Mistah Na1m4rk

The UFC's business model is designed to screw their fighters over - that's the main consideration in how it is constructed. It's no accident that so much of the UFC fighter restrictions are modeled on the WWE's own practices, which results in the fighters receiving a pittance of what they would receive in a competitive market. If you want to be truly incredulous that Conor earned $10 million over his last two fights, remember that Larry Holmes received $10 million for a single fight over 30 years ago. Muhammad Ali got a $6 million guarantee 40 years ago. And those fights weren't doing 1 million+ buys on top of the gate. That's an awful lot of lifting and toting to do for the owners of the UFC plantation when you're literally risking your long-term health each and every time you step into the ring. Dana White has openly said that the UFC penury is designed to "keep fighters hungry", because of course if the fighters get what they are truly worth they will get lazy. Best give the money to the right sort of people who know how to handle it. Conor wants off the plantation and who can blame him.

He didn't look like a bodybuilder. Like Hogan would be the one to gripe about windpower.

If you wanna work on the UFC plantation you have to eat the scraps massa gives you. Thems the rules.

Jesse Ventura is going to join LU and set the story straight.

How does Hogan come out ahead in that scenario? That isn't going to make the Hulkster look strong, brother.

Ivelisse is still the best luchadora in the promotion but the gap between her and Taya is a lot smaller than the gap between Taya and the rest of the field. I was actually a bit conflicted watching the trios match because I think a series between the current champs and Johnny Mundo/Taya/Cage would be really good.

Yeah, because Bastard Snow greased up 20 unseen nameless ninjas with plot armor an inch thick and wiped out the True King's food, horses, and siege engines. The whole prospect of being able to pull that off completely undetected is so ridiculous it would make a suitable episode of "Archer". Samwell Tarley staying fat at the wall is less unbelievable.

You bastards stick together.

All Stannis needs is enough plot armor to protect him from some Deus Ex Bastard and his "20 good men". What a load of crap.

Compared to Stannis he is a bug. A bug!

It was a fun show overall. They seem to have a thing with debuting new guys and immediately having them lose, which I don't have a problem with but it does seem to be the preferred way of handling new entrants in the Temple. Daga seemed to have lots of potential, but I found myself thinking something was lacking. LU has done such a good job creating new characters and personalities and the kayfabe-shattering approach of the promotion gives them wide leeway to do so, so debuting a guy with a very uninteresting name and no real "gimmick" seemed like a missed opportunity given his obvious talent. I still don't know what to think about Texano. Doesn't he have to be considered a big waste on LU's part since he arrived last year? I don't see anything to care about at all. Killshot was so tolerable in the ring I didn't think for a second he looked like Dumb Donald from Fat Albert. The black mask helped. I really, really wished they weren't giving us Matanza and Mil Muertes so early. Something like that has so many possibilities to build to. And fer crissakes how the hell are The Disciples of Death still a thing? They are awful, have no credibility as competitors, and I thought they'd been killed off. I was hoping Mil would just kill each one and absorb their electrical energy.

If Robb had honor he would have married one of the Frey spawn like he'd agreed to.

Getting into the "Sleeping Beauty" series by A.N. Roquelaure were ya?

I didn't have any trouble seeing his broken right hand swelled up like a rubber glove full of water for the final bout with Royce Gracie.

Well I guess it depends on what they would do instead of Hogan. Remember, Hogan can with all sorts of baggage beyond his obnoxious ego - when you get Hogan, you suddenly have to bloat up your roster with Ed Leslie (or should I say "Starcade '94 main-eventer Ed Leslie"?), Hacksaw Duggan, Earthquake, the Nasty Boys, and Honky Tonk Man. Hell, Hulk Hogan even brought in Mr. T! That's a lot of match slots to fill up with guys who range from "OK" to "yikes". With Hogan calling the shots that means these guys got favorable booking, but in retrospect would anybody in the world prefer that group of talent to Vader, Steve Austin, Cactus Jack, and Brian Pillman? Even accepting the talent transfusion, the real issue has always been Hogan's selfish nature. There's no way around that in 1994, no amount of booing could dissuade him from the notion that the fans were wrong and he was still the most important, prescient man in the business. Hogan could have been used effectively, that was proven rather nicely by the NWO angle, but once again Hogan's selfish egoism destroyed everything it touched. Starcade 1994 to Starcade 1997 is a really nice set of bookends to evaluate Hogan's pernicious influence on WCW.

