bradhindsight

The only piece of the main event acension ceremony last night that I disliked was the delayed pedigree on Orton (let alone that Orton was not in a match prior and could not muscle out of the Pedigree?). Orton just got buried by Cena on the mic and you're headed to, what they claim as, the biggest match in WWE history (or thereabouts) with your heel completely laid out by a heel authority figure. I totally get the "is Cena with the authority?" stuff and it makes for good intrigue but why not just have HHH/Cena/Kane stare down Orton as the show ends? Why are they making the slimy heel look like an underdog with little chance to win on sunday since even his bosses aren't with him?

People cancel HBO, but isn't it seasonal around the end of different shows? It could be, but it's hard to tell based on the data that's publicly available. The most detailed numbers I've been able to find are quarterly figures, and those don't seem to change much. This is what I found when I looked up the last four quarters (note that all of the numbers are for the end of the quarter): 2012 Q4: 28.7 million 2013 Q1: 28.77 million 2013 Q2: ? 2013 Q3: 28.9 million In HBO's case, their subscribers may like four different things - Game of Thrones, True Blood, etc. so while some cycle off after their 12-week show is finished, others are cycling back on. Hence those numbers look fairly static. In the WWE's case (as noted above), they don't have that luxury - either with live events or some kind of exclusive programming. If the product is down, people will cancel and sign-ups will be down.

And the Backlund/Hogan matches are TREMENDOUS. The first one (from Titans 12) is on the Hogan Unreleased Collection (pretty much $5 new anywhere) for those that may have that laying around.

Boy this was a jam-packed episode that I listened to over a number of commutes. Match discussion was great as always but two of my favorite parts were Johnny and Parv agreeing about the current WWE and smarks being worked and also how everyone agrees you can't downgrade a match because of the booking/angle. I don't know what it is but something about Johnny sharing the love with Parv and standing together on things warms my heart.

The flipside is that there's a non-zero chance that they might just dump whole territories on demand, which would give, let's say Kevin, a chance to see some AWA he's never even seen before, just like that. I realize that's a bit of a longshot right now but it's at least possible. Allow me to say something pretentious, which is that this could lead to a mini-renaissance at message boards like this one. If all the footage owned by WWE is eventually at our disposal, I see interactive threads becoming a possibility. Think Wrestling Message Boards 2.0. I don't think that's likely to happen, but it very well might. WWE may even find it benefits them to do so, as they could do all sorts of interesting reports and analysis on the most watched promotions, eras and performers based on the demographics of the viewer, which could result in some really targeted marketing campaigns. The potential is there for this to be a game changer. Whether it becomes one or not remains to be seen. And since a large segment of their customers won't be on the app, this information could also dictate things like future DVDs. Although I wonder how much this service will eat into those sales. Really comes down to what is going to be available.

I guess I'm re-hashing this from a couple weeks back but this doesn't make sense to me from a business standpoint. Yes, if their product is only directed to the PWO audience and their sole profits are generated from that audience, I can see how he wouldn't appeal. But there's a gigantic piece of their business centered around house shows, non Raw/Smackdown TV programming and an age demographic that wants their parents to buy them merchandise when they go to events (or are in K-Mart). He's a JTTS who has settled in perfectly to a midcard role where he doesn't need to be pushed but can pop a crowd on a saturday afternoon because of his flashy moves and cool entrance. That is exactly the type of guy I would want for my promotion.

He said "connect devices" so that implies XBOX360/XBOX-One, PS3/PS4 along with presumably services like Roku. If it's available via major video game consoles, it at least has a shot - and as been noted, should they get 80% of the cut instead of 33%, that should majorly help on the break-even point. Lastly, it won't completely gut normal PPV ordering until 2015 which they will have more TV money to supplement. Honestly, if I can get WM streamed in HD on my TV via XBOX360, the $60 is spent and the rest is gravy for me. Amen brother. I'm going to use my 360 also.

