Really Big Shoe

Duggan had the 2x4. Did Mountie come with a cattle prod?

Yea, Mountie had the cattle prod. Koko had Frankie the parrot, Razor had his chains with him too I think. The later Taker came with a coat and Berzerker had his coat type thing he wore too. Hacksaw with the USA vest came with a USA flag too IIRC similar to the one on the ring. Honky had his guitar and later Bushwhacker figures came with baseball caps also. 

If anyone's interested Extreme Sports (Sky 419) is showing Fighting Spirit Wrestling which features matches from AAA, CMLL & New Japan. It's shown quite a few times each day and think it's like up to episode 3 now. Alex Shane & Dave Bradshaw are the announcers (who are over dubbing the original commentary) but it's still worth a watch, yesterday had two good NJPW matches including Tenzan vs Nakamura & Tanahashi vs Anderson (of the Bullet Club). 

Thing with Jeff, if he goes back to the E and has to work a full time schedule he could easily get hooked on pain pills and/or Crystal Meth again. The schedule would be much more heavier and he wouldn't be able to work certain international shows either like the UK ones for example because of the prescription drug trafficking thing he was busted for. Unless he works only TV tapings and PPVs and he's focused on keeping clean I think he potentially could have a run to be a top guy (if they bring in Matt too they could go on a Attitude Era nostalgia kick against the Dudleyz) but whether Hunter and/or Vince wants to give him the ball and hope he runs with it is a whole other question altogether. So Jeff going to the WWE is highly possible but I doubt whether he'd be positioned more than a nostalgia act with his brother, unless he shines in that role & proves he's committed to staying drug free then I think they'll position him higher up the card. Plus he could easily fit in the current mix and maybe help rejuvenate things a bit. Although WWE relying on the likes of the Hardyz, Dudleyz et al doesn't really send out the right message(s) to the upcoming NXT talent either former NXT or ones currently there. I think WWE calling up Enzo & Big Cass would be better option than relying on nostalgia acts, planning long term and making new real superstar level talent is a huge problem right now as once Cena's done I can't really see anyone coming through and stepping into his role as the #1 guy. So we'll probably see a situation where Cena's in the Hogan role where he's in his late 40's/early 50's and still kept around as the top guy because no one's come thru NXT or the indies who has the same mainstream level of appeal. 

 

 

Where do we see Caremelo ending up then?

 

I see him staying with the Knicks, I'm sure Phil Jackson will go all out to keep him there. He's someone you build a team around, a major piece and if you lose someone like Melo then they have to go back to the drawing board, finish poorly and hope they hit the lottery with future draft picks. But if he does decide to exercise his free agency options - Nets, Lakers, Mavs & possibly the Celtics are all potential teams he could end up on. This page is useful to keep up-to-date with free agent signings, trades and such here: http://www.sbnation.com/2015/6/30/8860381/nba-free-agent-signings-tracker-2015-rumors

 

 

Thing is though, he doesn't have free agency options for a long time. He's even got a no trade clause in his contract, so the only way he could be traded would be if he agreed to it all and another team decided to take on his salary. If they have another disaster of a season and don't land KD or anyone else, I could see him agreeing to a trade next year....maybe....

