goodhelmet

I can't stand watching Sabu. I love Tenryu.

I don't want Russo on the Austin show because it would humanize him. Russo cannot be humanized. He should remain the evil that fell upon wrestling.

Ah young ones.

This was fun!

I don't care.

The lead writer of Smackdown! is also African-American.

Honestly, I don't think those ringside seats are being sold to regular market buyers. I think you have the scalpers and a ton of comps. I have been to several shows where entire lines of the first few rows are filled with random fans especially military personnel.

Found it... first episode March 1999.

This doesn't address the question that Loss posed... how do they attract a better demo to increase ad revenue?

CFCW, I agree... IF it is presented as it currently is. It would need a complete makeover, a complete shift of paradigms by the people involved with the willingness to leave the kids behind in order to be entertainment for a different socio-economic status.

Surprisingly, unless I missed it, nobody brought up the word violence. Because it is fake, wrestling comes across as violence for the sake of violence. "Hey look at that guy break his back or crack his ribs for something fake. How stupid". UFC and the NFL are much more violent but they are legitimate competitions so the violence gets a pass. The bloodlust seems like a low-brow form of entertainment even when shows like Game of Thrones are much more violent if you want to use a TV show example and not a sports example. I don't think college-educated upper middle class families are going to be encouraging their kids to go to wrestling TV shows so they can see scripted violence where wrestling's real problem lies... choosing your audience. Currently, the show is promoted as fun for the entire family. If a change is to take place, that has to change. You need to decide who you want to attract and stick with it. If you are a kid-friendly product then stop trying to appeal to adults and focus on your brand with toys and video games and cartoon shows. This means toning down the vioolence and creepy characters and going full on super heroes mode with a focus on dangerous athleticism and stunts and over-the-top characters. This may appeal to a certain brand of adult who collects action figures, watches cartoons and reads comics but the focus is still to get kids to buy the product. If you want to appeal to adults only then kill the Mattel deal, make the subject matter more mature, kill the stupid comedy and get real writers. Make sure it is understood that kids would not be welcome at the show or that only a bad parent would take the kids to the show. The Attitude Era was really weird because parents who were accustomed to taking their kids to wrestling shows stopped because of the content shown week after week. Hos, Val Venis, Austin's fingers, swearing, Sable's tits. All low-brow and all tailor-made for a Jerry Springer audience. They embraced their low-brow status. At this point in time, to change the status quo perception, they have to stick with one audience age group and reject their past.

I am going to start randomly banning soccer fans here.

I told Graham that he should open the show with the Japanese commercial opener. Johnny was about to tell the story and I cut him off until Graham was recording.

Lockdown 2013 is the only show I have ever attended where I felt like I wasted my time by going to the show. Maybe the worst show I have ever attended live and that includes a NItro that had one of Eric Bischoff's Night Caps.

The only PPV dub I have ever found looked like ass. I might just use Highway to Hell as a menu track.

Bryan hasn't eaten a pinfall since he became champion. It is already better than Rey Mysterio's reign.

That is about as good of a Jerry Lawler interview that you are ever going to get.

I am working on the yearbook for 1998 and the Home Video version also edits out Highway to Hell You get your fill of the song in the RAWs leading up to the show.

Liger is a legend. The rest aren't. Simple as that.

One of the biggest rules of life is it doesn't get in the way of my wrestling.

I wish I could remember who said it at DVDVR to give credit but you know which one is which because Nikki has New Knockers and Brie has Bryan.

Link isn't working for me. Anything of note come of this?

I am enjoying the back and forth between Austin and Bischoff even though there are some points Biachoff is clearly full of shit. This is the power of Austin. Much like the Flair episode, you don't care if he calls a guy on his bullshit, you just enjoy the way he interacts with people. Two points where I don't believe Bischoff. He claims he knew he couldn't compete with Vince product-wise but every WCW wrestler who was ever interviewed has a story of Bischoff being obsessed its WWF and Vince. Bischoff doesn't own up to it on the show. He also says that creative control from Hogan wasn't a big deal. Scott Norton had a story in his shoot about Bischoff showing him a show script and how none of it was going to happen because everything got nuked by creative control clauses.