C.S.

The Legends of Wrestling issue is FINALLY fixed on Roku. I caught the Heatseekers episode last night. Really fun show. Wish they had another hour to go into more detail and talk about more people. By the end, it was obvious they were running out of time and couldn't really get into Buff Bagwell, Missy Hyatt, etc. the way they wanted to. Eric Bischoff was surprisingly entertaining and candid about Lex Luger and Scott Hall - and when Foley mentioned the "Uncle Eric" angle in ECW with Tommy Dreamer, Bischoff called him out on it: "You got over at my expense" or words to that effect. There's a two-parter on Rivalries that should be interesting (not to be confused with the later show they also did on the same subject). I'm looking forward to watching that as well.

Wow at last night's Legends House... After so much stupid, silly shit, they finally "got real" with a very emotional and powerful episode. They never made it clear what Pat Patterson was getting so choked up about. Was he coming out of the closet to everyone? That's the only thing I can think of. But I'd hate to read into something that wasn't there. That moment with Jimmy Hart and Tony Atlas was also touching and beautiful. This episode was compelling, impactful television the likes of which is rarely (never?) seen on a WWE show of any kind.

Orton is a good wrestler, but he's bland on the mic, stale, and overexposed. Not his fault though. With the death of the territories, there's nowhere else for him to go. Back in the day, he would have been able to move from one place to another and remain fresh. No such option exists anymore. (Before someone says TNA, ROH, or Japan, come on...) Don't want to turn this into a political thread, especially since this point is entirely irrelevant to his work as a wrestler, so I'll just say this... I'm more forgiving. He was young, joined the Marine Corps impulsively, and handled the situation immaturely (a pattern he'd repeat for a long time thereafter). But were his actions really that bad? IMO, it's better that he "ran away" BEFORE being placed in a combat situation and potentially putting everyone else's lives in danger. I'm not sure, though, why he couldn't just leave the Marines through the proper, official channels...is there not a way to do that?

Putting him with Heyman was another mistake, I agree. After Ryback and Axel, being a "Paul Heyman Guy" is no longer a guarantee of anything. It will work out better for Cesaro in the long run than it did with Rybaxel, but it was still a stupid move. And the worst part is, Cesaro is constantly overshadowed by someone who's not even around. I'm referring, of course, to Brock Lesnar. I assume there's a long-term plan in place to turn Cesaro babyface after he finally gets sick of the whole Lesnar deal. Actually, why am I assuming that? This is WWE Creative we're talking about!

Call me crazy, but...Stevie Richards. He was a great comedy character, but he eventually got over as a serious main event level guy in ECW. He did variations of his comedy gimmick in both WCW and WWE, but he showed a completely different side of himself yet again with the RTC gimmick. Very versatile performer overall.

I've hardly changed my argument. Momentum entails moving upward. Sideways is not upward. I hated the finish (I don't mean who pinned who, though I hated that too). I found it illogical that Cesaro would hit one of his signature moves and then lose right after. It did the Cesaro Swing no favors. It also doesn't help that the commentators did a shitty job explaining/selling it (nothing new there, but still). It's a match that didn't need to happen and shouldn't have happened. Before Payback: Sheamus was on a roll, Cesaro was on a roll, so why not continue to let them both be on a roll? Of course, this is the same company that had Sheamus in the U.S. Title in a battle royal after making Dean Ambrose look like a goof who didn't defend his title for months. So, yes, I am overthinking all of this. In fact, I'd wager to say I've put far more thought into it than the WWE creative team has. In a month, Cesaro could very well win the vacant WWE World Heavyweight Title at Money in the Bank (I doubt it), and this entire debate will be moot. And that bugs me too. There's no logic or cohesion with anything. Another example I used before in this thread: Cena apologizing to his little kid fanbase for being slightly violent against Bray Wyatt only a few months ago, and then he has that crazy match at Payback (throwing steps, etc.), with no one bothering to explain his sudden change in philosophy. There are easy ways to connect the dots, but no one in the WWE can be bothered.

I was thinking last night that Dean Ambrose is a natural heel, Rollins is a natural face, and Reigns could probably pull off both roles equally well. I expected a Shield turn of some sort eventually, but Rollins being the one is definitely unexpected. I am curious to see how - or if - he fits in with Evolution. Seems like such a duck out of water pairing. Does he cut or dye his hair one color now? Not sure what the logic is. Being jealous of Reigns? Okay, but he's going to be even more overshadowed by H and Super Orton. As usual, WWE throws darts against a wall. Don't expect a satisfying explanation. You didn't get one for the Austin heel turn, and you won't get one here.

