The industry has moved on. "Have always been" is a big part WWE are in the mess it is in now. It needs to move on and adapt, and actually, I think what they have done with the Women's Division is probably the one thing they're getting right.

Untrue

I see no reason for them not to have a women's rumble next year, it doesn't have to be a 30 women match. It could be have 20 participants if they are struggling.

They have gone further than I ever imagined they would. The Sasha Banks/Charlotte feud and letting them headline a PPV in particular. Unfortunately I feel they shot themselves in the foot somewhat by splitting the division with only 15 performers to begin with, so soon after solidifying it at WM 32. On a positive note it does give more exposure to and time to develop the likes of Carmella, Naomi and Nia Jax.

So because you want to do something everyone else should?

I would have thought by now you would have stopped obsessing and following every word that some random person who has not been relevant for 20 years said, Are you better off for doing so? Or is that not hours of your life wasted?

Attending any live event nowadays cost money.People are more willing to spend money going to a event then they might have done in the past, Much like binge watch is now popular in 2016.

People are not watching "staged fights" they are watching a entertainment show how the entertainment is formed is down to the persons taste, It might be watching random people go clubbing getting drunk and having sex, It might be watching "famous" people sit in a house or a jungle, It might be "famous" people leaning to dance, It might be watching zombie's eat people etc etc etc.

You are not 40 yet? That is a surprise I have to say as by your posts I would have put your age older but today people around 40 are getting more and more social time and can enjoy watching their ideas of entertainment in so many different ways on their phones,Laptops tablets etc, Quite often I see people walking to work while watching something on their phones or tablets.

People today multi-task and do many things are once, They go places and can still enjoy going somewhere while at the same time watching something they enjoy.

Entertainment is very much something you can do on the go nowadays.

Why would someone record something to keep and then not watch it properly. Might as well just record over it.

Are WWE Polls legit?

I cant believe 51 percent actually want to see Goldberg/Lesnar 3 at Wrestlemania. Cant we have something new instead.

Why does Hazy constantly talk about Vince Russo?

Its only happened twice and the first one was how many years ago?

That's quite new

You said he's not relevant, he's the only writer that has worked for all the major wrestling companies. No one else has done that. No one else has done that job in WWE, WCW and TNA and he's been gainfully employed for nearly 25 years doing that same job. So when you say he's not relevant, you would have to explain how he managed to do that job for over 20 years. That's one thing the dirtsheets have against him. Even the almighty Dave Meltzer has never worked for any wrestling company, he's never been in a dressing room. Russo talks often about being in there when the wrestlers are having their shower, talking about their promos, their matches, there was no place he couldn't go.

These are things that every dirtsheet writer wishes they could do but can't do. All they can do is rely on second hand information. It's fairytales. It's make believe just like the business. Only a moron would read a dirtsheet and believe what they say because they don't know anything. They've never worked in the business, never will work in the business.

He's also doing over 250,000 downloads a week on Podcast One, not including his own paid subscriptions thanks to Steve Austin and I know he's good friends with Chris Jericho who is also on there. If he wasn't relevant they would not be endorsing him and helping him, same with Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair, Russo is great friends with them also. Jim Cornette tried to twist things recently about Dutch Mantell and Dan Severn and many months ago Vader. Russo just did an interview with Dan Severn where there were no issues, he even asked him about Cornette saying he ruined his career and Severn rubbished it, he has been friends with Dutch since TNA and recently was on the phone with him for 4 hours and Vader lives in Boulder Colorado where Russo also lives about half an hour from his house and sees him regularly. I would have thought for someone that was irrelevant and hated all these people woulda said something. Russo is friends with everyone but you obviously believe what the dirtsheets tell you. If anything it shows you how easy the fans are to manipulate.


