Sean Liska

Dear God, not the WNBA argument again.

Tough to say for sure. Colts-Saints did better than Giants-Pats, and I think Steelers-Cards did about the same. Those are much smaller TV markets, but it doesn't seem to matter for the SB. I would have figured that Pats-Giants, with the Boston and NYC markets and 19-0 at stake, would have shattered all of the records.

I am happy that they're going with fresh matches and pushing new guys. That's great. But I feel like we've seen Cena-Miz a million times on RAW. I'm glad that Punk is in a big spot, but I don't know if there has been an Orton match as a face that I've really enjoyed yet. I'm also pretty played out on Edge, so nothing he does at this point really excites me even though I like Del Rio. Taker and Barrett just sounds like it'll suck considering UT's physical condition and that Barrett isn't a guy that can bounce around like a pinball to compensate. HHH-Sheamus doesn't excite me. Whatever they do with Lawler and Cole may be the most ineresting thing on the show for me. They give away so many singles matches on TV nowadays, it's tough for them to come up with something that really feels big like even Batista-Taker at Mania 23, Batista-HHH at WM21, Lesnar-Goldberg, HBK-Taker at WM25, or Cena-Batista last year (only done once before and on a major PPV).

Why would they wait until now to have the negotiations, though? Because the Lesnar thing fell through? I don't see why the negotiating would take so long, unless WWE wants him to work a bunch of dates. If WWE didn't make an effort to get Goldberg for the show, it's not unreasonable to think that Vince isn't big on this either. Sting signing with TNA wasn't guaranteed since he's been in such bad physical shape with his shoulder injury. That said, I hope it happens. I've had a few buddies ask if we're going to make a Mania road trip this year, and I keep delaying the decision until I see if this comes through. I don't feel like making the trip to see Cena-Miz and Orton-Punk. ROH and DGUSA aren't doing a ton for me. The HOF should be great, but that's not enough. Sting in the Georgia Dome at Mania would do it.

What you said. If this were Sting against Orton at Backlash, I would agree. But Sting against Taker, at Wrestlemania, in WCW's home, has some juice behind it. It also means that Sting would be at the HOF, which is totally appropriate in Atlanta. I've gone from having no enthusiasm for WM to considering the 13 hour drive from Chicago to Atlanta. And it's not like I've been dying to watch Sting work in TNA the last few years. But something about this feels cool to me.

Now I'm telling myself that Taker would have to be there for the big Sting angle. God, this is probably going to be so dissapointing.

I love this stuff. Hopefully it doesn't end up being a dissapointment. I've heard speculation that Taker is returning to his biker persona, which wouldn't do much for me.

I think he makes mostly accurate points about why nearly every wrestling promotion in the world is seeing business decline right now. But he still gets excited about stuff. He's almost superhuman to still get excited about certain things after all these years.

Again, Rumble spoilers here: PWI has reported, and Dave appears to have confirmed on his board, that WWE has signed Booker T and Kevin Nash to make surprise appearances at the Rumble. The timing of this happening the night before the big MEM reunion doesn't seem coincidental. This is kind of nostalgic for me. I miss the days of wrestling promotions screwing with each other like this. I think Vince is just amusing himself at this point.

No, I don't think so. I would guess that most people enjoyed the way the puro style evolved from the 70s to the 90s, especially in regards to All Japan. It's not that there's a limit to how much puro someone can enjoy, it's just that the style has turned to crap over the past decade. There isn't nearly as much storytelling and the reliance on big bumps and no-sold strike exchanges isn't compelling. Puro reminds me of a bad ECW show at times with the lengths people have to go to pop the crowds, like with the Kobashi-Akiyama match you mentioned.

Didn't Hogan face Tiger Chung Le on TV once?

I always figured it as him trying to be like Raven, but being such a clueless putz he gets everything wrong. Raven has his leather jacket and punk/grunge/alternative T-shirts, while Stevie has his cut off shorts and 80's hair metal tees. That's how Raven has described the gimmicks.

It's really getting insane when he's critiquing voters for not voting MMA guys high enough in Most Charismatic. To Dylan's point, WWE never gets any credit in these awards. WWE is probably my favorite company to watch from an in-ring perspective because they were smart enough to slow things down a few years ago and make things matter (I haven't seen much IWRG, seems like I should). I would much rather watch an arena full of kids living and dying with Cena's comebacks than watch a Davey Richards match. But we're in the minority on that one with the Observer audience. Cary Silkin got more votes than Vince for promoter of the year. ROH beat WWE for promotion of the year, and I can't see how ROH put out more quality content. Punk getting 3rd for best announcer is pretty awesome, though.

