Marty

Watching this as well right now. Worth noting there's a large chunk of Benoit footage. Not only is there the run-ins he does as part of the Horsemen on the first disc, but on the second disc there's the Flair return in Greenville in '98, where they obviously have him in the background when Flair cuts his promo, but they also kept in his entrance (also with Mongo's and Malenko's) plus Arn's comment about Benoit being the first to talk to him about reforming the Horsemen. Only thing they cut from it was Arn's individual one-on-ones with the three other Horsemen (and even then, I'm not sure there'd be much time, as my DVD player read 3 hours for all of the second disc). Also, that disc closes with Flair vs. Bischoff where Flair wins the Presidency and they have the whole thing there, including Benoit, Malenko and Mongo stopping Bisch from running away. Been a fun set. They've done some solid TV sets. Wonder if it's bugging Vince that the Nitro set is better than the RAW one from three or so years ago.

http://www.sportsgrindent.com/blog/washing...n-randy-savage/

For what it's worth, here are the links to a rare shoot interview Randy Savage did in 2000: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oLCGAwFgSc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMWAfqPp4rA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzm7b1MciVw It's the second and third parts he talks about leaving the WWF and possible returns at the time. From what he comes across as, not only does it seem like he was pretty well off, but also doesn't feel he has to do anything. Also for what it's worth, according to Piper, the Savage/Vince heat stems from a simple slap Savage gave to Vince at a bar once, which seems weird. So, really, who knows?

Andre is a huge name. I think there's a very credible argument that he's a contender for number 1. A guy who stood the test of time in terms of name recognition, a guy who had crossover appeal and him wrestling in a number of different places also helped. Some older friends of mine reference him as the last real star before wrestling "got to that stupid cartoonish bullshit". Big name here in Canada. I think he could give Hogan a run for his money as far as most recognizable name goes. I'll throw another name into the pile: Abdullah The Butcher. He's probably not Top 5, nor Top 10, but he's a name that I've seen thrown out of nowhere for whatever reason in some conversations not about wrestling. Very recognizable look too.

Shit! This one's hitting me pretty hard. RIP.

http://www.rspwfaq.com But, no, there's no reason to go at all. It's not even him that posts on wrestling all that much, so you don't even get the possibility of fun stuff like Tim Cooke dissecting his Eddy-JBL review.

Hadn't seen this video posted here yet. Figured it deserved a home somewhere here.

http://www.wrestlingnewssource.com/feed_ne...nd_Correct_.php

My favourite Edge story was also at an autograph signing, I want to say in 2006. Someone had brought, of all things, Lita's book and was hoping Edge would sign it. One of the security/organizing people said, "No, he'll only sign Edge-related merch." The guy brought the book to Edge anyway. Edge signed it. Organizer guy: "I thought you don't sign stuff that isn't yours?" Edge: "Hey pal, is it your autograph session or mine?"

I think the first thing you said in the post pretty much explains Punk's status. Due to him never taking any drugs, he's an easy guy for Vince to point to when necessary, as if to say, "See, we have guys who are in fact clean."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/23/...E72M90520110323

I still think Taker wins, but one thing that struck me when watching The True Story Of WrestleMania (almost put this in that thread, but I think the point is stronger here) is that HHH has never really had that real WrestleMania-defining moment. You could make the argument that he came out on top in 2000 and 2002, but I'm not sure those rank anywhere near the most memorable. Heck, the 2002 win over Jericho was easily overshadowed by Rock-Hogan. It wasn't even Steamboat-Savage to Rock-Hogan's Hogan-Andre. It was closer to JYD-Race. There's been many of HHH's rivals over the years that have had stronger Mania moments: Austin (quite a few), Rock (especially Rock-Hogan), Foley (match with Edge was probably the biggest highlight of WM22), Jericho (Jericho-HBK at WM19 has grown in reputation), Cena (has turned into the Hogan of this era, and his entrances alone, as goofy as they are, are a signature moment of the event), etc. There's a part of me that thinks HHH saved beating Taker for his ultimate Mania moment, but thankfully it's still a small part.

Supposedly, Jericho recorded interviews hyping the match, ala Shawn. I don't believe the streak was ever hyped before Mania until the Orton match either. I do recall Taker's growing record being mentioned over the years, both during the match and after the match. Heck, I remember Vince mentioning that Taker went to 4-0 after beating Bundy, but there was no major pre-Mania hype until Mania 21.

78,000 seems low just by seeing everyone that was there that day. The Silverdome holds 80,000 for football. At the very worst, all the stands were nearly full and there was the large ringside attendance as well. Even if the WWF oversold the attendance that night, I'd estimate the actual figure would be well over 80,000 and probably in between the 85,000 to 90,000 range. The 93,173 claim doesn't seem all that bad in comparison to the 75,000 and 78,000 figures, IMO.

