Mad Dog

Considering people were rooting for him to lose his arm a couple of years ago, yes, it's blown out of proportion.

I disagree with that assessment of Vader. A lot of the interviews I've seen where people talk about Vader is that he just worked a certain way and that was beating the hell out of you in the ring. Of course, you could beat the shit out of Vader in return and there would be no issues. He was unlike JBL in the sense that he was a big softie backstage. He wasn't out to take liberties on guys and he wasn't out to hurt anyone. When he broke that jobbers back he went backstage and cried about it. He wasn't backstage fucking with guys constantly like JBL. I also think people like blowing Bob Holly's "bullying" way out of proportion. He never seemed to be in the JBL category of bullying. To keep this on topic. JBL was probably the best color commentator the WWE has had in 20 years.

I went to an ECW house show in May of 2000 and had a pretty fun time. I found out about 2 weeks ago that they came through town again in August and didn't advertise the show very well. I kind of regret missing a second chance at an ECW show. The one I made: May 27, 2000 in Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall drawing 950 Shawn Evans beat Jorge Estrada. Hellraiser beat Prime Time. Danny Doring & Amish Roadkill beat CW Anderson & Bill Wiles. Chilly Willy beat Chris Hamrick. Jerry Lynn beat Simon Diamond. Balls Mahoney beat Johnny Swinger. Kid Kash, Chris Chetti, & Nova beat Vic Grimes, Tony DeVito, & Angel. ECW Champion, Justin Credible beat Mikey Whipwreck. Rob Van Dam beat Little Guido. Tommy Dreamer, Sandman, Yoshihiro Tajiri, & Raven beat Steve Corino, Jack Victory, Scotty Anton, & Rhino. The show I missed: August 5, 2000 in Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall drawing 800 The Musketeer NC Prodigy. Phoenix NC Michael Shane & ???. Chris Chetti & Nova beat Simon Diamond & Johnny Swinger. Chilly Willy beat Red Dogg. Danny Doring & Amish Roadkill beat Christian York & Joey Matthews. Balls Mahoney beat Bilvis Wesley. Steve Corino & Scotty Anton beat Chris Hamrick & Julio Dinero. Kid Kash beat EZ Money. Yoshihiro Tajiri & Mikey Whipwreck beat Guido Maritato & Tony Mamaluke. Rob Van Dam beat CW Anderson. ECW Champ Justin Credible beat Tommy Dreamer.

He had a lengthy stay in the WWWF and a fairly lengthy run in Mid-Atlantic. And he was a main stay in Detroit through out the 60s and 70s.

Eh... he had success. I wouldn't say he was big or anything.

Actually 1997 till about mid 1998 they booked him great as the Giant. He rarely lost clean, they constantly threw him out there in 3 on 1 handicap matches where he'd just destroy jobbers, it always took 3 or 4 guys to beat him down and he gave the Choke Slam to just about everyone on the roster in that time frame. Really, the only thing that stopped their booking was when they started jobbing him out on the way out. But from 1997 to May of 1998 the only match I remember him getting pinned clean in was that stupid tag title match with Sting and Sting had to give him a Scorpion Death Drop off the top rope. But go back and watch, they did a really good job with him in 1997 and early 1998. Probably the most protected he ever was by booking.

And Lawler has several episodes of the Memphis Wrestling show on his website. It's worth checking out.

No, I'm sorry, the thing I was reading for that stupid puts the year before the month. So it closed in April of 2001 but the way it was written made me think of January 2004. So 2001 it closed.

His Positively Kanyon gimmick was the only reason to even bother with WCW in the summer of 2000. Him randomly giving the Diamond Cutter to people backstage was always good for a laugh. I still get a pretty good laugh out of that one.

