Kaptain Kayfabe

Is it weird that Jimmy Hart's birthday got me to post something for the first time in almost 9 years? Holy heck, it's been a minute folks. But yeah, Jimmy is the Dick Clark of wrestling. Youngest looking 80 year old I know.

In all seriousness, is Geno fucking stupid... don't answer that question. Nevermind.

My guess is they planned on bringing him in early as "The Widowmaker" Barry Windham and slowly transitioning to just the gimmick name (similar to Mr. Perfect or the Texas Tornado) but for whatever reason it was almost immediately just The Widowmaker and no more Barry Windham. The name didn't seem to fit his gimmick or ring style at all. He was still basically doing a Texas cowboy gimmick.. why not the Desperado Barry Windham or The Lone Star or any other Texas/cowboy themed name? I know Vince gets off on rebranding people, but this was a guy who had been a two time ag champ only 4 years prior and there was really no reason to not refer to him as Barry Windham.

So why exactly DID Windham hop around as much as he did? I mean I get going from Florida to WWF in the early 80s. But why didn't he hang around Titan for a while after he dropped the tag belts? Seems like a guy who would have eventually gotten a push. But then he caught on in the NWA and was doing great things... only to bail out and head back to Titan. Then the whole Windowmaker deal happened, then back to WCW. Obviously he was done by 96, but he still lasted another three years in WWF/WCW. I always felt he was fairly charismatic, not Flair level obviously, but at least on par with an Arn Anderson type. Wonder why Vince was so insistent on bringing him in under the goofy Widowmaker gimmick (and the even goofier Stalker gimmick)?

So there is a report that OVW has been sold. Not that it really matters at this point who owns it, but still sad to see this happen. And as much as I despise the man, I'd LOL if Ian Rotten bought it.

Sheamus would be fine in the US/IC title picture but the every couple year push to main event level is just silly. He's not a main event guy. And that's fine. I'd agree with Kane being a guy who shouldn't be wrestling anymore - especially not in long singles matches. R Truth is up there too - the guy has to have pictures of somebody. As far as Diva's go, Tamina may very well be the worst wrestler on national TV right now.

I really hope Mizdow gets a good push after this gimmick runs its course. Talk about taking a steaming pile of crap gimmick and turning it into one of the top 3 parts of the show most weeks... Rowan in singles matches scares me. The dude is just... not good. And not even in a Ryback "not good" kinda way. Harper as IC champ is awesome. I wish Dolph would have gotten a longer run but Harper as the champion makes sense and is at least fresh. I feel like the last 4 years they have just shuffled the IC and US belts back and forth between the same half dozen guys (Kofi, Barrett, Dolph, Miz, etc.) so at least we have two "newer" acts with the IC and US belts. I know Nikki has always been the, uh, curvier Bella, but lately... daaaamn.

I am not looking forward to the day the NFL just says F it and has the Battle of Ohio take place in London.

My exposure to pre-WWF Yokozuna was pretty limited when he showed up in 1992, and even then I doubt I would have connected him to the previous personas. I remember thinking he was going to be an Earthquake level guy - feud with the top guys for a bit, but ultimately lose to Warrior or Savage when it came down to it. And who knows, maybe if Warrior stuck around or Savage wasn't being pushed towards retirement that may have happened. But for 1993 standards (and even today) he worked a hell of a big man style and was easily one of the most believable champions of all time. Just the way he would sit on a guy after the drop... I mean there is no way anyone could kick out of that. It's a shame his weight issues got so out of hand because he definitely had more to offer either WWF or WCW in the late 90s.

I know I posted about this a while ago, but the "Angry Wrestling Promoter" on Facebook who was "writing an ebook" (which he apparently wrote over a long weekend!) and allegedly took a bunch of preorders for... posted yesterday that he "lost" the book when his computer died and there would be a delay. Even though he posted recently that the first copies had already come back from the publisher. Normally I just sit back and laugh at this carny motherfucker, but this is starting to involve peoples money so I figured it would was good to bring up again since anyone who paid him for this "ebook" is basically going to be SOL since I doubt there was ever a book to begin with.

Would you think it would be safe to say AJ will be done whenever her contract is up? I gotta agree that she seems like she is just kinda going through the motions. Gotta be a weird situation though. Husband and your current employer are at odds. I sometimes think they are protecting AJ as much as they are as almost a peace offering to Punk in hopes that he decides to come back. "But look how well we have treated your wife, when we easily could have jobbed her out to Cameron and Eva Marie or put her in a storyline romance with Khali, Hornswoggle, or Justin Gabriel."

