cm funk

Yeah, that's the immediate one that jumped to my mind, and it turned Shield babyface NWA/WCW always seemed to have "heel vs. heel" programs. The Horsemen were heels but the were so over and popular that they could be booked in any situation. Horsemen-Doom feud is a good example. Both "heel" teams, both very over and popular, there wasn't a face/heel side to that. I liked when NWA/WCW would do big babyface v babyface matches too. Sting/Luger v Road Warriors and Steiners jump to mind. That kind of stuff was very rare to see in the WWF. Other than Hogan v. Warrior and Bret v. Bulldog at Wembley I can't think of many other big face v face matches. They did it more in the mid-late 90's, but it was always to fuel an angle or lead to a turn. Bret and Diesel at the Rumble in 95 (not a turn, but a rare babyface v babyface match), Bret-Backlund in 94, Bret-Diesel in 95, Bret and Undertaker in 97.......darn, Bret really liked that stuff

great stuff, thank you evilclown wish you'd asked him about music/movies tho

Also, knowing Russo was definitely involved in writing that stuff, I'm surprised he didn't have Tyson punch out Chyna

Plus I don't think Tyson would have wanted to be a heel. Even considering what he did later with DX, I'd imagine it was with the understanding that it would end with him raising Austin's hand in Boston as it did. It's purely guesswork on my part, but knowing now that he was such a huge fan growing up that might have been his mentality towards it. I always thought the "heel turn" and joining DX was pretty contrived. I mean, I guess it worked, and you had the payoff of Tyson "swerving" DX, raising Austin's hand and KO'ing HBK, but it seemed unnecessary. That had to be a Russo touch. It would have been so much better if Tyson was on the fence/in the middle, had issues with everyone, and didn't side with either dude until the payoff

95 was a really bad year I'm really struggling to think of a memorable feud from WCW or WWF that could have won that year. The Flair vs. Anderson with a PPV match leading to a tag w/ Pillman and Sting leading to the double cross and new Horsemen was great, but that was near the end of the year and out of the PWI voting period, and it was more of an elaborate angle than a "feud". Axl v. Ian was at least memorable and stood out from the pack. Hell, of the 3 major US promotions at the time ECW probably had the top 5 angles/feuds going. They were hitting on all cylinders at that point. Raven/Dreamer.....Cactus Jack......Austin.....Mikey Whipwreck

I don't like everybody always wearing their merch, but it's part of the business and has been for a long time now, so I guess I accept it. It would be less of a problem if 95% of the shirts didn't suck. When they turned Sheamus into a Cena clone always wearing his merch helped kill him. He looked so much cooler when they'd show him backstage like he normally dresses, with a dress shirt and vest and a cap, looking like a proper Irish gent. That's one reason the Shield guys have stood out with their look. If Dean Ambrose showed up wearing his own t-shirt it would kill his character dead with me. No, he wears jeans and a cutoff and leather jackets, like a normal person. I liked when Batista would show up on TV wearing his own swag clothes week to week, and that helped get him over more. Ric Flair? There's a time and a place for hawking merch, but everybody always wearing their own merch makes the product look so cheesy I think the rule should be, if a guy is headed to the ring to do business or for a match, have them trunks and their t-shirt. But in other circumstances, backstage....interview segment where there is no intention of fighting at that moment.....be in street clothes. These guys that are seemingly in trunks and merch 24/7 come off as ridiculous caricatures

I won't even listen to him on podcasts I like (Austin, MLW), and those are free

Like I said a few pages back, I truly think the forced long-term commitment is what stung them and this is one of the specific areas where they got burned: people that thought they were trying out the Network for a month or two, like any other online content service, only to realize that they were locked into an unwanted six-month commitment through the fine print. It wasn't fine print. They were very upfront about it being a 6 month commitment. I realize that there are a lot of stupid people out there, but you had to be blind to not see the 6 month commitment. I believe that there's some people out there who DIDN'T realize it and balked when they did. I'm sure there were people who signed up for the free trial and were too stupid to cancel before it rolled over. I'm sure there are people who used pre-paid debit and didn't have funds on the card when it rolled over. There were a lot of paypal users who realized they could cancel whenever they wanted. Heck, I'm sure there were a number of people who's cards expired/got new cards.....but it would be telling that those people wouldn't bother re-upping or just going in and entering their new info Something I don't think mentioned yet in this thread about cancellations/drops which I think is probably one of the biggest factors is the technical problems, still, months after rollout, across almost every platform. This is the April-June # correct? There were still a lot of technical problems in April and May, especially for X-Box. I'm on PS3 and it's actually been working better than ever the last few weeks, but up until recently I was still having problems. I could not watch Battleground live for example. It's been an issue for tons of people and they have a legitimate grievance to call up and say "your service doesn't work properly, this isn't what I signed up for, cancel my subscription"

this is from Meltzer's daily update, with a credit to our very own Bix: So, live stream channel + some on demand content, then the "over the top" Network as we have it in the states in 2015

