SteveJRogers

Some of the issue is that Mania was the big draw, I think. They also might lose people after the first six months are up. That is a good point. Though with some of the original programming they are offering up, and if they do some of the stuff similar to what they did for Wrestlemania weekend might offset the Mania draw. The other ppv's should keep the people growing as long as they keep the price cheap. With the exception of a pre/post show the day of, which they've been doing as dot com/YouTube exclusives anyway, I don't see them pulling out all the stops of weekend long coverage and pro except for the "Big Four" of WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series (well, if they want to get it back on the same level again) and Royal Rumble. Also, it is going to be strange to hear "specials" instead of PPVs going forward. As if we are going back to the old territory Super Card days of Showdown at Shea, or the Texas Stadium shows.

Yeah, the trophy isn't going to help you out with the spot!

See, that's the thing though. Its been hard enough building ANYONE other than Cena up as the next mainstream star, and even in the days of Hogan, Rock and Austin it was hard to build someone up. So, as great of a thing as that would have been, thinking about it now, would it make sense giving someone that "rub" whom could just as well be a dojo trainer or a strip club bouncer three years later as opposed to someone whom is even causally known and promoted as a mainstream pop culture (think D-List, or wherever Cena actually is) star on the roster. So thinking about it that way, it makes sense to give it to a younger version of what Undertaker has become in recent years. That special "attraction" that you trot out every big event.

Much better match, but it reminded me of Austin's swan song. No one, except for probably The Rock and JR and Vince of course, knew it at the time, but Austin ended up looking at the lights and getting the walk back up the ramp with his music blaring and his in-ring career finished.

One thing that should have been on the back of people's minds that Taker would be done this year is seeing him as a talking head in the Monday Night Wars series preview for the Network. Yeah he was in the Triple H DVD, but it seems that he is getting more and more receptive to being Mark Calloway going forward, with The Dead Man being left finished looking at the lights.

As Paul Bearer would say OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH YYEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! This is getting bumped due to the massive reaction to Undertaker losing at WrestleMania and conspiracy theories about the finish being either a shoot or a mid-match audible due to Paul's and Brock's reactions, the 21-1 sign going up, commentators being "off" and Brock's music being late (I don't buy it, but I've seen a few in various forms). Can this be compared to the mainstream reaction Hogan's heel turn garnered?

From a while back, starting up a new promotion.

I've seen several FB pages/groups get trolled by someone repurposing some old Punk photo as "proof" that Punk is in New Orleans this week. FWIW, and tongue in cheek a little, the game was this afternoon. Its not like they can't fly him down, get him into the arena when everyone is already IN the arena for main event shenanigans. =

I'd hate to sound negative, but IF something bad happened, despite the 6 month committment, how many cancellations will be made? I can see a lot of subscribers not seeing the forrest for the trees (all the On Demand content, hiccups are damn near expected early on with these kinds of ventures, etc) on this one and consider The Netelwork an "abject failure" or something along those lines.

Odd ball question to ask on Sunday with everything but WM wrapped up, but what is everyone's opinions about indies and cons and other non-affiliated wrestling stuff happening literally in the same city area that WM is happening in? Or in general in cases like ROH in Pittsburgh the same weekend as Royal Rumble. Part of me thinks it is a good thing for the industry as a whole. Especially in the case of WrestleMania weekend when the crowd is mostly general/causal/lapsed fans whom might get their curiosity piqued when hearing about this show on Friday night, or the listing of past greats at a convention on Saturday and such. Kind of a good way to say "HEY, PRO WRESTLING IS MUCH, MUCH MORE THAN VINCE MCMAHON'S PRODUCT!" But on the flip side, I've heard negative opinions about all of it. That it is more or less leeching of someone else's product and fanbase in a competitive marketplace. Unfortunately there isn't a football analogy, but I guess it would be if there was a rival league that plays in springtime (yeah I know, bad XFL and USFL flashbacks) had their kickoff weekend Super Bowl weekend and a game a market over from the Super Bowl host city (Philly probably would be a perfect example with this past January's Super Bowl in Met Life Stadium). I really can't use the final series in hockey, basketball and baseball, but perhaps an independent minor league running a huge event/game in a smaller venue in the same city the day before those major sports' All-Star Game is probably a good analogy as well. I guess since the WWE tolerates it, its not a big deal, and if they did try to shut them out the cries of monopoly would be heard all over the IWC, dirt sheets and every other place; but the idea of an indie, or a convention/autograph memorabilia show promoter running a gig that same weekend in the same city being hungry leeches more so than anything probably is just as good of a point than them just trying to get noticed.

