Hunter's Torn Quad

The hell? The idea was to make it seem like something happened that wasn't supposed to.

The funny thing about that blood stoppage finish at the Bash against Flair is that it apparently drew money at the house shows with rematches. Until around 1991 Lex was, depending on his mood, an average to pretty decent worker, with decent-to-good charisma, who would have slotted in nicely in the upper midcard range with a dalliance here and there with the main event scene. At some point in 1991, probably around the Bash, he stopped caring about wrestling and started viewing it as a means to inflate his muscles while treating his matches as an excuse to parade his body while trying very hard not to break a sweat. As the years rolled on, Luger managed to care less and less and put forth only the absolute bare minimum of effort whenever he could, and only worked hard if he was on top. But as Luger's work ethic shrank, his ego and laziness grew, and he became a relic from the 80s with absolutely nothing whatsoever to add.

There was a also a 'Urine Test/Exam Check' sign that appeared right near the start of the show. I hate the spot where Shawn superkicks someone and they stagger into the pedigree, so to me, Cade made a bad spot even worse. I imagine someone had word with him backstage.

Another problem with David getting the NWA title to drop it to Flair would have been that he would have had to have lost it clean to Flair, and Fritz Von Erich would never have allowed that. When Kerry lost the NWA title to Flair in Japan, Fritz's cover story to explain the loss was that Flair used the ropes and that the referee was a Sumo referee who didn't understand the rules properly.

How have they confrimed it's HHH? Oh yes, I forget: wrestling reporters make everything up. I've edited the post in question so as not to offend your delicate sensibilities in regards to wresting journalists.

PWI claim to have confirmed Triple H to be Shawn's mystery partner. They speculate on if we'll see them break out the DX gear.

The mystery partner might be PWI says he's backstage, which he usually isn't.

They aren't really growing, though. Those two were blips on the radar, with the rest of the numbers being very anemic. On the latest Observer Radio show, Meltzer said that Angle's comments weren't part of a storyline. He said that while Angle was being Angle in the interview, in that it's a mixture of work, shoot and telling the interview what they want to hear,TNA management were "seething" at the comments. He also said that TNA would be ill-advised to have Jarrett defend against the comments Angle made, because there's no way for TNA to come out of it looking good, and that they'll probably address the interview but not the actual comments.

I don't think that DVE was actually going to win the NWA title, but he did come close. When David's name came up as a proposed NWA champion, it was around 1983 for when Flair was going to drop the belt in order to regain it at the first Starrcade. As I recall, it came down to Von Erich or Harley Race, and in the end, the NWA Board of Directors voted on Race to be the one to get the belt.

Because the general consensus is that he deliberately messed up the fast count on orders from Hogan.

Even if you take the position that the credibility of Kurt Angle Olympic Wrestler is accepted as part of Kurt Angle Professional Wrestler, it doesn't help the acceptance to have Kurt Angle portrayed as a goof. It's the same deal as a wrestler the people know is talented being treated as a jobber. They may know he's talented, but eventually, after being treated like a jobber for long enough, they won't care that he's talented. The people knew Kurt was tough while he was being a goof, but he was a goof for so long that it stopped meaning what it could have.

Are you looking for an answer beyond the obvious one?

If Steve Austin had been doing that kind of goofy comedy when he was on his way to the top, do you think it wouldn't have harmed him?

At what point during the buildup did they decide to do the bullshit fast count finish? Probably after Montreal, as the whole finish of the fast count and Bret Hart running in to set things right was meant to play off of that.

While that makes sense in theory, that Angle's legit background makes it easy for fans to buy into him as a badass, his portrayal as a goof and a comedy figure definitely hurt him. Case in point, the Raw in 2000 when they showed the footage of him crying at the Olympics. That happened right near the beginning of the show, and when Kurt came out to confront Triple H before the footage was shown, Angle got a big reaction. But when Angle came out for the main event tag match, he got almost no reaction at all. It's not something you can blame on the crowd being tired, because everyone else involved in the match got big reactions coming out. The constant portrayal of Angle as a goofy and comedic heel undoubtedly hurt him, because it made it harder for people to think of him as a tough guy when his character was the total antithesis of that, and that was the problem. The casual fans don't get into wrestlers they know are tough. They get into wrestlers they think are tough.

I have a very special celebrity in mind who I intend to use in the next draft. I couldn't use this person in this draft because it wouldn't have fit into the style of my promotion.

What happened? The video isn't available.

Flair lost the belt because the main event for Starrcade that year, the first Starrcade on PPV, was Flair winning the belt back. Ron Garvin got the nod because he was the only babyface Dusty Rhodes was wiling to sacrifice to Flair. It pretty much killed Garvin as a babyface, because while people were behind him chasing Flair, when he actually showed up on TV with the belt, it just didn't look right. Some people are great in the role of challenger but would flop, and do flop in the case of Garvin, if they actually win the title.

