Uncle Coaster

Variety is reporting that the WWE and NBC Universal have not been able to reach a deal on programming past the current contract. WWE stock is down on the news. The exclusive negotiating window for NBC has now passed and WWE is free to negotiate deals with any partner. The report in Variety said that WWE may be open to splitting the programming up amongst multiple partners and that they still expect WWE and NBC to continue negotiations. http://variety.com/2014/biz/news/wwe-nbcuniversal-television-deal-raw-smackdown-1201110680/

This won't be the first thing I watch on the Network, but here goes... When I was a kid I somehow picked May 4, 1979 and told everyone who would listen it was the first day I ever watched wrestling. I don't know if its the actual date, but it was a Friday and that is when wrestling aired locally back then so I always stuck with it when I was younger. Even into high school I'd buy myself something and celebrate it as my "anniversary". This year that date falls on a weekend and will mark my 35th anniversary as a fan. As long as family and office commitments do not interfere (they both come first), I plan on watching the two In Your House events I attended in person on Friday night (Hart vs. Bulldog and Taker vs. Austin). Saturday will be a marathon of all 1989 WCW pay per views (my favorite year). Sunday morning (May 4 itself) I will watch the other non-Mania pay per view I attended in person (when Goldberg beat HHH) and then Sunday night I hope to attend Extreme Rules in person. Not counting travelling to Wrestlemania for the last 6 years, this will be my first true "wrestling weekend" since college so I'm really looking forward to it.

Just talked to some people in my office about it. I told them it was the pay per view where the wrestler died, they were editing it to try to remove as much reference to him as possible, and that I'd probably get around to watching it eventually. They had no real opinion on the matter and their view of me was untainted. Seriously, I wonder if other people have run into any non wrestling fan that is absolutely against it.

Along the lines of the Magnum T.A. what if...what if Brian Pillman hadn't died when he did? How big of a role would he have played in the Attitude Era?

Batista is starting to look like Hans Moleman. He doesn't look human to me. I enjoyed most of the show, with the obvious exception of being severely disappointed in the lack of Bryan in and winning the Rumble. Dare I say that I enjoyed the Bray/Bryan match more than anyone I can think of off hand in a few years...granted I don't watch many pay-per-views. I'm hoping that one good thing to come out of last night is that prices for Mania ringside seats on StubHub come down. I've got my ticket, but looking to upgrade.

The Condrey story works a lot better if you picture Hickerson as his P.Y. Chu Hi character. I listened to the podcast with the single intent of finding the story. I ended up listening to pretty much all of both parts. Cornette is a great story teller and has a lot of stories to tell. It was fascinating. I haven't listened to too many Austin shows but I swear if WWE hasn't approached him about doing a Larry King style weekly talk show for the network, they really should. He'd be worth whatever he asks.

Sad day. I have a picture from 2005 of me, Mae and Moolah that I absolutely cherish. I brought it into the office and have it sitting alongside my desk today.

After last night's epic ending, I'm trying hard not to fantasy book Mania. There are some really interesting ways they can go now. I just really hope Batista's promised title run comes later rather than sooner. When I first saw Emma in the audience I thought her sign said "Emma-Training". That didn't make sense to me until I saw the picture this morning. I slept through a portion of the show, but were the New Age Outlaws the only wrestlers to get the mic in-ring during the entire episode? That's wild (and good). The only thing that really disappointed me about the show was how unimportant Cesaro is right now. I hope he gets a better push soon. He deserves it and can certainly be more than what he is now.

Oliver Platt starring in a reboot of "Learning The Ropes". Bring back Trevor Murdoch to play the Masked Maniac.

My dream block would be if they took a night each week to run the weekly syndicated shows of multiple promotions from the same time. For example, 8:00 show the World Class weekly show from January 5, 1984, then at 9:00 the WWF Championship Wrestling episode that aired that same week, and then at 10:00 the Crockett show from the same week. Have an in studio host to discuss the events happening in each promotion that week (and other stuff in the news) and I would watch it every week. Personally, having the On Demand section is awesome and I will be using it quite a bit, but at heart I'm still a put something on and make me watch it type of guy so I really hope the old fashioned network portion of the service is top notch. ETA: I figure this is what Monday Night War is all about, but having it for an earlier time frame would be cool, too. Just fantasy booking the Network.