Yea, you're right, his current deal reportedly ends in 2018, so he won't be a free agent til then. So I must have misread an early post as I thought Melo was a free agent. Because of his huge contract (think it's something like 5 years, $124m which he signed in 2014) is a big stumbling block for any potential move, as unless a team has available cap space for a trade, that's a no-go anyway. Unless someone like the Mavs or the Lakers want to pay the luxury tax I don't see another team making a run for Carmelo, since I assume they would have to pick up the remainder of his contract. I don't know if the Knicks have traded any first round or good second round draft picks away, but the only way forward now for NY is to either stick with Melo and surround him with good level role/established players (ala what Miami did with LeBron where they brought in Ray Allen et al) and hope for the best, or they go into rebuild mode and push Melo for a trade at the end of the season and try and get some quality draft pick(s). I actually think the best option for the Knicks is for Phil to go back into a coaching role or try and impart Derek Fisher with as much knowledge as possible, essentially teaching him what I guess you could call the Tao of Phil. But whether Carmelo Anthony will be the Michael Jordan to Fish's Phil Jackson is a whole other question entirely. Plus MJ was in a league of his own, whilst in the current NBA Melo has KD, Westbrook, Steph Curry, James Harden, Klay Thompson, CP3, Anthony Davis, LeBron & D-Wade to name a few among his peers and are arguably at the same level or in certain cases like LeBron surpass him skill wise. Back in Jordan's heyday he mainly had to deal with the likes of Bird, Malone, Charles, Magic,  Gary Payton & Clyde the Gilde among others, whilst they are all time greats and current or future Hall of Famers,  the skill level among NBA players has grown considerably over the years where there's more elite level players than ever before.       

Where do we see Caremelo ending up then?

I see him staying with the Knicks, I'm sure Phil Jackson will go all out to keep him there. He's someone you build a team around, a major piece and if you lose someone like Melo then they have to go back to the drawing board, finish poorly and hope they hit the lottery with future draft picks. But if he does decide to exercise his free agency options - Nets, Lakers, Mavs & possibly the Celtics are all potential teams he could end up on. This page is useful to keep up-to-date with free agent signings, trades and such here: http://www.sbnation.com/2015/6/30/8860381/nba-free-agent-signings-tracker-2015-rumors

He's in 2K13 as part of the Dream Team IIRC & that took a lot of doing, apparently Jay-Z called him personally to be involved & it took more money from 2K to get him & Scottie Pippen in the game. They also wanted him in 2K12 as part of the Jordan challenges too, but he wanted equal billing to MJ, Bird et al. So really it's down to money and licensing issues. Found this info, but not sure how accurate it is:

EA has a deal with the NBA Players Union, that allows EA to use players names and likenesses in their games. This saves EA from having to make a deal with every indivdual NBA player. The players union takes the licensing fee and distrubuites it among its members. 

Most retired players remain members of the players union, but a few decide to leave. Barkley and Miller both left the players union when they started their broadcasting careers, so that they could seem impartial when commenting on labor disputes and other matters involving the union. 

In order to feature a player who isn't a member of the players union in their games, EA would have to make a seperate deal with that player. And if the two sides can't agree to terms... then the player gets left out.

C-Web, KAJ & Reggie Miller aren't in 2K games either and Kareem is, outside of Kobe, Shaq & Magic probably the most famous Laker and like Magic a huge part of Pat Riley's Showtime Lakers team. 

Have the BBC ever shown pro-wrestling, apart from like Hacksaw et al appearing on kids TV shows and the early 90s show Rumble?.

I agree, no way should Stone Cold step back in the ring with anyone, let alone Brock. Lesnar could permanently injure Austin, unintentionally of course, but seriously hurt him nonetheless with the style he works. 

Perhaps the other Blackhawk fans were threatening to beat up OAP's after the game, or maybe that was just Punk? 

"You mispronounced the team captains name and didn't even know the coaches name. You're a hack.Shut the fuck up or I'll wreck you @HulkHogan"

Is Punk channeling his inner Chav?, I'LL WRECK YOU BRUV! 

Yea it mentions that it's from Paul Boesch's library, so it most likely will be his Houston territory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=198&v=_1EKN-IX6QY

As for the tape libraries WWE don't own, some of those are most likely to be patchy because at the time there wasn't the foresight for them to know the value of a wrestling tape library. So most promotions and the TV stations which aired their shows recorded over the master tape each week, so it's unlikely there will be any complete years of wrestling, available unless they source it from a fans VHS collection & even then quality from VHS could be questionable unless it's in prestige condition. Even when they bought the WCW/JCP library, some tapes weren't labelled, some were recorded over and such so I doubt there's actually a complete 'set' of footage from JCP/WCW either. I also read somewhere so of the master tapes were damaged and they've had to use some Home Video releases for the WWE Network. 

