Welcome to This Week in the PTB Podcast! Episode 184: Free Form Forum with Kevin Kelly In this new jam packed, stacked episode of the PTB Podcast, Kevin Kelly joins Scott & Justin to open things up and have an open free form forum chat, including discussions on Florida wrestling, Crockett Promotions, the death of the territories, Kevin's beginnings in WWF, Ring of Honor, Wrestlemania XXIX, TNA, WCW, the future of wresting and MMA and so much more. Kevin adds his experience and insight into the business to really drive the discussion in this episode. Oh, and in the midst of that, the boys are joined by a special surprise guest and the discourse briefly veers into some controversial waters before getting right back into pro wrestling. Finally, they wrap up with a chat about the year that was in College Football. Episode 185: Over the Edge 1998 In this new episode of the PTB Podcast Vintage Vault, Scott & Justin continue to roll on through 1998 with their review of Ove...

Scott, Happy New Years.  Quick question for the BoD...stuck working the New Year's Eve so decided to watch some Michael Lansberg WWE interviews. HHH mentions that Shawn Michaels asked to come back for Wrestlemania 17 and was told he wasn't wanted.  Can you shed some light on this?  Was he not medically cleared?  Still hated in the locker room?  This was at least 2 years before his full time comeback so the timing just seems odd. Also, these Lansberg interviews are solid, do you know where I can watch more?  YouTube only had like 7 WWE ones, thought maybe you'd know being Canadian.  Thanks alot.  Rick http://www.tsn.ca/otr , although I don't know about viewing restrictions outside of Canada.   But yeah, Shawn tried to come back and get involved in the HHH-Undertaker match, which would have resulted in him screwing over HHH to set up their big feud.  But then he showed up wasted out of his mind and Vince told him he wouldn't be used anymore until he cleane...

I have just discovered that Joey Styles is currently  Vice President of Digital Media Content for the WWE website. Why on earth is he not being utilized in an announcer's role? Seriously- not even on NXT?? Do we chalk this one up to brainless politics as is usually the case or do you think maybe Joey preferred the website gig?  As I understand it, Joey could go back to announcing whenever he wanted, but chooses to do the website gig because he doesn't have to put up with the bullshit involved with being an announcer and can run his much more profitable side ventures selling coins at the same time.  He never wanted to be a full time guy again.

Dear Scott, So I was watching WrestleMania 12 recently and during the video package before the Goldust/Piper brawl I could swear the person doing the voice-over was Jimmy Kimmel. I know he was a radio DJ around that time, so it's not impossible that he could have done some side work doing voice-overs. Have you ever heard anything about this? No, and it seems dubious because they have in-house guys for everything  I think it's more likely to be Todd Pettingill.  Who knows, maybe Jimmy was doing voiceover work for extra cash, though.  

Jack Gallagher Vs Davey Richards http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceLvhNa0lGk I MUST declare an interest. Jack's a pal of mine and this was a solid match. Hopefully one day he will be a name that the fan base on the blog is familiar with. Please forgive the constant Future Shock links on the video but I guess if you're going to plaster logo's over everything it might as well be for a good match. Thanks Well I'm of course always happy to provide cheap plugs, and if it's wrapped up in a great indy match, all the better.  

Scott, I just rewatched Extreme Rules for the first time since April, having been disgusted with the way the main event ended. After the show, the blog was littered with people's disgust at the way the WWE DESTROYED Lesner, and how it would be IMPOSSIBLE to take him seriously as a true monster after that booking decision. Yet of course, come Summerslam, everyone was back in Lesner's corner. While I still despise the typical 30-second Cena comeback, both men came out of that night looking strong. All this brings me to my point about how us smarks bitch endlessly about the decisions made by the WWE. Do you think our self-awareness leads to unfair criticism? Your rants are littered with "Wrestler Y jobs to Wrestler Z.... how can he ever be taken seriously now?" and "He goes over clean on free TV, and they expect me to pay $55 to watch later?", yet those same wrestlers proceed to grab your money and time come PPV night. Whether it's scripted movies, real...

Hi Scott Was watching RVD Vs Cena from ONS II the other day and, whilst I could have lived without Edge's involvement, it really is a brilliant match.  Booked perfectly, both men (Cena especially) played their roles masterfully and it was an unforgettable moment. That RVD shot himself in the foot a few weeks later doesn't change the greatness of his title win. And yet.... That moment only really came about because RVD hadn't had the title hotshotted onto him when he first caught fire during the Invasion. Which poses the question - which would you have preferred?  RVD gets the title in 01/02 and has a longer and proper main event run, but the ONS match never happens.  Or do we prefer what we got; RVD spends most of his WWE career bouncing around the upper-midcard but caps it with the spectacular match against Cena. Thought it might make for an interesting discussion I have no great love for that ONS match so it doesn't really matter to me if it never happens....

