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If people are willing to believe they would inflate the number to seem more important, why wouldn't they believe that they would deflate the number to potentially save money on taxes? They weren't a public company at the time, so I could see internal financials being a little murky. Does WWE really have a reputation of doing something like that at any point in their history? When 32's attendance came out as 80k, no one seemed to think they might be fudging the taxes even though the official pictures don't make it look like anything near 1/5 of the arena is empty. If the main crux of the argument is that the arena "looks" at or near capacity in official photos and camerework, then that is some pretty poor evidence considering it's pretty much the job of the guys taking those pics to make the attendance seem as impressive as possible. There's no way they'd make it easy to see the empty seats scattered around the top level. 32 came when the company was publicly traded and they weren't going to play games like that. Wrestling has a long, long, LONG history that probably continues to this day of promoters claiming smaller houses than they actually drew when it came time to decide payroll or pay taxes. Also, compare and contrast this (also professional) photo of the Hoosier Dome at WM8. You can do all the camera tricks in the world, there are clearly more empty seats in the upper balcony and on the floor than there are at Mania 3. https://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/08/22/sports/Y-JP-MACUR/Y-JP-MACUR-master1050.jpg Here's the 1994 World Cup also at the Silverdome, also with a pro photographer at virtually the same angle, also with visible swathes of empty seats.

For someone who preaches positivity and fun you sure seem to have a real bug up your ass about what other people might enjoy.

Dave has also said the opposite--that the WWF came up with a number to "beat the Pope," which would be a hell of a feat considering the Pope's visit was September of '87. Granted, Basil DeVito said the same thing in the WM coffee table book.

I don't find that particularly likely. Especially since the number of football tickets available had to be known for blackout purposes.

Well, no, the point is that Meltzer and others insist that 78K is the actual attendance, not just paid attendance. Which doesn't pass the eye test unless someone can provide some compelling evidence that the Silverdome's 80,311-seat capacity is a work. To my knowledge, the WWF never, ever claimed that 93K was paid attendance.

I know there was some pretty intensely negative reaction to STWW's episode on Houston wrestling. I expect this to be tons better...and for Cornette to be able to ask Bruce questions without resorting to the Observer or a 3rd-party source.

Are we also forgetting that Moolah brought ZERO positive qualities as a performer and set back women's wrestling in the U.S. to a point where it's only now recovering? She has zero good matches, zero good interviews, was tangentially involved in maybe one good angle (the Richter feud, where Lou Albano did 90% or more of the heel work). It would be a disgrace to name it after her even if she lived up to the WWE's grandmotherly presentation of her. It would be akin to naming the Palme d'or at Cannes after Herschell Gordon Lewis.

The Other Arena guys were shitting on it back in the late '90s and I'm personally about the least indy fan on this board, maybe because it's so similar to the stuff I don't like about the series.

Yes, that turn sure made that young up-and-comer Curt Hennig, didn't it? Six months later he was about at the same level as Stevie Ray. Second Katie Vick. I haven't been a regular long-term viewer of Raw since.

Conrad tweeted that while there might be changes, WHW will be sticking around after all.

I hate to say it, but Dr. Death made a definite leap when Gordy went out. He stepped up with a terrific match against Kobashi and then went on the run of his career.

I'm not sure how serious it was, but I swear I had heard that story well before Bruce Prichard had a podcast, or indeed before anyone else had a podcast. One thing to keep in mind is that the Greater Power was originally supposed to be revealed on what became Raw Is Owen. The extra two weeks of buildup added a ton of anticipation that wasn't really there previously, despite some lip service being paid to the concept. It's possible that it was originally going to be a way to introduce a new character rather than a mystery subject to rampant guessing.

Even though I wasn't following the show I was thoroughly glad to see Loss tweeting about Raw the other day.