Jump to content
TSM Forums

jester

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content count

    1409

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by jester

  5. Posted · Report reply

    Just about every argument for bringing those guys in has started with the caveat "if booked properly." I think we all know that's a pipe dream.

     

    You're right, a lot of fantasy discussions end cold if we don't assume things are booked properly, which is a BIG assumption.

     

    But here we go, "if booked properly":

     

    I think the Invasion's biggest drop the ball factor was that it could have re-hooked the WCW fans who had long since departed. Most of those guys probably tuned in for about 10 minutes when they heard about it, saw WCW no-names being slapped around, and left for good again. If not, they were gone for sure by the end of the PPV. WWE had an opportunity to reclaim a lot of fans, and they blew it.

  6. Posted · Report reply

    Good discussion here.

     

    I just wanted to add that we shouldn't forget that even before the kayfabe era died, it wasn't exactly news to post people the wrestling was fake. So when they stopped sticking to it so religiously, I have to wonder how much affect did it really have on the people who cheer or boo? For example, I never liked Hulk Hogan even as a mark, so I would boo him, even though he was clearly the overwhelmingly popular face that they wanted me to cheer. I didn't do it to be cool (thogh I admit pissing off the Hulkamaniacs was kinda fun), I just didn't like him. I used to cheer for guys like Bundy to take him out, and would pretty much cheer anyone when they were opposing Hogan (though I would switch allegiances if they went after people I liked).

     

    The Internet era has made backstage gossip widespread and that has been show to affect the audience on occasion, but I think that would have happened even if WWE was still insisting that it's all real. So we would have had Brock & Goldberg booed out of the building anyway when it became known they were leaving.

     

    I think if anything, the death of kayfabe has had a negative effect on the WRITERS. Too many writers feel that "well, they all know it's fake anyway," which is why we can have Jericho call out a fake wrestler who was in a movie that exposed the business (Mickey Rourke), or why we can have Tony Schiavone scream that Goldberg isn't following the script. That shit never would have been allowed in the kayfabe era.

  7. Posted · Report reply

    I think what they should is have early Saturday morning shows aimed at a younger audience liked they used to, like WWF Superstars or Saturday Morning JobberSquash or whatever it was called, and start building a young audience. Then you have Raw and the late evening stuff for late teens, making it a little risque for the older folks, and the PPVs where it can all hang out for the mature crowd. More or less.

     

    Kind of like The Batman is for the young Batman fan, and The Dark Knight is for the more mature audience.

     

    I don't think I explained that well but I am too tired to fix it.

  8. Posted · Report reply

    Didn't take long:

     

    "I'm just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may — may not, I hope not — but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism."

     

    "That's exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet Union did," Broun said. "When he's proposing to have a national security force that's answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he's showing me signs of being Marxist."

     

    http://news.aol.com/elections/article/repu...atorship/243817

     

     

    Yeah I wonder if Rep. Paul Broun has been as vocal with his reservations about groups such as Blackwater who are basically a civilian mercenary group fighting in Iraq that do not answer to the Gov't. and who were dispatched to New Orleans in the Katrina aftermath.

     

    Yep. And I wonder if he is also opposed to Guantanamo Bay, a jail outside the legal system. You know, like a gulag.

  9. Posted · Report reply

    If you're like 19 years old, and this is one of the greatest moments in your life to see a black president, then maybe we haven't progressed much at all. I'm happy Obama won, but it never hit me that the reason is because he's black.

     

    I see where you're coming from, but there's the ideal, and there's the reality. People are happy in part because this is final clinching proof that a black person really can be president of the US. It's not just a theory. I think this is going to help racial identity quite a bit and I can see why people are hailing this as a milestone for black people, even thought there's more to it than this.

     

    And I have a feeling that not just any black person could have done this. If McCain was Black and Obama was white, I don't think there would be a black president.

     

    People are also happy because Bush is done, and a person who they perceive as being an extension of him is not going to be in office.

     

     

     

  10. Posted · Report reply

    As an outsider looking in the US Election always amazes me, and really makes the UK voting process boring as fuck. I know my vote and the fact I'm not even American means my opinion means very little, but I hope Obama wins. I have my faith in him helping to restore the 'world' then McCain.

     

    Same here. I'm a Canadian who has been lurking in this folder and finding things a lot more fascinating than the recent Canadian election, where we re-elected Stephen "Bush Lite" Harper. I'm hoping for an Obama win as well. I think he could do a lot to repair the US reputation on an international level, whereas McCain and Palin give the impression that those damn foreigners are beneath them.

     

  11. Posted · Report reply

    I can understate why Vince wants to get away from the Athletic Commissions, but is this really going to help? I can't see the same assholes banning the piledriver and insisting that a match stop because someone gets cut open backing off just because they're called "Entertainers" now.

     

    I think this is going to perceived, as someone mentioned, as the WWE being ashamed of being a wrestling company. No, it won't put them out of business but I watch wrestling because it's a form of entertainment with specific features, one the other forms of entertainment don't have. It's a story told through a fake sporting event. When you continually erode those features, I find it less engaging.

  12. Posted · Report reply

    Hassan had character potential in one specific way: he was supposed to be an born-&-bred American citizen, not an actual Middle Easterner.

     

    I always thought what would have been cool AND potentially given WWE some mainstream respect if they played that up as a face character.

     

    Hassan should have been an American who happened to be Muslim. And he came to WWE to compete just like any other athlete.

     

    But a dickish heel character like Bradshaw starts hassling him over his heritage. Hassan emphasizes that yes, he's a Muslim, but he's also an American and he loves his country and Bradshaw has no right to question his patriotism.

