DrVenkman PhD

I got the big nothing from Cogeco this morning, but better yet, the internet here is all messed up for some reason (they were doing work on the phone lines in the morning and there was no phone service until 9:30, but once that came back, the net didn't) so I get to leech off a slow unsecured wireless connection in the neighbourhood! Woo!

Yeah, a few years ago I pretty much ignored this area (and thus have little idea what a lot of classic moments being referenced are all about) but people knew who I was in wrestling / VG folders. I don't say an awful lot in the VG area now.

General Interest Questions 1. Who are you and what's your business here? Born Stephen Gray, I had 2 main interests when I first logged on to the net in 1996 - looking up wrestling news and finding naked pictures of celebrities. I guess a lot hasn't changed in 12 years. Anyhow, in 1997 I got turned on to IRC and began chatting with the Efnet's finest under the handle "APowers" (which someone else with a dedicated internet line later took, causing me to take up the mantle of DrVenkman as I was a longtime fan of Ghostbusters, both The Real and film variety). Someone I was talking with suggested I head over to Rantsylvania to read me some Don Becker Raw recaps and Scott Keith PPV recaps. This led to me writing a few Rant Crew articles (wow, me and cabbageboy DO have something in common!) - I believe they were about ranking the quality of all the WrestleMania's that existed at the time and making fun of WCW for the upcoming Goldberg heel turn that was going to "shock the wrestling world" but actually surprise no one. That would be the origin of Stephen Gray - the wrestling columnist. DrVenkman the TSM Poster was born out of that as, while I was aware of the old RS board, I think I only posted a few things there. Once I began writing for the The Smarks section of 411Wrestling a friend of mine (Drew_K) in the SWF mentioned the forum and I believe asked me to plug the SWF in a column. I forget the exact details but around March 2003 the Smarks sub-section of 411 was dead and they didn't want to oversaturate the merged sections with columnists who were infrequently writing, so Scott gave me the axe while Tim Livingston continued to do whatever it was he did. Dames was a fan of my work and offered me a writing position on the old site which I took with the exact same enthusiasm as I did with my 2002 run at 411 - a few columns in a row, followed by several long gaps without content. Once I was writing for the site, I began to frequent the board on a more regular basis, starting off slow (comparing Doug Basham's old appearance to that of Cousin Larry Appleton) to working my way up the ranks of Poster Tournaments to my current mod spot as Mr. Wrestling. A funny note about my columns was - before someone erased my name from The Archives (thanks guys!), it had some completely untrue description of my work. It really talked me up as some well known internet writer that wasn't afraid to tell it LIKE IT WAS~! That amused me. 2. When did you discover an interest in wrestling? 1991. I can't place an EXACT date as I distinctly remember at least two angles from almost the exact same time as the first wrestling angles that hooked me (Earthquake squashing Damien and Undertaker locking Warrior in a casket). It was an odd thing too - I had friends at school and a cousin who LOVED wrestling, but I never showed any interest. I recall one time I was at a friend's house and his dad declared "let's watch some wrestling!" and he was all excited, but I decided it was time to go home. It was long after I was at a friend's overnight birthday party when we were all excited to watch Wrestling Challenge on Sunday morning. Basically, I was aware of wrestling but thought nothing of it, then one day while watching TV at my grandma's I saw Billy Red Lyons informing me that Ted DiBiase was going to be in action. Mr. DiBiase then cut a promo while standing in front of a graphic with a bunch of money in the background and the words "Million Dollar Man". I guess I decided that was awesome and said "hey grandma, I like wrestling! Let's go rent some tapes". 