Ziggy

It made no sense for Sting to be in the Wolfpac for sure but after how Starcade 97 went down you can't really blame him for running with Nashs idea of a babyface NWO. As for Nash you can't blame him either because he couldn't put SyxxPac in and Hulk wanted Hall in his Hollywood NWO. Hall and Waltman were the only two outside of Konnan that made sense for Nash to have in a group together. Nash learned enough from being around Hogan to align himself with 3 of the top babyfaces besides DDP at the time to A. Make sure it gets over and B. Make sure they don't get more over than him meaning Sting, Luger and Savage. Sting joining the Wolfpac was treated like the same type of moment when other guys before him joined the original NWO. I know it wasn't a turn necessarily but you'd think it would have been a bigger moment they should've built up. It's like Nash was in a rush to get all these guys together so that it won't have time to flop. One thing I like about current wrestling is they've gone away from having babyfaces aligned because they are babyfaces and no explanation. They were able to get away with it because most of us bought into the Wolfpac. The NWO ran past it's expiration date before the Red and Black so it was a good thing it did work and they were doing record business

The author of the new NWO book that's coming out was on O'Shea Jackson Jr's podcast and he said according to Eric Bischoff, Sting was originally supposed to be the 3rdor man. I know Bischoff says that Sting was the backup plan if Hogan got cold feet and decided not to go heel but I don't recall Sting ever being brought up as the original 3rd man

In '99 WWF Main Event took on the 90s All Japan Main event style of kicking out of finishes. Before '99, Finishers were way more protected in WWE. Austin and The Rock brought that on. Kicking out of each other's finishers was something really new.If Bret Hart applied the Sharpshooter person that wouldn't tap or submit would be Undertaker. The success rate for someone not winning with their finisher before '99 was way higher. If Kurt Angle came into his Prime before 2001, He would have had that Ankle Lock more protected. Unfortunately when he came along. Those long dramatic teases of his opponent tapping was long since a false finish so you can't really blame him for adopting that psychology

Kurt didn't need to work the ankle. He was like an MMA fighter. I believed all he needs to do it grab the hold and your done. It's like the RKO of submissions because he could do it from almost anywhere. The popularity of UFC made it less necessary to work a body part in most cases. Unless Angle was working a Hoss or a Monster he didnt need to. He's an Olympic gold medalist , he should be able to out wrestle anyone across the ring from him and no need to soften up a body part to make them tap. I don't care if it's Triple H , Chris Benoit or John Cena. Someone like Mark Henry or Brock Lesnar are the only type people he should have to use that type of psychology with

Double post

I didn't see the PPV but wasn't it an issue during Stings retirement where certain people couldn't be seen on Camera? Didn't Kevin Nash declined attending because of WWE?

With the Sharpshooter, shouldn't Bret Hart focus on the back more then the legs. Brets Sharpshooter always looked very snug that I could see it being enough pressure on the limbs to give up but most over Scorpion Death locks its basically putting pressure on the back even Riki Choshu didn't seem to do it like Bret. I never questioned the figure 4 especially if Flair or Valentine work over any part on the leg. Valentine especially had sold legs that made his look excruciating especially against Tito. Im still a sucker for picking over a body part. Even today it would draw me in

I don't think they get rid of Rey because they think it's a chance he'd show up in AEW lol. I don't think they expect R-Truth or Braun Strowman to go to AEW or that Tony Khan would even want them but Rey. If he was let go , just seeing how well they handled Stings run. Tony Khan would probably do just as good or better booking for Rey to have a last run.

I don't know if i believe Hunter made the decision for these cuts. Some of these recent released and non renewals you can see coming but others seem really out of nowhere. I'm not even one of these people that thinks Hunter is this genius Booker that most people make him out to be but if he is so story driven he should do a better job of either writing people off or phasing people out. The last few times Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens contracts were coming up it was leaked way in advance. You mean to tell me the company waits till the last minute with a guy like Truth or even Corbin to not renew? Wasn't Corbin at the Netflix premiere or something just days before? It doesn't seem to have any real connectivity between the releases

MVP and Shelton pushed for them to bring him back. His role in the Judgement Day has added alot to the group. I'm glad they stayed away from the spitting the apple thing. It got tired not long after his original run and took away from the sense of humor he got to highlight during this run. It's going to be a big problem with them not wanting to renew these guys that are 40s and up with them going away from house shows. They are going miss out having these less experienced guys get to work against guys like Carlito. It's one thing to have coaches and agents. It's another thing for these guys that are straight out of developmental system to get to actually work these guys.

