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It definitely sounds that way. But did you see it? Didn't exactly come off that hot as executed. Pretty deflating. Okay... so I just tracked down a video of it. We have: * Rock kicking the living shit out of Punk * Rock hitting the spine buster * Rock setting up for the People's Elbow which will win him the title * lights go out * lights come on and Rock is through the annoucer's table * Punk "wakes up" and has a total shit eating grin on his face because his Evil Overlord Plan has worked! Maybe I'm exagerating the Evil Overlord part... no... wait... * Punk starts laughing an Evil Overload Diabolical Laugh~! * When he gets over to the ropes, he does a douchey chickenshit "Oh my, what happened to Rock?" hand signal Okay, so I'm suppose to work up some sympathy for anything Vince does to him coming up, or think he's anything but A Giant Douchebag Heel, and that Rock is another other than The Super Babyface Who Just Got Fucked Over? Yeah... I'm ready for any level of fucking that Punk takes now for his Evil Plan, especially coming on the heels of his prior Evil Plans to retain his title for more than a year. Back to the tape... * he leaves the ring, limps over to Rock, and does another, "Wow... I don't know what happened to Rock" hand gesture Give it up to Punk, as he's selling the hell out of being an asshole. I'd like to add: Rock is selling the FUCK out of getting hosed by Punk's lackies, going all "deadweight" and making it look like Punk really has to work to get him back in. Well done, Rock. * they don't even fuck around and have Rock kick out: he is fucking OUT OF IT! and get pinned instantly by Punk I'm digging this. * Crowd is STUNNED~! by this turn of events... this is NOT! how the expected it to go down * Punk works even harder to get across what a jerkoff he is by literally kicking the limp Rock out of the ring... * and what a douche he is by waving "bye bye" to Rock when he flops to the floor... * and by having a good old time celebrating in the ring afterwards Wait... what's this? * God bless him, Mr. McMahon comes out to set Punk straight * the crowd is loving it, including some bowing down to Vince * I admit... I'm starting to mark out right about now * Punk and Paul are wondering what the fuck is going on * Oh... what's this... some internal logic in the storyline? * "I told you that if the Shield got involved in your match I'd strip you of the title" -Vince paraphrased Okay... so know the Lights Going Out make sense: Vince had a clear stip that if those fuckers got involved in the match, it would be bye-bye title. Wil E. Heymanyote and Punk thought they'd pull one over on Mr. McMahon by having the light cut out. And Mr. McMahon wasn't falling for that shit. Did I mention "God bless Mr. McMahon"? Wait... it gets fucking better... * Paul and Punk know they've totally been caught and are BEGGING Mr. McMahon not to strip the title * Vince is about to strip him, which the crowd is popping for because even if Rock doesn't win the title, they want Punk FUCKED and taking his precious title from him is a damn fine fucking Wait... it get's better... * "No... no... no..." just fucking awesome: an out of it Rock cuts off Vince *before* he can strip Punk of the title * Punk and Heyman sell the fuck out of it by looking around towards Rock * "We ain't end this night like that" and holy shit if the fans don't know EXACTLY what Rock has in mind since they're popping * "You don't take it from him... I am!" and the crowd pops again for that shit. * "Restart the match... NOW!" and another pop. Yeah... fucking Awesome! * Rock is awesome selling he's still half out of it * Vince has a great constipated look on his face, because he knows that Rock is out of it and Punk might still escape with the title Did I mention God Bless Mr. McMahon? * "You heard the man... RESTART THE MATCH!" And WON voters are telling me that Heyman is the best non-wrestler in the business? Paul still can't carry (let alone sniff) Vince's jock strap. Vince was fucking perfect from start to finish in this. No fucking way is he "doing favors" for Rock: he's out here pissed off at Punk and ready to fuck him over by taking his beloved title away. But Rock wants payback, and Vince is willing to chance it to have Punk actually go down for the three count rather than the easy way of the strip. This is like Vince channeling Giant Baba with Jumbo-Misawa: we ain't doing no COR here, we're going to have a winner and a loser, even if it's that asshole Punk... it's a risk I'm willing to take. * Punk is non too happy, tossing the belt down and selling being pissed... while Paul also is pissed * Rock is still selling the Shield damage, slowly getting into the ring and collapsing in the corner * Punk is pretty damn awesome letting all the HATE~! come through as he stomps a mudhole in Rock * Rock is still selling the fuck out of things * great diving elbow, great selling of the splat by Rock (kicking up his legs), and a wicked kick out * Punk hams it up as the Evil Overlord signaling for the GTS * Nice job of the Rock countering out of it and hitting the spinebuster and... *looks up the post* HOLY SHIT! We've come FULL CIRCLE~! We're EXACTLY where we were when The Lights Went Out! Masterful storytelling as all of Punk's Evil Plans have backfired and led us back to the same point in time. Only... This time The Lights DON'T Go Out, Rock hits the People's Elbow... 1... 2... 3~! New World Champion! Crowd loses their shit! Perfect end to Punk's reign. The Anti-Sports Entertainment Wrestler got beat by... wait for it... A Sports Entertainment Finish! Sorry, that was a fucking great WWF/WWE finish. I'm digging it the most. Ten billion stars. John

