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I thought it was a good show, all things considered. It was kind of predictable and that did kill some of the buzz, but WWE always gets blasted for changing plans all the time so we shouldn't get upset when they don't. The Rumble match was pretty well paced, didn't seem to have that dead spot that a lot of them end up having when there's too many midcarders/jobbers clogging things up. The surprises got good reactions, and everyone seemed to be working hard. The WWE title match was what it was. It probably wasn't the best idea to have Rock be in such a long match after being away for a while (and Punk seemed to have a clear "I'm jobbing" air about him at times), but the match itself was a solid main event and the title means more than it has in years so it's hard for me to complain too much.

I was thinking the same thing about Cena, once again it was amazing how the franchise guy was once again portrayed as an out of touch fool. He comes across as someone's cornball father trying to sound hip. Also I'm looking forward to Backlund going in the HOF just to see how many times Dave implies he's legit retarded between now and then.

I think David didn't want to sell the family business, there really isn't any other reason for him to object to the sale. JCP was good as dead financially at that point, and as I recall they had no money left to pay the top guys after Vince cock blocked them out of PPV in most markets in 1988. What I found interesting is that interview Dave and Bryan did with Peter Birkholz where he said the oil economy crashing (what Watts blames for killing the UWF) wasn't the territory killer everyone says it is, it was just the business had changed by that point and it was clear their time was coming to an end. I was surprised since that was the common wisdom for a while now that Bill Watts could have taken over the world had it not been for the territory he was based in taking an economic hit.

I think everyone who first came online in the mid 90s read Rantsylvania. There weren't many sites covering a wide array of wrestling at the time, and there were some good writers there before it seemingly crumbled into a sea of egos and interwebs POLITIXXX~!

While this is true, JBL spends more and more time on Smackdown bullying Josh Matthews than calling the action.

So with Foley being announced as the first official HOF entrant for 2013, and King Kong Bundy more or less announcing on his Twitter page he was asked, I assume that Hunter's attempts to woo Bruno into accepting can be finally deemed over and done with.

WWE has actually evolved to the point they acknowledge other wrestling exists, but that all other wrestling is inferior to WWE. Which I guess is progress at least. One quirk that seems to be making a comeback with JBL returning to commentary is when one announcer makes a mistake/tells a joke that bombs, the other announcer has to pounce on it like a pack of lions on a gazelle. I'm assuming Vince is yelling in their ear to make sure it happens.

Pretty sure Harley looked old and grizzled even as a newborn.

The thing about weight classes is that US based promotions seemed to have a phobia about billing a guy under 200 pounds pretty much until Rey became a star and there was no way to realistically claim he was near that weight. It makes more sense in lucha since you're dealing with smaller guys, most of their heavyweights would be average sized guys to most US fans. Hell, Marco Corleone looks like the Big Show in most of his matches in CMLL and he wasn't a guy who stood out as particularly large in WCW.

Diamante Azul being in the same promotion is almost like a lampshade of this. "We're blatantly ripping off a legend so we'll have his name in Spanish instead! No one will ever know!" I don't know if Paco has a moustache, but I imagine him twirling one like a silent movie villan at that point. Also my comment on Porky wasn't just a complaint about his weight, dude looks legit unhealthy and it seems like a matter of time before his heart explodes in the middle of Arena Mexico. He's pretty much the lucha Buddy Rose at this point, except I'm pretty sure Buddy was more mobile at the end of his career.

Within the past year or so I believe he has. It is Vinny Verheri/"Bryan's Friend Vinny". Vinny at the very least formats it. Pretty he does for Figure Four, not the Observer. Wasn't Scott Williams the "deputy editor" or whatever the term was Dave gave to the guy who had to edit his stuff?

I may have mentioned it before, but it's getting really scary/sad watching Super Porky still trying to work in 2012. He's never been mistaken for a cruiserweight, but watching him even trying to run the ropes now is painful. He's supposed to be used for comedy, but all I can think of is how it looks like he's going to die at any moment. I doubt this is like WWE continuing to put Khali in matches to get him as much money as possible before he falls apart, and I can't figure out why CMLL doesn't just put him in the office somewhere.

