Hustler of Culture

I think AEW needs to stay away from the Santino type gimmicks. Even though I don't like the Orange Cassidy gimmick and I think it has negative consequences, he has at least shown to move the ratings needle at times. And if you bring in more comedy gimmicks, not only does it not separate the AEW product from the WWE product, but it makes somebody like Orange Cassidy less special. It's very much like the old saying 'if every wrestler in your promotion is a giant, then you have no giants.' Nokazawa is 45 years old, he's not going to help the promotion...he can only hurt the promotion. Again, it's the issue that modern wrestlers and fans of modern wrestlers don't quite understand...the people that don't watch wrestling that used to aren't against comedy in wrestling, but to use comedy (which doesn't sell anywhere near as well as they think it does) at the expense of compelling drama and character credibility is bad. Shows like the Sopranos used comedy and were often hilarious at times, but they didn't use it so it made their main characters look weaker or make the show and storylines look not believable. They were careful about how satire was used. But if they had no satire, I don't think that would have caused fans to stop watching the show. So when I see a guy using baby oil to escape a hold or any of the other shenanigans, it just makes the opponent look like a buffoon and I've had my fill of that from watching Vince McMahon's product over the past several decades. HoC

I think it works for The Acclaimed to come with lame battle raps and use that as a heel. It generates legit heat. So far I have liked what I've seen out The Acclaimed. HoC

I have watched their work in Japan and they weren't as over as people make them out to be. At the PWG shows I've been to, they were mega-over, but you're talking about a promotion that draws 5,000 fans per year. And they are far less compelling to watch when they are not working a tornado style tag match or a TLC style match. That's why they had to go to a TLC type match against the Lucha Bros in only the third match of their feud...it would have gotten boring and a tough sell to fans to buy the PPV. Last night's match against The Acclaimed was a good example. It started off really well. It was filled with great spots early on, but in a traditional tag rules match and the spots were plausible with the overall story being that that the Young Bucks were a little quicker and tagging in and out better. But then they do a 'dive into the quails' spot and too many big moves weren't finishing guys off and then they started to get into the 'one partner is on the floor for an extended period of time and comes from out of nowhere' spot along with all of these 1 guy beats 2 guys spots and they generally shit all over the referee. It's not like I'm never entertained by a YB match, but it's likely not happening if it's a traditional match. They really could have easily ended the match last night with the double starpshooter spot and it would have been a fine match. Instead they went and did way too much and it made it look like a typical YB match that lost its psychology. It's like the guy who can play the guitar and harmonica at the same time really well, but then decides to put symbols taped to his leg and clumsily clap them together. Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should. And stick to the stuff you do well and stay away from the stuff you don't do well. HoC

The Bucks are more limited than most fans (that I've come across) think they are. They are basically wrestle the Tornado style and TLC style of tag team very well. That great if the promotion's rules are basically geared that way (ala ECW). The Public Enemy basically kept ECW alive by wrestling that way, but the promotion allowed for it. When you have a promotion that forces tag teams to follow standard rules then there's a conflict and either the matches don't make sense or they are just poor quality. I started to see this when they began their feud with the Lucha Brothers in AEW. Their third match of the feud they had to go to a TLC match and it was obvious that the reason was that fans would get bored of it. Great tag teams don't need to go to gimmick matches that early in a feud. The MX didn't need that against the RnR Express or the Fantastics. The Bulldogs didn't need to go to that against The Hart Foundation or Demolition. I don't expect long, drawn out feuds of yesteryear, but 3 matches in and going to a gimmick match is really jumping the gun. And that's what Tony Khan and the Bucks don't comprehend...this isn't the indies where the promotion doesn't have TV and cannot develop characters and storylines so the 'draw' is the in-ring wrestling, athleticism and even doing hardcore matches. It's better to extend these things a little while otherwise the in-ring wrestling gets stale and the gimmick matches...which have great potential to draw...have no meaning and don't draw nearly as well. The tag division in AEW has been disappointing to me mainly because almost every team wrestles the same style. There seems to be a real focus on double team moves in AEW, but it often comes at the expense of the credibility of the referee and the rules. But what annoys me more is the frequency of one wrestler beating the double team. That should be reserved more for a hot tag that changes the match or maybe to get a small pop from the crowd early in the match. In AEW it's happens a handful of times in a match and usually with moves that are just too convenient to be believable. But the superkick thing doesn't bother me at all. Going to the camera and saying 'best comeback in wrestling' did The Meltzer Driver I'm not too high on, but the fans really seem to like it and I've seen far worse tag team finishers. In all they have been very influenced by video games as it shows in their style where the focus is on spots, double teamsa nd athleticism more than selling and making things look plausible. I do think they can tell a story in a match as I've seen them do it, but the lack of selling and all of these overly-participatory spots turn me off. I think they could learn a lot from FTR, but will bristle at that notion. They do play the cocky heels pretty well, but with it known that they are execs at the company they have to guard against that or it just comes off like another authority figure type gimmick. As faces or tweeners, they are god awful on the mic. HoC

