~~~~~THE TBL NEWSLETTER~~~~~
Volume 3, Issue 15
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Official Newsletter of:
The Balrog’s Lair
“Still an Internet Original!”
And
W.O.W Revolution
“It’s What You’ve Been Waiting For”
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Tis The Season
Are you feeling jolly yet?
Well, you should be – the TBL & WOW Revolution Newsletter is back after a week of hiatus (I went out of town). I apologize for the absence, but I’ll try to be better in the upcoming year. It will be my New Year’s resolution.
Lots to get to this week, so enjoy!
Roland G
Editor-in-Chief
Check Out Roland’s Website: Salty Ham!
rolandg77@sbcglobal.net
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Hogan And TNA Update
Many in NWA:TNA feel Hulk Hogan will never work for their company. Hogan continues to give excuses for not appearing or taping segments for them. His knee, which he has had surgery on, has now delayed the planned Bound for Glory PPV indefinitely.
Jerry Jarrett flew to Tampa recently and met with Hogan. Hogan told Jarrett that his knee was not healed but that he was 100% with TNA. Hogan suggested they could push back the “big show” until May or June and bill it as TNA’s two year anniversary show.
When Jarrett asked if he would work WrestleMania XX, Hogan told him that he and Vince McMahon no longer got along regarding business and would not work together again.
Jarrett told people after the meeting that while Hogan’s knee was swollen, he was walking fine on it. This situation has caused a lot of speculation in TNA since Hogan has not signed a contract, backed out of matches he’s scheduled for, and won’t tape segments or make in-ring appearance for the promotion.
Other sources say that Hogan would rather spend all his time launching the musical career of his daughter, Brooke. Hogan has made a handshake deal with Disney. He feels that if he did a TNA PPV, he wouldn’t have time to make appearances for her.
Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Reason For Goldberg’s Deactivation
Bill Goldberg will be going to Japan in the next week to face Naoya Ogawa on January 4th. This is to fulfill his committed dates with Dreamstage (a Japan promotion) which he had before signing with the WWE. There still are several more dates he is committed to. This would explain why he was deactivated last week on RAW and will explain his absence as well as why he dropped the title.
Source: Wrestling 365
Update on Foley Angle
The Foley walking out of RAW segment is said to be part of a long storyline that will end up involving the returns of both Steve Austin and Mick Foley’s return to the ring at Wrestlemania XX. Foley is expected to tag with the Rock against Orton and Flair or possibly Batista. It was not looked at fondly, however, by those backstage who felt that creative messed it up.
Source: 1wrestling.com
Good News for Survivor Series Buyrates
The numbers for the Survivor Series PPV, headlined by Triple H vs. Goldberg for the World Title, look good as they are now up to 390,000 buys. It is the WWE’s second strongest buyrate of the year (behind Summerslam).
The lowest is Vengeance, which was headlined by Vince vs. Stephanie at just 245,000 buys.
Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Reports of Goldberg Unhappy
There is word that Goldberg is unhappy with the way he is being used in the WWE currently. He seems to feel that the company is using his character improperly. Goldberg feels he should be more dominant in the ring and has been getting beaten down too much during matches before making the comeback.
Goldberg met with Vince McMahon at Armageddon and explained his frustration. This is likely the reason that the Goldberg/La Resistance segment was added to RAW as a means to make him happy.
It should be noted, however, that many backstage feel he is just unhappy that he had to drop the belt to Triple H at Armageddon.
There is also word that Goldberg is upset that he is only given his $1.5 million dollar downside contract and does not receive any bonuses. It should also be noted that the WWE has not been giving very many bonuses since business has been down.
Source: 1wrestling
Big Update On TNA’s TV Situation
Indications are that TNA will be buying a weekly timeslot on WGN. They will pay an estimated $50,000 a week to do it and may begin airing the shows in mid-January.
Interestingly enough, TNA seems to be losing money right now since they are only getting 8,200 to 12,500 buys for their PPV’s a week. They get about $5000 from the gate, but the cost of running a PPV is about $85,000 per week. TNA only keeps $4.20 of the $9.95 they charge. By those estimates, they only clear around $43,000 a week. On the other hand, many feel that if they are ever going to be successful, they are going to have to have some kind of weekly television.
The timeslot being discussed is 10 AM ET on Saturday mornings. They are hoping to be able to get good enough ratings to be able to get a better television deal. Of course, there is significant risk.
The show would be a larger “Xplosion,,” that would feature main event matches.
Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Details of RAW Ad Campaign
The upcoming RAW campaign that the WWE is launching will be themed, “escape the rules.” The idea will be that RAW is something you can escape into and watch people do things normal people would never do.
The ads are slated to run on TNT, TBS, Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly, and some other AOL properties. This is a $2 million dollar deal that the WWE had made with AOL during the WCW buyout, when officials agreed to buy millions in advertising on AOL properties.
Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
The Hollywood Buzz on HHH, Foley, And Goldberg
Triple H is getting high praise for his work in Blade 3. The buzz is that he works very hard and learns quickly and his name has been growing despite the Hollywood bias against anything WWE related.
There is also buzz about Mick Foley’s new TV show and how it could be a big hit, although there are still reservations since it is a non-wrestling WWE project.
There is no buzz in Hollywood at all about Goldberg following his role in Looney Tunes: Back In Action.
Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Dawn Marie May Retire
Rumor has it that Dawn Marie has been telling her friends that she will most likely retire from wrestling after next year.
Source: Wrestling 365 Newsletter
Evolution Winning Belts Explained
The decision to give Evolution all the gold at Armageddon is a way to push the face side of the RAW division. The theory is, if you give all the belts to one heel group, then it gives the top faces something to rally around and strive for.
Triple H’s win was not viewed favorably backstage among the other wrestlers. Some feel that Triple H used his power to get the belt off of Goldberg right when Goldberg was gaining popularity as champion.
Randy Orton‘s Intercontinental Title win was done to continue his push. The plan is to still have him break away from Evolution down the road and have a major main event level program with Triple H.
The decision to take the belt off of Goldberg also puts into question the expected Goldberg/Brock Lesnar Champion vs. Champion WMXX match. Since Goldberg has now lost the belt and it is unknown now if he will ever get it back – the value of such a match is lowered.
Vince McMahon is still booking month to month and has not locked a Lesnar/Goldberg match at this time.
Soruce: Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter
Lesnar Upset At Writers
Brock Lesnar let WWE management know at the December 9th SmackDown taping that he did not like the idea of beating Rey Mysterio via submission in Rey’s hometown in San Diego. Mysterio did not like the idea either, but didn’t put up much of a fuss about it. Rey doesn’t mind doing jobs even if it’s in front of friends and family. The only concerns that he had was that if the crowd went home upset from him tapping out, that they would not return for a big show in San Diego, holding WWE officials accountable for the decline in attendance.
Source: PW Torch
Mideon Works Dark Match
Dennis “Mideon” Knight worked a dark match before Monday’s RAW. He has been contacted by the WWE about returning as a character to get involved in the Undertaker vs Kane feud in the near future.
Source: PW Torch
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THE TWO SHEDS REVIEW
By: Julian Radbourne
E-mail: twosheds316@aol.com
Website: www.twoshedsreview.vze.com
There’s a saying in life that first impressions count, and this really applies as far as the wrestling industry is concerned. In Britain, digital television channel Friendly TV have recently begun test transmissions for the new Wrestling Channel, which is due to launch fully in a few months time. So while I’ve found the WWE product a bit wanting in recent months, I decided that with the help of Friendly TV, it was about time to sample other fruits of the wrestling tree.
THE FRONTIER WRESTLING ALLIANCE For me, this isn’t really a first impression, but the first time I’ve seen any FWA action since I attended their Carpe Diem show in Walthamstow about eighteen months ago. The show featured here was the first part of their recent Frontiers Of Honour show, co-promoted at the York Hall in Bethnal Green with the US-based Ring of Honor promotion. The format for the show was a simple one – pitting established FWA stars with the best that ROH had to offer. Throw in a couple of matches to advance FWA story lines and you’ve got a show that at the time earned rave reviews.
While the action was good, and I was particularly impressed with the match-up between Jack Xavier and former ECW World Champion Mikey Whipreck, I did feel a little let down by a couple of things.
Firstly, the commentary. I’m not knocking the commentary here. It seemed very well put together, although it was obvious from the beginning that the commentary was added sometime after the event itself. My main problem here was the fact that due to the sound editing, hearing what the commentators had to say was at times quite difficult.
The second criticism is that only three of the matches were shown, and so far, Friendly TV haven’t shown the second part of the show. I hope this part of the show will be broadcast soon, as I know for a fact that many fans who don’t own the video are eager to see the matches pitting the Zebra Kid against ROH Champion Samoa Joe, and the contest featuring Low-Ki against Flash Barker.
IRISH WHIP WRESTLING
This was a first impression of this Dublin-based company who, as far as I knew, had only promoted a few shows in Ireland before cancelling a show last April due to financial constraints.
