Fantastic

Tiger Jeet Singh was my first thought when conceiving this topic as well. I had shortlisted a few more: - Dave "Evad" Sullivan/The Equaliser - KENSO/Kenzo Suzuki - Dennis Knight/Mideon/Henry O Godwinn

As in, who is the worst actual professional wrestler? Somebody who actively sought out a career in professional wrestling, from the get go and didn't just fall into it (ex: someone who always wanted to wrestle, didn't have a day job, etc)? Someone who made it through wrestling school, and into a well known promotion, but were just so bad at it? Someone who never realised that wrestling "wasn't for them" and continued to stick around in the business? With these kinds of criteria we can exclude the likes of: The Great Khali (acting background) Kurrgan (was just passing through on the way to an acting career) David Flair Nathan Jones

Didn't Vince "strongly advise" Foley and Taker not to do it? Or translated, Vince knew Foley and Taker were going to do it regardless because they were both tough enough and insane enough to pull it off and survive, but had to be "proper" and "responsible" due to his position. I like to think they had two big spot options going into the match: 1) Taker throwing Foley off the cage and through the table below (most dangerous) or 2) Foley taking a bump through a rigged mesh piece on top of the cell and into the ring below (least dangerous) For whatever reason, Foley having survived the first, and perhaps running on a high from the crowd, decided to go through with the second also, having survived the first and most dangerous spot. What I think wasn't planned was the chair landing with him and KO'ing him whilst knocking his tooth out and embedding it in his cheek. I think Foley had died or was left paralysed or something awful like that, the WWF would still be around, but I don't think Taker would. I don't think he's the kind of guy who could "accept" it as an accident and he probably would have retired shortly afterwards.

Does anybody else feel that maybe the streak ended when it did, not because of Undertaker's physical condition, but because of how much of a selling factor for the Wrestlemania PPV it had become? In the best case scenario, Taker might have 3-4 matches left in him? With each year he defends the streak, the profile of the achievement is elevated. It essentially overshadowed the prestige of everything else on the show by a wide margin, including the WWE title. The more times Taker defends the streak, the more times WWE gets to rely on it as a selling point for Wrestlemania. But, if they end the streak, it forces them to find other ways to sell Wrestlemania. Maybe, it happened as a result of WWE wanting to freshen things up?

In my opinion, the Invasion shouldn't have happened right away. The WWF should have rebooted WCW with the talent they had acquired from them, along with developmental talent to supplement. They then should have negotiated a new deal with TNN/Spike to air a weekly WCW show, possibly similar to WWECW, featuring the WCW "names" with rising stars. It would be known outside of kayfabe that the WWF is now the owner of WCW, but within kayfabe and storyline, Shane McMahon would be the owner. This would be the only connection to the WWE. Shane might not even have to make appearances on the WCW broadcasts, perhaps having appointed a GM or commissioner. The Invasion would then occur some six months down the line, where WCW (in the best case scenario) has rebooted. Even though it wouldn't be as big as it was before, it would still be WCW. Of course, this would only work if they were treated as a legitimate threat, but then Vince and his cronies might be more susceptible to booking the rebooted WCW as a credible invading force, given that in this hypothetical, that the WWF and Vince were responsible for the reboot and any success.

Yeah, he wasn't a massive draw, but he could very well be under the right circumstances. His abrupt and in-definitive hiatus from WWE only serves to strengthen his drawing power upon his eventual return (which will happen). There has always been fan interest in Punk, along with massive potential to be a big star. The potential has always been wasted or dwindled due to booking and simply not following through, in favor of the status quo - no wonder Punk got so frustrated Lets assume Steve Austin IS going to come back for Wrestlemania 31. That might be the ticket to WWE re-signing Punk, provided he gets his match against Austin (which they've both talked about in the past) and the main event. XXXI could be huge business with a triple main event like XIX. So you are drawing money for Austin's return match, but you are also drawing big for the sudden return of CM Punk too.

I'd guess it would do less than the million it did the last time it happened. Well who is the biggest drawing heavyweight in UFC right now? Dos Santos, Overeem? TBH, I could see Overeem coming over to pro wrestling when he's finished in MMA.

Hogan/Rock going on last at Mania 18.

The Puro fan in me is appalled. Asides from that, I have to agree. It would be funny as fuck.

I think WWE hoped that Cena/Rock I was going to.

Well, Trump/McMahon drew huge, even if it wasn't a match...

Ishii is a real dark horse. His body of work in the past couple of years has been phenomenal.

