Sean Liska

Are you doubting early 2007 WWE being the best TV run any wrestling company has ever had?

In classic WWE, a heel manager getting sent to the back is another ad break.

CM Punk (while face) got destroyed by Umaga in Chicago at Judgement Day. Totally killed the crowd You got me, totally forgot about that. He did get to beat Regal to win the IC title, beat JBL in a dark match when world champ, and won a few times when on ECW.

I think they just see it as a good way to get heavy heat on a heel, but they play the card too frequently. I don't think WWE is as bad about is as they are accused of, though. CM Punk never lost here in Chicago until he turned heel. Bret got the feel-good moment making Miz tap out in Toronto. For all of JR's bad Oklahoma moments, they did have the RAW where he and King main evented against Storm and Regal, and got the win while the OU band played Boomer Sooner. Benoit made HBK tap out to the sharpshooter in Edmonton, with Hebner as ref. Flair beat Orton in Charlotte, which puts them above WCW. Foley got that tribute segment to him at MSG. Lawler usually lays people out in Memphis, including Edge selling a piledriver until all of the fans left the building the last time they were there.

I've been watching a lot of Nitro from 96-98, and I agree that Luger is underrated from that era. I watched a Buff Bagwell match from 04/98 that was really smartly worked and put together. For a guy with the reputation of being lazy, he busted his ass back then. I'm not sure why we were so down on him. I also have to agree with the Flair love from that time. The first half of 96 may have been Flair's last great run. The storyline with him having Liz and Woman by his side, while extravagantly spending Savage's money, was the best possible angle you could put him in. His promos from that time were hysterical, and him and Arn had their last great tag matches together. I really enjoyed a match they had with the American Males from May 96, as well as a singles Nitro match with Guerrero.

I don't hate myself enough to watch it. Having just read Foley's new book, he's really too sad a figure to invest even five minutes in at this point. Is the book that bad? I was thinking about grabbing it since I enjoyed the first two so much and I've got a long plane ride ahead of me, but I can't pull the trigger after Hardcore Diaries and his blog posts. Is it mostly about his volunteer work, platonic crushes, and talking about how bad WWE is and great TNA is? Because I couldn't take that.

They actually moved around all right, better than I expected, but it was still sad. Foley took a big bump off the stage through a table, with concrete beneath instead of any padding. That looked incredibly painful for a guy that I'm sure has to deal with pain on a daily basis. Flair rolled through thumbtacks several times and splashed Foley through a table. So on one hand the match was worked at a higher level than I expected, but really, it was too sad to enjoy. Nobody cares about the tacks and barbed wire in TNA since Abyss has killed the gimmicks, so seeing them put their bodies through that for nothing was bad. I remember watching The Wrestler and thinking the Necro Butcher/Randy the Ram scene seemed out of place since you don't usually see 80's stars working those types of matches on indies, but here it was with Flair, right down to the small crowd.

A few highlights of Ben's article: "The world's oldest profession may be based on an exchange of cash for a nickname for cats, but, to steal a line from The Larry Sanders Show, this ain’t that. This is professional wrestling. It is a business that trades on heart, conflict and choices. In other words: character." "There is a segment of people the wrestling business that fashion themselves masters of emotional storytelling. These people believe that showing a range and a supposed depth of human emotion is essential to great storytelling. They are wrong. Storytelling is about character and intractable conflict. It is about decision and revelation. Nowhere in storytelling does it state that a man must degrade himself, or beg for one last chance, or wallow in self-pity." "The boos rooted in contempt for his wrestling ability and manner turned into boos lined with disgust for him being a coward. Have him quit, have him get fired or think of another option. Just don’t let his time as a subservient wussie kill his ability to draw money down the road."

You're right about 99/00 ECW, but I think a lot of this stuff is much more evident re-watching all these years later than if you just watched it back then. Gabe not liking the Smothers/Guido FBI much seems insane to me now. They're my favorite act to watch when I get old Fancams. But when I think back to my mindset back in 98, the FBI weren't that big of a deal to me. I thought they were entertaining, but I was more focused on stuff that doesn't hold up as well. I wasn't numb to highspots back then, so I was more into RVD/Sabu tags, or Masato Tanaka being murdered by Mike Awesome. Now that I watch wrestling more for simple and smart work, I love watching old FBI matches. In 99 and 2000 I wasn't thinking about ECW as the best in-ring product in the states. I was thinking about how badly the TNN deal was working out, and how ECW was losing all of it's talent, and how the booking was stale, and how much hotter WWE was and how great Austin/Rock/Foley were. Today, I can watch that period and realize that 2000 was ECW's best year for PPV quality and Tajiri was great and Guido/Mamaluke were an amazing tag team and Spike Dudley was a really smart worker.