The show began with British favourites Jonny Storm and Jodie Fleisch putting themselves through their paces in front of an audience that was clearly quite receptive of their efforts. But for me, this match had a kind of been there, done that feeling. No disrespect is intended towards either Storm of Fleisch, but this match has been seen all over the country and in America so many times now, seemingly with very little variation. It was enjoyable, but the fact that it’s been done before put me off a little.
Then followed Jake “The Snake” Roberts first appearance in Ireland in about ten years, as he faced off against British wrestling monster Flatliner. This was indeed a very short match. Flatliner tried to overpower the Snake a few times before Roberts fought back with his combination of punches, a short-arm clothesline and a DDT. The match was soon over, and while Flatliner went away to nurse his bruised pride, Roberts showed that he could still work a crowd like no other.
The third bout featured two Austrian wrestlers, whose names I sadly can’t remember, going at it in a TLC match. There was quite a few sick looking bumps in this match, and while the crowd were certainly into this one, I must say that it wasn’t exactly to my personal tastes.
So when the Irish Whip Wrestling show ended, I was left wondering why it seemed that no Irish wrestlers were booked on the show. It’s a shame that the company had to close it’s doors. They certainly had promise, and perhaps they’ll make a comeback sometime in the future.
PRO WRESTLING NOAH
To be honest, I found this a very enjoyable show, like a breath of fresh air. The wrestling, for the most part, was top notch, and in many ways reminded me of the old-school British style of wrestling.
One big problem here though – Apart from former WWF and WCW star 2 Cold Scorpio, I had no idea who any of the wrestlers were. The blame for this would have to be put down to the commentary. While English captions were shown with the wrestlers names in English before the contest, the commentary was still in the original Japanese. I think it’s safe to say that I probably wasn’t the only one watching NOAH for the first time and thinking that it would have been better if the show either had subtitles, or the soundtrack was re-recorded with some English-speaking commentators. If The Wrestling Channel doesn’t do this, then they may find that new fans will be put off by the presentation of this particular product.
RING OF HONOR
I had heard a great deal about ROH, mainly from various wrestling fan forums. It seemed that ROH owner Rob Feinstein was catering his product to the ever-growing Internet audience, something which he has been criticised for. But on the other hand, he’s also won a lot of praise with the style of wrestling he promotes, especially with his “Code Of Honor”.
Because of the content of the later matches, only two matches were shown. The first involved the returning Low-Ki, as he took out three other wrestlers in one match. Low-Ki, along with A.J. Styles, had been one of the names I’d heard a great deal of over the past few months, and in this outing, I was really impressed by Low-Ki’s style of wrestling.
However, the following match really didn’t press me at all. Fought under “Scramble Match” rules, which from what I gather were similar to Lucha Libre rules, the match featured four tag-teams, including The Backseat Boyz and the SAT.
Although the match started off as a normal tag-match, it was obvious that it wouldn’t be long before things started to break out and every wrestler got into the fight. For me, this is where things began to get a little ugly. It was hard to follow the action as we were treated to what seemed like an acrobatic display. There were several variations of the DDT and of the power bomb, moves which, in years gone by, were used to finish a contest. And the air time these guys put in saw almost every man in this match, and a few who were not legally in the bout, spend most of their time flying either over or off the top rope. The match just seemed very messy, and for me personally, it was very difficult to watch.
So as far as my first impression of ROH goes, all I can say is that I wasn’t impressed. But then again, perhaps ROH is something of an acquired taste.
NWA; TOTAL NONSTOP ACTION
As with the other promotions, I had heard a lot about the Jarrett’s efforts and promoting weekly pay-per-views. However, it wasn’t one of their pay-per-views I saw, it was an edition of their weekly Xplosion programme.
And I was impressed. Everything about the show really impressed me, the presentation, the matches, the highlights from the pay-per-views, was all top notch. In a way it reminded me of WCW when it was under the leadership of Eric Bischoff. They are bound to have several hits and misses during their careers, but if the Jarretts can continue to attract the top independent stars, mix them in with former WCW and WWE stars who can still perform and draw a few new fans in, then I can see good things happening for this company. If they were to secure a national television contract so that they could perhaps move away from weekly pay-per-views to monthly pay-per-views then the WWE might have their first credible challenger since the demise of WCW and ECW.
COMBAT ZONE WRESTLING
I had heard a great deal of this “Ultraviolent Entertainment” promotion. I’d seen a few film clips here and there, and it was with some trepidation that I tuned into an edition of “Fake You TV”.
