sek69

I think Vince's biggest accomplishment re: PPV was making sure Crockett got cockblocked at every turn when he tried to run PPV as well. That tipped the scales in favor of the WWF and I think it's really an under-mentioned aspect of wrestling history.

Seeing him appear on the UWF shows airing on ESPN Classics reminded me, wasn't Foley in WCW during 91-93 when the promotion was running? Am I getting the timeline wrong?

WWE is the slickest looking promotion in the world. CMLL's production reminds me of JCP/WCW right after Turner took over, basically a territory-era production with a big ass entrance ramp. WWE was getting stale with the same sets on both shows for years, and I said before the same set for all 3 shows will probably get old after a while too, but you can't watch RAW in HD and not be impressed.

Wow. Really? I always thought that was something WWE was like eons above and beyond anyone else in professional wrestling. It's certainly what every promotion aims to look like. That's the one thing I assumed everyone agreed on.

(1) What do you ultimately think Vince McMahon will most be remembered for as a promoter? Wrestlemania as an event, and also as the one man synonymous with wrestling in the US and Canada. (2) What do you think is the most important positive change that has come from the WWE vision of what pro wrestling is? TV production, no doubt. No matter how much I love the Studio Wrestling style, there's no way it would have survived this long even if Vince had never came around. (3) What do you think is the most important negative change that has come from the WWE vision of what pro wrestling is? The negative stigma as entertainment for retards and hillbillies. Not that it doesn't deserve that stigma a lot of the time, but WWE sometimes does things just to re-enforce it. (4) What is something that you have always felt WWE does well that they don't get enough credit for? Being such a long running ratings draw on cable would have been a major deal for any type of programming other than wrestling. (5) What is something that you have always felt WWE does horribly that they don't get enough criticism for? Vince using his roster (especially the women) to take his anger on the world out on. (6) Overall, do you think most people are fair when discussing WWE, or do you think people tended to be blinded -- either by fanboyism or hatred? These days, hatred. The amount of Cena hate on the internet for one thing, is just flat out retarded at times. What's funny is that there's tons of legit reasons to dislike WWE, and the people most vocal about it never state them. It usually just boils down to "WWE SUX". (7) What match would you point to as the match that most defines the WWE version of wrestling? Hogan vs Andre, WM III. Also, Rock vs Hogan. I think that might even be a better "most WWE" match ever, since it's a lesson on what wrestling is all about since both guys tear the house down just with a stare down. (8) Could the WWF have had their initial success without Hulk Hogan? Why or why not? Probably, the stars were just aligned right for them no matter what. Having someone overflowing with charisma made it easier, but I think it was just one of those things that was destined to be. (9) Could the WWF have been more financially successful in the post-Hogan, pre-Austin time period with different people on top? Why or why not? Pre-Austin. Some of that was outside of their control (ie: not able to push the guys they normally would because of the steroid trial), but there was some extremely questionable guys hovering near the top from 1992-1995. (10) Who do you think was a bigger star at their peak -- Hulk Hogan or Steve Austin? The eras were different, but I would say Hogan. Hulk put wrestling on the map on a national level, which IMO was a bigger feat than anything Austin did. (11) What do you think is Vince McMahon's greatest accomplishment as a promoter? (12) What do you think was the greatest contributing factor to WCW overtaking the WWF from 1995-1998? WWF TV was just so stale and cartoony in 1995, Nitro was something different and edgy. WWF was like children's TV and WCW was like what the grown-ups watched. (13) What do you think was the greatest contributing factor to the WWF overtaking WCW in 1998? The nWo angle never getting a proper blowoff and making all the WCW guys look like chumps. Then blowing one of the biggest angles they had at Starrcade 97 made it clear that politics would insist certain things would never happen and certain guys would never get their chance. (14) Which world champion was the best in terms of ring work and why? Probably HBK, which just underscores how little workrate means to drawing power. (15) Which world champion do you think meant most to the company? Hogan, by far. He made everyone money and the whole world knew his name and the WWF. (16) Which world champion had the worst run? Not counting one day runs and gimmick champs like Vince, probably Kevin Nash. That's not entirely fair to him though, since other than Bret he wasn't really matched with anyone who had any hope of drawing. (17) What do you consider the high point in WWF or WWE history? The whole Wrestlemania III show is the ultimate blowoff of nearly a decade of unprecedented growth. (18) What do you consider the absolute low point in WWF or WWE history? 1993-1994. Again, a lot of it was out of their control with Vince on trial, but all the 15th anniversary of Raw stuff just highlighted how brutally bad that era was for the WWF. (19) Looking at things from their point of view, why do you think WWE frowns on employees being big wrestling fans? I almost understand it in terms of wanting people who do their jobs instead of having the employees marking out all day, but they take it to the level of hiring people who know nothing about wrestling and it shows a lot. There's a happy medium to be found but they don't seem interested in doing that. (20) Do you think the WWF has ever done a good job at booking tag teams in a meaningful way? If so, what time period? Yes, in the mid 80s. They had enough of a tag division to do a all tag team Survivor Series match, and even in the early 80s there were enough teams that I remember mark mags at the time suggesting that the WWF should introduce a Intercontinental tag team championship. Of course, looking back that might have been a inside joke since it was when the Bulldogs were champs and the belts didn't get defended a lot due to Dynamite's injury. (21) What is the best non-main event feud the company has ever produced and why? Would Savage-Steamboat count? If so, that. (22) What is the worst main event level feud the company has ever produced and why? Mabel vs Undertaker. (23) What do you think was the single biggest contributing factor that caused the end of the 1998-2001 boom? The death of WCW. They lost a lot of steam with no competition pushing them every week. (24) From your personal experiences, is the WWF a company that delivers house shows where you feel you get your money's worth? I've never been disappointed after attending a WWF/E show. (25) Where do you think they'll be in five years? Probably about where they are now. WWE is at the point where they will always at least stay at the same level. If having an active wrestler commit a murder suicide doesn't change business, nothing will.

