I watched the Best of Nitro on Monday and I couldn't help noticing a few similarities between the first Nitro and the, I guess we can call it, "last" Nitro last Monday. A few examples of what I call the "Nitro Circle of Life." I thought you might appreciate this.LOCATION
First Nitro: Mall of America
Last Nitro: South Padre Island
Analysis: A couple of sparse crowds in a location with lots of free-for-all seating.FIRST MATCH
First Nitro: Jushin Liger vs. Brian Pillman
Last Nitro: TAFKA Prince Iaukea vs. Michael Modest
Analysis: A Cruiserweight match...although the quality of the participants has diminished significantly.MAIN EVENT
First Nitro: Hulk Hogan vs. "Big Bubba" Ray Traylor
Last Nitro: Hulk Hogan vs. The Wall
Analysis: Hulk Hogan vs. A big oaf wearing a dress shirt and slacks with a marginal amount of talent.RATING
First Nitro: 2.9
Last Nitro: 2.6
Analysis: A sad day for the human race...Anyway, it looks to me like Nitro has essentially come full circle. Does this mean Nitro will once again win the ratings war, only to collapse again 4½ years from now? I guess we'll see.
Did you notice that the CNN "Beyond the Mat" review referred to "Nick Foley"? I did a quick check, and "Have a Nice Day" is currently the number 7 book on New York Times non-fiction best-seller list, and has been on the list for 21 weeks. You don't think that they talk about Mitch Crichton in the same way.Also what's up with the "visceral thrill" ? Although I'm a big fan of WWF wrestling, I don't get much of a visceral thrill, nor did I get any sort of mabelal thrill a few years back.
Not only is Sid Vicious the "freakin' World Heavyweight Champion of the number-two company in the business," but he's the freakin' World Heavyweight Champion of the promotion run by C F'N NN, the same company that published the review.
I also don't know if you've seen it yet, but the new issue of the WWF RAW magazine has an interesting article about the reasons that Benoit, Guerrero, Saturn, and Malenko left for the WWF. Part of it is available at http://www.wwf.com/pub/rawmag/2000/04/01.html.
Not much else to say except that the "new" WCW had better be good with all the hype they've given it. I really hope we don't get another non-exciting episode of Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo trying to get themselves over.
I met Ed "Brutus Beefcake" Leslie this weekend at "The House of Pain" (a piercing and tattoo parlor) in Everett, Massachusetts on Saturday afternoon. Brutus was signing autographs (for a fee..), and supposed to start signing at noon until three o'clock....When I arrived about quarter to one, there was a line already formed outside the door...I come to find out that he was having a nipple pierced, hence the delay!
When I finally got in to meet him, I noticed that he had cut and dyed his hair blonde and had grown a "short" Tank Abbott goatee....he was dressed in a Zebra striped Zubaz outfit and was wearing a pair of sunglasses....
I shook his hand and said it was nice to meet him, he said "Thanks, man"...Then I got gutsy...I said, "tell me, how can you sign Brutus Beefcake autographs dressed as the Zodiac?"
He said "What? I'm Brutus, man!" pointing to the 80's promotional picture he had in front him...which oddly had him in the same zebra pants....He started to tell me that the Zodiac was a promotional character that came from the movie "Mr. Nanny"...
I then said "I guess people were just wondering which of your names you'd be signing today?" He laughed a little. I got the ten dollar autograph job; an autographed Polaroid of him and me. He then yelled over to my girlfriend to get in the picture as well...which made her cringe. (She hates wrestling.) So we both got in the picture....and he let her hold his "candy cane" hedge clippers that he made so famous.
I thanked him again and asked him about the HPW wrestling show on April 28th in London, Ontario. And he kind of cocked his head...he couldn't remember what I was talking about. I said, you know the one with you and the Hammer and Tito Santana? And he was like, "Oh yeah...is that this month?"
It was time to leave...."Dizzy" Ed Boulder was back in character.
D'oh. Should've explained that.
That's the technical name for when you have a guy on your shoulders, and you fall backwards. Not as impressive as it sounds.
Last night right before I fell asleep, this thought popped in my head. WCW now has both Mike Awesome and Mike Modest...is there a Mike Average wrestling somewhere out there who they can pick up?
In that e-mail you send, you just might suggest that they give a plug to the reporter who's been covering their show faithfully for almost three years. :-)
Is Vince Russo 3 months pregnant? And more importantly, who's the father?