ANDRE THE GIANT MOVIE IN DEVELOPMENT

Andre the Giant and Vince McMahon

Andre the Giant was one of the biggest pop culture personalities of the 20th century. His legend and legacy live on even after his death in 1993. Variety reports (read the article here) that there will be a movie about Andre's life in and out of the ring. The film will be based on the 2015 graphic novel, Andre the Giant: Closer to Heaven which was written by Brandon Easton and had art by Denis Medri.





Lion Forge Comics, the producers of the graphic novel and producers Scott Steindorf and Dylan Russell are partnering to make the film. Andre's daughter, Robin Christensen-Rousimoff will consult and have given the producers exclusive rights to the film. 

The graphic novel details Andre's rise to fame from his childhood to his debut in the 1960's and how he achieved pop culture icon status in the 70's. It also looks at his declining health in the 1980's while the wrestling business was rising thanks to Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan. 

Many websites are wondering who could play Andre in the live-action film. Personally, I hope the film is done in animation or at least CGI. I don't think there are really any actors today that could capture Andre's personality. 

There is no set release date for the film, but I'm sure when it happens it will be just like Andre himself, larger than life. 

THE PROFESSOR

UFC IS SMARTER THAN WWE

DANIEL CORMIER VS JON JONES

Dana White is the smartest promoter today and his main event for UFC 200 proves that. At UFC 200 current lightweight champion, Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones will collide to determine the undisputed lightweight champion. Jones is currently the interim champion after defeating Ovince St Preux at UFC 197. Cormier and Jones were supposed to meet at UFC 197 for the title but Cormier was injured and had to pull out of the fight. There has been bad blood between the two since UFC 182 in January of 2015 when Jones defeated Cormier to retain the light heavyweight championship.

The factors that make this fight so attractive are simply that you have two guys who genuinely hate each other and are both champions in their own right. You would have to go back to Ali vs. Frazier to find a feud this great in sports. 

So Why would I say that UFC is smarter than WWE? Well, WWE had a similar situation and did not capitalize on it.


Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins

In November of 2015, WWE Champion Seth Rollins was injured during a match and was stripped of the WWE title. WWE held a tournament at Survivor Series 2015 and Roman Reigns became the new champion. I think WWE should have declared Reigns the interim WWE Champion so when Rollins returned their match could be a "champion vs. champion" match which would cause great interest with hardcore and casual fans. WWE did not do that and missed a golden opportunity to bring in fans. 

So UFC is smarter than WWE at least in this instance. Jones vs. Cormier will do great business for the UFC and WWE will continue to watch its ratings rise and fall on a weekly basis. 

Vince McMahon could learn a lot from Dana White. 

THE PROFESSOR

"RAVISHING" RICK RUDE: MY FAVORITE U.S. CHAMPION

RICK RUDE AS WCW U.S CHAMPION                                

On April 26th the WWE will put out a DVD featuring some of the greatest matches for the United States Heavyweight title. 

When I heard this DVD was being released it made me think about my favorite U.S. Champion: Ravishing Rick Rude.

Rick Rude became a star in the WWF in the late 80's in his feuds with Jake Roberts, Hulk Hogan, and The Ultimate Warrior. Rude even defeated the Warrior to become the Intercontinental Champion. 

In October of 1991 Rude would come to WCW and become one of its hottest heels. In November of 1991 he would defeat Sting for the U.S. Title and hold the title for a year. 

Rude was a cocky, arrogant, champion who believed he was better than everyone else even the world champion whether that was Sting or Ron Simmons. His feuds with Ricky Steamboat and Nikita Koloff put the title on the same level as the World title. 

Ravishing Rick Rude is the type of character that you don't see in wrestling as much anymore as things are more corporate. Rude was a tough guy who made you love to hate him and love the theatrics in pro wrestling. 

Rick Rude will always be my favorite U.S. Champion because of the prestige he brought to the title and the entertainment value he provided.

THE PROFESSOR

MARVEL PULLS DISNEY'S INHUMANS FROM 2019 SCHEDULE

THE INHUMANS

According to Deadline, Disney has pulled its movie based on the Inhumans comic off of its 2019 schedule. The Inhumans first appeared in a Fantastic Four comic in 1965. The Inhumans are a race of metahumans that have been both allies and enemies of The Fantastic Four. 

Currently, in Marvel's Agents of SHIELD they are using the term "Inhumans" to describe characthers that would normally be called "mutants."  The Inhumans on the TV show are not related in any way to how the characters are portrayed in the comics. They are more of an analogue for mutants but since Fox owns the rights to any and all X-Men related content Marvel has to use the term Inhumans. 

