Hunter's Torn Quad

From a money drawing standpoint, his first match back should be at the Bash. But WWE really need a strong rating tonight after the disaster last time out so they are having to load things up.

From DM: The wrestlers in the tournament, according to SSS: As expected, the SSS crew have begun to tear Lesnar a new one before the all the facts have come out. I'd be interested in hearing what the exact nature of the dispute was before laying the blame. As for the tournament, I think it'll be Nagata or Tenzan winning, and Tanahashi will get the belt in January.

The number of buys would have been at least 600,000. Even at $30 a pop, and I think it was nearer to $35, that's still $18m in PPV revenue, of which WCW would have received around $5-6m at least. Assuming 40,000 at the Georgia Dome, with an average ticket price of $40, that's $1.6m at the gate. Add in an average of $30 per head in merchandise, that's another $1.2m. Combine that all and you're looking at around $8m. What happened was that the PPV was set to go 3hrs and 15 minutes. The problem was that there was a miscommunication between WCW and Viewers Choice and the cable people, and they didn't get word that the PPV was going longer than 2hrs 50 minutes that the PPV was originally scheduled to last for. Around a quarter of PPV systems around the country cut out before the end of the PPV, some just before the end of Hogan vs. Warrior match and some as the Goldberg vs. DDP match was being introduced. WCW wound up replaying the Goldberg vs. DDP match on Nitro the next night, and it garned a 7.18 rating.

Re: Goldberg vs. Hogan The match wasn’t even originally going to happen. Then, Hogan saw the huge advance for the Georgia Dome, and proposed a Goldberg vs. Hogan non-title dark match. His idea was that Turner brass, a lot of whom would be in attendance at the show, would be there, see the huge crowd and be tricked into thinking that Hogan drew the house. Then, the ratings for the week before came in and Bischoff panicked into putting the match on TV with only a few days notice. The ratings for that period were as follows: June 29th: Nitro – 4.1, Raw – 5.4 July 6th: Nitro – 4.8, Raw – 4.0; Goldberg vs. Hogan July 13th: Nitro – 4.5, Raw – 4.7 Eric Bischoff gave away $7M+ in PPV money to win the ratings battle for one week

Angle in his prime would have had the dedication to have learned enough that he would be a real threat, assuming his neck would have held up. Chuck Liddell is very well-rounded and is definitely more than a random tough guy. One UFC exec has even said that if WWE do any more of those open challenges, like the Kurt Angle one, they'll use Chuck to call them on it.

I agree it should have been built to on a PPV. At point early in 1999, Bischoff was wanting the match for Halloween Havoc that year, but with Nash in charge, the idea got shockingly dropped.

Apart from the no-contest deal on Nitro that spawned into Hogan vs. Sting, Hart and Hogan actually did wrestle three proper matches in WCW. It was on three house shows in late August of 1999, on the 20th, 21st and 22nd. Randy Savage had one of his infamous tantrums and pulled himself off the house show run. On the 19th, Bischoff called Bret up and told him he was going to sub for Savage on the house shows against Hogan. The matches were ok, went about 10 minutes, and all ended in a no-contest when Sid Vicious and Rick Steiner ran in. A bunch of other people ran in to, including Goldberg and Sting, and the whole thing ended with Goldberg spearing a bunch of people.

-3.9, up from last week's holiday rating of 3.6.

I think the match you're talking about is from Hardcore Heaven. The official result was a No Contest when Lance Storm ran in.

Re: Flair vs. Hogan at WM VIII: The plan was always for Hogan vs. Sid. Had been for almost a year. Goldberg could have done great business against Rock, Hunter, Angle, Undertaker and a few others if he was handled correctly. The big money would have been against Austin and, to a slightly lesser degree, Lesnar, with the correct build.

Joe beating Sting will mean more than Joe beating Jarrett, whether it’s for the title or not. The fans have twice seen someone beat Jarrett for the title and then Jarrett wind up getting the belt back relatively quickly. Having Joe beat Jarrett for the belt runs a very real risk of people thinking that they’re going to see the same thing again, with Joe getting the belt for a few months before it goes back to Jarrett again. What the fans have not seen before is Joe beating Sting. Joe vs. Sting makes sense because they have still to resolve the issue of Joe shaking Sting’s hand at Sacrifice only to leave him to get laid out by Jarrett and Steiner. After Joe beats Sting for the title, the next night on Impact they can have Joe shake Sting’s hand, before teasing Joe leaving Sting to get another beatdown from Jarrett and Steiner, only for Joe to finally make the save. Joe can then tell Sting he’s earned his respect at last because he finally faced him in the ring, while Sting can tell Joe, and the fans, that Joe has proven he’s the man and that he is the man to carry TNA. This can bring out Jarrett and Steiner, they can go back and forth to set up Sting/Joe vs. Jarrett/Steiner as the main event that night, and they can run an angle at the end of the match to set up Joe vs. Jarrett as the main event of the next PPV. Samoa Joe beating Sting for the belt means people will see Joe beating a guy who was seen as one of the top names from wrestling’s boom period, and that alone means Joe’s big World title win will mean far more if it’s against Sting than Jarrett. It will not just be Joe winning the World title, but it will be the rubber-stamping of the new face of wrestling, Joe, beating the old face of wrestling, Sting, and that will do wonders for the perception that TNA is about the new rather than the old.

Oh I know the muscle buster was out of the question. And I understand that the match needed to have a "quick, surprise" pin to prolong the feud. But that's typically done with a roll-up or schoolboy or something... just felt odd to me, I guess It's not really odd that they used the powerslam given that Joe uses it a lot.

Elaborate on the botched finish remark. I still have yet to understand why the power slam finished the match (and by all means, if you've heard or understand why, tell me...) but Steiner apparently was supposed to crotch himself on the ropes and instead fell early and landed on his feet. I don't remember off hand why they didn't have Joe use the choke, but with what has happenen since I think it was so they could prolong the feud and I suspect they are saving the choke out finish for their second match. And it wasn't the muscle buster because Steiner, due to his injuries, didn't feel physically up to taking the move.

You are correct. Bischoff was at the Dome for the New Japan vs. UWF-I feud, saw the heat was off the charts, and he got the idea for the invasion angle from that. Short term? Yes. Long term? No.

Elaborate on the botched finish remark.

Am I one of the few people to hate the gimmick? That's good. He's a heel. There's a difference in being a heel to make people hate you and people not being able to stand you. For HTQ, it's the latter in regards to Booker's King gimmick. Correct. If I happen to catch anything with King Booker, I instantly skip it. Shouldn't the fact I said I hate the gimmick make it pretty obvious that it's not getting the right kind of reaction from me?

DX have to start selling sometime soon for their match with Vince and Shane at Summerslam to mean anything.

Does it have to be televised to count?

Does anyone think Vince and Shane might finally get one over on DX in some fashion this Saturday, or will it be DX getting the last laugh for the sixth or seventh week in a row?

And he still couldn't get over as a main event player.

I think this comment from an Observer a couple of weeks back would make a nice addition to the conversation about ROH crowds. It's in regard to the 6/24 show in Chicago.

According to one of the latest Observers, current preliminary estimates have Hughes vs. Gracie 600,000 buys which, at $39.95 per head, means a total gross of around $24 million.

Re: Bret, Shawn and post-WM 12. Bret was never going to hand the belt over to Shawn. Bret's walking out of the ring like he did after losing was all storyline, and it was meant to play into their eventual rematch that was, at that point, set for the following Wrestlemania. Re: WM III's 78,000. That figure comes from WWE's own internal records, and the actual promoter of the event, the late Zane Bresloff.

Am I one of the few people to hate the gimmick?