Cobra Commander

It really shouldn't be a surprise that the NXT ratings aren't topping cable because the WWE already has 5 hours of RAW/Smackdown, and the audience for hours 6/7 (NXT) would be kinda limited. There's a graveyard full of non-Raw/Smackdown shows that they've launched in the last 20 years that would suggest that WWE 3rd shows just consistently never become as hot as the top shows. They really should move RAW back to 2 hours but that might be admitting weakness. There's probably no path to making live Wednesday night NXT a viable ratings idea. They could move NXT to put NXT Hour 1 vs AEW Hour 2, but I don't think an unopposed hour adds much in the long run. It'll be like how Russo thought Nitro going from 3 to 2 hours would save them when it didn't. If they're locked into 3 hours, maybe 2 hours of RAW and 1 hour of NXT from different locations in a 3 hour span. The creatures of habit thing would say there's no way they could make it Raw 8-10 eastern/7-9 central with NXT in the 3rd hour while in Eastern/Central/Mountain time but RAW 9-11 eastern/8-10 central with NXT in the first hour while in Pacific time (so that RAW starts at 6pm local time in California instead of 5pm). Raw's problem is that it's just a chore to watch and the crowds never really add much because of the length of the show. Also, to be blunt about it. some people just need a trial separation from the WWE. It's probably better for you to watch something else instead of shows that you hate. There's more accessible pro wrestling being televised than probably any time in awhile. Watch something else and maybe check back in on the WWE after some time and see if it's any fresher now that you haven't watched it for 5+ hours a week for long stretches of time. Watch something because it's fun and entertains you, and if it doesn't, watch something else. There's more than enough options, especially if you live in a fancy space castle with hundreds of cable channels and/or a Roku.

there were some crazy/stupid bumps in Omega/Janela.. and also some of the crowd shots made one ask "are these fans shocked at the action, or bored by it". I did resist the urge to check the time bar on YouTube to see how much longer Omega/Janela would go on for. It would make sense from a matchmaking/booking philosophy to book some of the so-called IWC favored guys so they get over among the more casual fans, as opposed to assuming that they're already over before appearing and then never getting them over with most of the audience.

The match itself was perfectly fine, I was just adding some context about the whole Marko thing. I did spend some time watching Keith Lee on NXT while Lucha Bros/Jungle Bros was going on too. The other good thing about a surge in ratings interest is the return of noting what segments had ratings increases/decreases. One thing I’ve noticed from flipping channels when one of the programs goes to break is that the other program will be on break too. So, depending on ones POV, somebody’s either doing a good job at going to break when the other show is on break, or somebody is doing a bad job at not being live when the other show is on a break. The NXT matches are noticeably shorter than the AEW matches too.

When it comes to heights/sizes... it’s not like the WWE is the only league doing that. The average height in MLB is 6’1”. Average NFL height is 6’2”. Average NHL height is 6’1”. Daniel Bryan and Chris Benoit were billed at 5’10, Eddie was billed at 5’8. And logically if they were in a match with a 5’2/125 guy, they should dominate a good portion of the match. Of course there’s fighting sports with various shortish guys.. they also use divisions, which really isn’t something solidly done in the US aside from heavyweight/cruiserweight.

the fun part about the ratings as this all goes along is the possibility of all sorts of randomness that probably isn't a reaction to anything specific. I think being 5'2" would land Marko Stunt around the pequeno realm in Mexico. Pequeno Olympico is billed at 5'2, for example and Pierrothito is 5'1. Pierrothito is also billed at 45lbs heavier than Marko Stunt. So I'd guess that Penta/Fenix have worked against 5'2" luchadors before, but not particularly frequently. But Marko is a foot taller than Chamuel and a foot and a half taller than Microman. So there's that. I wonder how the perception of events changes if the Lucha Bros attack on Christopher Daniels takes place *after* the Lucha Bros/Jungle+Marko match. Since there is also a complaint that Penta/Fenix went long in their match but also wiped out Daniels quick to open the show.

