Death Of WCW Review .

The next issue of Verbal was to feature my review of The Death Of WCW . But sadly because god hates me it was cut from 500 words down to 100. For fucks sake. Anyway. Heres what it should have looked like.

The Death of WCW.

Bryan Alvarez and R.D Reynolds

ECW Press,Canada

ISBN-10: 1550226614

Wrestling With Disaster.

Right, let’s get this out of the way: I KNOW ITS FAKE! My interest in the pseudo sport of pro wrestling lies firmly within the realms of backstage drama and political machinations. OK? GOOD!

This is the true story of the rise and fall of a family run business that sat at the edge of bankruptcy for decades and was saved by a benevolent billionaire and ultimately rendered useless by mismanagement over ambition, stupidity and the rock band KISS

In 1998 the Ted Turner Owned World Championship Wrestling became the most successful Pro-Wrestling company ever, IN THE WORLD,EVER, turning a profit in excess of $ 80 million dollars, and attracting over six million viewers for its flagship weekly television show Monday Nitro. Three years later the company was dead, having lost over 80 million dollars and 95% of its viewing audience. How could this have happened? How could a publicly traded company be so mismanaged as to be rendered less than worthless in such a short space of time?

In many ways The Death of WCW is a whodunit although sadly one which is never resolved .Author Bryan Alvarez is well known in wrestling “insider” circles as a top journalist and approaches the subject as if it were a ‘real’ sport. His descriptions are both factual and hilarious, balancing in depth ratings information alongside descriptions of Hulk Hogan’s battle with an Egyptian mummy that has escaped from a block of ice. Really

He is not afraid to point the finger at those he sees as responsible for the companies’ destruction. . The key culprits ( some of them well known individuals like Hulk Hogan and Ted Turner ), take it in turns to point fingers at each other , never once admitting any culpability in the destruction of thousands of peoples livelihoods. Sadly Alvarez’s account comes too little too late, and the lessons learned from this book are still being ignored today by wrestling companies the world over.

Professional wrestling has been run for years by carnival hustlers, shysters, and money hungry hicks, out to trick their punters (known affectionately as marks) out of every penny they can get, all the while acting in the manner of a secret fraternity or quasi Masonic brotherhood Some of the business practices described in this book are just unbelievable. Like setting moon shine swilling hillbillies loose in the New York Stock Exchange.

For fans of the mat game Death of WCW serves as a depressing, frustrating and yet hilarious reminder of what was and what still could be. For non fans it will save as a case study in rank stupidity.

This is essential reading for anyone who wishes to know how not to run a business.

Picture worth a million zillion billion words

What The fuck is going on here?

A History of Bullshit......

Jesus, I love the Internet


a history of internet Memes!!!!




See if you can spot your faveorite flash in the pan!!!!!!

what what , in the butt!!!

Bernie Brillstien RIP

Couldn't let the day pass without commenting on the death of Bernie Brillstien, one of the unsung heroes of late seventies and early eighties comedy. Without him we would have no Muppets, Sarurday Night Live, Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters, or It's a Gary Shandling Show. Of course we have him to thank for ALF, but he's dead so i think we can let bygones be bygones.
He was the manager of not only John Belushi, but John Candy , and also Chris Farelly. Upon hearing of the latters death he famously quipped " I wish my fat clients would stop dieing"
Classy!!!!
Theres a great obit here. I recomend you check it out

cfx

A Change is Gonna Come..........

Words fail me for some of the shit on this list of the most racist toys ever made. Still , i have to admit that i would do anything, up to and including anything, for Hitlers Limo. Check that motherfucker out.

I wonder if i could get a David Bowie Figure and stick that in too!!!!

Alice In Sunderland Review.

This is from issue 10 of Verbal Magazine, and was something of a headfuck to review. It wasnt completely shallow, and as it had subtext , it drove me up the wall( i'm a shit like that). What i really wanted to say was it was all right , but the author is something of a self abuse expert. Sadly Verbal isnt that kind of publication. I did at the very least get to say that he was up his own hole, so Grots you have my admiration and respect for that. This issue had some nice reviews by big Dave Campell. Check it out here:

Alice in Sunderland: An Entertainment
by Bryan Talbot

In quite a departure from his normal work
on titles such as Batman, Judge Dredd, and
Hellblazer, comics veteran Bryan Talbot has
created one of the most thought provoking
graphic novel pieces in quite some time. Based
in part (in the loosest possible sense) on Alice
in Wonderland, Talbot (the main character
in his own comic no less), takes a sideways
journey looking at the history and character
of the city of Sunderland in general and its
Empire Theatre in particular.
Moving between past and future, and
containing a mixture of fantasy and reality the
narrative and art of the book are distinctly non
linear, switching between styles and ideas with
seemingly little rhyme or reason. There is a
wealth of both visual and factual information
contained within. Its all meticulously
researched, but it borders on information
overload, with some of the double page
spreads seeming quite confusing.
The author describes his work as being
‘an epic meditation on myth, history and
storytelling’ which is a pretty grand statement
about a book, and in the normal run of things,
would make it sound like he was right up his
own arse, but in the context of the story its
actually a reasonable enough claim. Its all very
clever, and you can’t ever shake the feeling
that its aware of how clever it is. Almost TOO
clever. Having said all that the art, in all its
varied styles is nothing short of superb, and
it’s very hard to be too critical of a book of any
kind that features the ghost of Syd James as
one of the major characters.
This is complex stuff and not for beginners. If
you’re one of the spandex set you may be best
advised to give this one a miss. However for a
fan of graphic literature looking for something
a little different. This is your fellah.

Underwhelming First Graphic Novel Reviews: Superman Infinite Crisis & Charleys War 17 October 1916 - 21

This was the first comics review i got published( along with a feature on Garth Ennis ) from Verbal Issue 2. It's safe to say i have in fact improved since this point, which baffles and delights me in equal measure. In hindsight I have done both these books a diservice, as the latter is an awesome piece of old school British comics gold. The former is a piece of shit. Man, that Infinite Crisis. It was great.



Graphic novels
Entertaining but at times maddeningly
confusing, Superman: Infinite Crisis (Marv
Wolfman, Joe Kelly, Jeff Loeb) deals with one
of the comic world’s most perplexing mysteries:
how is it that Superman has been around for
over seventy years, yet he is still only in his mid
to late twenties?
Not for beginners, this book features more
than 20 different Supermen, at least three
Superboys, and tries to condense 75 years
of character work into just over one hundred
pages. One for continuity buffs only.
Charley’s War: 17 October 1916 - 21
February 1917 is the third collection of Pat Mills’
and Joe Colquhoun’s spectacular World War I
epic. Originally printed in the UK war anthology
Battle, this is the continuing story of private
Charlie Bourne, who, having lied about his age to
enlist, comes to know the true horror of war.
Stunningly illustrated, meticulously
researched, and overtly anti-war, it’s hard to
believe that this was ever printed in a comic
intended for under-twelves.
Highly Recommended.