Loss

I wonder if WWE would try to use Cena the same way they always used Austin when he was injured, where he had limited physical involvement, but did lots of interviews and would beat people up in short brawls. I also wonder why WWE doesn't take that approach more when guys are injured, instead of having them disappear. Even if guys aren't able to wrestle right now, the star power is needed.

I look forward to the fight between HHH and Chris Jericho over that top babyface spot.

I'm curious if we'll get candid commentary from people involved in the demise of World Class, stars such as HHH, Steve Lombardi and Jim Ross. I do remember hearing that this was going to be framed as Michael Hayes being the "architect" and major drawing card of the territory. I expect a mess.

I do think this match has been a bit overrated through time (top 20 of the 80s? No way ...), but it's still very good. Kobayashi is sort of the lost junior for me, better than the majority of his peers that get more credit. Way better than Koshinaka, and almost on par with Liger and Takada. Yes, this is Misawa.

I'm not a big fan of Flair/Taylor as a series. Taylor is a guy who I always thought was good, but was never going to do anything remarkable. Their match in New Orleans is not one of my favorites. So I was surprised when I liked this as much as I did. You mention Flair not working over the leg enough, which is an interesting comment, considering he was probably the only guy who used the figure four in the 80s that even bothered to set it up at all. DiBiase didn't. Santana didn't. Taylor didn't. I can see why this would come across odd, because Watts booking actually protected the move and didn't use it as a mid-match transition to babyface comeback like many Flair title defenses, but I think the layout of this match and the build to the finish was very well done. This was in large part because of the nature of the figure four build.

Santo and Casas were the captains I believe. To me, this is most notable for that insane Santo dive, and also getting to see him as Hollywood Hogan in Mexico. 1996 was the year of babyface icons turning heel, but this blew away any examples of that in WCW.

I really liked this quite a bit myself. Ricky Morton was extremely new to wrestling at this point, I believe in his first year. This match just shows that he was a natural, and is one of those guys who probably just walked in and got it right away. Lawler is great here also. It's said for a lot of guys, but Morton is honestly one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, and I really think he's underrated even by most of the people who like him. We're talking about someone who should be discussed alongside guys like Barry Windham, Ricky Steamboat and Eddy Guerrero, but rarely is.

So I'm going through my DVDs and have a ton of unwatched RINGS stuff from 1991-1997. I was wondering if someone can maybe hook me up with a history or match reviews of some of the stuff or something, because I'm trying to condense my entire collection to just the essentials, and I don't want to not keep something good. The other option is to watch every bit of it, which I may end up having to do, but any recommendations would be nice. I know about the more pimped Volk Han stuff, so no need to mention any of that. The goal would be that I would save anything historically significant, featuring key names or above average as a match. Any help is appreciated. Thanks. (I know about Quebrada, but I usually have polar opposite opinions from Lorefice. I thought about just keeping the stuff he called bad matches, but thought that might be slightly overboard. I will also do some DVDVR searching, so no need to post links to reviews from there or anything. Just curious what's out there.)

Everything has gone out. Please PM or e-mail me if there are any problems. Thanks to everyone for their patience. Hope you enjoy the new DVD. Once again, I do ask that everyone post here when their disc is received just so I know.

Oddly, I just saw Mr. Fuji do an overhead belly to belly suplex ... in 1983.

I like Cena a lot, but I do agree that now may be a good time to switch the title, not because Cena is doing horrible or anything, but just because they need to do something strong to lure people back in. It's time for some type of big angle involving the main event -- a big heel turn, a title change, something -- to lure people back in after a rough few months. I think John Cena Sr. is the only actual angle they've done in main events in months. Most of the time lately, it's just random guy challenging with promo and a bunch of heatless staredowns.

I'll continue to Tivo Raw, but will probably either just skim it or delete it without even watching unless I hear something cool happened.

Someone asked his thoughts on Haystacks Calhoun and also I think asked for a suggestion of something good to order at his restaurant.

I put this in Comments That Don't Warrant A Thread, because I forgot we had this thread. It works better here. From his latest blog entry:

Something I don't understand about doctors -- if HHH goes to the hospital for a quad tear, why aren't they doing a drug test in the hospital? Most of the time, anyone injured on the job is given a drug test automatically. Is it something that requires consent of the patient, or something that they're able to circumvent legally because of the independent contractor status? Is that more something companies normally do to protect themselves, while WWE for obvious reasons would not request it when an injury occurred?

I know this is totally not WWE's fault, but not a good time for a news item like this.

This little news item will certainly result in a lecture from Jim Ross on his blog.

I don't accept it to be true, as much as I am willing to accept that it may be true. Alvarez said today in the new F4W that his WWE sources know nothing of it, but do acknowledge there was a "personal" issue last year, assumed to be drug-related.

Yeah, I've had a slight delay due to work. They will go out this Saturday. Apologies for that. I haven't been able to make it to the PO yet.

My comparison was more Bruno, Dusty, etc. coming in to help house show attendance while Backlund headlined. It's similar to the comebacks of Austin, Rock, Hogan, Foley, etc. at big shows in the past few years, shows headlined by HHH much of the time.

I always thought HHH and Backlund made a good comparison in terms of positioning. Both are guys who have drawn money, but their importance in that is debated constantly. Both are guys who have had quite a few good matches, but whose opponents usually get the majority of the credit. Both can be argued as being successful at times in their role, and also turning fans off at times in their role. Both are guys who peaked in an era when other strong draws were helping boost numbers on shows as well. I imagine in 20 years, HHH will be discussed on Wrestling Classics, with tOA types defending him, and stating reasons why guys like Jericho and Angle wouldn't make better guys to build around, much in the same way they do so now with people like Valentine and DiBiase. Backlund was a guy who was considered overrated in the ring, but was also in his share of MOTY-level matches, also just like HHH. It's not a situation like Hogan or Warrior where either guy is completely despised by nearly 100% of the hardcore base. It leaves a big opportunity open for HHH to be re-evaluated and rediscovered, and I suspect the same type of fan that defends Bob Backlund in 2007 will be defending HHH in 2027. Perhaps DVDVR will be accused of purposely leaving Helmsley matches off of their Best of the 00's set to spite his fans.

Chris Benoit committed suicide and the industry he worked for certainly came under fire. Three pro wrestlers have committed suicide this year. A main eventer apparently being suicidal at some point is major wrestling news.

Since when? Goodhelmet has suspended you from the board for the next 32,000 days.

Pretty sure that was in the Lariat at some point ...

Meltzer said that would be the problem with counseling, that guys wouldn't do it. Voluntary counseling he's probably right. Required annual psychiatric exams would be a little different.