What a day......

Argh! As I said about 2 inches above..... what a day.

My little boy has come down with the flu, which kind of changed any weekend plans we'd already had. Now, cleaning up puke and the like is not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but watching Disney DVD's all day kind of got to me by, oh, 3 p.m. or so (or Beauty and the Beast, our fourth feature presentation of the day), especially on such a nice day here outside. Thankfully, his fever broke by dinnertime or so and he's feeling much better now.

Mid-day, I come to the realization that my laptop computer (actually, its my work's computer, but the only modern computer system I have) is broken. Not just slow or it has a bug in it, the damn thing just refuses to reboot without freezing up! Now, normally I wouldn't fret over the lack of Internet access, etc. over a weekend, but (a) this is a long weekend here in Canada, so this would be until Tuesday morning when I'm back at work (b) I'd promised to do something for OO that requires my attention on Monday night (let the speculation begin...) (c) A colleague from work had asked me to forward something to him ASAP, which I couldn't do without access to my system and (d) I have tons of other work to catch up on. So I needed a computer, somehow.

Call my tech support guy at home (who is just awesome, on the off-chance he's reading this) and he tells me no problem, just bring the defective laptop in and there's another one sitting on his desk, ready to roll. Beautiful!

So tonight, I ventured downtown to pick it up. Now, at this time of night, it's about a 45-60 minute commute to my office, -- either driving the whole way down, or by driving to a nearby subway station and taking the subway the rest of the trip. I decide to drive all the way, figuring, hey, its a Saturday night, how bad can traffic be? Of course, I forgot that this is Caribana weekend , a massive party that attracts hundreds of thousands of people to the city, and specifically, the downtown core. Once I got about halfway to my destination, I remembered this. You probably know where this is going: I left my house at 8:45, its now 10:42 and I *just* walked in... Again -- what a day!

I *would* say "Hey, at least things couldn't get any worse!", but come on now, you know that would just be jinxing it....

Best Quiz Ever!

EVER!!!

Latest ITR

Catching Up....

It's certainly been a busy few weeks in the world of pro wrestling. And during this stretch, OO's intrepid reporter, the Canadian Bulldog, has found himself occupied with other projects. He'd probably like me to mention that one of them is a Bestselling New Book. Except I figure he mentions it enough times that I don't have to. So I'll just get to the part where I enthusiastically endorse Bulldog's latest effort, in which he proves that Catching Up Ain't Hard To Do, with a big-ass collection of news about WWE's releases, TNA/SpikeTV, Muhammad Hassan, and being live at the Bash PPV. Enjoy the latest Inside the Ropes.

New Jack

This clip (from the documentary "101 Reasons Not To Be A Pro Wrestler") may explain New Jack's to my email.

Not sure what I'm referring to? Look no further than this book...

This and that

Haven't posted here in the past few days. Just been a bit busy with a few things here and there, but nothing that's really taken up tons of time.

Went to Buffalo over the weekend to see the Great American Bash. Not the greatest of shows, but a fun time for sure. The crowd was so.... normal in its reactions, which is so different for a person who's used to the "opposite" nature of a good Toronto crowd. These people in Buffalo actually CHEER for faces and BOO for heels. What a bizarre concept. Got to meet a fellow OO'er as well, which was pretty cool.

Not to sound whiny or anything (though this will come off as whiny anyways), I am a little surprised the book hasn't been doing as well as I thought it would have. Now, its only a few days out of the gate, I realize, but it's kind of discouraging (in other words, get the damn book right now!). Anyways, I do have a few promotional tricks up my sleeve yet....

Finally, I am now on myspace. Have both The Blue Meanie and Dan Puder (both legit) as "friends" so far. If you're already on, drop by and say hello!

Latest ITR (The book... is... HERE!!!)

