shakla

I've brought this point up before, but if Charlotte wasn't given an intro (already in ring/"jobber intro") last night, would that have made this situation better or worse? Also wanted to add. I'm tired of Divas tapping out super-fast. There was the Cameron/Naomi match (the one when Cameron went for a pin when Naomi was on her back) where Cameron tapped before Naomi even got the hold in. Last week, AJ taps out Nikki (who's around 6 inches taller and probably 30-40 lbs larger) in like a sec. Then last Raw, Summer Rae (close to 6', nearly a foot taller than AJ), is in control most of the match, then taps in a sec. At least make an attempt to reach the ropes or something.

I'm leaning toward that direction, although considering many of the winners (and several additional nominees) were MIA, seems like you would rig it to have people who could make it win awards. It was telling when they had that backstage shot of all the Diva of the Year noms, probably the only award where everyone was present. Although in the first year (I think) of the current Slammys incarnation, Maria won Diva of the Year, despite not being pushed as a top Diva and just langushing (this was right before her release). So I think that poll was legit, at least.

Surprised no one's mentioned Prince Iaukea beating Regal for the WCW TV Title on Nitro in 1997. Iaukea was a low-end JTTS at best, only WCW win I can find before that was against the Gambler on Saturday Night, Out of everyone on the super-deep WCW roster, they choose him. Prince even defended it successfully on 3 straight PPVs. I heard this was done to poke fun at Rocky Maivia's IC title win (the Iaukea win happened a few days after), but I'm not for sure on that.

Another one might be Bill Dundee. If you read the 4/11/1975 results for North Attleboro here: http://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/75.htm, there is a Bill Dundee listed, but there was also a Gene Dundee who is listed on several cards that year. So I assume it's a typo. Manny Fernandez is also a possibility. I know Stan Lane had an announcing gig with WWF, but was he ever "in the ring"? (Edit: Stan Lane was in the ring for this Yokozuna interview (18 min mark) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvmStnQXYko

You were right about Norton, that was late 1994, never knew that. Found the Garvin thing on historyofWWE.com, it mentions it being untelevised. I'm leaning toward no on that. And the podium isn't really "in ring". Never knew that he did that either.

Read the first section of the latest WON. Anyone else notice this flub: Dave also put up a listing of the biggest North American names of the last 40 years who have never stepped foot in a WWF/E ring, now that Sting has. Sorry if I'm cutting and pasting too much: I know Bockwinkel did the Meadowlands legends battle royal in 1987. I think Hodge was in the ring on Raw once for one of those Jim Ross tribute days. While Magnum TA, Bob Armstong and Abdullah have made WWE related appearances, I don't think they were ever in the ring. I'm thinking Chris Adams, Gino Hernandez, Scott Norton and maybe Jimmy Garvin (I know he did the World Class DVD, but has he even been in-ring?) could also be added (in terms of notable names, not like The Gambler in WCW). Anyone else?

I thought AJ's promos last night were cringe-inducing. Just trying too hard to be edgy. And she's supposed to be a face, right? If so, why? Plus playing her theme after the "sexually transmitted" promo despite losing the match, hate when they do that.

There's a WO website poll up now/yesterday (11/23 technically), "Who is the strongest Hall of Fame candidate from this list?". The first poll has everyone who will be added/returning to the 2015 ballot at this point. Also included is Ricki Starr. I thought he might be worth looking into after reading his bio in WON.

Wanted to bring this up since it's kinda a running bit on Bryan & Vinny. What do you think of WWE referring to the Rhodes Brothers tag team as "Gold & Stardust"? Like Goldust, part of WWE off-and-on for almost 20 years, apparently has the first name of "Gold" and the last name of "Dust" or "Ust". Only thing I can understand about it is that it sounds a bit smoother during ring intros.

Alright, from pre-network reviews I'm reading on Spring Stampede '00, did Scott Steiner actually use the Steinerized theme at that time? Seems so out of place.

Finally signed up for the network. Why not take advantage of it for a free week. I'm 40 minutes in on Spring Stampede 2000 (wanted to see if the cursing was intact as a test run, since Classics on Demand had it muted). More theme edits than I was expecting. I don't remember every WCW theme of that era, but it appears that Russo's Iron Man knockoff, Scott Steiner (with Steinerized) and Ernest Miller (awful dub, sounds like Rock Me Gently from the 70s) have been edited so far. Looking forward to the Hogan/Bischoff backstage stuff, possible drops there.

On a similar note, didn't Dave claim in the newsletter that a fair amount of US Voters also only voted for Big Daddy in the Europe category?

