Elsalvajeloco

Combat sports...well at least the high contact combat sports like boxing and MMA, there is a ton of wasted motion. In boxing, people legit believe they can fight like a Nicolino Locche or Sweet Pea Whitaker or a Floyd Mayweather, so they basically dance around the ring like they're some defensive genius. At least half of them still get hit a lot because they're not as skilled as those guys. I was watching a HBO show from late 1991. The main event was George Foreman continuing his comeback trail in a tuneup fight basically and after the Holyfield fight earlier that year. Speaking of the Mayweathers, on the undercard was Floyd's uncle Roger versus a Colombian fighter named Rafael Pineda. Roger was at one point one of the finest offensive fighters in the game. Matter of fact, I would say Floyd (Jr) got his offensive prowess from uncle Roger and some of his defensive talent from his father Floyd (Sr). However, Roger's prime was about 5-10 years earlier a couple weight classes lower and he had been stopped a few times since then , and no longer what he use to be offensively. In addition, his biggest achilles heel in the ring was his chin. In boxing, historically, Colombians have padded records but if anything they can definitely crack. Pineda was one of those guys. So Roger spent about nine or so rounds dancing around the ring and backpedaling. He did some decent work the first half of the fight to probably just edge the rounds, but he was fighting as safely and as cautiously as one possibly could. It greatly pissed off Larry Merchant to the point where I believe that particular fight may have started a bias against the Mayweathers that would carry on years later when Floyd (Jr) came unto the scene as Larry was vehemently against his fighting style for years and would bitch and moan. Being an older fighter, Roger slowed down and gradually getting hit a little bit more as the fight entered the back half. Unfortunately, he slowed down to the point where Pineda could now trap him against the ropes. He got trapped and then tried to pull back (an ultimate no-no in boxing if someone is throwing a punch at you and with your head on the center line), but with slower reflexes at a more advanced age in the ring, he got caught producing one of the most digusting knockouts you will ever see in any combat sport. He was drapped across the bottom rope unconscious for probably a few minutes. So a guy spent the better part of 30 minutes dancing around the ring just to get put to sleep. Thing is though you will see dozens and dozens of similar fights especially now where that doesn't happen. That's a 120-108 or 119-109 unanimous decision across all three scorecards if you somehow have the stamina. You know how I know? Cause Roger's nephew Floyd Mayweather has won several fights like that and not even been closed to being stopped. He also did it against guys way more talented than a Rafael Pineda. I think UWF under various iterations/Rings/BattlArts etc may have people spoiled because that somehow feels like what "real" pro wrestling would probably look like. However, there is a reason "real" pro wrestling doesn't exist such as it were. Pro wrestling is meant to have that flexibility. The issue is that flexibility continually being abused over and over again.

Even if you're getting paid though, I would like to believe they would like to continue to get paid in the first place. This was late 2009 going into 2010. They had been around for seven years. The biggest thing TNA was fighting other than general incompetence was a perception issue. The only thing they had going was being the alternative, whatever that was worth. AEW has been around for as long. Do you think TK would do that at the seven year mark in 2026 what Dixie did? And that's a man who seems generally at times can come off as unaware. Even if he had the inclination, I think someone would pull him to side to at least warn of him that there might be ramifications.

In my newsfeed, I see a lot of business related articles. You would be surprised at how many emails are sent from companies to their employees that look eerily similarly to this or have the same tone as this. The thing is though it's being sent as an email. To do this while you have wrestlers who have been veterans for several years in the business and literally put their blood, sweat, and tears to get out everything out of their careers they possibly can and made sacrifice after sacrifice all gathered around like it's a goddamn junior high school assembly is about as tone deaf as you can get. You could see in their faces they couldn't give a shit about what she was saying. Vets and those who had just broke into the business alike. Why and how multiple people didn't tell Dixie, "hey, this ain't it" is baffling. And hey, maybe they did as I don't remember all the specific details in the newsletters. I am not saying WWE or AEW are entirely above this (especially with TKO involved), but I don't think it would done as crudely as this and also being presented as something that should be on television. It would have to be a clear work and a storyline or angle leading to something.

To be fair, especially when it comes to Japan during that time period, they didn't bring in British/European wrestlers (or luchadores) to NOT wrestle their own style. They wanted folks to lean all the way in, and they'll adapt and adjust to YOU. A lot of those matches were specifically designed to be showcases. However, as time went with the junior heavyweights, you got a lot of guys because of excursions wrestling like the people they were bringing in so there wasn't much variance.

