TexasSkinsFan

Before I go on any further, I need to know exactly what do you both mean by personality?

Personality shines for me in many ways. Could be how the guy commands the room, could be how he talks, could be his swagger, could different things.

Unlike other forms of entertainment all of these guys essentially do the same thing. They can all wrestle, what sseparates them is there personalities. May not be the right word for it

Someone like Lugar looks like a million bucks but has the personality as interesting as a ddoorknob. Some one like Kevin Sullivan looks like a typical drunk you see propped up on a barstool in some hole in the wall ball but has the personality that even made him look good with a redic gimmic like the Varsity club.

I completely disagree with this. Big E does have a personality. It's freaking Vince McMahon and his writers who still don't know how to book black wrestlers without doing something stereotypical. I can't believe they had him do the stupid black southern preacher gimmick.

When he was in NXT, and had the five count gimmick, that joint was brilliant. I think it was KD who said they should have kept using that gimmick and start to have him lose matches because of it. They literally could have done anything besides make him sound like Jessie Jackson. Come on man. smh...

So besides the 5 count gimmic what would you do with him? That seems like a short program to me but it could draw some pops but who would you work him with? It would be hard to line up opponants who would lay down for 5 secs on Raw week after week. NXT sure do that every week, but most wrestlers wouldnt go for it and you cant squash other guys on the way up unless you can capture the hearts and minds of the fans like Goldberg did and it make a buzz and draws money.

What I was saying with guys like that, big bad monster types if used right could come in a territory, draw money and take on the roster then after headling for a small peroid go somewhere else and start it over again. They would have a shelf life of 2 to 3 years then expire. Everywhere they went they drew money, it was a good thing for them but now that the games forever been changed can you see Big E being relevant 5 years from now when hes floundering in a tag team no one cares about like he is? Maybe but not how they are handling him now. Eventually they will run out of ideas and hes gone. He goes somewhere else he has to live that down knowing he didnt draw money in the WWE which means people are exactly crazy about him

Idol had a pretty strong run in Georgia on the early national TBS shows - and not a lot of Memphis folks translated in Georgia. The "four slashed tires" angle is pretty cool.

 

And the big thing that hurt Lawler and Dundee (especially Dundee) was their size. Dundee was barely this side of Sky Low Low. Idol was around 6'1, 240 and was pretty cut. I think he was actually bigger than Orndorff - though not as muscular.

 

(By the way, on his podcast yesterday, Cornette did some fantasy booking that I thought was decent. Basically, it involved teaming up Bryan and Reigns in a Rocky III scenario. Bryan helps the youngster get ready for Lesnar with the promise of the first title shot. Granted, he went back a month and never had Bryan in the Rumble in the first place, but I think it made some sense.

 

His usually annoying co-host made a rare good point in saying that all the babyfaces in the WWE are lone wolves. If a babyface is getting beat up, the locker room never empties. No one on either side seems to be friends or have alliances. And it may just not occur to them that pairing Bryan and Reigns might actually get some of Bryan's popularity to leak onto Reigns.

 

She actually has a good point. The classic wrestling angle is two babyfaces take on the baddies for a year. And then one babyface turns on the other, creating an instant blood feud that lasts six months. And at the end, you elevate one to the main event and send the other to the mid-card where you can actually have him team up with someone for a year before you split them creating a blood feud.....)

That's true, but Dundee was 5'7 and Ray Mysterio is only 5'6. I do realize styles and time periods play a huge part in the career differences but being short can work, but it has to be done right. With Dundee always sticking around to that area they protected him and themselves and really elevated him to bigger heights and used him right. He ventured out into the NWA and other regional areas but would never get over in an outdoor stadium type environment so it didn't work. I don't think that people fans always understand that some things would work in a big arena and somethings wouldn't. IF ECW was shot for TV from the Toyko Dome it would never have gotten over. 

The lone wolves point is accurate but its being done on purpose I think. Not sure if they mentioned it but the last time they joined together was at Survivor Series and three guys got fired on TV for that and missed a bunch of dates on TV. Its not realistic to that sub-story line to have the talent ignore that and band together like merry men again so soon after. That's why that story line...Your Fired!!!!!!......has never worked in this business. Sure immediately it's effective and there is a pop but wait a few weeks or a month and the fired person has his job back and life goes on like it never happened. That's stupid to me, it undermines the character who says it. I love hearing Vince say it...reminds of Donald Trump with the impact but anyone else doing it takes away from the character and I don't think its very effective writing.  

