Letters on Albano, UFC judging, Raw, Robinson


Attention: open in a new window. PDFPrint
JUDGING
 
Hey Dave-
I was reading through the Observer today and specifically the Machida/Shogun coverage. I didn't really feel like discussing it last weekend because people were so vehement about it and I wasn't vehement at all so it just felt awkward.
 
Watching it from a suite Saturday night, I gave Machida the first three rounds and Shogun the final two. The next day I rewatched it and changed my mind on the first round, so I gave it to Shogun 48-47 on second viewing. The key at least for me was the leg kicks looked more effective on TV. I still thought it was very close and I still don't really understand the outrage. Shogun was moving forward, throwing more and landing more, but Machida landed some hard counters in the early rounds that I still think were the cleanest blows even if Machida did get worn down more over time. I talked to a couple people after the fight in the box and they both thought Machida won, including Arash Markazi from SI.com who felt much more strongly about it than I did. But obviously amongst the people who watched on TV it was the overwhelming sentiment in the other direction.
 
I wouldn't make too much out of the crowd. Crowds boo decisions all the time that are perfectly fine. The main event in terms of crowd reaction most reminded me of Forrest/Tito I, where people came in cheering Tito because he was from SoCal and I think because they expected him to win anyway. When Forrest fought back, everyone started cheering Forrest and they heavily booed Tito and the decision after the fight even though it was perfectly justifiable.
 
I'm also kind of surprised to see all the outrage this week about US MMA judging in general. That was the sentiment in a lot of things I read as well as on the poll on the website. To me, you're always going to have criticism of judging of any time, but US MMA judging does a much better job than most any judging system I can think of, from boxing and figure skating to Oscars and Grammys. The judges get some fights wrong, but that's going to happen. There are basically never "robberies" in the sense we know them in boxing, and the judging over time has recognized effective submission work more and more over time, which to me was the biggest problem with US MMA judging a couple years ago. I think the judging is on balance pretty darn good, but people are going to be looking for reasons to complain about judging a lot more over the next year so there may be snowballing criticism even if it's over decisions that were completely debatable.
Todd Martin

 
ALBANO
 
Dave,
 
As always, a great job on the Albano obit.  I grew up with him as a prelim guy who wouldn't sell for anyone.  Incredible, he would no-sell, rake the eyes, and go back on offense.
Of course, he was a heat missile as manager and developed his atypical niche. Totally forgot that Verdu was his first biggie, and remembered that he took over for Angelo wirh Koloff.
Patera told me that Lou would be totally drunk at TV and was a piece of work doing the gazillion local promos.
 
I personal story. I used to wait for Vince Sr at the Warwick Hotel on MSG night. He would come down with Willie Gilzenburg and I'd beg for a ticket. Vince would smile and turn to Willie, "Hey, Willie, give the kid a ticket."
Then, I'd go into the employees entance, as this was a wrestler's ticket, and take the elevator up to the dressing room level.  I'd walk right in, things were much different back then, lol.
 
Then, I'd lay low and park myself behind the curtain where they came out and watch the matches. One time, I was in my usual perch in the middle holding the peeking through the two curtains.  Albano was on my left watching through his opening and Strongbow was on my right. Albano would poke Strongbow in the side with his umbrella, and then "hide" behind me.  Can;t make this up.  Strongbow eventually told him to cut it out.
 
Was there for the terrible Snuka match, which just looked and felt wrong from the get-go.
 
Jeff Bukantz
 
Hello, Dave,
 
I just received the latest Observer today, with the Albano obituary, and wanted to write.
 
You did your usual top notch job on it, as once again, you covered his history from top to bottom.
 
I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I think you do the best obituaries in sports, as you detail the persons career and life, both the good and bad.
 
When I first started watching wrestling, back when Bob Backlund was the champ, I loved Albano's interviews.
 
He'd come out and someone (I think it was Gene Okerland, but may be wrong) would chide him for being overweight, and Albano would talk about this special diet he's on, consisting of nothing but 'unborn virgin goat's milk,' and I would be in stitches.
 
Albano was my all time favorite manager, both as a heel and a face, and I am genuinely saddened he is gone.
 
Again, very good work.
 
Mike
 

Hi Dave

 

Reading the Albano obit right now, and you mention that all of his siblings were teachers.  Well, George Albano, who you quoted in your piece, was a teacher in Wilmington MA when I was growing up, at Wilmington High School (although I could be mistaken and it might’ve been my junior high, the West Intermediate, though almost positive it was the high school).  It was always said that Mr Albano was Lou’s brother, and there was a definite resemblance.  I asked him about it one time and he confirmed it was true, but for some reason I never fully believed it.  I never had him as a teacher myself, but he was extremely well-liked and very button-down (probably why I never fully believed he was Lou’s brother).

 

Christopher J Cassidy

 
RAW
 

Actually, live thought might be better. In regards to the Chris Masters performance, EVERYONE in the crowd loved it. People were laughing, cheering. They could not have cared about the Evan Bourne/Miz match or the Sheamus match, but the moment Masters started flexing his pecs, the building came unglued. I was glad I was there live for it, because I watched it back on TV this morning and it did not come across at all.

