Hello everyone! It’s been a pretty slow week in the IWC. There really isn’t
much in the way of news, outside of the whole "nude diva" thing. It’s
also been a pretty slow week around the Pulse, so it’s a bit lighter on the
links. However, the story of my wrestling fandom concludes this week with my
recount of our trip to Wrestlemania X8!
News
Story
Nudity abounds! This week’s top story involves WWE Divas Candice
and Christy
Hemme and their respective nude photos shoots. Check out those links, but
beware…they are NOT WORK-SAFE!
One Asshole’s Opinion
Well, it’s not exactly WRESTLING news…
Oh, who am I fooling? Hooray for porn!
Story
Brock
Lesnar is suing the WWE to fight his no-compete clause.
One Asshole’s Opinion
Gee, Brock, maybe you shouldn’t have signed it!
Story
The Rock
seems to be done with wrestling, as he wants to focus on his movie career.
One Asshole’s Opinion
Honestly, I don’t care. I never enjoyed Rock as a wrestler. Sure, he’s entertaining
on the mic, but that’s not why I, personally, watch wrestling. Doing movies
is better for him anyway, as it’s much less demanding than a full-time wrestling
schedule.
Story
Matt
Hardy may be back in time for Wrestlemania.
One Asshole’s Opinion
As much as I would like it if Matt had a match, I certainly don’t expect it
to happen. Matt is hard-pressed to have a match on PPV even when he IS healthy,
so I don’t have high hopes here. It’s a shame, really.
Story
AJ Styles
does an interview.
One Asshole’s Opinion
Check this out, it’s a great interview. AJ Styles has a genuine love for the
business, and is also one of the nicest guys you’ll ever hope to meet. He deserves
any success that comes his way.
The Adventure of Links
Wrestling shows: Hatton does Raw,
Eric does Smackdown,
and Matthew Michael does OVW.
These guys do a great job, especially for people like me, who can only watch
Raw.
Gordi
offers his support for Nikolai Volkoff, and I’m inclined to agree.
Blatt
has some advice for TNA, and I think he’s spot-on.
Eric doesn’t
need ME to get pimps, but I can keep my (false) hopes up that one day he will
pimp me in return.
Hevia
does a column very similar to mine, only better. Dammit.
Aaron Cameron
gets the first non-wrestling pimp, as he is celebrating 2 years of his always-excellent
column. And Aaron, I recommend the They Might Be Giants album "No!"
as a great album for kids.
gloomchen,
as always, is required reading.
Mathan
does Who’s Who in the DCU and Jim
does the Marvel Handbook.
Check out the excellent interview with the creative team of Small
Gods.
While you’re there, check out the rest of the Nexus.
My reviews are up, and this week I reviewed Superman/Batman.
Also, be sure to check out the Roundtable when it pops up.
Against All Odds
Okay, here’s the deal: I haven’t been keeping up very well with TNA, so I don’t
really feel qualified to make predictions. So, I’ll just lay the card out here
so you can decide whether or not to buy the PPV.
NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH
Champion Jeff Jarrett vs. Kevin Nash
IRONMAN X DIVISION TITLE MATCH
Champion The Phenomenal AJ Styles vs.
The Fallen Angel Christopher Daniels
NWA WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH
America’s Most Wanted vs. Kid Kash & Lance Hoyt
FULL METAL MAYHEM (TABLES, LADDERS, CHAIRS & CHAINS)
The Charismatic Enigma Jeff Hardy vs. Abyss
The Alpha Male Monty Brown and Diamond Dallas Page vs. Team Canada
Grudge Match: Dustin Rhodes vs. Raven
Primetime Elix Skipper vs. Team Canada’s Petey Williams
BG James and Jeff Hammond vs. Michael Shane and Kazarian
Preshow: Team Traci and Team Trinity In Action!
Raw
They should do Raw abroad more often!
Benoit vs. Jericho was an awesome, awesome match. It was also cool of the WWE
to acknowledge the history Benoit and Jericho had in Japan.
That Triple H/Ric Flair Wrestlemania promo is FAB.
DAVE still rules.
Hot DAMN was Tajiri over! I really hope WWE takes this opportunity to do something
positive with Tajiri, as he’s always been consistently over, and never really
has a bad match.
I really enjoyed the Flair/HBK match…screw Keith.
Another week without Simon Dean becoming Nova…*sniff*
I still hate Orton.
The main event was really good also, interference aside. Come to think of it,
this was a GREAT show, wrestling-wise. I guess WWE sometimes DOES know how to
pander to their crowd!
How I Became a Wrestling Fan: Andy’s Story (part
4)
As alluded to last week, the best wrestling event I’ve ever been to live was
Wrestlemania X8 in Toronto. Living in Buffalo, it was just a short jaunt north
for my friends and I. And as if going to Wrestlemania with a bunch of my friends
wasn’t enough, it was also the weekend of my 21st birthday! Needless to say,
MUCH fun was had by all, as the bathtub in our hotel room was filled with ice
and loaded with booze. Good times!
Being a bunch of wrestling nerds, we decided to have some matches of our own
in the hotel room, before the big event. I faced Tim one-on-one in what everyone
called the match of the night, which saw me lose via a Perfect Plex. Tim still
owes me a job, and I intend to collect!
When it came time to depart for Wrestlemania itself, we all donned our specially-made
"Billy & Chuck"-style headbands and hit the street, singing wrestling
theme songs the whole way. The best was butchering the lyrics to Motorhead’s
"Time to Play the Game"…
"Look over your shoulder, ready to run; the best tag team was the Smoking
Gunns!"
Upon arriving at the arena, we witnessed firsthand the Hulk Hogan fever that
inexplicably permeated through the entire crowd. A small portion of the crowd
would start chanting "Rocky," only to be absolutely DEAFENED seconds
later by a "Hogan" chant. It was absolutely insane.
I won’t go into too much details about the show itself, as I’m sure everyone
knows the results by now. Suffice it to say that we enjoyed the hell out of
ourselves, and we happend to entertain everyone around us too (with the exception
of the Undertaker fan behind us). Our most popular sign was one that read: "____
is my daddy," wherein the blank would be filled by a different name each
match, be it Vince, RVD, Jericho…even Trish. :-D
Wrestlemania X8 will be a memory I’ll always cherish, as it was the most fun
I’ll probably ever have a wrestling event. I’ll leave you with a picture of
all of us sporting our headbands. For the record, I am "Acey."
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: They Might Be Giants: "Venue Songs."
AIM = GoldenAce 007