KDawg interesting story plot but mentioning Curtis Axel to me is like the boring skit with Stardust and Golddust in the rumble. When that occured no one knew why it happened, then in a dream it was over and no one cared. It would be the same with Axel, I would imagine no one knows that or cares about it. Unless you were to go full on with Axel attacking Reigns squashing him with Reigns putting him over and then throw Reigns over the top rope and give him Mania then it doesn't make sense to do it. 

As for the card couple of them are head scratchers to me. 

Rusev vs. John Cena - Why? Who goes over? Squashing Rusev to Cena makes no sense without the belt right now to me. Squashing Cena after the last few months he has had isn't going to help him either. I would rather see Cena in a match with Triple H with Sting in his corner for control over the company storyline then to see that match or the match with Sting vs Triple H. 

Goldust vs. Cody Rhodes - Not a fan of this one either, only because I don't want to see a program between brothers. 

Miz vs. Sandow - This is gold right now. Why split it up and who gains here? 

Sting vs. HHH - 10 years ago when Hogan was against Shawn Michaels is when this should have happened. I don't want it to happen now

Bray Wyatt vs. The Undertaker - I thought the Undertaker was retired, is he contracted for Wrestlmania? If so whats his motivation for coming back? I could see it if he was to go against Lesner maybe to get revenge for ending the streak but not sure why he would come out of retirement for  this match. 

Great post, just because I didn't like somethings it showed originality and I like that. Sorry if you read this and think I'm being a jerk, not trying to do that at all just discuss and learn more

Random stream of Royal Rumble watching

First entry was the Miz. Why? R Truth #2? I would have crapped on that too. Made more sense after Bubba Ray came out next. Huge pop for Bubba Ray Dudley...awesome to see him back in Philly. That was awesome

Seeing the return of the Wyatt Family was awesome.

7 the boogyman? the ****....stupid. Didn't like him the first time around and got a check for about 1 min of work. Only if you can get it

8 Cincara....excited. nice entrance, very disappointing showing didn't stay long enough maybe 2 minutes. Why wont the E realize that we want to root for masked mexican wrestler?

Bray calls out the back, says its his year and the payoff

9 Zac Ryder....wow, perfect time for an old timer to come out. Lasted 1 minute. Boring and stupid

10 Daniel Bryan! Okay now we can see if he still has it to the writers or not. Crowd reaction to the goat running kicks is awesome, loudest all night. Glad to see Bryan back

11 Fandango....I hate this guy, boring and no heat from me. He can wrestle but why would he get stuck with this ****ty character? The chic's hes with are hot though. No believability he can even hang with Bryan. And to think Chris Jericho put him over at Mania in one of the most selfless moves I've ever seen a heavyweight champion ever do just disappoints me

12 Tyson Kidd...looks really really really small against Fandango. Height kills his career, why didn't they go with a spike dudley character thing rooting the little guy on with him instead of the boring ****y guy he has always been? Type cast by McMahon? True character? Either way can't see many interesting programs with him like that

13 Stardust....wake me when this gets good. The ring is currently full with Bray Wyatt, Daniel Bryan, Fandango, Stardust, and Tyson Kidd...starting to see why the fans weren't into this.

14 Diamond Dallas Page? WHAT!!! AWESOME!! And the good feeling lasted 3 seconds when Stardust puts the boots to him immediately and he lasts 2 minutes between beat down come back beat down some more tossed out. DDP wasn't the greatest but he is a legend and deserved better. And the crowd noise responds with a loud long drawn out boooo.....which lasts a least 3 minutes long. Who thought this was how to use DDP in the Royal Rumble...

15 Rusev!! I liked this character a lot. top 5 young stars budding. Why didn't they give him the Rumble?He eliminates Daniel Bryan here and everyone else except Bray Wyatt. Completely cleaned out and very dominate. He has a great rumble, lasting until the very end. Why not him vs Lesner? Too soon? Or do they not want to get into the same problem they have with Lesner and that is competition that isn't Cena? Glass ceiling might be low with him but he's awesome, Iron Shiek like. Totally unlikable, true heat. It may be the worst time for this man to enter wrestling. Not enough big men in the business to work with. Top wrestling performance at the Rumble right here.

