Loss

They replayed Bret-Davey Boy somewhere during this time in an attempt to draw a rating. But yes, the RAW Bowl aired on 1/1/96.

Dave being shocked to find the Inoki-Robinson hour draw shows me how out of touch he is on what is and is not out there. That has not only aired on Classics, but it even was its own commercial release. It's been available for years and years.

Every single match Dave said had never been seen before has been seen before.

I was under the impression from the way people are talking that this was every single piece of recorded footage in the entire history of New Japan. That doesn't appear to be the case, which leaves me disappointed. I want to cancel my sub now. I've seen all the dome show/Classics stuff. I'm more interested in things that are previously uncirculated.

Yes, but Hokuto sold it like it was severely injured and sold it in subsequent matches for at least a month. I always took that as her having a history of having worked through big injuries before and this being a time she has to gut it out and do it again, only the previous ones were not worked and this one was.

I'm going to do my best to gather a list of matches that were not previously available (be it in full or at all) and post them here. My specific focus will be the 1990s, but if anyone else wants to take on other time periods who has a good grasp on what New Japan has or has not released before, we can work together to compile a comprehensive list.

This is a great pick. And I also loved that they did a broken arm as an angle (I don't know if it was "broken" or just severely injured in the storyline) during Hokuto-Kandori at Dreamslam to play off of her history.

I split off all the talk about NJPW World into its own thread. Please post any conversation about that in the new thread. Thanks.

Did you watch Satomura vs Nagashima from GAEA? Or Gannosuke-Oya from FMW? I didn't see comments on either and was curious.

Toyota BDSM. The jokes write themselves.

I haven't listened to Serial, but the fact that there are podcasts out there that are about a podcast is pretty amazing to me.

Like I said about the snowballing effect with my example, how much do you want to bet that starts to get some attention by some WWE slanted outlets in order to, not discredit what Punk said outright, but to cast some doubt on the complete truthfulness of Punk's claims. I mean it wouldn't change a thing since there is way too much smoke in other instances besides Punk, but something stupid and dangerous like a DUI charge, even if it went away quietly based on whatever reasoning (BAC wasn't legal limit, cop was being a quota seeking ahole, or being an ahole based on Punk being a pro wrestler, etc), I can see being brought up as a way to discredit Punk's IRL character. That should be easy enough to verify through public records if someone is able to do it. I'm ignorant on this stuff - is telling you that a violation of attorney-client privilege?

I want to come back to this and go into more detail when I have a little more time, but I am genuinely thankful for the friendships that I've fostered here as well. Will, I can tell this came from your heart and I love you for that. For a long time, I was hesitant to really befriend other wrestling fans because I had it in my mind that being a gay man would be an issue for most people. I'm proud that it hasn't really been an issue at all, and I've learned in the last few years not to automatically assume the worst in people in my day-to-day life, which is something that certainly applies here just the same. I'll write more later, but I wanted to at least say that now because it didn't feel right waiting to post that. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

I am curious if the wrestling *fan* still exists in him, even though he is disillusioned with the wrestling *business*.

Dave wasn't positive. He said he was told by a source who said he was 99% positive, but Dave himself wasn't sure.

This post is pretty incredible. You've found a way to articulate a lot of things that have always swarmed in my mind as incomplete thoughts. Bravo to you.

I have never gotten the sense at all that the writers set the creative direction. They take the blame when it goes badly, and Vince gets the credit when it goes well. I surmise that a WWE writer is more likely to be told "Script lines that Kane can say while attacking Daniel Bryan and Brie Bella in their rental car" than he is "Come up with ideas to get the Bryan-Kane feud over."

Sorry for the multiple posts, but one other point. Vince made a great calculation with Wrestlemania XIV. He needed the eyeballs and paid Tyson to make it happen. People in his inner circle were advising him that the show wouldn't be as profitable, but Vince argued that they needed eyeballs more than anything at that point, because he'd rather lose money on 700,000 buys than make money on 400,000 buys. There's a big picture vision there that I don't think any other promoter - at least in the United States - would ever be able to see.

In 1997, Vince told Dave that the day they start training their fans to treat some pay-per-views as skippable is the day they start to crumble. I wonder what he would say to that now.

When he raised the price of the In Your House pay-per-views, the money issues he was having at that point went away. They were resolved before Bret left actually, but by that time, the WCW offer was already on the table.

Actually, 1998 more than 1996 is the most profitable year in WCW history. For a long time, it was the most profitable year any wrestling company had ever had. I'm guessing WWE has had more than a $55 million profit at some point in the last few years but I know they still hadn't as late as 2006 or 2007. I will look in old WONs, but I'm not sure if the WWF has ever ended a year in the red. It's possible they haven't, which is another credit to Vince.

I may have inadvertently stumbled on something, but is it possible that Vince's biggest strength is not how he handles peak popularity, but in how he runs the company when business is cold? If WWE still lived and died on PPV buys and house show attendance, they would have been losing money as early as 2002. But they aren't because he changed the business model at a time he needed to change it, and that's a feather in his cap.

I don't know if it's fair to say it's been a miserable failure creatively as much as the Network was a miserable failure, to this point, as a concept. But if creative was such a huge problem, it would have affected attendance, TV ratings, merch, and everything else. Also, the Rumble and Chamber PPVs were highly successful this year, pointing to creative working until they blew the model up. SummerSlam did a surprisingly high # on PPV, which indicates it may have been a high-performing PPV if not for the Network. You're pointing to their ability to not turn people away. But what have they done this year to bring people in?

I also think most people would agree that Vince McMahon is the greatest wrestling promoter of all time. In fact, he's so far ahead of all others that he is held to a much higher standard, just as he should be. Compare his success to that of other promoters and of course he comes out smelling like a rose, but that doesn't mean he's without his share of major (major!) failures and flaws. And any promoter worth anything has proven not only that they can get something hot but that they can navigate inevitable downturns in popularity when they happen. Vince has absolutely proven that and he has been incredibly successful. I think that the critiques come from a place of frustration sometimes. How can someone so brilliant at certain aspects of promotion still get so many things wrong so much of the time? I still think CM Punk's "millionaire who should be a billionaire" (even if he is a billionaire when the stock is good) line is a pretty accurate description of Vince.