Stumbled on to this on You Tube. This is about 94 and the promotion is ICW. The tag match features Hector Hatchet and the Sewer Dweller(Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope- ICP), they wear no make up. Oh and the striking gentleman on the mike is ring announcer JJ Ford. What a handsome devil.
It is interesting that now that Brock Lesnar has the championship belts, there is almost no mention on Raw of anyone contending for the championship. It seems like WWE messed up by giving their title belts to someone who is such an infrequent performer.
RAW is nearly unwatchable for me right now. I DVR it and am usually done in 5-10 minutes. The only hope is some past stars return for WrestleMania season.
But its pretty sad when we have to look to past stars though.theres not much on the current roster except for ambrose and rollins as far as new stars go
Yes. Poor development. No reason Cesaro, Wyatt or even Ziggler could be at the top of the roster right now but everything revolves around protecting Cena.
I liked the Wyatt family.then they went and broke them up.i like ziggler to,i just hate his name lol.They seemed like they were going somewhere with cesaro,then nothing. I am so damn tired of cena vs orton
I will defend putting the title on Brock. Jim Ross has compared this to the traveling NWA champion during the territory days and I think he is correct in that. Even during the WWF's 1980's heyday, you almost never saw the WWF world champ on TV unless it was a promo hyping the next PPV or on Saturday Night Main Event. What does piss me off about the current product is why aren't the mid-card title holders protected like the main eventers? What did the 80's boom and the Monday Night Wars both have in common? A strong and protected mid-card. Especially in the 80's. I shake my head now when I see the IC champ or the U.S. champ booked to lose in jon-title matches. Constantly.
RIP Ox Baker http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ox-baker-dead-pro-wrestler-742246 He was great in "Escape From New York". And probably had the best look of any heel in wrestling.
Kamala The Ugandan Giant(James Harris) is in sad shape. The ninth grade drop out(who was not an athlete), was overweight, ate poorly, and ignored medical advice on his diabetes with the result of his losing both legs. His last match in the WWE was against Umaga during the latters monster push. The article is a good read(did you know that Jerry Lawler created Kamala and his signature face paint?) http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...egend-to-double-amputee-kamala-keeps-fighting
I've been meaning to port this story over from an earlier Hulk Hogan music thread. ------------------------------------------------------------- I was the ring announcer for the Insane Wrestling Federation. Chris Hero, Bryan Danielson, and Colt Cabana were in a three way dance to crown the IWF champion. I was really looking forward to watching the match since I had never seen Danielson work. I had heard tons of good stuff about him. Met him backstage to get his intro and he was very nice and worked with me(not everyone I worked with "nice") The semi main event was Sabu Vs Corporal Robinson. Typical hardcore match involving weapons and a couple tables. One table was just plain shattered. Sabu won. The referee and I were picking up chunks of wood and screws off the mat right up til the ring introductions. Didn't want these guys getting unintentionally wounded in our ring. Out first was Chris Hero. I have worked with Chris a couple of times, In fact he was my son's favorite wrestler and wore his T shirt to school(impressing a couple of people he did not hang with). I gave him his big intro and he hit the ring and ran up on the turnbuckles. I was center ring and saw a shard of wood we missed stuck in the seam. I bent over to pick it off the canvas and BAM!!!!!!! Chris had done a blind back flip off the top turnbuckle and landed one boot with a direct hit to the back of my head. I was out cold at that point. The boot slammed my head into the mat and I snapped back flat on my back. I was only out for a few seconds I guess, and my first memory after was why was there cool air on my face. I had sussed out what happened when one of the guys got into the ring to check on me as I was not moving. "JJ are you OK!? I said out the side of my mouth "I'm selling. Get me the hell out of here". I had to remind these guys what kayfabe MEANS. I am a ring announcer. I CANNOT get up from a shot like that. I had to be carried out for two reasons, one to keep the show moving, and most importantly to push these wrestlers ability to take the kind of blow that ended my night. When they put me down backstage I was Pissed. Not at Chris. Not at anyone. I was pissed because I couldn't watch the match and be in the title awarding. One of the guys was impressed enough to tell me I was well trained. Colt Cabana won our title, but only defended once before he signed with the WWE and we looked for a new champ. Such is life in the indies. I certainly had a concussion. I got over it. I kept my eyes on Hero from then on though.
