Loss

It's kind of a lose-lose situation. I suspect Meltzer knows bringing it up is a little silly, but knows he will get criticism for it if he doesn't. I can't wait to hear the arguments that Rey *shouldn't* go in, and I know they're coming and will include the words "cruiserweight", "short" and/or "Mexican" (not necessarily in that order). The Rock is an absolute slam-dunk pick. I would be surprised if he got anything but 100% of the vote, unless HHH has a ballot for some reason. With what they've accomplished at this stage, sadly, Rey and Rock are really the last guys who aren't in the HOF who should be, except for maybe some of the pre-modern era types that Steve Yohe digs up. Will this finally be the year for Aja Kong? Or the Rock & Roll Express, who have a stronger case than the already-inducted Ted DiBiase or Kurt Angle for starters. Everyone should feel free to Gordy List anyone.

I don't think Meltzer hates Bob Backlund. He doesn't give him as much credit as he deserves in some cases, but I don't think it's an intentional snubbing. Some people have a tendency to judge his entire career based on his 1983 year and Hulkamania following it, so there's this perception that fans always hated him. Fans weren't crazy about him by that time, but he was very over and drew tons of MSG sellouts from 1978-1982.

I don't understand this mindset at all. Also, I think goodhelmet has discussed doing Steve Austin in WCW in the past, which I think would be nice. For totally understandable reasons, his time there is looked back on as a guy not reaching his potential and his WWF run completely overshadowed it, but Austin in WCW was actually fairly protected most of the time (until Hogan came in) and was usually at that bridge spot between the midcard and the main event.

Steve Austin.

Okay, okay. Can this thread please start being about Steve Austin instead of my categories? Break it up however you want, but talk about Steve Austin.

When Matt and Jeff were teaming, did they put out any new shirts or anything? If so, that could also have been part of the upswing. Don't underestimate how much money the Hardys make for the company.

Those numbers from the recent conference call make a very strong case for Cena. House show attendance up nearly 20% from this quarter last year and the most successful Wrestlemania of all time. Merchandise is averaging over $12 a head right now, which is an awesome number. I think PPV buys would be up also if there weren't so many of them.

I didn't see it. For the record, I'm not morally outraged, I'm just bored by something I perceive to be pretty dull and pointless. Just wanted to clarify that if there was any confusion.

I wonder if Ric Flair will finally run for governor of North Carolina after he retires.

I hated the Vince stuff, but mainly because I thought Vince's delivery sucked and the storyline just doesn't do anything for me. It left a sour taste when they're doing the big cliffhanger on stuff like that instead of Orton/Cena Summerslam build. I've liked Vince in 2007, but he was pretty bad last night.

I won't be writing anything like that. It's not really worth getting worked up over. I just thought last night's RAW was just a really bad show that didn't have much going for it. No big deal, I'll go back to watching stuff I actually enjoy. I'll just say that I hope the day will come soon where wrestling can go back to just being wrestling without double murder suicides and Congressional hearings and drug overdoses. Based on the heat Vince's rants got compared to the heat of the near sneak attack from Orton on Cena, most fans seem to feel the same way at this point.

I think this so far is the most petty episode of WWE television of all time, and that covers a lot of ground.

Retirement is when his wrestling career ended. 2003. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin is 1996-2003. He retired after losing to The Rock at Wrestlemania XIX. I didn't think there was any confusion over that. Post-retirement is his non-wrestling TV character feuding with Eric Bischoff and Brock Lesnar basically.

Ok, I already know exactly what I'm putting on here. It's just a matter of making the disc. I'm moved, but still getting settled, and haven't unpacked all the DVD equipment yet. Should be done this week.

