Matt D

Hey he's going to replace Johnny Ace as the VP of Talent Relations

Cena/Punk/Rock is probably the best reasonable choice.

I had no idea who Kerry Von Erich was as a kid but I was a pretty big Texas Tornado fan.

This isn't getting enough attention. Actually, I thought it was just me so I didn't say anything but there was something really chaotic about the camera work that added a ton to the match.

Bill Watts and Verne always came back in Walking Tall tags in the 80s! Maybe Taker could... Yeah, I've got no idea. I still half think they wanted to run Dolph vs face Miz for the world title. Shame about Austin since it felt like between twitter and the sit down interview they were stealth building for that. I don't think Punk can last another year and four months without the 2013-4 fans turning him again, to be honest.

Would Ryback/Taker vs The Shield be a draw that would give everyone in the match rub or would people look at it as a disappointment? A waste of the streak.

Austin is totally out of the question at this point?

The deadline now is the following year's MITB PPV, isn't it? Why would anyone in the world turn down a Wrestlemania Main Event? Maybe Dusty if Kevin Sullivan blinded his sister, but past that.

They have to pull the trigger on Dolph cashing in eventually or else he'll have to do it at Mania, no?

This is actually really quite intense. EDIT: I jinxed it.

Henry killing Cena to set up the finish of the ladder match would sure give Cena something to do for a while.

The visual off the Brogue kick miss was amazing. He was just stuck there, frozen in time and BOOM Also, I love how they make sure to sell things that are huge as death; that's the difference between WWE and so many indies and so many people don't get it. There's such weight in all the huge blows. It may not finish a match but they sure as hell don't just pop right back up.

SUPER CHAIR

They did SUCH a good job of having the Shield stick to their gameplan and swarm at every opportunity. It's one of the most focused offenses I've ever seen in a match. From bell to bell. I don't know who to give credit to for that. Vince, The Shield? Arn or whoever the agent is here. It's such a simple concept but I'm not sure I've ever seen the execution quite so driven. Everytime they had even the tiniest chance it was two or three on one. They smartly got rid of guys to allow it too. Great stuff.

The frigging subliminal HULK RULES.

Frigging Angle. Uh, but in general, yeah, after that I think I'm done arguing about Sting except for in the meta way, because figuring out why we feel like we do is way more interesting to me.

FWIW Lawler uses that same joke on the 7/24 Superstars.

In June 93, right around the time that they switched the graphics for Superstars and Wrestling Challenge and added Savage to Mania, I think there was a sense business was down and they were trying to respond. All American had much more of an "identity" than in years past, and Heenan and Savage pushed their shows on other shows. They were also going out of their way to hype big matches on their shows. Traditionally if there was going to be a spotlight match on a syndi show, they'd do a quick interview with both wrestlers right before the end the week before. They shifted that to a quick and dramatic "NEXT WEEK" promo that actually made things feel important. That's how they set up the Doink/Crush blow off, the Money Inc/Steiners blow-offs, Crush vs Yoko, Bret vs Bam Bam, etc.

Nasty Boys had some really quite good matches vs Money Inc in late 92 in WWF after they turned face. I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a good match vs the Headshrinkers too.

All they need to know is what their audience knows and would respond to. Vince has never exactly created nuanced foreigners.

Kind of what I was saying and kind of not. There are levels of availability. You, tape trader, man in the loop, show-goer, acquaintance of Konnan, were monastery trained. I, on the other hand, can watch a million billion hours of wrestling on YOUTUBE and DAILYMOTION right now. And if I wanted to. I could buy a WHOLE SEASON of something for pennies compared to what it probably would have cost me 20 years ago. With a whole lot less effort.

Here's the thing: The majority of WON readers thought the majority of WWF product in the 80s was boring. The AWA wasn't alone, at least in terms of hardcore fans. In turn, I suspect that a majority of 80s JCP "non-hardcore" fans thought that the WWF was boring as well, since they were JCP fans and you tend to like what you like and hate the enemy. Lots of people thought the AWA was boring in 1986-87. The reality is that *few* fans didn't, given their attendance tanking and the WWF frankly eating up their entire territory for good by that point. :/ So... it's really nothing to get bent about. That we can find 30-50 AWA matches from 1986-87 and say, "Hey... these are good / watchable / damn fine matches" is cool. Same for the WWF. John I still think a lot of it is our tastes changing. I know that a lot of the stuff I like now I wouldn't like ten years ago.

There are a few youtube channels with a lot of stuff: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIkg6oQTM4...grid&view=0 http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm1Agigv7k...grid&view=0 For instance.