Sean Liska

JR said that they just did a record # in BBQ sales because they can now do international shipping through WWE.com. And he gets paid to sit at home and give his opinions on things. I'd take the occasional rib too for that gig.

Meltzer said that JR and Austin recommended her to WWE. Sounds like Vince having more fun with him.

If that wasn't bad enough, I looked at Wikipedia and saw this. "In the second episode, "Sam's Women", Coach tells a customer looking for Gus, the owner of Cheers, that Gus was dead and Sam now owned the bar. In a later episode, Gus O'Mally, however, comes back from Arizona for one night and helps run the bar."

This random note was included in today's update and cracked me up: "I wanted to pass along this note, which puts on absolute exclamation point on the lack of continuity in today’s professional wrestling scene. Two nights ago, a rerun from the final season of ‘Cheers’ was on TV. In the episode, the man who owned the bar prior to Sam Malone stopped by and for one night was put in charge of the bar for old times’ sake. This character’s name was ‘Gus.’ The episode originally aired on Feb. 25, 1993. Last night, on a different channel, I happened to catch a rerun from the second season of Cheers. An angry customer walks into the bar wanting to speak to the owner, Gus, who obviously no longer owns the bar. That episode originally aired on Oct. 7, 1982. Why is this significant? As a big fan of Cheers, I don’t recall any other episodes in which this ‘Gus’ was ever referenced. That means that in 1993, the writing crew, despite over a decade having passed, had to have taken the time to research whether or a not an owner other than Sam had ever been referenced in any previous episode, and made sure to use the same name for this seemingly insignificant character. That is a continuity check spanning 11 years-worth of television. Yet in WWE, we have Alex Riley being re-signed to RAW despite having been drafted to Smackdown only weeks earlier"

Vince killed the territory system. Period, full stop. The territories were going to die no matter what, but WCW didn't need to.

I do not know about the rest of the letter but this is indeed false. Dusty is a better booker than Cornette any day of the week. I'll give you late 84-July 87 Dusty. 1988 Dusty was a disaster, 1991 Dusty gave us Oz and a Dusty finish in the Tokyo Dome, and 1993 Dusty gave us Cactus Jack Lost In Cleveland. But Cornette in 1995 was burned out too.

So a guy on the Observer board randomly posted a legit picture of a naked woman holding a dead guy's severed head, apparently from an infamous sexual mutilation murder thing, in the middle of a TNA thread. And apparently it wasn't enough to get the guy suspended from the board from a few days. It's a special operation they're running over there.

Are you sure you're thinking of the right show? It did a huge gate and buyrate, and I've never heard of anything negative financially about it.

So Oliver doesn't know? Couldn't he have said that years ago?

The Mania 27 buyrate is in, and WWE is reporting 1.04 million buys. It's amazing that Rock just hinting at doing something was worth hundreds of thousands of buys and millions of dollars. I don't think there's a precedent for anything like this. If they play their cards correctly next year, they should set the all-time record.

I can't even keep up with all of the stuff that we're unearthing nowadays. It's definitely the best part of being a wrestling fan in 2011.

Just came across a Flair-Funk handheld from 1981 All Japan. Has this been seen a lot? I wasn't aware it was out there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz_29CkkBl8

Vince has done a lot of great stuff over the past ten years, and has been very successful as a result. It's easy to say he's living off of his brand name, but WCW and New Japan had really strong brand names too. Or just look at the way business crashed in 2001. If he were putting out a product that no one wanted to see, they wouldn't make any money. He doesn't get enough credit for the success they've had in this Cena run, especially 2005-2008. Last ten years: Created John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, elevated Edge, CM Punk and Jeff Hardy to main event status, WM23 was the biggest show ever, a bunch of big money Manias, Batista-HHH feud, Jericho-HBK feud, Hardy-Punk feud, Hogan-HBK doing big business at SummerSlam, Taker-HBK Mania matches, Royal Rumble 2007 overall PPV greatness, Foley-Orton feud, some great Hall of Fame moments including Bobby Heenan and Ric Flair speeches, Guerrero beating Lesnar for the title, Benoit and Guerrero sharing the ring at the end of WM20 (was good at the time), allowing ECW ONS 05 to happen, SummerSlam 2002, Bret Hart night at MSG, Flair tribute the night after Mania 24, Manias 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24, brought Finlay back, brought Goldust back, etc. Things could be much worse. The great thing about Vince is his durability. Someone may be able to come in and freshen things up, but can they last for several years, much less 27 years like Vince?

