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[Leo656]

I hated DX, as I have hated EVERYTHING HHH has ever been involved with...

EXCEPT The Elimination Chamber at Survivor Series last year, because he actually lost for once in his bloated roided back-pimpled life.

[Peanut]

Ah...so you don't like Triple H. I was never a big fan either. I seem to get made fun of for saying it but I'm a huge Stone Cold mark. I was before his days of Austin 3:16 of course. Unlike most people who jumped on the bandwagon when the "attitude" era began. I was a big fan of Razor Ramon and Big Daddy Cool in the day. Thinking of Vinny Vegas brings tears to my eyes. I'd also like to know...was I the only one who was a huge HUGE fan of Ken Shamrock for his entire career? Now that I think about all this I think I'll dig into my large wrestling video library. I suddenly have the urge to see Shamrock tear someone up.

[Leo656]

Yes, you are in fact, the ONLY Ken Shamrock fan. Anywhere. Ever.

You wanna talk old-school? Hulk Hogan vs The Iron Sheik in a steel cage in 1985. One of my earliest memories in life. I was almost 3. THAT, my friend, is "old-school". I swear, I've got more tapes, books, magazines, trading cards and action figures than 99% of the people here have closet space.

THAT, in case you were wondering, is why *I* watch wrestling. Because it's entertained me for over 20 years, I've seen the best and worst there is to see, and quite frankly, right now isn't all that bad. Oh it's bad, bad by 1987 standards, even by 1997 standards, but there's more talent in the WWE right now than there was in the WWF and WCW COMBINED in 1993. That's right, 1993, when Yokozuna of all people was WWF Champion for no other reason than he was fatter than anyone else, and VAN HAMMER got WCW Title shots.

If all of us here, at this forum, can remain fans of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles after years of no comics being produced, no cartoon, no toys, no movies, a crappy live-action show, only to FINALLY be vindicated when a TMNT resurgence finally (inevitably?) comes along, then I, GK, and others can remain wrestling fans in the hope that one day things WILL be better, and in the meantime, I'll look forward to moments like Hulk Hogan's victory at Wrestlemania 19, a moment where I stood up and cheered "F*CK YOU, VINCE MCMAHON! F*CK YOU for doing so much to ruin something I've loved since childhood!"

There's always something to look forward to.

EDIT: And while I'm on it, "F*CK YOU VINCE for pushing Hogan into quitting. Thanks for trashing the legacy of the biggest star your company ever had. Thanks for paying him so much less than he was due for Wrestlemania, frustrating him so badly that he'd rather wrestle in Japan in obscurity for the rest of his career instead of sticking it out ONE MORE YEAR, you selfish bastard."

There, I'm done.

[Nate]

I love Shamrock

[Leo656]

I don't dislike him I was just being facetious.

[Dane E5R]

X-Pac was my hero.

[JameO]

Yeah I liked DX and Ken Shamrock was cool as well. Also I was a big Hogan fan back then. I still watch it sometimes it ain't bad as Leo said but ain't as good as back in the day.

[Peanut]

I was entertained by wrestling for about 13 years. I'm not old enough to remember the older stuff, but I remember alot. I was an avid fan. Foaming at the mouth when monday nights rolled around. I was never a huge fan of the late days of wCw and that's what the WWE is turning into for me. I caught Raw about 5 weeks ago and I thought it was pretty good. Maybe I'll start watching it again. If it's better than it was awhile ago.

[JameO]

Yeah I am going to watch RAW next week and maybe even Smackdown this week and see what is going on in the wrestling world.

[The Stryker]

i'll save you the time

RAW-Kane is being a B*tch cuz he lost his mask and is possibly turning heel,and HHH will retain his title....AGAIN

Smackdown!-Michael coleman and Tazz will rave for hours on how strong brock lesnar is after suplexing big show


hey i love wrestlin' too im even gonna get tix for Wrestlemania 20...god hoping

but smackdown really pisses me off

coleman-"oh my god!!!!!! brock lesnar is the best ever! he just threw big show to the ropes!!!!"

Tazz-"yeah....."

Coleman-"shut up tazz! its my turn to talk at length about brock!!"

feh i like RAW alot better

[SlayerX]

I made a new background, my wwe one got boring

[sarcasm]Now everyone flame me that I like Eminem![/sarcasm]

[Leo656]

I would, but I try not to make fun of anyone who can't do it back, and last time I checked ol' Marshall was still all out of Irish jokes after his "feud" with Everlast. "White Irish f*g" I think it was.

Yep, that's an Oscar-worthy quip.

[Dane E5R]

Actually.. Could someone clear up the whole Kane thing for me? I caught the end of Raw the other day and saw him lookin' like Jason Vorhees.. Whatever happened to the fire? Did it just burn his eyes or somethin'?!

[SlayerX]

Kane was never burnt. If you can remember, he was unmasked as that dentist dude, Isaac Yankem or something, then he was the fake Diesel for awhile... ask Leo and GK they know way more than me. But he was NEVER burnt.

"As you saw on RAW, WWE is going for a more "technically-hideous" look with Kane. Instead of using heavy makeup to 'disfigure' his face, they're relying on camera angles and Kane's facial expressions."

Example:

It's pretty retarded if you ask me. WWE must think that people who have, or have known about Kane as Diesel, and Kane's previous gimmick's forgot about him without a mask on Let Leo explain it, he can do it much better than I can Hope I helped a bit tho

[That Matt Guy]

Kane's hair looks like Larry's from the 3 Stooges.

