Well, now at least I know the winner of the 2002 AS I SEE IT Most Tasteless Angle "Award"... XPW promoter and pornographer Rob (Black) Zicari.

Before readers even say a word... yes, I figured it was a work, probably from the beginning.

But I think the reason so many wrestling webmasters felt obligated to react was this: if you look at some of the material on Black's Extreme Associates adult site, it's entirely plausible that he COULD have been doing it.

The webmaster of XPWrestling.com went on record attacking PWBTS and Smarks.com columnist Jay Bower for his column this past week that (along with Puroresu Power owner Zach Arnold) got people responding...to the tune of a reported 1000 calls to the Los Angeles Police Department, West Hollywood Animal Care and Control, and even the activist group PETA.

If you are among the lucky few who spent the portion of your week you devote to wrestling...reading about more mundane subjects like Wrestlemania...and figuring out who you're going to watch it with on March 17th... you may not be aware that XPW owner and Extreme Associates pornographer Rob Black alleged that he was planning on feeding a dog to a snake live on a membership-only portion of the Extreme Associates adult website on this past Friday.

After Jay's column (which runs on PWBTS and Smarks.com), Black was quoted in a profanity-laden, racist, and homophobic tirade against Jay Bower, Pro Wrestling Illustrated owner Stu Saks, and those concerned about legitimate animal abuse.

Here's the only portion of Black's quote I can reproduce on the sites that run this column, without editing 50% or more of it... allegedly by Rob Black himself:

"..Today I came in and Kevin Kleinrock, general manager extraordinaire, informed me that we've been getting inundated with calls from Animal Control and the police department. On top of that there's wrestling websites reporting on this. There's this one website by this Jay Bower a columnist. He's a ------ ---------. I want to go on record and say that Jay Bower is a ------ ---. And let me tell you something, Jay Bower. Your mother ----- ----. That's what your mother does. She ----- ----."

Nice.

Well, it turns out that it was all a work.

This time.

But God knows if Black would actually do it next time...just to make a point.

You have to remember that Black is such a lowlife, that even Paul Heyman wouldn't do business with him. That may tell you something about the kind of person that Robert Zicari is.

Rob Black is also the wrestling promoter that routinely and blatantly lies about stipulations and promised "surprises" at his XPW shows... then figures that he can get around it by blaming it on the heel faction within his promotion.

Of course, this doesn't explain away the day when XPW wrestler Supreme was badly burned (second degree burns on 45 percent of his body), because the promotion used charcoal fluid instead of lighter fluid on the table he went through. Lighter fluid is typically used by many promotions doing these kind of stunts.

But Rob Black and his employees apparently didn't care enough about their fellow employee to be careful, and used charcoal fluid, which sticks and burns like napalm. There were people in the building that couldn't get the smell of burned flesh out of their nostrils.

XPW receives little attention from online wrestling media, newsletters, and legit newspaper columnists... and deservedly so, given that the media can't believe anything they're being told by XPW or those associated with it.

This is a fact about which they routinely complain. But rather than getting fans to contact these media sources in order to build legitimate interest, like ECW did... then actually go ahead and deliver with their product... like ECW did for most of its existence; XPW and its associated lunatic fringe engages in ugly namecalling campaigns directed toward those who don't jump and give them the attention they feel they deserve...including nearly all the major wrestling media such as the Observer, the Torch, and Bob Ryder's 1wrestling.com.

As for the "puppy angle", Black put up a fanciful account of an incident (conveniently taped for sale at his Extreme Associates porn site) where he had his company's door driven in by LAPD "Gestapo" (his words, not mine) and being beaten to a bloody pulp (read: he bladed for the camera) before being "arrested for assault" and placed in the Los Angeles City Jail.

Lots of people wish that this had been true, and not just another demented Rob Black attempt to make a buck from a bunch of perverts (and trust me, if you see some of what's on there... it goes well beyond what many would consider legitimate adult content).

After all this demented Rob Zicari fantasy, the fact of the matter was that the Los Angeles Police apparently were ready to arrest him if this had turned out to be legitimate. Somehow I have the feeling it wouldn't have been the first time he'd have dealt with them.

At the end of all this... if humanity in general and wrestling fans in particular are lucky...maybe now the Los Angeles Police Department will be keeping an extra tight eye on Black....and maybe he'll get lots of inconvenience that he wasn't planning on when he thought this sick, perverted angle up.

If the LAPD pays attention to the porn business... they'll start looking at the multiple occasions of false advertising in his wrestling promotion. Maybe he can be caused some inconvenience there, too, depending on how (if?) California state laws govern false advertising within wrestling.

Maybe PETA can start picketing his shows too. Lord knows they've been known for raising more than a little hell in their time.

I have infinite faith in the fact that no matter how much money he makes out of...or how much attention he got from it...Rob Black is ultimately going to wish he hadn't done this angle.

That fact makes it all of the past week's activities directed toward Rob Black worthwhile.


Until next time...

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(If you have comments or questions, I can be reached by e-mail at bobmagee1@hotmail.com)