Pro Wrestling Comments

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE TWELFTH EDITION OF "THE BEAU ZONE" ON THE HARD ROCK HEROES WEBSITE FROM NOVEMBER 2008 TO FEBRUARY 2010.

It looks like Vickie Guerrero on Smackdown has made something of the catch phrase, "EXCUSE ME!" Don Callis as Cyrus in the original ECW tried, but he didn't make his entrance often enough before the TNN show was pulled.

Speaking of Don Callis, the act of The Brian Kendrick and Ezeikel on Smackdown seems to be someone's ripoff of Don Callis as The Natural when he had Bad News Allen as his bodyguard in Tony Condello's IWA Hardcore, which was the last thing Allen did before retiring, and the last thing Callis did as The Natural before heading off to WWE as The Jackyl. Allen dressed up in that same white outfit Ezeikel wears.

And speaking of Vickie, when she punished referee Charles Robinson for his conduct, I guess she was remembering when J.J. Dillon replaced Ric Flair with him as acting president of WCW on Nitro from Fargo, North Dakota in April 1999 (I was there) after Roddy Piper had Flair committed to the insane asylum the previous week in Gainesville, Florida. (Remember Robinson and Flair talking on split-screen?)

And speaking of Flair, on Raw, when he and Chris Jericho were going to go outside to fight, I was wondering if Jericho might get locked out again like he did on Nitro when he had his security team, including Ralphus, and he locked himself out of the building and couldn't get back in. In the ring, Wrath was watching all this on the screen and figured if Jericho couldn't go to him, he'd go to Jericho. So he left the ring, went backstage, went outside, and they had their match outside. (FUN FACT: The bar First Avenue in Minneapolis is where Prince filmed Purple Rain. Years later, they built the Target Center kitty-corner from First Avenue. When Nitro was at Target Center, there was another match where Jericho and his opponent (forgot who) wrestled outside into the street and I could see First Avenue behind them. Cool!)

I heard a comment from an audience member on MTV Live on MTV Canada when they were talking about colleges and universities: "Well, you know the saying, if you can hold a fork, you can go to York." I chuckled as I remembered Trish Stratus went to York.

WWE has released Stevie Richards, but here's something I had written about him before he was released that no one ever says: The reason WWE fans don't react to Stevie Richards is because they don't get why Steven Richards of the Right To Censor looks like that. Now, I don't remember myself, but what was the angle to end the Right To Censor? I have a feeling there wasn't one. So WWE just dropped it and the leader, Steven Richards, grows his hair again and inexplicably slowly morphs into what original-ECW fans know as Stevie Richards. Without any promos. And so the fans are confused. Ever since the Right To Censor ended, WWE fans just don't know what to make of this man. Can he even be salvaged in WWE? It's amazing he's even still there.

Regarding the May 9 and May 16, 2008 Smackdowns, where they had the winner of the battle royal become the new World Heavyweight Champion: Why couldn't Teddy Long (in Vickie Guerrero's absence) or Michael Cole/Mick Foley bring up the following points: 1) If Edge was medically cleared to wrestle during the battle royal, couldn't they have brought up the fact that he was supposed to wrestle and defeat someone in a qualifying match first? If there is no time for such a match because the battle royal is taking place, that's not fair, it's in favor of Edge, and it's something the announcers could easily have brought up as heat on Edge. Instead, no one brought that point up. 2) And if Edge is going to run out into that battle royal, how is it that he wins just by spearing Batista off the ring apron? I thought that the way you eliminate anyone in a battle royal is by throwing them over the top rope. Edge did not throw Batista over the top rope. He just pushed him from the ring apron onto the floor. Batista should have gotten back in the ring. He was not eliminated. Now, WWE could have still done all this and have the announcers deliberately not bring it up until after the match, which in this case would be on next week's show, but the problem with doing all this is that, although it puts heat on Edge, it portrays the WWE's referees that worked that battle royal as a bunch of incompetents.

Pro Wrestling Comments

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE SIXTH EDITION OF "THE BEAU ZONE" ON THE HARD ROCK HEROES WEBSITE FROM AUGUST TO DECEMBER 2005.

How about MNM? Aren't they THE HOTTEST TAG TEAM EVER? Melina reminds me of J.Lo - In fact, Josh Matthews should ask her if Nitro & Mercury are wearing real fur, and she should angrily blurt out, "Of course they're wearing real fur, you moron!" That's in regard to J.Lo and the PETA controversy with her perhaps wearing real fur. It's about time someone started name-dropping celebrities again! I haven't heard that on a regular basis since Jesse Ventura in the 70s said stuff like, "Mean Gene, what do you think of these sunglasses Cheryl Ladd gave me?" I can hardly wait to party with Melina and the boys at Rain at The Palms or the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas with Ashton, Paris, Nicole, Nick & Jessica, Britney & Kevin, etc.

