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What would you say are the main issues that the WWE, AEW, and TNA need to work on for 2025?
WWE: Maintaining momentum and finding another top story after the Bloodline.
AEW: Figuring out what they want to be. it’s gone from the alternative to WWE to whatever they are now and it’s not working.
TNA: Getting a top star under 40 years old. Nic Nemeth and the Hardys as the focal point ake the company look second rate at best.
In aew it’s a case of Tony Khan believing everything he does is right and the people he insists on pushing as the focal points of the company fans have clearly rejected Adam Cole orange Cassidy and John Moxley yet Tony Khan triples down on pushing them
What is the most anti-climatic finish to a high-profile match that you have ever seen?
Ooo good one.
Uh…..I’m thinking I’ll go with John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt at Wrestlemania XXX. After all of the buildup and hype, Cena just beats him with his finisher. No big thing about the legacy, no major moment, nothing. Cena shrugs off the Wyatt Family interference and just wins.
What’s the worst thing AEW has ever done?
Probably airing the Punk/Perry footage. It served no positive purpose and came off as nothing more than AEW and Tony Khan having to prove how horrible Punk was when it was just nothing.
All that footage did was show Punk trying to defend himself against an entitled brat Jack Perry another wrestler who Tony Khan insists on pushing who the fans have rejected as someone who doesn’t watch aew it seems the only person who Tony Khan regularly pushes that the fans want to see is MJF everybody else the fans don’t seem to care about
Are you surprised that the WWE is bringing back Saturday Night’s Main Event to NBC considering it was such a ratings bust when it last aired there from 2006-2008?
Kind of, but with WWE actually putting in effort this time, it has a much better chance. Also, if NBC gives you that kind of exposure, you automatically take it.
Why do you think Lo-Ki’s run with the WWE was so brief and unremarkable?
No one is getting anywhere when they’re paired with Laycool, use their title cash in on a midcard belt and lose. he was destroyed right out of the gate.
What did you think of Damien Priest’s first World Heavyweight Championship run in the WWE?
Good, but I’m not big on winning the title with the briefcase. Always cheapens the feeling. I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing him get it back one day.
It terrifies me to ask this question but what will the future of Andre Chase And His students be if he loses against Ridge Holland tonight? Like you I absolutely adore chase U but this seems to be a case of heart vs head
Odds are he’s gone for a bit. They worded it so that the school could continue, perhaps with new students. But yeah, I’m worried about where this is going too.
Sorry for missing this the other day. Been kind of a hectic week.
Do you play/have you played many WWE games? If yes, then what’s your favorite?
Some but I retired from gaming years ago. No Mercy is still the top of the list, though Here Comes The Pain is quite good too.
If Eddie Guerrero hadn’t died who do you think would have won the 2006 Royal Rumble? Considering how raw and tragic it was WWE probably felt they had to give it to Rey Mysterio but if he hadn’t died who do you think would have won that year?
Good chance it’s just Orton.
Do you think part of the reason the WWE and AEW have commercial breaks in so many relatively short matches is that they are stretching the show out in lieu of coming up with new material? Otherwise, it’s strange to me they don’t just go to commercial when the wrestlers are making their entrances, then ring the bell when they return from the beak.
In some cases, possibly. That and a lot of people don’t really care about the matches themselves, which is always bizarre to me.
Now that AEW just celebrated their 5th anniversary recently, where would you say they are in terms of your expectations when they started out? Ex: Above, below, or about right where you thought they would be?
It’s really hard to say. They wanted to be an alternative or whatever and while they kind of are, WWE has roared back and now AEW feels like it’s trying to be more like them. Overall, it’s definitely a success as here is an audience and they’re seemingly making money, but there are A LOT of problems that need to be fixed. I’d call it a success and they’re meeting expectations, but those expectations might not be what they were when the company was founed if that makes sense.
Best and worst Royal Rumble match?
Best: 1992 is the cliched answer but I’ll go with 2007, just for the Shawn/Undertaker finale alone.
Worst: 1995. No star power, short intervals, bad match.
Does the WWE currently have 2 separate writing teams for Raw and Smackdown, or are they the same for both shows? Reason I ask is because both programs currently have similar type no.1 contenders tournaments for their tag team titles going on.
As far as I remember, it’s just one. But yeah they certainly do use a lot of similar ideas like that.
Are you able to review the April 12, 2001 episode of Smackdown?
Sure.
Why do you think Matt Riddle hasn’t caught on with a major promotion since departing the WWE a year ago?
I’d point you to Dana White’s comments on why Riddle isn’t in the UFC anymore (slightly paraphrased):
“Because Matt Riddle is a censored idiot.”
Riddle has a lot of baggage that comes with him and that’s not something most promotions want to deal with for him.
Best and worst Undertaker WrestleMania matches?
Best – Shawn at XXV. One of the only times I was jumping out of my chair watching wrestling.
Worst – King Kong Bundy at XI. Bundy never felt like he belonged in the 90s and it felt like a night off for Undertaker.
So I just read that the 3 hour Raw Era is over. Just curious how this all came to be? Even though they have less than 3 months on Raw before the change to Netflix, I was always told that this was more USA Network pushing for it than the WWE. If that’s the case, I would’ve thought they would’ve just rode that 3 hour train until their contract expired with the Network.
From what I understand, the USA deal expired somewhere around now and they just didn’t want to pay for the extra hour for the next three months.
Thx. Will it be only 2 hours starting in January on Netflix, or will it go back to 3 hours then?
The reports I saw said that it will vary. Basically it’ll end when it’s ready to, but it won’t exceed three hours.
Much like WWE network when it first launched the labour to add content to Netflix is going to be really slow for the first few months do you think the WWE vault YouTube channel will have enough content on it to keep fans patient until then?
Probably not, but WWE trademarking “Raw Vault” gives me hope for the future.
Was the whole Alexa Bliss storyline with the Fiend a few years ago actually supposed to lead to something, or were they basically making it up as they went along?
If there was a big plan, I’ve never heard of it. There is always the possibility that Wyatt had some big plan but like everything else he did, very few people knew the end results.
If a wrestler/wrestlers get caught on T.V. calling obvious spots, do you think the agents chew them out when they get backstage?
Probably not chewed out, but they might get a bit of a warning.
What concept in wrestling did you think was cool, but hasn’t really been used since it’s inception? For instance, here are my personal 2;
– Scramble Match. Although I’d rather use this as a no. 1 contenders contest instead of a match for a championship.
– “Champion’s Choice Night” This was used on a Raw a while ago. All champions on the show have to defend their championship(s) against an opponent(s) of their choosing. Of course this should mainly be done when a show has more face champs than heels, because why would a heel pick a strong opponent?
Scramble Match is WAY up there. That was such a fun idea and they only brought it back once that I remember.
There was an old WCW concept called Running The Gauntlet, where a wrestler would face three opponents on the weekly syndicated shows. If they won, they would get $15,000. If they lost, the three opponents would split the money. I would do it for a title shot or something like that, but it’s a concept that could work, especially in AEW/ROH.
I, too, was a fan of the Championship Scramble Match. Do you have any idea why they have used it so sparingly after creating it? I remember back in 2009 on a Smackdown they announced one for a No. 1 contender’s match for the World Championship, but without explanation changed it to a routine Fatal 4-Way.
Not that I’ve ever heard of. Very well could have been a Vince thing.
Was there some kind of bad feelings going on with the WWE and Spike T.V. when the WWE moved Raw back to USA Network in 2005? I remember that Spike was actually bleeping out the WWE announcers on the final Raw on the station whenever they would mention that they were moving to USA. I thought that was beyond petty.
I don’t know of any bad feelings but yeah it was rather petty.
I was thinking about Gary Hart in world class and while he was a devious heel manager he was never rude and never told the crowd to shut up like good like a traditional heel whenever he was being interviewed I always noticed he would answer questions politely either about himself or his clients so I consider Gary Hart to be a gentleman villain is that an accurate description of his character? Also with how polite he was was the ever a baby face at some point in his career?
I fear the new day may break up soon which will be a sad day in WWE but here’s a question do you see Xavier Woods becoming a world champion before he retires to complete the set for the new day yes or no?
World Champion, no. There are just too many big names who are further along and better than him. He’s a solid midcarder and that’s about his ceiling, which isn’t a bad thing.
Yeah he was definitely more of the cerebral heel rather than the over the top bombastic one.
I believe he did work as a good guy for a bit but it wasn’t long.
I see oba Femi Femi getting the Brock Lesnar Seamus style push when he debuts on the main roster do you agree?
Absolutely would not surprise me. He has that it factor that makes a monster work.
Dory Funk Jr (83 years old) in a Double Hell Current Explosion Death Match just happened last night. Thoughts?
I saw that and…..I have no idea. If he wants to do it then cool, but I have no idea how anyone could ever say “yeah this is ok” and sign him for it. I believe I saw his partner is dying of cancer just to up the freak show element. Absolutely not my thing though.
I have a theory as to why dragon Lee is struggling and the reason is Rey Mysterio dragon Lee wrestle’s the exact same Style but Rey has better psychology execution charisma and is a beloved hall of famer with an aura maybe once Mysterio retires dragon Lee will come out of his shell but why should fans care about dragon Lee when there is a beloved hall of famer who can do everything better than he can? Why settle for a discount Rey Mysterio when you actually have the real thing?
It also never helps when you have someone say “this is your new star”. It didn’t work for Roman Reigns either.
Request: Can you review the November 6, 2000 episode of Monday Night Raw?
Indeed I can.
Who do you think had the most underrated world championship run? Either modern era or all-time?
It could be due to me being a big fan, but Kofi Kingston. He was viewed as a nice moment and nothing more but held the thing for about six months. That’s not bad for a career reward title reign.
Talking of world title runs in 2011 if Mark Henry hadn’t got injured and forced to drop the World Heavyweight Championship to the Big Show who and when would have ended his world title run?
I’ve never heard of another name, but it would be hard to believe it doesn’t go to Bryan anyway.
If he didn’t tear his quad in 2001, how was the rest of the year going to go for HHH? I just assumed he would’ve broken up the “2 man Power-Trip” with Steve Austin and feuded with him, but what about the whole ECW/WCW Invasion storyline as well?
The plan was to have HHH turn face on Austin, leading to a title match at Summerslam. The Invasion seems to have been moved up as a result.
Who was originally supposed to be the Raw Anonymous G.M.? I just assumed it wasn’t going to be Hornswoggle.
I don’t think they ever had a name set. I would have bet on Cole.
Do you think a better writer/writers could’ve made the WCW/ECW Invasion angle in the WWF in 2001 work despite all the constraints of certain wrestlers from those places not being available at the time, or do you think it would’ve still been the giant shit-show that it was?
The latter. There was little that could be done without the big WCW names, especially at that time. WCW needed time to be rehabilitated and no one was going to make it work in a 5-6 month story less than a year after WCW was dying such a miserable death on national TV.
will you finish your wcw nitro reviews of 2000 – 2001?
I finished those years ago.
Do you have any idea where the whole ” Heel Eddie Guerrero starts teaming with the Hardy Boyz for no apparent reason” storyline was supposed to go in the WWF in 2001? Right when it seemed it was about to heat up, Eddie went to rehab for substance abuse issues. When he came back in 2002, it was completely dropped. Probably one of my favorite dropped storylines that I wanted to see play out.
If there was a plan for it, I’ve never heard what it was.
Why did Bobby heenen call local jobbers ham and eggers? is it because the WWF payed them in free dinners? Or was it purely a joke?
It’s an old expression for someone or something very basic, like a basic breakfast being made of and eggs.
With Raw set to go to Netflix early next year, do you think the WWE will end the brand separation since the only way some viewers will get to see certain stars is behind a paywall, or do you believe they will use that as a selling point to subscribe to Netflix?
I think they’ll stick with the same lip service they have to it now. It’ll still be a thing, but at the same time, I could see Netflix saying “we paid for these wrestlers so you better deliver”. Which WWE probably will most of the time, but not entirely.
Do you think at some point on his way to the main event in the next 1-3 years we see Bron utilize the Steiner Screwdriver?
I really can’t imagine it as it’s just such a dangerous/dangerous looking move. I’d love it as it’s an all time awesome looking move, but dang it could go wrong in a hurry.
What do you personally think was the best and worst WWE(F) SummerSlam?
2013 is outstanding. 2010 is pretty dreadful. I’ll always have a special place for 1990, as it was the first tape I ever had and I went through three copies.
Do you think the Wyatt Sicks will fall prey to the same things the original Wyatt Family did, or do you believe they are on better ground for the long run?
Right now I’m cautiously optimistic, as the promos have been good and actually explain some things. That being said, there is every chance that it goes flying off a cliff with their first match on Raw.
Do you have any idea why the WWE in the early 2000’s had wrestlers with Junior in their name remove it? For example, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Rey Mysterio Jr., etc.
My guess would be it makes them sound better. Calling anything “Junior”, even if it is accurate, makes it feel less important. It also doesn’t help that Rey Mysterio Sr. and Chavo Guerrero Sr. didn’t have any major connection to WWE.
Do you think LA Knight is at the point where he needs to go over Logan Paul and win the WWE U.S. Title at SummerSlam?
Kind of yeah. He’s lost enough and has never actually won anything. Give him the title already.
When Honky Tonk Man debuted in the WWF he was endorsed by Hulk Hogan and I heard this was the only time in history where the company let the fan decide whether he should be a face or a heel why did they do this? Were they unsure of his creative Direction and wanted to get fan feedback was something else?
It was more or less a way out of the whole thing as it wasn’t working. Granted the fact that the fan vote and reveal were taped in the same day, I don’t think it was quite on the up and up.
2 questions here.
1. What is the worst WrestleMania main event in your opinion?
2. What are some things you think Triple H should bring back in WWE?
HHH vs. Reigns. I was there and could not wait for that thing to end.
I could always go for the interview platform. It’s a nice change of pace and looks more official. And a more continued focus on the midcard. He knows how valuable it can be and while he’s started in that direction, he has a lot more to go.