1.  What exactly is a Nature Boy? 2.  What is the deal with all this blu-ray/dvd/digital combo pack bullshit?  I just want the fucking blu-ray. 3.  Why doesn't a heel champion enter himself in the Royal Rumble?  If he won, he wouldn't have to defend the title at Wrestlemania.  CM Punk, I'm looking at you. 1.  Well, someone who loves nature, of course.  There was a song by Nat King Cole in the 40s where I would assume that Buddy Rogers took the nickname from, although Rogers and Flair might have also been referencing the Bugs Bunny cartoon with the wrestler that Bugs refers to as Nature Boy as well.  I don't know if it has any specific connotations dealing with the blond muscle-man image that they're trying to portray. 2.  Hey, some of us have young kids who will sit quietly in the car if Cinderella is playing in the DVD player, but also would like to watch movies on Blu Ray at home.   3.  I don't think the champion is allowed to do that.  

God, the blog is deader than Junior Dos Santos' face tonight.  Let's answer some questions! Saw the list and couldn't agree more with this one.  How in the world is this not a top ten moment?  The WWF was on the rise and was bound to take over WCW in the ratings wars in 98 at some point, but I always felt like the moment X-Pac came out and just lit up Hogan, Bichoff and WCW with that rant was a seminal moment for the WWF and in industry in general.  That moment of just shoving things right in WCW's face with a total FU attitude was what WWF fans were just dying for.  The moment has sort of gotten lost in the shuffle over the years I think (maybe because Waltman never became a huge star), but anyone who followed wrestling at that point I think understands the impact it had.  What do you think - am I overrating the significance of it? Oh not at all, watching with my roommate at the time we were losing our shit at seeing someone from WCW finally crossing back to the othe...

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Brian Thompson" http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2swfqkMm44Q > > If anyone can make sense out of what's happening, it'd be you Ha!  I remember this match from when I'd used to sit and watch hours of MPro at a time.  Battle Ropewalk!

Ricky Steamboat vs. Randy Savage-IC title by Stinger1981 By request this morning.  Not only a great match on free TV in 1986, but you may be familiar with the angle that it sets up.  If the Paul Orndorff turn made me a fan, this was what made me a fanatic.

Who's ready for some field trippin'? Not The Masked Reviewer.

by Logan Scisco Since the review of the December 22 nd show got a good reception, I’ll continue on with some more OVW shows as the weeks progress.  I will also make sure to point out details about the roster, since many readers may not be familiar with the talent.  As a reminder, you can stream these shows on the OVW site ( http://www.ovwrestling.com/tv ) and that’s a great thing that the promotion is doing since TNA fans can see what is happening in developmental and get invested in some of the guys before they make the main roster.  Shows are posted every Thursday.  As far as scheduling these reviews, they will likely go up very early Sunday morning since OVW’s show airs on Saturday’s.  Episodes are posted earlier than their air date, but by posting them on Sunday’s I can avoid spoilers. - Dean Hill, Gilbert Corsey, and Michael Titus are doing the announcing duties from the Davis Arena in Louisville, Kentucky.  To break a couple of these guys do...

So to follow up on the Macho Man post, here's Rick McGraw's final match, as he lips off to Roddy Piper on TV the week before and gets DESTROYED in one of the stiffest and most vicious beatings I've ever seen someone take on a WWF TV show, with Piper no-selling everything and just laying into him in return with everything.  Piper doesn't even pin the poor guy, it's a ref stoppage.   This is of course awesome because Piper never wrestled on TV, and this was something special when he did.

Don Frye vs Yoshihiro Takayama (Pride) by Scopitone2011 Let's just say that if you're a casual fighting fan who's never seen this one before and thinks that big dudes punching each other in the face repeatedly is awesome, you're in for a treat.  This is why Don Frye EARNS his mustache.  This would be my favorite MMA fight of all time, and I thought I'd throw it in for a change of pace, in honor of UFC tonight.

I was watching the WWE Macho Madness Ultimate collection stream on Netflix. The VERY FIRST MATCH showed Savage vs. Quick Draw Mcgraw. I had no idea who the challenger was. It's possible he was a huge name and I somehow missed it based solely on my age. But man. I was getting so into that match by the end. The suplex onto the concrete had me put my hand over my mouth and say. "Ooooh!!". Now this is a guy I have never seen, but I was still invested in the match. I didn't know who would win. I actually cringed and had an emotional reaction to the outcome. So my question is, why the hell can't the WWE make me do that today? Is it pacing? Is it talent? I didn't know the other guy. He could have been a jobber for all I knew and yet I cared. has the WWE lost something? If they have can you name what they've lost? Rick "Quick Draw" McGraw was pretty great, dude.  He would have been a player in the midcard for a long time if he didn't self-destruct ...

2 Quick questions for the B.O.D.  Your Ryback commentary got us discussing main event level pushes on the blog.  You were 100% correct in your assessment - WWE will shove the rocket up Rybacks ass, push him through the glass ceiling to the main event regardless of how over he is, inevitably making him a made man and main-eventer for years. Obviously they're gonna choose the cream of the crop in their eyes and  typically choose the right guy for the rocket push (Orton, Lesnars first push, etc), have they ever done this and just completely shit the bed with whom they've chosen? The closest guy I can think of was Billy Gunn but I don't recall him getting the Ryback/Orton support beside 1 short program with the Rock.  Perhaps in hindsight the Miz but the guy freakin main-evented a WM. Oh yeah, they've fucked up monster pushes MANY times before.  Heidenreich was supposed to be The Guy for a while, and we can't forget Nathan Jones and his lactating nipples (al...

