Inside Pulse Wrestling | That Being Said: An Open Letter To The IWC

That Being Said: An Open Letter To The IWC

by Blair A. Douglas on October 5, 2011

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a BONUS INSTALLMENT of the “Interinactivity Returns” tour. Given the uproar and downroar over the “Vote Of Confidence”, my genuine confusion over a Mark Henry Main Event Run, and the fact that Hulk Hogan is facing Sting in a couple weeks, in 2011, I wanted to share this with you.

This is not my article. It came across my desk, and the credit for this goes to a talented gentleman by the name of Martin.

——————————————–

An open letter to the â€œinternet wrestlingÂ communityâ€

I donâ€™t want to get nostalgic, but do you remember when you thought wrestling was at itâ€™s high point?

It might have been In the 80â€²s, with guys like Hogan & Macho Man in the WWF, or the birth of the Four Horseman in the NWA.

It might have been the 90â€²s, with the NWO in WCW, WWFâ€™s Attitude era & ECWâ€™s mix of brutality & technicality.

It might have been the 00â€²s, with new names like Cena coming into the spotlight, the birth of TNA, ROHâ€¦

It isnâ€™t right now, is it?

If you think everything is fantastic in professional wrestling right now, you need to really look at what TNA is doing with the Knockouts (both on & off screen), what WWE isÂ doingÂ with â€œThe Divasâ€ & read up on Ortonâ€™s bag-shitting escapades.

You also need to look at The Pope & DevonÂ beingÂ thrownÂ togetherÂ as a tagÂ teamÂ for no other reason than â€œhey, we have two black guysâ€.Â Mexican America portraying a stereotype because TNA doesnâ€™t really know how to make heels & faces other than by resorting to the lazy stereotype bullshit. It wasnâ€™t long ago that The Jarretts walked down the ramp wearing sombreros &Â ponchosÂ while grasping a pair ofÂ maracasÂ (Karen) & a fake AAA title (Jeff). Beer Money seem to be given semi-racist dialogue on a regular basis, but those guys are faces because they portray blue collar guys (more booking based on weak stereotypes).

â€œWWE doesnâ€™t have racist storylines though, that problem is just Russo & Bischoffâ€™s predjudism leaking into TNAâ€™s writingâ€

So Sheamus was getting ready for a feud with Mark Henry & they started calling him â€œThe Great Whiteâ€. As much as this is going to break your little heart, heâ€™s not a fucking shark.Â â€The Great White Hopeâ€? I could understand that. â€œThe Great White Dopeâ€? Maybe if he was acting like a buffoon. The Great White what then? HisÂ gimmickÂ is that heâ€™s white? Heâ€™s been pale since the day he walked into Titan Towers, so itâ€™s not like they needed to point it out to us. The Great White (guy) vs Mark Henry, the heel. Is it that much of a stretch of the imagination to think that maybe, just maybe, WWE want us to think if Mark Henry as â€œThe Evil Black Guyâ€?

Alberto Del Rio is a heel due being portrayed as a greedyÂ Mexican on a regular basis & it is WWEâ€™s booking by stereotype thatâ€™sÂ led to him being cheered every time he as much as touches Cena (well, that & Cenaâ€™sÂ over-saturation).

Once we block all that stuff out & concentrate on the matches themselves, how often do you enjoy them?Â Leave a comment & tell me the last match you watched & thought â€œwow, that was amazingâ€.

What we seem to be doing is putting up with things, then going online to defend what weâ€™ve just watched against other people defending what they watched. Youâ€™ve seenÂ â€Hey, Kelly Kelly is really comingÂ along, iâ€™m glad sheâ€™s not stuck in TNA Â with those blow up dollsâ€ followed by â€œYou know what, Velvet Sky deserves this push & at least she can learn from actual wrestlers while in TNAâ€ & then â€œFuck you, WWE is way better than TNA, at least their wrestlers arenâ€™t on food stampsâ€¦â€

WWE, TNA, ROH, JCW, NWA Hollywood, Chikara, DGUSAâ€¦ It doesnâ€™t matter what product youâ€™re watching, all that matters is that what youâ€™re watching is good.

