Boondocks Kernoodle

I figured Cena and Punk had a special dispensation to use the piledriver, but Dave says Vince was furious at them for doing it. I was hoping they were going to bring it back in big matches.

Dave said a few weeks ago that Bruno would want Dominic DeNucci to do the induction.

And I don't know who Jon Fitch is. Joseph Park is Abyss, playing the role of Abyss's goofy attorney brother. They introduced him in an angle where Abyss went missing and Joseph sought to find him, but the gimmick got over and now Abyss is pretty much gone and I hope he stays that way. Bray Wyatt is Windham Rotunda (the former Husky Harris) doing the Waylon Mercy gimmick in NXT.

The "Backlund wants one last run" thing was a cover story for the fact that he had previously been scheduled to go in in '04 but pulled out when they decided to induct Pete Rose. I suppose there's a possibility that he really did want another run at some point but that's not why he hasn't been inducted yet.

I posted this a while back but it's worth repeating. Meltzer from December '98:

AJ might actually get over as a heel if they remake her as the shrieking bitch who stomps and kicks her man's opponent while they're down (but then hides behind Big E if anyone comes back at her because if she's willing to fight men like Sherri did the fans will cheer her). If their plan is for her to just to make sexy faces and skip around Dolph after he wins this heel turn will be a dud.

I worked at a janitor for two summers in a restaurant (well, the title of the job was "dishwasher" but we performed all janitorial duties as well) and it was demeaning and paid like shit. If you're the head janitor at a public school then you can probably make a pretty good living but your average floor-mopper is making minimum wage. But the reason why this is so exceptional for A.J. is because she's a cute girl and janitor isn't a job for a cute girl. You think Kelly Kelly was ever a janitor?

On the most recent B&V show Vinny had to explain to him what "goes to 11" is a reference to.

FLIK, as a longtime message board colleague of tigerpride I know he can be annoying sometimes, but I really feel you'd be better off knowing how to spell "where" and "there."

OK, here's the seating chart. Tickets go on sale Saturday and for those of you who have been to a Mania before, I have two questions: 1) It is likely to be an automatic sellout? Last year wasn't but this is the New York market. I can't afford one of the floor seats or anything but will it be possible to buy a mid-level seat Saturday morning without resporting to Stubhub? 2) What is the highest level you can be at and still see the ring? I'm trying to strike a balance between affordability and, um, watchability. It's not really worth it to spend over a hundred bucks just to watch a Titantron.

They should have had Sheamus keep the title over Show (maybe a DQ to keep Show strong - and if you think there shouldn't be two DQs on a show, well, they didn't have to do one in the tag title match), then have Ryback win the title from Punk, and then next month or whenever, have Punk beat Sheamus for his title. Then Punk ends up somehow with the belt on Raw, Ryback is champ on Smackdown (better because they can edit his matches), Punk-Rock is still on for the Rumble, Ryback can feud with Show, after Mania when Cena takes the belt from Rock Ziggler can cash in his MITB shot (not at Mania but soon after) and they can feud, and everything works out. Now Ryback is dead. Screwjob or not, nobody can buy a monster babyface who lost to a ballshot from a cruiserweight referee.

They had very good booking which excited their core fans and they did a celebrity angle which did great short-term business. It didn't even seem like they had sustained their momentum from Mania three months later when Benoit happened. I didn't see the signs of a boom.

