Dark Side of the Ring

[One Epic Winter (OEW)]

Don't give him hits or share his content. This only fuels him.

 

[BruiserBrody]

I thought Dan Spivey was Adrian Street when I first saw the production stills on Twitter.

I wonder how mad Kid was that his big WM 2 bump didn't make the camera shot.

AWA's Mitch Snow got some infamy. His run in with the Bulldogs was likely in Japan 1989:

AJPW Super Power Series 1989 - Day 1 (1989-05-12) - Results @ Wrestlingdata.com

AJPW Super Power Series 1989 - Day 1 (1989-05-12) - Results

www.wrestlingdata.com

I was afraid the story of Kid and his wife at the bar was going to end differently given Neidhart and Davey's habit of drugging the Hart Sisters they married and anally raping them....uhhhh allegedly....

They neglected to mention Pat Patterson had the Rougeaus back in 1988, so the Bulldogs could see the writing on the wall as to where their WWF futures lay.

 

[One Epic Winter (OEW)]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1428477108456722435

 

[BruiserBrody]

A little odd they doubled up on the hardcore promotions in the same season. (Yes the stories of Onita and Rob Black are vastly different, I just mean in general) Nick Gage earned them their lowest rating, so moving away from the mainstream could hurt them in future deals with Vice if ratings falter.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

A little odd they doubled up on the hardcore promotions in the same season. (Yes the stories of Onita and Rob Black are vastly different, I just mean in general) Nick Gage earned them their lowest rating, so moving away from the mainstream could hurt them in future deals with Vice if ratings falter.

Kanyon and Luna caught my eye from that list as being potentially more interesting than expected (I hope they feature Raven a lot on the Kanyon one).

 

[Valeyard]

Johnny K9 is the most interesting choice. They need to think outside the box. Most of the people I know who watch this aren't fans or were casuals so I'm all about digging deep with these. I hope they aren't out of big stories to draw, though. I know they aren't but I'm blanking at the moment.

Give us fucking Sputnik Monroe though. Someone.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Sputnik Monroe needs more awareness made of him and his importance in the desegregation of Memphis.

 

[Valeyard]

Sputnik in 2021 is seriously something we need somewhere. His story is great and he's a genuine hero for what he accomplished. Totally unsung and it's kinda bullshit to me that more people will know about Johnny K9 or Nick Gage.

 

[Hawk 34]

Outside of the historians, how many people can still talk about Sputnik and also how much footage actually exists?

 

[Valeyard]

I can promise Cornette, Lawler, Jerry Jarrett, and I imagine some of the workers we never think or know about have info. He's no doubt got family as well. As for footage the network had him as a hidden gem and there's probably a lot of bits and pieces over time. It isn't like he vanished right after, he still had on camera stuff for years.

 

[Mickey Massuco]

I feel like I know way too much about wrestling and I don't really know that guy so if he was that important, they should definitely make an episode about him.

 

[BruiserBrody]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1438680619064647684

 

[snuffbox]

Tommy Dreamer was the most embarrassing new interview.

Super cool how they forgot to bring up Brock Lesnar again after the part where he could've killed everyone on the airplane.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Tommy Dreamer was the most embarrassing new interview.

Super cool how they forgot to bring up Brock Lesnar again after the part where he could've killed everyone on the airplane.

Yeah, Dreamer really did not come off well in this at all, basically defending Flair and saying the flight attendant took it too personally. Mike Chioda didn't come off that well either IMO. Hearing the flight attendant gave this a much better, broader perspective than this, "LOL the boys got a little hammered and pulled some ribs/gags," and definitely gave it a more personal feel.

Not much new in the actual description of events although I'm curious if that court document had some details that were omitted.

 

[BUTT]

Just want to say that Tommy Dreamer has been my least favorite wrestler since 1995 (temporarily replaced by Joey Ryan when he was a thing) and now I finally have a good reason!

 

[Valeyard]

This is the grossest one of these yet for me. Like, all the parties involved (sans Hennig) are still alive and some even still get TV time.

Dreamer shouldn't keep getting booked if that's how he is about this shit. I wouldn't feel safe working around someone who justifies this kind of thing, especially if I was a female. Hearing him talk so casually about this stuff and hearing how just embarrassed and pretty remorseful about the things he'd been around speaks some volumes about ECW.

I really have gotten to hate how JR comes off on these.

 

[909]

I didn’t think JR came off that bad. He was in an impossible situation. Vince was on the plane and delegated him to deal with everything, while at the same time Vince didn’t stop anything even though everyone in the front cabin knew what was going on. And at the same time Vince knew about everything that happened and only fired a few people, which is something else he delegated to JR and made him do.

