Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

DIRTSHEETZ~! THREAD


RIPPA

Recommended Posts

Rosenberg is a great interviewer period. For those who are unaware he's the morning DJ on HOT 97 in New York. I've listened to countless of his interviews with hip-hop and R&B stars and they are always fun. Sometimes controversial too because he doesn't hold back. His wrestling interviews are much of the same. He just cuts out all of the bullshit. It's refreshing.

 

With that said, he's not great on this podcast with Shoemaker but he is the reason why I started listening to it. I didn't love Shoemaker's columns so naturally I dislike him even more after listening to the podcast.

 

I actually believe a Simmons led wrestling podcast would be better. He did a couple with Dave prior to Grantland and they were fantastic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Similar to FSW, I feel like I was a decade too late to the IWC. All the feuds of years past sounds so ridiculous. On one hand, I wish I could have observed the ridiculousness first hand, but at the same time, I'm kinda glad I didn't start really paying attention to internet wrestling stuff until 2003-2004 because some of the stuff listed was frightening. Do feuds like this still exist or has the IWC grown to the point where no one cares enough anymore?

 

I think it is a safe bet that if you went and checked RSPW today you would find people feuding with each other. The same people that would have been there feuding with each other 15 years ago. Would take you under a minute to realize you were lucky to miss it all. Be glad you weren't around at that time. One of the real low points for the IWC back then was in 1998 when Mick Foley was one of the people up for Time magazine man of the year. This led to fans going on the attack after people related to, or supporters of, Matthew Shepard. A young man in college that was tortured and murdered for being gay. 

 

 

It's not necessary, but I like having it all centralized.  Plus I'd rather read Meltz than listen to him.

He is the wrestling writer equivalent of a mortician. Only useful when someone dies. Great piece on Robinson.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rosenberg is a great interviewer period. For those who are unaware he's the morning DJ on HOT 97 in New York. I've listened to countless of his interviews with hip-hop and R&B stars and they are always fun. Sometimes controversial too because he doesn't hold back. His wrestling interviews are much of the same. He just cuts out all of the bullshit. It's refreshing.

 

With that said, he's not great on this podcast with Shoemaker but he is the reason why I started listening to it. I didn't love Shoemaker's columns so naturally I dislike him even more after listening to the podcast.

 

I actually believe a Simmons led wrestling podcast would be better. He did a couple with Dave prior to Grantland and they were fantastic.

 

I'd agree with the interviewer piece, but again, I do think he sucks up in a very blatant way. Again, the Bellas interview was just sickening...and most of the time when he talks about the Divas, it borders on creepy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have been an on and off subscriber of the observer for the last two or three years, but in the last 6 months I have kept my subscription going. I enjoy the audio with having to travel a two hour round trip daily for university and a night job where I listen to my ipod. They are nearly always under an hour (and I listen to even less by skipping through all the MMA talk) and I can breeze through them.

 

I enjoy listening to Metlzer answer questions, I find Dave a really interesting guy to listen to in general. Sometimes I don't agree with him but most of time everything he says makes sense.

 

I read the observer and have only just started reading Figure Four Weekly when I heard Bix's was taking over (I enjoyed most of his work I had seen on the bleacher report). I have really enjoyed it so far aswell.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I want to subscribe to the Wrestling Observer and am curious, getting the monthly subscription to it, do the new Wrestling Observer's show up as downloadable PDF files? And how good are the archives?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Observers are not in PDFs. PDF has been requested many times and hasn't been done. 

 

The oldest Observer is the 1991-01-10 one, and the 'old' Observers are thru early 1997. The new ones go from 2008-06-09 until today. There's also a couple of extra posted ones between 1997 and 2008. It's spotty that first year - he started doing them on computer in 1991 and went back and forth with the typewriter for that year, so any one done on a typewriter are missing and are unlikely to ever get posted. 

