The Midnight News 7.23.01
Posted By Hyatte on 07.23.01
The Worm (no, not him), Invasion, Disco, Ryder, Watts on Gordy, and tons of Message Boardom
Okay.... I've had a humdinger of a weekend, so let's get right to it then I'm outta here.
DR. HYATTE TO THE RESCUE!!!
It seems that our little corner of cyberspace is UNDER SIEGE FROM A DEADLY E-MAIL VIRUS THAT, IF LEFT UNTREATED, WILL LEAVE YOU WITH THE WORLD'S LARGEST, MOST EXPENSIVE PAPERWEIGHT EVER!!!!!!
Maybe you've heard of it? Maybe you've seen it in your inbox? It's a random title. The text says, "I've attached a file because I need your advice?" Of course, the file is unreadable? Big pain in the ass, right?
Well, relax.... it's not a killer. It's more like an annoyance. HOWEVER, if you don't attend to it, you may get screwed.
Luckily, I seemed to have avoided it.... BUT I can't check my e-mail and risk exposure until y'all handle yours....
It's a worm virus, but norton.com has the remedy for it. All you have to do is
go HERE and you'll have the instructions to kill the thing.
AFTER you handle it, you had best GET ON YOUR F-ING KNEES AND THANK KING HYATTE FOR BAILING YOUR FAT ASS OUT OF ANOTHER JAM!!!!!
Ah, and thank CRZ too, 'cause he pointed the way for me. He's the REAL hero, but since he's a MAC user, none of this affects him, as he laughingly told me.
INVASION OF THE NWO STORYLINE SNATCHERS
Widro broke away from his busy schedule (HAW... if you only knew) to recap Invasion with zip and zeal (more one than the other).... so I thought I'd jot down some random notes. Kind of like 80% of my Mop-Up closers used to be.
-World, meet Rob Van Dam.
-Ross, "DDP is the bravest man in America when the Undertaker is hurt!" For some reason, this cracked me up for 5 minutes.
-Ross, "Maybe we'll see the 'Spinerooni'? That's a devastating move! Spinerooni!"
-The show was just okay.... I don't know how loud the crowd was live, but on TV, no one seemed to wake up until Rob Van Dam Vs Jeff Hardy, then it stayed awake for the rest of the night.
-Cole, "Normally, the crowd would BOO X-Pac! But since he is representing the WWF, they are CHEERING him!" (5 SECONDS later, the entire building was chanting, "X-PAC SUCKS!" That's a D'OH moment if there ever was one)
-Speaking of "X-Pac Sucks", pretty smart of the WWF to use that old Internet standby into Waltman's gimmick.
-I swear, I really thought Austin f-ed up his knee.... I mean, Ross never mentioned it... he had the brace off. Sure, in the end it was just ANOTHER Heel turn after being back to a "Face" for a grand total of a week.... but it was still a pretty sneaky way to get the totally expected swerve in.
-Ironically, Ross and Cole were at there best during the Bra and Panties tagger. Cole just relaxed for once and actually had FUN.... for the first time, his laughs didn't sound forced.
-The problem with the show was that it really couldn't be the dream card everyone in the WWF was shooting for.... they hyped it as the dream card... but not without the stars... I'm sorry.
-Rob Van Dam is now a Superstar. If he stays healthy, he'll be either headlining or second from the top of Wrestlemania next year.
-F-You if you mock his performance. Don't you DARE call him a spot man. He's got charisma, he plays to the crowd, he's as graceful as a ballerina, and he packs in more moves in one match than Shawn Michaels did in his last 3 PPV's.
-Another problem with the show was Vince McMahon's performance. He forgot how to "act like Vince". Now he's "acting". Russo knew how to perfect the character. Now Vince is hamming it up.
-I hope the Rock stays away for just a while longer... let Kurt Angle have a run at being the company's #1 Babyface.
-Kidman brought the best out of X-Pac. Best match we've seen out of him in a while.
-For me, it was never a question as to if the Big Show's team would lose, it was if the Big Show would personally lose.
-Can the makers of Kool-Aid sue for the obvious sinister implications Ross always makes? This can't be good for the product's business.
-In one night, Torrie and Stace... well, Torrie, showed more personality than all her time in WCW.
