SteveJRogers

As someone who should be in midst of tracking the WHC on WWE PPV for a PTBN piece (that's a shit ton of acronyms)...D'OH!

Parv's question is why so many notable former fans, or fans of that era at least list Strongbow among their favorite wrestlers. I'm answering THAT point.

LOL! No, those are pretty vaild, but as I've been saying are pretty meaningless to someone looking back fondly at something they enjoyed in their past, and don't care all that much about how the sausages are made, and look at wrestling in the "its all popcorn entertainment."

PROOF that Rod Smart was NO innovator! Though...MAYBE he was the start of the Haters Gonna Hate reverse-trolling!

WHILE he was a Jet? Geez! LOL, wonder if any WWWF marks wondered why he didn't don the head dress gimmick on the sidelines! Okay, granted it would be some time before Joe Namath donned his classic fur coats on the sidelines but still =

LOL! Here is the key part that Parv is forgetting, the cartoonish aspect of wrestling is probably what appeals to the "noted" people that throw Strongbow's name out there. A generation later its Jim Duggan, and eventually Ultimate Warrior, Undertaker, etc. Throw in characters like The Road Warriors, Sting, hell even a strong "work rate" guy with crazy stringy hair and neat beard but gave rambling promos and called himself "Macho Man" and you see why the general audiences (many of whom lapsed in their fandom no doubt) have more of a fondness for the over the top cartoon characters than say a good technical wrestler that was just another name on the roster to them. HELL PARV, what is the ONE THING that your Teddy Boy is know for the most? Not the guy Patterson feuded with when Ted's title got transferred to the IC belt or Hogan's first WWF opponent. Not for taking "sick" piledriver bumps in Georgia and was in the hospital for months. Not for being a great heel in MidSouth. Its when he became a cackling, over the top Scrooge McDuck like cartoon character as The Million Dollar Man, and even then if you asked any general/causal fan back then, they probably would recall more his promos, skits, Andre handing him the title, etc more so than his in ring prowess at the time. JBL used the gimmick as well, but the point of both DiBiase and JBL was the gimmick and that they weren't perceived as "talented" as in ring wrestlers as their opponents. THAT was the point of the Million Dollar Man and the JBL gimmicks (though JBL had a title run and DiBiase didn't). All that despite both being good workers and performers in the ring. Its the GIMMICK that matters to a lot of general/causal fans, especially to those recounting memories of long ago. THAT'S exactly why Strongbow is over when people are waxing nostalgic about 1970s WWWF.

That IYH Buried Alive PPV from October 1996 that Mick wrote about actually was the last PPV before this year's Battleground that did NOT feature a Heavyweight Champion involved in a match on the PPV proper. Shawn Michaels did however have a title match against Goldust (Dustin's only PPV shot at a heavyweight title) in a post PPV match: from http://prowrestlinghistory.com/supercards/usa/wwf/wwfindex.html Buried Alive October 20, 1996 in Indianapolis, IN Market Square Arena drawing 9,649 ($135,605) Shown live on PPV (0.4) Barry Windham pinned Justin Bradshaw (20:00). Steve Austin pinned Hunter Hearst Helmsley (15:30). WWF Tag Champs Davey Smith & Owen Hart beat The Smoking Gunns (9:17) when Owen pinned Billy. WWF I-C Champ Marc Mero pinned Goldust (11:38). Sycho Sid pinned Vader (8:00). The Undertaker beat Mankind (18:25) in a "buried alive" match. Henry & Phineas Godwinn beat The New Rockers when pinned Cassidy was pinned. WWF World Champ Shawn Michaels pinned Goldust.

I'd love to know why they didn't use the Knicks' PA guy (I'd assume he was also the Rangers' PA guy as well), John Condon for ring announcing duties? Not like PA announcers were exclusive to one venue, etc. Heh, can you imagine iconic Yankee Stadium announcer Bob Sheppard introducing wrestlers?

Getting PPV programming from illegal means, be it a cable de-scrambler or someone online is greatly different than getting free access to the WWE Network. One is a decades old tried and true platform where you can do that with tons of different programming (movies, concerts, boxing, UFC, Evil Kinevil daredevil events, hell I think Bobby Riggs v Billie Jean King tennis match was a PPV event, etc) and in recent years WWE events have been quite hefty price wise. The other is a brand new gambit of a platform for the company that could in fact change the landscape of how all professional sports leagues, and other entertainment based companies push their televised content onto the public for mass consumption. Especially at a lowish cost. Imagine paying 10 bucks a month to get archives of your favorite baseball, hockey, basketball, football or whatever team? THAT'S what the success of something like the WWE Network could bring about. Which is another point, this is the WWE themselves, and while you were hurting the WWE in terms of loss of a PPV buy, it was kinda indirectly, but you were more directly hurting your cable provider with that practice of getting the PPV illegally.

Also, the next one should be most interesting with the vitriol. BTW, when did Kevin start at ROH? Could have sworn it was 03-04, but Kevin's Wiki page says 2010. Would put a kabash on an idea I had for Kevin's show, or a way to keep these special guest spots going.

Batista takes a personal pipe bomb as well!

