I buy all the Humble Bundles just on general principles, but this is a HELL of a deal right now to assist the cash-strapped THQ. http://www.humblebundle.com/ Basically if you pay $6 or more, you get (via Steam only) Saints Row 3, Darksiders, Metro 2033, Red Faction Armageddon and the three Company of Heroes games.  Ho. Ly. Shit.  Darksiders by itself is pretty awesome for a God of War ripoff and well worth the price.  Plus if you don't want support THQ, you can just direct all the money to charity.  Bravo, THQ.

So apparently Kenneth Cameron of the Ascension was arrested for a DUI and fired, thus breaking up the Ascension team.  Yeah, it's a shame for the tag division and another black eye on the "young wrestlers in WWE just hang out in hotel rooms and play video games" nonsense, but really, the biggest WTF thing for me is that his real name is Tom Latimer.  What kind of butt-ass stupid writing system do they have when the best wrestling name they can come up with someone is KENNETH CAMERON?!  I had just assumed that name was so stupid that it had to be his real one, but no, someone actually thought that was a better name than "Tom Latimer".  Why not "Lazarus" instead of "Latimer", which at least kind of sounds like his real name and would play better into the mysterious heel team gimmick?  Even sillier, his partner Conor O'Brian's real name is Ryan Parmeter, which at least sounds more exotic and dangerous than a play on a talk show host.   ...

Hey Scott, I've got a couple of questions for you, and would appreciate your insight. 1) What was the deal with WWE no longer doing those UK Pay Per Views anymore? Is it because they weren't making any money on doing pay-per-views for just the UK and Europe? Or was it because they wanted to start taping Raw and Smackdown over here twice a year, and PPVs on top would have been overkill? 2) I would love to know your opinions The Miz and Sin Cara. Are they any good in your eyes, or a complete waste of time? Thanks. 1)  It was indeed because they weren't making any money.   2) Miz was terrible, got a lot better, but hit a plateau sometime around the first Cena feud and the problem is that they just kept pushing him way past the level where he should have settled into the midcard.  Miz trading the IC title with Kofi is fine, Miz wrestling Cena in the main event of Wrestlemania is a fucking joke.  He's a robot who reads his lines the way that the writers w...

Smackdown Date: November 30, 2012 Location: CenturyLink Center, Bossier City, Louisiana Commentators: Josh Matthews, John Bradshaw Layfield Reviewed by Tommy Hall Remember when Smackdown used to be good? Like when it was the best wrestling show on TV? I'm trying to give myself a nice feeling before I get into this show. We're going to get the Shield interview from Raw I'm sure, along with Cena and AJ's latest kiss at least once or twice on top of that. Oh and the world champions will get a quick bit of time too if we can squeeze them in. Let's get to it.

A few days ago, WWE.com released arguably its weirdest list ever, with "The 50 Most Beautiful People in Sports Entertainment", which ranks both women and men together.  http://www.wwe.com/classics/classic-lists/50-most-beautiful-people-in-sports-entertainment It's a gallery-style list, so for those who want to avoid clicking through the whole tiring thing: 50. Kaitlyn 49. CM Punk 48. Melina 47. Matt Striker 46. Dolph Ziggler 45. Molly Holly 44. Triple H 43. The Kat 42. Eric Bischoff 41. Mickie James 40. Stan Lane 39. Bella Twins 38. Jack Brisco 37. Ted DiBiase, Jr. 36. Kimberly Page 35. John Cena 34. Justin Gabriel 33. Jim Londos 32. Maria 31. Wade Barrett 30. Kelly Kelly 29. Magnum T.A. 28. Jeff Hardy 27. David Otunga 26. Lita 25. Chris Jericho 24. Kofi Kingston 23. Paul Roma 22. Candice Michelle 21. The Miz 20. Layla 19. Rick Rude 18. Alberto Del Rio 17. Shawn Michaels 16. Maryse 15. John Morr...

Scott, What do you think about TNA cutting back on PPVs?  Are they just trying to be smart with their money and give the product breathing room, or is this a sign that they're running out of money? They don't HAVE any money, they're being kept alive at the whims of Panda Energy and Spike TV in that order.  Running 12 PPVs a year at this point is just something they'r doing because it's something they've always done.  There's no way the paltry amount of buys they get possibly justifies the cost of doing the shows, so the more they can cut back, the better.  Honestly they'd be 1000% better off cutting down to Lockdown, Slammiversary, Destination X and Bound For Glory and then just doing everything else as Clash-style (as opposed to Styles Clash) TV specials on Spike or maybe even a different Viacom property like MTV2 as something different.  

