Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Al Burke

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. DS 18:29, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Al Burke

Article on former professional wrestler. I highly suspect this is a hoax. Google reveals a notable biker with this name (but no article, alas) and the one provided reference seems to pan out, which would suggest a wrestler by this name also exists, but some significant claims to notability are flat-out incorrect. For example, in the "Pro Wrestling" section it says

"Al won his first Professional Wrestling Championship Belt on December 7, 1990 in Denver, Colorado to become the IWA Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion."

However, the IWA Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship article says this title did not even exist until 2002! Another glaring inaccuracy:

"June, 1994 Al Burke was rated number 7 contender to the UWF Heavyweight Championship title that was held by Doctor Death Steve Williams as listed in Pro Wrestling Illustrated."

But the UWF Heavyweight Championship article says the title was no longer around after 1987. No references are provided for the above two claims and many others in the article, and my recommendation is strong delete unless very convincing sources to support this article are found. Pegasus «C¦T» 07:03, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Delete I noticed this page earlier and was thinking about marking as speedy delete myself but didn't because it had a long history from multiple editors and I'm not an expert in wrestling and googling didn't return a high number of good hits. I did put a notability template on there but it looks as if it was removed. ZacBowling (user|talk) 08:51, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Speedy Delete No good third party sources cited, inaccuracies are indeed glaring. This is definitely a hoax - Pro Wrestling Illustrated doesn't list contenders to any promotions title, and contenders all the way down to number 7 are definitely not announced, No.1 and MAYBE a No.2 contender for any given title are announced by the promotion themselves in accordance with the way they want their storylines to go. Bmg916Speak 13:25, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep the IMDb page checks out, so even if there's some incorrect content the individual seems to be WP:N. JJL (talk) 14:22, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Speedy Delete - IMDb pages are not always reliable as they can be purchased. NN, vanity. --Endless Dan 14:25, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
It should be noted a previous version of this person's article was deleted. Also, article claims he faced the Steiner Brothers in the WWF - despite their run beginning in 1992 one year after his supposed stint with the WWF. --Endless Dan 14:28, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

*Delete, neither strong, weak, nor speedy - This does appear to be a real, potentially notable person. But the article is atrocious and there are no references. The factual inaccuracies posted above should give everyone serious pause. Tromboneguy0186 (talk) 16:25, 28 November 2007 (UTC)Weakest possible keep The article is in considerably better shape than when I made that previous statement, and the references are coming in. I still don't know, however. Tromboneguy0186 (talk) 23:34, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

  • Note: This debate has been included in the list of Wrestling-related deletions. —Endless Dan 16:19, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Delete, as a hoax. Nikki311 17:32, 28 November 2007 (UTC) I never meant that this person didn't exist, just that some of his accomplishments were fabricated or embellished to make him look more notable than he is. However, I still believe he isn't notable. Winning a few non-notable wrestling championships and being a non-notable extra or having non-notable bit parts in movies doesn't make someone notable. Nikki311 14:44, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
    • Comment if this is a hoax, someone has gone to a LOT of trouble: Getting the IMDb page for him, getting him a website and MySpace page and then faking all these pictures [1], [2], [3] (note particularly the clip from The Wedding Singer), getting several photos with named captions of him on a UWF web site [4], an article in a legitimate newspaper [5], etc. There may be some bad info. in the article but the subject himself is surely notable. JJL (talk) 19:00, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Comment. Just to respond to at least a few concerns raised.
  1. The Universal Wrestling Federation promotion as well as its heavyweight title User:Pegasus refers to is in reference to Bill Watts promotion (Universal Wrestling Federation (Bill Watts)), however the article clearly states Al Burke worked for Herb Abrams promotion (Universal Wrestling Federation (Herb Abrams)). Also the IWA promotion in question (there have been many promotions which have used the name over the years such as IWA Japan, IWA Mid South, etc.) is based in Denver according to the article although User:Pegasus refers to the Puerto Rican promotion. Wiether this particular IWA is itself notable or not is another story altogether.
  2. As of 1999, PWI did list top ten rankings for five promotions not including international and independent rankings. I haven't read an Apter magazine in ages so I wouldn't know if they do this anymore.
  3. There is an Al Blake who wrestled for the WWF during the 1980s, mostly as a preliminary wrestler, according to these websites ([6][7] [8] [9] [10]) although they do confirm the dates given by the article and certainly enough to establish this persons existance.

However, the picures provided do look a little odd at least to me. The facial expressions seem very similar in each photo and his build (ex. Image:MRO.jpg) certainly doesn't resemble this YouTube clip. There is also a Corona commercial he appears in here and his cameo appearance in the Wedding Singer. Just to clarify, I'm not making an argument to keep the article or not. I'm only trying to help establish weither this is indeed a hoax or not. 72.74.214.181 (talk) 05:58, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

    • It appears he exists, but this article might have too many distortions of fact to be keepable. We could always do a factual, well-sourced one in replacement if/after this one gets trashed. Pegasus «C¦T» 02:39, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Delete, he may exist, and he may be a stuntman, but he is not notable. Darrenhusted (talk) 14:25, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
  • It doesn't appear anyone is disuputing that this is a man with many accomplishments, but having bit rolls in movies and being in a commercial or two does not qualify someone for a Wikipedia page. --Endless Dan 14:52, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Delete, while a person of this name may or may not have done anything within the threshold of notability, from the above it seems that the article as a whole is predominantly hoax material. -- Infrogmation (talk) 03:34, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.