Cox

I think it's that preconceived notions are hard to break. When Masters first came up a few years ago, he was still REALLY green. Between that and the huge, roided out bodybuilder physique, which was something that Meltzer always used to equate with bad worker dating back to the 80's in the Observer, and I think it was hard for some folks to accept that Masters had not only improved, but became damn good.

They weren't inflated at the time. It was an example of rising tides lifting all boats to be sure, but you had midcarders and jobbers taking home downsides never before seen (or since, really). A lot of people not at the top got accustomed to boom level guarantees and when those weren't rolling in anymore they decided it was time to move on. Actually, Meltzer says the opposite in this month's WON: that while the headliners dont' make nearly as much as the headliners of 10 years ago (Cena makes millions, but nobody makes Austin/Rock money) that most of the midcarders actually make more now than they did during the boom because the video game does so well. It's just gotten to the point that the years upon years of no upward mobility has drained on a good deal of that midcard roster that Loss was speaking of, so folks are more prone to leave than they used to be, in spite of the decent money.

Seriously, how does somebody rate 22 matches 4 3/4 stars or better from Dragon Gate, ROH, PWG, and New Japan alone this year? It's one thing to be really excited and enthusiastic about a few certain groups, and I'm not even accounting for taste here, but how is it possible that 22 matches that are perfect or near perfect came from four promotions alone in the year 2010?

Thanks for bringing up the final show at the Fairgrounds, Jingus. I probably wouldn't have known about it otherwise, but now that I know, I am trying to make arrangement to make the 15 hour drive from central NJ to Nashville to see the show. I've loved Memphis style wrestling for a long time but never actually seen a show in person, so getting to see Lawler/Dundee at the final show at the Nashville Fairgrounds, especially with the Mid South Coliseum and Louisville Gardens no longer running wrestling shows, would be a big deal to me.

He must have had some real heat to have gotten cut two days before Christmas.

I think Meltzer gave a lot of the WWF guys in the 80's more shit than they probably deserved for poor performances. Yeah, a lot of guys may not have been at the same level they were before going to the WWF, but I mean...the travel was unlike anything ever seen before or since. Can you blame the wrestlers when they were being run ragged by crazy 2-3 week runs without a break, going from airport to airport all over the country? I'd say mid to late 80's WWF had the most unpleasant working conditions ever seen in wrestling, and think of the ground THAT covers.

Not to pick on Dave or anything, as I thought his write-up on the Benoit stuff for the Observer was really good, but I wonder why he buried this at the end of his Benoit piece today after more concussion stuff that wasn't really newsworthy (of course McDevitt is going to claim that Benoit's concussions didn't cause the murders). The suicide note and the heart enlargement were new stories and really should have been the focus of the piece ahead of the concussion stuff, but that's my own opinion.

Instead of the iPPV, I've been watching the WWF Spectrum show from October '87 on 24/7, in what can only be described as the bizarro version of this card. The first four matches: Outback Jack vs. Barry Horowitz Ultimate Warrior vs. Iron Mike Sharpe (back before they gave up on the idea of Warrior actually having wrestling matches unless it was with dudes like Rude and Savage) Bulldogs vs Bolsheviks Dino Bravo vs Hillbilly Jim With Herc/JYD still to come!

This sentence is the most Dave Meltzer sentence ever:

Didn't Austin have another program with Bossman in 2001? I want to say it was a TV program, Austin vs. Bossman/Booker T. And of course, there was the Bossman/Big Show program which actually headlined a PPV once.

I guess GSP just doesn't understand business.

Bryan Alvarez's shitty taste in wrestling suddenly makes a whole lot of sense. He hasn't watched a whole lot of good wrestling so he has no real basis of comparison. Of course, he probably should lay off the "omfg SHAWN MICHAELS IS THE BEST WRESTLER EVAHHHHHH" stuff, since he hasn't seen that much compared to most other wrestling fans, and I'd even say it's debatable whether he should have a HOF ballot, but still, we should probably cut the guy some slack if he hasn't really watched that much wrestling outside of WWF/WCW/TNA.