So how does one poll the "majority of wrestling fans" for an international hardcore non-kayfabe wrestling awards? Okay... setting aside that answer and looking at another... 32 people voted for the National League MVP in 2012. 2 voters in each NL city, technically beat writers who cover the NL team in that city. It's not even 32 National Baseball Writers whose job it is to cover the entire league and follow everyone. It's Local Guys with all the local biases they might have. It's been done this way for 80 years. There may be some flaws in the process, and they do get them "wrong" from time-to-time. But when Stan Musial just died, it was pointed out that he won 3 NL MVPs and was second another 4 times. Did anyone writing about Stan's death spend much time talking about the flaws in the voting process, or that maybe he didn't deserve 3 of them, or that maybe he deserved more than 3 of them? Not really. It's an extremely small subset of a very small subset of fans who give a shit. It's similar to those of us who've had discussions about bad WON Wrestler Of The Year winners in the mid-80s (i.e. Hogan winning 0 times). A few of us give a shit and have walked through it. But if you look at those discussions, they amount to little, have little impact, and probably never moved much further than those discussions... essentially a circle jerk. That's coming from someone involved in the discussions, and who put a decent amount of thought into my comments. But we're a small % of a small % of a small %. None of those % meant a thing to Hogan in 1986 when he didn't win the WON Wrestler of the Year, and probably don't mean anything now when reflecting back on it.

He's a heel champ and I bet one can find a dozen pussy and loser things he's done in his 400+ days a champ. Okay... probably two dozen. They're heel lackies of Punk who have been fucking over Punk's opponents since Survivors. This was their payback: their plan to help Punk defeated Rock "worked"... but Vince wouldn't let it stand, it didn't work. Heels get fucked after fucking faces. Pro Wrestling 101. Vince: "I'm going to strip Punk of the title due to The Shield fucking up the match." Rock: "Wait a fucking minute, Vince. Don't strip him. They tried to fuck me out out my shot at winning the title. I want to beat his fucking ass... restart the fucking match!" Vince: "You got balls the size of grapefruits, Rock, for wanting to continue the match after the ass kicking that The Shield and Punk just gave you. I respect that... I'm going to restart the match!" That ain't a favor. Heels fucked up a main event yet again to fuck over the face(s). Vince has had enough of it, and is going to strip Punk of the title which would hurt Punk because he really loves the egofuck of the long reign. Rock doesn't want his chance at the title fucked up because of the heels, and asks for a restart. Good god... this is total babyface shit. The Shield's (and Punk & Heyman's) Grand Plan fails, and Rock keeps his chance at winning the title (and does it). Great shit. John

Posters to this board. Probably posters to most if not all of the boards we frequent. John

Yeah... pretty amazing. Which makes you wonder if "blood clot" is a cover for something else. John

A larger % than we do. John

Haven't seen it, but I actually like how the finish reads. Punk get help from his heel buddies, screws over Rock to "win". Vince goes to strip him, but Rock gets the face moment of wanting to beat him. Restart, Rock wins with his moves. Works for me. We all know the long time plan had been Punk --> Rock at Rumble than Rock vs Cena at Mania. Read like they delivered it. John

Lots. Again, in 1985-89, only 65% of his matches were called "main events" by Chris. I think everyone who knows anything about the WWF in that period would agree that any data set that produced that result was wildly flawed / wrong / screwed up beyond being useful. In fact, it's such an obvious flaw that it should have forced him / anyone to go back to the drawing board to address it. John

I cut Chris some slack since it's a shitload of data to sift through, and instead he probably just dumped it into a database for easy counting. But if you know it's going to create poor data, then you need to slow down to think about how to get better data. Just thinking through something as simple as this: "65% main event rate for Hogan in 1985-89? Alright... there's a flaw in there we need to figure out..." Get you down the road of fixing things. If it takes another six months of spending time manually identifying the real main events (or double main events), then do it to get good data. John

