musicology54 said:

http://nodq.com/wwe/345222187.shtml

NoDQ.com > WWE > Kevin Nash Says There Will Be An nWo Reunion
Posted by Steve Carrier on 07/25/2012 at 07:24 AM

The New World Order created chaos in the ranks of World Championship Wrestling as the renegade faction sought success by any means necessary. Now, group founder Kevin Nash is looking to reform the nefarious faction and run roughshod over the world of wrestling once again.

"A lot of you wanted an NWO reunion, there will be one. As you know we only come in take over mode. Stay tuned!!!," he announced Tuesday night via Twitter.

The group's reformation could take place in WWE and if Nash has his wish fulfilled, with CM Punk as their leader. Nash tweeted to a fan that he wants the WWE Champion as group captain with the "NWO army to protect the gold."

"Rock will never walk out of the Rumble with the belt. We got Phil's back," he adds.

Meanwhile, TNA Wrestling executive Eric Bischoff re-tweeted Nash's announcement reading "A lot of you wanted an NWO reunion, there will be one. As you know we only come in take over mode. Stay tuned!!!"

Sigh.... And here we go again. *facepalm*

Smackdown Spoilers (to air on 7/27):

SmackDown is getting setup. Booker T comes out to a nice pop while Michael Cole gets his usual heat.

The Miz's music hits and he comes out to his usual heat. His title win on RAW is recapped. There are lots of boos, mixed in with some cheers. Miz thanks the "peeps" for their vote that helped him get his match. Christian interrupts. Christian wants a rematch tonight. Rematch to take place NOW.

Christian vs. The Miz: Christian controlling the match early. Miz recovers and goes to work. Lots of boos. Miz threw Christian out to the wall and almost wins via countout. Miz is back in control for a bit, but Christian comes around. Christian going to the mid-rope, but Miz recovers. Both battle and Miz goes down. Christian comes off the top but Miz nails him as he comes down. Crowd is behind Christian as he recovers. Christian is now in control and there are lots of two counts. Very back and forth. Good match. Crowd into it as Christian goes for the Killswitch. Miz escapes and hits his DDT. Miz to the middle rope and is pulled down. Christian is calling for spear and Miz rolls out of the ring. Both are back in the ring and it's back and forth again. Miz then rolls up Christian for the win. Miz is your winner, and still champion, via pinfall.

There will be a four-way contender match with Kane, Alberto Del Rio, Rey Mysterio and Daniel Bryan. Cody Rhodes vs. Sheamus is also announced for tonight.

Jinder Mahal vs. Ryback: On a personal note, Ryback is scary as hell in person. Mahal actually laying some hits and tries for a pin. Crowd is not amused. Mahal still controlling the match. "Goldberg" chants start and Ryback takes over. He hits a solid spinebuster and Mahal rolls out of the ring and starts up the ramp. The match is over, Ryback wins by countout. Ryback is not happy and chants, "feed me more!"

A recap is shown of the CM Punk - John Cena match from last night, all the way through the Rock coming in and getting clotheslined by Punk.

A recap of the six man tag match from last night is shown. Sheamus comes out to a big pop. Cody Rhodes is out second and the match is on.

Sheamus vs. Cody Rhodes: Sheamus is in control though the early portion of the match. Dolph Ziggler hits the floor with the briefcase... and dropped it. Lol. Cody goes to work and Ziggler is slowly going around to the announcer table eyeballing the ring. Cody continues to work Sheamus over. A couple of kickouts, but Rhodes is still very much in control. Cody applies a headlock, but Sheamus comes alive. Rhodes finds another opportunity and hits a back flip off the top rope, But misses. Sheamus hits his back breaker. Rhodes is back in control as Ziggler is salivating with the MITB. Cody mocks Sheamus' chest pounding and tries for a pin. Sheamus recovers and the crowd gains steam. Sheamus eventually plants Cody with the Brogue kick and gets the pin.

Ziggler rips his shirt off and gets to the ropes with the briefcase. Ziggler slowly gets down and stares. Chris Jericho comes in from behind in a pink Ziggler shirt and throws Ziggler back in the ring and Sheamus beats him down! Jericho mocks Ziggler and nails him with the codebreaker. He rips off his shirt and mocks Ziggler as he is laying there.

Antonio Cesaro (w/ Aksana) vs. Santino Marella: Match starts of slow. Aksana distracts Santino. Cesaro works over Santino a bit, but Santino comes alive and hits his usual moves. Cesaro gets out the cobra. Santino is distracted again by Aksana but maintains control. He fails with the Cobra, and Cesaro picks up the win.

A clip of the DX - Damien Sandow angle from RAW is shown. Sandow is next.

Yoshi Tatsu vs. Damien Sandow: Match starts off quickly. Sandow quickly lays waste to Tatsu and gets the win.

Sandow starts talking after the match about last night to major boos. It's so loud that we can't even hear most of what he says. He finishes by saying he was "your martyr" and "you're welcome." He does a cartwheel and bows to the fans. Triple H comes out to the ring to a monster pop. Triple H says he got caught up in the moment on RAW and apologized for "humiliating" him. Triple H then hits the Pedigree and then does a DX chop over the fallen Sandow.

Backstage segment. AW and the Primetime Players interrupt a photo shoot with Rosa Mendes. AW takes the camera after jawing with the camera guy and starts taking pics of the Primetime Players.

A recap is shown of the Triple H - Paul Heyman - Stephanie McMahon - Brock Lesnar segment from RAW.

The four way match to determine the #1 contender is up next.

Fatal 4-Way - Rey Mysterio vs. Alberto Del Rio vs. Kane vs. Daniel Bryan: All the participants go after each other and it goes outside the ring. ADR interrupts a 619 on Bryan. Lots of action. Kane looking solid and taking on Rey and Bryan. Double suplex by Kane. Kane still in control. Del Rio stops it. Del Rio and Bryan go at it. Bryan kicking Del Rio hard in the corner to tons of YES chants. Kane and Del Rio go back and forth. Kane and Bryan take it outside the ring. Bryan hits Kane over the barricade. Rey comes back in and is gaining steam against Del Rio. Bryan comes in to try and stop, but Rey get him up against the rope for the 619. Del Rio tries to stop him, but Rey hits him and sets him up right next to Bryan. Double 619 to a huge crowd pop. Rey up to the top rope and nails Bryan and goes for the pin, but Ricardo Rodriguez pulls him outside the ring. Del Rio snags the pin for the win and a huge amount of heat!

Cameras off. Del Rio jawing at the crowd to a ton of heat. Sheamus comes back out to a pop. Del Rio rolls out of of the ring as Sheamus steps in. Del Rio is on the mic outside the ring to a lot of "You Suck" chants. The crowd is wanting a match right now.

Dark Match: Sheamus vs. Alberto Del Rio: Both men are inside the ring for the belt for the dark match. The bell rings and the crowd is going nuts for Sheamus as he goes to work on Del Rio in the corner. Sheamus is in control early, but Del Rio gets him with the ropes on the outside of the ring. Del Rio gets back in and is working him over. Sheamus gets back on his feet but Del Rio gets him down again for a failed pin. Rio charges at Sheamus in the corner but Sheamus tosses him over the top rope. Del Rio gets back in and Sheamus is going to town. Sheamus goes for a pin, but Del Rio is out at 2. Del Rio gets back in charge for a bit, but Sheamus hits him with his backbreaker. Sheamus misses the Brogue kick and Del Rio applies the cross arm-breaker, but Sheamus gets loose. Sheamus then plants Del Rio for the Brogue kick and gets the pin.

The crowd is cheering and out comes John Laurinaitis with a steel chair. The crowd boos. Ricardo jumps on Sheamus and Laurinaitis tries to hit Sheamus with a chair. Swing and a miss! Sheamus throws Ricardo off and nails Laurinaitis with the Brogue Kick. The crowd is happy as Sheamus celebrates with the fans.

source: WI

http://xfinity.comcast.ne...my-career/

WWE’s Zack Ryder: Kane and Eve ‘Basically Killed My Career’

by Gordon Holmes | July 17, 2012 at 10:21 AM

Zack Ryder (WWE)

It was the feel-good story of 2011. In a last-ditch effort to save his job, Zack Ryder, the long-forgotten, fist-pumping bro from Long Island had turned his tiny YouTube show into an Internet sensation. He rode that wave of popularity to a thunderous ovation at the Survivor Series and a United States Title victory over Dolph Ziggler at TLC.

Then he was destroyed by Kane and dumped by Eve Torres.

Wave hits wall…feel-good story turns bad.

But things are looking up for the self-professed “Long Island Iced Z.” At the Great American Bash a few weeks ago he made Eve look foolish and ousted Kane to win a battle royal.

I recently had a chance to sit down with the Internet’s favorite Broski at San Diego Comic Con to find out what he plans to do next, the fate of his Internet Championship, and more…

Gordon Holmes: At the Great American Bash you were finally able to get revenge on both Eve and Kane. Was it nice to finally get some closure on those issues?

Zack Ryder: I needed that redemption big time. I was on such a roll at the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012 and the whole Kane and Eve thing killed my momentum. Basically killed my career. So, to turn that around and get revenge on them was something I needed. Hopefully it’ll get the Ryder Revolution back on track.

Holmes: What’s next for you now that that’s behind you?

Ryder: The United States Title, I had that for a hot minute. I’d love to get that back. In 2011 I think I proved to people that I’m not a joke, I can be taken seriously in the ring. And hopefully by the end of this year I’ll have a major championship.

Holmes: A lot of guys when they make the step to the next level, they feel the need to shed some of the…I don’t want to say goofy…but some of the more fan-pleasing parts of their personas. I’m thinking of The Hurricane dropping his superhero ways and Rikishi dropping the dancing…

Ryder: Right.

Holmes: Is that a concern for you? Is that a direction you’ll head into?

Ryder: I think maybe in time, I can’t be the same old guy forever. But that doesn’t mean I’ll have to drop all of the parts of my character to get to the top. I think eventually I’ll evolve. If you’ve followed my career I was a Major Brother, then an Edge Head, now I’m Zack Ryder, I’m sure in three years I’ll be completely different.

Holmes: In coming up with these questions I thought of a merchandise idea for you.

Ryder: Sweet, let’s hear it.

Holmes: Remember the foam Steve Austin “What” voice bubbles?

Ryder: Yeah.

Holmes: We need some “Woo Woo Woo” bubbles.

Ryder: That’d be sweet! I’d take it.

Holmes: Your story is kind of amazing. You weren’t getting any attention, so you took matters into your own hands and figured out how to make social media work for you. Do they ever come to you for advice on how to make social media work for other guys?

Ryder: No. It’s funny though, now they have meetings about how to use hash tags or whatever. And I’m like, “Are you serious, bro?” All this stuff that I’ve been doing for years, not saying that I originated it, but I’ve been doing it best. It’s cool though, I’m glad WWE is finally embracing social media.

Holmes: You’re obviously a huge fan of toys and pop culture, what with all the references you make on your YouTube show, so what was it like the first time you saw a Mattel Zack Ryder action figure?

Ryder: It was great. I’ve been a wrestling fan all my life and I’ve collected wrestling figures my whole life. So, of course a dream of mine was to be in the WWE and to have my own figure. When I got my first Mattel action figure I was ecstatic. I’d always check on the Internet and try to see the new lineups. When I saw the prototype image, it was one of the best moments of my life.

Holmes: I had intended to ask you if they were ever going to make an Internet Championship for your figure, but they just announced one is on its way.