November 13, 2002 Your hosts are Don West and Mike Tenay Goldylocks opens the show by singing the national anthem. She did a good job. Tenay lets us know that Mr. Wrestling III has not contacted Tenay, so he never signed the Truth’s open contract West and Tenay run down the card: Amazing Red vs. Jimmy Yang Brian Lawler & April vs. Jorge Estrada & Priscilla Kid Kash vs. Jerry Lynn for the X Division Title Syxx Pac vs. Jeff Jarrett in the semi-finals for the #1 contender spot

The SmarK Rant for TNA Impact – 11.29.12 Live again from Orlando, FL Your hosts are Mike Tenay, Todd Keneley and Taz

NXT Date: November 28, 2012 Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida Commentators: Tony Dawson, Jim Ross, Tom Phillips Review ed by Tommy H all Back to the Florida guys this week as we approach the title match between Rollins and Mahal. We're also getting towards the point where this show will catch up to WWE and we'll see Mahal as a leather clad rocker and potentially Rollins as a guy in a police themed gimmick. Other than that we've still got Langston vs. Vickie's guys for the bounty. Let's get to it.

http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/118-daily-updates/28594-freebird-buddy-roberts-passes-away I went to Edmonton to see Paul McCartney and look what happened.  :(

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Hey Scott,   Kevin Kelly rejoined us to finish our cast about 1997 WWF.  Can we get a plug?  Thanks as always!!   In this new episode of the PTB Podcast Vintage Vault, Kevin Kelly returns to join Scott & Justin to finish talking about the year of 1997 in WWF. Kevin delves into a plethora of topics including Jeff Jarrett, New Age Outlaws, Jim Cornette, Vince Russo, Undertaker, Shawn Michaels and of course...Montreal. Kevin also tells a classic Vince McMahon story, discusses some of his favorite wrestlers and angles of all time, confirms and/or denies some urban myths and talks a little Ring of Honor as well. So fire up this action packed episode and join Scott & Justin as for another edition of the PTB Podcast! http://placetobe.podbean.com/ https://www.facebook.com/placetobepodcast Twitter: Place2BePodcast --------------------------------------- Loving the shows, guys!  I just listened to the No Way Out 98 one a...

Someone had to do it.

As usual, this was written several months ago so if I'm missing something, it's because I hadn't seen the Nitros leading up to this show. Bash at the Beach 1997 Date: July 13, 1997 Location: Ocean Center, Daytona Beach, Florida Attendance: 7,851 Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, Dusty Rhodes Reviewed by Tommy Hall I’ll be doing the three Bashes in a row and then probably just doing individual shows again for awhile. It’s 1997 and the unofficial anniversary of the NWO being formed. This was in that weird period for WCW as everything was setting up for Sting vs. Hogan, but at the same time it took forever to get there because we waited 9 months between Sting’s moment of showing he was WCW and the actual match. The main event here is Luger/Giant vs. Hogan/Rodman. As in Dennis Rodman. Let’s get to it.

Monday Nitro #95 Date: July 7, 1997 Location: Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee Attendance: 7,799 Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, Larry Zbyszko Reviewed by Tommy Hall We're finally back to this series with the go home show for Bash at the Beach which is the final show before we get to something a little more interesting than celebrities in the main event. Tonight we have a pretty famous moment which is a cool building block for a feud. I won't spoil it for those of you unfamiliar with it so let's get to it.

---------- Forwarded message ------- Hey Scott, I am giving away a copy of WWE 13 for the Xbox 360. I figured your viewers may be interested. Here is the link to the giveaway's guidelines. http://www.examiner.com/article/wwe-13-giveaway

http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/118-daily-updates/28580-raw-ratings-for-monday Ratings dropped every hour and finished at a 2.5.  They have GOT to kill that third hour.  You cant even blame this on lack of Cena.

Hey, guys. I created a poll to give you a choice as to what you'd like to see reviewed next. Also, write in votes will be allowed, so long as it's not to make Ric Flair America's Most Beautiful Person. Now, once you guys vote, you also have to decide what style of review you want! Will it be a standard review, a standard Caliber review, or a tag-team match against The Undatakah! What Would You Like Reviewed Next? CM Punk DVD Roddy Piper DVD AWE Night of Legends PPV WrestleMania 24 Undertaker's The Streak DVD    pollcode.com free polls  

---------- Forwarded message ------ Hey Scott,   Barring injury, how high do you think Marc Mero would've gotten up the card as "The Wildman"?  ---------------- He was pretty much at his ceiling when he got hurt.

