The TBL Newsletter: Volume 2, Issue #12

~~~~~THE TBL NEWSLETTER~~~~~
Volume 2, Issue #12

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Official Newsletter of:

The Balrog’s Lair
”Still an Internet Original!”

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Table of Contents:

* Note from the Editor – Joe Balrog
* News and Rumors – Various Sources
* Columns –
o The Prime Cut with Eddie T.
o The Professor’s Classroom #108 with The Professor
o Linda’s Thoughts with Linda Robin
o The Anti-Antagonist with Andy Gorzelsky
o Rounding the Squared Circle with Sam Jerry
o Balrog Babblings with Joe Balrog

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Note from the Editor:

Hello all! Welcome to the latest edition of The TBL Newsletter! Due to your e-mails, this edition re-introduces the Table of Contents to The TBL Newsletter as well as spaces out the sections so that the newsletter isn’t as crunched for space. Keep your ideas coming in, I love hearing them!

Also in this edition, we showcase a NEW writer at TBL as well as take the best of the site’s news from the week to give you a comprehensive update as to just what is going on in the wrestling world! I’d also like to take this chance to welcome Martin Hawrysko to the TBL family as our new Web Manager. Remember everyone, tell a friend about TBL!

Joe Balrog, Editor-in-Chief
joe@thebalrogslair.com

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News & Rumors:

Stone Cold Steve Austin Arrested
WWE.com reports that KMOL, an NBC television affiliate from San Antonio has reported that Stone Cold Steve Austin (real name Steve Williams) was arrested and charged with spousal abuse. These charges are reportedly from the June 15th situation that took place between Steve and Debra, and not a new incident. Austin was released on his own recognizance. No further information is available about this situation at this moment. – Martin Hawrysko

The Latest on the Drowning Pool Singer
A day after the body of Drowning Pool frontman Dave Williams was discovered on the band’s tour bus, details remained scarce but memories of Williams as a fun-loving, kind-hearted character abounded. The 30-year-old singer was found in his bunk by members of Drowning Pool’s touring crew Wednesday afternoon, their publicist said (see “Drowning Pool Singer Found Dead”). The band was in Manassas, Virginia, on its way to Thursday’s Ozzfest show in Bristow. Read the rest of this story at this link.

WWE Family Member Contracts
Despite the rumors that have been circulating, a few family members of the WWE have not been released in an attempt to save money. David Flair, son of Ric Flair, Horace Hogan, nephew of Hulk Hogan and Eric Angle, the brother of Kurt Angle, are all still under developmental contracts. Although this is the case at the moment, all developmental contracts have a 90-day cycle on their contract, meaning it has to be renewed after the 90 days. – The Rock Says

WWE Breaks Records in Australia!
More than 56,700 people were at the event, breaking the previous attendance record. The Global Warning Tour Melbourne grossed approximately $5.7 million Australian dollars (US$3 million). More than 8,000 fans attended the two-day WWE Fan Frenzy(TM) leading up to the live event at Colonial Stadium. The fan festival included WWE(TM) Superstar autographs, exclusive WWE(TM) memorabilia, merchandise and collectibles, and an arena size X-Box interactive area. – Joe Balrog

Maven Out for 2 More Months
On Thursday, Maven went to a specialist in Richmond, Va., and finally got what seems to be a complete diagnosis. An MRI exam revealed torn ligaments in his ankle. If the injury had been diagnosed right away, Maven would have had surgery, the specialist said. But at this point, an operation would do more harm than good, so Maven faces at least two months of rehab. – WWE

Cable Rankings Update
Once again, the WWE came out on top of the weekly rankings for cable television. The WWE program entitled “RAW Zone” (Hour Two of RAW as us lay folk call it) was the number one ranked program on cable with a total audience of 3,349,000 viewers. Not too shabby for a show that 90% of the internet feels the incessant need to crap on come Tuesday. As for Hour One of RAW, there were a total of 2,869,000 viewers to bring it in at number 6 for the week. While this is all good news for the WWE (as was the kick in the Smackdown ratings last week), the volatile economic conditions still make advertising revenue a hassle to obtain. If the WWE had numbers like it had a few years ago, they would be rolling in dough right now. But that’s another issue! – Joe Balrog

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Columns:

The Prime Cut
By: Eddie T.
