Thanks to everyone who's offered their help with designing Dungeonofdeath.com -- I'm still 100% sure what I want the site to look like, but I'll get back to y'all when I do. If anyone sees any sites they think might look good as a template, let me know so I can stea...investigate them.
On with the mail!
Question #1!
Hey Scott,
Love the blog. I have a couple of questions for you.
Firstly, do you know what happened to your old buddy Rick Scaia and his onlineonslaught website?
Secondly a couple of weeks ago you were asked what your though the best year to be a professional wrestling fan was. My question is what do you think the worst years have been? I'd say 2002 and 2007 but you have followed the buisness for longer then I have and I'd be interested in your opinion.
No clue what happened to Rick and OO.com. The domain expired a couple of months ago and he kind of disappeared.
As for worst years, I could have sworn we covered this topic in one of those endless list threads a while back, but without a doubt 1993 was the year that nearly drove me away from wrestling entirely. The WWF was in the toilet and headlined by Yokozuna v. Tatanka as the big feud while Bret Hart feuded with Jerry Lawler, and of course we don't even need to go over all the things wrong with WCW. Thank god that SMW and other major indies at least developed talent to replace all the stiffs in the Big Two. It's hard to make blanket judgments about years past 2001 now because really it's just one promotion being judged against itself, although 2002 was pretty putrid with the Kane unmasking and Sheriff Austin and a general downswing for the WWE.
Question #2!
Hey Scott,
Hope you're doing well. I have a question for you that I'm reminded of every time someone mentions that HHH and Taker bury people. Now, I'm a HUGE Rock fan, to the point that he's in my top three favourite wrestlers with Bret and Foley, but I tend to think that Rock had a way of burying people as well with his awesome promos. I look at how Rock had a tendency to make fun of wrestlers in his promos like Big Show (that awesome groaning promo about the chokeslam), Booker T, Billy Gunn, Kane, Shamrock and Rikishi, which completely took away their heat and made them laughingstocks (some of them deserved it, of course).
That being said, I agree that Rock has also given back as he was the first top guy to put up and comers like Angle and Jericho over but I still think that sometimes his promos were just so good, they buried whoever they were targeting.
What do you think? And keep up the good work
I think that if someone's promos are so good that they're making others look bad, then it's on the shoulders of the targets to improve their promos and keep up, not for Rock to dumb it down so that the other sports entertainment superstars don't look like chumps. And lemme tell ya, sure Rock made some guys look dumb, but those that COULD hang with Rock were given the rub big-time. Look at Mick Foley, who verbally slugged it out with Rock night after night, and Rock was always happy to make himself look stupid in return to put Mick over. And even after he verbally buried guys like Kane and Big Show, Rock would go out and get chokeslammed through the ring (figuratively speaking) in order to make them seem like monsters. But really, if someone's so awesome that it's becoming a problem, you do whatever you need to build around THEM, not the guys getting buried. You can always find another 100 Billy Gunns on the indie circuit who work cheaper, but there's only one Rock or Steve Austin.
Question #3!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_Wrestling_Entertainment_alumni
I think this has great potential, but have already noticed a few inaccuracies (typical Wikipedia). I’m sure you have some longtime fans on your blog who can post more accurate info, and in turn spread the word about this page to others who can make it more accurate and…..well, I like accurate wrestling info.
So if you plug this and this page makes the rounds, it would make a handy resource with the proper updates from the IRC crowd.
And if it sweetens the pot, I own your last three books. Really.
How DARE you disparage Wikipedia. Of course, I'm still a bit bitter about having my entry deleted, but I'll get it over it.
Obsessedwithwrestling.com is another good site for info like that. I particularly like it for looking up masked wrestlers' identities.
Question #4!
Hey Scott,
Love the blog; book cover looks top notch as well. As you know, the
subject of your book this time around is much more specific than those
before. Was just wondering if and to what extent you've had contact with
members of the extended Hart family for this work? Or is that not the
direction you're trying to go with it? I figure any insights could add a
lot of great context and perspective, for the "Family Curse" side if not
the "Benoit" side. For what it's worth.
The Harts are pretty tough to get in touch with. I've heard Bruce doesn't like me or something, too. It wasn't really the direction I was going with it anyway -- it's more along the lines of Dave Meltzer's Tributes books as far as the tone goes, plus I talk about Bruce's booking style and how it was both crazy for the times and yet years ahead of its time.
