mookeighana

I updated the multi-name counts some (i.e. Executioners = Studd/Kowalski, Bepo=Nikolai) and fixed some spelling variants.

When Pedro was Champion, there was one in my list. Here were the interactions between the two that I saw in the 73-74 period: WWWF @ New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden - November 12, 1973 WWWF World Champion Pedro Morales defeated Larry Hennig at 12:45 when the match was stopped due to blood WWWF @ Harrisburg, PA - Zembo Mosque - November 26, 1973 WWWF World Champion Pedro Morales, Andre the Giant, & Manuel Soto defeated Stan Stasiak, Larry Hennig, & Frank Valois in a Best 3 out of 5 falls match; final fall was decided when Andre pinned Valois with a flying bodypress WWWF @ New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden - December 10, 1973 Pedro Morales defeated Larry Hennig in a lumberjack death match with the Boston Crab (same show where Bruno beat Stasiak for the title) WWWF @ Lewiston, ME - December 11, 1973 Pedro Morales & Chief Jay Strongbow vs. Blackjack Lanza & Larry Hennig WWWF @ Boston, MA - Boston Garden - December 17, 1973 Pedro Morales & Andre the Giant defeated Larry Hennig & Stan Stasiak WWWF @ Albany, NY - Washington Avenue Armory - January 11, 1974 Pedro Morales defeated Larry Hennig via disqualification at the 19-minute mark WWWF @ Philadelphia, PA - Arena - January 26, 1974 Pedro Morales, Gorilla Monsoon, & Chief Jay Strongbow defeated Don Leo Jonathan, Larry Hennig, & Stan Stasiak WWWF @ Springfield, MA - Boys Club - February 16, 1974 (1,500) Pedro Morales vs. Larry Hennig WWWF @ Trenton, NJ - Civic Center - March 14, 1974 Pedro Morales & Gorilla Monsoon vs. Larry Hennig & Stan Stasiak (Best 2 out of 3 falls) WWWF @ New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden - April 1, 1974 (sell out) Pedro Morales pinned Larry Hennig at 11:04 Could be due to incomplete records or they were on non-WWWF shows?

Have you read Tom Zenk's piece on him? It's speaks a little bit about him in Canada: http://web.archive.org/web/20030415071320/...93/column17.htm He was also "Mr. Toshiaki" in Montreal according to Masanori Horie.

