How’s it goin this week? I’m a bit late due to back to back 5 pm to 5 am shifts at work, but better later in the day than never!
Side note: If anyone hasn’t heard there will be an indy wrestling show at the Danbury CT PAL this Friday. You should go to the show, read the column for why. Call the PAL for ticket info.
Hyatte has dug up something kinda interesting (or maybe it wasn’t him and he’s taking credit for it), but check out Trim Spa’s testimonial site and scroll to the bottom. Oh, and I’m jealous of whoever this “Matt” guy is. I hope it’s Matt Scott of Harris, but somehow I doubt it.
READER MAIL
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Brandon Nason has corrected me:
Hello.
Reading your colum is quite enjoyable. But, I have found one mistake that just bothers me.
1. Kane’s line was not “This Sunday the blood on you will be yours” or anything like that. The exact line was “Austin…….This Sunday the blood on you will be for real.”
I know nobody is perfect. But I’m a big Kane fan, and that line has stuck with me since he said it because I was totaly into the KAne character at that point.
As far as who created the “You Suck!” thing, I do believe it was Edge during their fued right after the Brand Extension started. Kurt had said in backstage segments that he was going to debut his new shirt that night and that it would only be avaliable in XXXXXL due to the shirt listing all of his accomplishments. Then when he lifted the cloth that was hanging over the shirt, there was a shirt that had “You Suck!” in large letters on the front, and “It’s True, It’s True!” on the back. Edge came out and said he really liked the new shirt, yadda yadda yadda…… Saying he was the one responsible for the shirt change.
Ah-ha! I DO remember that. I’m going to save it for it’s own day, but doesn’t everyone miss the lighthearted Angle that used to drink milk instead of the tough guy Angle that shoots people that we have today? The work that he thinks today made him a living legend was all of his funny out of the right/great in the ring work.
And As for the Kane stuff, I apologize, my memory’s not perfect, just pretty good when it comes to wrestling. The important thing was that there was a serious load of “blood” in the ring. Unlike when WCW tried to do a bloodbath in the ring and accidentally dropped most of it all on some poor woman sitting the front row who had brought her children to the show. I don’t remember who it involved, but I’m betting Vampiro. I could be wrong. Correct me if I am.
“Maybe if you spent a little less time crying over spilt milk, and a little more time drinking it like me, you’d finally be a winner” -Kurt Angle
Chris O’Shea wrote in confused about the Liontamer/Walls of Jericho:
I’m from the UK and we only ever got the first series of tough enough so could you explain why Jericho stopped doing the Liontamer and is now doing the shitty boston crab. I’ve been wondering about that for ages.
Ah. Yeah, no one who didn’t see the show (and I’m not too sure how many people did see it) saw why Jericho switched his finisher. One of the students asked about the difference between the two moves, so Jericho asked if he’d like to feel the difference. Of course he said yes, who wouldn’t. It came down to that if he was going to be considered a heavyweight, he’d have to fight the heavyweights (duh) and it’s harder to get bigger guys in the liontamer. It also hurt to have done to you from what I can remember the kid saying, and the Boston (Red Sox suck) Crab didn’t hurt all that much. It’s a shame though because the Walls of Jericho looks so cool.
Joe Selders had this to say about my curiosity of the origin of the “You Suck” chants:
Dude I didn’t think you were serious about wanting to know where Angle’s you suck came from. It came from Edge he did it, then the fans did it along with him and it just stuck from there.
Until next time keep rockin the great colums.
I was thinking that Edge was behind it as I mentioned in my column all about Triple H, but I wasn’t sure, and now I am. Did you know that I was at the LAST WWF show ever? That’s a good challenge for this week, NO ONE is gonna get this one. Where was the last WWF show and who headlined it? 1
Light Castle also put me down the right path to Edge and Christian:
I always thought You Suck was the brainchild of Edge and Christian, back when they were making up lyrics to theme songs. (Including the infamous “Chirs Benoit is here and he’s really mad. Chris Benoit is here and he’s really angry!” line.)
Yeah! Sodas rule! So many of the guys who were the most entertaining then have lost their funny side and are just straight up tough guys. Christian kept some of the charisma he had then, but it’s like someone told Edge to take a charisma colonic to flush all of it out of his system.
Chen Arbel is jaded towards wrestling, but STILL took the time to write in:
Great column, a very enjoyable read. With my lack of interest in wrestling in general these days, you’re surprisingly one of the few writers who still get me to visit InsidePulse.
