The SmarK RAW SUPERSHOW STARRING BROCK LESNAR Rant – 04.30.12 The pre-show highlights of Cena’s interview last night seem to show him with a weird skin condition that turns him into the Grey Hulk.

Howdy, pretty good PPV eh? Best way to follow up a kick ass PPV like that is with a RAW that will (hopefully) answer some questions So enjoy the show and come out swinging but remember to keep it clean.

More Brock?! Of course! That's all anyone is going to talk about until... oh... his contract runs out. My idea on how to save this is completely out there, and will never happen as long as the WWE is PG. But there is a way to salvage this mess (and it's not by having Brock just destroy Cena tonight. He still lost, which removes his "mystique"). Tonight, have Triple H come out, and reveal that John Cena has tested positive for PEDs. Have him bring out Cena, who ADMITS to using them, says he was facing a man who was trying to destroy the business he loves, and he could not chance losing to Brock Lesnar. Triple H suspends him indefinitely and the decision from last night is reversed. From there, you have Brock Lesnar tear apart everything put in front of him, until the roster, the fans, and even Johnny Ace are begging for Cena's reinstatement to "save" the company. After a particularly heinous attack, Triple H reinstates Cena, but only under the provisio...

What's up Scott, The other day I was watching a kind of boring WWF Wrestlefest 1988 show, and got me thinking of a gimmick Raw/SD show the WWE could do in this PG era that we are in now. Shows WWE have done in the past like the Raw Anniversary Show (i think), the Old School Show or the recent Blast from the Past Show was sort of cool. But how about a show where the current roster of WWE wrestlers, each pick a wrestler from the past, and just totally rip them off (down to the look, attire, ring music, mannerisms, moves, etc.). An obvious example could be Dolph Ziggler coming out as Mr. Perfect Curt Henning. Just imagine how awesome it would be, coming out with the classic entrance theme with the classic neon yellow singlet, towel and with BOBBY HEENAN managing him! Classic. Or you even can get wacky with the Great Khalil coming out as Giant Gonzales in the one piece suit (LOL) and beating a few jobbers (Zack Ryder, LOL) and some ring attendants, road agents and having the classic U...

Hi Scott, I disagree about your assessment of last night's Brock/Cena match. I think it was the right move to put Cena over Brock the way they did. After all, the idea is to build towards a rematch, and now both men have something to prove when they inevitably lock up again. If Brock had beaten Cena up the way he did and won, then why would anyone want to see the rematch? The alternative would have been an evenly fought match, which does nothing for either man. If Cena had won that way, then it's more of the same stuff everyone hates. If Brock had won that way, then you kill his mystique in one fell swoop. You want to build Brock up to be an unstoppable juggernaut, and they did that last night. He just made one mistake (which you can easily chalk up to ring rust or whatever). Or, they could build on on why I think so many UFC fans hated or resented Brock: He was able to get by on his natural ability without having to get better or diversify his skills. In storyline terms, he ...

Hi Scott, hope you are well. I agree with your rants regarding the finish of Cena-Lesnar, but one thing you wrote makes me wonder. You mentioned that the WWE was desperate to alter the character of Cena (and I agree this was a great moment to do so), but are they really? They have been doing the same thing with him for close to seven years now, so how desperate can they be? Rightly or wrongly, they are obviously content with where they are with him, as they have stuck with super-Cena for so long, so why would they be expected to change? WE might be desperate, but are they? On a related tangent, how many times in one match/moment has the WWE/WWF set fire to such a big pile of money in the middle of the ring? Austin shaking hands with Vince at the end of WM 17 comes to mind, and perhaps not going with Flair-Hogan at WM VIII, but other than that? Thoughts? It’s not that they’re desperate to change Super-Cena, it’s that they’re desperate for us to CHEER Super-Cena.  They've tried e...

You know what really grinds my gears about the finish to the Brock-Cena match?  I’m watching this near-***** match, and I’m having the exact reaction as a jaded anti-Cena smark that WWE wanted.  Lesnar is kicking the fucking shit out of Cena and I’m like “Yes!  Kick the fucking shit out of this poser!” because although I like Cena as a worker I hate him as a character and sometimes it’s fun to mark out like that.  So the match goes on, Cena is taking a vicious beating and bleeding all over, but gets the hope spots and I’m like “OK, Cena is taking a vicious beating but he keeps fighting, that’s pretty awesome of him if he’s losing”.  And by the end, I’m WITH CENA.  I’m sympathetic for him, and I’m ready to give him props and cheer for him once Brock finishes him off because he fought the good fight and lost like a man.  And then he won as I was like “Well, fuck John Cena.” and everything was back to the way it was when we started.  That’s what make...

The SmarK Rant for WWE Extreme Rules 2012 Live from Chicago, IL Your hosts are Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler & Booker T

WWE EXTREME RULES APRIL 29, 2012 ALLSTATE ARENA - CHICAGO, ILLINOIS -  Earlier tonight, Santino Marella defeated the Miz in a match for the WWE United States Championship.

PPV on now, talk away.

Waiting for the Trade By Bill Miller X-Men Visionaries: Jim Less by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee Collects Uncanny X-men 248, 256-258, 268-269 and 273-277 and Classic X-men 39 Why I Bought This: So several months ago DC was hyping the hell out of the New 52 and the preview pages for Justice League by Jim Lee looked pretty damn amazing. Knowing I was going to wait for the trade on JLA meant I had six months before I could pick it up so I decided I wanted something by Jim Lee in the interim. The two most obvious choices were either X-Men or Fantastic Four Heroes Reborn, but having purchased the terrible Captain American Heroes Reborn trade in the wake of the awesomeness of last year’s movie, I decided to go with X-men. Plus the back cover did promise both a famous Cap story and a Savage Land story I had never read before as I dropped X-men in my original collecting days right around the time Jim Lee took over so most of this is actually new to me. Those preview pages mu...

