C.S.

But not liking their gimmick has nothing to do with how "hot" their act is. Apples and oranges. Mizdow and Fandango were never this hot this long, and never had the type of sustained push that New Day does. Eventually they will split, but who becomes the star is the question. I know people will say Big E because he's the biggest, but if that was going to happen, it would've happened a long time ago. Ditto for Kofi, I guess. Is Xavier the one who is going to come out ahead in all this?

Yep. The Brock push is the worst thing that's happened in WWE in a long time. I don't care how "awesome" or "badass" or "special" he is - it's counterproductive to the rest of the roster and fed - bad business. Short term gains maybe, but at what cost?

Why would she sign such a ridiculous contract that would uproot her from her home on the other side of the world, only to be stuck in a developmental fed forever? Unless it's a short term deal for more money than usual? Another question: Why is her name pronounced "Aska"? Where's the u? Why waste a perfectly good vowel?

To be honest, Becky Lynch is coming across as whiny and annoying whenever she complains about "The Dirtiest Diva in the Game" cheating to win. As skewed and inconsistently as WWE is portraying all these characters, especially Charlotte and Paige, I do wonder if the end-game is a heel complainer Becky Lynch.

Man, fuck this. Enzo and Cass better be getting called up. Great match, but come on, it was their time!

Agreed, and I loved the ragged white shirt and tie look too.

It's sad that Ambrose has been so marginalized that he's no longer considered a worthy opponent for Trips, and he absolutely isn't worthy right now, sad to say. The Ambrose of 2-3 years ago, who was the leader of The Shield (before Reigns was clumsily retconned into that position), people would've been a lot more excited seeing that guy vs. H. Now, Ambrose is this little whipped sidekick puppy dug. It's sad to see. I'm begging for that inevitable turn. I just don't know how they make it different enough from Rollins' turn.

Saw this on Meanie's Facebook page: https://www.gofundme.com/84emh3cs (I'm only posting a GoFundMe link because that's apparently how this news broke and what the above quote is from.) For those of you who don't recognize the name, Dotson was the beefy security guy for the WWE in the '90s. We talked about him in this thread last year. A Raw Magazine piece on Jim Dotson, written by Kevin Kelly in February 1999: http://droptoehold.com/post/39681525289/wwe-security-dotson

From J.R.'s Monday blog: Huh? True about the Lucha Dragons and The Usos, but what is he smoking if he doesn't think New Day is red hot?!

I disagree. Yes, we're all aware that you can hook an HDMI cord from your laptop to your TV. Very few people actually want to do that. "Casting" from the Chromecast is a buggy, slow mess at best. Getting on iOS and Apple TV - if possible - is a great idea, but not at the expense of Roku. In a perfect world, this service would be on Roku, Apple TV, PS3/4, Xbox 360/One, etc. - as many devices as possible.

It's also different than what anyone else is doing, which I think would be a good thing.

Not to mention Owens being forced to say the line that he drinks soda and eats popcorn every day - which is basically the same as saying, "I'm a fat hog, and I admit it." This company is terrible.

People criticizing Owens for not being in the same shape he was in NXT really are clueless about how hard dieting is and how much harder it becomes with the demands of the road. When he was in NXT, he was in the same city 99% of the time, got to sleep in his own bed, could work out at the world class Performance Center daily, etc. Much easier to maintain a consistent nutritional program in that scenario. Now that he's on the main roster, he's in a different city every night, has to find a different gym that may or may not be great (and very few, if any, will come close to the Performance Center), and the only restaurant that may be open after the show is Denny's, Waffle House, or some other grease pit along those lines. You can still make reasonable food choices at places like that, but healthy options are so much more limited. Before anyone says something stupid like "But [muscular wrestler inserted here]..." and lists a bunch of gym rats on the roster who have muscles popping out of their muscles, it's not a fair comparison. They were never fat, which cannot be underestimated. Also, they probably have better genetics on their side and may or may not be aided by "vitamins" that Owens obviously isn't taking.

Who here caught the Stone Cold Podcast with Michaels? HBK all but buried Ziggler. He said Ziggler was trying to be like him, which is fine at first because it's good to invite a comparison, but it has to stop there and then the wrestler has to branch out on his own and set himself apart. Kind of odd, because even though I can sort of see it in a way, I never really thought Ziggler was ever trying to be like Michaels.

*I* didn't care about Sasha vs. Becky, and I like them both. Such a difference between NXT, where they were in red hot feuds with purpose, vs. the main roster, where there's no real story/conflict and nothing matters.

