C.S.

Speaking of good finish guys, Johnny Ace used to be cited as one. How accurate is that? How overrated or underrated is he with finishes specifically?

My advice: Don't do anything you don't want to do. If stops becoming fun and starts feeling like work, that will lead to burn out, and that's no good for you or any of your devoted readers.

Nah, because Steph McMahon will still be there, and nobody will ever want to burn that bridge.

More scummy sleaze by WWE:

Tremendous recap, @The Thread Killer. This whole scenario makes WCW look so bad, like the bush league it was and really never stopped being, even when things were hot. Why the fuck should Vader have to call the arena or agents and tell them he's fulfilling another obligation for the company? That should be Bischoff's job, just like it should've been Bischoff's job to enforce Vader doing it when it was supposed to be done instead of putting it off for four months and kicking off the chain of events that led to this monumental shitshow. I had no idea Arn and particularly Haku were so closely involved, so that was new and interesting information to learn. Vader probably deserved to be fired, but it sounds like the real reason for it was more because he was playing hardball with contract negotiations, and Bischoff used this as an excuse to get rid of someone he was fed-up of dealing with. Unpopular pain in the ass or not, Vader probably knew he was a special talented, acted accordingly, and expected to be compensated accordingly. It's a shame things went even worse for him in WWE. Yeah, I was referring to You Can't Kill David Arquette. I haven't watched the documentary yet. Should I wait for TTK's recap first so I can do a double feature of sorts? Count me in as another one, BTW, who would love to read a Herd recap.

So, if Drew has Rona, does this mean Keith Lee and Goldberg are also in quarantine?

Sadly, all of this would be 100x more compelling than whatever we do get.

Thank goodness... What a fresh, exciting, new match!

Watched The Broken Skull Sessions with Bayley last night... Nothing earth-shattering, but a couple of things stood out to me: - Austin is obviously a huge fan of Bayley's work and was far more familiar with her overall career than I was expecting. - Bayley seems like such a genuinely nice, cool, chill person. You can see why she was such an effective babyface (in NXT at least). It makes her current heel work all the more impressive, especially now that she has found her footing with that. - Bayley vs. Sasha Banks at Hell in a Cell 2020 seems like a thousand years ago already, but I forgot 1. it happened 2. it happened recently, and 3. what a fun match it was. (I'll have to dig up the thread to see what I thought of it then. I hope I was in the right mindset to appreciate it at the time.) - Bayley addressed winning and losing the Women's Tag Team Titles so quickly the first time around. She mentioned being very proud of the WrestleMania match (the one they lost), proud of Nattie and Beth's involvement, and said they watched it back after with The Iiconics. Nothing about getting on the floor, throwing a tantrum, or Ryan Satin. Speaking of which, I'm still not sure how that guy constantly falls upward - from a mid-tier "sheet" website (that I'm assuming had less visitors than Observer, Torch, PWInsider, or even stuff like Cageside Seats, Wrestling Inc., WrestleZone, etc., but probably more visitors than most of the generic "newz" sites) to actual work with WWE. Not begrudging his WWE gig, as that's "the dream" - but of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, WWE walked into his of all people?!

Arquette won't get any votes, but it has mine. The documentary is on Hulu now, so watching that and then reading @The Thread Killer's recap sounds like a perfect "double feature" to me.

Being in the middle of nowhere with tons of acres of land appeals to some people. Brock apparently has a similar setup somewhere.

My one and only live ROH show - Supercard of Honor II: BJ Whitmer vs. Jimmy Jacobs in a cage for the sheer spectacle of seeing something that insane live. The Dragon Gate match afterward was also incredible as a pure display of athleticism and acrobatics. I can't pick just one because it's apples and oranges, so let's call it a tie. I've attended various WWE events (house shows, Raw/Smackdown, and PPVs), one WCW PPV (Uncensored either 1999 or 2000 - they both had the same main event, and the fact that I can't remember which one I attended in person pretty much says it all), and ECW Living Dangerously 2000. But either there was very little that was memorable from an in-ring standpoint and/or my seats were too crappy to really appreciate the matches. (I had a perfect view of the Grimes/New Jack scaffold match, for whatever that's worth.) Out of all of those shows, the one match that sticks out in my memory is a Raw cage match with the Hardy Boys, probably against Edge and Christian, because that was cool to see live. I remember the entire show being a pretty fun night. No idea how it played on TV though. There were some awesome APW indie matches I saw live too, but it's been 20+ years, so don't ask me which ones. Michael Modest and Christopher Daniels were always highlights though, and I loved a team back then called The Westside Playas 2000 that I'm surprised never really made it anywhere that I know of.