I will not question people watching on their tablets or phones or computers, that is their choice. It's not how I would watch any program or film. Look at Sky and cable. People can now have all those channels and a whole lot more in their living room without any dishes stuck to their wall or cables in their house. I think as time goes on the times of people paying £40 a month to watch TV when they realise a little box and their internet connection can do the same thing will be a major game changer. I know it's all over the UK just now, I don't know how it is in America. Even the Amazon Firesticks and Roku sticks do it and you seen Black Friday there, nearly every TV there was SMART. Forget about it. When more and more people realise what those little sticks and apps can do on their TV, it's over with. I honestly don't see how Sky or Virgin Media can compete with it let alone stop it and more and more people seem to be cottoning onto it and do you know what I notice more and more? It's the football. The way I find most people know about it is the football, my team's game isn't on TV so i need to go on here and watch it this way. It's live sport. I can only imagine their reaction when they see every channel on there that they could ever want. Wrestling however is different here because of the time it is on.

As long as people are paying for the tickets they can keep putting them up. I know back in 2002 that when I first went to a WWE show that £50 was the best seats. Now you can pay £350 for front row and get a chair and merchandise and meet a few wrestlers, you would really need to be a super fan to do it. I can only speak for where i I live, it might be different everywhere else but know here most just can't do it, it's too much when you need an adult to go with the kids, no way a family could do it for under £100. Especially in November just before Christmas infact I could imagine for many kids that is their Christmas present or part of it. What should be a night out and a chance for the family to enjoy a live entertainment show ends up being all about money, it ends up being most people just can't afford to go and by the time the kids are olde rmost have grown out of it anyway. I imagine most kids could be in a wrestling phase and the WWE doing shows local to them and them never having experienced it then when they turn 12 and their forced to grow up and go to secondary school and of course it's forced out of you pretty much unless you want made fun of, those kids will have never known what it's really like. I can only compare it to other travelling shows like the X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing. I don't know what the prices are for those shows but I imagine most families would be the same way, they watch it on TV, they like the dancing or the singing and you want to go see it in person and you want to see the celebs in person. When you have seats at £95 that's just too much. There's people that get less than to keep them all week, pay for their food and electricity and their bills. I imagine many that also work will be the same, they maybe just can't afford it once their bills are paid and rent's paid. I think anybody should be able to see whatever show or sport they want. It should be affordable for everybody.

He is not relevant because things have changed since his days. The number of downloads he does is nostalgia nothing more, People like taking about the old days. He is relevant to the history of the industry but not to today's version, He is no more then the old timer moaning about things in his day much like those from the territories did during his time. He is the modern day Jim Corrnette. He is not relevent because in a business like WWE he would not last a week today. He would not have a single clue how to operate in the company as it is today.

He has not been in this industry's dressing room etc since the many of the current performers was kids. He is part of the history nothing more and nothing less and like many people who have been confined to history likes to pretend he is still part of the business today, He is about part of it today as Frank Goch is

You talk about people being brain washed and easy to manipulate yet you seem to know every single move this person makes, Not been brainwashed or manipulated? Of course.


WCW is long dead and TNA for all its relevance might as well be. Both could never have gone along with the changes to match what is going on now with the entertainment industry. The would still be offering "wrestling" and today you need to offer more

No matter how you try to play it I think you are not in touch with today's society Sky etc will compete by offering more high end and exclusive products. People today will pay top money for their entertainment both going to and watching. I doubt it is different where you live you just either chose not to see it or are just out of touch, Attending a event has become a premium product and people are willing to pay for a premium product, They want to # them being there or check in on FB The days of masses and masses of people being into a certain show etc is long since gone so you need to tailor the events to a certain type of person. The "affordable" for everyone ideal is just that a very nice ideal but not realistic nowadays, Its not how events are run, For The WWE to attract the right business partners and the right brands to connect with they have to aim at a different market then they had to before, The WWE is now a multi media company and with that comes a different role.

I have never read a dirt sheet in my life. I would not even know where to start

First match was pants. It got poor reviews, alough I enjoyed it. Id rather see Goldberg fight someone he hasent wrestled before like Undertaker.

What you've got to remember is that there a lot of new fans since they first fought or even some that were too young to have seen or remember the first fight. Whilst they can watch it back now they would still have a greater urge to see a new one than a fan who saw it live at the time and was disappointed.

Well it's been about 5 years since he was in a TNA locker room.