If that. There's a google image of Jericho and him together and he looks like he's about a 1/2" shorter than Jericho. HoC

I generally agree here although I think Jungle Boy is a longer term project than Quen. Jungle Boy seems to be a quicker study in the ring, but is very small and has a babyface (no pun intended) that with his lack of size is going to make it hard to become a superstar in today's wrestling. That worked in the 80's with Rickie Morton in the southeast, but I don't think today's fans will buy into when they were exposed to good looking superstars who were far bigger than Jungle Boy. Both Cassidy and Quen are fantastic athletes, but Quen is on the level with Omega athletically...although Omega appears to be much stronger. I see the similarities to Bret Hart in terms of his potential career path, but Bret had years of experience as a quality singles wrestler that got a main event push in Calgary whereas Quen has mostly stuck to tag team wrestling. The roadblocks for Quen is that with his lack of singles experience he goes into AEW as a tag wrestler and basically being brought in because the Young Bucks love PP's style of wrestling...which is basically the Young Bucks' style of wrestling. I'm not down on the Young Bucks in the ring as many people think I am. I don't even mind all of the superkicks (they're small guys who aren't going to knockout a wrestler with 1 superkick). But they are very limited in what they can do well and this type of style of tag team wrestling I think will prove to be poor in developing a main event singles wrestler. In many ways I can see him having a Bubba Ray Dudley type of career path. BRD had limited singles experience before he became a tag wrestler in ECW which had a very high spot oriented, tornado style of tag wrestling. Hell, he didn't even know how to properly lock up. But thru dedication and athleticism he made a career for himself as a tag wrestler and when he went to singles, he wasn't awful but he just wasn't made for superstar, main event status. And yes, I know he had a run in TNA, but it drew like felons to a police station. HoC

AEW's first official show was Double or Nothing PPV on May 25, 2019. Their official Dynamite TV debut was October 2, 2019. Full Gear wasn't until November 9, 2019. At best they gave it 10 shows before they blew their load booking the heel turn. And that's being generous since the TV show brings far more viewers that can follow along with storylines. It's obvious that they didn't think the entire Cody as the mentor and MJF as the student thing out very well and then just said 'fuck it, we'll just turn him heel and get it over with. Our fans won't mind too much.' Zbyszko didn't turn on Sammartino for 7 years. I don't expect for modern televised wrestling to move at that slow of a pace, but 10 shows...some of which MJF and Cody weren't even on the air for...isn't a build to get maximum effect. And this is symbolic of AEW's booking...their inability to create and sustain any type of momentum to build compelling television that would get more than their 750K/0.30 viewers to watch every week. Few fans remember the feud and turn now other than being something that happened that was part of normal sports entertainment protocol. And the response MJF gets as a heel is very pedestrian. Most fans view him as a guy playing the role of the heel and recognize that he's good at it, but they don't seriously hate him enough to root hard for the babyfaces and want to see MJF get his comeuppance. HoC

Mr. Wrestling II was heel and Magnum TA was face. The Grappler was a heel and Carl Styles was a face. It could very well be mentor as the face and student as the heel, but in order to get the full effect of the heel turn the student has to gain the fans' sympathy and then betray their trust which is what Zbyszko did. HoC

To my knowledge Cody looked at MJF as a potential superstar and took MJF under his wing. It would have been a new twist to your typical pro wrestling booking. Typically the booking is that the mentor is the heel and the student is the face who gets fed up with the mentor and finally breaks away. Or they may be both faces or both heels and the student makes the turn. This scenario was different, but still something they could have written to make a compelling angle. I would have booked MJF was a heel to everybody else but Cody. And then I would have booked it as such where every time the fans and announcers say that MJF is going to turn on Cody...have MJF prove them wrong and be there for Cody. Then when the sentiment turns to 'MJF may be an asshole, but he's always there for Cody'...that is when you turn him and it has a greater effect. Instead they rushed it because Tony Khan can't book and doesn't understand the concept of booking momentum and staying one step ahead of the fans. Thus the MJF heel turn got minimal effect because it was more or less expected to happen. HoC

