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I don't get the context of these at all. Are they recent? What are they in response to? New Boom Period? $262.5M Jan-Jun 2011 Revenue $264.7M Jan-Jun 2012 Revenue Minimal difference comparing pre-Punk vs post-Punk, even with Rock-Cena at Mania. $34.2M Jan-Jun 2011 Operating Income $35.6M Jan-Jun 2012 Operating Income Minimal difference comparing pre-Punk vs post-Punk, even with Rock-Cena at Mania. $22.9M Jan-Jun 2011 Net Income $27.3M Jan-Jun 2012 Net Income Ah-hah! you say. No... not really. Most of that was a $3.8M difference in Provision for income taxes. The difference in Income Before Taxes was less than a million dollars. Wait... are we talking about a boom that started in July-Sep *after* the first six months of this year? And by boom, I frankly expect to see *several* hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue added to the books, since that's what Stone Cold and Rock and Foley added in a real BOOM~! Otherwise it's not a Boom~! but instead just a period of modest growth because something (or some things) were over. A boom is what happened to the NFL's TV contracts this time around. And College Football's. And those MLB ones that blew me away, which is saying something since I pay way too damn much attention to sports contracts. And... wait for it... Soccer's TV contracts. The EPL's in the UK were nuts on the new cycle, going far beyond what anyone expected. International growth was strong in the last cycle, and expected to be strong as well. Combined with domestic, the rights are going to be nuts. Don't even get me started about what the NBA's next deal will look like after they've seen what the new MLB deal went for... those greedy fuck owners are starting to drool (and that's not even talking about the Laker's new TV deal). Those are Booms~! $2M in revenue in the first sixth months of this year over last year... with Rock-Cena? I'm sure hoping those Jul-Sep numbers are amazing, unless Dave was being sarcastic in that boom comment. John

Some comments and links from David Nir of Kos: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/21/1...ive-Digest-9-21 I agree with Nir's point #1: this must have quickly internally-polled horrible for Linda given their rapid, though half ass, attempt to say they'll pay back the individuals that they're able to locate. So bad that they had to come up with some answer fast. CT isn't an expensive state to roll out ads in. While Linda's money allows here to carpet bomb the place, if you have a really good ad on a potentially game changing issue, it's not hard at all to have it run in a way that will get it seen. Murphy isn't broke, so there was/is the potential he can exploit it... so Linda's team thought they had to come up with something fast. Not sure if it will diffuse the issue. Going BK and then blowing off creditors for 30+ years isn't really good when you're running as a Fiscal Conservative and a Business Woman. Of course it would be easy to be able to say the reality is that Vince was the business man at the time and it was *he* who blew off the repayment, but that also would cut against her Business Woman point. John

Well, Grantland does have a Pro Wrestling "writer", so I don't think Bill would want to step on him. Also, on the Main Stream Media level, Dave seems to want to push his MMA writing since that's where the MSM $$$ is at. So he could simply have filled the niche of MMA at Grantland. I suspect Bill would have let him write as much as he wanted: weekly, couple times a week, daily. It's not like Dave was prolific at all over at Yahoo, but he does appear to have picked up his game on SBN. John

On that $33K that's still owed, how about 10% annual penalty on failure to pay, compunding monthly for 36 years... http://www.moneychimp.com/calculator/compo..._calculator.htm $1,196,024.97 John

So Dave is posting for MMA Fighting on SB Nation: http://www.sbnation.com/users/Dave%20Meltzer Looks like it was effective 9/1, roughly a piece a day. His piece today: http://www.mmafighting.com/2012/9/21/33672...st-rated-opener Was this kind of low profile? Was there a lot of thought put into this? I know there's some money to be made off of writing for SB Nation and there are eyeballs, but there also is a sea of MMA writers (and sites) on SB Nation to get buried under. Wouldn't it be better to be a regular writer for say Grantland... since (i) Simmons seems to want to cover *everything*, (ii) they aren't really doing the MMA thing now, (iii) Grantland is a major hit, (iv) Grantland has ESPN behind it, and (v) Simmons is a former WON Reader & Wrestling Fan. I also don't think Bill is paying $0.00 for writing there, and it's *possibly* an audience that Dave might want to draw to the WON. Speaking of which, looking at the TUF article, am I missing the note anywhere in it that Dave is the publisher of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and a link over to it?

