Jesse Ewiak

Yeah, as somebody who's actually hung out w/ Bryan a few times through the years, he totally plays things up because that's what people listening to the B&V Show want. He'll also be the first to admit he doesn't have the most wrestling knowledge in the world, but that's never been his thing. It's not like his newsletter was doing deep dives on AJPW before he hooked up with Dave or anything. I mean, all things considered, I can see why there's some weird reasons to hate Bryan - not so much on here obviously, but places like Reddit and Twitter. After all, he has a good life, doing what he enjoys, and unlike certain chunks of the wrestling fandom, is a relatively normal human being with a wife and a family who some probably feel isn't worthy of being Dave's right hand man because he doesn't know about the life story of some 1987 WWF midcarder or because he misstated something that got blown up on a newzzzzz site that they bought into. Now, if you want to hate him because he still thinks HBK was a good wrestler post-comeback, go ahead.

Yup. FOX cares more that Smackdown will still have a consistent 2.5 million-ish viewers, even on a random mid-July Friday no matter what than if they do worse than some of their options during the fall and winter, especially on a Friday night.

Dave looks in good shape for a guy in his 50's who has basically always been in good shape. I think it's been brought up here before, but Dave looking like Dave is probably 20% of why he got sources in the first place.

My one somewhat controversial stand on the ratings / popularity / viewership / whatever you want to call it is that basically, about the same people follow the WWE weekly as they did in say, 2007-2010-ish (when they were averaging 3's). I just think a lot of people have stopped watching RAW weekly and keep track of the company via Youtube, Twitter, and other ways. Frankly, I think a decent chunk of your average house show crowd or even some RAW crowds probably haven't actually watched all 3 hours of RAW live in a long time. On the booking, I think what we're actually finding out is how little WWE booking has meant for a long time. Good booking, bad booking, mediocre booking, WWE's attendance, ratings, etc. has been on the same slow downward trend since basically the Cena/Batista bump over a decade ago.

I realize it's Russo and well-known, but you have to do the Junkyard Invitational at Bash at the Beach 1999

This should be fun. I have a WCW 2000 fantasy booking I've started and saved a zillion times (including even here once) and actually have written out PPV by PPV until 2002-ish (Eddie Guerrero vs. Vampiro as a main event in Mexico!), and had the outlines of a World Title plan out until 2005-2006-ish.

I think an underrated point is also - the world is just a less violent place, in general. Outside of very specific places because of very specific instances (ie. Syria), almost everywhere in the world is less violent than it was twenty or thirty years ago. So, if you're a twenty or twenty five year old kid getting into the business, even if you lived in a "bad neighborhood," outside of say, Chicago, it's likely a far better 'bad neighborhood' than it was even a decade or two ago. Hell, even Compton got gentrified. Hazing is far less of a thing in sports, frats, etc. I think that's also a reason why our political arguments have gotten so overheated, but that's a whole other argument. So, most people simply don't have the same the same experience with violence than say, somebody growing up in rural Oklahoma or a tough neighborhood in New York did during the 70's or 80's before they got into training where they likely were stretched or thrown around for real. Now, that's a positive thing, society wise, but it's a negative thing, when it comes to creating people who can push the idea they're violent people doing violent things for money. Even most UFC guys are basically dudes who spend too much time in the gym, but who would never actually want to permanently hurt their opponent. Even though it's not that true, Rick Steiner in 1999 WCW seems like a far more dangerous human being than 80% of the UFC roster, let alone anybody in the WWE. Or in other words, there are far far less probably close to sociopathic violent people in wrestling, because the other people in wrestling wouldn't want to work with that guy. I mean, just personally, if any of us had the talent and accounting for different societal views, would most of us like to have spent time in the testosterone and drug fueled locker rooms of the mid-80's or early 90's where seemingly the only thing to do after a show was either getting wasted chasing after rats or hanging out alone in your hotel room or the relatively chill locker rooms of the modern era, that's far more gender and racially balanced than anything in recent history. I mean, I bet Samoa Joe is happy he can just be a badass instead of whatever terrible gimmick he would've gotten in 1987 World Class or whatever.

The irony is I bet if you showed a lot of older wrestlers in 1980, a tape of your average Memphis show, they'd declare it all terrible bullshit that was killing the business. The odd thing is, I think there are some good criticisms of modern wrestling to make, even throwing out what goes on inside the ring, but Cornette goes so over the top, it's impossible to even have a conversation about.

