Steve J. Rogers

It's called getting older and different make-up. God, I hate marks who always are like that. I had a friend who always saidm Goldberg was really the Warlord. So many times I wanted to slap the bastard. And it gets even more annoying when you give them imperical proof (i.e. a website that you can go to and watch the progression of Mark Callaway as "The Undertaker" through the years) and they still insist that they are right. I don't know if its to annoy real "smarks" or if they want to feel that they are "one up" on someone who says they know all the "behind the scenes stuff" BTW how is this for a rumor that could get started. Listening to a guy who was a mark in the 80's on the radio (about 34 now) in NYC talking about how Miss Elizabeth was on steriods because she looked so much different from her WWF days and WCW days! Uh dude, ITS CALLED PLASTIC SURGERY!

One more thing about UT vs Bossman. They needed the HiTC cage in order to do the "hanging" of the Bossman bit at the end of the match (Edge, Christian and Gangrel were all members of the Ministry then, and at the end of the match they appeared on top of the cage, dropped a noose that UT drapped over Bossman and the cage was risen up a bit making Bossman be hung)

Russo loved those types of swerves to keep the audience guessing "What is gonna happen NOW" Didn't realize that while "ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN" is great in real life, just not in wrestling where even marks know that storylines and plots are taking place. Oh its great every once in a while, but on a week-to-week basis, most of them not making too much sense it does get tedious and annoying Part of the Ministry vs Coporation angle. Everyone else had matches for WM so Bossman got the "short end of the stick" and wound up as Taker's opponent They were trying to make an angle out of real life heat that the Public Enemy had when they came in The title win was won on a Smackdown taping so they knew about that... The Rumble was just another example of Russo's "shaking things up" The consencus was Austin and he would win back the "number one contendor" spot at WM the next month, so yeah it was "well kept secret" Steve

1. Sting's make up and hair color change in 1997 threw everyone off with Steven Borden 2. Steriod rumors about Jim Hellwig's death (also AIDS around the time of Magic Johnson's announcement, it got so bad that there was a rumor floating around that the WWF was going to cook up a storyline about it) have been circulating for years and despite only minor hair length changes UW has dissappeared without warning so many times that marks think that its a different person playing the character Plus marks kind of want to believe these "rumors" so it makes them feel like they are "smarks" even though there is no vaildity to them, especially now in the Internet Age where you can easily track data such as A) side by side photos of the wrestlers to show that its still the same guy) and actual historical sites that lists A) wrestlers real names and B) wrestlers death date Give you two funny examples, I was talking to this guy who was less than a mark and he says he heard John Studd "Just died" and this was in 97, I told him he had died years ago but he kept insisting that he just died a few days/weeks ago Same guy also was told that Ric Flair died from injuries suffered at Fall Brawl 97 (when Hennig slammed the cage door on his head) thanks to that shot of the next night Nitro of Flair on the opperating table with his eyes closed and a major scar on his forehead and he believed it! Steve

On Bret vs Hall/Nash Not that I can recall. Bret's beef was just with HBK, not "the clique" Despite Nash's political postition at the time I doubt there was any risidual nonsense. Also keep in mind, granted Vince begged Bret to take the offer, but if Bret really did feel real life heat with Nash and Hall he would never have gone to WCW Monday Night Wars. Online Onslaught's Rick Scaia in his various web homes (most notably nwwwo.com and wrestleline.com) did a on-going year-by-year recap which eventually came to an abrupt end in 2001, well when Wrestleline went goodbye he didn't transfer it over (it could still be found by searching for hidden links and archive.org) untill last year, and here it is: http://www.onlineonslaught.com/features/mnw-intro.shtml However it looks like he just does a composite rather than week to week. Exhaustive work, but you asked for the week-to-week and here is a site from The Other Arena: http://www.otherarena.com/htm/cgi-bin/tocpage.cgi?ratings

Ric Flair was in the nWo? I don't remember this at all. I rememebr Hall, Nash, Hogan, Waltman, HBK, Booker, and vaguely Big Show. But Flair is totally foriegn to me. He's never had any affiliation with any of those guys or even the original nWo. What were the circumstances around his joining? I don't think Flair officially "joined" more so just turned heel and was an "nWo symphesier" in the way Bischoff is with Evolution, the way you can probably consider Vince when Hogan, Nash and Hall first came in. The group was never more than just a glorified stable since the "Finger Poke of Doom" Right away Nash came back off suspension (Flair actually said "Yeah we know he wasn't really suspended just nursing an injury..." ) and then he brought in HBK as the new "sherrif" of the nWo Now Flair did turn face after Austin left, but that was due to Flair losing a match to Vince for his share in the company with Brock doing a run-in costing him the match. That may have been around the same night as the last nWo match as described

I think they just wanted to "shake" things up as that was one of the biggest complaints over the years, not enough whackings during the early time of the season

