MikeCampbell

Guest Booker with Dutch is another good one.

I think he beat him once on RAW, not cleanly by any stretch of the imagination. Batista did the powerbomb, Orton did the RKO, and then HHH did the Pedigree and pinned him. Not sure if it was a handicap match or something else.

I could see them doing with the Wyatts what they did with Kane, and more recently the Shield. Have them only show up sparinginly to beat up whichever poor sap happens to be in the ring at the wrong time, and then make a big deal out of their official debut matches. I think Kane was the perfect first target, since he's one of the longest tenured members of the roster, and that's how he got his start.

The Wyatt debut was the last thing I saw before leaving for work, which caused me to run late, and I've had that song in my head all night long!

I actually agree with Cornette on that one. Ever since the buildup to 'Mania up until just a few weeks back, HHH has been pretty consistently on TV and PPV, and it doesn't seem like anyone really wants to see him there.

Wasn't there a story that he was fine with putting over Nash for the title, but that Vince or the writers or whomever didn't want to do that because of how terrible he was in the ring?

Gabe and ROH used to always try to kayfabe fans about things. Gabe claiming ROH was making the first ever match betwee Naomichi Marfuji and Go Shiozaki, which was well documented as having happened several times in NOAH. This was so well known as bullshit that Gabe actually apologized the next day for making the claim that it was their first ever match. When McGuiness went on a NOAH tour, ROH's announcers would talk about how he was defending the Pure Title to add to it's value. Well, the ROH title history page (which was always kept immaculately current for reigns and defenses) never listed a single Nigel defense in NOAH. Amongst other things to be found in their history was a Samoa Joe title defense in the NJPW USA fed, and also a Jay Lethal Pure Title defense on some Upstate, NY indy fed. Those ridiculous "Who attacked Lucy?" inserts in every DVD, where they'd ask fans for their tips. As though there were just random fans walking around backstage in the area Dayton and happened to see the whole thing. The claim that it was Low Ki who attacked Jay Lethal at the Trios Tourny backstage. When it was common knowledge that Ki was on a major NOAH Budokan show on the same day.

So, this crossed my newsfeed tonight as a recommended page. While I can safely say that I can watch Benoit matches and enjoy them, without blinders as to what he did six years ago. I think this is pretty disturbing. Benoit Fans

Christian going over Ambrose sounds like it makes the most sense to me. A. Both the Usos and Tag Champions are protected going into the PPV, without having any wins over each other. Nobody gives the Usos a prayer of winning, look who they beat to earn the title shot. So they'll all the help they can get to be seen as possible title threats. Conversely, Rollins and Reigns can't be laying down left and right as the tag champions. So Ambrose drops a fall in a meaningless six man to give the Usos a perceived edge. The Shield can turn around and win a return six man tag on RAW, or do some big DDQ to keep the fans excited. B. Christian beats the U.S. Champion, and thus, sets up a possible program over the title. The World Title MITB match isn't exactly filled with guys you can picture lifting the title. Much as I love Cesaro right now, he's not at that level. Swagger had the chance and blew it. Rhodes or Sandow? So it seems like it's pretty much down to Barrett or Ambrose. Ambrose can win MITB, drop the U.S. Strap to Christian, and then cash in and move to the next level. It worked for the Miz a couple of years back.

Basically, it was because Jay and Mark were over as a tag team, but nobody really gave a shit about Jay as a singles wrestler. Joe tagging with various wrestlers to challenge for the tag titles worked fine, but when it came down to Joe vs. Jay one-on-one, nobody really wanted to see it.

He banned me from the ROH message board for posting that bringing in Misawa was a horrible idea, because of how much he'd broken down and degenerated as a worker. And I also pointed out that $100 ticket prices were proof that Misawa was coming over more for the payday than he was any great desire to wrestle for ROH. Also, in 2004 when he announced the Joe vs. Jay Briscoe cage match, a lot of fans where pissed of about it and said as much on the ROH board, and he commented something along the lines of "Don't judge it until you've seen it.

I'm as big a Cornette fanboy as they come, and even I'm thinking he should just swallow his pride and sign a WWE Legends contract. He could partake in things like the Legends roundtables and do interviews for DVDs that would feature things he could remember fondly, and not be completely tied down to them. Which will leave him open for projects like the new book, and KC projects (provided the fences get mended).

He was legitimately released over the choking incident, because of the Matel deal. But, they full planned on bringing him back once the heat died down.

Anyone wanna organize a road trip to Iron Mountain?

I'd need at least two days to fully take everything in.

Jim hasn't done anything with them since the '97 Timeline, and I know it's *not* because KC isn't interested in doing anything with him.

