The Nosebleed Section: One Year Later-Life After Latino Heat
    Submitted by Randomguy#5 on Tuesday, November 14, 2006 at 11:52 PM EST



    The Nosebleed Section #85: One Year Later


    Nobody said a word.

    Not one.

    It’s simply amazing how fast we’ll forget around these parts. We die-hard wrestling fans love to ridicule the WWE for treating us like we’re all children (which most wrestling fans may be anyway). We love to bitch and piss and moan like deprived housewives every time the WWE does something that makes no sense storyline wise, and we’ll really take up our cross and become martyrs every time they “ignore the past” and act like two wrestlers have never seen each other. “Don’t they realize that these two have a long and dated history that dates all the way back to [obscure regional promotion]? Why, my god, [these wrestlers] headlined Wrestlepalooza ‘83 in Bambaster, Idaho in a 5 out of 9 falls classic!” Yeah, listen to us bitch for the WWE neglecting to acknowledge events from the past that we didn’t care about at the time and probably should be ignored.

    But let something significant happen, an event that changed wrestling landscaped, an event that changed lives, an event that altered perceptions of thousands of fans, and what happens?

    We, and they, forgot.

    I am the one called Random and you’re reading The Nosebleed Section..

    Arbitrary Observations


    --Cryme Tyme owns. Yeah, they’re racially stereotypical. Who gives a fuck. They’re hilarious, they’re anything but offensive, and they along with the Highlanders and a few other tormented souls provide hope in a desolate wasteland known as tag-team wrestling, which has been devoid of character since Wrestlemania X-7.

    --I still don’t get to catch Smackdown much these days and my cheep ass just won’t break down and buy a Tivo or some other such DvR type device. I’m told it sucks substantially less than it did over the summer, when it’s ratings were starting to parallel that of Velocity before that show was axed. From the little bits that I’m able to catch here and there, and from what I’ve read, its looking like I should give the blue-brand another chance to dissapoint me. Problem is, if I’m watching Smackdown I’m already stuck alone by myself on a Friday night which is depressing enough, so if the show sucks than I find myself staving off thoughts of suicide.

    --Brittish fans rule. The funny way y’all scream “Ahhsoul” is genuinely amusing to a dumb redkneck like myself. When D-X asked “Are you ready?“ I halfway waited on you to yell “Yer”. You guys made watching Raw that much more entertaining Monday night, cheers.

    --Kurt Angle debuts this week on Impact. Do yourselves a favor and give the little promotion that could an opportunity to impress you. Then, if they suck on what should be the biggest night of their existence, you can join me next week in pointing and laughing at them.

    --”Monday Night Countdown” continues to be a lot of fun to record. Hopefully you’re all checking out the little audio program that Morph and I are putting together every week or two, we appreciate all of your support with it.

    Arbitraries End: One Year Ago




    Three hundred and sixty-six days ago, I was spending my Sunday afternoon doing as I have on many Sunday afternoons over the last three years, camped in front of my keyboard surfing the pages of Lop. It was a fairly nice day and I was at a pretty busy point in my life, so in spite of the nice day I was spending it catching up cooped up in side enjoying one of my favorite pastimes that I simply don’t get to do as much as I once did. Simpling “hanging out” online and reading various news reports and columns. I had in fact, just finished a column that morning entitled “Cena means dinner in Spanish” in which I defended John Cena against his rampantly booing critics.

    A few moments after finishing the column and posting here on Lordsofpain.net, I jumped over to lop forums and was immediately stricken with what can only be described as a “watershed moment”. One of those times in life where an event strikes you so hard that the details of it become entrenched in your mind. My arch-enemy YourAyatollah once wrote an exceptional column on watershed moments, I’d encourage you to check it out if you’re ever given the opportunity. Similar moments are much more serious than this particular one, the most recent such moment would probably be the 9/11 Terrorist attacks.

    On Sunday, November 13th however no such tragedy occurred. Nothing that catastrophic at least to the common man or women. To loved ones, I’m sure it carried no less weight.

