jdw

Whoops Rex King not dead John

Yeah. A lot of the early episodes of Doctor Who have been lost for the same reason, the BBC just recorded other shit over them. Dr Who and a lot of other BBC shows. Wiki's article is pretty solid on how tape was treated in those days: Doctor Who missing episodes Which as pretty similar to how a lot of lower level stuff in the US (such as wrestling) was treated. John

RIP Rex King I am surprised the both of Well Dunn have passed, each before 50. John

Also... a summary of the Cena stuff? That way I can avoid turning away from the Holmes On Homes / Holmes Inspection marathon I'm having off my DVR to clean up space. John

He had the bleeding in the brain several years back. What's the date of the shoot interview? John

Loved this match too. Right there in the peak of Ohtani. It's really amazing that the worm turned on Ohtani in just a few months when he got the IWGP Jr. Title. It's not like he fell off the cliff to utter suck... but he was so perfect in his 1995 - early 1997 roles, be it dicking it up here or being an underdog to guys like Liger and Dragon. They also has a solid short match at the Dome earlier in the year. The Dome often was a poor setting for junior matches, but they did a pretty good job. John

On just this page: "The Flair Formula is that (i) he bitches & stooges through the match for the faces, and (ii) Keeps Things Moving Along to fill the space." -jdw "Flair, and Flair Matches, aren't great because he came up with a Flair Structure. It's because he Did A Lot Of Shit in his matches, Kept Things Moving Along, sold the motherfuck out for the faces, and was dramatic and charismatic. We'd be stretching things to say that Ric topped to tease big babyface comebacks.... because Ric was feeding babyfaces comebacks All Freaking Match Long." -jdw If people want to get caught up in Ric's utterly bullshit story to explain why he did some the same shit all the time (he had a sad face because Stevens didn't do something he wanted to see), they're missing the larger points how and why Ric worked. Ric didn't get tossed off the top every fucking match because of the deep emotional scar of Stevens not doing something. It's because it fit onto one of these things: * "The Flair Formula is that (i) he bitches & stooges through the match for the faces" Check * "and (ii) Keeps Things Moving Along to fill the space." Check. * "he Did A Lot Of Shit in his matches" Check. * "Kept Things Moving Along" Check. * "sold the motherfuck out for the faces," Check. * "and was dramatic and charismatic." Check. * "We'd be stretching things to say that Ric topped to tease big babyface comebacks.... because Ric was feeding babyfaces comebacks All Freaking Match Long." Check. Okay... I stand corrected... it fit into _all_ of those things. I could go back to earlier pages in the thread were we talked about these things being effective at popping the crowd and keeping them in the matches. We don't need to buy into Ric's bullshit, or really even waste time arguing whether it's bullshit or not. Ric's working style, formula and structure is just about the most nakes and obvious that's out there. People are trying to look big picture and grand scale on someone whose work is actually as simplistic and obvious as the Hogan Match. And about as effective. John

On the 11/25/94 Misawa & Kobashi vs. Kawada & Taue 30:00 draw where the TV was JIP, Lynch has a handheld of it: Bootleg #395 That probably has flown below the radar over the years. You might want to get it and do a splice job using the HH up until the point where the TV joins it. My recollection is 20-22 aired on TV. This would likely be a "new" thing to most people who get the set. The HH also has Doc & Ace vs Kroffat & Furnas, which might make a comp to the Misawa & Kobashi against the two teams. Boot #396 is a HH with: Kobashi & Kikuchi vs Akiyama & Omori (non-league) Williams & Ace vs Hansen & Baba (League) Kawada & Taue & Ogawa vs Misawa & Asako & Honda Williams & Ace vs Hansen & Baba is one of the big league matches. The other two look interesting: Kobashi with his old partner against the youngsters, and then Misawa with an undermaned team against the Holy Demon Army's top three. They aren't really significant, though. If you get HH #395, might be worth asking for #396 as well just to give a quick look at those three to see if they surprise you as being good and keepers. Unlike the Carny stuff earlier in the thread, I can't make specific recommendations on quality: haven't seen the HH's. I'm not usually a recommender of adding HH's, but the ability to present an edited together "complete" version of the Misawa & Kobashi vs Kawada & Taue is a worthwhile endeavor. 8 of the 9 matches between the teams exist on film. All look to be making the sets. All in complete form were be pretty fresh. John