Levski11@aol.com

Rob Van Dam — The Chris Jericho of Yester-year

Hello everyone. My name is Eddie, and I’ll be doing a weekly column here at thebalrogslair.com. As you’ve noticed, this site has been around for a while and is now undergoing a construction, but things will be even better soon. As far as I go, I love wrestling as much as you do and my columns will look at the latest happenings in the world of pro wrestling. Sometimes, like today, I’ll have a column on a wrestler, an event, or another specific subject. I hope you enjoy my column and feel free to write me with suggestions, comments, your own thoughts, etc. even if you didn’t like the column, let me know.

So, how many people out there like Rob Van Dam? Are you an R-V-D fan? Do you do the thumbs thing he does every time he comes out? You know, when Rob Van Dam made his second debut to WWE TV in 2001 during the InVasion angle, the fans loved him. In fact, they loved him so much that he became the only wrestler from the Alliance to be cheered on, their only face. Obviously, this young man is very talanted and is an incredible athelete as well. Rob has done a lot in his first year in the WWE, as he was a huge part of the InVasion storyline. He had some unforgettable matches with Jeff Hardy during that time. Also, most recently, he battled Eddie Guerrero and Jeff again in 2 great ladder matches on RAW. Need more good matches Rob had? He got to fight Chris Jericho at King of the Ring and even be in the final of the tournament! He then even defeated Brock Lesnar, even though it was via DQ at Vengeance.

Let’s “take it to the extreme” here. Since entering World Wrestling Federation at the time, now World Wrestling Entertainment, Rob Van Dam has been a huge deal. He has won the WWE Hardcore Championship, and has also held the Intercontinental Championship. He has become famous for his incredible kicks and his “educated feet” (aren’t you getting sick of hearing that phrase on TV?), as well as his famous 5-Star Frog Splash. Rob is a fans’ favorite and the fans truly love his work, his thumb-pointing, etc. You’ve probably n oticed that there have been a lot of RVD posters, and foam thumbs at events as of lately. The man truly deserves it, because he’s been entertaining us for over an year now and has certainly introduced some new things to us the viewers.

Now, RVD was huge in ECW and has been quite big in WWE so far, but is he a top star? Well, for me this answer is no. Why? It’s really simple — today you need a lot to be on the top in this business. Take The Rock for an example. The man is a great wrestler, and just incredible on the mic. He’s perfect in his segments. You might say “yeah, but Rock has been around for a while.” Well, that’s true. I’ll give you another example though — Brock Lesnar. Now, you have to respect the guy just for his size and body. Where mic skills go, he has been doing very very very good as of lately and is improving greatly. Paul Heyman has obviously been of a great help in that area. Now take Rob Van Dam. I am not being a mark here, trust me, I love Rob, but the guy is just not “it” anyway you slice it. His mic skills are really not that good, and some even say they don’t exist. I wouldn’t be so negative in that area, as Rob is probably an average guy on the mic.

Try to picture RVD in your head. Now try to picture a match with RVD. You should get this picture — “One of a Kind” plays. Rob walks down the ring with his fists closed up to his chests pointing to himself and shaking his head. Rob gets in the ring and does his jump around with his fists up together in the air. He does the R-V-D thumbs. The bell rings. Now get this… headlock, right elbows, irish whip to the ropes, kick; right elbows, irish whip to the corner, monkey flip; show-boning (the usual); right elbows, a chop, gets beaten, blocks a kick, a van daminator; sometimes a van daminator from the top rope follows; next is the rolling thunder; sometimes spread-legged moonsault; a slam or another kick, or maybe another spin, 5-star frog splash… 1-2-3. Ok, no, don’t worry, I don’t watch that much wrestling, it’s just that for over a year now it’s the same thing.. over and over and over and over again… That’s where RVD breaks down, his act becomes old and out of date. Now, RVD is a very talanted wrestler and he could definitely add some more acts to his repertoir.

You see, RVD is what I like to call the “Chris Jerich of yester-year.” Remember Y2J’s first two years in the WWF (back then) ? The guy was a great face, much like RVD is today. He would go out, diss Stephanie and make fun of her, fight with Benoit and Angle and from time to time be given this extra push. Here’s something very close between the two. Chris Jericho won the WWF Championship from Triple H, but was forced to give back the belt and the pin never counted (that was in 2000). RVD won the belt from The Undertaker not that long ago on RAW but he had to return the belt and the pin never counted. Chris Jericho was always one step away from that top level before he got his break. Isn’t RVD in the same place right now? He’s fighting Benoit, Jeff Hardy, Eddie Guerrero, etc. but also gets a chance to fight someone “big” as The Undertaker from time to time. That man was Triple H for Jericho by the way. Anyway, the point is that Rob Van Dam’s current status is the exact same one of Y2J. However, Chris Jericho’s act never got lame and he got the push he deserved. Why?

