MoS

Gordon Solie would do a great job of providing athletic backgrounds about wrestlers in a way that added to their aura and appeal. JR at his worst would just repeatedly shoehorn in the college football accomplishments because he would much rather watch college football than professional wrestling. It was mostly harmless but could occasionally get really egregious and annoying when he just wouldn't shut up about it

Oh this one is going to be incredible

Yeah, I am sure he was an excellent college football player, but American football is America's biggest religion and because of how high-profile college football is, there are thousands of excellent college football players who perform really well for a year or so and yet have ultimately have no presence in the mainstream. Wrestling has had some very accomplished college football players in the last 35 years, and I don't know if I would call any of them even close to mainstream solely for their football pedigree. From everything I have seen and read about college football, it is the ultimate case of the brand being bigger than any individual player. Although it does make the idea of a badass former high-level college defensive lineman being asked to cut Looney Tunes promos even more hilarious though. Can you imagine if they had Goldberg saying this shit in 1998?

Yeah, Cornette has also always said that when Cena was in OVW, he thought Cena was going to be the next Flair, not as good in the ring, but a superstar heel with the same promos and presence and charisma

When the Roman-Rock feud happens, I really really hope this happens once

It's also notable that the ratings for everything have been declining steadily forever. It wasn't until 2016 or so that Raw's decline started comfortably outpacing the non-news TV decline. Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics has done some great research on this. Incidentally, one brand that has been gaining popularity worldwide at a tremendous rate is the Indian Premier League, so I cannot wait until all you fuckers are having to watch cricket whether you like it or not

Yeah, and I am sure that WWE would love to get another Cena-level star on their hands if they could. But more than maintaining viewers, it's also the volume of content that is instrumental in getting and closing billion dollar deals. WWE has the ability to give you 5 hours of primetime first-run TV 52 weeks a year at relatively little production cost. It's why it's getting those billion dollar deals, and as long as there is no alternative for such incredible year-round volume at low cost, they will keep getting these deals. The UFC got a billion dollar ESPN deal where they are guaranteed a certain amount every PPV regardless of the performance, and a certain figure every TV card regardless of ratings, because UFC has the ability to put on 40-45 cards a year. It's a business model that is making drawing stars redundant in MMA as well, which is why Dana is perfectly fine with playing hardball with Conor McGregor and Jon Jones. It's the same volume argument. WWE has even more volume. It's why Fox ditched UFC to go with WWE. It's also why they got that Peacock deal. The volume of current and historical content that WWE has is incredible

Has the concept of drawing really changed full time in the last six years? You might be right. It would be interesting to try and figure out when the Brand became the only thing that was actually pushed as the draw. It might be when WWE the promotion became the primary heel in around 2015-16. It's difficult to push anyone as a difference-making star when they are either working for or going against the entire corporation and its ethos. Even Austin went against the evil boss of a good promotion, not the actual promotion and its booking philosophy

About them not mattering anymore, we agree. They do not matter anymore. But then is it fully fair to Cena to compare him to any modern wrestler, taking away his unique drawing power? I say that because a lot of the drawbacks and flaws in Cena's in-ring work was also what made him a compelling draw. The sloppiness, the focus on comeback spots, even him doing moves that he was bad at executing, because his entire appeal was that he would Never Give Up

Attendances did not decline for the primary WWE loop for 20 straight years. As I said, it went significantly up from 2005 for a few years, principally due to Cena. I don't remember when it started declining again, but the decline's pace was not the same throughout. It crashed massively in the last five-six years after the Cena era ended. There are direct consumer metrics that have nothing to do with international and domestic TV deals. Cena is literally the only difference-maker since about 2009, when Mysterio and Jeff Hardy declined. House shows where he is announced show a noticeable spike. When he moved to SD, that show immediately showed both increased ratings and higher live event tour. His quarters also did excellent numbers regardless of the time slot, which today is the biggest factor in quarter ratings, since there's no positive difference-maker in wrestling anymore. Direct consumer metrics are no longer the primary ways through which WWE makes money, so while the concept of wrestlers who are draws might be redundant, that does not mean that those metrics do not exist. Those metrics exist and can be used to compare wrestlers. It's just that the modern business model is such that comparing wrestlers is futile because there is an active attempt to make everyone fungible. Cena was the last true star who broke out of the pack in a clear way before the brand became the only draw, therefore he remains the last true draw in U.S pro wrestling

Kross playing chess while we're playing checkers?

Definitely not something I want to see regularly, or even something I want to see again. But for a one-off incident, I didn't mind it. I wish no one had thrown any bottles, but modern wrestling is so often completely devoid of real genuine heat that I couldn't hate on this. It was compelling for what it was

