NintendoLogic

Isn't this a bit of an old-school kinda racist gimmick anyway ? The hot white woman and the heel black guy ? It's exactly what Doom were in the days with Woman. And it didn't even work. WCW brass thought that pairing black men with a white woman would make Doom the hottest act in wrestling, but they were more over with Teddy Long as their manager.

I decided to see what would happen if I combined the 2006 and 2016 lists. To accomplish this, I awarded each wrestler a certain number of points based on their ranking on each list (100 points for first place, 99 points for second place, etc., all the way down to 1 point for 100th place) and then added the points together. In the event of a tie, the tiebreak went to who placed highest on the 2016 list. Here's what it would look like: 1. Ric Flair 2. Jushin Liger 3. Mitsuharu Misawa 4. Toshiaki Kawada 5. Jumbo Tsuruta 6. Terry Funk 7. Stan Hansen 8. Kenta Kobashi 9. Eddie Guerrero 10. Bret Hart 11. Ricky Steamboat 12. Rey Mysterio 13. Vader 14. Genichiro Tenryu 15. Chris Benoit 16. Steve Austin 17. Shinya Hashimoto 18. El Hijo del Santo 19. Jerry Lawler 20. Akira Taue 21. Arn Anderson 22. Barry Windham 23. Harley Race 24. Negro Casas 25. Randy Savage 26. Aja Kong 27. Akira Hokuto 28. Nick Bockwinkel 29. William Regal 30. Jun Akiyama 31. Bobby Eaton 32. Shawn Michaels 33. Tatsumi Fujinami 34. Ted DiBiase 35. Billy Robinson 36. Shinjiro Ohtani 37. Dynamite Kid 38. Giant Baba 39. Owen Hart 40. Curt Hennig 41. Tully Blanchard 42. Blue Panther 43. El Dandy 44. Volk Han 45. Finlay 46. Dick Murdoch 47. Bull Nakano 48. Daniel Bryan 49. Ricky Morton 50. Mick Foley 51. Hiroshi Hase 52. Manami Toyota 53. Jack Brisco 54. Keiji Mutoh 55. Nobuhiko Takada 56. The Destroyer 57. Jaguar Yokota 58. Kiyoshi Tamura 59. El Satanico 60. Terry Gordy 61. John Cena 62. Mayumi Ozaki 63. Dustin Rhodes 64. Steve Williams 65. Devil Masami 66. Buddy Rose 67. Rick Martel 68. AJ Styles 69. Chigusa Nagayo 70. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 71. Riki Choshu 72. CM Punk 73. Brock Lesnar 74. Kurt Angle 75. Andre the Giant 76. Greg Valentine 77. Jim Breaks 78. Chris Jericho 79. Bill Dundee 80. Samoa Joe 81. Brian Pillman 82. Mariko Yoshida 83. Hulk Hogan 84. Dynamite Kansai 85. Rick Rude 86. Akira Maeda 87. Sgt. Slaughter 88. Ultimo Dragon 89. The Rock 90. Kyoko Inoue 91. Kazuo Yamazaki 92. Atlantis 93. Dick Togo 94. Bob Backlund 95. Tiger Mask 96. Dory Funk Jr. 97. Yuki Ishikawa 98. Antonio Inoki 99. Masahiro Chono 100. Lioness Asuka

I think this conversation is focusing a bit too much on the cultural dimension and not enough on the political/economic one. The natural tendency in business in the absence of regulation is toward monopoly, and wrestling is no different. But the NWA was able to enjoy a favorable regulatory environment for the first three decades of its existence due to key members having friends in high places. For example, as a cartel, the NWA was pretty blatantly illegal. But Sam Muchnick was good friends with Congressman Mel Price, who helped the Alliance negotiate a consent decree (which they of course ignored) prohibiting them from doing things like blackballing wrestlers and recognizing exclusive rights to territories. Another example: in the wake of the quiz show scandals of the 50s, Congress passed a law prohibiting fixed contests from being aired on television. Nick Gulas was close to Senator Estes Kefauver, so he got a rider exempting professional wrestling added to the bill. But airwaves don't recognize territorial boundaries, and we now know that fans generally won't pay to see wrestlers they view as second-rate when they can watch the big stars on TV for free. In addition, the Alliance members had largely developed an every-man-for-himself mentality by the end of the 70s. As such, even if Vince hadn't gone national, the spread of cable most likely would have led to open warfare between the territories ending in a single nationwide monopoly.

