C.S.

What he said. It's absolutely fantastic. I don't know where it would rank in my all-time list, but it's easily one of the best wrestling books I've read in years. BTW, it's free with Kindle Unlimited if you subscribe to that. Otherwise, you can buy the paper book on Amazon and get the Kindle version for $1.99 afterward (through Kindle Matchbook - I suggested it on another board and was happy to see the author take me up on it).

My votes: Danielson/Kenta: I abstained because I've not seen enough/any of Kenta Kobashi's work. Bret Hart/Eddy Guerrero: Bret. This was a tough one, but Bret was ultimately on top longer and was in many more meaningful matches and feuds for me than Eddy. AJ Styles/Chris Benoit: AJ. Benoit was good in the ring but brought nothing else to the table. AJ is just as good in the ring + has charisma and the other intangible qualities that Benoit lacked. Weirdly, there's a similar poll on Wrestling Classics, but I think one of the options there is between Daniel Bryan and KENTA (Hideo Itami). Bryan wins that easily, as Itami has been a colossal bust in NXT/WWE and not only because of injuries. Edit: It was actually Owen Hart and Hideo Itami in that poll. Owen wins by a mile. Most everyone is going to beat Itami in any poll I vote in. Whatever he had in Japan disappeared the minute he stepped foot into NXT. Oddly, Daniel Bryan/Kobashi is in both polls. Same OP for both threads?

This is about how I feel. Easily worth $1.99 though.

Sinclair responds, and it's as bad as you'd expect.

I don't want to get political here, but this is news that indirectly pertains to ROH. Sinclair Broadcasting, which owns ROH, has been forcing "local" news anchors to read the same viewpoints from the same script, thereby missing the point of local news entirely and stripping viewers of a truly free and independent press. The video is pretty chilling to watch. Could this stink potentially affect ROH? They're mentioned in the second link. https://www.newsandguts.com/sinclair-broadcasting-clear-present-danger/ https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/how-americas-largest-local-tv-owner-turned-its-news-anc-1824233490

ROH COO Joe Koff says Supercard of Honor XII will be a 6,000-person sellout with Cody vs. Omega as the main event. If that's true and not corporate BS and fudging the numbers, it's impressive. I do think he and Cody are deluded about ROH being "cool" though. It's not IMO. That doesn't mean it isn't good, but "cool" isn't the word I'd use to describe it. https://www.cagesideseats.com/2018/3/30/17182230/ring-of-honor-coo-joe-koff-talks-supercard-sellout-new-japan-relationship-impact-daniel-bryan-more

ROH COO Joe Koff says Supercard of Honor XII will be a 6,000-person sellout with Cody vs. Omega as the main event. If that's true and not corporate BS and fudging the numbers, then I can see All In getting 10 thou. https://www.cagesideseats.com/2018/3/30/17182230/ring-of-honor-coo-joe-koff-talks-supercard-sellout-new-japan-relationship-impact-daniel-bryan-more

Thanks. I see it's available through Kindle Unlimited, so I've borrowed it. Sounds like a lot of fun. BTW, speaking of KU, I just finished Jeanie Clarke's book. It's mostly about her massive drug problem, so it's quite depressing. The only difference between Jeanie Clarke and Melanie Pillman as parents is that Jeanie's kids still like her. The book's page count is padded with a lot of by-the-numbers recaps of Austin's career. Austin never physically abused Jeanie - or at least there's no mention of it in the book - but there are a lot of other tidbits about Austin and others. I'll spoiler tag them, in case people are interested in reading this. All in all, despite the depressing subject matter, there are some good tidbits.

Like Bob Backlund picking Maria Menounos. But then there's Jerry Lawler wanting Lance Russell but getting William Shatner instead. (Kind of obvious why, but still.) As for Backlund and Menounos, the WWE fans were in rare form that night - booing poor Maria off the stage and acting like savage embarrassments.

Even if they did "turn him heel," it would have the opposite effect and turn KO and SZ face instead.

Not sure, but he definitely did some time in the Plant too, as evidenced by this video, which shows how pathetic the whole operation was and how shockingly bad "Sarge" was at his job.

Is that account owned by Zayn? The official Sami Zayn account is still there. Meanwhile, KO changed his account from @FightOwensFight to @FightSteenFight. There is another @FightOwensFight account now that I hope is his. The difference is, the Steen account is the old Owens account, whereas this El Generico account is different from the Sami Zayn account.

Agreed that Heyman is a weird choice, but "Sarge" DeWayne Bruce is about as useless as it gets. A thousand Hindu squats and never drew a dime (Mike Graham™), ran one of the worst wrestling schools in history - The WCW Power Plant - with very few success stories and none that could work a full match before being reprogrammed (Big Show, Goldberg), and he ran future World Champion Batista out of the Power Plant. He makes Bill DeMott look competent. Batista wrote about it in his book: https://books.google.com/books?id=7kzVr6BJETsC&q=power+plant#v=snippet&q=power%20plant&f=false