I'm back to a computer. I looked at WWWF/WWF results 1963-1983 and pulled out all of the World Champion singles matches (I did not discriminate between title/non-title). Mookie's Disclaimers/Notes 1. There are a few name changes that would add in additional challenges. I updated most, but I'm sure there are some that I didn't fix yet. (This is updated from the original post) 2. All results were taken from TheHistoryofWWE 1963-1983 this morning, so there is the possibility of missing results, duplicated results, non-WWF cards and plenty of other shenanigans. There's a handful of matches that I left out - matches where the title was vacant (at least in local lore) and so the winner was declared the new champion (Bob Backlund defeated Bobby Duncum in a Texas Death Match to win the vacant WWF World Title at 17:18 in 1979) or all of the Antonio Inoki as world Champion matches (add one more for Backlund, Duncum, Morales if you're so inclined). 3. This doesn't give priority to major markets (i.e. MSG is weighted the same as House show in PA) and does include the shows where there's only a "A vs B" listing (which we'll assume actually happened, but the match may have not.). I filtered on explicitly on the phrase "World Champion" so it's possible some title defenses where the champion was involved, but for whatever reason the match listing failed to note they were "WWWF World Champion" could be excluded. 4. I excluded all multi-man matches - no six-man tags, no handicap Bruno beats up Buggsy McGraw & Lou Albano and only WWWF/WWF World Champion (i.e. 1980's Peter Maivia vs. AWA World Champion Nick Bockwinkel wasn't included). FINAL COUNT OF WWWF/WWF CHALLENGERS (1963-1983) Gorilla Monsoon (111), Prof Toru Tanaka (95), Killer Kowalski (93), George Steele (90), Waldo Von Erich (89), Ivan Koloff (82), Luke Graham (66), Sgt Slaughter (63), Superstar Billy Graham (62), Bill Miller (57), Don Muraco (57), Baron Mikel Scicluna (56), Greg Valentine (51), Hans Mortier (50), Ken Patera (50), Spiros Arion (49), Stan Stasiak (47), Peter Maivia (39), Bobby Duncum (38), Bulldog Brower (37), Killer Khan (36), Freddie Blassie (35), Chief Jay Strongbow (34), Bob Orton Jr (33), Mr Fuji (33), Blackjack Mulligan (31), Curtis Iaukea (30), Tarzan Tyler (28), Larry Zbyszko (28), Stan Hansen (28), Dr Jerry Graham (27), Buddy Rose (25), Pat Patterson (24), Jimmy Snuka (24), Smasher Sloan (23), Afa (22), Jimmy Valiant (21), Nikolai Volkoff (21), Adrian Adonis (20), The Beast (19), Ivan Putski (18), Angelo Mosca (18), the Iron Sheik (18), Bill Watts (17), Tony Garea (17), Jesse Ventura (16), Ray Stevens (16), The Masked Superstar (15), the Hangman (15), the Sheik (15), Virgil the Kentucky Butcher (15), Ernie Ladd (14), Hulk Hogan (14), Dusty Rhodes (14), Moondog Mayne (13), Don Leo Jonathan (13), Buddy Wolfe (13), Bull Ortega (13), the Shadow (12), the Golden Terror (12), Lou Albano (12), Bruno Sammartino (11), Buddy Austin (11), Bull Ramos (11), Big John Studd (11), Gene Kiniski (11), Magnificent Maurice (11), Blackjack Lanza (11), the Black Demon (10), the Spoiler (10), Johnny Powers (10), Johnny Valiant (10), Bob Backlund (9), Klondike Bill (9), Karl Kovacs (9), Tank Morgan (9), Bruiser Brody (9), Bobo Brazil (9), Mike McCord (9), Brute Bernard (8), Swede Hanson (8), Tony Nero (8), the Wolfman (7), Antonio Inoki (7), Skull Murphy (7), Jerry Valiant (7), Larry Hennig (6), Johnny Barend (6), Crusher Verdu (6), the Destroyer (6), Dan Miller (6), Frank Martinez (6), Pedro Morales (5), Tony Altimore (5), Boris Malenko (5), Harley Race (5), Johnny Valentine (5), Mr Saito (5), Frank Hickey (5), Tor Kamata (5), Rocky Johnson (5), Strong Kobayashi (5), Baron Von Raschke (5), Giant Baba (5), Jos LeDuc (4), Gene Kelly (4), Rocky Fitzpatrick (4), Dory Dixon (4), Pedro Rodriguez (4), Iron Mike Sharpe (4), Victor Rivera (4), Johnny Rodz (4), Beautiful Bobby (4), Joe Quinones (4), Butcher Vachon (3), Edouard Carpentier (3), Paul Reinhardt (3), Billy White Wolf (3), Pampero Firpo (3), Bugsy McGraw (3), the Crusher (3), Bull Johnson (3), Dick Murdoch (3), Otto Von Heller (3), Haystacks Calhoun (3), Ron Bass (3), Jose Estrada (3), Joe Cox (2), Gordo Chihuahua (2), Rocky Cookson (2), Johnny Boyd (2), Jean DuBois (2), Dominic DeNucci (2), Raymond Rougeau (2), Buddy Wolf (2), Ron Reed (2), Art Nielson (2), Chuck O'Conner (2), Jose Quintero (2), Tiger Jeet Singh (2), Duke Hoffman (2), Pablo Iturbi (2), Lord Alfred Hayes (2), Ric Flair (2), Matt Gillmore (2), Geto Mongol (2), Mike Loren (2), Cal West (2), Bull Pometti (2), Tatsumi Fujinami (2), Mil Mascaras (2), the Executioner (2), Mitsu Arakawa (2), Bob Boyington (2), Moondog Rex (2), Tony Atlas (2), Mr X (2), Ox Anderson (2), Riki Choshu (2), Guillotine Gordon (1), Tom Andrews (1), Crusher Blackwell (1), Miguel Torres (1), Wildman Austin (1), Jose Gonzales (1), Hiro Matsuda (1), Mike Madero (1), Ed Francis (1), Johnny Carr (1), Max Mortier (1), Mike Rivera (1), Sika (1), Mike York (1), Hans Schmidt (1), Mike Zeabes (1), Chuck Richards (1), Don Serrano (1), Jack Evans (1), Bob Sweetan (1), Jim Garvin (1), El Olympico (1), Dick the Bruiser (1), Kengo Kimura (1), unknown (1), Moose Morowski (1), Seiji Sakaguchi (1), Eric the Red (1), Carlos Rocha (1), Black Angus (1), Steve Keirn (1), Kevin Sullivan (1), Al Costello (1), Nick Bockwinkel (1), Ted Adams (1), Nikita Mulkovitch (1), the Blue Demon (1), Firpo Zbyzsko (1), Jack Brisco (1), Orwell Paris (1), the Kentucky Butcher (1), Osamu Kido (1), Jim Conroy (1), Frank Durso (1), Tiger Chung Lee (1), Killer Austin (1), Tommy O'Toole (1), Ox Baker (1), Tony Manousas (1), Billy Robinson (1), Darrell Cochrane (1), Bengali (1), John Meinger (1), Bulldog Brown (1), Miguel Perez (1), Paul Adams (1), Le Bourreau (1), Paul Jones (1), Bob Gonzalez (1), Frank Pickens (1), Charie Fulton (1), Frank Rodriguez (1), Chavo Guerrero (1), Bulldog Gannon (1), Steve King (1), Pete Austin (1), Hans Schroeder (1), Geeto Montol (1), Chuck Adcock (1), Prof Hiro (1), Art Thomas (1), Butcher Brannigan (1), Luis Garcia (1), Prof X (1), the Black Shadow (1), Baron Gattoni (1), Col Currie (1), Don Kent (1), Ed Castillio (1), King Kong Tonga (1), the Great Kudo (1), Dave Morgan (1), Mad Dog Vachon (1), Robert Duranton (1), the Masked Marvel (1), Duke Keomuka (1), Crybaby Cannon (1), Buzz Tyler (1), The Shiek (1), Gerald Finley (1), Jim Grabmire (1), Roddy Piper (1), Manuel Soto (1), Roger Kirby (1), Tomas Marin (1), Duke Miller (1), Buddy Bicon (1), Ron Cummings (1), Bob Bradley (1), Duke Myers (1), Tony Marino (1), Ron Romero (1), Tony Newberry (1), Ron Starr (1), Twin Devil #2 (1), Ronnie Etchison (1), Joe Thomas (1), Rugged Russian #2 (1), John Tolos (1), Salvatore Bellomo (1), Willie Farkas (1), Samula (1), SD Jones (1),

