Tag: Jim Ross

Ed’s Viewpoint: My Response To Kevin Nash Bashing Beniot and Guerrero

Let me start off this opinion piece saying that this is not about any story line, and is nothing more than my thoughts. This story is real life, and includes “real” people, and not just “characters” that make up what us old school people know as Professional Wrestling.

I have enjoyed watching the career of Kevin Nash. I saw him from the beginning in WCW. I remember The Master Blasters, Oz, and Vinny Vegas, and I loved the nWo era for WCW. I also agree mostly with Jim Ross:

First of all, the Grantland piece on Kevin was fantastic. Well written and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

That said, I am thoroughly disgusted with what he said in this part of Grandland article. If you don’t care to read some graphic language from Nash do not proceed past this point.

Grandland.com article entitled: Kevin Nash’s Next Angle

“When Benoit and Guerrero hugged [at the end of WrestleMania XX], that was the end of the business,” he says. “Has business been the same since that WrestleMania? Has it come close to the Austin era? Has it come close to the nWo or the Hogan era? You put two fucking guys that were great workers that were the same height as the fucking referees, and I’m sorry, man. Are you going to watch a porno movie with a guy with a three-inch dick? Even if you’re not gay, you will not watch a porno movie with a guy with a three-inch dick. That’s not the standard in porno films. So you put a 5-foot-7 guy as your world champion.”

He has the same problem with today’s Internet heroes, Phil “CM Punk” Brooks and Bryan “Daniel Bryan” Danielson.

“They are not bigger than life,” he says. “I bet they could both walk through airports and not be noticed unless they have a gimmick shirt on and the belt.”

What horrible and amazingly disgusting things to say about anyone, but even worse – to say about 2 of his former peers who are both now dead. My first reaction reading just that quote and not the entire article was instant anger. I liked both Chris Beniot and Eddie Guerrero but was not a huge fan of either, but I certainly respected both of them for the abilities they showed in the ring. After reading the entire article and realizing that there are several things about Nash I didn’t know, and that I like about him, my reaction is still the same – it angers me that Nash would say such things.

Although I am no longer in the ministry, I spent over nine years as a Pastor and did dozens of funerals during that time. The hurt that goes along with death is one of the toughest things a person will ever have to deal with. Nash knew that, especially in Eddie Guerrero’s case, his family would hear, see, and feel the fallout over his words. What a cruel thing for anyone to do, but especially by someone who the article seems to portray as a family man.

And personally, I’m not buying the double work excuse that was stated in the artice:

Here’s one reason Nash will never be an Internet darling: He called Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero — small-statured, gifted technical wrestlers that lacked big in-ring personalities but were beloved by fans — “Vanilla Midgets.” He now claims the comments were a double work. It drew heat from the marks that cheered for Benoit and Guerrero because they were baby faces. It drew heat from the smart marks that cheered for Benoit and Guerrero because they were great wrestlers. Even though both are gone now,12 he still thinks they never belonged in the main event.

He may have used it as a double work, but I fully believe Nash meant what he said.

Others including JR here, would say that Nash has every right to say what he did:

I don’t agree with every opinion from people that I like and respect including Kevin Nash. But I will fight my Oklahoma ass off for his right to express himself. That goes for you, too.

I too agree that it was well within Nash’s “rights” to say whatever he believes. I volunteered for 4 years in the U.S. Army agreeing to defend that right, but even with that right – there are some things you just don’t do, and in my opinion, dogging out a dead man, knowing his family will read and hear about it, is just not something you should do.

The article makes clear that everything with Nash comes back to money. I just don’t see this as a “Money” quote and I hope that Nash will reach out to the Guerrero family in particular and try to fix whatever damage may have been done there.

I’m not the only one who disagrees or is upset with Nash. Again, Good Ol’ J.R. says:

I’m an old school guy who thinks that wrestlers come in all shapes and sizes and that the final, final decree on how well said talents produce is ultimately left up to the consumer aka the fans. Lots of sub six feet tall athletes have been huge box office draws in the biz over the years. There are too many to mention here. Several big men who have migrated into the pro wrestling world simply because of their size have failed. Some haven’t.

Chris Jericho goes even further in this piece,  WWE News: Chris Jericho Takes on Kevin Nash Via Twitter:

Fortunately, Chris Jericho is not one to stand idly by, when his friends and the business he loves gets criticized.

In fact, Y2J was so bothered he took to Twitter with the following response.

Chris Jericho

✔
@IAmJericho
Funny how @RealKevinNash says wrestling “died” when Benoit and Guerrero were champs-Yet the worst year for WWE biz was 95 when he was on top
8 Aug 12

To which Nash responded:

Kevin Nash
✔
@RealKevinNash
Once again the puppet master pulls the marks strings .Knew Jericho was a closet mark.First one eliminated on a bullshit sing show…REALLY!!
8 Aug 12

Jericho ended the war of words with the following:

Chris Jericho

✔
@IAmJericho
Hope @RealKevinNash doesn’t tear his quad tweeting! #typicalbigman #nwothirdwheel
8 Aug 12

I’m sure if I were to dig deeper, there would be others who feel the same, but this is about my opinion, so I will let you do the digging for that.

Kevin Nash sounded like a bitter old man with the quotes above. Maybe he is and maybe he isn’t – I don’t know. I do know the article tells us what keeps him awake at night:

 “So many people buy the ideal that this money is always going to be there,” Nash says. “I bought the ideal that this could be over tomorrow.” It’s what keeps him up nights.

I would think that trashing a dead man for the world, and especially the dead man’s family to hear would be added to the things that keep him awake at night.

