Loss

WWF -- The WWF is facing a lot of push back from other boxing promoters over the Sugar Ray Leonard fight. They are trying to price the show at $29.95, which is predicted would be a less than 2 percent buyrate, which would mean they would lose about $6.5 million on the show. Dave thinks a lot of it is other boxing promoters trying to undercut Vince, as they don't want him on their turf. Still, Dave thinks in the end, this will be a money loser. -- The WWF is insisting the cable companies keep the buyrates for the boxing PPV and Survivor Series confidential. They like to exaggerate their numbers, which is the reason they are doing this. This has nothing to do with wrestling, though, but rather that since the mainstream media actually covers boxing, if Titan tries to exaggerate their numbers, they will be called on it. Bob Arum, a rival promoter, is actively looking for dirt on the WWF to dig up. Dave says unlike Jim Crockett, who was clueless at media, the WWF is now competing with people who know what they're doing. -- Junkyard Dog and Don Muraco have either been fired (based on what wrestlers were told) or temporarily suspended (based on what the front office was told). Either way, pretty much the same thing, as most fired wrestlers are back in a few weeks anyway. Muraco is trying to get into Crockett and has started taking bookings in Northeast independents. JYD wants to work for Baba. -- The British Bulldogs gave their notice and are preparing to leave the promotion. They have started talking with Baba, and because Dynamite Kid is so revered in Japan, Baba will probably take them back with open arms. Dave says this is not the same Bulldogs who last worked Japan, as Dynamite has back injuries that are pretty bad, but their return will be hyped heavily, and it may take people a while to notice how they've fallen since they were so over last time they were there. -- Prime Time Wrestling remains the third highest rated show on cable, averaging a 3.1 in 1.4 million homes last quarter. -- Because Halloween IV is still doing such big business at the box office, they decided to move They Live back yet another week. Horror movies typically do big business for two weeks, so they want as little competing against it as possible. -- SNME aired over the weekend, taped 10/25 from Baltimore. Dave says it was slightly better than the last show due to Andre's acting ability, and the Andre/Jake angle came across really well because Andre's facial expressions are so good, which is a challenge considering the premise (he's scared of snakes) was kinda hokey. Dave says this in some ways ends Andre's run as a main event heel because the snake thing kills some of his aura. "Maybe Vince feels, since the last two Hogan-Andre matches didn't draw at all, that it's a dead issue, but I thought there was a major national run left and the two bad houses were because they held it in Atlanta and Greensboro, which WWF style wrestling has never gotten over in." No complaints about any of the matches, except Patera vs Bravo. "The WWF heat machine needs work because their synthetic 'boos' sound totally unrealistic." He also said it was too obvious the guys were doing promos off of cue cards. The rundown: * Rick Rude vs Jake Roberts: Better than average brawling. Andre ran in to help Rude and Jake picked up the snake, which scared Andre to death. He had what looked like a heart attack, but was later explained as fainting. **1/2 for the wrestling and 1/2* for the angle makes a *** match. * Demolition vs Hart Foundation: Short match, but thanks to Bret Hart, the action was very good. **3/4 * Hulk Hogan vs King Haku: The most significant development was Elizabeth managing Hogan and Jesse Ventura getting in the key line, "What does Savage think of all of this?" The whole match was set up as pretty much an excuse to do a Hogan/Liz post-match celebration. Hogan has stopped wearing the helmet, so they've dropped that idea. *1/2 * Dino Bravo vs Ken Patera: "There is no logical explanation for Bravo to be pushed. I'd say I have no idea why, but I do have an idea, though I wished I didn't." 1/2* * Big Boss Man vs Jim Powers: This was mainly to get Boss Man on TV before the next house show run with Hogan. -- 10/24 at MSG drew 12,500 fans headlined by Randy Savage vs Andre the Giant. They taped Superstars and SNME on 10/25 in Baltimore before a "heavily papered near-sellout" crowd. (My note: ?????) The main angle was a Brother Love segment with Bad News Brown and Jack Tunney. Brown demanded a title shot against Randy Savage. He accused Tunney of protecting Savage and asked if Elizabeth was "doing favors". Tunney got mad, and Brown attacked him, choked him and left him out while Brother Love screamed in his face and asked him if it was true. 10/28 in Greensboro drew 2,000 headlined by Hogan/Hercules vs DiBiase/Virgil. 10/29 in Las Vegas drew a heavily papered 3,000, with WWF people going through casinos and handing out free tickets to make the 16,000 seat Thomas & Mack Center look decent. They also did tons of radio giveaways. The show was headlined by Warrior vs Honky Tonk Man. 10/24 in Hershey, PA drew 2,100 headlined by Hogan vs Haku. -- The Mr. Perfect gimmick is bombing at house shows, and he's getting no heat except at arenas where he was already over from his AWA days. -- Haku is in legal trouble in Baltimore. He is being sued $1.1 million for apparently biting off a guy's nose during a fight. "Why would anyone mess with Haku in the first place?" -- The WWF is seeing their biggest business low of the new era. Savage vs Bad News Brown is setting record low gates in most cities, and even Savage vs DiBiase in a cage recently set a low in Philly. Low attendance and dropping TV ratings mean they are losing a chunk of their audience. NWA -- "The deal is done. The ink has dried. The biggest soap opera of the year story in wrestling is over. And now the real soap opera story has just begun. The National Wrestling Alliance is now owned by Ted Turner, effective on the Tuesday before you read this. And we are starting a new era in the story of professional wrestling, post-1984. "The future is completely uncertain right now. There are so many things that could happen over the next few months and so many variables that one can't even begin to guess how it will all play out. TBS is taking over the NWA at a low point. TV ratings are bad. House shows are not doing well. There is still a core audience and a few issues that fans care about. There is enough wrestling talent to be the core of a good promotion, although changes will certainly be made. There will be front office shake-ups, but nobody is completely sure how they'll shake-up." -- Jack Petrik starts on 12/1. He is going to hire someone to run the wrestling side of the business, and Dave is told this is not someone who is a veteran of pro wrestling. "From that point on, it's a whole new ball game." -- In the end, TBS purchased the company in spite of the debts. Bill Watts, the largest creditor, has not agreed to settle, and at least two lawsuits have been filed regarding those debts. -- World Championship Wrestling fell to a 2.5 average rating in the last quarter, down from 2.7 in the previous quarter. At its peak in the early 80s, that timeslot was pulling a 6.6 rating. NWA Main Event is in 17th place with a 2.04 average in 1.093 million homes), pretty much identical to the second quarter. It's a surprise that the ratings have stayed strong, because they've switched to showing matches three or four months old and just dubbing new commentary over them. In some cases, the matches have even aired on the show before. Rebuilding TV ratings is the top priority for the new regime, and Dave says there's no reason the Saturday show shouldn't consistently be the highest rated show on cable. Because they use that show to start so many key angles, they can't rebuild business until more people are watching that show. Clash III was the fifth highest rated cable show of the quarter, coming in behind four NFL games that aired on ESPN. -- Lyle Alzado was on syndicated TV and said every athlete either already is or should be using steroids because of the wonderful benefits and performance enhancement. He said he has used them for 10 years with no side effects. Dave admits steroids aren't going away anytime soon, and he also says people have the right to decide what they want to put in their bodies. Where his problem is, is that WWF has created an environment where physique is so important that wrestlers are pretty much forced to use them to stay employed, and fans have pretty much stopped responding to people without great physiques. -- Jim Crockett is in charge the first month and is attempting to run as cost-efficient a month as possible in an effort to keep his job. -- There were huge problems between Ric Flair, Jim Crockett and Dusty Rhodes over the past week, which resulted in Flair no-showing a few towns. While the issues haven't been resolved, tensions have at least cooled off. Flair said he was tired of the way he was being used and wanted real finishes and real opponents. He came back, and they changed Flair/Luger singles matches to Flair/Al Perez vs Luger/Nikita on top because Flair refused to keep doing the same finish with Luger he had been doing. By 10/29 in New Orleans, they were back to doing the same finish. Fans in all three cities where the main event was changed was furious because there was no advance notice about it. Flair also refused to work with Bam Bam Bigelow on top on house shows, so those matches had to be changed to Flair/Windham vs Dusty/Bigelow. Flair didn't want to work with Bigelow because he felt both he and the title would be damaged by working with a WWF midcarder on top who hadn't even earned a title shot in the booking. He also had concern about Bigelow leaving mid-program, and pointed out that he wasn't really over with the NWA audience at all. -- 10/27 in Jackson, MS, drew 1,200 fans headlined by Luger/Nikita vs Flair/Perez. 10/25 in Jackson, TN, drew 3,000 fans. 10/29 in New Orleans drew 3,700 fans headlined by Flair vs Luger and the Midnights/Road Warriors title change. The New Orleans crowd was hardly impressive, but it was the largest crowd in the city since Watts. -- Sting and Luger, Dave thinks, did a bad job getting over the Road Warriors feud on TBS. Their promo was too much about them betraying fans and not them personally, and they needed to make the point that they were the one team who could beat the Warriors, which they didn't do. WCCW -- Jerry Jarrett and the Von Erichs were negotiating over ownership of World Class this past week. A deal was struck to give Jerry Jarrett majority interest, with Kevin and Kerry Von Erich remaining minority stockholders. WCCW is operating in deep debt, and all three of them had to put up money to keep it going, which they all agreed to do. There was a stumbling block with the Von Erichs wanting to change certain aspects of the deal at the last minute, specifically wanting majority interest back after (x) amount of time. Jarrett balked, because he thought it would create another Ken Mantell situation where he turned around the company then got forced out. If negotiations aren't finalized by this Friday, everyone has agreed to just take the deal completely off the table. -- WCCW's key time slot on Ch. 11 in Dallas is also in jeopardy due to debt. This is their most valuable time slot. Ch. 11 is looking to move to the NWA, and has even started negotiating with them to make a switch in the near future. Dave says if that happens, it will be the final nail in World Class's coffin. MEMPHIS -- The Stud Stable broke up this week on TV. On 10/23, Cactus Jack & Gary Young won the Southern tag team titles and as part of the stipulations, they get a WCCW World tag title shot against the Samoan Swat Team. On TV on 10/29, Fuller and Golden asked Jack and Young to give them the title