More lukewarm than EVER about the not-so pearly Gates...!

For the past two months or so, the WINDOWS LIVE MSN SPACES staff has been burning my butt hairs over what is truly... well, such a SILLY "problem" they have!

Windows "Live" - as in "it's alive! A-live!" - rrrrrright!

I mean LOOK at the embedded slideshow below: you tell me what the theme is...


Windows Live Spaces

Isn't it LOGICAL to expect to see a few topless mermaids pop up (no pun intended) here and there, given the THEMATIC here... HUH?!?

They threatened not once, not twice but thrice with COMPLETE ANNIHILATION of the above BEAUTIFUL SEA-THEMED SLIDESHOW/photo album (among other "albums") - unless I took out several mermaids shots you can see here - in the archives!

Truly, MSN has it DEEP against MERMAIDS (pun fully intended this time!)

But the capper came when I thought I'd replace those pics deemed to be "offending" (or simply too much for Bill Gates) by other beautiful depictions of sea creatures (real ones, not those of myth, this time!) - and I was prompted to do THIS:

Install the Windows Live photo upload tool
This tool helps you upload photos to a photo album on your space.
1. If a yellow bar appears at the top of your browser, click it, and then click Install ActiveX Control.
2. When the security warning appears, click Install. You must be logged in to your computer with an account which is a member of the Administrators group.

HA - fat chance I'm going through with that trouble NOW!

I have to join up with some stuffy, obviously stuck-up and too overtly prudish (to the point that it is absurd!) clique called "the Administrators group" EH?
Try the A$$holes group, and you will be closer to the truth there...!
I am joining NOT with them - EVER.

Now don't take out my innocent-looking, ECO-FRIENDLY (not to mention advocating!) "aqua-slideshow" in retaliation, WINDOWS "LIVE" - that would be just too petty!

Defeat In Victory - and vice-versa

With the obvious exceptions of games 1 and 7 (and, to be truthful, as it pertains to game 7 it is, most specifically, the exception of the last 5 minutes of the SECOND period and the last 2 minutes of the THIRD and final frame) THE BOSTON BRUINS SHOULD HAVE WON FIVE GAMES IN A ROW...

FIVE.

Which is far more than enough to put away any opponent in the playoffs system in place - for you only need to win (or steal) four victories in order to do so!
Just like the Montreal Canadiens did... STEAL...

They had an accomplice in game 2 - the referee. They had old friends in game 4 and throughout the series verily - the posts, the famous "Fantômes du Forum" and that big-time bitch most of you call "Lady Luck" (she is NOT a "Lady" - most of them aren't, in Montréal...! But that is another story...)
You might just as well throw in an entity to be known as "Lord Injustice" then - as the CHIEF "assistant" in Canadiens wins...

All the more reason for me to remain lukewarm about sports, indeed; all the more incentive for me to avoid and resist being "sucked in" again, tempted into believing that the team that deserves victory and all the gold the NHL has to offer (but, truth be told, the NHL offers no gold at all - they only have SILVER to hand out! On loan, on top of that! The only GOLD in the NHL, today as at any other time, remains the black'n'gold of the Boston Bruins - their admirable work ethic, perseverence and strength of character, that sticks to everyone who's ever either been a part of the organization or followed it fervently, as I did, especially circa 1988-1999... What I call the Cam Neely Golden Era (even though he retired in 1995-96, his influence lingered on and hopes of a comeback lingered on too, until about 1999.)

I could bother with a recap of this latest heartbreaking series - that went the WRONG way - but why bother with that.

In apparent defeat, the Bruins made history, impressed, proved that they were contenders for that silly Cup as much as their rivals, nearly eliminated them and SHOULD HAVE ELIMINATED THEM in spite of playing without various components of their team (Patrice Bergeron never did get medical clearance in order to make his comeback; Chuck Kobasew, the team's second goal-scorer, wasn't available either; another "secret weapon" of sorts, Alexei Zhamnov, has yet to BE USED by the Bruins; and defenseman Aaron Ward spent some time on the DL too, keeping goalie Manny Fernandez company... WITHOUT ALL OF THESE GUYS, THE BRUINS STILL CAME WITHIN A GOAL, BASICALLY, OF ELIMINATING THE ALLEGEDLY-SUPERIOR "HABS" - HA! Ponder that all summer long, as the Canadiens trip all over themselves in the next round, thoroughly spent physically, mentally and emotionally from the BRUINS series; they won't be in any condition to face anybody else!)

