Coffey

With as smart as the Wrestlemania crowds are, I would figure a "please don't go" chant would be just as likely as any other.

I don't think it'll be a very nice coronation for Reigns anyway. He might be hand-picked by the powers that be but he wasn't by the fans. I like Reigns but he was exposed when The Shield broke up.

If he's a heel still, does it matter if the crowd hates him? As long as the person that slays him is someone the crowd cares about, not someone force-fed down their throat (Roman Reigns) I still think it would work.

I'm glad for Jim Ross for two reasons: 1. He's a great play-by-play guy. 2. It means the show is in English. Nothing else really matters to me about it other than that. Although maybe it should be a drinking game where you take a drink everytime he mispronounces someones name!

A humble request (which I didn't feel was worthy of a PM or a thread) - In The Microscope, can we get a picture of each wrestler in the OP of each thread? I know a Google search is very easy but sometimes I can't remember who someone is by name alone. I.E. Jack Brisco. Something small & trivial that can save some time in the future though, maybe?

Glacier. WCW hyped the shit out of that dude. Then he has this big elaborate entrance & entrance attire & shit and he...just wasn't very good at all. He was a lower midcarder most of his run too. The way they hyped him up with the "Glacier is coming" stuff I thought he was going to be a big deal. Not just a dude with a Sub-Zero ripoff gimmick doing headlock takeovers.

Watched the 1989 Survivor Series tonight. 1. Why was the Hulk Hogan match in the midcard? 2. Why did Bobby Heenan substitute for Tully Blanchard in the main event? I assume it wasn't just the kayfabe "there's problems in the Heenan family!" Did Blanchard leave, miss a flight or something?

When I first started talking about pro-wrestling online, it was back at the end of 1999 and I was posting on WrestlingGames.com -- which I found via a search engine because I was looking up stuff for WCW/NWO Revenge on Nintendo 64. Then I posted a lot on this forum called The Wall (previously Dragonlair.org) ran by some mullet-having Canadian and his two nephews or some shit. Sek was there and artDDP. So yeah, from there to here my online discussions have gotten better. I have also learned a lot more though & things are more widely available now. Back then, before their deal with TNN, ECW wasn't very easy for me to see outside of tape trading. I had a 56k internet connection & it occupied my parents phone line so I could not stay on for long periods of time. Times have changed a lot. I was eventually on TheSmartMarks.com, DVDVR and a few other places. There's always people you agree with & disagree with. I got a ton of shit on TSM for defending Val Venis & thinking he had all the tools to be a main eventer.

Current Favorite Wrestler to Watch: It has to be Rusev for me. However, it's a package deal: Lana makes it work too. Last Fun Match You Saw: Johnny Mundo Vs. Prince Puma; Lucha Underground week 1 Wrestler You Want to See More of: Prince Puma & Bobby Fish. Match You Are Looking Forward to Watching Soon the Most: Eh, not really any I know of that I care about. Last Fun Interview/Promo You Saw: Randy Orton on RAW two weeks ago when he sounded like he was on cocaine & wouldn't take a breath. Most Fun You've Had Watching Wrestling Lately: Lucha Underground. It feels different & new.

I'm sorry, I hope this isn't frowned upon to bump an older thread (instead of creating a new, duplicate thread) but my list has changed a lot. My current five: 1. Rusev & Lana (WWE) 2. Bobby Fish of reDRagon (ROH) 3. Katsuyori Shibata (NJPW) 4. Tomohiro Ishii (NJPW) 5. Jay Briscoe (ROH) Honorable mention(s): Simon Gotch of Vaudevillains (NXT), Shinsuke Nakamura (NJPW) I took a couple month break from WWE. In that time, I got more into ROH, NXT & NJPW (which I was already following). Now I have Lucha Underground too. It's a good time to be a wrestling fan for me right now. RAW has even been good the last two weeks.

They're running vignettes for Sami Zayn on Main Event? ...that's not a good sign, to me. What did I miss?

How about the previously mentioned Big E.? He could learn a lot from working with Christian and against Goldust.

It looked & sounded exactly like Luke Harper to me.

I liked that RAW. No complaints, really.

They could have a segment on RAW every week between to wrestlers in non-wrestling attire having an in-ring promo/staredown to set-up the main event of Main Event pretty easily too. Not like they don't have the time to fill on RAW anyway. Plus, then they could use all of Main Event's first half hour to just hype the match, then have like a 30 minute match each week. Sort of like a Clash of the Champions match each week. It could work.

