WrestlingPower

Yeah, who is Alice & where did she come from? I'm not sure why a site like that needs a "personality" with little to no wrestling connection. I really like the Bauer & Pollock show especially since I let my Observer sub lapse so it's my only source of intelligent discussion on current events. And Bauer's insider knowledge is MUCH better than anything Alvarez would have to offer anyway. I've really grown tired of MSL and I will only listen to the Konnan shows if there's a guest that interests me although Konnan needs to not interrupt so much. He cut Samoa Joe off several times on stuff I was hoping to hear the answer to.

Anyone subscribing to the MLW-VIP? Wondering how long the drive-by shows usually are.

The Christianity rant really was offputting this week. I guess I've never heard someone so zealously argue that Noah's Ark didn't exist and that the whole Bible is a work of fiction. I mean I knew there were people that believe that but I've never been exposed to someone so passionate about arguing it and thinking anyone who believes it is a complete moron & trying to force their views on others. I don't know what Jim & Alice's views on how they think the Earth got created, etc. is but any other explanation is MUCH more preposterous and astronimically impossible than the truth they perceive to be so preposterous. Someone needs to send them "The Case for Christ" to get their minds really going although I fear how much the show would devolve if they started digging in further.

Sorry I totally forgot about that, I was more referring to this "alternate reality" he's created being such a priority in his life. I had seen references online that "malaria" was a cover for "Delorean rental fee". Sorry to be ignorant but I guess Malaria is still a real thing?

I just listened to his podcast with Cabana. I guess it was as forthcoming as Quack is going to get as he is very much against shattering the mystique of wrestling to the audience. But ultimately it sounds like it was all just an angle. I guess I have to agree with him though that if Chikara is a truly independent spirit where the performance art (his favorite term) and experience is much more important than turning a profit, then they can do what they want. It sounds like this was all an experiment to vet out who was truly "getting it" from a fan perspective & see how far they could take this. He was looking to reward those willing to follow along. He's very much into the mindset of he's happy catering to the 100 people who get it & allow him to see things to fruition that his mind concocts than worrying about profit or satisfying anyone else. He's all about "thinking outside the box" and not being held to the parameters and alleged constraints of wrestling's past. He does discuss the risks of those that criticize turning off those that honestly were trying to follow along. My major criticism of the whole thing is that this guy could make MUCH better use of his time helping his fellow man than spending all this time and energy in his fantasy world. He talks about the years worth of history of creating websites & stuff for these fake companies involved in his stories, hiring people to go to people's houses to allegedly threaten them on behalf of this fictional company, and even renting a storage locker with documents in it with the hopes that one fan followed the online clues & found said document. You know, documents showing that a fake company was perpetrating fraud within a wrestling storyline. So yeah, he's got a lot of time on his hands.

How did the Mike Johnson interview go? I heard that one was better. Does he ever, in either, explain the reason behind the shut-down? I heard he debunked the divorce rumor. Did he reference any financial issues or they strictly just ran the angle to circle-jerk themselves & take a break?

The scary thing about the Network is WWE is unintentionally capitalizing on a trend where anything not under their umbrella is being marginalized as not important. They are creating a new generation of hardcores that will have a blind spot to anything not either run currently by WWE or owned by them. Even the hardest of the hardcore haven't been able to deny WWE is on an upswing and the websites/newsletters catering to these fans have increasingly over recent years cut back coverage of non-mainstream groups. I mentioned this when reviewing the Observer award winners that it really appears that WWE, NJPW, and UFC are such juggernauts of interest & coverage that everything else just seems completely unimportant.

http://wrestlingwithoptimism.com/ Episode 28 had some very interesting discussion about if wrestling fans are too spoiled to enjoy anything anymore. Basically whether fans aren't just looking for a good show anymore, they are looking for shows to be booked specifically for them or they aren't going to enjoy it at all. I completely agree about fans "in the bubble" but I think it's hard for those in the bubble to really know how less hardcore fans even view the product. In this social media age, everyone's opinions are out there immediately and people will argue and see things differently about literally everything. I think WWE with the Network and other companies are basically using the bubble model to make themselves profitable. No one seems to know how to reach non-fans so it seems the attempt is just to bring people further & further into the bubble. But I think a side-effect of being in the bubble is people take things "too seriously" in wrestling, overanalyze it, and become harder to please. It's kind of a catch-22.

I've been reading some Network discussion on other boards and ran across a couple points not discussed here that I wanted to check on: 1) Someone mentioned the idea of the cruiserweight show again... has talk of that been revived from an official perspective? Or maybe this guy is just rehashing an old talking point and trying to make it relevant with KENTA's tryout. 2) I saw mention of TV shows from 1995 being there at launch with 1996 soon to follow. Not that I really care one way or the other as I have all the stuff I want from that era, but was there an announcement around this that I missed? Has there been any further word on content in general?

I think the brand being more of the star has sort of been in the back of people's minds for years but has only really been referenced more in the past 5 or so years as no new stars are being created. I think people are using that talking point as possibly more important moving forward into the "era of the Network" where buy rate numbers & such will become less important to the bottom line. Only WWE itself will have access to metrics such as merch figures, live streaming, delayed streaming hits, etc. so if they really wanted to they could theoretically pay everyone the same if the seasonal highs & lows of the revenue streams get flattened out across the year.

I hate to say it but I have to side with Bryan in this 30 minute debate on Danielson's push. For "not defending the company's position", Meltzer sure is passionate in his arguments behind why Bryan isn't enough of a draw to be pushed harder and until he moves #s they have no reason to treat him differently. This debate is quite the piece of audio though.

