Loss

Vince apparently loves AC/DC too.

Suggestion: If you summarized, but included time codes of where the questions are answered, people could easily hear the direct quote if they wanted to.

As strange as it sounds, I don't think he's committed enough to the gimmick. He's just a dude who wears a t-shirt and white trunks. His long, stringy Wyatt Family hair doesn't fit his gimmick either. They should be going for the Tom Cruise "Respect The Cock" vibe turned up to 100. He should wear a headset mic, constantly be shilling self-improvement books and have glittery jackets. His best feature is his great smile and he hides it with his overly long hair. He doesn't look like a star at all.

I'm with shoe. I'd put him against Randy Orton immediately and have him win and win and win until it hurts.

Many, many wins over Randy Orton would be how I would bring him in.

They always planned to make Luger champion. But houses were good around the time of Summerslam, so Vince wanted to save it for a time when he thought they could use it to jolt things back up. By the time they would have done it, it was clear Bret was the guy.

It wasn't that he wasn't a draw, it's that the NWA World Title matches were expected to be "scientific", which wasn't Dusty's style.

The more I think about it, the more I think John Cena has already been both the top babyface and top heel for WWE for a decade, and WWE has worked hard to keep him in both roles. This makes me think the answer to freshening things up more than anything is fresh faces in the main event picture.

If one of those guys can be built up as Cena's superior, then yeah, turn him heel after that happens. They are already grooming Reigns for that spot, and who knows, he may start outdrawing Cena on house shows and selling more t-shirts. If that happens, great. If that doesn't happen, they have basically blown off a reliable demographic that brings in millions of dollars in merch money every year to appease a vocal group of people who are never going to stop watching anyway ... and who will likely just start cheering heel John Cena anyway. He's already the biggest heel he can be to those who boo him.

I thought the NWA champ took on both roles as needed anyway. Jack Brisco was a babyface champ, and I presume if he was facing a local top babyface, he just played subtle heel.

Cena put it well on Austin's podcast. He said sometimes guys he's working with will tell him after the match they feel bad for him because the crowd was booing him. He'll respond that they should be the ones who are upset, because people are so preoccupied with reacting to Cena that it's actually taking away from the crowd reaction of Cena's opponents, not Cena.

Not to mention that WCW paid wrestlers a guaranteed rate based on their past track record, and when they overpaid someone, they pushed him harder in an attempt to justify the money. So it's not like the WCW midcarders who resented Hogan were making more money because Hogan was around - they were getting what they were getting. That's why Brian Pillman wanted to work Bischoff into a big money contract: he thought doing so would give him a main event push. (Interesting that his motivations weren't the other way around, but that's another topic for another time.)

I'm not opposed to turning him. I just think there should be a better option for his spot who is already ready to go first. And there isn't.

Who is the new hero? I want a name. Not appealing to kids is idealistic and something that would cost them way more money in a money-losing year. Again, Cena doesn't have to be the number one babyface to be a babyface. How do you know people just stay home? Attendance on shows Cena headlines is higher than attendance on shows he doesn't.

More response: - Why is it better to attract older fans than younger fans? And while they can't be, why wouldn't WWE want to at least try to be everything to everyone? The whole idea behind making WWE as big as possible is to appeal to as many people as possible. I do think at some point they have to make a choice, but I'm not even sure that choosing older fans over younger fans is the best choice of the two, and I don't think that's something that can be based on personal opinion and gut feeling either. It would have to be based on actual data that we don't have. - 2009 would have been a great time to turn him because Jeff Hardy and Rey were there to also appeal to kids. There is no one else doing that right now. - The point of bringing up house show reaction is to say that if he was truly hated by most WWE fans, he would be getting booed on house shows too. He's not. I think people boo Cena on TV because they want to be part of the show. If that wasn't the case, it would happen when the cameras are off, and it doesn't. Also, if people really hated John Cena, they wouldn't just boo. They'd tune out altogether like they did when WCW wouldn't let up on the NWO.

In fairness, they tried to do just that with Batista and everyone hated it.

Who specifically is there to conquer Cena? Who will take his place as the top babyface? If that person isn't John Cena's equal (not in terms of crowd reaction, in terms of appealing to children/women and selling merchandise), it's just not going to work. The idea that Cena is the most hated guy in WWE history is ridiculous. I don't even think very many people genuinely hate him. They just boo him because they want to be part of the show. It almost never happens when the cameras aren't on.

Hogan was losing relevance when he turned. Cena isn't losing relevance. He's just getting booed on TV. I feel like some of the advocates for turning him are not responding to the issue that he gets cheered heavily on house shows, even at Madison Square Garden. I also haven't heard any solutions for keeping kids interested.

I kind of said my part in the feedback thread to the podcast, but I just wanted to point out that I think moving Cena down the card and turning him heel are two separate issues. I agree that another boom can't happen as long as he's the top babyface, but I still think he should be a babyface until someone becomes bigger than he is.

Lots of people within wrestling have been complaining about Ambrose's new ring attire.

I'm working on it. It takes a ton of time.

It is consistent with Daniel Bryan saying a few months back that guys like Show and Henry were trying to get leaner and change how they train because they had to if they were going to keep up with the changes in the WWE style.

Phantom cameras that are unexplained, bad continuity in storylines that don't hold up week-to-week, overly scripted and contrite promos, too much stuff happening in the backstage area ... there's a lot about the Attitude Era that still lingers today.