Al

Re: Lawler. It's worth noting that when Lawler debuted, they did pair him against the promotion's #2 babyface. He was certainly given a feature program, the rape allegations shut the door on it prematurely.

I ran a google search recently and came across this and similar articles. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/...le-robbers.html La Parkita and Espectrito Jr. were killed two months ago? How did that pass by unnoticed?

I just watched the Funks vs. Sheik/Abdullah matches from the late 1970s. It's amazing how blatant Abdullah works a foreign object to the point where you wonder how the hell the referee can miss it. Lawler by comparison is an absolute master. He hides the object in such a manner that you're convinced the referr could not have seen it. His Superclash III match against Kerry is still the greatest example of cheating I've ever seen in a wrestling match.

I could see that, though you'd almost certainly need to run the voting in two parts. A nomination stage and then a runoff based on that.

Edge is a guy who I could see going into the Hall someday, but it is way, way too early to make a call.

I get the feeling there are WAY too many candidates on one ballot. I count around 20 guys I would at least listen to arguments for among the Americans alone. If you give voters up to ten votes apiece, they are never going to form a consensus around one candidate. If Dave doesn't get a new HOFer of this group, I think he should consider establishing a runoff procedure.

I watched the Austin/Foley match in full again. Man, there is so much awesome stuff in there. -The ring intros, completely over the top for Foley, the Stooges and Vince, non-existent for Austin. -Lawler's sycophantic approach to commentating. "The next Jim Thorpe," as Ross repeats with disgust in his voice. -An injured Brisco vallantly holding up the ring bell. -Vince and co. changing the rules -The Undertaker keeping Vince reasonably honest. This is the kind of logical step missing from most subsequent main events of its type. -Austin can't touch Vince, so it's Foley that levels Vince. -Taker leveling both the Stooges. And as I wrote before, a hot crowd and both wrestlers being spot on really made this great.

Completely agree. Practically everything in the booking of this match was perfect. Changing stips mid-match, Undertaker keeping Vince honest. And Austin and Foley rose to the occasion.

Even Russo/McMahon booked WWF I find completely unwatchable in hindsight. I refuse to watch a promotion that Russo has any part of booking.

Who were the best booker/wrestlers? Giant Baba strikes me as the pinnacle, but I'm likely missing a few good ones.

This cracked me up. Can you imagine Jimmy Carter hosting Raw? I feel like there are funny jokes to be made here, and all of the ones I'm thinking of are terribly unfunny. Too bad. Jimmy Carter trying to negotiate peace between feuding wrestlers would be all kinds of awesome.

I went into this somewhat disinterested. With the spanish commentary and not knowing the competitors, I figured it was hard to follow. By the third fall, both wrestlers had me completely sucked in.

The wrestling is great. What really stuck out for me is the announcing. Ross and Cornette explain Luger's upcoming match with Pillman, the clash of styles between wrestling Pillman and Dick Murdoch, and why this is giving Luger a boatload of problems. On a personal note, it's always fun to see a long time heel like Murdoch get face pops.

This match was mentioned way back in the RSPW FAQ as an example of improvisation, as these wrestlers apparently went in on five minutes notice. That's probably an exaggeration, I'm certainly not in a position to know. To me, this match is a great example of how you can book a competitive squash. Nowadays the star has two minutes, gets his offense in on the JTTS ans scores a quick fall after his finisher. Armstrong and Muta got 15-20 minutes. Muta looked great because he could display his ability and won two straight falls. Armstrong came out looking a bit weaker than Muta, but by having a competitive match stayed over enough to make him a viable competitior.

I love Murdoch taking the flowers and then casually tossing them out of the ring. Murdoch and Adonis are a fantastic, forgotten team. Every time I see them (which hasn't been often enough), I'm impressed. One thing they do is sell fatigue better than most wrestlers I've seen. I saw a six-man pitting them against Slaughter and the Samoans and it was fantastic.

Good interview(s). I went in blind on the angle, came out with an idea of what was going on exactly plus Gilbert & co. put heat on the upcoming feuds. Throwing in the other heels in the promotion for the "birthday celebration" added easy heat to the Bad Breed and Eliminators. I love their announcer finally, begrudgingly accepting a piece of cake.

In MSG, is it possible the commission yet assigned their own referees?

Can you explain that one Bix? I've read the magazine explanation but not what actually happened.

WCW even had a fan rush the ring during the finish of Hogan/Piper at Starrcade '96. That was a pretty big blemish and I'm surprised it doesn't come up often.

More likely Hogan was working an insane travel schedule that limited his workrate. There are stories of Hogan wrestling in two different time zones in the same day. That can not have a positive effect.

Good point. Even yesterday I read "plays through injuries" as a positive mark for Phillies' star Chase Utley. Watch any retired athlete give an interview and they will tell you how tougher players were in their age, how many injuries they played through, etc. In Misawa's case though, it is likely he saw his continued participation integral to his own company's success. That sort of thing is much harder to discourage.

Yeah, no amount of extra padding will make taking a head/neck bump a good idea.

Stan Hansen's son Shaver was just drafted in the sixth round by the Seattle Mariners' organization.

I don't think the point is that Gotch/Hackenschmidt was a work. Rather, what is to stop say, Bill Goldberg and Steve Austin from agreeing to work a match and promote it as its own event, outside of WWE or TNA?

And consider that Owen and Jeff Jarrett were apparently great friends as well.