Thursday, June 25, 2015

Twitter Request Line, Vol. 126

Lesnar is just one of the many monsters Vince McMahon has had a spotty record with
Photo Credit: WWE.com
It's Twitter Request Line time, everyone! I take to Twitter to get questions about issues in wrestling, past and present, and answer them on here because 140 characters can't restrain me, fool! If you don't know already, follow me @tholzerman, and wait for the call on Wednesday to ask your questions. Hash-tag your questions #TweetBag, and look for the bag to drop Thursday afternoon (most of the time). Without further ado, here are your questions and my answers!

The biggest myth in wrestling history is that Vince McMahon knew how to book anything. The stories his company tells usually have great starts, but fall flat at the end with few exceptions. Monsters are just one of the most shameful subgenres in the land. Yokozuna may have been the most successful, lasting for a year as WWE Champion and having a pretty good footnote as Owen Hart's mammoth tag team partner. He is the only one I can think of who outlasted his shelf-life. Even recently, Rusev, Ryback, The Nexus (which was a monster of many parts) all fell flat at various points in their builds. Vince McMahon is no genius. A good businessman, maybe, but he's not a genius.

If the Japan show is a success, I'd love to see WWE run an annual thing there, because the setting would be so unique. But as for other places in the world, the eternal troll in me would love to see the company run Rio de Janeiro just as a play on all the title switches that allegedly happened there. More realistically, a Sunday afternoon special live from England is the best bet.

I don't know the official reason. The rumored reason, which involves marital infidelity and inappropriate workplace infidelity has been denied up and down by everyone on the Chikara side of things. It's not a stone I wish to turn over for various reasons, mainly because so much of it has been categorically denied and is unprovable without talking to people, and that kind of thing is way above my paygrade.

I would choose Drogon 11 times out of ten. Cyborgs are coming, and nothing humanity can do will be able to stop them. No one will be clamoring for the T-800 when the T-800 is real. But a dragon? Especially a dragon that you can train? Sign me all the way the fuck up, brother.

Protected user @KMB2476 asks:
Ok, given the outpouring of grief and tribute to Dusty, it led me to think about what other big names would leave as huge a mark. What do you think the reaction will be when Vince passes? Undeniably an innovator. he also hurt the business. How do you even summarize what kind of impact he will have had upon his death? #TweetBag
Remember how when Warrior died, the outpouring of emotion was mixed with sorrow and indifference/other negative feelings? Yeah, that will be McMahon's mourning pattern only multiplied by a billion. Even though Warrior was a big part of the then-WWF for a couple of years and had a big personality, McMahon has been wrestling's biggest cult of personality for the last 33 years. When he goes, a piece of WWE will go with it, for better or worse, and the memories will come rushing in, positive or negative. The short answer is that when McMahon goes, it's gonna be a shitstorm.

Forget one fed. I would start TWO, or at least I would go into competition with the understanding that if I started a promotion with mostly Marvel heroes and villains that someone else would start one up with mostly DC properties. How hot would that be, especially if wrestlers jumped back and forth between promotions, and they got into bidding wars with which Dark Horse or Image or [insert smaller/indie comic book company here] characters would make the big time. Imagine a yearlong title reign from Doctor Doom with no one able to knock him off until Reed Richards got one more chance at MarvelMania? Or the DC Cavalcade with the big Superman/Doomsday street fight grudge match? It would be insane. These Monday Night Wars would make the WWF/WCW tilt look like insignificant horseplay.

However, it would be all fun and games until someone tried booking Galactus...

I'd put them at better than good, maybe like 4/1 or better. It all depends on whether you feed into the rumors that Kevin Owens is going to the main roster full-time. Given that he should have been in WWE long before he was signed last year, I get the feeling that rumor could be true, but it would leave NXT with a vacuum at the top, especially with Sami Zayn and Hideo Itami being out for extended periods of time. Still, WWE and NXT have to get the title off Owens at some point if he's going to be working main roster house shows as the United States Champion (and if Cena wins, we riot). Bálor winning it in his adopted home country after the documentary-style fluff pieces run on him on NXT programming this week and last would make a ton of sense.