shot, and one thing led to another. Foley and Young got attacked, with Foley doing a major blade job. Fuller and Golden then stole the belts and later in the show, Cactus and Young came out for revenge all bandaged up, and the reaction was great. In the brawl, they got one of the two belts back. -- Sid Vicious was back as himself full time this week since Lord Humongous lost some loser leaves town matches. -- Dumbest line of the week was Kent Richie from Covington Pike Toyota, the guy who comes out and awards the wrestler of the week award. After the second brawl, he said, "People always want to know whether or not wrestling is fake and this proves it isn't fake." -- They were very low key on TV about Lawler winning the World Class title. "It's hard to figure out why they would have such a 'heel' ending involving the area's top two babyfaces." (My note: Uhhh, Dave, you said last week you suggested the finish, not realizing they already thought of it themselves.) Lawler and Kerry wrestle again in Dallas on 11/4, and only for the WCCW title. "Do I dare make a prediction? Seriously, they spent all these months building up they were going to unify the titles and turn it into one universally respected legitimate champion, so why are there still two titles? And why would Lawler only defend the World Class belt and not the 'unified' belt. Well, you know the answer, so they can have the unification match in Chicago on the 12/13 PPV show. But by doing this, they will have killed the unification gimmick in Tennessee and Dallas/Fort Worth, which were the two key markets they were expecting to do some business in for the PPV show." NEW JAPAN -- 10/20 in Komagame drew 1,690 fans. -- Biff Wellington is being compared to Dynamite Kid. He even started cutting his hair like him and wearing the same type of ring gear. -- Scott Hall was on the cover of a popular Japanese comic. -- Steve Williams has been wrestling with his new Varsity Club outfit -- a wrestling singlet that says Oklahoma on it -- during this tour. -- No word on when Tatsumi Fujinami is returning. -- Keichi Yamada is leaving for Europe to form a tag team with Masaharu Funaki. ALL JAPAN -- The teams have yet to be finalized for the upcoming tournament, but it is known Jimmy Snuka and Tiger Mask will team, and Tenryu & Hara will team. -- Baba is debating whether or not to give up on Hiroshi Wajima as a failed experiment. -- 10/20 in Suwa drew 1,650 fans. 10/19 in Figu drew 2,900 fans. -- Baba is bringing back Doug Furnas & Dan Kroffat for the January series, and has plans on building them as a long-term team. -- Pete Roberts is in talks with Baba about opening a promotion in England since the established promoters are on the verge of quitting. JOSHI -- Talk of how Chigusa Nagayo's US tour is being covered on television. She had a match against Martha Villalobos in Mexico City and Dave was told she did a dive and hit Villalobos when she was three quarters of the way across the ring. "I'm sure that was exaggerated but it probably was a hot move nonetheless. I don't think it is aerodynamically possible for a woman to fly that far, except for Jackie Joyner-Kersee but then we are dealing with a whole different subject." UWF -- 11/10 will have Maeda vs Takada. 12/22 in Osaka should easily sell out, since the main event is Nobuhiko Takada vs Bob Backlund. Their biggest test will be on 1/10, when they try to sellout the 16,500-seat Budokan Hall, which is almost impossible to sell out. PUERTO RICO -- Tony Atlas found a way to disappear again and will not be at the hearing on Monday for Jose Gonzales' trial. MISCELLANEOUS -- Shane Douglas has officially retired from pro wrestling and is working as a school teacher in central Pennsylvania. -- Terry Gordy has moved from Texas to Alabama and will mainly work independents in the Southeast between Japanese tours. He is done with World Class. -- This is Dave's response to a fan letter criticizing fans who cheer heels, boo babyfaces, shout out real names, etc: "There are a lot of points I've got to address here, but the main one is crowd behavior. I don't think anyone has a right to tell fans how to behave and how not to behave at the matches provided they don't do anything in worse taste than the wrestlers are doing in the ring; don't try to physically abuse the wrestlers and don't behave in a manner which is offensive to the rest of the fans trying to have a good time. I used to get mad at fans who yelled out real names and yelled smart phrases at wrestlers because I thought it was obnoxious, but then I realized that the fans who yell these things are sitting generally in the first few rows, which means they paid the top dollar to attend and bought their tickets first. They are the most loyal fans wrestling has. When the casual fans stop coming to the matches, they will still be there to support the business. They also usually make posters and wear T-shirts of the wrestlers. I have sat in the first row in wrestling arenas throughout this country this year and seen fans in different cities. One thing I learned is that you can't yell smartass phrases during a good match. First, the heat is so loud they can't hear you. Second, if the match is good you concentrate on the match and you won't have time to tell smartass phrases. I sat with the same group of people in Las Vegas in the front row of two cards, one of which was very bad card and the other of which was very good. There were no smartass phrases in the latter, yet nothing but smartass phrases yelled from the crowd in the former. To be honest, if it wasn't for the fans in the first two rows at the Vegas AWA taping, I would have had a hard time being entertained because the matches were so bad. I think you should cheer the heels, cheer the faces, keep quiet or do whatever you want so long as you don't interfere with others' enjoyment of the actual show. Yelling smart phrases does not 'smarten up marks' as people say. If people are so-called wrestling 'marks' (and I hate that term because some people use it for everyone that doesn't agree with them and others use it, both in and out of the business to show some kind of a superiority to those who also support the business), it is not because they don't know the business is worked, it is because they choose to be marks. In this day and age of Vince McMahon, the idea the business is worked, that characters aren't real and winners and losers are pre-determined is something that deep down, almost everyone knows and those that don't, deep in their hearts also know but like to pretend differently because psychologically they are incapable of enjoying wrestling any other way. As I've said before, whenever a fight breaks out in the crowd, what happens? The fans all watch the fight and the wrestlers, no matter how 'heated' their brawling in the ring is, lose the attention of the fans. That's because when confronted with what they know is reality, people would rather watch real fights than fake fights. Vince McMahon has already 'smartened' up the public to a degree, and the little intricacies between being 100 percent smart (which nobody is, not even Vince McMahon, because if anyone was 100 percent smart to this business, they would never make mistakes), or whatever percentage you are comes from how closely you study things and how much you pick up and how much experience you have within the business, and sometimes that even works against you because when you get set in your ways, the business will pass you by. I love listening to talks about ring psychology because it is a fascinating subject, and no two wrestlers think alike about, nor do any two promoters, which is why every promotion has its own distinct style of wrestling. There is no right or wrong or smart or dumb. Getting reaction is part of it, but not everything. Anyone can beg an audience to cheer for him and get reaction, and that has nothing to do with a match. How much reaction one gets in general, is determined primarily by how much TV exposure the person has and how well the promotion gets his personality and his issue over. A distant second is by how well the person actually works a crowd, although the difference between first and second depends upon the city. I've seen wrestlers do identical matches on successive nights in different towns. In one city the match gets a great reaction and in the second it gets no reaction and the crowd behaves differently. Does that mean the wrestlers suddenly weren't 'smart' the second night or didn't know any psychology. No, it is simply the way the crowd reacted to the television personalities these actors portrayed. I saw Honky Tonk Man work with Randy Savage here before he shoved Elizabeth and Honky got great heat until the bell sounded, then pretty much zippo the whole match and they got a nice pop for post-match antics, but the match got no heat. I saw them two months later do the exact same match after Honky shoved Liz, and they got good heat the whole way. Did Honky and Randy suddenly learn ring psychology in those two months? No, they did an angle which got the audience incensed enough that they overlooked that very little was happening in the match. I saw Honky and Jim Duggan out here work as hard as they could to get no reaction at a card in Oakland simply because even though both were over, nobody cared about them wrestling each other and the match wasn't good enough to get them to care. If Duggan had been in with Andre and Honky with Savage, with the same sequence of moves, both matches would have had heat because of the issue involved with the two. It has nothing to do with the ring psychology of any of the four involved. The great ring psychologists are the guys who have no issue, and maybe not even a clearly-defined character or lots of TV time, that can still get themselves over in a match. That's exceedingly difficult today. They are not guys who cup their ears and get a Pavlov's dog reaction from the audience, and yes, they aren't guys who do 1,000 moves in a row that mean nothing if they don't build into a match. Every reader of the Observer and every wrestling fan has different degrees of wrestling intelligence, just as every wrestler and promoter has differing styles and degrees of wrestling intelligence. But nobody is 100 percent smart, and those that think they are, are the dumbest of them all. And I've never spoken to any two wrestlers who had the exact identical ideas of how to work a match or a crowd. One last thing about Owen Hart. No one has ever said Owen Hart had the best ring psychology around. It's been written here before that once he gets his ring psychology down he'll be unequivocably No. 1, because he can do so much more than anyone else and has the willingness to vary his routine every night. This won't happen with Titan because they can't allow a wrestler in prelims to overshadow the main eventers, even though because of the hype and issues given on TV to those main eventers, that task is very difficult. But to be a success in any entertainment field, you have to break the mold. At 5-foot-9 and with two years experience, Hart has accomplished an incredible amount in this business. With only a moderate push he is the second most popular foreign wrestler in Japan. He is with Titan and has a decent shot at getting a good break depends upon what the Gods decide, despite the fact his strong point is athletics, not personality. If he were to wrestle like you suggested, without doing flashy moves, and learned nothing but psychology, at his size he would be exactly where Gary Royal is in the NWA. A great ring psychologist. And at 5-foot-9, that means nothing. One last word on fans. I am a lot more offended and embarrassed at wrestling when I bring friends at the antics of fans who do nothing but cuss and flip the bird than I am at people who are having a good time and good-naturedly enjoying the show, whether they cheer faces or heels."