 

They post one new issue a week, usually on Tuesdays. They're posting them in sequence, so there is the entertainment of watching things happen in 'real time' (17 years later). It also means you're waiting until 2025 if you want the full(-ish) archive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was one of those IWC kids who went from thinking Scott Keith was an erudite and interesting commentator to realizing he was an egomaniac with no idea what he was talking about.  I wrote a few articles for Rantsylvania (mostly action figure reviews) back in le day, but by 2000 I was done with that shit.

 

Modern-day-wise, most of the time I don't even bother.  I keep up a subscription to F4WON, but I can't claim to follow anything.  That said (and I'm pretty sure I've posted this before) I'm always amazed that Alvarez can be a really good interviewer and a really bad commentator simultaneously.  I think he's figured out what questions are likely to provoke a good story from an indy darling or old-timer, but when asked to actually analyze what's going on in the modern world of rasslin' he resorts to the same two or three routines and just starts talking louder and louder when someone counter-argues him.  He definitely shouldn't be co-hosting with Dave (aside from the fact that he's the one recording everything, obviously).  Dave and Todd might be interesting; Bryan and Todd makes my soul bleed.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guys enjoy this mosquito encased in amber

 

 


Greetings conversationalists all across the fruited plain it is I your personal Harvester of Sorrow Phantom Lord and this is The Rant of the Week. Much like Keith Richards here I am still sticking around to do what I do best and on this Labor Day weekend I am coming to you as always from my bunker in the urban cesspool that is Brooklyn, New York. It’s been an interesting couple of weeks since I’ve actually written a column. The WWE is stacking the decks so to speak on Smackdown now that they have been moved to Friday nights. NWA-TNA is finally using commercial advertising in a good way as ads for TNA Impact are being shown during RAW much to the dismay of Vince McMahon. Dare I say things are finally looking up for us the lowly wrestling fan that has suffered through the last four years since the demise of WCW and ECW.

 

But as we move into the future you have to wonder what the future holds for wrestling. Smackdown’s biggest problem right now is the fact it’s on Friday’s and to start things off on a bad note its probably going to be pre-empted for some telethon to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. I’m all for raising money to help them (lord knows they need it), but much like The State of the Union address by The President it isn’t needed on every damn channel. During the last two weeks the WWE has been stacking the card with three huge matches for the new Friday Night Smackdown and the trend of being pre-empted in the major markets starts early. We can expect more of this during the next year with local sports coverage of the MLB, NFL, and I think a few NBA games.

 

Of course what fun would there be in the WWE if they didn’t get to make fun of the network that carries their show in some form. Enter Palmer Cannon who is supposed to be a representative of “The Network”. Apparently middle manager yes men can book wrestling shows so should the day hell freezes over come and ROH ends up on FOX or something we can expect Samoa Joe to put over the big reality star of the moment. But as I was saying, this angle is hilarious for all the wrong reasons. I mean its almost like the WWE said lets turn Smackdown into ECW on TNN because odds are we’re off this network in a year anyways.

 

The similarities between Palmer Cannon and Cyrus are amazing. Granted Cannon isn’t the world-class heel that Cyrus is, but still this all very much a rehash of things we have seen before (but then again the WWE tends to do that a lot). But it just makes me laugh that basically a network executive is calling the shots on Smackdown. Now you all know me. I’m a tad bit obsessive when it comes to reality. I’m all for that suspension of disbelief crap but only to a certain extent. As much as people want to say WCW was driven into the ground and killed by Vince Russo, in reality it was the middle managers from AOL who killed WCW. Palmer Cannon is damn near a parody of them all wrapped up into one. For starters you have the lingerie pillow fight taken off TV because the network didn’t approve of it.

 

How many angles in WCW were dropped because of standards and practices? With ECW on TNN we saw Cyrus picking and choosing whom he wanted as champion because the network told him so and so was more marketable. So with Friday Night Smackdown coming up and Teddy Long and Palmer Cannon trying to out do each other its becoming more and more of the same old stuff that we have seen time and time again.

