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Yeah, major jacking as can be seen here: http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/gall...ulellering.html http://square.phpwebhosting.com/~man1000/Wrestler.php?id=755 John

I thought Hawk did cooler stuff... just don't recall his base level work being better. Again, it's been ages since I've watched any RW stuff since they're not exactly the type of old stuff I go out of my way to rewatch. John

Jeremy asked over at tOA: I know there were WWF vs WCW matches in house shows during the Invasion, and of course the merger tourney. But since the Brock/HHH split of the WWF/WWE Title and the World Title/Big Goldie into two different WWF/WWE titles in the Brand Split... how many times have the holders of those titles had a singles match against each other? John

I think it was: PAUL: "Tell 'em, Animal!" ANIMAL: "Tell 'em, Hawk!" I'm not 100% sure that Hawk was the best worker. It's been a long time since I watched them, but at the time I thought Animal did a little better selling for the heels. Not that the Roadies sold a lot for the heels, but when they did try short peril stretches, it seemed Animal was better at it while Hawk was a little stiff/unnatural in his selling. Not stiff in the normal working term, but in his movements. I think Ellering was useful for more than just "Tell 'em, Animal" on the mic. Not great... but solid enough in laying down the initial storyline before passing it off to the guys. John

UFC probably thinks that mainstream coverage of Joe doing a show where people drink a ass load of donkey jizz is Good Press. They're on Fox doing decent ratings. They're a key part of FX's primetime schedule with the Fight Nights, PPV Prelims and TUF Live. They pretty much will be the entire anchor to trying to get Fuel. I would suspect that PR like this isn't seen as any impact on their plans. Someone dying on a Live TUF... that would be the PR they don't want. This is nothing. I tend to agree on the *other* things about Joe mentioned. Joe can be pretty out there and volatile. Fox can be perfectly happy with that, if it makes them $$$. Example: Beck said a lot of crazy shit, but it wasn't until he peaked, the ratings dipped and his value to Fox passed to a degree that they were happy to run him. By that point they'd pretty much co-opped what they wanted from him anyway. Still, Joe is pretty smart in seeming to control his out-there-ness. He made it through the first run of Fear Factor without blowing up completely, and in the years between avoided it to get the gig when they brought it back. UFC seems to love him. He wouldn't fly with the NFL on NBC, but UFC... seems safe. John

I agree that they collectively were real solid. Don't know when it struck me that was the case. Started watching TBS in 1986, and instantly knew Flair and Corney were great: they were what sucked me in and held my attention. Could easily tell the difference between the people who were totally comfortable on the mic (say Arn and JJ), those who stumbled on occasion but could also nail good ones (Tully), those who really hard to work hard (Maggie was no Rock), those who sucked (Jones for the most part). Dusty... I always hated Dusty on the mic until the WWE's Dusty DVD came out and I got to see him far removed from my hate of him. The Warriors were different... and so clearly an "act" rather than "personality" like Flair or Corney were tossing out. There was very little that felt natural or ad-libbed in what they did on the mic: it was thought out... and not really my cup of tea as a Flair-Corney Fan. So it took a while. Then got a sense of the rhythms of their segments, Ellering and Animal laying the foundations, hitting storyline... then Hawk wrapping things together, sometimes saying nutty shit, sometimes funny (though not as a "comic" like Corney), and sometimes to get across that they wear going to rip the heels heads off... but in a more "scary" way to the fans than Animal yelling they were going to rip some heads off. He had the catchphrases. John

They would have the traffic stats to show what business it's doing. They also probably could hire Zach or Snowden to for much less than then pay everyone over there. Then again, those two probably would be on Zuffa's shit list and not get credentialed. John

Can't imagine it reflect's poorly on UFC. Piss, shit and jizz all in season 8 of TUF... with UFC *not* editing any of it out. John

Maybe something else going on in Dave's life where he couldn't go to Mania. I guess Las Vegas is closer, but it's not like he doesn't do several days there for a UFC PPV. It would have been easy enough to fly out Friday afternoon for Florida, be there Saturday & Sunday, and red-eye back. John

Dave's focus is "right here"? Wait... hasn't Dave cryptically and non-cryptically indicated that Yahoo is a lot of what's putting bread on his table? Wasn't there the famous Mania quote? John

This is a little interesting because Yahoo's "Cagewriter" blog was still tossing stuff up: three posts this morning. It is a pretty good example of how batshit out financial system is that a company that had a revenue of $1.3B and a *profit* of $296M in their most recent quarter in a massive recession is considered "disappointing" and it's time for layoffs. John

