Marty

Show had its ups and downs. - Liked the new WWE opening and collage of the past 19 1/2 years of RAW. - DX-Sandow bit was fine. Amused at how Shawn gets to be the butt of the DX jokes. Dawned on me how tall Sandow is when in the ring with those guys. Towered over HHH. Will probably get his heat back on SD by beating Ryder again. - I liked JR's goatee when it wasn't coloured. Six-man tag was fun. Have no idea why Jericho and Ziggler would want to team with each other after last week, though. - Count me in as someone who enjoyed Mae Young and her son. Needed Henry to walk by, though. Piper being goofy enough to play jump rope with R-Truth and Little Jimmy worked for me too. - Should've booked someone else other than Swagger for Clay to go over, especially since Swagger gave Ryback a fight the week prior. - Thought, like a lot of others, that Steph was going to walk in on HHH and Trish. Was disappointed that it was DX, although creepy X-Pac ruled. - Wedding alone wasn't all that great (aside from Slick), but combined with the Rock's part it was good. Thought AJ becoming GM was really underwhelming, but Bryan's did his darndest to make it seem like it was the worst thing in the world that could happen to him. I also really liked his interaction with Rock. The two clicked together, plus I love how Bryan kept the white mic the whole time, as he pulled off looking like the guy left at the altar hoping that something of a wedding could still happen. - Seeing Bret was nice. Not sure if Miz needs the IC title, though. - Regis name-dropping The Destroyer ruled. - Didn't like the HHH-Lesnar stuff, particularly due to Lesnar getting the shorter end. He didn't necessarily need to be the one standing tall here, but a pull-apart brawl would've probably been the best thing here. Steph looked very good. "Failure of ECW" line was fun, but Lesnar and Heyman came off like chumps. - Nice to see Lita, who looked good too. Love how Bradshaw can bounce back and forth between gimmicks with no rhyme or reason. - Sean Mooney never ages. I'm somewhat intrigued by Bryan vs. Sheen. Sheen vs. SES Punk would make more sense though. - Taker-Kane stuff was what it was. Liked Taker's entrance and attire. Fuck, Drew Mac's really fallen down the ladder. - Fine main event. Loved the finish. First thought was Punk turned heel and Big Show was a hired gun of his. Other thought was Show just still has issues with Cena and that the reason Punk stopped the People's Elbow was just because Punk hates Rock (they may play up comments that Punk made of Rock, plus the line of "Dwayne being in the main event of WM" bit from last year's promo). They have a few possibilities here. I wonder if they figure Punk will still sell merch effectively as a heel. He does have that DVD coming out in the fall.

Could Angle have gotten a match out of Great Khali (or someone similar) like Cena did in '07?

My understanding of Maria's firing was that it was more related to her then-burgeoning music career, getting stuff on iTunes and the WWE wanting rights to it. Many disagreements over that led to her getting released.

Sean Waltman's Youshoot is fantastic. Even better, as you'd expect it to consist of the usual moronic video submissions by people who think they are funnier than they are, or people trying to get their 'gimmick' over. I also enjoyed the Adrian Street one, although that was more down to Street and less due to Feinstein (who had clearly done little research, and predictably when talking about UK guys, only asked him about those who had made a name in the US or Japan). I picked up a copy of the Mike McGuirk one last week along with the Sean Morley Timeline (which I didn't care for - and I tend to find the releases from recent years such as the Morley and Lisa Moretti as less interesting/appealing to me), so may give that a watch in a few days. A lot of the stuff he's said in the past was said again, but Cornette's 1997 Timeline was fun too.

Has Rick Rude done any other color commentary aside from his brief stint in ECW? Cause he was the first guy that came to mind for me. Are we counting Honky Tonk Man as good on the stick. Because regardless if he was or not, he was worse at the booth too.

Not really Joshi, but thought I'd post these here. Blame Loss. He said I could. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TGXE8Y63Dk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw7_7_Cq5aU

That part still cracks me up to this day, especially with Helen doing it. Too bad she didn't become full-fledged heel as a result. It would've made sense. Walk over a fallen Davey Boy, without any concern for him, just to cost Bret the match.

Have you seen Abby matches in recent years? Really not a lot more to them than Mae Young style stuff. Actually Mae still bumps so if anything she's more serious than Abby Yeah, that match that Devon "Hannibal" Nicholson is suing the WWE and Abby over didn't involve much from Abby aside from getting busted open and busting Hannibal open with his fork, if memory serves.

John Laurinaitis is no longer listed in the group of WWE Executive Officers. Hunter has taken his place as Executive Vice President, Talent and Live Events. http://corporate.wwe.com/company/executive.jsp http://corporate.wwe.com/company/bios/p_levesque.jsp Pretty much expected from the standpoint of HHH's position, but I am curious what that means for Big Johnny's position in the company.

This match to me showed that, as good as both guys are, 20 minutes is the perfect time for them, as WM showed. This went between 30 and 35...and felt even longer. It has its moments, but it's not that great a match when one of the things I remember more than anything is Bruce and Jim's bickering in the audience. Post-match stuff was very good, with very good use of Davey Boy.

And topped even more if he only allowed Luger a rematch if he won at a game. "Okay, rematch with you on 20." "Sorry, 18. No rematch."

No doubt that's the main reason. That said, there has been talk of a Mid-South DVD being made by them, and it's not just on a discussion board like this one.

We know Ene was selling various DVDs of Mid-South, and I'm wondering if she felt any sales had plateaued. That said, I wonder how well the WWE will do with sales of this set. DVDs are pretty hitting a downswing with sales everywhere. I wonder if the WWE acquired this too late, from that perspective. I'll still buy and watch, but I wonder about the broader market.

