goodhelmet

HE can still wrestle on the show. He just can't book the show after being around Russo for so much of his career. Same goes for any person who worked under him in WWF or WCW. The power of Russo is too strong to overcome. Those people should not be close to the book.

Also... funny we are seeing a Cheeseburger backlash when Dylan was bummed i missed out seeing him live.

Anyone who worked for TNA should not be allowed to book a wrestling show. Call it the power of Russo Osmosis.

He gets gassed like Ryback too if I keep pissing him off.

That's just me pressing shoe's buttons.

Looking through results, I really hope we can find locate the matches Greg Valentine had with Wahoo and Flair in 1983. Combined with his feud with Piper, he would have to be considered a strong contender as well.

He has the classic tag series against Steamboat & Youngblood. What else from the Sarge made tape? On that note, Steamboat had the Sarge-Kernodle feud and the Briscos.

It's not even close. Dr. Death was much better and will be on my Top 100. I enjoy Tenta but he doesn't have one single classic match you can turn to even if he was part of some memorable angles.

Shit... are there more than ten Russian wrestlers I can remember?

I think it's a fair point. Bruno did draw in Canada though. He was a mainstay for Frank Tunney, and shuttled between New York and Toronto for years. The point is really that Hogan only worked as a national draw. Vince was also pretty smart with his TV appearances, kept him special, always made sure that the people wanted more Hulk and didn't get burned out on him. And even then they did get burned out by 92. I don't know if you could go national with Bruno, but I do think he would have gotten over in pretty much any territory. Look at that bold line... he was the ONLY national draw. Everyone else was still fragmented. Hogan was a national household name. Only Andre the Giant at the time was even close in being a "national draw". I am not downplaying Bruno's accomplishments the way you downplayed Lawler's but Hulk Hogan was a phenomenon that you had to be around for to truly understand.... at least to a ten year old kid. Maybe old grumpy Hogan haters will have a different take.

MEMPHIS Jerry Lawler - Lawler is feuding with Hart & Kaufman for a large chunk of the year but it was an awesome feud with Hart bringing Stan Hansen for some memorable tags. He has the MOTYC with Dundee in June. He begins the feud with Savage later in the year with the cage match. On basis of limited footage, Lawler is good as anyone to carry the torch stateside. (Gotta give a shoutout to the Fabulous Ones-Moondogs feud that tore Memphis apart in 1983) PORTLAND Buddy Rose – Another notch in the belt for Buddy with a young Hennig, Strongbow and DK matches. Buddy gets the best out of everybody. NWA Harley Race – Has the big feud with Flair that produced great matches up until Starrcade. Hung out in Teas for some great matches as well as Japan. Ric Flair – Flair has the feud with Race but the Starrcade match was more great moment than great match. Flair has highlights in Japan and Texas. His famous Brody match happened this year but that isn’t a plus for me. Still, Flair is tearing it up. TEXAS Michael Hayes Terry Gordy Kerry Von Erich - The peak of the Von Erichs vs. Freebirds feud where you could get a great match week in and week out. I think Hayes & Kerry had one of the best matches of the 80s in the cage. Tons of great tags and six mans. I love these guys. AWA Nick Bockwinkel – Nick was tearing it up in the AWA with the MOTYC with Wahoo. He also had stops in Houston, Memphis and Japan to put a feather in his cap. He might be my #1 for the year. Crusher Blackwell – Blackwell is in full Sheiks era but he was awesome. More of a shout out than #1 contender. NEW JAPAN Tatsumi Fujinami Riki Choshu - Choshu and Fujinami are locked together in a Feud of the Year with great match after great match. Fujinami finishes the year strong with some nice performances. These guys could be #1 and #2 on the list for the year and I wouldn’t argue. ALL JAPAN I don’t remember having a lack of 1983 for footage but it is possible. A lot of gaigin popping up with Terry Funk and Stan Hansen having their great match. Flair, Kerry, Bock and Race all pay All Japan a visit. MID SOUTH 1983 Mid South is tough to figure out because of footage limitations but Dibiase is in full King Rat era. Have to grade Mid South wrestlers as incomplete

1999 - This feels like Tajiri's year, and Dylan can back me up on that. I also loved what I saw from Dick Togo but that may just be the fanboy in me. Maybe if we had more singles Togo on tape.

We have footage of face Buddy in Portland. It wasn't a long run but enough to know that he could work as a great babyface.

We're recording #2 this week.

I am going to have to kindly disagree with El McKell and say that Kerry is a lock for the top half of my list and if Reigns has the same career as Kerry with another 4 years or so, he would be a lock too. Reigns is having an awesome in-ring year this year and he has quality big time matches with the Shield. He just needs to have more years under his belt.

I think he was talking about great angles OR great matches... not great TV OR great PPV.

I understand Parv's argument but Hogan couldn't come back month after month to MSG and the Spectrum because he was too busy selling out Chicago, L.A. Phoenix, Sacramento, San Diego, Denver, Toronto, Montreal, Cleveland, Cincinnati etc. Could Bruno go nationwide like Hogan did and make the same impact? I am not saying what Bruno did isn't impressive but that what Hogan did was impressive in a completely different way. So fine... Bruno connects to the industrial Northeast crowd. Does he connect to the Midwest? To the West Coast? To the Southwest? To the Rocky Mountains? The Great Plains? Canada?