I haven't done one of these in a minute and it's a good time to knock one out before a PPV. Obviously the topic of this show is about the factions, stables, regimes, cliques, factgimes, alliances, corporations, unions, armies and cartels that made wrestling great for so many years. Enjoy.

Hey Scott, long-time reader, but this is my first time asking a question. I see that many people are complaining about the WWE's PG-oriented product lately, but here's what I think about it: The WWE, being the world's biggest promotion, with no competition that can give it a run for its money, like WCW back in the 90's, is at a position where they only have to maintain their position. My guess is that they're playing it safe with their content now. To avoid burning the fans out with the Attitude-style product that they were putting then, and also risking potential backlash with a storyline taken too far, like ECW's crucifixion incident, they're trying to give the fans something not as edgy as before. Of course, it would help Linda McMahon if she runs for public office again. Thoughts? You are absolutely correct.  Unless they lose TV, which could still happen, they have enough money and reserves to coast forever, basically.  So they...

Man, I’m almost tempted to download the abdomination that was EXTREME REUNION just to see if it could be as bad as promised.  Vince and Dixie have been SERVED, indeed. Anyway, a real wrestling promotion is doing an actual, non-“tape delayed” PPV tonight, and it’ll actually be the fourth one in a row I order, which is the first time in many years when that has happened.  Buyrate prediction:  Brock’s not moving ratings and he won’t move buyrates either.  It’ll do better than last year, but only like 10% more.  So we’ll say 140K domestic and 220 worldwide.

http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/118-daily-updates/25385-sabu-hospitalized-extreme-reunion-notes Sabu was in pretty bad shape before he resurrected his career with ECW 2.0 in 2006, so hopefully this isn't a return to that state for him.

Hey Scott, I was contemplating the mysteries of the WWEUniverse, and the following topics began to trend.  

The SmarKdown Rant – 04.27.12 Taped from Grand Rapids, MI Your hosts are Michael Cole & Booker T. Josh Matthews is out thanks to making a stupid comment to Brock Lesnar, thus marking the first person in about 10 years to sell an injury past the end of the show.

Hello Scott, Always enjoy a good mailbag, and would appreciate your opinion on something that has been bothering me for a while. Just what is the deal with Michael Hayes? I appreciate the impact the Freebirds made, and he obviously must have a decent mind for the business given his career backstage and in the ring, but his ring-work came across as being centred around stalling and doing a crap moonwalk. Yet he appears to be very well respected, and has ascended through the WWE from road agent to head writer. So is he a genius? Opportunist? Overrated? Keep up the good work! Tom He's a smart guy, but a shit worker.  And a bit of a racist, apparently.  But yeah, he's always had a great mind for the business and he's a funny guy.  There's lots of guys like that, who were smart enough to make a good living for themselves but really found their calling as agents or writers (like BIG JOHNNY) because they can act as a muse for someone with better in-ring talent than them....

Even though we are in the era of wrestlers using either real names (Cena) or made up names that are supposed to sound like real names (Dean Ambrose), do you think there is still a place for gimmick wrestlers that have a radical character (like the Undertaker when he debuted)?  I think if done correctly, Snake from the Metal Gear Series could have been a success, a cross between Sgt. Slaughter and Benoit almost (plus he could have a manager like Otacon or Campbell who would yell SNAAAAAAAAAAAKE every time he lost).  Your thoughts? Of course there’s still a place for radical characters.  Just look at Brodus Clay, the FUNKASAURUS.  Total gimmick character and he’s over like crazy.  Ditto for Hornswoggle and Santino, who are all total cartoon characters.  Kane is fading fast but he’s still a major player and he only debuted 15 years ago, which is still part of the modern era.  Really, it’s not the name or gimmick, it’s the person behind the character....

Smackdown Date: April 27, 2012 Location: Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, Michigan Commentators: Michael Cole, Booker T Reviewed by Tommy Hall It's the last show before Extreme Rules and we're minus a Josh Matthews here due to Lesnar killing him on Monday. We have a main event tonight of Sheamus vs. Mark Henry in a non-title match which is a rematch from Raw where Daniel Bryan cheated Sheamus with a fast count. Other than that I don't think anything else has been announced. Let's get to it.

Time for some non-Montreal, non-Invasion topics! Scott, Looooooooooong time reader and erratic contributor to the comments section who's been a watcher (intermittently, at best, now) since around 1985 (I have distinct memories of Lex Luger as Florida and Southern Champion).  I don't think I've ever actually written before, but am bored at work and figured I'd give you a shout.  A few random questions: 1. Tom Zenk.  All the measurables were there for Zenk to be a big star (Minnesota pedigree/Japanese experience/great body/high flying skills), yet he really never broke through as a top player.  His best chance seemed to be his WCW tenure (when, admittedly, they couldn't find their ass from doorknob), but it never came together.  What gives? 2. Greg Valentine.  I always considered Valentine to be the great "lost" Horseman.  His history with Flair, tag team experience and old-school mentality made him an ideal fit, particularly when he was in WCW in 92; ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvcRxwOp_tQ Yay Joe Gagne reviews!  In some ways WM2000 was better than No Mercy, like the speed of the game itself.  Still, No Mercy remains the alpha and omega of the AKI series for me.

