sek69

I could make a good list of things said on TNT that would cause a major PR controversy today. On another note, it gets kind of annoying that whenever any type of editing occurs, someone suggests maybe it has to do with Chris Benoit, and that IMMEDIATELY becomes fact, to the point where Meltzer reports it. Considering they claimed recording errors when TNT showed replays of the shows the same evening, somebody's kayfabing somebody somewhere. Do you have a better explanation? I don't, and it may very well be true in this situation. But people make grand statements about WWE's policy when they have never made a single statement about editing Benoit whatsoever. Well if their intention was to quietly remove any trace of his existence, making a public statement about it would kind of defeat the purpose. Also, Vince said on the post-murder ECW show that there would not be any further mention of Benoit on WWE programming.

Ironically, Meltzer has this in his update today:

You had me until you made it clear you aren't even watching the shows anymore.

Oh man, the TNT go-home for WM 2 show is up and it features Blassie repeatedly calling Mr. T a house ape. The Monday Night Wars only offered RAW, with Cole explaining before the show that Nitro was not available this week due to some kind of error that isn't expanded on.

Amend that to say compilation. They don't go out of their way to edit him off full shows, but don't feel compelled to include him where they don't need to. That's a wise decision, IMO. Actually they do. Other than a few stray pics on the website and a few mentions of his name on 24/7, 99% of his existence has been removed from history.

I'd be more in favor of the veggie lifestyle if the people who live it didn't look like they were auditioning for Philadelphia: The Musical. I mean, holy Christ, Wade looks like he'd have to double his body weight to catch up with Sean Waltman, Is it just me or once you get past salads, doesn't it seem like the rest of the vegan menu consists of tasteless glop? Wheat-gluten protein? No thanks. Also lol @ the term "meat-eaters" as if they are the ones with the "LOOK AT ME BEING DIFFERENT" attitude.

I've heard the stories before, but I don't get why Honky refusing to job the IC belt to Savage would prompt Vince to not only change his plans for the world belt but turn his marquee PPV event into an ass-numbing 4 hour long tournament. Like I would totally expect someone like Vince to react to Honky not jobbing by having the IC title vacated and have Savage win the belt at WM from DiBiase.

Probably the same reason people read newsletters and go to internet message boards. Folks are always going to want to know behind-the-scenes stuff. IMO, the criticism Gabe gets is valid. It's not like he's Vince and forgetting angles for some mid level no name type dudes in a massive company. Like it was stated before, he runs a small group that only runs a handful of shows a month and is still all "dudes, help me remember wtf is going on". Hell, it's not even like TNA where you actually do need a road map to figure out what is going on, most ROH feuds are like "you have dishonored me, lets fight" or "I want your belt, let's fight". Also him talking to his workers like they're grade schoolers is pretty funny. If he wants there to be no swearing at ROH shows, perhaps he should have passed that letter out to the fans at the shows, like that one crowd in England that was chanting F-bombs at some kid. I'm seriously cracking up picturing Gabe going up to someone like Homicide or the Briscoes and telling them they'd face fines for swearing. I'm sure the Briscoes in particular would shank him in a second if he took any of their meth money away.

Yeah, I think at this point we should just forget about ever expecting to see anything with Benoit on a WWE production.

For a guy who's whole character was the no-BS asskicker, it sure is odd hearing Steve be so diplomatic. I lol'd at him recapping how he won the King of the Ring because "Vince had to bring the hammer down on some people who had behavior problems" without naming names. He makes it pretty clear that while he respects what HBK can do in the ring, he's not crazy about him as a person and didn't really care to team with him during their "wacky partners" angle. I was also surprised to hear how much he credits ECW and Paul Heyman for basically creating the foundation for the Stone Cold character by letting him do those shoot-style promos. Also nice was that Austin was the only person interviewed for the DVD. No random Steve Lombardi cameos. no Triple H commenting what a fan of Steve he is, surprisingly no JR either (and this would be the one time his appearance on a DVD would actually have context). Here's the listing from an Amazon review:

Oh man, forget all that noise, Finlay vs JBL just blew that off the map tonight.

Well that's why I said "if everything works out". We don't know where they're going with this yet, I'm just stating that 2008 Floyd Mayweather > 1998 Mike Tyson. The potential is there, and when it comes to celebrity angles, WWE usually does a great job.

This was obviously meant to remind people of the Tyson-Austin encounter, but it came off even better (to me at least) since the announce team went silent - which is usually wrestling code for "oh shit, this isn't supposed to be happening". Also props to Big Show for taking what appeared to be a legit punch from a world champion boxer to set up what will probably be a huge angle for the company. This could be record setting for WWE, since the Tyson bit did monster business and Iron Mike was for all intents done in 1998. Mayweather is a big PPV draw on his own, so this could be the forumla for a ridiculous buyrate if everything works out. Also, I don't know if it was BS, but he was rumored to want to get involved in MMA. Now he's probably going to end up with a bigger payday than any MMA group would be able to offer and the most he'll have to do is take a few bumps if even that.