Actually, lets say Ross talks to Austin 20 times about wrestling at Mania. Out of 20 conversations on coming out of retirement, he expresses interest 7 out of 20 times, that would be 35% and be pretty accurate from the gut. Hells yeah JR BBQ@!!!

There is nothing to ask him. He just doesn't understand probability and instead of saying what he thinks, he would rather just make up a bullshit number. He's either an idiot or is misinformed. Either way, it doesn't matter it just annoys me when people talk like that. Fucking math nerds.

- When do people think wrestling had the most female wrestling fans? - When was wrestling the hottest? Early-mid 80s and Attitude era WWF. That was when wrestling had the most female fans. - Why do you think those women came to the matches? What was over with them? - They came because wrestling was popular and to check out the hot roided up bodies and/or cute faces. - Why didn't they stay fans? How long were they fans for? - Wrestling became unpopular and they were fans until they grew up or the guys they had posters of grew old or died. - What do you think would be some ways to get similar fans now? - Make wrestling super popular again and appeal to the mainstream.

NWA Ric Flair Ricky Steamboat Terry Funk - The highlights of 1989 NWA. I don't think it would be a stretch if you called any of these guys WOTY for the promotion. Funk had the great Flair feud but also the Steamer match and other TV matches. Flair had the feuds with Funk & Steamboat. Steamboat also had the Luger feud. Man, this was a three man power trip for the NWA All Japan Jumbo Tsuruta Genichiro Tenryu - I know 1989 was an awesome year for All Japan tag wrestling but it really is all about the two aces with a GMOAT contender to cap it off. Memphis - Lawler has his heel turn at the end of the year and good matches in Texas but a lack of footage in arena setting really hurts since we don't see the big time stuff play out like in year's past. I love the Fujinami NJ match also but not enough to put Lawler on the list from a footage standpoint. He is still pretty great though. New Japan Riki Choshu - Choshu dominated New Japan this year in terms of quality matches. He won't be a favorite but I think he is the clear #1 wrestler of the year when you look at the high-end stuff with a nice range of opponents including a young Hashimoto, Inoki, Vader, the Russian series, tagging against SSM & Takano. Jushin Liger - I don't think Liger had a better year than 1989 in the ring and he had the super feud with Sano. Maybe the yearbook guys can disagree but he was hitting non-stop home runs Sammy Sosa juiced and cheating style. Texas Eric Embry - Embry carried Texas in 1989. He really had no peers in the company for the entire year. Kerry looked good still. Lawler and Dundee would come in for a cup of coffee but Embry could be in my Top 5 for the year and wouldn't look out of place at all. EDIT: Mexico El Dandy El Satanico Pirata Morgan - These guys were killing it in 1989 and I am sure Phil or Kris could come up with another 2 or 3 luchadores and I would agree with them.

He didn't have a strong year in All Japan. How much Georgia do we have highlighting his run that year?

We haven't gone there yet and I don't think you had Portland availability yet Wade, but Buddy Rose is pretty hard to beat 1980-81. He and Lawler along with Flair are the American Three for me for 1982.

WWF Tito Santana & Greg Valentine – Classic feud for the ages. Maybe the best WWF feud of all time. Need to at least be mentioned. Iron Sheik & Sgt. Slaughter – Another classic feud with a MOTDC to add to the resume. However, Sheik gets stuck with Volkoff and I need to see some more peak Sarge from that year. NWA Ric Flair – Classic matches with Steamboat, Kerry Von Erich, Race, Tenryu Ricky Steamboat – Classic matches with Flair; Tully feud; Looks like he had a ton of matches with Wahoo & Dick Slater. God, I gotta see those Wahoo matches. AWA Nick Bockwinkel – Great matches with Hennig, Martel, teaming with Saito TEXAS Kerry Von Erich - Fabulous Freebirds vs. Von Erichs feud in full force plus classics with Jumbo & Flair put it over the top for Kerry. Terry Gordy – Freebirds & Von Erichs feud plus great singles matches including MOTYC with Khan. MEMPHIS Jerry Lawler – Down year for Lawler on film but he does have the Savage feud that leads into the Bundy feud and a nice stop tagging in the AWA. Randy Savage – Great year for Savage in Memphis feuding with Lawler, teaming with Lawler, teaming with Lanny, feuds with Idol and Rude. (I feel like giving a shout out to Rich & Gilbert for their work with the PYTs and the epic breakup angle. Wish we had some blood feud matches between the two on tape) MID SOUTH Midnight Express – I am giving Eaton & Condrey props here. With Lane & Eaton, I always felt that Eaton was clearly better than Lane. With Condrey, I always felt they were equals but served different purposes. They lit the world on fire in Mid South that year with epic feuds with Watts, Fantastics and RNRs. (Not much Ted DIbiase on film this year. What happened?) NEW JAPAN Riki Choshu – Clearly, Choshu was the highlight worker in New Japan in 1984. Part of great tags, singles and the super gauntlet. Tatsumi Fujinami – He was still great in 1984, had classic tags with Kimura and was had the most memorable performance in the super gauntlet but he wasn’t Choshu this year. El Satanico Sangre Chicana MS-1 - Amazing year on film for luchadores. Kris and Phil can tell me who is missing from this list.

No, 86.