Ricky Jackson

I'm now fairly certain that when we look back on John Cena's career in ten or twenty years this feud with Kane will be considered his most embarrassing low point.

If any promoter was Beane it was Heyman.

The only thing I've seen of Ring Ka King is an angle involving Chavo Jr. A friend of mine likes the show, and it seems to be the trendy "I liked it first" fed of the moment. Good production values, basically a slightly better-looking Impact. Jeff Jarrett is heavily involved as far as I know.

Yeah, from the 80s Thing comic. I forgot about that. I think I read a few issues when I was young. I should try and track them down someday. I remember thinking the WCW comic was lame at the time, but it probably has some kitsch appeal these days.

For those of you who are, like myself, fans of comic strips (or, like us all, interested in wrestling triviality), Dick Tracy started a pro wrestling themed storyline on Feb 5 http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2012/02/05 with a character based on Jerry Lawler. Comics and wrestling have often produced rather unsatisfying results when mixed, which is strange considering the crossover appeal, but this looks promising.

For the sake of accuracy, the "Nikita to WWF in the 80s" rumours are still on his Wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Koloff, although the part about him being de-pushed in 1988 as punishment for talking to Vince has been removed.

I'm sure if the money hadn't been so good in places like JCP and Japan a bunch of guys would have worked for Vince in the 80s and had runs against Hogan, like Hansen, Brody, Koloff, the Road Warriors, Lex Luger, Flair, etc.

When I first went through the wrestler bio's on Wikipedia years ago, according to Nikita's page he was courted by Vince several times between 85-87, including being offered the Mania 2 main event against Hogan. I think it's been established since that these "facts" were all bullshit put up by some fan and all the WWF rumours have been deleted from his page. Still, I'm sure Vince wanted him at his peak and made him some kind of offer at some point. You would have to imagine a program with Hogan in 85,86,87 would have been pretty hot.

Well, it would be comforting to know the world's worst wrestling writer is also a douchebag.

Wrestling, WWE, must have a significant middle-class audience. Who buys the PPV's every month, the tickets to the house shows and big shows, the merch ($75 fucking dollars for a Sin Cara mask), all the crap that makes Vince millions every year? That shit isn't cheap.

Interesting. I always assumed Vince sought out T, not the other way around.

I would love to see some footage of the main matches and angles from 60's/early-70s LA and San Fran. Meltzer's bio's of Tolos and Shire made it sound like a really interesting era. Seems like that's just a dream though. I'm also guessing nothing exists of the 1980 Superdome show featuring JYD vs Hayes in a Dog Collar Match coming off the big blinding angle (or even footage of the angle itself). More footage of the heyday's of Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver wrestling would be cool as well.

THAT is why I love pro wrestling.

Funny, I've seen that movie and I don't remember making the connection. Or maybe I did and just forgot that I did. Anyway, great movie, music, wrestler.

Funk's theme was so killer, like something from a Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western.

After watching a lot of stuff from the era recently, I agree with your point on 80s WWF finishes, specifically post-84 WWF. I never noticed this at the time, but so many otherwise great matches were marred by a DQ, countout, time limit, or other crowd deflating means. For example, the end to the Hogan vs Orndorff Toronto match from 86. Clean finishes were so rare back then.

One of my guilty pleasures was Dustin Rhodes "They Call Him the Natural" theme. I loved that song for some strange reason. I was also a fan of Funk and Muta's themes from 89. Sting's old theme was good too.

So, has anybody heard anything about Randy going in the WWE HOF this year, or is it still a no go?

I watched the Super Bowl with an old friend last night, and after it was over we fired up YouTube and watched a bunch of random wrestling. My friend is a long-time WWF/E fan, but I don't think he has ever seen much of the territory-era stuff. Anyway, I showed him the clip of Savage's Memphis debut (in the TV studio where he demands a match with Lawler and dishes out piledrivers like crazy on two jobbers) followed by the first concession stand brawl and he was absolutely stunned and blown away by what he was seeing. We then watched the Cena vs Umaga Last Man Standing match from 07, and while it wasn't said, the feeling in the air was what we were watching didn't really matter and felt so contrived compared to the Memphis stuff, and this is a great match and one of the seminal moments of Cena's career. So, yeah, Memphis was fucking awesome. (On a side note, also last night, in a haze of beer and other good stuff, we developed the theory that Vince McMahon, through his announcing, was the "auteur" of the WWF from the 70s to 1997, and the real reason things have gone so downhill over the years is because he relinquished the headset and thus ceased to be the singular creative mind for the company...or something )

Yeah, the Q and A's I read on his website were usually long-winded and some of the questions he chose to answer were puzzling. I enjoyed most of his Mania reviews, which is where I thought the good insights I referred to came from.

Jesus, that's depressing. Facts like this almost make me feel sorry for Lance. He seems like a really nice guy and he does make some interesting insights, but the more you look at it, his career really was underwhelming.

Hogan from 91-96 is easily my all-time least favorite main event babyface, and I haven't even seen some of his worst offenses (eg. Uncensored 96). Hogan played a huge part in my biggest letdown as a fan, the debacle of Wrestlemania 9. It took years until I was able to allow myself to enjoy a Hogan performance after that crappy show.

I think Hogan's match with Earthquake at Summerslam 90 is underrated as a classic Hogan moment. Crazy heat, with Vince getting over the hopelessness of Hogan's situation very well, and Earthquake takes a chair shot at the end that leaves an awesome welt on his back to boot.

Yeah, I should have said Jim Powers.

I'm not sure there was anything Verne could have done once Vince and the lure of being the King of New York came calling.