MeeThinks 9.05.06: Going Old School [Part II of IV]
Posted by John Meehan on 09.05.2006
An action figure trip through the Attitude Era!
Welcome back, all – and we're hitting the ground running this week with a continuation of our four-part journey through this fan's history of fandom.
If you missed the column that kickstarted this quest, do kindly allow Mee to catch you up to speed:
A few weeks ago…
I stopped back up to the Meehan household in sunny (and *rural*) New Jersey. While visiting with some old friends and the family, my folks brought it to my attention that I'd still left a few Tupperware containers of my crap from when I was a kid upstairs in the family attic. Being a good son (or wanting to look like one, at least) I hauled one of the tubs back to DC and…
WHAM!
Like a wave of olfactory bliss, I was all at once overcome by that familiar-yet-pungent odor of decade-old rubber and plastic playthings of years gone by. Yes folks, I'd in fact stumbled upon the motherload… for there in a 28-gallon tub before Mee lied twenty years (and countless dollars) worth of professional wrestling action figures. Scads of them, too… dating WAAAAAY the hell back to the 12" days of molded rubber and spanning up and through the golden years of wrestling's mid-nineties action figure renaissance. From foot-tall Andres to six inch Beefcakes, from power-punching action through ringside catapults… I was sitting on a goldmine of memories, e-bay-bound knick-knacks and stinky rubber.
Two weeks ago, we probed the later part of my high school years and unearthed a dusty old 3 ½ inch floppy disk that revealed my passage from "mark" boy to "smart" young adult wrestling fan, but this week we're going back even further through the annals of wrestling history and the heyday of it's late ‘90's resurgence as…
MeeThinks takes on the action figures of the Attitude Era.
Sound like a plan?
Rock & roll.
Rather than pen any one sort of "long-form" article on my findings, I figured I'd serve up a montage of photos from my sojourns on the action figure frontier. Hopefully, the photos and the blurbs that accompany them might make for some fun and nostalgic reading. Here's hoping you enjoy!
The Ten Things I Learned From the Action Figures of the Attitude Era
1) LOTS of Rocks...
Though Stone Cold was king and Undertaker definitely ruled the dark side for the better part of The Attitude Era, there is simply no question that the (then-)WWF had no bigger marketing goldmine throughout the late '90's than The Rock. Sure, Austin drew ratings and his anti-McMahon antics made RAW history, but in terms of casual fan crossover appeal, you were tremendously hard-pressed to find a more marketable entity than The Rock.
Kids loved him. Girls fawned over him. Teenagers wanted to be him. Professional athletes copied his moves and mannerisms. Heck, even non-wrestling fans like your average office secretaries knew who "The Rock" was... and they were more than happy to sport bobblehead or keychain in support of that handsome and charismatic young black fella' from the comfort of their nine-to-five workstation.
Yup, The Rock was the shit alright... and his action figure sales clearly reflected as much. My younger brother, Jeremy, had a bit of an obsession with The Rock throughout the Attitude Era (sorry, I was an Austin man)... and so you can see that Vinny Mac and his Rock-tastic friends made more than a pretty penny out of the pockets of the Meehan family.
2) LOTS of props...
You know, when I was a kid during the Attitude Era heyday, I'd always get bent out of shape when my folks would slag on my oh-so-cool WWF action figure collection, alternately dubbing it "rubber wrestlers" and "dolls." As *any* avid toy collector could tell you, there's a HUGE difference between guy-friendly action figures and you're average, run-of-the-mill (and ridiculously girly) "doll" collection.
I think "opposable joints" and "bone-crunching action" were the qualifiers, by my count.
Anyhow...
Point is, the folks used to rag on my "rubber wrestlers" all the time ("rubber" - HA! Little did they know WWF figures were so obviously plastic!), often drawing comparisons between the WWF toys and your typical dolly Dream Home collection. For years, I refuted those claims, too... as there was a LOT more to wrestling action figures than just dress-up and tables for tea parties.
Or so I thought.
In retrospect, looking back now almost a decade removed from my first Attitude Era purchase, I'll have to hand it to my folks in noting that there's a TON of wrestling-related "action figure" merchandise from the Attitude Era that was clearly out of place for your "traditional" wrestling toy fare. Sure the Attitude Era was wild, whacky and unpredictable... but it also employed plenty of props that could have easily have found a second home in the spare room of a Barbie Fold'n Fun House.
Case in point...