I was just reading some of your retro WWE reviews from 2008. What did you think of C.M. Punk’s first WWE World Championship reign overall that year? Average, below average, above average, etc?
It wasn’t great. He felt like someone in over his head and when one of his main feuds was against JBL, he was swimming with an anchor in the first place.
Would you compare it some to Chris Benoit’s World Championship reign in 2004? That’s what it reminded me of, IMO. However, it wasn’t terrible like Rey Mysterio and Jack Swagger’s World Title runs in 2006 and 2010, respectively.
Mysterio and Swagger’s were FAR worse.
I’d put Benoit’s above it, if nothing else as Benoit won the title in a traditional match rather than the cash-in. Benoit felt like he had been elevated while Punk felt like he was in over his head (ala Swagger).
Any idea who was originally supposed to be the driver of the hummer that smashed into Kevin Nash’s limo in WCW?
I don’t think it’s ever been said. There’s a good chance that they didn’t know. The closest thing they hinted at was Bischoff but it was never said officially.
Is there any signature move that you think should be a finisher instead?
Off the top of my head, Okada’s jumping Tombstone which sets up the Rainmaker.
If it were up to you, what championships, if any, would you get rid of in AEW, TNA, and the WWE?
AEW: all of the Ring Of Honor titles. They’re not needed and just clog things up. Also maybe the TBS Title and one of the midcard (International or Continental) titles.
WWE/TNA: the Women’s Tag Team Titles. They do not have the depth to field that many belts and neither has anything resembling a good division.
I haven’t been watching the WWE for sometime now, but try to keep up with what is going on via your reports. My question to you is what exactly is this whole Liv Morgan, Dom Mysterio, Judgement Day storyline? She apparently likes Dom, but he doesn’t like her? Is that the gist of it all?
Mysterio is dating Rhea Ripley. Morgan hates Ripley for injuring her and wants revenge. She’s already injured Ripley and is now trying to take Mysterio too.
I was watching the “Who Killed WCW?” docu-series on Vice last night. They covered the Vince Russo period from October 1999-October 2000. They said the Monday Nitro from Oct. 2, 2000 was Russo’s last writing credit for WCW, but they never specified whether he was fired, quit, or his contract was not renewed. Any idea which it was?
Officially he went home due to getting a concussion in the ring but unofficially he wasn’t brought back because the promotion was dead and he was awful. Odds are he was paid throughout though.
What do you think Drew would have done at Mania if Punk didn’t get injured?
Oooh that’s a good one. Maybe you put him in there with Zayn and Gunther, but there really isn’t much of a spot for him. Odds are he’s wedged into something else, but that really doesn’t feel good for him.
Becky and Charlotte swapping titles because one was blue and one was red has to be one of the worst things ever in WWE yeah?
Oh yeah. “Here take this” doesn’t make the title seem valuable. It makes the title seem like something they’re willing to hand over rather than fight to keep.
Why do you think Mike Bennett and Maria’s run together in the WWE was so short and unmemorable?
Bennett on his own in the ring isn’t very good. He’s rather generic and doesn’t have much that makes him stand out. Over the years, how many times has he been in a team or a group? There’s a reason for that.
Along those same lines, what was up with EC3’s WWE stint? I swear they signed him just so TNA/other promotions couldn’t.
That was a weird one, as he might not have been a big star but he was better than what he was allowed to do. Unless there was something major backstage, there was zero reason for him to be given such a terrible treatment. He was better than that.
I was thinking about mankind and how his entrance theme was different from his victory theme to the best of my knowledge is the only wrestler to have different themes for both any idea why that was?
Jeff Hardy might have done something similar once but Mankind is the only other I know of.
As for why, not really. Just a weird thing he did.
Edge’s return from injury run really didn’t help anyone but him did it?
It’s been…..we’ll call it a mixed bag as I’m an Edge fan but yeah it’s been a lot about him.
I know it’s a minor thing but what do you think about them doing results and event recaps in the bottom left hand corner during the TV shows? They started doing that a month ago
Love it. Not everyone has time to watch three hours so giving them a quick recap/rundown of what you missed is a great touch. It’s helping the fans instead of punishing them for a change and it’s LONG overdue.
When do you think was the last great year for pro wrestling?
2024. Vince McMahon is gone, WWE is on a roll, TNA is doing some rather good stuff, AEW has its moments.
2 questions Why did Terry Funk change to a hardcore style as he got older? Isn’t it harsher on the body? Also I believe you said Hulk hogan’s 1989 Survivor Series team is the best baby face team in history and I have to agree It speaks volumes When Jake Roberts is the weakest member of a team.but who was the best heel team The Sheld or someone else?
1. Actually not as harsh as you would think. Taking a trashcan to the back is actually a lot less painful/impactful than being suplexed for example. You’re not coming down nearly as hard and you don’t have to have the same athleticism to make it work. As for why he switched, I’d assume it was just changing with the times to appeal to the ECW audience. It got over so he went with it.
2. Oh dear. Shield would be up there, yeah. Off the top of my head, I’ll go with….you know, even though they lost, the Authority is up there. Rollins, Kane, Harper, Rusev and Henry with HHH/Stephanie behind them. That’s a pretty awesome lineup. For a team who actually won, the Rougeaus, Rude and Perfect are quite good too.
We’re the Rougeuas really that good? Maybe It’s perception and the fact that I watched only WWF VHS when I was little but they always struck me as just a solid mid card team who weren’t able to win the titles. I also know that it’s one of your favourite entrance themes too!
Oh it sure is. Still on my playlists.
They were rather good, yeah. The problem is they were surrounded by great teams and they weren’t going to shine in that environment.
Did you see any or all of this past season of “Dark Side Of The Ring”? If you have, what did you think?
Oh I saw all of them.
As usual some of them are better than others, but there are instances where they’re stretching the “darker” aspect. Earthquake and Race weren’t exactly dark and Bagwell was more stupid than anything else. On the other hand you have people like Sherri and Gordy, who had all the talent in the world but either dealt with bad luck or bad business and got in trouble. The Chris Colt one was fascinating, just because there is so little footage of him and he’s not that well known. Sandman came off as an interesting subject too, if nothing else as he’s not just kind of a normal guy with a cool history.
I’d call it a completely fine season as I made sure to watch every show, but they’re starting to run out of ideas for new episodes and that can become a problem in a hurry if they have a quota to meet. I certainly hope it keeps going though as more wrestling stuff like this on TV is good.
What does Ludwig Kaiser do at Bash in Berlin?
Other than getting cheered a lot, maybe gets an Intercontinental Title shot against Sami Zayn to avenge Gunther.
What yearly period in the WWE do you think is worse; The post WrestleMania lull, or the Fall season? I’d have to go with the Fall since it seems they don’t put their best foot forward most of the time. I don’t know if that’s conceding that they won’t have a large audience due to football or what.
Probably post Wrestlemania, especially in years where something big happens at Wrestlemania. case in point, there was very little drama to a lot of the title matches at Backlash and the build to the show was hardly compelling.
I think I read somewhere that HHH thinks he made a mistake booking the IC title on Sami
I’m really not sure why. He’s done fine with it, especially coming off an all time run from Gunther. Sami doesn’t feel like the next big thing as champion, but rather the guy who puts over the next big guy, which is a perfectly fine spot for him.
Do you think Gunther’s reign ended rather abruptly? Zayn won that battle royal and a few weeks later beat him, i think the story going to Gable would have made more sense personally.
It did kind of come out of nowhere, but I can go with it as Gunther had been champion so long that someone finally catching him was acceptable. They could have gone with a better build though, yeah.
With Heyman refusing to accept Solo Sakoa as the tribal chef before getting sheld bombed Is that the 1st time Heymen has officially been a babyface in WWE?
Other than a brief period when he was with a babyface Brock and a few spots here and there, more or less yeah it was.
The problem with those times was Heymen was a babyface by Association rather than doing something heroic like refusing to accept solo as the tribal chief
Yeah they were really brief or barely at all. This is his first big official moment.
I was thinking about AWS major decline in recent years and that aew has a stronger emphasis on ring action rather than storylinesand angles apart from sort of harming themselves by sabotaging their biggest drawers I think the main reason for their decline is when it dream matches has potential rather than making fans wait for a few months or year for it to commence as soon as the dream match becomes available Tony can’t just Burns for immediately if the fans have seen every single dream match available then what’s the what’s the interest to continue watching? just my two cents what do you think it’s something else?
That’s a big part of it. That and having too much time to fill and not enough content to put out there. At least not content people want to see.
Is the bloodline saga the longest story in Pro Wrestling history? I mean it’s coming up to 4 years now.
Oh goodness no. Heck the NWO went longer than that.
I just finished watching an ECW career retrospective on Tjari and being Japanese he had the classic poison mist book with a touch I didn’t realise until just now when he was a baby face use green mist on his opponents but when he was a heel he use Red Mist was that the point to it or was it something more?
I’m not sure how official it was but yeah, actually there was a list of different abilities from different color mists. Green was the basic mist, red burned, yellow was (I believe) poison and black was the big one.
I did some research on it as soon as they argue the question and according to wrestling Wikipedia green is the basic one which causes opponents to stumble around red causes burning yellow causes paralysis the one I’ve always wanted to see is blue which puts opponents to sleep and the most devastating one is black which not only causes blindness but can potentially end careers so yeah there you go
You said the NWO went longer then the Bloodline story I’m sure you’re incorrect as it lasted from 1996 till 2000 which would be roughly the same length as Bloodline and thats not ending anytime soon and no I don’t consider NWOs brief restriction in WWE as part of the story Sorry man NWO started in July 96 while I consider Bloodline to have started in October 2020.
The NWO was still going all the way into early 2000 with the silver and black. Even ignoring that, you have things like Hogan vs. Heenan, Bobo Brazil vs. the Sheik, Flair vs. Dusty and more. The Bloodline is the longest modern one, but some of those older ones went on for years and years.
Yeah you’re right I never considered those as they were on off feuds but you are correct. I think it’s because the bloodline has never had a break and they have been on tv every week in one form or another. For the the last 4 years. I sware I can’t remember a week when they were not on tv.
Indeed. And it also helps that this has weekly TV so it’s easier to see, while back then feuds would continue on house shows for years.
Could it also come down to Tony Khan pushing the wrong people? I mean Jack Perry getting the next aew world title match despite the fact that Brian last mentioned on his podcast with Jim cornette that Jack Perry has T-Rex Arms and the Aura of despite being a pro wrestler people believe in average Joe like themselves can beat this guy up in a fight not to mention he is one of the biggest reasons why aew doesn’t draw the numbers or money it used to I mean the goodness sake I have cerebral palsy and use a wheelchair and I believe I can beat up Orange Cassidy and Jack Perry my goodness I saw one clip of orange Cassidy and couldn’t get over how thin his arms are that’s not a good sign
Oh yeah that’s a lot of it too. Tony Khan has a bad inability to understand that what he likes isn’t what the masses like. This is what turned the last few years of Vince’s WWE into a mess and it’s happening again here.
Have you seen any of this WWE “Speed” show that airs exclusively on X/Twitter? I myself have not.
I saw a match taped at Smackdown. Other than that, I haven’t seen any of it, no.
How long after the WWE Draft do you give until the company violates their own brand split rules?
I’m optimistic, so I’ll go sometime this summer.
If it isn’t by the build to Summerslam, I’ll be stunned.
What series of match-ups did you like at first but grew tired of as they went on? For example, mine would be Brian Kendrick/Paul London vs. Deuce and Domino. I swear at one point there on WWE Smackdown from 2006-2007, they had some version of that match every week for months on end.
3 Count vs. the Jung Dragons (and the three way feud that came from it) in WCW. It felt like it would never end.
What is your view on the WWE splitting the Tag Team Titles again? I think this would be good IF ONLY A.) They will go back to a strict brand separation after the draft, and B.) They have the roster depth on both shows to pull it off. I’m not sure about either.
I wouldn’t have done it but it’s not the worst thing. There are multiple teams per show and WWE seems to actually be putting in some effort for once and that helps a lot. And yeah, keep them FAR apart after the Draft.
Do you ever get hate mail from trolls? If you do, do you ignore them, or do you respond?
I do and it depends. Some of them are so stupid I have to mock them.
What would you say has been the best and worst Wrestle-Mania weekend overall experience since you started doing them?
Best – Wrestlemania XXX. Granted I didn’t do much in the way of indys.
Worst – Wrestlemania XXXIV. When I’m at WrestleCon, featuring about 200 wrestlers and more merchandise/memorabilia than I can imagine, and half an hour in I’m sitting in the hallway wondering if I should just go back to my hotel because I’m so miserable, something is going wrong.
What is the best in worst WrestleMania logos in your opinion
Oops accidentally clicked the reply button when trying to ask a question
Off the top of my head, XXX was very good. XXXI (Wrestlemania Play Button) never did much for me.
Any idea on what is going on with that whole lawsuit re: Vince McMahon being accused of sexually assaulting a past talent? I remember he resigned officially from the company a few months ago, but haven’t heard anything about it since then.
I haven’t heard anything about it but as it’s a court case, it could take a very, very long time to go anywhere.
What happened with Rhonda Rousey? She went from headlining Wrestle-Mania to appearing on the indies and ROH in a relatively short amount of time.
From everything I’ve heard, she just got burned out and didn’t want to do it anymore. The ROH stuff was a bit different though as she and Marina Shafir are good friends and she wanted to team with her.
With so many PLEs now being shown on Saturdays instead of Sundays, do you think we’ll ever see a promotion put one of their television programs on Sunday evenings? I don’t believe we’ve had one of those since the WWE ended Heat in the late 2000’s. Plus, it’s a lot better than those Friday and Saturday night death slots.
It would be a bit hard to imagine but maybe some minor promotion who can’t get a spot anywhere else.
Have you ever shown your face on this website? If not will you ever think about doing it?
Yeah I’ve done it a few times when I’ve posted some photos from events.
What would you say is the best and worst face and heel turns you have ever witnessed since you started watching wrestling?
