C.S.

Bo wouldn't be underwhelming to me. Didn't Meltzer say the new person would make us wish for Erick Rowan? Who would fit into that dubious category?

In the mainstream media, sure. But rasslin' fans will forgive anything. Look at Steve Austin.

Has this been mentioned yet? Psychosis, Juventud Guerrera, and Super Crazy debuting without masks in the WWE as the Mexicools, complete with an entrance where they rode on lawnmowers. Who thought up this crap? Wasn't Vince Russo, who'd usually get the blame for something like that, but I think even he'd blush at something so awful and offensive.

She's one of the worst babyfaces I've ever seen. She needs to turn heel ASAP. Didn't Bill DeMott haze her for "not being attractive"? I remember reading that.

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 is terrible, because top babyfaces have done far worse. Yep. Taker/Wyatt at WM never should've happened. It lessened the impact of this return and the Mania match sucked. Maybe the poor suckers who paid $60 for the show might feel that way, but in the Network era, it's slightly more acceptable. I disagree that this was anything like the Fingerpoke anyway, but I can understand why people would be disappointed.

Some random observations: - Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt sucked. No chemistry whatsoever. Bray's heat and impact are ice cold, and his character is completely illogical. He spouts off nonsense because he's "fat and strange." There's no consistency. The hooded mystery man finish was wasted on Luke Harper. How was that special? That type of scenario should only be done when the person behind the hood is someone unexpected. Instead, it was the most obvious person. Why bother with the smoke and mirrors then? - Charlotte is so badly miscast as a babyface. Outside the ring (her facials, body language, etc.), she looked completely lost. Please turn her heel ASAP. The match itself was okay - certainly nowhere near any of the classics in NXT - but not bad. I expected Charlotte to get the win, but part of me was rooting for Sasha to get that big push. Then again, maybe her NXT Title is enough for now, and it's better to spread the wealth. Not sure. Either way, I hope Charlotte turns on her partners sooner rather than later. - Owens tapped out to Cena. It was what it was. We all knew it was coming. The match itself was good, but not as good as their others. The finisher spamming is a trend I'm so sick of. In a way, I'm glad Cena's reign will continue, because the open challenge has been among the most fun stuff of his career. I have no worries about Owens regaining his heat, because he's just that good. I hope the Cena/Owens feud is over though. Time to move on. - I knew Brock vs. Rollins was going to end with some kind of inconclusive finish when there were only 14 minutes left from bell-time. The Undertaker's return was awesome, but I had two issues with it: 1. How much more impactful would it have been if Taker had skipped Mania entirely instead of wasting his time in a bad match with Bray Wyatt that set both of them back? 2. Lesnar was a babyface for Rollins, but now he's a heel again for Undertaker? The writing is as bad, sloppy, and inconsistent as I've ever seen it. Almost none of the characters or their motivations are ever logical or consistent, which makes it that much harder to care about anyone. And if that was somehow meant to be an Undertaker heel turn, someone forgot to tell the fans. I don't think so though.

The Ultimate Warrior ripoff in Streets of Rage 1 and 2. Apparently, his name is Abadede. http://streetsofrage.wikia.com/wiki/Abadede

From http://wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2015/0718/598427/solomon-crowe-cuts-a-promo-on-the-wwe-nxt-title/ (emphasis mine): "For what it's worth, Solomon Crowe cut an in-ring promo at last night's WWE NXT live event in Cocoa Beach about how he would die in the ring for the fans and about how he's focused on coming for the NXT Title in 2015." Is this guy an idiot or just a complete goof?

