Dean and I recorded an audio recap for Saturday’s WrestleCon and WWE Axxess events!

SATURDAY, APRIL 6 , 2013

We’re LIVE from WrestleCon. If you’re there make sure to stop by the New Moon table along the far wall. It’s gonna be a blast. And check back using the Spreaker tab below for LIVE updates from the show!!!

Up next was Axxess … props to WWE for putting together such a fantastic event each and every year. The look of delight on the fans’ faces as they get to interact with WWE’s top stars makes it all worthwhile.

Dean and I recorded an IN THE ROOM – HIAC Talk Radio joint broadcast … err, rather, I sat in for about 10 minutes of a joint show and then Dean did the heavy lifting while I went to go check out SHIMMER. The show is posted at the bottom of this entry.

FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Tonight we (Dean Dixon and I) rolled in to WrestleMania weekend in Secaucus, New Jersey. WrestleCon, AXXESS, WrestleMania, and so … much more that I don’t even know how to begin to contain my excitement! Tonight I had the pleasure of checking out CZW at the Expo
Center, and it was great. It was also great to see a lot of my good old friends. So much to talk about, I don’t know when I’ll have time. Check back here periodically as I update this blog with live coverage.

Also be on the lookout for live audio updates on this site from me and Dean … and tune back in here Saturday at 1:30/12:30 CT for a special, co-branded HIAC Talk Radio / IN THE ROOM show LIVE from WrestleCon, beneath this entry. IN THE ROOM’s own Derrick McDonald and Anthony Sarlo will be stopping by too … so who knows what will happen?!

And check back for live audio and possibly video updates as they are available as well.

And for those looking to meet up, here is where I’m headed and when:

Saturday
9-4 WrestleCon @ the New Moon Rising Wrestling table
12-2 SHIMMER
4-10 WWE Axxess
8-10:30 Dragon Gate USA
12-2 $5 Wrestling

Sunday
9-2 WrestleCon @ New Moon Rising Wrestling table

Hope to see you all there!

Everyone knows the first weekend in April is Wrestlemania weekend, and about all the events associated with it. But at least some of you don’t know about the mega-convention/wrestling orgy called WrestleCon, planned for Friday, April 5- Sunday, April 7…just prior to WrestleMania.

Highspots and WWNLive are the event’s co-promoters, which will take place at the Meadowlands Expo Center on 355 Plaza Drive in Secaucus, NJ. The event convention will feature major wrestling guests, vendors, six shows of LIVE wrestling and more. It’s saef to say that the event will be the biggest weekend in indy wrestling history. The Meadowlands Expo Center is only 3 miles from the site of Wrestlemania, five miles from Manhattan and minutes from the Newark Airport. It is easily accessible to those in New Jersey (and elsewhere) from the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Expressway, and is accessible by a wide variety of means of New York/New Jersey transit, including PATH, and NJ Transit.

Fair warning…bring lots of money. There are all sorts of different costs for different events. PLEASE consult the Wrestlecon site at Wrestlecon.com for a full list of costs and information. However, a VERY basic list of information follows.

If you’re going to attend the individual wrestling shows outlined below, you can pay for a individual ticket to those shows (ticket prices listed below). If you are attending the other events AT ALL…plan on buying either a single day admission ticket: $20 or a weekend admission for $30. Those get you into the Expo. Autographs and/or photo ops are additional, in some cases a decent amount. Some events have also chosen to add additional charges.

Here is the huge large WrestleCon schedule of events. Remember, check out prices BEFORE you go.

Friday, April 5

4:00 pm – 6:30 pm: EVOLVE (1st Row $50; 2nd Row $40; GA $25)
This event features a one day tournament to crown the first EVOLVE Champion. Each wrestler was given a seed based on their Record and standing on the Leader Board. Their seed is stated before their name and their Record is in parenthesis. The #1 and #2 seeds receive first round byes. The format for the tournament is:

Bracket A
* First Round Match/Four Way Freestyle: #5 Rich Swann (3-2) vs. #6 Samuray Del Sol (2-3) vs. #7 Sami Callihan (3-7) vs. #8 Jigsaw (1-3)
* Semi-Final: #1 Chuck Taylor vs. Winner Of First Round Match

Bracket B:
* First Round Match: #3 AR Fox (7-6) vs. #4 Jon Davis (5-4)
* Semi-Final #2 Ricochet vs. Winner Of First Round Match

* Tournament Finals to crown the first EVOLVE Champion with Bracket A Winner vs. Bracket B Winner

In non-Tournament action, a Tag Team Main Event: The Young Bucks vs. The Super Smash Brothers

Plus: Open The Freedom Gate Champion Johnny Gargano, Brian Kendrick, Uhaa Nation, Arik Cannon, Orange Cassidy & Drew Gulak of The Gentleman’s Club,-The Scene of Caleb Konley & Scott Reed with Larry Dallas

8:00 pm – 10:30 pm: Combat Zone Wrestling (1st Row $50; 2nd Row $40; GA $25)
* Main Event: CZW World Champion MASADA vs. the returning ‘Crazy Monkey’ JUN KASAI
* Stand-Up and Fight: GREG EXCELLENT takes on COLT CABANA
* Aerial Assault: SHANE STRICKLAND vs. AR FOX vs. RICH SWANN vs. CHIVA KID vs MK McKINNAN
* International Tag-Team Match: The Sumerian Death Squad (TOMMY END & MICHAEL DONTE) vs. OI4K (JAKE & DAVE CRIST)
* Eight Man Tag-Team Match: DREW GULAK’s Campaign for a Better Combat Zone vs. NILES SOZIO’s The Front

11:55 pm – 2:00 am : Kaiju Big Battel (All tickets GA $25)
Saturday, April 6

WrestlExpo – 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

10:00 am – 1:00 pm: Legends of the Ring “Classic” Superticket
10:00 am – Noon: Highspots.com presents Bret “Hitman” Hart
Noon – 3:00 pm: K&S Wrestlefest Superticket

Noon – 2:30 pm: SHIMMER Women’s Athletes (1st Row $50; 2nd Row $40; GA $25)
* Steel Cage/SHIMMER Title Match: Champion SARAYA KNIGHT vs. CHEERLEADER MELISSA
* Rematch from SHIMMER 52: AYAKO HAMADA vs. “The Wrestling Goddess” ATHENA
* The SHIMMER return of AMAZING KONG
* Former SHIMMER Champion MADISON EAGLES
* The SHIMMER debut of New Zealand’s EVIE
* MIA YIM returns from Japan
* SERENA returns after an 18 month absence

1:00 pm – 4:00 pm: Legends of the Ring & Lucky 13 “Gimmicks” Superticket

4:00 pm – 6:30 pm: CHIKARA (1st Row $50; 2nd Row $40; GA $25)
* Saturyne vs. Kobald
* Ultramantis Black returns

8:00 pm – 10:30 pm: Dragon Gate USA (1st Row $75; 2nd Row $50; GA $25)

* Open The Freedom Gate Title Match: Johnny Gargano defends vs. Shingo
* Open The United Gate Title Match: CIMA & AR Fox defend vs. The Young Bucks
* Akira Tozawa vs. Ricochet
* Sami Callihan vs. Uhaa Nation
* Brian Kendrick vs. Rich Swann
* Jon Davis vs. Samuray Del Sol
* Six Way Freestyle: Chuck Taylor vs. Arik Cannon vs. Jigsaw vs. Tony Nese vs. Fire Ant vs. Shane Strickland

Plus more to be signed with: The Super Smash Brothers, EITA, The Scene

11:55 pm – 2:00 am: 5 Dollar Wrestling LIVE! (All GA $5)

Sunday, April 7

WrestlExpo – 9:00 am – 2:00 pm

9:00 am – 1:00 pm: Legends of the Ring presents the Ultimate Warrior
10:00 am – Noon: Highspots.com presents Bret “Hitman” Hart

1:00 pm – 2:30 pm: Dragon Gate USA

* Main Event #1 – The Six Man Tradition Continues: CIMA’s Team vs. Johnny Gargano’s Team (participants will be announced soon)
* Main Event #2 – Battle Of The Best: Shingo vs. Akira Tozawa
* Ladders Are Legal High-Flyers FRAY: Two competitors start. Another enters the ring every two minutes. Eliminations can take place at anytime by pinfall, submission or DQ. Ladders are legal once all participants enter. Already entered: Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, Samuray Del Sol, Facade with more to be added!!!
* Special Challenge Match: Brian Kendrick vs. Chuck Taylor
* Tag Team Attraction: The Super Smash Brothers vs. Sami Callihan & Arik Cannon

Plus more to be signed with: Ricochet, AR Fox, Jon Davis, Rich Swann, Uhaa Nation, Christina Von Eerie, EITA,,The Scene of Caleb Konley and Scott Reed w/ Larry Dallas, Tony Nese

Then, on the evening of April 7, there’s this show you might have heard of…. called Wrestlemania.

