dgrblue

The shield does not even hold a candle to the freebirds. Yes, the shield is,great, but it takes more than just good work to make a story great. In the territories, the shield would never have been put together. A big guy like reigns would probably be pushed fast and hard, to the top. Ambrose, probably would be a mid card champ, and Rollins is likely a in a tag team. Heels were in stables, faces just had pals who watched each other's back. Now, that does not mean they could not be "related" to further the story.

Michael Hayes himself will tell you that he is not that good of a worker, but he knows how to run his mouth. Buddy Roberts was the worker of the group. Gordy was a good worker in his own right, however, he was more of the enforcer, in texas. He had much better matches in other places, notably in Japan.

Nice list, sir. Some light has been shed, at least recently, on Mid-Sout Wrestling/UWF territory, and one big stable was the rat pack. Matt Osborne(Borne) gets a bad rap because of the pile of shit te Big Josh character was in wcw, and he gets some crap foeb for Doink the clown. I believe he was really good here with Ted, and Duggan.

Is this news actually a big shock? Are they actually profitable, aside from spike tv contract? What a waste.

Build a ten match card? I am no expert, but I will try. Opening the card: Brian Pillman v Jushin Thunder Liger(Superbrawl II) This is a great opener, back and forth action to get the crowd going. Six-Man Tag: Fabulous Freebirds v Von Erichs(Texas Stadium, 1984) This has it all, brawling, back and forth action, and a hot crowd for the Von Erichs El Dandy v Angel Azteca(Mexico, 1990) If you have not see any of the El Dandy feuds in 1990, please do, they are all really good. Dustin Rhodes v Vader(Clash of Champions XXIX, 1994) This is a slower, more hossy-type fight, really great. Eddie Guerrero v Rey Mysterio, Jr(Halloween Havoc, 1997) Fast-paced and tons of high flier attitude. The Fantastics v The Sheepherders(Jim Crockett, Sr. Memorial Cup, 1986) Wow, a gem! This match gets a Meltzer five-star rating. One to see if you have not. War Games Match(WrestleWar 1992) Quite possibly the best ever multi-man match. Dangerous Alliance is a great Heel stable. Also, they take the top turnbuckle of the ring post, genius. Bret Hart v Steve Austin(WM 13) This match basically created Stone Cold, and endeared him to the fans. Awesome! Ronny Garvin v Ric Flair(Starrcade 1987) This one is underrated, and gets over looked because a lot of people do not appreciate Ron Garvin as champ, here. Randy Savage v Ricky Steamboat-Intercontinental Title(WM III) What needs to be said, quite possibly the greatest match, ever. Arguably. Was going to go with Flair v Steamboat, at the clash VI, but I like this a bit better, ring bell and all. I know that this card would quite possibly never end, but it was some of my favorite matches, that I could recall at the spur of the moment. I have not included any Japanese matches, because I am just too unfamiliar with them.

Here is how to book that kind of show. Firstly, do not do it, period.

On this card, Hogan has to fight Flair, right? I mean, sure Flair and Savage can put on good matches, but everyone wanted to see Hogan v Flair. Even if it was not for the title, Who goes over? I believe that Flair would do the job, because he knows that he is not staying, and eventually will be going back to WCW. I believe it could have been done one of two ways: Hogan goes over cleanly, Flair does the job, but carries the match. Two, Hogan wins by DQ, this way both save face, Flair takes the heat, and Hogan stays strong. Perfect can interfere with a chair or whatever, and cause pain to Hogan, beat him up, this way a program emerges, and ultmiately, Hogan reacquires the title.

Why did WWF do the whole Lex Express, without giving him the title? It seemed like a lot of time wasted, for nothing in the end. Even if it was just a transition title run. Also, the whole Royal rumble 94 co-winners, is really weak. Could they not have Lex win the rumble, wrestle Yoko, and win. Bret fights owen and loses, then wins at the title at summerslam, or the next night on raw?

So, I never understood why the WWF killed UT at Royal Rumble 94 in the first casket match. Why did they need 8 or 9 guys to beat up the undertaker. I never understood, as to why that was. This is the only casket match he ever lost.

