Scott Keith

Confidential

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Hi Scott

 

I recently finished reading Inside the Ropes magazine and your column about
the debut episode of Confidential was by far the best thing about it. I was
wondering, with episodes on the Network now, any chance you’d be reviewing the
show on the Blog? I found it funny how quickly they ran out of interesting stuff
to run so practically every episode had a new “making of” feature on the latest
PPV commercial, just to fill time. Lots to snark
on!

If the blog would be interested in reading my reviews of the show, I'd have no problem with that.  I was kind of using it as my go-to thing for the magazine articles for a while but there's usually enough bullshit WWE documentary shows produced that I don't need to any longer.  

Greg Gagne World Heavyweight Champion

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With your newfound love for Greg Gagne, I thought I’d asked you about the fact Greg never became the AWA world champion. Or, more precisely, how incredible it is that his dad never booked him as the champion, as the AWA was dying?


It’s pro wrestling. Egos dictate everything. Vince McMahon won the Royal Rumble. He also became WWE champion. Vince Russo booked himself to win the WCW championship, to go over Ric Flair and never actually lost a match in that promotion! Verne Gagne once booked himself to win the AWA championship and then retired while still being the champion!


Greg Gagne had a main event feud against AWA champion Curt Hennig. In the dying days of the promotion, he was about the only one Verne could count on to not leave the sinking ship for the WWF or the NWA. But Verne Gagne still never made him his son the champ.


A testament of how serious Verne was about his business and the sanctity (!) of pro wrestling in general, even as everything was crumbling around him?



Look, the problem is that it would have made TOO MUCH money. Verne was flying under the radar as a small business, and Greg Gagne drawing 20,000 people every night would have put him into a tax bracket that he wasn't prepared to deal with. Plus then he would have had to buy out Vince and there would have been way too much paperwork to deal with.


Now, some people would tell you that in fact he tried to put the title on him several times and the local promoters refused to work with him if he went ahead with it, but they're LIARS. We know the real truth, which is that Greg was too beautiful for this business.

Well. I thought it was cool

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Scott- 

What old gimmick or name that you may not want to admit now. But at the time you thought it was cool however, people just shit on it nowadays?

Like a song that you turn up in your car only when you are alone?

After watching Steve Austin in Ecw in real time as a teenager.  I thought the ringmaster name and gimmick was cool. 

They wrestle in a ring!  He’s the master of it! How did they not use this name before!?!

Obviously- wrong side of history on that one. 

Just wondering if you had any?

And not the Waylon mercy’s of the world where it was “ahead of its time”.

Something you look back on like.  Yeeeeesh.

I mean, looking back on stuff and going “yeeeeesh” is like my whole deal.  But I'd say maybe Rick Steiner's regression to a childlike state in the Varsity Club with the talking hand nonsense before finding the Steiner Brothers is one of the more misguided character turns I can remember.  

AEW Thoughts

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Scott,

 

Random AEW thoughts:

 

  1. Am I the only one who sees the Tay Conti / Anna Jay pictures and thinks an iconic like gimmick would be appropriate?
  2. Did Don Callis raid Sonny Crockett’s closet for his suits?
  3. Can the Young Bucks rompers just go away?

 

1.  No.  You leave them alone, they're doing fine.  

2.  That's part of his charm!  

3.  Maybe, but then they'll probably come up with an even more obnoxious outfit so perhaps we should let them have it.

Horseman tag-team against nWo

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Your recent nitro reviews had me remembering around the birth of the nWo, they really missed some quality matches by just having The Outsiders feud with Benoit/Anderson for the belts before AA got injured. Horsemen would have been over huge i think as faces against them, as Harlem Heat were heels alrady, Steiners weren't as mobil. Nastys & Public Enemy were a required taste.  Imagine Benoit bumping all around for Hall & Nash and AA for the hot tag with the fisticuffs and tom-foolery!  THEN you free up McMichael to steal the show with Joe Gomez night after night!

I'm still bitter that Sting got the spot that was obviously intended for Joe Gomez.  

NXT 3.something?

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Dear fearless leader, not that I care about such things, being the BoD's resident cat, but wouldn't this be NXT 3.0, or even 4? Game Show->Developmental->HHH's Indy Dream->Whatever the hell this is?

PS: I can see the bottom of the food bowl. Why the hell are you starving me?

PPS: Spaniels did it. It wasn't me. I was asleep.

Cat Minion

It's “peerless leader”.  

Also 2.0 refers to the average length of the matches in minutes, so the math checks out.  