Eddie Guerrero would be the answer to your challenge this week as he too held WCW’s Cruiserweight title, and went on to win a World title in the WWE this February.
Also, in reference to what you said about the Lita/Kane angle- last time I heard, Bearer suffered from “internal injuries” which forced him to retire from wrestling, according to Cole & Tazz the following week. The WWE decided to back out on actually killing Bearer’s character to avoid backlash, it seems, right after they pulled the trigger on the psuedo-death angle.
Maybe it was on Percy Pringle’s website, 2 that announced him as dead. But it’s a damn shame they can’t stick to something. Even if they never mentioned him again, or simply referred to what happened as “what the Undertaker did to Paul Beaerer.” And there must be plenty of reasons to visit Inside Pulse besides little ol’ me. Don’t you like Hyatte’s column? Although if you like this one, probably not. I appreciate you taking the time to read and write in Chen. Thanks for writing!
TIVO GEMS
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#1 courtesy of RAW
To be the man, woooo!, you gotta beat the man.
Roc Flair proved once again, that he is without a shadow of a doubt, the best on the stick when he wants to be. I was drooling at this promo because it was simply Flair being Flair. I’m sure he didn’t agree with some of the things he said (mostly I think just the Harley Race comments) but he was amazing. It sets up for a nice Flair vs. Orton match at Taboo Tuesday, and we all saw the fake turn coming as well. They’ve done it before with Shawn Michaels and Flair. But for that moment, you could see the old Flair (older than the “ABUSE OF POWER” Flair) coming back and maybe these little snot nosed, pimply faced kids will respect one of, if not the greatest wrestlers alive today. But I’ve gotta admit the Hart and Foley comments stung a bit. You know what else hurt a bit? Seeing Bret Hart dressed as the genie from Aladdin. Ugh. Anyone up for a Toronto road trip?
#2 Courtesy of Smackdown!
Kidman/London
Damn this is a good angle. I ranted about it last week, but I think that this COULD be a driving story line of Smackdown! if they just let it work it’s way out. London is a good wrestler, and oddly enough, all he needs is a good run on Smackdown!, to get inured and come back a little bigger and as a bigger face than he already is. He’s got the energy of a late 90’s Kidman with a little Heart Break Kid thrown in there as well. The kids got legs, like Zach Gowan, who just had leg.
#3 Courtesy of RAW
Shelton Benjamin vs. Triple H
Plllleeeeeeaaaassseeeee, Triple H I beg you not to squash this kid’s career. I also urge the WWE not to put him in the heavyweight title picture until he’s had his chance to carry the IC title for a little while as well. Shelton’s another promising star, but he needs more time to work on his mic skills and an IC title run (after Jericho is done with the belt), is exactly what the kid is calling for. Plus kudos to Mr. Banjamin for making fun of Triple H’s snout as well.
#4 Courtesy of RAW
Benoit is the man
The short promo of Eugene, Regal and Benoit was priceless. Benoit’s reaction to Eugene looking at him, scissors in hand made me laugh for minutes. Plus regal saying “Don’t lick that, you’ll catch something” was pretty good as well.
TIVO BOMB OF THE WEEK
COURTESY OF SMACKDOWN!
The old ladies vs. the Hotties
This was so disgusting that I had to fast forward it. And I don’t fast forward ANYTHING (except HHH’s entrance). I don’t mind them on TV, but Mae Young is seriously disgusting and not in that “I want to look but don’t want to at the same time”. More in that “your mother is being disembowled alive in front of you” not wanting to look
WWE FANTASY ROSTER UPDATE:
Because you all are about how MY team is doing.
Billy Kidman – $2,750,000
Booker T – $4,500,000
Rob Van Dam – $4,500,000
Shelton Benjamin – $2,750,000
Undertaker – $5,500,000
Shelt has already earned me 15 points on the week rounding out my RAW superstars, and as you can see I’m going with PPV picks here. Plus bonus point because they might wrestle on Smackdown! as well. You can check out more in depth WWE Fantasy picks on Inside Pulse’s Monday feature “Rolling the Dice” this week with me and Hevia giving out picks. I came out on top last week with 108 points, as predicted! We’ll see how my PPV picks are this week. The Undertaker pick can either make me or break me. I hope he wrestles tonight on Smackdown!, and I don’t know because I don’t know yet because I don’t read spoilers.
Current ranking: 1597th with Smackdown! and No Mercy to go this week
Once again the top 500 picked RAW ONLY superstars. Such a damn waste of a PPV week.
