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The Theszies / RSPW results are live!

Hey there -

In the Theszies / RSPW (rec.sport.pro-wrestling) Awards, you - or
someone who gave us your email address - voted, and asked us to email
notifications of results and stuff.

If you'd like to see this year's Awards (and you said you did
previously, so that's why we're emailing you), just follow this link:

http://mightygodking.com/2015/02/19/the-2014-theszies-rec-sport-pro-wrestling-awards-results-post/

We're setting up a mailing list! We had an overly complicated and
manual email system, and from now on, it should be simpler and more
timely. We're only automatically adding voters from *this* year; we'd
prefer to avoid spamming outdated email addresses. You can subscribe
over here:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/theszies-announce

We're also on Twitter at @RSPW_Awards.

Thanks for voting, and we'll see you (hopefully) in December when we
begin taking nominations for the 2015 Awards!

MGK, James The Tech Guy, and the rest of the RSPW Awards Staff

​Hey, and RSPWFAQ.net finished pretty high in the voting for "Best Media", too!  Thanks to all who voted for the blog!​

Comments

  1. WAY too many votes for Big Steph and the Young Sucks. Two things that need to just go away because they blow.

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  2. Haven't read the whole thing. One thing that strikes me is the "Best Gimmick" award is historically pretty fucking awful.

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  3. The Bucks are the best

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  4. These awards should be called The Kunzes.

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  5. WithLeather won due to them sending their gorillas to vote spam.

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  6. I dislike John Cena as much as the next guy, but there's no way he should have been winning some of those "Worst" awards over Brie Bella. The Bellas, in general, didn't get nearly enough hate for my tastes.

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  7. Virgil's Gimmick TableFebruary 22, 2015 at 4:05 AM

    It annoys the shit out of me when people say "c'mon. They're not that bad". Yes. Yes they are. They're the definition of bad wrestling.

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  8. Hating on the Bucks? Shut the entire fuck up. Clearly you mustn't take the time to sit through their matches...

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  9. Virgil's Gimmick TableFebruary 22, 2015 at 4:07 AM

    Best novelty bullshit award is a more apt name. Then again, I've always stuck with the sentiment that a great GIMMICK sticks in people's minds for a few months at the most. But a great CHARACTER stays in their minds forever.

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  10. Virgil's Gimmick TableFebruary 22, 2015 at 4:08 AM

    The Bucks are amazing. You made me agree with Dock. How dare you.

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  11. I wonder if the voting had stayed open for another week or two if Roman Reigns would have overtaken the other in the 'Worst' categories.

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  12. ''CHRISTOPHER BIRD: Despite us explicitly explaining that Botchamania and the like were now eligible in Best Wrestling Media instead of Best TV/Youtube Show, they still got over a hundred write-in votes (with a bunch more going to Old School Wrestling Review), a lot of which didn’t vote for them in Media. It’s kind of a shame, really. That having been said, we’re sticking to our position: Botchamania doesn’t belong in this category for the same reason “Siskel and Ebert at the Movies” never won an Oscar.''

    Hey don't look at me, I told them!

    Ah well. I've never heard of With Spandex, I'll have to check them out.

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  13. I didn't realise Doom vs. Steiners had such an impact on people in 1991.

    OH WAIT THAT'S WHEN THEY WERE UNMASKED AND AWESOME. I need to rewatch this now.

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  14. In Best Wrestler RRED said Reigns has proved he can go in single matches. Im not sure about this one. Orton/fandango/big show and kane are the only singles matches ive ever seen him in.

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  15. Bucks are the punk rock of wrestling: shamelessly spot monkeys, completely untrained, not interested in respecting their elders. But are you ever bored watching a Bucks match? Impossible.

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  16. I agree with these results for the most part, but I'm disappointed that WWE vs Its Fans didn't win Feud of the Year. There's always next year!

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  17. I'm not sure. We'll see a change after Fast Lane after he works with one of the best wrestlers on the planet. I'm personally hoping he does really well.

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  18. How in the heck did IRS win worst gimmick of 1991? I guess the smarks let their guard down that year and took to heart that they (well...their parents) were accused of being tax-cheats.

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  19. Southern States Wrestling got more votes for best organization than TNA. Amazing.

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  20. Huh, Chavo and Punk had a match where the object was to throw your opponent into the Gulf of Mexico. That's weird.

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  21. Nikki was putting on some quality wrestling this past year. So, no, they aren't the definition of bad wrestling.

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  22. narrow-minded... many religions are def large organizations that do a lot of good and bad in the world.. just ask the president !!

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  23. Luke Harper, The Miz, Rusev, Seth Rollins, Fandango, Bray Wyatt, Alberto Del Rio, Mark Henry, CM Punk.