I’m going to cheat a bit on the face turn and go with Sheamus in 2011. Mark Henry was the monster and wrecked everyone so no one could challenge him. Sheamus came out and said “I’ll fight him.” Ignore the song he sang after.
As for worst….I’ll go with a weird one and say Greg Valentine in the early 90s. Who in the world thought THAT was a good idea?
Have you ever thought of making a YouTube channel for wrestling content?
I’ve thought about it before but me on camera/talking without someone to cut me off goes really, really badly.
Oh, that’s cool if you don’t want to, I mean, you could practice talking on camera if you really wanted to though.
What would you say the era in pro wrestling we are currently in is compared to past ones? For example, the best ever, the worst ever, somewhere in between, etc?
Business wise it’s the best ever, at least for WWE.
From a quality standpoint, I’d say the middle. The top stuff is very good but egads the middle of the card is not exactly thrilling me. It’s good, but I’ve had a much better time/gotten more enjoyment out of other periods.
Since the majority of AEW’s television product takes place in the Friday and Saturday night death slots, has there ever been talk of moving those shows to different nights? I wouldn’t think they’d be happy with the ratings numbers they likely draw, or are they defying expectations there?
If there has been, I haven’t heard about it. Absolutely though, those things need to be moved as they’re never going to be serious draws in those spots.
I have a review request.
RAW – May 17, 2010.
Bret Hart’s final championship win, and Edge and Christian’s last one-on-one match in WWE.
Show took place in Toronto, so the E&C match was pretty special.
Sure. I’ve got a 2008 show I’m doing but I’ll put that up next on the list.
If it were 100% up to you, would you have left both men’s WWE Wrestle-Mania championship matches as to how they were originally, or do you agree with them putting Drew McIntyre vs Seth Rollins for the World Championship, and Cody Rhodes vs Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship?
Cody vs. Reigns pretty much had to happen. The fans were not going to let anything else happen and if that’s the case, it’s not worth fighting against that strong of a tide.
I’m not sure which original match you’re referring to for Rollins’ title.
He’s refuting to CM Punk but if he didn’t know punk got injured in the Rumble so they replaced him with Mcintyre.
If Punk was healthy, yeah I would have gone with him.
Sorry, I just saw this now. I meant The Rock vs Roman Reigns for the WWE Undisputed Universal Championship, and Cody Rhodes vs Seth Rollins for the World Championship. Either way you answered my question.
Is it me, or has the WWE gone crazy as of late having 2 commercial breaks in matches that barely go over 15 minutes? I noticed they did this twice on Raw this past week. I for the life of me don’t understand why they simply don’t go to break as the wrestlers are making their entrances, then start the match immediately coming back from the ads. I don’t believe constant commercial breaks in matches, (especially ones that have no stakes in them), is the hook they think it is.
You’re not crazy and yeah it’s annoying. If you have on average 3:30 per commercial break, you’re losing almost half of the match. I have no idea why that is seen as a good thing for anyone but WWE’s accounting department.
How do you think Wade Barrett and Corey Graves have done since they started announcing together on Smackdown? I thought that was a curious move by the WWE to pair 2 heel announcers together.
I rarely pay attention to most commentary but they haven’t done anything to make me dislike them yet. Barrett has been quite good almost anytime he does commentary and that seems to be staying true.
If it wasn’t dropped due to the Benoit murders-suicide, what was the whole “Vince McMahon dies in a limo explosion” angle supposed to lead to?
There have been a few answers proposed but the big one tends to be Vince faking his death and coming for revenge on everyone who didn’t treat him right.
Hi Thomas. I just read that you dislike the “Beat The Clock” concept as the worst way to determine a No. 1 contender. I fully agree. However, I’m not exactly sure WHY I dislike it so much. What is your reasons?
My guess would be over how it often ends with someone winning a match in something like 26 seconds. That or something like one of the opponents is the US Champion and another is some low level goof. It doesn’t feel real and that hurts things a lot.
In your opinion who was afffected worst by WWEs national expansion AWA or Mid South?
Oh the AWA. WWF took probably a dozen names from the AWA and made the bigger than they ever were before. Mid-South was hurt by the oil industry rather than the WWF
Other than a 1 on 1 match, what is your favorite and least favorite match-way to determine a no. 1 contender to a title(s)?
Favorite: …..dang this is kind of hard. Uh, I guess for lack of any other options we’ll go with a battle royal but I’m not wild on it.
Least: Beat The Clock Challenge.
So what is your personal reaction to the WWE moving Raw to Netflix a year from now? I personally think it’s moronic to put your weekly flagship show behind a paywall, but maybe I’m not seeing something.
Well personally for me it’s nice to have the tax break as Netflix is officially a business expense, but that’s a pretty small subset.
I’m intrigued by the idea, as it opens up SO many new doors and opportunities, but at the same time, I do get the paywall argument. At the same time though, Netflix is something that so, so many people already have, meaning it’s not like getting some obscure/new streaming service. So yeah I can see both sides of it.
Hi Thomas. Why do you think Sting’s WWE stint was so unmemorable?
The biggest reason of them all: he lost his big match against HHH. After that, what was the point of doing anything? It was Sting in name only, as he was just kind of there instead of getting anything resembling focus.
Was/Is there a wrestler you were so disinterested in you felt/feel like changing channels every time they were/are on?
Oh dear.
Joe Gacy
Deaner/The Design
Santino Marella
ODB/Eric Young in their Knockouts Tag Team Champions days
There was a time when I COULD NOT STAND Jim Ross for reason I still can’t quite explain.
Actually, Jim Ross tends to get on my nerves quite a bit since he’s been around. What period did you not stand him?
2002-2004ish. I remember he was on the Excess show and I yelled at the screen.
IIRC, that’s when they were doing regular angles involving the Raw announce team. I swear Ross was fired every week for a while there.
Yeah they did that weird JR/King vs. Coach/Al Snow feud for a bit.
What was the origin of backstage promos in wrestling? In the Golden era which was our favourite era backstage promos weren’t a thing unless mean Gene or Sean Mooney was interviewing someone before a match until the attitude era where you would see one after every match and backstage promos feature on every single show since why is that?
It was pretty much the Attitude Era, as everything was designed to become more “real”.
If the WWE had presented the cruiserweights like WCW and Impact did/have done when they brought the title back in 2016, (treated them as equals to the heavyweights instead of a sideshow), do you think they would still be around today?
I don’t think so, no. The styles have changed too much and what once stood out as unique and different is now the norm. It might have lasted longer, but as has been said, why should there be a Cruiserweight Title when Rey Mysterio, AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan and probably others can be World Champion?
Thx. Would you retire the TNA X-Division Title for the same reasons?
Nah. It’s the kind of title that can be used for any weight so it doesn’t have the same problems.
The highlight of this latest heel Rock run for me came last week On Smackdown when we got the return of the shortly used Hollywood Rock theme which he used for the end of his full time run back in 03. It is my favorite theme of all time which got me wondering what themes are on your short list of greatest of all time?
Oh geez.
Real American
Midnight Express
Demolition
AJ Styles main TNA theme
Right Here, Right Now (Tyson Kidd)
My Time
Awesome Bomb (Mike Awesome)
I’ll cut myself off there.
Have to ask because when I read My Time my head went to Triple H’s first singles theme post DX that was sung by the same group that did the DX theme. Is that it or is there another theme with that title?
The HHH one, yep.
What are your thoughts on the DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight title?
It’s a hilarious joke and they have turned it into its own thing over just the Hardcore Title parody. They don’t treat it as anything more than what it is and that works.
What are your thoughts on the DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight title?
We know it was never going to happen due to ego. But if the Aliance had won the winner take all match at Survivor Series 2001 How do you see the next few months of tv playing out? For me all I can think of is an NWO/Nexus situation where with the exception of the very biggest stars Every WWF Star is fired or beaten on a weekly basis with stone cold, The Rock and HHH being WWFs only hopes Heymen, Shane and Stephanie rule like tyrants with an iron fist Thangs don’t turn around until the the Royal Rumble match eventually leeds to Vince returning in the main event of Wrestlemaina X8 to help the Rumble winner win the world title and slay the 3 headed dragon for good. ( Vince would have gone into hiding after Survivor Series due to the shame and embarrassment of losing his company) Any Ideas?
It would more or less have to lead to a big us vs. them card at Wrestleamania. If nothing else, HHH could have been back to really sway the tide by then.
Have you ever “broken up” with a friend before? For example, I did this many years ago. He became increasingly annoying as time went on with calling me frequently, stopping by my house without calling first, etc.
Oh yeah. Drove me insane and eventually another friend of mine clued me in on how bad the whole mess was. It didn’t last much longer.
What established wrestler that came from another promotion to sign with the WWF/E do you think was/has been the biggest disappointment?
Sting. Should have been the easiest thing in the world and turned into a disaster.
Rewatching 2004 WWE and after Orton dropped the World Heavyweight Title to Triple H there rivalry seemed pretty hot and quite over with the crowd who also seemed to eat up Orton as a face. Any idea why they didn’t go with Orton getting the big moment at Mania 21 and winning the title over Triple H in a spot that would ultimately go to Batista?
WWE apparently thought he was bombing as a face, but Batista was more or less locked in for that slot for a good while no matter what Orton did.
What happened with Riddick “Madcap” Moss in the WWE? He seemed to be on an upward trajectory there for awhile, but then he disappeared from T.V. before being released. Did he piss someone off?
It seems like he just wasn’t connecting, though after so many months as a joke teller, that isn’t surprising. He definitely had some tools though and I could have gone for seeing him repackaged.
The legendary rivalry that was Savage v Hogan happened across WWE and WCW These two seemed joined at the hip at times but in thair on off feud Savage never got a pin on Hogan in your opinion when would have been the best times to give him the win? ( Sorry asked this question earlier but put it in the Elimination Chamber2024 coments by mistake)
WCW in 1995 would have helped, just for the sake of breaking up Hogan’s reign. Like in December at Starrcade.
Having Savage win at Wrestlemania V and hold the title until Summerslam would have been incredible but I don’t think they could have done it in that time period.
Hogan wasn’t champion going into Starrcade 95.
Savage winning at Wrestlemania V would be stupid.
Well given that Hogan didn’t wrestle at Starrcade, I thought it was pretty clear we were going for an alternate timeline.
Whats your favorite nexus member? (Besides punk, barret, Cena and Daniel Bryan)
If we’re talking overall, Slater, as he took what he had and turned it into something.
If you mean just during their time in Nexus, Sheffield/Ryback, as I can go for a powerhouse most of the time.
Do you like it or hate it when pro wrestling weekly shows have regular programming on major holidays like Christmas Eve, Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year’s Eve, etc? If it were up to me, I’d run a “Best Of” show with these for 2 reasons. 1.) Give the talent a chance to take some time off and recharge their batteries, and 2.) Nobody is going to be watching, anyways. Several years back WWE Raw fell on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, and they not only had a normal Raw,(although it was taped), but it was actually a pretty loaded show. I thought it was a waste for the minimal audience it undoubtedly received
If it’s the actual holiday, yeah do a Best Of. Let the fans have a breather for once.
Do you think a promotion having a World Champion that is only on their T.V. shows sporadically,(The WWE with Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns), is stupid, or are you OK with it?
Stupid for the most part. Unless you have one heck of a midcard title feud going, it feels secondary. If I’m watching WWE and hearing about how great they are, why am I not seeing the best?
I haven’t watched AEW for a while now, but it seems that they always have some kind of tournament going on when I read a recap. Do you think they have too many tournaments?
Oh yeah. That, battle royals and ladder matches. They’re quite the common tropes.
Did you find it curious how Kofi Kingston’s 6 month reign as WWE World Champion came to an end with a squash loss to Brock Lesnar? I mean I think they would’ve had him put up more than a fight than getting pinned clean in under 10 seconds.
Yeah that was always lame. Kingston might not be the top star in WWE but he could have hung in there for a few minutes. As usual though, Lesnar doesn’t get paid by the hour.
For as good and impactful Swerve’s top rope finish is does the setup for the finish both you like it bothers me with his opponent having to sit up in a weird position for the move to be executed.
Maybe a bit but you could also have him put someone down and he stomps them as they’re getting up. With the 619 being a thing, it’s not one that I get overly annoyed about.
When the WWF became the WWE after the lawsuit brought by the World Wildlife Federation in 2002, how long beforehand did they pretty much know they had to change their name?
A pretty long time in advance, as the case was about as open and shut as you could get. I’m not sure on an exact date, but I would guess several months, if not more.
With all the CM Punk stuff being uploaded to WWE’s Youtube, I rewatched Cena vs. Punk at MITB. Is this the best match with the worst commentary? It’s absolutely awful from Cole, Lawler and Booker T.
Is there a better match with worse commentary out there?
Pretty much any good match with Matt Striker on commentary as he could ruin anything.
Hope all is well, with the return of Punk to WWE along with other crazy things that have happened like Warrior and Bret returning and many more, what was the point where you thought “ok truly never say never in wrestling”?
Daniel Bryan. Both becoming the biggest star in WWE and getting back in the ring after years away. I never believed it would happen, or at least not in a WWE ring.
Can you do the ecw harcore tvs?
I can do a few of them but the whole series would take far longer than I’d want to put into it.
How much did the Stephanie McMahon-Test wedding angle in late 1999 change from the original plans after Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara left for WCW?
Entirely. That was one of Russo’s big ideas and once he was gone, it didn’t have an ending so the whole thing had to be redone into what we got.
Are you ever amazed at how fast time goes by in wrestling and how much changes so fast? Just reading a Survivor Series review from almost ten years ago and its like dang I only counted five people total on that show that are still even with WWE. Not to mention all the big things that just come and go that were popular at the time then just vanish like a flash in the pan like the Fandango dance, Rusev day etc.
Oh absolutely. I was redoing last year’s Survivor Series and I barely remember how we got to any of those places.
What’s the deal with Impact Wrestling going back to the TNA name next year? I was always under the impression they wanted to get away from that name?
From what I can tell, they’re going for nostalgia and accepting the fact that the fans are always chanting TNA anyway. I have no idea why this is seen as a necessity or even a good idea.
