Bix

I think Jim Cornette is angry at me. I tweeted I was surprised he's such a big Moolah supporter and then... - Court said he's voted for her in the past because she was so powerful/influential. - I pointed out that she likely got that power and influence solely by way of the "unsavory" stuff she did (because I didn't want lead with the words "rape" or "forced prostitution") - Jim said "Jesus Bix, did Moolah piss in your post toasties? Most powerful woman ever in the business, she's a HOF no-brainer" - I said yeah, but she couldn't work, didn't draw, had a profoundly negative influence, etc. If someone who's only praised as a powerful, influential figure also happens to have forced women in her employ to prostitute themselves to promoters, top stars, etc, it's not hard to put 2 and 2 together. - Jim chimes in with the "it's not the Hall of nice people" argument right as I was about to use it as a segue to... - There's a difference between being an HOFer who happens to have committed horrific crimes and being an HOFer solely because you committed horrific crimes. - Then he continued to characterize me as throwing a fit for some reason as I reiterated that it wasn't the only reason I don't vote for her (it's not like she parlayed it all into being Jim Barnett, for example, who I'm sure arranged some awful things during promotional wars but is arguably the greatest non-McMahon American wrestling promoter of all time). Weird. Yeah, I can't fault the guy for voting for someone like Bob Armstrong. Especially since Bullet is a better HOF candidate than Sting.

They already went back to 12 PPVs a year. The problems come from the 6 week gap in between Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania being made up for later in the year. Thankfully there are no 2 week gaps next year.

I don't necessarily think it's a good idea, but I think it COULD work, at least in the sense that it's an all or nothing proposition. Though I do find myself wondering if they increase the likelihood by starting with the Royal Rumble. Try to hook the fans in for over three months and they'll be a lot less likely to cancel than if they start with Mania. Is there any data about how much HBO & Showtime subscriptions fluctuate with the season premieres of their various original shows? On a related note: This is stupidly outside the box, but maybe they could try to pursue non wrestling programming with the potential to be "buzz" shows? I feel like in the age of Internet TV criticism where you have shows like Switched at Birth (teen drama on ABC Family that's really about Deaf culture and class issues) and Orphan Black (sci-fi drama on BBC America of all places that has the single best acting performance on TV) picking up strong followings they wouldn't have had years ago, it's something you consider. They're at a disadvantage by being a premium channel, though.

2011 was when they made the big push to get NFL network on enhanced basic in most of the country, wasn't it?

Even worse because it looks like she's lost 10 lbs. in a week. No wonder she's dehydrated.

Well, I think we need another body image in wrestling podcast after tonight.

Fuse is for sale. That's...something.

WWE is still not committing to a date for the network even though all signs (including Stephanie's mouth) point to February. It's 3 months out. If they're not ready, then what's going on? If it's February, what are they waiting for? Meanwhile I just wrote this: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1855568...e-network-debut

(Should this be spun off into a More Wrestling Than Wrestling thread?) I'm with Dylan and Zero. Obviously I don't think Dave is making them up and I think it's hilariously awful that none of them raised their hands at the press conference other than that one guy whose name Dana didn't know, but it's weird that nobody has any idea who they are and Dave can only name one of them (Greg Savage). Were none of them covering it live? MMADecisions.com could probably track more media scores than they do now, but none of their reporter scores were in favor of GSP. On the F4W/WON board, Todd Martin and Oliver Copp both said they scored R1/the fight for GSP, but they're clearly second guessing it. Someone asked Todd about the Travis Brown on Gabriel Gonzaga style elbows Hendricks landed on GSP in the clinch (which clearly landed incredibly hard on the broadcast) and he explained that happened on the opposite side of the cage from press row. Oliver had already rewatched it on his iPad and had pretty much changed his mind. The judges have monitors, but who knows how often they use them since stuff like impact of the blows is, clinches against the cage aside I guess, usually supposed to come off better live. Wouldn't shock me if Glenn Trowbridge was closest to the fighters when that went down. It could very well have looked like Hendricks was throwing token shots to defend the takedown otherwise.

