Scott Keith

The Other Harts


Stu Hart pretty much trained all of his children to become wrestlers, yet only Bret and Owen gained any fame outside of Canada for it.  So how were the other siblings? Any special gems that never got their due? Have you ever seen a Stu Hart match and how was he as a wrestler?


I've never seen a Stu match because there's no footage still existing of him as far as I know.  He was a pretty elite shooter, though, by all accounts.  

As for the others, Keith was fine in the mid-card role.  Bruce is Bruce and we know my feelings on him.  Wayne was a referee and occasionally worked matches early on, I think.  Ross and Smith were more on the production side.  I don't feel like anyone missed a great calling as a main event star or whatever.  

Seth Rollins

Scott – do you know what the Endgame was for Rollins title reign after he cashed in on Brock at WM 31?  He carried the title for several months before he had to give it up due to injury.   Any idea if he was going to keep it all the way until WM 32?   
Yeah, they seemed to be rolling towards either Seth v. Roman or a Shield three-way for the title.  Either one would make sense. 

Point of Brand Extension?

Is there any reason why you think the WWE has continued the brand extension?  This "wild card rule" has basically made it null and void anyways, as it sure hasn't increased the quality of Raw or Smackdown.  

They're really into branding and creating the illusion of their own competition and I think that's really the only reason why they're still clinging to the nonsense at this point.  It's even crazier because there's five different tag team titles defended across their various brands and what feels like 3 teams in contention for any of them.  When you can leave the RAW tag champs off TV for two months and no one notices, there's too many titles.  

Missing PPVs?

Scott,

Hello from a longtime reader, someone who’s written articles you’ve kindly linked to, and a member of your WWE Champions faction. You recently mentioned that you’re running out of Superstars and Heat to review. I know your heart and page views lie with the golden age/attitude era stuff, but maybe you could fill in some WWE PPVs you’ve missed? I know the idea of watching a million Cena v Orton matches must seem less than thrilling, but you could split them up across multiple days – say, an hour of a PPV a day – like you’ve been doing for the longer NJPW rants. And you might discover a few gems now that you have some distance from that grind. Anyway, just a thought. Love the work, all the best to you and your family.
I was doing that for a while but time is always an issue.  But yes, it's my long term goal to fill in all the gaps again and get those pesky 2007-2011 shows all caught up. 

Perfect/Henning & Five-Star Matches




Hey Scott,


Long-time fan…the discussion about five-star matches made me think of one of my all-time favorites: Mr. Perfect Curt Henning. Am I right in thinking he never had a five-star singles match during any of his WWF/WCW runs? Mind-boggling considering he's one
of the greatest technical wrestlers ever IMO and the talent he had to work with (Bret, Shawn, Flair, Benoit , Eddie). I'd say he ranks up there with Dibiase as the #1 also-ran. Why do you think that was?


As always, keep up the excellent work…


I think it was really that his body was wrecked by the time he got to the national stage like that.  The spirit was willing but the flesh was weak or however you want to phrase it.  

Mid-Atlantic

Scott:

For what it’s worth, I loved the Mid-Atlantic reviews. I guess you need more people to justify doing them, but I dug it. I’d be down for any reviews of NWA Worldwide from the mid-80s, which I loved as a kid.

The show actually recovered well by the end of the day in terms of pageviews and revenue, if it makes you feel better.  Plus I've only got something like 5 episodes each left for Superstars and Heat, so I'm gonna need SOMETHING in the 40 minute range to review when those are done.  So we'll see.  It didn't end up as a total dumpster fire like Lucha Underground but I can usually tell when people are interested in something and this wasn't it.  Maybe if I go back to the more "modern" 1985 era I was doing for a bit? 

An uncomfortable question about the current state of affairs


Good morning Scott,

We all keep wondering about the lack of creatively and disappointing
booking from WWE… but what if the McMahon family are starting to feel the effects
of CTE? I was originally joking when I brought this up with friends but I’m starting to
wonder if the majority stockholders of WWE are starting to slowly lose their
minds from repeated concussions? You know they all have taken big bumps outside
of Linda. Wouldn't this explain things just a little bit? 

Shane is clearly suffering long-term damage from his career, and that's not even being facetious.  He can't remember promos and constantly messes up spots in his matches.  And that's not even counting the fact that he nearly has a heart attack doing his own ring entrance.  It's crystal clear he should be nowhere near a ring, which is why the current push is all the more sad. 

As for Vince, I wouldn't be shocked at all, if all the chairshots in the 90s are catching up to him.  Plus he's already older than his father was when he died and already appears to be turning in Verne Gagne.  

Two more 5 star match questions

Hi Scott,

Worst wrestler to achieve a 5 star match and best wrestler to never have a 5 star match?

If we're including WarGames then there's a whole host of answers, including Sid Vicious and Ray Traylor.  If we're only talking singles matches, then probably Scott Hall or Davey Boy Smith (or at least Davey in that stage of his life).  


Best to never have one has got to be wrestling's ultimate bridesmaid, Ted Dibiase. 

Shane as Champ

All jokes aside, if WWE actually went ahead and put the title on Shane would that be the modern day “Finger Poke of Doom”?

AEW is releasing Fyter Fest for free, and probably eagerly waiting for Vince to do something like this that would alienate the whole audience, fan base and wrestlers.