1) hopefully the CMLL YouTube people jump to a hypothetical Sofia fed, or at least they get a web presence quick 2) Paco owns the trademarks, but presumably the fed itself owns the main arenas, right? this timeline can't get so weird that Sofia also ends up owning their main arenas somehow

Bischoff going over Flair at Starrcade (so they could have a rematch the next night) has to rank up there for "what the fuck" "you're being too clever" booking. As for people behaving better at sporting events.. how much did the cost of beer go up (and when did they switch to plastic cups instead of giving people bottles to throw)? also, wonder if slightly stricter post-9/11 security made it harder to bring things into an area that would motivate shithead behavior. Pretty much the worst of the worst bad behavior has involved reactions to calls, like Bottlegate in Cleveland in 2001 or the reaction to the Infield Fly Rule call in 2012. Probably reasonable to think that there has been an improvement in security now that people can text guest services if there's some drunk asshole in their area.

if you're MJF, wouldn't it be a better 'business decision' to turn on Cody after he wins the title? Buddying up to somebody purely to be in position to step over him on the ladder would work better if you'd win a title for beating him. Probably a better short-term possibility to going for the belt than being one of Chris Jericho's buddies.

The card shuffling for cutting the show into 4 weeks of TV was interesting, especially since they had to realize "hey, we're airing Teddy making a run-in on Aries 2 weeks after Aries brainbustered Teddy but we taped Aries/Pillman first"... or the "hey, one of the refs that was attacked by Injustice is in the next match we're airing"... it doesn't really make the MLW physician look strong if the referee isn't taking his advice though. Looking at the spoilers, the live match order+when it aired was.. Garrini making a 10 year old tap out (week 4), Brien/Banks, Parka Cash-in (week 1), Loco/Airwolf vs Injustice (week 3), Aries/Pillman (week 4), Werner/Havoc (week 3), Thatcher/James (week 3, before Werner/Havoc), Parks vs Magnus+Septimo (week 4), Oliver/Zenshi (week 2), Dynasty/Harts (week 2), and War Chamber (week 1). So gotta balance out the "hey, this is a real card" and "hey, we're gonna get 4 weeks of TV out of this" Also, LA Park must be a very caring soul because that Parks/Magnus+Septimo match was really generous. It would have probably made more sense for the guy getting the title shot in a few weeks to be a little stronger in that match. Skinny Park could eat a little bit more of the babyface's offense because Daddy Park is getting a big match. I probably would have picked a finish other than a Lucha dick kick but then again, low blows and mask pulls are proud match finishes in the 2019 CMLL that I keep watching. The match was pretty good in it's own realm.

Buzz Sawyer and Rick Steiner... when Rick Steiner is probably the mild-mannered voice of reason in a tag team

The ring setup probably shouldn’t have been used purely for the whole “inductees speak with their back to half the audience” thing. Also it’s apparently a safety risk. To tie a bow on a few things, apparently the dumbfuck is actually somebody who tweets out their delusions (what’s the protocol for the ‘person just wants attention don’t acknowledge such and such’ when the person is likely mentally ill?). And the DF was not happy that Ronda/Becky/Charlotte was main eventing. So, congrats on being punched by Mr. Ronda because you don’t want women in your wrestlemania main event. also worth noting a guy with a very similar hat who stood next to Seth Rollins on the ramp back in 2015. So it’s probably really unhelpful for random mentally ill people to beat the security multiple times.

Just imagine how much Saudi money Verne could have gotten if he was able to lure the Iron Sheik into working as a heel on cards in Saudi Arabia as revenge for Sheik not breaking Hogan's leg in 1984.

I listened to the last two episodes and skipping the All-Elite talk to focus more on Jim's funk music tapes (and there's some wrestling psychology talk on the January 3rd episode).

perhaps that's how Hogan learned about the Internet having all the scoops by 1995.

Braun Strowman's dad is the most 80s wrestling person to exist who never got into wrestling. Like he's somebody who'd make all of his appearances while also working a dayjob unloading trucks in Alabama or something.

I'm just happy that Hogan didn't claim to have torn every muscle in his back slamming Andre in this documentary. But he probably should have figured out that things were gonna go smoothly once things started happening as were 'laid out' on the 'legal pad'. It is sorta disappointing they couldn't find a way to at least mention Andre winning the title in front of the largest TV audience for wrestling ever (at least in the USA) and causing various kids, including one of my cousins, to cry about Hogan losing.