A few years ago I ran some numbers ( http://theboard.f4wonline.com/viewtopic.ph...371640#p2371640 ) trying to extrapolate based on Dave's clues in the Observer results about how any voters he had in 2010, in particular in what was then called "US & Canada Modern" there was about 181 voters participating. Based on a series of tidbits, I ended up with a list that was predominantly current wrestlers and retired wrestlers my (guess was 120 current wrestlers, 45 former wrestlers, 6 historians, 10 reporters but that feels skewed). I am rethinking those numbers because I believe theres more than 20 non-wrestlers vote for modern wrestlers and the basis of voters must be broader than I estimated. But I can't believe more than 5% of wrestlers would think about the arguments listed by a guy like Dylan. I think almost a third to a half of historians or reporters would consider such an argument but that's going to be a function of which forums they frequent. Speaking of which, what forums should voters be frequenting?

For non-wrestlers, what sorts of critieria should be applied? As I thought about it over coffee this morning the general themes that came out were innovation/originality, effectiveness, longevity, influence and overall transformative nature of their participation on the world of pro-wrestling in their respective role (manager, promoter, interviewer, magazine publisher). Did I miss anything ? I think of how the induction of Lou Albano really shone a light on how a single manager could be so effective whilst being a long-lived, original character. Jimmy Hart hits those hurdles for me; and I think there is a persuasive case for Okerlund as well. He was stayed in demand for decades. Ventura's political career (and to a lesser extent movie and conspiracy host) always seems to bleed into arguments for his candidacy which don't seem apropos in the role hes being considered for HOF context.

He was the Most Outstanding Wrestler five straight years. Not only has no one else won that award five straight years, no one else has won it five times *period*. He will go in easy. Perhaps not in the first year, but very soon after. Thats true; I agree he will go in. At this moment, I think a serious world champion run is what would hold him back from being an inevitable first ballot choice. People with most top five outstanding wrestler finishes would be all HOFers: Flair, Liger, Kobiashi, Angle, Benoit, Misawa, Kawada along with Mr Danielson.

At the risk of hijacking some good 2013 discussion for a future debate, people think Bryan Danielson is a sure bet? I must be in the minority but Brock seems stronger (literally and figuratively) an I'm not really sold on him yet. Bryan Is a great worker, but I'd like to see step evidence of drawing power akin to Brock before I'd be fully swayed. I'm planning on running a bunch o' numbers when I get back to Minnesota (I've been in Boston/Chicago all week) so I will have more stats on ballot figures in a few days (hopefully). I'm trying to keep an open mind, and moreover seeking a backwards deduction of what figures have and haven't been added to look for outliers.