If I like TNA & you like WWE, do you think that means I canâ€™t appreciate something like Taker vs HHH from this yearâ€™s â€˜Mania?Â Do you think you canâ€™t possibly like AJ Styles or Samoa Joe because youâ€™re part of the â€œWWE UNIVERSEâ€?Â You can be a fan of one promotion & still be into things that another is doing, hell, you can even be a fan of multiple promotions.

You can also call shit when you see it, and lately, weâ€™ve all seen a lot.

Weâ€™re expected to pay monthly (sometimes twice a month) for PPVs from each promotion & spend 3 hours of our life that weâ€™ll never get back watching them, on top of the 4+ hours of weekly programming we need to watch in order to keep up with the storylines. Are we buying the PPVs because the card looks amazing?Â From here it looks like weâ€™re doing it out of loyalty to the promotion,Â regardlessÂ of how good/bad it sounds on paper. We all seem to have forgotten that theÂ promotions work for us, we pay them. Bischoff can talk about 10%â€™s & the â€œIWCâ€, but him, Dixie, Vince & his shareholdersâ€¦ Â they all have to answer to the revenue stream.

Itâ€™s not me vs you, you vs another reader, WWE vs TNA, ROH or any other promotion.

Itâ€™s WWE, TNA, ROH, ETC. vs OUR MONEY & OUR TIME.

- Martin F. Shaw (the 14th of France)

——————————————–

Excellent stuff. This really is the bottom line, ladies and gentlemen. It’s okay to call something terrible when it is.

Take, for example, some of the worst main-event-level matches we’ve seen in the last decade. Goldberg / Lesnar. Triple H / Kozlov. Triple H / Steiner. Great Khali / Kane. Guess what? Every single one of those matches were better than Mark Henry against Shaemus or Randy Orton. Every single one. And those matches were horrible. All of them. The guy has been bottom-mid-card for 15 years, and it’s not like he’s doing anything all of a sudden that’s better than before. But he gets a pass because this is AS good as Mark Henry gets?!?! Well, that Kozlov match was as good as Kozlov gets – where’s HIS pass?

They’re never going to put on better stuff if people don’t stop watching or keep defending it. I made this point a few months ago – do you think Vince would have given us the Attitude era if his ratings hadn’t been in the toilet and his company in danger? You bet your sweet lawn jockey he wouldn’t have.

And yet, people rip on the “Vote Of Confidence”, but not in Mark Henry’s main-event run. Hey, that Vote Of Confidence was pretty painful stuff, you’ll get no argument from me. If I have a choice of watching even a half-decent match against that Vote Of Confidence, I’ll take the match every single time. But weighing the Vote Of Confidence against watching Mark Henry fall on top of his victims and axe-handle people to death? Pack up the wagon and call the next of kin, because I’m watching the Vote.

Or, don’t watch either, or at the very least, watch it and call it like it is. Because both are terrible. We all know it. Think about showing the Mark Henry title match to someone who used to be into wrestling and isn’t anymore. What do you think they’d say? Legit question.

“I want change, and I’ll stand and fight for it even if I’m alone.”
- CM Punk via Twitter last night

I’ll be in my trailer.

Blair

Tags: Abyss, AJ Styles, Anderson, Angle, beer money, Bischoff, Bully Ray, Cena, christian, Chyna, cm punk, Crystal, CZW, D-Von, Daniels, DGUSA, Dreamer, edge, Flair, Fortune, Hardy, Harris, Hogan, immortal, impact, Jarrett, Kaz, miz, NXT, Orton, pope, Raw, Rob Van Dam, ROH, Roode, Sabin, Samoa Joe, Shelley, Smackdown, STD, Steiner, Sting, storm, suicide, Swayze, Team 3D, TNA, TNA Impact Recap, tna impact report, TNA Wrestling, vince, WaterDrip, WWE, Yob

Blair A. Douglas

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Blair A. Douglas writes about professional wrestling on Inside Pulse until he has to stop because he's about to have a stroke. Any “errors” that are made on his part are, of course, intentional and represent an artistic choice. He acts as a kind of fly paper for the emotionally disturbed.

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KON

Cheers, Blair
Pingback: An open letter to the “internet wrestling community” « martyrshow | Banned In Germany
Mike Gojira

Okay then. This open letter seems to be directed at the IWC at large, but some of Martin’s comments are quite honestly broad.

