Loss

That's the match with the really awesome overdone small package, right?

Well, yeah, it's important to pick the right guy. But let's say CM Punk is the guy -- someone with a decent amount of fan support who was just beneath the top level. Does he become an overnight superstar by beating Shawn? Does it catapult him to the top immediately and put him on the level of Cena-Orton types? Or does his heat go to the company? I don't know. I agree that a lot of the things that used to work don't work anymore, so it's possibly I'm looking at this through an outdated lens.

I agree there's not much of a precedent, but I still think it should be the standard way to go out. It is usually how people leave the territory.

Speaking of Jeff Hardy, didn't he have some bizarre Jackass-style prankster gimmick for a few weeks in 2002 to play off of his personal problems at the time?

Not too many, which is one of many reasons wrestling has such a tough time creating new superstars now.

It's also possible she's had a lot of the confidence beaten out of her. We've heard plenty of people talk about how WWE gives mixed signals to wrestlers so much that they start doubting themselves and making mistakes they never would have made before that. I don't know if that is what happened with Paige, but we've seen it happen with others.

When he needed to wear street clothes, he wore Cosby sweaters (I guess we need a new name to describe THAT) and such.

I thought the exact same thing. I realize it's 2015, but it's a questionable move to be publicly friendly when they are trying to draw the biggest gate of all-time in Dallas, and Rousey-Steph may be a key part of that. It's like Kang and Kodos dressing as Clinton and Dole and holding hands in public before the election.

It honestly should have been someone on the verge of breaking out who just needed a big win to get over the top in both cases, WM moment or not. They could have made a big star in one night in each case. There's nothing really that wrong with how they retired Flair or Michaels, especially Flair since he didn't have much rub to give at that point and they got almost a year of storyline out of it between Batista and Jericho. But someone at the CM Punk level or so should have been the one to retire Shawn. It wouldn't necessarily have to be Punk (although imagine the mileage he could get out of that one on promos), but someone in the upper midcard who needed a big win would have been made right away.

I had never seen Flair take bumps in the robe or attack someone while wearing the robe until he went to the WWF.

Not to mention that their version of the NWO t-shirt had the same WWF.com logo on the back that all the other merchandise at the time. They only existed within the framework of their feuds, when the brilliance of the original angle was the feeling that they could show up at literally any moment. Not only that, in fact, but that doing so would make sense since their goal was to take over the company. WWE booked them like an ordinary top heel faction instead of a group of invaders. When WCW started treating them as an institution and Schiavone was no longer affected enough by their entrance music starting to delay running through WCW's upcoming on-sale dates, that's when the group stopped being effective. The NWO only really works if it's different in terms of the booking and even the aesthetics.

I don't think they exist on a binary, really, and I think in an ideal case they work in tandem. If the wrestlers aren't aiming to hook an audience, they are just jerking off, but I do think there is more than one way to hook an audience. Smaller and more intimate venues make details matter more. Wrestling being broadcast in HD makes details matter more. Studio wrestling makes details matter more. Audiences in Japan are silent at times when American fans are traditionally more involved, typically during the opening build, so in those isolated moments, details matter more. Priorities should be different when working big arenas and stadiums, and probably even more different in a dome setting. I don't expect a one-size-fits-all approach, nor do I think that would be appropriate. I am impressed by matches involving wrestlers who understand that not all settings are the same and adapt accordingly.

Self-contained and in a strong midcard position is perfectly fine for nostalgia stuff. The problem is that most of the vets are so much better than the current crop at working a crowd, so even if that's the intent, they are usually going to get the biggest reaction.

If Sasha is as good as everyone says she is, I look forward to her getting good stuff out of the lesser Divas. It's been too long since we've had that type of featured worker who can carry just about anyone to something really good.

Tatanka's Smackdown run was pretty fun if I remember right.

They did do it with DX in late 1997 but for the European title.

Tyler Breeze is a very good opponent because Liger can do the mocking spots which he's always been great at doing. I *really* hope Liger grabs the phone and starts looking at himself.

Hulk Hogan as the darkside Hogan in October-November 1995 after Kevin Sullivan shaved his mustache. Kind of a proto-Hollywood run.

Who would be most likely to be caught watching Lifetime movies and crying -- Steve Austin, Undertaker or Stan Hansen?

If they waste the streak ending with Even Stephen crap, there was no reason to ever do it. I don't even think Brock needs to beat Undertaker again, but Undertaker sure doesn't need to beat Brock.

I could see Undertaker trying to redeem the Wrestlemania loss and that generating some interest, but as a Summerslam main event, not a Wrestlemania match. Undertaker should wrestle Cena at Wrestlemania. It would mean way more than a match with Sting or a rematch with Brock. I don't even think there's anything inherently wrong with running a fuck finish in the rematch if they want to do it but would rather not beat Undertaker again before Mania, as long as they are wise about how they pull it off. If Sting is going to work Summerslam, he needs a guy who can bump all over the place for him. Since Heath Slater is not booked at the level needed to make it work, I guess Seth Rollins would have to do. A way to sort of salvage some stuff they've done with Rusev lately would be for Lana to turn on Dolph and reunite with him. It would be a swerve that wouldn't make a ton of sense, but would probably get them both back on the right track. Add the Cena-Owens blowoff, let Jericho and Neville do their well-received match on a bigger platform in a way that might help Neville and give Cesaro the biggest win of his career to date over Randy Orton and there you have a card that isn't really great, but I've seen worse lineups.

Great post!

DARE to keep kids off drugs.

I think WCW would be more likely to keep Bryan in the cruiserweight division unless they wanted to do a bully angle to get over Kevin Nash. They might do a daring experiment where he gets a DQ win over Scott Hall on a Thunder or something. I actually just started a thread about the different ways all the wrestling companies are bad when they are bad, and maybe we can talk about it more there.