Al

I'd imagine territories landing on regional sporting networks. I could see a scenario where say, Vince is on MSG and an upstart cable system like SNY picks up an upstart wrestling promotion. A Battle For Atlanta style territorial war for the new century.

For her to satisfy the trifecta of Hall of Fame, her "impact" and her performance needs to be good. For her to not be the most cancerous sore on the wrestling industry, her impact needs to be not be the most alarmingly destructive the industry has never seen. She fails on both accounts. As a performer, she made El Gigante look like Toshiaki Kawada. That bled over to her training: all Moolah proteges wrestled in the same hair-pulling, screaming shitty style that she used. As a booker of women's wrestling, not only did she use her power to hold back talent for 30 fucking years, she also was directly responsible in the devolution of women's wrestling from a reasonably respectable style of wrestling to a pathetic sideshow carnival; bearded women in circuses had more respect than women's wrestling did in her reign of terror. Mildred Burke was not the draw Jim Londos was in her time, but she was good enough to fill out arenas as a performer. No woman in the U.S.A drew a single dime after Moolah took over until horny teenagers started buying Sable merchandise. That is how destructive she was. She killed an entire sub-genre of wrestling, and was greedy enough to pocket most of the money the women did make. If you are going to measure impact in that way, then Jamie Kellner and Vince Russo should also be in the Hall of Fame. I honestly don't fault Moolah for training that style. After we've seen the effects of a harsh working style on some wrestlers, who am I to fault women wrestlers for working safe?

Here's trolling. The Fabulous Moolah.

I'd actually make my cutoff year 1986. By 1987 you've got Flair touring Japan for a week, but making the rest of his defenses entirely within Jim Crockett Promotions.

Any two ring match, particularly War Games. It's hard to translate to television unless your production team is top notch.

El Santo would be a great pick. If they're looking for a Mexican/Latino pick, Jose Lothario wouldn't be the worst idea either.

Yeah, I'd think 1930s era, maybe late 40s. Much the way cable television was a game changer, I imagine the interstate highway system changed the way wrestlers could travel from town to town and effectively shortened distances.

I watched a few events with my wife on the Network. I actually had to convince her that guys weren't legitimately hurt on major spots. (i.e. Lesnar selling the table spot at the Rumble.)

Looking at prowrestlinghistory.com, I see Georgia Championship Wrestling ran a Thanksgiving tag team tournament over several years. No idea of the quality, but they seem well stacked with talent.

LOL! Of course. But the most hyped and most heavily promoted boxing match, probably of all-time even still to this day, ending in only a round or two, would have been a bit crippling. Maybe not to the sport itself (unless one of the two pulled a Tyson that night) and certainly both men had the gravitas to rebound from such a defeat (and Ali would have had the built in excuse of ring rust), but to the Garden as a Big Fight venue. OE: WOW! Never knew The Greatest had a brother who also boxed. Look at Louis/Schmeling. Two minutes, 80,000 at Yankee Stadium and no one (of non-German heritage) felt cheated. Fans will accept a short contest given that it's a sport. They only get upset if they feel it's dishonest.

http://boxrec.com/date_search.php?yyyy=1971&mm=03&dd=08 In terms of a boxing match bombing, it'd be hard to match Tyson/Holyfield II. Fans were PISSED after that one.

Baron Corbin seems like a three year project. I don't doubt him necessarily, but it will be interesting to see if a guy can succeed long term whose development has been so exposed.

None. The last few PPVs left me bored by the end. I'm a lapsed subscriber at this point so I don't feel like investing another $9.99 straight away.

That's great context. Especially when you think about how much people are crapping on the idea of ONE Sting match. Kind of on the same level. Dusty Rhodes when he had his last WWF match in '91 was younger than Goldust. And Kane is older than both.

On the Crusher/Bruiser stuff, it's worth noting that they were both older by 1986 than Sting is today.

It's not just Vince on the local tv front. I don't know how many people remember the 1970s era of television, but many television stations produced their own shows. Especially children's shows. The syndication model drove all that out, and now the only local television produced in most market is local interest talk shows. The idea of local wrestling promotions producing local television would've been alien by the mid '90s.

Main evented Battlebowl '93.

If I were Vince McMahon, I think Owen's spot is the one real regret I'd take with me to my grave. Everything else is relatively petty details.

Yeah, it's been 30 years now and the only other promoters successful on a national scale in this country were ones willing to sustain losses long term. No other promoter has made pro wrestling work at all.

The Bushwackers. There's no point in the lineage where they should have gotten the belts, they were always best off as a JTTS team. But how many runs with the belts would they have gotten if they were around at the same time as the Bashams or La Resistance? The Raw tag title scene of late 2003-2005 with various incarnations of Regal, Helms, Christian and partners is probably my answer.

That's my reservation as well. The Demott stuff is not news to WWE. They knew about it, they didn't act.

Well, cataloging not just wrestling but a great deal of early television would be a hell of a cultural contribution.

Wrestlemania V is a show that if you edit it down, it can be a great show. It's just so long that it becomes a slog, almost like sitting through a television taping for as much as they present.

Thank you for the data, mookieghana. It's one of those things you wouldn't expect given they never won titles and got their WWE start very late in their careers.

Bret Hart is Daniel Bryan, Diesel is Roman Reigns and Isaac Yankem is...Kane.