Truth B Told 7.19.07: Foreign Exchange Program
Posted by Bayani Domingo on 07.19.2007
The Puro and Lucha to US Indy trade embargo has been lifted, now who is really getting the better of the deal?
RoH just did a show in Japan recently and it looks like the Japanese crowd managed to liven up a bit with the American invasion. For the most part as I understand it, Japanese crowds, with the exception of a few companies like Dragon Gate, DDT, or HUSTLE, tend to be quiet and respectful, but some RoH fans managed to eek out a bit more reaction than is accustomed. When you consider that guys like Scott Norton, Albert (aka Giant Bernard), Tomko, Chuck Palumbo, and Stan Hansen managed to obtain greater success over seas than in America it is obvious how popular American wrestlers are in Japan. Kurt Angle and Brock Lesner were two ‘gaijin' that managed to have their stardom translate over fairly well as well. Even in Mexico Ron Killings, Sabu, Mark Jindrak, and others have done well South of the Border. In fact American wrestlers all over the world are embraced, WWE and RoH being the most well recognized with TNA and even PWG becoming players. Chris Sabin entered a little tournament and won a little Jr. Heavyweight title, El Generico managed to retain his belt in Dragon Gate while PAC is racking up pinfall after pinfall, hell Samoa Joe might just be the IGWP champion soon. Japan and Mexico LOVE our US grapplers, but like a Zach Gowen Figure-4 Leglock, why is it so one-sided?
I will not even argue with you about US wrestlers being popular in Japan and Mexico. It is fact, history has proven that foreign countries recognize the US wrestlers and WWE for the most part as being THE name in wrestling. However in the US we don't necessarily extend them the same respect. For instance, Jushin Lyger, Ultimo Dragon, the Great Muta, and were all successful wrestlers in Japan before they made their debuts in WCW as a push for international stars. They found varying degrees of success from slim…to none. Afterwards WCW went the Lucha route and picked up every luchador they could from Juvi to Rey Mysterio Jr. to Psicosis to El Dandy to at least 3 Villanos. Although they helped to bring the cruiserweight style into the spotlight, after a few years that spotlight quickly faded. The WWE then brought in guys like TAKA Michinoku and the rest of Kai-En-Tai, Tajiri, Rey Mysterio, the Mexicools, Kenzo Suzuki, Essa Rios, and a host of others from the land of the rising son and the land of the lowered cars, but none of them achieved a sustainable level of success. The WWE brought them in as a side show and they were received as so by the fans. To be fair the WWE has never tried bringing in anyone with their preferred sized into the ring other than Kenzo Suzuki who was huge by Puro standards. WCW brought in Yuji Nagata but that was a short lived relationship as well. For all of the "innovation" that the Puro/Lucha stars brought to the small screen it was obvious that the "e" would rather steal their moves and keep a few of them on board as "side show attractions" rather than push them as legit stars. With the exception of Rey Mysterio, but then, how legit was the guy in retrospect?
Arguments can be made for the early 90's when Tatsumi Fujinami, Muta, and even Antonio Inoki having some success in the US, but even their success was fleeting and usually their victories and big matches came as a result of the talent exchange and ultimately it was accepted that WCW or WWF would always come out on top. Even Mil Mascaras, one of the most popular Luchadors ever, managed a run in the WWF and WCW but never was recognized for as being a top talent stateside. I can understand how company would not want to put wrestlers making cameos or a only a few spot appearances over their own homegrown talent, but there is no shame in promoting the guys you bring in as World Class talents. Lyger fought Samoa Joe in a PPV match that lasted less time than a Punk/Burke encounter on free TV. To think that a legend in the Junior Division in Japan got less than 20 mins against one of TNA's biggest stars at the time is outrageous. Even now take a look at the WWE and TNA and how many "foreign" wrestlers do you have who are actually lucha or puro trained? TNA: 0, WWE: 3 – Rey (Worst booked title reign in years) Mysterio, Funaki (Smackdown's #1 Jobber), and Super (he's Super…he's jobber…he's Super Jobber) Crazy. Wow. I know I'M blown away. But that's just the "big boys" so to speak, the Indies definitely give the Puro/Lucha guys more love…well kinda.
