Slasher

It is almost like no one has ever had a best friend so close that they considered each other brothers. It has definitely got to mean they are gay instead.

I don't think what happened last night was a panic move. The dirtsheets were reporting at the beginning of September that the plan all along was to blow off Bryan/Orton at HIAC and to have Orton in the title picture through the Rumble. Well here's the thing. I know I argued that they didn't blow it with Daniel Bryan... yet, but it is definitely disheartening to know that they created an unreal moment at Summerslam where Daniel Bryan for a moment, proved he could break through the glass ceiling... solely to fuck it up by putting the belt on Orton. Now I understand typically the formula is to have the hated heel take the belt to Wrestlemania and lose it to the hot babyface to validate the months of his ascension, but this is a storyline that you pay off in installments. The first installment is the obvious close but no cigar coronation at Summerslam. The second has to logically follow as having overcome permanently the major footsoldier heel (Say... Randy Orton the corporate appointed face of the WWE) as a precursor to what comes next. The third installment/final payoff is beating the uber boss (think the typical video game progression here, which in this case has obviously to be Triple H). Anything else will definitely have squandered the momentum.

I doubt fans who saw the show left thinking Daniel Bryan blew it. The booking sucked but it isn't as if he jobbed clean as a sheet. The special ref who is a certified legend superkicks him and Orton capitalized. With RVD and Jericho, they were booked repeatedly to lose clean. Big difference here...albeit for the moment. Who knows how it looks six months from now.

Meltzer made a point that when Austin got in trouble for the Debra stuff, it barely made a blip in news media, but when it was Hogan-all over the place. I do have to think fame and importance has to go hand in hand, unless you were a journeyman that left promotions after six months or something. Being famous means people know who you work for means people are watching for you.

I think Andre has to be #2. Rock should be above Austin. I don't think Bruno is really that famous outside the NE. Savage is there somewhere alongside Austin too.

I believe that they had a different match in mind that they intended on wrestling when they went out there. The crowd took them out of their element and for some reason they decided to just say "fuck it" and do that instead. I blame them for sure, for being unprofessional about it all, but the fans definitely altered the trajectory of the match from the get go.

I think Shawn actually enjoys being able to say no to any proposed matches. I think he gets off on all the "ONE MORE MATCH!" chant he gets, which goes away if he does in fact wrestle again. I wouldn't be too opposed to him lacing up the boots one more time, but the circumstances really have to be perfect. Wrestling a semi-retired Triple H isn't it. Neither is wrestling Daniel Bryan, who he may have trained in storyline, but in reality he has as much connection to him as he does to El Torito.

Yep. They should have their own Netflix service.

Considering how Edge was poorly received as a babyface after returning, I don't think that is a good idea, even in retrospect. Plus I don't think people would support the notion that this guy who up to that point was an IC-level performer and only a strong performer when in tags would come out and manhandle both BROCK LESNAR and BILL GOLDBERG. Even at the height of the Rated R Superstar heel run, he was never a dominant personality. He was the Ultimate Opportunist who snuck his way into favorable situations.

PWInsider Wondering if the success of Total Divas has given them leverage to suggest to cable companies that they can promote programs like Legends House successfully. If their non-wrestling programming can draw viewers, the network might have real value. I would hope that the cable companies are not as easily misled as you think they are. Total Divas is on a popular woman-centric network. It's no more successful than anything else that is on the channel, and in the larger scope, it's not that successful to begin with. That does not equate to some mythical boon of having a WWE network available to the cable companies. In fact, I hope it never gets off the ground because I see another spectacularly failed venture that would eat up a good chunk of their resources, and they do not need it. In fact, if anything, the future (for now) is in a streaming service that is available online.

Plenty of bloggers have published their posts into a book. This isn't too far out of the norm. True, and I am not begrudging him or anyone for doing it. And I think it is cool people care enough about his work as to pay him in a way by buying the book.

