Laz

I think it's best when done into the guardrail, a la Raven.

People see movies because the Rock is in them. Batista is a great support character but not the main draw.

I pop nowadays when I see a full-arm drag n' twist.

I guess MLW started putting people under contract after WWN pulled guys like Riddle and Darby? I haven't watched MLW tv but have they aired any Filthy Tom or Jeff Cobb matches? As for guys WWE would be interested in, the guy that immediately comes to mind is Brody King. That guy could be special and seems to be popping up in a lot of indies. Riddle doesn't appear on Fusion (the weekly TV), but he's appeared on the non-televised cards. Not sure on Darby or Cobb, but Filthy Tom has been on pretty much every episode of Fusion, and it looks like they're building a program between him and Jimmy Havoc. Brody King, right now, is a bum. He's got size but that's about it.

I totally see it. Replace "martial arts tournament" with "wrestling promotion" and it's very, very similar.

Try to dig up some of the build to Matt & Lita becoming an item. I forget when they first kissed on Raw, but I remember it being such a big deal that girls I knew weren't fans asked me for my take on it in school. Or, something more recent, show her some Total Bellas leading up to WM30 and then see if she's on board for watching the main. If Bryan/Brie doesn't speak to her then very little will.

If she likes Mortal Kombat then go with a wushu-like spotfest, like any of the Ki/Red matches. Or show her some Hayabusa, maybe even a highlight reel or tribute video of some sort. Diving right into angles isn't going to give the best taste as they do require context (as Grimmas said), and it's the same for the big matches. I have a friend who stopped watching around the Invasion arc, and he was willing to give wrestling another chance after I showed him some CZW clips.

Conversely, the Janela/Friedman segments were great, as is Penta's mariachi entrance.

Watching episode 6 now. Damn, Santana Garrett is lame in the ring. Chelsea Green was the reason to watch that match.

Starting with 1999 might be a terrible idea, then. While the week to week was incredible at the time, all the shortcomings (including the delegation of women to T&A) are front and center rewatching it. What's she into film-wise? Books? TV?

There's a ton about Fusion that I really, really love. It's great hearing Schiavone call wrestling again, the production values are top notch (something MLW had in the first go round anyway), and the show feels like how a pro wrestling program in 2018 should feel...but there's not a ton to hook onto. The show is still young, though. These are the formative days, and growing pains are a-happenin'. It's a fun way to kill 45 minutes each week.

According to this review of ECW TV 10/10/95, Taz started tapping folks out in 1995.

Do they like wrestling at all? If so, what kind? Base your intro to the US stuff around that.

In my early/mid teens, I'd wager about 15-20 hours a week on average. Raw, Nitro, SmackDown, Thunder, ECW (TNN and Hardcore TV), PPV, tapes/DVDs, etc. This took a hell of a nose dive around 2002, cut in half at least, and it's just diminished more and more over the years. Now? Maybe 2-3 hours. There aren't many products that capture my attention and combing through the plethora of older footage available doesn't interest me like it once did.

It's actually insane how much my wrestling fandom, and learning about the business of it (as much as I can without being part of it), taught me about television ratings. I can imagine it's the same with the rest of us.

It screamed work from the beginning. The company's top two singles talents, Cena and Bryan, both involved with the Bellas? Conveniently in time for sweeps? Ya bunch of marks.

Volk Han is the sexiest beast to ever be named Volk Han.

ECW in a landslide. Everything about it - the wild brawls, the music, the aura itself - is still pinnacle shit to me. I can admit that a lot of the matches were bad to mediocre and that its stars existed only within its bubble (with rare exceptions, namely RVD), but it was the product I needed to see as a burgeoning little metalhead who loved Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith and JCVD. It had edge and reveled in it. That's the kind of entertainment I love in general. After that? ROH from 2003-2008. ECW matured and focused on delivering the best in-ring action and storytelling in the country. If their TV deal had come during those peak years then I don't think we get NJPW having as much an impact in the States as they currently do. That's a bit ludicrous to say, admittedly, but the rise in popularity seemed to coincide with ROH's decline in quality.

Gotta say that I'm feeling Kasey Owens. Those eyes and that smile, that damned smile...

The Planet Jarrett stuff gets shit on because that was the fourth time in the 3-4 year history of TNA that Jarrett was on top as a dominant heel. AMW's heel run was awesome.

I saw somebody in another thread say that the company claims to have lost the older footage, but that's bullshit in an age where Metropolis gets re-released every few years with more added footage from nearly a century ago. Laziness is all it can be, because editing the audio to get rid of copyrighted music isn't that hard. I was able to do it with iMovie back in 2003 FFS!

Twofold: 1. To set up a challenger for Austin over the summer, when Rock would be in Hollywood and WCW was still a Turner subsidiary. 2. To increase Austin's paranoia and desperation. He came back from a career threatening injury - again - and barely won the Rumble. He had Hunter beat but couldn't muster enough to finish him for good. Rock at WM17 was more resilient than ever (after a year against HHH, Angle, Benoit, Taker, etc.) and Austin needed help and a lot of chair shots to keep him down. If Austin's heel turn wasn't a flop because of the rushed Invasion arc? We'd be talking about how great the booking was leasing up to it. Angle/Austin doesn't sell like Rock/Austin, but I agree with the rest of this.

An ex thought HBK was better looking in 2006 than 1996. So did my sister. Neither were wrestling fans beyond watching it because I had the remote, so that "HBK is only good looking by wrestling standards" line earlier can be thrown out. My girlfriend has a thing for the Rock, Rollins, and (most of all) Ambrose. Weirdest was my mother's preferences. She thought Jericho was one of the cutest guys on all of TV in 1998, which I can see, but then she'd be all about the Undertaker...buy only when he was wearing sunglasses.

I subscribed to the Honor Club predecessor about 5-6 years ago when it came out. It was GARBAGE then and also didn't feature much pre-HDNet footage, so that wouldn't surprise me.

Besides, a cut of that (if he ever sells one) needs to go to Trent since he came up with the name.I'd wear it to a metal show, but then I'd feel dirty for supporting Jay White.