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I appreciate the statistical analysis mookie (that's my job), but the dangers of extrapolation mean that your regression curves will have increasingly large uncertainty around them, as you move further away from the prices you have data for. For example, the prediction is that 6.209 million homes would buy WrestleMania at $5, but is that realistic when even their biggest Raw of the year doesn't get close to that many homes watching? The other thing you need to account for is the availability of the network in its launch year compared with the availability of their pay-per-views today. There seems to be the implicit assumption that the network will be available in the same amount of homes as pay-per-view is today. John, how easy is it to get on basic? Is it possible the carriage companies balked at adding the WWE Network for even $0.07 per household?

Man, Kurt's pupils look like they're bulging out of his eyes in that video.

"One source with significant knowledge of what is going down said the new group is unlikely to get involved without owning a controlling interest." - Dave Meltzer. I'm sure the Carters would love investors throwing millions of dollars there way for 10% of the company, but who could possibly be that dumb? It's one thing with UFC when the owners have proven that they know what they are doing, quite another with TNA. "Just my gut says they are buying it more as a television property with the idea that future rights fees as those number escalate for sports will make it valuable." - Dave Meltzer. They do know wrestling is not a sport, I hope? WWE hasn't managed to drive up their rights fees for Monday Night Raw significantly since 2000, instead having to produce more television to increase the money made from TV. If WWE can't do it, then TNA won't have a snowball's chance in hell.

I agree with the business aspect, but it's been pretty clear that Rey and WWE have had a love hate relationship dating back to at least the summer of 2009, over financial contract disputes, a lengthy IC title run promise that WWE tried to go back on, consequent refusal to do jobs for Dolph Ziggler, failed drug tests, tons of injuries and constant pressure to work through those injuries rather than get surgery. I don't think Rey would be stupid enough to bury WWE publicly himself, but I could see him wanting his side of the story out there.

Of the last six financial quarters, they've lost money in two of them and profits were way down in another two from the prior year. Only one quarter saw profits increase. The stock is high at the moment due to the market being bullish about the potential of a WWE network. Looking how FS1 is struggling to get off the ground and that's a free channel, it's hard not to see how WWE isn't setting themselves up for a big fall past WrestleMania 30 if they do indeed pull the trigger on their pay channel.

Four weeks ago on Twitter, when getting asked about it on Twitter, Meltzer replied that he would do those bios when: "Rey when contract with WWE expires, Cena when he's closer to end of career." This sort of makes putting active wrestlers on the ballots while they're still in their prime years a bit silly.

Explain. Ric Flair was in so much debt in 2011 that he faced home eviction. That was before his fourth divorce and he lost his gig with TNA jumping the gun on a return to WWE. I'd agree with rovert that this was likely a decision primarily motivated to get his WWE job back that he cost himself with his performance at the WWE 2K14 symposium. I can't see Flair ever stopping drinking completely, but hopefully he gets help for his anxiety issues and recent bereavement.

http://www.cagesideseats.com/2013/10/16/48...tag-team-titles Good for Flair if true.

This was my ballot: I FOLLOWED THE MODERN PERFORMERS IN U.S/CANADA CANDIDATES Ivan Koloff Dick Murdoch Ken Patera Rock & Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) Johnny "Mr. Wrestling II" Walker I FOLLOWED WRESTLING IN JAPAN CANDIDATES Gran Hamada I FOLLOWED WRESTLING IN EUROPE CANDIDATES Big Daddy Kendo Nagasaki Jackie Pallo I FOLLOWED WRESTLING IN AUSTRALIA/PACIFIC ISLANDS/PUERTO RICO CANDIDATES Carlos Colon NON-WRESTLERS Gary Hart Jimmy Hart Jerry Jarrett Takashi Matsunaga Stanley Weston

The numbers on Stu's site are what the promotion announced publicly and not the real figure. Pro Wrestling History says this show drew 7,000 fans, not 11,500. The Dome show figures I posted came from the Observer so should be more accurate.