What happened with Tyson Tomko in TNA in the late 2000’s? He seemed like he was ready to breakout there, then he just kind of vanished.
I don’t remember anything big happening but I would assume it was a bunch of bigger names getting the focus (Joe, Angle, Christian etc.)
Hi A thought just popped into my head If you were a wrestler would you be an independent main eventer or a mainstream Jobber? For me I’d rather be a jobber as I’m losing every week sometimes embarrassingly but at least a recognisable name and unless you are a once in a gen talent you have to start in the indes but only a handful of people know who you are.
Jobber. Get paid well, don’t have to do much, might get noticed for a bigger spot later.
Can you explain what the appeal of the ironman match is? I feel like just letting us know there is an hour time limit for an upcoming match is a better alternative. If someone gets pinned/submitted five times in an hour its like why would I ever want to see this person wrestle again? they suck. Maybe not that extent but hope I got that point across.
Oh you definitely did and I get what you mean. They’re not my favorite either, as you can often skip the first 95% of the match and not miss much. I can live with people losing falls in an Iron Man match, though it usually needs to be later on. Multiple falls can be booked well (Rock vs. HHH did it) but you have to put a lot of thought into them. But yeah, really not my favorite either.
If it were 100% up to you, would you have put LA Knight over Roman Reigns at Crown Jewel for the strap? I would’ve. The WWE never strikes while the iron is hot for a wrestler anymore. Besides, as you pointed out, Roman Reigns title defenses have all become repetitive now. There is no drama on who will win.
I’m not sure I would have, but I absolutely would have considered it. This “it has to be at Wrestlemania” thinking is really annoying and the ans would have bought Knight winning because he’s as over as you can be.
What kayfabe pro wrestling rule do you hate the most? For example, mine would be that wrestlers that aren’t eliminated in over the top rope battle royals can spend as much time outside the ring as possible. That begs the question of why everybody just doesn’t do that to begin with?
That’s WAY up there as I absolutely cannot stand the “wait, they weren’t eliminated!” ending.
For me, and granted this isn’t around anymore, it was the over the top DQ rule in WCW, as they never quite had a firm explanation of what counted and didn’t.
Do you think Damien Priest will successfully cash in his Money In The Bank contract?
I don’t, as I see him not winning and leaving Judgment Day as a result.
Were you surprised when jimmy uso help judgement day win back the titles?
A bit yeah as I wouldn’t have expected that at the moment, but the more I think about it, the less surprised I am. The Bloodline story needed the boost and Jimmy vs. Jey is going to be a big match.
I haven’t been watching the WWE lately, but I just saw that Nick Aldis was named Smackdown G.M. Is his in-ring career over, or is this just something he is doing for now?
He was wrestling at an independent match the previous week so I would assume it’s just something for now. He’s only 36 so he has a lot of years left for him if he wants to stay in the ring.
What are your feelings on Impact Wrestling’s “Feast Or Fired” match? Do you like it, hate it, or are somewhere in between?
I like the concept, but I’d much rather it not be for a Money In The Bank anytime title shot. If it was for a scheduled title shot, it would be a much better idea.
Were you surprised by NXT beating AEW Dynamite in the ratings this past week when the 2 went head to head?
Not in the slightest. NXT was loaded with big names to the point where I would have been stunned if it had been much closer.
If you could pick out just 1 moment from the WWF-WCW Monday Night Wars that turned the tide in WWF’s favor for good, what do you think that it was?
If you’re talking the whole era and not just the TV shows, Starrcade 1997, which was the biggest fumble imaginable.
If you mean just TV, it was Steve Austin handing over the Intercontinental Title to go after the WWF Title. There was nothing WCW could do to stop them at that point and it was just a matter of time.
I noticed that usually you don’t rate short matches on TV reports. However, for the times that you do, do you have a criteria for doing so?
I don’t rate matches less than three minutes long. It doesn’t seem fair to grade something where they have so little time.
Are there ever times that you regret being an “insider” or “smart” wrestling fan? I’ll give you an example of what I’m talking about: Several times over the last decade or so when WWE Raw comes up I’ll sometimes say that I wish it would just go back to being 2 hours instead of 3, another “smart” fan will then turn into a WWE P.R. Agent screaming things like “The WWE gets paid a lot of money for that extra hour! They didn’t have a choice! It’s never going back to 2 hours!”, etc. To which I then reply with “What the hell does that have to do with your enjoyment of the show, you know, the whole reason why you presumably watch?” The idea that some insider/smart fans turn into Dave Meltzer on every subject of the business is infuriating.
Oh absolutely. Not limited to the following:
1. Spoilers. If you’re an online fan, finding out things in advance is really hard to avoid, especially long term plans. Or Royal Rumble entrants.
2. Everything has to have a rating (rich coming from me I know). There’s this really, really, really annoying tendency for people to shoot down someone for saying they liked a match (which is the point) by yelling about how it was only X stars or it didn’t do this or that. You can pick any match apart and find something wrong with it, but there’s nothing wrong with getting swept up in a match and having a good time.
3. Having to listen to fans who will explain how something is some callback to another promotion from years ago and that apparently makes up for a problem. I don’t care that Taue and Kawada did something in 1994 in Tokyo. It’s Seth Rollins and Shinsuke Nakamura in 2023 so stop explaining things to me or telling me that I need to watch this to get something. I’m watching WWE or AEW or whatever because I want to watch it, not to see what kind of tributes they’re running that week.
I’ll cut myself off there.
With the news that Smackdown will be moving back to USA Network next year, I read an article that said Raw is not likely to stay on USA for that reason. If that’s the case, where do you see the WWE taking Raw? Also, do you think that will be the end of the 3 hour format if they leave USAN considering that was USA’s idea to begin with?
Based on them reportedly being interested and how much money they have, Amazon sounds like a real possibility.
And I hadn’t thought of the three hours thing but you might be on to something there.
So you think the WWE would put their flagship show behind a paywall? I actually brought this idea up several years ago on Scott Keith’s blog, but was told it would never happen.
That would be a major, major red flag against them and I’m not sure it would work. Unless there’s a free option on there, it would be the biggest thing against it.
What were your feelings on “Raw Underground” during the pandemic? While I gave them points for trying something new and different, there never felt like there was a point to the whole thing.
It was interesting in the very short term but other than that, I didn’t see it working. For something different, cool, but if I wanted to watch MMA style stuff, I wouldn’t be watching Raw.
Did the WWE move NXT from Wed. nights to Tues. nights because they were losing to AEW Dynamite in the ratings, or was it for other reasons? I wasn’t really watching wrestling at that time, but I always assumed it to be because they were getting beat by AEW on a regular basis.
Yeah I’d assume that had a lot to do with it. Why leave yourselves out there and take one more less after another?
Hey your website is playing up really bad lately and not letting me scroll down any reviews.
Tried multiple webbrowsers and same on different devices
Is there any button saying something like expand article etc?
I am not Sam obviously but even when that button does appear, it does not do anything. At least for me.
Like I said elsewhere, try using Read Only mode (F9 on Firefox) and it should clear things up. Granted that’s not the optimal way to fix it but it works for the short term.
What were your feelings on Raw’s “Guest Hosts” when the WWE started with them in the late 2000’s? Although I thought there were some good one’s and decent episodes, the glut of it was bad and went on for way too long.
I’m about the same. There were a lot of them that had nothing to do with wrestling and I would sit there wondering why I was supposed to care about this stuff.
If you could get rid of one championship title in pro wrestling, (yes, just one!), which would it be and why?
Ring Of Honor Six Man Tag Team Titles. There is no division and the Mogul Embassy has held them for so long against one thrown together team after another that there is no reason to be interested in the things.
What would you say is the biggest one-sided feud you have ever seen? I think Diamond Dallas Page vs the Undertaker in 2001 in the WWF takes the cake for me.
That very well may be the one. Other than that, Undertaker never actually beat Bret Hart (in a match that mattered).
As long term rivalries goes, I always thought Undertaker-Kane was pretty one-sided (when it counts) until these 3 PPV win by Kane in 2010. Same with Hogan over Savage. As feud goes, HHH over Booker T in 2003 (short term) and of course WWF over The Alliance in 2001 (long term) are the first ones I can think of.
Hogan vs. Savage is a really good one and I had completely forgotten about that. That’s absolutely the long term #1 as I don’t believe Savage ever pinned him once.
Merry Christmas Thomas As we know the Royal Rumble is coming up and the best is considered to be 1992 due to star power which was won by Ric Flalr. The fact that the Wwe title was on the line didn’t hurt either but in your opinion what was the best Rumble won by a babyface? Side note the cultaholic you tube channel just finished releasing a 4 part documentary on the golden age I just finished watching last night AS it is our favourite era I highly recommend it if you can find the time!
1990. There is a period in the first part that is absolute gold with one star after another, plus the incredible Hogan/Warrior showdown.
And oh yeah I’m on it. I’m still in part one due to the holidays but it looks great.
Is what Ospreay said on AEW Dynamite during the Jericho promo about his contract running up at the end of the year the truth or was it just part of the story they wanted to tell for the Jericho/Ospreay match?
If it is true is there any early indication about where he might sign and commit his future to? If you were his advisor where would you advise him to sign (assuming all major brands are interested)?
From what I understand, yes it is true.
I’d probably do what he’s doing now: mainly stay in New Japan and wrestle elsewhere. He just did All In and is booked for two upcoming Impact shows, including Bound For Glory. If you can keep that freedom open and the money is still good for you, stick with it.
If it was up to you, Thomas Hall, would you keep or end the WWE Brand Extension? If the WWE was serious about following it, I’d keep it. However, since they are obviously not, I’d consolidate all titles, (maybe save for the I.C. and U.S. Titles), and just end it for good.
If the TV networks weren’t a factor, yeah I’d drop it. It’s more or less dropped already.
Is this the worst wrestling movie ever?
https://youtu.be/ryLOBIJ2wIc
And how do I get you to review it?
Any clue as to what happened with Ryback? Unless I’m mistaken, he hasn’t appeared for any major wrestling organizations since he left the WWE in 2016.
In short, he’s nuts and no one wants anything to do with him, save for some small independent promotions.
Thanks. Now that you mentioned that, was it him who said publicly right before he left the WWE that jobbers should be paid the same as top tier stars?
It was indeed, in case you needed more proof that he was a bit loony.
Do you know of someone who was doing reviews with star ratings for the weekly wwe and tna shows in 2010?
I don’t, but I don’t read many other reviews.
It is well documented that 94 and 95 were lean years business wise for the then WWF. Do you think if Hogan would have put Hart over as the WWF Champion sometime in 93 (SummerSlam according to Hart) that it would have boosted business moving forward as Hart would have been the top guy that beat Hogan on his way out? Or was a downturn unavoidable until we got major changes like the NWO in 96 and the Attitude Era in 97/98?
I have no idea why this didn’t go through weeks ago.
Hart getting the rub would have helped but the downturn was indeed inevitable.
What would you say was the most useless,(not necessarily the worst), feud you have seen in your time as a pro- wrestling fan? IDK about all time, but recently for me it had to be the Chad Gable/Bobby Roode vs the Ascension feud on WWE Raw a few years back. Gable/Roode won the first 2 matches clean, but of course the feud still kept GOING with singles matches and tag matches for nearly 2 months. No storyline or character development whatsoever with this feud, and it just ended up dragging the new pairing of Gable/Roode down as a team for trading back and forth wins with a Jobber To The Stars tag-team at that point. “50/50 booking” at it’s absolute worst.
Oh geez that could cover a lot of ground.
Off the top of my head and ignoring smaller promotions, Chavo Guerrero vs. Hornswoggle is up there. it felt like a feud entirely designed to make Vince laugh/humiliate Chavo and that doesn’t help anyone.
Now that the latest season of “Dark Side Of The Ring” is over, I was just curious if you watched any episodes? If you did, what did you think?
I saw all of them.
I’m not sure I’d call all of them dark, as Magnum was a one off freak accident, Candido was ready for a serious comeback and got killed by a fluke injury, and Abdullah was some weird character study which morphed into a story about Hannibal.
The Doink one was good and the Graham one was interesting, with the Bash At The Beach and Jannetty ones being more lighthearted.
Oh and the Adonis one was good, as he’s a fascinating character you don’t hear about too often.
Overall it was a fine season, but they’re starting to run out of major events and top stars to cover.
Where do you see the Ridge Holand story going?
That’s a good question and honestly I’m not sure. He would seem to be perfect to be able to come back as an enforcer of some kind, though who is up in the air. Lexis King could use some muscle but there’s no reason to go in that direction.
What were your thoughts on the anonymous general manager back in 2010?
They build it up into something that had gone on so long that no one was going to be a satisfactory conclusion. It should have been left alone rather than doing the Hornswoggle reveal.
Tonight on Smackdown when Edge fights Sheamus do you think Edge will put his boots in the ring and retire?
Nah. I doubt they’ll be that obvious.
Re: WWE matches like the Royal Rumble, the Elimination Chamber, Money In The Bank, etc., do you like when they have qualifying matches to determine who will be a part of those contests, or do you prefer they simply name the competitors without the qualifiers?
It depends. If the qualifying matches are part of ongoing stories or matches that could go either way, they’re cool. Otherwise, I don’t need Bobby Lashley beat up Xavier Woods for a spot in the Chamber for example.
Do you think Lita will return to help Becky Lynch fight Trish Stratus and Zoey Stark at Payback?
I doubt it. She was a bit rough looking in some of her previous matches. Also I’d assume they finish this whole thing off on Raw in the cage.
Will you do a review for the August 16, 2010 episode of raw? Also who’s your favorite nexus member?
I’ll put it on my list but it might take a bit to get there.
And I’ll go with Barrett, as he was getting somewhere before the whole thing collapsed.
Are Big E and Randy Orton ever returning to the WWE/pro-wrestling?
I highly doubt it with Big E. Orton is reportedly training to return but nothing official.
Thx. What is going on with Big E, BTW? I thought he fully recovered from his neck injury? Does he just not want to wrestle anymore?
