also: defermation of character.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PkaopewzW8
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANND...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyHc7y-7YhU
Finally, slightly unrelated to Lawler, but it's still the greatest trainwreck ever. Why didn't Vince ever hire Doug Gilbert full-time?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoXV2DDplJc&feature=related
The kennel in a cell match was the most offensive thing to appear on wwe/wwf tv in the last 20 years.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I hate the anonymous feature of Disqus v2.0. I miss seeing who gave you thumbs up (and vice versa) and you should totally see who gives the thumbs down.
ReplyDeleteKillin' it. The exchange made me laugh, and that's all I have to say.
ReplyDeletevouch
ReplyDeletenot over
ReplyDeleteglad i'm not the only one here
ReplyDeleteeach gets their own hour of raw
ReplyDeleteThe only thing to go farther than the Edge/Lita sex celebration in showing actual copulation.
ReplyDeleteWhile I don't trust the writing staff to book something like that, I do trust Austin and Punk being smart enough to pull something like this off. It would be some kind of awesome.
ReplyDeleteVKM will see us all into the grave.
ReplyDeleteGuys, even sociopaths love their mothers. Vince obviously cares for (some) people, but he's also clearly not a well-adjusted person emotionally based on his general reactions towards anyone opposed to him.
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't doubt he's well-intentioned on some of the charity work he's done but very few companies will throw millions of dollars into charity simply for good will. You're kidding yourself if you think otherwise. Any company that engages in charity work has at least a partial motive of using it to enhance their public image. If they didn't, they wouldn't publicize their involvement. You also have to question the charities a company involves itself in. The Susan G. Komen Foundation isn't new; it's existed for decades. WWE's involvement is probably a PR ploy since Komen has become a trendy charity group to become involved with over the last decade. It's also a bizarre choice given the company's target demographic and its existing fanbase, but more power to them if they can help raise awareness.
Kamala angle done in 1999:
ReplyDeleteYou're an ass man! Yes you're an ass man!
You'd really hope it would be a situation in which Vince told Punk & Austin "Okay, you've got 20 minutes per show for the next 6 weeks. Build the match." Sort of how (we assume) the Jericho-HBK feud went a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the perfect opening is right there: Austin helps Rock beat Punk at RR, leading to their Mania match. Give me that match at Mania plus D-Bry winning the Rumble and challenging Rock for the belt, and the rest of the card could be Cena and HHH taking turns tapping out the whole roster while 3MB does a live concert, and I'd still feel like I got my money's worth.
I think bro meant pay rent on his sins. Like, The Devil was all, "Hey, Jerry, remember all that tween tang we made a deal on? You owe me. That little heart murmur? It's a warning."
ReplyDeleteScott,
ReplyDeleteThey will never show any footage of Owen for two reasons...One I am pretty sure none if it exits anymore...my guess is that as part of the lawsuit it was all destroyed...and even if it wasn't Owen actually died as a stunt gone wrong....Jerry didn't.....To be honest if Jerry was really dead for 15 minutes...then the 30 seconds or so we got to see to bring him back to life was totally awe inspiring....did you all see how deep the paramedics pressed on his chest? Be offended by showing the footage if you want...watching how hard those medics fought to keep him alive and knowing that Jerry made it....just totally aswome
(Damnit, I didn't get the joke, I thought you were coming on to me)
ReplyDeleteIt didn't help that she just watched her husband spend his last month of the company pretending to want to have sex with another man's wife.
ReplyDeleteSecond guy after Cena to work with The Rock?! Are The Awesome Truth chopped liver????
ReplyDeleteI think Owen would have just quit and became a fireman like he originally wanted to do, rather than be involved in that sort of bullshit. But I agree with the point you made.
ReplyDeleteOr...maybe somebody got him with the HEART PUNCH!?!?!?!?!?!?
ReplyDeleteI wish I had four hands, so I could give all your posts four thumbs down!
ReplyDeleteI believe he is a genuinely caring person at his core, besides his charitable contributions. I cite all the rehab he's paid for on behalf of former employees as examples.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you did that.