In that era, pretty much every match of that length would have a body of the match where they filled time. Have you seen a lot of non-stop spot-a-thons in the 1975-83 time frame where no one grabs a hold? Would love some examples, and also what % of matches you think they amount to. Of course. All matches generally fill time: the workers generally know how long they're going to go when they go out there. Do you think that Baba and Race went out there not knowing whether they'd go 5 minutes or 57? Race likes to work headlocks... though of course he likes to work front face locks like he did forever with Baba in the earlier match and with Lawler in the 60 minute match. It's a way he likes to fill time rather than starting off with 5 minutes of going through all his moves and feeding his opponent five minutes of moves back. I haven't a clue what you're talking about. Lots of matches well into the 80s are like that, probably into the 90s, and probably into the 00s and 10s: people do shit, then move onto other shit. People get all worked up about Juniors matches where they do a bunch of mat shit for 10 minutes, admit that it's reasonably well done, but are annoyed because it's blown off for that 8 minute run to the finish. It's been common for ages. Often it's even longer in the first half (say 15 minutes of a 20 minute match), and shorter down the stretch (the last 5 minutes of hot shit to the finish). Even in this case, they were breaking up the headlocks with various things before taking it back down. Which again is something I suspect you see all the time: grab a hold, break the hold, highspot or two, take it back into the hold, wash, rinse, repeat. Hell... Steamboat and Savage did that with the arm-drag-fu before later moving into the Big Moves/Spots. He wrenched the fuck out of the hold, leaning back on the ground (even leaning back so his own ass was off the mat), and torqued it often while up. I'm willing to bet that I can find at least 10 different times that he wrenched / torqued / pressured / worked the hold. Really? He reached for the hair several times, including the ref slapping the hand away. He also "reversed" it at least twice over into pin attempts. He also one attempted to use a backdrop suplex to get out, which Baba nicely countered the counter with a headlock tackover. Harley isn't really a "reverse" guy like The Destroyer, and instead typically does what I call the Mid Atlantic Escape: getting to your feet and moving your opponent back into the ropes. This can be used to do a whip into the opposite ropes, or "force a break" which leads to a typical heel spot of taking advantage of the face breaking the hold while up against the ropes. Take it down. Work it. Pick it up. Spot(s). Take it down. Work it. Pick it up. Take it down. They actually broke up the headlock section more than a lot of folks. Seriously, watch some Lazy Muraco Matches for a guy really laying around and not even wanting to break it up with a high spot. There was a fair amount of activity. I'd be happy to chart all of it. What's the over/under that I need to break in those first 10 minutes? 20 bits of activity? That's every 30 seconds, which is a pretty low standard. 30? Backlund is a different beast in working holds than Harley. I don't think anyone would compare them. This is more along the lines of what Flair would do. I don't think anyone ever said Harley was a great mat worker. He was a great bumper, stooged great, had loads of moves that he could drop on a face, was pretty much willing to do whatever an opponent wanted to do to him (and fed him a few things), he certainly could brawl. Harley's true calling was as a pro wrestling performer. There is no one size fits all for it. John

Example: 1985-89 709 Hogan Matches 464 Hogan Main Events 65% of Hogan matches were "main events". Setting aside syndication TV tapings should be thrown out (lord knows how he handled those, since Graham's results probably aren't even in the right order), it's likely Hogan is up against 100% main events in that period... probably closer to 100% than he is to 95%, let alone 65%. 1. the Undertaker: 1016 matches (1991 to 2010) 2. John Cena: 865 matches (2002 to 2012) 3. Hulk Hogan: 843 matches (1980 to 2005) 4. Triple H: 842 matches (1995 to 2012) 5. Randy Savage: 734 matches (1985 to 1994) 6. Bob Backlund: 682 matches (1977 to 1995) 7. Andre the Giant: 654 matches (1972 to 1991) 8. Chief Jay Strongbow: 638 matches (1970 to 1985) 9. Bret Hart: 616 matches (1984 to 2010) 10. Ivan Putski: 589 matches (1975 to 1985) Yeah, that's just a useless collection of stats now. Frankly, Andre was very rarely in the "main event" prior to say 1984 and his feud with Studd. Even his big feuds with guys like Hogan were pushed below the WWWF/WWF titles and whatever Bruno was up to. John

Pretty staggering. John

I hate Brody, and even I won't go there. John

I just want to say that's it's biased and mean spirited that Will has the following sub title to this there: Just mean... terribly mean. John

I'd defend it. There's plenty in the first 10 minutes that I like about it, including the head lock stuff. Actually thought they worked the headlock better for filling time than most matches of the era. John

This is a prime example of Race being boring working holds forever. Track down their Oct-31-1979 match. Baba is "older and slower and more awkward" for all the folks who don't like him, but it's a better example of them doing what one would expect out of the two. Not a MOTYC or anything, but again... what you would expect out of the two working a title match rather than the two trying to fill a 30 minute tourney draw. John

