Sure Batista is a monster, but JBL just smoked him with a chair.....

[Wetzelbill]

I don't care how big and tough you are, if you get hit with a chair then you're going down. WTF am I talking about? This stuff isn't even real.

[jobycom]

1. LOL What is real these days? I stick to fiction because it's more honest

than what I see or read in the news or on reality shows. At least you know wrestling isn't real. I have no idea about football or basketball.

[Wetzelbill]

4. wrestling doesn't even pretend it's real

either. They fully admit it's fake. They market themselves as entertainment, so they are pretty honest about it. I think you got it exactly right.

By contrast, in the real world, Fox News, which pretends they are real, is less accurate than the fake news, as in The Daily Show.

Go figure.

[NaturalHigh]

2. I actually watched some of Smackdown tonight.

I'm a big wrestling fan, but I mostly stick with old tapes. The entire segment spent on the Eddie and Rey soap opera was a bit much, IMHO.

[Wetzelbill]

3. oh I know that stuff is getting so old

Wrestling is actually really entertaining. A lot of fun.

But, yeah, that Rey and Eddie stuff, it's gone on too long and too far. They need to end it here soon.

[In_The_Wind]

5. fake blood ?

or ... over the ropes


nope



pain is pain

[Wetzelbill]

6. blood is real

they do little tricks, like cut themselves when nobody can see. The ref often hands them razor blades, they always communicate when they are in clinches and so on. It's really an interesting sport, the way they go out of their way to put on a wild show.

But yeah, pain is pain. :)

[In_The_Wind]

8. I don't like boxing.

or a 'show' of violence


I think seeing it helps to desensitize people to pain in others.

[Wetzelbill]

17. it depends

It's different seeing it in a sport then it is in regular life. I used to box in smokers and drawing a little blood is nothing. Same as when I wrestled. I've hurt people before. Broke a guys wrist once, hurt three guys in one tournament, regularly bloodied noses etc. That's part of the game. Everybody knows when they compete that you might get bloodied up or something. No mystery there. As do people watching it too. They know something might happen.

But, I can guarantee you, because I've seen violence and pain in others outside of sports that it is a whole different ballgame when you do. Maybe some people can't differentiate, I don't know. But, I know that I always could. I was a very violent athlete. My younger brother is even more so. He has fistfought in competitions before. He's brutal. He's broken noses, knocked people completely cold. But, both of us are progressives, very compassionate about others. I've seen him get upset at animals being abused, Abu Ghraib nearly reduced him to tears. An elderly neighbor of ours committed suicided and he was crying and everything. And, this is a guy who has beaten people up for a living.

So, I think it depends. There's a big difference between an athletic competition/entertainment and regular life. At least for normal people anyway. If somebody gets desensitized to suffering that easily then that is pretty messed up.

I think we call those people Republicans. :)

[In_The_Wind]

53. Athletic competition/entertainment has its place. What troubles me

are the children who are hurt trying to emulate what they see on TV.

[Spider Jerusalem]

24. I like boxing, personally.

And I don't find it desensetising, because I can separate my enjoyment of the sport from other forms of violence that are truly distasteful and disturbing. And boxing isn't JUST about the violence. It's about will, speed, grace, agility, strength, stamina, endurance...a well-fought boxing match is one of the most complete displays of athleticism you can see anywhere, because few other sports combine all of these elements.

[enigmatic]

9. Flair is the best cut guy I've ever seen

It's like an art form w/ him, though Abdullah The Butcher and The Sheik were masters, too..

[Beware the Beast Man]

11. Mick Foley dedicated some time in his book,

on how to properly bust open an eyebrow for desired effect.

I'm glad he's on our team...

[enigmatic]

20. Foley is one helluva guy

amazingly articulate; I'm glad he's on our side, too..

[Borgnine]

33. I don't even watch wrestling...

...but I love Mick Foley. He's a geniunely funny guy and like you said, he's on our team. I remember hearing that he made some crack about Rush taking Oxycontin during a wrestling event, and those things usually lean right what with the evil foreigners and what not.

[enigmatic]

7. He's half the wrestler as this guy:

Goldussssssssssssssssssssssst..........



I know it'll never happen, but I want Goldust resigned..

[Wetzelbill]

18. give it up enigmatic

The dream is over. :)

[enigmatic]

21. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

I've been searching in vain for a Goldust figure; I know they made a few..

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

23. I'm pretty sure I have one........

....I think it came with Marlena, too.

