Dark Side of the Ring

[BruiserBrody]

I was annoyed that they went back to the "He was unable to stay in the main events in the WWF" style talking point. Even when he was gigantic he was given the heavy heat angle to write Piper off TV. Then IIRC Adonis was actually fired/suspended briefly in winter before being brought back to pay off the Piper angle. The producers could have said accurately "A highly promoted feud with Roddy Piper delivered disappointing box office returns when given the spotlight"

- I wonder where the "Adonis was decapitated" rumor came from that had circulated somewhat?

- I'm 99% certain the Apters always reported a moose came on the road and here the survivor himself says a bear cub. Odd how that detail was also reported wrong.
- The fact that Adonis was robbed after the accident seemed to have started to get more wide spread attention in recent years. That's another detail I don't recall the Apters ever touching on, but I could be wrong.

 

[BruiserBrody]

Apparently Adonis was carrying his full Japan payday with him yet when the crash occurred, so the ring crew got away with excess of $20,000 from Adonis' body.

 

[BruiserBrody]

Am I really the only one watching these? Of all the "Brody talks to himself" threads, I wasn't thinking this would be one.

Anyway, Abby episode was lame. Pretty much all about the Hannibal blood stuff, and Abby refused to talk about it and thus we lost the main topic as a talking head.

 

[One Epic Winter (OEW)]

I'm gonna watch this whole season when its uploaded to Hulu.

 

[JHawk]

I have all of them DVRd but haven't had a chance to watch any of them except Chris and Tammy

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

i've watched all of them except abby's but I've thought this season has been weaker

 

[BruiserBrody]

Bam Bam Bigelow was the first heel I was a fan of. It was 1993 and I was almost 11. I finally broke through the restrictions of Kayfabe.

- The shot of his toddler daughter reaching out in the back of a police car was a wonderful cinematic shot IMO.
- DDP sounds like Chris Berman at some points here.
- Curly haired chubby dorky Bigelow warmed my heart.
- The wife tells a fib about Bigelow starting in the WWF in Nov 87 right after they were married. He was around several months before that.
- Her comment about seeing Bigelow ten times a year is also iffy as his WWF run was less than a year and Bigelow bounced around everywhere until late 1992 when he got back into the WWF circus.
- They ignore Bigelow's first NJPW stint and pretend he and Inoki's stuff doesn't happen until after his WWF and WCW runs.
- Portraying the Andre MSG match as his swan song is fair as BBB only has 3 WWF matches after that night.
- They blow through his biggest career moment as his 2nd WWF run is blitzed through.
- ECW gets a good chunk of time, including Taz explaining how they gimmicked the ring for he and BBB's infamous spot.
- Wifey lies again and says BBB missed a ton of dates in WCW and they gave up on him and paid him to stay home. HE WRESTLED AT THE LAST NITRO.
- Bam Bam gets arrested while pilled to the gills with his toddler daughter in the car.
- Bigelow gets divorced and moves to Florida to take all the pills he wants in peace. He tries to calls his children, but the calls are full of him crying and slurring.
- Bigelow's son came down to see him and BBB's girlfriend kept them apart. BBB died 3 weeks later.
- Bigelow was only 45.
- The wife is asked what she'd say to him today: "You motherfucker!" She then explains her more nuanced answer from her therapy sessions.

Well, this was depressing.

 

[Valeyard]

I'd have expected more time on him and Luna just for sensationalism sake.

 

[One Epic Winter (OEW)]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1686197147115651072

 

[RedJed]

Sounds like Russo is the one on the attack on Lance, just saying!

I'm interested to see how they frame this BATB situation tonight on the show as it's one of those topics that has too many subjective viewpoints even over twenty years ago, that it makes it hard to seperate fact from fiction with it.

I just started up a JJ podcast where he discusses it, but sounds like he will not be a part of the DSOR episode tonight. I'm guessing no Hogan on the show tonight either talking about it, nor Bischoff either?

 

[Valeyard]

If Storm wasn't involved then why does Russo care? Let him be crusty and boring.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

I’m guess Russo is mad because ‘00 WCW was Lance’s most notable push but I mean being used better than any other mid carder in ‘00 WCW isn’t really something worthy of undying blind loyalty.

Don’t tell that to Big Vito or Disco Inferno.

 

[Valeyard]

I want them to do an episode about Russo's secret TNA stint that permantently crippled (I guess technically killed one if you want to take the rebranding into account for shock purposes) a company that was once the number two in the country.

 

[Gert]

Are these on Hulu after they air on Vice?

 

[Youth N Asia]

Are these on Hulu after they air on Vice?

Seems like there’s a decent gap between episodes airing on tv, and then on Hulu. Seasons 1-3 are there. Nothing from season 4 yet.

 

[BruiserBrody]

Just watch this shit on youtube if y'all have to have it on your TV and not CPU monitor.

