Loss

It's definitely not helping, but there's no way the crowd could react that would affect Jeff Jarrett being the top guy.

It amazes me how many people are screaming to take the belt off Cena because of the crowd reaction. He isn't adversely affecting ratings or buyrates, and his merchandise is still moving quite well. There's no reason to take the belt off of him anytime in the near future. Also, I have to laugh when I come across people who make comments about Angle not having ever tapped in the Olympics and winning with a broken neck. You can't "tap" in amateur wrestling and from everything I've heard, the broken neck story was either severely exaggerated or is totally worked. Finally, Steve Austin having "shit" matches in 1998-1999 is another laugh a minute. Austin was past his physical prime, yes, and he wasn't at the level he was in 1996-1997, but he was still a great worker who had Rock's best match period up until that point at Backlash '99 and had what I feel is an underrated match against the Undertaker at Summerslam '98. As for the Foley match, the formula is beyond stale now, but at the time, it was great fun and got major praise. Austin was far from Gene Snitsky levels in 1998-1999.

Yeah, I've thought recently that we're in the era now, or at least we should be, in the era where we start complaining that Benoit and Jericho aren't putting people over like they should and they're too dominant.

That's because regardless if someone is being selfish, if everyone is making money, it's not hurting anyone, so there's no reason to protest it. When those payoffs start shrinking and more releases start happening, you start creating questions and the wrestlers want answers, so the finger pointing starts.

It seems like these sorts of things always happen on Smackdown, which is where the Undertaker, Bob Holly and JBL are. And little stories have come out over the past few months of Benoit treating a lot of the new guys like ass as well.

Credit: PWInsider.com It's far, far, far too easy to get heat in wrestling. Just a reminder of why I'll never try to get into it.

Not to mention that at the rate they're paying him, they better squeeze every penny they can, since it's going to take some major mathematical creativity to make it seem like hiring Sting for that price was a good idea.

Hikari Fukuoka

Botswana Beast

She's actually an accomplished actress with a better-than-usual resume for WWE hires.

Victoria

Yes.

Really need to read Hooker by Lou Thesz, since it's been called the most important book ever written about wrestling and all. Problem is that finding it is nearly impossible.

The part about S, L & H that bothered me was that they had exact quotes that Vince and Linda said to each other in private. If it was supposed to be a greatly exaggerated, grandiose tale of Vince McMahon, that's one thing, but it was pushed as a historical look at his rise to power. Flair's bashing of Bret and mindless praise of HHH and HBK is annoying, yes, but no more annoying than Mick Foley spending eons in his second book defending WWE against the PTC. Flair's timeline was also very messed up, especially when he bashed Foley, not realizing that Foley was attacking him for *two separate* booking runs in 1989-1990 and 1993-1994. Foley had a better timeline of Flair's career than Flair had. Flair also totally missed Foley's point. He wasn't arguing that he wasn't pushed as hard as he should have been, he was arguing that Flair was a callous asshole who said some things to him that nearly drove him into a legitimate depression. Flair had no response for that aspect whatsoever, because all he understood was that mean things were said, which meant he had to say mean things in return, no matter what they were.

Yeah. PWI actually taught me how to be a wrestling fan, since they typically did stuff like tear into Hogan and praise Flair, and that sort of thing.

Oh, and Ricky Steamboat is still possibly pushing for a match with Flair this year at Wrestlemania.

AJ Styles is expected to face Hiroshi Tanahashi at next week's pay-per-view. Samoa Joe injured his ankle at a recent IWA Mid South show. He appeared in front of the audience to tell them that he hurt himself, thinking that would be better than someone else doing it. He's expected to be OK by this weekend. AJ Styles was on Powerslam radio recently and noted that a lot of guys are directionless because of all the WWE guys coming in and taking their spots, and also that Jeff Jarrett getting as much TV time as he is is "confusing". He said Russo talked him into working his show and not Ring of Honor because Abyss is safe in the ring and he wouldn't be risking further injury like he would in ROH. More personality profiles, similar to the one done on Rhino, are in the works. TNA radio debuted this past week, hosted by Bryan Fritz. PPVs will be broadcast in streaming off of the website beginning in March. Shane Douglas' wife gave birth to their second child last week.

A new WWE DVD is coming out, called ECW's Most Extreme Matches. Paul Heyman is hosting. The idea behind hiring Shelton Benjamin's mama is to get him over as a mama's boy heel. The thought process is that she will get so over that he'll be over just by being associated with her. She's currently under a three-month deal, but it's expected that if she gets over like they expect, they will renew her deal. WWE was mad that Ted DiBiase collapsing made the Internet, despite the fact that it was reported by WWE.com. It wasn't heart problems, but rather the same inner ear condition that Ric Flair had at one time. Charlie Haas has officially re-signed with WWE. Fit Finlay has been training very hard for months for his comeback, and he's going to be on SmackDown. Shane Helms' grandmother passed away the day after Christmas and he worked RAW anyway.

Naomichi Marufuji

It makes me laugh that WWE can spend weeks finding someone to play Shelton's mama, but Stephanie McMahon can't spend an afternoon visiting OVW.

Itsuki Yamazaki

04/21/80 - Pat Patterson v Ken Patera (WWF) Really liked this match. Far from great, but really good, with lots of very basic, but effective stuff. Patterson is fantastic as a babyface and is probably the best seller of everyone from his era. His pulverizing of Patera's arm is also awesome, although I do wish that would have gone somewhere, because it was set up so beautifully. Still, a ***1/2 effort with great heat and strong command of the basics. 10/11/80 - Bob Backlund v Larry Zbyszko (WWF) I liked this one far more than probably anyone else in the entire world, I think. Yes, there's lots of stalling and restholds, but it's all done so effectively, played for heat, built properly, sold properly, executed properly and timed properly. The build to Larry wailing Backlund with whatever object was in his hand was nicely done, with the announcers and fans going crazy minutes ahead of time that Zbyszko had something and the ref not noticing. Also, terrific spots galore, such as Backlund's monkey flip and some of his matwork that words don't really accurately describe. Wrestlers could have matches like this and please the crowd without killing themselves and I still have a feeling it would work. Fans are so conditioned to that nonstop action style these days; someone who knows how to stall the right way is needed and they'd instantly be over as a heel because it would tap in so well to fan instinct and selfish desires to see guys kill themselves. I don't care what anyone says - Zbyszko rocks! Yet another piece of proof that Bob Backlund was the best wrestler in the world in 1980. ****

Kaoru Ito

I've heard the Lawler book labeled as disappointing as well, which is unfortunate, since his story is one of the greatest in wrestling.

Agreed 100%. It's that old school mentality that has its plusses and minuses. I won't say guys that have debuted in wrestling from 1998-present haven't made sacrifices because I don't know them personally, but I can't imagine any of them making the same sacrifices as guys who broke in prior to 1998.