AEW would not have brought in 1990's Taz into their locker room because he wasn't going to be their buddy and was too into character. Yet, he was over in ECW, sold a lot of merch and also designed merch behind the scenes that sold extremely well. Modern day Taz is nothing like the Taz from 20+ years ago. This isn't hard to figure out unless you feel the need to blindly stooge for AEW. HoC

Nobody is saying that an antagonistic environment is the way to go. In fact, Goodear's post specifically points out there is a happy medium. As I mentioned with ECW, it wasn't an antagonistic environment, but it certainly wasn't an environment where everybody was buddy-buddy with each other. Many wrestlers did not like Taz. Sabu & RVD looked down up much of the roster. Raven wasn't easy to get along with. But they respected what they brought to the table and it also instilled some competitiveness with each other. As far as bands go, The Rolling Stones, GNR, Metallica, Oasis, The Eagles, Van Halen etc. were quite successful despite being at each others throats for extended periods of time. And quoting Kevin Nash on how to work in the ring, probably not the best idea. HoC

Stunt just isn't good. And the comparisons to Lyger and Mysterio (made by Meltzer of all people) are ridiculous. They were far better workers, far better athletes and had far better physiques than Stunt. The more close comparison is really Darby Allin, who isn't much bigger than Stunt. But if people were saying that because of Darby's size he isn't 'believable', then the comparison to Lyger and Mysterio would work because Allin is on their level in terms of athleticism, quickness and working ability. I can believe in Darby Allin working a match against somebody like Cody (and it was a great match). I can't believe Stunt working against 90% of the roster. The other issue with Stunt is he takes away the underdog babyface heat from Jungle Boy. Jungle Boy is a very small guy, but a great athlete who has a ton of potential and you hope as the years progress he gets bigger and has more of an elite athlete's type of physique and by showing heat and determination he can make himself into a superstar. But putting Stunt alongside the Lucha Express now takes away that underdog heat from Jungle Boy because there's an even smaller guy who is willing to get involved in their matches alongside them. As Jim Cornette likes to say...it's a hat on a hat. Unfortunately it's more like a raggidy trucker's hat on top of a Vivienne Westwood hat. He just screams amateur hour to me. While I appreciate him having a lot of heart to do this, wrestlers like Jungle Boy and Allin have plenty of heart and they come off more as professional or potentially professional to me. And they don't miss their cues nearly as much as Stunt does. If feels like because Stunt is small and became friends with the execs and is willing to do all of the silly shit they love they are willing to look past the fact that he's just not very good and a detriment to the show. HoC

I've hated how they have booked MJF. Starting him off as a quasi-babyface under Cody's tutelage and have him turn heel could have worked if he had continued to prove fans wrong that he would turn on Cody and then built up the trust of the fans. Once that trust would have been built up, then have him turn on Cody because that's what effective heel turns are about...burning the fans. Instead, they never built up that trust and had no real good explanation as to why MJF turned on Cody...or at the very least that Cody should have seen it coming and it made Cody look weak. And then for him to become friends with Jericho and the Inner Circle after just recently having actually fought them. And then all of the stuff with Jericho has fallen flat on me. It's typical sports entertainment bullshit instead of a real alternative. Too much attempts to be funny instead of believing in him being a spoiled, rich kid who is a prick. The feel I get is that MJF is supposed to be the next in line great heel, but I think Sammy Guevara has far more heat than he does. Mainly because it's pretty easy to anticipate what MJF is going to say and too much ha-ha leads fans to liking him. Guevara just oozes this douchy, ass kisser that has a Tully Blanchard punchable face. In the ring I've been impressed with his work. He comes more from the Boris Malenko school of the heel not giving the face an inch and taking advantage of situations. The problem is I just haven't seen a lot of him on Dynamite. When I see him in the ring, it may be another month before I see him again. Usually that's reserved for wrestlers that climb their way up to being a superstar. But in AEW they do so many things ass backwards. I'm not a fan of the scarf. It comes off too much like early 90's WWF or WCW. Too much of a gimmick and for the love of God, he should be hailed as being from The Hamptons or The Upper East Side instead of Plainview. He really needs to get away from the Inner Circle stuff, get more TV time whether it be matches or just pre-recorded promos. I think he could get nuclear heat if he made fun of the modern wrestling style and made the fans think he was actually refusing to participate in letting their favorite wrestlers do their flippy spots and then have him cut promos alluding to him refusing to do that and mocking those fans. When fans start to question what is a shoot and what is a work, that draws. But this stuff with Jericho they have no doubt in their mind that he is trying to play the heel role and they just become nonplussed over it. HoC