I'm sure the man himself will post if he sees this, but from memory think it was he just didn't have the time to devote to it any more with everything else he had going on. Ahh makes sense, with his Deadspin stuff and Between The Sheets that I know of him doing that'd be enough to keep a person pretty busy. Yeah, he still appears every so often - for instance, the WO HOF show, so it's not like there is bad blood or anything.

I think it's less people feeling the need to watch live and more mourning the death of the era where that was possible and / or fun. It used to be enjoyable to sit down and watch a PPV with friends. Now a single PPV (and certainly ever big 4 show) is going to push way past the boundaries of what most people enjoy in one sitting. It sucks that the WWE is basically requiring that their shows be watched later and cherry picked unless you have an insane tolerance for long wrestling shows. At this point, it seems like the WWE wants the PPV is something you basically have on the background while you and your friends are hanging out, doing other things. They don't want fans who are actually watching 100% of the time.

Nah - the current Fox/Disney deal is for everything but the Fox broadcasting side (Fox, Fox News, FS1, etc.). Same thing would be true of a Comcast/Fox deal. That's actually part of the reason for Fox going w/ WWE - they're going basically all in on reality, sports, etc. and severely limiting their scripted series, now that they won't have a production arm anymore.

I think the actual truth is Cornette realized his brand didn't need the MLW connection anymore, with all the Youtube or Twitter fame he's getting. Probably nothing personal, but it's not like he has a ton of connection with Konnan, Court Bauer, et al. It was always a weird fit in the first place.

This TV fees bubble is just ridiculous. Anyway. This means more of "We don't give a shit about our audience" stuff for years and years, most probably, because it doesn't matter anymore. The people in the crowd aren't the audience. The WWE's audience is Mattel, Viacom, and now, whatever they're going to call the Fox broadcasting portion after they finish the sale to Disney. The people in the crowd? They're the product.

Not only that but (based on the small sample size of what I saw this year during RumbleMania) it feels like most of them are reading off of the same script, and that the script was written by someone who has never ever 1) been in a fight - or been in a tense situation, or stood up for themselves... I mean, the truth is, it's likely much of the 2018 WWE roster, especially the people under thirty has never been in a 'real' fight outside of an MMA gym. America is a far less violent place than it's been in decades. Bullying is done via social media shaming and the such, not beating up somebody at their locker or whatever. I say all of this seeing it largely as a good thing, even if it means we have less people to cut promos based on their bar fights.

That was the intent at first. You're naive. So let's bring content back. Of sorts. Sable is an interesting case, because she had or displayed exactly not talent whatsever apart from modeling T-shirt with her obnoxious fake boobs. Yet, in 1999, she was arguably the biggest star on WWF TV next to Austin. Were the Attitude Era mainstream fans so desperate for boobies to make her one of the biggest ratings peaks (pu intended) when she really had nothing in term of promo ability (let's not talk about her in-ring prowess) nor even character even ? Her heel turn before Mania 15, another brillant idea by Vince Russo at his "peak", gave us the immortal catchphrase of "Are you ready for the grrrrrind ?" followed by the lamest hip-swivel ever. Really, is Sable the biggest case of looks being the *only* factor as a needle mover (pun intended) in the pro-wrestling business ? I mean, yes. After all, Pam Anderson was one of the biggest stars in the world, despite having little acting talent. I think people remember what a different world the pre-broadband Internet world was. People laugh at things like Baywatch or how people obsess over five second boob shots in movies in the 80's or even the SI Swimsuit Issue, but really, in a world without easy access to porn, Sable being on TV in 1998-1999 was probably a good reason for twelve to twenty-something guys to watch RAW. One mistake the WWE made in the post-Attitude Era was realizing that in a world of Pornhub, Instagram, Snapchat, and frankly, loosening standards in other media (why watch a bra 'n' panties match when Rhianna is basically naked in a music video), the sex wasn't really selling anything and well obviously, you still want attractive people on the TV screen, the Diva BS was actively hurting the product after probably 2003 or 2004. Also, Stacy Kielber is objectively the most attractive woman in wrestling history because she's the only one to end up with an A-list star like George Clooney, who could literally choose anyone, for a decent period of time. I'm only half joking about this.

Yup - if some news article came out the day after say, Prince died and said he sold 200 million records and a music journalist Tweeted, "the real number is 150 million," I really don't think a single Prince fan would be upset. (Note - using random numbers when it comes to Prince's record sales.)

