The other difference was that relaunching the ECW brand and having it be nothing like the original ECW was an absolutely horrendous idea to begin with.

Exactly. ECW, as popular as it was, was still an indy fed. It would be like adding deluxe lighting and pyrotechnics to a metal show being held at a hole in the wall bar. The ECW reboot was doomed with presentation alone, not to mention giving it that corporate treatment with hamfisted storylines and characters. The original ECW worked because they were forced to make the most out of what they had.

Dreamer and Raven built one of the most heated, bloody, and brutal feuds to ever grace the ring on a simple story of jealousy and pure hatred. The Sandman was an absolutely terrible wrestler. Terrible! He became a fan favorite through style and attitude. I knew he sucked ability-wise, but instantly became a favorite of mine when, during a bloody barbed-wire match with Cactus Jack, he gained the upper hand in the match, and instead of capitalizing on his momentum, he lit a cigarette and proceeded to take a smoke break mid match, only to get DDT'd on his lit cigarette. It was little things like that that made ECW for me. Seeing Shane Douglas writhe in pain in a figure four, and throw up middle fingers and "fuck you's" to his opponent instead of just wincing on the mat. Chris Chetti deciding to have a dance-off mid match. Watching Van Dam and Sabu break the ropes and continue to tear the house down, broken ring and all.

These are the moments that you just can't improve upon with any amount of money or corporate creative influence.

ECW was a throwback to the territories in the way it was presented. Kayfabe, while no one thought it was "real", was still king. When VKM tried to reboot it, it just sucked. I've always wondered if it was on purpose. A roundabout way of making the video library more valuable. You had people saying the new ECW wasn't as good as the original, making people curious about the original. VKM works in strange and mysterious ways.

Kelly Kelly was no Kimona.

Burry-

Who do ya' think that fat dude from A&8's that Angle unmasked was? My money's on D-Lo Brown, but it could be a huge swerve and end up being Abyss/Park. Kinda' make it a "three faces of Foley" type thing. Loved seeing Eric Young back. Also, I fucking lauged so goddamn hard at "wildman" AJ Styles with the beard and the messed up hair. Unintentional comedy gold at it's very best.

At this point I would be kind of surprised if it was anyone besides Park, unless they have secretly negotiated with Kevin Nash, the Undertaker, Raven or some other true top notch bombshell they can drop at their PPV. The only other guy on the roster that would make an dramatic impact worthy of all the trouble they have gone through would be A.J. Styles and the body mold of the masked guy is all wrong for him.

Well, for me, it's really between TNA sticking to their storylines and actually following through on something (something they've been extremely poor at doing pretty much throughout their entire company history), or doing a Russo swerve. D-Lo makes more sense. On Wes Briscoe's gutcheck, or as that carny, fuck-up Pritchard would say, "GAAAAAATCCCHEKK!!", Al snow blacked-out and woke up in the hospital without his phone, so D-Low filled in as a judge, being the deciding vote on getting Briscoe into TNA. This was during a short backstage segment, and hasn't been followed up on at all. Now, the thing missing here is motive, but they can always make up some bullshit about management or payscale as a motive. My money would be a typical, precictable Hogan "worked shoot" on how Terry's used his politics BTS and D-low is fed up.

Park would be a good guess, being the swervetastic crap they're known for, but doesn't make much sense story-wise. Park's character is hot property now. The crowd at the UK shows popped for him like he was 1985 Hogan. I think it's a great character and would hate to see them fuck up a good thing by turning him.

Only time will tell. I'm sure they'll find a way to fuck it up, somehow.

I'd like D'lo as the culprit. Or even Snow as a swerve. Loved seeing EY back. Hopefully less comedic, but the stuff he did with that gal (name's escaping me...the crotch grabber) was brilliant.

Love Parks, but they're doing zero with him, other than letting him exist.

How many times has AJ not been the "AJ I knew"? That fucking Batman motorcycle was classic. Nice pad he has. I know he's a big Christian, so the whole knocked up hooker, he may be cheating and/ or doing drugs, seems weird.

theres a wrestler named d lo?the other week on black ops 2 some dickheads tag was mrdownlow or somesuch gayness.of course his level was prestige master and after my team beat him he left the lobby.youd think being on the dl hed be used to getting bent over.

D'lo brown. No idea of the origins. He started as a minion of the Nation of Domination, run first by the great Ron Simmons who was usurped by a just building youngster called Rocky Johnson. D'lo also crippled that Darrin Puke kid. Have no idea the origin of his name.

Holy fuck, how high was I yesterday? There's entire words missing from that post.

Fixed

It happens.

Old school Raw what the biggest heap of crap this side of the city sewer system. Look it's Dusty Rhodes! Oop, he got a 2X4 to the head. I turned that shit off abrubtly.

