Tonight I finally saw "Beyond the Mat"! What am I, the last wrestling fan to see this film :) I would have gone to see it in theaters when it was released, but it did not show at any theater in my area. So I figured I'd have to wait for the release on VHS. Last Tuesday I went to Best Buy to pick up a copy, only to discover it was only released on DVD that day, and for rent in video stores. The VHS edition will be out around the holidays. Is something keeping me from seeing this film, or what? I have a DVD on my computer, but not hooked up to a tv. I have thus far refused to buy a DVD Player. I really don't like the idea you can't record with them (at least not yet at an affordable cost), that I wouldn't be able to watch all my VHS tapes on one, and the fact that I'm resisting this new technology, lol. I want to wait and see if this is a long-term thing. Look at mini-discs...glad I didn't go out and buy a bunch of those. Oops, sorry, as if you care about all that. On to the film...

I've got to say that it really was exactly what I had pictured it would be. I'm sure this is because I had already read so much about it, and seen a lot of the clips. However, that didn't take away from how good it really was. The main point that we all need to pick up, is that the three wrestlers featured (Jake Roberts, Mick Foley, and Terry Funk) all had extremely interested stories to be told, and that each and every other wrestling star has some sort of story of their own. They all give up a lot to be in the wrestling business, and it's true what a lot of people would say, it is their choice. I guess I wasn't as interested in seeing Mick's story, only because we've been exposed to so much of it already, though the Royal Rumble segment and watching his kids was very difficult. I don't think kids that young should be witnessing that type of match involving their parent, and I don't think kids that young should be at wrestling events anyway (but they are). Mick realized that and obviously made some serious choices about his life after the film was completed, by retiring from the ring. I'm not saying the wrestlers shouldn't bring their kids to events, just not the front row. I guess I feel like I have to explain myself here cause I don't want anyone to misread what I'm trying to say :)

Next there is Jake Roberts. I grew up watching Jake battle wrestlers like the Honky Tonk Man, Randy "Macho Man" Savage, Rick "the Model" Martel, and so many more. I had his action figure (still do actually), etc. It's very sad to see him in this film. I can understand he truely has had a rough life, and it's pretty incredible he became such a Superstar. He really always gave a great performance (and still does it appears). His daughter just seemed totally frustrated, and understandably so, but it did appear she was willing to try and work things out. Hopefully someday they can. As with any former star, it's sad to see them in some of the scenes working for independents. Well, I guess it's not always sad. If the wrestler is there by choice and is trying to help out the younger guys, while continue to wrestle cause they love it, then I guess it's cool. It's sad when you see them there and it's clear they do not want to be there, or are there way before their best days were over.

As for Terry Funk, there is a man who just lives the wrestling business. You can tell he just can't get enough, and loves helping out the younger guys and doing what's right for the business (example: losing his "retirement match" to Bret Hart). Like Mick Foley, we've seen them in such violent matches over the years, but they are both caring people and only want to make those around them happy (except wrestling I guess, cause both their families clearly wanted them to stop).

Did anyone else notice Stephanie McMahon? She looked thrilled to be there, lol. Actually, that was one of the most interesting parts of the film, watching what went on backstage. Looks like a lot of pressure and chaos, but they pull it off each and every week. I don't know about Vince's reaction to Droz being "Puke". I guess I don't get as excited about puke as Vince, lol, and neither did the fans. Droz was becoming one of my favorites, and we all wish him the best recovery.

How funny was it when Terry Funk's wife said "Don't forget the branding iron is in the trunk of the car", or when they showed Paul's mother ironing while they conducted ECW business in the basement?

You've heard it before I'm sure, this is a must-see film for any pro wrestling fan.

Well I wasn't even going to get in to this whole issue at all, but seeing the WWF and the most popular wrestling Internet sites have decided to make this an issue, I thought I would just post my replies. Let me first say that at no point here am I trying to tell anyone who to vote for. These are just my thoughts, and things I think should be pointed out. I saw the Rock at the Republican Convention, have visited the WWF's website about voting, and have been following a little bit about both candidates for President and Vice-President. I urge everyone to vote this year, because if you don't vote - then you can't complain. Anyway, I recently read something by a top Internet wrestling writer that said Gore's choosing Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman as his running mate has "the potential to be dangerous to wrestling fans" because he is "a member of the PTC Advisory Board". I'm sorry, but there are many many important issues at hand, not just how wrestling is going to be affected. Let's face it, pro wrestling markets to kids, just walk in to any toy store! And the stuff on pro wrestling programming is not suitable for children, I am not going to deny that. I don't have a problem with it for teens and everyone else though. And the argument of course is that children shouldn't be up that late watching RAW or Nitro. That is true, but then again, not every kid has parents to monitor their activities. So the next question someone is going to say is "Why is that my problem?". And that is exactly the problem, people only care about how things affect themselves. I shouldn't say all people, because that is totally not true, but some. My point in all of this is, for someone to not vote for a candidate because they are on a board such as the PTC is silly, without considering all issues at hand, and finding out whether or not this person is even a big contributor on the board against wrestling. I don't think we should be fooled by the Rock's appearance at the Republican Convention, just as many - if not more - Republican's are against current pro wrestling programming and threaten to limit our choices. So I'm just saying look at the overall picture, find out what each candidate stands for, and make your choice knowing that they represent what you most believe in on all the issues. Now if the WWF's purpose is truely to remain bi-Partisan, then I applaud them. We'll see if that remains true during the Democratic Convention, and up until the elections.

