Zakk_Sabbath

Jeez, you wanna talk about tag teams? Barrett and Sheamus, man. I know I preach it all the time, and everyone's probably sick of hearing it, but I don't think there are any two guys out there who would mesh with each other like that. Cesaro would be fantastic with or against those guys, too.

That Ryback video should have been on fucking TV-- WHY do that shit on the app?? That was impeccable character development. It took less than two minutes for me to go from lukewarm, to Holy shit, I want him to go over Brock. Ok maybe not over Brock, at least not right away, that's crazy talk. Sheamus first. And he should never, ever, ever, ever lose.

It doesn't do much for me, because I feel like it doesn't help either guy out at all. Plus, not that it matters, but they had a bunch of IC title matches when Axel was champ, why are they bros all of the sudden? Axel needs SOMETHING. I don't know what, but the dude needs a hook. New gear or something might help. His look right now just screams "Ben Roethlisberger meets WCW Power Plant" to me. Dolph is great on his own, but if they had to put anyone with him, why not have Big E be the Diesel to his Shawn again? It's not like that Smart Athletic Friends stable is ever getting off the ground on TV. I know this may not be a popular opinion, but I actually really, really enjoyed Big E, Dolph and AJ together for some weird reason.

Here's a pic of Hulk without the weave on. I guess the bandana is more sensible than whatever animal died on his lawyer's head.

Speaking only for myself, I sort of wondered how they could possibly leave Brock off this one given that, other than the Rumble, HITC is their marquee gimmick match and Brock has a lot of credibility as a legitimate UFC cage fighter. It seemed like a no brainer to throw him in there, and do the final Cena match. But, hey, I'm all about bringing some importance back to Survivor Series with a title match (I know rumblingz are that he won't be back until the Rumble but that seems like way, way too long).

I agree entirely Jay just speaking hypothetically due to the Hogan comparison. Of course on the other hand, that NWO shirt was a pretty big seller. (kidding. It's a different time now).

Is that quite as true as that initially seems? A couple of wins yeah, but to go over that many guys? I'm going to suggest it hasn't happened that much. Yeah, and the fact that Cena has been around for centuries. Like it or not, he is Hogan in WCW at this point. I hear that Hogan analogy a lot, and have probably made it myself (here and elsewhere) many occasions. One thing I'd like to point out that I recently thought about is this: a lot of people think that a Cena heel turn would be this magic bullet that would turn the WWE around, and reinvigorate his character as it did with Hogan. But the problem with that is Hogan never did this dumb shtick Cena does where LOVE HIM OR HATE HIM, HE DOESN'T CARE, HE NEVER GIVES UP!!!~!! The closest we got to that was that "Dark Side of Hulkamania" thing (and I don't even care, if Cena puts on a Phantom of the Opera mask and starts cutting promos in a dungeon, I'll pay to see that shit). Cena already has this supposed "edge" that Hogan never did prior to the NWO-- most likely, I'd have to guess, with younger fans. If it were done correctly it might work, but I don't think the character change would be quite as drastic as many think, especially not in this day and age. And furthermore, if you were to turn Cena heel, the truth is that the kids would boo him, and the adults and smarts would start cheering him anyway for doing something (anything!) new-- so you'd have the same 50/50 split you do now, it would just be reversed.

This is off-topic, but the fact that Heenan isn't healthy enough to still be behind the mic (or at least get a run in the 2000s, he is only 70) is a fact that saddens me to no fucking end. When I was a kid, I loved him on Nitro, and that was him half-shitfaced and phoning it in-- imagine my reaction when I heard on WWF tapes bringing his A-game.

ALL the DX guys loved wearing those stupid ass berets you'd see people in back then

Sort of a Dutch-Deadman vibe, IIRC. I remember the phrase "Walker, Texas 'Taker" getting thrown around a lot that night

I completely understand, and don't entirely disagree with your points. I'm just saying that in 2011, Punk brought something very different than what was being presented to that point (in the preceding 5 or so years, anyway)-- that was the only point I wanted to make with that. I liked what he was doing at that time, but it had nothing to do with coolness/smartness-- it WAS genuine excitement for me, because it brought a sense of chaos that was missing for a few years, that I really enjoy. What he was doing felt much more in line with DX playing the curtain call video, or even early Austin or NWO stuff, for example. It wasn't necessarily that it was him doing it, or that he was doing what he does-- it was just the general element of danger in an otherwise incredibly sterile environment. And I don't even think it was something unique to him-- they have come pretty close to capturing that feeling with Bryan and even Ambrose in recent weeks-- the execution leaves a little to be desired, but it's not impossible. EDIT: I feel I should point out that I'm not directly comparing Punk to Austin, DX, or the NWO. They were just the best examples of that sort of anarchic feel I really enjoy as a viewer.

