Marty

At ringside with Dominic? Or was that a different person?

In hindsight, DiBiase may have had some great lawyers as far as clientele relations go, but less so regarding possessions. Either he or his people completely overlooked the fine print that stated "this possession can be legally obtained without cost in a manner that which otherwise would be illegal" on the title deed upon creation of the Million Dollar Championship. I wonder if the Money In The Bank contracts also have the same fine print? It would answer JBL's question: "Why isn't Cody in jail???"

I just realized that one of the reasons the New World Order was so successful was because they succeeded in confidentiality and contracts better than a lot of governments probably do. The one time they had a public contract signing, something was wrong (Hogan's signature was forged). Lesson learned: Hogan is the ultimate top secret security clearance godfather and if he's serious about signing you, he'll tell very privately. Nasty Boys should've seen it coming.

If you recall, Herc stated that his contract with Heenan stated that Heenan took in 75% of his earnings. That's almost slave-like.

I wonder what the deliverables were in Akbar's contracts with wrestlers. Also, why would Randy Savage pick an unknown woman over every top manager in the WWF? Did Elizabeth have a fine understanding of how to negotiate title shots? Was she so desperate for money that she was willing to be abused by her client all those years? Did they always have a romantic partnership, or did that develop from a business relationship? Or is that too personal? If you believed people like Bad News Brown and Jesse Ventura, Liz's eyes helped Jack Tunney give Randy Savage a favourable position all those years.

Another one: When the Rougeaus aligned with Jimmy Hart, they got 50% of the Harts' contracts. What does that mean? Does Jimmy get the other 50% or the Harts? Can a tag team's contract be sold that way to another tag team that aren't managers? Or did Jimmy and the Rougeaus get all the money? If so, why didn't the Harts jump ship? Bret *was* talking to WCW, no? Fuck, Michael Cole's explanation before the Punk-Lesnar match on Sunday at least made sense: "Once Paul realized he couldn't make money off of Punk, he turned on him."

Ric Flair being the "consortium" that purchased Shane's and Stephanie's shares of the WWF (when they bought WCW and ECW), even though a consortium is techically plural (whether it be individuals, companies, associations, etc.) If anything, the WWF ownership at the time would've been a consortium then (the Vince/Ric partnership). Oh yeah, and Flair lost his half to Vince in a hotshot match. No wonder he's got financial troubles. He should be suing Steve Austin for that one.

There were so many great lines written that it was hard to fuck up. On another note, does anyone else feel Hunter came off as a more convincing heel on Monday night than, say, in 2003 or 2004?

Agreed. That said, how long have the PTP been babyfaces? I don't recall them being so before RAW. Not a criticism, just an observation. Also, if they did do a nice, subtle turn because of Young's news, it was the best thing possible, IMO.

I wonder how successful they are at getting last-minute buys as a result of it too.

Miss Elizabeth got confirmed to be in WWE 2K14, as there's a screencap of the ending of WrestleMania IV. Question: Has she ever been in a video game before? Earlier WWF games? WCW?

I was thinking and wondering what the equivalent to Austin's beer/Angle's milk would be earlier today. Thank you!

I agree with Loss' summary. Bryan being completely pissed about the night before (and probably even more pissed after Stephanie cut him off earlier in the show before he could even speak his piece) is exactly what you'd expect and him wanting to fight is also the expected reaction. And it's not like it was a beatdown by HHH and Orton, but rather by three guys who'd been in relative obscurity for the last few months or so and got a big rejuvenation with the final segment, plus the two handicap matches. The Shield were the biggest winners/gainers last night, while Bryan gained a little and everyone else moreless stayed the same. I do wonder how much of a long term angle this can be, though. One of the reasons Austin vs. McMahon (since everyone's making that comparison) went as long as it did was there was some growth in almost everyone involved. Austin (going back a year before in '97) became less about being vicious and more about being a never-say-die fighter. McMahon grew more power-hungry and insane. There were the additions and growth of guys like Patterson and Brisco, Shane, the character changes of Foley, the growth of Rock, etc. I'm not sure this angle has the potential for that depth. The top four heels are already well-established and there's not much you can change, unless power struggles happen within, someone turns babyface, and it becomes less about Bryan. What if the Shield upset the McMahons due to a failed assignment of sorts, they get punished and it becomes less about Bryan. What if Bryan requires back-up? Will it still be about him? Where do you go from last night? I have a crazy feeling that one of the best things they could do here is have Bryan recruit, of all people, the Wyatt family to even the odds (where we find out that Kane is new and improved), especially since those guys would not think like the rest of the roster and would fight the McMahons, consequences or not. It would elevate them, but I doubt they'd overshadow Bryan at the same time. It would be a very unconventional, bizarre face turn, but their elevation, the Shields', and Bryan's establishment as a top guy could be three things we get out of this angle. We'll see.

