Welcome
to Falls Count Anywhere! My name is Chris and that Palin chick
sure is hot!
Just when you think that maybe Jake Roberts
can be crowned the official craziest man in wrestling, Scott
Hall comes roaring back! This incident also highlights how
valuable YouTube has become to those of us who like to see
wrestlers at their worst.
The
scene was the Ring Roast of The Iron Sheik. Sheik’s
a good guy, according to some, and he’s also worked
as a comedian and so on. The roast had all sorts of wrestlers,
some who were paying him legit tribute and others who were
simply there to make fun of the guy.
King
Kong Bundy was apparently the funniest of the wrestlers,
though Nikolai Volkoff also had good comedy, and then one
of the comedians was wrapping up his set when he made the
exact wrong crack. He said that the Sheik’s career
was as dead as Owen Hart.
I’ll let that sink in a moment.
OK,
now there are a lot of people who are still kinda sore about
that subject. Anyone with the last name of Hart, for example,
and it’s kinda known that Scott Hall wasn’t
a good friend of Hart’s, but he’s said some
nice things about the guy in interviews and they had some
decent matches in the mid-1990s. Scott was obviously drunk
and slurring his speech. He did a little speech in favor
of Owen, and then he walked off, escorted by former Young
Stallion Jim Powers, and then yelled at the guy who had
made the joke from the audience. The entire thing reminded
me of the time that Earl Weaver got mad at Jim Palmer for
his gags about Weaver’s drinking. It happens, especially
with drunks like Hall and Weaver.
The
videos -- there are four of them on YouTube if you just
search for Scott Hall -- are shaky, but obviously, it’s
a tough scene. There are some good moments, even after Hall
leaves, that are nice to see. Kevin Sullivan takes the mic
and says that ‘the wrestling business eats its young.’
Kevin
looked really small, which isn’t surprising. He’s
got a good read on these situations and tried and bring
the focus back on the event instead of the unfortunate moment
that had just happened. I’d read that Scott had hit
a guy, but it looks like he just pushes him.
Scott’s
been through the WWE paid rehab, it’s been reported,
and that’s a good thing, but not if he’s gonna
fall off the wagon. The Roast apparently didn’t serve
him anything but he was seen drinking from his own Sprite
bottle, so some have said that’s where the booze was.
You
can tell he’s drunk from the video of the first speech.
The post-Roast explanation of the happening with Bill Apter’s
on YouTube too and it does say a lot of things that make
sense, but it also underscores that Scott wasn’t in
his right mind.
On
news…
There’s a backstage push for Jeff Hardy to break-through
and become the top. No word on whether they’ll make
a move, but it’d be a good idea. The recent removal
from a Southwest hasn’t hurt Hardy any, it seems.
I’m looking at the next few UFC events
as being a major push for UFC and MMA. I can’t wait
for the next three. Michael Bisping vs. Chris Leben is gonna
be a big deal with the names involved being huge and the
fact that it’s from the UK is important because the
last time Bisping headlined a UFC show, he got the un-earned
decision, and if Chris Leben can’t finish him in the
three rounds, the eyes will all be on the decision with
great criticism. I have to say that I think Leben’ll
take the match, but Bisping’s gonna have all sorts
of crowd support.
The second fight features Patrick Cote vs.
Antonio Silva. Silva’s one of the guys called the
Pound-for-Pound best fighter in the world. I dunno, but
he’s damned good and I watched a few Cote fights this
weekend on Spike. I’m torn because Cote’s got
a solid strategy that’s worked his last few fights
and Silva’s a bad, bad man. I’m saying Silva
in a decision.
Then
there’s Couture vs. Lesnar. There’s no closer
fight. If Couture had fought in the last 18 months, I’d
probably be picking him, but Lesnar’s fired up and
no one works harder than he does, so I’m picking him,
but not by much. I’ve got no idea what this fight
is going to look like. It could be a dull standing fight
where both guys stymie each other going for takedowns and
they’re required to box because of it.
On the
other hand, it could end up being the two of them jostling
for position on the ground the entire fight. Lesnar needs
to win the stand-up and avoid being taken down, and Couture
just has to hope that his chin is up to Lesnar punches and
that he can get him down. This could be the fight of the
year.
I’m
hoping that TNA’s video game does better over the
long-run than it’s done so far. They had high hopes
for starting a long-running franchise and that being a way
to keep the brand alive, but it doesn’t seem to be
the case. Still, the money’s OK for what they are
selling, so at least that’ll help.
And why is Chris Daniels still Curry Man?
Sting won the TNA World’s Title, which
is a big deal. The guy’s old, but he’s every
bit as awesome as a wrestler at his age as Genichiro Tenryu
was when he was having awesome matches at 53. His match
with Samoa Joe wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything
I’d want to see again.
If you
haven’t already, make sure to get the WWE’s
new Hell in the Cell DVD set. It’s got great matches,
but it’s also got a bunch of the best WWF stuff from
the 1990s and more recent stuff too. The Hell in the Cell
concept was the best one they came up with during the Austin/Rock
heyday…despite the fact that Austin and Rock never
competed in any of the big ones.
I’m
still working my way through all the Royal Rumbles and just
rewatched the 1992 edition which had the Ric Flair storyline
of going from number 3 to the win. It was a good match,
and there was all sorts of drama.
The
1993 edition, which I’ve only seen once when it first
aired, is coming soon. That’s the one where they have
Backlund go more than an hour and then Yokozuna wins the
whole thing to set up his run at Hogan and then win the
belt and run with it for almost a year. T
he Rumble
evolves very well, with changes to the concept when it comes
to timing and who comes in when. In general, the top guys
get better eliminations in the later years than they did
early on.
I just rewatched the legendary Concession
Stand Brawl with Masa Fuchi and Atsushi Onita vs. Ricky
Morton and Eddie Gilbert. This was the second Tupelo brawl
and it’s available on YouTube as well if you search
for Eddie Gilbert. There was a guy who never got his due
and I hope that the ability of folks to post to YouTube
will help on that front.
