Bix

It was underwhelming live. Crowd brawling quickly lost most of the building and the heat from the entrances didn't sustain at all.

In 23 years of going to shows I've never heard anything remotely like the pop the for the finish here. Shield debut could be "better" but it's hard to top this for favorite WWE match I've seen live.

Joe & Rich had me on Voices of Wrestling to go over the changes to the Hall of Fame: New rule, new candidates, new subregion, etc. Fun was had by all.

I follow all of them. Essentially it comes down to two things: 1. Not wanting to null vote against not just Akiyama and Taue, who I was going to try to fit in before the rule change & new luchadores, but also Volk Han and Gran Hamada given the new rule. It doesn't mean I can never vote on Japan again if I abstain this year, though, 2. I was considering it anyway for the past year because it's the one region where people native to that country see their candidates very differently from the hardcore fans following their wrestling from afar. Not they were bad candidates, but nobody here sees Steve Williams, Kensuke Sasaki, Masa Saito, Seiji Sakaguchi (who hasn't made it in), etc as slam dunks the way the Japanese voters do. The Mexican and foreign lucha voters are much more in sync. Last year, in the thread about the post-HOF show with Bruce Mitchell, Dave wrote this in a post about Howard Finkel: I was surprised that Dave said Larry was put at that level at the time and asked Dave for more details since, while he was good, I had no idea he was considered to have broken out of the pack of good announcers at the time (and listed a few of them). Dave responded with this (emphasis mine): So his HOF case is more great announcer that happened to be an important part of the office as general manager and sometimes (assistant?) booker, I guess.

If I had to send my ballot by tonight at midnight, it would look like this. This is wildly preliminary, though, since we have weeks, so please try to sway me however you like. I FOLLOWED THE HISTORICAL PERFORMERS ERA CANDIDATES [Abstain] I FOLLOWED THE MODERN PERFORMERS IN U.S/CANADA CANDIDATES Junkyard Dog Ivan Koloff Dick Murdoch Rock & Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) I FOLLOWED WRESTLING IN JAPAN CANDIDATES [Abstain] I FOLLOWED WRESTLING IN MEXICO CANDIDATES Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata & El Brazo Cien Caras Karloff Lagarde El Signo & El Texano & Negro Navarro I FOLLOWED WRESTLING IN EUROPE CANDIDATES [Abstain] I FOLLOWED WRESTLING IN AUSTRALIA/PACIFIC ISLANDS/PUERTO RICO CANDIDATES Carlos Colon Mark Lewin NON-WRESTLERS Dave Brown Howard Finkel Jimmy Hart Jerry Jarrett Gene Okerlund

So I haven't heard back from Dave on this yet, but I realized that, unless there's something he's not telling us, there's a big hole in the new rule: As some of us have discussed in the past, it's a little weird that the only "historical" bucket is US/Canada, with no general international historical bucket, much less historical versions of every other regional bucket. As in should the Sharpe Brothers, Masahiko Kimura, etc. be in the same category as Tenzan and Kojima. This year, that's even worse because American candidates have an unfair disadvantage: Even if they can drop off the ballot, they can return after 2 years if they age into the historical bucket. Non-US/Canada candidates don't have that luxury.

Chromecasts have also been in WWE swag bags this year even though there's no network app (you'd have to screencast it). I got one at the Legends House lunch. Why that and not Roku, which was supported at launch? I have no idea.

So we have a new rule: Starting this year with wrestlers who have been on the ballot since 2000, if you don't go in within 15 years, you're off the ballot. If you're a modern performer, you can age out into Also, Africa has been added to the weird catch-all "region," with Jan Wilkens on the ballot. With the rule change and surprise additions I have no clue what my ballot is gonna look like.