CM Punk breaks his silence on the new episode of Colt Cobana's Art of Wrestling. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast...odeGuid=http://tsmradio.com/coltcabana/?p=714
I started watching wrestling in 1975, on Detroit's channel 62. The promotion was affiliated with the N.W.A. The local champion was The Sheik. Many great wrestlers came through the area, such as Dusty Rhodes, Abdullah the Butcher, Terry and Dory Funk, Gino Hernandez, Andre the Giant, Ox Baker, Mark Lewin, Dick the Bruiser, Bruno Sammartino, Superstar Billy Graham, Nelson Royal and many others. There were also great wrestlers that stuck around for long periods such as Bulldog Don Kent, Captain Ed George, Luis Martinez, John Boy Ruffin, Bobo Brazil, and of course The Sheik. To Detroit wrestling fans in the 70s, The Sheik was evil incarnate, and they wanted to see him lose but he seldom if ever did.
You know, I did not find that out until just this year! But now I can see the family resemblence and I wonder how I didn't see it then. Ed George was always a good guy, and I don't recall him being involved much with The Sheik and his feuds, and they just seemed worlds apart.
I wish I had seen that. That does sound familiar in that I think I read about it, but that slipped by me when it happened. I recall a brief period in the late 70s, when Sheik started feuding with Stan "The Man" Stasiak and a couple of Stasiak's heel buddies, and Sheik started getting some cheers. Captain Ed George was such a "normal" guy, unlike The Sheik. His interviews were usually calm and he came across as a decent human being, but still a guy not to be messed with! (I recall one time Ed George and Bulldog Don Kent got into a brutal brawl outside the ring during one of their interviews on TV.) The Sheik spoke in his own language or remained silent, and was absolutely freaking crazy. The fans were terrified of him for good reason!
Really sad what has happened to him. I wish him luck. I watched the video and they didn't even mention before going to WWF he was a big draw with Mid-South. Those are the days I miss! He, Hacksaw Duggan, DiBiase, JYD, Terry Taylor, Freebirds, Rock And Roll Express, Skandor Akbar, Jim Cornette, just to name a few. The Superdome big cards were enjoyable. Just as much fun out the ring as in.
http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/welovecolt/art-of-wrestling/e/aow-226-cm-punk-36106222?autoplay=true Former WWE star C.M. Punk says he is never returning to WWE, there is no working relationship with WWE following a legal settlement, his health was in jeopardy at the end of his WWE run, and the last straw for him was being fired on his wedding day. For the first time since leaving WWE after the Royal Rumble in January, Punk gave his account of what led to his decision to leave WWE, what happened after the Rumble, and why he will never return to WWE in a two-hour interview with his close friend Colt Cabana on Cabana's "Art of Wrestling" podcast released HERE on Thanksgiving Thursday. (In a piece of interesting timing, Cabana noted at the top that this week's podcast was sponsored by 2K Sports's "WWE 2K15" video game.) Punk's story starts at the famous Money in the Bank 2011 PPV in Chicago when "I talked myself into giving it the old college try" returning to WWE when his contract expired. Punk noted he was miserable at the time, but decided to continue pushing forward with the mindset that he could create change, he was going to be a locker room leader, and he was going to main-event WrestleMania. Punk detailed events leading up to MITB 2011 - such as the Nexus Invasion angle sprung on him right after he had multiple surgeries - and all of the major events from July 2011 to the 2014 Royal Rumble that built like a fire ready to explode until the final meeting with Vince McMahon and Triple H at Raw following the Rumble. Punk noted that at the time of the Rumble, he was severely injured, recently concussed, and had an unidentified swollen mass on his back - that turned out to be staph infection - that he was concerned about. At the Rumble, Punk suffered another concussion, prompting WWE to run an angle where Kane eliminated him from the Rumble despite Punk sending a message that he would quit if Kane even touched him because he wanted to finish the match. (It was nothing against Kane (Glenn Jacobs), he just happened to be the person called down to eliminate him.) In-between the Rumble and Raw, Punk said he asked himself, "What am I doing