Awesome stuff! When you got into the Madonna-Spears lesbian kiss, I expected a comparison to the Trish Stratus-Pamela Anderson lesbian kiss that took place at the 2006 Canada Walk Of Fame ceremonies. But your comparison and FAR deeper theories to Hogan-Warrior at Mania VI well surpassed that. Well done!

I rewatched some of the Savage DVD recently. Did Elizabeth have any other look on her face that wasn't "concerned"?

I don't disagree with you guys, but there was talk of the WWE doing a Jerry Lawler DVD. If that's still a god, I'd guess that the Miz TLC match would get on there due to it being Lawler's only WWE title shot. Possible they're saving that match for that set.

Out Jan. 25th in North America Land: http://www.silvervision.co.uk/products/Bes...VD-3-Discs.html Some fun stuff on here, certainly promo-wise. "Kissing babies and hugging fat girls", Batista quitting, CM Punk's 900th ep promo, tea time with Santino and others. And a lot of expected things, like Bret's return and Nexus' first appearance. Wonder if tie-gate will be edited out.

Agree to that. Second DVR isn't a bad way to go, though. I'm having a second one put in this weekend. Will be nice to be able to save up shows on one, and sports on the other. Sports in HD can eat up space fast. John For me, it's old movies (I'm a TCM junkie.). Still a sports fan myself, of course, but I gave up trying to tape sports a long time ago. Gotta allow extra time in case overtime happens, games start late, etc. How do people succeed taping baseball games, or golf? Dave taping MMA seems a lot more do-able.

They've been going with no inserts for a while now. I think Jericho's was the last one to have one, meaning it started with the Highest Flyers set. I hear ya with the guys on the front, point was more about the Hogan-Hart comparison.

Got my copy too. FWIW, they don't have Hogan pictured on the front, but they do on the back, and also mentioned in the description on the back as well. No Bret Hart mentioned or pictured on the box at all, which is kinda odd given who is in whose good shoes, and given their rankings in this.

The market I'm most interested in as far a battle goes is Winnipeg. They were an AWA home for a long time, and I'd be very curious as to how the WWF were able to obtain them, in comparison to other AWA towns. I'm in the Ottawa-Hull region and we've always had more of a connection to Montreal/Quebec culture/entertainment than Toronto. Wrestling was no different. We got a lot of guys back in the day who were standouts in Montreal. Edouard Carpentier, Dino Bravo, Killer Kowalski, etc. Carpentier was a huge star in Ottawa. There would be the odd occasion where the Tunneys would bring some talent to Ottawa, but our ties were mainly with Quebec. Also, how much of an issue was Vancouver? I think with much told about Stampede, and John covering Toronto, everything else in Canada is pretty well covered. Kris, it bears repeating, but this is really awesome stuff. Arguably the best thread at this board ever, and there's been many very good ones too.

The Top 5 listed, given who's on good terms and who isn't, isn't all that surprising. Mysterio at #9, ahead of even Eddie AND HHH, is quite surprising. Not that I'm necessarily overly upset with it. But it's been mentioned here and elsewhere how Mysterio isn't always booked as strongly as he is over. Will be interested to see his summary when this thing comes out. (Judging by Edge's, whose description on the DVD got leaked out, each guy will get a 3-5 minute summary plus a match.) Savage at #14 is another surprise. I expected him on the list. But very surprised at him being that high. And I'm not someone who believes all the Savage-Steph jibber-jabber. Hogan at #23 is obviously amusing. Even more amusing might be Sammartino just below him. Feels like WWE saying, "You won't play nice, fine, we'll look at you even lower than Hogan." Also generally surprised at the number of mainly non-WWWF/WWF/WWE older stars on the list. Guys like Thesz, Bock (where's Gagne?), Brisco, Funks, etc. When I first heard of this set, I was expecting more focus on WWE careers. So less of those guys and more of your Roccas, Morales, Strongbows, Putskis, etc. Pleasant surprise, for the most part.

Reminds me of that Simpsons episode when Bart was running for class president... http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/news.html

This isn't limited to just wrestling, I'm afraid. Here in Canada, there was an interview with a CFL defensive coordinator who's been heavily criticized by both media and fans. In his interview, he basically wrote off all his critics as being people who have never coached in their life, so they don't know what they were talking about. Similar to the "wrestler who didn't even have a match", he hit a low point in his coaching career just a couple years ago, when he was coaching Junior A ball or something like that. So you get a lot of people like that in probably many industries.