I think Torres and Colon are two of the five strongest guys on the ballot and the other three are luchadores. I'm interested to see who is on your radar for a potential vote Chris I'm computerless this week. This morning I wrote down everyone and so I haven't run any numbers. Just reading the ballot, I ranked candidates into their three tiers based on my gut feelings within their territory. I took all my tier one candidates (about 27). Then I sorted that list into A (4), B (15), C (8). Among the B list, I ranked each of the people within the territory and took the top ranked person. The nine folks that emerged were: Matsunaga, Colon, Edge, RNR Express, Big Daddy, Atlantis, Sasaki, Koloff and Torres. Again, this was driven by gut reactions - not necessarily thoughtful evaluations. Colon and Big Daddy were the two that felt hardest to justify beyond regional legends but ultimately they felt like bigger deals. I am realizing that I can't speak meaningfully about Mexico, Japan, pacific with enough confidence so I have a lot more deliberation and evaluations to do.

There's a lot of candidates that I like but I don't felt that I can judge everyone in the category. I like people like Atlantis or Carlos Colon or Enrique Torres or Jackie Pollo or Volk Han based on what I've read and learned but I don't honestly think I'm qualified to say that I follow those territories sufficiently to judge. So it leaves modern era and non wrestling personalities.

? The crowd on 2/15 at the Portland Sports Arena fell to just 150 as the lack of television is really staring to take its toll. The opener saw Brickhouse Brown beat John Rambo via DQ, then Jesse Barr pinned Buddy Rose which was followed by a candidate for the most tasteless comment of 1992. After a ref bump, Rose beat up on Barr and had him pinned and screamed to get a ref in to count the fall. Out from the dressing room ran Bart Sawyer (looking 30 pounds heavier than when he left) and when Rose saw him, Barr schoolboyed him from behind and Sawyer counted the pin. After the match Rose grabbed the house mic and said that everyone had better beware because there's a man who used to wrestle here a few years ago named Buzz Sawyer. And last week we had a match. And after the match, he died. Well, onto more tasteful things, Mike Winner pinned Al Madril in a match where both guys wore a mask by using a loaded head-butt after foiling Madril's attempt to do the same thing. This set up a mask vs. mask match between the two of them for next week. Sawyer then went to a double disqualification with Mike Miller when Rose and Brown interfered to set up a tag team match for next week. The main event was a no disqualification match for the held up Northwest tag team titles. Doll & The Grappler beat Ron & Don Harris to win the straps. During and after the match the Harris brothers worked on Doll's knee and he ended up doing a stretcher job. They had already announced Doll vs. Ron Harris for the Northwest title as next week's main event so no doubt Doll will go into the match with the bad knee and sell it the entire time.

https://sites.google.com/site/chrisharringt..._awards_history I recently put this online for exactly these questions.