RoH has used New Japan, NOAH, and Dragon Gate guys in the past but have managed to work out a new deal with NOAH and DG that seems to work equally well for both sides. Problem is RoH might have tipped the scales a bit at the expense of their own roster. Morishima, KENTA, and Marafuji are probably 3 of the 6 biggest names now on the roster and aren't even "officially full-timers". While Morishima runs over everyone, guys like Nigel and Strong are left in the "upper mid-card" but not given the ball to really run with yet. I'm sure Morishima has gotten the best part of the bargain with is RoH dominance and title thus far where as RoH has benefited due to the increased interest and sales from the Puro influence, however their actual workers have suffered considering they have such a bloated mid-card now. To be fair however, RoH wrestlers have been booked fairly strong in Japan as a result, namely Danielson, Aries, and the Briscoes. In Dragon Gate Matt Sydal even held the "Open The Brave Gate" Title for a while and SHINGO/Doi held the RoH tag titles for a cup of green tea…err…coffee. Still the end result is the same as RoH and NOAH/DG have seen their ticket sales and DVD sales increase due to "foreign involvement". Oddly enough it seems that in RoH the foreign talent is actually elevated a bit higher than the domestic talent, unlike in the "Big Leagues".
PWG just had their DDT Tag Tournament in which 5 Dragon Gate wrestlers were booked. The MO'z team of Doi/YOSHINO beat PWG's most decorated tag team, Arrogance, while CIMA lost in his title match with El Generico and went to a Draw with Bryan Danielson. PWG also has 4 European wrestlers and 4 Dragon Gate wrestlers booked for BoLA 2007 this year. While a ‘foreign' wrestler has never won a tournament or title in PWG they have always been booked strong. Still, it looks like PWG isn't willing to go the RoH route quite yet although it may be sooner than later considering that recently DG let El Generico defend his PWG title on one of their shows. Still something which is obviously missing is the fact that PWG operates in Southern California and yet the Lucha talent that has been booked on their shows is virtually non-existent. I'm not talking about El Generico, Quick Silver, Scorpio Sky, Ronin, or any other ‘gringo' they put under a mask, I'm talkin' real live luchas. In fact as far as I know Los Luchas (aka Phoenix Star and Zokre) and NEMESIS have been the only Luchadors booked for shows. I guess that shows how much PWG thinks that booking more Lucha talent as opposed to Puro talent would benefit their cards and ultimately ‘bottom line'. Hell, when is the last time you saw a luchador in RoH? In fact there are Lucha shows in SoCal and parts of Texas quite often, but you rarely see an American Indy show with heavy Lucha talent involvement as opposed to Lucha shows with a little American Indy involvement.
To me it seems like American wrestlers going to Japan or Mexico can only help their skills, if not their careers. Guys like Benoit, Eddie, Jericho, Mysterio, AJ, Daniels, and Samoa Joe have all benefited from learning news styles of wrestling. The inverse is that while few if any Lucha talents do American tours, you do however get an occasional tour of Japan as shown by Dragon Gate's talent exchange. Still Luchador tours of the US are rare, in fact the audience and preferences in Mexico are so niche that learning the American style may not even be a boon to that wrestler. Japanese talents do make cameos, however with the exception of a Milano AT, SHINGO, and recently YAMATO, it is rare that Puro wrestlers gain much more in the way of in-ring skills as much as learning from an "entertainment" or "story telling" aspect. It's not becoming more common place to send some young stars for "seasoning" to the states for a few months, this is done more to increase the reputation of the wrestler and not their skills. Still, it is effective at times. However I'm not an expert in Puro-Indy relations so I asked the two "Puro guys" to help me out a bit. I asked each of my fellow 411 writers whether it was as big of a deal for a Puro guy to come to the states as it is for an Indy guy to go to Japan. Here's their responses:
Matt Short of "Navigation Log" fame goes first:
It does seem like a Japanese guy coming to the US is a big deal. Of course if Tiger Mask appears on TNA it's important and you'd expect it to be. But it's surprising how much press guys like KENTA and CIMA get for wrestling US indy promotions. Even Chikara's King of Trios got a some attention because of the Japanese talent involved. Same with PWG because of all Dragon Gate guys who appear there.
I think it's all how its perceived by the wrestlers. If a US guy goes to tour with NOAH he gets to perform in front of maybe the biggest crowd he'll ever have. If a Japanese guy does a few ROH shows he gets a chance to perform in America which he'd never get to do with another promotion. Being able to wrestle in America is just as big a deal to some of the Japanese stars as it is for American guys to perform in Japan.