In alleged "victory" though, Montreal has shown nothing at all (except that they can still, and again, steal key games... That cannot always be done, though...)
And the city of Montreal LOST big time, as the post-game 7 disgraceful events on the streets of the dirty town proved: FIVE POLICE CARS BURNT TO A CRISP (one for each lucky Canadiens goal, eh? And inane onlookers who double as pathetic liars dared allege that these vandals were NOT "in any way, shape or form" Canadiens hockey fans... RIGHT. They had no clue there was a game that night, no clue what the score was (they just came up with the number 5 out of the blue) and they just spontaneously chose THAT EVENING to go crazy... RIGHT.)
On top of the police cars, various commerces were vandalized - proving that these vandals were NOT petty criminals who merely took advantage of the event that evening to even a score with the cops...

Actual Canadiens fans ARE NOT so "innocent" - as many were seen very inanely waving a little Canadiens flag (these things are so overpriced too - blame it on Carey; get it?) AS THEY PASSED BY THE POLICE CARS THAT WERE ABLAZE...!

Too bad those vehicles did not explode in their faces, eh?

All of those creepy fans were very chippy - despite all the damage being done to private, commercial and constabulary proprety all around them!

PLUS - even after stealing a series (another one) from a CLASSIER FRANCHISE, the Canadiens fans thought it not to be enough and were seen DARING to shove the few courageous FANS (and equally admirable, as the Boston Bruins themselves) that had attended the game (with overpriced ticket fares, whether said tickets come straight from the booth or from a dirty "scalper's" hands...!)

I should have been there, on the street, wearing my Bruins cap and Bruins jersey - DOUBLE-DARING anyone to gloat in my face! I would have wound up arrested, most probably, but I would have been handcuffed with a smile on my face - and blood on my hands!
;)

As it is, of course, I am too lukewarm to even WATCH THE GAME ON TELEVISION...
Why would I run after trouble with the EXTREMELY FLAWED LAW - over all this business?
For the law sure would prove, yet again, to be extremely flawed, when it would throw the book at me for having knocked the teeth down the throat of hateful Canadiens fans who don't know how to lose, how to win, how to talk or walk for that matter - fans who know NOTHING, basically, and are the worst rabble there is on the face of this damned earth!

And Canadians (note the "a" - "-ans" not "-ens" this time) have the reputation of being a polite, gentle race/nation, with Canada, overall, getting the rep of being a country without crime or anything too heavy on its streets...?

WHAT A FALLACY!

The crime rate is not even indicative of what really goes on in the "greater metropolitan area" of this damn island now called "Montréal"...
I often likened Laval (its twin island/city) and Montréal to a new, transposed into the North American continent and these modern times, SODOM and GOMORRAH!
And it is only thanks to GOD that the wretched area ONLY HAS the Montreal Canadiens, pretty much, to go on (because their inept CFL Alouettes and inconsequential soccer club -the Montreal Impact- are never going to amount to much at all) OTHERWISE, the damn town would be the theater of MANY MORE sickening scenes of senseless rioting and total utter craziness just like it once again witnessed on the evening of April 21st, 2008:


Une émeute-suprise

Les policiers de Montréal, surpris par une émeute ayant eu lieu si tôt dans la saison des séries éliminatoires de la coupe Stanley, reverront leur stratégie en prévision des prochain matchs du Canadien.
THEY CAN'T EVEN SPELL "SURPRISE" IN THAT SLEAZY TOWN ANYMORE - *VRAIMENT* PATHÉTIQUE!
And it is even more pathetic that the rioting WAS a "suprise" at all; that they cannot foresee these things is truly far more pathetic than the fact that they cannot spell...! I have known for YEARS now that these bozos have narrow a clue how to write or even how to speak their precious language there - and yet they insist upon preserving it and "nurturing" it (they must have meant "neutering" it then - ha.)