Memphis Power Pro opened fairly soon after the USWA closed. It aired on tv but I'm not sure how it fared. It ran from 1998-2004 and ran alongside MCW but MCW seemed more popular. The promotions kind of merged after MCW closed and it ran till around Memphis Wrestling getting popular. This fed never used the Southern Heavyweight Championship so it felt less like a spiritual successor to the USWA than the other two. MCW was briefly a WWF developmental promotion and I used to get emails from them with results, etc. A lot of who you would expect from the WWE was there; the Dupps, Hass Brothers, Ron Killings, American Dragon, Spanky the Mean Street Posse, Rosey and Jamal. The WWE pulled the developmental deal and it closed almost immediately. The spiritual successor to MCW was Memphis Wrestling. This one aired on tv and had a good deal of success. They ran that show that had Hulk Hogan vs. the Big Show and it drew over 2000 fans. They also ran an angle with Sid vs. Lawler at some point. I actually watched this one and it was pretty solid television. This one all fell apart because someone did something, I think Brian Christopher, and it got pulled from the air. It limped along after that and became Jerry Lawler's Memphis Wrestling and that fell apart almost instantly. The card to that big crowd they drew: Moondog Cujo (with Sal Corrente) defeated The Barbarian Greg Valentine defeated Mr. Hughes Jazz defeated Christi Ricci and Miss Passion Abdullah the Butcher wrestled Al Green to a no contest. Bill Dundee and Dutch Mantel (with Jimmy Valiant) defeated The First Family (Koko B. Ware and Bobby Eaton) (with Slick) Brutus Beefcake and Bubba the Love Sponge defeated The New Assassins (Ricky Murdoch and Big Nasty Bill) (with Sal Corrente) Brian Christopher defeated Buff Bagwell Ricky Morton and Kid Kash defeated Too Cool II (Tim Grind and Flex) © - Tag Team match for the MW Southern Tag Team Championship Hulk Hogan defeated Paul "The Great" Wight

I don't believe I would vote for him but I think he has some merit as a worker. He held the All Japan banner for a couple of years with a really good title reign when the company seemed to not be in a complete death spiral. He also briefly held the Triple Crown and IWGP belts at the same time. Also voted tag team of the year in the WON in 2001. Again, none of that is HoF worthy but I think he has some merit.

I really need to set up a viewing schedule for myself. I have ECW TV, NWA Hollywood, NWA Anarchy, various years of WCW and SMW TV that I try to squeeze in on a regular basis. Tuesday has kind of become ECW day and Thursday has become NWA Hollywood day. I watch those consistently, I haven't been as good with the others.

More ECW. Crazy old man Funk has been gold in his promos every week so far.

None of the NJPW heavyweights did rolling cradles from what I remember in the 90s. I think some of the juniors did but it was more of a secondary move that came out in big matches.

I don't think you have to be smart to the business to cheer heels. We talked about that in another thread where people rooted for Wile E. Coyote to catch the Roadrunner when they were kids. I think some people just have the personality to cheer for the bad guys. And if you look at popular culture around the late 70s, the bad boys started to become cool. Wolverine, Dirty Harry, the Oakland Raiders, Mad Max, etc. were all emerging and drawing in people. So it seems natural that it would make people more prone to cheering for heels.

DH thing. I don't think if you're a DH you should get serious consideration for the Hall. That's just me though. If I had a team, I would take Martinez over Womack without a second thought. But for Hall of Fame consideration, Womack played in the field and Martinez was primarily a DH. I would still take Martinez in the NL over Womack though. I remember his half season with Cincinnati and that was more than enough for me.

I really only mentioned him because he was a DH largely for his career which I think should hurt him. I would include Jose Canseco as a really bad candidate as well for being primarily a DH. Looking at the actual ballots now that I'm home. They all suck but I'd say Brian Jordan, Phil Nevin and Terry Muholland are equally bad as candidates. Nevin is probably worse. He had a really high peak for about 3 years but for the majority of his career, he had to hit it out of the park to get on base. Kirk Rueter was probably a worse candidate too. And Greg Vaughn, he was on the ballot at one point. I'm only at 2009 and I've found plenty of awful names on there.

It's within the first 8 episodes so you'll get to it quick.

I'm fairly indifferent to his inring work but I will forever love him for that episode of SMW where he did squats for the entire show.

Edgar Martinez...

You know, when I finally saw Citizen Kane as an adult, I realized I had already seen almost the entire movie through parodies done on the Simpsons.

Those guys don't even touch Hart. You could completely take away Jimmy Hart's onscreen role from the discussion and he still merits being included for how much influence he's had.

I think I have a GHC comp of Kobashi's title reign. Maybe I'll give that a look and see what I think of the matches now.

I think Jimmy Hart should be an automatic in for a Hall of Fame. He had a huge influence behind the scenes and he had a really good career as a manager.

I honestly don't remember any of his title defenses other than the Nagata one and when he lost the belt.