Loss

If he's not back by the RAW after GAB (two weeks from now), then we can assume that this is correct. That will be when the Summerslam hype kicks into overdrive, and he'll be there immediately if he's going to be on the show.

Yeah, but who knows, maybe HHH really wanted the time off. I'm kinda shocked that he has gone this long without collapsing or suffering a major health setback, because being the top guy is an incredibly stressful position. I guess the security of knowing that even if you bomb, you still have your spot is a factor, along with him not working quite as many house shows as he once did. He also used to wrestle on TV every single week and now averages probably one TV match a month.

Meltzer kind of alluded to it on the website, but didn't come out and say it. He just mentioned the dark match lineups changing and called it further proof that HHH didn't want to be around with Hogan around.

Meltzer seems to think he doesn't want to be around at all when Hogan is around.

* Shinya Hashimoto dies * WWE releases a fifth of their roster * Jim Cornette gets released from his duties in OVW and is (temporarily?) replaced by Paul Heyman * WWE airs a controversial "terrorist" angle on Smackdown involving Muhammad Hassan and Undertaker * Shawn Michaels turns heel on Hulk Hogan * HHH disappears and isn't coming back in the near future * Kenta Kobashi agrees to do a match in ROH * Hulk Hogan debuts his new reality show * Brock Lesnar most likely resigns with WWE * Matt Hardy's no-compete expires Wow. This has been the biggest week of news for wrestling in ages. I actually had to go check some websites and make sure I didn't miss anything here if that tells you anything.

Vote for the team that you feel had the best run as a tag team from 1985 to 2005. Voting will last approximately 24 hours and the winner of each match will advance to the second round. Because the goal of the tournament is to promote discussion, please feel free to explain how you came to your decision as much as possible.

Vote for the team that you feel had the best run as a tag team from 1985 to 2005. Voting will last approximately 24 hours and the winner of each match will advance to the second round. Because the goal of the tournament is to promote discussion, please feel free to explain how you came to your decision as much as possible.

Talk about stunned! This is the last thing I expected to read.

That's ... definitely surprising. Heyman is going to be lost and embarrassing if he tries to pull of ECW in Kentucky.

Because I don't know how I feel about this ... ... is this different from Eddie Gilbert and the Koloffs burying Bill Watts under a Russian flag during the Cold War?

This is where I stand on everything I think.

I'm not sure if I agree with that or not. Katie Vick was offensive because it had absolutely nothing to do with pro wrestling and was a dumb idea, but I don't know who it could have offended on a personal level. Necrophiliacs having their good name mocked? I see Katie Vick as more of a dumb idea that showed how out of touch WWE was with the audience than anything that could potentially offend any group of people. I'd say that's pretty close, and what's even worse is that this gimmick is most likely going to flop, and Chavo, perhaps the most awesomely underrated wrestler on the roster, will end up like Val Venis or Charles Wright and end up in purgatory. I think this is a dumb idea, mainly because of the name they gave him, but I think it would play better on Smackdown with him actually feuding with a babyface Latino. That said, it's more excessive than wrestling needs to be. To me, that's probably the most offensive thing they've ever done, along with maybe Faarooq and Bradshaw going to a gay bar on RAW in 2002 and all the men casually hanging out in dresses. That was more pathetic and out of touch than offensive even, I suppose. Trish barking like a dog was just awful and seemed like Vince getting revenge on some really hot girl that turned him down in high school. It was disturbing and I'm sure a chunk of the female audience that tuned in for the HHH/Steph/Angle love triangle tuned out when they did this. WWE has a horrible habit of not looking at the big picture. There's your understatement of the year. The problem with this angle is that Hassan is an American who thinks he's being discriminated against because of his ethnicity, and he's a whining heel for pointing it out. That could be somewhat offensive. Now, Hassan has proven everyone right -- that Arab Americans *don't* deserve to be treated like everyone else because they have masked thugs at their disposal and will attack those who attempt to silence them by dedicating the beating to Allah. That's the case in the WWE universe anyway. That may be the point that the line was crossed. I honestly can see both sides of this clearly enough that I'm not sure where I stand. But I wanted to give some food for thought.

