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For Hulk Hogan I find this animosity In no way a curiousity His actions are not anomalous For his bigotry is as titanic as a hippopotamus Therefore his apology must be bigger For Hulkamania needs a gravedigger All because the immortal one Espoused his hatred of an eight foot oh fuck

"Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

The day he joined TNA, Corgan could be overheard saying, Today is not the greatest day I have ever known.

Ernie Ladd was pretty awesome. Let's talk about him for 26 pages instead.

Anyone else think of Flair in the mental hospital when they saw the Tully pic?

This is essentially the story of post-slavery American culture. If you look at all the cultural movements in this country since emancipation, they were essentially all started by black people. As soon as white people caught on the black people have essentially been pushed out. Seriously, I had a conversation with someone about cultural appropriation, and the person asked me sarcastically, "If a black person makes a rock record, are they appropriating white culture?" This person didn't even know that rock music was created by black people, because as far as they've ever known no black people make rock music. The only uniquely American culture is the post slavery African American culture. It is basically what happens when a group of people have to make up their whole culture from the ground up. Black people were freed, but isolated from the culture they had when they were shipped here. They were segregated from the rest of society and had to make up everything as they went along. Our country is essentially a never ending cycle of taking black culture while hating the people who created it.

One of those fools is dating Alexa?

Looks like we need another Racial Draft.

AJ is irreplaceable.

Shit, I'd take a Noelle with zero wrestling talent that shits the ring every night over AJ at any point in time.

Tell me that dude didn't just accuse a black guy of appropriating black culture.

We just call woman doctors "doctors." Doctor of Hugganomics would be the most adorable nickname in professional wrestling ever.

I don't even like Hogan's matches. His promos were always the same. He was a son of a bitch backstage and NOW we know he's a bigot. I'm all for throwing the piece of shit away. Did you guys hear the latest? Big Fresh is a racist.

