King Kamala

Del Wilkes had a history of back injuries and eventually reached a breaking point and had to retire in October of '97. Even though it sucks that the dude had to end his career as he was in the middle of his most successful run, it was pretty good timing because I couldn't see him lasting very long in Attitude Era WWF. If he had, I could imagine him doing an overly patriotic dork heel gimmick ala early Kurt Angle or The Fabulous Rougeaus. I think Tom Brandi still does The Patriot gimmick to this day on indy shows. The forgettable wrestlers of mid '90s WWF got to look out for each other I guess.

I was thisclose to picking Jimmy Hart. I had an entry written up for him and everything but then I realized The Grand Wizard of Wrestling was still on the board and he'd be a better fit. I did squander the opportunity to have Jimmy Hart and Gary Hart combine their heel stables to take down a mutual foe and as a result, start an interview segment entitled "Hart to Hart"

In RE: To Diamonddust. My line of thinking with my venues is I'm trying to build a rough territory. Literally right before I made my first venue pick, I realized other people would (and did) try to snatch up venues in the Northeast, South, and The Midwest (and Japan) so I decided to go in another direction and do the West Coast. The West Coast might get derided for not being as passionate and hardcore as East Coast or Southern wrestling fans and while that's true to a degree, I think Los Angeles and San Francisco are as rich in wrestling history as any other major city in the U.S.

Fantastic news. Just fantastic. I had the venue and backup wrestler in place and now I find out I can pick both. Just excellent news. Anyways, my next venue isn't the biggest venue in the world (It currently seats around 7,000) but it is a shrine for professional wrestling and boxing. It played host to some of the biggest wrestling events in the '30s, '40s, '50s, '60s, and '70s before closing its door temporarily in The Mid '80s. Stars such as "Classy" Freddie Blassie, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, The Sheik, Gorgeous George, Buddy Rogers, Bobo Brazil, Mil Mascaras, and Andre The Giant thrilled fans at this legendary arena. After a massive renovation, this arena reopened and hosted ECW Heatwave 2000. Fun fact for boxing fans: Scenes from Rocky were filmed at this venues. Like The Cow Palace, this no-frills old school venue is rich in history and may be the second most famous professional wrestling venue on the West Coast. Of course I am talking about none other than... ....The Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, California My next pick is another old school guy. I was going to pick another wrestler but then realized this guy was still on the board. One of the greatest managers of his time and the perfect ringleader for the mini-stable of muscleheaded jerks ("Superstar" Billy Graham, Don Muraco, and Brutus Beefcake). In real life, he managed Muraco to two WWF Intercontinetal title runs and Graham to a WWWF World title run. He's a two time former PWI Manager of The Year award winner and was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1995. He's the one and only, late, great... ...The Grand Wizard of Wrestling.

I think Goldberg was set to return at the cancelled Big Bang PPV in May and WCW was going to slowly set up a Goldberg-Scott Steiner program for the World Heavyweight title.

You know- lost in all of this is the fact that OOG's time expired about twelve hours ago and Drury's pick expired about four hours ago. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe Garth is up.

I sort of got roped into seeing Gnarls Barkley in Boston next Wednesday by my brother. I'm a casual fan so I'm positive that at the very least I won't hate it and I hear they're great live. I was disappointed to find out that they aren't wearing goofy costumes anymore. Hercules and Love Affair are opening. I'm pretty sure I've heard the name in this folder and I'm digging the 30 second samples on ITunes.

I agree with Mazto. Let people have venues if they want 'em, if they don't....FUCK 'EM. FUCK 'EM! FUCK 'EM against the wall with handcuffs on and crazy glue on their lips!

The two Wayne's World movies are way superior as a whole than the Austin Powers series as a whole. I think that the first Austin Powers may be the best movie out of the bunch though. I just don't want to see another one of either because like Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase before them, I think Mike Myers and Dana Carvey may have lost the ability (and the right with the moviegoing public) to carry a big comedy movie. And by the way, am I the only one who liked Wayne's World 2 more than the first one? Walken! The Naked Indian! The scene where they inadvertantly dress up like The Village People and somehow end up on stage at a gay club! That movie's gold.

Oh God- what have we done to deserve this? And I wouldn't want to see Wayne's World 3 anymore than I would Austin Powers 4. We all know about how shitty The Love Guru was but has anybody besides me seen Dana Carvey's recent HBO special? I saw about fifteen minutes of it the other day and it was just awful. Carvey hasn't done anything remotely funny since Wayne's World 2. The Dana Carvey Show was sort of funny but Carvey was easily the worst part about it. Steve Carrell, Stephen Colbert, and Robert Smigel clearly carried that show. Wayne's World 3 could possibly ruin my good memories from the first two while Austin Powers 4 would just be another step down in an increasingly mediocre series.

