The Following Contest

Like, Rey Mysterio level tiny. Look, I know, it shouldn't matter. He just had a great match on the ROH PPV. He's a great worker and he's in ridiculously good shape. But... even next to Jericho. It's amazingly noticeable. Possibly limiting even in 2016 WWE.

The Patterson-Backlund MSG cage match is very good with some very convincing near escapes. The ending is clunkier than what Backlund remembers in his book, but still effective. I find all of the stuff from the 1984 St. Louis tapings to be super heated and lots of fun. WWF for sure though.

Hornbaker's new book "Capitol Revolution" does a great job detailing wrestling in the northeast from 1880-1984. It pays particular attention to the period before the formation of the NWA and the coexistence/competition between McMahon and the cartel. Highly recommended.

Austin vs. Lesnar - unfinished business. Reigns vs. Sheamus - WWE Title. Sasha vs. Bailey - Women's Title. Undertaker vs. Finn -UT's retirement match, HoF induction the night before. Owens vs. Zayn -IC Title. Holly Holm/The Rock vs. Triple H/Steph. New Day vs. Those "SAWFT" dudes in NXT - Tag Title. The usual filler, Bullshit battle royal etc. Daniel Bryan vs. Shawn Michaels - crippled gimp Olympics or some horseshit

Finn needs to go to Dallas, in front of the 93,184 fans, and beat Undertaker clean. Taker retires.

I went to a WWF House Show in June of 1993, just before Hogan dropped the title. It was at Maple Leaf Gardens and it was a Duggan-Yoko main event with a carny style Ted Dibiase contest running throughout the show: "anybody who can slam Yoko gets $1000 of my dollars!" Ted chose three guys from audience, all awkwardly put their hands between Yoko' legs. It was fucking brutal. 3,000 people, maybe, in an arena of 16,000 seats in a city of 4 million people, in the best Hulk Hogan market on earth (see WM18 for evidence). Point being: Bret, Luger, Yoko, title or no title, the house show business was as dead as George Hackenschmidt in 1993. So BrainFollower is right, if Hogan was supposed to be a house show saviour... he certainly wasn't doing much saving.

Re: ECW. I remember my dad's friend giving me an Apter mag he bought because Sunny was on the cover, summer of 1996. (I had been an exclusive WWF Magazine guy until then). In it were photos of Shane Douglas vs. Sabu in a tiny arena. That's when I read the initials ECW for the first time. I'd seen the t-shirts in the crowd and wondered. Even went to a Vader-Warrior WWF House Show in Hamilton, On in May of 1996 and saw guys in ECW t-shirts and wondered what the hell they meant. ECW was certainly permeating the mainstream wrestling fan by '96, certainly because the product had become so terrible from late '91 until the nWo.

See, no disrespect, but that Taker-Nord stuff was to me exactly the goofball, ridiculous, over the top junk that was so far from cool. That's exactly why I think the period was losing viewers. I want serious, not soap opera. That was soap opera at its worst IMO.

I was the perfect demo for Hulkamania. I was 7 when WrestleMania 3 happened. Hook, line sinker, I was in from then until probably mid-late 1992 when My interest began to wane. - I always loved Paul Heyman's way of putting it: wrestling was still hairbands even in the age of Nirvana. It just wasn't as exciting, important feeling or cool as it was. - The crowds seemed dead (canned heat a HUGE part of that), the characters seemed lame, and so many in my key Hulkamania demo were beginning to find competitive sports, girls and music.

Yep, Austin podcast. He said Jesse was kept in check by McMahon and that his "I may just have to come out of retirement and beat Hogan" stuff was more prevalent with Gino or Shiavone. Agreed... but still part of what made Jesse awesome.

Kerwin Silfies has said that Jesse went into business for himself too often, but I think his putting himself over was part of his overall heel cred. Watch how often, during stand-ups and bumpers, he blatantly disagrees or disregards what McMahon says. If Vince was trying to get a guy or angle over a certain way, then Jesse certainly undermines that for reals. And THAT is what made hims so great. he doesn't seem like a Jerry Lawler style goofy heel or a Bobby Heenan style funny heel, he seems like a real heel, like a guy who doesn't like McMahon or any of the face wrestlers, like a guy who is proudly a rebel and not going along with the program. I think he's the only heel commentator in history. The only one. And that's why he's the best ever.

Hell, I'll admit it: I was newly turned 13 and I loved this like a tubby kid loves fudge. I was sold on the idea (as was Vince I might add) that a second golden age was about to begin and the flirtation with "nobodies" like Bret and Yoko was over. Today, looking back as an overweight, fudge-loving, 35 year old, I see how completely counter productive it was... unless Hogan was willing to put over Bret or Yoko clean. Since he was clearly willing to do neither, and he was all pissy when he went to Japan and put-down his own title at the presser, the whole thing looks like an odd and uncharacteristic short-sighted move by Vince and Pat. Maybe pending federal prison time for the Vin-Man was beginning to get to them.

I thought the show was solid. The wrestling in the main event was good... but dare I say not as good, nor as cool or dramatic, as the most recent NXT main event. Could it be that NXT is now the best big leaugue North American alternative to WWE?

