Dwide Schrude

Watching him get fired on national television was one of the funniest things I'd seen. So he still gets my vote. I hear "most negatively effected by WCW closing" and the guy that gets humiliated on national television immediately comes to mind.

You could induct "the nWo" but the problem there is that everyone on WCW's roster was nWo at one time or another plus one of those race car drivers.

Fair enough, I do see the difference now. All the same, I stand by the fact that if Bret was the actual champion he wouldn't have been fighting Hakushi (and the original discussion was about Hakushi's push). You can consider him an uncrowned champion, but the guys he's fighting aren't championship level contenders by proxy.

I don't hide it from anyone. In fact, on the brochure advertising for the magnet school I teach at, I had them put "big pro wrestling fan" in my bio. I talk to my students about it, too. It's funny because some of them think it's real (high school seniors).

Not sure I agree with this. Bret wasn't anywhere near the title picture and wasn't until the Survivor Series where it almost felt like they booked that match out of nowhere. We often have a favorite wrestler and like to consider them "uncrowned champion" and I get that, but that logic doesn't really apply to this topic. By that logic, can we say Daniel Bryan just defended his title against Bray Wyatt at the Royal Rumble? No and Diesel was the champion. And had Bret been the champion then ironically, Hakushi wouldn't have been fighting him at ppvs.

If WWE wants Daniel Bryan to move numbers, let's just all go to WWE.com and order all the Daniel Bryan t-shirts, fake beards, and everything else.

I believed the Shawn Michaels collapsing in the ring, too, but that's already been said. Here's one I haven't read yet and frankly I'm still not sure whether or not there were shoot elements to it. Around 2 or 3 years ago TNA was doing an in-ring promo with Ric Flair and Mick Foley. And every time Foley would try to respond to Flair, Ric would do something like slap him or knock the mic out of his hand. I couldn't tell if that was scripted or Flair just didn't like him and refused to let him get a word in.

I really liked Maria Mennounos introduction speech for Backlund at last year's HOF. I had no idea she was that close with Backlund and knew so much about his career. It was very touching and came from the heart and she talked about some things I hadn't known about Backlund prior. Much better in contrast to Captain Kirk giving a rehearsed speech about Jerry Lawler that was centered around a forgettable segment of Raw where Lawler put him over.

I think this argument was put to rest at the Royal Rumble, though, when everyone shit on Cena/Orton and the last few minutes of the Rumble match. If people just like chanting YES then they wouldn't have reacted like that. But wrestling fans by and large are a massive group of miserable dickheads who like nothing better than to shit on things, just because. Not saying DB isn't popular, he clearly is massively popular. But there is a percentage of people chanting for Daniel Bryan during a Randy Orton match because they cannot wait to film it and upload it to YouTube under their YT account "AmericanDragonEST1999" or go onto wrestlingforum.com and talk shit, just because. I agree wrestling fans can be like that, but I think the Royal Rumble really wasn't one of those times. Especially since they didn't crap on the entire Rumble match, but rather once the number 30 entrant was announced and it wasn't Daniel Bryan. I dunno. I agree with what you're saying, but the feel I got from Royal Rumble wasn't your typical smart marks trying to get themselves over as much as it was people that were legitimately pissed and were letting it known.

I think this argument was put to rest at the Royal Rumble, though, when everyone shit on Cena/Orton and the last few minutes of the Rumble match. If people just like chanting YES then they wouldn't have reacted like that.

Ended up ordering the ppv and boy was I letdown. I kept doing the math thinking there was still a chance they'd send Bryan out, but once we got to 29 and 30 and I knew Big E and Rey weren't in yet reality started to set in. So disappointed. The crowd shitting on the Rumble and the title match was a silver lining for me, though. Since Bryan got the shaft I'm glad the crowd made the whole show suffer. The night ended up still being memorable because this was a first for me. Sure, crowds turn on stars all the time, but I never saw this kind of reaction in the closing moments of a Royal Rumble. It was hilarious.

The thing is, if Daniel Bryan isn't in the Royal Rumble, I don't want to order it. But I'll be really pissed if he's a surprise entrant and wins and I didn't. Do I sound like a spoiled brat pro wrestling fan? Oh I'm sure of that, but whatever. The three ppvs following Summerslam were the first non big four ppvs I ordered in years. And when Big Show/Orton headlined without Daniel Bryan at the Survivor Series, I saved my money. Now I've been holding out for them saving the Daniel Bryan (real) title reign for Wrestlemania, but if he's not even in the Rumble the hope is pretty much over prematurely.