Love the site, I have enjoyed many of the podcasts and polls available on the site. Thank you very much.

cannot say I have read much from the grandland.com site, however, Bill Simmons posts on there, or owns or runs that site, and I just cannot bring myself to follow anything that he does. I realise that big networks have to get analysts, but why do they have to get tools like him. He is not objective nor thought provoking. He is a homer for Boston-based teams, and is not shy about it. I get that some are passionate about their local sports teams, but he seems to represent the homerism that seems to permiate throughout Boston fandom, and possibly the entire northeast part of the US. I will be the first to admit, that he is not the only contributor to that site, and that there are probably other fine reporters, however, he and his kind are not cool, and must be avoided. BTW, I dispise the East Cost bias of sports reporting.

Everyone thank Jerry Lawler for the Kamala gimmick, since he claims credit for its creation.

It has been said that funny equals no money. That motto was preached upon by promoters galore. Guys have been fired for making jokes in promos, or taken off of tv, or fueds canceled, and the like. See, in the past it was thought that, if you cracked jokes, it would make the product feel less that authentic, more carney, and that detracted from the gate, or so it was believe. When today, jokes are tossed unabaited like asprin after a match.

Let's ask ourselves, if 1960s fans saw moves off the top of the cage, and moonsaults, and 450s and shooting star presses, they would lose their minds. Todays fan expects to see these things regularly, so it is awesome, but not unexpected. In 1960s it was common to win off of a back breaker, or a suplex or a simple punch. Today's fan would not allow for wrestling so simplistic, they require to dazzled by acrobatics, and fast-paced offense, and the lack of psychology is simply okay with today's passive fan, something that would not have been allowed by 1960s fan.

What about GMC back in WWWF days in late 70s and early 80s? In my opinion, I never really cared for Dr. Tom, do not get me wrong, he is good at what he does, but not my style. I was partial to Finkus Maximus, being that I grew up on WWF. However, I have grown to like GMC, and I believe that he is better as a introducer, and explainer, however, Fink has far more enthusiasm and delivery when a new champ is crowned.

Technically, Flair has title reigns in the 20s or more. Unfortunately, NWA tended not to count the title changes outside of the USA. Also, there were some title changes which happend in the US, which were not mentioned on tv. WWE, has also gotten into the game of rewriting history to their liking, some title changes have been acknowledged, and some have been forgotten. Ric Flair did the job to Jack Veneno, because he felt for his life in the coming riot, if he did not win. Flair wrote about it in his book, stating he did it on the fly, and got the hell out of there. Honestly, with Trips in charge, and his friendship with Flair, it stands to reason that Cena will probably not pass Flair, however, in today's WWE, he probably will set the mark, Michael Cole will talk about Cena's mark on the world title, and his many reigns not likely to be surpassed in WWE for a long while.

Earl Hebner was senior referee in WWE, until he would found to be selling merchandise from his car.

It is true, Ric Flair stated in his book that the Jack Veneno title swap happend, and that he did it because the security used to watch the arena was going to prevent any riot that would happen, when Veneno lost. Flair dropped the belt, and the NWA decided to sweep it under the rug, not referencing it on tv, and records. This happened periodically, race dropped to Baba in Japan, were NWA never talked about in the states.

They became a publically traded company back in 1999, right in the middle of one of the most successful periods in the history of the company. It's certainly possible that they've steadily accumulated that bureaucracy over time, but I think it's also just as likely that all that bureaucracy was there once Russo left back in '99 and they were too flush with talent to suffer from their mistakes. Also, in terms of playing it safe, this is the same company that turned Rollins heel and broke up their biggest faction to mix things up. I'm still not convinced they made the right call, but it was hardly a safe one, regardless of the outcome. I think the real problem is that, despite being the far and away leader in the industry, their current talent roster is thin and over-exposed. Even with an heir apparent in Reigns (who's probably closer to Sting than the Rock), turning Cena would only be a bandaid for stagnancy thrroughout the entire card. Interesting theory about the break-up of the shield. I can see that is a bit risky, however, past history shows that since the company went public, the risk taking seemed to drop, and playing it safe seems the norm. The ratings on raw back in the late 90s, were consistantly 4s and 5s, with a high of 9. Today, they seem to be keen on 3+ ratings on Raw. Also, I agree that Reigns is not ready to lead the roster, he still has to be carried a bit in matches. Technically, he is more closely related to The Rock. LOL

