C.S.

Paul Roma wasn't a bad choice. Yeah, I said it. He's underrated. Great? Maybe not. But certainly decent, both in the ring and in terms of charisma. He also had that rich, cocky Horsemen vibe, or could have at least developed it. Ole was the bigger mistake in that incarnation of the Horsemen. Too old, too Southern, and here's the big one...not around. Roma and Orndorff formed a pretty good tag team after the Horsemen, so there's that too. But to answer the question: If not Roma, then who? Nothing really jumps out at me. Was Orndorff around then? Even so, that doesn't quite work for me, for whatever reason. Pillman a few years earlier? Nah. Was Stunning Steve Austin around? If so, maybe he's the answer. I kind of like the idea of a repackaged Nash too, but in terms of impact, he would have had the same effect as Roma... "That job guy?!" Edit: Yeah, I'm going with Stunning Steve. There's my answer. Were there any storyline conflicts at the time that would have prevented this? Another edit: Ditch oldie Ole entirely and put Austin and Pillman in there instead! Were they still a team at that point? If not, reform them!

My favorite memory is the WWE Magazine piece that launched a major WrestleMania angle - the pics of Ric Flair and Elizabeth. "She was mine before she was yours. Wooooooooo!" Even as a kid, I knew the pics were somehow bullshit because Flair had short hair in them, even though he had long hair earlier in his career when this supposed relationship with Elizabeth was going on. Still, it was a cool as hell storyline - much different and more "mature" than what the WWE was offering back then.

Been meaning to find time to tackle this topic ever since I first found it. Full disclosure: Kamala is one of my all-time childhood favorites. I guess I liked the way he patted his belly. In all seriousness, it was refreshing to see a "real" physique closer to my own and not the super-muscled bodybuilders that dominated the landscape back then. I recently discovered that Andre/Kamala cage match and was blown away by it. It's actually good. Was especially shocked to see Andre walk the ropes, a la "Spoiler" Don Jardine or Undertaker. Didn't know he ever had that kind of agility in him. But this is about Kamala. Yeah, I really loved him. A few years ago, a friend bought me an autographed Kamala figure for my birthday, and it's still one of my favorite gifts ever. We can dissect his "racist" gimmick (even Kamala has gone on record saying it was "bad for the blacks"), created by the Southern white Jerry "The King" Lawler. We can dissect his ring work. But do those things really matter? Kamala was a pure gimmick character, and he played that character up to the hilt. The real-life Jim Harris has lamented the disparity of his payoff vs. Undertaker's for their SummerSlam match. Unfortunately, the WWF had all but neutralized Kamala's aura as any kind of "threat" by that point. Not even the littlest kids thought Kamala had a chance. The face turn further eroded that, of course, but at least it was fun and funny - something new for the character after many years, so I didn't mind it too much. Reverend Slick's "you are a man!" proclamation about Kamala was also pretty cool. Too bad the WWF was never sophisticated enough to really go anywhere with what could have been an interesting, complex theme - a "savage" discovering his own humanity - but that's really too much to ask of wrestling, especially at that time. No matter what you may think of Kamala's ring work and gimmick, the man behind the character gave it his all. He embraced it wholeheartedly. That kind of commitment seems so rare today. For as much as we all liked Drew McIntyre, did you ever get the sense that he was truly into his 3MB gimmick? Yeah, he tried hard and did his best, but it was never him the way Kamala seemed to be for Harris.

Reigns is being rushed and shoved down everyone's throats. He shouldn't be main eventing World Title matches for another year at least. I like him, but in the end, he'll be the next Sheamus.

I've seen this sentiment all over the 'net and I can't agree. The way Rollins won wasn't very satisfying, but having Ambrose overcome his adversary now would have been jumping several steps ahead in the story. In order to build a big heel turn and big heel, that big heel has to win and be successful while the faces lose, are undermined, and have major obstacles to overcome. In order for Rollins to be an effective big heel, he has to be successful for a while. Having him lose his first big match a month into his heel turn would not have been good storytelling and it would've cooled him off as a heel in a bad way.

