cm funk

I think Batista's peak 05-10 (also with some significant time missed in 06 and 08/09) is probably better than Edge's. You had the big program with HHH, with Guerrero on SD, tagging with Mysterio, excellent series of matches with Undertaker (which I enjoy more than Edge's comparable run), SummerSlam match with Cena, feud with Shawn Michaels, heel turn on Rey, and program with Cena. Edge's big programs with Cena and Taker were good, but there was a lot of his stuff I didn't particularly enjoy during his run as a top guy. But Edge blows him away on longevity and having an impact on the promotion for a much longer time. The E&C tag team (along with the Hardyz and Dudleyz), ladder matches, TLC matches were a huge draw in 2000. You could argue that after Rock, HHH and the McMahons that E&C and The Hardyz were the most over acts in the company along with Angle and Jericho, and they certainly wrestled in many TV main events. I don't think the tag team scene gets enough credit for how important it was to the product at that time. Then if you fast forward to the SD6 era.....SD's ratings actually increased after the brand split and during the period that that crew was carrying the shows. I also happen to think his matches with Orton, gradual heel turn involving Benoit, and feud with HBK...the stuff that led into the Rated R character....are very underrated and it was a really fun time to watch his character progress. I'd be curious to see how they truly rate against each other as draws. I know Edge has sold a ton of merchandise since the "Rated R" stuff began, and I think he must have done pretty well in the E&C and during his midcard singles run in 01-02. The Slim Jim sponsorship was surely big for the company. I'm sure Batista's been a bigger draw on PPV and probably for ratings when he was on top on SD.

A couple interesting thing in Dave's Sunday update - He covers Conan bombing, I guess because there's a wrestling connection via HHH at one time being considered for the project? - He has a blurb from "Scott Keith in Saskatoon" about bad attendance and cancelations of WWE shows in the town Also, who is this Chuck Langerman guy who's providing him with trivia about where guys went to high school and such? I enjoy it, it's just odd how it's become a regular feature of the updates out of the blue

The arguments for them are tired, but Sting, Colon, Jarrett, Apter, Ventura and Don Owen need to be in If fn Edge or Batista go in b4 Sting......

I remember a discussion on dvdvr a few years ago about Rey v Liger. I think it was pretty split. Personally I think Rey is clearly superior

I don't recall him saying anything about being bigger than both WWE Champs. He did say that the special ref is a guy who lately has been casting a big shadow, ie: "throwing around his weight". And that would be him in his new role. Go back and watch it again....he said "this person" was bigger than both of them, but clearly in a tongue in cheek, "omg could it be HBK? OR TAKER??" "No, it's just me" kind of way." Going for the cheap laugh, also building up that he's an asshole who will turn heel sooner than later

THIS I think I heard about 9 people in the crowd pop I thought the entire segment was great. It's not how I envisioned the Punk think going when this all started, but it felt like they at least have an idea where it's going now, unlike the last couple of weeks

When I used to watch Chikara and ROH in like 04/05 she was such a cute, spunky, healthy looking girl. Adorable, and a ton of personality. This is kind of disturbing.

I would have felt uneasy walking up to the register with that

The most alarming aspect to me is how when an established guy is on his way out, they never have guys built up and ready to take those spots, due to the way they book everybody but the very top guys. When you look at it like that you can see why they make the decisions they do. I'll use Cena and Batista last year as an example. They used that program to carry them for 4 months, thru WM season. They really had no credible up and comer to get the rub of Batista's last matches, and if they had, they wouldn't have had a credible championship opponent for John Cena. It's their own fault, and even they realized this when they tried (and ultimately failed) to elevate an entire group of new talent at once immediately after this with the Nexus angle. But I can understand why they would do what they did when faced with the options of A) the first major program between two of the biggest stars in the company to carry you through the biggest period of the year, or trying to rush elevating two midcarders during the most important part of the year I think they made a sincere attempt to make Sheamus via HHH. I assume the original plan was for HHH to come back and get his heat back at WM well after Sheamus was established as a major player. Then the plans for Taker fall through for various reasons (Nexus angle died, Brock wasn't happening) so HHH is the fallback plan, and Sheamus (who's already been depushed for stupid reasons) is a casuality of that. They tried to elevate Legacy in one of HBK's last programs, with them even beating him and HHH on PPV in a submission match, and main eventing the first Hell in a Cell PPV, but it was one of those cases of not having people in a proper position to be elevated, where so much damage had already been done to those guys' credibility that the fans never really bought it. Jericho getting punted out by Orton seemed like one of those deals where he wanted big picture continuity with his character. When he came back in 07, Orton was the guy he faced off with. I can appreciate the attention to detail, and he'd already put over Barrett, Slater, Bourne, Morrison, Kofi and I'm sure some others in his last year. Edge you already touched on, but I believe he had already consulted with doctors before Mania and knew there was a chance he'd have to take time off or worse, so they really should have elevated Del Rio there. The one time they really nailed a homerun on this was with CM Punk and Jeff Hardy.......then they almost immediately dropped the ball (a program involving Taker ironically) and it took Punk 2 full years to get back to that level.....where they appear to be dropping the ball yet again.

Yeah, even if he's in really bad shape right now.....I think they'd still wait till January/February to make the call. They'll want to get to 20-0 with the streak, and I'm sure they'd like him at WM30 if possible The biggest problem IMO is I'm not sure what they can do to top his last 3 WM matches. It's been built up to such epic heights that anybody shy of an HBK/HHH level opponent would be a letdown, and there's nobody left out there who's on that level.

Question is where: http://www.cagesideseats.com/2011/8/5/2347...-cageside-seats Bleacher Report wrestling subsite. Have two stories up. Right now, I'll be most easily visible from my profile page at http://bleacherreport.com/users/515890-david-bixenspan (for now my stuff will show up there first) and the "featured columnists" bar on the right a little down the page of the wrestling/WWE sites. Next week they'll be changing from some automation as far as what's featured that will have my stuff more visible among some others. Sorry to see you move on, your articles were the best on Cageside, but I'm sure you have your reasons and good luck at Bleacher Report. I kind of loathe their sports sites, never knew they had a wrestling sub-site. As long as you aren't forced to do slideshows....

Wasn't sure where to ask this, but I'm curious why Bix is leaving Cageside Seats?

All of that, plus Eddie (among others) dying and a general dissatisfaction with the business. Somewhere inside himself he had to know that the business he'd dedicated his entire life to had killed so many of his friends and was going to kill him too at the rate he was going. Eddie's death is definitely what pushed him into full blown crazy territory according to everybody who knew him, and there were just so many warning signs that were ignored because its wrestling and crazy is the norm There's no way of knowing, but if Eddie doesn't die I don't think this ever happens, or at least not when it did

I think my first instinct once it was reported that the whole family was dead was that they had either been executed or it had been a robbery/home invasion/kidnapping attempt gone wrong. It didn't seem out of the question that Benoit could have gotten himself involved with the criminal underworld and had a hit put on him.....it happened to Dino Bravo....or been a target for robbery. Looking back that was kind of crazy to think since it had already been reported that he had contacted WWE a few times and was home with his sick family....but it was crazy to try and make sense about what was happening. Then people started speculating and stuff like gas leak, carbon poisoning, or food poisoning sounded totally plausible to me and I think I'd pretty much convinced myself that it had to be something like that until the news started to filter out that Benoit had suicided himself Like so many on the internet the guy had been one of my absolute favorite wrestlers for years, so I was definitely looking for an explanation that jived with the idealized version of him that was out there

It was pretty surprising to me at the time that they allowed Rikishi to use that as his finisher (Island Driver I believe it was called) When was it exactly that the "official" ban on piledrivers and the like was instituted?

I did like the, "I'm not Hunter now John, I'm your boss." line, foreshadowing the inevitable "Mr. Helmsley" character

Agreed on all counts. I wouldn't minded seeing Rey and Miz's decision match saved until the end of RAW and then Punk making his return to cause a non-finish. Then cut a promo declaring himself the only WWE Champion. That would have been the better way to go based off how tonight played out. And to keep Cena busy last week and involved in the storyline put him in like a multi person #1 contender match of some sort at the top of the hour with the winner to face the Miz-Rey winner at SummerSlam. Cena wins that, then they do a 3-way Cena/Rey/Miz for the title shot on tonight's show because Punk is back. Sure, it's contrived as hell, but it makes more sense than what they ended up doing. I did not enjoy tonight's booking at all, and my faith in WWE to break out of their self-imposed creative boxes was misplaced yet again. I refuse to be a cynic, because they manage to get a lot of things right, but when they drop the ball on angles like this it really sucks

It totally works on the level of Punk just being sick of working for Vince McMahon and willing to come back now that Vince is gone. The theme of the show was basically about how things will be different now that HHH is in charge, from the attitude era nods w/ the beer commercial and divas being a little more pg-13 in their match, to JR being brought back and Zach Ryder actually getting on tv. Some people will complain about how the Punk angle was marginalized to get HHH as CEO over....but it works. It does suck that they didn't milk the Punk as renegade champion angle longer, and the title v. title angle is essentially meaningless, but all of the really out of the box ideas for this angle were a pipe dream, they did more with it than I ever thought they would, and I can't blame them for wanting him on TV while he's red hot, and wanting to pop a big SS buyrate with him and Cena. At the end of the day Punk has become a super over anti-hero character who they are giving a huge push to....it's hard to complain

