Loss

To add more to the insanity going on in the company right now, WWE is wanting Coach to pin Austin at the PPV tomorrow night after Mark Henry costs him the match. Stupidest booking move in some time. While I do think they sometimes keep Austin too strong in certain situations, the least they could do if they're going to go this route is try to get an active wrestler over with the loss. They're also killing their hopeful WM XXII main event in the process.

Has WWE hit a five-year low, just in the past month alone, or is it me?

Christian quitting the company could influence Chris Jericho to go to TNA as well. This is the biggest story in a long time, and the long-term implications are huge.

I think we talk too much about Wrestlemania III at this board and not about any other groundbreaking moments myself.

I thought the perfect match to fit the Draconian nature of the stips at Survivor Series 2001 would have started with one guy from the WWF facing one guy from the Alliance, with the loser being eliminated and the winner going on to face the next guy out. You could get over at least a half-dozen guys huge in that scenario, with the entire PPV being just one long-running match and the winning side being the one who had successfully eliminated everyone on the other team.

Agreed. A singles match going that long would be ridiculous, but I can see the case for a match with 15 falls going that long.

The match was an interesting case for me in that I wasn't all that blown away while it was happening, but five minutes after it was over, I realized how amazing it was. Agreed on the ***** rating.

Ok, what do you see as the last big show of the initial Hogan era? Or, the last peak performance of Flair as world champ? Or something else.

I wouldn't credit the entire buyrate to Benoit and Guerrero either, but they were both very important in hyping that show and were both part of a successful formula. It's important to note that the previous year's Wrestlemania featured the returns of Steve Austin and the Rock, and Hogan/Vince, and it was considered a failure by Wrestlemania standards. There are no guarantees in terms of star power. I think the main point I wanted to make is that I think Benoit and Guerrero are absolutely nothing like Styles and Daniels, neither in their wrestling style or the way they're pushed. They are far more like Michaels and Angle than they are anyone in TNA.

The reason we usually focus on things like quality of work is not because we think it's "all that matters", but rather because it's more subjective and makes for a more interesting discussion. If we based it on drawing power, we know Austin, Hogan and Rock are going to be in the top three spots and it's a list of hard facts rather than something requiring at least some level of thought.

Agreed. And "2001" gets played all the time at non-wrestling events and occasionally in movies and it always makes me think of Ric Flair.

I think that point could have been made without naming names, honestly, considering that Benoit and Guerrero headlined one of the most successful Wrestlemanias in history.

I think one way TNA can distinguish themselves is to not give every single wrestler a music entrance. That way, the ones who do have it will stand out more. JJ Dillon once made a great point about how deep down, he thinks cool music for a heel confuses the fans because they want to cheer when they hear the awesome intro, but the company is trying to get the wrestler over as a heel. I think that's something of which TNA might try to be conscious, if only because they might stand a chance of getting some mileage out of the whole deal. I'm not sure if I agree or disagree with Dave Meltzer on the situation, which is that every wrestler's theme should be a currently popular song instead of something made in-house, so that way when fans hear the song on the radio, they immediately think of the wrestler. The only problem with that is that once the song falls from the charts, the wrestler has to get a new theme.

I saw that. Has to be a total crock of shit, since his child is four years old and child support wouldn't be based on old earnings, obviously.

From Meltzer's latest feedback: Anyone fill in the blanks on what Dave actually said? Thanks.

I still think they need to oversaturate the hell out of the DVD market even more than they already are. They could make a killing going all out and releasing complete MSG shows on the cheap or doing "complete seasons" of RAW, Nitro, etc. At this rate, they still won't have everything I want them to release released before I die. There should be more than 5-6 retrospective DVDs per year -- it should be more like 25-30.

The only time I refer to a wrestler by their real name is in a case like Ed Leslie or Paul Wight where they've had multiple gimmicks and you're not sure which one to refer to them as. And in those specific cases, if only briefly, they've both been referred to as their real names on TV. In person, I wouldn't call either one of them by their real name, though.

I don't think they should always seek to put the best possible matches on every set. Sometimes, they need to shoot for historical significance. I'm glad they didn't put five Owen Hart matches on this set, for example, even if they're all great. It gives them a chance to cover Bret's career with a better narrative perspective and in clearer fashion.

5. Book more storylines surrounding the X-Division. If they can get those guys working matches with some buildup and not just spotfest thrown out there to be cute, they'll really have something special. Give AJ Styles a knee injury in his next match with Daniels and have him sell it over the next 6-8 months while still wrestling. It gets Daniels over as a badass and gets Styles over as a never-say-die fighter, not just a guy with cool moves.

If we made it even 1989-present, that would make a huge difference in cases like Ric Flair.

I'm having trouble motivating myself to watch the last few discs. Did you get your discs from one of the "official" places? If so, I guess you kinda have to watch unless you want to be banned from the board and not allowed to receive any more DVDs. Who knows if they'll follow through with that, but they did threaten it early on.

GH, that would be the whole purpose of the categories. We don't have to worry about Japanese wrestlers getting slighted if we don't do a countdown to include them. Just a thought. Then again, there's probably no one style of wrestling that everyone knows enough about to go full force with this. Maybe, maybe not. Sure, we could do WWE, but how many people feel like they've seen enough Bruno Sammartino matches to evaluate him in comparison with Hart, Hogan, etc?

Yeah, Smarkschoice was going list crazy for a while way back, so I know the point system to work it on. You pick the first category and we can all submit a private ballot by "x" date and then do a countdown.

Sasuke was great, even "The Great" at times (har!), but I don't think he had a long enough stretch to be the best, personally. That said, he's at least worthy of discussion here. Don't know how I feel about Owen. One thing that helps Liger's case even more is the fact that he had 3-4 great years before he even started the Liger gimmick.