The Sheamus nickname, while weird, is not intended to make us see him as a white guy going up against a black guy. It truly is a comment on his pallor. As for Mark Henry being seen as an evil black man, I don’t get that remark at all. Not once has there been any indication that this is the route the company is taking.

As for del Rio being portrayed as an evil Mexican, I don’t see the racism that Martin claims to have picked up on. He’s a generic rich guy who happens to be Mexican. The line about booking him by stereotype makes no sense.

People boo Cena because he’s Cena, not because he’s white and many in the audience are Hispanic (if that is what our guest writer is assuming).

I agree with many of Martin’s points, but it almost seems like he’s attacking many in the IWC because they’re trying to look at things from a positive perspective. True, the WWE and TNA are both guilty of stupidity in this day and age (and I’m not defending either) but Martin seems to be grasping at straws to make his arguments (in the case of the racism especially).

I tend to agree with you on a consistent basis, Blair, but you seem to knock people’s opinions as though they aren’t entitled to them if they disagree with you. If that’s not your intention, I’m letting you know that this is how you come across to some people.

Bottom line is that both companies need to put some work in to earn MY money, but we need to stop knocking people when their opinions differ from our own.
Steven Gepp

Match that made me go, “Wow!”

AJ Styles v Christopher Daniels, Destination X, July 10, 2011.

(CM Punk v John Cena, Money In The Bank, July 17, 2011 was close, but a recent re-watch told me it wasn’t as good as AJ/Daniels)
CJ

The thing with Mark Henry is…I don’t think it’s bad. In fact, I think Mark’s doing an awesome job.
That doesn’t mean I have low standards. It doesn’t mean I just accept shit for what it is. It just means that I (the viewer) am entertained by Mark Henry!

In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that, Mark Henry imo is one of the few entertaining aspects of the WWE. Alot of things in WWE are horrible, but imo Mark henry is not one of them.

I don’t see the big deal. He’s not the best wrestler, but then again is a guy like that supposed to be putting on technical classics? He just goes in, kicks ass and does what he says.

It’s believable and it’s different. Not only is somebody different holding a World Title, but he’s not the typical cowardly heel. He’s a badass monster champion..something we’ve been missing for quite a while.

It’s not a sin to like Mark Henry
Dave Dubya

I find the comments of “Martin” to be deeply racist, insulting and typical of that of most fans of sports entertainment shows nowadays.

He won’t like it up him when Arn & Tully come and sort him out.
CB

I’m still in Vegas one more day and even I had to chime in on this one. Good find Blair, and I do agree that there probably isn’t one person over the age of 18 that actually thinks TODAY is the high point of pro wrestling.
Mike Gojira

@Dubya: Now, now…with a blanket statement like that, you’re just asking for an angry response.
KON

@Mike Gojira:

The Cena comment was more about Del Rio being a heel, yet still getting cheers any time he landed a punch on Him. If WWE had done a better job of developing Del Rio’s character (and stopped booking Cena like superman) it wouldn’t have happened.

The Sheamus thing: I could see nothing wrong with the Celtic Warrior nickname & when they started calling him The Great White for no reason (other than to say “look he’s a face”, I guess) it kinda came at the same time as Henry’s stuff with him.
Henry is being portrayed as evil, breaking legs post-match & whatnot, so it wasn’t a massive stretch for me.

The only fan’s I’m taking a shot at are the ones that turn everything into “us vs them” all the time. Everything else is more to point out that things aren’t great (in my opinion, obviously) & that a lot of booking comes down to “oh, he’s an *insert race here* guy, give him this” rather than “he’s big, but doesn’t have mic skills? let’s give him some squash matches” or “he’s got the fans behind him, but doesn’t quite have the experience yet, let’s let’s put him in a tag team/give him an IC run.

I can only give examples of what I think is borderline racist or stereotype based booking. I was hoping it’d open up a discussion on some of the not so great aspects that everyone seems to brush over.
Mike Gojira

@KON: In terms of your booking comment, I can definitely cite Jinder Mahal as a prime example of that. The audience has been conditioned to boo a foreign language from the days of French-Canadian wrestlers, so it’s no wonder that stigma remains.
Cynical Bastard

Racist or not, “The Great White” is a horrible nickname and shouldn’t be used by anyone. Anywhere. Regardless of skin tone.