So maybe it is a big deal for some of the Puro guys, though it does seem like working for NOAH's crowd and working in front of the IWA:MS crowd seems like a bit of a size difference.
Matt Adamson, who coincidentally ran a similar piece as I did a few days ago in his column "Destiny" has a slightly different take:
As far as your question goes. I think it's a bigger deal to the Japanese when puro wrestlers go to the states. They get a lot of press for it. You often see the Japanese press at ringside for their matches, at which point they take it back to Japan and it gets... Printed! I'd say that's where the biggest impact is. However, as far as how it effects the hosting country when foreigners "invade"? I'd again have to go with The presence of U.S. indy wrestlers going to Japan. The Japanese fans eat it up. Hell, they can even go to the big leagues in Japan and the fans will be into the idea. If a guy as popular in Japan as Shinsuke Nakamura showed up in TNA or WWE, nobody would care. It's really a tough question to answer though, because ROH has utilized puro stars so well, that things have basically changed, yet I still think that the value of the American indy wrestler is greater to Japan than the value of the puro wrestler is to the American Indy promotion.
Does that help? You may want to make mention of Chris Sabin winning the Jr Heavyweight League for All Japan recently as well as ROH's success in Japan in attendance (apparently selling out Differ Ariaki... WOW!). I doubt if Dragon Gate, NOAH, New Japan, or All Japan came to the U.S. that they would draw comparable numbers or greater than what they do in Japan.
Well there you go...I think. Basically I think that boils down to Japan getting their rocks off more from the US wrestlers coming to town or seeing their boys go to the states than the US Indy fan would. Heck, I even remember seeing a press conference picture when Masato Tanaka announced he was going to work ECW: One Night Stand, so I guess it is big news in Japan for the wrestler's reputation...not skills. One would have to say it's basically an inverse of the American wrestler's situation. Still the notion of TNA or the WWE employing a puro guy seems fairly odd. For one thing TNA doesn't have enough TV time as it is, also it wouldn't make sense to book a guy you can't contract, which brings us to why their wrestlers were pulled from RoH and PWG recently. The goes for the WWE although I'm sure just about any Japanese wrestler would give their right arm to spend a year in the WWE...on TV that is, sending a guy down to OVW for a year or two just seems like a waste of time. But would TNA and RoH even be interested?
In TNA's case I think they would be helped by a few guys coming over to invigorate the X-Division now that it seems they moved a good bulk of their talent to the Tag Team Division. I always thought that Dragon Gate would be a perfect fit, but due to their relationship with RoH I very much doubt that would happen. The same goes with NOAH because of their work with RoH. That leaves All Japan and New Japan. But like I said, TNA doesn't have enough time to allot to everyone and besides all that they seem to be more than content with the WWE's castoffs rather than promoting their international talent showcases. Just look how Lyger, Tanahashi, and Tiger Mask were snuck onto PPV instead of heavily hyped. So without that 2nd hour of TV and until TNA loses their hard on for old WWF tag team cast offs, forget it.
The WWE could really use the help. Look at ECW and Smackdown as proof of that. Leave RAW alone for the most part but Smackdown needs some cruiserweights and Tag Teams. Problem is the CW division is dead and they don't seem to care much more for the tag division. Hell, ECW has pretty much 3 matches that are fresh left to put on before it's just cruise control and reruns all season long. There is clearly a market for some new and innovative talents to enter the WWE especially with all the injuries but that seem to be rather unlikely. According to the rumored edict that they are only seeking to sign guys 6'0" or taller. With those kind of height restrictions there are only a handful of guys under the age of 32 or so that would fit that mold. Even in Mexico it would be difficult to find guys that fit the kind of size and look that the "e" would want. Of the one or two guys that come to mind, Ricky Banderas was already signed and Cibernetico ain't going no where. Hell, the "e" tried out Mistico in a few tryout matches and nothing ever came of it. If anyone needs to bring in some international talent its Vinny Mac.
