EricR Posted March 18, 2011 Report Share Posted March 18, 2011 Isn't he back writing with WWE? That would make even more sense that they would be doing that storyline. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ditch Posted March 18, 2011 Report Share Posted March 18, 2011 Cook had a recurring role in Psych, which is on USA. But I guess that isn't a strong enough link to make anyone's radar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted March 21, 2011 Report Share Posted March 21, 2011 Bryan's ranting against the Miz has officially become tiresome. He even acknowledged this last night on the WOL free show. Â I get his point but they have let him lay out Cena 4 weeks in a row. Bryan will cite the loss of viewers in the overrun from last week as a sign it isn't working but still he must have a smidge more credibility from the last month of booking Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted March 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2011 For all the criticism of TNA's week-to-week booking and being overly focused on ratings, Dave and Bryan seem to be doing the exact same thing with Miz's push. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted March 21, 2011 Report Share Posted March 21, 2011 I guess a lot of viewers switched off due to the bait and switch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Liska Posted March 21, 2011 Report Share Posted March 21, 2011 For all the criticism of TNA's week-to-week booking and being overly focused on ratings, Dave and Bryan seem to be doing the exact same thing with Miz's push. Exactly. Screw the quarters. Sometimes you have to pick a guy and stick with it for people to buy him as a legitimate star. HHH wasn't over for months while they gave him a big heel push that crowds responded to with apathy. They need to do a lot more to toughen up Miz and make him seem like he belongs at the top level, and he doesn't feel like a WM headlne guy to me now, but it would be crazy to give up on his push because of his quarter hour numbers. That's what is wrong with wrestling now. If RAW's ratings were tanking and doing low 2's, and it started falling right after Miz got the title, then we would be talking about something different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrisZ Posted March 21, 2011 Report Share Posted March 21, 2011 I think Miz will beat Cena somehow at WM since that match isn't last so the babyface would have to win. Miz is gaining steam as a performer they just need to stay the course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted March 22, 2011 Report Share Posted March 22, 2011 Yesterday was also the 17th anniversary of WrestleMania X and the Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon ladder match and Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart match. Everyone remembers those two matches and nobody remembers what the main event on that show was (Bret Hart beating Yokozuna to win the WWF title). Um, really? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wahoos Leg Posted March 22, 2011 Report Share Posted March 22, 2011 Yesterday was also the 17th anniversary of WrestleMania X and the Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon ladder match and Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart match. Everyone remembers those two matches and nobody remembers what the main event on that show was (Bret Hart beating Yokozuna to win the WWF title). Um, really? Â Hey, if Meltzer says nobody remembers then nobody remembers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Morris Posted March 22, 2011 Report Share Posted March 22, 2011 Yesterday was also the 17th anniversary of WrestleMania X and the Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon ladder match and Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart match. Everyone remembers those two matches and nobody remembers what the main event on that show was (Bret Hart beating Yokozuna to win the WWF title). Um, really? Â I wonder if this means Bret will be pissed at Dave again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soup23 Posted March 22, 2011 Report Share Posted March 22, 2011 I also don't see how last weeks over run got completely blamed on the Miz since they took a commercial break at 4 past 11 with Cole saying the "Rock was there." Miz didn't even appear until around 8 after the hour so we are blaming the whole over run on one guy who didn't even show up until it was half over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ditch Posted March 22, 2011 Report Share Posted March 22, 2011 RW Animal on the Hellraisers (Hawk & Sasaki) team: "They needed singles wrestlers, and Jumbo Tsuruta just died..." Â There's so much wrong with that I don't know where to begin. Jumbo's career essentially ended within the year