Yet, five years later, it still hasn't happened, and at this point, I think I can safely say it never will. You can understand why I got everything else in that post wrong. WWE was handed a new boom period on a silver platter. I did not consider the possibility that they would turn it down. I'd be interested to read a more detailed idea of what "the Cena show" would entail. I'm surprised that all these years later, you still think Cena had the potential to be the Hogan/Austin-level megastar if only they had shaped the promotion around him more. I don't think Cena is at that level, and think of him more as the Bret/Shawn-type guy who carries the promotion because there's no better option but isn't going to set business records. He's more popular than Bret and Shawn, but he also has a better marketing/PR machine behind him. I'm not sure that Cena's character is as clearly defined as Hogan's or Austin's (clean-cut everyman with a fleeting interest in hip-hop?), and that's a problem, but even if there was a better idea of who John Cena is and why he does what he does, a large portion of the wrestling fanbase (mostly the mooks who loved the edginess of the late 90s/early 2000s era) has fully rejected Cena and would likely would be even more turned off if all the faces reflected his values, whatever they are. I suppose it could increase the popularity of WWE among children and/or women if they developed acts that appealed to that crowd (and not just goofy comedy acts like Santino but more like, say, the Ultimate Warrior for kids or the Rock n' Roll Express for women) but if still doesn't fix the problem that the top guy isn't that compelling. Cena doesn't, and didn't, tap into any broader part of the culture the way Hogan fit into the larger-than-life action hero archetype of the 80s or Stone Cold epitomized the profane, Limp Bizkit/Jerry Springer late 90s. He, moreso than any other W(W)WF/E top guy since Bob Backlund, is Just A Guy. And that doesn't start boom periods. I should qualify this by saying that I greatly enjoy Cena as an in-ring performer and he's had more ****+ matches than anyone in WWE in the last several years. I just don't think they could have done much to make him a significantly greater box office draw, though certainly ratings and buyrates would be at least a little better with better handling of win, losses, title changes and all the other issues we've been talking about for the last ten years.

Maybe I spoke too soon. I checked the Observer from the week before that Clash and there was this line: So maybe there was something to Skeith's claim? Or at least the idea was considered.

I just checked the Observer from the week of the Steiner-Flair Clash and there's no mention of Scott having been planned to win or offered the title.

I feel like at this point, the best move would be just to take Punk-Ryback out of the cell. Have Punk say that he agreed to wrestle Cena in a cell, not Ryback, and Heyman will sue if they don't change it. Then since they need a Hell in a Cell match, Sheamus-Show now gets that stip. I know the Sheamus-Show program is supposed to last months (at least I assume it is, Smackdown title feuds always do) and making the first match a cell match would make their subsequent matches hard to follow but they're moving the title onto Ziggler soon anyway, aren't they? Punk-Ryback, now a normal match, would end in a DQ due to Lesnar interference. Sure it would be a fuck finish but the fans would be happy enough for the surprise Brock appearance that they wouldn't mind. Then Survivor Series is Punk/Brock vs Ryback/Cena (assuming Cena is ready) and they can use the finish of that match to lead back to Cena-Punk for the TLC show. I understand the problems with changing the main event of a PPV the week before but the HITC show usually bombs anyway. I have a feeling they're not going to do this event next year.

Vince doing commentary for the match, half-heartedly putting over Rock as a heel but mostly in his old "WHATAMANUEVER" mode was just weird. I know JR was out with Bell's Palsy at the time, but did they not trust Cole enough to get over whatever talking points they wanted to push to their intended casual audience?

Dave said in the last Observer that the plan, assuming Rock-Cena and Lesnar-HHH take place, is Taker-Punk.

Nash won the title from Jarrett in 2000 and then gave it to Flair so he could lose without jobbing, then he talked Russo into letting him do a three-week title switch with Booker later that year, but he did actually put Booker over in the rematch.

That was definite sarcasm. Half of Dave's posts on the board are sarcastic these days. Flik, it's "there," not "thear."

I think what you're describing here is the MatRats concept he got involved with in the summer of '01. The cruiserweight division would have been booked by Meltzer's friend John Muse, whoever that is, and they wanted to strike a talent exchange with Toryumon.

Actually, I think Raw was to be the WCW show, but TNN didn't want it, and really, after Viacom paid all that money for the top-rated WWF, why would either TNN or UPN want to give either of those prime time slots to the toxic WCW brand? The funny part is that TNN also rejected a late-night WCW show on Saturday, but a couple of months later, took on WWF Excess in that slot, which no doubt got lower ratings than a WCW show would have.