Last week’s ranking: 50th overall
DECONSTRUCTING THE MOVESET: GO TO AN INDY SHOW
Last week I had the privilege of watching two greats wrestle live. In a small hotel convention center, 3 in central Massachusetts, 4 Tito Santana and Hacksaw Jim Duggan were wrestling for those who were able to actually find publicity for the show . 5
No publicity? So what did that mean? It means that fewer than 200 people were there and there was no difference between “general admission” and ringside seating. It also meant that in the section of seats I sat in, which looked to seat 40, there were maybe 12 people. Maximum in the room were 200 people, which is a god damned shame. But then again, no publicity means no crowd, one day Chris Setaro will learn that.
So what brought Tito and Hacksaw to such a small show? It might have been money, but I highly doubt it. Hacksaw lives in Florida selling real estate and flew up for the show. Hacksaw said it’s his love of entertaining children and seeing kids smile. I’m pretty sure that Tito lives near Boston and the show must not have been too much a drive.
But the real reason? WRESTLING IN FRONT OF PEOPLE. These guys have given their lives to us, the wrestling fans. The constant touring, the thousands of miles spent traveling, the days spent away from home, all for us. We all know the sacrifice these guys made; we’ve all heard the stories. But it all seemed different when I hopped into the ring to get my photo with Tito. Waiting in line, not too many people seemed thrilled to get to stand next to and speak to THE Tito Santana.
Not too many people marked out to see Tito wrestle as I thought would. Besides Tim Brault of Failed Silence and Los Bungalitos and me there weren’t too many people going nuts. Maybe a lot of people were like my other friend who came along, Julius Hayden. He knew one of the guys wrestling outside from work, but I’ll get back to that.
Remember back to Wreslemania XX, 6 and think about the crowd’s reaction to Tito. With one “Arriba!” the Garden popped.
And that was just a VIDEO of the man.
Imagine you’re at a RAW or a Smackdown! and out of nowhere Stars and Stripes forever starts playing over the speakers and suddenly, there’s Hacksaw Jim Duggan walking out to the ring waving Old Glory and chanting “USA! USA!” In an arena full of 20,000, the place would explode. Everyone would forget the Hacksaw Vince Russo hired as a janitor and found a TV Title in the trash (apparently WCW used the trash cans all across the country and never cleaned them out until Hacksaw came along).
But instead of screaming fans at the Garden or any arena for that matter, here we were inside a brightly lit convention room watching these guys give their all for a lukewarm crowd at best. Even Hacksaw at one point said, “Lets get loud, this place sounds like a library.” But in the crowd’s defense, had some of the wrestlers shad the decency to have at least a LITTLE kayfabe; maybe our attitudes would have been different.
Metal Maniac, who fought Tito one on one, had zero respect for kayfabe. For someone who taunts little kids and rips out some hair before entering into the ring, he sure seemed to be applying that face paint gingerly in the public men’s room while everyone was walking in, completely in wrestling garb and fanny pack. Or afterwards, he didn’t seem to mind walking around the convention center speaking to the other wresters while not in face paint. Or the man known as “The Punisher” who’s gimmick was apparently “be a pansy” who also came out as Chef Boyardee later in the night along side The Masked Janitor as managers for a wrestler I can’t remember. As opposed to someone like The Latin Fury Luis Ortiz whose gimmick was that he is kinda insane (oddly enough the Punisher was his opponent) whom I didn’t see once before or after the show. It was explained to me later by my friend Julius that he likes to keep “his life and the wrestling thing separate”, little did Julius know that he was describing what kayfabe meant.
By the way, if you get a chance to see Luis Ortiz wrestle, you should take that opportunity, because he’s got talent. He’s a member of the Chaotic Wrestling roster usually. They do monthly shows in Lowell, MA, 7 and Methuen, MA. It was a reminder that some people know how to do it and some don’t. When I caught King Kong Bundy making an indy appearance and he was walking into the building and I said “good luck tonight Bundy!” he replied with “I don’t need luck, I’m King Kong Bundy.”
But I digress. There isn’t much longer that these guys will be at it at indy shows. Most of us respect these guys a ton and love watching live wrestling. So what’s my point? As a wrestling fan, how could you not want to see these guys wrestle? No doubt it will be your last time seeing these guys wrestle.
So next time you hear about a local wrestling show coming to your area, plunk down the ticket price (which has to be about a third of what a WWE PPV costs to watch on TV) and watch legends and future stars wrestle.
The next Powerhouse Wrestling show is in January and boasts a Lex Luger (in his first Indy show ever according to them) vs. Buff Bagwell main event, along with Metal Maniac vs. Jimmy Superfly Snuka. I think I remember hearing Sting’s name too, but I doubt it.
