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 This is another one of those posts that seems all disjointed and rambling (in other words: Not a lot of violence against women and drug humor). I always want to just scrap these but for whatever reason they seem to get the most positive feedback. Read on... it's your funeral (and subsequent buggering via guy in Kane mask). First off, I am blown away by you guys. Not that I gave a damn, but I was fully expecting a box full of mail telling me what a loony lying brainwashed piece of shit I was after reading THIS (truly disappointed I didn’t get a single e-mail from “God@yahoo.com” or something saying “I beseech thee to suck big black cocks for all eternity”)… the massive amount of feedback was anything but. I'm responding to them as quickly as time allows so don't think I'm dissing if you haven't heard back yet. But for those who haven’t been clued in yet, there are a lot of really good people reading this verbal flatulence. It's going to be a little harder to just blindly trash you fags after that. Seriously... may you all find Him. And may you all find THE RING POST as well. New Zenk and Ginger, new forum, new MONDAY NIGHT SUCKS on the way, and a brand new LOW BLOW by Saturday at the latest. Better than smack and without the track marks, straight up. Another GREAT week here. Sure, we slack off sometimes... but tell me the last three days haven't been worth the wait. Gangbusters, yo. Now if we could get Stamp or MMN to shit out just ONE post… Buffy rules, let's talk wrestling. Steiner comes in Sunday (which you aren't going to see until tape because we're all BOYCOTTING THIS ONE!! FUCK YOU FOR TREATING YOUR FANS LIKE POND SCUM IN HOPES OF BOOSTING WEEKEND RATINGS!! We’ll do chat with scramblevision pbp for those who want to be kept up), there are rumors of an impending Austin return, both shows seem to be focusing a little more on the actual wrestling than on fucking dead bodies, the elimination of doom match doesn't sound as stupid as it could've been... Heaven forbid, have we finally bottomed out? Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Are good times right around the corner? Possibly... too goddamned bad for them no one is going to be around to notice. Remember the days when we all actually got fired up for this rot? I mean, it seems like a different century now, but... oh wait, it is a different century... still. Remember when PPVs actually meant something; when it didn't matter that we still had an entire work/school week in front of us because it was Monday and that meant “rasslin night"? When we'd feel sorry for the people that didn't watch this “stupid fake shit” because we knew they were missing out on something they'd dig except they were too close-minded to give a chance? Folks, those days are GONE! There's no longer any spark. Nowadays, those who haven't deserted it all together (which KEEPS COSTING ME WRITERS!! Thank God Norm and Jonny X like writing more than they hate your shitty product, Stamford) look at it as “something to watch". The hardcores have left in a huff because of the systematic and sometimes seemingly deliberate attempt to shift the program into a soap opera or variety special (especially since they used to make fun of the competition for letting us watch them die slowly doing so), and the casual fans aren't watching anymore because it's either too dumb or too offensive for them, and since their hardcore friends are watching something else there's no reason for them to keep up so as to have something to talk about. Meanwhile, the people who never really cared about wrestling but loved Steve Austin (and I guess Vince finally found out the hard way just how many it really was) may not even return if and when Stone Cold does. And more distressing than any of this, the company is doing NOTHING to bring new fans in. No new names are being built up, no “against the grain" chances are being taken, and the storylines being run now seem to be more of a “we know better than you what you want" groove than trying to deliver a solid product like we've always based our buying dollar and viewing habits on. In a way it's like the Democrats in the latest election: Offending a sizeable chuck of the constituency with their actions, then trying to pass off the loss as the voters not knowing what they wanted rather than acknowledging the party made horrible mistakes (ironically, funerals played a big part in both recently). Who do you blame? Bischoff? Triple H? Stephanie? Big Show? Sorry, guys... but the fault must be placed at the feet of the man who the buck stops with: Vince McMahon. The problem lies in the fact that as the undisputed king of this business (I'd use the term “God" but Triple H just bestowed that title upon himself. Congrats, Hunter... drop me a postcard from Hell when you get there), Vince now has a Napoleonic complex. What makes it worse is while he definitely deserves to pat himself on the back for his accomplishments, the success of the last few years happened almost in spite of him, rather than because of him (but big fat fucking chance convincing him of that). Not only was the whole “attitude" boon due to the world embracing Austin rather than anything else, but Vince had to be dragged kicking and screaming into it. Were it not for Shane, the WWF never would have evolved past the “good vs. evil" comic book characters of 10 years ago (remember, this is the man who not only passed rules against bleeding in his own company, but sent a letter directly to Ted Turner asking him to ban the “barbaric practice" as well). And as far as winning the wrestling war, that was won more because of the incompetence of the enemy than their brilliant strategies. But what matters is how history remembers it, and since a bunch of magazines have called Vince the man who felled the mighty company with AOL/Time Warner behind it, that's how he views himself. Couple this with the fact that he once beat the Government in court and fits every definition of a media anti-hero and it would be amazing if he DIDN'T have sort of a “me against the world" outlook. Thing is, that works great when you're dealing with enemies, but when you turn that towards your own supporters they need nothing more than a remote control clicker to voice their “fuck you" response. And that's what is happening, and is going to continue to happen either until the attitude changes or the company loses TV and closes up shop. Unless he figures out really quickly that not everyone who doesn't blindly agree with him is his mortal foe, and that criticism from Phil Mushnik is REAL fucking different than criticism coming from lifelong fans, he’s going to go down in flames by trying to beat the people that he’s supposed to be using to win. And don't tell me for a second that I'm misreading the V-Man. If you want to pinpoint a moment when they went from being a company with the same economic problems as everybody else to one in a free-fall, look no further than the hiring of the nWo. The fact they were hired was dumb, but what REALLY made it such a turn-off was Vince's boast that he was bringing them in “to destroy what I have created". What possible reasoning could've been behind that (unless he really wanted to destroy it... in which case he probably should've gone ahead and pulled the plug months ago), other than the defensive posture that has worked so well for him in the past? “You think I SHOULDN'T bring in Nash? Well NOBODY TELLS VINCENT GODDAMNED KENNEDY MCMAHON what he shouldn't do". “I shouldn't push my son-in-law so heavily? WELL HE GETS EVERY SEGMENT AND IF IT DOESN'T WORK IT'S BECAUSE NO ONE ELSE IS BACKING HIM UP LIKE THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO!" When you look at it in psychological terms it's difficult to not have empathy for him. It's a business where everyone is always running a con since the business itself is a con. You never know who's going to be the next to try and stab you in the back, but you know that at all times SOMEONE is. It's also a business where you have to “look out for number one" because you can bet your sweet ass no one else will. When you're the king of the outsiders, you have to believe that you know better than everyone else all the time. Unfortunately, that same mindset that made him what he is today is on the verge of ruining him. Everyone sees him coming now, so he can't pull his cons with the ease he used to (proof: media focus on the WWE before the gay marriage and after he “tricked" them. They no longer want to coddle or bury him, instead they ignore... which is far, far more devastating). The long and short of it is that his company is in the worst kind of trouble; the prospect of being ignored completely. If that winds up happening, Mr. McMahon will have no one to blame but himself. Which is fitting, since that's how he views his success. To sum up: FUCK YOU WWE FOR NOT HAVING STEINER ON CONFIDENTIAL, YOU FUCKS!! Oh yeah, and make sure Hunter looks at the damn lights on Sunday. Eat a bag of Hell. Barbwire Mike We don't care what happens now |