The World According to Carl

I was shocked this evening when I got home. I was planning on watching Monday Night Raw which started early this evening at 8pm instead of the normal 9pm showtime. However I had to go grocery shopping and by the time I get home, it’s 8:37pm so I turn the TV on to Raw. When the TV warmed up, it was on a segment with Chris Benoit talking about his beginnings in professional wrestling. As I continued to put up the groceries, suddenly I hear the voices of some of the announcers mentioned that they were remembering the live and career of Chris Benoit.

Immediately I get on the internet and do a news search and find out that Chris Benoit was found dead along with his family this afternoon in his Atlanta home. I was extremely shocked. The Atlanta-Journal Constitution is reporting authorities confirmed that Benoit, 40, his wife, Nancy (also known in the world of professional wrestling as “Woman”), and their 7-year-old son were found dead at the home on Quarters and Redwine roads in Fayetteville. According to WXIA in Atlanta:

Lieutenant Tommy Pope of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department said the three were found about 2:30 p.m., but he would release no other details. Pope said results of autopsies on Benoit, his wife Nancy, and 7-year-old son Daniel were expected Tuesday. Police are investigating the deaths as a homicide.

Benoit was scheduled to wrestle at the Vengeance pay-per-view last Sunday night in Houston, but was replaced at the last minute because of what announcer Jim Ross called “personal reasons.” Some sources reported that he had to rush home due to a “family emergency.” Atlanta law enforcement are investigating and have released no details as of this time.

When further details are released, I’ll post them here.

About 2 years ago, the world of professional wrestling lost Eddie Guerrero and today the wrestling world mourns the loss of Chris Benoit. As with Eddie Guerrero, I first saw Chris Benoit when he wrestled in Paul Heyman’s ECW and I became a fan of his early on. His intensity in the ring was amazing and I have always enjoyed watching him perform for years. Chris Benoit was one of my all-time favorite. He will truly be missed. My condolences go out to the family and friends of the legendary Chris Benoit.

10:51 PM EST (6-25) UPDATE: Some new reports are saying Atlanta police have stated that they believe the deaths of the WWE wrestler Chris Benoit and his family came at the hands of a murder suicide. This is what I really DIDN’T want to find out happened. Another report I read from a news source said they were not shot to death. Hopefully more details will be released sometime Tuesday.

8:21 AM EST (6-26) UPDATE: CTV.ca is reporting the following:

Details surrounding the suspected murder-suicide of Canadian pro-wrestler Chris Benoit and his family are being described as “a little bizarre” according to a prosecutor involved in the case.

Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “The details, when they come out, are going to prove a little bizarre.”

Friends of Benoit said they received “curious text messages” from the wrestler on Sunday morning, ABC’s Mike Von Fremd told Canada AM from outside Benoit’s home in Fayetteville, Ga., Tuesday.

Lt. Tommy Pope, the lead investigator with the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department, told ABC News that the “instruments of death were located on scene.”

Investigators believe Benoit killed his wife and son over the weekend and than himself some time on Monday.

More details are expected to emerge Tuesday after an autopsy report.

Officers are “not actively searching for any suspects outside of the house,” Pope said.

1:01 PM EST (6-26) UPDATE: Fox News reported that Benoit strangled his wife, Nancy and then smothered his son before hanging himself in his weight room. This is sad, tragic and confusing all at the same time. The wrestling world has lost one of its greatest superstars ever. Unfortunately he’s going to be mainly remembered for murdering his family rather than the professional wrestler who gave 100% each and every time he hit the ring to which fans worldwide responded with great respect and admiration. Regardless, there was no justification whatsoever for killing his family. It was wrong and completely barbaric. Why he did this is probably never going to be fully understood. The way his friends and coworkers spoke about him made it seem that he wasn’t the kind of person who would do this sort of thing. But apparently something inside of him drove him to do this insane, sadistic act. I honestly don’t know what else to say. I will tune into the scheduled ECW show to see how World Wrestling Entertainment handles this in light of these new developments.

