SteveJRogers

Here’s the cool down match time

Yup. Dusty, Flair, Arn, Luger, Sid, JJ Dillon, Steiners, etc. And that’s just WCW. We all know about the list of personnel who left the WWF/WWE and returned.

Cody got announced as being from Atlanta, GA. Pretty sure I heard Davenport Iowa for Rollins.

Plus knowing that the match would essentially be a glorified squash, it’s easier to push as a potential outcome of a confrontation, than push it as a match, with the unattainable expectations of what a vintage Austin vs a vintage Steen/Owens could have been.

Should be noted that Owens is roughly the same age as Austin was back in 2003, and has been with the company for nearly a decade now. Not exactly still a “spring chicken” that needed to go over in order to keep his relevancy with the company.

Yup. While just as broken down as Taker has been since the late 1990s, being a smaller guy makes Austin more believable as an older ass kicker. Probably why the expectation was that this was going to be the same as just about every occasional spot segment Austin has done for the company since WM 19 rather than a very scaled down version of the Austin brawl style match that he’s done since SummerSlam ‘97.

I think we’ll get a teased GONG though. The “swerve” I want though is Elias to call back to the last time they did this kind of angle.

Never say never…. Hmmmmmmmmm…. All kidding aside, wouldn’t shock me if we heard the gong as part of a teasing segment before the match happens

I’m looking at one complain that the Khans have more than the WWE makes. I’m like “unless you are in an extremely dire situation, why would you infuse your company with your own private equity?”

Chris Rock also has been doing standup comedy for decades. Even if it hasn’t been done to him personally, he’s probably heard dozens of stories of confrontations through the years, and knows how to handle them. Especially when it’s a good friend who was pissed off, but not enough that it’d be more than what it was. Watch the unbleeped version from Japan. Unless Will was channeling his inner Steve Austin, he probably wouldn’t have been cursing that loudly on live international TV!

If Scott shows up, it will make him quite the hypocrite for getting inducted to a Hall with no physical space displayed anywhere at the present time!

Isn’t he still an agent in WWE? OE: *face palm* Yeah I thought you meant Fit himself, not his son .

Certain All-Time Kings still on the outside looking in terms of the Hall of Fame in baseball, take note!

Retroactively, it would have been humorous to see a current WCW TV champion (like Arn, Regal, Booker, etc do a kayfabe/shoot blend at various points on a CNN talking head panel show back in the day!

Beefcake after he cooled off from the IC chase in 1989?

FWIW, this has me chuckling thinking about the “rumor” WCW put out into kayfabe about Rey and Jen Aniston being an item. Years later Aniston was asked about it, and she was like “Oh that dumb shit that I was dating the Puzzler or something?”

IDK, depending on the person, ie Kurt Angle 2001 and John Cena the year he decided to fight Taker, it can work. But yeah, it needs to be the right entitled weenie to be entertaining.

So, we are not talking about the chuckle worthiness of Chris Irvine talking about using real names, when he’s used a stage name for his entire professional career?

Now you have me wondering how many people in the crowds or TV audiences back in the spring and summer of 1996 were wondering “Why is The Diamond Studd sounding Latino and acting like he’s part of an invading force? Same with Vinny Vegas, and what happened to his tux!?”

Was Sandman doing his whole entrance thing to an extended version of Enter Sandman while a match was going on supposed to be a save?

Poor Dolph! The original political hit from back in 2013!

Sadly that’s the closest. Probably better examples, in terms of not at all meant for comedic purposes include Cena going through different career stages in the Funhouse match, Undertaker going back to classic gong and dirge when he returned after the end of American Badass run.

BTW, I’m now envisioning an alternate 1987 where as part of the build Hogan threatens to show video evidence that Andre could be slammed and conquered (Hogan slamming Andre during their Shea match), with Bobby trying desperately to stop the footage from being shown, yet telling everyone that Hogan never did pin Andre though!

I agree with the sentiments that Punk and his Twitter Twat followers are being a bit much, but to be fair, you’d have to be super niche of a wrestling historian, or been watching WWWF/WWF since literally 1980 to have gotten the idea that Hogan did anything even pre-AWA, never mind beating Iron Sheik for the title back in January of 1984!

Short of a title change the week of, or a legit injury, or unannounced matches (Taker-Cena, Rock-Rowan), I wonder if Angle-Benoit 2001 is pretty much the only match seemingly, in kayfabe terms, booked on the Go Home shows, or even on pregame shows (not counting something like “winner gets title shot later tonight” matches). Literally came together on the Go Home where Angle cuts a “why don’t I have a match Sunday” promo, to which Benoit comes out, says he is also not scheduled, so the match is made on the spot!