And also since, “Nearly every conversation with Kevin Nash leads back to money”, DTRT Wrestling News has decided to take Nash’s lead. Later tonight we will be making a major announcement to share with our readers just what we plan.

 

Highlights From This Week’s J.R.’s Raw Blog

 RAW Blog..San Antonio Raw Thoughts from JR’s La-Z-Boy..JR’s Beef Jerky hits new level..WWEShop.com Biz Booming!

With a busy week ahead of me, I thought I’d better hammer out a blog with some Monday Night Raw observations/opinion and some random thoughts. Here it is…

I enjoyed Monday Night Raw from San Antonio as the live crowd helped make it a better show. The crowd was hot, or so they sounded, and WWE had them mic’ed well. (This is a common complaint that I have with UFC…I wish that they would mic their live crowds better.)

On my personal list of Raw favorites from San Antonio:

AJ Lee’s continued development as the Raw GM which I feel is a good role for the talented, young woman. She adds a different dynamic to the role made famous by Mr. McMahon who was the hand’s down best at it.

@WWEDanielBryan…arguably WWE’s most interesting star at the moment and who seems to NEVER have a bad match with anyone. Back in the day, Bryan would have been a great candidate to have been the traveling, NWA Champion because of his skill level and believable personality. However, egocentric NWA promoters and power brokers would have bemoaned Daniel’s lack of size and found other lame excuses to exclude him from the process.

@CMPunk vs. Rey Mysterio…excellent chemistry and a match/rivalry that I could see much more of in the future. The more time these two have the better.

Big Show’s right hand…has it’s own zip code and is more meaningful now than it ever has been. The repackaging of the World’s Largest Athlete has been successful thus far. He’s much more effective, in my view, as a villain than as a fan favorite.

Really enjoyed the HHH/Lesnar business with @ShawnMichaels and @HeymanHustle adding greatly to the process. The segment left me wanting more which I perceive as a good thing. I was thinking that it would be a potentially long night for Shawn in his hometown, I speak from experience, but I was wrong. I was looking for the ‘heater’ and got an off speed pitch. Now I have even more to look forward to regarding this high profile matter heading into Summerslam.

Lesnar telling HBK that “I’ll see you before Summerslam” is a major declaration.

I wish I had been in San Antonio for the HBK Appreciation Night portion of the evening that was held after RAW went off the air. I’m a major HBK fan for many reasons and not all of them have to do with wrestling. I am grateful that I was a small part of the process that helped facilitate Shawn’s WWE return after four years off.

I was working for Bill Watts’ Mid South Wrestling when Shawn had his first match there and remember him being taken under the wing of the Rock ‘n Roll Express, Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson.

I don’t know if Shawn Michaels is hand’s down the very BEST of all time, it’s an overly subjective topic, but I can make a valid argument that no one that I’ve ever seen with my own eyes has been BETTER.

@HEELZiggler and @IAmJericho is a match made in grappling heaven. I hope that they compete at Summerslam and if they do their bout will be tough to follow. I thought Jericho was money at the announce table.

Punk’s closing promo to King was entertaining and provocative. I hope that Punk gets back to more of his eye opening, shocking verbalizing style in the week’s to come.

As always, I invite you to visit http://www.wweshop.com and go to the JR page to see our complete line of products and the offers that await. Hope that you will consider JR’s for your Summerslam gatherings. We sincerely appreciate everyone’s support of our family’s endeavors.

Heading to Orlando this week to tape three more NXT broadcasts Thursday night at Full Sail University. This is one of my favorite assignments in WWE. I sort of feel like a coach and am blessed to be able to help so many young, deserving kids. Tickets for the NXT tapings are on sale daily this week from 4-7 pm at the Full Sail Box office.

Thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to #SauceIt! http://www.wweshop.com

Booner Sooner!

J.R.

 

To read the entire blog post from Good Ole J.R. – Click here.

JR Praises Daniel Bryan’s Performance, Encourages Fans To Give Raw’s New Format a Chance.

In his latest blog entry Jim Ross shares his thoughts on everything from Raw’s new 3 hour format to Daniel Bryan’s performance and improved persona.

-The three hour Raws are going to be daunting animals with which to deal. An impossible mountain to climb? Absolutely not even thought some ‘experts’ already have those thoughts. I’m not in that group and feel that the three hour Monday Night Raw broadcasts provide the potential to get more talents exposure, to rebuild the tag team scene, to provide Divas with more match time and to slow down the storytelling process so that we fans have the time to process the information that we hear and see.

-So, unlike some, I’d prefer to give the new format a chance to succeed rather than behead it after two weeks which seems knee jerk and senseless. Any thing ‘new’ generally needs tweaking and this particular situation isn’t any different. That’s not an indictment but merely a statement of fact.

-Some fans demanding @CMPunk to have another pipebomb promo will likely get one down the road but Cincy wasn’t the time nor the place. I thought Punk had a great night on air and his verbal jousting with @Jerry Lawler entertained me.

-Regarding the WWE Title, Punk told many truths which might not sit well with some. I am an old school believer that nothing in WWE is more important than the WWE Title. Some personal issues are on the same level often times but nothing should be MORE important than the WWE’s premier championship. That’s my two cents on that matter.

-Does Daniel Bryan ever have a bad night? Bad match? Bad promo? He certainly hasn’t that I can recall. WWE is lucky to have Bryan on their roster and the two entities have formed an amazing fit when, in the early part of Bryan’s WWE tenure, I’m sure that some thought the relationship wouldn’t last. Now Daniel Bryan is one of WWE’s most valuable assets. He’s a dream for management to have on their roster. No one that I can recall in recent years has improved their verbal skills and overall on air persona as Daniel Bryan.

Click here to read the full entry