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He was too good at what he was doing and got too much attention from the wrong writers or Vince and got turned into a goofball character. Consiracy R-Truth was awesome but then he became a joke with an imaginary friend, they de-clawed him and replaced the transgressive part of his character with sillyness.

Had a great time going out for some dinner with my Mum today, first time she's gone out since this shit all started,

Why the fuck are you guys reading so much Grantland? I've never even heard of this site except the stuff that people like to from this board and we've been discussing it for 715 pages.

I'm man enough to admit they're dolls. Suck it up.

If Jim Cornette were here, he'd slap you in the mouth.

I believe I agree with that. Also thought they dropped the ball on Miz&R-Truth: Lead Pipe Terrorists. That Hell in a Cell ending was phenomenal. Only time Miz looked legit, with the lead pipe massacre on everyone while the cell is closed. Plus JR and Booker going nuts. "We need street justice"

http://youtu.be/RPEWT_iLHxo

I really don't think I've enjoyed wrestling this much since I started watching ECW in 1994-95. This has been an absolutely fantastic few weeks to watch professional wrestling. There are so many great things unfolding.I loved the overall storyline of the night so incredibly much. The big story is still Daniel Bryan's attempt to get back his rightfully won title despite the corporate machine backing the already very capable Randy Orton. But the main focus of the night was on how HHH's manipulation of his power in order to put the belt on his preferred choice is affecting a lot of other lives. And the main person it's hurting is The Big Show -- the largest guy on the roster driven to tears because of how the smallest superstar of them all is being treated and he can't put the fears of his own career aside to do anything about it. It could be a red herring. But I don't want it to be. I want The Show to find a way to man up and beat the hell out of some dudes. I think Show's acting job tonight was on par with Eddie's heel turn against Rey. He said so much while only saying a few things all night. His facial expressions, his tending to The Miz, him leading the cheers for Bryan great and led up to the big moment -- Show ready to do something but HHH putting him in his place and Show feeling like he has no choice but to obey. He's been through these rodeos before. And his reluctance to help ends with The Shield and Randy beating up the one guy who truly does not care anymore, walking him around like a trophy pelt, and humiliating him in revenge for what he did to a car.Bryan is the star of stars now. The way he connects with the live audience is Austin '96 or so. I don't know (or care) if it translates to television eyeballs but he's so great. But making Smackdown about the other players -- that's how you use Smackdown. Raw and PPVs are where the story is told. Smackdown is there to fill in the details.Other stuff:* HHH remains on fire as THE KING DICK HEEL of all-time. What an awful person. His comeuppance will be epic and the best.* I hated Randy Orton for the past few years. He was a total snooze. Where the hell did all this come from? What a great, great, great jerk. I loved so many things in his match -- his nasty headbutts, a backdrop on the ring rail, his constant taunting and gloating. I don't think he's been this good since his stuff with Foley all those years ago.* I love that they're using the overarching story to really get some face burn for Miz and Dolph. Those guys were floundering and now they actually have some momentum again. The Miz is capable enough in the ring. He showed fire and guts and concern (when SIERRA HOTEL played) and more than held his own in the story of the match. He's good but a hair below Randy.* Dolph's pretty perfect for these 3-on-1 matches. The guy sells like no other. He wrestles smart -- as in he's a smart person who wrestles and knows how to try and steal a win. Reigns' spear on him was fantastic. I also love how Ambrose runs his mouth so much in the ring yet constantly takes beatings. Great subtle touch.* This is the best possible way to use Ryback. He's very good wrestling as this character. He doesn't have to do more than he's capable of -- use his strength spots, sell when you get hit with moves and talk trash when you can. Using him in this role is going to be really effective, I think. I also love how this got set up with Vicki claiming Bryan bullied four people at once.* Heyman was Heyman. More top-end stuff. I loved him blaming the fans for what he did to CM Punk -- that's a true heel right there.* I really wish (and hope) they give Ricardo a Virgil push against ADR. It's hard, though, to tell that underdog story because of Daniel Bryan right now, which is the best underdog story in wrestling in a long, long time.* The Wyatt Family is my favorite gimmick in ages. But they're in a holding pattern right now because of the numbers game. They're stuck in that there's nothing interesting for them to do except squash crappy tag teams. They're not ready to be the unlikely heroes to save Daniel Bryan and take on The Shield. There's no babyface/tag team they can get into some supernatural mind game with. They're good enough to get hot once there's a spot open. My main criticism of the Wyatt Family has been that the announcers haven't explained what Bray's talking about to the audience yet. Cole did that tonight by deciphering the Sister Abigail promo and using that to give a name to Bray's finisher.This has been really great and inspired stuff lately. Kudos, everyone.

This has always been hands down my favorite video package:

I am not saying that I would want a theater fire to happen but...

Those Heisman House ads need to feature Leinart and Tebow coming 'home' after being 'kicked out' of the NFL fraternity.

Uh...I think you might not have thought this part through...

That would be awesome. What we got was pure hell.

He is the very model of a morneau majour general.

Daniel Bryan's like a walking reset button. It doesn't matter if you botched someone's push, stick him with D-Bry and he's over again like magic.

Why does that Hogan doll have HBK's face?