I don't get why they didn't run with DiBiase as champ after the evil twin ref angle, instead of turning WM IV into a boring tournament. Even worse, having the whole thing in one day made every match too short to matter and completely killed the crowd.

Especially since millions of dudes have been faced with the idea of their wife leaving them with the kids, and not too many thought the best solution was murder-suicide. They should have just done what every company does in the face of possible legal action, decline a comment while offering condolences to the family. WWE, on the other hand decides to hang on any possible rumor that they can use to prove "IT WASN'T THEIR FAULT". Fragile X, anyone? At this point, it's pretty clear that years of concussions left Benoit in a mental state prone to sudden violence. There's just too many examples of former football and hockey players who've suffered repeated concussions having problems later in life, some even had instances of becoming violent towards their families in eerily similar circumstances to Benoit (without the same final result, obviously). That's not to say WWE is 100% to blame for what happened, but it's also clear there are cases of them having a "don't ask-don't tell" policy when it comes to brain injury. If this would go to trial, one would think that WWE would be in trouble if anyone on the other side has a copy of "Beyond the Mat".

What's worse, rumors that Benoit was cheating with a WWE Diva which led to a domestic dispute ending in carnage, or that again WWE attorneys are jumping all over this to prove the company can't be blamed for the deaths: Can't you just picture that WWE lawyer doing a Hornswoggle-like dance of glee as he said that? Now all they have to do is throw a random diva under the bus and they can go back to the way things used to be without having to deal with learning any life lessons.

Jesse's insider remarks make the shows 100x better when you get the joke. On the latest Prime Time show they have the debut match for Strike Force, and Vince prods Jesse to admit that Santana and Martel have the potential to be a great team to which Jesse responds "Yeah, just as long as neither one of them quit".

From WO.com: I find it hilarious that there's no sign of the Rock on here due to Hunter's ridiculous hate/jealousy of him. I guess once Vince finally kicks it, Rock will end up being the next generation Bruno Sammartino in the sense of a major draw from a previous era practically erased from history due to a dispute with the owner of the company.

I'd wager probably because no one would know there was a PPV unless they were at a ROH show, and as far as I'm aware they don't run in Canada. Hell, that 36 buys is probably equal to the number of Canadians that go to the ROH boards.

I dunno, Wade comes off sounding like an old territory promoter bitching about how someone beat him with what is technically an inferior product (style wise, not information wise). I agree that what he's saying is pretty much entirely right, but someone who writes for a living should be able to state his opinions without sounding like he's going to start texting his physical address to people. I don't know, it seems like he's been pretty fair with Cornette at least re: his TNA run. He was also pretty honest about Flair needing to get out of the ring, but it's obvious he's mad that Flair won't get the big sendoff due to how his retirement angle is being booked. Conversely, I think it's silly to expect WWE to devote chunks of airtime every week to mention its Flair's last match in whatever city they're in, but Dave seems to think it makes baby Jesus cry. As far as Ross goes, I always got the impression Dave feels sorry for him since Vince uses him as his personal cat toy to bat around for his amusement. Has he even had a source in the inner circle since Ross stepped down?

I think Vince's biggest accomplishment re: PPV was making sure Crockett got cockblocked at every turn when he tried to run PPV as well. That tipped the scales in favor of the WWF and I think it's really an under-mentioned aspect of wrestling history.

Seeing him appear on the UWF shows airing on ESPN Classics reminded me, wasn't Foley in WCW during 91-93 when the promotion was running? Am I getting the timeline wrong?

WWE is the slickest looking promotion in the world. CMLL's production reminds me of JCP/WCW right after Turner took over, basically a territory-era production with a big ass entrance ramp. WWE was getting stale with the same sets on both shows for years, and I said before the same set for all 3 shows will probably get old after a while too, but you can't watch RAW in HD and not be impressed.

Wow. Really? I always thought that was something WWE was like eons above and beyond anyone else in professional wrestling. It's certainly what every promotion aims to look like. That's the one thing I assumed everyone agreed on.

