Loss

dawho, I have really enjoyed reading your thoughts and I hope to see your ballot after you have watched everything.

I agree with everything being said. As a sidenote, I have to ask what exactly Bray's message is. I'm still not sure I know.

Yeah, that's Wrestling Psychology 101 and Bryan didn't seem to get it. I won't argue with you that Dave has a bias toward more athletic wrestling, but I don't think it's at the exclusion of everything else. It's just what he values most.

Found someone. Thanks!

Does anyone here have any real world editing experience? I would appreciate someone who would be willing to take a look at what I've written so far for the e-book and do the following: * Ensure that I'm being consistent stylistically (Use of first and last names vs just last names, past vs present tense, even use of hyphens vs dashes) * Look for phrases or talking points that may be repeated too often and bring them to my attention, sometimes suggesting alternate wording * Double check me on spelling and grammar We're probably looking at 250,000-300,000 words in total, of which I've written about 40,000 so far. I can't pay anyone unfortunately, but I can give you a free e-book when it's completed along with an editor credit. Please PM me if you're interested. Thanks!

Current Favorite Wrestler To Watch: Hiroshi Hase. I think he got his due as a great worker, but I wish there was more talk of him. Last Fun Match You Saw: Muto/Chono vs Hase/Sasaki from 7/4/91 Wrestler You Want To See More Of: Buddy Rose - I've seen a decent amount but want to see more. Last Live Show Attended: It's been a while. WWE Night of Champions 2009 in Philadelphia. Match You Are Looking Forward To Watching Soon The Most: Everything 1998 for sure, especially from CMLL and BattlARTS. Last Fun Interview/Promo You Saw: Probably Terry Funk going all over the place in a USWA promo and talking about Tojo Yammamoto, the "Japanese goof" that would be in his corner. Last Interesting Thing You Read About Wrestling: I re-read tomk's old post about the Freebirds/Southern Boys stall-a-thon recently and loved it Last Worthwhile Wrestling Podcast You Heard: The latest Wrestling Observer Radio is really good. Dave is so much better when he's not coming through by phone. Most Fun You've Had Watching Wrestling Lately: Going back through all of the 90s highlights in prep for the e-book I'm writing. It's been fun to see what I've overlooked, what I overrated and also what I had right the first time around.

This seemed like something good to do every three months or so. Current Favorite Wrestler To Watch: Last Fun Match You Saw: Wrestler You Want To See More Of: Last Live Show Attended: Match You Are Looking Forward To Watching Soon The Most: Last Fun Interview/Promo You Saw: Last Interesting Thing You Read About Wrestling: Last Worthwhile Wrestling Podcast You Heard: Most Fun You've Had Watching Wrestling Lately:

That's always seemed like a bit of a myth to me. The match was really just thrown out there. It wasn't even hyped that much in the build to Starrcade. Most of the hype for the show was Flair going for number five and Dusty possibly being banned for a few months.

Agreed with that. I'm still mourning what happened to Daniel Bryan's title reign.

Dave thinks they should have Heyman cost Cena the title at Summerslam, then do Brock/Cena III with Paul Heyman handcuffed to either the Undertaker or Steve Austin at ringside. From what he's reported, they see that show as extremely important.

I've always read Summerslam used as proof that Undertaker vs Underfaker drew. It did 315,000 buys, up considerably from the year before which got way more mainstream hype with the Lex Express (250,000).

I think Paige's problems are twofold -- #1, she is better than the PPV death spot but that's all women have ever really done in the company and #2, whoever had the misguided idea that her ticket to getting over was to take no offense and get one big move in the end got it very, very wrong.

I thought Summerslam '94 actually drew pretty well by the standards of the time.

Regardless of whose decision it is, my point was that he should stop doing them for the reasons I outlined above. I agree that he's probably not the one calling the shots, but the end result is still what it is. It's not so much a criticism of him, unless he's the one doing that stuff.

It's worth talking about Tonya Harding, OJ Simpson and the Singapore canings. All of the promotions were exploiting current events like crazy. It was like the news was tailor made for pro wrestling at the time.

Dave wouldn't have watched the European tour matches. He talked about their televised match on Superstars and called it "phenomenal" and one of the best matches of Duggan's career. He also talked about the value of squash matches and mentioned how great of a job they did building up Yokozuna at the time because he didn't sell for anyone or leave his feet for months and that because of that, when Duggan took him off of his feet, it was a huge moment that got a great reaction. He said they are building up Rusev similarly and that all he has to do to have a good match at this point is sell just a little because people are used to seeing him not sell very much.

Dave explaining why Rusev's booking has been so effective and evoking Yokozuna/Duggan from '93 as a comparison is the type of thing that I think will kill some of the perception that he only cares about highspots that some people have. It's a great listen on the latest WOR.

Very true Loss, but I also think that again it fits his character as a "cult" type leader trying to bring everyone under his area of influence and herd the "sheep" together...making him a face, to me, will completely destroy that and Harper and Rowan's kind of horror movie crazy bastards thing into two big dudes with dirty clothes and a sheeps mask that little kids could end up buying at merchandise....no thanks... If he's not going to turn babyface, he should stop doing those things. It undermines the babyfaces he works with by turning the crowd against them. I don't understand preferring him as a heel when he is purposely trying to be loved.

It was something Dave dropped on WOR I think last week.

I still think they're going to turn him. There just isn't a rush to do it. If they weren't, Bray would stop celebrating with the crowd after he hits certain spots, doing the hometown thing for the cheap pop, etc.

Well, it just makes me laugh that it's a point of reference for people within WWE at all. But Dusty turned babyface on the strength of his unique charisma and it took off. Or were you wanting me to explain that people are cheering Bray and he is playing it up on purpose?

People are cheering for him and he is purposely playing it up. WWE is apparently comparing it to Dusty's mid-1970s babyface turn internally, which cracks me up.

Yeah, I think this thread plays into unrealistic expectations, especially with the HHH contrast. He was 30 in the first picture and 43 in the second one. Putting forth the mindset that he should look the same is the type of ridiculous standard that kills wrestlers.

I'm at least glad they are talking about Cena as an all-time great now. Regardless of what anyone thinks of him, a guy with 15 world titles should be discussed at that level.