10:01 PM EST (6-26) UPDATE (most likely the final one): At the beginning of tonight’s ECW show on Sci-Fi Network, Vince McMahon made it clear that in light of the information concerning the murders of Nancy Benoit and 7-year-old Daniel Benoit by Chris Benoit no mention of Benoit would occur during the show. McMahon indicated that this would be the first step in a healing process and the wrestlers would do what they are the best in the world at: entertaining pro-wrestling fans. Also the WWE website has removed all mention of Chris Benoit all its areas with the exception of a brief mention of the murder-suicide. TNA’s website removed their brief mention of the Benoit incident. It’s rare, but I have to give kudos to Vince McMahon for their stance on this and I agree that this is the first step in healing. I also have to wonder how this affects those who knew and were close to Chris Benoit. The video tributes that aired on Monday’s Raw telecast from Dean Malenko, Chavo Guerrero, Edge, Triple-H, Stephanie McMahon-Levesque and others were all heartfelt and sincerely moving. Now to find out that their close friend and co-worker committed such a heinous act has to be devastating for them. My prayers and thoughts are with them as well.

Earlier in this post, I said Chris Benoit was one of my all time favorite professional wrestlers. I still hold to that. However, knowing now that he murdered his family, I have zero respect for him as a human being. There is absolutely no excuse whatsoever…no reason whatsoever…for anyone to murder their family. Words fail me and cannot adequately express my disappointment, shock, sadness and anger. I just don’t know. Right now John Cena and Johnny Nitro are having the opening match on ECW but it just doesn’t feel right watching so I’m turning it off tonight. Maybe next week.

And that’s the end of what I will write about this…

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The wrestling world has lost another legend. “Sensational” Sherri Martel passed away today at the age of 49. She has worked as a woman wrestler as well as a female manager in the AWA, NWA, WCW and WWF/WWE. Martel held the AWA and WWF Woman’s Championship. She has managed “Macho Man” Randy Savage, Shawn Michaels, Harlem Heat (Booker T. & Stevie Ray), Ted DiBiase (a.k.a. – “The Million Dollar Man”), Terry Funk, Shane Douglas and many others. She was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Ted DiBiase on April 1, 2006. You can read more about her career at SLAM! Sports. From everything I’ve read about her and heard about her in shoot interviews, she was very well like backstage. She truly will be missed. My prayers and thoughts go out to her family and friends.

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A couple of months ago I obtained a copy of “Mondo Lucha A Go-Go” a book honoring the history and pageantry that is Mexican professional wrestling better known as “lucha libre.” According to author Dan Madigan, modern lucha libre can be traced back to a gentleman by the name of Don Salvador Lutteroth who became a promoter of lucha libre shows in the 1940′s.

This book, published in 2007, highlights most of the major luchadores in lucha libre history such as El Santo, Blue Demon, Mil Mascaras, Huracàn Ramirez, Dr. Wagner, Mèdico Asesino, Angel Blanco, El Solitario and many others. It also explains much of the evolution of lucha libre as well as its traditions. Madigan believes that Mexican lucha libre fans are probably the most passionate fans of any sort in the world. And judging from what I have seen on TV and read about shows, I tend to agree with him.

Whereas Don Salvado Lutteroth is credited as being the originator of organized lucha libre in Mexico, author Madigan gives major credit to Paul Heyman (a.k.a. Paul E. Dangerously) as being the person who gave positive nationwide exposure to luchadores and increased their popularity to such a level that one of the “big two” (WCW) offered big contracts to most of the luchadores on Heyman’s ECW and snatched them right up. Stars like Rey Mysterio, Jr., Eddie Guerrero, La Parka and Juventud Guerrera suddenly went from Heyman’s ECW to the Ted Turner-funded WCW which gave them a weekly spotlight and American fans quickly took to the high-flying, fast paced matches from the luchadores. Unfortunately, Vince McMahon‘s WWF (now WWE) still shunned lucha libre and continued to make a mockery of the enmascarado (masked wrestler) with such ludicrously bad ideas as “the Machines“, “the Conquistadors” (perennial WWF jobbers in the 80′s although the two men under the hoods, Jose Estrada and Jose Luis Rivera, were both quite talented luchadores) and probably the worst insult to the enmascarado, Doink the Clown. However even with McMahon’s attempts to bury lucha libre and the enmascarado in the 80′s and early 90′s, once ECW and WCW were both bought out by the McMahons, the WWE became the home to several luchadores like Rey Mysterio, Jr., Eddie Guerrero and Super Crazy whose popularity skyrocketed even further.