Except Shark Boy.
KON

@Steven Gepp

YES! I loved AJ vs Daniels.
CheersMatePunk

HERE HERE
Victor

Wait, I thought his nickname was “The Great White Seamus”. Like Great White Shark. I haven’t heard them call him “The Great White”.
Cynical Bastard

@Victor
They usually say “The Great White, Sheamus!”

This is one of those cases where puncutation applies, kiddies!
James Alsop

Martin’s completely correct. Companies never, ever used to try for cheap heat with racist stereotypes and angles before now.

Like, never.
James Alsop

And for goodness’ sake… I thought it was pretty well understood that “The Great White” was a comparison to the famous species of shark. Nothing more, nothing less. Martin’s astute observations probably say more about him than Sheamus / Henry.
owangotang

As much as you do not understand the defense of Mark Henry I equally do not understand the hate. Yes, Henry has been a bottom dweller, comedy sideshow, and a general afterthought throughout his career. Now, however, he is finally being booked as a killer monster heel. Don’t like it?

I say the blame falls on Orton and Sheamus.

Orton got the rub from so many “legends” during his Legendkiller run that eventually it was inevitable that he’d be a top face of the WWE, however since then who has Orton “made”?

Legacy? Ted is barely on Superstars and Cody is only now finding his own way. Christian? Uh…NO. Kofi? STUPID STUPID STUPID!

Sheamus has not “made” anyone either but that is understandable considering his limited time near the top. That is still not Henry’s fault.

Face it, if Henry had an opponent who knew how to sell getting the hell beaten out of him, say Sting, Hitman, Ricky Steamboat, then Mark’s run at the top would look much more legit.

I just don’t get why it’s all Henry’s fault when the guys at the top fail to do their best to pull him up to their level after Henry’s 15 years of sub-mediocrity.

Also I noticed the Great White nickname and thought 3 things: 1) Wow, does that make the Rock a Great Brown? 2) They probably were not being racist, and 3) does this make Sheamus a pyromaniac?
flamingwombat

I find it interesting that this letter is posted in a Blair column, as Blair is by far the worst of the “if you disagree with me you are an idiot” columnists/ commenters. He’s not able to think out of the box (“Mark Henry has sucked for years, so he must suck now” fallacy) and can’t allow those of us who are actually able and willing to see the success of the current booking of Henry as the success it is. Henry sucked when he was used poorly, and now that he’s being booked perfectly, he’s (more than) watchable and a valuable member of the roster. Blair’s constant (seriously, every column – worse than Incognito on every TNA related topic) harping on the Mark Henry/Sheamus topic has become rather petulantly childish.

As for the letter itself, alonｇ with its condescending tone and obtuse statements of racism, seems to miss the obvious point that if we were kids growing up watching the current product, it ABSOLUTELY would be the high point of our fandom.
Futureal

Yeah, today isn’t the high point. It’s not the lowest point, either.

Mark Henry may be damaged by 15 years of mediocrity and it might me too late for what they’re doing with him but it’s different, it’s believable and it actually is classic wrestling. A big, fierce, dominant guy who everybody believes can beat the shit out of any opponent. He may not be agile or simply good enough to ever have a 5 star match but the matches he had with Orton weren’t terrible. Come on, Blair. I could see you making a point about the matches being “rather bland and nothing beyond the usual formula” or something, while I would be on the side of “well, they worked the formula well enough and what it lacked in athleticism it had in drama”. But this thing where you call everything the worst of all time is just ridiculous. I often enough enjoy your writing and have fun with your articles but you’ve really gone over the edge somewhere with hating everything.

One other example: You called Orton vs. Drew from monday a terrible match. Come on. It was 4 minutes long, everybody hit their moves, the crowd was cheering and it was just there to remind us that Randy Orton, after his title loss, can still dominate a lesser but somewhat credible opponent. A segment like that may seem too pedestrian for you but there wasn’t anything that deserves to be called “terrible”. Nothing. If you disagree, please point to something specific they did that held it back from being at least average or that did damage what they tried to achieve overall. The segment wasn’t designed to be epic and for the ages. It served a purpose and it did so just fine. Do you quit watching a movie and leave the cinema bitching and pissed off because in the first 5 minutes they don’t discover the meaning of life and/or blow up entire cities, they simply set up a character and some surroundings? If so, I won’t think you to be this great harsh critic, I suspect you actually really don’t like movies at all. There is something between the Oscar and Golden Raspberry, you know. And something in between is what we’re getting almost every week in wrestling right now.