The crowd is just dead for Swagger. He aint even getting Xpac heat. I guess the idea is for him to suck enough that people don't cheer for him and Dutch's words will have the Mexicans root for Del Rio. Rey Rey as brittle as he is, WWE is desperate for someone to hold on to the Mexican fans.

I caught the last hour. Yuck. Say what you will, CM Punk is completely in the zone, turning in some fantastic work. I'm down with him no selling Taker's gimmick til WM.

You think Punk will go over Taker? I'm gonna say Taker wins, but I totally wouldn't be surprised if Brock interfered, costing him the match and setting up a feud for SummerSlam.

Honestly don't know. I'm hearing Taker has some physical problems. I would be OK with him retiring undefeated at WM.

Sad deal about Paul Bearer. I was a bigger fan of Percival Pringle III. Guy was a great performer.

I just read it. Poor bastard. RIP.

I saw him like a month or so ago on Twitter. He was getting back on there to drum up some interest and bookings. He said he'd block anyone sending BS, so I don't think I tweeted him.

^At first I thought that his name was Paul Bert

Crazy. I just stumbled across and interview with him and Cornette (never really got into PB but love JC). So I went checked out his site, read his bio etc. This was all like two days ago...

I think I saw that one. He was talking about how everyone got giddy when they heard he was an actual mortician.

Similar story when they brought in Aldo Montoya/Justin Credible. He spoke Portuguese. They got giddy, he had no clue. Later when they hired him they told him WWE was in the process of getting a TV deal in Brazil. Deal eventually fell through, so his push died, but he had a contract.

I don't know how they expected him to get over after putting a yellow jockstrap on his fucking head.

D-Low for the win, papa Fartz had it right all along, now we just need to wait and see if the "president" is Bischoff or Jarrett.

I always assumed the braintrust was doing a lot of blow in the cartoon ers.

I'd guess Jarrett. Bisch has a lot going on. Speaking of, Stubbs on Devil's Ride is the Mikey Whipwreck of the outfit.

Over on LordsOfPain, they were talking about the possibility of Maria Menounous working at Wrestlemania this year. Someone commented about last year's performance, where it looked like she shit her pants, and I jumped in & did my thing.

I thought she'd been with ROH for the last couple of years.

Serious? That is Maria Kanellis.

Maria Menounous is the whore from Entertainment Tonight or Access Hollywood or some shit. She was at Mania last year, working a tag match with a couple other whores.

I aint lettin a ring rat like Kanellis shit on my chest. Koko B Ware's HOF ring may plop out.

Maria Menounous is such a media whore. Anything to get her face on the tube. Including that Dancing with the Stars chazzerei.

id like to see her get the tube on her face.

From that very DwtS class, I'd prefer Katherine Jenkins.

Welsh >> Greek

Again, personal preference.

youd still like to see her get tubesteaked.

Of course. But, there are plenty I'd prefer to see more.

So, to this point, Wrestlemania looks like this:

The Rock v John Cena - WWE Championship
Alberto Del Rio v Jack Swagger - World Heavyweight Championship
CM Punk v The Undertaker
HHH v Brock
Team Hell No v Dolph Ziggler/Big E Langston
Sheamus/Orton/Big Show v The Shield
Ryback v Mark Henry

There are a couple of slots left. I've seen all sorts of wacky ideas from the dirt sheets on what matches will fill out the card. While I think it's a mistake if they don't include Antonio Cesaro, a part of me is scared that they'll just job him out like they've been doing for the past two months. Wade Barrett v The Miz probably gets on the card in some fashion. Saw Jericho v Fandango floated around, which would probably be a good match (even though I'm already sick of Johnny Curtis). There will have to be some token way to get the women involved, probably a throw-away mixed tag (though I do hope Rhodes Scholars get a spot in this match, they deserve a WM payday, they've been workhorses this year).

The only interesting swerve I see on the card is the possibility of Orton or Big Show turning on their teammates and joining the Shield. Orton has been rumored to turn heel for months now, and it would be a great way to turn him. Since the Shield are already fairly established, I don't think it would become Legacy 2.0. I only entertain the notion of Big Show because they may want him to stay heel. As much as it might not seem to make sense for them to join the Shield as the Shield have been beating the shit out of them, you can just explain it away by saying the only way to make it a total surprise would be to actually attack everyone. I'm not sure I love the idea, but this card seems really straightforward for now, and there's usually some swerve at WM.

On a side note, if anyone is going to WM or is near the area, Chikara has a show Saturday night in Secaucus.

http://www.chikarapro.com/apr-6-2013.php

Eddie Kingston and Hallowicked had a legendary feud in Chikara a few years back, so they should have a good match. Amasis v Ophidian is kind of a big deal - the seeds for that started at their first iPPV over a year ago. And of course, most importantly, Ultramantis Black will be back. I am a huge Ultramantis Black fan, he's fun to watch and has a ton of charisma and talent. If you're near there, I strongly urge you to go, because it's awesome (I'm taking a trip to North Carolina in the beginning of May to see Chikara, well worth it).