All I can about CZW is that I found it very disappointing. This may be because I consider myself an old school type of fan. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed hard-core matches in the past, but for me, CZW goes a little too far.
One thing that bothered me was that those in the matches seemed to be taking up as much time setting up various weapons as they did actually competing. This put me off. I wanted the action to continue. I didn’t want things to suddenly stop.
The Cage Of Death match between Zandig and Lobo was really not to my taste, and when Lobo fell crashing into a pain of glass from the top of the stage, I began to think that this resembled stunt work more than it resembled wrestling. I know I’m going to take a bit of heat for this, because I know that CZW has a large fan following, particularly in Britain, but this just isn’t my cup of tea.
WRESTLING CLASSICS
Perhaps it’s a sad indictment of the wrestling industry of today that I find watching shows featuring matches from over the past fifty years far more enjoyable these days.
This show, introduced by “Mean” Gene Okerlund, was a delight. Showing matches from the Kiel Auditorium in Memphis from around twenty years ago, we were treated to the sight of watching “Macho Man” Randy Savage and “Ravishing” Rick Rude in their prime, long before they wrestled for the WWF.
The match I enjoyed the most involved Jerry “The King” Lawler going up against the Ugandan Giant, Kamala. This is the kind of match that would go down a storm on Raw or Smackdown these days. Lawler and Kamala literally threw everything they had at each other. They fought in the ring. They slammed each other on the floor. They pummelled each other with chairs, and slammed each other’s heads into the ringside tables, both men bleeding buckets as they tore a strip off each other.
Watching this match, it made me realise just how fickle some television companies are today as far as the content of wrestling shows is concerned. The kind of stuff I saw in the Lawler/Kamala match would be edited out of any WWE show these days, which is a shame. It’s this kind of stuff the fans would love to see right now.
As I said at the beginning of the show, first impressions count. In 1987, while getting my first taste of the WWF by watching Hulk Hogan go up against Randy Savage in a Saturday Night’s Main Event show, I thought to myself that this just wasn’t wrestling. Compared to the British wrestling I’d been watching before, the world of the WWF seemed to glitzy, to glamorised for my wrestling taste. However, just two years later, after seeing Savage and Hogan go at it in the main event of Wrestlemania V, I was hooked.
So before I get dozens of emails from disgruntled ROH and CZW fans lambasting my views of their shows, keep what I’ve just said in mind.
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“ROUNDING THE SQUARED CIRCLE”
“RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON (IN-LAW)”
OR
“HE WHO HAS THE GOLD MAKES THE RULES”
VISIT MY HOME PAGE: http://members.aol.com/samjerry
Things get underway with HHH, Cowboy Bob III, Slick Ric and The Next, Next Big Thing (hereafter known to his close friends … all three of them as Thing) standing on the stage gloating. They all have Gold as HHH took Goldturd’s, Cowboy Bob III snagged RVD’s and as late entries (they stopped for a couple of cold ones) in The Tag Team Turmoil, Slick Ric and Thing relieved Grandma Dudley’s two favorite Boyz of theirs.
HHH starts things off by telling Goldturd’s fans (Yes, he has a few … very few) that he was the real Champion, and no hype was needed. I guess that means he wont need piped in chants. It appears that being Mr. Princess has paid off for HHH and his Merry Band. Not only does he have “his” Title back, but his buds each have one also. Who said it doesn’t pay to have low friends in high places? When The Emperor’s daughter is sharing her bed with you, you have all the pull necessary. With Evolution now carrying more gold than Saddam tried to make off from the Iraqi treasury as he skipped town, HHH and Evolution are now running NITRO II … yeah, like he wasn’t before.
The Lard Ass from Oklahoma U. (the same OU that backed into playing for the National Championship) Good Old JR and The King are calling the plays. Good Old announces the Main Event; it will be a Six Man Tag Team Match, pitting last night’s losers (Goldturd, RVD and The Over-The-Hill Kid [if you think he won, ask Thing … but do so from a very safe distance]) facing HHH, Slickie and Thing.
Time for our first match. It will be a Ladies v. Gentlemen Match. with Delicious Trish and Lita facing Y2Jockstrap and Creepy Little Bastard (CLB). If you think you saw this at Armageddon, forget it, it was only a mirage. After all, the WWE would never repeat a PPV match on NITRO II (or SmackDown, for that matter), would they. Jockstrap tries in vain to get Trish back to where she might give him a lingerie show, but she told him the only action he was going to get was hand exercise. Lots of pushing and shoving, until CLB puts the wood (no, not “that” wood) to Delicious. Jackoff tells the referee to stop the match. He is obviously worried about Trish … and his chances for that show later. The referee decides that Trish can’t go on and stops the match. CLB and Jackoff are declared the winners.