Great show as always boys. Parv you talked about the continuity around Flair not going for the title but remember his match against Luger at Clash 12 was for the US title because he would become the de-facto #1 contender if he won. Luger won by DQ, presumably shunting Flair down the top ten list (pretty sure he still referenced this - I know he did earlier in the 1990). Sting carry jobs is a good question. I don't know if we're stipulating this with "great" carry jobs but I thought his match with Al Perez at 12 was perfectly fine. Not sure how Perez is viewed as a worker though. I can only assume the plan was that for whomever won the balloons would drop at the end - not necessarily in place only for a Sting win. It also could have been Ole commandeering the balloon controls ala the cage at Capital Combat I really like the Ricky Steamboat idea with Parv's ready-made promo that he talked about. The only connection one could infer (if you didn't have Jim Ross' heavy-handed speculation) for it being Barry is that the rest of the Horsemen were ringside already. Flair and Arn are out, leaving Barry as the logical fake - you know, if you could tell it was a fake Sting. Looked like Barry had his hair cut similar to others at the time. Heck, he could have potentially been The Black Scorpion too. I do think in terms of kayfabe continuity, it makes sense for the Black Scorpion to not interfere in the main event given who it ended up being. So at least they didn't have to ret-con that kind of flub should he have come out with the Horsemen also being ringside (or soon to be ringside).

I see he fixed the error I saw yesterday where he noted Daniel Bryan was out of WWE for a year after the choking incident. Now it reads "short hiatus".

Eddie Edwards © vs. Chris Hero - ROH World Title Match 5/7/11 After muddling through Eddie's two-hour interview as part of his Eddie Edwards: Die Hard ROH DVD, I wanted to check out one of his title defenses and, admittedly, I hadn't seen any solo Chris Hero prior to this. I'm pretty in the dark on Ring of Honor stuff, which is why I really enjoy their compilation DVDs as they offer a great way to catch up without having to follow the weekly show. Hero works the arm for the good part of the first half of the match, playing off previous Eddie injuries and for the most part Eddie obliges and sells it through out (his selling was better than I expected going in). I was cool with this as Hero's psycology here would be to limit the power moves Eddie could pull off thanks to the wounded appendage versus setting up any kind of big submission he uses (to my knowledge). They do some outside stuff, including Eddie taking a bump off the turnbuckle through a table after a kick to the head and your ROH-standard guardrail spots. So the underlying story here is how tough Edwards is and in typical ROH fashion they totally overdo this. About midway through this 40 minute match, they pretty much resign themselves to just kicking and elbowing each other in the head. It's a bit like those G1 Summit shit-kickings, but just a pinch lighter (and those matches are considerably shorter because - REALISM). Eddie takes a TON of these elbows and Hero hits a couple overhead and cradle suplexes as well. Hero's spinning elbows are great but they mean nothing because Edwards continually kicks out, including after some prime KO spots. There's a spot after one of these where the ref won't let Hero cover, instead opting to see if Eddie can answer the ten-count. This befuddled me. Eddie doesn't set up the single leg crab (whatever he calls it) outside of just wrenching it on whenever he can and he catches Hero in one and kicks Hero in the head while he's in the move, resulting in a KO and the ref quickly calling for the bell. It's a cool ending, even if the kicks looked a little weak given the positioning of both the guys AND the kicks they had been wailing on each other throughout the entire match. I guess I could justify this with that these were the culmination of a number of kicks, so it makes a little more sense. In summary, if they cut out a bunch of the near falls off kick after kick and elbow after elbow and tidy this up to around 25-30 minutes, it's an AWESOME match. The build is great and the story is fine (there's even some early stuff where Sara Del Ray and Hagadon are booted from ringside by the ref). You just get burnt out of kickout after kickout and it ends up tempering some really cool nearfalls that should get a better reaction.

I was always curious - are these shows the first time we're seeing this footage or is this something you probably have some place already?

Couldn't agree more. Bookmarked reading here.

I couldn't find a star rating in your 1990 posts but did note in both of Chad and your Top 100 of 1990 lists you had the opener at: Loss #74 Chad #51

Isn't Rey vs. Eddie for Havoc '97 considered the opener? I know some match listings have it third but I always assumed the first two were dark matches. I remember reading a lot how it was held up there with Bret/Owen and others as one of the best openers of all-time.

I would be interested to see where that Mx vs Rich/Morton match ranks on the best NWA/WCW PPV openers list. Gotta be in the top 3, right?

Sounds like "old school dude" jobbed out to the PWO captcha test.

Thanks to Kelly now I yell "YOU CAN'T KEY LOCK BOB BACKLUND" when he does those power out spots. That Kidman example was spot-on. Too funny.

