Truth B Told 9.11.08: Strike Up The Ban

Posted by Bayani Domingo on 09.11.2008

You’ll never work in this town again…until we need you…or you lower your booking fee…or you get popular again, but otherwise…NEVER!!

My appearance on last week's Buy Or Sell apparently created a little controversy and some confusion on the last question as it pertained to PWG issuing a change to their All-Star Weekend 7 line-up after Jack Evans reportedly pulled out of the show without warning after being unreachable for several days. Now let's get one thing straight first, there is an old saying that "If it happens in the ring, then it's a work". In this case if it happens in a press release, then it's probably a work. No promoter this side of Zandig would openly air their dirty laundry in a "shoot" in a public forum considering that wrestling is the kind of business where you can "never say never". Just like gay porn. Only in gay porn it's much harder to re-package yourself by donning a mask. Not impossible…just difficult. Be that as it may, there seems to be a lot of confusion, opinions, and misconceptions when it comes to the word "Banned" when it comes to wrestling, no one is really sure when it's a "work" or a "shoot"…just like gay porn. Sorry, last reference to gay porn…this paragraph.

I recently got a most interesting e-mail from one "Scrap Iron" Adam Pearce, or at least someone claiming to be him, but we'll just assume by the e-mail addy that it was in fact "Scrap Daddy". Well Mr. Pearce assertively and respectfully (I might add) asked that I either explain where I came up with the information that he had gotten somehow "Banned" from PWG or retract my statement because to his knowledge he had never been officially "Banned" from that promotion. He, like many other wrestlers, rely on their reputations and work to get booked and make a living, just like…naww…I already used that joke enough last paragraph, so it is important to not get a bad reputation or be perceived inaccurately since sometimes the ol' rumor mills stirs up stuff that just isn't right. Kind of like the rumor that Frankie Kazarian is taking time off of TNA in order to pursue his dream of becoming a gun toting mariachi guitar player in Mexico, which I am starting…right…NOW. I actually responded in a most apologetic and polite manner, considering that Pearce has about a half a foot and 65 lbs on me, and explained that when I used the term "ban" it was actually in reference to him losing that "Loser Leaves Town" match against Frankie Kazarian where he not only lost and left town…but stayed gone. I thought my whole quote-unquote around the word "Ban" made it clear I was talking in terms of Kayfabe, but I guess not. Which is my fault. Plus I mentioned Kanyon in the same sentence…how many sentences ever include Kanyon in them without including some kind of a non-serious joke? All of them, that's how many. Still, it goes to show that the term itself is still a bit of a taboo in the wrestling world.

Just to clarify my use of Pearce, Teddy Hart, and Kanyon in last week's BoS, I don't have full knowledge or any inside information pertaining to either of those men being officially "banned", my reference was to Pearce leaving PWG and not returning in terms of the storyline, even though he still wrestles frequently in other SoCal feds. Sure I've heard rumors about the break-up and why Pearce hasn't been back, some center around a dispute over the $25,000 deposit on the PWG title belt, another story had the PWG 6 suspending Pearce indefinitely for using the illegal 900 degree splash after previously injuring another wrestler, I even heard tale of Pearce getting into a fight with Arn Anderson involving a pair of scissors and about 20 stab wounds to…oh wait. Sorry, maybe that wasn't Pearce, either way I'm not exactly sure what happened, but I've said it before that I wouldn't mind seeing Pearce back in PWG as I've seen him several times over the years. I'd rather not remember the MW1 show, but at least it treated me to one of the greatest racist comedy heel promos I've ever heard. Remember kids, it's not "racist" if it's funny. Go tell your HR heads that.

As far as Teddy Hart goes there seems to be a number of reasons that he hasn't been back in PWG, although once again I have no knowledge of him being officially "banned" from the company, but he seems to have a lot of "heat" with many of the wrestlers that were in the locker room at the time and considering that the only show he was booked for he pulled out of last second because he was reportedly "too injured" and then he was replaced by Lit and Deranged and had along with Aaron Aguilera what has been described as one of the worst matches in PWG's young history, there might be something to him not coming back. I've also said that I'm one of the few real "Teddy Hart Marks" still out there. I would still pay good money to see the guy perform. I've seen the guy wrestle, met him and I've been both entertained by his work and impressed with how sincere and nice he was to all of the fans, at least in my own experience. He's pretty much like nothing you've seen before because the guy wears pink and silver oven mitts as ring gear, smells like a stripper, and wears sparkly lotion. Seriously, the guy has to be THE best smelling pro wrestler I've ever met in person. He smells like that strawberries and cream lotion from Bath and Body Works, if anyone ever tells you that Teddy Hart isn't one sweet smelling man, you turn around and punch him in the left cornea for me. Yeah, it'll take some practice and precision, but that will be worth it to punch him in that cornea, call him a liar, and then politely send him a link to this column to verify.

