goodhelmet

OK, so you were looking at it from a pure economic standpoint. I am not saying I disagree with you, I just wanted to see if you had an actual wrestling reason for your statement.

Yeah, hell if they played their cards right, he could feud with Eddie and JBL for 3-4 months apiece.

What's your reasoning?

What did you discuss?

OK, cool. Initially, I thought you just wanted to work within those parameters and I couldn't do it. Maybe, I could have added the Shea Stadium Hogan-Andre matchup before it was a mega-event.

I love the topic but by listing those matches, you kind of answered the question yourself. However, I can add a few matches that were pretty significant looking back. Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa 6/8/90 --- The passing of the torch of the biggest wrestler of 90s All Japan and the biggest wrestler of the previous decade. Jumbo would avenge the loss but Misawa was going to be the man in very short time. The Rock vs. Steve Austin - Wrestlemania X7 --- I list this because Meltz asserts that this Mania was the largest grossing show to date and it should have been just another peak in the company's history. Instead it set the groundwork to the end of the Boom and years of nonsensical and bad booking. It could be argued the match was also the best of both mens' careers. I wouldn't agree but it could be argued. Giant Baba vs. Harley Race 11/07/79 --- Baba won the title clean in the ring and gave All Japan the NWA title. It didn';t last long but if Baba is top ten, Race can't be far behind. Hulk Hogan vs. Sting Starrcade 1997 --- Sting isn't one of the biggest stars in wrestling history BUT this match could have put a satisfying end to the NWO, made WCW a stronger brand and made Sting the biggest star in wrestling at that point. Instead we get a hokey finish and see the company begin to crumble.

I could have sworn he faced Luger. I'll watch it again. Then again, I may have my shows screwed up since I have watched about 30 hours of NWA in the last week or so. As for the brace and the knee taped up, I agree except that a guy with a taped up leg doesn't seem to be in as critical as a position as a guy wrestling with a neck brace. But no, Koloff had the brace on prior to the match. So, Dave was working NWA while Earl was WWF?

--Our good friend Ealr Hebner was a referee in the NWA (unless it was his twin brother) --Jim Crockett Sr.'s widow had no idea what Nikita Koloff's name was. --The over-the-top rule was really annoying. At one time, they showed clips of about 3-4 tag teams in a row progressing through the tournament because of screwy means. --Nikita Koloff wearing a brace to the ring is the dumbest idea ever. it is like a big old bullseye for the opponent. --The Lex Luger-Ric Flair matchup was much better than the Ric Flair-Sting matchup.

Right. I edited it.

Odds and Ends: Pro Wrestling NOAH: ---Tenryu v. Ogawa, Sasaki v. Kobashi and Misawa v. Kawada were all announced as no time limt matches so the feeling is that at least one of the matches will go long. ---Misawa said the entire infield and upper deck were sold out so he thinks that the 7/18 show will be the biggest show in Japan this year. New Japan: ---Rocky Romero dislocated his shoulder and will need to take two months off. This will cause the brackets of the Super Jr. Tourney to be screwed up. U.S stuff: ---Shark Boy (the wrestler) filed a lawsuit against Mirimax and Dimension Films because of the "The Advenures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl" movie. The wrestler, Dean Roll, trademarked the name in 2000. Meltz doesn't think he will win the lawsuit. ---Rob Feinstein is being sued again by James Papa. Papa produced the BadStreet USA album for Michael Hayes and wrote WCW theme songs for Cactus Jack, Sting, Rick Rude, the Steienrs, Ricky Steamboat, etc. Papa is suing because of Feinstein selling videos with his music being used as entrances. Pap is asking for $75,000. ---More Feinstein: His no-compete clause with Silkin ends soon and he wants to open up another promotion.

Meltzer's star ratings have been in question for years but people still request them so I include them whenever possible.