Top Ten Batman Fights By, J. Ryan Buck (Lostscribe@gmail.com)

Part II MeekinOnMovies jobs to WCW, a  tripod, an audio recorder, and a laptop. One of the better ways to look like a bumbling fool is to trip over a replica of the WCW Hardcore Championship in front of Spike Dudley and The Full Blooded Italians. While the Fall River PAL is an awesome venue, The gorilla position area backstage is crowded with audio equipment, lighting rigs, TRP personnel, cables, and to the determent of my balance, the aforementioned replica of the WCW Hardcore Championship belt on the floor. Not that the floor is a bad place for such a...bizarre item. Despite it’s treasured lineage - it’s the only championship in pro wrestling history to be held by Terry Funk, Lance Storm, and Eric Bischoff -  I somehow doubt there’s a high demand for the illustrious title amongst fans. So down I went, instinctively grabbing hold of the red velvet curtain that was there to separate the Dorothys and Totos of the audience from machinations of the great...

WWF Championship Wrestling May 26, 1984 Your hosts are Gene Okerlund and Vince McMahon Gene and Vince run down the card, which will feature Tito Santana vs. Tiger Chung Lee, the debut of “Mad Dog” Buzz Sawyer as he squares off against SD Jones. Plus, the Tag-Team Champions, Rocky Johnson & Tony Atlas go against Adrian Adonis & Dick Murdoch with the belts on the line and Piper’s Pit with guests Lou Albano and Cyndi Lauper.

Scott, About your comment about "Restaurant Stakeout" being staged, I wanted to point out that there has been similar criticism about Robert Irvine's "Restaurant: Impossible" show.  Irvine did a show near Cleveland, and the owner of the restaurant said that they basically staged things to highlight as problems on the show, and Irvine just overacted on camera: http://strongsville.patch.com/articles/mad-cactus-owner-finally-talks-about-tv-makeover It is also interesting from the standpoint of how Food Network used to frequently push some bullshit bio for Irvine (that he was instrumental in the creation of Prince Charles and Princess Diana's wedding cake) until that was blown out of the water. Bill Well those makeover shows are obviously staged for fake drama, from the artificial deadlines to Irvine's over-the-top personality.  Plus he's married to a wrestler, so he knows the score.  The worst by far I've seen is "Health I...

---------- Forwarded message --- http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2012/1127/558276/daniel-bryan/ I KNEW these things weren't legit! --------------------- You know, I just found out that Restaurant Stakeout and that other hidden camera show on Food Network are staged, too.  So its been a rough week for our illusions all around I guess.

Legends of Wrestling Monday Night Wars Today's Panel is: JR, Mick, Bischoff, Hayes and Lawler This could be an interesting one. Ross gives a little background and goes right to interrogating Bischoff and says the start of the Monday Night War came when Lex Luger showed up at the Mall of America.

by Logan Scisco - McMahon recaps last week’s tag team championship main event and the events that unfolded after the match.  McMahon also recaps the Undertaker’s interaction with Paul Bearer at the end of last week’s show. - Vince McMahon and Jim Ross are in the booth and they are broadcasting from Huntington, West Virginia.  This is the go home show for the King of the Ring pay-per-view .

1. What gimmick would you recycle that hasn't been done in a while?  For me, the Bad News Brown esque loner with no ring music might be pretty cool.   It's tough these days to just assign someone a random gimmick like in the old days, because now it's more about matching the personality with the person.  That being said, Sinister Clown is due for a comeback, and I'd like to see someone really run with a Rick Rude womanizing heel gimmick again.   2. Who are the funniest wrestlers in history?  The Rock and Piper are great, but I don't think anyone can touch Jericho in his WCW run.  Mick Foley always had a great sense of comic timing as well.  Colt Cabana is really entertaining on his podcast, although it doesn't always translate into the wrestling stuff.  

The SmarK RAW Rant – 11.26.12 Live from Lafayette, LA Your hosts are Michael Cole & Jerry Lawler

All right, this week C.M. Punk should be passing Randy Savage right? Might make for an interesting telecast. With the Road to Wrestlemania set to begin in six weeks this is the time for the seeds of future booking to be planted. Enjoy the show and come out swinging but please...pretty please....keep it clean. Thanks :)

Already did this one but wanted to keep them in order. Won't be doing too many "extended" rants like this one because they take too much time. Enjoy. ***** I’m sure there are some spelling errors in here as I’ve been horribly distracted but I’ll read it later and make edits. I apologize ahead of time.

