BrickHithouse

Ivan Putski. Not sure he qualifies since I don't think he has any fans to begin with. It seriously pisses me off just seeing him on a TV screen.

Flair might be close to closing in on 100k cocktails for his career: If he averages 5 per night over the past 40 years that's 73,065 minimum (counting leap years and these past 2 nights) and I would bet he has put away more than 5 a night on average.

About the only thing missing was Jim Herd taking Flair's knees out with a baseball bat as he walked that aisle. As a kid watching this, the odds were stacked so much in Sting's favor I thought they could have stuck Tom Zenk in the main event and he'd have won handily. It was such a letdown then because it was such a foregone conclusion.

How much footage is out there of 1983-86 Crockett - enough (and good enough quality) to make a week-to-week "digest" sort of comp?

Here's a little tidbit on Lyle Alzado, if anyone cares. Howie Long roomed with Alzado in training camp in Long's rookie season (81 or 82). Long always went to bed early and wasn't a partier. Alzado was a legendary carouser, but was cool and tried to adapt to Long's schedule. Long would be awoken every night and find Alzado sitting up in bed, wide awake, eating chocolate cake in the dark. Long did not remember ever seeing Alzado sleep. Somehow that reminded me of the story of Ultimate Warrior not eating dessert, but instead crushing cookies and inhaling the aroma.

What I wouldn't give to have been born 20 years earlier. Of course I'd be dead by now...

I view wrestling from I guess a booker or promoter's view. The most interesting things to me are figuring out why a guy is over, and what steps are taken to get him there. Card structure. How to keep a guy over without him getting stale, the steps taken and progression of logical angles, different ways heat is generated in different areas. Even TV production, camera angles. I don't fit in here at all with all the analysis, couldn't analyze or rate a match or wrestler to save my life. No set preferred style (though I lean towards heated brawls over flawlessly executed cruiserweight style matches), little or no regard to match quality. I like some guys that are terrible in the ring, dislike guys that are excellent. I love terrible, embarrassingly bad matches just as much as I like 5 star classics. I love a good horrible promo as much as a great one. I like what I like and there's no predicting what that's going to be. My top 5 favorite wrestlers would vary by the minute and I could never narrow down 5 matches and rank them.

Never liked the Undertaker. Aside from the undead gimmick bullshit, I didn't like the idea of taking an athletic big guy and saddling him with a slow, methodical style, especially after thinking he was pretty damn good as Mean Mark. Never have liked him as an adult, a carryover from the disdain I had for the gimmick as a kid. Can't stand Rey Mysterio, either. Can't really explain this one. He's a fantastic wrestler, I just don't like him at all. My wife loves the guy, and that just makes things worse.

Lex Luger's missed elbow flat-back bump. Lex Luger down and out on the mat, near unconscious, yet still able to muster the strength to fluff his hair. Stinger splash to set up the Scorpion never made sense to me.

I'm probably the only guy here that dug the WM22 match. I liked it because it got Orton, Angle, and Rey the fuck out of the ring after 6 or 7 minutes, which is about my limit with those three.

He's nowhere near out of the woods yet. The first day waking up from surgery generally goes better than the 2-3 days that follow.

Yes!!!! He had really good matches with Patera and Buddy Rose in 1980 and was fucking OVER!!! If you want a guy like Harley Race who was breaking out 30 moves a match, not going to like him. If you enjoyed Jim Duggan in Mid South because of how chrismatic he was, I could see you digging Pedro. Watched a really good match - Pedro vs Adonis from MSG. Very good match. Mission accomplished seeing a good Morales match. Pedro seemed to be in better shape here than a lot of the duds I've seen him in. I can see what you mean with the charisma. There's something there and for the first time understand why he was over. Watching Adonis bump in this match brought up a series of questions. Flair, Adonis, Heenan, Sarge (to an extent), Harley (to an extent), and maybe some others share a similar bumping style. The headfirst flip-and-over in the corner as an example, but an overall bumping style that is very similar and was carried on with Hennig and Michaels. Who was the "godfather" of this style? Was there one? Ray Stevens? Did someone before Ray Stevens bump like that? Did it originate in one of Verne's camps? Seems like it's a shared style with a lot of guys that were cutting their teeth in the early to mid 70's, just wondering where it came from.

