A pioneer of women's wrestling has passed away, The Fabulous Moolah was not only the longest reigning Women's Champion of all time but Moolah did more than perhaps anyone else
to make Women's wrestling a permanant fixture of the business. Moolah has trained (or had a hand in training) dozens of women wrestlers over the years and has been a part of the business from the late 1940'a right up untill recently with her occasional appearences on WWE television. She won the Women's World title in 1956, she would hold that title frequently up untill 1987 when she lost it to the recently departed Sherri Martel. Moolah retired after that match with only occasional matches here and there but shocked everyone when she returned to wrestling with Mae Young making frequent appearences in 1999, even squeezing in an 8 day title rein with the WWE's Women's Championship with a win over Ivory at No Mercy 1999. Her and Mae Young were a constant "go-to" comedy duo for WWE writer's for the past several years. Moolah was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1995 before it became a prominent part of the yearly Wrestlemania festivities. Fabulous Moolah, Lillian Ellison was 84 years old.THIS CAN'T BE GOOD
So right after making his television debut for WWE, Harry Smith gets suspended due to a violation of the wellness policy. This is can't be a good sign of things to come, something tells me we will see him reunited with Teddy Hart on the indies before long. Of course anyone who had seen him early in his career in comparison to now would know there was no one in hell he could pass a piss test. Chris Masters was suspended again as well but who really gives a shit, he's not over, he can't work and if you force him off the gas he officially has nothing to offer so let's just speed this along and get him out the door. Hopefully things will work out with Smith cause I think he has a bright future ahead if he can stay out of trouble and groomed properly.
IWA DEEP SOUTH
I recently got several dvds of IWA Deep South. For those unfamiliar with this group they are an independent promotion in Alabama that uses a mixture of talent from Ian Rotten's IWA Mid South, Mike Quakenbush's Chikara Pro, and a number of local stars from Alabama. I was really impressed, the shows are quite good and provide an interesting mix of styles. There's high flying
action from guys like Ricochet, Chrisjen Hayme, Hallowicked, and others. Strong style guys like Eddie Kingston, Cabana Man Dan, Insane Lane, etc. Death Match guys like Ian Rotten, Freakshow, Necro Butcher, etc. Old School guys like Brad Armstrong, Bob Armstrong, and Joe Hogan. Then guys who are a mixture of old and new like Larry Sweeney, Mike Quackenbush, and Chuck Taylor. I've found that the problem with a lot of indy shows in Alabama are the matches are all the same, IWA Deep South provides variety to the audience with a good mixture of styles as well established stars mixed with up and coming guys. If you wanna check out IWA Deep South their dvds are available at www.smartmarkvideo.com or you can email me about getting them at genejackson@charter.net.One realization I came to watching these dvds is the fact that at one time I was fascinated with Death Matches but I've come to see why the "old timers" dislike them so much. Before I wrestled I liked to watch them just to try to figure out how they could do some of that stuff without getting hurt and then I got in the business and found out, there is no trick to it, it's just a bunch of idiots hurting each other. Perhaps when kayfabe was still faintly around I could understand it a little bit now there is NOTHING you can do to make people think it's real, even when it is. So why go out there and cut yourself up with light tubes and barbed wire when people just dismiss it all as being fake anyway, it just seems ridiculous. I'm always amazed to see shows where there are 60 people in crowd and these guys are out there rolling around in tacks and glass and shit. Why? Ian Rotten said one of the dumbest damn things I've ever heard in a promo after one of those King of the Death Match tourney matches. He's out there bleeding from head to toe with tacks and glass sticking out of him in front of about 80 people and says "Steve Austin and the Rock don't have the guts to do what we do." The guts?? No they had the talent to make money and make themselves into stars, Ian Rotten is a decent worker and promoter but why begrudge guys who are more talented. Guys like Foley, Funk, and others like them do the death match style when needed but also know how to work but most of the guys who you see doing that shit do it cause they don't know how to work and they only "talent" they have for wrestling is getting hit with shit and bleeding, sadly I guess there is a market for that but I'm not a big fan of it. While IWA Deep South does have death matches, there are a lot of other good matches if you like me and not a lover of that style.
Gonna end there this time, I've got some more stuff coming up, I've got a couple of shoot interviews in the works that I think people will find interesting among a couple of other things I hope everyone will find interesting. Thanks for reading.
GENE
