sek69

Rick Rude was still NWA tag champion when he signed with the WWF I think, that's why they had to do the phantom switch to the Rock n Rolls.

I'd say it's bullshit considering Eddie did the same thing in Mexico, complete with doing the "swim across the border" motion while wearing the US Flag attire.

Wasn't the talking point at the time something like Brock's presence (and subsequent push to the title) was drawing more hardcore MMA fans to buy the PPV to see the fake rasslin' guy get beat by real fighters? Plus all the elitists bawww-ing over "THERE'S PRO WRESTLING IN MY UFC" makes it seem kind of unlikely a guy who didn't set the town on fire as a pro wrestling draw would suddenly get legions of wrestling fans to buy UFC PPVs. It's a wacky suggestion but maybe, just maybe mind you, Brock proved that pro wrestling heel tactics can get you over huge in MMA? I don't recall anyone else getting as much attention as he did when he talked about going home and fucking his wife while drinking a Miller. Arguing that tons of wrestling fans flocked to UFC because of Brock seems to be a way to not acknowledge UFC fans buying in to him.

I distinctly remember PWI including a pic of ponytail Ric Flair in their year end awards issue making a joke that he looked like he was posing to be featured on a quarter.

It's the old wrestlingobserver.com logo mashed together with the famous TILDE BANG~! of Figure 4 Wrestling Dot Com.

Yeah, I think what rubs people the wrong way about Gabe's argument is that it's very similar to the music industry blaming all their ills on piracy without considering for a second it might be at least partly due to a product no one is interested in. If the latest pop fad's album sells less than the last one, it must be because of dirty pirates and not from people being disinterested. Not to diminish piracy as a legit concern, but as someone who follows music or gaming can tell you, it quickly becomes a catch-all excuse for everything. In fact, in the cases of music and games there have been several studies done that revealed actual piracy was far less than the official governing bodies claimed their was.

Does it strike anyone else as odd that anyone in 2011 would be counting on DVD sales as the make or break revenue stream? Even the music industry, not known as being on the cutting edge of technology has largely given up on physical media for digital downloads. Of course that was largely due to Apple dragging them kicking and screaming with iTunes, but still. Shouldn't small promotions be focused on filling their venues and leave DVD sales for the merch tables?

He had a falling out with CMLL, and Paco put him on his shit list along with threatening to blackball any promotion that works with him. I believe AAA would be willing to have him, but the common theme when trying to make a deal with him is that he asks way too much money.

I saw his name in a match result over on cubsfan's site for the first time in what seemed like forever. I know he's not the easiest guy in the world to work with but I'm shocked neither of the big two Mexican companies have called him yet. I know Paco would rather swallow a jar full of bees than give up on a grudge, but CMLL hasn't exactly been on fire as of late. It's just odd in a world where Hulk Hogan still draws a paycheck from a major company at a point where he can't really even bump anymore, a guy who was arguably as big a star and can at least still work can't buy a ticket to a major show.

My whole point is it was essentially guaranteed no one writing on WO.com would admit to liking the Muppets on RAW once Bryan more or less pre-emptively bullied anyone who would dare think otherwise. This might fit better in the "wacky things by WO.com staff" thread, but it's funny how one of the things Bryan rages on pretty much all the time is how it's bullshit that WWE does the anti-bullying stuff when Vince is a huge bully himself. Yet he's famous for losing his shit and personally attacking anyone who disagrees with him nearly as much as Vince does. Not on the same level, it's not like he writes skits where people on the board get stuff pulled out of their asses or anything, but I'm pretty sure he still has his attempt to embarrass rovert as his signature there.

From the Inside MMA TV report that was just posted on the site: The groupthink over there really is amazing sometimes. Since Bryan already pre-ranted on the idea of the Muppets being on RAW I bet you not one person writing for them will say they enjoyed the show.

Well I know the Memphis vs WCCW feud was specifically designed for both sides to be the heels in the other, but for some reason the WWF run seemed like he was really going out of his way to point out what fans saw on WWF TV didn't "count".

I can't wait to see how Bryan justifies his pre-hatred of the show from last week. I'm sure his logic will be more tortured than a private room in Gitmo. Also even though it was probably part of his ongoing burial, John Morrison getting sexually propositioned by Miss Piggy was hilarious.

