Ricky Jackson

I've been away for three weeks and breezed through the topics I missed and all I have to say is that a part of me hopes the Punk/Bryan feud ends with a beard vs beard match. Seriously though, their feud seems fun (the promo segment right now with them, Kane and AJ is plain nutty) and I plan on watching their ppv match tomorrow.

Sounds like an interesting movie. I actually randomly stumbled upon that La Lutte movie mentioned in the article years and years ago on a Canadian cable channel one night. Missed the beginning and never caught the title, and had totally forgotten about it until today, so that's cool. What do you guys think of The Masked Man articles on Grantland? I've read most of them and some are very good, but I sometimes feel he pushes his whole "Reality Era" agenda a bit too much and gives WWE credit for coming up with meta-type narratives that just aren't there.

And according to Cawthon, Jake took time off after the DiBiase injury because of "legal issues dealing with charges of assault", with a "fractured disc in his neck" being the kayfabe excuse (although, didn't Jake suffer a legit neck injury from HTM's guitar shot and suffer life-long repercussions from it?). Jake's return bout didn't air until October 7th.

Don't remember this at all. A rare Mania to Mania feud.

The Jake/DiBiase feud did start in 89, right after Mania V. There was a match between Jake and Virgil on Superstars where Ted "injured" Jake post match, allowing him to take time off for either rehab or to recuperate from injury, maybe both. Jake returned post-Summerslam and the feud was rekindled, with matches at MSG in late 89, Jake being on the Hogan side vs DiBiase's team at Survivor Series, and probably house show matches around the horn. Feud ended, of course, at Mania VI.

And the homage to Race's mustache/sideburns combo.

I'm always glad for people to reevaluate Demolition. http://board.deathvalleydriver.com/index.p...p;hl=demolition or http://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/demolitionproject.htm respectively. And remember, the key is structure: when they gave, when they didn't give, how hot tags never came easy, and how yes, they generally break the wwf heel-in-peril dynamic. Great stuff Matt. Once again I'm blown away by the effort put into wrestling analysis exhibited by the people on this board.

Loved the wacky Wrestling Superstars dream matches. One of my favorite wrestling mag covers ever: Check out Jerry's unloved Pat O'Connor Memorial tag tournament thread for my Wrestling Superstars dream match parody. http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?showtopic=14288

I can remember when the Demos first debuted the Apter mags totally trashed them as being blatant Road Warrior rip-offs and treated them as a complete joke. Even though living in Canada I couldn't see JCP on TV (don't remember watching it on Pro Wrestling Plus, but that was a show I only caught sporadically anyway) and was a huge WWF fan, I totally bought into the pro-NWA propaganda of the Apter mags and held guys like Flair, Luger and the Roadies in mythical regard (The Roadies were always ranked number 1 in the tag team rankings even though they didn't hold any titles, so they had to be awesome!). So I didn't hold the Demos in very high regard at first, and defeating my beloved Strike Force for the straps didn't help my perception, but the face turn sucked me in and made me a fan. They were unique in the sense that they didn't change their style as faces, and they had a good run as fun ass-kickers for a year or more. Their theme music was also very memorable and is one of the more iconic themes of that era. I'm not saying the Demos are an all-time great team, but in the history of WWE they are one of the most fondly remembered, especially by the casual fans I know, and in a kayfabe ranking of the greatest teams in company history they would probably come out on top. I think they definitely carved out their own niche as a solid and super over team after initially being written off as Roadie imposters (Eventually by 1990 even the Apter mags capitulated, printing an article entitled "The Road Warriors: Demolition Rip-Offs?") and probably warrant a career revaluation.

What the hell, I'll fire this puppy back up with: Bob Backlund vs Harley Race, WWF title vs NWA title, 9/22 1980 MSG Just watched this for the first time. Really good match. I'm surprised it doesn't get pimped more often as one of Backlund's better MSG matches. Great crowd heat, no commentary, both guys juice, and yes the finish is weak, but its WWF title vs NWA title, so you know it's not going to end decisively. And for whatever it's worth, nobody could work a headlock spot like Bob. Definitely track this one down if you're a fan of Backlund and/or Race.

OK, so the show reads pretty bad, but Martin is just batshit crazy at some points during the review, including this gem of a quote about the closing segment : So he basically implies tonights crowd were a bunch of idiots for daring to like something he hated. Yeesh. The end bit with him comparing Vince to Al Davis did make me chuckle though. Did they really cut Show's balls off as bad as Martin made it seem?

I didn't see Raw tonight and I haven't even read his review (or any reviews), but the whole "Why I Didn't Like Raw Very Much by Todd Martin" headline on the website made me

I can't see Cena's divorce becoming mainstream news, but who knows. I guess if something really jucy was to come out on a slow news day...

I recently stumbled upon a WWWF TV match from 6/4 1975 between the Blackjacks (w.Albano) and Dominic DeNucci/Victor Rivera while lurking on DVDVR that turns into what must be one of the wildest, crazy-ass Memphis-style brawls a McMahon-owned wrestling company has ever produced in any era. A must see. Here's the write-up from Cawthon's site:

Nope.

For those interested, taken from the Internet Wrestling Database, Meltzer's ratings for the big three from Extreme Rules (I'll spoiler tag them in case anybody with a sub wants to wait until they get the issue)

Yeah, I didn't read it as Meltzer being an apologist for wrestling deaths at all. If anything, he was making a point of how the NFL has a similar problem with premature deaths as wrestling.

I think the story goes Nash basically blackmailed Dixie into letting him go to WWE by threatening to reveal her open-marriage situation, or something like that.

Yeah, what was the deal with this match? Was Tito originally booked against a heel who no-showed, and Koko was just a last-second fill in?

Interesting. I didn't know that. He even teamed with his old nemesis Wahoo a few times, once against the Roadies.

Did Valentine work babyface anywhere else before 91?

The Conquistadors not going over at Survivor Series 88 was one of the worst booking decisions ever AND also the day tag team wrestling died for me.

Yeah, I'm not sure how much of a "push" it was, let alone a WTF were they thinking? moment. (or was it sarcasm, Jerry?) I will say I was surprised when watching the SNME DVD how hot the crowd was for Valentine during the battle royal in 91 where he was the last eliminated.

There will never be a time when long-term WWE booking will satisfy hardcore followers like us. Never. We expect too much from Vince and co. We expect them to deliver filet mignon when they're in the business of selling cheeseburgers to the masses, and always have been and always will be. Lord knows I've bitched about the booking for years. Right now I try and look at things positively (I'm just so tired of being cynical), and when I look back at what WWE was producing around 2009-2010, I think overall things are much better. Remember week after week of celebrity guest hosts? Remember Bret Hart "wrestling" after his return? Remember HHH and Orton fighting in a house or Nexus fizzling out? Things are better now, and have been since the Rock's return last year. Punk and Bryan are major players, and guys like HHH, Orton and Vince have been deemphasized. Sheamus has become a great performer. There have been countless memorable/great matches and PPV's in the last year alone. Hell, even El-P's interested again! It's not perfect, but it's much better than the dreck they served up 2-3 years ago IMO. I may look back at this post in a few months and laugh, but right now I'm still riding the buzz of Extreme Rules and feeling good about WWE.

And 40 pages for the Summer of Punk. Ah, we were so passionate about the WWE back in those days.