The way TKO has released legends out of UFC it's no surprise. They released Braun Strowman because he has been working on a back and knees. How much mileage did Braun Strowman have left to justify his pay for another 3 to 5 years if you look at things solely in a business sense. If Strowman was still healthy and as over as he was in 2018 , they wouldn't leave him available if they believed he wanted to continue to work a full schedule somewhere else. Strowman announced already he has some TV projects with WWE coming up. I don't think TKO could justify renewing a 50 plus year old for 3 -5 more years as an in-ring competitor. Of course Truth is a freak of nature for a 50 plus year old , so I dont say that to demean him at all. It's only a shock because he was just in one on the top angles and just 2 days ago in segments with another tip top guy on the card and there wasn't any indication on him being written off. Some releases since TKO you can kinda see coming ìn hindsight and other releases you don't see coming in hindsight. It makes me wonder if there's any communication between WWE and the corporate side of TKO. On the business side there's probably emotional connection to the active roster unless you're at a CM Punk or Reigns level. On my Twitter feed I see some people blame Hunter but others realize it's TKO. I'm pretty sure R-Truth has one of the top selling shirts with the Ron Cena deal. I'm surprised they didn't allow WWE to get more mileage out of it by having him on TV till the end of Cena's heel run. I'm sure he'll still be doing stuff with WWE like Braun will be. I doubt Truth has any aspirations on working anywhere else full time unless a major promotion is willing to pay him enough to. He'll probably get a legends contract and get paid doing signings and work the occasional indy that would be willing to pay what he's worth. I hate to be the guy that's always Tony Khan should bring"Such and such " to AEW but even though you can bring up reasons not to, he was just on a top program with your competitors top title. He's still very over and relevant. It's not like he can't pull out a decent match atleast. He's got history with a few people in some form. I think it having the opportunity to book him against different ELITE members might spark some interest. In alot of ways his character is similar to Timless Toni in the sense of it being comedy when comedy is very rare. The interactions between those two would be good. He and Dustin back together would be nice

In Sheiks book that is brought up but according to Sabu, Vince really wanted to sign him. Vince would have let him use The Sheik if that's what it took too get Sabu to sign but Sabu already had it in his mind he wasn't signing. Plus JJ Dillon was friends with The Sheik too. Im sure there was enough agents familiar with him and would have loved to have him on the road like they did Afa at the time. Sabu and the Sheik as a package would have fit those early years of Raw more than the Iron Sheik. Sure Iron Sheik had more history with WWF but fans didn't want to see people from Rock n Wrestling era on TV in '93 - '94. Other than Vince's weird obsession with having Backlund and Iron Sheik aligned, I don't see the point in using Iron Sheik at that time. I think having The Sheik with Sabu would have saved him from any type of cartoonishness that Vince would have added to his gimmick plus I don't even think Vince would have been able control him at times.

I started listening to the audio book of Sabus Autobiography and he mentioned Bret has the first one to greet him at Guerrilla after his tryout match and he was the only one that seemed excited by the possibility of him coming on board. Bret and Owen as well. I had no clue Vince sat on that Sultan gimmick for so long. If Vince had suggested The Sheik as him Manager instead of Iron Sheik he probably would have took it. Especially with JJ Dillon he probably could have gotten him in WWF.

Did you think Public Enemy seemed out of place in WCW. WCW had alot of teams that were good at brawling and just throwing hands that it help hide whatever they lacked. If Sabu had stuck around, i doubt they would have been able to rely on the Tables as much in WCW which also helped. When they got completely exposed but im sure most of that had more to do with WWE not wanting them to get over. You would thing they would have done better stylistically in 99 WWF because it's not like you had to be anywhere close to a decent work or even had to go 10 minutes or longer unless you were headlining

Shinzaki (Hakushi) was bigger than him and no one wanted to sell for him but Bret. I was thinking earlier that Bret would have worked with him and had some great matches. Bret was really open minded and he would have went out his way to have the best matches he could. Undertaker after working with Giant Gonzalez, I don't think he would have mind at all working with Sabu even with the size difference. Especially if they brought Sabu in as a strong enough character for Taker then yes. He could have been what Mankind was in '96. The strong character that he could also display his ability to work. Thinking about it now it's still a very small list of guys that would be willing to sell for him. Even if he did come in i don't see him staying too long but it would have been fun to have him in WWF during those early days of Monday Night Raw when they were actually experimenting with stuff. That early Raw crowd would have really liked him too and that probably would have forced Vince to get behind him. It's surprising in hindsight that Sabu didn't last atleast a few months in WCW during those early Nitros. By the time I got to watch WCW, he was gone. Eric had brought in a ton of guys that he was already familiar with. He could have really been a highlight for Nitro.