3) Most WCW toys, well, sucked...
Perhaps nothing so clearly telegraphed the outcome of the Monday Night Wars as the quality of merchandise each company put out during the late '90's WCW vs. WWF rivalry. Sure, WCW was a marketing juggernaut with oodles of Turner-cash to throw at the opposition... but Vince McMahon has always been careful to keep his product "kid-friendly" and marketable to the younger demographic, and so there's strong evidence to suggest that McMahonia might well have won the Monday Night Wars simply because he fared better in the trenches. After all, WWF ran wild through toy stores and Wal Mart action figure aisles across the country throughout the Attitude Era despite the fact that 90% of the company's on-screen product was rated "TV-14" or older.
Point is...
WWE had Jakks Pacific on lockdown, and the wrestling action figure market was cornered (quite nicely) as a result. No matter what WCW tried to do to keep up (and they tried quite a number of things, too!), Vince was always one step ahead in rolling out a new line of "Superstars" with a new slew of accessories and stunt-action features. WCW, in turn, was forced to keep playing catch-up with their action figures -- constantly reinventing the wheel with goofy gimmics (a vibrating DDP!? WTF!?), inconsistent figure scale (Mongo McMichael is seven feet tall!?) and laughable character likenesses (that guy in the silver robe is supposed to be Ric Flair, ya' know) that simply made their product look third-rate when compared to Vinny Mac's longstanding Jakks franchise.
4) Thank GOD for Real-Scan technology
Now sure, WCW had itself some ridiculously bad action figures in their day... but that's not to say that WWE was completely immune to it's fair share of misfires long before Real-Scan technology became the industry standard.
Thankfully for WWE, most of their characters came "fully loaded" with gimmicks and accessories to clearly distinguish them from the rest of the action figure herd. After all, much like a six-year-old draws the same exact wrestler shape four times and gives each of them the slightest tweak to distinguish who's who among the group, WWE had little more to do than throw on an extra set of sunglasses (X-Pac), a well-placed eyebrow lift (The Rock), a goatee (Austin) or an earring (Shawn Michaels) to dillineate which of their action figures was which.
That said, there were more than a few WWE action figures that completely struck out once their respective accessories were removed (or in more frequent cases, lost or broken). Take a good long look at the nondescript faces of the figures below and see if you can't tell Mee who each of these guys are supposed to be. Winner gets a shout-out in next week's column… no chance anybody can get all eight!!!
5) Please, don't try this at home...
Ya' know, I never quite understood why WWE prefaced so many of their broadcasts with the "don't try this at home" disclaimer. But after inspecting the toll that years of plastic-on-plastic combat had taken on my expansive wrestling action figure collection, perhaps now I understand exactly what WWE was warning us against!
Even though slamming a few "rubber wrestlers" around in a plastic wrestling ring was hardly anything worth fretting over, a retrospective look at some of the injuries sustained by many of those six-inch combatants definitely helps to remind a wrestling fan that accidents *can* happen alright, even if the in-ring action is as fake as the sculpted muscles on the action figures themselves.
I guess we can chalk a fair share of these injuries up to all of those "hardcore" matches that were all the rage back in those days. After all, competing on the unforgiving surface of the top of a steel vent, a wooden picnic table, or a concrete front porch can be a career-shortening prospect for even the most seasoned of wrestling action figures, you know.
6) EVERYBODY had an action figure in the Attitude Era!
No, seriously... EVERYBODY. If you were on WWF television for so much as a month, then odds are you were automatically in line to be immortalized in full action figure glory. The Attitude Era was particularly noteworthy due to its preponderance of backstage skits and whatnot, and so even the most minor of non-wrestling characters earned themselves an action figure doppelganger before all was said and done.
Check out some of the more obscure ones below. Bob Backlund, Sargeant Slaughter, Clarence Mason, The Sultan, Flash Funk, Commissioner Michaels, the camera guy, the referee (hey, that sculpt looks familiar!)... EVERYBODY had an action figure, I tell ya.
7) Getting creative never hurt anybody. Well, except the guy we chopped up and used for parts, of course...
This one's kind of an addendum to rule number six above.
On those rare instances where the WWF had failed to churn out a plastified likeness of your favorite "new" star, I always found that there was absolutely no reason not to Frankenstein your duplicate figures into "new and improved" superstars for the overall betterment of your action figure roster.
