Ricky Jackson

And, of interest to all the historians out there, this is what the general public reads of course, I believe from the AP " When he purchased what was then the World Wrestling Federation from his father in 1982, wrestling matches took place at small venues and appeared on local cable channels. WWE matches are now held in professional sports stadiums and the company has a sizeable overseas following."

Let's not lose sight of the real issue here...The Thread Killer isnt European, he's Canadian

Off the top of my head, I think it was Sami's main roster debut where he accidentally hurt himself pre-match vs Cena, when Cena was doing the US title challenge gimmick

Think overdoing this gimmick permanently fucked up Stompers neck, or maybe his brain. Or both

I'm picturing HHH in a dark office getting off the phone with Vince, who just told him he was coming back, immediately making a call and simply saying "release more allegations" and then hanging up

I pretty much started collecting the mags as soon as I began watching wrestling regularly in the summer of 86. In fact I may have had an issue or two before I began watching the TV, since I was already an established newsstand hound due to my comic collecting. Collecting the mags was the only way for a kid in Calgary to follow the "NWA" (as Crockett was referred to in the mags) and other territories, besides Stampede and the AWA, which were on TV. I was also fascinated by the occasional history articles, especially ones about the greatness of Bruno Sammartino and Bob Backlund (who was never mentioned by WWF at that time and only a scant few of his matches made the CHV tapes). I collected mostly the Apter mags but also had plenty of other publications like Superstar Wrestling, Wrestling Eye, etc., and of course WWF Magazine. I kept collecting through the 90s but stopped around 1998 because they had become kinda outdated, and all the news and results being months behind became less acceptable with the rise of the internet. I did collect WOW for a bit, the mainstream shoot mag, but it wasn't the same

It's on Kindle for $6.55, or free with an unlimited subscription. Took a quick peek, looks like card by card reviews/impressions from 1987 until the end. I think the author is just a superfan and not a polished writer or historian, to give you an idea of the content. Might be worth it considering the low price

What's the title?

I really liked the initial run when the book was still X-Force. Once it became X-Statix I thought it slowly lost its appeal. The reboot from the last few years with the original creative team-The X-Cellent-is good although kinda stuck in first or second gear right now

Ha, I was wondering why Backlund was trending on Twitter without having died

Yeah, Martel and Callis had been working the Super Models gimmick on the Canadian indies earlier in the year

Not a singles match, but in 2013 during Bryan's ascendancy they had an awesome encounter as part of a gauntlet match on Raw

Yeah, the site upgrade a few months back eliminated a bunch of mobile features. No idea how easy it is to fix

I'll bump Ivan because he's been great in almost everything I've seen of him in the last decade or so. Be it a random TV squash, mid card MSG match vs Jules Strongbow from 83, or in major matches from the 70s, the guy was always awesome and seemingly unable to have a bad or dull match. Super underrated worker imo

Yeah, really wish we had 1972-75 Graham, when he was involved in hot matches and feuds in San Fran, AWA, and Florida. There is a little bit of AWA but nothing much. Agree that 76-78 WWWF Graham is special. Those MSG matches with Bruno and Dusty are magic. From what I've seen, 80s Graham is almost tragically sad, at least the Kung Fu stuff. At his peak though, a transcendent star with plenty of matches worth seeking out

I'll just say you can't go wrong diving into the 1980 Portland output of Rose, Martel, and Piper. All kinds of great matches, singles and tags, involving the three of them

No, I think at least one member of the team has to be not already in the HoF to qualify. Great write up on Lynch, @ethantyler

Maybe time for an avatar update FB

As a long time fan of this era, cool to see someone going through it for the first time. You picked a great time to start with the beginning of the awesome Bruno vs Larry feud. Lots of fun stuff through the year

The end of Vince was huge of course, but considering how HUGE we all thought the end of Vince would be in our minds, I was surprised how quickly the story cycled out and everyone just stopped talking about it

Probably winning his manager of the year award 12 of 13 years was enough to be in his HoF?

Here's my analysis from back in ye good ol' days Unfortunately, it looks like most of the links no longer work

Read that yesterday. Really cool

Yeah, I didn't know she left and came back

Grace Slick getting a lot of love in 2022 wrestling