TMC1982

MTV has gotten lazy with their programming. There are other ways to conduct music oriented programming besides just airing the videos (it's just that the folks at MTV don't have the brains or ingenuity to think outside of the box). Just because of YouTube doesn't automatically mean that MTV is justified in airing crap like "Bromance", "A Shot at Love", "Paris Hilton's New BFF", etc.

Even worst, MTV2, which was initially created to make up for the decreasing number of hours that the regular MTV was putting for music videos, has in recent years, degraded into purely a backhaul of the regular MTV's programming (a la ESPN2).

Not necessarily in terms of overall popularity, but from the standpoint of being a key figure in the expansion and development of ECW from a regional NWA affiliate (Eastern Championship Wrestling), to innovative, cutting edge, hardcore revolution that we know today. With Hulk Hogan, Vince McMahon saw him (along with his charisma, physique, and appearance in "Rocky III") as the I guess, figurehead in the WWF's push to a national, mainstream, "sports entertainment" product during the 1980s. With Shane Douglas, Paul Heyman and Tod Gordon saw "The Franchise's" abrasive, loud mouth, quasi shoot promo style as the perfect fit for the counter-culture, anti-establishment image that ECW wanted to put across. If you've followed Shane's history, than you would be aware of the heat between him and Ric Flair (a long time NWA champion, for which ECW was trying to break away from). This along with, Paul Heyman's admitted grudge against WCW, for whom Ric Flair and the NWA had long been intertwined. Paul E. said on "The Rise and Fall of ECW" DVD that Shane Douglas, who was their main singles wrestler at the time, was a very key element in breaking away from the "tradition and old school mentality" of the NWA. I am aware however, that Shane only agreed to throw down the NWA belt because the president of the National Wrestling Alliance at the time, Dennis Coraluzzo, buried Shane on Mike Tenay's radio show.

Well lets just say that the Sandman didn't wear prototypical wrestling tights.

Randy Savage: IV and V - Main events VI - Throwaway match with Sherri against Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire VII - Retirement match VIII - WWF title match IX - Commentator Brock Lesnar: XIX - Winning the WWE Championship from Kurt Angle in the main event XX - Facing Goldberg in a terrible match, with the fans chanting against both men the whole match Lex Luger: X - WWF title contender XI - opening against Jacob and Eli Blu Ultimate Warrior: VI - Winning the WWF Championship against Hulk Hogan VII - Winning a retirement match against Randy Savage VIII - Run in during the Hogan-Sid match. XII - Squash match against Triple H Roddy Piper: Main evented the first ever WrestleMania with Hogan, Paul Orndorff and Mr. T to A cheesy boxing match with Mr. T at WrestleMania 2 (the New York portion) to The six match on the WrestleMania III card against Adrian Adonis to A "Piper's Pit" segment with Morton Downey Jr. at WrestleMania V King Kong Bundy: He went from defeating SD Jones in a squash match, to wrestling Hulk Hogan in the main event, to wrestling midgets, to missing seven Manias, to losing to Undertaker in 6:30 minutes, to not appearing on another WM again. Paul Orndorff: Went from main eventing WrestleMania I to a forgetable opening match at WrestleMania 2. Chris Jericho: Jericho goes from main eventing XVIII to having a match in the dead center of XIX to having a match early on in XX. Andre the Giant: I: Wins the Bodyslam Challenge against Studd, the 2nd or 3rd main event. II: Wins the WWF/NFL Battle Royal. III: Loses to Hogan in the biggest match in wrestling history (at least at that point). IV: Double DQ with Hogan in quarterfinals of tournament. V: DQ loss to Jake. VI: Loses Tag Titles to Demolition. VII: Makes a brief appearance on crutches due to his failing health Booker T: XIX: World Title match vs. Triple H XX: Wins midcard Fatal Four Way Tag Match XXI: Wins pre-show Battle Royal XXII: Jobs to The Boogeyman in 3 minutes (in a Handicap Match!) Ted DiBiase: He reaches the finals in IV, then is third from the bottom against Brutus Beefcake at V, then a countout win and a countout loss in VI and VII respectively, and in Money Inc., a countout loss and a DQ win in VIII and IX respectively.

http://www.411mania.com/movies/columns/96085 The original Batman franchise from Tim Burton and later, Joel Schumacher needs to be on the list. So does the "Jaws" franchise.