-So, overall.. I give it NOTHING... I AM NOT A STUPID TOOL WHO RATES MATCHES!!! TAKE YOUR THUMB AND STICK IT IN THE MIDDLE OF YOUR WELL PAVED ARSE!!!!
-Not the show it should have been, but the last three matches made it quite good.
-Oh, and Jim Sullivan called the Austin swerve before ANYONE.... Jim Sullivan IS GOD
WHEN THE MUSIC STOPS!!!
Disco Inferno sat down for a chat with Jeff Kohl.... who has a silly ass nickname that I refuse to acknowledge.... this was done for the LAW people (Nazis!).
Scherer posted it in full
-To kick things off, Disco says that he KNEW WCW was going down the crapper, but he never dreamed Vince McMahon would be handed the keys.
-His first reactions (him and the other workers) was that Vince would swoop in and start running things right away. No one considered all these contracts and the need for AOL to try to buy out the big guys.
-He sees a lot of potential for new things in a one company monopoly, but with some big names talking about starting their own companies to compete, he feels the wrestling landscape will change.
-He was at the final Nitro. He worked a dark match. Him and Steve Sanders against Lash Lerioux and Hugh Morrus.
-He says that he got to watch Shane in the same room as Jeff Jarrett as his father buried Jarrett on TV. It was a very funny moment.
-He has not been contacted to work for "WCW", but for now, prefers to work Indys. He is recovering from some injuries and wants to shake the rust off.
-He says that now he is in the best shape of his life. The time spent at home helped him learn how to eat right and train regularly.
-He enjoys working the Indys because there's no TV pressure and it's a much mellower atmosphere than the high tension WCW locker room.
-His favorite time with WCW was when he hung with Scott hall as a Wolfpack wannabe. He says that being in the ring when Nash ended Goldberg's streak and won the title was his most memorable moment.
-He had only a scant professional relationship with Eric Bischoff, but got along with Vince Russo well enough.
-He says he had a lot of disagreements with Russo and Eric.... creative disagreements, but Booking meetings were supposed to have disagreements. He wanted Nitro to have more humor. He felt that WCW's competition was "Hollywood", and "Hollywood" had sitcoms on Monday night.
-He said that being on the Booking Committee was always a pain because he had to train early in the morning then go to the meetings, he was always very tired.
-If he could do it over again, he wouldn't book and wrestle.... he would have picked one and stayed with it.
That was it. Quick interview, but not bad.
SIX DEGREES OF RYDER FAKIN
Not sure if you noticed....
Smackdown is approaching it's 100th episode.
"Smack my Bitch Up" was a song that caused controversy recently. The band that performs the song is called Prodigy.
Prodigy was one of the first moderated forums on the net for wrestling fans to express their views separate from the mass media interpretations of wrestling programs. This in part led to
"smart" fans / websites which are on the net today.
The Prodigy chats were moderated by BOB.
Six Degrees of Ryder Fakin.
Damn this guy....
BUT, PLUGS
His name is Jonathan Widro.... and he is a MACHINE.
First, he recapped Heat
THEN, he recapped
InVasion.
But the most impressive part is.... he recapped both shows WITH a broom shoved up his ass so he can sweep up his HOUSE at the same time!!!
The man/boy is a wonder.
Meanwhile, Bryce McNeil shows up with another
Foot On The Ropes. Bryce ponders the "Stone Cold" character of the moment and goes over what his best options are direction wise.
Does the news update seemed quick? Rushed? Well there is a reason... and here it is...
WATTS DID HE SAY??
Bill Watts eulogized Terry Gordy at the Mid-South website.. Bill didn't exactly sugercoat things. What you are about to read is lengthy, and brutally honest. You may be a bit offended.... all I can say is you probably didn't know Gordy like Watts did, so take that into account.
Here we go...
I remember we found Terry Gordy and Michael Hayes working in small shows in Mississippi. Michael loved being "in the ring" as a wrestler, but his true talent was his being "the manager" (at least in my view.) So we got Buddy Roberts to be Terry's partner in the ring, with Michael managing, and the team was born. And, they went on to become true Super Stars in the business.