A lot of VHS tapes were really expensive in the 80s. I think the movie studios priced them out of the market intentionally so they could make their money through the video rental stores. The difference is that most high priced movies sold to video stores weren't marketed to the general public at all. Occasionally, you'd get a big title at a reasonable price available for sale at the moment it was released on video. But what doesn't jive here for me is that there were ads in WWF Magazine for these $59.95 videos. I understand marketing to video stores at those prices. I don't understand marketing to the general public with those prices. To keep video stores from buying cheaper retail versions to rent out. Don't understand why they didn't do a model similar to some movies where you have a rental window and then a retail window. I think the standard Coliseum releases dropped from $59.95 to $39.95 around 1993. There were always budget retail 30 to 60 minute tapes. I think they started at $19.95 for the first batch around '85 (Grudge Matches, Highlights of WrestleMania, and Villains of the Squared Circle I think?) but eventually dropped to $9.95 in the late '80s. Then they added $20 tapes through Columbia House subscriptions and $10 retail tapes through Goodtimes Home Video and one other budget VHS distributor I forget the name of in 1994. We didn't get sell-through pricing on PPVs until they started transitioning to WWF Home Video, with SummerSlam '97 available on TV for the the PPV price with shipping included. I think there are a couple shows available through both CHV and WWEHV, which I'm curious about. And obviously it depends on what it turns on Coliseum's role actually was in general, but I'm curious what exactly they had to do with the aforementioned releases that had different retail distributors (since they all still had CHV logos). He may not know this, but why, when the In Your House shows replaced the dark match compilations, did Coliseum keep the old Mega Matches/WrestleFest type theme naming without doing a good job promoting what shows they really were? Why were the IYH dark matches dropped from the VHS release after a few shows? What type of relationship did they have with Silvervision? What was up with the Silvervision exclusive releases, especially the small handful of Silvervision tapes released in NTSC (Best of 1993 and some Best of Raw tapes, I think) and sold through the American WWF Magazine?

A lot of VHS tapes were really expensive in the 80s. I think the movie studios priced them out of the market intentionally so they could make their money through the video rental stores. Correct; most VHS releases were "priced for rental." At $59.95 and later $39.95 they were actually pretty cheap, Hollywood movies were closer to $89.95.

I asked very specifically: If there's a category I feel I'm suitably informed about but feel that nobody is worthy, can I choose to do a no vote? He said yes, just put a X next to it.

No, they don't. I asked Dave and he assured me you can do that by including the category on your ballot and marking it with an X. That's what I did since I gave no thought to Matsunaga being a "Japanese" candidate for some reason.

Cornette/Heenan Vol. 3. The whole thing is them walking through Cornette's house and commenting on items.

I'm not sure Kofi's even over anymore.

What about The Hogan Family? I am frighten that I know that... and worse, who replaced Valarie... and worse... Why. If you've never read it, the Macleans article about the "Valerie" contract dispute/lawsuit is awesome: http://www2.macleans.ca/2008/11/28/the-20t...t-dispute-ever/

http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-sto...iscussion-point

I'm pretty sure Dave was talking about Hans Schmidt. Backlund isn't a guy with just a little bit on tape, a ton of his biggest matches are available.

Kane's problem is that he works to the level of his gimmick and his opponents. Book him as a supernatural zombie monster who faces giants and monsters and he sucks. Shed the invulnerable monster shtick and put him in the ring with CM Punk and Daniel Bryan in a 3-way feud and he's a completely different wrestler who cuts a fast pace and comes as close to working at the level of his opponents as he can for a giant in his mid-40s. Summer 2012 to Summer 2013 was easily the best in-ring year of his career and probably the most entertaining he's ever been as a character. He deserves props for how good he was until Team Hell No broke up.

Dave:

On Hogan: That's...not remotely true. I mean...I can't even figure out how he would have come up with that other than Orndorff being yoked up. He's Scott Keith with exquisitely good professional luck. He even cites "The Unreal Story of Professional Wrestling" as a quality historical source. "Fall Guys," too, but without having any idea how it fits contextually.

Right, that's Yokozuna, not Graham. Graham was an absurdly long reigning heel champ for that era of WWWF wrestling but it was a blip in the grand scheme of how they did business. It's one of those things where I can see WHY he got it wrong but he was still so wrong it's maddening.

Umm. 1. How is that relevant? 2. Is that even true? If so, see #1. 3. That's kind of racist. "He's half-black, so how could he be a street thug?" Shouldn't it be "he was actually an Olympic medalist who had very little in common with his character."