I think it's an interesting element, but personally I think it's more about when the promotion like the WWE makes working for them a chore and 'un-fun' it shows up in the wrestlers' performances. For me, I think AEW has swung the pendulum too far in the other direction. I really enjoyed ECW from '94-'97 and there were neat things that they had going on like fan bus trips where a couple of the wrestlers would ride along on the bus and for the most part, the wrestlers had fun working for the promotion during that time and had a comradarie between each other and the fans. It reminded me of stories I used to hear about the old Milwaukee Braves baseball team where the players were stars, but also part of the community. But the difference was that ECW didn't just bring in their friends to the promotion. They brought in guys that they thought would best help the promotion. Taz and Sabu did not like each other in real life. There were guys that didn't like Shane Douglas. Perry Saturn wasn't particularly well liked. And it boiled down to you may not like a certain wrestler on a personal level, but you respect them as a wrestler and what they bring to the table. And that brought forth the mindset of wrestlers trying to outdo each other to make the show the best they possibly can. Unfortunately, they often went overboard and couldn't top each other. That's where leadership failed them. With AEW they are more into bringing in their friends who won't challenge the execs. It can be good for locker room harmony, but I don't think it makes for the best product. The Young Bucks seem to bring in tag teams that basically wrestle just like the Young Bucks do. And when JR talks criticizes some of the work that the wrestlers do the wrestlers seem to take offense to it rather than understanding that JR wants what is best for the company and has been apart of some extremely successful periods of business in wrestling and is probably the greatest talent evaluator in pro wrestling history. The point in all of this is that you can have guys that don't get along and don't see eye-to-eye and still be a fun place to work and still have excellent harmony and comradarie on the roster. HoC

This is pretty much spot on. When I first saw Miro in the WWE I really liked what I saw. He had more of a barrel chested look than your cut, bodybuilder/fitness model look that is so prevalent these days. But the difference was Miro combined that with kicks and agility. My issue with his work is that he started to rely way too much on his agility and kick strikes and he got away from being the monster he could be. Instead of wrestling like a power wrestler with great agility who can do some nice kicks, he started to look more like Kyle O'Reilly and it took the monster away from him (that and McMahon's goofy booking). Miro was definitely a guy that if he walked into a room you would take notice. He may not be a superstar in the end, but it's something that catches your eye. And now he's more relegated to a goofy gamer instead of the guy that strikes the fear into the hearts of fans of other wrestlers. I don't think AEW is the land of milk and honey..it's a sports entertainment promotion and not an alternative to the WWE. Guys go there because you're only working 1 day a week and they'll let them do their stupid, goofy shit instead of having to do Vince's stupid and goofy shit. But in the end, it's still stupid and goofy shit that won't become mainstream. It doesn't have the McMahon stank on it and the diehards that Vince drove of love it and will apologize for it. I hold out no hope for Miro because he'll just continue to do the goofy shit that hardly anybody cares about and then the joke will get old and stale for the select few that do care about it. It's like my mom used to say...it's easy being the 'yes mom' and it's hard to be the 'no mom.' But in the end the family will be better for it if the mom can tell her children 'no.' AEW is the 'yes mom' promotion and it's good enough for a low level TV deal for now and working 1 day a week. But I wonder how many like Miro will look back and see the big draws they missed out on because there was nobody there to tell them 'no' and guide them to a better way. HoC