Now personally speaking I grew up in the southeast and was a professional wrestling fan when I was a little kid in the late 60′s. The areas where I grew up and spent time visiting relatives exposed me to several different wrestling organizations based out of Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. I developed a fascination with the masked wrestler early on and became a fan of the Assassin, the Spoiler, Mr. Olympia, Mr. Wrestling II and the Masked Superstar. The only esposure I had with luchadores like Mil Mascaras and Blue Demon was via the wrestling magazines I regularly purchased at mall bookstores. In fact, I never got to watch any lucha libre in its home element until the late 1990′s when a former co-worker who was also a big wrestling fan brought some lucha libre tapes he got from ebay. On one of our breaks we watched some of the tape and this was unlike anything I had ever seen. Although by that time I had watched luchadores perform in ECW and WCW, it was only a taste of the fullblown lucha libre experience. The luchadores in ECW and WCW at that time were actually holding back (limiting the potential for injury) even though the moves they were doing were still highly entertaining. From that viewing I purchased some tapes via ebay but the quality of those tapes were so poor that I didn’t buy any afterwards. Several years later my wife and I were dining at a local Mexican restaurant on a Saturday and one of the televisions there had Galavision on. Normally the show would be soccer (futbal), some telenovela or some goofy comedy show but this day it was a lucha libre show from CMLL. What normally would be a 30-minute meal turned into a lengthy dining experience much to the amusement of my wife (bless her…she puts up with my passions for professional wrestling, music, etc.). Even though I didn’t understand most of the Spanish audio, I could follow the action well enough as well as the storylines told in the ring. Plus the graphics used on the show explained much to even a non-Spanish-speaking individual like myself. Unfortunately our local cable outlet only carries Univision which has no lucha libre show. I’ve contacted my cable outlet requesting them add Galavision to their lineup but so far, no luck. And I can’t afford a satellite dish (although even I am passionate for professional wrestling, I’m not foolish enough to spend big bucks on a dish system just to get Galavision).

But I digress…

Dan Madigan’s book is a good introduction to the world of lucha libre to the uninformed and an excellent addition to the lucha libre fan’s library. I hope that if the book ever gets updated that they add more information of some of the bigger lucha libre stars currently active but as it stands, “Mondo Lucha A Go-Go” is a fun read with plenty of rare photos from the past.

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Today marks the passing of a legend in the world of professional wrestling as well as professional football. Ernie “The Big Cat” Ladd passed away today after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 68.

Ladd, a Texas native, played college football for Grambling before having an eight-year career in the American Football League during the 60′s. He was drafted by the AFL’s San Diego Chargers with their 15th pick in the 1961 draft. He joined the Kansas City team in 1967 playing with Buck Buchanan, a former Grambling teammate where they formed what was probably the biggest defensive tackle combination at that time. Ladd being 6’9″ and 315 pounds while Buchanan was 6’7″ and weighed 275 pounds. He earned the nickname “Big Cat” for his unbelievably quick reflexes, agility and speed. During his AFL career he played on two different Championship teams (S.D. Chargers & K.C. Chiefs).

Ernie Ladd began his wrestling career in 1961 while still in the AFL playing pro football in the winter, and wrestling during the off-season summer months. Ladd soon became a huge draw in the Los Angeles area. In the 1970′s Ladd became one of wrestling’s most hated heels. He would often use his taped thumb as a weapon, which Ladd would claim was from an old football injury. Ladd’s giant boot to the face was an exciting, unique move at the time. On the mic he was arrogant, abrasive and quite often funny. He could draw heat with or without words, but his interviews were most often classic and should be shown to current up-and-coming wrestlers as an educational tool. I saw Ladd wrestle on TV in the 70′s in the Mid-South territory promoted by Bill Watts. I fondly remember his feuds with the Junkyard Dog during that time.