Bet you're sick of stuff regarding the Invasion now, but it still seems to be a popular topic on the BLOG!~! so here goes....   One thing nobody's neccessarily brought up yet and just a thought - was the 'Invasion' really neccessary in the first place? Think about it like this - WCW had lost all credibility with wrestling fans by the point that Vince bought them out, right? So realistically, turning the whole shebang into "two separate companies" was never going to work - look at the reaction it got in Tacoma when they did 'WCW' at the end of the show with Bagwell vs. Booker, and that was really before they'd totally botched the angle (outside of DDP....). And really, was it "WWF vs. WCW" that the fans were clamouring for, or was it more stuff like Rock vs. Hogan, Austin vs. Goldberg, just as matches?   Basically what I'm getting at is this - would it have been smarter to just bring the big stars from WCW in as their own acts - e...

I think I had referenced going to this show in one of the 2012 Scott sez rants, and I was trolling through my archives and remembered that sure enough I had done a review for Wrestleline back in the day.  So just for fun, a May 28 2000 WWF house show report by ME. Netcop House Show Rant – May 28, 2000 So anyway, after weeks of begging and pleading with Wrestleline and much built up in the way of hopes, I ended up being gravely disappointed, as David’s promise to call the WWF on Friday afternoon yielded nothing, not even an e-mail to let me know one way or another. So it was lucky for me that the WWF opened up some seats on Saturday, and ended up picking up a pair of darn good seats at the proverbial last minute (section 201, row 21, which is dead center and the very first row of the upper deck, and just about the best view in the place) so I could finally see Benoit v. Jericho live and thus die happy. Well, relatively. I can’t for the life of me remember if I went to the show in ...

(2012 Scott sez:  Here’s where we wrap it up for another month, as I never did get around to watching Backlash 2006, and the show has traditionally become a skip for me since 2007 because I’m generally sick of WWE again after Wrestlemania.  Caliber Winfield offered me the chance to do a Scott sez job on his reviews of the missing shows, but I thought that it not only went against the spirit of the gimmick in the first place, but also would be cheating since I haven’t actually seen any of the shows outside whatever one had the six-man where Orton won the title from HHH and Cena put Edge through a giant spotlight like they were in a 50s Batman comic.  Update on the laptop situation!  After weeks of my full-size Toshiba laptop blue-screening on me, which I attributed to the hard drive dying, I switched back to the netbook.  You may have noticed my rants and mailbag answers getting suddenly very concise because for us people with big hands it’s somewhat torturous t...

Dear Scott, So as we head into Extreme Rules, with very little set, most people are at least pretty sure about the outcome of the WHC match:  this match represents the blow off and final face victory in the Bryan/Sheamus feud.  Bring on Alberto del Rio. I'm not so sure.  Between the face victories in the tag matches (including the legends tag), the response to the Bryan/AJ angle and the very underwhelming (through no fault of Sheamus') response to the Ginger Champion, I'm smelling a title hot shot that wasn't in the works before Mania. As for the feud, Bryan hasn't dominated nearly enough to make people foam at the mouth for his loss, and I think WWE was already pretty high on Bryan even before the Vanilla Spring and the rise of the yes chant. So my question from all of this: "what does it take for WWE to scuttle their plans?"  We saw it in the Summer of Punk and it does feel like they are admitting on one level or another that they need to start rely...

Impact Wrestling on Spike TV OPEN FIGHT NIGHT #1 April 26, 2012 The Impact Zone - Orlando, Florida -  Your hosts are Mike Tenay and Taz.

I Have Issues (2) The Original Avengers VS. X-Men I was planning on doing some Avengers issues in anticipation of the new movie coming out. While deciding which issue to do I came across this little gem. It's the first battle between the Avengers and the X-Men. I thought it might be neat for those like me who are reading the current AVX storyline to see how the first bout went down. I will also be doing newer stuff for those who have little to no interest in the old school comics but let's travel back to 1968 first.

http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/118-daily-updates/25346-mysterio-suspended Wonder if Dave and Bryan will dedicate 30 minutes to every audio show for this one too.

Discussion for the mailbag:   I've seen various ideas on how the Invasion could have been made better.  Some are better than others.  However, could it have ever really worked as a true "WCW Invasion" in 2001?  WCW was a joke of a promotion that nobody cared about or watched by the time it folded.  The WWF had many of the greatest wrestlers of all-time in their primes at the time.  It is pretty certain that for the Invaders to be taken seriously, they would've had to convincingly destroy/go over the WWF guys for a while before the WWF got their revenge.  So, Scott Steiner, Booker T, Buff Bagwell, DDP, etc. were supposed to just roll over Austin, Rock, HHH, Taker, etc. for six months or so?  It's not believeable and no one would buy it.  They didn't have the option of guys like Sting, Flair, Hart, Goldberg or Hogan at that point, so honestly what could they have done differently to make a full-scale "invasion" better.  Plus, Hogan's reaction a...

The SmarK Rant for WWE Backlash 2005 (2012 Scott sez:  This is the point where my PPV archives start to get REALLY thinned out as I lost more and more interest in WWE.  As such, there’s only this one and 2007 left in the Backlash series.)  - So last year I got to be at this PPV live, which means that the Backlash name now holds a special place in my heart. OK, not really. - Live from Manchester, NH - Your hosts are JR & King.

I am asking you this and essentially the site this because I have not seen a response in other Ask like columns: I have been watching UWF stuff online and I noticed Big Bubba (Ray Traylor) came into the UWF and won their title on April 19, 1987.  With that being said Watts sold the UWF to Crockett on April 9, 1987.  Did Crockett send Big Bubba to UWF to win the title so that a Crockett guy would have the belt? I also noticed around that time Magnum TA showing up around that time, too, was that a Crockett decision? Yup, Crockett bought the UWF and absolutely wanted to populate the show with his own guys.  There were big plans for Bubba and it was a pretty darn good way to give him main event experience.  That being said, the whole UWF experiment turned pretty quickly into the same thing as all his other acquisitions did, with Crockett short-sightedly stripping the promotion of all the usable talent (Sting, Steiner, Gilbert, Williams) and then sending his job guys down there to r...