And he managed to get the Prize fighter gimmick over better than Kevin Owens, but i guess when you mention you have 7 children whether you are in or out of character you don't need much to believe in the gimmick.Plus the way the commentators put over his time in Jail is something that adds to him being dangerous too. Alot of guys like MVP were never afraid of bringing up their criminal past. It really could have been used in a way to get him over more as a babyface in WWE. They seem to really not shy away from that with Jacob to the point where it's seems like a way to make it impossible to dislike him. I remember watching the last SNME against Strowman and he's just a monster in that match and they bring up him coming along way from being in jail and I'm thinking to myself how can I not want him to succeed

2 Cold Scorpio was similar to Sabu as far as the grittyness. He could so all the flips and dives but just like Sabu, his strikes looked really stiff. It looked like when he landed on his opponents only thing they could do was hope for the best. Scorpio was a smaller guy by the early 90s standards. By modern day standards he would easily pass as a Heavy weight. Same if Owen Hart was around in the 2000s. Watching Scorpios stuff now looked like he didn't have much give in how he landed alot like Sabu but Sabu was smaller. Most of the Samoans were much bigger but had better control in how they landed on guys

I seen a clip from a Shoot Shawn Michaels did with RF when he retired the first time from 2000 of him praising RVD but saying some of what he does looks choreographed. It's funny because that's RVD and Sabu complaint about guys today. When they talk about their work they talk about they didn't talk about much. In later years in WWE they had to run alot of the bigger spots by the agents or Vince because of the people in the truck having to catch things on camera. It makes sense now that sometimes Sabu would purposely mess up spots to add to his match. It's irritating that people can have a minor slip up and people would call it a botch. I don't agree that everything has to come off super clean and crisp or otherwise people will consider it a botch. McAfee slipped on the ropes at Backlash and a few people called it a botch. Shouldn't it be believable that a part timer or celebrity can mess up a move even if it isn't intentional. I like Charlotte. She's a great athlete and I enjoy her matches most times but honestly most of the time she looks like 90° from injuring herself and her opponent. The lack of smoothness in her moves add to her appeal in a weird way. It wouldn't be fun if everyone was a smooth as Curt Hennig or Bret Hart in the mid to late 80s. Or maybe it would be, it's just unrealistic

First time i saw Sabu was on the Raw in February when Paul Heyman had ECW guys on promoting Barely Legal 97. The first ECW PPV i watch was Living Dangerously 99 with Sabu vs Taz. I didn't really get to follow ECW until they got on TNN and he was on his was out by then. I didn't really get to watch alot of his historic matches till I got high speed internet in '03. He literally inspired generations and it's going to be weird with him not being around making snide comments on Twitter or in shoots because he really didn't care. Just a year ago probably to the week I listened to the audio book on the Sheik. I hope they do a Dark Side of the Ring on him next season. He should have been a Millionaire like Foley. Atleast we got that one PPV match vs Cena that I believe is getting more love after this week.

Alot of WWE main events especially the PLEs are too close to Attitude era when Russo was head writer. Or Peak WCW Nitro with the Run-ins and refbumps, The only difference is you get better wrestling in between. Cena vs Orton was better than the Main event at Mania but the ending stretch ruined it. I've said before WrestleMania 40 in Philly last year made me realize that in important matches like these you will rarely have a clean finish. Tonight with that 4 way and the Women's IC title match made this PLE. Becky gets shit from a section on the internet but she really brings it consistently. Remember she had that NXT run a year and a half ago. She e to go do that run just like she mentioned a year ago wanting to work with Lyra and help get her over. The moment we get Cobb vs Fatu will be of. I wanted a slow turn for Jacob and the way Hunter slow burns angles who knows when Jacob actually splits from Solo. WWE still has a handful of Hosses and Giants. I forgot about Bronson Reed already but wait till he gets back. Part of me wants to just give up on WWE and switch my little mental real estate i have to watch wrestling an substitute for AEW or New Japan but the undercard is has such an upside. WWE is like 97-98 WCW except the main eventer actually work but the Run-ins and refbumps is too much