Hardcore Homecoming Notes: ---Meltz thinks it may be the most successful independent wrestling show in history. The show did $135,000 at the gate and $34,000 in merchandise. The gate was more than triple what ECW did in the arena and merchandise was double what ECW did for Barely Legal. ---Attendance was about 1,200 people ---Douglas told the wrestlers before the show that they were going to bonus everyone because of how successful the event was. ---Douglas and his backers had set aside $40,000 for advertising but tickets sold so quickly that they didn't spend a dime of it. However, alot of money was spent on production. ---Douglas told the wrestlers that his goal was for every fan who went to both this show and the WWE show would say his show was great and the WWE show sucked. (that didn't turn out too well) ---Two backstage panic situations happened. The first involved the athletic commission not allowing a barbed wire match, but after bending and taping the wire allowed it to happen. The other involved Mick Foley. Foley had secretly agreed to do the show even though he publicly denied it. He made a deal with Douglas that if word got out ahead of time, he would pull out. On the way to the show, Foley was stuck in a traffic jam. Since the show went long, he made it on to the show. ---Douglas' final point to the wrestlers was he didn't want anyone encouraging ECW chants for legal reasons. New Jack didn't listen and may have part of his promo edited out of the product even though it was said to be a highlight of the show. ---They wanted the show to stay around three hours but it ended up going four. ---Balls Mahoney held Douglas up for money the day of the show which is why he didn't appear on the show even when advertised. ---The show started with Tod Gordon, Joey Styles, and Don Callis all coming out crying. Joel Gertner followed and did his naughty limericks. Star Ratings by Scott Williams (?): Whipwreck & Chetti v. Diamond & Anderson ** Tracy Smothers v. Blue Meanie *1/2 Too Cold Scorpio v. Kid Kash *** Jerry Lynn v. Justin Credible **** (I highly doubt this) Raven v. Sandman ** Sabu v. Terry Funk v. Shane Douglas ***1/2

I wanted to add this earlier but couldn't find it... An old story about RVD and HHH... ---Meltz: Van Dam disappeared at a RAW taping and HHH was looking for him. HHH found him , put his arm around him, and said "Where have you been?" He pulled HHH's arm off him, told him, "You know where I've been. I've been smoking dope while you were burying me behind my back."

Lots of ECW stuff to cover. 8 of the 18 pages were committed to the PPV and the Hardcore Homecoming Show. PPV Star Ratings: Chris Jericho v. Lance Storm ***1/4 Super Crazy v. Tajiri v. Little Guido **1/2 Rey Mysterio v. Psychosis **1/2 Sabu v. Rhyno ***1/4 Chris Benoit v. Eddie Guerrero ***1/4 Mike Awesome v. Masato Tanaka ****1/4 Dudleys v. Dreamer & Sandman ***1/2 ---The company went into the show expecting between 150,000-200,000 buys. They budget regular "B" shows at 321,000 buys. Meltz thinks it will blow away all predictions but did not quote the 800,000 that was floating on the internet. ---ECW ranged between 40,000-99,000 on its PPV shows. ---The show did eventually sell-ou but 150 tickets were left on the day of the show and picked up at the last minute. ---Closed-circuit theatres in Canada reported Mania-like attendance and Meltz says this is as realistic of an indicator as you can get this early. ---RVD is taking credit for the idea and selling it to Vince McMahon. Within WWE creative, they think Heyman gave RVD the idea and how to sell it to Vince but who knows? ---Stephanie McMahon did not want Heyman associated with the show in any way but Vince was convinced that Heyman had to be involved and in charge of creative for the show. ---Heyman pushed for Joey Styles to do the show even as he was badmouthing it. Heyman actually thought Jim Ross would have done a better job but that it would not be authentic. Ross convinced Styles he show was not about Heyman. Styles ended up signing a 2-year contract for future ECW projects and mostly to do intros for 24/7 shows. If an ECW show does come out of it, Styles will most certainly be the voice. Meltz called Styles' performance one of the greatest announcing performances in wrestling history and one of the shows' biggest stars. Actually, Heyman was producing Styles and feeding him lines for most of the show on the headset. ---Heyman pursued Tanaka and Awesome (even though Awesome is washed-up and injured) thinking they could recapture the magic of previous bouts. ---Bischoff's original part in the show was supposed to be bringing in Awesomeas a mystery surprise since Awesome left ECW for WCW when he was the ECW champion. ---Meltzer predicts the DVD of One Night Stand will be one of the biggest in company history. (This isn't a surprise since the ECW DVD was a huge seller as well.) ---Meltzer makes a good point about making ECW its own show. WWE can't afford to let ECW be its "cool" company. Meltz said the show did for WWE what the NWo did for WCW... it made it uncool and it was apparent the next night on RAW. ---Meltz thinks putting ECW on SD! in an ECW v. JBL feud may spark the SD! show. ---JBL was drinking heavily before the show and all through the show (I hadn't heard this before). Meltz was under the impression that the unwritten rule is you get loaded after the show but you don't go in the ring loaded. ---Members of WWE prouction were heard ripping on ECW saying the fans were savages, the building was a dump and ripped on the ECW wrestlers. Meltz says the lack of understanding of the product extends from the bottom to the top. ---Quote from a WWE wrestler at the show, "You know certain powers that be will bury the shit out of it, but for me it was a very entertaining and definitive alternative to the HHH version of the WWE. It's almost boring to have to go back to work." ---Any mocking of the product from WWE wrestlers in the balcony was a work but all were in stunned silence, even though they were laughing at the crowd the entire night, when seeing the entire crowd sing Enter Sandman in unison when Sandman appeared. Kurt Angle was transfixed on the scene when the camera wasn't on him, studying everything going on. ---Meltz said one of the main negatives was not purchasing the authentic entrance themes and instead using WWE themes for most wrestlers. ---Compromises between Heyman and McMahon: -Heyman compromised on letting WWE theme music being played. -Heyman compromised on the allotment of time for WWE wrestlers promo time. -Vince allwoed the Tanaka-Awesome match to go as planned with the chair shots, breaking tables and big moves even though they were squeamish about the precedent it would set. -Vince allowed RVD to say what he wanted wih no script. -There was no physical confrontation between Bischoff and Heyman -The company wanted Austin in last but allwoed Tazz to do the final run-in. -Heyman was allowed to produce Styles' commentary instead of Vince.