Turning Punk, Henry, Show and Dolph (albeit at the same time as a double turn with Del Rio) this summer ain't helping either.

I'd have to assume that they'll play up that HHH/Bryan backstage argument (after the RAW match vs. Orton that was cut short) as part of the reason for HHH betraying Bryan, which would make sense.

I thought Punk-Lesnar trumped Cena-Bryan as far as suspense and heat goes, and possibly with ring work too. Cena-Bryan felt a tad more predictable and earlier in the day, I had thought of the possibility of an Evolution reunion, so Orton winning the gold thanks to HHH wasn't exactly shocking to me. Christian-Del Rio was a really fun sprint. Rhodes-Sandow was fine with moments that showed how ex-friends fighting should be. Mixed tag was filler, same with the women's. Ring of Fire match being worst match of the year by Meltzer is hilarious, at worst it was goofy sports entertainment with the Wyatts getting decent heel heat. Preshow was okay. Good SSlam all around.

Really late reply. Past: Sting Present: Dolph Ziggler

They've already mentioned that he's taking part in their Be A Star program as part of the PPV weekend. That tells you right there the timing of all this.

Please tell me that was the main event! Just so we can say Brown and Storm worked the same main event, to tie into the other thread.

Funny how I change my username, eliminating the EWR part, and then all the EWR talk happens. Actually, I'm happy people still have good memories of it, although I would've done things different. (For those who don't know me/this all that well, if EWR was the WON HOF, I was basically jdw to Adam's Dave. I gave him North American info on things like ratings, buyrates, etc. as well as getting to test things beforehand.) I probably would've suggested more numbers surrounding buys and viewers rather than ratings/buyrates. At the same time, I probably didn't have the mindset back then as I do now. Oh, and for the record, since the Hart-Austin thing was brought up, a lot of the stats/numbers of wrestlers was Adam's interpretation of them. Thankfully, they're editable. I remember telling him, for EWD, that I thought he was nuts for having Benoit with a 5 charisma (out of 10) when Blackman had a 7 charisma. Regardless, again, I'm glad people enjoyed the game and I was happy to play a small part in it. Favourite games over the years for me: - WrestleFest, for all the reasons others have stated. - WCW/nWo Revenge and WWF No Mercy were the best games around the new millennium. - Showdown: Legends of Wrestling was a lot of fun. Amazing capture of venues. Hard to tell which my favourite was, they did a great job with all of them. The gameplay was alright, but thinking about how well they not only did the venues well, but simmed the atmosphere quite well makes me want to re-hook the PS2 up again. - SD: HCTP gets some love from me too. I also liked SDvR 06 and 07 mainly because of the story/season modes and how the voiceovers were. Some of the stories were amusing: HHH wanting power for himself (accurate!), Trish wanting to compete with the men, Eddie stealing Taker's urn, etc. I got a PS3 as a gift so I've played some more recent ones: - Legends Of WrestleMania is, like Showdown, a nice nostalgia trip, but I can't play the game for too long. It's the last WWE game that captured Mania venues fairly well, as the stadium ones actually look like stadiums. It's hilarious that Michael Hayes is in the game, and not a guy like Savage though. - All Stars is fun, but I can only play it once in a while, and not for very long. Game takes a while to load on the PS3. Fun to play, but not a lot of depth to it. - WWE 13. Yes, I love the game, not just for the Attitude Era, but the Universe mode keeps getting better, in my opinion. I hope WWE 2K14 keeps it and improves on it (an NXT part of the mode would be nice, where you can call up guys, send them down, etc.). It's not perfect right now, but I like how you can have more than two brands now (I've done an Attitude Era brand), you can reset the Universe if you're getting bored with it, huge roster (even though there's a lot of repeated characters), etc. To be honest, in the series, it's the most fun I've had since SvR 07.

Throwing another name out there: Was Sid ever a draw anywhere? When I think of his main event runs, I think of him getting pushed opposite Hogan when the WWF/Hulkamania were fading from their glory days, having off and on main event runs in the WWF during some dark days for them when, for the roles he played, they didn't have much else, and being a main eventer in WCW, with his run starting from pretty much when the Monday Night Wars were already kaput. Is there anything I'm missing of the guy that could say the opposite of all this?

Yeah, I've heard Kharma's YouShoot is fun. I expect that she wants to go back to the WWE, but at least (from what I heard) she buried the butterfly belt.

Does Dave snap his fingers for a refill? Or does he politely raise the glass with a wink and a smile?

C*4 here in Ottawa consistently has over 200 people at their shows and sometimes hits the 350 range.

I haven't seen RAW yet, but for a little while, I've found Bray Wyatt goes a little too over the top with his promos. There are moments in their presentation where they have the right amount of a dark feel to them, other times, especially with moments in Bray's promos where he overly cackles, they become self-parodies. The bright side of this is if they do flop quickly, perhaps Brodie Lee can be repackaged and put in a position where he's able to showcase his skills some more.