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[quote name='diddy310']Army veteran (two tours in Iraq)...he's been wrestling since 07, no idea how WWE didn't lock him down after taking one look at him.

Pretty cool looking finisher, 3:10 on he does it a bunch of times.[/QUOTE]

I noticed that some of that footage was from AIW, that's here in the Cleveland area. They're actually having an all women's wrestling card tonight with Isis the Amazon, the woman that WWE dropped from NXT. Don't really know if it's worth going or not. Though the fact Super Oprah is on the card is almost enticing enough, heh.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']elaborate.[/QUOTE]

The point I was driving at is that Steiner, while horrendously amusing to me, isn't necessarily the kind of guy that's going to help your business. I love Steiner, but at least 90% of that is the ridiculous promos and general 'this guy has some screws loose' thing. It's rare for me to enjoy a Steiner match, or think it's a 'good' match.

Even as a utility player, I think he's really got no 'rub' left. All personal opinion, of course, but I've never bought Steiner as a main event level guy, yet he was pushed that way for over half a decade. You put someone over Steiner, what do they really get out of it? I put him in that Mark Henry category... a guy that looks intimidating and is always 'wheeled out' as such, but it never surprises or impresses you when someone beats them. Honestly... if an up and coming guy beats Scott Steiner, are you really going to think it's a big deal?

Combine that with his ever decreasing mobility and skill set, and I just can't see anyway that having Scott Steiner around helps a company. I've never paid to see Scott Steiner, nor would I. I like to laugh at him, but that's the extent of it.


[quote name='mykevermin'] isn't that a bit overstated? his behavior in WCW was well documented, but I've heard little that I can recall since then. i get the feeling he knows what his job in TNA is, and putting himself over and gunning for the title isn't on the itinerary. he certainly hasn't shown himself to be a glory hog during his TNA runs, or even when he was in WWE a number of years ago. whatever the case, he strikes me as very tuned in to who he is and what his role and responsibilites are.

Compare that to a man who was left behind, drunk and broke in Ireland, because he threw a temper tantrum over getting money advanced that evidently rivaled a 5-year-old kicking and screaming for mommy or daddy to buy them that toy.[/QUOTE]

Flair is in a category by himself, one that he put himself in. And no, it's not a good one. Pro-tip, kids: Don't marry a lot of women if you aren't rich.

I can only assume Steiner's behavior has gotten better, but only because I haven't heard about it in a while. Even if he has, he's a volatile element in a company that (looking at you Hogan, Flair, and Nash) needs to be as far away from them as possible. Maybe I am stuck in thinking about Steiner as 'that guy' in terms of behavior, but after the stories told about him, I find it hard not to.

At the end of it, I just look at it this way: what benefit does TNA get out of employing Scott Steiner. He doesn't pop ratings. He doesn't draw. He's certainly the 'low' member of the MEM. He's limited in the ring now. His one upside seems to be that he cuts awesomely bad promos, or interjects fantastic comments ("He's FAT!").

Behavior aside, the other locker room problem I see there is that I guarantee that Steiner is making more money than 75% of the locker room. So, I wrote that poorly... it's not just about behavior, there just seem to be a lot more reasons to not employ Steiner than to keep him around.

All that being said, I still laugh every single time I watch one of those 'Scott Steiner raps' videos. Every. god-damn. time.
 
Possible Rumble spoilers:

-- Six-time world champion Booker T has canceled his scheduled appearance at this weekend's New Orleans Comic Con at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Regarding a surprise appearance at Sunday's Royal Rumble pay-per-view, he was in discussions with World Wrestling Entertainment officials a few weeks ago regarding a potential return.
 
[quote name='ShinSolidus']Possible Rumble spoilers:

-- Six-time world champion Booker T has canceled his scheduled appearance at this weekend's New Orleans Comic Con at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Regarding a surprise appearance at Sunday's Royal Rumble pay-per-view, he was in discussions with World Wrestling Entertainment officials a few weeks ago regarding a potential return.
[/QUOTE]

Ok, wow, that would be an awesome surprise.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']http://www.wrestlecrap.com/classicb.html

I think I read this article several years ago. Even though the "Invasion" was a *decade* ago, reading the article still makes me deeply disappointed and angry about how it went down.

I'm pretty sure outside of maybe 2 dozen matches, I'd be willing to give up the entire past decade of wrestling.[/QUOTE]
That was actually right when I stopped watching wrestling. The whole attitude angle they'd been going for was getting old to me, If I heard Austin say "And that's the bottom line, cause Stone Cold said so" one more time I was going to punch my TV.
 
All this talk of Cactus Jack/Triple H had me pop in the Royal Rumble 2000 disc.