 

Yeah, probably the high point of the WWF's popularity in the UK in early 90s. Popularity fell off a cliff over here very quickly after it for some reason.

Davey getting shitcanned two months later didn't help.

 

Yea Davey getting future endeavoured didn't help things. But I think that the whole Vinny Mac steroid's investigation/trial thing didn't help much either, which in turn made the WWF focus on smaller guys not on the gas.  

They let Warrior go too IIRC, Hulk walked away to do Thunder in Paradise & then turn up a few years later in WCW etc. so once Davey was let go, they didn't really have a big UK star to focus on for the UK based shows. Plus I think the WWF went from Eurosport & Sky 1 to Sky Sports so most people might have switched off too because I think even back then Sky Sports was a subscription channel and the other channels were part of the sky package. So yea, a combination of a number of things really. 

Anyone want to explain Lesnar and Ventura at the base of an Attitude era ramp for me? I presume he was there for a dark match or something but how come Ventura was with him?

Wasn't Jesse governor of Minnesota at the time and Brock's from MN too so probably why they were together. 

Mostly Sonic 2 & Sonic CD on the android tablet, they should make the controls a bit more touch sensitive as you can't really replicate the old Genesis/Mega Drive pad with an onscreen one.  

1984: Wrestling being shown by April at the latest, if not earlier.

1985: All Star Wrestling (WWF) airing and topping ratings. WrestleMania aired.

1988: Press release said "a previous WrestleMania" was the most watched show in its slot among Sky customers, ahead of BBC etc.

 

In this period, WrestleManias 1, 2, 4 and 5 were all on tape delay. I've seen accounts of 3 being live, but I'm not sure if that was Sky or if it was a local cable channel offering it on PPV.

I assume the wrestling in '84 is definitely the WWF, unless it's something like Pro-Wrestling USA, but I don't think that would have been syndicated internationally as the WWF was riding on the crest of the Hulkamania wave and its more likely Hulk & the WWF would have been something more appealing to Sky due to the rising popularity of Hulk Hogan. I also read something before about Mania III being live, think it was over on the old TWCF. I don't think it would have been on PPV, but could have been. I vaguely recall there being a basic cable system in the 80's but that was mostly movies and such, so whether it could have been on there, I don't know. Seems more likely it was on Satellite on the normal channel they aired the WWF on. I thought the WWF first started being popular in the UK in 1989, so interesting that it actually pre-dates that by five years if the WWF did air in '84 (or could have even earlier when satellite first launched). On the Men & Motors WOS tapes they aired a few years back they had Hulk et al on the intro's so I think ITV showed the WWF sometimes too. I doubt whether ITV could have showed WrestleMania III but it would be something if they did. Don't know if any old TV schedules exist from that time from the TV Times etc to confirm it. 

I think in the US they have a dinner you can get called Hungry Man, which according to the box includes 1lb of food~!

I think they would catch on in the UK too 

Saw a book from 1986 about multi-channel TV in the UK. It mentioned that the best rated show on Sky Channel (the forerunner to Sky 1) in 1985 was WWF All Star Wrestling. That was the B show, which later became Wrestling Challenge.

 

It also mentioned Sky airing WrestleMania, specifically referring to Ali and Liberace. That's a surprise as I'd always been under the impression Sky only aired WrestleMania 2 onwards

Wasn't WrestleMania I closed-circuit only?, if so that must have aired on a tape delay or something, as I doubt it could have aired live since it didn't even air live on PPV in the US. I think wrestling and other similar programming was used to 'pad out' the earlier Satellite channel(s) schedule as that would have been cheaper than first run programming. Plus it would have been a way for Vince to help expand the WWF internationally so it's a win-win situation for both parties. Can anyone definitely confirm when the WWF first debuted in the UK? I'm guessing it would have been 84/85 and I think with the early days of Sky they aired WCCW and a few other promotions too. But I'm guessing in the TV schedule above the wrestling most likely would have been the WWF since I don't think any other wrestling promotion would have had international syndication. Also Hulk won the WWF World title in January 1984 IIRC so that would have been at the beginning of the Hulkamania run in Apr'84. I wonder if anyone has any tapes of WWF on the Sky channel from that time to confirm whether it was on? 

edit: Watching SD! on Demand and it advertises Elimination Chamber being on Sky sports 2 on 7th June at 9.30pm Wouldn't be so bad if Sky showed the PPV's on a weeks delay for fans who haven't got the network. 