The only reason, also, that they don't have more of these things all over town is because, most years, logic is respected and the Montreal Canadiens SUCK - as they should!

Am I glad I was so blessed with great discernment so that I NEVER, EVER, ROOTED FOR SUCH A TEAM THAT HAS SUCH A LARGE FANBASE BASED AMONG THE RABBLE AND SCUM OF THE EARTH! Am I glad I am lukewarm as I am nowadays about a sport that rewards the unworthy - and is refereed in that specific manner as well! Am I glad that the Boston Bruins will now rest, while their battered and bruised arch-rivals will be getting MORE punishment - and ultimately LOSE, as they so deserve, LOSE to a LESSER OPPONENT TOO, JUST AS THE BOSTON BRUINS DID, JUST NOW...!

Yes, I am glad.

Montreal garnered defeat, overall, for its cheap "victory" -
while Boston achieved victory in defeat;
mounting a first historical comeback from a 3-1 series deficit (an undeserved deficit as it was, for, I repeat, the Bruins should have won games 2 through 6, inclusively; any 4 of those - they won 3 and were robbed the other two times)
showing an exemplary model for all to follow and emulate -
never giving up, in the face of apparent insurmountable tasks...

Yes - God Bless You, Boston Bruins!

May those who are bright enough to see it mold their own character upon your courageous, gritty, brave example!

Ha!

Well, all we can do

is TRY... eh?

Kicking a$$...

It's worth

the ol' college try!

Surely...

Australia 7 News, Yahoo & Fox News CRY FOR KYLIE... "Don't Cry For Me, Australia," She Retorts!

In Entertainment News Today...

Entertainment Video

Hollywood Nation: 4/17

FOX News

Kylie accepts she may never marry

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Kylie Minogue
will remain "une vieille fille"...?
I guess all that pleading to
"come... come...
come into *her* world"
has fallen on deaf ears
belonging to dumb men
and several dumber women
as well...?!?
(Well, she *did* lock lips
with Geri Halliwell,
you know!)

*lol*

Pub Agent Provocateur - Vidéo

Headlines...

Here are some of the news MY FAVORITE NEWS PROVIDERS have presented (not me! Not Luminous (\ô/) Luciano! Not the TLB PRIME NETWORK of websites, blogs, etc... Much less the Lukewarm Blog all by its lonesome self!)
No, folks, these are news stories that MY NEWS PROVIDERS are or have been following - thoroughly analyzed (or not) by your host, Luminous (\ô/) Luciano!
My way too, not Jay Leno's way!

As of 6:58 p.m. EDT
• AP photographer freed by US after 2 years in custody
• Gaza fighting kills 20 Palestinans, including news cameraman
• Congo crash victim: 'There is no reason we should be alive'
• French aghast at new English incursion to their language
• Olympic stadium, known as Bird's Nest, gets modest opening
• German prosecutor charges admitted Nazi hit man in 3 murders
• India braces for protests during Olympic torch relay
» More


And, indeed, I couldn't be more lukewarm about it all than I am now!
Really - why allow oneself to be all emotional over these tidbits prickled from that thing that bites supremely (reality) - huh?
An AP photog spent two long years in JAIL... in the U.S.?!? In the actual Land of the Free and Home of the Brave?!? He must have been BEGGING for it...
Gaza fighting kills 19 more - PLUS a news cameraman?!? He was begging for it too; he shouldn't have gotten so close to the "action"...
I agree with the Congo crash victim's words wholeheartedly too...
(ALMOST to the point of feeling like adding to this post the great underrated Genesis (post-Phil era) song... "Congo"! Maybe I'll add it later...)
The French are aghast, they say? They'll see worse yet, before it's all said and done... (I sure have already - the French language already has been mangled rather SPECTACULARLY (and abominably) - in QUÉBEC, CANADA! Come on over, Frenchies; you'll learn something...!)
An Olympic Stadium = a Bird's Nest? Unless pterodactyls are making a comeback... I don't see much sense in it! (The Big "O" in QUÉBEC finally found some use - a purpose in life! If such was the case...)
Only a German prosecutor could rat out on a 80+ Nazi... eh?
India - bracing itself for protests? It's nothing they don't get already on a DAILY BASIS - what, with all those wild monkeys running loose all about town... Cows as well... And let's not forget the RATS!