Yeah

Hogan vs. Tyson would have never happened because of the logistics involved. If anything it would have been a Hogan/Mr. T deal where there was a big tag match on PPV, Hogan/Tyson vs. Savage/Earthquake or something like that, where Tyson did very little and had a couple of big KO punch spots If Tyson ever worked a match in the Attitude era it would have been the same thing. Austin vs. Tyson never would have worked. When Tyson did the stuff in '98 he was coming off the notoriety of biting Holyfield's ear. He was still trying to get his boxing career back on track, and was still a draw in boxing. I don't think an actual match with him was ever seriously considered on his side, and if it had happened it would have been Austin/Tyson vs. McMahon/Mankind.....something like that. As for that post ripping on WWE for not getting a match out of Tyson around the time he went in the HOF and did a RAW host spot.....really? I mean, if he wanted to they could have, but it wouldn't have meant more than Floyd Mayweather.....or Donald Trump. Even Maria Menounos got them a ton of publicity because of all the stuff she does on TV which hits a totally different audience. Tyson would have meant something......but at this point how much? It would have been more of a curiosity that got them mentioned on E! or Good Morning America or TMZ rather than an actual draw. And the K-Fed thing was just a TV angle that got them publicity and some main stream attention (and was actually surprisingly good).....no reason to knock it

On today's radio show Meltzer absolutely RIPPED Cena's performance in the match with Ceasaro for poor timing and execution and blown spots. I must have watched a different match, it seemed like your usual Cena performance to me, he's never been about looking smooth and having great execution, and was a good match. He even admitted the crowd was super into it so in that sense it was good, but he was comparing it to an ECW spotfest that doesn't hold up, and like something you'd see on the indies

There's a recent Observer Radio with Bret Hart that I really enjoyed. The Saturday Observer Radio is UFC heavy because there was a FOX show, so if you're not into that skip about 30 minutes in. I recommend going back into the archives and checking out the various interview shows. Some really good ones with Bruno Sammartino. A good one with Paul Heyman after Lou Albano passed. Lots of good interview shows with a wide range of guest. The B&V show is more for fans of the website/Bryan's antics & his friends and family. They review shows but wrestling isn't the focus. His grandmother calls in every Friday and is a real character. They do X-Mas shows where they drunk dial a bunch of people. I think it's fun, but I totally get why some people HATE it I prioritize it as 1) anything with Dave on it (Observer Radio, Sin Limite), 2) F4D depending on the guest (of the regulars I like Dr. Lucha, Storm can be grating but he's ok, I'm meh on Todd Martin) 3) B&V, 4) everything else. Karl Stern's show is good if you're into older stuff and can handle his thick southern drawl The issue with Keller's audio is he simply hasn't invested in professional recording equipment. But even so, I and a lot of amateurs, can record better shows using our laptop and a decent mic, there's really no excuse

That was great. Jericho was the perfect guy to come out and mock and antagonize them And yeah, it was a great crowd. REALLY adds to the show when a crowd is that hot and can sustain it over the 3+ hours

Except they never did it. It was "Heyman quit....or was fired" from the announcers.....and it took weeks to get a proper explanation, and they still haven't explained WHY they went their separate ways, if they're such good friends, Heyman is such a great manager, and Cesaro is such a blue chipper

another great Cena-Cesaro match, those two have great chemistry And Cesaro brought back the swing, to a huge pop! The last time Cesaro and Cena had a RAW match it was followed by a strong push for Cesaro. Maybe they realized how bad they were dropping the ball and decided to put him back on track?

Hell of an opening segment on RAW with Cena and Heyman and a really hot crowd The Cesaro thing is still awkward and clunky. He comes out and defends Heyman and says "even though we parted ways, Paul Heyman is still my friend". Ok....

Yeah, they were both way bigger stars and got more tv time than Victoria or Mickie. Plus, they're known outside of wrestling, and both of them did Playboy shoots, 2 in Torrie's case. WWE HOF is based on star power and political connections *edit Stacy didn't do playboy, was thinking of Maria

If Victoria and Mickie James are the best candidates.....they'd be reaching. I know it's the WWE HOF, but they don't feel like HOF level stars If Sable wants to go in they would put her in no doubt, but she seems to want to keep out of the spotlight, so she might not care about it Wasn't there a story that Stephanie McMahon met with Stacy and offered her a ton of money to come back, hoping to play off her mainstream publicity? She'll go in the HOF at some point I would think but it will depend on where her Q rating is

How many people still chant ECW at shows? I haven't heard it on WWE tv in years. Maybe in TNA when they're doing ECW tributes and begging for that response? Does it happen on indy shows still? I would guess the majority at a wrestling show who chants E-C-DUB is a fan of ECW. How is that "hypocritical"?

