Hunter's Torn Quad

F4W

The backstage angle with Salinas was done because she's quit the promotion, and Jackie never opened her mouth because she lost four teeth at a recent house show.

I've got the matches lined up for all six of my cards. All I need now is to write a little something to preface each match.

HHH being paranoid over how he's being portrayed in a game (no pun intended) is just ridiculous, even as a politician. I don't know whether to laugh at such insecurity or feel sorry for it. Insecurity generally outweighs concern over what others think of you.

Did they show replays after any of the matches, or did they go straight to something else almost right away?

Complete with "Fire Russo" chants.

When was the last time an angle like this didn't end with the woman turning heel? We get it; women are evil whores who will screw you over at the drop of a hat.

F4W

How many seconds before they went TO THE BACK~?

Did they boo because it was the 'Old School' Undertaker spot?

When it comes to booking, Heyman is by far one of the best when it comes to hiding a workers flaws while accentuating their strengths. You can knock Heyman's business sense, but for booking, he knows how to get the most out of the least better than most. Heck, he had people who should have known better convinced that Public Enemy were one of the all-time great tag teams.

Austin vs. Foley would have unnecessarily split the fans with it being an all babyface match. Plus, it never would have had the same dynamic that Austin vs. Rock did.

WWE edited the entire angle out of International versions of Smackdown. UPN could have refused to air the segment, yes, but WWE could have easily edited the angle out themselves. They had the presence of mind to edit it out of the International versions of Smackdown, and the only reason they didn't do the same for the US version is they didn't think it would cause that much of a fuss.

Roddy Piper: Over the December period, a series of vignette's with Roddy Piper would air. They would be building up to the debut of Piper's Pit in the NWA, and that the first Pit would be at the Clash of the Champions in January. The main point of the vignette's would be Piper talking about just who the first person in The Pit would be. With all sorts of hints and teases as to who the first guest would be, people would speculate that the first guest could be absolutely anyone. The Clash arrives, and with the ring set out for Piper's Pit, Roddy Piper comes out to a tremendous ovation. After letting it die down, Piper then talks about returning to his NWA roots, and that he is going to call out one of the young stalwarts of the NWA: Sid Vicious. Piper talks down to Sid at first, and bemoans his lack of success, with Sid looking irked. However, Piper changes tack, and begins to talk up Sid and his ability and what he can do. He tells Sid that he doesn't need a gang behind him to make him great, he needs the mind of a man who was part of something that changed the direction of wrestling, and he needs the mind of someone who can turn him into the success that he knows he can be; he needs Roddy Piper. Sid smiles and he and Piper shake hands, before Piper tells everyone that with a mind like his behind him, Sid is going all the way to the top of the NWA, and that Ric Flair better watch out, because Sid is the man who will take the World Title from him. From here, Sid begins a slow climb to the top with Piper as his mouthpiece and heat getter at ringside. Their initial feud is against the Dynamic Dudes, which is really just to get them over as a unit. Sid and Roddy beat them at Wrestle War and then Sid beats Ace in a singles match at Capitol Combat. Then, it’s time for Sid to start getting some momentum behind him and for that he’s going to feud against Mean Mark, who is going to turn against Sid by accusing him of leaving him behind. It’s not that long of a feud, about four months or so, and its pretty much Sid all the way; their two singles matches, at the Bash and Havoc, see clean wins for Sid. It’s really just a feud to get Sid over as someone who can hold his own against someone his own size, and make it seem more dangerous when smaller wrestlers take him on, plus Mark is going to New York and he might as well get someone over on the way out. After the feud with Mean Mark, Sid is content to squash jobbers and issue threats for a while. At the house shows, he can face variety of mid to top level babyfaces. He goes over the midcard types clean, but goes over the top tier babyfaces via DQ when they turn the tables on Roddy Piper’s interference and get caught using whatever foreign object he was using. However, to keep the babyfaces looking good they can lay out Piper with their finisher while Sid gets held at bay when an ally of the babyface evens the odds up. This can go till the end of the year, and then Sid can start a new program on TV which can build him up for an eventual NWA title program against Sting when he gets the belt. Summary: It seems a little barebones, and I’m not entirely satisfied with it, but there’s not a lot I can do with Sid when I’ve got the other major spots locked up. Piper can do rare TV matches, typically 3-on-2 squash matches with he and Sid taking on three jobbers with Sid powerbombing them all and letting Piper get the pin. He can wrestle occasionally on PPV, but not often and probably only against Flair or Funk or other veteran names. I wouldn’t beat Sid on for a long time after hooking up with Piper, and I’d avoid having to beat either of them on TV unless it was major. House shows can be a little different, and I’d use the scenario of one babyface laying out Piper while another holds Sid at bay with a chair to keep the people happy without having to beat either Sid or Piper. I might also be open to having Sid feud with Vader in 1991, which would be interesting politically.