16 Golddust...Crowds pissed, booing loudly.....not used to this at the Rumble....which leads us to Golddust being almost eliminated by Stardust who was already eliminated I thought in a lame no one understands comedy moment that missed, then we see them fight, Personally never been a fan of real blood wresting matches....loud chants for Daniel Bryan start and come back throughout the show. If the plan was to have Bryan leave early in the Rumble why not let him come out later then 25th? The people writing this are morons with a lot of this and brought the heat on themselves...

17 Kofi Kingston...mildly excited about the one time a year Kofi is interesting...Stardust is still in the ring. 

18 Adam Rose....coming out with the village idiots. This guy sucks, kill this character already. It like the Acension shows the writers are completely out of touch with what people want to see and they don't want to see this...Absolutely best moment in Adam Rose career happens here, Kofi's Rumble moment spot was awesome, they throw him over the rope way far out there and he lands on the village idiots who catch him, dance around the ring and throw him back in. Well done.

19 Roman Reigns...crowd boos loudly against him entering the match. Loudly booing him throughout the match....they do not like Reigns. I've been to WWE in Dallas recently and he was not given this reaction. Its surprising how much they are ****ting on Reigns in this match. I know it's Philly and I know him winning was lame at the very end but they were booing him out of the building when he was walking down the ramp in the crowd.

20 Big E....crowd ****s on him too. I would have too. Back in the day guys like Big E would be used as feeders to a champion and move on to the next league, guys like Big E could have a career for a long run but leave them in one territory for too long and they start to stink like rotting food, If he had an ounce of a personality he would get over but he doesn't. The heat he's drawing is not the right kind....WTF was that rolling bowling ball move autovance move thing from Rusev? Pretty bad ass and first time I seen it

21 Mizdow....funny skit that lasts two minutes with him and the Miz and that was perfect for him. Comedy in wrestling needs to come in short spurts like that not drag out.

22 Jack Swagger....ring is filling up. Recap...Rusev, Swagger, Big E, Reigns, Wyatt

23 Ryback....

And then I lost track. In the end it was a terrible ending and worst Rumble I've seen in a long time.

Kendall got in trouble, not Barry.

 

Dusty Rhodes has a shoot interview where he says that he was grooming Barry to be his top star and future booker, but Barry just didn't want it. He liked staying home, drinking beer, and chasing women.

 

I've heard that about a few dudes over the years. Like I said, Sid would quit for months at a time to play softball. Austin Idol would make enough money to stay at home for months as well. (I don't know why Idol never ended up as Hogan's opponent of the month in 80s WWF. Dude looked great and could talk).

Interesting stuff man. I could have sworn Barry was affected by that arrest...memories of old times just aren't what they used to be.

Austin Idol was a made for Memphis wrestling legend. Along the lines of Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee. Guys that in a smaller environment who they could trust back then (Trust was everything back then) and would run the place. In that area they were Gods, somewhere else they wouldn't have worked as well. He did have the look and the talking ability down.

I think they never fed him to Hogan because I believe he was involved in a run with Lawler at the time. and it's because Hogan only wrestled these matches in Memphis

5/14/1979

DQ win over the Mongolian Stomper

5/21/1979

w/ Jerry Lawler defeated The Mongolian Stomper and Georgous George Jr.

7/16/1979

w/ Ed Bolder (Brutus Beefcake) defeated Ron Bass and Pete Austin

7/23/1979

w/ Ed Bolder defeated Ron Bass and Pete Austin

7/30/1979

lost to Ron Bass

8/06/1979

w/ Jackie Fargo won over Ron Bass and Sonny King

8/13/1979

no contest with Ron Bass

8/20/1979

pinned Sonny King

02/09/1981

lost to Lawler by DQ

You think Hall, Austin, and the Rock were limited?

 

I don't agree at all - especially with Austin. Austin was an incredible worker until he broke his neck. He lost a little after that but was still really good.

Yea I do. Just my opinion but I would never talk about Scott Hall, Steve Austin, or the Rock and mention there ability to wrestle catch as catch can. Early on in the AWA Scott Hall was a better technical wrestler then he was as Razor Ramone, Stunning Steve Austin was a better Technical wrestler then the WWF's Stone Cold Steve Austin, and well the Rock I don't have a time when he was ever a mat wrestler persay.

