Cheech Tremendous

By the way, for those of you piling on without doing any research, Bonnie Hammer was not a big fan of Vince Russo's work and helped him streamline it to stop confusing viewers (something he could have used in TNA and WCW, respectively). According to Sex, Lies & Headlocks, Bonnie was assigned to Vince and WWE after their disgust over the Pillman gun angle. She had never watched wrestling, but came in and overhauled the product so that it would be appealing to mass audiences. She once remarked to Russo, "If I can't understand what's going on in the first five minutes of the show, then we're in trouble. You have to get viewers in right away, tease them." She was responsible for many of the changes we take for granted now. Among her changes to the product were the estabishment of hot minutes (9, 10, 11 o'clock hours) to help draw viewers. She wanted the best stories displayed at these times. She helped them flesh out their one-dimensional characters. She convinced Vince McMahon to become an on-screen character. She encouraged them to establish strong female characters (like Sable) that women could respect. In my opinion, she's exactly what the product needs right now.

The written in stone thing was a joke, btw. Most NFL teams are wildly inconsistent from year to year because of scheduling, injuries, salary cap and coaching changes. I don't think losing the Super Bowl is any sort of predictor for future success (or lack thereof). The NFC still looks like a wasteland. At least Chicago, Philly and Seattle have talented front offices who put together quality teams every year. I'll pick any of those teams to make the playoffs over teams that are "hungry" or destined to breakout.

Now Czech, don't forget that they lost the Super Bowl last year. Apparently there's a written in stone rule that says that such a team cannot return to the playoffs the following year, lest the entire league crumble*. *According to the analysts here at TSM.

After a little poking around I realized that Inman is a stud pitching prospect. Even with TINSTAAP, he's likely to be a 2/3 pitcher someday, especially playing in San Diego. Thatcher has good relief numbers in AAA and could probably give you a decent replication of 2007 Linebrink right now. I know he's a proven reliever, but his numbers aren't that good this year and he hasn't had much recent success outside of Petco. They paid a large ransom for a moderate upgrade in the bullpen.

It never said she wanted "Vince Russo shows." That was one person's interpretation of her demands. I'll have to go look it up later when I get off work, but I think she was a big proponent of self-contained shows (where one large story/angle would be developed and concluded each week), long, overarching storylines with mutliple twists and turns that incoporated several wrestlers, cliffhanger endings that enticed the viewer to return the next week and good performers put in the 9:00, 10:00 and 11:00 quarter hours. I think it was more about keeping the crap short, making the good stories emotionally investing and pushing the real talent heavily. To summarize, she basically wanted good booking.

Don't let that get you down. You could tell us about the time he threw up that 7.something ERA when he played for Houston. C'mon I know there's an Astros story somewhere... maybe he took care of Bagwell's cat or something.

Rotoworld is reporting that Scott Linebrink has been traded to Milwaukee in exchange for pitchers Joe Thatcher, Will Inman and Steve Garrison. The Brewers just sent three of their top 25 prospects to SD for a struggling middle reliever.

Vince Neil drove drunk and coked out of his mind around LA at about 100 MPH in his Ferrari. He slammed into an oncoming car, killing his passenger Razzle, a member of the band Hanoi Rocks, and causing near fatal injuries to the couple in the on-coming car. He spent 18 days in jail and had his record company pay the settlement and legal fees.

I think Benson and Peterson are more than capable of handling the running game for Chicago. Thomas Jones did a fine job as the lead back the past couple of seasons, but he's replaceable.

It's hard to take a side one way or the other when we hardly know these people outside of what we read, but that woman that Leinart knocked up always came off as money hungry. The whole pregnancy and aftermath indicated that she knew this was an easy way to get a buck. Just my two cents.

Hammer has missed a lot of wrestling years between her original consulting stint and her present day management of USA Network. The original Attitude era was a successful attempt to grow the product beyond the child-skewing storylines that had insulted adult intelligence. Pro wrestling has advanced to the point in Hammer's absence though that returning to the Attitude Era would itself be an insult to adult intelligence. That may very well be true, but she didn't exactly come from a wrestling background the first time around. The first stint was less about "Attitude" and more about putting on a product that would interest people. The woman knows television and creating a compelling tv product. Her first consulting stint literally turned the company around to the successful entity it became. I just don't think it's a bad idea to take advice from her. She's been successful in turning USA and SciFi into major viable entities and is highly regarded for her ability to rebrand and sell dying or underperforming products. I trust her a hell of a lot more than Stephanie McMahon because she actualy has experience in developing something that audiences want. Her knowledge of wrestling is irrelevant if the ideas are good.

Joel Piniero cleared waivers and accepted an assignment to Pawtucket. He's going to be stretched out as a starter and is slated to go 3 innings tonight. Definitely an odd turn of events seeing as how there are a half dozen contending teams that could have used him in the bullpen.

You guys do know that in many circles Bonnie Hammer is considered the one who turned around the product during the Attitude era, right? It was her influence (completely understated in wrestling lore) that got them to incorporate more adult characters and storylines and embrace episodic storytelling. She was instrumental in helping them restructure the tv product from mid-1997 to 2000, which more or less coincided with the fed's strongest ratings and attendence boom ever. I know it's easy to criticize an outsider but at least know your history.

Well, I haven't seen enough of her work to judge it independently, but I know she has a reputation amongst those in the business as being one of the most talented young actresses in Hollywood. That's one of the reasons that she gets so much attention for all her fuck-ups. She's blowing the chance at an amazing career. If she had no talent they'd let her screw up her life with no concern.

Yes, but I believe they were billed as the American Express during that run. It lasted from late 85 through early 87, if I remember correctly.

I still think it would have been completely impossible for Brody to even get in the vicinity of the ring.

Two reasons: 1. They thought it was distasteful to have a "dead man" gimmick appear on a show for a wrestler who had just passed away. 2. He was the no. 1 heel at the time and they didn't want to break kayfabe by showing him in such an emotional setting And you should have put this in the Old School Questions thread. That's why we have it.

"Tastes like chicken"

They'd get the Vince Neil treatment. And Ripper's exactly right. Lindsay's behavior isn't exactly anything new to Hollywood. Someome's drinking and doing coke? Get the fuck outta here. You ever watch the original SNL... coked out of their minds. I mean, put things in perspective a bit. The only reason this is getting blown up so big is because the media is on her ass 24/7. As long as Lohan continues to be talented and hot as hell she'll continue to get chance after chance.

That was the point I was making. Everyone else sort of missed the boat.

Hogan's family can't stay out of trouble.

I'll pass.

Interesting stuff. I wouldn't have predicted those kinds of numbers. I wonder how much of that can be attributed to constant traffic from the Benoit murders.

Good work. I'll leave the wrestling folder fight to another day.

New Midnight Express