Gonna use Smack's post to format my own... PRE-SHOW: I missed it because it didn't get posted to the Network right after it aired. I found it as a "recommendation," but got an error message when I tried to load it. (WTF? I'm tired of what a clunky beta product the Network continues to feel like. When a bunch of people don't renew after the six months, this will be one of the reasons why.) It was eventually pulled from the recommendation screen. Anyway, they replayed "highlights" of the Daniel Bryan segment on the PPV itself. What a waste of Bryan. Goofy midcard spot with Bo (who I like too). Would they treat any other main eventer like this? 1. USOs © vs. Harper / Rowans - I wasn't as high on this as everyone else here. Felt really dull and clunky at first. Also ruined by the HORRENDOUS commentary that severely overpushed the likelihood of a Wyatt Family win, which completely sapped any drama and made it all but obvious that they were losing. I went into this thinking the Wyatts would win, but the boob crew ruined that for me. Not a bad match or anything, but nothing special either. 2. MITB - A lot of fun. I was actually rooting for Kofi and hoping against hope that he'd win. Some insane spots. I winced whenever that clumsy buffoon Swagger did anything. Because of him, I was half-convinced the Ambrose injury might have been real. The Rollins victory was probably the right way to go, but the Kane interference felt cheesy as hell. Still, that story continued in the second MITB match, so I kinda understand the rationale for it. 3. Paige © vs. Naomi - I actually really enjoyed this. A classic? No. But it was fun. Cameron's facials outside the ring were priceless. 4. Rusev vs. Big E - I grow more and more bored with Rusev's 1980s act and style, but this was a good match (as was last month's match with E). I hope E moves on from this and gets a renewed push. He actually had me believing he could pull off the win. 5. Stardust / Goldust vs. Rybaxel - Nothing amazing, but fun. Cody is really going all out with this act. Do the red eyes mean he's really a heel in disguise? 6. Summer Rae vs. Layla - This was more fun than it had any right to be. Not a classic, of course, but I enjoyed the (silly) story they were telling. 7. MITB World Title Match - Took time to get going, but the last few minutes were great, Cena won, which was disappointing, but that was to be expected after the SummerSlam poster leak. I was hoping Orton would win, only for Rollins to cash in and reform the Shield as a way of truly outsmarting The Authority. Would have been cool. Still, the Rollins heel turn has been a success, so I guess abandoning that would not have been wise. OVERALL: Too many filler matches that belonged more on an episode of Main Event rather than a PPV. Nothing was bad, but would they have run this lineup as a $60 PPV? (I realize some people are still paying $60.) This was definitely a two-match card.

Really dumb that they didn't just put the whole season up there, especially when the Network only has Season 1 and the show is already on Season 3. Whoever is in charge of content, scheduling, etc. for the Network is beyond clueless. It's just been so bad, slow, and frustrating lately.

To be fair, Meltzer has never been a great writer. Great reporter, yes. Great writer, no.

Eric Young lost the title to Lashley.

That makes it sound like he isn't coming back after the movie promotion, did he mention coming back at all? "I’m not leaving behind WWE, I’m not leaving behind wrestling. I love it. I always say, at the end of the day, I am a wrestler, I am a sports-entertainer. I’m not leaving it behind, but I fulfilled my obligations and now I need to fulfill other obligations and that’s why I left." http://www.wwe.com/inside/batista-exclusive-interview-26402579/

I can't stand it when Dave (or others) resort to such lazy commentary. It's obvious he didn't even see the fucking show he's mocking. If he had actually watched it (too much to ask for wrestling's foremost "journalist," I guess), he'd know that no one at that table was shocked, acted surprised, or any of that. They all knew and reacted with support that Patterson was finally lifting a heavy weight off his shoulders by coming out to essentially the world. Yeah, everyone here on this forum knew he was gay, and there was probably enough word of mouth that even some of the more casual fans knew too, but it was by no means common knowledge among every Joe Public wrestling fan.

Last night's Legends House had me in tears, and I'm not quite sure why. Overall, the show had more than its fair share of goofy and pointless moments, but it turned into something really special by the end.

Is that it, or is it just that Adrian Neville simply isn't that great. I'm genuinely asking and wondering. I don't claim to be an expert - I've only seen maybe 2-3 matches at most - but his match at NXT Arrival wasn't as hot as what proceeded it either. I don't think it's a valid excuse to blame the prior matches though - especially not when it's happened twice already. I'm personally much higher on Sami Zayn.

Was Slaughter actually released via WWE.com? Wow, I don't remember that. I hope we do get a sendoff for Teddy then.