The pop for Tazz's debut vs Kurt Angle was huge - like many of you have been saying, the pops ten years ago are 2-3-4 times what the biggest pop of today is. But there seems like a genuine element of surprise or enjoyment (it wasn't really a surprise that Tazz was debuting since half of MSG was chanting "WE WANT TAZ" during Angle's monologue). The crowd popped for the kata-hajime as well, showing they didn't just know who Tazz was, they knew what he did in the ring (and, subsequently, why it's foolish to disregard all wrestling history outside WWE - hell, they even disregard most of their own history except when it's convenient).

But I digress. Man, the Hardy Boys look so young, and so do the Dudleys. Put those 4 in a tag match in TNA today and you *easily* have 150 pounds more in the ring than in 2000 (probably close to 200, considering Bubba).

I bought the Royal Rumble set on sale years ago b/c I wanted to have the early shows (1988-1992 at the very least) on DVD. The World Wildlife Fund has just decimated the history in these discs. As good of a show as Royal Rumble 2000 was, I feel like all I've seen is Howard Finkel's head swimming in a sea of blurs.

I kinda-sorta blame WWE for willfully ignoring the legal settlement they had w/ the Wildlife Fund (which dated back to 1992, I think). That's just Vince McMahon and his egocentric, distorted idea of what his legal rights are (we saw that same grand posturing during the end of Linda's failed Senate run last year). He feels like he can do whatever the fuck he wants without repurcussion. He's the dumb hillbilly down the street who feels like he can smoke and drink and curse and shoot his guns whenever and whereever - devoid of tact, devoid of class, and the kind of person who gets offended when you tell them they're acting like an asshole or violating the law. "AH'M AN UHMERICAN, fuck YOU" is kinda how I see it.

But let's be honest - the Wildlife Fund wanted a payday. There's no confusing the two entities. They found a sympathetic judge who let the letter of trademark law hold precedence over common sense. I hold WWE responsible because they should have known better, but I hold the Wildlife Fund responsible because their lawsuit is bullshit.

I have not purchased the Survivor Series or Summerslam DVD sets because I can't deal with how fucked they are in their edits.
 
Any chance on maybe Rock showing up at the Rumble? I figure he's probably never coming back, but I'll never give up hope. I wonder if the Cena lovers even know him.
 
[quote name='masked lemon']Any chance on maybe Rock showing up at the Rumble? I figure he's probably never coming back, but I'll never give up hope. I wonder if the Cena lovers even know him.[/QUOTE]
johncena_nevergiveup_thumbnail.jpg
 
I'm thinking Austin's just the host and not a trainer - though he did note on twitter that he was getting in shape for something.

Aside from Regal i'm not sure who they would use as a trainer. Maybe (Rumble related spoiler)
Booker T..since he does run a wrestling school
 
[quote name='Purple Flames']I kidna wanna see Cody Rhodes pull a Vega gimmick now that he's "disfigured". I think he could pull it off.[/QUOTE]

Nice. I like it. He *is* a gamer (triforce boots?), so I wouldn't be too shocked to see him go that route, culminating in a mask v mask match w/ Rey.
 
[quote name='Purple Flames']I kinda wanna see Cody Rhodes pull a Brock Lesnar and quit. I think he could pull it off.[/QUOTE]


Fixed that for ya. :lol:
 
Everyone seems to be forgetting the one majopr thing when it comes to the crowd "pops" now vs 5-10 yrs ago. Today, pretty much everything is spoiled on the internet. It is a rare occasion that something gets pulled off without it being leaked in some fashion on all the fansites, dirtsheets, blogs, and even in forums such as these. Hell, even the wrstlers even ruin surprises at times by dropping not to subtle hints as to their futures.

10 years ago the internet was really just starting to grow. Even 5 yrs ago, even though the net was everywhere, wrestling things were still very minimal and trivial. People did'nt really see a market in it, ie: dirtsheets, forums, webstreams, etc. Hence the ability to pull off some major surprises which caused legitimate crowd excitement because they honestly had no idea what may happen. Now, before you purchase a ticket to a show you already know whos going to be there, and before you leave the house to go to the show you have up to the minute spoilers as the the latest happenings and possible surprises.

Sadly, it seems we have killed the big pops by our need to know the behind the scenes inner workings of the industry, and the desire to be one up on the guy sitting next to us at the show.
 
It's not just surprises, though... generally speaking, the reactions for the matches themselves were louder, too. That's what I actually started noticing.

So, I agree with a lot of what you said, but it was more than just the 'shocks'.
 
I guess people really were shocked, then, when they chanted "we want tazz" and then...tazz came out.

:roll:

The onus is on wrestlers, though, to stop spillin' shit to the dirt sheets. It's their business, it's their pocketbooks, and they keep spillin' the beans to Meltzer et al. Now, something like the semi-spoiler for one of the surprise returns on Sunday is deductive skills, and not a locker room dude texting about a major angle to gerweck.net.