Opening tag. These Hardy Boyz rip-offs with their "super kick party" catch phrase have annoyed their way into X-Pac heat territory with me already. First ROH PPV I've ever seen. Taking a flyer and hoping to see some All Japan type stuff.

Even in the era before google, how do you confuse a Yetti with a Mummy? Did nobody at Turner own an encyclopedia?

Yep, in "Live From New York," the Bobby Heenan DVD and perhaps even the SNME DVD, there are mentions of "Once A Week Productions," which was the production company Dick Ebersol created to co-produce SNME with Titan Sports. You'll notice their name in the credits. Ebersol and his writers would often script stuff for the guys to say in their promos. By the 1987/88 season, it is obvious that everything is scripted. Even as a young fan, I noticed that when Heenan or Slick spoke, it wasn't in their "voice." You can see guys looking off screen every once and a while at cue cards/notes or whatever. One of the more common tropes of Ebersol's scripting was the "-heel says something - manager says something -heel and manager say something together at the same time! -laughter!"

I'm a history teacher. I think you can accurately research and re-tell the history of any era if enough primary sources exist, especially if they are meticulously kept and cataloged. The appendix and bibliography of this book suggest Hornbaker took full advantage of that fact. It's a true work of scholarship.

A history of how the McMahon's came to rule New York. I'm only 100 pages in and this thing is fantastic. A gritty, detail-heavy look at all the politics, unexpected shoot-fights, double-crosses and back-stabbings that characterized wrestling from 1880's onward. Think Boardwalk Empire of the WWE. If anything on the subject could ever be an HBO mini-series, this is it. Amazing to see so many parallels to more modern eras. Too many to list, but one I just read was of feud between Dano O'Mahoney, the charismatic, fair-haired, Irish-American superman and Ali Baba; "short and squat with good muscle development and a pointed mustache, he was a standout performer but an unlikely title holder." Huh... Hornbaker, whose NWA book was also epic, manages to research so deeply that it is as if guys from the 1920's and 1930's are speaking on a shoot tape. He knows their every detail and motivation. It's great so far.

Yep, that Obsession open, preceeded by the bass-line during the cold-open promos, is one of the great television openings of all time. I have it on my i-pod today only for that nostalgic reason.

The "everybody needs a job" era which preceeded the "gimmicked jobbers" era has to be the all time time-frame for this.

King Kong Bundy is the only headliner of an early WrestleMania who isn't in, correct? And then Sid, Rotunda and Luger from later Wrestlemania's? Okay, let's see here with the first 15... Hogan/Piper/T/Orndorff/Snuka/Orton - All in Hogan/Bundy - Hogan in, Bundy Not in Hogan/Andre - Both in Savage/Dibiase/Andre/Hogan- All in Hogan/Savage - Both in Hogan/Warrior - Both in Hogan/Slaughter - Both in Hogan/Sid/Savage/Flair - Sid left out Bret/Yoko/Hogan/Dibiase/Rotundo/Brutus - IRS and the Barber left out Luger/Bret/Owen/Yoko - Owen and Luger not in Nash/HBK/LT/BamBam - Bammer and LT not in Bret/HBK - Both in Bret/Austin/Undertaker/Sid - Sid and Taker not in Austin/HBK - Both in Austin/Rock - Rock not in Okay, so of innaugural (golden era/expansion era?) Wrestlemania's, here are the headliners (main events or promoted double main events) not in the WWE HOF: King Kong Bundy Sid Mike Rotundo Brutus Beefcake Owen Hart Lex Luger Bigelow Undertaker Lawrence Taylor The Rock We all know Rock and Undertaker are going in, likely Owen Hart as well. I gotta say King Kong Bundy is the most deserving of the rest of 'em though. King Kong Bundy for HOF!!

When Honky shoved Liz and the Mega-Powers formed, man, I seriously expected to see it on the 6 o'clock news the next day. A big deal. I was 7 and this show was just the greatest thing in the world. During the era of quarterly PPV's and squash-match heavy tv, SNME was genuinely special. I had no understanding of the "dark weeks for SNL" scheduling then, and was always suprised by the announcement (usually an ad during WWF Superstars "Tonight on CHCH channel 11 at 11:30...") and excited for the rest of the day. Was never a problem staying up that late... though I do recall setting the primitive VCR we had just in case I fell asleep. I'd watch those tapes over and over. Thoughts, memories, cynical criticisms of Sarurday Night's Main Event?

I always loved that as part of a non-sanctioned and irresponsibly dangerous televised thunderdome, where a bunch of the most psychotic sub-human animals were prepared to gang-beat two muscle heads... said group of psychopaths patiently waits, like ninjas in a bad Kung-Fu flick, for Hogan and Savage to enter their section of the cage. "Let's take our numerical advantage and flush it down the crapper," said a bunch of face painted lunatics.

I don't think anybody fell further than Randy Savage going from awesome capes, sunglasses, 3 star tights and taped fingers (just see the iconic t-shirt, obviously) to the ridiculous cowboy hats and "off the juice" body suits. It was sad. Like Elvis in the leisure suits.

I thought part of the awesome year-long build towards WrestleMania V was the job the WWF did providing justification for Savage to turn. It was invisible to me as a kid, but of course, when they put together the "Savage's side of the story" video package, it made Hogan seem every bit of "the luster" Savage and Ventura said he was.