Luna Vachon 1962-2010

Former WWE wrestler Gertrude "Luna" Vachon was found dead at her mother's home in Florida on August 27, 2010. She was 48 years old.

I thought she was highly underrated performer during her time in the WWF (world wrestling federation at the time) and was technically gifted in the ring due to her experience and coming from a family of pro wrestlers and she was kinda hot in a psychotic punker way. Anyway it's just crazy that another former pro wrestler has died under the age of 50, coming just days after 29 year old Lance Cade died.

It seems when they leave the major promotions, that's when the wrestlers get sick and pass. I don't know if it's due to substances they were taking while performing or that since they stop wrestling they're level of activity drops tremendously and they become addicted to a controlled substance. The cause of Luna's death will probably be revealed in a matter of days.

Mid Card-Jackie Gayda

At the Wizard Chicago Comic-Con this past weekend I had a much fulfilled time than I did at last years. While I had a ball the first day with my friends meeting Kevin Nash and getting Widow's Peaked by Lisa Marie Varon (Victoria) of Comic Con 09, the rest of that weekend was kinda lackluster.

One of the highlights to last years con was also meeting Jackie Gayda-Haas, former WWE Diva and TNA Knockout and wife of former WWE superstar Charlie Haas. At first I didn't recognize her because she has darker hair now and a more slender frame, but I knew she had to be a wrestler or model or something, I did know that she looked hot. So I went over to her booth and she was extremely nice.

This year after going around to the other booths, I saw that she was there again. She spoke and was very warm again. She claim she remembered me from last year ( maybe?). I talked to her and former TNA interviewer Christine Louman (didnt remember her) for about 8-10 minutes. They both were nice and pretty women. Christine even asked to check out my portfolio. Jackie then sold me (I know) one of her portraits and autographed it for only $10 (average going rate for the wrestlers was about $25) and asked me to draw the picture.

I came back with it the next day, she was shocked I finished it so fast (took me all night) but really seemed to enjoy it. She gave me a hug (nice!) and took a pic with me and the drawing with her phone and with my camera (for free). She was very sweet, it could be that she's one of the few Divas that have kids, so it makes her maternal instincts kick in or she's just genuinely nice and appreciates the opportunity to meet fans. Ironically when I found out she was going to be at comic con again I was going to draw her with Charlie anyways, but this worked out fine.

Even though she doesn't wrestle anymore she gets a A for being a doll, especially when some of the other "celebs" were being pretentious and off in their own little worlds (at an autograph signing), you know who you are.

Report Card: TNA wrestling

Okay, so the mid-card this week is not a wrestler but an entire brand. It's about halfway point for TNA since they made major changes at the top of the year. The biggest change was the inclusion of the legendary Hulk Hogan into the top of TNA's brass. He brought along some of his buddies from his WCW days to play in Florida with. Some were big names that suprised us but for the most part his compadres are washed up shadows of themselves. Since bringing over Hogan, The Nasty Boys, The Band (formerly NWO) and Ric Flair, it seems alot of the young up-coming wrestling stars like Samoa Joe, Kaz, AJ styles, Daniels (who departed recently) and Abyss were pushed aside taking backseat roles to the older contention.

At the top of the year the brand tried it's hand at going head to head with WWE programming live on Monday nights, similar to the Monday night Wars era. It didn't quite work this time around, as TNA ratings had not had the dramatic increase they hoped for. Maybe seeing Hogan and his gang running around like goons, the replacement of TNA's signature 6-sided ring for the usual squared circle or sporadic storytelling might have turned potential new fans off.

However what TNA lacks in clarity they make up in spunk. The past month, things have gone back to business as usual and TNA wants to make sure they give their loyal fans their moneys worth. In May, they brought over fan-favorites Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy, quickly making Van Dam world champ. Hogan is not competing regularly but remains an on screen persona, the tag team division is getting strong once again. Though their Knockouts division was considered far superior to WWE's Divas late last year and earlier this year, numerous injuries and firings to the top women athlete's like Awesome Kong, Hamada & Roxxi made the division as weak if not weaker than WWE's with only The Beautiful People (Madison, Velvet Sky & Lacey Von Erich) running the show. But with the rumoured return of Tara, things might just balance out once again.

Turning our attention to this weeks taping of TNA Impact, the show featured a spectacular ultimate X tag team match between Motor City Machine Guns and Beer Money,INC. A beat down to Hogan and Eric Biscoff, a decent but short main event with RVD, Tommy Dreamer vs. Raven & Abyss. It ended with a brawl between Abyss & Raven taking down the former ECW wrestlers, with the Sandman making a surprise save for team ECW. The most ridiculous thing of the night though, was a street fight match between Ric Flair and Jay Lethal.

The Nature Boy started with a slightly racist but funny promo, and ended with a bloodied half naked Flair pinning Lethal for the win (with help from) Doug Williams). Also the bizarre Orlando Jordan is keeping the bisexual gimmick alive and makes me believe if TNA was more popular they'd get sued...by somebody. With that, TNA might not ever break ratings records, but with the ECW Hardcore Justice ppv this Sunday and the All wrestling no talk Impact episode coming up next Thursday, they are definitely going to keep the loyal marks happy and coming back for more.
Mid-Card grade: B+

WWE cards

These are just two of the WWE cards I'm going to show at Chicago Comic-Con. Obviously I'm a wrestling fan, and pretty much have been all my life so, I thought it would be cool to do a wrestling card featuring some of WWF/WWE legends that older fans could appreciate and something for the younger fans to enjoy.

Though there's been several wrestling companies over the years, WWE has had the longest and strongest run. They were king of the industry in the 80's with stars like Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage, Ultimate Warrior etc and crossed into the mainstream media with the Wrestling/rock and roll gimmick when Cyndi Lauper teamed with Wendi Richter at Wrestlemania 1.
Then in the 90's WWE had to fend off much stronger competition when World Championship Wrestling (owned by Ted Turner) was signing former WWF superstars to major contracts and began winning the Monday night ratings war for 80 consecutive weeks.
But the balance of power shifted back to Stamford,CT (home of WWE headquarters) when WCW's younger stars were feeling slighted by being pushed back as the older stars got all of the spotlight. Also WWE developed newer and controversial character's such as Mankind, The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin and D-Generation X, along with more adult themed storylines. This was considered by fans to be the "Attitude" era.

WWE was finally able to break WCW's streak and in February of 2001, WWE Owner Vince McMahon purchased the bankrupt WCW, bringing over some of the contracted talent from their roster. During that time WWE also started to place more emphasis on their female talent known as the "Divas". No longer were they basic in-ring warriors or just eye candy valets standing ringside they were beautiful and deadly in the ring.
While WWF was on a roll during 1999-2001, soon major changes would come to the company.

In 2001, the World Wildlife Fund sued the World Wrestling Federation for using WWF (a battle that went on since the 80's) and won. The next year WWF became WWE (world wrestling entertainment) and also seperated their two premier wrestling shows Raw and Smackdown into seperate brands with completely different rosters.
This is pretty much the era WWE is in currently while changing to a more family friendly programming as a opposed to the "Attitude" era programs. Among today's stars in WWE are John Cena, Randy Orton, Edge, Chris Jericho and the longest running wrestler in the company The Undertaker.

And while some fans feel that there are other wrestling brands offering better programming currently, the WWE still remains the top in the industry and any wrestler feels privileged to perform in the #1 brand in sports-entertainment.