Does Rob Black still have that wrestling promotion he was doing a few years ago? It wasn't all that bad, kind of like old school ECW stuff but with more sexiness. I have not been into wrestling like I used to be and was wondering if he was still int the wrestling side of things.

XPW is dead. Just like Extreme,their checks bounced too. NWA-TNA just got its national TV deal. The first show is Friday June 4th on Fox Sports at 3PM. UPW,the local promotion here in LA, is going to tape its first national show in July. They make WWE's product look like crap.
www.upw.com
www.nwatna.com

Chico, I don't think it is that hard to make WWE look like crap as it stands now. I was the biggest fan ever 3 years ago and back but I have been receding away from the scene since then. I miss the MCmahon offspring especially Stephanie on the tv shows.How do you think the fox sports promotion is going to be, do you know some of the wrestlers in that promotion?

NWA is going to cool. Jeff Jarrett and his father own the promotion. D' Lo Brown,Raven,Dusty Rhodes,Konnan,Sabu,
Shane Douglas and alot of guys from ECW and WCW. Their cruiserweight division is awesome. Check it out. They focus more on wrestling, than soap opera/storylines.
www.exquisitemenu.com

Thanks Chico, I like a lot of those guys, especially Shane and Sabu so I will check it out. Now if they would only bring back Beaulah McGillicutty I would be a very happy man.

Yeah,I also miss XPW,even if their product did get relatively stale within their last year-and-a-half of existance,for it was always fun watching Rob Black heavily ham it up as the evil wrestling promoter,talking to himself and his dolls(mainly the black Santa doll N.C.),and casuing trouble whenever he hits the ring or appeared in one of the out-of-ring storyline segments.
Otherwise,you can thank Vince McMahon for killing current wrestling,for he's sadly undershadowed the better talents for the older,more overused names that are lately in his company,as well as helped kill the charisma and appeal of certain grapplers(the likes of Taz,Bill Goldberg,and Rob Van Dam quickly come to mind,for it's no wonder we'll never see Sting appear in a WWE ring).

Beaulah just gave birth to her first child,with real life husband, Tommy Dreamer.Sting is in negotiations with McMahon. If he does sign, expect him around Summer Slam.

There's talk of bringing ECW back using old ECW stars and WWE mid-carders. McMahon would own it, but Heyman would run it in his own vision. Did you ever see the Penthouse issue with Beaulah in it? I think it was the Aug.1997 issue,cant remember.

Extreme actually sold XPW and they dont have bouncing checks anymore. They pay cash and have been for quite a while now. They're still shooting too.

I was lucky enough to see ECW live with their one and only LA show (PPV) held at the notorious Olympic Auditorium. The show was good, but not great as ECW had already lost so many stars (Shane Douglas, Dudley Boys, Saturn, Sandman, etc.). However, it was a great show overall and is one of infamy as XPW staged an 'invasion' during the Justin Credible V Tommy Dreamer title card match. It was total mayhem, genuine heat and something I'll never forget.
I was also fortunate enough to see XPW's first live show held at the Country Club in Reseda, Calif. This was an above average indy house show and demonstrated real possibility. Too bad it all fell apart.

Haha! I went to that show. It was Heatwave, their only PPV in LA. The XPW guys got their ass kicked.E-C-W,E-C-W,E-C-W.

Ok, this will either make or break my friendships on here with Cleetus and Chico. First off I love that you guys made a wrestling post even if it did start off dealing with Rob Black's crap wrestling. It's impossible to be a "true" wrestling fan if you even begin to claim that anything along the lines of XPW, ECW, NWA-TNA trumps out what the WWE does. Granted in the industry of sports entertainment there are bound to be stale points or cycles of storylines that don't succeed with the fans, but far away WWE has the best product on all levels over the other competition, with exception to maybe hardcore matches.

