Hawkeye12

Tito Santana and Rick Martel are two of the names I've heard mentioned with Bret as potential champions. I think I've heard Crush as well, which makes sense given his babyface return shortly prior.

I'm going with King Kong Bundy. He gets angry that Heenan wasn't in his corner at WM, eventually this disagreement costs him a match with Kamala since they'd teased a feud months earlier. Kamala's handlers warn a bunch of midgets that they will become dinner for the Ugandan Headhunter, giving Bundy a chance at redemption as he saves Little Beaver shortly after. Bundy goes over Kamala then feuds with Andre. He becomes WWF champion, has his successful computer ads (this time telling Vince in advance so everyone shares in the money), gets a full time gig on Married with Children and more publicity for his Richard Pryor movie and goes on to become a huge star. He'd already slammed Andre earlier in his career, so he ends up hitting the bodyslam heard round the world and becomes the biggest star in wrestling history! Bundamania runs wild!

Bobby Eaton shook hands as a heel, even with enhancement guys, quite often.

Arn vs Roma likely as well. There is an Arn TV interview post-Battlebowl (where he never ended up wrestling) that seems to allude to Roma having officially turned on him there. Roma turned on Erik Watts at the event, so he still went heel but ended up teaming with Orndorff vs Bagwell and Scorpio. I don't think Bossman would've wrestled at Starrcade if he wasn't a hot shot replacement for Davey, especially losing so soon.

Without Mr. McMahon, Austin doesn't become all that important so WWF never booms like it did. He's a different type of top guy to try compared to Bret and Shawn but it's the dynamic with Vince that got him over so much. Plus he got to make a fool out of Vince at every turn and in ways he wouldn't be able to do to another wrestler as opposed to the boss.

Sounds like they are going to release stuff from the TV tapings that have never been seen before. I wonder if they will show a Roberts/Hogan match because this will be as good as any time to show the match and the incident on the Snake Pit where Hogan gets the DDT. I remember ages ago seeing a picture of Hogan in the ring with Giant Gonzalez which looked like a controntation. No idea if this was part of a TV tapings or not as I could only find They should have the first Hogan-Jake match on video because they showed clips on a segment promoting the rematch. And that probably is the Hogan-Gonzalez faceoff as the picture also has the Smoking Gunns still around the ring.

I think it was a simple as Brad walking to his car and Juvi not paying attention and running into him in the parking lot.

Dustin Rhodes and Bobby Rude had a 2 out 3 falls Blindfold match at the first Lockdown event, not sure if the rules for the two matches were different enough to count.

Since it's only one child, I'll go with Dusty and Dustin since I genuinely was a fan of both and each achieved success at a really high level even if Dustin never was World champion.

The Gang matches are fine (albeit on the lower end in comparison to the ones vs Kamala, Bossman, Earthquake, and Bundy for big guys), and Hogan always lists him as one of his favorite opponents and best big guy workers ever. I remember their short Nitro match was decent, have to go back and watch their WWF stuff. I may have only seen the Paul Boesch show and after he'd switched to Akeem. I really enjoy the Sika SNME match quite a bit. Khan was basically selling the mist by that point, which Hogan certainly did his part to get over on the Snake Pit even if the matches themselves weren't great.

Thunderdome Match at Halloween Havoc 1989. They used the cage again but not with the electrified top gimmick and throw in the towel "terminator" stipulation.

In that case, it's the true pronunciation. They added the long E at the end because it just sounds better for wrestling.

Not sure which branch the Dynamic Dudes fall under, they seem to be more Fantastics than RnR Express or Fabulous Ones, but they were an attempt to fill that role. Then Pillman and Zenk stepped into those shoes (including the mandatory feud with the Midnight Express!) before the RnRs finally came back.

He mentions in is book that when he was in I think San Antonio, that's how he got some heat as a heel. The announcers would call him Doogan, but he'd cut interviews that they were saying it wrong, which led to the crowd chanting "cock-eyed Doogan" at him.

I was going to mention the Rockers-Rougeaus "marathon" matches as well. Sounds like more fun than a single's ironman.

