thebrainfollower

Some thoughts as I listen. I've got the WCW 1991 NJ show in full if you guys need a copy. I totally agree with you on Luger. I think a lot of it was he was a new generation of look and approach, more of a businessman than a frat boy not growing up (ironic given Luger's past) and that really rubbed people the wrong way. They didn't WANT people who admitted they were smart and thought of wrestling as a business. It's okay if you are but not okay if you behave if you are. Totally silly IMO. One thing occurred to me - would Luger have been better off if the Narcissist had never happened and his arrival on the USS Intrepid to slam Yokozuna had been his debut? Madden's comments are silly and flat out wrong. Flair did very little to bump up house show numbers in 91.

I agree Savage in 83 is nowhere near Hogan and not ready for it. But you need somebody for that top babyface spot. The company was built around it. Bruno too old, Savage too young, Backlund doesn't wanna sell. Maybe time to turn the Sarge?

And in a promotion dominated by babyfaces since day one.

Okay here's the problem with your plan as I see it. You had 4 young good workers who agreed to come work for you. You brought them all in as heels HUGE mistake. You've admitted for years you don't like Bob Backlund and his style wouldn't work for you and he's gone. You based a Bruno comeback that didn't work out as a short term plan. Did Vince Jr have a short term plan once he got full control of the booking in early 84? Nope he had a long term plan, strap that rocket to Hogan and let him run with it. IMO you should have brought Savage and Liz in as faces. The idea of "I can always turn Savage later and have him feud with Dibiase" is fundamentally flawed. Hogan wasn't brought in as a mid card heel and then turned and went to main event status. Austin was.........but that's 14 years later with a completely different society than in 1983. Right now you have a babyface world champion who's not really a main eventer and a top heel who just retired the fans hero and that didn't work either. Parv I love Ted Dibiase a lot too. But the fundamental truth is the man got as far in his real career as he SHOULD have reached. There's a fundamental lack of the "it" factor in Dibiase to be the leading figure in a major national promotion. Great worker, occasional main eventer, good promo but something's missing. Hogan's critique of Ted in his awful bio (at least his WWF run) strikes me as fairly accurate to be honest. You compare 83 Ted to 90 Pilman. Fair enough. But imagine if Starrcade 90 would have been heel Pillman RETIRING face Flair. For good. For real. Now do you begin to see how far you went with this? And Dibiase is not the star Savage is. Nor the performer IMO but certainly NOT the star. Your top faces right now are upper midcarder Snuka and non-factor Andre. Your top heels are Dibiase, Savage, Arn, Tully, Slaughter. That's heel overkill even by Kevin Sullivan booking standards.

If I were Vince, you'd be fired after this Parv. You downgraded the world title match to non main event status AND had the biggest star in the history of the promotion LOSE his big revenge angle and just fade away. This isn't even the Crockett style booking I was concerned you were going with. This is now HHH style ego run amok booking with your hero Ted Dibiase in that role. Sorry, love your podcasts and posts but this just isn't good booking IMO.

Has Parv gone the way of many bookers and been canned?

He really sold for that giant squid. And played a noble heel character in Rommel.

I have listened to most of Cornette's podcast. To put Alice even in your top 100 if you had such an absurd list is kinda funny. There are far worse people associated with pro wrestling. For a long time for me it would be HHH, but NXT earns him points with me and his behavior in big matches recently has been spot on. So I'm mellowing on the guy in my old age. I'm going to have to go with Vince Russo too. But the longer Russo stays out of stuff and the longer Vince McMahon stays, it might change

I knew the Tito Santana quote and shouted so out loud during it. I need help

They added about 6 Prime Time's but skipped the Orndorff heel turn episode and the one that has the amazing Bruno/Tito vs. Savage/Adonis cage match. Argh.

Vince closes the show with the announcement he's sold the company to Dixie Carter and they recreate the final Nitro with Dixie as Vince. And we find out next morning it was not an angle.

I dunno about this direction to be honest. It seems an awful lot like trying to turn the WWF into late 80's JCP with a quartet of evil heel elite workers who always seem to win and then keep the titles forever. I think WWF succeeded better at feel good moments where good ultimately triumphed far more often than not and changing that would sink the company in the end. So while I like a team of Ted, Randy and the Brainbusters at the end of the day they need to lose cleanly and decisively to the hot new babyface act whatever that might be.

First off I apologize for the awkwardness of the title. But on the latest Titans of Wrestling, the concept of a wrestler who a "new to you" match would excite you the most. (Ricky Steamboat is given as an example) Who is yours? I'm not talking about someone like Ed Lewis, where yeah 10 of his matches somehow being found would be awesome I mean someone we COULD actually get new footage, or new footage to you of. For me right now it's Nick Bockwinkel. Prior to joining Titans the only Bock I had seen was the stuff on the various WWE DVD's as well as the Wrestling Gold collection. Nowhere near enough Bock and any time I can watch some new Bock I just love it and can't wait to see the match.

Ric Flair's 1992 post match promo with the Brain and Perfect though I don't recall Perfect saying anything. You want to celebrate with them even though they are heels.

And to be honest neither house show looks like something I'd really want to see. They are a little below average for what the WWF was doing at the time, but on the other hand there's a logic to cold booking for a while during which the changes start to come.

You'd have to be pretty subtle about gay innuendos Parv. Also I just don't know if I see Cornette coming in 83 nor him being anywhere near ready for that role at that point in his life. A year or better yet 2 years later he could do it but as this point he just had the Memphis run. He simply didn't have the skills to do this yet.

How about - name the absurd stipulation Vince Russo DIDN'T use out of 4 choices.

After seeing last night Jerry can we safely take you out of the Vince is still a genius camp? lol

WWE has been steadily losing business for years. Its time is coming.

Totally pathetic. Vince's death is the only small chance this company has to live at this point.

There was actually a different song in between Eye of the Tiger and Real American so bad it has to be heard to be believed.

Never underestimate Vince's enjoyment of putting the people on top against each other just to amuse himself and send them a "message". Dictators do it all the time and that strikes me as his personality type.

No the 96 one has yet to come out but he did cover the Vader-Shawn feud in the 97 one.

Would it be heresy to say I prefer WM VII to III and think Warrior-Savage is better than Steamboat-Savage? Cause I think both of those things. Also Summerslam 90 was the first PPV I ever saw live so it holds a special memory. Although, at age 10 my parents STILL considered me too young to stay up late so I was off to bed after Harts-Demos with the Betamax taping the rest. I think that's why I still love that tag match more than others, it "main evented" my first PPV live experience.

I think Savage-Rude would have drawn decent money with Rude hitting on Elizabeth. Better than Savage-Bad News which didn't draw. Savage chasing heel champ Flair might have drawn better than the other way around. Rock-Taker at WM 19? Not sure I agree. The streak was more a fun anecdote than a big thing at that point. It really didn't come up much until WM 21. In general WCW 1998 just has no direction. It has one of the greatest collection of main eventers of all time and very few money main events. Too much politics prevented such an easy opportunity.