    Anyway while perusing the forums I stumbled across a thread topic that caught my eye, simply titled “R.I.P Eddie Guerrerro”. Stunned, I immediately thought some clown had decided to wreck havoc on our precious forum. Confused, I jetted back to the lop mainpage where I sadly stumbled across the following report.



    BREAKING NEWS: Eddie Guerrero Dead
    Submitted by Daniel Pena on Sunday, November 13, 2005 at 11:22 AM EST

    WWE.com is reporting that Eddie Guerrero has passed away. Guerrero was found dead this morning in his Minneapolis hotel room. We here at lordsofpain.net pass our condolences to the Guerrero family, his friends and World Wrestling Entertainment. More details on Eddie's tragic passing will be forthcoming.



    Sadly I immediately returned to that thread in Lop forums to spend a good majority of my day mourning with a good majority of the wrestling world. Eddie’s death immediately struck all of us with confusion as we pondered just what were the appropriate emotions to feel. How does one treat a celebrity death? Is it ok to feel saddened? Is it ok to cry? Or is such emotion almost cliché at that point, mocking those close to him who actually lost a husband, a father, and a dear friend?

    I don’t have the answer to that question now any better than I did a year ago today. I do know that a good majority of the tributes to Eddie once written are either deleted or are now merely broken links. That thread, which I considered an awesome testament to the nobility of wrestling fans and Eddie himself, was wiped out unceremoniously in a server upgrade. I know on one of the Internet’s most visited wrestling news sites, nobody mentioned Eddie’s death on the anniversary of it yesterday. Not a columnist, a news report or anybody else. On the flagship program of the WWE, Monday Night Raw, nothing was mentioned of Eddie’s death. Not a moment of silence, a video tribute, or even a brief passing picture. I’m really, really hoping I was just flipping channels and I missed at least a small tribute by the WWE, but I’m fairly certain I did not miss it, because there was nothing to miss.

    And really, do you blame them? How hypocritical of me is it to even sit here and say that they should of, after some 9 months of my moaning and groaning because they continually drug his name through the mud, storyline after storyline. Yes, its usually been done respectfully but even the continued references have more than worn out their welcome.



    More Notes On Eddie Guerrero's Death
    Submitted by Daniel Pena on Sunday, November 13, 2005 at 5:05 PM EST

    Here are some more details coming out in regards to Eddie Guerrero's premature passing.

    Eddie had breakfast this morning with his brother Chavo Guerrero and at least one more wrestler. Afterwards, Eddie returned to his hotel room. When Eddie hadn't come out of his hotel room in the expected amount of time, friends went looking for him and they found him dead in his hotel room. The police were quickly called at around 7:30 a.m. local time. Attempts were made to revive him, but they couldn't summon Eddie back to life.



    And still Eddie cannot be brought back to life. No matter how many columns we write, how many video tributes are made, no matter how many collages are photo-shopped “Latino Heat” will remain gone. Consider as well how things have changed. Consider how the landscape of wrestling has changed as a result of Eddie’s death. Eddie was working as a heel at the time, a role most people agree he played the best, and was a focal point of a Survivor Series match that he was later replaced in by Randy Orton. Orton went on to be the sole survivor in that match for the second year in a row, creating his own legacy of sorts. The week following Eddie’s death, Orton crashed Eddie’s low-rider through the Smackdown stage creating a uprising of hatred from the IWC. He then rode that wave of momentum really all the way through the rest of the 2005, and eventually rode it into the main event of Wrestlemania.

    Due to the injury to Batista, Eddie was heavily rumored to be winning the World Title again very, very soon. With Eddie’s death, the face of Smackdown changed forever when Kurt Angle surprised everybody by jumping to Smackdown and winning the strap. This was really, the beginning of the WWE seemingly losing faith in Angle. Sure he was given the belt, but only as a band-aid, having proven that he couldn’t be THE top heel in the company on the bigger stage of Raw. Fair or unfair, it sure seemed that way, and after a very difficult title run, Angle was re-packaged yet again and sent off to ECW before burning out and departing for TNA. Speaking of ECW, one has to wonder what role Eddie would be playing in that now, if not being a mega-star on Smackdown with the thinner rosters.