BTW I heard this theory on the radio but, you know, if you notice throughout the years Tony has never done the sterotypical "standing over a guy and shooting them" unless its a dream sequence (Yes he does pump bullets into Pussy, not to mention the kid that tried to wack Christopher but this is in general terms) And I don't think they every let it slip if a major character is getting whacked during the preview On the flip side, Drea did get picked up for a new sitcom debuting this fall on NBC so who knows Steve

Yeah but A) Big Pussy was and is one of the popular characters ever on the show, B) I think Paulie gets some of that fanbase as well and C) Steve Schrippa (sp) kind of parlayed it into a nice "Goomba's Guide to..." humor writing career Also, did you know that there is a parody "interactive" theatre of The Sopranos around forgot the name, but its one of those interactive experiences where alot of stuff is going on and each time you see it you want to hang around a different section of the "play" to get the whole thing. Sort of like those sterotypical Itallian or Jewish wedding "interactive dinner theatre" productions only with a wise guy theme. Definatly think most of the characters in that "act" are patterened after Paulie, Pussy, Bacala, Chris as he appears in "public," rather than say Richie Apprille, Ralphie or Jackie Jr. Actually I can totally get someone thinking Feech was a "good guy" (as much as a mafia character can be) if they think Paulie is a "good guy" because essentially Feech seemed like an older and more POed version of Paulie. Steve

People who like it because they like the genre/same type of show/ect or just geniuinlly like the program I was listening to a sports radio show where the two hosts were talking about the show and for some reason it struck me about how the two differed on their opinon on the Robert Loggia "Feech" character To set this up, Feech is an old guard type of crusty mafioso guy. Kind of a blen of Junior's cantankorous and Tony's pit-bullness. Fresh out of prison and ready to "go back to work" And to set this up further one of the hosts while not up on current pop-culture has an affinity to mafia/crime tv shows/movies (all the classics, Godfather, Scarface, ect) and has been watching the show since day one Guy is about late-40's-early 50's from NYC, former boxer and horse race watcher so he has a bit of a "wiseguy wannabe" edge to him. His co-host is a complete sports nut so he isn't up on popculture beyond what he grew up on (probably 5-10 years younger than his partner) and has no time (or effort) to keep up with it now, kind of an easy-going kind of guy, probably started watching it (and he started with the last couple of years) because he wanted to see "what everyone was talking about" especially since talk about the show was becoming a regular feature on his radio show Anyway, they were talking about Feech and the guy who just started watching said that basically despite who he is (a gueniune mafia dirt-bag asshole) he has a likable quality (probably along the lines of Paulie Walnuts' popularity) but his partner quickly stepped in an said that there was no way he could like him (aside from being entertained by his performance) as he is a pretty dispicable character. (As an aside, this is something that the show does well, kind of makes you remeber that you shouldn't LIKE these characters, that you should want them to get their comuppance) Well that got me wondering about just WHY the Sopranos got so popular Sure there are enough fans of the genres the Sopranos belong to to keep the show afloat and there are enough hardcore fans to keep watching but do the Sopranos get that audience that would rather see them be "the wacky overweight, funny Italian mafia gumbas" rather than go through the actual darkness that the storylines actually follow BTW, a good case can be made that they haven't been the same since Ralphie pummled that stripper in Season 3 in terms of their darkness and violence Steve

Yeah, the other player to have his number retired by the Rangers along with Richter and Rod Gilbert Steve

No, I'm not advocating putting Richter in the elite category, but does he belong in the HOF? A quality career, a cup, some damn good performances in postseason play, a Gold Medal, ect I've heard the argument "He is the all-time Ranger goalie" argument, but GEEZ, no one is advocating putting the all-time Ottawa Senator goalie in the HOF, plus its not like Richter had to TRY to get that slot. You got Giaccome, you got Gump Worsley, Beezer, John Davidson and Terry Sawchuck before his passing, not exactly a roster of Roy, Plante, and Dryden to compete with I think he gets hurt (no pun intended) because of all the injuries late in his career and the fact that for the last 6 seasons of his active career he would not make the postseason (of course thats due to the worse case of mismangement in the HISTORY of major sports) In all, I'd probably put him in, but that might be because I'm a Ranger fan Steve

It took me a while, but when I first saw Angle come out in that suit it reminded me of someone, and I just couldn't put two-and-two together. Hell at first I thought it was the Marvel comics Kingpin on the Buddy Rose "Blow Away" diet But then it hit me in the "office" promo with Booker Kurt Angle looks like an actor named Jerry Doyle: http://imdb.com/name/nm0236381/ Specifically as he looked on Babylon 5's seasons 4-5 as "Michael Garibaldi" Hopefully someone can provide a pitcure (I don't have the time right now) but believe me, the resemblence is UNCANNY! Steve