Truly an epic bio for Blassie. That blinding angle they ran sounded tremendous. I promised Parv I'd watch Hogan/Backlund prior to listening to the podcast review. 29 minutes of just a tremendous match. Hogan bumps more in the first minute than he does in the entire Tito match from the same YouTube viewing channel sequence-thing (?). Such a cool dynamic with Backlund outhustling Hogan to spots and outworking him early. Crowd eats it up and is super hot throughout. Both guys are put over strong with how they sequence this match. Hogan gets his control segment with the backbreaker out of the headlock. One of my only minor quibbles is Hogan goes to the arm, which goes nowhere, rather than working the back (off the backbreaker and setting up his bear hug + suplex finishers). That and the announcers pondering "do you think Hogan will ever win the title? Maybe in a couple years" OR, YOU KNOW, THE WWF TITLE MATCH YOU'RE WATCHING RIGHT NOW. Way to play up the potential upset. Bob gets some cool power-out spots, including the one where Hogan flips him back into the armbar. Hogan moves into the bear hug then finally and they crescendo into trading bomb for bomb with two counts including the awesome pile driver spot out of the bear hug. I like Hulk going for the quick covers after he's kicked out himself, showing how the suplexes tax both men. Fucking Dick Worley is fast-counting like crazy when both guys are down in the ring and I got jumpy hoping that wasn't the finish. It wasn't, so that was cool to be that invested. Then both guys trade airplane spins (ugh) but Backlund manages to topple both guys to the outside NEVER RELEASING THE MOVE. Amazing, but of course fast-counting Dick Worley (no way he went to 15, a fast 10 I'd bet) counts Bob out after he puts Hogan on the apron. Backlund wants to fight after the match and Hogan dismisses him to a chorus of boos to just seal how awesome this match is. ****1/2

^ This I would be very surprised if they got rid of one of those belts. Even with the backseat the WHC has taken the last couple of years (until putting it on Cena to prop it back up), I can't see them giving up that lineage.

Did they ever do a big Batista v. Orton match on PPV? They probably did, but I can't recall it. That would have been a natural major feud for them, and that I've followed WWE the entire time both were at their peaks and can't remember tells me they dropped the ball on that They did, at Armageddon 2008. So not "big", but they did do it. Off the back of a Team Orton vs Team Dave match at Survivor Series. That is literally the only thing I remember about their supposed feud. Couldn't even tell you who won the match. Maybe Orton since he got the Rumble push with the punting Vince angle. But I really have no idea. EDIT: Batista may have been injuring during or after this. He missed WM25 didn't he? Yes I think Orton took him out in storyline, some big beatdown. They did it in the Summer of 2009 briefly after Orton's feud with HHH was over. Batista actually beat him for the belt in a cage match that went about 9 minutes. Dave gave the title up the next night because he was hurt. I can't recall if he was hurt going into that match and they *still* did the title change or not. I thought that was the story.

8am in the morning, driving in wall-to-wall rush hour traffic and i'm laughing uncontrollably at fucking Johnny's "I was basically finger-banging Ricky Morton" story - and Parv trying to deflect back on topic busted me up again. I feel like James teed up this story by design - either way, thank you sir for doing that.

Personally, I'd be more inclined to subscribe to it if it was an a la carte digital service. Cable TV is a dinosaur. Everything is on demand now. The cable companies are fighting tooth and nail against a la carte for obvious reasons, but still, they see the future, and are slowly relenting to it. I'm not a big tv watcher or cable tv guy anyway, I don't want 500 channels to deal with to find what I want to see. I'd pay to watch a WWE channel, but I wouldn't pay the 10-15 dollar fee ON TOP of whatever the cable provider charges I subscribe to HBO and can go on-demand and watch any of their movies or series whenever. I'd imagine the WWE could do the same.

Nice. I also have 12 over CC. I think this is great list. This is a piece you should write up for PTBN Chad or Parv!

Interesting tidbit on the unreleased Jesse Ventura game Parv. Sega's model for sports gaming around that time was centered around an athlete (or coach). Tommy Lasorda Baseball Pat Riley Basketball Joe Montana Football (a big get) The thing I found most interesting is Vince's deal with Nintendo. By this time LJN was publishing their games on the NES. Maybe they had a two game deal with WrestleMania Challenge and Steel Cage Challenge (WWF WrestleMania was Acclaim and out in 1989) but something changed with exclusitivity (read: $$$) since WWF Super Wrestlemania came out of the Sega Genesis in 1992 (and King of the Ring came out for the NES in 1993 one of the last NES games). So Ventura leaves and the game STILL doesn't get released. That's a shame. And I probably had that Sega Visions magazine.