Ricky Jackson

That is one of my all time favorite wrestling segments as well.

My interest in wrestling, new or old, has been hanging on by a thread lately, but the last hour of tonight's Raw provided a spark.

Hey! Just joking. I like Eadie, but he's not a guy I'll defend to the death or anything. Definitely better than Darsow, though.

And Bruno vs Larry Z was a pretty intense feud. Don't forget Tito vs Greg.

Objectively, yes, Flair was the better all around performer. Many of you may not agree with this, but one of the ways I judge how "great" a performer a wrestler was is by observing how non-fans respond to them. During a period when I routinely subjected a group of friends, all of the non/very casual fan variety, to wrestling, a few wrestlers stood out from the pack in their eyes. Randy Savage was definitely one. So were Hogan and the Rock. Flair, however, probably garnered the strongest response from them, especially for his promos. That said, Bret's matches sucked them in as much as anybody. But if I had took a vote with them asking who they liked the most, Flair probably would have won. Even my wife, who has zero interest in wrestling, occasionally marks out for classic Flair (Santino was her favorite wrestler, so I'm not sure what importance any of my non-fan observation criteria for judging wrestlers holds). Anyway, I love Flair. I love Bret. Savage is likely the only guy I would rate above them, and it's very close. I chose Bret out of a vague feeling of loyalty. Whatever, this thread wouldn't be much fun if we all voted for Flair and weren't swearing at each other and setting up camps preparing for a civil war.

I think the stereotypical workrate and movez are king/"Hogan was a shitty worker"/anything pre-94 was boring attitude is still dominant in most hardcore circles.

I suggested Summerslam 89 as one of the WWF's best shows in my first post, but I don't have time for a full match by match breakdown. The highlighted matches, depending on your appreciaiton of 80s WWF, range from good to great IMO, and five is more than you usually got from a WWF PPV during an era with a lot of short matches and crap finishes. The crowd is mostly hot throughout, as I mentioned before. Just a really fun show...but likely not on par with all your Dreamslams and Egg shows and what not. *WWF Tag Team Champions Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard (w/ Bobby Heenan) defeated Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart in a non-title match at 16:23 when Anderson, the illegal man, pinned Hart after Anderson hit a double axe handle off the top on Hart behind the referee's back as Hart had Blanchard covered Dusty Rhodes pinned the Honkytonk Man (w/ Jimmy Hart) at 9:36 with the Bionic Elbow after Hart accidentally hit Honky over the head with the guitar Mr. Perfect pinned the Red Rooster with the Perfect Plex at 3:21 as Rooster attempted to climb back inside the ring; late in the bout, it appeared as if Rooster suffered a knee injury *Rick Martel (w/ Slick), Jacques & Raymond Rougeau (w/ Jimmy Hart) defeated Tito Santana, Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty at 14:58 when Martel pinned Jannetty with a clothesline as Jannetty had one of the Rougeaus covered with a roll over; twice during the live telecast, the Rougeaus' music was accidentally played during the match, thus giving away the finish *The Ultimate Warrior pinned WWF IC Champion Rick Rude (w/ Bobby Heenan) to win the title at 16:02 with a back suplex and splash after Roddy Piper mooned the champion from ringside *King Jim Duggan & Demolition defeated Andre the Giant (w/ Bobby Heenan), the Big Bossman, & Akeem (w/ Slick) at 7:26 when Smash pinned Akeem after Duggan hit Akeem over the back with his 2x4 as Akeem had Smash covered following a splash from the middle turnbuckle; Bobby Heenan was introduced as being in Andre's corner but did not appear ringside until after the match began; Duggan wore one of Demolition's face masks for their ring entrance, had his face painted like the American flag, and had his 2x4 wrapped in the flag Greg Valentine (w/ Jimmy Hart) pinned Hercules with both feet on the ropes for leverage at 3:06; prior to the bout, Ron Garvin was introduced as the guest ring announcer for the match, with Garvin insulting both Valentine and Hart during their entrance; following the bout, Garvin announced Hercules as the winner until he was corrected by the referee, with Garvin then saying Hercules was the winner by disqualification; moments later, Valentine knocked Garvin to the floor and brawled with Hercules until Garvin climbed back in the ring and knocked Valentine to the floor with a punch Ted Dibiase (w/ Virgil) defeated Jimmy Snuka via count-out at 6:26 when Dibiase threw Snuka into the ringpost after Snuka became distracted by Virgil on the floor; following his introduction, Dibiase took the mic and bragged about ending Jake Roberts' career; after the contest, Snuka knocked Dibiase to the floor, assaulted Virgil, and hit the splash off the top *WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan & Brutus Beefcake (w/ Miss Elizabeth) defeated Randy Savage (w/ Sensational Sherri) & Zeus at 15:04 when Hogan pinned Zeus with a body slam and legdrop after hitting him with Sherri's loaded purse; prior to the ring introductions, the Genius read a poem in the ring in which he predicted Savage & Zeus to win; after Hogan & Beefcake's entrances, Hogan whispered something in Howard Finkel's ear, with Finkel then introducing Miss Elizabeth to be in Hogan & Beefcake's corner; after the match, Beefcake cut some of Sherri's hair

