Al

I would have more confidence in Dusty Rhodes losing a "loser leaves town" match and following through than Hunter and Steph leaving tv and actually sticking with it.

If you liked Are You Serious (the RoadDogg/Matthews web show), you'll probably like the Edge and Christian show. Their intern essentially playing Chris Farley's SNL interviewer character is a highlight.

As disappointing as Reigns is, I'll be way more deflated if Triple H walks out of Wrestlemania with the title.

I never understood why the high school QB dick was popular either.

A lot of guys working their way into this tournament

Come to think of it, has there ever been a cage that has no door? I dont mean a situation where the door is locked, im talking no door at all, and the only way to escape is to climb out (of course, this limits the type of wrestlers who could compete, no "Giant" wrestlers for example). Thunderdome (Halloween Havoc '89) had no door, but also no escape rules.

Axl was on Cabana's podcast maybe a year ago now, talking about overcoming his addiction problems. This seems particularly tragic in that light.

I also don't mind the escape cage rules. There's a group of matches where the goal is basically to incapacitate the opponent in order to accomplish a goal. Escape cage, ladder match, strap match, stretcher match are all variations of this basic concept. As long as you establish that you can't jump through the ropes and out the door instantly, it works. The issue becomes that over time, you have to bring in more dramatic elements. But that's inherent in all wrestling booking.

I can kind of buy into the tag cage of the rules are consistently enforced. Street fight tag matches are worse, prime example being LOD/Nasty Boys at Summerslam '91. Or tag matches that become street fights midstream, which ECW did all the time.

Bob Backlund. You go through his attributes and there's nothing you can put your finger on that screams main event.

Maybe that says something about the NFL.

Sucks, but I'd much rather see him retire than wrestle longer and end up hurt.

Without making an exhaustive search, William Regal is the first that comes to mind.

It amazes me how long wrestling was pushing body guys before Vince Jr. entered promoting. Even in the '50s, they're all over the place. As far as wrestlers who did it without being self-destructive, Gene Stanlee lived to the age of 88. John Cena seems like a good candidate too.

Absolutely. In the 1991 Rumble Randy Savage was officially eliminated when the next number buzzed. It feels silly in a way to be bothered by a lack of rules in a fictional contest. But when you have an "evil authority" who can bend the rules at will, you feel cheated by a lack of structure.

Regis Philbin is a great pick honestly. The guy was putting over wrestling even before he was a national star, and stuck with wrestlers long after the '80s boom subsided.

I'm excited for the Rumble, but also dreading it in a way. Roman set up to enter at #1 and has to win to retain reeks of the '99 Rumble. There's no way he can work 45-50 minutes. Either he does and bombs, he spends a good portion of the match out of the match (ie stretchered out but not eliminated), or he goes out early. There's a lot of opportunity to overbook here.

Christmas/Thanksgiving is a good place to look. Stampede Wrestling had Stampede week in the Summer. Los Angeles had their annual battle royal.

While I enjoyed most of that show, Putski/Raschke was painful. Putski gets on the mic and wants five more minutes. Dear lord, you had 30 minutes and didn't do shit.

Didn't FMW run an angle with Invader I stabbing Atsushi Onita? There's got to be a ton of stuff from the territory era overlooked. Anything Billy Wolfe did. Or Toots Mondt.

I remember glancing at From Wrestling To Rassling at my college library. Covers the subject matter, but I think it's way, way out of print.

Bruno vs Andre is a great choice. Bruno vs Morales was the first Showdown At Shea. Not much more they could come with that matchup.

Based on his appearance at the opening of Marlins Park a coup lee years ago, I don't think Ali is capable of a public appearance of this scale any longer.

-"boy"

Slaughter was the heel in the Patterson match and lost. Face Slaughter was great against the right opponent, like the Iron Sheik. But overall I feel he had a much better gimmick, matches and shelf life as a heel.