Official Wrestling Discussion Thread

[wakedaddy820]

In case you haven't heard, Charlie Sheen deleted his Twitter account last week, so whatever WWE had planned with him as the "social media ambassador" during the show has been scrapped. (It's just as well anyway, since Anger Management is tanking pretty hard right now after the first-week curiosity wore off.)

I've had a suspicion that Charlie Sheen purposely closed his Twitter account to create a buzz so that he could reopen it slightly before RAW starts and "have everyone's attention," so to speak. (I don't follow tweets, myself.) He mentioned on Tonight Show with Jay Leno (I think it was last Monday) that he has "30 days to reactivate it." Am I the only one to have picked up on this possibility? (Oh, hey, I closed it. . . . Oh wait, I'm BACK! lol)

[TheKid965]

Okay, so, here's a partial list of names, who aren't the TV regulars, that are either confirmed or expected to appear in some capacity on tonight's Raw 1000 gala:

• Steve Austin
• Mick Foley
• Bret Hart
• JBL
• Brock Lesnar (w/Paul Heyman)
• Vince McMahon
• Shawn Michaels
• Gene Okerlund
• The Rock
• Jim Ross
• Triple H
• The Undertaker
• X-Pac

Also expected are just about all the "legends" that Heath Slater has jobbed to over the past month or so, including Road Warrior Animal, Sid Vicious, DDP, Vader, and Bob Backlund. Just as well this is a three-hour show!

There may be other surprises in store too, including the possibility at least one yet-to-be-revealed name that, if it pans out, has been described by my usual source (PWInsider.com) as "shocking." Take that for what it's worth...

In a nutshell, it's all hands on deck tonight in St. Louis.

[pzimm7778]

Shock master of course!

[Melyssa56]

Being that it's in St. Louis, maybe Randy Orton was given a free ticket, even though his suspension doesn't end until this coming Sunday.

[pzimm7778]

Being that it's in St. Louis, maybe Randy Orton was given a free ticket, even though his suspension doesn't end until this coming Sunday.

Why is he suspended? Drug test?

[Xavier1989]

Why is he suspended? Drug test?

Yes, he was suspended for 60 days because this was his 2nd violation. It is up at the end of this month.

[Melyssa56]

Also, St. Louis native Even Bourne (Matthew Korklan) said he won't be at the show because he's still not physically ready to return.

[pzimm7778]

Nord the Barbarian being perhaps better known to some as The Berzerker from his early-'90s WWF run. (He was not the Barbarian from the Powers of Pain, and later the Faces of Fear in WCW.)

World Class was white-hot from 1982 until about 1987, at which point the life went out of the promotion. Literally. The deaths of David and Mike Von Erich, as well as Gino Hernandez, cast a pall over the company from which it never truly recovered, and nothing Fritz Von Erich tried to get the goodwill of the fans back ever worked out. It didn't help that by then it was obvious to even the biggest World Class marks that Fritz was pushing his sons into the business against their will, a key contributor to the tragedies that befell the family. (David, Kerry, and to a lesser degree Kevin were all solid performers with a natural aptitude for the business. Mike's heart was never in it even before he got sick, and Chris never should have been a wrestler in the first place, but Fritz wouldn't hear of anything else.) The clincher was the infamously ill-advised angle from Christmas of 1987, where Fritz appeared to suffer a heart attack that was reported by the local press as if it were real... but of course it wasn't, and was just a cynical ploy by Fritz to drum up interest in a revived Von Erich-Freebird feud. (We won't even discuss the whole "Lance Von Erich" fiasco...)

Where I grew up was actually in the WWF's traditional territory, so they would've been my "local" promotion anyway. We also got to see the Crockett NWA through the World Wide Wrestling syndie (our cable system in CT actually never had TBS, so the Saturday 6:05 show was right out until we moved to Ohio), the dying days of the AWA on ESPN, and the World Class show. Admittedly, I became a wrestling fan too late to enjoy World Class at its peak, but thanks to ESPN's "Legends of WCCW" thing that used to run daily at 4 PM I was able to see most of what made it so great -- and it blew the WWF clean out of the water in terms of storyline quality.

We were fortunate in that we for whatever reason had UWF, WCCW, all the Crockett shows, Florida, and the WWF on in syndication then. The WWF was never all that welcome in Jacksonville. In fact, there were times there was no WWF syndication there at all. We were a Crockett stronghold. Those were the ones I watched every week. As far as the AWA, I saw them in the dying days as well on ESPN when they'd tape in front of a half full at best Showboat Sports Pavilion. They sucked. But I always heard how great they were in the 70s and early 80s so when we had cable I had WWE 24/7 and saw some of those old shows on there. I thought that sucked too! Never a fan of the AWA.

Yes, Nord the Barbarian of Berzerker fame. Berzerker if anyone is trying to find him on old videos was the guy losing to probably Tatanka, Davey Boy Smith, Big Boss Man, Kerry Von Erich, Virgil, and Bushwacker Luke on house shows in the early 90s and to most anyone who wasn't a jobber on TV.