What a strong woman she remains. Link provided above and other reports now say that initial reports were wrong and she has not yet passed, but is still gravely ill. Leave it to Mae to continue to prove how tough she is.

I am embarrassed to ask who the person in the middle of the second row of the sketches is. Is it a younger Tito Santana, putting him in there twice? Tom Zenk?

Fantasy Booking Warning: Orton unifies the two titles this Sunday. Monday's Raw opens with Orton and the Authority in the ring claiming there is only one true champion, champion of champions, when unfamiliar music hits. AJ Styles walks down to the ring, grabs the microphone from Stephanie, and proclaims that are still two World Champions. He raises his TNA title triumphantly. The Authority and Orton stare at him in silence momentarily before breaking into a fit of laughter. Styles lowers his head in shame and walks to the back...never to be heard from again.

I was wearing a Legend t-shirt (Legend is a roller coaster at the previously mentioned Holiday World) at a Mick Foley signing several years ago, when Mick walked by, pointed at my shirt, and said, "I really have to get there". Mick went later that year during a roller coaster enthusiast event and was dancing with the matriarch of the family that owns the park when an acquaintance of mine cut in and took his spot. And since I already brought back the meeting wrestlers stories, I will mention that I once rode the Wildcat at Hersheypark with Scotty Too Hotty.

When I was a kid I used to play the hell out of the Superstar Pro Wrestling game that was sold in the Apter mags. One of my favorite storylines I ran was Mad Dog Vachon's emotional and inspiring comeback from the hit and run accident, wrestling with a prosthetic leg. I used "If This Is It" by Huey Lewis & The News as his theme song. He was briefly my top good guy and it all culminated with him getting a World Title Match on a major show. He lost and then retired, saying he had proven to himself that he had that one last run. For all of his accomplishments in his Hall of Fame career...that is what I will most remember him for. RIP, Mad Dog

This is my story explaining how awesome the Wyatt/Shield staredown was. I spent Monday night in the hospital. I was watching Raw when the tech came in for my 11:00 pm vitals. With the crowd going "banana" and the staredown she stopped what she was doing to watch. It was one of those things that even as someone who never watched wrestling, it had the drama that made you stop what you were doing to see what happens...even if that meant waiting a minute or two to take my blood pressure.

Just watched Hogan vs. Honky from the summer of 1989 Saturday Night's Main Event. I was 16 at the time and as a Hogan hater was certain that Honky was going to win here so that he could lose the title to the recently signed Dusty Rhodes at Summer Slam (the Honky-Dusty match had already been announced). I just figured Dusty was promised a run with the belt when he signed. This match is one of my least favorite wrestling memories. To add insult to injury, this is the same SNME where the Brainbusters beat Demolition for the tag titles and then the Busters match with the Hart Foundation at Summer Slam was declared a non-title match since it was signed before they won the titles. It was like someone saying to me, "see, the Dusty match wouldn't have even been for the title anyway, jerk".

Lloyd Elsewhere, would Rockin' Robin be the representative for the Smith family?

Haven't seen much of the show yet, but I think the first three rows pretty much hit every single rasslin' fan stereotype there is. It was like watching a wrestling scene in an 80's movie. That one t-shirt was also the first I'd ever seen or heard of "I'm a Chris Benoit Guy". Wow.

I tried to start watching NXT with the first show of 2013 but quickly realized that it would take longer than I want to catch up. Starting any time after Wrestlemania, is there an episode that would make a better starting point than others?

Ugh, I was close. I thought one of his tag partners.

Back in the UWF Fury Hour days Herb Abrams used to tease Ultimate Warrior as coming soon or negotiating or something along those lines. Was Warrior in the UWF even a remote possibility or was this all just Herb being Herb?

Explain? Sorry for the odd reference. Late in his career, 1986 or so, when he worked the AWA as Yuri Gordyenko he kept repeating the line "You know why we're here" during his interviews.

Is it wrong that I can look at that absolutely amazing, stacked lineup but all I see is Paul Demarco and think "I know why he's here!"?