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I agree with this. They must put Bryan over the establishment 1st and foremost. Then he can start giving the Sheamus types the rub by having a great match.

I think the next month or 2 on the ppv's they have him headline against Orton, and then Batista. The 3rrd special event you put Bryan and Cesaro with Brock or Heyman interference backfiring. This starts a slow building feud between Cesaro and Lesnar that leads to a mania match. Next up is Summerslam and we get Bryan/Lesnar at Summerslam. Cesaro gets involved and costs Lesnar somehow. Bryan goes on to face Bray Wyatt/ and a re pushed Big Show or Mark Henry type. Finally at Survivor Series HHH makes a Bryan/Cena rematch. Here Cena turns heel during the match and wins the title. Bryan's got to win the Rumble for a title shot. He does and it's Heel Cena vs. Bryan for the title at Mania. This is something I posted elsewhere a few weeks ago.

He'll do a retirement match, and then shift over to good will ambassador.

I always thought his skill set was best served in a tag team. His team with Eaton from the footage out there was great. The PYT Express was another strong tag team. They had that killer match with Gilbert/Rich. He was great at taking a back drop. He got serious air on it.

Bix put a screenshot of it up somewhere on the board a few days ago.

I look at some more Lawler as AWA champ in 89. Jerry Lawler vs. Curt Hennig (7/16/88) This was just great. They both worked hard and bumped big for each other. Hennig's bumps off of Lawler's punches were superb. The finish was shitty. If more people were watching AWA and this had a better finish it would be more of a pimped match. Lawler really feels like a World Champ here. 4 1/4* Jerry Lawler v. Tommy Rich (GA 10/2/88) This was another real strong match. Rich's manager looks like a meth head. This was a real strong punch exchange match. Both guys throwing great punches.Another shit finish. These guys have great chemistry with one another in the ring and here is no exception. 4* Jerry Lawler vs. Kerry Von Erich (Cage Match) (TX 11/25/88) I watched 4 of their matches and all of them were at least good and smartly worked. This one is in a cage. The crowd is super hot. The early portions we see a big punch exchange. Lawler using his usual straight rights. Kerry relying on his Discuss punch.Eventually Lawler busts out his chain and busts Kerry up. He also plays hide the chain from the ref while manipulating the crowd. This was excellent. Especially the payback of Kerry kicking Lawler in the stomach and the chain coming out and allowing Kerry to use it on Lawler. Lawler used his mouth to hide the chain a few times so that was great. They build to a fun finish.My complaint here is that Lawler didn't come across as a World Champion with all the bull shit that was going on. Make no mistake it was great bull shit, but too much for a World Champion. 3 1/2* Jerry Lawler vs. Tatsumi Fujinami (NJ 3/16/89) This is pretty interesting and a total style clash that morphs into a solid match. Lawler still used his punches just not as many. He worked more holds than he usually does. Fujinami worked over Lawler's leg.The cool part of this is it played into the finish. Lawler worked over Fujinami's back. Lawler did this cool variation of a back breaker. The finish was well worked with Lawler's leg giving out allowing Fujinami scoring the flash pin. 2 3/4* Jerry Lawler vs. Iceman King Parsons (7/9/89) This is a handheld. This goes about 15 minutes. I'd say it was all misdirection to allow Harold Harris to interfere freely and cheapshot Lawler. This goes on back and forth between Parsons and Harris causing the distraction. This generates a lot of heat, but as a match wears thin pretty quick. 1/2*

How about RVD and Ryder.

If Michael Hayes had all the political clout he would be in the WWE HOF. WCCW was I believe the 1st territory they acquired. They have done the work on the shows for WWE 24-7 so they are more ready to be on the network.Again this is all conjecture on my part.Plus the Freedbirds were pretty big in Mid-South as well so I'm sure he'd be pushing for those to air as well.