Legends of Wrestling Roundtable: Worst Characters Gene Okerlund is your moderator and the panel is Mick Foley, Michael Hayes, Dusty Rhodes and Pat Patterson This is the second episode with this group and the topic is one that should make for some entertaining discussion. Mick Foley throws down the first offender with Mantaur and he said it was the worst of a succession of a crap characters like Bastion Booger and this was during the time that Mick was trying to get into the WWF. And he then goes into a strange story about Shane Douglas pulling a prank on him calling his parents pretending to be Pat Patterson.

It lumbers for a few minutes but the ending is definitely worth it. Andre the Giant vs. Big John Studd Steel Cage... by Old-School-Wrestling

by Logan Scisco About seven years ago I did some reviews of Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) for Inside Pulse.  This was during a time that Ohio Valley had CM Punk as its champion and had emerging stars like Elijah Burke, Cody Rhodes, and the Miz on the roster.  OVW is no longer the developmental territory of the WWE, but since 2011 they have been the developmental territory of TNA.  The promotion is no longer on my local station, but they do stream their episodes online ( http://www.ovwrestling.com/tv ) so I thought that I would drop in and review a show.  Since no one on the blog is chronicling the events in OVW, I wanted to see if there was any interest in following this successful independent promotion, which was arguably the best developmental territory the WWE ever had. - Dean Hill, Gilbert Corsey, and Michael Titus are doing the announcing duties from the Davis Arena in Louisville, Kentucky .

I think this has been on WWE Classics a few times, but it's still worth watching and also notable for being the match that basically spurred the creation of the ***** match rating system.  Terry Funk is the MAN at this point and it's actually kind of uncomfortable watching Lawler kick the shit out of him.

Smackdown Date: December 28, 2012 Location: Blue Cross Arena, Rochester, New York Commentators: John Bradshaw Layfield, Josh Matthews Reviewed by Tommy Hall We close out the year here with a taped Smackdown, which is the norm around here. Odds are this isn't going to have anything of note on it because we're in that odd period between TKC and the Rumble. Also after Monday it looks like we're going to have more Sheamus vs. Big Show, because they've only had three straight PPV matches. Let's get to it.

Just to add my 2.2 cents to the RAW ratings discussion, I don't think there's any panic over the number, or serious credence to the idea of it meaning anything, but it IS troubling in the bigger picture.  It's been a long time since RAW has done anything even close to that low, and that's counting a lot of holiday shows and pre-taped borefests, and I think it speaks to the bigger problem of people just getting out of the habit of watching the show.  The three hours is killing the product, and given what creatures of habit that wrestling fans are, it's dangerous to train them not to watch something anymore.  Yeah, it's not a big deal this time, but that also means that you now have to rebuild that audience yet again, and the hole is getting deeper and deeper every time they find a new bottom number.  Just look what happened to The Ultimate Fighter this year.  Before this year, anything less than a 3.0 was heads rolling; now they throw Vince on TV for extended per...

Hey Scott, long time etc etc etc etc I was watching two matches the other day in my ongoing attempts to educate myself on Puro, and I stumbled upon some very interesting points about wrestling in general I wanted the blog to chew on while watching a pair of Joshi matches. One match featured Megumi Kudo vs Aja Kong, the other was an Explosive Barbwire match between the same Kudo and Combat Toyoda. (Links are http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiBfx9yqZUU and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBW-Nwxwqps respectively) The Kong v Kudo match was pretty entertaining, as Aja Kong is an awesome, high-caliber Vader/Samoa Joe style worker with a great skillset, blending well with the typical JOSHI FIGHTING SPIRIT~! of Kudo. However, there was some stuff in that match that bugged the hell out of me, namely a parity sequence at the start involving the wiry Kudo and the butch, dangerous-looking Kong. I thought it'd make a hell of a lot more sense to have a storyline of "Kong maims Kudo. Ku...

Monday's episode of Raw scored the lowest rating in 15 years, a 2.2. I know they were expecting a low-rating, but sheesh.

December 11, 2002   A black-and-white video recap of   last week’s show. Thankfully, they cut out the Owen Hart stuff. It goes on for a few minutes.   Your hosts are Don West and Mike Tenay   Tenay starts by stating how all 3 title belts are on the line tonight.  

Hi Scott, Can you plug my UFC 155 preview article on your blog? I'll also be doing a full recap of the show on Saturday night/Sunday morning if anyone's interested. Happy Christmas! Adam Brennan http://adambrennan.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/ufc-155-preview-and-picks/ I'm picking Cain, by the way.  I think the injury was what cost him against Junior last time and he'll go back to demolishing opponents again now.  

