Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!Hooo-ray for Sunday! Why is Mr. Mal so darn excited for Sundays?!? Wha? Are ya new around here or something?!? If so, let me clue in — Sundays are done-up old-school style at WrestlersRamblings.com, where we take a look back at various wrestlers and events from yesteryear. You never know what you’re going to get (with apologies to Forrest Gump) and this week is no exception. The inspiration came while riding my elliptical trainer at home, all the time peeping my Wrestling Superstars of the 80s DVD. Along with a ton of great matches — Mr. Maltook great delight in edu-ma-cating my nephew, Pimp Sugar, on the eve of WrestleMania 23, with a plethora of Ric Flair-Rick Steamboat tilts contained on this great three-disk set– you also get a ton of great bios. All the usual suspects are there from Hulk Hogan, Flair, Roddy Piperet al, along with Mr. Mal’s all-time most-underrated pro wrestler: Jerry “The King” Lawler.
Yes, WWE fans, thatJerry Lawler, he of the “Puppies!” exclamation as color man on WWE RAW with Jim Ross. You see, Lawler — outside of the WWE — is one of the most-decorated pro wrestlers of all-time, not to mention promoter (to this day) of the Memphis Territory. In Mr. Mal’s eyes, it was tragic how the WWE turned this legend into a buffoon and little else, greatlyunderutilizing his talents by sticking him almost exclusively in front of a mic — all the while rarely getting in the ring. Even at his age now, few performers can psychologically pull off a match like Lawler. He’s flat-out brilliant.
Here, we offer a small taste of Lawler the all-around performer in his most-famous (and his own personal-favorite) angle in all his years: The Andy Kaufman feud. Played out in front of millions of people of network shows like Late Night withDavid Letterman and Fridays, the feud brought mainstream exposure to pro wrestling like few events had done before. Both men’s love of the business came through in spades, as the angle comes off so convincingly — to this day — some people still question whether it was a work at all. It’s not for Mr. Malto judge, or — worse yet — to spoil anyone’s illusion. After all, this is pro wrestling. It is only Mr. Mal’s treat to enjoy. As it is yours. Thanks for stopping by WrestlersRamblings.com! Enjoy the clips! God bless ya, Andy Kaufman– wherever you are!! This Old-School Sundays is as much a tribute to you as it is to “The King.”
Drop us a comment or two! REGISTER TODAY BY CLICKING HERE!! BECOME A PAL OF MAL, AND BE ELIGIBLE FOR ALL OUR CONTEST AND PRIZES!!! I’ll send ya yer password and you can then get to typin’! Mr. Mal loves the company. Don’t forget to click around some other categories in the right hand column and visit some of the other stories we have filed here at WrestlersRamblings.com. We’ve got a lot to offer! Spent some time with us everyday! Tell a friend. Pass on our URL to family as a gift — they’ll thank-you later!
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The fasting-rising star in the entire sport of pro wrestling has come out guns-a-blazing against certain “frustratedâ€? ex-wrestlers currently making the rounds on various talk shows in light of the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide. In addition, Mr. Kennedy, on his own web site – located at Ken-Kennedy.com — also takes the media themselves to task, categorizing Bill O’Reilly, Nancy Grace and Geraldo Rivera as “so-called reporters,â€? who provide a platform for “goofsâ€? and “silly bastards” like Lanny Poffo, Ultimate Warrior and Marc Mero to, “makes all of us (active WWE wrestlers) look like a bunch of babbling idiots who are all addicted to steroids, drugs, alcohol, etc.â€?
Kennedy blasts Poffo, Warrior, Mero as “silly bastards”
“Please GOD, I’m just BEGGING for someone who has actually wrestled in a WWE ring in the past decade besides Jericho, Bret Hart, John Cena and Ted Dibiase to come forward on one of these shows and tell the world what’s really going on,â€? states Kennedy. “For these goofs, like LannyPoffo? UltimateWarrior? and MarcMero???!! to repeatedly act as “experts” and “wrestler advocates” on the current situation is like having a frustrated ex-jock who rode the pine bench throughout his high school sports career give advice to BrettFavre on how to improve his game!â€?
