AUGUST 2018 WRESTLING DISCUSSION.

[Casey]

I wouldn't even talk about Allison Danger or Sara Del Rey or LuFisto before mentioning Mercedes Martinez.

[Raziel]

Yes, she's in that conversation too.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

I feel like Daizee Haze deserves some honorable mention, along with the Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew, now International Wrecking Crew (Lacey, Rain, Jetta).

As far as the WWE women's revolution, it's Sara Del Ray. Sara Del Ray was trained by Bryan Danielson, so we can thank him for the women's revolution. 

[Niners Fan in CT]

I went to an ROH show in 2006 that had Daizee Haze vs. Sara Del Ray on it.  People were into it.  People were into the TNA Knockouts too.  WWE was what a decade late on this?  That's not bad for Vince,  he probably thinks the biggest shows on TV are Friends and ER.  

[odessasteps]

I remember when Chikara started, they (quack and joanne)  were planning on there also being a womens promotion. But that never materialized. 

[Pete]

27 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

I remember when Chikara started, they (quack and joanne)  were planning on there also being a womens promotion. But that never materialized. 

TBF, Joanne did run at least 1-2 joshi shows (Kiryoku Pro). That's just as far as they got with it.

[sabremike]

I think it's a totally fair statement to say that LuFisto was born a decade too soon, much the same way James Mitchell was probably born 10-15 years too late.

[Casey]

1 minute ago, Pete said:

TBF, Joanne did run at least 1-2 joshi shows (Kiryoku Pro). That's just as far as they got with it.

I think it was more like 3 or 4 cards, but eventually it was co-branded with CHIKARA. I'm not even sure if any of the shows had 100% of the matches between women, either. I know there was at least one all men match on every card for Kiryoku Pro.

[odessasteps]

My bad. I didnt recall them ever running. 

[tbarrie]

1 hour ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

That's not bad for Vince,  he probably thinks the biggest shows on TV are Friends and ER.  

That would put him more up-to-date than this board. We still think it's Seinfeld.

[Guest Edwin]

Is Billy Jack Haynes still rambling on Facebook? I can came across a shoot interview clip of his on YouTube and it's just as nuts. I remember him challenging Stone Cold to a $100,000 UFC fight on PPV...

[Nice Guy Eddie]

 

12 minutes ago, tbarrie said:

That would put him more up-to-date than this board. We still think it's Seinfeld.

Obviously, not the biggest anymore, but still the best.

[Casey]

Curb Your Enthusiasm is better.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

13 minutes ago, Casey said:

Curb Your Enthusiasm is better.

Seinfeld, then Curb for me.

[Guest Edwin]

52 minutes ago, tbarrie said:

That would put him more up-to-date than this board. We still think it's Seinfeld.

[OSJ]

1 hour ago, sabremike said:

I think it's a totally fair statement to say that LuFisto was born a decade too soon, much the same way James Mitchell was probably born 10-15 years too late.

Spot on, perfect analogy! I'm not going to get all goofy like some folks and declare Mitchell to be an all-time great, but you could plug him in to the 1970s WWWF and he smokes two of the three Wise Men (Blassie & Albano). Nowhere near as good as Memphis Jimmy Hart, but better than WWF Jimmy Hart.  Funny thing about Mitchell is despite what I said about him not being an all-time great the list of guys that were consistently better for a longer period of time is actually a pretty short one.  

The obvious choices are clearly better, (Heenan, Cornette, Gary Hart, Grand Wizard, & J.J. coming readily to mind...) But Mitchell had to contend with a situation that few others did and that was essentially an entire industry that had been browbeaten by VKM into believing that managers no longer had a place in wrestling. Sure, there was an over-saturation level reached at one point when they started dragging in guys like Paul Jones (every bit as bad a manager as he had been great as a wrestler), Oliver Humperdink, who managed to seize onto everything that Lou Albano did poorly and somehow do it worse and Curtis Iaukea. Then you had the folks that were wildly inconsistent depending on location and the cast that they had to work with. Paul Heyman could be one of the best and one of the worst within the same one-hour program. Skandor Akbar and Paul Ellering (and yes, I know that he was REALLY the Roadies actual manager, not just an on-air personality) don't get nearly enough credit these days for their roles. 

Yeah, Mitchell was a bit over-the-top for my tastes, but the dude had a pretty tough road to travel and by and large did quite well whenever given the chance. 

[Curt McGirt]

59 minutes ago, OSJ said:

the dude had a pretty tough road to travel

Yeah, especially when you watch the extras on the Forever Hardcore DVD with him listing how much he drank on a daily basis haha. Seriously epic...

I can't find that footage so here's the story of Mitchell blowing up his hand from the doc

 

[BNosanchuk]

Didn't Lufisto come along just a bit before Cheerleader Melissa and co? Wiki says Lufisto debuted in 97; who else was around that time frame, 98-01-ish? Even Melissa's early years were with the Ballard bros. It wasn't until around 02-03 that she really started to become the Cheerleader Melissa we'd come to know. Lexie Fyfe? April Hunter? I know there are some more, but even they weren't setting the world on fire for women's wrestling did they? 

[Ziggy]

11 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Yeah, especially when you watch the extras on the Forever Hardcore DVD with him listing how much he drank on a daily basis haha. Seriously epic...

I can't find that footage so here's the story of Mitchell blowing up his hand from the doc

 

When I first saw him in WCW, I  thought he was a lame manager with a cheesy evil heel gimmick, when he came to ECW I realized he was probably the best manager in the Industry at that point, definitely the best mouthpiece. The Unholy Alliance of Tajiri and Whipwreck was probably the best thing in the company before it ended. Listening to Kris Zellners Podcasts makes me want to see his Smokey Mountain work

[Nice Guy Eddie]

 

[Nice Guy Eddie]

I found this on Reddit because I was looking to see if Scott Steiner still owned the Shoney's in Acworth, Georgia. I figured I'd share with my DVDVR brethren.

 

[sydneybrown]

I'm a little weirded out that 16.6667% of the pictures are of the bathroom.  Is that a plus of Shoney's?  The Scott Steiner franchise actually has one?  His equally weird excitement over a claw and gumball machine doesn't help things.  

[Ace]

1 hour ago, BNosanchuk said:

Didn't Lufisto come along just a bit before Cheerleader Melissa and co? Wiki says Lufisto debuted in 97; who else was around that time frame, 98-01-ish? Even Melissa's early years were with the Ballard bros. It wasn't until around 02-03 that she really started to become the Cheerleader Melissa we'd come to know. Lexie Fyfe? April Hunter? I know there are some more, but even they weren't setting the world on fire for women's wrestling did they? 

I expected Malia Hosaka to get further in her career than she did.

 

[Dolfan in NYC]

A good tweet I found over the weekend:

 

[The Natural]

11 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

 

Cheers. The Sinister Minister with the Unholy Alliance of Tajiri and Mikey Whipwreck is one of my favourite ever wrestling tandems. Liked the entrance music as well.