At this point, I am saying things that are strictly "my opinion" and "observation." I am not saying Terry died because of a direct overdose of drugs- because I do not know that. But to die so young, is certainly questionable as to it not being the result of a history of self-abuse, and substance abuse- starting with alcohol, which we all abused ourselves. I guess you'd say this just lead to the next steps for some: grass, cocaine, pills, crack, and whatever.
I am not demeaning Gordy- I truly loved that big guy. But I am saying what needs to be said, so maybe just one person "wakes up" and starts taking "personal responsibility" for their own life. (As we grow old, all we really can offer is our perspective on life because of our experience in it. There is a value there, though in today's society it is generally ignored.)
Now to the tragic aspect. Terry, as gifted as he was in the ring, had so little personal discipline. He then became a substance abuser, and battled that the rest of his life.
We knew so little about that "process then" and to tell you the truth, just tried to work around it as best we could, until, as a promoter, you just got to the point where you no longer could "trust" the person to "show up" and be "responsible."
So, the downward spiral often took years- especially as the business changed. We all abused alcohol, and "it was just a part of the business to run hard and play hard." Most of us drank huge quantities of beer, and drove our late night trips at high speeds, and drinking beer.
And then as "they came into vogue," drugs and steroids became the "norm" and were really "accepted" or as I said, "ignored" by the companies that controlled the sport, unless one was just so "blasted" that it couldn't be.
I fought them, the steroids- the cocaine, the pills, the crack- as best I could- but when someone is an "addict," first "they have to want to "get off" and "clean themselves up" or it just doesn't happen.
In fact while I was at TBS, we instituted a drug testing policy, and it caused a lot of problems. And we had several test positive- so the policy got "derailed" and "never made policy" while I was there- which was really frustrating to me. (Two of the people that were there then, and involved in this problem, are now dead, and died at an extremely young age,- and from all indications, there was a mitigating factor from this very thing.) I am not saying "I was an angel" but I certainly experienced dealing with the athletes who were abusing themselves this way, and all the personality extremes that go with it. (Too, as athletes, we seldom considered the long term effects.)
And, once addicted, whether they want to admit it or not, they are addicts for life, so they must fight the urge daily.
So many people tried to help Terry. I remember Dr. Death, Steve Williams saved him once in Japan, and then got him to going to the gym, and "in shape" and he really straightened out for awhile.
Connie, his wife, tried so hard too- until finally she was "worn out with it."
Michael Hayes, tried too, in his way. (Michael was a huge influence on Terry.) But Michael too "walked the edge" when he was young, so that was hard for him to truly influence an addicted person in a really positive way.
And again, in Michael's defense, we lived in that era not understanding how we were "enabling" our peers in this respect. We were ignorant. Michael was and is so talented, but as we all did, lived fast and hard. So it is, and then there are those who "go over the edge" and that is the visible tragedy- and then, we lose them too soon.
And, Bam Bam was right there in Texas, working for the Von Erichs, and saw the drugs and their devastation on that family as tragedy after tragedy occurred, and "was covered up"- but everyone in the business knew. He was there when Gino Hernandez OD'ed too.
But see, an athlete always thinks "I can handle this!" And that "pride" whips him. (That and generally a lack of any real spirituality, or connection with God.)
I have now seen so many great ones who got "hooked" on drugs or steroids or both, pass away- and the tragedy is such a waste.
So, I cannot think of Terry without thinking of "his self-destructive side."
But, I can also reflect on his "talented side" and that was huge. But that will be written about often and featured.
But when you lose the Eddie Gilberts, Gino Hernandez's, David Von Erich, Mike Von Erich, Chris Von Erich, and Kerry Von Erich- so young- that is when we need to really focus on "what may have contributed to that."
And, as much as I enjoyed Bam Bam, he was like a gentle giant, but also a "loaded gun" in that he might "go off" and get "blasted" and then "not show up," or "show up" but not be able to perform to his own standard.
But, we as promoters, in our greed, would "look the other way"- to a point, and try to go ahead and "work around it."
That is the tragedy.
Bam Bam will be remembered as an awesome performer in the ring- as well he should be.
But, he died too young!
