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Dave "In the Zuffa bubble" Meltzer thinks Strikeforce couldn't outdraw UFC on PPV even if they stole most of their top stars:

Konnan's considered as a Mexican wrestler for the Observer Hall of Fame. The problem with Finlay is he may pick up some votes mainly for his US accomplishments, which is unfair to the European wrestlers who had no mainstream American exposure.

I agree that the UK should be treated as a separate region (though I have my doubts that that will be the case), but even so does Dave have enough voters who are knowledgeable enough about British wrestling for it to be a fair election? That the British wrestlers have only just been put on the ballot suggests that few if any of his old voters were pushing for them to be placed on the ballot. I think at the very least we know William Regal probably won't be voting for any of them!

Somehow I don't think Big Daddy rolling straight off the ballot will placate the most rabid of his HOF supporters.

Here's this year's ballot courtesy of Steve Yohe: PERFORMERS LIST Gene & Ole Anderson The Assassins (Tom Renesto & Jody Hamilton) Atlantis Red Bastien Carlos Colon Big Daddy (Shirley Crabtree) Edge George Gordienko Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Bucanero Gran Hamada Volk Han Owen Hart Curt Hennig Chris Jericho Rocky Johnson Ivan Koloff Konnan Karloff Lagarde Mark Lewin Jose Lothario Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey & Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane) Mick McManus Bill Miller Fabulous Moolah Pedro Morales Dick Murdoch Rey Mysterio Kendo Nagasaki Jackie Pallo Blue Panther Rollerball Mark Rocco Rock & Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) Rick Rude Sabu Masa Saito Seiji Sakaguchi Kensuke Sasaki Hans Schmidt Sgt. Slaughter Jimmy Snuka Wilbur Snyder Sting Kiyoshi Tamura John Tolos Enrique Torres Vampiro Villano III Dr. Wagner Jr. Dr. Wagner Sr. Johnny "Mr. Wrestling II" Walker Tim "Mr. Wrestling" Woods NON-WRESTLERS LIST Lou Albano Jim Crockett Jr. Gary Hart Jerry Jarrett Gorilla Monsoon Dr. Alfonso Morales Don Owen Roy Shire Jesse Ventura

The ballots are already out, as Steve Yohe posted the ballot sent him on tOA and WrestlingClassics. I'll start a new thread elsewhere. Most interesting is that due to the Big Daddy backlash Dave has put all of the major UK stars on the ballot for the first time (Big Daddy, Kendo Nagasaki, Mick McManus, Jackie Pallo and Mark "Rollerball" Rocco). I don't like their chances, given that Finlay got no support last year.

Did anyone other than Marty Jannetty regularly use the move during that period?

This talking point gets trotted out all the time despite being so wide off the mark. At his peak Bob had a ton of in ring charisma. A hell of a lot more than a Dory Funk Jr. who preceded him by many years. He may have used a lot of basic holds, but he worked them in a manner that kept the crowd engaged through his expressive facials, forcing his opponents to be active in the holds rather than allowing them to rest in them to waste time. Bob wasn't Dean Malenko who often didn't care if he bored the crowd half to sleep by keeping his opponent grounded for 80% of the match. Bob really was of Bruno's and Pedro's ilk, a soft spoken ethnic babyface who played to the crowd, and that's why he got over so well.

Dutch Mantell and Savio Vega get the boot. More cuts are coming supposedly.

I saw that too and didn't get the humor. Dave is *way too* sensitive of any criticism of Brock Lesnar and his pro wrestling background. He should be happy that Brock is so over and such a big drawing card that every heavyweight in the promotion who gets it is cutting wrestling style promos on him in an effort to lobby Dana White into making the match with him. Wrestling style promos aren't worth taking so seriously.

You should see more of Hashi, Loss. He was really good as a plucky young underdog who could sympathetically sell a vicious beating, until his injuries caught up with him after 2005.