That's just the basic version. "Shine-heat-comeback-finish" is the shorthand label for the general formula; and it's not just wrestling, you can see the exact same storytelling progression in most Hollywood movies as well.In reality, there's much more to a match than just that. A bad match can happen all by itself, but a great one always has a context. That's partly why the big climactic matches in All Japan in the 1990s are still considered to be so special; because Baba & Co. were pretty meticulously detailed in the way they built up long-term storylines. Things that happened years ago would still influence what was happening now. Paul Heyman's best-booked matches in ECW tended to have several different storylines happening to intersect at once, creating a multi-car pileup effect which could be spectacular to watch. Point is, the match isn't just the match. It's also the angle and the hype and the promos and the entrances and the announcing and the differing personalities and the differing body types and the contrast between their in-ring styles and a hundred other things. The Rock already has the people on their feet and "electrified" before ever making physical contact with his opponent. And if you ever want to hear a crowd roar in a manner to make your hair stand up, just go find any of the old Mid-South tag matches where Bill Watts is in one of his post-retirement comeback tag-team revenge matches and finally manages to catch Michael Hayes and punch him right in his stupid mouth. Oh, I totally agree. So much so, actually, that this sort of build and payoff in storylines built inside actual matches feels like something else entirely, like another level of the craft. Almost like comparing a fun pulp novel to something like LoTR. Yeah, they're both books, but one is working on a few more levels than the other (but this is not to say we should enjoy one more than the other). It's the reason why, though I enjoyed the Cena/Owens series, I felt like we missed a couple matches. That first match was such a spectacle because of all the moves and seeing Owens, a cocky upstart, match Cena move for move and eventually beat him. Part of this is the desperation and high stakes WWE main event style tries to build with multiple finisher kickouts, but I feel like that first match COULD have been something like those All Japan classics if we had gotten the first two acts. As it was, we basically got the same really good third act match three times with, I think, diminishing returns. Now, as far as that basic structure is concerned, I feel like it, like it was designed to over years and years, can do a great job of engaging and entertaining an audience as long as the parts are placed and paced well. A big criticism of the Reigns/Wyatt match at Battleground (aside of starting with headlocks and ignoring the story they'd built to start) was Bray's boring heat segments which relied a lot on a couple of long chinlocks. I really liked this match, but I feel like Bray certainly needed to build heat with different, impactful-looking offense, if only based on Reigns's character as someone who can take a punch. Bray, though, is AWESOME at cutoff spots and Reigns has developed into a really good hope spot and comeback guy, in part because almost all of his signature moves pop the crowd, look painful, and can be pulled off from a variety of set-up positions. This match has historical context with the Shield/Wyatt feud, previous singles matches between the two, and a storyline promoted on tv. But it pretty much ignored those things. Still, there is a way to dissect the match using its component parts that really makes me feel like I'm understanding what's happening on a fun, new level. Dean posted this match in the 2015 INTERNET MOTY thread, and I feel like it does a really great job of telling the story of that basic match structure without a bunch of context. Or, if it's there, as someone without that context, I still really enjoyed this match out of Quiet Storm, who I haven't seen wrestle since the early days of ROH, and Mikey Nicholls, who I've only ever heard mentioned on the board. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ylit0_mikey-nicholls-vs-quiet-storm-noah-sem_sport It tells a simple story, both guys do a good, not great, job of telling their part of the story, and I think it works. The Cena/Owens series is nonsense. There is no structure, no internal story, barely even an external story. It's a standard indie "let's hit all of our cool big moves and kick out". The first match started out like the 30th match in a long term always cycling feud. The second and third matches were slightly better at least due to SOME story of moves being countered due to familiarity and moves being teased before hit and kicked out of. People losing their minds of it can't even tell you why it was good or what story was being told. The only reason people are into the Cena indie sprints this year is because they're with actual indie guys they like. The match with Rusev at Fastlane was signifcantly better in every way to the Cena/Owens series, but people thought it was boring because they didn't get what was a very basic story and structure. I find that Japan has pretty much always been the best at clear structures that work. From the JWA days on. I love those JWA/early NJ/AJ matches which is basically the 70s NWA style at a faster pace. Most usually went 2/3 falls, first fall going to the face or native worker, generally focused on one or two holds and not trying for big moves. Second fall generally went to the gaijin or heel, usually with an impact move fairly early into the fall and generally the impact move was something built up the entire first fall. Fall three is more even with both guys trying to score the win any way they can, always selling the first two falls, often trying for what won their other falls. You get like...Inoki/Sakaguchi vs Thesz/Gotch and just study it. Or Baba vs Destroyer from JWA and AJ. Or even the hour long Bruno vs Baba match. I don't think it is a coincidence that every great NWA guy from the 70s and 80s would be even better in Japan. The structure was perfect from the start. Even when AJ went crazy with the head drops in the 90s, they still used the basic structure as the core of matches. WWE has never done matches like that. Their version has always been "do some chain wrestling and mat work for 5-10 minutes, then get back to normal signature moves trading and finisher kick out". Indie companies do the same thing, or try to emulate the Japanese still without actually have any idea of how or why it works.

She's got the look I go for, that's for sure.

Oh, he's preaching there. How disappointing.

Has technology reached a point where Vince can have John Cena slam Andre?

Seems kinda appropriate...

I've never had more faith in anything to fix a difficult situation than I have in the poetry of Brooke Hogan.

It's possible he still works there, and just hasn't bothered showing up.

I always thought Stone intentionally made it garish to look at. It's visually striking of course, but not necessarily in a good way, IMO. I would put JFK on this list, though. It's still probably the best edited film I've ever seen.

Who wants a serious discussion over such a sensitive issue when mocking Hulk Hogan for being a racist and a fucking moron is so much more fun?

From Facebook (huge): ​

Spoiled due to size--

It was...

STEROIDS INHIBITING ME BLOOD IN MY PEE ANABOLIC HORROR

Nice chance for Vince & WWE to publicly distance themselves from a racist and pretend they're not racist as fuck. Another nice chance for mass media to pick apart one tape where one person said some shit that clearly sucks, instead of constantly tackling systemic institutional and cultural racism that dominates the West.

Not familiar with Virgil Flynn, is he any good? ETA: Is it too much to hope he's a cross between WWE Superstar Virgil and Jerry Flynn?

Cactus Jackie! Or Jacqui, if you prefer.

I feel you, man. That is an antiquated way to talk about heritage or ethnicity. I guess I was just focused on the argument as a whole and didn't focus in enough on that statement.

I'm sorry sir, the only G.I. Joe movie I'm aware of came out in 1987.

