Statto

Does anybody know the last WWE tag team match where the heel team were in the corner at the top left-hand of the hard camera screen?

 

Funnily enough, a few weeks ago there was one, but I don't remember who it was I'm afraid. The reason I recall is was that just before I watched the show, I had been pondering when that set-up became the WWE standard, and was considering asking that question in this very thread.

 

Only read through the first couple of chapters but it's an interesting read. The first chapter talks about his time as an apprentice at Lincoln City where they'd clean the boots, wash the first team players' kits and turn off the lights at the end of a shift and making his debut under Keith Alexander. Looknig forward to looking through the rest of it.

 

I'm pretty much to the end of this now, and although it's been a decent read, I didn't think it to be anything amazing. Huckerby has always struck me as quite a private bloke, and it comes across here. Everything has the feel of a whistle-stop, and there's nothing really about his life outside football - just the odd throwaway line like "me & Lindsay were married by this stage". or "the boys were now two and four". I of course respect that privacy, but compared to Bryan Gunn's book (the only other football autobiography I can recall reading), there's much less detail - Gunny tells quite a few stories about his courtship with his wife, the birth & childhood of his kids, babysitting Darren Ferguson when he was at Aberdeen, and of course the tragedy of losing his daughter.

 

Which brings me to the other thing - while I have great repect for Hucks and his career, and particularly the kickstart he helped give the club I love, I have to question "Through adversity to great heights" - both the title and the tattoo. Unless there's something private he's not telling us, the worst adversity he seems to have gone through is being a bench player at big (at the time, Leeds fans...) clubs and not feeling he was earning the massive wages they were paying him.

 

All that said, I have felt it a worthwhile read, and particularly enjoyed the parts where he tactfully avoids calling Glenn Roeder a cunt, although you know he is, and calling the likes of Mark Fotheringham shit, although you know he is.

Did Greg Valentine ever date Madusa Miceli? I remember seeing a picture of him at home in a magazine and he had her picture on the wall.

 

Yep, they were an item for a few years. Lived together, but no marriage or kids AFAIK. Probably a good thing - they'd be some dog-faced children.

Which came first, Tyler Reks' music or Darren Young's music? the compositions are largely the same...

 

You may well already know this, but they are indeed the same song. Well, two different mixes of the same stock music. It's quite common for stock pieces to come in many, many mixes/versions , so if someone likes a piece of music for a TV show/film/etc, but don't entirely like the "feel" of it, they have other options.

What happened to the Bashams and the Highlanders? Are they still going around the indies?

 

I've not seen any of their names pop up anywhere for a good while, and the fact that none of them appears to have an official website, or appear on any indy fed/booking agent websites (I've not scoured the depths of the internet, mind, but you'd expect it to pop up in the first 20 or so Google results) suggests that if they are doing anything, it's sporadic and probably local to them.

 

The Highlanders Wiki page has a picture of one of them (Robbie? The one with hair who went to watch TNA during Mania weekend) from an indy show in January of last year where he looks about 1/2 the size he was in WWE, which suggests he's at least given it up as a full-time thing.

I'll tell you one thing the BDO has over the PDC - Martin Fitzmaurice, the brilliant old bastard. Much better than Sky's rent-an-MC. I love the way 99% of matches are announced as "England...vs England..."I'm always heartened by the fact that all BDO players still use music from 1995 or before for their walk-on. A little bit of darts died the day someone told the PDC crowd the Now! series continued after 30.

I'll watch the BDO but I find it incredibly depressing at times, and the way the BDO supporters clamour for piss poor reasons why the PDC isn't infinately better than their organisation.If Martin Adams wins, he'll be going around saying he matched Eric Bristow's record of 3 back to back titles, which is laughable seeing as the world's best were playing in it back then.Be prepared for 20 dart legs and plenty of visits with scores such as 26.

The way I look at it, yes the PDC has the tecnically better players, by some margin, but that doesn't mean the BDO isn't worth watching.I liken it to watching Barcelona vs Real Madrid compared to watching a League 2 match. You're not going to see so many stepovers, but if it's a compelling game of two even sides, it can be just as entertaining.Case in point - this remains the greatest darts match ever, IMO:http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_spor...rts/8425631.stmI'm probably as alone in my thoughts on that as I am in the football analogy, though. As Murtz said, it seems the majority of darts watchers these days don't have any interest unless you do it in 9.

EDIT - Just checked and saw that it's just on Monday night on Classic for some reason

 

Live FA Cup on ESPN that night.

Oh and have you seen most of the BDO is on ESPN this year? BBC can't even keep the sodding BDO, or perhaps don't want to.

