RavishingRickRudo

I totally disagree. During the 2000's episode she had on very little make up during the behind-the-scenes and looked hotter than she does slutted up.

Someone in DVDVRs (awful) AI thread said that Prince was going to be on it. Maybe that's why Ace has been so damn fucking retarded in avoiding Prince songs...

Correction: He went into Drazen's lair with TWO handguns. He was Jack Bawoo.

It is very hard to classify Professional Wrestling. It is very much a unique thing. Beyond the "pseudo-sport" and beyond "low-brow entertainment" that the mainstream would classify it as. Beyond the "art" and "morality play" that wrestling fans try to intellectualize it as. Beyond that. What professional wrestling is, is... well... professional wrestling. There isn't much you can compare it to. The people who call it a pseudo-sport, the people who call it low-brow entertainment, the people who call it art and a morality play... they all have something there, but it's not the whole story. The goal of sport is to present a competition with winners and losers, which wrestling does present. Wrestling is pretty simple to 'get' and it does pander to the lowest common denominator. Wrestling tells stories and takes a certain amount of skill to perform, so one could see it as an art. And there is the element of good vs. bad and morality in it, and it is put forth before an audience. But there is one distinct element, and it's the most defining element of professional wrestling, that is not covered by these descriptions. Wrestling is about the audience. It is about satisfying the audience, it is about connecting with the audience, it is about getting a bigger audience in your next show than the one you have on your last. It is about making money. Sport is not about making money. It does make money, but the primary goal of the athletes is to win and score points. Art is about conveying a feeling, or a situation, or showing a degree of skill. You can't really compare a painting or a song with wrestling. You can compare some elements of a film or theatre with wrestling, but the goal of film and theatre is not really to make money - that's the goal of producers and studios - but the actors, director, writers, etc. their goals are not to make money, and they don't have the immediacy of the live audience. Those involved in the process may want to be telling a story, or to perform well, or to get an award or critical acclaim, but it's not about making money. I think this is where we start to pervert what wrestling is. Wrestlers are not actors. They are not artists. There is not an OSCAR that they are looking for. Yet some rate them as if they are out to win one - or at least the wrestling equivalent of an OSCAR - which is unfair. I find it silly to criticize a wrestler for no selling something when that very no selling gets a strong reaction from the crowd - as it is the wrestlers job to get that reaction from the audience. "Selling" is a means of getting a reaction from the audience, just as storytelling is, just as cupping your hand to your ear is, just as doing a really cool move is, or working a sleeper hold, or payback spots, or even no selling. There are many ways to get that reaction, but it's the reaction that matters, not how they get it. Their performances are only as good as the reaction it gets from the live audience. That is what makes wrestling unique. Which leads me to the most apt comparison I can make to professional wrestling. And that is... Stand-up Comedy. Comics are similiar to Wrestlers in this regard: Jokes are moves; There is build and pacing and even selling, and most importantly, there is the audience. A successful comedian, a good comedian, is one who does what? Get the most laughs. Get's the loudest reaction. Ditto Wrestlers. A Comedian doesn't have a script to work from. Neither to wrestlers. Sure, there are preplanned spots for both, but if the audience isn't feeling it, then good Comedians will adapt. When to tell the right joke, to know when the right time to follow-up on a joke, to know how long to let the audience laugh for, to know when to leave the stage. That's what comedy is all about, that is what wrestling is all about. The ultimate goal is to make the audience laugh. It doesn't matter if their stories make sense, it doesn't matter if the Comedian contradicts what he said, it doesn't matter whether it is high brow or low brow, it doesn't matter if the Comedian uses a thousand F-bombs or none... as long as the Comedian gets that audience laughing... it doesn't matter. It only matters when the audience isn't laughing. It's silly to call a Comedian who has an audience eating out of the palm of his hand, to bad Comedian. You may not like it, you may not laugh, but that's where true objectivity comes in - even when it doesn't work for you, you can still admit to it working for others and give the Comedian credit for that. Ditto Wrestlers. Yet we don't evaluate Comics on things like logic. Which is a big problem with how fans look at wrestling. It doesn't matter if the match doesn't make sense, it doesn't matter if someone forgets to sell the leg that was being worked on, it doesn't matter if they used high spots or garbage... as long as the Wrestlers get the audience into it... it doesn't matter. It only matters when the audience isn't into it. THEN you can look at things like no selling, like logic, like high spots and garbage. Bringing up those things to explain why a match doesn't work, when the match did work, doesn't make sense. Why it didn't work _for you_, sure, but then don't claim objectivity when you make those statements in the face of it working for the vast majority of those watching live. We evaluate Comics on how they made us laugh and how they made the audience laugh. Not by how the story about the baby selling weed on the street doesn't make sense. I think the same should apply to Wrestler. Because the goals of the two are more similar than they are to any other performer out there.