Here's New Japan's Tokyo Dome attendance since 2000: January 4, 2000: Kensuke Sasaki b Genichiro Tenryu to win IWGP title, Masa Chono b Keiji Mutoh, Shinya Hashimoto & Takashi Iizuka b Naoya Ogawa & Kazunari Murakami (53,500 sellout) April 7, 2000: Naoya Ogawa b Shinya Hashimoto (40,000) October 9, 2000: Toshiaki Kawada b Kensuke Sasaki (54,000 sellout) January 4, 2001: Kensuke Sasaki b Toshiaki Kawada in finals for vacant IWGP title, Riki Choshu NC Shinya Hashimoto (52,000 sellout) October 8, 2001: Yuji Nagata & Jun Akiyama b Hiroshi Hase & Keiji Muto (47,000) January 4, 2002: Jun Akiyama b Yuji Nagata to retain GHC title, Kensuke Sasaki NC Naoya Ogawa (52,000 sellout) May 2, 2002: Mitsuharu Misawa d Masahiro Chono, Yuji Nagata b Yoshihiro Takayama to retain IWGP title (47,000) October 14, 2002: Yuji Nagata b Kazuyuki Fujita to retain IWGP title, Bob Sapp b Manabu Nakanishi, Masa Chono b Joanie Laurer (38,000) January 4, 2003: Yuji Nagata b Josh Barnett to retain IWGP title against former UFC heavyweight champion who hadn’t lost the title (30,000) May 2, 2003: Kenta Kobashi b Masahiro Chono to retain GHC title; Yoshihiro Takayama b Yuji Nagata in an NWF vs. IWGP title match (49,000) October 13, 2003: Yoshihiro Takayama & Kazuyuki Fujita & Minoru Suzuki & Shinsuke Nakamura & Bob Sapp b Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi & Hiroshi Tanahashi & Seiji Sakaguchi in elimination match; Hulk Hogan b Masahiro Chono (37,000) January 4, 2004: Shinsuke Nakamura b Yoshihiro Takayama in IWGP title vs NWF title match; Bob Sapp & Keiji Muto b Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Masahiro Chono, Yuji Nagata b Kensuke Sasaki (40,000) May 3, 2004: Bob Sapp b Shinsuke Nakamura to retain IWGP title (35,000) January 4, 2005: Shinsuke Nakamura b Hiroshi Tanahashi to win U-30 championship; Masahiro Chono won three-way over Riki Choshu and Hiroyoshi Tenzan (36,000) May 14, 2005: Hiroyoshi Tenzan b Satoshi Kojima to win IWGP title; Mitsuharu Misawa & Tatsumi Fujinami b Masahiro Chono & Jushin Liger (21,000) October 8, 2005: Brock Lesnar won three-way over Kazuyuki Fujita and Masahiro Chono to win IWGP title (16,000) January 4, 2006: Brock Lesnar b Shinsuke Nakamura to retain IWGP title, Katsuyori Shibata b Hiroshi Tanahashi (31,000) January 4, 2007: Keiji Muto & Masahiro Chono b Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan; Hiroshi Tanahashi b Taiyo Kea to retain IWGP title, Minoru Suzuki b Yuji Nagata to retain Triple Crown title, Toshiaki Kawada b Shinsuke Nakamura (18,000) January 4, 2008: Shinsuke Nakamura b Hiroshi Tanahashi to win IWGP title, Kurt Angle b Yuji Nagata, The Great Muta b Hirooki Goto (20,000) January 4, 2009: Hiroshi Tanahashi b Keiji Muto to win IWGP title, Shinsuke Nakamura & Hirooki Goto b Mitsuharu Misawa & Takashi Sugiura (27,500) January 4, 2010: Shinsuke Nakamura b Yoshihiro Takayama to retain IWGP title, GHC Champ Takashi Sugiura b Hirooki Goto, Hiroshi Tanahashi b Go Shiozaki (20,000) January 4, 2011: Hiroshi Tanahashi b Satoshi Kojima to win IWGP title, Shinsuke Nakamura b Go Shiozaki (18,000) January 4, 2012: Hiroshi Tanahashi b Minoru Suzuki, Keiji Mutoh b Tetsuya Naito, Go Shiozaki & Naomichi Marufuji b Shinsuke Nakamura & Toru Yano, Togi Makabe b Yoshihiro Takayama, Hirooki Goto b Takashi Sugiura (23,000) January 4, 2013: Hiroshi Tanahashi b Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura b Kazushi Sakuraba, Togi Makabe b Katsuyori Shibata, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima b Keiji Mutoh & Shinjiro Otani, Yuji Nagata b Minoru Suzuki (29,000) 2006 was an anomaly, as it was believed at the time it would be the last New Japan Dome show ever. There's no evidence of a company turnaround until 2012, where there was a slight uptick in business in the 18-20K level they'd drawn the past 5 years (with the exception of 2009, but clearly the outside legends drew that house). 2013 is a really impressive number, given that it was drawn with a main event where both wrestlers were modern stars.

