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Welcome back to the EXCELLENCE IN COLUMN WRITING here by yours truly, Mr. Tito, that is exclusively here at LordsofPain.net / WrestlingHeadlines.com. It is just BRUTAL right now for the WWE. RAW's ratings are pushing below the 3 million mark, Survivor Series 2015 was poorly reviewed by almost everyone, and WWE Creative is taking a beating for their Main Event choices in Roman Reigns and Sheamus. You would think that the WWE is about to close, right? Technically speaking, they are now receiving roughly the same viewership as WCW Nitro received during the first half of 2000... One year later, that promotion closed. Settle... Don't worry... The WWE has the Ohio Valley Wrestling "Class of 2002" returning shortly to save the day. That's right Comments section... There's a reason why I repeatedly mention the GREATEST developmental call-up class of all time. John Cena will return from his scheduled 2-month vacation and Brock Lesnar will begin working dates again per his limited contract. Both will come in on their shining horses and help the WWE temporarily gain some viewership back. After all, Brock Lesnar's all out assault on the WWE following Wrestlemania 31 drew 5 million viewers. FIVE MILLION VIEWERS! For much of 2015, WWE has pushed John Cena as a midcarder with this United States title... You just know that Vince McMahon is reconsidering the main event scene and giving John Cena one last MEGA PUSH to let his other perceived stars (Reigns, Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio) incubate a little longer... Want my advice on how to FIX the WWE? How about making the Royal Rumble event and match GOOD for a change? The past few years, the Royal Rumble Pay Per View event has severely underwhelmed. Poorly booked matches on the undercard, odd choices occurring in the Rumble match, and questionable winners of the #1 contendership for the WWE Title. Aside from 2015's possible Match of the Year candidate in Seth Rollins vs. John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar, nothing to see here... And that's a shame because the Royal Rumble should be WWE's #2 event of the year. Instead, it has been letdown after letdown. Furthermore, a weak Royal Rumble creates a poor start-up for the Wrestlemania season. Hard to get excited about Wrestlemania when a lack-of-cardio Batista or a completely undeserving Roman Reigns wins that #1 spot. Meanwhile, WWE sticks it to the fan favorite such as Daniel Bryan for 2 straight years... That's why I was strongly recommending that the Survivor Series 2015 create an unresolved WWE Title picture that needed to be resolved at Royal Rumble 2016. The 1992 Royal Rumble, to this day, is considered to be the BEST Rumble match because of the "sense of urgency" that the WWE Title being up for grabs placed on that event. Given that we're 23 years away from that event, putting the WWE Title up for grabs is a fresh idea. Then, the WWE could make extra bucks with an Elimination Chamber match that resolves the #1 contendership for Wrestlemania 32. Why not? Put Brock Lesnar AND John Cena in the Royal Rumble, even if they are both wrestling on the card earlier. Is Undertaker available? Put him in. Sting? We've NEVER seen him in a Rumble match. Put him in! Invite NXT's top stars such as Finn Balor, Samoa Joe, Apollo Crews, and Baron Corbin in... Why not? Shock the world and put Hulk Hogan in the Rumble... Do something! Thicken the Rumble up with veterans THEN give your YOUNGER stars a chance to shine with those veterans. Ever see Finn Balor wrestle Sting? I haven't... Why not? Roman Reigns can get another shot at Brock Lesnar within the Rumble match and many other wrestlers can get their shot against Lesnar. I would be very curious to see how Sheamus, Dean Ambrose, Rusev, and Bray Wyatt do against Brock Lesnar. DO NOT have STUPID MOMENTS like last year when Kane and Big Show were cleaning house... WWE has failed to realize WHY Survivor Series and Royal Rumble matches worked in the past. Many up & coming wrestlers never get a chance to wrestle in the same ring as the top guys or any wrestling veteran. However, if you place them in a 4 on 4 or 5 on 5 tag team elimination match-up OR a 30 man Rumble match, many wrestlers meet in the ring for the first time. This creates new match-up possibilities and helps plant seeds for future match-ups. In the past, Survivor Series and Royal Rumble served as the "coming out" party for many future superstars. So fix the damn Royal Rumble event, WWE... So what if November and December have been lackluster? Most wrestling fans are busy this time of year getting ready for the Christmas or Holiday season. Plus, NFL is also on Monday Nights. Wrestling is almost seasonal based on the way attention on the product increases from January (Royal Rumble) through April (Wrestlemania). Once Monday Night Football is over, attention to wrestling usually increases... If the WWE puts on a GOOD Royal Rumble