There are a shit ton of shows around Mania. Extreme Rising is doing 3 shows that weekend. Their show in Staten Island is free beer to those that pre order tickets.

Then there is that WrestleCon which I believe is doing 24hrs of shows. Chikara and other indies are getting like 3 hour blocks, then rotate out the crowd and bring in more paying customers.

I read on wrestlezone that Orton's a lock for heel turn at WM. I hope it's a swerve and Sheamus will actually turn. I much prefer him as a heel.

Rick Martel, full 3hr RF Video Shoot.

Barry, he starts talkin Portland about 21minutes in.




EDIT: Very good run down of the Dino Bravo execution and the situation surrounding it starting somewhere around 1:15 in.

EDIT: About 1:50 the slow build to the heel turn on Zenk begins.

That's right. He did have a Portland stint. Great find!

Rob Van Dam on Jericho: He was a political bitch

Nash is a pig. How many times has he begged off over injuries, real or made up?

I sat through the Terry Gordy shoot. I write this now, with a heavy heart: No one else should.

"Yeah, he's real nice. He's a real nice guy."

"Yep"

"I don't remember"

Any question you would ask Terry Gordy, if you just bought him a beer, plug one of them in as the reply.

I feel bad, cause dude got damage, but there was noting of interest.

Saw a blurb somewhere today, maybe Deadspin, that some wrestler tore his anus when his opponent dodged his finishing move at the last second and he hit the turnbuckle.

Didn't care enough to remember who he was.

X-Pac attempting the Bronco Buster in Jerry Lynn's retirement match.I don't get how he tore his ass. I'd think maybe slamming his taint on the turnbuckle cause a rupture. Possibly George Steele was on the card and ate that turnbuckle pad during an earlier match.

I'll use my joke frome Whores and Headlocks: First time a wrestler has had a torn anus and Pat Patterson wasn't to blame.

Extreme Rising sent an email announcing that their 3 Wrestlemania weekend events would be canceled and refunds given.

I don't watch the Food Network, but Gail Kim Married some chef on there (Robert Irvine) and they honeymooned in Greece.






Here she is naked, not from the honeymoon.

http://onlycool.forumcommunity.net/?t=52774268

Happened a while back. I'm oddly curious how these two sweet kids managed to come together. I've seen wedding pics. Lots of TNA people there. I'll try to find them again, because they're really funny. Lot's of thick necked men in tuxes.

New Jack has retired. Here is his retirement speech after a match against Necro Butcher for NJ's Pro Wrestling Syndicate promotion.

Hawk pumped up on coke or roids or both, Sting and Dusty waaay out of character and Arn Anderson's cornhole.....

A shirtless Dick Murdoch just can't end well.

Stone Cold Steve Austin has a Podcast you can find on itunes. Worth the listen.

I listened/watched the Ole Anderson RF Video shoot today.His memory aint as damaged as Bam Bam Gordy, but he don't remember a lot. I think it is because she is such a cut and dry miserable human that he don't waste time thinking about the past.

He had the interviewer on edge. Dude was scared and actually asked Ole if Ole was quizzing him or legit didn't remember stuff, like bosses names, angles. Ole said he didn't remember the Tommy Rich/Buzz Sawyer angle, and went on about how he introduced Tommy with an angle vs. Abby.

Ole also said he fired Piper and Buzz Sawyer for doing coke. Said he didn't know all the guys were doing it, because he didn't hang out w/ any of them. If they missed towns or he saw em doing it, he'd fire them.

I wound up watching it in the train wreck porn mind frame, looking more for Ole's reactions and the interaction w/ the interviewer more than for the content.

You'd think that one of the most important bookers of the 70's and 80's would have a lot of interesting shit about some of the hugest angles, but no. I kinda feel that Ole was faking the memory loss and just didn't want to give credit to anyone else for the big angles. Either that or Ole was so blind in his pursuit for $$ that he didn't give a fuck about anything else. $250k/year for booking, plus wrestling plus having points in the company, is a lot for the late 70's/early 80's.

Funny story about Johnny B Badd. Ole saw him, knew he was making like $50 a shot in NY. Ole offered him $600/week, no guarantee. Next thing you know, Herd or Shaw comes in says "I'm going to make you an offer, take it or leave it. $280k/year we'll pay for your hotel, we'll pay for your airfare. Yes or no?"

Also, the story of why he picked Hawk to be a Road Warrior is funny. Ole was looking over some guys. They were all sucking his ass. When he got to Hawk, he looked at Ole and said, "You don't look so tough." That was it. Didn't even care if he could work. Animal was his friend, Ole wanted a tag team, the rest is history.

It's all a work with Ole. Those old kayfabe guys can't turn it off as well as the youngsters do.

Bill Watts' shoot was great. He's a big Christian now, as he says over and over. Throws fuckbombs all around. Piece of shit.