The SmarK Rant for TNA Impact – 12.27.12 Wanted to give a quick review of Tales of Masked Men , a PBS documentary that I got on DVD last week focusing on lucha libre in Mexico. It’s a really refreshing look at wrestling, offering a beginner’s look at the sport for the first few minutes and explaining the traditions of the masks and rudos v. technicos, then branching into individual stories of stars like El Santo and Mascarita Sagrada. It offers a lot more of a personal look into the people than you’d normally get from a “isn’t wrestling so WACKY” documentary that we normally see, and it’s just so refreshingly respectful of the subject matter without veering into the usual “fake v. real” nonsense and all the other tired clichés of the wrestling documentary. Highly, highly recommended, even at only an hour long. Plus you finally get to see former WWE writer Dan Madigan, notable for pitching some of the craziest ideas ever and getting shot down. Taped from Orlando, FL. Your hosts are Tod...

Not sure what WWE DVD release this was found on, but god bless it anyway.

Hey Scott, I was wondering if you could please do me a small favor.  After some encouragement from my teacher to choose a topic related to wrestling for my History research ascertainment I decided to do it on Xenophobia and racism in wrestling.  I figured with a everybody seemingly asking the blog for project advice, maybe the blog could lend a hand with two things 1) any places were I can get good research, both statistics (gate numbers, PPV buys, Win/Loss) and pieces on the old angles and characters from the old territory days 2)if anybody at the blog has any suggestions for angles two look at-anything relating to evil foreigners will do (Rikidozan, Canadian Stampede, Nikolai Volkoff, etc) Thank you for your time Scott Your loyal fan, Kyle Warne  For ANYTHING research-related, you want Karl Stern's "Stern Sticks". There's endless amounts of research material and records, especially on the territories.   http://www.dragonkingkarl.com is your friend and I...

Do you think they have one more big run in them? Christ, I hope not.  Haven't we been subjected to enough of Billy Gunn?  

NXT Date: December 26, 2012 Host: Tony Dawson Reviewed by Tommy Hall Back to Florida and we've got a new challenger for Rollins in the form of Corey Graves. That's by far the biggest thing that happened last week as the main event was Big Show squashing Bo Dallas for no apparent reason. The shows have been solid lately and hopefully they close out 2012 with another good one. Let's get to it.

This show is pre-taped but they will return live next week.

Scott, Big fan of the blog.  I don't know if you have heard this already.  If not I thought I would pass this your way.  http://media.z104.com/a/67368183/phone-scam-john-cena.htm RISE ABOVE PRANKS!

We're back after a short holiday break. I hope whichever holiday you celebrate from Festivus to Hanukkah to Christmas to Boxing Day was everything you hoped it would be. . Roundtable looks back at Wrestlemania as this was taped right before Wrestlemania XXIV at The Citrus Bowl in Orlando. Gene Okerlund has replaced Jim Ross in the moderator's chair and Mick Foley, Michael Hayes, Dusty Rhodes ( YES! ) and Pat Patterson join him.

The SmarK DVD Rant for Superstar Collection:  Kofi Kingston This was released in September but at the time I got two copies of the Randy Orton DVD instead of one Orton and one Kofi, so I guess someone finally figured it out and sent it to me.  Whatever, I love reviewing these because they’re SHORT and filled with stuff from a time period when I wasn’t watching so it’s mostly all new to me. 

A couple of Vince questions for ya... 1) I remember reading an old Raw review of yours where you covered Vince interviewing Brian Pillman's clearly hysterical wife on live TV the night after he died... And how Vince kept nudging her to publicly declare that Pillman has had previous heart conditions to make it clear that Pillman wasn't taking anything at the time of his death, all to take the heat off of himself. Which was obviously a sickeningly scumbag move. A lot of people probably don't remember this incident... Which brings me to my question: What are some of the lesser known acts of villainy Vince has committed over the years? 2) When do you think we'll ever get to see a Vince McMahon (auto)biography and under what circumstances (and authorship)? Vince has to know this would have huge mass-market appeal (even outside of wrestling fans, likely) so the thought must have crossed someone's mind. And if not the McMahon family, do you think any other WWE a...

The SmarK RAW Rant – 12.24.12 Taped from Pittsburgh, PA Your hosts are Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler

There's TONS of this stuff from Memphis and Savage is awesome in all of it.

So I'm back from my Christmas holiday, and only Jack Klugman and Peter Parker died!  So I consider that a win.   Who are the 2 biggest names that worked for the same company at the same time, but for whatever reason, never had any interaction at all . Whether they were injured at different times, in completely different programs, or what have you. The first pairing that comes to mind is Savage/Goldberg. Savage left in the summer of 98 as Goldberg's main event push really took off. When he came back in late spring '99, Goldberg left for the summer himself. Savage was pretty much gone after October and they never had any interaction whatsoever.  Wasn't Savage one of the guys who did a quickie job for Goldberg during his big reign?  Am I crazy?   Rude and Hogan never had any interaction outside of one match in like 1987 when Rude came in, and that could have been a big program.  Warrior didn't interact with anyone but Hogan when he was in WCW, more or less, and c...

