Laz

You have about 4-5 shows before Don West turns the corner from worst color guy ever to fun part of the team.

Yep. There's a brief scene in that movie where he goes to a wrestling show to campaign to the "common folk" and then gets beat down by Truth and a few others.

The single most useless PPV I've ever paid money for was one of those WWA shows between WCW closing and TNA opening. The one in Las Vegas in particular stands out as it had only one match of decent value (a 6-way elimination featuring AJ Styles, LowKi, Christopher Daniels, Nova, and two others I can't recall right now) and the rest of the show was just...there.

Good podcast. Loved the trial format. I'm definitely going to be listening to more. Re: branding That's the way almost everything started going around the late '80s or so. The WWF and WCW even branded themselves over the talent (though I'll relent and say they advertised more as "the only place to see such stars as so-and-so" more than just the initials until later on), so while ECW branding itself as a promotion over its collection of talent may have been the most severe case of it (in wrestling, at least) there was no doubt that it was going to happen in an ever-globalizing society that's more about niche marketing and brand loyalty. Your average consumer buys Tide and Kleenex over store brand detergent and facial tissue.

Dunn has improved so much over the last year that it's ridiculous.

Re: Hogan The reality show, the divorce, and Nick's legal woes soured a lot of people on Hogan. Age definitely has a factor (as Chief pointed out, a good portion of the current fanbase don't see him as a focal point of their youth), but I think his real life dealings post-WWE return did more harm than just getting older.

While I'm one of the rare few who didn't mind Credible's run (and thoroughly enjoyed the Impact Players and the brief Dreamer feud over the title), I can't argue for him. Balls may have even been a better choice as champ than him.

I've seen too much of the internet to not interpret that differently.

It's been my understanding that those are parts of the contracts based on percentages. Argue for 15% of the gross from merch, 25%, etc.

Which is a fairly fitting description.

137 replies and no mention of Rob Black.

I'm glad I'm not the only one to think of Divine when seeing anything pertaining to Salo.

I never said porn wasn't art.

As I was not privy to the discussion, then please define art.

So it's a fictional form of entertainment that is designed to generate some sort of emotional response (as a means of generating enough interest to lead to revenue)? Sounds like art to me.

I'll agree with this. As horrid as much of the Zandig/Lobo feud may have been, it at least made sense for two guys who made their names in death matches to have death matches with each other where the stips grew more and more ridiculous. There's a No Ropes Barbed Wire match between them (from late '02, I believe?) that I go back and forth on, but it at least stands out as memorable.

The newer talent coming to PWG over the past year has been a breath of fresh air. Mostly because it means less Ryan Taylor and Chris Kadillak.

I hate COD V. It's a fantastic spectacle, to be sure, but watching a 5 minute highlight video will give you literally everything you need to see. It's poorly paced, there's no meat to it beyond the big spots, and the booking is horrendous seeing as how there's not even a winner. It's completely overshadowed by the ladder match earlier in the night between Chris Ca$h and Joker (which definitely has its own flaws). BLKOUT vs. Team Ca$h from COD 6 is a very fun spotfest.

It's not much different, just using one vernacular for another. I tend to use the star ratings because most people understand them, but lately I've just been using terms like "solid," "fun," "entertaining," and so forth. I forget who did it on 411/TSM forever ago, maybe the Paradise City Ninjas, but they'd rate matches with letter grades as if it were a school assignment. A+ was a great/classic, C was average, F was a dud, etc.

Blaming Heyman/ECW for the garbage that CZW/XPW/Russo/etc. spewed out is like blaming John Carpenter for awful slasher flicks: it's not his fault people took away the sizzle and forgot the steak beneath it.

The week before that Lynn/Red vs. XXX was a pretty damn good four way tag that featured the debut of Chris Sabin. I actually prefer that one, regardless of the constant interference, because it had fun sequences from people I wasn't too familiar with at the time and had one insanely logical move that is rarely used: XXX were in the match to try to feel out any potential contenders and/or make it so they didn't have to defend the titles the next week.

There definitely were. Brian Lee showed up and teamed with Ron Harris (leading to a pretty bad Harris brothers feud) and then randomly was paired up with Slash as the definitive New Church lineup. I'm eagerly awaiting the SEX formation review. I remember being one of the few people to actually like most of it (up until March or so), but by the time it started grinding into awfulness Kid Kash had turned into a fabulous dickhead heel so it was easier to swallow the crap.

He has his first great call in December '02 with the famous "go Red go" chant that he leads.

Trevor Lee strikes me as a better version of Mikey Whipwreck a and is meant that as a compliment.

EDIT: Beat me to it.