bedsitter23

Last week, George RR Martin announced he was leaving LiveJournal which effectively turned the lights out. 

In the old days, i would post odd stories that i liked and people would read and comment on them.  Now, I still use LJ, but it is now ironically, exactly what it is called, a journal, for me by me but only read by me.

In any case, Glenn Jacobs is probably going to be a Mayor.  Jacobs won the Mayor of Knox County Republican primary.  Despite the presence of Knoxville College, it is not expected that the Democrat candidate to win in this district.

Not surprisingly, Jacobs is a very active local politician who campaigned prominently for Ron Paul.  Surprisingly, Jacobs day job is Kane from the WWE (and previously Issac Yankem DDS aka a Dentist named I Yankem Ho ho ho).



This guy

Also this guy



Which of course, blows my mind.  We have been told for two decades that his family is his brother The Undertaker.  Who the hell are these people?

Wrestling changed in the 80s as you might know, and Kane (and Taker) are the last of the Cartoon characters of the 80ss (like Hillbilly Jim, Brutus the Barber and JunkYard Dog) as wrestling transitioned to "real" people like Steve Austin and Bill Goldberg.

I suppose in the world of Donald Trump, nothing disqualifies you from being a politician, but Kane as a character from the notorious WWE attitude era has a resume that might make Stormy Daniels blush:

-Attempted to electrocute Shane McMahon
-Tried to set Jim Ross on fire
-Kidnapped Lita, impregnated her and then forcibly married her
-Assaulted Pete Rose three times
-Buried his brother alive
-Possibly burned his childhood home down with his family in it

I am undoubtedly leaving out plenty of attacks that were unprovoked, but I just want to get to the Katie Vick thing.  Katie Vick is always on the short list of the worst wrestling angles ever.  It was the nadir of WWE Attitude, prior to Linda McMahon's political career, and Vince was trying to get away with as much Howard Stern-style shock that he could get passed the Network.

You can obviously google it, but the punchline is necrophilia. 

So, that Russian election meddling doesn't seem like a big deal now, does it?

Jacobs won by 23 votes (17 before a recount).

Of course. the Ultimate Warrior's death has led to conspiracy theories.  Largely because he made his first appearance on Monday night Raw for the first time in 16 years this week.  Apparently, he flashed Illuminati signs if you know where to look.

The Warrior death led to Nancy Grace taking the most sensationalistic approach possible.  She had Diamond Dallas Page on this week, and though DDP did say everyone used back in the day, that the industry has cleaned up and we know more about steroids than we did 20 and 30 years ago.  Grace also claimed that Owen Hart died of a steroid overdose.

Wrestlers have been angry at Grace all week, and Zeb Colter had the best tweet of all


- - -
Wrestlemania culminate with Daniel Bryan winning the WWE belt.  Bryan is huge with wrestling fans in a way I never expected.

CM Punk did well in recent years and is cut from much the same mold Bryan is- came from Ring of Honor, really into the fans, lives a clean life style, really has put in time to learn the craft, and is an average looking guy.

I never expected Bryan to get as huge as he has.  He's clearly the biggest star (in many ways) since the Attitude era; yet, I don't think that has crossover into mainstream appeal.

Bryan's angle is with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon (for pro wrestling purposes- the COO and Owner of the Company).  It is an angle that the WWE has used quite often- but it's the rebel vs the corporation.

Most famously, that was the angle used to make Stone Cold Steve Austin huge.  I think Austin beats Bryan for charisma, and he was one of my favorite all-time wrestlers, but that angle didn't sit right with me.

I know people loved to see Austin tell his boss off or drop him into a Stunner, but if any of us did that ,we would be fired immediately.

The Bryan/HHH angle rings true.  So true to the point of wondering how real it is.  The idea is that the WWE think Bryan is too small to be champion (at 210 pounds, he's smaller than 90% of the roster) and that champions should be muscle bound men like Batista and Randy Orton.  Those are the types of people Triple-H want to see as face of the company.