Ryder: Yeah!

Holmes: You created that. That came out of your brain.

Ryder: What’s crazy is the Internet Championship is something I created for my YouTube show and I’m not allowed to bring it out on WWE TV. Yet, it’s on this WWE t-shirt I’m wearing here. And now it’s on the action figure. So, someone’s telling you no, but you still get to do it. It’s ridiculous. I love it.

Holmes: What is the reasoning behind not allowing you to wear the title on television?

Ryder: I don’t know. As soon as I got it made I showed it to some people and they were like, “Absolutely not.” I’m not going to put up a fight about it, if they don’t want to use it, they don’t have to use it.

Holmes: Cause I’m an old-school fan, and I know for a fact that Ted DiBiase’s Million Dollar Title was never a sanctioned WWE championship and it was on TV all the time.

Ryder: That was my argument! It’s just like the Million Dollar Title, it’s a gimmick. Obviously I wouldn’t be defending it. Unless of course Wrestlemania 29, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Zack Ryder against Dolph Ziggler for the Internet Title.

Holmes: The next big thing from Mattel is their Brawlin’ Buddies plush dolls. Now, when I was a kid there were Wrestling Buddies…

Ryder: Yes, Wrestling Buddies, I had those too.

Holmes: Is that the next step? A Zack Ryder Brawlin’ Buddy?

Ryder: I don’t know if this is a spoiler…

Holmes: Oh, you’re going to get us in trouble.

Ryder: (Laughs) I recorded sayings for the Buddies so I’m hoping I’m in the next lineup. You know, the “Argh!” and “Errr!”

Holmes: Are you going to get a chance to see any of the sights here at San Diego Comic Con?

Ryder: Yeah, I definitely want to get out and see the Star Wars stuff and the Ghostbusters stuff. I’ve always wanted to come here as a kid.

Holmes: Edge had some heartfelt words for you and your former partner Curt Hawkins during his Hall of Fame speech. What did it mean for him to take the time to address you during his big moment?

Ryder: Edge, whether he knows it or not, saved my career, saved Curt Hawkins career. We were the Major Brothers at the time, doing nothing on Smackdown. And we’d pitched this idea to be Edge’s cronies. He didn’t have to say yes. But he put the green light on it and along the way we learned so much from him. And for him to retire and to talk about us and give us words of encouragement, it was very humbling. It was great.

Backstage News On The Rock's WWE Future, Undertaker's Return And CM Punk

- The Undertaker was said to be very relaxed backstage at RAW 1000. His official return to the storylines is scheduled for Survivor Series in November.

- The Rock is scheduled to win the WWE Title at the 2013 Royal Rumble pay-per-view and then defend it against John Cena at WrestleMania 29.

- We had been talking about WWE planning a big summer angle, similar to the Nexus and CM Punk "pipebomb" angles of the past few years. The CM Punk heel turn on RAW 1000 was that long-planned angle.

source: F4WOnline

That's exactly what I predicted (in bold). Unfortunately, this will be when Cena gets his win back over Rock.

RAW 1000 Breakdown: The Wedding, Slater & WWE's Legends, HHH-Lesnar And More

- As noted before, the 1,000th episode of WWE RAW did a 3.86 rating over three hours with an average of 6.04 million viewers - the most viewers ever for a three-hour show. They averaged a 4.03 rating and 6.31 million viewers over the final two hours.

WWE's advertising the 8pm start time worked for this show as they had 5.58 million viewers already tuned in for the start of the show. In the segment breakdown, DX's reunion opened so strong that the second quarter gain with the end of the DX segment gained 27,000 viewers. That would usually be a loss. The six-man with Rey Mysterio, Sin Cara and Sheamus vs. Alberto Del Rio, Dolph Ziggler and Chris Jericho with the Charlie Sheen interview lost 395,000 viewers.

Jack Swagger vs. Brodus Clay and a bunch of backstage stuff with the Legends gained 326,000 viewers. The AJ Lee and Daniel Bryan wedding at 9pm gained 616,000 viewers for a 3.91 rating. The Rock coming out with CM Punk and Daniel Bryan in the ring gained 575,000 viewers for a 4.28 quarter rating. Christian vs. The Miz lost 895,000 viewers but that's not a surprise given the large gains for the previous segments.

The segment with Triple H, Paul Heyman and Stephanie McMahon gained 334,000 viewers. Brock Lesnar's brawl with Triple H gained 90,000 more viewers. The Heath Slater segment with the WWE Legends gained 25,000 viewers for a 3.99 quarter rating in a timeslot that usually loses big time. You would expect that Slater segment to lose a lot of viewers because it came right after the big HHH-Lesnar segment.

The Undertaker's return with Kane gained 293,000 viewers. WWE Champion CM Punk vs. John Cena with The Rock and Big Show appearing gained 389,000 viewers and peaked the show with a 4.43 overrun rating.

source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

I've always wondered how this ratings stuff works.

So...HHH, Stephanie & Paul E. gained 334,000 viewers. How? No one knew it was "up next" or did they?...did 300,000 people call their friends and get them to tune in? I dont deny the numbers, but I've always wondered how this shit works.

Anyone know?

More On Kharma's WWE Departure, Kelly's Status, Harley Race

- WWE Hall of Famer Harley Race was backstage for RAW 1000 but not used.

- We noted before that Kelly Kelly was set to be brought back for RAW 1000 but did not appear on TV. As of this past weekend, she had not informed WWE of a time when she was going to come back or any future plans asking for more time off. Some people in the company even thought this would be her return full-time but that was never the plan.

- Word on Kharma's WWE departure is that she had been in Florida training for her return to action but got the knock for being out of shape, hard to work with and stubborn about suggestions of how they wanted to change her character. She had been losing weight since we last saw her.

source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Okay, the bolded item above makes ZERO sense. She got a bad rap for being out of shape (was that really a surprise to them?), but she'd been working out and losing weight recently. Either the WWE is just plain ol' stupid (which wouldn't surprise me in the least), or this is a very idiotic, irresponsible rumor, which could also be the case as well. Either way, the WWE lost out by letting her go, and this could've possibly been the reason why they decided to hire Sara Del Rey (cuz they knew they were getting rid of her).

alexnvrmnd777 said:

musicology54 said:

http://nodq.com/wwe/345222187.shtml

NoDQ.com > WWE > Kevin Nash Says There Will Be An nWo Reunion
Posted by Steve Carrier on 07/25/2012 at 07:24 AM

The New World Order created chaos in the ranks of World Championship Wrestling as the renegade faction sought success by any means necessary. Now, group founder Kevin Nash is looking to reform the nefarious faction and run roughshod over the world of wrestling once again.

"A lot of you wanted an NWO reunion, there will be one. As you know we only come in take over mode. Stay tuned!!!," he announced Tuesday night via Twitter.

The group's reformation could take place in WWE and if Nash has his wish fulfilled, with CM Punk as their leader. Nash tweeted to a fan that he wants the WWE Champion as group captain with the "NWO army to protect the gold."

"Rock will never walk out of the Rumble with the belt. We got Phil's back," he adds.

Meanwhile, TNA Wrestling executive Eric Bischoff re-tweeted Nash's announcement reading "A lot of you wanted an NWO reunion, there will be one. As you know we only come in take over mode. Stay tuned!!!"

Sigh.... And here we go again. *facepalm*

Again?

Timmy84 said:

If the NWO is in fact mounting up for a comeback, that should be a sign

that wrasslin' is out of fresh ideas, storylines, characters and mojo. Who

the hell wants to Kevin Nash's old grey ass (who couldn't wrestle his way

out of a brown paper bag), that beat.the.fuck.up Scott Hall, or that other

dude, Shawn whatever his name is (1-2-3 Kid) clunk and clod their way

about the ring? Kevin Nash may be the most overrated wrasslin' superstar

that ever existed: he was unathletic, had no speed, no agility, no technical

wrestling abilities, he couldn't sell his matches/moves well....he was popular

because he was kinda charismatic, funny and just big as fuck. The same

could be said about Hogan, but Hogan was charismatic and transcendent even

when he was asleep.

They might as well bring back the Midnight and Rock n Roll Express for

another doozy.

musicology54 said:

Apparently. To be honest i would like punk to be in the nWo (hides in box)Timmy84 said:

Again?

To be honest, I don't see Punk wanting to resurrect such an old idea!! At least I hope he doesn't.

StonedImmaculate said:

I've always wondered how this ratings stuff works.

So...HHH, Stephanie & Paul E. gained 334,000 viewers. How? No one knew it was "up next" or did they?...did 300,000 people call their friends and get them to tune in? I dont deny the numbers, but I've always wondered how this shit works.

Anyone know?

I'm not really sure. I would imagine people who watch it turn it off when there's a segment that doesn't interest them, and if there's one that is interesting, they may tell their friends or send a tweet out about, which in turn will get others to check out what's going on. And this is PURELY a guess on my part!

alexnvrmnd777 said:

So, what did everyone think of Raw's 1000th episode?

It was great to see a REAL DX reunion. They've conveniently cut the New Age Outlaws and X-Pac out of the group's history for so many years now. So, it was good to see them finally get their due as members of the group. Hell, it was Road Dogg that was always doing the whole "ladies and gentlemen..." bit in the first place. Trips took it from him when it became just him and HBK.

The end where CM Punk turned heel was GENIUS!!! I'm glad we weren't the only ones who saw how him pandering to all the dumbass kids and the crowds in general was killing his character and that they decided to do change him back. My only so-called problem about the whole scenario was that I wish Rock came out to help the beat down of Cena. That might make him look like a heel, but I would say it's because he "just doesn't like him", The Rock's own words. So, why run down to save someone who you "just don't like"? Didn't make sense to me.

Speaking of Rock, it was good to hear him getting a title shot at the 2013 Royal Rumble. What has he done to deserve one? Absolutely NOTHING, but it's The Rock. He's my boy, so I have no problem with it. I think he'll become the champ then (only if the current champ is NOT Cena), only to lose the title at WM against Cena. Therefore, they get the title off of him before he leaves to go "acting" again (I use that term very loosely), and Cena gets his win back.

AJ as the GM? You could tell this was a last minute decision because of how their ratings have either held or increased a little recently due to AJ's love triangle with Bryan and Punk. Did they do this just to find a way to have her not marry Bryan? If so, talk about lazy ass writing!! AJ did tell me last night that she wasn't going to be seen marrying anyone but ME, whether it was fake on TV or not, so I already knew this wedding wasn't going down. She made me promise not to say anything, though. Also, it looks like they might do some sort of Charlie Sheen/Bryan angle for Summerslam next month. Sigh.... *facepalm* I hope I'm wrong.

Undertaker and Kane destroying jobbers? Meh. The stupid way Heyman was "goaded" into accepting a match for Brock and Trips, along with Trips getting the better of the Brock attack?? From meh to THAT'S BULLSHIT!!!! Miz winning the IC title? I don't have a problem with that, though if anyone was going to lose their belt, it really should've been Santino, whether the fans picked him to defend his belt during the show or not.