These 2 things are not connected. Super Clash 1 in Sept 85 was the Super Card not a PPV I'm refering to the 1988 PPV (the first and only timet that the AWA got on PPV), which united the AWA with World Class and the Memphis group. I don't completely understand that these three promotions (they already had timeslot with ESPN), with their backs against the wall (in the face of the WWF and the NWA/WCW, who had Ted Turner backing them) didn't work better as a cohesive unit. But then again, egos and politics will always get in the way of good business sense. The talent roster wasn't there to make a dent. The AWA at that point was all way over the hill guys or no name rookies Memphis had little after Lawler And World Class was dead in the water as the fans had given up on the Von Erichs, and Eric Embry wasn't going to cut it as a national star Isn't that sort of why they had to work together in the first place, since they could no longer cut it for themselves!?

These 2 things are not connected. Super Clash 1 in Sept 85 was the Super Card not a PPV I'm refering to the 1988 PPV (the first and only timet that the AWA got on PPV), which united the AWA with World Class and the Memphis group. I don't completely understand that these three promotions (they already had timeslot with ESPN), with their backs against the wall (in the face of the WWF and the NWA/WCW, who had Ted Turner backing them) didn't work better as a cohesive unit. But then again, egos and politics will always get in the way of good business sense.

I've heard various stories about Michael Eisner's later years (say, the mid-1990s to 2005, when he left Disney) as Disney's CEO. Basically, after Frank Wells (who was the president and COO of Disney around the same time that Eisner came into the picture) unexpectedly died in a helicopter crash in 1994, Eisner ultimately, became corrupted with too much power. I don't have much time to lay out the entire list of criticisms against Eisner, so I post the following link (relating to the announcement of Eisner being named to the Hollywood Walk of Fame): http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?...er+Walk+of+Fame Also, Walt Disney's nephew, Roy started a campaign to oust Eisner due to in Roy's eyes, micromanagement, failures with the ABC television network, timidity in the theme park business, turning the Walt Disney Company into a "rapacious, soul-less" company, and refusing to establish a clear succession plan, as well as a string of box-office movie failures starting in the year 2000. I haven't really closely examined what Eisner's successor, Bob Iger has been up to until a few days ago: How Bob Iger Unchained Disney USATODAY.com - 10 ways Bob Iger can boost Disney Disney: What Kind of Boss Will Bob Iger Be? Anyway, I've also stumbled across some folks on YouTube, whom have had it out for Igor since becoming the Disney CEO: Michael Eisner vs. Bob Iger Stoppit Bob Iger! Words of "Swiper No Swiping" come to mind Bob Iger: The Worst Disney Villain Pt. 1 Bob Iger: The Worst Disney Villain Pt. 2 Bob Iger: The Worst Disney Villain Pt. 2 B Bob Iger: The Worst Disney Villain Pt. 3 Bob Iger: The Worst Disney Villain Pt. 4

I would say that Shane was an essential part of the "essence" of ECW (he was an anchor of sorts if you ask me), much like Sabu (Shane on the verbal side and Sabu on the physical/athletic side). Guys like Tommy Dreamer were the "heart" of the promotion, since they were there during most of the ups and downs. Raven was also a key component of what made ECW from the pure storytelling standpoint (Shane/Taz/New Jack/Catcus Jack more so in the intense promos category). If anything, I would argue that Sandman could best be considered the closest thing to a "mascot" for ECW. Sandman had the whole blue color, anti-establishment look (i.e. wrestling in his ratty t-shirt, PJs, sneakers, etc.) with the cigarettes, bear, and cane.

I think that Shane Douglas could've fit in during the Attitude Era (where his ECW persona would've fit in easier). When Shane was in the WWF (he was actually there on two seperate occasions, in 1990-1991 and in 1995-1996), they were still in the gimmick-laden, kiddie friendly stage (hence, him becoming Dean Douglas).