I experienced my own personal wrestling hell tonight, and it was Davey Richards and Charlie Haas exchanging 15 german suplexes while the crowd responded with a golf clap. Combine that with the strikes exchanges and no-selling, and the match encapsulated everything that bores me with indie and Japanese wrestling. It seems like there's some positive buzz around ROH now, but I don't really see it. The lead heel group appears to be Roderick Strong, Chris Daniels, and Michael Elgin managed by Truth Martini. I still don't get Martini's gimmick. I don't know what Elgin is doing on the roster, Roderick doesn't work that this level, and Daniels is so stale. Eddie Edwards is like the prototype of a generic indie guy. Davey Richards is Davey Richards. I'm not buying into the Haas/Benjamin hype. I have enjoyed the Briscoes-Express feud, but that's the only thing really engaging to me.

After thinking about this more, a 10pm Saturday slot on the WB in Cleveland isn't really going to change the fortune of the company much. Is Sinclair planning on making their money off of DVDs being sold from the TV slot? Will a certain level of TV ratings make them happy? I'm not seeing how this changes things a lot unless Sinclair is wanting to invest in the company long-term, or if they can make money selling the show.

Looking at their clearances has dampened my enthusiasm, but we have no idea what their business model is really going to be going forward. I am intrigued by them talking about trying to sell the show into markets without Sinclair clearances, and internationally. At least they stumbled into something since the old forumula wasn't going anywhere.

On the surface it sounds like it has potential. Syndication has been a dead way of promoting wrestling for a long time, but that's because promotions have to pay for the TV time. If they get decent TV times on these clearances in good markets, there's no reason they can't do ECW-level attendance numbers at least, except for bad booking. Looking at their clearances, though, it doesn't seem like they're in a lot of big markets. Minneapolis, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Nashville, Cincinanati, Buffalo, and Dayton seem like the biggest ones near their current touring circuit.

Press Release: RING OF HONOR ANNOUNCES SALE TO SINCLAIR BROADCAST GROUP BRISTOL, PA. (MAY 21, 2011)--Ring of Honor Wrestling owner, Cary Silkin, announced today the sale of the promotion to Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc., one of the largest television broadcasters in the country and which owns and operates, programs, or provides sales services to 58 television stations in 35 markets across the United States. ROH, currently the third largest wrestling promotion in the country, just celebrated its ninth anniversary, and Mr. Silkin is excited about taking the next step towards increasing the company's visibility and expanding its operations. "We have been waiting for and working for this opportunity for quite some time", he said, "and of our 9 years in business, there has been no better roster of wrestlers than this one to expose the ROH product to the masses. With Sinclair's resources and many avenues of distribution, we believe many new fans around the world will be as captivated as those who have followed Ring of Honor over the years." The month of September will see the debut of the new Ring of Honor television program which will be syndicated across the Sinclair network of stations, and with it, ROH will become the only wrestling promotion in the United States with a major, multi-market presence on broadcast TV. But if you don't live in a market with a Sinclair station, fear not, says Mr. Silkin. "Through our revamped website we will be able to make the TV show available to anyone in the world with internet access." Sinclair officials are enthused about the project as well. "We are very excited about this acquisition," commented Steve Marks, COO of Sinclair's Television Group. "Television and professional wrestling have a long history of successful partnerships and driving viewership. Unfortunately, the broadcast networks have not protected that relationship, allowing professional wrestling to migrate to cable network distribution. We believe that the powerful promotional platform that our TV stations provide, coupled with our 22% share of the U.S. TV households, will allow ROH to achieve name brand recognition and grow its share of the wrestling market. When you consider the makeup of our station mix and the number of CW, MYTV and FOX affiliates we operate, this is a perfect fit for our viewer demographics." Mr. Marks also noted, "Longer-term, we can envision syndicating ROH wrestling to broadcasters in markets where Sinclair does not have a presence, and even internationally." Mr. Silkin assures the ROH fans worldwide that they will be seeing the same exciting, hard-hitting style of pro wrestling that they have become accustomed to. "We have established the name Ring of Honor as synonymous with the best in-ring action in the sport. The only thing that will change is that it will now be easier for fans around the world to follow. Our visibility will increase greatly--our production will be upgraded--but the work ethic of our incredible talent roster and our athletic style of wrestling will remain the same. This is what our fans have told us they want, and we will continue to give it to them." The current front office staff, including Cary Silkin, Syd Eick, and Ross Abrams, will remain with ROH going forward. Hunter Johnston, a favorite of ROH fans for years as the masked grappler Delirious, will still handle matchmaking, Jim Cornette will remain as executive producer, and other familiar faces like ring announcer Bobby Cruise and senior referee Todd Sinclair will be in place." Additionally, longtime wrestling broadcaster Kevin Kelly, already the voice of ROH internet pay-per-views, will assume the TV play-by-play chair this fall. Veteran NWA and WCW promoter Gary Juster will come aboard to be in charge of live event operations, which are planned to continue in current ROH markets as well as expanding into new locations concurrent with the increased TV exposure. Mr. Cornette, who along with Mr. Johnston, will be in charge of talent and matchmaking, sees this as a new beginning for pro wrestling. "This is not old-school wrestling, and it's not sports entertainment," said Mr. Cornette. "This is wrestling for the 21st century, a new style developed by fresh, young stars that incorporates wrestling, mixed martial arts and high-flying, high-risk action with unique personalities, and it's showcased by a sports-based presentation completely different from any other product out there. In my 30 years in the sport, it's the most exciting live-event wrestling experience I've seen, and I'm thrilled to help bring it to broadcast TV." A major press conference, open to wrestling press and mainstream media alike, is being planned for Baltimore on Friday, June 24th. This event will feature a number of the ROH staff and wrestlers both announcing news about ROH's future and answering questions. The media event will be presided over by new ROH COO, Joe Koff. Mr. Koff, a longtime Sinclair executive with an extensive background in TV sales and management, also has experience in pro wrestling television production and syndication. Most visible of his projects may have been the first-ever live, prime time syndicated pro wrestling events, the Battle of the Belts, which aired from 1985 to 1987. These Championship Wrestling from Florida-based cards were broadcast live to a syndicated network of stations and may be best-remembered for the classic Ric Flair vs. Barry Windham NWA World Title contest from St. Petersburg. The press event will kick off a weekend which includes ROH's next internet pay-per-view event, "Best In The World 2011," live from the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on Sunday, June 26th at 4PM EST. In addition to all the top stars on the ROH roster, this event will feature the return of some favorite stars from Ring of Honor's past, and can be ordered by anyone in the world with internet access through Gofightlive.tv for only $14.95. More information about Ring of Honor can be obtained through their website, www.rohwrestling.com.

