clintthecrippler

I think a strong case could be made that a good majority of the roster has been failed by the current system of writing and creative direction. I genuinely do not think that Corbin is one of them. I thought the in-ring aspect of the recent series with Chad Gable was great, but midcard gatekeeper heel seems like it should be his place instead of this endless feud with Roman. His presence on the mic, his presence at projecting being a top heel, it just comes off as not being there, at least to me. This really does feel like the absolutely best of what he is capable of on the mic. To use other '80s regional examples, he's Florida Heavyweight Champion Jesse Barr and Pacific Northwest Champion Mean Mike Miller, guys who are perfectly adequate but if they are the main event heel in the territory, it's only because there were literally no other options and the territory is on the decline. If he was a manager in 1986 Jim Crockett Promotions, he would be Paul Jones. To use a more recent example, his current push reminds me of every time they would try to push "serious heel" Val Venis during the Attitude Era, or that few weeks where they had heel Al Snow feuding with The Rock, except for some reason Vince seems more stubborn about forcing this one.

I am loving that 2019 AEW Champion Chris Jericho has become the closest thing we have had in thirty years to 1986 NWA Champion Ric Flair. He is the arrogant champion that has earned his status and could rest on his laurels but his ego cant stop him from picking fights with the entire roster.

I genuinely don't get the people that say "if you don't like him, then Corbin is doing his job as a heel". Because no, if he was doing his job, I'd be watching Smackdown right now.

Baron Corbin and Dolph Ziggler are to 2019 WWE what Brian Adias and Al Madril were to 1987 World Class. They may be heels targeting top faces but people are apathetic about them to the point where they don't even really want to pay money or give time to watching them get their asses kicked.

Wow. Seeing Sasha here made me skip the first few steps of the famous Vince McMahon GIF and made me go straight to the final image.

I will always remember being there live in the Garden, and the initial reaction of the live crowd being "holy shit, Enzo and Cass are really that stupid" and then when security didnt show up until after two full minutes of worked punches, the crowd then going "holy shit, RING OF HONOR is really that stupid".

This was pretty much what I was thinking up to this point in the thread. If Bret and Anvil go to Crockett in 85 and are kept separate like they were initially in WWF, Bret is a credible babyface that might get a Mid-Atlantic or Junior Heavyweight Title run but that's his ceiling during that time period. I could maybe see if him and Anvil get teamed up down the road they would have a similar run to Rude/Fernandez first half of 87, but that's about it. The Bulldogs I see more as heels in Crockett, though some of that admittedly may be my desire for how brutal their Techwood squashes against hapless jobbers would be, as well as the idea that potentially we could have had Bulldogs vs Wahoo and Ron Garvin as the midcard tag feud I never knew I wanted until I just typed this. I think the Rock and Rolls would have adapted better to 80s WWF than the Midnights. I agree with the one poster earlier that said they could slot into the Bulldogs spot as a near-analogue, as RnR vs Valentine/Beefcake also probably would have been MOTN at Wrestlemania 2, and them vs Volkoff/Sheik, Moondogs, and The Funks in 86, and later on in 87/88 against Demolition and Islanders all would have been great and gotten over. I do think in the end though him being shorter than Bret and being too Southern would have prevented Ricky from getting the IC and World Title pushes that the Hit Man got. The Midnights I really dont see rising to higher than being a gatekeeper team, them really being a true Southern tag heel formula team I think would have turned Vince off of seeing them as the tag champions, but he could still see they would be good enough to be in the midcard tag division role similar to what the Rougeau Brothers were in 89. I dont think they would be the tag team Champions, but I could see them being the final match of the night to send the crowd home happy on shows where Hogan's title defense is in the middle of the show, or headlining the B-shows. But now given the idea of Hart Foundation/Bulldogs going to JCP and RnR/Midnights going to WWF, the other really big ripple effect is that if that happened, how would things go with The Rockers once it was time to leave AWA? You would think that WWF wouldn't be interested in Shawn and Marty if they have Ricky and Robert, so maybe THEY join the Harts and the Bulldogs in JCP, so then we get Rockers vs Bulldogs down south? And Marty and Shawn dont go up north until after Ricky and Robert head elsewhere?

FWIW, Lagana should probably tell Dave Marquez to lay low and shut up too:

Did anyone capture/archive the afternoon rehearsal and full tapings with director's audio feed that accidentally went out live via an unlisted YouTube stream over the weekend? I would be fascinated to watch this just from a "this is how the sausage is made" perspective. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43k9m9/wwe-hid-a-pre-show-rehearsal-to-youtube-a-glitch-exposed-it

Holy fucking shit. Jimmy Garvin has been lurking as an Easter Egg on Simon Cowell's "Wrestlemania The Album" for 25 years.

I never got to go to one back in the day but this week's Between The Sheets podcast covers a week in 1988 where Meltzer went to two nights of WWF TV tapings in Northern California and recaps every single match/segment and it sounds like a slog.

This next round of "guy that allows his blood pressure to rise to near-heart attack levels over a wrestling presentation that offends his sensibilities tells people offended by a racially-insensitive joke to grow a thicker skin" is gonna fucking suck.

I am currently planning on skipping Wrestlemania weekend this year due to financial concerns but if The Collective does "GCW Worldwide" as a tribute show with matches like this I may need to reconsider. And if they pull the trigger on "GCW Prime" hosted by Chris Cruise I will straight up sell a kidney to make the trip happen. If might not be MY kidney, but it will be A kidney.

It is going to be wild - and sad - that guys still with Ring of Honor come Wrestlemania weekend 2020 will likely be going from performing in front of a sold-out MSG crowd to performing in front of less people than whatever IMPACT ends up doing that weekend, or maybe even midlevel Collective and WrestleCon shows, in just one year.

Buzz Sawyer vs Abdullah The Butcher was everything I was hoping it would and please pump that shit into my veins if possible.