The Nut Strikes Again

You probably don't know that chick over at the left. But that's only because she can, you know, ACTUALLY WRESTLE, which is why you'd never see her on WWE TV. But, if you believe everything you read, Ms. Hosaka has agreed to be one of the key performers on an Indie Supershow so big, so huge, so GINORMOUS, that it is out of this world. Literally. Then again, when the guy putting it together is OOur Very Own Canadian Bulldog, you might want to take talk of "MoonSlam" with the whole shaker of salt. Malia is just one of several wrestling stars who has been "Dog'd" in the seventh (and dual-purpose!) edition of Bulldog's Letters From a Nut.


And just to drive the point home a bit further.... the official book website has been launched here. Let the shilling commence!

Movie Review - Wedding Crashers

Holy shit, I didn't expect to be nearly as good as it was. Honestly, probably the funniest flick I've seen since Team America (though that will be a tough benchmark to surpass).

Obviously, you all know the premise behind the film -- it's right in the damn title -- so I won't really get into that. But this movie only increases my admiration for Vince Vaughan, in his best role since Swingers (and that, too, is saying something). He is utterly hilarious, whether its his delivery or having bad things happen to him, he is easily the star of this film. Not Mr. Whiny-Voiced, Dented-Nose Owen Wilson (who, to be fair, is actually pretty tolerable in his role here). And as for the surprise cameo near the end (whom I won't give away) - this is EXACTLY the type of roles he should be given, as opposed to leading man-type roles. In short bursts, this guy is very enjoyable.

Overall, I can say I didn't go more than a couple of minutes throughout the whole thing without at least a bit of laughter, and considering the length (easily ran 2 hours, maybe longer) that's no small task. I am already hoping there's a Wedding Crashers II, though with the way this one ends, I'm not holding my breath.

Anyways, definitely worth seeing.

"WWE Day" at the ball park

Had tickets to "WWE Day" at the ballpark tonight. True to form, the show didn't disappoint. In addition to my beloved Blue Jays whomping the Seattle Mariners 9-4, here are some highlights:

National anthem - sung by Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik
1st Inning - Home run is overturned by second umpire because it happened while first umpire was knocked unconcious.
2nd Inning - Blue Jay Eric Hinske voluntarily changes his name to Eric Snitsky. Drops ball, claims it "wasn't his fault".
3rd Inning - Chris Masters asks if anyone on either team will accept his Masterlock challenge
4th Inning - Beer guy comes over to our section. I offer to buy one... but only if he tosses it to me a la Stone Cold
5th Inning - A confused Matt Hardy leaps out of the audience, attacks players, is restrained by security.
6th Inning - "Now batting... It doesn't MATTER who's batting!"
7th Inning - Clean-up crew attack Blue Jays; reveal themselves to be Chicago White Sox in disguise, setting up for next week's game.
8th Inning - Blue Jay Orlando Hudson is mistakenly inducted into JBL's Cabinet.
9th Inning - "Folks, we're out of time! Tune in tomorrow night...."

Okay, okay, I jest. There was actually very little in terms of wrestling content. Roddy Piper did a live Piper's Pit that consisted of him rambling for about 90 seconds, then attacking our mascot Ace (maybe he thought it was Ace Orton?). Bobby Heenan, Mean Gene Okerlund and Piper sang an absolutely atrocious version of "Take me out to the ball game", where they actually forgot the words. And of course, there were numerous advertisements for the new WWE 24/7 service in Canada. But that was about it.

Hey at least my Jays won again.... oh, and I saw Repo Man scalping tickets outside the SkyDome.

A major announcement

... is expected within the next 48 hours. I'd say more now, but the authorities (police, lawyers, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, NAMBLA) have asked me to keep a lid on it for the time being.

But stay tuned to the usual places for more details.

New DVD Review

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, what a rush!

Sad

Decided to pop in WrestleMania 2000 tonight. I haven't seen it since the original airing, and I bought the DVD used several months ago but haven't bothered to watch it.

