Ricky Jackson

Sasha vs Charlotte on the latest NXT was fucking great. It has a really awesome finishing sequence, and including the post-match this whole thing got over the importance of a championship better than anything WWE has done in years.

Brock's basically a babyface, so it would make no sense to book him against Taker anyway

Just run Taker vs Sting and let the chips fall where they may. It's still a dream match on paper even if it may be a trainwreck in execution. Don't really want to see Taker getting his win back from Brock, although that match may be the most intiguing business wise.

The list of potential shows we have at one point discussed is quite long. I'm still disappointed we never got Johnny's epic Jimmy Valiant vs Paul Jones feud special episode

Bruno has a three match series with Spiros Arion at MSG in 1975 that perfectly captures his overness and mass appeal in NYC. They may not be mat classics in the workrate sense but they are great pro wrestling

My thoughts exactly

His "serious" approach to WWF wrestling coming after years of Saturday cartoon was a major breath of fresh air at the time

I still maintain you're just changing the names in the "made up" headlines

I take it to mean a PPV that was a total waste of time and its removal from history wouldn't make one bit of difference to overall wrestling history. Any number of WWE shows from 2003 - present would qualify. As would 90% of TNA's back catalog.

Yeah, that was kinda weird. I remember they had a chain match that was shown on TV but I have never been able to find it online. It was from Stampede's annual summer show at the larger Corral

Yeah, I don't get that one either.

I don't know, I've watched a fair amount of Dream Team recently, and Beefcake on average only wrestles 25% percent of the match while Hammer does all the heavy lifting

Haha...pretty much

I would argue the no holds barred stip was more to ensure a decisive winner because the belt was held up and not because this was a blood feud, though there was no love lost between the two, if that makes sense

WWF in Calgary, January 1989. Not sure of the exact date or complete card because last I checked it wasn't listed on Cawthon's site. Main event was Savage vs Bad News Brown. Only other match I remember for sure is Demolition vs Powers of Pain

I think it's about time I start posting about the matches we've seen on Titans. Hopefully somewhat regularly. We'll see. Anyway, this is an awesome, awesome match. Arguably Backlund's career best match IMO and a top 10 Valentine match. No holds barred war coming off a previous match at MSG that ended with the WWF belt held up because the dazed ref thought Valentine pinned Bob, when actually Bob pinned Valentine. But they were both wearing black trunks, you see. OK, not the greatest finish ever, but it's a really good match otherwise. This encounter rules though. Backlund comes to the ring pissed off as all hell and jumps Valentine before the bell, who is strutting around like a peacock with the belt he did not earn around his waist. What follows is a back and forth struggle with both men working over each others leg in a race to see who can apply the figure four first. Great stuff. Backlund prevails with a sweet German suplex and the Garden comes unglued, with fans jumping up and down in pure joy, hugging strangers. Backlund's win basically brings peace to NYC after the dark days of the 70s. Watch this immediately

That's fantastic

I really don't see how being booked against Bruno, Dusty, Mascaras and Strongbow weren't strong money drawing positions. Each one DREW HUGE MONEY in the territory. It's like people are choosing to focus on his matches against Garea and Larry Z and ignoring all the sellouts he drew month after month after month in the Northeast against huge stars.

As far as running a territory that was almost consistently hot the entire time he promoted it, Vince Sr has to be top 5 all-time. The only real lull he experienced from when he first started booking MSG in 1956 (he temporarily lost control in late 59/early 1960) up to 1982 when Jr bought the company was in the late-60s when, coupled with a general drop off in hot challengers for Bruno, he briefly lost TV in the New York area and had to rely on print advertising to draw. Otherwise business in his major cities was always healthy and often very strong. Yes, Vince Sr could have run with Graham on top longer, and likely eventually turned him face and had even more success, like Verne did with him earlier in the AWA. But Vince Sr believed the long-term success of his company rested in a dominant babyface turning back heel challengers, and the track record of Rocca, Sammartino and Morales was the proof this was the way to go. And wasn't going with non-ethnic, All-American Boy Bob a non-conservative, departure from the norm idea for him? He took a big risk with Bob, who was an unproven draw in 1978. True, it was Bruno who decided his run as champ was over and not Vince Sr, and he was forced to go with a new top star. Still, his choice of Backlund was no guarantee of success, and I believe the booking of Bob on the road to the belt and immediately following his win actually displays pretty good imagination. We've gone over this before on Titans, but Vince Sr booked Backlund masterfully in 1977-78. He was booked super strong in 77, with an undefeated streak, and was treated like a special attraction from day one, only appearing on TV and in MSG sporadically. He beat Graham first time out (Yes, Graham's foot was on the bottom rope, but Bruno had never beat Superstar decisively) and then tore through Bruno's old foes, Arion, Patera, Koloff, Ladd, and gained decisive wins over them in his first few months as champ. THIS is what made Bob a big deal in the Northeast. He was looked at as the BEST, someone who couldn't be beaten. And as we know, New York loves a winner. One thing I would like to know more about is this: how much actual booking did Vince Sr actually do, as far as coming up with angles, gimmick matches, feuds, etc.? Was he heavily involved creatively like his son? I've never really seen anymore document who the actual booker was in the 60s and 70s. I think Monsoon had a lot of input. Anyway, if anyone knows more let me know.

So basically its come to WWE booking for lapsed fans who stumble on Raw while randomly flipping through the channels. You know, if all they care about is high ratings they should scrap production of new episodes and just air re-runs from the late 90s.

Yeah, I've always felt Wrestle War was a distant third to Chi-Town and Clash and never understood why it's considered the best by some.

Big props to Pete for putting this together. 50 shows and the Fabulous Four are just getting started baby!

I don't think Vince Sr in any way held back Graham. The matches against guys like Garea and Larry Z happened mostly in the small towns, where huge matches weren't really needed to draw fans. Otherwise Strongbow and Putski were top faces, and Dusty, Mil and Bruno were magastars. Also, remember the strong support many of these cards had from Bruno, where his match was the real main event and draw, such as the MSG card where Graham took on Putski but the draw was Bruno - Patera in a Texas Death Match. Basically, Graham was red hot at the time, both with the fans and at the box office, so I'm not sure how much hotter he could have been

So you basically hate wrestling

I think you underestimate how appealing it was for fans in the Northeast to see long-time babyface stars challenging for the WWWF title for the first time, after years and years of only heel challengers. Also, fans in the territory were so conditioned to having babyfaces triumph that there was an intrigue to Graham's defenses that had not existed with Bruno. A lot of fans were sure Dusty was going to win, and Mascaras, and Strongbow, and of course Bruno. Even to an extent Putski. And the intrigue was even greater when you factor in the cage setting, where babyfaces NEVER lost. Point is Graham's run was very successful, even if some of the challengers do not look impressive outside of the context of 1977 NYC