From all that I have read by his fellow pro football players and professional wrestlers (Percy Pringle’s blog and the Cauliflower Alley Club have tributes), Ernie Ladd was a beloved member of the both communities. He was inducted into the San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame in 1981; the WCW Hall of Fame in 1994; the WWE Hall of Fame in 1995; the Breitbard Hall of Fame (San Diego Hall of Champions) in 2005; and also the AFL Hall of Fame. The man was impressive as a football player and as a wrestler. He will be missed. I offer my sincerest condolences to the family and friends of Ernie “The Big Cat” Ladd.

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I just read the news that professional wrestler Mike Awesome (real name: Mike Alfonso) has died at the age of 42. According to reports, he was found last Saturday (Feb. 17) hanging in his Tampa, Florida home, found by friends, and suicide is suspected. He worked for ECW, WCW, WWE and TNA as well as in Japan during his career which started in 1989 after being trained by Steve Keirn. During his wrestling career he had notable feuds with stars such as, Masato Tanaka, Scott Steiner, Diamond Dallas Page, Lance Storm and Steve Corino. I offer my deepest condolences to the family, friends, and fans of Mike Awesome.

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The world of professional wrestling has lost another star. Scott Charles Bigelow, better known as “Bam Bam” Bigelow passed away earlier today at the age of 45 in his home in Hudson, Florida. The cause of death is not known at this time. Bigelow originally trained to be a pro wrestler at Larry Sharpe’s “Monster Factory” in New Jersey and debuted in Memphis in 1985 as Crusher Yurkov, a Russian heel character. Upon leaving Memphis, Bigelow adopted the name “Bam Bam” Bigelow. His career in the United States lasted until 2004 when he retired. He was a popular wrestler, most often playing the part of the heel often winning his matches with his finishing maneuver known as “Greetings from Asbury Park” which was a flying headbutt originating from the top turnbuckle. He also enjoyed success overseas in Japan in the 1990′s, often teaming with Big Van Vader. Although he never held the world’s title for either of the “big two” (WCW & WWF) he did win the ECW heavyweight title from Shane Douglas in 1997. It was while he was in ECW that he was directly involved in one of the most memorable moments in that company’s history when he hurled Spike Dudley from the ring into the second or third row of the audience. That was one of the moments replayed often during ECW television shows. The St. Petersburg Times newspaper wrote a lengthy piece on him in 2005 which can be found online. He will truly be missed.

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Last Saturday the world of professional wrestling lost another legend in the passing of Don Jardine. Outside of a handful of people, most old school wrestling fans probably won’t recognize his name, but if you mention The Spoiler or The Super Destroyer you’ll find that more people remember him wearing a mask back in the glory days of professional wrestling. Personally speaking, The Spoiler was one of my all-time favorite masked wrestlers and I remember watching him on Georgia Championship Wrestling on TV. In fact, a couple of years ago I commissioned custom masks made by master mask maker “Ironman” Mike Woody based on three of Jardine’s patterns for my personal collection. I remember him best as the Spoiler and out of respect, I have the picture above of him under the hood. The Spoiler would do incredible moves that were unique back then. For example, he would walk the ropes while keeping the claw hold on his opponent. Keep in mind, he was 6′ 4″ talk and 240 pounds so this was no easy feat. Today, the Undertaker does similarly and supposedly credits Don Jardine for the inspiration. Jardine also was a high flyer during a time when wrestlers of that size stayed pretty much exclusively on the mat. There is a tribute article on Canoe Network’s Slam! Sports about Don Jardine with several good links.

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Yesterday I was watching Fox News and caught most of the segment on Neil Cavuto’s show regarding the WWE’s planned trip to Iraq to entertain the troops (MsUnderestimated has video available). This is the 4th year they’ve done this and with each year it’s been a resounding success. John Cena and Bobby Lashley (a former U.S. Army Sergeant) were interviewed about their thoughts about the trip. One thing of note, none of the wrestlers and crew are mandated by Vincent K. McMahon to go. It’s strictly voluntary. However, the list of volunteers has always been longer than the available slots and WWE officials have the difficult task to deciding who won’t go. Military officials have embraced the WWE’s visits and worked the logistics with, if you’ll pardon the expression, military precision. Another thing I have noticed about the wrestlers at these shows for the troops: even though those men and women perform incredibly on television, each and every one of them who perform for the troops in Iraq get motivated to raise the bar on their performances. Therefore if you want to see probably one of the best performances from WWE wrestlers, I suggest watching WWE’s “Tribute To The Troops” shows if available (I’m not sure if a PPV will be made available however in past years one of their network shows originates from an undisclosed location in Iraq via tape-delay). The WWE has sections of their website devoted to “Tribute To The Troops” containing blogs from wrestler CM Punk and diva Maria. I don’t know how much of the blogs are kayfabe vs. non-kayfabe but they will still be worth reading. There are also photos and videos from last year’s tour as well.

