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A moment YEARS in the making… #RAW @TheDeanAmbrose @WWERollins pic.twitter.com/kbOMZ1NFiO— WWE (@WWE) August 16, 2017

Sir, I think you just wrote a column in the comments.

For me it would be very different, thinking specifically about the WWE championship and taking away outside things unfortunately I’d have to remove Taker. I’ll write a column about best wrestler down the line but purely for WWE champ it would be:

10 – Brock Lesnar
9 – Shawn Michaels
8 – CM Punk
7 – Bret Hart
6 – Triple H
5 – The Rock
4 – Bruno Samartino
3 – John Cena
2 – Stone Cold
1 – Jinder Mahal Hulk Hogan

As I said this wouldn’t be best wrestler necersarily but who are the best WWE Champs.

From your response I would love to see you write some columns. Lots of other mainstream sports sites are jumping on the boat so I think The Roar is keen to get a bit of coverage happening and see if we can build up a small audience.

Too sweet me

Yeah I love waxing lyrics about wrasslin’. Would love to see your top 10s, they are probably more friendly to this site than my words upon words. I was thinking I may have to scale back and do some in beteeen the bigger pieces I like to do.

Ric Flair ’92 if you want to know my fav but from the two you said I’d say Austin.

Question back at you: Grestest WWE Champion?

In some ways I wish a match up like this would have been put on as a co-main event on the McGregor Mayweather card so it could get some more eye balls on the sport. I feel like a lot of people think that (without looking into it) boxing is a dead sport and this big freak fight is not helping the case.

I know that commercially it would never happen but if a match like this was able to sneak in before it could just give some lapsed fans a taste of what is out there.

Agreed, I love cycling, have watched tons of it since I got into it in 2011 but the first female race I watched was La Coursa simply because it wasn’t on any other times. Was a great race, way better than the stage the men rolled out later in the evening but I’d simply never had a chance to see them before because they didn’t get the coverage..

Pay equity in any sport is a curious topic because sport, by its nature is about showing that all humans are not equal and is completely predicated on someone rising above everyone else. The funding of sport, especially cycling is also completely determined by the number of people watching it and how desirable the athletes are to sponsor.

Now practically I think at a pro level the UCI should ensure that all females racing in the top teams are able to do it full time and are paid a comfortable wage, however I’m not so certain that equal pay for equal work makes sense at the very top level of the sport.

Does the winner of the Giro Ditalia get paid as much as the winner of the Tour De France? No. Even though they are both gruelling 3 week races one just gets more media attention and sponsorship than the other so of course it is more lucrative.

Does Chris Froome get paid the same as his domestique? No, he is a more lucrative rider to have signed so he earns more.

Once a base wage is established what I think women’s cycling should be campaigning for is equal media coverage not equal pay. If they are as exciting and talented as they claim then all they should need to earn the pay is the coverage, if they are presenting a product that is worth it then people and therefore sponsors will jump on board

For an example of this look at Ronda Rousey in MMA. It took a while for women to gain entry into the UFC however once afforded the platform because of her skills, talent and the way she entertained people, for a good stretch of time she was the biggest name in that sport in either gender and she was paid more than anyone else too. She campaigned for the platform and exposure and once there used it to earn that extra pay.

I’m not sure if it is for show or if it is serious, if it is the second one, the talk about Connor tapping shows how ignorant some boxing fans are of martial arts in general. No one in MMA uses that against an opponent because they know it isn’t ‘giving up’ but merely admitting you are beaten and that you got caught by a better technician on the day. Tapping out is actually way smarter than waiting to go unconscious or waiting for a limb to be broken.

On one hand at least he is gone and hopefully they can find some leadership with a grander vision for rugby in this country.

On the other it angers me that he is essentially handing over this basket case topped off with cutting the force and letting it be someone else’s problem.

No worries J.C if you keep reading them I plan to keep writing them. Previously I’ve written about cycling and before that MMA on the site and thought I’d see how things go writing about the WWE. If people want to join in, the more the merrier.

I’m in 2 minds about it. AJ & Owens haven’t really had the great match we would have expected them to have given how good they are normally so perhaps adding the extra foil for then to interact with will help get them to the next level. They both have history with Shane so it adds some great story telling potential.

That said it could end up being a distraction as well and if they have put Shane in it so he can do his traditional big moves then it is a very bad idea.

That will be a column for itself but right now in most excited about the Raw Main Event which I think is going to be extremely physical – that is how the lead up has been done, the Smackdown tag team match (hopefully it gets on the card) and I’m interested in whatever Dean and Rollins do. The storyline for then is being handled so well at the moment and I think everyone is on the edge of their seat to find out what will happen.

What ones are you looking forward to?

Great article. A lot of stuff I never knew here.

Ba’h God

I will never forget working on community radio and getting to call Bolt’s victory at 6am in the morning in 2012. We didn’t have the rights but we did it anyway as a mark of respect for the man. My favourite moment on radio.

We have been blessed to see him and Michael Phelps at the same time. I don’t think we will see as good Olympic athletes in a long time. I don’t know who is better out of the two but both are complete freaks and I’m glad I got to see them both race.