I just saw this too. Seems weird to me but I guess it'll help get people to watch The Network, maybe? I know I want to see that match. I hope Rusev wins too.

You show me the best Natalya, Alicia Fox, Emma, Paige, Charlotte or Alexa Bliss match and I'll show you a 2-star match. That doesn't mean that you're wrong or that I'm right, it just means we look for different things in what we enjoy. I am not going to dump on you for that. I think it's cool you can get enjoyment from stuff that I can't right now, man. Don't even get me started on that ridiculously overrated NXT match between Natalya & Charlotte though! I have seen good women's wrestling & good female workers. They don't really exist in WWE, at least not on RAW, to me. Sasha Banks is decent & can get better. Becky Lynch is OK too. I still wouldn't call either "good." They're both still toiling around in NXT which is where they should be to get ready for RAW. I feel for them when they do get called-up though, if they'll just end up doing what Paige has. Or worse, Emma. Also, the term "good" in and of itself is very subjective. My complaint isn't really just about the Divas though, it pertains to the male wrestlers too. To me, WWE Monday Night RAW is the biggest pro-wrestling show around, outside of Pay-Per-View. It should be where the top performers are...not where people can't even run the ropes properly. Maybe that's the wrong mentality to have but the flagship show from the biggest promotion in the world should care a little bit more about what they put on their show. It's embarrassing and makes the entire company look worse when they have amateur night going on in the ring. How business exposing was Kelly Kelly? Or, as you mentioned earlier Bill, Eva Marie? My goodness, why would they put her in a ring!? Someone is going to get seriously hurt. They need to train these people better before throwing them out there on live TV on RAW. Men & women both. Putting Khali out there is just as dangerous. Or when greener-than-goose-shit Otunga was having a weekly match. The live crowd that pays money for tickets to go to RAW should not have to sit through people that don't even know what they're doing. These are supposed to be professionals & that's pretty much the highest stage. Of course it never plays out that way...

If someone stinks in the ring, regardless of sex, race or anything else, they shouldn't be on RAW wrestling. Period. So, no, I won't give the Divas praise for not killing themselves. They should have been working off camera until they got to the point that they weren't embarassing in the first place. Lana got over. She didn't have to botch a clothesline to do it. Why put non-wrestlers in wrestling roles? I don't want to watch these people learn how to work on live TV. They should know how when they are on TV, otherwise they shouldn't be on TV. Isn't that part of the reason for having a developmental program in the first place? And Natalya is the drizzling shits. The mentality that she is a good worker is a farce.

I do actually think that Nikki Bella has improved in the ring. However going from dreadful to passable isn't really worthy of praise. If any of the current Divas make it through one match without something embarrassing happening, it's a miracle. The Bella match on Hell in a Cell was perfectly fine. They even laid in a few good shots. Were it not for the superhuman suplex spot by Cesaro, the running knee might have been the move of the night. More matches like that could help turn the tide on the mindset that myself & others seem to hold toward the Divas division as a whole. Granted also calling it the Divas division & Divas title doesn't help...

The Great Khali can't even walk. He still is in the company & just lost to Rusev on TV a couple of days ago. I would say he's probably worse than AJ, Alicia Fox, etc. He's really the only one that comes to mind though. I have always felt like the women were graded on a curve. When people used to talk about how good Lita & Trish were I would cringe.

I would be on board with using the free PPV to re-establish a couple guys like Ryback or Cesaro.

I don't think that the cost has ever been the problem which is why it's weird to me that WWE's entire campaign is the $9.99 thing. If the Network were $4.99 or $19.99 I'm not sure how much would change. To me, it's all about the content. Even if the Network was $20/month, that's still saving $30/month from the old PPV model. More original programming might help. Reality TV stuff is cheap. I mean, it wouldn't be a draw to get new people but it's new, different & sometimes interesting programming that could spread some word of mouth. I used to love WWE Confidential when they would do a WWE Cribs. I still remember Al Snow's hockey jersey collection. NXT should be a bigger draw too. No reason why RAW can't have an NXT match each week where they mention the show on the Network each week. Then they can talk about the upcoming NXT PPVs too.

Shoutboxes are great for non-wrestling stuff too. Like I know we have several sports fans or we could use it for live reactions for PPVs or whatever. Maybe not a terrible idea after the Hell In A Cell thread went berserk.