For instance (in my humble opinion): Ultimate Warrior - The problem with Warrior being "the guy" was number one, Hogan was still pretty visible (with his feud with Earthquake for instance) even though he presumably "passed the torch" to Warrior at WrestleMania VI. Number two, there really wasn't a whole lot of dimensions to Warrior's persona/character (beyond his typical cartoonish Warrior-shtick) like with Hogan or Randy Savage (or any other World Champions from that era). And number three, did Warrior really have a lot of credible contenders for his belt? He's main feud at the time, was with Rick Rude (who for most of his WWF run, wasn't really a true blue main event guy). Lex Luger circa 1991-1992 - He had to live with the fact that he never beat Ric Flair for the belt (because Flair had just left WCW due to issues with managment). Luger beat Barry Windham for the belt, even though, Windham was virtually no where to be found near the main event/World Title scene up until that point. Fans also hated the idea of having Luger turn heel (by having Harley Race come out and help him win the match) that same night. Luger also did it at what's widely considered to be one of the worst PPV's of all time, Great American Bash '91. Larry Zbyszko during the dying days of the AWA (when he came back after spending some time in the AWA) should be up on the list, because he purely became the champ out of neccessity (when Jerry Lawler left over a fiancial dispute with Verne Gange). By 1989-90, the AWA was made up of mostly no name jobbers/new comers, career mid carders, or guys way past there prime (a la Wahoo McDaniel). Zbyszko was primarily given the belt at that point (not only because he was the arguably the biggest heel on the roster) because he was Verne Gagne's son in law (he was the Triple H of that era ). If Verne couldn't make his own son the champ, then he might as well make his son-in-law the champ for security purposes. "Rugged" Ronnie Garvin - When he beat Ric Flair for the NWA title, ratings for "NWA World Championship Wrestling" went from the 4.0 range to about a 2.8 (the quickest drop off in NWA/Jim Crocket Promotions history). Flair said in his book that even though Garvin was the face in their Starrcade '87 match in Chicago, the fans turned on him because according to Flair, Garvin's persona came across as too "Southern". Keep in mind that this was Jim Crockett's attempt at turning his promotion into a national entity to compete with the World Wrestling Federation. Flair added that Dusty Rhodes (though having an otherwise "Southern" persona too) would've gotten over easier because he had much more charisma than Ronnie Garvin. Randy Savage circa 1988-1989 - As much of a mark I am for Randy Savage, I do agree that he seemed to be for the most part, "holding the water" until Hogan came back from filming "No Holds Barred". The fact that Hogan helped the Macho Man win the World Title in the first place also kind of hurts Savage's credibility. It was as if you needed Hogan's "blessing" (just as was the case with Warrior) in order to be accepted as babyface champion. Booker T during the dying days of WCW - The problem with Booker was that by that point, the WCW belt had been crapped upon so badly, that nobody really gave a damn anymore. Also, WCW took too long to push Booker in the main event scene (always relying on Hogan, Nash, Flair, Luger, Savage, Sting and the like). Plus, the fact that Booker likes to brag about being a "five time WCW Champion" gives little credence if you ask me, since by that point, it seemingly became coming practice to play hot potato (especially with Vince Russo around) with the belts. Bret Hart when he first won the World Title in WCW - Bret had already been booked terribly in WCW up until that point. When he finally won the belt, it was via a lousy Vince Russo booked tournament (I think DDP's wife, Kimberly was one of the competitors as well as Madusa). It didn't help matters that by the time that Bret won it, the belt was already scene as a joke (a la "The Fingerpoke of Doom"), and this was I believe, before David Arquette won it. Justin Credible and/or Mike Awesome in ECW Jeff Jarrett in WCW circa 2000 and/or during the early days of TNA Diesel (still supposedly, the worst drawing World Champion in WWF/WWE history) Rey Mysterio (at least, he was one of the worst booked champs in recent memory) Yokozuna - He hadn't been around long when he got the belt, and instead of being pushed as unstoppable, everytime a PPV came round, they pushed it as though he was holding it until Hogan/Luger/Bret/Undertaker beat him. JBL

