Hunter's Torn Quad

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That would make sense if it was once in a while over a period of weeks, and they slowly started catching on more and more. But it went from nobody catching him at all, to him getting caught left and right. That's stupid. If they were going the route of people smartening up to his act, it would have been a lot better to build up to it, with people catching him out here and there, and building on a growing sense of suspicion. Doing the way they have has all but killed the cheating gimmick dead, because it's too obvious he'll get caught now. If they had built to it slowly, when Eddie did cheat, people would be unsure if he was going to get caught. Now, Eddie looks dumb for even trying, because everyone knows he gets caught every time.

Which makes even less sense of them castrating that part of his gimmick. Almost every time Eddie has tried to cheat in the last month or so he's been thwarted. Why make his cheating gimmick look so weak by having it made completely ineffective all the time ?

That was the point. The problem is that, JBL push aside, Vince doesn't really put any effort into SD. It's left to the underlings to use to do whatever they like with.

Why? It was the stronger show from the first draft all the way up until Benoit jumped after last year's Rumble. Why would Vince have a problem with improving it? Also, it is viewed as the lesser show right now, but its ratings are on par or better than RAW's. Why would USA care about the quality as long as the ratings are coming in? I don't what Vince's problem with SD is, but I've heard on more than one occasion that he has no interest in making SD look comparable to Raw. He's focusing everything he has on Raw, and SD is treated as an afterthought. I guess they'd care from an image standpoint. They might want the ratings that SD gets, but I don't know that they'd be happy with some of the stuff that has gotten that ratings.

The problem with putting SD on USA is that I doubt USA are going to want a product that even WWE's own fans see as being second rate to Raw. USA are going to want SD to be a strong show, and that means better booking and so forth, and I don't think Vince is able/willing to do that.

Owen did indeed get hurt off that top rope DDT. How about Benoit's top rope tombstones on Ohtani and Tiger in the '95 BOTSJ.

When Smackdown's contract was up for renewal before, USA were said to be interested. Even after that, USA have still been said to want wrestling back, specifically WWE. I think USA remain a viable option until they flat out state they don't want it back.

Ayako Hamada

Whenever RVD took the DDT bump right on the top of his head. Val Venis did it too for a while.

Hogan is a virtual lock at this point.

Point taken, but it could also be that Eddie got pissed off at the whole situation on how his reign was handled as well. It doesn't mean he had a nervous breakdown and whatnot. Frustated maybe? I know I sure as hell would be. I think that anyone else probably wouldn't have had the reaction to losing the title that Eddie did. But Eddie can sometimes be fragile mentally, as shown by going after Angle, blowing up at fans, and everything else he's been through. If he was just told that he was getting the belt and that they'd see how it goes, and then they'd taken the belt off him when they did, while he certainly wouldn't have liked it, it would't have hit him as hard as it did. But after being told he was a long term champion, and then having the belt taken off when it was, that's what made him feel like it was WWE not having faith in him.

Those are the real industry numbers. As for WM IV, it isn't even in the Top 10 of WWE buys. And yes, 2000-1 was WWE's biggest year financially.

WM 15 got 800,000 buys, and WM X-7 got 950,000. The buy rate for WM 15 was 2.32, while it was 2.18 for WM X-7. While the number was higher for WM 15, WM X-7 was the one that got more buys. It's best year was 2000-2001.

I was going to say that. Almost word for word. Orton's lack of leg-selling made me hate him. He did throw good punches in the corner, though. I think that was more than made up for by most of the arena booing Orton like crazy for the most of the match.

Eddie's depression over having the WWE belt taken off him is because he saw it as the company not having faith in him to carry things, and if you feel that your employers, or anyone, don't have faith in you, then that can really hit you hard.

FTR, Eddie was meant to be a long term champion. Vince put the belt on Bradshaw because he wanted to strike back at what he felt was this liberal media campaign that cost Bradshaw his CNBC job. Never mind the fact that there was no media campaign, and Bradshaw actually lost his job because of 1200 wrestling fans sending a petition to CNBC. Bradshaw has kept the belt because, kind of like the Ted DiBiase character in the 80's, Vince seems Bradshaw as an extension of himself, that being pro-G Bush, pro-war, and he likes to do things to piss liberals off.

It was a good match. The problem is they've had far better matches, and on free TV. Not to mention they've been in the ring together so often that it doesn't seem so special when they wrestle anymore.

WM X-7 was the peak. It was the all-time record for total show revenue, with the live gate, merchandise, and PPV buys grossing $42.59 million dollars. It had the biggest gate in US history, at $3,530,904. And, depending on the number of buys WM XX got, it was either the largest or second largest amount of buys in WWF/E history.

I hated Unforgiven 2002, because of the way Brock was made to look like Undertaker's bitch. As good as the event was as a whole, the main event ruined it.

I highly doubt it, at least not for a very long time. I think the Austin v Rock WM X-7 was the peak, and we won't see something even approaching that for years, if at any time in the next 20 or 30 years. The whole feeling and vibe of that match, which you need to draw something close to 100,000, was something very special, and it won't come around again any time soon. Wrestling would be dead if it takes a 20 years for another boom. I predict another boom happining in 2011. A boom on it's own won't create something that could draw 100,000. It takes something very special, the kind of thing that just does not happen very often. While a boom almost certainly will happen again in the next 5-10 years, the circumstances required for that elusive 100,000 crowd almost certainly won't.

I highly doubt it, at least not for a very long time. I think the Austin v Rock WM X-7 was the peak, and we won't see something even approaching that for years, if at any time in the next 20 or 30 years. The whole feeling and vibe of that match, which you need to draw something close to 100,000, was something very special, and it won't come around again any time soon. You really think THAT long? I mean I can understand for the next few years but 20-30? That's pretty bad. It's not a question of bad, it's just the whole vibe and feel of WM X-7 wasn't just special, but special. That kind of thing does not come along very often. I definately know what your saying...but are you talking about business as a whole or the feeling of the match? I'd say Hogan/Andre from Mania 3 is very comparable to Rock/Austin at Mania 17, and that's 15 years so I see your point regarding the "speciality" feel of a match. It's the whole ball of wax, both the business as a whole and the match. It'll take business being super hot and a match that has that feel of being special to approach the possibility of drawing 100,000. It's all got to come together in a manner that doesn't happen very often.

I highly doubt it, at least not for a very long time. I think the Austin v Rock WM X-7 was the peak, and we won't see something even approaching that for years, if at any time in the next 20 or 30 years. The whole feeling and vibe of that match, which you need to draw something close to 100,000, was something very special, and it won't come around again any time soon. You really think THAT long? I mean I can understand for the next few years but 20-30? That's pretty bad. It's not a question of bad, it's just the whole vibe and feel of WM X-7 wasn't just special, but special. That kind of thing does not come along very often.

He wasn't so concerned with it then. I think over time, his attitude towards certain things has changed, and the WM III legacy is one of them. In fact, if they had done that WM 7 at the LA Memorial, and it had drawn 100,000, I actually think Vince would regret it right now.

I highly doubt it, at least not for a very long time. I think the Austin v Rock WM X-7 was the peak, and we won't see something even approaching that for years, if at any time in the next 20 or 30 years. The whole feeling and vibe of that match, which you need to draw something close to 100,000, was something very special, and it won't come around again any time soon.