Cox

Oh man do I hate this phrase so much. I wish there was a way to make this stop. Just say "[X] got the heat," people.

Who has less patience with new headliners on top, Dave Meltzer or WWE? Sure seems like it's Dave.

I believe Bob is still a travel agent for TNA.

I know it's probably not cool to say this, but...he really needs to get back on the gas.

The best part of the main event was that the crowd was so relieved that Orton wasn't going to win that they actually cheered Cena when he won.

The only time I went to a TNA show was a PPV show in Trenton a few years ago. So low was my desire to pay decent money to see TNA that I requested "worst seats available" at the ticket window.

After reading Shoemaker's latest crap, I realized why I have never really been a fan of his writing all this time. Have you ever waited in line at an indy show, behind some dude who thought he knew everything there was to know about wrestling, because he read an issue or two of the Observer but a lot of Scott Keith? And he goes on and on, getting some facts right, but many, many other facts wrong, but keeps talking loudly to make himself sound smarter than the people he had gone to the show with, and to the other fans in line? And eventually you just pray that the doors open and you can get into the safety of the building just so you don't have to be around this dumbass one more minute? That guy is the Masked Man.

As much as I may like Paul Heyman, it's probably telling on some level that, other than Brock, the three guys they have paired him with since last year (Axel, Ryback, and now Cesaro) haven't really gotten any rub from being with him, and in the case of Ryback and Cesaro, actually lost steam after being paired with him.

After seeing the pic from the Observer main site, man, AJ Styles has some truly regrettable ink.

How many women do you know get a kick out of being called horse-faced?

I have to give ROH credit. While every other wrestling company on Earth is moving away from outdated wrestling business models like syndicated television and Pay Per View, they're diving head-first into them. On the plus side, ROH will finally be dead by the end of the year and they can sell their tape library to a company who might actually do something interesting with it.

Is Wrestlemania VII one of the more depressing Wrestlemanias in retrospect? There are three matches where both participants are dead and 11 deaths overall. Just a staggering amount of death for a show that only took place 23 years ago.

That has to be a Twitter hack.

How can there be an over/under on a yes or no question?

I believe that was Bix's point.

That was then followed by this question That's interesting. I wonder what would have happened had he stayed with the WWF. Does he wind up taking over play by play from Gorilla in the mid-90's, rather than Vince? Does he eventually become the voice of Raw? What happens when Watts gets fired in '93? Is Ross less expendable without Schiavone waiting in the wings as the new play by play guy for WCW? Or is Schiavone only saying this because he wants WWE to keep using him as a talking head for the Network?

I'm surprised they inducted that youngster.

I haven't actually watched either show, but Comic Book Men and Small Town Security don't strike me as being particularly high brow. They seem to be getting away from the higher quality dramas that they used when they first started out, and are going for more lowbrow fare.

Yes, David Shoemaker, the guy who knows more about the history of wrestling than just about anyone, bringing up noted French wrestler Doug Furnas.

Powers of Pain vs The Rockers, one of the many, many, many Warlord/Bulldog matches, probably either the POP/Fuji vs Demos or Survivor Series '88 tags since those were the POP's biggest angle as a team, maybe something from the NWA...I bet you can fill a solid disc of Warlord matches and not make him look like a total bag of shit if you were careful.

I think Punk's ultimate impact won't properly be assessed until we know what happens with Bryan, and to a lesser extent Cesaro, Ambrose, and Rollins. I think being the first indy guy to really break through and become a top star will be his legacy, but we won't know how important that is until we see if this is something that sustains, or if it's something that dies out with Punk and Bryan. If Daniel Bryan does get a sustained run, I think that helps Punk a lot as he will be seen as a trailblazer, and if some of the other former indy guys under contract join Bryan as an upper midcarder, and maybe occasional headliner, that further helps Punk's legacy as well.

I think Mero is the subject of an interesting "What if" scenario: What if Mero had re-signed with WCW in 1996? Apparently at one point they were pretty close on a new contract at one point until negotiations broke down and Mero went to Vince and got a better offer during the start of the Monday Night Wars. I don't think it's unreasonable to think there's a situation out there where Mero signs another deal and stays in WCW. What happens with his push? I think he is probably kept somewhat strong, and he becomes one of the top WCW babyfaces fighting the nWo, and becomes a DDP/Booker T like homegrown star on the WCW side, or he jumps to the nWo and has Buff Bagwell's career, without the neck injury. But either way, I think he plays a part in the nWo somehow, and is kept strong in an interesting way. But that's not the only way he would alter history. Without Mero in the WWF, there is no Sable either. Does Sable wind up signing with WCW at some point? Does she wind up a Nitro Girl? Without Sable around, that also hurts WWF's ratings in 1998, as she was undoubtedly one of the ratings movers that helped WWF establish some momentum that year and makes the Monday Night Wars closer and more compelling. Without Sable around, how does that affect the ratings battle? Without Sable around as her main rival, does Sunny no longer implode, or was that going to happen no matter what? Does Terri Runnels somehow become the face of WWF Divas without Sable around? Heck, if Mero stays in WCW, to take this a few steps further, Sable never meets Brock Lesnar, and Brock winds up marrying somebody else. So yeah, I think Mero signing with WWF changed wrestling history in a lot of ways, big and small, that we probably don't even notice otherwise.

I am not ashamed to admit that the very first thing I watched on the WWE Network was Vince McMahon vs CM Punk.

So if Punk does return tonight, it's almost a given that they are going to try to recreate the "pipe bomb" promo, right?

Was this episode particularly sleezy, though? If I recall correctly, UPN wanted a lot of the sleazier aspects of late 90's WWF cut out of Smackdown, so it might have legit earned a TV-PG rating.