Jimmy James

To be fair, the big public issues he had raised were offensive storylines (this was back in about 1999) and steroid use, both of which are far better than they were. I have no doubt that there is still steroid use in wrestling, but I also have no doubt that whatever use there is is far less common, and far less condoned by promoters than it was back when Bruno fell out with the company.

If Dave knew Bruno well and respected him, I find it perfectly understandable if he finds it annoying that every obituary he sees about a friend of his contains false information.

Remember Tatanka showing up randomly at Mania a few years ago? He needs to be here too.

the source of the Cena-Rey thing was Justin Barrasso who isn't particularly reliable with scoops

Yeah, true. Mainly for the story they were telling, I thought it'd be cool if Auska won by throwing out one of the most notable Attitude Era women and one of the most notable Divas champions as well.

I'd love to see early 90s WCWSN, especially around 93/94, though latter day WCWSN where you had some random great luchador matches was fun too.

I liked the Woman's rumble a lot, but I kind of wish they had Lita enter in the 20s and make it to the last 4, like when Mr. Perfect did it in his comeback run. "Old legend nearly makes it all the way" is such a great story and the Rumble never quite does it enough.

It's how you run a monopoly, as anyone who lives in a city with a single internet/cable provider can tell you. It's shit.

I get the impression that I (and a lot of people) care about this bullshit a hell of a lot more than Dave does, because I really do not get the impression that he regards himself as the Keeper of the Flame for good workrate, or whatever. I think he does have an outsized effect when it comes to defining what a "great match" is, whether he intends it or not, however (and that's nothing new, this goes all the way back to the 80s with him).

Dave Meltzer is one guy, sharing his own opinions and his own biases that are treated as gospel. Rotten Tomatoes provides access to 20 plus reviews for each movies, some from respected film critics at major publications, some from random random bloggers. If a consensus of the reviews are positive, the film is certified fresh, if a consensus of the reviews are negative the film, its certified rotten. In wrestling there is no consensus, its just Meltzer. With movies if you think the guy who reviews for one publication is an ass, you read the reviews from another publication. There isn't that in wrestling because there isn't anybody who does what Meltzer does on the same scale, so we are kinda stuck with the guy for better or worse. Dave is like whoever happens to be the drama critic for the New York Times. No single film critic has a fraction of the power the NYT theater critic has over Broadway, not even since the days of Pauline Kael etc.

I don't think I've ever swung back and forth on a wrestler within a few years as much as I have with Brock Lesnar. I think my issue with him right now isn't that he's repetitive, but that his best aseet- his believably, sometimes gets wasted when he just looks like he doesn't give a shit. When your best asset is that you're a believable killer, nothing is worse than a match where you win after going through the motions.

to be fair, a lot of the NWA/WCW Starrcades were also really bad, so maybe they're just honoring the legacy that way

According to Meltzer and others, the Braun injury is a work and they're bringing him back for Summerslam. Anyone watch Finn/Roman? Great match, those guys bring out the best in each other.

Ditch Bray and bring back Husky Harris, modern wrestling can always use more fat guys on the roster.

My god I love Bring It To The Table. One of my favorite gimmicks is the kayfabe talk show (like Tuesday Night Titans back in the day) and this is like that, with a modern troll-the-smarks attitude to it. It's like a too-perfect take on modern sports Hot Take Shows like First Take/PTI. I love this and I want them to do it more.

Fire and Ice. Every time I get into 90s Nitro in the Outsiders/NWO era, they come along and suck all the energy out of the show. There were worse teams in that era (shoutout to Public Enemy), but none as boring.

HHH/Shane would be a shoot so i'm for it

I felt that way about the WM31 card, which ended up being a great show, so I'm hopeful.

One thing about WCWSN if they do it is when to stop. Didn't it become a nothing show pretty shortly after Nitro debuted? If Thunder was bad from 1999-on, I can't imagine how awful WCWSN must have been. e) I hope they get to the hilariously bad cyberpunk set, though. That's my favorite bad studio set in wrestling history.

Keeping the WCW TV run going with WCW Saturday Night would be my guess, I'd love to have good quality versions of early 90s WCW TV. I have to think WWECW is almost a given.

hey stro, I always enjoy your PPV writeups on your site, so what did you think of the card overall

Seeing Taker was sad, and I hope he gets in shape for Mania. The Shane match was dumb as shit but I still think his series with Lesnar in the summer of 2015 was great.

Those 2001-2003 Rumbles are impressive just for the sheer star power they have in them. They might be the most stacked rosters ever, though some of the early 90s ones with Hulk/Macho/Flair in them come close. e) also, this match was flawed in a similar way to the 2002 Rumble where the draw order was just way too contrived, with almost all the stars getting the late numbers. Though nothing here was as laughable as Undertaker coming out and immediately having to face Matt and Jeff Hardy.

I think my favorite Rumbles are probably 1992 (which is honestly more for Heenan on commentary than anything), 2001, 2002 (the one where Maven got brtually murdered, and Mr. Perfect was in at the end) and 2008. This wasn't quite top 5 for me but I was entertained throughout most of the match, and they did a good job setting up multiple matches at Wrestlemania. And they clearly got the exact reaction they wanted at the end, which is why the whole "Roman Reigns ruined the match!" shit is confusing. Everyone cheered Randy like the biggest babyface ever.

Reigns being #30 is kind of like asking your parents for an NES for Christmas and getting a Sega Master System or Atari 7800 instead. he lost though! I know Wreddit/et al hate Roman but the idea of hating him so much that him losing a match ruins a show for you is just incredible.