In 2010, it's more taboo to accuse someone of racism than it is to actually say something racist.

Yes, the media goes into hyper overdrive. But this is the same Cornette that on his shoot interview around this time said stuff about how black people would be better suited to dress like normal people and speak clearly, or something to that effect, using Snoop Dogg as his example. As far as the article, this was the main quote that stood out: (1) It's overly simplistic to say that all accusations of racial discrimination are false excuse making for people who can't hold jobs. (2) If a woman had her butt pinched at work, she has every right to sue for sexual harassment. (3) Gays can't legally "claim discrimination" because it's still not illegal to fire someone for being gay in most cases.

Wow, this whole angle, from Tenay's commentary talking up Randy Anderson's amateur credentials, to Nick Patrick's awesome heel work, to the awesome crowd heat, was really, really well done: WCW had some really good angles going at this time.

Dummy? Dave would have never called someone a dummy in an argument even two years ago.

There's also the arguments about him changing the lucha libre style that I've read Kevin Cook make before that I'm not informed enough to let be made again, but the way he always described it was that Rey's time in Mexico alone qualified him for the HOF. I see a guy who has had great matches everywhere. If he has history as an international draw, even better.

Well, I think John Cena is a HOF shoo-in also. He's just not old enough to be eligible yet, but he deserves to go in the first year he is eligible. Rey has a strong enough case on work to get in. Anything more than that certainly adds to his case, but his list of great matches over nearly 20 years in a wide variety of settings alone is the reason he should be in the HOF.

I feel like the two most similar wrestlers on the ballot this year are Jericho and Sting. Both have had nearly a decade of being near the top so long that it kind of gives the illusion that they were on top the entire time, both had short championship reigns that were considered disappointing at the time, both have a few impressive drawing numbers to their credit when paired with established draws, both are probably near the same level in the ring career versus career. I don't know where I stand on them just yet, but I feel like if one goes in, they both have to go in. If one stays out, they both have to stay out. I know on the surface it seems like Sting had more years on top than Jericho, but take a look: 1988 vs 1999 - Both were very over new midcarders who flirted with the upper card, Sting far more so than Jericho. 1989 vs 2000 - Both were paired with a top guy in tag teams for much of the year and had good years. Both were in about the same position on the card, with the difference being that Sting was clearly being groomed for the top spot and no one really knew what they had planned for Jericho. 1990 vs 2001 - Both finally got their chance on top. Sting's run bombed, which I blame on the Black Scorpion angle more than Sting himself. Jericho was being set up to fail, but the initial work leading to the heel turn and the early part of the Rock program was strong. 1991 vs 2002 - Both stayed near the top of the card, but were ultimately removed from the top position. Jericho did more after dropping back to his old spot than Sting did. 1992 vs 2003 - Sting had the bigger year here and was the top babyface most of the time, but I would argue Jericho's importance to the company was strong in this year, as he was getting more TV time than anyone due to the Highlight Reel, was a positive ratings draw (which was unusual at that point for someone with so much TV time), and had some big feuds. 1993 vs 2004 - Sting was part of some big main events at the beginning of the year, but did nothing most of the year and everything in WCW was bad and not drawing. Jericho had some midcard feuds that really clicked and was the bottom of the pecking order babyface in main event tags on RAW more than anything else. 1995 vs 2004 - Sting dropped far down the card behind Hogan and Savage, while Jericho dropped far down the card below Benoit and Edge. Jericho had the better year because the Christian feud clicked and the tags and six-mans against Evolution on Raw were better than most of Sting's week-to-week stuff. 1996 vs 2005 - Both went on hiatus. Sting had the better storyline leading to his, Jericho had the better matches on the way out the door, but had a pretty rough patch earlier in the year. 1997 vs 2006 - Both were inactive. (Sting had two matches at the tail end of December which were kind of a big deal. Starrcade set records for WCW at the time, which is honestly the biggest positive Sting has.) 1998 vs 2007 - With Jericho out most of the year, Sting obviously has the advantage, but this was a disappointing year for him, as he was set up for something huge and instead just slowly slid down the card. 1999 vs 2008 - Jericho was the top heel in the promotion for the bulk of the year and had a successful feud with Michaels both in the ring and in PPV. Sting's comeback produced some fun matches. 2000 vs 2009 - Sting had a bad year in a bad company. Jericho had another great year with good feuds with retired wrestlers and Rey Misterio. Rey Misterio is the shoe-in candidate that just isn't getting in with overwhelming numbers for some reason. I would also vote in Jerry Jarrett for decades of successfully promoting wrestling. Jim Crockett is an interesting case, as he had some successful years, but I tend to think they drew in 1986 because of the booking. If anything, they weren't able to sustain the momentum they had because Crockett wasn't great at promoting the NWA (and Dusty's booking taking a downturn didn't hurt things either).

This is the new place to put all the "No, it's not the same thing as pro wrestling" comments (even if Dave said them), since like a cancer it's spreading and more people are starting to buy into it. Continue using the Dave and Wade threads for everything else they say.

Great stuff. You know, SLL, I was thinking that since Hulk Hogan recently compared himself to Madonna as a brand, it would be awesome to do a column on Madonna's career in wrestling terms -- talking about how her gimmick changes have kept her fresh and on top, and that she has paired herself with younger stars on the rise like Britney Spears when convenient, so that she could suck the life out of them before pushing them back down the card so she can have the main event to herself. You could also argue that she took advantage of the cable TV expansion of music to kill her competition. Cyndi Lauper can be compared to Jim Crockett, with Whitney Houston being competing entity that was more popular than her until she married Bobby Brown, which would be the equivalent of the Fingerpoke of Doom or Starrcade '97. Lots of possibilities there.

Right, and I won't take that way from him. I agree with that, and have argued with people who thought he was a turn-off many times in the past. I just think Cena's character wouldn't fit well in a sit-down interview type show. ETA: I'm curious if Cena is still moving merchandise in 2010 like he was from 2005-2008. Business feels like it's down right now. Maybe we're nearing the time when it's right to do the heel turn, which will be awesome when it happens.

John Cena is being MURDERED by having to deliver terrible lines. Not as hot as he was a few years ago for sure. And this isn't a swipe at Cena, but as long as he's their top star, it would be a bad idea, I think, to start doing All Access-type shows hyping PPVs. The reason the Cena backlash exists is because a segment of the audience thinks he's a phony. Cena is a modern Hogan -- a guy who if he's talking, he's working, even if he's not on WWE TV. And more power to him, he has a fanbase and is making millions every year. But I think doing that type of build would expose a guy like Cena without some major thought put into the production of it. It also wouldn't be a good color on Undertaker or HHH. I do think Punk and Jericho would do very well with the sit-down interviews, but they would have to make some adjustments to their characters to pull it off. Not sure how Rey sitting there in a mask would translate either.

I would also like to add that I loved 1999 when Flair was President of WCW and was being booked to be humiliated and actually made it great comedy. This seemed like an appropriate place to mention that. "Sting, get down here, damnit. I'm the President. Don't be flying around without telling me!"

I think I enjoy Flair's incredulous reaction more than the impersonation itself. I thought Flair was going to faint when Jay Lethal called himself a 60-minute man. "WOW. WOW."

I haven't seen more than just the recent clips. It doesn't surprise me that Flair had some bad mixed in with the good.

I also love that Ric Flair is getting to be a crazy old man again. I wish WWE would have let him elbow the mat, strip down to his underwear, hit himself, scream, tell random people in the audience to shut up, etc. It's embarrassing that he's still going at this age, and he needs to retire, and he looks like he's literally melting and his hair and teeth could fall out at any moment, but at least he's not being the subdued version of Ric Flair we saw in WWE. There is a train wreck appeal to it all.