NXT Date: April 25, 2012 Location: Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, Michigan Commentators: Matt Striker, Hornswoggle, Johnny Curtis, Michael McGillicutty Reviewed by Tommy Hall We have an actual changed show this week as we’ve got a bunch of people gone from the show after the great NXT purge last week. I’m not sure what to expect this week but it should be interesting to see who they bring in to replace the guys that have left. Either way it’s a good thing to get some fresh blood in here. Let’s get to it.

Monday Nitro #64 Date: December 2, 1996 Location: Hara Arena, Dayton, Ohio Attendance: 3,800 Commentators: Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyszko Reviewed by Tommy Hall We’ve got four Nitros to go before Starrcade and five to go before 1997. I can’t believe we’ve gotten this far but somehow here we are. The shows up until then are pretty much all build to Starrcade, as you would expect them to be. Also expect some more of the US Title Tournament to play out tonight. Let’s get to it.

Waiting for the Trade By Bill Miller Marvel Adventures: Black Widow and the Avengers by Paul Tobin Collects Marvel Adventures Super Heroes 17 – 21. Why I Bought This: There is no comic franchise I love more than the Avengers. The impending movie has my anticipation building to a full on geek-gasm. I stumbled upon this on Amazon at just $4 (and that includes shipping costs) and was like Hell Yeah I’m up for some Avengers stories I haven’t read before the movie comes out. Plus the description promised Diablo and he’s actually my favorite FF villain so I’m more than happy to see him switch foes since I like the Avengers a lot more than the FF.

---------- Forwarded message -------- Papa Smark! Here's a neat article about "The Destroyer" Dick Beyer, who's from/lives in my area of Western New York. It appears he will be honored with the Japanese Consul-General's Commendation for 2012 tomorrow night at Ilio DePaolo's Restaurant in Blasdell. NY. http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article826403.ece Nice article; he is still a big deal in Japan. Good for him! -CJ Ambrosia

Hi Scott, Long time reader, first time emailer....just wanted to get your opinion. With the WWE world title situations locked up for the next year or so, isn't this the PERFECT time to try to legitmize the ic, us and tag team titles? There is about 15 mid to upper card wrestlers with next to nothing to do (basically everyone in the team laurinits/ team teddy match at wrestlemania and the new guys coming in, and punk, show, cody...etc) they have plenty of wrestlers to bring those titles back to prominence/ There's not really any magic formula to it.  You put the title on a guy you want to push, and then he defends the title against other top guys in a featured position on the show and wins some matches.   Like Cody was IC champion for months, but never defended it.  So when Show suddenly wanted the title, no one cared. Or like during that period was Orton beating both Cody and Dolph in one week and coming right out and saying he didn't care about the belts.  Having seconda...

Waiting for the Trade By Bill Miller Fantastic Four Visionaries vol. 2 by John Byrne. Collects Fantastic Four 241 – 250. Why I Bought This: This was actually the last of my recent library rentals. In this case I picked the cover promises a famous fight between the FF and Gladiator (a character clearly designed as a stand-in for Superman) that I’ve wanted to read since the Marvel Handbooks in the late 80s talked about it. In fact a couple years ago I purchased The Trial of Galactus trade knowing it involved the FF and the Shi'ar and was disappointed the Gladiator fight was not part of it.

The SmarK Rant for WWE Backlash 2004 / RAW April 19 2004 - So finally I’m back home and organized enough to do a rant of the show, after a whirlwind weekend of WWE-stuff that I’ll get into in the RAW rant, because that’s where most of it is pertinent.

http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/118-daily-updates/25331-former-wcw-star-bagwell-in-serious-auto-accident http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/118-daily-updates/25332-update-on-buff-bagwell Rough luck for Buff, who hasn't exactly had a prosperous career since getting forgotten by the world since the Invasion flop in 2001.  Although I guess he recovered from a broken neck once already.  

http://bluebarcage.blogspot.com/2012/04/dark-day-for-professional-wrestling.html It's a sad day when truths like this become evident. Maybe it was acceptable in 1999 for Steve Austin to hijack an ambulance, but it's time to start cracking down! The writers of this storyline should be locked away for a long time as well.  Although at this point killing Paul Bearer is just a misdemeanour  given how many times it's happened now.  

by Logan Scisco -Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Jerry Lawler are in the booth and they are still from somewhere that is undisclosed. -Footage of the aftermath of last week’s Karate Fighters Holiday Tournament is shown.

Been watching the VERY UNDERRATED Superbrawl III (would like to see a retro rant)...and have a few questions: 1) What was up with Benoit being there?  Was he a one shot deal? Supposed to be more? Don't remember him from this period. 2) When did the Heavenly Bodies switch from Pritchard/Lane to Pritchard/Del Rey and why? 3) Why did Flair return on this shown but not win the title until ten months later? and 4) What happened to Missy Hyatt?  She was SMOKING hot on this show. 1.  They were basically trying him out and didn't really know what they wanted to do with him at that point. 2.  Lane retired and went to WWE as an announcer. 3. He won the NWA World title/International World title from Windham very shortly after this show.   4.  She got old and broke down fast.  

The SmarK RAW Supershow Rant – 04.23.12 Live from Detroit, MI Your hosts are Michael Cole & Jerry Lawler Tonight! A very special three hour show for some reason that’s not particularly clear.