In my opinion, besides being one of the most talanted wrestlers in the organizations, Chris Jericho is the second best there is on the mic (after The Rock). Jericho is just the master of the promos and one-liners and jokes, etc. The man is just incredibly hilarious and I am sure we will never forget all these words towards Stephanie McMahon. RVD on the other hand can’t rely on his mic skills because he doesn’t have as many. Jericho managed to use that to turn heel and that unabled him to be the first ever Undisputed Champion! Can RVD ever get there? I think he can, because he has what it takes, he just needs to freshen up his act.

What this column is all about is NOT to diss Rob Van Dam or to make some smarty marks comments towards him. Like I said above, I love RVD’s work and I enjoy watching his matches every time he steps in the ring. Rob, you just need to bring in those new, fresh things that made you so popular in ECW, and that brought you the success in WWE. The Van Terminator on Paul Heyman not that long ago on RAW was just an example, but trust me, RVD has so much more inside him. I don’t know whether the WWE has told him to keep it to himself or he’s decided to do so and keep the “big moves” for a later time, but Rob Van Dam is a great wrestler, who just needs a break soon and will be the future of the company. I don’t think he’ll make it to the top soon, but he’s young and has more years ahead of him. It took Jericho 2 and a half years since debuting in ’99 to get to the top, but he did. Hopefully Rob will get there too, because in the moment the WWE needs fresh acts, and new greats for the future. Well, look no further than Rob-Van-Dam!

My e-mail is Levski11@aol.com, you can find the link at the bottom of this pag e. Feel free to write me with any comments, thoughts, suggestions, or disagreements you have. I hope you enjoyed my first column and will check back next week for another! Thanks for reading, see ya!

Eddie T.
Levski11@aol.com

The Professor’s Classroom
By: The Professor
TheProfessor11@hotmail.com

POWERBOMB INSTITUTE OF THE NET FINAL EXAM

SUMMER SESSION 2002

Please select the correct answer to the following items. If you have a question about any of the items, don’t bother me—I’m reading the comics.

1. What is the most dangerous activity in WWE?

a) Receiving the F-5 from Brock Lesnar
b) Getting the 619 from Rey Mysterio
c) Taking the Clothesline from Hell from Bradshaw
d) Not entertaining Eric Bischoff within 3 minutes

2. Stephanie McMahon’s character is currently:

a) a babyface
b) a heel
c) a tweener
d) um…can I get back to you on that?

3. WWE is, by far, the largest supplier of entertainment to:

a) TNN
b) MTV
c) UPN
d) NWA-TNA

4. What is the saddest, most tragic story in wrestling so far this year?

a) Bret Hart’s accident and stroke
b) WCW’s painful end
c) Steve Austin’s meltdown
d) All of the above

5. How did your Professor react to the Un-Americans on Monday night?

a) He yelled and screamed at the screen
b) He swore vengeance on Vince McMahon
c) He cursed at Lance Storm, Christian, and Test
d) He didn’t react at all–there were no Un-Americans on Monday Night Football

6. What was the most ridiculous feud of the past year?

a) Eric Bischoff/Stephanie McMahon
b) Vince McMahon/Ric Flair
c) WWF/The Alliance
d) Howard Finkel/Lilian Garcia

7. What is the toughest team in WWE?

a) The Hardy Boyz
b) Booker T and Goldust
c) The Un-Americans
d) Moolah and Mae Young

8. Who is WWE’s most consistent, reliable performer?

a) Kurt Angle
b) Kurt Angle
c) Kurt Angle
d) Kurt Angle

9. Which of the following has been absent from WWE television shows for the longest period of time?

a) Shane McMahon taking a crazy bump
b) X-Pac being annoying
c) Steve Blackman doing anything
d) Wrestling

10. What is the best part of NWA-TNA shows?

a) The X Division matches
b) Seeing Ron Killings (aka K-Kwik) finally win a title
c) Hearing Mike Tenay announce the shows
d) Having something to watch on Wednesday besides Ed and 60 Minutes II

11. What is the best wrestling book written so far?

a) Mankind: Have A Nice Day by Mick Foley
b) Positively Page by Diamond Dallas Page
c) It’s True! It’s True! by Kurt Angle
d) What is a book?

