Professional wrestling thread

Tough call. He'd probably get a good push in WWE, and I'd think Vince would reward his loyalty in the face of their worst publicity ever. You'd THINK TNA would give him the world title right out the gate, but they've managed to screw up every good thing to happen to them. ROH would provide more traditionally good matches, but I can't imagine it would be anything other than a place for him to get back in wrestling shape.

They probably can't get him, but there's a guy out there that would give WWE fans something to get excited for, maybe enough that they can get past Benoit and the current/incoming shitstorm:

The Rock.

He's bailed them out before, beating the drum for WWE when Austin walked out on them (the first walkout). He's the WWE alumnus with the biggest name (for good reasons) out there. And he's always been a good ambassador for the fed and wrestling in general. Maybe get a three-four month run out of him, have him talk about how WWE is home and he's there to help rebuild it, segue into a feud with Cena and then he goes back to his movie career. I'd damn sure watch.

 

Jericho, by the way, mentions that his forthcoming book needed to be edited in light of Benoit's actions.

Here's the Q and A item:

Q: Now, this book is a little different from some others by WWE stars in that you really don’t chronicle your time in WWE, correct?

A: Exactly. About two weeks after I left WWE, I got a call from Warner Brothers, who wanted to know if I was interested in doing a book, which I had been thinking about doing. My idea was to base it just on my experiences in Mexico, and they wanted to expand that a bit. So, I thought the story line of the book could be about a kid following his dream from a small town in Canada to WWE, and that’s what we decided on. It’s my whole experience basically from 1990 until I walked out through the curtain for my first Raw in 1999. It’s about all the experiences along the way, from Mexico to Germany to Japan to Canada to Smoky Mountain Wrestling, ECW, WCW and the whole process. I was really, really happy with it, and the few people that I’ve given it to to read – including Mick Foley and Bret Hart – have all said that it’s one of the best wrestling books they’ve read and they really enjoyed it. It was a long process. I wrote it myself. I had a great collaborator that kind of helped me with some of the logistics and things like that, but it took me almost a year and a half to get it right and done. It was done in May of this year, but then last week I kind of had to take it out of print and add and subtract a couple things because Chris Benoit is a very prominent part of the book. I first met him in 1992 and he was very influential in my career, so there’s a lot of things in there that when you re-read them, it’s like, “Wow, I have to take that out.” Something that might have sounded funny at first, you read it back and now in retrospect it’s not as funny. There’s a great picture of me and Nancy and Chris in there that I had to think about taking out. It changes the whole tone of the book from this lighthearted, kind of funny experience to (pauses), you know. I had to write an author’s note explaining that this is the guy from these years and not the guy – basically what I said to you earlier. Having said that, it’s been getting great reviews so far and it’s only now just starting to get circulated. It’s always fun to create something out of nothing, and now I get to add “author” to my list of credits. It wasn’t just some kind of phone-in book where I talk to someone for three hours and now there’s a book put out. And you can tell. You’ll know exactly where if came from when you read it.

This was from a Q&A in Baltimore Sun.

 

If WWE needs a big push like you suggestion MM, The Rock would be a good choice, but I think the Benoit media storm is enough to keep him FAR away from WWE for at least the rest of this year.

If Jericho is coming back to WWE, I'd put him on Smackdown to feud with Matt Hardy, MVP and Edge. If he's on Raw, he could feud with Kennedy, Orton and even Booker. If he were to appear on ECW to give it the rub, a Punk-Jericho match would be great, a Nitro-Jericho feud would be decent and even Jericho vs. CorVon or Burke would be entertaining.

 

I'd rather see Jericho start out as a face on Raw. Build him up against Kennedy, what a terrific feud that would be. Then move him along against the likes of Booker, Orton, and Umaga. Then turn him heelish, have him go up against Cena and Lashley. I would love to see a Edge-Jericho feud as well; I think the two could put on a series of fantastic matches. The possibilities are endless.

Vince could really use Jericho. Not to underscore his death and the horrific tragedy, Benoit was a big player and with Eddie obviously gone (RIP), Angle gone, Christian gone...many of the company's best actual wrestlers have departed and they need a guy who can wrestle as well as put asses in the seats. I firmly beleive the Rock will never be back for more than a few months at a time, so Jericho is the better option.

 

I firmly believe the Rock will never be back period. At least not to wrestle.

 

I'd love to see Jericho-Kennedy or Jericho-Edge. Jericho-Cena could be fun on the mic, but I just can't see Y2J being a heel when he first comes back, which means turning Cena. They'd never be on the level of Jericho-Rock when Chris first came to WWE though.

I'd rather seem him in TNA, though. A Jericho-Christian run would be hilarious. I've thought some of the funniest stuff on wrestling TV the last couple of years has been on there, including a lot of Eric Young's schtick and the interaction between Christian and A.J. Styles. The WWE lost a great worker in Christian, someone who was awesome in the ring and on the mic. Plus, unlike a lot of the people on here, I like the TNA product a little more right now. They put out some great wrestling matches, whereas the WWE pushes a lot of guys (Snitsky, Umaga, Chris Masters) who can't sell a move for a million bucks.

 

I would do a dance of joy (Balki style) if Jericho went to ROH.

That is the type of big acquisition that could help them really begin to make a push to be the No. 2 company.

But I can't imagine they could afford him, unless he worked a deal where merchandise revenue would be part of his salary, or he actually bought a share of ownership.

 

WWE proved last WrestleMania (and now at the Great American Bash) that they are not scared of a big face versus face feud. I think Cena and Jericho could have some pretty good matches and of course it'd be gold outside of the ring.

And about TNA...their in-ring workers are probably overall better. But WWE makes you care about the wrestlers and the matches alot more, which is why their product is currently more watchable in my eyes. They seem to book somewhat in advance, while TNA will throw shit against the wall to see what sticks.

 

Programming alert:

Larry King Live tonight on the Benoit stuff with Bret Hart, Chris Jericho and John Cena. It will run live against Raw for the first hour. Interesting to see how Cena comes off.

 

I bet by fall we're getting Snitsky vs. champion on a ppv. And I'm not excited. How many steroids must he be on? His back has unreal acne.

 

More names come up in Astin probe



by Dave Meltzer

WAGA-TV in Atlanta has just reported that federal investigators have seized all medical records of Dr. Phil Astin and patients Larry Pfolhl (Lex Luger), Marcus Bagwell, Mark Jindrak, Bob Howard (Bob Holly), Chris Benoit, Nancy Benoit, Mike Durham (Johnny Grunge) and Oscar Gutierrez (Rey Mysterio).

The station also reported that M.J. and O.G., the two wrestlers involved in the indictment of overprescribing pain killers were, as speculated, Mark Jindrak and Gutierrez.

 

This, friends, is what pro wrestling means to me: