King Kamala

Kinetic (Sure- he only voted for me in the first round. But Agent didn't vote for me at all. As much as I'd like to vote for the guy that beat me, this is Kinetic's year.)

Seriously, move the 24/7 Folder to General and I wouldn't mind this change becoming permanent.

If I was a WWE folder regular, I'd be pissed! As it is, this is mildly amusing. ***1/4

Hey- nobody's mentioned Decline of The Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years yet. Probably my favorite hair metal related thing. Too bad this isn't on DVD yet. One of my ten favorite documentaries ever. Somewhat unrelated but has anyone seen I or III? Either of them worth seeking out? Ah- here's the whole movie on YouTube.

Come on Barron, they're the same movie. One with black people, one with white. They're both basically VH1 biopics with bigger budgets. Not to say that's a bad thing since I'm always entertained by those damn things.

I'm going with Mars as well but with the ever elusive Almond M&Ms (I can only seem to be find them in the big bags) as the deciding factory in my vote.. Plus they got Twix, Milky Way, and Snickers, which while not the greatest candy bars in the world, are remarkably consistent. Plus I love me some Starburst. Skittles I can take or leave but that's the only one of their heavy hitters that I don't like.

I generally fall asleep with the radio on when I'm at home so I wake up this morning and the DJs are talking about how there's freak 90 degree weather and ozone level warnings and not to let the pets and little kids out of the house. So I'm half awake and not fully with it and for some reason, I'm half convinced that the events of that Twilight Zone where the Earth sprung out of orbit and hurtled towards the Sun have come to fruition. I go down the stairs and walk out the door in my t-shirt and PJ bottoms and realize it's the same 10 degree weather we had yesterday and go back to bed. Turns out that the DJs are only trying to "cheer everybody up" by pretending its summer like weather out there. Damn them! I guess the thing that angers me most though is my own guillbility.

The timeline would be off but I was watching some of Great American Bash '95 (God damn- what is it with me watching bad '95 WCW shows these days) and Vader was shoving around Nick Bockwinkel and Eric Bischoff during The Main Event.

Wasn't Bruno backstage at a WWE show in Pittsburgh about five years back? I can't remember exactly why (something Hall of Fame or WWE 24/7 related probably) but I'm sure it was something business related. I remember Bruno saying an interview that there was a mentally handicapped fan backstage that went to all of the shows and he hoped that the kid wasn't the "inspiration" for Eugene, who debuted shortly thereafter. Kind of a stretch I must say as WWE has a lot of mentally handicapped fans. Now I'm not trying to do a lame, slightly off color slam at the WWE folder, just stating a fact. But that's neither here nor there. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to see Bruno make amends somewhat with Vince and be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Yeah, as one of the more respectable posters in the top half of the board, I've always advocated for the assimilation of The Overseas/Indy Folder into The TNA or General folders.

Stark Raving Dad was the episode I was really close to choosing for my last pick. Primarily out of nostalgia but there are some choice bits in there.

My boy David Lee at his finest. Shitfaced, telling people he's going to fuck their girlfriend, insulting The Clash for no apparent reason.

My goal for '09 is to post well enough to get past the third round. Well it's clear that I have the ability to squeak past your pbones and NYU, I clearly don't have what it takes to beat an AoO or 909. The Race for The Top Eight in '09!

I listen to Motley Crue's Decade of Decadence and some Guns 'N' Roses every now and then but other than that and maybe five other songs, I really have no use for the genre. Someone on another board was trying to tell me that Warrant was one of the most underrated bands of the '80s and I just couldn't take the guy seriously (even though we have remarkably similar tastes otherwise). I do love DLR era Van Halen though and that's sort of the precurosor to this crappy genre. I was watching that VH1 five part series on the History of Metal the other day and I think it was Kerry King that said something to the effect of "Those bands took everything Van Halen did and turned it up times 100...in all of the wrong directions." I think that basically sums up my feelings on the genre.

Hey we watched BATB 2000 as part of the short-lived "Tape of The Month Club" (poorly named since we watched all of the shows on DailyMotion). The opener is pretty good and I vaguely recall Smiley and Ralphus/Big Vito being a half decent comedy match but pretty much every other match not involving Booker T ranges from forgettable to WrestleCrap worthy dreck. Like most Russo era WCW PPVs, I just remember feeling exhausted after I got done watching it. And not exhausted in a good way, exhausted like I felt after doing yardwork all day at my grandma's house.

In retrospect, I would have had no subtitle or would have called him one of the most enigmatic figures in pro wrestling.

I don't know his mysterious estrangement with WWE, his out of the ring feud with Hulk Hogan, his weird behavior RE: Elizabeth back in his heyday. A bunch of stuff.

Firsties! Dr. Venkman- Kinetic voted against me every round except for the first. That prick! Venkman is a good man and one of my best board buds. Kinetic's going to win anyways and I'll probably vote for him in the Finals but Venk deserves a pity vote as I expect him to be run over by the juggernaut known as Kinetic. Then again, I predicted Slayer would destroy Venkman. Maybe me saying Venkman will be destroyed will be his good luck charm? Agent of Oblivion- A TSM Legend. VX is great but I'm voting for the dude that beat me.

Hey fellows- For some reason, I'm watching Bash at The Beach '95 on DailyMotion (Hey- that's a good show for The Tape of The Month Club) and before the main event, they show a montage of Vader's Roadkill Invasion Tour. From what it looked like it was Vader squashing a bunch of jobbers at indy shows to prepare for his cage match with Hogan. What was the deal with this? I searched the thread and this question was asked by someone else five years ago and wasn't answered so I figured I'd ask again.

Time to answer my own question! 1. Will we ever see Randy Savage in the world of professional wrestling again? Even in a non wrestling capacity (say getting inducted into a certain Hall of Fame)? Or do you think he's the rare case of a wrestler who saved his money over his career and is content in retirement? I'm about 99.9% sure that we'll never see him wrestle again. Nor would I want to. He was really broken down injury-wise ten years ago. I'm pretty in confident in saying that we've seen his last match. Then again if you asked me at this time two years ago if we'd see another Warrior match, I would have said the same thing. As for him showing up in a non-wrestling capacity, I think there's about a 25% chance of that happening. He seems pretty content in retirement. According to Lanny, he did save most of his money over his career and plus he does have a fairly successful voice acting career as well. If he hasn't shown up to be a figurehead or commentator at this point while memories of his career are still fresh in the minds of the fans, I don't think he will. He's completely disassociated himself with the world of wrestling since '04. No cameos, no conventions, nothing. And with all the shit that's happened, can't say I totally blame him.That being said I have a hard time believing he wouldn't show up if they decided to induct him into the WWE Hall of Fame. In fact, I just read he's being inducted into The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame in upstate New York in May and I wouldn't be surprised if he showed up there. 2. Do you think his sterling WWF heyday was in anyway tarnished by his mostly mediocre WCW (Post DDP feud) and TNA runs? Has it been tarnished by the rumors regarding his WWF departure that sprang up after his retirement? Dumb question (first part). Not sure why I asked it! Anyways, like most of you said, the first half of his WCW run was pretty solid. Him and Flair feuding always makes for good entertainment and his feud with DDP produced some shockingly good matches, though given their similar styles, it probably shouldn't have been so surprising that they were good. That said, his last two years in WCW were pretty fucking awful. "What Up Mach?", his awful feud with Kevin Nash for the WCW World title which I vaguely recall somehow involving spousal abuse, and that so bad its kinda good but still is technically awful match with Dennis Rodman. His aborted WWA run and brief stint in TNA didn't do anything to help matters. But anyways I think his legacy was already well etched into stone before he went off to WCW. In a perfect world, he would have retired after WrestleMania X (I know we'd be missing a few good matches). Almost every great athlete in almost every sport hangs on for a few years too long. Nobody really talks much about Emmitt Smith slumming it on The Cardinals or Willie Mays dropping fly balls with The Mets. Similarly, I think we'll remember Savage for his feuds with Flair, Steamboat, and Jake Roberts and The Mega Powers, not Kevin Nash pouring sewage into his limo. As for the rumors, I can't say I wouldn't lose a great deal of respect for him if I found out they were true but personally, I don't think they're very substantiative. If Savage really did bang Stephanie, then why did Vince give him such a heartfelt goodbye when he left? There were also rumors that he'd jump ship back to WWF in '96/'97 and he did an interview with Smackdown! Magazine shortly after Miss Elizabeth's death five or six years ago. I'm thinking whatever happened between them, happened fairly recently. 3. Where would Savage rank in a list of The Greatest of His Era? Greatest of All Time? For Greatest of the '80s, he's easily in The Top Ten if not the Top Five. I'd definitely rank Hogan and Flair ahead of him. But everyone after that is up for debate. As for All Time, I agree with Diamonddust about him being just below the first tier of guys. Ahead of guys like Sid and Kevin Nash but below Hogan, Austin, Rock, Flair, Andre. 4. Don't usually like to divulge in this type of gossip but what are your thoughts on the rumors RE: Savage's estrangement from WWE? Is it a result of his unreasonable demands? A result of an affair with Stephanie? Savage just being content in retirement? Something entirely different? Not sure what the hell is going on. I read an interview with Leapin' Lanny recently where he said even he doesn't know what the hell the problem is between Vince and Savage. I think part of it is Savage's lack of desire to return to the wrestling world and part of it is Savage's out of control ego. Obviously, more than meets the eye is going on. I'm not sure we'll ever find out what exactly is going on between those two. 5. Favorite moments, matches, etc. I'm going to try to avoid the obvious. These matches might not be my absolute favorite but they haven't been mentioned yet! Having started watching in Late '93/early '94, I've always had a lot of fondness for "Macho Man" Randy Savage: The Commentator. Loved him. He cracked me up. Especially whenever he called Bull Nakano "Bull NAKA NAKA kano" in that inimitable rasp. Obviously, I also really like his feud with Crush and their match at WrestleMania X (easily the best match at the show not involving a Hart or a member of The Clique, not that there's a lot of competition there). I know I'm not the only one here who enjoyed his Intercontinental title run more than any of his World title runs. Not that those were bad by any stretch of the imagination but few were better at being the arrogant yet completely paranoid and batshit insane heel that Randy Savage was. I think the best characters in wrestling also ring true to the performers' real life persona and from what I gather from Savage, that sort of rings true for him and that may be why he's ran into some controversy over the course of his career.

Some videos for your viewing pleasure. Randy Savage loses his mind thanks to the actions of "Rugged" Ronnie Garvin and The One Man Gang. ICW circa '80 "Macho Man" Randy Savage Vs Jake "The Snake" Robert. This Tuesday In Texas Part Two of Savage/Roberts Slim Jim Commercial! SNAP INTO IT! Randy Savage- "Speaking From The Heart" (From WrestleMania: The Album) Highlight reel of Savage's victories at WrestleMania IV (From Macho Madness Coliseum Video)

I'm going to be starting a new (sort of) running thread here in General Wrestling sometime late this week/early next week that's going to be a real doozy hopefully but before that I figure we're due for another TSM Profile. This one should be a doozy in its own right... Name: "Macho Man" Randy Savage Also known as: The Spider (indies), The Executioner (ICW), The Macho King, and Mr. Madness Height: 6'2'' Weight: 270 pounds Age: 55 Debut: 1973 Retired: 2004 Accomplishments: Two time WWF World Champion, Four time WCW World Champion, PWI Wrestler of The Year in 1988, Member of The Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame (Class of '96), Winner of Match of The Year for '87 in PWI and The Wrestling Observer (With Ricky Steamboat for their match at WrestleMania III), Former WWF Intercontinental Champion, Former USWA Unified World Heavyweight Champion, Two Time AWA Southern Heavyweight Champion, Three Time NWA Mid America Heavyweight Champion, Three Time ICW World Heavyweight Champion, PWI Most Popular (1988), PWI Least Popular (1989), PWI Comeback Wrestler of The Year (1995), PWI Feud of The Year (1997, with Diamond Dallas Page) Career Summary: Born Randy Poffo, the son of Angelo, a well known wrestler of the '50s and '60s. Began his career during the offseason during his unsuccessful professional baseball career. Would work alongside his father and brother Lanny. Feeling his boys' weren't being given the pushes they deserved, Angelo formed an "outlaw" wrestling promotion, the Louisville, Kentucky based International Championship Wrestling in 1978. He would move onto The Memphis based, Championship Wrestling Alliance in 1983. There he engaged in a memorable feud with The King of Memphis Wrestling, Jerry Lawler based on the real life animosity between ICW and CWA. Savage was signed by The World Wrestling Federation in June of '85. His first angle was one of his most memorable with the heel managers of WWF jostling to sign the new superstar with Savage finally picking his real life wife, Miss Elizabeth to be his valet. Soon after, he engaged in a feud with the biggest name in professional wrestling, Hulk Hogan. In February '86, he won the WWF Intercontinental title from Tito Santana. His memorable nearly fourteen month long reign would be ended by Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat in a legendary match in front of 93,000 (78,000? Aw hell, that's a whole other thread...) at The Pontiac Silverdome at WrestleMania III. Six months later, Savage would turn face by saving his former foe, Hulk Hogan from an attack by Honky Tonk Man (who Savage had begun feuding with over HTM's appraisal of himself as the Greatest Intercontinental Champion of All Time) and The Hart Foundation. Thus The Mega Powers were formed. At WrestleMania IV, Savage would reach the pinnacle of his career, defeating four men in one night to win the vacant WWF World title. He would hold the title for over a year, feuding with the likes of Ted DiBiase, Bad News Brown, and The Twin Towers before turning heel again over Hogan macking on Miss Elizabeth (Even as a mark, it didn't make sense that Mach was the bad guy). Savage would lose the title to Hogan at WrestleMania V. He would toil in the mid-card for a while as "The Macho King" against the likes of Jim Duggan, Brutus Beefcake, and Dusty Rhodes before being propelled back to the top in a feud with the then current WWF World Champion, The Ultimate Warrior. Savage would go cost The Warrior The World title at Royal Rumble '91, which set up a Retirement Match at WrestleMania VII. Savage would once again fall short in a WrestleMania Classic and would turn face again and reunite with Miss Elizabeth. The pair's "wedding ceremony" was interrupted by newly turned heel, Jake "The Snake" Roberts who pulled the ol' snake in the wedding present routine. Savage and Roberts would have a legendary feud, which resulted in Savage making his in-ring return at This Tuesday In Texas. Afterwards, Savage began a feud with WWF World Champion, "Nature Boy" Ric Flair over Flair claiming he slept with Miss Elizabeth. This culminated in Savage defeating Flair to win his second and final WWF World title at WrestleMania VIII. After losing the title to Flair in September '92, he feuded with "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair and the man who cost him the title, Razor Ramon with The Ultimate Warrior and later Mr. Perfect as his partner. After that feud, Savage would become a color commentator and only wrestle occasionally for the rest of his WWF run. He left the company in November '94 to join World Championship Wrestling. His departure at the time was thought to be an amicable one. Not soon after, Savage reignited his feud with "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair. At the first World War 3 three ring battle royal, Savage won his first WCW World title. He would exchange the title back and forth with Flair, becoming the first (and only?) pair of wrestlers to exchange the WWF and WCW World titles. In July '96, he teamed up with Sting and Lex Luger to face invading newcomers Scott Hall and Kevin Nash and their surprise mystery partner, Hulk Hogan, a trio soon to be known as the nWo. Savage and Hogan wrote another chapter in their long history together with another feud, this time with Savage as the face and Hogan as the heel. The two would allign again with Savage joining the nWo in February '97. As a member of the nWo, Savage would participate in a memorable feud with Diamond Dallas Page, that briefly revitalized Savage's somewhat stagnant career. Savage would defeat Sting at Spring Stampede '98 for his third WCW World title but would lose it the next night to (who else?) Hollywood Hogan. The match would help start the heel nWo Hollywood Vs babyface nWo Wolfpac (led by Savage and Kevin Nash) feud. After a brief hiatus in the latter of '98, Savage made his return in The Spring of '99 with a new look and a new manager (his then 22 year old girlfriend Gorgeous George). Savage would form the oh-so-memorable Team Madness stable with Gorgeous George, Miss Madness (the future Molly Holly), Madusa, and Sid Vicious. He would win his fourth and final WCW World title at Bash at The Beach '99 in a tag team match with Sid Vicious against Kevin Nash and Sting but would once again lose the belt the next night to Hollywood Hogan. After a literally shitty match with Dennis Rodman at Road Wild '99, he disappeared and only made several more brief intermittant appearances with the company before leaving in 2000. After a brief return to the ring for TNA in 2004, Savage retired from wrestling and has seemingly been content with his successful voice acting career. Recently various rumors have innundated the internet over the reasons for his departure from the WWF and the ensuing tumultous relationship with Vince McMahon. The most notable of these is the rumor that Savage slept with a then underage Stephanie McMahon. Whatever the reason- Savage's wrestling career appears to be over. Though wrestling fans learned long ago to "never say never" Questions 1. Will we ever see Randy Savage in the world of professional wrestling again? Even in a non wrestling capacity (say getting inducted into a certain Hall of Fame)? Or do you think he's the rare case of a wrestler who saved his money over his career and is content in retirement? 2. Do you think his sterling WWF heyday was in anyway tarnished by his mostly mediocre WCW (Post DDP feud) and TNA runs? Has it been tarnished by the rumors regarding his WWF departure that sprang up after his retirement? 3. Where would Savage rank in a list of The Greatest of His Era? Greatest of All Time? 4. Don't usually like to divulge in this type of gossip but what are your thoughts on the rumors RE: Savage's estrangement from WWE? Is it a result of his unreasonable demands? A result of an affair with Stephanie? Savage just being content in retirement? Something entirely different? 5. Favorite moments, matches, etc.

I'd gladly do a vote as well.

Now if McGriff gets elected into The Hall of Fame, what are the chances of him wearing the Tom Ermanski Baseball World cap on his plaque?

I don't know why this happened but Sid Justice changing his name to Sycho Sid in his 2nd WWF run led to the one other wrestling fan in my 2nd grade class to believe that Sid Justice and Sycho Sid were too entirely different people...the two, however, were related! Man, wrestling getting popular in '97/'98 was a godsend because it meant I didn't have to hang out with dopes like that if I wanted to talk about last night's RAW.