Loss

The hype was also part of the problem. Foley promised repeatedly in the build that he was going throw HHH off the Cell, then jump off onto him, and they never did anything of the sort. So parts of the match that were technically very good weren't getting over because people were just waiting for the big moment.

Heels model themselves after "real life pieces of shit", or at least they should.

He's better as a worker than he's being given credit for here, even if he's not elite. I don't think he's making my list, but he'd definitely be in my top 125 or 150, and it's possible with more viewing, I would have him in my top 100. The most recent match I watched of his was a title match against Flair in St. Louis on 01/01/82, which shows that he had a surprising amount of range as a wrestler.

I suspect he'd want to do sports entertainment even if I hadn't said that. But seriously, good sports entertainment would be fine.

Total Divas is the best weekly WWE show.

For a guy who has written a novel's worth of wrestling news virtually every week for the last 30 years of his life and never even taken a vacation, his clarity is much better than mine would be.

Yeah, and to clarify, I was thinking of physically huge wrestlers like Hogan, Austin, Rock and Kevin Nash. I'm aware Roddy Piper was very good in They Live, which has sort of taken on cult classic status. I guess there was also Bret in Lonesome Dove, but again, the big muscle guys don't seem to get the roles where they get to show a lot of range.

Too bad. I'll just wait for Batista to do Shakespeare instead, like he's said he wants to do. I've been waiting too long to see a wrestler play something other than a big oaf.

I'd like to see Rock do something really daring and try to make an independent film or do something that isn't just big budget action, if only because I'm tired of hearing how successful we is. We all know that. How good is he?

Most Wrestlemania tickets are going to be sold before a single match is made official. No reason they can't still do it this year except they don't want to do it.

So was it a lot of kayfabe breaking? I don't understand what it means in a worked sense to be "treated lower". Maybe it's just the word choice.

Okay, I have to clarify what "lack of understanding" means in this context. Do you think you understand wrestling better than Shawn Michaels?

If you look at their most successful WMs (14 and 23), they've usually not waited to finalize the main event until after the February pay-per-view. There is no reason they can't just make it known HHH-Reigns is headlining now. Do they really think there's more interest in Wrestlemania if for now, people think it might be HHH-Ambrose or HHH-Brock instead? HHH defending against Ambrose as the last guy in the Rumble would make a much better Fastlane main event, plus I could see them tricking enough people into thinking they might do Reigns-Ambrose at WM and do a shock heel turn to set it up or something. Add Brock-Reigns as a semi-main finishing what they started last year and their supposed goal of making Fastlane not just a holdover show suddenly has some legs. I don't even think HHH defending the title is the best WM main, but if they're going to do it, that seems a better route there. You could even do a fuck finish for Roman-Brock one more time to set up a match where there must be a winner sometime after Reigns wins the title, similar to how it took three Bret-Diesel matches to get to a winner.

Companies with just as much or almost as much TV as WWE have kept guys apart as long as they have wanted to keep them apart.

When Rock is more likely to curb his WWE involvement is when his mother is no longer around to ask him to do it. That's been his motivation for coming back, and this time, he likes the idea of breaking records. As for HHH, he would happily let Rock come back and put him over. Anytime. Just say the word.

A completely benign throwaway line about how sometimes, friends don't see blindsides coming, like Marty Jannetty didn't see Shawn Michaels coming.

I also never take notes at all, but I also never took notes in classes or meetings at work. I just pay attention. It's extremely rare I write anything down during the experience itself because I think it distracts from my overall engagement. There were some exceptions during the yearbook project just because of the volume of stuff I was watching, which probably explains the occasional wacky match rating.

The same way I don't read movie reviews or album reviews for movies or albums I haven't watched or heard, I don't read wrestling reviews of matches I haven't watched for the most part. If it's a match I haven't seen, I'm likely to go right to the star rating (anything ***+ is worth my time) and maybe the last few sentences that should in my mind summarize the overall thoughts. I'll go back and read the whole thing after I've watched the match. There's nothing more impractical to me than skimming a long match review and not understanding clearly if the reviewer is telling me I should see it or not.

I think a redemption story for Ziggler that culminated in a real main event run would work out fine, but I'm not sure they have the patience to see it through. It would probably need months to play out. I actually came here to post that The Miz is the best talker in the company and did an exceptional job getting AJ Styles over. Calling himself the father of the Yes Movement was brilliant. I loved it.

Ric Flair vs Lex Luger from Wrestle War '90 used to be pointed to as a great example of heat because a fight broke out in the stands a half hour in and most fans in the building didn't even seem to notice.

Even that was a promotion, though. Not saying he should have been happy with just that, but he did come out of all of that better off than he was going in.

Continuing my previous post, I think what happened politically is that HHH was on board with the Reigns push until he was no longer the owner of it. Not only did HHH get behind Reigns, so did Vince and Dunn, and that's where the problems started. Reigns is a pawn in a game much bigger than him, and I do feel like that HHH-Dunn struggle is coloring how just about everyone in the company is being used right now to varying degrees.

Is there any evidence WWE is aware of that narrative? Here's the gist of what I want to expand on. Keep in mind this is just a theory. HHH has had his eyes on the prize for longer than most people realize. He has sabotaged most attempts to create a new star because he doesn't want anyone as a top star that's more loyal to Vince than to him in case the transition of power to him one day turns ugly. Vince used to be the creative mind that got off on finding ways to get stuff over that seemed like it shouldn't and he was the master of hiding obvious weaknesses. Now he's a guy that obsesses over those weaknesses and uses them as an excuse to push no one. The reason is because look who's had his ear for the past 15 years (HHH) vs the previous 15 (Patterson).

Remember when DX would get women to flash their boobs?

From my understanding, not so much a falling out as Foley finding the Creative really uninspiring overall.