Loss

When you take WWE out of the equation, you have a lot of guys who work the same indies, regular guys in each of the indies and no governing body. Having the TNA champ defend his belt in all the indies and in Japan would resemble the old NWA in some ways, but the challenge would be making the world champ seem like a big deal. I'm also not sure that people in TNA are smart enough to pull that off properly.

It was probably the right decision though, especially since they refuse to push Rey properly. Rey will probably be better off without the belt at this point than with it. Booker has momentum right now, and I can see Batista having to plow through Regal and Finlay in PPV matches before getting his hands on Booker working and at least being some type of defined direction.

Most of the Pros and Worldwides are on the way, but at this point, Saturday Nights are all I've seen.

Yes.

Why? It's a wrestling announcer's job to make the bad stuff seem not so bad.

I wish Herb Kunze posted on message boards. His custom title could be "A supposedly intellectual person."

Who knows for sure if there was a direct connection, but Nash says there was. He was mocking the whole brother-cup-your-ear routine and said Hogan got upset about it and that's why he didn't work at Great American Bash '98 and Bash at the Beach '98. That was in an interview with I think WOW Magazine back in '99. Or it may have been one of the Prodigy chats or something he said on his website, I don't remember for sure.

Ah, Hogan. You know, it disappoints me that HHH and Hogan have never set out to sabotage each other and instead just try to steer clear of each other. The stories would be great, sort of like in 1998 when Nash mocked Hogan in a promo on Nitro and was taken off of PPV for two months.

When WWE instituted drug testing in the early 90s, Randy Savage was the first wrestler to start wearing a shirt as part of his ring gear. Who will be the first this time around?

I've now made it all the way up to the show the Saturday after Wrestle War '89. This is when it really gets awesome. Terry Funk, Terry Gordy, Teddy Long becoming a manager ... and the Dynamic Dudes "Iko Iko" video! 1989 did so much to rebuild everyone, with all the fresh faces coming in, the facelift, the move to Center Stage away from the studio. They also seem to be doing a Crash TV format years before it was popularized in the Monday Night Wars, with the main difference being that the matches are more acceptable short since they're squashes anyway. But they cut quickly from interview to squash to interview and keep the show moving at a pretty steady pace. The main event is always 8-10 minutes at the very least. But anyway, there's such a sudden and awesome jump in production values sometime in April. "The Final Countdown" video for Flair/Steamboat at Wrestle War '89 remains the best music video I have ever seen in wrestling and it had me psyched to watch a match I've seen a million times and don't even love anymore. I also must admit the early Norman The Lunatic stuff with him doing psychotic promos as an escaped mental patient are a guilty pleasure of mine. I'm ready for the cheesy Scott Hall video of him jogging on the beach at sunset, if I remember correctly, and the aviator stuff for Brian Pillman. Those Sid squashes with jobbers doing 360 bumps off the clotheslines are coming up too. The only thing this show needs to be complete at this point is for Flair and the Midnights to return, which is coming, although the Midnights were buried all year, sadly.

Added: Jerry Lawler v Harley Race (CWA 1977) ***** Jerry Lawler v Bill Dundee (CWA 08/29/77) ****1/4 Jerry Lawler & Dutch Mantel v Bill Dundee & Buddy Landell (CWA 03/22/86) ****1/2 Barry Windham v Tully Blanchard (NWA 01/23/88) **** Barry Windham v Eddie Gilbert (NWA 01/14/89) ***3/4 Ric Flair & Barry Windham v Ricky Steamboat & Eddie Gilbert (NWA 01/21/89) **** Midnight Express v Original Midnight Express (NWA 01/22/89) ***1/2 Ric Flair & Barry Windham v Sting & Michael Hayes (NWA 02/12/89) ***1/4 Sting v Mike Rotunda (NWA 03/31/89) ****

