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Jerry Root

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THE MAT POTATO II
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So, another new channel has been added to my cable. The Oxygen channel. Just what I needed, another women's channel! Like Lifetime, Lifetime movie, and almost all of the daytime shows on the big 3 aren't enough already! Why?

A few years ago there was rumblings about a channel devoted to wrestling. The Wrestling Channel was (and as far as I know, still is) trying to get a toehold on the cable and satellite market. The concept was to give a venue for classic wrestling, promote a few indies, and whatever else wrestling related.

Unfortunately, to date, The Wrestling Channel exists only on-line. Hey, Mr. Cable owner! How about it? I mean, how many kids channels do we need? (Nick, Noggin, just to name 2), or shopping channels (far too many to list here). ESPN Classic puts up classic wrestling occasionally, but come on. I could use more than one hour a month.

Are ratings a concern? How many people do you think are actually watching The Golf Channel? Or the Fitness Channel? I'm sure that the Food Channel is a huge money maker.

The soapbox is put away for the time being. On to bigger and better subjects.

Glad to see CRZ has managed to survive his jury duty stint. For those of you who think that CRZ does nothing but subject himself to RAW and Nitro so he can give great recaps, I strongly urge you to head over to emzee.com and check out his new years resolutions. Some of them are absolute classics. And CRZ, here's to hoping that you DO find a way to make this pay off for you.

"Well, we just wasted $2 million. What are you doing with your money"? Absolutely classic! "He's got money coming out the wazoo!" Another classic. Gotta love those spots. Too bad the (alleged) brain-trust over at ABC didn't see fit to run the absolutely classic 7up spot with the t-shirts. I had to see it the next day. (If you haven't seen it, the T-shirt reads "Make 7" on the front and on the back "up yours". It's a scream! Now, if only WCW writers could come up with something half as creative.

Say it ain't so, Joe. Please tell me that Hogan isn't going to make yet another comeback to WCW. Man, let's pour a little more gasoline on this raging inferno. Wait, poor analogy. That would imply that WCW is generating heat. But you get the drift. Having Hogan return is a certain sign of desperation. But then again, so is recreating the n.W.o, having Big Poochie and Kevin Sullivan as bookers and letting 4 of your top performers leave.

Mr. Douglas, this is your wake-up call!

If the reports are true, that the 4 left Shane Douglas in the cold when they moved, that ought to send some sort of signal to him. Furthermore, if the reports of Paul Heyman telling him that his services aren't required nor desired in ECW, then it's time to step back and take a good hard look at yourself.

What is up with the women's title. Or, to be more precise, what is it with the big 2 and women in general? In this allegedly "enlightened age", are we to believe that wrestling fans are all secretly Neanderthals who want women to be nothing more than eye-candy? (Though I would hardly call Mae (I'm certainly not) Young, nor Moolah eye-candy!).

Come on, when I was young (and granted, it was a very long time ago), and we weren't nearly as "enlightened" as we are supposed to be today, women actually wrestled. And I'm here to tell you that some of these women you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. In fact, some of them you wouldn't want to meet in broad daylight!

But the fact remains that they put on actual matches. Yes, Moolah was the champ. She was a scrapper and could put on quite a show. However there were several other names that come right to mind. Judy Martin, Leilani Kai, and others. They were all "tough broads", to use a rough term, but one that adequately describes them.

Today? Well, one place has a scriptwriter who has as much business in the ring as I do carrying one belt, and in the other a "manager" with the physique of Barney Fife! This is truly a sad day. What next? The Big Slow as the Light Heavyweight champ? Mick Foley (using 2 of his 3 personalities) as the tag champ(s)? Daphne as the WCW Worlds champ? Andre the Giant as the WCW TV Champ?

I think Dylan said it best, "The times they are a-changing"

Jerry Root
[slash] wrestling

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