MFoy

I don't know the answers, but I have a couple of observations about the intermissions. Even on the shows with the 5 minute countdown clock, they still had 15 minute intermissions in the building, because they had 5 minutes of promos before and after the clock. The last WWF ppv with an intermission was WM 8. When I watched Summerslam 92 on PPV, I knew it was pre-recorded so I assumed that they just edited out the intermission, but then they never had one again.

I think that's an acceptable, or preferable, length of time. I'd really like to see the company return to longer form booking and slowly work the fans back into understanding that storylines play out over stretches of time, not just one month. It's not that. It's that, what do they do with them in the interim? Lesnar barely wrestles, and if Bryan's main goal is to defeat Lesnar, what is doing to keep him strong while he waits for his shot? This year they lucked into the long build because they went away from Bryan in main events and the fans started clamoring for it, but I don't see how you plan out a chase to last that long these days.

I feel like if Bryan is going to lose to Lesnar this year, he needs to have some big wins before he gets there. Perhaps, since Lesnar isn't working Extreme Rules this year, they can get one more PPV out of him. In that case, they can push the Bryan/Lesnar match back to Survivor Series. They could have Cena-Bryan II at Summerslam, with Bryan going over. If they're really going to have Bryan chase Lesnar and eventually beat him at Wrestlemania, after dropping the belt to him, then Summerslam to Wrestlemania is too long. That said, I don't believe that the guy who defeats Lesnar is going to be Bryan. It's probably going to be Roman Reigns.

IIRC that was Cole andTazz calling that match on the DVD. I think there were multiple commentary tracks. For at least one of the matches, Grisham was on commentary along with Benoit or Dean Malenko , or possibly both.

I think people were upset with Todd Grisham for some mistakes made on the Chris Benoit DVD in 2004. He was calling the Benoit vs Sasuke match from the Super J Cup. I don't remember exactly what he said, but that might have contributed to him winning the worst announcer category.

Well, don't forget, The Miz beat Cena at WrestleMania a few years back. Oh crap you're right. I really did block that one out of my mind.

Hunter winning at WM 2000. In retrospect it doesn't seem shocking, but it was literally the first time ever that Wrestlemania ended with a heel victory. To this day, they haven't done it again besides the Austin heel turn at 17 that was treated as a babyface victory by the live crowd.

This is what a major wrestling show should be. It was an emotional rollercoaster. There were some great matches. There were big highs and big lows. By the end I was exhausted but thrilled. For me, the positive ending supercedes the disappointment in the Undertaker match and the way they ended the streak. It wasn't perfect but it was pretty damn amazing. Seeing Daniel Bryan in that spot is still surreal to me, and I can't express how impressed I am that they managed to get the crowd back so strongly after that Undertaker match.

I've only seen one DGUSA card in full: the one the night before WM 29, which I went to live. I haven't seen last night's show. I enoyed last year's card very much, but was also told it was well above average for DGUSA. Would you say the undercard was worse than most ROH undercards from the mid-2000s? I ask because I really enjoyed ROH from top to bottom in those days. I've gotten the sense that the quality of indie wrestling has declined somewhat since the "glory period" of 2002-2009 (I probably stretched that out a little bit), but I haven't watched enough to know if that's just because my interest in it has passed or because it's actually worse.

I wonder if they realize that these days, a new guy gets over not just by winning, but by winning while also looking impressive as a performer. The Shield would not have worked as well had they not had great matches all the time. Bray Wyatt wouldn't have gotten as over without the cool, unique promos. Winning a schmozzy battle royal does nothing to get a new guy over because it's hard to give an impressive performance in one.

WM 17 did have a buffer, but it was before the top 2 matches, not the main event itself. That's another interesting approach.

It is interesting, though, that it seems like the buffer match theory has only really been in place when Hogan, Triple H, and Cena have been on top. Thinking back, most Hart, Michaels, Austin, and Rock era matches haven't had buffers.

They tend to get like 4 minutes to it would be hard to steal the show. The one at WM 27 where Snookie did a move was halfway memorable at least.

In Triple H's Grantland interview last summer he was asked about the idea of a buffer match and he defended it saying that it's important to bring the crowd down after a big match before bringing them up again. I've noticed that most of the best regarded events have had several great matches in a row, without any sort of buffer. I've also noticed that there have been a lot of shows in which Triple H was in a hot match second from the top, and there wasn't a buffer match before the main event. Examples I can think of off the top of my head are Fully Loaded 2000 and Wrestlemania 17, but there have been others. I think that there are times when taking a crowd down after a hot match actually backfires, as it makes it hard for the crowd to come back up. What are your thoughts on the buffer match?