For reference, this is the table of contents:
Introduction. 5
The Life of Chris Benoit 8
The Death of Chris Benoit 24
Stu Hart and Stampede Wrestling. 37
The British Bulldogs. 45
Brian Pillman. 68
Bret Hart 83
Owen Hart 107
The Von Erichs. 122
Death and Wrestling. 133
Chris Adams. 133
Brian Adams. 134
Mike Awesome. 135
Yokozuna. 136
Bam Bam Bigelow.. 139
Biff Wellington. 140
Chris Candido. 141
Bobby Duncum Jr. 142
Anthony "Pitbull #2" Durante. 143
The Public Enemy (Johnny Grunge & Rocco Rock) 143
Hercules Hernandez. 146
Terry "Bamm Bamm" Gordy. 146
Eddie Guerrero. 152
Russ Haas. 157
Road Warrior Hawk. 157
Curt Hennig. 167
Miss Elizabeth. 176
Crash Holly. 184
Louie Spicolli 185
Junkyard Dog. 187
Big Dick Dudley. 190
"Ravishing" Rick Rude. 190
Big Bossman. 195
Drugs and Wrestling. 207
Conclusion. 226
So really the Benoit and Hart Family stuff is more of a launching pad for me to talk about all the other deaths and tragedies in wrestling than the be-all and end-all of the book.
Question #5!
What's the deal on Mick Foley's Autobiography, reading it, Foley seems like a generally likeable, albeit insecure guy, who really didn't have heat with anyone except Ric Flair and Ole Anderson. Anyway, are there any stories which sort of contradict his wholesome nice guy thing, or is he truly the greatest feel good story in Pro-Wrestling.
I've never heard anyone say anything but nice things about the guy, and really his work and dedication speaks for itself. And having heat with Ole Anderson is called being normal so that's no big deal. I would agree that he's incredibly insecure at times, though, and I think it hurts his legacy in a lot of ways. No one ever accused Rock or Austin of having self-confidence issues, for example, and you'd never seem them putting themselves in the kind of bad positions that Foley has put himself into in the name of getting someone over.
Question #6!
On the subject of Wrestler biographies, are there any out there that were written by the wrestler, no ghost writer, like Foley's? Obviously The Rock's, Austin's and Kurt Angle's was, but what's the verdict on HBK's Jericho's and Bret Hart's?
Jericho's was definitely ghost-written because I was desperately trying to win the race to get the job and ended up finishing second. Bret's was done entirely by himself, taken from years of notes he took on the road, and you can definitely tell that by reading the book. Shawn's I have no idea, but I've heard that it has pacing issues and gets overly personal at times, so I'd guess it was mainly him.
Question #7!
This has always been a curiosity question of mine, but something I've always been curious of. People say to be a WWE writer you need to write sitcoms and such, is this true? Because when I read about "Whose in Charge" I hear Vince, Steph, HHH, and to a lesser (But welcome) extent, Shane. Just curious. Are there a good deal of non wrestlers writing wrestling story-lines?
In the same regard, recently the WWE stated they would be looking for life-long wrestling fans for wrestlers, instead of athletes first, wrestling fans second, as to avoid the Lashley, Lesnar effect. Would being a wrestling fan in touch with the internet crowd (who also has expierence writing sit-coms and a drama or two) be adventagous, or would it be something to keep under one's hat.
Pretty much the entire writing staff are non-wrestlers, in fact. Michael Hayes was in charge of Smackdown until the whole n-word fiasco, at which point my buddy Ed Koskey was given the reins last I heard. And RAW is of course run by Brian Gewirtz for the most part. No matter what the final word and ideas always come from Vince and to a lesser extent HHH these days, but other than that wrestlers on the booking meetings are the exception rather than the rule. And in some ways that's a huge part of the problem.
And being a wrestling fan is always something to keep under your hat if you want to get involved in any serious way. The disdain that many wrestlers have for fans, especially ones who "know too much", is kind of a sad holdover from the carny mentality, but it's a fact of the business.
Question #8!
Recently, you reviewed the "Legends of Wrestling: Worst Characters." But you never gave us your opinion on the subject.
So, barring the Gobbledy Gooker and Red Rooster (because I think everyone is in agreement no one is gonna top those two for worst characters) who is the worst character in wrestling history?