Here's the ballot, comments to come in a reply... --- It's time for the 2014 Hall of Fame elections. This ballot is being sent out to major wrestling stars, past and present, major management figures in the industry, writers and historians. If you are getting this, you are being asked your opinion on who should be inducted into this year's Hall of Fame class. The criteria for the Hall of Fame is a combination of drawing power, being a great in-ring performer or excelling in ones field in pro wrestling, as well as having historical significance in a positive manner. A candidate should either have something to offer in all three categories, or be someone so outstanding in one or two of those categories that they deserve inclusion. The names listed below are those under consideration for this year. To be eligible, a performer must have reached their 35th birthday and completed ten years since their debut as a full-time performer, or be someone who has been a full-time pro wrestler for at least 15 years. Longevity should be a prime consideration rather than a hot two or three year run, unless someone is so significant as a trend-setter or a historical figure in the business, or valuable to the industry, that they need to be included. However, just longevity without being either a long-term main eventer, a top draw and/or a top caliber in-ring performer should be seen as relatively meaningless. The election is broken down into a number of categories. You should check each category for wrestlers that you feel you are familiar enough with based on geography that you've either traveled or are familiar with, and based on the time you have followed pro wrestling. You do not have to vote for a wrestler in every category you've checked. The ballot is also broken down to wrestlers and those who are not pro wrestlers but have been valuable parts of the industry. The maximum number of wrestlers that you can vote for all the categories is ten. You can pick as few as zero if you don't believe anyone on this list deserves inclusion. For wrestling executives, managers, announcers and other outside the ring performers, you can vote for them and they are not counted against the ten. You can vote for as many as five of them. All responses are confidential. There is nothing to worry about politically about any involvement in this process. Your selections will not be revealed unless you choose to do so yourself. Anyone who receives mention on 60% of the ballots from the geographical region and time frame (broken down as Continental United States & Canada; Mexico; Japan; Europe; and Hawaii/Australia/New Zealand) will be added to the Hall of Fame in the class of 2014. If you are unfamiliar with any of the candidates due to geography of having never seen them, that is fine. Ballots are sent to many people from all over the world and from different wrestling cultures so that everyone has as fair a shot at possible. The breakdown for modern and historical performers is 30 years ago, or 1984. So if the last year the person was a headliner, or was a key figure in the industry, was prior to 1984, they would be in the historical class. All performers who receive mention on 10% to 59.9% of the ballots from their geographical region or era will remain on the ballot for consideration next year. All those who receive less than 10% of the vote will be dropped from next year's ballot. They can return in two years based on if there is significant feedback from voters who say they will vote for them. This is mostly for wrestlers who are still active who may improve their career legacy, but can be for retired wrestlers if voters believe they should be put on or returned to the ballot. In addition, in following the lead of the baseball Hall of Fame, which is the model here, starting this year we have a 15-year-rule. The following candidates have been on the ballot since 2000. In baseball, this would be their last year of eligibility. Here, if they don't get at least 50% of the votes in this year's election they will be removed from the ballot. If they are modern candidates, they can be brought back in the historical performers era in two years if it is more than 30 years since their career as a Hall Fame level performer is up: The following candidates will be dropped from next year's ballot unless they are elected in or garner 50% of the vote: Gene & Ole Anderson Cien Caras Carlos Colon Gran Hamada Volk Han Owen Hart Gorilla Monsoon Fabulous Moolah Pedro Morales Dick Murdoch Rock & Roll Express Seiji Sakaguchi Jimmy Snuka Wilbur Snyder Jesse Ventura Please return this ballot by October 5th. You can e-mail the ballot back to [email protected] or fax it to 408-244-3402 or mail (please do so by September 28th) to Wrestling Observer, P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228. Please check by every category you are familiar with I FOLLOWED THE HISTORICAL PERFORMERS ERA CANDIDATES Gene & Ole Anderson The Assassins (Joe Hamilton & Tom Renesto) Red Bastien June Byers Pepper Gomez Dick Hutton Pedro Morales Ciclon Negro Kinji Shibuya Wilbur Snyder John Tolos Enrique Torres Von Brauners & Saul Weingeroff Tim "Mr. Wrestling" Woods Johnny "Mr. Wrestling II" Walker I FOLLOWED THE MODERN PERFORMERS IN U.S/CANADA CANDIDATES Junkyard Dog Edge Owen Hart Curt Hennig Ivan Koloff Brock Lesnar Fabulous Moolah Dick Murdoch Ken Patera C.M. Punk Rock & Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) Sgt. Slaughter Jimmy Snuka Sting Ultimate Warrior I FOLLOWED WRESTLING IN JAPAN CANDIDATES Jun Akiyama George Gordienko Gran Hamada Volk Han Masahiko Kimura Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan Yuji Nagata Seiji Sakaguchi Mike & Ben Sharpe Minoru Suzuki Kiyoshi Tamura Akira Taue I FOLLOWED WRESTLING IN MEXICO CANDIDATES Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata & El Brazo Cien Caras Hector Garza Ultimo Guerrero Karloff Lagarde Blue Panther L.A. Park Huracan Ramirez El Signo & El Texano & Negro Navarro Vampiro Villano III Dr. Wagner Jr. I FOLLOWED WRESTLING IN EUROPE CANDIDATES Jim Breaks Big Daddy Giant Haystacks Horst Hoffman Billy Joyce Kendo Nagasaki Jackie Pallo Rollerball Mark Rocco Johnny Saint Otto Wanz I FOLLOWED WRESTLING IN AUSTRALIA/PACIFIC ISLANDS/CARIBBEAN/AFRICA CANDIDATES Spyros Arion Johnny Barend Brute Bernard & Skull Murphy Carlos Colon King Kong Czaja John DaSilva Domenic DeNucci Killer Karl Kox Mark Lewin Mario Milano Jan Wilkens NON-WRESTLERS Bill Apter Dave Brown Jim Crockett Jr. Jim Crockett Sr. Gary Hart Jimmy Hart Howard Finkel Jerry Jarrett Larry Matysik Gorilla Monsoon Gene Okerluind Don Owen George Scott Jesse Ventura Stanley Weston