It might be a case, like with Austin where its a blurb article on the homepage, where it was a last minute thing, and they are unsure of what his role is going to be. Most likely a glorified cameo, but also something that they'd rather not cause attention to be drawn away from the rest of the card, or give cranky trolls something to bitch about on Monday (ALL THAT HYPE, AND THAT IS ALL THEY HAD ROCK AND/OR AUSTIN DO!?)

Please delete both posts, having some tech issues.

Its weird that despite all the dicking around that they've done, both legit and storylines, that JR never got the "untouchable" label that clearly Flair and Lawler have.

I'm surprised Larry Zbyscko's turn wasn't brought up as his story arc with Bruno is a big highlight of the Titans shows.

I'd assume the same day that the DVD of the PPV event gets released as that has been the way it was for Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber. Stuff that is meant to be exclusive to the Network, yes, as soon as it airs it goes into the On Demand library.

Would have been cooler if it was Mick as Dude Love or Jimmy Valiant as opposed to someone like Josh Matthews though.

Is it as bad as Punk's "What the fuck am I DOING here!?" attitude at 28?

Ironically, the most recent example was last year with The Rhodes Scholar's match. Cody tells the story on the WM Podcast that he was so upset he just sat, annoyed, at Gorilla Position the entire show, hoping that it'd turn out that the match would be back on.

When Cena was on Austin's show, he was baiting Austin to face him at the SF WrestleMania next year.

I remember on the forum I frequented back then that the prevailing thought after the 18 seconds match was that Bryan was set to be released during the usual spring roster trimming session.

FWIW, that's why I always think its pointless (even though I mentioned the Basketball and Pro Wrestling Halls, though only in the example that legit Halls do multiple enshrinements for people frequently), to look at other teams or organizations when debating how the one you are talking about choose to honor people. For example, are you really going to debate your team retiring a number because the Yankees retired Billy Martin's number?

Even more reason why I don't understand why the logic behind not letting someone be a multiple time inductee.

I'm okay with the logic behind "Once In A Lifetime" turning out to be bullshit, and it was even explained logically in kayfabe during the build towards the rematch. MAYBE if the title wasn't involved I can see people being annoyed and all "well, that's wrestling logic," but I'd be more upset that after the "End of An Era" match, both Triple H and Undertaker would wrestle on the next TWO WrestleMania cards (and yes that is taking into account that both pretty much have wrestled in combined matches that can be counted on one hand since), if I wanted to be upset at the WWE not adhering to marketing and gimmick hype surrounding matches.

How do you induct The Four Horsemen WITHOUT including Flair? That'd be like the Basketball Hall of Fame inducting The Dream Team 1990 Olympic Team but only listing Christian Latener (only non-HOF-er on roster). You induct Arn, Tully, Windham and JJ Dillon while noting that Flair is already in the HOF. Which I was what I thought they'd do, instead of double-inducting Flair. So, you'd be fine if the Basketball Hall of Fame, which has been inducting specific team rosters since the 1960s, only listed Christian Laettner and assistant coach P.J. Carlesimo for the 1992 Men's US Olympic Team because they are the only non-Hall of Famers among the players and coaching staff? And speaking of said coaching staff, you want to have Lenny Wilkens as a player only or a coach only as he, who was on that year's staff, was inducted twice, once as a player and then again as one of the winningest coaches in NBA history. The Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame has Ray Stevens inducted twice, as a member of a Tag Team with Pat Patterson, and as a solo competitor if you want to use a non-WWF Hall of Fame for a different example. I'm not sure why you want to arbitrarily say that someone SHOULDN'T get inducted more than once if the Hall of Fame's rules allows someone to be honored in anyway they seem fit.

How do you induct The Four Horsemen WITHOUT including Flair? That'd be like the Basketball Hall of Fame inducting The Dream Team 1990 Olympic Team but only listing Christian Latener (only non-HOF-er on roster).