Sr. was allegedly small investor in the Snake River jump, but the real money man was Shelly Saltman which led to a rather famous side story. I think Vince's involvement and potential losses in Inoki-Ali is wildly overstated. Instead given the massive loans, it comes across that Vince was living to high on the hog. The IRS debt looks to be simple standard pro wrestling lying about income / under reporting. Vince didn't have enough cash to cover it.

http://theday.com/article/20120918/NWS12/120919659/1047 http://m.theday.com/assets/pdf/NL124742918.PDF It really is amazing how long this thing lingered: from 4/19/76 to 2/26/82. The other odd thing is that it's strange how Vince went that far into debt *before* he owned Capital Sports / Titan Sports / WWF. Linda and he have made some odd claims about how they went into bk: Linda claims it was while building the WWE business, while Vince has a vague comment about it being after he made his first fortune and from bad investments. Given the IRS and bank creditors being the major players, it... doesn't really add up. Of course Murphy has his own financial issue with the foreclosure against his home. John

Dave was going to check. My general thought would be to do it as "The Matsunaga Family" and to the bio of the company/family. In a sense it's like the Birds. We could argue that Hayes had a massive role in getting the Birds over as the "talker" of the group that the fans wanted to see get his ass kicked... and Hayes was a hell of a talker/heat magnate. But Terry worked his ass off, and Buddy was very solid. Collectively they made the team work, and trying to split it into % of credit is a waste. The Matsunagas are likely in the same boat. John

They did face each other again on the same tour: http://www.oocities.org/smokyrobmoore/jp061499.htm May 22, 1984---Den-en Coliseum, Tokyo NWA World Heavyweight title match Kerry Von Erich (1-1) Jumbo Tsuruta (1) Tsuruta (13:05) Kerry (2) Kerry (6:37) Tsuruta (3) 7:56 double counted out of the ring May 24, 1984---Yokosuka City Gym, Kanagawa NWA World Heavyweight title match Ric Flair (2-1) Kerry Von Erich (1) Kerry (15:51) Flair (2) Flair (3:24) Kerry (3) Flair (7:19) Kerry Flair became the 66th champion May 25, 1984---Funabashi Civic Gym, Chiba NWA World Heavyweight title match Ric Flair (1-1) Harley Race (1) Race (16:06) Flair (2) Flair (6:31) Race (3) 10:46 double DQ Harley beat Flair on 5/22 to set him up to face Flair on 5/25 in a title match after Flair won it back. Just wasn't taped. John

This will be interesting to see if it gets any traction: http://www.myleftnutmeg.com/diary/14465/he...t-voters-to-see On the 47% item, it makes Linda look bad: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/19/1...-point-she-used She was for the 47% talking point before she was against it. Richer than Mitt and wants to cut her own taxes? It's a hard talking point for her that's going to be hammered. John

I wonder if the Dandy set would interest him and open him up to think about more than just Dandy's "peak". I don't know how much Steve watches anymore, and if like some folks watching old school lucha would appeal to him as much as more modern stuff. Really don't have a feel for his taste in work styles... though he is complimentary of Atlantis being one of the last great "NWA style" workers i.e. working technical title match style in Mexico.

Did Meltzer confirm that they will be? Yes, though I'll be safe and bring it up again next June.

Just wanted to say that one cool thing about the yearbooks is that folks can come along months (years) after they've been out and find comments others have made, and join in to toss out what they think. As a reader of it, it's enjoyable to regularly have new comments pop up about different matches, or even new questions being asked. It's a really cool project. John

I suspect Dandy Fans would say Dandy was/is the better worker. Dandy also was likely the bigger star in Mexico. John

I don't know how much Kurt or Alfredo actually "write" these days. That's why CubsFan might be a good one: he's been a prolific lucha writer in the past.

I agree on the eligibility issue, and it's one we've been around the block on a bit over the years. On Clemens, if he died in the 1997 off season like say Clemente did and got on the ballot by special exception, he would have looked like this: 213-118 with a 2.97 ERA and 2882 K 1 MVP 4 Cy Youngs (record) He would have been coming off a season where he went 21-7 with a 2.05 ERA & 292 K at the age of 34 in a high offense season. He would have gotten voted in. Pitchers with that level of dominance have gotten in, with Koufax being the clear comp. Bonds would have had a record tying 3 MVP, but it's harder to know how he would have been looked at if he Clemente'd. But let's use the WON eligibity: * 35th birthday and completed ten years since their debut as a full-time performer * been a full-time pro wrestler for at least 15 years By that standard, Clemens gets there after 1998 when he won his record 5th Cy Young, pushing the career numbers to 233-124 with a 2.95 ERA and 3153 K 1 MVP 5 Cy Youngs (record) I think if voters for more than a decade had gotten use to voting in "active" players, Clemens would have been one to go in at that point without needing a Clemente. Bonds would not have been eligible until after 2000. Career numbers looked like: .289/.411/.567 494 HR, 1405 RBI, 1584 R, 471 SB 3 MVP (record tying) 2-2-4-5-5-8 in other MVP voting Coming off as .306-49-106 season where he was 2nd in the MVP voting. Bonds wasn't beloved, so he might not have gone in. He would have laid down a good marker, though, for an active player. 2001? .328-73-137, MLB records for HR, SLG, BB. Barry goes in. Now we all agree the "35/10 or 15" rule sucks and needs to change. If it were "40/15 or 20", and we applied it to baseball, we'd probably see more "active" HOFers. John

I probably will eventually vote for Torres. Didn't see any need to rush. Sims was a positive vote for him when we talked about candidates back in 2010. Jose was less high. I don't have any problem with that vote. Panther is mixed, but US candidates with that level of work have gone in. BTW: I think we need to get Dandy back on the ballot, and someone needs to do a good bio on him. Is CubsFan or someone else a big Dandy fan? Yep. I liked the feedback I got from Jose and Sims, but they were split on a lot of the candidates. But that's common among all groups. John

FWIW, really don't like that my "current" candidates were New York-centric. But not really enthused about the pair of Mr. Wrestlings as much as others. Need more selling there.

