Random thoughts thread v2 *NO NEWS ITEMS*

[air_raid]

There was some episode of Raw, I can't even remember what they were pushing, maybe the Fab 4 special, where they show a clip from Survivors 91 where they show Undertaker sat watching and musing "I beat Hulk Hogan when he still was somebody." Catty as fuck. I didn't like it then, and I always thought that stuff like that (and Cornette's rants and JR's "bald spot" comments) which they did during 1997 especially, made them look stupid when later on they put Hogan right back in high profile spots even though logically he was even more past it than when the WWF had been TELLING US he was past it.

 

Although as a closet Hulkamaniac, I didn't truly give a shit.

[Dr.PeterVenkman]

Watching New Blood Rising and Konnan on commentary is hilarious, for the first half of the Tag Title match anyway, I imagine someone bollocked him halfway through and he stopped slaughtering the Thrillers

[Dr.PeterVenkman]

Oh and the Stacy Keibler miscarriage/stomach pains thing is the worst thing ever in wrestling, especially with Tony Schiavone going 'it's not part of the match, her real name is...'

 

Next time anyone moans about WCW going out of business just remind them how absolute wank it was

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Terri Runnels beat her to that. She 'miscarried' on Raw in late 98. Russo booked both of them. WCW may be dead, but that cunt was still around for years to come.

[METAL ON METAL]

Jericho was getting slated on Twitter earlier for continually not acknowledging the former Bruce Jenner by her new name Caitlyn.

 

Petty probably, but it's always nice to see his own fans against him.

[WWFChilli]

Terri Runnels beat her to that. She 'miscarried' on Raw in late 98. Russo booked both of them. WCW may be dead, but that cunt was still around for years to come.

I'm still absolutely astounded that idea got the ok. Absolutely baffled me, what portion of the audience was that aimed at?

[dopper]

There was some episode of Raw, I can't even remember what they were pushing, maybe the Fab 4 special, where they show a clip from Survivors 91 where they show Undertaker sat watching and musing "I beat Hulk Hogan when he still was somebody." Catty as fuck. I didn't like it then, and I always thought that stuff like that (and Cornette's rants and JR's "bald spot" comments) which they did during 1997 especially, made them look stupid when later on they put Hogan right back in high profile spots even though logically he was even more past it than when the WWF had been TELLING US he was past it.

 

Although as a closet Hulkamaniac, I didn't truly give a shit.

 

It was the Fab 4 special. I remember it was when Undertaker was talking about some of his famous feuds naming such midcard names as Kamala and Jimmy Snuka. When J.R. suggested "What about Hulk Hogan?", Undertaker screwed his face up and said something like he wouldn't include Hulk Hogan on that list of great wrestlers he has faced.

 

Definitely catty and uncalled for, but not uncommon in 1996/1997 along with Cornette's rants, Billionaire Ted, etc.

[chokeout]

Lister mentioned the Raven independent contractor lawsuit against WWE in The Beast In The East thread. I know its been mentioned a few times but what do people think the chances of WWE ever actually getting nailed with one of these suits (Or more likely because of the NFL concussion cases)

[bobby dazzler]

 

 

I realised, watching the Beast in the East card on the award-winning WWE Network, that I still call John Cena’s finisher the “F-U”. Cole referred to it as the Attitude Adjustment, I was like “What?” but then, “Oh, yeah. It was renamed years ago.”

you are not the only one. To me, The Attitude Adjustment is Lex Luger's pile driver from 1991.

 

 

I can't think of that term without hearing the Hank Williams song in reference to it on that early 90s wrestling radio show you could receive through BSkyB. Anyone else have even have half a clue what i'm talking about as i don't think I've ever heard any mention of the station since. They also used to regularly affirm that Arn Anderson was God, so they can't have had the worst taste.