3. The Company Line: A/B/C. I couldn't get enough wrestling when I first started, and as luck would have it TBS came to our Canadian cable system in 1992, so WWF, WCW, anything I could find. I think I was even excited to find some GWF on ESPN when I was in Frankenmuth, MI for a vacation in 1993. A local Detroit station that we could only get over the antenna used to show nothing but wrestling, cartoons, and movies so around 1995/1996 I watched some but not much USWA. It was a big deal when they began showing ECW in the fall of 98 but some weeks it got replaced by a Friday airing of Shotgun Challenge, and then was obsolete by 1999. In what is probably not a coincidence, by the time ECW was on TNN I was reading internet rants from folks like Scott Keith that just could not stand the company and in turn, I always seemed to have a very negative view on them as well (in retrospect, Anarchy Rulz 99 is probably one of the best PPVs of 1999, just behind WCW Spring Stampede). I really tried with TNA early but it was difficult to watch in Canada before they moved to Spike and I just didn't like the FSN Impact era enough to download and watch the shows. I watched the PPVs with friends at their house or Scott D'Amore's "Stars of the Game" bar when I could, and thought things were looking great when Christian arrived on the scene, but as soon as Scott Steiner showed up I begin losing interest. They still had good PPVs, but it was becoming apparent that the company was going to shift focus away from turning talented "unknowns" (to the mainstream) into superstars to pushing washed up "main eventers". Impact just got worse and worse as well. I got a DVR during the summer and began recording Impact so I could actually watch it and not just say "this sounds stupid" when I read spoilers, but the past few weeks I forgot to record the show and didn't seem to care (for those wondering why I don't set it as a "Series Record", I get easily agitated when my DVR records multiple instances of a show just because something isn't properly labelled as a repeat). As for my WCW fandom early on, I stuck with them until Hogan, though as a kid I don't think I really realized that. Once WCW 1994 became the same WWF I watched in 1991, it became kind of pointless (I might have been a bit mad Bulldog never beat Vader for the title in 1993 too). I was interested in Hogan vs. Flair and really hoped Flair would beat Hogan at the August 1994 Clash with the help of his "Perfect" or "Ultimate" weapon, but those were just teases. WCW in 1995 made didn't register with me at all but the nWo angle got me interested. It was always a distant second to my WWF love - and in fact, while the nWo was interesting, all it REALLY did was cause me to want WWF to be even better and beat WCW (mission accomplished, eventually - though at the time I thought by Survivor Series 96 and the beginning of Austin's rise, WWF was being screwed by some sort of Ted Turner Nielsen scam). I had some off and on interest in watching Nitro on Tuesday on TSN throughout the late 90s (and I even watched the odd Thunder episode on TBS!) but I really did not like WCW by the end. I've been to a ROH show in NYC and had an awesome time and even have a few DVDs, but following a company that produces content soley on $20 DVDs is as easy to follow as a company whose weekly TV costs $10 every Wednesday. I'm quite aware of how "the internet" can help me solve that problem (and now that my 20GB HD has been replaced with a 200GB HD, it's not out of the question) but sometimes I think 'why bother?". I did manage to catch some ROH on The Fight Network but they seem to have cycled back to 2003 or so. I was happy to catch the Do Fixer vs. Blood Generation match though. WWE is and has always been "my favourite". I've lessened on this stance quite a bit since getting a bit older, but at one point my attitude was "Vince McMahon provided me with hours of free entertainment, so I can let some of this crap slide". Very much a WWE Apologist at times, even if it means it contradicts with a complaint I have about TNA. I can't seem to help it at times - it's just where my loyalty lies. 4. (Not So) Favourites: A. When I first started, Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Roddy Piper, LOD - you know, guys kids in 1991 were supposed to like. For Halloween '91, I dressed up as Animal at school (well, I used the facepaint) and Ultimate Warrior at night. I also enjoyed Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels' stuff early on. Big Bossman was also awesome - I used to have a foam nightstick (and Duggan 2x4) purchased at Survivor Series 91. I loved it when Savage won the title at Mania VIII. B. I always wanted Piper to kick Flair's ass. I was very mad when Flair won the title at Rumble 92, yet pretty excited to tell my classmates because I didn't think they could possibly believe this development. It's funny though - I hated heels for, oh, maybe a year, and once I was 11 decided a lot of heels were pretty cool (Rick Martel, for example). I really hated Dustin