Oh yeah. Lex had terrible booking back to his NWA days. They turned him and had him lose so many big ones, but he still was over. The "blood stoppage" loss to Flair was a killer, considering I think I've lost more blood cutting myself shaving. Not only did it make Luger look like a guy who can't win the big one, it made the promotion look silly as well.

When you think about it, her husband is the only person Steph's husband would never try any shit with so it's not surprising to me that they're besties.

What killed WCW for me is when Luger won the title, only for Hogan to win it back days later. That combined with the ongoing gimmick where a team would beat the Outsiders for the tag titles only for Eric to find some loophole/threaten to fire the other team to get the belts back just made it obvious everything was just one big circle jerk and nothing would change.

I think they started cracking down around election time so Linda's opponents couldn't find any embarrassing clips. They seem to be going after older stuff now, perhaps to create demand for the WWE Network?

I always got the impression Dave just doesn't want to speak ill of the guy because of the circumstances of his death.

It seems easy to see how Brody got over, he had undeniable charisma as someone who came off as a legit crazy man who looked like he would beat anyone's ass in the whole arena. Like Johnny, I first read about him in magazines and then saw him in World Class. After a while, I started to notice this guy who kept being brought in to be an asskicking monster just seemed to have count-out brawls 90% of the time.

I also like how he seems to be going back to his roots and doing planchas out of the ring as a technico now.

They were clearly chanting "We Want Ryder", so yes his goofy LI gimmick would have gotten over with the crowd. Also funny how R-Truth got hurt in the only non Divas match on the card that didn't have a point where it looked like someone could die.

Sadly there's not much to say, Kobashi should have retired years ago and NOAH has been running on E since they lost TV.

Yeah, Afa Jr = Manu. They insist on doing that toss-and-catch Samoan Drop that the Usos do and they damn near kill the guy every time they do it.

So I finally figured out the Samoans who've been on WWC tv the last few weeks were LA Smooth and Afa Jr. If anyone remembers Kokina Maximus before he became Yokozuna, that's what LA Smooth looks like he's heading towards these days.

Feelings are hard to overcome, especially when dealing with a business like pro wrestling that exists just to manipulate said feelings. A section of people believe truly that Sting is a Hall of Famer because he was the face of WCW for a generation of fans. The fact that his run as the top guy was not the best business wise or that the boom time came when others were clearly the top stars just won't sink in. I think Dave's mentions of how it's unlikely anyone from TNA will ever get in the HOF because the company does such little business applies to pre 1996 WCW as well. No one who's bulk of work is mainly in early 90s WCW is going to have a chance. Personally, I've always thought the biggest blow to Sting's career was his knee exploding in 1990 or thereabouts. You got the feeling the Horsemen turning on him was where he was going to get the proverbial rocket up the ass push. The injury scrapped all those, and the rebooking that had to be done in the aftermath really cooled him off when he came back. To me he never really seemed to fit the same way again. He was still Sting, he was still popular, but there never was any real sense he was going to be the clear #1 guy. A similar emotional reaction seems to be surrounding John Cena. There are people who were against him in the HOF because it's too soon. I can at least see the logic in that, but does anyone really think if Cena gets hit by a bus tomorrow his current resume wouldn't be sufficient? What baffles me are the people who seem to legitimately believe he isn't a Hall of Fame level guy because he doesn't do Austin or Hogan numbers. I don't think it's fair to expect a guy working in a different era (and a different business model) to have to equal or surpass the two biggest draws in history to be seen as worthy. I get how the way he's booked more often than not is annoying as hell to anyone over 12 years old, but he's the only guy wrestling in the US (and possibly all of North America) who makes a difference when they are or aren't on a show. Any argument trying to suggest he isn't HOF material don't pass the laugh test.

The only thing I don't like about Cesaro is how it seems like they are forcing the anti America part of his character. I don't know if it's because it seems like a throwback to cliche 80s heel #69791 that Hogan used to dispatch every month, or that it's hard to get really worked up against someone who's Swiss. I mean, they don't fight in any wars and make awesome watches and chocolate.