NintendoLogic

I know WWE tends to mail it in during football season, but this year seems even worse than usual. I discovered last night that ESPN Classic shows old GWF episodes at the same time as Raw. I think I might start watching that instead until the Rumble.

To put it in less inflammatory terms, Dunn is Vince's Mark Penn.

Here you go again. Whenever the subject of WWE business comes up, you cherry-pick individual shows that did great business while ignoring the bigger picture. Is the overall trend up or down? Yet another example of cherry-picked data. Looking at the years you highlighted, NBA attendance in 2013-14 was 21.4 million as opposed to 20.4 million in 1997-98. And MLB attendance this past season was nearly 74 million as opposed to 63 million in 1997. So when you say there's less interest in every sport then there used to be, you couldn't be more wrong. Meanwhile, how do WWE's attendance figures compare to 15 years ago? Or even 5 years ago? It's true that WWE has been consistently profitable in recent years. Well, not this year, but let's set that aside for now. The thing is, it's almost entirely due to the rights fee explosion that has benefited every sport (fucking MLS got a big money TV deal, for fuck's sake). If WWE got the same in rights fees as they did a decade ago, they would've been in the red in a major way the past few years. It's certainly a feather in Vince's cap that he's been able to adjust to the changing landscape and continue to make money. But that speaks to his skills as a businessman, not a promoter. His business is based on getting networks to pay him to provide content rather than getting fans to pay to watch wrestling.

It's not that ridiculous. Other than Bruno Sammartino, how many guys who weren't native English speakers have been really strong promos?

I don't think it's reasonable to expect anyone to know everything there is to know about a given field with no gaps in knowledge.

The best description I've heard of HHH is that he's a good wrestler who thinks he's a great wrestler which ends up making him a shit wrestler.

I'm kind of surprised to see a Dory Funk tribute act getting so much more love than the genuine article.

To me, the fact that TNA managed to draw a profit indicates that being consistently profitable in this day and age isn't that much of an accomplishment. Also, for the record, Vince didn't sell out MSG for 30 years. Not even close.

The WWF ended fiscal 1997 (that is, the year ending April 30, 1997) in the red. But like you said, their financial troubles were over once they raised the prices on the IYH PPVs.

I'm downloading it right now, but if Punk is difficult to work with, good for him. This is a shitty business run by scumbags. If you don't look out for yourself, no one else will.

Living the gimmick, brother.

I want to disagree with this, but I really can't. As bad as the bitches-and-bling school of hip-hop is, it's not nearly as bad as the so-called "socially conscious" rappers who spout dumb shit like 9/11 conspiracy theories and calling Louis Farrakhan a prophet. By the same token, trying to make wrestling "progressive" results in shit like Chikara. What it comes down to is that wrestling and hip-hop are both degenerate art forms that appeal primarily to man's worst instincts. No one's quite figured out how to disentangle the awesome elements from the degenerate ones. Setting aside the fact that you're overstating the role of the outlaw in American culture, WWE babyfaces don't really pursue the greater good so much as their own self-interest. It's more a reflection of Vince McMahon's worldview than of American society as a whole. There was a recent comment on the F4W boards that I think was spot-on: I'm not trying to make any political judgements. Seriously. HOWEVER you can tell there's a lot of Ayn Rand koolaid in the booking, and the average person isn't going to connect to that. I think WWE babyfaces make a lot more sense when you view them as Randian supermen.

Drawing heat without being truly offensive can't be that hard, since heels managed to do it for decades. Again, I go back to the example of Stampede Wrestling getting thrown off TV after Iron Mike DiBiase cut a promo calling the fans stupid. The thing is, wrestling is escapist entertainment. People watch to get away from the bullshit in their daily lives, not to be reminded of it. That's why guys like Colonel DeBeers and Muhammad Hassan had go-away heat.

Goodell is the real-life equivalent of a heel authority figure, so that's a bad idea.

Larry the Cable Guy in a Rey Mysterio mask? It's like they're going out of their way to provoke this board.

I recently came across a Jumbo/Fritz Von Erich match on Dailymotion. Truth be told, it's not much of a match, but it's interesting to see how Jumbo carries himself in an all-out brawl as opposed to an NWA-style technical match. It also reminds me that Fritz needs a thread of his own.

I agree. People love him as a face. I liked him better as a heel. Zigger is awful as a heel. His lack of offense isn't really a big deal when he's getting his ass kicked for 90% of the match, but it becomes really noticeable when he has to work a control segment and busts out a million chinlocks.

Why? Because Randy Orton has gotten himself over again and a return to his hometown to end The Authority would have been much better than an old geriatric who hasn't been relevant in fifteen years. An Orton run-in, which would lead to nothing that hasn't already been done to death, would have been better than Sting making his first ever appearance in a WWE ring?

I guess I don't reside on Earth, since I don't like 4/14/83 or the retirement match at all. The only Funk/Hansen match I like is the 1985 one.

Why?

Isn't he supposed to have an ironclad contract? Was that ever resolved?

I didn't have a problem with the DQ ending. Having the babyface lose by DQ to set up a gimmick rematch is classic MSG-style booking.

The best big men are the ones who do the high-flying athletic shit. When those moves land, it looks absolutely devastating, which adds to their monster aura. It also looks devastating when they miss, which is perfect for setting up the babyface comeback.

The biggest problem with the 619 is that it just isn't believable that a headscissors or a drop toehold would incapacitate Rey's opponent long enough for him to land it.

I don't think scrubbing the ballot is necessarily. There are no slam-dunk candidates left, and there aren't any coming down the pike in the foreseeable future. The only real effect this will have is to make it easier for marginal candidates (or worse, joke candidates like Big Daddy) to get in.