The Bruiser Brody thread reminded me that while it was barely in the top 20 (at number twenty, in fact), the Funks vs Snuka/Brody was the highest ranked AJPW match of 1981. That got me thinking, what was the best 1980/1981 stuff out there? I went back through results of the DVDVR sets and here's a quick synopsis the just shy of a hundred matches that would be eligible material that at least has made the sets: 1980 N/A. Lord Alfred Hayes vs. Bobby Heenan = n/a points in AWA on (1/13/80) 96. Tatsumi Fujinami & Kantaro Hoshino vs. Dynamite Kid & Steve Keirn = 3655 points in New Japan on (1/18/80) 102. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Steve Keirn (2/3 Falls) = 3473 points in New Japan on (2/1/80) 23. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Dynamite Kid = 5991 points in New Japan on (2/5/80) 67. Antonio Inoki vs. Stan Hansen = 4238 points in New Japan on (2/8/80) 109. Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Dick Murdoch = 2465 points in All Japan on (2/23/80) 55. Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Dick Murdoch = 3631 points in All Japan on (3/5/80) 37. Antonio Inoki vs. Stan Hansen = 5151 points in New Japan on (4/3/80) 87. Gran Hamada vs. Babyface = 3849 points in New Japan on (4/3/80) 65. Bob Backlund vs Hulk Hogan = 4907 points in WWF on (4/8/80 Philadelphia PA) 83. Bruno Sammartino vs Larry Zbyszko = 3346 points in WWF on (4/8/80 Philadelphia PA) N/A. Satoru Sayama y Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo y Baby Face = n/a points in Lucha on (4/13/80) 97. Bill Dundee vs. Larry Latham = 2328 points in Memphis on (4/19/80) 56. Ken Patera vs Pat Patterson = 5685 points in WWF on (4/21/80 MSG) 69. Bruno Sammartino vs Larry Zbyszko = 4600 points in WWF on (4/21/80 MSG) 98. Ricky Morton vs. Sonny King = 2241 points in Memphis on (4/26/80) 28. Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Dick Slater = 4578 points in All Japan on (5/1/80) N/A. Greg Gagne vs. Super Destroyer Mark II = n/a points in AWA on (5/1/80) 109. Antonio Inoki vs. Stan Hansen = 3311 points in New Japan on (5/9/80) 143. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Chavo Guerrero = 2614 points in New Japan on (5/9/80) 117. Bill Dundee vs. Paul Ellering = 1626 points in Memphis on (5/24/80) 76. Bill Dundee & Tony Boyles vs. Wayne Farris & Larry Latham = 2886 points in Memphis on (6/7/80) 50. Shozo Kobayashi/Haruka Eigen vs Mighty Inoue/Isamu Teranishi = 2085 points in IWE on (6/29/80) N/A. Verne Gagne vs. Nick Bockwinkel = n/a points in AWA on (7/18/80) 57. Mighty Inoue/Higo Hamaguchi vs Spike Huber/Rocky Brewer = 1692 points in IWE on (7/25/80) 55. Bill Dundee vs. Tommy Rich = 3752 points in Memphis on (8/23/80) 135. Giant Baba vs. Harley Race = 1517 points in All Japan on (9/4/80) 74. Giant Baba vs. Harley Race = 3222 points in All Japan on (9/10/80) 42. Antonio Inoki vs. Stan Hansen = 4940 points in New Japan on (9/11/80) 91. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Tony Rocco = 3742 points in New Japan on (9/11/80) 118. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Johnny Londos = 3144 points in New Japan on (9/19/80) 28. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Kengo Kimura = 5729 points in New Japan on (9/25/80) 62. Bob Backlund vs. Stan Hansen = 4438 points in New Japan on (9/30/80) 161. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Ron Starr = 2070 points in New Japan on (9/30/80) 164. Chavo Guerrero vs. Kengo Kimura = 1982 points in New Japan on (9/30/80) N/A. Greg Gagne & Super Destroyer Mark II vs. Nick Bockwinkel & Bobby Heenan = n/a points in AWA on (10/3/80) 64. Bob Backlund vs Sgt Slaughter = 4920 points in WWF on (10/20/80 MSG) 63. Carlos Plata/El Doberman vs Mighty Inoue/Mach Hayato = 1455 points in IWE on (11/1/80) 114. Chavo Guerrero vs. Kengo Kimura = 3189 points in New Japan on (11/3/80) 138. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Steve Keirn = 2712 points in New Japan on (11/6/80) 55. Carlos Plata/El Doberman/Goro Tsurumi vs Higo Hamaguchi/Isamu Teranishi/Mach Hayato = 1846 points in IWE on (11/22/80) 73. Rusher Kimura vs Alexis Smirnoff = 627 points in IWE on (11/22/80) 46. Mighty Inoue/Higo Hamaguchi vs Carlos Plata & El Doberman = 2257 points in IWE on (11/27/80) 142. The Sheik vs. Ricky Steamboat = 1397 points in All Japan on (12/9/80) 15. Billy Robinson vs. Nick Bockwinkel = 5102 points in All Japan on (12/11/80) 105. Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk = 2562 points in All Japan on (12/11/80) 88. Ken Patera vs Pat Patterson = 2945 points in WWF on (12/29/80 MSG) 1981 33. Bob Backlund vs Sgt Slaughter = 7440 points in WWF on (1/10/81 Philadelphia PA) N/A. Big John Studd & Jerry Blackwell vs. High Flyers vs. = n/a points in AWA on (2/20/81) N/A. East-West Connection vs. High Flyers = n/a points in AWA on (3/1/81) 42. Bill Dundee vs. Wayne Farris & Tojo Yamamoto = 4359 points in Memphis on (3/7/81) 64. Bill Dundee & Tommy Rich vs. Dutch Mantell & Austin Idol = 3307 points in Memphis on (3/12/81) 110. Bill Dundee & Dream Machine vs. Dutch Mantell & Wayne Farris = 1878 points in Memphis on (3/14/81) 35. Bob Backlund vs Sgt Slaughter = 7364 points in WWF on (3/21/81 Philadelphia PA) N/A. Nick Bockwinkel vs. Pat O'Connor = n/a points in AWA on (3/22/81) 3. Jerry Lawler vs. Terry Funk (No DQ) = 6926 points in Memphis on (3/23/81) 58. Higo Hamaguchi/Isamu Teranishi/Mach Hayato vs El Cobarde/Herodes/Goro Tsurumi = 1686 points in IWE on (3/26/81) 47. Jerry Lawler vs. Dory Funk Jr. = 4190 points in Memphis on (3/30/81) 11. Jerry Lawler vs. Terry Funk (Empty Arena) = 5918 points in Memphis on (4/6/81) 78. Antonio Inoki vs. Stan Hansen = 3974 points in New Japan on (4/23/81) 171. Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid = 1471 points in New Japan on (4/23/81) 99. Bill Dundee & Dream Machine vs. Kevin Sullivan & Wayne Farris = 2281 points in Memphis on (5/2/81) 26. Pat Patterson vs Sgt Slaughter = 7874 points in WWF on (5/4/81 MSG) 30. Jerry Lawler vs. Crusher Blackwell = 5099 points in Memphis on (5/4/81) 78. Dutch Mantell vs. Kevin Sullivan = 2929 points in Memphis on (5/9/81) 148. Jimmy Snuka vs. Ricky Steamboat = 903 points in All Japan on (6/3/81) 66. Bob Backlund vs Stan Hansen = 4829 points in WWF on (6/6/81 MSG) N/A. Nick Bockwinkel vs. Jim Brunzell = n/a points in AWA on (6/11/81) 90. Sgt Slaughter vs Rick McGraw = 2937 points in WWF on (6/20/81 Philadelphia PA) 104. George Takano vs. Stan Lane = 3471 points in New Japan on (7/24/81) 70. Bill Dundee, Steve Keirn, Rick & Robert Gibson vs. Dream Machine, Nightmare #1 & Heartbreakers = 3159 points in Memphis on (7/25/81) N/A. Adrian Adonis vs. Jim Brunzell = n/a points in AWA on (7/28/81) 51. Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee vs. Masa Fuchi & Atsushi Onita = 4057 points in Memphis on (8/1/81) 136. Mil Mascaras vs. Ricky Steamboat (2/3 Falls) = 1516 points in All Japan on (August 1981) 25. Ricky Morton & Eddie Gilbert vs. Masa Fuchi & Atsushi Onita (Tupelo Concession Stand Brawl) = 5299 points in Memphis on (9/4/81) 119. Tiger Mask/Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Pete Roberts/El Solitario = 3135 points in New Japan on (9/4/81) 114. Masa Fuchi, Atsushi Onita & Tojo Yamamoto vs. Roy Rogers, Rick & Robert Gibson = 1816 points in Memphis on (9/5/81) 130. Dos Caras & Mil Mascaras vs. Chavo Guerrero & Ricky Steamboat = 1845 points in All Japan on (9/6/81) 2. Andre the Giant vs. Stan Hansen = 7726 points in New Japan on (9/23/81) 61. Stan Lane & Koko Ware vs. Eddie Gilbert & Ricky Morton (No DQ, 2/3 Falls) = 3435 points in Memphis on (10/81) 102. Dory and Terry Funk vs. Umanoseke Ueda & Buck Robley = 2595 points in All Japan on (10/6/81) 55. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Isamu Teranishi = 4585 points in New Japan on (10/8/81) 44. Ric Flair vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (2/3 falls) = 3943 points in All Japan on (10/9/81) 76. Bruiser Brody vs. Dory Funk Jr. = 3210 points in All Japan on (10/9/81) N/A. East-West Connection vs. High Flyers (Cage Match) = n/a points in AWA on (10/25/81) 149. Tiger Mask & Kengo Kimura vs. Negro Navarro & El Signo = 2472 points in New Japan on (10/30/81) 73. Tiger Mask vs. Gran Hamada = 4057 points in New Japan on (11/6/81) 100. Andre Giant vs Killer Khan = 1114 points in WWF on (11/14/81 Philadelphia PA) 93. Don Muraco vs Pedro Morales = 2601 points in WWF on (11/23/81 MSG) N/A. Crusher Blackwell vs. Billy Robinson = n/a points in AWA on (12/3/81) 162. Tiger Mask vs. El Canek = 2035 points in New Japan on (12/8/81) 77. Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Andre the Giant & Rene Goulet = 3976 points in New Japan on (12/10/81) 20. Bruiser Brody & Jimmy Snuka vs. Dory and Terry Funk = 4779 points in All Japan on (12/13/81) 105. Bob Roop vs. Mike George = 4482 points in Midsouth on (12/16/81) N/A. Nick Bockwinkel vs. Billy Robinson = n/a points in AWA on (12/25/81) N/A. Andre the Giant & Cien Caras vs. Alfonso Dantes, Herodes y Sangre Chicana = n/a points in Lucha on (1981) Obviously, with different levels of participation between the sets direct comparisons via ranking or points aren't really applicable. I'd be curious for a top 4 from 1980 and top 4 from 1981 from amongst this crew. Andre/Hansen and Funk/Lawler (81) seem like no-brainers. As for 1980, Robinson/Bockwinkel (AJPW) and Fujinami/DK (NJPW) seem like favorites.