event, that attention grows... If the WWE builds up a GOOD Wrestlemania card, more eyeballs on WWE shows. Better yet, if Wrestlemania is successful, the WWE has a decent summer heading into Money in the Bank/SummerSlam... See how this works? We can cry, piss, and moan about how BAD the WWE is right now with Sheamus and Roman Reigns as the "top stars". But things can improve because the "Class of 2002" guys are about to return. But the REAL PROBLEM remains that the WWE is way too dependent on that "Class of 2002". They are paying MILLIONS to John Cena, Randy Orton, and Brock Lesnar and I can imagine Batista didn't come cheap when he returned during 2014. Those guys are getting OLDER and even the youngest guy out of the bunch, Randy Orton, is showing serious durability issues as of late. As I've argued repeatedly now, that's why you MUST have a strong Midcard Title division instead of the way that the WWE has wasted their Intercontinental Title/United State Title belts. Ditto for the Tag Team division. Those Title Divisions act as an internal "farm system" to develop wrestlers into stars. As I keep repeating, the biggest stars that the WWE ever had were all fighting for Midcard titles. Randy Savage (IC Champ), Ultimate Warrior (IC Champ), Bret Hart (Tag Champ & IC Champ), Shawn Michaels (IC Champ & Tag Champ), Steve Austin (IC Champ & Tag Champ), the Rock (IC Champ), Mick Foley (Tag Champ), Triple H (IC Champ), Randy Orton (IC Champ), and John Cena (US Champ). They got over in the Midcard FIRST as champions and then earned that Main Event promotion. Problem now is that WWE repeatedly tells you that Roman Reigns, Sheamus, and Alberto Del Rio are "great" and that "you should really like them". WWE is the point of lunacy by destroying other superstars in the process in attempts of accomplishing the corporate, manufactured Main Eventer. They are trying to create the "next John Cena" yet the WWE and Vince McMahon foolishly forgot how John Cena got over. He was a midcarder from 2002-2004 who became so popular as a draw that WWE had no choice but to promote him to the main event by 2005. That's how it works!!! So simple... Just fix the Royal Rumble and go from there... Give us something interesting to watch. ========================================================== RAW is HULU MISSED THE CUT: - Goldust vs. Alberto Del Rio (ADR gets cut often from Hulu) - Sasha Banks vs. Brie Bella RAW airs from Pittsburgh, PA which I could have attented... Nah. Too much of a hassle and without Cena/Lesnar, I don't have any interest. Show starts off with the New Day which could get me to Pittsburgh under the right circumstances. Confetti everywhere, too. Big E gets a little too into his dancing, but damn he's getting good on the mic. Ohhhh, to get massive heel heat, Xavier Woods whips out a Pittsburgh Steelers "Terrible Towel" to wipe off the very sweaty Big E. That creates a "Here We Go Steelers, Here We Go" chant. New Day, who BY THE WAY turned on Sheamus at Survivor Series 2015 by walking away from their Survivor Series elimination style match, are there to give Sheamus a proper celebration for winning the WWE title. Sheamus is out there with a suit and his mowhawk slicked back... Improved look, but damn it Sheamus, November is over, SHAVE THAT BEARD AND MUSTACHE! Sheamus is heavily praising the Authority and the New Day's presence is actually making Sheamus put on a better heel promo... How about that? Sheamus is mentioning "5:15" for Roman Reigns's brief title reign... Sheamus, if he really wants heat, should mention how brief his Wrestlemania 28 match was with Daniel Bryan... Big celebration and Roman Reigns predictably interrupts it with an attack. Decent start to RAW, I must say... New Day can make anyone look good. Backstage, Roman Reigns runs into Stephanie/Triple H and we're getting Sheamus vs. Roman Reigns in which Roman has to defeat Sheamus in under 5 minutes and 15 seconds... I was going to say... If WWE gave away that match on FREE TV without hype, they are crazy. Speaking of crazy, we get a rematch between Dolph Ziggler vs. Tyler Breeze with no introductions (probably to shave time here on Hulu). So soon after their Pay Per View? And wouldn't it be more beneficial to Breeze space out his big Survivor Series 2015 win against Ziggler from the rematch? Chemistry in this match was much better than that Survivor Series 2015 match and had many near falls. Ziggler wins with a superkick after many attempted roll-ups. Fun match but what was the point of Breeze winning again if Ziggler gets his win back in a short period of time? This 50/50 booking hurts everybody. Miz TV time... I cannot recall the last time I saw the Miz on RAW since I've been watching it here on Hulu. Rusev is his guest. He said that one person helped nurse him back to health and that was Lana... Then, WWE acknowledges the TMZ report and Rusev/Lana embrace. GOOD. Lana works better as a heel manager. Miz brings up Summer Rae and her response was "we fight hard