Same as always would: dumb money marks. For the last fiscal year, the Company had $526.5M in revenue, $45.4M in net, paid out $81.4M in dividends, had $177.3M on the books in Cash and short-term investments and has all of $3.9M in debt. For all our knocking of the company declining, financially that's a company with really good books. Someone out there would offer up a fair amount to buy it. But, I really can't see all the remaining McMahons selling out if the company remains a license to print them money like it is now. The key to your scenario is that reality sets in and they realize that they're creatively bankrupt and not cut out to promote wrestling. I really can't see reality setting in until they've screwed up their books so badly that they can only get a fire sale. Maybe Shane, who seems to be the most grounded and pragmatic of the heirs apparent, will get fed up of dealing with his dumb sister and prick of a husband and sell his shares while the going is good. I don't see Steph and Trips following suit.

"Professional wrestling, I’m sure, will be reborn with MMA" - Joe Babinsack

I think it's more likely that Steph and Trips would buy out all the other shareholders and take the company back private, so they wouldn't have to deal with naysayers questioning their judgement, than them even contemplating selling their family legacy and personal play toy, respectively.

Bob, what indications are there that Stephanie would be any better running the financial side of things than the creative side? For all the doom-mongerers (and to be fair there is plenty of reasons to be worried), it should be remembered that everyone thought AAA would fall off the cliff when Antonio Pena died, which didn't happen. In all likelihood, Vince has created such a promotional juggernaut that the company will survive long after his death despite any in fighting, inexperience and incompetence in the immediate aftermath of his death.

I was thinking Coey, as I'd forgotten all about Dangerous Dan.

Yeah I thought his comeback of "I guess I'm not perfect like you" was kind of an odd statement for the babyface to make when Punk was making a point that he's never been in trouble with drugs or alcohol. Well, Vince supposedly does like to brag that he can snort as much cocaine as he likes and never gets hooked, so I can see him looking down on people who need to go to rehab as being weak minded individuals who should be able to quit cold turkey. Hardy's comeback also perfectly exemplifies the mentality within the wrestling industry, as guys like Punk are often heat magnets because it's so unusual to choose a straight-edged lifestyle in the wrestling business.

The "Angle bookerman" rumors were actually started by Angle himself. Reread the first post in this thread with Dave Meltzer's initial update on this story.

The problem is they're not using the time this is buying them to create any new top names.

Both you and Bob forget that when Kurt Angle's health was at it's worst, Heyman repackaged Angle in a shoot fighter style gimmick for the new ECW, which was clearly designed to protect his ailing body by forcing him to do more matwork and less high spots. I think Bob's right to remind people of Heyman's flaws as a booker, but still his track record suggests that he would do a much better job than TNA have recently done of differentiating the company from WWE, engendering fan loyalty and creating new stars, which would be a major step in the right direction. With regards to Heyman's public proclamations of "never", I take them with a pinch of salt. What he says publicly and what he thinks privately could be polar opposites. It's not past Heyman to use the sheets to float his name out there, while publicly protesting his innocence.

Except Bix, Kurt Angle is clearly making it a problem, probably more because he sees it as an opportunity to wrest power from Jarrett which he's had aspirations of from day one, than his anger at Jarrett supposedly stealing his wife and children. Also don't forget that wrestling has a completely warped sense of morality and from a management perspective who is right is always the person who is most valuable to the company. Of course, there's also the slim chance that this is all just an elaborate work.

With all the money saved from booting out Angle, Jarrett, Russo and Dutch, I'm sure you could easily convince Cornette or Heyman to change their minds or get pretty much anyone else Dixie's heart desired to run the company. Cornette's and Heyman's lack of desire to book for TNA always seemed to me to be a power issue. With Jarrett and cronies around they would never have complete creative control and neither of them wanted to have all the headaches that would inevitably cause, having both hated being in that situation before in WCW and WWE. Of course, it's not going to happen, because I doubt Dixie is bold enough to get rid of both the company's biggest star and the company's founder.

Bryan Alvarez believed JR was talking about him, but who knows. I posted this more for the crabby tone, than disagreeing with the opinion itself. Even when he may have a valid point, he often spoils it by needless name calling.

From JR's latest blog:

Or the right opponent to be able to set business records.