SomethingSavage

Some of their individual performances are okay, but I don't think it justifies or salvages the program in the slightest. It's still a terrible premise, and the majority of the execution is just awful. There's no reason to care about the babyfaces in this scenario, as they're actually behaving like assholes. And, as far as emotional angles go, that's not what you should shoot for as the end goal. I didn't mention Rusev's performance, but yeah. He's alright. I honestly think Mero did a HELL of a job with his over-the-top reactions back in the day. His attempts to be a spotlight hog, with all the attention on Sable, was fantastic. That still didn't save him from feeling like an afterthought in the big scheme of things. Same thing applies to Rusev in this situation. Just my two cents. Everyone's entitled to their own opinions on it, of course. I just think it's been a TERRIBLE story. And I find it hard to find anything redeeming enough to enjoy it. At the very least, I'd safely say that all the key players involved will come out look worse than they did going in. Rusev, Lana, and Dolph for sure. Summer Rae wasn't on the radar before this, so yeah. Maybe she comes out looking better than before. So, I suppose, if you want to argue that the idea was to create an angle that would shine up Summer Rae then... sure. I guess this at least did that, to some degree.

With the way the stories were left back at the Dome in January, it really feels like they're going to find a way to run the same top two matches again - with Nak vs. Ibushi and Tanahashi vs. Okada. It's not necessarily what I want to see, but it fits the narrative. And it's pretty much sounds exactly like something they'd do, given how repetitive and "samey" the product has felt since... what? 2012 mostly. I think the injection of Styles is the most refreshing thing they've done since originally introducing Okada's "Rainmaker" gimmick, and even that had a feeling of repetition - because he basically just got the Heavyweight version of Devitt's Junior push and position anyway - right down to the Bullet Club shtick.

Mr. Perfect in 2002 wasn't going to feel like a big deal. They just had too many BIG name stars on the roster at the time. That being said, I still think it would have been fun to put him as Kurt Angle's corner man or something. They could have bonded after Kurt's '02 Rumble performance, with Perfect citing that he was a runner-up one year to Hogan. Kurt could roll his eyes and do the goofy expressions every time Perfect busts out another, "I used to be Perfect, ya know!" tale of the week. Eventually they're reluctant on-again, off-again tag team partners. Angle would remain the pushed, over act. Hennig would be like a corner man that occasionally competes. Could have gone on through Mania X8 and then the Edge feud, where Angle gets his head shaved. "Ya know, Kurt... it's not the WORST look. In fact, as far as close shaves go... I'd say it's ab-so-lute-ly PERFECT." Cue the eye rolling from Kurt. Instead, he took a Stunner. Then I think they just had him show up and wrestle RVD or something one time.

This was an easy & fun listen. Liked the loose & casual feel to it all. Just seemed like a bunch of friends shooting the shit, talking up what happened during the week. Glad to hear Lucha Underground get some love on a podcast, too. Hadn't heard anything about LU potentially making a move to Texas, so Pete actually packed some breaking news into this thing for me. I'm sure it's a long shot, but I'd be STOKED to see it go down. I'd make it top priority to be at their tapings. Line of the night has to go to Pete for his reaction to "Tucker Knight", saying Kelly would be doing a bio on him in about 50 years. Johnny's suggestion that the Briscoes do the ads for liver pills & Life Alert had me cracking up, too. Good stuff.

I wish they'd just push Cesaro to the moon and stop all this hot & cold booking with him. The guy was getting incredible babyface reactions, as part of a heel group, over a year ago. Fans were reacting to all his big spots & basically going bananas over ANY slight tease of the Giant Swing. But they can murmur a thought about him failing to connect to the audience, and that's that. He's shuffled down the card. It's crazy. There was a time when they'd KILL to have a guy get over ORGANICALLY and naturally with the crowd that way. But it's like they're looking for any and every excuse not to do something with a lot of guys. And Rusev is bordering on being completely dead in the water at this point. Lana's character used to feel like this incredibly interesting ice queen, with a monster on call at her command & looking second to only Stephanie McMahon as far as "untouchable" non-wrestler personalities go... But now? She's so far from that. She's just another catty woman out there, doing things that make it difficult to care about her as a babyface - yet that's what, I guess, she's intended to be. People keep talking like this is supposed to be Mero & Sable all over again. I don't see it. There's more of a 1998 Dustin Rhodes and Terri Runnels vibe to it for me. I guess that makes Dolph a Val Venis tribute act in the meantime, with Lana bragging about his athleticism & stamina as PG code words for "secksee talk." This whole thing's so painful to watch, after Rusev went on a crazy strong run for a year plus. It's not the second coming of Sable. It's not even the second coming of Stacy Keibler. If I had to rate how "over" the whole thing is... I guess I'd have to sandwich it somewhere between Beaver Cleavage secretly beating his girlfriend-mom & Meat being an abused bondage boy-toy for the Pretty Mean Sisters. Yeah. I'd say that's a fair grade of this garbage.

