Feds was always my go-to, but started using promotions in the late 2000s when I was heaviest into the independents. Probably from guys like Kingston who constantly used it in their promos. ~THIS PROMOTION~...

My child brain would accept fed or federation, I was WWF raised after all. I think I figured out my hang up. Chris Jericho forced me to self-reflect, words that should never be said or written. I viewed league people as casuals. Someone that would say something like, "You know, what's that other league? On TBS? You know the one." Whereas a real one would just know that's WCW. There's very little reason to call it anything else, even fed or promotion. You'd just call it by its name. To my child brain, a league person was a signifier of someone who didn't know shit. They didn't have the vocabulary to call it anything else! They would never call it a fed or a promotion. Only a league. Thus, a word to be avoided at all costs. And if forced to explain the differences, myself, it was "another wrestling show called ..." or "a different promotion," because I was being a little psycho about words for some reason, which I still do sometimes, but I swear I'm getting better. 

Oct 23, 2024 22:33:41 GMT Baker said:

Gut feeling is I came to promotion late.
Though all real life leagues/feds have been promotions to me since at least the mid-late 90s.

Oct 23, 2024 22:41:36 GMT @ness said:

Feds was always my go-to, but started using promotions in the late 2000s when I was heaviest into the independents. 

Final Verdict: It's possible, even likely, that I didn't come to promotion until the Apter Mags smartened me up on that being the preferred nomenclature in 95-96. Before that I was a fed(eration) guy first who would sporadically use league as well.

EDIT: Also worth noting our living room wrestling deal was a league- the OWL- O______ Wrestling League. OWL being on our cardboard & aluminum foil belt makes it official.

Why is there no countout or DQ in a triple threat? Not sure if it's a 30-day rule only used when storyline convenient, but that's something they toss on commentary at times. But why? Like the champion's advantage would still be in play wouldn't it? So what difference does it make. If they cared about MUST BE A WINNER then no match would have count outs...

Oct 24, 2024 0:02:23 GMT @ness said:

Why is there no countout or DQ in a triple threat? Not sure if it's a 30-day rule only used when storyline convenient, but that's something they toss on commentary at times. But why? Like the champion's advantage would still be in play wouldn't it? So what difference does it make. If they cared about MUST BE A WINNER then no match would have count outs...

Because all triple threat matchups, whether they know it or not, are descendants of ECW's The Night The Line Was Crossed, which obviously had extreme rules. This is the kayfabe reason I just made up right now. 

A recent Kilgore post has me once again asking that age old question- "What's in a name?" Quite a lot, actually!

Because I remember literal years of confusion over the transition from NWA to WCW. You have to remember I wasn't an avid NWA/WCW watcher from 90-92 so it was all very confusing to me. It was NWA. Then one day it was WCW. But it still had NWA wrestlers and NWA vibes. And their belt was still the NWA Championship. Until it wasn't. Wtf is going on here?!? Not gonna lie. I still thought of it as the NWA until I became a regular viewer again in early 1993. And even then, it remained confusing because they two world championships- WCW & NWA.

And I the confusion only grows when I got online in 1998. I would often wax nostalgic about the NWA in the AOL chatroom. You know, the 1980s North Carolina based promotion of Flair/Steamboat, Flair/Funk, the Four Horsemen, Midnight Express, War Games, etc. that called itself NWA and used the NWA Championship. Only to have internet nerds bitch me out for calling it NWA rather than JCP. Wtf is a JCP?!? It's NWA, ya dweebs! It wasn't until 2000-01 that I was fully smartened up to the whole JCP/NWA thingie. Yet, to this day, I still call the 1980s Carolina-based promotion NWA over JCP like 99% of the time despite those annoying late 90s pedants technically being more correct than me.

And don't even get me started on NWA buying out Watts' UWF. NWA wrestlers appearing on UWF tv and vice versa led to 8 years of confusion where I broke all wrestling down into two categories- WWF & non-WWF. All non-WWF promotions were affiliated with each another in a Not WWF bloc and would share talent, trade wrestlers, and stuff.

Moral of the Story: Shocked the transition from WWF to WWE went so smoothly.