I'm reading this now: Development Hell: The NXT Story This is about the history of the WWE developmental program in general (OVW, DSW, FCW, etc.), not just NXT. There probably won't be any new information if you've regularly followed "insider" wrestling news over the years, but it's fascinating to see it all researched and put into one place. The author really digs in though and includes commentary quotes from the obscure early NXT "reality show" seasons. One thing that struck out at me was CM Punk burying Layla on commentary by calling some nonsense on the show "the first good thing she's ever done" or words to that effect. I won't pretend I was ever a major Layla fan, but I thought LayCool was a pretty effective act, and this really exposes both Punk and WWE back then as misogynistic and bullying. For how heavy-handed the "Divas Revolution" and "Women's Evolution" are, it really is amazing to see compared to the way women were treated in the company only a few years ago. But seemingly everyone was buried on the reality show abortion those early NXT shows were - including, obviously, Daniel Bryan at the hands of Michael Cole. What a bizarre, counterproductive, and downright stupid concept and waste of money and airtime that was. It's no accident that almost no one from those seasons of NXT became a real star. Where I've reached in my reading: Triple H is about to take over the developmental program and establish the "real" NXT (Chapter 14). The book is "free" with Kindle Unlimited if you want to give it a try.

A legit neuroscientist casts doubt on the credibility of the doctors Bryan saw and the procedures he went through. http://slam.canoe.com/Slam/Wrestling/MatMatters/2018/03/20/22774755.html

I hope this Ebersol league fails so spectacularly that Vince immediately gives up on his doomed XFL vanity project instead of pissing away the family fortune.

Not that I would have necessarily wanted Ultimate Deletion at Mania, but this is the same show that's had matches like the Hollywood Backlot Brawl between Piper and Goldust, so it wouldn't be that out of place.

Amazing news! Truly made my day. I'm so happy for Bryan. But I really think we're getting some combo of Bryan, Shane, KO, and Sami. Anyone expecting anything more is really setting themselves up for disappointment.

I'll give credit where credit is due, KawadaSmile - a really excellent post there. With that said, I still find it extremely problematic that lead babyface announcer Cole shit on the match right before it aired. Are his comments being blown out of proportion? Maybe. But there was no reason for them in the first place. Matt Hardy will probably do battle royal duty, you're right - and I don't necessarily have a problem with that, even, especially when Sasha and Bayley are likely in the same boat, and I'd take a singles match between them over any expanded role you could possibly give Matt. I'm kind of surprised Ultimate Deletion wasn't at WrestleMania itself, but that's hardly something I'm going to criticize too much.

Yeah. Matt Hardy got so buried he's spent the last few months appearing on TV, doing his own vanity project and got basically all of his family to appear in the last match of the feud. So buried. Besides, with the result of the match, it's quite possible they are going to rewrite Bray. I would be down for an amnesiac Husky Harris slowly rediscovering himself as Bray, as much as I hate the wrestler. Did you even read my posts? I'll answer that for you: no, you didn't. You just wanted to get on your little soapbox. You're having a conversation with someone, but it isn't me and may not be anyone in this thread. So let's try this again... Buried BY MICHAEL COLE. Buried by not having the match show up on Hulu - UNHEARD OF for the main event, even though the Hulu version is shortened. Bray is dead as a character, thank God (and good riddance), and I'm guessing it's back down the card for Matt after this. WWE has made it crystal clear what it thinks of Matt Hardy and the Broken/Woken Universe. They may not necessarily be wrong, but the match was pre-taped and they could have chosen not to air it. Instead, they decided to be petty, have stooge Cole bury it, and then literally bury it by not having it on the Hulu version of Raw or at least WWE's YouTube channel. Anyone who missed Raw is having to resort to third-party YouTube videos just to see the match. That's ridiculous! I honestly don't know what to think of the match after watching it - I can certainly understand why people would think it's a piece of shit - but WWE's actions have been downright baffling and bizarre.

A burial of Matt Hardy and the match. Bray Wyatt is so ice cold and such a supremely bad character that nothing is going to bury him further. He won the WWE Title last year, beating Cena and AJ in a result that was quickly forgotten about, and completely eroded by the time he dropped the title to Randy Orton at Mania three weeks later in a cockroach match.

Wow... Ultimate Deletion was cut from the Hulu version of Raw, and Michael Cole called it "obnoxious" before the match. It may very well have been - I can't say because I haven't seen it yet - but this feels like a straight-up burial and reeks of Vince turning against a character and idea that wasn't his own.

Farooq or The Rock would be ideal. (Fat chance on the latter!)

Now official: http://www.wwe.com/shows/wwe-hall-of-fame/wwe-hall-of-fame-2018/article/mark-henry-wwe-hall-of-fame-2018-inductee

I recently signed up for another Kindle Unlimited trial, and while the glory days of great wrestling books being on that service is long gone, there are still some good ones. I just finished Dusty Wolfe's book. (Dusty Wolfe, for those who may not remember him, was a "journeyman" wrestler - jobber - for the WWF and WCW in the '80s and '90s, but he did a lot more than that and actually wrestled all around the world. You might remember him as "Dale" Wolfe if Dusty Rhodes happened to be there while he was.) Hoo boy, while the book is badly in need of an editor and way too long and dry at points, it's actually a pretty interesting look at several eras of wrestling from a guy who's been everywhere, wrestled everyone, and seen everything. It also doubles as a travelogue of sorts. My favorite part are his little "ADD" observations at the end of each chapter. They're one or two sentence mic drop statements. There's one about Jerry Jarrett always having to bail Jerry Lawler out of jail because of The King's "preferences" when it comes to the opposite sex. Wow!