Yep. That's clearly Alex around the time he came to WCW. He was a lot smoother as time progressed then that clip would suggest.

I dunno if that's so much problematic as much as they've totally built the structure of the company to be that way. Plus, it's not like folks like Bruce Prichard weren't welcoming of that role. If you want problematic, search Janel Grant in X anytime some news piece regarding the lawsuit comes out. You will see ex WWE folks defend Vince with every breath, which is bizarre when they were not there or clearly have no facts regarding the situation. They're just judging purely based off their interactions with Vince and whether or not Janel Grant's story passes their own made up smell test. That itself is kinda gross.

I believe that has happened before but moreso dry heaving. Trying to remember the fight.

The funniest thing is that Jeff Jarrett and Ahmed Johnson had a screwup along with a very awkward brawl at the IYH where Jeff returned after quitting and walking out the year before. Jarrett was suppose to run away from Ahmed but Ahmed somehow caught up to him like halfway down the entrance way cause Jeff was somehow running but not moving very fast. So you just see Jeff look back at Ahmed like "..OH GODDAMN". Either he stiffed Ahmed and Ahmed was pissed and chased him for real with Jeff not expecting it OR Jeff didn't expect Ahmed to run full speed. Now with that said, Jeff could have sat in a folding chair in the middle of the aisleway and nearly 700 pound Yokozuna wasn't going to catch him.

We need more Bearcats. Been a long time since we had a Bearcat. Also "Sweet Brown Sugar" Royce Keys.

I saw that show (at least the Hardcore TV version) during my rewatch, and it's very surreal how they treat Angle. It's very un-ECW like. There is a lot reverence there especially when he has an interaction with Taz (super ironic considering how Taz debuts in WWF years later) when they were portraying Taz as a killer and allowing Taz to also basically verbally shit on everyone alike. Taz is super respectful to him. You can clearly tell Heyman wanted to sign Angle and wanted to present him as a super big deal. That said, the Kurt Angle doing commentary with Joey Styles is very much real life, humble Kurt Angle. That's a major styles clash with ECW. I dunno if Paul creatively could get around the inevitable pushback and the crowd eventually booing him. WWF was clever enough to start him off trying to get real heel heat.

It's totally understandable why you wouldn't remember pre debut Kurt Angle. I don't remember WWF really playing up his signing all that much on TV. Keep in mind, by the time he debuts, a new Olympic cycle is about to begin. Had that been three years earlier, it would have been the Mark Henry push in 1996 x5000 since he actually won a gold medal. They understood they had a real blue chip prospect and a natural so they didn't want to mess it by putting something out there too soon and took their time with everything. The WWF had a lot of debuts and re-debuts that absolutely fell flat over the last few years prior to Kurt Angle so it's kinda amazing they didn't get in their own way.

He isn't even the first AEW alum to compete in Power Slap. That "honor" went to Hollywood Haley J and Paige VanZant. Well, hopefully, it goes better than how it went for Haley J. Very low bar to clear.

4,000 in Riverfront Coliseum (the present day Heritage Bank Center) and Hogan is on the bill? That seems way down from what you would expect.

I talked about JD Costello a few years ago, and Costello makes a little more sense when you realize that Cornette is responsible for JD getting into wrestling. That then begs the question why Jim Cornette hasn't requested every Memphis tape with JD destroyed or erased so his existence could never be verified?