 

Thanks for all the great work guys, I really appreciate it.

 

Tim Glancy

 

 

I have so much to say, so much to vent and you guys can throw this away, post it on the site, put it in a newsletter, or read it on a show, I don't care if you use it to roll up a joint with but I have a lot of venting to do about WWE, TNA, wrestling, etc..................
 
Ok I'm listening to the free observer live and while I've heard terms like this a million times something set me off. They didn't want Flair to wooo because it's souther? What the holy fuck?!?!?!!?!?!? How has Vince been successful for this long? Are we just all that fucking stupid that we keep handing this guy our hard earned money no matter what shit he puts on the spoon and feeds us? I have bought WWE PPVs, WWE DVDS, WWE ACTION FIGURES, WWE WRESTLING RINGS (um, for my kids of course.....) my parents used to buy us WWE toys when I was a kid 25 years ago, my mom will still buy me goofy WWE magazines and action figures as a joke ever christmas going back to our childhhood THE NAJDEK FAMILY HAS SUPPORTED WWF/WWE FOR ALMOST 30 YEARS NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I have every right to speak my mind on this stupid shit that goes on backstage. From Flair not being allowed to do promos to Raw last night making a joke out of the match they want people to pay 40 dollars to watch for survivor series, around a time when people like me have to save every god damn dollar they earn in order to provide their kids with a nice Christmas, they want to make a joke out of the shit they want me to pay 3 hours worth or work to see?!?!?!!?!?
 
WWE needs to know people like me make sure their bills are paid, food is bought, kids are taken care of and IF there is any extra money left over that doesn't go into savings, then we splurge on ourselves to buy things like WWE ppvs, or DVDS, or UFC etc. And right now, if I have extra money left over it goes to UFC!!!!!!!!!!! Because at least if I get dicked on a UFC ppv its because of a judge, an injury, or shitty fighters, but it's not Dana White, Joe Silva, or The Fertittas making a decision to fuck with the fans who make it possible for them to live in houses that have remote controlled waterfalls in the yard!!!!
 
I'm guilty of this problem too because I'll still watch Raw, SD and buy the occasional PPV and make them think that I'm happy with the shit they are giving us every week. So that may very well end soon. TNA absolutly sucks, I bought ONE TNA PPV in the last few years and it was only because they made an attempt to put 3 young/non superstar guys over in Morgan, Styles and Abyss and it wound up being a good PPV. The next PPV from TNA I buy won't be because of Hogan, but it will be for the first REAL Angle vs Nigel match (YES NIGEL BECAUSE DESMOND WOLF SOUNDS LIKE A CHARACTER ON A FUCKING STREETFIGHTER VIDEO GAME OR THE STAR OF A C LEVEL CINEMAX ACTION MOVIE CALLED SOMETHING STUPID LIKE "DEADLY INTENTIONS") Otherwise TNA is cut fucking off because Vince Russo sucks, and I could give two fifths of a fuck about Hogan joining TNA because it will lead to NOTHING productive for this company in my view.
 
I know this is all over the place but while watching Raw last night, I see DX and Cena joking and laughing and HAHAHAHAing about their fucking WWE TITLE MATCH coming up at one of the supposed 4 major PPV's of the year?!?!?!?!?!? WHAT?!?!?!?!?!!!? Isn't Hunter some supposed fucking purist? Isn't the world title supposed to be protected? If I hear him on another WWE DVD say something like the WWE Title is the most important thing in our business I'm going to cross body block my fucking TV!!!!!! Not to mention this selfish piece of shit is saying in interviews nobody ever put him over?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!!? Austin, Taker, HBK, Foley, Rock!!!!!!!!!!!!! All are the reason you are what you are Hunter. I'm SURE his stupid spin on that comment is he had to get himself over to a main event spot FIRST and was already over before those guys did jobs for him but that's fucking shit. I'm a fan, I'm a mark, and I know that other fans and other marks didn't take you seriously in a top spot til you beat guys like that. The 2/3 falls cage match with Austin stands out to me as a big moment when fans started taking you seriously. I don't care that so many guys got hurt at the time and you carried the company and were dubbed the MVP of WWF by Jim Ross at the end of that year, you were not a legit, big time, top of the food chain draw til THOSE GUYS put you over!!!!!!!!!! Period end of story!!!!!
 
When I want comedy, I watch comedy fucking central, or I put in a George Carlin DVD, or I watch Richard Fucking Pryor, or watch South Park, I dont' turn on WWE!!!!! I'm not paying 40 dollars to watch guys go tee hee hee, and ha ha during a main event PPV match. What if UFC did this? What if Brock and Carwin were just going "oooh we're fighting for a title, I better start training yard wink wink"   or "Hey I might win, he might win, either way who cares I'll get a rematch next month and you retards will still pay for it, btw buy the new brock lesnar T shirt!!!!!" FUCK OFF !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Maybe merchandise is down because your product fucking sucks? Maybe if people really got behind guys like they did when wrestling at least made some sense, they'd buy more T shirts and DX fucking teddy bears. Does that make sense? Seems to me I see a ton of Tapout and UFC and MMA related merchandise around now then I do WWE shirts, maybe thats because people take that shit seriously because the COMPANY TAKES THAT SHIT SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!! Maybe the NFL is what it is because every game is billed as important and it means something especially they god damn playoffs and superbowl. They don't make a joke out of it and say 'well we beat you this year, and you beat us lastl year, so who cares who wins the superbowl, could be any of us tee hee hee!!!!" GOD DAMN!!!!!!!!
 