ReplyDeleteVince has issues, but anybody who doesn't think he's a pretty caring person at his heart of hearts is delusional. I think loyalty is a major thing to him, but can you think of any loyal wrestler that he's fucked over?
ReplyDeleteWell, it made the actual Nation stronger, given that Rock and Owen joined.
ReplyDeleteim still puttin you over. give someone else the rub
ReplyDeleteNo need to be rude. But didn't he only start paying for rehab and such after the overwhelming media scrutiny after the Benoit murders? He had bbeen confronted by the others about wrestling's death rate previously and just shrugged it off. Don't get me wrong, as I'm glad wrestlers are getting helped but for a lot of the time, it seems Vince's good deeds are things he's forced to do rather than what he should do.
ReplyDeleteThat's not true. When Wellness and offers to pay rehab were instituted there were press releases to the media.
ReplyDeleteYou are completely missing my point, it's not about anyone endorsing anything, it's about the fact that wrestlers are dropping dead at a rate that is an embarrassment to the industry, and how the OUTSIDE WORLD views mocking anybody's heart attack. I personally wasn't exactly offended by the actions of Punk/Heyman- but the WWE has a self fulfilling proficiency where THEY want to be taken seriously by the mainstream media, and then do things that are sure to rub people outside the wresting bubble the wrong way. yesterday I explained what happened to some non-wrestling fan people I know too use them as a barometer, and all three didn't get it, they all thought it was a terrible thing for the company too do. WWE can use all the exploitative Carny bullshit they want, and it won't push away legions of fans, but they have to stop acting dumbfounded when they don't get mainstream coverage-it's infuriating
ReplyDeleteKing of the 7 kingdoms tournament LIVE on PPV
ReplyDeleteHe'd need to do it in the style of the Greater Power reveal.
ReplyDelete"IT WAS ME, VINCE. IT WAS ME ALL ALONG!"
Done in 1998, it would have been "He's a maaaaan... such a maaaaan! He's a real, real man's man!"
ReplyDeleteOh... wait.
I only know their song "Naggin" which cracks me up
ReplyDeleteOrton was great because he realised something so simple it's genius: Heels are not meant to be likeable. So he did chinlocks, he had slow offence, he did disgusting things, he didn't tell jokes, and he ran from fights.
ReplyDeleteI mean... he willingly looked like the biggest wimp on the planet when he was being smacked around by Shane's pathetic punches. And had go to full psycho just to beat him. It was brilliant heel work!
Oh, I was fine with the Nation adding more members, I just hated the idea of giving Crush and Savio their own factions since they were a perfect fit for the Nation.
ReplyDelete"he did disgusting things, he didn't tell jokes, and he ran from fights".
ReplyDelete-I agree with this entirely.
"So he did chinlocks, he had slow offense"
-This I'm iffy on, slow offense and chinlocks are effective for drawing heat but a 30 minute match where the heel never speeds things up,now it's just boring,sure he's getting heat with the audience, but you won't pay to see a match you KNOW will be dull. We cant put Pandora back in the box, we expect great work rate on PPV and are disappointed if we don't receive it
Im pretty sure the string of sub-3.0 ratings are showing that people are digging CM Punk as a heel.
ReplyDeleteThe worst angles in history. Definitely turned me off Smackdown. Just let the dead rest and don't mention them like the Natives
ReplyDeleteHow many musicians have died from their drug use?
ReplyDeleteHow many musicians are still writing songs about partying and using drugs?
Do people boycott shows and not buy CDs because a musician is "mocking" somebodies death by mentioning doing drugs? Here's the answer...NO!
Seriously, the only people who give a shit about dead wrestlers are already wrestling fans. You walk up to some guy on the street who doesn't watch wrestling and ask them why they don't watch, they're not going to say "Oh, it's because too many wrestlers have died and I can't support the industry." they're going to say it's gay or fake, or both gay and fake.
The only people who think the angle is anything more than fiction. And also anybody who uses the word Industry in correlation to wrestling? Guess what. They're already a wrestling fan. And you're already hooked.