Two things regarding Vader vs. Orndorff 1. Judging by Arn Anderson's account (and just that only to be fair), it sounds like Vader held his own until Orndorff got the advantage. 2. Orndorff is another tough guy so it's not like it's some random guy. That in particular is probably why they chose him specifically to be a wrangler so they would have less issues with getting guys to do their promos. Although, I would argue there is a probably a little conflict of interest in that Paul was still wrestling a decent amount then. A big money guy like Vader isn't going want to be taking shit off a guy like Paul who is doing angles with Gary Spivey and coming out to the goofy music even if Paul was respected by the rest of boys. That's a perfect storm leading to an ugly conflict with egos at play not wanting to look bad. Now with all that out of the way, why would Vader shoot on Hogan? Just so he can get fired six months before he actually did. Granted, in subsequent shoot interviews after the fact, Leon hated that Hogan no sold his stuff. He very much has a point cause in hindsight eating up Vader and no selling his offense pretty much killed off any value any other heel had in WCW. If Vader wasn't a real threat to Hogan, who the fuck was? Even though the Nacho Man and Huckster skits in WWF were absolutely atrocious and should have never made air, there is a kernel of truth to be found cause between the Yeti and getting hit with literal heels that the female valets were wearing nothing involving Hogan could've been taken seriously, In turn, it led to him wearing out his welcome fast with fans. However, I don't see Vader shooting on Hogan. The man didn't shoot on Shawn Michaels at Summerslam '96 after Shawn broke the fourth wall and tried to humiliate him cause Vader fucked up his perfect match by not moving out of the way for the first top rope elbow attempt. Vader the character is the character. He was just a guy who got really overzealous in the ring and didn't know his strength sometimes. Leon White, the person portraying Vader, clearly knew where his bread was buttered. He likely went into working with Hogan like everyone else working with Hogan and had $$$ signs in his eyes. Then, he came out of it frustrated like he mentioned in his shoot interviews. IMO Vader in 95 was much like The Giant in late 98 in WCW. All the luster of those characters were lost cause they weren't protected like they were earlier in their runs. That's why it's laughable for a Bruce Prichard to say they didn't get the same Vader. If he had actually watched WCW the last nine or so months that Vader was there, he could have figured out at least aura wise, that was long gone and that they needed to rebuild him much like Austin needed rebuilding after a rather lackluster last year in WCW languishing in midcard limbo. Vader needed that Hogan program to work so his character could get hot again so it made zero sense to shoot on anyone let alone Hulk Hogan.

There was no way they were going to cheer Vince over Steve. He HAD to pivot. Yep, that was his first physical interaction and probably the highlight of Flair's run before he won the Rumble match in 92. An awesome angle really.

Yeah, I totally forgot that. Strangely enough, the final week of the buildup to Good Friends, Better Enemies is what is Diesel going to do to Vince and not Shawn. At the PPV, he even flings his ring vest at McMahon (they missed the shot when Kevin throws it cause it's a wide shot, but you just see a giant piece of leather envelop Vince's head when they pan back to ringside).

Yeah, Vince had started to phase himself down as a commentator several months even before Austin stunned him at MSG. It's weird cause during my rewatches for the past handful of years (1993-1997) they had mentioned Vince as basically the de facto leader of the company in segments here and there especially if it was charity related. There were events to honor either Jess McMahon or his dad and Vince would be announced as the chairman of the WWF and be there with Linda. However, Vince himself would never acknowledge himself as anything but a commentator. On the taped Raw episodes during the summer of 1994, in between cracks at the Goodwill Games and Jane Fonda/Ted Turner, Lawler and Vince on the live commentary would make tongue in cheek references to Vince being acquitted. Later on, when Clarence Mason is introduced in 1995, Lawler and Cornette make various references to Vince not liking lawyers in reference to the trial the previous year. Then, Vince had that weird, weird outburst that had a whole five minute segment to itself on Superstars in December 1995 railing against Phil Mushnick that totally pulls the curtains back on pro wrestling. How that didn't get people (i.e. old school folks like Cornette and JR) up in arms but an MSG house show six months later where guys hug for a minute or two does absolutely blows my mind. It pretty much lets you in on that Vince runs the company and that everyone else are his minions. Then, you have the fake Diesel/Razor thing where Ross "shoots" on Vince multiple times and makes references to his terrible creative over the years and Vince just sits there and takes it. Lawler on one episode when JR is mouthing off even goads Vince to fire JR to which Vince no sells and ignores. You finally get to JR's interview with Bret re-signing with WWF and for the first time ever, they show Vince selling that he is in essence the owner of the WWF cause they make a big deal out of the relieved expression on Vince's face when Bret says he's coming back and leaving the camera on him for most of the segment. After that, the build to Shawn-Bret 2 is somehow pretty much all about Vince is a bizarre way. They start experimenting with shades of grey, but when either Shawn or Bret start making inside references, they all revolve around Vince in some way. It's like two small siblings going to one parent to get the other one in trouble. It was a very strange way to build to a match between the two. When Bret is "screwed" by Shawn's interference at IYH It's Time and then at the Royal Rumble when an eliminated Steve Austin eliminates him (Bret), Bret makes sure to basically include Vince in the list of people who screwed him which in hindsight only adds fire to the folks who believed the Montreal Screwjob was a work. In turn, whenever Shawn is pissing and moaning about Bret, he makes these impassioned pleas to Vince and begins to basically acknowledge him as the person who runs the WWF. By the summer of 1997, Shawn doesn't even try to maintain the 4th wall when he's trying to be the ref at SummerSlam 1997 and asks Vince, "hey, do you run the WWF" and Vince makes the "aww shucks...yeah I do" face. So the whole notion Bruce and maybe others like Prichard push that Vince had never been acknowledged as the owner of the company prior to Survivor Series 1997 is complete and utter bullshit. They had been slowly introducing him as a character beyond slightly above average play by play announcer since 1994. By 1995 and 1996 when WCW was kicking their ass, they weren't even being super clever with it. By 1997, it's all but inevitable that Vince is going to be the central figure in some storyline or angle since he had been at the center of many things without even trying. It was just a question of what it would actually be and what that would entail. I would argue that the fact they had already done legwork is sorta like a character in a novel or a long running TV series. All that necessary exposition and background details on the Mr. McMahon character were given long before it actually was fully realized.

