cm funk

I'd like Bryan having to win the Rumble to get a shot at Orton after months of being fucked with, win the title and have his WM moment, and then the next night HHH is like, "Randy Orton dropped the ball...I'm here to pick it up!" leading to a gimmick match for the title at Extreme Rules where Bryan taps HHH and we all live happily ever after Probably WAY too much to hope for, but that would be cool

I always like the plunder under the ring to be logical. Hammers, screwdrivers and even a couple of ladders are logical, as they're used by the ring crew when setting up. Folding chairs are logical, as you have chairs for the ringside crew, and it's smart to have some backups. When a guy goes under the ring and comes back with a kendo stick, unless it's set up that this is a hardcore match and the promotion has purposely hidden weapons around, it looks really stupid. As far as the manager discussion, I'm a huge fan of the manager gimmick. Some of my favorite characters have been managers, and some of my favorite angles involve managers. One of my bigger dislikes about modern wrestling is the lack of strong managers, though WWE has gotten a little better about it after completely going away from it for a while. I figure the manager is like hiring a road manager for a band, or a lawyer, like Walter White and Jesse Pinkman hiring Saul Goodman. You pay him a fee or a cut of the profits, and he takes care of problems and handles the day to day stuff you're too busy to do because you're out there kicking ass and partying. He advocates for you with the promotion and takes care of booking you in matches. The idea of having a manager in wrestling is completely logical, if I was a wrestler I would need a good manager. I always loved the "sold this guys contract" "bought the contract" "traded contracts" angles, though I guess when you really think about the legalities of all that it doesn't always make sense, but it was always heels and I always just assumed the guys had been suckered into signing bad contracts. Paul Ellering isn't one of my favorite managers, but he always seemed like one of the most realistic portrayals of a manager to me. He was like Rick Rubin with the Beastie Boys or Peter Grant with Zeppelin, a guy who was essentially just part of the band. It was weird when they came to WWF without him as an on-screen character. As far as convoluted logic goes, trying to make sense of the WWE corporate/power structure is impossible and there's been no consistent logic in that regard. The worst recent example was when HHH was introduced as COO and the board of directors has him take Vince out of power after a "no confidence" vote.......then several months later Vince is back on TV with seemingly all the power he had before and an equal of HHH with no explanation whatsoever. There was also the whole "mystery GM" deal.....which the less said about the better. Vince Russo is still the absolute worst when it comes to that stuff though. There was a point when he was booking TNA where you literally had more than a half dozen people with authority/match making/hire&fire powers and there was no consistency or logic segment to segment, much less week to week

I just look at the way they've slow built Bryan and Orton and think what else could they possibly have planned for either of them at WMXXX? It's not as obvious as Cena-Rock "we're wrestling at WM next year!" but ever since the stuff with Hell No/Orton vs. The Shield started and they kept delaying Orton's turn that they were really building to a payoff way in the future. Bryan is having all these smaller payoffs like being the first one to beat the Shield, and beating Orton in the respect match, and beating Cena......but the eventual payoff has to be him beating Orton for the title that was stolen from him.....and if they've built all this for so long I think they can probably stretch it out til Mania. I could be wrong about that, you never know, but I'd be surprised if that isn't the idea right now

HHH putting Bryan over at Mania would be huge, but that scenario is pretty contrived. He can hand himself whatever match he wants, no reason for him to be ruining the Rumble like that. That isn't "good for business".......though it's possible "well meaning, good for business" HHH devolves into "THIS IS MINE!" HHH ala Vince losing his mind with power

As much as I wanted to, I couldn't take Christian seriously as a challenger. But he's one of the smartest workers around, and Del Rio is very good in his own right. I actually think Del Rio has been one of the best workers in the company this year, babyface and heel. "Historical evidence says it's going to be a load of shit" is completely f'n absurd. It is probably better that you just don't bother watching the match

