Matt D

It's been less than a year ago since HTM appeared on Raw (It was early in March I think), so I don't thing the bridge is that burnt.

It was very "story driven" and I think that's why I liked it so much. Even though some of the holds Goldust put on Johnson got a little boring, pretty much everything that they did in that match stuck to the story. Whether you think the story of "guy sexually harasses and molests his opponent to get into his head" is a good one is certainly subjective and I know in 1996 I was pretty turned off by the Goldust character. Looking at it now though I have to credit how original it was and how good Goldust was at working a character that very few guys in wrestling would want to do, and even fewer would be able to pull off. Dustin had a huge rear chinlock problem as heel Goldust. Huge. It was easily the biggest problem with him in 95-96. Every match, almost, and not worked in any interesting way as a base or anything. Occasionally, he'd do some decent hope spots/cutoffs with it, but generally it was just a frustrating bore. In the Johnson match, it's actually far more interesting than usual since it all plays into the wearing down/sleeper/kiss spot in the end. You can draw a throughline in that match that you can't in most other heel Goldust matches from the era.

I see your slant on this, but I'd still like to be able to quantify it. I had a long draw out debate with a work colleague over a similar point. What's more popular worldwide? NASCAR or Formula 1? In a way this is similar... a American sport that's televised worldwide, but still most popular in the US vs. A global sport that televised worldwide. After 6 months of debate I finally got the evidence to get him to concede and agree it was F1. Either way, I think it's not as clear cut as Dave implies in this weeks newsletter (MLB vs. WWE Worldwide popularity). In the end what matters for this specific situation is money, not international prestige, unless they can find some way to meaningfully monetize that. It's not that international markets don't matter in any form of entertainment. I feel like the international box office has become a much better deal for movies over the last 2-3 years. That's the impression I get at least. Hell, how important to TNA is their international contracts? Would have NXT Redemption lasted so long were it not for int'l contracts? Likewise Superstars? It's not totally umimportant, but it might well be, as of now, for what Dave was talking about.

The match was one of the more impressive "story driven" ones I've seen out of WWF. That's not to say I necessarily thought the story was great, but the way they stuck to it was pretty impressive.

Is it totally unreasonable to posit that MLB is more popular in the US than WWE is in the world? According to wiki, game six of the world series last year, which is probably a worthwhile high point, had 19.2M viewers in the US. WMXXVIII had five million viewers overall according to WWE, according to this random wrestling site: http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2012/0419/551910/ I'm too lazy to find anything else but it's not a bad starting point for someone like John of Bix or Chris to come in and do something with.

I watched Royal Rumble 2006 tonight and it's probably my favorite Hunter performance ever by a good degree. He was eating everyone's stuff and was super giving for almost the entire thing. It was his long term "full body selling" that really stood out, though. I think in this setting, a lot of his usual structural excesses couldn't shine through so what he was actually good at made more of an impact.

When did they switch away from the Warrior centric Superstars opening. He didn't draw but that didn't mean he wasn't otherwise marketable. They had Hulk vs Flair on the horizon so losing Warrior wasn't that big a concern, right?

July 13. Was there any reason that they didn't just say screw him and put Sid in the role instead? That was plenty of time to build him up, right? I don't have time to look to see if all the pre-summerslam tapings were done by that point though.

I love the text of the letter that they sent him to get him to work Summerslam 91. I know I saw that sometime in the last 24 hours but I forget where. Whaa? I can't find the thing, but I know I read it. When temporarily caving into his demands, Vince wrote Warrior a letter of apology that basically said that Warrior was the most valued member of the WWF family and he respected him as a friend and a performer, or something. Then they suspended him right after the show.

Ok I came across this and it goes against everything I've always heard. Shawn and Razor only went :17 long?

PWO is going to become a PR wrestling thintank.

I'd go even further: he use to side with the Hardcore Fan viewpoint, and has since the early 00s been more Wrestler/Office viewpoint. That's more of the Beltway (or as Digby coined it last decade, The Village) type. John Would it be fair to say that he's less involved with what's going on now, as in he has less of a personal stake, this between his friends in the industry dying and his interests shifting to MMA and some level of general maturity from aging. The Junkfood Dog and Anabolic Warrior stuff seemed personal to me, like on some level it was an affront that they were getting pushes over other people. I'm not sure how true that was in the late 90s though.

I love the text of the letter that they sent him to get him to work Summerslam 91. I know I saw that sometime in the last 24 hours but I forget where.

The flip side is that we have so many promos and angles and most of them are really enjoyable. Portland was such a community territory that it really wasn't necessary on a week to week basis. When he does do it, it's about something that happened years ago usually.

There's a Fair to Flair joke in here but you guys are being so earnest that I would hate to make it.

Usually you can figure this stuff out from Bonnema's announcing. I know in watching them, I did feel a sense of progression from Match 1 to Match 2, but maybe that was just a construct in my head.

Savage starts getting really passive aggressive after WMX. Whenever Vince asks a question about who could win a match, he jumps in and says that HE could win the match and he's often trying to make things about him. It's ultimately both funny and sad and definitely writing on the wall. The two man Vince/Savage team is not great. EDIT: hey, it wasn't just me that noticed. Dave said this in the 4/25/94 WON

Not after this performance:

To be fair, even I said that it went "Maybe a little long." Watch the second match before revisiting the first though. Also, as always, this stuff is even better with the promos and what have you.

Duck Dynasty IS huge.

I am glad that you're letting go of that idea, because now I don't have to write a few thousand words about it, which I was really getting primed to do. Looking at my notes, I thought the match the next week was even better too. It's not a huge surprise by any means, but It's great that you're enjoying this stuff.

This statement is a trap, isn't it?

The one WCW show I ever went to was a Nitro where Warrior had Beefcake up in the rafters the whole show. It was pretty painful, yes.

Said this at DVDVR but if they are going forward with Hunter vs Punk at Mania, what I'd like to see is HHH coming out at 30 and winning the rumble, but it being revealed that they rigged his number so Bryan (the last guy in the ring other than him) gets a match vs him at Elimination Chamber for the shot. Punk helps Bryan win to further Punk vs HHH and Bryan goes on to face Orton at Mania.