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I don't even remember the Ladd bio. Must have been a time when I let my sub lapse. Did he do half of one, or a mini-preview one (like with Doc)? Don't remember the AWA History either. What was the deal with Umaga? I have to think he's written a chunk of the Doc one. Can't imagine that he would run the Halme and Bob Shamrock ones if he didn't have something in the holster for Doc. It's possible that he snapped out the Halme and Bob ones in an hour each. But some of the specifics in them makes it look like he put more time into them/ John

Thought I need to explain myself. Anyway, a large chunk of Mike's fan base were kids under 10. I don't recall any other acts in the 80s having a bigger fan base in that age range. John

Did I miss Dave doing a bio on Doc? Did it not get uploaded to WO-4.com? John

And was it straight Face-Face, or was Snuka tweener, or heel? I haven't seen it... on my list. John

He was a "student" back when he created his WC profile in 2001. My recollection was that he was still in college back during the Shawn Michaels For The HOF discussions, which was 2002 range. Don't recall if it was grad school, which would make him a bit older, or early in his undergrad time there. Hell... I can't even remember the school even though it was a running joke for a while. My guess is that he's in his late 20s, probably born in the first half of the 80s. One can see that Miami Vice probably was "before his time" because he was just too young. The show had buzz the first season, peaked in the second season with it's best ratings, fell back in it's third season, and was compleetly past it by it's 4th (1987-88). If Todd was born even in 1980, the show was largely dead by the time he hit 7 years old. It wasn't exactly a series aimed at 5 year olds anyway. I think it's telling his comments about Prince and Jackson. Mike peaked in 1983-85. Prince peaked in 1984. Todd's pretty much copping to that period as being before his time. Considering how hot Mike was with young kids (and I'm not making a joke with that), if Todd was even 5 at that point and liked music, he probably would have dug Mike. I think things flip quickly if you were born in the 1975-78 range. You'd be 8-11 when the show peaked. It would be hard to miss all of that. Not defending Todd and I've had my arguments with him in the past. But one can see this. John

Bob-Snuka in Philly... First match: Philadelphia, PA - Spectrum - July 31, 1982 WWF World Champion Bob Backlund (w/ Arnold Skaaland) fought Jimmy Snuka to a double disqualification at 21:06 when Capt. Lou Albano, who Snuka brought ringside early in the contest, interfered as Backlund had the Crossface Chicken Wing applied, with a brawl ensuing between Backlund & Skaaland against Snuka & Albano, and several other wrestlers, including Salvatore Bellomo and the Demons, having to come out to pull Backlund and Snuka apart Lou was still with Snuka at the 08/30/82 MSG card where he faced Pedro. Second match & blow off: Philadelphia, PA - Spectrum - September 18, 1982 (9,464) WWF World Champion Bob Backlund (w/ Arnold Skaaland) pinned Jimmy Snuka at 21:33 by reversing a piledriver attempt into a backdrop and falling backwards for the pin, even though Snuka's foot was outside the ring during the cover; after the bout, Backlund offered his hand to Snuka to shake, which Snuka did; moments later, Snuka also shook the hands of Skaaland and the referee before Backlund gave him his personal towel, which read "WWF Champion"; SD Jones was the guest referee for the bout It would appear they had a 100% notion to turn Jimmy at that point. But I don't see any matches of him against a heel until later. Snuka and Albano were on the 10/09/82 Championship Wrestling in Buddy Rogers' Corner. That *might* have been where they shot the angle of Lou cheating Snuka out of his cash. His feud with Lou didn't seem to start until mid-November, and he was pretty clearly working as the face against heels in all his matches after that. Jimmy worked a fair amount with All Japan in 1982, so the gaps may be while he was on tour over there. I need to watch those Philly matches at some point. John