but we love harder". OK... Rusev talks a little more smack and then Ryback comes out talk smack with pro-Pittsburgh propaganda and this sets up the next match... Ryback vs. Rusev was indeed next... Not much of a match because Ryback and Rusev knocked the steel steps into Lana and thus causing Rusev to show concern towards his lady. I guess Rusev didn't take Mickey's advice from the Rocky films in that WOMEN WEAKEN LEGS! Countout for Rusev. Oops. Backstage, Triple H gives congrats to Dean Ambrose for winning that Triple Threat match to become #1 contender for the Intercontinental Title at the TLC Event. HHH, however, adds the evil stipuation that if Roman Reigns doesn't beat Sheamus in under 5:15, Roman loses his WWE Title shot and Ambrose loses his IC Title shot. Oh crap, you know what will happen now... In the ring, the Dudley Boyz have a mic in hand and many covered tables in the ring. Dudleys acknowledge some recent losses. Bubba Ray remains great on the microphone, by the way... He's been cutting great promos for almost 20 years now. Almost a shame that only TNA took him seriously as a singles wrestler. The Wyatt Family, who have been delivering several of the beatings, come down to approach the Dudley Boyz... However, Tommy Dreamer appears with weapons in hand to join the Dudleys. They fend off the Wyatts and prompts a "this is awesome" chant from many ECW fans in the Pittsburgh attendance who probably remember the good ol' ECW days. Many younger fans probably have no idea what is going on... Oh, we get a 6 man match between Dudleyz/Dreamer vs. Wyatt Family with everybody but Bray Wyatt. OK match... Odd finish with the RARE illegal man countout rule enforced when everybody is in the ring brawling. After the match, Wyatts want to "get the tables" and Bubba overcomes it to ram Bray off the apron and onto a table. Cool moment... Backstage, Becky Lynch and Charlotte are chatting and Becky has a great idea... Let's have a match! Charlotte seems put off by it, but accepts on the condition that Ric Flair can come down the ring with her. Becky foolishly accepts. Easy to predict what will happen... Up next, however, Lucha Dragons vs. the Usos with the dastardly New Day on commentary. New Day was completely destroying both teams on commentary and then, the New Day assaults both teams to cause a double DQ finish. This match was to determine the #1 contender and by attacking both teams, NOBODY will wrestle the New Day at TLC! Classic heel move! By the way, the Usos haven't exactly been made to look like the strong babyface team they once where when they left. Hmmmm.... Backstage, Stephanie attempts to resolve the Usos and Lucha Dragons' #1 contendership issue by granting them a TRIPLE THREAT match with the New Day. However, the Usos will only get that shot if their cousin, Roman Reigns, can defeat Sheamus in under 5:15... The 5:15 WWE Title match was up next between Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus. Shouldn't Roman pull a NEW DAY move by having Dean Ambrose and/or the Usos attack Roman in order for Sheamus to be disqualified? Duh... I actually don't mind this booking... Seems like it's putting some "sense of urgency" on this match. Both wrestlers appeared motivated within the gimmick, too... Rusev appears and yanks Roman out of the ring to prompt a Disqualification. Wade Barrett and Alberto Del Rio come to Sheamus's aid, too... Sheamus gets on the mic and officially names his HEEL STABLE, the League of Nations. I like it... I've been preaching for a STRONG heel stable for years and it could be good... Better yet for Reigns, the Usos and Dean Ambrose join him. I'm OK with this, although Reigns single handedly fended those heels off by himself last week. Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch is our next bout. Dead crowd here except for the many Whooooo! chants to get Ric Flair's attention by Pittsburgh fans. Divas Division is dead in the WWE... No heat because they ladies were forced down our throats and not given the chance to get naturally over. After a while, Charlotte won by faking an ankle injury and when Becky tried to show concern to Ric Flair, that distracted her to be rolled up and lose. Whooooo... Cool ending, but damn, when this division needs Ric Flair to add a spark to the division, you need better booking. After all, wasn't Charlotte's character trying to get OUT of the Ric Flair shadow? Backstage, Becky Lynch confronted Charlotte about the loss... Charlotte said "this isn't NXT". No truer statement has ever been uttered on RAW. Becky remains baffled afterward and Paige appears to rub more salt in the wound, "at least your friendship wasn't affected by it". MAIN EVENT time between Usos/Ambrose/Reigns vs. LEAGUE OF NATIONS, which was made on the fly in response to the Reigns vs. Sheamus match. HOWEVER, the New Day were able to join the League of Nations to make a 7 on 4 handicap match-up thanks to the Authority. Woah... The 7 man team dominated and one of the