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We know that Vince stole top stars/draws from every territory, and even outbid them for their own familiar TV spots in the market, and if he couldn't he'd go head-to-head with them in the TV timeslot.

But it was hard for the NWA promoters around the country to call in favors all the time with Crockett for super house shows, because he had his own territory to run seven nights a week, and Vince was running three different crews that were criss-crossing the country. Vince also started arena "exclusivity" in each area, meaning that even if Don Owen wanted to run the old 10,000+ seat Rose Garden in Portland, Vince would've bullied him out of said arena (though that's hypothetical, because WWF wouldn't run Oregon because their commission actually drug tested, but still).

Very predatory business tactics by Vinny Mac. Kind of weird that this is the same guy who (and only ten years later) pulled the whole "woe is me" whiny attitude when Bischoff got Hogan and Savage and went head-to-head with RAW.

What killed Crockett's business was...
1. Buying UWF and Florida. Two great territories that were drawing dirt. Since those territories weren't drawing live, Crockett basically bought talent for his own shows, talent that Vince would then cherry pick as he pleased. JCP even bought Central States (Missouri), which probably wasn't worth it.
2. Dusty's booking.
3. Vince's deals with the Pay-Per-View companies. Back when Starrcade was a Thanksgiving tradition, Survivor Series was created to kill it. The UWF-NWA booking of Starrcade wouldn't have made a bit of difference because it was the same night as Survivor Series '87, and Titan Sports basically told the PPV carriers that if they chose to air Starrcade instead of Survivor Series, they wouldn't be allowed to carry WrestleMania IV in 1988.

These were the days when you didn't have 80 PPV channels that offered a movie or PPV every moment of the day on cable or satellite. There was one PPV channel per system. Our system didn't carry it, only Survivor Series. My parents couldn't even order Starrcade '87 for me when I was a kid, and I lived 20 minutes away from Greensboro, NC. How messed up was that? Crockett was smurfed on PPV outside of the Southeast. smurfed by Vince. That's why the NWA-UWF Starrcade bombed.

So basically, Crockett had to bail everybody out around the NWA, until he got really strong, and Vince slit the throat of his company at every turn by using very predatory practices. But I don't think Crockett failed, after all, he was the only one left with a company that had enough national TV potential for Ted Turner to buy. Plus, Crockett signed Hulk Hogan to be Wahoo McDaniel's partner against Orton-Slater at the very first Starrcade in 1983, only to have Hogan bow out a week or two before the big event, and show up in WWF one month later. He tried. He wasn't as stubborn and clueless as Verne Gagne.

For the first of that part, he's talking about Chris & Nancy Benoit. The second part, he's talking about drugs and alcohol.

Dunno, but he's been donating to charities and students since before the guy got paralyzed, and long before TNA needed the PR rub for their Thursday night show. Most NFL players do, and they're heavily encouraged to do so by the league upon entrance.

Road Warrior Hawk.


1993 - ECW Arena: Hawk defeated The Samoan Warrior & Don E. Allen in a "Handicap" match
1994 - ECW Ultimate Jeopardy: Shane Douglas/MrHughes/Public Enemy beat Hawk/Kevin Sullivan/Taz/Terry Funk
2003 - TNA: Vince Russo/Low Ki/Chris Daniels/Elix Skipper defeat Dusty Rhodes/Road Warriors/Jeff Jarrett

(results source: Online World of Wrestling)

SuperBrawl 1991: Pillman-Liger for WCW Lt. Heavyweight Title
Halloween Havoc 1996: Rey-Malenko

I thought they were crappy. I never said that they didn't make money. I'm in my 20s now, I'm not the audience that they were trying to appeal to with those DX skits. But maybe it's just me, I thought it was lame the first time around...and I was 15.

Plus, many more people than I thought 40-year old Shawn and Hunter's juvenile skits were terrible (even their own pal Scott Hall said so in his shoot), or TNA wouldn't have gone out of their way to make fun of them. But yes, DX made people laugh, and for fans like me who rolled their eyes and/or stopped watching, they scored new little DXers out there who thought they were pretty sweet.

If you thought that was top notch humor, more power to you, I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. And business was so great last fall compared to where it was in the WWE five years ago that it really paid off in the long run.

More importantly, dude, thanks for chiming in yet again just to disagree with whatever I have to say. Awesome! I get it, you and I like different stuff.

Just for fun, since this column was awful...

1. Steiners were faces. Angle was a heel. That's a pretty major mistake to make if Alvarez really pays such close attention to TNA, enough so to gripe about it constantly.

2. Karen Angle pretended Sting beat her up after he was nothing but a choad to her. That started when she offered him a world title shot if he became Kurt's partner. Plus, Sting's usually nice. Karen Angle's generally mean. To oversimplify this, nice people and mean people usually don't get along in real life, and while mixed together, the mean ones often do crapty stuff to the nice ones.

3. Maybe Tomko just doesn't think that a woman should be treated poorly. In kayfabe reality, he's a big tough guy that happened to be hanging around the Impact Zone, watching the show, and he saw a girl being treated poorly. In real life, ever see some heelish putz try and stick up for a girl at a bar when she's been disrespected by another heelish putz, even if there's already a nice guy around who's already trying to protect her? It only happens somewhere on Earth every single night of the week since bars have opened. If you've never been to a bar, this device has been used in roughly 7,000,000 movies and TV shows.