This is from even earlier than usual so please excuse the lower quality of it. Road Wild 1997 Date: August 9, 1997 Location: Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Sturgis, South Dakota Attendance: 6,500 Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Dusty Rhodes, Bobby Heenan Reviewed by Tommy Hall Back to the motorcycle place and to the shock of everyone, Hogan ISN'T champion! He lost the title to Luger on Monday just before this match. That's always been surprising because you would think they would just have Sting break the year and a half reign. Instead they went with this which is questionable but it was a bit of a breather at least. There isn't much else to talk about here so let's get to it.

Monday Nitro #99 Date: August 4, 1997 Location: Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit, Michigan Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay, Larry Zbyszko, Bobby Heenan Reviewed by Tommy Hall This is an interesting episode as I've seen says this is the 100 th episode, but I've counted each one I've done and can only come up with 99. I haven't missed any shows and there are only 99 counting this one so far. Two weeks in 1996 had no show at all so maybe they're counting one of those to get to 100. Either way, the main event tonight is Luger vs. Hogan for the title, five days before their PPV title match. That clearly won't go anywhere. Let's get to it.

Watch "Gilbert/Mr. X vs. Flair/Windham P1" on YouTube From January 89.  Awesome return for Steamboat.

OK, so Amazing Spider-Man 700 and Avenging Spider-Man 15.1 are officially out today and now fair game for discussion, so let's talk about this so we can watch Jesse's head explode live on Disqus. Spoiler space ahead for those who are still waiting to read it or don't care...

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Mark Holland" > http://jezebel.com/5970017/the-rocks-rock-hard-thighs Clearly he's ready to come back again.

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Paul" > http://www.lordsofpain.net/news/Hulk_Hogan_Opening_Restaurant_and_Bar_On_New_Year_s_Eve_In_Tampa_Florida.html > > It's Pastamania Part II, brother! > > Okay, this will probably last a few months longer than Pastamania did, but it's still going to be overpriced, mediocre food.  > > And who in the hell sees Hulk Hogan's likeness and decides "Yes! That is where I want to eat and grab some drinks!"?  > > I give it between 18 months and 2 years before it goes under.  > > -Paul.

by Logan Scisco - The show opens with a small clip and tribute to former WWF champion Stan “The Man” Stasiak. - Vince McMahon and Jim Ross are in the booth and they are coming to us from Detroit, Michigan. - The New Nation of Domination are interviewed by McMahon and Ahmed says that McMahon never backed him when he came back from his injury last year for a shot at the WWF title.  Ahmed says he doesn’t respect the Undertaker because he’s just a slave to Paul Bearer and Faarooq says that Ahmed coming into the Nation is like Martin Luther King aligning with Malcolm X.  D-Lo repeats what others have said in this segment and Kama says that Ahmed will bring the WWF title to the Nation.  At the end of the segment, Crush comes out with some other men on motorcycles and they surround the ring.  Crush says his organization is called the Disciplines of Apocalypse and a brawl breaks out.  A combination of WWF officials and police separate the combatants and DOA ...

Taped from Philadelphia, PA Airdate: June 12, 1998 Hosted by Joey Styles

If this article doesn't get the desired amount of views, Thomas Hall will be to blame..

A special Christmas Eve edition of open mic. I don't expect a lot of action on the board tonight but to those of you that stop by I ask you to come out swinging but try to keep it clean. I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season with the people you care about.

I'm leaving town for Christmas, so no review forthcoming for a few days at least.  For those who ARE watching RAW tonight, here you go!

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Smells Like Human Spirit" > Hi Scott, > > Love your work and the blog. Just thought to pass on this news item: > > Former WCW star Konnan recently appeared on the Smells Like Human Spirit Podcast at smellslikehumanspirit.com . In a wide-ranging one hour interview, he spoke on everything from wrestling, to politics, and beyond: > > On his time in WCW: > > "[WCW] was the only company in the history of wrestling to beat WWE, [it was] 82, 84 weeks in a row in the ratings. We had all the big names - Hulk Hogan, Randy 'Macho Man' Savage, The Ultimate Warrior, we just had all these big stars. Roddy Piper, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Ric Flair. It was really, really good TV. It's a time that I can say that I was proud to be a wrestler. When you see some of the cheesy things they're doing now on TV, it's very embarassing." > > On AAA's expansion p...

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Justin Rozzero" > These past two weeks were busy ones on the PTB Podcast! > > Episode 179: In this new episode of the PTB Podcast, Scott & Justin travel to the City of Brotherly Love to review the 4/13/98 Raw is War, the episode to snap Nitro's Monday Night dominance. They chat about Steve Austin, Mr. McMahon, Undertaker, Kane, Jeff Jarrett, DX and more! They then catch up on some PTB business, including announcing the winner of the November Jay Ouimette Benefit Contest! > > Episode 180: In this new episode of the PTB Podcast Vintage Vault, Scott & Justin continue to trek through 1998 with their review of Unforgiven. They chat about Faarooq, Jeff Jarrett, Legion of Doom, New Age Outlaws, Owen Hart, Steve Austin and much, much more. There are even a few heated arguments along the way. > > Episode 181: In this new episode of the PTB, the PICs get into the holiday spirit with th...