And finally, no Stone Cold Steve Austin???!! Then I'm sorry...this wasn't a real celebration. He was the one that initially took Raw to the highest of heights that will NEVER be reached again. And not even a recorded message or anything.

yes i agree about A TRUE DX REUNION tired of seeing just trips and SM ..4 me DX was always about what road dogg, billy gun and xpac did and with trips being the leader only.

i know he's ur boy and all i love the rock too, but FUCK HIM ..he don't deserve a title shot and what CM punk did 2 him was BRILLIANT ..fuck he gonna come back at the royal rumble and gain a title shot when his ass hasn't done a fucking thing in years 2 deserve that shot ..FUCK HIM

one thing about the brock/trips/heyman/steph angle.. at least they let heyman do the talking cause he knows how 2 work the mic..only thing i would have wished for was a chant of ECW when steph mocked him about his failure. homegirl better check herself cause many TRUE wrestling fans still chant out ECW at events. HELL there was even a TNA chant going on lol

but yeah no stone cold was whack and i do agree that santino needs 2 lose that fucking cobra belt ..this is now twice he's kept it while cody and now christian (2 legit wrestlers) have lost the belt while he's kept his ..

take santino and boring clay over 2 nxt with their bullshit matches

aj as gm ..bullshit ..time 2 put that bitch in the back and put my girls beth and nat, kaitlyn and even tamina in the forfront and bring that women's division 2 mean something again. i was thinking of even when steph was the woman's champ back in the day and how amped the crowd was back then ..now it's like ..alex tonguing down mae young ..just whack

L4OATheOriginal said:

alexnvrmnd777 said:

So, what did everyone think of Raw's 1000th episode?

It was great to see a REAL DX reunion. They've conveniently cut the New Age Outlaws and X-Pac out of the group's history for so many years now. So, it was good to see them finally get their due as members of the group. Hell, it was Road Dogg that was always doing the whole "ladies and gentlemen..." bit in the first place. Trips took it from him when it became just him and HBK.

The end where CM Punk turned heel was GENIUS!!! I'm glad we weren't the only ones who saw how him pandering to all the dumbass kids and the crowds in general was killing his character and that they decided to do change him back. My only so-called problem about the whole scenario was that I wish Rock came out to help the beat down of Cena. That might make him look like a heel, but I would say it's because he "just doesn't like him", The Rock's own words. So, why run down to save someone who you "just don't like"? Didn't make sense to me.

Speaking of Rock, it was good to hear him getting a title shot at the 2013 Royal Rumble. What has he done to deserve one? Absolutely NOTHING, but it's The Rock. He's my boy, so I have no problem with it. I think he'll become the champ then (only if the current champ is NOT Cena), only to lose the title at WM against Cena. Therefore, they get the title off of him before he leaves to go "acting" again (I use that term very loosely), and Cena gets his win back.

AJ as the GM? You could tell this was a last minute decision because of how their ratings have either held or increased a little recently due to AJ's love triangle with Bryan and Punk. Did they do this just to find a way to have her not marry Bryan? If so, talk about lazy ass writing!! AJ did tell me last night that she wasn't going to be seen marrying anyone but ME, whether it was fake on TV or not, so I already knew this wedding wasn't going down. She made me promise not to say anything, though. Also, it looks like they might do some sort of Charlie Sheen/Bryan angle for Summerslam next month. Sigh.... *facepalm* I hope I'm wrong.

Undertaker and Kane destroying jobbers? Meh. The stupid way Heyman was "goaded" into accepting a match for Brock and Trips, along with Trips getting the better of the Brock attack?? From meh to THAT'S BULLSHIT!!!! Miz winning the IC title? I don't have a problem with that, though if anyone was going to lose their belt, it really should've been Santino, whether the fans picked him to defend his belt during the show or not.

And finally, no Stone Cold Steve Austin???!! Then I'm sorry...this wasn't a real celebration. He was the one that initially took Raw to the highest of heights that will NEVER be reached again. And not even a recorded message or anything.

yes i agree about A TRUE DX REUNION tired of seeing just trips and SM ..4 me DX was always about what road dogg, billy gun and xpac did and with trips being the leader only.

i know he's ur boy and all i love the rock too, but FUCK HIM ..he don't deserve a title shot and what CM punk did 2 him was BRILLIANT ..fuck he gonna come back at the royal rumble and gain a title shot when his ass hasn't done a fucking thing in years 2 deserve that shot ..FUCK HIM

one thing about the brock/trips/heyman/steph angle.. at least they let heyman do the talking cause he knows how 2 work the mic..only thing i would have wished for was a chant of ECW when steph mocked him about his failure. homegirl better check herself cause many TRUE wrestling fans still chant out ECW at events. HELL there was even a TNA chant going on lol

but yeah no stone cold was whack and i do agree that santino needs 2 lose that fucking cobra belt ..this is now twice he's kept it while cody and now christian (2 legit wrestlers) have lost the belt while he's kept his ..

take santino and boring clay over 2 nxt with their bullshit matches

aj as gm ..bullshit ..time 2 put that bitch in the back and put my girls beth and nat, kaitlyn and even tamina in the forfront and bring that women's division 2 mean something again. i was thinking of even when steph was the woman's champ back in the day and how amped the crowd was back then ..now it's like ..alex tonguing down mae young ..just whack

Regarding the TNA chant, only ONE person was chanting "TNA" that ONE time, so I wouldn't even call it a chant. LMAO! That was just a nut sayin' shit.

Second, fuck you, nucca. Stop hatin' on the Rock. You are STILL catching feelings over the fact that he beat your boy Cena at WM. Well, cheer up, bucko. I'm sure they're going to have Cena get his win back at next year's WM once ROCK GETS THE TITLE AT ROYAL RUMBLE this coming year. I mean, did Sheamus deserve the title when he first won it a couple of years ago? No!! So how DARE you take that right away from a legend such as The Rock!!!! How dare thee?

Oh, and I'm only going to say this ONE more time....stop talkin' shit about my girl AJ. You've been warned.

jseven said:

Velvet Sky just announced on Twitter she has been granted her release from TNA. That comes 2 weeks after Angelina Love was released. Could they be coming to the WWE? Velvet Sky alone would be a huge upgrade to that "diva's" division. Also, The Blueprint Matt Morgan is still in talks to sign with WWE.

Maybe she's going to WWE........or porn:lol:

duccichucka said:

If the NWO is in fact mounting up for a comeback, that should be a sign

that wrasslin' is out of fresh ideas, storylines, characters and mojo. Who

the hell wants to Kevin Nash's old grey ass (who couldn't wrestle his way

out of a brown paper bag), that beat.the.fuck.up Scott Hall, or that other

dude, Shawn whatever his name is (1-2-3 Kid) clunk and clod their way

about the ring? Kevin Nash may be the most overrated wrasslin' superstar

that ever existed: he was unathletic, had no speed, no agility, no technical

wrestling abilities, he couldn't sell his matches/moves well....he was popular

because he was kinda charismatic, funny and just big as fuck. The same

could be said about Hogan, but Hogan was charismatic and transcendent even

when he was asleep.

They might as well bring back the Midnight and Rock n Roll Express for

another doozy.

They just wrestled where i live for a charity event last weekend and Ricky Morton

looks like the back of hell. Robert Morton isn't as bad looking but he is now fat

and gangly. I feel you on the NWO. I haven't been paying much attention to TNA/Impact

ever since they turned it into WCW 2011 2012.

phunkdaddy said:

duccichucka said:

If the NWO is in fact mounting up for a comeback, that should be a sign

that wrasslin' is out of fresh ideas, storylines, characters and mojo. Who

the hell wants to Kevin Nash's old grey ass (who couldn't wrestle his way

out of a brown paper bag), that beat.the.fuck.up Scott Hall, or that other

dude, Shawn whatever his name is (1-2-3 Kid) clunk and clod their way

about the ring? Kevin Nash may be the most overrated wrasslin' superstar

that ever existed: he was unathletic, had no speed, no agility, no technical

wrestling abilities, he couldn't sell his matches/moves well....he was popular

because he was kinda charismatic, funny and just big as fuck. The same

could be said about Hogan, but Hogan was charismatic and transcendent even

when he was asleep.

They might as well bring back the Midnight and Rock n Roll Express for

another doozy.

They just wrestled where i live for a charity event last weekend and Ricky Morton

looks like the back of hell. Robert Morton isn't as bad looking but he is now fat

and gangly. I feel you on the NWO. I haven't been paying much attention to TNA/Impact

ever since they turned it into WCW 2011 2012.

Wow, is it like that now?

alexnvrmnd777 said:

L4OATheOriginal said:

yes i agree about A TRUE DX REUNION tired of seeing just trips and SM ..4 me DX was always about what road dogg, billy gun and xpac did and with trips being the leader only.

i know he's ur boy and all i love the rock too, but FUCK HIM ..he don't deserve a title shot and what CM punk did 2 him was BRILLIANT ..fuck he gonna come back at the royal rumble and gain a title shot when his ass hasn't done a fucking thing in years 2 deserve that shot ..FUCK HIM

one thing about the brock/trips/heyman/steph angle.. at least they let heyman do the talking cause he knows how 2 work the mic..only thing i would have wished for was a chant of ECW when steph mocked him about his failure. homegirl better check herself cause many TRUE wrestling fans still chant out ECW at events. HELL there was even a TNA chant going on lol

but yeah no stone cold was whack and i do agree that santino needs 2 lose that fucking cobra belt ..this is now twice he's kept it while cody and now christian (2 legit wrestlers) have lost the belt while he's kept his ..

take santino and boring clay over 2 nxt with their bullshit matches

aj as gm ..bullshit ..time 2 put that bitch in the back and put my girls beth and nat, kaitlyn and even tamina in the forfront and bring that women's division 2 mean something again. i was thinking of even when steph was the woman's champ back in the day and how amped the crowd was back then ..now it's like ..alex tonguing down mae young ..just whack

Regarding the TNA chant, only ONE person was chanting "TNA" that ONE time, so I wouldn't even call it a chant. LMAO! That was just a nut sayin' shit.

Second, fuck you, nucca. Stop hatin' on the Rock. You are STILL catching feelings over the fact that he beat your boy Cena at WM. Well, cheer up, bucko. I'm sure they're going to have Cena get his win back at next year's WM once ROCK GETS THE TITLE AT ROYAL RUMBLE this coming year. I mean, did Sheamus deserve the title when he first won it a couple of years ago? No!! So how DARE you take that right away from a legend such as The Rock!!!! How dare thee?

Oh, and I'm only going to say this ONE more time....stop talkin' shit about my girl AJ. You've been warned.

truth hurts about the rock tho son face it ..he's not even part time wrestler and he gets a shot at the title. i'm hoping cm punk will either still have the belt or has it again in time 2 fuck the rock up ..oops i mean dwayne! ..PIPE BOMB

and as 4 aj ..tell her skipping ass 2 hit the bricks son and put on real wrestlers on the program

bboy87 said:

jseven said:

Velvet Sky just announced on Twitter she has been granted her release from TNA. That comes 2 weeks after Angelina Love was released. Could they be coming to the WWE? Velvet Sky alone would be a huge upgrade to that "diva's" division. Also, The Blueprint Matt Morgan is still in talks to sign with WWE.

Maybe she's going to WWE........or porn:lol:

she would improve that division as would angelina love

but mayne don't be talking about my wife velvet like that doing porn son ..no tapes of her and I are leaking out ever!!

but i hear there is one with alex and mae young ..yuck!!

and didn't u make one with stephanie?

L4OATheOriginal said:

bboy87 said:

Maybe she's going to WWE........or porn:lol:

she would improve that division as would angelina love

but mayne don't be talking about my wife velvet like that doing porn son ..no tapes of her and I are leaking out ever!!

but i hear there is one with alex and mae young ..yuck!!

and didn't u make one with stephanie?

