TheDuke

I just wanted to say I really don't know much about shoot style, but I really enjoyed the first 2 episodes of your podcast. I don't know why, but I find it easy to listen to even if I am not familiar with a lot of the guys you talk about.

I'm glad you liked this. I really enjoyed this match, and kind of wish the Genius character had more matches like this against other top stars of the time.

Maybe he will dress like Adrian Adonis in the Flower Shop.

I really enjoyed the PPV. I liked both main events, but now that I think about it, yeah, they could have done more with Braun. I am assuming Braun and Brock will have a rematch at some point which will have a lot more of the typical Braun Strowman shenanigans, but as this was their first one on one match I think its ok to do what they did. The big question going into No Mercy was who would win in a one on one match, and they have shown that Brock although smaller is a better wrestler than Braun, and is able to actually hurt him. I think that might bring some interest into a rematch as the question could then be, "how can Braun deal with Lesnar?" Of course, at this point Lesnar has no reason to wrestle Strowman again, so a rematch may not be until further down the line once Lesnar no longer has the title.

OK I will admit, if they kept the same format for Smackdown, and just replaced Mahal, Owens, and Ziggler with guys that were not boring to listen to talk for that long, I probably would like it better. I remember really loving Raw in the late 90's when there was a lot of talking, but it was guys like Rock, Austin, and Foley. Or maybe it is just this week was too dominated by heels, like they could keep the Owens stuff, but maybe have the Mahal and Ziggler segments replaced by some faces, like maybe a Sami Zayn promo and a fashion files segment. I am not sure if a long promo from Nakamura would really work, but maybe some kind of skit or angle involving him would work. I can understand how having long matches on TV every week could undermine the pay per views, but maybe they could have more shorter matches on TV involving some of the underneath guys who don't get TV time every week? Or maybe some squash matches? Or maybe to keep it interesting they could rotate who will see every week so we don't see the same guys every episode leading up to the pay per view. Like maybe one week we see Ziggler, and the next week we see Mike Bennet or something? I get the feeling they really don't want to give too much tv time to people who aren't going to be on the next pay per view, unless it is just to get squashed.

In spite of the Vince McMahon appearance, and blood from the head butt angle, I really did not enjoy Smackdown this week. Way too much talking, most of it not that good, and not enough wrestling. Owens had that segment with McMahon at the end of the show, I don't think he also needed that talking segment at the opening. I really did not think Ziggler needed his long segment, when he had a similar segment last week. Neither Owens or Ziggler are very exciting on the mic. The matches we did have were mostly broken up by commercials, and it felt like the bulk of the match was happening during the commercial. I really don't think the current format is working, I feel like they should only need like one long talking segment, and anyone else they want doing a promo should do shorter ones either between matches, or one after the other in a short segment between commercials. I don't feel like this Owens/ McMahon story is going anywhere I want to go, and the Ziggler stuff is a waste of way too much time when we haven't even announced an opponent for him for Hell in a Cell. Why does Mahal have to come out and talk every week? Why can't he just have a match, even if it's a non-title or in a tag or something? Yeah, a lot of garbage, I think they need to put the main belt back on Styles, as he at least was entertaining to watch during the talking segments a year ago.

Wow, I didn't realize Tenta used to be so small, and I had no idea Ranallo has been around that long as an announcer, and I'm from Canada!

I liked the Aces & Eights stuff, mostly because I liked seeing Bully Ray as the lead heel.

I loved the bit on the fashion files this week where they held up what was a regular belt for holding pants up, and they called it a "title." Although I felt like the rest of the material wasn't as funny as normal. I don't think they really need to do the fashion files every week like this.

Wow, Awesome. And Kelly too! Excited to listen to this.

Really? When I go to login on the website it shows Bell as one of the providers you can sign in with. After you sign in with your WWE.COM login, it takes you to a page with the logos of a bunch of different TV providers, and it looks to me like Bell is one of the ones listed. When I click on Bell it takes me to a different page that asks you to login with you MyBell login and password. Maybe try that?