Also keep in mind that there was an absolute wrestling monopoly at the time. This is why monopolies are bad. There was nowhere else for anyone to go get a job. Someone like JR has zero functional life skills to make a living outside of wrestling. The ringleader of the promotion clearly was okay with all of this happening, so what could he do? Some people I’ve seen on Twitter act like he or someone else could have been a lone crusader and stopped all these things, but if the big boss doesn’t care, then you can’t.

tl;dr this is all Vince’s fault. Linda was there too and she didn’t do shit.

 

[Valeyard]

I just mean JR's demeanor in general is really offputting with so much of this stuff, not just this one. He was fucked bad in this instance, though. I just don't think he comes off well when he has to act like a human.

Also for a private plane full of giant hulking men to want to see the oldest guy dress in a sequin robe with nothing underneath and to talk about how massive his dick was is kinda gay.

 

[909]

JR’s story on his podcast offers more info on his POV than what he told here. I highly recommend it.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Dreamer's already been suspended from Impact largely for his comments/the reaction. No way Flair gets away unscathed (again).

 

[909]

Flair will get away with it because people’s childhood memories always win out over past misdeeds. That’s just how it is even though very few are capable of admitting that to themselves. For me? Yeah they still do. I would pay to watch he and the other living Horsemen beat up Sting in AEW any time in the next few weeks. Can I still watch that clip of Big Show knocking him out? Yes. That’s the honest fucking truth of it. The incident is very wrong, but it is old and as such everyone will ignore it. And then life will go on.

 

[geniusMoment]

This might be Tony's first real test. There is probably money to be had in Flair, and he's friends with him. Does he look past this?

 

[909]

This might be Tony's first real test. There is probably money to be had in Flair, and he's friends with him. Does he look past this?

He’ll be there in a few months.

What Stone Cold did was worse than what Flair did by any standard. I don’t see everyone complaining about him all the time. My point is that ‘cancel culture’ doesn’t really exist unless he killed or raped someone so of course nothing will happen to him.

 

[909]

Also you could call what Stone Cold did rape too. You think ol Stone Cold wasn’t getting laid every night while beating Debra and keeping her prisoner? People’s imaginations aren’t vivid enough to get the whole picture without it being outright stated I guess.

THIS FUCKIN DUDE KEPT HIS WIFE PRISONER AND IS ALL OVER TV. NOTHING WILL HAPPEN.

 

[Valeyard]

People won't care as much in a week. It's just the way these go now. This will hurt Dreamer far more than anyone else.

That said, asking seriously, how is it that Flair or Austin or Savage get leeway while Hogan is done? It has to be just because it's on tape right

 

[Hawk 34]

That and people already had disdain for him.

 

[geniusMoment]

Not saying one is better or worse. But, with Austin I think people look at domestic violence as not as bad as sexual abuse. I think it's easier to comeback from violent accusations.

With Savage he was no doubt controlling. But, a lot of the sexual stuff (Steph, Gorgeous George) was either never taken seriously or came out after his death.

 

[909]

Hogan just hosted WM. I wouldn’t say he’s like done done. In the real world he has faced minimal ramifications and if anything benefited from it.

He’s done with me though because I have no positive childhood memories of that dude anyway and I always hated his guts. He tried to steal Macho’s wife, he screwed Bret, he got all the NWO spotlight that Hall and Nash should have gotten. Fuck that orange motherfucker for real.

 

[Valeyard]

I want to clarify I know there's a definite scale difference but I just don't get how people work now. Hogan gets a fucked up asterisk while worse is done by others, although fuck knows what else that asshole's done no one talks about.

Except for like 20 people over the last 30 years, this is just a gross-ass business and I'm not going to be a hypocrite and say I won't enjoy it in spite of (or even because of, in some cases) how bad it is.

 

[snuffbox]

Hogan is still employed by the WWE. They brought him back to host a Wrestlemania, etc. Too big to actually have consequences or, you know, whatever. Like Flair, Austin, etc.

Jim Ross never had the emotive face to make viewers happy in these kinds of things. Now, after all the years of palsy attacks, he's even less able to convey Mickey Mouse emotion on his face for the camera. I have absolutely no idea what is being expected of him in the situation.

Still find it interesting that Brock Lesnar, current WWE main eventer, got a free pass as well. And, for some reason, that just cannot be discussed.

End of the day, 909 was 100% right about who actually deserves the larger blame for this. No, it's not fucking Tony Khan because maybe he will sign Ric Flair at some point. That is, to be clear, dumb. Some (less famous) people got punished, the more famous ones got away with everything as always, and the victims lost a part of their selfness that can never be regained. The McMahons are the problem. They do not deserve to be rationalized by anyone, ever.