You know why they won't "ever" leak out? Because you don't even know her, son!

And no, Bboy didn't make one with Steph....I did, you hater!! And she was lookin' mighty right....

http://blogs.phoenixnewti...action.php

Rob Van Dam on Why Total Nonstop Action is Different from WWE, His Unusual-Looking Tights, and Why He Supports Marijuana Use

By Benjamin Leatherman Fri., Jul. 27 2012 at 1:24 PM

Courtesy of TNA

Rob Van Dam (center) lays into an opponent during a match for Total Nonstop Action.

Rob Van Dam loves catching some air. The 6-foot, 238-pound professional wrestler (who performs for Total Nonstop Action) has a tendency to bust out with high-flying acrobatic moves during matches, causing much excitement in the crowds of wrestling fans that watch him.

Some of his most spectacular maneuvers include the "Five-Star Frog Splash," where he soars from the top turnbuckle of a wrestling ring and lands on his supine opponent, and the "Van Daminator," which involves a leaping kick that propels a metal folding chair into another dude's face.

On October 14, you can expect to see him flying all over the ring when TNA, the chief competitor to World Wrestling Entertainment in the world of suplexes and body slams, stages Bound for Glory (its biggest event of the year) at the Grand Canyon University Arena. Tickets for the event, which will be broadcast on pay-per-view, went on sale this morning and Jackalope Ranch had an opportunity to speak with Van Dam about his sky-high moves, how TNA is different from the WWE, and why he supports marijuana usage.

How is TNA different from other wrestling companies, like the WWE?

In Total Nonstop Action, individual wrestlers have a lot more freedom to artistically express themselves versus WWE. When we have our matches, they are known to be more athletic, more competitive in nature, and that's what wrestling fans really appreciate. And the fact there's more of a focus on wrestling in Total Nonstop Action over the other major company on TV. Whereas WWE has been known to feature more of the 400-pound giants that aren't necessarily going to [perform] quite as impressively. TNA focuses more on the wrestler's abilities and skills and gives them a chance to shine out there in front of the fans.

Are there other differences?

It's also more of an up-close-and-personal experience where wrestlers are more accessible and there's a lot of times spent on meeting the fans. And Bound For Glory will be no different and we'll be there on October 14 with a big meet-and-greet. The day before that is also something called "TNA Fan InterAction," which all the top stars will be there as well. People can meet and talk to their wrestlers and get their photos taken with 'em.

What's it like being a professional wrestler and performing on nationwide TV?

We're all in the ring to show off. That's what being in the spotlight is all about. You have your skills and you're there to show a bunch of people who paid to see them what you got.

Your big move is the "Five-Star Frog Splash," where you leap from the top turnbuckle and land on your opponent. How much does it hurt when you land?

Any time that you want to drop from 10 feet and then land on your ribs you're going to feel it (laughs). All you can do is be conditioned for it by training and being a pro wrestler and being able to take all those moves. Depending on when in the match a do the move also matters, as I feel it less at the beginning of a match when I'm fresh than at the end. It's all about calculating and hitting it at the right time. Obviously, it's nothing I can't handle.

You've wrestled for more than 20 years now. How long will you continue to perform?

I don't know, I get asked that a lot. I've been wrestling for a long time and right now I'm in a unique position of balance where I have more experience than most other wrestlers that are still competing but I'm still peaking physically. I'm still able to do every move I've ever did when I was 18- or 25-years-old and I'm still making money. So right now wouldn't be the time to leave. Looking down the road, however, it's hard to say. I don't plan on being Ric Flair's age and hitting the Rolling Thunder.

Or being Hulk Hogan's age and hawking Rent-A-Center television?

Yes (laughs). All the respect in the world for those guys and they obviously love the business to stay in it that long. I have a lot of interests outside of the business and a lot of projects that take my time and my energy. So, really, we'll see what life brings me, but I know I'll be in TNA at least for a while, so the question of me jumping over to wrestle on [WWE] Raw or something, I can tell you that's not going to happen.

What's been the pinnacle moment of your career thus far?

I would say my crowing moment was when I won the ECW championship and WWE championship from John Cena at One Night Stand in 2006. It wasn't just because I was crowned world champion, but it was because I did it my way. I stuck to my guns, I stayed hardcore when I was told that hardcore [wrestling] wouldn't fit with WWE.

Courtesy of TNA

Rob Van Dam performs a Rolling Thunder on an opponent.

Fans have been comparing WWE's Ryback to you because of your similar taste in wrestling tights. What do you think about that?

Well, the truth is that Ryback reached out to me and asked for permission to use the same airbrush artist that I use, Joe Holland in Savannah, Georgia. The guy's been making me the same outfits since like 1995 and he doesn't do a lot work for wrestlers. And I'm all for anyone that can make more business off of things they do for me. Ryback has my blessing [and] I'm flattered that he's a fan of mine. He's been very respectful in reaching out to me. I haven't met the guy but have nothing but respect for him.

Why have you worn such distinctive gear covered with snakes, tigers, yin-yangs or whatever?

One of my many, many ways that I stand out. Everything about me is different, in and out of the ring. I'm a nonconformist, like a duck-billed platypus. Way back in 1992-93, I was wrestling for All Japan and it was my boss [Shohei] "Giant" Baba that told me he wanted me to start wearing bright colors. I think he wanted me to look like the Rockers or something because I just had a real generic black singlet. And when I met Joe Holland, I had an idea for him to paint on a little silhouette on my outfit of me doing a flying kick. And that was the first one. From there it just got more elaborate. And each time he tries to outdo himself.

You're a noted fan of marijuana and a big supporter of medicalization. Do you smoke out regularly?

Um, that's more of a personal question than a direct question that my character talks about. It's not so much part of the show as just [something] connecting me to that culture. A lot of my fans are in that culture and when I'm not wrestling I'm a strong advocate for ending the marijuana prohibition. Not to mention I also help educate people about medicinal marijuana programs. Since you brought it up, I'd love to tell everybody that it's impossible to overdose from marijuana. Everyone's brainwashed into thinking it's a harmful drug but its not. It's the most resourceful plant that we have on the entire planet. Medicinally, recreationally, materially...it could basically replace so many huge conglomerate and big corporate businesses, which is the reason why its outlawed.

"Andy wanted to be the bad guy."

Andy Kaufman insisted he was never a comedian — he was a performance artist, and his legendary rivalry with the "King of Memphis, Jerry Lawler, was as close to a masterpiece as sports-entertainment has ever seen. Sports-entertainment had never before so prominently featured an actor at Kaufman’s degree of fame, and his involvement paved the way for celebrities in rings for decades to come.

In 1982, Kaufman was one of the most controversial actors in show business, starring as the lovable Latka Gravas on the sitcom “Taxi,” and having appeared on polarizing “Saturday Night Live” segments. But Andy always had been fascinated by the world of professional wrestling, and through an odd turn of events, he ended up entangled in one the industry’s most bitter rivalries with WWE Hall of Famer Jerry Lawler. Their conflict escalated from local Memphis, Tenn., television to an infamous duel on the July 28th edition of “Late Night with David Letterman,” solidifying its place in not only the annals of wrestling history, but also all of pop culture. One day after the historic 1,000th episode of Raw, WWE Classics sat down with Jerry Lawler to celebrate the 30th anniversary of this other important moment in television history.

WWE CLASSICS: Before you met Andy, did you know that he had begun to refer to himself as the "Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion of the World," and wrestled women as part of his nightclub act?

JERRY LAWLER: The only thing I knew about Andy was just what I’d seen on “Taxi.” I didn’t even know that much about his history before, that he was a standup comic, and anything that he had done before “Taxi.” I only really knew him as the lovable character Latka on the TV show. And, of course, at the time “Taxi” was one of the top network shows in the country.

WWE CLASSICS: So how did he come to be part of your wrestling company in Memphis?

LAWLER: I had heard that Andy already tried to incorporate wrestling women out of the audience at his different nightclub performances and comedy shows, and apparently it was not being received all that well. People would go to a comedy club to see Andy, and all of a sudden he would bring out a mat and [Andy’s best friend and writing partner] Bob Zmuda in a referee shirt and he’s challenging women out of the audience to come up there and grapple with him. Nobody was enjoying it but Andy. So Andy went to one of WWE’s shows in New York City and approached Vince McMahon Sr. with the idea of wrestling women out of the audience at an actual wrestling event. Andy felt like he wanted to get a crowd response from people that had actually come to see a wrestling show. My understanding is that Vince Sr. explained to Andy that, “Our fans are skeptical anyway, and I’m hesitant to involve a Hollywood actor in our wrestling show. I don’t want people to think that all of our wrestlers are actors.” So, he kind of nicely gave Andy the brush-off.

WWE CLASSICS: And after that he turned to your company in Memphis?

LAWLER: My friend [wrestling journalist] Bill Apter happened to be at that show in New York. He knew Andy and told him, “I’ve got a friend, Jerry Lawler, and he promotes wrestling that draws 10,000 fans every week down at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis. I’ll give you Jerry’s number, and I think he might be interested in it.”

WWE CLASSICS: And you were receptive to Andy’s idea?

LAWLER: When I received a call from Andy Kaufman, I jumped on it right away. I was looking for us to get any kind of rub at all from a major Hollywood star coming to my hometown of Memphis and appearing at a wrestling event. The whole idea was that Andy was going to come down and wrestle some women out of the audience, which he did.

WWE CLASSICS: What were your initial impressions of Andy?

LAWLER: Bill had told me, “You may hear that Andy’s strange or kind of weird, or a little bit out there, but nothing could be further from the truth. He’s just a really nice, quiet, humble kid.” And sure enough, when I met him, I was just so taken aback by this guy who’s on one of the top TV shows in the country, a major television star, and he was just like the nicest, most well-mannered guy that you’d ever meet. Andy and I were the same age when we met, and he never, not once, ever called me by my first name. It was always, “Mr. Lawler.”

WWE CLASSICS: He had so much respect for sports-entertainment.

LAWLER: Yes, he did — a tremendous amount of respect for the business. As a kid, it made such a big impact on him. Andy told me, “I would watch the wrestling so closely, and I was amazed at the response that the wrestlers could get from the crowd. One of the things that really impressed me was that some of those guys could go out there and intentionally make people despise them, but at the same time they were still popular.” And that, maybe, scarred poor Andy for life, because that’s literally what he wanted to do. He wanted to be the bad guy.

WWE CLASSICS: Andy didn’t want to tell jokes, he just wanted to get a reaction.

LAWLER: Andy explained to me on our first meeting, “I’m not a comedian. I’ve never gone out and told a joke in my life. I’m just a performance artist.” He would do things to elicit a reaction from his audience, and the funny thing was Andy enjoyed getting a negative reaction more so than a positive reaction. Those were the words out of his mouth: “I wanna play a bad guy.”

WWE CLASSICS: What happened on the first show he did in Memphis?

LAWLER: Andy wanted to step in the middle of the ring, and challenge women. The first night that he did it, women came down, and we let the audience literally pick who Andy’s opponents were going to be. The next thing you know, we’ve got five women lined up, and we just rang the bell. Andy made some crazy comments beforehand. I think he offered $5,000 to any of the women that could beat him. It just got more ridiculous. He said to one woman, “If you can beat me, I’ll marry you!” Just crazy stuff. We drew a capacity crowd, a complete sellout. People came out to see the big TV star. I honestly believe that his intentions were to do just that one show and get it out of his system, but I saw dollar signs. So I said, “Andy that was great. We run a show here every week. You need to come back and do it again. We’ll really pump it up big on TV this Saturday.” And he said, “Really? I can come back and do it again?” And I said, “Of course!”