Hey, no one said Cornette was 100% original

Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce to you the only pair that can beat a full house... Beautiful Bobby and Sweet Stan, the Midnight Express!!

I noticed your Stacy Keibler obessession has been tempered.

Does anyone have a picture of her available? I have never seen her.

Read my post again. I had to edit it where I put Ginnetty's name instead of putting Lycnh's name. I got my copy from Lynch.

Yes, I got it from Lynch and it is in VG quality but not great quality. I was actually hoping someone had a better version but Dan Ginnetty explained to me that most people get their copies of AJ Classics from Lynch and Lynch has a 1st gen not a master.

I think the main difference between the claw and the nodowa is the fact that Taue actually does look like he is damaging the opponent. Also, since the claw is a submission move, I think there are too many ways for it to be countered. As for dismissing it completely, I guess I have only dismissed it because I haven't seen any matches where it looked like it was the killer they made it out to be. We have Jumbo to thank for that.

To clear out the matches to see where Tim stands on All Japan matches... Jumbo v Tenyru 10/20/88 Jumbo v Tenyru 6/5/89 ---I don;t know how any match in the 80s could top this... seriously. Jumbo/Tenyru v Choshu/Yatsu 1/28/86 ---I'll have to rewatch this after watching the Choshu set. Tenyru v Yatsu 3/13/86 Jumbo v Tiger Mask Misawa 3/9/88 ---How much does this match add to the 1990 matches or is it just a throwaway match that would have meaning later on and after the fact? Can Am Express v Footloose 6/5/89 ---One of my favorite tag matches ever. At first, I was bothered because it doesn't fall into your typical FIP match. Then I watched it wide awake and they were doing stuff that other teams hadn't even touched the surface of. The match also never lets up, action from beginning to end. Could be my favorite tag match of the 80s as well. Damn, to have been in that building on 6/5/89. Jumbo v Kerry 5/22/84 ---I have never been happy with the claw as a finisher. Even when I was young I never thought it was credible. This match came close to almost changing my mind.

I have seen a little bit of the Choshu stuff and find it to be terribly overrated from a ring standpoint. I understand it was huge news that Choshu jumped but the matches themselves were not all that.