Until next time….

If you have comments or questions, or if you’d like to add the AS I SEE IT column to your website, I can be reached by e-mail at the address above. If you’d like to add advertising on PWBTS.com (the flagship website of this column), banner ads are available for $400 for one year. These ads would appear on each newspage appearing on the newsboard. Cube ads are available for $200 for one year, which would be placed on the main newsboard page.

Photo by WWE

ECW, originally known as Eastern Championship Wrestling, ran its first show on Tuesday, February 25, 1992 at the Philadelphia’s Original Sports Bar in center city Philadelphia in front of over 100 people. The first match in ECW history was a 20-minute broadway between wrestlers Jimmy Jannetty and Stevie Richards.

Much like ECW, the Philadelphia Original Sports Bar doesn’t exist any more…the site of the Sports Bar is now occupied by a Ross: Dress for Less discount store. Neither does the other site for early Eastern Championship Wrestling shows, the Chestnut Cabaret.

The ECW Arena, as such, doesn’t exist either…although there’s been talk of the person who took over the venue, and has kept it vacant for a year being evicted, and the venue being restored to a boxing/wrestling/MMA venue. Fans are still waiting for more definitive news on that.

ECW ran in Philadelphia as a local once-a-month indy promotion, founded and backed by Tod Gordon with shows at the Philadelphia Original Sports Bar, the Chestnut Cabaret, and other small venues in the Philadelphia area during February 1992 to March 1993, when it taped and aired its first TV show. This TV taping saw 60 people gather at Cabrini College in suburban Philadelphia on the night before a massive snowstorm that left three feet of snow in Philadelphia.

From March to September 1993, Eddie Gilbert brought Paul Heyman, Terry Funk, and a product with Memphis and Japanese influences, which began to catch the notice of people outside the Philadelphia area.

Then, in September, 1993, Paul Heyman took over booking ECW.

That night began a period where ECW became THE promotion in the United States if you wanted creative, unpredictable angles; an exciting in ring product, with talent yet unseen by most American audiences. It was a time when a fan could come to an ECW show, and realize that (unlike the overly predictable WCW and WWF of the time) they didn’t know what was going to happen at a show that night. But they knew the odds were good they’d be talking about it the next day.
ECW’s reputation spread far beyond the fans who attended the first bar shows, as the promotion’s television first aired in the Philadelphia area on SportsChannel Philadelphia beginning in 1993, first available locally (and on satellite) for five years until SportsChannel Philadelphia went out of business, when Philadelphia’s Comcast SportsNet went on the air. ECW TV then moved locally to WPPX Channel 61, before all Paxson stations changed to the “family-oriented” PAX TV… which has now itself changed to being called ION TV, which airs, among things, MMA.

ECW’s Philadelphia TV then moved to its last Philadelphia home, WGTW, Channel 48….which sadly, no longer shows wrestling…or anything except 24 hours a day of programming dedicated to a right-wing version of evangelical Christianity.

In a way unique at the time, when the Internet looked nothing it does now with social media consisting of message boards or online chat rooms (no, not that kind), people actively promoted ECW online and by word of mouth, with TV expanding to New York’s MSG, then Florida’s Sunshine Network, then many of the PRIME affiliates (most of which eventually morphed into the Fox Sports Network that broadcasted TNA at one point). Along with PRIME’s national feed, ECW’s TV was syndicated nationwide on the America One Network, as well as on numerous other independent stations.

ECW then was picked up by TNN (now known as Spike TV) in August 1999, in a move that initially looked promising…but may have helped speed up the demise of the company, which had already been going through major financial problems including bouncing checks to everyone that were wrestlers to broadcast affiliates.

I have a lot of personal memories coming out of ECW…

May 1993 to 1995, I sat in the front row of section C (the on-camera section with John “Hat Guy/Hawaiian Shirt” Bailey and company) the first two years at the ECW Arena, before the Club ECW plan was devised. Since I’d been burned by former Tri-State Wrestling Alliance promoter Joel Goodhart for a similar plan, I refused to put out the money for the “4-packs”. It turns out that wasn’t such a bad idea, as the seats I’d regularly sat in with my brother, were the very seats that were involved in the 1995 Terry Funk-Cactus Jack “fire incident”. So I moved up with the “bleacher bums” in Section C.

As I sat there, I was fortunate enough to see ECW at its best during its golden era. I also was able to gather many other memories until December 23, 2000, the last ECW show at the ECW Arena.

Here are memories of ECW, memories many of you in the United States and around the world have seen via TV and tape…

1992

The first show on February 25, 1992 at Philadelphia’s Original Sports Bar, which saw the fledging Eastern Championship Wrestling pick up the ashes of Joel Goodhart’s Tri-State Wrestling Alliance…a promotion which was in a sense, ECW, before it WAS ECW. The TWA had gone out of business only a month before the night of what was to be their biggest show of all.

In 1992, ECW founder Tod Gordon avoided the trap that Joel Goodhart fell into…over booking his shows with name talent. The only major names early on in the first days of Eastern Championship Wrestling were Jimmy Snuka and Don Muraco along with a lot of the TWA talent, which included Sandman and JT Smith.
Some of the names of those early days ncluded Jimmy Snuka, Johnny Hot Body, Don Muraco, Tito Santana, The Super Destroyers, Larry Winters, Tony Stetson, Glenn Osbourne, CN Redd, Jimmy Jannetty, Tommy Cairo, and Don E. Allen.

1993

About a year later, Tod Gordon was ready to take things up a step with local TV on the part-time Sports Channel Philadelphia, and brought in Eddie Gilbert to book, with brother Doug. With Gilbert also came Terry Funk, who had recently done an interview in the Pro Wrestling Torch about his idea for a “hardcore” style wrestling TV show. Along with these two came a well-known loud mouthed manager named Paul E. Dangerously. How little we knew or suspected what was to come…

The first TV taping at Cabrini College on March 13, 1993 before about 60 people. This small crowd came despite a snowstorm that dumped two feet of snow on the Philadelphia the next day.

The Texas Chain Match Massacre with Terry Funk vs. Eddie Gilbert on June 19, 1993 was the first ECW show sold on tape commercially, with what was then the largest crowd in the young promotion’s history. These two gave the fans at the Arena an old school all-Arena bloody brawl of a kind not seen anywhere in Philadelphia, save Gilbert’s own program in 1991 with Cactus Jack in the ECW’s predecessor, the Tri-State Wrestling Alliance.

Some of the names seen in ECW during 1993 included Eddie Gilbert, Doug Gilbert, Kevin Christopher, Samoan Warrior, Paul Diamond, Pat Tanaka, Ivan Koloff, Herve Renesto, Chris Michaels, Hunter Q. Robbins III, Miguelito Perez, Crash the Terminator, Stan Hansen, Chad Austin, Rockin Rebel, Todd Shaw, Kevin Sullivan, and Sal Bellomo.