Rhodes when I was a kid though. C. As I was answering this, I realized I don't really have favourites anymore. I just have guys that I think, "Oh! That guy vs. The other guy will be a good match!". I think Shawn is really great though. I don't think I could possibly classify Jeff Hardy or Cena as favourites, but they've been bringing the work lately. CM Punk is fine, but could I call him a favourite? I guess I can for now, but we'll see. Randy Orton has been on a roll but it sounds odd referring to him as a favourite. I do look forward to Beth Phoenix matches, though. And Kelly is probably my favourite girl to watch try and wrestle. Santino also makes me consistently laugh. Specific Questions about your Interest 5/7. How would you gauge your current interest level in the product? That's hard to say - I'm obviously still quite interested (I'm a wrestling mod, made this topic, etc.) but the peak is gone. Worse, I'm often more excited to watch a Raw from 11 years ago 24/7 than I am to watch a SmackDown from this week. I'm always up for Raw though - I think just because it's live and a tradition now. Raw was pretty bad in 2003 but I stuck with it, but I was pretty quick to abandon SmackDown in 2004. Not just after Eddie lost the title, either - as soon as Angle was out with an injury, JBL was a main eventer, and we were getting characters like Mordecai and Kenzo while John Cena was only getting a US title push (I was a big Cena fan in 2004) and feuding with Rene Dupree, it was hit or miss on whether or not I bothered with SmackDown. There was a time when I was pretty adamant about taping every show that I would possibly miss, watching Velocity, making sure we got to the bar before a PPV so we could see Heat, etc. Now, I just want to see Raw on Monday, I'll PROBABLY watch ECW after it's DVR'd Friday night (a lot of FF though - I just watch Bourne and Swagger and what not, ignore Mark Henry) and SmackDown I just watch Saturday morning. Even if I'm home on Friday, I've just become accustomed to watching it later. 6. At what point in wrestling history (if it's not now) would you consider your interest to have been at it's peak? I would have to say the peak of my fandom was 1991-2001. I didn't think much about it at the time (as I was pretty much towing the company line of great an idea this was, how it would showcase more talent instead of th same guys for 4 hours a week) but the brand extension took a lot out of me. Raw was the show I wanted to like, but in 2002/2003, SmackDown was where the best matches and wrestlers were. Then SmackDown hit what seemed to be rock bottom in 2004 (as described above). When I was a kid I always used to get really excited about upcoming PPVs. Even as I got older and the time difference between PPVs lessened, I still had some sense of "oh boy, a PPV is coming!". I guess a lot of that was because we'd have PPV parties. I know a lot less people in the area who would be into that (my wrestling fan friends moved away, but when Royal Rumble tickets went on sale, I found out a lot of people are quiet wrestling fans like me) and there's not a lot to get excited about knowing you're adding a big dollar figure to your cable bill. I do get pretty excited about WWE 24/7 content updates though! 8. Have you ALWAYS stuck with wrestling even during times of low interest, or are there any lengths of time you stopped watching for a period only to come back at a later date? 1995 was tough. I said this was the year WCW kind of fell of my radar and really, it was only WWF loyalty that kept me there. I liked it at the time, but really, I've always said if the push of King Mabel didn't turn me off of wrestling, I'm probably in it for awhile. The KOTR did a lot of damage though - while watching the show, my cousin decided wrestling was very boring now and he questioned why he ever liked it. This ended with me not seeing another PPV until he got back into wrestling in 1998 and we ordered FALL BRAWL 98! I think I almost lost him again right then and there, but thankfully he stuck through until Unforgiven 2001, at which point I think he just grew out of it. 9. If applicable, at what point did you decide to pack in the wrestling fandom? Interesting Questions of a Somewhat Random Nature 10. What style of pro wrestling best resonates with your personal tastes? I'm one of those guys that will enjoy a spot/spot/spot match, but I'm more entertained by "Superstars" and entertaining antics. I like matches that have high spots that make sense and have a good build. Why should I care that someone was DDTd on from the 2nd rope to the mat 10 minutes into a match when 3 minutes earlier he was took a piledriver on the floor? Action that never stops can be fine, but I tend to like my wrestling to be a world of entertainment. I may have hated Jim Duggan by 1994 in WCW, but put the man in a Raw ring any day for a 2 minute appearance and I'll be happy (though I recognize as a match, that probably wouldn't be very good). As long as a match has good flow, isn't too dull, and the spots are executed well, I'm happy. 