JRH

They just uploaded the most recent Brock documentary as well as the Lawler doc.

Speaking of those coliseum "profile" tapes, im surprised they never made one for Tito Santana. Would have been better than that awful George Steele video (where he LOST the majority of matches featured on that tape).

Speaking of jobbers teaming with big names, i came upon a 1990 match where Tito Santana teaming with Jim Brunzell against Demolition. Not as bad, but there's also a 1989 handicap match with Tito and Jim Powers against Andre the Giant.

Actually, I think they were teasing a Garvin/Rick Martel feud in late summer 1990, i know it was talked about in WWF Magazine, but it only led to one match on All-American where Martel won. I believe the last Garvin TV match was against Sgt. Slaughter in September or October. Also, i cant wait for next week's discussion on Coliseum video.

Actually, Austin's autobiography does end with a discussion about what changes he'd make to the WWE if he was in charge.

They briefly touched on this, but the way interviews changed should also be noted. As the 80s went on, the faces became more and more superheroic in their promos (aside from Jake Roberts, who kept his subtle interview style) while the heels became more and more cartoonishly heel. Granted, this arguably started with Savage and Piper (both of whom had an over the top style as both heels and faces), but compare some of Hogan's early promos from 84 or 85 to his infamous WM4 interview about him destroying trump plaza and the hulkamaniacs jumping onto his back, or Jimmy Hart going from flashy when he first came in into a screaming maniac by the end of the 80s/early 90s. Also, I dont have twitter, but i do have a question for the mailbag (about Lord Alfred Hayes inexplicably being a heel broadcaster in 93-4), is there a way to send a question without twitter?

I'm probably the only one who'd want it, but a sequel to HBK's book (not the religious one he put out a few years ago) would be interesting to read. The first book ends with the Rockers reunion, but the sequel could go into the God feud (i'd want to see what shawn's real feelings on it were), the dx reunion, flair's retirement match, the jericho feud, and the taker feud and subsequent retirement.

This is a really interesting show, lots of neat tidbits.

In all seriousness, it's being titled "Crossface".

This has the potential to be the worst "bio-pic" since Wired.

I always liked to think of wrestling as a live-action comic book (maybe not as relevant now due to the numerous live-action superhero movies, but anyway,,) and the Survivor Series concept fit that perfectly, it was the equivalent of all those company-wide crossover events ,with a group of heroes (faces) uniting to take on a group of enemies (heels). It was even better when there were multiple managers, which added to the threat that the faces were taking on.

I remember the night after Bash at the Beach 96, the heels and faces all had something to say about the Hogan heel turn. It showed how it affected all the wrestlers in the company.

Figured this is as good a place to ask as any. On The Best of the WWF Vol. 16 there's a match with Fuji vs some unknown wrestler from Saudi Arabia. They never mention who it is, and the commentary is in Arabic. I havent been able to find any info on this match or Fuji's opponent at all. Im thinking its from the early 80s (near the end of Fuji's run as a full-time wrestler) but thats all i can come up with.

What does everyone here think about wrestling embracing a "shared universe" concept where events from one angle affect other angles in the same company? When i started watching (1990), this concept seemed to be embraced (for example, during the roberts/martel angle, after roberts got sprayed in the face with arrogance, big bossman came to jake's rescue, despite not being a part of that angle). Heck, even ECW would have multiple angles in the same match. But now, it seems like most angles are in a vacuum. If you had someone do an injury angle on RAW, it seems absurd for the new day to come out so jovial in the next segment.

Not trying to make this thread too depressing, but King of the Ring 94 also qualifies, only 2 matches have both competitors still alive (not counting the Razor/IRS semifinal match or the Kwang/Holly dark match), and all 3 members of the broadcast team are no longer with us either.

AWF was never on ESPN. AFAIK, the only wrestling they carried were AWA, WCCW, USWA Dallas,Abrams UWF, and GWF.

The Legends with JBL episode with Booker T debuted last night and was very good. It mostly dealt with his personal life, but man, he is so lucky that he was able to survive.

They COULD just air the International version of RAW that aired that week, which was just a compilation of PPV matches. There would be little to no new material, admittedly, but considering that they did upload the snowstorm RAW, they could just put it on for the sake of continuity (and its not like they havent used the international versions before, they used that edit for the lawler heart attack episode).

Here's an obscure one, Diamond Dallas Page's Diamond Exchange, consisting of the Freebirds, Badstreet, Diamond Studd, Big Daddy Dink, and Page himself. Even as a younger fan I could tell this was low-rent, and a desperate attempt to keep the Freebirds relevant (i remember Inside Wrestling did an article hyping them as the next big heel stable which i got a good laugh from, especially when the Dangerous Alliance formed that fall).

New Jack in ECW. Not that his style didnt fit, but his stuff always seemed to be in its own separate universe away from the main ECW brand, he didnt even really get involved in any of the major angles (that may or may not be a bad thing, depending on how you feel about him).

There were several potential matches Bret could have had in wcw (even if one-offs) that could have been good: Bret vs Jericho (i still cant believe they never had a match), Bret vs Raven, Bret vs Eddie Guerrero, or Bret vs Rey Mysterio jr (or any luchador for that matter, even El Dandy).

Update: Finished up the titan trilogy and i have to say that while Titan Screwed was a bit confusing narrative-wise (it seemed to skip around at points, and was stuff on Piper and Nash's backstage scuffle and Tod Gordon really necessary in a book focused on the WWF?), it really picked up when it got to the part about the screwjob, showing everyone's side of the story, not favoring either side (though it's more sympathetic to Bret obviously) but giving all the facts and backstory.

I just got a free trial of kindle unlimited, so i decided to use it to check out the "Titan trilogy" by James Dixon. Titan Sinking was more interesting than you'd think, and seeing all the backstabbing and behind the scenes political maneuvering going on gave me a whole new perspective on the WWF in 1995. Titan Shattered wasnt as good, but that's more due to the fact that a lot of the facts have already been detailed in various other books, shoot interviews, and dvd documentaries. Still, lots of intriguing stuff on a struggling product. Planning on starting Titan Screwed soon, and i wouldnt mind seeing Dixon do a series of books about wcw's turbulent pre-Hogan 90s (1990-1993).

I wonder if they'll ever include the first AWA Superclash, seems odd to have 2 and 3 but not 1 (4 was never taped AFAIK).

Mr. Perfect in 1993 WWF also came to mind. Even though the babyface turn on Flair was a memorable moment, as was the loser leaves town match, he didnt seem to fit in, and the fact that he was still playing up the "absolutely perfect at everything" gimmick as a babyface wasnt helping matters.