A solid Dark Side of the Ring last night, which really wasn't as much a Dark Side of the Ring.
It followed the story of Magnum TA, a lot of you oldies will remember that this guy was the Hulk Hogan of Jim Crockett Promotions which at the time was competing with the WWF. Terry Allen had it all, the looks, the charisma the Wrestling ability. JCP built their entire federation around him and after some exceptional feuds with Nikita Koloff and Jimmy Garvin was set to take the World Heavy Weight Champion (NWA) off of Rick Flair.
But a tragic car accident changed everything. He lost control of a Porche 911, and hit a telephone poll with enough force to sheer it off. Broke his neck, and it was through that he was going to be a full quadriplegic.
While he managed to regain some use of his arms and legs, he never stepped in the ring again.
While the story talked about the breakup of his marriage. There wasn't a Dark Side so to speak to this story. He went on to do other things, remarry and raise a family.
The effect on JCP was devastating. They had built the whole territory around him, that was gone. Though they tried to carry on, and they had such a solid roster and some good story lines, they got ground under, and were eventually bought by Ted Turner and turned into World Championship wrestling.
The NWO, the wrestling wars might have happened but might not have happened if not for a car accident.
There were some cool aspects to the story.
The concept of Kayfabe was huge back then so they had to sneak wrestlers like Flair into the hospital so the fans wouldn't see it.
We saw Nikita Koloff who was the king of Kayfabe. During his career he never broke it. He would walk around town, speaking Russian and even learned Russian. He didn't break character until after he retired, which he did not long after the accident.
A very cool episode, with a rare happy ending.
But really good.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Last nights Dark Side of the Ring was another must watch that covered the Graham family out of Florida.
It followed Eddie Graham and his son Mike Graham.
Eddie ran Florida Wrestling, which was an incubator for talent at the time, bringing in Dusty and Flair and other's at the time. He was a huge name in the wrestling scene. Sadly he had a lot of demons, an alcohol problem and financial problems and he shot himself.
His son who was really well known but oversaw the end of FCW, part of it was because Dusty left and took half the roster with him. But Mike sank into alcoholism and put a lot of pressure on his son Steven who eventually killed himself. Then Mike killed himself 2 years later. He shot himself while wearing his son's boots.
Nicole, Mike's sister, talked about the fact that Eddie's father and brother all killed themselves so there are five generations of suicide.
The uplifting thing is that Nicole talks about breaking the cycle, and she seems to do a lot of things to help that.
Its a tough tough episode to watch.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Last edited by CaptainCrunch; 06-14-2023 at 12:22 PM.
I've always thought CM Punk and his massive ego are ore trouble than he is worth. Though, I've never really got the appeal of the guy in the ring or in promos.
I've always thought CM Punk and his massive ego are ore trouble than he is worth. Though, I've never really got the appeal of the guy in the ring or in promos.
You could argue that with anyone. I mean I'm of the same arguement for example with the Bucks.I thought the same thing with Hulk Hogan who I view as incredible destructive because of his ego.
The question though is, and Paul Heyman has said it brilliantly, do they draw money?
I like Punk's promo style, and I like his in ring work.
What's going to be interesting is the ratings on Collision, and its effect on Dynamite and Rampage.
Will Collision draw viewers away from those shows?
The bottom line is that AEW needs to do something, when you look at things like the quarter hours breakdowns, people are turning off the show when the main event guys like the Elite, Jericho and the BCC come out. They need a refresh on their main event level. Punk kind of represents that in a vacuum.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
The problem isn't the Elite or BCC as individuals though
It's that they are forcing these factions and multi man matches no one wants to see down our throats.
Let's the Bucks go back to the tag team division. Let MJF, Kenny, Bryan, Moxley, Cole, Cesaro, etc have good singles matches. Create an actual mid card with guys like Daniel Garcia, Yuta, etc instead of having them always tied up with JAS, BCC, Etc
This past week is the best example...why are BCC and The Elite having a trios tag match after just having a multi-man match at the PPV.
Last edited by SuperMatt18; 06-19-2023 at 09:11 AM.
The problem isn't the Elite or BCC as individuals though
It's that they are forcing these factions and multi man matches no one wants to see down our throats.
Let's the Bucks go back to the tag team division. Let MJF, Kenny, Bryan, Moxley, Cole, Cesaro, etc have good singles matches. Create an actual mid card with guys like Daniel Garcia, Yuta, etc instead of having them always tied up with JAS, BCC, Etc
This past week is the best example...why are BCC and The Elite having a trios tag match after just having a multi-man match at the PPV.
I think a lot of the last few weeks have been just filler storylines and matches until Forbidden Door. I like Forbidden Door, and I'm looking forward to the matches booked for it, but they had the same issue last year in terms of having to tread water until it comes and goes.
Forbidden Door is going to deliver, although only four announced matches is annoying and it's less than a week away.
Kenny Omega (c) vs. Will Ospreay (IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship
Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada
Sanada (c) vs. "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry (with Hook) (IWGP World Heavyweight Championship)
MJF (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
...unreal card so far; although personally I'd rather have Sanada facing off against a bigger name for the IWGP Heavyweight Title other than Jungle Boy. Also, I'm hoping Naito and Takagi can both get on this card if possible as well.
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I think a lot of the last few weeks have been just filler storylines and matches until Forbidden Door. I like Forbidden Door, and I'm looking forward to the matches booked for it, but they had the same issue last year in terms of having to tread water until it comes and goes.
Even then though...why keep going to the well of multi-man matches.
I feel like Omega vs Yuta in a singles match would have been great after Yuta got the pin on Omega in the PPV match.
Could have led to the same story with interference from the Elite and BCC if you wanted to, but would have felt fresh and made sense after making a big deal that it was Yuta that got the pin on Kenny.
(Also I never liked the BCC name and makes even less sense now with Regal betraying them, and could have easily had them change it after the betrayal)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Muta
Forbidden Door is going to deliver, although only four announced matches is annoying and it's less than a week away.
Kenny Omega (c) vs. Will Ospreay (IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship
Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada
Sanada (c) vs. "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry (with Hook) (IWGP World Heavyweight Championship)
MJF (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
...unreal card so far; although personally I'd rather have Sanada facing off against a bigger name for the IWGP Heavyweight Title other than Jungle Boy. Also, I'm hoping Naito and Takagi can both get on this card if possible as well.
The card does look like it will be great.
Agree that Jungle Boy feels like a weird choice in that spot, although if the goal is to make Sanada and the IWGP champ look strong then I think it's easy for him to go over Jungle Boy clean without it hurting Jungle Boy too much.
Will be interesting to see how they fill the card this week though. Bishamon vs FTR maybe...considering it was Bishamon that beat FTR for the NJPW titles, so easy storyline there.
Last edited by SuperMatt18; 06-19-2023 at 01:20 PM.
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Forbidden Door is going to deliver, although only four announced matches is annoying and it's less than a week away.
Kenny Omega (c) vs. Will Ospreay (IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship
Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada
Sanada (c) vs. "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry (with Hook) (IWGP World Heavyweight Championship)
MJF (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
...unreal card so far; although personally I'd rather have Sanada facing off against a bigger name for the IWGP Heavyweight Title other than Jungle Boy. Also, I'm hoping Naito and Takagi can both get on this card if possible as well.
They also announced Orange Cassidy and Shibata vs. ZSJ and Daniel Garcia.
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