PeteF3

I'm not going to spring for the Baron as a lost worker or anything, but I'm pleasantly surprised that he's actually working some holds and doing some wrestling in these matches, instead of going straight for either the foreign object or the hold-the-ear sell.

And the Demos, and the Hart Foundation, and the Rockers. I'll be generous and not count the Colossal Connection since that was two thrown-together singles guys. '92 had zero full tag teams in it, with Knobbs being injured and the Rockers splitting up and Jannetty leaving. Smart move since the title was on the line.

But live sports don't happen on every single particular weekday. Affiliates are okay with sports on the weekend or the occasional deal for Thursday Night Football, March Madness, or championships being played in prime time on weekdays, but local news and syndication is where the affiliates really make their own money. I'm not sure how many affiliates would be happy on losing out on 52 Mondays' worth of local programming. I'd also be curious as to what would happen if there was a conflict with the World Series. Okay, maybe you just schedule Monday as an off-day, but what if there's a rainout? How happy would Vince be about the possibility or reality of a late-October Raw getting moved back to cable at the last minute?

This is going to be the "I'm not injured at all! Really! Fake news." before said wrestler leaves TV for 3 months, isn't it?

He beat Luger by countout to qualify for the '94 KOTR, but that was about as cheap of a win as possible, so...

If they make it through 1990, they'll have Survivor Series, the Main Event, and the November MSG show on consecutive days.

Dumb question, but regarding reddit, did you just try r/squaredcircle or did you by chance try r/Memphis? Maybe a non-fan or someone without the show on their radar at the moment would be willing to help.

Did Billy imply that himself? Because D'Arcy is the one making the claim, not that it's overly difficult to believe. But I'm not really sure D'Arcy's word is 100% reliable either.

He also thought Sabu was the best wrestler in the world in 1994, again paying a bit of lip service to the "He's going to be in a wheelchair before his time" talking point but not really further acknowledging it.

Sometimes this stuff just happens, seemingly. We don't really know where Velveteen Dream went to during the previous tapings. AOP were also completely absent a few tapings ago, though that may have been due to a call-up that was pushed back.

All-Japan has announced a streaming service of their own. No word on content or a specific price point but it's going to be around $9 US like the others. My blind hope is that they just make a deal with NTV to digitize everything they have, but that's probably too much to ask.

I shouldn't complain, but the only real missing tape on there that I wish was included is Wrestlefest '94 (Harts-Steiners, Kid/Jannetty-Headshrinkers). The folks at wwenetworknews are under the belief that a lot of wrestler-specific tapes will drop at a later date, hence no Hulkamania tapes and others of that type.

There's a Flair vs. Muto from the '95 G-1 that plays the Heel Flair in Japan dynamic much better, IMO.

Watch the '89 Rumble again--it's almost like guys were actively told to go after and concentrate on people of the same alignment, even after the Demolition start. The announcers played it up big--"Where else are you going to see Mr. Perfect go at it with the Honky Tonk Man??" You had Hogan taking on guys like Koko and the Bushwhackers, which was an odd sight. There was definitely a sea change in booking after the start in '88. Edit: I think the weird card layout was so they could do a final hard-sell of the Main Event after the Rumble. You had a Hogan promo that I think was after the Rumble match, then the Roma injury allowed for a break between falls, where they had DiBiase and Andre come back out to do a podium interview.

Add another to the list.

How many people have won in their first Rumble? Duggan, Flair, Vince...anyone else until tonight? Edit: Yoko and Studd.