Hunter's Torn Quad

Now that was a hell of a spot.

Way to build up the MitB winner(!)

From what I saw, Cena/JBL looked good. JBL dominating until Cena hit the FU for the win.

What is the best wrestling match ever? What is the best WWE match ever? What is the best WCW match ever?

Turning Sting into The Torch qualifies as utterly horrific and mindnumbing.

Who is smarter than... Vince McMahon? Vince Russo? Eric Bischoff?

They left because Sullivan replaced Russo, not specifically because Russo was replaced.

While that may be true, the point is that a good writer/booker can still at least produce good television. Something Russo failed miserably to do.

The older wrestlers being uncooperative doesn't take away from the fact that even with a talented roster, Russo couldn't book his way out of a paper bag.

Don't forget about the main event with another boring and pointless rehash of Montreal.

When Russo arrived in WCW, it was salvageable. It would have required a lot of hard work, with a head booker who had both the guts to lay down the law to talent and the backing of those higher up to do what needed to be done. There was a ton of potential there.

Joe vs. Angle on Impact on 4/24, in the show that ended up wtih a 0.99 rating, gained 104,000 viewers for its peak rating of 1.12. It was the first time for a while that the main event of the show drew its peak rating. Shockingly, when used correctly, Joe can draw viewers.

Who in TNA will die next? Who on Smackdown will die next? No surprises with those results.

With Big Show vs. Mark Henry, it seems a obvious that Show wins in virtual squash. People who knew Matt Striker before he entered WWE said he was likely to get heat in record time because of how he carried himself.

How smart is Vince Russo? Who killed WCW?

That tournament was absolutely terrible. Virtually every match sucked and it was a never ending festival of run-ins and screwjobs. Russo's first stint in WCW proved that he was completely overrated as a booker and is one of the worst out there. Creative? Sure. But creativity doesn't do any good if the results are numbers falling across the board. Russo desperately needs an editor, a very good one, to make his bullshit have any value, merit or meaning. Enjoy his 'work' if that's what you like, but don't deny that is was the total antithesis of what the WCW audience wanted. If the best, and only, defense of Russo's first, laughable stint in charge of WCW, is that at least it was better than the previous regime, then that just about says it all.

That's the infuriating part. TNA knows what got them their best numbers on PPV, and yet, with rare exceptions, ignore that and go merrily in the opposite direction.

Given that Angle and Joe at Lockdown seems to have done far better business than any TNA PPV in a long time, I would think it shows that Angle, with the right kind of build from TNA, can draw. The fact is that TNA's highest PPV numbers were drawn by Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe in matches that either didn't have time to be hindered by the usual TNA booking bullshit or were built up in a manner also unlike TNA's usual approach. The problem isn't Kurt Angle, because it's shown he can draw. The problem is TNA, because they seem intent on ignoring the methods that get them their biggest PPV numbers.

The US Heavyweight title I’m keeping the US belt on Luger through the end of 1989 and into 1990. His big singles program of 1990 is with Sting, but the seeds are sown in late 1989 with Sting interjecting himself into Luger’s feud with Ricky Steamboat after Luger tries to injure Steamboat during their house show run and Sting makes the save. This leads to a big tag team match at Starrcade with Sting and Steamboat against Luger and his mystery partner who will turn out to be the debuting Bret Hart. This match will see Sting and Luger brawl off to the back to start their program, while Bret cheats to pin Steamboat which will start their feud, both of which will be top singles programs of 1990. The Steamboat-Hart feud will be deal with later; this is about Luger and Sting and the US title. The two teams actually have a rematch at Clash X in January, with a similar finish to their Starrcade match; Sting and Luger brawl on the floor to distract the referee, while Bret undoes a turnbuckle pad and when Steamboat applies a sleeper hold, Bret rushes to that corner of the ring, ducks, and Steamboat goes face first into the exposed steel, knocking himself silly, and Bret covers to get the pin. This builds to singles matches at WrestleWar between Sting and Lugar and Steamboat and Hart, but we’ll deal with Sting and Luger for now. Luger and Sting at WrestleWar goes about 13:00 minutes, probably at a fast pace, and Luger gets the win by using the ropes for leverage. A rematch is needed and that happens at Capitol Combat in May. This one goes a little longer and this time Luger pulls out the win by using a foreign object to knock Sting out and then putting him in the Torture Rack with the referee calling for the bell. Once again, a rematch is needed to determine a conclusive victor in this feud, but with an added stipulation; if Luger does anything to get intentionally disqualified or counted out;, then he loses the US Title to Sting. The rematch, the final match in the Sting/Luger feud takes place at the Great American Bash. It’ll go nearly twenty minutes, the longest match of the program, and it’ll see Sting finally get the clean win over Luger, with the scorpion deathlock, and become the new US Champion. With Sting as the US Champion he needs a big program, which we’ll pull the trigger on at Clash XII. Who is the program with? Enter one Stan Hansen. At Clash XII, it’s Sting defending the US title against Ric Flair. With it being a Clash, and not the main event, we can forgo a clean finish as Stan Hansen comes bellowing to the ring to attack Sting causing Flair to be disqualified. This sets up Sting against Hansen at Halloween Havoc for the US Title. Hansen wins clean in about fifteen minutes with the lariat. The two face each other again in a tag match at Clash XIII, as mentioned in the World title section, with Sting and Terry Funk going to a double count out with Ted DiBiase and Stan Hansen. Sting and Hansen must square off one more time, and it’ll be at Starrcade in a Texas Lariat match. The match is a brawl, and a good one, and we’ll have the photo finish with Sting just beating Hansen to the fourth turnbuckle to get the win and regain the US Title. After the main event of Starrcade, which is Ted DiBiase retaining the NWA title against Terry Funk, Sting comes out with the US title and makes it clear he’s intent on facing DiBiase, which sets up the Sting-DiBiase program for 1991. Summary: The Luger/Sting feud lasts six months, which is a pretty lengthy feud even for the time, but it gets heat on Luger who keeps tricking and cheating his way to victory over Sting until, in true storybook fashion, Luger is foiled when he’s no longer able to cheat and Sting triumphs over the villainous heel. Sting then gets a hot program with Hansen, and we get the classic story of the heroic babyface taking on the loudmouthed bully boy, with the bully initially getting the upper hand, but the babyface eventually wining out and even beating the bully at his own specialty match to get back the US title. Not only that, it nicely sets up the Sting big program with DiBiase over the NWA title, which will be the big singles program of 1991. With the major singles titles dealt with, we’ll deal with the World tag titles next.

Two 'tag partners who hate each other' angles for the price of one.

He was against 14 fucking people. What is with you people and guys losing matches? Booking 101 says you don't beat a guy who just turned face. Where is that book at? Did they have it in 1985, when Dibiase turned face in Mid South and lost to Flair, after being screwed by Murdoch? That you're seriously trying to compare one of the all-time great angles to how they're handling Kennedy says it all. And I probably shouldn't be trying to talk about booking principles in the Raw thread. Entirely the wrong audience.

He was against 14 fucking people. What is with you people and guys losing matches? Booking 101 says you don't beat a guy who just turned face.

I'm not big on Kennedy, but beating him now, in his first match back after being away and when he appeared to be gaining steam as a face, was beyond stupid. Especially when he got beat Chavo Guerrero of all people.

Via PWI: Plus he's healing up from all the stupid stunts he's done. Also:

He wasn't in charge of booking WCW and deciding to turn the company into his own personal playground. And when those people were removed, a revolving door of imbeciles were put in charge who couldn't book their way out of a paper bag. With who was in charge, he could have had the belt forever and it wouldn't have made a difference.