Hunter's Torn Quad

Guerrero would drop the WHC back to Batista, who they thought would be back by then.

When am I up next? Don't I usually pick after bps?

From the latest Observer, regarding Punk: Also Punk related, from the Useless Trivia Department, by winning at the Bash, Punk became only the third wrestler in history to have his first WWE World Title match on PPV whilst going in as the champion; the other two being Hulk Hogan, who won his first title before PPV was even around, and Bret Hart, who won his first title in a dark match

I need a grumpy veteran to teach young whippersnappers a lesson, and I think this guy fills that role very well. Rookies beware, because my next pick is... Masanobu Fuchi!

I want a legit badass so I can add to the tough guy aura of my prominent heavyweights, and I've found him. He's best known for his MMA career, but he has had a relatively high-profile wrestling career in Japan with New Japan Pro Wrestling. This guy has a lot of charisma and plays the badass American heel to perfection on Japanese soil. My next pick is a former UFC tournament champion and Ultimate Ultimate champion, but his wrestling career is highlighted by facing Antoni Inoki in Inoki's retirement match, as well as winning the G1 World 2001 Tournament. My next pick is... Don 'The Predator' Frye!

Anthony Johnson post-surgery pictures (scroll down a little)

For my next pick, I'm going with a guy who will be fill the young lion role in my cruiserweight division. He's very talented, and I think he has a bright future. At least, he will in my promotion. My next pick is... Ryusuke Taguchi!

I figured this excerpt of a review of the 7/17 Impact from the latest Observer might generate discussion over what draws. Whether it's intelligent discussion remains to be seen.

You deserve the clap.

This is mostly just the internet that says this though. The mainstream could care less about the actual wrestling, and tune in for the storylines. Its when you have awful storylines that the mainstream stops watching. The Hummer angle is an example of this, and the promotion went under a couple of years later. TNA right now is heading down that path WCW did, having bad storylines and bad wrestling on their TV show. I didn't realize that the internet had the same collective opinion. When someone says they want to see good wrestling, it rarely, if ever, means that they want to see wall-to-wall wrestling and nothing else. 'Good wrestling' is just a euphemism for a good product, which can, despite what some people seem to think, be a combination of good in-ring action and good storytelling.

When someone says they prefer to see good wrestling, why is that the assumption seems to be that it must mean they also want few, if any, storylines and angles? You can have good wrestling and plenty of good storylines and angles. It's been done before.

I don't think he's being buried, but they made this mistake once with Mysterio... Why do it again when it wasn't successful the first time? I don't think Punk is being buried either. At the same time, they are making sure that people know Punk isn't at the top level; they gave him just enough credibility to be accepted at the spot they have him in, but no more than that, and there's no hint that's going to change. Whether they're doing it as part of a storyline that will eventually prove Punk is at that level or because that's just how they see Punk and don't intend to really elevate him, remains to be seen. They could go either way, and we won't really know until Punk has a title defense on an 'A' PPV where, one assumes, they'll have a pinfall finish, because it's that finish that will really show where they stand on Punk.

Re: Hogan, Perfect and the 1990 Rumble Hogan was always going to win. With the dream match of Hogan vs. Warrior headlining Wrestlemania, and Hogan the one losing, he wasn't going to not the win the Rumble; he was going to look strong going into his first major, and clean, loss in over eight years. Re: Paul Roma and Alex Wright Roma didn't refuse to job, but he absolutely hated that he had to put Wright over. Because he was the heel and calling the match, Roma made sure to look Wright as weak as possible en route to doing the job, because he, in his mind, didn't want to look weak. Re: Jean Pierre LaFitte Most people wouldn't be happy about having to loss clean in their hometown, even if it is to the company's champion. However, most people would know enough to just keep quiet about it and do their job, as it were. The real question is why someone in power didn't just tell LaFitte to shut the hell up and do what he was told to do.

I was looking for a cruiserweight wrestler to beef up that area of my promotion, and I wanted a guy who could be a major player in that division. I didn't think I could find out that hadn't been taken, but I did, and I couldn't believe my luck. I can only surmise that this guy is still available because he flew under the radar. Indeed, his more famous alter ego might have registered with some people, making it even more of a surprise he's still there. My next pick was a fantastic heel, who was a forerunner of Art Barr, with a little Tully Blanchard thrown in. This wrestler tore it up in Europe, but he's more famous on the international stage in Japan, where his aforementioned alter ego was pitted against the godfather of cruiserweight wrestling, the original Tiger Mask. My next pick is going to be one of my lead heels in the cruiserweight division, and a damn fine heel he shall be. My next pick is... Mark 'Rollerball' Rocco!

I'm ready to make my next pick as soon as the window is up, and I can't believe the wrestler I'm picking is still available.

I would agree with that, but JBL being taken out removes one of the few heels on Raw accepted at the top level. I don't know if WWE have the confidence in the heels left to remove JBL from the picture, hurt back or not.