I wonder if New Japan's profitability pre 2012 is a bit like stories of TNA once being profitable? They certainly cut down the bleeding a lot in the Yukes era, but the fact the company was sold suggests it wasn't a big money spinner for them and that they probably put more money into the company than they got out before the sale.

I think Tanahashi turning New Japan around is somewhat overstated. The main reason business is better today is due to the new revenue stream of iPPV. That's more a credit to the new owners than the wrestlers. The big shows are drawing a bit better, but they aren't at a stage where selling out Sumo Hall is guaranteed other than for the G1 Climax or they can draw more than 30,000 fans at the Dome for their traditional biggest show of the year. That's not a knock on Tanahashi, but also a reason not to rush him into the HOF, which should be reserved for real no-brainer candidates.

Edge's first run with the WWE title was a big success, even though it was only for a few weeks, as it led to a significant boost in Monday Night Raw's ratings. He then got a second run with the belt to blow off the Cena feud properly and the TLC match in Toronto that he dropped the belt in did well for a B-show pay-per-view. He then seems to be a guy that they kept going back to as champion as he had proven himself as a top star, even though the law of diminishing returns applied to him as an act. I think he's a guy who had HOF potential that didn't really reach it.

I think Jeff Hardy deserves the most credit for taking the ladder match to the next level in the Attitude Era, though obviously it was a team effort. He was clearly the star of the six. Though he washed out of the ballot, Hardy is an interesting comparison to Edge. Edge was more consistent, but Hardy was a much bigger star at his peak. The Royal Rumble 2008 number for Hardy vs. Orton is more impressive than anything Edge did as a headliner too and I'm sure Jeff sold more merchandise than Edge did. It's just that Jeff's valleys are really low, though even when strung out and slumming it in TNA, he always came off as being a bigger act than his environment allowed him to be.

They're the matches from the DVDVR/goodhelmet's Best of the 80s sets that have been released so far.

Vince hired him the first time around to stick the middle finger to WCW as it enabled him to appear on Jim Ross's WCW sponsored radio show and announce that he had just stolen WCW's top announcer. Second time around was because he was busy with his steroid trial and he desperately needed a fill-in announcer. Third time JR wasn't brought back to be an announcer, but to work as Vince's assistant on the creative team and he had to work his way from the bottom up as an announcer. Really, if the Montreal screwjob hadn't have happened and the Mr. McMahon character hadn't been created, the best Good Ol' JR could have aspired to would have been being the third man in the booth to call the moves Vince didn't know and discuss the amateur sports backgrounds of all his cartoon characters. You are leaving out the part where J.R. becomes the third most powerful person in wrestling and serves as a key cog in the WWE machine. So did JJ Dillon. The difference is JJ left when the relationship became frayed and Vince started to mess him around.