As for “WOW”, I really haven’t said that in quite some time. You’ve got a point there, it’s been a while since the last “can’t miss” match or “can’t miss” show. I have however said “damn, that was pretty good” and enjoyed myself in the case of…
*Roode vs. Styles, last Impact
*Kurt Angle vs. James Storm, Impact from two weeks ago
*Roode vs. Kazarian, Impact from three weeks ago
*Roode vs. Bully Ray, No Surrender
*Austin Aries vs. Brian Kendrick, No Surrender
*Matt Morgan vs. Samoa Joe, No Surrender

Among others just in the last month. And although I don’t regularly watch WWE, I checked out Henry vs. Orton from Night Of Champions out of curiosity. Slightly above average with a cool moment at the end and good booking in putting the challenger over like a big badass. Enjoyable. There is that word again. It’s okay to call something decent when it is.
Aaron Glazer

Look, I know you’re hopelessly biased against Henry, but Henry Orton and Henry Sheamus were both better than all of: Goldberg / Lesnar. Triple H / Kozlov. Triple H / Steiner. Great Khali / Kane. And for fairness, I’ll toss in AJ Styles vs. Davey Richards from ROH. I know this is your gimmick, but you’re becoming a hopelessly biased caricature.
Blair A. Douglas

Responses to this will go in my Interinactivity at the end of the month.

One thing though, Glazey. My “gimmick”? Do explain.
Ali G

I don’t get why people are moaning about Mark Henry? He unpredictably won the championship, making a nice change from Orton/Christian. Now he’ll fued with Sheamus, making a nice change from Orton/Christian. Realistically, who the heck on Smackdown (other than Christian and maybe Cody) can be a heel heavyweight champion? Nobody. Now I don’t approve of a lot of stuff the WWE is doing, but this makes total sense, they are thinking outside of the bubble for once. And whenever Sheamus eventually beats Henry for the title, it will make him look stronger and more creditable considering Henry has demolished all that have gotten in his way. To me, that makes perfect sense.
James Alsop

That last comment by Aaron didn’t come with a hyperlinked ID, so it may not have been him. It certainly sounds a little uncharacteristic.

Again though, Blair, that open letter really is extremely short-sighted. I’m as all for free speech as the next guy, but Martin having the right to say something doesn’t make his argument any good. It defies logic.

And be honest here… you can’t seriously think that Khali-Kane was better than Orton-Henry.
flamingwombat

I suggested weeks ago that Blair was trying to play a heel character here. At least, I realllly hope it’s just a gimmick.
Michael L

Up front, I’ll let you know that I haven’t seen either of the Orton/Henry PPV encounters, but they’d have to be pretty fucking horrible to be worse than HHH/Steiner. Their Rumble match was so bad, the fans were actively booing the “face” Steiner because he was incredibly blown up within the first five minutes–and yet they went another twenty, with an inconclusive finish. That match was so bad, it damn near set the business back a decade or two. It was only the amazing Benoit/Angle encounter that followed that salvaged that PPV–and of course, many people can’t watch that match anymore for obvious reasons.
Wally Kovacs

You are absolutely right. I will stop watching immediately. And that will have ABSSOLUTELY no effect on ratings because I’m not a Neilson house. So, basically, outside of spending on PPVs and merchandise, it doesn’t matter whether I watch their TV show or not. That’s te falacy of the “if you keep watching you support them” argument, how many people on this site have a Neilson Box and actually have an impact of ratings? Most of us don’t.
Blair A. Douglas

You bet your sweet fannypack I can.

This seems as good an article as any to do this.
To Glazey, Gojey, Wombey, and anyone else offended by my writing.

