Technico Support

I went to a few WWE shows when they'd run the minor league stadium in Frederick. It was a fun atmosphere but the second show I went to got rained out during the show. They were giving the Boogeyman his first test run out of OVW and a thunderstorm started right when he got to the ring, which was funny. I looked it up and found this description online: They had to do a makeup date in September and that was their last show there after running every Summer for a few years.

I applaud their restraint in letting Tito beat Warlord before jobbing instead of just letting Hogan and Warrior eat up all the heels 5 on 2.

Well they needed somebody to actually work

He would have fit right in in the WCW 89/90 PPV undercards, which were full of name guys like Landel, Sheik, Irwin, Race, etc., who’d show up out of nowhere for one match or a handful of matches, then disappear. The 1990 Bash, for example, is just egregious with the number of going nowhere cup of coffee guys on the show.

Damn, you guys have me wanting to abandon my WCW rewatch (thoughts on late 80s/early 90s WCW in the Netflix thread) and go back to 80s/90s WWF.

I'll take your word for it. I know almost nothing about baseball. I was going to tell you the last game I went to was a AA or AAA game, but I looked it up and the team isn't even at that level anymore -- they're something called a "draft league," and I had to look up what that was, too.

I mean Tito had a hot run at the IC level (winning the belt twice, around 7 months each) just five years before that, and a tag title run in 87/88. I get how you feel, though. As a kid, 1985 to 1990 felt like a lifetime.

I saw the trailer for this a few times before various movies we took our daughter to (probably Sonic 3 and Dogman) and the tone of it felt so weird. It was like someone at WBD just got around to seeing Ren & Stimpy and thought aping that feel with Daffy & Porky would be smart.

I wonder if WWE has any say, officially or maybe unofficially, in TNA's hiring decisions. What I'm getting at is, they could conceivably object to TNA hiring someone they released, since that essentially puts that person back in the "WWE system" considering TNA's relationship with them.

In my 80s/90s WCW watch, I'm finally past the horrendous 1991 Bash and I'm ready for things to get better, or at least to be different. In retrospect, late 80s/early 90s WCW was a real shitshow. The key issue was that they didn't really build anyone to get to world title level aside from Sting. They had their core of Flair and Luger, and later, Sting, and that was it. Anything else was just microwaved insta-programs. I'm not saying stuff like Flair/Steamboat, Flair/Funk, etc. were bad. Just, holy shit, they didn't push anybody else to the world title picture. It's insane. 1987: Transition from the Crockett of old to the PPV era. Ron Garvin is shoved into the title picture just to have a title change on PPV. Nobody else wanted to win the belt and be a lame duck. 1988: Sting gets "made" and then put on the back burner. Both big PPVs of the year are Flair/Luger. Nobody else is elevated. Sting is in tag matches with Nikita and Dusty on the big shows. Dusty trying to get that rub. 1989: Steamboat is inserted into the title picture after, I think, pinning Flair in a tag match. Three match series of Flair and Steamboat trading the belt. Sting is doing fuck all at this time. After the Flair/Steamboat series, Funk attacks Flair and is put in the title picture. The rest of the year is Flair and Sting vs Gary Hart's crew. Starrcade is a useless round robin tournament when they should have elevated Muta at the November Clash to job to Flair at Starrcade on his way out. 1990: Sting is injured. Luger's awesome heel run is abruptly ended so he can step in for two more PPV matches with Flair. Sting wins the belt and spends the rest of the year in Black Scorpion purgatory with a short, meaningless detour through Sidville. 1991: Flair gets the belt back from the self-fulfilling prophecy of Sting's terrible reign. With nothing else to do and nobody else ready, Fujinami is shoved into the title picture for a two-match series. We're gearing up for ANOTHER Flair/Luger PPV (5th in like 3 years) when Flair leaves the company. Wow. The whole thing is just a study in booking ineptitude. Nobody at all built up over time to become a hot challenger. Hell, Sting was made in one night. Luger was hot and stayed hot, and they figured they could get a PPV main out of him whenever they needed to. Every other challenger to Flair was some variation of a hotshot. The undercards in this era were mostly bad to average, with a few bright spots, and just got worse as time went on. Just a rotating cast of wrestlers on a treadmill, just taking up time and going nowhere. I'm trying to get motivated to continue, if only out of morbid curiosity to see how things might turn around in this new era. But 1987 to 1991 was something.