I just watched this Will Ospreay interview where he mentioned he hates working the hard camera. Alot of what he was saying made sense. Even to someone like me who watches way more WWE. He talked about the WWEs storytelling approach to wrestling. I doubt Ospreay ever goes to WWE because I don't think he would want to work in alot of the confines and I understand it. Him talking about how the WWE house style would hinder him reminds me of when WWE would bring in someone like Butch Reed or Dibiase from Mid South and they'd be a lesser version of themselves. I watch way more WWE than AEW but I was excited that Ricochet went to AEW. Same with Mercedes. I love to see especially with people like Mercedes that barely spent to much time on the indies and spent most their career in WWE take a chance outside of the WWE element. If Sasha hadn't walked out of WWE , she probably would have never had a chance to work in Japan and work against people that she would have never got the chance to in WWE. Last week the only release that really bothered me was Jakara Jackson because I feel like everyone on that list except Strowman who probably doesn't have to take a bump again to earn a living will get consistent work in wrestling if they want. Kacy Catanzaro is probably the only person that probably wont continue outside of WWE. Jakara Jackson was really actively showing improvement even uptill the last time she was in the ring. She was getting a ton of ring time on all 3 shows the last 9 months. I really hope she continues. I saw a post where she shouted out Kenny Omega as an inspiration so that kinda gave me hope that she'll continue

It kinda sucks that he's getting cheered now because now they have no choice but to turn him into a babyface. I guess they ride the wave of him as a face and then turn him back heel. The way WWE moves these days he'll probably be face for a year or more. I know there's money as a face. Let fans get it out of their system and turn him back. A lot of people say MJF got hurt by turning him face. When they turned him back he hasn't been the same as before. Even now with the Hurt Syndicate, I don't know where they are going with him as far as him being heel or face. Once guys like Dom or MJF turn face, it takes alot for fans to buy into them being heel again. I don't know how long AEW is going to milk the MJF/Hurt Syndicate deal but you don't want him to turn into Big Show Paul Wight where he turns so much people stop caring. Dom will most likely keep his same characteristics as a face kinda like Roman Reigns has been as a face especially during this last angle with Seth and Punk he was pretty much the same Roman Reigns as he was during the peak of the Bloodline

If Brock never Decided to come back to WWE for these last few runs, I don’t know if gets to have the consistency on screen and the influence behind the scenes. Vince and Stephanie clashed with him a lot after he came in. Him being so close to Brock I think is really what got him back in the 2010s. Brock having him as his actual advocate and manager for his actual dealings got Paul back in the door then Punk being the number two guy really helped too. It’s kind of like what people say about Terry Taylor. He was never without a job because of the friends he had. I don’t think Vince was a big fan of Taylor but even during the attitude era if Hunter wasn’t close to Vince I don’t believe Vince would think to bring him back. I not saying Taylor isn’t good at his job because even today a ton of recent talent from NXT talk about how good of a coach he is

Who does he have heat with that's around now? You would have thought his close friendship with Rey would have gotten him a spot in the office or a Regal like position by now. He's also really close with Road Dogg and R-Truth who was close with Vince. I could definitely see Jericho recommending bringing him in. He's kinda like Jeff Jarrett where he had enough of the right friends that could convince Vince or who ever to finally give in and bring him in. If they had him in when they hired Mistico, He Probably would have worked out or had him in creative all those different times they tried to make the cruiserweight division work out. He seems like a guy that Hunter would have brought in to be one of his office like Gabe Sapolski is

But we've all heard people that work in wrestling office in some form say how wrestling fans , criticize or complain about promotions but the fans will always turn around and tune in Next week only to complain again. I do agree that it isn't a good business practice for any business to lean in any direction politically but I don't believe that people aren't going to be turned away from WWE because they learn or align with a certain politician. Not enough to effect business. WWE and wrestling in general has always believed that they can do what they want but the people with continue to tune in next week. Triple H said the other day "the internet isn't real". That statement was made to discredit the voice of the internet. I do believe that in alot of cases that even today the internet only reflects a small section of the audience. Even Tony Khan proved recently with the Death Riders quarter hour ratings that the complaints of the internet didn't reflect the numbers of viewers of TV.