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Saul Goode posted:https://mobile.twitter.com/Lord_Mountevans/status/1328475784600821761 https://deadspin.com/how-frank-deford-helped-pro-wrestling-journalism-become-1795783697 Howard Cosell, ranting in his 1991 book "What’s Wrong With Sports," singled out Meltzer’s column: “And what about the pro wrestling column in The National? How ugly. How insane.” That was when Deford publicly defended his protégée for the first time. “It was pretty condescending to me,” Meltzer recalled on Monday in a podcast for his website subscribers. “I just remember Frank ... that was the first time he did the thing of ‘The guy we have covering wrestling is one of the best sports reporters in the country, and it doesn’t matter what he’s covering; the fact is, it’s worth covering.” In later years, Deford would dub Meltzer “the most accomplished reporter in sport journalism” [in an NPR story] and tell the New York Times that “You could cover the Vatican or State Department and not do as good a job as Dave Meltzer does on wrestling.” It's unclear how much he was reading the Observer week to week at any point that led him to this conclusion. (I suspect that, like with Phil Mushnick, Dave comped him a subscription for years and years, though.) f nothing else, Dave covering the State Department (which is not a bad comparison for reasons I'm about to explain) would have to tighten up how he does his anonymous sourcing, in that he rarely gives the reader any idea of where the information came from. Transparent sourcing doesn't require outing the source; "according to X source[s] in the WWE office" or "X WWE wrestler[s]" would be fine. (There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to when he actually chooses to do this.) And it seems like this is a sore spot to him, too, because when I made a passing reference to his sourcing/attribution habits in an article (specifically comparing him to Wade Keller, not a mainstream reporter), some idiot at the Observer board posted it, he acted like I was asking him to name every source (nope) and comparing him to non-wrestling reporters (double nope). He's absolutely done plenty of great work (and I don't fault the grammar stuff given the volume he puts out and relative lack of an editor, past laughing at the the more ridiculous examples) and the Observer is an invaluable resource. These days, though, the Deford stuff is nothing more than a cudgel that he uses on people who (rightly or wrongly) criticize him on Twitter. Then again, if the consensus GOAT sportswriter had made a point of mentoring me and routinely praised me in the ways that Deford did Meltzer, I'd probably break it out on trolls sometimes, too. And as for the praise elsewhere in the thread: Thank you. I try. Thankfully, I tend to flock to stuff other people covering this world aren't doing, both in the document/public record realm and now starting to integrate dystopia/internet culture reporting as it becomes more relevant to rasslin. But you'd also be surprised how much some people in mainstream reporting (or in wrestling media but with journalism degrees) don't know how to file document requests or obtain court records. And I say that as someone who (even if limiting it to pro wrestling) probably doesn't file nearly enough record requests, as what you really want is to file enough that you have a steady stream of things you forgot about coming in. There's a great interview with John Cook about FOIA advice that everyone with an interest in journalism should read: https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2014/foia-lessons-from-gawker-editor-john-cook/ (Even then, I *do* have plenty of unmined stuff, it's just that much of it is older. Hell, I dropped the entire 300+ page FBI file on WWE from '93-'94 along with the ring boys article—it's linked via a page number link to the PDF on DocumentCloud—and I'm not sure anyone even noticed! And that's something of interest where almost none of it was previously available in any form.)
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Nov 17, 2020 06:32
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Crossposting this here because it's directly relevant: https://twitter.com/davidbix/status/1328490609104089104 (I won't plug it anywhere other than here and the WWE thread.) GEORGE W BUSHI posted:https://twitter.com/tamamotoakito/status/1328564573524217856?s=19
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Nov 17, 2020 06:55
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GEORGE W BUSHI posted:This one Same Twitter account as the above embed?
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Nov 17, 2020 07:12
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Just using my own tweet since it's easier: https://twitter.com/davidbix/status/1329300667459133441
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Nov 19, 2020 08:10
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Also, for someone who had something like a dozen matches, maybe less when she first appeared on Dynamite, she was shockingly competent.
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Nov 22, 2020 00:17
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Lead Pipe Cinch posted:And Anna Jay (along with Lee Johnson & I think Alan Angels) is from the crop of QT’s students who was working for him before he was an obvious pipeline to AEW.