Yikes. With those changes to the card, I wouldn't be surprised if TJ Perkins and Sabre Jr. steal the show. I'm not nearly as high on Trent's singles work as some, so I'm unsure about how good the Galloway match will be. Won't have my hopes high going into it. And any Hero match stands a chance of being good, but man. It's so difficult to get psyched about anything Davey touches anymore. I remember liking his last go-round with PWG right before he signed with TNA, but I think even that was only due to the Kyle match. EDIT: And just glancing back at their results page, my timeline's a little off. The Kyle match WAS his last solid performance with PWG, but Christ. His last run of matches with Gargano and Ricochet was mostly awful.

Holy shit. Brute Force might be the best knockoff name I've ever heard for Beefcake. It sounds so gloriously 90s.

You piqued my curiosity, so I had to go back and check out his comments from the HighSpots shoot. - Flair basically just mentioned that Lex was brought into the Horsemen by Dusty. - Ric said Arn and Tully didn't like the way Flair would work matches with guys of Lex and Sting's caliber, because he was giving them too much and sacrificing himself to work to their strengths. Flair noted that it was a necessity for him to get hour-long draws out of guys with those kinds of limitations, plus he obviously couldn't just work a "headlock and takedown" kind of match with them. He had to go through the press slams, the power spots, etc. - Ric said he saw money in Luger as a draw down the road. He also said that Luger never realized his full potential as an in-ring performer (although he felt Sting did), but that Lex did everything "well" and was ALWAYS safe. He stresses the part about being a consistently SAFE worker. - Flair said Lex got heat for being the "first locker room lawyer." Ric said he came in and right away started to negotiate for better paydays, a bigger contract, etc. Flair cited that Lex is incredibly smart for that. But he came in and started doing that stuff "too soon" in the eyes of the boys. Plus Lex wasn't afraid to talk about it, openly question why they weren't being paid more, etc.

- I remember Carlito as Ric Flair's apprentice in 2007 or so seeming like a really... odd choice. - The Redneck Wrecking Crew of Cade & Murdoch had a few fun months pretending to buddy up to the Hardy Bros. so that they'd let their guard down and give them a title match. I think Trevor Murdoch, specifically, is a missed opportunity as a fired up babyface tag worker. - There was this brief, fleeting bit of time where Matt Striker was being set up to lead a Twin Towers like team of Mark Henry and Big Daddy V during the days of the SmackDown & ECW brand exchange. It didn't need to go terribly far, but I think it could've ultimately amounted to a little more. - Jimmy Golden showing up out of obscurity to play Jack Swagger's dad, Jimmy Joe Jack Swagger Classic or whateverthefuck in 2010, was a TRUCKLOAD of temporary fun. It injected some much-needed personality and pizzazz into Swagger's VERY short-lived title tenure. I still feel like there was some untapped potential in having Swagger play the underachieving son in the eyes of his father, with his old man being the washed-up dad trying to coach his son from the stands. Wished it would have went on longer. Err, the Swagger Sr. act, I mean... not the title reign. - Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but I thought Charlie Haas was a hoot with his gimmick impersonations. He genuinely seemed to be having fun out there, and I'd take a handful of THOSE over a lot of the Sandow dogshit any day. None of it got over as much as the Mizdow act, of course. But nothing was ever really intended to either. - Gonna go ahead and go all "Charlie Haas heavy" to end this post, but yeah. I dug his Outlaw shtick in ROH a couple of years back, too. Haas channeled a little bit of Pillman and Austin to actually create a sense of excitement around ROH during a time when there wasn't a whole heck of a lot to give a shit about in that promotion. Plus, hey. It gave us the rise of Cheeseburger. So there's that.