[enigmatic]

26. No way!

Would you interested in trading it or selling it? Or all lifetime requests on my overnight show?:)

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

29. Let me see if I can find it.....

....going to my parents next week, I'll probably be digging through some boxes where it would be.....if I find it it's yours.

Goldust was pretty important in the WWF scheme of things, really the first character who deviated from the family friendly days to the "Attitude" era. His original gimmick of quoting movie lines and playing to the homophobia of his opponents was fantastic, sadly they got away from it to make him a sado-masocistic Marilyn Manson type and totally killed the character. Got to see him make his comeback on RAW live the same night as Mr Perfect(RIP) which was fun, and the stuff he did with Booker T was great too.

[enigmatic]

30. Exactly

He was way ahead of his time, and the first incarnation was one of the 10 best gimmicks ever. And I don't think anybody but Dustin Runnels could have done Goldust; he truly made it memorable.

It's a shame he totally ruined the "S7ven" gimmick on WCW by doing the shoot the night he made his live appearence; those promos were brilliantly creepy..

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

31. Boy, I'd be interested to get a list going of the ten best gimmicks ever

Goldust would be on there....or some obscure ones like Waylon Mercy, who paved the way for the likes of Mankind and Kane.....

[enigmatic]

34. We have to get Wetzel into this, too

He's a wrestling fan like we are..

Off the top of my head:

Goldust
Adrian Street
The Original Undertaker
Gorgeous George (who invented "gimmick" wrestlers)
The Sheik

I gotta think about this.

One guy who I love that can't wrestle for crap but has one of the fantastic gimmicks of all-time is Sandman; it really is a testamount to Paul Heyman's genius that he he could take a guy who was horrible wrestler and package him as well as he did w/ The Sandman. And he's got the best entrance of all-time, too..

[Wetzelbill]

35. My favorite ever was Mr. Perfect

When they first had those promos in '88, he'd never miss a pool shot. Never missed a free throw. Everything he did was perfect. Then in the ring he was the premier young technical wrestler in the game along with Bret Hart. I used to call myself Mr. Perfect and for years would do a modified version of the Perfect Plex in real wrestling matches. No shit. I pinned a kid one time in twenty seconds with a Perfect Plex and as I was walking off the mat I looked at a bunch of people from the town that kid was from and said: "Because I'm Perfect and you're not!" Oh man, I was an arrogant little fucker. lol.

I thought The Widow Maker was a big waste. He could've been great, but Barry Windham wasn't given a chance to make that character work.


Definitely The Undertaker.

Paul "Mr. Wonderful" Orndorff was a great character. He fit into that same group as Jesse Ventura and Billy Graham. Muscular, built guys who added a lot of appeal for women. I think Mr. Wonderful ended up setting the bar though. Really paved the way for Rick Rude, guys like Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell. You even see a lot of Ornorff's attitude in Captain Charisma, Christian right now.

Rowdy Roddy Piper. Definitely. Really paved the way for the anti-establishment, fuck your boss type of character. Stone Cold perfected it. No doubt, but Piper started that shit. Carlito does some of it now. He's got a lot of talent. He could go places, but we'll see.

Nikolai Volkoff and Sgt. Slaughter. Collectively they are just perfect Cold War characters. Really brilliant gimmicks.

Legion of Doom. You just thought that Hawk and Animal were the baddest fuckers that ever existed. Awesome gimmicks.

The Ultimate Warrior. He really paved the way for a guy like Goldberg. UW was much more high energy and would run to the ring and go nuts, but he had that same overwhelming style. I used to love how he'd charge to the ring and swarm some scrub, like Barry Horowitz, and hit that explosive gorilla press, then run out of the ring into the back. He was just a whirlwind. He was so physically dominant.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

36. Mr Perfect was my all time fave....

....with Bret Hart right behind.

The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase was one of the all time greats. He could go in the ring and really was the biggest heel around at that time, with the whole "Everyone has a price" thing. It was a simple concept of an arrogant rich guy, that's been done since, but not as well as DiBiase did it.

[Wetzelbill]

46. oh yeah Dibiase was fun to hate

He was a great character. And, he even had a black bodyguard, what a jerk! Nobody has done it as well. For sure.

I always loved to watch Bret Hart. That guy was a machine. A truly gifted wrestler. He and Hennig at their best were a pleasure to watch. Much the way Flair was too. Really great athletes.

[ProfessorGAC]

38. LoD

Back in the day, (late 70's early 80's) when those guys broke out of Atlanta, i thought they were the two toughest looking wrestlers i'd ever seen. Huge, ripped, fast, and mean! The perfect heels.

