C.S.

Did Hugo actually break anything about Saudi though? All I remember him doing is regurgitating everything we had already read online in the few days after it happened. I could be wrong, and I'll stand corrected if I am, but he seems like another guy spouting secondhand hearsay to me.

As easy as it is to pile on WWE, Hugo Savinovich isn't there, hasn't been there in years, and doesn't know shit.

Done! Battle of the Tough Guys: No Holds Barred II - Austin Aries vs. Low-Ki

Forget about Rip and Zeus, BRRRRROTHER - Austin Aries vs. Low-Ki is the real Battle of the Tough Guys, and their presence guarantees plenty of DOOKIE! Who is the better/worse worker, tough guy, draw, etc.? Basically any metric you can think of is up for discussion here. Austin Aries is an arrogant asshole has its own thread, so keep those comments there. This is more about the rasslin'.

I could see him doing something like listing a bunch of house show matches with, say, Rey Mysterio, and then using that to discuss Rey as a wrestler, throw in some personal, stories, etc. But who knows. Wish this wasn't only available on a specialty site.

Didn't the book's publication pre-date most of that though? So, I remember it all being really fresh and interesting at the time. Glad I didn't pay full price for this. I'll wait until it's a couple of bucks on KIndle, just to have it for the sake of completion. Drew McIntyre and Jericho both have new books coming out. The Jericho book is seemingly only available from a specialty website for a jacked-up price, but the concept is cool - it's basically a diary of every match he's ever wrestled in (up to a certain point, I would imagine). https://thescribestore.com/products/the-complete-list-of-jericho-by-chris-jericho

This is basically a WWE Network/Peacock doc, except on A&E instead. I thought it was fun too, but the whole thing was faker than pro wrestling. Like I really believe Triple H was just waiting around the WWE Warehouse for Mick's call...lole. But I enjoyed it anyway.

Particularly Jerry Jarrett - HOLYYYYYY SHIT! Speaking of which, is Jerry Jarrett okay? He used to have a podcast with @Sean Liska@Sean Reedy (not sure which of these names is current, if either) and was active on Twitter, but the podcast hasn't been updated since 2019 (at least on iTunes) and I haven't seen him on Twitter in a while.

Yeah, you're right. I guess that was still the Skaaland era. I assume Chapter 13 about Bruno is where he explains why it never happened. I stopped at 12/13 to investigate the "missing chapter."

Interesting. I wonder why Vince Sr. never wanted Gary Hart. Maybe he felt the Three Wise Men were enough, and no one else could compare? Hard to fuck with the quality of Albano, Blassie, and Grand Wizard, to be fair, although I consider Gary Hart in the same league.

I'm reading Gary Hart's book now, and it's amazing. I just have one question, which I'll get to below... But first, full disclosure: I'm reading the PDF that's floating around the net, because the original book has been out of print for years, used copies go for stupidly high prices, and the co-author refuses to re-release it legitimately - even when Court Bauer offered to pay him for the publication rights, or so that story goes. I would GLADLY buy a legitimate copy of the book for a fair price should it ever be republished. With all of that out of the way, does anyone know if all of the PDF versions out there are missing Chapter 12? (The one about NY and MSG.) Mine goes from a blank Chapter 12 to Chapter 13 about Bruno. That's where I am now, so I don't know if there are any other idiosyncrasies like that. I know the PDF version is said to be a "rough draft" and different from the final publication, which is another reason I'd gladly buy it legitimately if it's ever republished. Note: I am not advocating piracy. Like I said, I would GLADLY buy a legitimate copy of the book for a fair price should it ever be republished.

A lot of people sadly think the way Low-Ki does. Aries is his own brand of crazy arrogance.

I'm no Low-Ki fan either, but he at least has a charisma, ring presence, and magnetism that a bland geek like Aries will never have.

@joeg Nah, Low-Ki is a piece of shit too. One random example: Personal assholery aside though, I would still watch a Low-Ki match over Aries any day of the week (if I were forced to choose between the two, that is).

I just want to say that I miss the hell out of this thread. If @The Thread Killer got burned out doing recaps, I more than understand - it's obviously hard and time-consuming work - but I loved reading them.

Best. Tweet. Ever.

No idea if he was injured, but having Junkyard Dog and Mr. Hughes on opposite sides probably led to the angle where JYD accidentally blinded Hughes by punching his sunglasses into his eyes, showed compassion, and Hughes turned babyface and became tag team partners with Junkyard Dog as "Big Cat" Curtis Hughes.

He sold for Chyna, so why wouldn't he sell for Regal? In a way, we should thank our lucky stars Austin vs. Williams never happened - because Vince Russo would've made it all about Austin's real name being Steve Williams and come up with a bunch of convoluted crap around that.

That is a pretty awesome idea, even if it would've only led to Austin destroying them both on a random December PPV or something.

Cornette is wildly overrated as as a booker and always has been. He gets way too much goodwill because he managed the Midnight Express. Agreed about Bart Gunn. As stupid and misguided as the Brawl for All was, knocking out Doc and winning the dumb thing really felt like a star-making moment and gave him an aura he never had before. So, of course, WWE had to fuck that up and put him on ice for months. Let's not even get started on WrestleMania, where they proceeded to embarrass Bart against Butterbean, who never stepped foot in the company again after that. Then again, I think that was Bart's swan song too. What a waste of time and talent.

Speaking of Dave Marquez and being blocked on Twitter...oof! Wonder what the hell really happened here... I suspect we'll never find out, and it's probably not all that interesting anyway, but still.

I don't know... WWE's jobbers had actual characters and personality - Brooklyn Brawler, Barry Horowitz, Jim Powers, Duane Gill and Barry Hardy, Jim Brunzell (who was a bottom of the barrel job guy by the early '90s), etc. As for the WCW job guys, I always thought Mike Thor would get more of a push. He seemed to have "the look." I never understood why Rip Rogers was a WCW jobber either. With all of that said, the one awesome thing WCW did was that Battle of the Underdogs series on WCW Saturday Night. Bob Cook was pretty great. Mustafa Saed was also in it.

If this isn't proof that Mauro is the true star, draw, and selling point of this PPV, I don't know what is.

An old man shouldn't "get" entertainment presumably geared toward attracting a younger demographic. Explains why WWE hasn't been able to do that successfully in a long time.

Now former co-worker. I wonder if she knew it was coming and had no fucks left to give. BTW, yeah, that NXT logo is a hot mess. Really hope it's a prototype for the next TakeOver. It's still shitty, but as a once-off for a themed PPV, I can tolerate it.