I watched the Hall of Fame ceremony on USA network on Saturday night. The first thing I want to understand is why couldn’t they spare more than sixty five minutes? Is it more important that an episode of Law and Order SVU be shown for the then 100th time than to give more live time to company that is a major part of your network? The network would have been a lot better off allowing for more time. We could have heard a great speech from Dusty Rhodes if he was sent out with enough time to do his thing. There was a lot of emotion from Ric Flair. Does a thirty five year career need to be celebrated by someone wrapping you up? What purpose did it serve Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay and the rest of the SVU bunch could have waited.
I was hoping that for some reason things wouldn’t go as we all expected and that Ric Flair would continue on with his in ring career. I liked the match. Shawn did everything that he could and Flair went out with his head held high. I found the rest of Wrestlemania, for the most part, to be a bore. I would agree that the Undertaker worked hard. If they were going to put Kane in that monster position and destroy Chavo they should have put the mask back on him. I realize that the ladder matches are very dangerous and the guys worked hard but that type of match is not the business I got into. If WWE was smart they would listen to the response that Matt Hardy got when he entered the match.
I finally found something on Monday Night Raw that allowed me to stay awake. The reunion of The Four Horsemen was worth waiting for. As a wrestling fan I was always a mark for The Horsemen. I was lucky enough, one day in Philadelphia when I did television for Jim Crockett, to be in a six man tag match with Tully, Arn and Ric with J.J. Dillon on the outside of the ring. If they really wanted to make it special the whole second hour should have been devoted to Ric Flair. How can you bring The Horsemen back together on a major league level and reduce their appearance to a cameo? I don’t think there was anything behind it other than lack of thought or poor planning. I would have loved a few words from each of The Horsemen. How about Ricky Steamboat, nothing to be said from the man who Flair claims was his greatest opponent?
If you have ever seen The Ten Commandments, and are a fan of old movies, you might have one time thought to yourself "what was Edward G. Robinson doing in The Ten Commandments"? Well I kind of felt the same way when Jericho was walking down the aisle to greet Flair? Whose idea was that? Cecile B. Demille, who directed The Ten Commandments, has long been dead. I can’t imagine that Cecil B. McMahon thought that Jericho belonged in that spot. Of course it could be the famous McMahon thing that says "I made a mistake, paid a lot of money to a guy. It’s the wrong guy so let me ignore it and keep shoving him down peoples throats until they are suckered into believing the guy is a star." What’s funny is that rarely ever happens. I think Jericho is fine and he should be a part of the company but he isn’t a top level guy who is going to draw you money. This has been proven pretty clearly over the last several months.
The picture with this weeks article is of Thunderfoot #1 (David Isley) while on tour in Sydney Australia. It was taken just before the start of an IWA Title match. He defended the title several times against Mr Wonderful Paul Orndorff in some really good matches in nineteen nintey one.
This has been a piece of my mind
