Dark side of the ring

That some people have more sway in an organisation than others is more a fact of life than a scandal of any kind. If Undertaker had serially abused his power at WWE, we'd have heard all about it by now, because there are plenty of ex-workers there who'd have no ties to the company, no chance of coming back and therefore feel no impediment to 'spilling the tea' on him, but stories appear isolated.

Maybe the biggest criticisms of the Undertaker, and not even criticisms, but stories which could be given a more damning spin are about him giving new members of the roster a hard time, especially younger guys, but I think this is more borne out of an old school wrestling mentality of being taught to respect the business and the people you're working with.

I actually can't comprehend what I just watched.

I see the Flair Carshield ads have been replaced by the Ice T ads on RoH this week

At least he still has the KFC Honey Mustard ads on Southpaw. I suppose that's a regional promotion, so no-one really cares too much.... Woooo, tangy! Wooooo, crispy!

I think this past Luna episode probably touched on most of the bases that a Sherri one would. Couple of ex husbands, trained by Moolah, had to face sexual harassment, got stuck as a valet, died in late 40s of drug overdose. There's a good deal of overlap. I think her story is absolutely worth telling, but I think it would be more deserving of a one-off Vice special or one of those A&E bios.

They're back too! Event on November 7th!

Hmmmm. They've done so much. I actually spent a few minutes typing this only to realise something was already done but all I can think of now is:

They could do how Vince destroyed the territories promising Vince Snr he wouldn't. Mike Awesome suicide. Arn Anderson and Sid stabbing. Test death. They'll definitely do that whole Speak Out movement at some point too. Not a whole lot left for seasons of stuff tho.

A Perry Saturn story would be compelling. They could do one about Raven that would be very interesting and follow it up with one on the abuse of the Independent Contractor situation, one about the lack of unions and one about the lack of healthcare except for the "elite" and the deaths etc associated with that. Half a season right there.

That XPW episode - that's got to be as sleazy as wrestling gets, right? Did the federation also at least have some good actual matches, like ECW, in between the violent botch-fests? The whole thing just looked a mess. To me, those kind of big-spot deathmatches have no real place in wrestling, because they have nothing to do with wrestling. It's all about who can do the craziest, riskiest stunt. Why not just get rid of the ring and have it be like Jackass crossed with a three ring circus, but instead of actual trained performers it's young guys who'll do virtually anything for an audience's approval.

"Come see Supreme, the Supremely Stupid who, tonight, will dive through a stack of 11 flaming folding tables into a pit of barbed wire, encircled by a pack of hungry rottweilers. He will risk his life for almost no money but all the hardcore porn he can handle!"

Funny to think that New Jack was actually partly paid with hardcore porn. Also, RIP and everything, but the guy was an arsehole. He's never shown a bit of remorse for any time he's nearly killed a guy in the ring.

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Onto the Steroid Trials. I saw it as another case of wanting to take someone down rather than wanting to see justice done. I think that if there was any weight to the prosecution's claim, they could have found someone to speak against McMahon, but the only one they found was Nailz, for god sake, whose testimony had no credibility for reasons outlined in the documentary. Thought the right verdict was made. OK, I'm a bit biased, here, I have to admit. The verdict sickened that columnist Phil Mushnick, who is decidedly not a friend of pro-wrestling and had written much that demonised and belittled it.

@briany

I have yet to see the steroid trial episode but it is interesting you say only Nailz. Everyone wants a legends deal huh.

Hogan v. Gawker could be an interesting episode, but you'd never get anyone significantly involved to talk about it because Hogan has rehabilitated himself at least to the point that WWE will wheel him out once every so often, and almost certainly would not want to revisit a sex tape he made and racial slurs he uttered. Maybe Linda Hogan would appear, but she's absolutely insufferable.

As to young wrestlers dying, there are so many of them that you could easily do a whole season of stories just on that topic alone. Doing one episode on many would afford only a very shallow look at each circumstance and make it all seem a bit glib. The overarching theme of painkiller/soma abuse, physical trauma and mental well-being is something that has been examined from various different standpoints throughout the show's run.

Season 3 ( well 7 episodes, not sure if that's 3a) added to All4 today.

I remember reading about XPW in the magazines back in the day. Even as a kid could tell just a ECW knock off. Years later got my hands on one of there shows. It was Shane Douglas defending the title against some body. The whole thing was bloody awful. The camera work was terrible, don't know if it was one of the lads that shot the porno for them, might explain it.

For some reason I bought the XPW Cold day in hell reunion show. This was when ECW ECW was doing all of there reunion shows so of course XPW copied them one last time.

I say one of the worst wrestling shows I have ever seen.

The documentary did a good job making the lads seem bigger then what they were. It's a shame they could not get Rob Black or Lizzy in for interviews do.

Possible, but wrestlers love to talk especially does not currently connected to WWE. I do wonder what season 4 will be.

Impact quietly rehired dreamer after what they considered was enough time for folk to forget what he said.

Wife beating Austin episode?