before then, but... yeah. Smart guy overall though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted March 22, 2011 Report Share Posted March 22, 2011 RW Animal on the Hellraisers (Hawk & Sasaki) team: "They needed singles wrestlers, and Jumbo Tsuruta just died..." Â There's so much wrong with that I don't know where to begin. Jumbo's career essentially ended within the year before then, but... yeah. Smart guy overall though. What was the context? Â Jumbo worked for the other company than the one that the Hellraisers worked for. The Hellraisers debuted in late 1992, right around the time Jumbo finished his career. But what does "singles wrestlers" have to do with that? Was he talking about an offer by All Japan to take the RW's after their WWF gig ended in 1992? And that they wanted singles wrestlers? Â That doesn't sound right, since they didn't end up signing any gaijin singles wrestlers of note after Jumbo got sick. Stuck with Hansen, Gordy and Doc as the only ones at the top level. Ted came in the following year, but it was to give Stan a partner, not to get a singles wrestler. Â John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ditch Posted March 23, 2011 Report Share Posted March 23, 2011 The context was wanting to get Sasaki over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted March 23, 2011 Report Share Posted March 23, 2011 They needed singles wrestlers, wanted to get Sasaki over, Jumbo had just died for the other company (I guess from a career standpoint that's accurate), so... Â They draw Sasaki in a gimmicked and limiting tag combo from late 1992 on into 1995. Â Yeah, that will get someone over as a singles. Â He did get some IWGP challeges in there, but they weren't exactly the most memorable of the era. Â John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ditch Posted March 23, 2011 Report Share Posted March 23, 2011 -It was the GOAL to make Sasaki into a star; the fact that he wasn't actually a singles draw isn't something Animal would go into. Â -It did, in fact, significantly increase Sasaki's stature and make him stand out, so it wasn't a total bust! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted March 23, 2011 Report Share Posted March 23, 2011 I don't think it increased his stature all that much. He always was going to get a push, and already had been pushed rather strongly at that same level (tag champs). The tag reign ended up being largely a waste with very little of it standing out or being memorable. The certainly pushed them over a lot of natives early, but no one cared. They pushed them against the Jurassic Powers, but no one much cared. He was held out of the 1993 G1, instead having the feud with the Jurassics. He got the push to the Finals at the 1994 G1, and ended up having the first really disappointing Final... and it was Koshinaka if I recall who got pimped by the press and fans as the guy who stole the show, while Chono going Blackjack was the story. Coming out of the gimmick, he was a total after thought in 1995 and into 1996 when freaking Tenzan got quickly over after coming back to the company. I watched his four matches the following year at G1, and he was stunningly *not* over. Even the Teacher-Student thing that the A Block came down to didn't matter much to fans.  Wait, it gets worse. Here's the order of the G1 matches that year:  8/2 Masa Chono beat Satoshi Kojima (13;46) via submission. Kensuke Sasaki beat Hiroyoshi Tenzan (15:03) via submission. Kazuo Yamazaki beat Keiji Mutoh (13:39) via submission. Riki Choshu pinned Shinya Hashimoto (17:14)  8/3 Kensuke Sasaki KO Junji Hirata (5:08). Keiji Mutoh pinned Satoshi Kojima (15:21). Riki Choshu pinned Hiroyoshi Tenzan (5:12). Shiro Koshinaka pinned Kazuo Yamazaki (13:50)  8/4 Kazuo Yamazaki beat Satoshi Kojima (9:56) via submission. Hiroyoshi Tenzan pinned Shinya Hashimoto (11:27) Shiro Koshinaka pinned Masa Chono (22:10)  8/5 Masa Chono beat Kazuo Yamazaki (12:25) via submission. Riki Choshu TKO Kensuke Sasaki (15:13). Keiji Mutoh beat Shiro Koshinaka (11:59) via submission  8/6 Satoshi Kojima pinned Shiro Koshinaka (10:33). Kensuke Sasaki pinned Shinya Hashimoto (9:13). Masa Chono pinned Keiji Mutoh (24:43) Riki Choshu pinned Masa Chono (13:45) to win the 1996 G-1 Climax  The "mains": Riki-Hash, Kosh-Yamazaki, Koshi-Chono, Kosh-Mutoh, Chono-Mutoh/Riki-Chono  Riki wouldn't even let Sasaki have a sniff of the main event in the series. He had confidence the he and Hash could follow Mutoh-Yamazaki, but didn't think he and Sasaki could follow Mutoh-Kosh despite:  * it was effectively the "final" of the A Block * it had the teacher-student vibe  I always thought during the Hellraiser era that it was the worst thing for Sasaki's early career. He lost a chunk of his career of learning out to work and sell and tell stories in top singles matches.  