Also, what is the worst match ever? Plus, what is the worst angle/storyline ever?
Worst character in history: Depends on what you mean by "worst" I guess. I think overall Muhammad Hassan has to rank up there as a seriously pushed character because he was offensive on so many levels, and a terrible worker to boot. I mean you can name stupid Steve Lombardi gimmicks all day and night, because no one ever took him seriously anyway, but Hassan was a guy who was supposed to be a major player and World title contender. They even programmed him against friggin' HULK HOGAN, for god's sake.
Worst match ever: Easy one. Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff v. The Bushwackers from Heroes of Wrestling. Close second is the main event with Jake Roberts and his phallic snake, but at least that had comedy value.
Worst storyline ever: Katie Vick by a landslide as far as an angle that didn't help anyone get over and insulted the intelligence of everyone watching. For sheer stupidity, David Arquette winning the World title, but at least it produced one decent match at Slamboree 2000 and he donated his proceeds to charity.
And finally, Question #9!
I was browsing YouTube and found an awesome clip of Sting & Lex Luger attacking Ric Flair the night after Sting's heel turn and victory over Hogan for the World title at Fall Brawl. Here's the address:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71OtpbhMIJk
If you ask me, Sting & Luger played their roles perfectly, and I remember at the time being very interested to see where they were going with Sting as a heel, but it was aborted soon thereafter. What did you think, and can you think of any other memorable instances where a wrestler switched sides, but quickly reverted back to being a face or heel? Thanks.
- Shawn Michaels at the end of 1996, acting heelish and then getting cheered at Royal Rumble so strongly that they switched him back again.
- The Road Warriors are the best example, because they were turned heel in a memorable series of angles in 1988, nearly killing Sting and Dusty Rhodes to turn them into mega-heels, then slaughtering the Midnight Express to win the tag titles, doing everything short of killing puppies on live TV to draw heel heat, and STILL getting cheered by fans until they finally had to switch them back to faces.
- Chyna practically spent all of 1999 turning between face and heel, sometimes during the same show, but that hardly counts, I'd say.
I'm sure others have more examples, because it's happened quite a lot.
Tags: Stupid lists
Rick & OO are still around at this URL: http://www.oowrestling.com. From what I gathered Rick was occupied with real life, forgot to renew the domain, and the geniuses at Network Solutions weren’t able to prevent a spambot from picking it up despite the two parties yelling at each other for the better part of a couple of months. I’m not a regular over there, though, so maybe someone who is who reads Scott’s blog can do a better job explaining the situation than I did.
THANK YOU! Now I can catch up on all the RAW Satires I’ve been missing!
That’s essentially it. The major part being that the domain was registered with an email address he no longer had access to. Without a valid email address, they wouldn’t let him renew the domain, which is completely retarded.
Gotta disagree on worst match honors. I believe Jackie Gayda vs Linda Miles on RAW after Tough Enough 2 was about the biggest trainwreck I’ve seen.
Are you sure you’re not referring to the mixed tag with Trish Stratus, Chris Nowitski and JBL (I believe). That’s the one dubbed as “the Jackie Gayda match”.
And how in the blue fuck was 2002 a bad year? Besides the fact that every major promotion (save for ECW) was founded in 2002: the Raw Brand, the Smackdown! brand, NWA: TNA & ROH (plus we had MLW, too), We got awesome Jericho title defenses, historic matches like Rock/Hogan Brock/Hogan & Brock/Rock, Angle/Edge Hair vs. Hair, the Vengence 3way, a King of the Ring worthy of being called King, the Eddie/RVD feud, the Eddie/Edge noDQ match with the ladder, Angle vs. Edge the week after that, the 4way to determine who was to be the #1 contender at Armageddon, the GREATEST tag match ever (No Mercy), plus the Hell in a cell main event from that ppv, Eric Bischoff coming back, Eric Bischoff as the priest, the return of first ballot Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels, one last run for Hennig and Bossman, and the Smackdown 6 in their prime. I could go on and on. Hell… Cena, Lesnar, Batista & Orton all broke in the WWE in 2002, and all have gone on to Main Event at Wrestlemania (Orton, sort of).
Sure there was the NWO return (including Flair as a member), the seeds of the Al Wilson triangle, KATIE VICK (!!!), Billy & Chuck, Rikishi in drag (he is from San Francisco), and the Stone Cold situation, but even those added character. Of course, Rico going over Flair I could have gone without.
