sek69

Would think he was cleared and then symptoms returned. Well according to Punk being cleared by a WWE doctor pretty much meant you made it to the building under your own power. There doesn't seem to be much short of hospitalization that would prevent getting cleared. Also, and not to come off as another armchair doctor, it doesn't seem like anyone who's gone in for alternate treatment for neck issues ended up coming out ahead.

Dubbed, but it's not that distracting until the main event. Sandman's entrance loses all the emotional impact without Metallica.

I was under the impression the issue was the Todd/Coughlin heat, none of the roughly eight million threads on the WON board about it mention anything about the Observer reviews.

From what I can gather, Coughlin has been going through some personal shit and while possibly drunk posting he took some shots at Todd. He either didn't know about Mike's issues or didn't care (they had run ins before), and took some shots back. Mike was temp banned and Todd seems to have vanished until the heat dies down.

So they skipped the gun angle episode, as I remember at the time WWF was more upset at the f bomb that went out uncensored rather than the implied homicide.

That particular item is so ridiculously weird and pretty unbelievable to me. Basically, Afa and Sika, with over 40 years of exposure to the business, are total marks who believe that Reigns winning/losing a fake championship is a legit reason to leave the top wrestling promotion in America? According to wikipedia, they won 21 Tag Team Championships as the Wild Samoans. Did they quit these promotions 21 times when it was scripted that they lost? There was more to the story, for whatever reason Samu wasn't originally invited to the HOF with the rest of the family which pissed his dad (Afa) off so the family was already grumpy at WWE when the title stuff went down. There's probably a good chance Sika saw how the main event went down as a double cross of sorts, and considering how famously petty WWE can be it wasn't the craziest notion.

It's interesting to read the last few pages of everyone's opinions of WM3 when my point was people watching it in the future without context will most likely have a more negative opinion than someone here would because I'm sure everyone posting here either followed the build as it happened or went back to watch it all. I liken it to when people started having more access to Japanese wrestling when the internet took off. You can watch individual matches and appreciate the quality, but you lose something if you don't know the backstory.

Well Dixie did break her back doing that powerbomb through the table, but your point stands. Steph may surpass her father one day, but Vince is a big part of two generations of WWF. The loud suit wearing WHATTAMANUVER announcer of the 80s and Mr. McMahon the prototype evil authority figure in the 90s.

i thought it was more the re-brand to the more copyright friendly "SyFy" and their embracing the Sharknados of the world that did it, but I suppose WWE is an easier target.

To me it's more or less falling into two camps when it comes to "hate watching". There's a group who clearly doesn't enjoy the product but at least is fair in their criticism and gives credit when it's due if they enjoy a match or segment. The other group just takes a giant hate dump on everything and anyone who points out anything good is an idiot or worse an "apologist". There's also an odd corollary to this, the people who refuse to watch certain groups. TNA has actually been good most weeks since going to Destination America, yet there's people who will refuse to watch it even for a second because...reasons, I guess. People acting like a TV show getting less viewers due to a change in networks means the wrestling quality isn't worth watching. Speaking of ratings, another pet peeve is fans acting like ratings/ppv buys/network subs affect them directly. Unless you own stock or are directly related to the McMahons it doesn't make a bit of difference.

I'm guessing the company's not happy with the Chyna comments and are their usual passive aggressive selves, but Austin is in full IDGAF mode. Knowing their mindset, that probably makes them even madder that he doesn't seem to care about it.

Funny how with Raw, Smackdown, and Tough Enough all airing it kind of makes USA the channel form of the WWE Network they were trying to launch originally.

I get the feeling that people will be a lot nicer to Cena as long as he stays in the US title scene. A lot of the anti Cena stuff comes from people tired of him always in (and winning) the main event. Plus the US title goes great with his rah-rah GO 'MURICA spiel.

Sin Cara's matches are 100% better now that he gets to be the power man of his team and lets Kalisto do mostly all the high spots (or at least the ones that could be disaster if botched).

At least the US title will fare better, you know Cena's not going to get the jobber treatment.

Is it terrible that the first thought that came to my mind was "I wonder if that promoter's name was Roberto Feinstein"?

I can't imagine that it's been fun going to work for a while now, all things considered.

What jumped out to me was the mention of "his boss" using Roberts' introduction of the Connor video as an opportunity to mess with him. Even in the wacky messed up world of wrestling that stood out as especially sociopathic..

Running a new Diva Search on the Network to bring in a new crop of talent-free models sure will propel the women's division to the next level.

I think it gets blown out of proportion to a degree because everything Dave says gets dissected to a particle level, I'd imagine someone watching the main event of WM III in twenty years might not understand the importance of the match, since based on just watching it void of any context it fucking sucks. However watching the build and knowing the history fills in the blanks and makes it simpler to understand how they got such a massive crowd. Dave seems to be trying to make the point that the way people tend to watch wrestling now (individual matches rather than full shows/angles) can cause you to form an opinion without having the complete picture.

....or it could be coming from a place where other specialized sports networks like NFL/NHL/MLB or even streaming services like Fight Pass don't flood themselves with content not related to the core sport/brand/whatever. Not everything stems from WWE hate.

Yeah the Ronda angle is pretty much Dave's worlds colliding in the best possible way for him both professionally and as a fan of both genres. I'd be marking out like a fool if I was him.

It's on the Observer site. Where did you find this, btw? Not doubting you, I just don't see it anywhere.

1/1/96 was the Raw Bowl show, and as I recall it's missing due to music issues.

Alexa Bliss in NXT is a great example, she's naturally fair skinned and has bleach blonde hair with light blue streaks. Yet somehow they felt the need to douse her in spray tanner until she looked more orange than Taz and Hogan combined. With her complexion, it makes her look about 30 years older when seen in HD.