Usos went to the back with an injury. Lots of showboating by New Day in this match and in my opinion, it subtracted from the match. Almost seems like the WWE should be doing more to get the League of Nations over but yet New Day is out there outshining them. Numbers are just too overwhelming here and Sheamus scores the win by pinning Dean Ambrose... Sigh. No Usos to pin? Afterward, the heels give Ambrose a beatdown and when Reigns makes the save, he's overhwelmed as well. Nice shot at the end with the New Day/League of Nations holding up the World Tag Titles, US Title, and WWE Title. And merging the groups is the BOOKING CHANGE that the WWE employeed to "save" their shows and storylines. LAST WORD: Well, we have a heel stable with the League of Nations forming and we'll see how long the New Day remains associated with the group. Either way, I encourage all 7 or at least the core 4 League of Nations members to remain together for a while to see where it goes. Although by the booking tonight, it's just a vehicle to get Roman Reigns over and nobody else. WWE is "all in" on Reigns and we'll suffer as a result. He's just not ready for Prime Time but then again, that babyface bench is absurdly thin in the WWE. Good show, though... I came in expecting a bad RAW with how it looked by the results but the show was just fine. B for this week's show grade. ========================================================== PHAT QUESTIONS Question #1: Do you think that a big Corporation, like Disney, has any interest in buying WWE? I've actually heard a few wrestling fans insisting that Disney would buy the WWE and try to make money off its brand name, such as what they are doing now with Marvel and Star Wars. However, I see a big difference between those entertainment realms and the WWE. Take Marvel Comics, for example... Most of their characters are under a mask or require CGI (the Hulk) to happen. Although the Avengers are having a nice run, Disney can just reboot the franchises or find another actor to play the roles. The entities of Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, DareDevil, Thor, etc. are characters portrayed by multiple actors now and they can be redone in the future. That, or Disney can make animated films based on Marvel Comics and they don't need actors. Ditto for Star Wars. While it's nice to rely on the older veterans to return, Disney can forever exploit the Star Wars franchise by creating new Jedi or Sith Lords. The environment sells well. Pro wrestling is too STAR DRIVEN... It needs a top drawing guy like Hulk Hogan, Rock, Steve Austin, or John Cena to entice fans to watch wrestling events. However, wrestlers don't last forever... Unlike Marvel, Disney couldn't just create a brand new Hulk Hogan or Steve Austin character. Once they are out of wrestling and retired, they can never come back... You'll become too reliant on past footage to make money. In order for the purchased WWE brand to keep making money, new superstars would need to be created to work weekly live events. That's too much work for Disney or other bigger corporations. What I could envision happening, however, is that a channel like AMC could buy the WWE and try to improve upon its writing and presentation. AMC made a serious offer to the WWE when their Comcast/NBC/Universal deal was last up but they wanted full control over the WWE product. The McMahons declined... Maybe when Vince McMahon is older, that kind of deal will be revisited and the likes of Stephanie/Triple H can just cash out their stocks and retire in style. Both are so rich beyond their imagination and then would become even more wealthy with the sale of WWE. With Netflix and other streaming services eating away at Cable/Satellite channels, in other words hurting the rerun market, I figure that more Cable/Satellite channels would show interest in a deal like AMC presented. WWE presents Cable/Satellite programming that is unique and live that streaming services presently can't offer (RAW/Smackdown that is). ---------------------------------------------------------- Question #2: Will Shane McMahon ever return to WWE? Probably not. Shane reportedly got out of the WWE because of the strains that it put on his relationship with his father, Vince McMahon. Vince is a little intense when it comes to the WWE and remains hardworking in his 60s and now 70s. Plus, I could imagine that Shane saw his sibling competition in Stephanie and how powerful her husband Triple H was becoming. Not worth it... Stephanie/Triple H are here to stay unless they decide to cash out of the WWE themselves... Does Shane want to fight with those 2 over power within the WWE? Nah... Shane is showing some success outside of the WWE from various projects and I'm sure he has or had stock options from his tenure in the WWE. Plus, he stands to inherit part of the Vince McMahon fortune and if I'm not mistaken, either his wife is successful and/or she has family within a big corporate inheritance itself. Shane