Guys, seriously, PLEASE. I realize I didn’t get this response when I covered TNA, not to this degree anyway, and that’s because what TNA does is more universally looked at as terrible. And I don’t see the WWE as being anywhere near as bad as TNA, but the bottom line is with anything, everyone is entitled to their opinions. I’m just speaking the truth as I see it here. Whether you realize it or not, everyone’s “logic” is subjective regarding anything other than a sport with a clear ACTUAL winner and an ACTUAL loser (so, not wrestling). Including mine.

You guys are the ones trying to beat that these guys are doing so awesome down my throat, but sorry, I just can’t swallow it. I guess I got a bigger gag reflex. Does that mean I think you’re idiots? No, it’s wrestling. But it doesn’t mean that I’m wrong. Nor does it mean you’re wrong. I’m saying that I think Henry is a fat waste of space and his title reign will not increase a rating or a butyrate, or bring back any of the gajillion viewers that wrestling has lost. I’m not looking to change anyone’s opinions on Mark Henry or Shaemus or anything else, so why are you trying to change mine?

Regarding my style and what here and in other articles has been called my “gimmick”, which is hilarious by the way, does anyone REALLY want to see me or Martin or Swayze or anyone else take the time to gussy up wording so we can all make nice for a bunch of people we’ll never meet? Why would I feel the need to do that, is it because I would assume that anyone would take anything that I or any other stranger on the internet said personally? Because I don’t agree with them on something related to a fake sport?

Because I would never assume that. I would assume that we’re adults, that people would realize that IT’S THE INTERNET, that it’s wrestling, that it’s supposed to be fun and that people can say what they want with no filter. Unless you’re telling me that I’m writing for and amongst children. Which I didn’t think was the case.

I like you guys, truly I do, and would certainly not come here if I’m not wanted, I can find somewhere else. If I am though, then get used to me differing with your opinion on how awesome Mark Henry is, and a bunch of other stuff too, because I thought that’s what this site was for. And get used to me not rainbow-ing up my wording, because I can’t be bothered. I’ve been back for 4 days. Everyone just relax.
James Alsop

You leave my sweet fannypack out of this, you smooth-talker…
http://twitter.com/pulseglazer Aaron Glazer

I’m not complaining about 95% of what you do, just that every post AND every comment are about Henry. We get it. Hate, love, or be ambivalent about something else until something changes in the Henry sitation because, seriously, we get it.
Blair A. Douglas

Nah. I’m gonna keep going with it. It’s fun.
sideshowbob

So Henry needs to face someone who can sell, make it look like he’s gonna get murdalated facing Henry, and possibly eek out a victory by being quicker or smarter. Sounds like you guys ARE clamoring for Henry vs DBryan after all…

Here’s the thing with all this… They’re lifting the curtain just enough to make EVERYONE feel like they’re in on the insider comments… So the original IWC becomes dated and jaded, but the online presence, due to the increase of the use of technology is simply the new norm for the old ‘mark’. All the texts/emails/polls… That’s no longer the “IWC”. The IWC has become a flawed concept and will be eaten alive by this new way of communicating with the audience… Have you ever been in a building and everyone was going in one direction, and you realized you had to go the other way? It becomes go with the flow or get trampled. Not saying follow the herd, just explaining that cutting across the grain is becoming increasingly difficult
flamingwombat

Yeah, you can’t be serious making it sound like we’re beating it down your throat when you are the one commenting on nearly every column day after day (even comments as juvenile as “HAHAHAHAHA” on a positive article about Sheamus).

You also constantly misrepresent the arguments against your point. “…your opinion on how awesome Mark Henry is…” No one is saying that! We’re saying that he’s being booked perfectly, he’s really over, and he’s running with his push. All the truth. I’ve seen no one say he’s an awesome worker, so you need to lay off the straw man arguments if you want to be taken seriously.

Lastly, you also seem to really want to portray yourself as the rebel free-thinker of the Pulse staff. However, you realize that it’s YOU who follows the standard IWC script and aren’t willing to be open minded, right? “Henry always sucked so he sucks now”. “Sheamus is only getting a push because he’s HHH’s workout buddy”. That’s the general mindset and you follow it goosestep. Many of us here are willing to adapt our thoughts and opinions on these two wrestlers based on what is actually currently happening. Not what used to happen, nor what we think should happen, nor what we want to happen. No one is offended by anything you have to say; it’s just that what you have to say is getting rather tiresome.
Blair A. Douglas

Nah, I’m not portraying myself as anything bud, nor am I adopting an opinion because it’s popular. And of course you ALL aren’t saying the SAME thing, but anyone, literally anyone can be booked well. Many comments HAVE said that Henry has improved yet can’t site one match or skill where that seems to be the case. So the booking is good. Yeah, I get that – ANYONE can be booked like that.