Has Pedro Morales ever been in a good match?

I always wondered if they were paranoid about the reaction Hogan would get after the crowd reacted "wrong" for his Rumble elimination.

Damn guys, thanks for all the info. I can't wait to get into this stuff!

Where should a person start with Memphis if they haven't seen any of it before? I've only seen a couple of the Lawler matches vs Savage, and one against Bockwinkel. It's been a huge blind spot for me for 20 years and it's high time to change that.

From about 1998 on I'd guess Triple H would be up there. From about 2000-2006 he had those 20 minute promos to open Raw, then usually wrestled a 15 minute main event every week. 35-40 minutes a week minimum for 6 years wouldn't put a dent in a lot of the commentators' numbers, though. This is cool, I've wanted to tally up "face time" for actual wrestlers for a long time to see how Cena and the other newer era guys compare to Hogan, Bruno, etc. as far as total exposure. Never gave any thought to including commentators.

I never understood the whole Ron Garvin as NWA Champion deal. Going by what I've heard and read over the years, no one wanted the title because they'd just have to drop it back to Flair at Starrcade? The NWA title was still a respected, coveted belt. Hard to believe no one wanted that spot, even if just for a few months. Barry Windham, Doc, Nikita Koloff, hell even Terry Taylor - not one single guy on the roster wanted the belt at that time? Garvin was the only guy ready, willing, and able? I can see Doc and Taylor not being considered due to politics at the time, and can see Dusty not wanting to job to Flair. Why not Windham or Koloff? What was really the deal? Garvin was a decent wrestler, but there were better options and I don't buy the old line that "no one wanted the belt". Sorry for the ignorance, figure this was a good chance to ask.

I start out with the sets looking for specific wrestlers. If Stan Hansen is on a set, I skip through and watch all of his matches first, then progress from there depending on what I'm in the mood for. "Wrestling Season" for me is March - August and I have tons of stuff purchased the previous year that I watch. So when each viewing season rolls around there's always stuff I haven't watched yet sitting there ready to roll. I try to stay one year ahead with the discs so I never run out. When September rolls around I start watching classic and current NFL games with the same level of (unhealthy) obsession. On the rare occasion I can sometimes fit in time with my wife

How about Robocop at Capital Combat 90. He was on all the ads leading up, all of the announcers mentioned Robocop relentlessly, then he ends up walking out and pulling a cage door off and they got him in and out of there in 3 minutes. Might have been more fun if he free'd Cornette from the cage for the finish of the Midnights-Zenk/Pillman match.

Got into it in 1984 when I was 6. It was a local Central States TV show (I think), plus we got World Class. WWF popped up here on TV sometime in 1985 and quickly became my favorite. Still liked all the other promotions as well, and could not get enough wrestling, any wrestling, from 1984 - 1992. I kept detailed results of all TV shows that I watched, booked a fed with the LJN figures, and bought all the magazines. Went to every house show that I could talk my dad into going to. Hulk Hogan coming back for Wrestlemania IX was the first breaking point. I got sick of him in 1989 and was totally burned out on Hogan and wanted him to go away forever. Got nervous that he was coming back permanently in 1993. Still, I thought "At least he's not going to be WWF Champion" and upon finding out what happened at WM the next day, stopped watching all wrestling cold turkey. Caught the 1996 Slammys by chance and was THRILLED to see Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels on top and liked the look of the WWF roster. Got back into wrestling full force and watched everything I could (WWF, WCW, ECW). Second breaking point was September 1998. My dad died early that month and wrestling was just not fun to watch anymore. I kept up with it through the newsletters until giving those up in April 2001. I then came in and out for a number of years, generally coming around January thru April each year for the WM buildup. June 2007 was the final breaking point and I haven't gone back. Now I just concentrate on collecting/educating myself with Japan footage (80's and 90's) and any other shit from the 80's that is still new to me.