I'm usually good about keeping company names seperate, though when referencing Watts' UWF, I still prefer to call it Mid-South, just to avoid the stench Herb Abrams put on those letters.😂

If anything, the only place I'll refer to an old name of something is a stadium or arena, just because naming rights sponsorships change so much, it's easier to remember the old name (like with the Oakland Coliseum). Plus, in terms of the Toronto Blue Jays stadium, SkyDome just rolls off the tongue better than Rogers Centre.

I kind of think about whether it's most appropriate to refer to TNA of a certain time period with its actual name at the time, as in NWA: TNA, TNA, Impact, or ... TNA again. Impact was the Matt Hardy show at one point, but TNA wasn't, etc. It can get muddy. 🙃

I recently discovered Hulk Hogan had no real feuds for nearly his first full year as champ. They just trotted him around the country wrestling the top contender in matches with no build. This had apparently been common WW(W)F practice. It wasn't until he started beefing with Piper in December 1984 that he finally had a real feud. Hogan of course won the title that January. 11 months of the WWF Champ having no real feud. We'd never see that again. Fwiw the closest Hulk came to feuds was with Iron Sheik just because Hogan had defeated him for the title and Big John Studd who had eliminated Hogan in a Battle Royal.

Along those same lines, I also recently discovered WWF ran a few house shows in late 1986 headlined by newly turned babyface Roddy Piper vs. IC Champ Randy Savage. They weren't in a feud. But still! Macho Man vs. Hot Rod! You'd think those shows would have done big business. Wrong! Those shows bombed. In only 2 years between Hogan wrestling random challengers in cold matches to putting on Hall of Famers Piper vs. Savage in cold matches, WWF fans had been trained that Feuds Matter. Legend has it Vince learned his lesson, and it would be a long, long time before he headlined house shows with cold matches again.

Also heard every single wrestling school attendee in 1987 wanted to be one of three things- Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, or a Road Warrior. That checks out.

Laughing At Dave & His Dirtsheet: 1984 Edition

I wouldn't call myself a true, blue hater of Dave & his dirtsheet. It WAS a valuable resource in the pre-internet age. You might be able to argue it still is? Idk. Don't really care anymore. But, if nothing else, it serves as an interesting time capsule...a glimpse into the cracked brains of wrestling's most hardcore fans. It is/was a valuable resource despite my quibbles. That being said, I do enjoy taking the piss out of Dave and his snobby acolytes. And will therefore pop whenever somebody like Bruce Prichard or even my old nemesis Sleazy E does the same to the Young Bucks' not-so-mysterious benefactor and his followers. So in the interest of good clean wholesome fun, let's take a look at some Observer oopsies from 1984...

Most Washed Up wrestler of 1984 saw the following receive votes...

3. Tito Santana- Just entered the prime of his career. Would remain a big player with future IC & Tag Title runs all the way through WM IV in 1988
5. Hulk Hogan-  This should have disqualified these people from ever being taken seriously again. This is like saying Babe Ruth was washed in 1926
8. Dusty Rhodes- Main evented regularly as NWA's top babyface through 1987. Multiple major championships to come including the prestigious NWA World title.
9. Antonio Inoki- Remained a full timer through 1990 and still had another 10 month+ IWGP Championship reign to come
13. Jake Roberts- lmao. Hadn't even entered his prime yet. Would remain a major player through 1992

Most Underrated (Underpushed) winner was a pre-Killer Bee Brian Blair. Extremely on brand. Proof Observer readers always had a crush on bland good wrestler guys who couldn't draw a dime if you covered ‘em in magnets. See Also: Brad Armstrong, Terry Taylor, Lance Storm, Shelton Benjamin, and it pains me to say it, but even my man Bobby Eaton (had a terrible look, couldn't cut a promo to save his life, and was actually used well in Heymanesque ways that maximized the considerable talents he did have- if anything, an overachiever from 84-92 & 95!). These folks are the wrestling equivalent of salad. They were propped up by Observer readers who failed to learn that most valuable life lesson- you don't make friends with salad. 