So yeah, Survivor Series did the lowest number in the history of the show at 122k domestic, which kind of shows that they may have killed off Ryback.  So at least Miz can say his show outgrossed this one.

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Manuel" > Hey Scott, > > Another good wrestler interview for the blog.  This time with Bryan.  The story he tells of "The" Ryback is hilarious. > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7A0SfjIAsU >

So I was watching some early 80s wrestling and wondered why the throwing in the towel finish went the way of the dinosaur. It's still legal in boxing and it's a good finish to have if you want to protect a wrestler during a loss, plus it can be used as a plot device for a face/heel turn. Absolutely correct.  Plus there's a billion ways to screwjob it creatively.  I myself am I huge fan of it and I'm also kind of stunned that it hasn't been used since, what, Survivor Series 1994?  You can have the heroic babyface who doesn't give up but has someone surrender for him so he doesn't get hurt further, or the babyface who doesn't give up but someone fucks him over, or the heel who "gets his" by having someone throw in the towel to cost him a title, thus keeping him strong.  It's a GREAT finish.

I think the real problem with the WWE is encapsulated within the Miz. Unlike other people, I am actually a pretty big Miz fan. I think he's a great mic guy and a decent wrestler. His main event run was one of the few times WWE actually struck while the iron was hot and, I guess, unlike everyone else in the world, I think, at the time, he deserved the championship. He didn't deserve to main event WM but putting him in the role they gave Bryan the next year (Curtain jerking ass who gets stomped immediately) would've made for a hot crowd in WM 27. My problem with Miz is this new babyface run. I think Miz's success as a heel was that people genuinely hated him. They didn't like him as a person or a character. Miz helped matters with his mic work but at the end of the day, if Miz succeeded, it was because there was nothing redeeming about him. Now, WWE is using the exact same character, w/o any change, and expecting people to cheer him. They've given no reason wh...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVuRIyin5Ik This is sooooo hysterical.  LOL Listen for the money line.

I was expecting these Best of 2012 specials to be nothing but clips, but they’re actually showing complete matches and it’s stuff I haven’t covered before. So let’s get to it.

Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi by OnlyWrestlingMatters One you may have heard of before.

Hey Scott, Sooooooooooooo, ever since WWE started using tables on a regular basis, I've always wondered how much it actually hurts to go through them. Yeah, everyone knows chairshots suck and ladders are basically real. But tables, especially pre-cut ones, seem to actually break the fall of the guy going through them. This seems especially true when you see guys going through multiple tables in spots where, if there were no tables, those guys would never be taking the bump. For example, I can't remember which match it was, but I remember Bubba Ray going through two tables on the outside off a ladder, where, had the tables not been there, he would've gone straight to the floor. It seemed like the tables were used more to protect BR than anything else. Yeah, tables hurt, but pre-cut ones absolutely break the fall and absorb most of the impact.  However, there's been tons of injuries due to the impact of wood on body parts, so it's not like it's any less da...

Hey Scott, I like Puroresu companies (NJPW,AJPW,NOAH,etc) and I have always wondered how the fans keep their shins from being destroyed by the guardrails? Wrestlers are regularly whipped into the steel guardrails at great speeds and smack into them and the rails fly backwards. The fans look like they don't even react to being hit by the rails at all. Am I missing something? Do the rails somehow NOT hit the fans? I know, strange question. Thanks and great job on the site! Real e-mails, ladies and gentlemen. Of all the questions about the somewhat bizarre quirks of Japanese wrestling fans, that's the one I would have the least information about.  

Watch "Vader vs Cactus Jack (Saturday Night Unedited)" on YouTube Cactus Jack gets his ass kicked and wakes up in Cleveland. 

Hey Scott, I hate myself for this, but what happens if the 1997 Hart Foundation continues? The pro-Canadian/anti-American angle was  some of the best TV the WWE has ever done, and I just wonder what would have happened to that group if the events that transpired never occured... In short, without the Montreal screwjob and the other obvious issues, how would the pro-Canada/anti-USA Hart Foundation angle ended? PS: Honestly, I've heard stories about a hair-pulling incident, but that aside, as a pretty decorated amateur wrestler, couldn't Bret Hart destroy Shawn Michaels in an actual fight? PPS: Ricky Steamboat vs Tito Santana: Who is the better worker and is it close? 1.  Steve Austin beating Bret Hart to win the World title at Wrestlemania was always the destination.  Basically the Harts would have replaced D-X's role in the show, I imagine, and then the group would have splintered for good.  Makes sense. 2.  Wrestling and street fighting are two totally different thin...