The Headhunters example above reminded me of this: The Blackharts (Dave "Gangrel" Heath and Tom Nash) making one appearance on WCW Saturday Night, only to never be seen again after that. I want to say this was early or mid-'90s, maybe '93-'94? Could be as late as '95. I remember thinking they were cool as hell, and I was disappointed that it was a once and done scenario. WCW always felt so weird and disorganized to me as a kid because stuff like this was entirely too commonplace. And then there's this - holy shit - from 1997: Dave Heath vs. Rey Mysterio on WCW Worldwide. According to Wikipedia, Heath also appeared on Worldwide in 1998, teaming with Michael Nova, against the Faces of Fear (Heath and Nova obviously lost). It turns out Heath was also the masked Black Phantom in the WWF from '93 to '95: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=BLACK+PHANTOM+WWF All of this was before his rise to stardom as Gangrel during the Attitude Era in '98. Other than the one Blackharts match on WCW Saturday Night, I don't remember any of it.

I liked Jim Powers too. Never understood why he didn't get a push. Ditto for Barry Horowitz (other than the Skip angle, but that didn't work because Horowitz isn't a natural babyface IMO).

Also, if any woman is going to get the push as THE Diva of the division, it will be Charlotte, not Sasha. At best, I see Sasha being the Psychosis to Charlotte's Rey (not comparing their ring work, just the dynamic).

Where are you seeing this? I can't find anything anywhere. Great news though!

This still has all of the leaked documents: http://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2015/7/8/8912989/be-yourself-now-heres-a-list-of-stuff-not-to-do- Most of these rules are fine. The commentary still sucks though, probably because Vince is yelling in their ears for three hours. Look how much better the commentary was on the Japanese "Beast in the East" special, presumably because Vince wasn't there to "produce" them. Am I saying Michael Cole was perfect and suddenly morphed into the next Gordon Solie or Jim Ross? No. But he was actually very decent, maybe on par with a Tony Schiavone type. What did JBL say and what did Titus do?

The match selection does look pretty damn good, but the aspect ratio issue is a deal-breaker for me. More below... I was one of those posters, and I'll happily defend my stance. Bruce Tharpe apparently paid "big money" to have the footage artificially stretched (fake widescreen). To me, that's absolutely bonkers from a business perspective. Not only is he throwing money away for no reason (money he could be using to benefit this service in other better ways), he's also driving away some potential customers (the WC thread is proof of that). I'll put it another way: Would anyone here have objected to these matches being shown in their original aspect ratio? (4:3 - bars on the left and right sides, like older WWE footage.) I really doubt it. Agreed. Go to any film/DVD/Blu-Ray forum and 99% of the posters there are up in arms if a movie isn't presented in its original aspect ratio. I hate to bring up the "wrestling is art" thing again, but if it's art, don't you want your art preserved and presented the way it was originally? Imagine if someone tried to artificially stretch the Mona Lisa. Why is this any different? If you don't care about the aspect ratio, that's cool and more power to you. But others do care. It is a valid issue. A really infantile post, but you're right, no one is forcing us to pay for this - and I won't. Another thing no one has really brought up: Is this ever going to be able on TV devices? (Roku, AppleTV, PS3/4, etc.) That's more important than you'd think. Yeah, there are workarounds (hooking a computer up to a TV with HDMI, using the built-in browser on a PS3/4 or Xbox, etc.), but that's not the same.

If SBG is bitching about violence and bloodshed now, that's idiotic. However, there's a massive difference between Abby cutting people without permission before he knew he had Hep C (which is still bad, don't get me wrong) and knowingly infecting them with his blade. I don't see how Graham is a hypocrite for speaking out against the latter. He may be full of shit for many other reasons, but not that. Did Graham show questionable judgment by being okay with it before the Hep C issue? Sure. But it became a much more serious matter when Abby's reckless blading infected others (most notably Devon "Hannibal" Nicholson). As New Jack said in the video, what Abby did was attempted murder. Lock that rib shack pig up!

To be fair to SBG in this case, it was later discovered that Abdullah knowingly had Hep C and bladed people anyway. That's a scumbag move of the lowest caliber. Graham had Hep C as well (not from Abdullah), so I can see why he'd be upset and take it personally. So, yeah, fuck Abdullah. He's a fat piece of shit.

Here's a fantastic article about just that: Cookies, Goats, and Pudding: Inside the Bizarre World of Catering for WWE Edit: LOL. I just realized the OP's name is Fantastic. There was absolutely no pun intended by my italicizing of the same word.