What I'm "on about" is this: How does the match or result help Cesaro? How does it further his momentum? Hell, how does it help Sheamus? The answer for all of the above is "it doesn't." May as well have been a no-sell. Cesaro hits one of his signature spots, only to lose right after. That's crap. Yes, the Cesaro Swing would logically take a lot out of him too, but as someone else pointed out, the commentators didn't get that over at all. Besides, I'm not sure I buy that argument anyway, because it has never worked that way in any of his other matches (but correct me if I'm wrong). THANK YOU! THIS is my point. They're moving sideways, particularly Cesaro. It's a problem with WWE booking in general, and it has irritated me about many matches/feuds - this just happens to be the one I'm arguing about right now.

Well you caught me! Rubbish match. Maybe it was my mood then, but I just don't see how this helps Cesaro. Wrestling is scripted, so there's no reason this match had to happen at all. Both Sheamus and Cesaro could have been put in positions to win and continue their momentum. Bringing back RVD, who looks old and is being acknowledged as old by the commentators (WTF?), is a waste of a spot/match. Having RVD put over Cesaro last month was perfect. This month was one month too many for RVD. I realize Cesaro will be fine. I'm just tired of illogical, poorly thought out, rushed WWE booking. Unless it's the 2-3 main storylines, it seems like they're just throwing darts at a wall. No, not a new problem, but still irritating.

The reason for the Kofi match and Kane coming out were absolutely mentioned and explained as a punishment during the show. Anyway, maybe it's just my mood, but I thought most of the matches were lackluster until the main event. Explain to me how John Cena suddenly starts throwing steps around when he apologized to his toddler fans only two PPVs ago for far less violent acts. If the rationale was that he snapped and did what he had to do to put away Bray Wyatt, that wasn't conveyed well - or at all - by the commentators. The finish was also the worst of the year (and we're only a month removed from the horrible forklift finish between Bryan and Kane) and maybe one of the worst I've ever seen in all my years as a fan. Just hokey crap! Just about everything on the undercard disappointed me. Cesaro was booked like shit, losing to Sheamus in a bland momentum killing-match that the IWC will pretend to like just because Cesaro was in it. It's especially disappointing considering how well Cesaro has been booked otherwise since WrestleMania. I have nothing against Sheamus - I actually like him - but the WWE could have given Cesaro a different feud and let Sheamus beat someone else. It's plain bad storytelling. The WWE writers don't have a clue half the time, and I really wonder if they luck out when it comes to the other half. Rybaxel is okay, I guess, but nothing they do excites me in the least. When Cody grabbed the mic, I didn't expect him to walk away from the team because he no longer believes in himself. That surprised me. I figured he would yell out "WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU?!?!?!" to Goldust and then attack him. But maybe I'm just feeling nostalgic for Owen Hart. I'm officially bored with Rusev now, and I tried to give him a chance. Big E goes from IC Champ to Rusev victim, which certainly can't help him and shows how little WWE values its belts now (not a new problem, but still). Rusev's WWE victims being mostly black must be some kind of racist internal rib only the front office finds funny. Big E did get some nice offense in, so I'll give him that. It's more than Truth and Creed got at least. I'm even more bored with RVD, who looked old and was subtly made to look washed up by the commentators against Barrett. Bryan/Brie/Steph was magical though. I could have listened to them for three hours. Paul Heyman was fun as well. And I love how both of them shut down the CM Punk chants. The main event was great IMO. Did not expect a clean sweep by The Shield. Don't know if it will hold up during repeat viewings, but I was emotionally invested in the moment, and that's all that matters. I'd be pissed if I were Ambrose and Rollins though, after hearing one of the idiot commentators (King?) refer to Reigns as the "leader" of The Shield. That kind of bullshit does not help the "Hounds of Justice." Hell, it doesn't help Orton and Batista to still be second fiddle to HHH ten years later. They are probably in a worse position now than they were when Evolution was actually relevant. Oh well, I'm sick of all of them, so who cares. I do feel kind of bad for "Bluetista" though. He was put in an impossible situation at the Royal Rumble and has made everyone look like a million dollars since then. My heart can't help but go out to the big lug now. I hope he gets a second chance and face run after the "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie.

BTW...