I don't think there's much more to it than the fact that the promotion based in New York was the one that went national. WWE will always be viewed as Northeastern just like NASCAR will always be viewed as Southern regardless of the actual demographics of the drivers. When the other territories went out of business, a good chunk of their fans simply stopped watching rather than switching over to the WWF (look how dead Atlanta has been ever since WCW went under), so there weren't many fans around to keep the territory flame burning. And because the WWF targeted children so aggressively, millions of future fans received that as their first impression of what wrestling "should" look like. It kind of reminds me of the situation with German beer. In the 16th century, Bavaria enacted a law (the Reinheitsgebot) strictly regulating which ingredients could be used in the brewing process. In the 19th century, as Bismarck was trying to unify all the German states into a single nation, Bavaria would only join on the condition that the Reinheitsgebot be applied nationwide. This had the effect of wiping out many northern German beers that used different processes. As a result, when most people think of German beer, they think exclusively of Bavarian-style beer (pale lagers and wheat beers), even though dozens of beer styles are brewed throughout the country and dozens more have since gone extinct.

Jawbreaker lariat.

I honestly think lack of blood in current WWE is a big part of the problem. I think fans would be more willing to accept a match that consisted of nothing but punches and a few basic wrestling moves if both guys bled buckets. Since the wrestlers don't have that option, they have to resort to stuntman spots and high-risk maneuvers.

I rather doubt that Vince is deliberately pursuing a strategy that he believes will be less profitable, if for no other reason than the fact that it'd be a pretty serious breach of fiduciary duty to his shareholders. I think it's far more likely that he's convinced himself that creating a situation where the brand is the draw and the performers are largely interchangeable cogs is Best For Business. After all, the human capacity for self-deception knows no limits.

From the latest Observer:

The WWE guys have supposedly been doing a lot of Olympic lifts to try to prevent shoulder injuries, but it seems to be causing them instead.

Would you consider Samoa Joe in that category? I rate their match at Turning Point as the best match in TNA history. And I don't mean that as a backhanded compliment, because it's legitimately a great match.

Just about everything I watch is from Youtube/Dailymotion and Ditch's sites, with WWE Network covering pretty much everything else I care to watch. It means I miss out on pretty much all the modern super-indy stuff, but that holds little or no interest to me anyway. Lucha is also maddeningly inconsistent. It was only a few months ago that someone uploaded a complete version of MS1/Sangre Chicana with decent VQ. And the Santo/Casas 11/29/96 trios was only uploaded earlier this month.

I reviewed Cena's first title reign a while back. Just saying. Long story short, they booked him like someone they didn't trust to hold up his own end of long singles matches. So he'd spend 90% of his matches selling and then hit an FU out of nowhere, which is counterproductive in its own way, but he also didn't have the rug pulled out from under him repeatedly the way Reigns has.

The thing is, lifting weights by athletes didn't really become commonplace until the 80s, the same time that steroid use exploded. So it's hard to get a feel for what a natural muscular athletic (as opposed to purely cosmetic) physique can look like. I do recall Dave saying that Jack Brisco was considered the archetype of what an athletic physique should look like in the early 70s.

Here's an alternate explanation: maybe that segment was a receipt for Lana no-selling Rock's promo the last time they were on TV together. Granted, that's not much better.

This is the same company that treats Ric Flair sexually assaulting Becky Lynch as a comedy spot. Divas Revolution, indeed.

Cleveland and Cincinnati hate each other, so I doubt the audience will see Ambrose as a hometown favorite. Mind you, Reigns will still get booed out of the building, especially when he backdoors his way to a victory after the Wyatts take out Brock.

This past Raw had the only rebound lariat I've ever liked. I love the babyface gets thrown out of the ring and immediately rolls back in spot, and it was like the reverse of that.

I don't think it was fully on the up-and-up. Reigns got #1 in a rigged number pick, HHH got #30 in most likely another rigged pick, and the McMahons orchestrated a mass beat down of Reign's by the LoN, who've been portrayed strongly as their henchmen. They executed it clumsily (someone on commentary should have speculated how HHH got the best number), but it's something they can bring up tonight on Raw LOL. Seriously. He doesn't have to rig shit for his own spot. He is a freaking boss! All he has to do is give out 29 and keep the last one for himself. That was clear when he didn't even have a segment talking to anybody about the pick. Its not like they stuffed the roller with Triple H's name for the 30th pick. Still, Reigns being tossed with no real shenanigans after taking a power nap in the back isn't going to get the average fan's blood boiling. It's like what Bil Watts recognized about Junkyard Dog. The only way he would stay over is if he never lost by anything close to fair means.

I think it's more interesting that they shot him straight to the main roster. I was under the impression that WWE had an ironclad policy of having everyone do a spell in developmental after the Sin Cara debacle.

So basically, they did everything right with the Rumble except the booking of Reigns.

Do you think the DX crotch chop was planned all along or improvised based on the crowd reaction?

Plus, it would've been silly for him to be in the Rumble for an extended period of time after having been in a grueling LMS match earlier in the night.

Will WWE even allow AJ to do the Styles Clash?

Compared to exploding and coming back perfectly fine the next week, that's a minor quibble.

I've watched next to no WWE this past year, so I'm horribly out of the loop. Why is Rusev no longer Russian? Is it because Putin said nice things about Vince's pal Donald Trump? Even more importantly, why is wearing boots now?