June 2023 Wrestling Discussion

[Norwegian Rudo]

1 hour ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Now, Grizz gets to wear a special pair of overalls hopefully designed for the circle of Hell he's currently inhabiting. 

It's weird hearing some of these old timers like Cornette and JR talk about the Kentuckians with reverence. Then, for example, you hear Ross on his one of his latest eps of Grilling JR talk about how horrendous Grizzly was as human being when Ross first broke into pro wrestling and his first years in the business to the point Ross tried his best to avoid the Mississippi/Louisiana end of the old McGuirk territory.

Is that one of the biggest cases of "never meet your heroes" in pro wrestling?

Has anybody ever asked how Grizzly was able to work for WCW, and be spoken favorably of on air, when it was a known story how he had raped Jake's underage mom? I'm guessing a bunch of other stuff was also known to insiders, but the Jake one was publicly known at the time.

[Elsalvajeloco]

26 minutes ago, Norwegian Rudo said:

Has anybody ever asked how Grizzly was able to work for WCW, and be spoken favorably of on air, when it was a known story how he had raped Jake's underage mom? I'm guessing a bunch of other stuff was also known to insiders, but the Jake one was publicly known at the time.

I think part of it was most of the guys who worked behind the scenes for either WWF or WCW at the time were either (1) former big name stars and/or (2) someone who was feared or respected by the boys. Grizz just happened to be both. Moreover, he already had experience working in some capacity with some of the talents who later on passed through WCW while he was in Mid-South after he retired.

That was a time where you could have an open secret like that and still have your job. There is no way in the hell (which he currently occupies) that Grizzly Smith would have a job now unless he managed to keep it all the way under wraps.

Now that said, had a bunch of guys not played enabler back then, that's a major scandal the likes the wrestling world has never seen and probably wouldn't see until 1999 and then 2007.

[Infinit]

I think it was on Cornette's pod a few years ago he talked about Smith going to pick up young girls from their parent's homes to be his companion during a loop. And people thought nothing of it. Which is crazy to me. 

Edited June 3, 2023 by Infinit

[Elsalvajeloco]

2 minutes ago, Infinit said:

I think it was on Cornette's pod a few years ago he talked about Smith going to pick up young girls from their parent's homes to be his companion during a loop. And people thought nothing of it. Which is crazy to me. 

Hopefully, crazy to everyone else.

Now that I think about....was Grizzly Smith part of the goddamn vetting process for the Super Date at the Superdome? Was he the consolation prize for the girls who didn't fit the legal age criteria for the contest?

[BloodyChamp]

Pretty sure it wasn’t Grizzly Smith lol I’m not quite that old but I’ll have to see if it’s any of the others. As far as Grizzly Smith working in WCW as an agent, I just assumed he knew somebody who gave him a seat to shine with his rear. That seems to be what every WCW agent ever was. 

Edited June 3, 2023 by BloodyChamp

[odessasteps]

Well, I’d say there aren’t people in Grizzly’s level of crime and immorality, but it’s wrestling, so we can all name a number of them (benoit, zumhoffe, Sweetan, Snuka, etc).

[Norwegian Rudo]

54 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

Well, I’d say there aren’t people in Grizzly’s level of crime and immorality, but it’s wrestling, so we can all name a number of them (benoit, zumhoffe, Sweetan, Snuka, etc).

Speaking of Zumhoffe I read an old article a while ago, it was about Greg Gagne, Zumhoffe and somebody else opening a wrestling school and one of the coaches listed was Zumhoffe's daughter whose wrestling name was given as "The Virgin"...

[clintthecrippler]

I am at the stage in my Mid-South watch project where Bob Sweeten is back in 1985 to replace Ted DiBiase in the Mid-South Tag Team Championship team with Dr. Death Steve Williams. I stumbled across a Jim Ross podcast clip where he discusses Sweetan's Mid-South runs and matter-of-factly describes Sweetan as a "piece of shit" (his exact words) but then talks about how he was brought in by Grizzly Smith, and I honestly shudder about how there is no way they did not know about the other's proclivities and God forbid shared that interest while being in the territory at the same time. 

