Ricky Jackson

Mania VIII actually didn't sell out, was heavily papered, and is considered by the WWE to be one of their biggest letdowns. It did 360,000 buys, lower than the previous five Mania's and also the next two (Mania IX--430,000, Mania X--420,000). Mania XI did 340,000 buys, so only 20,000 less.

Yeah, I wasn't sure about the equals part either, that is why I added the "/Shine" segment. I think there are examples of matches starting with equals, probably a lot of them, but I can't pull one off the top of my head right now. It is/was maybe used more in babyface vs babyface "scientific" matches.

Just like old times.

I believe all he said when asked his thoughts on working a match was "equals, heel heat, hope spots, finish".

I had a hunch you and Moss might have a lot in common. He has a collection of board games to rival your own. One of the highlights of his life was working in a board game store in Australia for a year. I also love the comic book posters on your wall. I remember having a copy of that Detective Comics issue when I was a kid. I meant to mention the Fringe Scholars when we did the Bash 89 show but I totally forgot. Maybe some day we can do a crossover show. The four segments of a match thing was inspired by a friend in Victoria, BC who used to teach a class at the University of Victoria called "Pro Wrestling as Theatre" (I met him when I attended the class in 07) and how he, as I remember, outlined a basic babyface vs heel match. Basically it goes 1) Equals/Shine 2) Heel Heat 3) Hope Spots 4) Finish. I think he took it from what Jimmy Snuka once said when asked about working a match. Or maybe I took it from Snuka, I can't remember anymore. Thanks for listening, man.

Brown was also pretty bad in late-80s Stampede from what I remember.

Let the glut of the podcast market continue unabated! So I've started a podcast with my friend Moss called the Fringe Scholars. Moss actually deserves most of the credit--all I do is blather about wrestling, he does most of the leg work. Anyway, the concept is two over-educated, under-employed guys talking about neglected forms of pop culture. Mostly nerdy stuff, but we're mostly nerds, so it makes sense. On our show, I am (surprise!) the wrestling guy, Moss is the games/literature guy. We've recorded two episodes, but only the first has been posted so far. In the first episode I discuss just what this crazy professional wrestling thing is exactly and probably talk about Bret Hart too much for the liking of many on this board. Because the idea behind this podcast is for us to be "teachers" (Moss actually is, I'm looking for work in the field), I approach the wrestling side of things as though I'm talking to an audience made up of non-fans, or at least non-crazy ass obsessed fans like us. Give it a listen. It's only about 40 minutes long and is really well-produced by Moss. I plan on establishing the fundamentals of wrestling in early episodes, then explore more of the historical and international aspects of wrestling (that is, non-WWE stuff) in the future. The plan is to alternate episodes between my journey through the wonderful world of wrestling and Moss' look at games and literature. There will likely be lengthy discussions on comic books at some point. The next episode features Moss explaining D & D while I pretend to be interested . Our blog with the first episode and some supplemental bits is here http://fringescholars.wordpress.com/ Our Facebook page is here https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Fringe-S...405371989549325 Enjoy. Any and all feedback is appreciated.

I'll second the Sheamus match from Extreme Rules.

Cena's 'rana was botched, but that was a pretty good match. I agree there was little selling. That was the type of match Punk should have lost the title in, with guys busting out power bombs and piledrivers and shit.

Just watched this match last week based on Parv's recommendation, and yeah, it's really, really good. Matt summed up the whole multiple stories going on aspect pretty well. Awesome. A really underrated classic tag match.

vs Owen Hart, Mania X.

Now that you mention it, cutting the play by play of matches is a good idea and probably the best way to streamline the show down to the essentials.

Great stuff, El Boricua. I've been working my way through this feud lately, but boy did I screw things up based on blindly guessing the order of the matches.

I'll second the tag match vs the Rockers from Mania VII.

1. Clash 6--The extra time allows this match to hit another level that puts it slightly ahead of the other two. 2. Chi-Town--Great, great match, with the feel good ending of Steamboat finally winning the big belt. 3. Wrestle War--For me, less memorable than the other two for some reason, but still amazing.