Would it help if I started putting up Mark Henry facts instead:
- if it looks like Mark Henry is about to hit his finisher… Let him. He’ll probably just cripple himself again.
http://twitter.com/pulseglazer Aaron Glazer

Hence the gimmick.
Mike Gojira

I’m speaking for myself when I say that I’m not trying to change your opinion of guys like Henry or Sheamus. I just want to tell you that you come across as antagonistic to anyone who champions them.
This is why you wind up with so many trolls (especially in regards to TNA).
Blair A. Douglas

Must be how I’m booked.
Jimmy

So we are back to having aguy complain about wrestling again?
Blair A. Douglas

Yeah, people are going all nuts over this Triple H thing. It’s a scene, all right.
owangotang

Blair I like what you do. I rarely agree with your opinion and I’m fine with that. I find that your stuff challenges me to really understand what it is I like and why I like it. I know such defense of what ultimately is different tastes is unnecessary but it can be damn fun.

I’ll also say this: at least you are consistent.

Now, THAT BEING SAID (gimmick infringement baby!) it does seem like you are trending dangerously close to going full Satereau-Fife. I don’t give a damn who has a better “gag reflex”, just own your opinions the same way we own ours.
Zork

TRIPLE H PISSES ME OFF!!!
Legion

Honestly, I agree with Blair on the Henry thing. If it were something new, then yeah I might buy it. But Henry, aside from the brief periods here and there, has ALWAYS been booked as the monster unstoppable heel. How many times has Henry come down and ripped the door off a steel cage? It’s the same thing every time. The only difference is that he always failed to get over, and his push would end before it would ever get to the Main Event level. The closest I ever remember monster heel Henry getting there ended when he was fed to the Taker’s streak a few years back. This is just the first time they actually pulled the trigger on him. Just because it isn’t Orton or Cena with the World title doesn’t make it “new”.
Dave Dubya

Mark Henry is far from being a perfect character. But WWE seem to be conflicted on how to write his angles. They’re making the same mistakes they did when Vader was in WWF….when Henry could plausibly be set up as a monster bad guy (like Vader in WCW) who squashes everyone in the ring…but doesn’t need to say too much in the build up (or has a manager to speak for him).

Against Randy Auton…who gives a fark? Randy Auton isn’t likable enough a character to want him to win, nor has he been given anything from which to triumph over.
sideshowbob

So on the subject of mark Henry, when the inevitable 3dvd set comes out, which matches would you like to see included? Which skits? No, not counting the obligatory documentary covering his awe inspiring career starting with his legendary save of Jake Roberts from the hands of an angry king through his epic encounters with Randy Orton…
ASGurl

any Mark Henry moments I want re-enacted can be found on botchamania.
Mark Patrol

Did anyone else ever notice that Assgurl’s IP address is the same as Blair’s?
Mike Gojira

Considering “she” ALWAYS jumps in with, “Blair is the greatest EVAH” with little to no commentary on his actual column, I wouldn’t be surprised.
http://twitter.com/pulseglazer Aaron Glazer

Yeah noticed the other day, but didn’t realize you could see other’s IP…?
Blair A. Douglas

Except that you can’t track IP’s. Unless only the people with admin privileges could see them. That was something I said to see if the trolls would go away, which they did, at least until Keith brought Elvy or whoever down on us.

But, since you seem to be implying that I’m commenting on my own articles, we can just add that to the list of stuff you guys are wrong about. And I got NO issues telling you that ASGurl is a friend of mine named Amber. Now you can tell me why you think that makes her opinion void, if you like.
flamingwombat

So either Blair is commenting on his own articles using fake screen names OR he has a friend named Amber who cheerleads him by using his own computer to post comments that sound like they are made by a 12 year old. Not sure which I’d want to own up to…