He's also 66. Wrestling changed a lot from his youth, hell, it changed a lot from the 80s and to expect him to immediately change his entire worldview is frankly ridiculous. And I'm pretty sure he paid for Hall's rehab before the Benoit thing.
ReplyDeleteThere are states in this country that don't teach evolution. And Darwin was working in the 19th goddamn century. Nowinski started in what? 05?
The public opinion of music and wrestling is apples and oranges, I'm FINE with the angle personally, but Vince wants mainstream and this is an example of why he can't get it.
ReplyDelete"How many musicians have died from their drug use?
How many musicians are still writing songs about partying and using drugs?"
the difference is that Punk was insulting a man who had a heart attack personally, you don't think there would be a media outrage if a song called "Amy Whinehouse and Curt Cobain were fucking piece of shit morons and no one should feel sorry they died". came out the main-stream wouldn't be aghast and offended? I mean fuck, remember what happened to the Dixie Chicks, and she just said she didn't like the president.
What bothers me is that we get PR bullshit with Cena or Shemus doing nothing but smiling and all this work the WWE puts into appealing to the mainstream that the people on this blog HATE, and then Vince has shit like this, that too the oversensitive public, is horribly offensive-if you don't "get" wrestling then you don't "get" what Punk was trying to accomplish, and I wouldn't give a shit if the getting people who don't understand wrestling's approval didn't sometimes seem like VKM's top prerogative in life, and wasn't causing his product to suffer as a result
All right! So I'm not the only blog-of-doomer from Pakistan. Nice! We could do with a little more "smart" contingent down here and a lot less "I Supurt Jhon China cox he ix alwaz on d side ov gud!".
ReplyDeleteAs for the topic at hand, not offended at all. Nothing they do surprises me any more. My issue is with the attitude era comparisons as to how no matter how trashy they got in the name of being edgy, you'd never hear a Droz or an Owen joke.
There is a difference.
Droz got crippled. Owen died. Lawler is neither.
I don't want to get into the whole actual tragedy vs. not-an-actual tragedy debate again, but the difference to me is clear.
So you don't like it, because you think Vince who is trying to appeal to the mainstream...and now he isn't appealing to the mainstream. I really don't get your point.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Dixie Chicks (there are more than one of them BTW) said they hated the president in an interview, not a song, major difference. The only people who care about song lyrics are Fox News. Also, nobody gives a shit about wrestling, CM Punk could set a fucking American Flag on fire and it wouldn't get five minutes on CNN.
Fox News where they only people who gave a shit about the Dixie Chicks at first, but bullshit spreads sideways in the mainstream news, and it wasn't an interview, it was something Natalie Maines said on stage that got the Dixie Chicks in hot water
ReplyDelete"CM Punk could set a fucking American Flag on fire and it wouldn't get five minutes on CNN"
Assuming that's Hyperbole, That's my point-I'm just stating the fact that the WWE won't gain the acceptance if they do anything, well, wrestling like and have trully dastardly heels. I don't care about mainstream acceptance, but they do, and they are REALLY shitty at getting it.
If you are being literal your insane, the news loves to occasionally rag on wrestling, and as protective as people are of that flag their would be a controversy, would it go on for weeks and weeks, no, but CNN/Fox/MSNBC have 24 hours to fill, they'd find time
The mainstream loves to rag on wrestling? Uh, I guess. I mean, the last time wrestling was mentioned in any vaguely important manner was the Chris Brown/Punk thing. Did "legitimate" media care about the National Guard getting Finlay fired? No. Cause it doesn't fucking matter.
ReplyDeleteAnd the culture of our country has changed a lot since the mid/early 2000s.
And you keep on saying that Vince is desperate for approval, but what's your proof? Where did he say this? All you have is conjecture and assumptions. That's all everybody has.
I'm not from Pakistan and I may never get the chance to travel there but man do I love the Nihari they make at the Pakistani spot here in SD. Damn that's some good shit. Also I fully agree with your post.
ReplyDelete