I actually think it would be fascinating to see how many people watch wrestling for the purpose of escapist entertainment, and how many don't see that as one of the issues. I'm not sure which it would be. I know that in the past, we had Russian heels during a Cold War, and we even had an Iraqi sympathizer during the Gulf War, and part of me wants to say WWE attempting to stay relevant isn't a bad thing, but I'll admit that the other part of me sees this as really desperate booking, seeing dollar signs in the really strong patriotism/jingoism stateside right now and wanting to market it. That's sort of stupid though, because domestic business is dying a miserable death, and the more isolated they become in the way they book guys like Hassan, the less they're going to draw internationally.

I need some more time to formulate my thoughts and give this thread the attention that it deserves, but it's making for a great, spirited read.

Was anything in either issue about HHH taking time off? He sort of alluded to that in his news update yesterday, as all the interpromotional dark matches have been changed and HHH is no longer in them.

Okay, THIS cracked me up. Read the Meltzer typo thread and then read the last post I made in the Jindrak thread or this won't make sense. Jim Cornette was announced on WWE.com as being released, and they even spelled his name "Cornett" instead of "Cornette", just to annoy us. Anyway, getting to the joke, someone at DVDVR posted this and I can't stop laughing.

I guess that means Shawn will be a babyface again by fall so he can promote his book. That's also not the first time I've heard Bonnie Hammer's name. IIRC, she was the USA exec that demanded answers when Nitro started spanking RAW and began leading focus groups trying to figure out what needed to be changed on RAW and making major suggestions, most of which were taken. She also helped implement the RAW Is War/The War Zone format, which allowed WWE to sell ad times for two different shows as opposed to one.

Proving that the company has absolutely no shame, they actually had WWE.com interview Charlie Haas and Jackie Gayda about their release! How fucked up is that? Gayda doesn't plan on having a future in wrestling according to this, but considering that Haas does, she'd be hurting his future chances by refusing to be interviewed. Anyway, here it is.

Ricky Morton should ask for more money. He has a better track record on the indies of drawing money than almost any of those guys. Then again, I think he's afraid to push things. "I couldn't get a job popping fucking popcorn in WCW." -- Morton, in his Highspots shoot interview

I was just wondering if the Dudleyz have ever wrestled a really good, no-gimmick, face-in-peril, face/heel tag match. They may have and I'm just not remembering it, but I was curious.

Alas, he can finally respond to Kevin Nash's claims that OVW is a waste of time since it's run by a guy who never drew money.

Match #13 - Hardy Boyz v Hart Foundation -- This one is a close one for me honestly, because the Hardyz were capable of being good-great workers in the right environment, but in the WWF, they got more over for being spotkateers and Jeff was never really able to evolve beyond that while Matt had mixed results. Hart Foundation, however, was below the standards of the time and Bret was held back teaming with Neidhart. They had some decent matches with the Bulldogs, but since Bret is the only guy in most of those that's willing to really sell, and he's the heel, it's hard to call them a great team. I think I'm going to go with the Hardyz. Match #14 - Harlem Heat v Fabulous Freebirds (Hayes/Gordy/Roberts) -- Freebirds all the way. Harlem Heat were actually a better team than they were given credit for, especially around mid-1995 when Booker T started really improving, but the Birds are one of the best teams of all time. Match #15 - Heavenly Bodies v Dudley Boyz -- Heavenly Bodies in a walk. The few matches they had in WWF/WCW were all really good and they carried the load as money-drawing heels in SMW against the Rock & Roll Express. I have never seen a standard face-in-peril tag match from the Dudleyz that I'd call a good one, even if they're both great bumpers and Bubba Ray has some fun comedic offense. With the Bodies, I can point to the Loser Leaves Town cage match with the RnRs or the endless matches they had with the RnRs on the house show circuit that were solid to good to great. I wish more people could see SMW -- it rocked! Match #16 - The Russians (Ivan/Nikita/Kruschev) v Brainbusters -- I'm going with Arn and Tully here. It's closer than it appears to be, as the Russians were almost unparalleled for drawing heel heat in their time, and they had lots of good-great extended tag matches that just never happened on PPV and aren't available on commercial video. Ivan Koloff is a legendary worker and rarely gets credit for it because most of his stuff is so hard-to-find. That said, I think he's a better old man heel than Flair ever has been. Arn and Tully did have the Luger/Windham match at Clash I and also had the match with Windham turning heel on 04/20/88 that was great fun and they managed to have some energetic tags with Sting & [insert partner here] throughout 1988. Lifted WWF tag wrestling to new heights when they entered the company, as prior to them, the division was filled with tons of tag teams and tons of gimmicks, but very few good matches.

