Ricky Jackson

The proposed year long build to a Rock/Brock match didn't sound very appealing.

So Meltzer is reporting Rock has gone home and there is chaos backstage this afternoon. Anybody know anything more?

I missed the first three matches and only half-watched Jericho/Fandango. Taker/Punk was really good. It seems I liked HHH/Lesnar more than anybody else around here but it was hurt by the dead crowd. Rock/Cena was better than last year but the finish was as predictable as they come. Considering how underwhelming the last year or so of WWE has been, this is about as good as one would expect Mania to be. The last 4 or 5 Mania's all feel the same to me anyway.

I'm jealous.

The highlights of Backlund's HoF speech read just as crazy as I hoped they would.

Germany has a national wrestling mag similar looking to the French one above, with a lot of the show reviews taken straight from the WON.

Yeah, I had a "didn't someone just recently review this match?" feeling when I wrote this up last night. I was too lazy to check. Honestly, I totally forgot there was even a Bockwinkel thread, let alone a 6 page one that was only started in January.

OK, time for something good. This is prime Savage, not the sad version El-P is subjecting himself to in 1999. Vs. Nick Bockwinkel, 4/15/85, Memphis This is near the end of Savage's run in Memphis and only a couple of months before he joined the WWF. Wild start with Savage attacking Bock before the bell. Savage is out of control and Bock is fired up, and only seconds into the match they are brawling outside the ring. Questions for those more familiar with Memphis history than I: 1) Who was the announcer? It's not Russell. 2) Who was Dutch Newman, Savage's manager? I don't think I've heard of him before. Savage and Bockwinkel are going at it like they are in a heated feud with each other. Were they? This is a total brawl. Savage takes a licking from Bock early, so more signature Savage selling. Savage breaks out his famous foreign-object-in-the-trunks spot and takes control. Even though Bock is the babyface he wrestlers very viciously, and this match is almost like a battle of two heels at times. Man, and no shock to those going through the AWA set, Bock was still really good in 85. And Savage looks every bit the star that would take NYC by storm in a few short months. Eventually interference from Newman leads to Bock being distracted, the ref turns his back to deal with Newman, and Savage nails Bock with the illegal-in-Memphis piledriver for the 1-2-3. This was nice little brawl. Fast-paced, and both men looked good. Finish seemed a little rushed, though. I've liked pretty much everything I've seen of Randy in Memphis, and this was no exception.

If there is zero chance of him turning heel on Sunday, that was a HORRIBLE promo by Cena.

The Varsity Club feud has been rekindled in the Final Four.

I love that they worked a fucking standing ovation. I'm just picturing Vince working everything in his life now. Linda: "You slept like a baby last night, Vince" Vince: "It was a work"

Extra cool points for the Spanish commentary version.

Maybe so, but the potential was still there. Watch the match, Valentine was not a broken down old man in 96.

Another week, another random Randy match... Vs. Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, 7/1/96, WCW Nitro Where to begin? Well, I'm glad I didn't really get my hopes up, that's for sure. This is WCW Nitro, so actual commentary of the match we are watching is of course not a top priority for Tony and Larry Z. Anyway, this is Valentine's first WCW match in 4 years, and he comes to the ring to the Hollywood Blondes old music. This being the go-home show for the legendary 96 Bash at the Beach PPV, Savage comes to the ring wearing Sting's face paint and looking ready for war. Match begins and Valentine looks good, stiff as always. Like against Martel, Savage sells for most of the match. Tony and Larry Z talk about the upcoming PPV, the Outsiders, the impending start of the second hour of Nitro ( which, no joke, Tony hypes as the "most watched hour in the history of our sport"), and basically anything other than the match at hand. Savage takes control just as a countdown clock to the second hour obnoxiously appears on screen, and, what a coincidence, Savage ends things with the elbow just as the clock hits zero and fireworks explode for the start of the second hour. Beneath all the hype and distractions, there was a match, but it wasn't good anyway. Just a quickie TV match, forgotten as soon as it was over. These guys probably had a great match in them at this point, but this was far from the place to have it in. Fuck you, Nitro-era WCW.