Three hours tonight and it looks like they are opening with Brock-Cena. Interesting? Desperate? You're both right! Enjoy the show and don't be shy about expressing your opinions. As always come out swinging but try to keep it clean :)

Has there ever been a woman that did regular commentary? I know that female wrestlers have done commentary during the odd match here or there, but has there ever been a woman who was a regular part of the commentary team? I couldn't recall a single one, not even in female-centric things like SHIMMER, the little of Joshi I've seen, the worst season of NXT, et cetera. If there's never been one, is it just there hasn't been any women interested in the job? There are female announcers and backstage interviewers, just struck me as odd that there's never been a single woman doing regular commentary that I've heard of. -Stephen Stephencjones13@earthlink.net === Mike McGuirk!  She's on some of the 80s WWF regional stuff.  I think she was actually married to Lex Luger for a bit too.   She was terrible though .  Elizabeth did some commentary in Memphis too.

Hey Scott, I was rewatching the WCCW DVD and a question occurred to me. Did Vince have bigger plans for Kerry than what ended up panning out? I was a strictly WWF kid growing up so I had no idea who the Texas Tornado even was in 1990; but I'm curious now, did they sign him with plans to use him as a top guy, or was it just more of Vince gobbling up territorial stars like he'd done throughout the 80's? ----------------- No, if anything they had smaller plans for him due to the missing foot and "demons".  He was just a guy with a good look by that point and lucked into the IC title push.

The SmarK Rant for Backlash 2003 “As you know, the concept of the suction pump is centuries old. And really, that's all this is, except that instead of sucking water, I'm sucking life. I've just sucked one year of your life away. I might one day go as high as five, but I really don't know what that would do to you, so let's just start with what we have. What did this do to you? Tell me. And remember, this is for posterity, so... be honest. How do you feel?”? Sometimes a show just leaves you with no choice but to quote The Princess Bride. (2012 Scott sez:  One of those movies where I’m compelled to drop everything and watch it if it’s on TV.  Thankfully I haven’t checked if it’s on Netflix because otherwise I’d never get any work done.) 

Hey Scott, Do you think that, given what we've seen of Brock Lesnar's ring gear, and the nature of the feud with Cena so far, we might see a 'hybrid' style of match at Extreme Rules? In a wwe.com article Matt Striker commented that there won't be any armdrags or headlocks, so could they manage without irish whips and the like? Because Lesnar's been away from the wrestling ring for a decade, it would seem wise to play to his strengths, and as long as Cena doesn't pull out a five-knuckle shuffle, I think there's a good chance we'll see an unusually realistic contest between the two. Eh, Cena isn't a particularly "realistic" worker, as he's pretty much 100% a product of the WWE system.  It feels like a match where it needs to be a big Michael Bay giant robot battle type of brawl anyway.  The more "realistic" UFC style has never really gotten over outside of one Joe v. Angle match in TNA anyway.  

I thought this was a good read - and didn't know at all what had happened to Perry Saturn.   http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3540204 I had heard about it at the time but I'm glad he's got his life back in order again.  And agreed, a really interesting read.  Tommy was always a good guy and never seemed to get caught up in any of the other activities that brought down most guys.  

Hey Scott,   Longtime reader and diehard fan of the rants and blog. My question concerns the WWF in 1992, specifically the extremely odd booking. I understand that McMahon was in the midst of the steroid scandal, and understandably distracted. That being said, there are some questions I've never heard satisfactorily addressed; perhaps you can offer some insight.   It was obviously a time of transition. Flair gets the belt back from Savage with the full understanding that he's a transition champion at that point. Despite their later issues, Flair at the time had no problem whatsoever with putting over Bret Hart clean, wherever and whenever. The story both Flair and Hart convey is that for some unexplained reason, McMahon lost faith in Flair and wanted the new era to begin sooner rather than later. Even if that's TRUE, why do it at a house show and piss away millions? As a businessman, McMahon was an 11 on the incompetence scale here. And since money trumps everything, I h...

The Netcop Rant for Spring Stampede 2000 Funny story: I called to order the show on Friday afternoon, but the automated phone system wouldn’t allow me to complete the order. (By this time the cable company had switched to digital cable and we could no longer watch PPVs by less-than-legitimate means, which meant that I was back to ordering them again after a fairly long break from spending hundreds of dollars a month on wrestling shows.  Given my lack of wife, though, it’s not like I had anything better to spend my paycheques on anyway.)  So I called Shaw Cable’s customer service and explained the problem, and not only was the show spelled wrong in their database (“WCW Sprint Stampede”) but the Sunday show wasn’t even listed in the computer, only the Tuesday replay! The funny part? They hadn’t caught the problem yet because I was the only one to that point who actually wanted to order the show.  (Not surprising given the buyrate.  Basically after Kevin Sullivan was ...

  Hey Scott,      Since there is so much incessant whining on this site I figured I would go the opposite direction and ask; what are some instances in which the booking and payoff of an angle are pretty much done to perfection? Just going off the top of my head I would list the following: The Triple H/Undertaker/Michaels Hell in the Cell Match, The Warrior vs Savage retirement match, and the Big Bossman vs the Mountie Jailhouse match. I had to list the last one because The Mountie totally had it coming and it was SO much fun to watch him get dragged out of the Garden and later in Jail. I'm sure I am leaving out a lot but like I said I just listed the first things that came to mind.      Mike There might be less "whining" if WWE didn't suck so bad much of the time.   As for the question, I would add Hogan v. Savage from Wrestlemania 4 to Wrestlemania 5 to that list, the Warrior win over Honky Tonk Man, Steamboat over Savage, the Austin v. Dude Love at Over the E...

http://bls.uieblender.com/iphone/article_kit/articleitem.jsp?itemid=12779275&modelid=346&activityid=24&snum=3&user=1 So is Hogan just blowing smoke up our asses, or is the 1,824th time the charm?   - Joe I have as much faith in Hogan as I ever have or ever will.

