efrim

He descended badly in to self-caricature towards the end. Most willfully forget this point or never noticed due to admiration for his golden years.

Suddenly realized that as it stands, I was at the last ever Chicago wrestling show for CM Punk (day after x-mas house show). He made kind of a weird, rambling sentimental speech at the end. Makes a lot more sense now.

I'd bet the yanking disappears pretty soon. The yanking has been haphazard so far, which says to me that they're trying things out and getting their house in order, rather than acting on a policy. Once they tech is stable and they get the scheduling running well I think we'll see a very stable library.

Watching this Raw replay of the WCW simulcast episode. Can say with confidence that I was most surprised by the XFL commercial.

I'd be happy with either of those being very protected going forward

I watched that on youtube or daily motion a while back and Flair just came off horribly. Extremely petty and not just satisfied with a few casually negative comments, needed to fully bury and discredit various things. He makes the episode quite hard to watch for small stretches.

I miss the days of the one hit KO tombstone. Really, I wish at least one finish in the wwe was protected as a pure sure kill.

You always hear WWE lifer types blow a lot of smoke about how if you don't want to be the top guy in this business, you shouldn't be in this business and how you have to take control at some point and have your Austin 3:16 moment if you ever want to have a great run. Funny what happens when somebody actually go all the way with that.

I don't think I'd qualify it as "good", but an undeniable favorite of mine is during the second hhh/undertaker 'Mania match when Shawn goes in to insane histrionics over 'Taker's invincibility. I just died laughing, it was like the guy was having a Vietnam flashback or something.

Oh yeah? I didn't realize they had full coverage of recent times Raw/Smackdown. How far back are they complete on smackdown and raw before it gets spotty?

Definitely need to get some Shield on there...so much of their great work has been on Raw and there's just been so much great stuff in general - Whats the consensus on their best (network available) matches so far?

You're probably right. That was one I needed to watch myself and was taking on good faith. Perhaps too tidy of a solution but I think old Austin would work with him and I think he could be a big Muta fan as well. Ideas for solutions there? I suspect classic Sting will be a hard sell for him - can remember him mentioning that Sting pre-crow looked very dumb. Definitely going to put the Dangerous Alliance War Games match on there for him. I think he'd be pretty curious about the lineups and the wild violence should draw him in.

Additional info on my friend: Does not watch the modern product (so extremely recent matches are all game, except for Over The Limit 2012 and Extreme Rules 2012). Mostly just watched Raw and Nitro during the attitude era, so PPV matches that weren't HUGE deals from then are game favorite wrestlers include: Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Benoit, Jericho, Austin, Rock, Shawn Michaels Edit: and he owns or has seen the wwe dvds for Austin, Jericho, Guerrero and Benoit

My very casual wrestling fan friend decided to give the network a go because he thought it was a fantastic deal. He's usually too stubborn to listen to my suggestions, but faced with an overwhelming catalog, he's asked me for a playlist of match suggestions. While he has good, highbrow taste outside of wrestling, within wrestling he's the quintessential casual fan that lived through the attitude era - Thinks every top WWE guy of the attitude era is a no questions legend, that ECW is the coolest, very resistant to anything old or southern and places no value on the legacy of Flair/WCW/Crockett (to my chagrin). Also, he would probably be very offended if I tried to explain this to him, but he's a complete sucker for a breathless spot fest. My goals in making a playlist for him is compiling stuff that he will enjoy based on his outlook and stuff that will expand his outlook without being too hard for him to digest. The way I'm sneaking older WCW in to his diet is through guys that later did stuff in attitude WWF/ECW (Austin, Cactus, Funk, etc.) and Japanese guys (Muta, Liger) as the idea of Japanese wrestling intrigues him. Stuff I've come up with so far: Steve Austin vs. The Great Muta Superbrawl 2 - Jushin Liger vs. Flyin Brian Pillman Starrcade 1995 - Jushin Liger vs. Chris Benoit Starrcade 1993 - Ric Flair vs Vader Chi-Town Rumble 1989 - Ric Flair vs Ricky Steamboat Great American Bash 1989 -Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk, I Quit Match Heatwave 1998 - Jinsei Shinzaki and Hayabusa Vs. Sabu and Rob Van Dam Starrcade 1983 - Roddy Piper vs Greg Valentine, Dog Coller Match

Charlotte: I AM CHARLOTTE, YOU ARE PAIGE. I WRESTLE AND WILL DEFEAT YOU FOR TITLE. BLEEP BLOOP.

Was going to grab a last minute ticket for Monday's Raw as I typically do when I don't have someone to go with. There's always been stray single seats in the past. Not this time - its a pure sellout.

I loathed apathetic Punk, but its true that Orton/Batista is looking so dire right now that even a disinterested Punk would move the needle on it pretty significantly. Amazing how disposable a title match at Mania is already feeling. Now if he were inserted in to the match having never left WWE? I'm not sure that that has nearly as much impact. His departure adds intrigue and luster to him that had been fading for a long while.

Me neither. Punk in 2013 was pretty shitty, all things considered. He had become an awful promo and was wrestling like a guy who wanted some time off. I don't doubt he's got another entertaining run in him down the line but I don't see what he'd bring to Batista/Orton other than giving the Mania crowd someone to actually cheer for in the match. Batista playing off the massive heat as a primadonna heel is far more interesting to me going forward than babyface CM Punk. Punk was remarkably shitty for a seemingly endless stretch of time. The whole Heyman chase thing felt like they wanted to do an old fashioned babyface/manager feud, but the slow pacing of it really doesn't jive with the modern product. By the time he came out of that I was referring to him as the ghost of CM Punk because he was an afterthought on the show and it was pretty clear he had given up on trying to agitate his way to the top. Punk's fun as hell when he's personally engaged by his work, but apathetic Punk is just uniquely terrible. He wouldn't have added much to this Mania season.

I was able to fire up an old hardcore TV and watch it halfheartedly while I made/ate breakfast this morning. Played smooth all the way through, I'm happy to report. Haven't had time for further usage though, unfortunately.

Really struggle to see how anybody could see that as a top 2/3 match in wwe/f history. At best its the third best match this week behind Shield/Wyatts and Cena/Cesaro

Still though, Easton has been their marquee venue for big shows and that thing didn't even take 2 weeks to sell out. More like 3 days. I know because I grabbed a ticket and watched it sell-out before my pal got one. So it at least suggests that in their own backyard they haven't shot themselves in the foot the way I figured they would have after 8 months. I'm certainly happy for that as a fan of the promotion and I hope their popularity has likewise held on outside of the Philly area.

I gave up following the nonsense after a couple months (an EXTREMELY generous gesture of goodwill) and I do think it was stupid and harmful to the brand/company. I have yet to hear this interview, but I'm sure Quack sounds like a doofus in it. That said - If they're just gonna do wrestling shows again I will partake in those wrestling shows.

That interview get a transcript anywhere?

Still eerie that a guy fell to his death on a show called "Over the Edge"

Yeah, Over the Edge 1999 is not something I'll be going back to, available or not.