Interesting quotes from Nowinski about WWE's concussion policies from ProWrestling.net. I didn't know about them limiting bumps during wrestling school. That's actually pretty forward-thinking and a nice move. Also interesting that he's talking with Vince after some of their public comments. "Former WWE wrestler Chris Nowinski discussed the head trauma issues in professional sports with the Philadelphia Inquirer, and recalled a long talk he had with Vince McMahon on the matter last week."The WWE interestingly had a more advanced program more quickly [than the NFL] six months after the Chris Benoît tragedy," Nowinski said. "They instituted neuropsychological testing. They've had it over a year now. They have pre-talks with new hires on concussions and CTE. They limit bumps in their wrestling school, repetitive falls on your back." Nowinski noted that WWE does not advertise their head trauma policies and said it's likely due to liability reasons."

You always hear people say that Dixie is a nice person, but I don't see the evidence. I don't really care about the Knockouts stuff from a moral perspective, since they can do whatever they want with their talent budget, although it's clearly bad business to offer no money to the only TV ratings draws they have. But it's remarkable to me that they allow Abyss to go out every month and find new ways to mutilate himself while no one in the crowd cares. It's disgusting. Of course the Terry chair shot is another example. Vince McMahon has done much more over the past few years to protect his performers with the bannings of chair shots and piledrivers and a toned-down style in general.

Ariel does a solid job.

Elbow at :20

Can't believe Bret dropped an elbow off the second rope. Wow.

I'm pretty sure Davey pulled out of some dates for whatever reason.

It seemed like there were a few new stories in the Jericho bio that I had not heard before. I wonder if he spoke with Chris before putting it together.

Jacobs wouldn't draw. Maybe Quack, but the Sawa match will do better DVD sales since it's a new match.

I don't think Brody is popular with Meltzer because anyone championed him. Meltzer and the sheet community loved Brody back then. I don't really get it. I understand why Tiger Mask was so well-regarded since he did things athletically that are still amazing today. The entire matches don't stand up, but his highspots were breathtaking. I don't understand the Brody stuff outside of him having a great presence.

As more of a casual poster, I think DVDVR is fun. I agree with some common thoughts there and disagree with others. I love Dustin Rhodes and think Angle's been terribly overrated for a number of years. But I also love Shawn Michaels and don't get the appeal of Mark Henry. But the guys do explain why they think the way they do, which is all you can ask. The discussion is very good. It's nice to be somewhere where people don't all have the Meltzer taste in wrestling with Tyler Black/Davey Richards considered better than anything WWE can put on. And it's nice to post somewhere that people seem to genuinely like wrestling, and where I don't have to read every week about how RAW was the worst show WWE has ever put on. The 80s projects are great. I love the idea of people going back and watching ECW fancams. I love people avidly watching Superstars each week and caring about it.

For years, us internet fans were perplexed by how Matt Hardy's push never matched his popularity. We only heard vague things about how people in power didn't like him. Thanks to Twitter and YouTube, we now know the reason - the guy is a huge pain in the ass. No wonder he's always getting buried, it must be tough to resist the opportunity to screw with the guy.

I thought it was just a joke, with the implication being that everyone knows who Lesnar is. Punk was hilarious tonight.

I thought UFC headliners can do seven figures per fight once bonuses are figured in.

Is WWE’s policy that "the use of alcohol at any time twelve hours prior to any scheduled performance is prohibited" still around? It comes across as confusing, but I think he meant that she was doing this at hotels after TV tapings when management is around.

According to Meltzer, yes. Here's my attempt at transcribing Meltz. God only knows what this means. My first thought is harder drugs than tolerated. "If you're going to do something, do it far away from where everyone else is staying and do not let people see you, unless you are far away from everyone else. If you are going to socialize, do it far away, because on TV taping time, the word will get around very quickly to management. That's the rule of thumb. The best rule is probably don't do it. But the second best rule is if you're going to do something, go far away. Don't let people see you."

Listening to Meltzer's audio, it sounds like there's more going on here than her simply having a few drinks in public. Dave said she shouldn't do what she's been doing, and if she does, do it far away from where all of the talent is staying.