Too bad about Mike Hegstrand, huh?
The Professor

[MN ChimpH8R]

42. They were both Minnesota boys

trained by Verne Gagne and Billy Robinson. I remember seeing them as bouncers in a rock club I frequented back in the late 1970s. They were scary big - I mean MONSTERS.

[ProfessorGAC]

43. I Met Them In An Airport

I was on a biz trip and i met both of them in a magazine shop, along with Michael Hayes. I think i was coming back from Atlanta, but i'm not sure anymore.
The Professor

[Wetzelbill]

47. LOD were fearsome

Those guys looked like they could bench press the world. They'd just go in and put a beating on people. I loved watching them just kill people with the Doomsday Device.

Yeah it is too bad. It's surprising how many of these guys really have some serious demons. It got the best of a lot of them too. Hennig, Hegstrand, Brian Pillman, even Louie Spicoli. Elizabeth too.

It's a shame.

[Wetzelbill]

48. oh I forgot, Jake "The Snake" Roberts and Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake...

Two of the best characters ever.

Jake giving Andre The Giant -another great one- a heart attack by tossing Damien at him was a classic.

Brutus cutting people's hair off after matched. Great!

[enigmatic]

49. Jake The Snake!

Ravishing Rick Rude, too; both classic gimmicks.

I agree w/ you on Mr. Perfect, too; I can't believe I forgot him last night. Those promos were the best ever..

[Wetzelbill]

50. hell, I patterned most of my life after Mr. Perfect

starting in the 8th grade. I wanted to be perfect so bad, haha. Never lose. Never miss a shot.

I used to like Tatanka. Mainly because he was Indian. You had some of those old school characters like Chief Jay Strongbow or Wahoo McDaniel that were really fun. Bad stereotypes, could be considered downright offensive, but it's pro wrestling, everything is offensive, lol. It's supposed to be.

Another gimmick I liked was The Godfather. He'd come out with his Ho Train. That was pretty entertaining.

[MN ChimpH8R]

51. Roll a fatty fo' your mack daddy

and remember, PIMPIN' AIN'T EASY!! :rofl:

[Beware the Beast Man]

10. I liked JBL better when he was an Acolyte.

[enigmatic]

12. "Damn!"

[Beware the Beast Man]

15. I loved every time they made a stop in Providence, RI...

to tear up that bar, the "Friendly Tap" (I guess it's really owned by a WWF referee).

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

19. Yup, Tim White......

.....the bar is actually in Coventry, RI. Never been there, however.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

13. Either way........

JBL ain't winning at SummerSlam. If Batista gets to go over HHH three straight times, Vince's SECOND favorite guy isn't getting the win.

[enigmatic]

14. Not having HHH on RAW...

these past weeks has been very, very nice:)

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

16. True

HBK/Hogan build has been great and Jericho as the top heel is fantastic......

[MN ChimpH8R]

40. Seconded and thirded

I am SICK TO DEATH of The Son-In-Law. He's still a good worker, though not what he once was, but he is (1) such a brutally one-dimensional talker and (2) the most power-hungry, protect-my-spot, the company-be-damned wrestler since Hogan, whom I despised even more than HHH. :puke:

Shelton Benjamin getting jobbed out to that oafish, talentless musclehead Chris Masters is also a big disappointment. Benjamin is the best athlete in WWE since Kurt Angle before he injured his neck.

I hope Shawn Michaels makes Hogan look really bad even if he has to do the job for the washed-up old fraud.

[sleipnir]

22. Sure Batista was a monster, But LBJ set up him up on the JFK plot.

[Wetzelbill]

25. it's great to be in the world of political nerds....

where else could you tell a joke like that and have somebody not only get it, but laugh too? :)

[sleipnir]

27. Cheers!

I'm glad someone enjoyed that one!

The Political Nerds usually have the most bizarre humor.

[enigmatic]

28. rimshot!

ok, that was funny:)

[ghostsofgiants]

45. Well played

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

32. JBL is easy money for Batista.

Easy money.

[yellowcanine]

37. I guess I am out of it - Who is Batista? A wrestler?

[sakabatou]

39. JBL's an asshat

I hate him.

[MN ChimpH8R]

41. In real life he is a Repuke, too. nt

[ghostsofgiants]

52. Most wreslters are

There are a few exceptions (Mick Foley, Chris Nowinski, possibly RVD), but most wrestlers tend to lean to the right.

[Blue_Tires]

44. bring back ECW!!! n/t