12. What can we deduce about Jim Ross?

a) He’s an Oklahoma Sooners fan
b) He likes to wear cowboy hats
c) He likes to announce wrestling matches
d) He spent at least part of his childhood scalding dogs

13. What is the most important thing for a fan at a wrestling show to remember?

a) Which wrestler is the heel and which is the babyface
b) Always give your favorite wrestlers a big reaction
c) Never try to get into the ring
d) If a TV camera points toward you, act like a moron

14. Which sign is spelled incorrectly?

a) DOWN; WITH # VINCE/
b) I CAME::” TO (SEE); THE “SPINAROONY{}:;
c) WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODOGGIE!
d) STRATUSFACTION GUARANTEED?

15. The odds of the Rock beating Brock Lesnar at Summerslam are roughly the same as the odds that:

a) Hell will freeze over before next week
b) Jim Ross will do a Twist of Fate off the top rope
c) Jerry Lawler will swear off women forever
d) Trish Stratus will call you tomorrow and ask you for a date

Be sure to write your name on your test before you turn it in, students. Grades will be posted in the usual manner. I’ll see you for the fall semester.

— The Professor —

PIN Phony Rumor of The Week: Next week on Raw: Rikishi vs. Big Show—first to hit a shooting star press wins! (Thanks to EveryMondayNight)

(Email to TheProfessor11@hotmail.com. Feel free to submit possibilities for the Phony Rumor of the Week. If your rumor is used in the Classroom, you will win a genuine Trish Stratus belly button brush, if I can find where I put it.)

The Professor
TheProfessor11@hotmail.com

Linda’s Thoughts
By: Linda Robin
lvaccarp@hotmail.com

First let me say yeah HHH is my favorite but there are so many other guys I really enjoy as well. And I would have to say that if there weren’t so many negative and totally ridiculous articles written about him I wouldn’t even bother doing this. As I said on Friday I have started getting so much email criticizing Hunter, and believe me I’m glad that my readers feel they can send it to me. I might not like it, or agree with it, but I certainly do respect each and every one of them, but I think the fact that there is so much crap on the net burying this man that it’s my mission in life to try to defend him. Ok seriously that’s not my mission and Hunter is far from perfect but they can say what they want now it’s my turn to say what I want.

As I said it seems to be a theme on the net to get HHH and get him good. It’s no more little negative items about Hunter; no it’s big and cruel things against him. And from what I’m noticing and also hearing Hunter is fair game because he’s with Stephanie. One of the top guys that I used to respect, but no longer do, emailed me one day about a two months ago. I questioned why the hate for Hunter, and why every day a negative comment or article on him, and after going back and forth a few times he said and I quote “he’s banging the bosses daughter” so he asked for it. In other words no matter what Hunter does that’s positive it’s washed away because he is with Stephanie. Now is that sick or what? So he’s with Stephanie. You think any guy in that company wouldn’t want to be in Hunter’s place? Do we know that Test didn’t try to become Steph’s main guy and she refused? Who knows, who the hell cares, the only loser in this whole thing would be Hunter. If they split up it could cost him big time. So let’s say what he says in interviews is true, he loves her, should the man be crucified almost daily because of his feelings for her? Oh wait then I’m told he’s using his relationship with her to get what the wants.

Funny that was said before Stephanie. After Hunter gave so many of us a hell of a year back in 2000, it seems that’s when things started taking a turn for the worst. Hunter is in Vince’s ear; he stays after hours and works behind the scenes. He’s in office guy doesn’t stand by the wrestlers. Yeah this all came out a little before the quad injury. The negative obsession against Hunter was forming. It seems like there’s these so called sources in WWE that give out information to the main sites. And the information is always about Hunter. He’s holds down talent, he reworks booking, and this man does it all. But the sources never say all the good Hunter does. No the man has taken over WWE in fact the way it’s reported I don’t think Vince runs the company anymore. It’s got to be Paul Levesque’s company.

I’ll make a quick list of some of the things said about Hunter, all this is good.
