BrickHithouse

Have fallen behind and just started listening to this one tonight. What was the content of those late-night German TV commercials that Parv and Lee referenced early in the podcast?

Is this book a good source of reliable information about these guys?

Same here. Two years ago I'd have never in a million years thought that was possible. I love Backlund.

Agreed, if I was putting together a list Hogan would be over Austin though I like Austin quite a bit more. I don't really care about ranking shit like this. I suck at trying to make points, and suck at message boards in general. What I was trying to get at is, how much exposure can a top WWF star have before burning out or becoming stale/passe/replaced? There are a million factors in that but I want to look at "Face Time" or "TV Age", and try to figure out exactly if, and how it factors in. The raw amount of time being seen by the audience. I'd guess that Hogan's "face time" (promos+time in front of a live crowd+mainstream appearances) from 84-88 would equal Austin's from 96-98. And that Bruno's 63-71 would equal Hogan's 5 years. Or be in the ballpark. The purpose would not be a definitive answer to who belongs above who on a list, but something that could be factored in to the argument. Kind of like normalization of numbers in MLB across eras. Sabermetrics for wrestling. Fuck, I need to hire an assistant to assemble my thoughts as I verbally dictate them, rather than this mess of a post.

Is it like a winery where they let people sample the products throughout the tour?

Bulldog vs Bret, IYH Dec 95

King Tonga vs Big John Studd. Early 1986 MSG.

I'll go with Savage vs Dibiase MSG cage, 1988

Seemed like it was "strap a rocket TO his ass" for a long time, then evolved to the more graphic "UP".

My favorite is Vader vs Sting from Super Brawl III

I ended up really liking Hogan on re-watch. He had a lot of energy, was fun on promos and in the ring, and seemed like he was enjoying himself thru 1986 at least. Late in '87 or early '88, something changed. His matches became more paint-by-numbers, his promos started venturing into slight Warrior territory, and it did not seem like he enjoyed what he was doing. Maybe a conscious change in the character, or real burnout setting in? As a whole, starting in Spring 1988 the entire WWF roster seemed totally burned out, with few exceptions.

Another way to look at that other way of looking at it is - the 2 minutes of face time made people want to pay to see Hogan. The 10-20 minutes of Austin per week didn't stop anyone from paying money to see 15 minutes more.

Sure, mainstream appearances should count for both guys. I don't know where exactly to draw the line and would be inclined to count the cartoon as well, but I don't know that Hogan should get 30 minutes/week credit for it either, that's not wrestling or cutting a promo in front of a crowd, but it should count for something if not half an hour. I don't mean to diminish Hogan's run or necessarily put Austin above him, but # of years should be further researched to calculate amount of face time and exposure. That presents a clearer picture than to say "Hogan had 8 years on top, Austin had 3".

"Face Time" needs to be mentioned somewhere. It's not the be-all, end-all argument, but should be brought up. Austin's face was on national TV for a minimum of 10 minutes (and that's a conservative estimate) every single week for a minimum of two years. That's over 1000 minutes. Throw in another 400+ minutes for PPV's. No sign of audience burnout. Could Hogan cut that pace for two straight years without people getting burned out? Hogan was on the syndies an average of perhaps two minutes per week. Throw in another 10 for each SNME and give him 15 for PPV's, and another 15 per month for house show appearances in a given market. Way less exposure. Two entirely different environments where lengths of time mean something totally different. Two different paces. I don't know exactly where to go with this.

Watch all or any Raws from 1997 or 1998. He carried the promotion like no one in WWF before, as far as how much face time he got. Dude was in damn near every segment in some way for two years straight. If that's not carrying a promotion, I don't know what is.

They'll probably roll out his 1994 run and the Mr. Backlund shit. Would be nice to see the '78 matches and the whole buildup to his title shot - Graham refusing to shake his hand...and....I forget. I can't stop watching those dogs break up that cat fight. It's hypnotizing.

And I hated it. Let's fight!

I really liked the 3/79 match but really hated the finish. I don't remember what the finish was, just remember not liking it.

1. Wrestle War - Although it's third in the series, it's the first one I saw. I was 11 and was totally blown away by the match, and the Funk angle put it over the top. This match alone got me hooked on watching WCW every single week. Before this I was only a casual WCW viewer. The first two Flair-Steamboat matches may have done the same thing for me had I seen them first, but didn't, so this is #1. 2. Chi Town 3. Clash

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I love Muraco. He's one of my favorite pre-1984 WWF guys. He definitely can be laughably bad in the ring. I like all of his stuff against Backlund (particularly Feb and Mar 83), and can't stand the Snuka matches. His promos are some of my favorite stuff ever, from anyone. After 1983, he was Ivan Putski in every way - a bloated gasbag with a "name" that would show up to the arena most of the time.

Not to change the subject, but that is a great setup for... Even clear photographic evidence that shows it's impossible that only 78k were in attendance at WMIII, the response is still "Yeah, but some douchebag told Meltzer that there were only 78k", yet no one can point to 10-12,00 empty fucking seats that would make that number possible. I'm in the process of counting individual people that were there that day and will post a thread with the findings as a "fuck you" to anyone that believes the 78k number. About the only thing involving wrestling that gets me wound up. Afterwards I'll check into a nice outpatient clinic.

A lot of Gordon Solie's comments at a couple of Starrcades kind of fit: "Harley Race, the last of the rugged individualists in the world in my opinion wanted a handicap match. Harley just doesn't care for the team-type discipline, he's a man of individual discipline. [Figurehead AJPW President] said he would not sanction such a match, and demanded that Harley pick a partner".