The sad part? Besides being a lackluster 'Mania (I mean, it had some definite highlights, but overall the matchups were subpar), check out the lineup:

The Godfather (gone) and D-Lo Brown (gone) versus Big Boss Man (deceased) and Bull Buchanan (gone).
13-Man Hardcore Battle Royal: Tazz (retired), Viscera (still around), Bob Holly (still around), Mean Street Posse (gone), The Headbangers (gone), Funaki (still around), Taka Michinoku (gone), Bradshaw (still around), Faarooq (gone), Crash Holly (deceased).
Al Snow (still around) and Steve Blackman (gone) versus Test and Albert (gone) with Trish Stratus (still around). Oh, and Chester McCheestington is retired, I think.
The Dudley Boyz (gone) versus Edge and Christian (still around) versus Matt Hardy (still around???) and Jeff Hardy. This was a great match, but it doesn't hold up over the time the way their X-7 TLC match does.
The Kat (gone) with Mae Young (gone; still alive?) versus Terri Runnels (gone) with Fabulous Moolah (gone). Yet referee Val Venis is still with the company...
Eddie Guerrero (still around), Dean Malenko (gone) and Saturn (gone) versus Scotty Too Hotty (around, but why?), Grandmaster Sexay (gone) and Chyna (gone).
Kurt Angle (still around) versus Chris Benoit (still around) versus Chris Jericho (still around). Wow - everyone's still employed! I had completely forgotten about Bob Backlund's non-involvement in the pre-match shenanigans. Bout is okay, but not as good as I'd remembered it.
Mick Foley (retired) versus Triple H (still around) versus Big Show (still around) versus The Rock (gone). And, really, out of the four McMahons at ringside to still have a regular presence on television. What a disappointing ending. Remember when it was a SHOCK to see Triple H go over?
...oh, and the WWF name and logo are gone too.

Latest (not quite) ITR

Check out this EXCLUSIVE travelogue of WWE Niagara Falls. As always, let me know what you think....

Programming notes, help with PDF/Word

First of all, there won't be an Inside The Ropes this week, but with any luck, we should be coming at ya with a vengeance next week. I do have a couple of other things I've submitted to The Rick in the interim, so we'll see what happens with those.

Secondly, I'm wondering if anyone out there has any experience converting Microsoft Word documents to PDF. The conversion itself is no problem, but I'm finding the translation isn't EXACTLY working, and it keeps screwing up the page margins. So if there's anyone out there with experience on this stuff, please drop me a line as soon as possible.

Thanks.

Tonight's Raw

I'm not one to heap praise on Raw most nights, but this one really did it for me.

Why? It wasn't one thing in particular. It was a number of different angles that all seemed to show me that Raw is starting to go in a new direction:

- Matt Hardy's return was as perfect as perfect can be. WWE didn't go nuts trying to stage a worked shoot, just pure anger, and it worked like a charm. Kudos to everyone involved.
- Piper's Pit was a nice surprise, and it was a GOOD interview segment. Michaels talked around why he did what he did, and Piper got him back on track. The tableau-like ending was cool as well.
- Shelton Benjamin and Carlito Cool put on one helluva nice little match. Already, I can see why Carlito was so highly touted coming into the company.
- The Kurt Angle-Matt Striker thing was perfect as well. Once again, WWE capitalizes on current events (this time in a more positive light than last week). And I really thought the guy was going to win, too.
- John Cena and Chris Jericho showed the kind of energy that will really make their SummerSlam match a big deal. Cena hasn't been motivated enough yet to pull off a classic feud, but he was really showing signs of greatness tonight on the mic. Jericho, too, though this hasn't been his first brush with greatness.
- No Triple H. Not that I mind the guy as much as most, but the character needs a loooooong break.

Anyways, just a tremendously solid show tonight (with a few exceptions.)

The Falls, The Book, (The) Fantastic Four & More!