1994

150 fans making their way into the ECW Arena through a January TV taping, which was postponed a day because of an ice storm that kept 350,000 people without power…via nothing more than a phone line that operated out of the home of ring announcer Bob Artese.
The Night The Line Was Crossed, Shane Douglas vs. Terry Funk vs. Sabu, February 5, 1994- The original “Three Way Dance” (although it wasn’t referred to as such at the time) was a one hour long match that put the cartoon shows that masqueraded as professional wrestling of the time to shame. Between the blow-away effort of the three wrestlers, Heyman’s booking had fans going with a match that told a story in creating the storylines that moved along the three pivotal characters of the golden era of ECW.

An April 16th ECW Arena angle that saw Arn Anderson and Bobby Eaton do a run-in that resulted in one of the loudest pops in Arena history…a run-in that was kept 100% quiet in those pre-Internet days…so quiet that some of the workers and staff had no clue what was going on.

The October-November 1994 Sandman “blinding angle” that was voted Wrestling Observer Angle of the Year: so well done, it had the late Brian Hildebrand calling me to ask if it was a work.

Some of the other names seen in the ECW Arena during 1994 were 911, Mr. Hughes, Sal Bellomo, Tommy Cairo, Sandman, Gary Wolf, Matt Borne, Ray Odyssey, Public Enemy (Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge), The Sheik, Pat Tanaka, Road Warrior Hawk, The Bruise Brothers, and Mike Awesome.

1995

February 1995 gave fans both the “Double Tables” show featuring the main event of Sabu and Tazmaniac against The Public Enemy, Chris Benoit vs. Al Snow, and “Return of The Funker” featuring Terry Funk’s return after a six month absence.

April 1995 had the debut of the two and a half year storyline of Raven and Tommy Dreamer, and the first match actually billed as a “Three Way Dance” with The Public Enemy vs. Chris Benoit/Dean Malenko vs. Tazmaniac and Rick Steiner. Another Arena show one week later brought the first of the classic Eddie Guerrero-Dean Malenko matches we saw for the next five months.

The spring also brought the psychotic bloodletting of the Axl Rotten-Ian Rotten matches, with matches involving barbed wire baseball bats all the way to the
Taipei Death Match in July, with each man having glass glued to his hands.

On August 29, 1995, the Dean Malenko-Eddie Guerrero farewell match happened…with the smartest wrestling audience in North America in tears (not to mention Guerrero and Malenko themselves)… chanting “Please don’t go…please don’t go” with a heartfelt passion by the crowd worthy of two departing world class talents and world class people.

September 1995 featured one of the top matches in Arena history in a best 2 out of three falls Double Dog Collar Match for the ECW Tag Team Championships with The Pitbulls vs. Raven & Stevie Richards.

November to Remember 1995 was one of the best top to bottom shows ever held in the Arena with such matches as Rey Misterio, Jr.-Psicosis, and Terry Funk/Tommy Dreamer vs. Cactus Jack/Raven.

Fall 1995 also brought lucha libre to Philadelphia for the first time with Rey Misterio, Jr. Juventud Guerrera, Psicosis, Konnan, and La Parka appearing.
Some of the other names seen in the ECW Arena during 1995 were Hack Myers, Al Snow, Osamu Nishimura, Tully Blanchard, Paul Lauria, Mikey Whipwreck, Stevie Richards, Hector Guerrero, Marty Jannetty, DC Drake, Jason Knight, Ron Simmons, Vampire Warrior (aka Gangrel), Dudley Dudley, and Dances With Dudley.

1996

January 1996 featured the first of many Rob Van Dam-Sabu matches, Raven and Sandman battling for the ECW Heavyweight title, and the Gangstas-Eliminators feud.

March 1996 featured Rey Misterio, Jr. and Juventud Guerrera giving a lucha clinic in a 2 out of 3 fall match. It also featured the emotional farewell of Cactus Jack, who defeated Mikey Whipwreck.

Chris Jericho debuted in ECW at the “Matter of Respect” show in May 1996 against Mikey Whipwreck. The summer of 1996 also featured the wars of The
Eliminators against The Gangstas in a “steel cage weapons” match.

Heatwave ‘96 gave us a tremendous four way ECW TV Title Match Scorpio-Chris Jericho-Pitbull #2-Shane Douglas.

Autumn 1996 featured such world class tag team action as Terry Gordy and Steve Williams against The Eliminators and Sabu and Rob Van Dam against Dan Kroffat and Doug Furnas. It also featured one of the sickest scaffold matches in history in October at “High Incident” with Tommy Dreamer throwing Brian Lee off a “scaffold” attached to the roof of the ECW Arena, into a ring full of tables.

Some of the other names seen in the ECW Arena during 1996 included Mr. Hughes, The Blue Meanie, Too Cold Scorpio, El Puerto Ricano, Bad Crew, The Headhunters, Big Titan, Damien Kane, Little Guido, Brian Lee, Beef Wellington, Devon Storm, and the Samoan Gangsta Party.

1997

Barely Legal- The moment that ECW fans had waited for since the last year’s worth of rumors had started finally arrived on April 13, 1997. Even with the usual pre-show atmosphere at the ECW Arena…this was something special. Fans waited outside the ECW Arena during early on that morning.

The Arena was filled as full as physical space would allow, well beyond anything permitted by city or state fire laws. The atmosphere was electric.

At 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time, in the most improbable of locations: the converted Bingo Hall that staff had painted and fixed up on their own, down the street by a bargain basement store and vacant buildings… the home of a wrestling promotion founded by a downtown storefront pawnbroker, started with little more than hopes and dreams… the impossible dream came true, as “Barely Legal” went hot and started the era of ECW on PPV to the United States.

The show itself included The Eliminators defeating ECW Tag champs D-Von & Buh Buh Ray Dudley for the ECW Tag team Titles, Rob Van Dam-Lance Storm, Taz over Sabu, Great Sasuke/Gran Hamada/Masato Yakushiji wrestling TAKA Michinoku/Dick Togo/Terry Boy (aka Mens Teioh), and Terry Funk defeating Raven for the ECW Heavyweight Title.

2 1/2 years of the most creative character in recent wrestling history ended within ECW, as Raven lost a loser leave match to Tommy Dreamer at Wrestlepalooza 1997.

In what was likely the single most violent match in ECW history, Sabu pinned Terry Funk in a barbed wire match at August 1997′s “Born to be Wired”, to a point that even Paul Heyman was reported to be sickened in the promo for the show’s commercial video tape. Having seen the match in person, I can safely say he wasn’t the only one.

Some of the other names seen in the ECW Arena during 1997 included Tommy Rich, Tracy Smothers, Chris Chetti, Bam Bam Bigelow, Louie Spicolli, Big Dick Dudley, Spike Dudley, Balls Mahoney, Tom Pritchard, JC Ice and Wolfie D, Paul Diamond, and Tommy Rogers.

1998

January 1998 gave us the first Stairway To Hell Match with Sandman taking on Sabu.

Japanese talent returned to the ECW Arena throughout the year with names like Gran Hamada, Gran Naniwa, Atsushi Onita, Masato Tanaka.

The pairing that gave a ECW Match of The Year nominee two years running gave Arena fans a match to behold on August 8, 1998 as Jerry Lynn took on Rob Van Dam.

The first of many Masato Tanaka-Mike Awesome matches happened in August, matches that took the phrase “stiff” to a whole new level.

Some of the other names seen in the ECW Arena during 1998 included Danny Doring, Roadkill, Bobby Duncum, Jr., Doug Furnas, Super Nova, Mike Lozansky, Jack Victory, Ulf Hermann, Big Sal Graziano, Rod Price, and One Man Gang.

1999

1999 saw the ECW Arena featured around the United States and Canada as TV tapings were done for TNN at the Arena, allowing fans to see what the Arena experience was all about.

