1. Will Sting headline the WWE Hall of Fame at some point? My thought process is that Vince probably legitimately thinks nobody knows who Sting is, not only because he's old but primarily because he never performed for WWE, therefore he's not an adequate headliner. I don't think (no research done here) the headliner has ever been someone who never performed for Vince or his dad. So, my guess would be no.
2. If WWE signed a talent like Eric Young or Bobby Roode, would they first be sent to NXT? My guess is yes, as their name recognition alone would not draw any new eyes to WWE programming, or so the WWE higher-ups would believe. They would be seen as guys who need to be re-packaged and re-trained for WWE TV.
1. Yeah, I'm pretty sure he's gonna be the headliner next year. While he never performed in WWE, he's been all over the WCW stuff they've been pumping out for years now. That should be enough to justify it.
2. Yes, they would, which is why they're never going to sign. There's no real motivation for a 30-something guy from TNA to go through developmental for years instead of making that money on the indy scene and controlling their own merchandise instead. I think Punk is gonna be the last high-level indy guy you see taking that shot, as WWE has OODLES of guys in Florida they can train to be whatever they want.
Here's what I'm saying: I get bending a steel bar is hard, but what strenght is he showing? Like I mean, when Dino Bravo did the gimmick back at the Royal Rumble and he did all those bench presses, I get that -- he's got big strong arms! What does bending the bar around your neck show? Strong arms? Strong neck? Strong back? All of the above? It seems more like a circus trick to me than an actual legitimate show of strength -- like deadlifting is an Olympic sport, right? There's no way steel-bar-bending-around-the-neck is an Olympic sport.
ReplyDeleteAnd what was setting the record, too? The diameter of the bar? The weight of the bar? Obviously I'm putting way too much thought into but WCW didn't put any into it's explanation.
Here's what I'm saying: I get bending a steel bar is hard, but what strenght is he showing? Like I mean, when Dino Bravo did the gimmick back at the Royal Rumble and he did all those bench presses, I get that -- he's got big strong arms! What does bending the bar around your neck show? Strong arms? Strong neck? Strong back? All of the above? It seems more like a circus trick to me than an actual legitimate show of strength -- like deadlifting is an Olympic sport, right? There's no way steel-bar-bending-around-the-neck is an Olympic sport.
ReplyDeleteAnd what was setting the record, too? The diameter of the bar? The weight of the bar? Obviously I'm putting way too much thought into but WCW didn't put any into it's explanation.
The whole thing doesn't seem like a legitimate "test of strenght" but more like a "circus freak exhibition" to me.
I'm pretty sure that they figured the ability to bend a steel bar didn't require any more explanation. I guess they overestimated the intelligence of their audience.
ReplyDeleteThat was also a point I was trying to get at by mentioning the Bryan thing. It had a PROPER PAYOFF. Do people realize that none, freaking NONE of the various NWO incarnations had WCW vanquishing them in the end?
ReplyDelete"That's Cosmo, he's Chinese"
ReplyDeleteThat scene is probably my favorite in a movie full of amazing scenes.
I also love quoting Alfred Molina's rant about records forcing you to listen to the songs in sequential order.
What really hurts Nash's legacy was that he never got the chance to try out his "cool heel" early 1996 persona as the world champ in WWF or WCW.
ReplyDelete*looks through comments*
ReplyDeletefor all the spurious smack talking a lot of the BoD does, no one zero'd in on blink-182?
i honestly thought that would be like blood to sharks
You're like Al Gore cause your views are wrong!
ReplyDeleteHe does have the popular vote. Figures Dubya would be be a Green Day fan.
ReplyDeleteTime of Your Life was on Nimrod
ReplyDeleteHell no. But just because didn't draw as well as Hogan doesn't he wasn't a draw. People compare wrestlers to Hogan/Austin way too much.
ReplyDeleteEric didn't book it like it was his 3rd or 4th biggest show, he booked it like it was his number one biggest.
ReplyDeleteThe last line is: Well, not like Hogan did.
ReplyDeleteYeah I could see that too, most distinctly with 1998 which was easily the most stacked card of the year on paper.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, a lot of the time the headliner bouts were rematches -- 1994 and 1997 jump to mind. 1995 was one of the bigger ones though, with the heavily hyped first Hogan/Giant match.
He edited that line in way after the fact.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I personally think it's really hard to say whether Warrior 'drew' or not anyway since his reign on top was so short.
ReplyDeleteThe big negative for Warrior is dropping house show attendance during his reign that did recover some when Hogan won the belt back.
As far as positives, he was obviously a big draw before his title win. TV ratings were pretty stagnant through both periods after his title win, so nothing notable there. I've never seen hard numbers for it, but obviously the guy sold a ton of merchandise.
Was he on the A or B loop when he was champion? Was Hogan still on the road?
ReplyDeleteMy bad then.
ReplyDeleteThey were still doing the A/B/C shows when his reign started, but switched to just an A/B show at some point that fall I believe.
ReplyDeleteHogan was still working shows until mid-May (and then not again till September), although few of them with Warrior outside the tapings.
Warriors opponents weren't a lot to write home about of course -- but I guess you could make the same argument for a lot of Hogan's too in 1991.