From Curt Hawkins' Twitter: “@TheMarkHenry: Here we stand. Still here!!! pic.twitter.com/V20Wu0v0Tx” Your colleagues lose their jobs & you tweet that? You're an idiot Mark. https://twitter.com/TheCurtHawkins/status/477134520844824576 OUCH!

Wait, really ? The son of Meng got a Mexican gimmick named Camacho ? Holy shit. Hahaha, fair point, but the Asian Meng was a WCW gimmick. Haku at least got to keep his own roots/heritage in the WWF. Aren't mutual releases handled differently though? At the very least, they're usually not lumped in with several other names. Even if this was Teddy's choice, he still deserved a far better send-off.

JTG released.

I'm not holding a torch for Bourne. He's a complete idiot with two back-to-back Wellness Policy violations. Plus, for as long as he hasn't been used, I'm sure he still got paid all this time. Hard to feel sorry for him. Pretty classless, if so. The guy deserved a real retirement, not this "future endeavored" bullshit. But I guess they couldn't be bothered after they worked J.R.'s "retirement" and that bounced back in their faces. Otunga is as close to bulletproof as someone can be. Married to Jennifer Hudson AND an intelligent Harvard-educated lawyer. They'd be massive fools to fire him. Always something for a guy like that to do in a publicly traded company. Drew McIntyre is someone they really missed the boat on, and all over some stupid issue with his girlfriend/wife/whatever she was. You'd think the company would be more interested in, ya know, actually making money. Drew was a hardworking guy who got a raw deal. I think Camacho deserved at least one chance with a repackaged name/gimmick. Turning the son of Haku/Meng into some kind of half-baked Mexican character was beyond idiotic. At least Husky Harris and Michael McGillicutty got a chance to move up from those dead-end personas. Guess Camacho's dad doesn't have the same stature.

I like Slater too, but Drew had far more upside IMO and they canned him. What a waste either way.

Add referee Mark Harris (who?) to the list.

Where do you see this? It's not on WWE.com that I can see. Edit: Just did an F5 refresh and see them now. FUCK!

Totally disagree. She is about the only diva who looks like the type of girl who would follow wrestling, and looks like a hotter version of the pale outsider girl that the typical overweight, black t-shirt nerdy wrestling fan believes he can date (delusional or not). From the way she looks and carries herself, she is the perfect face, and the ideal antidote to the blond model types who the girls hate and the boys can't date. She is almost like a CM Punk in that respect, a 'cooler' version of the typical fan. She has the potential to all of that, I agree - sort of like the Lita of her generation - but that isn't how she should have been debuted IMO. She should have come in more like her NXT character - the bitchy anti-Barbie type - and then built up cheers and a face turn organically. Debuting that character cold - no backstory, people knowing nothing about her, etc. - and expecting her to get over as a face was a very misguided strategy. Even her pandering promo on the most recent NXT PPV shows just how miscast she is in that sweet, humble, nice girl, smiling all the time role. It was horrible. The results speak for themselves. No one gives a fuck about her right now. You can make the excuse that she hasn't had the opportunity to be in longer matches, but her character isn't over either.

Paige is miscast as a babyface, period. Right or wrong, when I was first exposed to her (vs. Emma on the first NXT Network "PPV"), I thought she was a heel.

My two favorite Larry matches (keeping in mind that I wasn't around for the Bruno or AWA stuff): - The Enforcers vs. Dustin Rhodes and mystery partner (a returning Ricky Steamboat, subbing for an injured Barry Windham) for the WCW World Tag Team Titles. Probably the first truly "great" match I ever saw. - Lord Steven Regal vs. Larry for the WCW World Television Title. Despite not being a natural babyface at all, Larry had me rooting for him to win the belt (which he did) - and I was a big Regal fan even at the time.

They were good wrestling matches, yes, but they completely infuriated most of the fanbase. Christian, a crowd favorite, FINALLY wins the World Title - only to lose it two days later to Super Orton. Then Christian gets turned into a chickenshit bitch heel, gets buried by his own "best friend" Edge, and loses to Orton in every rematch. When he eventually regained the title, it was by DQ or something equally as ridiculous, and even that lasted only a month or so before Super Orton "saved the day" again. Garbage booking like that is precisely why so many people resent and are sick of Orton today.