“Did you come down here to wrestle or to act like an ass?”

WWE CLASSICS: You both had a working relationship. How did the rivalry between you two start?

LAWLER: On one of the shows, one of his opponents was this really feisty young girl named Foxy. Andy had already beaten a few of the women that night, but this Foxy, when the bell rang for their match, she charged across the ring like a veteran wrestler, picked Andy up in the air and bodyslammed him. The roof almost blew off the Coliseum. You couldn’t have written a better scenario. She wore Andy out, and he was literally trying to crawl out of the ring. Finally, she just got tired, Andy got the best of her and pinned her. But the crowd reaction through the whole thing was phenomenal.

WWE CLASSICS: What was Andy’s reaction to nearly being beaten by a woman?

LAWLER: He came backstage after that match and I said, “My god, did you hear the reaction?” And he was so excited. So I said, “Why don’t we do this? Come back next week, we’ll bring Foxy back and I’ll go out on TV and I’m going to train her. She was so close to beating you that with me in her corner, I can teach her in just a matter of days all she’d need to know to beat you.”

WWE CLASSICS: Was Foxy comfortable with that?

LAWLER: Well, she and I did an interview at the TV taping. When I gave her a second to talk, she said, “Well, I sure do need the $5,000. To be honest with you, my house burned down last Friday. But I'll tell you this, I wouldn’t marry Andy Kaufman if he was the last man on earth.” She was perfect.

WWE CLASSICS: How did the rematch between Andy and Foxy go down?

LAWLER: I was in her corner, but Foxy didn’t do nearly as well in this match as she had done in the first one. Andy just kinda manhandled her and pinned her. And then Andy started pushing the envelope. He started stomping on her, kicking on her, showing his muscles, and then got down and rubbed her face in the mat. Suddenly, 10,000 fans in the Mid-South Coliseum started yelling, “Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!”

WWE CLASSICS: You knew you had to get in there do something to stop him.

LAWLER: I got in the ring, grabbed Andy by the arm, and pulled him off of her. He staggers, falls across the ring, jumps up and starts screaming, “I will sue you! You can’t put your hands on me! I will sue you for everything you’re worth! I’m a big Hollywood star and you can’t touch me!” And that’s how it all started.

WWE CLASSICS: It was time for Andy to wrestle a man, and he was scheduled to face you in April 1982. He started to make these infamous interviews that really stirred the pot, talking about having brains and being a big star from Hollywood. He made fun of Memphis residents’ southern dialect. Where did those air?

LAWLER: They aired locally on our NBC affiliate, Channel Five — WMC-TV. We had a 90-minute wrestling show every Saturday morning there on Channel Five. He would tape some in LA and some when he was here at the Coliseum. In one he said, “Ladies and gentlemen of Memphis, I’m going to do you all a favor. I’m going to teach you some personal hygiene.” And he held up a bar of soap and said, “This is soap. Say it with me. Soooaap. You run it under the water, you lather it up, and you wash under your arms, and you’ll be surprised how much better you’ll smell.”

WWE CLASSICS: What was the public’s reaction to these interviews?

LAWLER: He also did one about toilet paper, and after that one aired, the station manager, Mori Greiner, called up and said, “We can’t air more of these Andy Kaufman videos. We’re getting so many hate calls it’s tying up our switchboard. Not just on Saturday, but all week long people are calling and threatening Andy and threatening the station for airing these offensive interviews.”

WWE CLASSICS: Yeah, he really did everything he could to make people hate him. What happens when you both finally meet in the ring in April 1982?

LAWLER: We had so much media coverage. Up until that time, the only people that would cover our wrestling was the station we were on. But everybody was interested in this. Andy and I finally have this so-called match, and in the Memphis Wrestling Association, the piledriver was an illegal move. If you used a piledriver on your opponent, you were immediately disqualified. But that’s what I was famous for. That was my finishing maneuver.

WWE CLASSICS: But he wouldn’t even tangle up with you, he was prancing all around the ring. Even before the match began, he was acting like a goof, and you get on the mic and you say that famous line.

LAWLER: Yeah, I said, “Did you come down here to wrestle or to act like an ass?”

WWE CLASSICS: So how did you finally get him to fight you?

LAWLER: I got in the ring, put both hands behind my back and said, “Come on, I’m going to give you a free headlock. You’ve talked about all of these moves that you know. Put a headlock on me and let’s get this thing started.” He put me in the headlock, I hesitated for a few seconds, then lifted him up into the air and gave him a back suplex. Then I got up and immediately gave him a piledriver, and that caused the referee to ring the bell and I was disqualified.

WWE CLASSICS: What was the crowd’s reaction?

LAWLER: Well, Andy was down, so I pulled him up and gave him the second piledriver, which really pleased the crowd.

"I slapped the taste out of his mouth. I slapped him as hard as I could."

WWE CLASSICS: And that was the whole match?

LAWLER: That was basically what the match consisted of. But after the match, Andy was just down. Normally in Memphis after the main event, people would make a mad rush for the exit to try and beat the traffic. But Andy had been declared the victor by disqualification, and after the bell was rung, Andy just laid there and everybody stuck around. They wanted to see how badly Andy was hurt. Bob Zmuda was checking on Andy. George Shapiro, who was Andy’s manager, was in Memphis as well for the fight. And he was in the ring all concerned. Danny Davis was managing me that night, and he was there in the ring with me. Andy was just lying there motionless like he was dead.

WWE CLASSICS: Were you concerned at all that you had injured this big star?

LAWLER: Well, finally, I tell the referee, Jerry Calhoun, a good friend of mine, “Go help Andy up, and get him back to the dressing room.” He kneels down, talks to Andy and comes back over to me and he says, “He says he wants an ambulance.” I told Calhoun, “No, no, no, just get him back to the dressing room.” So he bends down again, gets up, shakes his head and says, “He says he really wants an ambulance.”

WWE CLASSICS: Why were you so resistant to having an ambulance come to the Coliseum?

LAWLER: Very seldom had we done anything where we needed to get an ambulance. It was like $500 to get an ambulance there, but Andy tells Calhoun that he’ll pay for it. So we wait around, and all of sudden we hear the back door of the Coliseum open up. All the 10,000 people had stayed right there in the building, and here comes this ambulance. The EMTs put this big neck brace on Andy, put him on a stretcher, and took him to Saint Francis Hospital here in Memphis. He was admitted and stayed in the hospital with his neck in traction for three days. It was national publicity. All over the country on TV news shows and newspapers the very next day said that this big star had been injured in a wrestling match in Memphis.

WWE CLASSICS: So how did you end up on the David Letterman show together?

LAWLER: Finally, three days later when Andy checked out of the hospital and went back to California, he taped some more interviews saying, “This is not over! You tried to end my career! You tried to break my neck!” We aired them and we were waiting to do a rematch when I got a call to ask me to be on the David Letterman show with Andy. Like I was going to say no, right? So I said, “Yeah, what are we going to do?” They were planning to show the match, and we were going to talk about what happened.

WWE CLASSICS: But it ended up being far more than that.

LAWLER: Right. When I got to New York, Andy and I had to meet together with a segment coordinator, but he refused to do it, he would not come anywhere near me. So we went in separately. They told me we were going to be on for two segments. They said, “The first segment, Dave is going to show the clips of Andy harassing you. Then we’re going to show the clip of you piledriving Andy. After that, you’re both going to have a little bit of lighthearted confrontation. Dave will take a break, and after the break, Andy will apologize to you for making fun of wrestling. You’ll apologize to Andy for hurting his neck. Then Andy will stand up and sing “What the world needs now is love sweet love.”

WWE CLASSICS: But it didn’t quite go as planned.

LAWLER: No! What they didn’t tell me is that Dave had a bell underneath the desk that he could ring with his foot. So when Andy and I started arguing, Dave started hitting the bell going “ding ding ding ding!”

WWE CLASSICS: Dave was a wrestling fan at one point, right?

LAWLER: When we went to commercial break, Andy got up and walked away because he couldn’t stand to sit next to me. So Dave starts talking to me about when he was working in Indianapolis and did some ring announcing for Dick the Bruiser. So yeah, I guess he was kind of a fan. We got ready to go back on the air, Andy sat back down, and we got to the part where Dave was asking us both for an apology. But Andy wouldn’t apologize, and I didn’t apologize. And everything after that just sort of happened like an out of body experience. When I watch it now, it’s like somebody else was doing it.

WWE CLASSICS: Things started to get really heated once you both refused to apologize.

LAWLER: When neither one of us apologized nor did Andy sing, Dave realized it was going south. So he said, “We’ll take another break and see if we can get things sorted out.” I knew once we went to break, they were going to get rid of us. So when Paul Shaffer’s band started playing music to break, I got up out of the seat, looked Andy in the eye, and slapped the taste out of his mouth. I slapped him as hard as I could. Knocked him right out of the chair. Paul Shaffer stopped playing the music, and the place just went silent. Everybody was just stunned. Dave had no clue to what to. He said later that was the first time he completely lost control of a show. It just shocked everybody.

WWE CLASSICS: What was Andy’s reaction?

LAWLER: Andy staggered up and the security guard grabbed me and led me back to the green room. I could hear people wailing and Andy screaming, it sounded like a real bad scene. They didn’t start taping again until about 15 minutes later. Usually they just sit there for a two-minute commercial break. Finally, an intern comes in and says “Mr. Lawler? Mr. Letterman would like to know if you’d like to come back out and wrap things up.” So I walked back through the curtain, and suddenly the crowd was like a wrestling crowd. They started booing me.

WWE CLASSICS: The roles were now reversed from how it was in Memphis. Suddenly in New York City, Andy’s home turf, and you’re the villain.

LAWLER: The roles were reversed, right. I sat down, and Andy was offstage, so Dave asked if he was going to come back. Andy said, “No, I can’t. If I come back I’m just going to say words you can’t say on TV. So I’m not coming out there.” That part wasn’t on TV, but once we came back on, Andy stormed onto the set and just started screaming profanities. I couldn’t believe it. Apparently that’s the thing that really freaked Dave out because he knew Andy would never swear. He’d never curse. Dave tries to look down at some papers on his desk. He doesn’t know what to do while Andy is screaming. Andy keeps going on and on, pounds on Dave’s desk, and Dave jumps. Then Andy grabs Dave’s cup of coffee and looks at me, shows me the cup and throws the hot coffee at me. I jump up, lunge toward him, he takes off, then the security guard takes us off.

WWE CLASSICS: What did Dave say to all of this?

LAWLER: Dave looks around and goes, “Well, I think you can say some of those words on TV. But if there’s one thing I say over and over, you cannot throw coffee.” Great quick reaction by Dave.

WWE CLASSICS: He’s the master of those.

LAWLER: Absolutely. So we were done. Dave thanked me for being there, and instead of the security guard taking me back to the green room, he takes me straight back to the elevator to try and protect me from Andy Kaufman. I go back to the hotel, and don’t hear another word from anybody. I had no clue what was going to happen until I turned the TV that night, and there it was. They showed everything, but in place of all of Andy’s curse words, they put in the sound of a cuckoo clock.

"To be a great villain, you’ve gotta get personal."

WWE CLASSICS: How soon did you know it was going to become a huge deal in the media?

