Lee Casebolt

Serious question - are TNA ppvs profitable? 17,000 buys at $50 a pop is $850,000, half that goes to the carriers... I have no idea what TV production runs, but they can't be actually making money on these, can they?

Is this the alternate universe where WCW held onto Austin, Pillman, Foley, and Regal and pushed them as major players instead of Hogan & Company? Because I love that one.

The Hart/Michaels Iron Man match should have been about 1000x better than it was.

Pre-96, and pre-90 without having to think about it too hard. '89 is easily my favorite year in wrestling, plus I love digging back as far as humanly possible into the archives - the 1930s, 20s, and earlier.

My favorite memory of Young is him sliding out of the ring to get in a position where he could actually see a wrestler's shoulders before counting a pin. I am 90% certain this was in the '89 Flair/Steamboat series, though I couldn't tell you which one.

Abyss has always been a cheap Kane knockoff, with all that implies.

Champion Carnival 1998 First Round: Steve Williams [14] defeats Gary Albright [8] (10:04) 4/11/98 AJPW Champion Carnival 1998 - Tag 14 @ Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan Champion Carnival 1997 First Round: Gary Albright [6] defeats Steve Williams [9] (11:21) 4/5/97 AJPW Champion Carnival 1997 - Tag 12 @ Okayama Budokan in Okayama, Japan Champion Carnival 1996 First Round: Gary Albright [12] vs. Steve Williams [10] - Time Limit Draw (30:00) 4/1/96 AJPW Champion Carnival 1996 - Tag 9 @ Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium in Osaka, Japan Steve Williams defeats Gary Albright 5/23/96 AJPW Super Power Series 1996 - Tag 5 @ Nakajima Sports Center in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan They also faced each other in a ton of Tag matches. Cool. Any of those make tape?

No one would ever buy dope from Backlund. Can you think of a more obvious narc?

Any combination of Terry Funk, Roddy Piper, and Randy Savage? (I realize this one will be of interest only to me) Steve Williams vs Gary Albright?

Terrifying that "corporate reputation towards female employees" would be an argument in favor of WWE. Not wrong, just frightening.

TNA is basically a late-period WCW tribute band of a promotion.

For Dustin, probably the Vader Clash match. For Goldust, the Backlot Brawl with Piper was a match I didn't think much of at the time, but it's really grown on me over the years. His tag work with Cody's been his best sustained run, though.

Lawlor is/was a regular on DVDVR for many years.

Ricky Morton - too obvious?

I wouldn't know where to start making that case, but I think it's safe to say the last four years or so is easily the best in-ring run in the company's history. It's simple math. They have too many good workers working too many shows - they're going to kick out some top shelf matches just by accident trying to fill all that time. The current period, I think, is the high point, but it's been a pretty steady build over the last few years. If you haven't caught up, you're in for a treat when you do.

I liked EC a lot, but I'm not even convinced it was the best match on this card.

Nope. I've never gotten any grief about it, either, except from one uncle who could never resist the "that's so fake!" when it was on tv. Of course, he can't help doing the same thing when watching Rocky. It's like some kind of Tourrette's with him. I was in college in the Attitude Era, and would watch Raw in the dorm on my girlfriend's tv. It bothered her so much she married me. On the professional front, I used wrestling terminology to explain to actors how to do fight scenes and wrote my Master's thesis on the influence of gambling on 19th c. pro wrestling. One of my committee members sort of held my whole topic in contempt, but he likewise treats pretty much everything that way, and my committee chair was a 60+ gentleman from South Carolina who was a long lapsed fan.

A few months ago I was watching a bunch of '89 All Japan, and it struck me how Kawada's work was similar in tone to Daniel Bryan a few years ago, or Chris Benoit early in his WCW run. Undersized and working against more established stars, and trying to make up the lack with athleticism and aggression.

Gary Goodridge/Naoya Ogawa, Pride 4.

Steven Seagal's goes back to 1988. He did the job in Executive Decision, but other than that...

The high point of the night.

You don't believe TNA would do something foolish and fiscally irresponsible? Sounds plausible to me.

It is. I've loved Cattle Mutilation since I saw Muta bust it out at Starrcade '89 and didn't have a name for it. "Cattle Mutilation" is a stupid name but "bridged double arm bar" is kind of a mouthful. I also like a good Indian deathlock. Really, if the execution is there, I like pretty much any hold except those where the wrestler puts themselves on their back. Those seem pretty self defeating.

I am probably the only person in the world who genuinely enjoys the Inoki vs The World proto-MMA matches. Add in Inoki/Andre, Inoki/Robinson, and Inoki/Brisco, plus the abuse he took to put over Vader, and I could never hate Inoki. I love 70s Inoki, I don't mind 80s Inoki, and I sort of tolerate 90s Inoki.

In the late 90s, ESPN Classic used to re-run 50s and 60s wrestling at odd hours, which worked for me since odd hours was when I was up. Gorgeous George figured pretty prominently on those shows. My biggest impression of George was that, gimmick aside, he was an incredibly intense worker. He did a lot of stooging, but his offense was snug, well-executed, and dangerous looking. In particular, I vividly remember him hitting one of the nastiest piledrivers I've ever seen in a match I can otherwise no longer recall.