 

Ian Mac's Wrestling Radio Show. Started as a weekly show and eventually went daily. This was pre-internet days so all the "real" news came from this show. I remember one show starting with a somber Ian Mac telling us that Kerry Von Erich had killed himself. They used to play vaguely wrestling related music like "Attitude Adjustment" and "The Mighty Quinn" he also LOVED Hillbilly Jim's "Waking up alone" and used to play that daily.He played a few other WWF theme songs as well. I won a competition on there: "who played Peggy Sue", the answer of course being Sherri Martel, they sent me a Survivor Series 91 VHS. Good times. Ian asked all his listeners to take "Arn Anderson is God" posters to the London '93 WCW show and quite a few did, I met him at the show, nice guy, he gave me an Arn Anderson Galoob.The channel/station wanted to eventually cut the time slot down to 5 minutes a day so Ian Mac packed it in. Fond memories of these times.

 

From Christopher England - the boss of Euronet (wrestling bit in bold): 

 

I don’t keep recordings, picture or memorials of things long gone.  So, I have nothing to remind me of the year long 1992 to 1993 satellite radio station that was ‘Euronet’.

However, I do believe it was a brilliant example of talk’n’music radio at its best.  Yes, it was 20 years ago, and the world has changed fantastically since then, but it was real fun radio.

It followed on as a programming concept from my community-access pirate station some 13 years beforehand (read about Radio AMY amongst other commentary here), and was another ‘moment in time’ not to be repeated.

Indeed, neither AMY nor Euronet would ‘work’ if ever tried again.

Euronet was back in the days before Electronic Programme Guides and Sky ‘Digital’, so nobody ‘normal’ knew it was there.  It ‘piggybacked’ as one of the additional audio ‘sub-carriers’ available to Sky Sports.  So, people had to watch Sky Sports, fiddle with their remote or the satellite receiver and the accompanying audio would change to become us.  See? Nobody ‘normal’ would do that!

Now, it has to be admitted that we had no real money.  We cobbled enough together to set up a fairly acceptable studio, and that was it.  Initially the intention was to ‘sell’ programming hours to programme providers, acting as brokers to get people on the air who wanted to be on the air, but not enough to set-up their own complete radio station.  This of course is a very faulty business model that just doesn’t work and will never work.  The only people who wanted to get on the air in this way were people with even less money than we had!

So, with no money for marketing, it fell to me to try to create an output that would have its own momentum and create its own audience and publicity.  I reasoned that the broadcasts would have an overall station sound and continuity, but would be sub-divided into smaller semi-specialist interest programmes.  The whole station output lasted for 8 hours each day, repeated twice, so it was ideal for satellite tv consumers.

Having said that, satellite tv consumers wouldn’t have a clue we were there.  Well, apart from the ‘radio anoraks’, of course.  So, ‘radio anoraks’ were the starting point.  How best to wind up anoraks to fever pitch and keep them hanging on the station’s every word?  Well, get DJs in from the then recently defunct north-sea broadcaster Radio Caroline that anoraks were waiting to rise from the ashes, occasionally play the signature Radio Caroline ‘bell’ and assert that we were test transmissions and would soon be changing our name, but couldn’t yet say what it would be.

Yep, hundreds of anoraks were avidly listening and assuming we would soon be Radio Caroline.  Those that weren’t listening were being told by the old land-support team to Radio Caroline that we weren’t Radio Caroline but they were.  This, of course, helped spread even more awareness of our existence.  We were on the radar and it had cost nothing.

Next, it was important to get into bed with the magazines that satellite tv ‘anoraks’ were buying.  In those days there were quite a few publications with a reasonable circulation.  Satellite tv was in its infancy, there was no world wide web yet, and the early adopters would all buy the accompanying literature.  The writers for those magazines were usually radio anoraks, and so I offered them radio programmes.  Naturally, Euronet would be written about favourably, and would get the publicity it needed into the world outside of Radio Caroline anoraks, plus it would broadcast some pretty good technology and gadget shows put together by the same people who were writing about the same stuff for the magazines.