Paparazzi Productions taking off as well (they coincided, didn't they?) and Nash doing, in my opinion, some career-best stuff with Alex Shelley.

 

 

Yea, the Paparazzi stuff was really fun and IIRC it was Nash, Shelley & Sabin. Didn't "Macho Man" Jay Lethal get involved in the skits too?

Then you get that massive first Joe/Angle confrontation at the end of 06.

Yep, IIRC that was when Kurt legit headbutted Joe and busted him open hardway and that was probably the best or among the best angles TNA have had. 

Samoa Joe vs. Scott Steiner

That was a fun storyline between the two, not sure if it was meant to be intentionally funny but Scotty Stenier doing that wacky promo he did when he tried to calculate the percentage that Joe had of winning against him was hilarious.  

I'd certainly pay for a subscription service that gives me access to old TNA PPVs. Some of those things were great.

I think they actually have or did have a subscription service. Not sure if they do now though. TNA did have a string of solid PPV's back in I think maybe 2004/05/06 time frame when they did the AMW vs Triple X tag team match when Elix did the 'rana off the top of the cage. From the weekly PPV's that used to be on the TWC majority of those were hit & miss and the early one's with the Dupps, Puppet et al were Wrestlecrap at it's finest. Plus they had Tony Schivaone turn heel and cut a SHOOT~! promo. But in general, TNA doesn't have the same appeal as the WWE does with their hours of wrestling footage and unless they charged a low price I don't see many fans subscribing. 

I heard it through the grapevine that TNA are throwing money at who they believe will be the saviors of the company

***LIGHT'S GO OUT AT THE IMPACT ZONE*** 

LIGHTS COME BACK ON

 

For what its worth - 

 

"Statement from TNA Regarding IMPACT WRESTLING

 

It has come to our attention that several internet news sources have falsely attributed statements to TNA, its executives and broadcasting partner. These false statements constitute defamation and if necessary we will seek all legal remedies available to us."

 

I hear this guy's phone is ringing off the hook:

Andre photos = Ratings brother!

The Champ Is Here!

Andre with Big Dust & Mil Mascaras

with Hillbilly vs Studd & Bundy

2 Lege's together (Andre with Bruno)

The Mega Bucks! with Virgil

with the Hulkster 

In a nut shell:

- The WWE logo represents the illuminati pyramids.

 

- when Hulk Hogan sees the network 9.99 price, he actually sees it upside down as 666.

 

- The WWE poisoned Warrior during Raw and murdered him.

 

- When the clique do their 'sweet' hand sign, they aren't doing it to be cool, it's actually a way of speaking to Satan.

 

- Due to the letter X falling in some daft number grid he created, it falls on the number 6, therefore anytime that he uploads any image on his site with the letter X in any of its content, it refers to 666 (providing he uploads any 3 images in a row that feature the letter X).

 

 

 

If he is right and this whole time Vince and Co have been doing the Devils deeds, please for fuck sake, send me to the fire pits so i can continue to watch Saturday Nights Main Event re-runs.

 

 

 

Someone please tweet this vid link to Hall or Nash, i'd pay to watch their reaction.