Well, like I said, I don't think either sport can hope to achieve the numbers boxing has done singularly... But, it is a discussion thread, so I'd be keen to hear ideas on what kind of wrestling match could draw >1,800,000 PPV buys, given that WWE also has it's network now.

Yeah, Naito's push went no where. I wasn't surprised though, given his similarities to Tanahashi. There can be only one, after all.

It is dumb, but it's the only possible event I can think of from either that would sell insanely huge. Cain cannot work a pro wrestling match, but Brock can fight, and could possibly (although it's unlikely at this stage) upset him.

Lesnar vs. Mir II drew 1,600,000 buys Wrestlemania 28 drew 1,217,000 buys Mayweather vs. De La Hoya drew 2,400,000 buys The three biggest drawing PPV events in the history of MMA, Pro Wrestling, and Boxing. Boxing clearly wins in popularity, having broken the 2 million buys threshold on more than one occasion. So what do professional wrestling and MMA need to do to outdraw Mayweather? "Champion vs. Champion" "WWE vs. UFC" "The Rematch Of The Century" "WWE World Heavyweight Champion" Brock Lesnar vs. "UFC World Heavyweight Champion" Cain Velasquez - Co-Promoted by WWE and UFC (which immediately puts this ever happening to bed) - The contest itself would be a shoot (referred to by WWE as "MMA rules", rather than openly admitting that their business is worked) but neither title would be on the line (for obvious reasons... Can you imagine Velasquez winning the WWE title?)

Tanahashi vs. Okada again? Sure, they have amazing matches together, but come on... There was no way in hell AJ was going to headline the January 4th show, we knew this already. But, I'm with everybody else who thought Okada/Nakamura was the direction they were going with. The headline picture does need new faces. I still want to see either Naito or Shibata get a run with the title (or both), the ship seems to have sailed where Goto is concerned, although he could still potentially be considered for a run at the top, he's not exactly a mid card talent, it just seems NJPW are good at loading the gun with him but not pulling the trigger.

On a side note, I love those moves that nobody kicks out of in Japanese wrestling. Whenever Kobashi teased the Burning Hammer or attempted it, the crowd popped huge, knowing that if he landed it, the match was definitely over.

Apparently there's a rather odd rumor going around that Brock Lesnar was absent from Raw on Monday because he had been having heart problems... Brock's always sweated profusely..

Doug Furnas squatting 750lbs x 5.. That's fucking unreal for a guy who was no longer competing in Powerlifting at that point. Back to the rarities in wrestling, I remember Big Show claiming to have benched 500lbs for 12 reps without much exertion. Whilst Big Show has probably been 500lbs on a couple of occasions during his career, thus making that a BW bench, that's still a pretty outstanding feat if truth, given that the normal "average feat" of benching one's bodyweight tends to become something else entirely when you are weighing in excess of 400lbs.

So he's a racist and general scumbag with or without alcohol? Does WWE not realise the potential for continued PR nightmares having someone like this in a prominent production position?

Hasn't Hayes now stopped drinking though? Wasn't this the problem in the first place, that he would get loaded, and say something completely stupid or racist?

That's Ken Patera strict pressing 485lbs... An incredible feat of strength, one that I cannot possibly imagine anybody else replicating.

His C3 and C4 vertebrae (part of the group of vertebrae that connect the head to the body) were pretty knackered by the Owen Hart piledriver, enough that his actual spinal chord was affected, causing issues with numbness, etc. He developed bone spurs in his neck by forgoing surgery for nearly two years. I remember a video package they did when Austin was recovering from his surgery, where the surgeon was explaining that he had to remove parts of the C3 and C4 vertebrae just to relieve pressure, and that was then followed by the traditional fusion surgery - the same kind that the likes of Edge and Lita (who eventually retired completely) have all undergone. It's possible that he is strong enough to have a carefully paced couple of final matches, but whether he passes the medical clearance tests WWE insists on performers taking these days prior to returning to any kind of physical involvement in the company, is another story. To put it bluntly, Austin's pretty fucking lucky that he wasn't left a quadriplegic. His perhaps untimely retirement in 2003 was down to postponing important surgery and worsening an already serious injury. Had he opted to undergo surgery immediately following the injury, things may have been different, but then where would the WWE be today, it was mainly from the popularity of Austin vs, McMahon, that WWE recovered from the beating it was getting from WCW.

Cena's a pretty gifted lifter. He only recently (the last couple of years, having basically done the Bodybuilding thing for most of his career) started training the Snatch and C&J and he's already Snatching around 300lbs+. Yup, Bruno too. He set a raw 565 paused rep bench in 1959 which was incredible for the time, given the infancy of the lift.