Some assorted thoughts to close out 1998...

Kudos to Steve Corino, who will be starting full-time with ECW in February 1999. He worked his last NWA-Championship Wrestling America show for Dennis Coraluzzo last night. Corino will be finishing up his indy bookings until then, and may work some ECW shows in the meantime. With Corino's ability to work a crowd, and to do a heel promo without every other word having four letters in it...he'll have things to teach many in the locker room. I just hope Steve goes into his ECW experience with eyes wide open.

Corino did a classy going-away monologue to the crowd on Saturday night at that NWA show in Pine Hill, thanking the workers, Dennis Coraluzzo, and others. That class, in a strange way, is a perfect segue to the next set of thoughts...to two people who recently did something 180 degrees opposed to that...

I have tried for the last year to avoid getting into the personal pissing match that has continued on and off with this site and the folks over at 1wrestling.com and the Wrestling Lariat. But after the most recent incident, I can't stay out of it any longer.

On the "Tod Gordon Shoot Interview Tape" marketed by 1wrestling.com, Tod Gordon just HAPPENS to make derogatory comments about the wife of webmaster/editor of PWBTS, Fritz Capp. I won't dignify them by repeating them. Those comments were purely a coincidence, I'm sure, when the tape was initially advertised on the 1wrestling.com page as being (in part) "about some guy named Fritz".

So tell me, Bob...Dave? Care to explain to me what those comments, which just HAPPENED to find their way onto the ECW message board, sponsored by Strictly ECW...have to do with either news or rumors, which, last I looked, was the purpose of your site? Or is it that some of the comments made by those on this site, and in many OTHER locations on the Internet are hitting home a little too much?

Is it the comments about both of you having conflicts of interest?

The fact is that Bob Ryder is doing work for WCW, as well as that he has ownership of the ECW website, and 1wrestling.com. It was reported months ago. If Bob Ryder wants to work for WCW or ECW, that's his right. It's a free country. But he can't claim to be a reporter and work on behalf of these companies without there being a conflict of interest. That's a fact. Slandering Lisa Capp won't change that fact.

Is it the fact that Dave Scherer's long-known advocacy for ECW has reached another stage with his fostering of the Chris Candido and Tammy Sytch angle? It seems Paul Heyman stated on the Mark Madden radio show in Pittsburgh that the Candido/Sytch "vacation" routine was a work...as was presumably the Pillman-style Internet angle he had with Candido. Given that, one has to wonder if they were ever truly suspended by the company. The Lord only knows...

It's also true that if Dave Scherer wants to work for ECW, that's his right, also. It's a free country. But he can't claim to be a reporter and work actively on behalf of ECW without there being a conflict of interest. That's a fact. Slandering Lisa Capp won't change that fact, either.

No namecalling is necessary to make those points. The fact of the matter is that the facts speak for themselves.

When some weeks back, I had expressed a concern to Dave Scherer about the "Tod Gordon Shoot Interview tape" (particularly that Gordon would discuss a particular former employee of ECW), Dave said "Well, I could edit the tape". The failure to edit this portion out makes one logically assume that their intent in keeping this passage in the tape was deliberate. It was utterly classless and inexcusable.

So, we see those in and around the business who know how to carry themselves, and those who don't. Here's hoping 1999 is a year withing the industry where we see much more of the former and much less of the latter...

Until next time...Happy New Year!

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