     

    Unfortunately, that take would probably get lost on a typical WWE audience. It would be "Hey, evil foreigner! BOO!"

  13. Posted · Report reply

    In Canada, a person can be declared a "dangerous offender" and imprisoned indefinitely. It's usually reserved for sexual psychopaths, but I believe it can be applied to anyone thought to be an ongoing threat to the public at large.

     

    I'm pretty sure this freakshow is never going to see the light of day again.

  14. Posted · Report reply

    When I watched wrestling, it seems like they misused Coach a lot, like when they would put him in the color-commentary seat instead of letting him drive the show. It didn't really make much sense for him to be the analyst, because his character was never really that clear or established in the wrestling world, so it seemed like a lot of saying "...because I'm THE COACH" or something. As someone already said, it was the same problem they had with Joey Styles, which I never got.

     

    Exactly. Maybe Coach wasn't cut out for commentary, but it's not like they made it easy for him. I remember the first time he and Lawler were commentating, and Lawler shat all over him. I know the storyline was supposed to be that Lawler was made that Coach replaced Ross (further supporting my theory that Lawler is actually gay), but come on. They made it impossible for the guy to breathe, let alone commentate on the match.

     

    Perhaps if Coach had been given a job he wanted, playing a character he was comfortable with (instead of a role they insisted on) it would be a different story.

     

    I wish him the best of luck.

  15. Posted · Report reply

    Poor Chris Masters.

     

    WWE: You have a great physique! We shall push you!

     

    Masters: Great!

     

    WWE: Wait, steroids are evil! The company is cracking down on steroids!

     

    Masters: Ok, I guess I will stop using them.

     

    WWE: Look how thin you are! We shall stop pushing you as a threat and have HHH mock you for the way you look!

     

    Masters: Uh...okay, I will go back on the juice then.

     

    WWE: You are roided up! You are suspended!

     

    Masters: [Head explodes]

  18. Posted · Report reply

    I'm surprised HHH didn't add "and that's his personal choice. Nobody pressured him or forced him to stay in the dryer."

     

    From PWInsider:

     

    Sean Thornton reporting. ... There is a reference to Bobby Lashley being much smaller in the current WWE magazine. HHH is the "guest editor" of this issue and throughout the mag he is putting little comments next to pics and parts of interviews. There is a section where they interview Bobby Lashley and on that page is a picture of Lashley from his college wrestling days. Right above it HHH wrote, "Oh My god, someone left Bobby in the dryer!" I thought I'd pass that along since it's been discussed a lot on audio recently and found it interesting that they make such a comment in their own magazine.

     

  21. Posted · Report reply

    I don't have a problem with anything Dave said honestly, other than the part where he expects WWE guys to bash the company they work for. Even if any of them really feel that way it would be a completely idiotic move that would cause serious repercussion.

     

    More serious than overdosing?

     

    Metzler didn't ask them to bash the company, he asked them to stand up and make suggestions on how things can be improved. Which is perfectly reasonable. All companies should be open to discussion of their practices, and allow employees to respectfully disagree with them and offer an alternative.

     

    If the policy is sound, there is nothing to fear from an employee challenging. Any company that silences opinions like this is usually on shaky ground... and knows it.

  22. Posted · Report reply

    I think a lot of separate issues are getting confused here.

     

    1. What Benoit did is probably more about deep psychological problems than any drug he did. It's possible that they aggravated his condition (maybe even probable), but steroids and painkillers can't be blamed as the root cause.

     

    2. It's not WWE's fault that Benoit's family was murdered. It is not right for the media to imply that they drugged up Benoit until he became a murderer.

     

    3. They do however deserve a ton of negative attention for their so-called wellness policy, and while it's sad that it took a murder-suicide for someone to shine the light on it (and again, even though it was not the root cause) it's about fucking time somebody gave them serious shit for the way they treat their workers. I've got mixed feeling about this. I want WWE cleaned up, but it really bothers me that it might be cleaned up because of a bunch of wrong assumptions. Then again, maybe I should think "At least it might be cleaned up."

     

    4. Wrestlers don't have to take steroids in order to work for the WWE. In much the same way actresses don't *have* to be under 30 and anorexically thin in order to get the best choice of movie roles. The WWE may say "it's okay" on paper, but the real message is clear.

     

    5. Comparing WWE to other industries don't really work. Baseball may be full of juicers, but they have an off season and don't have a job that requires them to get thrown on their back five times a week. The music industry is full of drugs, but how many music producers insist that you shoot up before you can get your album deal?

     

    6. I don't really expect anything to change. As soon as Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan gets drunk in public again, the media will forget all about it and the pressure to change in the WWE will be gone.

  23. Posted · Report reply

    You know, there's something I don't understand about McMahon's big man fetish, especially in recent years. They waste a lot of time and energy trying to "train" us and make us like/accept the wrestlers they want. It's the source of half of our complaints about the WWE. "Why push Wrestler A? The crowd is already cheering for Wrestler B, but since Wrestler A is McMahon's darling..."

     

    Sometimes it works: they eventually got HHH over, Cena, even Orton to some extent. Hell, they managed to turn Bradshaw into a guy people liked when he used to be a smark punchline. The point is, eventually all of their huffing and puffing eventually works if they keep at it, and they can make us care about a wrestler nobody gave a shit about?

     

    Soooo... why don't they try to train the audience to accept guys who are smaller and less roided up? Don't tell me it can't work. It might even have to work, if the government is keeping its eye on WWE and its roid needles from now on...

×