sek69

More than the rest of ROH to be sure. More than most of the wrestling world? That's a bit of a stretch.

A number of dudes - myself included - have had to shoot down the delusions of fans who talk about how thus-and-such wrestling show could never be in jeopardy because they get high ratings, ignoring that it is not the ratings but the ad rates that actually make TV shows money, and ad men tend to avoid wrestling like the plague. But....The Simpsons? Desperate Housewives? Law & Order: SVU? I don't know if it's indicative of anything, or even how valid the survey is...but it's something that struck me as interesting, and something that may be worth keeping in mind in the future. I would guess the Simpsons made it on the list since it's been on the air for a million years and advertisers may be thinking Fox might pull the plug on the show. Or maybe because it gets pre-empted so much during football season. The rest would have to be due to content. I can see an advertiser shying away from SVU. Who wants to be the commercial seen when they stop for a break in the middle of a story about child rape.

Bumping for the latest PPV: This was actually a pretty great show, probably the best of the PPVs so far. Dragon-Morishima was a great brawl that reminded me of those 70s bloodbaths in Florida you'd see pictures of in the mark mags and be all "holy shit, that must have been awesome". It's funny that after the big title push and right before he went back to Japan, they finally made me like Morishima. For once he didn't look like a Japanese girl with Downs, and when he went apeshit and started pummelling Dragon in the balls for a DQ (in a "relaxed rules" aka ECW style match) before tossing officals Godzilla style they finally had him look like the monster they wanted him to be. I still don't like McGuinness though. I'm surprised ROH gave him the belt since they're all about workrate and he does almost nothing but lariats. Not to mention that Jawbreaker lariat with the Terry Funk style flip between the ropes is the most contrived bullshit since the Canadian Destroyer. Having said that, the match was awesome pretty much solely thanks to Aries bringing a HBK-esque willingness to die for one's art. He really made Nigel look like a million dollars, The Briscoes are starting to grow on me too. Not the whole "BEST IN TEH WORLD" shit, but just coming to terms that they may be spot monkeys but at least they hit their spots. Watching them reminds me of watching Sabu if he wasn't fucked up all the time. Not to mention they actually look like a tag team. Growing up on NWA wrestling burned it in my brain that tag teams should have like a uniform of sorts to signify they are a team. They should wear the same colors or at least the same kind of gear. Otherwise they look like a jobber team put together for the weekend syndicated shows. The brawl at the end was unintentionally hilarious too. They had all the stables/teams have a huge brawl backstage and all that was missing was "Yakety Sax" playing in the background.

Just like how we look back at footage from the 70s and 80s and discover guys who were awesome but flew under the radar, I suspect people 20 years from now will be doing this with the Hardys. I would imagine the big internet discussion then would be "Why didn't they ever put the belt on Jeff Hardy?"

Am I cynical or does it seem like Jake Roberts went to WWE sponsored rehab because they're going to induct him in the HOF and don't want it to be another Heroes of Wrestling moment?

WWE Shop has been updated for the Triple H: King of Kings - There Can Only Be One DVD set and the Twist of Fate: The Hardy Boys DVD set, which takes the interesting twist of having Disc 1 be the Matt story and Disc 2 is the Jeff story. The official WWE synopses: The HHH DVD also has some of his WCW matches, including his debut as Terra Ryzing. I'm kind of bummed that the Taker-Jeff match didn't make the cut for the Hardys set. I hope it gets included as an extra, as that was probably the best match Jeff will ever have in his career. Also, the WWE DVD Releases page lists The Rock: The Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment as a 3 disc set. No matches yet since it's not out til June, but that's gotta sting some egos that the guy who "turned his back" on wrestling gets a bigger release.

It took you this long to figure that out? But they always come back. Well I didn't just figure it out, I was just making the point. The Rock is probably going to be the one guy who never comes back to wrestling in an in-ring sense after a retirement. He may show up for a promo every so often, but unless he has some sort of financial disaster I don't see him ever wrestling again. That of course only makes the people in the biz hate him even more.

I would think anything even slightly harsh would and should be considered "blasting", especially when you take into account how much money the Rock made the company. Seriously, what is this mindset in wrestling that people who leave the business are ingrates who somehow owe something to the profession? Rock has every right to tell the WWE and anyone in it to go fuck themselves with a rusty spike, and the fact that he takes the time to make appearances once in a while shows that he still "gives back" to the business. If anything, this whole affair illustrates how many people in wrestling are just huge jealousy filled crybabies.

McDevitt must be a sadist, Cyril Wecht is basically Vince McMahon in public office. I can't imagine having both those large egos as clients. He should take up an easier hobby, like punching himself repeatedly in the testicles.

