Ricky Jackson

A month late, but yeah, I dug Future Imperfect back when I read it years ago. A long term Perez-David run on Hulk would've been great. Speaking of ol' Greenskin, Hulk: Grand Design by Jim Rugg is coming out at the end of the month and I'm hyped for it. Very much enjoyed the previous Grand Design entries, X Men by Ed Piskor and FF by Tom Scioli. FYI, the three have a YouTube channel called Cartoonist Kayfabe that often reviews old school comics and is really cool https://youtube.com/c/CartoonistKayfabe I enjoyed Thanos Quest but still haven't pulled the trigger on Infinity Gauntlet for whatever reason, even though I've read all the other Starlin cosmic stuff. Got to finally get around to that. As far as my personal reading goes, I finally finished Tomb of Dracula a few days ago. The series rallied for the final 5 or so issues and delivered a fairly satisfying conclusion, considering the series was (I think) abruptly canceled and Wolfman had to tie things up quickly. Overall, a really good series, well deserving of its reputation as an all time classic. The peak was from about 15-45, with good stuff on both sides, but the early stuff is inconsistent and the later stuff loses its focus imo. Otherwise still plugging along with Dick Tracy, 50s Batman, EC New Direction and 70s Kirby (currently Black Panther, which is fun so far). Clearly nothing too deep or serious, I need an escape from the bleak modern world

Actually had a very solid run in multiple territories from 82-87, capped with the major peak of his WWF run. His WCCW stint in 82-83 really showcases his versatility, working babyface, heel, singles, tags, and doing promos and vignettes. Really surprised he wasn't nominated last time

Some of the super heated matches he had during the first few months of his reign, when fans were super pissed this dork of all people was now IC champ, are quite fun to watch. I'm specifically thinking vs Savage and Steamboat from MSG in the second half of 87

If WWE has any sense of humor at all, Cody will debut wearing the polka dots. Then he would dramatically rip them off to reveal some new gaudy American flag inspired trunks or something

It makes sense if he is able to get top guy money and a top guy spot out of this, since that is basically why he left in the first place. He couldn't get that from WWE in 2016, and this is probably his last best chance. WWE would be dumb not to treat his comeback like a huge deal if they care anything about being relevant in 2022, but this is WWE in 2022, so seems like there is a better chance he'll be an afterthought by the end of the year. Make ridiculous money and then either retire or go back to AEW in a few years

Well, I guess Stone Cold could be wrestling for the first time in 19 years vs KO at Mania?

Other than the feud with Austin (and even that went on way past the point of being entertaining TV), once "McMahon" became more than just the name of one of the announcers, and the family was constantly on TV in greater to lesser degrees (and expanded to include HHH), it has been an ongoing struggle for "quality" to emerge from a WWE that mostly caters to the whims of the boss. And this has gotten really bad in the last 4-5 years imo, to the point of WWE being completely devoid of anything redeeming (sorry bubba, even the Big Dog doesn't do it for me)

Shane being exposed as the fraud he's been since day 1 always makes me happy

Roode's match with Roddy Strong from July 2017 was excellent, one of my all-time fave NXT matches. May not have as much impact in a vacuum, as it was part of a quest for the NXT title storyline for Strong that had played out on TV for several weeks. Still, definitely worth checking out. In general, I enjoyed Roode's NXT run. Can't say I've seen much more of him over the years other than TNA circa 2005-2008 or so

Heading into the home stretch with Tomb. This Dracula and the Satan cult/Dracula getting married and having a baby story has gone on for a long time. Title has lost some steam since around 50. Hoping the last dozen issues end things on a high note. Finished a 50 issue run of 70s FF (103-154). This was up and down the whole way, finishing on a down note with Thundra's long awaited (by me anyway) origin story being, imo, a drawn out 3 issue dud. This was far from Gerry Conway's best stuff, which is funny because at the same time he was writing a pretty good stretch of ASM. Oh well. I fell in love with the Medusa character (running around in basically a bathing suit and with all that red hair, what can I say) after all these years, so it wasn't a total loss. Still buying and reading a bunch of Dick Tracy, going through New Direction EC (currently Piracy, next Aces High) and other bits here and there. Going to start scratching a Batman itch next week with the new Batman in the Fifties trade