I know. I've written about this phase of his in the past. It was an odd tweener phase where he worked both ways. Going backwards: His blow off with Ricky was the 10/04/86 SNME snake pit match (taped 09/13/86). As far as I can tell, their feud didn't have any matches after that aired. He moved into an attempted feud with JYD that launched on the 10/19/86 Wrestling Challenge, and started going around the horn a bit before that. The feud never really came to much. The tweener phase looks to have started around here: South Bend, IN - Athletic & Convocation Center - October 22, 1986 WWF IC Champion Randy Savage fought Jake Roberts to a no contest Milwaukee, WI - Mecca - October 23, 1986 WWF IC Champion Randy Savage fought Jake Roberts to a double disqualification Not entirely sure where they pulled those matches out of the hat. I don't see JYD working those days, so it's *possible* that Jake was a "sub" in Savage vs JYD match as there were some occassional JYD-Savage matches in those months. 10/16/86 is an example. Kansas City, MO - Municipal Auditorium - November 3, 1986 (1,800) WWF IC Champion Randy Savage fought Jake Roberts to a double disqualification That one is also strange as Jake faced JYD the day before and after, but JYD-Harley was on that 11/03/86 card. The Heel-Heel match where Jake was clearly the face: Los Angeles, CA - Sports Arena - November 15, 1986 (matinee) (16,000; sell out) Saturday Night's Main Event #8 - 11/29/86 on NBC (9.7) WWF IC Champion Randy Savage (w/ Miss Elizabeth) fought Jake Roberts to a double disqualification at around the 9:30 mark after both men pushed referee Dave Hebner out of the way; after the contest, Roberts scared Savage from the ring with Damien after Savage tried to get at him with a chair; Roberts was heavily cheered over Savage during the match (Best of Saturday Night's Main Event) And the balance of the known Jake matches vs Heels for 1986: Omaha, NE - Civic Auditorium - November 22, 1986 King Harley Race fought Jake Roberts to a double count-out Salisbury, MD - Wicomico Youth & Civic Center - November 29, 1986 (matinee) Jake Roberts pinned Hercules Kansas City, MO - Municipal Auditorium - November 29, 1986 (1,200) Jake Roberts vs. King Harley Race Chicago, IL - Rosemont Horizon - November 30, 1986 (4,500) WWF IC Champion Randy Savage fought Jake Roberts to a double disqualification Fresno, CA - Selland Arena - December 4, 1986 WWF IC Champion Randy Savage defeated Jake Roberts (sub. for Roddy Piper) via disqualification They were feeling their way around with it. One does get the sense that they wanted to get Hogan a taste of the Jake Apple by beating Jake before Snake went face. But it also seemed that they knew they wanted him to eventually go face around this time. I think if more of these Heel-Heel matches were available, we'd likely see the same layout that Jake worked agaisnt Randy on SNME: pre-match and early match spots to make it clear that Jake was the face *in the match* and the other guy was the stooging heel. John

Lots of people in wrestling are happy to take spots that don't have "power". The reason is obvious: Money Be it an increase in $$$, or simply the ability to make it. TNA's checks clear at the bank. They appear not to be small ones to those lucky enough to be on the dole. Where do you think Corny would make more money: TNA or ROH? Look at the WWE Creative Team. Lots of people who know that the true decision making comes down to Vince, Steph and Trip. When they're not given something by those three to "write", they're dreaming up ideas that will get them on the good side of those three. Why? Money It's wrestling, Jake. They're all whores for the cash. And anyone else who is making $$$ is a potential rival to their own making $$$. John

They didn't waste any time on who the Face is and who the Heel was: Savage vs Jake There are times where slow burn works. I'm not sure if the WWF in that era would be a good place for it given their fans. It's a bit like Orndorff's turn on Hogan: it was clearly set up for weeks before that. Anyone paying attention was just waiting for Paul to snap. John

