Jesse Ewiak

There is no question 2012 & 2013 put him over the top. His work previous was highly touted, but since barely anybody was paying attention to New Japan before roughly the mid point of 2011, nobody outside a small niche (that word again dammit, but I can't think of a better one) of New Japan loyalists/fans were really paying attention. His in ring work peaked to new absurd levels just at the right time, just as the company as a whole began its rise. I actually have to agree with this. If you go back to the people actually watching New Japan during '07 and '08, aka the 'there's nothing happening in Japan' years (TM Bryan Alvarez), Alan Summers and Mike Semperviese, to name two guys, were both praising Tanahashi as fantastic back then. It's just nobody was watching because it wasn't 1996 anymore.

I think the difference is, sure, Murray pissed away his Box Office cache, but I don't think he pissed away his cultural cache (largely due to having GB and other 80's comedies that were rerun 5,000 times during the 90's and early 00's). So, I think that's why JVK was surprised about his students not knowing who Murray is. Honestly, I was surprised at that number because I remember a decent 'pop' for his reveal when I went to see Zombieland and that was on a weekend where most of the audience was either teenagers or people in their 20's. Maybe he just had a weird class when he asked the question.

"The masses always focus on the Now, especially younger folks. Elvis fans didn't listen to Frank. For Beatles fans, Elvis was the prior decade. When I was a kid, Paul was backed by Wings, George was past his prime, John was retired, and Ringo's peak was over and dead. I became a Beatles fan, but if there were 5 Beatles fans at the time in my entire high school class it would shock the shit out of me. I can remember getting a single "Cool!" comment when wearing my Beatles shirt, though plenty for wearing a Stones shirt since they were still releasing albums." I largely agree with what you said, even though I think Jerry has a couple of decent points, in that as part of the last generation that grew into teenagerdom without the Internet being ubiquitous (late 20's/early 30's), there are older references that I get that people just a few years younger don't get and when I ask them, they've never heard of the book/movie/TV show. But, again, maybe I'm getting old too. However, I actually think it's easier for kids to get into older music these days. Youtube/Spotify/etcerera plus songs being three minutes (as opposed to 30 minute TV shows or 120 minute movies) mean it's easier for a kid to click on a link for an older band and as a result, get into other stuff. On a purely ancedotal level, I see a lot more kids in 'older' band t-shirts than I ever saw at my high school. Now, I'm in Seattle, so it might be different in Des Moines or Peoria, and I'm well aware most kids just listen to the latest hot thing of the moment, but I do think music is the one thing that the Internet has helped widen access too, at least among older stuff. It's one click away instead of having to dig through your Dad's old records or be at some creepy record shop.

I think Jerry's point, is that in the recent past, kids in the 18-22 age would've known Animal House, Ghostbusters, etc. because it would've been shown on TBS/HBO/other major cable companies a zillion times, so they would've been exposed to those titles. Now, the time that would've been spent watching Ghostbusters from 8 to 10 on HBO or USA during a Wednesday night because you're 14 and have nothing else to do is spent watching Youtube videos or Skyping with people. I don't know if I buy that, but I don't think it's completely out of the realm of possibility.

Dave is really infatuated here. That, or he really thinks his snowflake system is Platonic in objectivity. Well, outside of the PWO/DVDVR circle, most people do consider Edge a superior performer and compared to even some of his contemporaries (hello Hardy's!), he's also had a successful professional life by all accounts as well. So, I don't see the issue here.

On a total side note, Union Square was the "show between Friends and Seinfeld" and Veronica's Closer was the "show between Seinfeld and ER." A test pattern during those time slots on Thursdays in NBC could've drawn 15 million.

Hulk Hogan was seen in a match watched by (around) 30 million people. That's three times more than the most liberal estimate of any wrestler for one match in history. He also came up when there was still something resembling a monoculture in the United States. This isn't a stretch. Any other wrestler, yeah, it's probably overstated. But, with Hogan, it's something entirely different. Even people who don't know pro wrestling know who Hogan is. 'Cause as jdw said, he was wrestling for a large part of the 80's.

A decent chunk of people, including lapsed fans, dress up every year as Hogan for Halloween. When was the last time a decent amount of people dressed up as Molly Ringwald?

Well, that makes sense. There's numerous polls out there showing wrestling has a larger audience among African-American's than you'd expect by demographics, then throw in two centers of rap over the past twenty years have been New York and Atlanta, and the showmanship needed in both businesses, and there ya' go.

Four weeks ago on Twitter, when getting asked about it on Twitter, Meltzer replied that he would do those bios when: "Rey when contract with WWE expires, Cena when he's closer to end of career." This sort of makes putting active wrestlers on the ballots while they're still in their prime years a bit silly. Seriously. That comment about the Rey bio is kind of cryptic. Wonder what sort of dirt he's holding back Considering the bio is basically being written by Steve Sims & Konnan from what I remember, I'm assuming there's crap Rey has told either of them about WWE that they've promised to hold back unitl he's out of the company and/or retired.

We've found the real reason for Triple H having all those 20 minute matches against guys who couldn't do 20 minutes matches. He had to stay in front of Jacobs for total minutes worked!

To being up what other people mentioned, if the Sting of the 90's had the mic skills of TNA Sting, it might not be a question of whether or not he belongs in the WO HOF or not.

Nah, TNA booking is still bad. But, at least there are usually 1-2 decent-to-good matches on TV weekly.