cm funk

On that note, Jeff Jarrett seems like the clear cut #1 answer

I know Cena/Taker happened, but it was before he was JOHN CENA, and it wasn't done in a big way. Plus, honestly, most of the current audience wasn't watching SD back in 03, and WWE would pretend like the match never happened anyway

HOW MUCH YA BENCH LEX? HOW MUCH YA BENCH?!

I know that every year for the past while now Vince has pulled something out of his ass when it comes to a big WM drawing match, but it's getting to the point where I'm really curious how many tricks he has left. I guess next year could be Steve Austin and/or Brock Lesnar, and they can probably pull a pretty good celebrity tie-in with it being in the NY area. But it seems like the well is going to start running dry soon. Seems like this could/should be Taker's last year, probably won't see Rock again next year, they could keep bringing HHH back a few more times but I don't think he means much as a draw. Batista? Bring HBK out of retirement? The big match they have that has never really happened is Cena v. Undertaker, but at this rate I wonder if it'll ever happen

Same here. Between that kind of stuff, the stock music such as Mysterio, Malenko and Goldberg used, and things like the Hollywood Blondes/Stunning Steve and later Horsemen themes WCW had a lot of music I loved. Billy Kidman had awesome music too. I loved the instrumental studio musician rock vibe of lots of those songs.

I don't really have a problem with names like Daniel Bryan or Wade Barrett (Stu Bennett) which take the original name and twist it slightly. My problem is they have no ear for what sounds good and cook up these absolutely ridiculous fake sounding names, and not in a good way like a name like Savage, Slaughter, Rude or Styles which have connotations that accentuate the character. Some of these names sound, for lack of a better label, really metrosexual. Briley Pierce and CJ Parker might work as names for divas, not tough guys. Kenneth Cameron? Colin Cassady? Leo Kruger? What are these names meant to evoke? The worst without question though is slapping crappy fake names on guys who wore born to be wrestlers like Joe Hennig and Windham Rotundo. No real rhyme or reason to it either, as they've brought up plenty of 2nd or 3rd gen guys under their own names, and even have Richie Steamboat working under his real name in FCW.

Lagana had some of the right ideas on his podcast, but when it came down to it he had some really terrible ones as well. He hyped up pushing young guys and women, but came up with some ridiculous scenarios that would never work in practice and didn't sound likely to draw money I'm sure Russo will be back at some point anyway Guy I'd like to see get a run with the book in TNA is Paul Heyman. He at least would have had a vision for it and shook things up, rather than the constant slide of mediocrity that it's been. I don't even think I'd be a huge fan of Heyman's TNA and some of the people he'd push, but it would be better than it is now

Yeah, the Ross angle was the first hints of turning Vince heel that I remember. He played a heel in Memphis, but I think only sheet readers knew about it, I don't remember it getting much if any coverage in PWI and the like with Bret in WCW I think pretty quickly a light turned on with him that the company had no direction and he should just have fun with it. His "heel turn" and stuff where he's sort of but not really in the nWo was super entertaining, but in a kind of "I'm in on the joke and totally above all of this" sort of way. No doubt he had better intentions for his WCW run, but that company was hopeless by the time he got there

Also Owen likely never gets put in the Blue Blazer gimmick. That was one of the things that made Bret so bitter for so long, the thought that Montreal indirectly caused Owen's death.

He put Brock Lesnar over huge.....then left the company when it became clear he wasn't going to get his win back, or at least a HUGE PPV payday for a rematch. By and large he was booked really well in 02-03. He was kept strong, but not invincible, and did jobs to Rock, Angle, Undertaker and Lesnar, and had a competitive match with Jericho. They stayed true to the character without going overboard with it. I thought the Mr. America and Zach Gowen stuff was a lot of fun (though I remember it being polarizing on the net) and an example of how the goofy stuff could work with proper oversight. The funny thing is he left shortly after that because he was upset with his creative direction.

In 1994 Chris Benoit had matches with Jerry Lawler and Terry Funk in Dennis Coraluzzo's New Jersey promotion, were they taped?

Shaq is one of the greatest centers and most famous basketball players ever. He also just recently retired and became a TV analyst. He's a media darling, still has a really high profile and anything he says or does is still news. LT was coming off of being disgraced by a high profile drug bust, and a lot of the media treated it as, "oh, look how far LT has fallen" at the time. LT was a great and famous player, but Shaq is a bigger star, and the situations are completely different. It would probably get more media coverage than Floyd Mayweather, and combined with Rock it would be some of the best mainstream press they've ever had.

That's kind of the reason I think the only Japanese wrestling that would get over in America would be something played for comedy like Hustle. An over the top parody of American wrestling could appeal to American sensibilities. The cultural climate would have to be right for it though, IE. at a time when WWE is doing great business.

I hadn't noticed that, but you're right. For getting a supposed main event push her and Ziggler get no promo time. Casualty of the Ace push I guess.

Oh, the right Japanese wrestlers could absolutely be huge stars in WWE if given the right push. Heck, Taka and Tajiri were both really over at points and they didn't speak and were strictly midcard acts. I just don't think a Japanese centric promotion would get over well in this country.