Sting v Mike Rotunda - NWA 03/31/89 Ah, the first match on TBS to air from Center Stage! Crowd is rabid throughout, and for good reason, and this is an excellent match. Rotunda had the TV title for over a year at this point (not counting a brief Rick Steiner run), so they did everything they could here to create a big moment, containing both the blowoff for Rotunda as the long-reigning TV champ and Sting's first singles title win. Something like this really couldn't be duplicated today because title changes aren't as important and because no one as over as Sting would go nearly two years without even winning a belt. It also helped that Ricky Steamboat and Lex Luger, the top two singles champions, came out and stood in Sting's corner to ensure that the Varsity Club wouldn't interfere. That sort of overbooking has swallowed matches whole in the past (think Flair/Sting at Bash '90), but here it worked, because the entire match was structured to foreshadow a title change and permanent end of a long run, and unlike Flair/Sting at the Bash, there was no 2-year plus build that seemed anti-climatic when all the focus was on all the antics at ringside. The focus never really leaves the ring here at all. This is like a better version of Rude/Warrior at Summerslam '89, since Sting is a better Warrior and Rotunda, when he was game, was as good as a motivated Rude. Rotunda's bumping is awesome, as he goes sailing to the floor when attempting a jumping lariat and even bumps off of a shoving match later on in the match, when Sting begins a pretty spirited comeback. It's amazing to me how much heat they can get off of simple moves like a side headlock, just because of Sting's charisma and connection with the crowd. It's also pretty amazing how devastated the crowd was when Kevin Sullivan found a way to sneak past the babyfaces and interfere, making the crowd think they weren't going to see a title change at all. The kickout was a great moment, and even better was Rotunda actually attempting a wrestling move immediately after that and Sting kicking out of that as well. It was clear at that point that the cheating was no longer going to work. He had to outwrestle Sting if he wanted to win the match, and with Luger and Steamboat looming, there was no chance of getting himself DQ'd to retain. Once that reality sets in to the audience, the heat kicks into overdrive and Sting finally pulls off the win. The wrestling is nothing breathtaking, but this is a textbook example of a match that accomplishes something decisive through basic stuff where the goal was to involve the crowd and foreshadow a title change. I can't even remember the last time a world title change got this kind of reception. Awesome match. I will pimp it to death when it comes time for the Crockett nominations at DVDVR. ****

Monsoon wasn't an announcer, he was a color guy. WWE has never really had an announcer; all they've ever had are color guys. He was Jesse Ventura for babyfaces.

While squashing them is sort of stupid, it admittedly also does have a short-term benefit if DX draws a big Summerslam buyrate against the McMahons. Can't believe I just typed that one. Anyway, they'll be repackaged and it won't matter. Not a great decision or anything, but Warrior squashing HHH at Wrestlemania XII didn't kill his career. Of course, this is a little different, since it's on some type of bizarre cycle where they're doing the exact same show every single week right now, but this will be forgotten a month after the Squad breaks up. Sadly, everything in WWE is. Unless it involves Matt Hardy.

It's incredible the way the roster has been decimated in the past 12 months, between death, drug addiction, injury, personal problems, suspensions, firings and stars simply moving on to other things. I can't think of another time in wrestling history where one company has lost so much key talent in such a short time.

I just saw Lex Luger match where he did a somersault from the apron into the ring to avoid Kendall Windham spearing him to the arena floor. Lesson learned? Never say you've seen it all in wrestling.

What I'm saying is that you would expect ECW to get zero reaction since no one care about the promotion when they were around.

A national promotion can't exist on a small, loyal, vocal cult following alone. ECW's failure wasn't due to their core fanbase that loved the promotion not supporting it enough, but their inability to create new PPV viewers and arena ticket buyers when they got national TV, partly because the big two had stripped them of most of their best talent and had stolen their vision. When the entire Phillips Arena in Atlanta was chanting for them back in '01, it annoyed me because if they loved ECW that much, why weren't they supporting it when it was around? Could ECW have filled a large arena in Atlanta? No way.

People who loved the original vision of ECW so much should have bought all the PPVs, attended all the shows, etc. and really supported the group when it was around. It always struck me as really lame when "ECW" chants start in arenas, because if they loved the company that much, why wasn't ECW drawing? At least WCW was a national powerhouse and had a few really great years, both in terms of quality and making money. It's amazing how WWE has trained the casuals to think of ECW as a bigger deal than WCW. BTW, I totally agreed with a recent Observer item where Vince said the reason the ECW name got over is because of the way WWE has marketed it in the past five years. Like him or not, he's spot on about that.

Well, they did recently hire all of those bikini models, and fired one of the lowcarders for dating one of them when the wrestlers were specifically told not to date them. The mindset was that only main eventers can have hot girlfriends without getting heat from the locker room. Yes, I'm being serious.

Gilbert says in his shoot interview with Bob Barnett that if you pay attention to Flair's interviews in late '87 around Starrcade, he is throwing shoot comments left and right at all the UWF guys coming in. I need to pick those up.

Regarding Gilbert, Ric Flair and Jim Ross supposedly didn't like him at all because they felt he was trying to get them removed as bookers so he could take over. Gilbert also had heat with a lot of people in the company for talking to Dave Meltzer too much, which is really hilarious when you consider that Ric Flair, Terry Funk, Ricky Steamboat, Jim Ross, Jim Cornette and Brian Pillman were all in important roles all year long and they're some of the Meltzertalkingest people ever. Gilbert was supposed to turn on Sting at Bash '89 and align with Muta, but Flair apparently felt they made it far too obvious in the TV build and killed it. I'm sure he was also looking out for himself, as the whole Flair/Funk/Muta/Sting thing would have lost something if they had done a major turn earlier in the night with Gilbert. I have no idea what was going on with Hiro Matsuda, but yeah, he was pretty useless. I guess when JJ jumped with basically no notice, they felt they had to come up with something pretty quickly to explain where he was since he was managing the top two singles champions, and maybe Matsuda was available. Funny how by summer of '89, all of the Horsemen except Flair were in the WWF. I don't know about the reaction of JJ jumping, but I recall the WWF doing handstands when Windham jumped because he was so red hot in 1988.