I'd definitely like to have another round of venue drafts. I think, for me at least, the goal of this draft has evolved beyond building one super card. I say this with all due respect to mellow, but the size of this draft isn't really conducive to one single supercard. I don't know about the rest of you but I know I'm going to have a hard time, squeezing everybody on the card without having an absurd amount of matches or sticking all of my leftovers in a battle royal (although a battle royal might be fitting given my primary venue).

Wasn't Melanie Pillman interviewed on RAW the night after Pillman died? Even as a ten year old mark at the time, I thought that was a tad exploitative.

I don't feel too bad. VX seems like he doesn't like the majority of the posters here which bring up... 35. A good percentage of our popular posters (more often than not openly) dislike almost everybody else on the board. TSM- It's kind of like high school.

Alright, my first non-wrestler pick might not be the biggest guy still left on the board but he's certainly the best fit for my roster. He had a great deal of success as a manager in World Class Championship Wrestling and later on in Jim Crockett Promotions. He also served as the booker for WCCW during its golden years. He'll be serving as the dastardly manager for One Man Gang, Gino Hernandez, and The Skyscrapers. Like in the real life WCCW of the mid 80s, he'll be doing whatever it takes to bring down The Von Erich Brothers. My 30th round selection is none other than the late, great... ..."Playboy" Gary Hart I was originally going to pick another venue in Chicago but at the last minute I decided against it wanting to carve my own territory.This arena has been a popular venue for wrestling for over sixty years and still hosts the rare show today. It played host to WCW SuperBrawl from 1997 to 2000 and WWE No Way Out 2004. Its also played host to to the AWA in the mid 80s and more recently ROH. Of course, it's most known to old school fans as the site of a legendary yearly battle royal from 1967 to 1981, that was won by the likes of Andre The Giant, Ray Stevens, Pat Patterson, and my roster's very own, Don Muraco. It's also to my knowledge the first venue picked that's on the West Coast of The United States. Of course the arena I'm talking about is none other than... ...The Cow Palace outside of San Francisco, California.

Hey, I go up there. but mostly to General Wrestling, which is the least retarded section. Eh why am I trying to defend myself anyways? VX already probably dislikes me and frequenting the wrestling folders isn't going to change that.

Have you tried watching a match without them? Seriously though, I completely understand what you're saying. I'm just upset I have to go back to the drawing board.

We are not selecting announcers. Oh well that's why...for some reason, I thought this round was for all non-wrestlers. Will there be a round for that or no?

I hope this isn't considered a spoiler but since there are so many of them, I figure it isn't. Is anybody else surprised that no announcers have been selected thus far? I mean Heenan and Cornette can be color commentators but I think they were both selected to be managers. There's one announcer in particular who I thought would be one of the first non-wrestler selections.

If I could give any TSM member their own second rate reality show, it'd be Milky. But JN News would be a close second. Dude obviously lives in his own world. I want to see what makes him ticks.

Yeah, the franchise operated restaurants will still be open but the corporate run restaurants are done. I really didn't care for Ruby Tuesday's the one time I went there. Nine times out of ten, I'll take a fast food place over any of those sit down chains. It's the same crap for the most part anyways, just slightly higher quality and marked up $5.

Well yeah, like any fast food burgers, Wendy's are incredibly inconsistant. On the rare occassion that I do order a burger there, I aim low and get one off the value menu. The real draw of Wendy's is The Value Menu and The Frostys.

It's astonishing how much WCW screwed up in '98. That was, in my mind, the greatest roster in professional wrestling history. The only ones that come close are some of the WWF rosters of the mid 80s and the WWF/E roster around '02. There were so many paths WCW could have taken that would have made them serious mint and they took almost none of them. I know we all love to bitch about the current product, be it WWE or TNA but there will never ever be a more frustrating wrestling promotion than World Championship Wrestling. Reading about its downfall is somehow simultaneously amusing, enfuriating, and depressing. I guess the AWA's demise came close but their downfall was a gradual process over the course of six or so years while WCW went from the hottest wrestling company in the world to going out of business in a little under three.

The burgers are alright. I probably like them the best out of the big three (Heck, Wendy's is by far my favorite overall out of the big three). If you really want to man up, I'd recommend the 3/4 pound Triple Cheeseburger.

I did a fantasy booking for WrestleMania 25 on another board (ironically, I did it shortly before WrestleMania 24). All I remember was a Cena-Batista main event and The Undertaker/HBK Hell In The Cell II. The former is probably happening in some form at SummerSlam and the latter is probably not that good of an idea.