Quick question: I've been slowly working my way through the Hansen/Colon feud. I've watched the 86 matches. There are three 87 matches--a regular match, this Bullrope match, and a Cage match. Which is the blow-off? The Bullrope or the Cage?

You could start with this one http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?showtopic=11633

The title change was on All-Star Wrestling, taped in London, Ontario 9/24/84, aired 10/13/84. Short match with Tito selling the knee injury from the outset. The 8/25/84 match at MSG is where the knee was injured. The 1/21/85 MSG match is very good and the 3/17/85 Lumberjack match is fun. Actually, you should watch the whole History of the IC title CHV from that link if you have the time. It tells a good story of the Valentine-Santana feud, has the clips of the Santana-Muraco title change, and the story of the earlier Muraco-Morales IC feud is pretty good as well.

Fucked up the post. Read the next one.

Well, off comes the mask... I'm Kelly, 35, born in Saskatchewan, raised in Calgary, live in Vancouver. Stumbled upon wrestling during the hype for Mania 2 and within months I was pretty hardcore for a 8-9 year old, watching everything I could (WWF, Stampede, AWA), collecting the mags and LJN WWF dolls, and proudly wearing a Roddy Piper shirt around school. My favorite time as a wrestling fan was the early-90s when I was in high school and wrestling was extremely uncool, but me and my closest friends still loved it. We went to a bowling alley/casino (the Silver Dollar Action Centre) to watch WWF PPVs on closed circuit, attended local shows together (Rocky Mountain Wrestling), and had a backyard wrestling thing going on (I was "Mr. Excellence" Ricky Jackson). Late-90s I followed WWF and WCW of course, but also bought several ECW tapes from RF. By 2001 I was pretty much done with wrestling. Got back into it in 2005 when I moved to the west coast and fell into the habit of watching Raw with my roommate. Around 2007 I started getting into the history of wrestling pretty heavy, became friends with a guy who had a sub to the Observer, and started to watch old Japan and lots of territory stuff. Discovered PWO totally by accident--I was reading a review of a random 93 WCW PPV on the 411 site, a poster in the comments section mentioned this site, I checked it out, and I instantly gave my wife another reason to bitch about me wasting time on wrestling. I was raised a WWF guy, but I'm into all sorts of wrestling, mostly pre-90s stuff. Love Memphis, old Japan, and anything from the 70s and early 80s. There is tons of stuff I plan on watching, but I often find it hard to motivate myself to watch a substantial amount of wrestling alone. I love watching wrestling with fellow fans and other people, and right now I only know one other wrestling fan where I live, and I only see him once in a blue moon these days. I do have a plan to really commit myself to watching a lot of the pimped stuff from this board and other stuff like 1970s Portland, starting today actually. This board is really fun and very humbling. In "real life" I've always been the wrestling expert, the biggest fan in any group. Here, I'm just another guy who has watched a lot of WWF. Favorite wrestlers: Savage, Flair, Bret Hart (just because I'm Canadian ), Steamboat, Santana, Piper, Backlund, Dusty Rhodes, Lawler, Jake Roberts and many others.

Now that's surprising. I though you hated Kroffat. But yeah, Kroffat would be in my top 10 for sure. I'm guessing you guys mean Phil LaFon and not the 1970s Stampede babyface with the same name. Too bad there is next to no footage of John Tolos in his prime to judge how good he was as a heel.

After all these years, I still vividly remember Martel selling the pain from Fuji throwing salt in his eyes from the match where him and Garea lose the belts on the old history of the tag team championship CHV. As a kid, his sell job scared the shit out of me and I was convinced he was legit blinded. Here it is

I've always been a Martel fan, in all his incarnations. The "Model" is one of my all-time favorite heel characters.

There is just something about Santino that appeals to women. In all the years my wife has put up with me watching wrestling in her presence, Santino and Carlito are the only guys she has cared about.

Yep. It was a standing ovation, and I don't think they anticipated that reaction because they cut away pretty quickly. The roof is going to blow off MSG when he walks on the stage.