C.S.

From J.R.'s Monday blog: Huh? True about the Lucha Dragons and The Usos, but what is he smoking if he doesn't think New Day is red hot?!

I disagree. Yes, we're all aware that you can hook an HDMI cord from your laptop to your TV. Very few people actually want to do that. "Casting" from the Chromecast is a buggy, slow mess at best. Getting on iOS and Apple TV - if possible - is a great idea, but not at the expense of Roku. In a perfect world, this service would be on Roku, Apple TV, PS3/4, Xbox 360/One, etc. - as many devices as possible.

It's also different than what anyone else is doing, which I think would be a good thing.

Not to mention Owens being forced to say the line that he drinks soda and eats popcorn every day - which is basically the same as saying, "I'm a fat hog, and I admit it." This company is terrible.

People criticizing Owens for not being in the same shape he was in NXT really are clueless about how hard dieting is and how much harder it becomes with the demands of the road. When he was in NXT, he was in the same city 99% of the time, got to sleep in his own bed, could work out at the world class Performance Center daily, etc. Much easier to maintain a consistent nutritional program in that scenario. Now that he's on the main roster, he's in a different city every night, has to find a different gym that may or may not be great (and very few, if any, will come close to the Performance Center), and the only restaurant that may be open after the show is Denny's, Waffle House, or some other grease pit along those lines. You can still make reasonable food choices at places like that, but healthy options are so much more limited. Before anyone says something stupid like "But [muscular wrestler inserted here]..." and lists a bunch of gym rats on the roster who have muscles popping out of their muscles, it's not a fair comparison. They were never fat, which cannot be underestimated. Also, they probably have better genetics on their side and may or may not be aided by "vitamins" that Owens obviously isn't taking.

Who here caught the Stone Cold Podcast with Michaels? HBK all but buried Ziggler. He said Ziggler was trying to be like him, which is fine at first because it's good to invite a comparison, but it has to stop there and then the wrestler has to branch out on his own and set himself apart. Kind of odd, because even though I can sort of see it in a way, I never really thought Ziggler was ever trying to be like Michaels.

*I* didn't care about Sasha vs. Becky, and I like them both. Such a difference between NXT, where they were in red hot feuds with purpose, vs. the main roster, where there's no real story/conflict and nothing matters.

Was this thread inspired by my comment here or is that just a coincidence? Anyway, I don't think Halloween Havoc should be so heavily discounted by the OP. At the time, in the build itself, it was always a huge fucking deal. Hogan-Warrior, DDP-Goldberg, Piper's surprise debut, etc. Whether those matches/scenarios worked out is another story entirely, but they felt massive in that four-week period used to hype the show up.

The Beefcake turn might've been a big deal for WWF fans. I actually thought it was cool as a kid...at first. The Three Faces of Fear stable with Sullivan, Beefcake, and Tenta wasn't half-bad either. The only miscalculation was thinking the match was big enough to main event Starrcade. Then again, Starrcade had become marginalized by then anyway. The yokels in Dubya See Dubya could never decide if they wanted it to be their WrestleMania. Half the time, it was an afterthought compared to Halloween Havoc, Bash at the Beach, etc.

I will keep you and your family in my thoughts and prayers.

Great thread, and an awesome defense of Trish. Was there ever anyone in wrestling more useless than Torrie Wilson? She was a 10 - until she opened her mouth. Then she dropped down to a 1 in my eyes. Total fucking airhead with nothing going on between the ears. At least that's how she always came across to me, whether in WCW or WWE. I can't comment about her personality in real life, obviously. At least Stacy Keibler seemed nice and perky - someone who might be fun to spend time with. You can certainly understand why Clooney dated her.

The whole Muhammad Hassan angle proved once and for all that WWE is completely and utterly incapable of sophisticated, complex, grown-up television, and all of its blather about being a variety show with something for everyone is either complete bullshit or a giant delusion. The Brutus turn eventually turned out to be a "long con" when it was it revealed that The Zodiac was Hogan's spy in the Dungeon of Doom. Convoluted rubbish that made no sense, of course, but there are worse explanations out there.

Thank you, sir. And now for The Microscope we've all been waiting for...

