gordi

"There is a Chinese curse which says 'May he live in interesting times.'" - John Kennedy, Cape Town, June 1966

This is one hell of an interesting experiment. Could Dibiase, given a real run at the top in MACW in the 80s, get to Ric Flair levels of "overness" as a heel champ? Maybe he could! The crowd in Greenville sure got their fair share of quality wrestling.

I still plan on using Hashimoto & Chono the way I talked to you about. I'm looking forward to that, too.

At this point, I am honestly doubtful that a year will be enough time to get the stink off.

Starting out hot with two title tournaments. I love tournaments. Having both finals in one night should draw a good crowd to the Cow Palace.

The Thread Killer, that Manifesto seems exactly right to me. Just check out 'date's run of "pay attention to ME" posts in the WrestleMania or GRR threads. Post after post after post of him doing EXACTLY what you've listed in 1 through 5 of the manifesto and waiting on tenterhooks for someone to give him the chance to pull #6. It is baffling to me that anyone should think that people want 'date banned "because he's pretending to be Japanese" or that anyone should think that he's being "picked on." It's clear, classic, relentless troll behaviour and the act really has gotten very old very quickly. Shodate, please scroll up and read ButchReedMark's post. If you really feel like you are being attacked here, he's given you a perfect solution: Stop trying to make everything about YOU, stop dragging politics into discussions where they have no place (they do, I admit, have a place in the GRR discussion). Take a look at the name of this site: Pro Wrestling Only. Stick to pro wrestling, and it's very likely that nobody will have a problem with you.

I'm right there with you. I've been, at best, a fair-weather WWE fan since 2004. I generally tune in for RumbleMania and bow out after the post-mania RAW. I think I hung on a little too long this time. I've definitely got a bad taste in my mouth now. There are several potentially good things going on in WWE right now (e.g. Asuka, Bryan, Rusev Day, Styles, Andrade “Cien” Almas, Nia Jax working as a monster face... Hiroki Sumi...) but WWE itself is just not anywhere close to my idea of "good" any more. In a way, I think I'm kind of lucky that WM and GRR were such a chore to sit through. I got a few nice pops out of it (Asuka and Nak's Rumble wins, Bryan's return, Rousey's good match, Asuka vs Flair, the hot tag from Shane to Bryan...) and now I can happily ignore almost everything that happens (barring maybe an interesting Bryan or Asuka match that I hear about on these boards) until the Rumble next year.

What kills me about the booking is this: Even though Roman seems to be pretty widely hated and even though it seems like the average fan would rather not see Roman as champ... WWE managed to book it so that NOBODY is happy about Roman losing to Brock. It's like the goal is to send everyone home disappointed. The closest things to a positive reaction I have seen, anywhere, are either: "I think maybe it was kind of a little better than the WM match, " "Just put the belt on him and get it over with already," or "...at least they kept it short." The "broken controller" finisher spamming style that Roman and Brock are working just absolutely cracks me up. It's hard to imagine two more gifted athletes and experienced pro wrestlers working a worse match. WWE would definitely be best served by moving Roman on to something else for a good long while and going in literally any other direction with Brock. (and I mean literally. Brock vs Dolf or Brock vs Mojo would be more interesting to me than another chapter of Brock vs Roman at this point). Roman is obviously a talented guy with a great look but it is going to take some time to get this stink off of him.

Nice set-up for Roma & Hercules vs The Rockers. Davey Boy vs Axe is a good way to keep that feud going. Tully & Arn vs The Hart Foundation is really something to look forward to. The tag scene in the WWF is hot right now!

Hercules & Roma vs the Hart Foundation could be really good.

I think that "The Million Dollar Man, Ted Dibiase" is a better heel gimmick for down south than it was up north. You have a great first feud set up with Hacksaw, then you just need a down home working class hero to set up opposite him and you can practically print the money. Nice face turn for Vines and Sword. Are they going to get a new tag team name to go with it? I like the slow burn with whatever's going on with American Made. The ten thousand dollar open challenge is a great gimmick for Bundy. Sammartino and Robinson is to say the least an unexpected alliance. It will be interesting to see where that goes.

I'll bet the main event was a slobber-knocker.

Is that a full-on heel turn for The Nightmares? Should be a good feud for Ricky and Robert.

You may be thinking of the in-ring "debate" angle they did with Heenan and Ken Patera right after Patera returned from prison. They bleeped Heenan during it, I think when he made comments about Patera's wife and kids. It ended with one of the more violent bits of WWF TV from the time where Patera took Heenan's belt off and used it to strangle/whiplash him. Heenan wore a neck brace for months to sell it Yes! That's it exactly. Thank you!