That was great, LOL, but the show itself keeps getting worse and worse IMO. Who the hell thought it was good idea for them to go "LARPing" (live-action roleplaying). All of these stupid scenarios are just horrible, artificial, not entertaining, and just drag the show down. Maybe if the editing and pacing were better - quick highlights of the amusing moments (all of them getting pedicures and massages) and much less of the stupid bullshit (the rest of it) - it might be more tolerable. The conflict so far has seemed really manufactured, like these guys know they have to do SOMETHING to be entertaining. Jimmy Hart's picky eating is mildly funny. I can understand him not wanting those nasty chitlins and pickled pigs feet, but that meatloaf looked damn good to me. Vegetarian maybe? Hacksaw continues to be the most unlikeable character on the show, for me. His fake laugh drives me bonkers. In contrast, Hillbilly seems like the nicest dude. Doesn't sweat anything. Will he finally snap in a later episode? Tony Atlas is one wacky motherfucker, but I like him too.

One of my favorite Rumbles ever, believe it or not. Yokozuna was a lot more obvious to me than it was to most of you, but he wasn't quite a sure thing and the Backlund iron man performance planted some seeds of doubt in my mind.

Anyone else's Roku not showing all of the 2006 Legends of Wrestling episodes? Been that way for a week now. Just when I thought they had finally fixed those issues...

The WWE may soon acquire the Memphis library for the Network. From a Bleacher Report interview with Jerry Lawler: "The good news is I'm amassing the [Memphis] tape library and I'm talking right now with the people in WWE about making the entire Memphis library available to the WWE so they could use it on the Network." Full interview (which covers many other topics): http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2060349-wwe-hall-of-famer-jerry-lawler-on-vince-mcmahon-ecw-and-the-perfect-angle

Vince Russo's new website posted a defense of Eric Young as TNA Champion. It's actually pretty good. Whether EY deserves the title is up to you, but this piece certainly makes me root for him.

I watched the Tag Teams episode of Countdown. It's probably old news by now, but that's not a show in my regular rotation. It was a pretty WWE-centric list - which I am okay with - except for the last and first picks (Freebirds and LOD, respectively). I was hoping teams that flopped in the WWE - like LOD and Steiners - wouldn't make the list at all. I honestly expecting #1 to be the Hart Foundation or something, just because they weren't #10-2. That snub surprises me. If this is a list of all-time great tag teams anywhere, I can understand LOD's placement. But other than Freebirds, this was a WWE list entirely - Rock 'N Sock, New Age Outlaws, etc. NWA purists will be driven crazy because there's no Midnight Express, Rock 'n Roll Express, etc. (but their imitators, The Rockers, are there - and I'm glad, because they're an underrated tag team that never really gets the credit it deserves). The "Demolition was a ripoff of LOD" talking point comes up again, and I've never agreed with it. Yeah, they both wore paint. So what? To me, that's like saying Sid was a Hogan clone because they were both blond and had artificial muscles. Maybe the creative genesis of Demotion was the WWE deciding they wanted their own LOD (if that's what happened at all), but the end result ended up being very different IMO. Usually, Jericho and Bryan can be counted on to embarrass themselves on these shows by coming across as assholes and/or idiots, but that was only mildly the case for Jericho on this episode and Bryan was fine for once. Overall, no one looked too bad this time around. No point taking a list like this at all seriously - especially if it was voted on by "the WWE Universe" - but it can't seem to decide whether it's honoring all-time great tag teams or just WWE-only teams, and it does a pretty bad job at both. Still, if you can turn off your brain, it's a reasonably entertaining way to waste an hour - as all of these Countdowns are.

The characters are different now (which wasn't really the case for a few years), but nothing else is: - The way the matches are worked are all the same. I'll exclude Extreme Rules from this, because the various stips allowed for more creativity. But every big match at this year's WrestleMania followed the same exact scenario: "intense" brawling, kicking out of finishers, etc. You know the "formula" I'm talking about, so I don't need to go into detail. I've defended the Cena/Wyatt feud, because - for better or worse - it's not the same cookie cutter match outline we always see. No matter what you may think of it, they're at least going way outside the box. - The promos, as someone mentioned, are pretty bland and homogenized 90% of the time - unless you get a character like Wyatt who seems to be doing his own thing. Not enough people fall into that category. To be fair though, it's definitely better now than it was a few years ago - both character- and promo-wise. There was a time where everything felt the same, and they're at least slowly breaking out of that bland mold now. Edit: I'm referring to the main WWE shows, not NXT. It all begins at NXT, but I get the sense that people have more freedom to experiment there - probably because they aren't nearly as micro-managed by Vince.

It was WCW. That should answer all your questions.