So, as you can see - NONE of these "shocking headlines" surprise me ONE BIT...
NOT ONE IOTA...!




See? I did add it later on!
Chose promise (ou presque) - chose due!
À Bon Entendeur, Salut!

Honesty and Integrity NOT REQUIRED... NOR DESIRED.

A certain play-by-play broadcaster emitted the opinion that, according to him (but he made it sound like it was a general consensus) a player like Boston Bruins' forward Jeremy Reich "brought basically nothing to his club".

Mere minutes after that, we saw what that player's worth truly was.

He brings little to his club, true - because his true grit and HONESTY are too much for any pro-athlete to have AND manage to be, at the same time, SUCCESSFUL IN TODAY'S NHL...

True grit: the Boston Bruins courageously came back from a 0-2 deficit to score two goals in the third period, against an adversary that has had WAY too much LUCK against them in both distant and recent past. They still did not give up - the Bruins NEVER give up - and kept fighting, sticking to their game plan, and it paid off. First a quick goal brilliantly put in on a rebound (not a garbage goal like so many Habs goals are) and then a power play goal that made the Bruins power play unit look like it was the one that was near the top of the league, statistically-speaking (in comparison with the Montreal Canadiens' power play, that went a dismal 1 for 11 in the course of three periods.)

Still, it was only 2-2. Overtime loomed; and was to be indeed. And what happened, in overtime, once again? The referee proved to be the Bruins' adversary too.

Jeremy Reich received a stick to the face. He displayed his great resilience then, instead of doing it the Canadien way - he kept on fighting for the puck instead of faking an injury. For that is the Canadiens way; when a hockey stick gets even remotely close to them, they pretend to be tripped, high-sticked, hurting, ANYTHING to draw a penalty against the Bruins. Reich (pronounced "Reach") proved to be too HONEST and with too much INTEGRITY to do that. He wants to compete, fair and square - his mistake is to give his adversaries too much credit that THEY want to do the same thing...

Reich was thus high-sticked in the face; and there was no penalty on the play. The referee, also, was too aloof to give one... It certainly is not to be a deterent against Reich's "worthiness" to his club that he is too HONEST - now, can it be?!? Yet, in today's NHL (and, to be fair, at virtually any time in the NHL's history) HONESTY, INTEGRITY AND FAIR PLAY ARE NOT HELPFUL TO YOUR CLUB... You have to be a sly devil (whether you play for New Jersey or not) and you have to try and be deceitful and convincingly so (enough so for the referee's calls to be made anyway) in order to truly help your team.

If you play too fairly, you're not worthy of the NHL.
Or even the AHL for that matter...

Thus, play continued without a penalty being attributed to the faulty Canadiens player, Andrei Markov. The driven Jeremy Reich, though, battled onwards with added aggressiveness due to that; and what does the referee do? He penalizes HIM instead. Great going, ref. Truly, referees have more in common with bats than they do with penguins - but that is another batty four-color story, I think...

This was the 12th power play of the EVENING for the wretched Habs - reputed to be "an offensive machine" that produces when they have a man-advantage. They even obtained a two-man advantage momentarily on this one - IN SUDDEN DEATH OVERTIME... The Boston Bruins had, otherwise, the complete momentum in this game after winning the third period 2-0. OTHERWISE, the Bruins would have likely scored the next goal too and evened the series 1-1. But the referee, along with the alleged "Fantômes du Forum" that oversee the action, always, whenever these two storied rivals play each other in that town (Montreal) would decide otherwise... The Boston Bruins' goaltender, Tim Thomas, brilliantly held the fort so that, for a while, it seemed like the Bruins would nullify another man-advantage opportunity from their overrated opponents and would resume dominating play, as they had the edge in shots-on-goal. But a puck was eventually tipped and bounced into the net still - and the victory was once again stolen from the B's.

