Cross Face Chicken Wing

Who came up with the angles when Hogan arrived at WCW? Did he book all of his own stuff? Or did the booker at the time give Hogan some options and he decided what he wanted to do? Just curious because the non-Hogan stuff in WCW is still pretty good. When compared to the Hogan shit, it's on a totally different planet. It's like two different promotions.....

I agree with this generally. I also hit on some of the issues with Funk earlier: All Japan commitments, "retirement", quite removed from being Champ, an how he was thought of by NWA Promoters relative to Race. We also haven't noted that there was impact on Race winning #7 to top Lou, which was a but of a Fuck You aimed at Lou, but also at the time historically significant. It did give Race a certain air. My earlier point was: Terry would have been a ton of fun. He could have run the Bounty Hunter storyline. Terry vs Flair in the cage probably would have been a hell of a lot better match. All those mic spots would have been awesome. Of course we now have the benefit of hindsight, and I see the point about Flair beating Race being very meaningful, but wouldn't the unpredictability and the unknown of Funk have been a better fit for the changing wrestling world? I get that Funk probably wasn't realistic due to Japan commitments and "retiring," but let's pretend that wasn't a factor. To me, Funk cheating to beat Flair in a wild brawl to win the title sets up a nice run where you can build the feud through great promos, the same bounty hunter angle done better by the crazed Funk, and enough good matches around the horn that end in a DQ or countout to make people want to the see the payoff in a big show. Yeah, Funk's reign came in the mid 70s, and he may not have been as well-known around the horn as Harley, but he wasn't old news. He was still plenty recognizable. Bringing him in and upping the crazy probably would have injected some new life into his character. "Hey, I remember that crazy guy. And now he's even crazier! And he's trying to kill poor Ric Flair!" To me, Funk brings the excitement and you-gotta-see-this-guy factor much more than Harley. I think that the changing wrestling world of that time period would have preferred to see that over the standard younger guy finally knocks off the older guy angle. But like I said, hindsight is 20/20, and Starrcade did good business, so it is hard to argue with the Harley choice. I just think Funk would've been a risk worth taking, if it could've been pulled off logistically. EDIT: I just re-read this and realized that this scenario is actually another Back to the Future sequel that focuses on the NWA in 1989 and 1983, minus the title change.

Oh God. Can you imagine what would happen if Mt. Rushmore was going up today? The loons on the left and the right would go nuts because of perceived biases and conspiracy theories. I'm convinced it would lead to a second civil war.

Buck Zumhofe.

Man, Funk would've been so perfect instead of Race in '83. I know circumstances probably make it unrealistic, but he's head and shoulders above the other options, in my opinion.

It's gotta be Terry Funk, right? Great heel, established name, still considered fresh, can talk and work, would've done well in the "mean person being mean to that nice Ric Flair" role, known in several territories, good rep in Japan...and he's Terry Funk! I could also see Hansen also being a logical choice. What was Hansen's mindset in 1981? Would he have wanted to leave Japan long enough to run as the NWA champ for 6 months?

Is it fair to put the entire WCW cruiserweight division during the NWO's hayday in this category? I remember the cruiserweights always getting good reactions from the live audience even though the announcers usually paid no attention to their matches and sometimes even shit all over them.

More on the Zumhofe arrest. Good Lord he sounds like a complete piece of trash. http://www.morrissuntribune.com/content/cy...-sexual-conduct

Hogan has to be on the list. Maybe he has his own category just because he's Hogan, which would then allow us to then talk about four other guys not named Hogan, but Hogan has to be on any definitive 80s list.

I can't see anything positive coming out of a partnership like this for the NFL.

Not sure how you reach the conclusion that WWE would be negotiating contracts through the NFLPA. This is how I see the meeting going: JR: We'd like to explore the possibilities of recruiting ex-NFL players to become professional wrestlers. NFLPA mid-level guy: Cool. Do you have a card? We'll send a few guys your way if they're interested. JR: Sure. Here you go. NFLPA mid-level guy: (puts card in his wallet along with 100 other business cards). So tell me, is wrestling real or fake? Do they actually hit each other with chairs? Is that fake blood? --------------------------- I imagine Ross got a giant erection when an actual representative from the NFLPA accepted his meeting. I'm sure he felt the need to blow it up like the second-coming of Christ. Oh, and how knowledgeable is the NFLPA about collective bargaining? The NFL rakes in billions -- way more than any other sport in America -- but it's the only league without fully guaranteed contracts for players. If the WWE ever did want to negotiate through a union, the NFLPA would be a good one to go try and take advantage of.

It's a great idea for the WWE. I don't see why the NFL would be interested in publicly embracing some type of partnership. I wonder if the NFL agreed to meet w/ Ross and the WWE just to be nice, and now WWE is treating the meeting like some major event and PR opportunity.