So, I am not "demeaning Terry, or anyone I've mentioned. But, as I grow old, I weep for the memories, and think of the waste for such a loss.
And that too is the way I see it.
ACROSS THE BOARDS
Seeing how InVasion is now history, I thought I'd put up hot-off-the-presses reactionary notes. Then I decided that I didn't want to get all depressed by reading everyone explain where theWWF went wrong and why wrestling is sinking faster than a lead fart. So I blew off the idea.
"I think the increase of markish types on this forum are due to one thing. One person is responsible for this. Chris Hyatte and his But,Plugs. Its HIS fault since he constantly plugs
TheSmarks on his forums. While Botter, Keith, and the others enjoy the increased site hits, it also brings in the nutty mark folks. So Hyatte. Do us all a favor. For the love of Sweet Jeebus on a cracker,
STOP PLUGGING US."
"I haven't seen anyone make such a futile attempt to sound smart since the NWWWO was around."
"In the Wrestleline, and thesmarks.com definition, a "smart mark" is someone who knows that wrestling has existed outside of the WWF."
"Ahahahaha, yes, the Internet is going to collapse capitalism! This collection of stupid teenagers bitching on message boards, stupid teenagers posting pictures of their cats, stupid teenagers being two-bit hackers in ways the real hackers graduated from years ago, stupid teenagers pirating software and mp3s, stupid teenagers pretending to be girls, stupid teenagers pretending to be adults, and stupid teenagers starting low rent porn sites is stronger than we think!"
"Oh my Godf**king sh*t, what was that?? You ain't arguing at all, you are just saying everybody here is stupid and you're not. Did your girlfriend get rid of you last night or what??? Man, you look like one raving mad 50 year old bitch, f**kface. Go to a store near you and buy you some solid rope so you can hang yourself properly."
"All Kevin Nash is, is a glorified cocaroach that no matter what happens he is always the last one standing. That doesn't make him a genius by any means it just makes him one big lazy bastard that caught the right breaks at certain points."
"IF YOU TRULY BELIEVE IN YOUR HEART THAT STEVIE RAY WAS A GOOD COMMENTATOR YOU SHOULD BE TIED UP TO FOUR HORSES BY EACH LIMB, STRIPPED NAKED, AND BEATEN WITH CUCUMBERS AND OTHER ASSORTED VARIETIES OF PRODUCE WHILE BEING PULLED BY EACH HORSE IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS ONLY STRONG ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU SQUEAL BUT NOT TO MAKE YOUR LIMBS COME OUT OF THEIR SOCKETS JUST SO YOU CAN FEEL THE MENTAL TORTURE MORE THAN THE PHYSICAL."
"I don't quite know how exactly (the October 1st Raw) will be Star-Trek themed but if it involves the return of William Shatner and/or team WWF, WCW, and ECW uniting for ONE NIGHT ONLY to take on a team of invading kling-ons, I think I might have to miss my first episode of Raw in almost 9 years."
"I might watch if they promise to have Leonard Nimoy nail Shatner with a chairshot."
"All that being said, I was a fan of a lot of what ECW did... What they did was generally have some wrestling to balance the garbage matches. Unfortunately the mismanaged finances of the company caused talent to flow out faster than Corino's blood, and by the time they were finally getting national TV Paul was showing signs of booking burnout and the hemmoraging of talent was irreversible. Heyman and Bischoff are two sides of the same markish coin..."
"There is a reason I work here and you don't. You are an idiot."
"I wish Stephanie would Die after that comment. Stupid silly bitch."
"Have any one of you stopped to think that maybe Freddie Blassie wasn't all that much bothered by the conclusion of last night's show? That perhaps he has known Stephanie and Shane since they were little kids and knew that their comment towards him would get them over as heels based on his experience with the subject? That was the point. Maybe it was a cheap way of doing so but it got all of you on the boards bitching, think of how the marks feel!!!!"
"Minnesota's good for three things: A) The Mall of America, B) The Twins (finally), C) Mystery Science Theater 3000!"
"you forgot Jerry Lynn."
"Like I said, Minnesota is good for three things."
"I wasn't too impressed with tonights episode of RAW. It reminds me of the three hours of Nitro and the two hours after of Thunder. There are 100 wrestlers that all need to justify their pay check by wrestling meaningless matches once a week. The only diffrence between the Nitro days, and today is these bums aren't making as much as they were three years ago."