If there is one thing worse than a healthy RGIII and the over-analysis on every station of his considerable flaws as a quarterback, it's an injured RGIII and the over-analysis on every station of his considerable flaws as a QB.

Anytime a potential AFC playoff team loses it is good for my beloved Bengals, but man did the Colts get jobbed last night on the illegal contact non-call and the horse collar tackle that wasn't a horse collar tackle call.

Enzo has such great personality and Big Cass is so... dull. If Enzo could work a little I could totally see him in a Santino type role on the main roster. Lucha Dragons should be on the main roster now. I really don't know why the Legionaires are even employed. Not sold on Bull Dempsey at all. Don't like Mojo either though. Darin Corbin needs to work on his look a little and he might be something special. "Bayley's gonna hug you" might be the best chant ever. Awesome main event.

I remember thinking he had all the potential in the world to be a top tier guy. Even though he came before Lesnar, they were similar in my mind because both were these huge dudes who could fly around the ring and were doing stuff typically reserved for cruiserweights. But O'Haire always had an awesome look and really when you compare him to Mark Jindrak in say 2000, and see how far Jindrak came and how big of a star he turned into in Mexico, it really boggles your mind that O'Haire never did anything of note after that brief run as Pipers lackey.

I don't know why but reading that lead to images in my head of Raven's parents sending Blue Meanie to fat camp and Raven coming back and the parents looking at each other and saying 'baby steps' I really hate Raven and think he is ridiculously overrated, but the one thing I loved about him was his backstory. ECW never pretended that Raven was some new guy... he was Scotty Flamingo or Johnny Polo (rich, arrogant, preppy) who was going through some crazy internal crisis. He was a poser but he was charismatic enough that he could get other misfits and delinquents to worship him and do his dirty work. I really wish it would have at some point gotten to where we found out Raven, instead of sleeping in a van covered in Seattle based grunge rock bank posters, would secretly slip out at night and get a room at the Hyatt while letting him cronies stay behind in the van. Then he would sneak in early the next morning (at like, 11AM) before the other misfits woke up and be all "Yeah man, I was here the whole time."

I love the Vaudevillains gimmick, I just fear they aren't good enough in the ring or charisma wise to cut it on the main roster. They still come across as way too forced at times for my liking. Kalisto and Sin Cara make a fun team, and could have been really awesome on the main roster if Sin Cara wasn't damaged goods already. The only way to get them over would be to team 'em up for a while, have Cara turn heel on the much smaller Kalisto, and put Kalisto over strong on him before dumped the Sin Cara gimmick all together.

Reigns needs a different finisher, been saying that for a while. Too many people have done the spear over the years. Hell, give him the Pounce~! for all I care, but the spear needs to go.

I'm pretty sure the whole point of "Daniel Bryan is cheating on you, Brie" thing was that it was all a set up and we were supposed to know that. The fans weren't rejecting the idea - they were seeing that Stephanie is obviously a liar. That was kinda the point.

A lumberjack match is fine on TV because you know it's going to be a screw job and lead to something else. But to put a lumberjack match on PPV is kinda weird.

I really enjoyed Jarrett up until the end of his first WWF run. From that point forward I always felt he was miscast - from being a possible member of the Horsemen, to being all shooty and rage filled upon his WWF return, to his various runs at being a main eventer. I always thought Jarrett was the perfect IC title level guy. Good charisma, but not "build the fed around him" charisma. Good heel to run with the secondary belt and challenge (and fail) for the big belt every so often. Limited as a babyface long term, but capable of working the style when needed. His series of matches where they flipped flopped the IC title with Bob Holly are way underrated.

One of the more embarrassing moments of my work career: I am showing around a new female employee. Co-worker of mine from another department comes by and says "Did you watch any TNA last night or did you forget again?" I quickly try to cover by explaining that TNA is a wrestling promotion not... T&A.

What about Bobby Heenan... was he a face at some point that I am totally forgetting?

The Angry Wrestling Vet at least occasionally has sound advice and isn't 100% douchey all the time. The Angry Wrestling Promoter, who many have speculated is Travis Marcum (or at least is Travis Marcum on occasion) however, is a goof.

Dunno how many folks follow "Angry Wrestling Promoter" on Facebook, but he has got to be the carniest motherfucker around right now. His latest gimmick seems to be selling an ebook that he has apparently written over the past few DAYS. He is taking pre-orders for it ("but only a limited amount, act fast!") and idiots are actually buying into it. It's actually quite hilarious to watch it all unfold.