Boogie Woogie

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Haven't googled, haven't checked old papers/magazines or anything. Did Jimmy Valiant ever appear in the WWF in any capacity? Masked or otherwise? 

No.  

Oh wait, aside from the time he was half of the World tag team champions in the 70s for an entire year and part of one of the most famous tag teams in history.  But other than that, no.  

Wrestlers succeeding in other fields.

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Scott,


Thanks for your hard work over 25+ years.


Out of everyone who has initially made their mark in pro wrestling, who would you judge has had the greatest level of success in non-wrestling fields of show business?


And if your answer is 'John Cena', who else?

The Rock has a good career ahead of him, I think. 

What If…..

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Hi Scott,

I've been working my way through the 96 and 97 Raws and PPVs.  A couple of quick questions:

1. If Bret and Shawn could have found a way to coexist and at least manage to somewhat respect each other, could things have turned out differently during this period?  Would it have turned out better for Bret, or was his relationship with the WWE always going to end bitterly?

2. It seems like the hidden MVPs during this era are Mankind and Vader.  It seemed they always worked their asses off and gave their all in every match they starred in.  Foley especially with his matches against Shawn Michaels and Undertaker.  I've always thought Foley got over through sheer force of will being one of the most unlikely WWE Superstars ever.  Agree or am I off base?

Thanks!
1.  I think if Shawn wasn’t around, Bret would still be around today.  But together, one was always going to lose the battle and it was Bret.  
2.  Foley, absolutely.  Vader was a major disappointment on all levels though.  He made a huge mistake ever leaving WCW.  

A Concerned AEW Fan

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Hello, Scott. I am a huge fan of AEW, but I have noticed something really jarring about AEW. Over the course of their events I have developed a significant concern for AEW’s front row fans. I do not believe it is safe to be sitting front row at AEW events, especially for kids. I have witnessed many “incidents” occur. Some of those “incidents” are… 

– Eddie Kingston dismantling a table and chucking pieces into the crowd. That could have impale a kids head when they weren’t looking.
– The Young Bucks throw thumbtacks to their opponents with the crowd right there. Thumbtacks could have pierced the eyes of a child sitting front row blinding them.
– Andrade ramming into the loosey goose barricades that have, which hit a kid. If that kid was bending down tying his shoes, that barricade could have forcefully bash into the kids head potentially causing brain damage.
– CM Punk stage diving into crowds… Some fans are big and Punk isn’t checking to see if there aren’t any infants behind those big fans.
– Etc.

This list goes on and on.  I just worry that one of these days something really bad may happen and I would hate to see that. I am just curious of your take and the takes of others on BoD regarding this. Thank you for your time.

Man I thought you were going somewhere wacky with that one but yeah actually there’s legit concerns in there.  The thumb tack stuff was bothering me as well.  That being said, a real wrestling fan would relish the opportunity to be bashed in the face by the Young Bucks and would likely get their neck brace autographed by them as well.  

Hotshots

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So that Dynamite demo butt kicking you predicted this week didn't go so well huh? It's been very quiet on the Metzler front, no victory laps on the blog. Look, they put on a great show, Omega vs BD match was awesome, although not the greatest TV match ever seen which the AEW Stans are trying to claim it was. And good for them, even if clearly they didn't get the demo results they hoped for. But now that we know the ratings are they a disappointment, which Uncle Dave said it would be if they didn't beat the Raw demo? 


Also since it's been such a big topic the past week, I just don't understand why when AEW and WWE gives us huge matches on free TV it's LOL WWE and OMG AEW for hotshotting? Like isn't the whole point of ratings to pop them? Money in the bank briefcase is literally a tool from them to pop a rating at any moment with a championship match. Why would they use it anywhere else but on TV, they don't care about PPV buys since they have the network. If anything AEW has the most to lose since PPV revenue is so big for them.


And much as AEW Stans want to say they hotshotted Roman onto Raw promotional ads for this past Monday proved it was the plan for over month with half the roster gone on UK tour. I am surprised they actually made a story about it rather than just having him show up. AEW has been living off hotshotting their whole run, from Mox vs Omega, Blood and Guts, and multiple other examples. And that's fine because again TV money is what is keeping both companies alive. But at least for AEW at some point they are going to need to pop a rating without relying on a PPV match or debut. CM punk bump is gone, I can't see BD drawing bigger than the Omega match, maybe a Bray debut gets them another strong week but long term what gets their viewership even or above Raw? Obviously it's not the Omega championship run and clearly they didn't have faith in Hangman. Cole is great but he aint gonna do it, ditto for Darby and MJF. What's gonna get AEW over the hump, or are you less confident that happens now?

