Steve Gennarelli

I think Vince is like most of the great performers turned bookers over the past 30-40 years. I think he was so enamored of his run on top with "Stone Cold" and the 10 years that followed milking that gimmick with an over the hill Hulk Hogan, Zach Gowan, the Divas, Bret Hart and countless others. He is so obsessed with "The Attitude Era" that its put a cramp on what he's doing with today's talent. Now mind you, some of what they were trying to do like make Daniel Bryan the champ were good decisions. They just had bad luck with him and Reigns getting injured at the worst possible time. It's just a shame that for whatever reason their TV has just gotten so awful. I think because the past 10 years of WWE and pro wrestling in general have been so unmemorable that guys who would be our future Superstars are no longer inspired to want to be a part of it. The Kurt Angles, Edge & Christians and other guys like that who were inspired by the 80's superstars...they have no one coming up to take their place partly because wrestling has become so antiquated as far as being a hot ticket item. The Monday Night Wars were exciting times, but that was so long ago...There are so few left to pick up the mantle. So its not all Vince living in the past...the oddball athletes who went into wrestling for quick cash and a wild lifestyle are not as available as they once were.

To his credit, Dave Meltzer has probably given us more entertainment via written word than the vast majority of the grapplers he has covered these past 30 years.

It will be interesting later this year around Dec when "The History of WWE" comes to DVD. Being that this is the 50th year of WWE and the fact that Bruno & Vince have reconcilled, I want to see a more factual telling of the history of the company. I'm glad that Dave Meltzer has played a role in "hyping" Bruno and his contribution to wrestling and to the WWE. For instance, the other day on the Observer website, Bruno won a poll that asked who the greatest WWE champion of all time was. If it wasn't for all of the Bruno coverage and interviews Dave has had this year, I'm sure Stone Cold or even Hogan would have won that.

Both guys were good. Haku was better as a tag guy. Bossman better as a singles guy as he was a legit threat to any Title he was going after. I'd give an edge to Bossman as he was a good heel and a good babyface and he could be put in that Main Event spot with credibility. King Tonga was a fine Mid Card guy and as Haku..the Islanders made a lot of sucky WWF cards a lot better. But he more enhanced the show than was the show.

There's also a Hulk Hogan Live deal at the Beacon Theatre.

No offense but the last time Greg Valentine had a great match was 1986. I'm just sayin'.

This is just me...but I didn't enjoy Randy's in ring work after his "retirement" loss to Anabolic (which was one of his all time great performances). His Ring gear changed and he was used more as a announcer or personality than as a pushed wrestler. Don't get me wrong..I'm glad he beat Flair for the title..but I thought he wasn't the same and I didn't really appreciate him again till he was in his WCW heyday. I especially liked when he came back all juiced up and he was essentially bigger than Hogan.

Randy Savage was such an incredible performer. What makes him better in my eyes than guys like Flair, Bret and so many others is his intensity. Randy could bring it and there's nothing he couldn't do in the ring. Talk about telling a story in the ring. He was another Rembrandt but his canvas was the squared circle.

Rude did the near impossible. Carrying Anabolic to credible, above average matches on many a night. Was one of the last great opponents for Jake Roberts before Jake became unwatchable. Would have been interesting to see him as Champ in either of the big 2 promotions, but injuries caught up to him before that could happen.

Hogan vs. Stan Hansen in '91 or '92 in Japan was great. Him carrying Anabolic to his best ever match, was probably Hogan's masterpiece though. WMVI

You can't compare the mid 80's "good guy" George Steele to the 70's George Steele who took great bumps and was a riot inducing maniac in the and out of the ring. He was a great gimmick brawler and a true powerhouse.

Zacko was a long time friend of Bruno's. He immigrated to the US from Syria and felt a comraderie with Bruno who was also an immigrant. According to a recent Bruno interview, it was Zacko who planted a bug in Bruno's ear not to take part in the NWA/WWWF title unification. Phil tipped Bruno off to the fact that he'd never see his young family if he took the offer. The Race/Sammartino match in St Louis was huge in the Apter magazines back in the day. Funny thing about the tag bout with Race/Robley vs. Bruno/Baba...Bruno didn't really take many bumps after his neck injury, but it looks like he forgot to tell Harley who took him up for a Suplex during the match.

