Sean Liska

I've enjoyed the tournament a lot but when you're going ****3/4 for a Nakamura-Ishii match that to me was a standard big NJPW match with some cool stuff at the end, it's hard to keep up with the enthusiasm.

Long story short. He was caught listening to a long range Raw Creative team meeting and Stephanie HATED him. I think that was his late 2004 demotion that lead to him not being included in the original One Night Stand plans. The early 2003 one was just the usual stuff with not being able to work with the McMahons, not making deadlines, etc.

Big story seems to be that 130K already found a way out of their commitment. Maybe that means September won't be as bad as expected.

No problem with people voting for Lance. I'd drive 6 hours to shake the guy's hand. The argument I'll make for JR is he was able to excel calling Flair-Steamboat NWA matches, but he was also able to make historically memorable calls for something like Austin jumping off a zamboni and tackling VInce. It was a heck of an adjustment. I know people have turned on the Attitude Era and a lot of JR's work from that time, but he became this beloved figure among the audience then just due to the quality of his work. It wasn't because the company pushed him as a big babyface. The crowd grew to love him, and it was such easy heat for heels to attack him, just because of how well he connected with the audience during that period. You can't ask for a more valuable trait from the person that's really your #1 sales guy. It's impressive he could achieve that while calling 1998 WWF which was so dramatically different from what he was calling 10 years earlier.

Nostalgia has been kind to that period, but I remember people frustrated because they had all of this great young talent and the main events were still Jeff Jarrett against Monday Night War stars with 1998 WWF finishes. They could have really built a brand but in classic TNA fashion, they couldn't get out of the past.

What about Vickie for next year's HOF if she's really done?

Booking for TV ratings, heel authority figures, 20 minute show opening promos, crass humor (projectile vomiting, dropping shit on people, etc.), McMahon's all over TV (was Vince, now it's Steph & Hunter), etc. They're definitely are a lot of them. You can find crass humor going back to Dusty's intro vignettes in 89. You have to pay attention to TV ratings but WWE really doesn't give away many money singles matches on TV nowadays. I don't find the opening segment that sets up the show to be a big problem when you've got 3 hours to kill, and it's not like we're sitting through HHH's 20 minute promos from 2003. I don't think WWE has gotten enough credit for how much they've gotten away from the phanton camera/backstage skit stuff. That was a rough part of the product for a lot of the 2000's. Nowadays on RAW you'll mostly get one or two skits in HHH's office and then maybe something else short, but it's *far* less of a problem than it used to be. It's been a long time since we've had something like DX visiting little person world or Carlito trying to run through a hole in the wall. The only backstage deal at Battleground was Kane and Orton talking for two minutes. MITB had Stephanie talking with the Bellas.

He's the Jerry Lawler of big men physically. His endurance is amazing.

Yeah, I don't agree that the Attitude Era had any long-lasting negative impact. Modern WWE is completely different from that time. The booking today moves more slowly than early 80s Memphis, so that aspect of it isn't a problem. The physicality stuff is a big problem on the indy scene, but you can find plenty of super heated Cena matches based around the crowd's investment in his character. And in terms of the moonsaults being an example of a need for constantly escalating physicality, shoot, look at 90s AJPW, it's just the nature of guys trying to top what's been done before. WWE has been smart about pulling back on a lot of the crazy spots. It's not like a RAW crowd is similar to a 96 ECW crowd where they won't pop unless someone's taking a big bump. Another negative of the Attitude era was the lack of focus on in-ring and crowds not caring about midcard matches, but that was fixed by 2000. When you look at the positives of the Attitude era (WWE being more financially stable than any company ever) and balance it against the negatives (heel authority figures, although Bryan-HHH this year was amazing so how negative can it be), I don't see how it's a net negative. The real negative was ECW and WCW dying and Japan collapsing. The only problem I have with modern WWE is that there's too much product. Otherwise, you've got a company with lots of fresh young talent that can carry them for years to come, lots of good matches, and lots of good shows.