with my life?" as he looked at his future wife, A.J. Lee, in bed next to him. "It was a big moment of clarity," Punk said after realizing that he was self-destructing after buying into the "Harley Race" mentality that a top star keeps pushing through no matter how he feels. Punk recalled going to Raw TV, where WWE wanted him to take a concussion test, and he had enough. This was because Punk called WWE's test "bulls---" the previous year after being concussed. He was also concerned about the mass on his back and the effect of multiple injuries on his health. "I'm f------ sick. Help me," he shouted at management. WWE also wanted Punk to pee in a cup for a drug test, which set off Punk because he felt like the Wellness Policy was amended to allow wrestlers with two strikes to "work off a strike" in order to avoid termination. As for the actual Raw TV, Punk said WWE kept changing what he was going to be doing on the show. This captured one of the big themes of the interview that WWE continually changed plans on him from MITB 2011 to this point at the Rumble; he felt like Vince McMahon had no long-term plans for wrestlers other than John Cena. All of this came to a head, leading to Punk pulling aside Vince McMahon and Triple H for a meeting that led to his exit from WWE. Punk recalled to Cabana the Final Meeting at the post-Rumble Raw: "I looked Vince in the eye and I said, 'I do not love this anymore. I'm f----- sick, I'm f------ hurt, I'm f------ confused, I don't know as a business what we're doing anymore. Every day you tell me it's a team effort, but every day it's an individual effort by me to find what's necessary to even f-n come here. It's not fun. I have zero passion for this. I'm concussed, I'm hurt, and alls you care about is what segment I'm in and how soon I can get my gear on and how soon I can pee in this cup and I don't want to do it anymore.' "I mentioned something about the piss test and Hunter said, 'Well, you know, Dave (Batista) just took the same piss test you did.' And I just looked at Hunter and went, 'Well, did you?' And he had nothing to say. I said (to McMahon), 'Look, I thought when I re-signed three years ago I told you if I couldn't be all that I said I could be, you could f----- fire me. And, if I was a fraud and anything less and fell short of the f------ mark - I said, 'I sold more shirts than John Cena until I turned heel for you. You said you owed me one. I worked guys that were dangerous and you said you owed me one. I did all these things and alls I wanted was the main event of WrestleMania. And it's fine if you don't think that is me and I'm not the caliber of that Superstar, but then you need to f------ fire me. Because I do not want to be here and I do not want to be anything else.' And then I will go somewhere else and get over because I can. "You have shackled me, you have creatively stifled me, you have made this a very toxic environment, I no longer want to be here. It boggles my mind how Daniel Bryan has not figured into your plans to be in the main event of WrestleMania because this is his year. Just like two years ago when it was my year and I was white f----- hot, just like he is now, and what did you do? You fed me to this guy.' And I pointed to right at Hunter. Vince was like, 'This is the concussion talking. I can't believe you're saying any of this. It is a main event - you're wrestling Triple H." "I politely turned to Hunter and I said, 'With all due respect, I do not need to wrestle you. You need to wrestle me. I do not want to wrestle you. I seriously resent you for not putting me over three years ago when you should have. That would have been best for business. But, you had to come in and squash it. And then I had to lose to Truth and Miz. It didn't make any business sense and now I'm in the position where I can tell you I don't have to nor do I want to wrestle you at WrestleMania. I don't care if I was supposed to win - which I was - I didn't want to give him the f------ privilege. "I said a lot of s--- in there. I told them again - and Hunter was gritting his teeth, and he never liked me. Me and him in a room together - it was always negative vibes." Punk recalled Hunter saying that Punk was in a WrestleMania "main event" last year, but Punk said there is only one main event, no matter how WWE tries to market it to the public. "Hunter told me I was in the main event because I wrestled The Undertaker," Punk continued. "I turned to him and said, 'Tell me I got paid the