Yeah, we're ruinin' it for ourselves, but we're also only given our "supply" by the wrestlers themselves.

Also of note: the crowd a decade ago was a lot of teenagers and adults. Today it's kids and families. Big vocal difference there.
 
To be fair though, the crowds used to have Stone Cold and The Rock, two of the biggest stars ever. That's also MSG you're talking about. They've *always* been smarky, even before the internet.

A good comparison of apples to apples is watching a recent WrestleMania and then watching the shows surrounding it. It takes a big event to really excite them. The fanbase now just isn't as rabid because they know they're going to see the same thing over and over, and it's mostly with people they don't care about. In WCW's last days, the crowds that actually showed up sat on their hands. On the show where Booker T returned, they were visibly loud and rambuctuous.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']All this talk of Cactus Jack/Triple H had me pop in the Royal Rumble 2000 disc.

The pop for Tazz's debut vs Kurt Angle was huge - like many of you have been saying, the pops ten years ago are 2-3-4 times what the biggest pop of today is. But there seems like a genuine element of surprise or enjoyment (it wasn't really a surprise that Tazz was debuting since half of MSG was chanting "WE WANT TAZ" during Angle's monologue). The crowd popped for the kata-hajime as well, showing they didn't just know who Tazz was, they knew what he did in the ring (and, subsequently, why it's foolish to disregard all wrestling history outside WWE - hell, they even disregard most of their own history except when it's convenient).

But I digress. Man, the Hardy Boys look so young, and so do the Dudleys. Put those 4 in a tag match in TNA today and you *easily* have 150 pounds more in the ring than in 2000 (probably close to 200, considering Bubba).

I bought the Royal Rumble set on sale years ago b/c I wanted to have the early shows (1988-1992 at the very least) on DVD. The World Wildlife Fund has just decimated the history in these discs. As good of a show as Royal Rumble 2000 was, I feel like all I've seen is Howard Finkel's head swimming in a sea of blurs.

I kinda-sorta blame WWE for willfully ignoring the legal settlement they had w/ the Wildlife Fund (which dated back to 1992, I think). That's just Vince McMahon and his egocentric, distorted idea of what his legal rights are (we saw that same grand posturing during the end of Linda's failed Senate run last year). He feels like he can do whatever the fuck he wants without repurcussion. He's the dumb hillbilly down the street who feels like he can smoke and drink and curse and shoot his guns whenever and whereever - devoid of tact, devoid of class, and the kind of person who gets offended when you tell them they're acting like an asshole or violating the law. "AH'M AN UHMERICAN, fuck YOU" is kinda how I see it.

But let's be honest - the Wildlife Fund wanted a payday. There's no confusing the two entities. They found a sympathetic judge who let the letter of trademark law hold precedence over common sense. I hold WWE responsible because they should have known better, but I hold the Wildlife Fund responsible because their lawsuit is bullshit.

I have not purchased the Survivor Series or Summerslam DVD sets because I can't deal with how fucked they are in their edits.[/QUOTE]
That lawsuit really was bullshit, I didn't realize they had dealings with the World Wildlife Fund dating back that far though. But yeah, the entire McMahon family screams trash, Vince himself acts like the king of the fucking world half the time. While I can't believe the WWF won that lawsuit, Vince could have done a lot more to not piss them off.
 
Really hope I can get out of work at a reasonable time to get to the PWG show tomorrow night. I don't want to miss Jake the Snake's last match - would it be bad taste to buy him a beer afterwards?
 
I'm tempted to get tickets to the RAW house show in OKC, with Jim Ross apparently being a part of the Miz/Orton match.

If I go, I'm going all out -- ringside and all. Would it even be worth it to spend $60-$75 on a ringside house show ticket?

FYI, I've never been to a live event and I've been a fan for over 20 years.
 
I dunno. I just paid near that for ringside NJPW...but I was reticent to, and my justification was "well, it's one of the first NJPW shows in the US."

House shows don't tend to get packed, so you can go cheap and sit wherever, I reckon. But don't take my word for it. The last house show I went to had Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie in the main event (at least WWF house shows).
 
[quote name='Mr. Beef']He usually has a song list in the video description, fwiw.[/QUOTE]

Oh, thanks. I didn't know that, I watch them embedded here on CAG.
 