Oh and you may not know this but Mike Graham pulled a low class angle in Florida when his dad committed suicide also. He came out and actually interupted an interview with the Freebirds. Solie ignores them and talks to Mike who starts eulogizing his dad, the birds get sick of him infringing on their interview time, and IIRC started beating him down eventually. So yeah they turned Eddies suicide into a wrestling angle. So it seems promotions with vain promoters (and in trouble) do this kind of thing.

[pzimm7778]

30 minutes in to the current wrestling show I have seen since at least February 2010. I am already sick of it. I didn't like DX in 98 or 06 and I certainly don't like them now. And finally we get to the first match....at 8:30.

EDIT: Apparently it'll be a little longer than 8:30 before I see any wresting since it was commercial break time again.

[Xavier1989]

30 minutes in to the current wrestling show I have seen since at least February 2010. I am already sick of it. I didn't like DX in 98 or 06 and I certainly don't like them now. And finally we get to the first match....at 8:30.

EDIT: Apparently it'll be a little longer than 8:30 before I see any wresting since it was commercial break time again.

I think you were fooling yourself if you thought this show was going to be about the Wrestling.

BTW, our Summer Shocker this year....





CM Punk is heel once Again!

[pzimm7778]

I think you were fooling yourself if you thought this show was going to be about the Wrestling.

BTW, our Summer Shocker this year....





CM Punk is heel once Again!

They haven't been about wrestling in years, hence why I finally quit watching. However, I expected something more than 3 matches in 2 hours, one of which was like 20 seconds, before I went to bed but I believe thats all I saw.

[racingchick1020]

Okay, bumping this up to bring you this piece of information if you didn't know about this already.

During the tag team match between Kane & Daniel Bryan and The Prime Time Players tonight on Raw, viewers may have noticed members of the audience and WWE production team staring toward the commentary booth, as well as the absence of Jerry “The King” Lawler’s voice. WWE.com has learned that the WWE Hall of Famer collapsed at the announcers' table and was tended to in the locker room area by WWE medical staff. Lawler was then taken from the arena to a medical facility in Montreal.

Link: Jerry "The King" Lawler collapses ringside at Raw in Montreal [WWE.com]

At the end of RAW, the announcement was that he's stabilized, and that he's breathing on his own and his heart is beating on its own.

[TheKid965]

Just to update: I can confirm through my usual reliable sources (PWInsider and the Observer) that the situation with Jerry Lawler being stretchered out of tonight's Raw is absolutely not a storyline or angle or anything of that nature. He is currently in a Montreal hospital and is said to be in "stabilized" condition.

In case you missed it -- and I did myself -- what happened was that during commentary of a match (Primetime Players vs. Kane/Bryan), Lawler appeared to suffer what some ringside observers described as a "seizure" and hunched over at the desk. EMTs were rushed to the ringside area and performed CPR on Lawler, who was then taken out of the building and rushed to a nearby hospital. At last update, he was said to be breathing on his own and responding to lights in his eyes, and is awaiting a CAT scan on his head and chest to determine what happened.

Obviously, this is a developing situation, and I want to again emphasize that this isn't any kind of angle -- needless to say it would be in extremely poor taste if it were one, even by the already traditionally-sleazy standards of the wrestling business. This is a real and very scary situation involving one of the all-time greats, and any concern for Lawler's health is well-placed.

Update (1:14 AM EDT): The Observer is now confirming that Lawler suffered a heart attack. He is in stable condition in the hospital, and he is not only breathing on his own, but his heart is also beating on his own. The report does indicate, however, that he is not quite out of danger yet. Obviously, everyone's thoughts and prayers are with Lawler and his family during this difficult time.

One last thing, and I wish I didn't have to even mention it, but I must. Apparently at least one rumor is circulating that Lawler has in fact passed away. I'm asking you right now, as a personal favor, to please disregard any report that claims this, as it is just baseless (and tasteless) rumor-mongering designed to drive click-throughs to websites of questionable repute.

[Xavier1989]

Apparently, King's heart did stop beating for 20 minutes until they finally revived him. What a scary moment. If you listen to the match, about halfway through he starts to breathe really loudly and then you hear a loud snore and that was the last we heard from him. Then you can see him hunched over at the table while someone from ringside goes to his aid. The last scene we see from the desk is him bending over. Hopefully he gets well real soon.

[pzimm7778]

A friend of mine emailed me today to ask if this is real or a storyline. I don't watch anymore so it isnt like I knew about it. I told him since the story he linked to was an Associated Press one it was most likely legitimate. I see it indeed is. I wish him the best and a speedy recovery. I remember seeing the old Mid South Coliseum matches and he was a near God in Memphis. The night he won the AWA World Title the people nearly went ape you know what. Good times seeing that.