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Photographer Malcom Venville offers an interesting glimpse into the world of lucha libre in his book of photographs entitled “Lucha Loco.” You can visit his site to find out more about the book and some of the luchadores featured. It’s sad that the main exposure in the United States to lucha libre was Jack Black’s miserable comedy (if you can call it that) “Nacho Libre.” I’ve watched luchadores in action both with American companies like ECW, WCW and WWF/WWE but to get the full flavor you really need to see the televised shows from CMLL and AAA from Mexico. Unfortunately our local cable only shows Univision which doesn’t have any lucha libre action but one of the local Mexican restaurants shows Galavision via satellite and I’ve caught some of the CMLL shows in the past. It’s outstanding stuff even though the only Spanish I know comes from my days as a rugrat watching Sesame Street.

Anyway this seems to be a book I might try to find sometime.

Welcome to my blog, Wizbang! and Stop The ACLU readers.

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Y’know, sometimes life is more entertaining that fiction. I can’t make stuff like this up. From the Associated Press:

Fans of Mexican soccer will no longer be asking “Who was that masked man?” after players score goals.

The Mexican soccer federation has instituted a ban to halt the recent trend of players celebrating by donning masks, often similar to those used by professional wrestlers.

The FMF adopted the policy two weeks ago, calling for a yellow card for any player who pulls on a mask during a match. No player has yet drawn such a penalty.

The practice came to the world’s attention during the World Cup on June 15, when Ecuadorean player Ivan Kaviedes celebrated a goal during his team’s 3-0 victory over Costa Rica by pulling a yellow mask out of his shorts and putting it over his head.

Players like Chiapas Jaguars’ goalkeeper Omar Ortiz had a habit of celebrating goals by donning a mask similar to one worn by the pro wrestler known as “Blue Demon,” and Gabriel Pereira of Mexico City’s Cruz Azul squad did the same with a mask like that worn by “Mistico,” another pro wrestler.

Professional wrestling is a highly popular spectacle in Mexico.

The new ban in Mexico has drawn some protests. Before their most recent match, all 11 Chiapas players took the field wearing wrestling masks, but were not sanctioned because the match had not yet started.

Could this become the next big thing in the United States? Albert Pujols hits a two-run homer and while rounding the bases pulls a Mil Mascaras mask from his back pocket and wears it while he rounds the bases? Randy Moss catches a deep pass for a touchdown and does a celebration dance while wearing a El Santo mask? Maybe LeBron James will come out during pre-game warmups wearing a Rey Mysterio, Jr. mask? The possibilities are endless.

Check out other links at Stop The ACLU’s Open Trackback Friday Free-For-All.

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Well, it doesn’t look good for ECW and fans of the original. Vince McMahon has decided to take control away from Paul Heyman and move it in the direction he wants it to go. Which basically means it’s going to be another WWE clone full of stupid gimmicks, insipid storylines that make no sense and more of the same garbage that has made most of the WWE products pretty boring. In the back of my mind I knew Vince McMahon couldn’t leave well enough alone and would end up micro-managing things into the ground like he’s done with the current RAW and Smackdown brands. If McMahon takes it in the typical WWE direction, I predict ECW will fade away within a year.

Maybe one day some stiff competition will arise and go head-to-head with the WWE and actually force them to up their quality. Maybe one day, but not now.

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The world of professional wrestling has lost another great. Pro wrestling legend “Crazy” Luke Graham (real name Grady Johnson) passed away yesterday from suspected heart failure. I send my condolences to the family and friends of Luke Graham.