As a fan of Marvel, I wish they had introduced the Inhumans in Avengers: Age of Ultron. That could have been a great way to introduce the Inhumans to general audiences in a Super-team vs. Super-team battle. 

With the success Marvel is having, it doesn't need the Inhumans as a big-budget franchise but I'm sure they're thinking of how they can use them in future movies. All we can do is wait and see. 

THE PROFESSOR

RANDOM THOUGHTS ON THE ROYAL RUMBLE

Triple H

1. TRIPLE H IS THE NEW WWE Champion

Last night Triple H became the WWE champion for the 14th time. He entered the Rumble as the 30th entrant and eliminated Bray Wyatt, Roman Reigns, and Dean Ambrose. This makes sense if you've followed the storyline. Roman has been a thorn in the side to The McMahon family for months and he even beat Triple H down with a chair in December before winning the WWE title on Raw the next night. Vince McMahon makes a match where Roman has to defend the title in the Royal Rumble. Triple H comes back and wins the Rumble eliminating Reigns in the process.This all sets up the main event at Wrestlemania where Triple H will defend against Roman Reigns.This proves that WWE can still tell a long-form story when they want to.




A.J. STYLES

2. A.J STYLES MAKES HIS DEBUT IN WWE

A.J. Styles made his debut in WWE as entrant # 3 in the Royal Rumble. The former TNA and IWGP champion had an impressive showing but was eliminated by Kevin Owens. This could be the beginning of a feud for Styles but I think the bigger deal is that Styles did not debut in NXT. NXT has been the place that many wrestlers who made their name on the independents and other wrestling companies make their debuts for WWE. This shows WWE wants to do something with A.J. Styles. A.J. is in his late 30's so the time is now if WWE wants to get the most out of him.

Class Dismissed
THE PROFESSOR

STING IS GOING INTO THE WWE HALL OF FAME

Sting

WWE announced last Monday that Sting would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame during Wrestlemania weekend. 

The first time I saw Sting, I was in second or third grade and we were all in the auditorium for recess because it was raining. Usually if it rained the school would show a movie or maybe some WWF wrestling. On this particular day they showed WCW Battlebowl '91 but at that time, I didn't know the event's name or any of the wrestlers. I had only seen WWF shows so the idea of another promotion was amazing to me. Sting would go on to win Battlebowl '91 and I would go on to remember the big, muscular, guy with the blonde flat top haircut, colorful facepaint, and colorful attire. 

As I began to get into wrestling more and more in the early 90's I watched both WWE and WCW even before the Monday Night Wars. Sting was always a great hero and I enjoyed his feuds with Vader, Jake the Snake Roberts, and Rick Rude.

By the mid to late 90's names from WWE like Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall came to WCW and formed the NWO (New World Order) a super heel faction that destroyed everything in it's path. WCW needed a hero to take on the NWO. That hero would be Sting. 



As wrestling developed a much edgier attitude in the late 90's Sting would also evolve from the blonde California Surfer personality to a dark avenger based off of the movie "The Crow".  With baseball bat in hand he took on the NWO and defeated Hulk Hogan for the WCW Championship at Starrcade'97 and took his place as an icon of the sport. 

After WCW was bought by WWE in 2001 Sting worked the indy scene and worked for TNA (Total Non-Stop Action) Wrestling from 2002-2014. At Wrestlemania 31 he wrestled a match with Triple H and even this past October wrestled Seth Rollins for the WWE World title. 

Sting deserves this honor for the three decades of wrestling and entertainment that he provided to fans like myself. Thank you Sting. Congratulations!

Class Dismissed
THE PROFESSOR

R.I.P. PAT HARRINGTON JR.

Pat Harrington Jr.

TV Line reports (read the article here) that Pat Harrington has died. The star of the sitcom "One Day at A Time" was 86. Harrington got his start on Television working with Steve Allen on The Tonight Show. During that time he got to work with other greats such as Tom Poston and Don Knotts before they were stars.

He was a fixture during the golden age of television appearing on such classic hits like The Munsters, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and McHale's Navy.

Harrington is most well known for playing building superintendent Schneider on One Day at A Time with Bonnie Franklin, McKenzie Phillips, and Valerie Berinelli about a divorced single mother raising her two daughters. As a fan I watched the show and was impressed how they blended dramatic and comedic elements so smoothly.

Thank you Mr. Harrington for your enormous contribution to TV.

THE PROFESSOR