They basically have no choice but to present a balanced view with these things. If they bury other companies too much, and it gets known that's what they do, no one will buy the stuff. There's the odd exception, of course (Bret's feelings on his WCW run, Joey Styles moreless ripping into Bischoff and WCW over the whole Mike Awesome deal in the latest ECW release), but for the overall message, they seem to focus on other promotions/wrestlers' contributions to the industry.

Oh, and Hunter Hearst Helmsley.

Earthquake was a "fan in the crowd" (I'm assuming that's what you're thinking of). The angle was a push-up contest between Warrior and Bravo, they found a big man in the crowd (Tenta), who jumped on Warrior when his push-ups were attempted, and debuted right away as a heel. I don't recall Tugboat turning on Hogan. They fought during that battle royale in 1991, but I don't recall a full-fledged turn. The turn I recall was on Superstars against the Bushwhackers. If memory serves, it was Tugboat and the Bushwhackers against Earthquake and whoever Jimmy Hart's team was (I'm assuming the Nasty Boys).

I'm not sure. General criticism against the Wellness Policy is that the top stars are immune from it. Is Orton still a "top star"? He bombed as a draw as champ last year and they seem to be placing Sheamus as the new guy for Smackdown, as well as having Cena and Punk on SD from time to time to boost ratings that weren't exactly strong when Orton was head of SD. WWE: Masters of irony.

Nope. He got suspended twice before, but one was a 60-day one for unprofessional conduct. In fact, that one happened in April 2006, and his 30-day one for Wellness happened in August 2006. This would be strike two. Current guys who have two strikes: Evan Bourne, Rey Mysterio, Randy Orton, William Regal. Booker had two as well, but I'm assuming they don't count those as they happened in his previous run.

They were wrestling the Harts to Double DQs on House Shows as early as April 21 (With Mania happening 20 days earlier), though they also wrestled the Bolsheviks on the Superstars that aired that day and were total, over faces. Unless there's a fancam out there, we don't have any of those Pre-Summerslam matches. On SNME that aired 4/28, the Harts challenged them and they interfered in the Harts vs Rockers match, which was the beginning of it, though they were still quite over as faces on the 5/19 Superstars, including a fairly sympathetic promo about the Harts. Graham has first appearance of "BA" on house shows on June 1, so that must be when Ax's health scare happened, abouts. On TV Crush debuted on the 6/23 Superstars. Still kids in the crowd waving Demolition figures. Super quick squash. But this put a spin on things immediately. On the 7/7 superstars, Vince went out of his way to show that the fans were giving Demos a thumbs down and he portrayed them as unfair and running scared. Their promo on the Harts was completely heelish. On the 7/14 Superstars, on the Brother Love Show, Demolition jumps the Harts 3 on 2 and that's the clincher. Yeah, it was a gradual turn. Very well done, too, as they were badasses before (thus fans cheered them), but they turned into badasses that didn't need too but decided to use numbers to their advantage. A lot of it depends what promotion you grew up watching, I think. Obviously, if you were a JCP fan, than you saw the Road Warriors and you realized what arguable knockoffs Demolition were. But since things were still pretty regional, if you grew up watching WWF, it's a different story. Since I'm in Eastern Ontario in Canada and have been all my life, I didn't see much JCP aside from if Pro Wrestling Plus was on (and it took a while before we got cable, so that's another thing) and if I was lucky to find a PWI mag in the newsstands. WWF was on all the time on Saturday afternoons though and Demolition was present (in fact, in my case, I actually watched WWF wrestling *after* seeing the cartoon) and Demolition was one of the first acts I recall seeing. Once I got to know all the WWF tag teams, I realized how different they were compared to them. The different look, the face paint, etc. I recall merch of them being sold during their initial heel run too (like the postcard with Fuji) and for heels, that wasn't done too often. Lots of other things that stood out. Obviously, this didn't happen right away for them, but by '88, they were starting to stand out, as far as tag teams go anyway. I can't speak for other fans, but within the closed universe of the WWF, they did stand out, as far as characters go anyway. As for as your list goes, you can probably pinpoint around late 89/early 90 that they were arguably the third hottest act. Hogan and Warrior have them beat, but the others you can certainly make that argument. Savage & Sherri were removed from main events more less (No Holds Barred PPV and SNME notwithstanding) and onto Duggan and Dusty. DiBiase's '89 was, from a push perspective, kinda unremarkable, as I don't remember anything outstanding with his feud with Roberts. Same goes with Jake, as I don't recall the DiBiase feud being as heated as the Rude and Andre feuds were. Memory may be off, but for those three, that time seems relatively ho-hum.

I don't currently have access to YouTube. Is Morley praising Russo's writing? Or is trashing it? Because...I could kinda see Crash being a bigger star than Goldberg...in 2000, due to WCW tanking. Only kinda, though. But since that's a 1999 Timeline video...

I was thinking that too. He's a guy that supposedly does radio shows at like 5 in the morning, among other things we've discussed over the years. Surprised he made that committment and tied the knot, under those circumstances.

"Rock saw Cena makin' out with Eve. Grabbing on her thigh, tuggin' on her weave. Cena was havin' the time of his life. I guess he didn't tell her that he's got a wife. Let's rock. Everybody let's rock. Divorce lawyer's right up the block, but we're dancing because Cleveland Rocks" (Sorry!)

They realigned a year later, when Heyman became Smackdown GM. Didn't have any falling out afterward.

I was at a RAW house show two months ago and agreed with you guys about the new set they're using at house shows. Not huge or anything, but good enough that the shows have a bigger feel about them.