I know wrestlings fake, but fake movies that have serious storylines to them take that storyline seriously, no matter how silly the splot, or all the action is, they make it out ot be important in the movie so even in some shitty 4zillion dollar summer action movie with guys standing on top of cars going 200 miles per hour while firing 500 rounds of ammo at fucking robots and somehow keeping his balance and dodging the laser beams being shot back at him, THEY MAKE YOU THINK ITS FUCKING SERIOUS and these movies do like 50 million dollars in their opening weekend, then go on to make 200 million worldwide and people buy the DVD after already seeing the movie 3 times in the movie theatre and they buy their kids the action figures, and posters and video games and t shirts that are made for these stupid movies, because they were pushed as SERIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I'm done, I had to get that off my chest, because the WWE mentality about souther rasslin, and making a joke out of everything is about to make me cut them off completely, but sadly I probably never will follow through on that, and thus Vince stays afloat because or retard loyalists like me.
 
Chris Najdek
 

 

MORE THINGS CHANGE
 
I may be off my gord but did you ever put this on the front page or on the board?  I just happened to check today and saw it in the newsletter archives.  The reason I ask is I was going to post the following, which is strangely familiar, in its thread:
 

Expect a steady stream of new angles on television on a weekly basis ala Dusty Rhodes' 1988 booking with people turning so fast that only the hardcores can keep up with it. I expect at least a few new twists and turns at television taped on Tuesday night in Columbus, GA. One of the matches that'll take place on that taping has Steamboat defending the TV title against Scott Steiner. While running all these angles makes for entertaining television, doing too much too fast confuses most casual viewers and we already saw the result of what happened in 1988 in NWA and late 1986 in Mid South when a promotion continually throws angle upon angle out there hoping that something gets hot, when doing so much pretty much guarantees nothing is going to get hot because it all starts looking the same. Of course, the company is in a tough position because reversing a trend of declining TV ratings is the hardest task of all. If people watch TV, you can at least get them to the arenas by building toward a program that in some way excites or intrigues them. But if they aren't watching television, it doesn't matter what you put on television, those who aren't watching aren't going to get hooked into coming to the arenas.

 
Ron Schineller
 
HALLOWEEN COSTUMES
 
Hi Dave and Bryan:

I want to echo Dave's comments about the lack of WWE (or UFC) costumes at school.    There is a Halloween parade at the school.  I saw ZERO professional wrestling costumes at my son's school.  The only professional wrestling costume I saw was at my house (see photo).

On a related note, I visit schools on occasion as part of my work.  Two years ago, I would see a good number of Rey and Cena t-shirts.  These days, very few.  

David Kaplan


BILLY ROBINSON
 
Hi Dave, I got pretty piissed off listening to the recent Billy Robinson interview. He paints Lancashire as a desolate, povety stricken area, that children were brought-up to fight and purely survive. Absolute crap! I have lived 10 miles from Wigan in Lancashire all my life, and I disagree with everything he says. Lancashire is the heart of wrestling in England (WWE/UFC always does record numbers in Manchester, Lancashire),  but to protray it as some down trodden ex-mining area is  rubbish.
 
Graham Morgan

 


Send us a news tip: newstips@wrestlingobserver.com

Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news from this site or from our newsletters, please include a link to www.wrestlingobserver.com

For the most in-depth and detailed news and analysis on pro-wrestling and MMA, always turn to Wrestlingobserver.com/Figure Four Weekly Online, the #1 website of its kind on the Internet. Members receive online access to both the Wrestling Observer and Figure Four Weekly newsletters and growing archives, Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer three times per week, the popular Bryan and Vinny Show twice per week, additional radio shows including Figure Four Daily with Alvarez, Mike Coughlin's Five Star Radio, the Dr. Keith Lipinski Show, The Adam and Mike Big Audio Nightmare, Tough Talk and the Karl Stern Wrestling History Show, the infamous BOARD, and more! Members also have full access to the thousands of hours of audio in our radio show archives which date back to 2005. For your convenience, we offer secure online payments using your VISA, Mastercard, American Express, Discover card or PayPal account. Don't miss out on the fun, sign up now! Don\'t miss out on the fun, sign up now!

Want full access? QUICK AND EASY $10.99 SIGNUP!

What did you think of Thursday night's Impact?

 

What are your thoughts regarding TNA taping out of Orlando?

 

On Friday nights in March which show are you most likely to watch?

 

What are your plans for Saturday night?