Hello all. As you can see, I’ve moved back to the weekend, as it’s much easier
for me to write a column on Saturday. Anyway, nothing much different content-wise,
just a different day. So, let’s get to it! My wrestling story continues below,
with my first (and only) ECW live show. Not much in the news, but here it is
anyway.
News
Story
Triple H did a very extensive interview for PWInsider recently. He talks about
his bodybuilding background, Mick Foley, Ric Flair, Montreal, the IWC and much,
much more.
This is a great interview. You can read it in total here.
credit: pwinsider.com
One Asshole’s Opinion
This was, indeed, a great interview. Whether you like him or hate him, Triple
H says what he feels and doesn’t beat around the bush. Check it out.
Story
Lex Luger pleaded guilty earlier today on steroid possession charges stemming
from May of 2003 (around the time of Ms. Elizabeth’s death). Luger was sentenced
to five years probation, a $1,000 fine, and has to submit to regular drug tests.
His arrest on Monday will have no effect on his current probabtion.
credit: wrestlingobserver.com
One Asshole’s Opinion
*sigh*
Story
Celebrity Justice is reporting that the war of words, legalities and alleged
physical abuse between Steve Austin and his ex-girlfriend Tess Broussard has
taken yet another twist. It seems Austin has accused Broussard, of putting a
gun in his mouth before then turning it on his friends, members of the Los Lonely
Boys band. These allegations are part of a $185 million counter-suit filed by
Austin against Broussard in answer to her $20 million claim against him.
credit: pwinsider.com
One Asshole’s Opinion
White trash will always be white trash, no matter how much money they have.
The Adventure of Links
MATTHEW
MICHAEL pimps me in all caps in his column, so naturally I must return the
favour. Incidentally, I agree with you 100% about the whole Rolling Stone thing.
Gordi
offers up a great tribute to Genichiro Tenryu.
gloomchen,
as always, is required reading.
Blatt
over-analyzes the Royal Rumble, and it’s great stuff.
Eric needs
no pimping.
Hyatte
returns with a Mop-Up! I know you all read it already, but go read it again.
After you’re done here, of course.
Shaffer
gives us the first month of his re-written InVasion. So far, so good!
There were a LOT of Royal Rumble reports, but Chris
Fothergill-Brown gets the nod from me, because he was the ONLY one to mention
just how much the crowd was turning on Randy Orton.
Read Mathan‘s
Who’s Who in the DCU and Jim‘s
Marvel Handbook; you know the drill.
While you’re there, check out the rest of the Nexus.
My reviews are up, and this week I reviewed JLA:
Classified and Y:
The Last Man. Also, be sure to check out the Roundtable when it pops up.
Royal Rumble
This was the first Pay-Per-View I’ve ordered in a LONG time, and I’m glad I
did, because I enjoyed it. Here are one asshole’s opinions on the Rumble.
I thought that the opener was killer. Props to HBK and Edge.
Eddie and Flair in the same promo…can it get any better than that?
Why yes, it can! Snitsky and Heidenreich!
The casket match was pretty ugly, if I’m being honest.
Christian and Cena battle…funny stuff! It would be cool with me if Christian
went over to Smackdown. Then we could have more interactions like this, AND
there would be a legitimate contender for the US Title!
I wanted more of that Smackdown Title match!
I’m glad they’re keeping Carlito onscreen, even in a minor role.
Ok, enough of Orton now. Can we please move on? It’s obviously not just me
that feels this way, as the crowd was turning on him BIG TIME. "Randy Sucks"
and "Triple H" chants broke out, and it’s quite apparent that Orton
just can’t hang with the big boys yet.
The Rumble match itself was one of the best I’ve seen. There were a lot of
fun, entertaining moments. And although Cena got the bigger reaction, I think
Batista was the right one to go over.
Raw
Oh man, give Batista some mic time!
I know they want to build Shelton Benjamin up by having him carry the Intercontinental
Title, but it doesn’t mean anything if he doesn’t have any credible contenders.
I think it might be time to have Hurricane get frustrated with all his losses,
take off the costume, and become a serious wrestler again. Lord know his career
needs it BADLY.
Snitsky is promo GOLD.
That tag title match was a friggin’ mess. But hey, if it sets up a Benoit/Jericho
submission match, I’ll take it.
I’m going to agree with Keith for once: Muhammed Hassan has wrestled the exact
same match every time out. Time to move on.
I won’t be entirely happy until Orton is OFF my screen.
The cage match was so boring that I literally fell asleep. However, Snitsky
ripping off the cage door was a neat spot.
Smackdown
Well, I still don’t get UPN. In the future, I’m going to try to have Smackdown
downloaded in time to write the column, but there are no guarantees. I haven’t
seen the show in AGES, though, so I’ll try my damnedest.
How I Became a Wrestling Fan: Andy’s Story (part
3)
During the last year of ECW’s existence, they came to Buffalo for a show. I
didn’t realize it until about 2 hours before the show started, when my friend
Jamie said, "Dude…do you wanna go see ECW?" Well, how could I say
no to THAT?
Since neither of us had a car, we had to take the subway downtown. Well, this
didn’t start the night off very well, as a gang of thugs pulled a knife on us!
I’m not ashamed to say that we ran away like little girls. Nothing is worth
getting your gut slashed for. So, anyway, we hoofed it to the next subway station
and caught the train there.
We found the show without further incident, and got in having missed only the
first match. We ended up seeing a really good night of wrestling, with a bunch
of very enthusiastic, dedicated fans. You should have heard some of these people.
"This industry needs more great heels like Da Baldies." Fabulous.
Anyway, Lance Storm had just left the company, and Tajiri was out of the country,
but we still saw some great matches, like Kid Kash vs. Psychosis. I honestly
don’t remember what all the matches were, but I do remember what happened after
the show.
Afterwards, we went out back and ended up meeting and getting autographs from
a bunch of the guys. Psychosis, Kid Kash, Jerry Lynn, Balls Mahoney, Simon Diamond,
Dawn Marie, Nova, the Sandman, Joey Styles, Tommy Dreamer…all were willing
to take time to sign autographs for every fan who wanted one. Even RVD, who
looked like he just wanted to go smoke a bowl, signed everything in sight and
posed for dozens of pictures. The only one who came out who WOULDN’T hang with
the fans was Rhino, and he was a dickhead about it. Oh well. You can’t win them
all, I guess.
I had more fun at that ECW show than any other live show, with the exception
of Wrestlemania X8 in Toronto. They were very different kinds of fun, though,
as Wrestlemania was fun with tens of thousands of your closest friends. The
ECW show felt more like a family. I miss those days.
Well, that’ll do it for this week. Keep the e-mails and IMs coming, and I’ll
see you here next weekend.
This column’s soundtrack: Dial-A-Song: 20 Years of They Might Be Giants.
AIM = GoldenAce 007
