Jesse Ewiak

HOT TAKES! on Dustin Rhode's possibility as a main eventer in 1996!

Eh, think about a Ric Flair promo in late WCW - it was probably still a solid 'B' rated promo, but Flair probably didn't care and he might've been a heel when the crowds started to refuse to boo him.

Jericho's done more in wrestling than 99.9% of guys who go into a training school and more than 99.9% of guys who start up a band. If, for instance, I somehow managed to become a best-selling author and I don't know, a Congressman, I'd consider myself a success in both fields, even if I hadn't reached the tippy tippy top that only a couple dozen people ever reached.

Yeah, also, don't be afraid to create your own temporary angles. The angles that come with the game are frankly, kind of limiting. So, if in RL, you'd basically have a big guy stand there and look mean, a star who can't talk just stand there, and a manager who is spittin' fire, create an interview angle where people are rated on, for example, entertainment, overness, and menace, instead of just overness or entertainment which are what are marked standard.

To counter the "political hit job" idea, according to a couple of spoiler reports I've read about Smackdown, Roman got the biggest pop and there were even "We Want Roman" chants. Of course, this was in Dallas, a more WWE-friendly city, so who knows, but maybe the booking of the last few weeks, including Mania, has actually helped?

That Rock 'n' Roll - Irwin's match will be on this universes version of a DVDVR 80's set as a lost classic.

The argument I'd have for WM 31 to be in the top tier of WM's is that every match was a decent to good type of "that" match. The opening tag match was a fun tag spotfest ala the opening junior tags in New Japan. The battle royal was a perfectly fine battle royal. The ladder match was a good ladder spotfest with a really fun finish. Orton-Rollins was a great 'WWE' style match. The Diva's tag was probably the best diva match on WM since Trish-Mickie. Low bar to clear, but hey. Sting-Triple H was nostalgia overdrive, but that's what people who wanted that match in the first place wanted. Cena-Rusev was a very good WWE main event style w/ all the overblown theatrics. Bray-'Taker was fine to me, even though it was the worst 'type' of match, but I never thought Bray ever had a chance to win, so I enjoyed it as a 'Taker killing his midcard opponent type of match against somebody like Kama or King Kong Bundy in the 90's, and that was a good version of that. And of course, the main was an awesome stiff as hell showdown.

Sitterson's a big part of the whole Reddit/Twitter wing of the IWC. Put it this way, he had Shoemaker on his show.

Have you been overlooked at your job for your talent, because you're not the right look for the position, while other people with less talent and more connections get promotions? If not, then you're good to go.

To a certain extent, it is. I mean, NXT is one of the most watched shows on the Network. Even saying only 10% of Network subscribers watch NXT, which is probably an absurdly conservative number, that's still 100,000 viewers, which is likely twice to three times the number of people who were following ROH.

Honestly, if Spike just put in enough money to get ROH up to TNA production values in 2009 or 2010, that'd be a big victory for them.

I honestly think most of Parv's problems with the results are more of a result of the games limitations than what he actually did. After all, random heels coming in to main event programs are basically what the WWF was built on. So, Arn, Tully, Savage, and Ted coming in and wreaking havoc isn't totally out of the realm of possibility. However, TEW 13 doesn't allow for people to become immediately "stars" on their first night in the company and by the same token, really doesn't allow you to put on shows that would've sold out the Garden in 1983 because well, they sucked by 2013 standards and even though people have done a good job at kind of using TEW as a background, small problems like this build up and you either have to ignore/readjust the ratings you get for the story you're writing, or rewrite your story.

So, maybe we can say Vince & Ron Popiel killed the territories?

I've heard rumors he'll be a surprise entrant and winner of the battle royal.

Dylan would obviously know more, but from everything I've read and saw in shoots and such, I'd imagine every main ROH roster guy gets trans taken care of. So, maybe Cheeseburger isn't getting trans paid for, but probably almost everybody on the last iPPV likely got a plane ticket. Same thing w/ most 'name' indy guys - it's usually $x,000 amount + trans & hotel.

You highly underestimate the curiosity of most people. Most people look for stuff on Youtube they've already seen, to see it again, or at most, they might click the links that come up on the right side of that video and fall in a Youtube hole. I mean, even over on Reddit, a Youtube link to a random WWE match might get a lot of comments, and there's all this love for New Japan, but a link to a All Japan or AJW match from the 90's is met with crickets.

Yeah, watching the Cena-Punk match without the background of the Punk promo, the rumors are all over the 'Net leading up to the match, the actual live experience, Punk's actions right after the show, and so on. In the ring, it's a really just a high-end WWE-style match.

Nope. Nelly Furtado. Thank You! I knew there was a good example. I just completely blanked on it.

To be fair to the wrestling business, the only people who seem to see Russo in any way a positive are a few undercard TNA guys who only got decent storylines under his watch, the WCW guys who got a big push under his watch (Konnan kinda/Jarrett), and then non-wrestling people who happen to be running wrestling shows (Dixie Carter/possibly LU). It's just really bad f'ing luck that two of the people who'd be selling bookers to non-wrestling people also are fans of Russo because he helped out their careers.

JBL's closer to a middling artist who makes a sudden change in genre to try to kickstart their career, and is successful as long as they're paired with the right kind of partner - so, maybe, I don't know, Rob Thomas being in a middling pop rock bank like Matchbox 20 that had a couple of big hits (the APA's early success), then was in popularity purgatory before hooking up w/ Santana for Smooth?

Mentioning Lorenzo w/out mentioning Fit Finlay vs. Lorenzo is kind of sad, since I remember the DVDVR reaction to that match. But, great podcast aside from that.

Any actual discussion about this, should have the implicit undercurrent of, "aside from Vince Russo, of course, because he's the worst."

From their point of view, how over is Bryan if they can give his signature chant to somebody else, and they still get 60-70% of the volume? I don't agree with them, but that's their point of view.

Right. Many of the Daniel Bryan fans will show up to a Rumble or a Raw or a PPV, but ya' know where they're not showing up? The Smackdown house show in Omaha or the RAW house show in Orlando. Those shows will be full of Cena (and possibly new Reigns) fans who sure, will chant 'Yes' when Bryan comes out, but then go spend $90 bucks on Cena merch. Was Bryan crappily booked after WM last year? Sure. But, going through a shitty feud w/ Kane is a rite of passage in the WWE. Even Austin had to go through it.

The thing is, isn't he right? Ratings weren't effected by the Rumble - they were effected by the return of Walking Dead & the debut of Better Call Saul. According to all reports, WWE Network subs actually went up. And most importantly, Reigns is getting good pops on house shows, where the hardcore don't show up. So yeah, even if I'd prefer Bryan going over, it wasn't the disaster that some people thought it'd be.