doesn't need the WWE to succeed which is probably unlike Triple H and Stephanie. ---------------------------------------------------------- Question #3: Why don't you cover and/or review TNA or Ring of Honor? First and foremost, I could not see TNA Impact because I "cut the cord" on Cable TV. Without Destination American, I cannot watch TNA. Ditto with PopTV coming soon... However, I do watch Ring of Honor during LATE Sunday Nights. I have a Sinclair channel in my area and very late at night on Sunday Nights, ROH comes on. I do watch it and have been a regular viewer for about a year. Why don't I cover Ring of Honor? For one, most of you log into my column to see my WWE based opinions. Therefore, I'm feeding you content on what you mostly want to see. I don't see too much love for Ring of Honor throughout LordsofPain.net. However, I also don't want to pile on Ring of Honor... I would hate to be critical of a smaller promotion and have it adversely affect their product. There are good people working within that promotion that I actually don't want to upset. For example, Kevin Kelly has always been nice to me... Last thing I want to do is piss that promotion... When I review something, I show no bias towards a promotion and I historically pull no punches. I would rather let something positive from that promotion take the spotlight instead of a negative opinion that I gave that might harm them. If you want my overall opinion on TNA and Ring of Honor, well, it's this simple... TNA and ROH don't succeed or grow beyond what they are because they lack the ability to create BIG stars. Like for Ring of Honor... Across the board, they have good wrestlers... I can tune into ROH every week and see good matches... But it's like clockwork and at times, many of the matches look the same. Nothing stands out to me... Ditto for TNA wrestling. They have no ability to create that standout, breakout star. In my opinion, BOTH promotions had "that guy" during the mid-2000s in Samoa Joe. Ring of Honor lost him but TNA couldn't capitalize on his talent. When Kurt Angle joined TNA during late 2006, they should have let Samoa Joe smash Angle to establish Joe as an equal to anyone in the WWE. Instead, TNA jobbed Joe out to Angle and thus killed Samoa Joe's momentum. He has never been the same... What TNA and Ring of Honor needs is a Top Drawing Star that the WWE doesn't have... What made WCW begin to defeat WCW during 1996 was injection of new stars to the promotion. Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were HUGE acquisitions for WCW while they created new superstars from all of the talent they raised from ECW. WWE was able to hit back and return to #1 during 1998 because they were able to create brand new top drawing superstars (Austin, Rock, Foley, HHH). WWE has sustained its business model through the "Class of 2002" guys who are carrying the promotion to this day (Orton, Cena, Lesnar). WWE, itself, struggles because they can't create top level stars at the moment. If TNA or Ring of Honor created that breakout supstar that the WWE didn't have, then growth will occur. That simple. ---------------------------------------------------------- Question #4: What do you think of TNA's deal with PopTV? I think it's a better deal than what they had with Destination America... For one, Pop TV reaches 75 million households in the United States. Compare that to Destination America's 57 million possible households. Better potential for viewership... By comparison, however, Spike TV is within 93 million homes. Looking at news reports, I'm seeing other wrestling websites trying to mock TNA for joining PopTV for "free". Huh? Looking at the details of their own news reports, it appears that TNA might not receive a flat fee from Pop TV but rather gets a piece of the advertising dollars instead. That's the deal that the WWE has, for example... They get paid a flat rate (between 150 to 200 million per year) while USA Network gets the advertising dollars. Because TNA doesn't have that kind of deal, they more or less have to settle for what they receive. Reportedly, that flat rate payment wasn't that much from Spike TV and Destination America. Worse yet, Destination America had higher expectations for the TNA brand and tried to actually control content on the show. Wrestling fans should be HAPPY if TNA is just getting paid by Advertiser dollars. Why? Because they are fully incentivized to put on a good product to boost ratings and therefore boost advertising dollars. It's a nice way to light a fire under TNA's buns and they seriously need it. Getting in more households, though, is the most important part of this deal. Now, TNA just has to put on a quality product and find a way to create a unique top drawing superstar that the WWE doesn't have. ========================================================== The LAST WORD Several weeks ago, I wrote a column on how WWE and ESPN working together was a BAD IDEA. Many disagreed with me, saying