jester

I haven't enjoyed watching the Undertaker for a very long time. But seriously, it would be stupid at this point to have him do anything but squash Heidenreich. Taker has dominated the entire feud and it doesn't make sense that Take would lose, even if Heidenreich did massive cheating.

Maybe they'll have a JR appreciation ceremony that's interrupted by Hassan and Davari, thereby continuing their epic feud. And maybe, I will change the channel.

Sometimes when you sign on for a movie, there is a clause in your contract that you don't engage in dangerous physical activity. So Rock may not have a choice. He can show up and cut promos, but not wrestle. I understand that a lot of high-paid sports stars have to sign the same kind of contract. If you spend 10 million on somebody and they hurt themselves skiing, you not only have an expensive player on the disabled list, you might have lost your season.

I can't back it up with a source, but I hear merchandising makes a HUGE difference for the wrestlers' bottom line. Apparently most of them take a big hand in designing the stuff. If true, it wouldn't suprise me if guys like Hurricane (who has a gimmick perfect for selling t-shirts) make more money from merchandise than from PPVs.

I have to agree with the Diva Search myself. Snitsky/Kane actually had its moments. The Diva Search got boos for nearly every segment, cost a few women who could actually wrestle their jobs. And what did they get in return? A bunch of random bimbos who can occasionally almost interview someone.

I say they should get them both drunk beforehand and then let them totally shoot on each other. I'd pay admission for that.

When Goodnight Icecream Man or whatever its called makes $1.28 on its opening weekend, this will join other great ideas like the WBF, the XFL and the World, sparing us from more WWE superstars "acting."

I think he was being sarcastic. And if it helps, I'm Canadian and hate Hogan regardless.

You clearly don't know me. I will never like Hogan regardless. That is a taste issue. But if he brought in money for the company during his last run and the numbers say it, it will have to concede that he's probably worth the investment. But do the numbers say it?

Actually, what you go on to describe is extactly what I am complaining about. That's not to protect the business or Brock, that's to protect Hogan. And rumour has it that he wanted the program to continue and get his job back. Again, this is exactly my point. This match would have been fine if it hadn't been sold as THE reason to watch Mania. But it was. Any match Hogan comes back for will be promoted as THE MOST IMPORTANT MATCH EVER, even if it's Hogan vs Scotty 2 Hotty. Because. Hogan. Will. Not. Be. Used. Correctly. It's not necessarily entirely his fault. Part of it is Vince. Hogan won't come back to job for any of those guys. Not without major money offered, or the promise of a return job in the future. And does anyone have numbers to prove that Hogan significantly put up buyrates? I've heard that claimed but I have never seen it verified. Not that it ultimately matters to me. I still hate the orange windbag and don't care if he tripled buyrates.

Disclosure: while I recognize Hogan's huge impact on the business, I hate every last single thing about him. I have never liked him. So, I admit I am a wee bit biased on this point. But I honestly think Hogan will only do more harm in the long run if brought back. "But if he is used correctly..." And that's just it. He WON'T be used correctly. Maybe for the first few matches, then he'll want to get his jobs back, go over top talent and start wanted title runs. While part of me takes a sadistic glee in the thought of Orton legend-killing Hogan (who has been killed two or three times like every other legend Orton has "killed"), there is NO WAY IN HELL that Hogan is going to put over the son of Piper's personal slave without the promise of something big in return.

http://board.deathvalleydriver.com/index.php?showtopic=19896 It's 100 pages now.

Hopefully Hogan was only backstage to sweep up after the show. I want him back as much as I want the Gobbledygooker to come back and join Evolution.

They're probably being brought in as jobber material for the Undertaker.

I can't think of anything besides a random feud with a pro-USA face, or comedy matches with guys like Hurricane. This is a dead-end character and a dead-end gimmick as is. Now that they've booked him to be incompetent it's even worse. I predicted that they were going to book him like this (yeah, you hardly had to be psychic to work that one out), and it's going to be a career killer for Hassan. They might as well have made him Red Rooster II. Wait, as RRII he wouldn't be in the same danger of getting beat up by a deranged fan. So it would actually be a step up.

I don't think they should play it like that. Part of the beauty of this "almost feud" is that Batista has been in 100% control. Every time Batista does something, for once HHH looks completely shocked and helpless. Instead, they should have Batista join the praise-HHH bandwagon, but after every compliment say "Of course, if it weren't for me you wouldn't be wearing that belt. Ha ha ha, just kidding." That puts Batista in the driver's seat again. And when the split finally comes (and it goddamn well better), it should be BATISTA that makes the break. Have HHH spew some of his shit, and then Batista says very calmly "You know, I think I've had just about enough of you," and then powerbomb HHH through a table, knocking him cold. He should then say to a stunned Ric Flair "When he wakes up, tell him I'll be back for my belt." That would make the crowd jizz itself. Part of the reason we don't buy Randy Orton as a legit challenger to HHH is that HHH has 100% controlled the feud. Orton did fuck all to harass and torment HHH. In fact, he only got his title shot back after Bischoff let him into the Elimination Chamber without any real explanation.

You'd take bumbling idiot honky tonk man Bradshaw's title reign over a title reign by a guy that's booked to be 2x better than the entire roster? At this point, I will take ANYBODY new. I am not kidding.

The winner. XFL lost money. The Invasion was botched. But none of those actually killed somebody.

Agreed. The Invasion had potential to be brilliant. The biggest wrestling angle of all time. And it did produce some great moments, like the ECW resurrection. The XFL didn't have a hope in hell. They went ahead with it anyway. And what did it give us to remember. "He hate me"?

If a Rise and Fall of WCW DVD came out today, it would probably be marginally more accurate than the Monday Night wars one, since Nash and Hogan are no longer under contract. It would still be full of WWE bullshit though.

You also have to remember that when WWE produced this DVD, a lot of the guys who stirred up shit at WCW were under contract. So they couldn't go around saying "Hogan and Nash's political horseshit was a real problem." Bret Hart, however, wasn't under contract...

My only real objection to this is that Benoit/Batista could probably make a pretty solid feud. But they made it a Raw certain jerker with no hype. Edit: If in a few months Batista is not a main eventer and has been shat on by HHH, then we have a REAL reason to complain.

HHH wins with lots of help from Batista. Batista spends the next few months making sure HHH knows that he wouldn't be champ without his help, leading to the eventual split. At least, that's would should happen. Probably Benjamin, but I'm worried they'll put it on Maven thinking it will somehow make him a star. Regal and Eugene are working well together. I think they'll keep the belts on them. Probably Lita. And we thought this division couldn't get any deader. Snitsky got a reaction out of a horrible angle much to everyone's shock, but they'll be running out of ideas for him right about... now. Kane wins, Snitsky vanishes. Hassan will win, but not before Lawler works him over, making Hassan look completely useless. Hassan should annihilate Lawler completely to make him look strong, but it won't happen.

I think Kotzenjunge called it. That match very much felt like a blowoff to a feud. It wasn't a clean win, so HHH is protected, but Orton gets some measure of revenge for HHH taking the belt. Of course, they didn't do much with Orton's character to indicate that he was really pissed at losing the belt to begin with, and the heels' half-hearted efforts to keep him from getting a rematch actually worked for awhile because Orton did nothing to fight them.

Keep it civil, please. I am not about to go swearing at you just because we have a difference of opinion. You're absolutely right. Not everyone does. But Vince does.