clintthecrippler

Dont have anything to add other than a big hearty THANK YOU to rzombie for that history lesson. Shit, the post itself should be Pinned.

Frame it in the device of "Walmart Floor Manager" vs "Walmart Store Manager" then.

This is the first I am hearing that people don't think Kate McKinnon is funny. I think she's been one of the saving graces of this current SNL cast, and raises pretty mediocre material to being watchable with how much she digs into her characters. My overall take on the cast is that it could have been a lot worse: Kristen Wiig - funny when she is playing more of a "straight man" character, which with the rest of this cast I am guessing she will be. Melissa McCarthy - her starring projects are pretty terrible, but she is better and more tolerable when she's in a bigger ensemble and always kills it on SNL. Kate McKinnon - see above comments, calling it now that if this movie is a success she will break out big-time. Leslie Jones - total "wild card" - her Weekend Update bits that are basically her ranting are awesome but she's been pretty shaky in sketches where she has to play more of a character and say lines she didn't write. As for the actual idea of Ghostbusters 3, I am in the camp that thinks they shouldn't try it to begin with, though I admit I was briefly excited when Lord/Miller (Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street) were attached for a few minutes to direct it.

If they want to salvage the main event of Wrestlemania and keep it Reigns vs Lesnar, they shouldnt put Reigns in front of a live crowd until Mania. Just tape two months worth of intense faceoff promos with Heyman moderating tomorrow while everyone is stranded in Connecticut, give Reigns vs Lesnar the "Hogan vs Warrior 20 times rehearsal" treatment, and just MAYBE you dont get 70,000 people turning on this match.

I actually like the idea of a Cena vs Rusev US Title match. I think it would increase the value of the US Title in the fans eyes, and if they were smart they could have some promos from Cena about how winning the US Title at Wrestlemania in 2004 truly started him on the path for his success and it makes him sick to see the championship he coveted years ago held hostage by a Russian using it as a political paen.

One more idea: go back to the well one more time with Ambrose vs Wyatt, do a "falls count anywhere inside the hotel" match and have it end with Ambrose doing a hotel balcony bump down to a snowbank outside the building.

Honestly, Raw and Smackdown getting canceled this week could be the best thing to happen to WWE. I could see the Roman Reigns heat die down with a week to cool off. As much as WWE Raw and Smackdown from a random hotel ballroom in Hartford could be awesome - perhaps a "buy a ticket, get a room for the night" promotion? I would love if they set up impromptu NXT RAW and NXT Smackdown for this week. Could be great promotion for the network. Insert some promos taped at the hotel and do just some super wacky shows this week.

Ugh, flashbacks to a Northern Michigan indy show I went to years ago kicking in. They used a boxing ring. Sabu tried to do his springboard dive onto Brutus Beefcake. It didn't end well for Sabu, the ropes just sagged, he went splat on the floor, and Beefcake made zero effort to protect him on the way down.

What video? Got a link? I just saw one of him giving a speech and making everyone cry. Mero would be a very good Be A Star motivational speaker- he is already doing it. Natalie, Roman Reigns, etc. only show up when WWE forces them to and when cameras are around. Mero is the real deal. It's the same video. At last count it was up to 6 million view on YouTube and 13 million views on Facebook. We talk about "Iron Sheik - Youtube sensation" but this has gone way further than that at this point.

As someone that grew up on '80s WWF, the site of Lou Albano in a very nice suit with accordingly kempt hair and beard is incredibly jarring to me. There's a part of me that still refuses to believe the man standing next to Ivan Koloff in that picture is the same obese gentleman drunkenly wandering around Butcher Vachon's wedding with his bulbous gut hanging out of his shirt, telling dirty jokes, and belching right into Vince McMahon's microphone.

Does anyone know where "patient zero" for this Marc Mero motivational video going viral is? When it went viral at first earlier in the week I just kind of brushed it off, but today I saw it get posted on Facebook by my aunt and an older cousin, and I know damn well those two haven't heard of any other wrestlers besides Hulk Hogan. Just curious how this thing spread beyond minor curiosity to being posted by soccer moms all over social media. It's a shame that Marc Mero is on the outs with WWE, both parties could be served well to capitalize by WWE handing over the "Be A Star" campaign to Mero, making him the face of it, and running with it.

