The Iron Yuppie

Some cross-threading here. As @Peck noted in the May discussion thread, "Pretty Boy" Doug Somers passed away. I watched old AWA episodes on ESPN Classic a few years back, and I really loved his tag team with "Playboy" Buddy Rose. In particularly, the rivalry with the Rockers is some high-quality stuff, culminating in an awesome cage match.

Nah, he does a really racist set now, flips out on interviewers and performs at the Gathering of the Juggalos. This article's a bit old, but still entertaining. http://www.avclub.com/article/gallagher-36622 Bitter act from the '80s? Definitely Honky Tonk Man.

Going another step further, still. I had a thought about ROH. It's become heavily reliant on New Japan talent; New Japan wants to expand its reach internationally. Why not turn over decision-making to NJPW (which means keeping Delirious away from the book) and re-brand as NJPW America? It's not like Sinclair gives a shit about the company, so I can't see ownership presenting too many challenges.

Just don't hype his Royal Rumble return with a Coldplay video package

After receiving a bad-conduct discharge and spending a month in the brig for repeated desertion. Also, Randall writes exactly how I'd expect him to write.

I find Owens to be awful. He's had a few individual matches I liked, but on the whole, I find him grating. What I saw of him in ROH, I thought he was Davey Richards levels of bad when it came to moves-over-psychology. Obviously he's not THAT bad about it in WWE, but still more of a video-game worker without much psychology. I also can't stand his gimmick. I'm glad they dropped the Prizefighter stuff, but I just don't buy him as a bad-ass tough guy. I find that so ill-fitting for a kinda short, kinda pudgy guy with a very youthful face. I think he could work as a schoolyard bully-type, who cheap shots and sucker punches but withers and whines like a coward when a face stands up to him. It seems that's what they're going for with him, but he plays it like way too much of a tough guy.

!!!!!!!! Thank you for the heads up, I've got some Friday night viewing to add to the docket.

Oh, you've got a very good point looking at it from the Shield's perspective. It did feel odd for Seth to bail what was an obviously dominant group to join up with the guys he'd just got done shellacking. Much like I'd have liked to have seen Batista have a face run that summer as a result of Evolution breaking up, I would have MUCH preferred a slower build to the Shield's break-up. Seth wins Money In The Bank while still in the group, but that plants the seeds of dissent as he begins acting cockier and cockier while carrying the briefcase. The three go into individual programs, but without a formal split. That means we don't get the great Seth-Dean matches from that late-summer/fall, but it's a worthy sacrifice. I save a full Seth turn for Wrestlemania and the cash-in. As good as it was, imagine how much more heat this scene gets if it's the culmination of a months-long build to Seth turning on his mates:

Cobb having an Olympic background (including carrying the flag for Guam at the Opening Ceremonies -- considering Vince's relationship with Dick Ebersol, I'd imagine NBC having zero issue loaning this footage to WWE) gives him shoot credibility and an immediate gimmick. Fantasy booking, I'd debut him as a brown-noser protege to Angle, playing up their shared Olympic lineage. That said, a match I'd love to see is Cobb vs. Lashley; preferably somewhere that isn't Impact.

Like, in WWE? Or in general? I get Guardians isn't a top or even second-tier comic. But still, MCU was pretty well established as a hit factory by this point, and it was pretty heavily marketed.

Bret-Shawn, maybe? CM Punk and Cena had that vibe to it. I think WWE screwed the pooch not turning that into a true rivalry. It would have been the company's best since Rock-Austin. Speaking of... You could make an interesting case for Rock-Austin. Rock came from a family entrenched in the business, won a national championship at The U so had some serious sports credentials, debuted in WWF (more or less; not really counting the cup of coffee Flex Kavana had in Memphis). He was pushed to the moon immediately and always mapped out for greatness. Austin, in contrast, was a college football player...on some very bad Division I-AA teams. He started in the territories, driving from Texas to Tennessee and working for peanuts. He gets his break in WCW, only to get shit-canned and have to essentially go back to the indies in ECW. I'm now imaging an alternate universe in which Miz-Bryan are a main-event feud and the build to Mania 33 emulates X-Seven. I'm now very sad.

I was fine with the Shield dominating that feud, I just wish there had been a payoff. Seems like a Batista-Orton-HHH triple threat at Summerslam, with Dave as the face, coinciding with the release of Guardians would have been huge money. That's a damn good co-main to Cena-Lesnar. Alas, Stephanie didn't think Guardians would be a success

YES!