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  24. Too much hate for Cena in those awards.

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  25. Not much hate for Roman Reigns.

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  26. You'll be hammered in 10 minutes if you're chugging for ever uh-oh lol

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  27. for two weeks he is .. then he's jobbed to alyaza blaze!

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  28. Eh? If ever one of the NWA guys will tailor-made for the WWF roster, it was Sting. Amazing that it never happened really.

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  29. "Who are nine people who have never been in my kitchen? I'll take 'Anal Bum Covers' for $600 Alex."


    :)

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  30. THIS. I mean Sting vs Michaels, Bret/Owen Hart, Undertaker could run a years worth of pay per views. And damn fine matches too, most likely. Throw in Mankind, HHH, Austin and a WWF version of the Vader feud... Sting wouldn't be hurting for solid matches.

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  31. Despite Chris Berman's best efforts...

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  32. Okay, I know IRS gets a lot of heat here...but I actually don't mind him as a mid-card heel. It's a goofy and hilarious "evil" gimmick that is so bad, it's good. And Rotundo/a played it really well. The matches were bland and the character was bland...but that's the point!

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  33. Because everyone in TNA, like WCW, was all 'it's Sting.' Whereas WWE, for all their faults, is not going to let Sting show up at the arena 'out of shape and unprepared' for a match at their biggest show of the year.

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  34. Was it really the case that "certain people" got in Vince's ear, or really more that Vince himself couldn't fail to notice that the fan response to the "Lex Express" was pretty lacklustre? Reckon Vince changed his plans 'cause he lost confidence in Luger being capable of carrying the company. Which was probably the correct decision, in retrospect.

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  35. Didn't say he'd be a face or a heel, but if he and DBry put on a good match, i doubt people would say he was worse than Brie Bella. My point was that this one match, may be his make or break moment for a good long while.

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  36. Was this that survey that went around that had like 187 categories? I had to tap out on that.

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  37. I would enjoy a sitcom between that guy and super religious guy.

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  38. In which alternative universe was Lex Luger selling lots of tickets and merchandise again?

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  39. He pushed Sid, Flair, Luger, LOD, and The Steiners. All in the 90's. I wouldn't say he pushed the Brain Busters but they weren't buried and got a cup of coffee with the belts in the late 80's.

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  40. Extant1979 - iTunes SuperstarFebruary 22, 2015 at 9:30 AM

    And worst gimmick going to Irwin R. Schyster? I call bullshit on that!

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  41. I was just thinking the other day how NO ONE does the abdominal stretch anymore. I used to love when heels would grab the ropes during that.

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  42. TJ: Kyle Busch out of Daytona 500 after breaking his leg during the minor league race yesterday, and Fernando Alonso avoided major injury after crashing during the final day of testing at Barcelona.

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  43. I did like how NJPW won for best organization despite none of their wrestlers or angles winning anything else.

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  44. Anyone know what match is gonna be on the pre-show, before WWE Toilet Stop is on tonight?

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  45. There's basically two reasons for this.

    1. NJPW has a broad base of popularity but it doesn't have a definitive Favorite Wrestler - Shinsuke Nakamura is closest, maybe, but comparing Nakamura to Okada/Tanahashi/Ibushi/Ishii/even AJ Styles in popularity isn't the same as comparing, say, Daniel Bryan to anybody else on the WWE roster. Basically NJPW has a lot of guys people really, really like and they split the votes a lot - like, if everybody who had voted #1 for an NJPW guy as Best Wrestler had voted for the same guy (say, Nakamura) that guy would have been a definitive second behind Sami Zayn. (Who was still the consensus pick.)

    2. The award voting period came at the time of the perfect storm - just after the English broadcast of Wrestle Kingdom 9 (maximizing NJPW's exposure to the wider smark audience) and just after the Royal Rumble (maximizing the wider smark audience's displeasure with WWE's inept booking). I don't know that NJPW can duplicate this result in future years.

    But it's cool that it happened, right?

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  46. Is it too early to vote for the WWE CM Punk Ass Retrospective as the best TV/YouTube show for 2015?

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  47. Ahh yeah, I remember that now. Thanks.

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  48. That name is so bad that it's great.

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  49. I'm never bored watching a Young Bucks match because I never WATCH a Young Bucks match.

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  50. and if you want to be historically accurate, Finland was one of our strongest Cold War allies, especially give they border Russia. But then again this is pro wrestling lol

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  51. http://i.giphy.com/SwefghwWAJrz2.gif

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  52. When Vince is in his shiny tuxedo on WM 2, it's way too easy to imagine him on the cover of 'Thriller' like Michael Jackson, all stretched out and ready for some lovin'. Sorry if that image is now stuck in your head.

