KrisZ

Sandow was great there but it was obvious he was losing. Cole acknowledged the Ambrose line so the split angle is on

Very interesting line by Ambrose about being the only guy in the Shield to have a title and he always gets the job done while Reigns had quite the look on his face.

Ryback responding to people tweeting their HIAC hate to him

I've been able to do that for awhile now. The "whole picture" thing sort of sailed away a long time ago for me. I watch current wrestling for good matches. Yeah, I watch Raw every week but I hardly pay attention. I flip channels too. It's football season, maybe a good game's on. Then, I see the Shield is coming up or Goldust or Bryan. I watch the match for the match itself. The angle? Pffftt. I could give a shit. And yeah a lot of that probably has to do with WWE fucking things up for quite some time. Pretty much all of this....if you are watching current wrestling for great storytelling then you will be disappointed most of the time because while there are some hot angles that happens it's not the same thing as it used to be. It's come to a point these days where WWE focuses so much on Mania season that the rest of the year lacks in excitement.

Title matches are just different beasts in lucha libre especially during this time period....nowaways the title matches aren't a whole lot different than any other match but that is because the business has changed so much. I guess the thought about working more mat based and scientific in the title matches is because the guys respect the title and it's history so you can't go and sully it up with a bunch of violence.

Sheamus is due back at Rumble which I see him possibly winning

Hey I'm not defending the booking I'm just explaining what I think their thought process is. Punk now gets his chance to go against "The Authority" which is what he does best and he's been so involved with Heyman that he has been absent from the whole storyline so now he gets his shot. Bryan is a fantastic worker but Punk can deliver the promos that he can't plus he has a cache with the top guys and is a made man which Bryan was/is on the verge of but we will see where he goes now. Regarding the streak......Taker/Lesnar is on the books for Mania right now so we'll see how that goes.

I think the ratings problems as well as house show attendances have spooked them about DB. He is getting great heat yeah but it's not moving the meter business wise. If you noticed in the WON there was a blurb about the philosophy about bringing in bigger guys is back in vogue again so take that for what it's worth.

Alright, what about Bryan then? That one is tricky because it has to be someone linked to Trips but I don't think The Shield so maybe someone turning or coming back.

No one is saying you are wrong. We are saying it sucks. I agree but think about it....if DB won the title then who would be his opponent....they couldn't do Punk because it makes no sense and there is really no viable heel right now.

He's programmed with Trips

If you didn't think that was going to happen you were clueless....Orton/Punk was the clear program going forward....

In another Twitter is awesome moment

Man I can't wait for the promo from Mark Henry explaining why he shaved his head

Or Robert Gibson

Hot damn that match was awesome....the superplex trainwreck on the floor was a spot of the year candidate

He was a real cock

Yeah it was encouraged and they wanted the Austin double Stunner finish to send them both packing

Inoki as a character inside and outside the ring is awesome so no hate here. He's one of those guys who gets a pass from me as a worker due to his greatness as a character

Scorp wasn't going to lose his hair to Porky...no way no how It isn't about feel good it's about the big picture and his hair is way more valuable than losing to Porky.

Agree that this is a great post and a terrific definition of what characteristics constitute a territory. I do have one question. Would you consider both promotions in Knoxville in 1978 (Southeastern and ICW) territories? I'll defer to Kris here, because I know there were times where the Knoxville NWA office barely had any spot show towns going, much less a loop. Don't know if All-Star ran other towns, but they were absorbed in to ICW, which did have an actual territory. SECW was definitely a territory as they worked a loop of shows around Tennessee/Kentucky/West Virginia. All-Star mainly just ran Knoxville and suburbs of Knoxville.

Since I mentioned my rankings on here....and there were quite a few matches in the Top 20 that weren't in mine, here is my Top 20. 1. Nick Bockwinkel vs. Curt Hennig (11/21/86) 2. Buddy Rose & Doug Somers vs. Midnight Rockers (Cage Match) (12/25/86) 3. Nick Bockwinkel vs. Wahoo McDaniel (8/28/83) 4. Buddy Rose & Doug Somers vs. Midnight Rockers (Cage Match) (1/17/87) 5. Buddy Rose & Doug Somers vs. Midnight Rockers (8/30/86) 6. East-West Connection vs. High Flyers (3/1/81) 7. King Tonga, Masked Superstar, & Sheik Adnan Kaissey vs. Crusher Blackwell & Sgt. Slaughter (Cage Match) (4/21/85) 8. Stan Hansen vs. Crusher Blackwell (6/28/86) 9. Jerry Lawler vs. Kerry Von Erich (12/13/88) 10. Manny Fernandez vs. Wahoo McDaniel (10/15/88) 11. Greg Gagne vs. Curt Hennig (5/30/87) 12. Wahoo McDaniel vs. Boris Zuhkov (Russian Chain Match) (8/29/87) 13. Stan Hansen vs. Curt Hennig (5/31/86) 14. Nick Bockwinkel vs. Larry Zbyszko (7/11/87) 15. Wahoo McDaniel vs. Curt Hennig (12/27/87) 16. Stan Hansen vs. Sgt. Slaughter (2/23/86) 17. Wahoo McDaniel vs. Curt Hennig (Indian Strap Match) (11/28/87) 18. Jerry Lawler vs. Curt Hennig (2/19/88) 19. Marty Jannetty vs. Buddy Rose (10/18/86) 20. Jerry Lawler vs. Curt Hennig (7/16/88)

Holy shit I can't believe this is on YT.......here is my boy Derrick Von Erich this time with DWIGHT POWER as his partner against a big mofo named Navy Blue. Nothing like watching two fake Germans working a Neo Nazi gimmick getting manhandled by a large black man.

This is a special match to my heart because I worked with one of the wrestlers here in Derrick Von Erich who is like 30 but looks like he is 18 and one of the strangest cats I've ever worked with. He would piss everyone off and he got thrown in a dumpster once as well as a baler. He went into wrestling just to get his ass kicked and he was trained by Iceberg Slim. He won only one match in his small career and that was because DL Norris changed the finish in the ring because he wanted Derrick to win. Derrick told me that he would get payoffs of mainly gift cards to Applebees, Chick Fil-A, Pizza Hut and shit.....no cash. Derrick of course is the skinny white kid

Southside Trash has been around FOREVER.....they worked for Dusty when he would run TCW shows in the area. They are from Thomaston which is 10-15 mins from us and they are total rednecks who have been known to engage in orgies with underage rats. The guy doing the voiceover for the show is a dude named Uncle Jeff who tours all the urban churches in the area with his ex-stripper wife and they have their own like Christian rap/dance show on the local TV station.