A sad one: the last time we saw him in the ring. Fittingly, though, Big Dave went out being awesomely entertaining. Batista's somewhere in my Top 10 all-time favorite WWE wrestlers, which I never would have predicted in 2003 into 2004. I was starting to get into Ring of Honor around that time and was souring on WWE -- Raw in particular, due to the HHH Reign of Terror. I wrote off Big Dave as just another muscly hoss for Vince to get the vapors over. Pair him with Hunter? Double strike. Then in 2004, I started noticing how good he was in some of those multi-man tags on Raw. He exuded charisma during the botched Randy Orton face turn, which ended up becoming one of the best storylines WWE did since the Attitude Era. I'd rank it my favorite angle up to the Yes Movement and Mania XXX. And wouldn't ya know, Batista was front-and-center being awesome for that angle, as well. And for a guy who I was quick to dismiss as just another jacked-up bodybuilder, he became excellent in the ring over a short period of time. I loved the matches with HHH in 2005, especially the Hell In A Cell. The Survivor Series match with Eddie was fantastic. The Undertaker series was OUTSTANDING. I wasn't watching much from the second half of 2007 into 2010, but I paid attention ahead of Mania 26 and absolutely loved his asshole heel shtick. I tend to believe WWE really blew it not sticking with him as THE GUY in 2005, even despite the injury in 2006. Cena went on to become an incredible worker, sold lots of merch, etc. But I think had they properly capitalized on how hot Batista was going into and after Mania 21, he'd have been the universally beloved ace Cena never quite was. Batista just has that extra bit of charisma, and his rising star in Hollywood supports that.

Infinitely less carny than the time Onita was "booked" for XPW. He tried setting fire to a table at his "press conference," which was held in a small, hotel convention room. Human-garbage XPW owner Rob Black failed to disclose the purpose for booking the convention hall to the hotel, and if memory serves, lost the money needed to book Onita for his match to pay off the hotel.

Big E. is a main-event talent, dammit. Yes, he's a comedic act -- but so was The Rock. Maybe I'm going overboard here, but I do see a lot of Rock comparison. Both guys are incredibly charismatic, funny, look like they could kick anyone's ass and have the legitimate backgrounds as former high-level college football players to back it up.

'93 is fascinating, in particular Wrestlemania IX. It's rightfully labeled the worst Mania of all-time, yet could have been amazing with some simple tweaks. To wit: - Savage wins the Rumble, faces Bret in the main and puts him over. - Yokozuna wrestles Hulk to establish Yoko as the monster heel. - Razor vs. Perfect; seeds were planted with the two on opposite sides in the '92 Survivor Series tag match. OR! - Perfect vs. Flair. They did this match two months earlier on Raw; save the blow-off for Mania and Ric puts Perfect over on the way out. - Have the awesome Shawn-Marty IC match that went down on Raw the next month at Mania. - Replace Giant Gonzalez with Bam Bam Bigelow to face the Undertaker. The two wrestled at...Survivor Series, I believe. Hold off on doing that match until Mania instead.

RE: Papa Brayngo, it's astounding how badly he's been botched. Some of the blame falls his way; the promos have felt very wash-rinse-repeat for a while. But there have been a few times in Bray's run I thought he had the pieces necessary to become a terrific main-event heel, then he's had his momentum derailed. RE: Brock, he does absolutely nothing for me any more. Him winning the title from Cena to rarely defend was cool at the time, since it gave an aura of the champ being special, as was the case back in the day. Also, Suplex City was great in the Summerslam 2014 match vs. Cena because it was completely unexpected. Now, it's all he does. His few matches against anyone who wasn't Goldberg the last year-and-a-half felt like more like watching Scott Steiner in THAT Royal Rumble match than anything else. And when he is coming back, that means we get Paul Heyman dry-heaving "BRAAAAAWWWWK LEEEEZZZZZNUUUURRRRR" promos. Hard pass. I'd love for this absence to elevate the value of the Intercontinental championship. Having the holder in the main event is a good start, though I'd prefer it be because he's defending the championship. Maybe it's because I *want* it to be the case, but I feel like the Cruiserweight may be finding its groove. Some of my favorite matches this year have been on 205 Live, and Aries-Neville have produced outstanding matches on back-to-back shows.

One issue I had with Big E's IC run was putting him in the Andre Battle Royal at Mania XXX, rather than giving him a title match. Big E-Swagger and Shield-Wyatts were both Elimination Chamber matches that I feel like could have enhanced an already terrific WrestleMania card.

Given Vince's reputation for being horribly out of touch with pop culture, I'm trying to picture who he'd want cast in various roles. GODDAMMIT PAL, WE NEED SOMEONE WITH SOME GODDAMN TRAPS IF WE'RE GOING TO DO VINCE MCMAHON JUSTICE ON THE BIG SCREEN. CAN WE GET LOU FERRIGNO? AND WHAT ABOUT FARRAH FAWCETT AS LINDA?

Yeah, but Shawn Michaels was never on The Simpsons (neither was Brock Lesnar or Ric Flair)

Well, after the weird shit about Vince and dry leaves discussed earlier in this thread, a PPV honoring the 13-year-old-marrying Jerry Lee Lewis makes sense.

"Monster Morning" Manubu Nakinishi and Big Breakfast Baron Corbin wanna make this a TRIPLE THREAT

Well, I wrote Sheamus was having *very good* matches. Jinder; eh...

I wasn't watching religiously in this era, especially not Raw. I did, however, see a lot of Superstars, since it was on WGN and so were Chicago Cubs games. Also, Superstars being all matches and none of the lame skits made it much more palatable. That's relevant because I remember seeing a Raw right before this PPV and I was SHOCKED that Sheamus had gone from wrestling Goldust routinely on Superstars (in very good matches, tbf) to a title match with John Cena. That made zero sense to me. That same Raw featured DX in an embarrassingly bad Christmas skit with Hornswoggle. God, I hated 2000s DX.