1. Held Jericho down
2. Didn’t want Jericho to have blonde hair, that’s why Jericho had that red look in it
3. Hunter is the reason the ratings started going down
4. Held Benoit/Guerrero down
5. Missed many house shows including one to see the Tyson fight, but dared to tell others they need to give their all
6. He wasn’t a main eventer until he got with Stephanie

Ok those are just some of the things that seem to be mention a lot, so let me start with number 1. Held Jericho down. I think it’s obvious that the two of them have a lot of dislike for each other. And the rumor going around was that Jericho was telling people that Hunter did hold him back. Well I say this Bull. First Vince doesn’t like smaller guys, HBK was an exception, RVD too me should be way on top but is still being kept down, and Jericho fits right in there. If Vince thought Jericho was this super guy so many think he is believe me Vince would have pushed him like Brock Lesnar. But remember this, when Jericho did win the Undisputed title, the ratings were down, and many could not see him being the champion. I remember how so many of my readers were pissed that this guy could beat Rock and Austin in one match, they said it was ridiculous. I am a Jericho fan I think he’s a hell of a performer, but there are times when he does a promo as a heel and it’s fantastic and there are other times when he comes off kind of goofy and loses something with the character. So don’t tell me Hunter has kept him down.
Number 2; yeah one of our major sites had to say Hunter didn’t like Jericho having blonde hair. I find this one hysterical, Edge is blonde, Christian is blonde, Test and so on. I haven’t seen Edge color his hair yet and he’s reaching the top, I’m sorry I find this to be the most petty rumors I’ve ever read.

Hunter is bringing the ratings down. Wait I have to stop laughing. I’m so mad I had a sheet of what ratings were when Hunter took over for Austin during the McMahon/Helmsley era. Of course I can’t find it but trust me I’m going to keep looking. They were up they were steady. Rating were very good at that time. The drop in ratings is a combination of many things. A change from USA to TNN. Rock took some time off to film his first movie, how about the purchase of WCW, it seems like things never got better after that. Don’t tell me Hunter is the cause for the drop in ratings. Wait maybe he is, while he was out 8 months ratings were still low, yeah maybe Hunter’s absence did cause a ratings slide.

Number 4; this man is also holding down Benoit and Guerrero. Come on, Benoit in the ring is a genius but the man has absolutely no charisma, how can Hunter be blamed for that? And Eddie again fabulous in the ring but I will say his time off due to a drug problem is what held him back. Again not Hunter. Number 6 kills me, I mean it really does. Hunter took a night off from a house show to see the Tyson match. Funny no one seems to want to mention that Undertaker took off too that night. Hunter also didn’t do a few Monday night Smackdown house shows but he made up for that by working with an injured elbow all the way up until three days before he had surgery on it. But that fails to get mentioned too. And number 6. Stephanie made him a main eventer. Uh uh, he was main eventing before the “marriage” He won at the title the day after Summer Slam, lost it to Vince won it again at Unforgiven, main evented at No Mercy and Survivor Series so to say that didn’t happen until Stephanie is way off.

Those are just some of the things said over and over again. I will grant you this; Hunter is not the Hunter of 2000. I blame that on the quad injury and the fact that after coming back in January he fractured his knee in March and then the Elbow injury in May. But he worked through each one; yeah maybe not looking as good as he could but he performed and I think gave his all. The house shows he missed were nothing compared to the ones he worked every weekend. And it’s funny because he jobbed to Hogan after only holding the title for 5 weeks, but again that all seems to get lost in the shuffle. Too me there is no one better to watch than a healthy Hunter and I’m hoping now that this time when he returns he will be injury free and although he may not be the Hunter of a few years ago I hoping he’ll be pretty close to it. I don’t think anyone realizes just how much this quad injury changed him. It’s sad because I know if it were the Rock, Jericho or Angle there would be a lot more consideration for their well being, but it’s only HHH or as some ignorant columnist calls him Cripple H. I guess they would only be happy to see him off TV.

Hey that’s my rant for the day, Hunter could save the world but this little group of close minded men you know the ones I mean they call themselves professional journalists would find a way to condemn Hunter. I don’t know I would think a professional would watch the gossip and just deal with the news, but these men have lost my respect and to me have absolutely no credibility whatsoever. And you my readers who despise Hunter I know this will only heat things up more, but I had to go for it, and for all you that emailed me with nothing but praise for HHH I hope you still feel this way after reading this.

Hey I’m still on vacation and this week my husband is off too. So there is a very good chance I might miss a few reviews, I’ll be watching both Raw and Smackdown and believe me if I can I will review them both. Enjoy both show, I know I’m looking forward to them.

Linda Robin
lvaccarp@hotmail.com

The Anti-Antagonist
By: Adam Gorzelsky
Arg34net@aol.com

Raw finally gets hardcore

Hello and welcome to the first edition of The Anti-Antagonist. I, Adam Gorzelsky am here to bring you the reader my unique view on the WWE. To let you all know, I am not a smark. I have watched wrestling for a long time and do love it, but I can admit that there is a lot that I don’t know. All I am here to do is give my opinion on the world of wrestling, most notably the WWE. It doesn’t matter to me whether you love my opinions or hate my opinions; all I ask is that you respect them. As always, I would love to hear feedback from you and hear any ideas of what you would like discussed in this column.