Travis had a great match with Lawler at a legends show at the Coliseum right before he died. He never really lost it.

It has nothing to do with number of stories. It's about how many times X is searched for.

Apparently, it's been a shockingly accurate predictor of PPV buys in most cases, with a few obvious outliers (Ronda Rousey is a pretty girl so more people will search for her anyway, while Anderson Silva's last fight ended in his leg breaking brutally and thus tons of searches right after the show). And that's cool. But reading about it applied to individual wrestlers and popularity isn't that interesting except for a couple weird outliers like how much Punk and Undertaker are still being searched for.

There used to be some matches from Canadian Superstars with Gorilla on YouTube and/or DailyMotion but I'm not sure if they're still online.

It turns out Ric Flair has won at least one match while wearing red gear: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5vgte_nitro-12-08-1996-ric-flair-vs-randy_sport

The names are all listed in the statements of material facts from the lawsuit. But for the specific piece I decided I was best off holding them back, partially because I thought it read better in the context of the complaint that the racism was so pervasive in WCW. More faceless etc.

Yeah, we're not exactly sure what happened there. Thanks, though.

Is this thread really the place for this? People said the same thing when I went to BR.

Well, that's disappointing. I really wanted to see Swoll vs. Hashimoto.

A few weeks ago, I left Bleacher Report to become WhatCulture's U.S. Editor. And I should really be linking my stuff here. This is my latest, which I'm sure people here will find interesting: 7 Incredibly Messed Up Allegations From WCW’s Racial Discrimination Lawsuits. Sort of companion piece here: 10 WCW Wrestlers Who Were Ridiculously Overpaid. More to come along these lines, including a some more from the discrimination lawsuits and then, while I don't want to promise anything, I'm hoping that next, we'll get stuff from the Jesse Ventura videotape royalties suit against WWE and their licensees. I can't say enough about how happy I am that WhatCulture wants this type of content and will do what it takes to help me get a hold of the source material I need. Other fun stuff so far: 10 Hilarious Talk Show Appearances By WWE Stars 10 WWE Stars You Never Knew Were Announcers

Did Jim actually advocate drugging and stripping someone with attitude problems right before having notable feminist/anti rape culture comedian Jamie Kilstein on the show?

Related question: have the heels ever dominated a WWE PPV so thoroughly before? Backlash 2000. The heel won in every championship match. Rock beat HHH in the main event.

Well, that's not good.

No, all of the times we have right now are bell to bell.