Pro Wrestling

Inspired by this recent photo of Chris Hero (man, that happened quickly): I think it might be interesting to share similar photos of wrestlers not looking their best, and comparing them to when they have looked their best. Let's start with Hunter: Summerslam 2012 Spring 2000

OK, yesterday, I was surprised to see the Goldust ... In His Own Words feature. We've seen Mr. Perfect skits, the Blow Away Diet and Loss was telling me about other things he saw on the network today. What have you seen that made you think, "I wasn't expecting to see that!" So far, the unadvertised features I have seen are... Goldust... In His Own Words Brodus Clay and the making of the Brawling Buddies Commercial

So many contenders, who'd be your pick and why?

OK, PPV is dead... long live Special Events. So the kickoff is Daniel Bryan breaking his silence. TWO DIvas Matches, TWO Ladder matches. TWO tag matches. What a weird and different card. Summer Rae vs. Layla (Guest Ref: Fandango) Paige vs. Naomi - Divas Title Rusev vs. Big E Goldust & Stardust vs. Ryback & Curtis Axel The Usos vs. Harper & Rowan Money In the Bank: Kofi, RVD, Dolph, Rollins, Ambrose, Swagger Money In the Bank: Kane, Sheamus, Del Rio, Cesaro, Reigns, Cena, Orton, Wyatt I am less sure of these picks than any PPV in recent memory.

Can someone break down the entire AAA / Konnan feud from 2008 - 2009 that ended at Triplemania in the Cage? 1. What was the storyline of this? Who was Konnan with and against? How did Antonio Penas widow? fit in and why did she either hate or like Konnan? How did the story go along 2. At Rey de Reyes 2009, Vampiro fought Konnan - in the preview, Vamp was a Guardian Angel and not in Vampiro gear or character..he kept coming out and trying to help someone and then got jumped by Konnan's guys and eventually I guess because of being put over the edge started being Vampiro again and cutting promos and the such... 3. From here how did it get to TripleMania? …

I've always had a soft spot for Norio Honaga and I have really loved some of the late 90s Yoshinari Ogawa performances I've seen recently. In both cases, you had guys working as American style heels and sneaking in eye pokes and low blows in a style where that doesn't happen very often. I haven't seen the match for myself but I know people made similar comments about The Cobra vs Don Arakawa on the New Japan 80s set. I've also always popped for Chono sneaking in the low blow behind the referee's back. Anyway, I wanted to see if I could get some recommendations for the best cheating performances in Japan. I'm not thinking modern New Japan as much even though I know the…

I've been doing a lot of linear title stuff lately. It's all a bunch of nonsense, but it's fun nonsense. The more work I did on various feds the more I decided I wanted to do all the world titles, heavyweight and tag, to get a good idea of how close we are to having a true unified world champion. So far I've worked on linear titles for the WWF, NWA, WWE, AWA, ECW, and TNA. I'm thinking of doing more but I want to limit it to actual world titles. I don;t think there's any way to actually gauge which titles were legit world titles, but a general consensus, or at least idea, would be nice. So which feds would you say were/are prominent enough for their titles to be considere…

Hmmm, I'm not sure if this was the best use of my morning ...

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/WCWs-Greatest-Pay-Per-View-Matches-Volume-1-Blu-ray/93770/#Review This release seems very redundant given the Network's launch. I'm just wondering who the remaining audience will be for their archive releases like this now.

Watching the Greg Gagne Guest Booker made me think about whether the territories might have survived somehow. Is it a given that the rise of one big national company leads necessarily to the decline and fall of smaller regional ones? Vince was extremely agressive. According to Greg, he did things like book key venues for 3 years and priced out the competition. He also poached a lot of talent. But was it the case that Vince was going up against these promotions head-to-head in their own back yard and out drawing them? It sometimes seems more like a case of business sabotage rather than one company doing someone better than another. The strategy of most of t…

An extremely broad question I know, but I'm taping a podcast tomorrow on this subject, and much like the "________ should have been a top guy" topic, I'd love to get a bunch of different opinions from here to read on the show. Essentially, the roundtable question is, in 2014 and moving forward, what is the single biggest thing the wrestling world needs? Obviously there are a few leading candidates, but in your own opinion, what is the most important? Less WWE on TV? Cena to step aside to help facilitate new stars? The network to die, new creative, new direction, new competition? Simply put, if you could play God and were able to make a single change to the wre…

Last minute opportunity to get 10 minutes with Hacksaw. Any questions that might be highspots if you will?

I've been going through the decade on and off since the middle of last year. Before starting to rewatch, I would have thought 00 and 01 were obvious choices, but 07 made a big impression lately. 08 and 09 have a lot of fond memories for me too, looking forward to rounding out the rewatch. I think WWE had strong matches here and there in 03 and 04 but complete shows were weak. 05 was a better year, but I feel they faltered slightly in 06 (DX-McMahons, no thanks). Oh, and 02 was a glorious mess, as the p2b boys are cataloguing. Anyway, I'd be curious to hear everyone's opinion.