That really got my goat. I kept thinking, "I looked at Morales as a headliner" in my own research. I wasn't confused by his place in history. But suddenly because Dave did the headline count, it's now official? I don't get it. At this point, he really should consider moving things into a body of people who help make the decisions so they don't come across so arbitrarily. I brought this up earlier in the thread, but Morales fell off the ballot awhile ago and wasn't put on for another 5 or so years. So he's only been on at most, 10 ballots. Considering how people can go back on the ballot for a variety of reasons, and the way the HoF voting pool has expanded/evolved (plus how research is done), I don't think that gap should be held against him. Plus, this was his first year in the historical category. I don't know if that was fair to give him such a higher vote requirement to stay on the ballot with a different voting pool and different candidates in his new category. I think Dave should have put more work into who would would be subject to the 15/50% rule. It appears to me that he just looked at the 2000 results, saw who was still on the ballot, and went from there. Most were about to be on their 15th ballot, but a handful were not. You could have cut and paste the ballot names from the past in a spreadsheet and sorted them, would only take a few minutes to see the frequencies. And if you don't want to "reward" them for falling off the ballot, add 2 to the total ballots as a "punishment".

On the "when should a wrestler be in the historical category" viewpoint, since Dave tries to model the HoF in part by the baseball HoF, where you don't make the ballot until 5 years after the last season you played in the major leagues. Goose Gossage was not a superstar player the last 5+ years or so of his career, but since he last played in 1994, he got on in 2000. Ricky Henderson did independent league ball for a few years after his last MLB stint, but that didn't delay his ballot eligibility. Dave should probably reword that guideline to something like "last year spent as a regular performer in a major promotion".

So Murdoch was still a "major player" when he was in that garbage man outfit in the early 90s with Dick Slater? Or the Slamboree where he did the headscissors? I'm going to take it that it's time spent in a major promotion, as long as they weren't a non-descript job guy or such. It could get too subjective to determine when someone was a mid-carder or "didn't draw". You could even argue that Moolah would count for 1999/2000 since she won the WWF women's title, even though she was a joke character.

Glad he hasn't banished Morales yet. He had a long gap being off the ballot, like 5 or so years, so he wasn't on 15 ballots. Plus he just entered the historical category this year.

I hope that no irregularly-used Diva makes the "Most Overrated" Top 10 results this year, like Eva Marie last year. I don't see where she was rated at all, much less overrated. I wonder if Bray Wyatt will crack the list, since it seems he's been soured on as of late. Maybe AJ Lee too. Is it safe to say the "Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic" will be something Network/9.99 related? Possibly also add on "WWE announcers saying fans who paid full price for PPVs are stupid".

I remember on Donahue when Vince said steroids were legal "at the time" and Dave said "not in some states" and mentioned Florida at least.

I found Tony Rumble's obit on a library database, and there is a Dawna listed as one of his daughters. Maybe I'll look into this.

I've never watched it, didn't Tully do a time-limit draw with Shane Douglas and it was critically panned?

I heard there's a Grumpy Cat Christmas movie coming out soon on cable, probably what this appearance is all about. Not that I condone it. It's going to lame for sure. What the hell can it do? They might just show an image of the cat on the tron and do a voiceover or something, so it doesn't have to appear "in person". Remember earlier this year when they said "Scooby Doo and the whole gang" would be on RAW, and it was just Scooby in some mascot costume you'd see at Six Flags. So low rent, could have easily had people on the roster dress up in Scooby's human friends gear. This reminds me of that.

I agree with this. The tall and/or fat guys aren't "designed" or "booked" to know 100 different suplexes. Generally (if pushed), they are designed to be dominant, never leaving their feet, using basic moves to get their way. I've tried to stray away from those types in my "nominations".

Do the people "nominating" Jimmy Valiant mostly have memories of him in the late 80s/early 90s in various promotions (such as Abrams UWF) when he had slimmed down to a WWE Diva-ish weight? That's most of my memories of him, but I assume he did something great at his peak.

This could possibly go in the Meltzer thread, but on both the WO and Bryan/Vinny recaps of Raw, everyone was baffled why Rhodes Bros./Usos on Smackdown was plugged after Cody lost to a Matador. Not saying the booking/promotion has been great, but is it possible that since the Matadores are basically prelim guys, the "bookers" set up the SD match "not thinking" the Matadores would win matches in a row and put themselves into contention? Thought their outrage a little much, not saying that this turn of events is good or anything.

Plus, wasn't Dusty set to have a knee replacement not too long after this? I remember Dave saying something about it at that point since Dusty had noticeably lost some weight.