Source? John

The comp someone might want to ponder for Nagata could be Hase. Suspect folks think Hase is a better worker, but Nagata was well pimped. Hase was a "star" in an era where New Japan was bigger, but he certainly wasn't pushed as hard as Nagata. Of course that leads back to Sasaki, who was pushed harder than both. John

I don't see how the Pride helps him. He had little to do with Pride taking off. That was Takada and Sak much more than him. He came in for a run in the 2004 tourney, got a total cupcake draw for two wins, and then got beat by the first good fighter he ever faced (granted... it was a Really Good fighter). Nothing significant there. He got brought back in the 2005 New Years card, took a massive payday (which long term probably wasn't great for Pride), and got cleaned up. Dave's piece on top rated matches: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=dm-mmatopten122107 "This was a disappointment in that it was expected to be second only to Sapp vs. Akebono in the ratings..." I don't think that helps. In turn, he helped destroy New Japan. A chunk of the credit for that goes to Inoki as well, but Ogawa's feud with Hash was worse than Hogan-Nash. John

I thought it was tremendous booking by Dusty (and whomever) to have a strongly focused mid-card / undercard feud between Jones and Boogie. Dusty did a good job continuing to put heat on Jones in an unending feud. When you saw a JCP card and a Boogie vs Jones' Army match was on there, you knew exactly why it was on the show rather than just being rolled out. That said... Jones was really bad on the mic. To a degree it was sorta kinda okay in the feud with Boogie since it was like not even B-Movie level relative to Flair and the MX & Corney. Once Jones stepped out of the Boogie feud with Raging & Rood, he got more exposed as a shitty talked. It was a brutal manager he had to follow: MX & Corney --> R'n'R --> Raging & Rood with Jones You couldn't help but see that the talked for the World Tag Champs wasn't up to the snuff of Corney. Whereas over on his own little world of a garbage feud with Boogie, you just accepted Jones being Jones opposite goofy ass Boogie. The stuff with the Roadies exposed him more. I agree with the earlier poster who said that while Ellering wasn't "great", he did a solid enough job setting up the storyline for Animal & Hawk to go off on. It's really amazing to ponder how solid the Warriors & Paul were in those mic spots in getting across their feuds/storylines and themselves. They sort of launched the era of Screaming Mic Spots, which Scott Steiner took to another annoying, less coherent level (long before his Poppa Pump days). The Roadies were actually pretty solid. So if you're looking at *them* making sense while Jones opposite them was mediocre... not a great sign. John

Toyota came out looking pretty decent: #88 - Manami Toyota vs Akira Hokuto (AJW 09/02/95) #87 - Manami Toyota vs Kyoko Inoue (AJW 05/07/95) #76 - Manami Toyota & Sakie Hasegawa vs Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue (AJW 08/30/95) #35 - Manami Toyota vs Aja Kong (AJW 03/26/95) #20 - Manami Toyota vs Dynamite Kansai (AJW 12/04/95) #19 - Manami Toyota vs Yumiko Hotta (AJW 09/03/95) #12 - Manami Toyota vs Aja Kong (AJW 06/27/95) #6 - Manami Toyota & Sakie Hasegawa vs Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue (AJW 01/04/95) Six singles matches against five different opponents. The top WWF matches are interesting: #103 - Owen Hart vs Davey Boy Smith (WWF RAW 06/05/95) #101 - Bret Hart vs Jean-Pierre Lafitte (WWF In Your House 09/24/95) #97 - Bret Hart vs Hakushi (WWF RAW 07/24/95) #92 - Owen & Davey Boy & Yokozuna vs Diesel & Shawn & Undertaker (WWF RAW 10/09/95) #84 - Bret Hart vs Davey Boy Smith (WWF In Your House 12/17/95) #80 - Bret Hart vs Hakushi (WWF In Your House 05/14/95) #65 - Bret Hart vs Diesel (WWF Royal Rumble 01/22/95) #59 - Shawn Michaels vs Jeff Jarrett (WWF In Your House 07/23/95) #49 - Bret Hart vs Diesel (WWF Survivor Series 11/19/95) #33 - Bret Hart & Davey Boy Smith vs Owen Hart & Bob Backlund (WWF Action Zone 02/26/95) #3 - Shawn Michaels vs Razor Ramon (WWF Summerslam 08/27/95) Who would have predicted going in that Loss' #2 match in the WWF for 1995 would have Bob Backlund in it, from a match that was pretty lost in history. Looking back at the nominations list, I'm not even sure who suggested it making the cut. Will: was it something you had laying around? John

