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Sasaki's a guy who's had some big moments in his career (Dome matches with Kawada and Kobashi), but to a certain extent he feels like a Japanese equivalent of Sting. Both were guys that the booker was high on and got multiple opportunities to be the top star of their national promotion, but the pushes never really stuck. Sting has the Crow run, which really was just one big drawing match. Given how far the Japanese business has declined, from a drawing perspective Sasaki headlining for AJPW and Pro Wrestling NOAH since 2007 isn't much better than being TNA's legend during the same time period. Really, given that he's one of the few legends left working from the '90s glory days, Sasaki should be a bigger deal today than he actually is.

Yeah, I got a ballot this year. Re: Backlund vs. Pedro, Backlund's title run was twice the length of Pedro's, so I'm not sure that Pedro > Backlund. I think Backlund was hurt by a changing business (though he also hurt himself by changing his look at that time) whereas Pedro didn't have to deal with that. There was less places for him to go to work and the audience changed. I could be persuaded to vote for Pedro, but I don't think the early 70s MSG run is enough on its own to convince me. If he had other equally hot runs in a few other territories then I would be convinced.

The problem I have with Jim Crockett Jr. as a candidate compared with other promoters is that he wasn't very hands on with the booking. Most of the promoters already in the Hall Of Fame were great bookers too. Crockett was very hands off and let George Scott, Dory Jr. and Dusty largely do their thing. That's of course a positive when things are going well, but a negative if you don't shake things up when your winning hand becomes a losing one. I think if the Crockett family were considered as a group, then they would be impossible to deny, but not sure they deserve to go in separately.

A lot of people vote on gut feeling. Gut feeling is deceptive in Lesnar's case. The UFC run obviously makes him feel like a lot stronger candidate than he actually should be, as that's success in a different field. His first WWE run was only for two years and though he developed into an amazingly good worker given his relative inexperience, he never drew or got over quite to the level of the push he received. The New Japan run was pretty much a disaster for everyone involved. He's done reasonably well on his WWE return, but he hasn't been the difference maker he had the potential to be. That's still only half a dozen matches. Really the main difference between him and Batista is one had a successful MMA career and the other did not.

Can someone explain the legality of Marlena losing a match that required her to spend 30 days and 30 nights with Brian Pillman?

It was probably a relief he hadn't sold them on eBay or used them as collateral to get Fifi The Maid a wedding ring.

So we've had: - Dustin Runnels taking crap from Scott Hall because he wasn't comfortable working with someone who portrayed a gay predator. - Kanyon's closeted sexuality being mocked in a scripted angle ending with one of the most brutal beatings with a steel chair in WWE history, which led to him attempting suicide shortly thereafter. - Orlando Jordan being fired by WWE for bringing his boyfriend on the road with him who may or may not have been underage in some states. - OJ's TNA run where he was portrayed as a depraved bisexual, Spike TV execs being grossed out by kissing his boyfriend at the hotel room bar and Ric Flair ripping into his boyfriend's behaviour in public. So a wrestler coming out is a non-issue?

Cena has never handled this issue well, even when he should expect it coming. See this Wade Keller editorial, for example. Clearly, he knows he has to say he's cool with homosexuality publicly, but one gets vibes that he's not altogether comfortable with the idea.

Misawa, who was trying to elevate Kobashi to the spot. After the exodus, they went with Tenryu... but he's a sacred cow, so we best not use him. Then they brought in Keiji Mutoh, with Mrs. Baba gave him a lot of power for that. Then they went back to Kawada, but he got hurt instantly... and it was back to Tenryu and Mutoh for another year. Basically Oct 2000 through Feb 2003 was them. Yep, works for me. Misawa, Kobashi, Tenryu and Mutoh. The GHC title yo-yoing between the next young hope (Rikio, Marufuji, Morishima, Shiozaki, etc) and broken down established veteran (Taue, Akiyama, Misawa, etc) post Kobashi's big run probably fits. Suwama keeps getting the big Triple Crown win (over Sasaki, Suzuki and Funaki) and never getting over too.

I think they're under a very short term contract which allows them to still negotiate with WWE and TNA while working a few more dates for ROH. That said, it's still stupid to put the titles on two guys in August who may not be around the month after.

John, where Herd fucked up in 1991 was that he fired him before he actually had no showed. I'm sure a lot of fans would have still took Ric's side, but Herd pulling the trigger too soon allowed people to fool themselves into believing he was a martyr.