Scott, A few random Four Horsemen-related questions: - In 1991, the Horsemen included Flair, Arn, Windham, and Sid.  Of those four, Flair and Sid took off for the WWF by summer.  How did they end the Horsemen in WCW at that point?  Did Flair & Sid just stop appearing on TV, or did they have any on-screen explanations or dissolution of the stable? Nope.  The group was basically done after Flair's reveal as the Black Scorpion and they kind of just stopped associating with each other.  Flair was doing that goofy El Gigante feud and Windham/AA went off on their own as a team, more or less. - Do you think Tully Blanchard could have been a world champion, or was he too much like Flair character-wise? I don't think anyone would have bought him as the top guy, no. - Through all the early incarnations of the Horsemen, they never really went with an angle where the group got tired of Flair and someone new rose to take over the group. The storyline seems tailor-mad...

Hey Scott, You had mentioned some time ago about how the Edge and Christian (or Hardyz; can't remember which) break-up didn't work because people didn't want to see them fight. This got me thinking. Throughout wrestling, there have been some decent tag betrayals (Steiner in '98; Team 3D in 200-Whatever) and of course the awesome Barbershop split. However, IMO, no split has led to anything particularly memorable in terms of a longstanding feud and the matches generally aren't inspired (Benoit and Angle might be considered an exception but they weren't really an established team (Their team was more an excuse to keep them together until they were ready to feud again)). This makes some amount of sense. Splits tend to occur when a team is on the downswing of their popularity and/or workrate. Also, teams are usually formed because either wrestler wouldn't survive in singles, or at least, couldn't maintain, as a single, the popularity he established with a tea...

I like Caliber's idea of an open SK-branded forum for y'all to discuss things on your own and such, but I also like making money, so I found a forum software called Nabble that's pretty easy and embeds right into Blogger, so it's the best of both worlds for me.  You'll notice a new link at the top of the page, for "Scott's Forum of Doom", and you can set up an account and start posting.  I don't know what we're going to go with in terms of organization and such, maybe a topic for blog questions and another for older discussions and another for FAQs about the site and stuff. Also, I'm totally willing to pay Nabble to get rid of their ads, but they only take Amazon Payments, which is a pain in the ass because it's not Paypal.  So I'm going to look into it further, although honestly it's REALLY expensive to get rid of their ads given the kind of traffic I get.   Anyway, try it out and let me know how it works for everyone. ...

This week’s ROH TV features S.C.U.M. defending the tag titles against BJ Whitmer and Rhett Titus.

Wow I haven't done a rant in forever. Time to jump back on that horse so here we go. Greatest Rivalries The panel is Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Michael Hayes, Mick Foley and Eric Bischoff

Hey Scott, I was bored watching my fantasy football team beat up Hollywood Fuj today, so I popped in my Greatest Stars of the 80's dvd. It got me thinking, there were several guys during that time who never got to wear a singles title in the WWE.  Piper eventually got the I-C belt, but others didn't fair so well. One of my favorite guys, Paul Orndoff sticks out. That cage match with Hogan was one of the first big feel matches I remember watching and getting into. It seemed like he should have parlayed that into at least a transitional I-C run. Same with Jake Roberts and Bob Orton. These guys weren't really come in for 6 months and then leave guys, they had a good few years in the company. Anybody else from that period stand out to you as someone who deserved at least a brief title run ala Piper's three month run with the Intercontinental belt? Well the problem is that titles actually meant something back then and it was tougher to just slot someone in for a few mo...

Twice before I've tried to make a board for the BoD'ers. Well, neither time it stuck, simply because I couldn't promote it very well. Well, I write here, so I can keep it in the light. http://boardforpeople.proboards.com/index.cgi Any of the well known peeps around here who are interested in being mods, lemme know.

Im having a discussion on facebook about if there was a Mt. Rushmore for the WWE, who would be on it. I said Bruno Hogan Austin Cena And of course, people are discounting Bruno, so I ask you and the Blog, Who is the "WWEs Mt. Rushmore?" No revisionist history. Shouldn't Vince be on there?  I'd say Hogan, Vince, Bruno and Austin.  Maybe Koko B. Ware as an alternate.

This might seem like a silly question, but I've always wondered what submission moves actually hurt those involved? Obviously the ankle lock can easily be faked, but growing up I had my brother do the Sharpshooter on several occasions and it always hurt terribly. Now, obviously you can adjust for that, but was just curious which moves you know tend to be painful? Both the figure-four and the reversal are notoriously painful if done in real life.  Any of the MMA-based holds are of course painful.  Although really, given that wrestling as we know it evolved from the "hookers" doing submission-based grappling back in the old days when you had to know how to make an opponent give up for real, it's not surprising that things would evolve from actual painful moves.  Even simple things like a heel hook or kneebar were often used to break legs when someone was out of line.   I would of course be remiss in not bringing up the most devastating submission hold of all time:  ...