Then again, what makes you think that they would be treated any differently than the ones before? I would have been all for Gedo and Jado to come to the WWE and Mistico to own the CW division but ultimately it wasn't in the cards. Vince has a way of jobbing out anyone he doesn't feel like he "made" on his own. Hence why a guy like Nitro is holding the ECW belt and not Punk. Or why King Booker's title reign was about a quarter as long as JBL's. Besides it is common knowledge that Vince doesn't listen to what the fans want, he TELLS the fans what they want. Clearly he's promoting to a mostly "casual fan" and "mark" audience that wouldn't even know who CIMA was, let alone be able to pick out Dos Caras, Jr. from Dos Equis. Fact is that back when the cruiserweight division was *tee hee* being "pushed", Vince had no problem bringing in foreign talent, but now you can forget about it. Even though I believe it would be in the best interest of the WWE to bring in some new blood, if only to take a little heat off themselves.
For one thing the "e's" reputation has taken a bit of a hit lately. Some good publicity by bringing in a Mexican or Japanese wrestler would do well to bring back some more international buys to their sagging PPV numbers as well as sell a few more t-shirts. As Eddie proved, the Latino market is ripe with potential as well as the reception Tajiri and Funaki used to get in Japan. Besides all that it is much less rare to see Lucha and Puro guys on the "gas" and seeing smaller and more naturally built wrestlers in the fed might show the public and media that steroid use isn't always the norm or required to get a job with the boys in Stamford. Pushing smaller wrestlers might be enough of a diversion to take some heat off the "wellness policy", at least for now. Still, for as much sense as it makes, let's face it, Vinny loves his big men and nothing is going to change that. Hmm, maybe Vince is more in tuned with his audience than I thought.
The Truth
Lets face it, Indy fans love all things Puro, it used to be that Lucha was the ‘cat's meow' but now it's just an old pussy who is past it's time. Yeah, I'm thinking of 4 Mae Young/Moolah jokes too, but I'll go ahead and keep them to myself. Lucha has been replaced by Puro in the minds of many Indy fans and we'll still accept just about anything from Japan as being "workrate wonders" compared to what we're used to. In Japan it's all about the aura and size of the Indy wrestlers. A guy like Austin Aries or Davey Richards over here may seem like a jacked up little monkey by our standards, but over there they'd be taller than your average fan and quite a bit larger. Yeah, we're a bunch of fattys over here. The talent exchange still has some benefits for both sides, though often different sides of the coin. While TNA has used their puro connections sparingly they've done so with little harm to their roster, but little benefit to their showcased wrestlers. Until the World X-Cup comes back to town, they'd be better off just sticking to their own roster. The "e" has never been known for showcasing international talent that well. Canadians aside, but they were able to get a few guys over, though through tragedy and their own bad booking, it didn't last long. If the WWE wanted to freshen up their product, fill a few gaps in their rosters, pop a few PPV buyrates and t-shirts sales, and even move away from wrestlers who are even perceived as taking more Flintstone Vitamins then is the daily recommended value, they ought to take a look in the East and South. Oh, there are a few Brits and Europeans too, but let's just see what happens to Birchall and Steve Lewington first. Right now is the perfect time to start sending those scouts back East, the NBA and Major League Baseball does it right? They seem to be doing okay for themselves. Okay, maybe not that Chinese guy in Milwuakee...or that pitcher for the Yankees...um...screw it, at least bring over some Harajuku girls would ya Vince?
Coming Up Short
*Spoiler…but not really cuz' WWE.com already spoiled it*
If you don't want to know the results of Smackdown, even though WWE.com already spoiled it then go ahead and skip down a section.
Seriously, the Great Khali? That's the best they could come up with. The Great Khali. Sure it's unfortunate that Edge injures himself in a pointless segment, but c'mon. You have Batista, Kane, and Rey Mysterio, all former champions. You have MVP, Matt Hardy, and Finlay who are all acceptable mid-carders who could really blossom as champions. Hell, you even have Mark Henry who…okay, you don't have Mark Henry, that would actually be the only guy except Michael Cole and lil Bastard who would probably make worse champions. Either way, I think this really shows you how badly the "e" handicapped themselves by taking Kenndy, Booker, and Lashley off SD and ECW and loading up RAW instead. Hell, they have HHH and HBK both coming off the shelf soon, but lord knows they would never stoop so low as to work the "B" show. Man, if this is what we have to look forward to on Friday nights, maybe I'll just start up my drinking problem again. Something tells me that my sobriety on the weekends is really going to end up coming up short.
6 Degrees of…
Louis Jones
I am so honoured to win this award and... *music starts playing* ... Goddamnit!
As for my prize, I like going with the nationality theme. So, to be different, I went with the exact opposite of Hot Asian Chicks, and went with Old Stuffy British Men. Jack Davenport in 6 Degrees to William Regal.