Lucha and Japanese talent again made their way into the ECW Arena as Antifaz Del Norte, TAKA Michinoku, Super Crazy, El Mosco De La Merced, Yoshihiro Tajiri, and Mr. Aguila (aka Papi Chulo). This gave us matches over 1999 such as Jerry Lynn-Yoshihiro Tajiri, Super Crazy-Antifaz Del Norte, TAKA Michinoku-Papi Chulo and a series of Super Crazy-Yoshihiro Tajiri matches.

We got a Match of the Year nominee for the second time with Rob Van Dam-Jerry Lynn on August 28, 1999.

Some of the other names seen in the ECW Arena during 1999 included Skull Von Krush, Bill Wiles, David Cash, Uganda, Tom Marquez, Kid Cash, Bo and Jack Dupp, and Ikuto Hidaka.

2000
Even with all the obvious financial problems and the fact that attention was often elsewhere most of the time, there were still a few classic moments left in 2000 for ECW fans at the ECW Arena.

March 2000 featured a great Raven/Mike Awesome-Masato Tanaka/Tommy Dreamer Tag Team Match.

April 2000 gave the ECW Arena the one and only appearance of Dusty Rhodes at the Arena as he took on Steve Corino.

August 19, 2000 gave us the 2000 ECW match of the year as the returning Psicosis took on Yoshihiro Tajiri.

The last ECW show at the ECW Arena took place on December 23, 2000. With all that had been happening and all that had been reported online, many fans going inside that night suspected that this might be the last show at the ECW Arena, although nothing was ever announced or even acknowledged to that effect.
The final ECW match at the ECW Arena was Steve Corino defending his ECW World Heavyweight Title over The Sandman and Justin Credible.

Some of the other names seen in the ECW Arena during 2000 included Rhino, Christian York and Joey Matthews, Scotty Anton, Prodigy, CW Anderson, Simon Diamond, Johnny Swinger, Da Baldies (DeVito and Angel), Carl Oulette, Vic Grimes, Jado and Gedo, and Erik Watts.
Since those days, many have come to appreciate what ECW brought to wrestling on national level: namely, qualities that had been missing in wrestling such as unpredictability, excitement, an outlaw spirit, coherent booking, and wrestling shows that feature…wrestling.

ECW had sex (and lots of it) in its presentation…but it didn’t feature sex as a main event segment. Paul Heyman was smart enough to use sex as the sizzle, and not the steak. Many wrestling fans wish certain wrestling promotions were smart enough to do the same today.

ECW didn’t feature bookers or management putting themselves over at the expense of the talent….or family members and in-laws doing the same. Many wrestling fans wish certain wrestling promotions were smart enough to do the same today.

ECW didn’t care if someone on the undercard outworked the main event. They weren’t punished for it. Hell, most of the time it was encouraged. Many wrestling fans wish certain wrestling promotions were smart enough to allow their workers to do the same today.

Along with the very public memories shared by many via tape or TV…there were the memories that came out of being at the ECW Arena in person:
Those Sunday morning TV tapings in 1993-1995, when we stumbled into the Arena half-awake after too little sleep following the preceding evening’s show and the post-show “festivities”…and Mark Shapiro (aka “McGruff”) telling us to “please fill up the bleachers”… in order to make the crowd look respectable for SportsChannel and MSG, the two stations carrying ECW at the time.

A small discount store next to the Arena inbetween the Arena and the Forman Mills discount clothing store selling cheap breakaway frying pans, with the slogan, “Give them to your favorite wrestler to hit someone”…

As said before…the “bleacher bums” of section C with some of the most creative (and sometimes unprintable) chants imaginable, along with their summer pre-show afternoon cookouts and beer bashes. One of their best sets of off-color chants came the night of the Malenko-Guerrero farewell as they took shots at WCW by making up certain hilarious and obscene chants that offered graphic suggestions about Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff’s…um…personal habits.
The Mutants in Boston, who regularly traveled down to ECW Arena shows…foreshadowing by years the fans of promotions like Ring of Honor who travel amazing distances to see a quality wrestling product, which seems as unavailable now in the mainstream as it was then.

The people who made the dream happen in the earliest days… a group of hardworking people behind the scenes, who would do nearly anything for the company, people that we all got to know like Bob and Lex Artese, Jay “Six-Pack” Sulli, Larry Gallone, Kathy Fitzpatrick, Kathy Donahue, Steve Truitt, and Matt Radico…

Along with them in the stands were unique Philadelphia characters like “Stan The Fan”, John Bailey (known everywhere as “Hat Guy”), his brother George, Mike Johnson (later of 1wrestling.com and PWinsider.com) and the Bleacher Bums, “Sign Guy” Paul Mellows (whom Paul Heyman took the Sign Guy Dudley gimmick), Lennie (the Rob Zombie lookalike), Gary Walter (now of Smart Mark Video), JAPW promoters Ray Sager and Frank Iadevia and many more…

And for longtime fans…names on the other side of the rail that only we fans who were there live would remember: Doug Gilbert, Kevin Christopher, Don E. Allen, JT Smith, Tony Stetson, Larry Winters, Tommy Cairo, Hack Myers, Salvatore Bellomo, Stevie Wonderful, Johnny Hotbody, Chad Austin, Dudley Dudley, Dances With Dudley, and Pablo Marquez.

I also have to remember that there are also those in the ECW days that have left us and wrestling far too soon: Mike Lozansky, Bobby Duncum Jr. and Terry Gordy who worked briefly in ECW, as well as ECW regulars Anthony “Pitbull #2″ Durante, Louie Spicolli, John Kronus of the Eliminators, Ted “Rocco Rock” Petty and Johnny Grunge of The Public Enemy, Big Dick Dudley, Chris Candido, Bam Bam Bigelow, Sensational Sherri Martel, and Mike “Awesome” Alfonso.

I wish you could have been there to see what we all got to experience in person. I suppose I’m glad fans are getting to see them in the adulterated form shown on WWE Classics. Vince McMahon is making the money out of these memories, and not the workers who gave world-class performances even when paychecks were bouncing toward the end. But I wish you could have been there…and that you’d been able to see the unvarnished version of what was the real ECW….not ther TV show that airs on Tuesday nights because Vince McMahon owns the legal rights to its name.

Because we’ll never see its like again.

Until next time…

If you have comments/questions/event announcements/results, if you’d like to add the AS I SEE IT column to your website, or if you’d like to add advertising on PWBTS.com (the flagship website of this column), e-mail me at the address above. Advertising consists of banner ads, available for $400 for one year. These ads would appear on each newspage appearing on the newsboard. Cube ads are also available for $200 for one year, which would be placed on the main newsboard page.

It’s been said the best defense is a good offense. Nowhere was this proven more true than than in Stamford, CT this past week.

Vince McMahon had a bigtime disaster on his hands. He’d just give a semi-main event match to Jack Swagger as the result of his win at Elimination Chamber. He’s set to face Alberto Del Rio for the WWE “World” Championship at Wrestlemania 29 in New Jersey in April.

Well, just after appearing at last Tuesday’s Smackdown taping in Gulfport, MS, Swagger was arrested for speeding, misdemeanor marijuana possession and DUI. He just worked the WWE Smackdown taping in nearby Biloxi, and was pulled over by the local police. Swagger’s was searched and marijuana was found. Swagger’s car was towed away. He was released from police custody.

All the alleged offenses were misdeameanors. The worst case legal scenario would have Swagger fined $1,925 in fines, and lose his driver’s license for 90 days. He is scheduled to appear in court on March 12. After the arrest WWE issued a statement, saying “Mr. Swagger is responsible for his own personal actions”.

Only 24 hours before, Swagger, now working an anti-immigrant Tea Party type gimmick, did a promo with Dutch Mantell, who was appearing as “Zeb Colter”, whose new gimmick is a angry who is anti-immigration former Vietnam veteran. Many see it ias a knock-off of the RJ Brewer character from Lucha Libre USA: Masked Warriors, a character which has gotten maninstream press attention far in excess of what his promotion has done.