"Steph- find's out she has AIDS and has given it to HHH and the 37 other guys she's done in the locker room."
"Shane and Stephanie announced that they sold their WWF stock to make their purchases of WCW & ECW? Who bought their stock?"
"There is now no logical reason for WCW, ECW, Shane or Steph to be on screen. Stupidity defined."
"I think it's fair for fans who spend money on the product to offer criticism on it. However, there is no reason to continually bitch at every single thing."
"Steph should stay off tv, urging the writers to come up with better storylines. Her tasteless comment to Freddie Blassie on RAW do not get her over as a heel, but did wonders for her reputation as a 'Daddy's girl' who can't be touched. Congrats go to Paul Heyman for finding a way to protect himself by adding Steph to the ECW ensemble. Now he is invincible. Guess he took a valuable lesson from HHH."
"So you were with it through a week and a half of the most psychotically plotted storylines in recent memory, but when your favorite wrestler jobbed the angle lost all crediblity?"
"Raven laid out for arguably the 3rd best pro wrestler on the PLANET, and you're complaining he's been Brawlerized. Forgive me for refusing to accept your hyperbole."
"we have WCW, WWF and ECW together, and the biggest threat they have developed is Stephie's acting."
"if you cant do anything but bitch about wrestling, stop watching, stop posting messages, and frankly, Stop pissing me off. Its time to weed out the bitches from the real wrestling fans!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Hey, advertising lots of T&A; worked for the XFL. Oh wait..."
"I'm not too big a fan of Internet feuds that become personal (i.e. Hyatte v every writer but himself), but as long as the disagreement stays focused on wrestling (i.e. Scott Keith v CRZ and the entire glass ceiling argument), then it's fruitful, and it's why we're here."
(Hyatte's Note: Why the Hell would I feud with myself?)
"Make mine Smarks, but my first site every morning has become 411 -- they've got the right combo of regular columns, a readable and reliable (and most importantly, timely) news update, and there's no filler. Take away Scott Keith's ppv recaps (he already sold his Raw recaps) and this site is just another Shooters -- maybe worse, because it's got that moronic Actuary."
"I ought to Mention...I love Rantasia. That's It. I am Done. Go read something else."
"Test is in Australia fighting Kangaroos.. seriously he is."
"It's the Friendly Tap dickweeds. I actually live in Rhode Island. Even near Providence. Funny how you all tried to be smart and say yea Tim White owns the Lucky Tap."
"Has anyone seen the WWF Intercontinental Champion recently? I mean, I thought Albert was the next big thing..."
"Just hoping Blassie refers to SOMEBODY (preferably Shane-O) as a 'pencil neck geek' sometime in the near future. "
"You know, there's going to be a time where we mention Bob Ryder's name in the same sentence as Al Isaac's, and that day is coming sooner rather than later. Ryder's website sucks, his writing is of Smark Crew calibre, he's redundant as a news source and he has zero credibility after he "broke" the Bret Hart/Invasion story only to have the devil fart in his face. Ryder's next job will make Al Isaac's asinine comic strip look like Kafka."
"Just after WCW Live ended its run, I was in a chat with Ryder, and he said that under no circumstances would he ever work for Vince McMahon. He made it clear that he regarded Vince as the Anti-Christ. If he's the one riling up the other creditors, I wouldn't be surprised one bit."
"...and Nash and Hall were seen as a threat to a whole organization back in '96, but no one compained that made no sense."
"Bring Steiner in, put him against UT and have him resurrect the Steiner Screwdriver for one match. Then lets see Taker no-sell that."
"I posted on 411 for the first time in a while the other day and wrote a few paragraphs on an article that I read on the Torch and someone named "Rocky(random numbers)" immediately replied and told me that I was unknowledgable and wrote something with terrible grammar about how chyna would kick my ass and ended his reply by claiming that he had just 'exposed me as the jackass I am'."
"Some of you act like such dorks. Oh my god, I have to 'wade through' things I don't like on a public message board! What a CRISIS!!!! People post stupid stuff, get used to it."