CLB isn’t a happy camper and lets his buddy know. Jackoff shoves him on his ass, and now he is real unhappy. This brings our The People’s Choice, Good Old Eric (GOE), who demands an explanation from Jackoff. Trish is helped back to the locker room, as Jackoff explained to GOE that he didn’t want this match in the first place. He proceeded to cast aspersions on GOE’s heritage and took off. GOE tells him that if he doesn’t like fighting women, he has someone else for him … The Monster. Seems The Monster had only destroyed six or seven villages and had only eaten a few dozen villagers earlier in the day and was still hungry.
Being on a roll, GOE kept spouting off. He said Mick Foley was on his agenda and called him to the ring. The ever dapper Mick came to the ring to chants of “Foley, Foley, …” He said he had something more important to talk about and went on a tirade about bringing Stone Cold Beer Man (SCBM) back, saying there were over one million signatures to the Petition To Restore SCBM’s Rights. He was taking the case to The WWE Board of Directors (You know, the Phantoms that exist only because The WWE says they do) two weeks from then. You think they might have a TV camera there so we can catch the action as it happens? SCBM will be there, meaning hunting season in Texas is over.
GOE tells Foley he is a joke, that the fans love him as “The Hardcore Legend,” but as Co-GM, he can’t sell fire to Eskimos. GOE runs the story of Foley’s life video package, and it gets the “Foley” chant going. He then tells Mick that is the “Foley” the fans want, not the joke in the $25 wrinkled suit. A light comes on in Foley’s well shaken head and he says he gets the picture. He tells GOE that if he ever returns to the ring, it will be on his terms, not GOE’s. GOE tells him he wants him to meet Cowboy Bob III, The Legend Killer tonight. I smell a Stipulation coming. Yup, GOE says if Foley wins, he’ll pack his bat and ball and go home forever, however, if Cowboy III win, Foley is thru as Special Agent, Deputy Dawg, Co-GM, Chief of the Latrine, etc. After thinking it over, Mick says it’s a deal, if: a. Evolution is banned from ringside, b. GOE is likewise banned, c. that Earl Hebner is the referee, and d. he can have a banana split afterwards. GOE goes for everything, but says Foley has to pay for the ice cream. Mick then adds yet another Stipulation: that the Intercontinental Title be on the line. What can GOE say, but it’s a go.
Time for another match. It’s Booger T and Maven (now there’s a pair to draw to … no talent and no nothing) v. The World’s Sweatiest Man, Mark Henry and Matthew Hardy. Nobel Peace Prize Candidate Theodore L.W. Long (and the L. W. stands for Love Whitey) is in their corner. If you think you are seeing a rerun of Armageddon, you’re almost right. These four were involved with each other in Singles Matches. The fans cared even less about this match then I did, and I couldn’t have given a rats ass about it. If anyone really cares, Booger and What’s His Name won. Oh yeah, we were blessed with yet another Stinkaroonie.
The Crotch was backstage promising an interview with Goldturd. He tried to get into Goldie’s dressing room, but Goldie pulled the door shut, almost taking Crotch’s nose off. Being the cracker jack interviewer he is, Crotch went thru the door, and after hearing him scream like a baby, came back out … on the fly. Needless to say, he didn’t get the interview.
The French Assholes came to the ring. Chirac gave us a line of crap about how he beat up The Rock last week. His BS is even better than the French Ambassador to the UN. Their opponents, or rather opponent, Goldturd hissed and spit his way to the ring. Spears and Jackhammers for The Froggies. He took the French Flag as gave it its just dues. He brought Old Glory into the ring and waved it.
GOE came out and told Goldie that beating on his “top announcer” wasn’t cricket, and was taking him off the “Active List” for 30 days. Occasionally even GOE has a good idea.
The Okie was all PO’d about GOE’s actions and The King told him to watch his blood pressure, reminding him that if Foley won, GOE was history, much like if OU wins, the BCS is history.
Foley was backstage pondering (and for him, that’s a full weeks work) how a return to full time wrestling would be. The Over-The-Hill Kid told him that he came back for one last match and is still there, a year and a half later.
