Strummer

The JYD/Valentine match was a throwaway match with no build to further the Santana/Valentine program. JYD never had a long term program over the IC title or any title in the WWF

I agree with you to a point. I wouldn't say that the IC champ was the most over worker next to Hogan in the 80s. JYD was clearly number 2 face and incredibly over and he never really came close to the IC title. In the 80s the IC title was a way of balancing the heel/face dynamic. The world title was dominated by faces so the IC title was the heel title to at least try to give some guys credibility and create intrigue. As far as the 90s, it was a stepping stone which pretty much died when Rock lost the title in 98.

Steamboat has commented on this. Going in to the match, Savage and Steamboat knew they were only getting 13 minutes and both wanted to get as much "stuff" in as possible to steal the show. You can tell that the match is more of a "Macho Man" match as they clearly had choreographed the match before hand and were going to cram as many spots as they could in those 13 minutes. The thought of there being a "spotfest" in 80s WWF doesn't sound right, but these two pulled it off. On the Best of the 80s DVD, Steamboat comments on the match and although it is not overt, you can tell he isn't as high on the match as many others and would have liked to have more time with Randy like he did with Flair.

Randy Savage in 1987/ 1988 WWF. Specifically in his matches against big guys like Andre and OMG. Savage was so good at selling and especially long term selling. He would sell well after a match was over. I would also mention his match with Bret in late 87. Shawn Michaels/ Marty Jannetty in AWA and WWF. Watch any match against Summers and Rose in 86 or Warlord and Barbarian in 89 to see how to sell. Shawn was such a great seller back then until he had to change to conform to what Vince wants in his top babyfaces (no selling, pandering, not showing weakness) Marc Mero in 1996 WWF. Odd choice but he was so good at this time at selling, especially in his match against Hunter at Beware of Dog.

Looks like Stephanie is going to be the new GM with the story that she will be "emotionally attached" to Hunter.

To me the problem with the site was that when it started RD was doing all the stuff in a good, light hearted spirit. It was all in fun. Then sometime in 2001 he started to get real snippy and sarcastic. I know it was in big part to the product becoming stale and the sharp decline in quality, but it killed the site. I remember being in college and going to the site at the computer lab and spending like an hour and a half going through all the gimmicks I had grown up on in the WWF. The site was a success because of nostalgia and the fun aspect. RD killed the site with all his HHH/Steph rants because people didn't want to come to the site to see that stuff, they wanted to laugh at the gimmicks they grew up on.

You can almost see the tears landing on Meltzer's keyboard:

The Bossman/Heenan family feud is also a guilty pleasure of mine. The feud started when Heenan started making fun of Bossman's mother on commentary. Bossman then started to go through all the members of the Heenan family. He was going to be programmed with Rude initially but Ric left the company just as the angle started. He then went through Haku, Barbarian at Royal Rumble 91 and then Perfect at WM 7. To this day I don't know why Bossman didn't go over because that was where the buildup was heading. It was blown off on an episode of Prime Time in 91 when Bossman brought out his "mother" to hit Heenan with her purse. It lasted from about Sept. 90 till late Spring/early summer 91. After watching the Jake DVD I have to nominate Savage/Roberts from 91. Just great heat all around (any angle involving Liz always seemed to draw incredible heat) and Jake was just an awesome heel. The snake biting angle is one of the most surreal angles of all time. It's a shame they didn't stretch the feud till Mania to have a blowoff but the program was not drawing well on top at house shows. Orndorff/Hogan- feud that hooked me on wrestling. Demolition/POP from 88-89: another guilty pleasure of mine Lawler/Bret: 93 version, not 95 Owen/Shamrock: Yet another guilty pleasure HHH/Goldust: for some reason I really liked this feud

I just think it comes down to management not thinking he's charismatic enough or that good of a talker. They're pushing Carlito because they think he's top notch in both of those departments. I would say size, charisma, and talking ability are the 3 most important things that they look at when giving a push, Carlito has two of those, Shelton doesn't have any in their minds. I don't think it's anything personal

It has always bothered me when those people react to Flair's antics (getting drunk, exposing himself, sexual harrassment, etc.) with "LOL, it's just Flair being Flair, Gotta love him!!" but when another wrestler gets caught doing the same thing it's "How unprofessional!!,That's bad PR for the company, fire him!"

yes, but there are still "gray areas" in the case. Flair's lawyer is denying that anything happened. Will Dave look deep into what really happened or will he not reveal information like he did in the PRFH. Dave also reported that Flair was in on the PRFH but didn't go in depth in the newsletter so he could protect Flair.

The first thing that came to my mind seeing this was that Meltzer will bury this in the Observer like he did the Plane Ride from Hell because of his man-love for Flair.

For anyone who saw the Vince segment last night, did you see The Longest Yard? Austin says that word in a very non-funny, non-ironic way at Nelly. I know wrestling is different because it's performed in front of a live audience and all, but the movie industry isn't free from it either.

In the back of his mind, I think Vince believes that it's a vocal minority that is jeering Cena and that the majority of fans still like him and would pay to see him. At least that is how he's rationalizing it. So Vince, in his own little world, believes he's giving the fans what they want. It's going to take an awful lot for him to give up on Cena

Vince sees big money and mainstream exposure with Cena. He's just not ready to give up on him yet. It will take much more for him to bite the bullet and bury who he thinks is the next top babyface in the business.

Orton is the survivor for the 3rd straight year in the Survivor Series Main Event (s). I believe Hogan (88,89,90) is the only other person to do that. Edit: Warrior also did it in the same years as Hogan

Meltzer has been in full blown "Pissed off at WWE and Vince" mode for weeks now. Haven't really seen this side of him since 99/2000 WCW.

You know it's weird, I'm 6-4 and probably dwarf most wrestlers (non hoss) but because of their larger than life personas, their physiques and TV magic they seem much much bigger. I mean it doesn't seem to make sense (and I think that's a positive thing) that I'm several inches taller than Chris Benoit or Tazz but I buy them as total bad asses that could kill the common man (no matter how tall)

411 WOW

Hmm, this is weird because Jake clearly states on the DVD that he was a stepping stone for heels to build them up to be fed to Hogan. Which was pretty much the case from 87-91. In fact Jake talked about missing out on the money that came with being a top guy. He never once called himself a main eventer, nor did anyone else interviewed.

Just got it today. Jake is a great talker and you can tell he has a tremendous mind for wrestling. Now I'm a mark for this time period but I have to say that I loved this DVD and it is on my top ten of all time. I don't care what anyone says the Savage/Snake bite angle was GREAT. It's the first time I've seen it since its original airing and the heat is off the charts. You're just waiting for a babyface to make the save but it never comes and then the Snake actually bites him which no one watching at the time thought had a chance in hell of happening. In retrospect Jake's acting was so good that he made all the campy stuff he was involved with watchable. The Warrior training vignettes, the Martel feud, Earthquake killing Damien are all tolerable because Jake puts everything in it and is such a convincing actor.

PWI:

Torch. RIP Eddie

I don't think this has anything to do with Vince trying to prove WWF was better than ECW or anything. It's just that Vince or no one else in power ever watched ECW and this is what they think the promotion was about. To be fair, Paul marketed the "hardcore" aspect more than the "good wrestling" aspect so this is what ECW was to a lot of people.