He’s recovered enough to have a normal day to day life but not enough to wrestle.
Hi Thomas. I just got into AEW a few weeks ago after not watching it at all since it’s inception. Was the TBS Title always supposed to be some sort of secondary women’s championship, or is that how it’s all turned out for them?
Yeah it was always secondary, though Jade Cargill turned into such a star for a bit that it was getting closer to the top for a bit.
Any chance for a Blackcraft Wrestling: No Apologies PPV review? It’s only a few years old but being widely considered one of the worst PPV’s of all time. It’s extremely violent at times, as a fair warning.
I’ve actually seen it and reviewed it before, but I’m not comfortable with some of the content in it and won’t be releasing it.
But yeah, it’s every bit as bad as it’s made up to be.
Have you heard of a show called Blackcraft Wrestling: No Apologies? It’s only a few years old and being called one of the worst wrestling events of all-time. Could be worth a review, but there’s some very violent content at times.
On the subject of the Rumble final four in my previous post, here’s my early prediction:
Men: LA Knight, Cody (Wins the EC), Gunther (Winner if Priest isn’t Champion), Finn (Winner if Priest is Champion)
Women: Raquel (Winner), Shayna, Charlotte, Bianca
Thoughts?
I’d be going with Cody and Becky, as dull as it might be.
What do you think of the “automatic re-match clause” plot device? Personally, I don’t like it. I would rather it be employed sporadically on a case by case basis rather than used every-time a champion(s) loses their title as a reason for why a re-match is taking place.
Absolutely not a fan. There are times where it makes sense, but it always came off like a shortcut to set up a rematch. That works occasionally, but it was done so often that it stopped working.
During the build for their match at the Tokyo Dome in the beginning of 2023 I thought it was pretty cool that Omega was able to cut a promo in Japanese. I figured he had been there for over a decade and picked it up along the way. Then I watched his finals match from the 2016 G1 and in the ring after the match he cut a promo in Japanese meaning he was either fluent or close enough by 2016 to start doing so. Do you have any idea when his Japanese was strong enough to start using during promos in Japan?
I don’t actually, as I don’t watch very much New Japan.
What are your thoughts on jey uso saying he’s going to leave wwe?
That he’ll be back in a few weeks to continue the Bloodline stuff. He’s not going anywhere save for maybe on a few weeks’ vacation.
Yeah, heard stuff about rikishi returning, maybe that has to do with that stuff
site is fucked up it keeps on saying expand article, i click it and it comes back up again and again. I’ve just been copying the reviews and pasting them into wordpad at this point.
Where is it saying “expand article”?
It covers the entire page and doesn’t let me scroll down until I hit it.
Technically it says Expand to see full article, usually when I scroll down even a little bit. Its obnoxious but I wouldn’t care if it wasn’t actually stopping me from reading the damn review.
Is this only on mobile or desktop?
For me, it does it on desktop/laptop (firefox and google chrome). disabling
Adblock help a bit but not each time.
I’ve been betting with my friends that LA Knight will be in the final four at the next Rumble. What do you think?
I won’t go with a complete no but that might be a deeper run than he has in him at the moment.
Why do you think Diamond Dallas Page’s WWE career was so short and forgettable? Was it simply a case of a bad writing team, or was it something else?
Well the big reason was he hurt his neck in April 2002 and retired shortly after.
Other than that, it was a combination of being in his mid 40s, having Undertaker humiliate him in his first feud, and not having to start over in WWE. One of the reasons Page worked in WCW was the fans got behind him as this underdog who kept working harder and harder to get to the top. He started as nothing and rode the Diamond Cutter all the way to the World Title. Fans got behind him and it worked. That wasn’t there in the WWF so instead they saw an older guy who was a stalker and then a motivational speaker, which is only so interesting.
Why do you think the booking of Bray Wyatt by the WWE has been so spotty and inconsistent from the beginning? Sometimes, I thought he was on the verge of becoming the new Undertaker, then some sort of setback always seemed to happen.
For me it comes back to the biggest problem with Wyatt: nothing was ever explained. You would get some hints here and pieces there, but there was never a moment of “this is what X means and this is what Y means.” Without that, it’s kind of hard to get to the big finale of a story and turn it into something that elevates him up.
Plus some of the stuff was just dumb.
Can’t even find this page from homepage; anyway why do you think WWE changed Summerslam from end of August, which makes more sense as its end of summer, to the start of August?
Probably just a scheduling thing. It’s been early in August before.
Hey KB, aside from Roman Reigns I’m not sure the general public knows of today’s crop of talent the way they knew some of the stars from previous generations, do you agree with this? If so, what does it mean for the future of the business? I feel like the 4 main OVW graduates were the last generation that were truly known worldwide.
Somewhat yes, though that has been the case with several generations of wrestlers over the years. A big star always comes along and gets WWE’s major push to fix the problem.
One thing I have always wondered about was the timing around Triple H winning the IC Title at SummerSlam 98. The whole summer builds toward the HHH/Rock ladder match for the title and of course Trips wins but what I am interested in is the fallout. Triple H would go on to have a short title regin in which I don’t believe he ever had a televised title defense. He then vacates the title in early October I believe due to a knee injury. He is then placed in the bracket for the Survivor Series Deadly Game WWE Title Tourney but does not participate.
I don’t doubt the injury was legit but what I am wondering is when did the injury occur? Did he go into the SummerSlam match with it and it only got worse forcing him to miss time or did he get injured sometime shortly after SummerSlam? Also, was he included in the Deadly Game bracket because the injury wasn’t thought to be too serious but then by the time the show came and he still wasn’t ready they just continued to write him off?
The injury was indeed legit and my guess is that he was put in the tournament as a fake out to swap someone else in. If memory serves, he was injured going into Summerslam and the match made it worse.
Since you became a fan or started covering wrestling for your blog, what era for the WWE(F) would you say was, not so much terrible, but the most boring?
1994ish. Just a lot of nothing going on and the matches can only do so much to save it. 1995 wasn’t much better.
Reading your recent ROH report, I was reminded that you once said you stopped reviewing the original weekly syndicated version of Ring Of Honor at one time before starting up again. I was just curious why you stopped for that period of time?
I did with the one in….like 2011 or so, mainly because it was the most boring wrestling show I’ve ever seen.
With the card pretty much set for SummerSlam which title or titles would you say there is at least a 50/50 chance at a title change including the soon to be official US Title Match between Theory and Rey or Santos?
US Title and IC Title wouldn’t stun me. Smackdown Women’s is a possibly anytime Charlotte is in there. Don’t think the World Titles are changing.
How would you rate Goldberg’s initial run with the WWE from 2003-2004? Also, why do you think it was so short?
Pretty bad. The magic was gone and they didn’t treat him like Goldberg. Also I believe he just didn’t want to re-sign and only had a one year deal.
With All In and All Out a week away I am still not sure what to expect from two PPV cards that are only a week apart. Do you think we get two unique cards with little to no match or even wrestler overlap from one to the other? Or do you think we see a majority of the talent used on both cards in either return matches or unique matches?
They almost have to do matches with the same people, just due to the talent depth.
Remember when Theory beat Cena at Mania?
i cant recall a win over a big name leading to or doing absolutely nothing for someone.
Yeah…..that really didn’t go anywhere did it? You would think beating Cena would mean SOMETHING but Theory is in just about the same place he’s been in for eight months. That’s a weird one.
Just reading your retro review of SummerSlam 2003 got me to thinking; Why do you believe Kevin Nash’s return to the WWE in 2002-2003 was so unremarkable, especially considering he was best friends with HHH?
Combination of a few things.
1. It was obvious that he was there because he was friends with HHH and nothing more.
2. Booker T. is treated like the biggest loser ever at Wrestlemania but Kevin Nash gets the Cell treatment?
3. When you look at who was dominating WWE, you had Lesnar, Angle, Benoit, Shawn, Team Angle (ok not dominating but rising) and the youth movement with people like Orton and Batista and Cena, you see a VERY different and more exciting style. Then on the other hand you have Nash, who has been around for years and it’s exactly known for burning up the mat.
He was the wrong person in the wrong spot wrestling the wrong style.
What would you say was the worst honoring of a stipulation you have witnessed in wrestling? For example, mine would be when John Cena didn’t miss a Raw after he was fired by Nexus in 2010.
I think Curt Hennig lost a retirement match in WCW and was wrestling again on the next show.
It’s been about a year since Vince McMahon “retired” and handed over creative control to HHH. In that span of time, what would you say makes HHH’s shows better than Vince’s?
They feel more organized. Vince shows came off like “we have to fill X time, throw whatever you can out there.” HHH shows come off more like they’ve been planned at least a few days in advance and you can almost see the checklist of things they want to accomplish.
Was it ever explained why Brock and Cody hate each other?
i thought there was a solid story there with Brock not being able to challenge Roman for the title and being pissed that Cody who probably had the best shot failed, but unless i missed something Brock just attacked him because
They gave a quick explanation of Lesnar being mad that he went on first at Wrestlemania but it was dropped almost immediately. Other than that, not that I’ve heard.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but was it you that said awhile ago that you didn’t like tournaments determining who gets a title shot in pro wrestling? If it was, I was just curious why you feel that way? Not saying you are wrong, just wondering.
I don’t outright hate them but they’re far from my favorite. The biggest problem is I prefer a good personal story to “we’re fighting because the brackets say we are”. There is a use for them, but it’s not something I want to see very often.
What specialty-gimmick match do you think is not used enough? I liked the WWE’s scramble match, although more as a No.1 contenders contest than for a title.
Scramble is a good one. Elimination rules is something that would make triple threat or four ways better if that counts.
What do you think was the stupidest concept that a pro wrestling organization employed on their television shows on a weekly/fairly weekly basis? For example, my pick would be when the WWE started going crazy with making almost all of their contests on Raw and Smackdown best 2 out of 3 falls for no apparent reason a few years ago. Thankfully, it was scrapped not long after.
It’s not a national one, but OVW held a gauntlet match EVERY WEEK on TV for months.
TNA had some terrible ones. Open Fight Night, or maybe that time where the X-Division Title was only defended in triple threat matches and if you weren’t pinned, you were in the next title match (or something similar).
Oh, yeah; I remember that whole “every X-Division Title match is a triple threat contest” several years back. I hated that as well. Thankfully they scrapped that as well after a short time.
Re: OVW having a gauntlet match on their T.V. shows for months on end every week; Was it ever explained why they were doing it?
I wasn’t watching the show by then but I believe it was for the TV Title every week.
Who was a face/heel turn that seemed like nothing to you at first but ended up being a great move?
Bianca Belair. It didn’t feel like much at the time but she has turned into one of the biggest stars in the division.
Do you think the WWE right now has too many champions that are dominant? I’m all for having strong title holders, but it seems a lot of them are portrayed as being near invincible anymore. See Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Rhea Ripley, Gunther, Austin Theory, etc. It results in too many title defenses being predictable, IMO.
You might be onto something there, as there are a lot of dominant ones. It’s going to make for a big deal when one of them loses, but yeah a little hot potatoing does sound kind of nice right now.
Do you like, hate, or have no opinion of when companies have No.1 contender matches,(battle royals, multi-person matches, regular 1 on 1 matches, etc.), only to have the title match they earned on the same show? I hate it because of how rushed the whole thing comes across, as they don’t give it time to breathe.
I can go with it once in a blue moon, but yeah it does feel rushed a lot of the time. Let that stuff breathe, unless it’s some last chance deal about piling up the odds (Daniel Bryan at Wrestlemania XXX for example).
Andre the Giants story for Wrestlemaina 3 was that he had been undefeated for 15 years since his debut presenting Hogan as the underdog? Now we know this isn’t true as he’d had pin and submission losses while touring. However if we were to go by Vince logic that WWE is the only game in town. Is that actually true If we just count WWE?
It was true in just WWE if memory serves. He might have lost by countout or DQ, but being pinned or giving up was not happening for Andre.
Been rewatching WWE post Mania 14 and one thing that has stuck out to me is DX. They changed up the group thr night after Mania with Shawn gone and remained heels through the first In Your House after Mania. But then the Raw after Judgement Day is the DX WCW invasion which turned them face. My question is do you think that was the plan to turn them face? Or did they do it out of the response to the invasion angle?
I’d think they knew what they had plans. The team had been getting cheered for a long time and they were set up as faces. It was one of those things where it was going to happen through the crowd reactions alone and the Nation feud was right there so it had to be done.
If LA Knight can stay over How likely is it for him to win the Rumble next year?
Not that likely, as that’s one heck of a jump for someone who hasn’t even won anything in July of the previous year.
I can see him getting to the final four, maybe even final two against Gunther who’s my favourite to win the Rumble, but winning it? Nah. At least not now anyway.
Yeah that would be a long way, as there is every chance WWE just drops him as they do with so many who get over on their own.
What was the worst job you ever had? I assume this one is the best one you’ve ever had. Lol.
“Review Thunder!”
Ok sure. How bad can it be?
In reality, probably working at a Dollar General or Subway. Bad pay, managers do weird things, incredibly boring.
What happened with Jericho being in the main event of WrestleMania 2000? Was it just to get Foley his main event, or were there issues on Jericho’s end?
Just a Foley thing as far as I know.
If C.M. Punk doesn’t leave the WWE in early 2014, do you think that in any way affects the WrestleMania 30 triple-threat match for the WWE World Championship?
Nah. I’ve always thought the triple threat was going to be the same with HHH vs. Punk instead.
Was Bob Backlund’s very short WWF Championship run in 1994 supposed to have lasted longer, or was he always to have been a transitional champ to get the belt on Diesel? I can’t imagine Bret Hart was very happy that the guy he dropped the strap to lost it in a few seconds less than a week later.
Nah it was just a quick way to get the title on Diesel. That and to pop the crowd huge when he won the title in 8 seconds.
What do you think of the state of tag-team wrestling today? Also, what company/companies do you think has the best and worst tag-team division in pro wrestling currently?
It can be good but most promotions just don’t care about it enough. AEW did but then they just stopped almost cold.