All of it because HONESTY and INTEGRITY are not what pays in that league. True grit is not appreciated either. And referees need to see someone put on a SHOW before they call a disgraceful act - or a spade a spade, if you will...

And people wonder why I am lukewarm about sports - who wins, who loses; WHO CARES. The final score is NOT the true result at all; it is merely a bit of erroneous data given to satiate a society that needs to see things neatly wrapped up in as little time as possible - that is why they got rid of the "tie games" completely in the regular season, the only place where they could be, before... In truth, few sports have such MISLEADING scores as the NHL does: where the "loser" is actually the better team in ALL CATEGORIES THAT MATTER THE MOST in the eyes of an august figure such as, say, Pierre de Coubertin... But guys like Gary Bettman and his associated clods are nowhere near de Coubertin - of course. And so, the NHL has the rules and the officiating that it deserves, probably...

A victory with such rules and lax moral values has no value whatsoever.

WHATSOEVER... Montréal!

Darn it all - another Saturday where I missed the boat... and the freighter?

I had made a mental note to remember that there would be another one of those "career expos" in town - a vast exposition of employers more than willing and all-too happy to sign you up and exploit you to the bone... That sort of thing...
The dream job awaited me - and shall await a while lonnger (if not forever).

For, alas, once again, I jotted down that mental note hastily and snagged it inside one of those memory drawers that are SELDOM USED as it is...

So I missed the boat again there - only remembering that today was "the day" when I got out to run a quick errand and saw the aforementioned expo advertised on a BUS that cut me off (shades of Sex In The City - not. I am not a floozie like Sarah Jessica Parker (among other things that she's been called...!) HECK - I am a MANLY MAN! But I am digressing right now...)

The jobs expo is actually the FREIGHTER that I missed - clearly.
The boat -or bandwagon, to be a trifle more accurate here- that I missed jumping on is really the P.H. tugboat of tweedledee-tweedledumbness...!

No, banish the Preparation H images and/or inane, tasteless jokes that sprung up to your mind the moment you saw the initials "P.H." - capisce?

It's not an ointment we're talking about here; it's a viscous social calamity!

In other words: it's the Paris Hilton show.
And it did come to MY TOWN today - nobody told me in advance though! Or I would have prepared...! You know how: water bombs, water pistols, nerfballs bazookas, expired eggs and rotten tomatoes - the works!
But I was not INFORMED... And now it is too late! :(

Maybe next time, Paris...
Yeah - see you in Paris! ;)

Woooooooo - it's over.

36 years, 16 world championships (22, in reality) and several incarnations of the 4 Horsemen later, Ric Flair finally delivered the speech he had meant to deliver months earlier - but I suspect someone suggested to him to go with the "career-threat from Vinnie Mac" plotline instead, at least until the alleged "grandest stage of them all" that is reputed to be Wrestlemania would come along - and the induction into the Hall of Fame as an *active* wrestler still.

And so he did wait out and stuck around, styling and profiling, for a few months still. And, after playing out scenario after scenario of "narrowingly escaping with his career intact" against the likes of "Umaga" (ugh), William Regal, Mr. Kennedy, Vince McMahon (sic) himself and even "best friend" Triple H (none of which would have EVER been deemed worthy of being "the one" to put the legendary Nature Boy Ric Flair into retirement) SLICK RIC finally did choose the opponent to whom he would truly "pass the torch" so to speak - Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels. HBK. The guy who idolized Ric Flair and whose only true heartbreaking has always been victimizing his own heart. This is just another example of it - though an allegorical one at best, as it truly doesn't mean a thing to whom Flair lost his final match; he just needed to be pinned for three seconds in order to finally -Woooooooo- call it a career. In order to be allowed to walk away from the squared circle; something several fans of his never wanted to see happen. In order to finally walk away from the squared circle. None wanted to see it ever happen. But every other member of the Four Horsemen is GONE already (save one - Sting aka Steve Borden, and he wasn't a Horsemen long. Double J, Jeff Jarrett, was also a Horseman but, according to Arn, he "doesn't count") and so, every other member being GONE already; Flair had to ride into the sunset as well.

The final farewell, the last speech, the emotional send-off, the ultimate "Wooooooooo" - well, it left something to be desired though.