    With his passing the void at the top, even with Angle, become quite noticeable. Good friend Rey Mysterio ascended to the position, which he would of probably never reached were it not for the death of Eddie. Rey’s Royal Rumble win and title win were both dedicated to Eddie, as were many of his ill-fated title defenses that were booked horrendously including a feud with Randy Orton (there he is again) in which Eddie was said to be “in hell”. This heat catapulted Orton back to where he was prior to his injury plagued 2003 and ultimately led to the moving of Orton back to Raw, where he currently is in its most high profile of feuds. This in spite of (or as a result of?) his rumored failures of the Talent Wellness Program which did not exist prior to Eddie’s death and is responsible for the split of MNM, the de-push of Chris Masters and countless other offenses.

    If one really wanted to continue with the Butterfly Effect of sorts, one could make the argument that with an alive and well Eddie Guerrero, the void at the Smackdown roster never becomes as pronounced, and the first black champion in WWE history King Booker, is never crowned.


    WWE drops the Kerwin White character
    Submitted by Brian Cantor on Wednesday, November 16, 2005 at 12:11 AM EST

    In the wake of Eddie Guerrero's passing, it seems Chavo Guerrero will get to continue wrestling with the famous surname.

    WWE.com quietly removed the "Kerwin White" biography from its RAW website and replaced it with a Chavo Guerrero bio that makes no reference of the character.

    The new biography also features photos of Guerrero with black hair, as opposed to the lighter color he sported as Kerwin White.

    Chavo Guerrero began playing the Kerwin White character in July. The basic gimmick was that Guerrero, in denouncing his Hispanic heritage, wanted to portray an upper-middle class Caucasian American. The character, while typically making racially-charged promos, would simultaneously serve as a self-deprecating image of a white American.



    I’ll leave it to your imagination and the above quote, but consider the effects of Eddie’s death on the career of Chavo. Would he have had the high profile feud with Rey? Would he be battling Benoit for the US Title? Maybe the Kerwin White goes on to headline Raw’s Wrestlemania this year. Or maybe Chavo fades away into nothingness and is released? Or maybe-to TNA? Then what?

    This is of course only Chavo we’re speaking of. The cases of Rey, Benoit, Chavo and others are well documented and the case of Vicki Guerrero is becoming as such. My MNC co-host Morpheus has long since claimed that her involvement is strictly financial, sad as that may be. I don’t much care to assess the situation further, suffice it to say that I find it uncomfortable watching her on TV, yet I will not judge her as I’ve tried to not judge the actions of the WWE et all, operating under the assumption that they surely knew Eddie better than I, and if they’re comfortable with current situations, I should be as well.

    In reality, its perhaps the fans who have had the hardest time over the last year adjusting to life without Eddie. When members of the media drug Eddie’s name through the mud, it wasn’t the WWE or Vicki Guerrero who raised a fuss, it was us.



    ESPN Radio Host Makes Tasteless Comments About Guerrero Passing
    Submitted by Daniel Pena on Monday, November 14, 2005 at 2:23 PM EST

    Anthony P. Landrosh sent in the following letter to me. He said that he was listening to ESPN radio earlier today, "The Herd With Colin Cowherd", and Colin Cowherd said some rude comments about Eddie Guerrero's passing. He accused Eddie and other wrestlers of steroid use. Cowherd said, "who cares that he died" and that Guerrero's death was not "newsworthy." He also started speculation on the "unknown causes" of his death.

    Colin Cowherd has a subsite on ESPN.com, which you can visit by CLICKING HERE. He's the guy on the top banner of the page. His site also has an e-mail form where you can send an e-mail. CLICK HERE to visit the e-mail page if you have something to say to him.

    Anyways, here is the letter paralegal Anthony P. Landrosh typed.....

    __________________________________

    I don't even know if anyone will even read this or care, but I want you to know that there are a lot of people that care about Eddie Guerrero (WWE star that passed away yesterday morning). Regardless of what you or your listeners think about professional wrestling, it does not change the fact
    the Mr. Guerrero was a human being and to be so ignorant (Colin) by disrespecting him or his job a day after his death is borderline heartless.