I just wish Bruce could find a new angle beyond trying to find the con in everything. It was great when he was writing about Global's mystery investor or the Gangstas angle. But when he's writing about Zayn-Cesaro from Arrival being some sort of nefarious plot by that tricky HHH to fool internet fans, it's beyond reaching.

I don't know about Stephanie as Vince's successor behind the camera, but it's amazing to see how much she's his successor in front of the camera. That was such a classic 1998 Vince effort tonight.

Lawler-Steiner from last week. This was a lot of fun.

Never any love for Lance Russell! Love his intros at the Coliseum.

I do feel like Reigns has shown improvement as a worker lately too. He had a decent-length match with Barrett on SD a few weeks ago and it was perfectly solid. Barrett isn't a guy that carries a lot of people.

I think the big question is whether he makes it to Mania without getting turned on by the hardcore fans that can make so much noise at shows. I'm already seeing seeds of it, with people saying Ambrose is the most talented guy in the Shield and should be getting the #1 face push, or people saying that Reigns is going to take Bryan's spot. It's going to be very interesting to see how he's treated in places like Chicago and NYC while being pushed as the #1 guy. If they overplay their hand, I could see him being the Batista to Ambrose's Daniel Bryan. The best way to avoid this is to have genuinely really good singles matches, and to win people over on the mic like Bray did. If people see him as a bad worker who's protected on the mic, it could be rough. His match against Orton at SummerSlam will be a big indication of where he is, because that's one of the most hardcore crowds they get all year and they could treat it like Orton-Sheamus if they don't like it.

It was never going to go anywhere. He doesn't have it.

Summer Rae called Layla a sawed off runt - which writer is watching old Lawler promos on Dundee?

TV is available from about midway through 79 and there's awesome stuff to see - the whole Lawler/Dundee-Ferris/Latham feud with the concession stand brawl and Fargo getting involved, the Gilberts-Waynes feud, Hogan coming in to stick up for Brutus, a great Lawler/Dundee-Freebirds TV match, Lawler turning heel and having really good studio matches with guys like Morton and Regal.

You can still have great emotional investment from the audience in the modern setting. I was at the "Hijack" RAW in Chicago earlier this year and at Mania, I've seen how it can still work in person. The emotion surrounding the Bryan-HHH stuff was great. I was at Payback in Chicago and saw the crowd passionately divided in their support of Wyatt and Cena, and it creating a great atmosphere for the story they were telling. I was there for the genuine emotional response to the Taker's streak ending. I'm just saying it's odd to lament people no longer thinking that Daniel Bryan and HHH are having a real fight together.

When is WWE overly self-aware regarding their product? It's not like the Attitude Era where guys were shooting and complaining about gimmicks. They generally play it pretty straight. I hate when people bemoan the fact that fans no longer believe it's real and buy into kayfabe and all that stuff. What you're really bemoaning is the lack of really, really stupid people. Lets be honest - the fans that wouldn't let the Horsemen out of the cage after they all turned on Dusty because of how mad they were - those people were exceedingly dumb. The emotional investment that today's fans had in Daniel Bryan at Mania is much healthier.

Of all the 80s stars out there, I love that Missy Hyatt is the one who keeps up with current wrestling on a weekly basis, including watching minor NJPW shows. Her twitter is fun.

There's certainly value in at least doing a retirement match. That would be a pretty emotional scene.

Watching 1988 Memphis and my mind is struggling with Ron and Don Harris as clean-cut white meat babyfaces throwing dropkicks to the delight of the girls in the crowd.

HHH loves these guys and has worked so hard to put them over. I'm willing to see where this one goes. I think the end game is still all three guys as main event level players.

WWE's in really good shape when we're complaining about them giving us a match as good as Sheamus-Cesaro. That match would have blown people away if it happened a few years ago and now it's just expected that we get stuff like this regularly.