Welcome to the Realm™ - Version 5.0...
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________





Couple of wrestling milestones have happened in the last couple of weeks – neither one of them terribly good.

(I am obliged to issue the standard disclaimer here that no, dumbasses – I don’t&#160 believe that pro wrestling’s real.&#160 The outcomes are determined in advance, and most of the punches are pulled – but there are some of what the industry calls “spots” that are all too real, and these performers do truly get hurt in the process of entertaining their fans.&#160 Up your ass if you’re too stupid to realize that.)

Okay, back to the post at hand –

As many of you may know by now, “Nature Boy” Ric Flair wrestled in his last match last night at Wrestlemania 24.&#160 The stipulation of the match was the same one under which he’d been performing for about the last three months – lose, and be “forced” into retirement, per the edict of one Vincent Kennedy McMahon.&#160 (Now, of course we all know that that doesn’t mean shit, as Flair could jump to TNA Wrestling at any time after “retiring” from WWE – but we’ll invoke the trademark Hillary Clinton “willing suspension of disbelief” and just ignore TNA for the moment.)&#160 Flair wrestled against Shawn Michaels and, in what is reported to have been a five-star match, faced defeat bravely, if a bit teary-eyed.

The “retirement ceremony”, if you will, was at the end of tonight’s RAW – and if it ever gets YouTubed and you didn’t see it live tonight, try and catch it later.&#160 It was a helluva tear-jerker, at least for those who’ve followed Flair’s career from his days in the old National Wrestling Alliance.

The other milestone, speaking of the old NWA, was the death of one of the best wrestling “managers” ever to grace wrestling’s stage.&#160 “Playboy” Gary Hart (not to be confused with “Monkey Business” Gary Hartpence) died eleven days ago at age 66.

Those of you who got the opportunity to follow World Class Championship Wrestling knew of the long-running feud between Fritz Von Erich (and later his boys David, Kevin, Kerry, Chris & Mike) and the Hart stable, which included (at times) the Masked Spoiler (Don Jardine), the Bushman, the Missouri Mauler, “Brute” Bernard, Bugsy McGraw, the Great Kabuki, the Great Muta (Kabuki’s real-life son, if I’m not mistaken), King Kong Bundy and the One Man Gang.&#160 Hart was also the main booker of the feud between the Von Erich boys and the Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes, Terry “Bam Bam” Gordy and Buddy Roberts).

Today’s wrestlers could have learned a lesson or three from Gary Hart – the man knew psychology, both in-ring and on the microphone, like nobody’s business.&#160 No one, and I mean no one, ever cut a better promo than Gary Hart.&#160 Because of his work, he was one of the most hated (by the fans) in the industry – which means that he was a master at his job.

In either case, we won’t see performers like these gentlemen again.&#160 Both Flair’s career, and Hart, will be sorely missed by this scribe.

_____________________________________________________

    
_______________
 
 
Glossary -  Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - History - The SpatulaFAQ
This blog is best viewed with your eyes. 
It helps, though, if you have Microsoft Internet Explorer  set about 1024x768 1280x1024 with your Favorites window activated on the left deactivated.  (At least until I can get a better handle on how WordPress works.)

(KORRIOTH:  Oh, great.  More wormholes.)

Mozilla Firefox doesn't do too badly, either; in fact, it's His Rudeness' browser of choice.
You can  use Nutscrape,  if you so desire - but why in blazes would you want to use a browser from a company that had to hide behind Janet El Reño's skirt to be successful?

And don't even  get me started on Opera or Chrome.  I'm not about  to trust any browser that won't let me change its color scheme.
Hacked by ZAKILOUP was based on WordPress platform 2.6 (it's 3.05 3.31 now), RSS tech , RSS comments design by Gx3.