MoS

I don't know/remember the business dealings at that time, but I should have clarified: I meant booking-wise, the quality and appeal of the product went to the ground. It's more a comment on his booking. I also remember some Davey Richards matches that he pushed heavily that were terrible, with Richards doing a gimmick where he would tweet shit like "Wrestling is something I do between my MMA classes."

Cornette booked OVW in the early 2000s and did an excellent job both running a weekly circuit and developing future stars. That is a better record than anything Russo has been involved in that was not directly modified by Vince McMahon. Heyman took over after Corny got inevitably in trouble and he did not do a great job. Further, SMW was certainly not a financial catastrophe. It died because the wrestling industry was in terrible shape and no company could survive without television, but in its initial year or so it did decent business. IIRC, they were actually outdrawing WCW in the same areas. I have not watched RoH, but one of my best friends who is a huge indy fan says Cornette ran RoH into the ground with his terrible booking. So there definitely came a period when modern wrestling passed by Cornette and he could not adapt to it. But to pretend Vince Russo was more deserving of a spot in pro wrestling in 1997 than Corny cuz he was "creative" is more preposterous than Corny thinking Lawler's racist remark should not be criticised. Corny is the reason Kane STILL is an over character after almost 25 years. Creativity is terribly overrated because creativity for creativity's sake is awful. Like, I will renounce all worldly pleasures and live in the himalayas as a hermit level awful. And no one exemplifes this more than Vince Russo. "WOULDN'T IT BE AMAZING IF ROSS AND RACHEL GAVE BIRTH TO AN ELEPHANT" is also creative, but it is certainly not a solution to Friends seeing declining ratings. Creativity and innovation have also been used to criticise wrestlers like Bret and Cena, ignoring that formulae work because they make sense and connect with people. WWE's biggest problem is not a lack of creativity. They find plenty of creative ways to screw over their current talent. Their biggest problem is a lack of sensible booking that has consequences and stakes and result in actual progression of characters and stories. A lot of these stories and characters would progress on fairly predictable lines. Everyone knew Austin would stun the boss. Everyone knew Mandy would eventually side with Otis. Vince Russo would have probably got Otis to screw Mandy again and then form a gay couple with Dolph who hates women and would sabotage all heterosexual relationships. "No one would think of that, bro!! SWERVE, BRO!!!!"

This year has been a complete nightmare.

Hager is awful. Just awful. They are REALLY lucky WWE tempered expectations with Edge-Orton, because while I liked the amateur exchanges, it was really slow and that stuff drags really bad without a hot crowd.

God I hope they have learned from the WWE matches and this does not go too long.

AEW's insistence on pushing Shawn Spears is weird. He is a ratings flop and his matches are usually mediocre at best.

We clearly and obviously need The Bubbly Bunch give daily updates on everything

He did, Iirc. The name was the WBF announcer who made that allegation against Patterson was Murray Hodgson.

It will be interesting to see how big a paycheck cut Vince, Steph, Hunter and all the other executives take.

Jericho is the GOAT commentator

It was reported earlier, but he also demoted Hunter recently, for whatever that's worth https://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2020/3/13/21178320/triple-h-quietly-demoted-wwe-management

I dunno what is going on with Vince in the last 5-6 days, but wow. Hasn't Chioda been with WWE forever?

They updated the article. Gallows is gone too. As is Eric Young. The Drake thing makes it clear that the call and these firings are a last-second decision.

^Apropos that:

Thanks @Blehschmidt and @The Thread Killer for the summary. I am glad he aired his side of the story; I have no idea whom to believe though. I absolutely agree with Sullivan about Benoit fanboys who had desperately in 2007 tried to conjure up multiple conspiracy theories about Sullivan being the killer. It was a distasteful thing to say, all because some people couldn't come to terms with the fact that their fav wrestler was a murderer.

Golf is a sport that requires physical exertion and skill. It is a terrible spectator sport that bores me to tears though.

I am sure that was done with Bearcat Wright's consent. I doubt Jerry Lawler took permission while referring to a very dated, very racist stereotype. This is without even going into the argument about change being a good thing. Cornette clearly wants to live in an ivory tower where he can act like it's still 1983. He might be the greatest promo guy in history and is able to talk well enough to gain enough followers to the point it makes him a lot of money. Good for him. But it just makes his opinions progressively more irrelevant.

Well played

What does not make sense is still believing Corbin > Rusev. Maybe if Corbin had been buried in the midcard for years. Given he is front and centre in the main event all the time, he sucks horribly.

It was interesting to see Flair say that he thought he was a terrible babyface and had very limited offence. I thought his offence, while not elite, was great, and I thought he was an all-time great face, in the Carolinas, in 1989, and in WCW in the late 90s. It's funny, because as good as he was, I think he would have been even better had he thought more highly of himself.

Can someone who listens to Cornette's podcast summarise what Sullivan said about the Benoit episode and his version of events here? I have heard he held nothing back but I am really in no mood to listen to Corny and Last.

This will blow up in WWE's face and it will not be the least bit surprising. I legit feel like an ass sometimes cuz I criticise WWE so much here but man do they walk willingly into PR disasters just waiting to happen.

I think you were right about Shawn's limitations. I don't think pro wrestling as a genre lends itself to Shawn's idea of apex storytelling. But he was so charismatic and so good later at just being WWE Legend Shawn Michaels, he could get away with it personally.

Bret clearly > Shawn although I think both are overrated. I think the last few years have also shown that Jericho has a good argument to be better than Shawn. Jericho's worst stuff is worse than Shawn's, but the way he has "got" wrestling since 2018 is a huge point in his favour. Shawn was excellent at doing Shawn things to get matches and angles over, but while he could get away with all the drama, that style has made for some of the worst wrestling experiences in the modern era for me.