As a former VHS tape trader of 6th generation wrestling, I can accept not everything is going to be in HD 645 res

---
The Darkside team released most of the Graham documentary on their youtube today. Instead of just putting the whole episode together, they chopped it up into like 10 3-4 min segments. I'm assuming that is to appease the algorism gods.

 

[BruiserBrody]

I felt as if Jarrett was working the documentary crew with his spiel. His WCW 2000 booking alone contradicts his "Gee shucks, I come from a wrasslin' family and we had 'tegrity not to do this business wrong" angle he took.

We can't be doin' these fake matches! (Finger Poke of Doom) This belt means something (Former champions David Arquette and Vince Russo), Weekly world title changes with Nash-Jarrett-Sid- Flair- etc....
--
The Russo reenactor gave me Super Humman vibes at times.

Lance Storm delivered some good quips for his part.

 

[JHawk]

The idea behind Storm being on the show was to get the viewpoint of what the locker room was thinking. It wasn't difficult to figure that out.

 

[One Epic Winter (OEW)]

BATB 2000 seems like such a weird topic for this show. It was a very surreal event but isn't the tragic story that they usually deliver. At least with the Brawl 4 All, they talked about Droz's accident. I suppose they needed more lighthearted material.

 

[Valeyard]

Sputnik Monroe has to happen.

 

[strummer]

DDP sounded really bad on the Bigelow show. Kind of concerningly bad. But he is pushing 70 and lived the 80s night club and 90s wrestler life

 

[BruiserBrody]

Beefcake was a pretty random choice for Marty's episode. Obv. the connection was the Barber Shop angle and being in the locker rooms for years together. But then also on camera was....Beefcake's wife?!!

Pat Tanaka fit since they were frequent AWA/Memphis/WWF opponents, but Pat is also a BS king.

Al Snow being the voice of reason was good.

Marty confessing to murder "in storyline" on Facebook was something else. Then we got the twist that he told several people over the years about the murder in graphic detail.

I tried to research the "Marty was getting a push in WCW and ruined it" talking point and only saw him losing to Raven, Malenko, Beniot, Scott Steiner etc on TV in his early weeks in WCW.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Beefcake was a pretty random choice for Marty's episode.

Beefcake was the one that confirmed Marty’s drugging and/or sexually assaulting college students on a long flight story. You probably reviewed that KC shoot!

First half of ‘98 was peak of my WCW fandom and Marty was one of my top 5 favorite wrestlers ATT. 9/10 year old me was jarred that he was instantly a JTTS. If he was on one of the weekend shows, he was probably winning. If he was on Nitro or Thunder, he was probably losing.

 

[One Epic Winter (OEW)]

IIRC, Marty was eventually repackaged with a Mr. Wonderful-type narcissist gimmick which didn't last long and they eventually transferred the gimmick to Scotty Riggs.

 

[BruiserBrody]

IIRC, Marty was eventually repackaged with a Mr. Wonderful-type narcissist gimmick which didn't last long and they eventually transferred the gimmick to Scotty Riggs.

Nothing in the results seems to support this? He works less than 25 times between Jan-Aug and is then gone. All his matches are as a face and prelim or JTTS stuff. He appears at the Slamboree PPV in the Cruiser battle royal, and has a few more matches over summer before wrapping up on Aug 31st on a Nitro vs Konnan.

Unless trimming his mullet was part of the repackage?

 

[BruiserBrody]

Beefcake was the one that confirmed Marty’s drugging and/or sexually assaulting college students on a long flight story. You probably reviewed that KC shoot!

First half of ‘98 was peak of my WCW fandom and Marty was one of my top 5 favorite wrestlers ATT. 9/10 year old me was jarred that he was instantly a JTTS. If he was on one of the weekend shows, he was probably winning. If he was on Nitro or Thunder, he was probably losing.

They did the dark side episode without even mentioning that crazy plane ride. Maybe they are saving up for a plane ride from hell part 2 since so many guys were in on the debauchery?

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

IIRC, Marty was eventually repackaged with a Mr. Wonderful-type narcissist gimmick which didn't last long and they eventually transferred the gimmick to Scotty Riggs.

Video?

 

[Valeyard]

Him beating Louie Spicolli is a push.

 

[One Epic Winter (OEW)]

Video?

I've been scourging the internet trying to find something but am coming up empty. I know this happened damnit!

 

[Mickey Massuco]

I’ve just been catching up on this, am I the only one who thought the last season was weak? Lots of speculation, a lot of “this was the toughest guy around” episodes about so many people. I get that this business breeds a lot of tough people but hearing some guy’s childhood friends relay stories that might not even be true gets a bit tiring after a while. It’s funny that the only fight stories that are more verifiable about these guys usually end up with them having their ass kicked, like Spivey almost killing Adonis with a bolo punch.