Coffey

I wonder why Vince thinks Rusev isn't attractive enough. He seems like a pretty handsome & masculine dude to me. Especially to a woman that likes big guys, which I assume Lana does IRL if they're together.

This is what's crazy to me: WWE goes out of their way to make sure that the WWE brand is the "draw" and not an individual. To the point where they go out of their way to actively cool people down. Then they hold it against them when they don't draw? If you've ever seen any of the Mike Graham shoots, one of his big catchphrases is "he never drew a dime!" Says it all the time, in pretty much everything, about everyone in every company. Benoit? Didn't draw a dime. Guerrero? Didn't draw a dime. Shane Douglas? Didn't draw a dime. Jeff Jarrett? Didn't draw a dime. In this day & age, who the fuck does draw? John Cena? And that's because of merch. Is there anyone else? Anyone else anywhere in the world, any country? Is there a big draw in Japan or Mexico?

...on THIS forum? I don't know about that.

I feel like his defense of Flair is having the opposite desired effect on me than what he's shooting for - It's making me like Flair less, which I'm sure is not the intention.

I actually think this alone would make a great thread. You can't be short-sighted but where does it all fit on the timeline? How far ahead should a company look? Long-term booking & writing is something I'm a fan of but I agree no one is thinking about five or ten years down the road. Six months to a year though? Absolutely. Also, if people in pro-wrestling thought about the ramifications of their decisions more, would things be better or worse? A lot of it is obviously hindsight but it's interesting to think about. There's also a lot of very selfish people in the industry that just care about themselves. Not just the wrestlers.

Essential viewing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALyg-EhxbgI

I was thinking today about how I think Heath Slater is just a better Dolph Ziggler. He's entertaining on the microphone, he has a very punchable face which is great for a heel, he's a good bumper & seller...and he's younger. Kind of wish WWE would give him more. I shut RAW off. I just can't sit through the damn thing anymore. It's so boring. It's nothing but replays & commercials breaks with nothing matches in-between to kill time. I can't do it. Certainly not for three hours.

• Sucked // Forgettable // Meh // Boring • Pretty Good // Fun // Alright • Awesome // Recommendation Worthy // Re-Watchable I find every match pretty much fits into one of those categories. Any in the first category, I won't watch a second time or probably even remember after a day or two. Any in the second category might spark some conversation online or whatever but all-in-all, they're usually just middle-of-the-road matches that don't mean much in the grand scheme of things. Think a lot of 15-minute RAW matches with commercial breaks. Last category is for really good matches or Match of the Year candidates. There's a lot of guys, like Dolph Ziggler or Sheamus, whom have made a career out of being in my second category pretty often.

I already like Blake & Murphy more than The Decade in Ring of Honor. That's with Whitmer being a 37-year-old man & a 15-year veteran. Then again, I'm not sure how relevant of a statement that even is. My point being they have a bigger upside than other wrestlers around that I have watched lately. I do like their finish. The running Vertical Suplex into the Frog Splash. It sort of reminds me of Power & Glory's old Powerplex finish. I think the biggest issue with B&M so far, is that they can't promo. Then they slapped Alexa Bliss with them too & she can't promo either. So now we have a trio that no one can talk for. Their stuff in the ring alone isn't good enough to get them over and none of them can talk. I'm not sure what more they can do on their current path in NXT. So let them start talking a lot more to see if they improve. It is developmental, after all, like SomethingSavage said. Damn shame Dusty Rhodes passed away, as who better to learn to talk from? Whom else is down in NXT to train them? A-Train is the head trainer now, right? He was never a good promo either. They're trying to do some stuff to get them some cheap heat. The dubstep entrance, the Lenny/Lodi/Jericho style ponytails, etc. I just don't think that stuff will really work in front of the smark-heavy NXT crowds.

I liked the crowd chanting "same old shit!" so then he did some new stuff, including that top rope legdrop which might have been the first time I ever seen him do that. They then chanted "...you still suck!"

Which is what I find so intriguing about it. I also think age plays a big factor too. A fan that's been watching since the 70's is going to have different criteria/perspective than a fan that started in the 80's or 90's. Even if you go back & watch stuff, it's never the same as when you watched it as a kid.

John Cena is the single name that I'm the most interested in seeing where they finish on the final list. If someone were to put him at number one, I wouldn't argue. John Cena might just be the greatest wrestler of all-time. If we look at body of work, great matches, promos, drawing power/merch sales, longevity, popularity, etc. I mean... he's been really good, for a really long time, on top in the biggest promotion in the world & having great matches with many different wrestlers. I often can't see the forest from the trees but I realize I'm watching greatness with John Cena. Sure, he's had some stinkers & cringe-worthy one-liners but as an overall package, for someone that we can pretty much see the entirety of his career (all in good quality even), Cena is pretty damn great. He's also been booked like a mammoth too and I could see some holding that against him. It's going to come down to what criteria each individual values more than the others but John Cena finishing in the top 10 certainly wouldn't shock me.

