Ricky Jackson

As someone who doesn't watch AEW, what is the context of the pic on the Baker T shirt?

Definitely a lot of classic WWF matches from 85-87 MLG, particularly involving the combination of Steamboat, Savage or Santana. Great unique look and atmosphere. Toronto fans were pretty rowdy. In fact, the famous ramp was first installed in (I believe) the late 40s because heels were getting abused so badly on their way to the ring, including stabbings

I believe it was because of a misunderstanding in translation dating from the beginning of Americans wrestling in Japan and it just stayed that way, kinda like the 60 feet 6 inches distance from the mound to home plate in baseball, which came from a misreading of a 0 as a 6 in the original write up

Sky Hi Lee was a major star in Calgary in the 50s. I've always loved the name, like a Dick Tracy villain or something

I don't think there is any Bruno v Hansen 1981 footage. The Rocky Raymond Boston footage ends around 1980 I believe. Boston, even more so than New York, really was Bruno's city. Pedro had trouble drawing consistently there in the early 70s (they even brought in the Sheik for a shot to pop a house when he was basically banned from the rest of the territory) and Bruno would often work the main event feud in Boston instead of Backlund, against Maivia, Patterson, and Slaughter, in addition to Hansen. Not to mention his 85-87 old man run where he was used in Boston on top way more than in any other major city

That match caused a bunch of folks here to lose their minds insisting it was the closest we've come to transcendent brilliance in wrestling or something. 2016 was kinda a weird time for this board

There is a reason this place is called Pro Wrestling Only. Let's can the political bs. We get it, the world is full of a bunch of pussies these days, blah blah blah

So basically we had the "Levesque Spring" and now Vince and the tanks have rolled in and crushed all hope

I think it has a pretty good chance of being a very interesting read. It's completely free of any Vince involvement afaik, so it should be a no holds barred look. The excerpt from the publishers site suggests it will be thorough if nothing else https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Ringmaster/Abraham-Riesman/9781982169442

Bravo

I've made that mistake before. I think many/most non-Americans think it is an independent country

Probably Bruiser Bedlam

If you never post again, you have still contributed one of the greatest things I've ever read on this board

Blassie was on with Ali hyping the Inoki match in 76, but that was with McLean Stevenson guest hosting

Also, even if there was a plan to crown Sami, it would mean a lot more in the end if it came after he tried and failed to beat the champ a few times before finally getting over the hump

I haven't watched this yet, but here is a fascinating bit of history that just popped up on my YT feed. Apparently the first ever scaffold match, from 1971! I always thought Dundee and Koko from 1982 was the first scaffold match

Should be an all-timer for a crowd reaction. Awesome to see a great historical wrestling town like Montreal get a moment like this in 2023

The Genius gimmick was inspired by his father Angelo's similar "Graduate" gimmick from the 70s, down to the gown and mortarboard

https://www.f4wonline.com/news/wwe/former-wwe-star-lanny-poffo-passes-away-at-68-years-old Too bad he didn't get to work the New Gorgeous George gimmick in mid 90s WCW. At least he was paid 6 figures for like 5 years to do nothing

I love Brown's Louis Riel graphic novel. A big reason is the circa-1930s newspaper strip art style he uses that is so right up my alley, and also the whole Canadian history aspect, but overall it's just an extremely well told story. I have a few other Brown books and remember liking most of his output. I was a big fan of the D & Q crew back in the day. I'm actually planning on reading Brown's last (I believe) work, Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus, very soon

Here's Larry Z vs Putski for all interested. Definitely one of the great surprises of my old Titans of Wrestling pod. And yes, Larry had a great 1980. Also some really good matches against Backlund from the Spectrum

Man, I completely erased Husky Harris from my brain and had to Google that. Whatever happened to Eli Cottonwood?

Thoughts on Tom King as a writer? He's one of the more acclaimed comic guys going. I've read two of his works and just started a third. Loved Vision from 2015, one of the best modern superhero comics I've read in the last few years. Followed that with Mister Miracle from 2017. I liked a lot of it but in the end felt the balance between personal metaphor and the character and his universe was too slanted towards the former for my liking, but maybe that's just me. Started Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow the other day and really like it so far. The art by Bilquis Evely is fantastic. Not sure when Supergirl started swearing so much but whatever. Anyway, just wanted to see what others think about King since he seems to be kinda divisive

Another big thing to remember about the Grunge phenomenon is that it fairly quickly expanded to become part of "Alternative", which included tons of non-Grunge acts like Smashing Pumpkins, Alanis Morissette, Nine Inch Nails, Green Day, which were HUGE in 95-97 (and beyond of course). As a high schooler in 92-95 me and my friends always used Alternative as the catch all term for the music and fashion, not Grunge

With hindsight you can say it was past its peak or the most memorable moments associated with it were in the early 90s, but from personal experience and looking back recently, Grunge was still pretty big in the culture in 95-96, with 97 being the year it really faded away. Fashion was very Grungy in those years for sure, and of course the music was still everywhere