same amount of money as you, Brock, Cena, Rock, or whoever.' And once again, he had nothing to say. I was like, 'I'm out of here.' Vince, with tears in his eyes, went in for a hug, and it was like a reluctant patting on the back, then I looked at Hunter and he stuck his hand out and I shook his hand. I said, 'Goodbye,' and I walked out." Punk noted he did not officially quit when he walked out, which factored into "when the story got really good." First, Vince McMahon texted him one week later asking if he was ready to return, which was a sign of McMahon not getting the message. Punk then recalled visiting a doctor recommended by A.J. Lee. The doctor determined the mass on his back was "a full-blown staph infection." Punk said the doctor cut it, squeezed the puss out, patched it up, and gave him three months of antibiotics. Asked why antibiotics given to him by WWE's doctors did not work, Punk recalled the doctor saying that staph requires a different type of antibiotic to kill the infection. (WWE's doctors refused to identity what was on Punk's back, according to Punk.) When Punk told the doctor that he wrestled with the mass on his back for three months, Punk said the doctor told him: "You should be dead. You could have died." Punk then noted McMahon contacted him to tell him he's suspended for two months, which would have been until the day after WrestleMania. Then, once the two months came up, no one contacted him from WWE's office, but McMahon said on an investor conference call that Punk was "on a sabbatical." Then, the royalty checks stopped coming. The royalty checks became a big part of the "final straw," as Punk recalled finding a royalty check from last year that he forgot to cash. This led to a back-and-forth with WWE's talent relations and legal department on getting last year's check re-issued and royalty checks for 2014. But, no one would return his phone calls, he said. After it appeared both sides were going to have a stalemate until his contract expired, Punk recalled getting a text from Triple H on June 11 - two days before his wedding with A.J. Punk said he told Hunter his situation - he was getting married, he was going on his honeymoon, and they could talk out the situation when he returned home from the honeymoon. Then, on the day of his wedding, Punk said he received a FedEx with termination papers. "I was fired on my wedding day," Punk said. Punk said that pushed him over the edge, especially clauses in the letter saying he forfeits all royalties and WWE claims a breach of contract retro-active to January. After that, Punk said he found a lawyer in Los Angeles who helped him contend WWE's claims and "get these motherf-------." Punk said he cannot talk about the terms of the settlement, but he "got everything I wanted and more." He added that WWE wanted a joint statement and non-disparagement clause, but Punk said he did not say a word about WWE after leaving the company; meanwhile, WWE called him a quitter in his hometown of Chicago, so he felt like WWE owed him and the fans in Chicago an apology. Punk added that WWE kept telling his lawyer that his client, Punk, was going to TNA, but his lawyer laughed off the notion, saying that Punk "absolutely despises pro wrestling" and he's "never going to wrestle again." Punk described WWE as "bullies" who want to feel like they've won something, so WWE has Punk merchandise on their Shop website because they already produced the merchandise that Punk is allowing them to sell as part of the settlement. "There is no working relationship, and there never will be ever again. That wedding day thing was pretty ridiculous," Punk said. Punk also claimed that WWE was "terrified" of him taking the company to court over the independent contract status for wrestlers and "ruining the way they do business." Punk added, "I would like to see them get some sort of union for the boys and girls, that way I know they're serious about protecting them from concussions and other things. There should be something like that in place, but there's not... I don't like it, and I don't have to like it. I'm out and I'm focused on s--- that makes me happy." There is also the factor of PPV pay-offs in the Network era, which Punk recalled no one else seemed to be asking about because no one wanted to rock the boat. In fact, Punk said Randy Orton came to him asking what he heard about pay-offs since Orton was one of the only other people to speak up about the issue. Punk recalled McMahon