I always read Wade's comments on Russo that could be read as positive or apologist as one of his Devil's Advocate streaks. There have always been some issues where he'll stake out the anti "consensus" viewpoint, where the consensus is Dave Think. I think Wade long has thought Russo is crap. His coverage of Russo in WCW pretty much exposed it, though he even then was willing to play Devil's Advocate because everyone else (from Dave on out) shat on Russo even more. He has a contrarian streak. Just Wade's style. Some times it works for him because the consensus can get locked in the punch. *raises hand* And some times it ends up with Wade staking out a contrarian position that just doesn't work, then sticking with it beyond the shelf life. John

Christ... I go over to read that and quickly stumble upon: The Fight Opinion Five: The Pro-Wrestling Connection And by the end of the first paragraph my head starts hurting. But yeah... the Fertittas are scumbuckets and of course the MMA Media wants to dance around it. I'm not one to use Zach as Exhibit A on the subject, and his quick analogy to his old personal Great White Whale ("I WAS ALWAYS THE YAKUZA!!!!") make hitting the eject really hard to avoid. Snowden would be readable on the scumbucket nature of the Fertittas, but I don't know if he's ever taken time to walk through it. John

Agreed that it's likely due to the Brothers needing cash. The stuff in the WON about the UFC's debt is rather interesting. The $25 million credit facility is chump change, and likely the revolve it to use for operations. The $425M "loan", if people recall, was $325M back in 2007 largely to skim off into the pockets of the Fertittas and White... and $100M last year "to help pay off part of the existing revolving credit line and fund a dividend to the owners of the company". So a large chunk of the $425M went out the door into the pockets of the Brothers (and to a less extent Dana), and is never going to return. In fact the Brothers aren't investing more into the company at the moment: they're looking to outside investors. They're basically will be using Money Marks over time to payoff chunks of money that they've already taken out of the company. Honestly don't know why they simply didn't get money marks back in 2007 rather than saddle the company with 7%+ in interest on $425M... which isn't a small chunk of change. Suspect that's some legal and tax and shaddy reason for it. Old Man Fertitta wasn't clean as a whistle, and it's likely his sons learned out to play the game at his knee. John

So the Fertitta's sold 10% of Zuffa to Abu Dhabi Money Marks for an estimated $125M. As I was saying, if Shane happened to have $10M laying around (which would be a lot of money for him in liquid assets), it doesn't buy much of the company: 0.8%. I don't know if Shane has enough contacts to even have put together an "investment group" to raise $100M. If he did, I suspect the players would have thought they would get more than 10%, and be more than simply money marks but instead have some impact via that money. For example, if several of Shane's "international network" contacts fronted big chunks of that $$$, it's likely they would have wanted content rights for that investment. For UFC, that's just a limitor on their future ability to distribute cotent. Granted, they're not spinning the investment as being by a Money Mark and are touting their ability of the Abu Dhabi connection getting them into new markets, especially China. I don't doubt they might get some benefit there. But it strikes me that the biggest benefit is how little the Brothers are giving away for the investment. John

That sounds odd... John

Chris Murphy is more likely to aim at (i) retaining his seat this year, and (ii) going after Lying Lieb in 2012 when Obama is back on the ticket. Murphy will be just 39 in 2012, which gives him the potential of: * long Senate career * picking his spot for a national run down the road To primary Dodd would have run up a bill, and left his attention away from getting re-elected to the House. Also, if Dodd was still in the race, he would have been swimming upstream of the DNC/DSCC Establishment that would have been solidly backing Dodd. Not something that Murphy at this point would want to risk. Dodd retiring was almost certainly to clear the field for Blumenthal, which is born out by how quickly Blumenthal announced his candidacy. In turn, one would expect the DNC/DSCC to fully back Murphy come 2012 against Lieb. If Lieb had "played nice" after his 2008 walkabout, one could see the DNC/DSCC walking the fine line like they're doing with Spector: i.e. officially backing Spector, but unofficially hoping Sestak wins the primary because he's short term more likely to beat Toomey and long term more likely to hold the seat (due to Spectors unpopularity and age/health). Since Lieb didn't play nice, and that 60 seat majority is at risk in 2010, it's much more certain that Lieb will be aggressively killed off in 2012. Murphy is likely just the candidate they'd like to run as a contrast to Lieb. John