Your random great match of the day:  Tanahashi v. Suzuki from the October 2012 NJPW PPV.  What a brutal and great match.  Tanahashi looks and acts like a rock star and Suzuki is this grizzled tough guy and it's such an awesome dynamic, especially with Suzuki just beating the hell out of Tanahashi with everything he has, and the supposed pretty boy champion coming back with shots to the leg.  Plus there's this awesome spot where Tanahashi puts him into an abdominal stretch and plays air guitar on him, and Suzuki has a supremely pissed off look and proceeds to just slap the shit out of him.  30 minutes just flies by, an easy ***** match.

Scott, Big fan ever since you first ranted on Lincoln being crowned NWA Champion. I thought your **** rating was a bit high, as Lincoln could have employed more psychology, but a fan nonetheless. Anyway, as a long time fan, I have a quick question and favor to ask of you and the BoDers. 1. With Linda's second consecutive loss in her best 2 out of 3 falls Senate bid, do you think we'll see any real, actual change in the WWE product going forward? Obviously we'll never return to the bawdy days of the Attitude Era, but is it possible we'll see a less politically correct, sanitized RAW? 2. I'm currently writing my final paper for my College Course on Video Games Studies (yes, that's a thing) and my chosen topic is "The History of Pro Wrestling Video Games." You or any of the BoDers have any idea where I can find solid info on this, outside of the fine work from the boys at Joe vs. The World? Lincoln was never NWA champion, the first champion wa...

Scott, A random question while I prepare my dry cleaning: in Summer '99 I distinctly recall Buff Bagwell going over Flair in a big time Nitro eight man tag main event.  This was notable for a few reasons: (i) beating Flair clean as a sheet at that time was still a pretty big deal in bringing a guy to the main event level; (ii) the other participants in that main event were Malenko, Benoit, Saturn , Piper, Kanyon, and DDP - Bagwell could easily have gone over Kanyon to he dge the bet , but i nstead he went clean over Flair with the Blockbuster; (iii) Bagwell had been getting a pretty heavy push up the card and was und efeated for a few months, during which he was g etting great crowd reaction and during a period when the nWo focus was much reduced; and (iv) Bagwell was straight up over - he got a massive pop in the main event.  So, the question: what the hell happened?  A mo nth later Bagwell was putting over David Flair - was Bagwell planned for the main event, was there ...

December 4, 2002   They show us what takes place after the show went off the air last week. Killings and Russo are rolling around the ring brawling as the Harris Brothers break it up. They push Russo around a bit and drag him away as Russo is dropping F-Bombs. Jarrett was standing in the ring, not saying a word.   Your hosts are Don West and Mike Tenay.   The bagpipes play and Roddy Piper eventually comes out. He signals for the music to be cut off and grabs the mic. He is accompanied by a young guy with a “Hot Rod” shirt. Tenay mentions how he is on a book tour as Piper introduces himself to the crowd. He says TNA is the last place that Russo has

The SmarK Rant for TNA Impact – 12.20.12 Taped from Orlando, FL. Your hosts are Todd Keneley, Mike Tenay & Taz

http://gameological.com/2012/12/play-the-year-star-wars-debacle-simulatron/ This is tremendous.  Best I got so far was a B score with Joss Whedon writing/directing and Joseph Gordon Levitt starring in "Star Wars", with roughly equal numbers on the sliders.  Grossed 338 million for a profit of 162.  Some of the other potential combinations are pretty hilarious, like Michael Bay directing Tina Fey in a romantic comedy called "Again With The Midichlorians?" that ended up making $0 at the box office and losing 163 million.  

NXT Date: December 19, 2012 Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida Commentators: William Regal, Tony Dawson Reviewed by Tommy Hall We're into the new cycle of NXT now, but the problem continues to be the gap between the current WWE product and the current NXT product. It's a bit off putting to have the Shield version of Rollins on Raw and this version of him on NXT. It looks like we're moving towards Rollins vs. Graves in the main event scene around here. Oh and Big Show vs. Bo Dallas is tonight. Let's get to it.

Scott, Smarks tend to have all sorts of retro-booking and woulda/coulda/shoulda ideas for angles after the fact.  With the Shield a hot angle right now and coming off the team being booked strong at TLC, what do you think is a good direction to go in?  Should they start recruiting new members?  Should they be working for someone after all?  Win some titles?  Allign with Punk/Brock/Heyman?  In the Blogosphere, we pan stuff like Aces & Eights after it loses steam and we rebook every angle in the history of the business, but I'd be interested to hear the BoDs thoughts, and yours, on what could be some interesting ideas for moving forward with a hot angle like The Shield.  Thanks. 1)  Put the tag titles on Rollins & Ambrose RIGHT MEOW.  Kane & Bryan was a rare case of pulling the trigger at exactly the right time but they've run their course as champions, and they need to switch the belts to the Shield ASAP and let them do the Freebird thing with them. 2) ...

Hey Scott,         Thought your readers might be interested in listening to CM Punk being interviewed on The Nerdist this week. He's pretty open and honest about most things. Its a bit on the long side (almost an hour and a half) but its still good. Plus he swears a lot, which is alway fun to hear these days. http://www.nerdist.com/2012/12/nerdist-podcast-cm-punk/ Nathan S. Is it, like, awesome wrestler interview day on the blog or something?  