Louis, you are one sick f*ck. Seriously…you could have picked any British celeb at all and you go with those two stuffy guys. I mean, Victoria Beckham, Caprice, or this chick, you had a plethora of better choices in the United Kingdom, yet...Jack Davenport. Man...I don't even know what to say. Uh...blimey.
Whatchu talkin' bout readers?
John Reid
Let's get it out of the way: Love the Indian pic, mix things up a bit to keep us honest…
…I think we'll see less and less wrestlers opt for the E in the future if they feel they're already successful in the Indies or in Japan . The Benoit situation notwithstanding, I just believe stars like Danielson and Samoa Joe will stay where they are (especially Joe since his contract with TNA isn't up until 2009) since they don't want to fall in that "mid-card trap" that Vince places those wrestlers that he did not create. Just ask any WCW wrestler who was buried during the Invasion. I just believe that many of these wrestlers have to invest in another hustle so that they don't have to place all their eggs in one basket. I think people like Christian and Jericho were able to leave without a second thought was because they are able to fall back on other options without the grind I imagine the ‘e's superstars go through.
…missed out on the b-day article, I'll make it up by sending you an asian pick of my own as a belated b-day present.
Well I was surprised to find a good website that had tons of pics. I mean, if I had more space this week I'd probably LINK ONE right now, but I'm just too busy. Btw, STILL waiting on that Asian pic Johnny Boy. I'll see what I can do about mixing up the pics a bit…if anyone finds me a fine Cambodian pin-up girl I'll consider it…then reject it. Damn Cambodians. With Christian/Jericho they saved up money from their WCW/WWE days, which made it easy for them to leave, clearly guys like Flair and Hacksaw haven't if they still need to bounce around the ring in their 50's. most Indy guys have real jobs during the week in order to make ends meet, guys who are established like Low Ki, AJ, Daniels probably don't have to work, but I doubt they make enough of a nest egg that they don't need a second income from their spouse or what not to put away some money while still paying the bills. Wait, is Low Ki married? Could you imagine him finding love on eHarmony.com? "Find your perfect life match on eHarmony.com, so easy, even a caveman could do it".
6 Degrees Results
#3
James Giles
Always enjoy the column. 6 Degrees is a personal favorite and I've only attempted it once before. I know this won't win but here goes, just for shits and giggles…
Franka Potente was in Bourne Identity which starred Matt Damon
Damon was a presenter at the 2002 MTV Movie Awards
Johnny Knoxville was a presenter on the same show and has ties to
Steve-O who has recently done work with WWE, who employs
Chris Masters who's finisher is a full nelson, which was used by Billy Jack Haynes
Good try James, thought technically a degree or two short. Still, you managed to fit in Jackass into the entry which was clever. Too bad he was your final link to BJ Hayes.
#2
I'm lovin' that Billy Jack Haynes card! Tell me you have a whole set.
Two entries this week:
#1 -
1. Franka Potente was in the 2001 movie "Blow" with Ray Liotta.
2. Ray Liotta made a cameo in the 1999 movie "Muppets From Space", as did Hulk Hogan.
3. Hulk Hogan was in the main event of Wrestlemania I with 'Mr. Wonderful' Paul Orndorff.
4. Paul Orndorff and Paul Roma won the WCW World Tag Team Championship in 1994 as the tag team Pretty Wonderful.
5. In the early 1990's, Paul Roma and Hercules were a tag team in the WWF called Power and Glory (however, they never won gold).
6. Hercules faced off with Billy Jack Haynes at Wrestlemania III in a battle of the full nelsons.
#2 -
1. Franka Potente starred in the 2002 movie "The Bourne Identity" with Matt Damon.
2. Matt Damon starred in the 2000 movie "All The Pretty Horses" with Robert Patrick.
3. Robert Patrick starred in the 2006 movie "The Marine" with John Cena.
4. One of John Cena's challengers for the WWE Championship Challenge at Vengeance 2007 was Mick Foley.
5. At Fall Brawl on September 18, 1994, Mick Foley lost a "Loser Leaves WCW" match against Kevin Sullivan.
6. In 1991, Kevin Sullivan returned to Jim Crockett Promotions and managed Black Blood, aka Billy Jack Haynes.
Double C
It was good, no doubt, but my co-judge this week felt it was a bit too "by the numbers" and wrestling heavy. What can I say? Still a damn good entry, but you're not going to catch up to Mark Satrang's record without a bit more pizzazz Dub-C.
