GuerrillaMonsoon

"This was the second straight major court case where Titan Sports was hammered, the case two weeks earlier where Jesse Ventura won nearly $810,000 for back royalties being the other. While the two cases themselves had virtually no similarity except in who the defendants were, both awards were stunning, and both cases pointed to a major problem plaguing this business that has already devastated it in many ways. The lack of credibility. Not credibility of the matches and storylines. But credibility of the people involved when they are on the hotseat in regard to controversial issues, and even more so, in court. In the Ventura case, he was awarded money that, based on an agreement he had made with Titan, he shouldn't have been entitled to. But the jury believed he had been lied to, or deceived, or whatever phrase you want to use, in negotiations so therefore that agreement wasn't valid. In this case, Titan had about a dozen witnesses, including all three other wrestlers in the ring during the match, agents backstage who tried to claim Austin professed no concern about taking the maneuver, local promoter and former wrestler Gerald Brisco and former wrestlers Robert Marella (Gorilla Monsoon) and Walter (Killer) Kowalski. Still, after establishing early on in the trial that wrestling is a work, moves and finishes are planned out in advance and that the role of the jobber, in this case Austin, is simply to make the stars look good, Marella testified about his 1976 angle with Muhammad Ali (to hype the Antonio Inoki match), almost trying to insinuate it was a shoot ("Ali found himself eight feet high in the air in an airplane spin. That was the last I saw of Muhammad Ali") and made ridiculous claims like having witnessed Jannetty performing the Rocker Dropper on hundreds of occasions. Kowalski testified about his 1954 incident where he accidentally kneedropped Yukon Eric's ear off, and then bragged about not visiting Eric in the hospital afterwards ("So what. These things happen"). While these statements may come off as cool if the jury was composed of wrestling fans from the 70s who are marks for these two former stars, to the layperson, the old bar war stories only made the profession and those in it seem uncaring and barbaric, a disaster when a jury is faced with a nearly paralyzed man on the other side. A reality check is needed and this may be the most expensive reality check possible. Many wrestlers and promoters believe this business consists of nothing but working marks, and they believe everyone is a mark to be worked except themselves. In many ways, that makes them the biggest marks of all, since they are marks for themselves. Unfortunately, while they may get besieged with autographs and people wanting to buy them beer and tell them how great they are, the minute they believe that, they are dead. Dead because they've lost perspective. Dead because even the people who tell them how great they are don't really mean it, they're just thrilled to be in the presence of a television celebrity and if the celebrity is nice to them, it makes them feel important and they'll say anything to make the celebrity be nice to them. Dead because if they go to court and react as wrestling has taught them to, they wind up turning off the jury with the result being awards that on the surface seem ridiculous. After this award, expect numerous lawsuits filed using this as a precedent against major wrestling companies over injuries. Another case was just recently filed in Tampa, jobber James Goczewski sued Titan and Chris "Tatanka" Chavis over neck, back and other injuries suffered in a March 9, 1992 television match claiming Tatanka didn't follow the script in their match and injured him, and after alerting him that he had injured him, continued the match and inflicted more damage. The Ventura case didn't open any floodgates because it only applied to wrestling announcers who hadn't signed a new contract, a minute group that may have only consisted of one person, Ventura. This result opens the floodgates to every jobber who was ever injured, a huge group. If this verdict holds up and is used as a precedent, saying this could wind up bankrupting companies and devastating the entire industry is not an overstatement. If those within the organizations aren't taught a lesson that the courtroom isn't a wrestling arena and that having credibility problems is deadly, then what happened over the past three weeks won't be isolated. The way Titan (and probably WCW as well) handled jobbers in the past is that a member of the front office (for years Terry Garvin, of late Tony Garea) either contacts certain wrestlers they know of (say a Barry Horowitz) that are regular jobbers that often are even flown in, a few in the area they have experience with, an often contacts a local performer who trains or knows the local scene and asks him to provide a certain number of wrestlers, generally sight unseen to Titan. Generally the pay is $150. Most young wrestlers would almost kill for the chance. First off, there is the minute chance someone will have an idea of something to be done with them and they'll get a spot and make money, although the percentage of jobbers who ever get that break is small. Second, $150 is still a lot more then they'll make working local indie shows. Third and most importantly, they get to be on television and work with stars in front of genuine crowds. Since the jobber's job is just to get beat up, most wrestlers with limited experience can handle it adequately. A few, Chris Hamrick or Scott Taylor recently coming to mind, can do the job spectacularly. Sight unseen jobbers being brought in happens far less frequently now because all tapings are in the Northeast and very few jobbers come in as complete unknowns. In the case of WCW, most tapings are done in either Georgia or Orlando, FL and the jobber crew is generally more experienced than in years past when tapings could be done in a city they rarely visited. A few years back, when both groups taped all over the country, many more local wrestlers were used that were far more inexperienced. The usual result is that matches were still airable because jobbers only had to take a few bumps and the winning move. A few had to be taped over because they looked so bad, a lot more then were ever taped over because of serious injuries. Given all the high-risk maneuvers that are continually developing in this business, it is almost a miracle injuries like Austin's don't happen more often, although injuries themselves are not rare. This is probably a testimony to the fact that the stars for the most part do take enough care of the jobbers that besides the requisite bumps and bruises that are unavoidable, that the real serious injuries aren't plentiful.