Liger and Kanemoto were heeling it up because it was the initial stages of the WAR/NJ feud and NJ guys acted like their shit didn't stink. It's weird that they were booed heavily at what looked to be a New Japan show though. The feud started in the fall of '92 and has some of the best New Japan matches from that decade (from what I've seen - I'm missing a lot of the late '90s footage). One of my favourites is a super stiff, sloppy but incredibly heated Orihara/Saito match from October '92. I've brought it up a bunch in the Japan folder over the years, but it really is incredible how the atmosphere inside Korakuen and the interpromotional feud turn what would've been a pretty piss poor match into one of those hidden gems you would probably dig. It's on one of Ditch's sites. Saito was part of Heisei Ishingun, so he wasn't even New Japan proper but it doesn't matter, as HI hated Tenryu and WAR even more than Choshu and New Japan did. This was before the influx of ridiculous number of heel stables in New Japan which happened in the mid-to-late '90s and kind killed the heat off. Eventually even Tenryu joined the stable. I'd also recommend the Mutoh/Tenryu IWGP matches from 1999 but they don't appear to be online at all. They were unreal and I think I preferred them to the hyped 2001 AJPW match(es?) those two had. I think I have the NJPW matches on a VHS from JL hidden in the crawl space somewhere. Edit: OH SHIT! The May/99 match is on New Japan World! Double Edit: I just saw your previous post about Toyota being insincere and not selling at all. Always preferred The Dangerous Queen 100x over Toyota. Also, you should definitely refer to Ditch's various sites for matches. Here's the '90 match between MVC and Tsuruta/Taue. Completely with you regarding Bret/Bulldog. One of my favourite Bret matches and it was pretty much perfect for its audience. Bret has gone on record in interviews and in his book that Davey was so fucked up at the time that he completely forgot the complex match that Bret had laid out in the weeks prior to the show and gassed very early on. We'll never know if it's Bret being Bret to the Nth degree but Davey was a mess, so I wouldn't be surprised in the least. And watching the match, you can definitely see Davey get blown up. Bret even said Davey fucked up the finish by concentrating more on his wife than Bret, as Bret wanted to put him over big time after the match as the cherry on top. And again, you're spot on with Kawada's selling. It's what set him apart from his peers. His willingness to put his opponent over and in the process making himself ultra sympathetic. His but dip/deep squat sell job is one of my favourites. By the end of his more epic matches, he looks like he's about to pass out from pain and exhaustion. So great! We seem to have very similar opinions on rasslin', particular the Jahpahkneez style. Jumbo - Kawada - Hansen ftw. And as highly hyped as 1993 is for AJPW (many considered it to be the best in-ring year from any promotion ever), I think I prefer '92 because of Tsuruta's presence, Kawada's progression, and Hansen still being the gaijin monster.

Wrestling turned into a work so you could script and tell stories in matches. That's the whole point. If you aren't telling a story, why even bother? It's not a real sport and shouldn't be held to the standards of a real sport, which also have storylines, they're just more subtle and usually need a good broadcaster to move them along.

Tate vs. Eye was a great fight that showed Tate's heart after getting rocked early in the fight then blasting Eye back in the chin. someone on Eye's team needs to coach her on keeping her chin too hit high after striking. TJ vs. Barao as TJ said was just rounds 6-9 from the first fight again. It will be interesting to see who TJ's next fight will be against.

I got a hankering to watch Sammo Hung's MARTIAL LAW series, and brother he carries that entire damn show.

In all seriousness, the idea that the Rock counts as being "black" shows how fucked-up our perceptions about race still are in common society. He's half pureblood Samoan on his mom's side, and Rocky Johnson is pale enough that he clearly has plenty of European DNA in his genes. Yet we're still taught to look at people like Dwayne, with considerably less than 50% African ancestry, as being "a black guy". It probably all traces back to the One Drop rule of slavery: that is, if anyone had so much as one drop of African blood in their veins, they were legally considered black and could be owned as slaves. That attitude has never entirely gone away, and that's how you get a modern society which is still so weird about race that someone like Rachel Dolezal can pass for black with nothing but a spray-tan and a perm.

This is Billy Corgan wishing he'd never gotten on the TNA train going straight to nowhere

They're like Ross and Rachel. Only with steroids and coke.

