sek69

What might screw Dawn over is the independent contractor status pretty much gives the WWE the right to do whatever they want. My friend's the same way (he's an actual building contractor, what the term's meant to cover) and if the builder he works for decides to drop him because he doesn't like the way he laid the shingles on the roof, there's not much he can do unless it's spelled out in the contract.

Yeah but after it got a negative reaction, HHH was going around telling everyone who'd listen he was totally down with it when apparently he was trying to get Vince to not do it.

That's funny considering HHH seemed to take credit for the Katie Vick stuff after it aired.

How bad is an idea when STEPHANIE MCMAHON vetos it?

They only put the belt on Angle because it was the first PPV after 9/11 and Vince couldn't let that go without a little old fashioned jingoism. BTW, I was at that PPV (Unforgiven 2001), and many things come to mind: 1. Angle and Austin brawled less than 10 feet away from me, and I was shocked that they looked to be the same size if not a little smaller than me. It's like the opposite of what they say about the Big Show, guys look more impressive on TV. 2. It seemed that half the people in the floor seats were Angle's family, which was good for the PPV audience since it looked like everyone was hanging from the rafters when he won. When Angle's family all piled in the ring I swear the first 5 rows were empty. 3. My lasting memory of the celebration was watching Taker come down to the ring last (way after everyone else) still looking pissed off from the abortion that was the Taker/Kane vs Kronik match that was earlier in the evening.

I was wondering how long "creative has nothing for you" would fly as an excuse to get out of paying people's contracts. Wasn't it Meltz who pointed out that WWE will do everything in their power to make the talent live up to their end of a contract and everything in their power to make sure they don't have to live up to theirs. Christy Hemme should file a lawsuit too, there had to be something in the Diva Search contract that specified the terms for the winner.

WWE has no idea how lucky they are, if that had to happen to anyone on the roster Taker's one of the only people who wouldn't do anything about it. Practically everyone else on the roster (except HHH) would have sued the shit out of them for that.

The Freebirds. Hayes might have made it due to his charisma, but Roberts and Gordy would probably never make it.

Ric Flair. He'd definately never get a chance in today's WWE unless he gained about 50 pounds of muscle and learned how to work WWE style.

Wow, Taker has a legit lawsuit there. I guess since he's a locker room leader and a big company man he'll just let it slide that he was exposed to a disease like that.

It all boils down to what Vince thinks. We can beat each other over the head with reasons for or against Rey as champ, but Vince is the one who decides and since he had a RAW guy move over and turn face that pretty much ends the debate. It's been my argument during the Rey Wars anyway: Yes Rey *could* be a credible champion but it'll never happen as long as Vince is around.

Turning Angle face was a good move, even if nothing else turns out to be. I mean he was getting cheered for saying he wanted to make Jesus tap out, if that's not a demand for a face turn I don't know what is.

C'mon, I'm not trying to fight with you, but I know you've had to come across people who's knowledge of pre-1997 wrestling seems to be entirely Hogan, Savage, and Warrior like Loss said. I would have thought you'd have run into those types, especially with that 80s stuff from DVDVR. How many people on the net remember when Adrian Adonis wasn't a queen? Or when Jesse Ventura wasn't that announcer guy with the funny hats?

Wasn't it Spike that wanted JJ as champ when TNA started on their network? TNA was hardly in a position to say no, just like with the Sting situation. JJ has to lose at some point, and they actually have more people in the hunt for the NWA title than WWE has for both of their brand belts.

What internet are you on? The one we're on now, where 90% of the people on it have no idea of anything pre 1997. This board obviously is the exception, but you go to almost any other board on teh intarweb and you'll see for yourself.

I guess the question is will a non-JJ champ increase buyrates?

Even at that, a lot of people on the net don't know of anything that happened before the Attitude Era and still never saw the evil Abyss-like Mankind.

The thing is, I don't think many casual fans remember when Mankind acted like Abyss, they only rememer the happy-go-lucky Mankind with the torn up dress shirt and Mr. Socko.

I don't get why everyone's so up in arms over Abyss's attire looking so similar to Mankind's. 90% of wrestling is copied from someone else. Even Mankind's look was similar to Leatherface so why all the fuss?

I love the schitzophrenic reaction Abyss gets on the net. Everyone his size is supposed to automatically suck, and he doesn't, so it confuses the hell out of a lot of folks. I guess that's why all the complaints about him center around his ring attire. Ironically, the one time he ended up shirtless everyone was all "OMG UR FAT~!". Abyss should be booked like Kane is in WWE, keep him credible in tag matches and the occiasional death match, and use him to elevate people in the upper mid card.

Backlund's on the outs with Vince now too? I thought all was forgiven after his Mr. Backlund run (still one of the best heel runs ever).

The more reports I read, the more it sounds like Big Dave's speech was less "see you all when I get back from this injury" and more "that's all, folks".

The guy who's put most of wrestling's superstars back together at one point or another suffered a heart attack over the weekend and is in intensive care.

Any word of what's on it? It's only a 1 disc set so I know it won't be a lot, but I'm looking forward to seeing some 70s WWWF action. Along the same lines, I wonder if they'd ever do a DVD of Bruno Sammartino. I know he won't have anything to do with WWE now, but it'd be cool if they honored the longest reigning champ in company history.

Piper's back? Awesome.