Matt D

I also sort of think that things can be argued away logically, so long as you go from the viewpoint that wrestling is real but the muppets are just puppets. It would be one thing if Santino suddenly got magical powers from the potion, but he just used it as mist. The wrestlers understand showmanship as part of what they do. They know the muppet puppeteers will get them ratings, which means more money for them, so they play along on some level (the sheamus/Morrison stuff), in skits the wrestlers(kayfabe) worked out with the puppeteers. And Vickie's character is just so delusional that she forgot she was arguing with a puppet and lost herself to the moment. I think this is easier to explain away than Robocop or Chucky. In general, the very biggest problem with 2011 WWE is that they never mention money.

I think on some level it would have bugged me more (as opposed to "not at all," which is how much it bugged me), if WWE booking has been good lately. For instance, if the follow up to the CM Punk speech or Punk winning the title at MITB was the muppets show, that would have been one thing. I'll fully admit that my tastes are very, very far away from "real sports feel!" right now. When I joked over at the DVDVR board that I would like Ascension to use the glowing ball of power from their promo as a FX energy weapon in a match, I was only half joking.

Who did Buddy and DeBeers train? 97 vs Valentine. haven't seen it yet but for shits and giggles.

Apter didn't really have a byline under any of the articles that appeared in the mags. His columns were all news bits and tidbits from around the country...."Mr. Wrestling II is headed to Georgia to battle Ken Patera", "Jim Brunzell pinned Nick Bockwinkel in a non-title match in Madison, Wisconsin", "dusty Rhodes is furious that Jos Leduc pulled a fast one on him during a tag match in Florida", and so on. Stuff like that. His columns never took on a singular theme. It was the random tidbit aspect of them, at a time when you could only read about most of these guys outside of your own area, that made his stuff appealing. That column was a good springboard into any of the articles about those same guys that might appear in other places in the magazine. There was the little weekly Apter rant on Pro Wrestling This Week, each one usually having a very specific topic and just a bit of a twist.

Actually, I'll say this too. While on the bike I'm a captive audience of sorts, but even then, if I wasn't dealing with 5 day time limits on watching the justin.tv stuff, I probably wouldn't get to it all. The time limit before it gets taken down makes everything seem more pressing and necessary (and a little more exciting too I suppose).

I'm that guy. Right now on Justin.tv I'm watching 85 Mid-South (saw all of 84), 85 NWA (WWW and WCW SN), and 80 Memphis. If I have time after that I catch what other stuff is on this other channel which usually has a lot of fairly random mid 80s Crockett and Florida. I usually watch on the exercise bike, on the laptop. It's a lot to get through but I can watch while other stuff is going on and only half pay attention unless something I'm interested is on. At this stage of my watching life I'd much rather watch whole shows in a season sort of fashion than watch random matches/moments. I'm still thinking of trying my luck with the AWA set when it comes out though.

Jimmy in Memphis is wildly different than Jimmy anywhere else, but even then, the theme input in WCW (Self High Five made DDP as much as the Diamond Cutter) and awesome running of WCW SN towards the end just should add to his accolades.

Well, because they weren't a unit for 1. Not in a kayfabe sense, sure, but in a functional sense.

If they can induct tag teams, why can't they induct the "Three Wise Men of the East" as a unit.

Vince's attitude REALLY comes through in the testimony. It's very black and white.

I think the Rey thing can't be denied. Orton's booked way higher on the card than Rey, but SD tanked after Rey left. I suppose there is the Edge factor as well to think about, though. The SD that Edge was advertised for didn't pop a number, right?

People being the general TV Audience?

Granted, I'm mostly going off of secondary information as I wasn't watching much then, but it SEEMS like Khali and Umaga were both built to some similar degree, no?

Meltz on Henry/Show: " "The two had about as good a big man's match as you're going to have."

Yeah but Punk jobbing wasn't a big deal because he had Miz up for the G2S and that was the debut of "Little Jimmy's Finale" so it was a big visual moment (the way the Miz slipped the full nelson on so smoothly out of the fireman's carry helped). And thanks Tom. I was wondering what it was past the booking.

Tom, Excuse my ignorance but as no one is just a giant fucking draw magically, what elements do you think made Mistico a giant fucking draw?

I could see Dixie being delusional and thinking some of the stuff that is out really wasn't?

In the old WWF, guys were married to each other for 6 months+. It was the same house show pairing night after night after night. The big appeal of the Rumble in my mind was to see guys who don't usually interact, interact with one another. Even in Battle Royales, you wouldn't see it as much because guys could just square off against who they were paired with. The staggered entry of the Rumble made things a little more open. It's not as big of an issue now.

I think my main problem is that I've been watching SO much 80 Memphis, 85 NWA (though the Saturday Night crowd had some bad elements even then) and 85 Mid-South... somewhere around 10 shows a week in total, that watching a 2011 studio audience is soul crushing. The fact that Husky is over with them in what seems to be a mostly earnest, non-ironic way is a HUGE testament to him.

If we're judging this on FCW, can we go with Husky Harris. He's been on fire there lately (and seems just about the only guy honestly over with the irritating crowd).

It was weird because in the radio interviews last week, it didn't sound like Hogan had all that much creative power.

Can you have a Ric Flair without an NWA? 2007 John Cena World Wrestling Entertainment 2008 Chris Jericho World Wrestling Entertainment 2009 Chris Jericho World Wrestling Entertainment 2010 John Cena World Wrestling Entertainment i think Punk deserves it as much as Jericho did for those years, and in 2010, wouldn't it have been more the Hulk Hogan Award than the Ric Flair one?

Well isn't a lot of that issue because no one's drawing? On some level, I don't care if people are drawing or not so long as I like what they're doing in the ring and on the mic. I mean I'm not going to get depressed over the fact that I can't pick someone who'd fit into that role. Christian's had a great year. Not as good as his 09, sure but still really solid. Hell, Orton's had a great year too. And Mark Henry! Absolutely. But Smackdown's not drawing at all.

Do we count Punk as a draw in that he bolstered a C-Level PPV to a higher rate than it would have been otherwise? I'd love to say Christian but SD wasn't exactly drawing. Could, hypothetically, the RnR count as Wrestler of the year in 84 Mid South because even though they weren't booked "on top" necessarily, not in the main vents, they still popped the territory?

can hogan even physically lay down now? I think he might be a Ding Dong/hunchback now.