That was probably the best Observer of all time too - assuming it was the recap of the courtroom testimony of Gorilla Monsoon who kayfabed the whole thing?

So that death on Arrow......surprisingly brutal for that age demographic.

Probably one of the rare times where year long injury can potentially be a blessing in disguise. I hope this leads to a storyline where Jordan tries to emulate his father and wrestles with a broken freakin neck, ends up in a wheelchair, and then guilts his father into making Rollins' life hell for a year, and avoid his advice of knowing a guy who can get him back in the ring in two weeks or so..... only to miraculously rise from his chair, and lay a huge beatdown on Angle to close out a Raw.

Goldberg's been pretty cool last few weeks on the Flash. Supergirls been great this season.

Great episode this week

Just realised.. You've got AJ/Nakamura, Asuka/Rousey (maybe?)...then probably Lesnar/Reigns and Triple H/Angle Absolutely no-one else looks like they've got anything planned for Mania. Braun/Miz? Wyatt, Cesaro/Sheamus, Elias, Balor, Jordan, Rollins, the Hardys, Kane, Cena, Good Brothers, Joe, the entire 205 roster, Bayley, Sasha, Alexa, Nia Jax Rusev Day, Corbin, Roode, Jericho, American Alpha, Usos, Jinder, Owens, Sami, Orton, New Day, Charlotte, The Andre Battle Royal could be pretty stacked this year.

Be interested to see where they go with stipulations for Gargano/Ciampa. I assume Last Man Standing with a Loser Leaves Town match as the blowoff. Ladder is probably a good call back to where the feud started but nothing to put above it, ironman showcases well, but seems not enough blood feud. Cage works for me too.

I agree that's the better match. Just think that's the better trade off, irrespective of SummerSlam or not, Roman eeks by Lesnar, Strowman crushes him decisively.

I wonder if their thoughts are "let's just get the Roman going over Brock over and done with, but we'll save Brock really putting over someone with Braun till Summerslam"

Given most of my wishlist doesn't seem likely, I'd settle for a Trish/Bellas vs Sasha/Bayley/Becky match. Lita's moonsault was awful, almost as bad as Bray and Matt's double elimination spot in slow motion for eternity. I'm fairly certain Jacqueline used a rat for a pillow last night.

Gorilla would have wanted it that way.

Disappointed the two Japanese winning the Rumbles back to back didn't lead to a Benoit/Guerrero moment with them and Mr Fuji and Russo all bowing at each other before throwing salt in each others' eyes as the feed goes out.

They succeeded in making me want to see Roman Reigns win the Rumble.

Based on what anyone saw tonight, how is anyone's dream Mania card *not* predominantly women's matches?

I'd say it's top 5. Bate/Dunne, Dream/Black, Bayley/Sasha, DIY/Revival...

That was some storytelling. Great simple show. Really enjoyable and I haven't watched much NXT in a year.

Being Philadelphia, I suspect there'd be a decent ECW crowd with their "we want blood" chants. What better way to silence the crowd than to have Pamela Anderson make her return to the Royal Rumble.

I'm more angry at Enzo for being indirectly responsible for that video and having watched it.

Worst Manager: Mr Fuji

I'm hoping this leads to Miz bringing in his Hollywood friend, Ronda Rousey to defend him from Asuka's bullying.

Masters of Karate and Friendship.

You simultaneously had a contender for the best episode of Supergirl yet and probably the worst episode of the Flash. Was waiting for the "ha, got you on tape!" reveal that never came. Barry and Oliver in prison should be good though.

I hope Charles Shaughnessy joins the Marvel Universe.

Should tease the return of the Dragon on their promos.... Only for it to be Steamboat or Ultimo.