Had a good chuckle at an accidentally accurate Ness typo yesterday when he mentioned the 2008 bland split. It's funny cuz it's true....or so I thought.

I now choose to rescind my wisecrack at the expense of 2008 WWE. Why? Because Santino existed. Yeah, I spent a half hour before bed last night watching 07-08 Santino segments. What of it? Dude was comedy gold.
============
Also had a good laugh yesterday at the expense of 1984 Observer readers thinking some extremely not washed up wrestlers were passed it. Then I got to thinking about my own oopsies. Here are the first ones that came to mind...

-2001 Undertaker- Thought it was time for a guy who was already an all time fave to hang it up before further embarrassing himself. Went on to have killer rest of the decade.
-Late 90s and mid 2000s Goldust- The energizer bunny of pro wrestling. He kept going and going with resurgences in 2002 and multiple others beginning in 2009.
-Mid 2010s Matt Hardy- I've only watched one episode of Impact in at least the past 15 years. It was sometime in the mid 2010s. There was a Matt vs. James Storm match. Both of these 2000s Baker Guys looked washed to me. Matt soon revitalized his career so hard with the Broken gimmick that he earned himself another WWE run. 

Few have milked the Vince McMahon cash cow like Santino. Dude understood that he was ultimately working before an audience of one, and just kept popping the boss. I don't have photographic memory of how/when it transpired, but somehow Santino really did get over at one point (it was sometime around his IC championship reigns).

One of the funniest Santino moments to me was when he greeted Kane, with the most cheerful obliviousness possible, by pronouncing his name as "Con-Eh", like there was an accent mark over the "e". I think he got his ass kicked after that. His mispronunciation of "Cena" was also good enough to break Cena in an interview segment (John "Acheena").

What in the world was the story behind supposedly Akio/Jimmy Wang Yang being Vince's favorite wrestler? That HAS to be an IWC troll, right? I can buy Vince liking the dumbest shit and it saving a career. Didn't Truth do some Pretty Ricky gimmick and that basically gave him a spot for life in Vince's eyes.

Oct 31, 2024 1:20:35 GMT sting said:

I don't have photographic memory of how/when it transpired, but somehow Santino really did get over at one point (it was sometime around his IC championship reigns).

The Honk-A-Meter! WWE ended that way too early. Should have him luck his way/Beth carry him to a year long reign before he gets too big for his britches and loses to Beth only days away beating Honk's record.

One of the funniest Santino moments to me was when he greeted Kane, with the most cheerful obliviousness possible, by pronouncing his name as "Con-Eh", like there was an accent mark over the "e". I think he got his ass kicked after that. His mispronunciation of "Cena" was also good enough to break Cena in an interview segment (John "Acheena").

I watched a whole video on Santino's mispronunciations last night...



What a legend. His segments with Austin were gold as well. Santino was like ECW Steve Corino in a way. They were either too ballsy or too stupid to know better, so they'd mouth off to Austin and Taz right to their faces. Of course they'd get wrecked every time. But they earned my respect in the process.

Also remember one of the last wrestling conversations I had irl with a relatively random person in a late 2007-early 2008 coworker. Somehow I found out this guy was a wrestling fan. Rare in those days! So we got to talking about the sport of kings. He was soon rattling off all his favorites. All very normal choices. Then I came out with the Santino love, and he was like "lol wtf Santino sucks." Then I explained to him why Santino did in fact rule and he pretty much immediately came around to my way of thinking. So I basically killed the business once again. *sigh* I did so much harm.

Oct 31, 2024 1:27:02 GMT @ness said:

What in the world was the story behind supposedly Akio/Jimmy Wang Yang being Vince's favorite wrestler? 

Yes! I love this story. OK, so the story, as best I remember it, goes something like this...

Vince was upset for some weird Vince reason, so he held a meeting with the talent. Vince was complaining about guys not working hard enough and singled out Akio & Nunzio as guys who always gave maximum effort. Basically, telling the boys to be like those guys. Only Akio had been future endeavored for like a year. Vince either forgot, or never knew (meaning he doesn't watch his own product), and was said to be none too happy when some stooge broke the bad news. Akio was resigned within days. 

