The Unknown Poster

Biggest Star of All Time - I'd caveat this as "modern" era (ie. since national expansion). Because if its truly all time, you have to look at Bruno Sammartino, Jim Londos etc. I think the list might look like: 1) Hogan 2) Austin 3) Rocky 4) Andre 5) Cena And thats without doing a little research. Ric Flair was huge everywhere that WWE wasnt. And he was a ratings mover even when being booked under in WCW in the late 90's. He didnt mean anything in WWE though, oddly enough. He also popped a gigantic rating for the first Hogan/Flair match in WCW which was long after that match should have meant anything. Goldberg was a mover too but had limited longevity. Randy Savage was good. Sting was never much of a draw on top, which might be surprising. It might have to do with the idea that WCW was more of a "workers" promotion so their fans were conditioned to see great work from the top guys and Sting wasnt a great worker or a great promo (much better promo now even in deliverying horribly written WWE promos). He drew the one monster buy rate for the Hogan match at Starrcade but the match was so bad and Hogan had the fix in on Sting that match to cut his balls off (and cut Bret's balls off at the same time). Can't really argue with most entertaining right now. Its pretty subjective. New Day would get plenty of votes. Paul Heyman would too. I cant imagine any scenario where Sheamus is WWE Champion other than the fact WWE are too blinded by their own BS to see that he shouldnt be. If I had to bet, I'd bet Seth beats Sting to declare himself the best ever, better than Hunter because I guess WWE is retconning all of wrestling history to record that Hunter is somehow they greatest of all time (barf). Plus, they seem to think they are still at war with WCW so they wont want Sting to win. And they arent even pretending to book this match like it matters. All Sting's and Seth's promos are about Hunter. I agree though, I like Ambrose. If he got the Roman push, he'd be their top guy right now. Instead they use the more over guy (Ambrose) to try and help get over the guy they want to be the more over guy (Roman), Owens is great too, unique look. They better knock off the fat jokes though. Cesaro could be something too. I'd consider giving him a suave super-agent type of gimmick because he sort of has that Bond villain thing going on. I'd like to also mention Sasha Banks who is terrific and could be a huge star if they let her. Lets talk top five best of all time (modern era) using the combination of talent, promos, charisma and "it" factor. This is sometimes a popularity contest and we're all biased. 1) Ric Flair 2) Bret Hart 3) Kurt Angle 4) Brock Lesnar 5) Austin/Rocky (tie) When I give guys direction though, I'll say things like "sell like Ricky Steamboat". Recently I told one of our tag teams to stop watching the Young Bucks and start watching The Midnight Express and Tully/Arn. To a degree, thats a measuring stick if guys in the business use certain guys to learn from...because it means they are the best, certainly at specific aspects that they want to emulate. A ton of indy guys cut promos like the Rock once he burst onto the scene. You had your Goldberg clones. One of my competitors who Im not a huge personal fan of, I always complement his selling as "Steamboat-like". We had a group of guys who used to study a lot of Japanese tapes and they'd be criticised but they would take things from Japanese workers and incorporate them into an American style and got over big locally (and ended up working in Japan and Mexico).

Get rid of our only top tier LHD so we can keep our third top tier RHD. Makes sense.

Saw Jeb Bush on Colbert last night (the new Late Show is a discussion for another thread) and he reminded me why I liked him. He was personable, engaging, funny, self-deprecating and willing to criticism his brother and compliment the Democrats. He made a great point early saying Obama doesnt have ill-intentions, they just disagree. Seems to be positioning himself as the candidate that can work with both sides. He also was critical of his brother for not reeling in Republican spending. So again, he's saying he can work with the Democrats and be tough on the Republicans. He needs to show more personality in debates if he wants to get back into this thing. He has a likeable personality.

You keep saying Top 5 like it means something. So who are the top 5 in your opinion? Well, let's see... Cena, Rollins, Orton, Undertaker, Lesnar. Orton is unfortunately being used in that snoozefest feud with Sheamus. It looks like it will never end. Well that's a pretty subjective top five. Cena is the #1 merchandise seller and "draw" but far from top worker. Seth could be the best worker they have right now but ratings are down under him as champion though he hasnt been booked very well since winning the title. Undertaker is a needle-mover for PPV's (ie. he's a draw) but he can barely work now. Orton means nothing as a draw or ratings mover and I'd guess his merch is "okay" but not huge. His in-ring work is just about as "perfect" as you can get if you went back to 2003 and built a prototypical WWE worker. Unfortunately that also means he's boring and he's very played out. He's popular enough that WWE always goes to him when they need a secondary face under Cena but he prefers being heel and his style is suited more for a heel. Orton came along at a time when WWE decided if they got a good guy at 20 years old, they could have a top draw for 20 years. It had been a trend that top guys hit their stride in their mid-30's and then only have about 5 years as tippy top guys who could handle the work-load and keep up in the ring. So Orton was pushed super hard as a 20-something. But all it did was make him played out before he was 30. And again, he was the victim of the HHH-style of cutting everyone's balls off. Orton's face turn was historically bad.

