flyonthewall2983

We didn’t get Smackdown, UPN wasn’t on our cable package. I feel so old typing that now lol. So when I first saw John Cena come out in the 2003 Royal Rumble I thought the gimmick was so bad. That show was a roller coaster between the godawful Steiner/Triple H fiasco and the thorough pounding Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit gave each other.

James Gandolfini = Vader. Not sure where I got the brain wave on this but it has more to do with the presence on screen/in ring combined with the eventuality that you’re also watching someone who is just a genius at what he does. I didn’t see much of the end of his WCW run but when he was a babyface in the WWF he made it work. I would add Earthquake to that list too, he wasn’t bad for a huge babyface either. My favorite Gandolfini performance is in Sidney Lumet’s Night Falls on Manhattan, playing a dirty cop and the partner to Andy Garcia’s character’s father, played effortlessly by Ian Holm. In perhaps his more well known film roles, Gandolfini touched on things he explored deeper on The Sopranos but also made his presence felt in sometimes surprising ways, such as in this or in his last film 2013’s The Drop.

LA Knight sounds like someone whose name you’d only find in the PWI ring results from some really cheap indie show.

Watched for the first time last night liked it a lot

I like Graves and the English guy. Cole and Wade have really good chemistry too. I thought WM this year was an almost perfect show and haven’t heard it this well announced since JR and the King.

People are losing their jobs and the first thing I think of is how this is going to play into the bloodline angle

Today I found out. Cancelled.

this is worth a look too Sheik doing it properly is one of the more incredible feats of strength I’ve seen

We need to bring back no music entrances, not en masse but for certain people it just doesn’t work.

Going back to 1997-8, would the company have been better off putting the plans of Thunder into rejuvenating the Saturday Night slot instead?

I believe that if all the world knew him to be was just an actor, it surely would have been mentioned here by now that John Cena would be a perfect Vince

“fat comedy scat-monger” that’s a new one

It’s my understanding that TNT never got the kind of ratings again on Monday nights with original programming like they did with Nitro.

Best foot on the rope spot has to be Superstar Billy Graham winning the belt from Bruno

Mike Love delivering a sizzling heel promo https://youtu.be/oZSAQX2uuUY

I don’t know if the hiring freeze is still in effect, but either way I’m not very surprised given the Endeavor deal. The optics, which I imagine would be increasingly more scrutinized given that development, would perhaps not be in favor of the situation.

Who else is thinking that Endeavor will buy the show and either edit every episode, or just keep it from legally being sold while the entirety of the series is perpetually on YouTube , as it pretty much is anyway.

Agreed on the DDT but I think Ron Simmons had the better spinebuster I liked it better when it was a big man move, but I’ve come around on how it’s used now. Wardlow’s looks like Kevin Nash’s, which isn’t a compliment (the snake eyes was a better finisher for him).

The Rockers breaking up right as “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is first a hit is a point hardly ever made in the context of that Barber Shop segment.

Best arena (on television), MSG or Boston Garden for WWF and the Scope in Norfolk, Virginia for WCW comes to mind. For both companies, what’s now the Allstate Arena (formerly the Rosemont Horizon) in Chicago is an amazing building for wrestling. My brother was there when Punk won the WWE title and said it was the best in-arena experience he’s ever had.

Perfect

I liked the Headbangers wearing tour shirts as revolving attire, they weren’t alone by any means but I thought it was a nice gimmick. There’s a picture of Dusty in the 70’s wearing a Black Sabbath shirt, spotted in a Ric Flair shoot.

What comes to mind first is something I saw Tom Petty say in a documentary from about 20 years ago, comparing the state of rock music to wrestling in a way that made me think he held both in similar regard. On the other end of the spectrum I remember Roger Waters on a radio interview in the late 90’s, in tangent to what he felt about performers who don’t sing their own material, said it was like comparing sumo to “Wrestlemania”. Elvis worked the mid-south Coliseum as did infamously The Beatles a decade later after the “Bigger than Jesus” scandal. Led Zeppelin’s manager Peter Grant was a wrestler before switching to the music industry. And Jimmy Hart is a one hit wonder. It would be honestly cool if he did an album now. In my teens I had a guitar magazine phase and one of them had an article on wrestling, primarily interviewed was Bob Mould who discussed his relationship with WCW at the time. That was a bit of an eye opener, that wrestling could be enjoyed as an adult for its own merits and value as entertainment, but also the appreciation of the craft. Maybe the coolest episode of SNL is when the Rock hosted and AC/DC, Vince’s favorite band were the musical guests. The use of “Highway to Hell” to hype up that SummerSlam 98 main event is maybe the best sell for a match the company ever did.

Watched the original PRISM broadcast of his first match with Randy Savage, which might have been one of his last big matches before switching to the Wrestling Album theme. Such a perfect song for that character in that time, in New York City.