Hunter's Torn Quad

They didn't want the belt on Luger, and it wasn't so much they wanted Flair to win but they didn't want Luger to win the belt. The clean finish was ordered because Dusty had run screwjob finishes for so long that business had been killed in every market, and they wanted to try and stop that.

Does that include yourself?

Todd Martin's final thoughts on Raw from his review at the Observer site: "The only thing this promotion can do competently anymore is soothe the egos of its owners and bury wrestlers who threaten the spots of their chosen few. It’s a nepotistic, narcissistic mess."

I'm a huge fan of Foley, but fuck him. Amen. I think the crowd is catching on to Foley's routine. Yesssssssss, allow the Foley hate to overcome you all... I don't hate Foley. I just don't care if he comes, goes, or falls of the face of the earth and never returns.

Some notes: Dusty wanted the Flair vs. Rick Steiner match over being angry with how TBS had treated him, I think he'd been overruled on stuff and wasn thinking, correctly so, that his job was in trouble. Dusty wanted the belt off Flair and booked the Ric Flair vs. Rick Steiner match with Steiner winning in 5:00. This was the proverbial straw and Dusty was gone. The original plan for Flair vs. Luger was back, and the directive from the top was Flair was going to win clean. Flair putting his feet on the ropes was Flair going into business for himself, as he didn't want to win clean. George Scott, who had booked the WWF in the mid-80s, was made the new booker, and it was him who brought Steamboat into the NWA. Flair didn't get the book until later on in 1989. Scott originally booked the Flair vs. Steamboat match to go to a 60:00 draw, but he was fired the day before the match due to his mishandling of the promotion of the match; he wouldn't advertise the match as taking place at the Clash because it was headlining the house shows, and he felt it would damage house show business. This led to the Clash being a bomb, so he was kicked out. The new booking committee changed the finish a little.

Solie knew ahead of time what was going to happen. Are you sure? I've heard for years that he was inducted and it was a total surprise to him. Did he correct that in his book or something? Solie had been unhappy with the product for some time, and he was very unhappy about John Studd being inducted into the HoF. WCW weren't sure what Solie's reaction would be if they sprung it on him as a surprise so they told him ahead of time.

I'm a huge fan of Foley, but fuck him.

Solie knew ahead of time what was going to happen. Apart from Hunter, the heel, burying Cena, the babyface, was there anything else of interest on Raw?

Because you're hairy and a hoss and buffybeast called you at 3am when drunk?

They don't have to give the guy the win in the third match, but they should stay away from the match until the time is right. If the guy they go with really catches on, it can be their major X Division series of 2006 once they stop going back to Joe/Daniels/Styles and let something new take hold.

I don't think they'll push the first direct win over Joe as a fluke. I think they'll push it hard as someone finally being able to overcome the monster, Joe will call it a fluke, they'll build to a rematch and the other guy will win again. They can then build to a third match down the road with the story of it being Joe taking on the one guy who can beat Joe but that Joe can't beat.

I think we'll see the first win coming off of someone countering the choke sleeper into a cradle. The choke has been pushed strong, so someone countering it and doing so as a way to give Joe his first direct loss, should get that person, and the counter, over huge. As for who gets to be the one to do it, best guess is Jay Lethal.

On The Law, Meltz said that Rey winning the title is the only one that make sense. He also said that Orton is getting the belt at some point, so it could be Rey gets the big win at WM and drops it to Orton soon after. DM also said that he was told at one point that Orton winning was a lock, but it's now been hinted that it's not a lock. DM finished that part up by saying that he thinks/knows the decision, either way, is set.

The key point is that Joe has yet to be directly beaten. He has not been pinned and has not been made to submit. When that happens, and it will be handled correctly, whoever gets that elusive first direct win over Joe will be an instant star in TNA. Not disagreeing with you, HTQ, but how are you so sure he would be handled correctly? For all we know, the push is built to end at Jeff Jarrett. They've handled it pretty well so far, and Jeff is, from accounts, finally realising that he can't build things around himself, so I'm reasonably confident they'll handle Joe's first loss the right way. I'm certainly more confident that TNA can pull it off better than WWE did with Bobby Lashley.

The key point is that Joe has yet to be directly beaten. He has not been pinned and has not been made to submit. When that happens, and it will be handled correctly, whoever gets that elusive first direct win over Joe will be an instant star in TNA.

And she's out.

And now Bryan says that got an e-mail denying Feinstein was there at all.

A caller into WOL has said that Rob Feinstein was at the show as a fan, on the side of the hard camera. There was action near where he was at some point, so he might be seen on the DVD release.

I could get it for free but I can't be bothered. And I was a huge ECW fan.

Goldberg vs. Warrior couldn't sell buys to their own families. Any PPV with the match as a main event would need the mother of all undercards not to bomb.

Sunny should never return to WWE for the same reason Scott Hall should never return. They both have demons they're trying to fight, and it'll be impossible to do so in WWE, where the pressure is so much more than on the Indy scene.

Here I am.

Da Meltz.

In 2000-1, when business was a lot hotter than it is now, at least one undercard guy had to take a second job to make ends meet. Undercard guys make shit.

Jimmy Golden.