Yeah, but you were wrong on both counts, it was on Jericho's pod As a Paul Heyman guy.....I feel like he's talked about pretty much everything imaginable over the years. Ask him what kind of music he's into, and his favorite movies

the writing was on the wall for YEARS, it was just a question of when If I didn't know better I'd think they'd still continue on with this ridiculous joke of a money pit promotion, but apparently Bob Carter was the sugar daddy for Dixie, and he's gotten old/out of the picture and her momma is sick of this nonsense I kind of feel bad saying it, but good. Good. Fuck TNA. I feel bad because it is lost (shitty) jobs for people, it's a loss of what should have been a viable #2 promotion, on national cable tv, so that stuff sucks. But TNA, for most of it's existence, has been awful and imcompetent, and had turned into a complete joke in recent years. It is kind of funny how they mirrored WCW at the end. I haven't been watching, but by following it and reading others accounts they've been putting on a much better show lately, focusing on younger talent. I tapped out on WCW for the most part at some point in 2000....but a lot of people say that it got good by the end but it was too little too late Vince Russo? lol. A million FU's to that scumbag. A million. Fuck you Vince Russo x1,000,000,000 I hope Spike TV will continue with rasslin programing, but don't know who it would be. Can't be ROH. I don't know the deal with Jarrett/Global Force and that supposed non-compete, but they would seem to be the favorites, and I'm sure a lot of the TNA production crew and some of the talent would go with Jarrett Jeff Hardy will be back in WWE in time most likely. Angle should retire. Samoa Joe will be back in ROH. Davey Richards has burned so many bridges and I really don't care where he goes. Bully Ray will probably team up with Dreamer and promote shows, WWE doesn't want him (but I'd be cool with him going back)

yeah, I think you might be right. Good call!

This reminds me, I was watching a Clash of the Champions show from 88 or 89 on WWE network a few weeks ago, and there was a video package of Sting highlight clips and at one point I SWORE it was him and Brody in the ring.....but that didn't make any sense because Brody died in mid 88 and he was never in the NWA/WCW when Sting was. Where could they have possibly crossed paths, with Sting in full-on facepaint Stinger look. I looked around on the internet and found nothing. It couldn't have been Bruiser Brody. Was there a Brody look-a-like around then? It was a short one move clip but the guy was the spitting image of Brody

Reigns has cool spots that are over.....but he's lacking in a lot of other stuff in ring. I think he has the talent and aptitude to get a lot better, but he needs time. And the WWE "workrate" bar has been set pretty high, and top guys are expected to go out and have good, long, exciting matches, especially when they're main eventing PPVs. They're really just rushing him right now when he could use a few years of seasoning as a singles wrestler to prep him. I make the comparison to Cena in the sense that, when they realized they had something with him, they put him in a title match with Lesnar kind of out of nowhere and it was a sound defeat, but it was kind of like showing the fans, "this guy is going to be a legit threat soon". Then they put him in a great program with Eddie which I think really helped Cena and made people take him seriously. Then they turned him face and got him involved with the Benoit/Lesnar/Heyman program on SD and that got him more over. Then they built up to him against Big Show for the US title at WM, made it the opening match, and him FU'ing Show and winning the US title was a huge moment and a memorable WM moment. Then they spent the next year slowly building him up with various feuds on SD revolving around the US title, until they got to the next WM and put the WWE title on him. And then as champ, it took him another 6-9 months or so to really get where they wanted him to be. It was a slow, gradual process. I feel like they really skip over these steps nowadays, push guys too fast, and then when they don't overnight succeed they're dispatched to the revolving door upper-midcard hell and it's really hard for them to break out of it I worry about Reigns for this reason, and because their audience is much "smarter" and more vocal now. They do think on their toes and change course sometimes, but they've pre-ordained Roman as their next "guy" so who knows Wouldn't it be better, if they've decided to push him to the top this fast, to have him like Goldberg? Control segments on Roman and babyface comebacks don't work. He should be a destroyer, who, if you need to drag the match out longer than 5-6 minutes, make it all the heel backing off and finding ways to NOT get engaged with Roman 1 on 1. That's what they did with Goldberg, and it worked, and when guys DID have longer matches (DDP and Sting come to mind) that actually saw Goldberg selling and on the ropes a bit it made them really memorable. Reigns working boring shitty matches with Orton and Del Rio on tv doesn't do him any favors, and I say that as a fan of all 3