According to the Observer in 1992, it looks like by the second special, their ratings were pretty poor compared to what Fox was normally producing. 2/24/1992 issue: 11/30/1992 issue: 12/7/1992 issue: 3/1/1993 issue: 3/8/1993 issue: By 1994, you see stories about how WWF was trying to badmouth Fox's pre-NFL shows which was coming off as petty. I'm not a football fan, so I could be wrong, but my take was that especially after Fox got NFL in 1994, their interest in something like WWF (which from 1992-1994 was hurting) was not high at all.

You don't say!

I despise the Rookie award and its rules with a fucking passion. You need like triple confirmation on eligibility. Is Summer Rae actually actually eligible? Yeah - it's really a relic from the days where someone could break into a territory. Now, just seems archaic to apply such a strict standard. I'd rather it was something more like "Biggest Breakout/ Emerging Wrestler" which went to the person who achieved first prominence within a major company (you can get super technical about how you want to define that - CHIKARA? ROH? CZW? DDT? BIG JAPAN? NXT?) in the eligible year. I know that's not a perfect definition, but you probably get the idea.

I reckon if they show in 25 countries, they might get $2million from each one, or something like that. It's possible they mentioned a specific contract renewal in one of the SEC filings, but I nothing concrete is sticking in my brain right now. Here's a reference image. You can see how much the deal to return to USA resulted in them ending their TV advertising revenues (in the US, they retained a small bit for Canada) and how it was a net decrease for them, although the story of TV Rights is always portrayed as being just a rocket to the moon.

I think Kane is the interesting example. (As always, I recognize that these star ratings are only one person's opinion.) WIN: AVERAGE 0.875 STARS + Backlash 2009: 3. Kane pinned CM Punk in 9:25. *1/2 + Summerslam 2009: 4. Kane pinned Great Khali in 5:56. -* + Breaking Point 2009: 4. Kane pinned Great Khali in a Singapore Glen Jacobs match in 5:50. -* + Summerslam 2010: 5. Kane pinned Rey Mysterio to keep the world title in 13:32. **½ + Night of Champions 2010: 5. Kane pinned Undertaker in 18:27 to retain the World title. *3/4 + Hell in a Cell 2010: 6. Kane pinned Undertaker in 21:37 in a Hell in a Cell match to keep the world title. ½* + Bragging Rights 2010: 5. Kane beat Undertaker in 16:53 in the Buried Alive match to keep the World title. * + Wrestlemania 2012: 2. Kane pinned Randy Orton in 10:55. *3/4 LOSE: AVERAGE 2 STARS + Elimination Chamber 2010: 3. Drew McIntyre retained the IC title pinning Kane in 10:16. *1/4 + No Mercy 2008: 3. Rey Mysterio beat Kane via DQ in 10:10 in a match where Mysterio's mask was at stake. **3/4 + Cyber Sunday 2008: 1. Rey Mysterio pinned Kane in 10:17 in a No Holds Barred match. ** + Elimination Chamber 2012: 6. John Cena beat Kane in 21:20 of an ambulance match, only the second of its kind in WWE history. Cena *** + Extreme Rules 2012: 1. Randy Orton pinned Kane in 16:43 in a falls count anywhere match. *** + Summerslam 2012: 2. Daniel Bryan pinned Kane in 8:02. ** + Payback 2013: 4. Dean Ambrose beat Kane to retain the US title via count out in 9:33. **1/4 + Summerslam 2013: 2. Bray Wyatt pinned Kane in a Ring of Fire match in 7:48. DUD. DRAW: 1.75 + Royal Rumble 2012: 3. John Cena went to a double count out with Kane in 10:56. ** + Survivor Series 2010: 6. Kane retained the World title going to a double pin draw with Edge in 12:47. *1/2 It's interesting to look at some PPV feuds where Kane was on both sides with Cena, Rey, Orton: in all three cases, Kane's losses were rated higher than his wins. It's certainly not hard & fast evidence, and clearly could be rater's bias, though last time I looked at it, I did find that Kane seemed to have a negative effect on other people's singles' matches.

