Ricky Jackson

1.You can't look at Graham's reign through modern eyes as someone who was pushed to the title and was expected to be the face of the company but was undone by "bad booking". 6-7 months before he beat Bruno, Graham was told exactly when he would win the strap and exactly when he would lose it and who he would lose it to. He was never meant to have an extended run with the belt. Backlund going over on Feb 20 1978 in MSG was the plan, set in stone, 1 1/2 years before. Vince Sr wanted Bob to be truly over and accepted by the fans as the potential next big champ when the switch went down and figured it would take a year plus for that to happen organically (Bob debuted in the territory Dec 76) 2. Each major town in the territory had its own schedule as far as when programs were run. The TV in each town promoted different matches and feuds at different times. So Baltimore was its own universe, NYC its own, Boston, Philly, etc. The rematch in Baltimore was just the rematch in Baltimore, not the territory - wide rematch. Each town had its own cycle of Bruno - Graham matches that existed independently of each other

Awesome

Has Sasha Banks wrestled since the 5/20 show?

Classic, ridiculous bump by Dick Woehrle in this match between Greg Valentine and Chief Jay Strongbow where Strongbow's leg is broken

Regarding a question brought up on the show, I believe Flair has claimed the reason his first NWA title win happened in KC was because Dusty didn't want to drop the strap in a city where he was a big draw, like St. Louis, Atlanta etc.

They showed matches from several territories on the show when it first started. Basically Vince wanted to get guys like JYD, Windham, etc over with his audience because he planned on snatching them up.

Good Charlotte...I'd forgotten all about that crappy band until this godforsaken thread.

Vancouver territory sucked pretty hard in the 80s

Not only are there two separate John Cena threads on the go (and I think there is a third, Jaaawn Cena, kicking around) but the last posts for each happened at exactly 12pm today. Creepy

Thanks for the praise man. The next show will finally conclude 1981 and then the plan is to plow through 82

A few reasons why I don't do star ratings... 1.Star ratings symbolize for me the whole opinion that the only thing about wrestling that matters is watching "great" matches with a high volume of work rate. That's a generalization of course but there is a Cult of the Great Match that exists where lot of great pro wrestling is simply discounted because it's not a four star or higher match 2. I'm too lazy to think about it and come up with a criteria for ratings And I don't love everything, but I do like to talk about wrestling I love and not wrestling I hate, so it may seem that way I guess

Is that enough to get a blurb in your column this week? ☺

Haha. ..yeah I've done that twice now. I've never claimed to be a genius, just a wrestling genius

But Baba himself had two quickie NWA title reigns. Likely, the real reason is that Dusty aligned himself with Inoki and New Japan at a time when the wrestling war in Japan was quite hot

If you haven't seen them before check out his WWWF promos from 77-78 on the Dusty WWE DVD immediately. If that Dusty turned up in WWE today he would be the most over guy on the roster within days of his debut

Think of it as an hour long Dick and Kal match and it will much more enjoyable

Actually I think that run with Graham in the AWA happened after his Florida turn but not long after, maybe 6 months.

Horrible loss for wrestling. One of the greatest ever. RIP

It's called "phoning it in"

Seconded

This is the French Angel from the footage http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=6269&page=20

http://placetobenation.com/tag-teams-back-again-episode-6-special-edition-tommy-rogers-tribute/ Guest host Pete joins Marty for a salute to Tommy Rogers, who recently passed away. Rogers was one-half of the legendary Fantastics tag team with Bobby Fulton. Pete and Marty examine four matches from their canon, spanning multiple territories and countries. The Fantastics vs Chavo and Hector Guerrero 10/12/84 Mid South The Fantastics vs The Midnight Express 1/11/85 WCCW The Fantastics vs Eddie Gilbert and Ron Simmons 12/7/88 WCW The Fantastics vs Footloose 1/3/90 All-Japan vs Footloose https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_cyzdz8vXQ vs Simmons/Gilbert http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xuhjph_fantastics-vs-ron-simmons-and-eddie-gilbert_sport

Money's in the chase to beat the best

Touring NWA champ baby

Superdome