    I am a 32 year old male that (as most men in my demographic) spends a good portion of time watching Sportscenter, College Game Day, and NFL Sunday Night to mention a few shows on ESPN and its affiliates. I want you to know that the actions that your Radio hosts has just caused you a
    viewer and listener. I also intend to post this on many other sites, so people can see how disrespectful you really are.

    FYI- The disrespectful comments were made on the Colin Cowherd show this morning on ESPN Radio, accusing Eddie and other wrestlers of steroid use,making mention that "who cares that he died" this isn't even "newsworthy" and speculating as to the "unknown causes" of the death.

    Thank you for your time.

    Anthony Landrosh



    And then…



    ESPN Customer Service Phone Number
    Submitted by Daniel Pena on Monday, November 14, 2005 at 4:01 PM EST

    Nate Dickey sent in the following...

    Mr. Pena,

    Your report of ESPN Radio and Colin Cowherd was shocking and horrible. I've contacted ESPN to complain. Please make another post informing the viewers of LordsOfPain.net that you can call ESPN at 860-766-2000. They can call, they will have to ask to speak to a customer service person, that way the voice of fans can be heard. Hopefully Colin the Coward Coherd will be fired. Thanks.

    Nate Dickey

    Also, Nate said that he talked to customer service and they said that they will tell the producers of Colin's Cowherd's radio show for a possible reprimand and punishment for Colin Cowherd. If you guys call by the droves, it'll definitely make it all the more likely that Mr. Cowherd gets in trouble for what he said. Every phone call made to ESPN's customer service really helps.



    One last time…



    ESPN Radio Audio File, Phone Number Disconnected, More
    Submitted by Daniel Pena on Monday, November 14, 2005 at 8:24 PM EST

    MANY thanks to Chad Mosher and DaveCanada for taking time out to splice out the portion of the part where Eddie Guerrero is talked about on "The Herd With Colin Cowherd" radio show earlier today on ESPN Radio. You can determine for yourself if Colin Cowherd went overboard or not with his comments on Guerrero.

    Click the link below to download the audio file. Then click the "Free" button on the page. Then it will take you to another page where you have to wait approx. 21 seconds before you can download the file. After the countdown ends, click the link to save it to your PC or listen to it on your audio player.

    http://rapidshare.de/files/7650378/The_Herd_on_Eddie_Guerrero.mp3.html


    I posted Colin Cowherd's e-mail address in a previous post. You should probably direct your energies to other avenues as it looks like Colin is just going to delete each and every message concerning Guerrero and not bother to read them or reply to them. Thanks to Jeff Marrow for clueing us in to this. Below is his e-mail to me.

    Dan:

    I e-mailed Colin Cowherd and with AOL, you are able to check the status of mail sent to other AOL accounts. A little bit after sending the e-mail, I checked the status and it says "deleted."

    In the subject I refereed to Eddie. Colin "Coward" is deleting the Eddie Guerrero e-mails, not wanting to acknowledge them I suppose. I would suggest putting a different subject, and not making mention to Eddie, in an attempt to get the e-mail read.

    I'm happy to see the fans of Eddie Guerrero, as well as professional wrestling, stand up and fight a heartless bastard.

    Jeff Marrow

    Michael Polzien notified me that the phone number to ESPN's customer service office as been disconnected. Apparently, they were getting thousands upon thousands of calls from angry wrestling fans. You guys definitely made your point. If you want to personally call them, try again tomorrow. They can't leave it disconnected forever.



    After all of that? Mr. Cowherd is still on ESPN radio, and he’s still calling wrestling fans booger eaters. In fact, John Cena was on his program last month, where he apparently had a great time. How dumb can we be? I don’t know about you, but in hindsight our reaction to the entire debacle is somewhat embarrassing. No wonder the world looks down on us. After all, it was the same people who tried to have Mr. Cowherd fired who helped make the Steve Irwin (Crocodile Hunter) “harpooned” costume one of the best sellers during Halloween season. Pot-kettle. Funny how its ok to mock the death of one persons hero, while declaring jihad when one of YOUR celebrities dies.