In terms of worst case professional scenario…if Swagger were anyone else but someone getting a semi-main event push and a hot character, and if this were any time else than before Wrestlemania, odds are Swagger would have been “future endeavored” faster than you could shake a stick.

Well…now comes the offense. Right-wing commenator Glenn Beck proceeded to hand Swagger and WWE a gift on a silver platter.

Glenn Beck doesn’t like the Swagger/Colter storyline. He hates the promos that have Mantell and Swagger doing borderline racist rants in front of the “Don;t Tread on Me” flag commonly seen at Tea Party rallies. Last Wednesday on his TheBlaze TV show, Beck threw a vintage Beck tantrum. He claimed WWE was taking a shot at Tea Party members. “I can take it from a lot of people. I can’t take it from the stupid wrestling people” Beck further said that that WWE risks alienating its fans because of this character.

Vince McMahon proceeded to go on the offensive, by inviting Beck to come on tonight’s RAW to tell a WWE audience why he referred to them as “stupid wrestling people”. “WWE has extended an invitation to talk show host and political commentator, Glenn Beck to appear live this Monday on Raw, in response to a segment that aired on TheBlaze TV yesterday,” WWE announced. It explained that “WWE is creating a rivalry centered on a topical subject that has varying points of view. This storyline was developed to build the Mexican American character Del Rio into a hero given WWE’s large Latino base, which represents 20 percent of our audience.”

To add to the offensive, McMahon has Mantell and Swagger do a five-minute in and out-of-character promo in pushing the “We the People” anti-immigration gimmick…(at first), then went way out-of-character, bigtime. They ripped Beck a new asshole, basically suggesting Beck’s comment about “stupid wrstling people” may be racist and sexist in and of itself.

Here’s the promo. It’s a shame that this won’t be seen in unedited form, given that Mantell and Swagger blow kayfabe out of the water. But it showed how idiotic Beck’s comments were:

Glenn Beck has since turned down the offer by WWE. So you can bet Vince McMahon will be going after him later tonight on RAW.

Until next time….

If you have comments or questions, or if you’d like to add the AS I SEE IT column to your website, I can be reached by e-mail at the address above.

If you’d like to add advertising on PWBTS.com (the flagship website of this column), banner ads are available for $400 for one year. These ads would appear on each newspage appearing on the newsboard. Cube ads are available for $200 for one year, which would be placed on the main newsboard page.

This coming Saturday features a day of independent wrestling…termed “National Pro Wrestling Day with a two show lineup, one show at 1:00 pm and the finale at 7:00 pm at Derby Ink Gardens, at 802 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, PA on the northern edge of center city Philadelphia.

The shows have talent from a number of independent prompotions throughout the New York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania area and elsewhere on the east coast. ranging from CHIKARA Pro Wrestling and various spinoff names they run shows under (Wrestling is Art, Wrestling is Fun, Wrestling is Heart, Wrestling is Awesome), and from promotions as far away as Cleveland’s Absolute Intense Wrestling, the Carolinas based CWF Mid-Atlantic Wrestling, and Chicago’s Resistance Pro Wrestling. The matches bring a lot of talent Philadelphia area fans haven’t seen before, as well as some old favorites.

For the afternoon show:

MATCH 1: Wrestling is Art presents Mike Quackenbush vs. Colt Cabana

MATCH 2: A Rey de Voladores 4-Way Elimination match with Too Cold Scorpio vs. Jo Jo Bravo vs. Oliver Grimsley vs. Shane Hollister

MATCH 3: The other Rey de Voladores 4-Way Elimination match with names to be announced

MATCH 4: Ring of Honor Wrestling presents Steve Corino and Jimmy Jacobs vs. The Briscoe Brothers

MATCH 5: Wrestling is Fun! presents Juan Francisco de Coronado vs. Saturyne

MATCH 6: Beyond Wrestling presents Team KOA (Pinkie Sanchez and Aaron Epic) vs. Eric Corvis/Chris Dickinson

MATCH 7: CWF Mid-Atlantic presents Arik Royal/Chiva Kid vs. Ric Converse/Trevor Lee

MATCH 8: Wrestling is Respect presents Drew Gulak vs. Francis O’Rourke

MATCH 9: Kaiju Big Battel presents Dr. Cube and Sekmet vs. Neo Teppen and American Beetle

MATCH 10: Absolute Intense Wrestling presents Ethan Page vs. Josh Alexander

For the evening show:

MATCH 1: CHIKARA presents El Hijo del Ice Cream/Ice Cream, Jr./Chuck Taylor/Icarus vs. Fire Ant/Green Ant/Shane Matthews/Scott Parker

MATCH 2: EVOLVE presents AR Fox vs. Shane Strickland

MATCH 3: Wrestling is Heart presents Mat Russo/Heidi Lovelace vs. Reed Bentley/Tripp Cassidy

MATCH 4: New York Wrestling Connection presents Apollyon/Tony Nese vs. Alex Reynolds/John Silver

MATCH 5: Women Superstars Uncensored presents Marti Belle vs. Ezavel for the Spirit Title

MATCH 6: Wrestling is Awesome presents The Devastation Corporation vs. Latvian Proud Oak/Estonian ThunderFrog

MATCH 7: International Wrestling Cartel presents John McChesney defending his Heavyweight title against Logan Shulo

MATCH 8: Fighting Spirit Wrestling presents Wil Maximo/Joel Maximo vs. Angel Ortiz/Mike Draztik

MATCH 9: Resistance Pro presents a match to be named

MATCH 10: The Rey de Voladores mini-tournament final

Sounds great, right? The show even includes a match with Kaiju Big Battel, which is far more performance art show simulating wrestling that an actual wrestling promotion.

But do you notice any Philadelphia-based independent promotion’s name missing from participation on this Philadelphia show? One that actually ran shows for a longer period of time at the ECW Arena than ECW itself?

Yup. Nowhere do you see Combat Zone Wrestling.

Mind you, even though Drew Gulak, AR Fox, Shane Strickland are regular CZW talent appearing on the show (as well as The Briscoe Brothers who’ve appeared for CZW within the last year, and Colt Cabana who appeared earlier this month for CZW and is scheduled to appear on CZW Wrestlemania weekend shows in North Jersey)…there is no official match with CZW talent, and no cooperation with CZW on the show. The ostensible reason is “not wanting hardcore wrestling” on the show.

There has been a long-lasting freeze between these two promotions and their promoters, which both once jointly operated a wrestling school at the ECW Arena. Since then, both promotions have been at odds, to the point that various comments have been made in CZW pressers (including a not too thinly veiled “Wrestling fears CZW” comment that has been running in all pressers over the last month).

I’m not suggesting not to attend the show…I may well go to view one or the other show Saturday. But it just seems sad that such an great idea…a day to promote independent wrestling is marred by more of the usual childish bullshit that goes on between far too many independent promoters in far too many places; in this particular case betwen CHIKARA and Combat Zone Wrestling. Combat Zone Wrestling itself can trace its beginning to a similar show at the ECW Arena sponsored by Al Isaacs of ScoopsWrestling in May 1999 called “Break The Barrier.” The idea, much as it seems the “National Pro Wrestling Day” shows was to create a show featuring independent talent not usually seen. Since an outside party organizaed the show, there was less of this nonsense.

Until next time….

If you’d like to send a presser for your show or send results, if you have comments or questions, or if you’d like to add the AS I SEE IT column to your website, I can be reached by e-mail at the address above. If you’d like to add advertising on PWBTS.com (the flagship website of this column), banner ads are available for $400 for one year. These ads would appear on each newspage appearing on the newsboard.

Cube ads are available for $200 for one year, which would be placed on the main newsboard page.