From home-made Hardy Boyz (formerly Billy Gunn and Edge) to catch-as-catch-can Kane's (that one appears to have been a tweak on Mankind version 1.0), to a makeshift "Buried Alive" playset (fashioned out of what I think was an old miniature pool table and some brown construction paper) -- the possibilities were endless as my brothers and I turned to what little creativity a life's worth of television hadn't yet stolen from us when the WWF marketing machine fell inexplicably short of providing fans with a complete roster of officially-licensed action figures.
So yeah, thanks to some Sharpie and a bottle or two of paint intended to have been applied to a model Corvette, I am proud to say that I cobbled together more than my share of "custom" wrestlers back in the day. Nothing like the "professional" customs you'll find on eBay or what have you, but I'd wager that much like most of you folks, I'm hardly alone in saying that I made myself a homemade superstar or two when duty called.
I promise these look *way* cooler in person ;-)
8) Legends never die
I'll keep this one short…
Action figures are a great time capsule into exactly who and what was popular at the time that they were immortalized in fully-opposable plastic glory. Not only do they make great objective correlatives by which to remember the fallen heroes of yesteryear (Bulldog, Owen, Hawk, Droz, etc.), they also make for an outstanding item of memorabilia for fans curious as to just who was "the big name" way back in the day when their likenesses were cast in plastic, complete with a handy little date stamp right on the bottom of their lower back.
So here's to (arguably) the biggest stars of the Attitude Era...
9) The devil is in the details
Though there were plenty of WWF action figures that completely fell flat at capturing the likeness of their respective real-world other, on at least a handfull of occasion's you've really got to hand it to the sculpt-wizards over at Jakks for absolutely nailing some of the finer points down perfectly in spite of their lack of cutting-edge image capture technology.
Removable knee braces for Stone Cold Steve Austin? Nicely done.
Tassels on the pads of the Ultimate Warrior? Good call.
Blood-spattered ruffle shirt for Gangrel? Money in the bank.
Full-color detail on The Undertaker's tattoos? Well, it's the thought that counts.
10) Set 'em up, knock 'em down...
To this day, there are simply no words to describe the sheer nostalgia and enduring joy of setting up a bucket's full of wrestling action figures in full-out battle-ready poses. As a kid, part of the fun of our action figures was *always* in setting the lot of them up in all sorts of ridiculous grapple-tastic poses prior to playing with them for the day, and there's still an inexplicable rush about doing much the same even though I'm a good twenty years removed from the first time I ever picked up an LJN Superstar way back in the day.
Look at that swank chairshot! Check out that Stone Cold Stunner! Man, that table is BUSTED! And that's a wicked Chokeslam if I ever saw one!
Sure, it's juvenille... but damn if it isn't a blast just the same.
Agree? Disagree?
"Methinks it sounds a parley to provocation!"
- Iago, Othello
Act II, scene iii
(As always, feel free to shoot Mee YourThinks on this week's topic and we'll post them in next week's column)
Now then…
Huge props to 411's own Ryan Byers for catching a recycled crowd shot of the Meehan clan during the opening of this week's episode of TNA Impact! As Byers so eloquently phrased things...
[i]"TNA Drinking Game Rule #4: When you see a straightedge kid from DC, take a shot."[/i]
As long as it's a shot of Pepsi... I'm so in.
Nick Calcaterra also caught the Mee/TNA connection, and had this to say:
So I'm watching the beginning of Impact last night (8/31), and damn near fell off my couch when I saw one of the greatest pieces of footage from Impact ever...yes, that's right...Mee + the "Kip James killerZ" (ie your family) from when you were down and live in the Impact Zone. Now, normally I'd complain about using recycled crowd footage, but since the footage in question is awesome, well I say - recycle on, TNA - recycle on.
No show on the crowd plant hottie though...I'd rather see your "better than Randy Orton's candy ass will ever do" Orton-esque pose anyway though.
Enjoy reading your columns...keep up the good work.
Later
Nick Calcaterra
You mean *this* crowd shot, Nick?!
And thanks for the support. I'm guessing that this week's episode of TNA was likely taped as the second hour of the broadcast (might explain the bloody ring mat, too), and with the screwy opening with LAX and the video screen, the crowd just wasn't that hot for what TNA hoped to use for the "opening" of the show. Ergo - cue stock footage, as there's no better crowd shot than the First Fanmily of Professional Wrestling.