The fact that Sugiura is #2 for wrestler of the year says so much about the state of wrestling. I think I may start crying.

Wonder if this will be able to compete with the Diana book for craziness.

That's what a good CEO does, though. He finds the right people and puts them in a position to succeed. No one in Vince's position is going out and making every deal for their company.

Newsletter readers in the 80s were brutal. Their love for Crockett and hatred for WWF made die-hard ECW fans look like impartial observers. The rare compliments for WWF were usually begrudging. Major accomplishments like WM3 or 33 million people watching Hogan-Andre on NBC seemed to be dismissed as Vince fooling a bunch of idiots with no taste.

Somehow it came out of a discussion about Bischoff bashing Keller, and how you would never see Vince get into an argument with a sheet writer. Then someone said that McMahon would kill Bryan in a discussion. Dave's comment raised my eyebrow because I thought he was saying that Alvarez knows more about wrestling than Vince (it still reads that way to me). It's one thing for Dave to say that Vince just lucked into the Attitude era, but to also say that Alvarez knows more than Vince seemed to be really giving McMahon no credit.

Dave responded after I questioned him on it. To be fair, it sounds like he's saying that Vince is a bad debater more than he is saying Alvarez knows wrestling better. I can agree with that. "Sam Muchnick was a great promoter. Doubt he'd have been much of a debater. Jim Barnett. Ditto. Completely different brains. You have seen Vince under pressure in the media with hosts who know absolutely nothing about the subject. Most often, he fares bad to poor. Murray Hodgson ate his lunch. Vince is a better promoter than Bischoff, but in an argument or debate over business, Bischoff beats him every time. I've talked with both. Wouldn't even be close. Just different talents. Vince is a guy surrounded by yes-men for 25 years, when pressed, it's not his specialty. I didn't say Bryan could beat him as a wrestling promoter. Although Vince would not do well trying to do a wrestling newsletter."

All right, this one is a little much for me. Here is Dave's take on what would happen if Alvarez and Vince McMahon debated each other on pro wrestling. "The idea Vince would kill Bryan across the board, or even dominate makes me laugh. On intricate topics that only Vince would know, he'd do very well. On most everything else, I'd favor Bryan. Big picture pro wrestling, Bryan would do far better than you'd think, or Vince would do far worse, depending on your point of view. Put it this way, if Vince and Bryan were to argue about the current landscape of pro wrestling and direction, I'd favor Bryan big-time, except that in the end Vince would probably agree with 80% of what he said." The only area where Vince knows more than Alvarez is stuff that only Vince would have access to? The greatest promoter of all time, the guy that's been promoting for 27 years and has had maybe three or four bad ones financially, responsible for two of the biggest booms in wrestling history, creator of Wrestlemania, etc. And Alavarez would know more than him on almost every subject? I get that Bryan agrees with everything that Dave says and that probably biases Dave's thinking, but come on.

I always heard that guys were booking their own stuff in ROH, and yet everyone lost that ability for some reason when Pearce took over.

Does it bother anyone that Dave is kind of a prick 90% of the time he posts? I know the board is horrible and that's the main cause, but it seems like it's easier to get a response by calling Dave a name than by asking a question.

I don't disagree with any of the problems you've listed. The promotion has been a mess. I don't really like the DG style so I haven't seen anything since going to the WM weekend shows, but it doesn't sound like anything too compelling has happened storyline-wise. Part of the problem is also that the amount of talent on the indies has dried up, and ROH still gets a lot of the better talent available. It's a heck of a concept to try to make work in today's environment. My point was just that I think Gabe understands the limitations of the "this is awesome" style of promoting wrestling. He moved ROH into a more storyline-driven format in 2004 when RF was driven out, which is when I started to enjoy the promotion. But there are limitations in running a Dragon Gate affiliate, and you almost have to push star ratings and workrate considering who your headliners are.

I'm sure Gabe understands the need to have more storylines. But when you're working within the confines of a Dragon Gate - U.S. affiliate, there's naturally going to be some challenges. Like the fact that none of your main stars speak English. So you first have to satisfy the niche that loves the DG "This is awesome" style in order to make any money, and try to slowly grow your characters from there, which is what they seem to be doing. I personally can't watch the DGUSA stuff, but I understand the challenges and what they're trying to do.

I didn't see the chairshot, so I'm just going off of what I read. Dave's description was, "Generico teased having mercy, but then clocked Steen with a sick chair shot to the head for the pin."