BrianB

Do you think that Bryan was better than Styles, considering their stint in ROH/NOAH/WWE/other indies (Bryan) and NJPW/WWE/other indies (Styles)? Yes, I liked his psychology more. AJ has helped his versatility case, especially in WWE, but Bryan seemed more adept at playing a variety of roles well.

This. This. It was really cool to see his family. I have no idea who Shoemaker is, but he was basically useless, why would they even include him when you got Meltz & Laprade already ? Bullshit about WMIII (Hogan was shocked Andre didn't kick out of the legdrop, ya know) and chronology issues/WWE revisionism apart, I thought it was mostly really good. The end got me. I always find it fascinating when Vince almost looks like an actual human being. Flair's innuendo was pretty funny. It's too bad they didn't include the famous Beckett anecdote. Loved the Princess Bride stuff. Good stuff overall. The Beckett anecdote is basically fabricated. Andre might've rode with Beckett sometimes to school, but so did basically every other kid when it rained and Beckett was out. There wasn't a special relationship. Since Andre didn't explode in height and size until like 15-17 most of the stuff connected to that story is BS.

He did an interview with Meltzer that was good. If they got him for a follow-up maybe that'd be interesting.

Sorry, Dylan. If you divorce yourself from the criteria, I can see his rankings, objectively. But anytime I venture towards subjectivity with the categories, I just struggle with John Cena as the top ranking. (Some of that might be subjective because I hate the promos, the character, the no-selling of losses (which was acknowledged) as well as how Cena would just transparently leach onto guys to stay positioned strong and positioned as a nice (which isn't all vince if you evaluate things, or at least can't be claimed as uniquely vince.( And the more I struggle with credibly separating Bruno with Cena, or ranking Pedro as low as he did. It felt like picking and choosing with drawing to me as a hidden category. And if you don't include drawing and damage, I also don't see the damage argument as being that fatal vs. HHH, but not potentially dinging Hogan too (even if not quite as much). For instance,, undercutting Warrior, not prolonging the hot Savage feud even longer, wm8 needing to eclipse the world title, the WM9 bs, etc.

Highlight of the whole thing was Hogan writing out the match spot for spot on the legal pad. Classic Hogan bullshit that I’ll always love. It would've been great if they ran a forensic analysis on that thing and it turned out to be purely frabicrated bullshit, which I coudln't help but think it was. Still, if it wasn't, it's great that people deride Steamboat/Savage if Hogan/Andre was essentially the same thing.

I really wanted to vote Bryan over Styles, but I honestly haven't seen enough TNA to go that route. If we're just talking in-ring, I'd err toward Misawa, but my sample size might not be big enough and I always bluster some at just including between the ropes when there's so much more that goes into being a great pro... Bret vs. Steamboat. I think Bret's work bears itself out over time. Steamboat will be an interesting figure to note the next time there's a GWE project because I think some people he was ranked above, e.g. Bockwinkel, have clearly established their superiority when you really evaluate hings.

I guess if Vince and Hogan were both willing to both imply there were headgames going on it's worth passing on? I'm skeptical too. I'm very curious about what the follow-up footage with Vince was and what he said, because like I said, Vince could be a dodgy fucker. But it seems like whenever he's pressed and you've got the goods, he'll clarify, or he'll end up in a situation where he contradicts and then either has to cave or you've got the answer you want. I'd agree that the pre-WM4 stuff is important. But I can see how it muddes a clean 90 min doc. If they had this doc 2 hours, maybe that would've been the right move, second guessing. Then, in those extra 30, you get the story of how Vince parlayed WM3 into helping to lethally wound JCP with Survivor Series 1987 vs. Starrcade w/ Andre's return and the WM4 match--which was heavily centered on Andre vs. Hogan II. But then you're left having to have a narrator explain a number of thigs like Hogan leaving to film a movie and Savage ending up with the title, which might confuse casuals.

I'm now more curious than ever about the rumor that Andre slapped Vince around when he got mad at him. Vince is a dodgy fucker. He denied remembering things, but then remembered plenty of stuff when pressed---for example how andre accused vince of exploiting and using him. It reminded me of how Vince presented Taker losing to Brock, but after Austin keep nailing him with follow-ups, the picture became a lot clearer, when at first Vince was giving a different impression. I enjoyed the doc. The timeline definitely got fuzzy and misleading at points. I was hoping we'd get some more Wepner related stuff, and there wasn't anything there, despite how Simmons loves Rocky III. I hope they come out with deleted scenes and more stuff because clearly they trimmed it down to keep it brisk for the casual fans. I was surprised the info about Andre's multiple growth spurts through his life and not comparing his shoe sizes throughout his life didn't make it in.