That's not me saying that I didn't enjoy the matches, I did. And I'm not saying that there matches were boring they went. Those guys could have had 20 minute matches with a stuffed animal and made it entertaining. But that's because they were charismatic and entertainers. I personally wouldn't compare them to the likes of Ricky Steamboat as far as wrestling ability goes

Kind of an odd/stupid question, but back in the day a lot of the shows (even on TV) consisted of the names matched up against no name jobbers. 

 

Do those matches still exist? Are they even shown?  It seems like even the jobbers these days have gimmicks and finishing moves. Whatever happened to the total squash matches?

Did you see the start of the Acension? The new tag team that debuted on Raw recently? They have been using squash matches like this lately

My own opinion on the recent conversations.

 

Kevin Nash was a terrible wrestler.  Great on the mic, but come on, he had what, 5 moves?  If he wasn't doing the powerbomb, or the side backbreaker, or the big boot, or punches in the corner....I think that was it, wasn't it?

 

Sid Vicious legit scared me when I was 8-9 and he was part of the Skyscrapers with Dan Spivey.  As I got older, his anger combined with the curly blond mullet became comical.

 

For me, big man + surprisingly athletic starts with Vader.  I mean, besides being stiff as hell, he was an okay seller of moves, he had a pretty good arsenal for his size, and anytime a 450 pound guy can do a moonsault, you have to take notice.

Vaders matches against Sting were classics. Excellent big man, great in the ring, never better then when Harley Race was his voice. I love me some Jim Cornette but not everyone works on the big stage as they did in smaller venues, he didn't get over in the WWF because he didn't have the mouth piece he did in WCW. Roman Reigns will not be able to sustain a run if he doesn't get matched up with a voice who is over. Some guys need that more then others

As I've stated many times before, taker was underrated on the mic

I love me some guys like Undertaker, like Brock Lesner today, like others before them who does not have to say much to say a lot. When your charisma is so good you can command a room and if you say nothing it still says a lot. I agree with you, underrated on the stick

Windham, IMO, was better. Not as famous, but better.

I've always wondered if he and his Dad hadn't gotten in trouble with the law how high is ceiling in the business could have been

In all honesty, the best big man in the history of wrestling might very well be Kane. That dude can legitimately work and has stayed in great shape for - what - 2 decades now? I don't know how his knees aren't just powder at this point.

 

Mine is Brusier Brody. While most of his matches were fought outside the ring in huge around the arena brawls he could stand in the middle of the ring and drop kick an opponent from the standing position. The man could work, he was so charismatic that he drew you in like no one else. Tragic that these younger guys only know him for not selling to Lugar in Florida but that man imo was the best wrestling big man ever.

Currently in the WWE Luke Harper has a very very good in ring style, and is the best big guy wrestler they have. They need to get behind him and push him imo.

Disagree here.

 

He's not awful in the ring. He's decent. I personally think the whole talking this is overrated with strong athletic looking guys.

 

Lesnar and Batista aren't great on the mike but they got over because they were bad asses and were allowed to be short and sweet on the mic.

 

They want RR to cut ****ty Cena promos and that's not his gimmick. 

I understand what you mean and this is why he's getting his push. I just have never enjoyed the cartooney Thor smash fist into the mat and then throw a basic superman punch a guy out finish he does. In addition his moves in the ring really haven't changed from the beginning with him. Seems he has the same moves...run outside kick guy in the face....spear....it's just boring to me. I respect that you like him but someone like this with extremely limited wrestling ability has to have something else going for him to make up for the bad work rate and he cant talk. I compared him to Kevin Nash because I think that ultimately will be his ceiling.

Kevin Nash to me and this is not an insult to Nash or Reigns got over despite his inability to perform more then 20 in ring moves (he had a bad knee), he was seriously limited in the ring but his charisma and talking made him an interesting character to watch. I liked Nash and I think I could get on bored with Reigns even with his in ring ability if they somehow worked on his character and speaking ability. His ceiling to me would be Kevin Nash which is a high ceiling only if they get someone to speak for him

My favorite wrestlers of all time - Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Randy Savage, Mick Foley - They had the ability to work multiple styles of matches and speak. This is who I like and identify with. Benoit didn't have great speaking ability but his charisma was so powerful that he spoke softly and when he did speak you listened. It got him very far for something he just wasn't that good at.