Archer has potential as he's a big guy with athleticism, but couldn't be taken seriously when he gave offense to Marko Stunt in his debut match. It should have been a Road Warriors type of squash and instead came off like a Terry Funk vs. Aldo Marino type of match. He then lost to Cody which was too soon. Although with the pandemic and such, the roster slimmed down and they were probably trying to give Cody a good opponent. Problem is that Archer has more star potential than say, Joey Janela, and I would have found other opponents to job to Cody. It doesn't mean that Archer can't get over, but it was taking a couple of steps backwards. Part of the issue I have with Archer is he doesn't work stiff enough. Particularly when doing a brawl. He's very safe, but shows too much daylight, particularly for a guy labeled as the Murderhawk Monster. Just symbolic of the issues that AEW has...bad booking, inability to gain and sustain momentum with wrestlers, giving up too much to inferior talent that nobody cares about and nobody getting thru to him to critique his work. Luchasaurus is symbolic of the modern wrestler and why so much of the in-ring work falls flat in the end. It's about spots for him and he attempts stuff that has a difficulty of 10 and executes all over the place, a perfect execution one one spot, followed by a 5 on the next spot and then a 1 on the next spot. He's built for tag team wrestling because he can't provide a base and then transitions for his spots. But he kills his hot tags when he tries spots that are just too difficult to convincingly execute. To me, he should become a long time tag wrestler for the company and work on finding the spots he can consistently execute well. Hopefully Jungle Boy will evolve into a legitimate rising singles star and then Luchasaurus establishes himself as a tag talent and then finds another partner. I don't really have a problem with the Luchasaurus gimmick and name even though AEW needs to get away from sports entertainment as much as possible. To me it works to a degree. However, he needs to completely change his promos. Yes, I know he has a Masters degree...but Mick Foley is very intelligent and I didn't care for him to talk on an intellectual level and would take his promos as Cactus Jack and Mankind any day. HoC

I agree, but this happens in sport all of the time. I'm sure if you get a black left handed QB that runs well...they'll automatically compare him to Michael Vick. But I don't see the comparison between Guevara and Eddy other than they are Hispanic. Guevara is more of the modern day wrestler with a high spot style and Eddy was a lucharesu style. Eddy was short and well built together, Sammy is taller and skinnier. Unfortunately it's a way of life, but it's something that has always annoyed me and when I hear JR make this comparison I groan because it's a bad comparison. HoC

This is just splendid. Using pro wrestling's short memory and turning it into a promo that raises doubt about the newly formed friendships of the babyfaces who were at each other's throats just a little while before and using that to sell the feud and what may happen. Fantastic. HoC

Not a fan of Sabian's work. Another modern wrestler that hasn't quite figured out how to be heel with a modern moveset or just doesn't care to. Just throws a lot of flippy moves and overly participatory spots together and taunts the crowd. Fundamentals are piss poor, doesn't know how to sell like a heel, etc. Nice addition for an affordable payday on an indie show where athleticism is at a premium, but on a TV show trying to reach a nationwide audience I don't know what he brings to the table. I like Ford, though. HoC

That's kind of the way I feel about Jeff Jarrett and Chris Candido. Other wrestlers loved working with them because the footwork was perfect and they touched light. They reminded me of Larry David being referred to as a 'stand up comic's stand up comic.' He did all of the little things that only stand up comics could really appreciate, but as a fan he wasn't all that great. I personally never understood all of the praise that Jarrett and Candido received as I never found them to tear down the house in a match, but the workers thought they were gold in the ring because they made things easier for them and made it look easy doing it. I don't mind Omega's schizo style at all, but many workers may not like working with him because his footwork is off. But on the other hand, when I hear him being talked about as the greatest of all time, I just don't see it. He's not on the level of a Steamboat, Misawa, Eddy, Kawada, Fujinami, Dynamite, etc. He's a worker that has a lot of really good to great matches that worked with the perfect guy to work a style of match that we hadn't seen the likes of before. There's certainly no shame in that. Now the question is if he can be the Ace of AEW....of course he's got to get the opportunity to be the Ace, first. HoC

I wasn't talking about what fans on here think of HHH (or Omega) like it's some holy grail of opinions on the wrestling business. I'm talking about, as you pointed out, HHH being given the 'great worker gimmick' and how I disagree with the notion that he's a great worker. I know this board quite well. HoC

Statlander exemplifies what the problem with wrestling has been since the territories were long gone. Good athlete, but rushed too soon before she's ready to be consistently on TV. Then the fans remember how lousy she was in the beginning and unless she makes an incredible transformation the fans will always have a hard time buying into her. The alien gimmick is stupid and AEW should know better than that, but they have a hard time telling their talent 'no.' Drop the alien gimmick, figure out a real moveset and what moves you can consistently execute at a high level and use them. Keep getting matches with those moves and you can start to piece the different ways to use psychology from there. Establish yourself as a heel or a face and learn to work like one. This doesn't have to be goofy Memphis heeling or 2000's Vince heeling nor does it have to be a white meat babyface work. HoC