In terms of the negative perception in the eyes of the media in other words. For example: *Benoit - By this point, I don't think that I have to go any further than just referencing the man's last name. You don't have to be a major wrestling fan, and you're aware of murder-suicide incident in 2007. *Over the Edge '99 *Vince McMahon being indited on steroid distribution in 1992. Since WWF/E was and is to this day, the biggest promotion in America if not the world, this gave the media enough ammunition to stereotype pro wrestlers nothing more than a bunch of muscle bound freaks (not accounting for the technical and overall athletic aspect of the sport). *WCW and ECW going out of business in 2001. Pro wrestling is always the most interesting when everybody is in competition with one another. This instantly gives the promotions a bigger incentive to work harder and be better than the other guy. But with WWF/E as the only viable option, it's very easy to get lazy and bored with the product. *David Arquette wins the World Title. I'll give David Arquette credit when he was reluctant to go through with that angle (which Vince Russo pushed him into doing). But WCW was so desperate for mainstream media attention, that they decided to give their top belt to an actor. All that this served as make WCW an even bigger laughing stock. By the year 2000, the credibility of the belt was already getting more and more devalued (the "Fingerpoke of Doom" is a perfect example), and this all but killed it off for good. *WCW breaks away from the NWA. For all intensive purposes, the "old NWA" died soon after WCW officially broke away in 1993. The National Wrestling Alliance name was all but a generic, umbrella kind of body anyway in the aftermath of Turner Broadcasting taking over Jim Crockett Promotions in 1988. Since Jim Crockett Promotions was so entrenched with the NWA (I'm pretty sure that a lot of people thought that what became World Championship Wrestling and the National Wrestling Alliance were the exact same entity) by the late '80s, the NWA's lineage immediately carried over to WCW. Shane Douglas throwing down the NWA belt (and igniting the birth of Extreme Championship Wrestling) didn't help the NWA credibility and relevancy-wise in the post-WCW era. *The Mass Transit Incident. It perhaps gave people the impression that pro wrestlers were senseless, barbaric savages (not the Macho Man) and that ECW was a shoot organization. ECW couldn't get on pay-per-view for quite some time due to this incident. *The trials and tribulations of World Championship Wrestling (1988-2001). This to me, serves as a blueprint of how not to run a major wrestling promotion. *The Attitude Era. Some of the more racy, outrageous stuff in all honestly, makes me embarrassed to be a wrestling fan. And WWF/E were risking in the long term, advertisers pulling out because they were getting to out of control (although, I kind of see the Attitude Era as a more streamlined, "PG-13" version of ECW).

Shane Douglas talks about this on the "Forever Hardcore" documentary. He claimed that prior to all of this, he had no personal relations with Dennis Coraluzzo, who went on Mike Tenay's radio show to tell people not to book Shane, that he was unreliable, he took pay from promoters and later, didn't show up, etc. Coraluzzo was later being very two-faced when he finally meets Shane face to face (being nice to him and the like).

John McCain in 2008. He was pretty much Bob Dole in 1996 redux: *Too old, but was essentially there because it was his turn *Didn't really let you know what he stood for clearly enough in contrast to Barack Obama *Was too (whether he liked it or not) associated with the oft criticized Bush/Cheney group *Had Sarah Palin (who was too much of a polarizing figure and didn't display a lot of depth foreign policy knowledge) as a running mate *Was too reluctant to attack Obama on his various associations (i.e. Wright, Resko, Ayres, etc.) *His temperment was put into question besides his age

You think them continuing the show was bigger than one of the biggest stars in the industry murdering his whole family? I thought the PPV continuing thing was really overblown. People were just pissed at Vince, and kind of latched on to this story to persecute him a little. I guess over anger out of letting such a great guy die on his watch. I mean, there have been plenty of examples of shows continuing in the face of a major in-show accident. Its a tough, judgment call. Its not as cut and dried as people make it out. I thought that it was just as if even more of a case of poor taste to have the Undertaker in the main event and win the World Title at Over the Edge '99.

Well go take some Pepto if you can't handle it!

Do I look like Henry Winkler!?

Sting's promo on "Impact" about how today's wrestlers don't respect those who came before them: Ricky Steamboat and Randy Savage's promos against each other prior to their famous WrestleMania III match also sticks out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7Jk6rgNivE Ric Flair's shoot (approximately 98% according to Flair) promo against Eric Bischoff the night he came back to WCW following a six month long exile also frequently stands out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et7KRoFs-F8 Other great "intense" promos off the top of my head include him (while wearing a neck brace) chasing after Dick Slater and Bob Orton with an baseball bat after they accepted Harley Race's bounty on Flair's head (leading up to their Starrcade '83 match), and Flair's promo against Vince McMahon on the final episode of "Nitro". Roddy Piper bottles himself to prove a point against the Sheepherders (a.k.a. the Bushwhackers): Hogan's promo the night he turned heel at Bash at the Beach '96 and founded the nWo: Joey Styles' worked shoot on "RAW" about his hatred of sports entertainment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuB57dkCZLY...feature=related Shane Douglas' promo the night that he threw down the NWA World Title: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waBUA6Vfxt8 Mick Foley's (as Catcus Jack) "anti-hardcore" promos in ECW: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA7ohppxBJI Paul Heyman's promo against Vince McMahon about how Vince stole ECW's ideas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vswZ73WETpc...feature=related Shawn Michaels' promo against Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan in Montreal on "RAW": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-IeavUJdUA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQWXYW3A1bw...feature=related I love the fact that Shawn could still turn the switch (even with his current "Born again Christian" image) and be an arrogant, obnoxious douchbag just like in the '90s.