#1.
Louis Jones made me break my own unwritten rule and declare him a winner for 2 consecutive weeks. To be fair I got a second opinion and the fact that Stone Cold and Billy Jack shared a ‘dame' is just mind-boggling. Even if BJ only did it to keep her in the country you had to figure he'd at least get a pity f*ck, right?
Here is my submission for this weeks 6DO...
1) Franke Potente was in "The Bourne Supremacy" with Matt Damon
2) Matt Damon was in "Dogma (and others)" with Ben Affleck
3) Ben Affleck was in "Armageddon" with William Fichtner
4) Will Fichtner was in "The Longest Yard" with Steve Austin
5) Steve Austin married to Jeannie Clark
6) Jeannie Clark was also married to Billy Jack Haynes
To note, I also go 5 steps, using Franke to Karl Urban (Bourne Sup) to Rock (Doom) to Steve Austin (Wrestlemania XIX)
Yeah, still trippin' on this one, but I guess you won again Louis, holding of Dub-C is no easy task but this week you're the king of the mountain, so to speak, gear up for another week with the crown. And seriously LJ no more middle aged British men, it's just...creepy.
Left Overs…
TNA filed for trademarks for the terms "Black Machismo" and "Shake and Break". In response the WWE has filed trademarks for "Hamburger Helper" and "Taupe Manly"….Taupe Manly.
Ken Kennedy recently blogged up a scathing opinion piece on the retired wrestling ‘stars' coming out of the woodwork to bad mouth the business. He called some of the wrestlers like Marc Mero ‘has-beens or never-weres'. Kennedy has a good point, I mean, he's held the US Title on a number of occasions, that number being 1. Currently Mr. Kennedy is only 1 briefcase up from Orlando Jordan's career…he may want to wait another title reign or two before he starts talkin' shit. At least Johnny B Badd was fuckin' Sable for a while…that at least puts him on par with Brock Lesner.
Mike Knox could be brought back to Smackdown or ECW soon under a new gimmick. Apparently the "Douche bag who gets to kayfabe bone Kelly Kelly" gimmick is already being pegged for The Miz. Maybe he can use someone else's… no one is using the "World's Largest Lover" gimmick anymore right? Someone get Knox to the ‘Hometown Buffet'…STAT!!
Sabu was part of a winning tag team in his AAA debut at Triplemania last weekend. It was good to see he's still getting work and retains the right to his name. Too bad he lost his gimmick recently as the "Suicidal, Homicidal, Genocidal maniac" to Chris Benoit. *too soon?*
TNA is considering running a few shows in Australia. This could only mean one of 3 things…a) Nathan Jones in the return of ULTIMATE X, b) Matthew Sforcina will somehow show up as a security guard in a segment where he takes a Black Hole Slam from Abyss in a pull apart brawl, c) They're finally setting "Stomper" free.
The WWE is now contesting TNA's trademark of VKM. In retaliation TNA is contesting Lita's trademark of UTI. *if I had a female readership they would be disgusted right now*
CM Punk got to beat Elijah Burke for the 29th time this week as Marcus CorVon apparently no-showed the ECW taping after he was schedule to job to Punk. Rumors have it that they may move Super Crazy to ECW to take over those duties. He'll be renamed the "Day Laborer" because he'll do any ‘job' no one else wants for only $50 a day, a tuna sammich and a Crystal Lite.
So Johnny Nitro is now John Morrison? Is he a Rock Star now? I'm still picturing ‘Man Mountain Rock' for some reason, I just hope they have a boss ECW logo shaped guitar lined up.
Toxicology for Chris Benoit found the following in his body at the time of his death: Xanax, Hydrocordone, elevated levels of testosterone, and traces elements of Smackdown's booking. The last chemical being blamed as the catalyst for Benoit snapping. *still too soon?*
Random Asian Bitch Lookin' Good Pic of the Week
She'd be between a rock and a hard place...if she'd just move two steps closer to me.
Ric Flair is out with an ear injury for several weeks. Apparently his ear suffered a 3rd degree burn due to all the talk about him FINALLY retiring now that he's turning 93 years old.
In other news the Luchagors featuring Lita, played at Triplemania down in Mexico recently. They had to cut their set short when Lita suffered a similar burning feeling down in her ‘nether regions'. No, no one was talkin' about her Va-Jay-Jay, it was because…well…she's a whore.