 

That’s the biggest gripe I think every fan has with the WWE. It doesn’t matter if you’re a smark who lives and dies by the sheets or some fan that really believe in Hulkamania. When you see the same few core angles rehashed over and over and over again you lose interest. Case and point look at John Cena on RAW. If he weren’t a poor man’s Eminem he would be Stone Cold Steve Austin. Eric Bischoff is playing the role of Vince McMahon and once again we get the god forsaken angle of “Anti-Authority face vs. the corporate boss”.

 

So yeah with RAW it’s a rehash of RAW from about six years ago and Smackdown is a rehash of the final years of WCW and ECW. A lot of crap mixed with the occasional gem of a great match given away for free on television. But things could be worse. We could still have The Corporation in power.

 

Remember in 1999 when Bradshaw was just a henchman for The Devil? Yeah things sure have changed…

 

But the more they change the more they stay the same and in the WWE’s never-ending attempt to insult the fans intelligence, I came across this gem from I believe The Wrestling Observer. Its because of things like this the WWE continues to shoot it self in the foot.

 

Due to his character, WWE has told Eugene to stay in character and act that way 24 hours a day if any people are around. Jillian Hall has also been asked to wear a band-aid on her face in public, when not wearing any makeup.

 

Make sure to read that because basically it comes down to this. Eugene (Nick Dinsmore to people in the know) has to act like a retard anytime people are around. Jillian Hall who is the chick with the tumor on the side of her face has to wear a band aid because lord knows with the right amount of make up you can hide that god awful thing on her face.

Now I’m going to take a guess here and assume Eugene and Jillian both are making around the $250,000 range. That’s a basic contract for the WWE these days and you have to wonder if the money really is worth it to have to live your gimmick all damn day. Some people have mentioned that Eugene can go un-noticed if he just pulls his hair back and Jillian…well she looks like any blonde with big tits. Why they gave her this “mole” gimmick I’ll never know. No one is looking at her face if you catch my drift.

 

But could you imagine if everyone had to live his or her gimmick all the time in the WWE. Hell could you imagine back in the day if some of the more cartoonish characters had to live their gimmick all the time? You see its stuff like this that makes you embarrassed to be a wrestling fan. Yes its entertainment but I don’t believe for a minute that Eugene is Forrest Gump and Jillian has what appears to be a lizard egg on the side of her face.

 

You know if the WWE tried to let these guys show their talent rather then having to rely on kooky gimmicks then maybe just maybe they wouldn’t be so desperate for new stars.

Another reason they’re desperate for new stars is because they keep getting rid of the old ones and the biggest stars the WWE have let go are by far The Dudley Boyz. Bubba Ray, D-Von, and Spike. Together they are the best tag team in the WWE. Well the WWE let their contract expire and now The Dudley’s are free agents and TNA is looking for big names and the WWE has decided to play the legal card and said “Guess what…you cant use these names anymore”.

 

Now there’s the whole issue of copyrights and trademarks and believe it or not the WWE does not own a lot of them especially on names of people they let go. But a little thing like the law has never stopped the WWE before and they are making it damn near impossible for a lot of guys to make a living by saying they are not allowed to use the Dudley names.

The logic a lot of people think is behind this mess is because the WWE is planning to re-launch ECW next year and they don’t want the core ECW guys doing the reunion tour which is basically a TNA production and they sure as hell don’t want them going to NWA-TNA. When it comes down to it, this is all a game of chicken and it’s a matter of who blinks first.

If I were Bubba, D-Von, or Spike I would call the WWE’s bluff and tell them if they want to sue me then sue me because they had better be in for a battle because I’d be ready to take it all the way to the supreme court. Granted that’s what the WWE wants because they just love to drive people into bankruptcy, but if you find a real good activist lawyer who is willing to do the work pro bono or at least for a decent price then you can easily combat the WWE and their legal team.