To add to that, I am not HHH's biggest fan, but he's good when used well. I think they are using him well now. He's not going away, so the best you can hope for is that he's used in a spot like this. The Brock stuff stretched out forever was not the best way to use him. I am an Orton fan as a worker and a character, but he can be stale in the wrong role, but I think he's being used perfectly right now. I like Cena for what he is, and he's stale in his role a lot of the time, but when it comes to big matches and big roles he always delivers. Orton is the same way. FWIW I think the endgame here is that Vince turns the corner on Daniel Bryan, turns face, and backs him against HHH/Orton. Meltzer has been saying that face Vince v. heel HHH was going to be the end result of all of this booking, but he didn't know how they'd get there.....but now it seems pretty obvious. They wanted Austin involved.......now the way they booked Bryan as the 2013 Austin v. The Corporation on RAW.........McMahon going the reverse with Austin as special Ref for the match with Orton at Mania is such logical booking that I'd be really surprised if that isn't the plan Again, people will bitch because they don't like Vince and HHH involved in major angles, but whatever, if this plays out the way it looks it will be good shit

Yes, if he was booked like shit I would complain. But he isn't. He's being booked incredibly well. Which is why I don't understand where any of the complaints are coming from, other than a lot of it seems to be coming from general anti-WWE bias

I pretty much expect that to happen at some point, but I thought for his first TV appearance after coming out it was a nice way to do business. Steph has been touted as a strong supporter of gay rights by Meltzer, and I think this clearly shows her understanding. A pleasant surprise from the creative side.

You say that with such derision. Pretty funny. If you're not a mark, what the hell are you watching wrestling for? I mean, it's good and bad. I'm a total mark for being entertained by wrestling, and I'm marking out for all of this shit, the way they're IMO booking Daniel Bryan so fucking well right now. I don't swallow everything WWE does like it's the greatest thing ever done, and I'll complain when I think they're off point, but I really see no reason for people to complain about any of this. And when I see people like, "he didn't get his moment, this isn't fair to him" and "HHH blah blah blah" yeah.....that is some stupid mark shit that is ignoring everything they are doing right, because they have done a LOT of things right when it comes to D-Bry

Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention, they've already setup HBK being involved on the side of Bryan. There was an article on WWE.com where he praised Bryan and picked him to beat Cena, and he was doing the same thing on the PPV pre-show. Probably not heavy involvement, but I could see him cutting a promo on RAW where he puts Bryan over and confronts HHH about what he's doing, or maybe even in Bryan's corner while HHH is in Orton's corner. I know some people don't like him and are sick of angles with him and HHH, but I don't see how that doesn't help Bryan.

I don't see WWE getting enough credit for how they handled Darren Young last night. People were fearing the worst, and they simply sent the PTPers out for a match and let him be the star of it with a clean pinfall to a nice babyface reaction and a nice post match celebration with Titus. They made no mention of his coming out on commentary, though the crowd was clearly aware of it. About as subtle and perfect a way of handling it as possible, they treated it like it didn't matter or change anything about him, and it doesn't. So hats off to them for that.

Really? You do realize that what they did at SummerSlam WAS longform, right? They've been teasing the Orton turn since before WM. They've been building Bryan in this direction even longer with the respect and weak link stuff, with mile markers along the way (beating The Shield, beating Orton). The "Vince and HHH can't get on the same page and Steph is in the middle" deal has been ongoing since WM. This was the payoff of a good 5 months of their booking, it was done logically, and they did not swerve things to be unpredictable. This is exactly the sort of booking people profess to want out of WWE, and when you get it you don't even realize it? Seeing the reactions to the end of SummerSlam and last night's show there's clearly people who follow the product and get what they're doing, and people who have unrealistic expectations and will never be satisfied by WWE booking. AS a huge Daniel Bryan fan I absolutely love what they've done with him this year and what they did at SummerSlam. If you came away from the last two nights thinking this is bad for Daniel Bryan, or that they ruined his moment by having Orton cash in, sorry, you're a fucking mark. THIS WAS the moment, another mile marker, another affirmation of Bryan, another step in the evolution of his character, and another step towards THE eventual moment, the eventual payoff of all of the work they've put in on this guy, when he beats Orton for the title. As far as RAW making him look "stupid" or weak, never once did that cross my mind. I thought, "holy shit, they are MAKING this guy tonight" and they did. He's now the babyface ace of the company facing impossible odds against a united McMahon family, the strongest heel faction the company has seen in years, united BECAUSE of Bryan. Bryan's character is the guy who never quits, never backs down from a fight, and overcomes the impossible odds. Walking right into the hornets nest is what Daniel Bryan does, that was the essence of his character. Will he eventually use guerrilla warfare and hit and run tactics the way Austin did? Yes, of course. But that wasn't what Daniel Bryan would do in that situation last night. He would walk down to the ring supremely angry and focused. And Bryan getting heat on them the very first night would have been bad booking 101, so glad some of the armchair QBs aren't actually booking. As far as HHH, I was worried his involvement in the SS main would become a focal point of the match and take the attention away from where it belonged, but credit where credit is due he was a complete non-entity who played it exactly like any ref and blended into the background to where you forgot he was even out there. I thought the pedigree was a great moment, because lets face it, HHH is a million times better as a heel, and his promo work last night was exactly what it needed to be. There's always the chance of things getting fucked up when he's involved, but so far so good, and I'm really liking how the deck is now entirely stacked with the 3 McMahons, Orton, The Shield, Maddox and Vickie Guerrero all on the same page. Very interested to see who else is used as pawns in this game on the heel side, and Ziggler, Show and Henry have already been set up as opposition, great spots for everyone involved.