Daniel Garcia on commentary, with his ridiculous Mark Wahlberg circa 1990 vocal affect, made me want to drive a butter knife through my ears.

McMahon, who clearly fed Cole that line, never realized what a massive self-own that was. I still haven’t seen it but I don’t understand the fuss about a part timer in minute 14 of his career turning heel.

I’d say Dusty was a little more talented than that, but I really do like your metaphor a lot.

I had a slightly more upscale Chinese restaurant’s “house beer” today, a rice lager actually made for the restaurant group (no, fuck you, it’s not PF Chang’s) by Mobtown Brewing in Baltimore. Light on the alcohol at 4.5%, which is fine since it was midday. Very crisp and refreshing. The place was slammed and service was slow, so I only had one. But god damn, the food was nice. It’s a 3 day weekend and I’m keeping it local with a mixed 12 pack from DC Brau. I’ll report back on it.

Cena should cut promos about actually making it as an actor, but that might be too sensitive a subject.

That's his gimmick. I don't love it but it's not like they're going to change the dude's gimmick. Though I'd be cool with Mike Baily, Fighting Accountant.

You magnificent fuckers just legit made me facepalm in real life.

Durag MJF incoming! I told you guys about Bailey! Nice to be vindicated. Talented guy but needs to cut the schtick by 75%. Or dial it up to 1000%, only cut dubbed promos and every feud starts because he claims his opponent killed his teacher and/or dishonored the Shaolin Temple.

Ah man. I really liked Jai Ali and your post makes me realize why I haven't seen it in a while. I mentioned it before, but my local beer stores are run by the county government, whose prices are really good, and they cut their beer stock a while back in order to give privately owned stores a chance to compete. But most of the privately owned places by me are way overpriced and sell beer past the sell by date. There's a place by me I'm positive I can go to right now and pay $16 for a pumpkin ale from October. So the county stores cut their beer from 4-5 aisles to one and now those aisles previously dedicated to beer are taking up by seltzers, vodka drinks, and the like. Annnnnnd there's apparently a tariff on aluminum, so fuck brewers, I guess. Nice job.

THAT DOESN'T WORK FOR THE COPESTER BROTHER! WHAT WE NEED IS BROTHER BRUTI CHRISTIAN INTERFERING, IN DRAG, AND MOX PINS HIM DUDE! MVP recruiting MJF is awesome because it shuts up all the unimaginative folks who can't see past The Nation of Domination, and continually speculate on which black wrestler MVP will recruit next. Now I really want to see an angle where MJF agrees to join but misreads the whole situation and shows up in a dashiki or dressed like Ali G. Megan Bayne poses so much she probably has like 12 finishers stored and ready to go.

lol this is carny as fuck and I can’t decide whether I hate it or love it. “I might be in NXT in two years, brother. I need a hundred more, trans, and no job.”

I can't link the Tweet, so here's the reddit story on it. If it's true that WWE ID workers can't job to non WWE ID workers, and some WWE ID workers have no-showed bookings to make Evolve tapings, I wouldn't bring them on, either.

I didn't even know about this. Every goddamn time. Awesome craft brewing company, large and varied group of beers, cool seasonals, etc --> get bought by giant company --> quality drops and variety of offerings is drastically cut to the nothing but the 1-3 beers that sell the best. Add Dogfish Head to the pile with Magic Hat and Lagunitas (I still drink Lagunitas but I miss their other beers outside the two that they sell now). Enjoy your cool craft brewers while you can!

I remember when Excalibur used to call it "Tree of Joey Lawrence" but that's a dated reference.

I love the last minute, "here are all the guys who are still healthy after the PPV" tournament. OC vs Hechicero is going to be awesome.