 

Lets all remember one thing. The WWE lost their name to a bunch of tree huggers in England. If Vince is willing to give up his companies name then believe me when push comes to shove there is no way in hell he would go all the way to the supreme court.

 

Yeah The Dudley’s would forever be shit canned in the WWE but it would be worth it because this is a matter of making a living and Bubba Ray and D-Von are The Dudley Boyz. No one else can be The Dudley’s. Just like no one else can be The Rock or Stone Cold Steve Austin. Character development is a two way street. You need a great character and the person to pull it off. Doing this is just about as low as it gets…but then again the WWE fired Test and Jesus after they broke their necks and they got rid of Dawn Marie during the middle of her pregnancy.

Vince McMahon in many ways reminds me of an oil or railroad tycoon from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. After seeing stuff like this I’m finally inclined to agree that a union is needed for Pro Wrestling if not for the sole reason guys don’t get fired after almost crippling themselves.

 

Now I mentioned TNA finally getting a good TV deal, well TNA is really trying to knock one out of the park. The only problem is things seem to fall apart before they happen for them. TNA was supposed to bring in Matt Hardy and he played them and went back to the WWE. TNA tries to get Mick Foley and Vince convinces him to come back to the WWE. TNA wants The Dudley’s and now they have to deal with another WWE legal issue over a name that they don’t even use anymore.

 

TNA is hoping to land Bret Hart for the first show on Spike TV but Bret doesn’t want to be on TV and really what point would it serve to have Bret on TNA? If he were going to put someone over I could understand it, but we all know who ever they land as the big surprise will ultimately be on the receiving end of an EL KABONG from Jeff Jarrett.

Honestly I think if TNA were smart they would just bring in Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. Hall and Nash were pretty good in the last run in TNA and they are the biggest names they can get. They could get Sting but his whole crow act has really gotten stale especially with him becoming born again. So yeah TNA doesn’t have many options for what they can do for the premier on Spike TV.

 

Well they have one option and its crazy enough that it might just work. You know what that is?

 

WRESTLING…PLAIN AND SIMPLE

 

Drill it home while the other guys are doing soap opera’s our guys are busting there assess for the best product possible. Make the distinction between TNA and the WWE. The WWE is Sports Entertainment. NWA-TNA is Professional Wrestling for the new millennium. I mean that’s what I would do.

 

What’s going to end up happening is Raven will lose the World title to Jeff Jarrett because as we know Planet Jarrett is the only star they have…

 

Well I think that’s about it. I want to thank you for reading my column and remember someone has to give you this information and it damn well has got to be me.

 

I am Phantom Lord

 

God Bless America.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Similar to FSW, I feel like I was a decade too late to the IWC. All the feuds of years past sounds so ridiculous. On one hand, I wish I could have observed the ridiculousness first hand, but at the same time, I'm kinda glad I didn't start really paying attention to internet wrestling stuff until 2003-2004 because some of the stuff listed was frightening. Do feuds like this still exist or has the IWC grown to the point where no one cares enough anymore?

 

I think it is a safe bet that if you went and checked RSPW today you would find people feuding with each other. The same people that would have been there feuding with each other 15 years ago. Would take you under a minute to realize you were lucky to miss it all. Be glad you weren't around at that time. One of the real low points for the IWC back then was in 1998 when Mick Foley was one of the people up for Time magazine man of the year. This led to fans going on the attack after people related to, or supporters of, Matthew Shepard. A young man in college that was tortured and murdered for being gay. 

 

 

It's not necessary, but I like having it all centralized.  Plus I'd rather read Meltz than listen to him.

He is the wrestling writer equivalent of a mortician. Only useful when someone dies. Great piece on Robinson.

 

All RSPW is now is the same  4 posters posting stuff to see who posts the most for the month. Been like that for years now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The absolute end of me taking Scott Keith seriously was when his "I subscribed to the Observer when you were just reading newz sites" gimmick was outed as a work when Dave Meltzer tore apart all of his best "I read it in the Observer" stories. Like Austin being the original planned winner of Final Four and the match being rebooked on the fly when he blew out his knee.

