...and it's worth precisely what we paid for it.
Dunno about you but I'm expecting a rebate in the mail after reading the nonsense of this guy and James Fabiano.
Let me clarify why i went there. A lot of wrestling fans know that Shawn Michaels was the most TALENTED man in the WWF around 95-98, but backstage he was an adolescent JERK, and he called himself an "icon". Barker was UNBELIEVABLE when it came to hosting...but behind the scenes, he was a jerk.(Janice, Holly, anyone?) To be an icon, you have to be great in the show itself AND a gentleman off of it. Legend, yes. Greatest of all time? NO..that goes to Bill Culen in my book.
Exactly. (And I knew you got your original spiel from Jim Cornette's old WWF commentaries, hence me referring to his Botchamania meme. Would that others "got" the reference, huh?) I'd even throw in a bit of Bruno Sammartino in there, with him acting like a bitter old man who can't accept change. You gotta think his assessment of the show now had to be part of the reason he wasn't invited. As if he didn't want to be there anyway, so why bother? Yet it was all good when he had a book to plug, right?
I admit he was a great on-screen performer and that I don't fault him for believing in animals' rights. And I don't think he SHOULDN'T have been there by any means. But sometimes he takes things a bit too far. Just because you made a guest appearance on TPIR doesn't mean you agree with the Canadian Stampede's practices. And yeah, there's the talk about his off-screen antics. I'll see your Janice and Holly and raise you Dian, Rod, Tom, Dennis, Doug, and Betty. He's a legend, but not as perfect as some hero worshippers paint him out to be. (Go back to Cyclone's HBK example, and this is more extreme, but I also can't help but think of how Chris Benoit still has his followers in the IWC...not that I compare Bob Barker's Backstage Satan act to murdering your family and taking the easy way out)
One thing I have seen hardly mentioned is that at least Bob was seen in the classic clips. Had they wanted to totally erase him from history, I'm sure they could have edited him out somehow. (Kind of like how many of the people Cyclone and I mentioned were excluded from previous anniversary shows, and almost totally skipped over in the DVD set. And hey, wasn't there an instance where they showed a classic clip somewhere and they had whoever the Beauty was blurred out?)