With WWE Network in Canada, you do get to sign in to the website and are able to view all they stuff in The Vault that way. Also, on the TV, if you go to the On Demand menu on the remote, at least with my cable provider, you are able to access some of the old PPVs, of which they seem to cycle some of the old ones out and some new ones in every month. Also in On Demand, in the vault there were some old episodes of Tuesday Night Titans, OLD ECW (like 1993), and some of the Old School WWF house shows, as well as a lot of the newer network exclusive shows, and some of the DVD documentaries that are on there. So not everything, and not even most things, but there is some stuff to watch if you don't like watching it on your computer.

I believe that was the theme song from the cartoon as well. As well as the theme from the audio cassette tape I received with my Hulk Hogan workout kit I got as a kid.

So sad it's over. Maybe you two could do a podcast about a different promotion?

I don't think Raw Talk is weekly, I think it is also only after PPVs. I really like Talking Smack, and I am hoping that instead of replacing it with old ppvs, they replace it with a new weekly talk show, maybe one where Renee talks to guys from both brands plus NXT about ongoing current storylines. Then it wouldn't have to be live, it could be pretaped to save money. Did you guys watch 205 Live this week? I really liked the I Quit Match between Noam Dar and Cedric Alexander.

I watched part of the G1 in the USA special last night on Fight Network in Canada because my cable company is having a free preview of Fight Network right now. JR said they were going to tape Night 2 tonight, and then said it would air on AXS on Friday, but I checked the guide on my TV for Friday and don't see they are showing then, and they didn't mention when Fight Network will air it, so I wonder if it will air at all on Fight Network.

I really liked Natalya as the valet for when Cesaro and Tyson Kidd were a tag team.

I enjoyed the show actually. I thought it was better than Extreme Rules from a few weeks ago. I loved the Usos/New Day up until the finish. I thought the main event was really fun. I like seeing Orton beat up the Singh brothers. I was glad to see them doing something with Ellsworth again. And I was impressed by Lana, I was expecting a lot less from her and enjoyed that match as well.

Could the issue with the Coliseum video be that Coliseum was actually owned by another company, Evart Enterprises, and thats the company that gets the Youtube stuff pulled down, not WWE? http://www.imdb.com/company/co0053857/

I feel like the 60's-70's and most of the eighties would be defined by the babyface champion of the time. So it would be 1st Sammartino Era, Pedro Morales Era, 2nd Sammartino Era, Backlund Era, and 1st Hogan. The Superstar Billy Graham reign is longer than the other transitional heel reigns, but I am assuming it could probably be rolled into either the 2nd Sammartino era or the Backlund Era. I would have to watch more from that period to be sure. Hogan lost the belt at the rematch with Andre the Giant on The Main Event televised in prime time on network television in February 1988, and I believe it had ridiculously high ratings at the time, so it can be seen as a kind of climax to the original Rock & Wrestling time frame and an obvious transition point to whatever came after. Another transition point to me that seems pretty obvious is the debut of Monday Night Raw in January of 1993, in which the product feels completely different to me from what came before, even though Hogan still came back, he was not the same Hogan in 93. And even though Bret was already champion, Bret seemed to me at the time to be more like a transitionary upper midcarder temporarily holding the belt, rather than the top guy he became in 94. So basically, The Main Event February 1988 up to the debut of Monday Night Raw January 1993 feels like a seperate "era" from the first Hogan title reign. I don't really have a good name for this era, although it seems to be similar to JvK's "cartoony" early 90's era even though mine starts a couple years earlier. I'd say rewatch some random Superstars from 88-89, and see if they feel more like the episodes from 90-91 to you or the episodes from 86-87.

Ha Ha! Awesome!

Hopefully you come back with some crazy stories of wild goings on together whenever a new episode comes out.

I just wanna say I really love these podcasts and I appreciate the work you guys put in them.

Interesting point about The Miz, I feel as if the IC Belt has really become devalued since Miz lost it. I don't think it means much for Dean Ambrose to hold it at this point, and feel like if they don't want to give it to Miz right now, maybe Luke Harper or Dolph Ziggler would be better off with it.

I really like this one too so I'm glad to hear it's returning eventually.