Hi Scott,   Was thinking if the E decided to end the streak at WM 29 who be the best candidate. Makes no real sense to give the victory to a part-timer or a legend: why waste the streak for a special moment Wrestlemania with no long term benefit. And Cena clearly does not benefit from ending it - at least not compared to someone that can catapult into major player status. Who on the current roster would you trust with this mega push? It's a risk - a big risk. If I had to choose,  I would go with Wade Barrett. Though I am not aware of his committment and attitude, (which should factor in this decision) from what I see he is moderately over, a talent and could be built up as a strong heel. Put him over Mysterio at Summer Slam, Orton at the Rumble and then Taker at Mania. What do you think?   There is absolutely no reason or need to ever end the streak.  The money is in the chase of that streak, and once it ends there's no way to ever go back to it again.  This isn't like...

They did the Monster Mash.

(2012 Scott sez:  It’s another 2-in-1 set, although this a rarity where both versions are pretty good.  The second one was written in 2009 so I won’t have anything to add to it.  But first up, the version written live after the show…)  The Netcop Rant for Spring Stampede 1999    Live from Tacoma, Washington   Your hosts are the Usual Idiots.  

Since Punk was so anti-Johnny, now that Johnny Ace is the GM he declares Punk's title (I can't remember if he's WWE or World Champion) will be on the line at Extreme Rules under the old Hardcore Title 24/7 rules. At the start of the ppv Punk MUST be in the arena or forfeit the title. Then the title will be on the line - falls count anywhere - until Johnny declares the ppv is over. Fast forward to 10:50 pm where, after Punk has been running for his life for more than two and a half hours. Punk just gets finished kicking out from under of someone when someone pops him on the back of the head with a bottle. We think it's Jericho but after the pin the close up reveals it's Johnny, who says "Extreme Rules is now over!" Todd Nisoff @therealnitzilla Well, I don't think I like your idea about Johnny seemingly ending up with the title, but I think that resurrecting the Hardcore title rules for one PPV is actually a clever idea.  That's actually a great...

Hey Scott! The British Bulldogs and Brainbusters did actually have 1 match just days before Survivor Series 88. Dynamite Kid talks about it in his book. Vince wanted them to put Arn and Tully over clean. Dynamite refused and threatened to not go out and do the match. After the agents called Vince that night, Vince simply stated "change the ending" because he knew the Bulldogs would be gone in a matter of days anyway. The match took place in Columbus, Ohio just several days before. There is an official record of the match as well at www.thehistoryofwwe.com BTW, Wanted your opinion on something If Mike Von Erich doesn't get ill, do you think he may have been able to continue to improve and get better as time went by? Between late 84 and into the summer of 85, he was really starting to show flashes of getting good and started to show more charisma as time went by. He had some really good matches with Gino Hernandez and even for his biggest detractors, he was just as import...

Smackdown Date: April 20, 2012 Location: O2 Arena, London, England Commentators: Michael Cole, Booker T, Josh Matthews Reviewed by Tommy Hall We're still in England this week for the last TV show of the tour. I don't remember anything being announced for tonight's show so I'm really not sure what to expect from it. We'll probably get more build to Bryan vs. Sheamus as well as hopefully a few more matches added to the thin card. Let's get to it.

Whaddup, Scott, I was perusing the comments in the recent post regarding the question of whether SummerSlam or Royal Rumble is the #2 Pay-Per-View, and I thought I'd engage in some tiresome fanwank:   WrestleMania XXVIII's Team Teddy versus Team Johnny match was a flaccid (at best) substitute for the Money in the Bank match, and yet some fans have suggested that there are limits to the extent to which MitB can or should carry the burden of a PPV of its own. So why not move the MitB match to SummerSlam? The chief problem with all the PPVs between 'Mania and Royal Rumble is a lack of momentum; everyone has figured out that you can mostly tune out for three-fourths of the year and not miss much, Summer of Punk notwithstanding. Hosting MitB at SummerSlam would add some intrigue to the event, and the WWE could also add some sort of SummerSlam-only match (gimmick or otherwise) that will determine the main event of Survivor Series, adding some much needed momentum to what is q...

The Netcop Rant for WCW/nWo Spring Stampede 1998.    (2012 Scott Sez:  This is an original rant from 1998, which I don’t think I’ve even read since the show first aired.  So it’ll be an adventure for everyone!) Live from Denver, Colorado.   Your hosts are some guy, another guy, and his dog Spot.  

Impact Wrestling on Spike TV April 19, 2012 The Impact Zone - Orlando, Florida -  Seriously, was that hit on Hossa really NOT a penalty?

--No ROH recap this week as the new taping hasn't aired yet, and instead clipped versions of some of the big matches from Night One of Showdown in the Sun were shown. Since Colin Rinehart did such an excellent job of recapping that right here , I'm going to skip over it this week. I will say that Kevin Steen vs. El Generico looked like a lot of fun, and I actually dug the two spots from the Australian team that challenged The Briscoes, so I'd like to see more of them. So instead, let's talk about a few of the things going on in the exciting world of independent wrestling, shall we? How about a little news & views on ROH and their iPPV future, the newest WWE developmental signing from the indie scene, an ROH & CHIKARA double-header, the new NWA champion, problems at the border with EVOLVE, and maybe a little on the Twitter war between Mick Foley and Dean Ambrose...

Survivor Series 1988 is on 24/7 right now and I just finished watching that 10 team elimination match which instantly became one of my favorites. Not only is the star power amazing but the action is nonstop until the Demos/PoP angle, an easy ****+ imo. Anyway with all those teams involved, did we ever get a proper Brainbusters/Bulldogs match? Most of those teams faced each other at some point but I dont remember hearing anything about those two and I have no doubts it would've been a classic. Yeah, the 10-man tag team elimination matches at both 87 and 88 were awesome, although the double-turn fell flat because no one in the crowd clued into it.   The Bulldogs were literally on their way out of the door while the Busters were coming in, and the Busters were married almost exclusively to the Rockers for the first few months.  So they wouldn't have crossed paths in the WWF.  Maybe Japan, but the Bulldogs worked All Japan and the Brainbusters worked New Japan so that's pret...