that "all publicity is good publicity" but the point of the column is that I predicted the relationship would abruptly end. Why? With ESPN in fierce competition for Cable Sports right now with CBS, NBC, FOX, Root, and many local sports channels to compete with, they could be easily marginalized for covering a "fixed" result sport or a non-sport (technically, WWE is "entertainment"). That was my opinion and I felt that when ESPN finally sees a lack of benefit from their WWE coverage, they'll abruptly cut the relationship and it will look bad on the WWE. HOWEVER - ESPN has something that the WWE should desire. For the past few years, and ESPN can thank former employee Bill Simmons for starting this, ESPN had aired a series of sports documentaries called "30 for 30". It started off as airing 30 documentaries in celebration of 30 years of ESPN but the channel has continued the documentary series beyond 30... It has become a regular staple of ESPN and it is a source of excellent sports programming. ESPN has allowed various producers to have creativity and each documentary looks different. If you have Netflix, the ESPN 30 for 30 presentations are among the most viewed. It's quite popular. If you have WWE Network or a fat stack of WWE DVD/Blu-Rays, you'll know that the WWE documentaries are excellent! As much as we bash WWE Executive Producer Kevin Dunn, the guy can cut a mean documentary. And he has been doing it for years. For as much as Dunn is criticized for his role on Creative, he pays off how the product looks, presented, and represented. With that being said, why isn't the WWE producing documentaries for ESPN's 30 for 30? A few years ago, ESPN did a E60 piece on Scott Hall... It received tons of buzz despite it being on a virtually unknown ESPN show. While many sports fans may thumb their nose at current WWE programming, most have some fascination on the backstage or road stories of pro wrestlers. The best thing about the WWE Network is that it forced the WWE to digitize its entire video library. Have you noticed how quick the WWE can produce a documentary piece on WWE Network now? WWE probably has at least 30 years worth of stuff digitized. The sky is the limit on what they could present to ESPN... They could easily put on any of those Rivalries for 30 for 30, but I could imagine that ESPN would be interested in something more topical... I could imagine that ESPN would be very receptive to something new on Survivor Series 1997... Maybe something on Owen Hart's untimely death. Better yet, Chris Benoit. WWE could really get that topic off their chest by putting together a documentary that discusses what may have happened to Benoit... Benoit wrestled for WCW from 1995-2000 and then the WWE form 2000-2007. Over 10 years of footage exists on WWE Network that the WWE can't just censor or ignore. A biography of Vince McMahon could work well... He has so much history to discuss. Better yet, maybe the Hulkamania and Attitude Eras could be discussed in the light of the Miami University documentaries. Those are among the best 30 for 30 documentaries which discusses the rise, the falls, and the funny happenings of those times. They have a more upbeat tone to them and many wrestler road stories are freakin' hilarious. Whenever I've read a wrestler book on a particular story, such as Mick Foley putting cookies in DDP's bed while in WCW, I laugh for a while... Some of Ric Flair and Roddy Piper's road stories were classic that I just can't share here... What's "real" about pro wrestling are the lives behind the wrestlers entertaining us with "fixed" matches. Wrestlers take real bumps in the ring and the road life can be extremely difficult. Rather than putting a wrestling character on ESPN's SportsCenter to act like an athlete of a competitive sport, represent pro wrestling better through a documentary that educates and is compelling to non-wrestling fans. Where WWE Films FAILED to create a good wrestling movie was seen by The Wrestler, the 2008 film starring Mickey Rourke. That film made a nice profit ($38 million) while earning a pair of Academy Awards. The movie was compelling because it told the story of how difficult the life of a pro wrestler can be. Aside from that movie, non-wrestling fans don't know what real wrestlers go through. That's the ESPN relationship that I'd love to see... Put Kevin Dunn to work and let him show off the product and its wrestlers. ESPN wants to keep the "30 for 30" series going and the WWE has plenty of footage and materials to provide. Better yet, WWE can stick the WWE Films logo on every documentary that airs on ESPN. Money, money, money... But hey, that's free advice given to make that ESPN relationship a successful one... SO JUST CHILL... 'TIL THE NEXT EPISODE! Comments and feedback are welcome. Follow and Tweet me @titowrestling or login in below to post comments. © Mr. Tito and LordsofPain.net/WrestlingHeadlines.com - 1998-2015
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