Professional wrestling thread

"Pal, I've spent more money on spilled drinks than you'll make in a year!"

 

Notice that the American flag was not at half mast like the company flag? For a fake death, I think it's illegal to do so.

 

I had noticed that. I also thought it was illegal (or at least highly not recommended) for flags to fly at different masts/staffs, like if the state flag was at half-staff, the U.S. flag did as well. Obviously something like the WWE flag isn't quite the same.

 

Meltzer reported on his update today that Jesse Ventura was in Stamford, CT to meet with, gasp! Vince McMahon gasp!

 

Is he bringing the kid from the Sixth Sense with him?

 

Speaking of Meltzer, he might want to rename his site UFCobserver.com

I am not an MMA fan and prefer not to sift through musings, news bites and the latest 2,000-word treatise on how Liddell looked in his underwear at the latest weigh in.

 

I actually interviewed Meltzer for a Royce Gracie story I did a year ago or so when he did a clinic in my area. Nice guy who knows his stuff, but you're right, he's gone way overboard on the MMA coverage. Maybe he figures if he can jump on it early before the MSM can figure out what to do with it, he'll be like the sport's Bert Sugar. But I'd rather read about the McMahon angle or TNA negotiating with a name, or one of his painstakingly-detailed wrestler obits, than another 100 inches on IFC or, God help us, Bodog Fight.

 

You know, I'm with you. I go way back to the Observer. Started getting it in 87. When UFC started in the early 90s, he wrote about it because Dave has a boner for Japanese wrestling and there was some crossover from wrestling to shoot-style like Akira Maeda's UWF. That's how it all started. When UFC tanked because the commissions basically shut it down, Dave gave up covering it. But in Japan, Pride started. And Japanese promoters started getting involved with the hybrid-ization of wrestling/MMA, a trend that has in essence killed puroresu in Japan. From that, Dave's interest only grew for MMA/UFC and he's been riding the train ever since. He's also pals with guys like Frank Shamrock. I met Meltzer once, and it's funny you mention Liddell in underwear. Dave looks like a frustrated wrestler, like he's all buffed out. It's pretty funny. Or, at least he did when I met him some time ago. But give him credit, Meltzer is THE authority on this stuff and he really changed how the business is now run, for better or worse. He could write a helluva autobiography.

 

The obits are great. I especially liked the obit for Crusher, JYD and the Sam Steamboat one was fun, with all the Hawaiian history.

 

That makes sense, and it's kind of what I figure. He now sees UFC as pushing on the mainstream level and would like ton get in on the ground floor.

I don't blame him. I just wish he'd make a separate site for the UFC and separate it from the wrestling. Because I really don't think the fan bases share that many common people.

The UFC is a combat sport. It can market itself as being real where wrestling is fake.

Speaking only for myself, the fact that wrestling is fake never has bothered me. It's theater, and I appreciate that aspect of it--in good angles, not the Katie Vick type schlock we get so much of nowadays. Factor in some of the athletic efforts and feats of derring-do with that theater and, on its highest level, wrestling can be art.

Just one man's opinion.

 

According to PWInsider.com:

PWInsider.com is sorry to report the passing of WWE Hall of Famer Sherri Martel, real name Sherri Russel today. A former WWF and AWA Women's champion, Martel, 49, is probably best remembered for her role of one of the best female heel managers of all time during her 1990s WWF run, working alongside Shawn Michaels, Ted DiBiase, and Randy Savage, among others.

Moving to World Championship Wrestling in 1994, Martel worked on top with Ric Flair during his feud with Hulk Hogan before moving on to manage The Harlem Heat tag team.

Martel was inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame in Chicago during Wrestlemania 21.

 

Another sad day for the business. I'm a big Sherri Martel fan and I really enjoyed her speech last year at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Sure, it was a little rambling and scatterbrained, but that was her. She looked great for someone her age in the wrestling business and you could tell that a lot of major names in the business really loved her (Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, etc., etc.).
As a wrestling fan, I hate these days.