Hans Schmidt Kinji Shibuya John Cena Ivan Koloff Pedro Morales Rock & Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) Volk Han Atlantis Cien Caras Blue Panther Don Owen Voted for Owen because I like to have at least one person in the non-wrestler category so that I'm in that %. I'm unenthusiastic about all of the candidates in the group, however. The Matsunagas will get a vote when they're on the ballot next year. Not massively enthusiastic about Han, but don't really think any of the other Japanese candidates are worthy. The Sharpes aren't a "Japan" candidate, but instead a US one who like Thesz also had an impact in Japan. They should be in the old timer category, where I'd actually take them more seriously. Honestly... not many people on the ballot that's I'd feel torn up one way or the other. Really wish Caras was group with the Dynamite Brothers.

This post is all over the place but my short reply is: yes, strictly in the terms of the "should RAW be stopped" argument Lawler collapsing deserves more consideration than a hypothetical stagehand for reasons which would be apparent if you thought about it for, like, just a minute. All of the place it right, and he's just completely ignoring the facts: There was a wrestling match going on while Lawler had a near-death heart attack at ringside in the "active area" of the WWE live tv production. They kept the match going. They kept Cole talking, though he had issues calling the match. They kept the cameras rolling. Daniel flat out ducks whether the WWE was wrong to not: * cut to commerical * stop the match * focus on tending to Lawler before worrying about the TV Product No straight answers on that, and instead just goes in circles. John

When John McSherry died on the field, no. When Larry Dierker suffered a brain aneurysm in the dugout, no. Did they stop the play of the game (i.e. Stop the Match on Raw) while the doctors came out to deal with McSherry? With Dierker. They did. Moot point. John

That's generally what I'm getting at, but we need to go back: Lawler is at the table with his life at risk having a massive heart attack and the WWE carries on with the *match* and doesn't cut away to commercial while Jerry is being attended to. Think about just that as far as Stopping The Show. Can that at all be defending? Does anyone think if the first base umpire dropped down with a heart attack that they would "finish the inning" even as he was being tended to "on the field"? It's ringside at the table. That's part of the basic "stage" of WWE live TV/PPV pro wrestling shows. It's essentially "on the field". And those sick fucks couldn't stop the match? Couldn't go to commercial while Jerry was being tended to? Seriously... how in the hell can that be defended in any fashion? I said in my earlier post that it's possible to defend going on with the show once Jerry's in the back. Personally... I can't justify it. Not my morals if that was my long time employee. It's easy for the WWE to have back up plans so USA doesn't go dark. But if someone wants defend it, that's their own morals on how they would run to run things. Given that, I can only not beg off the comment I had at the original post: there is part of me that Vince checks out in a fashion like Lawler almost did Monday, and it gets to fall to Steph and Trip to either follow the Old Man's vision of "the show must go on" or be better human beings. John

I'm saying that your calling him a member of the "crew" was wrong. I would have stopped the show. But I wasn't defending "the show must go on". You were. We all know that. Some of us think they're vile human beings for having the contingency plan. That means they shouldn't have stopped the show? If it's my company, my contingency plan with USA Network would be in situations like that they go to USA programing, not WWE programing. That's too much to expect from the WWE. At *best* one could hope that they have a variety of WWE Content to go to, flexible in duration depending on when an event happen. If a hurricane or power outage prior to the show happened, they'd have a 3 hour option back in USA Headquarters ready to go. If something happened with 20 minutes to go, they would have 20 minutes to material. Etc. In this case, they needed an hour to an hour twenty to fill. They *should* have that. As far as getting Jerry treatment... read what I wrote, Daniel. Even you can grasp it if you slow down. I said they should have cut to a commercial immediately. Stopped the match. Gotten Jerry immediate care without having to worry about staying out of the eye of the camera. Without worry of anything going on to get in the way of care, and getting Jerry out of there when needed. My comment about cutting in for updates was: * they should have said what happened, just as they did * if they get any positive news, which they did, someone could do any update... just as they did That could be done while they roll out the "standby material" because they still will be going in and out of commericals, and there's zero doubt that the WWE Production would still be in the building until 11PM ET along with any number of people who could provide the updates if there was any info. Carrying on a live match while Lawler is over there possibly dying is fucking crass. Carrying on the live show while he is backstage and the on the way to a hospital with his "heart stopped for 20 minutes" is crash. Seriously, Daniel... what kind of cold hearted shit out you defending? John

Agreed.