Matt D

Next Column, one where I break down the commentary for a Tony/JR match sentence by sentence and then see how the addition of Jesse changed things.

Terry Funk and Flash Funk?

Was Feuerstein the one who guest hosted and was sort of screwing around as the Grand Wizard out there? Because that was pretty great.

I don't understand it. There are a lot of things I used to enjoy as a child that I no longer enjoy today as a an adult. My past enjoyment of those things plays no role in how I currently view those things. Instead of complaining about them and bemoaning the fact that these things I once enjoyed used to be so much better, I don't watch/listen/participate in/play with or consume them any more. Is allegiance to WWE like an allegiance to a sports team for some people? Fans of the Cleveland Browns might do nothing but bitch and moan about how shitty their team is, but the Browns are still their team, dammit, and they still enjoy watching and supporting them, regardless of the misery that comes with it. That I can understand (even if I don't personally feel the same way about wrestling). Yes, but it's also as if the Browns were the only team who played football. And everyone else sort of play rugby and the closest you can get to watching football in the way that you have for decades is to read comic books or watch soap operas. That's actually closer in a lot of ways to watching football than watching rugby is to you. It's kind of like that.

I remember seeing Rey's price tag recently. That'd be a starting point to figure it out at least.

His comments over the last few months have been more along the lines of "I wish people would make the most of their opportunities. I can't wait to have the chance to make Smackdown as great as I possibly can." That to me seems pretty damn healthy. He gets the limitations he's against and he's going to make the best of the situation instead of being miserable. Are the limitations stupid? Sure, but his response is very positive.

There's not really an alternative. Not to that Monday Night fix. Not to years and years of engagement, something that you've invested in for most of your life, something that appeals to childhood memories and some of the best feelings of spectator triumph and heartbreak of your life. WWE feels like "history" in a way that TNA or an indy can't. It's not about quality. It's about being part of something that is literally impossible to replace. You can find other wrestling, but you can't rewrite your life or history so that WWE wasn't a part of it. It'll always scratch slightly different itches. I am always confused when people don't seem to understand this.

I think there's every indication that Bryan's pretty happy.

My first couple of posts in this thread was assuming that this was the case.

I'm only an hour in but I was hoping for a long discussion on Big Daddy Dink.

Is the Vehicle called "Ladies and Gentle,en, I present you with...."

It's a damn shame Tenay stole the professor title. With Solie dead, Kris Z can be the Dean of PWO.

Haven't heard this yet but I hope part 1 is just Pringle and Hayes watching Gulf Coast together.

Look, I have a harder time respecting Flair because there isn't the thought behind what he did. On the one hand, though, Rose said that's how he wrestled too, but then there was all the research he did and how he came up with moves with Wiskowski and the amount of work that he put into things that was on a different level than spending money on suits. It's obvious in his work and his angles and in everything he did. Also the wide variance of working week after week in front of the same crowd, which is something we don't have as much with Flair, and I wish we did. He wasn't good at explaining what he did, but I believe fully that he spent all of his time thinking about it whether he realized he was doing it or not. With Flair, I can't, in good faith, put the world's most talented (and/or drunk) idiot savant as my #1 I think,

I don't think the right comparison is the Beatles. I think it's Elvis. Especially in his movies. No one was better at being Elvis than Elvis. No one could possibly star in an Elvis movie as well as Elvis could. You could put him in almost any scenario. Give him any leading lady and he could give you an Elvis movie. If you asked him what went into a good Elvis movie, he couldn't tell you. He'd just shrug and say "I'm Elvis." He'd just be himself and that was enough. Then my analogy ends with King Lear. But I'm sick here and at half speed, so you guys can just work out the rest.

I wouldn't be surprised if Vince thinks the WWE brand is what's driving the NXT sales.

EDIT: don't have the time to put this right now. Will try later.

Profit's an interesting question though. Are these guys getting paid more per appearance like on the main roster or do they get paid the same whether they're doing house shows or not? Do they charge less for NXT tickets in general? If the training center is training new cameramen, sound guys, etc, does it make sense to tour so that they can get experience on the road as well?

Santo/Flair is actually a pretty interesting compare/contrast. I'd love to see someone go more in depth there.

King of the Mountain is strategy used organically to cool down a hot babyface. Flair Flip is a spot that Flair forces into his matches because he thinks the crowd will be disappointed if he doesn't. In some ways you just made my argument for me. But seriously, I get your meaning and I do think Bock in the 70s/early 80s is an issue especially in what we have with him vs Verne (where he worked more like Flair).