> Striking while the iron's hot, pointing out some of the absurdities of Vince Russo's recent statements about star-making (shocking, I know), juxtaposing that with the debut of an ex-TNA guy who Russo let rot.
>
> http://bluebarcage.blogspot.com/2015/05/joe-somebody-nxt-immediately-gets.html
>
> Addendum question: Meltzer says Joe's maintaining his free agent status to work other indies (a la Rhyno and Kendrick), but WWE of course can take priority. Do you see an endgame where Joe is given a main roster deal sooner or later?
Pretty sure that's where its headed, yup.
he definitely looks good
ReplyDeleteExplains why Shiek didn't show back up in WWF until 1991.
ReplyDeleteAnd that ended up with him being a lackey for the M.E.M
ReplyDeleteTo be fair though we don't know how many shirts they made and every super mark ROH/Indy fanboy that has the cash is running out and buying one. Its not like a bunch of new people who never saw Joe before saw him one time stare Steen down and were like "I gotta have that shirt".
ReplyDeleteIt's a decent looking shirt too, i.e. one that fans wouldn't be ashamed to wear in public like 95% of other wrestling shirts
ReplyDeleteI hear that all the time I've never heard Cena utter a single word about the guy and if he was on Hunters radar for a while why is he just now coming in. He's been gone from TNA for what six months now atleast. Scott hit on something the other day with them doing more touring they need somebody that is going to sell out arenas to that particular audience and Joe fits that bill perfectly.
ReplyDeleteMakes sense. You're wrestling the guy that boned you out of the TV title, you're the face. You're wrestling a wrestling GOD, you're the heel.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it's been stated before, but Justin Henry is a hell of a writer.
ReplyDeleteHey, Vince Russo is the guy who made a star out of Jeff Jarrett. Can't argue with that track record.
ReplyDeleteD'aww. All reads are appreciated (and all of Scott's pluggery is as well)
ReplyDeleteThat's not the point really, what matters is that like Owens, Joe brings with him a certain numbers of fan who are gonna watch WWE programming and buy his stuff.
ReplyDeleteIt's a start.
ReplyDeleteJust googled "Cena talks Samoa Joe" and literally 3 links down is an interview with him in the torch from 2005 talking about how they trained together and Joe's mom would cook them dinner. Google is your friend.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you about the touring though.
Bonnie sounded like a real piece of work.
ReplyDelete1989 is my favorite year for wrestling. I loved all of the PPVs that year from both companies. Plus the Clashes and SNMEs were good and the TV shows were great too.
ReplyDeleteRight. Not promoting Flair-Steamboat in the Superdome isn't the same thing as saying that Flair-Steamboat was awful and no one wanted to see it.
ReplyDeleteIt can't be easy creating a star with an entire gimmick based on masturbation
ReplyDeleteYeah, Castle still had some supporters in the crowd but Liger just gets such an overwhelming reception. Same thing happened to ACH. I've never seen a crowd so completely against him until he wrestled Nakamura.
ReplyDeleteIf not for the fact it would give all titles to heels I'd say Cedric Alexander is the tv title favourite because *spoilers*
Cena is a good little company man. Does he ever talk about non-company stuff?
ReplyDelete.....PLEASE tell me he didn't join the Decade.
ReplyDeleteIf every super mark ROH/Indy fanboy buys your shit, that's a draw.
ReplyDeleteRoH does make money, so there's clearly a market for indy wrestling.
Too bad Cornette and the Midnights didn't jump to the WWF in 89. Herd obviously didn't know how or want to use them and they needed new scenery to freshen themselves up. Imagine the battles with the Harts and Rockers!
ReplyDeleteThe '89 Bash PPV did a great buyrate. WCW should have had the Flair/Funk "I Quit" match at Starrcade.
ReplyDeleteYou liked the '89 Rumble?
ReplyDeleteFace Muta vs. heel Flair in 1990 would have owned. I'm surprised we never got a Flair vs. Muta series in 1989
ReplyDeleteWell he wouldn't admit that their ideas didn't work.
ReplyDeleteDid you learn a lesson?