Wait, don't shoot! Here's the thing, I'm not ashamed that I watch wrestling. I don't scream it from rooftops but don't go out of my way to hide it either. This is a slightly different issue... I sometimes wonder if the (considerable) time I devote to wrestling could be better spent reading, watching films/documentaries, learning something about the world. I suppose part of it is the fact that I'm a painter, so I've little intellectual stimulation during my days. Anyway, whatcha all think? Does too much wrestling ever make you feel guilty. Again, please don't shoot - just asking!

What are some of your favorite wrestling seasons? What show and year and why?

I am hoping some of you with more of the monetary background on wrestling in terms of buyrates / cash / profits made as well as salaries being made by the wrestlers and other costs, can help me out here as I try to figure out a question I have wondered about for a few years... When the WWF Invasion PPV happened, it got a 1.43 buyrate (775,000 buys), which was a GREAT number. Judging from the shows before it: Backlash - 375,000 buys - .94 Judgment Day - 405,000 buys - .75 King Of The Ring - 445,000 buys - .84 The idea of the Invasion and possibility of what could happen was BIG business... Summerslam 2001 had a big drop afterward due to bad booking, but …

Interested in this because there's loads of gaps in my 2010 and 2011 viewing.

I've heard this a lot. Wrestler A is having a great year, look at all these great matches. If wrestler B has another great match in this upcoming bout, then he is a shoe in for wrestler of the year. I understand a lot of people determine that a wrestler's greatness is determined by the quantity of quality matches. However, I never thought about it that way. I look at the performances. A wrestler can be an amazing seller and be great in the ring, but does not have the opportunity to have the great matches. For example, Chris Masters' run on Superstars is considered great by many, however how many great matches did it produce? Just curious on what people's thoug…

Well, is it? Have at it in this thread, which means this thread.

I'm going to be doing a podcast in a few days with a roundtable discussion on the question of "_______ should have been a top guy", a classic and pretty broad subject that should raise a lot of different opinions. Its a four person show and we each have to contribute an argument for one guy, but I wanted to know what you guys thought. Going to be talking about real factors like the time they were in, the context of their environment, abilities, everything is going to be considered in the debate. And as the title suggests, we're talking true top guy, not title contender or short-term champion. I'd like your opinions on this subject, and I'll be reading them on the show…

Are there any good detailed write-ups on the TSWA / WWA / early ECW days in Philly in 90 - early 93? Would love to read about how these all worked and what was going on in each in terms of booking and matches and such...fascinating to me and I can only find small bits and pieces here and there about it as almost every BIG detail starts in April of 93 with ECW, along with Match listings for the TSWA shows, but nothing else...

Hello everyone. I am a wrestling fan from India; been one for close to 15 years now. I like reading as much as I possibly can about wrestling. This is something I have often wondered: how successful was ECW as a promotion? I have heard varied accounts. Some say that ECW never made Heyman a dime; while others talk about how he took Eastern Championship Wrestling from a struggling regional promotion drawing less than 200 to its shows to the third most successful American wrestling promotion of the 90s. Which one is closer to the truth? Can ECW be considered, all in all, a more successful promotion than WCW, seeing how WCW had everything, yet ultimately failed in a…

Something that's sadly missing from wrestling today is a good music video to put over a new talent or encapsulate a feud. Sure, some of the videos you look back at from the 80s and 90s look absolutely ridiculous today but some of them still hold up. What do people think are some of the best & worst wrestling music videos? A personal favorite of mine is this video for Austin Idol vs. Jerry Lawler set to Bob Seger's Famous Final Scene.

I have been watching a lot of 92 WCW. Since the WWF and WCW were both in a state of transition, I thought it would be interesting to do a little compare and contrast between where WCW was at the time of SuperBrawl II and where WWF would be a month later at Wrestlemania VIII. I went back and forth on the criteria I would use to judge who had the advantage. First and foremost, I am a fan so in-ring quality and entertainment are the most important factors to me. However, drawing power, booking and just overall star power were taken into consideration on how the talent would contribute to the overall health of the promotion. Top Talent Leaving Hulk Hogan/Sid Justice/Jake…

I've been thinking about this for a while and couldn't quite work out how to articulate what I want to say on it. Most of us here find two workers -- Terry Funk and Stan Hansen -- to be quite irresistible. They have one thing in common: they are both workers who toe that line of craziness, violence and unpredictability that leaves even the most hardened of hardcore fan with that very slight element of doubt that what they are doing might be a shoot. You're never sure with either Funk or Hansen what exactly is "in the script", because you know that a lot of what they are doing is ad hoc. My question is ... does this give these two workers an unfair edge when we'r…