To clarify the Kanyon reference, I don't believe he was "banned" he just was never re-booked. Not sure whose call it was, but it was a good one because as much as I liked Kanyon in WCW he had such an ungodly match against Joey Ryan that it made Baby Jesus and Baby Buddha cry. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the US forces in Iraq had to give up "waterboarding" as a means of interrogation, not because of growing pressure from OMCT, but because they found making suspects watch that match on a loop was far more effective. (Just in case someone sends a copy of this to Joey Ryan..um…J/K…I don't need anymore angry e-mails this week…next thing you know Andy Milonakis is going to be writing me again…) But the point is, I'm starting to think that a "ban" is just a term used to "work" an audience now and if there really was a legit "ban" where a wrestler was never able to work in a company again, well more than likely the average fan wouldn't even be aware of it. Then again how many true legitimate "bans" has there ever been? It seems like in all honesty you'd have to kill someone just to truly get "banned", even then that might not be enough.

In the modern day it seems like "bans" on wrestlers are few and far between. One of the most notorious of course is Teddy Hart himself who has found himself in and out of just about every wrestling company the world has ever known. He's gotten within a stones throw of the "e", wrestled in TNA, been in RoH, PWG, JAPW, CZW, WSX, AAA, and probably another dozen or so feds I haven't even heard of. The problem is that Teddy seems to get himself in trouble, his latest problem cost him a shot at the "e" when he reportedly asked for his release after deciding the "WWE Style" wasn't for him. He's also had other problems including no-showing some events, the infamous moonsault off the cage after a match in RoH after he was supposed to be spent and exhausted, the cases of him reportedly telling promoters he was too "hurt" to wrestler, the incident where his girlfriend died of a skull fracture in Allenstown, Pennsylvania, his "heat" with Homicide over what some alleged "betrayal" that prompted Homicide to call him a "pedophile", his unauthorized secret taping of other wrestler's conversations in the locker room, stealing Kevin Sullivan's wife, and finally the rumors that he "de-virginized" a 14 year old Stephanie McMahon while working for her father. Okay so maybe some of those last rumors weren't true, but it's fun to make them up. There's gotta be some kind of drinking game that involves making up reasons that Teddy Hart was "banned" from one wrestling fed or another. "I heard Teddy Hart once shit in Traci Brooks' bag after giving doing an SSP onto Sharkboy out of no where after an X-Cup match". "Oh yeah, I heard Teddy Hart once killed his entire family at his home in Georgia right before he was supposed to …um…he was going to wrestle at the…um…SHIT" *Slams down a shot of Wild Turkey* Try it with your friends at home, it's like "I Never", only with a pink fluffy vest and Stripper lotion.

One of the other most infamous "bannings" or "black ballings" (yes, yes, another gay porn reference is in order, but let's just skip that) is from a few years back involving Danny Maff. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the situation, yes both of you, Dan Maff was a fairly big part of both RoH and Jersey All Pro Wrestling during the early 2000's and was basically "banned" from RoH permanently, and JAPW for a short while, because of an incident involving Homicide. Basically some ‘shit went down' as ethnic youths like to say, and Homicide told promoters that he would not work in any company that Maff worked in, hence it was a kind of "him or me" situation and since Homicide was arguably the more popular wrestler and whatever Maff did was looked at so poorly by those who heard directly of the situation he was "black balled" from many of the bigger and even smaller East Coast feds. Maff basically "retired" from wrestling, at least for a while until he made his return to JAPW recently. Or so I've heard. RoH of course was just beginning to rise up on the national scene and they took the strongest stance against Maff considering how important Homicide was to them at the time. In fact they also were at the head of another "Ban", this time it was in-house as Rob Feinstein was basically "blacklisted" from wrestling after the charges of pedophilia and being a child predator. What is it about pedophiles and RoH? Feinstein of course was the RF in RF Videos when RoH was just a fledgling promotion.