LAST WEEK’S CHALLENGE:
Has ANYONE besides Chris Jericho held the Cruiserweight title and the World Title in their carrer?
Many people got the obvious answer to this one right off the bat.
Mark (foobar):
the man asked …. any double-threats for cruiserweight title and then
heavyweight? why, the sublime eddie guererro, of course!
(my interpromotional dream match is eddie – jericho, btw … in case
anyone cares)
The Man? Am I the “Man”? Whoa. Thanks for the promotion. Eddie/Jericho is a match I hadn’t really thought about, but damn, you’re right that would be phoenominal.
Leroy Zombie:
Your challenege was to name someone who held the cruiserweight title and went on to win the World Title? Well, if you want to count WCW, Eddie Guerrero held the WCW Cruiserweight title and then went on to win the WWE Heavyweight. Is that good enough?
Hey, you took tike out of your day to interact with Deconstructing the Moveset, that’s ALWAYS good enough. Not good enough to win this week’s title, but good nonetheless.
Terence Tso:
Pretty sure that Eddie Guerrero held the cruiserweight belt in WCW, don’t quite remember tho…
keep up the good work.
Jake (jimm):
Great column again this week, Rob. I really like all the links to different sections of the column and the footnotes. As to your trivia question, there is one answer that is more obvious than I think you or I would have anticipated. Eddie Guerrero was WCW Crusierweight Champion twice, beating Chris Jericho on 9/14/97 and Rey Misterio on 11/10/97, and he then of course went on to become WWE Champ by beating Brock Lesnar eariler this year. The point you made still rings true, however, that such an accomplishement is nearly impossible and Jericho and Guerrero are very special cases. What sets them apart I think is that they both are capable of high-flying spots as well as good mat wrestling and power moves. Thus either one of them can believably compete with anyone no matter how big or small. The Walls of Jericho being a really over submission move helped Chris a lot, too, because it was very quickly established in WWE that it could beat anyone. Speaking of which, there are two things I wish would happen: that Eddie would bring back the Lasso from El Paso and face Kurt
Angle again and that Rey Misterio would join the Crusier to World title club. I don’t know if anyone would buy it, but it would make my year personally, I love Rey Rey. Keep up the good work.
I’ve always thought that Rey Rey would be an interesting world champ. They’d have to clear people like the Big Show and JBL out of the picture first because I’m not too sure anyone would buy that he could beat them at first. He did the whole “Giant Killer” thing, but that was WCW. They also created gimmicks the “The Dog” and “The Demon”. Someone he never should have gone over is Scott Norton, that man should have been more than what he was used for.
Tyler C.
i may be wrong, but how’s about Eddy Guerrero as another man who’s held the cruiser & world titles? Benoit too, if you count some of the Lt. Heavyweight stuff he did in Japan… though i’m not up on my “puroresu”, so i can’t be 100% sure of that.
anyway, that’s all i’ve got to say about things. hope the Pulse is as enjoyable to write for as it is to visit.
Sal Peterson:
Eddie Guerrero held the Cruiserweight title and went on to hold the WWE title, which is a variation of the World title. So, I think that counts.
DROCK1779:
yeah man Eddie was a former Cruserweight champ in WCW and held the WWE title earlier this year,I am pretty sure that he and Jericho are the only 2 guys though
John Baker:
I’ve found a wrestler that qualifies for the cruiser/world title challenge:
Eddie Guerrero. Eddie held the Cruiserweight Title in WCW. Also, of course, he defeated Brock Lesnar at No Way Out for the WWE Title. Now, he might not have won the actual World Heavyweight Title, but let’s not forget that Y2J won the Undisputed Title, not the World Heavyweight Title. I don’t know if this second one counts (It’s a bit of a stretch), but Benoit won the WWF/UWA World Light-Heavyweight Title in 1991. Keep up the good work on the column.
WWF/UWA Lightweight Title? I’ll have to look that one up.
Ben Morse, co-editor of Inside Pulse’s Comics Nexus
Dig the column man, well done.
Eddie Guererro of course.
Jeff (JSSX1357):
I know I’m joining the masses in saying this, BUT.. Eddie Guerrero would be one. However, wouldn’t the X Division championship in NWA-TNA count as a
“cruiserweight” belt as well? If so, add AJ Styles to that group as well.
