JerryvonKramer

First some bad news, I sent Brian Pillman for surgery on his back, because he is injured for a year and there were complications with it, which means he's out for 1 year and 5 months. I had to terminate his contract because there's no point having him stick around. He can collect a Lloyds of London deal. WCW are still paying him. Second, Ricky Steamboat is getting burnt out with the schedule. Let's look at his matches recently: It's true that I've been absolutely caning him, but in the past week he had to fly to England, Japan, Puerto Rico, Hawaii (where TV was taped that week), and Mexico. Ridiculous schedule, and I'm going to have to give him the week off ahead of next week's PPV. Note: the Hawaii TV taping is below. AWA Championship Wrestling, April, Week 3, 91: Honky Tonk Man only has a week left. This has the "burial" order, because he really pissed me off screwing up my locker room. He was furious of course. Pity the Fool Mr. T: S'up fools, my guest Superstar Billy Graham says today he's got a big announcement. What is it sucka? Graham: Now, brother T, don't you go calling me a "sucka" or a "fool" now you understand? I'm just here to make a very important announcement, you don't have to insult me, brother, you dig it? *Booker T seems to look up* Mr. T: This is my show, Pity the Fool, and on my show, I can say what I want, you got it fool? I pity the fool that can't understand that. Graham: You're an idiot. Mr. T: You're a fool. Graham: Enough. Brothers ... let me testify. I made my name in a company called the World Wrestling Federation. I was the greatest WWF Champion of all times. Mr. T: Don't kid yourself, brother, my friend H .... Graham: Now let me stop you right there, brother. Where do you think he got his whole act from? Watching the SUPERSTAR as a youngster. I was the greatest of them all, I sold out Madison Square Gardens THIRTY times in a row! I set off box office records like they never seen before. A whole generation of superstars grew up wanting to be just like me. And now, brother, I'm here in the AWA, the HOME of professional wrestling, and I ain't as young as I used to be. And that no-good Ricky Steamboat took as good as I've got, but my legs and back can't go like they used to. Brother, I am RETIRED from the ring. Mr. T: And this was your big announcement? Graham: No, brother, because you see, you gotta move and shake in this business. PoliTICS and dirty TRICKS. You hip? You dig? Mr. T: Enough of this jibber jabber, what have you been scheming? Graham: As the Cowboy Bill Watts has said, the WWF is now a part of the American Wrestling Alliance. ALLIANCE, brother. That means we ain't just moving and shaking here no more, we is moving and shaking across the whole world. I can pick up that phone and because The Superstar is a hero, a HERO to every wrestler there today, they are going to want to help old Billy out. So I rung, Ted, I said, "Ted, do you want to be a world champion? And do you want to help old Billy out?" He said, first of all, brother, "if it's money, how much do you need?" And I said, "Brother, it ain't money, it's committment. If I could get YOU a shot against Ricky the Dragon Steamboat for the AWA Universal title, would ya come down here, brother, and take that shot?" And Ted, I could hear him laughing and laughing on the phone. He said, "Superstar, my man, EVERYBODY'S GOT A PRICE, and my price is that AWA Universal Title!" Mr. T: The Million Dollar Man is coming here and has a title shot? Graham: Now you're starting to understand. But it doesn't end there. I picked up that phone again. I spoke to the VICE PRESIDENT of the AWA, Mr. Nick Bockwinkel. He said, "uhhh, Mr. Graham, what can I do for you? I said, "brotherrrrrrrr, how can I get a contract to face Ricky Steamboat for that AWA title?" He said, "Well Billy, you know, it's all in the fine print, and it's between the members of the alliance. There is an official top 10 contender list. You might wanna try Bill Apter" I said, "Nick, my man, how far you and the Superstar gone back brother?!" And he said, "Well, Billy" and then he used some long, long words like only Bockwinkel can do, and he said "just leave it with me, just leave it with me" And Ted DiBiase and Nick Bockwinkel aren't the only people I been calling. I been talking to THE BRAIN, brother, to Bobby Heenan. I been talking to The Genius. I been talking to anyone who is a move and shaker in this business brother. And there's just one outcome to all of any it, brothers: RICKY STEAMBOAT'S DAYS ARE NUMBERED Mr. T: Why do you want any of these guys to win the title? What's in it for you, sucka? Graham: Enough of your questions!!! Mind your own business, "sucka"! Mr. T: I'm warning you Graham. Graham: You should be happy anyway, chump. I'll give you more guests for this show than Johnny Carson. The ratings will go through the roof. Hey, it'll be like being on The A Team again, remember that? *Graham starts humming the A-team theme tune obnoxiously* Mr. T: I'm warning you fool! *Mr. T stands up. Graham as full of himself as possible struts away on top of the world now singing the A-team theme tune at the top of his voice* Bad news here: Like Pillman, I've let him go. I think Nelson might have been dragging this segment down. Dory had the stronger match with Steamer. AWA World Tour, April, Week 3, 91: The progress of making an in-road into the UK market by running these shows is horrendously slow. Barely a dent so far. Incidentally, I buried Honky again here: One notable little segment here: A Cuppa with Lord Al Lord Al: My, my, what fine gents are these. Hello fellows, would you like some tea? Lord Regal: Why thank you Lord Hayes, you only have the finest tea. Lord JvK: I say, Lord Regal, old chap, the thought has just occured to me. Since Lord Hayes is such a fine man with such exquisite tastes. Since he has class and breeding -- just like us -- why do we not join with him?! Lord Regal: This is an excellent idea Lord! Oh, my man, Lord Hayes, will you join our party on a more permanent basis? Lord Al: Haw haw, this is an excellent idea indeed! Lord JvK: But Lord Al, we must warn you. Lord Al: Yes? Lord JvK: No more of this ... ermm .. sucking up to the "good guys". Do you understand what I mean? Lord Al: Oh I was only putting in on! I hate them all! *spit* Ricky Steamboat I can't STAND him! Lord Regal: That's more like it, back to his old self! Lord Al: We three, we ... UPPER CRUST ... are a dying breed. We need to stick together. All three: Tally ho! And pip pip! Yes, Lord Al has turned heel and joined this faction. AWA Supercard on MTV, April, Week 3, 91: A struggle without Steamboat to draw on. Oh and Honky was buried for a third time: He'll never work for me again.