A small point of clarification, however... I'm actually *not* going for the Orton pose (though that one's also a favorite). Believe it or not, I'm actually transitioning from "soaking up the cheers" to mimmicking the first pose of Hogan's usual three-pose routine (I call it "the beach is THAT way").
Good times!
James Giles switches gears, takes us back to school, and shares some thoughts on everyone's favorite Doctor of Thuganomics. Which reminds Mee: I wonder if John Cena is listed on "RateMyProfessors.com"...
First, love the column. I usually agree with most of the points you bring up and the ones I don't I believe are well thought out and are valid.
I see a lot of people at 411, either writers or readers, question Cena's in ring abilities. Or his apparent lack of them. I think we can safely agree that watching an event on TV and in person are different experiences as you see things live that aren't captured on the tube or edited out. On TV you can see camera angles and close-ups that show things you can't see from balcony seating.
We can also agree that the general consensus is that McMahon prefers a slower, more methodical approach to wrestling that on might find at TNA or indy show. Vince knows that some top rope daring-do is needed from time to time but thinks that fist to mouth, with an occasional high spot thrown in, makes a main event. Fine.
That being said, I don't understand the complaints that Cena can't wrestle or doesn't have a vast move set or whatever the crying is about this week. Is he my favorite entertainer? No, but I feel that he certainly performs to his employers expectations. Isn't that what every employee should do? Make his boss happy by doing his job as prescribed by said employer, with hopes or expectations that the employees desired performance will result in further advancement within the company? This performance may not make all customers of the business happy, but as cheers from the crowd show, Cena does make enough happy that Vince has certainly seen fit to give a ‘bigger office space' than some of the other performers.
So Cena doesn't do a top rope hurricanrana. That doesn't mean he can't. If Cena were to incorporate a slightly more high flying technique, a la Mysterio (who has certainly toned down his move set over the years) or a Malenko type shoot style (which is not everyone's cup of tea either), it doesn't mean he should. Exactly what would make everyone happy? Do what I do when garbage is on, curse Vince and the people who whine but continue to throw money at his product, then change the channel.
-James Giles
Interesting analogy, James.
You're absolutely spot-on in noting that Cena is definitely "getting a bigger office" thanks to playing to his boss's whim. But then again, I'd wager that when push came to shove - McMahon & Company don't just like Cena because he's a "company guy," they probably like him all the more because the man moves INSANE amounts of merchandise.
As Barry Blaustein documented in his killer wrestling biopic Beyond the Mat (I know I reference this one a lot, but it's a real gem...):
"[WWE has all sorts of officially-liscenced-products and behind-the-scenes production]. Oh yeah, they have wrestlers, too. ‘Cause without them, it would be hard to move the merchandise. [And] to keep the merchandise fresh, they're always creating new stars."
- Barry Blaustein>
and...
"There's a direct similarity between [WWE] and the Muppets. Family owned company, the whole business based in performance and characters, with real human beings playing characters. In our case, they just don't happen to be using puppets."
- Jim Bell, (former) Senior Vice President of Marketing for World Wrestling Entertainment
People playing characters, and performers simply acting out the puppetry of their bosses. In other words?
Jim Ross probably summed up the company's attitude towards its performers the best when he said...
"I could care less who wins, I could care less who loses. As long as we've got an ass every 18 inches, I'm a happy man."
Long story short? Cena puts asses in the seats. Love him or hate him, the guy can draw (even if he can't wrestle), AND he can move scads of merchandise. GUARANTEED Vince sat him down one day and said "hey kid, don't sweat it... keep doing what you're doing, and we'll have a long and prosperous future together!" After all, no point in having Cena make his in-ring style any more high-risk or impactful, *especially* if he's "the franchise" player the company's banking on for a long haul. Gotta' protect that investment, after all.
NCHS08JOHNBRYANT is back, this time with thoughts on Angle and TNA:
Hey Meehan thanks for answering my Feedback from last week. Anyway, If you read the Triple Threat Column then you know like me their fans of yours, and I almost always give them a dream match to give their opinion on. like last week I gave them Ron Killings vs Shelton Benjamin. I wanted to give you the same Dream match I gave them for this week. I have to know: What do you think of a 4 man Ultimate Submission elimination match between Bryan Danielson vs Chris Benoit vs Samoa Joe vs a fully healed Kurt Angle?
Anyway I dun know why you wouldn't want a match between Abyss & Joe since it'd give Joe the experience of wrestling someone bigger than him for once and being at a size & weight disadvantage is something Joe isn't used to but needs to learn how to deal with in the ring.