We survived Vince as champion, but if they do pull on the trigger on Shane, then that's gonna be an all-timer up there with Vince Russo and David Arquette's reigns. 

Ex-Wrestler Lawsuit Against The WWE/F


Did an ex-wrestler sue the WWE/F back in the day for not receiving royalties or some kind of compensation for them selling video tapes/DVDs about him?  If so, who won the case?  I'm going to say it was Jessie Ventura, but am not totally sure.   

Dude, seriously.  I don't wanna be that way, but you could literally Google "Jesse Ventura royalties" and get the answer in like 3 seconds.  This is one of the most well known topics of the past couple of decades.

AEW vignettes


Have you seen what AEW has started doing? Introducing characters and letting them explain who they are. I didn’t know Joey Janella could do a promo. And Darby Allin and Shawn Spears actually have some back story to them. I hope AEW does more of this. https://youtu.be/uEB9CUGMoeo
But how can they build an emotional connection and put smiles on people’s faces if they don’t have 29 writers?  What a stupid business model.  

Keith Lee


Scott – sitting at an NXT taping right now and having seen Keith Lee live for the first time I’m enamored. I came to see Riddle, Cole and Velveteen, but holy geez this guy got me. Thoughts from what you’ve seen?  I mean, we all know they’ll suck the life out of him on the main roster but he has “it” for sure in the world of big guys.

I hate the name.  They should call him Wallabee Chuzzwazzer and have him be Australian for some reason.  Other than that, he’s money and they’ll be hard pressed to fuck him up until they call him up to the main roster and fuck him up.  

Brock vs… Kofi?

Hi Scott,

What are the chances that WWE swerves us with Brock cashing in on Kofi at Stomping Grounds? This could lead to a SummerSlam rematch with Brock retaining. (Despite all the potential groans, Fox's SmackDown needs him as champ for name value).

Meanwhile, Seth can carry on for months about how Brock is a coward who ran away from him. Then, when WWE finally ditches the wild card crap and unifies the belts at Mania, it's Brock vs. Seth, finally, for the Universal WWE Title. 

Not that we don't already have enough fantasy bookers or 50 WWE writers, of course…
Yeah, I think Kofi is the better heat because Brock can be the guy to crush his dreams and as you noted, it establishes that Brock is a coward who won't face Seth despite multiple chances to do so.  That being said, they've undoubtedly used up ALL their punches on the Brock Lesnar Card until Summerslam, so I doubt it'll go down like that.  But the idea of getting Brock as champion before the FOX launch is probably the correct thought. 

Best Heel Comeuppance

This was being discussed in the daily thread and it got me thinking. What are some of the best examples of the heel getting his comeuppance. My favorite will always be The Mountie going to jail, but HTM at Summer Slam 88 and Jimmy Garvin and Sunshine working
on David Von Erich's ranch were also mentioned.

Honky Tonk Man is the gold standard, of course.  Andre the Giant finally seeing through Bobby Heenan's lies and beating the shit out of him at WM6 is a favorite as well.  Roddy Piper putting Adonis to sleep and then Beefcake shaving his head is double retribution, although in itself Piper taking the baseball bat to the Flower Shop was pretty good as well.  And Ultimate Warrior ending the Brother Love Show was a great moment too.

RAW

Hey Scott, I was reading an article where Mick Foley stated the 3rd hour of RAW is going to have more attitude Era elements. Is WWE changing the PG rating in the 3rd hour? I dont see see how this would work any way with the way creative is currently constituted. I mean if they booked some interesting television, RAW wouldn't even need the change. Stomping Ground looks like a horror show by the way.

Mick Foley is full of shit and no they're not changing the rating.  

Not liking any WWE feuds

While I was watching some of Smackdown last night it just occurred to me;  I don't like/am not interested in any feud in the WWE right now, and I can't even remember the last time I didn't dig at least 1 program between wrestlers.  How about you?  
I'm not even sure what most of the programs are even supposed to be outside of Dolph Ziggler whining about not getting title shots while he's getting multiple title shots.  Alexa is against Bayley on the next show but sometimes she's in a tag team with Nikki Cross apparently and may or may not be a heel?  Sami Zayn is mad at the internet and Kevin Owens is on RAW now going after Seth Rollins because…reasons?  Elias is sort of there, I guess, after they set up a feud with Roman Reigns when they both moved to Smackdown, and now both guys are kind of on both shows, I think?  It's a mess. 

Stomping Grounds Main event


Along with the awful title and logo, based on current booking trajectory the top three matches for Stomping Grounds are (c) Seth/Corbin with a special ref, (c) Kofi/Dolph in a cage (in 2019) and Roman/Drew with NOTHING on the line. All rematches from either Saudi Arabia or WM. One of these matches with likely main event. Does this make this the least exciting ppv main event in years? Last I can think of was Orton/Big Show at Survivor Series 2013???

It’s WAY up there.  There’s been a couple of TLC main events that would compete but this is a trifecta of blah.  There’s not even interesting women’s title matches.  

Rollins/Lynch relationship-storyline

With the WWE acknowledging Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch's real life relationship on their programs, do you think a storyline involving the 2 of them is on the horizon?  More importantly, how bad will they fuck it up?  

Remember when Becky was super over and the fanbase forced their hand and made her a Wrestlemania main eventer just a couple of months ago?  What is she even doing on the show now?