I thought the show was pretty boring, but it was hard to top last week's show with the angle and match between Punk and Bryan and Orton and Ziggler getting thrown out there to take up time with a good match. I liked the Jericho/Punk stuff and Bryan's angle with AJ and promo (the "I AM VEGAN!" line seemed really unnecessary though). I liked Otunga's promo and match with Sheamus for what it was, effective booking of both of their (and HHH's) characters. I kind of liked the idea of HHH's promo, but not the execution. HHH's promos put me to sleep, it kind of picked up a bit near the end, but then it ended really flatly and the pre-taped video response from Taker was really lame. As for Mania, I probably won't enjoy most of the buildup to Taker/HHH or Rock/Cena, but I'm still looking forward to the matches. HHH/Taker last year seemed to have a divided response (self conscious epic), but I loved it, after disliking 70% of the buildup. I'm at least holding out hope that they've learned something from the Survivor Series buildup and will do Rock and Cena the right way (and the "embrace your hate" storyline at least suggests that Cena will take on the heel role at least for this match...though I don't really have faith that it will be done well). I have high hopes for Jericho and Punk all-around. The World Title match will probably end up feeling like an afterthought, but if it's Sheamus and Bryan it should be a really good match and have an interesting buildup at least. Plus, there's probably going to be a match with Big Show and Shaq which would be HUGE in terms of getting out there in the mainstream. They don't have anything to worry about with this card barring a complete collapse in booking.

The only Japanese artists I know of with any popularity in the states are either underground hip hop/turntableists or doom metal rock bands like Boris, and that's all on a very small scale

I said Japanese pop music. British music is something else entirely.

It didn't work because it was Beefcake, who fucking sucked, and was only over for the few years that practically everybody in the WWF was over by default. It could have been one of the best booked turns of all-time and it still wouldn't have worked because of who was in it, and when and where it was taking place. Plus, it was meant to be Curt Hennig, but in typical WCW fashion they started the angle before they had him under contract and Hennig decided to hold them up for a ton of money. Which leads me to one of biggest Hulk Hogan criticisms....he's had creative control for 20 years and he sucks at booking himself. When he came to TNA the first thing he did was redo the Dave Sullivan angle with Abyss. Let that sink in for a minute. He can do literally anything and he copies an angle that totally flopped the first time he did it 15 years earlier. When he first came to WCW he put himself in the Hogan v. Monster of the month role that was already well past stale in the WWF. He's completely oblivious and books things for an audience that only exists in his mind, and it's beyond pathetic that he booked TNA around himself when he couldn't even wrestle.

Has Naylor stopped posting and doing podcasts since he hooked up with FCW? I haven't read DVDVR in a long time. I always loved his appearances on podcasts for his stoned punk rock surfer dude who LOVES wrestling vibe.

It's not racism, cultural jingoism is probably more accurate. When it comes to pop culture Americans want American crap. Just look at television, where there's this trend of taking British shows and remaking them, or the film industry where they take foreign movies and remake them mere years later. If there was something hugely popular in Japanese pop music that could have crossover appeal the record companies here would just copy it, rather than import it. But even if New Japan wanted to take their concept of wrestling and remake it for an American audience I don't see it being successful. This country barely supports 2 major offices (and I'm being generous to TNA) and everything else plays to a very small, hardcore niche audience. That is the audience that New Japan would find in this country. And video games and anime to pro-wrestling is apples and oranges. Video games are totally unique and Japanese products have exported well because Japan has been on the cutting edge of the technology. Plus a lot of the big games that have had success there and here had a lot of Western characters and concepts, or were designed in such a way that characters are essentially raceless. Anime is pretty much a niche thing except for a few occasions where it becomes a huge fad, and that's mostly because the audience is children and there's all sorts of crap they can sell. And again, Pokemon was the most successful anime crossover, and you could slap any language on top of those characters and say that's what they were. They could pass for American, French, Asian...whatever.

If I recall correctly the WWF made a loss of $5m dollars that year. Bret's contract (was it $2m-ish?) represented a near halving of that deficit, if one assumes that PPV revenues wouldn't have changed as a result of Bret's absence. So I suppose that one could indeed justify it as a cost-cutting measure, consdering Bret's base salary was so far ahead of anybody else's. I recall 20y/$20m, but I can't remember if that was the actual or kayfabed # On the dates thing I was just going by what was written in this thread, which was the first I ever heard of that. I took it as Bret's contract stipulated a # of dates per month and they had been used up. JDW says it was just that he wasn't booked on any shows after Survivor Series. I don't know what the context was that Bret said it in. On Michaels v. Bret, I think KJH is right on the money. Bret had just hit his 40's and had been around and pushed as a main guy for a long time. Michaels was a pain in the ass backstage but he was younger, a much more dynamic performer, and had way more heat at the time.

Right, but if it's true that Bret didn't have any dates left on the contract like he says.....then he could have just sat out til the contract expired. My point with that statement was, if that is in fact true, then they would have had to work out an agreement beyond what they already had, because apparently he wasn't legally obligated to defend the belt again at that point. Which Bret was apparently willing to do. Which is what should have happened. I blame Michaels for things going down the way they did first and foremost, and I wasn't trying to defend the screwjob, merely pointing out that Vince was right to want Bret to drop the title to Michaels rather than Undertaker or Shamrock or anybody else who has been suggested, and to not let him leave without dropping the title in the ring.

AND. COMPLETELY. IRRELEVANT. TO. MY. POINT. BIX.

Where does Gagne rank? Top 5? Top 10? Is there an argument that he's #2 or #3 behind Vince in the US? People tend to focus on the mistakes he made in the 80's, and he did push himself too much and for too long, but breaking away from the NWA, creating a world title and having a large and thriving territory for 25 years is pretty damn impressive to me. He also discovered and trained a lot of great talent. Has anybody ever had his simultaneous success in all facets of the business, performing, training, booking and promoting? Also, how much credit does Wally Karbo get in the AWA's success? I know he was Gagne's right hand man and had the Twin Cities territory that became the base of the AWA, but I don't know much more about him.