Also, the MSG 3/16/86 card currently up has all sorts of "stuff I never thought I'd see in the WWF" moments: Dump Matsumoto & Bull Nakano defeated Linda Gonzalez & Velvet McIntyre when Matsumoto pinned Gonzalez at 10:02 with a diving headbutt Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagoya defeated Leilani Kai & Penny Mitchell at 7:05 when Nagoya pinned Mitchell with a flying bodypress off the top

Cena doesn't give the impression of being a dumb guy, yet somehow despite him holding a degree and having an obvious history with physique enhancing chemicals we're supposed to believe he's both ignorant of the effects and/or more Straight Edge than CM Punk on the subject. That's what alarms me the most about this, how shockingly out of character this whole rant seems to be. Did he not think the UK had internet access and what he said would never leak across the ocean?

Bret Hart is the HOF selection for March, and the first round of stuff appeared today. They have Bret/Owen, Bret/Dynamite, and Bret winning the title from Flair as the bonus matches so far.

What happened to prompt Cena to go off so harshly? He's normally way more media savvy than that. Especially bashing a guy who's going to be showing up to induct his family in your company's Hall of Fame.

Man, did Cena owe money to Ken Kennedy and decide to repay him by raising the bar of dumb comments made by WWE workers? The Rock comments seem to be more HHH's opinion than Vince's. Hasn't he always been jealous of Rock getting movie roles when Hunter can't land any part better than Flunky #3 in that one Blade sequel? Man, that quote needs to be photoshopped on a photo of him as the Prototype. A LOLCena, if you wheeeel.

Meltzer makes a good point in the new WON that while it's nice Taker wants to branch out and all, the gogoplata is such a random move to pull out that even most MMA fans who watch UFC don't know what it is. He's probably literally the only guy in the building who knows what is when he does it.

Fair enough, but I don't think there were Pena fanboys saying it was ok to soap up the minis as long as the in ring product was entertaining. I could be mistaken on that. I think most fans of puro/mexican/canadian wrestling (hello Stampede stories) are aware that wrestling sleaze is a universal language. For some reason, ROH fans get especially offended when it's their ox being gored. It's understandable, but they have to realize the hypocrisies of wanting to change the subject when ROH was built partly on the complaints made about WWE. You can pretty much guarantee if this angle is followed through to its conclusion, there will be people defending it because "WWE did it worse" and even Dave will probably be devoting paragraphs in the WON to how it's something that doesn't need to be done in the current environment, but he was told it was just done as a one time only thing to get over how meaningful rape angles can be.

I don't understand why you think it's a conspiracy issue. They have been editing him off the shows since it happened and the reason they put forward for skipping a whole episode are suspect at best. I'm willing to accept there were sound issues with their copy, but to be bad to the point of being unrepairable is suspect since we've seen how WWE can do wonders with footage that isn't in the best of shape. Just to make sure I'm clear and not belaboring a misunderstood point, are you making the argument that there is no conscious effort to edit Benoit off of the shows being run? Because based off of what you've been saying in this and other threads, that's what it seems like.

Speaking of things that sound like bullshit: So many things seem unlikely with that explanation: 1. All the tapes that were kept by Turner were in immaculate condition, so this would probably be the first NWA/WCW show that has problems. Not that it couldn't happen, but it's not like we're talking about ancient footage that wasn't well cared for here. 2. The thought of WWE scouring the net for a DVD of Nitro on like Crazymax or some other trading site is hilarious. Were they offering copies of Coliseum videos in return? Did someone have it but ask that they send first? 3. They've aired a lot of stuff that wasn't "broadcast quality" on 24/7. If it was RAW, I'd say this would be a valid reason but there hasn't been any reluctance to show non WWE programming that was not perfect quality.

Also it must be mentioned that the asshole portion of ROH's fanbase became that way due to the booking being done in a way to encourage such behavior. It wasn't a spontaneous force of assholery that just decided to appear out of nowhere.

I think that's what bothers me the most with all this. It's why stuff like editing shows bothers me too, not because we're going to miss out on **** matches, but because it makes it easier for people to carry on as if nothing ever happened. Some folks have the blinders on so tight it makes you wonder how they don't suffocate. WWE as a company has been so successful with getting people to accept that death is a part of the business, it's actually scary how quickly went from "wow this is a tremendously fucked up situation" to "who's going to be on the next PPV?".

Also his constant shilling of the video where you could relive the night where CHRIS BENOIT BROKE SABU'S NECK 100 times per show during the old ECW TV.

That's always something I wondered too, not only did Honky dick Vince around on the night of a major national TV show, he was also brought back later as a commentator/manager in the 90s (which sucked, yes, but I don't think we'll be seeing Jeff Jarrett doing color on RAW any time in the next 20 years).

Wow, Paul E. brings some real motherfucking talk to the table to remind people of a point too many are missing.

Was Steamboat already on the way out by WM IV? His match there seemed to be the most obvious "playing out the clock" moment ever.

I'm just getting tired of people shocked over it. That and WWE somehow thinking that doing it makes the problem go away.