The best currently might actually be WWE, as scary as that is. Worst…..eh I guess Impact, as they don’t have a ton of teams in the first place.
I just watched the latest “Dark Side Of The Ring” episode dealing with Matt Osborne/Doink The Clown. I was just curious as to what you though about Doink’s whole run in the WWF from 1992-1996? For me Mick Foley put it best when he said during the DSOTR ep, “I didn’t much like what the WWF was doing in that time period, but I liked Doink.” Although I did hate it when they turned him face and gave him Dink. It ruined the whole initial concept of the character.
There’s a match on Invasion Of The Bodyslammers where Heenan talks about how Doink is doing everything to get inside his opponents’ heads because who is going to take a clown seriously. Heenan put over his wrestling abilities and how smart he was with this big plan. That Doink I can go with because he’s something like the Joker. What we wound up getting was lame and just a clown for the sake of having a clown, which shockingly didn’t work.
So, LA Knight MITB winner – Yay or Nay?
The dude had a massive pop yesterday, completely roasted Paul and had the crowd chant his name when Logan was on top the ladder holding the briefcase. If they don’t pull the trigger now, I don’t think they ever will.
More or less the same. He’s 40 and CRAZY popular right now. WWE needs new stars so take a gamble on someone who has gotten himself this far.
Hi Thomas. To piggyback what another poster asked you in another thread; When you have made the decision to stop reviewing a show, what usually goes into it? What I mean is does viewership on your blog, personal enjoyment, whether the show “matters” in the grand scheme of things, etc., plays a role in it all, or is it something else altogether? I’ve been a member here for just a few years now, but I believe the only show I’ve seen you stop reviewing was AEW Dark.
Mainly just I don’t care about it anymore. There are certain shows that I have to do for commitments to other sites but some of the minor ones (Dark, the old ROH TV show for a long time) I’ll drop if I’m just sick of doing them. I rarely pay attention to what draws on here anyway as I’m going to do certain shows no matter what and the stuff I pick is often because I want to do it.
Something is going on where I can’t see your response or even any proof that original question exists. I see you replied but can’t see it and as far as I can see my question isn’t showing up. Is there a fix to this?
I changed a setting. Are you seeing it now? I’m seeing your question and the response below this one.
There we go. Thank you
So I’m watching the Owen Hart tribute for the first time. I may be too much of a casual or whatever people like to throw out, but I’m not sure why people didn’t like it. I thought it was sincere and hearing old pranks he used to pull on people made me smile. And also, were you a fan of Owen? I read the review you did and I kinda got a vibe that you weren’t
One of the reasons was Austin, who had some issues with Owen but then was put out there to leave a beer in the ring for him, which was not seen as genuine whatsoever. Also, there’s something a little offputting about the company that had him do the stunt that killed him then praising him.
As for me, I was more or less indifferent to him. He was a very talented star, but I never got invested in him that much. I never minded seeing him and I liked his stuff, but it was more “Oh, here’s Owen. Ok.” than anything else.
I see what you you mean after watching Austin’s bit. He seemed a little irritated that he had to do it.
Yeah allegedly Owen never checked on him after dropping him on his head. I can understand Austin being upset at him if that is the case, though that might have been too far.
Hi Thomas. What are your feeling on the “open title match” concept in pro wrestling? Mine are mixed. While on one hand it’s almost always exciting and grabs your attention from the norm, on the other hand it devalues the whole idea of “earning a title match” and the contests themselves are usually forgone conclusions that the champ will retain.
Not a fan. It worked for John Cena in 2015 and then it stopped mattering when people would throw them out there every so often. Otherwise, it feels like a cheap way to fill in TV time.
Was it true that at different points in the Monday Night Wars that both the WWF and WCW were considering moving Raw and Nitro to different nights of the week?
I’ve heard it rumored at various times but I don’t think there was ever any serious discussion. Now Raw was threatened with cancellation a time or two, but again, I’m not sure how serious those threats were.
What is the dumbest gimmick match you’ve ever seen? My two picks personally are the king of the road match from uncensored 1995 and the bunkhouse stampede battle royal cage match.
What is the dumbest gimmick match you’ve ever seen? My two picks personally are the king of the road match from uncensored 1995 and the bunkhouse stampede battle royal cage match.
Reverse battle royal or King of the Mountain.
King of the Road and Bunkhouse Stampede were hardly brilliant either.
What wrestler did-do you think was-is a decent-good worker that you didn’t-don’t care about due to a variety of factors. Mine would be Shelton Benjamin.
Barry Windham would be up there.
What happened with Lio Rush’s run in the WWE as Bobby Lashley’s manager? He was with Lashley on Raw one moment, and the next he was gone. Did he piss someone off in management or something?
Yeah from what I remember he had a bunch of backstage issues and people were sick of him.
If you could have Sting debut at any point in time in the WWE, when would you do it and what could you see coming from it? I’m sure this has been asked before but Surfer Sting absolutely was the sort of character and look that could have been HUGE for them.
Having him in the 1993 Lex Luger role against Yokozuna would have worked.
Which wrestling company do you think handled the COVID era from 2020-2021 the best, and which wrestling company do you think handled it the worst?
WWE did well once they got out of the Performance Center. Impact did rather well. Worst….probably WWE during the Performance Center, as the shows didn’t make a ton of sense and they looked awful. I get that it was difficult, but put some lights up in the place.
Generally speaking, what is the perception of Jim Cornette among his peers in the business, past and present? I was watching the “Dark Side Of The Ring” episode about the Montreal Screwjob for the first time, and at the end Cornette goes into this surreal rant about he has an agreement with his wife that if Vince Russo dies before he does that no matter how old Cornette will be then, she is to take him to Russo’s grave so that Cornette can piss on it. To have that kind of level of hatred and obsession with a person you worked with over 20 years ago one time, well, then you have a ton of issues. I mean that and the fact that he has spoken badly of so many people can lead one to the conclusion that maybe it’s not them with the problems.
I’m not sure there is a general perception about him.
Cornette is an all time great manager and one of the best talkers ever, but he has a very, very specific view of what wrestling is supposed to be and getting him to admit he might be wrong is like….well it’s like something that is very hard to do. To go hand in hand with this, if you go against that view or do something that ticks him off (which could be breathing the wrong way in some cases), you’re on his bad list for pretty much life.
Now at the same time, I’m not sure how many, if anyone for that matter, is a bigger walking encyclopedia of wrestling knowledge and his memorabilia collection might be the best in the world outside of the WWE archive. He really was one of the best managers ever and he had a giant hand in training the famed OVW Class of 2002, both of which are things that absolutely cannot be ignored.
Cornette is excellent at a lot of things, but he doesn’t adapt or deal with differing opinions well in the slightest. Him being some kind of a consultant or someone there to point out what is wrong would be great, but woe unto anyone who lets him be in charge because it’s a matter of when rather than if that he’ll blow up.
He also has some rather negative views of women (in some cases) and has said some rather not nice racial things before, which aren’t exactly positives either.
So yeah: it’s kind of the biggest mixed bag ever. There are people who can’t stand him, but there are people who he has helped tremendously and who he made a lot of money with over the years. I wish I could give you a more concrete answer but with Cornette, there really isn’t one.
Whats happening with NXT Europe? Has it been abandoned?
Last I heard (earlier this year), they want it up by the end of the year. I’m firmly in an “I’ll believe it when I see it” mode.
So are you excited to see any/all episodes of the new season of “Dark Side Of The Ring” tomm? I myself am looking forward to tomorrow’s season premiere ep, Chris Candido and Tammy Sytch, as well as “WCW Bash At The Beach 2000” Two subjects that haven’t been beaten into the ground in terms of documentaries taking them on.
The Abdullah and Graham Family ones should be interesting. I’ll be watching them all of course.
Did you watch the Season 4 premiere episode of Dark Side Of The Ring, Chris Candido and Tammy Sytch, yet? I found it curious that the docu-makers left out Candido’s and Sytch’s (albeit short) time in WCW, where Chris won the Cruiserweight Title while there. That got me to thinking; Why was the pair’s time in WCW so short? Was it because they still had their issues, or was it due to something else entirely?
I haven’t yet. Had to keep an eye on my son today and Dark Side Of The Ring isn’t a cartoon so he isn’t interested.
From what I’ve heard, people were sick of Tammy REALLY fast in WCW and they left as a result.
What’s something that got hated on in pro wrestling by the masses,(could be a storyline, a character, etc.), did you think was not that bad, and/or actually liked?
The Dungeon Of Doom.
Yes it was goofy. Yes it was stupid. Yes it was laughable. But their stated goal was to destroy Hulkamania, and not only did they take the title from Hogan, but they also pushed him so far that he had to turn to the dark side, giving us an evil Hogan preview.
Hi Where do you think they are going with the Von Wangner baby picture story?
A brother wouldn’t surprise me, but for some reason I don’t think it’s Wagner himself.
Did Sunny always have her problems in the WWF? She was really popular from 1996-1997, but it seems they could never find a role for her, as she was just playing a sort of hostess to WWF on T.V. for most of that period. I always figured it was due to behind the scenes stuff, but obviously I’m not sure.
It was a mixture of that and she wasn’t a wrestler so there was only so much she could do. Throw in the lack of serious women’s wrestling at the time and her ceiling was good looking manager.
What feud were you really into at first, but ended up souring on it because it lost steam as it went on?
When I was younger, Sting vs. Vampiro, which just kept going.
Modern times, probably Gargano vs. Ciampa, though that might be more due to the injury taking the steam away.
Hi Thomas. Do you think the WWE has an idea of who and when they want Roman Reigns to drop the Undisputed Championship to eventually, or do you believe they aren’t even there yet?
Reportedly they have a name in mind, but I’d be surprised if the process of him dropping it has started.
Are you surprised that the WWE created a World Hvt. Championship for Raw considering the men’s and women’s tag team titles are still dual-branded? I assume this was done because of Roman Reigns new Brock Lesnar like schedule?
Yeah it doesn’t make a ton of sense to me, especially when they could have had Cody win one of the titles at Wrestlemania and kept the Reigns Universal reign going.
And that’s about all I can imagine. Either that or USA wanting its own champion.
Hi Thomas. I just wanted to get your thoughts on this year’s WWE Draft? Also, were there any wrestlers that you believed should’ve been on a particular brand than the other, or are you content where everybody ended up? Thx.
It had a few shakeups, but ultimately they just changed the midcard and women’s titles and not much more. Otherwise, it’s setting up things from scratch again and that’s rarely fun.
The only other move I would have made would be to have Omos assigned to a brand. Him being a free agent doesn’t make sense.
Have you heard what is going on with Bray Wyatt? His program with Bobby Lashley was dropped out of nowhere leading up to Wrestle-Mania, and unless I am mistaken, he was not drafted to either Raw or Smackdown.
The only thing I’ve heard is an undisclosed health issue. Other than that, no word on him in about a month and a half.
I don’t like the new world championship. While I like the design the concept is wrong while Reigns is still champion and the REAL one whoever wins it is going to look like the WWE ECW champion by comparison.
The more I think about it, the more I’m on your side with that. They could have solved it at Wrestlemania but they went with the dumb idea instead, because WWE.
Yeah have Cody beat Reigns at Wrestlemaina 39 for both belts and have Cody say he wants to talk about the honor of winning both belts but he volenterly surenders the Universal Championship and avengeing Dad by winning the WWE title by finishing the story but best of luck to anyone who fights for tha title. You can still do the new champion at NOC With the Universal championship but Codys promo still makes the tltle feel important. Unlike the half baked reson WWE came up with. Final Question By introduceing this new title Why bury your longest reinging champion since Pedro Morles who Roman Reigns will surpass?
I would have just had it be for the WWE Title, as that’s the one Cody wanted. Heyman could have said “you can only fight for one” or something.
I’m not quite seeing how it buries Reigns. What do you mean?
You’re introduceing a 2nd World title when Reigns is the World Champion and trying to present a 2nd world champion despite Reigns being one of the best world champion of all time. Reigns is being punished for being successful.Sammartino, Hogan, Rock and Austin would have bliwn a gasket and maybe walked out if 2nd world titles were introduced during thair eras. and as good as the new title looks it doesn’t change the fact that it’s going to be contented for by a bunch of losers I totaly get Cody only winning 1world Title but Reigns has been champ for so long it needed to be for both so Reigns could feel truly vanquished IMO.
It takes something away from Reigns but I wouldn’t say it buries him.
i agree as it comes across as “yeah you guys cant beat roman heres your consolation prize”
Who loses their title first Reigns or Gruther?
Gunther. He has another level to reach.
Next Smackdown we’ll have SamiKo vs Usos for the belts and I’m kinda scared the titles will change hands for one simple reason: Night of Champions in Saudi where traditionally every title is defended and as we know, neither Sami nor KO perform there. What’s your take?
That is a very distinct possibility and I hope not too. The title win was what mattered, but dropping them back less than a month later, even if Sami and Owens get them back relatively soon, would feel like a big step backwards. It would be better if the titles just weren’t defended at the show.
Who do you think was or is the all-time worst regular announcer on a pro wrestling T.V. show.
For modern wrestling, it almost has to be Matt Striker. For me personally Joey Styles. If Heel Cole counts as a regular, he’s up there too.
What do you think of the announcement that the WWE will be bringing the Draft back soon? I’m all for it as long as the brand separation rules are adhered to. If not, they may as well just leave it how it is now.
They could use some changes, as while some wrestlers go elsewhere, it can be nice to have the core rosters shaken up a bit. What will make it the most interesting is bringing up NXT stars, as they can actually change things.
Is it true that the WWE has always used the term “local medical facility” instead of local hospital or local ER when running an injury angle because they don’t want fans showing up at the hospitals? I heard this several times before, and it really doesn’t make much sense to me. How would just saying “local medical facility” instead of hospital or ER deter marks from showing up in those places?
The theory behind it makes sense as a medical facility could be a clinic, a doctor’s office etc. Granted I don’t know how many people are going to buy that, but the thinking makes sense.