What a superb analysis, @The Thread Killer. Sounds like Bischoff came out ahead if your "golden parachute" theory is correct. He clearly went into it with no real desire to work in professional wrestling full-time ever again, did it because he needed the money, wanted to make it work anyway but couldn't, and now he presumably has enough money to enjoy life, invest in businesses, and pursue his passions - all while still being able to collect random paychecks from AEW for the occasional cameo. I doubt he's losing sleep over his so-called "loss of reputation" - especially since 90% of that is from sheet readers who never liked him anyway - so I'd actually say "gamed" WWE and "won."

Ludvig Borga ended Tatanka's streak, not Yokozuna. Which would've been fine, except Borga got fired in short order. After that, you're right, Tatanka kind of floundered until the heel turn. Goldberg beat Hogan, only to have his streak ended by Hogan's bitch, after Hogan's other bitch cosplayed as The Mountie and gave us an awful comedy finish that was the shits, followed by the entire match being further cheapened via the Fingerpoke of Doom. Atrocious booking all around. Asuka's streak was a victim of being an NXT idea that no one in control of main roster WWE was interested in. Brock was the absolute wrong person to end Taker's streak, which never should've been ended IMO, and was completely different from the other streaks we're talking about here anyway.

Another tremendous, tremendous recap, @The Thread Killer. This has quickly become my favorite thread on PWO - even more than goofy but still incredibly entertaining "Everyone is better than Triple H" thread. Whoa! This is a pretty serious accusation to level at a person or company. Conrad is lucky it's "just rasslin'," because this kind of wild speculation would get him sued six ways to Sunday if he made it about any "legitimate" organization. With that said, Vince is so carny that you never know. Not to mention, he was already embroiled in other lawsuits with shareholders.

With Kane, Linda McMahon, Val Venis, animal pelt guy, or someone else? This is where the quote function of this board becomes especially useful.

It's just sleazy, slimy, scuzzy, "doesn't matter," "will never count" pro rasslin', so nothing will come of this, but wouldn't be it something if Linda's political aspirations is what ends up being the thing that finally bites WWE in the ass.

Anti-masker Glenn Jacobs once again proves that his reputation as "one of the smartest guys in wrestling" is - like most everything else in the industry - absolute fucking bullshit. Buck Sexton - whoever the fuck that is - is living proof that Twitter hands out blue checkmarks way too easily.

Goldberg did turn heel for a hot minute - remember him attacking cancer survivor Jim Duggan? - and it was brutal.

So, no talk about former NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion "Scrap Iron" Adam Pearce facing WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble? Assuming the match actually happens, and if that's a big if, I'm intrigued. At the very least, it's something new and unexpected - two words rarely used to describe WWE these days.

Another amazing recap. Can't wait for Part 3!

I think ending the streak would have done DDP more harm than good. It would have severely damaged a hot babyface act who got over organically (don't @ me with the "Bischoff's neighbor" crap, lol) because the fans would have resented him for it. Nash ending the streak was ludicrous, especially in light of what came before (Goldberg beating Hogan) and what happened after (the "fingerpoke of Doom"). Nash had been Hogan's underling at one point and therefore always the lesser of the two, so it wasn't believable at all. He had also cooled down considerably, so he wasn't nearly over enough at that point in time to 1. main event Starrcade 2. end the streak. It never, ever felt warranted or earned. Yes, it was a dirty finish with multiple people interfering and Scott Hall doing his best goofy midcarder Mountie cosplay with that atrocious shock stick finish, but still. If they were attempting to "protect" Goldberg, it didn't work. No one came out looking better after all that nonsense. And then the "fingerpoke" was the final fuck you from WCW to the audience, while Schiavone buried Mick Foley on commentary (per Bischoff's orders) and sent their dwindling fanbase switching over to USA Network in record numbers. So, who should have ended the streak? Hell if I know... WCW was pretty fucking lousy about making new stars, and I'm still shocked they somehow managed not to monumentally screw-up Goldberg despite all of the political pressure there must have been along the way to do so. If I'm forced to give an answer, I'd say Scott Steiner (but not cleanly). He was the closest thing they had to resembling a credible main event heel. If they hadn't completely screwed the pooch on Bret Hart, he might've been a viable choice. But with WCW being WCW, that ship had long sailed by the time Goldberg was ready to end the streak.

What an amazing recap. Thank you! I was actually worried that Bischoff had to sell his dream home in Wyoming when he moved to CT for WWE, which ended up being ill-fated, so I'm quite relieved that wasn't the case.

Won't ever happen because Linda McMahon threw away millions of dollars donating to a Trump re-election Super-PAC. The McMahons are all-in with Trump.

Came here to post the same thing. He both looked and sounded like shit. Hope he’s okay. That aside, he came across as arrogant and clueless, and didn’t really add much of anything to the episode.