El-P

And still can't get out of the business past 60. The Rock and Steve Austin both left the business, and despite Austin's "issues" with his wives, I don't think he's lost all his revenues yet or in on his way to do so. Rocky divorced too I believe, but he won't be broke because of it, and still has many years ahead of him in Hollywood. Sounds like the 90/early 00's generation won. And like I said, how ironic is that that today, you'd rather be Troy Martin than Richard Fleir ?

Of course Austin was gonna be pushed, but if the MSG incident hadn't happened, Austin wouldn't have been given the KoTR, and that's luck. Hell, Austin wasn't even part of the SummerSlam PPV a few months later, which was quite dumb. Things really got better with the fall and the Bret Hart comeback. Wasn't Bret the one asking to work a program with Austin ?

Shane is the sane one, he left the ship.

I'm not giving Russo credit for the Austin phenomenon, I'm just saying he should begiven the right credit, which hasn't been the case lately when that period was talked about. His Shoot Interview with Ferrara was very interesting for the WWF part, and if you can separate the facts from the obvious bullshit, then Russo didn't came off bad at all. He gave Austin all the credit in the world for coming up with his entire character himself, including the Austin 3:16 line, so it's not like he himself thinks he's responsible for Austin's success. But Vince really has nothing to do with it either at the beginning, it's a matter of luck (HHH being depushed because of the curtain call) and circumstances and a über talented guy coming up with his own stuff to try and get over. Russo also said how he would write the TV, but McMahon always found a way to add his own little twists and details that would make a good idea a great one. Basically, Russo said Vince couldn't write a TV show to save his life, but if presented with the format, he would be able to twist it and make it really better and get the most out of every good ideas and turn them into great stuff. Which seems pretty fair to me. Which also explains why Russo and Ferrara were such failures in WCW (and when you add the fucked up company structure it was a recipe for disaster) Giving Vince Russo credit in 2009 is an interesting exercice.

Well, Russo was the head writer at this point and during the entire rise to the top, whether we like to admit it or not. It's strange that with time (and the WCW catastrophy), his role has been downplayed to nearly "Oh, he was throwing a few ideas there and there, but McMahon is the one responsible for the (supposed, but that's another thing) greatness of the product" level. Not that I absolutely want to defend Russo, but I do think he's not getting the proper credit he deserves for the WWF product during this period. Oh, anyway...

I think it's pretty fair to say that Vince got a lot of help from Austin promoting himself and creating his own catchphrase, Russo's ideas about modernising the product and luck to get back on top. No matter how much I can't stand Russo, there's no way to not give him at least some credit for pushing Vince to go in another direction. Look at the WWF from the early 90's to 96... Vince just didn't snap his fingers and created the über successful Attitude era as the genius he's portrayed to be... Damn, here I am, almost defending Vince Russo, who seem to get zero credit at this point.

What about sedated Linda at ringside on a wheelchair at WM 17 ?

Well, a few years ago, before the Benoit tragedy, the entire piece would have been about Lex being responsible for Liz's death or something. And like John said, what's the point of telling the story of his "comeback to brighter days" if you don't even mention what those "dark days" were. Oh, anyway. At least Lex isn't in a wheelchair anymore, which is good.

Pretty pathetic how they barely mention Lex's last WCW stint. Of course it was during the time WWF got their asses handed to them so maybe it's better not to talk about Lex winning the title from Hogan on Nitro which got big ratings I believe. Plus it really reminds people that Vince didn't knew how to do business with Luger while WCW knew how to get the most out of him. And no word on Liz is just baffling. Yeah, Lex has had a "dark period", whatever it is. Can't wait the Kevin Sullivan piece where they don't mention Nancy or his programm with the Name that shouldn't been told. Anyway...

Flair can probably make a payday for the yearly Dome Show in New Japan too.

Jeez. How low can this get ?

I'd love Shane to go against his father and sister. Of course it would never happen. Still, good for him, he always seemed the saner of the bunch, by far, and at times he was entertaining as a chickenshit heel. Would have been a very good bumping manager in the 80's. If Shane goes into the MMA business, wouldn't that be kinda go against the family business ?

Yep, that's what Corny talked about. But still, we're talking about using known talent who represent their promotion. Steve Corino, Sandman, Raven, Shane Douglas, Tommy Dreamer, Justin Credible were available.

And from ECW he picked RVD (which is obvious), Balls Mahoney (yeah, why not, and he knows him from SMW), Jerry Lynn (obvious) and .... Nova. Yep. Nova. Love you Corny but... He's spot on on HHH though. "The guy who works with the guy who draws money". And he'd rather "Watch a dog lick his balls" rather than hear a HHH promo. Great stuff. Well, watched the whole stuff, it's pretty obvious that Corny did in in a non serious way, to entertain himself, so all of this is understandable. The concept of filming someone doing fantasy booking is pretty stupid in itself anyway.

I've not watched the whole thing yet, but I echo the general feeling which is the rants and stories are great, but the fantasy booking isn't. Like it's been said, Cornette hates Hogan, Nash and Hall, so he doens't do shit with them. But for the Invasion angle, it sucks. I like what he does before going to the core of the programm, but seriously, it's not really good. I think it's better than what happened (really, what wouldn't be), but it's not even *good* either. Ah, still love Cornette telling stories though, but this should cool off teh notion that he's this great mind that would save TNA if he was allowed to book it from top to bottom. Cornette is a great storyteller and a passionnate historian of US wrestling. I wouldn't go beyond that point.

It's not like Inoki did many jobs either. When you've got an ace to build your company around that people will pay to see him win all the time, it's really not that complicated to book. It's complicated if the only question you ask yourself is "How to end the streak", but it's not the right question. The question is "How to milk the streak as long and strongly as possible." Goldberg could have been kep undefeated (or at least form a clean pin) for a long long time before it got old with WCW fans. The issue is how to keep people over, and if never losing works, what the hell, let the guy win.

How old is the bride, the question is. I'd love to have Flair being engaged to Hulk's daughter....

That's the closest I've found to a genuine explanation. I tried to sit down and think of other forms of entertainment in which half the show's goals involve deliberately pissing off the paying customers, and really there aren't many besides purorasslin. France national soccer team matches.

It's pretty much the same thing indeed. Then again, maybe the stripper/wrestler comparison will bother some people. Remember how the infamous Flair thread ended up after some pron comparison were made. But anyway, yeah, it's pretty much the exact same thing : simulated violence, simulated sex, making their audience pay to get their fix, but don't lay a finger on the product.

To be the man, you've got to... well, buy the belt, because I'm broke.

Yeah, he always was ugly, but the aging face and super long hair just don't work anymore... He looks freaky.

It's been working fine with me. It is me of Taker just looks really odd and ugly in that picture ?

Wasn't Vader in that video too at 2:19 ?

I wonder if there was never some kind of bizarre interpromotionnal match happening in Japan too at some point... I could be wrong. At the time of the first Pillman Memorial show, was Regal still employed by WWF, or was he in WCW ?

Now that's a random observation. I guess nobody really cared about this show, which was basically considered as an indy show with names that came form Calgary. What was the main event already ? Rad Radford was a JTTS and Benoit wasn't really established at that point, was he ? Was Nitro on the air yet ?