Actually, it would be worse than that. It would lead to people making wildly wrong analysis from the "data". Again, a number of keep going to the well: Chris is too smart of a guy to do this. I think what Chris said, or what someone said about Chris' data, has been misread. One simply can't look at data like MSG 1980 and go, "Right... last match it is". Even a totally fucking idiot like SKeith wouldn't do that. Chris is smarter than that. John

Mike's been drawing a steady good sized paycheck from pro wrestling for more than a decade and a half now. Something tells me his soul feels perfectly fine. Since he was able to deal with the insanity of WCW, it's highly unlikely that anything in wrestling crushes his soul. John

I think we talked about this earlier: Larry is full of shit. Looking at the major arena cards that Larry worked the rest of the year after Shea: Flushing, NY - Shea Stadium - August 9, 1980 Bruno Sammartino defeated Larry Zbyszko in a steel cage match at 13:59 Landover, MD - Capital Centre - August 16, 1980 Bruno Sammartino defeated Larry Zbyszko in a lumberjack match This was the main event. Backlund working Boston Garden the same day. Bruno-Larry were wrapping up their run in that city. They also had some other matches in smaller towns after Shea. Philadelphia, PA - Spectrum - August 23, 1980 Larry Zbyszko pinned Ivan Putski at 10:48 in a Texas Death Match WWF IC Champion Ken Patera pinned Gorilla Monsoon at 11:54 No Backlund - in Japan Baltimore, MD - Civic Center - August 30, 1980 WWF World Champion Bob Backlund pinned Larry Zbyszko at 19:28 Oooops... that sucks. Boston, MA - Boston Garden - September 6, 1980 Pedro Morales defeated Larry Zbyszko via count-out WWF World Champion Bob Backlund defeated WWF IC Champion Ken Patera in a lumberjack match Larry had already run his course with Bruno in Boston (4/5, 5/10, 6/14). New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden - September 22, 1980 Larry Zbyszko defeated Tony Garea via disqualification at 12:15 WWF World Champion Bob Backlund defeated NWA World Champion Harley Race via disqualification at 35:14 Larry faced Bob on the 6/16 MSG card, and of course had the matches with Bruno in MSG in March and April. Baltimore, MD - Civic Center - September 27, 1980 Larry Zbyszko defeated Pat Patterson via count-out at 13:16 WWF World Champion Bob Backlund pinned the Hangman at 17:28 Baltimore match with Bruno on 6/7 and matches with Bob on 7/19 and the above 8/30 where Bob pinned him after Shea. Boston, MA - Boston Garden - October 4, 1980 Larry Zbyszko defeated Tony Garea WWF World Champion Bob Backlund defeated the Hangman Pittsburgh, PA - Civic Arena - October 10, 1980 WWF World Champion Bob Backlund pinned Larry Zbyszko at 14:59 Oooops... that also sucks. Pittsburgh matches with Bruno on 3/14, 5/2 and 6/13 (cage blow off). Match with Larry later in the year, possibly a second because Graham only lists one match for the 9/18 card and Bob and Larry are not working the other card that day. Philadelphia, PA - Spectrum - October 11, 1980 (12,183) Larry Zbyszko defeated WWF World Champion Bob Backlund via count-out at 20:13 Wait... Larry main eventing the Spectrum against Bob. First of two matches in Philly between the two. Larry-Bruno in Philly was back on 3/1 and 4/12. New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden - October 20, 1980 Sgt. Slaughter defeated WWF World Champion Bob Backlund via disqualification at 16:33 Tony Garea defeated Larry Zbyszko via disqualification at 4:58 Anyone get the feeling that Larry was only looking at MSG results when making up this myth? Philadelphia, PA - Spectrum - November 8, 1980 WWF World Champion Bob Backlund defeated Larry Zbyszko via disqualfiication Yep... Pittsburgh, PA - Civic Arena - November 14, 1980 Tony Garea defeated Larry Zbyszko via disqualification Bruno Sammartino defeated WWF IC Champion Ken Patera via disqualification WWF World Champion Bob Backlund defeated Sgt. Slaughter via count-out Great double main event there. Landover, MD - Capital Centre - November 22, 1980 (matinee) WWF World Champion Bob Backlund defeated Larry Zbyszko via disqualification Yep... New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden - December 8, 1980 (20,011) Larry Zbyszko defeated Dominic DeNucci via count-out at 12:42 Pedro Morales defeated WWF IC Champion Ken Patera to win the title at 18:51 Bruno Sammartino defeated Sgt. Slaughter via count-out at 18:38 No Bob - off in Japan for NJPW's Tag League. Pittsburgh, PA - Civic Arena - December 12, 1980 Dominic DeNucci defeated Larry Zbyszko via disqualification Bruno Sammartino defeated Ken Patera Bob was returning from Japan, stopping off in Los Angeles to work the Olympic that night. Philadelphia, PA - Spectrum - December 13, 1980 (matinee) (7,742) Tony Atlas fought Larry Zbyszko to a double disqualification at 11:14 Bruno Sammartino defeated Ken Patera Bob was working Boston Garden against Slaughter that night. So... Larry's shoot tape is laughable. I think I mentioned something along those lines earlier as well. I don't think there's much truth at all in it. Larry's been lying about his WWF run for so long that he probably believes 80% of the lies, and fluffs himself on the other 20%. I wouldn't even believe that there were money issues. Larry had his run. It drew massively against Bruno, and he would have gotten paid for it (though Bruno likely got paid even more). He had matches against Bob, some just one match series and some multi-match series. I think if you look at the order of the matches, you'll see why it was a catch-22 from the booking: * Bruno-Larry was the push * you couldn't "put Bob over Larry" in MSG before Shea * after Shea, the value of Larry wasn't as great He got blown off at Shea. People might want to hang their hat on "he didn't pin Larry at Shea", but everyone knows how WWWF/WWF blowoff cage matches worked in that era and well into the 80s: face won by going over the top or through the door, and kicked the heel's ass in the process. Watch Shea: Bruno kicked his ass before walking out. They may have gone back and forth during the match (less than one would think), but Bruno kicked his ass at the end and then walked out the door. It's how almost all of these ended. It's every bit as much of a loss as a pinfall, frankly even more so: cage was the biggest match in the WWF at the time, it was very rarely rolled out (as in about once a year), and you had a clear winner and loser. After Shea, Larry simply wasn't going to be as red hot anymore in MSG. In addition, Shea was so freaking huge as far as coverage that it wasn't just a normal blow off: there would be fans in other cities that would pick up on it. He essentially was on the clock. Lastly, this is the way things went in those days. Guys got Big Heel Pushes in the WWWF/WWF, ran their cycle, fell a bit down the card, and Left. One can easily look at the big pushes Valentine got in 1979 and 1981/82, then leaving back for Mid-Atlantic. Rare exceptions: * Patterson He was turned face. He also seemed to make friends with Vince or Jr. fairly fast, so that might have had something to do with it. * Patera He still had the IC belt. He had a post-Backlund run against the likes of Atlas, Patterson, Bruno, Gorilla and eventually Pedro, but was out of town shortly after losing the IC title to Pedro. The belt allowed him to slide down post-Backlund, but still have something for other faces in the company to chase. Larry had none of that. John

This. That, and the title issue with Hansen --> Bock. It's a vote, so enough of the readers thought that. I'd be interested in what the voting totals were to see if it was a landslide and what the other promotions getting votes were. John

I don't think Harley was obsessive or insistent that he "got his shit in" with all or more matches. Seemed to depend on the opponent. The Backlund match was very much in Touring NWA Champ mode, with Bob the "hometown star" who largely kicked the living shit out of the NWA Champ and "beat" him in the end. Harley left so much in his holster that it's not even funny, and really makes you wonder what would have happened if the two had a match in Japan at say that all star multi-promotional card in 1979. In other words, something in a ring where they'd work 60/40 rather than the 80/20 that they did in MSG. I've seen others where Harley was like that. In turn, there are plenty of matches where Harley "did his shit" (which can get pretty moves-centric), and let the opponent do all his shit. Often times a chunk of the face's shit was actually Harley's shit, similar to Flair bringing his own set of "spots" to the table that are actually for the face to do and look strong (such as Flair loving to eat Gorilla Presses). Bumpers like Flair and Race tended to have a lot of crap like that. Anyway, the reason this sticks out to me is that I've seen matches where I wanted Harley to get more of his shit in. John

Seriously, Chris is too smart to do that. Here's MSG in 1980, for example, with the main events highlighted: WWF @ New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden - January 21, 1980 (20,000+) Televised on the MSG Network - featured Vince McMahon on commentary Davey O'Hannon defated Angelo Gomez at 10:21 Rene Goulet defeated Baron Mikel Scicluna at 4:59 Bobby Duncum defeated Mike Masters at 1:29 Kevin Von Erich pinned Johnny Rodz with a bodypress at 8:28 (Von Erich's MSG debut) Larry Zbyszko defeated Hussein Arab via disqualification at 10:29 when Arab accidentally hit an elbow drop on referee Terry Terranova when Zbyzsko moved out of the way Hulk Hogan pinned Dominic DeNucci at 7:34 with the legdrop after dropping DeNucci throat-first across the top rope The Wild Samoans defeated WWF Tag Team Champions Ivan Putski & Tito Santana via count-out at 12:46 after Samoan #2 crotched Santana on the top rope, with Santana then falling out to the floor; after the bout, Santana was taken backstage on a stretcher (the Samoans' MSG debut) WWF World Champion Bob Backlund fought Ken Patera to a draw at 25:52 when, after Patera threw Backlund into referee Jack Lotz, referee Terry Terranova called for the bell; after the bout, Lotz was taken backstage on a stretcher WWF IC Champion Pat Patterson defeated Capt. Lou Albano via count-out at 6:11 after Patterson hit Albano with his own foreign object, causing Albano to bleed, with Albano then running backstage Tony Atlas defeated Swede Hanson at 2:17 with a headbutt off the top WWF @ New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden - February 18, 1980 Austin Idol defeated Jose Estrada at 7:26 Tommy Rich defeated Johnny Rodz at 7:41 Hulk Hogan defeated Tito Santana via count-out at 10:48 Sika defeated Ivan Putski via count-out at 5:28 Bobby Duncum defeated Dominic DeNucci at 11:21 WWF World Champion Bob Backlund defeated Ken Patera via count-out at 15:37; Pat Patterson was the special referee for the bout Afa defeated Rene Goulet at 9:18 Cowboy Lang & Lone Eagle defeated Little Tokyo & Dirty Morgan at 6:55 Tony Atlas defeated Hussein Arab at 12:18 WWF @ New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden - March 24, 1980 (26,102 which included 4,000 in Felt Forum) Televised on the MSG Network - featured Vince McMahon on commentary Bulldog Brower pinned Frank Williams at 8:53 with an elbow drop following a running back elbow Kerry Von Erich pinned Jose Estrada at 10:49 with a sunset flip out of the corner (Kerry's MSG debut) Tor Kamata pinned Mike Masters at 5:46 with a jumping kick and a kneedrop Larry Zbyszko defeated Bruno Sammartino (w/ Arnold Skaaland) via disqualification at 15:31 when Sammartino failed to release a choke; Sammartino was eventually pulled away by Skaaland and referee Dick Kroll while Zbyzsko escaped Afa pinned Dominic DeNucci at 9:42 with a jumping headbutt WWF World Champion Bob Backlund pinned Sika at 18:32 after throwing the challenger off the top as Sika attempted a diving headbutt Andre the Giant & WWF IC Champion Pat Patterson defeated Bobby Duncum & Ken Patera at 11:04 when Andre pinned Duncum with a splash as Patterson had Duncum in the figure-4 Rene Goulet pinned Baron Mikel Scicluna with a sunset flip at 6:11 Hulk Hogan pinned WWF Tag Team Champion Tito Santana at 8:12 with a suplex and grabbing the