This is kind of like a return to my old "Below The Belt W/Bill" style piece. I love seeing quotes from people and know they're either, full of crap, have no clue or were 'told' or 'paid' to say things a certain way. So let's have some fun with that.
On the dvd Triumph and Tragedy-World Class Championship Wrestling, HHH is quoted as saying(when speaking of Bruiser Brody and Abdullah the Butcher).."I don't consider Hardcore to be a style". Hmmm..HHH doesn't consider Hardcore to be a 'style' but yet, alot of wrestlers who originated that style have more of a legit reputation and respect, than HHH. I'd love to see HHH tell someone like Abdullah the Butcher that hardcore isn't a style. Tell that to Terry Funk, Mark Lewin, Kevin Sullivan, Guys like that along with Joe Leduc, Bam Bam Gordy, shit, try telling Stan Hansen that. You're gonna tell people that hardcore matches like, a bunkhouse match, barbed wire match, cage match, texas death match, These matches didn't originate a 'style'? Bullshit...What about these elimination chamber matches and hell in the cell matches, huh? If HHH doesn't consider it a style then why is it alot of things he's done are right along the lines of what he doesn't consider a style? Mad Dog Buzz Sawyer, Mad Dog Vachon, Dick the Bruiser and the Crusher. HHH comes off sounding like a complete idiot when you have this long list of guys that show he's wrong. Too bad nobody in the WWE has the balls to throw that in HHH's face but hey, truth hurts and who's gonna say that I'm wrong when I just showed you the proof that, HHH is the one who was wrong.
On this same dvd the part where they showed the Lawler/ Kerry, title vs title deal(WCCW World Champion vs AWA World Champion). Jim Ross is quoted as saying that the whole creative process of that was a train wreck. Here's the obvioys questions that nobody dared to ask 'good ol J.R.'. Was he even a part of that? No. Was he involved in wither company that was building it up? No. So if he wasn't i9nvolved with either company on any level, or lived in the areas where this was building up where he could see himself how fans were reacting to it...How can he come off as an 'expert' in anyalisis in stating it was a train wreck? As I've said before and will say again and again, I was born and raised in Chicago, where the very first Superclash shopw happened at Comisky park, and the third one that was a PPV with Lawler/Kerry as the main event happened at the U.I.C. Pavilion. Chicago had BOTH, the AWA show AND, the WCCW show on ourt tv every week, so WE, as fans, got to see the build up, from BOTH companies on this, so if anyone can be an quote unquote 'expert' on it, it would be someone whgo actually seen it unfold before his eyes from both sides like I have, Not Jim Ross who didn't even work for either company. If memory serves me right he was still part of Watt's UWF and only got a job with Crockett because he came witht eh deal when Crockett bought the UWF. So for someone who wasn't even remotely close to the situation, worked for a rival company to call something that actually WAS successful, in the areas it was slotted for...a 'train wreck', just shows either a lack of real clues, or someone telling them to say something different because they're on a certain someone's payroll now, and telling the truth about something that certain someone's payroll didn't create or orginate, would be a shiner on their attempt to 'recreate' history with their own spin, which tries to make 'them' look good in the end over the reality of things.
I'm gonna tell you right now how much of a success it was..in the eyes and from the eyes of someone who saw it unfold right, from the very beginning. Michael Jayes says it was a 'futile' attempt to get back at Vince McMahon...When Jerry lawler appeared for the very time on WCCW tv to face Terry Taylor...with the AWA world title around his waist..and then Frank Dusek and Kerry Von Erich come to the ring, Kerry carrying the WCCW World Title... and they set up a challenge to figure out who is the real world champion...THAT...was a moment of magic you just never saw that often in wrestling...Fans in Chicago saw that on saturday night on the World Class show and monday morning at work, it was the buzz. EVERY frioend I had at the time that was a wrestling fan was talking about it. I had a pen pal down in Atlanta Georgia, he called me up and we talked about it..Then the AWA show showed a clip of it and rtan with it and the buzz was building. For us die hard, long time wrestling fans, this was a shot in the arm that really..you never did see, how often do you see a world champion go into someone else's back yard so to speak like that, and anyone who knows me, knows, I've always been and always will be a die hard fanatic of the AWA. for us in Chicago, it was 'our' promotion. it didn't matter who else came in there, the NWA, WWF, and the NWA at the time went out of their way to make sure their shows in Chicago weren't 'throw away' shows that alot of the WWF ones were, they knew what the fans of Chicago wanted, they knew what we were used to and yes, the NWA catered to that and drew very well because of that, while the WWF basiclly ran the same matches they'd run the night before say in St. Louis, and would run the next night somewhere in Indiana. ..Bar none above all though, the AWA was "our' Promotion so to see 'our' world champion go to texas like that really for us fans, was a mark in history and a hell of a way to show that our company was on par with anyone else, and we were because alot of the talent that went elsewhere, came thru the AWA at one time or another..Just like when they had the 'Pro Wrestling USA' thing with the AWA and the NWA, same thing, funny how nobody said that was a failure.
