Migs

But there are definitely times when SN is ahead of Worldwide. The instance that always sticks out to me is the Fantastics - Midnight Express feud, where the matches on Worldwide/Pro air after the angles on SN that discuss the matches.

Dead on, and I can't believe we haven't discussed the parallels more (unless I missed it somewhere).

Fire & Ice was a pretty good name for a terrible team.

It's Wrestlemania. They have gotten good enough doing these now that, like the Super Bowl, it's never not fun, even if it's not good.

But I don't think they got into a more regional touring schedule (i.e. fly to Detroit and do cities in that range for a few days, fly back out of Detroit) until sometime in 1991. So the settling down in '87 was simply somewhat fewer shows? Fewer double shots?

Even if you're not a Cena fan, he was fun to cheer against. Much like Hogan, even if you hated him he was a compelling personality. That's not true of Reigns. It should be noted that a WWE performer was on Jimmy Fallon this week and promoting Wrestlemania. John Cena. Injured, not on the card John Cena. The WWE clearly doesn't trust Reigns to be an ambassador of the brand the way they do with Cena.

I think he was caught in a pretty weird situation in real life in the latter part of his run (with the Invasion happening, the Rock emerging, his body giving out almost immediately after) - if you put him in a hypothetical without those issues, I think he's fine moving back down the card and being a side player. He'd certainly be better at it than Hogan or Flair.

At 218lbs, do you see him main-eventing in New York in the 1970s? The NWA guys tended to work closer to the 235lb mark. He's a wee bit on the small side, and would have to overcome odds in certain eras. Hard to imagine a 1980s Vince Jr putting him in the main event. Do you see Tully or Arn as being able to work babyface at the top of a card? I know Tully did do that for his father. Do you see 80s Vince Jr putting either guy in the main event? Do you think Tully could have main evented MSG in the 1970s? He's also on the small side. Dibiase was very borderline in terms of size in 80s WWF - so I'm not sure why it would necessarily disqualify these three guys when they were only slightly smaller than Ted. I guess you could say that Ted was just above some imaginary line and these guys were just below it, but I don't think it's such an either/or.

Because Jingus argued that what happens in the bedroom of celebrities is irrelevant, full stop. Sometimes it is. And frankly, it doesn't even need to rise to the level of Cosby's crimes (admittedly a weak analogy, but someone tried to compare this case to Plessy v. Ferguson earlier in the thread) to be absolutely newsworthy and of value to report on and show, based on the situation. The point is that restrictive laws on speech potentially edge out very valuable speech. It's why we protect even somewhat frivolous speech, to avoid chilling valuable speech in the future.

Has WWE ever attempted something like this? Arguably Wrestlemanias IV and V, which drew pretty big gates at Trump Plaza.

Sure, if he was a politician. But he's not. Public officials and people in positions of great power are the only group of people whose private lives and opinions should be fair game for scrutiny like this, because of the power they wield over everyday citizens. Not just some wrestler/actor/reality TV star/aging has-been. The public has zero right to know anything about his personal life that he doesn't specifically choose to disclose. Did people have a right to know he used steroids? That's his "private life." But him being a steroid abuser was absolutely news, and important news given his stance on "training, saying your prayers, and eating your vitamins." If we had footage of Bill Cosby committing one of his crimes... that would be news too. Same idea. I get it, in this case they are publicizing something with somewhat minimal news value. But draw me a line. If he's profiting off an image that's bullshit, people have a right to know about that.

That is a way, way over the top comparison. And the protection of the First Amendment is a very important thing. Any limits on speech, especially for a news organization, should be very narrowly crafted. You never know when something that is similar might produce very important news that it's imperative for us to hear (imagine, for example, that Hogan was a politician caught using the n-word on camera in a sex tape - you'd want to know that). There is ways to report and show some being a racist without releasing a whole sex tape. That's a horrible argument. Freedom of speech is great, but freedom of privacy is another thing that is also very important. Just because it's newsworthy that a celebrity had sex, does not mean that a news company can just released a sex tape. That's crazy. First, they released pieces of a sex tape, not the whole thing. The appellate court opinion quote above distinguishes the two specifically. And you absolutely might need to show a piece of a sex tape to convey something newsworthy. Simply reporting "we saw this" is going to get called bullshit in a "pics / video or it didn't happen" culture. The Hogan case is fairly frivolous, and I think you could theoretically try to draw a line between this sex tape and ones that are more "important" - but that's always a hard line to draw, and I don't like courts getting to decide what is newsworthy.

That is a way, way over the top comparison. And the protection of the First Amendment is a very important thing. Any limits on speech, especially for a news organization, should be very narrowly crafted. You never know when something that is similar might produce very important news that it's imperative for us to hear (imagine, for example, that Hogan was a politician caught using the n-word on camera in a sex tape - you'd want to know that).

I do not think it's having high expectations to expect to not be legitimately confused by the buildup to both main events.

I'm partial to the Iron Fist.

They now have the absolute last episode of ECW TV up, although there are plenty of gaps still there.

I legitimately cannot fathom listening to a six hour podcast. By anyone.

Thanks guys! Will start on this tonight, hopefully.

Probably going to check out the Evolve show in Queens on March 19 with some friends. I have not seen a second of Evolve. Any suggestions on a few things to check out before the show? Literally the only guy I have seen on the show is Chris Hero. Here's the card, for reference on guys I might need to learn about. EVOLVE Championship Match Timothy Thatcher defends vs. Matt Riddle of Catch Point Best In The World Challenge Series - The WWN Icon Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Johnny Gargano Grudge Tag Team Match Team Tremendous of Dan Barry & Bill Carr vs. The Premier Athlete Brand of Anthony Nese & Caleb Konley w/ Andrea Special Challenge Match #1 Chris Hero vs. Tracy Williams Special Challenge Match #2 Sami Callihan vs. TJ Perkins Special Attraction Match Drew Gulak vs. Fred Yehi Bonus Match Ethan Page vs. Mike Bailey

As an aside, JW Storm was the worst.

I disagree on the Doom interference point. It's fair if this was the second match in the series that then necessitated a third; but when they've gone through the trouble of booking this same match three weeks in a row, I think you need a conclusion to the series, even if it's Taylor winning by countout or some such. Just felt incredibly lame to constantly go to the well and not come up with any sort of ending to the mini-feud.

Definitely didn't like this as much as the first match. Felt a little slower and didn't have the back and forth.

I really liked the pace they cut here - a lot of the 10 minute TV title matches can be quite slow, giving away the time limit finish, but this was all action, and I wasn't thinking about the time limit until they started calling out times. Also, the gourdbuster!

Wonder if or when they will go back to the beginning and fill in those gaps