NintendoLogic

I recently finished Stan Hansen's book, and he says that with Misawa/Kawada/Kobashi, a lot of the spots were laid out in advance, especially as the decade went on. He doesn't say who was responsible for laying them out, but he implies that it was Fuchi, the booker at the time.

Well the question was should she be in the HOF, and he was trying to put it as nicely as possible that while she deserves to be in, they can't because because let's say some kid who doesn't know who she is looks her up online they're gonna find porn and overdoses. This would be a far more compelling argument if they hadn't already inducted a convicted rapist.

I remember hearing that it dated back to Austin's neck injury. They wanted him out there to draw ratings, but he couldn't be put in any programs or do anything physical. So they'd have him out there talking about nothing in particular.

I thought the 1983 Lawler/Dundee show was 90 minutes. Anyway, I would argue that the style Tanahashi and Okada works is rooted more in 90s All Japan than the New Japan heavies. There's hardly any matwork. The offense is distinctly pro-style. The matches have the length and pacing of a 90s Triple Crown match (did Hashimoto ever work a 30+ minute match in his career?). Even the crappy strike exchanges owe more to King's Road than strong style.

Brock not being on wouldn't have been a problem if his presence still loomed large over the show. Instead, they went out of their way to avoid mentioning him, which completely destroyed the internal logic of the show. If there's no championship to contend for, what was everyone fighting for?

You are aware that you're a modern internet fan too, right?

I think what would make the most sense is tying Kane to a rocket and firing it into the sun.

I guess they figured that if they announced Bryan wouldn't be in the Rumble, it would hurt buys. There's also the whole wrestling thing where saying something isn't going to happen usually means that it is, in fact, going to happen. If they don't say anything, people would probably figure that Bryan would be a surprise entrant, guaranteeing that the #30 entrant would get the Rey Mysterio treatment. From their perspective, it was a no-win situation. These are the kind of problems you run into when you're hellbent on not giving the fans what they want.

WCW grossed 200 million in 1998. They were gone less than three years later. And they had a hell of lot more structural advantages than current WWE.

The way I see it, where you stand on this question is mainly a reflection of how you feel about Tanahashi and Okada. I really like both guys, so this is an easy win for NJPW in my book. On the other hand, there's only one guy in CMLL I have any desire to go out of my way to see, and that's Hechicero.

I wonder if it's possible that WWE would actively try to bury Daniel Bryan so their hand picked guys don't get shit on specifically for not being Daniel Bryan anymore. We all know how well that worked in the past.

Utter rubbish. It is more profitable than ever. WWE lost more money this past year than WCW did in any year of its existence except for 2000.

Reigns, Show, and Kane in the final 3. Whoever wins, we lose.

CM Punk last year was pretty similar, albeit it later in the match. He had been in there for fifty minutes or so and his elimination had no build or drama and was treated as a nonevent. He was eliminated by Kane in screwjob fashion. It was supposed to set up Punk-Kane at Wrestlemania. Bryan's elimination sets up nothing.

Holy shit. This company really is that stupid.

Looks like they're giving Bray the Diesel Rumble push.

I have to say, that was quite the video game match.

6/9/95 is "only" 42:37. Regardless, it's an unequivocal must-see. Inoki/Robinson from 12/11/75 is worth checking out. I think Funk/Brisco from 1/29/74 is quite good. Even if it isn't, every educated fan should watch it at least once because it's widely regarded as the archetypal old-school NWA title match. Speaking of polarizing matches, the 8/8/88 Inoki/Fujinami broadway was left off the DVDVR set, but it has its advocates.

WWE's hand was forced by outside circumstances. Punk leaving blew up their Mania plans, and the Yes chant at the Michigan State game embarrassed them. Plus, the plan was always for Brock to win the belt at Summerslam, so there was no harm in giving him a Benoit-esque placeholder run.

I don't want to turn this into a RISE ABOVE RACISM pissing contest, but I've witnessed tons of racism first-hand (I don't mean coded language, I mean stuff like the n-word with expletives attached). It's been my experience that racists in the real world (not politicians trying to exploit racist sentiment, but actual racists) are pretty open about it. There's no subtlety or coding. If there really was a significant race-based backlash against Jones, it'd be easy to detect. There'd be no need to bend over backwards to find some kind of racial subtext. Just look at how the argument has shifted over the course of two pages. We've gone from "they hate a talented black man" to "they hate an arrogant black man who doesn't know his place" to "they hate a black man who doesn't fit into acceptable archetypes of arrogance." On that note, describing Muhammad Ali as the type of harmless shucking-and-jiving black man who white audiences love is a pretty brazen rewriting of history.

Let me get this straight. Fans hate Bones because he's an uppity Negro, but they like Rampage because he's.....the right kind of uppity Negro? Do you guys have any idea how ridiculous you sound?

Why would you book a storyline with your most over babyface that ends in heartbreak?

I'd rank Bret/Austin at Survivor Series #1 with the Submission (NOT I QUIT) Match at WM13 #2. The rest of my top ten, in chronological order: Slaughter/Sheik, Boot Camp Match Bret/Perfect, KOTR 93 Bret/Owen, WM10 HBK/Mankind, Mind Games Angle/Austin, Summerslam 2001 Eddy/Brock, No Way Out 2004 Cena/Umaga, Royal Rumble 2007 Brock/Punk, Summerslam 2013

I came across this site some time ago. It's an interesting combination of "Meltzer consensus" and "PWO consensus", for lack of better terms. It's kind of neat to see a list that highly rates both Davey Richards vs. Eddie Edwards and El Dandy vs. Negro Casas.

I heard that they were waiting until WM32 since it's in Dallas and he lives in Texas. Speaking of Texas, you'd think Stan Hansen would be a no-brainer. Does he have heat with Vince?