Dylan Waco

The only way the negatives outweigh the positives is if you believe that the NWO angle is a large part of what killed WCW. I don't believe that. I believe the death of WCW was inevitable because it was a horribly mismanaged company from the jump. If the NWO never happens, but the company is still held hostage by bad contracts, tv is run so chaotically, so many people are in charge that no one knows who is in charge, et. WCW still goes out of business. In fact without the NWO - and especially without Hogan - it is very easy to envision a scenario where WCW goes of business years before it did. From an artistic standpoint you can argue that the NWO had more negatives than positives and I could probably be convinced of it. But looking purely at business I think it is a very hard argument to make.

I don't really feel guilt about anything I like or dislike, but I am a strange fellow that loves Rufus Jones (including and especially late era Rufus working in Puerto Rico) and while I admit he's a great wrestler I have no interest in ever watching a Jumbo match again as long as I live

I thought raw smoked Summerslam

Raw was better than Summerslam

Honestly Matt coming out in support of that gimmick and how it was applied tells me his "logic is what is important to me" talking point is just a long term troll job

Cena shouldn't even be on Raw

The network is basically unusable for me at this point unless I use 3g

There is less than no chance a WWE countersuit would have capped at half a million. I've seen workplace suits with nothing nearly as severe with people suing for well into the 7 figures

You are the only person I've ever spoken to who alleges the contract wasn't breached. Bret punching out his boss and destroying thousands of dollars of equipment on live t.v. killed any chance of him suing.

Bret didn't sue because he punched out the owner of the company

I agree that Bret is at fault to the extent that as soon as Vince said he was going to renege on the agreed upon deal he should have left the promotion without working a single date

Framing the debate as "allowing him to negotiate with a third party" is a stretch so massive Jerry McDevitt wouldn't even make it. Vince told Bret he would be breaching his contract. This literally occurred. He literally said to him "I cannot and will not hold up my end of the bargain." This isn't even disputed. At that point to then say "hey don't worry, he can go negotiate with these other guys" is irrelevant - he'd already told Bret he wasn't going to honor his deal and (at least arguably) hurt his position in terms of negotiations compared to where Bret had been the year prior when he actually was a free agent.

What is the big difference between saying "I refuse to honor the terms of your contract" and a breach of contract?

It doesn't matter what excuse Vince had for why he couldn't pay Bret. He signed him to a contract. He couldn't afford to pay him and told him to go look elsewhere, after he had effectively killed his negotiating leverage by signing him to contract he couldn't honor. I personally think the argument that Vince couldn't afford him is transparently absurd and laughable on the face of it,but even if you accept it it's irrelevant.

The creative control issue is completely and totally irrelevant to the matter of why Vince is wrong. Bret could be and may have been a delusional mark for himself, but that is also irrelevant. The bottom line is that Vince signed Bret to a contract, then told Bret "oops, I can't pay you, go ahead and go to WCW and take their money." Everything else is just excess, the real issue is that Vince signed Bret to a contract he reneged on. At that point he's lucky Bret didn't just walk out as champion

Vince was absolutely not in the right and the argument advanced above is horribly wrong

One of my favorite independent promotions in the country, Empire Wrestling Entertainment, looks to be making a go at more serious content distribution via the web. I'm not saying the promotion will be for everyone, but the first match they will be releasing to people who sign up for the new (free) EmpireTV site is a four way ladder match that should be a fun spotfest. Here is the link: http://www.empirewrestling.net/

Biggest star is Cena. Best worker this year has been Styles. Best promoted as champion - scarily enough - has been Lashley

To me this deserves a thread because I feel like that if you consider all factors you can make the argument that the hottest current market for wrestling is the United Kingdom. I realize on that surface that is a crazy statement. There is no major native promotion in the UK, at least not in the traditional sense, and no one is running really large venues. Having said that when I think of promotions that have developed and cultivated a niche, expanded the scope of their product and done so with (largely) homegrown talent, the promotions that immediately come to mind are ICW, PCW and This Is Progress. Two of those three seem to sell out every event, and the third (PCW) just about hits that mark every time. The shows all seems to have rabid crowds, and in the case of both ICW and This IS Progress the growth has resulted in the companies upgrading/expanding. On the interview with Meltzer/Alvarez that Drew Galloway did today he said ICW is running a 5k building soon and he is working his butt of to see that they can get a sellout. I have no clue what the state of All Star is this day in terms of drawing crowds, or what any of the other promotions there are doing, but it certainly feels like those three companies have tapped into something of note, that probably deserves more discussion than it's getting. Would love to hear the thoughts of others on this.

I have a piss poor internet connection, but the WWE Network is the only streaming service I have consistent problems with no matter where I am in my house or what device I'm using.

Last weeks show was great. I've enjoyed this weeks, but hard to rate at the level of last weeks

I'm not sure you could get something even approximating consensus on a top ten. Suzuki v. Styles is the closest thing to a consensus favorite

Well regardless of how I feel about Thatcher/Busick (I like it alot,but think Thatcher v. Gulak and Gulak v. Busick are both decidedly better), you aren't going to get much comment on that. Indie wrestling is not something Dave watches or pays close attention to. Or very many hardcore fans for that matter.

I'll give another example. Today on the board someone made a post about New Japan sweeping the Observer Awards (something I think is almost a shoe in with the major awards). Somehow the topic got on feud of the year and Dave piped up with: "Naito vs. Ishii is feud of the year. Nothing even close." Now I really liked that series of matches and have no problem with someone voting for that for feud of the year. But really those were just great matches built around the Never title. It's a stretch as to whether or not they helped draw money (technically something that the award is supposed to take into account). Was that feud really so far ahead of say The Shield and The Wyatts in terms of match quality (I think it's behind that feud to be honest) that it's not "even close?" Or for that matter is that feud really a vastly better pick than Rush v. Casas which did one of the strongest houses of the year for the hair v. hair match this week, and has been universally praised by Lucha fans? Dave watches New Japan with a fan hat first. In many ways I consider this a plus, as I like his enthusiasm for a wrestling product and I think that is a net positive for the Observer as a whole. On the other hand I think it is really bad when it comes to analyzing things or looking at the bigger picture history of wrestling, which is why I cringe when he makes some of the statements he's made recently.

I have been overwhelmingly positive on this years tournament from a work perspective, with three shows I have touted as potential shows of the year, probably a dozen or more matches I've called great (and I tend to be a harder marker than many in general), and several workers I've been incredibly high on. I also enjoy Titus O'Neil performances on Superstars. But I don't say Titus O'Neil is the most underpushed talent in modern wrestling history, or talk about how his tv match with Sheamus was a genius match, far beyond anything New Japan talent could ever dream of achieving. I can certainly be a hyperbolic motherfucker, but I'm not doing that - Scherer was with ECW though..and so is Meltzer now with New Japan. I have no clue what to expect out of Seibu. To me anything less than 23k is disappointing, but I'm not sure Dave would agree with that. The coverage of that will be interesting one way or the other. And as noted above I'm not even sure the parity booking is "wrong" for New Japan. My point was more or less that it would viciously attacked if the WWE were doing it, something I firmly believe based on the way Dave talks about and analyzes the WWE in comparison to how he talks about and analyzes New Japan. I don't want to see Okada v. Tanahashi at the Finals, but I understand the logic in it, and couldn't really criticize NJPW for doing it if they feel like it's their best shot at filling up the Dome. But I also think it's a stretch to call that "genius" as Dave had said it would be.