4. Did Joe and Matt Morgan really have a pull-apart? Thought it was more of a face-off that laid the seeds for a possible matchup in the future. You know, a technique that wrestling TV shows and old school wrestling magazine covers have used since the 1950s, to lay the foundation for, "Wouldn't it be cool if those two guys you like would ever square off?". It's pretty much Wrestling Storytelling 101. TNA was laying a foundation with Joe/Morgan. Morgan didn't bite Joe's nose off, choke him with his wrist tape, or even punch him, so thus, they're still capable of having each other's back until they have a real personal issue.

5. Sting said he was basically glad that he won the tag titles, just so he could square off with Team Pacman, so he could exact revenge on them. Team Pacman were the ones who attacked Sting. They did it because they're jerks. Sting had no beef with them otherwise. Team Pacman gave Sting a motive to not just beat them, but kick their ass, and he pretty much stated that.

For instance, if you went down to the local park this weekend to play strangers in flag football, you'd want to win. Sure, you're human. But, before the game, if you knew that the strangers you were playing also just turfed your lawn by doing donuts with their dad's beat-up Camaro, you'd be even madder. You might even want revenge on them.

Gosh darnit, this Bryan Alvarez really needs to take a break from wrestling, because he's starting to lose his grasp on everyday human motivation...or at least how it fits into a wrestling show. Damnit, TNA doesn't even make sense, but most of his complaints are weak.


In conclusion, at least the web editors at The Fight Network saw fit to take out the ALL CAPZ!!! and other weak parts of Alvarez's writing. Still, it's theft if they actually paid him for this column on major logic holes, which ironically, is full of major logic holes.

Also, columns filled entirely with questions as the main points are very "high school newspaper". Columnists shouldn't be paid to ask the questions, especially if they think the questions are so blatantly rhetorical that the audience will just sit there and nod along. From a writing standpoint, this column was roughly the 500-word equivalent of going on a message board and going, "OMGZ, AM I RIGHT GUYZ~!?!?!?!!!!".

My first exposure to Necro Butcher was some deathmatch highlight video of him on YouTube. After watching that, I was turned off, and kind of felt sorry for someone who'd put themselves through that kind of physical torture to entertain seemingly twenty-five people at an outdoor garbage wrestling show. I could get that he enjoys it, but it seemed like a very high-risk/low reward style of career path.

A while back, out of curiosity, I checked out one of the Joe-Butcher matches. I was impressed. That led me to check out Necro Butcher's matches with Low Ki and Roderick Strong. Impressed again. From a first impression standpoint, he oozes "backyard garbage yard-tard", but he is more than that. The guy has a clue how to entertain by kicking ass and getting his ass kicked.

In fact, I'd go so far as say he's in the very top echelon of today's indy guys that could translate to national TV and get over pretty quick. Mind you, that's without the light-tubes, barbed wire, and the plunder. WWE goes to great lengths to identify talent, sign it, develop it, and try to find a "look" and "character" that will pique the interest of their audience. How many times have guys like Jesse & Festus been repackaged in developmental? Seems like a ton.

However, next week, you could trot Necro Butcher out on RAW or Smackdown as-is, and the audience, ages 3-70, would immediately know what kind of character they're seeing: A crazy, dangerous, demented heel. He's the guy you don't want to see late at night if you're walking through an empty parking lot to your car. Snitsky just isn't that guy no matter how brown you make his teeth. Necro exudes an aura of authenticity that writers can't bring to a character on paper. He might be a little too authentic for some, which is partly why there's a heavily divisive tone on this thread. I used to think the guy was a talentless bum, too.

Not saying he'll main-event Wrestlemania one day, but I can see Necro Butcher having a run in a few years in WWE, if he's easy to deal with backstage. He's no Mick Foley, but reminds me of Cactus Jack in his very earliest WCW lower-card days. You didn't need to have ever see Cactus cut a promo, or drop an elbow off the apron. Throw his face on TV, the audience immediately senses he's bat-crap crazy. That's a great, money-making trait to have if you're a wrestler, even if it draws a small semblence of smark hate in 2007.

If I were TNA, I would've signed him to play Mitchell's new guy before I would've signed Ricky Banderas. On that roster, I believe that Butcher has a wider variety of opponents that he can have good matches with than Banderas does.

In conclusion, he's good.

The worst part about reading Bryan Alvarez's writing is hearing his whiny voice in my head the entire time. Plus, starting out sentences with "I mean,..." is an example of terrible writing.

Just awful. Third grade stuff. I mean, I'm sorry, but it is. We already know what you mean. That's why you're writing it. Also, CAPITALIZING ENTIRE WORDS all of the time to ACCENTUATE YOUR POINTS is bush league, too. We've all done it on message boards (I do), but it's total amateur hour if you're still doing that in a publication. Professional writers are supposed to make points with their WORDS, not their SHIFT KEY.

I appreciate the first poster taking the time to bring us the newz though.