Spent the weekend in Niagara Falls, partly to get away from things, and partly to finish the darned book (which is now *just about* done).

Was actually at the hotel connected to WWE Niagara Falls, and I have an upcoming column/photo essay dedicated specifically to that... possibly. Did the casino thing, all the usual tourist attractions, etc. and generally just relaxed. In addition to chilling out, I did actually get to watch a lot of the WWE "Greatest Stars of the 80's" DVD, which is cool, but not perfect. They definitely would have been better off making a series of DVD's like this to fit in all material that's necessarily.

Also caught The Fantastic Four movie. While I was never a huge fan of the comic or anything, it certainly seemed loyal to what I remember about it. Not bad as far as comic-based movies go, though the dialogue is pretty terrible. Still, not a bad flick at all.

Latest ITR

History Lesson

Atten-HUT, maggots. Because if you think the patriotic Sgt. Slaughter who has shown up on RAW over the past month (partly to raise awareness for the new 80s-themed WWE DVD) is such a Real American Hero, you're sadly mistaken. Oh sure, the 80s were great for Sarge, what with fighting the Cold War and being a GI Joe character... but then something happened. Today, the Canadian Bulldog TRIED to get in on all the crazy "I Love the 80s" action with a throwback column; but when he dug into the archives, he must have come up a bit short. He only made it back to the early 90s. But hey, the 90s: that's like TEN BETTER than the 80s! So enjoy the trip back in time, and remember Sgt. Slaughter's shameful Iraqi Allegiance in the new Inside the Ropes.

Fun and games

Head over to wikipedia to see how many WWE superstars now have the word "SHNITSKY!!!" somewhere in their profile. I'm sure it will be erased soon, but hey, it made ME laugh. Catch it soon before it gets removed, and remember, it wasn't... my... FAULT!



(Hint. Look for "Gene Snitsky", "Edge", "Triple H", "La Resistance" and "Eugene" and do a word search for "SHNITSKY!!!")

Latest roster cuts (Updated)

As I understand it, the latest round of WWE cuts consists of: Akio, Dawn Marie, Bubba Ray Dudley, D-Von Dudley, Spike Dudley, Gangrel, Jackie Gayda, Charlie Haas, Marty Jannetty, Mark Jindrak, Billy Kidman, Maven, Shannon Moore, Matt Morgan, Mordecai and Kenzo Suzuki.

With the exception of Maven and all 3 Dudleyz, I'm not all that surprised. Did every last one of them get a chance to really prove their worth? Probably not. But that's life. I don't think WWE needs any of them on the active roster under their current plans and, as always, if they need someone back to, say, round out the cruiserweight division or something, I doubt they'd be hard to hire back.

Plus, now that they're "negotiating" with Brock Lesnar (which I'm assuming means he's already signed), they probably need all the extra cash they can get...

Question to my readers

So I've been blathering on for the past couple of weeks about "the book". I believe I also mentioned here that I was pondering a Letters From A Nut VII to plug the book once it's all ready and stuff. I'm now in the fortunate position of having six or seven NEW responses from wrestlers, and some decent names to boot.

Now, the book itself will have several dozen letters no one has ever read, but not (necessarily) any letters that had responses. I can save these six for the book, publish some of them as LFAN7, or just publish the whole thing as a way to get readers "hooked".

So my question: Should I put the new responses in a new column, or should I save them for the book? Or some combination of both (for example 4 new responses, 4 letters that are still new but don't have responses)?

Thanks.

JCW Lives On

For anyone who's ever seen the Insane Clown Posse's JCW DVD's before (see here for my review of Volume 3), you'll either be delighted or horrified to know that they're bringing the shows back this month to Some Place in Ohio. I won't be attending or anything (Frankly, I'd be frightened), but the hope that there will be some future DVD's coming from this is encouraging. And they've invited almost all of the top TNA names too, which at least means there may be some actual wrestling to go along with the insanity.