I don't want to turn this thread into a big social rant, but the majority of the people saying that this is all a 'mistake' and even going as far to condone his behavior are white people. Just looking at his Facebook page, you will see a lot of people acting as if this is all some big conspriacy caused to big Hogan down rather than Hulk Hogan being caught in a candid and honest moment. Some of the users then go on to say things like "If black people can say the word why can't white people?", "Everyone is entitled to his/her opinion!", "This should have never been released in the first place!" and talk about how the world is too sensitive and this is all "Liberal PC Bullshit", etc. One guy even went on to write something starting with #WhiteLivesMatter. #‎AllLivesMatter‬, a phrase that has become frustrating among activists because of its insistence upon directing the spotlight away from black victims of police brutality. Instead of recognizing the factor that race plays in these killings, many feel that #AllLivesMatter instead further exacerbates the erasure of black lives by failing to confront the very particular and unique circumstances related to violence against black people. #WhiteLivesMatter shows ignorance and sides with Hogan's beliefs of continuing to kick a race that has been kicked very long. Regardless of whether blacks are senators, presidents, judges, congressman, successful businessmen- there is always someone like Hulk Hogan around leading a bad example which in turn (not directly of course) leads to a white man walking around with a straight face pretending that his life is being threatened and impacted in a negative way because a person of color can vote, own land, run for office, make money, etc. So what would I like to see done? I would like to see Hogan come out and educate his fans as to WHY what he said was wrong and provide some history. Hogan and his friends need to stop using the word 'mistake' to describe his actions. A mistake is me spilling soup on my shirt. That's a mistake. A mistake is me taking a left turn when I was thinking (and should have) taken a right. Those are mistakes. Believing you are having a candid conversation with someone while away from the glitz and glamor is not a mistake. Hogan has yet again caught himself in the fake apology circle a lot of celebrities find themselves in. When endorsement deals, million dollar contracts, etc. start going away then all of a sudden that person is 'sorry'. Hogan needs to come clean and say "Listen this is who I am and this is WHY am believe what I believe!". Let the shit sort itself out from there, but this fake apology tour is bullshit. I have learned a LONG TIME AGO that EVERY entertainer must be separated from his/her work. Michael Jackson was a pedophile, but I love his music. Elvis Presley was a pedophile, but I love his music. John Lennon beat his wife (not Yoko), but I love his music. Chris Beniot did the unthinkable, but I still enjoy watching his matches. Chris Brown can't seem to keep his hands to himself, but I still enjoy watching him dance. This goes on, and on, and on. Hulk Hogan is a racist. Plain and simple. It cannot and should not be excused just because we enjoy his promos, matches, presence, etc. Again, I have a lot more to say about the 'response' to all of this, but this is the 'short' version of it.

That's just the basic version. "Shine-heat-comeback-finish" is the shorthand label for the general formula; and it's not just wrestling, you can see the exact same storytelling progression in most Hollywood movies as well. In reality, there's much more to a match than just that. A bad match can happen all by itself, but a great one always has a context. That's partly why the big climactic matches in All Japan in the 1990s are still considered to be so special; because Baba & Co. were pretty meticulously detailed in the way they built up long-term storylines. Things that happened years ago would still influence what was happening now. Paul Heyman's best-booked matches in ECW tended to have several different storylines happening to intersect at once, creating a multi-car pileup effect which could be spectacular to watch. Point is, the match isn't just the match. It's also the angle and the hype and the promos and the entrances and the announcing and the differing personalities and the differing body types and the contrast between their in-ring styles and a hundred other things. The Rock already has the people on their feet and "electrified" before ever making physical contact with his opponent. And if you ever want to hear a crowd roar in a manner to make your hair stand up, just go find any of the old Mid-South tag matches where Bill Watts is in one of his post-retirement comeback tag-team revenge matches and finally manages to catch Michael Hayes and punch him right in his stupid mouth.

I'm not on Facebook. I try not to spend time on sites where dipshits troll by saying stupid shit for LULZ. EDIT: Got my likes back for today! Going to work on this thread. Meme heaven up in here.

I sure hope Wayward Pines comes back in some form or other. In terms of "Twin Peaks rip off shows", it was actually one of the better ones.

Pratt changes his name to Jurrackson Galaxy and travels the US providing behavioral guidance for "My Dinosaur From Hell"

Please note that RIPPA edited mine before I could read this. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW! At least he let me keep my creepy pictures of a beautiful woman from a hundred years ago. With pistols.

Wow...Vince. Sitting in the cheap seats to see the action from the fans view point. Fucking visionary...

Target exclusive coming soon.....