MoS

Jingus, this is off-topic, but what book is that? World War 1 and the propaganda around it fascinates me; it is never discussed as much as WW2, but in many ways, it was the more miserable, more terrible war.

Well they didn't really have to do much on that because Batista was more than willing to try. I thought they didn't break up after that? I seem to recall reading that it was why Morrison's push was aborted; Vince lost respect for him because he thought a "real man" would have fought Batista for that instead of just forgiving his girlfriend.

Jesus, that's probably more than Austin did in his best year. Is Cena actually outselling Austin at his peak in merchandise?

Has there ever been a case of the company trying to break up a real-life couple? I recall they were not too happy with John Morrison and Melina, but I don't think they tried to break them up.

It would have been more okay if commentators and the presentation in general had emphasised that it was pretty disgusting, the way JR used to be outraged when Shawn Michaels used to be [a word I cannot remember] of his dignity". They actually used the words: low, desperate, disgusting. Yeah, but I felt that the presentation of it was still that of a comedy spot. and Michael Cole being a shitty commentator doesn't help. I could be wrong, of course.

It would have been more okay if commentators and the presentation in general had emphasised that it was pretty disgusting, the way JR used to be outraged when Shawn Michaels used to be [a word I cannot remember] of his dignity".

Isn't much of wrestling the portrayal of attempted murder? Technically, in sanctioned matches at least, the participants accept that they might die. That is why unsanctioned matches are considered such a big deal, and all participants participate in them knowing fully well they might die. Although I am not going to even try to defend Hogan's vehicular assault on Rock before WM 18. I just think this one is worse because it was basically played for laughs. On an unrelated note, WWE's standard contracts after Owen died make for quite interesting reading.

Well, because of PG restrictions, Flair obviously couldn't do that, but, if you ask for my personal opinion, I would argue that a heel sneakily physically attacking a face is less offensive than what happened. My reasoning for that is because sexual assault is a different nature of crime; one in which, as Sek said, women are treated as nothing more than objects for sexual gratification, and are essentialised and reduced from being human beings to pleasure-giving robots. On the other hand, Flair low-blowing Becky would have meant that he recognised that Lynch was not only a person, but a dangerous competitor who needed to be weakened if his daughter had any hopes of winning. So, yeah. Just my two cents

So was Roman spearing his boss. Well then, might as well have people using n-words freely and freely raping women. because most things that happen in wrestling are criminal offences. There is a place for tasteless shit in wrestling, but in my opinion, sexual assault being used as a comedy spot is not one of them. Roman spearing his boss was treated as a huge deal, so even in wrestling terms, the treatment of both was different. If the announcers had talked about how despicable and horrible Flair was for doing that to Lynch, and how he should be put into jail for that, then it wouldn't be much of a problem.

In kayfabe terms, obviously. Point being that a scripted case of sexual assault should not be used as a comedy spot.

Okay listen I find Flair kissing Becky weird and kind of creepy but people really need to calm down on this "sexually assaulting" part that everyone is using. Kissing a woman without her permission IS sexual assault. It cannot get more cut-and-dry than that. The fact that wrestling has had hundreds of those over the years does not mitigate that. Weird and creepy would be Flair telling the world how beautiful Steph's ass is. This is an outright criminal offence.

Already mentioned in the OP, but yeah, Steph literally says on Twitter that she plays a character on TV, and shows up in multiple charity events, despite being easily the most protected heel of the company. Hunter soaks up goodwill acting as the beloved benevolent father figure of nXt, and before that, used to break kayfabe just to get pics clicked with Justin Bieber. This company sometimes makes me hate myself for being a wrestling fan.

Quoted for motherfucking truth. All the while bragging about how much pie he gets in a night, of course. Because THAT is totally different.

This segment is Vince's wet dream. The Rock is how Republicans think racial minorities should behave. The New Day is how Republicans think black people actually behave.

It was always his appeal. I cannot remember a single backstage segment from his prime where he didn't behave like a huge dick.

"Hey, we are totally serious about the DIVAS REVOLUTION, but we can't give them more than 5 minutes. You see, we absolutely need to give Kane-Wyatt #1000 15 minutes. Maybe next time."

Sasha has Becky in a painful hold. JBL sells the intensity of it by saying "You have orange hair there, you have pink hair, it's like the friggin' muppets out there." Fuck you, JBL. Fuck you.

The biggest active PPV draw on the planet right now, with Ronda on the sidelines, is a man who fights at 145 and 155 pounds. This Vince-ism that casual fans only want to see huge men club each other is not only antiquated, it is also empirically false. Mayweather was 145, I think? Unfortunately, a lot of so called "expert" fans - not here, but on a lot of other sites - parrot that. It is really annoying.

If this were a "Which present wrestler excites you the most while watching a match?" list, then Asuka would be number one, closely followed by Sasha, but only because she has done nothing of note in the last few months. Unfortunately, it is not, and as such, I do not think both of them are in the running for Top 100 wrestlers of all time. Maybe next time.

Good thread. Dunno about $26 million though; hasn't Meltzer said that the most Hogan ever earned in a year was $6 million?

http://www.scribd.com/doc/287131780/1998-Hulk-Hogan-contract-with-WCW Not sure if this has been discussed here before, but I randomly did a google search for Hogan's WCW contract, and a DVDVR thread came up having this link. It really is incredible. The deal Paulie had with that restaurant dude whom Joe Pesci punked in Goodfellas, where the the terms were crystallised by Henry Hill into "Fuck you, pay me", was probably not as lop-sided as this one. On one hand, it is nice to see a wrestler getting one over on management; usually, promoters fleece wrestlers to the very last of their abilities and then simply drop them as if they are garbage. But still, wow. No wonder the finances spiralled totally out of control later. Also, does anyone have any details on Hulk's initial contract with WCW, and the creative concessions he had? I seem to remember something about WCW not being allowed to claim that Wrestler X had the best clothesline in the world, because that would mean that the fans would think that he clotheslined better than Hogan, and other such ridiculous arrangements. But I do not remember the details.

I am surprised that someone might think that DX were as important as the NWO in wrestling history. DX was over, no doubt, but they were essentially a fun midcard stable at their best, and while they did sell merchandise, I am not so sure it comes close to as much as the NWO did. I could be wrong, though, as I have no figures on hand. But, I mean, Zack Ryder also sold a lot of merchandise; I hardly think he is as important to wrestling as Cena or even someone like Orton. I am no fan of NWO; even at their peak, I think they were overrated. But there is no denying that they essentially changed the landscape of wrestling. From what I understand, the NWO were instrumental in making wrestling "cool" again.

I didn't go through the whole thread, but I did ctrl + F the last page, where Goc had compiled all of the comparisons, and I only found Rougeaou and Burke on the list, fwiw.

Also, Batista The Young Bucks

Bruno Sammartino JBL Hiroshi Tanahashi Sabu