Mad Dog

Heyman's run was kind of short though. By the time you get to 1998 the booking starts to decline.

I think Quack has lost his luster as a booker the last couple of years but everyone does eventually. But he embraced wrestling as a comic book and made it work for a really long time. And there are some really protected concepts like the Eye of Tyr.

I think Bill Watts is interesting as a booker because he seemed more open minded and willing to change to stay relevant. Bringing in Jerry Jarrett and actually listening to his suggestions seems like a rare quality in a booker. Dusty Rhodes had a couple of really strong years with Crockett before falling off the cliff. 85 and 86 were really strong years with TV. I think Mike Quackenbush had an extremely strong run as a booker from about 2009-2013 as the booker of Chikara. The BDK was a well run stable and Eddie Kingston's run as Champion was really well done. The tournament for the belt was also really strong and High Noon was a great show that paid off like 5-6 angles in a really satisfying way. The angle that closed down the promotion really ruined things but there was a period where they were firing on all cylinders creatively. Whoever was booking NWA Anarchy during the Devil's Rejects run in the mid 00s created some extremely compelling weekly television.

Steve Williams fought both in the UWF.

Hercules wrestled both in singles matches. Edit: Kamala has also fought both.

Watching more World Class. Jose Lothario is really a master of continually being in fun TV matches.

See, that's what I'm unsure of. I know he wrestled as the Swedish Angel. And the only substantial thing I have on him is he held the MWA World Title in 1943 in a quick flip with Orville Brown. But I really just know he was a wrestler who did a lot of Ed Wood's movies.

I personally haven't come across any as yet but if I do it'll be posted here. That's a shame. I've been trying to find some of him and have had zero luck.

Do any of Tor Johnson's matches still exist on film?

I know I've seen her in several matches but I can't remember anything about her.

Is she the one from the WWF in the 80s?

I would say Warrior/Savage is probably the best match between those 2 events. It has an argument for being a 5 star match with an amazing narrative from start to finish. Pre Savage/Steamboat is a tough call. The Boot Camp Match immediately jumps to mind. I like the Back Alley Brawl with Slaughter and Patterson a lot but it wasn't as good as the Boot Camp Match. I remember really loving one of the Backlund/Slaughter matches but I don't remember which one it was anymore.

Hart/Hennig - Summerslam 91 Hart/Bulldog - Summerslam 92 Hogan/Savage - Wrestlemania V Hogan/Warrior - Wrestemania VI Warrior/Savage - Wrestlemania VII Warrior/Rude - Summerslam 89 Piper/Hart - Wrestlemania VIII Flair/Savage - Wrestlemania VIII Hennig/Flair - Raw 1/25/1993

I will give Manning some credit. He at least storyline got suspended for 90 days because the Flair/Kerry match at Star Wars. So I won't have to see him for about 12 episodes of TV.

I'm not even sure what you're getting at. They have always stuck to their plan even when they weren't hot.

That's because they run a venue that only holds 400 people. PWG has a very conservative business model. They run the same venue and sell their DVDs and blu-rays. They could easily sell out bigger venues in certain markets.

Wrestling also is seeing it's current acceptance because it got attached to the geek culture boom. So you're going to have to deal with the changes because you are drawing in a different fanbase than you were 10-15 years ago.

Working closer to MMA was done before MMA even existed. It was called "shoot-style". It'd been dead for almost 20 years because the real thing came up. NXT is mostly based on Evil Indy Darlingstm showing up one after the other to finally get their WWE stints (and good for them). And the booking is cosplaying an old territory, of sorts, which can be fun be certainly is not "ahead of the curve" either. Damn those liberal millennial pro-wresting fans... (and yes, in the last two years, I've seen two of the best matches I've ever watched in my almost 30 years of pro-wrestling : one was Naito vs Omega in the G1 Climax last year, the other one was THE Tully vs Magnum I Quit cage match) RoH tried the MMA thing with Richards and Edwards and literally everyone hated it.

Overthinking things is what ultimately killed Goldberg in WCW. Just go full steam ahead until its not working anymore. If you get six months to a year out of that formula then who cares, you shouldn't be trying to get 5 year main event runs out of everyone.

Actually, I think WWE would be in big trouble without their TV revenue.

Then why are people into the Brock/Braun stuff? My wife didn't know who he was at Summerslam and 5 minutes into the match just wanted to see him fuck shit up and would probably go to a show if he was on the card. Like I said, he got someone else I know to go to a show for the first time in probably a decade. Those things have nothing to do with being against Roman. It's because Braun has an aura and does cool shit and makes you want to see more. And who cares if people get sick of it if he draws for a year in the process?

Because people just want to see Braun do cool shit and destroy things. I think his opponents would largely be irrelevant too.

The fact that Manning can't even disguise his Von Erich fanboyism makes him the worst referee ever.

Yes, what happens in the match is largely irrelevant to the face/heel dynamic dependent on what the fans want. Braun gets cheered for doing what he does and people pay to see him do that. So changing that would damage his draw but he is still a face and you need to give the people what they want in the process.

No, Reigns wrestles like a heel because people boo him and Braun wrestles like a face because people cheer him. You don't have to change a single thing about Braun. People are paying to see the guy and cheer him. One of my friends went to Raw for the first time in a decade because Braun brought him in.