The Chief

Will there be a reaction show podcast for this show?

Gyrating Big E is the greatest thing ever

I wonder what happens with Swagger now? A New Real Americans tag team would kick ass but I don't think they're going in that direction.

Ok, so literally nobody predicted this right? Very happy to see Dutch back on my TV. This could be really fun.

Cesaro tearing the house down. Fun match so far!

I'm cautiously optimistic about whatever they're doing with Cena. Surprise me, WWE!

Sometimes youtube is their only option for stuff. Unfortunately, not every territory preserved their libraries. R-Truth/Miz/Axel table for 3 is probably the best one yet. Truth is such an interesting guy in real life, his life would make for an incredible movie. When he saw the pics of Curt Hennig, that was pretty awesome.

It's live. I think people underrate that as a reason. I love watching my eighties stuff but I approach it in a completely different way since I know what's happening. I think people just like being part of a live experience. Plus every couple of years when something amazing does happen, there's really is no feeling like watching that as it unfolds as opposed to watching it after the fact. Another reason is that even during really bad times I can find one or two acts that I really enjoy.

Not sure if there's any seventies but there's definitely some early eighties stuff. Some of it even looks like it may have been taken from YouTube.

I think Dana's gonna turn out to be pretty decent in a couple of years. People forget, she had ZERO experience before NXT and even then she's only been on TV there for six months. I think she has a lot of the little character things down well, the rest will come in time. Being good in your very first year as a professional is an attribute that very few have possessed. And this isn't directed at you in particular Brain, but I also feel that there's an unfair stigma against anyone who hasn't toured the indie scene or been a lifelong fan. I don't see anything wrong with hiring fitness models/powerlifters/football players that have no wrestling experience. I don't think there's a set in stone blueprint for building a successful wrestler, history has shown that successful wrestlers come from all kinds of backgrounds. If a model or a football player can hang, then I don't see why their pre-wrestling background should matter. Obviously having some prior experience helps, but it isn't the be-all end-all.

I always wondered if Owen Hart vs Kurt Angle from a couple weeks before Owen passed is floating around out there...

Giving Breeze a valet isn't the worst way to debut him. It makes him stand out from other solo acts they've called up and Summer has been perfectly fine the past year.

Nice find. Parv, do you know if these aired on HBO?

Pop up powerbomb on Mark Henry holy hell. That's a spot that could look like shit fairly easily but they pulled it off.

The first one from the infamous Fingerpoke. The company felt fresh with a babyface champion and Hogan's BS gone. Felt like such a huge step back going back to him with the same old crap. Honestly, I don't remember much from Hogan's second 1999 run. Was that during the return of the red and yellow?

Hogan in 1993 and Hogan in 1999. Both had a "not this shit again" vibe to them.

FYI, a lot of 2002 TV is up on the network now. Some general takeaways: There is A LOT of male on female violence. Multiple times in the same show sometimes. I'm glad we've moved away from that. Their roster is so loaded. Great mix of longtime company guys, big stars, old vets and young guys. They seemed more willing to experiment with pairings back then so you occasionally get an odd match like Hogan vs. Regal or Undertaker vs. Tommy Dreamer. I'm curious to see how Brock Lesnar would be handled if he debuted today. I have no doubt he would still be a big deal, but I wonder if they would push him as hard without the usual political BS/humbling that hampers everyone these days. It was very refreshing to see them push a guy to stardom so hard and actually stick to that plan. At one time, John Cena was not the face of the company. This is hardly news, but its so weird in hindsight watching Cena in mid-card feuds with Billy Kidman and Chavo Guerrero. I think they could have did more with A-Train. I think a big problem with Albert throughout his career is that he's always been the 4th or 5th on the list of big guys on the roster. It's hard to stand out as a monster when you have Big Show, Undertaker and Lesnar on the same roster.

A bunch of Raws and Smackdown from 2002 and 2003 uploaded. John Cena with "Red Dog" Rodney Mack as a second. Wow, I barely remember any of this stuff.

Wow, Nia Jax is a big girl. Wasn't really expecting that from her vignettes. Didn't somebody just bring up how cool it would be to have a monster in the NXT Women's division for Bayley to work? This could be really good

And it's really amazing how much happened in the WWF this week. It's understandable since it was the day before the period you guys covered, but you didn't even really get into the huge Kane debut. What a crazy time.

Sabu is a guy who I can always listen to because he's so blunt about everything, it's refreshing. He truly doesn't give a fuck about being political.

Lexi Pillman dabbled in wrestling a little bit, I think she was the stepdaughter from Pillman's previous marriage. Sadly, she passed away a few years ago in a car accident. And I forget if it was Kevin Kelly or Less Thatcher, but one of them went into detail about the Pillman family on a podcast. They lost the house and had a falling out with the Pillman Memorial organizers, sorry I don't remember all the details. Real shitty all around.

I hear ya. Raven's a guy who almost never practices what he preaches.

I dunno, I got a weird feeling Rusev is gonna come out of this thing just fine and possibly as a babyface. Don't really have the mechanics of it figured out in my head yet but I think the casuals are catching on to just how awesome this guy is. He's my early, early pick to win the Rumble.

Raven was on Austin's podcast today and pretty much echoed Parv's thoughts on Benoit. Said he hated working him because he never let stuff breathe. I agree with most of what has already been said and I'll throw Ron Simmons on the list as an honorable mention. I don't think he ever put all of the pieces together as a complete package but god damn I could watch him throw people straight through the ring all day.