Yeah, I've actually read/heard quite a few years ago that the WWE was supposedly part of the Illuminati. If it's really all to be believed, allegedly Hollywood, the music industry & the entertainment biz in general is all Illuminati too, plus the plot thickens, as it goes even above that with the people in power in countries & then there's another even higher echelon and I think there maybe even one above them too, who basically control, or try to control everything to their favor. I guess if this is all real, the power structure of the Illuminati is pyramid-esque too with only a handful of people sitting at the top with the 'underlings' under those doing their bidding on their behalf. Here's something else to look out for, if you've noticed any celebs who cover over one of their eyes with their hand or hair, then apparently that's a sign they are part of the Illuminati & there's the Sssh! thing which is also another signal. If all that's to be believed of course.  

I mean if you read too far between the lines you'll no doubt find some references in pro-wrestling too, like the Ascension (with the eye/pyramid symbol in their titantron), nWo (New World Order),the Kliq hand signal is supposedly a devil salute, there's the Undertaker, Kane among other things, plus Jake had 'Damien' & 'Lucifer'.Jesse who's referenced in part of the video I watched, did a conspiracy show about the Illuminati & MK Ultra (which is mind control IIRC) so how can he be part of it and basically expose it too?, doesn't make a lot of sense. It's actually quite an interesting thing to read about if you try & separate the outlandish stuff from some, which if you read it with an open mind, could make a bit of sense. Here's one page about decoding Illuminati symbolism http://illuminatiwatcher.com/decoding-illuminati-symbolism-the-all-seeing-eye/ & it includes photos of celebs doing the "salutes" that I've talked about above. The Jesse Conspiracy Theory show is also worth checking out, think there maybe two Illuminati type related ones, I know one's about MK Ultra and the other's about the New World Order I think. 

I actually don't mind ol' Cac'. He had his ear ripped off, nearly done himself in with the Hell in the Cell match, did the deathmatch stuff in Japan and his ECW stuff with the Anti-Hardcore promo's and his work there in general was top notch, plus he over achieved in his first stint in WWE as Mankind with the title win. His first book is probably the pinnacle of wrestling autobiographies too. Whilst he hasn't had a HOF career like Flair, HBK, Hogan et al I think you can respect what he's done in wrestling. I think on the LOW roundtables and interviews he comes across quite well, but from the stories I've read here he comes across as rude & such, which and whilst he was over, he was never super over like Rocky, Austin, Hogan et al were, you should treat the fans with more respect. I think when you're someone like Mick Foley, who wasn't really ever truly a 'star' in a sense that Stonecold was to use an example, you should treat everyone who turns up at an autograph/booking signing or event with respect and be thankful of their support.

I mean I think there's wrestlers/divas lower on the totem pole who are rude etc to fans too and they haven't had half the career that Mick has, so I don't think he's an exception to the norm. Plus you have to factor in other things too, such as some people just have bad days etc, plus he's no doubt got some issues with the amount of head trauma/concussions over the years. I don't really know what the deal is now with him & WWE, but the sycophantic pandering to Vince doesn't sound cool or right, I mean, he probably is fairly well off as he talks about his penny pinching in Have a Nice Day, so I doubt he needs to be on the ins with Vinny Mac, plus Vince should be thankful of what he put himself through for WWE. I think he's like one of those older footballers who came around at the wrong time before the Premiership TV rights money came in, like he took all the chairshots, falling of the Hell in Cell, blowing himself up in Japan, cutting himself open with barbed wire etc. & I think on the back of Have a Nice Day he details all his injuries & such for nothing really, whilst now the WWE talent hardly ever get badly banged up and take a modicum of the beating his body took for the same or even more pay. 

So yeah, Mick Foley doesn't seem too bad a guy, I think you could probably think of other celebs or non-celebs (from reality TV etc) worse in other forms of entertainment/sports than Cactus, but I understand when people have had bad personal experiences with him like at autograph signings & such they should vent their feelings. I mean it's thanks to the fans who watch wrestling that the likes of Cactus are turning into stars and that years later people still remember them and want to get their photo with them & a signed photo etc. This sounds cliched, but without the loyalty of wrestling fans it would be like the advert WWE has with D-Bry, there wouldn't even be an audience to perform in front of and there wouldn't even be a wrestling industry at all.