anotherspammer

"WON's Koko" is probably Angle or Ultimo Dragon (even though I really like Ultimo). I think Punk should be in for the reasons listed above, but he is pretty borderline and I understand some of the criticism of him. Some of it is sour grapes, though. What's everybody's opinions about Edge? I think he's horribly over-rated in the ring, a good promo at times, but don't know much about him as a draw.

The shaky cam seems to be a fairly recent development, and made WWE all but un-watchable. The constant cuts has been going on a bit longer, but I think it started within the past 5 years. Anybody have any idea what prompted Dunn to make these changes?

I think RAW and Smackdown don't go up on the Network right away because of their deal with Hulu. Although, Hulu also shows NXT and Superstars.

I'm probably in the minority here, but I really liked the LAX vs. New Age Outlawz (were they still 3 Live Kru?) feud, but that's mainly because I like arm wrestling in pro wrestling and this feud had arm wrestling in a cage. It was also old and seriously hurt guys doing it, which was a nice change of pace from the usual strong guys arm wrestling. A low nobody has mentioned was only bringing in Spike Dudley for Bubba Ray's wedding.

Inspired by their recent meetings with Dreamer and his success on the indies, Dixie starts running "House of Hits" spot shows.

Has there ever been a dog-collar match in WWE with a chain leash? I can only think of strap matches.

I really wouldn't mind Miz as Intercontinental Champ if I could be assured IC Title segments are short if not left off tv entirely. At least it keeps him firmly away from the main event scene. I just turned this on at the start of this match, but I can't imagine a Miz title victory will change anybody's mind about this PPV.

I got the show somehwat regularly for awhile. It could be frustrating, with one episode showing a good deal of matches and the next episode just a few minutes of clipped finishes and that frog interviewing somebody the whole time.

I know last year they showed the entire Rock-Cena match but don't they usually just mix up the highlights of some of the key matches into music videos like they used to do on Sunday Night Heat? IIRC, they did that with one of Undertaker's matches, and set it to some Katy Perry song.

He's had 3 good matches this year, with some of the best wrestlers in the world involved, and one decent match with Lesnar a year ago. His previous matches with Lesnar were as over-wrought and bloated as anything else he's done. The matches with Undertaker I actually liked as the overbooked, no-pacing messes they were, but there are plenty of people that didn't. What else has he done that should change any negative opinions of him? FWIW, I like HHH some,and think he gets criticized a bit too harshly, but I can't help but roll my eyes and assume anybody that treats him as an all-time great doesn't watch a lot of wrestling, and probably didn't watch at all from 2002-2009.

I think Perry Saturn also trained with Kowalski (although I'm not sure if he debuted early enough for this thread). Edit: Saturn was named in the very first post as not debuting early enough.

Maybe Vince will regain interest if they put all the old WBF episodes up? I haven't analyzed WWE's finances nearly as much as others in this thread, but would it make sense for WWE to start focusing on the Network and ticket sales to live events as their biggest sources of revenue? It seems like their tv rights are not going to substantially change, but I think if they use the Network as a way of promoting house shows (through occassional live broadcasts, title changes or injury angles happening on house shows, footage of goofy shit, etc) they could promote attendance. Unless the cost of filming the house shows isn't worth it. Edit: "biggest source of revenue" is not the best phrase to use. What I'm getting at is their TV Rights feesdon't seem likely to change much, no matter what sort of effort they make. Other revenue streams, like the Network and live events may increase if they got more attention.

Yeah, I tried to follow the links to something about the raw data of the poll, but couldn't find anything (I'm on my phone). I wonder if age demographics has anything to do with the low voter turnout of WWE fans? The poll I referenced in my earlier post is older. I read about it in the WON, and I haven't subscribed in almost 5 years.

Compared to what though? NFL has some of the most violent, angry, biggotted etc. etc. choose your label fans. NBA fanbase isn't anything to sneeze at on that level either. MLB's demo *according to surveys* is mostly older people. It wouldn't surprise me that in comparison WWE's audience, which enjoys watching half naked guys fighting, is considered more liberal. It's a line that Meltzer has thrown around without that context, which is why I am curious about learning more, and what the actual study was. I remember Meltzer reporting this several years ago. WWE viewers were "more liberal" in that more of them voted/were registered Democrats than Republicans. At the time, a large portion of WWE's audience was Hispanic, so I'm not sure this is still the case.

I kind of wish there were more guys with schedules like Lesnar's. I think a big problem in WWE is over saturation. When a guy like Sheamus or Del Rio is on tv 2+ times a week, and they're never really doing anything, they become "just another guy." WWE could avoid this by booking the shows better top to bottom, but that doesn't seem likely to happen any time soon. They'd be better off leaving guys off tv for a while, if they can't think of anything better for them to do than participate in the occassional multi_man match and job to the champ. As for how much Lesnar makes per appearance, that doesn't matter much to me. It's not like WWE was going to give that money back to the fans.

Faarooq (w/ PG-13, Savio Vega, Crush, Clarence Mason, & D-Lo Brown) pinned Goldust at 8:26 with a piledriver after Crush tripped Goldust, with Crush pushing Goldust's foot off the bottom rope during the count; Sunny was the guest ring announcer for the bout; moments after the opening bell, Faarooq stated he had been forced to wrestle dead men, colored boys, and white boys, but drew the line at wrestling a "fag" like Goldust Farooq was the heel, right?

I generally think if the wrestlers have a match laid out, they should probably stick to their plan, with minor deviations if the crowd seems to react to some aspects better than others. It seems to easy for guys to just start dropping huge crazy spots and millions of near-falls if they decide to win a tough crowd over, which will likely hurt the rest of the card. I think whether or not the wrestlers should change what they have planned also depends on what long-term plans there are, if any. For example, should Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio have changed their plans and start ripping masks and brawling all over in their Wrestlemania match? I don't think so, because it worked to set up their summer long feud.

Was this in the Observer? I always thought Big Show and Kane decided to do that on their own, since they'd been wrestling each other for a few weeks in a row at that point.

OJ, have you noticed any change in casual/mainstream interest in wrestling in Japan over the past few years? When I was there 10+ years ago, I rarely met anybody outside of wrestling shows that paid any attention to it, and the very few I did meet were more interested in WWE than any Japanese fed.

I had a ton of the 2004-2007 ROH shows and sold them on Ebay when I was moving in 2008. I listed them for about $15 each on Buy It Now, and they sold immediately. I don't think any was listed more than a day. I hear they're harder to find now.

I guess I could have been more direct, but what has HHH said or done in the past to indicate that he doesn't like Foley?

HHH isn't a fan of Foley? I've always thought Foley was a pretty big part of HHH's success, not that that requires any sort of resppect or admiration between the two.

What about Edge beating Alberto Del Rio? Not only was I sure that Del Rio would win, the booking made no sense and I think this loss is why Del Rio has floundered as a main event heel. When a guy is built up for months by talking about how it's his destiny to win the title and loses in his first chance, it would seem hard to find a good direction for him after that.

The website version of the Network has had the Recommended section, but I don't think it has anything to do with what you've watched. Right now, mine is recommending that latest Mick Foley documentary, Royal Rumble 2014 and that Slam City cartoon. All I've watched so far is old WCW PPVs and NXT.