laughing off the topic when he brought it up, with McMahon telling him that they would figure out pay-offs once the Network kicked off. "WWE doesn't do anything to protect the wrestler; they do things to protect themselves," Punk opined. Punk took credit for the idea of The Shield in the two-hour interview. However, Punk says the idea was for a trio of Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Chris Hero (Kassius Ohno in WWE Developmental). Instead, Punk says Triple H shot down Hero, who was replaced by "their guy," Roman Reigns. Punk was frustrated with management at the time, but decided it was not going to be his hill to die on pushing for Hero. Punk said he understood that WWE had big plans for Reigns and he figured it was a chance for Reigns to learn and grow working with Rollins and Ambrose. Punk also noted that the original storyline idea was for The Shield to be paired with him as his protectors. However, that also did not materialize. Punk noted this was part of his frustration with the creative direction of WWE, as he wanted to face The Rock and John Cena in a three-way match if the plan was for him to drop the title. Instead, he dropped the title to The Rock at the 2013 Royal Rumble, then WWE booked Cena vs. Rock on-one to complete the story of their feud. Punk was shifted to a match with The Undertaker, but he noted he was left without anything for after Mania once Taker left. Punk noted that his idea gave him wrestlers to work with after Mania, as he would have shifted into a program with the Shield members after dropping the title. ------------------------------------ Wow
Wonder if Austin is gonna bring up all these Punk claims to Vince on the live podcast after next Monday's RAW?
Interesting comments and a ring of truth there, but a few of the comments are telling IMHO. He "walked out" but he did not "Officially quit" - huh? whhaaaaaat???? Very seldom does talent call the shots - throw out suggestions and ideas - sure. Letting the wrestlers control too much is one of the main reasons WCW fell apart. Like it or not Trips is the Son in Law and Vince OWNS the company. Guess who gets final say? Unequal payment for "main events"? Get in line. NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL - same thing. Go for a better contract. (yes, I realize that those are professional sports and wrestlers are entertainers - still believe in honoring your contract) The injury thing is very concerning. However, it seems like it was about the same time as Punk was complaining of not getting a sufficient push. Tough to push somebody that's injured and taking time off. I still hope that an Organization can develop that blends the best of WWF/WWE and WCW. WCW went to far into the Wrestlers running the story lines. WWE doesn't seem to have the long term welfare of it's wrestlers at the top of their list (yet look at the time off that Daniel Bryan just got, and he appears to be being brought back for a run at the top). Tough to know what really goes on, but there are two sides to every story. I would assume that Punk is done, and I don't blame him - but I really, really liked him. Great Heel, Great Face. Tough to do both. *EDIT* - oh, and if true, this sure seems like AJ Lee is in a very awkward position. I know I couldn't stand the thought of my wife working for such a terrible organization, and if my Spouse continued to work for them after all they put me through, I'd have some doubts.
Good grief, C.M. Punk may have legitimate beefs with WWE, but he also sounds like every employers worst nightmare. Not a team player, an egomaniac, full of himself, ingrate. The opposite of someone like Arn Anderson, who worked hard and did not complain no matter how adverse the conditions were.
I know enough guys who have worked for Vince that this all sounds right. I also know Punk, and he does not BS. If he has something to say, he says it. Not a subservient man in the least. Punk has always been a team player in that he looks out for the other guys, and will put over any angle put in front of him as long as it does not diminish him, his brand, or the next show. He was great to work with as an indy. As a wise man once said, "If you make more than 500 a night, your going to have more than 500 dollar problems". The staph infection thing just blows my mind, that ANY doctor would allow that to go on for months. As far as AJ goes, I think she is done. I think her contract is up shortly, and if anyone appears on TNA it might be AJ.