Inspired by the Big Show interview topic ( http://www.rspwfaq.net/2012/12/awesome-big-show-interview.html#disqus_thread ), I got a question for you: Do you think WWE would ever consider releasing shoot interviews of their own wrestlers (past and present, perhaps. More so past, i'm guessing)? And do you think it'd make money? It just seems like shoot interviews are fairly popular amongst the IWC, and I feel there's some money on the table there. I understand there's some topics they might steer clear from, but that's the beauty of it for WWE - they only ask the questions they feel comfortable hearing answers to. Cheers! Well they kinda did with the Bret v. Shawn DVD, and it did spectacularly well, so yeah, I'm thinking they're absolutely considering more "shoot" style stuff.  Here's the thing -- if this stupid network ever launches, they're gonna need HUNDREDS of hours' worth of material to fill time, every week  And ...

---------- Forwarded message ---------- > Hey, Scott! >   > Somebody in the comments section of a post last week linked to this, and it really is an incredible interview with the Big Show. He goes into far more detail than I expected, even for an out-of-character interview. >   > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlrTxtdtOlI >   > Take care! >   >

Hey Scott, Multi-part question, but mostly related, so please bear with me: I always wondered what the process was for a wrestler getting their finishing move. It's hardly debatable now to say how dull and generic the WWE product is now. One of those things I think that is a big part of that is the signature moves of the wrestlers. When someone is signed or brought up from development, are they assigned a move(s) randomly based on their character or build? There always seems to be SOMEONE using a variant of the Flatliner or the Overdrive or some other generic finish that bounces between wrestlers. Are the wrestlers allowed to suggest moves for themselves that they like or think they can do well, or is it a committee decision thing? In the past, lots of the legends from even a decade ago had their signature move, but a lot of the time, it wasn't the first move they used as their finish. HBK used the Backdrop Suplex and the Piledriver with the Superkick as a signature move, b...

Hey Scott, Why was Ron Garvin a ring announcer/referee in 1989? Man's gotta have some kind of backup plan if his wrestling career ended early. Real answer:  It was just an angle so that Garvin could torment Greg Valentine while "suspended" and keep that dull midcard feud going.  I think Garvin was injured and they wanted to keep him on TV.  The matches were actually pretty good because they weren't afraid to wallop the shit out of each other, at least.  

Monday Nitro #98 Date: July 28, 1997 Location: Charleston Civic Center, Charleston, West Virginia Attendance: 9,575 Commentators: Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Larry Zbyszko, Tony Schiavone Reviewed by Tommy Hall Back on Monday here as we're getting closer and closer to Road Wild. Hopefully we can continue the roll they're on that started last week. The main stories going are on what side is Hennig on and Luger vs. Hogan, both of which should wind up being interesting ideas. Other than that there are some decent stories going on and I'm enjoying this show more lately. Let's get to it.

Live from the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC. Anyone want to take a guess at how long it will take for an ECW chant to break out? Hosted by Kevin Kelly and Caleb Seltzer, who announce that the new commentator (who was supposed to be Adam Pearce) no-showed. OK then…

WWE'S DANIEL BRYAN LETS A KID WITH CANCER TAP HIM OUT, BECAUSE SOMETIMES PEOPLE ARE AWESOME http://withleather.uproxx.com/2012/12/wwe-daniel-bryan-visits-kid-with-cancer-no-lock-video Sorry; I seem to have something in my eye… Just give me a minute… I… I was chopping onions earlier, yeah that's it….   Good thing the kid didn't ask for John Cena.  He probably would have no-sold the submission hold and finished him with the FU.

Firstly using your archives I've been putting together best of lists, like best of COTC, Starrcade etc, basically watching anything you rated ***1/2 or higher. So thank you for providing so many awesome reviews over the years. I trust you more than Meltzer and a lot of others when it comes to star reviews. But I was thinking of putting together a best of WCW Saturday Night compilation and was looking for some ideas as far as badass matches from that show! Do you have any recommendations or perhaps could you do an article on SN because there's a super rich history in regards to that show.   Also wouldn't it be awesome if WWE put out a best of SN dvd? I mean between WCW and NWA there has to be a couple of decades worth of shows if I'm not mistaken? Anyways man thanks for being, from what I can tell, the only entertaining wrestling reviewer on the web for a LONG ass time! Sadly I didn't get TBS until 1991 so I didn't get to catch up on the 80s stu...

                 Superhero Fight Club OK, so I have been working on another article to post this week but as I often do, I bit off more than I could chew and it’s taking me longer to write it then I thought it would. I don’t want to just rush it and let the quality suffer because I am having a blast writing it and it’s the first part of what I am hoping will be something I can continue writing in the future. As any writer amateur or pro can tell you, you let yourself miss one deadline and it’s extremely hard to get back on track. I plan on taking next week off to celebrate the birth of Santa and so as to not ditch the BOD for two whole weeks I’m doing a fun fight post this week.