I'm considering voting for him too. He was the booker who sparked business in Texas in late 1983. He was instrumental in the successful babyface turn of Dusty Rhodes in Florida a decade earlier. Under his guidance he turned a lot of struggling journeymen into drawing stars (The Great Kabuki, The Spoiler, Pak Song, etc). I think the only arguments against him are that his record is too spotty and that the plane crash limited him as a performer, as from that point on he couldn't take any bumps.

I think Vince just likes picking on people. Especially someone like Ross who became a glutton for punishment.

Vince hired him the first time around to stick the middle finger to WCW as it enabled him to appear on Jim Ross's WCW sponsored radio show and announce that he had just stolen WCW's top announcer. Second time around was because he was busy with his steroid trial and he desperately needed a fill-in announcer. Third time JR wasn't brought back to be an announcer, but to work as Vince's assistant on the creative team and he had to work his way from the bottom up as an announcer. Really, if the Montreal screwjob hadn't have happened and the Mr. McMahon character hadn't been created, the best Good Ol' JR could have aspired to would have been being the third man in the booth to call the moves Vince didn't know and discuss the amateur sports backgrounds of all his cartoon characters.

Hashimoto is strangely missing from that list. Inoki, Fujinami & Tenryu should be in there too.

Not that I'm going to vote for Batista, but WWE house show business was really in the crapper in the summer and autumn of 2004. It was a major concern for the company. Batista was a large part of that turnaround and remained a solid draw for the company till he quit in 2010. Of course, Cena quickly overtook him as the top star of the promotion, but he helped pave the way for his run to be a success. Personally, I think that turning around a territory is more impressive from a drawing perspective than being pushed on top of an already hot promotion and struggling to justify the push you're given (Sasaki throughout the 90s as he was a late bloomer) or lucking into being in the right place at the right time (NJPW vs. AJPW feud). Aspects of his freelance run were impressive to be sure, but there's also the black mark of WJ on his track record. As a totality, I'd probably agree that Sasaki is a stronger candidate, but I don't think the margin is really all that wide.

At the time, I thought Dave's obituary for Kinji Shibuya (which I could send to you if you haven't read it) outlined a strong case for the WON HOF. He seemed in demand in many territories, almost always working on top, including a hotbed like San Francisco (only Stevens and Patterson were bigger stars, IIRC). Snyder seemed to peak early with his US title runs (various versions) and his runs with the Omaha version of the World title in the late 50s / early 60s. He was clearly one of the biggest stars in the business from 1956-1963. I think the knock on him was that he bought into the Indianapolis territory in the mid 1960s and settled there, where he was always positioned behind Dick The Bruiser.

Court Baurer shared the same anecdote about Dave on his Baurer & Pollock podcast this morning. Dave sent him his ballot in response to a years old email when Court was still in WWE. Court offered the pro-tip of bombarding Dave with (news tip) emails during this season if you want a decent chance in receiving a ballot. My ballot came as a reply to an email I had sent him years earlier about UFC fighter Tim Kennedy. I'm dying over here. My ballot was a reply to an email I sent him titled "NWA Houston Parade of Champions". That was months ago and not the last email i've sent him. Odd. Mine was a reply to an email asking him and Bryan about the "demon voice" at UFC 159. Mine was a reply to an email informing him that WWE would no longer fund Tammy Sytch's future rehab needs.

I'm not trolling, but is Kensuke Sasaki a significantly better candidate than "bottom feeder" Batista? From a drawing perspective, the success of WrestleMania 21 from WWE lucking into the Batista face turn angle, is a more impressive high spot than anything Sasaki did in his career, and nowadays it's rare for a new star to show such a significant box office boost, even if it was just for six months or so. I wouldn't disagree that Sasaki was a better worker at his peak, but Batista usually delivered when he was motivated and in with a major name, such as Triple H, The Undertaker and John Cena. To defend Sasaki a bit, I went to the July 2005 NOAH Dome show and it was clear that the drawing match was more Kobashi vs. Sasaki than Kawada vs. Misawa, given the respective buzz before the matches. Of course, at that point Kobashi was the biggest star of the four, but Sasaki came off as his equal on that night.