When you look at the bigger stage there haven't been too many "bans" in the "big leagues". Sure an obvious one would be Randy Savage having "heat" with Vince McMahon and not being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, but Savage hasn't really been "banned" anywhere. Remember that he was in TNA a short while ago and he is in no real shape to wrestle anymore so it's not as if Vince can really "ban" him now. But really, when you look at the number of wrestling companies world wide it is almost impossible to be fully "Blackballed" now because there is always a small Indy fed or foreign company that will take a wrestler no matter how checkered their pasts, how spotty their attendance, or how questionable their attitudes are. Even known druggies, steroid abusers, and ex-cons can find work. Its really no different than any other business or industry. How many people have ever said, "damn, I got fired from Mickey D's for pissing in their new premium roast coffee…then I found out that Burger King and Carl's Jr won't take me either now". While it may show up on your resume that you pissed a few people off at your last job, by pissing on a few people's breakfasts, more than likely you can still find a job. Hell, you can be a convicted drug addict and still be the Mayor of D.C. There seems to be very few offenses which you can commit and absolutely no one in wrestling is willing to book you. Especially if there is money to be made. I believe it was a certain ex-WCW exec that once said, "Controversy creates cash". Do you really think a company like PWG would never book the Briscoes or Jack Evans again if there was money to be made or a big gap to fill in the roster? Well if they wouldn't they probably wouldn't come up with a whimsical story about it. Or if they did they would include much more Jack Daniels and weed references.

If you look at a small handful of wrestlers who have had dubious reputations for various reasons, either for being deserters (Lesner, Lashley), prima donnas and pricey head cases (Goldberg, Warrior McWarriorstein), drug or alcohol abusers in a former or present life (Chyna, Hall, Waltman), or generally just pricks (Russo), there will always be someone willing to book them if there is cash to be made, whether they want to actually BE booked is another thing all together. The word "Ban" is still a very sensitive one around wrestling, but it seems to be a very ambiguous term because while it seems like in a Kayfabe sense wrestlers are "banned" all the time, it seems to be very rare when a wrestler is actually told by the bookers and owners that they can never come back and they indeed never do. Then again I guess if it did happen more often then us fans wouldn't really know either way. We can't just jump to the conclusion that because we haven't seen a wrestler in a company in a while they were "banned". We can't assume that just because we don't see a wrestler in a company that it was the company's decision to not book them. The business of "backstage politics" can be both mysterious and accessible at the same time. while there may be more often than not "decisions" not to book certain wrestlers, that really becomes more of an individual decision by each company. "Blacklisting" as we know it doesn't seem to be a problem anymore. Then again who is to say what differentiates an informal or formal "ban" from a "let's just be friends". Ah yes, "banning" the new age "platonic relationship" in the wrestling world. "Looks, it's not you, it's me…I just feel like I want to book other people".

The Truth

Face it wrestling geeks, we're gossip whores. That's why websites like this one exists. To hear about all the dirt, misbehaving, drugs problems, attitude problems that our favorite or not so favorite wrestlers have is just too tantalizing to ignore. Problem is that most times we tend to glamorize stories in order to make them more palatable. Then again for those who say that "kayfabe is dead" might want to pay closer attention to the "press releases" and message boards. Kayfabe will never be dead so long as the ‘marks' in all of us are willing to turn that Fire Ant Hill into a Man Mountain Rock. Then again, just like the rest of you, I always love to hear a good "guess who got banned from where" story. Feel free to comment below. Oh, and NO I don't want to hear about X-Pac.

Coming Up Short

Was it just me or was anyone else really entertained by RAW this past week? some good wrestling, some good angle development, and some improvements in the promo department for young Orton, Adamle, and even Charlie Haas. The one thing that I would nitpick at is the Mysterio/Bourne vs Miz/Morrison match. Not that it wasn't a good match and almost flawlessly executed, but the fact is that ECW could have used that match a hell of a lot more than RAW. Sure more people were able to enjoy it on RAW, but it seems like if you are going to give any show a little help in the quality department it should be the one show that really needs it. I know ECW is really just the televised Developmental system for the "e", but it wouldn't hurt to save a few good matches for the "C" brand now would it? At least Sydal got a taste of what it's like on the "A" show. Hopefully he is one of the few guys who won't get lost in the shuffle. At the very least he's managed to come up short of having the only non-porn sounding name of the bunch. Then again they should have stuck with Atlas DaBone. The "force" was strong with that name.

6 Degrees of…



Not sure how to feel about Russell Brand's performance as the host of the very boring VMA's on MTV. But his hair did remind me of another shocking and brash young wrestler known as the Virgin Slayer…



Shiima Xion. The first ever Filipino Super Model. I'm running a close second though…all I need is some good hair extensions and a case of Hydroxycut.