Well yeah. I said it all along, beating Triple H has to be the endgame for Daniel Bryan's angle. They planted that seed by having Daniel Bryan challenge him to a match, to show him "what a solid B+ player can do". The only gripe I had with the segment, was while it makes sense for this legend (in his own mind, at least anyways) to only want to wrestle the big names at big shows, he should not have so explicitly spelled that out for the fans. Now they have a problem in that they booked themselves into a corner in terms of having to figure out a way that Daniel Bryan could goad Triple H into a match without losing the integrity of his character which is "the cool headed smarmy heel who thinks he knows what's best, and he can back it up in the ring if necessary". Having Daniel Bryan simply beating Randy Orton for the title wouldn't be enough justification considering Triple H had simply stripped him of the belt before and could do it again easily. They have to do something major to get Triple H to lose his cool in a major way and agree to the match. And what can they do, that follows the integrity of the Daniel Bryan character? It isn't like he can go out there and pull Stephanie's arm out of socket with the Yes Lock. And no, it wouldn't work either for a suddenly turned babyface Vince McMahon to book his son in law in a match he doesn't want against Daniel Bryan. Part of the validation of the Daniel Bryan main event push is that Triple H has to WANT to wrestle and beat him.

It's a brilliant work on his part. Even if he is being an insecure bitch, it plays perfectly in his character. He is probably the best heel non-wrestling character since Vince in his heyday.

Not to be an asshole or anything (intentionally), but if the Cawthon book is just the results, why would people shell out money for it when the website exists? I would understand if there were extra stuff in the book like anecdotes or things to accompany specific results, but yeah.

Think the long term plan, if Bischoff could find a buyer for WCW, to reboot the direction of the company with all the babyfaces, Goldberg included, returning one by one. I think Scott Steiner was supposed to be the champion in this scenario, building to Steiner/Goldberg at Starrcade. Then Vince stepped in and all bets were off.

Thanks. Are they still reporting that HHH and Steph will be off tv after HIAC? Because if all that comes to pass, it would be nearly impossible to transition Daniel Bryan into a different program without the peripheral presence of Triple H unless it is against the Big Show.

Why are people convinced there will be a Screwjob at HIAC involving a heel turn by Shawn Michaels? Isn't this the same Shawn that refuses to turn heel & made peace with Bret Hart over the Montreal version? What am I missing here?

I loved the segment where he had the huddle with the other title contenders before a multi-man match at the PPV for that exact same reason.

Biker Taker came about towards the end of his Ministry of Darkness run and then was established properly at Judgment Day 2000 and beyond. I can't recall many great Biker Taker matches but the heel promos were pretty great and he was a tremendous dick to Flair and The Hardys. Ah yeah, the Jeff Hardy/Taker Ladder match on Raw was enjoyable with a great tease of a Hardy victory. I assume he's turned face by Summerslam 02 as he'll be transitioning to the Lesnar program (the HITC match is a good WWE brawl if you're interested). So yeah, he was basically a 7 foot biker who chewed tobacco, threw people into popcorn machines and threw out some great one-liners. Great heel, not so great babyface. He turned back to "Deadman" Taker at Mania XX. He turned babyface around Vengeance, when it was built around the triple threat between The Rock, Kurt Angle and Undertaker. Taker and Angle had a match on Smackdown that was inconclusive and in addition to the respect he showed Jeff Hardy in that ladder match, he just turned naturally. His babyface run was sort of ruined due to the fact he wasn't willing to play ball with Brock Lesnar and it showed in the program. He came across as selfish as Triple H did on Raw during the same time. It was not a good fall for up and comers in the main event.

For some odd reason I liked that segment where the backstage interviewer caught Jeff Hardy staring at the wall and he told her he was looking at the paint dry, which is what it was like to hear his opponent's promo. It was a short response to the interviewer that really caught the quirky personality he had.

He was a killer, agreed, and him not talking added to his aura. However, post Starrcade '98 he needed to be less one dimensional, and I feel if he was a great talker he wouldn't of fallen from grace and become just another guy as quickly. I agree he needed to be less one dimensional, and I enjoyed him more than way, but him being a poor promo (which he wasn't, he actually got pretty solid) isn't the reason why he became another guy. Idiotic booking is what killed his aura. I think if he was a stronger promo over in WWE his impact MAY of been greater. Vince McMahon didn't want to put Goldberg over and Triple H didn't want Goldberg to get over at his expense.

I'm sorry? They are not that good, and it's not because of poor mic skills.

I actually thought it was a poor promo that seemed to be a halfhearted attempt to build him up a little, since it seems like so many people just assume Cena will show up to slaughter Del Rio and take the world title. Then putting the cross armbreaker on Matthews, after a struggle to put him down? Just a desperate play.

My guess was that even though they book refs to come across as incompetent, they don't want it pointed out so blatantly or obviously, as to 1. Avoid referees being seen as an ineffective tool in matches and/or 2. Avoid putting unnecessary heat on the referees in an unintended manner.

Considering the memo is from a few YEARS ago, the announcing quality would have long ago already been affected by now.