Quite a few matches from those time frames that were dark matches at tapings that never made it to TV that I'd like to see. Most any of the PPV dark matches, especially the WM8-10 even though most of 10 can be seen during the pre-show. Midnight Rockers original debut in 1987 Studd-Andre from 1989 Full Duggan-Savage match where Savage wins the crown Hogan-Earthquake stretcher match Warrior/Tornado vs Rude/Perfect Savage/Sid - Jake/Undertaker Warrior/Undertaker - Papa Shango/Kamala Ultimate Warrior-Ric Flair MegaManiacs vs. Money Inc Lumberjack match Luger vs. Ludvig Borga Lawler vs Owen from the Survivor Series Showdown that didn't air when Lawler had legal issues. Bret/Luger vs Owen/Yokozuna Lots of cool debut and tryout matches, but I can't see putting them into this collection unless it's something like the Rockers or another Hall of Famer.

They were all countouts, iirc. Savage also won some cage matches with Warrior in 1991, but those were escape the cage.

I think Dr. Death may have pinned each in the UWF as well. Hogan did get a pin on Sting in a Nitro tag match in 1999 (Hulk/Flair vs Sting/Luger), but I'm guessing you just want single's matches.

I think the SST and Nasty Boys are the only two teams I've ever seen them mesh with at all other than a one shot here and there. Maybe it's because those two teams knew how to brawl, but also both could sell really well, which plays perfectly into what the LOD needed. For that reason, I think they'd have had good matches with Bubba and Devon because they fit that same mold.

How come it was OK for Mauro to brag about his meaningless award to try and knock JBL, but when called out on it he can't take the receipt? Mauro wasn't "harassed" or "abused" like I see mentioned above, he hasn't even shown up to work since JBL said something a TV talk show. If you live in a world where you only want people to kiss your ass then don't start picking fights like a child because someone might hurt your feelings. If you bring something up first, it's fair game for criticism. Especially if you have some depression issues, don't be a dick to someone because they just might be one back. Mauro naturally comes off as an arrogant, condescending, know it all anyway (it's why I've never been a fan of his work), but now he comes off like a spoiled child that thinks he can start a fight and let everybody else fight it for him. I wish him the best in dealing with his health issues, but seems that his current ones could've been prevented if he wouldn't have felt the need to try and show someone up in the first place.

I'd add One Man Gang, Midnight Express, and Dr Death for the Mid-South vibe (and they are all deserving regardless).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX-H8g4bwCU 46:10 Nothing wrong with that match at all. If I watched it without Mercer and didn't know it was his comeback match, I'm not sure I'd have known there was anything seriously wrong with his foot. The only hiccup was the mistimed punch at the finish, and that had nothing to do with his foot.

Could always have Brock lose the belt on a MITB cash in to get it off him without looking weak, and give him a reason to regain it next year at the Royal Rumble or thereabouts.

I agree. Big, dramatic, clash of the titans style match with a superb crowd. I usually dislike Hogan but he was pretty good here and the Rock gave an excellent performance. They adapted pretty expertly (almost shockingly so) to the crowd flipping the face-heel dynamic. I don't think they were really adapting. It was pretty clear fans were going to pick Hogan over Rock during that match, and Rock's promo earlier in the event was a heel promo at Hulk and his fans. The match was certainly laid out in a way that they were expecting the fans to be cheering for Hogan over Rock. IIRC, Hogan has mentioned that they actually flew him home the day before WM or at least after he'd already gotten to Toronto just to get the red and yellow gear for the match based on the reactions that week at Axxess, but then when he got back they decided to stick with the NWO stuff anyway. So there isn't a lot of doubt they knew exactly what was going to happen during the match, it was just how much it was going to play into it which ended up being pretty much the whole way. The only thing keeping Rock from full heel was not cheating to win or mocking Hogan when he did it, which was fine since he wasn't turning heel. Then they didn't crap on the Rock when he made the save and posed with Hogan which was respectful and showed it was more about loving Hulk, then hating Rock or trying to get themselves over like nowadays has turned into.

Fuji did it too, but still a rare feat.