I just had a very vivid memory flashback of Bobby Heenan giving a long and angry speech on WWF TV, and the whole thing being bleeped out as if he was being censored. Does anyone else remember that? I'm about 90 percent sure it was Heenan and WWF, and I have a strong memory of it because of it having kind of a "Simpsons rake gag" effect on me and the people I was watching it with, where it started out funny, quickly became hilarious, then kind of went on too long... only to keep going and make it full circle back to being funny again. I can't recall any of the specific details of it, though. I wanna say it was after either Andre or Orndorff turned on Hogan, but... I really can't remember. I'd get a huge kick if anyone here could give me more info on that.

We can do that, too. I'll send you a pm. Young Hash and young Chono in the Cow Palace could be a lot of fun!

I could take on Chono for 6 months. He's all yours. I look forward to reading about what he gets up to in San Francisco. How about July through December?

"make like Michael Jackson and beat it!" is a great 80s reference!

Misawa (debuted in '81, was still working as Tiger Mask in '86 in real life - may be in line to hold a title in JWA soon) Toshiaki Kawada (debuted in '82, mostly working tags with Fuyuki in real life - currently one half of the JWA Middleweight Tag Champs), Samson Fuyuki - brawler (debuted in 1980) Mutoh, Chono, Hashimoto (all debuted in '84), there are already plans in place for Mutoh. Keiichi Yamada - the Future Jushin Liger (also debuted '84. I don't think the character debuted until '89), Hiroshi Hase technical and brawling (rookie, but he got pushed right out of the gate in real life), Naoki Sano versatile, shoot style (also a member fof the '84 NJPW dojo class), Masakatsu Funaki - shoot style (Debuted 85) Nobuhiko Takada - striker (debuted '81, was leading the invading UWF army with Maeda in '86 in real life). Kensuke Sasaki - power style (rookie) Tatsutoshi Goto - Blonde heel (debuted in '82)

Also, and this goes for everyone: Any time from August forward, the young guys on my roster like Kawada, Chono, Hashimoto, Takada, Masakatsu Funaki, Kensuke, Hiro Hase, and so on will all be available for excursions for one to six months. Let's have some fun and get them some experience. Really, anyone not holding a title or involved in a big storyline is fair game from August, bu I'd like to focus on the younger guys if possible.

It's going to be very hard for JWA to give up Mike Shaw right now, as I've been building him up with long-term future plans in mind. If Captain Redneck wants to bring him and Phil Hickerson over for a one, two, or three-month excursion in August, September, and/or October, that could easily be arranged. I've got my booking sketched out through July, though, and Danger Zone are a part of that.

I have to agree, Prelude looks like an exciting night of action.

I love the idea of Owen and Yamada working in Japan as young boys. The Facekickers' stoicism is going to become a big part of their character, going forward. There have always been certain American wrestlers who had a lot of success in Japan: Funk, Abdullah, Andre, Hansen, Brody, Gordy, Williams, Vader... mostly big tough brawlers and hosses (until the 90s when guys like Benoit also made a splash over here). I don't think we ever saw anything like the Young Lions Showcase in Japan in the 80s, though. It was the result of trying to imagine somewhat realistic ways to make the JWA different from what AJPW and NJPW actually did back then. It sets us up for the future by making some of the hot young talent from over there familiar to our audience. That could pay off big time when we head into the 1990s. Yeah, exactly, the idea was to get guys like Owen, Pillman, Scorpio and so on over with our fans now in the hopes of getting a big payoff by having new gaijin stars coming over in the future. Also, it was a blast to book. I like that both you and rain remarked on the visual of Sting slamming Hashimoto. I think that was a big moment that our fans will remember. Sting vs Hash could be huge money down the line a few years! Thanks. Giving everyone a moment to shine was absolutely one of my main goals in booking the YLS. Kawada & Fuchi is kind of a dream team for me as well. Hopefully pairing them up will strap a bit of a rocket to Kawada's back. It's time for a select few of our young lions to start getting pushed a little more (Kawada, Misawa, Hashimoto, and maybe Takada will be the ones we start with, I think). I'll ask Asahi TV if they can prepare a tape package for you. You prefer VHS or Betamax? Our fans remember Sting well from his prior excursion to Japan. He'll always be welcome here. Hopefully a few other gaijin young lions made a strong impression this month.

Why don't you send Death Sentence over to Japan? We'll take care of those guys for you.

I like the visual of Big Leon tossing Scorp onto their opponent.