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Nov 22, 2020 02:20
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Not to defend Brian Cage, who seemingly has some questionable views, but to me, that reads like him basing it on Drake's Instagram posts/not realizing that this was about a Parler account with different poo poo on it. Also, a question for everyone after a conversation I had earlier: Should I have made it more clear that you need an account to see all of the Parler content? (And thus that Drake was using it as a kayfabe account for stuff he wasn't going to say/share/endorse among polite company on mainstream platforms?) I did reference it by saying I made a burner account, but didn't lay it out completely, and it seems like not everyone got the message.
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Nov 24, 2020 22:02
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Vince MechMahon posted:https://twitter.com/ecwa1967/status/1335453672508182528?s=21
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Dec 7, 2020 07:44
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jesus WEP posted:his first ever good tweet and he deletes it?
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Dec 7, 2020 23:55
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Re: PCO, I need to go back to the unused interview I did with him in Chattanooga, because I think he told the whole Nash story, MassRafTer posted:Vince Russo campaigning to make Dave more popular. That said, I'd LOVE to see Russo try to sue Dave for defamation. The statute of limitations is a year in most states, including California and Colorado, the most likely states for a lawsuit, is one year. (I don't know when Russo last lived in Indiana, but there, it's 2 years from the date you found out about it, but that's...an interesting twist on the law.) I guess whatever old Observers were added to the site in the last year could count as republication and be within the statute of limitations, but otherwise, as someone who hasn't actually worked in wrestling in the last year or so, he has an uphill battle even before you get to how it's highly unlikely that Dave ever defamed him as it's defined under the law for a reporter writing about a public figure. Could Dave have gotten worked by sources at times when reporting on Russo? Sure. But sources lying to Dave wouldn't make it reckless disregard for the truth and obviously wouldn't be actual malice on Dave's part. (I do have weird feelings about this as someone Dave has said a bunch of made-up nonsense about lately, but I'm not exactly convinced that HE'S who made it up and not some hanger-on he listened to uncritically. Although it's involved things he SHOULD know better about, as both were things we messaged about when we were on better terms.)
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Dec 18, 2020 05:56
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BTW: Contrary to popular belief (although Wiki and Cagematch have it correct), Jacques didn't train PCO. Pat Girard was his original trainer.
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Dec 18, 2020 07:04
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JOHN CENA posted:cant believe that guy without a visa wanted to get paid As Carter even admitted publicly, he didn't have a work visa and, as a result, AEW didn't pay him, but it was a thing everyone agreed to. (I believe he was in the country on a different type of visa.) The problem that made WWE the only option is that, for pro wrestlers, USCIS examiners tend to focus on awards, titles, rankings, etc., even though most of those things are imaginary/fictional. This means that if AEW or Impact wanted to sponsor him for a work visa, they'd be limited to...what, rave reviews of U.S. indie work in a short period of time that may not have been entirely above board as far as USCIS would be concerned? He didn't even have a profile on Cagematch yet, despite working for prominent indies like GCW. Signing with WWE to work for NXT UK (for now) was the only choice that didn't come with massive risk, and it had the bonus of being where his trainer is a top guy and management favorite with a decent amount of power. Hopefully, the other offers got him enough leverage to get an above-average contract for NXT UK, but going home and working NXT UK tapings that WWE can parlay into an American work visa for him down the road was the only thing that made sense. And when his contract is up, if he wants to go elsewhere, it'll be much more feasible. It is what it is. Generally, if anyone were to ask my opinion of if a foreign national with options in the U.S. should sign with WWE, I would say no because there are too many stories, both public (like the Cezar Bononi stuff) and otherwise, of weird WWE bullshit where they messed with the international talent. (This is barring a WALTER type of situation where they basically offered him a ton of money to live a slightly modified version of his indie life while still residing in Germany, of course.) But if we're being realistic, Ben Carter didn't have such options.