Not a fan of The Ascension, but I am curious if on Smackdown or at the Rumble if anyone tries to put over the fact that they were ambushed by seven of the best tag team wrestlers in history (kayfabe at least) and didn't run away from the fight. I think if a discussion on that happens on the announce side then The Ascension will be fine moving forward. Even if its something like JBL saying "they were too stupid to run away."

The artist that did the Lucha/Movie mashup paintings I posted earlier dropped by our office and posted more of his work for viewing today. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get away from my desk to meet him while he was here, but if you have interest in seeing if there's prints available for purchase, he has his email address listed on his facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Itscalledart86. Yes, the Silver Santo and Incredible Espectro works are skate decks!

Has the Bruno-Hansen match from the Shea Stadium portion of that show ever surfaced?

The artist's name for the lucha/movie mashup portraits is Danny Mateo. I am told he is selling some prints, but still need to dig up some more info on whether they are available online or not.

Also no laughing matter...the tagline for the article about The Steiners. Nope, not at all.

The office where I work has an ongoing relationship with members of the Los Angeles art community to occasionally showcase their artwork in our lobby. Needless to say, I was awestruck when I went into work this morning and saw these hanging out there.

El Rey's average viewership is in the 25,000 range. A couple of the episodes before the ladder match did some dismal numbers worse than that, but the ladder match doing 34k was Lucha Underground's peak so far on El Rey. The problem with the El Rey ratings seems to be not so much that people aren't digging Lucha Underground, more that people just plain aren't aware of the El Rey Network in general. I wouldn't be surprised if people see those Lucha Underground promos during RAW and think it's another faction coming to RAW instead of a separate league. The Unimas airings may be what ends up keeping the darn thing alive, as they are hitting 250k for their weekend airings on that channel. It also helps that Unimas is a broadcast network and in most big cities is fairly high up in even the most basic cable/satellite packages.

I actually loved the Ryback promo. I got a little nervous when the crowd started "what" chants at first, but then they quieted down and started popping at the right moments. And it lasted just long enough without dragging and he kept moving smoothly from beat to beat. I would be perfectly okay if they did more promos of this variety. But man, if that Cesaro slipup in his promo wasn't intentional, well, as much as I am a huge fan of his ring work, he sealed his fate in terms of being a potential main eventer, or at the very least set himself back another year of "proving yourself" purgatory.

I don't know what made me cringe more, the back of his shoulders hitting the table or that he landed full-on ass-first on the mat.

Was that when he said, Mizdow go take your bump! Or something equally stupid? I can't remember what he said exactly, but it was when The New Day came out and Michael Cole went full blast "lame dad" mode about how "It's a NEW DAY, EVERYBODY!" or something along those lines. But that Mizdow line was pretty awful too. But hey, at least they didn't kill two minutes during a match talking about The Great Gazoo tonight. That's an improvement, right?

Man, someone needs to amend that Michael Cole BINGO card with the new tile "Cole Endorses New Gimmick...and Kills It Dead." I am all in on Kane settling into semi-retirement as the wrestling version of The Sandman from Showtime at the Apollo. He just shows up once or twice a year for the next 20 years to kill dying gimmicks dead for good. That shit tonight was the hottest the crowd has been for him in a longass time.

When you listen to the crowd reactions that Roman Reigns receives, a lot of it is the same women in the crowd that cheer for John Cena while all the men in the crowd chant "Cena Sucks." Didn't mean that comment to come off as demeaning or a generalization. But no one can deny that part of what is driving the Roman Reigns hype machine in WWE's eyes is his popularity with female fans. Hell, I'm not entirely unsure that WWE doesn't already see a backlash from hardcore fans coming and are positioning Roman Reigns to step into John Cena's "wrestling hero to women and children/bane of male Internet fans" shoes for the future.

I also wouldn't be surprised if Daniel Bryan and Dean Ambrose split the "Internet favorite" vote resulting in the more general populace fans and women being just enough to propel Reigns to the top.