I watched very little 2013 wrestling but the main thing that stood out for me when reading the awards is how the indies are totally marginalized. Either the mainstream promotions that the Observer covers at the expense of everything else truly is the best & nothing else matters or Dave & Bryan have written & talked up those promotions to the point that the awards balloting is very much like a "preaching to the choir" type scenario of just comparing notes among those that watched an equally narrow amount of stuff as everyone else. Not that I have specifics on who or what matches got shafted or anything, just saying that even among the hardest of the hardcore, these awards make it appear that only the biggest & best promotions even matter when historically Observer readership was much more aware of the entirety of the wrestling landscape. The one aberration is how All Japan managed to get any mentions at all in its current state.

On the latest Observer radio (and several recent ones actually) about The Network, Meltzer has mentioned all this old footage he probably has that WWE doesn't. Today he mentioned late 70s/early 80s Georgia. Has anyone tried to contact him with a serious offer to see what he has that he would be willing to let someone borrow/buy/etc. to attempt to get some of that into the trading community? I know there has been discussion over the years of what he may have but wondering if he even responds to these types of requests? Saying he has something but then blowing it off on ever going to the trouble of finding it & downplaying its quality/relevance, it's kind of like then why have it to just hoard it?

I checked 2 of mine late last week & nothing. I even dug thru the bin as one of the pics on the side had a WWE one but couldn't find any. I did discover that the best time to go to a WalMart is 9:30pm or after. Less people & less riff-raff.

Haven't read the thread so I apologize if some of this was mentioned. Indy stuff I have: --1/3/98 OMEGA tag match from NWA 2000 show (Hardy & Moore vs. Venom & Cham Pain) --5/1/98 OMEGA Matthews vs. Moore; Hardy vs. Maverick finish where Helms dives off truck --5/8/98 OMEGA Thrillaz vs. D&D; Jeff H. vs. Moore --6/4/98 SCW 6-man tag with Hardys captaining "Team WWF" VS. Team SCW --7/18/98 ECWA Quack vs. Reckless --7/31/98 OMEG Matt vs. Jeff (Willow) --8/20/98 WWA Edge vs. Christian just for the novelty of it (this was when they were at Dory's camp) --8/98 Chris Daniels vs. Suicide Kid --9/26/98 ECWA ladder match w/Diamond, Inferno & Reckless --10/11/98 MdCW Adam Flash vs. Earl the Pearl vs. Christian York vs. Joey Matthews vs. Quinn Nash --late 98 Steel City TV stuff with Matthews vs. Reckless; Quack vs. Reckless; etc. --12/5/98 OMEGA Hardys vs. Thrillaz

My storage method is in flux. In the VHS days I had the tapes #'d, stored on shelves in the closet in numerical order. Then detailed lists on the computer of what was on each. When DVDs came around I decided to keep the list WITH the disc so I made slim case covers for each disc with the list of what was on them in the sleeve. Stuff with color covers or stuff I made covers for to resell or whatever got thicker cases. After 10 years of DVD making/collecting I realized I was starting to run out of potential space for these too. So anything that used to get the slim-case with list treatment is now going to go in a binder & have it's detailed list go in one big Word document broken down by American/Japan/Lucha. Before I had a seperate file for each tape/disc that was more detailed & a smaller/summary of each went on a master list for the website. The eventual (years down the road) goal would be to get everything not with a color cover into binders with their corresponding detailed list in one big Word file that I could convert to a PDF for viewing on a tablet. Currently all watched discs occupy a full closet along with the VHS and one book shelf that's 2 deep full of discs in covers. Unwatched discs are mostly grouped by promotion/comp/transfers, etc. and stored in old racks that were used for CDs before we got a huge furniture piece for storing CDs. All unwatched international is in a huge binder grouped by promotion. This is shockingly heavy but did free up TONS of envelopes & sleeves. I don't really have any method for storing reviews or anything but I've tried to save off full show reviews I've done online for eventual hosting on my site. But that's not even on the radar of priorities.

NWA Fusion link http://www.nwafusion.com/fusionmedia.html I think they are still actively putting stuff up but are a good ways behind from what I hear. I think they still produce it as if it's building to future shows even though the shows are long past. Edit: latest show up there was uploaded a month ago & match was from May 25

I've never bought the idea that they were going with Magnum over Flair at Starrcade '86. They wouldn't have rushed to that. His accident was mid-October and they were just barely into a feud with he & Jimmy Garvin. To me it's more likely he would have fought Garvin or Nikita at Starrcade that year. A title win in 1987 seems much more likely. Anyway I very much see Sting as a guy rushed to replace Magnum. There's no reason to assume Sting wouldn't have ended up there post-UWF so I think it just would have been a slower burn for him. Assuming Magnum had runs with the title in 87-88, Sting and Luger's pushes would have been delayed. I would buy that Luger maybe goes to WWF sooner if there were less spots in WCW. Assuming the buyout still ends up happening the corporate suits may want to go with Sting or Luger based on looks at whatever point the buyout happens. Also don't discount that if the sale is delayed then maybe Dusty isn't in as hot a water so things are massively a question mark if Dusty continues after the buyout. If we assume Dusty still ends up leaving I'm not sure what Magnum would have done. This is all very intruiging though. Ultimately I agree that Magnum probably ends up in a Windham type level of position in the business looking back.

Ok I guess I had my timeline messed up, it was 1993 then not 1994. Details are hazy as to Shane's career trajectory post-WCW run but I seem to remember that when ECW brought him in (as you say Aug. 93) to do The Franchise, at that point I thought he was contemplating retirement & going to med school. Keep in mind the original Franchise character was to be one wearing various sports jerseys. I think it was when the heel character took off & they put him with Sherri that he decided to put his real life back on hold for wrestling. But yeah, I'm fuzzy on how much of 1992/3 Shane was looking for that breadcrumb. I guess he got injured in WCW at some point & was kind of out of the biz until ECW right?