No problem. A few more... NWA Anarchy from Georgia (also posts full shows from the old Wildside archives) - https://www.youtube.com/user/colepromedia Rev Pro UK - https://www.youtube.com/user/IPWrestlinguk/featured 3X Wrestling from Iowa - https://www.youtube.com/user/3xwrestlingcom Monster Factory Pro from Jersey - https://www.youtube.com/user/MonsterFactoryProTV Rock Star Pro from Ohio - https://www.youtube.com/user/rockstarprowrestling I keep up with these a little less frequently than some of the others, but they occasionally crank out some things worth checking out. Anarchy in particular has been getting a little bit more hype lately, and rightfully so.

Haha. Yeah. I initially thought I was too hard on ole Double J, but nah. After hearing a lot of the other candidates, I stand by it. You guys covered a lot of ground, as always. I was pleasantly surprised - and maybe even a little proud - of our board that nobody referenced JBL. I've always liked the guy, even going back to his post-New Blackjack days when he was just kind of wandering around solo. He was a fun brawler & bruiser. And, as far as poor men's Stan Hansens went, I didn't mind him a bit. The JBL character was forced and fast-tracked though, so I can see why it'd make the list. It checks off all the right boxes to feel like an overdone push, but I don't know. It's strictly personal preference, but I really feel like it's aged better than most. By modern WWE main event standards, I think it stuck. And Bradshaw practically resurrected the last part of his career from that. Even the talk about buyrates doing a nosedive with him on top strikes me as kind of iffy. I'm not debating the accuracy of that or anything. Don't get me wrong. But who in the hell could have honestly lifted things during that terrible, horrible period of Smackdown? Kurt was hurt. Eddie felt unreliable and didn't want to carry the burden. Brock was gone. Cena was still in the building phase. Taker on top wasn't going to drastically improve anything. And that's sort of my point. I don't know that anybody could have made a difference as champ. The brand split hurt them, and buyrates were going to suffer under that model. The split PPVs weren't so bad in 2002, because they had a roster of actual SUPERSTARS that felt like big stars and money players. Most of those marquee guys were either gone or mishandled in the years that followed, and so they were left with a VERY shallow pool by 2004. It's actually surprising that they didn't go full-fledged back to the merged PPV format until 2009, to be brutally honest. But even then, they were doing things like bringing Cena over onto SmackDown PPVs, etc. as early as 2006. So they were aware. And I guess all that ranting was just my way of saying... Hey. The JBL experiment? Not necessarily as bad as it initially seemed, at least to me. I know it got all kinds of hate at the time - and I was admittedly one of the people bitching about the way it was done so suddenly. But yeah. He did okay with it. Plus he gets bonus points, just for not being Jeff fucking Jarrett in 2000 WCW. So there's that. Oh. And I couldn't help but nod along when you guys first started mentioning Del Rio. If I thought about it, I wouldn't have been able to put into words what I found so... underwhelming about his run. But yeah. You guys captured it perfectly by saying that his character simply never EVOLVED. It just felt so stale and monotonous. And then, when you'd think it bottomed out completely, they actually did him a greater disservice by STRIPPING AWAY the few things that helped him stand out & feel like a star in the first place. Incredibly detrimental and stupid. I didn't agree with the assessment of his in-ring contributions, as I honestly felt like he was always - at worst - a capable worker between the ropes. And hell, for awhile there, I really felt like he had a fire lit underneath his ass for the first few weeks of his babyface run. The matches with Show were better than they had any right to be, but he ran into a brick wall when they started parading him out there as this outdated immigration spokesman. It was just so forced and... AWFUL. I don't know how they expected anyone to cheer Del Rio in that incarnation over a protective patriot in Jack Swagger... let alone Dutch fucking Mantell with a mic in his hands. Christ.

Really enjoyed this one, guys. I honestly haven't watched a lot of this USWA stuff since at least 2012, but Dylan's enthusiasm for a lot of the segments had my hyped to go back and revisit a bunch of them. So yeah. Safe to say I'll be YouTubing a little bit over the next couple of weekends. McMemphis, Harts War, Horror of the Moondogs, and this gem of a series... I know you mentioned a Gilbert-centered Exile project, but I'd legitimately love to hear you guys tackle the "Eric Embry in USWA" Texas vs. Tennessee feud at some point. It's out there and easily accessible as well. It's about 100+ segments long, but it's fantastic and would be a lot of fun to break down. It's got Embry, Lawler, Gilbert, Prichard, Keirn, Fuller, Jarrett, Anthony, you name it... It only reinforces Dylan's point about how different and unique Memphis was, even as the wheels appeared to be falling out from underneath 'em.

