Mad Dog

Sports bars are a good way to see the PPVs. You can usually watch the whole thing for a couple dollars worth of food. Most of the PPVs aren't worth the pain of sitting on a bar stool for 3 hours.

I wouldn't worry about that. Unless someone does a total carry job on the guy or he suddenly learns how to work a match under 10 minutes he won't be blowing anyone away in the ring at this rate.

I don't understand why anyone buys a WWF PPV anymore. If you wait two months you can just get it on DVD for less. Nothing happening on current PPVs is must see enough that you need to see it live anymore.

I've seen about everything but that match.

I'd like to add that CM Punk has been absolutely terrible since he started working in OVW. He's trying to be this big time mat tech and it really comes off as forced.

They released Aguilera because he was hurt so I guess they planned to bring him back as soon as he was healthy.

They'll probably give him the raise. I think it's Meltzer's usual overreaction to everything in TNA.

I think the WWF thing is mostly Joe trying to get more money out of TNA. EDIT: Also Meltzer has a nasty habit of buying into TNA stars jumping to the WWF. Remember he completely bought that Abyss was jumping ship at this time last year.

I think Booker T needs to adjust his style and stop doing those axe kicks. He's had a lot of leg problems during his career and that can't be helping. The Rock's been gone for over a year now, why not start using the BookEnd again?

HHH vs. JR was pretty long from back in April. That was 10-15 minutes easy.

Sting attacking everything in sight at Spring Stampede 97 is still an awesome moment. As much as I can't stand Luger I still get excited when he makes his big comeback and submits Hogan for the title on the Nitro before Road Wild 97.

Yeah but it's not his #1 fed. RoHbots tend to attack a lot of wrestlers if they have priority over RoH. Daniels and Styles became cool to hate on when TNA pulled them in 2004. EDIT: I agree that it also seems people hate on them in direct proportion to how well TNA does. The hate for them really ramped up when the Spike deal was announced.

Kurt Angle: I've written about him at length so I'm just going to say that he's barely better than an indy spot monkey. Shawn Michaels: Selfish. Guy's built like an old lady but expects to be treated like Superman in the ring. Never really done anything to put another wrestler over in his career. Weak moveset. He either oversells or no sells. Too high up the card for his age and drawing ability. AJ Styles: Good for the most part. Gets a little spotty in most matches but doesn't deserve the hate he gets on the net these days. Could do a lot better with promos. Christopher Daniels: Sucks in short matches and when he dons the Curry Man gimmick. He tries to throw too many spots into a match. He does a lot better in longer matches but relies too much on moves like the STO. Kenta Kobashi: Single most overrated wrestler currently out there. He's regressed a lot since the formation of NOAH but he seems to get a total pass due to nostalgia and his age. If a 10 year younger Kobashi was putting on the stuff he does today then he would be getting shit all over. John Bradshaw Layfield: Sucked as the WWF Champion but has made a lot of strides since. Not someone I go out of my way to watch but he no longer makes me change the channel when he's in the ring. Necro Butcher: Top 5 for being overrated. Probably the best garbage wrestler out there but then that's not saying much. Has some basic fundamentals down so he can break out of the deathmatch crap from time to time. Nothing special though.

Hogan was the IWGP Champ.

That started during the last 3 months of the promotion. It was Flair, Steiner, Luger, Bagwell, Jarrett, Animal and I don't recall who the others were injuring every top face in the company.

I think the company was salvagable until the close actually. Had they not cancelled the shows they were getting Rob Van Dam and most of the worthwhile ECW rejects.

I think in a lot of ways the WWF has gone right past WCW stupidity and gone straight for AWA stupidity. For what it's worth I thought the Mag 7 storyline in 2001 was the best WCW storyline since Sting/Hogan bombed in 97 and better than anything the WWF has done since.

That's the way it was with Schott in Cincy. She got branded a racist for calling one of the pitchers "her million dollar n word" despite the fact that she had the guy over to her house for Thanksgiving every year.

Ah, I get his case confused with whatever girl got thrown off a balcony in another case. Dibiase was slated for the title at Wrestlemania IV but that fell through because the HTM refused to drop the I.C. title to Savage.

Definately agree. I always get a laugh out of smarks who have 10-12 deep lists of heels that should've beaten Hogan in that time period. I think late 1987 at the earliest was when they could safely take it off of Hogan without killing the company. Let's look at the top heels and faces from the time period: Roddy Piper: Never could've carried a promotion. While he was over as a heel where could you have gone with him after beating Hogan? Paul Orndorff: His peak of popularity on a national stage was solely because of the Hogan feud. You might've been able to do an Orndorff wins the belt and Hogan wins it back a week later. Otherwise Orndorff was hurt and would've lost heat once out of the Hogan program. Andre: Rapidly failing health. More of a sideshow attraction throughout his career anyway. Didn't need a title. Jimmy Snuka: Cokehead. Can't have the belt on a guy that tossed his girlfriend off of a balcony. Junkyard Dog: With the right push maybe. But he was packing on the weight at this point and a giant cokehead. Randy Savage: Having a good run with the I.C. belt during most of Hogan's run. Did well enough on his own with the belt once he got the chance but I don't see why his I.C. run would need to get cut short. Don Muraco: Not around for more than 6 months in a given year. Ted Dibiase: Still new to the federation by the time Hogan actually lost the title. I doubt he was established enough to win the title in 87. Rick Rude: Nostalgia has really colored many people's visions of Rude. He didn't really come into his own until late 88.

I think a lot of that is people look at what you say more than what you do. Watts strikes me as the type of guy to not use very PC language towards black wrestlers and I think his reputation stems from that.

I think they could go a long way to fixing the Royal Rumble by having a Smackdown guy not named Randy Orton win the shot this year. JBL or Rey Misterio winning would be a nice surprise. Also no one in the first 10 entrants should win the Rumble for like the next decade. You have a serious problem when the No.1 entrant is a bigger favorite than the last guy in even in mark eyes.

New Japan 1990-1995 All Japan had higher matches but I think NJPW killed them as far as a top to bottom card. I find the promotion started to lose some steam as Mutoh got lazy after losing the title on 1/4/96. My personal peak is the 95 G-1 Climax. NWA 1989 Terry Funk's heel run might be my favorite. It just shows you how good Flair was that he could turn a forgotten past his prime legend into the biggest heel in the company in a matter of 5 seconds. On top of that you got Sting/Muta and Flair/Steamboat. WWF 1988-1992 The wrestling wasn't so hot but nostalgia does a lot. WCW 1996-1998 Cruiserweight action, the nWo and Chris Jericho's heel run. This was the era that turned me into a hardcore wrestling fan and I doubt that any will ever entertain me in the same way again. WCW 2001 The cruiserweight division returns and the Mag 7 storyline. WCW was already dead but they really had some good storylines going on and there was some great talent like Shane Helms, O'Haire and Jett starting to climb the card. WWF 2000 The only year that McMahon really got it as far as running a wrestling company. Just so much talent on the rise. It saddens me to think none of the up and comers ever got a shot.

I'm planning on buying the Wrestling Gold set and the St. Louis DVDs after Christmas. I'll be up for a lot of old school talk when I get those.

I was always annoyed that that stupid WOW promotion had all of these rejects they were training as they went but never brought in any veteran talent like her. Actually now that I think about it Kai worked some dark matches for TNA in the early days.