There is also the incredibly unfortunate tag team on one of the 82/83 episodes of Bob Sweetan...and Ken Wayne. 

[John from Cincinnati]

I only use it to find out if/when a match occurred, so I never pay attention to the ratings. People are taking them this seriously? How old are we? 

 

[dragonzombie]

Yeah I read about that days ago. I rather they just remove the ratings.

[Elsalvajeloco]

17 minutes ago, clintthecrippler said:

I am at the stage in my Mid-South watch project where Bob Sweeten is back in 1985 to replace Ted DiBiase in the Mid-South Tag Team Championship team with Dr. Death Steve Williams. I stumbled across a Jim Ross podcast clip where he discusses Sweetan's Mid-South runs and matter-of-factly describes Sweetan as a "piece of shit" (his exact words) but then talks about how he was brought in by Grizzly Smith, and I honestly shudder about how there is no way they did not know about the other's proclivities and God forbid shared that interest while being in the territory at the same time. 

There is also the incredibly unfortunate tag team on one of the 82/83 episodes of Bob Sweetan...and Ken Wayne. 

The Sweetan stuff is from the same episode where he talks about Grizzly I referenced earlier. Some delightful human beings in that Mid South territory, I tell ya.

FWIW: Conrad, for like the first time ever, gave a listener discretion is advised warning at the beginning because he didn't know how dark that episode was going to be. He cannot stop Jim from rambling so I mean that's on him.

[odessasteps]

At least when Sweetan is a heel, you can root against him. In WOW, not only was he a babyface, he was a patriotic Mr. USA type (despite being Canadian). 

[Ziggy]

Seth Rollins is having an "Open Challenge" for the new World Title. I get that he wants that Title to be the workers World title but think him letting anyone challenge for it straight out the gate makes the belt look lesser if anyone challenge for it. But hey , I'm old school now. I be 36 tomorrow so don't judge me if I come across as Jim Cornette yelling at the clouds

[Dolphman 3000]

2 hours ago, 赤い竜 said:

Yeah I read about that days ago. I rather they just remove the ratings.

My buddy pointed out that the owner of Cagematch only rates AEW shows and matches using his personal account, so whatever he said in that statement about not showing favoritism is nonsense

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=68&page=3&user=4

I think the Jericho vs. Cole match at the pay per view broke a lot of brains with how poorly it was received

[Elsalvajeloco]

31 minutes ago, Dolphman 3000 said:

My buddy pointed out that the owner of Cagematch only rates AEW shows and matches using his personal account

Thank you, Columbo.

[Eivion]

1 hour ago, Ziggy said:

Seth Rollins is having an "Open Challenge" for the new World Title. I get that he wants that Title to be the workers World title but think him letting anyone challenge for it straight out the gate makes the belt look lesser if anyone challenge for it. But hey , I'm old school now. I be 36 tomorrow so don't judge me if I come across as Jim Cornette yelling at the clouds

He is set to face Damian Priest for the belt. They announced it on Smackdown.

[The Natural]

Chris Hero interview:

https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/exclusives/chris-hero-clarifies-he-s-not-retired-i-just-can-t-stay-away-wrestling-any-way

[Johnny Sorrow]

I don't buy Thompson being surprised by the shit JR dropped about Smith and Sweetan. He's Flair's fuckng relative. He knows all this shit.

Edited June 4, 2023 by Johnny Sorrow

[zendragon]

13 hours ago, Norwegian Rudo said:

Has anybody ever asked how Grizzly was able to work for WCW, and be spoken favorably of on air, when it was a known story how he had raped Jake's underage mom? I'm guessing a bunch of other stuff was also known to insiders, but the Jake one was publicly known at the time.

I think a lot of it is just something that’s taken a lot more seriously today (thankfully) I mean R Kelly and Micheal Jackson’s proclivities where treated as fodder for jokes for years 

[Elsalvajeloco]

5 hours ago, Johnny Sorrow said:

I don't buy Thompson being surprised by the shit JR dropped about Smith and Sweetan. He's Flair's fuckng relative. He knows all this shit.