Other than that……. eh? No one, really, althought Masato Tanaka (former
ECW World Champion) may have held titles in foreign countries equal to the
Cruiserweight belt…but that’s a unlikely guess. That’s all I got.. I’m sure I didn’t write anything everyone else havn’t already write 1,000 or so times. :)
I like the road you’re going down. I can’t find anything on Masato Tanaka there he won a light weight title, I’m seeing ECW title, ECW tag title and FMW heavyweight titles, also FMW Brass Knuckle Tag Team Champ and FMW Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Champ. It was a good guess though.
Mark Sullivan:
Eddie Guerrero has won both the WCW Cruiserweight Championship as well as Smackdown’s version of the World Title. Chris Benoit, I believe, won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title wrestling as Pegasus Kid. And, as we all know, went on to win the World Title at Wrestlemania 20. Jerry Lynn held the ECW Title and has won numerous light heavyweight championships, including the WWF Light Heavyweight championship I think (though I do understand that ECW’s world title status is certainly debatable). That’s about as creative as I can get right now.
DrZaius510:
Chris Benoit held several Junior Titles in Japan and then became the World Hvywght Champion. He never held the cruiserweight though
We’ll count Japanese Junior titles in this challenge as cruiserweight titles.
Joe Selders:
Eddy Guerrero and Chris Benoit both won the Cruiser title and then the World title. Although Chris won his cruiser title while under a mask. Those are the only 2 I can think of unless we want to include the NWA:TNA then AJ Styles won the X title and the world title, and Ron “The Truth” Killings won the WWF/E Lightheavyweight title and the NWA World title.
I nearly forgot about The Truth being K-Kwik and having to team with X-Pac. What a brilliant move, if there was any other alphabet wrestlers they could form a stable called “Alphabet City”
Adam Kohrman:
Chris Benoit won the WWE Light Heavyweight Title as well as the World Heavyweight Championship. Eddie Guerrero won the Cruiserweight title in both WCW and WWA before winning the WWE Title. AJ Styles has held the WWA cruiserweight title, as well as the NWA:TNA world title. Jerry Lynn held the WWE Light Heavyweight Title and the ECW World Title.
There we have our challenge champion for the week. Congrats Adam, you’ve won nothing material, but admiration of your wrestling knowledge (remember, no one’s cheating and using Google, right?)
LAST WEEK’S QUESTION:
How successful do you think Carilto Carribean Cool will be? Think about the last few wrestlers to come STRICTLY from promos. Hirohito? Sean O’Haire? Mordechi? Does he have any chance of being a success?
Sal Peterson:
I honestly can’t say how well Carlito Carribean Cool will do, but I’ve read online from a few people who had seen him wrestle up in Canada that he is actually a good wrestler, which would set him apart from the other guys who debuted after promos. I think he’s definitely got a chance, and although his gimmick is really rooted in the Razor Ramon character, I still think there is enough room for him to shine and make the gimmick his own. I don’t have high expectations, but in the recent sea of newcomers like Kenzo Suzuki, Heidenreich, Luther Reigns, and others on Smackdown, I think Carlito will be the standout from this new crop as a lot more personality comes across in his promos then did in any of the others.
FOOTNOTES:
.1 What arena was the last WWF show in, what city was it in AND what was the absolute LAST WWF wrestling match ever?
.2 The aptly named percypringle.com
.3 smaller than a high school gym mind you
.4 far enough from Boston that saying that the Red Sox suck and the Yankees rule didn’t necessarily get you heel heat. Side note – as of the moment, the magic number is 1.
.5 I defy you to find Powerhouse Wrestling of New England’s presence on the internet. And without any internet presence, websites like ours can’t pick up on the show at all, which means it goes unnoticed by a majority of the people who would be willing to go. I drove 2 1/2 hours just to see the show, I’m sure lots of people from closer areas would have gone as well.
.6 I mention that nearly every week, you’d think I was living in the past if it wasn’t just 7 months ago. You never hear me talking about the 2000 Royal Rumble, or 2004 Vengence, or the WWE restaurant for 2002 King of the Ring (I’m on the DVD), or Wrestlemania X.
.7 the home of Shawn Michaels’ “I lost my smile” speech. Shawn remembers Lowell as well, as evident from when I met him at the Dallas airport as we were sharing a flight to Boston together (well, not together, he was first class, I was coach)
THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE: Rating = IMPOSSIBLE
What arena was the last WWF show in, what city was it in AND what was the absolute LAST WWF wrestling match ever? Extra points given for what brand it was and what night of the week it was.
THIS WEEK’S QUESTION:
Is Kurt Angle nearly as good as he says he is?