LAWLER: As soon as it aired, my phone started blowing up. The New York Times, all the New York papers, everybody was calling. It just went ballistic.

WWE CLASSICS: This has become an iconic, not just wrestling moment, but a pop culture moment. After this gained legendary status, did you ever hear what Dave’s reaction was?

LAWLER: I heard that he was furious because it was so different than what was planned with his producers. I don’t think he was ever happy with it, but I also heard that his production staff referred to it for years as “The Famous Show.” That episode got so much attention and so much coverage, that they had to realize that this was one of the things that made Dave’s show famous.

WWE CLASSICS: It really went viral before there was an Internet.

LAWLER: Exactly. It is consistently listed as one of the top moments in the history of television. Thirty years later, I’m still doing interviews about it. We were talking to media just the other day for Raw 1,000, and every single one of them asked me about Andy Kaufman.

WWE CLASSICS: Out of all the great rivalries in wrestling and all the great pop culture moments, what is it about this one incident that 30 years later people are still so fascinated by?

LAWLER: It was the first time something like that had happened. I don’t know if I should tell this or not, but one night I was flying back on the plane with Vince McMahon. And he said, “You know, King, I’ve never told you this before, but I was so jealous when you got Andy Kaufman and did all that stuff with him down there in Memphis. Because he was from New York, and I thought we could have done all that stuff up here.” But he also said, “But I’ll be honest with you. There’s no way on Earth we could have done it as well as you guys did it.”

WWE CLASSICS: Wow. It would have been a totally different dynamic.

LAWLER: Yes, but it would have been a first. Vince loves firsts. To this day, you hear on Monday Night Raw that you’re going to see something for the first time ever. That’s big. And this was the first time any big deal Hollywood star was involved to that extent in wrestling. Vince realized, everybody realized, because it got so much national exposure. Everything back then was still regionalized. Cable TV hadn’t hit yet. The country was divided up into wrestling territories because of TV coverage. Once Vince saw you could use a Hollywood star to get that nationwide exposure, here comes Cyndi Lauper with Captain Lou and Wendi Richter, and then Mr. T gets brought in. The ball got rolling, and it hasn’t stopped to this day. Just in the past year, Hugh Jackman was in there punching Dolph Ziggler.

WWE CLASSICS: Yeah, you really could argue that Andy Kaufman is responsible for all of that.

LAWLER: I really feel, in my heart of hearts, that he was responsible for that. I certainly believe that Andy Kaufman deserves a spot in the celebrity wing of the WWE Hall of Fame. Without a doubt, we would not be where we are today without his involvement. I really feel that way. Even at Raw 1,000, we had Charlie Sheen challenging Daniel Bryan to a match. It’s Andy Kaufman revisited as recently as last night.

WWE CLASSICS: Where does Andy rank in the pantheon of great villains in wrestling? He was right up there.

LAWLER: He really was. To be a great villain, you’ve gotta get personal. And that’s what Andy did. He got personal with the people of Memphis by insulting their hygiene, and it went beyond just being about wrestling. He made things personal by insulting the fans themselves rather than just me. If he had ever gotten to do that on a national level, he just would have gotten better and better. He was a natural at it. He even created that sleazy lounge singer character named Tony Clifton just so he could play the bad guy. He wanted that reaction. Andy was a heel at heart.

Report: The Rock Not At WrestleMania 29?

The Rock appearing at next year's WrestleMania is still not a guarantee.

As we reported earlier, his biggest movie of 2013 - GI JOE 2: Retaliation - opens nationwide on March 29th, a week before WrestleMania 29. WWE does a full media blitz in the week leading up to the event.

A source told me that Vince McMahon is optimistic that The Rock can balance his New York-related GI Joe media appearances on the east coast with WrestleMania. These appearances would be theoretically mostly in the New York metro-area towards the end of the first week of April, or the week before WrestleMania. WWE officials are hopeful that they can possibly piggyback The Rock promoting WrestleMania while hyping the movie, getting extra value out of his appearances.

However, nothing is definitively set on this as of now.

source: WrestlingInc

Since you brought it up, I'd love to tell everybody that it's impossible to overdose from marijuana. Everyone's brainwashed into thinking it's a harmful drug but its not. It's the most resourceful plant that we have on the entire planet. Medicinally, recreationally, materially...it could basically replace so many huge conglomerate and big corporate businesses, which is the reason why its outlawed.

Fire it up, Rob...fire it up.

StonedImmaculate said:

Since you brought it up, I'd love to tell everybody that it's impossible to overdose from marijuana. Everyone's brainwashed into thinking it's a harmful drug but its not. It's the most resourceful plant that we have on the entire planet. Medicinally, recreationally, materially...it could basically replace so many huge conglomerate and big corporate businesses, which is the reason why its outlawed.

Fire it up, Rob...fire it up.

Yessir!

http://www.jrsbarbq.com/b...wweshopcom

Weekend Blog..More RAW1000..NXT..Foley/HOF..Punk/nWo..JR/King @ Attitude Era..Order JR's Today @ WWEShop.com

Sat, 07/28/2012 - 1:20pm — J.R.

One is either a team player or they aren't. Simple. End of story. I preached it when I was EVP of talent relations and I still believe in that philosophy today.

The reality of the matter is this...it is highly unlikely, thanks Gorilla, that exact collection of performers will EVER be under the same roof again. I look back upon my attendance at RAW1000 as a privilege and am grateful to have had the opportunity to see so many old friends that have meant a great deal to me over my long career.

I'd equate complaining about the amount of air time one received on a three hour, loaded show with the same illogical and selfish reasoning some have when they have major issues regarding their individual win/loss records within the genre. This just in...sports entertainment isn't the Olympics.

Really enjoyed the NXT tapings in Orlando Thursday night. We return to Full Sail University on Thursday August 9 to tape three more one hour broadcasts.

The atmosphere at NXT as it relates to the talents is relaxed, fun, and motivating. I've seen many wrestlers have their best matches in WWE, no matter the broadcast, on NXT. When one is able to exhale and simply go out and let their talents flow the results are often times much improved. Some people thrive on pressure, IE Steve Austin for example, while other talents, especially many young ones, develop better in an atmosphere like NXT where teaching, coaching, and positive motivation are prominent.

Several talents are distinguishing themselves on NXT and in Orlando. Some of the more experienced younger guys such as McGillicutty, Riley, Kidd, Mahal, Usos, Gabriel, and Curtis are maximizing their minutes. They simply need to keep taking positive steps. Demand of themselves to excel.

I've been impressed with the young ladies in ring skills on NXT including Paige, who's from England, Puerto Rico's Sophia, Texas Audrey Marie and Raquel Diaz, the daughter of the late Eddy Guerrero and Vickie Guerrero. Racquel has a big personality and her verbal skills are marketable. Paige and Sophia are particularly physical in the ring. NXT has a really nice group of Divas.

Seth Rollins has a bona fide upside and a bright future. Rollins is arguably the top hand in NXT at this time but the Iowan will be challenged to hold on to that distinction.

Kassius Ohno has started an issue with Richie Steamboat and both worthy of keeping an eye on. I'd like to think that both Ohno and Steamboat can be very valuable in time for WWE.

Don't sleep on Big E Langston who is a powerhouse of a man at 285 pounds and was a former Florida State Heavyweight Champion in high school and played defensive tackle at Iowa. Big E is an intelligent, intimidating athlete who could go far.

The tag team of Ascension, Kenneth Cameron and Conor O'Brien, are an intriguing duo. They have an interesting presentation and I think that they can contribute in the future. Are they the team to light a fire in the WWE tag team scene? Perhaps.

Leo Kruger, of South Africa, has a new persona that looks to have potential and Kruger is a skilled in ring talent who can also speak well.

I am a fan of the in ring efforts of Antonio Cesaro who has an obvious upside and is a talent that should excel in WWE in the near future. Pairing Cesaro with Aksana could well be a main event success story. Cesaro is a mature professional with a unique skill set that I enjoy watching.

Another youngster that has an obvious upside is Bo Dallas, a 3rd generation athlete and son of Mike Rotundo and the Grandson of Blackjack Mulligan. Yes, Barry Windham is Bo's uncle. Nice bloodline.

Many fans on Twitter @JRsBBQ ask about Dean Ambrose who does have something special and obviously many have high expectations for the Cincinnati native. I feel Ambrose is unique and perhaps just 'quirky' or unique enough to become a standout.

Who's ready to move up? That's anyone's guess. So many factors determine who will or who won't be successful on the next level including but not limited to:

How hard will the talents push themselves to improve to earn their opportunities? That includes physical development, gym time, and DVD study.

How will said talents be introduced on WWE TV and how will those presentations be executed by all involved?

How will young talents blend into the system both professionally and socially?

The good news regarding WWE's young talent pool is that there are several performers that CAN be assets and future main eventers. The WWE cupboards aren't bare. But for any one to attempt to quantify that a talent is 'can't miss' or 'deserves to be called up now' with so many unanswered questions that have to be addressed is nice for conversation but isn't realistic.

NXT is an exciting new brand for WWE. The evolution of NXT is just getting started but the future is bright from my perspective. The TV shows are improving each taping session and will continue to do so if we all do our respective jobs.

At this time, NXT doesn't air on TV in the USA but I'm sure that some day that it will. Fans in Canada and the UK, for example, have provided ample, positive feedback on the weekly, NXT broadcasts that air in their areas. So the program is beginning to build a following.

The overall recruiting efforts within WWE Talent Development are encouraging the say the least. Several, world class athletes are in conversations to perhaps pursue a career in WWE in the future. The screening/recruiting process is extensive. BTW, WWE will hold a closed, invitation only tryout camp in the Los Angeles area after Summerslam of which I'm looking.

My work in talent development is enjoyable albeit challenging and it allows me to contribute to the future growth of WWE which is important to me. I'm especially proud of the teaching and development being done at FCW in Tampa by a hard working, dedicated crew.

Excited about rejoining @Jerry Lawler on the Attitude Era portion of the new, WWE13 video game out this fall. Pre orders are reportedly going really well and more info on pre-ordering can be had at many sites including THQ.com. King and I had a lot of fun recreating our commentary from the Attitude Era of which you will readily hear.

@RealMickFoley when asked who would induct him if/when Mick goes into the WWE HOF mentioned Terry Funk and yours truly. While I would love to honor Mick on that special occasion, there is no way that I would ever put myself in the same category with Terry Funk. Terry mentored Mick and treated Mick like a son. While I'd love to induct Mrs. Foley's Baby Boy into the WWE HOF, I think that Terry Funk is the best choice. However, I stand ready if called upon.

A follower on @JRsBBQ on Twitter asked if I thought @CMPunk would reform the nWo. I have no idea if this topic is any thing more than speculation based on my friend Kevin Nash having some fun with the subject on Twitter. Bottom line is that I don't know but I would be surprised if Punk headed up a faction at this time because he seems to be such a solitary man. The only way that I see that ever happening at this stage of Punk's career is if he had complete control on who comprised the group.

The newly designed WWEShop.com is slick and clean. Check out our page there at this link to order JR's products or just to browse, http://www.wweshop.com/Ca...y/JimRoss. It's SO much easier to shop and order now on the new WWEShop.com. Business has Picked Up!

If you see me wandering around LA Summerslam weekend, I'm there for a major, THQ function at the Grammy Museum the night before the PPV. Among those scheduled to attend the private affair are @steveaustinBSR and @miketyson, among many others. Hope to attend Summerslam merely as a fan. I want to see HHH vs. Lesnar!