I mean, even if Moolah did nothing of the pimping and sexual abuse, she'd still be terrible for turning women's wrestling to a money drawing thing to a sideshow.

Having too hot a wife for his push probably isn't helping matters. I wish I was kidding, but considering the past of wrestling, I wouldn't be surprised that's part of it.

Would it really be worse than Brock vs. Holly?

Somebody who thinks The Young Bucks are cool and like their t-shirts are fine. Different strokes for different folks. Have an awesome time. The only BC fans I have a hatred for are the types who think Omega is Jesus Christ reincarnated, basically believe the history of Japanese wrestling started three years ago, thinks New Japan is going to create a new boom period, and somehow think that if you think Roman is a good worker, you're a WWE shill who doesn't know anything about wrestling. They're the wrestling version of Rick 'n' Morty fans.

RADICALLY RIGHTEOUS WRESTLING NEWS & NOTES - According to reports, McLane originally wanted a woman focused promotion that'd appeal to all ages, but that was nixed due to a lack of talent available and an open casting call that went disastrously. - As you'd expect, various wrestlers are going under the hood as the jobbers to put over the gimmicked wrestlers. According to some people at the tapings, who was under the hood was not at all consistent so some masked men lost or gained height every single week - Despite the cheesy nature of the show, it's premiere did surprisingly strong ratings in it's largely late night slots across the US, doing in some cases up to a 7 share. Of course, this is less impressive than it looks considering in some case, it's largest competition was re-runs of third tier sitcoms and infomercials, but for a show with nearly no advertising, it's impressive. (OOC: IRL, GLOW was doing 10-12 shares in it's late night slot) - The 1st 'season' will run 20 to 24 episodes based on the number of matches that were taped, including several battle royals and odd gimmick matches.