I really feel like this deserves its own thread, because it is, perhaps, "the best thing going today". Jay Lethal's Flair parody is frighteningly accurate. It's a shame it's happening in TNA instead of somewhere where it could actually benefit Lethal. Also, from watching a few You Tube clips, how sad is it that Ric Flair in 2010 is still the best interview in wrestling?

Pretty sure that's the case, yes.

Agreed that Heenan was key in getting Flair over. That said, I think the Heenan association contributed to Flair being just another new guy over the long haul, because being paired with Heenan was just something every incoming heel who wasn't a steroid monster did at the time. Flair could do interviews and I have trouble accepting that the WWF audience didn't know him, as aside from Hogan and maybe Savage, he was easily the biggest star in wrestling at the time. But that's really more of a booking point than a wrestling point. Heenan definitely worked hard to help Ric get over in the WWF, and deserves credit for that. I think his greater contributions even in that came from his work at the broadcast booth during Flair's matches, far more than anything he might have done at ringside on a few house shows here and there. Heenan was good in the WM 3 buildup, and you could classify him as effective. Because of the role Heenan played at the time as the top heel manager, he was the perfect manager to pair Andre with going into Wrestlemania, to get over the point. What Vince was on camera to the late 90s and early 00s is what Heenan was during this time period - if you wanted to get someone over as a heel, Heenan was just the guy you paired that wrestler with. So I concede that point. Hogan/Andre was always going to be the selling point for Wrestlemania III, whether Heenan did great promos hyping the match or not. So that was an unfair statement by me, and I concede that you're right on that. Rude I see differently. I see Rick Rude as one of the greatest gimmicks in wrestling history -- awesome wrestling name, awesome ladies man gimmick, great promo, really good in the ring, star quality, great presence, great heat magnet, fitting entrance music. The WWF brought out the best in him, then he went to WCW and cemented himself as a top guy. Rude was destined to be a star. Being in the Heenan Family definitely didn't hurt him, but I'm not sure Heenan helped him fill a missing piece of the puzzle. Heenan did manage Rude during a time when he really put the pieces together and became a star. 1988 was the beginning of him putting the pieces together in a great feud with Jake Roberts, and 1989 is when his ring work caught up to his gimmick. But I think Rude was going to be successful whether Heenan was with him or not. Haku, Studd, and Bundy. Studd was clueless and had limitations, whether he was with Heenan or not. His size guaranteed him a spot as a guy for Hogan to face on house shows. Bundy was an established name in wrestling before being aligned with Heenan. Heenan's bumping definitely was the highlight of that match and I give him credit for it. Haku was a guy that the WWF tried repackaging a few times, most times with Heenan still with him, but nothing really clicked. I'm not blaming Heenan for that at all, as much as I am saying that I would consider him a great manager if he was able to get Haku over as a top-level star. Comparing career to career, I agree with you that Bobby Heenan was a better manager than Sensational Sherri. But during this three year period, I don't think he was. Savage dropped down the card during this time, yes, but the WWF was a babyface territory, and because of the nature of the Hogan formula, every heel had nowhere to go but down the card after feuding with him. Sherri definitely didn't contribute to Savage's slide down the card. If anything, she made matches against guys like Duggan and Dusty more entertaining than they would have been without her around. Finally, I would like for you to acknowledge that "Sherri was the best worker during this time" is not something I pulled out of thin air, even if you don't agree with it. Others have acknowledged that she was praised at the time, so what I was saying was hardly an original thought, and it's not something that I'd even really call all that controversial. It was a dry period without any real hot feuds. Hogan/Savage was red hot in '89 before it ran its course, Hogan/Warrior is a remembered dream match, and Savage/Warrior was a big feud in the early part of '91. Those were probably the three biggest feuds during these years, and Sherri was a key part of two of them.