Since last we convened, things have been afoot. I am now big enough to offer exclusive written deals -- but of course since I'm in an alliance and set up all those working relationships, I can't actually do so without violating deals. So I moved to end those talent trade deals with those outside of the AWA alliance so I could get at least some people tied up on written deals. Carlos Colon, not in the AWA alliance, took exception and declared war: Can't say I'm too bothered. A bigger concern is the locker-room atmosphere which is at 0%. Everyone is unhappy. I need to start making moves to fix this or workers won't stay. Honky definitely seems to be one of the problems. I am considering firing him for poor performance in any case. Not yet. Oh and Tiger Mask up sticks and went back to Japan, he signed back on with NJPW: Just after he'd re-located too. AWA Supercard on MTV, April, Week 2, 91: So, obviously, I immediately ran opposite Colon in Puerto Rico. No, I'm not petty, but business is business. Abby is my biggest PR star, so he went straight into the main event. Here you can see how a strong main event can carry a mediocre show. One small note here: I had Kal Rudman in the Event Centre explain that The Fantastics had beaten The British Bulldogs again in a rematch at an event in Germany last night. It was a heated match and Dynamite Kid has been reported injured. Of course, in reality, Dynamite Kid just walked out. But this is a way of writing him out with Davey Boy still around for a couple more weeks. So ha, the Jim Crockett Sr Memorial Cup is only actually going to have one tag tournmanet match on it. Steamer is going to be facing a lot of these little one-show mini-angles. Decent match considering Abby is over 50 here. However: -------------- Also, I've made some signings to beef up TV broadcast coverage: Former AWA-man Larry Nelson comes back to AWA. Crispy can do a job for me somewhere. Since Sean Mooney, Gene Okerlund and practically every other broadcast guy is locked up with either WCW or WWF, it's guys like this who have to step up for me now. Although Solie will be good for a few years yet. And finally, I signed another road agent: Armstrong can get in the ring for a pop in Georgia if need be, or if there's an injury crisis, but most of the time he's going to lighten the burden on Jack Brisco and Grizzly Smith. And also Boris Malenko as a road agent: EDIT: Well at least that saves me firing him. Also, Steamboat headlined a NJPW show and defended the title on it: A great boost to the cred of the title, which Watts and Solie would have played up on commentary.

Haku is ridiculously hard.

I haven't seen any.

