sek69

No one ever accused Scott Steiner of ever being classy in the first place, and Eddie was an addict when they were in WCW, so other than his bluntness I don't see anything wrong with these comments either.

Because WWE is doing a lot of things that reminds people of WCW in its dying days, hence that's why WCW gets mentioned in a negative way. I'm wondering if this was Benoit's idea and they agreed to it to give him incentive to stay.

Any truth to the reports that the audio is messed up with the Bret-Austin match?

I thought he was shorter than that. Either way, comparing him to the Divas and Tazz kinda proves my point, heh.

It just cracks me up to see WWE, who normally is obsessive about not doing anything they didn't originally come up with, so clearly cribbing from their old rivals.

From the UK SmackDown taping:

Even with lifts, Rey would still be way short unless he wore boots with some Gene Simmons KISS style elevation. He's really, really short. Like inches away from being considered a midget wrestler short. That's why he won't be seen as a credible world champion by most of the audience. It would be like putting the strap on Little Beaver.

For Rey in particular, his problem is his height. Benoit and Eddy were lighter weight guys, but at least they could go face to face with the big guys and not be eye level with their kneecaps. I think that's Rey's biggest handicap in the eyes of the WWE writers/bookers/Vince himself.

Some of you are giving the impression that you're being deliberately obtuse in this discussion. You can't compare wrestling to boxing or MMA here because (since it's worked) wrestling has its own laws of physics that fans have just accepted over the years. In boxing, either guy is one punch away from winning a fight, no matter their size. You catch someone dropping their guard for a second and you can knock them the F out if you have the skills. Same with MMA. In wrestling, we've accepted that guys will bounce back off the ropes if thrown into them. We've accepted that moves that cause 2 second tap outs in MMA can be 5 minute restholds. We've accepted that pulling the back of someone's tights and exposing their ass gives you the needed leverage to hold someone's shoulders to the mat. It's also been accepted that little guys can beat big guys on occaision, but doing it on a regular basis isn't seen as credible. I don't see top guys like Taker or HHH putting over a small guy on a regular basis without some type of overbooking to make the small guy's win look like a fluke. I don't see Vince giving a small guy a serious title run, and I don't see the current WWE writing team being able to sell the fans properly on buying small guys beating big guys without the big guys looking like chumps. No one is saying that we don't think small guys like Rey are capable of being world champion, I'm just saying I don't think the politics of wrestling would allow what would need to happen to make it credible. I don't know if this is sufficent for the essay Q requested, maybe I'll go back and double space it and add footnotes.

I don't think it's fair to blame the fans, Vince has the hard on for big muscle guys. Smaller guys have successfully gotten over everywhere else. Fans in WCW bought the smaller guys because they weren't having roid monsters pushed down their throat.

The biggest test of this policy will be to see if Vince himself drops any size.

Guys like Eddie did things to get bigger since Vince makes it clear it's what's required to get a push in WWE.

You think they'd recognize a theme. I know Europe is becoming the only place where they can guarantee a sellout every show, but the last thing a roster full of bodies sore from taking bumps needs is a trans-atlantic plane flight.

There's the fatal flaw in everyone's logic.

Right now Snitsky is shitting his pants, I'm sure.

You can bet HHH will get a prescription for muscle enhancers as part of his quad rehab.

This just smacks of PR so that the next time a wrestler dies Vince can point to this testing policy and deny they were taking drugs. I just don't see how you can work the WWE schedule without painkillers, let alone the people taking steroids or HGH. They definately need to start getting guys' hearts checked more often since most deaths are the result of wear and tear on the heart. Somehow I don't think we'll be seeing the skinny 1994 WCW Triple H on Raw anytime soon though.

This is a shame because this seems like it will only discourage other similar projects in the future. I don't see why they can't just draw a line and say if any footage comes up after that deadline then too bad. You could theoretically hold off on every category forever if you were constantly holding things up because of the chance of finding more footage.

I'm just trying to consider what the average fan would be thinking if all of a sudden Rey would be busting out submissions. I think it could get over if WWE property educated its fans to accept the new and improved Rey, but we all know you can't count on them to do things correctly.

Right, but are there submission based Lucha guys? I'm asking because I've never seen any Lucha guys use a submission for a finish but admittedly my exposure to Mexico is limited.

Would the fans accept Rey as a submission guy after how many years of being trained to expect all Mexican wrestlers (and Rey specifically) as a high flyer?

If Rey/Eddie hit or came close to four stars, there's a reason for that. And that reason will be missing from any Rey/Show match.

I'm not saying Rey/Show couldn't be good if well booked, but four stars seems a bit much to ask.

When I posted the taping results, the reaction was basically that TNA was dumb for running Christian vs Monty so soon. Having seen the show, I think I can see where this is going and why it might just work. So JJ is facing Rhyno at the PPV, and he mentioned that Raven's a former champ and didn't get a title shot. So make it part of the "Larry Z fucks with Raven" storyline and have Raven interfere in the match to stick it to Larry for not giving him a shot (meaning JJ retains). Then have Monty challenge JJ on the New Year's Eve show and have him Pounce Jeff back to 1997, now you have literally the whole year to have Christian chasing Monty for the NWA title.

I hope WWE comes to its senses and realizes that Joey Styles is proabably the best wrestling announcer out there now. He gives the product a more professional edge just by his knowledge of moves and history that put him roughly a zillion miles ahead of anyone employed by the E. Anyone else heard about this?