Ok, now that I have that little intro out of the way, I’ll tell you a little about this column. The way I see it, there is too much negativity toward the WWE in regards to angles, characters, or basic concepts. Now admittedly not every idea is a good idea and some ideas have absolutely no positive in them i.e. putting the Big Show anywhere near a television camera, but most ideas have at least some positive aspects to them that need to be pointed out. So that’s what I’m here for, to point out the positives in the WWE so that everyone can enjoy wrestling more and more each week .The more that you look for positives instead of only dwelling on negatives, the better fan you will become. So I’ll kick things off this week by discussing the highly criticized Hardcore division. So just sit back, keep an open mind, and enjoy the column.

Ahh… the days of Crash Holly being the Hardcore champion. He was the first wrestler to institute the 24/7 rule while being champion. Sure the angle was great at first, we all laughed along as Crash was attacked while sleeping in his hotel room and I believe even waiting at an airport. Then after about the second week of seeing this it was time to end. The title was changing hands 15 times in a night and was beginning to disgrace all that the belt should have stood for.

Then came along Steve Blackman to bring some respect back to the belt. Sure, the 24/7 rule was still in tact but Blackman was the first to be able to actually fight off those trying to take his belt and leave without it changing hands 40 times. His matches brought excitement to the division and even gave him a division that he could personally excel in. But of course his reign eventually came to an end and with his end came the same old division that we’d seen before. Someone like Raven would wheel down a shopping cart full of aluminum foil garbage cans and proceed to lose his title to Bubba after getting the Bubba Bomb on a crushed can. While celebrating, Bubba would then be rolled up from behind by Howard Finkle who would then get the hell beat out of him as he retreated to the back by my buddy the Big Show. Show would then trip over his own two feet in the back knocking himself out cold only to get pinned by an unsuspecting stagehand who was just passing by. The stagehand would then get jumped by a recently defeated Raven with a giant bag of popcorn before he could escape out of the building. Raven would again become champion rendering all of the previous events useless. Basically what I’m saying is this was one of those ideas that had no positives linked to it.

Now fast forward to the past few Raws, last week’s in particular. Tommy Dreamer and Steven Richards have finally brought respect back to the division. On Raw we were treated to a very entertaining match where both men gave their all, matching their effort from the singapore cane match a few weeks back. There was no 24/7 interference and only two respectable weapons were allowed to be used. The match ignited a crowd that for the most part had been dead up until that point and set the stage for one of the best Raws in recent memory.

However, despite this tremendous match and the boost that it hopefully will give the division, there was still a lot of negativity shown toward the division following Raw. I was at a few websites seeing what others thought of Raw and was shocked when numerous columnists claimed that the Hardcore match was one of the downsides of Raw. One claimed that it is a shame that guys like Dreamer and Richards have to resort to beating the hell out of each other week in and week out because they know that they can’t get over by traditional means. Apparently the guy who wrote that ( I won’t say any names ) never followed the career of Dreamer or even watched one of his matches in ECW. Dreamer was never the most coordinated guy and never really found himself until he fought in matches like this. Simply put, he was famous for being able to take a beating. So why claim that it is a shame for him to be put in matches like that if that is what he’s made a career of doing. That’s like saying, “It’s a shame that the Rock relies on cutting promos for his popularity when he should do it by just the traditional way of wrestling.” It’s ludicrous to do that because you don’t want to stop a performer from doing what he’s best at. I believe that the WWE is finally using these two as they should have from the start. Richards and Dreamer are two tremendous leaders of the new version of the division and so far have made it exciting.

Another great thing about the hardcore division is that it will give many new and old names a chance to prove themselves. With the division being more respectable, a lot of the ECW talent may finally have a place to belong. We’ve seen what Dreamer and Richards can do, hopefully we’ll get to see someone like Justin Credible make his return and get a chance to earn the respect that he deserves. Johnny the Bull has already made his presence felt, but we’ve yet to see him in an actual match and that is something to definitely look forward to. And the more rookies that we see coming to Raw, the better and more competitive this division will hopefully become. It should very well serve as a place for many to belong or a right of passage for those newcomers looking to prove their toughness.

