C.S.

What's wrong with Aldis? Zicky Dice seems like a total clown, at least in this interview, whereas Aldis represents the NWA and title with respect and class. He's a great champion and representative for the organization. As for Starks, his potential is obvious, but I think he's still green and a few years away from really hitting his "prime," so to speak. He has the potential to be truly great in the future. It's a shame the NWA didn't work out for him, because a couple more years of seasoning there would have really helped him.

I mean, this is a pretty flimsy argument. I could easily say, well, Bryan was trained by Shawn Michaels, so he instantly had a spotlight on him and was able to parlay that into opportunities other struggling indie wrestlers could never fathom. See how silly that sounds? Except, it's kinda true. Shawn did use his influence to get his guys spots. Lance Cade, as a bigger guy, had the most immediate success and got to WWE first. Brian Kendrick made it there eventually. We all know about Bryan. (I feel like I'm forgetting someone.) Of course, Bryan's incredible work also became his calling card - I was hearing about "The American Dragon" a full decade or more before he got to the WWE, and even before he got to ROH - and he deserves full credit for that. But does he? I would argue, very strongly, that "the indie influence" is largely overblown during Bryan's run. If we're talking Trips and NXT now, yes, you have a point. But Bryan's WWE rise was a few years before that. Do you think Vince ever watched an indie match in his life? Please! It all goes back to Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, not ROH. Without Bret and HBK showing Vince that "smaller" wrestlers could be credible champions, there's no Bryan. So, what it boils down to is that Daniel Bryan has Bret Hart and his own trainer Shawn Michaels to (indirectly) thank for his WWE success.

Dunne is a future main eventer. Roddy, well, is not. In the big picture (which I realize isn't always something WWE does well), a Dunne win makes sense. Plus, The Undisputed Era defeated Team McAfee at WarGames, so this result could be looked at as the usual 50-50 booking. Either way, I suspect we've all given it a lot more thought than anyone in NXT has.

There are now shitheads creating fake Twitter profiles of Brodie Jr. and Amanda. I hate people!

Ditto about my feelings toward Bryan, who I consider the best wrestler of his generation, but Bret is an all-timer for me. I also agree that Bret > Shawn in just about every metric.

To me, this is the epitome of Bryan vs. Roman - at least so far. Definitely a rivalry, not a feud, as you define it. WrestleMania can and probably will change that though, assuming that's the match. I would argue that Bret vs. Shawn was definitely much more of a feud than Bryan-Reigns has been, at least so far. I'm not saying the Bryan-Wyatt matches were shit or anything - of course not - but I think you are severely underrating the Bret-Diesel matches, which I remember being fun and smartly constructed. I assume that has to do with a dislike of Diesel more than anything to do with Bret, but Nash actually had on his working boots in his WWE run and didn't really became Big Lazy until WCW. WWE is always going to revert back to a big man monster formula as long as Vince is alive. Any deviations from that - even this current long one - is never anything more than an aberration. However, Bret and Shawn absolutely did re-educate fans into appreciating their style vs. the Hogan/Warrior style. Saying there were extenuating circumstances (such as the steroid trial, which I also pointed out) doesn't change that fact, especially since there were also extenuating circumstances leading to Bryan's push (the fans completely and brutally turning on Batista's Royal Rumble win and a stale Batista-Orton main event). There will always be extenuating circumstances whenever Vince breaks out of his big man bubble. I guarantee you, if there weren't two brands, Roman (who is a "big man" compared to the rest of the current roster) would be the only champ, and AJ, Owens, etc. would not have had sustained runs. If Omos (AJ's bodyguard) is magically a decent worker, he'll be pushed to the moon. Plus, Bryan came in a time where fans were more "educated" about working styles, which also helped him, AJ, etc. That began in the WWF with Bret and Shawn. Every wrestler you named owes their WWE careers to Bret and Shawn. Even though I would rank Hart Foundation higher than you, I can't disagree about the quality of those other teams. I do think Strike Force and The Brainbusters had a lot less longevity though (in the WWF). LOD was pretty much over-the-hill by the time they arrived, and their run basically began when the Hart Foundation's was ending (there is a bit of overlap, and the two had a match on - I believe - Coliseum Video that was a total Bret carry-job because Hawk was high). No apology necessary. I forgot about the feud too, so I guess you can call me ignorant.

I'll respond to @MoS tomorrow because there's a lot to unpack there, including a new thread to read (and I had no idea threads could be embedded in posts), but I just wanted to jump in and say I cannot believe I forgot to mention this epic feud in one of my prior posts. It really is an all-time classic that had everything - great wrestling, great sports-entertaining, you name it.

Did Untold ditch the voice-only approach, or am I thinking of a different Network show?

Is it just me does Zicky Dice sound like a delusional a-hole here? https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/exclusives/zicky-dice-discusses-falling-out-nwa-heat-nick-aldis I mean, I certainly don't think Corgan and the not-so-dearly-departed Lagana are necessarily above being carnies, but Dice comes across as a total head case and ego trip in this interview, not only referring to himself in the third person, but doing so with his full wrestling nickname on top of that. Really?! Get a grip, man...