ReplyDeleteWCW's PPVs did good buyrates. Chi-Town Rumble, the Bash and Hallowen Havoc all had really good crowds.
ReplyDeleteSomeone being cheered more, doesn't mean he was booed. Just an FYI.
ReplyDeleteSeems to make the most sense. Not sure why they would blow off the biggest feud in the company a month before the biggest show of the year. Just run another tag match at CotC
ReplyDeleteYeah, but Cena doesn't talk about anyone really, and if the company line is "Try not to bring up TNA wrestlers in interviews." You KNOW Cena is going to follow the order.
ReplyDeleteOr Flair vs. Luger or Flair vs. Muta. Funk interferes and destroys Flair. Boom, Starrcade is set
ReplyDeleteEh. They drew really well in some places
ReplyDeleteWe don't know how prominent it is yet. As much as I love NXT, it's still just NXT, you know? If and when he gets called up to the main roster, I think the indy shows go away for the most part.
ReplyDeleteStarrcade, Clash VI and Wrestle War were REALLY noticeable. The Iron Men tournaments were sooooooo stupid
ReplyDeleteUntil the Bash, WCW's promotional skills sucked.
ReplyDeleteCornette named off the houses for the Bash tour and they were horrid. They drew only $39,000 in Philly. That is hideous and Cornette said himself they would get more than that on the advance just a couple of years prior.
ReplyDeleteThey had two chances to do it, too. They could have jumped in 1990 and gotten the Nasty Boys' spot, but Cornette was completely fed up with national wrestling at that point and I don't think Lane wanted the schedule.
ReplyDeleteThe '89 Rumble is really good for the first 2/3rds, and then completely totally dies when Hogan and the Boss Man finish their brawl.
ReplyDeleteRebook Starrcade '89.....GO!
ReplyDeleteIf you're serious, I need at least half an hour
ReplyDeleteI haven't watched it in forever. I remember not being crazy for it
ReplyDeleteStudd won, which tells you all you need to know about the end.
ReplyDeleteLol, no. He did something GOOD for his career.
ReplyDeleteUnrelated, BJ was actually great at the tv taping and the crowd really dug both Decade matches.
I assume they did well in the Carolinas andand the Virginas. The Starrcade crowd was a shocker
ReplyDeleteCan you believe Vince wanted to push him
ReplyDeleteIn fairness I don't know how well it ages. A lot of it was carried by the "Holy shit, good guys fighting good guys/bad guys against bad guys!" factor. But you still had a bunch of cool moments: Ax vs. Smash, Jake using Damian to eliminate Andre, subtle foreshadowing with Savage and Arn teaming up to eliminate one of the Rockers, the Hogan-Savage face-off after the accidental-or-was-it Macho Man elimination, and everything involving Hulk and the Twin Towers. All that was memorable and well-executed.
ReplyDeleteI love the '89 Survivor Series despite it not being a great show
ReplyDeleteBryan acknowledges that it's a lot about luck. Unfortunately Nigel didn't have any.
ReplyDeleteWell like Flair said, George Scott just had no idea what he was doing at that point, and wasn't terribly familiar with the workers he had on the roster. Plus I don't think Flair was working the Bash tour due to the injury angle. Clash VII had a pretty hot crowd (literally and figuratively) though.
ReplyDeleteThey wanted to do the Ironman thing to put a) guarantee people a bunch of (abbreviated) big matchups and b) put Sting over to setup the Flair-Sting money. It was shit, sure, but if Sting goes over Flair in a big drawing **** match at Wrestlewar it probably works out okay.
ReplyDeleteI'd take Muta over Luger. Flair and Luger needed to stay away from each other.
ReplyDeleteGo for it.
ReplyDeleteYup. Flair wasn't going to put over Luger anyway.
ReplyDeleteI wrote a whole email yo Scott last year about rebooking starrcade 89. What the consensus was...
ReplyDeleteLuger v flair
Sting v muta
Road warriors v steiners
MXP v Dynamic Dudes (cornette in a cage)
http://www.rspwfaq.net/2012/11/rebooking-starrcade-89.html?m=1
Star really needs to be in quotation marks.