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Dec 19, 2020 07:25
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Punch McLightning posted:Bix: I remember the story of Dave writing a letter of recommendation to the US government for Lance Storm to work for Smoky Mountain. How much has the system changed since then? Is that still a thing that happens? I have no idea how many or how few Dave has written; IIRC, Lance is the only one he ever talked about, even before Lance shared that stuff. But Dave is weird when it comes to that kind of stuff, like how Eddie Alvarez kind of sort of used him as an expert witness when he sued Bellator. That's...probably not a thing he should have done, ethically speaking. (I have no idea if he was paid or not, but this wasn't him being called as a witness at trial. It was Dave providing his expert analysis when the lawsuit was filed.) I don't know what the ethics of writing a letter to help with a visa application are, but personally, visa bullshit is one of those things where I don't mind wrestler secrecy and have no problem with being asked for an extra layer of secrecy if the info is shared with me. It's not worth potentially ruining someone's life over a minor pro wrestling scoop. Also: You can read Dave's letter for Lance in the article I wrote about how ridiculous the visa process is for pro wrestlers: https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/foreign-wrestlers-us-immigration
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Dec 19, 2020 07:49
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Luigi Thirty posted:Benoit’s visa application is public record (from one of the WCW lawsuits, minus redacted personal info) if you want to see all the bullshit they had to submit to let him stay. Any alien file is public record after the subject dies. I've gotten a bunch over the years and they range from mild curiosities (here's a letter that X promoter sent, that's cool!) to having information that gives us a better understanding of wrestling history (here are Chris Adams' 1099 filings from a couple years before his green card application, so you can get an idea of what top guys in World Class made). Some of them are pretty funny, like WWE repeatedly using the same boilerplate in the '80s about having difficulty finding suitable talent domestically (during the expansion!) and thus having to look abroad, even in Andre The Giant's application. Some get you random poo poo like Ivan Koloff being arrested for cow tipping as a teenager in Canada.
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Dec 20, 2020 02:55
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I don't believe the Rip/Flash/Bostic story, but I also don't think he's saying that they worked matches on Dark so much as they appeared as security guards or something. Alan Angels, for example, was used as an extra a bunch of times where you wouldn't have known it was him before he ever worked a match for AEW. (He was the "fan" who threw the drink at MJF at Full Gear 2019, for example.) And they've flown in a bunch of non-GA/FL workers for Dark, too, so bringing in a couple Indiana guys isn't a stretch in and of itself so much as: 1. AEW bringing in Flash Flanagan and not having him work a match (unless it was a coach tryout?). 2. AEW bringing in Dylan Bostic at all. ...are both very difficult to believe. And to add to the other replies: Ben Carter is such an outlier because of the visa issues that calling his non-payment exploitation is ridiculous. They didn't pay him because they couldn't legally pay him and doing so would then also be a major issue if they then tried to sponsor a work visa for him. Meanwhile, this just happened and I'm not sure what to think of it, both in general and because I don't want to call Rip Rogers after midnight: https://twitter.com/Hustler2754/status/1342695333898412033
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Dec 26, 2020 06:02
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Punch McLightning posted:I don’t know enough about Dylan Boston to say anything about the likelihood of him being brought in by AEW, but Flash feels really weird unless he’s a great trainer or super respected/liked guy or something. Wezlar posted:his is kind of what it is for me. Exploitation is maybe a strong word, and it ended up going well, but I think most everyone would agree that paying artists/creatives in exposure is bad practice (even if it worked out in the end) and giving a paying job that could go to someone who is legally working in the country to someone who is willing to do it for free is also kind of lovely.
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Dec 26, 2020 06:33
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Lead Pipe Cinch posted:Tony Khan almost certainly handed Ben Carter a sneaky $500 bill or whatever.