Shit. He was known for the Poffo tradition of saving his money and seemed like he avoided the tragic fates of a lot of 80s wrestlers. This sucks.

Here's some notes from the Torch site from the WWE's CFO talking about the channel at a conference: "Barrios discussed throughout the 35-minute presentation the importance of WWE's forthcoming TV Network, which he described as a "potential game-changer" for WWE. Barrios said the current plan is to roll out a formal TV Network in some form within the next 12-18 months after the groundwork is taken care of internally. Barrios said one aspect is ready - digitizing their video library - which they are calling "Project Evergreen." Barrios noted WWE is taking some of their $4-5 million capital expenditure investment to develop new filmed content for the Network. The other aspect is continued discussions with potential TV partners to establish the look & feel of a Network. "I've said publicly if we're successful to the degree I think we can be successful, it's a game-changer for the company," Barrios said at the end of the conference. Barrios noted when WWE first announced plans to roll out a TV Network, the plan was a traditional TV Network model, but massive changes to the media industry have led them to re-think a potential hybrid model. This was covered during WWE's first quarter conference call last month."

Ouch~! I missed that one. John I think Sean is talking about this post: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?show...p;#entry5427978 Yeah, thanks, this is the line my foggy memory was trying to recall from Wade. "As I have written before on the other board years ago, there were things he has done that greatly disappointed me as a journalist (things I've had a singularly unique knowledge and perspective on) and I'd go so far as to say as a friend."

I do recall Wade saying somewhere, maybe his board, that he's comfortable with his ethics in how he's covered every story, and implied that Dave had come up short in that regard at least once in the past.

I don't really get his point since WCW and TNA are the only really relevant American promotions of this generation. Who else is he comparing WWE with? I think it's a dumb point because there have always been terrible pro wrestling companies around. WWE would benefit from being compared to late-stages AWA if this were the 80s, or Kansas City and Los Angeles before that, or NJPW during the early part of this decade, or XPW, etc. I don't buy that Pearce-ROH was better booked than WWE, or that AAA has been clearly better, or NOAH, or whatver else. WWE is just mediocre.

How did the Gretzky-GSP thing get started?

People always talk about 1998 being the year that WCW started to go downhill, but they don't make enough of a differentiation between the Sullivan/Taylor booking regime and the Nash one. WCW had some issues in 98, but I've been watching the TV and there's still a lot of good stuff. You had things like the Jericho's feuds with Malenko and Mysterio, the Chavo/Eddie relationship, Raven's feuds, Flair being crazy entertaining, and OK build for the PPV main events. The booking fundamentals are solid. Yeah, company politics forced them to do a lot of bad stuff, but they were competent. However, once Nash took over in late 98, things jumped off a cliff. The TV became offensively bad. You had the Fingerpoke of Doom, the NWO spending ten minutes in a field beating up Flair, the show with no wrestling in the first hour, and Flair turning heel and going crazy when he had been super over as a babyface and was still a TV and PPV draw. I don't think people like Meltzer make that differentiation enough.