WWF -- "They Live" with Piper was scheduled to open this coming weekend, but Universal Studios also planned on releasing Halloween IV the same weekend, and the left hand didn't talk to the right hand, so now "They Live" is postponed a week because they didn't want to release two scary movies at the same time. If it can do two decent weeks of business, it will show a profit, and if it does show a profit, Piper's five-movie deal with John Carpenter will remain intact, and if that happens, he won't wrestle again. Critics are not being allowed to screen the movie, which usually means they know critics will hate it, so they look to "steal" a few weeks at the box office before word of mouth catches up. -- George Steele is contemplating a comeback after colon surgery that caused him to lose 60 pounds. -- 10/23 at the Omni drew 5,200 fans headlined by Hogan vs Andre. Crowd was dead for most of the show, even Hogan. -- Warlord has missed several dates recently and no one knows why. -- 10/14 in Oakland and 10/16 in Los Angeles both did big business, around 11,000 paid. -- Terry Taylor is expected to turn babyface by the end of the year. NWA -- "The soap-opera like story of the negotiations between Turner Entertainment and Jim Crockett promotions was just about finalized Friday afternoon as the contracts between the two for the sale of the NWA were signed. Officially, the money will change hands for the purchase on 11/1 and Turner will take over the control of the NWA the next business day. Right about now we'll have to adopt a wait-and-see attitude about whether or not that will bring improvement in the wrestling product of the NWA. In theory, there should be a short-term improvement for two reasons. The first is, the worries about getting paid that the wrestlers have had should be alleviated because one would think TBS didn't buy a wrestling company with the idea of letting it fall apart without a major effort at salvaging it, so therefore they should be pretty intent at holding onto the key talent they can build around, specifically Ric Flair, Sting, Lex Luger, Barry Windham, etc. The second reason why their should be short-term improvement is the company has to peak its angles for the 12/26 PPV show from Norfolk, plus, one would think, Dusty Rhodes is somewhat on the hot seat as a booker to produce and whether his booking will be the best thing long run or not, you have to expect some major league hot-shotting over the next two months. I don't foresee any immediate changes as far as how the company operates that would be visible to the fans, at least until the first of the year. Perhaps a change in the Sunday format, with tapings of new matches, would be in the works as the ratings for the Sunday show have dropped tremendously of late because of all the rerun format. I also expect eventual changes in the squash/interview/squash Saturday TBS and syndicated show format because the folks at TBS will be interested in monitoring TV ratings and the ratings aren't going to increase with the present format. Anyway, most of this is stuff that has been gone over ad infinitum of late." -- Later in the issue: "IT COULDN'T HAVE COME THIS FAR WITHOUT A DENT. The official word Monday morning from both TBS and the Crockett organization is that the sale has not been completed as of yet. I don't know if that means the 'official' sale doesn't take place until the money changes hands on the 1st or if the contracts weren't actually signed on Friday. Stay tuned next week for another episode of 'One Life To Live'." -- Dave finally saw Learning the Ropes. He says it wasn't as terrible as he thought it would be, but it has to be embarrassing that it was designed as a showcase for Crockett wrestlers and already, Ricky Morton and Tully Blanchard, neither of whom are in the NWA anymore, have been featured. Dave thought it was interesting that in one episode, the masked wrestler and Ivan Koloff were playing cards together in the same dressing room before their match, although they don't acknowledge wrestling as worked. The final verdict is that it's worth watching once for the sake of curiosity, but nothing beyond that. -- Dave finally saw the Road Warriors heel turn and thought it was tremendous. Dave suggests letting Sting tour Japan and showing him in the hospital each week, but slightly improving, leading to a hot house show series later, but the downside to that would be that Sting would get over more, and this feud is being booked where Sting is the messenger for Dusty Rhodes. Dave thinks Dusty is pushing himself harder than ever now to make himself seem indispensable to TBS. -- Negotiations with Ricky Steamboat are dead. -- Paul E. Dangerously and the "Original" Midnight Express are definitely coming in to feud with Cornette and the MX. They will have a match at Starrcade, and the MX will be turning babyface. -- They've started a U.S. tag title tournament, which Dave predicts will come down to the Fantastics and Sheepherders, and they'll have flag vs flag matches on house shows spinning out of it. -- Lex Luger is still out with his eye injury, so Sting is filling in for him on top and winning by DQ every night against Flair. -- Steve Williams will be announced as joining the Varsity Club, while Rick Steiner probably won't be turned for another two weeks or so. Dave says the Steiner turn and the Road Warriors as heels appear to be the only things working at the moment. He also says Sting is going to start losing steam soon if they don't put a title on him, as he anticipates the Luger/Sting vs Road Warriors house show series having all non-finishes. -- 10/22 in Cincinnatti drew 1,800 fans headlined by Flair & Barry Windham vs Sting & Ron Simmons, subbing for Luger. 10/21 drew 1,300 fans to Cobo Arena in Detroit headlined by Flair vs Sting. -- The bad houses are hurting morale, but "perhaps the sale will see a change for the better". SOUTHERN -- Dave calls Tommy Rich the best small-circuit heel in the country right now, which shows how sometimes all a person needs to get over is a personality switch, as he was a lame babyface. WCCW -- The Cotton Bowl card drew 3,500 and a $43,000 gate. WCCW wasn't unhappy with this, but they were hoping for a $50,000 house. Dave says it just shows how much the non-finishes in unification matches have killed business, as Lawler is the hottest heel in World Class in a long time, but they still can't draw. -- Jerry Jarrett was supposed to sign paperwork to give him 30% ownership in World Class, but never showed up to sign the papers. -- Percy Pringle was fired and told that Kevin and Kerry's wives would now be handling his souvenir duties. He had been told this before, but always found a way to save his job, but not this time. MEMPHIS -- 10/17 drew an $8,000 house and about 1,500 fans headlined by Lawler vs Fujinami, with Chigusa Nagayo on the undercard against Candi Devine. -- Dave says in the Lawler/Kerry matches, they are able to get great heat through facial expressions, but there is a lot of stalling between moves since Kerry is so limited these days, and also, they've done so many unification matches without unifying anything now that they've killed the gimmick. There is an update later in the issue that Lawler beat Kerry to unify the titles on 10/23 in a cage match where Kerry asked Jeff Jarrett to open the door from ringside and Jarrett shut the door on his head. Dave said he had actually suggested this finish to people in Memphis, not realizing they had already thought of it themselves. He says they can go in a few directions from that finish and thinks it was a good move. STAMPEDE -- Chigusa Nagayo has dates coming up. NEW JAPAN -- 10/16 in Osaka drew 2,270 fans. ALL JAPAN -- Dave says Dan Kroffat looked good on the last series of All Japan tapes he just watched. OTHER STUFF -- Continental had an emergency meeting on Sunday to try to salvage something, because the crowds have been terrible since Gilbert left. -- FNN is broadcasting a one-hour special on Brody on 11/2. There will be a phone-in show starting on FNN in late November, and Jesse Ventura will be on soon to discuss steroids in wrestling. -- Sputnik Monroe is promoting wrestling shows in local Memphis bars weekly. LETTERS -- Jim Wilson wrote a letter to Dave to respond to some of his recent comments on Wilson's career, and this is something I'd normally transcribe, but I feel like I've already transcribed too much from this issue. The key points of the letter: * Incorrect facts Dave provided: - Wilson played with the Rams from 1968 through the 1971 Rams pre-season when he had to quit due to back surgery - Eddie Mansfield did do a few spot shows in 1983, but could not find regular work after 1982 - The Department of Justice continued monitoring the NWA in the 1960s and 1970s, and did not stop until 1985 when the NWA's request to lift the consent decree was turned down - Ron Pope was not a litigant, but was a witness for an NAACP investigation of pro wrestling in 1979 - Ole Anderson did not hire former Georgia governor Carl Sanders' law firm. Jim Barnett did. - Ted Turner placed pressure on the Georgia state senate to kill the athletic commission regulating wrestling in Georgia. State senator Dick Lane told Wilson two weeks ago that Turner still lobbies the Georgia state senate about this. - Jimmy Carter had connections to Georgia Championship Wrestling. Jim Barnett was a big donor and was repaid by being appointed to various fine arts committees, and to the National Arts Commission in 1980. - Not even the Justice Department believes Dave's claim that there has never been a singular goal in wrestling to blacklist any wrestler. Wilson calls this laughably naive. * Disagreements: - Dave should make it clear when he's stating an opinion versus reporting a fact. Calling the possibility of forming a union in wrestling impractical is not reason to give up on the idea completely. - The claim that wrestling is not stable enough to function a pending plan is laughable, as the boxing pensions are funded by 3% of the live gate and 3% of each boxer's purse. He accuses Dave of anti-union rhetoric that was also used in entertainment and other sports at one time - He calls Dave a "classic conservative" for saying things like that it rings true in every form of business that some people are not paid what they are worth * Black fans: - Wilson claims Dave saying that 90% of income and 5% of payoffs comes from black fans is incorrect. Wilson funded a Georgia study that showed that 50% of paid attendance was black fans, but 5% of wrestlers are black. * Brody: - Dave's claims that Brody's predicament was a result of choices he made (My note: Dave said this??) is wrong because it ignores the conditions in wrestling that led to his death in the first place. * Democrats: - Wilson handed out pamphlets at the Democratic national convention lobbying for certain legal protections for pro wrestlers, which passed the Georgia house overwhelmingly in 1985, but died in the state senate. * Drugs: - Wilson and Mansfield were not druggies, at least no more than every other wrestler at the time, pretty much all of whom drank lots of beer and smoked lots of pot. * Ted Turner: - His involvement in wrestling has always been heavy, intense, and personal. He is going to face time in court eventually for anti-trust violations, attempting to damage Wilson's 1974 and 1981 Omni shows. * Dave's response: - The facts about Wilson's career came from the pro football encyclopedia. - It is true that Mansfield could not find work after 1982, because he no-showed after doing an angle with Scott Casey in Southwest on his first night in, not because he complained about a payoff in Georgia. - Whether Ron Pope was a litigant in the NAACP's investigation of pro wrestling in California or not, but still got a job in Fred Behrend's Texas All Star Wrestling in 1985, and was hired to play Zulu in WCCW in 1986, until being fired for refusing to do a job for Mike Von Erich. - Dave won't deny that many wrestling promoters are racist, and even some that aren't engage in tokenism where you have a black star, but usually only one at a time. - The fact that Pope testified against wrestling in many places, including the New York State Senate, and still found some work after doing so, shows that the idea of an official blacklist in wrestling is just paranoid. - Dave would love to see a union in wrestling, but knows it won't happen. He also says most wrestlers, right or wrong, would see a pension as a con where the money wouldn't be there when they needed it. He does think there should be insurance for on-the-job