John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ditch Posted March 23, 2011 Report Share Posted March 23, 2011 I am not going to dispute the badness that was Power Warrior in the '94 G-1. Maybe you're right and he would have gotten over faster as himself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted March 23, 2011 Report Share Posted March 23, 2011 It's not like his mega push in 1997 worked very well either. Some say Sasaki getting the IWGP title was the first sign of the dawn of puroresu... But seriously, Sasaki really didn't make it before the 2000s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted March 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2011 If you can throw a nice clothesline, do a cross armbreaker and connect with a crowd, you can be a perfectly acceptable NJ heavy. Â Not sure why it always felt like Sasaki was lacking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted March 23, 2011 Report Share Posted March 23, 2011 I am not going to dispute the badness that was Power Warrior in the '94 G-1. Maybe you're right and he would have gotten over faster as himself. Don't know if he would have gotten over faster: he always had issues while NJPW was in its 90s prime of getting over relative to his peer age group: the Three Musketeers, Kosh and Hase. Kosh and Hase had the issue that they never were going to be pushed at the level of the Three Musketeers in terms of IWGP winners. But they did connect well with the fans and knew how to play to them. Which leads into... Â If you can throw a nice clothesline, do a cross armbreaker and connect with a crowd, you can be a perfectly acceptable NJ heavy. Â Not sure why it always felt like Sasaki was lacking. There was some goofiness to Chono and Mutoh, but fans bought them. Â Kosh, for all people want to shit on him in the 80s, kinda knew how to get heat in his matches. There's a lot of silly shit in them, but at times I think we're down at his silliness and goofy selling and match layout the same way that someone looks down at the mystical powers of Pulling Down The Strap and finds it goofy as all hell to the point it ruins shit for them. :/ In the 90s there were still plenty of goofy things there for Kosh, and his willingness to blow off selling when it was time to get up and do moves was still there often. On the other hand... one of the most impressive things I've seen live as a fan was Kosh main event three straight nights at Sumo Hall against three different often tough opponents (Yamazaki, Mutoh, Chono) and pull of very acceptable Major Arena Main Events that sucked the right into them into thinking they were watching excellent matches. Â I don't think Sasaki could have pulled it off at the time. Â I think it's more than "nice clothesline, do a cross armbreaker" because Kosh didn't have those things. Â John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted March 23, 2011 Report Share Posted March 23, 2011 I think things clicked late for Sasaki. He had amazing presence and charisma in 2005 when I saw him wrestle live in three very different settings. It's like night and day to where he was at in the mid '90s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bix Posted March 23, 2011 Report Share Posted March 23, 2011 Keith is right about things clicking late. Â It seemed like having his family around him all the time while having some control of his career as a freelancer and being away from Choshu lit a fire under his ass that made him the wrestler he needed to be, but it was too late for him to become a real superstar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted March 30, 2011 Report Share Posted March 30, 2011 I love when they put up a "classic" Observer. They're a lot more fun to read. Â Savage did get the best pop coming out but he looks terrible, like Jim Ignatowski on the old "Taxi" show and was totally out of it. Â Â Missy Hyatt had an offer to pose for Playboy but the company made her turn it down citing a moral turpitude clause in her contract. Imagine, a moral turpitude clause in a wrestlers' contract. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted March 30, 2011 Report Share Posted March 30, 2011 ]--John Cena got pub for drinking 30 Make a Wish kids to WrestleMania, [/b]including kids from as far away as Australia. They will get a private autograph session with the wrestlers and then get taken out to a pizza party with Cena. Make a Wish will also honor Cena because this will put him past the 200 mark in wishes granted. Seriously? What kind of mutant typo is this where Cena is going to drink 30 Make a Wish kids? I can't even figure out what the verb Dave was looking for here - maybe bringing? C'mon Dave, get it together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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