cm funk

Yeah, that's a great point. One of my favorite things about Funk was that he'd just be completely off the map at times, and then he'd show up and it was like, "OH SHIT, IT'S TERRY FUNK!"

I don't know, I thought Flair was pretty awesome for almost all of his WWE run. He should have retired when he retired, or at least not gone to TNA of all places. Dude could have had his "legendary ambassador" role in the company, steady paychecks, and you know they would have eventually brought him back for television, which would probably lead to another match or two........he didn't need to slum it like he has

Was the match between Cena and Rey from a few months back the first between the two, at least since they both became huge stars? If so, it was a little short-sighted to just casually throw a first-time match between arguably the two biggest babyfaces of the last several years on TV with no build. But as we all know, the old rules of promoting "rasslin" no longer apply. I believe it was, and it was absolutely retarded to give it away on RAW with less than 2 hrs build the way they did. Maybe they just figured Rey was going to be out of action for a long time and they should do the match while they could? At least could have saved it for the next week's show and popped a rating....

I think Flair basically said he wants to die in the ring. He obviously needs the money, and would be hustling for it even if he didn't, but yeah......

The Waltman one is really good, especially if you're a fan of the guy. Armando Estrada and Zach Gowen ones are worth checking out if you've been a follower of WWE in the last 7-8 years. Luke Gallows was awesome and you'd never place his podcast personality with the way he looked and acted on tv. I remember liking the Jimmy Rave one. Claudio's was great because they spent like the first 10 minutes just talking about coffee. The two Domino ones are really good, especially the recent one about Nigeria, which is must listen material

Good for Bill Simmons for saying what a shitload of people are thinking My interest in WWE is fucking dead at this point aside from the "We Appreciate You Mark Henry" monster push. I don't even like or care about CM Punk right now, and before this whole charade began I would have claimed him as my 2nd favorite active wrestler after Mysterio If it wasn't for Rock coming back around and the annual gear up for Rumble-->Mania what would they have going that could possibly qualify as a draw?

I've been thinking about this lately with the sad state that Flair is in, and Hogan who's practically crippled about to put on a farce of a match with Sting. Also reading the Observer from last week with Dave's report of the Japan quake benefit show, saying seeing Kobashi out there was "sad" and he was "shaking, with a blank look in his eyes" And then I think about one of my favorite wrestlers of all-time, Terry Funk, who has retired and un-retired several times, and really has no business being in the ring in 2011, yet when I read that he has a match coming up in a couple of weeks I have no problem with it. I mean, Terry Funk is probably in no better shape than any of these other guys....he's certifiably crazy, he had to sell his ranch in Texas a few years back, his knees are completely fucked....... Is it just that he stays out of the spotlight and doesn't make an ass out of himself like some other guys do? Is it just because he's from a different generation? I know lots of people here love Jerry Lawler, who seems to be in great shape considering the miles he's put on his body......but shouldn't he hang it up soon too? I don't know....what is the cutoff point where we no longer want to see these guys in the ring?

I can't even fathom wanting to watch this match based on what I've read about it. I wish Flair had never wrestled again after his "retirement", but since he did, that hardcore match with Foley would have been a good one to go out on. I enjoyed that match and at the end of it never wanted to see either of them in the ring again.

The stuff that interests me the most is something not on the list, which is history/historical discussion. Like that thread detailing the WWF expansion into different territories, show by show and month by month, I found that fascinating. There's very little going on in wrestling today that I care about, and my days of taking the time to sit down and watch volumes of matches are long past. If I seek out anything on youtube or whatever these days it's old promos and angles, but what really interests me these days is books dealing with the history of the business, old newsletters, shoot interviews, archived websites etc. etc. From the list presented, easily behind the scenes stuff. I find reading match reviews and overwrought discussion of workers beyond tedious most of the time. Certainly I'm in the minority on that.

Hogan only wrestled on one of those GAB shows (98). I think it's safe to say if Hogan wasn't booked on the card that Bischoff et. all didn't think it was important, though part of that could have been the mentality that the GAB name could draw with the traditional fanbase. Slamboree was the other one that Hogan was only on once in that time frame (95). I think in Eric's mind Road Wild/Hog Wild would have been on that list.

Nash has told a story over the years about how Bret coming in allowed him and Hall to renegotiate for more money.....something about how they had a clause guaranteeing they be the next highest paid guys after Hogan. Any truth to this or more BS?

NFL Network launched in late 03. MLB Network didn't get going until 2009! I don't know if the market at the time could have supported a 24/7 WWE channel. Things have gone way more in the direction of on demand/niche programming, the cable tv landscape was way different back then. This channel basically just seems like it will be a variation on WWE 24/7. I'm curious to see how much original programming and live events they put on it. Putting like NXT, Superstars, FCW and a monthly live event on it would go a long way towards attracting subscribers IMO

If Rock was in a Survivor tag match the crowd would be going crazy, chanting his name, and the roof would blow off the place when he actually tagged in. I'd say that would be pretty special. Whether or not they should do it, I don't know. Him and Cena on the same team would be pretty cool and help build to the WM match, but I can see the argument for keeping him out of the ring until WM also

This thread makes me realize that as much as John Cena is pushed as the Hogan of this era, he's never had any good friend turning on him angles, if any at all. In fact, the only one I can even think of is R-Truth this year, and Truth executed the actual turn on Morrison.