Who do you think is next in line to face Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship now that Cody Rhodes will be busy with Brock Lesnar? The problem as I see it is making fans care about who he will be facing next seeing as they will most likely view whoever it is as having no chance until Cody faces him again.
That’s a good question. I’m thinking Reigns goes away for a bit as Rhodes gets built back up. Otherwise, maybe a returning Nakamura, who never got his shot in the first place.
Something a wrestler used to do you would like to see brought back?
i would love Lashley to use the dominator again not only because it was great but then only 45 people would use a spear in WWE.
That’s a good one.
I’ll go with Edge and the Downward Spiral or Edgecution. I know the spear is his signature but I’ve never been a fan of him using it.
To not rip you off so much, let’s go with Bayley and the Bayley To Belly. She still uses it, but I like it a lot better as a finisher than the Rose Plant.
I like LA Knight and was a fan of his work dating back to when he was Eli Drake in Impact Wrestling. Do you think the WWE will ever give him a big push, or do you believe where he is at now is where he will always be?
I think he’ll go up a bit higher but it won’t be some epic push.
Do you miss riddle or think he was a potential wrestler of the year contender for last year? I was really thinking he was WWE wrestler of the year but then he got tested for coke, injury angle and it’s like everyone forgot he even exists and no one was putting him on wrestler of the year contedership. Do you think I’m overrating him? I just thought he was the workhorse all year consistently putting on good/great matches but I guess roman who never wrestles and Moxley are better somehow?
If you thought he was that good, you’re not overrating him.
Riddle was very, very good last year but if he has some serious issues, he needs to be gone. If he’s clean or better in some significant way, then it would be great to have him back as he really is good. At the very least, the fans are behind him and that is the hardest trick to pull off.
Do you think WWE would have gotten to a 2 night WrestleMania if the Pandemic never happened?
I think they kind of had to, as it was either that or shorten the card up in a big way. The latter didn’t seem possible, so going to two nights almost had to be done.
What do you think of people who charge money to listen to their podcast? Good or bad business decision? I just heard from a guy that used to run a podcast and when I asked him why he stopped it, he said “we couldn’t get people to pay for it.”
I get the idea, but the market is so crazy saturated that there is almost no realistic way to make that work. Unless you have some kind of special exclusive stuff, it isn’t going to work.
What wrestler in any promotion do you think is the most underutilized right now?
Chase U. Right now they’re just putting people over when they could be doing at least something by winning a few matches. For the life of me I do not get why they lose every important match they have.
What wrestler in any promotion do you think is the most underused right now?
Did you find it strange that Kofi Kingston’s 6 month WWE Championship run ended in seconds in a match with Brock Lesnar on the first Smackdown on Fox? Did he piss somebody off or something there?
Kofi was never going to be the new face of the company or anything and it was a way to get Brock (officially) wrestling on TV. That was much more for FOX than anything against Kofi.
Did it seem strange to you that Kofi Kingston’s 6 month WWE Championship run ended in seconds in a match against Brock Lesnar on the first Friday Night Smackdown on Fox? Did he do something to piss someone off there or something?
Mark coffey and Wolfgang are the Nxt tag champs. Any idea where Joe is?
Not that I’ve heard of but he is the only one who had Speaking Out allegations against him (that is 100% speculation mind you).
Hi Thomas. With it looking like they are going to break up Alpha Academy and the Street Profits soon, do you think the WWE is going to call up a tag-team or 2 from NXT in the near future?
I would think Pretty Deadly is on the way up. Indus Sher and the Creeds wouldn’t surprise me either.
What would you say was the worst case of waiting too long to pull the trigger for a wrestler you have witnessed, either in terms of push or a title run?
Rob Van Dam going after the ECW World Title comes to mind. The company was literally going out of business before ECW went in the logical direction.
Ok did Hogan make money for WCW in 95 and pre nwo turn or was 95 a shit year for ppv buyrates and WCW fans were turning on Hogan already ? I know 93 was a pretty bad year for WCW financially so maybe we should compare from 91-92 or 94 pre Hogan coming in.
That’s a really complicated question as Hogan had all of these tricks tied into his contract where he would get a bunch of bonuses. In short, yes he did bring in money, but it wasn’t much in the way of profit.
Hi Thomas. Do you happen to know what exactly is C.M. Punk’s status with AEW? Will he ever wrestle there again? I haven’t watched any of their T.V. shows in awhile, so I don’t know if they mentioned it or what is happening there.
Right now he’s still healing from his tricep injury. He’ll probably be cleared around May, but there is no word on if AEW is going to bring him back. Punk hasn’t been mentioned since he was suspended.
If you could change just 1 thing for how both AEW and the WWE presents their T.V. shows, what do you think they would be?
WWE: stop ringing the bell and then taking a break thirty seconds in. Just show the whole match.
AEW: make Rampage feel like it matters for more than fifteen minutes a week. Far too often, you have an interesting opener and then what feels like 45 minutes of whatever they can scrape together.
All very good points. Speaking of which, you hit on one of my biggest pet peeves of pro wrestling; commercial breaks in-between matches. Some I can understand when they go beyond 10 minutes, but others that are only 6-8 minutes in length make no sense. Why do you think both WWE and AEW continue to do this? It would be interesting to find out how many viewers they lose when they do this, particularly in matches that don’t involve upper tier stars, and/or are presented as not very important.
Always feels like they’re saying “here, you get the match, but this is more important.” Not the best look most of the time.
Ok on old version of this I could organize comments by most recent but I don’t see option anymore.
Yeah unfortunately I don’t think that’s an option with this version. The old one was horribly plagued by spam though and I was sick of fixing it every hour. I’ll see if I can find a better option though as the scrolling is annoying.
Aha there we go. Newest on top now. That’s much better.
Sweet
Two questions for you, first off what do you think of people being mad that Sami isn’t going to main event mania and comparing it to Bryans snub at rumble 2014 and that the crowd will turn on Cody because they love Sami so much? I think this isn’t comparable at all, when batistia won rumble in 14 crowd was pissed and wanted Bryan to win, also bryan was so over his yes chants crossed into main stream. Batistia Orton as main event that year would’ve had an incredibly hostile crowd reaction as well as terrible reviews. Really it’s the main reason I’m glad punk left because they wouldn’t have pushed Bryan if punk had stuck around and beat trip. I don’t think it’s the same situation at all, to me Cody is just as over as Sami and was hot on rumble win and hot on night after. I really don’t think there’s going to be a serious crowd revolt against Sami not being in main especially considering that Sami has been a jobber for last five years under Vince and Cody actually is brining in lapsed fans and casuals. Basically I think fans like both but won’t be so mad or dismissive of Cody that they’ll give him a negative reaction at mania nor is it comparable to Bryan being a former 2 time champ, beating Cena and being over af but company refusing to push him.
Second question what is up with nwa title? Ik at some point the WCW whc was considered the same belt as nwa like in the 80s but this changed at some point in the 90s? Online friend was asking me about it and I’m fuzzy on details.
1. Yeah it’s not really the same situation. The fans seem to really like Cody and are interested in what he is doing. They’re just more interested in Sami. That’s not the same as it being a big yes to Bryan and a much bigger no to Batista.
2. It’s complicated mess but in short, for awhile the WCW/NWA Title were one in the same title (around 1992/3), as in the title holder had both championships but only one belt represented them. Then in 1993, the NWA got mad at WCW over filming something in advance and complained. WCW had long since realized that the NWA name meant nothing and dropped out. The NWA Title then bounced around the indies for a long time (Dan Severn held it for about four years), went to TNA for about six years and then went back to the indies. Now Billy Corgan’s NWA has the full rights and ownership to it.
Was JC running it for a time with the nwa invasion with wwf in 98 that was really bad?
I believe Cornette was part of the NWA Board, but I think I remember hearing that being a rib on him. That being said, it was the biggest exposure the NWA had gotten in years so the rib didn’t have much of an impact.
Hi Thomas. Is it true that it costs substantially more to broadcast a wrestling show live as opposed to airing it on tape? I’ve always heard this as the reason as to why Smackdown never aired live initially as opposed to Raw, but obviously I don’t know how valid it is.
It is cheaper, but it also helps when you can edit things better. Kind of a tradeoff for the risk of spoilers leaking.
I asked earlier about WrestleMania and with Revolution taking place a month earlier I will ask the same question. How many matches would you comfortably say you can pencil in for the moment at Revolution? For those wrestlers that are not penciled in yet what potential feud/matches would excite you the most for Revolution?
MJF vs. Danielson
Lee vs. Swerve
Probably one more MOxley vs. Page match
You can all but guarantee House Of Black vs. Elite and Jericho vs. Starks.
I could go for something between the hometown stars vs. newcomers in the women’s division. Other than that, most of the show is probably going to be built around the ladder match, as they have to have one every year at this show. For one more match…..let’s mix it up a bit and go with Garcia/Guevara vs. Acclaimed (which I don’t think will happen but could be fun).
Did you ever think a particular wrestler and their gimmick were ahead of their time? I believed this to be the case with Dan Spivey’s “Waylon Mercy” character in the cartoony WWF in 1995, especially considering the similar Bray Wyatt came along about 2 decades after.
Billy Graham, who was doing sports entertainment 10 years too soon.
Do you think that whoever is the world champion of a promotion correlates with T.V. ratings and business, or do you believe that to be an antiquated measuring tool?
Everywhere else yeah, in WWE, not so much.
Your site is becoming unusable dude, glitches with comments ads everywhere. When I tried to comment on ec post yesterday it went from saying like 14 comments than I made a comment and then it only showed one comment. You need to fix whatever the problem is otherwise I guess I’ll just have to try to bitch and not get banned on 411.
Yeah it’s not working for some reason. I’m working on the comments.
How many matches would you comfortably say you can pencil in at the moment for Mania? For those wrestlers that are not penciled in yet what potential feud/matches would excite you the most for Mania?
Rhea vs. Charlotte
Brock vs. Lashley
Rollins vs. Logan Paul
Cody vs. Reigns
Other than that….it’s probably a bit too early to say for most. Gunther is going to need something to do and other than Brock, I’m not sure what would be an interesting match for him. Theory vs. Cena still seems like a possibility too. I’d be surprised if we didn’t get Usos vs. Owens/Zayn.
Gunther/Sheamus/McIntyre stiffing the heck out of each other for 20 minutes over the IC title would interest me.
That’s been rumored so you may get your wish.
After all this Bloodline stuff is done, do you think we’ll see a Reigns redemption arc where he hits rock bottom and has to find himself again and finally be cheered?
I can’t imagine Reigns going that far down. Now a change to fighting the next big bad (which doesn’t exist at the moment) could be amazing, but they have to set up some pieces first
Any lower card wrestlers you could see surprising us in the Rumbles tomorrow? Not to win of coruse but maybe get 1 or 2 upset eliminations or last longer in the match then you might expect?
I’m expecting Raquel Rodriguez to get the Diesel push and be a dark horse option to win the whole thing.
Yeah I’m backing her for most eliminations If there is a surprising performance I rhink maybe Akira Taowza? He’s went from the 24 7 wasteland to being midcard story enamy of the Judgement Day.
What did you think of announcer Mauro Ranallo’s work in NXT-WWE? I swear I don’t think I’ve ever seen a commentator get such a polarizing reaction from fans.
I liked his stuff a lot, but there were times when I wanted to cut him off because he had to get in SO MANY references that you could practically see him writing them down with glee the night before a show.
Do you mean his wrestling style or his promos? I guess he did reference punk/rvd a lot with his moveset but his shit looks good because he’s former MMA.
I think you might have responded to the wrong comment.
Rewatching some old Rumbles as I’m sure most of us are doing and what stuck out is how in the span of a year Reigns goes from being cheered at the end of 14 with Batista to being booed out of the building the following year in 15. What do you attribute such a change in fan reaction toward Reigns too?
Daniel Bryan had his moment by 2015. I’m not so sure Reigns was being cheered in 2014 as much as a warm body not named Batista was being cheered. By 2015, the fans knew that Reigns was THE guy and that wasn’t cool with them.
What wrestler do you think fell the fastest in terms of a push? For example, my pick would be Fandango in the WWE. Went from beating Chris Jericho at WrestleMania and an Intercontinental Title win shortly thereafter to becoming a jobber to the stars in no time.
Mr. Kennedy. Went from ready to be World Champion to pretty much nothing.
Is this Rumble one of the most unpredictable ones in a long time?
You can have Sami win and destroy the Bloodline or you can have Cody win and fulfill his destiny.
I also get the feeling that, if Cody wins, it’s gonna be 2014/15 Rumbles all over again.
It’s unpredictable and that’s a great thing.
I’m not sure on the 14/15 though, as Cody is popular enough to get by. It’ll be disappointing, but not a soul crusher.
If they have Sami in the Rumble and he gets eliminated and Cody wins, I think there’ll be some complaints. If Sami isn’t in the Rumble and they have a good explanation as to why, then people will go for Cody.
What would you say is the biggest problem in AEW and the WWE right now as it relates to their television shows?
AEW: Tries to cram too much in. They have three hours of TV a week and Rampage rarely means anything. Use that show to take some pressure off Dynamite and let the show breathe a bit.
WWE: The Bloodline is a bit too dominant. I know Reigns can’t lose anytime soon, but they are so far ahead of everyone else that it’s hard to care about almost anyone coming after them. Who even is the top face in the company right now?
If Batista received the desired reaction that the WWE was hoping for when he won the 2014 Royal Rumble, do you think his stay in the company is longer, and/or plays out much differently than it did?
Nah. The call from Hollywood was too loud for him.
Hi Thomas. What former wrestler who never won a world title do you think deserved at least 1 run with one?
Either Piper or DiBiase. I get why Piper didn’t, but DiBiase would have been a perfect foil for either Savage or Hogan to beat for the title.
Do you think Cody gets the Batista rumble treatment with Zayn in the match as well?
Nah. Cody was popular enough before he was hurt.
If the thinking behind announcing Rhodes for the Rumble as opposed to being a surprise entrant in the Rumble is because WWE have other surprise entrants lined up at or near the level of a Cody and guess on who could fit that bill?
