Ricky Jackson

Loser gets a bad tattoo...oh... right...never mind

I read a lot of Strangers in Paradise 20+ years ago. Doing a quick Wikipedia search I see it continued on for quite a while after I stopped. Considering I've gone back and finished or resumed other stuff from back in the day there is a chance I'll eventually pick it back up. As for what I'm currently going through... -Mod-era Wonder Woman from the late-60s/early-70s: I'd always been intrigued by this drastic change in the character that has usually been written off as a poorly conceived mess, but I'm a sucker for comics that tried to capture the mood of the hippie era, so I finally decided to give it a whirl. And, yeah, it's a poorly conceived mess, but it's also mostly just a dull rip off of the 60s Avengers TV series. I'm going to see it through to the end but I'm mostly just skimming now -Popeye by E.C. Segar vol 1: Great stuff from a master of cartooning -Legion of Superheroes from the beginning: I'm slowly going through the first Showcase volume. Love the art, but the stories are very basic -70s Incredible Hulk: Just finishing up the Herb Trimpe years that I paused a while back. Nothing special, even the villains are pretty dull now -Thor by Jason Aaron: I'm up to 2016 now. Not as fun as the earlier stuff. Not sure how much longer I'll go with it -Miscellaneous: I've been reading a lot of mini series/graphic novels, which are the comics I've enjoyed the most in the last while. Basically anything by Tom Scioli, Kate Beaton, or Peter Bagge I've loved. Finally read All Star Superman and enjoyed it. Various Marvel mini series' from the last 15-20 years have been hit or miss. I'm reading Bill Schelly's bio of James Warren and it's really good

I almost thought they were going to accidently rewrite history and call it the Calgary Screwjob at one point

Part 6 The timeline and account of the early 90s scandals is all over the place and misses basic important points. I've enjoyed this series and it's been quite funny, but to me the last three episodes have been basically three dudes who were briefly fans in the 90s talking about random sleaze they've encountered online in the last 20 years about that wrestling thing that was popular when they were kids and how horrible all these people were; the dreaded "casual smart" type of fan that is a pet peeve of mine. But only history geeks like me care about shit like this. Anyway, the last show builds to a climax with a long talk about wrestler deaths from the last 25+ years, finishing with Owen and rightfully condemning Vince for all his reprehensible bullshit surrounding that tragedy. The hush money scandal isnt even mentioned. The mustache is, though

Part 5 More 80s. Hogan choking out Belzer, Dr. D smacking Stossel, the fight to deregulate wrestling in various states. Maybe I'm just an uber cynical, uber in the bubble wrestling fan, but they haven't really made Vince seem that horrible over the first 5 parts. I guess time to bring out the really shitty stuff for the finale, which I'm assuming will mostly be about the steroid trial, Owen and Benoit, before fast forwarding to the hush money scandal at the end

Part 4 The 80s. Rita Chatterton, Snuka, Andre stories, Ventura trying to start a union, etc. Funny stuff but maybe a bit too many non-Vince tangents (a common problem the last two eps)

And Vince just bought the trademarks and tape library, basically in a liquidation sale. It's not like anyone was selling anything that was still running shows or had TV. Plus he didn't acquire any of the big contracts

Part 3 Basically Vince from the 60s to when he bought the WWF from his father. Lots of talk on the Snake Canyon flop and the Ali-Inoki fiasco (a lot of inaccuracies there). Not as funny as the previous episodes. Really taking their time, already halfway done and just getting to Rock n Wrestling

Yeah, definitely. I never bought Elizabeth as a heel, felt forced

Outside of Bruno and Dusty, 8/29/77 MSG against Ivan Putski is super fun, with as molten a crowd as you can get