I don't like this at all. Way, way too soon to do the match with HHH. At least with Nash they could have turned it into an Attitude era style backstage brawl/angle more than an actual match. As long as it was done well fans wouldn't feel ripped off, and it would probably come off better than a straight match. They could have even stuck Punk into the Cena-Del Rio match. I can't believe they were dumb enough to get this far along into the angle and not have a green light on Nash. They should have known before SummerSlam. This is WCW/TNA level stupidity.

Oh man, the worst part of that Madden rant: ugh

The feast or famine aspect of fat guy wrestlers has always been totally believable to me. If the guy catches you and puts his weight on you 9/10 you're fucked, but his weight and lack of mobility (in most cases) will leave him very vulnerable to lose in ways other guys might not. I think of Yokozuna and Steve Austin in 96, short match, basically a squash, but Austin won because Yoko was so fat he fell off the turnbuckles and knocked himself out. There has to be logic obviously, but I can totally buy a fat guy losing in under 5 minutes just as easily as he could win. Spiderman v. Blob is a good example. Not easy to get Blob off his feet, but once you do he's a sitting duck. Lochness was pushed as a monster against jobbers, but he never showed any kind of skill beyond being fat and sitting on people. Paired off against a giant with a speed, agility and skill advantage? Of course he's going to get beat quickly. I can buy Snitsky losing to smaller guys because Snitsky the character is DUMB Khali is still to this day protected and booked pretty well, so when he loses it's because his size and accompanying lack of mobility work against him. There's always a reason for his losses, and they're always carefully handed out. One that always bothered me was Big Show in that period after his initial big push where he fell out of favor due to his weight and ended up being sent to OVW. I don't remember any specific matches, just that he would lose to midcard guys in 5-6 minute matches and it was completely unbelievable to me. They were lucky they were able to get him over as a monster again after that, but it's a credit to how good he can be.

Speaking of Sid, I was reading some random Tom Zenk thing, and he claimed Pillman actually had an ice scraper, but the boys changed the story to further rib him

Somas are a hell of a drug Jesus. Nice job aggregating the coverage Bix

That doesnt make any sense....

Hahaha

Show was a face though. Angle is probably the answer, he was booked like a complete bs champ who couldnt really beat any of the top guys. How long did he have the belt anyway, 2 or 3 months?

I did a post on DVDVR several years ago attempting to debunk the idea that Sting wasn't a draw. The basic gist of it was that PPVs headlined by Sting almost always did a better buyrate than other shows in the same timeframe. The reality is that by the time Sting was put into the top spot the industry was on a major downswing, WCW was a mess creatively, they were awful at house card promotion.....sometimes a company itself just won't draw. You can lump him into the same crowd with Hart and Michaels as guys who had the misfortune of getting their run on top at the nadir of the industry. Sting was also a major part of WCW's biggest year (98 may have been bigger financially, not sure, but 97 was the year for WCW).....which led to their biggest PPV buyrate in history. You take a guy who was essentially the babyface ace of a company for the better part of a decade, who helped them stay afloat through the lean years, who sold merch and magazines etc....and who had a major hand in their biggest year......I just don't buy the "Sting doesn't draw" canard. A guy who was that over with those crowds for that long was certainly putting asses in the seats and making the company money. Imagine how bad WCW might have been in 91-93 if they didn't have Sting? And you also have to qualify post-Starrcade '97 as he was absolutely sabotaged from a chance to draw big money on top for the first time. Could he have done it? I don't see why not. But we all know what happened there and it's not worth rehashing.

Mabel was one of the worst big event title challengers ever, without question. If you look at the booking of the time, Yokozuna would have clearly been the best choice. He and Owen were dominant tag champs managed by Cornette and at the PPV after SummerSlam they would do Diesel/HBK v. Yoko/Owen. They even had Davey Boy Smith turn on Diesel on the last RAW before SS and join Camp Cornette. It's like everything was in place for Yoko have been in the SummerSlam match but they changed course last minute and went with Mabel. I have to think they were too worried about Yoko's weight to put him in a singles main event, but it's not like Mabel was in that much better shape, and at least Yoko had the experience. Also lending credence to them changing plans last minute is that everything was clearly pointing towards Michaels winning KOTR that year, and instead they had him eliminated via a crappy draw with Kama in the first round.

The Shawn Michaels push was so weird because it was at a time when the promotion was still heavily aimed towards kids, but was trying to transition to more of an adult product (less cartoon character gimmicks, tweener Diesel, Goldust, Mankind, Sunny pushed as a sex symbol, introduced "RAW Magazine" which featured risque pictorials of Sunny and Marlena, Livewire which was aimed at smart fans, Stone Cold, Shotgun Saturday Night etc.). Shawn got caught in the middle and was simultaneously pushed as the kiddie hero living out his boyhood dream and the stripper sex symbol, and it was just a confusing mess of mixed messages.