Mad Dog

Vince as a rule didn't like people just having a regular name in the WWF. You couldn't be just Harley Race or Ricky Steamboat. You had to be "King" Harley Race or Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat.

Sending the fans home happy. That was a staple of the WWE through the Hulkamnia era from 1984-1991. JJ Dillion talked about it on one of those Guest Booker shows but the TV had a very specific formula with Vince as the booker. The way he would roll out the PPV lineup and build to the matches is very distinct when you go back and watch the TV. I find the TV to be much more conservative with Vince at the helm when it comes to giving away feature level bouts on TV. Vince's attention to detail is also pretty fantastic during that 1984-1991 time frame as well. Things like Tito Santana still going after Rick Martel years after the Mania turn in battle royals and such.

But are you talking about hardcores or casuals. If you weren't in that ECW bubble from 95-99 you didn't know who any of those guys were unless they jumped to WCW before 98 or had a WWE run. Asking a MNW casual about ECW would be like asking them about WCW weekend show talent.

Which is still nothing. The only people I know that have an awareness of ECW are people that were hardcore online fans. That was 2 or 3 of my friends including me. We used to have PPV parties from 97-00. No one ever wanted to order an ECW PPV and I was the only person still watching WCW during his run. No one saw his TNA run and I know hardcore WWE fans that were watching when he was there and wouldn't remember him. ECW at it's absolute peak of visibility on TNN was pulling around a million viewers. That's a drop in the bucket to what Raw and Nitro were pulling at the time. Hell, I knew what ECW was and that it played in Columbus but I couldn't tell you when it was on or what channel.

Mark Briscoe. I love him just acting like a crazy mother fucker in promos and during matches. He's probably my favorite wrestler right now.

I also thought New Japan would find a way to not put the IWGP Title on Tanahashi in 2006.

I thought for sure Chyna was doing to win the King of the Ring in 1999/2000. Likewise, I was sure HHH was going to beat Undertaker at X-7.

Okay, let's not get ridiculous now. It's not that ridiculous. How many fans from that era actually watched ECW or even knew it existed? We live in a bubble where we know about pretty much everything. But if you were tuning in for Nitro vs. Raw, chances are you had never heard of ECW. How many people really had access to Hardcore TV? And at it's height the ECW on TNN show was doing like a million viewers. Gillberg and Ralphus had significant time on Raw and Nitro and they were memorable because they were goofy and Ralphus was attached to a popular act.

I think if you polled fans from that era they would be much more likely to remember Gillberg or Ralphus than they would be to remember Sandman.

You're way overrating Sandman if you think he's anywhere near Jake. Jake would get headlines on ESPN if he died tomorrow. No one outside of this kind of fandom would hear if the Sandman died.

I've been working through 2014. TV and the big house shows. I really enjoy the inring product but holy shit do Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino ruin everything. I've been in a real groove the last two weeks and I want to take a break because Corino is just so fucking obnoxious whenever I watch the big shows. It's just frustrating to see such a good product get totally derailed by two idiots in the booth.

He's a complete wrestling nerd. That was my favorite part of the Scott Hall episode was hearing them nerd out on wrestling.

I just accept that I'm going to feel like an idiot more often than not listening to these guys discuss a match.

I was really surprised by this. I kind of thought he was just going to get away with it.

There's one I just got this weekend called 80's Mania Wrestling. It's for Android and IPhone. Pretty fun. It's a booking sim and CCG. The characters are all satirical takes on 80's wrestlers or pop culture. Filsinger fans will recognize a large chunk of the creative staff as it's Kris Osk and Larry Swank.

I think a heel turn for him would be a mistake. It's obvious that they want him as a face eventually and a heel turn now probably means he went heel-face-heel-face in the course of about 5 years. If they're going to turn him heel then it needs to be a long term thing or he's going to end up like Kane and Big Show where it doesn't matter anymore.

It reminded me of those local commercials with athletes where they're monotone reading off a script.

That Rey/Eddie match is a typical lucha dynamic. Eddie is supposed to ground Rey and bully him while going for the mask. Rey is supposed to fly and do flashy shit to pop the crowd. You should go back and watch the parts of Nitro leading up to that match because it was fantastic. Eddie was a great heel in 1997 and this was my MOTY from WCW in 1997.

How about we compromise and put Veda Scott there?

Colt would be too busy talking about how he got fired from the WWE for the 300th time and he'd never get the story out.

I completely agree with this. They've spent the last 15 years telling fans that they're wrong for not liking the right wrestlers and now Reigns has become the poster child for everyone's frustration with the WWE.

I think they might have ruined him. The crowd has dug their heels in and a lot of people are booing him as a matter of principal. They really needed to give him another year. And this is where their booking really hurts them. A red hot heel for Reigns to take out would be the way to get the crowd behind him.

Give him a long reign with the IC Title. Pair him with good workers and let him have good matches on a consistent basis. Make it feel like a natural spot for him and slowly warm the crowd to him.

She got pregnant, lost the baby and later got released because I don't think she was in the mental state to perform.

You had Awesome Kong but that didn't end so well.