Conrad has been pretty open that he doesn't discuss much wrestling with Flair unless it's Ric being nostalgic about his own career (i.e. revisiting the Funk series in 89, the stuff Ric personally loves with Ron Garvin, etc.). He knows some of the stories but he isn't about to grill his father in law about his entire wrestling career or everything he knows. Plus, just cause Flair himself has some crazy shit he has been involved with, he has chosen to keep him at arms length sometimes.

Now that said, some of this stuff has already been covered on other podcasts he has done in some form of fashion. Moreover, Conrad does have some association with other podcasts outside his network and has had involvement in the Dark Side of the Ring series. So he does have knowledge about a lot of those events. Keep in mind, because he has 25 different podcasts, he doesn't remember everything.

So when I say he didn't know how dark that episode would be, I meant he didn't Jim would go into vivid details about certain things. He has obviously covered Mid South before with Jim and they talked about Grizz at least and never mentioned his crimes in detail. This was more of a name association episode instead of Conrad asking leading questions like he usually does. So Jim had the incentive to ramble on more than he usually does.

[odessasteps]

I’d think someone who has been an longtime Observer subscriber who be cursorily aware of who the most notorious bad guys were in wrestlling history. We’re not twlk8ng about something like the Johnny Walker stuff which I think was something that became more widely known in the last few years. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

Out of all the podcasts, he treats Jim with kid gloves because JR don't give a fuck half the time. If he did, I doubt Jim would do the show anymore. So you basically have multiple scenario. You could get the Jim Ross who has had good week, watched some football, and somewhat optimistic. You might get a half decent episode. You could get somewhat surly Jim Ross who will make an odd, uncomfortable comment about women or something tangentially related to the female anatomy or a weird off color joke. You might get Jim Ross who is ready to bury the world. You might get a combo of all three. 

If you listen to the episode though it starts out fairly normal and there is nothing to write home about. Then it goes completely sideways about an hour in.

[A Guy Named Tracy]

23 hours ago, 赤い竜 said:

PWInsider has a story about Stan Lane and Lauren Boebert, his latest DNA Paternity test proved he isn't Lauren's biological father.

The news got me thinking… did Stan Lane ever wrestle for the WWF? (Not counting his stint as a color commentator of course.)

By the time WWF had their crossover with SMW, Jimmy Del Ray had already replaced Stan in the Heavenly Bodies. Did the Fabs ever have a one-off at MSG?

 

[colonial]

4 minutes ago, A Guy Named Tracy said:

The news got me thinking… did Stan Lane ever wrestle for the WWF? (Not counting his stint as a color commentator of course.)

By the time WWF had their crossover with SMW, Jimmy Del Ray had already replaced Stan in the Heavenly Bodies. Did the Fabs ever have a one-off at MSG?

 

If you want to stretch things, the Fabs worked an OVW show in 2000 that had a few WWF names and developmental guys sprinkled in. Fabs wrestled Derrick King and Jason Lee on the show. Main event was Kane/Damaja (Danny Basham) vs. D-Lo/Rob Conway. There was also a Kurt Angle/Sylvester Terkay singles bout -- I believe the two wrestled against one another in college so might be a curiosity (even though Terkay wasn't that great a pro).

Regarding Stan Lane and the paternity story, Drudge Report had a link to a story that referred to Lane as "ex-WWE" and featured a photo of a cowboy wrestler who clearly is not Lane. (Bobby Duncum Jr., perhaps?)

 

 

[Cobra Commander]

Darby going to Everest makes me think it would be interesting if there were any sherpas in wrestling. Presumably it would be a better fit if the Sherpa was a babyface who specialized in saving other babyfaces

If that’s not possible, change it up a little and have a gurkha wrestler. Although the military reputation of gurkhas is similar to how people refer to Meng as being the baddest man ever.