So I shouldn't lose hope that Stannis will end up on the Iron Throne, as is his due? Poor fucking Stannis. Jobbed out worse than Sting at Starcade '97.

I hadn't realized under recently that referee Nick Patrick attributes his non-fast 3-count specifically to Hogan's direction. From a recent Observer:

Flags are at half-mast all over Nutley NJ today.

Most people around here probably know that he was invited to participate in the first UFC event from Denver but couldn't get approval from WCW to compete. I know Haku is considered one of wrestling's great tough guys, but I wonder how he'd be regarded if he fared as well as the man who replaced him in the tournament, sumo player Teila Tuli.

So if you pumpkins care about such things.... I've been enjoying a lesser-known addon to the Kodi environment, "FilmOnTV", which has a wide and esoteric list of broadcasts and content from literally around the world (there are entire sections for Africa, Greece, Italy, etc) but their "SPORTS" channel is my main landing point when I open up the application. Of interest to you yokels it that this sports channel contains no less than 5 pro-wrestling channels streaming content 24/7: 1) FilmOn Wrestling shows mostly old Texas wrestling from the 80s, Southwest Championship and Texas All-Star promotions most frequently. I've enjoying seeing some of this stuff since I had only very limited exposure to the territory as a kid. You guys might be most interested in the enormous amount of early Shawn Michaels matches they've been showing the last couple of weeks, but I'd rather watch all the Bruiser Brody, Dick Slater, and Tully Blanchard. Guys like Adrian Adonis, Killer Brooks, Gino Hernandez, and The Guerreros also get plenty of face time. On occasion this channel shows other wrestling but Texas seems to be the primary focus. 2) Galli Lucha Libre has their own channel broadcasting full-time. I've only watched a bit of it, seems pretty low-rent but I'm not crazy about the lucha style in general. 3) Masked Republic AAA Lucha shows mainly AAA lucha libre matches starting in the early/mid-90s up through the most recent Triplemania. Lots of fun stuff here, including some very entertaining matches between Rey Mistero Jr and Psicosis and Rey vs Juventud Guerrera plus frequent appearances from La Parka, Hijo del Santo all the way up through current shows featuring, most horribly, Jeff Jarrett. On occasion when I turn on this channel they are showing some low-rent lucha from small gyms, I don't know if it's AAA proper and of course all the commentary is in Spanish. 4) NWA Wrestling is all NWA all the time - current NWA. I was a little disappointed because I'd love a channel of 70s-80s NWA but I don't look gift horses in the mouth. Lance Archer, DBS Jr, Adam Pearce, Colt Cabana, that sorta thing. It ain't Dick Murdoch and Harley Race but it has it's own charm. 5) Fighting Athletes Network shows a mix of indy stuff from around the country, none of which I'm familiar with. They've also shown some old MMA but that doesn't seem to be a common occurrence. If you're keen on boxing there are even more boxing options available, including a Pugilism TV channel that seems to only show vintage fights from 1920-1960 or so. Dempsey, Louis, Armstrong, Robinson, Marciano, Patterson, all good stuff. Several other boxing channels show stuff ranging from current low-profile fight cards back through bigger events from the early 2000s or so, I've seen plenty of Ricky Hatton. Lots of other sports stuff to wade through, a Fantasy Football channel, heaps of soccer, and most perplexingly a 24/7 EA Sports stream showing the developers doing...stuff. So check it out if you're so inclined. Don't say I never gave you nuttin'.

If he wasn't frustrated by the disaster of Starcade '97 he wouldn't be human. That was the very exact point where WCW started the long, slow circling of the drain, compliment of (of course) Hulk Hogan.

Why isn't anyone more outraged over Black Lotus killing poor Dragon Azteca? Or Matanza eating Bael's head and killing three frat boys in the desert? Where is the outrage?

Found the terrorist.

New luchadore debuting tomorrow according to the LU FB feed. Anyone know anything about "Daga"?

Everything isn't fine, Sexy Star is back on my TV and she isn't getting steamrolled.