Bierschwale

I think that there are a lot of talented guys in DG, but absolutely nothing in wrestling makes me recoil in horror more than their 25+ minute title matches. Far too glaring of an example of "less is more".

I have put a lot more thought into this if we're talking about a "territorial" model that has fewer actually territories, though "Who folds into who?" is the operative question. Like, I can easily imagine Stampede as a smaller vanity promotion within a full Northwest region and an all-California promotion that covers Arizona/Nevada. Kansas City and St. Louis into the AWA? That's harder.

Watching those old Wildsides has shown that he was a way more entertaining promo than Trips.

Heroic stuff, Goc.

Well, I'd want the same thing for that match, and you can play off of WM if it's no DQ.

I don't think it's really practical to call an audible and change your World Title like that. Especially when the title picture is clearly heading towards Lesnar coming back and being involved in the SummerSlam title match, most likely a Reigns/Lesnar/Rollins triple threat. After whatever they do at EC, it's insane if they don't run Lesnar-Rollins at MITB. They need a quick refresh (and to maximize Lesnar's value at SummerSlam, which is away from the belt).

Yeah cause Tully never said the words "I Quit" either. Oh and Bret vs Austin wasn't an I Quit match. Yeah, their most famous "I Quit" is Mankind-Rock. Though it's obviously for the best that they didn't follow that precedent.

Well, even if the territories stay in tact, that doesn't have anything to do with TV. I can picture Turner taking over the NWA to an extent without having to buy into a promotion. Since he did in reality, we could say that he'd have had national broadcasts for Georgia, Mid-Atlantic, and Mid-South, which is a pretty nice stranglehold on what would be some of the biggest promotions. It'd be an arrangement where everyone would have benefited from "their" talent appearing in those three, and they'd hold more power. Even the most intransigent old bastards in other territories would have to capitulate if Turner could pull the strings on their guys' booking if they didn't give him what he wanted. I mean, it's irrelevant if you think that that violates the '75 rule of the thread, but that'd change things.

My greatest fear as a wrestling fan has always been to watch old Dragon matches and find out that he was just the Brody of my generation; AURA and not much else. The friggin' aura. Interestingly, I think that he might have a better case for top 100 had he been signed by WCW with Blitzkrieg in '99 and could have had a few great C-show performances, but he'd also have lost some of the aura and wouldn't seem like as important of a figure in the rise of the independents.

The Batista/Bryan dichotomy is what strikes me most immediately, and that the "fan as star" era never develops. Scott Norton seems like the biggest gainer on net there. Ray Traylor never becomes stuck to a gimmick. Bobby Lashley. Really, anyone that Inoki or Verne signed off on seems like that they'd have been bigger or have retained their standing (Angle and Lesnar).

He hasn't looked this good all-around since HIAC last year.

I think that a biweekly update system would work the best.

Not to take away from the match, which I highly enjoyed (my biggest complaint would be that the late near-falls aren't that dramatic, but this isn't a match that was going to live and die on that element so it's not that big of a problem), but... everyone else heard Heenan say that he had hearing "like a fuckin' field mouse", right?

Loved Ambrose-Sheamus.

I'm going to go with Right to Censor. It was a very effective re-purposing for The Godfather and Val Venis and it was Ivory and Stevie's moments in the sun. Perfect silly mid-card heel gimmick for the Attitude Era, and Russo's inability to pull off his own version despite multiple attempts (and I don't think that Heyman did a great job with The Network, either) is the icing on the cake.

I think that that would be a hell of a waste of Lesnar, though, and kill the Lesnar-Rollins singles match that logically needs to happen. I advocate using MITB to set up the entire summer; Lesnar-Rollins for the title, Cena-Reigns & Orton-Sheamus as the semis for a #1 contendership match at Battleground to sweeten our medicine of an inevitable Kane-Rollins title match, and an Ambrose win of the briefcase. I don't like including Reigns in a title match at Payback, even if you're obviously low on other options. SummerSlam seems like the time to run the Shield triple threat for the title and either Lesnar-Orton or Lesnar-Sheamus. I don't know who I'd have win the main, though. I feel like that the fall cycle-off is a perfect time for an Ambrose title reign because it keeps the hardcores invested, and a Reigns title win at WM is one of those "written in the stars" type of things. But you would NEED an Ambrose-Reigns match, and I don't really know where to place it. Ambrose-Rollins runs through HIAC, and a face-face title match at Survivor Series would be weird, though TLC is an even worse option. Four corners ladder match of the Shield and Sheamus, and then Ambrose-Reigns at the Rumble? I just don't know.

Rotunda Bros. reunion?

Ambrose's first PPV win in eleven months. All PPVs need to be at the Rosemont.

He took out Axel a few times, one the SD immediately after the Rollins match because they don't have an actual plan.

Those justifying it seem to be going with "Dario Cueto has no respect for true lucha!", which is asinine, but that's their bed to lay in.

He does have the rep of getting shown up by smaller guys (Hunico, Tatsu) in actual shooting, though.

Yeah, that's a fantastic match.

I think that Ryback would get eaten alive in front of that crowd, though.

Dustin is just sitting on his ass on the back it seems; he's only had three matches on TV since Fastlane but hasn't stopped jobbing to his brother on house shows.