Was this thread inspired by my comment here or is that just a coincidence? Anyway, I don't think Halloween Havoc should be so heavily discounted by the OP. At the time, in the build itself, it was always a huge fucking deal. Hogan-Warrior, DDP-Goldberg, Piper's surprise debut, etc. Whether those matches/scenarios worked out is another story entirely, but they felt massive in that four-week period used to hype the show up.

The Beefcake turn might've been a big deal for WWF fans. I actually thought it was cool as a kid...at first. The Three Faces of Fear stable with Sullivan, Beefcake, and Tenta wasn't half-bad either. The only miscalculation was thinking the match was big enough to main event Starrcade. Then again, Starrcade had become marginalized by then anyway. The yokels in Dubya See Dubya could never decide if they wanted it to be their WrestleMania. Half the time, it was an afterthought compared to Halloween Havoc, Bash at the Beach, etc.

I will keep you and your family in my thoughts and prayers.

Great thread, and an awesome defense of Trish. Was there ever anyone in wrestling more useless than Torrie Wilson? She was a 10 - until she opened her mouth. Then she dropped down to a 1 in my eyes. Total fucking airhead with nothing going on between the ears. At least that's how she always came across to me, whether in WCW or WWE. I can't comment about her personality in real life, obviously. At least Stacy Keibler seemed nice and perky - someone who might be fun to spend time with. You can certainly understand why Clooney dated her.

The whole Muhammad Hassan angle proved once and for all that WWE is completely and utterly incapable of sophisticated, complex, grown-up television, and all of its blather about being a variety show with something for everyone is either complete bullshit or a giant delusion. The Brutus turn eventually turned out to be a "long con" when it was it revealed that The Zodiac was Hogan's spy in the Dungeon of Doom. Convoluted rubbish that made no sense, of course, but there are worse explanations out there.

Thank you, sir. And now for The Microscope we've all been waiting for...

Since someone mentioned The Warlord in the Zeamen thread, here goes... Influence: Was Batista's favorite wrestler. Batista is a former World Champion. The Warlord indirectly influenced a future WrestleMania main eventer. If we were talking about Bruno Sammartino, Terry Funk, or some other "favorite," everyone would be praising them for being influential. So, why not Warlord? He deserves his piece of the pie too! Character: Memorable physical specimen. Cool as hell ring gear. Rocked that paint on his face like few others before him. Sweet ass action figure. Underrated Speaker: No one rates him in this dept., so he's underrated. Seriously though, while he was not great, he was no worse than any other "musclehead" of the era. Powers of Pain: One of the best tag teams ever. Best tag team name, I mean. Wrestled in WCW in 1996: Did you know this? I did not know this. But it's true! According to Wikipedia: "After leaving the WWF for the independent circuit, [The Warlord] wrestled two matches in World Championship Wrestling in 1996, one of which was a tag team match where he and [The Barbarian] reunited as the masked Super Assassins." Pizza Hut: This chain's incalculable damage to professional wrestling was thought to be confined to the nitwitted former exec Jim Herd. Unfortunately, its reach of evil extends to The Warlord as well. Again, from Wiki: "The Warlord was forced to retire from wrestling due to suffering neck injuries in a car accident involving a Pizza Hut delivery van in 1996." In all seriousness, that's a tough break and it sucks. I always wondered why we never saw him during the Monday Night War era, and now I know why. I'm kinda bummed. But this story, thankfully, has a happy ending... Chikara in 2012: The hell? But it happened, and I must see the footage! Wiki: "In August 2012, Chikara announced that the Warlord would be making his debut for the promotion in the following month's 2012 King of Trios tournament, where he will reunite with the Barbarian and Meng as the 'Faces of Pain'." That sounds pretty badass!!!

Can anyone start one of these threads? Because I'd absolutely start one for The Warlord if I could. Would he make a list I'm compiling? Hell no, but I have to admit I had a soft spot for him when I was a kid.

I agree completely that Raw needs more "cliffhangers" and "hooks," but to be fair, Rhyno is not worthy of building a three-hour mystery segment around. Even those fans with no knowledge of NXT wouldn't consider him a thrilling surprise. And those who do watch NXT, of course, probably weren't surprised at all (I certainly wasn't).

I don't see the harm in discussing every possible wrestler, because you never know what compelling argument someone might have. Unfortunately, I have no such compelling argument for Mr. Z-Man.