Late at Night, somewhere on the upper end of your UHF dial, it's... RADICALLY RIGHTEOUS WRESTLING! Unlike last week, for Episode Numero Uno, this time the show starts in front of the obviously blue screened 'RRW Control Center' where David McLane and Herb Abrams welcome us to the continuation of 'the new sensation rockin' the nation' – Radically Righteous Wrestling! McLane goes over the events of the first show, then hypes up we'll see the in-ring debuts of Isaiah Hammer, Tex Hightower, and in the feature match for this episode, Jeremiah Robinson will take on Vinny Blackstone! Abrams makes a bad joke about this being the ultimate Battle of the Bands, but then McLane sends us to a 'special look' at another interesting newcomer to Radically Righteous Wrestling! From there, a complete and total ripoff of the theme from 'Indiana Jones' plays as video is shown of an unseen man punching out someone in a Nazi outfit, running through a jungle type area, and in a brawl in the back of a moving truck. Well, that's what it kind of look likes. After the man throws his opponent off the truck to God knows where, he turns around and the name Nebraska Smith (George Weingroff) comes up with the title Adventeruer, Genius, Fighter – Coming Soon! as he smiles at the camera, then the music kicks in again and he goes to get into the truck as we fade to black. Ricky 'Tex' Hightower vs. The Masque – Some early offense from Hightower's masked opponent, but the lanky cowboy quickly asserts his dominance to some shrieks from the females in the audience. He then goes to work on Masque, with punches, kicks, and even a big-time running kneelift, but picks up the win after a hanging vertical suplex that McLane dubs the Hang 'Em High. After the match, The Masque tries a post-match attack as Hightower raises him arm, but Hightower reverses the Irish Whip and lariats The Masque down to the mat! After that, we're back to the Control Center, but this time Abrams and McLane have a guest. Sharp eyes viewers from last week will recognize Valiant standing in front of them. Out of the ring, Valiant has on a flag-styled headband along with a 'RRW' t-shirt (send for it today!) with a big grin. McLane: That was certainly an impressive victory for big Tex Hightower. But, my guest at the moment had just a big victory last week during the debut of Radically Righteous Wrestling. I didn't get a chance to speak with you, but Valiant, what are you goals here? Valiant: Well, Mister McLane, all over the world, you see such darkenss, deceit, and destruction, all the way from Tehran to Tokyo. We've got cities crumbling in this nation, people out of work, and weirdos trying to subvert true American values like truth, honesty, and respect. So, that's why here, in Radically Righteous Wrestling, I want to show the youth of this great nation, from Portland to Philadelphia, that what's truly righteous and radical is to stand up for fair play, honesty, and charity, even in a place like Las Vegas! McLane: Well, this isn't exactly Pleasantville by any stretch of the imagination. But, is there anybody who'd you like to wrestle in the upcoming weeks? Valiant: I'll take anybody on and show them that the real American Spirit lives on and nobody, not any Commies or sneaky Japanese will take the good ole U – S – of – A down! Yeah! Valiant cheers, then runs off to some light applause from the folks at the Riveria. McLane: We'll be right back! Next up, we open up on Starman, already in the ring. Then, some Blacksploitation-ish music hits and Isaiah Hammer walks out, dressed in the same outfit from the previous week. After he's announced, he takes the mic from our unnamed ring announcer. Hammer: Listen here! I'm going to show the world I got no time for lame jerk-offs like the masked moron standing across for me in this ring. My business is kicking skulls, wrecking necks, and doing whatever that needs to be done, all for the right price. So just remember, no matter what, if you've got the cash, Isaiah Hammer's will be your brother! Isaiah Hammer vs. Starman – Hammer overpowers Starman right from the start, throwing him around and dealing several big blows, including a big clothesline in the corner. As Hammer continues his beatdown, McLane is shocked when K.Y. Wakamatsu comes out near ringside, taking notes as Hammer continues to utterly destroy Starman, before finishing him off with the Hammer Blow, a Russian Sickle type of strike to the chest. Hammer raises his fist as the referee raises his hand, then rolls out of the ring. He stares K.Y. Down a moment, then walks away. Cut to the 'Control Center' once again, where McLane and Abrams are talking over what it means that Wakamatsu was scouting out Hammer when all of the sudden, a man busts through from the side. He's clad in blue jeans, a green Army jacket, and has a few days worth of growth on his face. He seems wild eyed and completely out of sorts. McLane: Excuse me, excuse me. This is a closed set. Nobody is allowed - The man (Jack Armstrong) grabs the mic from McLane. Man: Brother, you don't what's going on at all! I've been on the road for weeks and week, hitching all around the country just to get to here. You don't want to know what I've done, just for this chance. This one chane. McLane: What chance? Man: The chance to get rid of the nightmares. The chance to rid myself of the horrors I see every night when I closed my eyes, Mister. When you've been everywhere in Southeast Asia that good ole' Uncle Sam can send you and some he legally can't, it's a little difficult to come back and start selling Ford Pinto's to little old ladies for forty hours a week. Ya know? McLane: Um, no I don't. That still doesn't explain who you are and why you're here. Man: It's pretty simple. I'm Mack Bunker. Some guys who are at the bottom of an unnamed river in 'Nam used to call me Shell Shock. I'm here to expunge my demons and if I can't do that, at least maybe I can create some new nightmares. At that, Bunker drops the mic and walks away. McLane takes the mic, but is cut off before he can say anything by what seems to be a movie trailer, but within a few seconds, it's fairly obvious it's another video for a new character. It's set inside a cabin and two obvious model/actresses are in skimpy clothes in the middle of the living room. Girl One: So many died. So many. Girl Two: It's OK though. We made it. It's gone and