I don't know that it's forgotten as much as it's just not talked about enough... but I really dug Spike Dudley's stint as "The Boss" of the Dudley clan in 2004. Here was the bullied & ridiculed little runt of the litter, suddenly undergoing an attitude overhaul & taking charge. He'd just boss around his older brothers en route to becoming the top dog of the cruiserweight heap for awhile. Whether you thought Spike was best suited for the division or not, I thought he did really well with the role. It was fairly refreshing for everyone involved, as the Dudleys were a very tired act by that point. And Spike totally threw himself into it - changing up his look and everything. Also the brief time they had Tajiri busting out the black mist. They treated it like a hugely devastating deal, putting it over big and having it actually "bind" Nidia. I didn't care at all for the direction of THAT angle with Jamie Noble - although Noble could be endlessly entertaining as the trophy boyfriend - but I liked the mist being brought back to relevance as a seriously fearsome secret weapon. I almost wish they would have a heel come along now and use it, as I really think it could hold a place higher up the card.

But if they start airing more & more house shows on the Network, won't they just gradually be inclined to start presenting the house shows like TV? And that'd kind of ruin the experience. Can't speak for everyone, but I've gone to more live events than Raws, SmackDowns, PPVs, or Manias in my lifetime. And I've always enjoyed the looser atmosphere. The guys still get to do a little shtick on the mic, the intermissions are kept lively - even got to see my nephew get in the ring & dance with Dusty Rhodes & Teddy Long a couple of years ago - and stuff of that nature surely wouldn't fly on a TV-driven "special" for the Network. Rather than the things I've seen at live events... like Santino trying to out-gross the Boogeyman, or Morrison & Punk doing a rival football uniforms thing on SuperBowl weekend... we'd probably just get more typical Authority segments filled with Kane, Seth Rollins, and so on. Maybe I'm wrong.

True. And cases could be made for it being apparent in the Triple H 2004 program also. I just didn't feel like I was being hit over the head with it until that 2007 stretch or so. It really got kicked up a notch for the Batista stretcher match and then the Jericho series. The matches themselves are enjoyable. I like a lot of them from a standpoint of looking at the action & the story being presented. On the same note, I can't make it through a single one of those performances without noticing the hammy acting and melodrama from Michaels. That's why I think the CW comparison is apt. I can certainly sit down and enjoy a standalone episode of Supernatural, Arrow, or even freaking One Tree Hill back in the day (yeah, I said it). The stories can strike a nerve sometimes, and the direction is fine. But the execution is overbearing, the acting is "daytime soap" bad at times, and you never can quite make it through one full episode without coming away with that impression.

I was referring to Parv's comments about Vince's "late era vision" of the self-conscious, epic style matches. Shawn's overacting has been there since at least the Randy Orton punt angle of 2007. So no. I'd say it goes back a bit further than the guest referee gig.

Well yeah. I get what you're saying. The circumstances and the situation could almost always salvage a program, but that wasn't even close to being the case for Kidman vs. Hogan. The premise of the feud was terrible. Kidman was basically booked to look like the babyface, taking offence to Hogan's comments about him on some radio show that was only ever referenced to & never outright "heard" on any of the shows. Kidman was made heel, basically just by way of being a younger guy. Hogan was babyface, because he was the old guard trying to hold the young guys down. None of it made ANY sense, and the whole deal was ass-backwards. The win didn't mean anything, because it wasn't allowed to mean anything. The match was an afterthought to all the skits and backstage garbage. The pinfall was presented as a fluke, treated like a fluke, and quickly swept aside for the next thing to happen. As far as other "forgotten periods" go, I'd offer up Jeff Jarrett's brief stint as the worked shooter in late '97 WWF. He did his best to channel Shane Douglas and make all these controversial comments, but all it ended up doing was pissing off Steve Austin and leading him back to the country music character anyway. Hell, I didn't really mind. As dated as the gimmick was, at least they brought out Tennessee Lee to spice things up for a second. In truth, they should have just brought in Robert Fuller and let HIM be the straight shooter. Have him talk shit on WCW's treatment of the old guard - Flair, the Horsemen, himself - in favor of the New World Order and guaranteed contracts. He could have been the guy to hook up with Cornette and lead the "NWA" charge in '98 as this kind of band of outlaws that were stuck in the territory days and looking to take the business back to its roots. And unmasked Rey Mysterio Jr. is a period of his career that I'd LIKE to forget, for sure. The tacky coveralls, the lack of any meaningful programs, and the Bronco Buster suddenly becoming a cornerstone of his move set... Yuck.