I mean he played college football. That might mean something, but it's not giving him any mainstream buzz on its own. There are hundreds of high-level college football players. Cena is now a legit Hollywood star and prior to that was a constant TV presence. That's not just one level above, it's several levels above. No one in wrestling is in the same ballpark as Cena. He is arguably the only wrestling Superstar (with a capital S) of the millennium. Same with drawing. People are forgetting how terrible WWE's ticket sales were getting in 2002-04 before Cena infused a fresh life into the promotion. They were doing 7k-8k paid for MSG shows, which was humiliating. Even the TV viewership was something he held steady and increased from 05-07 until the Benoit tragedy, at which point it remained in steady decline. But the decline was very steady and Cena himself was a mega quarter-draw. The only knock against Cena as a draw is that he was never a big PPV draw. Intuitively, it makes sense because his fanbase was younger, so they would watch on TV, buy his merchandise, and convince their parents to buy tickets for live events. But convincing parents to buy monthly PPVs that cost 60 dollars was a bridge too far. Roman has been on top for a time when every direct consumer metric has nosedived (and I don't think it's a coincidence that this overlaps squarely with the time Cena got phased out of the main event.) It's not just the ratings. Live event attendance got so bad that house shows became money losers. Same with WWE Network numbers. I'm sure he moves merchandise, but I am equally sure that a direct comparison with Cena will do him no favours. None of this is Roman's fault of course. There is a legitimate argument to be made that this crash wouldn't have happened had Roman beaten Lesnar at WrestleMania instead of them swerving everyone and going with Rollins. That long Rollins reign was a knockout blow for WWE business, especially because it was coupled with Mega Heel Overlords and Gods The Authority at their absolute, most heat-killing worst. Then Hunter undercut Roman in their feud so blatantly that you couldn't help but laugh. Do you remember that segment after HHH won the Rumble and the title where a face Roman came to confront him and got his ass thoroughly kicked, as Triple H slammed his face in the announcers' table repeatedly as the crowd chanted along, which is like the ultimate babyface spot. It's crazy that this tribal chief reign is the first time Roman has had a long steady reign as the undisputed top guy. That's one good reign in SIX years of being a main eventer. Cena was 100% booked better than Roman, but to play devil's advocate, people forget how terribly Cena was booked as well. He was constantly forced to work from underneath in his first year as top guy, even though he had got over standing up to giants and taking them down with his brute strength. He was undercut thoroughly in the feud with Hunter, to the point that even when he won, the stench didn't wear off. He then had an excellent feud with Edge which often played second fiddle to DX playing literal kiss my ass with Vince and Big Show. He is actually really lucky that Hunter got injured in the beginning of 2007. IIRC, the plan then was for HHH to beat Cena at WM to get back his loss. This injury meant that Cena had a chance to run with the ball as the top guy in the company, even if his booking with Shawn was not doing him a lot of favours. Roman never had that kind of run as the babyface ace. Cena got really established as the ace in that run before he got injured. When he came back at the Rumble and the Garden went absolutely apeshit for him for several minutes before realizing that they have a reputation to maintain and are supposed to boo him, you knew he was the top guy and the main star. The haters had told on themselves. This meant that the bad booking subsequently didn't affect him because he was a legit draw and the man and was bulletproof. For all the criticisms about Super-Cena, we should remember he was not booked well between 2008-10 before the Nexus angle made him Superman again. First, Hunter made sure he got his W back. He got a visual pin on Cena at WM, then got an actual clean win over him later in the summer. He did a job to Batista, which is fine, and then to JBL, which is a lot less fine. He was also booked in a lot of throwaway feuds, something that actually has rarely happened with Roman. Roman is obviously a bigger victim, but the WWE booking had done Cena no favours either. Roman is a better bell-to-bell wrestler, but Cena is truly unique and special, and no one has since come close to matching his appeal.

Someone on Twitter joked that Corbin's current arc is good because the booking is basically "Let's book this like what's happening with Will Ospereay in real life" and it is funny cuz it's true

I swear to God EVIL must have like compromising pictures of Gedo somewhere

I mean, deathmatch wrestling isn't for me, but that does look like proper, pissed off wrestling heat. Matt Cardona is genuinely the devil for that group of fans, this reaction was absolutely organic. I am not saying thay throwing stuff in the ring should be encouraged, but if it does happen once every while, I don't think it's an embarrassing reaction at all. To use the obvious example, Hogan's heel turn. Of course WCW later started actively encouraging fans to throw stuff in the ring, which they shouldn't have. But I don't think GCW fans do that for every show. From what I understand, Matt Cardona is a special case. He couldn't be a more natural enemy of deathmatch wrestlers if he tried

There are definitely some storylines in AEW which are treated as if it's real and the stakes are high and they matter. It's not a coincidence that those storylines are the ones with the most heat and momentum. I am talking about storylines like Hangman v. Omega, Darby v. Page, FTR v. Proud and Powerful. I don't mind the more lighthearted storylines because I think that 2 hours of national primetime booking every week would necessarily entail some light, tongue-in-cheek stories, because not everything can be dead serious all the time. However, there is no doubt in my mind that the main stories should always be completely serious, where the feelings seem real, the stakes are high, where there are grave consequences one way or another for what wrestlers are doing. That's the shit that makes more viewers actively set aside their time and tune in every week, as opposed to just laughing and getting entertained if they happen to catch the show that week

Gotcha. I am probably misremembering the account in Dave's bio

This is absolutely incredible. I really hope and pray that you are able to finish this, but if you don't, I am grateful for whatever we are getting. All of these stories are incredible and now my mind is just imagining prime Kawada and Maeda stiffing the hell out of each other. Does the book get into the supposed Misawa-Kawada high school fight? IIRC Meltzer in his Misawa obit said that it happened while both were doing amateur wrestling, and that Kawada got the better of his senior

She says she won't miss any action. If this means they book her matches to her strengths and keep them short and focus more on her personality, it might actually help her record. Injuries are never a good thing of course, but last year her injury really helped with her character development

Sasha has to return at some point too once she is done with her shooting. They will probably do a lot of Bianca-Banks rematches once she returns

Yeah I think people were tapping out to his ankle lock. Was nodding yes to submit completely phased out after Montreal?

When did tapping out become the default way to submit in WWF? ECW was doing it for years but I don't remember exactly when WWF switched to doing it exclusively. It certainly was not the default at Montreal

At least they know they have a problem I guess

The chest pounding absolutely killed me