Since someone mentioned The Warlord in the Zeamen thread, here goes... Influence: Was Batista's favorite wrestler. Batista is a former World Champion. The Warlord indirectly influenced a future WrestleMania main eventer. If we were talking about Bruno Sammartino, Terry Funk, or some other "favorite," everyone would be praising them for being influential. So, why not Warlord? He deserves his piece of the pie too! Character: Memorable physical specimen. Cool as hell ring gear. Rocked that paint on his face like few others before him. Sweet ass action figure. Underrated Speaker: No one rates him in this dept., so he's underrated. Seriously though, while he was not great, he was no worse than any other "musclehead" of the era. Powers of Pain: One of the best tag teams ever. Best tag team name, I mean. Wrestled in WCW in 1996: Did you know this? I did not know this. But it's true! According to Wikipedia: "After leaving the WWF for the independent circuit, [The Warlord] wrestled two matches in World Championship Wrestling in 1996, one of which was a tag team match where he and [The Barbarian] reunited as the masked Super Assassins." Pizza Hut: This chain's incalculable damage to professional wrestling was thought to be confined to the nitwitted former exec Jim Herd. Unfortunately, its reach of evil extends to The Warlord as well. Again, from Wiki: "The Warlord was forced to retire from wrestling due to suffering neck injuries in a car accident involving a Pizza Hut delivery van in 1996." In all seriousness, that's a tough break and it sucks. I always wondered why we never saw him during the Monday Night War era, and now I know why. I'm kinda bummed. But this story, thankfully, has a happy ending... Chikara in 2012: The hell? But it happened, and I must see the footage! Wiki: "In August 2012, Chikara announced that the Warlord would be making his debut for the promotion in the following month's 2012 King of Trios tournament, where he will reunite with the Barbarian and Meng as the 'Faces of Pain'." That sounds pretty badass!!!

Can anyone start one of these threads? Because I'd absolutely start one for The Warlord if I could. Would he make a list I'm compiling? Hell no, but I have to admit I had a soft spot for him when I was a kid.

I agree completely that Raw needs more "cliffhangers" and "hooks," but to be fair, Rhyno is not worthy of building a three-hour mystery segment around. Even those fans with no knowledge of NXT wouldn't consider him a thrilling surprise. And those who do watch NXT, of course, probably weren't surprised at all (I certainly wasn't).

I don't see the harm in discussing every possible wrestler, because you never know what compelling argument someone might have. Unfortunately, I have no such compelling argument for Mr. Z-Man.

"I DID IT FOR THE ROCK!" Seriously, I'm discussing that Rikishi heel turn with someone here now, and while it certainly had major issues, his motive - listing white champion after white champion - was somewhat understandable.

For what it's worth, the Stampede category is still showing up in my Watchlist, but there are no shows available, of course (Roku). Did anyone catch this week's Breaking Ground, and did it look - for lack of better terms - oily and out of focus? Wasn't my connection, because I tried Unfiltered for a couple of minutes as a test and it looked perfect, as did content on other streaming services.

I caught the first Rosebush and didn't get it at all. It's hot garbage. Look, I know we all like Adam Rose and want him to succeed, but this is going to go over 99% of the audience's head. It won't get over. I feel bad for him because I'm rooting for him to make it.

I don't remember GTV being Just Joe or Mean Gene. The actor Tom Green (remember him?) was another rumor, but that never happened. It was originally supposed to be for Goldust, and I can swear I remember it being called GDTV for the first week or two - or am I crazy? I think they did pay this off somehow, but for the life of me, I can't remember who was credited/blamed for being behind GTV. Did Chaz's woman have a G-name? It might've been her.

Didn't GTV reveal that his woman was setting him up?

Who moved the briefcase during that one Austin match? Was that ever resolved? (Can't remember the match, sorry, but I want to say that it involved Boss Man. Could be wildly off though.)

Looks like it... "The Stampede Wrestling episodes that WWE Network added last week have been removed. PWInsider reports that there may be rights issues with the material featuring Bret Hart. WWE owns the Stampede library but Bret has the rights to his matches that were transferred to him personally by his parents before they passed. WWE would technically need to license the footage from Hart to use it." http://wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2015/1207/604522/wwe-pulls-classic-promotion-due-to-bret-hart-matches/

HTM has also said that it made more sense to work with the wrestler's limitations - it would not have best served Warrior or the match to go 20 minutes, etc.