Cornette has already shown he can fit in with ROH, and if they can snag Matt Hardy as well, they really have a chance of becoming more of a redneck company, which I'm totally for!

Something tells me the last three matches are far higher than they should be, considering that Angle/Michaels is going to be an automatic ****1/2 before the bell even rings from many. I still need to see the show, but I'm skeptical. I'd be very surprised if HIAC is even a good match, considering the horrible match HHH and Batista had at Wrestlemania XXI. Jericho and Christian have worked three-ways with tons of guys and worked the same spots in tons of those matches. This probably isn't anything new. I agree that RAW came out ahead here, although Batista will have more steam than Cena if Cena continues to work in #2 and #3 feuds on the flagship show while Batista has JBL to work with on top before going into a feud with a returning Brock Lesnar. They do have quite the heel machine lined up for Cena. My suggestion would be to keep the belt on him and not take it off, having him hold it for 1-year+. There's no reason to take the belt off of Cena, and he has TONS of challengers in Jericho, Angle, Edge, Michaels and HHH. I don't know that that's true. Benoit gets the superstar reaction pretty consistently these days. Angle is washed up, and at best, he'll be competitive with Jericho and Edge for that #2 heel spot. Benoit could easily turn and be the top heel or he could be pushed into the top face position if Batista fizzled out without a problem. That's one more trick than Carlito has been able to pull off thus far, actually. Admittedly though, he shows great promise on the mic and the jury is still very much out on him in the ring. I will say Benjamin had a better match with Hassan than he has with Carlito. I'm undecided - I think Hassan is on the verge of turning away viewers though. Christian will excel on Smackdown, and he's a fresher face on the top level than Big Show. It's still a wash though, because Show is the type that you can bury for months on end and push to the top at any time. I worry that all the good will and attitude Show had built up about working hard will not disappear now that he's in a more cutthroat locker room. RVD, when Hogan goes away, can be the #2 face behind Cena. The problem comes when we see how much of a gap there is between the #1 face and #2 face. It's fine for RVD to be in Cena's shadow for now, but Rob still needs plenty of interaction with the big guns. That segment on RAW with Carlito beating him up just killed the idea of bringing him back as a top guy, which is what they should have done. Match I enjoyed at times, but am afraid to watch again, just because it's hard to enjoy Flair taking bumps at 56 years old. I actually agree with this and think there are just way too many people all around in the HOF. That *would* be reasonable, but Austin and Rock were the stars of the era, whereas past boom periods have had more top guys. Hogan, Savage and Piper are the only guys inducted in the HOF in 80s WWF, and Austin, Rock and Foley are already in. That peak also was sustained for a far longer period of time than the Attitude era was. I don't see how this makes a difference. There are lots of factors here in how shows are promoted (one-match shows v top-to-bottom shows) that make a difference. I'd venture to say that even at the height of Austin and Rock, the WWF brand name was as big a draw as they were, if not more so. I don't think you could say that for any other company's boom periods at any time.