I tweeted Friday night that being a country who got introduced to the live crowd at the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony during a TV commercial break in the USA was the equivalent to working a 'dark match' at a WWE TV taping. True.

So @TheRock is going to attempt to win the WWE Title at the 2013 Rumble, right? Firstly, don't bet against that occurring although there are no guarantees in this genre. Secondly, I'd love to see Rock vs. CM Punk as I feel that Punk's style and aggression would push The Rock and take the 'Great One' out of his comfort zone. World class athletes like @TheRock are at their best when they are pushed to the next level much like Austin and Rock did each other back in the day.

The Q&A section of our site is updated. I spend more time on the Q&A's than likely I should and have considered dropping that feature of the site. At this time, I'm keeping it but would appreciate your thoughts. Does any one read the damn things?

I'm grilling this weekend. Anyone else? Therapeutic and healthy eating.

Remember, our BBQ Sauces are great for use in your kitchen and not just on the grill. Plus, we make the best Ketchup and Mustard on the market. I appreciate everyone supporting our efforts at WWEShop.com.

Please visit http://www.wweshop.com/Category/JimRoss. Thanks!

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.

alexnvrmnd777 said:

http://www.wwe.com/classi...-26040571/

Kaufman and "The King": 30 years later

BY Zach Linder

July 27, 2012

"Andy wanted to be the bad guy."

Andy Kaufman insisted he was never a comedian — he was a performance artist, and his legendary rivalry with the "King of Memphis, Jerry Lawler, was as close to a masterpiece as sports-entertainment has ever seen. Sports-entertainment had never before so prominently featured an actor at Kaufman’s degree of fame, and his involvement paved the way for celebrities in rings for decades to come.

In 1982, Kaufman was one of the most controversial actors in show business, starring as the lovable Latka Gravas on the sitcom “Taxi,” and having appeared on polarizing “Saturday Night Live” segments. But Andy always had been fascinated by the world of professional wrestling, and through an odd turn of events, he ended up entangled in one the industry’s most bitter rivalries with WWE Hall of Famer Jerry Lawler. Their conflict escalated from local Memphis, Tenn., television to an infamous duel on the July 28th edition of “Late Night with David Letterman,” solidifying its place in not only the annals of wrestling history, but also all of pop culture. One day after the historic 1,000th episode of Raw, WWE Classics sat down with Jerry Lawler to celebrate the 30th anniversary of this other important moment in television history.

WWE CLASSICS: Before you met Andy, did you know that he had begun to refer to himself as the "Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion of the World," and wrestled women as part of his nightclub act?

JERRY LAWLER: The only thing I knew about Andy was just what I’d seen on “Taxi.” I didn’t even know that much about his history before, that he was a standup comic, and anything that he had done before “Taxi.” I only really knew him as the lovable character Latka on the TV show. And, of course, at the time “Taxi” was one of the top network shows in the country.

WWE CLASSICS: So how did he come to be part of your wrestling company in Memphis?

LAWLER: I had heard that Andy already tried to incorporate wrestling women out of the audience at his different nightclub performances and comedy shows, and apparently it was not being received all that well. People would go to a comedy club to see Andy, and all of a sudden he would bring out a mat and [Andy’s best friend and writing partner] Bob Zmuda in a referee shirt and he’s challenging women out of the audience to come up there and grapple with him. Nobody was enjoying it but Andy. So Andy went to one of WWE’s shows in New York City and approached Vince McMahon Sr. with the idea of wrestling women out of the audience at an actual wrestling event. Andy felt like he wanted to get a crowd response from people that had actually come to see a wrestling show. My understanding is that Vince Sr. explained to Andy that, “Our fans are skeptical anyway, and I’m hesitant to involve a Hollywood actor in our wrestling show. I don’t want people to think that all of our wrestlers are actors.” So, he kind of nicely gave Andy the brush-off.

WWE CLASSICS: And after that he turned to your company in Memphis?

LAWLER: My friend [wrestling journalist] Bill Apter happened to be at that show in New York. He knew Andy and told him, “I’ve got a friend, Jerry Lawler, and he promotes wrestling that draws 10,000 fans every week down at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis. I’ll give you Jerry’s number, and I think he might be interested in it.”

WWE CLASSICS: And you were receptive to Andy’s idea?

LAWLER: When I received a call from Andy Kaufman, I jumped on it right away. I was looking for us to get any kind of rub at all from a major Hollywood star coming to my hometown of Memphis and appearing at a wrestling event. The whole idea was that Andy was going to come down and wrestle some women out of the audience, which he did.

WWE CLASSICS: What were your initial impressions of Andy?

LAWLER: Bill had told me, “You may hear that Andy’s strange or kind of weird, or a little bit out there, but nothing could be further from the truth. He’s just a really nice, quiet, humble kid.” And sure enough, when I met him, I was just so taken aback by this guy who’s on one of the top TV shows in the country, a major television star, and he was just like the nicest, most well-mannered guy that you’d ever meet. Andy and I were the same age when we met, and he never, not once, ever called me by my first name. It was always, “Mr. Lawler.”

WWE CLASSICS: He had so much respect for sports-entertainment.

LAWLER: Yes, he did — a tremendous amount of respect for the business. As a kid, it made such a big impact on him. Andy told me, “I would watch the wrestling so closely, and I was amazed at the response that the wrestlers could get from the crowd. One of the things that really impressed me was that some of those guys could go out there and intentionally make people despise them, but at the same time they were still popular.” And that, maybe, scarred poor Andy for life, because that’s literally what he wanted to do. He wanted to be the bad guy.

WWE CLASSICS: Andy didn’t want to tell jokes, he just wanted to get a reaction.

LAWLER: Andy explained to me on our first meeting, “I’m not a comedian. I’ve never gone out and told a joke in my life. I’m just a performance artist.” He would do things to elicit a reaction from his audience, and the funny thing was Andy enjoyed getting a negative reaction more so than a positive reaction. Those were the words out of his mouth: “I wanna play a bad guy.”

WWE CLASSICS: What happened on the first show he did in Memphis?

LAWLER: Andy wanted to step in the middle of the ring, and challenge women. The first night that he did it, women came down, and we let the audience literally pick who Andy’s opponents were going to be. The next thing you know, we’ve got five women lined up, and we just rang the bell. Andy made some crazy comments beforehand. I think he offered $5,000 to any of the women that could beat him. It just got more ridiculous. He said to one woman, “If you can beat me, I’ll marry you!” Just crazy stuff. We drew a capacity crowd, a complete sellout. People came out to see the big TV star. I honestly believe that his intentions were to do just that one show and get it out of his system, but I saw dollar signs. So I said, “Andy that was great. We run a show here every week. You need to come back and do it again. We’ll really pump it up big on TV this Saturday.” And he said, “Really? I can come back and do it again?” And I said, “Of course!”

“Did you come down here to wrestle or to act like an ass?”

WWE CLASSICS: You both had a working relationship. How did the rivalry between you two start?

LAWLER: On one of the shows, one of his opponents was this really feisty young girl named Foxy. Andy had already beaten a few of the women that night, but this Foxy, when the bell rang for their match, she charged across the ring like a veteran wrestler, picked Andy up in the air and bodyslammed him. The roof almost blew off the Coliseum. You couldn’t have written a better scenario. She wore Andy out, and he was literally trying to crawl out of the ring. Finally, she just got tired, Andy got the best of her and pinned her. But the crowd reaction through the whole thing was phenomenal.

WWE CLASSICS: What was Andy’s reaction to nearly being beaten by a woman?

LAWLER: He came backstage after that match and I said, “My god, did you hear the reaction?” And he was so excited. So I said, “Why don’t we do this? Come back next week, we’ll bring Foxy back and I’ll go out on TV and I’m going to train her. She was so close to beating you that with me in her corner, I can teach her in just a matter of days all she’d need to know to beat you.”

WWE CLASSICS: Was Foxy comfortable with that?

LAWLER: Well, she and I did an interview at the TV taping. When I gave her a second to talk, she said, “Well, I sure do need the $5,000. To be honest with you, my house burned down last Friday. But I'll tell you this, I wouldn’t marry Andy Kaufman if he was the last man on earth.” She was perfect.

WWE CLASSICS: How did the rematch between Andy and Foxy go down?

LAWLER: I was in her corner, but Foxy didn’t do nearly as well in this match as she had done in the first one. Andy just kinda manhandled her and pinned her. And then Andy started pushing the envelope. He started stomping on her, kicking on her, showing his muscles, and then got down and rubbed her face in the mat. Suddenly, 10,000 fans in the Mid-South Coliseum started yelling, “Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!”

WWE CLASSICS: You knew you had to get in there do something to stop him.

LAWLER: I got in the ring, grabbed Andy by the arm, and pulled him off of her. He staggers, falls across the ring, jumps up and starts screaming, “I will sue you! You can’t put your hands on me! I will sue you for everything you’re worth! I’m a big Hollywood star and you can’t touch me!” And that’s how it all started.

WWE CLASSICS: It was time for Andy to wrestle a man, and he was scheduled to face you in April 1982. He started to make these infamous interviews that really stirred the pot, talking about having brains and being a big star from Hollywood. He made fun of Memphis residents’ southern dialect. Where did those air?

LAWLER: They aired locally on our NBC affiliate, Channel Five — WMC-TV. We had a 90-minute wrestling show every Saturday morning there on Channel Five. He would tape some in LA and some when he was here at the Coliseum. In one he said, “Ladies and gentlemen of Memphis, I’m going to do you all a favor. I’m going to teach you some personal hygiene.” And he held up a bar of soap and said, “This is soap. Say it with me. Soooaap. You run it under the water, you lather it up, and you wash under your arms, and you’ll be surprised how much better you’ll smell.”

WWE CLASSICS: What was the public’s reaction to these interviews?

LAWLER: He also did one about toilet paper, and after that one aired, the station manager, Mori Greiner, called up and said, “We can’t air more of these Andy Kaufman videos. We’re getting so many hate calls it’s tying up our switchboard. Not just on Saturday, but all week long people are calling and threatening Andy and threatening the station for airing these offensive interviews.”

WWE CLASSICS: Yeah, he really did everything he could to make people hate him. What happens when you both finally meet in the ring in April 1982?

LAWLER: We had so much media coverage. Up until that time, the only people that would cover our wrestling was the station we were on. But everybody was interested in this. Andy and I finally have this so-called match, and in the Memphis Wrestling Association, the piledriver was an illegal move. If you used a piledriver on your opponent, you were immediately disqualified. But that’s what I was famous for. That was my finishing maneuver.

WWE CLASSICS: But he wouldn’t even tangle up with you, he was prancing all around the ring. Even before the match began, he was acting like a goof, and you get on the mic and you say that famous line.

LAWLER: Yeah, I said, “Did you come down here to wrestle or to act like an ass?”

WWE CLASSICS: So how did you finally get him to fight you?

LAWLER: I got in the ring, put both hands behind my back and said, “Come on, I’m going to give you a free headlock. You’ve talked about all of these moves that you know. Put a headlock on me and let’s get this thing started.” He put me in the headlock, I hesitated for a few seconds, then lifted him up into the air and gave him a back suplex. Then I got up and immediately gave him a piledriver, and that caused the referee to ring the bell and I was disqualified.

WWE CLASSICS: What was the crowd’s reaction?

LAWLER: Well, Andy was down, so I pulled him up and gave him the second piledriver, which really pleased the crowd.