Pre-Blonds "Stunning" Steve Austin - I've read lots of things the past few years from people whose opinions I value that Austin wasn't really that good early on, that he was extremely green ... various things. I do agree that he hadn't evolved into a great worker yet, but he was already really good. I enjoyed his first run as TV champ quite a bit. That title I think was a really good place to put someone who had potential but needed more ring time to let them work 10-15 minute draws on a regular basis against a pretty wide group of opponents. Without working with Steamboat, Rude, Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton, Sting, Barry Windham, etc every night during this time period, I don't think he would have ever become the superstar he finally became, because it's obvious these are the guys who taught him what he knows about how to connect with a crowd, how to draw money, how to sell and get stuff over and how to protect yourself as well. Obviously, his whole presentation left a lot to be desired. He was a workhorse in the ring, but hadn't really put anything else together yet. If you're going to rip off Ric Flair with the long blond hair, robe and long run with a belt, you have to be willing to spend a lot of money on the right look. I think he gained something for sure when he cut his hair, but he was still balding and finally losing all the hair was definitely the right move for him. It can't be said enough how much of a cheap Ric Flair knockoff he came across as at this point, even though he was more than capable in the ring and wrestled a more explosive style with more big power moves and some absolutely insane bumps he wouldn't be taking after he hit his peak for obvious reasons. I would really be interested in hearing someone shed some light on how Dave Meltzer was writing up Austin at the time. Was he paying much attention to him? Hollywood Blonds - A bit of an overrated tag team bell-to-bell, but they did have some good matches with Steamboat and Douglas. Lots of revisionist history here, with this crazy idea that the main event guys were threatened by them and Dusty lobbied to break them up and bury them, which is pretty far from what happened according to Meltzer. They loved Austin and Pillman and put them against Flair and Arn for Flair's big return to WCW at the June '93 Clash. The show drew a really disappointing rating, and Austin and Pillman took the blame for it. Dusty felt Austin needed to be separated from Pillman and that he was being misused being stuck in a tag team that couldn't draw, as proved by the low Clash rating. So they split them up. Austin was upset because he and Pillman worked hard and put a lot of time into getting it over, but WCW didn't think they were as over as they should have been, and there was also a perception that Austin was carrying the team (which was actually true by this point). Post-Blonds "Stunning" Steve Austin - This was the point when Austin showed signs of being ready to go to the next level, but didn't get there for many reasons, some his fault and some not. I think he could be considered pretty great in the ring by this point, and I was a big fan of his the first half of '94. Hogan coming in really hurt him, but he didn't do himself any favors allegedly milking injuries and walking out on TV tapings where he was scheduled to job either. For the record, the whole story about Flair planning to put the belt on him is something Scott Keith made completely up or read on RSPW or something. It's not that there were plans to bury Austin, but there weren't plans to put him on top either, at least none that Meltzer has ever been aware of. Obviously, I'm sure Bischoff wishes he'd worked harder to keep Austin in hindsight, but looking at things without knowing what would happen in the future, it's easy to see where Eric was coming from on that one. Steve Austin in ECW - This was the first time I saw Austin do a great interview. I think that's what stands out here. The Ringmaster - Obviously not the best use of Austin, but he'd turn things around. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin - I was a big fan in 1996-1997, and for some reason couldn't get into him as much when it became all about Austin vs Undertaker all the time. When Bret left, some of my interest in Steve Austin also left for a while. But I was in the minority and this was easily the best time period of his career, and is arguably the best run any wrestler has ever had anywhere. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin post-retirement - Not a huge fan. I understand why they used him after he retired, because he still could have had something to offer, but seeing him stun people week after week for no reason, especially when he stunned Stacy Keibler after we knew about his alcoholism and spousal abuse, made things hard to watch at times. Wrestlemania XIX really should have been the last time we ever saw him. It was a completely fitting end to a stellar career.

Pre-Blonds "Stunning" Steve Austin Hollywood Blonds Post-Blonds "Stunning" Steve Austin Steve Austin in ECW The Ringmaster "Stone Cold" Steve Austin "Stone Cold" Steve Austin post-retirement Austin is a good guy to try this with, since his career has taken so many drastic turns. This is motivated by watching him on the Dangerous Alliance set.

Added quite a few Dangerous Alliance matches to 1991, and Ricky Steamboat vs Rick Rude from Beach Blast to 1992. Reviews to come.

I'm a little frightened at what the plans may be for RAW this week. One of the biggest issues WWE has always had is the lack of unpredictability or spontaneity, and that the writers try to do too much. All the pressure from Vince is just going to make the writers do more scripting and contrived comedy, when they already do way too much promo writing and forced comedy. In a way, it is a good thing that Vince acknowledges they've gotten content and wants to go in a new direction and try new things, but I hope it's not just another one of his phases, like focusing on refs enforcing rules or divas being presented as sophisticated women. It's the first acknowledgement I can think of in years that WWE has made that things are not as they should be. But with the current group of people who are responsible for putting things together, the prospect of them overthinking things and trying too hard is even more scary than them being stuck in auto-pilot and bad formula. Should be an interesting RAW if nothing else. Wrestling is like cooking seafood in that the most simple approach is usually the best one.

If WWE allows someone to illegally use one of their trademarks without trying to get it stopped, it creates a precedent and makes it harder to get it stopped in the future if someone uses one of their trademarks in a way that could actually hurt them. "Vince" may have better things to do, but he has an entire department in his company devoted to this sort of thing. It's possible he got permission to use the name Razor Ramon for this show though.

That is outstanding!

And besides that, anyone who thinks any recent decline in popularity can be attributed to anything EXCEPT wrestling's reputation as a result of the Benoit tragedy is so caught up in the wrestling bubble that they're hopeless.

Were they possibly using that godawful "because I'm a Freebird and what was your excuse" song (the one they used and entered the ring with a horrible lip sync act at one of the Clashes) by this point? Or did they start that affront to humanity right around the time they were hooked up with Big Daddy Dink and Bradstreet? They started using that during the Kip Frey era, I think debuting it at Clash XVIII in Topeka, KS, a couple of years after this. Frey apparently loved Hayes and Garvin enough to take them off the road for a few months to get them over as something special and also give them $50,000 raises.

Rick Rude was so awesome, and he does get some credit, but I still think he's underrated. Especially in terms of the influence on later gimmicks.

There is going to be a ton of pressure on the returning big names to deliver in a big way. WWE I don't see panicking yet, just because I think they think the returns of HHH, Michaels, Taker and Rey will save them. But yeah, WCW Nitro 2000-level ratings are probably the last thing they want right now.