I really liked the first episode of Lucha Underground. A lot. The first match was a stinker & Vampiro is the pits on commentary but I love the look & feel of the show. The Spanish Soap Opera/Low Budget movie style vignettes were a lot of fun to me. Main event was a good spotfest too. Love the way the ring looks. The intro videos were really good too.

The WWE Network will strive if the current product is hot. You heat up the show, more eyes wanna see it. I don't think it's a lack of content hurting the subscriber numbers, I think it's apathy. Right now, who is going to get the network? Casual fans don't care about PPVs from 1995. Hardcore fans have already seen all the content on there. What's the draw? Only the current PPVs really. I'm not a big detractor of the WWE TV-PG rating from a content perspective. However, PG in 1984 is not the same thing as PG in 2014. WCW Nitro was PG technically too but it never really felt like I was watching children's programming. WWF in the 80's with Hulkamania and early 90's was too but you still had Hogan eating a fireball or Savage getting mauled by a cobra & stuff like that. WWE sometimes nowadays does feel corny & for children. Like that midget shit a couple weeks back. Sometimes WWE tries to walk the line too which also doesn't really work as you end up alienating both sides equally. I don't think in this era you can be the "circus" that WWE wants to be where you have "something for everyone." You need to target a demographic and go after it. WWE Monday Night RAW is their flagship show. WWE Pay-Per-Views are on Sunday nights. Both Sunday and Monday are school nights and the shows last until 11PM. Plus the WWE Network is a subscription based monthly bill. Why are they targeting children? Kids can't stay up until 11pm on school nights & adults switch to different content from 10pm-11pm. That's why the third hour of RAW always has the lowest rating. I honestly feel like WWE has went out of their way so much to appear as a non-wrestling show that it has hurt them now when they need wrestling fans. You can call wrestlers Superstars, wrestling Sports Entertainment, fans the WWE Universe, whatever, you're still a wrestling show with wrestlers wrestling for fans at the end of the day. Kids will want to watch whatever is "in" just like kids watched when wrestling was super hot in the Attitude Era. I'm not saying that WWE needs to return to TV-14 or bring back blood in matches or have Diva thong matches or anything but they need to compete with other weeknight programming. Wins and losses don't matter. Titles don't matter. Everyone is overexposed and stale. No match-up feels fresh. We don't get conclusions to stories and the fans usually get a feel good payoff once a year at Wrestlemania. What's the draw to buy the Network? I don't care if it's $2 a month, the price isn't the problem. It's not about fans being cheap it's about it not being worth the time. From all reports, you have writers not writing to make the best show but to try to appeal to Vince McMahon's tastes & his ego. You have, apparently, a civil war between Triple H & Kevin Dunn. You have a ton of people showcased on each show because of politics instead of putting the most talented people on there. It's just a mess. I'm not there though, that's all rumors & hearsay. From what I can see, I see a show that is repetative, bland & needs a new breath of life breathed into it. The show is monotonous. It's like watching a factory of robots reciting lines from Days of Our Lives with some acrobatics in the middle. There's no heat or passion or intensity. Everything about the show feels like corporate shilling. The WWE "Did You Know?" facts, the running $9.99 "joke", the stooges that are the pathetic commentators, shilling for the WWE app, talking about Twitter wars...it's all hideous. RAW feels like a 3-hour commercial telling you to do everything but watch RAW. Then when there is wrestling, even the matches themselves have ad breaks. Change the damn show & go in a new direction. WWE is complacent. They're scared to take risks. They have not had any competition for so long that they have had no reason to try new things & are just coasting. Well the WWE Network was a big risk. Dropping Pay-Per-Views from cable and onto the Network was a big risk. The new contract for RAW was a big risk. Yet even with all that going on...nothing changed. They didn't try to improve or try to shake things up, they just expected the WWE name and brand to carry them through it all. Well, it hasn't. Hey, I'm not a stockholder. All I know is from what I've read from various corners of the internet. I'm not a businessman & might be talking out of my ass completely. I'm pretty sure though if you put out something that people want to see, they'll pay for it. If you put out something that people don't care about, they won't. You want more WWE Network subscribers? Put on a better, modern professional wrestling show that doesn't insult the intelligence of the viewing audience and that features good writing and continuity. Just like the other popular television programs that do well.