A lot of these present plans are just creating the base and establishing norms from which to create new stars. I'm also working within the limitations of the TEW system. If I pick up someone like Chris Jericho who is completely unknown and stick him in main events, he'll tank ratings. It takes time to get people over. The TV stations won't give me time to put out bad main events so I have to rely on established stars. The MTV slot is late night, and I totally get the point that it this traditional rasslin product isn't exactly a great fit for it. But it was between that and BBC America, so I thought MTV might have the best potential. BBC are "against" wrestling and wanted a ludicrously high minimum quality per show which I just can't offer. And MTV were the only other station of that size willing to broadcast live events. They want a more risqué and edgy product, and being with them allows me to do some of that stuff down the line. A lot of my thinking has been in trying to get over with old territorial fans who have been turned away by WWF and the direction WCW has been going. Getting back over with those Chicago fans Crockett alienated in 1987, the JCP hardcores. The old AWA base, the old St. Louis fans, etc. So appealing to tradition, respect, highlighting "technical" wrestling and legit guys like Backlund has been the route. Against this very traditional backdrop, if I do then sign guys like Jericho or give Scott Hall a proper push, they can feel like a genuine breath of fresh air. But it all takes time in-game. I've already excellerated a Regal push because the Honkytonk Man IC stuff was just dire. And I couldn't cope with it. Some of that pure wrestling focus does rankle with Mr. T being featured so heavily, but he's playing into that nostalgia audience of kids who were probably around 13-14 in 91. And I'm trying to give Booker T a rub, although that has not been working as I'd hoped. I get that Mr. T is kind of a has been in 1991, but he's still the biggest star I've got. The main purpose of all this AWA stuff, Watts going into history etc., is mainly to seem like a bigger deal. I've got a show fronted by Gordon Solie, so I can hardly go ECW route at this point. I'm also being hurt by some of the stuff I did in my two weeks at WCW, I locked up a pile of younger talent on 3-year written deals, Eddie for example. I even think Scotty Falmingo is there, but would have to double check. I can't really make Greg Valentine or half of this roster edgy or cool in 1991, but I can make them credible. When May swings around, I'm hoping to secure a new TV slot with ESPN, which will be a more natural home for the pure sports stuff, and then I can start trying to modernise and "make cooler" the MTV live show. I've just got to the size where people will actually consider signing written deals, so this might start getting easier, but this is still a promotion in real terms that is begging around the fringes and feeding on scraps. The tradition stuff and to some extent Mr. T stuff is all being used to try to mask the fact that there isn't a whole lot here. Smoke and mirrors while trying to build an audience. Hasn't been easy I'll admit.

Just doing some planning ahead, and in the medium-term, I think I'm going to return to the patented JvK version of the Vince Sr formula, bringing in top heels on 6-appearance talent trade deals. Appearance 1: spot on Mr. T show, jobber squash (TV) Appearance 2: over Backlund (MTV event) Appearance 3: vs. Steamer (CO / DQ) (TV) Appearance 4: vs. Steamer (CO / DQ) (Tour) Appearance 5: job to Steamer (MTV event or PPV) Appearance 6: job to Backlund (TV) That's a 3-week run. Over the space of 9 weeks, there should always be a new heel on Mr. T show, always be an outgoing heel jobbing to Backlund on TV, always be a new heel going over Backlund on MTV, etc. Week 1: Mr. T, Backlund MTV Week 2: Steamer x3 Week 3: Backlund TV and gone So typical week once it is up and running: TV: Mr. T: Heel C, Backlund over Heel A, Steamer vs. Heel B Tour: Steamer vs. Heel B MTV: Heel C over Backlund, Steamer vs. Heel B Next week then Heel A is gone, Heel D comes into Mr. T, Heel C faces Steamer three times, Heel B jobs to Backund on TV and leaves. I'm hoping to have another TV slot next month, which should give me extra space to book other angles.

Been loving the extent to which Bruce is such a WWF loyalist, find it endearing and funny.

I really resent sek69's post because over the past five years I've barely discussed the modern product at all. "Any and all discussion" seems completely and utterly off and a massive exaggeration. I think people just remember the handful of times I have commented rather than the months and months and months where I've not said anything and talked almost exclusively about old NWA matches or Funk tags or whatever. The idea that voicing my view that current fans have wrecked the product is a troll is utterly insulting. I've seen enough to know they have.

Valentine show had some good 70s stories and a smattering of psychology talk. Worth listening. Patera not yet.

Popped for Conrad chewing Bruce's ass out for comparing HTM to Flair

I'm wondering when this big shift occurred for you because like 6 months ago you were arguing that Roman Reigns should just be let go because he wasn't getting over. Actually if you read that article, I was arguing that they botched his push badly because of a lack of conviction in the booking, failed to put him over in key moments, and that he was a busted flush. I always maintained he was a great worker and he's had the best WWE matches I've seen in the past 2-3 years.

