Ant

It was great. I went yesterday, but Saturday set the scene. I took a wander to the venue on Saturday evening to get my bearings for the Sunday. A boozy hen party was loitering at reception. Then Ron Simmons appears, clocks them - you can guess what happened next! 

Some of the queuing was akin to waiting in line for Florida theme park ride, but the economic reality is selling loads of Bret, HBK, Trish tickets covers all the costs, and I'd imagine makes it profitable. It was to be expected. Mind you it works both ways - while you could spend an hour in the queue for Trish or Bret, you could get round Tatanka, Chavo, Gangrel etc in no time as there was no queue at all and talk as much as you want with them.

 

My wrestlecon experience ended with me wandering by the Nasty Boys having a fag break between pints outside the Spoons. 

 

At times an absolute surreal experience, like a reality show. But in a good way!

JR recorded a podcast with Demolition today, dunno when it will be available but I reckon it'll be worth a listen for cartoon era fans.

I'm going to Sunday Wrestlecon and HBK Glasgow.

 

Just the show element in Glasgow as met Shawn in Manchester last year, and will meet him again himself and with Bret in London.

 

Should be cool, though two flights on Saturday to get back for it, fingers crossed no air traffic controller strikes etc!

Johnny Vogune sounds a cool cat. Did he cover for Vaughan?

It's also worth remembering that WWF was a huge UK fad between, probably between Summer 91-92. It took over something like Barman or Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles reign, and naturally lost a chunk of it's fan base as the next fad arrived.

No problem if the others could remember their spots.

Love the 86 Mean Gene clips Herbie, cheers for that.

 

By 3 minutes in Savage had mentioned locking Elizabeth away in a room and Bret Hart had talked about fighting the Bulldogs in Wembley stadium. Funny how things turned out.

So many random thoughts about TNA.

 

Like it's worth highlighting that there has probably never been a normal economic reality between TNA income and expenditure. If they have no TV deal they can continue to exist if that's what Dixie wants. But I'd guess no TV = no vanity project, and she's out.

 

Whilst it's not impossible to operate a successful entertainment company without TV (Cirque Du Soleil, Harlem Globetrotters) you'd be hard pressed to find a buyer, unless you could package it in such a way the likes of Feld Entertainment or another wrestling company view it as a strategic acquisition.

 

Eg Jarrett could probably do with saying his GFW is the growth of the business that has existed since 2002.

 

But everything else aside they seem like lying twats, and this may be the last cloak and dagger for many of the roster.

 

Maximum Fan Ringside VIP package includes:

 

• Early entry to the venue
• Guaranteed seat in the front 2 rows
• Pre event meet with up to 8 of the Wrestlers and TNA Knockouts
• Have your photo taken with the TNA world championship belt
• Personalised signed photos
• 1 piece of exclusive tour merchandise
• VIP tour laminate

   

  Ultimate Fan Ringside VIP package includes:

   

• All of the above PLUS
• Guaranteed seat in the front row
• Pre event meeting and Q&A with DIXIE CARTER (estimate :30 mins)
• Attend and participate in a creative workshop with the writers (estimate :30 mins)
• Pre event backstage tour with DIXIE CARTER, See the TV truck, changing rooms, walk the ramp & have a photo opportunity with Dixie in the six sided ring.

 

Should ROH attracts higher ratings, does anyone have any guesses what the TNA spin will be?

 

"They got the better timeslot" would appear to be it. Any other suggestions?

 

By the way does anyone know anyone willing to pay 400 notes for the UK tour VIP package. It's not about affording it, it's about seeing that as good value, and I just can't imagine there being many.

If only they'd set a Glasgow tour date they wouldn't have lost their TV deal.

 

I wonder if the high price tag consultants will be re-engaged to seek out a new channel.

I watched the Owens promo. I need to watch a match to see what the fuss is about. He looks worse than I expected (I've just seen pics of him in civvies posing with Trips etc), and the mic work wasn't all that.