I really like the angle, and we inevitably got the pay-off, though it felt like we never would.  I do like Bryan (don't get me wrong) and I like him a lot, but I never expected him to be embraced like he has. Crowds go crazy when he is in the ring.

Also, I really liked the way he was awarded his match against triple H.  Of course, as COO, Triple H would never have to put him in a match (kayfabe) but something akin to the Occupy! movement happened with Bryan taking over Raw.


- - -

At Wrestlemania, one of the industries biggest talents John Cena faced Bray Wyatt.

In the last five years, any new WWE talent first has to come through their developmental program NXT.

Some stuff sticks and a lot doesn't (last Monday, Raw introduced a new guy with a Russel Brand-type gimmick. Hmmm...)

Outside of Bryan (who already had a fanbase from Ring of Honor), Wyatt has to be the most successful of these new wrestlers.

He is also one of the most unlikely.  He does have a wrestling pedigree.  He is Mike "IRS" Rotundo's son and related by marriage to the Windham/Mulligan family.  However, he is not the typical wrestler bodytype, to the point that his original name was Huskey Harris.

Like Bryan, Wyatt s one thing the WWE has going that is right.  He's a heel, but I think inevitably he will get too popular.

It's hard to do a scary character in 2014 a la classics like The Undertaker or Kane, but Wyatt nails it.  He is part Charles Manson and part Swamp People or True Blood.

He may have a long career in front of him a la Kevin Sullivan.  Some people just have the talent, and this guy looked like Chum Lee from Pawn Stars and now is one of the most interesting characters in the sport.



- - -

Not much else to cover, except the New Age Outlaws wrestled in a match in Wrestlemania... in 2014.  WM30 started with the sport's three biggest stars- Hulk Hogan, the Rock, and Stone Cold Steve Austin.  Hogan was brought back home to the WWE as his role with competitor TNA never managed to pan out in the form of ratings.

Hogan started the night by calling the Superdome "the Silverdome" which ultimately made him look as old as he really was.  The Rock meanwhile is as good on the mic as anyone who ever set foot in the ring, explaining how there are millions of "Rock babies" from over the years, born 9 months after a Wrestlemania featuring the"People's Champ"

Wondering how the 49ers beat the Packers by one score on Sunday?

Probably because they brought in the Nature Boy to inspire the team.


No, really.

Flair apparently flew from Orlando to Green Bay to share his love of the team and its legends Joe Montana and Jerry Rice.  No doubt, the guy can cut a promo.

But the Niners.

Why San Francisco?  That was my first thought.

He must really hate Kevin Greene.  (Greene is the Packers linebacker coach, and faced Flair in the ring in WCW some 20 years ago.)

But Flair has been synonymous with Charlotte for four decades and the 9ers next opponent are the Carolina Panthers.

What?

That's right.

Heel turn!

It's Vintage Flair.  The Dirtiest Player in the Game.

Flair apparently has flip-flopped from supporting his hometown Panthers to the 49ers.

It began earlier this week when a video of the Panthers using Flair's famous "WOOOOOOO" chant in the locker room following a 21-20 victory over Atlanta made its way onto the internet.

Quarterback Cam Newton even tossed in a "and The Nature Boy'' shout at the end.

After talking to cornerback Drayton Florence, who brought the chant to the team, I discovered Florence was trying to get Flair to come to the stadium before this week's game to give a motivational speech.

I also discovered Florence, cornerback Captain Munnerlyn and safety Mike Mitchell filmed a "WOOOOOOO'' video to put on the stadium Jumbotron to fire up the fans.

Here's what Flair said after learning of all this.

"I'm humbled to have achieved that much respect by my hometown team," he said. "I really believe the Panthers have the weapons to go all the way."

Wait. There's more. On Nov. 18, before the Panthers played New England on Monday night, Flair sent this phone message to the team:

"Hey boys, it's The Nature Boy Ric Flair calling you live from Atlanta, Ga.," he said. "Tonight's the night guys. The New England Patriots are in town. Who cares? It's Carolina Panther time guys.

"Cam Newton, athletic gifts unparalleled. Steve Smith, the baddest man in the NFL. My good buddy Mario, you guys do it tonight. Remember, to be the team, you've got to beat the team. And right now you are the team, and will be all night long."