I also caught the Legends of Wrestling episode about Jerry Lawler and JYD. Awesome stuff, as usual - especially from Michael Hayes (discussing the famous feud where he "blinded" Dog) and Dusty (admitting to being an egomaniac who stole from Dog's act). Mike Graham comes across as an over-eager little brother/sad puppy dog on these things. I don't want to speak ill of the dead, but I really don't know why they picked him to be on the panel. He seems almost too shy/intimidated to really chime in, and when he does, everyone else ends up talking over him anyway. On that note, I read that crappy "Outside the Ring" book Hulk Hogan wrote and was surprised that he had nothing nice to say about Graham. In contrast, Graham always went out of his way to praise Hogan in public. It's kind of sad because I read that Graham approached TNA for work before he took his own life, and he was disheartened that they had no position for him. Apparently, his father told him he'd always have a place in wrestling because he was a member of the Graham family. I wonder if Hogan/Bischoff were in TNA by then? Really sad if Hogan screwed a distraught Graham out of a position in TNA, but that's all pure speculation on my part - I don't even know if the timeline matches up, or whether TNA bringing Graham in a backstage capacity would have even been a good idea (though it couldn't have been worse than some of the other clowns they've hired both behind-the-scenes and in front of the camera).

I'm probably taking Legends House too seriously again, but I felt really bad for the wrestlers this week. It got to the point where it felt like they were being exploited. I know, I know...they're big boys who signed up for the show of their own free will and knew what they were getting into, but still. At least they ended up enjoying the ridiculous Chippendale's experience and felt good about doing it. Tony Atlas is either playing a character at this point or is legitimately out of tune with the world around him...maybe both. Not quite sure what Hacksaw is so angry about though. I have a feeling those two got together before the show and set up their own little angle. Actually, at the end, everyone seemed to be upset with Atlas. But nothing really happened on the show to indicate why. So, either it's poor editing or Tony Atlas farting in a limo is supposed to be reason enough. Meh. Really low stakes, bottom of the barrel "conflicts" here. Back to the "exploitation" comment I made at the beginning: I can't help but think that this whole thing really cheapens Roddy Piper and makes him look like far less of a star. You wouldn't catch Hogan, Rock, or Stone Cold doing something like this ever. Flair is the exception, maybe, just because he's probably desperate enough at this point. But no "real star" would ever willingly submit themselves to something this low rent. I guess all of these really must need the money. It's kind of heartbreaking. I'll do a separate post about Legends of Wrestling and Mike Graham...

I just read that. I've always loved Tough Enough, even if the chosen winners almost never work out - with Big Andy being especially disastrous, but picking that stiff Daniel Puder over The Miz in a previous season was another misfire (say what you want about Miz, but he was a top heel for a while and did headline WrestleMania, for better or worse). I just hope Stone Cold returns as the host, or at least someone as compelling. The bottom three concept was great. Even reaching out to Al Snow, who was great in an entirely different way, would be fun. Bill DeMott added something to the Al Snow seasons, but he was a completely unwatchable, unbearable, unlikeable bully during the Stone Cold season. I hated that DeMott called that poor Ryan kid "Skidmarks," etc. and later tried to justify it by saying it made the kid more memorable. That's pretty laughable, because DeMott never drew a dime or had a character that was worth a damn. You could argue that DeMott was misused during his career, and he probably was, but still... I always thought he was pretty good in the ring though, especially for a big man, so I can see why he'd be an effective trainer. However, I do remember Ziggler's younger brother and others exposing DeMott for being a bully, etc. No idea what's true and what isn't, but I can believe it. As for Legends House, it hasn't been great so far, but it's very serviceable and I do make time to watch it every week. With some refinements, and maybe a few younger "legends" added to the mix (Edge?), they might be on to something. Right now, it feels a bit too geriatric. I'd bet Blackman's Bounties will be one of the other reality shows. There was a whole list of proposed programs floating around a while back. May even be in this thread somewhere.

It's worked well in boxing. Don't really buy that argument. Completely different sport, scenario, and situation. Plus, they don't have a madman shouting nonsense through their headsets.

Three-man booths suck. That's a big reason why the commentary blows now. Far from the only or even main reason, but it is a reason. Before someone says a three-man team worked in WCW, no, it didn't.

My initial instinct was to say after 1996, because I wouldn't want to miss the Monday Night Wars, ECW, etc. However, after thinking about it some more, a lot of my childhood is rooted in what happened before 1996, and so much cool stuff happened then too - and there's so much more, pre-'96, that I still haven't seen. I went into this thinking I'd pick post-'96, but pre-'96 wins by a hair for me.