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Sean OLeary" < stholeary@gmail.com > Date: 2012-04-19 11:53 AM Subject: New low for WWE stock To: "Scott Keith" < skeith@gmail.com > Thought this was interesting: http://www.prowrestling.net/artman/publish/WWE/article10024666.shtml  It will be interesting to see why investors are fleeing despite the rumored good WM buyrate when the Q1 numbers are out. The real question is when does the WWE take note & change what they're doing.   Note - the stock is down another 2% today as I'm writing this, so on its way to setting another record low.

I have never bought a WWE DVD, so I have to ask: what does WWE do with matches, shows, or highlights that include Chris Benoit?  When Wrestlemania 30 comes and they release some massive box set of blu-rays to commemorate it, how do they handle Wrestlemanias 16 thru 23?  Surely they can't just completely ignore Wrestlemania 20's main event or the first Money in the Bank ladder match at #21.  At least with Eddie Guerrero, they don't completely ignore the man's existence, but obviously they have some understandable trepidation about Benoit's inclusion in their releases. Well it's not like they're blurring the guy out of the DVDs or anything.  He was present in the Elimination Chamber DVD, for instance.  They're just not going to include matches with him where it's not absolutely necessary, like say on an Edge DVD.  

Long time fan, first time write-in. Would McMahon be better off splitting WrestleMania into a two day event?  They'd have a vehicle to split all these big-time main events down the middle; they'd make twice the revenue in tickets and pay-per-view buys (offering a discount to anyone who bought both days); be able to feature the entire roster plus guest/returning stars without cramming twelve guys into a tag match; and fans would have a "moment" to catch their breath and energy between major bouts.  Fantasy booking WM 29, WWE could feature Daniel Bryan vs. Jericho for the World Heavyweight Championship and John Cena vs. the Undertaker on Night One, and CM Punk vs. Steve Austin and Rock vs. Brock for the WWE Championship on Night Two. The show just keeps growing and it seems unwieldy to cram everything into a single event. Thoughts? God,they have enough trouble laying out a single four-hour show as it is, can you imagine them trying to do a two-night 6-8 hour event?  ...

(2012 Scott sez:  WCW didn’t do an April PPV in 95 or 96, as they skipped right from Superbrawl to Slamboree both years, and then randomly resurrected the Spring Stampede show in 1997.)  The SmarK Retro Re-Rant for WCW Spring Stampede 1997 - Live from Tupelo, MS - Your hosts are Tony, Bobby & Dusty. - I don't even REMEMBER this show, which shows the kind of impact it had on me originally.  (Further to that discussion, I AGAIN totally forgot about this show, as I was about to skip from 1994 to 1998 because I couldn’t for the life of me remember what happened at this one.  And then to be perfectly honest, I read through it again for this repost and couldn’t find anything to comment on, either.  So enjoy the boring repost.) 

Monday Nitro #63 Date: November 25, 1996 Location: Wimomico Civic Center, Salisbury, Maryland Attendance: 3,278 Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, Mike Tenay, Larry Zbyszko Reviewed by Tommy Hall Back to WCW here as we're into the Eric Is Evil period. We're also a night after World War 3 which Giant won, earning him a world title shot. Other than that there isn't much else to report from the show, especially not like a 6 page review of it. We're on the road to Starrcade now, which will wind up being another non-title main event. Let's get to it.

NXT Date: April 18, 2012 Location: 02 Arena, London, England Commentators: William Regal, Josh Matthews Reviewed by Tommy Hall We're in Regal country tonight and after a good show last week, hopefully this time things pick up even more. We've had some stories on the show lately and they've been done well with the long backstage segments. For the first time in a long time I'm actually looking forward to this show. Let's get to it.

Scott, Hi. You might be interested in this:  http://mplayer.pastemagazine.com/issues/week-41/articles#article=/issues/week-41/articles/from-cage-to-stage-pro-wrestlers-turned-stand-up-comics   Feel free to link or plug or whatever. Thanks! Well, with a pitch like THAT, how can I not?   

...With this vintage performance of JYD performing "Grab Them Cakes."  As a kid, seeing a wrestler on American Bandstand was THE definition of cross-over success. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKrlk26I-2A I guess that answers the question about whether he was ever truly capable of ageing once and for all.  Very sad day.    

Star: Steve Austin, Vinnie Jones Year: 2007 Director: Scott Wiper 1989 was the first in WWE’s attempt to branch out into the world of film, the Hulk Hogan vehicle, No Holds Barred. It came out the same weekend as Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade, and came in at 2nd place at the box office. It wasn’t much of a success, and critics weren’t having it. So, fast forward almost 20 years and Vince is ready to give it another shot, this time with Stone Cold Steve Austin at the helm.

Just a couple of things I am thinking about: 1) With Summerslam being held in Los Angeles exclusively these days should the WWE consider holding the Survivor Series in New York City? In general the Survivor Series has been on the bottom rung of the "traditional" WWE PPVs but the three times it's been held at MSG it was one of the better shows of the year and the opportunity to promote a special attraction seems greater. Rock doing his one-off match at MSG seemed to work better for cross-promotion then if the card were held in...Kansas City or something. Plus the crowds are great. 2) Following up the last question, I guess the WWE still considers Summerslam the second biggest card of the year but is that the general perception from the fans? Or has the Royal Rumble taken over that No. 2 slot given the attraction of the match and it being the start of the "Road to Wrestlemania"? 3) With the Draft coming up what is going to be the big move? Should Punk switch to Sm...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M6Sao2Rel0 Obviously the actual PPV match will be much longer, because with Sheamus pinning Bryan twice in a row it'll take at least 36 seconds, so they'll need to practice this a couple of more times before the 29th.  