According to Meltzer, the big announcement is an affiliation with Golden Boy Promotions. GBP will help with production of Affliction shows.

Why was Choshu removed? What happened there in NJ? I don't know why Choshu was removed, but it wasn't too long after he was brought back in that the complaints started, and I think he'd taken a lesser role in the booking some time ago. The original complaints about Choshu booking might have been the usual grumbling you get when a new booker comes in and the guys lose their pushes to someone else, but he did get knocked for not moving with the times, which is hardly something unique to Choshu. Whatever it was, it looks to have caught up with him.

A couple of notes from the just posted WON to tide people over until Dr V does his thing: Team 3D signed new deals last week. The deals are for two years. Kevin Nash's contract has six weeks left, and he's making no secret of the fact that he's willing to go elsewhere. Everyone knows Nash will go where he gets paid the most for doing the least, and that he's looking to recreate the Diesel/HBK tandem, with the current Shawn/Jericho storyline having Lance Cade involved giving him the perfect set-up.

In a real strange turn, the latest WON just posted says the Gedo and Jado, along with Jushin Liger, are now booking New Japan. It also says that Liger was the 'impetus' in removing Riki Choshu from his booking position. I must have missed something at some point, because hearing Gedo and Jado are now helping book New Japan came out of nowhere.

! If only more Kevin Nash matches resulted in the Fingerpoke finish.

Same here. That show is never getting deleted, and I make sure to watch the KO whenever I have time. And the last two Chuck pictures are great.

F4W Somewhere, Dana White is cackling like a madman.

The backstory to this started in early November, with the word in the locker room being that Hogan was unhappy with Eric Bischoff supporting Kevin Nash and that he was going to take one of his hiatuses, which Hogan always did when he thought business was going to suffer; that way, he wouldn't get damaged by being on top when things tanked, and because his big return would bump the ratings, he could make it look like WCW needed him and he'd get even more power to return. Kevin Nash was made booker in early November, and Hogan promptly walked, subsequently announcing his retirement on The Tonight Show. The locker room rejoiced because Hogan was gone, and everyone rallied behind Nash because they saw him as finally getting rid of Hogan. Nash then ended Goldberg's streak at Starrcade, and eight days later we got the Fingerpoke of Doom. The whole story of Hogan being unhappy with Bischoff was a work on the locker room. To settle things between Nash and Hogan, as there was tension, it was agreed that Nash would be made booker and get to end Golderg's streak, and in return Nash agreed not to threaten Hogan's spot as the top name in WCW. A pretty accurate article is on Wikipedia: Fingerpoke of Doom

While I have to say it was some good stuff on TV, this guy was OVER. Would it be safe to say he was the most over guy in all of wrestling in 1997? I'd say so. Austin had yet to hit his peak, and Bret, Shawn, etc were just below Sting. I think in the end, is it safe to say that THIS is WCW's biggest mistake ever? Forget the fingerpoke, if this Sting push went as is, we could be talking about Sting in the same light as Rock and Austin of the attitude era? I don't think we'd be comparing Sting to Austin and Rock, because after the Hogan match, even if it had gone to plan, there was nowhere else for the Sting character to go without taking away the aura that had been built for the previous fifteen months. Everything that got Sting over was about building towards that one match. Once the match was over, and maybe even before it had started, the aura would have been gone too. Also, another question, was he doing house shows or anything to keep in shape or did he really collect like 15 months worth of pay between war games 96 and starrcade 97 while doing absolutely NOTHING? What you saw Sting do on TV was just about all he did between War Games in 1996 and Starrcade in 1997. As I recall, Sting's contract called for a maximum number of dates, and he was fast approaching that number, and the whole idea was originally a way to avoid reaching that limit and having to agree on a new deal. Sting did some major house shows in that fifteen month period, but there were very few of them.

MMAJunkie have confirmed the story.