I really like the Akbar one. Interesting, intelligent guy

Playboy and Rolling Stone both put out collections of their magazines on disc form, in really nice boxset style. Playboy was something like the first 10 years of the magazine, and Rolling Stone is all of it from the start to close to whenever they did it. I own both and have barely even begun to go through all of it, but they're a really cool thing to have, fun to reference once in a while, and they're well crafted with a nice interface and all that. Something like that for PWI/Wrestler/Insider would be amazing, and I'm sure a profit could be made on it

I would love the full Matysik series, which was more than a dozen parts I believe I'd also like all the Rick Martel booking sheets. I have a couple that he did with Gary, but IIRC he did several more that I don't have and basically covered most of his territory and AWA career FWIW I have roughly 60 57talk interviews saved, so I can try and fill in requests. I have most of the Robley stuff but I don't think all of it. Maybe I'll just make a folder on this account and upload some of the ones I found most entertaining.

This is nuts. Dave should really have a lot of this in a professional storage facility, or loan it to the pro wrestling hof. Was this taped when the guy was doing the NY times piece?

To whoever asked about who wrote the 83 mod for TEW 13, that I don't know. But the original DOTT 83 mod which you can play in TEW 05 freeware was written by 2 people, one of whom was credited as Grimmas. I always assumed it was the Grimmas who used to post at DVDVR. I still play TEW 05 on occasion, like JVK I'm a fan of those sorts of sims (big OOTP baseball fan), but I don't have the patience to stay with them for long stretches of time. I find myself picking it back up a few times a year when I have spare time, play it for a few weeks or a month off and on, then lose interest. It can get really time consuming, and other interests/life tend to intervene. The longest I lasted was a WWF 83 scenario where I played from January til about September in game years. I had a good sense of accomplishment from getting myself up to C- popularity in a lot of enemy territories and getting on local tv in enough markets that when I stopped playing I think I was getting pretty close to being "national". I also had the major pain in the asses of GCW stealing Hogan from me shortly after I'd stolen him from the AWA and was building him up to take the belt off heel champion Jimmy Snuka. I ended up putting the belt on Mil Mascaras instead, lol. I went to war with just about every mid-major promotion. I think when I left off Flair's contract with MACW had just run out and I'd signed him and created a quasi Horsemen/Heenan family group with Flair, Orndorff and two other guys I don't recall off the top off my head. The Bulldogs contract with Stampede had just run out so I signed them, but they aren't over anywhere but Canada/UK/Japan, so it would have taken a while to build them up. I'd taken the Road Warriors from GCW and built them up pretty well, to eventually challenge my tag champs Dusty Rhodes and JYD. When I eventually pick it up again I'll go back to this game, because I was so deep into it. So yeah, it's a very fun game if you're obsessed with wrestling, but very time consuming. It's not so bad once you get used to the lay of the land and how everything works and learn all the little shortcuts, but for a new player you're putting many hours in just to get comfortable and setup with everything. EWR is much, much more basic...too basic for me now after playing TEW. My all time favorite console/arcade wrestling game is Wrestlefest. I was an arcade junkie in the late 80's/early 90's and whenever I found a place that had that I would pump it full of quarters. I never actually saw the SuperStars arcade game anywhere, but Wrestlefest was pretty common. Old school Pro Wrestling arcade (the one that was ported to NES) was fun as a kid when I could find it, but by any sort of modern standards it's objectively terrible and good for maybe 10 minutes of nostalgia. Didn't they make an updated version of that a while back with all the classic characters? When I was maybe 15 or so I had an SNES emulator and Super Fire Pro X ROM, and I LOVED that game. Never played any other versions of Fire Pro. Someone asked about SuperBrawl for SNES, I remember renting that for a weekend when I borrowed a cousins SNES for the summer. From what I recall the gameplay was pretty rough, but I had fun with it just for having a WCW video game with people like Sting, Vader and Rick Rude back then. My first console was a Genesis and I had Royal Rumble and the sequel RAW (which wasn't as good). I was always pissed that the SNES Rumble had Flair and Perfect and the Genesis one didn't. The SNES one had a much stronger roster overall. There was another game for Sega which came out before Rumble which had Hogan, Warrior, Savage, British Bulldog, Bossman, LOD...basically the 92 roster. I found that a few years later in a discount bin. Graphics and gameplay weren't as good as Rumble, but it had the same blister inducing button mashing gameplay. I broke a couple controllers playing those game. Never had a 64, but played either WM2000 or No Mercy and definitely WCW/nWo Revenge on other peoples. Those games were a lot of fun, especially Revenge with the massive roster and number of moves