[JameO]

Originally Posted by Matthew138

Kane's hair looks like Larry's from the 3 Stooges.

It does! OMG too much eminem! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Run for the hills!

[Leo656]

Actually Tri you did a pretty good job explaining the whole Kane thing. I'll elaborate, but bear with me, it gets long.

Kane (Glen Jacobs) first got semi-famous wrestling in Tennessee as Al Snow's tag partner, Unibomb (who wore a mask and outfit rather similar to Kane's, actually). He came to the WWF in 1994 as "Dr. Isaac Yankem, Jerry Lawler's Evil Dentist", and that lasted about as long as you'd expect.

Then when Kevin "Diesel" Nash and Scott "Razor Ramon" Hall jumped to WCW in 1996, the WWF tried suing WCW for using the established WWF characters of "Diesel" and "Razor". WCW wasn't doing that, instead using Nash and Hall (under their real names) using the same gestures and mannerisms they'd always used (gestures like Nash's famous "One-fist-in-the-air" and Hall's "Razor's Edge" pose are not, as far as I know, subject to copyright). The courts, having better things to do, basically told Vince McMahon "You can't sue for copyright infringement unless the WWF is currently using the 'Diesel' and 'Razor Ramon' characters themselves". So the WWF dragged Glen Jacobs out of mothballs, dyed his hair black and dressed him up like Kevin Nash, then slapped the Razor Ramon gimmick on a guy named Rick Bogner who'd had some amount of fame wrestling in Japan (and also, as fate would have it, would join the Japanese branch of the New World Order in 1997). The "new" Diesel and Razor Ramon were immediately rejected by the fans, and after about 6 months of this Glen Jacobs disappeared and Bogner went back to Japan.

Later in 1997, the Undertaker's character was getting stale and the "genius" head writer Vince Russo decided that what was needed to spice up his character was to give the Undertaker a younger brother, a younger brother who had been burned beyond recognition and locked away in a mental institution ever since an "accidental" fire in (get this) the family funeral parlor, a fire which Undertaker later admitted to starting on purpose (no real reason was ever given for this "shocking" twist). 'Taker's ex-manager Paul Bearer taunted him for months with the fact that Kane was alive, and he finally appeared around October. Kane was none other than Jacobs again, wearing lifts in his boots to boost his height from 6'6 to 7'0 so he could tower over his 6'10 "brother" and a red and black mask and bodysuit which covered his entire body except for his left arm, supposedly the only part of his body not "horribly scarred" in the fire.

For the next few years Kane went from good guy to bad guy about 700 times, usually depending on what Undertaker happened to be doing at the time. Over time, as the writers ran out of ideas for the character, Kane's history and presentation began to change. At first, he couldn't talk, then he could talk with the aid of a voice box, then, finally, he began speaking on his own, unassisted and in a normal voice, about two years ago. The status of his "disfigurement" also changed quite a bit, and his outfit with it, leaving many confused when the supposedly "horribly scarred" Kane emerged wearing a sleeveless spandex-and-fishnet singlet as part of his attire in 2000, making it quite obvious to all that he was in no way burnt. Eventually his mask was also altered to reveal his mouth and jaw, also (surprise surprise) not burnt. No explanation was given for any of these changes.

Earlier this year perhaps the most damaging change to the Kane storyline came when the RAW writers (under suggestion from Triple H) concocted a story about Kane dating a girl named Katie Vick in college (how a horribly scarred freak who lived his entire life in a mental institution found time to not only go to college but to date escaped most of the fans who'd been actually paying attention and suspending disbelief so far). HHH, who was feuding with Kane at the time, confronted him on RAW with the accusation that Kane had killed Katie Vick in a car accident and had proceeded to "violate" her corpse. Kane never exactly denied the accusations for whatever reason. Kane never beat HHH, and the entire storyline was dropped soon after. The whole thing was one of the most tasteless storylines the WWE ever did, and not only was it morally offensive to most, but it completely re-wrote Kane's entire history retroactively.

Finally, last week, having completely run out of ideas for Kane, they pulled the trigger and had him unmask, suddenly revealing that 1) His long, stringy hair was supposedly a wig this whole time (in truth, needing to have SOMEthing shocking under Kane's mask, they had Jacobs partially shave his head hours before RAW), and 2) He was, indeed, 100% NOT burnt, the only "disfigurement" coming from some smeared makeup around his eyes. Finally this week, Kane emerged completely bald and completely unblemished, thus killing the Kane character for good.

So, basically, what it boils down to is that the WWE writers all suck and that they have no faith in the people watching to actually pay attention to a story, as Kane went from "scarred freak who lived his life in exile and emerged wearing an outfit to hide his disfigurement" to "bald ugly guy who happens to be a bit maladjusted who killed his girlfriend and raped her corpse" in the span of about 5 years.

And people say DC Comics have poor continuity.

[SlayerX]

Haha great post Leo, I love reading about wrestlers histories COuld you one day when your bored PM me one about The Undertaker?

[Leo656]

Sure, what about? My fiancee is like the biggest Undertaker fan ever.

[Peanut]

Wow. I never knew they ruined Kane so much. I heard about that angle with HHH, but I never knew it turned out that bad. Anyone remember that Bossman and Big Show feud? Bossman pulling Big Show's father's casket away with a truck or something. Now that was a messed up feud.