Honestly, Cena will probably play the same type of character forever just like the Rock, but right now he's fun to watch (he was pretty much born to play a superhero) and, yeah, Peacemaker has been a blast so far

If anyone is still interested... https://www.f4wonline.com/other-wrestling/nwa-launches-all-access-fite-pass-new-ppvs-power-back-youtube-364696

Piper sounded more Canadian than Bob and Doug McKenzie

I'm pretty sure the website is just down temporarily. They're still releasing pods regularly

Happy New Year PWO! If anyone is bored, hungover on the couch, or have nothing better to do, join me and some of the boys on Twitch at 1pm Pacific time for a live watch of the 1974 version of The Wrestler. We'll also watch some mid 70s AWA afterwards https://www.twitch.tv/jarviswashingmachine?sr=a

Yeah, it must've been ICW. It fits geographically and they had TV

Yeah, that's the thing. I cant figure out where it would've fit in. Maybe some short lived indy in the Northeast?

Hogan in 1980 more than held up his end in long title matches with Backlund from Philly. A 1984 version would've been very interesting and probably pretty good imo. Speaking of Skaaland going heel on Bob with the towel finish, I remember reading about something in, I think, the update section in the back of an issue of PWI around 1989 involving Bob and Sheik doing a televised angle somewhere where Sheik told Bob that Skaaland had been paid off to throw in the towel. I have no idea where this took place, but I'm pretty sure it happened somewhere and wasn't just a magazine angle even though I've never seen it. Anyone have any clue about this?

Cool. Yeah, they had the finish/last minute or so on WWE.com (I think?) at one point years ago and it seemed like the end of a hot match

Any early reviews of Backlund vs Koloff from 4/83?

I'm not a fan of the finish (see also Backlund vs Valentine from 3/79 MSG) but the idea is that back then the ref slapping the back of the winner after the count was common, so it "makes sense" that a wrestler could be fooled into thinking the 3 count had been made. Again, I don't like it as a finish either, but I at least get the psychology

I often look at PWO as grad school for my wrestling fandom. I randomly stumbled upon this board around 11 years ago and remember thinking within a few days that I had found a special place. One with not only like-minded (i.e. territory era) fans, but like-minded fans interested in reexamining sacred truths and pimping wrestlers and matches that were often overlooked. By 2010 I was down to mostly watching 70s and 80s wrestling and reading a bunch of history books and Meltzer bios. I thought I was the only one LOL. Fuck, was I wrong. Finding a place with a bunch of old school geeks like me kicked my fandom into another level. I learned a ton about wrestling history from a lot of posters here. I became friends with a lot of posters here, mostly through the podcasting craze that exploded around 2012/13. Yeah, things have changed, tastes have changed, and posters have come and gone. I'm pretty much done with podcasting and rarely watch wrestling or read histories anymore. Big time burnout last year, but don't worry, I just focused my geek energy on something different, as those following the comics thread know. Im not sure if I ever got my PhD, but I still hang out on campus everyday. I like the people here. Long live PWO

I know things are really really really bad creatively, but surely they can come up with something better than that

Feb 89 was the last televised Spectrum show. Graham was there the whole way, and in a cool touch, Kal joined him for 3 or so matches on the final card

Yeah, Gorilla and Mean Gene are a crazy underrated team. A lot of folks dont like them because it was two babyface announcers but I love the pairing. Helps they were commentating those 84-85 MSG shows that were full of hot matches and with a buzz in the air because of the rise of Rock N' Wrestling and sudden mainstream attention. Damn, I knew I should've created a thread for Kal