ReplyDelete6 months at least? He left TNA in Feb or March of 2015
ReplyDeleteLEARN HOW TO DO MATH AND STOP THE HYPERBOLE
Here are Joe and Cena training together in 99
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWXFRGEnwmM
Chi-Town Rumble drew a hot crowd and 130,000 buys with Flair-Steamboat.
ReplyDeleteThe Wrestlewar crowd was hot as hell for Flair-Steamboat too. The rest of that card was the drizzling shits.
ReplyDeleteMeh, I still don't think Luger would have really lasted as a babyface champion at that point. He could have traded the belt anyway from Bash to Starrcade, but was he really ready at that point? I'd say he didn't really find his groove until the heel turn, but Sting was even hotter then.
ReplyDeleteHere's an interesting question. With the emphasis on part-timers and special attractions, can anyone envision Joe getting any sort of Wrestemania feud next year?
ReplyDeletei didn't make it to the end of the storyline
ReplyDeleteWorld Title, I Quit: Flair vs. Funk
ReplyDeleteU.S. Title: Luger vs. Sting
TV Title: Muta vs. Pullman
Tag Title: Steiners vs. Road Warriors
Midnight Express vs. Dynamic Dudes
U.S. Tag Title: Rock & Roll Express vs. Doom
He also said Daniel Bryan has never trained anyone before a couple of days ago. Until posters simply just copy and pasted links to prove him wrong. The guy just has to disagree with everything.
ReplyDeleteI missed you capslockman!
ReplyDeleteThe Baltimore crowd wanted Luger to win the title. Give Lex five months to see how he holds up
ReplyDeleteI noticed this as well.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Jim Ross, they wanted this Starrcade to have "nothing but main events."
ReplyDeleteI know they trained together I'm just not sure there was much to it beyond that. I never heard either of them talk about the other past training together
ReplyDeleteI have no idea when he left I was guessing no hyberpole to it
ReplyDeleteI think their fans are already watching but I agree with you on the merch.
ReplyDeleteIt has his name on it I would never were a wrestlers name on my shirt. Eddies scarface and gta shirts were cool but I'd never wear them I liked Daniels obey/yes shirt a lot and might have worn that
ReplyDeleteI mean, his promo after he beat Windham for the U.S. belt at Chitown is just painfully awful. He had no real charisma at that point, until he found a natural role as the arrogant heel. There wouldn't have been any harm in the switch since they could have put it right back on Flair at Starrcade, but I think anyone who honestly believes Luger was going to be huge as a babyface champ at that point is kidding themselves.
ReplyDeleteAnd really, I stick by the point that everything would have set up nicely for them if only Sting hadn't gotten hurt.
Yeah, Flair didn't work the '89 Bash tour, only the PPV
ReplyDeleteWith business in trouble, give Luger a shot, then have Flair regain it at Starrcade. If Sting doesn't get hurt, heel Luger is the perfect opponent for him later in 1999
ReplyDeleteHey may not have lasted - but he was the hot hand. I kind of feel like it was similar to the WWE's reluctance to book Bryan to win the title last year. Yeah, maybe he won't cut it - but when the crowds get behind someone that much you have to roll the dice and see what happens.
ReplyDeleteI feel like one of their big problems was they were continuing to book Flair like he was still touring the territories as world champ - where he could eke out some sort of screwjob victory over the local hero and then move on - leaving the territory's top star still looking strong since he took the world champ to the distance. While that worked great for the territories, it didn't work as well when you were trying to run a national promotion.
ReplyDeleteIt would have been a better course than rehashing the Starrcade 84 finish, to be sure. I don't have a problem with it, I just think that's basically as far as it goes: Flair gets the belt back at Starrcade, and then everything plays out basically the same.
ReplyDeleteI think Luger came out of the Flair program ok*. The Chitown crowd was all over his win over Windham, and then the heel turn got him MEGA over later in the year. Losing to Hayes at Wrestlewar was the real head scratcher.