The Lawler/Kerry feud was one of the best booked angles, from point a to point b to point c that was ever done, it was done right. Both companies acknowledged it, both companies built on it and ran with the question of "who was the better champion". When World Class ran it's first show at the old Gateway Theatre not that far from where I lived I bought a ticket before the card was even announced. and when they featured Lawler vs Kerry, whioch was BEFORE...the Superclash 3 show was even mentioned...it was a total sell out, they didn't have to 'paper' the building like WWF(E) had to do and still does. Just that main event...with building the angle from both promotions..was enough of a sell to draw to that building. Some people could say it was a 'one match show' and in hindsight they'd be right, but it was the one match we..as fans in this area...wanted to see..We never had an AWA Champ vs NWA Champ match...You never would've seen the WWF Champion defend the title on an AWA show and Lawler's interviews emphasizing that fact, was a perfectly calculated selling point that drew the fans. For all of McMahon's lawsuits at WCW over 'intellectual' property, I never heard once about him trying to sue the AWA or WCCW over Lawler saying the WWF Champion Randy Savage can't defend against anyone except WWF Wrestlers. Funny how nobody has ever mentioned that fact either.
When the Superclash 3 show was announced. while I'll be the first one to say that the complete line up for that show, wasn't on the same level as the original Super Clash that happened in 1985(Which really was and still is a hard line up of matches to beat). The buzz in the Chicago areas was over this unification match. Even radio stations that rarely if ever mentioned pro wrestling, started talking about it, is that a sign that this was a 'tain wreck'? No, this was a sign that this was working, and seeing it work with Both guys wrestling each other every week, in either singles matches or tag matches (Lawler & Jimmy Valiant vs Kerry and Michael Hayes), you can see the and feel the momentum building on it and it was building for this match at the U.I.C. Pavilion in Chicago. The show as sold out, you couldn't get a ticket to this thing no matter what. The box office had none available, ticketmaster (or was it tickettron..either one)..none...Even scalpers got rid of their tickets fast..That's how much people wanted to see this, and trust me, I've used a scalper or two to get into a place before. Aerosmith, Pat Travers Band & Rose Tattoo at the Rosemont Horizon? Scalper...Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Axe at the International Ampitheatre? Scalper. Alice Cooper on his 'Flush the Fashion' tour at Chicagofest? Scalper..
I was able to see Super Clash 3, but only as a result of an incident that happened when the NWA ran the same building. I always bought the same seat to ever NWA show at the Pavilion, somehow Ticketmaster sold the same seat twice so there was an issue between me and someone else and I had arena security bothering me half the night about it. I wrote the Chicago Sun-Times about it because they had a thing called 'On Your Side' that dealt with various issues. I sent them photo copies of the ticket stub from that show and the last three NWA shows which showed I always bought the same seat. What I got as a response was a letter from the guy who ran the Pavilion apologizing and saying that I was welcome to come to any event the Pavilion ran as a person guest of him. So I called that favor in at almost literally the last minute and arrangements were made that I simply walked up to the will call window, mentioned my name, showed the woman at the window my letter, and I was allowed in. It wasn't the same seat I always had but I wasn't gonna complain, I was at this PPV and was there for free, so who'd really want to complain about that? They ran out of t-shirts but I was given a Super Clash 3 poster as a souvinier compliments of the Pavilion, which was really a contrast when one came to my place and saw it hung up right next to a promotional poster for the movie "Hells Angels Forever" and another promotional poster for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 starring Dennis Hopper. LOL!
Empty seat in the house? No fucking way. How is that considered a 'train wreck' when two promotions both going with this main event angle, completely fill the arena? Train wreck in how the ending was booked? I can see that, but how they presented it, from the very beginning of the angle, and ran it all the way thru to this main event match on a PPV that wasn'tr a WWF or NWA PPV was not a train wreck, but very brilliant because it hit all the points and had the perfect selling to get people to buy a ticket. Now was it a flop PPV buy wise? That too could be argued but the bottom line is that people on this DVD (and others that this article will feature) that make quotes willy nilly, can be called on when there's another point of view that for some reason they're delibertly missing, or trying to ignore. Recreate history all you want, fact is proof is there that your version of recreating shows you to be idiots for even trying it.