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The so-called “new and improved” ECW premiered on SciFi this week and I was somewhat disappointed. The opening was too WWE and didn’t have the edge nor capture the spirit of the old ECW opening. The first segment with Paul Heyman and RVD started off well enough but when Edge, Lita and eventually John Cena showed up, it quickly became the usual WWE schtick. And then the first match. A zombie? What the hell?!? C’mon! This is pathetic. In a total squash, Sandman destroyed “the Zombie” (according to what I’ve read, the zombie was played by indie wrestler Tim Arson). Sandman’s new entrance music really is bad. Typical WWE. Go back to “Enter Sandman.” Apparently McMahon has decided to not allow Paul Heyman to have the creative control I was hoping for and if this is any indication of the direction ECW is headed, it’s going to die. Apparently more “supernatural” characters like the zombie and the vampire (briefly shown on camera and portrayed by Kevin Fertig, the former Mordecai) will be used. One will be a tarot card reading witch played by Shelly Martinez (several vignettes already shot earlier this week). Let me make a prediction right now…if McMahon continues to not allow Heyman to be the creative leader on the ECW show, it will fail miserably. Heyman wrote the initial show but McMahon forced many changes to be made before air. Heyman and the ECW stars are clearly not happy.

The second match had Kurt Angle vs. Justin Credible. And although Tazz and Joey Styles tried to give hype to Credible, he came off in the match as a pre-lim ham-and-egger. Another squash with typical WWE-type mic time afterwards by Kurt Angle.

After the commercial is over we are treated to an outside view of the arena and…a vampire??? *sigh*Just keeps getting worse and worse.

Kelly’s promised strip tease. YAWN.

After what seemed like an eternity of commercial breaks and lengthy wrestler introductions (most of which their entrance music sucked), we finally get to the “All Weapons Legal” battle royal with the winner getting to face John Cena at Vengeance. This had all the markings of a WWE match NOT a classic ECW match. Sabu won incidentally after knocking Big Show over the top rope (with help from Big Guido).

This might has well been an episode of Smackdown. The only thing ECW-ish about this were the names. The wrestling wasn’t “extreme.” The interviews weren’t “extreme.” The matches weren’t “extreme.” The only thing “extreme” about the whole show was the predictability. And apparently that’s the consensus from the people behind the scenes. Just about every report I’ve read concurs. Does McMahon really want to attract a new audience or not? Does he really hate ECW in a non-kayfabe way and truly wants to kill it off forevermore? If so, this is the way to do it.

McMahon needs to keep his nose out of ECW’s creative department. Let him concentrate on Raw and Smackdown. Allow Heyman to work his genius. Kill off the idea of vampires, zombies and whatever “supernatural” characters that they have planned at this time and go back to the old fashioned ECW extreme ideas. And don’t tape the shows at WWE events. ECW needs the ECW crowds that are always red-hot. Tape the shows at tried and true ECW arenas with ECW fans. Then once things get going, expand the number of places the shows are taped, but stick to smaller venues.

I hope next week’s show on SciFi is better than this first one because the first one royally sucked.

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It’s official! ECW will be seen on the SciFi Channel. Beginning June 13 ECW will be on at 10 pm Tuesdays through the rest of the summer. Beyond that will probably depend upon ratings. According to Bonnie Hammer, President of the SciFi Channel, there is an overlap between wrestling fans and science fiction fans. “It’s a huge duplication,” she said, “Close to 50% who watch ‘Raw’ watch SciFi as well.” I fit that category. WWE’s Chairman Vince McMahon is optimistic about it. “ECW on SciFi will push the boundaries of sports entertainment in new and unexpected ways,” he said. Personally, if he’ll allow Paul Heyman and Tommy Dreamer creative freedom and keep his hands off ECW I think it will do well. But if McMahon tries to put the WWE spin on it or make it into another WWE clone, then it will fail. ECW was unique and everything needs to be done to have it remain unique in order for it to succeed. Regardless, I am eagerly anticipating ECW’s SciFi debut.

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More former ECW stars have signed contracts for the upcoming ECW revival. They are The Sandman, Francine, Danny Doring and Tony Mamaluke. Other former ECW stars have been contacted and there will more than likely be more names announced soon. Also it’s been reported that OVW wrestlers will be brought in as well to round out the roster. This adds to the eagerly awaited resurgence of ECW.

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