Found a brand new rewatch show. Yes, yet another WWF Attitude Era one, but I think the hosts are entertaining: http://www.earth-2.net/podcasts/acureforthecommonpodcast/acureforthecommonpodcast.php Right now they are set up as a limited series just going through one year, and they've just started, so no idea if they intend to go beyond 1997.

Look up SABR and SABRmetrics.

My only guess is that they are waiting for Raw to catch up and do Raw/ECW/Nitro all at the same time.

Is Ziggler any more sillier than taking your given name and turning it into a same sounding characteristic for your stage name?

Kelly didn't think "Dolph Ziggler" sounded like a name you'd give a championship belt to.

That means you are turning Brock/Heyman face because Triple H doesn't need the "Plan C?" Or turn the Authority face just to keep Brock/Heyman heel in a "YOU DOUBLE CROSSING NO GOOD SO-AND-SO" way?

But he never admitted it publicly, that's huge for a gay person. I've known two people in my life who killed themselves over the struggle to admit they were gay. Didn't matter that everyone in their inner circle knew they were gay, or that in the case of one of them we had met a couple of her girlfriends over the years. They had never outright told us and admitted to the world that they were gay, the weight of "officially" coming out was too heavy for them to take. I've read too many notes from gay people over the years that detail nodding/laughing at gay jokes being told by others and then crying later over the same jokes when they were finally alone. On the flip side, I didn't know Sally Ride was a lesbian until people on social media used her passing as part of clamoring on for gay marriage laws (essentially it was a shame that her long time partner would never get the same benefits that a married couple would have). I didn't know Jack Larson, guy who played Jimmy Olsen in the old 1950s Superman live action show, was gay until I saw it in passing a "what he is doing now" blurb in a book on Superman in movies & TV. I was taken aback slightly in a "well, I hope Larson gave the author permission to out him" way (akin to that Kevin Kline In & Out movie that was based off of Tom Hanks mentioning the homosexuality of an old teacher of his when giving his Oscar winning speech for...I want to say it was for Philadelphia), but then I figured that's about as normal as a hetro relationship and a good sign as any about how far things have come in that regard. Sean Hayes and David Hyde Pierce both had given sharp "ITS NO ONE'S DAMN BUSINESS" any time the subject came up during their runs on Will & Grace and Frasier respectively and only revealing their preferences after the shows had ended due to way too many questions based on the way they portrayed Jack and Niles respectively. Granted, yes I am referring to noted people and entertainers, the latter category of which is where Pat Patterson belongs, so it probably is easier for them to exist as they are without formerly and publicly coming out, and you are talking about something starkly different, but there are those out there that do feel that it is a private matter and shouldn't be made for public knowledge (even if its just admitting it to everyone they know well). Hell, you can say the same about how many times we don't know an entertainer's or athlete's civilian husband/wife and family life if that is from, or is in, a different world than one in the public eye.

For some reason I want to say they started after news had leaked about the infamous backstage meeting where Bischoff told everyone that Hogan and Piper were the only draws in the lockerroom. Makes sense, if my theory is correct, that Hall would pull that as a stunt after that big dressing down.

Speaking of which, I wonder how much footage of the 1972 Shea card (9/30 with a Sammartino-Morales Main Event 65 minute draw) exists.

Is the June 25th 1976 card in the pipline for a Titans '75 episode? From ProWrestlingHistory.com: Showdown at Shea 1976 June 25, 1976 in Flushing, NY Shea Stadium drawing 32,000 ($400,000) Ivan Putski beat Baron Scicluna. Jose Gonzales drew Kevin Sullivan (20:00). WWWF Tag Champs Jay Strongbow & Billy White Wolf beat The Executioners in three falls. The Executioners were DQed in the third fall. Andre the Giant beat Chuck Wepner (1:15 - 3rd) via countout in a "wrestler vs boxer" match. WWWF World Champ Bruno Sammartino beat Stan Hansen (10:19) via countout. Antonio Inoki drew Muhammad Ali (15 Rnds) in a "wrestler vs boxer" match. This occurred in Tokyo, Japan and was shown on closed circuit TV. Due to time zone differences this match actually occurred on June 26, 1976.

I've seen a traditional Irish group (think country/folk/singer-songwriter soft rock) called The Wolftones splinter into two groups with tge same name. How about Frankie Vali keeping the Four Seasons name on his live concert group? Long after even the 1970s era (December, 1963 Oh What A Night) members have left. That'd be like Paul McCartney still slapping "Wings" on his touring band, even if that's what history unfortunately (and even some of the official histories) seems to consider Wings.

Was Triple H part of the angle or was he jumping in there because Bray was bleeding? He was advertized as Bray's second, with Flair in Cena's corner.

Does Soundcloud have an actual RSS feed that I can plug in? Weening my way off of the Evil Empire of Apple and going with another podcast aggregating program that doesn't pickup either the iTunes feed, or Jackson's soundcloud page as something one can subscribe to.

Well, Rewind was due the week earlier, but was preempted by the Vicki Guerrero special. FYI, I know I'm preaching to the choir, but they did Eddie-Angle as a Rewind a while back, and while Kurt MAY return when his TNA deal runs out in the Fall, I'd doubt that was a sign!