This would seem to back up the stories that the Angels went crazy in the US since they had access to all the stuff frowned upon in Japan (booze, men, etc).

It's funny to see folks get exposed by being all "HAHA LESNAR FAILS @ MMA" . I mean, it's pretty much the people you already knew bash things before they see them, but it's always nice to have proof.

Was he born in Jamaica then came here as a kid or something? I must regain my faith in pro wrestling!

You could ask why he's such a massive douchebag on the interwebs.

I for one am shocked WWE would lie like that.

My first thought when reading about ROH cutbacks was that they blew a retarded amount of money on those Japan shows and now when the crunch hits they can blame it on PPV not working out. I still don't get how PPV was supposed to work for them anyway. The only people aware they even had any PPV shows were people who read the WON and/or regularly attend ROH events. Like it was mentioned earlier, there's no way someone's going to just browse the In Demand website or their cable/satellite menus looking for something they can blow $14.95 on.

Holy shit, the Paul Vachon wedding from 1984 was 30 minutes of coked out 80s WWF glory. The "reception" was Captain Lou and the Samoans singing a song to the happy couple followed by an extended pie and champagne food fight where everyone (including Vince) laughing like stoned college students.

You know, I thought the whole wedding theme this month would be stupid but already I forgot how awesome the Billy and Chuck thing was. Eric as the Justice of the Peace and having 3 Minute Warning invade SmackDown was pretty well done. Also Austin saving Stephanie from the Undertaker was one of the most well done SPORTZ ENTERTAINMENT moments ever. He did the "I don't want to help Vince but I gotta do what's right" role perfectly as he literally came rolling down the ramp nailing anything that moved.

Oh man........ it took me a second for it to register who that was, I've never seen him in a suit before.

I don't buy that. The public line is UFC isn't competition but everyone in the company is well aware and watches their buyrates. I don't think they consider them TV competition but definitely on PPV. Plus, and not to sound like the asskissers on a typical WWE DVD, Vince didn't get where he is by misreading the landscape on a level like that. Besides, not even taking UFC into consideration, I thought he was still mad at Lesnar for leaving like he did.

So UFC made deals with TNA and WWE to promote Lesnar's MMA debut, and while I get why TNA would want to help, what does WWE get out of it? They won't directly hype the show, but fans at MSG last night saw signs everywhere for it, and they're supposed to do something on WWE.com as well. I don't see how this helps them at all. Even if they want to act like UFC isn't competition, promoting them also sort-of promotes TNA as well since they are actively hyping this match.

Latest Schedule: Looks like they're finally splitting the Monday Night War shows into two, which is long overdue. Nice to see a CWF episode for the first time in a while.

Man, Cena is not human. How can you come back from a pec tear that fast? Granted he wasn't in there long, but coming back that soon is just crazy. At any rate, I was saying to some friends that Cena's so far beyond almost everyone on the roster right now it's scary. He's awfully close to that Rock/Hogan level of greatest performers in WWF/E history if he isn't already there.

Everyone expects him to replace JR, and I guess he probably will since they seem so hellbent on getting rid of Ross, but I think he'd be far better as the backstage interview guy they've been looking for since Mean Gene left. One of the most underrated aspects of the 80s was how good Gene was at getting stuff over just buy his facial reactions to what guys were saying.

Then again, it might backfire since anything wacky that happens would be dismissed by the mainstream as occurring on a fake rasslin' show. Or even worse, her appearing on the show being trumpeted as her "lowest point".

His response paragraphs were really embarrasing this year. I mean last year I don't remember them being as laugh out loud funny. Not just emo in the sense that he came off genuinely emotionally hurt that "the wrong guy won" but in the contradictions form one response to the next (this time comparing apples to oranges means we shouldn't compare them, this time it means we've compared them incorrectly), the abolutely nut ball arguments about why voters were wrong about most overrated or underrated, how he thought international expansion was reason that Vince was candidate for best promoter, that Tenay and Styles low votes as best announcer were due to bad product, the whole TNA vs. ECW thing, etc etc. And EMLL having a better year in 2007 then 20006? Each response brought more laughs than the last. Agreed, some of Dave's responses were almost "LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!" level. What was funniest to me is that most of the voting seemed to reflect what Dave was pushing all year (ROH winning best show, TNA getting all the "Worst..." awards) and then having him turn around and tell people that they should have voted for so-and-so instead.

Because wrestling really doesn't fit in with the rest of the programming and the diehard fans of the channel hate it. The people watching ECW are pretty much the hardcore (no pun intended) fans who watch any wrestling on TV. There's also the difficulty to get quality advertisers due to the whole wrestling stigma thing.

from WO.com: That combined with Bonnie Hammer no longer running the Sci Fi channel seems to point towards ECW no longer existing whenever the year or so deal they negotiated ends.

I'm pretty sure "Fabulous Lance" was Lance Von Erich.

That one link reminded me that Dave apparently under the impression Backlund is shoot retarded and that seems to color his opinions.