The guy has 3 cups, maybe a 4th on the way, youngest to 400 wins with Roy in reach if he stays healthy and all Granted head to head in the playoffs Roy did beat him in the ultimate game (that would be Game 7 of a Stanley Cup final) Hell he never beat Mike Richter and the Rangers in the postseason (though that would have ended if the Rangers made A playoff run in recent years) which sort of holds him back in the regard of NY area media/fans (which is stupid as its 4-1 in terms of playing in Cup finals, let alone 3-1 in terms of Cups won, between the two and while I'll take Richter in the playoffs I wouldn't mind Martin as my net-minder for a Cup run) So where does he rank? Is he overratted because of the system he plays in (see Steve Young for an example of someone with good talent that may have benifited from a system that fit his needs) and should not be in the same sentence as Patrick Roy? Or does he belong in say the top 5 all-time goalie conversation? Steve

Okay, here is probably the biggest hockey story this season in NY, the distengration of Glenn Sather's relationship with the media and the further tarnishing of his legend Basically the media feels that Glenn is pissing away his legend and that his "houlier than thou" act should have had him axed long ago. Couple of cases in point from this year 1) Glenn feels the need not to talk to anyone involved with the NYC media because he feels he has forgotten more hockey than he knows, yet he freely pops on (without much notice given to the Rangers press relations department) Canadian radio stations ripping New York's media and fans, and just recently even ripped his boss James Dolan! Only problem is, Dolan loves Sather so much he will never fire him (apparantly Sather was nice to him when Dolan was growing up hanging around a NY suburb's training facility or something) In fact, it was SATHER that decided to step down as coach, not the other way around and 2) The NY media can't get over the fact that Sather constantly ripped Neil Smith for not winning despite a bloated payroll. Yes Smith did a horrid job in the last few years of his tenure, but he did win a cup and finished with the best record in hockey couple of times, and Glenn "Any one can win with NY's payroll" Sather hasn't even made the PLAYOFFS!" So, A) is Sather just a lucky bastard because he had a boatload of bona-fide first ballot HOFers on his Cup winning teams? (Note the fact also that Messier has 2 cups to Gretzky's none since the trade of Gretz and maybe THERE is your answer) or B) is the Ranger situation just so horribly out of control (bad decisions, bad contracts, injuries, general dislike by the rest of the league, ect) that the "anyone can win there" comment was just an uneducated one (didn't realize how bad the situation was) Steve

Can you give GM Angle more than a week to see how they are going with it! From the look of it, Angle was JUST getting comfortable with the position. Granted Angle has always been a "Jump right in" kind of guy, but I don't think this week's show should have been about "sweeping changes to the style" ect Slow burns can be fun as well BTW, I would have LOVED to have seen that Angle-HHH conversation. Its a shame they had it the way they did, I would have done it the opposite, with HHH threatning Angle's life if he doesn't trade him back to Raw, saying he owes him a favor or Kurt saying to HHH "I'll do it, but Hunter, you OWE ME BIG TIME! And you'll find, I am a man who COLLECTS on my DEBTS! Oh its true. Its damn true." And then you see Kurt calling Bischoff (How do you explain the Duds and Booker still being in the area is a good question, but one can come up with a reasonable explanation) Steve

I'm developing a fan-fict about a long-standing feud between two wrestlers where the gimmick of the feud is that one of them can never get a win over the other. The only big-time feud like that off hand would be Raven-Tommy Dreamer and like Raven-Dreamer the feud ends where the guy finally pins the other one cleanly on his last night with the promotion Any others? (matches against have to be more than just a handfull) Steve

So? It's not the referee's job to determine motive or whatever. He's there to uphold the rules. That actually is a good point. You never know in a situation like that, the Manager could make it look like he is turning but then after the DQ it turns out to be a ~SWERVE! Wouldn't work though as smarks would see it MILES away! Steve

Good one. Though it was only at the last match that they brought up the whole "Rocky has never beaten Austin" thing and there it was just WM matches, it didn't stretch all the way back to their IC feud

Taker never jobbed to HHH? Wait, didn't HHH beat Taker in a "number one contender match" before SummerSlam 02, leading to what would be the formation of the Raw title or something like that? Steve

Out of curiosity, how long untill Rock's contract is up with the WWE? Would you resign him if you were Vince? Steve

Weren't they masked though and like Doom not given names?

Good point! Ditto AS with Y2J and HHH, but I was going for a long-standing feud between two guys that lasts for longer than a month or two And I don't quite count feuds where most of the backstory gets forgotten the next time they cross paths (Y2J and HHH for example, in the prelude for WM all their backstory got forgotten with the exception that Y2J was responsible for the Quad injury) Steve

When was the last time the WWF put a match on PPV without ANY backstory, not so much as an incident on Heat before the show (this counts just for PPV matches, not Heat/Free-For-All or tournament matches) Steve

Should make a distinctinon though A) Shoot comments that aren't meant to be shoot comments Your garden variety stuff that can be construed as shoot-material (i.e. HHH won't lay down for anyone or alot of Jesse Ventura's/Bobby Heenan's anti-Hogan comments) B) Shoots that are meant to be shoots Basically alot of Kevin Nash's "exposing the business" stuff