I had similar thoughts & questions concerning Ricochet - and I was going to post them over in the new NJ thread, until I saw this post here. But yeah. You can't help but wonder what's going on with him in LU. To be fair, they are going to have the summer off, so he might just be filling his calendar with NJ dates. Is he confirmed for any PWG dates beyond BOLA? That being said, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be opposed to taking a high-dollar offer from NJ either. I personally like what he's done in LU, but I don't think he's necessarily essential to the future of the show. Ricochet's never really been a standout guy for me, although I can see why some people are really into his work. It's just not my thing. He can be good - even great, with the right opponent & setting - but yeah. Ricochet AS Ricochet - in any capacity - is better than Prince Puma. There's something about the mask and the gimmick that almost hides his best qualities & traits. Ricochet himself has some sense of showmanship and charm. Almost all that charisma seems to drain away under the hood though. Not sure why that is, but the body language itself isn't enough to make up for it. He's got a natural knack for showing off, but it just doesn't translate without the big beaming smile, the winks at the crowd, etc. I'm not sure where he'll wind up by September. I'd prefer to see him stateside in LU - hopefully to eventually drop the mask in a stipulation match. But I couldn't fault him for sticking around NJ for a year or more.

I dig the idea of an ongoing "Recommended Watch List", sort of like what TravJ put together. I plan on revisiting my favorite TNA matches around fall or winter this year - mostly a bunch of Joe, Aries, James Storm, some Christian, and even Angle/Anderson in the cage - but I think it'd be more appropriate if I started back at the beginning and worked my way through. Some of this stuff looks ROUGH. I just can't imagine sitting through it all. Thoughts of death wishes would start to dance around in my head, and I'd have to question where I went wrong in life. You're a brave soldier, man. A scholar and a saint in some circles, I'm sure.

Listened to part one of the Shane Douglas interview. I'm glad they tackled the Oxycontin issue first, as it's what drew me to the dance anyway. It's still a topic that I love hearing discussed, especially so freely & openly. Shane comes across as a real smart guy, and that's definitely evident when he's discussing the addiction and detox. I'll have to pick up on part two at a later time, but I will say that I got a kick out of all the blade talk. It's not something I've thought all that much about before, but yeah. It makes perfect sense that the boys would pop some aspirin or take a swig of whiskey before going out there.

Christ on crutches. You're right. That was awful. All the stuff with Kidman and Bischoff was terrible, too. I don't care what Hogan said on a radio show. I don't care if he has an ego. I don't care if he legitimately lays claim to being a founding father of Metallica, playing bass at President Reagan's wedding, and body slamming a 900-pound Andre The Giant two and a half hours before his untimely death all in the same breath. I couldn't care less. None of that means he should be doing the job for Billy fucking Kidman. Not in 2000. Not ever. Doing a cool Shooting Star Press and being one of the few "over" acts in the dying days of WCW is something special in itself. I'll give you that. But none of it warrants getting wins over Hogan. The program was atrocious. The premise was awful. And I still find it hard to believe how many people were so vocal about how Hogan should have done more to put Kidman over at the time. Didn't Randy Savage also pop up on a random Thunder around the same time? He was a member of the Millionaire's Club or something. I seem to recall this vision of him hopping out of Mike Awesome's 70's bus out in the parking lot for some reason, and then making a mad dash towards the ring while some funky New Blood vs. Milliionaire's Club main event was going on... to the delight & entertainment of nobody. I might be remembering some of the details wrong, but something like that definitely happened. And then when he pulled the same sort of deal in TNA, I remember being surprised that he actually stuck around to work a tag match at the next big show.

