WrestlingPower

What should ROH be doing though that Sinclair is hampering them in? Are you talking spending money? If so I would have agreed with your statement a couple years ago but given that the production is improved and they have enough clout to keep NJPW (and hopefully now CMLL) happy, I'm not sure what more they could be spending money on. Exposure maybe? Then I would agree with you. I had heard months ago that Sinclair was going to rebrand The Tennis Channel as American Sports Network and rumor was that ROH was going to have a 2 hour slot on there. ASN has been a thing for 2-3 years now but was more a content provider and not its own channel and SBG was looking to change that. Whether ROH benefits from a 2-hour cable slot in an already crowded cable TV industry is also debatable. I agree that the booking is stale & uninspired & my interest in ROH is probably at an all time low, but I think ROH has kind of settled into "they are what they are" at this point. Certainly they are going to be a breeding ground for guys on the rise to bigger & better things & use the occasional guy on the way back down. They are the only place to go to see NJPW & CMLL guys, so they have that niche. IF either of those is a money making niche at this point is debatable. They are laughably losing the battle of getting dream match indy guys now. It's been years, you could argue the entire Sinclair era, where PWG (and now Evolve) are totally blowing them out of the water with giving exposure to indy guys with actual buzz. So yeah the product & booking is stale but they seem to enjoy the spot they are in. It's more of a Japan booking philosophy where you kind of have to build a career there in order to reach the top of the card. Look how long it took Cole & O'Reilly to reach the top there. Whether that philosophy is conducive to the fast paced world of 2016 where guys look to make a name for themselves & move on in a few years, is debatable as well. But ROH has chosen a path and I would assume they are doing ok with it.

I agree Punk's feud with Raven that crossed over from ROH to MLW brought in some press. The Samoa Joe series of matches could be argued they put him on the map since the Observer gave them so much coverage. But what I was getting at is Punk wasn't winning Observer awards during that period to set him apart. People knew how good Danielson was & his success in WWE just was further icing on the cake for those that need success on the national stage as a factor to vote for someone. If Punk had been a "failure" nationally & never advanced past OVW & WWECW, his indy work wouldn't be enough to carry him. Punk's WWE success is a whole lot larger part of his resume than Bryan's. That's what I was trying to get at.

Quick question: is Gorilla Monsoon supposed to be on the ballot? I looked at the 2015 thread & saw he was listed on the ballot. I'm not seeing him in the balloting results nor on this year's ballot. Was he supposed to be on the ballot last year and/or this year? Thoughts on Danielson: I'm curious how people would define an "indy boom" post-WCW/ECW. I think with the sheer amount of talented guys looking to travel the indies and make a name for themselves in the early-mid 2000s due to having grown up fans would have led to an upswing and "boom" at some level. ROH in particular was really good at getting the word out and due to RF & Gabe providing footage & news to Dave, the WON covered them extensively early on. Among the hardcore community, ROH and some of the other indies of the time would have established themselves to some degree regardless of having Danielson around. Low Ki and Chris Daniels were every bit the level of Bryan at that point in time. I think what sets Danielson apart was his ROH title reigns, certainly the most significant reigns in company history. But those reigns become a chicken/egg argument. He wouldn't have been booked to have such long/epic matches and long/epic reigns if he wasn't so good in the ring. Samoa Joe, Nigel McGuinness, and Low Ki are really the only other ROH champions in history that were really pushed as something different. We've just got more right place/right time stuff here with the way guys were booked, the talent themselves, and what we can only assume are good DVD sales. Anyway, I think the indies were set to rise to a level of prominence. Whether they achieve the heights they did without Danielson, I would have to say most likely no. Maybe Samoa Joe & Low Ki as being different enough provide the spark but Joe didn't travel as much internationally as the other 2. Ki burned some bridges along the way, so you are left with Danielson. I'm not sure Danielson & the companies he carried along with him would have achieved the level they did without his Japan exposure. Another factor no one has mentioned is the fact that Danielson DID clearly move the #s on indy shows he was booked on in the aftermath of his firing from WWE after the Nexus deal. Promoters were tripping over themselves trying to book him and he had the MOTYC match with Shingo too in that short indy period. Danielson completely smokes guys like Punk that came from the indies. No way ROH & other indies would have really pushed Punk front and center of their alumni if he hadn't become a success later. I see Danielson as a success and a HOF worker regardless of him going to WWE whereas guys like Punk became successes on a national stage & then people went back & elevated their indy work after the fact.