injuries. - Dave takes exception to Wilson's characterization of him that wrestling has problems but so does everything, so let's just ignore it. Dave says many of the problems of wrestling are just a result of being part of the entertainment business, and you have to realistically discuss the best way to resolve these problems. STEROIDS -- Dave opts to write about steroids since it's a slow business week. "Let's take an honest look at what pro wrestling has evolved into, particularly in the last five years. Size has always been a key factor in determining whether wrestlers got a push and physiques were always taken into consideration, but what has changed in the past decade is that I would say it is exceedingly hard and getting to be near-impossible for a wrestler to get over without a steroid-created physique. The days of people looking like Harley Race or The Funks dominating the wrestling business mainly through 'working ability' are dwindling away, if they aren't completely over. You can still find a few throwbacks, particularly Ted DiBiase, as in someone whose physique is not out of the ordinary but is still a major star, yet most agree it is that lack of physique that holds DiBiase back in the eyes of many of the fans, despite having all the tools as far as working, getting over a character and doing interviews. Whether those in the business will acknowledge this publicly or pretend it isn't the case, steroids are very close to a necessity to make it as a big star in this business. I hate writing that, but it is the sad truth. Because of that, knocking wrestlers because they use steroids is like knocking weightlifters or bodybuilders, both of whom use steroids at levels as great or greater than wrestlers. They couldn't compete at the levels demanded without them. I think it is unfortunate, but true that steroids have turned pro wrestling fans from a skill to something that in many cases requires less and less skill and more and awesome physique, and that the trend is continuing in that direction. What I find the most unfortunate about the steroid problem is that the drugs are dangerous, although nobody really knows if the warnings we hear are totally exaggerated, slightly exaggerated, or not the slightest bit exaggerated. There are wrestlers within the last year who have had heart attacks, strokes and major heart complications attributed to steroids. There have been cases of cancer in the past to wrestlers linked with heavy steroid use. It has often been alleged that heavy steroid usage caused the heart attack death of Rick McGraw, even though perhaps the steroids just aggravated personal depression which led to his death. There are a few wrestlers who were admitted heavy steroid users who have had children born with major birth defects. And the vast majority of wrestlers who have used steroids, at least in the short-run, have not had major health problems attributed to them. But because it doesn't happen to most, at least in the short-run, and truthfully, it is still too early in the ballgame to tell what long-term year-round heavy dosages of the stuff will do to these guys when they get older, doesn't mean that heavy usage of steroids is anything less than playing Russian Roulette with your health. But when you are talking about pro wrestling, an occupation in which injury is not a possibility but in the long-term an inevitability, and those injuries lead to usage of pain killers, what value is it so say that using steroids are anymore dangerous than wrestling itself would be over the long run? Hey, everybody today needs a dark tan as well as the muscular physique and too much time in the tanning bed can lead to cancer as well, and nobody really addresses that issue at all. There is no ready-made solution to the problem. The NFL and the Olympics have their public relations solutions, testing athletes for steroids, which at least in the Olympics, has led to usage of more dangerous drugs, particularly Human Growth Hormone, which is undetectable in steroid tests. Olympic athletes before testing now switch early on from injectables, which show up in the tests for several months after being discontinued, unless a diuretic flushes them out of the system (and then you are risking that the diuretic isn't detected in the tests) to oral steroids, which are more dangerous but don't stay in the system as long, so HGH (Human Growth Hormone) which there is no test that can detect at the present time. What happened with Ben Johnson was simply, if you believe the Sports Illustrated account, that his doctor believed they had a way to beat the test the same way the Bulgarian doctors believed the could beat the test. The entire Bulgarian weightlifting team wound up pulling out of the games after a few of the members were caught. Technology had caught up with their method of 'masking' the drugs and Ben Johnson, who had used the same 'masking' method, was also caught. So Ben Johnson went from a national hero in Canada to a figure of disgrace in just a few days, after setting a world record by running the 100 in 9.79. Johnson had earlier set the record with a 9.83 and passed a steroid test, and had passed several other tests for years despite allegations that he had been a heavy steroid user for the past few years. The doctors at the Olympics said the results of his test indicated Johnson had been a heavy user over a long period of time, yet Johnson was frequently tested and was never detected as positive beforehand. Drug tests do occasionally catch people at random, but mainly those who unlucky not all those who are guilty, so to speak. I don't know what percentages of track athletes, swimmers, lifters or whatever are using steroids, only that in certain sports it is very high and wrestling is right behind bodybuilding and weight sports at the top of that list. Wrestling could test for steroids, although it won't happen because the testing is far too expensive to be feasible, and even if it were done, it would simply be a public relations move. The testing encourages usage of more dangerous drugs and more expensive drugs which one could use and still pass the test. Besides, unless there is a public outrage, nobody in wrestling really 'has to' address the problem and the public outrage is going to come in legitimate sports like football and never in pro wrestling which the media simply doesn't care about. I wouldn't even be bringing this up, because the steroid usage isn't going to evolve into a major problem for the wrestling industry (even though it should be already) except for conversations that I have had with several wrestlers and with frequency. These have ranged from guys wanting to make it who have never worked a day in their lives to major stars who are great workers that can't get over to today's public because they can't stand next to the Anabolic Warrior, and if they could, they are afraid they may not be standing for long. Now if someone wants to use steroids, and there are many wrestlers today who would be using them whether they were wrestlers, or if they were just gym rats with regular jobs, that is a matter of choice. If someone feels that the added 15 to 50 pounds of muscle and 100-150 more pounds on your bench press is worth the risks, well, it is a personal decision. But here is the problem I've heard too frequently. It comes from wrestlers, ranging from want-to-be wrestlers to major wrestling stars who don't want to use steroids for whatever reason. Some are afraid of the health consequences, which is the normal fear. Some are afraid of the side effects as they relate to wrestling, the increased muscle can (but doesn't necessarily have to) decrease flexibility and decrease cardiovascular conditioning to the point that some guys are in embarrassingly bad shape. Yet just about all of these people either make one or two choices. They give up their goal to make it in the business, or they give in to what they believe is the inevitable. To make money, you have to have a physique and workrate be damned and personality be damned because there are great workers who exude a great personality that don't get anywhere near the push of some guys who have NOTHING going for them except an unnatural physique. Over the long haul, steroids have been linked to heart an liver problems, but the number of old-time wrestlers and bodybuilders who used the drugs 20 years back that have dropped dead from them is miniscule. A few hate, but most are still alive and kicking. Over the short-haul, steroids do increase size and muscularity. They give you more size and added weight, gains depending upon dosage and genetics, yet at the same time actually decrease the levels of fat. So you get bigger and at the same time lose fat. They do increase strength. They do increase speed, but decrease stamina. They do increase aggression, which can be either a positive or a negative -- it can be a positive on the football field or in the gym, but it can't be turned off and is very muh a negative in real society situations. Actually, the increase in aggression appears to be mainly in individuals who are naturally aggressive to begin with. I know of one wrestler who told me he didn't want to go back on steroids because he would easily become irritated on them and hit his wife on a few occasions, which is something that he never did off the drugs. This week's Sports Illustrated gives a whole lot more graphic details of the effects. Of course steroids have no effect on 'skill level', which is still the most important factor in working a wrestling match or playing in the NFL or even tossing the discus. But they can be the difference in marginal players making the grade and in a good player becoming better and those differences add up to a lot of money. There are those who say that virtually all world-class athletes in strength or sprint sports have used steroids. Some who say 70 percent and others who claim these statistics are highly inflated. But the drugs have become far more prevalent in the past few years, and will spread even more to the general public, particularly high school kids, over the next decade who are looking at a quick way to get a good body and attract girls. Are there solutions to this problem, or more plausibly, things that can be done to at least slow down the usage to where it is at least limited to those who 'want' to use the drugs to begin with? There are two factors that need to be addressed here. One is the promoters and the second is the public and the two do go hand-in-hand. The public-at-large totally goes for the trend. There are many people who believe part of the reason for wrestling's media breakthrough and newfound popularity was the new-look wrestlers and that is the young bodybuilder types replacing the older (and oftentimes more skilled and ringwise) stereotypical wrestler with the thick gut. Promoters have accentuated this trend by pushing many unskilled lifters ahead of trained wrestlers who are acknowledged as not only better workers but better personalities as well. The problem in the WWF is totally out of control, to the point that probably the best all-around performer in the history of the federation (DiBiase) really didn't get over to even the level McMahon wanted him to because the public never bought him as a threat to Hulk Hogan (and even of late as a threat to even Randy Savage, who is a lot smaller than DiBiase but more muscular.) Can the public truly be educated to the point where it will accept silled but non-chemically bloated wrestlers as being top stars? Or is that era completely gone and people like Ted DiBiase or Harley Race (and I'm not saying they've never used steroids either, but obviously have never used dosages or relied on them long enough to even have the positive side effects) are the last of a dying breed? I suppose that in Japan a skilled wrestler can still make it without the unnatural physique. While I was in Japan it was insisted to me that very few of the Japanese wrestlers had ever used steroids, which may or may not be true, but the usage is nothing compared to this country as even the quickest glance at the physiques will attest to (and the Japanese wrestlers, because of the demands of the business and the way they are trained, have far more time to devote to training than their American counterparts). Or should we just forget about this subject completely and figure that the long-term health problems are just another 'inevitability' of a career in professional wrestling, just as bad backs and bad elbows are today and the cauliflower ears are to the wrestlers of another generation?"