Let's go through your post piece by piece: That's true about Bret, but he still had national and international television coverage then. Bryan, by and large, did not. Doing one-shots or a few tours in Japan in this era means nothing to me, because that's something every ham 'n hagger from ROH has had access to. Carving a lengthy career there is far more impressive. Of course, I am not blind to Bryan's talent at all. He could have been a top guy in Japan for decades if he wanted to be - assuming there were no "gaijin" or "Junior Heavyweight" politics standing in his way. So, who are the five teams ahead of them? They're easily top 2-3 in my book for WWF teams of the 1980s. I was genuinely asking. I still wouldn't hold it against Bret though. That schedule was grueling. Why kill yourself in Peoria when the fans of that time won't care or appreciate it, and Vince won't see it and reward you for it? I wouldn't. Yes and no. Bryan also came up in a system and among fans who actively cared about "great matches." Bret did not. He made fans graduate from the Hulk/Warrior type of match to appreciating his more technical style. I'd argue that what Bret accomplished was just as impressive in his own way. Also, he doesn't get that main event spot if he doesn't get over slowly but surely in the midcard/IC scene. Acting like Bryan was the only self-created star and Bret wasn't is a ludicrous myth. Yes, luck and circumstances helped Bret along (steroid trial, etc.), but the same is true of Bryan - that doesn't happen if fans don't completely shit all over Batista and a stale Batista-Orton main event. You are really starting to lose me here. Bret vs. Shawn wasn't a "real" feud because they ended up hating each other? Whaaaaaat?! They feuded for the better part of ten years, on and off - first with The Hart and Hart Foundation and The Rockers, after as singles in the IC Division, and finally as main eventers for the World Title. That is absolutely one of Bret's signature feuds. So is Austin. So are a few others. The Authority feud reshaping WWE booking is such a double-edged sword, but it would of course be unfair to hold that against Bryan. The Kofi feud was very good, but it was one and done. With that said, I'd count Piper as one of Bret's signature feuds even though it was also one and done, so I'll give you Kofimania because it was epic. We'll see if the Bryan vs. Roman feud becomes as epic as you're imagining, but most of what they've done in the past was pretty forgettable feud-wise. Doesn't mean I wouldn't love to see more though, because I absolutely would and I hope we do. This is where you've completely fucking lost me... No Wyatt match - I don't care who his opponent is - will ever be better than any Bret match. But I suppose that's because I saw Bret vs. Diesel (very good matches, BTW) as a kid. P.S. Starting a thread centered around a question and then sniping at someone who gives you an answer you don't like or doesn't pick the same wrestler you did is considered very poor form.

Are people really holding Bret's tag team run and lack of main event singles matches during that run against him? Come on. Different time. Different philosophy. He was never going to be pushed as a top singles guy in the '80s (even in the NWA) or given access to the quality of opponents Bryan was at that point in their early respective careers. Don't think it's fair to use that as a knock against Bret. Also, as others said, "have the best match" was the philosophy when Bryan was coming up. It was not the philosophy in three shows a night, twice on Sundays WWF of the 1980s. With that said, have we ever heard reports of Bret dogging it at house shows? IMO, compare their main event runs and go from there. For me, it's Bret. Does Bryan really have one classic, career-defining feud under his belt? Not in WWE. Bret does. Note: I said feud, not matches. Bryan has a ton of great rasslin' matches, but name his one defining career opponent. You can't. (And I don't mean what he did in bingo halls in front of 200 people.)

Haven't looked at the video yet, but I assume you mean Kofi Kingston? Eddie Kingston appearing on a WWE video for any reason would be huge news.

Interviewer: What do you think Herb Abrams would be doing now? Mick Foley: Time. (Laughter) Herb Abrams would be doing time.

Jon Alba too, before the idiot admitted he only skimmed the article, and then erased all of his tweets about it.

Is that real or just a fantastic and hilarious shop?

Probably should've done this days ago. He might still have a job if he did. What an idiot.

Fucking savage, LOL. On a serious note, I'm shocked no one is digging into Bruce's teaching career and looking for something. Not that I would seriously advocate for that - I most definitely would not - but Twitter being Twitter and sleazy, slimy, scuzzy rasslin' fans being what they are, I'm surprised. As for Mitchell making money from the Torch, who knows, but with his teaching career, I was always under the impression that the Torch was a side gig with very little or no money involved.

Nothing IMO. But Dave loves Bruce and even named "The Mitchell Rule" (or something like that) after him. I was thinking Bruce would be used more for the website - columns, podcasts, etc. - than the actual newsletter. When I last subscribed to the Torch a few months ago, the newsletter seemed like an afterthought - it was 90% show results and 10% old news - with the website and podcasts in particular being the real focus. I have no idea if the Observer is the same way now. The Torch was much better a decade ago and seems like a shell of its former self now - at least if you're like me and only interested in the newsletter (Torch Talks, once the bread and butter, are nonexistent now) and don't care about podcasts. Needless to say, I didn't renew after the month was up.

No idea why I ventured onto Bruce's Twitter (I don't follow him anymore). I'm too curious for my own good, I guess. He's posting song lyrics and, well, this... WTF is he talking about? @rovert

Sad to see it come to that, but Bruce doubling down like an arrogant twat presumably left Wade no choice. I assume Dave will scoop him up, which would be a disastrous mistake IMO, but he'll have to deal with those consequences (I could see AEW/Khan completely cutting off access to Dave - Meltzer Driver or not - if that happened).

Bruce is doubling down on his bullshit. Just awful. I am not one to say Wade Keller should "cancel" a 30-year friendship and business relationship, especially since Dave Meltzer worships Bruce and would probably scoop him up, but I'm not so sure that would be such a bad thing for Wade at this point (or a good thing for Dave).

Which is awesome, but the problem is, this is WWE, so there will be very little follow-up and no push of any kind resulting from this - just the usual 50-50 booking.

Cole used to work in TV news and I believe covered wars and things of that nature, so it's probably part of his training.

Sarcasm?

This dumb dipshit wrote a book called Shooters and now thinks he's one. (This is neither here nor there, but the book was a total bore - I couldn't even finish it, and I managed to finish Mayor Kane.)