 

Little of both, I would imagine. ESPN were probably fairly keen to get their hands on some darts, and I doubt the BBC lost too much sleep over it.

 

Regardless what happens in the final tonight, I'm prediciting the Sky commentators will once again channel Tony Schiavone.

 

Sure, last night was great, as was Part vs Wade, but it seems every night in the Worlds, then the Premier League, then the Worlds again, and so on, is the Greatest Night in the History of our Sport.

Have Chris Jericho & HHH ever been anything other than mortal enemies? The heel/face dynamic has switched, but have they ever had any kind of (even loose) allegiance at any point?

 

Just something that occured to me when the Evolution theme came on my MP3 as I was walking home from work. I think a rehash of Evolution with HHH & Jericho in the top two roles could be a lot of fun.

I'll be going to a televised Raw show in the states next year and am aware that additional events usually happen when the cameras stop rolling. In terms of time, can anyone say how much?

 

It can vary quite a bit. I went to a Smackdown/ECW taping in Memphis a couple of years back and the dark match main event was a Jeff Hardy/Rey Mysterio vs Edge/Chris Jericho cage match with Jerry Lawler as special guest referee.

 

They didn't use the cage hanging from the ceiling, so it took 10 minutes or so to erect the cage (the regular cage had been used the night before at the Raw taping I went to in Birmingham AL, and was being used at the Extreme Rules PPV on the Sunday - don't know if this was the reason, or if they just don't bother if it's not televised - the cage they used wasn't of such high quality), then Lawler milked it for about 10 minutes (which was fine, as his reaction was pretty awe-inspiring), then there was about 10 minutes of match, then Edge/Jericho did about 10 minutes of comedy "protesting the result", which they seemed to be having great fun with. So all told, there was a good 40 minutes or so of stuff after the main taping had finished.

 

I would think both tapings I went to that week each ran to about 4 hours total, as they did all of Superstars at Raw that week (3 matches before, the Superstars main event after Raw but before the dark main event) and obviously ECW at Smackdown, as well as the usual dark matches before (which for me featured Drew McIntrye and Sheamus just before they both debuted for real).

Very early Yokozuna match:

What is the thing some wrestlers have with rubbing their nose with their thumb all the time? Is it a Samoan thing? I think I've seen Fat Joe do it a lot as well.

 

I read/saw somewhere a long time ago Rikishi saying that he always did the rub the nose twice thing during his entrance to let his two sons at home (who we now know as the Usos) know he was thinking of them.

 

Given that, and that other Samoans do it, I would imagine it does have some greater significance.

Also, where have the British Connection got to?

 

Do you mean the British Invasion? If so, on Xplosion pretty regularly. TNA really seem to be gearing that show towards the UK since Challenge put it into "prime time" - regular British Invasion matches, Magnus on commentary or the Spin Cycle fairly often, and weekly Bruce Forsyth/Phil Taylor references from Borash.

Was FWA's British Uprising 3 ever released on DVD?

 

Yes, it was. The AJ Styles vs James Tighe Iron Man match main event was DVD exclusive.

 

7_inch, TNA Eurostore is a good bet, up to date (they've got the new Storm & Roode shirts for example) and reasonable prices, around 13 quid.

 

Isn't the Ryback gimmick that he's some kind of Terminator? I'll be disappointed if they go with that, IMO he was great both as the Texas meathead and the Nexus monster.

"Troy McClure? I thought you said he was dead?"

 

"No, I said he sleeps with the fishes"

 

MacArthur Parker, the agent? MacArthur Parker, MY agent?

As it was they inadvertently build sympathy for Vince and put Bret in the heel role. It makes no sense.

 

I'm not sure if it was true, but I remember reading on the news sites shortly after the show that the intention was to have Vince come out of it as a face. Not turning Bret in any way, but portraying Vince in a slightly sympathetic light as a bloke who'd got his comeuppance, then moving on with him in a face role.

 

True or not, it's still a fucking abomination of a match. A stroke victim beating up a senior citizen for what seems like forever, with a ring surrounded by nutcases in evening wear, with the biggest nutcase of the lot refereeing.

This week's Vintage Collection has an MSG Network match between Boss Man & The Mountie, during which the usual order of the ropes was reversed - blue on top, red on the bottom.

 

I don't believe I've ever seen this before on a WWF ring from that time period - anyone know of any other examples?

"Lies make baby Jesus cry." So do double posts, but if I'm not mistaken (I might be), we're on page 29 and we haven't had this yet:

 

 

YVAN EHT NIOJ!

 

Lisa: Otto, where are you going?