tights for leverage; prior to the bout, Hogan was escorted to the ring by Freddie Blassie (Hulk Hogan: The Ultimate Anthology Wal-Mart exclusive 4th disc) WWF @ New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden - April 21, 1980 (20,000+) Televised on the MSG Network - featured vince McMahon on commentary Larry Sharpe defeated Mike Masters at 8:11 Greg Gagne defeated Jose Estrada at 8:53 Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood defeated Tor Kamata & Bulldog Brower at 15:11 Sika defeated Dominic DeNucci at 9:27 Andre the Giant defeated Bobby Duncum at 13:11 Hulk Hogan defeated Rene Goulet at 3:14 Ken Patera defeated WWF IC Champion Pat Patterson to win the title at 20:48 with a knee drop off the middle turnbuckle to the champion's back; the referee, still groggy from a collision with Patterson moments prior, did not notice that the champion's foot was on the bottom rope during the cover (History of the Intercontinental Title, The Ken Patera Story) Bruno Sammartino defeated Larry Zbyszko via count-out WWF World Champion Bob Backlund defeated Afa at 16:34 WWF @ New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden - May 19, 1980 (near capacity crowd) Televised on the MSG Network - featured Vince McMahon on commentary Rick McGraw defeated Jose Estrada at 10:38 (McGraw's MSG debut) Larry Zbyszko won a 16-man $15,000 battle royal at 11:25 by last eliminating Dominic DeNucci and Bobby Duncum at the same time when, as DeNucci had Duncum in an airplane spin, Zbyzsko dropkicked them both to the floor; order of elimination: Frankie Williams by Baron Mikel Scicluna, Ivan Putski by Peter Maivia, Miavia by Putski via pulling him out from the outside, Scicluna by Tony Atlas, Atlas by the Wild Samoans, Johnny Rodz by DeNucci, Rene Goulet by Duncum, Samoan #2 by Samoan #1 following an accidental headbutt, Samoan #1 by Gorilla Monsoon, Tor Kamata by Pat Patterson, Monsoon by Zbyzsko & Duncum, Patterson by Zbyzsko & Duncum; due to pre-match stipulations, Zbyszko earned a world title shot for the next show at MSG Larry Sharpe defeated Frankie Williams at 8:24 Larry Zbyszko pinned Dominic DeNucci at 7:08 following a kick to the face as DeNucci charged the corner Tor Kamata pinned Johnny Rodz at 7:58 after a double karate chop to the throat WWF World Champion Bob Backlund pinned WWF IC Champion Ken Patera in a Texas Death Match at 22:56 with a crossbody off the top; prior to the bout, the Grand Wizard escorted Patera to the ring and Arnold Skaaland escorted Backlund; named Wrestling Observer's Match of the Year Gorilla Monsoon pinned Baron Mikel Scicluna (sub. for Hulk Hogan) at 3:11 with a chop and splash Bobby Duncum defeated Rene Goulet at 5:42 Tony Atlas, Ivan Putski, & Pat Patterson defeated Peter Maivia & WWF Tag Team Champions the Wild Samoans in a Best 2 out of 3 falls match at 16:25; fall #1: Patterson pinned Miavia with a roll up at 8:26; fall #2: Miavia pinned Patterson after a double team from the Samoans at 4:31; fall #3: Atlas pinned Samoan #1 with a splash after the Samoans accidentally headbutted each other at 3:28; prior to the bout, Capt. Lou Albano escorted the Samoans ringside WWF @ New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden - June 16, 1980 (20,000+) Johnny Rodz defeated Steve King Bobby Duncum defeated Rick McGraw Hulk Hogan defeated Gorilla Monsoon Larry Zbyszko defeated WWF World Champion Bob Backlund when the bout was stopped due to blood at 27:39 Ivan Putski (sub. for Dusty Rhodes) defeated Tor Kamata WWF IC Champion Ken Patera defeated Pat Patterson Rene Goulet defeated Larry Sharpe via disqualification WWF Tag Team Champions the Wild Samoans defeated Dominic DeNucci & Ivan Putski WWF @ New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden - September 22, 1980 (20,000+) Televised on the MSG Network - featured Vince McMahon & Kal Rudman on commentary NWA Jr. Heavyweight Champion Les Thornton pinned Jose Estrada at 7:02 with a backbreaker (Thornton's MSG debut) Pat Patterson pinned Johnny Rodz at 8:04 with a sunset flip The Hangman pinned Dominic DeNucci at 10:15 when the Hangman fell on top of DeNucci after holding onto the top rope while in the middle of an airplane spin; after the bout, DeNucci hung the Hangman over the top rope with his own noose (Hangman's MSG debut) Larry Zbyszko defeated Tony Garea via disqualification at 12:15 when Garea failed to release an abdominal stretch after Zbyszko reached the ropes (Garea's MSG return after an 18-month absence) Rick Martel pinned Rick McGraw at 6:47 with a backslide (Martel's MSG debut) Pedro Morales pinned Afa at 3:34 by reversing a bodyslam into the ring and falling on top for the win; prior to the bout, Capt. Lou Albano escorted Afa to the ring WWF IC Champion Ken Patera pinned Rene Goulet at 1:04 with a small