Loss

The writers didn't decide who would win the Rumble.

WWE seems to think it's just a very loud, vocal minority. Yeah, that was something else.

"WWE will be awesome when HHH takes over creative because he's a wrestling guy" Does anyone still believe that garbage?

That made me laugh.

This. They stick to the layout no matter what. No risk taking at all, no one allowed to follow their instincts and call an audible.

"This is awful" followed by a near fall that has people standing up and counting along. What a weird group of people wrestling fans can be.

I feel for both guys because they are trying. But this is just not a match anyone wants to see right now.

The commentary has acknowledged the crowd too much for something not to be up.

Yes. I like the name of the championship.

I love "WWE World Heavyweight Championship", for what it's worth.

After all that punishment, Show should have done a stretcher job.

Vince did recently say there are no faces and heels anymore.

When I saw on Twitter that Nash had dyed his hair, my first thought was "He's working the Rumble".

What does "spanner in works" mean?

Revised listing with addition bold and in black: #1 - Johnny Saint vs Steve Grey (Joint Promotions 01/28/80) ***** #2 - Jim Breaks vs Young David (Joint Promotions 02/13/80) ****3/4 #3 - Buddy Rose & Rip Oliver vs Jay Youngblood & Joe Lightfoot (PNW 11/15/80) ****3/4 #4 - Nick Bockwinkel vs Billy Robinson (AJPW 12/11/80) ****1/2 #5 - Mighty Inoue & Higo Hamaguchi vs Spike Huber & Rocky Brewer (IWE 07/25/80) ****1/2 #6 - Buddy Rose vs Rick Martel (PNW 08/09/80) ****1/2 #7 - Tatsumi Fujinami vs Kengo Kimura (NJPW 09/25/80) ****1/2 #8 - Buddy Rose & Ed Wiskowski vs Roddy Piper & Rick Martel (PNW 08/02/80) ****1/4 #9 - Buddy Rose vs Rick Martel (PNW 05/17/80) ****1/4 #10 - Jon Cortez vs Peter Lapaque (Joint Promotions 01/28/80) ****1/4 #11 - Buddy Rose & Rip Oliver vs Jay Youngblood & Joe Lightfoot (PNW 11/08/80) ****1/4 #12 - Buddy Rose vs Rick Martel (PNW 04/26/80) ****1/4 #13 - Tatsumi Fujinami vs Tony Rocco (NJPW 09/11/80) ****1/4 #14 - Jumbo Tsuruta vs Dick Slater (AJPW 05/01/80) ****1/4 #15 - Tatsumi Fujinami vs Steve Keirn (NJPW 02/01/80) **** #16 - Jon Cortez vs Jeff Kaye (Joint Promotions 02/05/80) **** #17 - Tatsumi Fujinami vs Dynamite Kid (NJPW 02/05/80) **** #18 - Strong Kobayashi & Haruka Eigen vs Mighty Inoue & Isamu Teranishi (IWE 06/29/80) **** #19 - Tatsumi Fujinami & Kantaro Hoshino vs Dynamite Kid & Steve Keirn (NJPW 01/18/80) **** #20 - Ringo Rigby vs Johnny South (Joint Promotions 08/05/80) **** #21 - Bob Backlund vs Stan Hansen (NJPW 09/30/80) ***3/4 #22 - Ricky Morton vs Sonny King (Memphis 04/26/80) ***3/4 #23 - Satoru Sayama & Gran Hamada vs Perro Aguayo & Babyface (UWA 04/13/80) ***3/4 #24 - Mighty Inoue & Animal Hamaguchi vs Carlos Plata & El Doberman (IWE 11/27/80) ***3/4 #25 - Ken Joyce vs Tony Costas (Joint Promotions 01/09/80) ***1/2 #26 - Jumbo Tsuruta & Giant Baba vs Dory & Terry Funk (AJPW 12/11/80) ***1/2 #27 - Jeff Kaye vs Tony Walsh (Joint Promotions 01/28/80) ***1/2 #28 - The Sheik vs Ricky Steamboat (AJPW 12/09/80) ***1/2 #29 - Bill Dundee & Tony Boyles vs Wayne Farris & Larry Latham (Memphis 06/07/80) ***1/2 #30 - Buddy Rose vs Butch Miller (PNW 06/07/80) ***1/2 #31 - Jumbo Tsuruta vs Dick Murdoch (AJPW 03/05/80) ***1/2 #32 - Antonio Inoki vs Stan Hansen (NJPW 05/09/80) ***1/2 #33 - Tatsumi Fujinami vs Steve Keirn (NJPW 11/06/80) ***1/2 #34 - Roddy Piper vs Buddy Rose (PNW 09/13/80) ***1/4 #35 - Harley Race vs Giant Baba (AJPW 09/09/80) ***1/4 #36 - Tatsumi Fujinami vs Tony Londos (NJPW 09/19/80) ***1/4 #37 - Antonio Inoki vs Stan Hansen (NJPW 04/03/80) ***1/4 #38 - Chavo Guerrero vs Kengo Kimura (NJPW 11/03/80) ***1/4 #39 - Pat Roach vs Dalibar Singh (Joint Promotions 04/21/80) *** #40 - Antonio Inoki vs Stan Hansen (NJPW 09/11/80) *** #41 - Bill Dundee vs Tommy Rich (Memphis 08/23/80) *** #42 - Bill Dundee vs Paul Ellering (Memphis 05/24/80) *** #43 - Tatsumi Fujinami vs Chavo Guerrero (NJPW 05/09/80) *** #44 - Gran Hamada vs Babyface (NJPW 04/03/80) *** #45 - Harley Race vs Rick Martel (PNW 01/12/80) #46 - Carlos Plata, El Doberman & Goro Tsurumi vs Animal Hamaguchi, Isamu Teranishi & Mach Hayato (IWE 11/12/80) #47 - Bobby Heenan & Nick Bockwinkel vs Greg Gagne & Super Destroyer Mark II (AWA 10/03/80) #48 - Carlos Plata & El Doberman vs Mighty Inoue & Mach Hayato (IWE 11/01/80) #49 - Harley Race vs Giant Baba (AJPW 09/04/80) #50 - Verne Gagne vs Nick Bockwinkel (AWA 07/18/80) #51 - Charly Verhulst vs Mile Zrno (CWA 07/12/80) #52 - Bill Dundee vs Larry Latham (Memphis 04/19/80) #53 - Jumbo Tsuruta vs Dick Murdoch (AJPW 02/23/80) #54 - Antonio Inoki vs Stan Hansen (NJPW 02/08/80) #55 - Sammy Lee vs Sid Cooper (Joint Promotions 10/08/80) #56 - Chavo Guerrero vs Kengo Kimura (NJPW 09/30/80) #57 - Lord Alfred Hays vs Bobby Heenan (AWA 01/13/80) #58 - Tatsumi Fujinami vs Ron Starr (NJPW 09/30/80) #59 - Greg Gagne vs Super Destroyer Mark (AWA 05/01/80) #60 - Rusher Kimura vs Alexis Smirnoff (IWE 11/22/80) Ken Joyce vs Tony Costas (Joint Promotions 01/09/80) This is really more of a happy-go-lucky exhibition of all the tricks in Ken Joyce's arsenal than it is a great match, but those tricks are abundant. This is some really creative and fun matwork for sure. What an inventive and clever worker. Some of the counters he pulls off are pretty intricate, and some are so simple that you sort of wonder why no one else ever thought to do them. Everything here is played for comedy, but I could see some of these sequences getting over in a serious setting in the right hands too.