Hogan would never have allowed himself to be portrayed as a has-been. Hogan did do jobs on his 2002 run on Smackdown, and it was probably too many for someone of his stature. Hogan certainly thought so, as after he put Brock Lesnar over with the bear hug stoppage, he said 'no mas' to jobs, which is why they never rematched. In fact, at Survivor Series that year it was intended to be Lesnar vs. Hogan on top, with Lesnar going over, and when Hogan refused, Big Show was put in the spot. As for humanizing, I don't think it would ever happen, because Hogan wouldn't want to be portrayed as anything less than special.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, the Guest Booker DVD series is an idea from KayfabeCommentaries.com where a famous wrestling booker is given the task of booking a promotion or territory form a particular point in time with the idea that things didn’t go exactly as they did in real life and this is their chance to show us what they would have done were they the booker at the time. The first DVD featured Kevin Sullivan booking the WWF from the beginning of 1984 but without Hulk Hogan, who, for whatever reason, never made the big jump from the AWA. It’s a very interesting DVD, and while some of Sullivan’s ideas seem a little out of place, it still gives a lot of insight into the mechanics of booking and you still learn a lot of things about the art of booking that you probably won’t learn anywhere else. With the concept explained, I shall set out the premise for this version of ‘Guest Booker’; In late 1989, the NWA and Ric Flair were making a play to bring Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard back to the company, but there was also talk of other names being courted to jump to the NWA, specifically Ted DiBiase, Curt Hennig, Bret Hart, The Rockers, Roddy Piper and Randy Savage. Of course, we know that the only name of all of those to jump was Arn Anderson; Blanchard would have jumped back too but Jim Herd withdrew his contract offer when Blanchard failed a drug test for cocaine, which coincided with his decision to leave the WWF. But what if Tully and Arn had returned together? And what if those other big names had made the history altering decision to jump to the NWA as well? How would things have changed? Well, this is where Guest Booker comes in, and I book the NWA in the 18-month period from August of 1989 to the end of 1990. There will be six main parts: NWA World Heavyweight title US Heavyweight title World Tag Team titles US Tag Team Titles World TV Title New Arrivals (with each one talked about individually) It wound up being a pretty long deal, so I'll be posting it in sections to make it easier to digest. Constructive comment and debate over the decisions made is welcome.

Randy Savage: You can read the NWA World title section for what I’d do with Savage for the first six months of 1990, with the lengthy program with Ric Flair. Once that’s over, Savage needs to cool down a little, both to avoid burning out and eclipsing the Flair-DiBiase series. For TV, I think he and Pillman could have a hot match or two, while for house shows it might be nice to see him take on Steamboat or even have a run with Sting. Near the end of the year we’re going back to the Flair feud for a Starrcade rematch, which Savage wins, and it sets him up for a major program with Sting for 1991. With Sting set to get the NWA title, Savage can win the US title, maybe with DiBiase’s help, so when Sting becomes NWA champion he’s got a ready-made feud with Savage. As part of it, the big tag team main event some of the house shows can see Savage and DiBiase against Sting and another top babyface, possibly Flair. Summary: The stuff with Savage seems light post-Flair, but that’s partially by design. He’s not in my top of the card plans after the Flair stuff until 1991, so in the meantime he can regain any lost momentum and such with some convincing wins against mid to upper level babyfaces, so he’s looking good again for the short-term feud with Flair that primes him for the run with Sting where he wins the US title. I think Savage could have a good run as US champion in 1991, and when he finally drops the belt he can do so to the next up-and-coming babyface superstar who’ll be challenging for the NWA title sometime in 1992. Epilogue And so ends the epic that was Guest Booker with HTQ. The origins of this date back a couple of years to the original NMB board, when Loss made a thread asking what people would do if, when Arn Anderson jumped back to the NWA, a number of other wrestlers made the jump with him. I know a number of people posted their ideas, but I never got around to posting mine, and you can see why. Putting together cards for PPV's and Clashes took a couple of days and fleshing the whole thing out took a few more, so the whole thing took about a week to put together. It's been sitting on my computer since then as I never got around to putting it out there for various reasons. I know people have been reading it, and now that the epic is finally over, I'd be interested in feedback and to get some kind of debate going.

Because adjusted for inflation, I'm sure Hogan pretty much drew more money and ratings that "will probably never be rivaled" than Austin. Not to mention he has been on top of WWF for 8 years (in his first run), Austin has only for 2 to 4 years. I don't know how you can adjust ratings for inflation, but I can help with adjusting the money via this handy site, The Inflation Calculator. I believe WWF's best year under Hogan saw them generate $150m. If we assume that year to be 1988, then $150m adjusted for inflation would be worth, in 2007, $85,540,108.99. If you take the peak Hogan year to be 1987 or 1989, the money is still in that $85m ballpark. I don't remember how much WWF made in Austin's peak year, but if we assume that figure to be $300m (based roughly on the historical financial chart you see on WWE's corporate website) and Austin's peak year to be 1999, then $300m in 1999, adjusted for inflation, would be worth $243,398,388.27 in 2007. Reading the historical financial chart (pdf) on WWE's corporate website, from 2002-2006, the revenue WWE made from live events, TV, etc, has slowly gone down. Revenue from merchandise was at it's highest in the 2007 financial year. This was taken from the Observer's reporting on WWE's profits for 2007:

ESPN/MMA Live are saying UFC 87 (Lesnar vs. Herring/GSP vs. Fitch) did 650,000 buys.