According to Tony Schiavone, their name for it was the "fat man camera stand".

Please don't tell Jon Moxley that.

I dunno if Sean is given a wider berth as much as up until he says stuff, most people couldn't pick him out of a lineup. Honestly, same as a Colby Covington. They are the most generic white guys possible, and for all that bluff and bluster, they're still fairly anonymous to the audience that doesn't follow MMA or follow people beating up influencers. That said, even though post sale Paramount is semi in Trump's back pocket, they're still paying UFC a lot of money. The UFC is bumping up against the same thing they did when they tried to run those shows during covid and trying to skirt every rule possible before Disney made them stand down. Bad press or no press, they will have to action anything that is enough over the line where it starts messing with any money that Paramount stands to make and they need all the money they can. It may not be this instance or the stuff with Bryce necessarily, but it's going to be an instance that is unavoidable.

Fighting period doesn't make sense, but what can you do? This is very much let me take the least amount of risk for the most amount of money. Gina Carano was just an slightly above fighter the last time she fought in 2009. She hasn't fought in almost two decades. At least Ronda fought (briefly) technically within the last ten years. The Katie Taylor fight made no sense. That's TOO MUCH risk for what she (Ronda) would have gotten paid. For her lack of power, Katie Taylor has quite the volume punching to compensate.

Maybe this dude is a sadomasochist cause it's not like he is this world beater even as a former UFC champ. He's gonna to say the wrong thing to somebody who isn't going to sit there and take it and can actually do something about it, and he's going to get fucked up. Whether it's inside the cage or outside of the cage (or in the case that thing at that one show, cornering someone at a fight). For it to hit Variety, that ain't good.