Part I A wrestling fan, a cameraman, and a crazy person walk into an armory... “Are you a wrestling fan?” I asked. I knew the answer, but hoped someone else on the production side of things would be able to geek out with me. And boy oh boy did I want to geek out. I was behind the curtain, man. The Gorilla position. If you pardon the pretension it was wrestling purgatory. Behind it were men dressed in funny costumes, beyond it they became larger than life superheroes; entertaining the kids, parents, and relatives that crowded the intimate Fall River PAL to watch a pro wrestling show. And literally, I was in the middle of it all.  

Hi Scott, here's a question I don't think anyone has asked before: let's pretend that Montreal was the final nail in the coffin for the WWF and the company went out of business and WCW brought the video libray and acquired a lot of the WWF top stars, do you think the fate of WCW would have been the same where they would have screwed that up, and if they continued to lose money, do you think Turner would have pulled the plug on the company despite it being the only international wrestling company around? And if WCW was no more, would have the return of the territories come back or would there have been a huge investor to create a new international wrestling promotion in the same vein as TNA. That's an awfully big pretending, since VInce was miraculously able to shell out millions of dollars for Mike Tyson months before the business turned around, despite being so destitute that he couldn't pay Bret Hart his contracted money.   But regardless, I think that WCW wou...

hey scott, how about telling your millions and millions of followers who your top 5 wrestlers of all time are? rock, flair, bret I guess must be in there, and then? foley? steamer? shawn? owen? hennig? greetings J I really dislike "top 5 of all time" type lists, because there's SOOOOOO many criteria and types of wrestlers and matches and such that just naming 5 would render the whole exercise meaningless.  Top 5 WHAT?  Main eventers?  Brawlers?  Best wrestlers?  Favorite wrestlers?  Jobbers?   Hang on, now here's a clip from High Fidelity... http://youtu.be/9uImDLvX0Bk If you mean all time favorites, it's generally Rock, Flair, Bret, Owen, and formerly Benoit before all the unpleasantness occurred and now it would be either Randy Savage or Mr Perfect depending on my mood.  Although Flair has tarnished his legacy so much that he's retroactively slipping down the list.  If you're going by the criteria of "People who I have specifically paid money ...

Hi Scott long time reader and all that I have a question/discussion for the blog if you were to put together a wrestling event with the best matches that nwa/wcw/wwf/wwe have produced what would you pick? The only rule is you can only use a wrestler once ie you can't have hogan warrior and hogan Andre you have to choose Well if I was putting together an all-time supercard, I certainly wouldn't be picking either one of those matches. We've done this particular exercise with Wrestlemania and other major shows a lot, and the question as phrased is really too broad because it's basically just asking for a list of great matches without any overlapping people.  Plus if it's a three hour show you could just do Flair-Steamboat 2/3 falls, a one hour Misawa-Kobashi draw, and CM Punk v. John Cena and there you go.   So I dunno, if you guys wanna have a crack at it, go nuts.

Smackdown Date: November 23, 2012 Location: Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, Michigan Commentators: Josh Matthews, John Bradshaw Layfield Reviewed by Tommy Hall It's the night after Thanksgiving and we're just after Survivor Series. Big Show is still champion and it looks like we're getting Show vs. Sheamus III in a chairs match at TLC. Other than that it's hard to say what we're going to get at that show, but I have a feeling it'll be a lot of rematches. Let's get to it.

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November 6, 2002 Clips of the NWA 54 th anniversary event in Corpus Christi , TX are shown. We see TNA superstars like Jorge Estrada and Ron Killings winning matches. They also keep zooming in on some goon with the NWA logo tattooed on his arm. Normally, I’d say someone would regret a decision like that, but if you saw this clown, its clear that he is quite proud of that tattoo. Your Hosts are Don West and Mike Tenay West runs down the show, which will feature Curt Hennig vs. Jeff Jarrett. Plus, Brian Lawler vs. Syxx Pac in a 1 st rd. match and AJ Styles vs. Jerry Lynn for the X Division championship.

Hi Scott,  First Time, Long Time, Yada.  I have a question that I have wondered about for a while.  Going into Starrcade 89 the NWA was on an awesome hot streak.  Yet, as we all know they decided to run the Iron Man Tournament instead of a normal wrestling card.  I know part of it was to set up Sting - Flair but there were a million ways to do that.  That being said how do you they should have booked the event?  I think they should of waited on the Flair/Funk I Quit and done it here but as a kid and getting to see that match live on Free TV is on of my favorite wrestling moments, so I will let it slide and that match has already happened and Funk is "Retired". This is what I was thinking, let me know your thoughts.  Flair v Muta - World Title vs. Undefeated Streak. - Flair wins. Sting v Luger - US Title - Luger wins, pulls tights, feet on the ropes, something like that Steiners v LOD - World Tag Titles - Steiners win MXE V Doom - Pick Em - Double Count out, DQ, what...