Yeah, Nate Silver has been all over this: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/01/dod...-sidelines.html Dodd's problems weren't that he was a "Dem" in that state. It's that he was "Dodd" and he's taking hits for the banking crisis and his longtime ties to them. Blumenthal is wildly popular. He'll beat this shit out of whoever gets nominated. John

I don't see that as a Crash TV style surprise. Those are usually surprises for suprise sake. It led to a multi-month feud with Orton that picked up the feud dropped with the injury the year before and wove in the Orton-Trip feud the picked up the pieces when Cena got hurt. Annoying as it was to see Trip wedge himself into a Mania main event again, and come out of the feud with the belt... there was some thought put into where they were going with it. John

Even the Outsiders wouldn't have been a "Crash TV Surprise" in this era to Todd: he would have known that they jumped months before and would be showing up any week. Hell, Todd may already have been a WON sub in 1996 or a reading of info online where everyone knew about that stuff. Hogan going heel was a "surprise", and worked well. But for everyone like that, there were a dozen SURPRISE! moments that sucked and a dozen things you could see coming that were good. We knew Foley won the Title on "01/04/99" because it was taped the week before, and because Eric was blowing it off on the other channel. Foley Fans still thought it was a great moment. John

There are still people who mark out for Monday Night Wars Crash TV. I don't think they grasp that the majority of the "good" stuff in the MNW era was stuff you could see coming, especially of you were a hardcore fan with info available to you and/or had half a brain of how wrestling worked. Most of the Crash TV stuff ended up sucking. Does anyone wax poetically about the Hogan-Nash title change of doom? John

It's been this shitty for ages. Don't forget: there also was a NJ Tokyo Dome with NJ vs NOAH matches on it. If it were 01/04/97 and even a *normal* NJ Dome show, let alone a NJ vs AJ theme, we would have seriously given a shit about it. John

Wait... Bob.com was worked?!?! Nooooooooooooo! John

Rock's career is going fine by the standards of someone leaving another entertainment or sports field and going into movies. Not off the charts or great by just the movie standards, but perfectly fine. He has lots of stuff still in the pipeline, and his last three movies have all done well (setting aside Southland Tales since it was both an older movie sitting in post production hell and also on something critical to his career). As far as being in the mode of Arnold, what Rock said at the time isn't relevant. It's a matter of looking at his roles: Mummy 2 Scorp King Rundown Walking Tall Doom Gridiron Gang That's pure early Arnold from an entry level movie to action b-movie o'rama. He revived his career with a Disney "family comedy", which isn't likely what he expected to be the wheelhouse of his career and almost certainly is something he's like to move out of if he could. On the other hand, he'd take it if that's where the hits end up being for him. I doubt he'd like to be early era Kurt Russell, but if that's what writes his checks, he'd rather do that than wrestle in the WWE and deal with a fuck like Trip. Still, Rock would love to final lead a $200M movie: a true major hit. He hasn't come remotely close to that. It's a bit of a pain in the ass when freaking Ben Stiller has kicked the living shit out of you at the box office like a drum. John

Only 1 listing for all of 2000 is pretty strange. This is really strange as Trip finally got over in due to his feuds with Mick and Rock following the feud with Vince to close 1999 (i.e. the Wedding Stuff). The really was Trip and Steph in their prime, and you would think someone putting this together would focus a number of segments on Jan-Aug 2000. Of course there's a lot of Kurt in there, and they wouldn't want to make him look good. Also it's Mick and Rock, who there is no love for in Trip's circle. And perhaps there aren't a ton of things as memorable as the Beer Bath. But still, it's a strange period to duck. John

It would be interesting to see who Dave thought the heel was based on back in 1985. John