Hasn't Dave mentioned in the past that LA TV was available in SF during the 70s? I remember him writing about how there were kayfabe problems in SF when fans could see Lonnie Mayne as a babyface feuding with Piper at the same time he was teaming with him as a heel in LA.

I need to check the Observers from early 93 one of these days to see what Dave wrote about Savage's abrupt shift, other than a few matches here and there, to full-time announcer at that point. I remember being pissed at the time Randy didn't win the Rumble, because he could have faced Bret in a passing of the torch match at Mania IX. His feud with Razor was also never blown off, like Andrews mentioned.

He kind of works the mat during the opening minutes of the Garvin ICW cage match, but yeah, he didn't do it often. If there was more footage of his 70s work there would likely be plenty of examples, especially when you consider he was apparently working 60-90 minute matches with Bobby Eaton at one point.

The only other match between them I could find online is from 1/12/94, taped for Wrestlefest 94 CHV. I haven't watched it.

Let's look at Randy in a tag team setting... Savage/Honky Tonk Man vs Hulk Hogan/Ricky Steamboat, 1/5/87, Meadowlands, NJ This was taped for International Wrestling Challenge, so I'm guessing this wasn't broadcast in North America at the time. Vince and Bruno on commentary. Steamboat and Hogan teaming just seems wrong for some reason. Savage and Honky together is pretty weird too. Savage tosses a chair into the ring that hits the ref and knocks him down before the match even starts, which establishes the mood for this match, which I would call "un-WWF like" for lack of a better term. The crowd is super hot for this one. Early on, Hogan forces Honky to tag in Savage, but Savage just runs outside, stalls, and then tags Honky back in without ever doing anything in the ring. The Savage/Steamboat feud is only incidentally referred to during this match and the big injury angle isn't mentioned at all. The crowd is just rabid for Hogan and anything he does. Savage is great throughout working on the apron, engaging the crowd and doing stuff to get heat, while Honky does all the in-ring work. Finally, more than halfway through the match, Savage officially gets involved, but only briefly before tagging back out. At one point Vince states "Savage is everywhere", and it's true, as Savage is running around outside, interfering, cheating, being a shit disturber. Hot tag to Hogan and he cleans house. He tags Steamboat back in and we finally get a one-on-one confrontation between him and Savage as the crowd goes crazy. Things break down--as Hogan and Honky brawl outside, Savage gets the bell from ringside, but Steamboat gains possession of it, leading to Savage and Liz bailing on the match. Hogan and Steamboat beat up Honky and Jimmy Hart in the ring, and the match just ends with no bell because there was no bell to ring anymore. Ref rules Hogan and Steamboat winners by DQ. This was a fun little match, marred by your typical 80s WWF shitty non-finish. Savage played the chickenshit heel pretty well and the crowd ate it up. The match had a bit of a chaotic, Memphis/Southern feel to it, which I think Savage often tended to bring to his early WWF work.

Fun show guys. Thanks for reminding me about this:

Thanks a lot, Chad.

I really liked the video for Rock-Cena. The Booker T HoF video was good. I'm looking forward to Team Hell No vs Ziggy and Biggie. I was only half watching as usual, but I would say the show was more mediocre than outright bad.

God, I heard the Andre movie was bad, but holy shit that trailer... I'm going to watch that SNME Andre/Hogan vs Studd/Bundy match Dave mentioned right now.

Episode 2 is now up on the wordpress site. WARNING: NON-WRESTLING EPISODE http://fringescholars.wordpress.com/ In this episode the Fringe Scholars enter some hardcore nerd territory, as my colleague Moss raps about his love for fantasy role-playing games, like Dungeons & Dragons. I mostly mumble and giggle my way through the episode, but I think Moss provides a fairly interesting look at the history, concept and appeal of role-playing games. Next time, around April 15th or thereabouts, wrestling-talk returns to the Fringe Scholars, as my planned ongoing exploration of alternatives to WWE/mainstream wrestling begins with a look at (mostly historical) Japanese wrestling.

The WWF didn't draw very well in the South as a whole in the 80s, so the NO numbers shouldn't be looked at necessarily as proof of the oil glut hurting business.