And you're right enough. He would be old hat now but isn't Vince McMahon still there? Isn't Triple H still there? Isn't Pat Patterson still there? Road Dogg? DId they not have RIcky Steamboat around, they definately had Dusty around before he passed. I'll say this, that's a hell of a lot of people that were around in the 90s, a lot of old timers there still in the business and it was the same 20 years ago. A lot of older faces that just couldn't change. Just because someone is older and their way of doing things is different doesn't mean they can't contribute or give good ideas. Wrestling will never be that popular again. You'll never see that many millions watching ever again. That's why I still enjoy Hogan and Flair........some of you that are younger than me wont understand that but let me tell you, forget about it, they just don't make them like that anymore. It'll never be that good again. A good time to be alive. I'm glad I saw the best years of wrestling.


The WWE is a big company and has many different sides to it and i'm sure each side has it's own set of regulations, I'm sure the whole company has to tow many lines to keep business partners happy but for many people they will always be a wrestling company and that is what they will judge it on.

TNA lockeroom says it all, Pretty sure they let anyone in there. It did not have any real say in anything 5 years ago and has even less now, They have tried and deserve some credit for the Broken Matt gimmick etc, But even 5 years ago he was no more then a old timer trying to get back the glory years and looking for a nice pay day, Now he gets the pay day from being a nostalgia act and maybe because he knows nothing else and his stick just won't cut it no more so spends his days complaining

Its not trying to be that popular again, No matter what they do, no matter who they put in charge those days are gone they in the past, The game has changed the ones that are still there are still there because they are working with today's mindset not "what use to be". Vince always understood marketing and branding, That's what the business is today, That's what brings in the money, That's what they are selling. People can judge it what they want but I would have thought it was a waste of their time to judge something on critia they not trying to judged on.

Some people are more likely to adapt then others, Some people instead of talking about the "good old days" embrace change, Dusty did that when the territories died what did he do? Put on poka dots and danced, When those days went he went Black and White each time working out what the company was about and working with that framework, He did that with NXT, He said this is the way things are going so I am going to work that way. H.H.H again always been very good at branding and you can see that with N.X.T.

They don't "make them like that anymore" for a very good reason they not needed to be that way anymore, They need something different so are making them different. They are making what they need to grow the business instead of taking it back to the "good old day"

They have uses like they used Flair with Charlotte but once she was ready to do the job they needed from her, They moved him on.

They did move Flair on but what about Goldberg? And before that Brock Lesnar and before that The Rock? You can't tell me that they don't bring these people back for any other reason other than to sell Wrestlemania. If they really believed in their roster they wouldn't need to bring them back.

So if the way forward is to disregard a good 30 years of history and the way IT WAS, then why bring back old names? If you don't want wrestlers to look and talk and act that way anymore then why pay millions to bring them back. There's even talk of Shawn Michaels coming back in January. It can't work both ways. And that includes NXT. Why have NXT if only a handful make it to the main roster and even then that handful is never gonna be made to look as good as a Brock Lesnar or Goldberg or maybe even Cena or Orton who are now part timers. There is no glass ceiling, you're only gonna get so far.

What that tells me is Vince McMahon himself knows, no matter how many NXT shows there are and how many Raws and Smackdowns there are, those wrestlers do not appeal to the wider audience, they need the old timers and all it does is remind people how good wrestling used to be which isn't right because as you said it can't be that way anymore.


And you mention Dusty Rhodes changing what he did in the business, he did adapt well but when he was adapting, the actual wrestling part of the business never changed. It was always based on 2 people fighting, the babyface and heel roles never changed, the way the wrestlers worked never changed, they sold the moves, there was psychology. The WWE has even changed all that, constant super kicks, everyone seems to just kick each other in the face or head and everyone loves diving through the middle rope. They've changed the fundamentals of wrestling. There is no heat anymore. Heels can't get heat, no one does anything bad or violent and the babyfaces never really triumph. A fan that used to watch can't even be guaranteed good quality wrestling anymore. It's not just the young guys in their early 20s, it's wrestlers in their 30s doing all the kicking to the head and kicking to the face and diving through the ropes. For many people it's just not wrestling anymore and it's not like the old days at all. And you say they want to build the brand and everything, that's fine but why change the inring aspect? It didn't need changing. They're making too many changes and I think many of them are not needed and I think will hurt them in the long run.