Re: Viscera & Trish's dinner date: Maybe he should've been wearing that Tag body spray. (If anyone doesn't get that, Trish is the spokesperson in Canada for Tag Body Spray.)

Did you see Punk'd with Goldberg where the stunt backfired and the semi didn't run over his motorcycle? I wonder if Ashton Kutcher remarked to Goldberg, "I guess you're used to this kind of stuff from WCW, huh?"

This is an old comment but I wanted to use it so here goes: Remember when Heidenreich was still a heel and had to wear a straight jacket? So, at that time, lemme get this straight: With WWE's new dress code, if I ran into him at an airport, not only does he have to wear a dress shirt and dress pants, but over it he now also has to wear a straight jacket, too? Hey, how about NOW with the Road Warrior gimmick? Hey, maybe WWE will make him and Animal wear dress shirts and dress pants along with their makeup and those spiked shoulder pads! Wouldn't that be a look? Animal wearing any shirt over his gut would be an improvement, though.

Kathy Hilton/Jay Leno/Eric Bischoff Stuff

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE SIXTH EDITION OF "THE BEAU ZONE" ON THE HARD ROCK HEROES WEBSITE FROM AUGUST TO DECEMBER 2005.

Forgive me for this not being in the "Pro Wrestling" section in case you don't get this..... A recent edition of The National Enquirer reported that Kathy Hilton and her daughter Paris Hilton almost had a fight causing Paris not to appear on The Tonight Show with her mother recently. They made up, however, when Jay Leno reportedly wouldn't have Kathy Hilton on by herself. Well, of course not! Kathy Hilton's appearance was to plug her new show, I Want To Be A Hilton (which rocks, by the way - and Jules is hot). That's the show WWE Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff revealed to Joe Aiello in his famous No Holds Barred interview on CITI FM here in Winnipeg last year that he and his partner Jason Hervey had sold to NBC. THE SAME ERIC BISCHOFF that, with Hulk Hogan, as the NWO a few years ago, tried to take over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno! Remember that? Jay had to go get Diamond Dallas Page and two cops to take Hogan and Bischoff out! Of course Jay isn't going to play ball with Eric! HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!

Pro Wrestling Comments

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE FOURTH EDITION OF "THE BEAU ZONE" ON THE HARD ROCK HEROES WEBSITE FROM DECEMBER 2004 TO APRIL 2005.

I heard that the Kane vs. Gene Snitsky match at our next WWE card in January 2005, the first one at the MTS Centre, will be a pinfalls count anywhere in the building match. I guess the referee will have to stop them from wrestling into the skywalks, into either Portage Place or Cityplace, 'cause once they go into those skywalks, they're not in the building anymore. If they did wrestle through the skywalks into Portage Place and the food court, I guess it would look like just another day at Portage Place. Maybe the Indian Posse and the Manitoba Warriors can join in the fun.

Let's go back to July when Raw and Smackdown were both held at Winnipeg Arena for two days in a row. My thoughts at the time were: Maybe Chris Jericho can wrestle someone into Polo Park while it's still open before 9:30 p.m. at the July 5 Raw at the arena. Remember that WCW PPV where he and his opponent (forgot who) wrestled across the street and into an office building? Gee, not many office buildings are open Sunday nights, either. Better yet, If Chris wrestles someone into Polo Park, WWE shouldn't tell anyone at Polo Park, they should just go ahead and do it. It'll be a battle royal of Polo Park security guards vs. Winnipeg Arena security guards! Geez, the arena guards will actually get cheered for the first time in their lives! And all live on Spike TV and TSN!!! Here's also what should have happened: Remember how Chris did a Fozzy gig at Cowboys after Raw was over? How about if Christian and Trish Stratus sneak attack Chris onstage at the Fozzy gig and WWE cameras capture it? Travis Tomko will still be backstage as Tony Condello will be asking him if he's related to Al Tomko. Then Christian and Trish can lay out the rest of the band and security guards as they try to make the save and sing their own songs on stage for a while. The smart marks in the crowd would be furiously typing e-mails to Dave Meltzer on their cell phones. It would have been tremendous.

Remember when Eric Bischoff told William Regal on Raw if he doesn't look after Eugene he'll "never work in this business again?" Not just WWE, but the entire business. Joe Aiello said he was scheduled to tape an interview with Bischoff the following Wednesday - the famous NHB interview Bischoff did. Hey, Joe should have told Bischoff if it happens that Regal is dismissed from WWE that he & Cyrus have every intention of booking him for a NHB show whether Bischoff likes it or not and see what he says.

