sek69

I love how TNA does the full boxing style intro for title matches. It really makes the match seem that much more important and the title seem like the biggest thing in the world.

That one wasn't WWE's fault. I still think Jeff could have been a big star (maybe not the next HBK, but big) if he hadn't turned into such a self-destructive fuckup.

Heh you thought it was bad that WWE gave away PPV matches, tonight they gave away a potential Playboy cover with Lita's boob making an appearance tonight.

I'd wager Vince is probably peeved Sting chose TNA since he's the only WCW guy the E hasn't got its mitts on yet.

TNA pretty much has everyone it's interested in working for them now anyway, all this plan's going to do is load WWE down with more contracts being paid to guys they have no use for.

I like watching WWF shows with Gorilla on commentary. WILL YOU STOP!

I really enjoyed watching the Piper's Pit comp set I acquired. The VQ is sketchy at times, but Piper in his prime is just so awesome it doesn't matter.

I don't get it, its like all of a sudden going against notions that were accepted as fact is the new craze on the net. HHH isn't a bad guy. Hogan's misunderstood. WCW only went away because their TV was cancelled. Hell, I'm expecting to see someone praising Kevin Nash.

I had a feeling this would happen, if for no other reason because Joey actually knows wrestling history which WWE feels is markish.

You seem to think that marketing is more important than the actual wrestling product of a wrestling company. That seems like putting the cart before the horse. Any marketer worth his or her salt knows that polishing a turd is part of the job, but you can't seriously suggest that marketing is more vital to a wrestling company than wrestling. You see it in the music business all the time, you can promote anything for a short time and be successful, but if the product can't back it up you won't have long term success. And to answer your question: Because WWE is a wrestling company and it's her job that ultimately decides how well Shane can do his job. If she cranks out compelling TV and quality storylines, the tickets and DVDs will sell themselves. It's only when Steph fails at her job that Shane's got to work harder at his.

It's pretty shocking and sad how many people sound like battered wives making excuses for WWE. WWE didn't mean to book the promotion that badly, baby, It'll do better next time. I swear WWE won't mess up again!

In Dave's defense, I don't think you can blame this injury on steroid use. If a guy the size of Henry lands on you wrong, something's getting squashed no matter what shape you're in.

From Meltz:

What are the two moments that made the WWF/E what it is today? 1. Vince takes over from his dad and makes the creative descision to go towards guys like Hogan and Piper. Do you think Wrestlemania would have been a success with Bob Backlund and Pedro Morales in the main event? 2. Russo's creative team ditches the cartoon era for the Attitude Era. Case in point: Steve Austin, Ringmaster = Flop. Steve Austin, redneck asskicker who flips everyone off = biggest draw in wrestling history. Sure, marketing plays an important role. I'm not saying Shane doesn't have a key role in the company. What I'm saying is that what the marketing people promote depends on what the writers come up with. Look at the Lex Express. They marketed the hell out of that, and it failed. Why? Because it was a shitty creative move. The WWE is making money on international tours, because most of the places they've been going to hadn't seen live WWE programming for a long time if ever. They're coming out for what might be a once-in-a-lifetime event. The more they tour, the smaller the houses get. They're also making money on their DVD releases since they own almost all US wrestling footage from the 70s on up. How many DVD releases of recent PPVs are big sellers? It's mostly stuff like the Ric Flair set and the ECW releases. Other than WrestleMania, not much of the current product really sells a lot of units. You have to realize that the WWE is still profitable, but the amount shrinks every year. Houseshow attendance is getting embarrassingly small, TV has to go to smaller venues to keep up the appearance of a sellout crowd, and there's not a whole lot to suggest things are going to change anytime soon.

Well if Steph's booking drives the company into the ground like a lot of people claim it has been, it's gonna make Shane's job a lot harder. How's he gonna book international tours or live event bookings if no one wants to see the product his sister's putting on TV? He's already lost what was considered WWF/E's "home" in MSG. If she has people on her staff that piss off the talent to the point they leave, how's that going to help Shane? Everything that WWE does stems from what their creative department puts out. If you don't get that, then I have to pose the question of who's really not understanding the company.

Obviously Shane's going to be involved with the company, but in terms of being in charge of the wrestling aspect ("creative", or whatever you want to call it) I haven't heard anything about Shane being involved in that part of the company for a long time. How do you figure Shane has more power, considering his sister is the one who decides what goes on TV twice a week which goes a long way towards the future well being of the company? And try to make your reply as condescending as possible too, I love to be talked to like I rode in on the short bus.

By Hogan's account, Andre weighed somewhere between 700-1000 pounds at WM 3, so a 2000mph jet ski wouldn't seem unusual in Hoganworld.

Yes, I'm a mere little n00b who knows nothing about the wrestling business. Please educate me. Everything I've read about Shane indicates he's happy where he is running the New Media (or whatever they call it now) division and that he had more of an interest in Linda's job (the business side) than Vince's job (the wrestling side). If I'm wrong, please correct me.

Shane's shown little interest in running the company, and Vince has already handed most if not all the creative decisions over to Stephanie. Unless Shane has a drastic change of mind in the next few years, it looks like Steph and her offspring will be the future of WWE.

It's funny that a Jet Ski could hit Hogan and leave the same impact as a fist. I'm watching WM8 now, and boy does it sound weird hearing HBK's theme sung by Sherri again.

This is the fatal flaw. Dismiss me as a smarky smarkerson if you must, but the current crop of WWE writers would fuck things up if 1983 Hogan and 1997 Austin were dropped on their laps.

You're basically saying the ends justify the means. I guess if WWE can turn his reign into something meaningful it might. Right now it reeks of hotshot booking because the fans were turning on one of WWE's pet projects. Better to have a champ who's supposed to get a heel reaction than one who isn't but gets one anyway I guess.

It's also the reason the majority of wrestlers from WCW either don't have jobs or are working for indy scraps.

As a company, WWE needs to give a fuck about ratings and goddamn buyrates because its what keeps them in business.

Sometimes I almost feel bad for WWE creative, for weeks the fans have been begging for someone to beat Cena, and he ends up losing to the one guy they WEREN'T hoping for.