They became a publically traded company back in 1999, right in the middle of one of the most successful periods in the history of the company. It's certainly possible that they've steadily accumulated that bureaucracy over time, but I think it's also just as likely that all that bureaucracy was there once Russo left back in '99 and they were too flush with talent to suffer from their mistakes. Also, in terms of playing it safe, this is the same company that turned Rollins heel and broke up their biggest faction to mix things up. I'm still not convinced they made the right call, but it was hardly a safe one, regardless of the outcome. I think the real problem is that, despite being the far and away leader in the industry, their current talent roster is thin and over-exposed. Even with an heir apparent in Reigns (who's probably closer to Sting than the Rock), turning Cena would only be a bandaid for stagnancy thrroughout the entire card. I agree that WWE's current product is way over-exposed, and the roster is very thin. Similar to WCW in 1998-2001. The same guys are on top, are the same guys who were on top 5+ years. The only new guys on top is the former shield, and Bray Wyatt. WWE has bigger problems than just chaning Cena to heel, which, I personally do not belive that WWE will consider changing Cena, since he works with all the sick kids. WWE should consider dropping some of its tv shows, or reducing Raw to two hours, or hire more talent. Since WWE has financial problems, and are cutting the fat, so to speak, that is probably out.

It was not fair to Batista. They tried the Rock treatment with Batista, however, the office dropped the ball on Daniel Bryan, and the fans backlashed on Batista. Trips decided to get one of his buddies a top spot for a few months before going to sell the Guardians of the Galaxy. Batista gets pissed when the fans do not embrace him, and then Daniel Bryan finally goes over, but at WM, rather than RR.

Passive fans of wrestling will not care what wwe stands for, but the traditional fan despises wwe for its unabated bashing if the wrestling profession. Wwe claims to not be a wrestling company, but rather a sports entertainment company. This goes back,to,1989 when vince sued the ny/nj athletic commissions, claiming his product was no,different than musicians, or other forms of entertainment, and not athletic competition, and therefore since it is not real, it is not subject to taxation andbfees. Today it is wrestling that is used as a backdrop to sell t-shirts, toys and other crap, rather than to make a better overall product. It is more important to sell,merchandise, and make stars, than to have better storylines, in today's wwe. My problem with this is that not all match layouts have to be formulaic or meet certain pre-defined criteria. Yes, but if you watch thirty matches, you're going to find common traits between many of them. It's not about establishing rules about things matches have to have or even necessarily what makes them good or bad. It's about finding commonalities in them to better understand how pro wrestling works. There'll always be exceptions, but I think finding and defining patterns is the bread and butter of any sort of analysis. Now, what you say about there being differing uses of these terms by different people is definitely an issue, but I think it's an insurmountable one. A lot of the old wwwf big matches were like that.

Passive fans of wrestling will not care what wwe stands for, but the traditional fan despises wwe for its unabated bashing if the wrestling profession. Wwe claims to not be a wrestling company, but rather a sports entertainment company. This goes back,to,1989 when vince sued the ny/nj athletic commissions, claiming his product was no,different than musicians, or other forms of entertainment, and not athletic competition, and therefore since it is not real, it is not subject to taxation andbfees. Today it is wrestling that is used as a backdrop to sell t-shirts, toys and other crap, rather than to make a better overall product. It is more important to sell,merchandise, and make stars, than to have better storylines, in today's wwe.

Same with Austin, he was trained at a Chris Adams,training camp, adams was probably there,or maybe not, but it was his name on the door.

Most likely it was him doing the training, but Shawn Michaels' name was on the door, he occasionally came by, but mostly rudy did the actual instructions.