Wasn't there a weird time in the 90s where Lawler was a babyface in Memphis and a heel in the WWF at the same time? I seem to recall him explaining it on Memphis TV by basically saying what they saw on WWF TV was just him doing their silly fake stuff but what they saw in Memphis was the real deal.

Mentioning it once, like the band did, is fine. Mentioning it five times a segment like WWE does comes off like your dad trying to sound cool by talking about how listens to the latest hip and or hop music.

Glad I wasn't the only one who noticed that. When it happened, I had a mental image of HHH studying the HBK-Owen angle like it was the Zapruder film to get the flop right.

I wonder if guys who are on the fence about getting help will see someone like Scott Hall go to rehab a million times and still be messed up (through no fault of the program) and think "fuck it, that shit doesn't work".

So what is "the truth about" Dixie? John I'll have to plug my former Cageside Seats colleague Sharon Glencross' pieces on Dixie Carter and TNA management here: A Closer Look At TNA President Dixie Carter Nightmares in Nashville: A look at TNA/Impact Wrestling management From the first link:

Not to beat the "Dave thinks wrestling and MMA are the same thing" dead horse yet again, but he correctly attributes WWE's sagging PPV numbers to them running too many shows and not having interesting matchups. Yet somehow when it comes to UFC it can only be due to people watching streams. To be fair, a lot of it was out of the company's control with so many main events being scrapped at the last minute due to injuries, but you can't discount the WWE effect of each show losing some luster when there's a new PPV nearly every month.

Things I Learned from WO Radio: UFC is losing 100k buys per PPV from piracy because Dave has friends who watch on illegal streams. Even Bryan was all "uhh, I don't think so", but Dave was still "I HAVE SEVERAL FRIENDS WHO WATCH STREAMS!"

I've been watching CMLL every week (well until recently when their US TV schedule went to shit) and Averno is by far the biggest star they have. It's even more impressive considering everyone thought he was screwed after WWE put off calling him up when Mistico started fucking up. The only down side is that the idea apparently was to build La Mascara up as a big star, but Averno's continued availability kept delaying the blowoff and now it looks like Mascara has been officially Lex Luger'd.

Dave's review of the Shawn vs Bret DVD is fascinating, he's blown away at how little bullshit was included in both guys' accounts. I don't know if I was just late on this, but the tidbit where he mentioned that getting KTFO by Bret (on one punch) was the motivation for Vince to go balls-out with his bodybuilding and/or roid use was something I never heard before. I can only imagine how much of a mindfuck it was for someone with Vince's mentality to get owned by a so called "little guy".

That works on several levels when you include the crazy factor.

I don't know about Gagne-Robinson, but a lot of the complaints I see about guys like Cena is how terrible he is at times in the ring. I don't think I'm speaking out of turn by suggesting most of the popular wrestlers among Internet fans tend to be toward the Bryan Danielson/Samoa Joe (when he gave a shit) variety. Unless you're talking about the segment of DVDVR type folks who will occasionally like bad workers ironically in what sometimes seems like an attempt to troll the board into liking someone they normally wouldn't. Let's take a look at huge draws in the WWF/E in the last 20 years or so. 1991-2011. Who would you consider as huge draws who were great workers? Certainly guys like Shawn, Bret, Angle, Lesnar. I would argue that Randy Orton may be close if he isn't there already (but I still remember all the "Blandy Orton" complaints not that long ago). Who were draws that were terrible? Hogan, Taker (not always his fault, but still), Warrior, Austin (tricky since he was a great worker but when he was a huge draw he was primarily a brawler), Kane, Big Show, Cena. Then there are guys like HHH and Rock who did improve but were largely not that great wrestling wise the majority of their time as a top draw. Now you can make an argument that the difference in length between lists isn't as big as Hunter contends, and I wouldn't disagree with that, but I don't really think there's an argument that there were considerably more guys with tons of charisma who didn't light the world on fire in the ring on top than there were guys who tore the house down wrestling wise.

The way I read it, HHH was pointing out that great workers =/= main event drawing power and vice versa. Dave was quibbling on who would qualify as a great worker, but more or less was agreeing with the premise. Key quote: Other than overestimating the percentage of people who like Cena (this was an interview with WWE Magazine after all, can't expect them to be all SHOOTY~! in that regard), Hunter's dead right in this regard. This has been something that always upsets the technical wrestling enthusiasts who make up a majority of the internet scene, and hearing it come from their Public Enemy #1 will only cause more OUTRAGE.