*Hands in the middle* "WHOOOOOOOOA MCMAHON!"

The fact that Shawn Michaels -Mr Showstealer- blatently tried to steal the crowd from Hogan by pinballing at SS and failed should show the power of Hulkamania.

Because two years of a hot rivalry wasn't enough. Classic Stephanie Writing. Ignore the obvious, the stuff that people would care about, insert something retarded and which she thinks is "clever" and no one cares about. Though Debs involvement was probably more Austins doing than anything. Still, Classic Steph Writing even if she didn't write it.

Well duh. Vince has stupid ideas, gives the stupid ideas to the writing team, who actually manages to make the stupid ideas even stupider, and do so in a way for the wrestlers -the vast majority of whom can't act or deliver the promos they write, which they can't seem to understand- to make seem, believe it or not, even stupiderer. If Vince just gave the stupid idea to the wrestlers to do with how they like, the shows wouldn't be AS stupid as they are now. The Debra thing was just to stir up artificial conflict between the two.

Goosebumps. Fuckin Bucky, why did you have to start to kick ass? Poor McPhee. Too many Country Ballads though. Where's the honky tonks dammit!?!

Yeah, this is a good idea, hide her titties. Great fucking work. What is up with this shirty-deal? Uh oh. We could be seein McPhee gone tomorrow. That was crappy crap crap crapperly crappy.

Oh shit. This is awesome.

If they gave Hogan enough money, he would lose. If Austin doesn't want to lose to Hogan, there is no amount of money that would get him to do that.

I am loving that top. Both tops. OH SHIT, She's goin HARDCORE COUNTRY. Those eye brows. Bouncing. Why must it only be the eye brows?

BTW, if McPhee does No One Needs To Know she'd fucking murder everyone with it (which she won't, she'll probably pick somethin by Faith Hill or some trash)

*Points* THAT WAS BORING. C'MON. THAT WAS BORING.

Come on Ace... Do it Ace... Reach out Ace... Dammit Ace.

Euck. Not that it was a bad performance, cause it wasn't, I just really hated the way she finished off the "how do I ever, ever surviiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive" where she carries the note as a strong, power chord, whereas Trisha or Leanne played it more tenderly and went up an octave. Paula is John Cena tonight, Simon is HHH, and Randy is Edge.

BTW a better John Denver song would be Leavin on a Jet Plane. Taylor can really do the melancholy justice. The better Shania Twain song would have been No One Needs to Know. Though, Taylor tooooooooooooooooooootally should have done Callin Baton Rouge

Wow, Mandisa totally not playing to her strengths. I was about to make the same point as Randy - it showed her personality which is needed, but she's good at the big notes, the lil stuff in between she sucks at. And that song was 99% lil stuff. "Why am I booed for being constructive?"

I thought the song was good, but that's mainly cause I love me some JD.

It's so funny to see Randy try and hold back his true thoughts, for Paula to sugar coat her true thoughts, and then for Simon just to spout out what he really thinks.

TAYLOR DOING JOHN DENVER! I TOUCH MYSELF NOW.

And if you look at Austin vs. Rock, that did not work because of the storyline and the writing. The storyline for that sucked, as did the storyline coming out of it. It worked because of the two guys involved and the awesome production team that put together the My Way video. Actually, WM 17 in general had pretty crappy storylines going into it. Benoit/Angle was put together at the last minute, the TLC 2 was based on the novelty of the TLC and little else (scooping Spike Dudley and Rhyno brought a lil more excitement to it), HHH/Taker was your standard Taker WM build, Jericho and Regal was just bad, I can't even remember anything for Test/Eddie, the hardcore match and the 6 man was just strung together, the womens title was crap... the only "storyline-driven" feud that would be classified as successful would be McMahon vs. McMahon.

I'm not a big Shane fan, but if you look at the division he heads and what he is in charge of, he's one of the most successful ones in the company. However, a good part of that is being in charge of the right stuff.

Krazy Horse, in what has to be the creepiest interview I have ever seen. "Git it? MASKED Murderer... *awkward silence while KH takes a deep breath*"