kjh

I was asking similar question at Cageside Seats earlier today: http://www.cagesideseats.com/2012/9/12/332...ed-all-past-wwe Update on this point from Meltzer in the Observer: I think the problem is that wrestlers will often avoid telling company doctors when something is wrong with them. Clearly he should have been encouraged to see a doctor after experiencing chest pain over the weekend and been honest about his symptoms, but hindsight is 20/20. Though, hopefully this will make WWE more vigilant about the health of their most veteran performers.

I think it's good to be sceptical of conventional wisdom John, but I think Pedro must have been doing something wrong, at least towards the end of 1973, for Vince McMahon Sr. to go back to Bruno and give him such a sweet deal to come back as champion. Regarding Lesnar, I do think he'll eventually get in through a combination of people thinking he should get credit for being a monster pay-per-view draw in UFC and votes from wrestlers who think his MMA victories legitimises the pro wrestling industry. I just hope they wait till next year by which time he should have finally headlined a super successful WrestleMania.

Having talked to some people who used to watch British wrestling, Big Daddy is still looked on with fond memories by the casual viewers of the time. It's only the hardcore fans and the people who worked with him that blamed him for the downfall of the British business that bag on him so much.

Sting *really* isn't all that famous though. Big Daddy is the cultural equivalent here of a Gorgeous George / Hulk Hogan type that everyone over a certain age would know their name. I think if you never lived in the UK, then you don't understand what a pop culture icon he was in the late 70s / early 80s.

Snyder would make an interesting comp to Pedro. I doubt his best run early in his career was quite as hot as Pedro's run in New York in 1971-73, but I get the sense he was more consistently successful in a wider variety of territories. Snyder had NWA World Heavyweight title matches in nine territories, not quite as good as Schmidt or Torres, but in the tier just below them.

It's an impressive run in MSG for sure. But it's almost like the 70s equivalent of Crow Sting being the hottest star in the business. The criticism of Morales was he always drew well in New York, but not in the other WWWF markets. I think I'd want to see at least some success in other territories as well. Miguel Perez Sr. had an equally as strong and longer record of drawing at MSG as Antonino Rocca's tag partner. Same could be said about JYD in Louisiana.

Pedro's run on top of the WWWF was only three years from 1971-1973. From March 1975 to April 1980 he was gone from the promotion. He had another three year run where he was a key guy, but would rank behind Backlund, Andre, Bruno and Patterson (until the latter two retired) on the babyface side. His last run in the WWF during the expansion years he was stuck in the mid card. I'm not saying Pedro shouldn't go in, but I don't think his WWWF/WWF runs are enough on their own. However, from what I know, for a guy who was a top star from the mid 60s to the mid 80s, his drawing record is a lot patchier than his contemporaries already in the Hall Of Fame or on the ballot.

Added to the fact that Cena isn't universally beloved.

Part of the problem was coming at the end of a three hour show and following an obviously fake retirement angle, which was pushed as a bigger deal than Punk's match with Lawler.

Even then that match only came 76th out of 150 matches in the DVDVR All Japan balloting.

That's not quite 100% true, a match between Abdullah and Brody on the DVDVR Texas set did well in the voting.

Antonio Inoki's retirement match probably should be included.

“He had an air about him that got him over almost everywhere he went. On the other hand, he took advantage of that attitude, too. If you were in the ring with him, if you didn’t have the guts to cut him off, he’d just eat you alive.” — Harley Race, former NWA world heavyweight champion. Just one example, but there's plenty of people around at the time who thought Brody was selfish both in and out of the ring.

Linda McMahon benefits from political silly season in Connecticut One poll shows Linda ahead by 3% after she ran a series of ads criticising Murphy for absenteeism for Congressional financial hearings. There's the fun of the McMahon campaign criticising Murphy for landing expensive earmarks for Connecticut job creation, while WWE under Linda took advantage of the same tax subsidies for job creation in their movie division. Also, WWE crowing about Murphy running ads during Monday Night Raw proving that they're family friendly programming. Murphy's ad response to being behind in the polls is what you would expect: I think if this is all the dirt they've got on Murphy, then she'll have a tough time keeping the race close.

Linda McMahon vs. Chris Murphy, the match is now officially signed.

I hope this is a joke No, I was being serious. They were generally positive on the whole angle apart from the hokey line Brock uttered when he caught Shawn: "The Lesnar Heyman tandem is a real good heel tandem. Paul is tremendous" - Dave. "Shawn was great, by the way, in selling the arm, so much better than most people would have been in that same situation" - Dave.

Triple H is in the JR/Johnny Ace position, she's second in command.

Dave and Bryan were singing the praises of Shawn and Heyman on Observer Radio.

WWE proves their non-partisan nature by firing AW for pro Linda tweet!

I know his gimmick is to be edgy, but it's pretty classless to make fun of a colleagues disappearance from TV due to domestic abuse.

The crowd never turned on him during his title run?

I think it's worth remembering that people in WWE management thought Eddy could be the Latino Stone Cold Steve Austin before winning the belt. He was such a real ratings mover. Benoit winning had more to do with Triple H wanting to boost his number of title victories than a reward for Benoit. Someone who was good enough to hold the belt, but not be perceived as a bigger star than the son-in-law.

Bryan and Dave could pop up in storyline mode and snicker at how Vince changed his mind again.

The number of people in Vince's ear at the time was enormous. Nash gets all the credit though?

At least they didn't pick Jake Roberts for the third spot of mid '90s WWF babyfaces!