PeteF3

Apparently they're getting no rights fees, but the networks are covering the costs of production.

Sam Houston vs. Black Bart for the MA title was an underrated little low midcard feud.

Bill Watts was (and still is?) a big-time stoner, so it's not as much of a stretch as you might think.

I find it quite strange to think that a scruffy disheveled-looking guy with a beard *must* have a Southern accent. There are no scruffy disheveled-looking guys in Western New York where Harper is from? Or anywhere else? This is doubly confusing considering Vince and his producers' seeming hatred of any accent that's not American Standard.

Dave apparently mentioned that on Observer Radio and said it was tried a decade ago.

At least his readership tore Scott apart in the comments section for that. Scott attempted rather unsucessfully to explain himself by saying that "But Sonya's on-air character isn't gay that we know of." For whatever that has to do with anything.

Jim Cornette's reviews of recent WWE programming on recent Experiences also illustrates that they're fucking terrible at actually booking to these so-called "casual fans." Cornette is about as casual as it gets (the first Raw review was prompted by him tuning in to see the Revival tag title match--it's not like he was forced into it) and in half or more of the segments he had no idea what was going on or who the people involved were supposed to be.

They can feud with the Argonaut Rough Riders, Midnight Express-style.

Would it be any more "begging" than Don Henley and Glenn Frey risking a C&D from the NFL?

The post-Rumble '97 Raw is terrific, really the first Raw of the new era, even though it's under the old set.

I wouldn't say anything definitively but it's absolutely 100% possible that Bret had a policy of not mixing pleasure with business, no matter how many ring rats he slept around with.

The Simpsons is another outfit that has separate French dubs, and I doubt it's just them and WWE, either. It may not be more than the difference between American and British English but it's clearly enough that mass media accounts for it.

What really got McAfee was that, whether it looks professional or not, he'd been in the shorts all day and then 45 minutes before he's supposed to go on the air is when he gets yelled at. A simple, "Hey, get out of those shorts" soon after he arrived would have been more palatable. And of course, as Pat said as he was on the verge of quitting...this is a second job to him. He'll have an NFL broadcasting or podcasting or Barstool Sports or talk radio career waiting for him as soon as he leaves.

Meltzer has said that the true idea man for Montreal will reveal himself. Dave had posted on Wrestling Classics some years ago that he could tell the full story once the guy died, but he's apparently chosen to tell the story himself. So that's kind of significant.

Shango-Santana was better than I expected, with both guys working hard for a match not intended to be seen. JR calls the match straight-laced but has some amusing one-sided conversations with Bruce Prichard along the way, telling him he'll "work on that" in response to some instruction or another and asking what Santana's finish is called.

https://twitter.com/marykayfabe/status/1111761051597578240 Screen grabs. It's the original match, folks!

Or Fred, to his friends.

If '99 WCW wasn't such a colossal shit show that killed their one remaining Golden Goose, then even if the AOL merger meant their death on Turner was inevitable, then maybe maybe *maybe* they could have lined up a TV deal elsewhere. Like, say, the suddenly-needing-inventory USA Network. Maybe not, but the company being so aesthetically and financially terrible sure didn't help.

A big crowd losing their shit over a World title change, thus irrevocably proving that drawing a singular pop outweighs the larger needs of the business.

"The ending to Dexter was terrible" is possibly the least-controversial take in the history of television, or at least tied with "The Simpsons went through kind of a decline after Seasons 9 & 10." I'm on fairly safe ground.

I have no criticisms of the end of The Sopranos, so no. The criticisms of the end of Lost, though, have led me to not bother binge-watching the series after the fact since it all seems like a waste of time. Dexter also.

Leaving aside the can-you-criticize-without-watching question for a bit (as it's so self-evidently true that's scarcely worth arguing), as someone following what actually happened on-screen, Goldberg-Nash sucked and the finish was idiotic (both the idea of Goldberg losing at that time, and the manner in which it was carried out). Both then and when I watched the '98 Yearbook. Booking for a singular "pop" is Vince Russo bullshit. You always have to know where you're going to go tomorrow.

Yeah, they apparently did have another match in '89, presumably around the same time as the Arn bout. Magee is a heel managed by Jimmy Hart. So the date may be right after all, but it's *a* match rather than *the* match.