I know, it's been ages since I last wrote here. I had planned to write a lot, and that still is my plan. I enjoy writing, and writing about wrestling, but I think the problem was it is hard for me to write so generally. Because of that, I want to start writing more features for my site. One of those has already begun, the Kurt Angle page. I am a huge fan of Kurt Angle, but keep in mind the page is done totally in fun. I've received a lot of positive feedback about it, I enjoy writing it, so I'll continue to do so. I am even in talks with another webmaster of a Kurt Angle site about possibly combining some of our stuff - so watch for that later this summer. Actually the summer is about halfway done already. I still don't have any live events planned to go to, but there may be one in August, I'll keep you posted. If you haven't already, email me to sign up for my weekly email that I send out. It gives you an update on what I've done on my site over the past week, plus a few features not found on my site. The June/July Trivia Contest is almost over, so be sure to take a guess at that. Now, on to the wrestling...

I sure wish I had posted this thought this past weekend. I was just thinking to myself (and I have no idea why I thought this), they should have Sgt. Slaughter wrestle sometimes. Well, last night I read the Heat spoilers, and that is exactly what has happened. That happens to me all the time, but most of the time I can't get my thoughts posted here, so as if people are going to believe half the stuff I predicted. I guess that's another good reason to write here more often.

You probably all know I was totally unimpressed with Trish's skills when she entered the WWF, while she has a long way to go in my opinion, I will say she has really improved these past few weeks. Her feud with Lita has been exciting, and I haven't seen the crowds this excited about a feud among 2 women in a long time. That's a good sign! Test and Albert are also working well together, and of course the Hardy Boyz work well with Lita. As for Chyna and Terri, there's no match there, so Terri is going to have to outsmart Chyna as Eddy Guerrero and Saturn continue their battles.

This is unusual, but for some reason it seems the King has been repeating far too many things over and over each week. I just started noticing he needs some new lines. Hey, I think the King is very entertaining, but like anything else, it needs to stay fresh. Like I said, this is unusual for the King and it's the first time I've ever noticed it. I've never been a huge Triple H fan, but I will say at least he provides mic work each and every week without repeating the same old catch-phrases. The Rock's lack of mic time I think has been good, because that was also starting to get a bit old. Again, I'm a huge Rock fan, so don't midunderstand me. I don't know, I guess I don't ever recall a time when wrestlers depended so much on the same old phrases, but it seems that is changing. I don't think I'd ever get sick of Kurt Angle's "It's true", mainly because he says new stuff all the time, and just adds it to the end. I always get emails about Stephanie (I think I mentioned this before). People say she irritates them so much, and that they should take her off tv. Well, I guess that shows she's doing a pretty good job. I find Stephanie quite amusing actually. Oh, wasn't I supposed to talk about wrestling?

Fully Loaded was a great PPV! It seems to me that the Big 5 PPVs (Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, KOTR, Summerslam, and Survivor Series), have recently been worse than the other 7 (formerly called "In Your House" PPVs). I found Wrestlemania very bad, then the next 2 PPVs awesome, then KOTR boring, then Fully Loaded was superb! Hopefully SummerSlam will stop that trend. Speaking of KOTR, a lot of people blamed the crowd for that PPV. I seem to remember Boston always being known for having some of the best crowds anywhere. Things seemed to change once the Fleet Center was built. All of my tapes of wrestling at the Boston Garden the fans are just wild. I was surprised though that none of the "newer" guys won their matches at Fully Loaded, meaning Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, and Chris Benoit. Actually, being a huge Kurt Angle, I thought he was defeated way too easily. I guess that doesn't necessarily mean anything though. Look how successful Triple H became after being defeating so easily by the Ultimate Warrior at a Wrestlemania. If the PPVs purpose was to find out if these 3 were Main Event wrestlers, the answer is clear, they are. I wasn't a fan of Chris Jericho's until I was able to see him in some good matches. His mic work never impressed me that much, but his wrestling does.

What is going on with the Big Show? I hear his explanation on Smackdown tonight as to why he's with Shane now makes no sense. I guess it doesn't have to, seeing a lot of other things do not make sense. Actually that seems a bit lazy to me. These days, people just change alliances and can give the fans the answer of "Just Because". That doesn't cut it for me. I'm watching entertainment, and I'd like to at least have the storylines make sense. Imagine in the 1980s if Randy Savage had just joined forces with Hulk Hogan "Just Because". There was a great story that went along with them becoming the "Mega-Powers", and "Just Because" wouldn't have cut it back then.

I've been trying to watch WCW off and on now, but sometimes that is hard to do. I know one thing, I could watch Justin Credible/Tajiri matches on ECW all day long. They are my 2 favorite ECW wrestlers, and they have awesome matches. Is anyone else finding the new WWF website a bit difficult to navigate? Half the time I get error messages, or things I click don't appear. I like the old setup much better. Actually, I really liked the old look.

I guess that's all the time I have now, but I will try to write more soon. Hope you're all having a good summer!