So was it the threeway sex log that made him run for the hills, or hitting up the chick? Because I'm still having a hard time wrapping my mind around the second one being a "I need to quit the net" thing. Is the anything left of his discussions leading to his departure? John

Cook had a pretty strong writing style. It probably would be hard for him to hide it long term from folks who read and corresponded with him a lot. Then again, perhaps he's so good that he could reinvent himself. Would really have to completely change his likes and dislikes, since those tend to be early give aways. John

It's a shit prank, and if that had been what caused him to head for the hills, I'd get it. But asking a chick out in PM, having it come out in public, and heading for the hills because of *that*... it's odd in the late 00's. It's too bad. He was a good read. John

I like that he thought he was the smartest guy in the room... except Hogan was. John

Lars moved to the US in 1980. He and Hetfield hooked up in 1981 in Cali for form the band. Hulk was long past his fake "session bassist" days by that point. John

On another forum he was outed as having asked a girl out through a PM and it embarrassed him enough to disappear. Which I find strange since he proudly had cyber sex with two dudes online under false pretenses. Cook disappeared after being outed as hetero? That's new. So I'm confused about this. Considering the number of people who hook up online these days, that's not exactly embarrassing. There even is the Christian equiv of Match.com now. Or are the two sentences related? John

I don't disagree with the notion that Hulk is smart on all this. You have a pyramid of workers who are able to scam their way to a crapload of money. Hulk is at the top. Someone like Nash is very good... but Hulk is the king of it. He knows that he is Pro Wrestling to an entire generation of people in this country, which gives him an incredible amount of "credibility" with those who don't know better. Add in that's he's a great bullshitter and con man... and he's just great. John

Otter: "Germans?" Boon: "Forget it, he's rolling." John

Missed this when the thread was originally going on: The match felt rushed to me at 30 minutes. I don't know what else they could have done, but a longer-than-usual match for the two biggest stars of the era isn't a weird request. This was their "long" match: 03/28/99 Mania: Steve Austin pinned The Rock (16:52) 04/25/99 Backlash '99: Steve Austin pinned The Rock (17:07) 04/01/01 Mania: Steve Austin pinned The Rock (28:06) 03/30/03 Mania: The Rock pinned Steve Austin (17:53) John

Really? Has Mark watched the match recently? Hogan didn't do anything to get the crowd going his way. He started heel, Rock started face, and the fans in the stadium decided they wanted to root for Hogan. Rock "got it" as much as Hogan did, and willing shifted to more heelish. It was a brilliant performance by Rock, and actually a damn good one by Hogan as well. Mark has seen one of those before: Freebirds vs Douglas & Ace at Havoc '89 where the Philly Fans just decided to heel on Douglas & Ace, root for the Birds *before* the Birds reacted... and then Hayes finally had to say, "Fuck it... if they're going to root for us, that's how we need to play this." John

So no Trip vs The Streak talk, with special Shawn cameo? John

One could only hope. And no... not about Springsteen. John

What's great is that Spike will quickly find out what a sink hole a promotion run by & for Eric & Hulk is like. Also, as "cost" become a concern for Spike, watch Hogan & Eric start throwing overboard all the overpriced vets so that they themselves can continue to be overpriced vets. It won't be long before it dies if Spike ends up "owning" the company on their channel, especially if they're listening to Eric and Hulk. John

Yeah... I'm very confused by Keith's comments. Is "Spike" the boss? If that's the case, then Dixie shouldn't worry about Russo. She should worry about her relationship with Spike, and getting rid of Hogan and Eric. On the other hand, I would LOVE-LOVE-LOVE to see Hulk & Eric screw over Dixie to lift the Spike deal with a new Spike Wrestling Company where they just fleece the shit out of Spike for their own masturbatory promotion. Could be the greatest thing ever and get me to watch Spike Wrestling again... for a month or so before it's so bad I need to flip away. John