11. Where do you "draw the line" with the whole "suspended disbelief" deal? Wherever it's convenient for whatever beliefs I'm claiming to have about something at a certain moment. I tend to get mad at everything TNA does but would likely ignore similar infractions in WWE. I don't get worked up about the brand extension rules - I used to, in 2002, but it's almost 2009 now and the lines have long since been blurred. I get more bothered when Meltzer or Alvarez will say "so much for the brand extension" when talking about the IC title contendership tournament or a 6 man tag match featuring various brands on ECW - none of this breaks any established brand rule (ECW can appear on any brand they want and by proxy, anyone can appear on ECW. ECW could be main evented by John Cena vs. HHH and it would be perfectly kosher). 12. Do you attend live events? Sure do. Looking forward to going to the Rumble in January! 13. If applicable, what are the best and worst experiences you've had going to a show live? I've been to house shows, PPVs, TV tapings, an ROH show, and some local indy shows (Border City Wrestling) and generally had a good time at all of them. The NYC ROH show in December 2005 was a great show with one the type of crowd experience I've never had before and probably won't have again. Being a wrestling nerd, it was pretty exciting for me to see such folks as Green Lantern Fan and Vlad the Superfan walking around. I also was at a very poorly attended WWE house show in 2003 where a friend and I socre row 4 seats on the floor, and that was fun. When it comes right down to picking a "favourite", it's hard to go against going to Mania 23. THAT was a fun time, and one of those times where yes, I DID have "excitement butterflies" in my stomach, not just the day of the event, but leading right up to it. This included a dream where I freaked out about forgetting my camera at home. The worst show was a bit of a funny situation, as it was a great show at the time, just bad in retrospect. The SmackDown taping right before Mania X7 was the first live event I had been too since a WCW house show in 1998 (which I've mentioned before was surprisingly awesome) and the first televised event I had been to in almost 10 years (and the first event I'd ever been to that would be on free TV). This was all very exciting for me. Before the show I had a bit of a situation where I didn't know how to get from the bus stop (the Tunnel Bus drops you off at Cobo Hall, which has an indoor passage to Joe Louis Arena) to The Joe, so I ended up crossing The Lodge expressway. This was all pretty dangerous. Waiting for the doors to open I spotted the Brooklynn Bralwer out in the parking lot. I yelled "Hey Brawler!" and he said "Yo!" - this was exciting stuff! Then the tapings began. Heat or Jakked or whatever show was being taped before SmackDown in March 2001 was fine (and not airing in the US that week due to Mania, so bonus matches for us) as it was 4 back to back matches, but all involving lower card WWE / Border City Wrestling jobbers. The actual SmackDown taping was pretty atrocious though. I believe this was the "Shawn Michaels was sent home" show, so I don't know if they were hastily re-writing segments during the show or what, but the wait times between segments were BRUTAL. They didn't air videos back then or anything - they just took advantgae of the fact they weren't on the air and took FOREVER (well, 5 minutes or so, but that seemed to be a very long time and riled up the drunks in my section) to do segments. Also keep in mind when I say 5 minutes between segments, I mean they'd do a very short match, take a break, then show Shane McMahon arriving backstage and talking to BIlly Gunn, then another break. Thank goodness any SD! taping I've been to since has had videos during the breaks and/or had to move quickly to get to the live ECW portion of the show. 14. What are your favourite matches, moments, or events? CM Punk's title win was a great TV moment for 2008. I love WrestleMania X7. Bret vs. Owen from Mania X is probably one of my all time favourite matches. 15. Freestyle I think I said enough for now.