When someone starts jumping off the top rope, taking bumps from the apron to the floor, and performing wrestling moves, she crosses the line from manager to worker, even if she is not officially in the match. I consider anyone who works in front of a live crowd a worker (announcers, referees, managers), but I put Sherri in the same group with other wrestlers since she was professionally trained, and also was far more physically active than any other manager ever was. Edited to add: I know Heenan was quite the active ringside manager too, but by this point, he was having neck problems and nearing the end of his run, so I'd put Sherri above him. I'd also add that I always thought Heenan was a funny guy, but I don't know that he was a great wrestling guy, in the sense that he did promos that helped sell Hogan/Andre at Wrestlemania III, or that Rick Rude would not have been a top heel without Heenan giving him the rub, or that he really helped wrestler (x) become a main event player when that person would have struggled without him, or anything like that. Heenan was a key guy on the announcing side, but I don't really know that he was all that good a manager, at least not in his WWF time. Everyone he managed (Andre, Rude, Haku, Studd, Bundy, Arn and Tully etc) I think would have reached the exact same level whether he was there or not. That's not to say I think Savage couldn't have gotten over without Sherri. That's insane. But Sherri added greatly to Savage's act after his heel turn. I'm not sure I can point to anything Bobby Heenan added to Rick Rude's act, as an example.