I think this show was the best yet on Continental. One thing I wanted to bring up was Beau claiming that Knoxville fan Beulah was never smartened up. I'm pretty sure that wasn't the case. Someone can go back & check one of the SMW Fanweek Q&As with Jim Cornette but I'm pretty sure he claimed that Beulah used to call him at home regularly during the SMW days & was so sweet to him despite playing her role at the shows.

Rumor is Schiavone injured his neck while shampooing a moose.

Loving this episode. I wanted to chime in on the Norm Dooley talk. I traded SMW TV with Norm throughout 1993-95 and continued to trade with him into 1996 for sure post-SMW. I lost touch with him around that time. He was most definitely not at the SMW/USWA Fanweek show in 1995. I remember corresponding with him at that time and trying to arrange to meet up at that show & something came up & he couldn't make it that night. I remember he indicated that he was going to shows almost weekly still at that time. He was somewhat elusive even though we regularly traded for 3-4 years. I never once talked to him and he never offered any info on his past Weasel's World stuff or any footage he may or may not have had other than his most recent acquisitions during our time trading. I'd be all for a united front for someone to track him down.

Yes, I'm behind on shows... regarding the t-shirt discussion, my favorite one was the LWO mall shirt that has Eddy Guerrero front & center on it. It's the only shirt on display in my wrestling room.

Longevity was a big factor for me also.

Lethal's act really only works as champion. I'm not sure where you go with him after he loses. And it's not like they've done a great job building up a challenger that seems like a logical threat. Cole is really their best option at this point if he sticks around long. It's way too soon & could cause a fan revolt if they go with Dijak or Moose, either one of which is just as likely to get snatched up by WWE before they reach a level where they would be a "ready" champion here. They've ruined Cedric to the point I'm not sure he's even in the company these days. Elgin isn't really over in the states anymore. Not sure who's left other than bringing in an outsider which they don't tend to like doing. On another topic... I'm not specifically disagreeing or agreeing with the calls for a replacement in booker, but I've been saying for years now, what difference will it really make? Delirious is firmly entrenched in the ROH corporate structure & ROH is largely stuck in the same pecking order & place in the wrestling world regardless of what they do good or bad. So largely it doesn't matter if people are tired of Delirious or whatever, he's not going anywhere, it doesn't make much difference if he does, so people probably need to just stop wasting energy complaining or analyzing it.

Glad you got some good news. Also glad I could contribute to your podcast listening this week.

Regarding Sunshine, and I keep meaning to post this, a friend of ours 20+ years ago used to say that she was married to one of the Batten Twins. He was very persistent in claiming this over the years but I never got confirmation of it. Anyone know?

I cannot even wrap my head around a Pillman/Prichard tag team, in any year.

I always assumed it was said in a "fight back", "show toughness" kind of way but you bring up some interesting nuances on how it could be interpreted. I can't imagine someone in that deep not being at least clued in somewhat even if they had to earn the right for people to loosen up with them.

Turned in a tag ballot. I pretty much ignored the existence of this whole project, knowing it was a daunting task that I didn't have the time for. I just recently heard about the tag team poll and out of sheer boredom at work, I pulled down the list of nominees yesterday & it didn't seem too bad to narrow that list down. So I'm strictly going on my experience & knowledge of having watched wrestling for 32 years rather than rewatching a bunch of footage. I tried to be all inclusive in how I defined "greatest" as I tried to factor in work, drawing power, longevity, level of importance of their careers & promotions they worked for, etc. I had quite a few tweets in the last 24 hours as I tried to work thru some of these debates. I ended up using work as a tiebreaker in some instances since that seems to be the original intent of this. But I have a list I'm pretty happy with. The top 8 or so were pretty much no brainers & the bottom 5 or so I swapped around a lot. Lucha teams certainly got the shaft as well as teams that weren't together long enough to make an impact. But I had to draw the line somewhere. Interested to see the results.

I disagree and actually think they are a bubble team for me. During their time together I thought they were so good that they could get good matches out of anyone. The problem I had with them is sometimes their matches crossed the line to where it came across totally like they were just selling & making the other guys look good to have a good match even if it didn't look credible. Ultimately I bumped them from my list because they were only together a few years and their profile in the business & the companies they worked for just don't stack up vs. the legacy of other teams from prior eras.