I've read some people who grumbled over Hogan getting a short biopiece in this documentary in the leadup to WM3. But it wasn't like the Bartman 30 for 30 that talked about Bill Buckner. But yeah, Hogan's probably a bit like a political boss, only in Wrestling. If you roll with him, everything is great, and if your interests conflicted with his interests, you were gonna hate him for that. At least until you were able to make some money with him.

I guess it's a sign of the post-death reputation boost for the Warrior that he didn't get mentioned in their section about people Andre disliked. Although they would either need to recycle Heenan footage (or have somebody else tell the story) as an example of Andre punching Warrior in the mouth in reaction to how Warrior worked Andre.

This isn't obscure trivia by any means, but Andre's last US TV appearance was on the Clash 20 in Atlanta. So, if there were bad feelings, it got to that point of Andre helping out someone he had worked with a bunch before (Watts) even while Watts was the competition to Vince. Then again, Hogan wasn't sure if Andre was gonna job to him, so I could see Vince accidentally exaggerating animosity too. Vince's whole system really does make HHH seem like a Peace Prize candidate for his ability to bring people that had been at odds with Vince back aboard. Then again, it's Vince and he can be contradictory, and some people have (jokingly?) said that being at odds with Vince somehow helped you get another shot with him. I think the Flair 30 for 30 was better than the Andre doc. But there was a lot more to work with in regards to Flair, compared to Andre.

The Andre thing is sort of a thing where you can think "why haven't they gone more in depth" before it, then after a documentary, you realize that new ground really wasn't covered. Not sure if it's possible to really cover new ground with the people around to talk about Andre. Both because of the people available and what else is there really left to cover? And in a way, if the uncovered things were negative about him, I'm not sure there'd really be an audience for "the guy who was a mythic hero in your childhood was actually bad", and that's a thing that has popped up for quite a few people in the last 5 years. Also, Shoemaker sorta comes off as the faux-historian types that show up on shows like Mysteries at the Museum. His timeline on the Andre ankle injury and the Vince expansion was bullshit. I'm not sure if Hogan's WM3 account is technically bullshit if he believed it. Vince is fascinating for reasons, and his claims of banishing bad memories/experiences is interesting when you consider certain things he has mentioned about his life growing up.

yeah, you'd think they would have had Alfred in the HOF when they were inducting people like Johnny Rodz in the mid-90s. He was in the company until 1995 and only left for the AWF in 1996. Unless the car crash happened that early, or he had some sort of grievance over the paycuts that drove him out in 1995. Stan Stasiak seems like somebody who would have landed a posthumous induction in the late 90s if they had done any inductions between 1996 and 2003.

Was watching the Backlund/Sheik - Sheik/Hogan comp from a YouTube channel. Hogan kissing up to Bob Backlund was sort of interesting since Backlund didn't make it to the end of 1984 in the WWF before leaving. Backlund and several others attempting continuity to explain that Hogan was a good guy now. Hogan doing the offense he did in every Japanese math in his first WWF matches The MSG crowd was fucking yoked for Hogan/Sheik. Also, the postmatch festivities included Mean Gene interviewing Hogan's parents (Pete and Ruth Bollea, or as they're called for the purposes of kayfabe Pete and Ruth Hogan), and the combo of them being so small next to Hogan and Hogan calling his parents by their first names would make one think that they adopted Hogan. But if it weren't for VJM thinking "Irish surname" for Hogan a few years earlier, they could have mentioned that Hogan's partially Italian. I'll leave you with the idea of Hulk Hogan joining the Full Blooded Italians in the late 90s for some reason. Thank you.

Shawn should probably shave after that haircut too, unless getting rid of shitty facial hair after a haircut is going a step too far for his look.

How do you feel WWE would have gone if Steamboat had stayed in WWE in 91 and they did a match there?I don't know if it would have ever made TV or would have been a squash to set up Flair and Savage'a feud. So we probably wouldnt have gotten Flair/Mountie/Warlord/Skinner vs Hart/Bulldog/Piper/Steamboat in a Survivor Series March with the same screwjob finish?

would the ROH experience with Sinclair suggest that any Sinclair effort to try and gain control of eyeballs would be undermined by their cheapness? But yeah, considering that they're not having the ROH announcers break into match commentary to read a must-run editorial, and that ROH's main heel stable isn't called the Deep State.. boycotting ROH because of Sinclair would be like boycotting Bacon Dippers because of Nabisco's ties to RJR.