WWE and NFL meeting in hopes to develop partnership that would make wrestlers out of football players. http://nesn.com/2013/05/wwe-nfl-meeting-in...otball-players/ I don't see why the NFL would want this to be public. Given all the negative publicity about the NFL concussions (not to mention substance abuse, HGH and suicides), is it really in the NFL's best interest to encourage former players to get into wrestling? I know today's wrestling world is much different that it was in the old days, but if an enterprising journalist or two would take a few minutes and look into wrestling's past history with head injuries and ex-employees dying young, it might not turn out well for the NFL.

Sabu's post-match table break is one of the stupidest things ever.

Shouldn't we blame WCW for not telling Buffer what to announce once the match ended? Or maybe they did and he was too busy counting his money to listen. Buffer might make for a strangely interesting shoot interview.....

That picture of his office is awesome. Kuddos to Meltzer for making a helluva living out of a niche interest like pro wrestling. I don't believe that he works 110 hours per week, but even if its half that, he still works his ass off.

....sooooo yeah....again...1 year later and I made my debut last Saturday as Big Benjamin Johnson. Same day Kobashi retired, sadly I failed on my promise to no sell even 1 burning hammer and I lost via getting kicked in the head Congrats and best of luck!

Just a terrible finish. But Jericho's performance makes the god-awful finish forgiveable.

I love this match. I'd always ask myself why someone didn't just try to run out of the cage when I was watching WWF cage matches. That's exactly what Owen and Bret tried to do. Finally someone used common sense while stuck inside that big blue ugly cage! The purpose of the match is to win, right? I suppose you could argue that it's a cage match and guys might want to try and bloody up their opponent and inflict permanent injury, but there's plenty of time to do that after the match is over. Trying to bolt out of the cage and get an easy win makes perfect sense and, IMO, made for a different and unique match.

Just listened to this and it was informative, as usual. I haven't seen the film yet, but wanted to comment on something that was discussed on the pod. Dylan mentioned that one of the criticisms of the film popping up was that it relied too much on comments from journalists and should have focused more on wrestler comments. Dylan and John seemed to have a hard time figuring out why. Without seeing the film, I probably know why. It's the same reason TV networks throw huge sums of money at ex-athletes to provide commentary and "analysis" for sporting events. Never mind that the former athlete rarely says anything useful and insightful, for some reason that recognizable name and face connects with Joe Sports Fan much better than a non-athlete who might actually provides meaningful perspective and commentary. There's a vocal group of sports fans who are sick and tired of hearing ex-athletes spew mindless drivel on the airwaves, but we're a minority and likely won't become a majority any time soon. I'm sure the same applies to wrestling fans watching a wrestling documentary. They want to see the names and faces of the people they recognize, not some dorky looking journalist they probably never heard of. Perspective and insight doesn't register with them as much as "Hey look! It's Raven! Awesome! I remember him. Wow, look at him now!" I'm not saying that's always the case, but it's probably the reason why you're getting the journalist vs. wrestler criticism. Another reason could be the "You've never played the game so what do you know about it?" mindset. Sports journalists get this often from rube fans. For some reason, because Bob the Sportswriter never played an NFL game, a segment of fans view him unqualified to write about it or have an opinion. Yet another reason could be the "Why do you hate (insert the name of your favorite sports team) so much?" If a sports journalist writes something critical of a fan's favorite team, that journalist automatically hates your favorite team, is biased against it, and will do anything to bring it down. Same rules apply for segments of the population in political journalism, movie reviews, business reporting, and just about anything else. If a journalists says something that isn't all duckies and bunnies about ECW, well, he must hate ECW and is biased against it. I'm glad a filmmaker like John recognizes that former ECW wrestlers are not the only people qualified to provide insight into ECW and I look forward to seeing the film for that reason.

Obviously, I love this match and the move that Backlund locked onto Hart after he snapped. Bob Backlund was fucking great in 1994. Watching this again makes me want to seek out more of his 70s and 80s work.

Listened to the first episode and the Shawn Michaels interview the other day. I was completely floored. Austin is great. This totally blew me away. Austin rants and raves a lot, but he's very likable. Perhaps he's likable to me because I enjoyed him as a wrestler, I don't know. Either way, I went into this expecting to hear a goofy southern guy doing a fake tough act. That's pretty much what it is, minus the fake part.

There are a lot of successful and critically acclaimed documentaries about subjects that you would think the "average" person would have no interest in whatsoever. I don't see why a well-done documentary on ECW couldn't be one of those films.

Yeah, my comments were a little unfair. Lowe is great. So is Keri. Grantland has gotten better since it launched. I guess with Lowe and Keri, I've been reading them for so long, I didn't even think about it when they went to Grantland. They're still Zach Lowe and Jonah Keri to me, not Grantland writers (which is unfair to Grantland). Bill Barnwell is a snarky wanna-be sabermatician. Barnwell (and Aaron Schatz, who remains at Football Outsiders) try so hard to be relevant like the baseball stats guys, but they're nowhere close. They're like your little brother, constantly tugging on your arm and saying, "Hey, pay attention to me!" Andvanced analytics and metrics has a place in football, but not to the extent that Barnwell and Schatz try to make you think it does. Instead of evolving and recognizing this, they've decided to turn into pompous assholes. Mike Tanier is fantastic. One of the best football writers (not reporters) going today.