25.02.1992 Bob Brown, Gerry Morrow & The Natural vs. Chris Jericho, Gene Kiniski & Lance Storm - No Contest WFWA TV Taping @ International Inn in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Wow. Apparently Kiniski's last ever match. The Natural is Don Callis/Cyrus. I'd like to see it just for the WTF factor

Justin Credible in ECW?

Weren't Grand Wizard, Blassie and Albano essentially the "anchor heels" in the WWWF? They were the constant presence on the heel side while heel wrestlers and challengers were cycled in and out.

Bob Brown doesn't seem unique to me as far as the 70's territorial system goes. Every territory had their "house" mainstay guys who settled in one spot and didn't tour the circuits much, and a lot of them were pretty bad, but they'd be over with the locals because they were the familiar guys. Brown was office in KC too, and has the reputation of being Geigel's stooge. I've never heard anyone with much positive to say about him, or about Central States as a territory for that matter. You had Geigel with his deep connections in the NWA essentially getting talent from other promoters as a favor, Harley being based out of the area, a connection with the Funks, and not much else going for it. Everything I've heard over the years is the payoffs were shit and nobody seemed to enjoy working there, it was just something you did. Larry Matysik, who has some personal bias, thought Geigel was a terrible promoter when he took over St. Louis from Muchnick, that he just brought in his local Central States regulars and killed the town.

I liked on one of the Observer Radio shows Dave explaining to Bryan how he ate in Japan. He said he would find a place with a picture menu (and having been to Japan once myself I can attest that the majority of your noodle joints or quick turnaround street places have them) and point to something that looked good, having an idea but not knowing for sure what it was. Bryan, who is apparently not at all an adventurous eater, was HORRIFIED

I think the ship has long sailed on any sort of Christian world title run. I would have liked the one in 11 to have lasted longer before he inexplicably turned heel weeks into it. That was shitty, great matches with Orton aside. They could have fed him some heel challengers for a couple months before doing the Orton deal, he had a ton of momentum coming off of Edge retiring and they squandered it. We'll always have his ECW title run

I think they're doing RVD-Orton at SummerSlam, and RVD will probably go over, because Orton is turning heel and cashing in at the end of the night. It wouldn't make sense to take the belt off Del Rio since the eventual build looks to be Dolph beating him for it. Christian is getting the "reward the vet on his last run with a big payday" spot, and I'm fine with that. Him and Del Rio will have a good match, and Christian is good enough to get the fans into it even though everyone "knows" he's losing

Curtis was in developmental with Cabana who has talked about being friends with him/put him over on his podcast, so no surprise Punk would go to bat for him Haven't seen the Punk match, but Fandango is a solid midcarder. He's got a few cool spots, bumps around a lot, and has a unique gimmick. He has that long match on RAW with Orton that was average-disappointing for the time they got. The Jericho matches were ok with Jericho carrying him. He's like a Kofi Kingston type in ring to me, with better execution. I can buy him improving with more TV time/higher comfort level. Is he supposed to be a heel or a face now? It felt like he was turning face when he came back from the concussion, and got big face reactions at MITB and RAW the next night (in Philly and Baltimore tbf). Now they're booking him like a heel again, but not as heelish as before.