Whatchu talkin' bout readers?

My guess is what the next name of the newest debuting wrestler will be. My money is on either Harry Bahlz or Richard Maximus.

6 Degrees Results

Um…this is getting to be an omen, no?

Left Overs…

Jack Swagger? Are you shitting me? That's either a male porn star name, a really cheesy detective on a Lifetime movie, or the long lost brother of Johnny Depp's character in Pirates of the Caribbean 4.

Gail Kim is currently between jobs right now. I wouldn't mind her being between jobs either…preferably blow and foot. What? I'm kinky like that.

TNA has signed All Japan wrestler Akira Raijin to a two year deal. With any luck he'll be tag teaming with Lash Laroux as the "Raijin Caijuns".

MVP apparently has "heat" for making fun of a guy that looks at guys penises for a living. Luckily he didn't get any heat from Pat Patterson who only does it as a hobby.

Smiley is new a WWE Development trainer. How long do you think he has before he's fired for sexual harassment? At some point he's going to be teaching a class of Divas and offer to show him "The Big Wiggle". I'm putting the under/over at 1 week.

York and Matthews in the "e' by year's end?

3-disc DVD set for Kane? I'm hoping to see some bonus content on one of the DVD's. Maybe some early home movies…like his first ever sex tape made in high school when he was still using that throat box. "mmmm…Yeeeeees….do it theeeeerrreee….You…take it…alllllll….biiiiiiiiitch".

Taker's streak to be ended by a "sure thing" like Ted DiBiase Jr? so basically by a "sure thing" they are now counting on the seeds of upper mid-card or lower main event level heels who have never won World championship titles? Hopefully Santino and Beth can start birthing them a future champion before….oh wait…even post ops can't conceive can they?

The Great Booty Debate 2008

No hype this week…just cleavage. You gotta love cleavage…it's like the promise of a new nipple…I mean day.

Random Asian Bitch Lookin' Good Pic of the Week



Elle Navarro

Random Latina Bitch Lookin' Good Pic of the Week



Melissa Gonzalez

So I heard the rumor that Nathan Jones signed with TNA and then was recently hit by a Truck in Bangkok. I was thinking to myself…you know…watching another Nathan Jones match would actually feel like getting hit by a truck in the Bangkok.

Flair's daughter apparently got "tazed" by the cops. I hear tell she tried to kick an officer and that's when she got the juice. I actually pictured another scenario in my head where she was outside when the cops came and just before she climbed up to the top of the fence and was going to jump on the cop she got hit with the taser. Silly bitch…just go for the chop block next time.

SHIMMER is opening up a wrestling school now, it's being housed at the RoH training facility back East. Weird, but I figured the first time anyone could claim they were going to the SHIMMER School, it would be somewhere out here near West Hollywood.

Pimpin' In High Places

Did anyone else realize we have another "Napier" on staff? I was sure it was Gabe, but upon further review it's not. My guess is the new guy originally was called Shawn Napier, but due to "creative" not being too high on him…well…you know:

Ask 411

RRRR

My Live Dragon Gate US Show Report

HH

CoH

Threat x 3

J-Weezy

D-Dubya

Hopefully Adam Pearce has a sense of humor and can laugh at himself. Otherwise that guy is going to Ol' Skool Piledrive me into the ground. The one thing I have in my favor is that he may not know what I look like, then again even if he did there are an awful lot of Asians at PWG and SoCal wrestling shows. You know you white folk can't tell us apart. Hell, I might actually be Jackie Chan or that dude from "Heroes" for all you know. So this was a short column this week. You can blame that on my buddy Magnum AT for the hook up on Madden '09. Don't believe the ‘haters' it's still the game that will suck more time from your life than a wife and kids. Plus the game looks so realistic that you can almost hear Jessica Simpson in Dallas chanting C-O-W-B-O-I-S. That and the new TNA game also came out. So far I kind of have mixed feelings on it. The game play is weird and the movesets seem limited, but the feel and look seem right. Then again I started with the Exhibition mode and a little of the story. So far it's frustrating as hell as these random jobbers keep kicking my ass. I guess I have much practicing to do…wonder if I can still use my sick days at work. Just give me another two weeks and I'll be out of "Backyarder" and into "Indy" in no time. If I ever get my Xbox Live set up, you better watch your asses kids. Luckily for you however you can hire someone else to watch your penis.

Till then, the Truth will set you free.
-B