Omega's rise to fame as a worker really comes from Meltzer's influence on US fans watching puroresu. Not that it's entirely a bad thing. Meltzer played a role in influencing my puroresu watching habits with guys like Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi, etc. But the less experienced WON readers have less time to realize Meltzer's biases when it comes to the wrestling he likes and often times he has gone back and regretted putting over something as great. I had a lot of respect for Dave's opinion on in-ring work, but he was the same guy that wrote that Sabu was arguably the greatest worker in the world in '95. He has always been more into the junior style of wrestling and appreciated flips and agility over working the crowd, doing stuff that feels plausible, being careful to not outshine higher levels on the card and basically keeping the fans wanting more for the long run. It's hard for me to say that Omega is the most overrated worker of my generation, but there are people that are nutty enough to claim he's the greatest worker of all time and that gets reinforced by Meltzer's 7-star ratings. And to Dave's credit,the industry has changed to fans wanting to see more athletic style of wrestling as seen from the results of focus groups. So in the sense of people saying he's the greatest worker ever, yes he's outrageously overrated. But he's a really good in-ring performer nonetheless. The problem with Omega for me is that he's such a great athlete that when he works at a slower pace he's entirely less thrilling to watch. And that means a lot of good workers who simply cannot keep up with him will not have great matches. Then the workers that are athletic enough to keep up with his breakneck pace may be lousy workers. I think it translates into a lot of 3* star matches. But in today's wrestling climate he's not going to be the main event for long periods of time and his athleticism can take the shine off those that are in the main event. The V Trigger and Dragon Suplex usage is something that I debate a lot along with the Young Bucks' superkick usage. I think the V Trigger is a fairly easy move to execute and looks devastating. But using it so much makes you wonder why it should be protected by other wrestlers on the card. However, the fans do want to see the V Trigger and want longer matches so the V Trigger usage makes sense. Hell,it makes more sense than Flair's chops. I do think Omega has some lousy footwork, he tends to make 4 steps when he only needs to make 2 steps. But he seems to manage without screwing himself or his opponent up. Anyway...as far as most overrated worker... It's really tough to say. There are those that think Jerry Lawler was the greatest pure worker of all time. I think as a pure worker he was great, but I don't know if I'd say hew as the best ever as his shit didn't get over nearly as well outside of Memphis. HHH gets lauded as one of these all time great workers, but I never saw him carry a guy to a really good match. I could even make the case for Flair being highly overrated as his finishes usually stunk and there was a lot of bad psychology spots and wrestling the same match quite often. HoC

I would question if Heyman would have faced charges. There's no real statutes in Massachusetts that say you can or cannot wrestle at a certain age and there were witnesses on hand that heard Kulas tell Heyman that he was 18 years old. And as much as I hate to say it, I question if New Jack would have ever been found guilty. It's pro wrestling, but it's a slippery slope legally to find New Jack guilty of killing somebody in a 'performance' particularly when there were plenty of witnesses that heard Kulas ask New Jack to gig him. I think it would've done the world a favor to have New Jack in prison, but I just have my doubts that would have happened. The civil suits would have been against New Jack, but he simply wouldn't pay them and knowing how pro wrestling is, he would still find work in states where athletic commissions don't exist or have no power over pro wrestling and he would have increased his 'rep' as this homicidal maniac. Heyman would have been protected against civil lawsuits as ECW was incorporated under HHG Corp and in all likelihood their insurance would have paid out any settlements or judgments. Of course, this does beg the question if they were insured as Heyman would have been the type that would not have been insured. But, ECW was still owned by Tod Gordon at that time and Tod wasn't reckless enough to not be incorporated and insured. One of my conspiracy theories of wrestling is that I believe that Heyman was helping book the WWF when he was still in ECW and the WWF started to make their run. I think he basically had meetings on the phone, alone with Vince and ran ideas and concepts by Vince and Vince took the majority of those ideas in. HoC

This entire feud has always left me conflicted about Memphis wrestling . So much hokey stuff and wrestling that I don't care for. Even this had some wrestling I didn't care for like when Lawler handcuffs Idol to the rope in an earlier match. But overall this was just so smartly booked and brilliantly executed. HoC