Kennedy goes on to state that the climate in today’s WWE is vastly-different than it reportedly was 10-years ago, and defended the outfit’s drug testing.
“Most of the “expert”, frustrated ex-wrestlers that they’ve had on the show came from an era where everyone wrestled every day and then went out and partied like rock stars until dawn, drinking copious amounts of alcohol, smoking cigarettes and marijuana, snorting cocaine, taking fistfuls of pills, and injecting massive amounts of steroids. They would take pills to go to sleep, snort coke or take speed to get up and do this day after day after day! This would not be even remotely tolerated in today’s environment.,â€? says Kennedy.
“We have a strict drug policy in place. The WWE’s wellness program was designed and instituted by the same doctor who implemented the NFL and the NBA’s substance abuse programs. Contrary to what somebody recently said on one of these “tabloid” shows the WWE’s allowed levels are exactly the same as the NFL.â€?
The tragic case of the Chris Benoit double murder-suicide came under the glare of worldwide television lights last night as part of CNN’s Larry King Live. Led by a panel consisting of current WWEChampionJohnCena, former all-everything WWEBret “The Hitman� Hart and pro wrestling’s first undisputedWorld Champion, Chris Jericho, WWE Superstars past and present were at a loss to explain why a seemingly mild-mannered, seldom-angered, family-loving man such as Benoit could suddenly snap and kill his wife, child, and finally, himself.
WWE Champion Cena says Benoit was “great guy”Â
“He was real quiet. He kept to himself. He had ultimate respect for his workplace. He was a model employee. I have no idea where any of this came from,â€? pondered Cena. “He was a great guy. He was a great guy to be around. And that’s — that’s the, ultimately, the strangest thing about this whole thing. No one saw this coming.â€?
“Everybody who knows Chris or kind of knows him knows him as a very private, silent guy, but, also, as a very caring heart of gold type guy,â€? said Jericho. “A friend of mine once said he’s a man’s man. And he meant that he’s — what he said was what you got. And what you got was a real, like I said, just a caring, heart filled guy. So that’s why it’s such an opposite thing for him to do this . . . If you — if you lined up a thousand guys and said which guy would do this, he would be the last guy that I would guess.â€?
Other guests included former Million Dollar Man – now Christian minister – Ted Dibiase, along with WWE hardcore performer Steve Blackman, who worked with Benoit in Stampede Wrestling in the 80s. To a man, each wrestling-related guest was quick to point out that steroids – in their experience – had never caused any “roid rage� anywhere close-enough to lead to something such as a double-murder/suicide, and further, questioned the media’s convenient labeling of the tragedy due to the muscle-aiding drug.
“My position is more like I just want someone to really prove it and they can narrow it down to that. And if it’s going to be — if you’re going to pin this on steroids, then — then you’ve got to have some(thing) factual, you know, some real facts,â€? said Hart, who appeared via satellite. “I don’t personally believe that this tragedy was a result of steroids. But, I mean, if it is, I want someone to prove that to me and convince me of that, and then I’ll understand it better.â€?
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Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!Hooo-ray for Sunday! Why is Mr. Mal so darn excited for Sundays?!? Wha? Are ya new around here or something?!? If so, let me clue in — Sundays are done-up old-school style at WrestlersRamblings.com, where we take a look back at various wrestlers and events from yesteryear. You never know what you’re going to get (with apologies to Forrest Gump) and this week is no exception. The inspiration came while riding my elliptical trainer at home, all the time peeping my Wrestling Superstars of the 80s DVD. Along with a ton of great matches — Mr. Maltook great delight in edu-ma-cating my nephew, Pimp Sugar, on the eve of WrestleMania 23, with a plethora of Ric Flair-Rick Steamboat tilts contained on this great three-disk set– you also get a ton of great bios. All the usual suspects are there from Hulk Hogan, Flair, Roddy Piper et al, along with Mr. Mal’s all-time most-underrated pro wrestler: Jerry “The King” Lawler.
 
