jester

Hi guys In an effort to kickstart some discussion in this forum (and do some buds of mine a favor), I thought I'd share that Electric Playground has posted an interview with Bryan Williams, a game designer working on Smackdown vs. Raw 2010. You can check it out here. Jester

Nice timing, Chavez.

...and the first person to call someone "elitist." 400 million and an entire political party in your back pocket sounds pretty elitist to me.

Re: Verne Gagne suspected in death investigation I wonder if this will be enough to distract Nancy Grace from Caylee Anthony for a night with nonstop hysterical OH MY GOD VERNE GAGNE AND CHRIS BENOIT ARE IN YOUR CLOSET STRANGLING YOUR KIDS RIGHT NOW! Sorry. Lost my grip.

You're right, a lot of fantasy discussions end cold if we don't assume things are booked properly, which is a BIG assumption. But here we go, "if booked properly": I think the Invasion's biggest drop the ball factor was that it could have re-hooked the WCW fans who had long since departed. Most of those guys probably tuned in for about 10 minutes when they heard about it, saw WCW no-names being slapped around, and left for good again. If not, they were gone for sure by the end of the PPV. WWE had an opportunity to reclaim a lot of fans, and they blew it.

Good discussion here. I just wanted to add that we shouldn't forget that even before the kayfabe era died, it wasn't exactly news to post people the wrestling was fake. So when they stopped sticking to it so religiously, I have to wonder how much affect did it really have on the people who cheer or boo? For example, I never liked Hulk Hogan even as a mark, so I would boo him, even though he was clearly the overwhelmingly popular face that they wanted me to cheer. I didn't do it to be cool (thogh I admit pissing off the Hulkamaniacs was kinda fun), I just didn't like him. I used to cheer for guys like Bundy to take him out, and would pretty much cheer anyone when they were opposing Hogan (though I would switch allegiances if they went after people I liked). The Internet era has made backstage gossip widespread and that has been show to affect the audience on occasion, but I think that would have happened even if WWE was still insisting that it's all real. So we would have had Brock & Goldberg booed out of the building anyway when it became known they were leaving. I think if anything, the death of kayfabe has had a negative effect on the WRITERS. Too many writers feel that "well, they all know it's fake anyway," which is why we can have Jericho call out a fake wrestler who was in a movie that exposed the business (Mickey Rourke), or why we can have Tony Schiavone scream that Goldberg isn't following the script. That shit never would have been allowed in the kayfabe era.

I think what they should is have early Saturday morning shows aimed at a younger audience liked they used to, like WWF Superstars or Saturday Morning JobberSquash or whatever it was called, and start building a young audience. Then you have Raw and the late evening stuff for late teens, making it a little risque for the older folks, and the PPVs where it can all hang out for the mature crowd. More or less. Kind of like The Batman is for the young Batman fan, and The Dark Knight is for the more mature audience. I don't think I explained that well but I am too tired to fix it.

http://news.aol.com/elections/article/repu...atorship/243817 Yeah I wonder if Rep. Paul Broun has been as vocal with his reservations about groups such as Blackwater who are basically a civilian mercenary group fighting in Iraq that do not answer to the Gov't. and who were dispatched to New Orleans in the Katrina aftermath. Yep. And I wonder if he is also opposed to Guantanamo Bay, a jail outside the legal system. You know, like a gulag.

I see where you're coming from, but there's the ideal, and there's the reality. People are happy in part because this is final clinching proof that a black person really can be president of the US. It's not just a theory. I think this is going to help racial identity quite a bit and I can see why people are hailing this as a milestone for black people, even thought there's more to it than this. And I have a feeling that not just any black person could have done this. If McCain was Black and Obama was white, I don't think there would be a black president. People are also happy because Bush is done, and a person who they perceive as being an extension of him is not going to be in office.

Same here. I'm a Canadian who has been lurking in this folder and finding things a lot more fascinating than the recent Canadian election, where we re-elected Stephen "Bush Lite" Harper. I'm hoping for an Obama win as well. I think he could do a lot to repair the US reputation on an international level, whereas McCain and Palin give the impression that those damn foreigners are beneath them.

I can understate why Vince wants to get away from the Athletic Commissions, but is this really going to help? I can't see the same assholes banning the piledriver and insisting that a match stop because someone gets cut open backing off just because they're called "Entertainers" now. I think this is going to perceived, as someone mentioned, as the WWE being ashamed of being a wrestling company. No, it won't put them out of business but I watch wrestling because it's a form of entertainment with specific features, one the other forms of entertainment don't have. It's a story told through a fake sporting event. When you continually erode those features, I find it less engaging.

I always thought what would have been cool AND potentially given WWE some mainstream respect if they played that up as a face character. Hassan should have been an American who happened to be Muslim. And he came to WWE to compete just like any other athlete. But a dickish heel character like Bradshaw starts hassling him over his heritage. Hassan emphasizes that yes, he's a Muslim, but he's also an American and he loves his country and Bradshaw has no right to question his patriotism. Unfortunately, that take would probably get lost on a typical WWE audience. It would be "Hey, evil foreigner! BOO!"

In Canada, a person can be declared a "dangerous offender" and imprisoned indefinitely. It's usually reserved for sexual psychopaths, but I believe it can be applied to anyone thought to be an ongoing threat to the public at large. I'm pretty sure this freakshow is never going to see the light of day again.

Exactly. Maybe Coach wasn't cut out for commentary, but it's not like they made it easy for him. I remember the first time he and Lawler were commentating, and Lawler shat all over him. I know the storyline was supposed to be that Lawler was made that Coach replaced Ross (further supporting my theory that Lawler is actually gay), but come on. They made it impossible for the guy to breathe, let alone commentate on the match. Perhaps if Coach had been given a job he wanted, playing a character he was comfortable with (instead of a role they insisted on) it would be a different story. I wish him the best of luck.

Poor Chris Masters. WWE: You have a great physique! We shall push you! Masters: Great! WWE: Wait, steroids are evil! The company is cracking down on steroids! Masters: Ok, I guess I will stop using them. WWE: Look how thin you are! We shall stop pushing you as a threat and have HHH mock you for the way you look! Masters: Uh...okay, I will go back on the juice then. WWE: You are roided up! You are suspended! Masters: [Head explodes]