Sean Liska

Yeah, there was a lot left vague about the ending of RAW, so I wouldn't complain too much about how things don't make sense now. Also, it sounds like Bret really is gone for now, which could explain why they had to make some changes to the angle that don't add up.

And Cena is telling people to sign petitions to bring Danielson back. And the week after Vince supposedly had to pacify a sponsor and put out a potential fire regarding content, his big angle is one where a guy gets forced into a limo and crashed into several cars. The tie thing isn't really adding up. What's the real story? Did he inject steroids into his ass or something, because I can't remember a more secretive release. Supposedly Vince even called Danielson personally about it.

I can think of a few possible scenarios, most of which involve Benoit in some way. One: some Mattel executive flips on Raw. He's not a wrestling fan, so he has no history watching the show and rarely watches it now. However he does know about Chris Benoit, since that's the sort of skeleton you probably take out of the closet and give a good examination to before you commit a great deal of money on a client like the WWE. Suddenly he sees GODDAMN STRANGLING ON WWE TELEVISION, WHAT THE FUCK, FLASHBACKS FLASHBACKS! What, is this company trying to remind people of the violent choking deaths of Nancy and Daniel? An angry phone call is made, WWE denies responsibility and says the wrestler broke script and did it by himself, the sponsor furiously insists that this moron be fired Or Else. If they got such big heat from a sponsor for last week's content, it's strange to me that they would have the major angle on the next week's show be a car crash deal. I know that little kids don't drive, but it's still weird. The whole situation is weird.

I don't think enough attention is given to how damaging kayfabe has been to wrestling's public perception in this country. It's the reason every wrestling fan has to endure the, "You know that stuff is fake, right?" taunts from non-fans. Because guys had to strenuously insist that it was completely real when they were thrown into ropes and bounced back off them at full speed.

I don't know how to read Barrett's comments. On one hand, they would have to acknowledge him not being around after being pushed on TV so much the past few weeks. On the other, saying that he will *never* be seen again kinda sounds like WWE trolling the internet again. And I still can't wrap my head around Cena signing a Danielson petition on his twitter if it's real. I can't remember the last time something in wrestling was so confusing.

I think he just knows how much of a company man Cena is and can't fathom him speaking out against a Vince decision publicly.

How crazy is that? Either this thing is a work, or Cena needs to be promoted to head of talent relations after pushing for Bourne to get a push and now this.

From Meltzer at the F4W board: " What I was told if someone very important complained about the angle and it was the idea that kids watching may think it's fun to choke people with their ties. He was a scapegoat. They want him back when it blows over. What I don't know is where the complaint came from, but obviously it was someone very powerful, because even people internally now that it's out can't understand why they didn't wait until Tuesday and have Cena destroy him on Raw on Monday." Think it's supposed to read "was told is someone".... Really depressing to hear something so stupid could screw up something so great. Unbelievable.

I seriously doubt Dave just accidentally put two sources in his news update. Or that he's tight with the COO, who is someone with no prior wrestling experience. He's probably protecting someone under them. Or he replaced their names with "executives" so people would know who he's talking about.

Now Meltz isn't sure and says top executives have been told that Danielson is gone. Really strange.

That was exactly what WWE needed. Everything feels so formulaic and safe nowadays. I've thought that they needed to recapture the sense of danger that the NWO brought to WCW, or that was prevalant in the Attitude era. This was perfect. I have no idea how they'll follow it up or if the NXT guys are up for this. Vince doesn't have a great history with invasion angles. But he is a genius when he's motivated and the best promoter ever, so there is a chance for success. It's not like this is TNA.

I like the reporter saying that WWE pulled in $1.7 billion in merchandising in 1990 and having more revenue than the NFL. And that was a down year for them!

Although this line from one of Greg's posts about Flair was a little over the top, dude must be pretty ticked. "That night, that moment, I came face to face with evil." The Flair story clearly isn't going to end well.

That's too bad, those Charlotte conventions are supposed to be first-class. They're a lot of fun for old Mid-Atlantic fans and wrestlers, sucks to hear about Ric's behavior.

The weird thing is WWE rarely ever does insider stuff. This was super-insider, with the talk about Vince McMahon on headsets, Vince only pushing big guys, Vince not liking guys that aren't WWE-created, etc. How about heels CM Punk and William Regal smiling and nodding when Miz asked if Danielson was better than him? The whole show is so strange.

This angle is going to be inconsequential to whether he succeeds or not. I enjoyed it, but it's too inside for the audience and no one watches NXT to begin with. The important thing is how he gets positioned on RAW/SD. Danielson did show some pretty good fire on the mic, though, so hopefully that wins him some points.

The first couple of pages of the thread were pretty much just you arguing against the board about why Angle didn't deserve to be in for a variety of reason. Dave's point seems to be that it's now clear that anyone against Angle in the HOF has been exposed as clueless.

Dave calls out Bix after an old HOF debate about Angle got bumped: "Do the people in the first few pages realize that with the benefit of hindsight how absolutely little about wrestling they understood three years ago? The good thing is you can always learn. The ones who think they were right at the time three years later, well, there was no hope for them to begin with. " Because Angle's TNA run over the last three years has elimiminted ALL doubt.

That's what I'd figure, but then Dave writes things like, "McMahon is clearly in denial of this trend." "The difference is clear, although Vince McMahon, who is straight forward, surprisingly so at times, when it comes to assessing the core business, is in great denial about it."

Dave said something in the Observer that made sense. Vince can't acknowledge UFC as competition because it would make them look like they're getting absolutely destroyed by a competitor. I get that. But then Dave also talks about how Vince has his head in the sand regarding UFC and is in denial about them. That doesn't make so much sense to me for the reasons stated.

It seems like much of the internet thinks that Danielson needs to be a main eventer for his WWE run to be a success. To me, even if he has a Regal or Finlay type role for the next 5-10 years, it's a big success for the guy. It's amazing someone with his look has made it to TV in the first place.

Danielson got the win on RAW this week, and got to cut a decent promo this week. So I'm being optimistic and thinking they're taking him off this train wreck of a show so he can get to RAW/SD. I really don't think Vince has a huge score to settle with ROH.

I think Dave watches more than people think. I remember someone saying they E-mailed him for an opinion on a Japanese DG show and he had seen it. It's just tough to imagine. He was tape trading when no one else was. He watched the weekly TV of every territory for years and years. He was watching Lucha before almost anyone else. He watched the weekly AJPW and NJPW shows for 20 years. He watched Joshi. He watched every Nitro and Thunder ever. He watched every TNA PPV from Nashville and has seen every Impact. He's seen every ECW TV, every SMW TV, every RAW, every everything.

I don't know what Goodhelmet's seen, but it's tough to imagine someone having the time to watch as much wrestling as Dave has in the last 40 years.