They probably could've called an audible and delayed the title change a few months and milked it a bit more, but the fact is Backlund had been booked super strong and had gotten over with the fans. This wasn't a forced situation at all. Vince Sr wanted a new babyface superhero and he had basically created one through a year of careful booking. (Which, when you study it, really was a masterclass in creating a star) The houses basically stayed the same with Backlund on top, so you can't say he was wrong. Babyface Graham would've been interesting, particularly against guys like Ken Patera or his former partner Ivan Koloff

I don't even watch, but I find all this drama from everyone involved, wrestlers, media and fans, month after month after month, nauseating to be honest

If it's the one from 2006 it's pretty good IIRC. The autobiography from the same time is really good

Part 2 The story of the 1957 MSG riot is recounted as a work turned shoot, which it wasn't. (Other than the riot part) At least Evans' guests push back on this version, and yeah, since it's Jerry Graham's account, of course it's kayfabe bs But, yeah, I know the point of this is mostly comedy not historical accuracy. Anyway, strange pronunciation watch continues with "sheik" being pronounced as "shake". Is this a common regional inflection or something? I love to think that Bob Orton Jr's long arm cast gimmick may have came from Vinnie proudly wearing an arm cast as a badge of honor for several months as a teenager

Amazingly charismatic heel with an iconic look and super impressive track record as a draw. His matches with Bruno are great. Also created magic with Dusty RIP

First episode is basically just a primer on pro wrestling/wrestling sleaze, with a lengthy discussion at the end on the Von Erich tragedy we've all heard a million times (but they were apparently unaware of the death of the first son, Jack). Going forward this is going to be an interesting listen, but if the first episode is any indication, the timeline for various events is likely to be pretty misleading, like a Hollywood biopic (for example, it was implied that Brody died shortly after David Von Erich, when it was more than 4 years later)

Very funny stuff (the bit speculating on the origin of the dropkick was hilarious) but the amount of inaccuracies in Evans' early history of wrestling at MSG had this former history of wrestling at MSG podcast host nearly screaming at my phone. Also, in strange pronunciation watch, "Muchnick" in Sam Muchnick is pronounced "Mooch-nick"

The life and times of Vince Jr is the subject of a 6 part deep dive featured on a pretty popular podcast. I'm not a regular listener but my wife is. Thought I'd give it a shot, mostly so I could compare notes with her. I listened to the first half hour last night. The host, Robert Evans, is not a wrestling fan (and he pronounces wrestling as "resselling" in that non-fan way that annoys the shit out of me) but he's clearly put in a lot of research here. I'm at the part where Evans and his guests are discussing George Hackenschmidt and the early days of wrestling. Good stuff so far, including info on the origins of working dating to 1830s France that I dont think I've heard before. Interested in what others think about this

Yeah, just rewatched that match recently with some folks who are not major old school fans and everyone loved it. One can only wonder how Thesz vs Gagne would stack up with the all time great rivalries if we had the footage to judge. Surprisingly, they seemingly didn't wrestle each other a lot, only 16 results on Wrestlingdata. If it was somehow possible, I would love to see their final battle from 1967 and see how it compares to the 1/1952 match, held in the same arena

Valentine also has strong MSG bouts against Bruno and DeNucci. Pat Patterson is another WWF guy from 79. Top stuff with Backlund but also with a young Dibiase over the North American title. Plus great promos

That was my first thought when seeing this list too. Everyone, save for Theory, has been around wrestling in one way or another FOREVER

One of the great mysteries of the universe. Same spot, same clothes, for every big show for God knows how many years now

Oh and great reviews btw. Just noticed this thread this morning. Keep it up

Backlund has a very good 1981, probably the best year of his reign IMO. 1982 is quite strong as well. The well begins to dry up opponents wise in late 82, and 83 is clearly a "past its expiry date" situation, although with some highlights (still need to see that match vs Koloff from MSG). By the time you get to the buzz cut, singlet and loss of muscle, the bread has turned green with mold

I need to check out that July 80 Larry Z vs Putski. I see they also wrestled on the June Spectrum show, which was apparenly televised but doesn't seem to be out there