Take Five

1. It’s still a few months until WrestleMania, so I’m sure I’ll have to address this again somewhere, but stop with the “Steve Austin might wrestle again” rumor mongering. Steve Austin isn’t returning as a wrestler and you’re beyond braindead if you think otherwise.

   The man’s neck is one encounter with MacGyver away from being held together with nothing but silly string and toothpicks. That wasn’t a worked promo when he talked about his neck problems on WWE.com in 2003. Those problems are real; he risks paralysis—or death—if he takes any ill-worked bump to the head, neck, spine, etcetera, etcetera. Yes, he could choose to come back anyway. I could choose to self-immolate.

   The notion that the angle with CM Punk would be an exception because Punk is a safe worker is equally ludicrous. Was there some sort of Safe-Worker-Shortage in 2003 which I’m not aware of? Ultimately, when you stir up this particular muck, all you’re doing is playing Fantasy Booker. For everyone’s sake, stop it.

2. I give Chikara and Mike Quackenbush a lot of flack. Part of it stems from my own choice to invest my time more in Mexican and Japanese promotions, leaving me with a lack of an emotional investment in Chikara’s product. Part of it is that I think Quackenbush’s entire business model is a little dated and silly. Part of it is that I think their fanbase has some really unrealistic perspectives. What I can’t deny is that they have a really dedicated fanbase and a product that’s enjoyable, if you decide that’s how your wrestling investment is best spent.

   Ultimately though, they’re confined to the Internet, which is a really mediocre place to lock yourself in. You sort of have to wonder what might happen if they’d just think a little bigger…

3. My Indie darling—AAPW out of Carbondale, IL—essentially no longer exists. I’m supposed to write a DVD review for a friend of mine who is involved with its descendent—and I will—but there’s a point to be made first.

   There’s all sorts of quasi-legal mumbojumbo and infighting going on which doesn’t directly involve me, or you for that matter. What’s important here is this: Just about everyone who made AAPW worth going on YouTube to watch has jumped ship to a new entity called Pro Wrestling Collision. I’m sure the product will be great.

   What’s sad is that all too often, Independent promotions fold, or change names, or shift direction, or lose focus, or completely revamp their identity. I know the Collision guys tried to keep the AAPW name, because they recognize the importance in consistency too. Independent promotions often offer up a perfectly fine product, but without consistency on the circuit, how can people be expected to emotionally invest?

4. CMLL has the next major show for the lucha promotions, Fantasticamania in January, but I’m an AAA man, and that means I’m already looking forward to Rey de Reyes in March. The event is Mexico’s answer to King of the Ring and it just about always manages to deliver a great show.

   AAA has shown a lot of progress in the last year, including putting their world title around El Texano Jr. earlier in December, so picking a Rey de Reyes Tournament winner is a total shot in the dark right now. For me, the most interesting build will be anything involving L.A. Park and his AAA Latin-American Championship. He’s held it for over a year now and a major event like Rey de Reyes would definitely be the kind of place someone of his caliber would show up to defend.

   It’ll certainly beat the hell out of any Undertaker build.

5. Speaking of Undertaker, he can bring us full circle here. Does anybody really miss him? For the first time in…ever really, I’m totally ambivalent to Undertaker showing up for WrestleMania. Going back the last four or five years, the roster needed his presence on the card because there was so little happening. This year, you could make a great Mania card without even mentioning Undertaker’s name in passing. Yes, you’d like to see him get some kind of retirement angle down the line, but for my money, if he never laced-up again, he’d have had a fine ending to a career long overdue for pasture.

1. WWE isn’t PG Anymore

A lot happened on Raw last night. In fact, enough happened that Derrick, Brady, and I probably could do a full show just on that material.

Lots of places are going to talk about Cody Rhodes’ mustache, that freeway-pile-up of an ending, or the AJ-Vickie angle that has gotten to be hilariously bad, but for someone with a massive ego like me, the most noteworthy part of Raw happened during Miz TV. I got my big victory over your average Internet Wrestling Community reader/caller/Tweeter during that segment. You see–if you’re one of those people–you are officially out of bullets for the “WWE is/isn’t PG enough” fight.

I suppose I should acknowledge that I’ve more or less walked the fence on this issue. I’ve been pretty open about my stance that blood is something which everybody is aware of and that having a strict “No blading, no blood, no cuts/knicks/bruises period” is (or was) silly. However, more often than not, I’ve leaned toward the “Edgy Product doesn’t equal Good Product” line of thought and have said multiple times that pushing the envelope is a relative term anyway.

To those whom would stand opposed to me, screaming “Attitude Era rulez!(sic)” I say unto you: You lose. Blame Miz.

In case you missed it, Miz made a “two in the pink, one in the stink” joke at the expense of Sandow and Rhodes. Yes. WWE is making that joke.

I know! Damn WWE and their bevy of PG-rated Shocker jokes! What’s next, a PG-rated version of Edge’s Live Sex Show?

Look, if all you want to do is cry “a full ban on blood makes suspension of disbelief neigh on impossible, just help me out a little Vince” I’m with you. You can bitch and moan about the split between “Rasslin’” and “Sports Entertainment” until you’re blue in the face; but at the end of the day you still have to have matches and there’s no way to have those without seeing them as a type of combat sport. It’s wrestling! And by God, if kids can watch Looney Tunes and somehow figure out that you shouldn’t run around dropping anvils on people’s heads, they can watch a wrestling match and realize that it’s not okay hit someone in the face with a miniature television monitor. Even as little as a smattering of accidental blood here and there should be fait accompli given the very nature of what you’re seeing in the ring in front of you.

However, there is officially no more room for the product to “be edgier.” The Shocker is just about as edgy (read: “crude” because that’s really what these people want) as you can get.

2. TNA holds pay-per-view it didn’t want for angles it wants to scrap. Droves shocked it was lackluster.

I really wish I could just say “give it time” but since that won’t do…

If you’re actually putting your best foot forward and investing in TNA’s product, you–like me–realize the following truths:

A) TNA appears to have undergone a fundamental shift in booking over the last 4-5 months.

B) The product itself has vastly improved over that span.

C) Unfortunately, TNA is sort of “The Land that Time Forgets” so things tend to move a bit slow there.

Yeah. It was an uninteresting show which featured a bunch of matches which were well worked, but led to nothing and felt sort of pointless. Welcome to the what happens when you need to wrap up years of Grade ZZ- booking.

This show was all about finishing the remains of the God-awful stuff and setting up the promotion to build toward Lockdown–a smart, and frankly, innovative move.

It’s still all too tenuous to declare victory for TNA just yet, but give it until March at least. I think by then, TNA will have it its stride and that going into BFG next year we’ll look back at Lockdown and talk about how great it is that TNA finally found its groove and can start focusing on secondary stuff to bring in casual fans.

If I’m wrong? I’ll admit it, then race to the front of the line to bury TNA once and for all.

3. Wrestlicious: Interwebinental Champions

This past weekend, Wrestlicious went on its Facebook page to brag that it had more fans than SHIMMER or WSU.

Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be too busy with new episodes or wrestling related content, so I’m still confused as to how they’re even in the same industry as SHIMMER or WSU.

4. Kingston vs. Cesaro for Something at Some Point Eventually.

Or not. My writing colleague and friend Ashley Morris over at L.E.W.D (and almost everywhere else) made some important observations about Kingston and Cesaro following their rather stellar match on Raw.

The Cesaro stuff was pretty much the same straightforward praise you can find for him just about anywhere: Peerless abilities and a future main event name.

The more pointed–and interesting–observations were about Kingston. To sum up Morris’ points (italicized for clarity), Kingston is essentially back where he was four years ago: Intercontinental champion with a core of supporters talking about the potential he shows. It’s concerning that he’s back in a bridesmaid spot, and realistically he’ll need to look ahead to 2014 if he’s going to get a WWE or WHC title reign. If he does, the parallel seems to be drifting toward Jeff Hardy. 

There’s some stuff to take away from here, and some stuff to elaborate on.