dead. Nothing could survive a crashl ike that into the lake. As she says that, you can see a massive shape walking behind them. Girl One: Now, we just need to wait out the night, then in the morning, find the – ACK! The 'ack' is caused by her being hit from behind by a shovel to the back of her head. She slumps to the ground, then the second girl turns around and screams as the large man (Lord Humongous) raises a large sickle type object. We then cut to a voice over that says, “The Scrayper, coming to a ring near you!” Pablo Berecca vs. Rook – Rook is a masked man with a rook piece from chess on his mask. I don't know either. As you'd expect, Berecca is upset after last weeks loss, and goes right on offense, smashing Rook with several strikes, a knee to the gut and a vicious DDT to get the initial momentum. From there, the attack continues with Berecca locking Rook in the Genoan Necktie for a couple of minutes until Rook makes the ropes. Berecca immediately drags Rook to the middle of the ring, hits the States Evidence (senton) to pick up the win after about six minutes of action. Cut back to the 'Control Center' where McLane is standing with Hawke Grissom. Grissom is still in his leather jacket and 'futuristic' pants from last week. McLane: Mister Grissom, you had an impressive first week here in Radically Righteous Wrestling, defeating the man we just saw in action in our first feature match. But, this was even more important than that, at least, according to you. Would you mind filling in our viewers on what you told me? Grissom: Well, if Berecca had won last week against his original opponent, by the end of the millennium, he'd be the unquestioned Godfather of the entire West Coast, Miami, and own all of Las Vegas. It'd take a task force of hundreds to completely take him down and he'd end up living out his days in exile in the United Soviet Republics. McLane: Don't you mean the USSR? Grissom: No, that's insane. The USSR dissolves in 2004 after President Gore signs the Moscow Accords. Anyway, now that's not a problem and I'm slowly fixing the timestream. But, this is only the beginning. You see, this place here - McLane: The Riveria Hotel and Casino? Grissom: Again, no. Radically Righteous Wrestling. This place is a Nexus in the timelime. From here, there are many branching paths, but it's my responsibility to make sure only the correct path is taken and we don't end up in any of the darkest timelines. McLane: What darkest timelines, Hawke? Grissom: Well, in 65.4% of timelines, professional wrestling is banned. I aim to fix that, by making sure some of the monsters that cause that get nipped in the bud. Now, if you don't mind, I've got to take a side trip to 2056. I shall return! Grissom then 'demateralizes' again in a bit of terrible special effects. McLane: I assume he'll be back. We'll return with our feature match, right here on Radically Righteous Wrestling! As we head to commercial, another hype video for The Steel Dragon plays, showing a man hitting various kung-fu moves on hapless opponents, but it's unclear who he is. 'The Prince of Pop' Jeremiah Robinson vs. Vinny Blackstone – Robinson comes down to the ring, with several dancers and a whole routine, ending with him 'moonwalking' into the ring before doing a dance as a bad ripoff of 'Thriller' plays. Blackstone waits outside, suitably unimpressed. As the bell rings, Blackstone jumps the 'Prince of Pop', and goes right to work with some stomps, kicks, and even a kneedrop before playing to the crowd. After a big elbowdrop, Blackstone whips Robinson into the ropes and drills Jeremiah with a big dropkick that gets a near fall. After a few more moves, Blackstone goes for a bulldog out of the corner, but Robinson sends him into the corner and almost gets the pin after a Victory Roll, then hits a headscissors takedown followed by a dropkick of his own. After a quick dance to play to the crowd, 'The Prince of Pop' heads upstairs and goes for a flying cross body, but Blackstone is ready and plants him with a powerslam for another nearfall. Blackstone then signals for, and goes for the Power Chord (double arm DDT), but Jeremiah blocks it, and then forces Vinny in the corner. Blackstone knees out of it, and dives with a sunset flip, but Robinson grabs his leg and almost gets the pin again before Blackstone kicks out of it. The two competitors circle each other, but Blackstone goes dirty with an eye poke, and hits a quick hip toss on Jeremiah. Robinson gets up, only to get cracked with a dropkick again, then Vinny goes to the second rope himself and goes for an elbow drop, but Robinson rolls away to a pop! 'The Prince of Pop' does a little dance in the ring again, then as Blackstone gets up, Robinson drills him with the PYT to pick up the pinfall victory after a little under thirteen minutes of action. Closing Video of the action from tonight over some synthy 1980's goodness. © 1985 - McLane-Abrams Enterprises

In a way, CCW almost has the strongest top to bottom lineup for it's region. Any of the matches for the next Birmingham could've main evented it. I only hope that the 'Southeastern' feel stays, even as Fritz takes control of the product. Great TV as usual.

- Shouldn't it be the Great Canadian Bash? - Kinda off for The Rougeaus to be opening the show in their hometown, but I'm sure they're getting plenty of the gate. Good win though. - "Mil, no, you can't win the title. You can get a phantom pin on Brito right before the bell. OK?" - Good six-man action, but The Canadian's had to go over in Canada. - Blood blood blood! Lawler gets the pin, but I assume this won't be the end of the war. - Yeah, I assume Hansen did not take the fall in that six man. - Actually kind of shocked The Creatchman kept the belts for now, and even won, even if it was screwy as all hell. - It's Piper! That'll help you get some WWF fans in the area to pay attention to NWA TV. - Of course Funk has to win the 1st match. - Yup, good way to give the local guy the win without changing the title.

- On the Nashville show, good job of giving the face a win while keeping the heel heat rising for Idol and his crew in the main event. Taylor & Garvin as the new tag champs work, especially since there seems to be more heel challengers. - The N'Awlins show had a far more packed top of the card as your last three matches could all be main events, including Gordy-Williams.