Ricky Jackson

Awesome. Thanks for sharing. This is a great doc

They have built somebody, in their minds anyway. Reigns. He's going over at Mania. No alternatives.

The Legend of Java Ruuk, Part 2 The next chapter in the Ruuk story takes place in Los Angeles in 1976. The first result I have for Ruuk in Mike LaBelle's California territory is 1/6 in San Diego, defeating Tony Rocco. The next night, he wrestled at the legendary Olympic Auditorium for the first time. Nine days later came perhaps the biggest moment of Rodriguez's career, at least from a kayfabe standpoint. On 1/16 at the Olympic Auditorium, Ruuk won the prestigious annual battle royal. At this time, the Los Angeles battle royal was one the most hyped matches of the year, not just in LA, but also nationally in the magazines. Previous winners included Rocky Johnson, Bruno Sammartino, Victor Rivera, and Andre the Giant. I thought there was footage of this battle royal on You Tube, as there is a video listed as "1976 Los Angeles Battle Royal - Andre the Giant, Java Ruuk". Alas, after watching and being confused by the finish where it was clear a fiery babyface appeared to win before the footage cut off, a little research revealed that the video is actually of the 1974 battle royal, not 1976. (The fiery babyface was Victor Rivera, and he actually didn't win - Black Gordman did after blindsiding Rivera with a chair and tossing him out) Winning the battle royal would seem to indicate big things were planned for Ruuk, but looking at the results, he lost the next week at the Olympic, and after a 2/10 result in San Diego he is absent from the territory for three months. However, during this short initial stay in LA Ruuk did play a significant role in the emergence of one of the all-time greats of wrestling. Roddy Piper, heretofore mostly used as a JTTS in the AWA and Texas, among other places, arrived in LA around the same time as Ruuk. I'm not sure of the exact story, but a popular version, and the one told by Piper and fans from the time, is that he debuted in the territory as a babyface JTTS. Shortly after, booker Leo Garibaldi decided to turn Piper heel and give him a push. To do so, he booked Piper to be absolutely destroyed by Ruuk on TV. The next week, Piper came out as Ruuk's manager, explaining if he couldn't beat him he would join him. He would tag with Ruuk often as well. From this point on, Piper of course got over huge as a heel in LA, and would do so in every subsequent territory he wrestled in, on his way to a HoF career. Based on the image of the program I posted previously, I'm guessing they ran an angle where Ruuk was suspended in February and that suspension was lifted in May. Clawmaster's results on the wonderful Sports & Wrestling site http://sportsandwrestling.mywowbb.com/forum2/14053.html have Ruuk wrestling in May and nothing further. Again, there seems to be a missing piece to the Ruuk puzzle. I did stumble upon an interesting piece of history from this time though, a Village Voice review of LA wrestling by Richard Meltzer, Dave's rock critic uncle, from May 17, 1976. https://classicwrestlingarticles.wordpress.com/2014/06/14/this-may-be-the-nadir-but/#more-4661 (My fellow Titans Parv and Pete will likely get a kick out of his scathing opinion of 1976 WWWF) However, Ruuk did return to LA for one last run in 1978. Online records from this time are sparse. Ruuk did resume his partnership with Piper and was involved in his lengthy and legendary feud with Chavo Guerrero. Here is the only footage of Ruuk from LA I could find online, from his 78 run: I have no idea how long Ruuk's 78 LA run lasted. Clawmaster has him losing a loser leaves town match to Piper on 9/21 in Bakersfield, CA, so it appears he was turned babyface near the end of his run. This was not the end of Ruuk though. He had one last run in him, in Montreal in 1980. Next time I will attempt to document this run, which may prove difficult because of lack of resources. One thing is for sure about this run though...the Unpredictable One gets to wear gold!

If I don't win Brainbuster on Saturday I'll take off my mask and throw $1000 into the crowd

El-P, you really have turned the negative review into an art form. Seriously, I'm not being sarcastic, you're the master. Still, I don't care how bad this show may have been. I was stuck at an Oscar party with no free Wi-Fi, so I couldn't watch FastLane on my phone. No way in hell was it a worse experience than having to sit through that horrible 3 1/2 hour long piece of shit.

Amazing sentence

Technically, half brother

Loved the angle with Rogers and the Graham face turn

The only battle Sleeze and Grimmas will be having is for the right to finish in second place behind me

Sleeze's bragging rights will be short lived, because I'm taking the title in ep 2

Dailymotion in 3 parts

Fantastic work, WH

Thread of the year

Tag Teams Back Again http://placetobenation.com/titans-xtra-tag-teams-back-again/ Join Kelly and Marty Sleeze as they begin an ongoing exploration of classic tag team wrestling, commencing with 1985 WWF. Matches discussed on the show: The US Express vs The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff 5/20/85 MSG The US Express and George Steele vs Adrian Adonis, "Big" John Studd and Bobby "the Brain" Heenan 6/21/85 MSG Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake (the Dream Team) vs Tito Santana and Ricky Steamboat 4/21/85 MLG The Dream Team vs The US Express 8/24/85 Spectrum The Dream Team vs Tito Santana and Pedro Morales 11/25/85 MSG The Dream Team vs the Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff 12/17/85 Poughkeepsie, NY *Apologies for the echoing audio during the middle portion*

Thanks for the kind words man

Probably the Fabulous Kangaroos or possibly the Medics

Ok, I'm now leaning towards troll rather than moron, but who the fuck knows

http://placetobenation.com/titans-of-wrestling-43-black-history-month-on-the-wwe-network/ Parv is busy juggling the birds, so join the Three Wise Men of Wrestling Podcasting as they examine Black History Month footage from the WWE Network. Three Hall of Fame features are examined: Bobo Brazil, Ernie Ladd and Tony Atlas. *Bonus BRAINBUSTER! trivia, sponsored by the man of the hour, Johnny Sorrow* -Who had an incredibly boring match with Bruiser Brody at MSG in 1976? -Who cuts an absolutely amazing promo on WWWF TV? -Who wrestled in a Superman outfit at a Texas rodeo? All will be answered on Titans of Wrestling #43!!!

WWF's o-line has some serious beef on it. Great stuff

Bruno would never induct that Judas Frankenstein

Shit, well you better call Vince up and tell him to reverse the decision

I don't watch much WWE and based on what I've seen I was actually under the assumption New Day were supposed to be insincere heels until reading this thread

VI had the bigger gate

Outstanding. Can someone book a fantasy reaction show to this Raw?

That may happen someday, but first I'm going to triumph over you and Marty on the next show