 

But the worst thing was the "British lad just arrived in Spain and got tanned lower arms but white as a ghost up top" look.

 

To think what people put themselves through to have a good look, even on the indies, and that dude gets on world wide TV.

Yup, saw a pic from the Birmingham expo earlier and Hart was in the background.

All speculation, but Taylor might have been round regularly, talking to the neighbours at 2.4 children BBQ's etc. I'm sure the story was that Benoit told the office he and/or his family were unwell hence he missed the house shows. Maybe Regal or someone asked Taylor to go round, or he did so off his own back on hearing a colleague/mate wasn't well.

 

Suppose someone could ask Taylor or more realistically Regal at one of the standard up shows, but they could well get a sore face or big out down!

 

It was only after seeing Regal's stand up act last year I found out via Google that Dave Taylor was apparently on the scene with his missus. As in wandering about the premises according to a neighbour.

I might be very wrong about this and have it mixed up with something else, but didn't some kid get questioned by the police for editing Beniots wiki page saying that he had murdered Nancy prior to it being properly uncovered. When he was asked how he knew he said he was just messing around or some shit?

Fuck knows if i've just made that up but i'm 100% something daft like that happened.

Yeah I remember that. It happened very quickly, ie within a day of it all coming to light.

 

Bloke must have shat himself.

Does anyone have an idea of Power Slam magazine's circulation figures?

 

I started buying it in 1996. 1 or 2 copies available in one local newsagent and WH Smith. Fast forward to the Austin Wrestlemania victory and it seemed there was piles of them everywhere.

I think that's what he called himself on the Indy show against Hogan in Memphis. He subbed for Lawler after WWE pulled him from the show.

Assuming there is a 2016 tour, will it be the latest announced tour in terms of time since the last tour?

 

It usually feels like tics go on sale weeks after the last show.

Luger's Highspots shoot is ok. I got it when it was released which pre dated him coming clean about all his demons - ie getting caught. With that context you've got to take everything he says with a pinch of salt.

Bruce Hart looking sinister as fuck as per.

Watched the first 2 minutes of the Dynamite shoot. Can't believe it stretches over 3 hours. The 120 seconds I've seen are like a Chris Morris sketch. Jesus wept.

"Above Average" Mike Sanders was one of the grapplers I was surprised that didn't get a WWF call-up when WCW went down the swanny. He was a great talker.

He was on the payroll and based at one of the development camps of the day, and stayed for as much as a year and a half before getting released. Surprising when you consider some guys that got a shot.

 

 

Is Gangrel still on good terms with them? The camera spotted him at the Hall of Fame this year during Rikishi's speech, and he had that great mini-return on SmackDown with Viscera about ten years ago. I remember being disappointed he didn't stick around a bit longer like Vis did.

 

Vis got a run out of it, but didn't Gangrel look completely out of his depth, even though he'd worked fairly frequently on All Star tours etc. I seem to recall a triple threat with Taker and thought he was woeful.

He probably did, yeah, I'm remembering it far too nostalgically. I think SmackDown was on one of its downhill 'Raw's nicked all our best guys' periods at the time, so the addition of a couple of recognisable characters made me a bit more interested in it again. I can't even remember why the two of them came back, now I think of it...

According to Wikipedia (and it does make sense as soon as you read it) they came back in the run up to Taker vs JBL at No Mercy a few weeks later, as a nod to Bradshaw being in Taker's Ministry outfit a few years earlier.

 

I can't remember the turnaround time for a proper return, but Vis was full time six months later on the Wrestlemania Revenge tour.

Is Gangrel still on good terms with them? The camera spotted him at the Hall of Fame this year during Rikishi's speech, and he had that great mini-return on SmackDown with Viscera about ten years ago. I remember being disappointed he didn't stick around a bit longer like Vis did.

Vis got a run out of it, but didn't Gangrel look completely out of his depth, even though he'd worked fairly frequently on All Star tours etc. I seem to recall a triple threat with Taker and thought he was woeful.