"I slapped the taste out of his mouth. I slapped him as hard as I could."

WWE CLASSICS: And that was the whole match?

LAWLER: That was basically what the match consisted of. But after the match, Andy was just down. Normally in Memphis after the main event, people would make a mad rush for the exit to try and beat the traffic. But Andy had been declared the victor by disqualification, and after the bell was rung, Andy just laid there and everybody stuck around. They wanted to see how badly Andy was hurt. Bob Zmuda was checking on Andy. George Shapiro, who was Andy’s manager, was in Memphis as well for the fight. And he was in the ring all concerned. Danny Davis was managing me that night, and he was there in the ring with me. Andy was just lying there motionless like he was dead.

WWE CLASSICS: Were you concerned at all that you had injured this big star?

LAWLER: Well, finally, I tell the referee, Jerry Calhoun, a good friend of mine, “Go help Andy up, and get him back to the dressing room.” He kneels down, talks to Andy and comes back over to me and he says, “He says he wants an ambulance.” I told Calhoun, “No, no, no, just get him back to the dressing room.” So he bends down again, gets up, shakes his head and says, “He says he really wants an ambulance.”

WWE CLASSICS: Why were you so resistant to having an ambulance come to the Coliseum?

LAWLER: Very seldom had we done anything where we needed to get an ambulance. It was like $500 to get an ambulance there, but Andy tells Calhoun that he’ll pay for it. So we wait around, and all of sudden we hear the back door of the Coliseum open up. All the 10,000 people had stayed right there in the building, and here comes this ambulance. The EMTs put this big neck brace on Andy, put him on a stretcher, and took him to Saint Francis Hospital here in Memphis. He was admitted and stayed in the hospital with his neck in traction for three days. It was national publicity. All over the country on TV news shows and newspapers the very next day said that this big star had been injured in a wrestling match in Memphis.

WWE CLASSICS: So how did you end up on the David Letterman show together?

LAWLER: Finally, three days later when Andy checked out of the hospital and went back to California, he taped some more interviews saying, “This is not over! You tried to end my career! You tried to break my neck!” We aired them and we were waiting to do a rematch when I got a call to ask me to be on the David Letterman show with Andy. Like I was going to say no, right? So I said, “Yeah, what are we going to do?” They were planning to show the match, and we were going to talk about what happened.

WWE CLASSICS: But it ended up being far more than that.

LAWLER: Right. When I got to New York, Andy and I had to meet together with a segment coordinator, but he refused to do it, he would not come anywhere near me. So we went in separately. They told me we were going to be on for two segments. They said, “The first segment, Dave is going to show the clips of Andy harassing you. Then we’re going to show the clip of you piledriving Andy. After that, you’re both going to have a little bit of lighthearted confrontation. Dave will take a break, and after the break, Andy will apologize to you for making fun of wrestling. You’ll apologize to Andy for hurting his neck. Then Andy will stand up and sing “What the world needs now is love sweet love.”

WWE CLASSICS: But it didn’t quite go as planned.

LAWLER: No! What they didn’t tell me is that Dave had a bell underneath the desk that he could ring with his foot. So when Andy and I started arguing, Dave started hitting the bell going “ding ding ding ding!”

WWE CLASSICS: Dave was a wrestling fan at one point, right?

LAWLER: When we went to commercial break, Andy got up and walked away because he couldn’t stand to sit next to me. So Dave starts talking to me about when he was working in Indianapolis and did some ring announcing for Dick the Bruiser. So yeah, I guess he was kind of a fan. We got ready to go back on the air, Andy sat back down, and we got to the part where Dave was asking us both for an apology. But Andy wouldn’t apologize, and I didn’t apologize. And everything after that just sort of happened like an out of body experience. When I watch it now, it’s like somebody else was doing it.

WWE CLASSICS: Things started to get really heated once you both refused to apologize.

LAWLER: When neither one of us apologized nor did Andy sing, Dave realized it was going south. So he said, “We’ll take another break and see if we can get things sorted out.” I knew once we went to break, they were going to get rid of us. So when Paul Shaffer’s band started playing music to break, I got up out of the seat, looked Andy in the eye, and slapped the taste out of his mouth. I slapped him as hard as I could. Knocked him right out of the chair. Paul Shaffer stopped playing the music, and the place just went silent. Everybody was just stunned. Dave had no clue to what to. He said later that was the first time he completely lost control of a show. It just shocked everybody.

WWE CLASSICS: What was Andy’s reaction?

LAWLER: Andy staggered up and the security guard grabbed me and led me back to the green room. I could hear people wailing and Andy screaming, it sounded like a real bad scene. They didn’t start taping again until about 15 minutes later. Usually they just sit there for a two-minute commercial break. Finally, an intern comes in and says “Mr. Lawler? Mr. Letterman would like to know if you’d like to come back out and wrap things up.” So I walked back through the curtain, and suddenly the crowd was like a wrestling crowd. They started booing me.

WWE CLASSICS: The roles were now reversed from how it was in Memphis. Suddenly in New York City, Andy’s home turf, and you’re the villain.

LAWLER: The roles were reversed, right. I sat down, and Andy was offstage, so Dave asked if he was going to come back. Andy said, “No, I can’t. If I come back I’m just going to say words you can’t say on TV. So I’m not coming out there.” That part wasn’t on TV, but once we came back on, Andy stormed onto the set and just started screaming profanities. I couldn’t believe it. Apparently that’s the thing that really freaked Dave out because he knew Andy would never swear. He’d never curse. Dave tries to look down at some papers on his desk. He doesn’t know what to do while Andy is screaming. Andy keeps going on and on, pounds on Dave’s desk, and Dave jumps. Then Andy grabs Dave’s cup of coffee and looks at me, shows me the cup and throws the hot coffee at me. I jump up, lunge toward him, he takes off, then the security guard takes us off.

WWE CLASSICS: What did Dave say to all of this?

LAWLER: Dave looks around and goes, “Well, I think you can say some of those words on TV. But if there’s one thing I say over and over, you cannot throw coffee.” Great quick reaction by Dave.

WWE CLASSICS: He’s the master of those.

LAWLER: Absolutely. So we were done. Dave thanked me for being there, and instead of the security guard taking me back to the green room, he takes me straight back to the elevator to try and protect me from Andy Kaufman. I go back to the hotel, and don’t hear another word from anybody. I had no clue what was going to happen until I turned the TV that night, and there it was. They showed everything, but in place of all of Andy’s curse words, they put in the sound of a cuckoo clock.

"To be a great villain, you’ve gotta get personal."

WWE CLASSICS: How soon did you know it was going to become a huge deal in the media?

LAWLER: As soon as it aired, my phone started blowing up. The New York Times, all the New York papers, everybody was calling. It just went ballistic.

WWE CLASSICS: This has become an iconic, not just wrestling moment, but a pop culture moment. After this gained legendary status, did you ever hear what Dave’s reaction was?

LAWLER: I heard that he was furious because it was so different than what was planned with his producers. I don’t think he was ever happy with it, but I also heard that his production staff referred to it for years as “The Famous Show.” That episode got so much attention and so much coverage, that they had to realize that this was one of the things that made Dave’s show famous.

WWE CLASSICS: It really went viral before there was an Internet.

LAWLER: Exactly. It is consistently listed as one of the top moments in the history of television. Thirty years later, I’m still doing interviews about it. We were talking to media just the other day for Raw 1,000, and every single one of them asked me about Andy Kaufman.

WWE CLASSICS: Out of all the great rivalries in wrestling and all the great pop culture moments, what is it about this one incident that 30 years later people are still so fascinated by?

LAWLER: It was the first time something like that had happened. I don’t know if I should tell this or not, but one night I was flying back on the plane with Vince McMahon. And he said, “You know, King, I’ve never told you this before, but I was so jealous when you got Andy Kaufman and did all that stuff with him down there in Memphis. Because he was from New York, and I thought we could have done all that stuff up here.” But he also said, “But I’ll be honest with you. There’s no way on Earth we could have done it as well as you guys did it.”

WWE CLASSICS: Wow. It would have been a totally different dynamic.

LAWLER: Yes, but it would have been a first. Vince loves firsts. To this day, you hear on Monday Night Raw that you’re going to see something for the first time ever. That’s big. And this was the first time any big deal Hollywood star was involved to that extent in wrestling. Vince realized, everybody realized, because it got so much national exposure. Everything back then was still regionalized. Cable TV hadn’t hit yet. The country was divided up into wrestling territories because of TV coverage. Once Vince saw you could use a Hollywood star to get that nationwide exposure, here comes Cyndi Lauper with Captain Lou and Wendi Richter, and then Mr. T gets brought in. The ball got rolling, and it hasn’t stopped to this day. Just in the past year, Hugh Jackman was in there punching Dolph Ziggler.

WWE CLASSICS: Yeah, you really could argue that Andy Kaufman is responsible for all of that.

LAWLER: I really feel, in my heart of hearts, that he was responsible for that. I certainly believe that Andy Kaufman deserves a spot in the celebrity wing of the WWE Hall of Fame. Without a doubt, we would not be where we are today without his involvement. I really feel that way. Even at Raw 1,000, we had Charlie Sheen challenging Daniel Bryan to a match. It’s Andy Kaufman revisited as recently as last night.

WWE CLASSICS: Where does Andy rank in the pantheon of great villains in wrestling? He was right up there.

LAWLER: He really was. To be a great villain, you’ve gotta get personal. And that’s what Andy did. He got personal with the people of Memphis by insulting their hygiene, and it went beyond just being about wrestling. He made things personal by insulting the fans themselves rather than just me. If he had ever gotten to do that on a national level, he just would have gotten better and better. He was a natural at it. He even created that sleazy lounge singer character named Tony Clifton just so he could play the bad guy. He wanted that reaction. Andy was a heel at heart.

Andy was something else, boy...

alexnvrmnd777 said:

L4OATheOriginal said:

she would improve that division as would angelina love

but mayne don't be talking about my wife velvet like that doing porn son ..no tapes of her and I are leaking out ever!!

but i hear there is one with alex and mae young ..yuck!!

and didn't u make one with stephanie?

You know why they won't "ever" leak out? Because you don't even know her, son!

And no, Bboy didn't make one with Steph....I did, you hater!! And she was lookin' mighty right....

only one hating is u ..don't get mad cause velvet laughs at u trying 2 mack 2 her when she always leaves with me..

and i guess u didn't know bboy and i made one with stephanie ..oops sorry bboy i didn't want 2 let our secrets out but u know this HATER alex needs a wake up call

alexnvrmnd777 said:

Report: The Rock Not At WrestleMania 29?

The Rock appearing at next year's WrestleMania is still not a guarantee.

As we reported earlier, his biggest movie of 2013 - GI JOE 2: Retaliation - opens nationwide on March 29th, a week before WrestleMania 29. WWE does a full media blitz in the week leading up to the event.

A source told me that Vince McMahon is optimistic that The Rock can balance his New York-related GI Joe media appearances on the east coast with WrestleMania. These appearances would be theoretically mostly in the New York metro-area towards the end of the first week of April, or the week before WrestleMania. WWE officials are hopeful that they can possibly piggyback The Rock promoting WrestleMania while hyping the movie, getting extra value out of his appearances.

However, nothing is definitively set on this as of now.

source: WrestlingInc

what did i tell u? huh? when u gonna listen 2 me son?

that's what makes what cm punk did 2 dewayne even more special last week!

fuck dewayne!