Coffey

The Thanksgiving holiday is actually the reason that I'm a professional wrestling fan. When I was a kid, my parents would of course have the whole family over for Thanksgiving, to celebrate the holiday & have the big feast. The location of which family was hosting the holiday would change annually but one thing was consistent: there were a lot of kids & the adults wanted the kids out of their hair. So, how was this accomplished? WWF Survivor Series: The Thanksgiving night tradition! I immediately became a big Hulk Hogan & Ultimate Warrior fan & started following WWF television on weekends & when I could stay up, WWF Saturday Night's Main Event. Back during the late 1980's, Survivor Series was actually on Thanksgiving day. Purchasing Pay-Per-View events back then, you had to go to the cable company & "rent" the box that you would hook up to your television that would allow you to get the PPV. So I would sit with my brother & my cousin Joe while we would all watch the wrestling show while the rest of the family would chat, drink & whatever else. Now, as an adult, I'm very nostalgic for those old Survivor Series shows & I think I'm going to put on a couple of them today. I would much rather watch some 1980's WWF than the Detroit Lions. So I just wanted to wish all the members of Pro Wrestling Only a Happy Thanksgiving & ask you to share any pro-wrestling related Thanksgiving memories you may have! Hope everyone has a good holiday, I know a lot of people get today off. EDIT: I just want to throw this out there: the curtain jerk match in the 1987 Survivor Series babyface squad is "The Macho Man" Randy Savage with Miss Elizabeth, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat & Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake. Imagine being a six year old kid & seeing all of those huge, larger than life babyface characters & personalities for the first time. I don't know if there's a better representation of 1980's WWF than that team.

True. If it leads to Omega Vs. Punk though, I'm there for it.

This feels very premature. It's like saying The Rock wasn't a draw when he was in the Nation of Domination.

I think Keith Lee is bigger than I've ever seen him before.

I started paying closer attention right after the Toni Storm hip attack. Also those short Piledrivers always look like death. Was a good match.

They really turned this match around and got the crowd. Good on them.

Toni Storm should have never cut her hair.

Certainly isn't safe though! lol

Man, I wish AEW could have gotten 2005 Samoa Joe.

I just read someone on Twitter mention how JR & Taz doing commentary like it's MST3k doesn't do any of the matches they call any favors. That match was trash but glad Saraya made it through it OK.

That match was a ton of fun.

This match has had awesome near falls.

I have no idea who is winning the 4-way, so that usually means the champion retains. Feels like Daniel Bryan hasn't done anything his entire AEW run so far though.

I miss the Final Countdown entrance.

OK, I'll go a step farther. He'll call it the best 6-man tag team match in wrestling history.

Meltzer giving that 6-man 5-stars minimum.

Pregnant pause after no selling all those kicks with all those kipups & the crowd goes crazy... but they hate CM Punk. OK.

I popped for the Kansas theme song, I won't front. That was cool.

Eddie Kingston is the realest dude that's ever been in professional wrestling. Every word out of his mouth you believe with all of your soul. That man is special.

My few takeaways so far from the pre-show: Those Best Friends Tye-Dye shirts are going to sell like crazy. QT Marshall is a great bumper & always makes people look good. I like Danhausen more when he's not serious. The Japanese stars never seem to get real big reactions but this is really cool for Eddie.

Gentlemen: tonight will be my first wrestling Pay-Per-View... as a married man! I'm not sure if my wife is going to watch with me or not because she said she wants to finish the Christmas tree lights tonight, but we used to watch Dynamite together most weeks but we've fallen out of that routine due to our differing work schedules lately. Curious to see how Saraya looks & how many bumps she takes. Curious about the Cage Match & how bloody Jungle Boy will get. Curious about if they'll strap MJF & make him the top dog. Curious about Storm/Hayter too as Hayter could be a big star... they should really move away from the Thunder Rosa "interim" title, I think. I know Honky Tonky Khan mentioned it. Going to have to go out of my way to catch that pre-show too! The six-man belts will probably steal the show. I imagine the crowd will be totally banana for that one. Looking forward to it!

They should have Jamie Hayter beat Jade Cargill for the TBS Title. It gives her something to do & would help Jade as well as this title reign & streak has kind of hit a wall. I actually don't dislike the Nyla/Jade direction thus far though. I do think they'll try to double turn Baker/Saraya, which would make the Hayer/Baker thing even farther away as they would both kind of be face. I assume Saraya/Baker will continue through this PPV as well & after Cargill, Hayer could move on to Nyla. I think the biggest problem with Tony Khan is he doesn't know when to pull the trigger. Either to end something or to start something. He misses a lot of windows. Madisyn Rayne was brought in as a trainer, right? She seems to be getting more TV opportunities than some of the other ladies but I don't know a lot of the schedules of some of the Japanese stars to be fair. I saw Rayne was wrestling on Rampage tonight.

The bigger issue is his use on Dynamite - same with Garcia for awhile - instead of being delegated to Rampage or Dark. There's often talent better than them both on Rampage & it doesn't make any sense. I understand wanting to push new blood - and they should - but it feels like they just picked two motherfuckers out of a hat, not anyone that actually had momentum from the live crowd. Like it worked with The Acclaimed because they were over.

Better than the alternative to keep using him when no one cares though, right? Hope he does the same with Wheeler and the ROH shit.

My biggest issue with the main roster in WWE is that everyone always feels so stale. Even guys that never even really got huge pushes. Like Lashley feels stale. McIntyre feels stale. Kevin Owens feels stale. Finn Balor feels stale. Never mind people like Orton or Dolph. They just need new faces & blood at the top. Not guys that show up & have to wait a decade to get a shot. They need to just make guys like Gunther or Bron Breakker & see if they stick. Not 50/50 booking. Not "paying your dues." Just get some new people at the top of the cards. WWE just feels fucking OLD. At least Judgment Day is using Rhea & Dominick.