When I see limited in ring work - Nash, Hall, Austin, Rock, Reigns - It only seems to work if they can speak as well, like Kane. Limited work rate, same matches every single time, boring on the stick so you couldn't ever push him to carry the company. Now when those guys can coverup the in ring work with outstanding charisma you have magic. We all have different tastes, just sharing my opinion

They need to do a switch with Paul Heyman and make him side with Roman Reigns to hype this match up. On his own Reigns will crash the whole damn thing.

You just can't look like a million bucks, but wrestle like crap and not be a talker in this business and make it. He is Lex Lugar all over again, didn't work the first time and won't work now.

Reigns is not someone that they should not be getting behind for single card main event. If done correctly he could be this decades Diesel, Kevin Nash. Anyone remember how they paired him with Shawn Michaels, until they put the strap on him after like a 5 second match and let him run with it for a little while? He sucked as champion but if they want to put the strap on him that's how they can get away with it, swerve him into it but doing it when the fans expect to see it is a bad idea. 

The three hottest stars in the business today

Ambrose

Wyatt

Bryan

Will be the future of this business the next few years not Reigns. It would have made more sense to give the spot to Rusev then to Reigns. Rusev vs Lesner. I want to see it. Reigns vs Lesner....boring.

The problem is creative has made the decision to use him like that and unfortunately unless they back it up quickly and reverse course I think he will be like Ryback in a few years, relegated to mid card status with little interest in pushing further. Not a good plan creative. Now if they gave him a mouth piece and turned him heel he might have a shot at regaining some steam but this whole push didn't make much sense. The E was on a roll and he was on the shelf. He comes back pushed immediately into the main event at Wrestlemania...sometimes they just need to rewrite the script and start over instead of ignoring the voice of the fans. They don't want to see this I don't want to see this.

So not going to ruin last night for anyone but let me say this.

I grew up watching wrestling in the early 80's, went to the Capital Center many times to see them live, watched WCCW and the AWA on ESPN like some of you and remember it all. Been going to wrestling live events in many different states over the past few decades, I've been to PPv's, I've been to Raws and Smackdowns in the past and WCW events.

Last night was the best night of live Wrestling I have ever been too.

Maybe it was the nostalgia, maybe it was seeing the Legends knowing I may never see them live again, maybe it was the surprises, maybe it was the ending, maybe it was the seats, maybe it was the realization that Dallas is hosting next years Wrestlemania and this was the start to the road to that Wrestlemania....whatever the hell it was that was amazing.

I'm going to Raw tonight. I plan to scream my head off one last time for the greats in attendance. I never thought I would be able to see DX and the NWO on Monday Night Raw like this again. I'm in the rafters so you won't see me and I won't be able to bounce around because two of my three boys are coming with me (for anyone that remembers my last Wrestling report from Texas) but you can bet you will hear me and I will do my best to have the house rocking like we did it when TNA showed up

Very excited...queue the music.....

Or will this tear down the house?

Either way with Hogan, Flair, Ron Simmons and others also attending I can not wait!

My DFS team tonight would be in the money if Serge Ibaka actually could show up this game. What's the story there? Wizards holding him to season lows for a 1st half tonight

Yup he is the champ. He's muscled up a lot and the crowd gave him a good reaction, I didn't pay attention to that last match except for seeing if any belts would change hands that show and they didn't. Between him Aries, and Lashley the main even was lame but other people enjoyed it

MVP apparently made enough money as a WWE mid-card jobber to buy the damn company.

 

Seriously, think about that.

 

I actually want a full report when you are done. Not on the card, but on the attendance and general feel. The cool new thing on the wrestling news sites is pictures of the live crowds at TNA shows. You can generally county everyone individually.

Ok so this post is in response to last nights TNA Wrestling PPV Slammaversary. I went there with my cousin, it was just the two of us. I ended up buying the cheap nose bleed seats and we roamed around like we always do. Most people don't act this way at events and if this bothers you I'm sorry, I've been going to shows all kinds for ever it seems and the action isn't always where your sitting.