Zzzzzzzzzz….

Worst WWE decision of 2021

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Which of these WWE decisions of 2021 was the worst, so far?


Releasing Aleister Black, Ruby Riott, Bray Wyatt, Andrade…

Turning Becky Lynch heel. 

Decimating NXT.

Turning Bronson/Rex Steiner into Bron Breakker.

Turning NXT's unbeaten champ into a jobber in his WWE debut. 
Decimating NXT at least gave them a two week ratings bump.  Turning Becky heel and giving up all the merch money is just mind numbingly stupid though.  

Danielson – Omega: The Next Chapter

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Following the 30 minute draw, how do you book the Danielson-Omega feud going forward, Scott?

For me, I think Omega ducks and dodges a rematch with Danielson, while Danielson chases him and has to go through other members of the Elite or wrestlers who think he jumped the line. Finally, he gets a 60 minute title match…that also goes the distance. This leads to a final, no-time-limit match for the title (assuming Omega still has it; this could be booked to stretch out quite a while and he may drop it to Hangman or someone else in the meantime), and honestly I can make credible arguments for putting either guy over in that one. What's your take?

Best wishes as always

Yeah I think a 60 minute draw and then no time limit PPV title match is the play.  

Favorite Hulkster Tall Tale?

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With the Hulkster's little white lies back on the tip of every Hulkamaniac's tongue, dude, we here at Obtuse Angles are talking about our favorite Hulk Hogan Tall Tales, jack! What's your favorite one, brother? Mine is the real American himself was a Japanese shoot fighter in the 70's! Care to fire up three times and give us a plugsky?



I’m still fond of the idea that he was going to be in Metallica and had to pass.  

AEW on TBS

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Scott,


    Any insight on why they are moving networks?  I imagine it doesn't affect viewership at all (if you have TNT, you have TBS), just seems like an odd move with how successful it's been for them, unless they just really believe that it's taking away from the 981648 commercials they need to run for Snowpiercer.

Because TBS won’t preempt them for basketball and hockey a milllion times.  

STING!

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How great is Sting in his current role? It's so fanatic he is getting another final run to wash the taste of his stint in the WWE out of our mouths. Has any company done such a good job with late stage careers as AEW? Are there any individual runs, Minoru Suzuki aside, that come close?
Sting is having so much fun out there and it shows.  And yeah, Suzuki is about the only other contender at the moment.  

Bron Steiner… a wise move?

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Hi Scott,


Long time reader, short time emailed.


There seems to be quite a lot of anger/confusion regarding the naming of Bron Breaker and whilst on the surface it does seem like just another strange decision by the powers that may be, is there an argument that if you're Bron it might be wise to not have
your family heritage trademarked by the company you work for?


It does seem odd that WWE wouldn't use his family name given that they're usually so hot on 'next-gen' superstars. Can you shed any light on why they might have decided against it? 


He certainly looks like they're strapping at least a small rocket to him in this new version of NXT but if he should find himself wanting to leave further down the road (or gets future endeavoured etc) then it'd be easy for him to promote himself freely as
a Steiner, wherever he ends up? 


Sidenote: What do you think the odds are that Bron gets called up to main roster further down the line and they pretend that nobody watches NXT and just rebrand him as Bron/Rex Steiner and suddenly start mentioning his lineage?

 

The issue appears to be that Big Uncle Pump is still holding a grudge with HHH and is making life difficult over the Steiner trademarks.  But by Jove we need a better name for this poor bastard.  

Another Selling the WWE question.

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Would it be possible for HHH, Stephanie, Shane, and a few others (like, say Shawn Michaels)  come together to raise the money need to buy the WWE from Vince and keep it in the family?  Sorta like how Vince had help from Gorilla Monsoon, Pat Patterson, etc. to buy the WWF from his father?  Or is that too complicated to do now because of all the Wall Street stuff to do now?

Short answer, no, they can’t. Vince has controlling stock with special powers so that if he sells stock, it converts to lower grade stock with limited voting powers.  As far as I know when Disney or NBC buys them they’ll have to buy the entire company outright.   

Cody Heel Turn

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Hey Scott- After last night, you have to turn Cody heel right? There was a great moment during the match when he climbed up the turnbuckle and took in all the boos, and you would hope for a company that is so good at listening to their fans that Cody has to go full bad guy for a while.

If so, how would you book it? Who would you put him up against to avoid getting full on go-away heat?


I think he’s just going away for a while to do his reality shows and they can dodge the bullet for a while.