MikeCampbell

Instead of harping on the price, and doing promotions where a month is free. They should do more things like the Sheamus/Russev title change and the King of the Ring. More special events or matches that aren't on regular TV and can only be seen on the Network.

I enjoyed Barrett/Neville a lot. Given that they'd already worked once tonight, it was clear that the match wasn't going to be too terribly long. But, they told a nice story with Neville's ribs, and used their limited time wisely, and had quite the nice finish.

An awesome quote from the Jim and Les podcast: "If Ron and Whitey [Cauldwell] are both in heaven, the pearly gates are probably stained with blood by now."

Three new Raws added from 1996 this weekend. The next two in order, the night after Survivor Series and the following week, and then we jump ahead to the night after IYH It's Time. I swear, they're doing this on purpose to troll us OCD smarks.

Jim Cornette had Les Thatcher on his Podcast and they discussed Ron Wright in depth, with plenty of great stories, and Jim's usual favorite talking point of how great it was when the fans weren't smart to the business. Apparently, the youtube clip I posted is the only footage in existence of Ron Wright in his prime.

As far as the breakdown with OVW goes, it seemed to be Johnny not having his shit together. Developmental talent would be released without letting Jim and Danny know it was coming, so they couldn't do anything to finish them up, or take a title belt off them. They were once promised that they could have Randy Orton on one of their big Six Flags shows, and Johnny didn't bother to tell Randy about it.

Not exactly what you're looking for. But, SMW TV aired several segments featuring the history of wrestling in Knoxville, all of which are included on the Wrestling Gold DVD version of the show, and one of them contains a Ron White studio interview. Edit: Here it is!

He was 76, so he was born in 1938 or 39.

06/14/08 GHC Title: Takeshi Morishima © defeats Takashi Sugiura (25:01) This was set up by Sugiura beating Morishima during the NOAH Tag League, IIRC. Not a bad set up for a title shot, but Sugiura wasn't nearly the big name in 2008 that he would be a few years later. 07/18/08 GHC Title: Takeshi Morishima © defeats Takeshi Rikio (13:24) (Budokan) This was actually a Friday, which us Western fans thought seemed like an odd day to run the Budokan, and shitty attendance seemed to confirm that. But, someone on DVDVR said it was a Japanese Holiday, which also might have been a cause for the lousy number. Morishima beats a former champion, and his former partner, who had beaten him the year before in a GHC Tag Titles match (Akiyama/Rikio beat Morishima/Yone). Good idea in theory, but, Rikio hadn't been seen as a top level guy since his failed 2005 run with the strap. 09/06/08 GHC Title: Kensuke Sasaki defeats Takeshi Morishima © (22:02) (Budokan) I'm not saying it was a sure thing, beating Misawa in 9/05 sure didn't help Rikio, but, it seems like this was a wasted chance to really help cement Morishima as an ace. After two lousy challengers, he avenges the draw from July, and beats a former IWGP and AJPW Triple Crown champ. History showed that Sasaki as champion wasn't marginally better at the gate than Morishima had proven to be. So, at least they'd have been trying to accomplish something useful for the company. It's hard to say whether or not titles wins over Ogawa and Taue would have really done much of anything. Sasaki's failed run with the title is proof that the magic was already gone for NOAH at the gate (and this was before the Misawa incident). So, I don't think that Morishima vs. Ogawa or Morishima vs. Taue headlining Budokan was going to bring in huge numbers. Taue's lone successful GHC defense was against Morishima in 2005, so they had history on their side. Beating the former GHC Champions certainly sounds like a step in the right direction to make him into the ace that he really needed to be.

Pro Wrestling legend Les Thatcher posted the following... "Just heard that Ron Wright passed away this morning. One of the greatest heels I ever worked with & an East Tennessee legend. Please keep the family in our prayers. He will be cutting those great promos up stairs. God bless with love & respect!"

I wish Flair and Herd could have at least worked things out enough for Flair to drop the title to Barry Windham. I wish that Russo would have left the New Age Outlaws respective WrestleMania matches alone for 'Mania 15. Come to think of it, I wish Vince Russo had stayed in the video store business.

I put it on for background noise while i was working, since it's a slow night, with a light workload. The F-bomb is intact!

I don't know how pre-meditated it was, but the timing of it almost makes it look like AJ got one over on the WWE like her hubby. She gets huge heat with Stephanie for making her look bad on twitter, and never really got any punishment for it. While WWE probably can't outright punish her for a tweet. They could certainly have run an angle or put a match together designed to wholly make her look bad, to serve as unwritten/unspoken punishment. Before finishing up, she worked WrestleMania and will get a nice payday (probably one of the lower ones overall, but still a nice payday for her).

The gun episode is up now. I won't be able to watch it until the morning at the earliest, so maybe someone else can see if the F-bomb is present (they've got a good track record of keeping things intact).

In three years, Brock has only lost two matches IIRC. Cena at Extreme Rules, and HHH at Mania '29. The Cena loss was overshadowed by the monumental beating he gave Cena that night. The HHH loss pretty much had to happen. But, Brock got both of those losses back in very convincing fashion.

Ideally, for me, Russev deals with the loss by going crazy and randomly attacking various babyface wrestlers and injuring them with the Accolade. He f inally goes too far and attacks some legend or Hall of Famer, which forces Cena to step up and defend the locker room in some sort of gimmick match like Extreme Rules, Last Man Standing, Hell in a Cell, etc.

They added that missing Raw from September to almost be consistent. They're still missing the 1/1/96 episode.

At one point, it sounded like "Please go home!" The "You look stupid!" chant at Sheamus after he turned cracked me up.

How have ROH's show been drawing? It's hard to justify to anyone, let alone an alleged penny-pinching bean counter, to spend the extra coin to run another arena in Nashville if they can't even fill the one they're using now.

Because then he gets a kayfabe Wrestlemania Main Event payday? Touche, sir. Excellent point!

I don't necesarrily agree with it, but, I can see Loss' point about turning the match into a triple threat being a bit of false advertizing to a extent. From a logic point of view, why would Rollins cash in during the match, when he can wait a few minutes and cash in afterwards and only have to worry about one person instead of two?

Why not? He was part of the main event.

A couple of 2CW's boys are headed to the far east. Jay Freddie (who has worked some ROH dark matches and preshows) and Brute Van Slyke are headed to Wrestle-1 for three months to train and wrestle.

When the Iron Sheik beat Bob Backlund, he put the belt on upside down too.

Excellent work, Matt.