I've long had my suspicion about Ric that, though he undeniably gave it his all each and every time he wrestled or, really, put on a show, he truly actually is uncomfortable with the crowd. They are "outsiders" to his world - he acknowledges them, as well he should, and knows fully well that "they made him what he is today" as he stated during the aforementioned final speech, but they remain "they" from out there. And his close circle of fans is who he belongs with; fellow wrestlers, friends, family. I thought 15 minutes would be too SHORT for the whole final farewell - I thought, no, I WAS SO SURE that he would have MUCH MORE TO SAY... But he didn't. He was done in five minutes, maybe LESS. Gee. Ric had much more to say in his WCW days. On the final WCW Monday Nitro show, he delivered such a great speech about his fellow WCW workers NOT having their lives "in Vince McMahon's hands" at all. Was this all "a shoot" as they say in the business? Was it all scripted material? I, for one, will continue to believe that it was a sincere, heartfelt discourse that came from the bottom of Flair's heart. And even a tad more heartfelt than his final speech on March 31st, 2008's edition of Monday Night Raw - for the just previously given reasons.

Ric Flair was not the first Nature Boy; Buddy Rogers was. He was not the first "platinum blonde with lots of panache" wrestling star either; Gorgeous George and Classie Freddie Blassie beat both Buddy Rogers and Flair to that distinction. Ric Flair remains unique and unimitable still: he had all of those guys' distinctive trademarks, and something more. He prefigured the likes of Triple H and HBK; Double J and Christian; Edge and Y2J Chris Jericho, inspiring them all to try and be "the next one" or the heir apparent, of course. The long list of imitators is virtually endless: Terry Taylor, Freebird Michael Hayes, WCW's own custom-made Maestro, the late Curt Hennig, Lex Luger, Nature Boy Buddy Landell and Extreme Horseman Steve Corino, to name but a few. None of them can get past the imitative stage though; for none of them can truly replicate "the dirtiest player in the game" at any point of his long and illustrious career.

Though Ric ended on a humble note, speech-wise (with the "thank you for making me what I am" line for the crowd) and competition-wise (with the choreographed -and teary- ending to his final match, as he awaited the coup-de-grâce from his opponent; a superkick, of all things) the flamboyant Ric Flair had to relive for a second and qualify, early in his final speech, his career as the "greatest career of all-time". Woooooooooo! Anything less coming from him would have been... unstylish and, ah, "unprofilish"? Let's just stick with actual English and say "uncharacteristic", ok?

However, at this stage, Flair did not have to be in-character anymore - when he was a "heel" (a term he hates to see being used by anyone outside the profession; "heel" is "villain" in layman's terms) such a cocky, vainglorious discourse was REQUIRED and even a pre-requisite for the fans to "catch on" (no pun intended here - even though, in France, they call wrestlers "catcheurs"). Now, in 2008, when all the masks are taken down and the masquerade is finally over, Ric Flair had to go with the fans "making him" so big for 36 long years of spanning the globe. "Making them happy," as he'd once said in a *true* genuine moment, was all he cared about - almost. Post-sendoff, Tully Blanchard confirmed that Ric Flair's preoccupation with making the wrestling fan happy was paramount to everything else in the five years Tully spent with Ric, Arn and the other Horsemen. This last speech felt too "staged" still, as it was - it was typical WWE fare, as it is, and a near-mockery of the great NWA/WCW heritage. Nowadays the WWE mocks its own past too, routinely - parading former top stars they used to have, as if to show the few fans left (!) that today's crop of "talent" is so much better... They can do that with the old WWF clowns of the 1980s (especially Terry Bollea and his cronies) but not with the NWA entourage: from Harley Race all the way down to Dusty Rhodes' youngest son!

All the more reason to feel lukewarm about the whole shebang, for me: for, even though all four were in the ring together again, Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson and Barry Windham were NOT doing what I wanted to see them do, once they'd get back in the ring together: and that is beat up Vince McMahon. Mercilessly.

"Woooooooooooooo!" optional.

