Migs

I had the choice and I'm going to Field of Honor, but I'm not sure that's the choice I've made if ROH wasn't featuring Okada and Nakamura.

I spent a lot of time writing up TNM 7 cards for fantasy booking purposes. They had a great list serve where people would post ongoing projects and others would discuss the shows. Even if TNM isn't being supported anymore, I would bet a google search turns up people still updating it. It was really easy to create characters. There's also a site that has rule sets for various booking games (like setting up a modern NWA) that I believe still has one of my contributions up on it.

Yep.

Good write up. I didn't know the reason the Rock N Roll didn't stay longer in AWA is because they were on the list of guys who left AWA during the winter because it was too cold. Didn't they work the AWA in the spring and then leave back for Crockett in the summer? Not sure that explanation holds up.

Watching some 1988 AWA. It's not good, but it's some of the first wrestling I watched as a kid. I didn't have cable at home, but my great-grandmother would watch me after school, and she had cable. I'd watch wrestling and then explain to her everything that happened. She was an immigrant - she'd come to the US from Italy in her teens. She never was the best at English. She doted on me with verve. My grandmother once witnessed me giving my AWA rundown to her. She asked her - do you have any idea what he was talking about? No, she said, but he likes when I listen. She was the best, and bad matches from the Showboat Sports Pavilion make me think of her.

I'm unable to accurately judge SNME because it's just so completely the definition of my childhood wrestling fandom.

Is there anything that details this plan? Don't think I've ever heard about it. I would think the impact on Vince would come later - the raid basically strips away all the guys he went to in 92-95 when the steroid trials hit.

They had a really good match against The Midnight Rockers there. Not sure how long they were together as a team. It couldn't have been more than a couple of months - Orton shows up in January, and Adonis is gone by April.

The spoilers involving the TNA-GFW "war" sound incredibly stupid.

Bob Orton in the AWA in 1988. Apparently he and Adrian Adonis were a team for a bit.

Raw is phenomenal for this.

I kinda weirdly liked Bockwinkel's commentary when I came across it. He really tried to explain stuff, which was particularly amusing calling 80s WWF undercard matches.

Shane Douglas is my favorite wrestler ever. Also amazing? Edge. I frequently skip the Japanese matches when watching Yearbooks. (Although I'm enjoying current New Japan with English commentary.) Along the same lines, my favorite Japanese wrestler from the 90s is definitely Masato Tanaka. I can watch Raven angles for hours. And I still enjoy watching many of those matches.

The NWA was also using some awful green screen to try to make it seem like some promos were at ringside.

Watching WWF and NWA from 1988, which is when I started watching. WWF - Interesting to see how much the WWF at that point was revolving around Hogan-Andre. Dibiase comes off well here, too. After a Hogan-Rude match in Boston, Dibiase attacks and gets a huge blade job from Hogan off a belt shot. If I was an adult at this point and watching the inane Islanders-Bulldogs angle based around the Islanders stealing a dog, I'd have been driven nuts. NWA - January was a pretty hot month for them, with the Horsemen going to war with Luger, Windham, and Sting. Hard to figure out why the Bunkhouse Stampede card is so terrible, though, given how hot the promotion is. Mighty Wilbur's hospital bed promo where he tries to put over the Bunkhouse Stampede match is wonderful unintentional comedy.

Definitely agree: this place is the anti-coliseum. I was in the balcony, but it looked like the people who paid for floor seats got hosed. There are outdoor junior high basketball courts in NYC more fit to house wrestling than this. And those courts serve better drinks. I actually once saw a wrestling show at a junior high basketball court in Philly. It involved the Rockin Rebel. And yes, I had a much better view of the action than at Terminal 5.

I can absolutely change the name of an apple over time. I may not get a lot of people to agree with me right away, but it's totally possible. Xerox got a mimeograph machine to forever be called a Xerox machine. Since you enjoy going academic, I suggest reading some Durkheim.

There's plenty of really good matches on Prime Time if you dig through. Generally speaking, you just want to focus on the obvious names. One that sticks out specifically is Savage/Adonis v. Sammartino/Santana in a cage in the summer of '86, which has crazy heat. But I mean, if you see Bret Hart and Ricky Steamboat... go for it. Skip the 15 minute Pedro Morales matches.

A few live comments: - Terminal 5 might be one of the worst wrestling venues I've ever been to. Terrible sight lines. It's my least favorite concert venue in NYC and now my least favorite wrestling venue. - The NYC crowd really was into Dalton. My group spent a lot of time attempting to find a Dalton Castle shirt online. - Holy lord is the Bullet Club over. By far the most popular shirt in the building too. - Felt like a split crowd on Lethal and Briscoe, which made for a fun environment. - The "You Deserve This" chant that Lethal got may be even worse than "This is Awesome."

FYI, the Low Ki-Xavier ladder match is on Youtube (in 4 parts). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgKr7d504Iw

"Can you imagine Dean Ambrose as champion in a corporate environment?" They are literally giving Ambrose the Steve Austin storyline from 1998.

If whoever ran the LA territory was able to keep his finger somewhat on the pulse, I think it would have thrived. Even in lean times, you could lean on bringing in some luchadores to draw, and SoCal had a very solid generation of talent that started up in the late 90s/early 2000s, with Super Dragon, Samoa Joe, the other PWG guys. I don't know John Cena would get affected, but he kinda broke in out here. Same with Miz. I think that, in the end, you end up with a product built around smaller guys that can mix with the lucha style, like a larger Rev Pro/PWG style. Basically, what the SoCal scene is now, but on a bigger stage. I think guys like Kaos (from XPW), Super Dragon, Joey Ryan, Samoa Joe would all end up being bigger stars than they were in real life. Tag team scene with Aerial Express (Scorpio Sky and Quicksilver), RockNES Monsters, Chris Bosh/Scott Lost, and more? Sign me up. Another guy who might have broken out, barring injury, would have been Human Tornado, he was really charismatic. Of course, in the 80s, it could have gotten stuck as a 'big man' mini-New York, thanks to Hollywood and TV. If it didn't, though, it would have been cool to see a 'lucharesu' territory on a big stage. Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio would have been HUGE stars in LA in the 90s. Just absolutely massive, with Eddie building on his brother Chavo's popularity there. This would have been a big deal because of the way Spanish language television took off nationally in the 90s - they'd have been more national stars than some of the other guys. The indie scene that evolved out there would have been so easily incorporated, because a lot of those guys were really descendants of Eddie and Rey's styles as it was.

I'm intrigued by what direction New York would take. Assume that Backlund is still pushed out at the same time, but that Hogan, because he's working Japan so frequently, doesn't become the ace there. Who fits their mold? I could almost see a Bruno nostalgia run culminating in the title in '86-'87, but long-term, I'm having trouble seeing how that progresses. And it's pretty key to this theoretical world, because New York always had a fair amount of sway, even before Vince Jr.'s expansion. Maybe Vader gets in their earlier and has a run as a monster heel champ in a transition phase? Maybe the same is true for Sid? If we're not thinking of Vince Jr.'s preferences, maybe Bret Hart still ends up with a run there, as the comparison to Backlund is not completely off? If we're thinking of Vince Jr., maybe Luger or Sting end up there early on and have a bigger run? The Rock almost certainly still ends up there because of his family ties, and is definitely still a big deal.

Oh man, Wes' comps brought me so much joy as an indy nerd in those years. Like, about 60 hours of joy (8 comps * 8 hours...)