Also, as I stated before, the Hardcore match from Raw ignited which up until that point had been a dead crowd. And to tell you the truth, it got me excited about the rest of Raw. The reason being is that it is something different, something unique. People will argue that it was unique before all of the changes were made when in reality it was no different then any of the comedy routines done on the show. It had no purpose except to entertain a few people at the expense of the reputations of the wrestlers involved. However, now the matches give us an alternative to a simple match while still having meaning to it. It is exciting now because I actually cared who won that match on Raw and I’m hoping that others will begin to feel the same way if they didn’t already. The matches now focus more on the actual match instead of the after-match title changes and can be used on Raw now to be exciting spots on the card instead of time-fillers.

Finally, if you still aren’t convinced that the Hardcore division is now worth watching, I have one more reason that you should be convinced. As mentioned earlier, a nameless internet columnist stated that these guys are coming out each and every week and beating the hell out of each other. That portion of the statement was completely true. Say what you will, but I can guaran-damn-tee that it hurts like hell to have a steel chair kicked into your face, or have a kendo stick broken over your head. These guys are now competing in matches that are actually taken serious and therefore are risking having a more serious injury than any other wrestler that night. For that fact alone the division now deserves more attention from the fans and these wrestlers participating deserve as much respect as any other wrestler on the roster.

Well, that’s about all I have to say about the Hardcore division. I hope that I have persuaded many of you readers to support the division and appreciate what it has to offer now that it has been revamped. All that I can hope for is that if a lot of people start to support the division the WWE doesn’t return it to its old ways and ruin what should definitely be a good thing for the WWE, the wrestlers involved, and most importantly, the fans.

That about wraps it up for me this week. I hope everyone enjoyed the column and I look forward to writing these each week. As I said earlier, any feedback would be greatly appreciated as I would like to hear your thoughts on the Hardcore division or just general thoughts about the column. If you wanna e-mail me send it here or you can IM me at arg34net. Again, I’d like to hear from as many of you as I can, especially after my first column. But for now, I’m off like a prom dress. It’s been fun, but until next time this is Adam Gorzelsky, The Anti-Antagonist, signing off.

Adam Gorzelsky
Arg34net@aol.com

Rounding the Squared Circle
By: Sam Jerry
SamJerry@aol.com

“ANYTHING YOU CAN DO, I CAN DO BETTER”
OR
“EVERYONE WANTS TO GET INTO THE ACT”

BY SAMJERRY

The Dudleyville Moose Calling Whistle and Street Cleaning Company, Division of the Acme Corporation, was having severe financial problems. They were still making the best Moose Calling Whistles in the world, however, the market appeared to have dried up and sales were slumping badly. The Company couldn’t survive solely on it’s Street Cleaning Business and things looked bleak. The President of the Company, Rufus L. Dudley, tried all sorts of things in an effort to revive the Company. Many of its customers, although having little knowledge of the workings of the industry, kept sending in suggestions on how to fix the problem. Some thought he should make both left handed and right handed models, not just universal models, others thought he should make one whistle for male moose’s and another for female moose’s. Each of these whistle fans thought they knew more about the business than the people who had been making them for many years. All were well intentioned, however, some things are best left to the experts. The Board of the Company has seen downturns in the business before and always managed to come up with new ideas and better Whistles. As a long time customer, I trust they will do so again.

Turning to wrestling, have you noticed that the number of Newsletters you are getting in your Inbox has dropped off recently? It seems like the Internet Wrestling Newsletter business has fallen faster than WCW when Good Old Eric (GOE) was running the show. I used to retrieve my mail and could always count on seeing 4 or 5 Newsletters coming in several times a day. Many were publishing their one-hundredth or even five-hundredth Editions. Some go on “hiatus” and are never heard from again. Apparently this means the Editor has been abducted by aliens from Planet Stasiak. Others just vanish and are never heard from again. A call to Agent Mulder at The X-Files proved fruitless, as he couldn’t find them either. Still others are the victims of things called “School” and “Work,” whatever they are. While a few were not quite up to standard (read: about as useful as ‘tits’ to a bull), most were interesting reading and are missed.

Just a bit over a week until SummerSlam and the beginning of the Era of Godzilla. I sure hope The Rock has kept The Belt shinny; remember what happened to Old Baldy, and he was just an appetizer.

