Dooley

I got excited because I thought there was going to be a comparison between Ric Flair's career and The Godfather. I am SO disappointed.

I blame Eric Bischoff. No really, I do. It was his philosophy that no one wanted to see tag teams so the division became more and more of a joke on his watch. Since Vince was aping everything he could from the promotion that was kicking his ass at the time, that's one of the things that carried over.

There is a "shoot" team up here in Thunder Bay. they've been looking to get into a league or get one started for a few years. They occasionally bring in teams for exhibition matches, but not very often. Present day roller derby is a shoot. I'm guessing the reason Thunder Bay can't get more games for their team is no one wants to make the 18 hour drive from Trawna. It's pretty big in southern ontario.

Four weeks into the build-up, at Great American Bash, Bischoff asked the question directly "Do you work for the WWF ?" Hall and Nash answer "No." Pretty sure they did that because the lawsuit was already filed, and they thought doing that would end it. Even doing that when they did was smart, as far less people were buying the PPV than tuning into Nitro.

I would think it would have been the opposite. Trump would have had to have given Vince a sweet deal to lose out on a stadium gate.

This reminds me of the old tOA tales of Bangs the Boss's Daughter and The Respected Locker Room Leader.

Settle down Prince Valiant.

Yeah, Sid saved this segment on the mic. Add that to the list of sentences that have never been said before. Bulldog cracks me up during this. "Everybody's cooking! The Clash is cooking! Flair for the Gold is cooking! Sting's cooking!" ....I saw Emeril, he was cooking! My wife is in the kitchen, she's cooking! I turned on The Food Channel, they were cooking!

You gotta admit: you do have a grumpy old man aspect about you. Not as much as John! True, but John *is* a grumpy old man

Dylan's right. Hogan, Savage, Austin and Rock are the ones non-fans see as actual stars. That's evident by the media's reaction to Savage's death. By and large, it's been treated like an actual celebrity died. The next tier lower would be guys that are huge in a regional area (Flair in the South, Hart in Canada) or guys like the Undertaker who get the "oh yeah, i know who that guy is" treatment.

That's the first I've ever heard of that. It seems especially odd considering that Spivey retired/was asked to step down from the same company less than two years earlier.

What did he say wrong? Dont you think too much moaning by a rich millionaire? It seems he's always been up front about hating the travel and being in the public eye and that's why he quit. Hell, in UFC he doesn't talk to his boss for months on end. He maintains such a secluded lifestyle that he had no idea who Chael Sonnen was when asked.

When I was in high school (1981-84), there was exactly one Beatles t-shirt that ever got worn by one person in that school. Of course the same person also wore Who, U2, Stones, Pretenders, Clash and a variety of other shirts. But a fair number of other folks wore those other shirts. The Beatles in that period were "known"... but that was less than 15 years after they'd split, a year after John got shot... and they were way in the background. Time passes rather fast. Bo was monsterous in the late 80s. To a generation he still has meaning. But it's on 20 years now. John We're now in the age of CD's, the Beatles Anthology and digital downloads. It's easier for a kid to become a Beatles fan now than in the early 80's. The Beatles aged a lot better than Bo Jackson did Plus today's music sucks! [/crankyoldman]

What did he say wrong?

When I visited the Czech Republic locals who found out I was Canadian and couldn't speak english would smile and say "Wayne Gretzky, ano?" I doubt such a situation has ever happened with the names GSP or Bret Hart in that spot.

I echo these sentiments.

What was the WWF's plan for Lex Luger in '95 when he jumped to WCW? I remember hearing that he was to be heavily featured in the next editions of Raw after SummerSlam in a major angle, but Cawthon's site doesn't list him as part of the tapings (other than a 6 man on Action Zone).

I'm not sure I've ever seen a wrestler enjoy retirement as much as Austin.

I really liked the first match. Heenan was fantastic on commentary underscoring the point that this isn't something that either one really wanted to do, but this is what it had come to. I like the "curtain sellout" they did as well. I loved the spot where Flair does the flip in the corner, suckers Arn in and ducks Arn flying at him. Plus we get to see Flair hit a move from the top rope! I also liked Flair going to the top again late in the match with the usual result, then Arn deciding to try and missing as well. Pillman's enzuigiri at the end didn't exactly land flush but I can forgive that. The Arn promo (to me anyways) shows that the gears have shifted and the plan is to reform the Horsemen and Arn has to make Flair rediscover the nastiness that the Horsemen used to represent. The cage match, while lame, also serves this purpose. Then you have Flair and Arn doing what they do best, setting up Sting.

But again John, that's not the story they were telling. That's not the way the angle was set up. It wasn't a "I'm gonna kill you, you SOB!" grudge match. It was Arn making a point to Ric that Ric still needed him, the point was made and they reformed the Horsemen a month later.

I somehow locked myself out of my DVDVR account trying to change my email address. Yes, I realize I am a tech retard but it would be nice if I could somehow get that resolved.

I went back and watched the Hart match and the cage match again before replying. I thought the Hart match was a fun match until the DCOR finish but didn't find it significantly better than Bret-IRS or Bret-Skinner or other comparable Bret matches from the time. The bit with Piper, Sherri and the broom was funny. The cage match vs the Steiners was also fun but it's hard to single out DiBiase's performance there. If I had to pick an MVP of the match, it would be Scott Steiner. I didn't go back and watch the Rumble again but I remember DiBiase having a good performance. But was it significantly better than Martel's iron man run the next year? I like battle royals but it's a hard match to determine individual worth in. I'm deliberately leaving Flair's Rumble performance out of the conversation because that's an unfair standard to compare anyone against. I did have fun watching those matches though. Perhaps I will upgrade my opinion on DiBiase's WWF in-ring work from "solid, but unspectacular" to "good, but not great"

All this talk on DiBiase makes me want to throw out my uneducated opinion. I haven't seen any of his mid-south stuff and thought he was always more gimmick than goods in the WWF. I always thought he was solid in the ring, but unspectacular. But without the Million Dollar Man persona, the fistful of cash and that wonderful evil laugh, I wouldn't have cared about him one bit. It was a real surprise to me to see Meltzer and others put the "one of the greats" label on him, because other than one really good match with Savage in '88 I can't think of any instance where I would say "check out this DiBiase match".

You don't talk to Nicatrel like that!

Action soap opera? Yeah I can see that catching on with the typical lower-middle class male rasslin fan. "Hey Jimbo, did you watch the action soap opera last night? That Undertaker is the best entertainment superstar since the days of Andre the Giant, I tells ya!" More likely is that same segment of fan feeling somewhat...."effeminate" for watching something that refers to itself as a soap opera of any variety and tuning out entirely.