So while I wasn't looking, Viz announced that they're going to release Ranma 1/2 on blu-ray in 2014. Shut up and take my money! I watched FMA: Sacred Star of Milos, and it was pretty good as a stand-alone movie. I don't know how well it did in Japan, but it seems like that would be an easy way to write more stories for franchises that people love and have finished their series (see also: Trigun Badlands Rumble, which I also enjoyed tremendously). Also along those lines, I've also been rewatching the Slayers and Ranma OVAs. I'm kind of surprised that they didn't make more stories with Lina and Naga. Their characters play off each other really well and the humor is right along the lines of Slayers Next.

Devil worshipper Kevin Sullivan was my favorite guy I could only read about and see pictures of back when I was 13. Thanks to the mags, Florida was this amazing wrestling and I could only read about it

So many great ones posted. Always loved the Angle return Clocks video... great hype. Those WM 27 ones ruled too... the Miz vid was crazy good, makes me miss Miz as a main eventer. Lonely Road of Faith & November Rain were both pretty perfect too. Some more favs: This was perfectly done: Starrcade 85 one reminded me of this great classic: fav return hype next to the Angle one: http://youtu.be/wLQH-WueOVI Always enjoyed this making a midcard feud seem like a bigger deal: http://youtu.be/HHPZ2RrTHgs

Considering the dangers of life on a planet without an electromagnetic field this is perfect. It is good using people that want to be reality TV show stars as lab rats. No real loss when things go bad which it inevitably will. Better than potentially throwing away the life of a few highly trained/skilled engineers and scientists. Who knows had this been around years ago we might have been spared The Miz.

Those Fallen Angel pics that the Apter mags would run helped this guy a lot when he was a young teen.

As a Kansas fan, tonight was kind of a best case scenario. Yeah, we're shit, but I'm a miserable enough person to derive joy from the failings of my neighbors. It's nights like this I'm reminded why I don't delete my facebook account.

Paul Walker needs to do a Running Scared sequel.

Miley Cyrus/UFC 164 parody clip that's gone viral: Thought that expression they threw in for Goldberg at the end was hilarious.

Let's talk about R Truth....come on he is a vet, can talk, had a main event In Your House program with Cena and nailed it. Wtf?

My favorites have been mentioned, Rock/Austin My Way and Summerslam '97 so here's my favorites from recent times WWE has the best video production team in the entire world. No one does it as well as they do.

That HHH/Foley program was absolute gold. I had just finished reading Foley's first book and I was at the peak of my Foley fandom. When he brought back Cactus Jack I marked out like I did the first time I saw Macho Man's elbow drop. It is probably the last time I had that feeling about wrestling. This is one of my favorite videos

Video packages are something WWE has ALWAYS done well. Even when the rest of the company is shit. I was always impressed when they had a Wrestlemania highlights package play at the end of Wrestlemania. It still stuns me how they got the last match in there. "Running Up That Hill" is the best one they've ever done. They also had a short Johnny Cash one for that same match. Here's a personal favorite because of how it made Umaga look:

I'm only human. Say, is that Bryan's dog?

The amount of Grantland writers who come from prep school/rich kid backgrounds is staggering. Simmons went to a boarding school. The truly awful Katie Baker is landed gentry who worked at Goldman Sachs before she made the "brave" decision to become a sportswriter (and paid zero dues). Jay Caspian Kang's parents were both professors and he's written about how he spent time in Southeast Asia to understand humanity or some such (and I'm sure he paid for it). Chris Ryan did a whole Philly thing about Silver Linings Playbook and talked about the $30,000 a year Quaker school he went to.Also, the amount of dumb writer's photos on that thing is telling. Rembert Browne might be the worst of the lot. His picture says it all -- all style, no substance, nothing real. Same with a whole bunch of others. I also wonder if Michael Weinreb popped champagne the first days the Sandusky scandal broke since he's from State College. How quickly did that dude get on the phone to NPR?There are a few good dudes at that site. I don't want to slag on everyone. Uhm, isn't Barnwell one of us? My online buddy Dave Hill writes about horse writing for them time-to-time and rules. Zach Lowe is the best sportswriter alive today -- he combines basketball statistical analysis and access to teams and players magnificently well and explains it so simply. He's also legitimately funny and not "REMEMBER ALF!" funny.

My favorite WM hightlight package: wish there was a better quality vid, but this was the best I could find.

Nikki is looking good. Actually Brie is the one hooking up with Danielson, Nikki is one the fucking Cena. ....So this is it? This is what I'm doing with my life, I'm the pathetic pedantic asshole going correcting people on which Bella is fucking which top guy this week.... Don't pity me, for I'm already dead.

NONONONONONONO Unicron was Orson Welles' crowning achievement, no matter how many critics fed on that "cartoons based on toy lines can't have artistic merit" horseshit say otherwise...

Chris Jericho Al Snow and Unabomb (Glen Jacobs/Kane) from their short run in Smoky Mountain Wrestling Hunter. I don't recall him looking that young in WCW. Michael Hayes. He probably had that perm in kindergarten.

Bill DeMott.

And their (forced) admiration of Dusty.

Just reminds me of an inside joke we made about the "the new 52 being hipper, cooler, more twilightier"

I think Cesaro's biggest problem is that he hasn't connected with the crowd yet. He's a pretty vanilla heel and hasn't shown much of a personality yet (other than the WWE youtube stuff). I'd actually like to see him as a face with a bit wackier personality. There was a period from the end of last year through the beginning of this year where Cesaro seemed like he was getting over. Things leveled off with his push and that was that

Back in the days when Nick at Night was around, and ran old 50s shows, I was watching DONNA REED and George Hamilton showed up as a teenager dating Shelly Fabares. Even at seventeen and in black and white he managed to look thirty-five and orange.