So when we arrived at the stadium we took our original seats which were horrible like I thought. I tried to take a view to show the setup. To my left was an empty section we would eventually sit at (More about that later), and the people were to the right of my original seats (We sat in three different places and this was the first)

The place was tiny but as any ECW fan knows tiny can be great if the crowd buys in, and we did. Before the matches actually started though we left those nosebleeds and went to the lower level. I picked a place that I thought would be good for seeing the action, we sat in the back row where the perspective was the same that Tenay and Taz see minus the televisions

The show kicks off and the crowd went nuts for the X division bumps and then we marked out hard for the originals which included great reactions for Kurt Angle, the Dudley Boys, and the Von Erics. The crowd excitement at the show was hot, read a little reaction on the message forums and they said it was the best crowd TNA had seen in a very long time. I started many of the chants actually, I have no shame and just there to have a good time, including the Steve chant (My cousins name is Steve so that was fun for me) and the wrestlers seemed to appreciate how loud we were being. The Dudley Boys said that was the best crowd chant for "We Want Tables" they had ever heard. Seriously if this stuff interests you download the ppv and watch it. The crowd was noisy as could be. I'm louder then most two people when I want to be, and wrestling gives me a place to really let that loose.

So after a few matches we decide to move again, not that there was anything wrong with those seats but we were bored. So this time with our final seats we walked the building until we get to the closed off area (empty area with blue seats) and then picked a pretty cool spot there. Why it was cool was we had full view of the ramp (Beautiful People)

and the backstage area (This is Abyss without a mask on and Bubba Ray Dudley after his match)

And it was the VIP section. After the Dallas Cowboys had there spot they came and sat a few rows below where we were. My cousins being a Redskin fan booed them and shouted Cowboys Suck at them, all in good fun. And we even met Earl or was it Dave Hebner I forgot to ask, the famous referee. He came out and watched the last few matches and we approached him for a photo. I am the guy in the background....photo bomb!!! Hebner didn't want to stand up so the picture was taken looking up at him. By this time my phone had died but his was still working hence why I am in the background there lol

Anyway it was a blast, much more fun then the WWE Sunday show I had floor seats back in April here. I would highly highly highly recommend going to a TNA show if your a fan of the old school. And more importantly walk around the show! You never know what your experience will be like.

I am watching this weeks Raw on youtube now, after reading about all of the cuts. I am not sure if I can post the full show link here so I won't but its interesting how most of these released workers were on that show.

MVP apparently made enough money as a WWE mid-card jobber to buy the damn company.

 

Seriously, think about that.

 

I actually want a full report when you are done. Not on the card, but on the attendance and general feel. The cool new thing on the wrestling news sites is pictures of the live crowds at TNA shows. You can generally county everyone individually.

You got it, I will do that

Finally caught up on the thread, some of you guys are brilliant, seriously enjoyed reading the last two months of this. 

So this weekend is Fathers Day and as a present to myself I'm going to my first, and as I believe it will be, last TNA Wrestling event. The last wrestling event I went to live was this past April I saw a Sunday house show in Dallas which was headlined by two matches

Randy Orton vs John Cena in a steel cage for the WWE Title

The Shield vs The Wyatts (They had a single televised 6 way match when I saw this and it stole the show)

I sat ringside and really enjoyed that. This Sunday TNA is hosting it's Slammaversary PPV in Dallas and I am going to that event. The tickets only cost $12 a piece. I don't normally watch TNA. I watched TNA in 04-06 every week but got away from weekly watching but checked in on it from time to time. I am a life long wrestling fan. I just watched my first TNA Wrestling of 2014 which was last weeks Impact wrestling and looked up the card for the ppv (as of today):

TNA World Heavyweight Championship

MVP vs. Eric Young ©

-Bully Ray vs. Ethan Carter III

-Bobby Lashley vs. Samoa Joe

-Austin Aries vs. Kenny King

-Mr. Anderson vs. James Storm 

-Willow vs. Magnus

Couple of things stand out to me about this card. First as for the workers I am not sure I am the only one that doesn't know this, "Williow" is Jeff Hardy, from Matt and Jeff Hardy fame. That's good to me as I like Jeff Hardy and I like Bully Ray (Bubba Ray Dudley from ECW's The Dudley Boys),  Mr Anderson, and Samoa Joe are two guys I've always wanted to see wrestle live.

The other talent listed doesn't really appeal to me very much but I plan to keep an open mind. Live wrestling is something I've always enjoyed and I'm very loud so have been on TV many times and I'm sure I will see myself on it during this broadcast as well. If your a wrestling fan you owe it to yourself to support it whenever you can and always go to the live matches. I am excited about going to see this.