Sorry I had a response but I screwed up and the whole thing got erased/the board ate it up so I am starting up. Hopefully, the second effort makes as much sense. If someone like Andreas Hale hasn't done it yet, someone really needs to write an article/op-ed on Vince's adoration of MLK and how it totally flies in the face of what Vince is about if he truly knew what MLK stood on. I know MLK is often treated as a safe choice of for example, King and Malcolm X OR King and any of the founders of original Black Panther Party or some of his contemporaries. However, King was very much about deliverables that till this day haven't been delivered yet. The people standing in between those deliverables and the intended recipients are more akin to Vince's line of thinking. Matter of fact, I would say the people who spent countless hours trying to end's Dr. King's life in his final years are more in that camp. Yes, a lot of them were frothing at the mouth racists/bigots/segregationists but a lot of them were also key decision makers and policy makers who put the battery in the back of others to be the executioner to their judge and jury. That is why he knew himself his life would be cut short. There is a WIDE chism between this pacifism often associated and celebrated with Dr. King and this extremism that's vilified just so they can endorse a few chosen beliefs that MLK had. Dr. King on a lot of issues was more in the middle of that spectrum then you'd imagine that it would make most people uncomfortable or even horrify them if they didn't follow his actual beliefs and viewpoints. The blind patriotism doesn't jive with what King was trying to pull off throughout his journey. If it did, he simply wouldn't exist. The James Baldwins and Fannie Lou Hamers don't exist with blind patriotism and blind loyalty to country and flag. People would've been totally be fine with the Jim Crow system already in place. I didn't want to bring this example up but it's the one that makes the most sense as it's the clearest and most obvious one and especially poignant given his past relationship with Vince McMahon and current relationship with his son-in-law: When you listen to President Trump in past interviews or read blurbs talk about African-Americans and their citizenship and what citizenship should be or birthright citizenship, you can tell he is very informed OR at least informed enough on the plight of African-Americans in the United States and how part of that plight serves to establish true citizenship in this country. However, whether it's partly due to placating anti-woke people/his voter base that got him elected and then re-elected, the removal of slavery exhibits and erasure of slavery in the U.S. flies in the face of the point he's trying to make. He's unknowingly waging a war in viewpoints against himself to the point he's denigrating his own goddamn argument since it destroys the other argument on the other end he's trying to make. He makes a strong argument on one end in that African-Americans have truly earned citizenship in this country but also making the argument that native black people teleported (?) here somehow and that's the end of that lesson cause we need to all love America for being America. Chattel slavery? Lol what's that? If that citizenship wasn't earned, then how is it different than the citizenship of the folks he's trying to revoke and drive completely out of the country? Hell, a lot of those people have real paperwork. We were bought and sold and then post Civil War, people went out of their way to destroy all evidence that this occurred and it's been largely lost to history and poorly described/whitewashed even in the textbooks where it's mentioned and not removed yet (hence you know...why we need exhibits in the first place). So Vince McMahon having multiple wrestling angles and storylines (granted inherently born of pro wrestling) were people are like, "America...love or leave it" doesn't jive at all with Martin Luther King where he put his goddamn life on the line because America didn't love African-Americans/native black who were brought against their will to a strange land, used and abused, and then thrown away. Yes, Dr. King was a wonderful orator and non violence was somewhat part of his message. However, he's not a blank slate of where you can pin generic American ideas and principles you want to project on him just cause you feel like that's celebrating his life. I promise you it's not. I don't know how many of you were on X when a video that hard line conservatives and the like last week put out of Tyra Mae Steele (NXT) back she was still Tamyra Mensah-Stock and competing in the Olympics back in 2020/2021. I don't visit the WWE folder much so it may have been brought up. I think I've only been to Olympic thread maybe once. However, it speaks to the weirdness of sort of the projection unto this black skin canvas. 1. It appeared that a lot of folks didn't know that it definitely wasn't from the Winter Olympics since freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling only occurs during the Summer games. That 2020 on the step and repeat behind her should have been a dead giveaway. 2. Just because she was elated to be American in 2020 OR 2021 when that video was filmed doesn't exactly mean that's her exact sentiment of how she feels now five or six years later. I am safely assuming she's a proud American just like I am proud to be American but her viewpoint is likely to have evolved in that timeframe. 3. I don't like how that video was used to as a tool and her being made a pawn to go against someone (another Olympian) just to show, "see hey...she's proud to be an American why aren't you?" as if there aren't hundreds of people on the U.S Olympic teams who likely feel some type of conflicted way in representing this country. So if she came out (again, maybe she did I dunno) and said, "the fuck are you guys doing..." or "I stand against everything Trump or MAGA", is she now worse than Hunter Hess? I have a strong feeling she would be and those effusive praise tweets would have been deleted like incriminating text messages. Her having black skin and being part immigrant (father's native Ghanian) would be doubly worse and put so much egg on their faces. One of the strongest motivating factors that made Muhammad Ali into what he became was how he came back to the United States after proudly representing his country and winning gold at the 1960 Olympics in Rome and was treated as poorly if not worse than before he left. His stance against Vietnam didn't magically manifest itself. It was born of that experience. Without that experience, he's still Cassius Clay from Louisville. Tyra Mae Steele/Tamyra Mensah-Stock is still alive and kicking to reject that absurd projection. Dr. King isn't here to do that or protect himself so people can just wildly say this and that and reimagine him as they see fit. You can pick and choose to pull out narratives from when he was alive, but not look actively into all the reasons that caused him not to be alive and why he was deemed to be problematic and this dastardly troublemaker as he refused to cower to an unjust and insanely corrupt system. Apparently, he died of natural causes at a ripe old age. That's how Vince and others treat his legacy.

Yes it was the G Unit shirt! That is the one I was thinking of.