"Why don't you go f**k yourself with a spiked bat, you splooj-loving prison bitch."
"Wouldn't it be cool if Nash returned and brought Tugboat with him. That way it could be Tugboat powered by Diesel ! , Nash could be Ottman's lackey and whenever he's in trouble , Nash simply touches him and the Diesel Power wakens him ! , hey I can see it happening."
"HHH is smart for sticking a needle in his ass when he was stuck in midcard city."
"Midnight was that jacked black woman that followed Booker T around. My friends called her Afryca."
"Paul Heyman has a world's record on the spit toss."
"Why would I buy the ppv? I was waiting for Zodiac, Beastmaster, Loch Ness, Zeus & the Final Solution to come waklking down the aisle. Maybe we'll be lucky and the'll have the 10 man tag in a triple tiered cage. It sure worked for WCW!"
"I heard Ashish was eaten by a bear"
"I think since the WWF is stuck with DDP now i say use him to put over the young guys in the company, other than that just have him lay down against everyone and bury his sorry ass."
"I am starting to get tired. Should I go to bed?"
"(Stephanie is) looking HUGE tonight! I wonder if she got those chesticles at daddy's implant farm?"
"Now I don't know Rob Black personally, BUT I think it's pretty easy to do a character profile on the man. A porn mogel who made enough money to start a wrestling promotion and jam it chalk full of sleaze and over the top violence. "
"Tammy - The best valet ever, period. Now she's fat, ugly and sad. really, she wouldn't pose in Play boy because of morals and now she sells her body on a crappy site??? "
"Everything about you sucks, not the least of which is your posting style due to the fact that it contains your words, which really, really suck."
"As far as I'm concerned, they can repackage the Goodfather and ship him to the unemployment office."
"Lex Luger hits Goldberg with a chair. Goldberg stops, thinks for a second, then decides to sell the chair shot."
"I just went to Abdullah the butcher's House of Ribs and chinese takeout (?) and it was awesome. Food was great, atmosphere was great, even the angry lady who said we should get a f**kin' map when we called for directions was great! "
"The Rougeau Brothers rule in thousand different ways, but when mentioning great teams, they never get mentioned. They drew super heat, were great in the ring, had the greatest gimmicks (French-Canadians who were American, and carried little flags.) and were just so cool all around."
"Q: Who would win a shoot-out between Bob Ryder and Jim Abbot? A: Jim Abbot, it takes Ryder 2 minutes to load. Thanks, I'll be here all week "
"Am I the only one who thinks that Kurt Angle is going to play Hulk Hogans part in this match at InVasion i.e. turn on the wwf and go to wecw as we all expect him too. "
"Does it seem that when Tajiri speaks in japanese,Regal always agrees to everything he says?Did William Regal ever take up a Foreign Language in High School or College by any chance?"
"Remember, when The Rick speaks, marks listen! I swear, his lack of insight and knowledge makes Sean Shannon seem like a Pulitzer winner by comparison."
"RVD-Hardy was a complete waste of my time. Spot, rest, spot, a contrived finish, and a bladejob that made Lex Luger look like that Mass Transit kid."
"Isn't Spike still the ECW Commissioner?"
"Paul is is probably making a steaming pile of s**t because he owes the WWF money. He is working off his debt."
"Well, I'm certainly happy that you're so easily aroused, do keep a box of tissues handy..."
"Too bad their 100th Smackdown isn't even sold out less than 24 hours before the show."
"i wont lie i marked big time for blassie ,it was a mediocre raw the jericho screw job was horrible, austin did a great sting impression every1 else did a corny nwo impression, vince better shock us at invasion"
"If your looking for something more positive WWF, then go directly to WWF.com. I, for one, will continue my "whining" in hopes wrestling will keep getting better."
(Hyatte's Note: The problem is... wrestling will NEVER "keep getting better" for most of you people.)
"Remember, people. Trolls are like stray animals: if you start feeding them, they're just going to keep coming back."
(Hyatte's Note: If you routinely post messages on one or several message boards on a regular basis.... you ARE A TROLL.... deal with it. Pretty much every person I see on all thse boards are "Trolls"!)
ANND.... we're done.
I'm going to BED.
This is Hyatte