Verne Gagne was way too stuck in the past (only technical wrestlers like himself or Nick Bockwinkel should be the champ) to fully get behind Hogan. And that's one of the reasons why the AWA died because Verne Gagne always seemed too steps behind what Vince McMahon and to a certain extent, Ted Turner in WCW going into the '80s. So with Hogan gone, then AWA guys that were left behind ultimately started to use Verne's promotion as a glorified minor league for the WWF.

From (after Game 6 of the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals on "The CBS Sports Spectacular") 1981-1989 (prior to the 1990 All-Star Game on NBC), there wasn't a single National Hockey League game that was nationally televised on broadcast, over-the-air television. Even so, from 1990-1994, only the All-Star Game on NBC and a selected number of Sunday afternoon games on ABC (which were basically, time buys from ESPN) marked the only occasions in which the NHL was on broadcast, national TV. In the mean time, after losing their network contract with NBC in 1975 (they're last legitimate network deal before the 1994-95 deal with FOX), the NHL had to piece together their "own network" with the help of the Hughes Television Network, in a syndication package known as "The NHL Network". After The NHL Network disbanded in I believe, 1979, the NHL's only national TV deals came via the USA Network, ESPN, and SportsChannel America respectively. The SportsChannel deal beginning in 1988 was pretty much a step down because even though they paid more in rights fees than ESPN, SportsChannel was only available in about 1/3 the amount of homes that ESPN was at the time. Even worse, SportsChannel America didn't have a whole lot of real programming beyond the NHL. One of the biggest mistakes ever made during the John Zeigler (who was the NHL Commissioner from 1975-1992) regime besides not fully capitalizing on Wayne Gretzky's prime/popularity via major national TV contracts was not capitalizing on the renewed interest in hockey in the United States post-Miracle on Ice. All that the NHL really did immediately after the 1980 Winter Olympics was get the sixth game of the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals on "The CBS Sports Spectacular" (as I had previously mentioned). The NHL pretty much shot themselves in the foot in 1994-95. They were coming off the heels of the New York Rangers' historic Stanley Cup victory, they had just received a major TV contract with FOX (who promised to advertise the hell out of the NHL), and they could've really filled in the void left by Major League Baseball when they went on strike. So what happens, the NHL has a lockout! They pretty much wound up blowing their big shot with FOX (it was rumored that FOX was willing to broadcast every single Stanley Cup Finals game). The next TV contract with ABC/ESPN, wound up getting them lost in the shuffle so to speak. ABC hardly promoted the game (the NHL seemed to expect their sister chanel ESPN to do much of the dirty work). Plus, it seemed quite evident that it would be only a matter of time before ESPN would deem hockey irrelevant once it seemed apparent that they didn't really need them anymore (which turned out to be the case once they got the NBA in 2002-03). The NHL sank even further into the abyss by going through another lockout, which canceled the entire season! When it was finally time to get back to work, all that they could muster was a revenue sharing deal with NBC (in which the NHL virtually has little power or say over) and a cable deal with an otherwise obscure (albeit still growing) channel known as OLN (now Versus).

I'll only be willing to give "Dance Flick" the benefit of the doubt purely because Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer will have nothing to do with this.

"Dropping" the ball usually means there was a chance to do something pretty great in a lot of eyes, and then failing to do so or muffing it up. There was never a real chance to do Austin/Hogan at a WM since their two egos would make it impossible. The closest they could have gotten was WM 19, but I'm not sure if that should really be called dropping the ball. I think Benoit was also injured during most of the invasion if not all of it, so they had a lot of talent on both sides either not signed or injured. Angle and Austin joining the Alliance was pretty much the pits for that whole storyline. Instead of RVD being given the belt and running with it (after Tazz, Shane Douglas, Raven and company left), he had to sit through the likes of Mike Awesome and Justin Credible as World Champs during the last few years of the old ECW.

New Jack's promo against Rhyno: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3mokO4F2rY New Jack is one of those wrestlers, whom you legitimately believe lives and breaths his gimmick. This is why I love the original ECW, because the wrestlers were given carte blanche over their promos unlike WWE or WCW back in the day.