flyonthewall2983

It is interesting to ponder because Flair thought he was going to work for Bill Watts. All the Hank Aaron stuff happened just as he was leaving WWF. If he'd waited on it a little longer and things made their natural course, who knows if he would have come back to work for someone with no track record in that kind of role. If Hogan's '93 in the WWF happened exactly as it did with Flair still around, he still would've gone to WCW I think. I have no doubt that as things progressed, that Ric played a big part in him coming over, but I think Turner could have made things just as lucrative to him anyway. As far as Flair in this alternate scenario, he probably would have ended up being devalued and jobbed out since Vince was seemingly determined to focus on the younger talent.

I've just seen bits and pieces but I loved the clip of Brother Love backstage, throwing in a little Jerry Jarrett. Someone said a few hours in on Twitter that the Manhattan Center crowd got the full '93 Raw experience, a couple of matches and an Undertaker promo. A lot of what I'm reading is reinforcing why I don't watch any more. I haven't even had the Network for a few months and am considering not going back for awhile.

Listening to the Rockers episode now. Pencil ribs might be the most ingenious thing I've ever heard of coming out of the wrestling industry.

Bill Goldberg is on the newest episode of Amazon's The Grand Tour if anyone is interested.

Don't quote me on this but I swore I saw something earlier in the thread about how the masters aren't transferable to the technology which makes it possible to upload them.

Lately I've been wondering why they just didn't revamp their Saturday Night slot, or just get rid of it.

ESPN confirmed today that Bill Goldberg will be inducted this year. No doubt he will be the main attraction for this, especially given his recent run in the company. I'm hoping for Vader, Haku and The Midnight Express.

I've heard rumblings that Conrad is trying to do a show with Bischoff. I don't have my ear to the ground like some of you do, but man I hope that's true.

They also lost it's network by this time, too.

Not only did Hogan and Tugboat go at it at the Rumble, but Tugboat returned the favor in a battle royal a few months later on Saturday Night's Main Event. I know you'll get to it but Typhoon did end up having a match with Hogan, which was just relegated to "Coliseum Video exclusive" status I believe, not even shown on television. Bruce Prichard has told the story a few times, but that was going to be a much bigger heel turn, with Tugboat aligning himself with Sgt. Slaughter, with the blow-off being a match at WrestleMania with Hogan and whatever they were going to call Fred Ottman.

Meltzer said it would be terrible for business if they put it on the Network

He's been talking it up on Twitter and sounds like it might launch very soon.

Not sure why they're trying push the length of these episodes. It would just make sense to me if you've got something over 3 hours to split up and maybe put out the first half Friday and the next one Saturday.

I wonder if he'll buy he Panthers

That if Vince falls on his face with this again, it'll be more than enough ammunition to future endeavor him?

Coupled with that, the company itself was about to take some major damage too. July 1991 is just when the Zahorian stuff was making it into the press, and also when Hogan made that awful appearance on Arsenio Hall, denying he took steroids. In the long-range view of things, signing one of the most recognizable wrestlers outside of their promotion took a backseat.

You couldn't really market the Ric Flair persona the way WWF did Hogan's. It's natural setting is as a heel persona, up against an uber-babyface personality that a company would put that weight behind. After seeing the doc I feel the question of who was better is a bit nebulous at best. Just beyond any sort of athletic or physical capabilities, one couldn't do what the other excelled at. Hogan epitomized the 80's version of clean living to an extent, to the adulation of his audience (mostly children, taken with the super-human element). Flair epitomized, to an audience that was primarily of a lower financial strata, everything that they loathed and envied the 1% for. That was at least the aim of what they did. Young men of a certain age, either having grown out of or just not interested at all in what Hogan was doing, looked at Flair as the ideal. Surrounded by beautiful women, wearing the nicest stuff, topped off with the bravado that comes from knowing you're the best. At the time Flair came to the WWF, I don't think Vince ever really took that into account. I won't say that Flair's work suffered for it, he managed to keep true to the character as much as possible. But that Vince's tunnel-vision couldn't allow something like the dream match with Hogan to happen as much as anything else.

Well, consider how the 80's ended for Tully Speaking of which I found this clip recently

I've been thinking about this for years. I'm thinking I might finally do it soon.

Just without the rape, ideally. Or the water with prices that make that Nestle fucker smile. Or bad music (eh...)

I seem to remember Vince defending something (might have been Trish on her fours barking like a dog *douchechills*) to Bill Costas saying that weeks later his character got his comeuppance from that. The Attitude Era's booking ran the risk of doing these highly tasteless things that would turn people off from watching it, who later wouldn't care at all if there was something to counter-balance it from a story-telling point of view. I'm remembering this from memory but there's a pretty funny moment on Prichard's show about the XFL when he talked about the time Stephanie was on camera in the crowd, and everybody around her was chanting "slut! slut! slut!" to her. Bruce was in the production truck, and someone inside was freaking out saying "who is it? get her out of there" thinking there might have been a woman who took a top off or something. Bruce then had to explain to her that they were chanting that to the on-screen persona of who they sent out in the crowd to do a segment for their national broadcast. I say it's funny because I can imagine just how bewildering to someone who wasn't aware of the McMahons something like that would be.

I get the impression that Hogan and Flair at least have known each other since the 80's. They probably ran into each other in St. Louis a lot when Hogan was working for Verne, and Flair said in his book that whenever the NWA and WWF were in the same town or close to it they'd hang out together. He also said (and Hogan backs this up in the doc) that when he signed with Vince one of the first phone calls he got was from Hulk. For whatever reason, Hogan's ego made things hard for the two of them to get along easy in WCW.

Victator, it's funny you bring it up because Rory Karpf also directed the Tim Richmond 30 For 30. I came from a lower/middle-class background and had a father in prison from the time I was 11 until shortly after my 18th birthday. While I know that Ric's kids "had it better" intuitively I can understand a little of whatever pain/frustration they had in having someone be as distant as he was. One revelation from this doc was how much Ric was distant even from his own parents. I really don't remember if any of this was covered in his book or in shoot interviews, just that he was adopted and never bothered to find out who his real folks were. The scene where he talks about showing off his huge house to his father, who had anything but the desired response to it was just heartbreaking.

There's a couple minutes devoted to the dream WrestleMania match in Flair's 30 For 30. Ric seems not to care much that it didn't happen, while Hogan seems to. Since the Sid match was such an abortion anyway who can blame him. Flair and Savage were a better match anyway, just as far as the dynamic between the two and what they could do in the ring.

I actually think Hogan was genuine in his praise. He was specifically asked if Flair was better in the ring, not if he was better all-around.