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Dec 26, 2020 08:05
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MassRafTer posted:The person he is QTing deleted their account but I am curious what he said about Retribution to set him off. https://archive.is/0hOZk https://archive.is/xwvxT
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Dec 27, 2020 00:14
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Pylons posted:https://twitter.com/Myers_Wrestling/status/1343769298716790784 I don't understand these #ForTheBrand ride or die WWE fans at all. The core TNA diehards? I actually get that in a weird way given the trajectory of the promotion. But WWE? The incumbent? Why? Why be fiercely loyal to this bland factory wrestling poo poo? (And I say that as something who, as a loving adult, has had times, like 2007, where I felt that there was so much good WWE—well, and AAA—content on TV that there was no need to search out tapes/DVDs unless you had all the time in the world and needed to see everything.) Is it literally as it simple as it being all they know? Or is it something with a bunch of catalysts, including but not limited to the steps WWE has taken to remove its fanbase's empathy? Brian Myers was Jon Huber's friend. On the new ep of his pod with Ryder, he apparently talks about bonding with the guy over fatherhood, telling him about his wife's pregnancy before he told anyone else, and already seeing the guy in dreams. Even if you disagree with him, let him grieve how he wants. And being that we're talking about the death of possibly the single most beloved and respected person in modern wrestling, who was in WWE's locker room a year ago? He's probably right that they should have done more, anyway! "It's Monday, you know what that means," the tribute spots, the Raw Talk segment...those are all the types of things that the wrestlers and announcers know they can sneak past the office. All *WWE* did was the slate. davidbix fucked around with this message at 06:32 on Dec 29, 2020 |
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Dec 29, 2020 06:29
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JUNGLE BOY posted:It’s kinda gross to speculate about Jericho’s alcoholism, or anyone else’s for that matter
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Dec 30, 2020 05:52
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There had been plenty of talk of contract season with so many Impact and ROH deals up, but I don't remember hearing Sami Callihan's name mentioned once.
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Jan 1, 2021 08:42
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Lead Pipe Cinch posted:That interview and tweet is from the summer of 2018, why would it come up now?
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Jan 6, 2021 04:57
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Joey McChrist posted:not all heroes wear capes
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Jan 7, 2021 06:48
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Alaois posted:Pal Penis
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Jan 9, 2021 03:20
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Sabu's gimmick with tables was originally moonsaulting into them out of frustration after losing a match. It took some time for him to switch exclusively to putting people through tables. As for blading and gig marks: The prolific bleeders without much in the way of visible gig marks, like J.J. Dillon, Bobby Heenan, and Ric Flair, were all guys who gaffed themselves horizontally high up by the hairline, making it blend into natural forehead wrinkles more while also being hidden by hair at times. The reason that more wrestlers don't do it, at least according to Steve Corino, is that it hurts like a motherfucker.
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Jan 25, 2021 04:11
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jesus WEP posted:i'm kinda halfway between being skeeved out at using people's abuse for some twitter heat, and thinking it's cool he's ragging on britwres for sheltering these fucks for years and years
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Jan 28, 2021 01:12
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Did anyone save the Dijak tweet reply defending the "[ethnic] cleansing" promo? It appears to be gone. Edit: Excuse me, the tweet defending the "purifying" promo. davidbix fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Feb 1, 2021 |
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Feb 1, 2021 22:10
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Gone already. And not in Google Cache.
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Feb 1, 2021 23:32
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I'm still not sure I know what the internet slang version of "based" means.
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Feb 5, 2021 05:45
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I guess I should post this here? Drake Wuertz randomly, baselessly accused dozens of dudes in the Tampa area of being child molesters the other day: https://twitter.com/davidbix/status/1357840098260303873 https://twitter.com/davidbix/status/1357840099963244546 Original post: https://www.instagram.com/p/CKsNMhMpbf7/ Archive link: https://archive.is/fgeHe
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Feb 6, 2021 01:58
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I've been doing journalisms for hours and I'm about to pass out. BUT. The Stan Lane/Lauren Boebert story is so much wilder than you can possibly imagine. Hopefully I secure somewhere to explain how and why in the morning.
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Feb 12, 2021 08:54
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Prokhor Zakharov posted:Is it that Boebert's mom and Lane were first cousins and that she's an incest kid or something else?
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Feb 12, 2021 09:07
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explosivo posted:I wonder if this would have included any of the Brodie cross promotion charities that were promoted by everyone.
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Feb 16, 2021 00:22
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https://twitter.com/davidbix/status/1361886067482365953 Original Instagram post link: https://www.instagram.com/p/CLXdOPoJ16o/
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Feb 17, 2021 07:57
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FullMetalJackoff posted:You take sixteen bumps
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Feb 17, 2021 19:02
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Benne posted:I know this term gets thrown around way too much, but god drat Josh Barnett is such a mark for himself Also: lololol at him thinking I'm some random hater and not a notorious GCW homer.
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Feb 21, 2021 03:06
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CarlCX posted:Josh Barnett told reporters that Cris Cyborg's punishment for missing weight in Strikeforce should be getting assaulted by an anime tentacle monster. He is one hundred percent that dude.
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Feb 21, 2021 03:51
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