First, he’s right. It should be damn concerning that Kingston is back where he was in 2008. Back then he was 26-27 years old with some nice skills, a basic connection to fans, and without the hard miles of an Indie guy. Now he’s 31 with a ton of miles and no major title run to show for it. Hell, he hasn’t even sniffed a major title. The closest Kingston has come to winning either of the top two belts was when Edge beat him up and stole his spot in the 2009 No Way Out WHC Elimination Chamber match. Yep. You read that right. The closest Kingston has come to top tier gold was when someone beat him up and said “I’m wrestling instead.”

The parallel to Jeff Hardy is interesting too, and should raise more red flags. Even if you’re in agreement that Kingston is starting to resemble Hardy more and more, you have to admit that means he’s probably missing something (Jeff Hardy is, after-all, a devastatingly incomplete wrestler). In Kingston’s case, it’s starting to look like that missing piece is the ability to connect with people beyond a cheap entrance pop.

Lord only knows, WWE has tried to get him over. There’s the title runs, and the “boom” thing, and this wildcat business, but at the end of the day he’s still a walking stereotype who doesn’t know what country he’s from. He has one of the silliest finishers in wrestling and he seems to really only be as good as his opponent.

If I’m wrong, then you have to explain why he’s never even sniffed around a major title. At the very least, WWE should have wanted to see what they had if they thought he could be that guy.

Perhaps, Kofi fans, WWE just isn’t that into your guy because your guy just isn’t that good.

5. Stop Heel General Managers

It has been almost 20 years since Gorilla Monsoon was in charge. That was the last time a GM/President angle was any good. This Vickie thing has gotten well past the point of bad, and the corrupt official angle is as exasperating now as it was in 1988. Since Jack Tunney and Gorilla Monsoon are both dead, bring back Slaughter. Have him show up once a month and never be involved in an angle.

Oh, and if Brad Maddox doesn’t get a better gimmick, cut his ass.

Listen to ITR on Tuesday nights and follow Ray on Twitter @RayITR

Everything else is in a holding pattern too, more or less. Bigger feuds can’t really start going into the least important ppv of the year (in the whole industry, not just WWE), mid-card feuds have nowhere to go with the Rumble coming up, and the tag team division sort of has to sit around and see where this whole Cody Rhodes Problem ends up. Other than the Punk stable that seems to be developing, there seems to be little to go with right now.

While it’s nice to be right, nobody wants to have to sit through another month of WWE putting out more than 7 hours of programming which amounts to little more than them saying “Hey guys, ignore the corner we painted ourselves into until January please!”

To cope, I’ve compiled a guide of suggested activities to do during Raw, SmackDown, Main Event, NXT, or any other programming you might watch.

The Guide

- Watch for shots of the commentators on Raw. Count the number of times you vomit a little as you look at the arrangement of Cole-Bradshaw-Lawler and silently say to yourself, “Suit. Suit. Ed Hardy.”

- Get your friends together and count the number of times you find yourself realizing that–when their actions are compared against each other–there is no logical way Big Show can be the bad guy in his feud with Sheamus.

- Get a bottle of whiskey and take a shot every time someone on Twitter (correctly) compares the AJ-Cena-Vickie angle to Claire Lynch. Subsequently, call in sick to work the next day.

- Make a betting pool for which resident of The Jobber Kennel will be put down next. Bonus points if you’ve got enough moxie to pick JTG.

- Make a hilarious photoshop of Dolph Ziggler’s high school yearbook, where he is undoubtedly a member of the Spirit Squad. (Go Trojans!)

- During commercials, play the “Is Mick Foley A Face or Heel: Randy Orton Edition” discussion game.

- Flip over to Monday Night Football. Count the number of times Jon Gruden informs you that the man with the ball “is a football player.”

- Read Kurt Angle’s thoughts on things. Realize why WWE let him go with good years left.

- See if you can guess who will take the 2013 “Koko B. Ware Award for Most Irrelevant Hall of Fame Inductee.” You’ll win a prize if you get it right.

- Tweet at WWE every 5 minutes asking why they aren’t touting Tout any more.

- Try to watch a Ring of Honor iPPV. (More on that in a minute here.)

- Send an email to Dixie Carter explaining that–since Raw became 3 hours–WWE is essentially using TNA’s concept of a weekly pay-per-view, except they’re getting more viewers.

- Remind every wrestling fan you know that Bob Barker once got more out of a live WWE crowd than ZZ Top did. Record their reactions for scientific research.

- Call a fly-by-night wrestling talk show on Tuesday night and talk about how awesome Miz is.

- Count up the number of days Undertaker has been on television since Wrestlemania. Shake your head as you realize that Undertaker–an “active” member of the roster–has been on fewer times than Shawn Michaels–a retiree.

Non-Wrestling Thought

Eric Gargiulo of Camel Clutch Blog and I occasionally tweet back and forth over sports. This Sunday, I just happened to be online when he offered up some thoughts on the 49ers Alex Smith being benched. We traded a few thoughts, agreed to disagree, and moved on. But this is my pulpit, so here goes my chance to use more than 140 characters to talk about football.

Before I go talking about why I’m right, it’s only fair to admit that I actually agree with two of his premises on a more basic level.

First he said this: “People are feeling sorry for Alex Smith yet he had SEVEN YEARS to clinch the job & 1 winning season to show for it!”

That’s true. Before Harbaugh showed up, Smith hadn’t exactly showed off the impressive skill set he displayed playing college ball at Utah. In fact, the Harbaugh hire sparked plenty of perfectly reasonable speculation that now-Colts-QB Andrew Luck would follow him out of Stanford and down to San Francisco either by holding out, or by the 49ers trading up to the overall number one slot.

Then he said this in an initial response to me: “31 other teams couldve signed him in the offseason. Only 1 other team showed any other interest. Hes just not that good.”

By and large, that’s true too. Nobody is saying he’s another Peyton Manning, and this past off-season did see all 31 other NFL franchises pass on the opportunity to sign Smith. This is a statement of fact, not opinion, so I can’t exactly say he’s wrong there.

But, the logic he used is just as easily applied in the inverse, and it results in an argument I happen to buy.

First, I don’t think it’s fair to say that because he had a few bad years early on, he’s earned no benefit of the doubt in the now. Most of the teams he was on were terrible both offensively and defensively, and until Harbaugh came in as coach he never had any sort of organizational stability behind him. Not only did he have those circumstances going against him, but a look at his numbers shows he’s managed to put together a respectable career as a starter. He’s over .500; he’s only thrown fewer TDs than INTs twice (1-11 his rookie season, 2-4 in another); and even with some non-Harbaugh coached teams, he managed to put up at least marginal records (including an 8-8 season).

Secondly, Kapernick wasn’t all that impressive when you look at what he did in context. Yes, the game was on the road, but if you take away the two INTs that got returned for scores–something that has only happened 28 times in the history of professional football–and Kapernick didn’t even manage to break the 20 point mark against the perennially anemic Saints defense. Yes, I’m playing a variant of the “woulda-coulda-shoulda” game here, but it’s worth pointing out because the two non-offensive scores were more than the margin of victory. Kapernick isn’t drastically stretching the field–he only averages 1.2 more yards per pass–and his offense managed to far undershoot the team’s average PPG. Again, he did that against the Saints.

Finally, if it’s true someone can have a job and do nothing to deserve it, then it’s also true that that same person could lose his job and justifiably say there’s no good reason he lost it. In this case, Smith has an argument. He has a top 5 quarterback rating, had the highest completion percentage in the NFL, and only 4 other quarterbacks with over 100 attempts had thrown fewer interceptions (he has 5). While he doesn’t have the yards or TDs (in part because of the 49ers prolific run game), I can’t think of many other quarterbacks ever who would have been benched for that were they in Smith’s position.

I think I’m right here, but I’ve also got to concede that there’s no real way to prove either of us right or wrong either way.  It’s just something to think about, really.

