Kronos

Chris - you might want to add to this one section: The other major sports contract out there after the NBA is the Big 10: http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/dollars/post/_/id/3163/a-comparison-conference-television-deals The rights to the SEC, PAC, ACC and Big 12 are all locked up into the next decade. This is the last major prize out there after the NBA is off the table. It's also worth noting that ESPN has their hands in everyone else. Fox has pieces of the PAC and B12, so it doesn't "have" to get this like say NBCU does if they bomb out on the NBA. But since ESPN has a piece of *everyone*, and some of them exclusive (ACC) or major-in-bed (SEC), this is one that either Fox or NBC badly want. In addition, always keep in mind who the partners of the Big 10 are in the Big 10 Network, along with the Big 10's past annoyance at ESPN and their negotiating tactics. The other increasing-in-cost rights that Fox will likely chase when they come up is the next EPL contract. The current one covers the 2013/14 - 2015/16 seasons. NBC won them in Oct 2012, stealing them from Fox. The next deal will likely be finalized in late 2015. Why might Fox want to get back in the EPL business? * NBC appears to be doing good business with the new deal * non-conflicting scheduling (most games are early before other Fox sports) * World Cup lead in Remember that Fox stole the World Cup from ESPN. No, not the one this summer but the 2018 & 2022 ones. Next EPL deal is likely to be 2016/17 - 2018/19. How does that work? 2016/17 EPL Season 2017/18 EPL Season 2018 World Cup 2018/19 EPL Season Pretty much the perfect way to lead into the World Cup in 2018 is to have the EPL in the two seasons leading into it. So anyway... You might want to amend it to say that Fox might be saving their money to grab a pieces of one or more of the up coming sports right packages: the NBA, the Big 10 and/or next EPL contract leading into the 2018 World Cup. John, this response feels like a TOA post.

I have some old Coliseum footage running as background noise, and I just stumbled across Orndorff firing Heenan on TNT. That's a pretty great segment. Heenan starts yelling at him, and Orndorff stands up to his full height, towers over Heenan, and basically tells him to go to hell. Heenan sells it like "Oh shit, I may have pushed my bullying a little too far this time" as he shrinks back down into his chair.

Maybe he's a fraud because he's not the superhero he pretends to be, if he can't even win a match? Doesn't Wyatt say something about kids having heroes? Definitely vague.

Finally started watching my AWA set that I have had forever. Heenan is fantastic. We already knew that. But I have never seen him "wrestle". Here's he's tagging with Bock, and he's a total chickenshit heel who runs in and kicks guys who are down and then runs cowardly away when they come after him. I was digging on it pretty hard.

Then you missed out man! That TNA PPV was one of the worst shows I've ever watched. The Mr Anderson/Sam Shaw/Christy Hemme segment was terrible to the point of being quite mesmeric. Time slowed down. Abyss coming out from under the ring in the title match is the first time I've felt embarrassed about watching wrestling whilst nobody else was present. Dixie just isn't fit to be on camera (although she is fit) and watching her trying to pull off the Authority heel role in multiple segments to clear 'go away' heat is painful and hilarious at the same time. The wrestling is awful anyway. What a shower of shite this company is. Yes, Dixie is certainly an attractive woman. (Though she's no Steph.) Sounds scary. Maybe I will pick up a sixer this weekend and give it another go.

It does have the "resume" option on the roku app. But not on the desktop browser or the iPhone. I wish I could start something on my desktop during the day, and then transition to the same spot in the evening on my phone or roku. That'll come. On the whole, this launch has been pretty smooth considering how many different platforms they launched it on. BeatsMusic crashed and burned really hard when it launched two months ago, and it's still not there yet based on what I read online. (I only lasted as long as mu free trial)

The ropes on this MSG 1984 show I have been watching today are really floppy. It's crazy just how floppy they are.

Nothing like that feeling when you're reading a comment on a thread, nodding along because it's stated in just such a way that you agree with all of it. And then you realize you yourself wrote it -- 2 1/2 years ago. . .

I have mentioned this before, but I have never been the biggest Necro fan. I've even seen him live (at PWG DDT4 2008), and I was kind of meh -- though the crowd were nuts for him. However, one day I was watching a pimped match (I don't know now what it was - it's been some years now). It occurred to me what a light touch he had. He was taking all kinds of nasty bumps. But his opponent was totally protected. I respected him a lot for that, especially given I thought was his reputation for being crazy. I still don't seek out his matches. I don't even know if he's still working. But I appreciate him more now.

Good writeup, John. I'll get to the Hogan feud soon enough and be able to better judge for myself that period. If he really did get sidelined by the injury, in such a way that he never really regained his momentum, then that's unfortunate.

Orndorff has been publically bitter about his perceived place in Rasslin History. I am watching some 1984 WWF today. Orndorff is certainly good. He had a great physique, too. But I feel like he lacks a certain spark which would put him within the all-time greats. People like Hogan needed a guy like him to work off. But it doesn't mean Orndorff is at Hogan's level. It got me to thinking. Who would be in the same place today? Someone who was decent enough, who could work Main Event and Upper-Midcard matches adequately. But who just isn't quite there when it comes to calling him a superstar. Kane, maybe? Or maybe I am totally wrong on the guy.