(2012 Scott sez: Back to 1994 as we bounce around the countdown by request, with WCW Spring Stampede for a few days.  And it’s a 2-in-1 rant with the original OLD SCHOOL 1998 version and then the re-rant from 2002 or so.   My typing skillz may be a little off tonight because I was forced to switch back to my netbook again after my full-size Toshiba laptop blue-screened on me one time too many for my liking.  I had just gotten accustomed to the nice big keyboard again, and then BAM, fate (and a faulty hard drive) rip it out of my hands like a disappointing wrestling finish.) The Netcop Retrospective Rant for WCW Spring Stampede 1994.    Live from the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago.  

Scott, Following the career-ending back injury (haha!) in the Rumble '98 Casket match, how close were we to no Shawn Michaels to drop the WWF Title to Stone Cold at WMXIV?  I still can't think of a more important 'sucking it up' than Michaels' gutting that main event out before hanging it up (at the time).  He surely had his share of 'bitching-out' previously (including the previous year's Wrestlemania) but if you have no Michaels (and no Bret at that point), what happens with Austin's first title win? If Shawn Michaels can't go at Wrestlemania 14: - Do you hotshot Michaels' belt to Shamrock for a main event of "World's Most Dangerous Man" vs. "World's Toughest SOB", enforced by the "Baddest Man on the Planet?"  (Someone else could challenge Rocky for the IC title, with Shammy moving to the main event). - Do you do some contrived Triple Threat and put Austin in the middle of the Undertaker-Kane issu...

Hey Scott, I've a couple of just dumbass goofball questions.  I was watching the Midnight Express vs RnR Express match on the "Rise and Fall of WCW" DVD and thought two things:   #1. If nothing else wrestling has contributed some of the most epic mullets ever witnessed, with Bobby Eaton and Ricky Morton being near the top.  Who else rocked the most awesome mullet?   #2.  I know it would never happen but with their vast archived footage they own how sweet would it be if WWF/E put out a DVD be consisting of nothing but MX vs RnR matches and Cornette promos? 1.  Eddie Guerrero in WCW, of course.  Business in the front, party in the back, baby.   2.  They'd have my money.  But this hearkens back to what I said before about their collection -- they need to do on-demand DVD sets.  They present you with a list of the archives, you go through and pick out 3-4 hours worth of matches you want, they burn you a DVD.  $20 a pop, it's all profit, I probably buy 20 of the...

by Logan Scisco -Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Jerry “the King” Lawler are in the booth and they are live from parts unknown. -Bret Hart comes down to the ring angry, so Ross interviews him.  Bret says that the WWF has changed during his absence and that there are no more rules.  He complains that Shawn Michaels violated his pledge not to interfere in his title match at In Your House and says that since there are no rules anymore he will do whatever it takes to get to the top.  He also announces his entry into the Royal Rumble and says that he’s going to do guest commentary just like Shawn Michaels did last night for the next match.

Yes, HOLOGRAPHIC TUPAC plays Coachella.  He's not even TRYING to hide his living status now.  Dude's been dead for 15 years now and he's still got better abs than any of the guys in the audience and another 2 CDs coming soon.  Hopefully no one comes up with Holographic Biggie to trigger an East-West Hologram War. Actually, come to think of it, they might just resurrect Biggie with this unholy technology and have them do a Pepsi commercial together.

The SmarK RAW Supershow Rant – 04.16.12 Live from London, England Your hosts are Michael Cole & Jerry Lawler

This is the RAW thread. I'm sick. I hate being sick. Enjoy the show, come out swinging but keep it clean...or you'll all get sick!

http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/118-daily-updates/25186-wwe-announces-mania-set-all-time-company-ppv-records Far from the 1.9 million that the ESPN guy was talking about, but 1.3 million buys should definitively show that everyone in the midcard whining about Rock taking spots can suck it and like it. 

Scott,   I thought I would join in on the Brock Madness and wrote my synopsis for how I would like to see him booked this year.   From UFC to WWE: Booking Brock Lesnar   http://www.ultimatesportstalk.com/theultimatefightshow/2012/04/15/from-ufc-to-wwe-booking-brock-lesnar/ I hope you and the Blog enjoy it! Chris Bragg The Ultimate Fight Show Thanks!  And what about that UFC Sweden show?  Thankfully here in Canada all the UFC stuff is on Sportsnet so we don't have to worry about no one getting Fuel and it was a pretty good free show even if I didn't know anyone on the card aside from the multiple people named Thiago who I always mix up.  If it was WWE one of them would have their name changed to "Garrison", I'll tell you that much.   

Hi Scott. I'm not sure what the procedure is to submit new topics for the blog and I didn't want to threadjack but I wanted to know what you and the bloggers thought of this: http://www.facebook.com/l/GAQFz6ATPAQFpDLj_OG26oiZFVweMlQ_9AyBFmm13YRstDA/www.cagesideseats.com/2012/4/14/2949161/tna-news-eric-bischoff-and-dixie-carter-meet-with-spike-tv-executives I hadn't heard this about Bischoff stabbing Dixie in the back before and was looking for your take on it. Well it’s not exactly an objectively written article, that’s for sure.  I don’t really get what Bischoff’s endgame would be, since he already has all the talent that he would have access to now.  And TNA has been saying the same “Focus on young talent” and “Revive the X Division” bullshit for years now.  Yeah, we’re gonna focus on the young talent while Hulk Hogan is fighting Ric Flair in a featured role.  Oh, and by “young talent” they mean Carrot Bischoff.  Dixie is very naive about the business and ...