Here's another one of Jim Ross's 'gem' quotes. "How do you not say that Shawn Michaels is the greatest that ever lived"? Pretty fucking easily..Because he isn't and I've seen different arguments from all ends on it and in the end? His 'Sweet Chin Music' is nothing more than a version of Chris Adam's superkick, or at a lesser degree, the Great Kabuki's thrust kick. The latters of which did it more effectively, more convincingly and in many ways came off way better than HBK's version. So many others have surpassed Michaels in talent. Who? Benoit, Malenko, Jushin Liger, Great Muta, Ultimo Dragon(someone that WWE 'creative' ultimately flopped on because they didn't utilize the talent he had correctly, which many know is a bad pattern that WWE has but never wants to admit). Hell even Jericho and Lance Storm could be considered better just on the talent and skill they have. But because HBK is HHH's buddy, you know the drill.. So How can I not say it? like I said, pretty fucking easily...
Going thru "The Rise and Fall of WCW" DVD listening to Mike Graham come off like he's an expert telling Eric Bischoff things to do really irked me. Can anyone anywhere name something that Mike Graham has booked that put asses in seats? Anybody? Anybody? I've been asking around and around and funny how nobody can come up with one single thing that Mike Graham has done to put asses in seats. I don't recall at any time Graham being a booker in the NWA or WCW so the obvious question is, why'd you have an office right next to Eric Bischoff the first day Eric got the job to run WCW? I recall seeing Jim Crockett's name, David Crockett's name, Virgil Runnels, even Greg Gagne's name on the ending credits of World Wide Wrestling and the Saturday Night show on TBS But nowhere had I ever seen Mike Graham's name, except when he sold some of the Florida Championship Wrestling library to McMahon for I think it was, a million dollars.
I know who Mike Graham is, know he was a wrestler, his dad a promoter in Florida, yak yak yak...But to come off like you're the one just handing ideas that worked to Bischoff when there's no real evidence you've booked anything in WCW that drew money or put people in seats. Shows again another idiot just trying to put himself over when he has nothing to back it up, and when some asks around and can't come up with anything, just proves guys like Graham will say anything for a quick buck.
Eric Bischoff's claims on 'the rise and fall of ecw', about how they never 'raided' ecw for guys like Malenko, Benoit and eddie guerrero really annoys me for the simple fact that I knew why they left, and the fact the real reason was never acknowledged on the dvd. Truth is if you wanted to wrestle for new japan you had to work for wcw. it was the truth so why not just admit it? all the denials in the world don't help your 'reasoning' when one search online thru say yahoo would provide the proof, so why hide behind a denial on it? Oh I see, I forgot,m McMahon and Bischoff don't seem to think fans are smart enough to see the truth, get the truth or know the truth, so just try and spin your own excuse like throwing oatmeal against a wall, and hope it sticks. Guess what. It didn't, and some fans know better, dipshits.
Watching the Ric Flair and The Four Horsemen dvd listening to Paul Roma claim to what he thought he brought to the table. calling Arn Anderson a pilsbury dough boy and saying Flair is 99 years old...What is he seeing? He was the prelim guy in the WWF and nobody took him seriously in anything outside that role? Him and Jim Powers? Remember that legendary tag team? remember all the titles they won? me neither because they didn't win any. Paul Roma as a Horsemen and he thought he got over? How many people actually believed that? Everyone who sides with Roma on this raise your hand, I don't think I'd see one hand raised. Same with Jeff Jarrett when he was in the Horsemen. From Horseman to king of the mountain to being the king between Karen Angle's legs and working high school gyms. yeah, Heck of a career rise. I agree with you.
Eric Bischoff again on the rise and fall of ECW stated that not on any level you can imagine that ECW could've been considered a top promotion. he states all sorts of examples except, the obvious example. the example of better product. Why wasn't that example mentioned out of his mouth? Oh I know why, because that would mean he would have to admit that thye fans who enjoyed ecw better than anything else at the time, WAS better. Hard pill to swallow huh Eric. Truth hurts I know, you can stay in your denial. That's ok, the real fans who know better, know better.
See, this is why you have to be careful what you say onb video because, claims like I showed, can have holes shot thru it like a machine gun. Way too easy.