It's part of his gimmick (maybe desired reality too since he blows Shawn now too and Shawn is also tied into the company) to defend anything HHH is involved in too, especially where HHH seems to come out booked strong. But I wouldn't be surprised if he worked himself into believing some of this stuff given all the hoops he went through for this one. It reminded me of his veiled racism against Sasha Banks early on in this show's run, which he tried to downplay and similarly tried to imply if you noticed the racism, well then yes, it must've been you who was really the racist. The real test of the Prichard desires a job will be if they ever hire Nash for something because Bruce has loved taking shots at Nash before when he's gotten chances. He's cut back slightly, but it'll be really noticeable if Nash gets hired for any type of WWE job and then Bruce bends over to praise him the next topic.

Re-watched Clash XXXIV and enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to. Some of the ads still being up on the network might've given me a nostalgia boost. But I vaguely recall watching this show when it aired and thinking it was a good show.

I don't think Conrad was the wrong host. Conrad pivoted off the STWW format with Tony fairly quickly. Lots of the shows ended up being pretty good and hilarious. It was usually the long profile shows, e.g. Goldberg, DDP, Steve Austin, that didn't work. I doubt Conrad and Bischoff would last. I'd listen to it for at least a few ep's, mostly to see how their styles would clash. But between Conrad's harder questioning and breaking balls style and Bischoff's awful memory, self-importance, and how it'd be hard for him to pass blame on the bad calls, I doubt they'd have a long run. But if it does happen and comes together shortly, I'm sure there will quickly be conspiracy theories about heat between Conrad and Tony, just like there were about Conrad and Ric Flair.

I doubt either. Mostly because nothing about what Bischoff has done makes me think he's smart enough to know what to do to attract and keep wrestling fans. Which is sorta the issue of his whole tenure anywhere. Well, unless he can hook the hulkster.

I see this point and it's a legit one. But I wonder if there's a generation gap on it.

Depends on the show, but that ep was great.

Houston Wrestling, Savage, Bret Hart 1996-1997, Rumble 1997, the XFL, WWF Prime Time Wrestling (be sure to listen to the first part of the next episode for some follow-ups). It's not a single subject but the 1st Q&A #lovetoknow episode is very good. Definitely a top 5 episode imo. WWECW is very good. If you like Bruce's Jim Cornette impression and little personal anecdotes, e.g. George the Rat, then that's another one.

Thanks for responding. That all sounds right on to me, especially when I tried to think about everything. What do you think his WCW future would've been projecting a year or so out, assuming he re-signed and dodged the car wreck? I started thinking about it, and there just seem tons of routes. Some great for Brian, and some fairly awful. I started typing some of that up, but realized there was even more than I'd thought of at first. I'll post up my full thoughts tomorrow. Just briefly, some of the main stuff that occured to me would be how he'd navigate those shark waters with Hall and Nash coming in, along with Hogan's return (and probable hard on for Pillman to do a job to him). Best case scenario seems like he gets a DDP type slot (outside shot for undercutting Luger). He's then in a great position to re-negotiate his contract and get a raise, which is in the interest of his old comedy buddy Kevin Nash, and in the interest of Scott Hall. And worst case is he's either stuck in the horsemen and ends up shoved into the midcard or upper-tier midcard but nwo job duty, OR Bischoff is talked into putting him into the revitalized, but work-rate heavy cruiserweight mix and Pillman isn't positioned above somebody like Syxx.

She's bringing a different audience than the Brock Lesnar era UFC audience. Many of those era's fans we're talking every UFC PPV would get a floor of 300k PPVs, and usually 400k+ . Ronda boomed in the area where the floor collapsed but she could still regularly hit around that 1 million rate after her first few fights. She brought that mainstream media type attention and related audience to UFC, which is why a number of her fights, e.g. McMann, Bethe, Holm, and even Nunes, outperformed what most mma prognosticators would've given you coming in. My sense is that, and this may vary some depending on how WWE presents her and how well or (esp.) poorly Ronda presents herself, Ronda's success, at least within these first 6 months or whatever, will boil down to whether she's still a bit like Mr. T pre-WM1 or whether she's like Mr. T post-WM2. My own suspiscion is that as long as WWE doesn't Bret Hart return her, there will be interest in her first WWE match at WM, and then that will crater because I'm skeptical of her performer long-term potential.

On my first pass through I enjoyed the 1st section the most, but found the final 3rd or so from the loose cannon gimmick creation to the ending the most informing and harrowing. But as I've re-visited and read sections, those wcw sections steadily gain in my opinion. I think Meltzer was 100% right to credit your insight on reading between the lines about booking in WCW during that time. In particular, I think reading between the lines on Dustin Rhodes coming in and his eventual impact was spot on. And I'm not sure that really comes through clearly in the newsletters of the period. Great I'll be picking this up too, since the search function will be really useful because there's so much great stuff within this book and highlighters and page marking started to get unwieldly when I thought about it. Liam, if you don't mind commenting. Where do you come down on the Meltzer and Wood divide on where Brian Pillman ultimately hoped to go? I'm sure someone as thoughtful as Brian would've waffled, but he must've come in with a clear target and probably by the time he actually got to playing one against the other in negotiations fairly openly, he'd have re-assessed and decided what was the best situation. What's your take? Related sidebar: I know you've mentioned how you wonder how Pillman's never realized plan to crash a WWF MSG houseshow would've gone over with Vince, if Brian had pulled it off. (I suspect it would've soured Vince myself.) But if Brian had gone to the WWF, without the car wreck, how do you think he would've thrived over a the long run? To what degree would he have to adapt and reign he's playing the gimmick to hilt in? Obviously, Vince in the professional sense didn't heavily promote or continually push guys like Brody, the Road Warriors, or Terry Funk, which were the main wrestler inspirations to the Loose Cannon gimmick, and Vince, by most accounts, had a strained relationship with Piper as well, who was the other major influence. On the other hand, Vince was behind in the wrestling war. Do you think he'd have made a hit and then needed to switch sides like Brody, Road Warriors, and eventually Piper, did? Or could he have lasted it out with Vince, and potentially as Kim Wood provocatively put out there....made the Stephanie move without it blowing up in his face?