Yep, but in Kev's mind it was a couple weeks later, maybe a month tops. He told the same bullshit story on the Legends of Wrestling NWO episode.

I believe any and all Nash bullshit is allowed.

Clean without Kozlov using his finisher on a random Smackdown, wasn't it? One of the more surprising jobs that I can ever recall.

So is "know it alls" the pc WWE term for "virgins in their parents basement"?

I could watch the original, all tag team Survivor Series shows any day of the week. 89 is maybe my favorite, but I love 90 as well.

I ripped it from Chico's fb page.

From today's update: Besides the joke you could make about Dave possibly not knowing Fred Flintstone is a cartoon character based on the way he phrases that sentence, I really wish I could have been in the meeting where Post executives debated Fred's lack of coolness and praised Cena's relevancy with the youth of America.

Survivor Series 96 is kind of underrated as an historically important show. One could say it was the final nail in the coffin of the New Generation with the MSG crowd turning on Michaels, along with Austin having a big night and the Rock debuting foreshadowing the Attitude Era.

Not talked about as much as some, but Summerslam 89 (super hot crowd and really fun matches) and Royal Rumble 91 (great undercard and pretty fun Rumble) are two of the best WWF shows IMO.

I was thinking of writing some sort of pro-Bret post, but I'm lazy, so I'll just piggy back this. Bret's more or less my Home Team.

I really wish I didn't read that.

Loved the musical tribute for Tully at the end.

Brody was already being mythologized by the Apter mags well before his death and the Meltzer bio as a special type of performer. Brody pictures were all over the mags and he was the favorite wrestler of heel columnist Eddie Ellner (who I thought was a worked writer like Matt Brock for some reason, but then there is this http://www.layogamagazine.com/issue43/depa...ddie_ellner.htm). The wrestling mags had a lot of influence back then.

I agree with a lot of the choices already discussed, so I'll throw out some names that haven't been mentioned. A lot of this is wishful thinking, since the footage is sparse: The Destroyer Really love what I've seen of his work. Dictionary definition perfect heel and mat wrestler. I love guys like this who wrestle a style that is all but extinct, on a mainstream North American level anyway. Also love the old school masked guys. Kendo Nagasaki That BBC doc on British wrestling really got me excited about this guy. I'm just a big fan of the whole mystery and living the gimmick side of him and need to track down some of his work. Johnny Valentine Similar to the Destroyer, as I'm intrigued by the old school style of work. I'm sure some of his legend has been exaggerated, but whatever. I love the idea of a guy working a match that at first bores the shit out of the crowd with lengthy holds and such, but by the end he has basically willed them to believe he is legit and the toughest motherfucker around. Dutch Savage Not sure what exists of his prime years, but that PBS Portland doc from the 70s made him look like a Clint Eastwood-type tough as nails, badass man's man defending the wilds of the Northwest from scum like Bull Ramos and the Iron Sheik. And I love how his specialty was the Coal Miner's Glove Match. Damien Sandow I'll throw out some love for a new WWE guy who captures the spirit of the old days. I've been almost totally off WWE for months now, but I've decided to keep my eye on a few of the new guys they're pushing lately, and Sandow is my fave of the bunch. Just a great breath of fresh air from what I've seen of him, and I need to see more.

Oh, and I'm also on board with Johnny's dislike of post Mania III Roddy Piper. As much as I love the guy for his 70s-1987 work (as in top ten all-time for me), I can't stand his later stuff, especially his babyface commentary.

For the longest time WWF/WCW era Jim Duggan was the wrestler I disliked--hated actually--more than any other. Probably still do. Does anyone here find him appealing? I'm not sure if this should technically count, but I generally hate the McMahon family as performers, even Vince. Their takeover of WWF TV in the late-90s played a big part in my losing interest in wrestling for a long time.

I had no idea Nagasaki's career story was so interesting until I watched the doc.