Robert S

Making the obvious joke: Q: What is a Seth Rollins? A: First of all, it's Seth FREAKING Rollins. Q: What does he stand for? A: Construction, because he is an architect. Q: What does he oppose? A: Kings, he even slays them. Q: What's he about? A: Burning it down.

The idea behind the brand split is fine (it should reduce overexposure of guys being on TV 2+ times per week and give guys room to grow), it's mostly the execution that's shitty. When they did the initial brand split on 02 they managed to create different identities for the brands (whether by accident or on purpose), Raw was Hunter's Sports-Entertainment brand, Smackdown was the workrate brand (due to the Smackdown Six). They also managed to do single-brand PPVs that did not feel like third rate shows. Now it's just an abitrary split where some guys mostly appear on Raw while the other mostly appear on Smackdown. Due to the huge amount of titles the (multi-brand) PPVs are just one title match after another.

I don't know about planning, more like considering it. I don't think that they are actively persuing this for that long (don't ask me numbers, I am not a regular dirt sheet reader). Honestly, I would love to see the same patience WWE has shown in the Network in their "regular" product. When the Network was initially launched there were several delays of the launch date. And when they finally launched it, the product was (at least as far as I understand, I got the network only two years later when it became available here) in a decent state (you could argue that more stuff should have been available for the launch, but you could also argue that the big drops they had for quite some time show that the Network is alive, something that would have been harder to do with all Raw, Smackdown and Nitro being available at the launch).

Classy as always

True, but Muslim countries (the states, not the people) in the Levant generally do, especially Wahhabistic countries.

Heyman was on the last show and they got the Daivaris in for the first show. It would be much worse if Goldberg had an Israeli passport (or the Daivari's Iranian ones) instead of an American one. A Qatari passport would probably also be a huge problem.

I kicked in disc 3 yesterday. I remember one of the things I did not like so far being that the heels taking way too little of the matches (probably due to them being afraid of being killed by the crowd), enter: Terry Funk, who threw wooden chairs into the stands and hit Rick Martel with a piledriver on the turf outside. After the match Funk gave an interview in English, calling a Puerto Rico a giant pig farm. At the end he wanted to say a couple of word in the "native language" of the audience, at this point you can see Hugo Savinovich go "oh boy, you will get us all killed". And Terry did not disappoint: "oink, oink, oink, oink, you pigs".

Did ever anything come out from this? Because Puerto Rico is also a set I have lying around, but I cannot motivate myself enough to pick it up and get through with it (I got about two discs into it when I first got it).

Looking at the stock progression in the last 1.5 years, I doubt that the stock will jump back up. I am not a stock guy at all, but if a stock that fluctuated between 10 $ and 20 $ for almost two decades suddenly jumps up to 100 $, that cries out "overrated". I would not be surprised if a lot of people realize that the peak has been reached and that now it is time to cash-in.

Maybe they should call Hanson and Rowe Raven and Titan. Just looking at the name list, you could get so many great tag team names by just combining two NFL team names, like The Giant Cowboys or The Lion Saints.

Didn't he use to be Psycho Sid with a "P" in 95 and only dropping the "P" when he returned as a face in 96 (I think they even gave some half-assed explanation)?

So how long until there will be a "WWE signed the wrong no-legged man" headline?

I watched the show in 5 sitting which was a huge improvement to the powering through until 7 AM of last year. Except the flat last hour (two nothing matches and a three way (which is already an uphill battle for any wrestler) in front of a completely spent crowd) this was a pretty unjoyable show with Daniel Bryan beeing the MVP. As good as he might be in other roles (undersized heel or underdog babyface), dominating heel is where he is best, sadly in the land of the giants, he is seldom in that position. In a perfect world, he would have a two year run on top, feuding against small guys, only.

That's (besides Carnera) quite a young group for the legacy wing. The youngest person (or rather the person with the latest birth date) so far was Hiro Matsuda, who was born in 1937. Most of those people were younger then him (in the case of Luna by 25 years). I suppose they won't put any wrestlers, who have passed away, into the hall of fame anymore, unless they were huge names (for the younger fans, that is).

Re-"match" against Taker? E.g. Taker coming out, complaining that he has no match and doing an open challenge anwered by Cena.

I will also take a pass on watching it live this year after powering through and staying up till 6:30 AM last year. A 7+ hour wrestling card (or rather this 7+ hour wrestling) card is just not worth taking a vacation day.

Well, he is the Kingslayer and the Architect, he is Seth freakin' Rollins and he likes to burn it down. Did I miss any stupid nickname?

I did not even realize that Shun Yamaguchi and Wally Yamaguchi are two different people. Either I can't tell Japanese people apart or the two brothers share a strong similarity.

The Grappler has appeared in the mean time, the other three have not. Other recent sightings: Jim Duggan and Nightmare Ken Wayne (wrestling as Kelly Wayne, I am pretty sure it's the same guy, blond hair, announced as being from Memphis, TN). Two funny things that happened this week related to Mid South watching: (1) I was watching the opening match battle royal of the Giant Baba 20th anniversary memorial show and one of the older-than-dirt guys was 71-year-old Kim Duk. On the same day I was watching a Mid South TV show where the same Kim Duk made his Mid South debut. (2) On NXT they announced that Rachael Ellering signed with WWE. The very next Mid South segment I watched as a Precious Paul Ellering spotlight (with him doing push-ups while Buddy Landell was sitting on his back).

I am sure heavy agenting work and lots of practice (as is the norm for the more important women's matches on PPVs) will make the match at least watchable.

I am somewhere in spring 82 Mid South. Even though the territory is not nearly as hot as it would be 2-3 years later, the shows are very enjoyable. There are a bunch of really good workers (Orndorff, DiBiase, Mr. Olympia Jerry Stubbs, Bob Roop, Ladd is just coming back, Dick Murdoch etc.), even the enhancement guys seem to be quite solid. In-ring it's that no-nonsense stuff that Watts is so famous for. There are some talented young guys around or passing through at this point, like Buddy Landel (with dark hair), Tully Blanchard, Jesse Barr or Wayne Farris. Jim Ross also is just starting out and Watts has began hyping some college stud called Steve "Dr. Death" Williams.

If I were a wrestler I would rather be somewhere in the middle of the card than at the end of a seven hour marathon in front of a completely dead crowd.

And it's not as if there were not wrestlers 30-40 years ago stiffing each other with hard chops. Wahoo turned lots of chests crimson red in his career.

I don't know why the first thing I thought about after seeing this was "Shroud of Turin".

Fair enough.