The third piece of the secret formula wasn’t mine, but the work of a brilliant fellow called Ian.  In the early 1990s, one of the biggest things on satellite telly was (American) Wrestling.  At the time it was the WWF (now WWE), and to a lesser extent on other non-Sky channels, the other companies providing wrestling entertainment.  Wrestling was big.  It was huge.  Ian already provided a UK news service covering all the American ‘federations’ (to have concentrated on just the WWF may well have had copyright issues) and so developed this into a quick-fire daily radio show targeted at wrestling fans.  He was able to pull people across from his news service, and very quickly the wrestling ‘anorak’ community was on board with the station as well.  The amount of mail his radio show pulled in was massive.

In a way, these three main elements kept the station ‘virally’ publicising itself and keeping itself in the satellite tv ‘public eye’.  The structure of the output was such that there appeared to be individual programmes, yet there was an overall sound and continuity, so no matter what time any newbie tuned in they’d realise it was ‘different’ and addictive radio.

I then threw it open to the listeners asking anybody who wanted to do a programme to step forward and let me know.  A young 14 year old jingle freak from near Blackpool started sending in cassettes of ‘shows’ he’d recorded at home, and they went on the air.  After another appeal for contributors, teenagers (notably wrestling fans) came forward to put together a show I called ‘Free Period’, which was exactly that, a period during which they could do whatever they wanted as long as it had a mixture of speech and music.

Euronet had its own identity.  Maybe it wasn’t ideal to listen to for the entire 8 hours of programming, but it was possible.  It worked for those who did, and it worked for those who dipped in for specific sections.  The station clearly had a huge audience, we just had no idea how to make it pay its way.

The more serious ‘radio industry’ magazines of the day panned it of course, but they were listening and they were writing about it.  Job done.

Once we realised that we had no idea how to make money to run the station and that we’d soon be faced with huge bills, and, inevitably, that a few of us at the sharp end were squabbling, we just had fun until one day we had to take a midnight flit with all the equipment and it was all over.

All the best radio is fun for those who make it and for those who listen.  Once radio takes itself too seriously, it has lost the plot.  Euronet was bloody good fun.

Edited July 9, 2015 by bobby dazzler

[WyattSheepMask]

Lister mentioned the Raven independent contractor lawsuit against WWE in The Beast In The East thread. I know its been mentioned a few times but what do people think the chances of WWE ever actually getting nailed with one of these suits (Or more likely because of the NFL concussion cases)

With lawsuits like the one Raven brought against WWE, I think it's a case of drag it out for as long as possible until the plaintiff can't afford the legal costs anymore and drops out.

Plus, it's pro-wrestling which is viewed with far less crediblity than the legit sport that is the NFL

[chokeout]

Yeah, that usually seems to be their tactic. That and moving everything to Connecticut which seems to have far less lenient cut off points for prosecution than other states.

 

Am I right in thinking that an NFL style verdict into concussions or a decision about the independent contractors status could essentially sink the company financially?

[herbie747]

Random thought - I fucking hated that Hogan stayed in the ring for both Macho Man and Warrior's title wins at WM4 and WM6. What an egotistical prick.

 

 

Secondly, was watching some old WWF theme tunes on Youtube and laughed at the first comment here:

https://youtu.be/x4Y_vWlI-Qo

 

"Well, he kind of is the American dream: Blonde with big tits."

Edited July 9, 2015 by herbie747

[Reznor]

Ian Mac's Wrestling Radio Show. Started as a weekly show and eventually went daily. This was pre-internet days so all the "real" news came from this show. I remember one show starting with a somber Ian Mac telling us that Kerry Von Erich had killed himself. They used to play vaguely wrestling related music like "Attitude Adjustment" and "The Mighty Quinn" he also LOVED Hillbilly Jim's "Waking up alone" and used to play that daily.He played a few other WWF theme songs as well. I won a competition on there: "who played Peggy Sue", the answer of course being Sherri Martel, they sent me a Survivor Series 91 VHS. Good times. Ian asked all his listeners to take "Arn Anderson is God" posters to the London '93 WCW show and quite a few did, I met him at the show, nice guy, he gave me an Arn Anderson Galoob.The channel/station wanted to eventually cut the time slot down to 5 minutes a day so Ian Mac packed it in. Fond memories of these times.

