gordi

Well, I mean, he was a college dean.

I'd actually really like to get one of their jacket/hoodie things:

Do you not watch pro wrestling?

Once the crisis is over: Take 'em to a live show. If there is anything running within driving distance that doesn't actively suck, the live experience is 10 times more powerful at helping someone understand what is fun and what is great about pro wrestling.

Who are you to doubt el Brandi? She's a jam-up lady!

He's in The Big Doghouse

Oh, f'n awesome. You are a pro wrestling finding and watching machine. Even with all the extra free time now, I can't keep up. Looking forward to this one, too.

This is a great idea. Totally agree. Hopefully if the rumours are true about Vince selling WWE the new owners might allow it. I remember Cody talking about AEW using a kind of rotating schedule. It makes a ton of sense. Keep the workers healthy, mentally and physically.

Just in case anybody didn't get my joke about WM III being the first time anyone slammed Andre... This video is pretty damned interesting: A nice reminder to NEVER believe the official WWE company line when it comes to pro wrestling history!

Agreed. And, while we're at it, here's Gypsy Joe doing a cage dive in 1976, six years before Snuka's 1st one and seven years before his famous one The turnbuckle spot was also later stolen by Jado & Gedo, and Lesnar, and presumably others.

You could easily make the case that Lawler vs Savage LLT '85 was the source spring of all table spots, too. (Even though Coffey hasn't seen it). Although That was in '84... so maybe Savage gets the "credit"

It goes back to 1998, at least. I have always maintained that Kobashi v Kensuke was their tribute to Hashimoto and this match: It just took a while to catch on

Oh, that is just an excellent analogy!

@FMKK Terry Funk, in his book, talks about Abby stabbing him in the arm with a fork as perhaps the starting point for hardcore wrestling. I'd tend to agree with him, there.to The above match, where the NWA World Heavyweight Champion gives too much offense to a jobber, due to which he lost all credibility and disappeared from wrestling history forever. Seriously, try looking up "Rick Flare" on Google or YouTube. You'll find nothing! (Sorry. Can't help myself these days). I'll edit in another serious one in a couple of minutes. And here we go "The shoot kick heard round the world." An act of cowardice that nonetheless gave credibility to the shoot style movement. Would shoot style have taken off without this? Possibly not! Arguably planted the seeds for the currently popular type of 'strong style' as well. Another argument could be made that MMA might not exist as we know it if not for what Maeda does to Choshu here. Definitely had a huge effect on Japanese wrestling, that is still felt today.

Obviously Hogan vs Andre from WM III. The first, and only, time that anyone ever slammed the 7'4" 555 pound giant. (Nah, I'm just kidding. Though there probably is a - different - argument to be made for that match. The crisis has seriously affected my sense of humour, I think). Seriously: Giant Baba vs Billy Robinson from (IIRC} July '76? The starting point of the King's Road in my opinion. The source spring from which flows a lot of the greatest and a lot of the most-loved pro wrestling of all time. People are still, clearly, being influenced by the people who were influenced by the people who were influenced by this match.

That was awesome *clap clap clapclapclap*

I imagine it's out of respect. I'd also assume he knows what he is talking about and makes the occasional trenchant or insightful comment. Apparently, and astonishingly, AJPW has another guy with a similar voice who also does commentary (!) I don't know if he got the job because or in spite of that... but if it's true that means that sometimes the guy we think is Baba is in fact someone else. I think ohtani's jacket might have some insight into that. It was most likely he who told me about it. I prefer not knowing, to be honest. I get a kick out of only kind of understanding what's going on and filling in the blanks for myself. That's basically how I get through life in Japan: by figuring out the gist of things based on pitch and tone, (and facial expressions and body language) as much as by the words and phrases I'm able to catch.

I think a really good future episode could be built around that time Kenny Omega gave too much offense to a jobber, destroying his own career, exposing the business and ruining pro wrestling for everyone.

Possibly the worst thing about that is how it might then make you suspicious of anyone who is just being kind without an agenda. On a lighter note: Over on DVDVR, a question was raised about how Japanese announcing and commentating differs from what we are used to in English. What I've done here is translate some of the commentary from the legendary Kawada vs Misawa June '94 match. I thought I'd cross-post it here in case anyone was interested. My Japanese is good enough for most daily life situations, but listening to news or sports commentary at full speed is still tough for me. It's likely I've missed some of the nuances of what the announcers are saying. At the top of the show: Fukuzawa: If you're even thinking about changing the channel to our competition, fans, do not., because we've learned that at our competition, Yoshiaki Fujiwara is going to wrestle Shinya Hashimoto for their world title! Heh. That's gonna put some butts in the seats.. Hah. Baba: Will you stop! Wakabayashi: Fans, we've got a great night of action here for you here on Super Power Series! Abdullah The Butcher and Giant Kamala are here! In tag team action, we've got Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs Akira Taue & Tamon Honda... and what a main event we've got for you this evening! Baba: A Triple Crown Title Match. Wakabayashi: Champion Mitsuharu Misawa takes on top contender Toshiaki Kawada. It should be a real slobber-knocker! Fukuzawa: Both of those ham 'n' eggers attended Ashikaga Institute of Technology in Tochigi. What do you have to do there to graduate? Milk a cow with your left hand? Baba: Gimme a break! Fukuzawa: It's the greatest night in the history of our sport! At around the 25-minute mark, Kawada crushes Misawa, whi is bleeding from his ear, with a dangerous backdrop followed up by two folding powerbombs: Baba: Oh! Right on the external occipital protuberance! Wakabayashi: Will somebody stop the damned match? Baba: Good Gawd almighty! Wakabayashi: Buh Gawd! Count faster! Put them out of their misery! Fukuzawa: You know what's at stake? A man'll do anything! Wakabayashi: Pulling out all the stops, Toshiaki Kawada doing whatever necessary to hang in there. Fukuzawa: I'd do that to my own grandmother if I had to. Baba: I'm sure you would. Misawa puts Kawada away with the tiger driver '91: Fukuzawa: Tiger Driver '91! Tiger Driver '91! Tiger Driver '91! Wakabayashi: As Gawd is my witness, Kawada has been broken in half! Baba: What a maneuver! Wakabayashi: He gave us everything he had in him, tonight. Baba: This was the greatest night in the history of our sport. Fukuzawa: The pleasure was all yours, Baba.

So true.

Just like Hogan having them bring Warrior into WCW

"Bob UFO" was definitely Rocky Della Sera. I've lost contact with Rocky over the years, but I sent the video link to my old friend Vicious Verne and he passed it on to Rocky. Rocky had never seen that video before. They were both really happy to see it and send their thanks to everyone involved in unearthing it.

This will be an interesting read for anyone thinking about Arquette right now.

Is this the MOST trunks ever in one tag match?

Flair & DiBiase as a team really could have been pretty great. It's not hard to imagine some nice matches with Strike Force and The Islanders. Maybe make a new face team from any two of Steamboat, Duggan, and Roberts for them to feud with? Form a group with the Brainbusters in '89 or maybe turn the Megabucks face for an amazing feud? Then maybe the Megabucks explode and Flair forms a heel group with the Brainbusters and, say, Valentine and/or Perfect? Feud them with a face faction of The Rockers, Ronnie Garvin, and face DiBiase? Follow that up with IC title feuds vs Martel or Santana or Steamboat if he could be convinced to stick around. Another turn one way or the other could set up a Flair vs Perfect feud... That sounds pretty good to me.