Now fast-forward to Saturday night at the 49ers' hotel in Green Bay. Flair appeared wearing dark sunglasses and to the music of "2001: A Space Odyssey."

He told the players somebody from the organization contacted the WWE and asked that he show up to give a motivational speech. He said he "couldn't be more honored'' to be among them.

He cracked jokes about them coming to Charlotte this week before they beat Green Bay 23-20.

"That's my hometown,'' he chuckled. "Cam ain't going to like that, either."

He also referenced that the Panthers were "lucky" to beat the 49ers 10-9 earlier this season in San Francisco, and admitted "I didn't know the guys beat you this year."

Then he called the 49ers "Ric Flair's team."

"Ric Flair's heart is with the 49ers, all the way to the end,'' said Flair, who was born in Memphis, Tenn., and became a resident of Charlotte in 1974. "Sleep on that tonight, brothers.''

Then there was a "WOOOOOOO."

Then there was a strut.

Sting surely feels their pain/

The Arizona Diamondbacks major leagur team released their new mascot this month- the Luchador.



Yeah.

Luchador has been tied in with D-backs promotions since last year (like lucha libre mask giveaways).  This create a lot of buzz on sports blogs such as is this move racist?  and can he wrestle or at least do a backflip?

I am all about Pro Wresting, though he does seem so serious in a fraternity that includes the Philly Fanatic and the San Diego Chicken.

I probably should make some mention of Ray Manzarek's passing.  Cliche as it is, I think the Doors were amazing.

It was last month, CBS Sunday morning had on John Densmore and although it is hardly news, hearing Densmore talk about Jim Morrison's anti-commericalism bent and the band's democracy (every member has a veto, which sounds great, but can be problematic when you want to sell a song to Budweiser for loads of money or you want to tour with Ian Astbury and call yourself The Doors).

Manzarek besides being a great keyboardist and a great writer ( I always heard it was Manzarek's jazz riff that propelled the Doors biggest hit "Light My Fire") also produced X's first 4 albums (which are brilliant0 and produced or performed with Echo & the Bunnymen, Iggy Pop, and Philip Glass.

Still, for the day's news, I am going to go with the story of WWE's Kane that is going around that he is going to run against Lamar Alexander for Lamar's Senate seat.  Kane is a noted Libertarian and would (I guess there's a word for this now) "primary" Lamar running as an alternative to the former governor.

That Kane



Which is less ridiculous than it sounds.  Kane has been a vocal Ron Paul supporter for going on a decade.
 
He's made a recent attempt to debate Tennessee's Lt Governor over tax policy on internet sales.

Alexander meanwhile has been an easy target for fiscal conservatives, scoring 68% from the Club of Growth, and supporting (unpopular with Tea Party groups) issues like the Wall Street Bailout and expanding medicare.

Kane meanwhile burned down his childhood home and killed his parents, chased after wrestling superstar Lita, impregnating her and causing her to misscarriage, killed another girlfriend in a car accident, chokeslammed Pete Rose on countless occasions.and caused a lot of dental pain as Isaac Yankem DDS.

Sadly, Bleacher Report concludes the rumor is just that, and that Kane does not intend to run, which is a shame, because that would have been awesome.

That said, he did say he's not running "at this time", which gives some hope we still could see the Big Red Machine and the Red Plaid Governor.

You can't be really blamed for what you liked age 11, right?

The two most important important things in my life in 1985 were music and wrestling (politics and comic strips were close third and fourth). See. Nothing changes. I have always been here before.

1985 was a perfect moment for this as Hulkamania had broken through and the WWF was a big thing, and the obvious next step was the Wrestling Album, which I loved.

it's hard not to love the big single "Land of 1000 dances", which you shouldn't make fun of. It has a former Governor (Ventura, of course), a billionaire (Vince), a man with over a quarter million twitter followers (Iron Sheik), and uhhh.. Meat Loaf.

