Norton's News Friday, September 8th

Kurt Angle's King Problems, The WWF pumps publicity while Russo bumps explicitly¿ and more!

By Blake Norton
Editor In Chief, IGN Wrestling

How's everybody doing today?

Vince Russo has been feeling the effects of some recent bumps; reports coming out of WCW say that he's been suffering from severe headaches the last few days. I disagree with some of his booking practices, sure, but you have to give the man credit for getting in the ring and having his head kicked in by Booker T. Hell, he has a higher workrate than Nash, and he's the WCW champion for Christ's sakes.

It's just a couple of days before Ric Flair returns to WCW. He's praised the WWF a lot in radio interviews the last several months - in fact, he never really bashed them, but others can't say the same. Everyone from Hulk Hogan to Randy Savage has sung the praises of Vince McMahon. You gotta love guys who know where their bread is buttered, or at least who they'd like to have buttering it. I'd still love to see him have one last run in the WWF, just for the sake of having him stand across the ring from Jericho, Benoit (wow), Rock, Hunter or Kurt Angle. He and Benoit never actually wrestled in WCW, did they? I know they didn't feud¿

Man am I glad I got to rate this week's Thunder. That was a really good show! That Bret Hart vs. Goldberg confrontation was a real keeper, and the Douglas vs. Crowbar match had more substance than most wrestling matches so far this year.

There's a pretty entertaining parody circulating on the WCW Message Board right now. It's a tad cruel, but you'll get a kick out of it anyway. Check it out here. Why is it that only WCW gets parodied, anyway? I mean, sure, they're easy targets, but I just know there's a great parody to be pulled out of Tazz's feud with Jerry Lawler or Crash and Dean Malenko teaming up. Send 'em in. If they rock, they'll go on the site.

Who do you feel is the most misused guy in wrestling today? Ian Ross tackled that topic in his latest edition of <a href="">Positively Ian.

It looks like the WWF is really serious about this presidential debate on Smackdown. Hell, if Letterman can get political leaders, maybe the WWF can. This is another smart move by McMahon to bring the WWF name into the mainstream. It's weird to think that it's not a long time ago (heck, just a few years, really) that wrestling was a campy, cult, carny kinda thing. Now it's just campy and cult, with some mainstream appeal too¿

WCW has announced that Johnny The Bull has been cleared to wrestle. That was fast! Hopefully his bitter-sweet story will set an example to the youth of America. Kids, don't land on your ass on a concrete floor after jumping from ten feet in the air.

Kurt Angle has a piece on about his recent concussion, suffered when he took a botched Pedigree at Summerslam. One thing of note that he said:

"I watched it on TV, and I still don't remember. I don't remember finishing the match, I don't remember carrying Stephanie back, I don't remember talking to Stephanie when I was backstage."

Ugh. Why is this man wrestling right now? You can read the rest of his very interesting comments here.

Most "bodyguards" used for wrestling television - you know, the dweeby looking guys who always get their monkey asses handed to them on a plate at some point during the evening - are in fact workers from the area the show was taped. This week's Thunder was no exception. As Chris Reed revealed, they are, in fact, workers from Shawn Michaels' Texas Wrestling Alliance. He has some more interesting news on where they might pop up next, so be sure to check out his full report.

We're hoping to debut the Backyard Wrestling article Friday evening, so be sure to look out for it!

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