Thought this thread could use a bump, mostly because I'm curious to see where people's opinions stand on the latest happenings with Rusev & this angle. Plus I posted my thoughts in the weekly WWE thread. Figure I'll just paste it here, too. Everyone's talking like this is supposed to set up Lana as the next Sable, and I guess Rusev is meant to be Mero. I think that's being WAY too generous to the angle they've chosen to run here. I'm getting more of a Dolph as "Val Venis" vibe here, with him stealing the girl and having her mentioning his "stamina and athleticism" and all that PG code talk for secksee sex. So I guess that'd make Rusev the reformed Bible-thumping Dustin Rhodes, and Lana's pre-Pretty Mean Sister Marlena. Terri Runnels. Whatever. ... Yeah. I think that's more accurate of what I'd expect from this angle by the time it's all tied up. Such a shame, too. I loved the original portrayal of Lana as the ice queen that could command Rusev to crush at the drop of a hat. She was practically second only to Stephanie McMahon as one of those almost untouchable non-wrestlers that felt above things like these stupid catfights and your typical throwaway divas matches. That's no longer the case. If they really wanted to make a couple of stars out of this act, they should've gone the classic route by keeping Lana & Rusev together through thick & thin. Then, when they wanted to do the switch, bring Rusev along for the ride. Have someone threaten physical harm to Lana for the VERY FIRST time... and Rusev snaps. Boom. Ready-made babyface. You show Rusev has a heart... with human qualities & traits. You explore the idea of them having feelings for each other - beyond just business - for the very first time. But nah. That whole Macho Man-Liz thing never did much for business, right? Crazy concept, I know.

Everyone is talking like this is supposed to set up Lana as the next Sable, and I guess Rusev is meant to be Mero. I think that's being WAY too generous to the angle they've chosen to run here. I'm getting more of a Dolph as "Val Venis" vibe here, with him stealing the girl and having her mentioning his "stamina and athleticism" and all that PG code talk for secksee sex. So I guess that'd make Rusev the reformed Bible-thumping Dustin Rhodes, and Lana is pre-Pretty Mean Sister Marlena. Terri Runnels. Whatever. ... Yeah. I think that's more accurate of what I'd expect from this angle by the time it's all tied up. Such a shame, too. I loved the original portrayal of Lana as the ice queen that could command Rusev to crush at the drop of a hat. She was practically second only to Stephanie McMahon as one of those almost untouchable non-wrestlers that felt above things like these stupid catfights and your typical throwaway divas matches. That's no longer the case. If they really wanted to make a couple of stars out of this act, they should've gone the classic route by keeping Lana & Rusev together through thick & thin. Then, when they wanted to do the switch, bring Rusev along for the ride. Have someone threaten physical harm to Lana for the VERY FIRST time... and Rusev snaps. Boom. Ready-made babyface. You show Rusev has a heart... with human qualities & traits. You explore the idea of them having feelings for each other - beyond just business - for the very first time. But nah. That whole Macho Man-Liz thing never did much for business, right? Crazy concept, I know.

I liked the Flair retirement match just fine. It didn't really reach a tipping point for me until all the HHH/Taker stuff. Then it just started to feel like a staged spectacle that tried too hard to bash you over the head with things. The acting can be nauseating and way too desperate at times. I like enough of his matches for the most part, but yeah. Late era Shawn really is the embodiment of a CW teen drama - right down to the new awkward hairstyles each season and all.

The game's called Gimmick Transplant. Basically, you take a specific gimmick that was introduced or debuted at a specific point in time, EXCEPT that you select another wrestler to play the part. For instance, Mankind stormed onto the scene in 1996 to spark up a hot program with The Undertaker. Your task would be to "assign" the gimmick of Mankind to a different performer that year. In this universe, for WHATEVER reason, Mick Foley is unable to come to the WWF in '96. Maybe he gets another role. Maybe he goes back to Japan. Maybe he gets a huge money offer from WCW. Doesn't matter. And after you've found a guy to play the part of Mankind in 1996... - Explain the reasons why you think it'd work. - What's distinctly different between the original portrayal of the gimmick and the new one? - Overall, would this be an upgrade or a downgrade? There are plenty of gimmicks that could be used for this one. The Undertaker in 1990. The Million Dollar Man in '87. Goldust in '96. Kane in '97. Val Venis in '98. The Big Bossman. Maybe Barry Darsow doesn't leave Crockett, and Eadie decides to remain under a hood. Who do you get to form Demolition? And so on.