Before I leave this segment…is there anyone else who wasn't surprised that Lita would show up at an event called "Triplemania"?? Or was more surprised it didn't involve her being taped on DVD with 3 guys in lucha masks and nothing else? Wait…I didn't get a report on the ‘after party'…nevermind.
WWE and Gold's Gym are running a contest for Summerslam. The Grand Prize is a trip for 2 to Summerslam. Which is brilliant, because the chances of the WWE actually having to pony up for that prize is like 1 in a Bajillion. They might as well hide 200 all expense tickets to Wrestlemania in a box of condoms.
Pimpin' In High Places
Was anyone else hoping Larry King or Nancy Grace would book the Boogeyman for a show about Benoit one of these times? I could just imagine Boogeyman trying to force his worm down Nancy's mouth. Then…the interview begins.:
Ask 411 has it's pick for the worst match of all time between two full-time wrestlers. Clearly Cook never saw a Tuxedo match in PWG. I'd send him a copy of it, but I think I recorded some Swedish "goat play" over it just to wash the 'ick' out of my eyes. Still didn't work.
Zac Attac celebrates X-mas in July…and waxes poetic about ‘clam diving'. Which really is all about reciprocity, I mean…you wouldn't want to be shellfish would you?
LaRRRRy has his 4 R's this week on Victory Road. A caution flag is up however as there is still shrapnel left by Russo's booking left on the track.
Shorty highlights the Budokan Show. Also some RoH/DG news as well. I guess it's good to have some regional coverage with our Puro guys, not that Portland isn't a bastion of Japanese wrestling, but it's not even a bastion of women who shave their pits.
Evo Scheme dissects Steve Corino's career. In reality, Corino's biggest accomplishment wasn't winning the ECW title, it was being born out of the same vagina as his hotty little sis Allison Danger. Yeah, someone update OWW with THAT little nugget of truth.
J-Link loves Samoa Joe. In a fully hetero way of course. Or so I'd imagine…then again if JT go to him…who knows?
CoH celebrates his 2nd anniversary. With himself. Oh and provocative pics of Megan Fox. Man, that guy will do anything for a cheap hit count ‘pop'. The least he could have done was post a "Random Hot Jewish Bitch"…which would have been the definition of random…just to find one. Okay, let the hate begin.
Mikey "The Body" Minotti talks about the next 6 months worth of TNA championships. Which, is really just Angle and Joe. Hmmm…well at least he'll have plenty to write about next week when he's eatin' crow about his Great K**** prediction. And unlike Lance Armstrong, I don't mean "Sheryl".
Alex Mattis has the "Best of the Rest"…which sounds like how I got my prom date...but Alex talks a bit about the upcoming 4th Anniversary show for PWG next weekend. Which…I was going to do next week. Thanks for scoping me Alex…in return I'm totally stealing Garmer for my 3 person column…the "3-Way Dance".
El hijo de Adam compares the TNA/All Japan relationship in his column. Had I only read his column earlier, perhaps the debacle that was this week's column could have been avoided.
Sammy hosts the RoH roundtable for Japan this week. In honor of it he had Asahi and teriyaki wings this time. Or so I was told as I showed up late and Stu was already licking the bowl.
D-Dubya has "Bash Envy" as there is no such thing in Britain. Well of they want they can still have "Bash at the Beach". I'm fairly sure they can still book 90% of the WCW that was at the last one.
How's the job search going so far? Great, thanks for asking. So far I have 2 down, 1 which happened two weeks ago so that's a bust, another resulting in a 2nd round, I have one or possibly two set up for tomorrow and who knows what else. I guess it pays to spend 6 years in college…unless it's all at a Junior College and you're STILL a semester away. Yeah, you know who I'm lookin' at right now.
Next week we'll take a look at the PWG 4th Anniversary show with my own special brand of insight, humor, and pornographic jokes about random Indy wrestlers you probably never heard of. Also I'll be debating whether or not to make the day trip down to San Diego for Comic Con. Anyone else going? I'm not a big Comic Nut myself but its always fun to see people dressed up and more nerdy than your average Indy fan. Wait…something tells me there is a huge intersection there. Well maybe I'll somehow cross the barrier and dress like "The Hurricane" or… "Mighty Molly". I don't know that I got the junk in the trunk for that though.