If we're basing this on being a total package (ring work, charisma, box office appeal, interviews, etc) Roddy Piper would be at the top of my list. Gene Kiniski and Don Leo Jonathan were both All Time greats and Kiniski was one of the better NWA champs of the modern era. Pat Patterson would make the top 10 list of workers in the 70's due to his success in the AWA, SF for Shires and WWWF at the end of the decade. Least we forget the warm comments of Bret Hart toward Archie Gouldie "The Mongolian Stomper" who Bret christened the greatest Canadien star much to the dismay of Pat Patterson on a recent "Legends Roundtable" show.

Piper Superfan Teresa DeMarie was one of the first Superstars of the "Wrestling Observer" back in the 80's. Teresa, Brody "Superfan" Klon from Melbourne and I used to correspond and Teresa was extremely generous and sent me tapes, wrestling memorabilia, etc.

Career wise, DiBiase had a larger and richer body of work, but I will say..In my opinion, Bossman's primary WWF run ('88-'92) had more quality matches than Ted's. Ray gave Hogan some of his best matches. Bossman vs. Dusty, Bossman vs. Hennig...you name it... Bossman was a great heel and a surprisingly good face during his WWF tenure.

He was one of those guys who came off real in the ring. The only negative thing I could say about Harley is that the NWA went with him as champion for too long. Whoever was making the decisions, Sam Muchnick, Jim Barnett or a group of them together had this antiquated mindset that the champ had to be a shooter and Harley was the man for the job. I remember losing interest in wrestling sometime around the end of 1980 (after the Bruno/Zbyszko feud ended) and I was looking at the magazines periodically around '83 and couldn't believe that Harley was still champion when there all of these new young guys who the promotions could have built themselves around. Vince won the wrestling wars for many reasons but among them, knew how to balance the young stars with the veterans and knew who he could value out of by pushing them.

Vince Jr. would be a great topic. Verne would too. I'd add Farhat to the list. Maybe even Sam Muchnick.

The match from MSG where Morales beat him for the IC belt after hitting him with the Brass Knucks was one of the best Muraco matches. He did one of those crazy Shawn Michaels-style 180 bumps into the turnbuckles and being that he was probably 280, that was really impressive.

Terry was one of the biggest name in 70's Pro Wrestling. I'd say his "prime" in the business was in the 70's. So fans that learned of him in the 90's ECW and even those who saw him for the first time in his feud with Ric Flair in '89, are only seeing this great wrestling legend at about 60% of his full talent and ability. From the late 80's and on, the guy's knees were so gone, yet he still mesmerized audiences with his ability to be so "over" with the audience because Terry Funk IS one of the all time top performers in the ring. See if you can find tapes, DVD's or You Tube footage of him in the 70's and you will see Terry at his best.

When Muraco came into the WWF the first time with TGW...he was pretty lean and had these phenomenal matches with Backlund. The guy could do anything in the ring. I'd say he was in the top 10 workers in the world at that time. He was very agile and was a great heel. He returned with Albano as his Manager a year or two later and he was heavier, but had great brawls with Morales and others. The feud with Snuka was a big deal for a lot of fans then. It was good to have him still around as part of the WWF Glory years '84-'87 but really didn't contribute much in those years. Like HTM, his TV squashes were really good. A three match MSG run vs. Hogan which was pretty forgettable, Fuji Vice, the feud with Steamboat which was just OK...the tag team with Orton, the feud with Piper..I might be in the minority but I thought Muraco was hilarious in the skit where Orton & Adonis beat the hell out of Piper. In theory, Muraco should have been really over as a Fan Favorite, but he had just overstayed his welcome and was so burned out in the ring..to say he had lost his mojo would be a vast understatement.

I grew up in Binghamton NY. The WWWF had been on in our small market from Channel 9 in NY and we had wrestling on HBO in the mid 70's. In the late 70's, our local ABC affiliate would run Vince's show after the end of "American Bandstand" at 1:30pm on a Saturday. USA Network started running the WWF from MSG or Landover around '79 or '80. We didn't get TBS on cable until '86 or '87..so the WWF was considered "Major League" in NY, even in small Upstate towns. NWA was more for the hardcore audiences, but seemed minor league to the more casual fans who liked Production Values and were used to Vince's slick programs. Watts UWF show was a lot more impressive, IMO than any of the NWA Shows. Watts' shows were just filled with non stop action from beginning to end.