I don't think it's fair to say that the match was good because Punk lowered people's expectations. It was good because the Undertaker knows how to do an effective WM match, and because CM Punk put on an excellent performance in the match. I am unconvinced that Lesnar has that kind of performance in him right now if Taker isn't physically able, but I also have decided to stop doubting the Undertaker at Wrestlemania until he has a match that doesn't get over huge. I was at WM last year and the level of interest in the Taker match was so far beyond anything else on the show that it was kind of embarrassing.

That is definitely a good call. Great feud. I'm still disappointed that they didn't have a chance to have a Wrestlemania match that went long enough to be memorable.

And more than that, have either gotten to do any serious promos about that fact? If so, have those promos ever been replayed or emphasized? Have there been any heavy angles relating to them? Even if there is an angle attached to the matches, they don't focus on it enough to make it mean anything, so the crowd doesn't care and the intensity doesn't carry over to the matches themselves.

Has anyone noticed that the major US promotions have completely gotten away from having feuds with any degree of intensity and emotion if those feuds aren't positioned as one of the top two matches on a PPV card? If you look at the history of wrestling in the US, an intense bloodfeud could occur in both the midcard and in the main event. I can think of plenty of examples of this but one that comes to mind is the Dustin Rhodes vs. Studd Stable feud in WCW. Those were hot, intense matches but were never positioned as anything more than the 4th most hyped match on a given PPV event (until it main evented Fall Brawl). WCW (pre-Hogan) was much better at doing this than the WWF ever was, but even the Mankind vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley matches from 1997, while not spectacular, were allowed to be more violent and noteworthy than your typical undercard fare. When was the last time WWE had anything like this? Maybe Foley vs. Edge (which was 4th or 5th from the top) at Wrestlemania 22. I don't follow TNA particularly closely anymore but I don't think they do much of this either.

I disagree that nothing is unpredictable. The Bryan thing is predictable in the way that a big storyline payoff should be and, like you said, the extent to which it's unpredictable is actually bad because it's due to a lack of trust in their ability to book a proper payoff. The Undertaker match is always predictable so there's no difference there. I don't find Cena-Wyatt, the battle royal, or the tag title match, whatever it ends up being, to be predictable. All of those could plausibly end a few different ways.

I actually think it's a solid card. It's not epic or full of dream matches, but I kind of like that. Instead of just throwing in some dream matches that make the normal roster seem insignificant, they're actually paying off storylines. Last year featured 3 guest star matches on top. It was too much. This year only features one guest star match (since Hunter and Batista are now regular weekly TV characters), and the main event actually features a payoff to a months long storyline. I can't remember the last time that happened. This won't be the best WM ever, but I expect the main event matches to be suitably epic, and they'll tale up a lot of the time. I'll definitely take it over last year's card.

They should do some new Legends Roundtable shows with Hogan now that he's back. I would love to hear the bullshit that he would make up.

Thank you, guys. It is very much appreciated.

I see the pattern that you're talking about but I don't know if Bret was really appealing to the hardcores in 94. He was their most over babyface at the time, and had been established for a while. It is an interesting pattern to be sure, though, that somehow the big round numbered Wrestlemanias have the workrate darlings celebrating at the end of the show. Maybe we're getting slightly ahead of ourselves, though.

Hey guys, I know this is bad form to plug something I was involved in when I have so few posts, but I just joined the site pretty recently. I don't do podcasts super frequently, so my posts will not all be plugs, I promise. Justin Shapiro and I did a podcast discussing the current scene, and booking, and talent in WWE and I think we get pretty in depth. It's gotten some good feedback in other places, so I figured I'd plug it here. http://www.thecubsfan.com/2014/03/07/justin-shapirshow-episode-7-royal-pains-with-matt-feuerstein/ Here's Justin's official blurb for the show: And we’ll never be royal (rumble winners) There’s no run-ins or blood That kind of push just ain’t for us We crave an internet guy to love It would be more cooler (cooler) If you could add in DB In maybe his role, his role, his role At Wrestlemania 30?

Summerslam 03. The crowd was going nuts as Goldberg plowed through everyone in the Elimination Chamber, until that crappy Triple H sledgehammer finish.