I don't think I'm being overly optimistic so much as looking at history and the way trends and fads seem to go in American pop culture, and knowing that pro-wrestling has a devoted core audience and proven cultural staying power. Rock music has been declared dead many times and it always comes back. Country music was popular, then it was the most uncool thing to listen to, now there's been a huge revival. Rap has it's peaks and valleys. Disco is cool now after a period of major backlash. Horror movies were out for a while, then they were back in. Same with Westerns. Clothing styles....hair styles.....everything comes back around again. Wrestling has had massive popularity spikes enough times over the past 100 years that I can't help but think it will happen again The next wrestling boom could happen in the next couple of years, or maybe it won't happen till the kids of the fans who were teenagers during the WWF/WCW peak hit their teens. CM Punk is cool, Randy Orton and John Cena are established and have some untapped mass appeal potential.....they have a talented roster and all sorts of tools at their disposal. The Rock is coming back for WM. Austin might come back for another match. Vince McMahon seems to want a challenge and to go out swinging in his twilight years......they could be on the verge of something big right now. Or maybe they aren't. It just seems silly to think they'll never reach that sort of peak again. It would help if TNA had their shit together, or if ROH could attain some ECW level buzz.....but I don't think either of those things is necessary. RE: UFC.....I think they've already plateaued for the time being. Between the price, # of events and all the entertainment alternatives out there PPV is a dying market, and live event sales have been trending downward. They've had to paper events and have shows that don't even come close to selling out which was pretty much unheard of a few years ago. They fell into the oversaturation trap and have kind of burnt out and watered down the TV product and Ultimate Fighter concept. They absolutely have established themselves and MMA to the level that they're around to stay and will be successful longterm, but that perfect storm of marketable stars like Liddell, Couture and Griffin seems a long, long time ago, and they can only do so much to protect the people who fit the company face roles.

I did not, but anything rovert or anybody else could share would be greatly appreciated

Eh, I think I've seen enough where I'm confident that wrestling will get very hot and "cross over" again at some point, there's just so many variables in the industry, company and pop culture that it's hard to predict when it will actually happen. They've been in a weird area post-Attitude where the fad definitely crashed hard and the wrestling audience shrunk to a great degree, but they didn't bottom out like they did after the Hogan era, they've survived deaths and scandals that could have buried them, they've had crossover stars, and they've attained some generally positive mainstream success and attention at points all while not being in a boom period. Wrestlemania has morphed into a true Super Bowl/Olympics style event where cities bid on it, it's a weeklong event which is a boon for local economies, and people travel from all over the world. In the supposed down period their signature event has become bigger than ever. They need to evolve more away from the 13 PPV a year model and focus more on On Demand content and such, the WWE channel will be huge for them if done right, but the foundation is laid for the next boom much better than it was in the lean years of the early-mid 90's. They really have everything in their favor at this point, they practically have a global monopoly on wrestling

Curious if anybody bothered to archive those interviews or has any of them saved? Cubetta was an acquired taste and got way too much into trolling, bragging and trying to start feuds with "the sheets" and "the message boards", but there was hours and hours of great stuff there. I miss that content and should have saved everything from there while I had the chance. I was almost done with the St. Louis booking sheet series when he pulled everything. I loved the Buck Robley stuff, and all the various Los Angeles stuff. The Rick Martel booking sheets were fun. I "fast blasted" (heh) him a while back asking if he'd think about selling a burned copy of the archives or uploading them to a pay site like ITunes and never heard back from him. Would be awesome to hear some of that stuff again.

Heel Cole was entertaining as hell to me.....but I can understand how/why a lot of people hated it.....it was too much of an inside joke, but I loved every second of it The first episode of Diva NXT where he just buried everything and everybody was incredible trainwreck TV. And, c'mon......THE COLE MINE! YOU CAN'T HATE THE COLE MINE!

As far as the ratings go, I don't think anybody should read, well, anything out of them. The ratings are always depressed in the summer, there are some very popular shows in competition with RAW right now (Pawn Stars, Hell's Kitchen), and to sell the angle they a) didn't show anything from the match, and didn't even mention Punk by name until late in the show when Lawler half said it, then Cena mentioned him near the very end. On top of that it was very wrestling heavy without many hooks for casual fans. Ratings have value, but they aren't the key indicator of what is working. When Austin and the promotion started getting really hot in 97 it took like 6 months for the ratings to catch up. Not saying another boom is coming, but the core audience and word of mouth getting behind the product is more important than a one or two week rating spike. In 2011 you can look at stuff like twitter, youtube, search trends etc. and tell that this angle is hot, and the real important number is the MITB buyrate which we won't know for a while. I'm also curious if the DVR #'s have been up lately. Personally, I don't have a DVR at the moment, and I haven't been able to watch RAW much at all this summer as I'm always busy on monday nights......but ever since this angle started I've been getting on video sites or torrents first chance possible to catch up. I know I'm not the only one doing that. I just hope people in the company understand the way that media has changed, and don't bail on this angle and general sort of direction before it gets a fair chance. I'm cautiously optimistic so far.

My guess is they're just using HHH to write Vince back off TV, write CM Punk and Cena back in, and possibly put an end to the mystery GM nonsense (by revealing who it is, not by it being HHH). I'm not buying this idea that he's back to be a regular character and steal everybody's heat, but if he is it would clearly be a terrible move, unless as noted he cuts his hair and changes his character completely.