Ironically, given Heyman's rep, I actually think they would have lost a lot less money. He was a proponent for pushing younger guys and only keeping one major name from the past to be TNA's legend to give the new stars a rub. I would imagine pay-per-views and house shows would be doing better too. It's hard to see TNA not being in better shape under his stewardship, even though they would probably still be struggling.

Favour for Bill from Jim Ross?

Though it's mind numbingly stupid to fire him immediately after Destination X 2013, a show one year earlier he had vowed to wrestle on and become the TNA World Heavyweight Champion, is it really any scummier than past mistreatment of TNA talent? At least he seems to have had his medical bills taken care of...

I think with Jim Ross it's hazy because he wanted to reduce his office duties and was training John Laurinaitis to be his eventual replacement, but WWE moved forward the date of the switchover without Good Ol' JR knowing about it. He still did the company's payroll for many years after though. Laurinaitis was forced out by Triple H. Not fired but demoted/reassigned, as he was still used as a TV character for awhile afterwards and behind the scenes as a road agent to this very day.

I believe Jarrett is still a minority owner of the company, but had all his power stripped from him when Dixie Carter found out that he had lied to her about having an affair with Karen Angle. Since Jarrett was written out of TV in December 2011, he worked on his own side projects like Ring Ka King for The Colors Network in India and All Wheels Wrestling for the Speed Channel, had a minor role in the 2012 movie Spring Breakers and has wrestled on several major AAA shows in Mexico. Jarrett may be the benefactor of Bruce Prichard leaving the company, as he's the obvious person to takeover his position given that he used to have his job.

It seems like the last three years of TNA's existence has been Dixie squandering her pocket money and Janice grounding her for being such a spendthrift before letting her out to play again.

It's also worth noting that WWE's contract for Monday Night Raw comes up for renewal in the fall of 2014. Does Viacom make a play for Raw and use the bigger wrestling brand to boost their secondary MMA promotion? They've been willing to bleed before while they wait for the next golden carrot: 1) Continuing with unprofitable weekly pay-per-views. 2) Buying time on Fox Sports Net. 3) Spending big to bring in all the biggest stars not under WWE contract to go head to head with Monday Night Raw live every other week.

Hogan never had it. He knows how to promote his own brand, but his run in WCW already proved that he would do that at the expense of the promotion he had creative control of. I don't blame Dixie Carter for bringing him in, but she really should have woke up and smelt the coffee when the Bischoff/Hogan inspired Monday Night Wars Part Deux cost TNA millions in dollars and led to her company being so publicly humiliated. I really think the move to taping on the road was a last Hail Mary call by Dixie Carter, given that the company is tens of millions of dollars in the whole and the only ways for Panda Energy to quickly recoup some of that money is: a) Listen to Bischoff & Hogan and hope that their pie in the sky turnaround fantasies come true. Sell TNA to Viacom or WWE.

Ric Flair explains failure to pay spousal support It’s worth noting that Flair owes Beems 8 months of alimony, dating back to late last year. Thus, it’s disingenuous to suggest that his inability/refusal to pay was entirely due to his health problems and bereavement this spring.

Ric Flair fails to pay spousal support, warrant out for his arrest

If you look at the figures, WWE's TV rights fees hasn't really escalated significantly at all, since 2002: They handled their contract renegotiations in 2005 really badly, as Viacom pulled out at an early stage, leaving them with no leverage with NBCUniversal and thus forcing them to take a worse deal than they already had. They've had good growth since then to get them back to the level they were once at, but only by creating new shows and expanding into new international markets. It's hard to say there's a bubble here. Though WWE looks to sports and think they can capitalise on rights fee escalations, their track record suggests that it will be tricky. Wrestling isn't hot at the moment and they could easily find themselves in the situation where only the existing network of an equivalent standing is interested in their programming. It's not like UFC where they could play NBC, CBS, Viacom, FOX and ESPN against each other.

It's worth noting that they teased a lesbian angle with Marlena lusting after Sable around this time period too.

Dot Net WWE News: NXT investigation regarding claims made against Bill DeMott, statement issued by WWE Matthews is claiming on Twitter that Audrey Marie was fired for complaining about sexual harassment by Demott and it sounds like he's got another ex-NXT trainee lined up to dish the dirt.