I'm trying to recall Show's real height... I know he's billed at 7-0, but recall that he's really in the range of 6-10. There may be 100 players in the NBA that tall. The Lakers have four: Bynum, Gasol, McRoberts and Murphy. The Clippers have four: Griffin, Jordan, Thompkins, and Jones. The Timberwolves have 5. The Mavs have had six play for them this year. Yeah... I thought I was pulling 100 out of my ass, but I think it's a safe number: 100+ guys 6-10 or above will play in the NBA. Tune into any NBA broadcast and you'll likely see 6 guys during the course of it as tall as Show. My recollection is that Andre was 6-9. They just happen to be massive guys in addition to being tall. The also are surrounded by a lot of guys much smaller. Dwight Howard on the court doesn't look huge at 6-10 because he's not especially tall for a center. John

I thought Jones was a horrid manager when I started watching him in 1986. It didn't help that he had Corny and JJ as manager to compare with along with a number of other guys who could talk their asses off (Flair, Arn, Dusty even if I hated Dusty on the mic back then). But... Jones was terrible. Sek nails is: mush mouth, loses his place and/or stumbles in his promos. I wonder if he was good on the mic as a wrestler to have been pushed as long and hard in Mid Atlantic as he was... or if he's one of those oddball local guys who just happened to be pushed. John

What happened to that "respect the opinions of others when you get older" meme? John

Yeah... Dave sounds like an 1995 ECW Fan sporting wood after a match in the Bingo Hall that they thought was ***** that Dave would in turn think wasn't as good as Tijuana Prelims. We've come full circle(jerk). John

I became a wrestling fan at 20. It was by watching Flair and Cornette, enjoying their rap, and enjoying them poking at the babyfaces. Why wouldn't I root for Corney and the MX against those idiots that R'n'R Express? Exactly what appeal would the R'n'R have for a 20 year old stoner into some garbage entertainment? Those guys played to the 11 year girls out there. John

The Mar-Apr 1995 and Aug 1996 trips were pretty cool, so I can't bitch. There are some lucha shows I wish I'd gone to. The TripleMania II-B card (05/15/94) that Dave went to is one I kick myself in the ass for not going to. John

Awesome stuff. Let's not forget that among the ultimate evils of Belichick was to ignore the cardinal rule of "You Don't Lose Your Job Due To An Injury". Drew Bledsoe had been the top babyface in the New England Territory for almost a decade, including main eventing Superbowlmania as a young worker. A quality worker under manager "Tuna" Parcells, Bledsoe started to decline under overmatched manager Pete Carroll. Bledsoe has his worse year as a regional face in Belichick's first season, and was stuck with a massive down-side guarantee contract. We've learned since that Belichick is a cut throat manager who takes his que from JJ Dillon (tossing Ole overboard for Lex) and Jim Cornette (cutting bait on Loverboy Dennis when Sweet Stan became available). So he worked an injury angle to put Bledsoe on the shelf, with Bledsoe fulling expecting to get his spot on the card when the angle was finished. Instead, Belichick used that "hot streak" booking run to get over Brady with the local fans and make them ready to let Bledsoe go for the new hot young star. To show the depth of the evil genius of Belichick, he worked a second injury angle in the season that's since been forgotten: Brady getting banged up at the King of the AFC card. Belichick sent Bledsoe in, and he helped that group win the match. Belichick didn't do this because he wanted to put Bledsoe back on top, but instead to make him look good do another Territory would be interested in the off season. Sure enough, Belichick reached a talent trading agreement with the Buffalo territory, getting a future prospect for a QB that they didn't really want anymore: Bledsoe. While Belichick & Brady went on to win two more Superbowlmania main events, Bledsoe bounced around territories. His last chance as stardom was ended in the Dallas territory where another young star replaced him: Tony Romo. John

My second trip to Japan was going to be built around these cards: Dave got a bad case of bronch that he didn't take care of, went worse and we had to cancel the trip. There were other cards going on in Japan in that period as well, which we typically went to in between the "big" cards. Usually in the Tokyo area, but in other cities if the fit in. Of example, the day after the AJW Osaka card, there was this in Osaka: That has the shot of being interesting. Of course then it would be a rush back down to Tokyo to catch the Pancrase show... so that might be tight. No doubt we would have been looking for stuff between the 9/3 & 9/10 shows. Anyway... kick myself for not telling Dave earlier to get to the doctor on the chest cold, or simply going solo. John

Does Dana just not get that this isn't the group you want to get pissed off? John