2012 Pro Wrestling Thread

Outing alert: KY's dad ...

 

Does anyone know if Laurinaitis's voice is really the result of an injury suffered at the hands of Dr. Death Steve Williams in Japan?

Laurinaitis's Wiki page said he once dated 80s porno goddess Seka. Who knew?

 

IT'S STILL REAL TO ME, DAMMIT!!!

And the funny thing is, for a lot of people, it was real to them in the Kayfabe era and they riot. Over a show. Montreal fans nearly rioted over the Screwjob, and ECW fans nearly rioted over the Dudleys' insults. And for fun, take a look at the Cleveland fans rioting over Ox Baker attacking Ernie Ladd:

 

I'll give Lesnar this, the F-5 is one of the best finishers I've ever seen. When executed properly, it looks really cool. Otherwise, I could take or leave him.

To me, Bryan is the best thing the WWE has going and if they played it right, he could take the next step up and become one of the top guys in the business. He's got a great character and he has one of the best skill sets going. I really dig his schtick. He and Punk could be epic but I fear it's being rushed and thrown on to a worthless PPV. I hope if they are starting a feud, it's one that goes up to an epic finish (maybe an Iron Man match?) at Summerslam. That would keep me interested for sure.

 

I'm worried it's going to be like Jericho-Punk where they put all their effort into trying to make something work with Cena, and what should be a great feud turns into less than what it could be because they don't give Punk and Bryan time to develop it.

And what the hell has happened with Dolph Ziggler, the Miz and Jack Swagger? Did they get caught with nude pictures of Stephanie or something? These looked to be guys they were going to start building around and now they're jokes. I'm sure part of it has to do with the WWE wanting to push Brodus Clay and Santino to get a new kiddy-friendly wrestler up there since Rey-Rey can't stay on the right side of the Wellness Policy, but they need to find a way to push those guys without killing your talent. I hope Bryan doesn't end up in the same boat as Swagger, Ziggler and Miz, though. I could see it happening way too easily.

 

Good point and something else that annoys me a lot. I don't care much for Swagger but Ziggler and Miz have been jobbing out like crazy. I couldn't help but think watching Dolph-Kofi the other night that it was a match that could someday be near the top of a PPV card if those two were handled right but then reminding myself the WWE doesn't seem interested in doing something like that.

 

I agree. Swagger, to me, is just a poor-man's Kurt Angle with not very good mic skills. After seeing an Olympic gold medalist, and a guy who was an NCAA and UFC champion, I'm not going to get excited about a Big 12 champion. If they sent him back into a time machine 30 years, he'd be an effective doppleganger for Backlund. But not now.

Ziggler, as has been mentioned by many before, reminds everyone of Curt Hennig. Except in Perfect's time, there were so many big behemoths (Hogan, Warrior, Bossman, etc. ) that you really couldn't see him beating them. Today, though, you have Cena, Punk, et al. who he could have terrific matches with, and who you could see beating.

Miz, to me, has been the biggest mystery. Yeah, he fucked up the R-Truth move, and yeah, they got pissed off at him because the Survivor Series buyrates were low (like it's his fault nobody wanted to see Rock and Cena as a tag team).

But they've just been burying one of the better guys on the mic. It's almost as if the WWE is pissed off (again) that he managed to get big on his own and they want to keep punishing him. Thing is, the fans now know this, and it doesn't help them in the long run to bury one of their more marketable heels.

 

Kofi's career hasn't been the same since he pissed off Orton. That feud was one of the best things they had going a few years ago, and they ruined it with terrible execution.

 

As someone who has been up close and personal with one Bubba Ray Dudley, I can tell you that if fans rioted over their insults, it was for a good reason.

I can tell you that if he had spit on my brother like he spit on me, it might have been a different outcome on that night. Bubba was noted for doing some of the dirtiest things to fans to try and get them thrown out. He truly loved playing the heel because he did it so well.

Now some of the idiots that went after him were drunk beyond control but, like I said, BRD wasn't fan friendly at all when he was ringside. Physical assaults included.

 

I interviewed the Bushwackers after their WWF days and they had great stories about working crazy promotions in Puerto Rico, Quebec and throughout the Pacific where they would need to be escorted out of the building and out of town.

 

A lot of wrestlers have those stories. Tires slashed. Cars trashed. Bobby Heenan said someone once fired a gun at him, missed, and hit some other fans (no one died). Freddie Blassie had acid thrown on him.

There was the infamous Ric Flair/Jack Veneno NWA World title matches in Puerto Rico that ended with Veneno unofficially becoming champion for fear that a time-limit draw announcement would spark a riot.

It's considerably tamer today, although you still get some craziness at some of the small independent promotions.

 

Nice! I watched one of their shoots, and it was pretty solid.