That's a fair point, I can see that.

I consider Savage's matches her matches since she was at least as active as a second person in a tag team would be in all of those matches.

I remember several years ago, Todd wrote a history of SMW for the website that left out all of this really key stuff, and his defense at the time was that he couldn't mention everything.

I must have missed all of those classic matches during 1989-1991 from Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Ted DiBiase, and Curt Hennig. You could argue that the best match during that time period was Savage/Warrior at Wrestlemania VII, and Sherri had every bit as much to do with that match being great as Savage did. But aside from that, let's look at each guy: Bret Hart: Disappointing singles run in 1989, where the high point was probably a good TV match with DiBiase. 1990 he had the Summerslam tag against Demolition, but not much else. 1991 he had the match with Perfect at Summerslam but not much else. Shawn Michaels: The Rockers/Brainbusters matches were thought highly of at the time, but according to those who have watched most of their house show matches, it appears they worked the same match most nights out. The Rockers/Orient Express match at the '91 Rumble was a personal favorite of mine, and is probably the best tag of the era for the company. But there are quite a few 3 and 6 month drought periods where you could ask what he was doing. Ted DiBiase: Solid, but no real standout matches during this time period. Curt Hennig: Always considered pretty great, but no real standout matches during this time aside from the Bret match at Summerslam. Matches where Sherri played an integral part have been mentioned by others in this thread. Obviously, the Wrestlemania VII match is the biggest example, but pretty much every Savage match during this time period was a collaborative effort with him and Sherri. She was completely part of the act, and probably worked as hard at ringside as the wrestlers in the ring, and took nearly as many bumps as the wrestlers most of those nights. 1989-1991 was not a golden age for the WWF. So admittedly, the main reason there is somewhat of a case there for Sherri is precisely because it wasn't exactly a glory period. "It's a ridiculous statement" is not a response to the point, it's dismissing it without even thinking about if it might be true. Tell me, if Sherri was not the best worker the company had during this time period, who was? Also note that I never said she was hands down the best wrestler on the roster during these years, but I did say there's a case for her. There is also a case for Bret Hart and Savage himself I suppose, but I can't see a case for anyone aside from those three.