It felt like people were starting to come to terms with his plight until that segment the week before TLC where he and Punk attacked HHH and Shawn when everyone was in the ring. At that moment, they made people think they really did have plans for him after all. So yeah, if they aren't going to push him, they should probably stop acting like they are going to push him.

Of course he doesn't move numbers. The whole idea behind listening to the audience is that when someone starts getting that type of superstar reaction, it's an indicator that it's time to groom them for a top spot where they eventually will move those numbers. It was several months before Steve Austin was anything more than a guy who got big pops too. But this is all a huge exercise in confirmation bias. It's almost never the case that a guy is a draw *before* he is pushed as a real top guy and WWE knows that. Dave says this, but in the same breath has reported within the last two weeks that they didn't want to publicly announce his concussion because of the fear it would hurt walkup sales at house shows. So which is it?

I do feel for whoever wins the Rumble if it's not him and he doesn't find a way into the match. The crowd is going to be brutal. Believe it or not, I'm not even sure he'll beat Bray Wyatt. The mindset could be that DB is over enough to absorb the loss and Bray needs to be built up for Cena.

We did put Sting vs Vader on in full. Just not Vader vs Guardian Angel.

I'm tentatively scheduling this for next weekend. I have done quite a bit of testing and feel good about everything. The board will look only slightly different than it does now, for the record.

I love the idea of Cena and DB going to a 60-minute draw in the rematch, for what it's worth, and I think those are the only two guys in the company that are over enough to keep the crowd for an hour.