Fantastic, thanks for the info, man. It's interesting to finally find out what the hell I was actually listening to and had remembered for all those years!

 

Coincidentally enough, my most prominent memory from it was also hearing about Tornado's death, and I think they might've mentioned his amputation whilst they were at it which confused me no-end. I remember well the calls for fans to take the Arn Anderson signs to shows too. Another insignificant thing that sticks in my mind is the little german voicover recording giving it the "guttentag mein damen und herren" at the start of every show.

 

Happy days.

[unfitfinlay]

 

There was some episode of Raw, I can't even remember what they were pushing, maybe the Fab 4 special, where they show a clip from Survivors 91 where they show Undertaker sat watching and musing "I beat Hulk Hogan when he still was somebody." Catty as fuck. I didn't like it then, and I always thought that stuff like that (and Cornette's rants and JR's "bald spot" comments) which they did during 1997 especially, made them look stupid when later on they put Hogan right back in high profile spots even though logically he was even more past it than when the WWF had been TELLING US he was past it.

 

Although as a closet Hulkamaniac, I didn't truly give a shit.

 

It was the Fab 4 special. I remember it was when Undertaker was talking about some of his famous feuds naming such midcard names as Kamala and Jimmy Snuka. When J.R. suggested "What about Hulk Hogan?", Undertaker screwed his face up and said something like he wouldn't include Hulk Hogan on that list of great wrestlers he has faced.

 

Definitely catty and uncalled for, but not uncommon in 1996/1997 along with Cornette's rants, Billionaire Ted, etc.

 

 

Ugh. I hated that. Cornette's rants in particular just screamed desperation. "Fuck it, our wrestlers are boring. Let's talk about all the really interesting guys on the other channel".

 

Yeah, that usually seems to be their tactic. That and moving everything to Connecticut which seems to have far less lenient cut off points for prosecution than other states.

 

Am I right in thinking that an NFL style verdict into concussions or a decision about the independent contractors status could essentially sink the company financially?

 

The other thing with moving everything to Connecticut is that it means the accuser will have to pay for travel, hotel rooms, etc, every single time the case goes in front of a Judge. Most of the people suing them are already broke and can't afford that kind expense, much less the added lawyer's fees, etc.

 

I don't know if a ruling would sink them financially (They must have some form of liability lnsurance surely?) but it would definitely tank the stock price. I think they are safe on both counts though. They don't really have a case to answer when it comes to concussions. Nobody in wrestling was aware of how dangerous they were until the Benoit murders and, when it was discovered, they altered their product to minimize the risks. The case against the NFL is that they were fully aware of what was happening, said "Fuck it" and swept it under the carpet.

 

The Independent contractor thing is different. They are guilty as fuck but benefit from wrestlers being wrestlers: The people who have the money to take them on, have no reason to give a shit. The people who'd benefit don't have the money or are outwith the statute of limitations and the people that would benefit, who are within the statute of limitations, don't want to blackball themselves out of a possible return.

 

Daffney vs TNA was probably the closest it's ever going to get, and it only got that far because TNA are incredibly stupid.

[King Pitcos]

Blackballing aside, the only people who'd really benefit are people who aren't going to make any money from active wrestling on that scale anyway. Anything that fucks the company on the independent contractor front would end up fucking every wrestler on the books moreso to make up for it. What is there intrinsically and feasibly that would/needs to change? Stuff like forced medical coverage would result in lower downside guarantees, and when the company already pays for talent surgeries etc, it'd be the wrestlers losing money for no gain. The company covering all rental cars and hotels would mean lower downsides as well, as would enforced downtime.

 

The only people who'd be better off would be the people who are out of it and retroactively trying to make a few bob (that'd be coming in some way out of the pockets of the current crop too). It's a "fuck everyone else, I want a payday" move.