 

Otto: I dunno, I just got this sudden urge to join the navy.

 

Lisa: Don't do it, you're being brainwashed!

 

Otto: Yeah, probably... yvan eht nioj!

At least if they announce a winner, they could bring some new, new guys up (as opposed to just the ones who have been going unused for ages, like Reks and Hawkins).

I think the main reason a) for the Redemption season in the first place, and b) that it's lasted so bloody long is that they don't have a half dozen guys in FCW they're willing to bring up just now.Taking out the guys who straddle the main roster and developmental (Mahal, Curtis, Ryan), a scan over the current FCW roster shows a few guys who've had their shot (some two) at NXT (Saxton, Curtis, Cottonwood), one or two who seem to have been in developmental FOREVER to the point you question if they'll ever do anything with them (Leakee, Donny Marlow, Bo Rotundo), and other than that you're left with a pretty new crop.Admittedly, a good segment of that new crop are long-time indy guys (Cesaro, Graves, Ambrose, Orlov, Rollins) we know a good deal about, but not sure if WWE a) consider them "WWE ready" or b) would want to bring several of them up together.

For my sins, I've been watching WCW Souled Out 2000.

 

They announce at the start the "Triple Threat Theater", basically Billy Kidman has to go through Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn and The Wall in 3 different matches.

 

Did Kidman have to win a match to go to the next one, or would he face all 3 regardless? Just seems a bit daft if it was the first one as isn't that basically spoiling the first two matches?

 

Ah WCW, how we miss ya!

 

I don't know if they make mention of it during the show, but Kidman facing 3 different opponents in the Triple Threat Theater was thrown together kinda last minute. It was supposed to be Benoit vs Jarrett in 3 different stip matches in a 2-out-of-3 style for the US title (kinda like 3 Stages of Hell but not consecutively) but Jarrett was injured, as was Bret Hart, so Benoit was moved into the main event in Bret's place, and Kidman ended up in the 3 matches against guys who weren't booked for the PPV.

 

I suppose the way to look at it is like any other 2-out-of-3 match, or any kind of "Best of x" series - theoretically, it could have been over before the scheduled number of matches/falls occured.

Update on this, I got Saint Jude's album recently, and it's excellent - best album I've heard in a while.

 

Yeah, it's cracking. Glad you like it!

Id of thought all of them tapped out or else how will they know they submit unlelss they scream to the ref they give up which I suppose is what happened.

 

The tap out didn't exist in pro wrestling (or certainly WWF) until the mid-to-late 90's. I believe PITCOS is right that it was imported from UFC by Ken Shamrock, although I wouldn't hazard a date. Before then submission was indeed a verbal signal, often accompanied by a vigorous nodding of the head...

I would think my two most recent celebrity crushes would fit here.

 

The lovely Lynne Jackaman of Classic Rock Magazine newcomer nominees Saint Jude:

 

 

(A band who, if you're interested in that sort of thing, have been described as the Rolling Stones fronted by a modern-day Janis Joplin, which is a pretty decent description IMO.

Good live too.)

 

Sarah Solemani, who is in some BBC Three sitcom called Him & Her I caught by accident one night last week. Show wasn't too bad, about twenty minutes into it I realised she was pretty hot:

 

What actually is a dusty finish

 

Basically, Wrestler A announced as winner of the match, decision reversed on a technicality and match given to Wrestler B, either immediately after, or on the next show.

 

Often used in title matches, usually as a result of a ref bump and a) Wrestler A doing something illegal while he's out which is later alerted to the ref, or b) a second referee counting the fall for Wrestler A following something illegal, they then both work it out.

I seem to recall a match with Pat Tanaka that ended with a nasty sitout tombstone on one of the home releases taped (I believe) at MSG which was pretty good.

 

Of course, the king of "while in the Rockers" Marty singles matches is the one with The Model off Greatest Hits.

Yeah, that was class. Was going to mention that to balance it out somewhat, only Shawn had arguably an even better match on the very same show vs Kato.

 

What Model match is that on the tape, the Survivor Series 90 build up show?

 

Sorry, wasn't sure if I was misreading this - if the Marty vs Martel match you are refferring to was from before Survivor 90, the Shawn vs Kato match can't have been the same night (as in the same taping) can it? Kato didn't turn up until early 91, I thought - it was definately Sato & Tanaka at the Survivor Series that year.

Sorry, I was meaning the Shawn/Kato match was the same night as Marty/Tanaka that Air_Raid mentioned. It would've been around the time of Wrestlemania 7.

 

Ah right, thanks. I was beginning to wonder if there was a whole 3-man Orient Express period I'd completely been oblivious too!