(1) What do you ultimately think Vince McMahon will most be remembered for as a promoter? Wrestlemania as an event, and also as the one man synonymous with wrestling in the US and Canada. (2) What do you think is the most important positive change that has come from the WWE vision of what pro wrestling is? TV production, no doubt. No matter how much I love the Studio Wrestling style, there's no way it would have survived this long even if Vince had never came around. (3) What do you think is the most important negative change that has come from the WWE vision of what pro wrestling is? The negative stigma as entertainment for retards and hillbillies. Not that it doesn't deserve that stigma a lot of the time, but WWE sometimes does things just to re-enforce it. (4) What is something that you have always felt WWE does well that they don't get enough credit for? Being such a long running ratings draw on cable would have been a major deal for any type of programming other than wrestling. (5) What is something that you have always felt WWE does horribly that they don't get enough criticism for? Vince using his roster (especially the women) to take his anger on the world out on. (6) Overall, do you think most people are fair when discussing WWE, or do you think people tended to be blinded -- either by fanboyism or hatred? These days, hatred. The amount of Cena hate on the internet for one thing, is just flat out retarded at times. What's funny is that there's tons of legit reasons to dislike WWE, and the people most vocal about it never state them. It usually just boils down to "WWE SUX". (7) What match would you point to as the match that most defines the WWE version of wrestling? Hogan vs Andre, WM III. Also, Rock vs Hogan. I think that might even be a better "most WWE" match ever, since it's a lesson on what wrestling is all about since both guys tear the house down just with a stare down. (8) Could the WWF have had their initial success without Hulk Hogan? Why or why not? Probably, the stars were just aligned right for them no matter what. Having someone overflowing with charisma made it easier, but I think it was just one of those things that was destined to be. (9) Could the WWF have been more financially successful in the post-Hogan, pre-Austin time period with different people on top? Why or why not? Pre-Austin. Some of that was outside of their control (ie: not able to push the guys they normally would because of the steroid trial), but there was some extremely questionable guys hovering near the top from 1992-1995. (10) Who do you think was a bigger star at their peak -- Hulk Hogan or Steve Austin? The eras were different, but I would say Hogan. Hulk put wrestling on the map on a national level, which IMO was a bigger feat than anything Austin did. (11) What do you think is Vince McMahon's greatest accomplishment as a promoter? (12) What do you think was the greatest contributing factor to WCW overtaking the WWF from 1995-1998? WWF TV was just so stale and cartoony in 1995, Nitro was something different and edgy. WWF was like children's TV and WCW was like what the grown-ups watched. (13) What do you think was the greatest contributing factor to the WWF overtaking WCW in 1998? The nWo angle never getting a proper blowoff and making all the WCW guys look like chumps. Then blowing one of the biggest angles they had at Starrcade 97 made it clear that politics would insist certain things would never happen and certain guys would never get their chance. (14) Which world champion was the best in terms of ring work and why? Probably HBK, which just underscores how little workrate means to drawing power. (15) Which world champion do you think meant most to the company? Hogan, by far. He made everyone money and the whole world knew his name and the WWF. (16) Which world champion had the worst run? Not counting one day runs and gimmick champs like Vince, probably Kevin Nash. That's not entirely fair to him though, since other than Bret he wasn't really matched with anyone who had any hope of drawing. (17) What do you consider the high point in WWF or WWE history? The whole Wrestlemania III show is the ultimate blowoff of nearly a decade of unprecedented growth. (18) What do you consider the absolute low point in WWF or WWE history? 1993-1994. Again, a lot of it was out of their control with Vince on trial, but all the 15th anniversary of Raw stuff just highlighted how brutally bad that era was for the WWF. (19) Looking at things from their point of view, why do you think WWE frowns on employees being big wrestling fans? I almost understand it in terms of wanting people who do their jobs instead of having the employees marking out all day, but they take it to the level of hiring people who know nothing about wrestling and it shows a lot. There's a happy medium to be found but they don't seem interested in doing that. (20) Do you think the WWF has ever done a good job at booking tag teams in a meaningful way? If so, what time period? Yes, in the mid 80s. They had enough of a tag division to do a all tag team Survivor Series match, and even in the early 80s there were enough teams that I remember mark mags at the time suggesting that the WWF should introduce a Intercontinental tag team championship. Of course, looking back that might have been a inside joke since it was when the Bulldogs were champs and the belts didn't get defended a lot due to Dynamite's injury. (21) What is the best non-main event feud the company has ever produced and why? Would Savage-Steamboat count? If so, that. (22) What is the worst main event level feud the company has ever produced and why? Mabel vs Undertaker. (23) What do you think was the single biggest contributing factor that caused the end of the 1998-2001 boom? The death of WCW. They lost a lot of steam with no competition pushing them every week. (24) From your personal experiences, is the WWF a company that delivers house shows where you feel you get your money's worth? I've never been disappointed after attending a WWF/E show. (25) Where do you think they'll be in five years? Probably about where they are now. WWE is at the point where they will always at least stay at the same level. If having an active wrestler commit a murder suicide doesn't change business, nothing will.