Is it fair to list the first version of In Your House: Beware of Dog, where Mother Nature knocked out all the lights and pinned Vince 1-2-3? The second version of that show - with two matches cobbled together from the first - was one hell of a show, though.

My thoughts on some more books: Titan Sinking: I finished it, and while you don't really learn anything new if you've been around long enough, it's still a very entertaining trip down memory lane. My only nitpick is that sometimes it seems rumor and speculation are passed along as fact. I recommend it though - and I'm looking forward to the 1996 edition. Curtain Call: How An Unscripted Goodbye Changed The Course Of Pro Wrestling (by Dan Ryckert): This isn't mentioned in the OP - I discovered it after. It reminds me somewhat of Titan Sinking, except it's much shorter and covers only the Kliq. Again, nothing new, but a fun trip down memory lane with some interesting tidbits about Shane Douglas and the Bone Street Krew (Taker's clique). There was a lot about the Kliq in Titan Sinking as well, so I could be mixing up what was in there with what's in here. Either way, this isn't a bad companion piece of sorts to the Titan book, even though they're both by different authors. Dusty Wolfe's "books": They're all single columns really - no more than 5-10 pages each. I really enjoyed the ones about other wrestlers the most. The soapbox and general history pieces from him weren't as interesting to me. That's just my opinion though. The Stamp Collection: A mixture of poetry, Dennis Stamp's oversized ego, and some fun stories. Yes, this is as strange as it sounds. He has no love lost for Blackjack Mulligan, Dick Murdoch, and especially Bruiser Brody. He takes a particularly nasty shot about Brody's murder. Still, that's balanced by an incredible story at the end involving Terry Funk and a sick child that will leave you in tears. Like him or not, Dennis Stamp is definitely one of a kind, LOL. (And in case you're wondering, no, there's no mention of "Beyond the Mat" anywhere in the book.) Latin Thunder: I'm reading this one now, and while I have no idea who the hell the author is, I still like it so far. He is very thankful to his first trainer, even though the carny con man essentially took his money and ran. That's a bit much for me, making him sound like a brainwashed "respect the business, brother" type. Still, I do like it so far. Any book that starts out with Skandor Akbar (who was not the trainer I mentioned above) has to be at least decent. I tried reading the Tom Prichard book, but I wasn't in the mood for it. Maybe I'll go back to it after. I'm also not really looking forward to reading the two Snuka books, for obvious reasons.

DiBiase's speech for the face turn was amazing, but of course WCW didn't capitalize on it, because WCW was WCW-ing as usual. Another one: Someone else in other thread mentioned "Supersock" Jose Lothario. I had almost forgotten about the period in Michaels' career where he was managed by his trainer. What a complete waste of time that was. No one knew who the hell "Supersock" was, and he wasn't over a lick in the role.

I've always heard that he's technically not a Jr. because it's Vincent J. McMahon and Vincent K. McMahon. Apparently, the middle initial makes a difference.

Sorry to respond to such old posts, but I had to say something. Meltzer is the very last person I'd take seriously about technology. He is somewhat famously known for his lack of skills in that dept. Imagine if GFW had somehow gotten on Netflix, with all of the promotional backing that comes with that. That would be a huge deal IMO. Of course, as we know by now, something like that probably won't happen. But my point is, traditional TV doesn't necessarily have to be the be-all and end-all anymore - and it's becoming less and less important with each passing year. However, if GFW's idea of an online presence is expecting people to go on their website or look up videos on YouTube, that won't get them anywhere. They need something big, like a Netflix deal.

I caught it. The new format is dreadful and the entire show was a colossal dud. A bit of an exaggeration to say NO ONE there has star potential - I think ZZ, the Indian guy, the black guy, and one or two others do (sorry for using such generic descriptors, but I don't remember enough about any of them to specify further) - but the show sucks so far.

The presence of the Harris Boys smells like a Jeff Jarrett move. They were always his boys. Wonder if this means increased involvement for Jarrett/GFW in TNA. My money's on yes.