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  53. Let's get it trending world wide!

    We're onto the Chicago section. It's not the alcohol that's the killer, it's the gassiness!

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  54. You are posting on a Godless wrestling website. You really think God approves you being here?

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  55. It's funny you mention that grandson of a plumber because......

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  56. Yes, because God game down to this planet in human flesh and did what I am doing here. It is written in the Bible.

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  57. But also Sting looked hella cool with the grown out dark hair. I think the bleached flat top/rat tail combo had dated itself by then.

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  58. It wasn't an alternative universe, it was this one. Luger was also voted PWI's Most Popular Wrestler of the Year for that year too. Just because you may not have liked him, doesn't mean that the huge number of people who were fans all existed in an alternative universe.

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  59. Yeah, but he's already been pushed as the "Juggernaut", gone over most people in WWE, been endorsed by all the suits, won the Royal Rumble etc.


    And he was only getting a midcard(at best) reaction from the fans. This push has had the inevitable backlash of him getting booed out of the building. And he's supposed to be the heroic babyface who's out to beat monster heel Lesnar in the main event of WrestleMania! Even Batista wasn't getting booed this much last year, plus Batista was an established star who once was crazy over, and was already a 6-time World Champion. Reigns is green as hell, and pushed way beyond his abilities or drawing power.


    Whether it's a good match or not, the fans will be 100% behind Bryan. If Reigns has a shit performance, it's more X-Pac heat. If Reigns has a good match, then he'll be a heel.

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  60. Maybe Cena was the first guy to be offered the "Sufferin' succotash son!" promo.

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  61. The rat tail was dated the secord the first guy who got it cut that way walked out of the barbershop. Worst fucking hairstyle ever.

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  62. That's it? Thats worse than I thought!

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  63. You are a fucking lost cause.

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  64. Good thing they booked that match during a show in, say, Detroit.

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  65. I think about Tatanka and I wonder if that sort of thing could ever be done today. I'm not saying two years or whatever they said it was, but maybe a year.

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  66. For the gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us it is a gift from God. Paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 1.

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  67. Some dude from 411 wrestling once claimed Scott wasn't into wrestling until 1994 and basically hated Hogan because it was the in thing to hate Hogan.

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  68. Does Sting have a Rock/Hogan moment in him?

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  69. Happy to see With Spandex win best media.

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  70. Wrestlemania VII made no sense. Bossman needed to go over there.

    The JYD/Valentine pairing was so random because Tito was chasing the title at the time. Probably should have had Dog squash the Executioner and done the Tito-Valentine switch.

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  71. Ehhh, with Spandex is pretty so-so.

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  72. It might be funny....for about 2 or 3 weeks. Then we'd start hearing the same old stuff from both sides

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  73. And somewhere in there they actually got good and ound a personality.

    All the above used to be true IRL but all we saw was flippyshit. Now they've taken that flippy shit and made it a character all it's own

    #Superkickparty

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  74. Oh, I remember it while it was going on, and it was no mega-push. That's why I joke about him only beating low-end guys. Still seemed odd because there was so little upside.

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  75. I don't dislike Luger. I don't think he was ever the sort of guy who was really going to capture the public's imagination, but that's not the same thing as disliking him.
    I do find it amusing that you've cited Luger winning PWI's Most Popular Wrestler of the Year as evidence of his drawing capacity though. You do realise that the PWI awards were largely a work, right?
    Again, if there were "huge" numbers of Luger fans during his tepid run as a second rate Hogan knock-off, where were they? Where were the increased buyrates and attendances? The WWF was in a pronounced slump at the time, and Luger's main event push was doing nothing to alleviate the problem.
    Nobody could fail to note that - while Luger received a decent pop at Summerslam - the fans were far more excited about both Bret Hart and Undertaker and gave both guys a much more lively response. If any further evidence was required that Luger wasn't going to succeed as THE guy, this was it.
    You seem to be allowing your fandom of Luger to obscure your recollections of this particular time in WWF history. To suggest that Luger was a raging success as the WWF's top face is laughable. He was a flop. If Luger was working out as well as you apparently believe him to have been, then McMahon certainly wouldn't have dropped his plans for Luger, not after investing so much time, effort and money in creating a star out of him.

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  76. Now he was a flop? BWAHAHAHA! Nobody ever said that Luger drew Hogan '87 or Austin '99 numbers. But for 1993, he was the biggest draw in the WWF for years. He certainly outdrew Bret Hart's first run with the belt, or Savage's '92 run. And "the fans were far more excited about both Bret Hart and Undertaker and gave both guys a much more lively response". Erm, no. For that matter, watch Survivor Series 1994, over a year later, after Bret had been champion through 1994, and compare pops.