Nostalgia sells, Its all part of branding and adding a premium name. The Rock is one of the biggest brands around, Lesner/Goldberg also attract links like ESPN.

You maintain some links with history of course but you frame it in the right way, You cherrypick the bits that suit your current business plans,

Of course it can work both ways as long as they done in the right way (which they have been to most extent)

They needed to change the fundamentals of wrestling, Because there was more profitable markets out there. It did need changing. It needed to be more of a business that could attract new revenue streams, No its not like the old days because they are gone. Its a business that has been around so long that it either changed and moved to something different and stuck with the same core audience or changed to something else. They needed to start selling something else or there was no point in carrying on being in business. You could not build the brand and everything with out changing the in ring aspect, It would not attract the right people and the right money and the corporate links. You have often talked about missing the sexuality well the type of money and links that a company the size of the WWE need don't want people who enjoy that sort of thing to a large extent

The company has got so big that doing things the way they use to was just not going to work, Times have changed and they needed to look at other things to do,

It wont hurt them in the long run because you just look at their social media footprint (something that is very important) for example and the cross section it attracts, That's part of the long term, For the first time in its entire history its a genuine business and not just a wrestling company, It can attract a cross-section of different revenue streams and people, From someone like Coke-Cola to Conrr McGregor. Without the changes made it would be giving it self less options

Well it seems like less and less people are watching on TV and that is where they get most of their money. They can talk about Youtube all they want but Youtube isn't paying them $160 million a year for Raw and Smackdown, USA Network is. I'm not sure of the exact number Sky paid them but there's no way they will get that kind of money again in 2019. The bleeding of viewers wont stop and I think what they forget is, TV companies don't make any money from Twitter or Facebook or Youtube, so when WWE points out all these followers and likes and viewers.....they don't do anything for Sky Sports or USA Network or any other channel. They don't see a penny of that. All they want is people watching the shows on their channels. I don't think WWE will dissappear of TV altogether in 2019 but I can't see either one wanting as much programming.


The WWE is like so many other corporations out there just now, it really is a big corporate brand that sells the brand. There's definately a place on the show for the legends but I can't help but feel for many people all it does is give them a sad reminder of what once was, just how good wrestling used to be. It's got everything on it. The problem I have with it is that they tend to do it around the big shows. Obviously Goldberg will be at Wrestlemania and he will be on the poster. He will end up selling the show or being part of the reason people want to see it. All that tells me is they don't have enough faith to let the younger stars sell the show. It's almost like now we're 5 years on from The Rock's return, Wrestlemania is more about who's coming back for a big match. Everyone else is second place and that's why I wonder in 5 years from now, how many of these old timers are really gonna be able to do this, even just a cameo and doing their finisher, it can only go on for so long and they will show their age. I think 5 years is enough of these big shows like Wrestlemania and Summerslam and now the Royal Rumble again where the focus is on older stars coming back to the ring but of course as you said the brand sells it anyway, people pay to see WWE, they don't pay to see individual matches. PPV tickets are sold weeks in advance of any matches being announced.

Maybe from a business standpoint it all adds up but I think for many people that watch current day WWE and compare to an older WWE product, even from 10 years ago, 2006/2007 WWE was still full of stories. They had comedy, they had the violence, the sexuality, the soap opera, they had a few decent wrestling matches, they catered to everyone, a little bit of everything for everyone, whatever you were into you could see it. For many people I think it's a case of why fix it if it's not broken? It was fine the way it was. I don't think 2006/2007 Raw would get anywhere near ESPN!

Good morning everyone and anyone staying up

Boooooooooooo Reigns

Roadblock End Of The Line.

Guess they remembered they have already had a Roadblock this year.

The ramblings of a mad man...

I was going to stay up but it just feels like the same old again tonight. Dont think I will ever get over it going to 3 hours, always feels like to much od a commitment just to get to the end

How is Rusev the heel in this segment?

I was just thinking the same thing same as the Reigns feud both times all Rusev has done is defend his wife.

So Sacha wins the title on Raw again.

Guess Charlotte takes it back at Roadblock End Of The Line.