Not exactly. Bryan was ranting about how great the traditional Wargames formula is, and how it works even when you've got crappy workers in the match; considering that this one included the Nasty Boys and Dusty 1994, he had a point. When it came to Funk, all he said was that Terry looked odd this night, like maybe he was drunk. Wait, he's going to complain about a War Games match that has Dusty, Dusty, Arn, Funk, Golden, and Fuller? I mean, say what you will about the Nasty Boys, I'm not a fan at all, but in a War Games cage surrounded with six of the best brawlers of that era, they aren't going to detract at all.

I think part of that is so markets with two NFL teams (New York, Bay Area, and Los Angeles until the mid-90's) won't have any other NFL games going head to head with the "local" team. Same reason why the Jets and Giants never play at the same time. Of course, it sucks for every other market in the US, but what can you do?

Wow, do these quotes ever show that Dave doesn't know what he's talking about. The Vikings were on the primetime schedule frequently because they went to the NFC Championship Game last year and were expected to be one of the better teams in the NFL this year. The NFL did recently start the "flex scheduling" on Sunday nights, but NBC is still reluctant to change their games unless they are absolute dogs because CBS and Fox have right of first refusal to the marquee games on Sunday afternoon. Nobody would want to see, say, a Vikings/Cowboys game on Sunday night if it had been scheduled later in the season, because despite having Brett Favre (a name attraction) and the Cowboys (one of the most popular teams in the league) playing each other, nobody would want to watch two dog teams play one another. As far as his other point, the Jets play the Giants once every four years during the regular season (though they do play a preseason game that most folks don't care too much about). Same with the Raiders and the 49ers. The NFL doesn't sneak an extra Raiders/49ers game into the schedule every year because it would have interest in the Bay Area; it's treated the same as any other inter-conference rivalry. The A's do play the Giants more times than they would any other NL team, but less than they would any other American League rival; even if an extra A's/Giants series every year probably would mean more for their box office than, say, A's/Orioles, it's not treated as particularly special compared to any other American League rival. Really, Dave needs to stop bringing other sports into this, because they make his own points look bad, and it shows how little he truly grasps the concepts in other sports.

Yeah, that is pretty much true in other sports as well. Other than maybe new stadiums (and even they have a shelf life of maybe 1-2 years at most these days), nothing draws better than winning, particularly sustained winning. Perhaps if the NASL had survived, he would have eventually learned this.

Wow. I was only joking about Antoine Dodson being pro wrestling, but I'm pretty sure Dave might actually believe that.

I dunno, Christian as ECW champion was a lot of fun and at least as good as anything Edge and Christian did together. He was definitely better than Matt Hardy had been in the same role the year before.

You know 1999 WWF is pretty terrible when Test was the only new star they made that year.

Linda can't really be serious about running again, can she? She's just saying that to save face, right? I mean, she lost by double digits in a very Republican-friendly campaign cycle to a weak candidate, and the more voters in Connecticut learned about Linda, the less they liked her. By 2012, she could be looking at a 20+ point loss.

Wait, you read Lita's book? Why???

Just a thought: Since Antoine Dodson was part of the UFC show tonight, does that mean that home invasions are now pro wrestling? After all, he DID cut a hell of a promo on the guys who invaded his house and it did logically set up a second showdown between the Dodson family and the intruder from the projects.

Right before the PPV rundown: "Rundown of the iPPV show from Fall River, MA, from Bryan Alvarez:"

Dave did credit Alvarez for the Dragon Gate PPV report in this week's Observer.

I like how they just let Eric Young go after offering him a paycut, only to bring back Nash and whatever he's making when he hasn't made one dollar for the company in all the years he's been there. Not that Eric Young has made them any money, but at least he fills a spot in the undercard and won't cost an exorbitant amount of money.