I also think Kurt Angle should go to TNA. he strives to be 100% perfect in his game then he should go there when he's fully physically & mentally healed up. Because TNA definitelly has the best wrestlers while Kurt is just wrestling the same type of guys: Heavyweights and brawlers with the occasional exception of RVD & Sabu. He needs variety and that's what TNA offers. I mean could you imagine a match between AJ and Kurt. AJ Styles can wrestle any style practically. I mean he can wrestle mat-style, standing or even take to the sky. just asking and hope you continue to write such awesome columns.
BTW - About your bogus support: GO CAROLINA!!!!!GO STEVE SMITH!!!!!!!!!GO THE SUPERBOWL CHAMPS OF THIS SEASON!!!!!!!!!!YEAH!!!!!!!!! 2 Championships in the same year!!!!!!!!
Carolina? I pity the fool. We've got the freakin' BILLS in Week 1, and one of the EASIEST schedules in the league throughout the season. The NFC North?! Get real! *Maybe* a roadbump (or two) for the Pats when it comes to Denvahh (slimy bastards...) or Indy (if the Colts' offensive coordinator has learned CPR by then), but otherwise I think you're staring at a solid and dominant Patriots squad for the 2006-2007 year.
Oh right, WRESTLING...
Angle should stay *out* of TNA and I fully suspect that he will. Though the matches would be GLORIOUS and his travel schedule would be light, the man would undoubtedly be putting himself through the ringer in terms of the actual caliber of the in-ring demands, and there's just no way he could keep up with guys the likes of Styles, Daniels and Samoa Joe and on a night in, night out basis. Sure, he'd *try* it alright... but that'd only spell disaster in the long run of his overall health and well-being.
Now then... the fantasy submission four-way?
Samoa Joe all the way. Though Angle and Benoit are both more accomplished "shoot" fighters than their younger opponents, there's no way any smart booker would take a golden opportunity in a match like this to put over an older talent when an up-and-comer could easily be the match's breakout star. That leaves us with Danielson and Joe, and I'm just of the mindset (call me WWE-brainwashed) than the bigger man would be the more realistic victor in such a brutal and lengthy contest. Joe would go over in my book, but American Dragon would definitely look like the world-beater after having sustained one hell of an ass-kicking along the way.
Why TNA has yet to sign Danielson is beyond Mee...
Kevin, who also appears to be from North Carolina, had this to say...
I totally agree with your sentiment that the release of Kurt Angle is indeed the best thing for everyone. Since the first day Angle stepped into the ring at WWE I've been a huge fan. But ever since I watched the Wrestlemania documentary which showed just how bad off he was after Wrestlemania 19 I don't think I've been able to fully watch a match of his without cringing in fear of him seriously injuring himself or even dying. I know Kurt's driven to be the best, but damn! Anyway, hopefully he'll get himself together and we'll see him again someday. All I know is whenever I watch a past Kurt Angle match I'll be able to sleep better knowing he's ALIVE!
-Kevin
Raleigh, NC
Amen, dude. Nothing wrong with getting our Angle fix on DVD for the next few months (years?) while the guy gets himself back together. As any old-school fan will attest, it's *much* easier to watch matches of guys that are still alive and ambulatory than it is to watch them of stars who've left this world behind. There's something quite unsettling, almost snuff-film-esque about watching Dynamite Kid going for a top-rope diving headbutt, you know? Better to savor the good stuff than be forced to recall the bad.
Joshua W. takes Mee to task for a stylistic gripe. A fair one, too...
Hey there John.... I just wanted to say I think you would have a great column, with one exception... Your columns are pretty much unreadable (for me at least) due to one thing you consistantly do, and that is this:
"What Kurt Angle *needs* to do is settle down and take some *much* needed time off."
That's just an example... It's very hard to read your columns when you over-use the emphasizing "*" on words that really don't need it.... I know that it's your style and what not... And I'm probably the only person who finds it annoying/a problem....
But I just figured I'd give you a little feedback anyhow... Other than that, you're doing real well with your columns man! :)
- Joshua W.
Good point, Joshua. I've often been told that I write in a very conversational tone, so I suppose what we're seeing here is the yang to my over-emphatic yin. Thanks for the heads-up, though... and I'll keep an eye out for future columns, deal?
Finally, semi-regular Rich C. chimes in with some conspiracy theory worth a second look.