So about the talent and with that said, In what world does a booker think that Eric Young, who last I had heard of him was on a reality TV show on Animal Planet, in what world does a booker put the companies world title on Eric Young? Is that what people are going to pay to go see? Is this cool to TNA fans? Does Eric Young put asses in seats? Seriously when I saw that Young was the world champion I was stunned. He is like Santino Morrella to me, funny in an annoying I want to punch him in the face for being so annoying, sorta way. I've seen crazy moves with belts before because the company was scared the talent would leave the area before but this has to rank up there for absolute worst Heavyweight Champions of all time (Not that this unseats David Arquette or Vince Russo as worst champions of all time but still pretty bad)

MVP I am familiar with but last I saw of him he was a floundering mid card jobber in the WWE with a big mouth and very little talent. How he is in line to be the next Champion? I don't understand either choice to carry the company and have to wonder who is wanting this to happen? The good news is I've heard that MVP has a knee injury, so I am hoping he has to pull out of this match completely. The last time I saw TNA they had tons of stars, what the hell happened here?

The second thing I noticed was there was only one tittle match on the entire card and it is the heavyweight title match between those two. Very very disappointing. TNA had a great women's division last I checked, they had the "X" division and the "X" title. What about the tag team titles? And when was the last ppv on that had only one title match? Something else I don't understand

The feeling I get right now is this smells like the last days of the WCW. Seriously unless things change and improve for them in a hurry they are going out of business. The only way they stay around is if a company wanted to lose money with this. I can not see a ppv card like that appealing to anyone. I'm going because it's in my backyard, but this is awful

Vader and Sting headlined the worst card I have ever attended live. It was a WCW show at the Skydome in Toronto. It was an afternoon showand I swear, you'd think those guys had a time limit to be in Canada. You could tell they were in a hurry to get out of there.

Sounds like a house show where they might have been double booked for a night gig. In those days that was common for companies to do when they are in another country. Another thing they used to do was dark match non televised title changes. They would change the title in one place and then give it back in another before coming back stateside and never informing the US audience. If this was the match you saw I bet you would have remembered it better. Thanks to youtube and diehards who remember these guys we can finally see things like this. You are lucky to have seen them in person, I was not as fortunate.

First title change

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMk4P6NPrVE

Switch it back 4 days later

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfyBPjSvQRQ

We never knew

Oh its time.... IT'S VADER TIME

Vader was awesome.

Ever hear his shoot where he got into a real fight with Paul Orndorff? Amazing stuff about his exiting WCW

Vader is my favorite non Undertaker big man.

WWF effed him up so bad smh

And I love Savage as well. I just don't have him in the top 10. Top 20 for sure

And damn, why the hate for X PAC? Lol

Vader? I loved Vader in the early 90's when he was managed by Harley Race and took on Sting.

For Gallen, about 8 years before that match you posted with mention Wahoo teaching how to chop!

I wouldn't say he was ever the guy. Hogan was always the guy. Warrior wasn't ever the guy, either. But if Hogan had disappeared with an injury, either Savage or Warrior were positioned to be the guy.

 

Wrestling was different back then. The main stars used to wrestle "duds". Guys who were hired to get destroyed. Saturday Morning Superstars was based on wrestlers, mid card, low card, main event, wrestling against duds. It built all of the guys up so that when they feuded with one another it was big. Sometimes as a main event you'd get two stars against each other. Sometimes it would simply be Hogan or someone of that caliber squashing someone.

 

Those duds were called "jobbers" because they would do the "job" and lose. Al Snow made a gimmic out of this in ECW in the 90's

 

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2008/11/10/snow_al2.jpg

 

After Wrestlemania 6 Ultimate Warrior was positioned to take the company from Hogan for good, at least that was the plan. By then the world of wrestling was tired of Hogan and if it wasn't for the fact that Warrior couldn't sell out arenas like Hogan could then he would have kept at it. In those days TV ratings weren't as important but box office ticket sales mattered. Then the WWF ran two different groups of wrestling shows. One show would be in one town and have one stable of wrestlers and be the "A" show, then at the same time they would run another show and it would be the "B" show. The WWF knew that the "A" show would sell out places like MSG and carry the load for the "B" shows which normally wouldn't sell out. The "B" shows would sell out if a draw was there and that's why the Warrior got the push he did because in 1988 the "B" shows were selling out because of him. Normally the "B" shows would be used for setting up future "A" stars and for the Wrestling Challenge squash shows. Hogan would run the "A" show for almost the entire decade but after Macho failed to capture the same ticket sales that Hogan was drawing they had to look elsewhere. The "B" show headlined by Warrior vs Rick Rude at the time was doing better sales then the show headlined by Macho so they naturally went to the Warrior and set up the company for his to run.