411mania did an article on the brilliance that includes Roddy Piper's end-of-song rant, the genius of Freddie Blassie, Nikolai Volkoff's Soviet National Anthem gimmick, and the fact that heroes and villains were separated.

It's obviously a gimmick album, but it has a lot more talent behind it than you think.

Rick Derringer (of "Rock N roll Hoochie Koo" fame) produced, played bass, guitar, and keys. I get the feeling that Derringer pretty much would do anything for money in the 1980s.

Cyndi Lauper (who was appearing at Wrestlemania) produced and sang.

Jim Steinman wrote "Hulk Hogan's theme" (not to be confused with "Real American" which Hogan ended up using. it's a bombastic anthem that sounds like Jim Steinman wrote it.

Vicki Sue Robinson ("Turn the Beat Around") sang backing vocals and Roy Bittan (E-Street Band) played keyboards.

The WWF also had a bonafide rock artist Jimmy Hart (vocalist for The Gentrys best known for "Keep on Dancin") who played a major role as producer and writer, and mostly stuck to songs that were old rock standards like '1000 Dances". 'Cara Mia' and 'Tutti Frutti"

I stuck around 2 years later (age 13, this time0 for the second wrestling alum which this time brought in soft rock hero Robbie duPree ("Steal Away"), took itself a bit more seriously, and of course, featured a cover of "...Hoochie Koo".

That was the end of the WWF/WWE soundtracks for me, but they have had a very successful run over the years. the third album (1993) was overlooked by British pop overlords Stock Aitken Waterman 9minus Aitken) with executive producer Simon Cowell (The album reached #10 on the UK charts and had two Top 15 hits in the UK). Album #4 (1996) went in the direction of heavy metal and features a band consisting of members of bands like Type o Negative, Overkill, Anthrax (Scott Ian), Pro pain, and Savatage.

Since then the WWE has consistently released compilations of wrestling themes which seem to sell well, and occasionally someone like Motorhead, Insane Clown Posse, Run DMC, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, or Three Six mafia show up.

Still in nearly 30 years, maybe none more fun than the one that started it.

So, when we last met, Vince McMahon was challenging Glenn Beck to appear on Monday Night Raw. If Beck wanted to make a point about wrestling then what better opportunity.

Glenn said he was doing "anything else". So, Vince thought why make Glenn go to the Dallas Arena and get in front of thousands of fans, when the WWE could come to Glenn and offer a nice one-on-one with someone who used to work for CBS News.

Hilarity ensues.



Now, I am not entirely convinced that this type of ambush journalism has worked since the golden days of Mike Wallace and Roger and Me.

Still, point made.  Glenn Beck is a loudmouth, but like internet chat trolls, he wouldn't actually say anything to someone's face.

That said, Vince McMahon likely only had two goals

1.  Keep this story in the media
2.  Annoy Glenn Beck

I think that you can say he had great success with both.

Vince is the guy who sent D-Generation X on a tank to drive around the headquarters of his biggest competitor WCW back in the day, and he's milked that footage for years.  It surely wasn't the thing that took WCW from the #1 wrestling promotion in the world to the point where Vince was buying it for pennies on the dollar, but it did correspond with that timeline, and proves if you work up Vince, he's going to keep on going.




It's hard to imagine how much more the WWE can get out of the story.  Limbaugh probably will never bite, and after Beck, the names get more and more obscure (I barely know who Alex Jones is, and I follow this stuff). 

I was making a mental list of tea-party/libertarian commentators on tv, and when you get to the next tier down, I thought of one person the WWE will probably never touch - John Stossel. 

Stossel was a 20/20 journalist who made some waves with some books and a Fox TV show in the last couple of years.  He's probably peaked, but still relevant.  Stossel was the guy that "Dr D" David Schultz hit in the head (Youtube it!) because Stossel was trying to "out" pro wrestling as being fake.  Stossel sued the WWE and won nearly half a million dollars, Schultz claimed Vince McMahon told him to do it, and Schultz's career was essentially over at the point.

30 years later, the WWE is making fun of Beck for thinking Pro Wrestling isn't  fake, and Stossel has an audience who listen to his political views, which prominently include "There are too many frivolous lawsuits".