ReplyDelete*And the most damaging thing that happened to him wasn't so much losing as it was just the shitty blade job he did.
Well it's not like the crowd wasn't still behind Flair.
ReplyDeleteThe booking of Flair doesn't get nearly enough blame
ReplyDeleteFlair *should* have turned face in 1987. The way Flair and the title was treated from 1985-1988 was a major blow
ReplyDeleteThe Bash 88 finish is pretty much universally panned. In retrospect they should have just had the match go to the time limit if they wanted to do a non-finish.
ReplyDeleteYeah Luger did come out ok and his heel turn was hot. As I think about it - if babyface Luger had beaten Flair, who would he have had a program with next? Windham? The bench was pretty thin for top heels at that time. Once you got past Flair & Windham I think the next biggest heels were the Varsity Club and the Road Warriors (who were a complete flop as heels in the sense that nobody wanted to boo them).
ReplyDeleteThe one positive thing about the finish is attendance was up a good deal in cities that featured the rematch.
ReplyDeleteThey tried to get Steamboat in for Starrcade to face Flair. They may have been a better idea because Flair/Luger was played out by Starrcade
Agreed. I think anyway you slice it Flair was going to get the belt back and the big end game was going to be him putting over Sting (who could have moved on to another big feud with heel Luger from the Flair program). So rebooking this, I don't think there was a problem with the idea of having Luger fail to get the belt without jobbing at Bash to build up the rematch, but the execution was fucking awful.
ReplyDeleteCheering for Flair is not the same as booing Steamboat.
ReplyDeleteHere is mine:
ReplyDeleteWorld Title- Ric Flair (c) vs. Great Muta (TV Champion)
U.S. Title- Lex Luger (c) vs. Sting
World Tag Team Title- The Skyscrapers (c) vs. Road Warriors (provided Sid doesn't puncture his lung)
U.S. Tag Team Title- The Steiner Brothers (c) vs. Midnight Express
Brian Pillman vs, Mike Rotundo
Buzz Sawyer vs. Arn Anderson
Tag Team Battle Royal (the tag division was STACKED in '89): Freebirds, Doom, SST, Dynamic Dudes, Dr. Death & Kevin Sullivan, New Zealand Militia, JYD & Ranger Ross, Eddie Gilbert & Tommy Rich, Z-Man & Norman the Lunatic
Nope. It'll be Andre battle royal or multi-man ladder match for the IC/US belt at best. It's conceivable Joe might not even be on the main roster by WM32.
ReplyDeleteWCW did a Clash opposite WrestleMania 4 in 1989? Why didn't they just go further back in time and do one up against the first WrestleMania?
ReplyDeleteSo it's a bad thing that people already knew him and wanted to give WWE money for his merch?
ReplyDeleteI'll take your word for that. NEVER been a Whitmer fan.
ReplyDeleteNeither was anyone in the audience. Turns out he does his best work when refusing to take part in the matches he's booked it.
ReplyDeleteLed to the most entertaining total squash I've seen in awhile.
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Agreed times 10. Looking back, Survivor Series 89 had only decent workrate, meant nothing in the large scheme of things but is almost universally loved(likely due to nostalgia plus cool team names). I can't think of another show that even approaches it in that regard.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying its a bad thing I'm just not saying OMG Joe is going to be a huge draw in the WWE. I know some people were like "that shirt was cool" but it felt like a Walmart special shirt. It said Samoa Joe and Socal on it. I'm just not shocked or impressed that his shirt "sold out".
ReplyDeleteSteiners vs. Midnight Express would have been incredible
ReplyDeleteVince doing the intro is awesome. The team names work, plus the Hulkamaniacs might be the greatest team ever ensembled.
ReplyDeleteUp until Hogan's elimination, the Rumble match was great, plus it was the first one on PPV. The women's match was bad, and the super pose down was bad too, although watching Warrior get beat up was pretty funny.
ReplyDeletewhat a dumbass seriously lol you think joes debut was treated like a big deal on bleeping nxt shows russo something. Man this site has become sadder by the day go blow mcmahons privates all day
ReplyDelete