Loss

Your critiques were focused on his work, which is appreciated.

My point is that it shouldn't matter what he looks like. Not even a little. Why isn't just being good at what he does in the ring enough? If you want to slag on something, slag on his match quality or promo skills, not his body. And if the added weight isn't adversely effecting his performances, I just don't understand why anyone cares. I sometimes wonder if the weight gain is intended to be some kind of performance art that's intended to be a mirror back on the very people who have a problem with it. As for his health, I don't really worry about the conditioning of a guy who can work long matches in a hard style at a high level.

It's a different type of outside-the-norm look, but attitudes toward both are symptoms of the same disease.

Who says? What if they did plan on Bret being the champion that long? Six weeks is a long time for the WWF and Vince in specific to change his mind based on different reasons. Heck they changed their mind six weeks later in 2014 when they realized the fans weren't having none of Batista and wanted Bryan in there instead. But they likely had a long term plan dating back to Summerslam where the main event was going to feature Randy Orton against Batista. It was not a point about booking. It was a point about how mismanaged the company was to make the guy a champion one month and want him out of the company the following month.

Wait, wouldn't it be a case of sticking to their long term plans too much? Vince was insistent on having Bret drop the title to Shawn. What I mean is that if Vince had known he wanted to get rid of Bret in August, he wouldn't have put the title on him. Then comes September and he wants him out of the company.

This thread is really interesting because it shows that the whole idea of WWE being so overly fixated on physical appearance isn't something that stems entirely from their own biases. Body shaming of any kind sucks, even when the victim of it is a pro wrestler. It's hypocritical to get on WWE's case about never giving full backing to Daniel Bryan while making disparaging comments about Hero's appearance. The fact that people care so much about someone looking like they are tough while at the same time talking about wrestling with zero pretenses that it's real is a contradiction that makes no sense. Stan Lane's toupee in Smoky Mountain Wrestling is a far more egregious and distracting thing to undermine someone who is supposed to be taken seriously than any wrestler being too short, skinny, fat or whatever else. Fans caring so much about body type is the same kind of thing that leads to Missy Hyatt's body dysmorphia and Eddy Guerrero's death. You'd think people would learn to let go of that when Chris Benoit killed his son in part because his brain was fried from years of drug abuse because simply being good at his craft wasn't enough for wrestling fans or decision makers. I'm sick of this defeatist idea that it's what Vince wants out of wrestling and nothing can change that. That may be the case, but just accepting it and then gleefully performing your own role in such a destructive system is just as bad. Sorry, I didn't mean to get on a soapbox here, but it just sort of happened.

One little discussed aspect of that whole thing was that it exposed their complete lack of long-term planning to put the title on a guy whose contract they would intentionally breach about six weeks later. And yeah, Bret probably would have been happy to drop the belt back to Undertaker at One Night Only, then Shawn could have beaten Undertaker for it at HIAC.

Plus, if Baba-era All Japan was a thing right now, he'd hire Hero and push him as his top foreigner.

Christian too, right?

So with this newfound reverence for kayfabe, there are so many changes fans can force upon WWE. I'm excited! - No more entrance music for run-ins! - No more ghost cameras! - No more Bray Wyatt gimmick! - Undertaker either repackaged as "Mark Calloway" or never on television again! - No more "fictitious" disclaimers on the WWE Network! - No more character-breaking podcasts on the WWE Network! - More week-to-week continuity in storylines! - Dozens of other things!

Were wrestling fans always as sheepish as they are now? I guess they were, but these are the same people that will say "It's not 1978, everyone knows it's not real" the next time WWE does something completely implausible. As I get older, the cult-like nature of wrestling creeps me out more and more.

Apparently, WWE is worried because he may end up with a crooked nose, which would be fine for "someone like Barrett", but not for Cena.

Right now, we were supposed to have Roman Reigns as the champ everyone loved with Cena lower on the card as the 1A babyface and Daniel Bryan making the IC title important. Best laid plans and all of that.

Motive. Intent. Hype.

And another: https://youtu.be/sBAShu7PKcI

Haha, the follow-up: https://youtu.be/GabMEHfCjT0

I'd be pretty surprised at that.

There are of course exceptions to that: - 2001 heel Austin - HHH from 2002-2004 - Yokozuna holding the title for 9 months - Punk as a heel for the last 6 months or so of his long run It's rare, yes. But they have parked the belt on a heel when they felt it was the right decision. In fact, they have had it on one now for almost four months and there doesn't seem to be any plan in place that I can see to have him drop it anytime soon.

Also, Regal at SuperBrawl IV.

Check out these (both from WCWSN): - Arn Anderson vs Dustin Rhodes (01/04/92) - Arn Anderson vs Barry Windham (06/06/92)

It's interesting that Barry Windham's 1988 is most remembered for his first heel run, but his best matches of 1988 had him as a babyface, and he doesn't really have the type of MOTYC you want from a best in the world type after turning.

I don't see anyone having Toshie Uematsu or Yoshiko Tamura on their list even though the two had a ***** match in 1997.

This has nothing to do with her candidacy, but her look as Dump's second lieutenant was so much cooler than the one she adopted as the top star.