Cross Face Chicken Wing

Only about 1,000 people actually paid for tix to Clash VI? Sheesh. Remember how Family Guy flopped after it debuted, then got popular after re-runs started airing on cable? Maybe TBS should take the Family Guy approach with 1989 NWA and start replaying it. Soon, a large cult following will develop and the NWA will be re-launched!

Apple TV, people. Stream it right to your TV. An iPad is also great. Rip the DVDs to a hard drive, put them on your ipad and watch wrestling anytime, anywhere (sometimes even while watching wrestling on your TV). I used to be an "I only watch DVDs on my TV" wrestling watcher but not any more. Wrestling looks great on my iPad or streamed to my TV through Apple TV.

Has anyone on this board encountered others fans who are resentful of the Crocketts and blame the family for ruining wrestling? When Michael said on the podcast that One of the reasons Jim Crockett is hesitant to make an appearance or talk about wrestling is his fear of people not liking him, I was surprised. I'd never heard anyone resent Crockett or think of him as a black mark on the business. Second guessing business or booking decisions? Sure. But that's to be expected and way different than resentment or dislike. Perhaps Jim doesn't see it as different, though.

Cool. Actually, I think Vinny (from F4W) works over at Football Outsiders, so I might reach out to him. I've met him once or twice at Wrestlemania and he's always given me good feedback on my wrestling stats. In fact, he was the guy who introduced me to Gephi which inspired me to create this: The guys at Profootballfocus.com are usually very helpful and responsive just in case the FO guys aren't. Also, @fball_andrea (that's her Twitter handle) covers the NFC North for Bleacher Report and is a big wrestling fan. She might be able to connect you w/ someone in the football analytics world that would help you out. On the basketball side, the folks at @canishoopus or @brittrobson would likely have a good grasp of the history of basketball analytics and also be approachable. Good luck. Very interesting project.

I'm looking forward to following this thread, Loss. My goal is to one day re-watch all the 80s set and create a thread just for mocking and ridiculing people in the audience. 'Merica.

Between 2-3M according to media reports. I took a look at DirecTV's recent 10-K to see if a full number was in there, but didn't see one. Is that the number of people who have Sunday Ticket? Or the number who actually pay full price for it? I'm just curious. Not trying to say it's somehow losing DTV money, because obviously it's not.

Just when you think the bubble is about to burst, it not only doesn't burst, it gets bigger. Insane local TV contracts for non-NFL sports are the new bubble, or are adding to the current bubble, however you want to look at it. I wonder how many people actually pay for the NFL Sunday Ticket? I've had it since 2009 and I've paid a total of $40 for it. I've gotten it for free every year -- the first year as a promotion and every year after when I make my annual call to DirecTV to whine about how times are tough and I might need to cancel my service. I forked over $40 for it this year so I could upgrade to Sunday Ticket Max. What you said about possibly offering Sunday Ticket to other providers makes sense, John, but dammit, I don't want to have to begin actually paying for the damn thing!

I'm curious to see what happens when the NFL's agreement w/ DirecTV for the Sunday Ticket package runs out (I think it's after the 2014 season). DirecTV pays through the ass for that package, and there's already scuttle that DirecTV feels its not getting the return on its investment. Of course, that scuttle is probably the beginnings of negotiation tactics. I wonder if the next step for the NFL in getting more money out of its TV package is to ditch Sunday Ticket and just go to the networks and say, "You know that Sunday Ticket thing we do w/ DirecTV that you guys don't care for all that much? How about you pay us (insert ungodly amount of money) and we'll just put every game every Sunday on free TV?" Since every game would then be on free TV, perhaps the NFL would then move to feature a Sunday 3 pm game on NFL Network (upping the fees cable companies pay to carry the channel) and continue pimping the Red Zone channel. Just spit ballin' some thoughts that make somewhat sense, but probably won't happen....

Rude was a good one. He could make a backdrop (or back body drop, whatever you want to call it) look like an audition for a spot on the Olympic gymnastics team.

I just finished Will's Buddy Rose set and am now 100 percent convinced that Buddy was the best of all time at taking backdrops. He looked out of shape and on the big side, so when he went up to take the backdrop, that was impressive in and of itself. He usually got some big air and landed hard, which is also essential. Finally, he was awkward and uncoordinated enough that the backdrop didn't look totally like a staged fake wrestling move. Combine all that with Buddy's facial expressions and selling after landing (and sometimes during the backdrop if the camera angle was right) and you got the best taker of backdrops of all time.

Arn/Tully Furnas & Kroffat PG-13 Rose/Summers Kamala/Botswana Beast

Steamboat, Funk and Savage. Flair getting Savage all riled up by hinting at an affair w/ Liz is classic stuff.

Discussions here are definitely analytical, but they usually incorporate some aspect of "How does this play with Joe Casual Fan?" That's all part of the big-picture analytical discussion. Personally, I have no problem buying Punk having a shot against Lesnar. But I can see how Joe Casual Fan might not buy it, and that aspect should definitely factor into the analytical discussions we have on this board. When my friends used to watch wrestling, many of them didn't think Sting could beat Hogan. Why? Because Hogan was too big. They understood that wrestling was fake and all that, but for whatever reason, Hogan's size advantage stuck in their craws. Trying to figure out why the masses feel what they feel can be maddening, but it doesn't mean their feelings shouldn't factor into a bigger overall analytical discussion.

"Mainstream fan" = anybody who knows who Hulk Hogan is and doesn't know what the Wrestling Observer or the PWO board is.

I've always been fascinated by whatever that is on Ken Patera's head.

I can't say enough about how my ipad has upped my ability to watch wrestling. I load on discs from my comps and watch anywhere. My wife really rolls her eyes when I have a ballgame on TV and wrestling on my ipad at the same time.

I'm not closeted, but I avoid the subject if I can. It just gets old hearing the same old questions and one-liners.

My friends who give me shit about wrestling are the ones who think they're historians because they watch the History Channel. Fuck them.

With two jobs, family three hours away in opposite directions that expects frequent visits, and the first kid on the way, my goal is to watch 2 hrs of wrestling per week. Watching entire shows or seasons just isn't feasible and would kill my love of wrestling if I tried.

I think what this thread needs to turn into is a discussion on the Mt. Rushmore of matches. Instead of giant faces, this Mt. Rushmore would be epic moments from matches that were historically important and generally loved by the masses and the hardcores. This Mt. Rushmore of matches might look a little gay to the non-wrestling fan (imagine the image of Steamboat having Flair in the chicken wing chiseled into the side of a mountain), but who cares.

I'm only about halfway through the pod, so if the answer to this question comes later in the pod, just tell me to shut up and keep listening. Dylan mentions that Heyman's promotions have been very creative, but never drawn money. I'm sure that's the case for Windy City, but is that really the case for ECW? Didn't ECW draw money, but when it came time to possibly make the leap to the next level, they simply didn't have enough money and/or business sense to make it happen? It's a common problem in the business world. You make money, but when you need to take it to the next level of growth, you either haven't made enough money to do it, or you just don't know how to do it and it crumbles. Wondering if that's the case with ECW, or if the promotion really didn't make that much money over the years.

Undertaker vs. Foley HIAC should be on this list for sure.