JerryvonKramer

If you look at Coffey's post, he's more interested in discussing the whole of Jericho's career than looking at where he stands right now. Yeah I know, but I'm talking about his rep as a good worker and where it comes from. Was Jericho really thought of being great back in 98?

Doesn't this come down to the fact that he's in an environment where he's one of about 5 guys who actually know how to work, has decent psychology etc?

When I was a kid, whenever I'd do like fake wrestling-style announcements messing about with my brother or whatever I'd always ALWAYS bill the event as "coming live from the Hoosier dome!" Even now when I think of a generic big main event stadium I default to thinking about the Hoosier dome.

After finishing All Japan, I'm planning on plunging back into 1992 Yearbook and watching as much of it as I can before the AWA set comes out. Unfortunately, that means putting my 4 Horseman watching on hold for now, but my time is so stretched these days that I can only really concentrate one at a time.

Road Warrior Heidenreich? Heidenreich in general? What happened to that guy? Did he ever win a match? He had like a load of run ins and then lost to Taker again and again right? After months and months of hype videos.

Got to disagree on this, that's one of my favourite ever angles and matches. And pretty much the only match I rate like 90% due to outside shennanigans. I'll agree it was weakened a bit by the fact that FLAIR came out with him too, but during the match it's not obvious which side he's on until it's obvious he's only out for Flair's interests. What's amazing about that match is JUST HOW BRUTAL the beatdown on Savage is. I legit thought they'd broke his leg as a kid. I'd argue it's the most violent match in WWF since ooooh, Shiek vs. Slaughter?

All WCW so far.

I want to explore these sorts of instances. I don't mean instances where a guy is given a big push and then left into free-fall when it didn't work out (e.g. The Renegade), I mean occassions where something is HYPED at an event and then given very little airtime at it and effectively buried. The example I have in mind is the Yeti and the whole "three giants" angle at World War 3 1995. I mean if you watch that show it is absolutely baffling. Yeti is given an almost equal billing to Hogan and The Giant and treated as a major deal in all the pre-show stuff and then at the match itself he's absolutely buried. I mean totally. He's eliminated first. What a massive abortion of an angle. I'm looking for some more examples like that. Where something is built up at an event only to be destroyed almost immediately. WCW were specialists at this sort of thing at the time, they did it again at the cluster-fuck Uncensored '96 Tower of Doom match with Z-Gangsta and "The Ultimate Solution". Again, a total abortion. What I'm wondering is whether this sort of thing is unique to WCW at that time, or whether there are loads of examples from all over the place. Can't think of any others on this sort of level.

Reckon an Arnie angle would be money. Things that could happen: 1. He uses all his old catch phrases. 2. Get in Ventura for a "heavyweight debate" 3. Possible feud with Vince, possible feud with Triple H

What's Arnie upto these days?

Always thought Gordon Ramsey would be money in a wrestling context.

The anti-Mr. T sentiment was mainly driven by Piper who didn't just rag on him this time but in the last episode as well. He just hated working with him, said that he was very hard to do business with and just "didn't get it". Piper fucking HATES Mr. T.

When did Angle debut? 2000 was a vintage year in WWF in my view. 2001 was good too.

I also have a hard time buying that Wendi Richter vs. Leilani Kai & Moolah would have been a money feud without Lauper's involvement. I reckon WWF made more money from Lauper than vice versa.

Also, the WAY he won that Rumble has to be taken into account. Vince, I reckon from 97 till about 2002ish was perfectly booked. One of the all-time great heels for my money. Just willing to do anything, and I mean ANYTHING, no matter how ridiculous he looks, for the good of the show. I have a lot of respect for Vince as a performer.

I was actually a little bit surprised at the treatment of Lauper on that show, because I had always been led to believe that she was one of the major catalysts used to ignite the rock 'n' roll wrestling era. Was that not the case?

Yeah, thought the panel were overly deferential towards Nash on that occassion like they were all happy just to have him there as if he was a major deal. They did a similar thing with Bret. Hand-picked the topics to suit him and then gave him an easy ride on the panel.

Has there ever been anyone more "scuzzy" than Buck Robley? He's the very definition of sleazy squalor.

The one with Watts, JR, Dusty and Hayes was good. Liked the fact that Hayes was kinda like a naughty schoolboy there, speaking with 3 guys who had legit fired him during the course of his career. Incidentally, I've warmed to Hayes over the years. The one where Joey Styles hosted was funny because he got ribbed so heavily, mainly by Hayes and Jimmy Garvin.

Yeah DDP was clearly the aggressor throughout, but there was at least a little bit of passive-aggressiveness from JR in there too. He kept talking about "respecting the business" and THE IMPLICATION -- at least at first -- was that Arquette, Jay Leno, Carl Malone, Rodmann and basically anyone WCW ever used didn't respect the business. That was the point DDP got stuck on. He didn't want to let JR or Hayes put down those guys in a snide way, while bigging up Tyson, Taylor, or any other WWF celebrity appearance. THAT SAID, after the initial rant, JR made a point of outlining three distinct categories of celebrity: "got it, and respected the business" (Ali, Kaufmann, Mayweather), "just there to make a quick buck" (Mr. T, Cyndi Lauper), "badly cast in their role" (Arquette). Now here's the thing. While I thought DDP went completely OTT during this episode, to the extent where the number of times he went back to Malone was funny and borderline absurd, I DO think that had he not been sitting there, and had it been, say, Patterson. JR and co. would have completely buried all of those guys. DDP was making it clear that he wasn't going to allow any sort of bury job, probably because he was directly involved in the angles. All of that said, JR was never a dick to him. He always stayed respectful, but noticeably wasn't laughing or getting involved in banter (although it is hard to tell if JR is laughing / smiling these days). Also, yeah, Flair is a real cock in that particular episode.

An odd tension between JR and DDP all the way through the episode. JR and Hayes are obviously WWE through and through and DDP still bleeds WCW, with Piper just happy to stir things up. Made a nice change for someone to stick up to the received wisdom on that show that everything WWE is/was great and everything WCW is/was shit. However, there are several times when DDP is overly defensive. This was the ONLY one of these shows during which Okerlund seems like he might lose control of the group, he never quite does though. Piper's utter hatred of Mr. T is as amusing as ever.

lol anyone seen the Celebrity Effect Legends of Wrestling yet? DDP won't let the Carl Malone thing go, fucking hilarious.

May rewatch it because, to be fair, I watched it at 5 or even 6am after an allnighter.

I've seen all of these shows to date, pretty much the only "current content" the WWE put out that I watch and Dillon is definitely one of the better contributors. On the Canada episode, Pat Patterson seems like he's in a really bad mood about something. I also found the 70s one slightly boring. Bockwinkel in particular came across like he was putting himself over heavily and Hayes was in full suck-up mode. Think Dillon definitely comes out of that one the best. Overall though, Mike Graham is easily my least favourite guy on there. Even Bischoff is better.

Have we had Iron Sheik yet?