Hi Scott long time reader yada yada usual crap....I have a question about Vicki Guerrero that you might have answered before 1) I know or like to think Vince only kept her on payroll as a way to help her out but at what point was it decided to make her an on screen person and why? 2) what was the purpose of her scoring the pin in her line wrestlemania match? 3) at what point did she truly get "over and hated" and everyone was like we got something good here? 1.  Yeah, for a while she was only on the payroll as a favor to Eddie, and they basically decided to try her out as an on-screen persona in order to justify the money.   2.  So you would boo her and as a reward for years for faithful service, I'd imagine.   3.  The Edge storyline is when she went from annoying to actually having a new term coined for her crowd reactions:  Nuclear heat.  But the thing is, she has no ego about her place in the sport and she's happy to have the character get her comeuppance...

The SmarK Rant for TNA Impact – 11.22.12 Taped from Orlando, FL Your hosts are Mike Tenay, Todd Keneley & Taz

From todays Observer news update... " -Hell  in a Cell did 200,000 buys on PPV, of which 152,000 were in North America.  The latter number is way up from most WWE comparable WWE events.  On the flip side, overseas numbers were well down from usual.  " Hard to argue those numbers as far as interest in Ryback challenging goes.

NXT Date: November 21, 2012 Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida Commentators: Tony Dawson, Jim Ross Reviewed by Tommy Hall After last week not a lot has changed, as we're still moving towards Mahal vs. Rollins II for the title. On top of that we've got Vickie continuing to have her bounty on Langston who is rapidly becoming one of my favorite people on this show. NXT has been the best wrestling show on TV for months now and hopefully that remains the case here tonight. Let's get to it.

The SmarK Retro Rant for WCW World War III ‘97 - I always thought the tradition of naming each “World War III” PPV with a different year was a bit stupid, but that’s WCW for ya. Anyway, the original rant of course sucked balls, so since I’m still unemployed for the moment, let’s fill my boring afternoon by redoing it. Huzzah!  (Worst week of my LIFE.  I really don’t know how other people deal with being unemployed without going crazy.)  - Live from Auburn Hills, MI. - Your hosts are Tony, Bobby & Mike.

http://gawker.com/5962719/linda-mcmahons-campaign-screws-workers-by-giving-them-bad-checks-condoms ...Stay Classy, McMahons! I bet even Paul Heyman was like "Man, that's a lot of bounced checks!"   Linda should have literally just mailed every voter $10 and taken her chances with the law afterwards, because she would have spent less and had a better chance of winning.  

Monday Nitro #94 Date: June 30, 1997 Location: MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada Commentators: Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyszko Reviewed by Tommy Hall This is probably a bigger show than the PPV from earlier in the month, or at least it's being treated as such. There are two major debuts tonight and apparently Hogan is going to be here too. Other than that, the card is pretty much stacked with a lot of big names in action. This arena would host a bunch of PPVs so it has a big show feeling to it. Let's get to it.

The SK Retro Rant for WCW World War III 96 - Well, in one of those wacky coincidences, this show was on the same tape as Buried Alive, which I did last week, so I figured I might as well get this one wrapped up as well.  (Remember the days of plugging a tape into the VCR and finding surprise shows on there?  Good times.) 

I had a theory about why the tag division still isn't really picking up steam despite a popular tag team at the top of the heap...   I asked 5 friends of mine (varying in age and fandom) to name the first 5 tag teams that sprung to their mind, and what they remembered.  Here are the basic results:   Demolition - Bad asses/great finisher Road Warriors - Bad asses/great finisher Hart Foundation - Great team/great finisher British Bulldogs - Great team/great finisher Midnight Express - Best team ever/DOUBLE GOOZLE.   See a common trend?  Tag teams with memorable finishers seem to resonate with people.  Even Power & Glory, a nothing team with no titles to their credit, is remembered today because of the powerplex.   That being said (and admittedly my focus group was small), I can only think of one tag team with a double team finisher, and that's the Ascension (and they are garnering quite a cult following already).  Do you think that if each team had some unique fin...