Something interesting hit me last night when I was reading about Kurt Angle being given his release, what if this is all a work?
Granted at this point we can all agree that Kurt is in bad shape physically and really could use some time off, but lets look at the facts. The E has suffered big time since the death of WCW even if they won't admit it. Ratings are down and many fans are disheartened by the lack of options (no I do not consider smackdown or WWECW alternative options).
Sure there is TNA, but right now they aren't real competition for the E and will never truly be till they get away from focusing solely on JJ. Whats to say that Vince didn't have a sit down with Kurt and give him a mutually better option for both of them. Kurt can continue to work while the E can avoid having the Wellness program claim their 1st top talent victim.
Here is what I think will happen.
Kurt waits out his 90 days and goes to TNA immediately giving them a top drawing talent. Kurt works his 3 to 5 days a month and still draws money similar to what Sting is making. With the limited schedule Kurt will be able to slowly recover. TNA gets put on the map with their Angle/Styles or Angle/Joe matches eventually leading to a head to head match up against the E (probably vs ECW on Tuesday nights). Competition helps to revitalize the casual fans interest in wrestling. Depending on how his body is feeling a year or 2 from now Kurt shows up on Raw with Joe in tow and destroy the RAW roster Ala the original NWO. This allows Kurt to be on tv again while Joe does most of the wrestling work.
Sounds kinda far fetched, but I will be the 1st to admit that I believe the Montreal Screw Job was a work that got a little out of hand. In that case, Brett got his big payday, the E got exposure and word of mouth about how they screwed Brett and WCW got a great worker who would have carried them for a few years (if not for an errant boot from Goldberg).
As they say, sometimes truth is stranger then fiction.
-Rich
Interesting scenario, Rich... but your logic presumes three things that are still pretty flimsy, given historical precedent.
1) That Vince McMahon would be willing to sacrifice the "short term" success of *HIS* company for an overall long-term positive effect on the wrestling business on the whole. While a casual fan resurgence would undoubtedly spike ratings across the board, there's nothing (to my knowledge) to suggest that Vince has ever been in the habit of puffing up his direct competitors for the sake of making them stronger before he kills them outright down the line.
Now sure, some might claim that he did much like that to ECW *and* to WCW - but a) ECW was never really a threat, and Vince gave them cash in return for stars (not the other way around), and b) WCW's importing of Bret Hart at the cost of an exorbitant salary was hardly the company's only downfall.
2) If we're calling a spade a spade here, TNA simply *isn't* competition for WWE at this time and place... but that's no reason for Vince to lend them one of his biggest stars just for the sake of building them into as much. When Vince buoyed ECW, he "borrowed" their stars and floated them some coin. Now if Vince McMahon were to "float" TNA, he'd be losing *both* money AND talent TNA's way in hopes that the venture would pay off years down the line. WAY too risky a proposition, if you ask Mee, ESPECIALLY when the guy they'd be banking on to orchestrate this coup is in as bad a shape as Kurt Angle -- who could easily (literally) drop dead at a moment's notice within a three-year time frame.
3) Bret Hart being jettisoned to WCW as "damaged goods" *might* have been a work (I'm convinced it wasn't, but for the sake of your argument)... but going back to the birth of wrestling's '90's heyday, Hogan, Nash and Hall jumping ship to WCW and kickstarting the nWo was most certainly NOT. Though the nWo invasion completely revitalized the wrestling industry on the whole, Vince has learned two and three times since that event (by way of the InVasion, the "new" nWo, etc...) that it's tremendously difficult to capture lighting in a bottle with the same storyline twice. As such, there's little reason to believe that the guy would sacrifice a top-level talent like Kurt Angle to a promotion outside of his control (TNA) on the off-chance that such a venture might (freakishly) turn out in his favor. There's simply no precedent for it, and McMahon loves him some precedents (see: Edge/Cena, Rock/Austin). Moving Angle to ECW was Vince's master plan to revitalize fan interest in an "alternative" brand... moving him to TNA is most certainly not.
Alright, that'll do it for Mee this week. So...
And With That, I'm Outta' Here...
Thanks again for reading, all. This week it's NFL KICKOFF (!!!), so expect Mee to be glued to the television screen for the better part of Sunday. Thank heaven for no PPV's this week, right? In the mean time - enjoy the back to school buzz, football fever, and the general awesomeness that is autumn... and always stay positive.
