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To add to the points SLL made, Eddie's title run is a really poorly chosen example to back up the idea that they've somehow screwed up Jeff Hardy's push beyond repair. The shock value and surprise of Eddie's win did not propel his title run to be a major commercial success. Indeed, it fizzled out pretty quickly because they had set up so few marketable heels to feud with him over the title. Sure, it was a memorable moment, but the rushed nature of him winning the World title and JBL becoming the top contender to it, led to a pretty disappointing run at the box office for the Smackdown brand.

Wade's Joyful Vegan Blog of Outrage

I think there is more to the problem of crowd burnout than just running long. I'm sure there is some dead time that could be cut out of ROH tapings, but if you are cramming too much into one show, burnout will still happen even if you keep to time. I mean where is he going to squeeze in extra promo and angle time into shows, when they are already running too long.

I think they needed a celebrity angle like this to have a chance of matching last year's Mania PPV business, so in that sense it's a positive. This is also the best way of getting some mileage out of Big Show's return. That said, one gets the feeling that Floyd Mayweather is being miscast as a babyface, after playing the heel in his feuds against Oscar De La Hoya (who really would be much better for the role Mayweather is playing) and Ricky Hatton. I don't see the affiliation with Rey Mysterio and Big Show heeling against him will be enough to turn him face, as neither are great promos. So I think the angle is worth doing, but like the Donald Trump angle will mean little over the long haul.

Speaking of brain injuries, Yuji Nagata is suspected of having suffered a stroke after complaining of severe pain in his brain and no control of the left side of his body.

I think if Cary Silkin had made his first cent in overall profit on his ROH investment by the spring of 2007 they would have never made the move to PPV. I don't get the sense that the move to PPV was a Hail Mary, but I do get the sense that Silkin had invested a lot of money into the promotion and was getting itchy feet as he hadn't seen any return on that investment yet. I mean if Gabe had stopped the promotion before the money losses started it would have been closed when he gained control of the promotion, as the only reason ROH has stayed in business for as long as it has is due to Rob Feinstein paying for it from the proceeds of his video company and then when that wasn't enough to keep it afloat finding an outside investor in Cary Silkin.

What Bix said. I'll add though that Mero being overrated, overpushed and overpaid in 1996 was the general feeling of the lockerroom at the time. He was really loathed, because he had the audacity to negotiate a really sweet deal with McMahon when he jumped ship from WCW. It's probably one thing Mick Foley and Triple H can see eye to eye on!

I wouldn't be surprised if Hunter specifically chose the Mero match so he could have a reason to bury him on the interview portion of the DVD. You know, how he was a joke of a worker who Hunter was relied, as the workhorse of the company, to carry while he was getting his wholly undeserved push to the moon, which he knew was bound to fail; how he only got over because he paid for his wife to have ridiculous breast implants and encouraged her to flaunt them every chance she got; how he ultimately became jealous and resentful over his wife being the biggest star of the two; and how he wrongly blames wrestling for the break up of his marriage and the wrong choices he made in his life.

I'm sure I read somewhere how Ross was Jim Herd's closest confidant in WCW when he was president and how they spent a lot of time at the bar together discussing the business. Maybe Cappetta's book? And of course, when Watt's came in he was his right hand man. I'm not surprised he downplays his influence in WCW at the time, because those years are widely viewed as business failures.

Speaking of the Torch, they've just opened a third brand, I mean, affiliated website called prowrestling.net ran solely by former Torch assistant editor Jason Powell, whose main selling point seems to be that all the content will be completely free. Just what we need.

To be fair, there's little evidence that Stephanie outmaneuvered Paul Heyman on his last booking run, unless giving him enough creative rope to hang himself counts. The eavesdropping of conference calls is what got him kicked off the creative team towards the end of 2004, not what got him sent home after December To Dismember just over a year ago. If anything, the spin is remarkably consistent to the reporting that was going on in the Observer during his ECW booking run. I agree with tomk though, avoiding discussing his earlier problems with Stephanie is probably a ploy to keep her sweet, while knowing that Vince seemingly can't resist bringing back guys who badmouth him on the way out. He needs to keep the WWE door open, because his non-wrestling career will probably be about as successful as Chris Jericho's.

Probably the easiest place is his DVD sales figures. John Cena's DVD sold over 110,000 units after only 1 month on sale. If he's telling such bigger whoppers about things that are so easily verifiable, you have to take everything else he says with a pinch of salt.

I always thought ROH doing PPV shows was more a way of fleecing the marks into buying the same show twice, because Gabe's explanation about how it would increase their exposure was so silly.

Cue the ritual humiliation and the subsequent milking of the martyrdom in 10, 9, 8,...

I thought Lagana was the one in charge and Dusty was brought in as his deputy to help him out.

Isn't the fact that they fired Dave Lagana a sign that WWE management aren't happy with ECW ratings at the moment and will make a renewed effort to turn them around? I'm not holding my breath that whomever takes over will manage to change things for the better much, due to the inherent problems of booking a third tier show with little major star power, but it's obvious that staying with the status quo wasn't the answer.

I think a lot of the ROH criticism isn't because people hate the promotion, but because they seem to get more of a free pass when their wrestlers do nutty stunts in their matches than when WWE and TNA wrestlers do similar things.

I love how Necro Butcher no sold the absolute sickest, stiffest, most BRUTAL chair shot the Wrestling Observer correspondent had ever seen in his entire life on the same show Chris Nowinski was supposed to be backstage at.

Yet another Project and Lists access request. PM'd you. -- Loss, 01/13

He'll probably get the 3 disc treatment next time around when he's closer to retirement.

If Good Ol' JR has ZERO TOLERANCE for the illegal use of steroids and HGH by wrestlers, then, by Gawd, Brian Pillman must have truly died from a broken heart!

Remember that the Raw Roulette gimmick was first used over 5 years ago, a few months after Eric Bischoff became Raw GM, so whomever came up with the idea originally would have been involved in the creative process then.

I must say Nigel McGuiness' response was a great smokescreen to divert attention away from the fact that two other wrestlers suffered concussions on the first Manhattan show and still wrestled on the second show.

If you are a scrupulous promoter (HA!) you would slowly re-educate your fans not to expect dangerous bumps on to concrete, guard rails and ladders or unprotected chair shots to the head by gradually reducing and eventually banning your wrestlers from doing such silly and unnecessary stunts. I mean Gabe does love to brag to Dave Meltzer about how he taught his fanbase to accept comparatively trivial things like two out of three fall matches can end in two falls and referees can call off matches like in MMA. Or is the health of his performers less important than the five snowflakes he craves for his main event PPV matches?

Allowing Mick Foley and Kurt Angle to finish their performances after being clearly knocked unconscious after a stunt went wrong at King Of The Ring '98 and Summerslam 2000 respectively, won't look good either. I'm sure they are not the only examples of that happening too.