Enigma

UTSU, how can anybody say that Backlund as champ didn't draw, since he held the belt for, what, 3 days? -=Mike On the same token, I don't know how anyone could defend putting the belt on Diesel for being crazy over after turning on Shawn, because he won the belt only 3 days after he turned face.

JBL would beat Diesel's reign if he held the title until June 22nd, 2005. That would be 359 days. For the record, I went to the trouble of calculating all the World Title reigns: Triple H -- December 15th, 2002 to September 21st, 2003 = 280 Days Chris Benoit -- March 14th, 2004 to August 15th, 2004 = 154 Days Triple H -- December 14th, 2003 to March 14th, 2004 = 91 Days Triple H -- September 12th, 2004 to December 6th, 2004 = 85 Days Goldberg -- September 21st, 2003 to December 14th, 2003 = 84 Days Triple H -- September 2nd, 2002 to November 17th, 2002 = 76 Days Shawn Michaels -- November 17th, 2002 to December 15th, 2002 = 28 Days Randy Orton -- August 15th, 2004 to September 12th, 2004 = 28 Days

John Bradshaw Layfield has now become the second-longest longest reigning WWE Champion since the 358 day WWE Championship reign of Diesel from November 26th, 1994 to November 19th, 1995. As of February 14th, JBL has now surpassed Shawn Michaels' original title reign of 231 days from March 31st, 1996 to November 17th, 1996. JBL will begin his 8th month as WWE Champion on February 27th, considering he retains the championship at No Way Out in the Barbed Wire Steel Cage match against The Big Show, which he will more than likely do barring a complete booking 180. Assuming JBL holds on to the title until WrestleMania 21 on April 3rd where he is likely to drop the title to John Cena, here is where JBL's reign would rank among WWE Title reigns since Diesel's. Diesel -- November 26th, 1994 to November 19th, 1995 = 358 days John Bradshaw Layfield -- June 28th, 2004 to April 3rd, 2005 = 279 days Shawn Michaels -- March 31st, 1996 to November 17th, 1996 = 231 days Stone Cold Steve Austin -- April 1st, 2001 to September 23rd, 2001 = 175 Days Brock Lesnar -- September 16th, 2003 to February 15th, 2004 = 152 Days Shawn Michaels -- November 9th, 1997 to March 29th, 1998 = 141 Days Eddie Guerrero -- February 15th, 2004 to June 28th, 2004 = 134 Days Bret Hart -- November 19th, 1995 to March 31st, 1996 = 133 Days The Undertaker -- March 23rd, 1997 to August 3rd, 1997 = 133 Days Kurt Angle -- October 22nd, 2000 to February 25th, 2001 = 126 Days The Rock -- June 25th, 2000 to October 22nd, 2000 = 119 Days Brock Lesnar -- March 30th, 2003 to July 27th, 2003 = 119 Days Triple H -- January 3rd, 2000 to April 30th, 2000 = 118 Days Kurt Angle -- December 15th, 2002 to March 30th, 2003 = 105 Days Chris Jericho -- December 9th, 2001 to March 17th, 2002 = 99 Days Bret Hart -- August 3rd, 1997 to November 9th, 1997 = 98 Days Stone Cold Steve Austin -- March 29th, 1998 to June 28th, 1998 = 91 Days Stone Cold Steve Austin -- June 29th, 1998 to September 27th, 1998 = 90 Days Brock Lesnar -- August 25th, 2002 to November 17th, 2002 = 84 Days Sid -- November 17th, 1996 to January 19th, 1997 = 63 Days The Undertaker -- May 19th, 2002 to July 21st, 2002 = 63 Days Stone Cold Steve Austin -- October 8th, 2001 to December 9th, 2001 = 62 Days Stone Cold Steve Austin -- March 28th, 1999 to May 23rd, 1999 = 57 Days Stone Cold Steve Austin -- June 28th, 1999 to August 22nd 1999 = 55 Days Kurt Angle -- July 27th, 2003 to September 16th, 2003 = 51 Days The Big Show -- November 14th, 1999 to January 3rd, 2000 = 50 Days Triple H -- September 26th, 1999 to November 14th, 1999 = 49 Days The Rock -- November 15th, 1998 to December 29th, 1998 = 44 Days The Rock -- February 15th, 1999 to March 28th, 1999 = 41 Days The Undertaker -- May 23rd, 1999 to June 28th, 1999 = 36 Days Triple H -- May 21st, 2000 to June 25th, 2000 = 35 Days The Rock -- February 25th, 2001 to April 1st, 2001 = 35 Days Triple H -- March 17th, 2002 to April 21st, 2002 = 35 Days The Rock -- July 21st, 2002 to August 25th, 2002 = 35 Days Sid -- February 17th, 1997 to March 23rd, 1997 = 34 Days The Big Show -- November 17th, 2002 to December 15th, 2002 = 29 Days Hulk Hogan -- April 21st, 2002 to May 19th, 2002 = 28 Days Mankind -- December 29th, 1998 to January 24th, 1999 = 26 Days Shawn Michaels -- January 19th, 1997 to February 13th, 1997 = 25 Days Triple H -- August 23rd, 1999 to September 14th, 1999 = 22 Days The Rock -- April 30th, 2000 to May 21st, 2000 = 21 Days Mankind -- January 26th, 1999 to February 15th, 1999 = 20 Days Kurt Angle -- September 23rd, 2001 to October 8th, 2001 = 15 Days Vince McMahon -- September 14th, 1999 to September 20th, 1999 = 6 Days The Rock -- January 24th, 1999 to January 26th, 1999 = 2 Days Bret Hart -- February 16th, 1997 to February 17th, 1997 = 1 Day Kane -- June 27th, 1998 to June 28th, 1998 = 1 Day Mankind -- August 22nd, 1999 to August 23rd, 1999 = 1 Day

Wrestling in Atlantis? I'd go.