The problem with choosing a top five is its so subjective depending on the parameters. Hulk Hogan would never be on anyone's top five as an in ring talent. But he's the most famous wrestler of the modern era. The original national expansion and boon period was built on his back. He's likely #1 in a top five of most important guys to WWE of the modern era. On the flip side Ric Flair wasn't as famous as Hogan but just as important to Crocket promotions and WCW. There's a good chance without Flair, Ted Turner dkesnt buy the company. He's probably not top five pure worker but he gets consideration as #1 overall wrestler of his time. In recent years, Daniel Bryan might be #1 when you consider work rate and popularity together. But Bryan didn't draw a lot of money by himself in the same way Hogan drew money or Austin drew money. And it's a shame that when Austin finally got close to the top he was so beat up he wasn't the same calibre of worker he had been. Brock doesn't mean much for ratings now but he still draws "PPV" buys. He might be #1 most credible guy right now. You could argue Rollins is the #1 worker right now but he doesn't draw and Cena is still the biggest drawing card. Kevin Owens ha actually been drawing good houses working with Cena, more so than other guys in the same Position so it says Owens is a draw. The largest WrestleMania buy rate ever was drawn by the Rock. Kevin Nash was critical in WCW overtaking WWE but as WWE chamoion he was the worst of the modern era and was eventually detrimental to WCW too. HBK wasn't a big draw on top. But a great worker. Bret was a great worker, a good draw and helped turn around the WWE as champion and especially as heel foil for Austin in 96/97. But meant nothing to wcw. Give me a category for top five specifically and we can make our lists. And ofcourse this is North America because Japan is a whole different story.

Narcos is phenomenal.

If Nichols lights it up this weekend, then what....?

Yeah well if they are third last this year they have plenty of Space. Some guys will move on to make room. Keep in mind Myers has a contract that pays diminishing dollars every year. So while his cap hit is consistent it frees up cash.

They are third last in cap if I recall.

Wasn't much of an issue for the public or the opposition until they thought they could hang it on Harper. Whoops.

The jets can absolutely afford everyone. Whether they choose to is a different discussion.

The timing is suspect? Never before have so many been so happy at the photo of a dead child. Should have been the turning point on the election against the opposition. Aren't we still waiting for the apology? Zero class.

Is Marcel the assistant HC? Ie is he too involved in helping adds experienced MOS with his duties that MOS is afraid to fire him and lose that safety net? Just spitballing. We don't know what happens behind the scenes. Maybe there is a real sense Howell and Buck aren't ready. Maybe Wase already has Khari on speed dial for end of season.

The riders fired their coach and GM. How we go on not even firing MB is beyond me. Fire them both

Irving is a great announcer but a world class pansy.

Morons think that.

It's not just politics or awwww shucks too bad. It's absolutely embarrassing dispicable disgusting behaviour. It's the type of sickening BS that SHOULD cause public approval to turn against the shameful opposition. It's beyond anything else. It should be the defining moment of this election But the media doesn't care. They are puppets. I hope Harper wins and folds the CBC

No one legitimately thought that.

Make him the media relations guy. Then at least when local media fawn all over him it sort of makes sense.

This is Sheamus' make over lol. At his age he's likely not getting any great revamping of his character. I'm truly surprised they went with him as the MITB winner because that usually ends up in a world title run and I can't see it for him. He was a HHH work out buddy years ago and they had him tapped as the heir apparent to Cena if you can believe it. Another example of wwe choosing a guy to be on top rather than pushing a guy on top that is organically over with the crowd.

Not Much chatter here about the disgisting politicizing of a child's death by the NDP, Liberals and CBC For anyone who says the CBC isn't 100% anti Harper, there can no longer be any doubt. Have they apologized yet? Has Trudeau? How about the NDP MP who claimed he hand delivered a refugee request for this boy's family to the Minister? Has he apologized? It's not even about them all "getting it wrong". It's how quick they embraced the opportunity to frame Harper as a "baby killer" Dispicable.

They changed directions with Heyman. That was the problem. They wanted an excuse to have Heyman on TV without Brock so put him with Cesaro but then decided he would also keep talking about Brock. So Cesaro came across as an after though.

What do you think of Cesaro? I have mixed feelings. Awesome wrestler but doesn't seem to have the personality. He's not allowed to have a personality. He's being squashed to push Kevin Owens. Andre The Giant had absolutely no personality yet he was famous. Cesaro has ten times the ability of Owens. I wouldn't say that. Owens is very very good. Had the pleasure of having him work for me a few years back. Cesaro is also very good. The fact two ROH guys are essentially semi main eventing WWE is great.

Cesaro's got it.

So they were scared to comply or they wre finally able to do what they knew was right? She was imposing her beliefs on her deputies?