package; prior to the bout, the Grand Wizard escorted Patera ringside WWF World Champion Bob Backlund defeated NWA World Champion Harley Race via disqualification at 35:14 when Race pulled the referee into Backlund as the NWA title holder was caught in a sleeper; this bout was not televised with the rest of the show, rather four matches from the Aug. 9 Shea Stadium show aired in its place Tony Atlas pinned Sika at 5:32 with an elbow drop All American Wrestling - 9/11/83: Andre the Giant pinned Hulk Hogan at 12:18 when Hogan failed a slam attempt and guest referee Gorilla Monsoon made a fast count; prior to the match, Hogan was escorted ringside by Freddie Blassie; just before the finish, Hogan successfully slammed Andre; the match was not televised and the MSG broadcast went off the air immediately following the Atlas / Sika bout (Hulk Hogan: The Unreleased Archives) WWF @ New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden - October 20, 1980 Televised on the MSG Network - featured Vince McMahon on commentary: Terry Taylor pinned Jose Estrada with an abdominal stretch into a roll up at 9:59 Rene Goulet pinned Johnny Rodz after Rodz hit the corner at 8:41 The Hangman defeated Rick McGraw via submission to a backbreaker at 7:19 Pedro Morales fought WWF IC Champion Ken Patera to a double disqualification at 16:19 after both men attacked the referee and used illegal holds; after the bout, the two men had to be held apart by a number of wrestlers including Pat Patterson, Dominic DeNucci, Rick Martel, and several others (History of the Intercontinental Title, History of the Intercontinental Championship) Dominic DeNucci pinned Larry Sharpe with an inside cradle at 8:38 Sgt. Slaughter defeated WWF World Champion Bob Backlund via disqualification at 16:33 when Arnold Skaaland hit Slaughter in the head, following a confrontation on the floor, as Backlund was trapped in the Cobra Clutch Rick Martel pinned Baron Mikel Scicluna with a sunset flip at 3:34 Tony Garea defeated Larry Zbyszko via disqualification at 4:58 after Zbyszko shoved the referee Dusty Rhodes & Pat Patterson defeated WWF Tag Team Champions the Wild Samoans in a Best 2 out of 3 Falls match via referee's decision; fall #1: Rhodes pinned Sika with an elbow at 11:47; fall #2: the curfew expired WWF @ New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden - December 8, 1980 (20,011) This card was not televised; John Lennon was shot and killed in NYC this same night Johnny Rodz defeated Sylvano Sousa at 10:49 The Moondogs defeated Rick McGraw & Angel Maravilla at 11:37 Larry Zbyszko defeated Dominic DeNucci via count-out at 12:42 WWF Tag Team Champions Rick Martel & Tony Garea defeated the Wild Samoans in a Best 2 out of 3 falls match at 26:27, 2 falls to 1 Ernie Ladd fought Tony Atlas to a double count-out at 5:24 Pedro Morales defeated WWF IC Champion Ken Patera to win the title at 18:51; Pat Patterson was the guest referee for the bout Bruno Sammartino defeated Sgt. Slaughter via count-out at 18:38 WWF @ New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden - December 29, 1980 (19,000) Televised on the MSG and USA networks and in Japan - featured Vince McMahon on commentary; Tony Atlas vs. Ernie Ladd in a Texas Death match was originally scheduled for the card but did not take place: Yoshiaki Yatsu pinned Jose Estrada at 8:47 with a belly to belly suplex Seiji Sakaguchi fought Sika (w/ Afa) to a draw at 5:34 when both Afa, who switched places with Sika during the bout, and Antonio Inoki, who made the save for Sakaguchi, interfered WWF Jr. Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami pinned Don Diamond with a back suplex into a bridge at 10:28 Hulk Hogan pinned Dominic DeNucci at 4:38 with a powerslam WWF World Champion Bob Backlund pinned Killer Khan at 12:23 with a back suplex into a bridge WWF Tag Team Champions Tony Garea & Rick Martel defeated the Moondogs via disqualification at 13:16 when, as Garea had King in an abdominal stretch, Rex hit Garea in the back with one of the challengers' bones NWF Champion & World Martial Arts Champion Antonio Inoki pinned Bobby Duncum at 12:47 with an enzuiguri; only the Martial Arts title was at stake but Inoki came to the ring wearing the NWF belt Women's Champion the Fabulous Moolah & Joyce Grable defeated Candy Malloy & Peggy Lee when Moolah pinned Lee following a double clothesline at 5:09 WWF IC Champion Pedro Morales pinned the Hangman at 7:07 with a roll up after the Hangman hit the corner Pat Patterson defeated Ken Patera via disqualification at 8:12 when Patera refused to break on the ropes In other words, the Main Event went on Last just once all year (Bruno vs Slaughter). Backlund has Zero "main events" at MSG in 1980. I seriously doubt Chris did it that way. He's too smart. John

