blueminister

I think Lesnar is instructive because he embraced prowres as a last-ditch income source after washing out of MMA and football. Maybe all UFC has added is new road to ascension in the Sport of Kings, and in the future all the old timer DVDs will have them recounting how they were top MMA prospects after college football before they went down to a knee injury and fell in with some carnies at the gym.

He was an eccentric with a pronounced midwestern uncoolness that went all the way around to being somehow cool. The clueless fiftyish republican uncle you could root for -- kind of a Second City Foghorn Leghorn. Compare his endearing know-it-all act with Mark Madden's obnoxious basement dweller version of the same thing.

A heel stable consisting of the Steiners, Tank Abbot and a pack of wild dogs sounds way cooler than it actually was.

"We promise you least three finisher kickouts or your money will be refunded at the gate."

The non-apology results from eliding the absurdity of having to kiss some non-profit ring because a wrestler named Bully Ray behaved in a way that could be interpreted as bullying by TNA's booming "gay suicidal teen" live attendance demographic. There is nonsense on every level of this.

More people watched Austin-era WWF than nWo.

So did he get on a plane again? Also unfortunate that the "chemistry-free to the point that Flair's visible ambivalence can short out older TV sets" combo with Miz was cut down in its prime.

ahahaha 199 moves. he's trying really hard to do a chokeslam in his off time to make it an even 200.

Ric Flair wasn't involved in like half of the WWF Attitude main event angles.

I kind of suspect that Rock was directed not to rep the PPV so Cena can fake shoot on him Monday a la last year's dumb promo notes on the arm.

I wrote the timeline. I'm pretty sure the second one, taking their intial kind of lean & goofy one, pitching the goofy and adding a lot of additional historical stuff in, and some Japanese stuff sprinkled in. Holy shit, that was a mind-blowing read waaaaay back in the dark ages. Great job.

The first three or so editions of the PWI almanacs starting around about 1995 had incredible history of wrestling sections.

Ahahahaha talk about begrudging. "Sting actually proved himself early on, but it doesn't count because as a fake athlete he didn't single-handedly save WCW from colossal mismanagement issues." Geez, just give the dude a point.

TNA has a lot of issues but not recognizing/faulting them for the Aries push (you kinda do both there) is petty.

I don't want this to come off as geek feelings but I think Stephanie being the only head of creative in wrestling history to operate in a consequence-free environment makes improving the company impossible. Vince as 1970s Stan Lee "only follows the wrestling product at a macro level but enjoys the freedom to interfere arbitrarily" doesn't help. (Examples: the wrestlers striking during the Miz/Truth/Punk/HHH/Ace angle; seemingly deciding over the course of commercial break to make AJ Raw GM.)

I think there was a lot of us stanning for Brother Love in some thread about a month ago but yeah he was great.

The reason is because before the police reports and Ring of Hell the theory was regarded as tacky and baseless conjecture. Most of the people with any insight to offer into Benoit's character were dead wrestlers and -- with the exception of Bradshaw and probably Reagal -- the coworkers he'd traveled alongside for years were sending farewell texts to his phone about wrestling Eddy in heaven and whatnot.

Kudos to those who were able to skip to the end of the Encyclopedia Brown story but I think family annihilation was by no means the most likely scenario outside the handful of living people who realized just how strange he was.

Even discounting drug/reliability issues (I can't see them holding two strikes against him in perpetuity) I just see Orton at some weird point where he's too entrenched as mid-tier to waste one of Rock's dates yet his credibility's established enough that he no longer qualifies for the dice roll program with the visiting megastar. That said, the possibility of a Punk exit would seemingly promise new opportunities for him and this was a company that decided this time last year that CM Punk should bloodfeud with Jericho on the flimsiest of pretexts and Daniel Bryan would be best employed as a comedy midcard crutch for Kane, so who knows.

Maybe if Rock discovers a time machine and makes his long-awaited return in 2006.

I'd hope so, Okada is a minor cultural phenomenon and Tatsu was half a decade into barely rising above scrote-washing level when he signed.

LOL @ "was guilty of spreading it as anyone." Hitler: "Now, we can argue all day about who incited the Holocaust, but..."

Steve Austin's credentials are forever sullied by his epic sonning at the hands of journeyman "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan. Seriously though, I think we can agree that for upper-mid card guys that the amnesiac approach to booking sort of works both ways. People on the net don't seem to have any problem thinking Ziggler should go over in whatever big match he's booked for that month even though he's been treated like a loser more often than not. Crowds don't have a problem getting behind Santino on the odd occasion he's treated seriously. In WWE the build-up to big matches will be as effective as the immediate lead -- as long as Swagger is treated like as a guy who was in a slump but is now a xenophobic threat who is now inspired by Alex Jones to get the job done, people will tend to regard him as such by the time of the big event. It's not what's preferable for anyone who enjoys being awarded for paying attention week-to-week, but sometimes you have to acknowledge you're on the wrong side of history

Butbutbut according to dudes on this board Sting's popularity and drawing power were easily eclipsed by Goldberg and nobody cared about Sting after Starcade 97! this simply cannot be

Second best part: that McMahon has apparently join the ranks of Republicans who blame their lack of political success on the Tea Party.