Hunter's Torn Quad

That really stuck out for me during the Legacy beatdown of Triple H on Raw this past Monday. Their ring gear looked identical, with the same basic shape, same basic color, etc. Their physiques all looked similar too. It was like watching four clones, at varying stages of development.

You never know in this business. While you do 'never know', this is one you can put money on. And I'm glad to see this played out as well as it read; the whole angle played masterfully.

Russo didn't get on the writing team until February of 1997, by which time Austin had been 'Stone Cold' for almost a year, and Russo was made head writer around the time Austin won the WWF title. It's more than a stretch to claim Russo 'built' Austin; Austin was already there. Foley's career making feud with The Undertaker was in 1996, before Russo was put on the writing team. If Russo created stars in the WWF, the fact he failed miserably trying to do the same in WCW shows who deserves the real credit. Most of this happened either before Russo was even on the writing team or before he was head writer. Which is why Gewirtz has had such great success in recent years? But was killing PPV buys, which is where the money is made.

Kreski provided great continuity and product of good-to-great quality that holds up today. Vince had to sign off on it all, but he did the same with every head writer yet the results are quite different. Russo got high ratings, but product quality wasn't all that great and a lot of his stuff doesn't age well at all. Stephanie hasn't shown either high ratings or consistent product quality. Of those three head writers, I'd take Kreski over Russo or Stephanie any day. Yes, Kreski had a boatload of talented names to work with. So did Russo and Stephanie, with Russo having Austin at his peak and Stephanie having him for his big return. Kreski had Austin to work with for about a month before Austin was sidelined and Kreski was gone when Austin returned. Whose work holds up better? Whose work is of an overall higher standard? You can question who Kreski built up, but WWE has, for some time, shown that they'll rarely build anyone up unless they have to. Even if you take the position that Kreski didn't build anyone up, WWE hasn't exactly been forward thinking in that department since he left, either. Cena's only around because Stephanie happened to catch his rap act on a tour bus. If not for that, Cena was set to be let go. Vince has never seen tag teams as main event players, so you can't blame that one on Kreski. Aren't you downplaying Kreski's contribution for doing exactly the same thing? What killed it is that Russo is strictly an ideas man; when having to actually book, he's consistently shown to be totally clueless.

Was it the beyond horrible screwjob in the Mankind/Rock title match? That finish killed the crowd so dead they were silent for Austin's match that followed, and an Austin match with no heat simply didn't happen then.

I think I'll vote for the guy whose stuff holds up today.

It starts with Kane essentially breaking kayfabe by admitting he was playing a character, to let us know the Kane character is fake, but then returns as an even weird character the he wants us to believe is really him? And then he goes back into kayfabe by referring to the Undertaker as his brother? And the idea presented for Undertaker's farewell? Thankfully, this will stay a fantasy. Unless Russo reads the boards, because this thing would appeal to him greatly.

So great but also so sad.

Two words: storyline continuity. Which reminds of the time they actually did bring in a continuity editor a year or two later, who promptly quit after a few weeks because there was such a total lack of continuity.

Glad to see someone wanted to give a shit about Juvi. Seriously, Juvi is right up there in terms of people who have squandered their talents with a horrible attitude.

Safety? I've never understood that complaint about Taz. Who did he ever actually hurt? Considering the number of rough matches Taz worked with Sabu, it's ironic that Benoit was the one who broke Sabu's neck. His stuff just looks dangerous, and I imagine the Undertakers and HHHs of the world taking one look at his suplexes and going "fuck that, I ain't going up for that shit". As you said, his stuff looks dangerous and that's all that really matters. Remember the scene from Beyond the Mat, when Mike Modest hits, ironically, Finlay's Celtic Cross, and Vince thinks he botched the move?

No. It was planned to be Hogan/Warrior for a long time, probably back to when the decision was made to have Warrior squash HTM for the IC title. Which makes you wonder how much Shawn really has changed.

There are many reasons. As mentioned, Hogan was still around and was still presented as the real star of the show; Warrior was never really pushed as the promotional figurehead. He also didn't have any strong heels to face. His main house show foes were Mr Perfect and Rick Rude, two heels who nobody took seriously as WWF title contenders as it is, plus Warrior had already vanquished Rude the year before, so nobody expected him to win anyway. After those two were done with, Warrior was put in six-man tags with LOD against Demolition, which didn't help. Ironically, it was only in the last few months of his run, when the decision would already have been made to take the belt off of him, that Warrior got a real 'name' house show opponent in the form of Randy Savage. But that didn't work too well for Warrior, as Savage beat him a bunch of times, albeit by count out. It also didn't help that Warrior was all ring entrance and nothing else. Hogan wasn't great in the ring, but he was charismatic enough and smart enough to still engage the people and cover up his limitations. Warrior lacked the intelligence to cover his flaws and his charisma didn't do it either, probably because he just too terrible in the ring that even his charisma couldn't cover for it.

$1000 or so a week is not funding ECW. The idea Vince 'funded' ECW is way overblown.

Strong ratings and a product that holds up today, at least from a quality stand point? Yeah, I'd say that's at least a better than average run... Key point; he was head writer under Vince, so anything Vince or the family were involved, they would have been in charge in. Not to mention the fact that Vince was the one to sign off on everything so ultimately, as it always is, the blame or credit goes to Vince. That one you probably can blame on Vince. Even if you disregard the fact that it's the type of humor he gets off on, they were trying to run Mark Henry off with that Mae Young stuff. It wasn't like the Henry/Young stuff was written with the idea it would make good TV or anything, even if Vince might have thought otherwise; it was written so as to get Henry to quit. The problem with this is: they didn't want Tazz suplexing people on their heads, the top guys weren't going to take his suplexes anyway, and what they did with Tazz as the plucky underdog is the role Vince wanted him to play. Regardless of what they 'could' have done with Tazz, those three factors, the last one especially, made it unlikely that anything other than what ended up happening was going to happen. Benoit was only a few inches taller, that is true. But Benoit was also far superior to Tazz in the ring and had a great reputation in terms of ability, safety, etc. You can't really compare Benoit and Tazz, because in the minds of Vince and those would have to work with them, they could do more with Benoit and were willing to do more anyway. It was Vince's pet project and he was hands on and was able to put it on air regardless of what anyone said. Company owner and all.