Sean Liska

Isn't this a little different though, since everyone knows he's Cody Rhodes and the idea is he's inhabited this persona and gone insane? Or something like that.

I'm not sure if the WO Board people really hate watching RAW as much as they make it seem or if they're trying to do their best Meltzer/Alvarez impersonations.

I was actually thinking the other night about who the #2 guy alive from that era would be now. I guess Orndorff or Dibiase?

Things turned south for WCW a lot more after the Hogan/Flair double-turn at Uncensored '99 than after the Finger Poke.

I think the distinction is that Austin-Taker was an overrun number, while "This is Your Life" was the highest rated full quarter that went up against Nitro. I was watching that Sting/HHH interview with Renee Young on the Network. Renee asked HHH when he thought the momentum really turned in the Monday Night Wars. I was prepared for something to roll my eyes at, but HHH said it was when Austin and Tyson had their pull-apart. Which is exactly the right answer. So that was a nice.

Someone tweeted something to Dana about WWE PPVs only costing $9.99. Dana will get into fights with literally anyone on Twitter, so he responded by saying that it cost that because it was "fake shit". The thing about Dana is that this wasn't something he put a lot of thought into. He just tweets insults to random people like a 14-year old. He wanted a zinger for this guy.

Yeah, the Attitude Era apologists loved this talking point. Wasn't it unfortunately also parroted by Meltzer? We know that WWE promos are all scripted ahead of time and that the guys have to sit there and wait for the other guy to finish before it's their turn to talk, so I was always confused by the idea of anyone getting destroyed unless they were scripted to get destroyed. Unless people meant he was getting destroyed in terms of delivery or emotion or whatever.

14-minute match at the top of the second hour with a clean submission win. No complaints here so far.

Modern Negro can still be so good. He got to work with Epehsto/Mephisto against Dragon Lee/Valiente/Mistico at Sin Salida in front of a big Arena Mexico crowd. Such a fun performance. He's still more crisp and fun to watch than almost anyone else active. I recommend it even if you're not in love with modern lucha. We talk about Jumbo being a world-class worker from 77-92, but we have footage of Negro from 1987-2015.

I love this board, seriously.

I was thinking Ted Reeve Arena seems like a solid venue that can hold over 1,000 and has some permanent seating. I'm not sure what other buildings NXT would be trying to steal. So far they've been in theaters and concert venues. They've tried to appear somewhat major league. A lot of ROH venues are just open spaces where they set up a lot of folding chairs.

What building does ROH run that NXT would want outside of the Toronto one?

How is working for Vince McMahon validation for anyone ? I think Liger will get a kick out of being treated like a legend in front of a large NYC crowd working for the world's biggest company.

Man, good for Liger. He'll probably be wrestling in front of a sold out crowd at a major NYC arena in in a hyped match, after all these years. No one deserves the validation more than he does.

I like Kana a lot. She does the best Crossface Chickenwing I have ever seen too. I'm not sure if she speaks English or not but I don't think WWE would give her a second thought either for the same reasons you expressed. Hopefully they get away from that mentality & just look at talent eventually though. Some of the best wrestlers of all-time, male or female, weren't the prototypical look that WWE seems to seek out today. I wish they would remember their own history sometimes. Nowadays, a guy like Dusty Rhodes might not ever get a shot. A fat dude with a lisp? Would they even put him in developmental? Shame. Not sure you can still say this in a world where Kevin Owens is getting a big push. Dusty was taller and a better talker (obviously).

Yeah but I also think that talent tends to eventually win out in WWE. Whether it's Piper being brought in just to be a manager at first or Rey Mysterio or Eddie Guerrero or Daniel Bryan all those years later, it usually happens. But Sasha needs a dance partner that will make it worth Vince's time.

So I'll admit I'm not someone that's been super-passionate about the #givedivasachance deal. I haven't gotten too wrapped up in whether Paige and Brie Bella get 3 minutes or 8 minutes on RAW. There are plenty of solid talents who get short-changed on time in WWE. But I absolutely do believe that Sasha Banks is one of the best all-around young performers in wrestling. She's in the same category for me as wrestlers like Owens, Ambrose, Rollins, Zayn, etc. The Takeover match with Becky Lynch was not only great, but the intensity with which she worked Becky's arm throughout the match was like something I would have loved from an 80's match. She exudes a star presence just walking to the ring that's superior to 90% of the roster. So what's her ceiling on the main roster? We're in new territory here with an American female performer who's this good. Will she have 4* PPV matches that win "Best Match" in the WO poll? Will she be featured in top-of-the-hour segments regularly? Does she have the talent around her that she needs to reach her potential? Will they give up on this new women's division by the time football season starts? Because if her career goes to waste and she spends her time working 4-minute TV matches with storylines that are given no thought, it will be as much of a shame as Samoa Joe spending his peak in TNA. With her talent and only being 23, she should have an HOF career from a performance standpoint.

I'm so weird with NJPW. I'll watch the Korakuen Hall shows, which a lot of the NJPW fans don't even watch, and I'll highly enjoy them. The last one was full of tight smartly worked matches that clocked in around 10-12 minutes and was plenty of fun. Then I'll watch the major shows, with these big epic matches, and they leave me cold often. I did love Sakuraba-Shibata, though.

He's said in the past that he wishes MMA run more like a sport sold better to the public. But MMA with pro wrestling-type booking is what makes money and it's a business.

Yep. That's why HHH has been smart to brand NXT so strongly. When he comes out and does his promos on the live shows, he doesn't mention specific wrestlers or feuds, he puts over the NXT brand and how it's the future of wrestling and they're all part of a family together. He encourages the crowd to chant "NXT". Because he knows the brand will have to carry them once all their stars leave.

I love the show. Did find it odd that Flair said Tenyru was OK but Jumbo never wrapped his arms around how to wrestle. I could understand that frustration with other puro guys, but Flair and Jumbo had some great matches that were worked very traditionally. He wasn't one of those guys that neglected selling in favor of running to the next spot and didn't seem to work especially stiff. I wonder what the story is there.