kjh

The problem is DG is largely the number two promotion by default, due to the collapse in other promotions business.

I'm not sure Bret was quite as flexible as he makes out. People were expecting him to come into SS as champion, when push comes to shove I'm not sure he'd have dropped it before that date. It also might have hurt PPV buys at the time if Bret vs. Shawn wasn't a World title match. Also, Vince ultimately wanted the belt on Shawn, preferably directly, as he was the hottest heel in the company with Bret gone, and he wanted to build to Austin winning the title at WrestleMania.

I think the problem with people voting for him based largely on his WCW run from August '96 (though he didn't come in as a full timer until later that year) - July '98, is that not only was it a ridiculously short run, but he was being considered as a Japanese candidate at the time. It's a shame there isn't an "international" bucket for guys who made their Hall Of Fame cases in multiple regions. The same thing goes for "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, who is likely picking up votes for his Mid South run too.

From Dave: From Mooneyham: Um, why do I think this has much more to do with Flair wanting to save money and be able to return to the ring quicker, than it being a medical miracle?

And just like pro wrestling Anderson/Chael will renege on their stipulations.

UFC 136 Results: Chael Sonnen And The Best Interview In UFC History

Yes but it's not like he was being carried and didn't do his part. I could say the same for Akira Taue and Jun Akiyama, for a higher calibre and longer series of matches, neither of whom are on the ballot. I think once you add in all the time he was on the shelf due to injuries, I don't think his run where he's pointed to as a top worker is particularly long.

Be prepared for the Cageside Seats post pointing out he's not licensed in Las Vegas, Nevada yet.

The thing with the Smackdown 6 is as a worker, I think most people would agree he was behind Benoit, Eddy, Rey and Angle as a worker, but above Chavo. Fifth best worker out of six, in a legendary but short series of matches, isn't overly impressive.

I thought it wasn't out yet?

WWE Raw's mass walkout on Triple H was a last minute decision by Vince McMahon

At the time, I thought it meant that Heenen hadn't watched much wrestling in years. It's easy to be blown away by something you're unfamiliar with. See Bruce Mitchell calling the ROH Dragon Gate trios match the best match ever.

He mentioned it in his HOF radio discussion show with Bruce and Bryan, but it's been a talking point of his ever since someone tallied up all the PPV matches he's rated above ****+, which ignores that a lot of those matches were stunt shows or matches where his opponent was clearly the better worker. I think Edge was a perfectly fine WWE main event style worker, but I don't think that should be enough to get in on it's own.

Didn't you know rovert, that he's better than Dick Murdoch?

It must have pushed his buttons, though I'm surprised he held back until the Observer came out.

Hasn't that been the case with most of the "out of the box" angles that WWE's done over the past few years, except that the central figure is sometimes other members of the McMahon family? I think that with their writing team full of soap opera writers who have little understanding about booking wrestling and Vince's fickle, volatile nature meaning that they're booking on the fly that this cycle is doomed to repeat itself.

He returned in late 1984 and did several tours for the company into the early part of the next decade, but it was never the same.

I agree that there is an issue there, but the reason that they trumpeted about it so loudly was that they both hate Dunn with a passion. You didn't hear Corny or Percy calling out their friends Bruce Prichard and Michael Hayes for their racism, which is a bigger hot button issue than misogyny, and if they were put on the spot about it now, then we'd get the usual excuses and hand wringing.

Rick Rude fell off the ballot a year or two ago. Regarding Ventura, I think the standards for getting in as an announcer are very high and I don't think Ventura cuts the mustard on that basis alone. I think he grew disinterested in the role towards the end of the WWF run and that carried on into WCW.

With Flair having the book, he was always going to turn back heel sooner rather than later.

I think Meltzer is right when he speculated that this was an intentionally misleading question to make it look like their Network will be more popular than it actually is. According to former WWE creative team member Court Bauer, the idea is that the big 4 PPVs would be shown on the WWE Network a couple of weeks after they happen, like HBO and Showtime do with major boxing PPVs. He also said that they hadn't even got a business plan for the WWE Network in place at last word. Yeah, this is likely to be a major clusterf***.

I tend to look at Sting's career arc as being fairly similar to Jun Akiyama's. Both shone early in their careers and were groomed for the top spot, but when they were put in that position it just didn't click. Both hung around near the top spot of their respective promotions for the rest of their careers and had some success against the right opponent on top, but they couldn't carry business on their own. Akiyama fell off the ballot and even though he was never as hot as Sting was as a star in 1997, he delivered more consistently in the ring than Sting did.

You know, I had the exact opposite reaction. Like FLIK, I thought Cornette came off quite pragmatical about the whole thing, though I must say his anti-WWE schtick can become a bit tiresome sometimes. Koff, on the other hand, came across like a starry eyed mark.

It's about profit not competition. They're owned by a TV company, so in this case ratings may be more important than profitability. But if we're talking about profitability I don't know where they'll recoup the cost of producing TV. They're probably already at the upper limit of the potential of iPPV at the moment, as the average fan isn't going to have a Roku box or want to sit in front of their computer for four hours. Both WWE and TNA are struggling to draw for their house shows at the moment. The markets they're planning to expand into don't feel like a good fit for their product. Indeed, they heavily promoted their first show in Charlotte and only drew 800 fans, much worse than they hoped for.

Well, what do you expect when your new COO Joe Koff is basically a territorial wrestling fan. I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, just that the syndication model that ROH has seems terribly outdated and I'm sceptical that they can make it work in this day and age. Edit: I think this should answer your promo question sek -