And Scott would hem and has that he could have sworn he read it in the Observer and wasn't sure why Dave was being so mean to him.

My how time have changed:

Then, I READ THIS IN THE OBSERVER gave you credibility. "I call the Observer Hotline" was uber-credibility, because that's what Micasa did.

Now? People who don't read the Observer or understand what it is curse out Dave on Twitter because...I'm not really sure why?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll say this much, I really like Meltzer. The way he talks wrestling, the way he presents his news, and the overall way in which he tackles the wrestling business appeals to me. He's the only thing getting me through the Observer radio show.

 

As for Keith, I just listened to an ep of Good Time Wrestling about the very best of 1980s AWA, specifically in relation to the DVDVR AWA 80s set. Back when I was first into wrestling AWA is a fed I wrote off, and that was because of Keith and the way he would always say that outside of a few matches it was a fed that produced pretty terrible matches and had a lame champ in Bockwinkle. I won't deny that 16-22 year old me was pretty damn foolish, but the thing is I grew up and I've opened myself up to the fact that great, or interesting, matches can come from anywhere. With Keith it seems like he feels the need to stick to his guns, and that means he'll never give the greater AWA a chance, watch much Lucha, dig into Puerto Rico, or come clean on his erroneous inside gossip.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hilarious that the Observer poll has voters saying their interest in 'Mania is less than in previous years. I mean, Cena/Miz HHH/UT II, Cena/Rock I HHH/UT III an Cena/Rock II and Lesnar/Hunter II had more pumped than the Daniel Bryan Show or babyface Shield members flying around or a hillbilly cult taking Cena to Carcosa. C'mon!?!?!?  Internet wrestling fans are the fucking worst (DVDR posters excepted, of course).

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fair enough, what was the last 'Mania you were excited about, if you don't mind me asking?

 

I'm pretty excited about it. Partly because I'm going but also a lot because I think that the top four matches have the chance to be really special. I just think a lot of fans online get stuck in the "it was better back then" mindset, no matter when "back then" was.  I'm completely aghast at Attitude Era-navel gazing, as a rule, and I think that in-ring WWE is better than it's been in a while. Like, 2007 stands-out as a strong in-ring year and I'd put the last year right up there.

 

Honestly, I think this has been the best build in the last 4 years. Maybe there's nothing that's going to approach the "specialness" of Flair/Shawn or Shawn/UT but you have a lot of, essentially, newer stars (Bray, Daniel, The Shield) all in prominent spots. It's just hard for me not to think that Observer voters aren't immediately in "oh, Rock isn't there. Austin isn't there. Punk isn't there. Hunter is going to win the belt. The show will suck" mindset.

 

To go back to Keith for a second. I noticed on his blog he stopped reviewing Raw because it bored the shit out of him, only so he could re-watch Attitude Era Raw and SDs, a lot of which in '98 and '99 are just overbooked messes. I mean, it was exciting shit and the memories stand out but I'd rather watch Seth Rollins or Luke Harper go 15 minutes every show as something new, than revisit 15 heel turns on a show.

 

To be fair, I'm one of those people that don't read books twice, don't watch movies twice, and never watch a wrestling match twice anymore. I like new shit. It's why I'm holding off the Network, though when my buddy gets back from his oil rig hitch I think we're gonna slam some Dangerous Alliance WCW.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

24 was probably the last Mania I was really excited for. 30 has really gotten me more interested than the last few for sure. Its really refreshing and it seems like we're seeing a new generation come up and it's a generation that feels exciting. It's not like when the new guys were like Dupree (who I thought was awesome and going to be a huge star) or Jindrak. Now Bryan, Wyatt, Harper, Reigns, Ambrose, Rollins, Cesaro all feel like they're gonna be big deals.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...