This is a weird bag of a match here. It seems like Flair was attempting to work a classic 70's style NWA title match. Rude just wasn't up to the challenge. The early work with Flair busting out some real compelling arm work.This was a real neat base for the match. I must say Rude was fantastic selling the arm early. Eventually Rude takes control and about a minute into his heat segment he shit cans all the work that was done to the arm. This is a big departure from his 92 series with Steamboat when it came to his sustained selling. His offense is pretty boring. I liked his verbal trash talking. He did this long camel clutch spot. The upside their was a payoff to this long spot. Flair transitions back on top and now it seems to be working more of a personal grudge feud which I thought the build for this match was based on. We then seen Flair transition to working the leg. I really liked Flair's 2nd rope leg whip. We build to the finish which was kinda bland. Overall, I liked aspects of this, but man I wonder what type of match Flair would have had with Austin or Pillman here.

you are talking to a lifelong clevelander who only recently moved out of ohio. *we* definitely always thought rose was an asshole for it, but i don't recall the national media ever really caring much after the initial hype died down. by the time the big red machine came into being it was back to gushing over rose 24/7, and that never really stopped until the gambling stuff started coming out. my point here was that sports fandom is a vastly different culture from cartoons/comic books/etc. and while nowadays it's largely the latter types who still watch wrestling as adults, a backlund type worked back then since it was much more of a sports kinda crowd who would appreciate that style. thanks for all of this, btw. my favorite discussions happen when people go in depth on WHY they like or don't like a given wrestler...leads to a lot of interesting angles. I like your take on this. As a guy who's argued with Parv about Backlund till we were both blue in the face I appreciate it.

One thing that has stuck out to me with the network is how average Bret is on the houseshows presented. In his match with Barbarian it was clear Barbarian was working harder than Bret. Bret vs. Bezerker you see Bret get outshined by Bezerker in the match. Bret vs. Mountie saw both guys kinda go through the motions. Finally, Bret vs. Martel was a good meat and potatoes match. So far to me the Network is supporting the talking point that Bret had a tendency to dog it on house shows .Curious to see if it changes with more footage available .

Now with the Roku it looks like we have all the Legends of Wrestling showing up under the header.

Parv I love how you hype your return as the big moment of the show. LOL

I've tried other searches on the Roku like Bruno,Roddy Piper,Randy Savage, Tito Santana, Ricky Steamboat, and Greg Valentine. Not all the old school content that is available shows up in the search. So I still think it's a hit or miss.

I tried Andre and failed. Some work some don't I guess. Now if we could find a work around for the old school. Not sure if this works on Roku (as the above tip didn't work on Apple TV) but on Apple if you know who's wrestling on the Old School shows you can access the full show via the search function. I.e. I searched for Mr. Perfect and found the 1990 MSG show with Warrior vs Perfect that was posted today. I find it amazing that they have such shitty software. At this point maybe 50% of the Old School shows aren't accessible on Apple TV. This isn't a footage bandwith problem like it was during the first week, as the shows are clearly there and accessible through back doors.

Now if we could find a work around for the old school.

How anyone can be excited in 2014 about RVD. He was never great, and now his tank is nearly empty at this point. At best he was unique worker at one point.

I'm one. I dig that match. The story telling mixed in with the execution of work. Plus we get a pretty kick ass finish that's very satisfying.

Hey it was awesome to be one of your 1st guests!!

You know I feel bad for Flair, Though he seems to be morphing into a modern day Fritz Von Erich. Fritz and Ric both have/had kids in the business. They both have lost a child/children to drugs. Fritz would say Mike was the best amateur of the brothers. Ric says Charolette is the best athlete in the Flair family. These statements are quite similar. It's just something to look at.

Even HHH looked much more slender at Mania. He was also more mobile as a result.

Plus his wife wanted him close to home.

Even people at my work were talking about his death today.

Can I also nominate that name be forever be not allowed to be used as a handle at PWO?

I think the next month or 2 on the ppv's they have him headline against Orton, and then Batista. The 3rrd special event you put Bryan and Cesaro with Brock or Heyman interference backfiring. This starts a slow building feud between Cesaro and Lesnar that leads to a mania match. Next up is Summerslam and we get Bryan/Lesnar at Summerslam. Cesaro gets involved and costs Lesnar somehow. Bryan goes on to face Bray Wyatt/ and a re pushed Big Show or Mark Henry type. Finally at Survivor Series HHH makes a Bryan/Cena rematch. Here Cena turns heel during the match and wins the title. Bryan's got to win the Rumble for a title shot. He does and it's Heel Cena vs. Bryan for the title at Mania.