sek69

The Daniel Bryan push is starting to look like the classic "we're going to act like we totally intended him to get this over when clearly we didn't" WWE maneuver.

I can't help but think if/when Joe watches Raw, this is his reaction:

What's mind boggling is you'd think TNA would have pushed the hell out of him to convince others in his position to stay with TNA instead of going to WWE. Instead he was put in one forgettable angle after another in between periods of being forgotten about.

I know no one wants to see the McMahons in a TV angle In Twenty Thirteen (tm Bryan Alvarez), but Vince had me cracking up being a dick on Raw tonight.

I stopped watching Pawn Stars when I realized how badly scripted it was getting. I know it's silly to stop watching reality TV because it's fake, but when they are that obvious about the work, it becomes harder for me to get lost in the show and enjoy it. Maybe that's the real problem with pro wrestling; for some people, it's too ridiculous to get lost into the work to really enjoy it. I never realized how scripted it was until they had a guy on there offering to sell two rare NES games. The guy was someone pretty well known in retro gaming circles, and it's kind of a running gag how important those games are to his collection so there's no way he'd sell them. They made him a ridiculously low ball offer on the show to explain why he didn't sell them, and he's "kept kayfabe" about it ever since.

Well I can only speak for me, but I don't mind TNA. I wouldn't say I'm a superfan, but it has a place on my DVR list with CMLL, WWC, ROH, and Raw/Smackdown. Of course the 80s territories would be better, but that doesn't mean I can't like TNA now. I think it strikes a chord with me because it has that lovable loser vibe like WCW where they fuck up but there's usually some good wrestling to be found. Perhaps I'm just not as critical as a lot of others, I just enjoy wrestling that is available on my TV.

It seems like the only time he did any jobs was as the Super Destroyer very early on, but once he was Sterling Golden/Terry Boulder he was being put over everyone and having DQ finishes with the top guys pretty quickly.

I still don't understand why it seems so many people want TNA to go away. They may never get to the level of WCW at its peak, but why would a fan of wrestling want to see a company go out of business and put guys out of work? Is it that hard to enjoy TNA for what it is? Then again, I've always noticed how it seems pro wrestling seems to be the only form of entertainment where the most diehard fans seem to also hate it the most. You really don't see movie buffs saying small studios should just go out of business because they will never be able to compete with the big companies with hundred-millon budgets.

I don't know if you follow current WWC, but if so I wanted to ask if Super Fenix is supposed to be Gilbert under a mask or are we just supposed to think that, setting up a swerve? This week's TV had them doing skits trying to figure it out but sadly my Spanish isn't good enough to be able to follow long promo segments fully.

They have a few USWA matches up on Classics On Demand as part of the HOF feature on Jerry Lawler this month.

I dunno, TNA fucks up a lot of things but that Hall of Fame video was pretty great.

Seems like interesting timing considering the current world champion has been out the last few weeks due to a legit concussion. Also it was funny how just the other day Dave and Bryan (well mostly Dave) were talking about how it's bullshit HHH can flout the Wellness Policy despite being an office guy. Now they do an angle where Hunter not only ignores the doctor's advice, but threatens his job if the doctor doesn't like it. Also x2: That was my exact thought once he started to do the staggering bit.

His Mr. Perfect remix theme certainly will help, best WWE theme in a while.

I guess if nothing else it would be funny to see Straight Edge Punk and Mr. 420 RVD in the same stable.

The Orton commercial for the Payback PPV was a bit of a non sequitor, as if when they shot it they expected him to be a heel by now. Also the Lesnar/HHH match was a little irritating in the sense that Brock's supposed to be death incarnate but it takes Heyman interference/hammer shot/finisher to beat a guy who works twice a year.

The whole "do you feel weird watching Benoit matches" debate reminded me of how odd it is watching Invader I still in main event angles in WWC.

After hearing him rustle papers during audio shows trying to find data on something, his office ended up pretty much exactly how I pictured it. It's amazing to think about how much history he probably has filed away in that room.

The 'Sack will never go away since he's friends with Bruno. Dave and Bryan have to know how horrible his reviews are and how pretty much everyone hates them, but they probably don't want to risk pissing off one of their best interview subjects by canning his gopher.

On a more Meltzer related note, the show he did with Semp last weekend was tremendous. It might scare people off that it was nearly 3 hours (broken into two parts), but I love Dave and Mike shows since he just lets Dave go and doesn't try to argue semantics like Bryan does. The stories Dave told when they got into question time were great, I love when he goes into old timey rasslin stories like Tim Woods doing a take-on-all-comers gimmick and getting his finger bitten off by an overzealous fan.

Hunter doesn't seem to be the kind of guy willing to admit something he's a part of isn't working.

The talking over people thing reminds me of the phone system where I work (which is getting replaced soon). We use a voice over IP setup that starts to lag after a while and conversations turn into interruption fests. I don't know what kind of setup Bryan uses, but it sounds like something similar happens with his.

One of the more boggling things in WWE is how they continue to script John Cena in a way that seems to be designed to get him booed. Jokey Cena is fine in small doses, but they have him do it so often it makes it hard to like him since he comes off as so obnoxious. It also ties in to the other main issue I have with WWE, is how they script guys to use verbiage no one would use in real life. It's bad enough booking changes based on what wild hair crawls up Vince's ass on a given day, the writers are so afraid of violating the banned words list they have guys speaking in some strange Newspeak-sounding language.

It was a huge TV event in 1977, and wrestling being wrestling they were still referencing it years later.

Not to mention most of the events Dave attends in Southern California are booked to get a largely hispanic audience so it's no surprise Dave doesn't see much racist behavior. I also find it funny he keeps defending Chael's gimmick as being old fashioned pro wrestling, but so was Jerry Lawler saying in Memphis he read Roots backwards so it would have a happy ending.

Listening to Dave on the latest Observer Radio, and it's absolutely mind boggling how he thinks that the idea that there might be a racist in the UFC fanbase is the most preposterous thing ever. The idea that it's 100% racist rednecks/bro dudes is obviously false, but the idea that it doesn't exist at all might be the most in-a-bubble thing ever.