flyonthewall2983

Still contend this is one of the more overrated matches in WWF history. I have watched it on some live watches and at other points in the past couple of years and it doesn't top out at ***1/2 for me. Also, one of the dumbest decisions ever by a manager for Fuji to walk out on Demolition for Powers of Pain. Aye, but there's two big long 20-man tag matches, the Fuji flip was 1988 and the generally better-liked match was 1987. I would agree that neither is on the level of the other matches mentioned so far. And hey, Fuji was regularly portrayed as just plain dumb compared to some of the other managers, so it kind of fit? Both of these matches are my go-to-"Netflix and Chill" on the Network. 87 was the overall better match but 88 has some historic value to it. The Demos/PoP switch at the end with Fuji and it's also the last match the Bulldogs had in the WWF (maybe North America, too?). As far as pay-per-view matches, both would probably be in my personal top ten. They highlighted just how good the tag teams were for a time. I'd go with Warrior/Savage from WM VII. Loss is right in that it might be the best WWF match, as opposed to the best professional wrestling match.

What I hope for is that he backs those words up with action and enters a treatment facility. But yeah I can imagine a brush that close with death would make him realize that.

Until he made that transition, which I'd say was around the time he came back in 2001, he basically went from bad to worse. I still can't enjoy his commentary in the "New Generation" era, because it felt like he was just cutting heel promos all the time instead of announcing. Heenan and Ventura were better at giving their side of the argument, but also very occasionally giving faces their due as well. I started to like him when he came back, because I actually thought at the time that Heyman was worse. He did a good enough job at WrestleMania 17 to make me turn my opinion around on his performance there, but I felt the antagonizing nature of him and JR tended to overwhelm what was going on in front of our eyes which isn't good. I later watched the Heyman doc WWE did and he said it was his idea to make it more entertaining if him and Ross hated each other.

Bobby made most anyone look good, including Gorilla who had his own deficiencies in the broadcast booth. Although I think Ventura was better at working around those, where Heenan could sometimes but not always. I think he gets way too much flak for his time in WCW. It's clear that Bischoff did not know how to produce him in the similar manner which Vince and Bruce Prichard did, so in that regard it is sub-par in comparison. But there were times his talent shone pretty quickly. It wasn't very often, but the three-man booth of Bobby, Tony Schiavone and Dusty were great together. Quite a bit of personal history among the three of them, and there was chemistry that must have gone unnoticed by the people that could have made them the default broadcasting team.

One of the things I asked him about was something I read in an old Sports Illustrated attributed to something he told the Los Angeles Times in 1975 in an article about a fan who died at a card at the city's Sports Arena. "One less guy to spit on me" was his quote.

Warrior ridiculed Bobby's fight with cancer in his rebuttal to the Self-Destruction DVD and Heenan's participation in it. I took that gravely personal, as someone who had loved ones who dealt with cancer myself. So yes, fuck him.

When he came back at the 96 Royal Rumble and that music hit is still one of my favorite moments.

I think Meltzer said that he was being offered scripts for sitcoms at one point. I'd imagine during the SNME era NBC could have seen talent in someone like Bobby that went beyond wrestling.

I met him in 1999 at an autograph signing at a record store. Knowing how bored and overall grouchy he had become in WCW, his demeanor that day isn't all that surprising. I talked to him for about 5 minutes, and he did well enough to engage but I could kind of tell he wanted to be anywhere else than a place that was blasting loud rock music, and being asked questions of varying interest by marks.

Funny, but also managed to keep his heat too.

He was so good, he even had a little jive

According to Jim Ross' Twitter, he passed away today. I'd have no reason to believe Ross would report something like this erroneously.

I'd like to think that if Warrior stuck around, he would have taken the role that Sid did in this angle. Basically, have Warrior and Savage do the angle they did a year later with the Ultimate Maniacs. You could have some good segments with the two of them, still holding some anger towards each other but it dissipates as they have common enemies now. I'd not be surprised if that was the original direction the angle would have taken. If you hear Savage during the segment where Warrior is locked in the casket, it's some compelling stuff that could have worked towards that. But like a turd in a punchbowl Warrior took his ball and went home. We still got a pretty intense program out of this anyway.

Did he ever explain as to why he never got a job with WWE in 2001? At the time dirtsheets said he was in negociations but he kept calling the office for a answer and in the end they decided not to give him a job. Haven't seen it but I would guess that he didn't leave enough of a good taste in Vince's mouth from his previous run to hire him.

I don't mind them going up. It would connect a lot of dots in terms of getting the full range of each company during the years those shows were on. It's also why I want to see more Prime Time, and eventually Superstars/Challenge go up too.

Since someone mentioned a possible Bundy babyface run I was reminded of this, which I first heard about on WWE's Jake Roberts DVD. He talks about this briefly in one of the deleted scenes, in reference to the Legion Of Doom faction that was around for a little bit in 83-84.

Are there any gaps in World Class stuff at the moment? New stuff from that era seems to have dried up lately.

I'm used to waiting a year on stuff but Netflix has been dragging a bit behind which is worrisome. House of Cards usually loads up in February/March but this year it didn't come until the last day of May. (I noticed this with Homeland too, but I think it was made clear it would happen in those cases, because the election had caused such a stir in the waters that they needed the extra time to integrate elements of it into their shows as much as possible) Worst of all is BoJack Horseman's new season will come next month, after dropping in July next year. I have a picky sense of humor and need desperately something to laugh at.

I watched this last week and was surprised at how good Dusty was on commentary, deferring to Tenay's expertise on the cruiserweights when necessary but still throwing his own 2 cents in as well at times. The series of matches these two had were some of the highlights of this time in wrestling. Not having been exposed to such a high-risk style before, what those two did kind of blew my mind.

Flair had one match prior in MSG, 15 years before against Pete Sanchez.

Tony's looking well for someone who would be easy to cop to being old and fat.