As much as David Flair lacked in the ring, WCW teaming him up with Crowbar was a good idea. It made David a bit entertaining (especially since he had at least gotten better at taking bumps), and Crowbar (aka Devon Storm) was a good wrestler that could help hide David's deficiencies in the ring.

My only contribution to the David Flair discourse is he was often seen around town while dating Stacy Keibler at the turn of the century. The one I remember most is my friend Will seeing them at this local movie theater I went to dozens of times. Will also spotted Albert Belle in the wild around that same time.
=========
How'd it take me this long to realize Baron Corbin's name is a shout out/homage to 2000s Upper Midwest indie wrestler Darin Corbin? What a weirdo deep cut. Had to be a rib. Who in WWE management even knew who Darin Corbin was when they signed the Baron? Might have to look into this.
=========
I hate that they made a show called GLOW because it makes looking stuff up on the original GLOW doubly hard. I want to know what the best GLOW matches were! Who were their best talents? But all the top results pertain to that stupid show. *sigh*

Nov 5, 2024 1:56:43 GMT Baker said:

How'd it take me this long to realize Baron Corbin's name is a shout out/homage to 2000s Upper Midwest indie wrestler Darin Corbin? What a weirdo deep cut. Had to be a rib. Who in WWE management even knew who Darin Corbin was when they signed the Baron? Might have to look into this.

Did some digging and it turns out my old pal Rob Naylor named him Baron Corbin as a rib on Darin in NXT. Naylor admitted this himself.

And by "old pal" I mean "guy whose posts I used to read on DVDVR and who I talked to one time at an ROH show." The main thing I remember from that conversation outside the venue was him dumping on a then recent HHH/HBK Cell match. This was doubly harsh because Naylor was the rare positive DVDVR poster who seemed to love practically everything. Let's see....that Cell match was at Bad Blood 2004. Bad Blood took place on 6/13/04. So that means the ROH show would have been Survival of the Fittest on 6/24. Great main event! Featuring a star making performance from Austin Aries in the SOTF final won by Bryan Danielson.

If Danielson could make it in WWE, Aries could have also made it. Enzo rendered 205 Live an entity from a non-entity before getting shitcanned for dubious legal reasons; but what was Aries problem ... Just a poor attitude?

Last I remember Aries, he was no-selling Johnny Nitro after Nitro won the Impact World Championship from him.

To my knowledge, Aries left WWE because his attitude conflicted with a lot of backstage officials.


Like Shane Douglas and Low Ki, I don't think Aries ever met a bridge he didn't burn.😂

Santino>>Honkey Tonk Man. Sorry, Wayne.

It will live on forever.

Man, that opening bbbwwwwwwwwaaaaAAAAAAHHHHHH from the synth always gets me so fired up. I could be perfectly serene, just chilling, that bbbwwwwwwwwaaaaAAAAAAHHHHHH hits, and I'm immediately ready to run through a wall like some sort of Manchurian Candidate sonic cue.

Friend of mine went to see Gladiator II tonight and texted me, "Paul Mescal got Angle Slammed through a table," so let that be the greatest endorsement of Gladiator II possible.

Nov 7, 2024 1:54:21 GMT Big Pete said:

It will live on forever.

That was extreme!!!!!!!

Am I the only one who has had the impression that Sting really exuded some Jim Carrey characteristics at times?

It has always chaffed me when Cornette criticizes Sting for not being a good promo. I think there's a parallel, a bit, between himself and Taker. Deadman Taker was never a good promo, but that gimmick didn't call for it, either; however, he was a good promo as the American Badass. Depending on what Sting we're talking about, he could really deliver, and deliver in a style totally distinct from the rest of the roster.

Attention: Neo Zeed

Do Twitter embeds no longer work since the domain name changed to X.com? Can't seem to get them to work lately. 

Nov 11, 2024 23:31:00 GMT Kilgore said:

Do Twitter embeds no longer work since the domain name changed to X.com? Can't seem to get them to work lately. 

Change the x to Twitter

EG:

x.com/njpwworld/status/1856132474843357279?s=46

Something tells me Baker would have become a Wild Boar fan simply out of spite.