Even once-a-Horseman Dean Malenko and erstwhile Horsemen manager J.J. Dillon were there - imagine, it could have been 6 on 1 (or 6 on 2, if Shane McMahon, once the make-believe owner of WCW, would come out too and TRY to defend his daddy-o...)

Well-deserved punishment, delivered Horsemen-style!

Fat chance it will EVER happen now...

Not that it matters anyway... Not anymore, it doesn't.

Narrow a word about those no longer "with us" - either from Flair, much less from Triple H... I didn't expect anything to be said about the one Horseman that should remain now, but that was taken away by the most horrid tragedy (Chris Benoit).
But surely Sherri Martel, Nancy Daus, Wahoo McDaniel, the Von Erichs and 1001 other opponents Flair faced in the past could have been mentioned and were worthy of being mentioned as people who helped "make Flair who he is"...

That they were all forgotten is not surprising though: the WWE forgot to induct The Fabulous Moolah into their precious Hall of Fame this year, and she just passed away so very recently... They thought they should rather induct the other old broad they overused and abused, Mae Young, while she's still alive to receive the accolade and thanks for degrading services rendered... And so they did the same thing with that Brisco guy... And Ric Flair himself.

Former Horsemen Ole Anderson, 'Sycho' Sid Vicious and Lex Luger were forgotten from either mention or invitation to appear again (for five seconds of screen time) for other reasons... It was already a lot of effort to remember to invite Greg 'The Hammer' Valentine and Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat, I'm sure... Not to mention 7-time world champion Harley Race (he whom the old WWE, then WWF, degraded by having him pose as a silly "King of the Ring" for the longest time - and then. most recently, having him being spat upon, in the face too, by "legend-killer" Randy Orton... Good thing too, by the way, that they allowed Flair to handpick who he would lose to in his final match; otherwise, the logical choice could have been Randy Orton. As it is, Orton was the first to "fail" in retiring the Nature Boy - and he allowed Flair to have his last moment of in-ring glory just the week prior to this final speech, on Raw, as he tapped out after Flair put him in his figure-four leglock... For the final time, yes... Still, it doesn't make up for the disrespect shown to Harley Race. At all.)

Ric Flair will not be a manager now?
He will not manage, like Classie Freddie Blassie did (and Harley Race as well) and make the difference for his team in the process?
It is not like he's never "retired" before and come back anyway, in some capacity, a short time afterwards...
Hopefully it won't be to manage a goofy duo like Blassie did, back in the day - his protégés were, of course, Nikolai Volkoff and the Iron Sheik!
If Flair manages anybody, it needs to be the elite - the new breed, the next generation of FOUR HORSEMEN.
(Hopefully comprised of Mr. Kennedy, C.W. Anderson, Simon Diamond and Sean O'Haire - but that's just me! Mike Saunders and Mark Jindrak can be considered too - and maybe even Steve Corino and Buddy Landell too...!)

Seeing Flair, Arn, Tully and Windham back together again made most everyone nostalgic and hopeful that there can be a revival of the Horsemen; simply hearing the classic WCW Horsemen theme music reverberating throughout a live arena again achieved that. Seeing them reunited -along with Dillon, Race, Steamboat and Valentine- on this somewhat ostentatious occasion, for sure, was far more tasteful and à-propos than the inane and pointless reappearance, 24 years later, of Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff in mock "combat mode" - looking very ridiculous in the process. Much moreso than they did back in the day, yes... Back in 1984, they were a spoof; nowadays, they are old and should not have to make a spectacle of themselves like this anymore. Unless they really needed the money and McMahon pays well for a five-second in-ring appearance...

But anyhow - it is all a moot point now.
All of their careers are over.
They have survived the business, at least - unlike Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, ANDRÉ Roussimoff and so many others...

I could also be happy that Ric Flair got a real, grandiose goodbye - the likes of which Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan never had and never will have, respectively.
But I am lukewarm about that too, in truth...

Goodbye Ric Flair -
we hardly ever knew the TRUE YOU, even after all these years of watching you... and buying into what you so expertly sold us, you master showman you...!

You sure can make it in POLITICS now;
Jesse Ventura has nothing on you.

And me - I'll steadfastly remain lukewarm about THAT too...