Lastly, no update on the Vince/Beck war is complete without some mention of the Iron Sheik's tweets about Beck.

If you are not already aware, the Iron Sheik (circa 2013) is a frequent guest on the Howard Stern show, and if you grew up with stern's Wack Pack in the 90s (Underdog Lady, Beetlejuice, John the Stutterer, etc), you can guess why.  Sheik's tirades are random, profanity-filled, and funny (but not in that way).

A typical tweet out of the barrage of Sheik's insults is:


So, there's that.

As I said yesterday, the WWE's racist character Zeb Colter is hot.

The WWE launches dozens of characters in a year, and most won't take.  I am not sure that Zeb would have (although it did have the talent of Dutch Mantell behind it). 

It would never have reached the big names, but the WWE just needed one person to take the bait, and Alex Jones of Infowars stepped up.

Knowing that Vince McMahon is the man who turned Sgt Slaughter into an Iraqi sympathizer and tag team partners Billy &Chuck into a gay couple, maybe you shouldn't encourage him.

Yesterday, Zeb's notoriety was enough to get him on Keith Olbermann's radar.

Yesterday Fox blamed liberals for wrestling character called "Tea Party." WWE is family property of failed CT Senate candidate Linda McMahon

Keith's tweet is slightly wrong.  Vince is a bit more subtle than calling the character "Tea party".

It was a good day for wrestler Jack Swagger.  Swagger is a talented amateur wrestler who has an unfortunate lisp.  Teaming him with Zeb/Dutch was brilliant.  He had started his wrestling career as a can't-miss pick to be a main eventer, but instead in recent months, relegated to losing matches against the WWE's resident leprechaun. 

Swagger had the best Tuesday one could have.

And the worst.


At the high point of his career thus far, Swagger was arrested on a DUI and possession of marijuana.

So what's next?

One assumes Zeb will end up ditching Swagger for someone else, who will then take the momentum and push that goes with it.

Still, if you know the WWE, their Wellness Policy goes relatively easy on pot; with a real stress and emphasis against painkillers.  A suspension might not be the obvious answer.

In fact, with this such a hot angle, things may work out to Swagger's favor.

Pro Wrestling's most well-known insider Dave Meltzer suggests that the plan is to work this into the storyline with Swagger's on-screen story that it was the WWE shareholders that are framing him to shut him up.

BRILLIANT!

Most of those who followed Wrestling in the 80s remember Virgil- the personal assistant oft he Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase.

Virgil, like so  many wrestlers makes the rounds of comic conventions, sports memorabilia shows and the like.  Unfortunately, for Virgil, he was someone on the periphery of the big time.

That is why a couple of years ago when this picture was making the rounds on then internets, I felt compelled to post it.



Come 2012, there are entire websites dedicated to the idea of the Lonely Virgil - pictures of Virgil selling his autograph and wares with no one interested in them.

The new interest in Lonely Virgil probably buoyed by this picture advertising Virgil (and a misspelled Ted "DiBaise" who is nowhere to be found), that started making the rounds last month.



Deadspin (sorta the sports version of TMZ) did an article on the Lonely Virgil phenomena.

it would be one thing if Virgil was just an ex-wrestler who no one cared about; but stories reveal him as a desperate, pathetic egomaniac.

The stories at deadspin of readers' encounters with Virgil is some of the funniest reading and some of the saddest content I have read in months.  It reveals the Virgil phenomenon as the kind of trainwreck that you feel obliged to watch, but at the same time, like a trainwreck, best to avoid altogether.

i post this, because I think some of you will really get a kick out of the sad, funny, and true Run-ins with Virgil.

Although the readership of this blog has skewed heavily male, I would like to wish all the Mothers a Happy Mothers' Day.

My suggestion to the men is to not take the suggestions given by Yahoo to buy stuff from WWE.com.

Yahoo Sports generally is a well-respected sports news-source (truly it is, though I doubt that means ll that much in the company's future) and as always your situation and circumstances may vary.

Meanwhile, I would still probably think twice before ordering this: