Michael Sweetser

WOW, that takes me back. That was literally the very first wrestling book I ever read. Finding that as a kid was like finding a copy of the Bible signed by Jesus.

It wasn't released until after Gary died. The epilogue from his sons is in every edition. Thanks. So there y'go. Not the final version. I wonder what else got changed.

Just virtually thumbed through the PDF and it's definitely not the version I have in hard copy - although mine might be slightly revised, as it's from the reprint, and has an epilogue about Gary's death from his sons. The final line in the PDF ("And in the immortal words of basketball coach Bobby Knight, I hope they bury me face down, so my critics can kiss my ass.") is not in the book, which ends one line earlier.

Bad move. Your co-workers will see right through it and turn on you. They know you're management's golden boy. Your body of work isn't nearly as strong as some of the others in the office. You show up late, leave early, turn in work late, have poor attendance, etc. How is this different than now?

I think there was actually confusion on this - it looks like Hogan's head actually impacts with Undertaker's kneecap; it's possible that THAT'S what jammed his neck, because no, his head doesn't come within a foot of that chair. Oddly, had Taker been using the "legs straddle the head" version of the Tombstone he started using exclusively in '94, instead of this over-the-shoulder type he was using early on, he probably wouldn't have had to do anything out of the ordinary to protect Hogan at all. (From someone that has taken the move, the "legs straddle the head" version is actually very safe because you can use your own legs to grapevine around for added support. It looked like it killed me but I didn't feel a thing. I wonder if it's on YouTube still...)

Seriously, bumping is fun. (I mean, the act itself, not the pain of the bump.) Near the end of my career, I started doing Flair Flops on the apron off manager bumps just for the fuck of it. (That is to say, I flopped on the apron itself, not off the apron. I didn't flop to the floor. That would hurt a lot.)

Heck, I own the book, and I, too, would like to hear from a mysterious benefactor. Double if it turns out to be Ted DiBiase.

Considering how insanely spotty and Japanese move oriented Storm was early on, he's really not one to talk.

Big deal, throwing out a dead guy. I could've done that. Are you sure? Dead weight is far harder to move, and Moondog ran a good 275.

I can't tell what that is supposed to be. I can't tell what that is supposed to be. It's Stephanie's recently released workout DVD.

The fat kid in the ball cap as Bubba is the best part. They nailed Eaton's vacant promo stare, too.

Especially since most people in TNA can't, y'know, afford food.

I was all set to Photoshop this up, but I realized - it's way too close already. EDIT: Oh, what the heck.

Went into this non-sober and open-minded, since it had been so long since I'd watched Impact (probably at least a year) that some things seemed new and fresh. Heck, I realized this is the first time I'd actually seen EC3 on the show, that's how long it had been. And yeah, probably gonna be another year or so before I try Impact again. Shitty production aside, the first 90 minutes of the show were perfectly fine. I actually kinda liked the first hour. Then the show went off a fucking cliff. Tale of two bookers. I have no idea how they made the Hammerstein Ballroom look cavernous, but they pulled it off. Rockstar Spud is gonna be so huge once WWE signs him away. Tidbit: I was watching this on an online stream... which cut off the main event in order to switch to their scheduled program - the 11 o'clock local news. Yes, even local news is more important to people than TNA.

A shame he never did. From the parts I watched, Striker was just as bad as he was in WWE, except at least in WWE, he wasn't trying to get Jim Ross to yell "LARIATO". Stop acting like an otaku mark and do your job.

Just finished the New Year's Dash show. More of the same on from 1/4, meaning it was loads of fun to watch. I enjoyed Lyger-Desperado with the Bullet Club trying their best to fuck over Lyger. Kenny Omega is close to being my favorite in the promotion. Even AJ Styles and the Young Bucks don't bug me as much as they used to.

I think The Cleaner wants a word with you... Doh! You're right. Forgot about Omega. And right after I mentioned his new persona, too....

TNA: Redefining success (downward) since 2002. (Has this promotion seriously been around for twelve and a half years? That's depressing.)

Any links you'd recommend I check out if I enjoyed Saku-Suzuki? (Feel free to PM it, in case there's a risk of sidetracking the thread).

So, not wanting to sit through four hours of Matt Striker, I plunked down the yen for NJPW World. So glad I did. I haven't even touched the archives yet and I already love it based off of how well the stream went for this show. Didn't care for the overdubbed music, but I understand why it's necessary. Better to do that than to make it unavailable in our country or something. As a note, I do not watch New Japan - I sort of lightly follow it through this site and the Observer, but I haven't seen a NJ show front to back in probably at least a decade. I'm sure some of the comments will come across as stupid. With that said - I LOVED this show. When I finally looked up to see what time it was, we were three hours in. Amazing. Pre-show Rumble: Loved just sending guys out to kill time for half an hour to open things while people were coming in - US wrestling should do this more often, especially on the indies. I loved the Fujiwara-Kabuki teamup, and Fujiwara's shrug as he was eliminated. Four-way juniors tag: As an ECCW guy, I cannot tell you how happy I am to see Kyle O'Reilly in the spot he's in and doing this well worldwide. He's seriously a good and cool dude and deserves everything he's getting now. As for the match, to me it was mostly a bunch of spots strung together, but some FANTASTIC spots. Even the Young Bucks didn't annoy me too much and I can't stand them. Thrilled to see Kyle get the pin. Six-man: HONMAMANIA! Karen Jarrett's gotten a bit curvy. Thumbs up there. I also dug Jarrett's Bullet Club gear. Eight-man: Sorta zoned out a bit, sadly. I enjoyed what I've seen of Yano in the past and he was fun here. Shelton Benjamin looks good but no way he'd pass a Wellness test... NEVER Openweight title: LOVED IT. I don't read good stuff about him online, but I love Togi Makabe. Love the look, love the character, and was happy he won the match. I gotta see more of this. (I also switched to a US feed for this match and I was glad I did - this match seemed to really get Ross' attention.) IWGP junior title: Absolutely love Kenny Omega's "Cleaner" gimmick - the look and attitude is fantastic. I lost my shit at the chainsaw, especially with the Young Bucks providing the Foley. Very fun match, good to see Omega take it. I wonder if they're seeing him as a possible replacement with Devitt now in NXT. UWF rules match: Again on the US feed, and you could tell JR loved the backstory and the basic action here. I never checked out the old UWF (or UWFI, as Striker put it) but if this is an indication, I need to. I really enjoyed the hybrid action but kinda hoped Saku would win. No matter - Suzuki is fantastic, and a very well done match. I want to see more of it. Naito v. Styles - again, not an AJ Styles fan, but a fun match. With the injury to Yoshitatsu, the horror when Styles would keep trying the Clash was very well done. Great finish, too. Also enjoyed the story of the Bullet Club losing ALMOST every match except this one, which gives New Japan victories but still keeps them strong, as their "leader" won when it counted. EDIT: Except for Kenny Omega, as I'm stupid. I'll leave this here, though. IC title match: Wow. Just wow. Huge fan of Nakamura (his gimmick reminds me of former ECCWer Ravenous Randy, to the point that I'm positive one of them inspired the other.) and glad to see him retain. IWGP title match: Sadly, I fell asleep during the live broadcast and had to come back to it - I'm glad I did. It's redundant, but "wow" and "amazing match". I said that a lot watching this show. With the story of the match, I'm surprised Tanahashi retained, but it sets the stage for a huge career-making win later by Okada. This definitely won't be the last NJ show I watch - I'm going to be checking out the follow-up live event later on NJPW World. Awesome!

Couldn't they just use Sting? He WAS trained by Bassman.

Do you mean WMX8 when HHH finally Pedigreed her? Because I was there at WM2K, and nobody gave much of a damn about Rock giving her the Elbow, because HHH had already retained the WWF title.

Like people aren't making enough comparisons between him and Kevin Nash.

Agreed. This is definitely not a full 2K production just based off all the old stuff still in the game. At best it looks like they added some minor tweaks for production (and don't get me wrong, those minor tweaks are huge - I still love the stamina system and how wrestlers react as they're winded).

I'm not too far in it, but I don't understand why the author devoted nearly an entire chapter to the Randy Savage/Steph McMahon rumors. You can argue whether or not it's even worth mentioning, but nearly an entire chapter? It's actually REALLY creepy how long the book spends basically trying to frame the Savage-Stephanie rumor as the only possible reason Vince never brought Savage back. Apparently, if it's the only reason you can come up with, it has to be the truth. And it's not even from the right calendar year. The book's supposed to be about 1995! Also, it's really obvious who/what he's using as sources when every single story has quotes from Bob Holly.