Technico Support

Agreed. I loved Demolition, but they were roundly criticized in the magazines as Road Warrior ripoffs. To then hire the other Road Warrior ripoffs and keep that gimmick is crazy. The PoP quitting Crockett on the spot because "fuck you, we're not doing scaffold matches" is the most Crockett/NWA/WCW thing and one of my favorite wrestling stories.

Thank you for spelling this for me. I know zilch about boxing and every time I hear Meltzer say his name, I think it's "Turkey a la Sheik," a Suadi version of chicken a la king.

Re: Halloween Havoc...they were so creatively bankrupt, with no other ideas and nobody else ready, that they booked the #2 guy in the Horsemen challenged for the world title. From their inception, the whole kayfabe purpose of the Horsemen was to make Flair champ and keep him champ. The #2 guy's role was always the U.S. title. Sid even thinking about challenging Sting should have gotten him kicked out. Not to mention that on the PPVs and Clashes before this show, Sid: Didn't wrestle, had a skit with Robocop (Capital Combat 90) Lost to Luger (Clash 11) Lost by DQ in a shitty six man featuring El Gigante (Bash 90) Didn't wrestle, just cut a promo (Clash 12) I need to find the chronology of WCW bookers because this whole period was crazy.

Just circling back again, I'm just dumbfounded at how, in the space of 22 months, Luger and Flair wrestled on five out of the company's nine PPVs in that timeframe and Luger didn't win a single one. And you wonder why the guy was only seen at a certain level. #justiceforlex

If you've been going to a bar that doesn't kick out nazis, then congrats, you've been going to a nazi bar. UFC platforms hate speech.

The DC Brau 12 pack from the weekend was very good. I have two left; I must be getting old. The 12 had three each of: a Pilsner, an IPA, a pale ale, and a hazy IPA. I’m not going all beeradvocate or whatever and discussing mouthfeel, lacing, and all that. I’ll say all four were damn tasty, though probably too pale ale heavy for some. One of the pales was a little too grapefruity but I can’t remember which. Anyhoo, check it out if you live in the area this brewer serves.

It’s weird how he still hasn’t found the time to work out with or, more importantly, apparently, post pics with, the young men of NXT. Maybe next week.

Oh man, we had a company Summer outing at the same stadium I mentioned before, and it was awesome. A lot of people complained about the drive but shit, playing softball on the minor league baseball field was so cool. Later that night I drove, buzzed and sunburned, to Virginia for a Styx/Foreigner double bill. What an exhausting but amazing day. I’d be inclined to say “absolutely,” but he’s been on his best behavior since being around people he’s too cowardly to FAFO with.

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.