The fact that "last year" can refer to something that happened 23 months ago bothers me, more so because it's technically correct but just sounds wrong. Case in point, there was something on the news yesterday morning about a fire truck crash from "last year". It's December 2008 and this happened in February 2007.

Website draft.

I hope Cogeco fixes the "infinite cycle" problem I'm having with the Big Ones menu/ I'd like other options besides the first 7 GAB matches and I want to watch and tape Tuesday in Texas. I also believe from previous years that "Troops" is considered a TV Classic (it's just an episode of Raw). I was hoping the knowledge that COTC IV was the PYBO winner meant WWE.com updated the 24/7 page, but I see it's just taken from Sunflower (who, side note, list Holiday Hell is being in both 95 and 96, heh).

late slip

I think it's a type of weapon grapple when someone is on the ground. I did it by accident with... someone, I forget who.

You never know, Roddy Piper had hip replacement surgery and went on to beat Hogan in a match people assumed was for the world title in 1996, a US champion in 1998, and a tag champion in 2005. The tag title reign saved his life too!

I knew someone that quit watching WWE over that tease. I laughed like a mad man at it though.

Yeah, like I said I did catch on to his sarcasm and how he calls everything either the best or worst. However, there was a point he was being a bit stubborn with me. He was recapping a 24/7 commercial that showed Hogan pin Flair with a clothesline and commented that someone must be pissed at Flair for editing out the leg drop. I told him that was the real finish, he responded with "why are they talking about the legdrop then?!". I explained move by move how the finish went down and that nothing was edited to make Flair look bad, but nothing was ever said about it afterwards. Oh well, no biggie. I guess I get mad at The Board because they're rude to me. Well, rovert is.

Point of interest: I felt like referencing Dr. Stephen T. Colbert when splitting this off from General Discussion, so feel free to not at all discuss their place as a tag team and possible individual greatness for Morrison.

I'm dropping out. Twisted has final say here but I assume it's 100% cool for the next person that reads this and wants in to just announce two picks and take my place. Have fun everyone.

Don't forget Charlie Haas! I want DiBiase basically for the purpose of changing Cody Rhodes theme music.

They should be nicer to Bryan. Except when he's on one of his "I'm always right" rants and refuses to acknowledge corrections I send him. I think I finally realize (even though I've read just about the entire archive now and should have caught on) that when Bryan makes a statement like "This has got to be the first time Shawn has worked an opener in a decade", he's not saying it to open himself up to people like me saying "Shawn worked the opener against Edge at the 2005 Royal Rumble". If Meltzer were to make the same statement in the Observer, he'd make a quick note in the next issue about the correction.

I thought that too, but apparently Kevin Dunn and co. thought that was the kind of 'hip and with it' attitude the kids would love.

That and Blu-Ray won't survive the economic crisis. Marvin told me so.

Ha, CREAT~!

Plus the #1 Contender for the Intercontinental Title Tournament continues!

I have to give props to the Geico parody with Duggan. "Why'd they stop making those foam 2x4's anyway!?". The narrator also sounded a lot like Christopher Sabat but I'm sure it wasn't. Either way, my mind heard Piccolo saying the lines it and it was great. I'm also looking forward to a 3rd DX Christmas commercial next week.

If the JBL/Shawn angle leads to Shawn dressed up as a limo driver, it's golden.

Well it depends what you mean by "hate". Neither parent enjoys it, my dad has said he "has no use for it and it does nothing for him", and I'm sure my mom secretly (and a few times not so secretly) resents the amount of money I've spent on tickets, PPVs, and DVDs (and by proxy, amount SHE spent when I was a kid at home) in my lifetime. But I wouldn't say they HATE it. Hate is a strong word, but they really, really, really don't like it. But yes, your family clearly HATES it.

Not a requirement in this draft.

The only problem I had with Raw were some odd continuity issues, and I don't even know if that would be the correct term. There were two things they set up during the show that made no sense by the end. The lesser one would be removing Rey from his match with Miz, then all of the sudden Miz comes out for his match and there's no dramatic "Is Rey able to compete?" pause, he just comes on out. The injury played a part in the match so I can't fault the lack of callback there, but it was a bit odd to have Layla ask Stephanie to remove Rey from the tournament, Stephanie agree, and then Rey wrestles anyway. The bigger issue was Kane turning face but not being a face at all. I'll choose to interpret his comments as playing into the fact he's nuts, but I'm sure it confused others into thinking he turned face. Other than that, fun stuff. Jericho's promo work tonight was great, I enjoyed Punk/Kofi vs Priceless (but another slight gripe - what kind of tag champions have separate entrances? Do these guys think they're Cena and HBK?), Santino's antics, and the rest. Is there a rule that Edge has to face Cena on Raw within a few weeks whenever he (Edge) wins a world title? I think Edge did his Raw farewell job to Cena (but that might have been HBK, who I recall got to give Kurt Angle the Raw farewell job when he won the World Heavyweight Title in a battle royal) and he wrestled Cena in a champ vs. champ match at the 2007 draft. So, here we are, another 3 hour special and another champ vs. champ Edge vs. Cena match. I'm not complaining though, they work well together. I noticed people were questioning the comment about a great Jericho vs. Hardy rivalry with no answer given, but they did have a series of matches in the spring before Jeff was suspended that were pretty good. They also had a really good match at No Way Out 2003, and that was when Jeff was awful and blowing every spot.