Tennessee Lee is doing Shawn Michaels joining the nWo. I don't know if it's a redux of when he joined in the WWE in '02, or if he jumped to WCW and joined during the heyday.

What happened? "Cornette has had a falling out with __________" is something you can pretty much set your watch to. I don't remember the exact details now, because it's been so long. But, the gist of it is that KC shot a few vignettes with Russo to hype the YouShoot Live iPPV, and one of them featured Russo hinting that people might hear from Cornette during the event. Corny flipped out and wrote a blog to say that he wouldn't be there, and blasted KC for making people think he would be there, and for working with Russo in general. Sean Oliver issued his own statement making it clear that KC NEVER tried to advertise him, and knew he'd never step foot in the building because of how much he hates Russo. He also called him out for challenging Russo to a fight at the Ring Roast Event for Jim (where Sean had no intention of booking Russo to appear).

I'm hoping KC and Corny patch things up soon. WCW Timeline 1989 and/or 1990 *NEEDS* to be with Cornette, just for all the potential Herd stories. Plus, he's talked considerably about booking SMW in the backseat of cars while on the road with WCW, so I'd love to see a potential interview with that topic, sort of like Gabe taking us through his ROH booking plans before he got fired.

Did anyone else find all the head shots to Ziggler to be unnerving? Between that match and the way he bumps in general, I really felt like he was taking a few years off his career.

The other thing that I think people need to keep in mind, regarding the list of guys doing well that Bix posted, is that they didn't just magically walk into their present states. CM Punk was crazy over before he even debuted in ECW, but had people backstage against him, and languished for over a year before they pulled the trigger on him with the ECW Title. He got the nod for the World Title in 2008, but was still treated like a second tier guy. It wasn't until the Straight Edge Society was getting white-hot heat that the powers that be started coming around to him. Then they still dicked around with him before finally putting the title on him at Survivor Series. Daniel Bryan got the NXT losing streak, and then got released for going too far with the original Nexus angle. His comeback was a huge deal, and then the feud with Miz was great. But he eventually cooled down and started getting de-pushed, even after winning MITB. He eventually cashed in for the title, and got over huge with the 'Yes Yes Yes' deal, and followed up with the comedy with Kane. The Shield are pretty much the closest example to basically walking in to their current push. But, remember, they've only recently started wrestling on TV on a regular basis. Their first match was at TLC, and their second was the the Elimination Chamber. Claudio Castagnoli started with Aksana and that goofy rugby player gimmick. He got the U.S. Title on a PPV preshow, at one of it's lower points, and made it more interesting than it had been in ages. I'd call that match with Sin Cara many things, but it wasn't boring. So hopefully, he's out of the doghouse.

Bret Hart, or Brett Hart (Barry Horowitz)?

He seemed to be getting his mojo back last year after he started teaming with Magnus, and had that match with A-Double on PPV.

Backlund was pretty much the end of the WWF's 20 year tradition at that point, a longtime babyface champion to appeal to an ethnic demographic. Just like Bruno and Pedro before him (Superstar was the first heel to get an extended run with the strap). To determine who, if not Bob, you really have to first determine what the criteria was for choosing Bob. Was VJM looking for that Jack Brisco type of champion, or just to appeal to another ethnic group (IE the white boys). Assuming it's the former, then he's definitely not going to find them in his territory. So he's got to find someone who fits the bill, is willing to make the move, and prove they can get over with the Northeast fans before the title change. Because, let's face it, I don't think he's going to magically select, say, Dory Funk, jr, and tell him "You start on this date, and you're going to beat Superstar in Feb." and then find out the hard way that the fans in MSG, The Spectrum, the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, etc. don't give a flying shit about him. It seems more likely that it's the latter, and VJM never had a big shortage of ethnic names on his roster to choose from. Putski, Strongbow, Garea, Arion, Bellomo, etc. He could have slotted any of them in Bob's place. Do I think they'd have gotten over better than Bob (wait a sec, Bob wasn't over, just ask Larry!)? Probably not. Do I think that PWO would be discussing great MSG Title matches like Ken Patera vs. Ivan Putski? Probably not. But, I don't exactly seen a ton of pimping for Pedro Morales matches either.

If Magnum had avoided the car wreck, and stayed healthy throughout the year, the first Clash seems like a likely time to make the big title change. Magnum beats Nikita at Starrcade '86 for the US Title and defends it for the first half of '87, dropping it to Lex in the cage instead of Nikita. Magnum takes Nikita's place in the War Games matches. Magnum has to go through the Horsemen to get to Flair, which he does at Starrcade, only for Flair to retain with some kind of screw job. It culminates with Flair vs. Magnum, live on TBS, with Dillon in the cage, opposite WrestleMania.