Honestly….not many people. Unless they could somehow get Jay White out of his contract early (and there is virtually no chance of that), though nowhere near as many people would know who he is.
Hi Thomas. I noticed the Raw preview from the WWE says Bobby Lashley returns tonight. I was under the impression that Adam Pearce fired him in terms of storyline. Did they later walk this back or something?
Yeah they changed it to a suspension. He was on last week’s show.
Do you think it was strange that the WWE turned Enzo Amore heel after he won the Cruiserweight Title in 2017? I mean it seemed the audiences were still into his act at the time of his heel turn, as they showed no inclination to want to boo him even after. What do you attribute to this?
That Enzo couldn’t back up his talking in the ring. That necessitated a heel turn.
Hey KB. With Gunther’s IC title reign being the longest since Cody’s in 2011, do you think he should break Honky’s record? By my calculations, he would break it by early September of this year.
There’s also these rumours about a match against Brock at Mania which makes me think he’ll drop it soon or even to Brock (God no!).
That’s a long, long way off. By then, I’d hope that he was moved up above the Intercontinental level.
What happened with Richie Steamboat? I thought he was going to be the newest 2nd generation star when he was in NXT in the early 2010’s, but then he just seemed to vanish.
He hurt his back.
How did Jamie Hayter get so over?
Young, new, good. The British accent helps too.
It’s been almost a year since NXT Level Up replaced 205 Live. In that span do you think LVL Up is better, worse, or about the same in terms of quality to 205 Live?
Compared to the very end of 205 Live, it’s the same. The best of 205 Live blows this away though.
What pro wrestling announcer do you think is the most overrated; Either currently or all-time?
Joey Styles and it’s not even close.
Hi Thomas. If Finn Balor didn’t get injured while winning the first WWE Universal Championship at SummerSlam 2016 and had to forfeit the title the next night on Raw, what kind of reign do you think he would’ve ended up having?
That’s a really good question. Ultimately, I can’t imagine him holding onto it for that long, probably a few months at most. Balor wasn’t going to be champion long with Lesnar coming back into the title picture, so he’s probably getting the same treatment as Kevin Owens got around that time.
What wrestling promotion do you think pushes their secondary titles the best?
These days, it might actually be WWE. Historically probably…..dang it might be the NWA.
Are you surprised the WWE is talking about re-instituting the draft considering I was under the impression that both Fox and USA are happy with the way things are, I.E.-a soft brand extension? If they do go ahead with the draft, what do you think will happen with the Undisputed WWE World Championship and Undisputed Tag Team Titles?
From what I understand, FOX and USA love it as they can promote it as a sports event.
If they do, I’d say they go with the same stuff as the original: those champions can be on both shows.
Wow 2 days before Hogan lost his 1st tltle Watched by the biggest TV audience in wrestling history! Who did Flair lose his title to?
Ricky Steamboat. Chi-Town Rumble (with one Dave Meltzer sitting opposite the hard camera).
Sorry but I thought Chi town Rumble was February 89 because it was Steamboats only World title Reign Or have I got the dates wrong? Back in the days when Meltzer was credable.
Well….I mean…..if you want to be right about it and get your dates correct and not look like a schmuck, yeah I guess you could say it was 1989.
Sorry didn’t mean to make you look bad.
Oh I more than take care of that myself.
Hi Tom I was thinking about something a on this day in history if you will Me and my famils birthdays and who was WWE champion at the time EG February 22 1989 Randy Savage What about You? wCW or NWA ifyou like those as well.
Hogan and Flair, though they would both lose their titles before the end of the month (the week in Hogan’s case).
Judgeing by what you said i’m guessing end of January 88 am I right?
February 3.
What did you think of Joey Styles being the sole commentary voice for ECW back in the day? Do you think something like that could work today in any promotion?
One person doing commentary could work in a smaller place, but not with Joey’s style or in a place the size of WWE/AEW
How come AJ Styles never seems to crank it up to the level of his matches with Cena with anyone else he’s worked with? What I mean is all the matches you think would reach that point like with Bryan, Joe, Nakamura, Orton, etc they are good to great B/B+ type matches but just never seemed to hit that next gear.
Course it’s subjective and my opinion others may think those are better than the Cena matches but just wanted your take as all I think all your reviews with opponents he’s had that on paper seem like all time classics in the making just hover around that B level.
Combination of a few things:
1. Styles is getting up there in years and isn’t as good as he was before.
2. Cena is really, really good. Not saying he’s better than those names, but he has an ability to make matches feel bigger than almost anyone.
Did you get a chance to watch any or all of VICE’s “Tales From The Territories”? If so, what did you think of them? Also, how would you compare them with episodes of “Dark Side Of The Ring”?
I watched most of them (still some on the DVR) and they’re just what they’re advertised as being: a bunch of wrestlers sitting around telling some tall tales. I love that kind of thing, but Dark Side is far, far more interesting for the masses (and better made by a mile too of course).
Hello Thomas. As I explained on a previous thread, I mostly have not been watching the WWE this past year for various reasons. That said, could you tell me what happened to announcers Jimmy Smith, Byron Saxton, and Pat McAfee? Thanks.
Smith left in the fall and was replaced by Kevin Patrick, who had worked on the lower level shows.
Saxton is still around and calls NXT LVL Up.
McAfee took a leave to work on ESPN’s College Gameday, which takes place on Saturday mornings so he can’t do Smackdown while the season is on. He’s expected back after the season.
Hey KB, I’m curious, do you listen to one (or more) of the millions of wrestling podcasts around the web these days?
Merry chirstmas man, have a good one.
Both of Cornette’s and that’s it.
Do you have a favorite edition of a wrestling show that aired on a holiday? For example, mine would be a TNA Impact that aired on Thanksgiving in 2009. Instead of the usual silliness with the turkey suit they had a 1 night mini-tournament where the winner, who ended up being Bobby Lashley, won a future TNA World Title shot.
It’s only for one moment but there was an April Fools Day edition of Nitro where Heenan said he was retiring. At the end, he revealed it as a joke but they completely got me. That sticks out a bit.
I caught part of Smackdown last night where I saw they advertised this Monday’s Raw as a “best of” show. Will the entire show be a “best of” program? If it will be, I can’t remember the last time they did that for a Raw.
Yeah that’s the whole thing and yeah it has been several years. WWE doesn’t like doing that.
Hi A thought just popped into my head If you were a wrestler would you rather be an independent main eventer or a mainstream Jobber? For me I’d rather be a jobber as I’m losing every week sometimes embarrassingly but at least a recognisable name and unless you are a once in a gen talent you have to start in the indes but only a handful of people know who you are.
Hi Thomas Christmas Day Wrestling used to be huge in decades gone by Why do you think it faded out?
Cable. If I can watch this stuff from home every week, why would being able to go to the show in person feel like a bigger deal?
Hi Thomas. What have your feelings been on Bray Wyatt since his return to the WWE?
I’m starting to get the feel for what they’re doing, but he has to actually get in the ring at some point.
What do you think was the best and worst storyline in pro wrestling since you became a fan?
Best might be the Border War, just because of how intriguing the whole thing was to a nine year old.
Worst…..egads there are a lot of options. I’ll go with (off the top of my head, as there are so many to pick from) EDDIE IS IN HELL. it was such an exploitation of his death and I was sick of hearing about Eddie by the end. And they KEPT USING HIM as motivation for people and it was weaker and weaker each time.
Of the recent re-hires by the WWE by HHH, which one do you feel has done the best since returning to the company?
It might actually be Strowman, who is being treated as more of a special attraction/monster than a regular star.
Who would you say was the best late bloomer in Wrestling? I mean someone who had unlimited potential when they debuted but only forfilled near the end of their career? For me the winner is Mark Henry with his hall of pain and becoming World Champ after 15 years.
Roman Reigns, who felt like a force when he started, became loathed for a few years, and then was turned into the biggest star in years as WWE showed they knew what they were talking about.
TNA/Impact Wrestling hit 20 years old several months ago. Are you surprised they are still going? It seems like for awhile there in the early 2010’s all I kept hearing online was “This is it! TNA is going under!”
They have reached the point where they’re steady and stable, but this is about as high as they’re going to get. People don’t care and the company has too much of a reputation built up over the years.
Re: the story that broke a few days ago that HHH is “underwhelmed” by all the recent WWE rehires; Don’t you think that is more of an indictment on the writing team than the talents themselves?
Some of it can be yeah, but when you have people like HIt Row just not being interesting without Strickland, there isn’t much the writing team can do about that. Also, some of these stars worked in NXT but not on the main roster. That’s going to happen from time to time no matter who is in charge.
Hi Thomas. In your opinion, what would you say lead to the death of kayfabe in pro wrestling?
If it wasn’t dead by then, the Attitude Era, as no intelligent person could believe that this stuff was actually happening.
Was it true that WWF’s “Higher Power” angle in 1999 originally had somebody else being revealed rather than Vince McMahon? Given the fact that him being the Higher Power made no sense from a storyline standpoint, I always just assumed that to have been the case.
I believe it was a bunch of “what about X” and then they finally went with Vince because he was the only one who made sense.
You wrote before that you were/are a fan of WWE’s “Tough Enough”, correct? If so, what would you say was your favorite season?
Not that I recall saying. I liked it when I was a kid and it debuted but since then the idea has been pretty lame. The best season would have been one where they had more experienced wrestlers, as it’s a lot more interesting than watching people spend six weeks learning a hiptoss.
Sorry if you already respond to this question : who is your favorite wrestler of the 80’s ? Is this the same for Young Thomas and Adult Thomas?
You don’t have to apologize. The place has been around for over ten years and I don’t mind answering things more than once.
Hogan. I grew up a Hulkamaniac and, various issues aside, I still am. I know he’s not exactly great, but that was my childhood and I still smile at it.
Hi Thomas. I haven’t been keeping up with the WWE for awhile now. Did they ever finish the onscreen romance storyline between Carmella and Corey Graves on Raw, or did they just drop it without explanation?
They’ve established that they’re married so it’s more just kind of a detail than a focal point.
Which company did you think Jeff Jarrett had a better run in; The WWF or WCW?
WWF by far. Normally good matches (the Shawn In Your House match is a classic) and he finally found a way to get heat.
If you were given the final say in creative in the WWE what would be your end game for Roman Reigns as champion? Do you take the title off him at Mania 39 or sometime later? Do you go with an established guy beating him or someone not quite as established that in theory (no pun intended) getting the win against Reigns gives them that main event slot?
I wouldn’t have it at Wrestlemania in any year. Fans have been WAY too conditioned to think that the big title change has to take place at Wrestlemania and it kills suspense. It doesn’t need to happen on Raw or Smackdown, but one of those title matches where it looks like a waste of time and a foregone conclusion? Pull the trigger there.
As for who does it….oh that’s confusing. I like the idea of a shock title change, but the idea of THIS guy being the one to finally slay the dragon after the big long build would be great. The problem with the former is the whiny fan reaction of “we waited two and a half years and they waste it on THAT?” so it would probably hvae to be the latter.
Has Roman Reigns title defenses hit the point where they have become too predictable, what with him being portrayed as such a strong champion? I mean it’s quite obvious to even the casual fan that the WWE intends him to hold the championship for a long time, thus taking the drama out of his defenses.
Yeah kind of, and I’m not sure how to get around that. Something like a face Sami going after the title in Montreal could make me buy it, but McIntyre was pretty much the only challenger I’ve bought as having a chance in recent months.
I was watching Rampage 91 on the network Monday night and an interesting match was on it Power and glory with Slick vs Orient express with Mr fuji Now that ment heels vs heels What’s the psychology behind booking those matches?
In that case, they might have been just doing something to spice up the card a bit. Sometimes you might be doing it as part of a face turn, but here it feels like someone just trying to do something a little different to get people’s interest, perhaps even for the tape it was on.
I just read that on Matt Hardy’s podcast he was asked why Shelton Benjamin never got a WWE Championship run back in the day, and he opined he thought it was due to Benjamin not having a “larger than life personality.” Do you agree with this, or do you feel it was other things?
It’s partially that but at the same time, look at the people around him at the time. If we’re talking around 2005 as Benjamin’s peak, you had the rise of John Cena and Batista, plus people like Jericho, HHH, Michaels, and more. Benjamin is good, but he’s not cracking that list.
I’ve just noticed that the WWE has no PPV events for Raw and Smackdown until the Royal Rumble in late January. How do you feel they’ll handle that? What I mean is do you think they’ll make certain Raws’ and Smackdowns’ “free PPVs” like they used to in the early days of the original brand separation when one brand didn’t have a PPV one month?
They’ll almost have to, as they are going to run out of interesting things to do in a hurry on the way to the end of January.
I’ve always been a fan of Rumble qualifying matches and stories about wrestlers trying to get a spot instead of just announcing their entry. Do you think that could still work in this day and age?
Oh sure. It’s an easy concept and can build some drama if someone can’t get in.
Would you be willing to bet Domanik mysterious does something horrible to his mun or sister and Rey finally snaps settling ùp a Wrestlemaina match?
I could see that happening, yeah. It would make sense and hopefully wrap up the story.
Was there ever any serious discussion by the WWE to turn John Cena heel in his last several years as a full-time wrestler, or was that just unconfirmed rumors?
Pretty much just rumors, though I believe Cena alluded to it as well.
A lot can and most likely will change on the road to WrestleMania but what would be your best guess as to Roman Reigns’ opponent or opponents (if you buy into the notion that he has two separate matches for his two titles) at Mania 39?
If he’s available, the Rock. If not, they’ll probably go with Cody Rhodes.
Weird question, but do you still hate fat people? Some of your older comments towards them are almost uncomfortable to read they were so brutal.
I’d like to think I’ve grown up since then so we’ll go with no. I’m not proud of a lot of the things I said back in the day and that would be included.
We all hate the “Dusty Finish” in pro wrestling, but do you actually think there was an instance/instances where it ended up working?
Oh it was great to make a house show main event get a sequel. That would work very well, but it would work once. Going back to it too often was what got Dusty in trouble, not the idea itself.