VISIT MY HOME PAGE: http://members.aol.com/~samjerry

Sam Jerry
SamJerry@aol.com

Balrog Babblings
By: Joe Balrog
joe@thebalrogslair.com

What does everybody want? What does everybody need? No folks, it’s not head (perverts), it’s the one, the only – Stephanie McMahon! Those of you who have been longtime readers of my stuff will know that I am a huge anti-internet “journalist” advocate. To be quite frank, I can’t stand 90% of the internet journalists for too many reasons to list here. Of those reasons, the two that I will tap for this article are the fact that they truly believe that they could be better bookers than the ones that the WWE currently has and the fact that the internet wrestling community doesn’t seem to want to admit that it is a land of FANS, not wrestling insiders.

So let’s start putting it all together. The internet journalists bitched and moaned forever that Stephanie was the worst part of every show that she was on…her screeching voice, her annoying demeanor, her bitchy attitude – these all added to the complaints. There were other issues such as the fact that Stephanie was a terrible dramatic actress on screen that added to the internet’s revolt of her. And, as is tried and true in the land of internet wrestling, enough bitching and moaning was done to make the WWE do something about it. After a good year of complaining kiddies on the internet, the WWE decided that their head booker, Stephanie McMahon, should lose a “Loser Leaves Town” match and thus bring joy and merriment back to the WWE.

Want to know the HONEST results of this removal? Well, as soon as she was gone, ratings dropped (even with Triple H as champion again), the storylines started to become less intriguing, and revenue dropped. Is this all attributed to Stephanie’s leaving? Of course not, but anyone who says that her loss on screen played no part in the downturn is out of their minds. This situation shows the fickle nature of Vince McMahon yet again…he tends to ultimately cave in to what the internet says (about 80% of the time). The big, bad, smart, better-than-thou internet community called for her removal for a long period of time and the WWE gave in. Why would the WWE pull their most hated antagonist off of their television programming? You got me on that one…

I used to LOVE watching Stephanie on screen! She was the bitch that took the place of every evil female valet in the past 10 years. She was a diabolical pain in the ass that added the ultimate hate to WWE’s variety shows called RAW and Smackdown! No one will admit that Stephanie played an integral part in the WWE before she took her leave of absence, but then again, those who won’t admit it are most likely the ones who fought for it and had to stick their tails between their legs when she came back to run Smackdown!

So there you see the reason why I can’t stand internet journalists who think that they are better bookers than what the WWE has…and you can also see why the internet community is a land of FANS and NOT insiders. I am self-admittedly a FAN of wrestling. Sure, I know a few independent wrestlers (some who used to be in the WWF, WCW, and ECW) and yeah, I might BS with them about wrestling whenever I get a chance to see them, but that does NOT make me an insider! There are kiddies out there on the internet who take themselves too seriously…but I digress.

Why do I like Stephanie McMahon? It’s simple really. As a fan of sports entertainment or wrestling or whatever you want to call it, I like to see a balanced card. Stephanie brought both the female valet back to the main event level (not as a wrestler, but an entertainer) and at the same time she did it so forcefully that she could really be seen as a mega-heel. The last woman to honestly achieve this level of hatred doing what Stephanie was doing (you know who) was the Sensational Sherri Martel. Those of you who remember vintage Sherri remember the screeching, the facial expressions, the underhandedness, the deception – she was the quintessential evil valet. Before her was Woman (Nancy Sullivan) and there were a few before her, but in today’s wrestling market – Stephanie is IT.

One of the reasons why I think that Stephanie had a backlash from her performance is the fan base. A lot of the fans that cried for her to go are fans that were slowly moving away from the WWE as the Attitude era began to crumble a few months ago (why will no one admit that yet). With the fall of what the WWE held true for over 5 years and rode into its highest success ever, fans that jumped on the bandwagon during this time began to moan and bitch about what they wanted to see…and Stephanie wasn’t it. Did she mess-up her role? No. Did she piss the wrong people off? Well, since she is part of the wrong people to piss off, that would be kind of hard to do.

Stephanie was simply a casualty of the changing tides in the wrestling business, but being the great performer that she is, she is enduring into the “Ruthless Aggression” era and doing a DAMN fine job at her role. Anyone who would openly and continually complain about her current performance as the General Manager of Smackdown should have left the ranks of WWE fan back with the removal of Stone Cold (on his own insistence). This is NOT the Attitude era and it’s not the Showtime era by any means…it’s a time of ruthless aggression and Stephanie plays that role VERY well.

As always, feedback is welcome, but I prefer it to be legible and coherent. Thanks.

Joe Balrog
joe@thebalrogslair.com

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Copyright © 1999 – 2002 Joe Vincent