Edge vs. HHH for the WWE Championship The storyline twist of Edge cheating on Vicky with the wedding planner is revealed as a swerve, but the all-powerful HHH is still able to overcome the odds and walks away as champion. HHH really should lose, because he's much better in the chase position and the fans get behind him much better. Batista vs. CM Punk for the World Heavyweight Championship Batista hammers the crap out of CM Punk for most of the match before we get a 'banana peel' finish allowing Punk to get the win and come out looking weak. The finish will show how the company feels about Punk, so if we do get that finish, or one like it, you can officially stop getting behind Punk because the company have already done so. However, if Punk looks strong in the finish, not necessarily beating Batista decisively but in a manner where he doesn't look weak, the future might still be bright for CM Punk as WHC. Tommy Dreamer vs. Mark Henry for the ECW Championship Henry in a virtual squash. Who could possibly care about this one? Finlay & Hornswoggle vs. Jesse & Festus vs. Hawkins & Ryder vs. Miz & Morrison for the WWE Tag Team Championships Ideally, the champs retain when beating Jesse or Festus. John Cena vs. JBL in a NYC Parking Lot Brawl Cena wins, but JBL does something after the finish to keep the feud going. Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho This should be a total war, ending in a DDQ with a wild brawl to set up a gimmick match to blow things off at Summerslam. Shelton Benjamin vs. Matt Hardy for the US Championship Hardy wins to retain, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Shelton win. Michelle McCool vs. Natalya for the Divas Championships McCool.

No, but he did write/format the weekend shows. In his shoot, Raven says it was a great gig because when they inserted a classic match into the show, he'd get to watch them in the Titan video vault in order to pick the matches that would air.

JPL wanted to lose by countout instead of pinfall, feeling that losing clean would damage him in the city. This upset The Clique, which is ironic for all the obvious reasons, who let Vince know all about it. There is a story that WWE knew Johnson would respond in such a manner and did it because they wanted to fire Johnson and were looking for an excuse. True story. Vince felt that because he was so much bigger than Flair nobody would buy Flair beating him, so if they ever wrestled then Vince would have to win. For once, Hogan was right. Never heard about this; the way it went down is how it was always going to.

I need someone SE-ish to go against Konnan and bring a little change of pace to my promotion, and I have the perfect candidate. While formerly a more serious style wrestler with All Japan, and a good one at that, he later changed his style and attitude and took a more 'entertainment' orientated route. I enjoyed his work a lot during this period, and he never failed to make me laugh, constantly proving that he would have made a great comedic/smartass heel in the US, if given the chance. While his booking in later years would prove the undoing of the formerly great FMW promotion, I'm picking this wrestler because of his work. My next pick is the late and great... Hiromichi Fuyuki!

Honky would have walked out had Vince not changed his mind. Clearly, Honky was legally able do that, suggesting he wasn't under any kind of contract, or if he was it wasn't a very good one.

Matt Hardy vs. Shelton Benjamin for the US title has been added to the Bash this Sunday. -F4W

There were no contracts to speak of back then, so if Honky felt upset enough he could have simply walked out of the WWF and straight onto a primetime NWA broadcast.

Which Booker stole from him. Heck of a babyface right there, saying he doesn't want his stolen property returned to him because he considers it a handout. Wouldn't the badass babyface thing to do be to just take it from Booker there and then, and then proceed to beat the shit of him?

The plans for this match got for enough along for them to shoot pictures for the poster. And yes, Hogan didn't want to put Bret over because he thought he was too small. It probably wouldn't have mattered who was getting the belt, Michaels wasn't doing the job for anyone. Now, whether Shawn could have still gone out there and done his best had he been scheduled to win, is up to you. True story. Bulldog was told he was winning, hence dedicating the match to his dying relative, only for Shawn to refuse to do the job at the last minute. Austin refused to do the job with the belief that, because he was main eventing Wrestlemania a few months later, he shouldn't be doing jobs at that point in time, especially to someone who wasn't at that top level. To be fair, there is a history of heart problems in the Nash family. Also to be fair, it was not, nor will it be, the last time Nash has claimed an injury to get out of a high profile job where he's actually putting someone over. Long story short, Hogan's refusal to job to Jarrett was part of the work that would eventually turn into a shoot. Goldberg was always getting the belt. Hunter felt that doing a short-term title change right before dropping the belt to Goldberg (which was meant to happen at Bad Blood but got postponed when Hunter wanted to keep feuding with his best friend, Kevin Nash) wasn't good business and vetoed the title switch to Booker. While Hunter was right about a short-term title change being bad business, it does make you wonder why this was never decided upon before the heavy racial angles were run. Hunter refused to drop the belt, citing numerous reasons why he felt RVD wasn't good enough. Bottom line, it doesn't matter if RVD was 'good enough', the main thing was he was 'over enough'. I think what people most take issue with is how Undertaker basically treated Brock like he was his bitch in that first match. Brock was the new champion, the rising star, the monstrous powerhouse, and Undertaker barely sells a thing for him and ends up casually tossing him through the scenery to end one of the most poorly received PPV main events in a long time. Austin was wrong to walk out in the manner he did, and I don't think anyone can deny that. However, Austin losing to Brock on free TV with no build, or even facing him in that manner at all, was stupid. Equally petty was the reasoning behind the match being booked in the first place. Re: Austin vs. Hunter at Summerslam '99 Austin was fine with doing the job, and never had a problem with it. Mankind was added for two reasons; they wanted a kick-ass match, which Austin was too banged up for, and they wanted Jesse Ventura to raise a babyfaces hand at the end of the night. There was also some shit about Honky Tonk Man refusing to drop the title to Randy Savage in the 80s, which resulting in them rebooking WMIV to give Savage the World Title...I never understood how that worked though. What part don't you understand? Agreed. Bret flat out refused to do that job. Technically, Bret just refused to job to Shawn in Canada. He was willing to do the job in America, or anywhere else. It seems a little silly, but at least Bret was still willing to job to Shawn, even if he was upset about doing so. Shawn flat out refused to job to anyone, ever.