jdw

I'd add a third: 3. Ross doesn't want to burn his bridges with the WWE. Perhaps he's been great with his money over the years, has invested it well, and didn't take a hit with the economy crunching. But the WWE cuts a steady paycheck, even it just comes when he does special stuff like 24/7 and dvds. With them likely heading towards a Wrestling Channel, there's more potential work for him even if he never goes back to play-by-play. If you're looking to suppliment your retirement income, it's probably best to stick with the one that will provide a more steady income. If Ross has blown through his money like Ric Flair (unlikely), or perhaps got hit from real estate investments (possible), then maybe he's think a big payday would get him back on his feet. In that case, "jumping" for a three year locked in deal from a money mark might be something he needs. I don't see it... and unless you're smart and have the contract guaranteed by Panada, you're always at risk of Panada folding TNA into BK and being SOL. Ross seems to have stuck around the WWE and taken the abuse over the years because he's been pretty smart: through ups and downs, it's made him a lot of money. It's more likely that he's using the "rumors" of TNA's interest to get things more firmed up with the WWE. John

Dave had a bad trip? Was that to the Strikeforce event? I know other people that take a while to get use to twitter/tweet/twittering etc. I think some of it might come from using it, or not using it. I haven't used twitter, so it took be afew times of reading people say "tweet" to get it. John

We agree that the WWE is well past Stage 1. I think they're past Stage 2, which is perhaps the football league, the movie business, not really being smart in setting up Rock to head off, and probably a lot of other small things. This: Seems to sum up pretty well the WWE over the past 5-6 (or more) years. They've been spinning their wheels since the peak, they point to positives rather than the warning signs, but it's really hard to see the company now in as positive of a position as they were in 2000. That WWE seemed to have a bright future, while this one is "successful" but on the treadmill. Stage 4... as negative as we want to be about the company, it's hard to argue they are there yet. John

I'm guessing there was a write-in campaign to keep him recapping. John

Well... there is that. But Ross is part of the fratenity of broadcasters: they're not suppose to knock each other. John

"What Dylan said." -jdw John

The comment about Mike is pretty grouchy. John

I thought Todd retired from recapping? Was it simply leaving WO-4 and heading elsewhere? John

Did Kawada kick out of two TD '91s? I must have missed that match (and am thankful if I did). I don't have a problem with the Taker-Shawn matches. Entertaining good matches. It's kind of a waste of an argument/discussion to comp it with say the 6/3/94 Kawada-Misawa. They can stand on their own, and the quality of each really isn't enhanced at all by comparing them. Anymore than comparing the 1989 Flair-Steamboat matches to Kawada-Misawa. John

Great chart, rovert. WWE = Level 3? I don't see them at either Level 1 or Level 2, though perhaps reading the book would show parallels to those. John

Yeah... that's great. John

Are people taking it in stride? I thought we were having a good laugh at it, and not in a good way. John

That's what I was going at with the duality comment. It's like the Animal House scene where Pinto has the Devil on one shoulder and the Angle on the other. Pinto Meltzer knows he wants the pro wrestling aspect... but it's bad... wants it a lot... but it's bad-bad-bad. John

Dave in full, at least in the live commentary on WO-4: To be fair, Dave was critical of it while also thinking it was awesome. It reads like: "I banged my best friend's wife. It was awesome, but in a bad way. It was like stealing Jimmy girlfriend back in high school in 1979, but not in a good way since my best friend is married with children." I'm exagerating, of course. But it's a similar uncomfortable paragraph where Dave is digging what's going on, but it's bad on some level, so he's conflicted on the duality of something that plays to his inner desire (more "pro wrestling" in MMA) but he shouldn't be enjoying. John

Yeah, that was an "awesome" pro wrestling run-in. You could sense how embarassed CBS was by it, with Gus begging them to knock it off and them feeling the need to apologize for it coming back from the break. John

Taping might be hard because production is here. It might be hard to sub in another production crew, even Sky. My guess would be a highlight show. Running Mania might be hard on the DVD sales. But... maybe a Best Of Shawn show, capped by airing Shawn-Taker from this year. They already have a lot of stuff easily on hand because of the various Shawn DVD's. Perhap fly Shawn in to do some new intros/exists from the matches with say Cole or someone else. Let him pick his favorite match for the spot before the Taker match. Might not do the ratings that a new show does. But cheap to produce. Probably could get Shawn to fly out for reasonable amount (or fly Cole and a small camera team down to shoot in his home). Not difficult for the WWE to slap together on Sunday and Monday. Smackdown has until Friday when they could run live if everyone gets back in the US by that point. But they also could ponder putting together a "special" during the week if things look tough. John

That's the key thing: they think WCW "worked". Anything and everything that went wrong in WCW as someone else's fault. They really are a delusional bunch. John

You get the feeling that Spike executives wouldn't watch an entire show all the way through. We're wrestling fans, and even we have a tough time with it. Orlando's boyfriend was put in one of those strange, only in wrestling spots. On air, TNA is pushing the relationship and going over-the-top in it. He could have read into it that what he was doing in the bar was perfectly acceptable in that crowd because it wasn't terribly different than what TNA was pushing on air. He probably didn't understood the wrestling business isn't even at the "center right" part of the spectrum... though one would think Orlando does, and would hip him. The on air side of the angle exists simply to get Orlando heat, and almost certainly over time to play as a joke. And much of TNA doesn't care for the storyline, and probably the majority that don't mind it are of the mindset that they's just as soon *not* see a pair of gay men together "off hours" when hanging out. My comment about Orlando's boyfriend possible being "stupid" hits that: Orlando and/or he sadly need to know that the hipocracy of pro wrestling is that no matter how hard TNA pushes the storyline on air, they're still going to run into lots of TNA related folks who don't care for it. They're going to catch shit for it, and no doubt run into double standards. There are folks literally looking for reasons to get rid of them. He needs to be smart in what fire he does or doesn't add to it. Smarten up and don't unwittingly give them a reason. John

I didn't think it was a TNA exec. Either Spike or a sponsor or some other related high roller. And in a sense, he was a dumb ass for taking his wife into a bar around wrestlers if she would get offended by *anything* vulgar. That's not to say Jordon's boyfriend wasn't being stupid as well. John

One can see an executive bringing his wife to the hotel bar. Not bright given wrestlers are likely tossing out f-bombs and vulgar cracks. But a bit more understandable for an idiot executive to do. John

Was it a club? Or a bar? A bar with dancing? Or a dive bar where a couple of people dancing and necking catches everyone's attention? Why in the fuck would an executive be taking his prim and proper wife to a bar to hang out with wrestlers, given all we know about how they drink, talk and act? It doesn't sound like this was at the country club bar. John

Looks like Terry has found himself on the list of people Jimbo would like to kill. John

Hisa Tanabe three years ago: Where did Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue get the name "Holy Demon Army" from? English translation of the kanji, but from Hisa is looks like a reasonable one for for the holy + oni characters. John

I thought that was one of the rambling sections, but there is a point under it: Jimmy threatened to call the cops on the DOI guy claiming the guy had on his computer... it's not hard to figure out. Which is a skunky thing to threaten, let alone do when you're in a simple pissing contest with someone. His comeback ran the point into the ground, but isn't a bad one if he kept it to one sentence: I'll be happy to have the cops check my computer as long as the check your boss's as well. He didn't need to explain why, let alone run it into the ground. The readers don't really need to get it. It's something that *Jim* would have gotten and shut him the fuck up on that threat. John

I don't know about DOI, Bix. Enlighten the novices among us. John