Cheech Tremendous

As far as I know, I'll send him all of the questions and he'll provide me with answers. I'll post them here and you discuss at will.

I really think that everyone had a waiver claim in on Cueto. I checked the site almost daily to see if he was available yet.

This. You weren't around for those days, Cheech, and a lot of the people who were probably still harbor some ill will towards Monsieur Keith. I've been here since the Rantsylvania days, so this is incorrect. I fully understand everything about Scott Keith, including his relationship to this site and the ill feelings about both his attitude and his work product. That's part of the reason I asked him to do this. There are a lot of interesting questions out there to ask him, but it seems like people are more comfortable bitching about who was chosen instead of trying to ask hard-hitting questions. If this exercise doesn't interest you, please just move on to the next thread.

Let's see how this first one goes and we'll go from there. Thanks for the suggestion, KKC.

If you disagree with his match ratings or outlook on the product, I fully encourage you to bring it up in the Q&A. I can't guarantee that he'll answer it, but if he's open enough to come back here he should be willing to defend his work product. Just make sure you keep any personal attacks or flaming out of it.

Most of you already frequent the WWE Folder, so I won't rehash too much of what I said there. I have taken over moderating duties for the wrestling folders and plan to overhaul each respective folder in an effort to open up conversation and end the era of mega-threads. I am focused on the WWE Folder at the moment, but changes are coming here as well. The CWDWAT monster will be closed tomorrow. I will try to break out relevant discussion, but feel free to start placing new items in their own threads. You will have to bear with me in the early stages as I am not a current viewer of the TNA product. As always, I open for suggestions on how to make this folder the best for those you use it. Please feel free to use this thread for questions, comments and concerns. Thanks.

Yes it does, which is why I support the Q&A session... But I'm just saying, others might not be all that excited for it. You can't expect people to, considering Scott Keith has been away from the internet scene for many years, and isn't well liked here. You very well may be right. I solicited feedback from the rest of the staff before contacting Scott. It was their impression that the board had gotten over the SK stuff years ago. Truthfully, I haven't read Scott's stuff in years, but I'd argue that he is still relevant, especially in the IWC. He has a new book coming out on Benoit and he has a ton of history with the site. I thought that it would be bold move to engage him for the first chat.

I thought people would be over that after 6 or 7 years. Guess I was wrong. And, yes, Scott Keith started this site. He also went to war with it. Is that not interesting? Wouldn't those issues make for a lively chat?

So, everyone seems to be up in arms about this whole Scott Keith thing. Let me explain a bit. We wanted to try adding a Q&A session to the board to liven things up a bit. The goal is give posters a chance to interact with wrestlers or insiders. The reality is Dave Meltzer is not doing it. Neither is Paul Heyman. In fact it's difficult to get anyone. Scott may have a questionable background in some ways, but I was under the impression that would make for an interesting chat. The guy has written close to a half-dozen wrestling books and his newest one is on Benoit (a hot topic around here). It's going to be difficult to get anyone else to do this now. I'm sorry that I tried to offer something new.

We are only going to submit the relevant questions so bashing him here will only fall on deaf ears. If you have problems with Scott's history with the site or his work, take those comments elsewhere. I don't care if you like him or not, but he has offered his time to come here and answer questions about the business. By the way, we are trying to make this Q&A thing a regular part of the board. Treating the first guy nice enough to do it with total irreverence ruins the chances of getting anyone else in the future.

As many of you may be aware TheSmartMarks.com has undergone an ownership change. As part of this process, I am taking over moderating duties in the four wrestling folders. Everyone is appreciative of the work that Hunter's Torn Quad did here but ownership would like to try a few new things. There are going to be changes made over the next 48-72 hours. This shouldn't affect your normal posting in any way. However, some things might look a little different and it might take some patience on your part while we get things worked out. Please be advised that the WWE General Discussion Folder is closing tomorrow. We are going to try to open discussion and get activity in some new threads. I will try to update the Forum Rules and Guidelines soon to reflect some of the new expectations and changes. In the interim, please feel free to use this thread for any questions, concerns, suggestions or comments. Thanks.

That is the exact type of question we do not want. Consider this a warning to everyone.

Just out of curiosity, what is the actual downside to having too many mods? What is the ideal number of mods? How would you ever even determine that? By the way Bob, for your information, the board certainly doesn't police itself. I know it might seem like it from that side, but there's actually tons of shit that has to be dealt with just to make sure things keep running smoothly. I only have the wrestling folders, Dandy's there to help me and it's still a lot of work,

My personal feeling is that the Smackdown Thread should contain the WWE preview only and be used for actual discussion of the show with no spoilers. If you want to know what happens, check the spoilers thread. It would be really difficult to accomodate those who want to know the matches, but don't want anything else spoiled. That said, I'm willing to go along with what the folder wants.

Wrestling fans might not be the sharpest knives in the drawer, but I think they can figure out where Smackdown is if it's not on CW one Friday night. In my market it's channel 13 and CW is 12. Is moving up the dial one channel going to really cause them to lose 75% of their audience? I can't believe I'm even dignifying this notion with a response.

I'm willing to give it a try Kamala. Feel free to start the thread yourself and explain what you hope to get out of it. I'd love to see what you have in mind. Seems like an interesting venture.

So I guess no one has *anything* to say about Carlito? I guess this disproves KKC's theory that things that suck are more fun and interesting to discuss than things that are good.

I get to watch Manny Ramirez 162 times a year. I know what bad left field defense looks like. Which sort of brings me back to my original point. Is the defensive downgrade from Dunn to a pitcher so sever that you couldn't try it once in a while to take the platoon advantage?

It's left field. You don't have to be that competent to stand out there and catch the ball. Probably not a good idea to do it all the time, but I hardly think that the defensive downgrade from the standard LF to a pitcher is that big of a deal.

MyNetwork TV is in just as many homes as their current network. Why would they lose 75% of their audience? That's preposterous.

Here's the thing. We'd love to have someone type up Observer notes, but the fact still remains that it is premium content (and it costs a considerable amount of money). It's kind of a lot to ask other posters to not only pay for the product, but spend their free time transcribing it for dozens of others who didn't pay anything. I've asked a couple of people. We'll see what happens.

I remember reading about that in The Book and the authors saying that no one had really tried it in the majors. Interesting.

New one -

Correct. And he's not a mod. Oh wait scratch that.

If Batista/Shawn is a one or two month post-Mania feud to keep two main eventers busy, then no, there is no need for Flair. However, if you go down the path of a blood feud between the two, with one guy eventually going heel, it necessitates the involvement of the man responsible for it all. I envision a several month feud between the two that eventually evolves to the point where one of the guys gets out of hand... takes things too far. Logically, Flair has to show up. He can't sit idly by while two of his best friends fight over him. Then you do the Batista turn or what have you. We know WWE and how they do things, but I think they have six months worth of material here if they work it right. They could even logically transition the thing to HHH/Batista and have next year's Mania main event in the bag.