Now, those early 90’s years on the other hand were just BRUTAL in comparison!
And if you want to watch an AWFUL promotion, AWA 1988 is just absolutely stinking up the joint at midnight every night on ESPN classics. It’s crazy because the 1986 episodes were AWESOME (AWESOME~!!!). They had a roster full of Hall of Famers: Hall, Hennig, Zbyszko, Hansen, Brody, Vader, Slaughter, Bockwinkle, Snuka, the Midnight Rockers, Mike Rotunda, even guys like Col. DeBeers, Nord the Barbarian, Boris Zhukov and Greg Gange had noticable redeeming wrestling qualities. Playboy Buddy Rose & Doug Somers were THE SHIT as the top heel tag team that iritated the living shit out of the crowd. Now THAT was a great series of shows for it’s time.
The most noticible thing about AWA 1988 is that outside of Hennig (on his way out), Lawler (not really an “AWA” guy), and Badd Company (future JTTS The Orient Express), it’s a roster full of guys getting pushed that Vince McMahon would never touch: Ricky Rice, Teijho Kahn, Soldat Ustinov, Krusher Krugnoff, Von Raschke, Rocky Mountain Thunder, etc. There’s a reason those guys didn’t get swooped up by Vince, the way the 86 roster did. And it’s as if there’s only the 10-12 guys on the ‘88 roster. Thank God for Manny Fernandez squashes.
But yeah, 2002 was a damn fine year for some WRESTLING.
He meant 2003, as that was the year of Kane unmasking and “Sheriff Austin.” And HHH feuds vs. Steiner, Nash, and Goldberg (all of who were made to look like idiots.. sometimes on their own) being the main RAW feuds of the year. Smackdown was alright, but even there you had Brock/Big Show in a stretcher match main eventing a pay-per-view.
Vince did take Von Raschke in 1988- he managed the Powers of Pain as The Baron.
Good point. He was taking on Teijho & Ustinov on top for weeks, yet he couldn’t even last as a manager for a team that never did anything as a team or as singles in McMahon-land.
Wasn’t Austin out of the E for more than half of 2002? I think the sheriff stuff was in summer/fall 2003, after his last match w/the Rock @ WMXIX. 2003 was probably the worst year for wrestling.
Edge wrote his book all on his own, but, much like Kurt Angle, that book came out way too early in his career.
Wasn’t Edge’s book more then his career, but something of a philisophical way of living book?
Gotta disagree with your first commenter: 2007 was an awesome year for wrestling. It had the brilliant Taker/Batista feud, the less-brilliant-but-still-great MVP/Matt Hardy feud, great matches from HBK and Cena, the rise of Cena as the best worker in WWE, title reigns for Orton and Edge, the philosophical movement of ECW into a developmental show (which some of us see as a GOOD thing), and the rise of Santino Marella.
Two things that would have pushed 2007 over the top but were aborted were the McMahon limo story (which was just getting over before Benoit changed everything), and the McMahon son story (which was just getting over before Kennedy changed everything).
I loved 2007 in wrestling. I wish people could tone down being jaded just a bit and appreciate wrestling a little bit more from time to time. It’s not all bad.
“although 2002 was pretty putrid with the Kane unmasking and Sheriff Austin and a general downswing for the WWE. ”
That was in 2003 Scott.(which I agree is probably my least favorite year as a wrestling fan, with 1990 and 1995 close by)
Why didn’t you like the Bret/Lawler feud Scott? You liked the Summerslam match/angle.
There were a few bright spots in 1995. Whilst the booking in the WWF was bad, the matches were generally good, plus it was ECW’s best year and WCW was getting good again towards the end of the year.
Anyway, I assume Scott didn’t like Bret/Lawler because it was beneath Bret. Lawler has never meant anything to wrestling outside of Memphis, so Bret feuding with him just felt like a continuous on-going feud that lasted for years. Plus while Lawler’s promos/insults were always great the matches generally sucked except for the Summerslam ‘93 one.
Anyway at that time, Bret should have been a main-eventer in the world title mix feuding with guys like Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage & Mr. Perfect over the world title.