A nuanced view requires actually watching this shit, so I'll take half-right buffoonish curmudgeon instead. You lot can fill in the specific details and argue about the minutiae, I'm only talking about the broad ideas. Like Aristotle or Jim Cornette.

Absolutely not. I might watch a Superstars from 1990 and duck out of this. The general principles of what I'm talking about are 100% the case, but clearly no one wants to admit it's a problem, so I'll get out of dodge. I'm not watching any promos from 2016.

Call me cynical but I think the exact same fans would have been moaning about Charlotte not getting pushed. I just think they are full of shit.

The reason Charlotte was hated on the main roster was because people thought Becky and Sasha were better and far more deserving, but that Charlotte was getting the push because of her lineage, her slightly more traditional look, and maybe, oh, I don't know, HHH's connection to Flair? I think we're in the same argument here. It was fine in NXT where everyone was protected and having good long matches. It was less fine on Raw when they were having short matches that paled to what had happened in NXT and where people were getting exposed. It all falls along the same lines. But pretend it was Sasha who was pushed and Charlotte who wasn't. Do you think the reverse would have happened?

Imagine a world where they hadn't have pushed Charlotte at all. Would any fans dislike her or what she be a smark hero?

That meme is an excellent way to glide past what is a legitimate problem and never to properly address it. Carry on.

It's a real catch 22 too, because now that smart fan culture has "gone mainstream" you are caught in a bind. Why? Because smart fans since day 1 have always secretly got off about being perpetually negative about the product. They know better. Their guy isn't being pushed. The wrong guy is champ. And yada yada since jdw was born in 1934. So what can WWE do? Even if they give them what they want, they'll find new things to moan about. Weird, sado-masochistic negative audience who pay their money without fail to consume something they pretend to be disgruntled with. Cos, what WWE really need to do is model themselves on a two-bit indie promotion like ROH circa 2005, yeah, they'd worked it all out then hadn't they. My rage at twats who have ruined the thing I love knows no bounds. Even getting to the point where I'm feeling pangs of fondness for shit that happened in 2005 or 06, hardly banner years. I think the only solution is to comp kids and ban 18-35 year old hardcores for a year. Being serious. Wrecking wrestling they are. That's YOU "wrestling Twitter".

See, I think for the past few years HHH / Vince have been working themselves almost double-thinking themselves into thinking that they still control the fans. So they'll try to put a spin on it as if Owens was meant to be cheered, or whatever. Or that it was all a work all along. What I see is a great great wrestling promoter reduced to pandering to a bunch of dicks because he's lost his legendary conviction and Triple H has a boner for wanting to be a smark hero. Hideous state of affairs. Worst in living memory.

I'd like to separate out the personal stuff with Johnny from the proper point that anarchistxx is making which is that the "smart fans" are just marks for high spots and don't actually understand what good wrestling is. Since they are continually hijacking the product which is leading to guys like Owens being put in the top slots while really capable workers like Roman Reigns are shitted on, the real point goes back to what we've been talking about for the past few weeks. You can't let a portion of the fanbase dictate the product, and I'm really disappointed to see Vince and co giving in as much as they are. Cart before the horse.

Post of the year.

Story about Patterson intervening on the layout of Savage vs Dusty was awesome and had me in stitches by the end. Bruce is great value. His rant about the "arm-chair quarterbacks" was pretty on the money too.

40 mins into dusty ep and great so far. I was apprehensive when they kicked off talking modern product but Bruce quickly won me round burying smart darlings and demonstrating that "the Internet" knows nothing. This is really Conrad unleashed too, he challenges Bruce in a way that he'd never challenge Ric. My fave new wrestling show in a while so far.

You might like this thread from five years ago: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/14271-wcw-head-bookers/

AWA Championship Wrestling, April, Week 2, 91: "The Home of Professional Wrestling" is going to become this promotion's "Where the Big Boys Play" in terms of a tag-line that is pushed a lot. Current schedule: As Chris Adams walks down the aisle with Honky Tonk Man's bogus IC title, Bill Watts stops him and hands him the old AWA Television Title, which has been officially sanctioned by the AWA board of directors. Adams looks pleased, and drops the old Texas belt onto the floor. I'm SURE I booked Regal to win this. That's twice Adams has won in phantom circumstances. Booker T is starting to drag down every segment he's in. Going to get him into the ring more. Strike Force missed the tag tournmanet because Tito was injured. This is a reminder to everyone that they are still around. Looks like it was a great match. Well at least it's not losing me any. EDIT: Seem to have forgotten to add this card: AWA World Tour, April, Week 3, 91: Only significance of this show is that Regal won the TV title on it.