I picked up the entire 1989 run of the NWA shows on TBS a little while back and I'm loving this stuff. How is it that two hours of squashes and promos from the big stars is a more entertaining and focused presentation than two hours of matches featuring big names opposite each other in 2006? Some random thoughts: * Steamboat winning the belt at Chi-Town Rumble was one of the best moments in wrestling history. The atmosphere for that entire show is just off the charts anyway, but the fuck you to the previous regime where they teased the Dusty finish but didn't deliver it was just awesome. * You just don't get interviews of this quality anymore - from anyone. Flair, Cornette and Hayes could come out 2-3 times a show and talk 2-3 minutes and manage to get themselves, their opponents, their storylines and sometimes even other people's storylines as well. * Hiro Matsuda buying the Horsemen from JJ Dillon is the lamest thing I've ever seen, because Hiro seems like he has no idea where he is or even that he's on TV. * THE IRON SHEIK! KEVIN SULLIVAN! Modern wrestling needs more madmen. * Subtlety. Flair mentions that Matsuda treated he and Barry Windham to a night on the town, and he only thought he'd lived until he experienced the wonder of a Japanese woman. He doesn't beat the point over the head. On RAW, they assume their audience is full of imbeciles and would make it a huge comedy skit that took up six segments throughout the night instead of just letting the viewer figure out that Flair was treated to booze, sex and money, and had no problem offering his services to the Yamazaki Corporation as a result. * Paul E. Dangerously to Jim Ross at the beginning of an episode of Main Event: "Where's that Italian guy?" JR: "He's long gone" ... in reference to Tony Schiavone jumping to the WWF. It was funny because one week, Schiavone and JJ Dillon were hosting the show, and the next week, they both completely disappeared and Ross and Paul E. were in their place. * Barry Windham disappeared at his zenith as a character. Too bad. He was awesome for a few years after this, but I think the moment to make him the top new star in wrestling passed when he jumped to the WWF. Interesting to see who would have been pushed in the long run with Sting, Luger and Windham all very over in their roles. I believe the original plan at the time was for Windham to take the title from Steamboat and then feud with a babyface Flair that summer, according to people like John McAdam who spoke to Meltzer on the phone regularly back then. * Paul E. obviously has a lot of charisma, but he can't compare to Jim Cornette. He's great in so much of this, but Cornette is on a completely different level as an interview. * Midnight Express squashes are awesome! Barry Windham against George South with BW still selling his hand injury from Chi-Town Rumble is pretty fucking great for a five-minute match too. George South could go the few chances he got a time to show it. * Missy Hyatt! There will never be another person who plays the blond skank whore so well. She's sleazy even as a babyface. Humorous. * Michael Hayes was having a major hair crisis at this point. But Hayes is pretty awesome on most of this so far too, as long as he's not having 15-minute matches with guys like Russian Assassin #2. I got a kick out of Hayes announcing himself as Luger's partner on the Paul E.'s Danger Zone talk show segment, but Hayes was all up in Luger's face and so was Paul E. and Luger was visibly annoyed and so distracted he could barely put together a sentence. Funny. * Sting explains wrestling in 60 seconds. "It's not interesting when you have two people the crowd likes, and I get most excited when a good guy faces off with a bad guy. That's when the people buy tickets and a fire lights up in me! So THANK YOU, Butch Reed!" * Flair is the best ever. Someone is better than him at almost everything, but no one else is as great at pretty much everything. "I'm a multi-millionaire! Bad things do not happen to millionaires! My days are structured and planned. This is not right!" in response to losing to a debuting Ricky Steamboat in a tag match * The Flair/Windham/Gilbert/Steamboat feud should have gone on for months. Flair dropping the knee on the back of Gilbert's head and breaking his nose, while Jim Ross goes insane, is an awesome angle no one ever talks about. * Again, Flair rocks. He's doing this promo going on and on about winning the belt back from Steamboat, then finishes by saying that while he's at it, he's going to take Luger's US title too, since Luger being a champion of anything is annoying. No other reason, but just because it annoyed him. * "For years everyone held up four fingers, and we broke that in half! They said rock and roll will never die, and we killed it ... we got hard heads, we do things our way and our way only, and we've won every title, accolade and award we can possibly win in wrestling because we're good and because we can." Again, Cornette is amazing. * The Road Warriors/Varsity Club feud is kind of a sleeper feud. Great promos from both sides on TV, and the 7-minute match they had on TBS to set up Chi-Town rocked as a crazy, super-stiff brawl. I'm only to March. I'm anxious for them to get out of the Techwood Drive studios and move to Center Stage. A few more episodes away from that.

If I walked by a house and I saw Liger coming down a ladder behind some guy pulling his trunks off, I wouldn't know whether to faint, mark out or call Loss. Faint or mark out.

Yes, great slogan, but they said it WAAAAAAY too often.