Ditch

Wow: http://realclearpolitics.blogs.time.com/20...t-to-hold-seat/ So it's quixotic for all the GOP candidates.

Dodd already had a strong primary challenger, and I've seen plenty of analysis to say that Dodd was the more vulnerable of the two.

Dodd's out: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...ml?hpid=topnews

Terry Funk has now worked on New Japan shows in three different decades!

I'd give anything to know how that happened, that's way too intentional.

The Hogan segment was so bad it might be worth going out of your way for, if that makes sense. I literally can't believe anyone would like it. It's over the heads of non-smarks, it's pushing people smarks tend not to like, the execution is bad, and all of that in the biggest segment for TNA in years.

No you see Styles vs Angle was a ****1/2 MOTYC and you review it by writing stuff like ANGLE SLAM! 2.999999! ANKLE LOCK, NO, COUNTERED TO THE STYLES CLASH, 2.999999999999999!!!! 450 MISSES! ANGLE SLAM! 2.9999999999999999999999999999! Etc. But the sad thing is that Meltzer will probably call it a ****1/2 MOTYC.

There was a fair amount of hype for Raw. The Bret segments were dry as toast. I guess that's because they're going to stretch things out, but still.

I stopped watching WWE in 2003 because middling skits and short matches aren't what interest me. Thankfully there's endless reams of old-school and puro. I tuned in tonight to see what they had to offer, but gave up after a couple embarassing segments on Impact and an embarassingly DULL Raw. The Hogan debut segment was especially putrid. I seriously don't know how people can watch these shows live every week. It was one thing when WWE had better talent, and you'd get a Rock promo and a short-but-sweet Eddie match to go with the hit-or-miss segments. But now... eh.

It drives me crazy to see people write reviews like that, calling it essentially the best thing in the history of ever, and they'll put absolutely zero effort towards trying to watch any Dragon Gate shows from Japan. If every match is a MOTYC, and one is deeply concerned with MOTYCs, why only bother watching the DGUSA shows? Meanwhile if one actually watched a decent number of the shows from Japan, the DGUSA shows would rapidly lose their novelty and one might discover that the matches are only MOTYCs if you haven't seen the spots and sequences before.

Damon isn't a top 2/3 name in baseball but I'd put him in the top 10 or so over the last few years. I tend to think of the average male wrestling fan as someone who reads the sports section of a newspaper and/or watches some ESPN and/or visits sports websites and/or listens to sports talk shows. The only way to have no idea who Damon is would be to essentially not follow US sports.

This little timeline is too precious: 1. Obama records a generic 'good job, men' message that can be played for the troops and used by a variety of sources. 2. WWE uses said message for the Tribute to the Troops show. 3. WWE claims that this is a ringing endorsement of the company by the administration. 4. Linda's campaign does likewise. 5. The administration politely smacks them down for the overreach.

They're already letting a couple big names not work house shows. They can only put so many on TV, and they need a certain number of matches, so it's kinda difficult to let more than another ~10% of the roster miss the average show. 10% fewer house shows isn't going to cut it as far as significantly reducing wear & tear, so to be realistic we're talking fewer shows. If it's me running things, I have no problem cutting the marginal 15% of house shows a year, which would reduce injuries and let management (Vince) focus more on the TV product. But Vince isn't willing to make that sacrifice to the bottom line, even if it is a small one. Plus it's not always easy to identify which shows are marginal in advance.

Keeping them healthy means some combination of fewer shows, a less-flashy style, and less-flashy physiques. Especially in the case of WWE that's going to mean a lot less profit.

Kasai's latest razor deathmatch (which was more gory than that one) is the 2009 Tokyo Sports MOTY.

I suspect he was getting $100K per match for the Aussie tour, between cash and expenses. John True. I guess I more mean 'in the future', after bombing in Memphis and now overseas.

Hogan might want/demand 100k a match minimum, but he'll likely have to settle.

Saturn vs Mike Bell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP085eYK4Nw

And that's based on what, exactly? Could have been said about a number of TNA gambles that didn't work. Nothing's come out to suggest that the Carters are desperate.

TNA needs to be analyzed like a sports franchise rather than a business. The Carters lost money for years, they're willing to lose more just to have fun with rasslin'. It's like if the Dallas Mavericks lose money for a couple years; Mark Cuban won't shut them down over it. Granted, Cuban could sell them a lot easier than the Carters could sell TNA, but the point is that unlike the vast majority of promotions the owner has a fortune separate from wrestling. The Carters are willing to pay Hulk Hogan just so they can say they have Hulk Hogan. It's that simple. (now as long as nobody brings up Megane Super...)

I liked Billy, but "wiggan style is the best and now I'm the only one who knows it" gets kinda old after the fifteenth time. They'd try to get him to tell stories about his pro career and he'd all but blow it off. Worthwhile but not what it could have been. And listening to him made me want to constantly clear my throat.

Not to mention Samoa Joe with the sleeper and any number of wrestlers with the top rope splash. Undertaker's tombstone goes back to the '70s. There's no lack of finishers today that predate Randy Orton's birth. The only time I've seen a really weak move (ie. vertical suplex) as the finish in the '80s is when a wrestler with a limited moveset wins a squash, which is the only time they'd generally have a match with a finish. Certainly wouldn't see any sort of high-end match end like that. MAYBE when a heel gets distracted and an underdog face hits something light for a flash pin, but in that case the move is a formality and the set-up is the real finish.

My take on revisiting matches is that to a large extent (especially before the IWC but still to today) the initial opinion/consensus on a match came from a handful of people and especially Meltzer himself, and thus it didn't necessarily reflect the 'real' feelings of fans at large. Especially fans with a bit of an, ah, critical eye. 'Revisiting' a match is often nothing more than trying to move beyond it being overrated by a couple people of influence. Take movies for example: for the last several decades there have been enough relevant critics that no one or two voices is enough to make a film overrated. By comparison, Meltzer tossing ****1/2 at something becomes a baseline that everyone works from. It's a testament to his success. It's also problematic because no single opinion is a reliable indicator of true consensus on quality. If there were more people involved in forming the initial consensus on matches, there would be less need to revisit them.

I assume that if Linda loses the Senate bid, she'll go back to Titan Towers. If she wins, would Vince stay on as CEO and officially have Trips and Steph take over creative? Would they promote someone new to start studying under Vince and eventually be the long-term CEO? Heck, that probably need to do that anyway.

Was Masa Saito even in the top 10 of Japanese wrestlers not in the HOF? Sasaki, Sakaguchi, Hamada all seem better on this ballot. Taue seems clearly superior. Fujiwara is someone who Masa has nothing on whatsoever. Not sure about Tamura, but then Funaki and Sakuraba got in and they both did less in pro wrestling. Is Masa Saito a better candidate than Masanobu Fuchi? Fuchi did a lot of training in the AJ dojo, did a lot of booking of post-split AJ and that's often been the best-booked promotion in Japan, he was in a tremendous number of MOTYCs. Heck he was even in one of the Tupelo brawls. Minoru Suzuki, between pre-Pancrase, Pancrase, and being a big name for the last 6 years, seems like a better choice. Jun Akiyama has headlined a couple dome shows, lots of Budokans, and was in a ton of great matches. Am I crazy to suggest Rusher Kimura, star of IWE and part of several big invasion feuds in AJ and NJ? See, what gets me is that the above names are largely more recent and/or more accessable to foreign fans than Masa Saito. It's not like Saito was an all-time great evil foreigner heel in the territories, nor was he a uniquely great bit player in Japan. I just don't understand.