Updated list of Royal Rumble participants (6 open spots):

Alberto Del Rio
Big Show
Chris Masters
CM Punk
Daniel Bryan
Darren Young
David Hart Smith
David Otunga
Drew McIntyre
Ezekiel Jackson
Heath Slater
Husky Harris
Jack Swagger
John Cena
John Morrison
JTG
Justin Gabriel
Kane
Kofi Kingston
Mark Henry
Mason Ryan
Michael McGillicutty
Primo
R Truth
Rey Mysterio
Santino Marella
Sheamus
Ted DiBiase
Tyson Kidd
Vladimir Kozlov
Wade Barrett
William Regal
Yoshi Tatsu
Zack Ryder

Only 4 people on that list even approach the "maybe gonna win it" stage. You can look at that list and see why they gimmicked it up to 40 guys, because damn near none of them can win. Even some of those maybes I'm reluctant to accept as potential winners.

You could go as far as 5 if you included Alberto Del Rio, but I don't see him as a WrestleMania main eventer, no matter how hard they're pushing him.

So you're left with 4 potential winners, 2 of whom have won before:
John Cena
Rey Mysterio
Big Show
CM Punk

I don't see Mysterio winning twice. I feel the same way about Big Show - WWE loves him, he's reliable, but he's also not someone they want to bank on in terms of building up hype for WM. Punk is embroiled in the "WWF Gang Warz" feud with Los Boricuas...or the Corps, or whatever it's spelled.

So the only genuinely probable winner is Cena, unless WWE wants to throw a curveball and have someone win who will then go on to the next PPV and lose their WM title shot opportunity in a match on that show.

So, my prediction for the Rumble? 60% chance of a Cena win, 40% chance of a Triple H win.

The six spots will be guys like Sgt Slaughter and Hacksaw Jim Duggan - no serious contenders, save for 1 (and *maybe* 2) "one off" guys returning, much like Rob Van Dam in 2009.
 
I'm going to go with my longshot of John Morrison and then Miz/Orton/Morrison at WM.

Cena/Punk, Triple H/Sheamus,and Barrett/Undertaker are strong enough matchups so they can take a chance on him.


Otherwise Cena wins...then Cena/Miz, Orton/Punk at WM.
 
HUGE Rumble spoiler, regarding surprise entrants:

Booker T and Kevin Nash are scheduled to appear as surprise entrants for tomorrow night's 40-Man Royal Rumble Match, reports PWInsider.com
 
[quote name='JJSP']I actually like those spoilers. Could be fun.[/QUOTE]

Same. Especially... well, one of them. I don't think there's a potential winner there but wow.
 
[quote name='ShinSolidus']HUGE Rumble spoiler, regarding surprise entrants:

Booker T and Kevin Nash are scheduled to appear as surprise entrants for tomorrow night's 40-Man Royal Rumble Match, reports PWInsider.com
[/QUOTE]


Will today's audience know either person?

It would be comical if neither person received a pop.
 
[quote name='Chase']
Will today's audience know either person?

It would be comical if neither person received a pop.
[/QUOTE]


I was wondering the same thing. At least Booker had been in WWE sorta kinda fairly recently. Nash on the other hand...
 
On Rumble participants...

I wonder if they signed them both for a week just to fuck over TNA's February 3rd surprise...though it would be funny to see both show up on Thursday (or Monday I guess...not sure if they are taping this weeks Impact) for the heavily foreshadowed Main Event Mafia reunion
 
[quote name='diddy310']On Rumble participants...

I wonder if they signed them both for a week just to fuck over TNA's February 3rd surprise...though it would be funny to see both show up on Thursday (or Monday I guess...not sure if they are taping this weeks Impact) for the heavily foreshadowed Main Event Mafia reunion
[/QUOTE]

I don't know about that. I remember Honkey Tonk Man not participating in a WWE event because he said that WWE has a "No Compete" clause even for people who sign one time event contracts. He said he would have had to cancel some convention appearance that was more lucrative for him.
 
I remember the second of the two surprise entrants saying in a PWR interview several months ago that he'd like to show up at the Rumble as a surprise. That should make for a nice one-off appearance.
 
Regarding Nash, he adds much needed star power in the Rumble. He's a big name who'll get a good pop (especially if he uses the Wolfpac or Diesel music), and the format lets him work a safe match where he won't have to do much other than boot a few people over the top rope and dish out a few Jackknifes. He's at a point now where he has said he doesn't care anything other than money, and probably has no problem putting over younger guys. I'm all for it.
 
[quote name='mogamer']
I don't know about that. I remember Honkey Tonk Man not participating in a WWE event because he said that WWE has a "No Compete" clause even for people who sign one time event contracts. He said he would have had to cancel some convention appearance that was more lucrative for him.
[/QUOTE]

I caught something earlier this month where he said that's why he hasn't done the WWE HOF yet -- they'd give him a nice dinner, make him give a speech, and then he's got a 90-day no-compete.

(The spoiler I quoted is not concerning a RR surprise)
 
They could always use Nash along with Triple H to do Shawn's HoF induction. Bonus points if Nash and Shawn do the jumping high five.
 
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