kaufman316

Maybe Davey Boy Smith? He went from the Germany match with Owen to stumbling around WCW inside of two years at absolute most.

Either a brilliant work or a lame shoot, I think.

"At the end of the day I'm guilty of defending 3 women that needed a bit of defending. Not by being a bully...by being a man."

It also leans on interviews with his colleagues to get some added perspective; recommended reading for anyone interested in the subject himself, I think.

If fantasy booking and we swap either Hulk's Japan connections or AJPW/NJPW's stateside affiliations, does that make a difference?

Mad Max: Beyond Wrestlecrap

I'm curious about this as well. Mania 18...and Mania 25? Yes, I too notice a pattern.

As a fan of Piper I thought the book was informative and insightful. A good amount of it does cover his pre-graps life and unveils some of the kayfabe around his commonly-accepted bio e.g. whence his ring name derives.

Rico Constantino - though underrated, his character and presentation is deep in Boy Territory; no classic matches or legacy to speak of (apart from pinning Ric Flair!) and has turned out to be a bit...troubled as wrestlers so often are, but I would pay money to see him work while most wouldn't...which may be as much a sign of Boyness as anything.

I recall reading that Goldberg's DVD sold well above expectations, and that his video game appearances have been part and parcel with further success and exposure for him and the game franchises. Maybe there's something to that? Vince has typically been receptive to workers who move merch (excepting Those Darn Millenials).

Until this morning when he decided to break off and accuse Kerry Von Erich of being drunk when he crashed his motorcyle (True or not? First I've heard of that) and then call him out for "taking the coward's way out" by committing suicide. Still a shallow idiot at heart, it seems. The problem I found with reading the recaps is that Scooter's database of spurious facts gets mixed into the recaps, and quite frankly I'd rather learn from Dave's work as it was then without second-guessing everything.

Rudimentary observations in these parts, but worth highlighting nonetheless: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/27/magazine/is-everything-wrestling.html

Probably relevant, in a broader sense: http://blogofdoom.com/index.php/2016/05/19/wrestling-mythbusters

To recap: with houses down and PPV increasingly irrelevant, it's mattering less and less how well you do if you're not chosen to receive a rocket push since it won't affect your paycheque or card placement - "the brand is the draw" and the Brass Ring is clearly mythical. And of course, the downside payout for lower-carders is increasingly undervalued given the cost of travel, insurance, etc. remaining constant. I think Ryback's arguement has some merit, but if wealth is wholly flattened out it may strip those who do overachieve of their desire to excel...then again, he might argue that most of the roster is at that point already. By the same token, no other sports or entertainment industry (that I know of) pays all its workers equal wages, but the successful ones have paid enough to everyone to keep even the bottom-tier folks happy - I get the impression that this isn't happening for everyone in today's WWE. Basically, I think a lot of it is that guys are being hosed on the Network residuals, or lack thereof - Punk brought this up before he left, and he's probably not the only one. A flat fee structure for appearing on a Network video would be simple enough to pro-rate, and top guys would make more in their downside and in merch. Failing that...given WWE's television presence it would be simplest if the workers were made members of the Screen Actors Guild, as that would compensate some gaps inherent with their status as Independent Contractors (sic).

WCW left a lot of money on the table in 1998, mostly due to sloppy booking. They would have been well-served to use him in a series of one-off dream matches for PPV or at least Nitro (Goldberg, Luger, Piper, a retread with Savage...), which may have been trainwrecks but would carry marquee value. And even a part-time run with Sting - The Blade Runners Vs. The Outsiders could have been an upper-tier PPV match, if nothing else. Instead, he was fed to Hogan and paid to sit at home (or show up and not be used, as the case may be).