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He's not. He is weird for pointing it out EVERY single time either Otunga or Byron are brought up. And it's certainly not the case for Byron, since they've had him doing commentary since FCW days and working on writing/producing as well. It's kind of like that weird uncle who has to mention that Obama's dad is from Kenya every time Obama comes up.

This is nonsense. The best version of Ric was the one who fought his ass off when legitimately challenged. And you see that in his best feuds and matches. I'm not sure how you could watch him against Steamboat, Garvin, etc. and not see that athletic pride. Not in the same way that Charlotte has it. The Ric Flair character is not that of a super great athlete who wants to physically be the best. The Ric Flair character wanted to be the best but because that afforded him more money to spend. The only times the title and challenging himself seemed important to him was as a face or when he was past his prime and wanted to prove he still had it. The fame and fortune was almost always more important than the COMPETITION with Ric Flair. It feels the opposite when Charlotte is in a big match. I think that's a real misread of the character, and I'll leave it at that. Ric Flair kind of sucks so . There's really no depth to his character or ring work.

This is nonsense. The best version of Ric was the one who fought his ass off when legitimately challenged. And you see that in his best feuds and matches. I'm not sure how you could watch him against Steamboat, Garvin, etc. and not see that athletic pride. Not in the same way that Charlotte has it. The Ric Flair character is not that of a super great athlete who wants to physically be the best. The Ric Flair character wanted to be the best but because that afforded him more money to spend. The only times the title and challenging himself seemed important to him was as a face or when he was past his prime and wanted to prove he still had it. The fame and fortune was almost always more important than the COMPETITION with Ric Flair. It feels the opposite when Charlotte is in a big match.

What I'm reading places is that KO totally shit the bed in the ME and it's still being blamed on Roman. Is that accurate? I went to bed right after the ironman.

Almost anyone would have been better than HBK at that point. 1997 HBK is absolutely miserable to watch and listen to.

Rollins/Jericho literally almost put me to sleep. I was in bed watching and started dozing multiple times during it. Ironman was quite good. I listened to it with the volume off so I don't know how the commentary took away from it, but it felt like a big time match. There are times when I think Charlotte gets being a champion more than Ric ever did. I never got the feeling Ric was passionate about being the champion as a competitor. It was more for bragging rights and so he'd have more money for his jet setting life style. Meanwhile, Charlotte is an athlete who lives to truly be the best competitor, and it is the most important thing in the world to her. I'd also argue there are times where I think Charlotte understands pro wrestling storytelling more than Ric, too, but I'm down on Ric a lot more than pretty much anyone I've ever known. Not that I'm saying Charlotte is better than Ric (yet), but there are flashes of brilliance from time to time. All that said, I have no desire to see another Sasha/Charlotte match for many months.

Montreal was and still is the dumbest shit where grown ass men had no perspective of the silly shit they engaged in for a living and couldn't step back to see how ridiculous both sides were. Y'all were dressing up in tights and play fighting for people. On the same show as you, there was a masked horror movie monster who could shoot fire, and his brother was an undead guy who could control lights and sometimes lightning. Shit ain't that serious.

2010-2011 was bad for everything. Some dark fucking times.

You have to wonder if these dudes will wake up one day and realize how absurd the whole situation was and wonder why they took such a silly thing so seriously

I mentioned those names because the quote was about these big name indie guys coming in and not asking long time WWE vets for advice. Not just not asking Orton. They're not asking any of these guys that have been there for 5, 10, 15, 20 years. That was his point. And my point is those guys, including Orton, have a lot of valuable wisdom to share about working within the WWE system that working for indies and Gedo can't prepare you for.

The thing that always stood out to me about it is for the whole show, but especially at the start, JR is basically screaming in your face that it's going to happen. This is a technique he frequently used to more or less spoil big angles at the end of shows (See WM 17, SS 98, the Raw where ECW and WCW joined up, the Vince is dead angle, and probably 100 other examples), which has always led me to to believe that there was more planned and agreed to than what anyone has admitted, or that JR was in on it.

Make up a story that makes him sound like a paranoid mess to...make him not sound like a paranoid mess?

They've always mentioned Madusa dropping the title in the trash in literally everything about the MNW since The Rise and Fall of WCW. Years before Madusa was involved with the company again. The talking point of Vince not wanting to let Bret go with the title because of it has also been around since then. Neither just suddenly popped up when Madusa went into the HOF.

Guys like Orton,Cena, Mark Henry, Kane, even Health Slater definitely have things to teach 15 year indie vets who haven't worked for a company like WWE. None of it involves the wrestling part. Working for Excalibur and Delirious is not the same as working for Vince McMahon.

600K isn't as significant as it sounds when they have 90 million house holds.

People aren't cutting the cord nearly as fast as these articles tech sites say. There are more young people who never get cable than people that cut their cable, and it's still 85% or more of households in the US that have cable.

The sports bubble isn't bursting, though. Live sports are the only thing that draw huge ratings.

I agree with this but then you've got people complaining that Smackdown doesn't have enough "good, long matches" on TV because they actually spend a lot of time building up multiple feuds instead of putting 90% of their focus into whatever the next PPV main event is going to be. There should be one, maybe two "good, long matches" on TV in a 2-3 hour show. What WWE does is put two people heading into a PPV match in a 15 minute TV match, then another one, then 15 minute tag, then expect you to give a shit when they have a 15 minute match at the PPV. Smackdown's roster is so thin as it is, the last thing they need is more "good, long TV matches", since that would mean endless rematches before a PPV match.

WWE TV needs more swerves. There's such a thing as too much wrestling, and WWE TV currently puts out way too much wrestling per week to keep people interested.

Maybe SD isn't the face, but fans are just happy to see loser ass Sami leave. That geek can't win to save his life. Trade him for a winner, like Heath Slater.

Sounds like a modernized RTC. The stable would have to have its acronym spell out SJW.

I'd say it has about a 3 post shelf life

Eh. Macho was done. He knew he was done. WCW knew he was done. Rick wasn't, and it was on a show that was never mentioned on TV in the US and never shown in the US anyway. Who gives a shit at that point? Randy Savage of 1999 and 2000 was an abomination to his career anyway.

Well, they've been hitting historic lows for about 10 years straight, as they've been on a downward trajectory for 15 years straight. I don't think it really matters much how they book Raw, to be honest. The core audience is always going to be there. Traditional wrestling shows could be anything at this point. What Raw is now has been that way for about 20 years. It's more traditional than what Raw was before that by this point.

Why? That was reportedly the reason he was fired in the first place. In this particular instance, it's a relevant topic to bring up. Looks like he's not signed anyway (unless he's swerving everyone with his tweet), so moot point. If he is signed, I can't see him returning as KO, for obvious reasons. Hopefully they'd let him be Chris Hero this time. That was rumoured, it wasn't about weight after the story came out. Did you joint he board after May? We did two years of debate and discussion before voting on that list. I did. But I'd love to hear the rationale at why Bobby Eaton and William Regal are ahead of guys like Harley and Rock on a GOAT list. Or how Jerry Lawler is ahead of Bret Hart, Steve Austin, The Rock, Randy Savage, Arn Anderson, Nick Bockwinkel, and Ricky Steamboat.