Loss

Just one show that I know of, which was the Battle of the Belts III on October 1.

Luger was very green in 1986, and I didn't really care for those matches with Flair.

I really enjoyed Dave's perspective on Charlotte/Natalya this week, but I also really don't like the new trend in the WON of doing math problems for paragraphs and paragraphs and paragraphs. Sometimes I get the impression that Dave is so bogged down in the numbers of the wrestling business that he's lost perspective on the wrestling business, if that makes sense.

When I start paying less attention to my family or skipping social outings to stay at home and watch wrestling by myself, I will know it's time to scale it back. But I don't really do that, so I don't feel like I watch too much wrestling.

I really feel like Daniel Bryan vs Heath Slater as the ultimate deck-stacking match would be awesome on Raw. Overbooked to death with tons of interference and the goal to get the crowd to bite on ONE nearfall thinking Heath Slater is about to be world champion.

He had at least one tour of New Japan in 1995.

I always felt like somewhere buried in Booker T was this amazing promo guy just dying to get out, but he never did. I always wanted him to get really serious and talk tough, but he never really did. I wonder if the right booker could have pissed him off enough to get something fired up out of him.

When he first came around, Orton had such douchebag appeal that I really think in the right hands, he could have been molded into this generation's Tully Blanchard -- just a total prick who had a face very much worth punching. Instead, they gave him this stupid Hot Topic gimmick where he does what the voices in his head tell him to do. He should have been pushed as the rich kid everyone knows who gets a sports car on his 16th birthday and wrecks it right away, the kind of jerk that brags about who his dad is. I also really loved Randy and Bob Orton as a duo and think they could have done more with that.

Yeah, let's stay away from the dishonorable discharge topic. We're evaluating Randy Orton the wrestler and performer, not Randy Orton the person.

I don't know. Good booking usually avoids the obvious truths that are detrimental to what they are aiming to accomplish. It's easy to forget because it's not how things are done anymore.

I think Orton is really good in the ring, but he has suffered from bad booking. Not in terms of card positioning, as he's often well above where he should be. And I guess it's hard to make a case for Orton and Cena having to survive terrible booking, even though they both have, considering that they still fare better than everyone else. But if you look at last fall, they were trying to get Orton over as a heel with those horrible PPV finishes, and all it did was put heat on WWE. He also had to be chided by HHH and Stephanie every week for not reaching his potential. Yes, it flopped but I think most would have flopped under those circumstances. Again, I don't want anyone to take from my post that Orton isn't pushed. He most definitely is, and sometimes I think he's overpushed to the point that it hurts him because of the perception that he's the teacher's pet. But his portrayal is a tough sell.

I hope someone is billed from Salt Lake, Utah at some point.

I looked through Heat listings for '99 and didn't see any match between these two teams. Is it possible it was in another year?

Ok Ditch, I have to ask ... what is the story with Survival Tobita vs Ken The Box? I've never heard of the match.

Are we saying A top guy or THE top guy? Because I do think Scott Hall was A top guy.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Ambrose turn between now and the HHH/Reigns match as well.

The 80s are being added to the Match Discussion Archive slowly. Just added 1980, with 1981 next in line.

Hall was in his first rehab stint at this point, yes.

Brian Pillman.

My point is that Sheamus and Cesaro are both wrestlers that have good outings regularly and instead of their pay-per-view outings being even better, they merely maintain the quality of their week-to-week performances. So if you buy a show to see a Sheamus or Cesaro match, it's not like you're getting anything you don't already get for free anyway. It's not so much a knock at them as it is a knock at WWE booking. It's not the WWE way, but giving them 27 minutes would have made the match feel special. Giving them the same amount of time they get every week anyway isn't really going to help make the match all that memorable. More time doesn't always make a better match, but I think both Sheamus and Cesaro would benefit more from having a special match at this stage than a good one. They've both had plenty of good ones, and they're both going sideways instead of climbing the ladder.

I also like Sheamus doing the punches to the chest, but I think it isn't over like it should be. It's just a fun count-along thing because it happens in every single match instead of it being saved for moments where it can really get over the hatred or violence in a match. I wish it was more of a special occasion spot.

The problem I have with PPV matches involving Cesaro and Sheamus is that neither guy has a second gear week-to-week, so they don't really leave themselves anything to work up to when they have matches on big shows. Yes, it was a good match, but did it feel any more special than a match they'd have on Main Event?

I think the match with Dustin Rhodes on the 1/4/92 WCW Saturday Night is his best singles match, and it's a great one.

I'm pretty convinced there's not a person inside the wrestling business who understood why WCW fans liked WCW enough to book the invasion angle properly. The truth is, even though they were over a decade removed from it and latter day WCW didn't resemble it at all, you had a lot of people who hung on through thick and thin because of their love of the Crockett era and their hatred of all things Vince. I don't think it needed to be an NWO rehash either, since one is an invading promotion and one is an invading stable. The NWO was never clear on what they wanted to do after taking over -- did they want to wrestle each other? -- which is why I don't think it's the best idea to model a WCW invasion after, even if it was successful. In short, if you aren't even going to attempt to liquor up Ross and Schiavone then encourage them to take cheapshots at each other while co-hosting a PPV, you have no business booking WWF vs WCW.

Spring of 1990.