This may be tangentially related so I'll throw it in the pot. I was looking at which wrestlers had the largest consistent gaps in Meltzer star ratings between their singles wins and their singles losses over the last five years: http://bit.ly/17JsqEz The seven people who jumped out where Karl Anderson, Kane, Mickie James, HHH, Batista (all fared better in losses than wins) and Undertaker and Tetsuya Naito (fared better in wins than losses). (It's also interesting to see who had the smallest amount of variation between singles wins & losses which were: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Matt Morgan, Prince Devitt, Edge, Shelton Benjamin, Matt Hardy, Daniel Bryan. Basically, you got a similar rated match either way.)

This. I don't see Vince taking his flagship show off of basic cable. FS1 is clearly making moves to compete with ESPN, and eventually will be a prestigious channel, but they aren't there right now. Their launch was kind of rough with the cable companies, and UFC is taking a hit by being part of it. It will balance out for UFC because FOX is invested in them, but yeah. I guess if they threw enough money at WWE, RAW would definitely help their numbers and speed up the process, but I don't think Vince is inclined to go in that direction. I think he stays on USA, and I think the way the landscape is now he probably gets an increase on the value of the property, but he'd leave money on the table to stay on basic tv. It's interesting that the RAW and SD contracts are both coming up at the same time. They've been packaged together with NBC/Universal (along with WWECW/NXT) but WWE has shown a willingness to go and put shows on tv with competing companies lately. They have way too much product on tv right now IMO (and I think UFC has created the same problem for themselves), and they still have the WWE network in mind......whatever happens will say a lot about where the company is right now While the idea of RAW on a Sports network seems like an odd fit, so did moving from USA to TNN and they did that. Plus, as has been pointed out by others, they're on Sports Networks overseas and haven't ever batted an eye about it. There is an increased willingness that they'll follow the money, and they really want those increased rates. For Vince, having FS1 in the bidding is crucial because otherwise I don't see how they can leverage USA to give them more dough, at least not more money in the ranges they're asking for. As for network synergy, it's been a mixed bag. I think the last time every single show (except syndicated stuff) was on a single network was 2000-2005 though since Smackdown rejoined RAW's parent network in 2010, I guess you could say the last three years have been one major parent network for their A & B shows. They've had some C-level shows since 2009 floating around on other networks. TV review: Oct 2000-Oct 2005 was TNN-SpikeTV/MTV/UPN (Viacomm). In 2005, RAW returned to USA (NBCUniversal), Sunday Night Heat went to WWE.com but Smackdown moved to Fridays on UPN (Viacomm). 2006 they added ECW to SciFi (NBCUniversal) and moved Smackdown to CW (CBS/Time Warner). 2008 they moved Smackdown to MyNetworkTV (Fox). 2009 they added WWE Superstars (WGN America - owned by Tribune) and 2010 Smackdown moved to SyFy (NBCUniversal). 2012 added Saturday Morning Slam to CW (CBS/Time Warner) and Main Event to Ion (Pax). The more I think about it, the more willing I think Vince is to fracture Smackdown and RAW into two different networks, at least for some time. Especially with the potential of WWE Network still looming down the line. I think he prefers to make the money play, and sees his 3-4 million viewers as the cudgel he can yield effectively to squeeze cash out of during this negotiation.

Dave calls out specific matches:

Stevie or Davey?

Someone over on F4W asked about Brody and I pointed them to this thread. Meltzer weighed in just now,

FS1 still seems like more a natural fit than NBCSports or ESPN2 since they can try to justify luring WWE fans to lure some to watch their UFC shows. I still don't think Vince wants to be part of a Sports network and would rather try to squeeze the cash from entertainment channels like USA (or Spike). I could see him having more interest in moving a secondary property like Smackdown to FS1.