Fans were never going to get behind a new guy unless Hogan left for good. That is where WWE misses WCW the most. They need another promotion to sign away guys like Orton and Cena.
ReplyDeleteFunny enough, I actually think part of the problem was the WM 6 match and the way it was booked.
ReplyDeleteWarrior was getting booed in like every city right after WM -- so clearly some fans felt like Hogan came off sympathetic -- then the Earthquake thing REALLY hammered that home.
Yeah, it would be interesting to hear from Turner execs (that weren't in competition for the job) discuss that and what they saw in him.
ReplyDeleteAs a company they mostly stuck to wrestling guys in that position, so Bischoff was a departure in that aspects. All except for Kip Fry anyway -- but I don't think he was ever intended as anything but a interim guy, as they grabbed him from the legal department and sent him back there when they got Watts.
dafuq?
ReplyDeleteAlso 96. Wasn't Savage/Hogan booked like a year in advance?
ReplyDeleteEric wasn't your typical "wrestling guy" and that's exactly why he got the job after Bill Watts pissed everyone at Turner off.
ReplyDeleteIt was supposed to be a knock down drag out fight between Jim Ross & Tony Schiavone for the job but Eric came in and took it away from both of em.
Yeah, it was dumb.
ReplyDeleteBut you can't blame the beginning of the angle for that. It's like saying that the classic Season 1 of a television show is trash because it kept going and had a shitty season 7 or 8.
''SHUT UP, YOU LOVED AMERICAN IDIOT''
ReplyDeleteI wish that I had Jessie's girl...I'm so jealous. Wish that I had Jessie's girl...she should be with meeeeee!
ReplyDeleteAnytime now I see anything about Van Hammer, I think of Colt Cabana and Mark Briscoe on the Wrestling Road Diaries documentary
ReplyDeleteI don't get the Indian Deathlock hate. From a mechanical stand point it definitely would hurt. It's a far better move than Terry Funk's Spinning Toehold and I've never seen that submission taken to task.
ReplyDeleteWCW's problem was they would come up with the gimmick and then give it to the wrestler, not the other way around. It's like, hey should have a wrapper, let's hire this fat guy who can't rap and call him PN News. Instead of looking at the wrestler and figuring out what his gimmick should be.
ReplyDeleteNever mind that they would roll out a bunch of these gimmick guys while the other half of the wrestlers (that were getting all they cheers) were guys like Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Barry Windham, Bobby Eaton, Dustin Rhodes, Terry Taylor, Danny Spivey, Brian Pillman... you know, WRESTLERS.
I can appreciate that it would hurt, but it's just horribly dated. It's not even that dynamic either, and he was never really angling for submissions with it, either. It just looked like a lazy resthold.
ReplyDeleteI'm not the biggest fan, but there's plenty of bands worth hating more. I tend to laugh more about how quickly Sum-41 fell apart, with a major bombing album (Chuck) that basically led to them being exiled from popular music, even while the lead singer was married to one of the biggest female stars.
ReplyDeleteFake Punt was almost a guaranteed TD on every down. You could snake backward down the field, to get a trail of 11 defenders blindly following you, and then run it in for the TD. I can still remember the commentator, "They line up for the punt!? Whoops, what a mistake!"
ReplyDeleteYup, it was set in 1995 -- they wanted to scale ticket prices very high for the event and wanted a big match to sell it on. The show set both a gate record and merchandise record for WCW to that point IIRC.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, the promotion for Hogan/Piper was even bigger I'd say. They were hitting that "Match of the Century" thing pretty hard and of course it did the biggest buyrate of the year and the most ever PPV buys for a WCW show to that point.
Snrub is probably correct in saying that Bischoff largely had Watts to thank for the job. Still, even if the higher-ups were looking for a non-wrestling guy, it's quite impressive Bischoff was able to talk his way into the job. Sure, he was an arrogant ass, but what are you going to do?
ReplyDeleteI can't help but wonder how different things would have been had Schiavone or Ross got the job. A lot, I would think. Would either guy gone after Hogan? Or was that an order from the higher-ups?
Oh yeah, I was in no way trying to diminish what he accomplished. You have to give the guy his due -- both for leap frogging over two experienced and established guys and for making the moves to make it work.
ReplyDeleteIt would have been interesting seeing either JR or Tony get their hands on it. I imagine they'd been fun to watch as both guys seem like they'd emphasized wrestling talent above other aspects, but financially I don't see them doing better than their predecessors. Bischoff was particularly aggressive in terms of television and television production -- an area WCW was way behind in. Plus bringing in Hogan was key and I highly doubt Ross would have done it.
One move Bischoff was responsible for that probably doesn't get enough mention was getting promoter Zane Bresloff from the WWF. He helped WCW get into a lot of big time buildings that they previously lacked access to.
Your last paragraph is a great point. WCW was far behind in certain things like building access, and Bischoff made moves to cut that gap.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, I doubt either JR or Tony would have done for WCW what Bischoff did, but had they gotten the position, WCW may still be around kicking right now. (Although, I guess had things turned out the same, and Time-Warner/AOL still cancelled WCW TV, everything may have ended up the same, just in a different way.)
I shouldn't have read this rant, it brought back memories of attending the show and I kept them repressed. Augusta has an awesome rep for live shows though: This + December to Dismember = amazing!
ReplyDelete