Alright, here's a question for you, as well as the fellow BoD'ers.  Favorite BoD moments? Like, let's say we were to release OMG! The Top 10,000 Moments From The Blog of Doom. What moments would you insist go on the set? That's a little overly meta, even by my standards.  

Hey Scott, I n response to your Post on Winning streaks, isn't that es sent ially what the WWE has done right with CM Punk? H e has essentially had the WWE Title Since MITB 2011, winning it as a huge babyface. And then when pe ople started to not care about CM Punk as a babyfac e, they turned him heel to milk another 6 months out of his title reign, leading us to the curr ent storyline we have now. Also, do you think it hurts Punk and the WWE in any way with the worst kept sec ret in wrestling, that he will drop the title to The Rock at the Rumble? It kind of Makes the Ryback "chase" moot since we all know he has no chance in hell of winning the Strap anytime soon. In fact, I love that they're keeping track of the length of the title reign, because that's a REAL THING that people can get invested in.  Just like Undertaker's streak, it's not something that's part of the fake storyline world of WWE.  Punk really has held that belt fo...

by Logan Scisco - Vince McMahon and Jim Ross are in the booth and they are live from Evansville, Indiana . - Ross interviews Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels, who come out separately and to explosive reactions (although Austin’s is far bigger).  Ross obviously asks if they can co-exist and both men say yes because they don’t like the Hart Foundation.  The Legion of Doom, who are penciled into the first match on tonight’s show, come out to confront the challengers for the tag team champions and get a promise of a title match.

“Superman In Hell” or “What might have been.” By, J. Ryan Buck (Lostscribe@Gmail.com) Summer of 1986

http://www.tmz.com/2012/11/20/wwe-diva-kaitlyn-arrested-speeding-ticket/ That's one hell of a mugshot right there. 

Hey Scott,   I was recently watching the Fall of WCW DVD and the Goldberg segment made me think of something.   Is there a good way to end a face's undefeated streak?   Goldberg's ended with interference, Rybacks will probably end with interference. I can't remember any other major ones, but it seems like the face always needs to lose in a screw-job manner.   On the heel side, the face that defeats him would be a conquoring hero in the fans eyes (if done right), but don't think a heel ending a faces win streak can really do much for the heel.   Thoughts?   -RegalStretch I don't think the issue with the Goldberg streak was HOW it ended, but rather that it ended way too soon.  There was still tons of programs he could have done, he was still drawing money on top, and Nash didn't need or want the belt.   I think TNA kind of had the right idea with Crimson's streak in that they had him go on for so long as a babyface until people got sick of him,...

WWF Championship Wrestling May 19, 1984 Your hosts are Gene Okerlund and Vince McMahon. Vince and Gene run down the card that features Salvatore Bellomo vs. Paul Orndorff and Bob Orton vs. B. Brian Blair. The featured bout this week is Mr. Fuji vs. Bob Backlund.

http://shop.wwe.com/I'm-a-Paul-Heyman-Guy-T-Shirt/W04619,default,pd.html?dwvar_W04619_color=Black&start=1&cgid=New&srule=Staff_Picks Maybe everyone should buy this now before Heyman gets himself fired again.  This would be a REALLY hard shirt to explain to casual friends, but I'm VERY tempted.

So what was the deal with the European Title back in the 90s? At the time, WWF only had three championships, unless light-heavyweight had been added, I'm not sure.  Was it expected to be an equal to the Intercontinental title? I know they've moved on to have countless titles over the years, but this was the first major new one and I'm wondering if anyone knows what made them pull the trigger? Thanks Brian It was basically a vanity title for Davey Boy Smith that was supposed to boost business in the UK market by having him defend it overseas, and then Shawn threw a tantrum and put himself over for the belt to kill it in that market and it became just another joke title from then on.  Nothing else to it, really.  

Each segment/match will be graded with either a positive (+), a negative (-), or a neutral (N). Robbie Mireno opens the show to a decent crowd on hand at the Golden Dome in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Crowd are all over the poor sod, as you can imagine. A few geniuses in the crowd remind me that he’s “not Joey Styles!”. Ok… Mireno turns on the crowd and calls them pussies, which brings out the pussy fiend that is, a slim, Joel Gertner. He thanks the crowd before doing his usual spiel.

Taped from Philadelphia, PA Airdate: May 30, 1998 Hosted by Joey Styles From the WWE Studios Joey welcomes us to another installment of the History of ECW. This week’s episode emanates from the ECW Arena. The ECW World Heavyweight champion Shane Douglas will enlighten us. Also in a 2 out 3 falls match Justin Credible faces Jerry Lynn. Additionally the dream partner tag team match will be our main event.