    The problem with your comments is that you could pretend they were true back when the internet was in its infancy, but these days, they are easily debunked.

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  77. Surely you see the issue with this line of argument? You are making claims as to Luger's popularity but then not substantiating them. You claim that Luger sold lots of merchandise and sold lots of tickets, but you offer no evidence to support these assertions.

    It is of course possible to claim anything you like. Without substantiation, any claim is meaningless. Surely you can't fail to be aware that your views in this instance run contrary to the generally accepted narrative, which is that Luger was not working out? Contrary opinions are fine, but in order to be taken seriously, they need to be substantiated in some way. Merely stating that Luger was mega-popular (when it's evident to everybody else that he was not) is not enough.

    The PWI Insider offers as neat a summary as to the reasons for Luger flopping as the WWF's top guy as any:

    "Was he poorly booked? Sure, but there were other factors. The problem was that the WWF was desperate for someone to fill Hogan's shoes as the muscled up, all-American hero to the point of being indistinguishible from Hogan himself. Luger didn't have the charisma, ability to connect with a crowd, or (perhaps most depressingly) the wrestling talent that Hogan had. He would never be able to follow Hogan, and the WWF also had to face up to the fact that the era of the cartoonish 80s babyface superhero was over, and the day of smaller, more capable wrestlers like Bret Hart (who was far more popular with the fans than Luger, by
    the way) had dawned. The 90s youth was vastly different than the 80s in that they had a much darker view of life and had turned on the bright and shiny, flag-waving image of life that had been shoved down their throats as children, and were ready for a more realistic portrayal of their wrestling characters. Unfortunately, it would take the WWF a couple more years to come to grips with this after spending years trying to get behind monsters like Luger and Diesel as "the new Hogan" and it had a very negative effect on their business as a result."

    Again, if Luger was as big a draw as you are making out, then you need to provide some sort of explanation as to why the WWF dropped their plans to make him the top guy. Unless McMahon was deliberately attempting to sabotage his own business, it's difficult to understand why he would spend so much time, money and effort in building Lex Luger up, only to drop him again when he was supposedly the WWF's "biggest draw for years" - as you attempted to claim here.

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  78. HowmuchdoesthisguyweighFebruary 22, 2015 at 10:03 PM

    Have never heard that. Interesting

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  79. Just like you offer no evidence for the supposed "flop"...

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  80. But I have cited supporting evidence. The fact that the push was dropped, for example. As further evidence, we might take a look at the number of buys for Summerslam 93, which was the lowest in the history of the event up until that point:
    http://www.2xzone.com/wwe/buyrates.shtml#.VOr0C1j9mUk
    Irrespectively, I'm not the one challenging the generally accepted view of events here. That's you. Therefore, the onus is properly on you to demonstrate why the generally accepted view of events is incorrect.

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  81. The push was dropped because of behind-the-scenes carrying on. And where are these buyrates you speak of?

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  82. I provided a link to the number of buys. Did you not see it? I've never heard anybody claim that Luger's push was cancelled because of "behind-the-scenes carrying on", least of all Luger himself. But please feel free to go ahead and cite your source for this information so that we can have a look.

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  83. No you didn't. And Luger did a shoot interview where he said that. So just because YOU haven't heard something, means it's not true? Yeah right. Don't bother replying, as your arrogance is off the chart.

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  84. Ummm, yes I did. Here it is again:

    http://www.2xzone.com/wwe/buyr...

    Please point out in which shoot interview Luger made this claim. He makes no such claim when talking about the situation in the following interview:

    http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2012/0904/555939/kevin-nash/

    "In spite of some of the rumors I've heard through the years, I was never promised a world title from Vince McMahon. Timing's everything..and the company's going through a huge transition from, I think, the economy at that time..there were circumstances going on where wrestling was down, we were in Europe a lot because house shows were down in the US..there's a lot of economic factors going on as far as who would be champion and who wasn't...Bret [Hart] was sort of thinking about retiring...there were a lot of things going on back then, and they gave me an incredible run with that Lex Express, the SummerSlam was a spectacular event..the buyrate from that pay per view was not what they wanted..I think they just decided to head in a different direction..."

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  85. Fat, Ugly Inner-City SweathogFebruary 23, 2015 at 10:24 AM

    Yeah, using an undefeated gimmick on him of all people was interesting.

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  86. Hey, that used to be my deal!

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  87. It's like Rusev and Cena, you're the old man who will be crushed by a hairy, fat guy...wait, that actually describes Stroud fairly well.

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