The Six Man Match is now a Handicap Match since $oldberg is gone. It will be RVD and The Over-The-Hill Kid v. HHH, Ric Flair and Thing. Once again, Armageddon comes to mind. The Kid takes a major ass kicking, but keeps on ticking. After a rather long match (by WWE standards), The Kid nails HHH with Sweet Chin Music and pins him. The match had all kinds of kicks, Power Bomb, etc, and even a commercial in it. Why the F they do that is beyond me. A good match interrupted so they can sell you crap you don’t want or need, and so Spike TV can tell you for the 67th (Unofficial Count) that they will be running James Bond movies Christmas week. It’s only the 207th (once again, Unofficial Count) time they are showing them.
Another match, damn. This time it’s Rico (n all his splendor), accompanied by Miss Jackie (will she show us her breasts again)? v. John Hopinpoppin (whatever). Miss Jackie may not show us her upper goods, but she is showing a good part of her lowers (one side anyway). Is it just me, or does she look a lot better lately? The crowd chanted “Boring” throughout the match. If Jackie had dropped her top, that would have woken them up. Rico won the match after Jackie snapped Hopinpoppin off the top rope. The match was put out of its misery. BTW, another déjà vu from Armageddon. If you missed it, you are seeing it tonight.
Backstage Jockstrap is outside the Ladies locker room trying to decide of he should knock or not. He calls Delicious out and she calls him a flaming asshole and tells him to shove it, slamming the door in face.
The Monster is headed to the ring for his match with Jackoff. The first three rows cleared out in a hurry.
The Okie goes into his usual rant about Jackoff not really caring for Delicious. The King thinks he is.
Jackoff spent a good part of the match playing circle jerk with The Monster, having him chase him around the ring. At one point, The Monster used Jackoff as a human spear, lifting him over his head and throwing him out to the floor. Jackoff grabbed a chair and nailed The Monster, getting himself DQ’d. The Monster then put Jackoff in The Tree of Woe and strangled him with a cable, followed by a Chokeslam. Lucky for him that he wasn’t an after match snack.
The CLB came down and lifted Jackoff to his feet. Looked like all was well again. Nope, he shoved Jackoff on his ass and left him there.
Our fearless announcers then showed a video of some of the NITRO II troops at The US Central Command in Tampa earlier in the day.
Cowboy III went to GOE’s office to talk about his match with Foley. GOE handed him a ration of crap about some of the guys saying he wasn’t ready for the big time. He pumped him up and sent him on his way. GOE will be writing a book on “How To Motivate,” or rather “How To Bullshit Anyone.”
We followed Foley backstage, on his way to the ring where Cowboy III waited. He passed half the roster as they wished him the best. As he passed The Kid, he told him he has booked him to face HHH for the Title in two weeks, when NITRO II will be in The Kid’s hometown, San Antonio. Hmmm, you think HHH might lend him the Title for a week or so?
Foley came out to the “Foley, Foley, … “chant. He stopped and Cowboy told him to get his ass in the ring and get the match going. Foley turned around and headed backstage. WTF is going on? He went to his office and grabbed his suit and bag. GOE ran up to him and said if he leaves, he is finished … period. Foley headed out anyway.
As he reached the exit, Cowboy III caught up to him and asked him what he was doing. He said he saw a tear in Foley’s eye, and said Legends don’t walk out, they fight. He called him a coward and spit in his face. Foley just wiped it off and left the building.
On that high note, NITRO II ended and Spike TV took over with a rerun of something or other.
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Season’s Salutations
You know, the boys up at The Balrog’s Lair don’t ever take a vacation! Christmas just means more time to pump out great column after great column.
And this week was no exception. First up, I busted out an All New RAW Rage for your liking. Read it. On Monday, you will have a “Best of 2003” RAW Rage. That will be fun. We then saw the return of Balrog’s Babblings – and although it wasn’t wrestling related – we all still enjoyed it. Then Jon Carbo jumped out with his monthly Top Ten and that’s always fun to read. Eddie popped off and gave us his latest News & Analysis helping us all understand why HHH won the belt at Armageddon. And finally, Chris Vining gave us A Genesis And Revelation and that strangely veiled biblical reference told us of his future plans.
It was quite a week.
A few announcements before I go. SmackDown Rage will indeed be up on the website this weekend at some point and you wont want to miss it. There will be a special Christmas message for all. Also, we hope, that next week will be the debut of a new column in the TBL Newsletter and you WON’T want to miss that “Big Thing”.
Now, go away and drink your eggnog.
Roland G
Check Out Roland’s Website: Salty Ham!
rolandg77@sbcglobal.net
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