Hi Scott -  Quick question - how do wrestlers refer to each other backstage?  Do they call them by their character's name?  Or does everyone call Ryback "Ryan Reeves"?  I can't see someone like Alex Riley referring to HHH as "Paul", either - RB Generally they refer to each other by the gimmick name.  So yes, Ryback would be referred to as Ryback.  And people generally call HHH "Hunter". There's some exceptions where guys have had other names longer than their WWE tenure and people just refer to them by the old name as a habit (people called Mick Foley "Cactus" for years before his real name became the more well-known one, for example) but generally it's just the name you hear on TV.

Its your blog mvp the fuj and i gotta question for you and the BOD-ites... If wwe does ever launch... What would they show on during raw/smackdown et al? I couldnt see them showing raw/nitro from 97-98 (when it was good) and lose more viewers to themselves essentially. But they wouldn't have dead air cuz thats just a waste of money. I just dont see how they could have original raws on usa when on the wwe network you have wcw saturday night from 1982 running opposite amd think that someone like me would honestly watch raw in its current state. thoughts? v/r Hollywood. I don't think you can just declare yourself the blog MVP.  I think there's a voting process or something. As for the network, what to show against RAW is the least of their troubles with it thus far.  Given that the network, should it ever launch, is going to have an audience of maybe 100,000 total viewers at any given time, MAYBE, I'm safely confident it won't matter one bit what th...

The SmarK RAW Rant – 11.19.12 Live from Dayton, OH, where people are REALLY EXCITED for this show, apparently.  Your hosts are Michael Cole & Jerry Lawler

Happy Monday and tonight is the sorta-kinda beginning of the WWE’s season. The season that goes from the end of the Survivor Series to the RAW after Wrestlemania. That doesn’t mean I’ll be watching but I’m hopeful, at least, this doesn’t mean the start of David Otunga’s push to mid-card greatness. The weird thing with this promotion and this roster is I don’t know what the hell I want. I just want to feel like anticipating a show again. Anyway let’s hope tonight is the beginning of a six-month stretch of goodness that will remind us what the WWE is capable of when they get it right. Dolph Ziggler winning an important match last night was a beginning and hopefully it won’t be followed with a clean loss to Orton in a ***1/4 match. Not that I mind a ***1/4 match. Enjoy the show, come out swinging but try to keep it clean.

One of the greatest films in cinema history has a connection to professional wrestling.

Short and sweet, your three favorite taunts ever? Off the top of my head, I'd go the DX non-crossing crotch chop (ah, the memories of being thrown in grade-school detention for doing such an edgy maneuver), Rocky's JUST! BRING IT! hand motion (also handy in instantly filling your Spirit Meter in "No Mercy"), and the Orton Pose, which also doubles as a good macro when you want to boast about your team's 5-2 record in the Fantasy Football League of DOOM!  \_O___/ Bonus question: Dumbest taunt ever? Easy candidate for me, although you may not remember it: Orlando Jordan drawing a big "O" and a big "J" in the air with his finger. That alone deserved the 25-second tapout at Summerslam. Best ones:   - Benoit / AA's "cut the throat" gesture. - The Orton Pose, because he's a living video game character anyway. - Randy Savage's twirl-and-point, and/or the pre-elbow pose.   And yeah, I can't imagine any worse than the ...

Hey Scott, sure you know the results from ufc 154 but I'm a little manic about spoilers... Anyway, Silva Superfights... after 154 which Silva superfight (if any) are you most wanting to see, GSP or Jones? And how would you want them go? Ideally I see Silva beating GSP first, then going on to Jones. But I don't know if I'd be rooting for Jones to win and send him on his way to heavyweight with that historic win, or for Silva to pull the upset (?) and retire with streak intact a la Undertaker... Or am I discounting GSP too easily before we even get to that point? Fantasy booking UFC obviously is even dumber than fantasy booking wrestling, but any thoughts? It's not really a fair fight for GSP because Silva is a guy who walks around at 205 and has no problem fighting at that weight, whereas GSP would have to move up a lot of weight just to meet him in the middle.  I think that Jones v. Silva would be the better fight for both guys, because there's more ...

Smackdown Date: November 16, 2012 Location: Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, Ohio Commentators: Josh Matthews, John Bradshaw Layfield Reviewed by Tommy Hall We're two days away from Survivor Series and did you know Sheamus is fighting Big Show again? That's a serious question actually as it's been passed over even more than most Smackdown main event matches have been in recent memory. Other than that this is likely going to be used to talk about Foley vs. Ziggler some more, because there's no real reason for that match to happen, but it's happening anyway because WWE has no idea what they want to do right now. Let's get to it.