Ok granted, my Punk post was purely anecdotal evidence, but before I get any further into this conversation, there are a couple pieces of info that I think are important: 1) Was he any more or less close to Cena as a #2 than Bryan was? 2) Is he moving the needle any more or less than Brock does? And honestly, in 2014, what's moving the needle anymore? TV has changed so much since the late '90s-early '00s-- ratings are measured differently, the NFL is a massive juggernaut, there was no UFC back then, there was no DVRs/Live+7 numbers. Merch sales could be a measuring stick, but rumblingz say Cena outsells everyone by a huge margin no matter who they are. Is it even possible to pop a buyrate anymore in the Network era? Do they keep any sort of gauge on the amount of people streaming illegally? Doesn't ANY house show without Cena draw like shit? I'm not trying to be an ass but I'm honestly out of touch on what constitutes moving the needle. Twitter followers?

Say what you want about Punk, but when the "pipebomb" happened, it generated that precious "casual fan" buzz that Vince always seems to be after. My group of friends busts my balls unmercifully for watching wrestling, but when that went down, it was the first time in a long time that things with them went from "Wrestling is gay and fake" to "who's this Punk guy I keep reading about on Reddit/Grantland/Deadspin etc.?"

C'mon, it's Vince we're talking about. Motherfucker probably thought he was Ricky Steamboat. He tried to takedown an Olympic gold medalist on a plane!

I'm not a doctor or anything, but that actually seems more dangerous to me than a simple blade job. Plus, it would sort of draw attention to the fact that guys aren't all swollen up after every single match even though hundreds of "punches" have been thrown. It's one of those things that sounds cool in theory, but kills everything else that isn't in that match. It's like that old thing about worked-shoot promos "Everything you've just seen, and are about to see, is fake. But THIS is real"

Well dudes, it all comes down to Monday. Ronnie Hillman, contrary to my earlier assertion, did not fuck my ass with no lube. My Antonio Brown vs. my friend/opponent's Andre Johnson and Arian Foster.

I agree entirely. Like, no shit people aren't gonna be interested in your new champion Diesel if, outside of the big guys i mentioned before, all he gets to work with is Backlund and Jeff Jarrett

I'm personally a huge, huge fan of the Bret/Diesel matches-- probably, outside of maybe the Shawn WM match, Nash's best work. I would have loved if they had more matches that year, maybe traded the belt back and forth, rather than get Nash's year-long reign full of crappy matches with Mabel, Sid, or Bundy. Like, I get Vince's attraction to the hoss v hoss stuff, but if that's what you wanna do, then a guy like Nash needs to be in there with a big guy who can actually go, like Yoko or Bam Bam.

Vince can be nutty obviously, but hey, I'd be pissed off too if business was down, and I just bent over backwards for a guy using a crazy WBF contract scheme, spent a million dollars on a bus tour and windbreakers and an aircraft carrier, and it still couldn't get the dude as over as Hogan

Bret, Owen, Shawn, Kid, etc. were on top because of the pressure from the feds during the steroid trial-- it's a happy accident that they were incredible workers. Nash himself admits they put the title on him because he was the only guy who was still gigantic once the steroids disappeared. Flair admitted in his book he did steroids "a little bit" in '92-'93. Austin wasn't gigantic, but he is deceivingly big. But using Austin as an example is kinda cheating because both he and the company were both, so, so, so hot, and his rise was anything but typical. But that's just my opinion. As for the recent guys, I'd have to say a lot of it was the brand split. There were simply more top spots (and two world titles). Also, even though a couple of the guys you mentioned had experienced success before it, a case could be made that Vince was taking a page from the '90s playbook and playing it safe because of the publicity surrounding Benoit.

Randomly tuned into the Network, and found the 12/97 DX IYH playing. Let's talk about Brian Chistopher. What went wrong? Was the surprise overness of Too Cool just simply counterintuitive to his having long term shelf life? Dude's looking pretty fucking good here, though TAKA is amazing as usual. If he went to WCW and worked with the cruiserweights there, I wonder if he could have been a real player. Maybe he would have shined in the dying days of ECW doing pseudo-shoots against his "corporately-assigned" WWF gimmick. What do yall say?

It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure that even WSX hovered between 1.0 and .60 so it's certainly possible. Does anyone know what kind of numbers AAA and CMLL do on the Spanish channel?

It wasn't bad advice. The Jets are garbage and Ivory had two abhorrent games before this one.

I swear to fucking God, I know for a FACT Ronnie Hillman is gonna fuck me this Sunday, no fuckin lube. Or Steve Smith will have another sweet 3.90 game. Someone is going to ruin everything for me. 20 points on the motherfucking bench. Thanks for showing up, asshole

Chris Ivory, you can go to hell.