    After all, it really doesn’t matter what camp your in. Whether you’re like me and teared up just a bit when Raw held their tribute show the night after his death or if you went the more cynical route as did former Lop Main page column writer Mr. Tito declaring “another one bites the dust” before lashing out at the wrestling industry which continues to claim lives of performers at a young age, the fact remains that our lives were altered ever so slightly when Eddie passed. Lest we forget how we felt that day, and may we never ignore the ramifications of his death, and his life.

    Eddie Guerrero was perhaps the greatest showman in sports-entertainment history. He was an innovative ring performer and oozed a charisma that wrestling fans will never forget. Yet the time has come, and gone, and come again to move on from his death. Remember him for what he was, but don’t sleep on the Wellness Policy that has already began to lose steam. Respect his name, but don’t place it on Television every opportunity. Mourn the loss of your heroes, but don’t mock those who’ve genuinely lost. Stand up for what you believe in, but don’t wage war in someone else’s fight.

    God bless Eddie Guerrero, and thank you for all that you’ve left us with. Both the memories in the ring, and the opportunity to grow and mature just a little bit behind this keyboard.

    May you finally rest in peace.



    Awards


    Sanctimonious Son of a Bitch

    What is it about Jonathon Coachman that makes us all loath him like he waged genocide on kittens and puppies? Seriously, that guy is a heat magnet and I really wish the WWE would find something productive for him to do (I,e. get a wrestler over) rather than just parade him out to be booed every week. However, he should not under any circumstances get near the announcer booth, EVER. Though, as awful as I think he is as a heel color commentator, he can’t be much worse than Todd Grisham’s lame ass attempt.

    Cannon Fodder

    *Sniffle* Poor, poor Maria. This chick just does it for me man. She’s cute, hot, and sexy all at the same time which contrary to popular opinion are three characteristics that don’t always have to be synonymous with one another. By all accounts (sadly, I’ve not met her) she has a great personality and is quite intelligent as well. Shame to see her fragile little body get way-layed by Umaga. Shit I was ready to make the face-save and run in from my living room. Give the WWE credit, with that, K-fed, and some above average promos of late, the WWE really are making a valiant effort to re-put John Cena over as a face, something I believe they really do need.

    Cheap Pop

    I don’t think I’ve ever bothered to officially plug the site of a good friend of mind, whom some of you may know as Jukebox Hero. His site
    20th Century Rock.features a very good internet radio station focusing primarily on the greats of hard rock and heavy metal’s yesteryear, including a ton of that awesomely bad 80’s hair metal. He’s contemplating closing his little station, so if anybody is into that particular brand of music, show him some love and listen to his station a bit, I’m sure he’d appreciate it.

    The Uncalled for Ending


    Obviously neither the WWE nor any of its millions of fans have forgotten about Eddie Guerrero. Some may have failed to realize the anniversary of his death, but they are certainly not to be faulted for that. While Eddie may have touched all of our hearts, we didn’t know the man, and certainly should have moved on. I did not mean to imply otherwise with this column.

    I did however feel obligated to say some things and reflect back on how life has been within the wrestling world since what can only be described as one of the biggest watershed moments in recent wrestling memory. If you feel compelled, please take the time to click through some of the various tribute columns to Eddie, most of which were written within a week of his passing, including my own. It was the best we columnists could offer to eulogize a truly memorable and influential man.

    I’ll be back at some point in the future, until then be sure to check out Monday Night Countdown and The Project for more wondrous works of Random. Thanks everybody for visiting The Nosebleed Section-but next time, get better seats.


    The Nosebleed Section-Viva La Raza.

    Ridin With The Bossman-Grieving for Eddie.

    Take Up Thy Wrestling Boots and Walk-For Eddie.

    The Wrestling Menu-Eddie Guerrero Tributes.

    The Northern Star-What Now?.




    Click here to Email Randomguy#5!



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