It's even better: BEST WEEKLY TV SHOW 1. TNA Impact (122) 1,043 WORST TELEVISION SHOW 1. WWE RAW 319 2. TNA Impact 199 Same show is not only the Best TV Show, but also the 2nd Worst. I'm also surprised that TUF didn't even finish in the Top 10. Season 16 was mediocre, but Season 15 with Cruz and Faber was pretty decent. The coaches clearly didn't like each other, but the bullshit wasn't over the top. They actually were among the more interesting to watch in terms of coaching, which I like more than the bullshit. Chiesa was compelling without being "jackass compelling", which I also don't care for. Death of his father, Dana handling the shit well, him coming back rather than leaving, him needing to get his head back together, and being a general underdog who won in the end... good stuff. Not pimping it as that it should have won, but surprised that it didn't even get into the Top 10. John

Good lord... do non-wrestlers suck that much that Heyman won the damn thing again? John

Promotion of the year probably isn't surprising, but a year or two ago would be. NJPW and AJPW won 12 of the first 15 awards, but haven won since 1998. MMA promotions have dominated recently, with Pride and UFC winning 9 of 11 from 2001-2011 (and only the Kobashi Dynasty able to break through). UFC's six in a row was a record. Who would have thought in 2009 or 2010 that it would be NJPW to break that streak? John