Great picks, especially those boxing matches and the ding dongs. If we expand into skits and promos...I mean that's probably an even bigger list than a match-centric list.

Chamber of Horrors - Halloween Havoc 1991 Cole Miner's Glove match - Sting vs. Jake Roberts - Halloween Havoc 1992 (If you want shit and boring, rather than shit but also amusing, then throw Chono vs. Rude from Havoc 1992 on there too) King of the Road - Dustin Rhodes vs. Blacktop Bully - Uncensored 1995 Hollywood Hogan vs. Warrior - Halloween Havoc 1998 Oz vs. Tim Parker - Superbrawl Sid Vicious vs. The Night Stalker - Clash of the Champions XIII Martial Arts Match - Meng vs. Jim Duggan - Uncensored 1995 Triple Cage Match - David Arquette vs. Jeff Jarrett vs. DDP - Slamboree 2000 Doomsday Cage Match - Megapowers vs. The Alliance to End Hulkamania - Uncensored 1996 Hogan vs. The Giant - Halloween Havoc 1995 (YET-TAYYYY!)(The monster truck sumo match from earlier in the ppv deserves a mention too.) San Francisco 49ers Match - Booker T vs Jeff Jarrett - WCW Nitro 10/2/00 (Russo...bro....) WCW World War 3 - you could pick any of these main events. 1997 might've been the most stupid, nonsensical one with ignoring the rules and the nWo being annoying as hell. 1995 had Hogan's bitching and moaning and all the commentary teams with the bad split screen almost the entire time. Jay Leno & DDP vs. Hollywood Hogan & Eric Bischoff - Road Wild 1998 Catch as Catch Can Match - Dean Malenko vs. Billy Kidman - Souled Out 2000 Sting vs. Rick Steiner - Falls Count Anywhere - Great American Bash 1999 (that ending....) Gauntlet Match - Roddy Piper vs. assorted jobbers - Nitro 3/3/1997 Junkyard Invitational - Bash at the Beach 1999 Some more Russorific ones, which may or may not not qualify because they might crush your soul: Major Gunns vs. Miss Hancock - New Blood Rising Goldberg vs. Kevin Nash vs. Scott Steiner - New Blood Rising (another Russo special) David Flair vs. Kimberly - Mayhem 1999 Viagra On A Pole Match - Shane Douglas vs. Billy Kidman - Nitro 07/31/2000 Tank Abbott vs. Big Al - Superbrawl 2000 War Games 2000

Billy Graham's book is also worth it at that price.

I think it's most likely that Carrey thought he should go method, and since he figured Lawler and Kaufman, although cooperative to a degree, must not have gotten along and fucked with eachother, he'd go a similar route to ensure what he wanted on film would show up.

Thank you sir! Appreciate the kind words. Let me know what you think when you're done! Finished and wow, fantastic. I'm definitely not sure how I feel about Brian Pillman now, but it was a gripping read. I'd never heard all those stories about Bill 'Quagmire' or all the blow by blow and insights into developing the Loose Cannon gimmick. It's pretty cool that John Harbaugh is still involved with the Pillman family. Did Melanie Pillman decline to be interviewed? She sure got taken to task.

I enjoyed the Bret Hart episode. I'd agree that it's a good lapsed fan companion too. Bruce struck me as much more evenhanded and less anti-Bret than that first Montreal screwjob episode. I don't know what's behind that exactly--maybe the wrestling convention circuit? Bruce feeling more secure about podcasting as a career future?--but he was less pro-Shawn than I thought he'd be, even after the lost smile episode. Conrad did a lot of reading for the Bret episode too, but I liked it more than the NAO episode, since Bruce added some more flavor, and it's clear lots of various sources were drawn for this one. I suspect most board readers will find the earlier part of the episode more interesting than the later parts. But I don't think I'd heard before that Shane McMahon was in the production truck giving directions for the Survivor Series 1997 main event, so that was new for me and I don't think it was in the first screwjob ep either.

I got this yesterday. I haven't finished it yet, but I'd highly recommend it based on what I've read so far. Great details and it's fun to read too.