Al

So Thesz wrestled mainly as a heel?

Dusty borrowed Rikishi's moveset for a while, so the correct answer would be Michael Hayes, no? Speaking of Dusty, I got the idea in my head that Mick Foley is our generation's Dusty Rhodes. Both started out as heels but became immensely popular, perhaps due to their unique looks. Both were used as transition champions.

Here's a question. I've gotten confused with some of the incarnations of the Samoans. Did Tonga Kid wrestle under any other pseudonyms? What about Tama of the Islanders?

FWIW, Bobby Heenan tells this story in his autobiography. Apparently Verne would have then controlled Hogan's bookings in Japan, and that's why Hogan refused.

Let's put this into perspective. Wrestlers who've attained Flair's stature in wrestling tend to stick around. Ric Flair is still wrestling at 57. Lou Thesz wrestled into his 60s, and even had a match at the age of 74. Antonio Inoki wrestled into his 50s. Hulk Hogan is still wrestling part time at the age of 53. El Santo wrestled into his 60s. Giant Baba wrestled until he was 60. Buddy Rogers wrestled a series of matches in his late 50s. Jim Londos wrestled into his 50s. Ed "Strangler" Lewis wrestled in his 50s. Bruno Sammartino wrestled in his early 50s. Verne Gagne wrestled until he was nearly 60. Terry Funk is still wrestling at 61. Mil Mascaras wrestled in his early 60s. Nick Bockwinkel wrestled into his 50s. Fred Blassie had his greatest feud when he was 55 years old. 80-90% of great wrestlers either wrestle into their 50s or die young. For a number of wrestlers on Michaels and Hogans' level to stick around is not unprecidented. It's actually quite common.

I don't think it's that big a deal, really. Do the children of movie stars become fucked up because of roles their parents played? And realistically, what six year old is going to know what their classmate's parents did in a wrestling angle? (And let's remember that the kid's last name is not McMahon). Let me put it this way. Is this worse than say, Jake Roberts being the product of a 13 year old mother?

Did New Jack ever have a scaffold match in ECW? He did those balcony dives, but as far as I know the only scaffold matches the promotions did were Dark Patriot vs. J.T. Smith (1993), and Tommy Dreamer vs. Brian Lee.

I got disc two of the Road Warriors dvd off Netflix yesterday. One of the matches featured on the disc is the LOD/Midnight Express scaffold match from Starrcade '86. This is of course the match where Jim Cornette blew out both of his knees falling from the scaffold. What struck me most was that Condrey and Eaton both bladed during the match. I can just imagine THAT booking meeting. "Hey guys. We were just thinking. We want you to take 20 foot falls into a ring of course. We were wondering if you could possibly slice yourselves open beforehand, just for fun." "Ok. What do the Road Warriors do?" "Stand there and look good." Anyway, I don't recall seeing a scaffold match recently, outside of that deplorable New Jack/Vic Grimes match in XPW. WWE has never held one I believe. There's a few obvious reasons. 1. After Owen Hart, everyone is queasy about a match that would see a wrestler take a long plunge into a ring. 2. Scaffold matches are possibly the most dangerous gimmick match. 3. Scaffold matches are boring anyway. 4. The attraction, seeing a big bump, is negated by the extreme bumps wrestlers take on a regular basis. So is the scaffold match dead? I would prefer to think so. On another note, has there ever been a particularly good scaffold match?

I just watch Von Erich/Flair the other day at Texas Stadium. World Class used to run supershows at the football stadium and draw thousands, but it still looked odd with the upper deck nearly empty. Realistically, I think Hulk Hogan, The Rock and Steve Austin are the only wrestlers that can justify filling a building that size.

"Putting someone over" is common speak within wrestling. It's a proper term.

Meltz has as many good/bad opinions as the rest of us. The problem is that because of his newsletter, his opinions become those of a great deal of readers, and often influence who gets into the WON Hall of Fame.

As opposed to the other 95% of the roster that was steroid free? I mean good lord. Announcers make comments about wrestlers ALL THE TIME.

Beavis & Butthead watch "Real American"

In fairness, this is a very rare match. I doubt most people have seen it. Here's another... Antonio Inoki vs. Vader How to debut a Monster Heel 101.

I believe this is the match where Rikidozan shoots on Kimura and takes the title. Clips. Antonio Inoki vs. Muhammad Ali About 2 mins. worth. Andre the Giant vs. Stan Hansen; Andre vs. Hogan Andy Richter visits Cauliflower Alley Appearances from Jimmy Snuka, Afa, the Bodydonnas, Freddie Blassie, Capt. Lou Albano,

Bruiser Brody vs. Lex Luger Yes, that match.

I just picked this up. This set is tremendous, and really shows the potential of the WWE tape library. -The Rhodes/Flair match, along with a few others, contains alternate commentary by Dusty and co. Sometimes it's fine. In this case though, it detracts from a huge match. It just seems like a better moment with the original commentary, heard on the Bloodbath dvd. Dusty's not the kind of worker that you can watch 2-3 hours at a time. This set has so much good stuff on it for the price however that it's an easy recommendation.

It's not unprecidented. WWE lost Roddy Piper to Hollywood a long time ago.

I got the same vibe watching Andre the Giant referred to as "The Big Boss Man" by Vince McMahon.

To bring up another point, what kind of idiot asks for an autograph from people sitting at a red light?! That's one of those situations where celebrities should not be expected to get autograph requests.

ABC's Extreme Makeover wishes they had that kind of pizzazz.

Sheik wrestled a match in ECW in 1994, at the age of 68. I'm sure he was in a few even after that.

Jerry Lawler vs. Terry Funk - Empty Arena Match

Sheik & Sabu vs. Onita & Goto - Fire Match Just a bizarre match where the participants are forced to abandon the ring a minute into the match because they used WAY too much fire.

So much for that. My cable company's pulling MSG as of July 1st in favor of Sports New York and their Mets games.