Mind blown. I guess this is not a "Free TV" poll and is more a traditonal TV poll. Works for me. I was just following my own line of thinking about the PPVs. But ideally they are something "other" compared to weekly TV. Maybe Charles can rename the thread to "TV Match of the Week". Or maybe we just agree that "Free TV" means basically anything but PPV. And as I said, that works for me.

That's why I included a question mark in my year range. I was really thinking about the WWF side of the MNW, and I used "Attitude Era" as a catch-all term.

Sarge is a guy whose every match has me coming away shaking my head and asking myself why I never rated him before. Perhaps it's time Will gave some thought to a small project? Just watched his match vs Ivan Putski on the Jan 84 MSG card. Slaughter is great at building heat with nothing but how slowly he takes off his shades and belt before the match, showing him to be a little afraid of the muscly beast Putski. He even runs away when the match first starts. But once in the ring, he bumps like a worker half his size. It really puts over how strong Putski is, especially since the guy has kind of a Taz/Dean Malenko build next to the relatively tall Slaughter. The match degenerates into a heated brawl that even includes a little blood. Not the main event by any means -- it's not a long match. But it does all the little things right. And it once again has me feeling great admiration for the man.

Nominate: Invaders vs Mr. Fuji and Tiger Chung Lee 1-23-84 (WWF MSG) Fuji is a brilliant heel, doing all the little things right. And the Invaders bring a taste of lucha to vary the pace. These guys could work this match today move for move and get a good crowd response, I think. Easily available online as part of the whole Jan 84 show -- and also the match only on another video site.

CS, I have to agree I could have watched this one for another hour. Perhaps my favorite panel of all the ones I have seen -- and I think I have seen them all. Not too much self-serving here compared to some of the rest of the shows. I thought Dusty was fairly humble when they were all praising him to the sky.

Okay, so I thought I would give Lockdown a try since I haven't seen any TNA in almost two years. I made it 90 seconds into the first match: a 6-man tag inside a steel cage. Once Sabin and the blonde Japanese guy started going all Dragon Gate dancing choreography, I turned it off. I think I will go on YT and watch 1984 WWF instead. . .

Technically, USA and SyFy are also not "free TV". I don't have Cable, so I cannot watch them on broadcast TV. I have to pay for cable or pay for Hulu Plus if I want to watch them legit. So I pay for Hulu and for WWENetwork. I would still consider them "free TV" in this sense. But the bigger question becomes, now that PPVs are going to be the same category as NXT, ME, and SS, does the distinction matter anymore?

Judging by her personality and looks and the way her family was coddling her I assumed she was in her early 20's and they were just trying to protect her from making dumb decisions in her youth. Come to find out she's 29, so yeah it's time for her family to just shut the fuck up and let her live her life. Also her brothers seem like major dumb shits. I came out of it disliking both her and her family. And totally supporting the husband. They ruined the sympathy they should have gotten from me from her being a liar when they treated her like crap. Though I can understand their having hurt feelings about her keeping such an important life-step from them.

"X-Pac riding bareback there on Christian in the corner." - JR, Backlash 2000 Ummm. . .

This segment is classic. And I know that because I have seen it about 20 times this week. Every program has played it again and again. Love Steph's "when I was born, this became mine" line.

With SDR working behind the scenes, I foresee Divas matches only getting better in ring. AJ and Nattie are two of the best ring-workers on the main female roster. Not the "best Divas match ever", which is something I have seen on DVDVR this week. That's ridiculous. Paige-Emma from two weeks ago shits all over it, as do some older matches like Mickie-Melina at Backlash 2007. Still, it's good times, even with the flaws. Nattie can't sell a smaller opponent as well as Beth did, so she ends up doing things like bad sharpshooters. And of course we also have the missed dropkick. But AJ is such a fun little fireball, running around like crazy and ready to lock in her octopus submission at a moment's notice. Entertaining and higher quality than most Deevers work.

Watching Mania 1, though I have paused because I wanna check out this Total Deevers show in a few minutes. It's funny to see them struggling with dialogue and presentation - especially the bits where Lord Alfred is trying to speak from the Gorilla Position as wrestlers are coming in and out of the locker room. Steamboat/Borne was a decent match, as was Valentine/JYD -- though a weird ending. The Iron Shiek tag was about to start when I paused it.

Speaking of twitter: I've been tweeting and following #WWENetwork as I watch programming the last few days. I haven't counted, but it feels like a good number of young women tweeting that hashtag. Maybe that observation simply says something about the bulk of who tweets. But I like to think it may be anecdotal evidence of WWE having a broader audience these days than it has over the last 10 years.

I do agree that they may have spent too much time talking about Twitter. However, it really has revolutionized the way we watch television not just wrestling, but especially live events like raw. Whether I'm watching NXT, Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, or UFC, I can interact real-time with fans around the world. And the producer of the show gets immediate feedback. It was a game-changer in wrestling on the level of the rise of the internet itself.