The Chief

Goldberg never regaining the WCW Title

Lance Wright as the Shotgun Saturday Night ring announcer in 1997 Terry Taylor as a backstage interviewer in 1999 WWF

I think part of the blame lies on WWE booking, but I also feel part of the blame lies on the out of sight, out of mind nature of the wrestling business. The fans got burned out of seeing Bryan wrestle two years in a row due to injury. A lot of fans just lose investment in a guy when he runs into a string of setbacks like that. I know he was never anywhere near as over, but look at Ahmed Johnson. He was really hot in 1996, then he got hurt and it wasn't the same. He kept getting hurt and he was less over each time he came back. It sucks, but that's just the way it goes unfortunately.

I called the ECW Hotline once. It was during the time when the Radicalz were making the jump to the WWF. My buddy had the Internet and I didn't but somehow he convinced me Joey Styles scoop on what was "really" going on was too important to pass up. After twenty minutes of "Dean Malenko was somewhat unhappy with this that happened, but, if you believe what was reported, and if you believe Dean said what was reported, you might understand why he reported something similar to what was reported..." I gave up. Reminded me of Homer calling the Football hotline: "the wind......is.......blowing......to the left.....but.......if...." Needless to say my parents took all of my paycheck that week

I forgot why, but for some reason he started believing he was all of his old non WWE gimmicks. One week he was Kruschev, the next he was The Bully. I think it was just on Worldwide so maybe six people saw it.

Shooting at road signs drunk, gouging eyes out at bars, gasoline in asthma inhalers, old-time road stories can get pretty crazy. I think it's entirely possible that one of those wrestlers may have murdered somebody and only they know about it. If you had to pick out of these three, who would fit the bill: 1. Harley Race 2. Mr. Fuji 3. Bob Backlund

The best Darsow gimmick was his identity crises gimmick in 1999 WCW

Just bit the bullet on this but probably won't be using it much until the app is available. Selection looks great! Butch Reed vs. Eddie Gilbert Really dug how Gilbert sold the fact that simply getting within Reed's reach was dangerous. Nice arm work from Gilbert to counter Reed's power. Reed is so god damn strong that a simple vertical suplex looks like death and the crowd pops accordingly. Reed murders Gilbert with a shoulder block for the win. Fun weasel heel vs powerhouse match. Going to sleep now but can't wait to check out more of this stuff tomorrow. Footage was pristine.

Summerslam 2013 was considered a disappointing number by the company and a big reason Bryan was shifted down the card after HIAC that year. His segments started drawing in early 2014 and his merch started selling big time after they ditched the goat stuff and went with the Che Guevera type stuff I could have sworn this was shot down after the final numbers came in...

Kidd's injury was near-death levels of serious so I'm guessing they let her go home to be with him. She wrestled Layla in her first match back on one of the b shows last week. Edit - Loss beat me to it

Are the Mexicools really forgotten though? They were regularly featured on Smackdown for a year. Juvi a little less. Plus all three guys were established elsewhere and this was their only run in WWE. EDIT - Just watched that clip. Man, mid 2000's WWE was weird

What was the last really good babyface DQ loss of theirs, Judgment Day '04? You know, the storyline for that Reigns/Wyatt match could have definitely used a babyface DQ.

How long is Erick Rowan supposed to be out for (and what exactly is his injury)? If they put him back with Wyatt and have all three Wyatt's feud with Reigns, Ambrose and another guy as a quasi-Shield, that could be a lot of fun.

Because no one buys them being so supercharged it takes a company to break them up? I don't buy that it takes 30 guys to separate 2 guys anyway, even if one is Brock Lesnar. Especially when you have guys like Henry, Swagger and Rusev in there. It's wrestling. It's the promotions duty to make you buy into whatever their presenting. The reason why nobody would buy something like that with a Sheamus type is that they don't even fucking try.

The segment was depressing BECAUSE of how much effort was put into it. You know when their heart is into it and they feel somebody is worth their time they can produce amazing stuff. Why can't they do angles like that with someone like Sheamus or Ambrose? Somebody who needs it?

If the lights went off during Diamond Dallas Page vs Goldberg from Halloween Havoc 98 and Flair came out with an entourage and ran over Goldberg in a limo, I kind of wonder how that'd be received. Would Goldberg vs Hogan at the Georgia Dome be a better example? If Flair hadn't been seen in months (and I can't remember if that was the case), the fans would've popped IMO. Same for Taker. Comparing it to the Fingerpoke really isn't accurate. Which wasn't the point. Fans love surprises. Fans popped for the fingerpoke. Of course the fans will pop, it's the friggin' Undertaker. He's been portrayed as a Christ-like figure by the company for decades. The point was that if WCW did the exact same thing people would talking about how dumb it was and "typical WCW" years later. You can book Goldberg at his hottest against another star like a Sting or a DDP and then have 1998 Hulk Hogan comes out and legdrop everybody leading to no finish on a PPV. That's basically what happened last night and if it was WCW, everybody would bitch about how WCW can't let go of the past, etc. This won't immediately tank business but it's part of a bigger problem that's only going to get worse in the years to come.

Finish was the type of thing people would never forgive WCW for. People would still be shitting on that 15 years later like the Fingerpoke.

Predicting some entertaining reactions to Undertaker.

Colonel Debeers managed by Freddie Blaise as Polish Prince Ed Wiskoski on WWF TV in 1983. Bruce Prichard as "The Wizard" late 1992 WWF weekend show commentator. Big Boss Man as Booker T's bodyguard in early 2002. Bobby Eaton popping up briefly in ECW Summer of 2000.

I feel retiring a guy at the Mark Henry level is the right way to go. Someone who isn't seen as an A+ megastar but has enough cred and has been around for a while. I think Kane has enough to give somebody like a Rusev a huge rub on the way out, but without all the emotional investment and baggage that could potentially burden a new guy. I feel like they could have played up the fact that Cody Rhodes and Ted Jr retired Bob Holly a little more. It's not going to kill you if you don't "live up to the hype" but it's a good little notch in your belt.

Go away Taker. Permanently. Going back to my Hashimoto marathon to wash that awful taste out of my mouth. Actually kind of liked the show up until that.

Ok, so even on offense, this guy draws so much sympathy. Probably one of the greatest sympathetic wrestlers of all time. There's something about the way he takes offense from guys then just hits the point where he's like "fuck this" and just destroys dudes. Creeping into my top 15.

Gangrel was hired for the new ECW but never made it out of OVW. Godwin was hired but just worked dark matches tagging with Ray Gordy. Scorpio unfortunately got saddled with the Flash Funk gimmick again and never made TV but he worked Helms on European tours. He made the Raw Reunion show in 2007 as Funk after he was released. D-Lo actually made Raw and had a mini fued with IC Champ Santino before quietly getting released. Tatanka of all people got a one and a half year run on Smackdown out of all these guys.

There was something so loveably goofy about the Z-Man. The way he would point at the camera during his entrance "Yeah! COME ON! WCW number ONE! Let's GO!" It took babyface sucking up to a new level.

I think Punk, Heyman and Show all agreed on that.