Loss

Letting Angle get all those lines in and giving Cena no mic time sounds like an attempt to undercut him, but I haven't seen the show, so maybe I'm wrong.

Plenty, according to almost everyone who's seen a Jerry Lawler match since he became an announcer, if you count his indy work. Lawler/Helms did indeed look like the best match on the show on paper coming into this.

Batista, a near-40 year old guy who won't even be around in two years, most likely. HHH still has a chance with Van Dam, and I'd probably lay off of HHH quite a bit if upon his return, HHH put him over in the same fashion he put over Batista this year, as in that case, he'd actually be putting over a guy who has long-term potential as a top guy. Too late for Jericho, though, and too late to completely write off the downfall HHH has caused the company.

Triple H just came back from taking a break. It doesn't matter what he does, people will always shit on him. I'm not arguing that point. I'm arguing that HHH taking time off affects the company in a big way since they book so much around him most of the time. And yes, HHH will always be shat upon, unless he can build a time machine and go back and convincingly put over Chris Jericho and Rob Van Dam.

As someone mentioned on another board, Juventud does need a job now.

There are implications in wrestling. HHH and/or Stephanie possibly taking time off for part of the year affects the entire company, as does the possibility of Stephanie's hormone-induced booking. We're already seeing Vince McMahon use TV to fight with his inner demons over turning 60, so who knows what sort of effect Stephanie's pregnancy will have. Acknowledging it isn't really that big of a deal.

From WWE.com: I'm not quite sure what the appropriate reaction is here.

Bret Hart v Yokozuna - WWF 08/20/93 San Francisco, CA; Cage Match HOLY SHIT! I've seen the match on the Inside the WWF set, which I thought was really good, but this one is even better. This is probably a top five Bret Hart for me and it's easily miles above anything else Yokozuna ever did. 25 minute Yokozuna escape rules cage matches don't sound particularly good on paper, but Bret made it work. There's only so much Yoko can do, and Bret got the most out of all of those things, building up Yoko's three big moves (legdrop, Bansai drop, belly-to-back suplex) to the absolute maximum. There's a real horror movie feel to the climbing here, where you're practically screaming at Bret to get out of the cage because you know time is limited, and I think that's the desired reaction. When the Best of the 90s WWF set happens here at NMB, this is a match I insist on including. There are a few repeated sequences, which does drag the match down a little, but Yoko keeps trying the same big moves and Bret's counters are always different. Yoko, to his credit, does some great "Timber!" bumps. I prefer this to Bret's matches with guys like Nash and Undertaker, even though those guys are better athletes than Yoko, just because there's so much more melodrama here. Bret can somewhat reasonably have a competitive match with guys that size, but here, he has to be a little more creative, and he is. Also, to Yoko's credit, Bret's clotheslines and punches are put over as very meaningful, and there are really good payoffs for all the heel work and manager interference. Every action in this match sparks a reaction. ****1/4

Wow, Tim, Memphis has really become the death of you, hasn't it? Are you still finding it difficult to enjoy non-80s Memphis and NWA footage?

We'll never know for sure, although you'll notice how quiet Savage is during Hogan's post-match celebration.

But all fans are like that. WWE audience have been known to boo things out of the building time after time the past few years.

If a Canadian crowd boos top babyface Shawn Michaels, and they have Internet access, does that make them smarks?

I prefer the term hardcore fans. The word "smark" has a negative connotation, and it's not even a real word. It's basically saying that if I look at things in that light when watching wrestling, I'm the one people are sick of bitching about Cena, when I'm not bitching at all about Cena. Know what I mean?

I still don't know what a smark is. I just know there are hardcore fans and casual fans, and there are idiots and people who know what they're talking about. A mark is someone who believes what they're watching is real, and I can't see anyone thinking that at this point.

I think there's footage of the bear wrestling The Destroyer, available through Destroyer's website. I'm not sure about that, though. Cornette's quip that the bear was better than Kevin Nash was humorous (and probably true).

And most (but not all) of the time, the big matches on TV didn't feature clean finishes or they were still in progress when the show went off the air, selling the idea that if you wanted to see one of these matches in full, you'd have to buy a ticket.

I still think Watts showed some stuff on TV that surprised me at times. Terry Taylor won the North American title from Ted DiBiase in a studio match. Wouldn't the title change have made more sense at the Superdome or at a larger venue? He also lost it on TV, although at that point, the belt was a prop to set up Taylor/Flair at the Superdome anyway.

For the most part. There were those matches that aired on the Houston show that didn't air everywhere, and they had more than one TV show every week at some points, and not every market received both shows with all the exact same material. Even if they did, no one cared about ratings then to the degree they do now, so it's not a good comparison.

I've actually thought a lot about that very subject lately. I'd like to see *more* Internet interaction, but with more kayfabe on the Internet. Use every form of media possible to tell stories. Have wrestlers insult each other on their blogs, insult each other in print, etc. WWE has been better at globalizing their product for modern times than any other company has ever come close to, really, but there's still a world of room for improvement. The approach is still very sectionalized -- magazines push storylines hard that are forgotten or downplayed on the air; the website has a detached feel from the company instead of being used as a tool to promote their agenda. Bringing in a third party to evaluate the workflow and communication between departments might not be a bad idea. The point remains, however, that with wrestling in a virtually powerless position these days on TV, they aren't censored at all in print or on the Internet, and they should use that to their advantage. It would take what would practically be a reinvention of the wheel and it would involve a lot of annoying naysayers who fear change, but I think multimedia storylines (that agree with each other and are organized by the same writer or group of writers) has potential.

It does play into it though, because with WWE's entire audience having access to everything they do, it's much easier to overexpose talent. In Mid South, they could hype a huge show in Houston and a huge show in New Orleans featuring largely the same talent in the same spots, both would do well, and it wouldn't burn anyone out at all. WWE can't hide things from their audience like Mid South could. I think Watts had it more difficult in some ways and easier in other ways. I think a better comparison is Crockett to Vince, but Crockett's style even had more in common with Watts than 2006 WWE.

Shit like this is proof that the world would be a better place if it were run entirely by women. Women wouldn't (and don't) pull this hazing/earn your stripes bullshit.

Watts' 1980s business model and Vince's 2005 business model are so completely different that it's hard to compare them. Watts wasn't in the pay-per-view business, and television was just an infomercial to promote his core product, which was house shows. Vince McMahon's business model is based on television ratings and PPV buy rates, with house shows actually serving as a loss leader. I think there are different elements in play in successfully hyping a pay-per-view and successfully hyping a non-televised house show, and I should start a thread about it some time when I've had time to think it through.

I think if the Bret Hart series ever comes out, it will be quite amazing as well. Rumor has it that Bret has written something like 500 or 600 pages and he's only to mid-80s WWF.

For Sheik matches, get the Sheik/Abby v Funks RWTL finals matches from the late 70s. I think you'll like them.

It's also important to remember that TNA was created to be a successful wrestling promotion second and a vehicle to make Jeff Jarrett a star first. Whether that's the goal or not now, I don't know, but it's hard to trust the company when they know what the problem is and refuse to do anything about it. They aren't much different from WWE in that regard.