The Bret-Lawler feud was probably the best of 1993 though. Jerry had some pretty good hear, I remember I couldn’t wait for Bret to kick his ass. And with all of Lawler’s shots at the Hart family, the feud was about to culminate perfectly at Survivor Series with 4 Hart brothers against Lawler’s team…unfortunately that never happened (not WWE’s fault mind) and we had to suffer a Kiss My Foot match 2 years later.
Sorry, pretty good hear = pretty good heat
It was a good midcard feud in the early days thanks to Lawler’s mic work, but really Bret should have destroyed Lawler in 5 minutes after months of torment. Not carry the feud on for another 2 years and then have Bret finish Lawler off in a boring 25 minute scientific match as Bret basically treated him as his equal.
Oh and Lawler’s Knights vs. The Hart Brothers was a really bad idea. Well, not so much bringing in the Hart Bros as a one time thing, that was pretty cool, but Lawler’s team mates consisting of never before seen jobbers under masks was pretty dumb and it was extremely obvious that the Harts would win.
To hell with “The Rick”
Whatever happened to Al Issacs?
Busted for child porn. Currently doing 6 years in Iowa State Prison.
The Scoops guy got busted for kiddie porn?
Damn!!
I feel bad for the Rick. I lost my domain name (joecollins.net) and had to settle for a new one (josephcollins.net) too.
OTOH, I haven’t really liked visiting Rick’s since the WrestleManiacs days.
Whatever happened to Micasa? That’s a better question.
Micasa opened a fireworks stand near Albequerque.
That or he opened up his own website…
http://www.alisaacs.com/
Spreading a rumor that someone is a pedophile… wow, classless.
Tell that to Lanny Poffo.
from the other thread:
“Since we’re making requests, can I request that your uncle gets drunk next Christmas and rapes your pee-hole with a rusty screwdriver?”
Glass houses, Charlie.
Also, since I’ve already taken this much time,
“He wanted to take wrestling down with him.
Fact.”
Wishing someone that is a dank toucher gets molested up their pee-hole with a rusty screwdriver and saying someone else is a pedophile are two different things.
On a side note, prove that Benoit was NOT trying to bring wrestling down with him. A lot of people agree with me, that he set up some form of circumstances so that wreslting would take part of the blame for his actions and make him somehow less of a monster.
Not very often you see the burden of proof fall to the side that doesn’t buy the conspiracy theory. Show me one piece of evidence that suggests Benoit even destroyed any of his family mementos aside from tossing a diary in the garbage, and then I’ll bite.
I actually am more inclined to believe the scientific findings thus far, which happen not to indicate any sort of vendetta against the industry of professional wrestling. And my mother agrees with me, and Joe from down the street. That makes what I have to say credible.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure Scott meant 2003, the year that pretty much killed the fandom of every one of my friends who I used to watch with back in the day (the “new” ECW effectively killed the rest of them, if you’re curious.)
As far as WWE only hiring comedic action adventure writers or whatever is kind of misunderstood. I mean, you can see why they wouldn’t want to deal with a thousand applications from every idiotic mark out there. I think the difference you have to see is that WWE “writers” are the ones writing the dialogue on the shows, the actual words. I think Vince, Steph, HHH, and guys like Gewirtz, who’ve been on the staff for years, are the ones actually writing out the storylines, deciding who fueds with who, etc. They don’t want wrestling fans because they don’t want storyline pitchmen, they want guys who can write dialogue.
Finally, Edge’s book wasn’t a self-help book, just a straight biography of his years growing up with the business. It’s a really good read, the only downside being that the really interesting backstage stuff in his life happened AFTER the book was written. So instead you get to hear about how good a friend Matt Hardy is and how much he loves his wife.
“They don’t want wrestling fans because they don’t want storyline pitchmen, they want guys who can write dialogue.”
I know that’s what they’re going for, but the dialogue sucks. It’s probably the worst part of Raw, when I watch it, is those painful backstage segments. The one with Cena/HHH last night was particularly bad. “I’ll get the last word!” “No….I will get the last word!” “Oh, we shall see about that.” It was like a Family Guy bit without the irony.
What happened to letting the wrestlers cut loose? The WWE’s line (as evident in that Legends of Wrestling thing) is that the successful characters are the ones with a little bit of the person in it. The Rock is Dwayne Johnson to 11, etc. But they don’t let any of today’s wrestlers do anything more than read poorly written lines in backstage segments.
How the heck would someone like Austin get over today? I’m pretty sure he wasn’t reading off of cue cards in 1996 or 1997.