Yeah, unfortunately there is no putting that one back in the bottle & I doubt in today’s society with all the forms of communication we have it would remain a secret long even if the big organisations would try to keep it secret. If nothing else the WWE is a publically traded company and it is illegal for them to lie to their share holders.

Now I think the most engaging angles tend to be when art imitates life, like when CM Punk blew up, Daniel Bryan at WM30 or this WM with Cena v Miz.

Then again if things are presented seriously and without a wink and a nudge pure fiction can still be compelling. Look at the ongoing story between Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins or even just the series between The Revival and DIY, people are seriously emotionally engaged in those angles.

As Mac Landis says, it is ‘no more fake than Game of Thrones’ and we still get caught up in that.

You caught me out! How’d you guess? Honestly though I think insulting pro wrestling by calling it fake is pretty weak, if nothing else there are so many better reasons to insult it sometimes!

Sport could for sure learn from the thwarted of pro wrestling I think of entrance music in the UFC, they’ve only occasionally made a big deal of it and a great entrance gives your contender a feeling of importance and gravitas which will help people think they are a big deal and ultimately help the UFC make more stars.

In Australian sport I’d love to see players get individual announcements for big games like a Grand Final or State of Origin. They could all learn how to put together an emotive video package from pro wrestling too – especially rugby union.

Wasn’t fake though, was a legit sports league. Vince actually looked into buying the UFC at one point but ultimately declined he said it was because he couldn’t control who were the stars. Much easier to build someone up as the best in the world when you don’t have to worry them some how slipping and losing.

I’ll give you that the Rumble can potentially be bigger than SummerSlam but Survior Series? Come on now, not even close. Just look at the respective main events over the last 5 years. Aside from Goldberg last year I think SummerSlam is always the bigger one.

As for Jinder. What are your thoughts on him generally. He is as juicy as Vince likes his male wrestlers so it’s clear why he is getting the push he is getting but I still don’t see anything beyond his physique.

My first thought was also George Best. Hopeful 60s era Best too when he was the fifth Beetle and was out at nightclubs every night.

Id really like Alex Ferguson too. He would have some great war stories and picking his brain would be fascinating. Not to mention the combo of him and Best.

I think for a final guest would be Les Murray because he could help dig into the lives of my two other guests.

Great read. My Grandpa filled that role for me, introducing me to cricket.

Great set of articles mate, you certainly put together a compelling case for McGregor.

Personally I think he has got enough of a chance that I put a $10 bet on him but he is rightly the underdog. Most likely he will be chasing Maywether all over the ring for 12 rounds, Maywether has never been one to take risks so he will be keeping well away from Conor’s left hand and trying to make McGregor chase him.

As an MMA fan I honestly think it would be pretty awesome if McGregor came out and just headkicked Maywether at the opening bell in the first round, like just took his head off. It would be the most expensive statement ever made (assuming he loses his purse if he does it) but if he wants to go down in history that would be a sure fire way to do it. Real wild thinking: maybe Dana and the UFC will compensate him given it will show on the grandest scale how superior MMA is and generate epic tones of controversy and hopefully turn some eyeballs to the UFC.

Great post! Congratulations on playing in that team!

Could not agree more. I was bought into the game in the late 90s when I was in primary school and I chose it over league because one of the development officers had launched a Friday night comp in Tamworth. That got me into the game and I continued when I moved to Grafton.

Sadly in Grafton we never saw a development officer and the junior club was run off the backs of some great club men Ray Collie, Big Brooksie, Stevo, Mato and the other parents chipping in where they could (from what I understood that was the same for the senior part of the club though my involvement was no more than running the line and being a ballboy for them).

Off the back of rugby being the flavour of the month we managed to put together some pretty decent teams and poached a few of the leaguies however rugby in the bush has always been the poor cousin to league and has suffered through lack of attention.

Not once did I get a chance to meet the Waratahs or the Wallabies, despite them training an hour down the highway in Coffs and not once did we have a coach come out and help and we certainly never had in school programs run for us.

From what I’ve heard it isn’t much better in the far reaches of Western Sydney. How can rugby expect to grow if it never seeks to invest or develop beyond the private schools of Sydney and Brisbane.

It hasn’t gone as well as they hoped this year for sure but as another poster commented they have had bad luck with crashes and injuries.

I think the split was for the best of both Orica & Matthews, if Orica wants to aim for a GC victory they have to be single minded, Sky cannot be beaten by a team divided and having Matthews there is a liability when they want to win, letting Matthews go frees up a GT position and a chunk of money they can use on a support rider.

For Matthews he is good enough that he should get support and have a chance to go after the green jersey and stage wins and was obviously frustrated that he couldn’t get it with Orica.

As for your criticism of Orica’s GC ambitions I completely disagree. Primarily they have have the rider to do it in Chavez. He has ridden 5 Grand Tours and got on the podium in 2 and top 5 in another and picked up 3 stage wins, he has the ability to challenge the top absolute top riders and he is still young. This year he was injured so wasn’t ready for the Tour but Orica have taken a long term view with him.

Conversely, Matthews has achieved above expectation at the Tour, while Orica were unlucky he had luck well and truly on his side with Sagan’s DQ and Kittel’s injury. I’d say Matthews has never looked as strong as Sagan and would have done well to be in the top 3 of the green jersey competition.