Finally got a chance to see Vinnie Vegas' debut at the January '92 Clash. What was Vinnie supposed to be? He looked like a casino dealer*, but with Nash's charisma-that's-kind-of-not-charisma, I'm guessing a wiseguy of some form?

 

*though JR said he looked like a maitre d at the riviera, which is probably not what they were going for

Along those lines, I noticed starting in late 1998 that a staple of Vince Russo match layouts was guys rushing entrances to brawl. It's one of those things that is cool in small doses to get over a feud as especially heated, but really dumb week after week.

Don't wish to be contrarian but isn't this how 99% of Stan Hansen matches start?

Do they? Hansen usually makes his entrance.

Maybe I misunderstand what you mean. Hansen comes out, does his cowboy salute and then does a "jump-start" often when the other guy has his jacket still on, and often altogether skipping the shine. Vader does a similar thing.

 

I thought this is what you were describing but maybe not.

Yeah wasn't a big part of his entrance fans running up to the railing so they could get knocked over as he bulled his way to the ring?

I'm referring to this.

 

HHH makes his entrance. Steve Austin makes his entrance. HHH is so anxious to get his hands on Austin that he leaves the ring and runs to him on the entrance ramp and they start brawling immediately, going around the ring before finally making their way in.

Loss is right, they did that a whole bunch in the Attitude era. It's a great way to start a match for a hot feud but it was like at least once a PPV there for a while.

 

Found this magazine on eBay. Holy shit.

 

One line on the cover reads, roughly translated, "Hitler...was right!"

 

Another line, "Homosexuality in lucha libre!"

 

Almost tempted to buy it just to see what the context to all this is.

Must be real expensive if the original price was 500 dollars.

On a related note, I just now realized I never knew $ was the currency symbol for pesos before seeing that pic.

So does anyone else agree that ROH has passed TNA as the default #2 promotion at this point? I know their TV situation isn't 100% ideal, but it seems that in pretty much all other aspects they seem to be ahead of them.

I would still say 'no'. In its Time TNA did these ROH have yet to do. When ROH sells out arenas close to 10K capacity- then we can say 'maybe'. Also, what are ROH's PPV and iPPV numbers? Surely those aren't better than TNA's?

Neither company has officially released any numbers, but Dave has stated that ROH had a goal in mind for the shows they've run and by and large once they got past the techincal issues that messed up the first few iPPVs they seem to be at or above expectations. TNA's buyrates as of late have been pretty damn close to statistically zero.

 

Not to mention saying TNA should still be considered #2 because it once achieved things ROH has yet to do is kind of like saying the AWA was still a top level promotion in 1990 because they did big numbers in the 60s and 70s.

How much foreign money does TNA take in? Is there any merchandising anymore?

 

Action figures and video games seem so far back now.

I don't think there is a #2 promotion. There's WWE and there are indys. Some may be profitable and some may not.

By definition I don't think either TNA or ROH could be considered indies. They're both corporately owned. You could say that there's Coke and then there's OK Cola though.

TNA is store brand WWE.

TNA is store brand WWE.

 

With asbestos. Lots of it.

TNA is store brand WWE.

Nah, store brand tends to be good. It's more like Dollar Tree brand.

The stink has set in to the extent it's yard sale moonshine

TNA's like KMart. It used to be important under different ownership a couple of decades ago, but now it's kind of sad and filled with investors trying to live off past glory (Sears). Oh, and KMart buildings are never more than 10% full either.

The stink has set in to the extent it's yard sale moonshine

 

But you can have a lot of fun on some yard sale moonshine. Not so much with TNA.

Just started catching up with all the Greatest Wrestler Ever stuff.

 

Wow.

 

I fucking love this place.

What do you fucking love more? This place or science?

Can't you love the science of pro wrestling?