 

Warriors run worked for a few months but fans grew tired of the Warrior quickly. When Warrior took over the ticket sales dropped so much that the WWF had to go in another direction again and this was not expected or planned for. Also at this time the Government was after the WWF for steroids and the Warrior and Hogan were front and center for that investigation so he was removed and if not for the Gulf War where they turned Sgt Slaughter heel they would have gone somewhere else other then to him. Eventually the steroid scandle passed and they went back to Hogan.  

 

 

That made pay-per-views so much more interesting. You never saw these guys square off. Even the mid carders. It would be a good way to get things to be more interesting nowadays. The problem is, the fanbase would NEVER be okay with duds. They want to see all the stars.

 

Savage was a WWF champion. He won the tournament at WrestleMania... I think it was 3. Hogan was out "injured" (I don't remember if it was legit or not). He was positioned to be the guy, and he was when Hogan wasn't wrestling.

 

It was Wrestlemania 4 when Macho won the title. The WWF in 1988 was in trouble with the US Government. Hogan was phased out because of this. They wanted a less steroid looking athlete in control. I actually have the WWF magazine from 1989 (they released them months after actual events) where McMahon speaks about this investigation. Because Hogan ratted on McMahon they wanted him out of the business but he was just too popular to let go and Macho was not as popular as a face as he was a heel then. Macho was quickly turned back to what he was great at, leading to Hogan going over at the 1990 Wrestlemania 5 and then turning it over to Warrior in 1991. 

 

 

He put on outstanding matches time and time again. The retirement match with Warrior was awesome. Feuded with Hogan.

 

I don't care if a guy was THE guy, to be honest. Triple H was the guy for a short amount of time and I STILL think he was one of the best. Top guy is just silly talk to me.

 

Savage was the man. Another guy classically wounded by WCW's booking.

 

Savage's story is likely never to be understood. As a worker he was in my eyes top 5 all time. As a heel he was wild, his voice was so unique it was used on commercials for decades after his last match. He is iconic. However something weird happened in the mid 90's which haunted his career then and still does today. It's known that he was overly protective of Elizabeth doing terrible things to her like locking her up like a prisoner and it's known that he broke his word with McMahon never to leave the WWF when he split in '96. What isn't known is what he did that was so bad that he was black listed from the WWF that still keeps him out of most videos and why he isn't in the Hall of Fame yet. Some speculate that he boned Stephanie. I don't buy it. I think its deeper then that. What it is though is weird and only the McMahons know. The reason he isn't more revered then he is today by fans is by design. If they knew how great he really was they would all love him still.

 

 

I'm just not a huge Nash guy. Good on the mic. Great tag team. One of the top guys for sure. I've just never really gotten into him. Much like Michaels. If I were ranking the Kliq it would be:

 

1. Triple H

2. Shawn Michaels

3. Scott Hall

4. Kevin Nash

11. Sean Waltman

 

No knocks on any of them. The top 4 are all in my top 25... Just never really loved Nash.

 

Guys like Big Bossman were cool too. I wouldn't put him on my top 25, but I remember he had some epic feuds with the Mountie and Nailz. Vader is a very unappreciated guy too. Dude could go. He nearly killed Foley a few times, likely because Foley told him to just let 'er rip.

 

Never a huge kliq guy myself, The Kliq is all that was wrong with the WWE in the late 90's and early 2000's decade. I personally never wanted to see matches of Vince McMahon vs Stephanie McMahon or ever any of the McMahon's in the ring. Shane was wild, lucky that sob didn't kill himself. But that all started because of this group, I would have been spared of that if not for the Kliq. Triple H is ok, Shawn Michaels was before the Kliq so I don't put him in there, Hall was a drugged out drunk who shouldn't have been on TV since his days of Razor Ramone, Nash was a huge guy with bad knees who was so boring but so good at politics he ruined WCW, and Xpac was a clown. I do not think half of what happened in the early 2000's goes down without the negative influence of the Kliq. They missed a huge mark when they turned the Invasion into the McMahon story. If they hadn't done that and the McMahons stayed out of it this could have been the best days in WWF history.