"Clothes don't make the man." -- Gorilla Monsoon

Wasn't Metallica originally supposed to play the National Anthem at WrestleMania 11 but the deal fell through?

He refereed the dark match at WrestleMania 6, Paul Roma vs. The Brooklyn Brawler.

I'll never forget in 2000 when the dog show actually beat Nitro in the ratings. The dog show got a 3.7 and Nitro got a 3.6. Unbelievably hilarious.

I could have sword the scratch logo was used in the corner of the screen at Survivor Series 1997.

Brian Pillman was wrestling Eddie Guerrero at a Clash of the Champions in January 1996, when all of a sudden Pillman goes nuts and runs around and grabs Heenan by his neck and Heenan yells out "What the fuck are you doing?"

I had never seen Grenier messing up the kip-up until now. And boy, that UT chokeslam to Hogan was just as pathetic as I remember it.

Matt and Trey Parker explained the rules of cursing on TV after they did their episode of South Park where the word "Shit" was said 162 times in 24 minutes. They said basically, the FCC has no regulation over basic cable, so anyone could do anything they wanted. The only problem is pissing off advertisers, because that's where majority of the money is made. So, there's no way the government could have come down on Kevin Nash saying "Bullshit" 3 times on Nitro, because they have no control.

Carlito Caribbean Cool is basically the new Razor Ramon.

Are they doing TV down there? If not, why bother with signs?

Alex Shelley wrote on his live journal that he has requested a release from TNA, saying, "Speaking of TNA, I'll have an update on that soon, along with some details of why I'm not there. For everyone that's interested, I asked for my release in early January, but for whatever reason, have yet to recieve it." Shelley will be debuting for ZERO-ONE in March. That promotion has certainly become a safe haven of sorts for TNA talents that are underutilized as Simon Diamond and Sonjay Dutt have done quite well since debuting there. Credit: PWInsider

Frankie Kazarian gave TNA management notice yesterday at the Impact! tapings that he was finishing with the promotion. According to one source, Kazarian's contract actually expired late last year and he was never asked to sign new paperwork, so he was working without a deal. Kazarian was a former co-holder of the X-Division championship with tag team partner Michael Shane. I don't have any word on how this affects Shane's status with TNA, if at all... Credit: PWInsider

Disregard. I can't read.

This difference between Shawn Michaels' back and Kurt Angle's neck is that Shawn injured his back in one isolated incident. Before he took that bad bump on the casket at Royal Rumble 1998, Michaels really didn't have any back problems despite the normal aches and pains that come with being a professional wrestler. Angle has had lingering neck problems for the past 9 years. That would be remarkably unhealthy for someone in a non-athletic line of work, and it's compounded even worse considering he's been doing pro wrestling since 1998 and the incredibly high workrate he utilizes. Michaels had two back surgeries in April and November 1998 and took an unheard of four years off and now he's back as good as ever. I think almost 24 months after, we can deem Angle's 2003 experimental neck surgery a failure because he is not better. That surgery worked for people like Scott Hall and DDP because they don't have the insane work ethic inside the ring that Kurt Angle has (which is probably a credit to their intelligence). The point I'm trying to make is that Angle could not do what HBK did and take however long off to relax because this has been an exponentially growing problem for 9 years. HBK wrestled only one match after his back injury and immediately got it fixed. The situations are completely different. Michaels bounced back because he knew what had to be done and didn't waste anytime. Angle seems to have a fetish for working through pain, and it's ending up to really screw him professionally, but hopefully not personally.

vs. Michaels at WrestleMania? vs. John Cena at SummerSlam? What a hard choice.

I absolutely forgot about that Cena/Angle feud.

Wade Keller wrote this addendum to his RAW recap of the Shawn Michaels' interview: More planting of seeds for the Angle-Michaels match at WM, which very well could be Angle's final WWE match. Discuss.

Assuming they're using the same 6-man format... Chris Jericho, Matt Hardy, Randy Orton, The Hurricane, Tajiri, & Kane to Smackdown. John Cena, Big Show, Charlie Haas, Hardcore Holly, Luther Reigns, & The Undertaker to Raw.

Man Vince reminds me more and more of Rob Black every day. WWE films so needs an adult division.

I was at the Saturday Night taping where Badd had his last WCW match, jobbing the TV Title to Luger. We got fucked over hard on that show. They were advertising Ric Flair vs. Sting for the WCW Title in the main event, and instead we got some crappy asshole 8-man tag match and it was like Flair, Arn Anderson, Kevin Sullivan, & Loch Ness vs. Sting, Lex Luger, and The Steiner Brothers.

Raven was so ready to be WCW Champion in 1998. I really believe he was the big main-event heel that was destined to keep WCW fresh when the nWo angle ran its course. He had the most heel heat of someone not in the nWo (and probably had more heel heat than anyone in the nWo not named Hogan, Hall, or Nash) but someone convinced Bischoff he couldn't draw, brother.