Personally, I am not a big fan of anything with Balor. Most times when I say I don't like the entrance and paint, the response is "you don't like anything," but I just think they and the character are really lame. It's already getting played out by the time he reaches the ring in a small room. That being said, I didn't care for Prince Devitt in NJPW (especially the last year or so he was there), so maybe I am just pre-disposed to not being into the guy. I also totally agree with goc re: Full Sail. I don't think being over in front of that crowd means anything. However, if a guy CAN'T get over in that room, they might as well just release them. A lot of it might just be getting older & seeing everything too. Were you impressed by The Great Muta the first time you saw him? Imagine an 8-year-old seeing Demon Balor for the first time.

Dusty Rhodes & Christopher Lee in the same day.

Fun show. Genuinely surprised Owens went over that clean. I'm sure Cena wins the next match in two weeks to set-up a rubber match. Honestly don't hate the 2-week PPV format. Gives me a reason to use my WWE Network account more than once a month... Ambrose/Rollins lost me. The Chambers were fun just to see if anything happened (it didn't, really). Felt bad for Bo/Neville having to go on after Cena/Owens. Thought the Divas would try to do more after the great showing from Banks/Lynch on the NXT PPV. Basically the theme of the night is that I was wrong on pretty much everything I assumed.

I'm looking forward to both Chamber matches but I'm exceptionally excited for Owens/Cena. It's only 4:30pm for me now, show feels forever away. I hope I don't fall asleep during it. I'm already tired. If I do, I guess I can just watch/finish it tomorrow. Beauty of the network. I'm supposed to have company tonight though. Wish me luck!

Good promo, great character, good mind for the business... bad in the ring. Even his pre-Raven stuff where he wasn't doing the garbage spots was the shits. I can listen to him talk all day though. And I'm a big fan of his. In fact, in high school, he was probably my favorite wrestler. He's a big reason why I sought out ECW too because my first exposure to him was in WCW. If he made my list it'd be at the tail end of it & it would be a sentimental pick. I just don't think the body of work is there.

MOTYC from Lynch/Banks. Good stuff. Felt like the whole show was built around letting them show what they could do. From a wrestling standpoint, that was pretty much the only thing on this show too. Cool to see Joe. Good entrances from Breeze/Balor. Great ovation in the crowd for Uhaa. Also, no idea why he was there but I marked out for The Mountain.

That Kevin Owens segment was honestly the segment I remember enjoying the most since Brock's surprise return when he hit the F-5 on Vince McMahon & broke his hip. The Owens segment, in part, worked so well because it was Sami Zayn out there the week before. Owens looks stronger going into his title match with Zayn on the NXT show & looks like a serious threat to even the main roster. He made his belt look stronger. He made his show & match seem more important & he made himself seem like a bigger threat & a big deal. And it set stuff up for the future. That's pro-wrestling.

They're gonna get someone like Summer Rae or Emma to be Miss Elizabeth. Then they Mega-Powers will "explode" over jealousy of her.

Since when has the pre-show been an hour long, not a half hour long? Has it always been like that & I'm just mis-remembering?

So that WWE PPV is tonight? I missed like two weeks of RAW & they're having another PPV already. Maybe my calendar is messed-up in my head but it does really feel like they JUST had one.

It's irritating to watch a sloppy wrestler constantly mess up killing all sense of disbelief in a match too.

Some pretty memorable promos in Smoky Mountain. He was fun from a "did he really just go there?" standpoint. Both in and out of the ring. Won't be making my list though, or anywhere close to it.

To me? No, not really. I've sort of become desensitized to a lot of the "hardcore" stuff over time & it's very hard, if not impossible, to put myself into the time frame again to appreciate it in the moment. When I was seeing table spots & whatnot as a teenager, it was fresh & new.. it covered up a lot of weakness of a lot of the roster. Rob Van Dam, for example, when I try to watch now, is just all stalling, taunting & setting up the next contrived spot. Be it with a chair, with a table, both, whatever. There are some people in ECW that I think still have value. The likes of someone like Tajiri or 2 Cold Scorpio comes to mind but it's usually because of work they did elsewhere. Another big point to consider is how much innovation factor into how it affects your enjoyment of a worker? Sabu was doing things no one else was doing before others thought of them for a long time. Does that make him be remembered more fondly? Or would that still put him behind the likes of an original Sheik or even Abdullah the Butcher? Ya know? I'm also firmly in the "Abby sucked shit" camp. It's tough. I loved ECW in the moment but I don't think the majority of it holds up to me now. The bar has been raised for me. I expect more from my pro-wrestling that some hardcore spots can't really give me.