Vince has made stars for over 25 years, while the competition has either recycled his stars or tried to make stars out of guys who would never cut it at the top level. Granted the ECW type guys who made names for themselves had the desire to be stars but just could not hack it. Tommy Dreamer, Taz, and Rob Van Dam are all great people for a company but you cannot bankroll a company to compete when the other guy guys like Steve Austin , The Rock, or Goldberg.

Much like porn where fans may get sick of Jenna Jameson or The Rock always having the spotlight, in wrestling terms there is a reason The Rock steals the show. His is not the best wrestler and never will be, Chris benoit, Jericho, or Eddie Guerroro could wrestle circles around The Rock, but Dwayne is who the people come to see and the other top shelf guys.


In the end it's about the in ring action. The storylines have a payoff and it's in the matches. The barb wire ropes, and exploding turnbuckles, and falling off the roof can only hold the attention of the people for so long, and eventually it plays out. Maybe the fans would have stuck around longer for Rob Black and Paul Heyman had they manged their business better, but I am quite positive that eventually it would have played itself out and Vince would win out in the end.

It's not always roses, the best guy doesn't always win. As a fan growing up it killed me everytime the Macho Man had to job to Hogan, cause Hogan never could wrestle and Savage was the greatest and still is in my opinion (ridicule all you want guys!lol) But Hogan is what the fans wanted. Savage, Steamboat, Flair, the Andersons would always steal the show, but they never got the top draw for long.


There just can't be anything better than the WWE for pro wrestling. You get better athletes, better showmanship, better and more thought out storylines. The extreme stuff just gets stale, and even when they try to put the sex image in it it never ppans out, I mean ECW showed Francines ass in a thong 1,000 times but WWE girls give you the ass shot too. ECW exposed a tit one time completely on accident where WWE has had girls "fall out" too and purposely exposed The Kat's tits. XPW had the buck naked match I think it was called and magically the lights went out so you couldn't see anything and that was between 2 porn stars at XPW... lot of build up, no delivery.

I know it's an argument for mainstream and like I am supporting the big dog, but this is a little different than porn. Vivid is the top company money wise like WWE, always a glam product and new stars coming and going, but the company will constantly thrive basically on name recognition from new viewers alone. Whereas the underdog companies, ECW, XPW or extreme associates or evil angel they have the odds against em, but in porn those companies have great talent and quality that fans want to see and its something they cant get from Vivid so they have success for a longer time. The wrestling underdog companies more or less come in with a flurry then fizzle out soon after.

Sorry for jumping all over the place and typing too long, it's great to talk wrestling with some guys who seem to know about it though, you can pick apart my rant at your free will guys, would love to hear your rebuttal thoughts


by the way Cleetus Beulah was one piece of ass!! and Stephanie is one too!!

Lowdown, I agree with most of what you said. In my head the WWE was a better overall federation than the upstarts but it is all about timing and my personal tastes. When I was younger I liked WWF wrestling and NWA and the one from Minnesota AWA I think it was called, and through college I rooted for the Macho Man to kick ass as well because I hated Hogan and loved Macho. I even got the dorm to take a class trip to MSG to see Macho vs Hogan, the funny part was we were supposed to pick a museum or something as a cultural event, so I said to the Resident Advisor there is no better cultural event than WWF wrestling, he agreed and we all went.
I then left the wrestling scene because I was so sick of the cartoon product that the WWF was putting out. A friend turned me on to the 2am ECW tv shows and I was hooked, I had never seen anything like it before, it was EXTREME. I was into that until almost all the wrestlers left Paul E and ECW. By then the WWF had begun to surpass them at their own game in their battle with WCW, they had become a glossier ECW and I was hooked again. I love raunch and stereotypical humor and over the top storylines so it was perfect for me. DX, Steve Austin, the rock, HHH, Shawn Michaels, and the rest it was a great age in wrestling. Plus I has my weekly fill of Stephanie and the other ladies. But about 2 or a little more years ago I fell out of watching wrestling again as I was bored with the WWE product and I still am to some extent. I think that Vince is at his best when competition forces him to be the best, with no competition now I think the product is quite stagnant. I can only hope for a new federation to watch of if he can redo his WWE with better stories and Rock, Austin and others return to wrestling full time.