One Last Wrestling Thought

Over the Thanksgiving week, my buddy and former Baltimore-Sun columnist Adam Testa mused the following: “Didn’t ROH’s iPPV stream crash with an ‘unexpected’ 2,000 viewers? Much lesser known Wrestling is Fun did 5,700 on a damn good stream. Awesome work.”

I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but I came back later to see that he’d become embroiled in a discussion that involved him being accused of being a RoH downer. I’ll share my response to the whole thing, and then elaborate.

Response: “ I think the most hilarious aspect is that a promotion which fancies itself as a national player didn’t expect 2k buys.”

Elaboration: Look, if you’re Ring of Honor, I’ve got bad news for you. You look sillier and sillier by the day. You are almost the furthest thing from a national promotion, but you spend a lot of time pretending you’re one. For all the bluster of Cornette, you can’t even get on television in a Top 10 market. You’ve been straight up hemorrhaging talent for the past 3 years now, and you haven’t found a way to replace that depth.

You didn’t expect to get 2000 buys? How the hell did you expect your television deal to work?

Listen to ITR, Tuesday nights.

Photo by WWE

Well, $100 million later. Two election campaigns. After all that, Linda McMahon is still not the United States Senator from Connecticut.

Republican nominee Linda McMahon was beaten handily by Democrat Chris Murphy in this past Tuesday Connecticut Senate election, which helped the Democratic Party maintain its majority in the US Senate, as President Barack Obama was reelected in one of the most expensive, dirty, vicious elections in United States history.

What, if any, changes will the election FINALLY being over with being to WWE’s product? Will Vince and Stephanie McMahon finally loosen up on “PG-rated” wrestling. They have always claimed that the changes in the product were due to the wishes of advertisers…a claim believed by very few wrestling fans; who have seen it as an attempt to not give Democrats and critics in general any ammunition to throw at Linda McMahon. But there were years upon years of ammunition to throw…the entire Attitude Era, and the far more adult (and many of us would argue, more entertaining) product.

Here’s the thing. If Linda McMahon was going to use her experience running WWE to substantiate a campaign based on business expertise, then she had to deal with the flak that would come in with it. I have never understood why she didn’t take that issue on the FIRST campaign she ran; saying that her company ran a dramatic depiction of an enteriainment based professional wrestling product. It was successful. Elements of it were controversial…yet it attracted eyeballs to its television, asses into seats, and dollars into WWE’s bank accounts. She could have easily said “If it’s not your cup of tea, don’t watch it, but it made money and that’s what I’m running on”. Instead McMahon spent more time trying to have it both ways, deflecting attention from the Attitude Era product, sending WWE lawyers after media sources and Democratic Party politicians who used controversial footage claiming copyright infringment…drawing even more attention to the footage.

Whatever you think of her, I’d be curious what readers think will happen in the coming year to WWE’s product as a result of her two failed campaigns.

November is nearly halfway through..and the Holiday season is only days away.

In keeping with the actual spirit of the season, the wrestling community will reach out to those in need. Independent promotions hold a wide variety of events to benefit various food pantries, shelters, Toys for Tots drives. Over the years, promotions ranging from the family-friendly United Wrestling Coalition to the hardcore themed Combat Zone Wrestling to indies of various sizes and types trough the United States and Canada. Even if you don’t have one in your own area this Holiday season, please take time to contribute to or volunteer with such organizations.

River City Wrestling is also supporting the San Antonio Food Bank. at their November 10 “Return to Glory 5″ event. The San Antonio Food bank has a goal of raising one million pounds of food for needy families for the holidays and everyone is encouraged to bring non-perishable items to the show. RCW will also donate a portion of the show’s proceeds to SA Food Bank.

Pure Wrestling Association/Ontario presents: “Spirit of the Season” on December 7th, at the Alpine Club, 464 Maple Avenue, Kitchener, Ontario. Doors Open at 7:00pm/Bell Time at 7:30pm

Tickets are $15.00 in Advance $10 in Advance for Youths and can be purchased at Combinations Sports – 306 King St W in Kitchener or by calling 519-998-8799. Tickets can be purchased at the door the day of the event for an extra $5

ALL PROCEEDS WILL BE DONATED TO THE TREE OF ANGELS!! HELPING KIDS IN OUR COMMUNITY

PURE WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP

TURCAN CELIK VS. JOEY ALLEN -c- W/ LENNY LILAC

ELITE WOMENS CHAMPIONSHIP

GABRIELLA VANDERPOOL VS. JEWELLS MALONE -c-

TAGTEAM CHAMPIONSHIP

SCREAMING EGOS VS. THRILLBILLIES-c-

ONTARIO CHAMPIONSHIP

JOHNNY WAVE VS. ANTHONY FIASCO-c-

PURE VIOLENCE CHAMPIONSHIP

HARDKORE HICK VS. BUCK GUNDERSON-c-

JIMMY KING VS. SGT. DICKSON

REGGIE MARLEY VS. REX ATKINS

DEREK PLATINUM VS. JUAN ORTIZ

ECWA will be holding a Toys for Tots event at its December 1 show in Newark, DE.

ECWA UNIFIED HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE

“Heart Killer” Chris Wylde (c) vs. Josh Daniels w/ Joel Blackheart

ECWA MID-ATLANTIC TITLE MATCH

Mr. Ooh La La w/ Coach Jim Shorts (c) vs. Ricky “the Model” Martinez w/ Magnum & Gus Grand

RETURN GRUDGE MATCH

“Greek God” Papadon w/ Anthony Cicco vs. Tony Mamaluke

ECWA MID-ATLANTIC TITLE REMATCH

Mr. Ooh La La w/ Coach Jim Shorts (c) vs. Ricky “the Model” Martinez w/ Magnum & Gus Grand

PLUS…

ECWA UNIFIED TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS The Dream Team (Aden Chambers & Kekoa the Flyin’ Hawaiian)

The BOSS’S CHAIR with Mike Tartaglia

and all the stars of the ECWA!

Combat Zone Wrestling, for the eighth consecutive year, will be holding a Toys for Tots collection at Cage of Death 14 on December 8. The Cage of Death event, CZW’s annual mega-show will again be part of a “deadly doubleheader”, this year with EVOLVE hosting the matinee show…all taking place at the Flyers Skate Zone in Voorhees, NJ. The Flyers Skate Zone also takes part in the annual Toys for Tots effort sponsored by Comcast.

Illnois’s AAW Pro Wrestling partners with US Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program for Windy City Classic VIII on November 24 at 115 Bourbon Street in Merrionette Park, IL. Fans purchasing General Admission will receive $3 off at the door on November 24 with approved donation to Toys for Toys.

Chicago Style Wrestling holds its annual Toys for Tots show on November 23 in Addison, IL at the Pyramid Club.

Des Moines’s 3Xwrestling collects Toys for Tots donations as part of their annual November event in Des Moines on Black Friday, November 23 (the day after Thanksgiving).

Chaotic Wrestling will do a show benefitting Toys for Tots on Fan Appreciation night, which takes place December 14th in Lowell, MA.

California’s Apex Pro Wrestling has announced “Tag for Toys”show schedule for December 8th. Admission is a new/unwrapped toy (valued $10) to be donated to Toys for Tots. Show is highlighted with a Tag Team tournement to crown new Apex Pro Tag champs

Competitors to be named soon

Incidentally, Toys for Tots collections have already begin in other parts of the United States. If you need information on the charity, go to Toys for Tots.com

Additionally, Brew City Wrestling will hold another event on December 9, when they return to their home base of Knights of Columbus, West Allis, WI. with a benefit for Food for Families of Greater Milwaukee

As a reminder promotions (or their fans) can send information on scheduled Holiday charitable-themed (fund-raisers for clothes, food pantries or Toys for Toys, etc.) wrestling or MMA events to bobmagee1@hotmail.com.

Until next time….

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