Cox

Judging by opinions at the time, Eaton really does have a case for being one of the top five workers in the business from '86 to '90. That's pretty impressive.

Really? I was completely anticipating it given all the gushing praise Edge has gotten in the Observer as the hottest heel in the business over the last four years. The comp with Murdoch as a worker is a laugh, but it's not like Dave is rewatching 80's Mid South or New Japan like a lot of us here have done recently. Maybe I was just hoping that Dave would have learned the Lessons of 2004 Hall of Fame, where voting a guy in based on a 3-4 year body of work is a really terrible idea. It seems particularly inexplicable for Edge since, as noted, he's really been active only about two and a half years of his three and a half year period of being a headliner.

When I read the HOF discussion issue this afternoon, I was completely gobsmacked by Dave making a strong case for Edge. Is Edge a better candidate than Sting? Luger? Any number of guys who Meltzer would laugh off the ballot? He's been a headliner for about 3 and a half years now, has missed at least a year of that due to injuries, and has clearly been slotted behind Cena, HHH, Undertaker, Michaels, and at times Orton and Batista during that period. Guys like Luger and Sid fall off the ballot immediately, Goldberg and Big Show can't even get on the ballot, yet this is the guy Meltzer pushes? Well, hey, it's his Hall of Fame.

From today's WON, talking about the strengths and weaknesses of some on the ballot, regarding Edge: Find me the man who says Edge was a better worker than Dick Murdoch, and I will slap them in the face.

Well, that and the steroids. Well, he's not going to stop doing that.

Part of the reason Nigel got hurt so much was his body wasn't meant to handle the physical ROH style (then again, whose is?). Working the safer WWE style, and without the demands associated with ROH World title matches, he should remain healthier.

As per Meltzer, Nigel McGuinness is following Danielson into WWE: http://www.f4wonline.com/content/view/10497/ Good move for Nigel, I bet he winds up a bigger star in WWE since he has more of a look.

Two guys who have both been discussed in this thread, I thought they'd make for an interesting compare/contrast: Lex Luger or John Cena? Specifically, Luger's 1989 or Cena's 2007?

I'm not a prude, but I do often check the board from work, and all of the talk about pornography could set off word filters from our web blocking software that leads to PWO being blocked at work, so if you could tone things down just a little, it'd be appreciated.

I'm not sure if I totally buy that Rey nixed the Dolph title reigns. WWE never likes to put titles on guys in their first chances. MVP wrestled Benoit a bunch of times before he won the US title, Jeff Hardy had a few misses for the World title. When they "elevate" a guy to the new spot, they seem to like him to fail a bunch of times first before finally getting the title. And it looks like it was the right thing to do, because I don't know that the crowd would have bought Ziggler as the IC champion in July, but he's been in the mix long enough now to where it seems like it would work.

It generally doesn't affect the popularity of baseball players when they are caught using PEDs, despite what the sports media establishment will try to make you believe. I doubt it will matter much in wrestling, where the vast majority of the viewing public probably assumes use anyway.

http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/869043 "In accordance with WWE's Wellness Program, effective Wednesday, September 2, Oscar Gutierrez (Rey Mysterio) is suspended for 30 days for a violation of the company’s policy." I guess they're going to be putting the rocket on Dolph Ziggler a bit sooner than they had anticipated.

And then six hours or so later the Danielson thing was announced. LOLvarez. Alvarez in this week's F4W then says something like how WWE is interested in 1 or 2 ROH guys, one of them being Danielson, but that they weren't necessarily looking to raid ROH and don't really seem to care that ROH exists. Not sure how true it is, but considering the ROH TV show is available in like 5 households, and they would appear to have few people remaining that would hold any interest to WWE (Nigel maybe?), I don't know that I'd dispute it.

I guess it would depend on clearances - if he can get the network on enough cable systems, he'd be a fool not to, but I'm thinking they won't be available in enough homes to make that viable, at least immediately. I'm guessing they would start with a show like Superstars or even ECW, and expand from there. While they would keep all of the commercial money, there's still making sure WWE programming is seen by enough eyeballs to buy PPVs and merchandise.

I could be wrong, but I am assuming that WWE lent Cornette Undertaker and Michaels for this show since Cornette was WWE affiliated at the time. And you're right, business had been bad before '95, but that's when it seemed to really go off the cliff. The start of the fall was probably August of '94 at Fire on the Mountain in the hair match with the Rock 'n' Rolls putting up Ricky Morton's hair against Brian Lee and Chris Candido putting up Tammy Fytch's hair. The Rock 'n' Rolls lost, and they shaved Candido's crew cut in what had to feel like the ultimate ripoff. They killed Johnson City that night.

I think interest was down before fall of '95 in SMW. The Superbowl of Wrestling probably helped keep them afloat a little while longer, but houses were down before that and interest was down. Frankly, SMW in '95 just wasn't as interesting as the previous three years. In particular, Bobby Blaze flopped hard as champion, and it wound up hurting Buddy Landell too since he looked like a weak champion for taking so long to beat a guy with no credibility, and then Brad Armstrong's reign on top didn't really do much either.

Is this the one from Starrcade '96? I remember really loving this match when it happened, and I was confused because as a young "smark," I couldn't believe how much I got into a match with two guys who weren't "supposed" to be any good like Luger and Giant. I haven't seen it in years so I have no idea if it holds up, but I remember really thinking it was great at the time.

Apparently, Tom Prichard was not very fond of Jimmy Del Ray as a person, which is weird in the same shoot interview he found positive things to say about Jamie Dundee and Brian Christopher.

It's a different situation today. The Hardy signing was before Chris Benoit killed his family and shined a light on how scummy wrestling can be. The AP picked up the story about Angle stalking Rhaka Khan and being caught with HGH, so WWE bringing him in would mean bad publicity that signing Jeff Hardy three years ago didn't.

WWE already fired him once for acting crazy. Why would they bring him back when he's done nothing but act crazier in the years since they released him?

I mean, is anybody really surprised that TNA kept the title on Angle? This is a company that has a reputation for doing the absolute dumbest things month after month. The only thing keeping the company afloat is Spike and the overseas TV money, which Meltzer has said they've gotten through having Angle to sell to overseas markets, so of course they're going to hitch their wagon to Angle until he dies. I'm more surprised that it took two years for a Russo-booked wrestling promotion to put their woman's title on a man. That's remarkable restraint for Russo.

I just assumed that Sgt. Slaughter as Raw guest host in Calgary was Vince McMahon trolling the entire country of Canada for two hours.

I don't think his heel promos are any good, but he is really great at wrestling as a heel.

Yeah, when Gibson was working as a trainer in OVW, he was booking indy gigs through the WWE office, and they asked for a much higher guarantee. When Ricky found out, he asked for equal pay and promoters refused, since they had already agreed on the lower amount for him. Apparently, this caused some bad blood.

I think there are some hard feelings these days between Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson, since both have been known to form "new" versions of the Rock 'n' Roll Express that pop up on indies now and then. Also, Dynamite mentioned in his book that the Young Stallions hated one another.