Regarding Big Show throwing Kurt Angle off that platform: Someone should tell Big Show that just because Hulk Hogan can throw him off the roof of Cobo Hall and he can survive doesn't mean Kurt Angle can survive anything similiar, too.

Pro Wrestling Comments

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE THIRD EDITION OF "THE BEAU ZONE" ON THE HARD ROCK HEROES WEBSITE FROM SEPTEMBER TO DECEMBER 2004.

Here's something I keep forgetting about: WWE did a Chris Jericho home video awhile back called "Chris Jericho: Break Down The Walls." In it is a brief clip of a Club Taboo match here in Winnipeg in 1990 or 1991 which was one of Chris' first pro matches. In the video he talked about wrestling at this bar, but he mistakenly identified the bar as "Georgie's." Why? Surely Chris hasn't forgotten the name "Club Taboo," even though today that bar is called Mardi Gras. We do have a bar called Georgie's in Winnipeg (or by now that place has changed names, too), and since that time Georgie's has held wrestling events, most notably Joe & Cyrus' No Hold Barred wrestling cards, but they didn't have wrestling back in the early 90s. Or if Chris did wrestle at Georgie's back then and I didn't know about it, well, on the video first we see him talking about how he was going to wrestle somewhere in Winnipeg but not knowing quite where yet, then talking about how he drove past the marquee at "Georgie's" that said "wrestling" and how he thought at the time that wrestling in a bar was cheesy and how he didn't realize that's the very card he was on. Then we go to a Club Taboo match from promotor Tony Condello's TV show he had on CKY at the time, which would indicate that when he mentions Georgie's, that that is what we should then be seeing - Chris at Georgie's, which is not correct. Plus I always thought that the Club Taboo matches were definitely the first time Chris wrestled professionally in Winnipeg. So does anyone know the deal on that flub? I tried e-mailing Chris through his website as well as slapping a version of this on his message board, but no response. Anyone know?

No one ever points out Kane's beginnings when they write or talk about him, as to why they kept him in the mask, why keep his gimmick, etc. (This was when he was still in the mask.) When WWF/E made the decision to go to "Attitude," they had just created Kane and his storyline with the Undertaker. To pull the plug on that would have been disastrous, since that was a major angle. WWF/E saw what changing things like that does without telling the fans a word about it before (Shawn Michaels and his "knights," anyone?). So someone said, "Okay, this angle will be our last vestibule from our former 'cartoon wrestling' stance. We'll keep this one running, and this will be that style's only hangover nto the current product." That's why Kane existed all these years in the first place. Too bad WWE couldn't come up with a reason why Kane didn't need a voice box any more. I'll be looking for how they write about that in any Kane career synopsis I read in the future. Hopefully Kane's "marriage" to Lita doesn't overshadow that little detail in the writeups.

I was disappointed both WWE and Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter said piss-all about Miss Elizabeth's tenure in WCW in her death coverage. Liz became a heel in WCW, and showed us a "good girl gone bad" routine I thoroughly enjoyed. Her peak was when she was in the NWO, paired up with Savage again, but this time both as heels, making them the Bonnie and Clyde of the NWO. Who can forget Liz spray painting "NWO" on Kimberly's back, placing her foot on a prone Disco Inferno while Savage counted the 1-2-3, or slamming a steel chair over Sting's head? Plus her leather outfits. I was in ecstasy at that - Liz as a bad girl - YEAH!!! All she was missing was the four-letter words and the cigarettes. Her crowning moment was in that Savage/DDP match at Halloween Havoc (forgot what year) when she smashed a "glass" candy tray over referee Mickey Jay's head and then strangled a prone DDP with the television cord before Kimberly ran out and grabbed Liz and ran her to the back. And in the description of that match, Meltzer LEFT THAT OUT!!!!! I never got around to writing him about that one. That's the Observer's figgest faux-pas. Then later on when the roles were sort of reversed and Kimberly was a heel and Liz was kidnapped and Kimberly was making Liz her slave, the stuff between the two of them was FUCKING HILARIOUS!!!!! Well, mainly because of Kim, but she was just hilarious as the hot babe that's full of herself. I miss that character so much and it's too bad Kim didn't come back as a heel with DDP when DDP went to WWE. Kim could still come back now as Bischoff's assistant. She was also hilarious in that role in WCW when Bischoff (in the gray hair) and Russo would talk about their matters and Kim would interrupt to talk about her career or her nails or whatever. HILARIOUS!!!