Where do I begin? The WWe doesnt have the best product. Their cruiserweight divison sucks. They got great talent like, Paul London, Shannon Moore, Akio( Jimmy Yang)etc. guys that could wrestle, but they forcefeed you Mysterio, Guerrero, Noble every week. They totally fucked up not using Ultimo Dragon properly. This guy held 12 titles from around the world simultaniously. That means 12 companies believed he could carry the ball by giving him the belt.What does WWE do? He jobs here and there. In fact, WWE gave him a leave of absence to wrestle in Japan and Mexico. He should be back around Oct. Hopefully,they will use him right.NWA-TNA does use their cruiserweights( X-Divison) right. Most of the time they are the main event. If they can pulloff a great match,they will main period.

As far as better athletes,tough to call. WWE has pulled the reigns on their guys from doing anything outrages or extreme for safety purposes.NWA-TNA, doesnt.It gives the fans what they want. Thats why you see finishers and moves there before anywhere else.

Most of Vinces stars came from the independent scene or other promotions. There is little homegrown talent left. They have gotten better the past two yrs. Austin was used wrong by WCW,even WWE at first.Change his gimmick around abit..a new star. The Rock,HHH, same thing.

Storylines need a payoff,I agree with you there. But when they are stupid and weak, what was the point.I dont like all the backstage nonsense and vigenettes. Just wrestle .The old NWA show started with a great match and ended with a run-in at the last minute to end the show.Thats great TV. WWE starts off with a 15 min. interview. Boring.

I also like Savage,Steamboat, Magnum T.A, Henning, Hart-guys that could wrestle. Their only down fall was they werent 300lbs and 6'6". They were smaller guys. McMahon was old school, so he liked guys like Hogan, Ultimate Warrior( who is the worst wrestler in history), Bundy, Warlord,Big Bossman etc. He sees the light know. Benoit and Guerrero deserve to be champions. They put asses in seats. I dont know about you,but I was sick of HHH as champion.

ECW was the shit.NWA-TNA, is going to give WWE competition.Vince had said he wished WCW never went out of business.It made him work harder. Remember the NWO days. WWE's in-ring product sucked. They had to shakes things up to improve the product. Next thing you know, D-X is born. When nobody is challenging, the creative team gets lazy and stupid. I still watch WWE,but hyped about NWA. And we have UPW locally in LA. They should have something national by August.

I could debate this, but would take along time.Besides you jumped all over the place. Makes it hard to follow.lol. Maybe I should step back in the ring.

You know I am joking about the Lakers right
I am a Knick fan so I can't rank on anybody

I agree somewhat about WWE but you have to remeber this... in the indy's the guys wrestler maybe two or three times a week... 6 times a month... and their are not many big guys. Say what you want about the WWE but you have big athletic guys and alot of them are paid very well (face it as much as we are big marks for Ultimo Dragon... he can't speak English, doesn't acknowledge the fans, and you can't work stiff in America... too much wear and tear on the body)

Im not knocking big.But I want to see big guys that can wrestle like Lesner or at least move like Vader or Rikishii.
My complain is TOO MUCH storyline and not enough action. I'm only 6'1",200 lbs; not a big guy by wrestling standards, but I do have a jujitsu/MMA background, so I would incorporate alot of submission holds in my matches.

See that is where we differ because I primarily want more along the storylines because I have seen just about every move there is so I like the soap opera aspect to Wrestling anymore. The characters do it for me more than the athletics, I'm burned out on the "wrestling" side of the sport.

Being a wrestler, I grew up watching pro wrestling,not sports entertainment. Storylines have there place, but they have to have a finish. Nothing is more iritating than having a storyline go nowhere, or worst;just dropped and pretend it didn't happen. You just can't beat a good match that goes hold for hold. I'd rather watch Benoit v. Angle once, than HHH v.Undertaker a million times.BTW, have you watched NWA-TNA yet? Talk about some serious moves. Those guys are nuts.