Marty

WrestleMania has been either the beginning or middle part for a lot of feuds in recent years too.

Much like Sid, eliminating Boss Man from the 89 Rumble after Boss Man eliminated him cleanly before.

Jay-Z wasn't. If Chris Brown is HHH, Jay-Z is Punk. He knows something is up.

In response to a suggestion that Rey Mysterio might be the greatest of all time: http://www.rspwfaq.com/2011/08/28/rey-the-goat/

His extreme underrating (to put it politely) of Big Show and Mark Henry is even more glaring.

Agreed. Now, who's the worst one-shot announcer ever? My pick is Elvira at WrestleMania 2, but I'm curious about others' thoughts.

I know nothing about how TNA operates/operated, do they script promos too? Nash seems uncomfortable in that environment, although he looked a bit better this past Monday than during that initial one-on-one segment with Punk.

Yeah, stuff like that was what I meant by Angle's first title reign. I actually place Backlund's short reign in the same realm as all the heel transitional champs of the past (Koloff, Stasiak, Sheik) and wouldn't count him in what I was trying to describe above. Flair's run could qualify, but I remember him still being treated by the WWF as a big deal.

I'm trying to think of the first (heel) WWE title reign that was decent/solid in length, but also where it was clearly obvious the champ wasn't treated as equally/strongly by the company alongside other main eventers. Angle's in 2000, maybe?

Tyson-Austin on RAW. Made the papers the following day, with a lot of the stories actually focused on Austin. Transformed Austin successfully from a VERY popular star to a guy recognizable outside of wrestling.

I can't speak for Western Canada, but I think the fandom for Benoit up here in the Great White North is a thing of the past, even if it took a while for some people. At the same time, Cena isn't exactly the most popular guy up here, either, probably stemming from the Jericho and Christian feuds back in the day.

I bought my copy when it did come out. I think I watched the documentary only once since 6/25/07. The thing that stuck out the most for me was Benoit's mom worrying, from his intense ring style, of him dying by age 40.

I absolutely agree with '89 to '97. But since '99 has (deservedly) been taken out, what about '98? Yes, that year was still eons better than '99, but does it deserve to be in the same league as the rest of these years, say, '88? Instead of '89 to '98, what about '88 to '97?

??? Punk challenged Nash, who had the security in his back pocket, not the other way around. (Unless your post was sarcastic.)

I was kinda bummed out by Del Rio winning (and to some degree, I agree with Loss about him not being over) but I too look at the potential match-up situation. Del Rio vs. Punk, Cena, Mysterio. The first two are pretty fresh and the third involves two guys who work well together. I'm thinking for Punk: After Cena, who would there be? He's a babyface, so there would be Del Rio, but after that? Miz? His stock has plummetted a little. R-Truth? The guy who believes in a conspiracy vs. the company rebel. They'd be a better tag team for a character standpoint if anything. Ziggler? Probably less over than Del Rio and any overness he gets is due to Vicki (and for whatever reason, Vicki doesn't seem to be the heat machine she was with Edge). It gets to the point where the only other strong option is a HHH heel turn or a Cena heel turn or a combo of that two and any combo of that is something most of us don't want. At the end of the day, I'm a Punk fan, and at least he didn't eat a Pedigree or didn't have an eventual alliance with HHH as well (something I was also fearing from time to time).

Perhaps the tourney was logical in some way, but I agree with Loss' point about the general execution of that RAW, in that there was no panic, chaos, whatever. It was just "business as usual", everything calm, management has everything under control. All this after Vince panicking about not being able to keep Punk.

And even that SummerSlam with Punk as a headliner was a case of him being the perfect antagonist versus a red-hot Jeff Hardy. Jury was still out on Punk as a main eventer. He's in a better position now (even if said position two years ago wasn't bad) but how things last long term for the guy remains to be seen.

I'd argue that's already happened two RAWs ago, when Punk was competing with Cena in a "Who can preen to the crowd the most?" battle.

So one of the latest WWE DVD projects is a Best Of King Of The Ring, hosted by Booker T. This leads to an obvious question: Does pre-PPV tournament (85-89, 91) footage exist? I looked at Graham's site and there doesn't seem to indicate any televised footage of it, or any Coliseum tapes or somesuch using it, so I'm thinking no, but would anyone else know if footage does exist?

It's possible it might be through the WON or Twitter, but they handle the Undertaker character very differently than they handle everyone else. This is a guy they keep out of the public eye as much as possible and who they keep out of things like their HOF ceremonies and such. Fuck, Kane is treated with way more of a human side. When he does go, it wouldn't shock me at all if it's very quietly.

Punk did get the final word in the opening segment last night along with his music playing (although HHH *almost* got that one). That said, I thought HHH's smug reaction to Punk's comments hurt Punk a lot. Punk is the guy who infuriated Vince and even got him worried. A statue could've taken HHH's place last night with the way his non-reactions were.

Alex Trebek.

Looks like it won't be just about Montreal, but a career retrospective of their feud over the years. There's a lot they could cover here and it has potential to be entertaining. The tag feud, Bret's singles rise followed by Shawn's, Bret as top guy with Shawn waiting in the wings, Shawn taking over, all the behind-the-scenes stuff in 96-97, Montreal (of course). Then there's the post-97 stuff and how one can contrast their careers. Shawn's appeared ended early, while Bret chugged along in WCW, but then Bret's ended and afterwards Shawn came back. If the interviews they taped are as good as JR, Bret and Shawn are all saying, this could be fun.

Any golf fans here catch the US Open today? I'm pretty sure I saw Shane in the crowd, keeping close to Rory McIlroy's dad, and rooting Rory on as well. Looked like he was in very good spirits.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainm...is-own-man.html