Matt D

No time to pretty this up. hope it helps. From May 18, 1992 The Beach Blast looks to be the toughest sell, since while Sting vs. Cactus Jack may be, the way it's set up, really entertaining, there's is no logical build-up for a guy who has been pretty much forgotten of late to be facing the company's biggest star. They're almost going to have to shoot a major angle at the Clash to heat up the Terry Gordy & Steve Williams vs. Steiner Brothers match, but that may be too late. So the brunt of the build-up and focus will be on the 30 minute whomever wins the most falls match with Rick Rude vs. Rick Steamboat. It's the strongest program the company has right now and on paper sounds like a very good match, but doesn't have much in the way of drawing power. Nor does anything else in the company right now, but this is the time period Kip Frey said he was expecting to see an improvement in interest during, and there's no signs of a turnaround evident nor even signs of momentum to begin a turnaround anywhere in sight. There are signs of some potentially good action, but it needs to be backed up by the ability to sell that good action. From June 8, 1992: Complete Beach Blast show on 6/20 on PPV has Steamboat vs. Rude in a 30 minute challenge, Steiners defending against Gordy & Williams, Eaton & Anderson & Austin vs. Rhodes & Windham & Koloff, Sting vs. Cactus Jack in falls count anywhere, Madusa vs. Missy Hyatt in a bikini posedown, Pillman vs. Flamingo for the lightheavyweight title, Simmons vs. Taylor and Bagwell vs. Valentine. From June 15, 1992: Advance for the 6/20 Beach Blast in Mobile, AL is pretty weak with approximately 900 tickets sold less than two weeks before showtime. Only early-line predictions are that the company will be happy with the buy rate if it stays steady with the last one and that Steamboat and Rude may tear the house down in the main event. From June 22, 1992 For those in the area, Beach Blast starts at 4 p.m. and we'll be having a get together for the show. From June 29, 1992 World Championship Wrestling's Beach Blast, its second show in an attempt to do PPV shows three consecutive months, took place 6/20 in Mobile, AL. The reaction to the show was generally positive. There was very little bad about the card, in fact, aside from the bikini contest, nothing was bad. There was nothing that blew ones socks off either aside from the performances of both Cactus Jack and Sting in their match. The rest of the show ranged from solid, average matches to solid, good matches with little else memorable. The live crowd was approximately 4,000, or about a half-filled building with the paid about 3,200 and the gate around $28,000 (all of these are estimates). While it's too early to get anything but a rough estimate, based on reports we had heard before the event and sketchy reports since the event, the show apparently did worse on PPV than the Wrestle War show on 5/17. That wasn't unexpected as I'd been told before the event that WCW officials realized there was no way to pull off so many PPVs in such a short time period and would be happy with an 0.5 buy rate (Wrestle War's 0.6 was the record low). Based on very preliminary information received thus far, the buy rate doesn't look to have approached 0.5, which doesn't bode well for attempting yet another PPV show in three weeks. Considering this show was bolstered by nice plugs in both USA Today and on Entertainment Tonight (both of whom interviewed Jesse Ventura who seems to be the only WCW performer who can get that kind of attention) in the days preceding the event, it again shows that this is one uphill battle.

There's a crazy range from "protecting the boys due to the payoffs" to "didn't want to job to Cesaro so he lost his smile" with a dozen things in the middle.

There are different ways to need something.

I think it's not that he thinks he's worse off, it's just that he needs it the least.

You should catch the tag team turmoil that starts Backlash 05. It's not a big thing or anything but it's a good way to briefly see Regal+Tajiri and I actually think two minutes of Dean + Maven is worth seeing just because it's two guys really working their gimmick.

Whether you like it or not, some of this will also depend on how Punk parlays his opportunities now. He's got a foot in so many of his other hobbies, be it writing comics or MMA commentary or music or who knows what else. If he pushes towards the mainstream in even the same way Jericho did, that's going to potentially add to that mystique I think. He could end up feeling "bigger than wrestling."

I know there were at least a few Regal vs Badd matches. How are they?

Ok, so I have the network for at least the first period. Let's start suggesting matches, people. Otherwise you guys are going to get Natural Disasters vs Beverly Brothers from Summerslam 92 or Harley vs Haku from Royal Rumble 89 or a random tag team turmoil from Backlash 05 because I want to talk about Tajiri and Regal as a team.

In general I love going through the old Observers since there are things that didn't really mean much then, just throw away lines or what not, but that touch upon things we've talked about over the last few years.

You give me a list of matches to watch an an easy way to watch them and I'll watch whatever you want. I do look at lucha somewhat differently, but the stuff in lucha I like the very best is all based on the selling.

From the 4/20/92 Observer. Re: WM VIII So, where the heck did 90,873 come from. I know later on he uses the Bresloff 78K number. Is that the official number for Mania III minus comps or something? When did he switch over to the 78K number? While I'm at it: What's that about Summerslam 90? I know that we've looked at it curiously in the last few years as potentially doing a bigger buy than Mania. Could this help explain it, whatever it is?

It can take advantage of narrative opportunities that real sports can't. It's crazy when they squander that for one reason or another.

We are also in a bit of a transition time for Hunter. Last year at this time, he was Bill Watts.

People were bitching over on DVDVR about viewers being excited about watching the hostile crowd, but it's one of the few things in the world that can force WWE to be creative and come out firing on all cylinders in a single-company world. That's the joy of it, not just the derailing but to see what the hell WWE, which is generally formulaic as anything, does in response.

The thing keeps crashing my fairly new Asus tablet.

Which is part of what makes Dusty's hand to the face so damn funny.

I like the Rowan/Ambrose pairing a lot. I loved Rowan's spin sell of the dropkick to the knee and Ambrose was made to take the atomic noogie.

Reigns showing unbridled joy over Rollins doing the pocket rocket act was pretty funny.

Wrestling is fiction. Sports are not.

This doesn't really count as a midget.

I think they do have a history of giving away match-ups that they shouldn't on TV for free, though.

He's the #2 merch seller?

I'm going to be disappointed if we don't get a midget. I'm already resigned that we're not getting Corey Graves.

I thought he was doing a pretty good job of selling after he did it though. That's really the main thing that I ask. You can hit a move (With effort) but then go back to the selling. Make it seem like it cost you something too.

He was not Batista first and foremost. I think you could have been surprised for the guys who would have been hugely over in that spot. Look at Del Rio at Chamber.