MikeCampbell

Would this even be necessary if they still had the brand split, and actually treated RAW and SD as separate entitites? Instead they have five hours of TV a week, and only showcase the same handful of names.

If NOAH ever showed any real interest/ability in elevating younger talent, and sticking to it, then it's possible that they might have been popping in 2001. But, they didn't, and they weren't. Akiyama won the strap from Misawa, and Kobashi was hurt, so there's nobody seen on Akiyama's level to challenge him. NOAH never had an interest in Omori, who had lots of history with Akiyama, Takayama really wasn't seen as more than Omori's partner until the Don Frye fight in PRIDE, and the push in New Japan that got the buzz going for him. Akiyama/Vader could have been a hot program, but NOAH never really did much with Vader. So, NOAH had a new king, with nobody to really challenge him for the throne. The Ogawa loss in April was entirely due to Akiyama running out of steam. Ogawa was just a placeholder until the next idea came along, which was Takayama.

Pretty much any nasty head shot. During the Del Rio/Ziggler World Title match at Payback, I was cringing when Del Rio was teeing off on Dolph's head with those kicks.

Is there anything in the WON's from the time frame about the idea behind running the show? I've always heard that it was a test run to see if a weekly PPV would fly, which it obvioulsy didn't.

Andre was the boss with everyone, that's why they call called him that.

Yes. They went from WCW -> WWF -> WCW in a relatively short time Their most famous WCW match from their first run was the Steiners match at Halloween Havoc '90, and they were in the WWF by the the time of the '91 Royal Rumble. They pretty much dropped off the map after 1992, and showed up in WCW in the summer of '93.

I remember JR playing that card on the WCW Japan supershow PPV in '91. So many puro novices start with those shows (for some obvious reasons) and think that's how it works. Raven was the same way, when the crucifixion deal didn't get over. "It was that quiet Japanese heat!"

From shortly after WrestleMania 25 until Summerslam 2010. I just didn't care about anything. I checked out the 1/4/10 RAW and Impact, since they were both heavily promoted, and neither did much for me.

If you include steroids in "drugging" then it defintiley goes on over there. Do a before and after of some of the heavyweights in New Japan or NOAH from their rookies years to afterwards and you'll see a huge difference.

I'd never heard that before, but it makes sense with the finish to the Sting/Rude match at Spring Stampede. Wow, I can totally see Rude doing his trademark "What I'd like to have right now" bit, directed at Harley and Vader.

Like the 'Mania IV and '89-90 threads, this really isn't supposed to be fantasy booking, but designed for simple discussion. But, if Loss or Will disagree, then they'll move it over there. Let's say that Rude doesn't get hurt in Japan. What direction does Rick Rude's career go in? I honestly, don't see him sticking around in WCW much past '95. Unless he was making crazy good money and not ready to give it up. The WWF was in hell at the time, and smaller groups like ECW and Smoky Mountain couldn't afford him. When he got hurt he was the WCW International World Champion, but that was about to be merged with the regular WCW Title, and Hogan was on his way in. Hogan and Flair was the natural feud to start off Hogan, doing the one thing that the WWF dropped the ball on, Hogan vs. Flair on PPV. Feuding with Flair had Hogan locked up until the end of October. Rude had been feuding with Sting over the International Title when he got hurt, but I don't see much reason to keep that feud going without a title. After Hogan and Sting, the top babyfaces would probably be Steamboat (who was retired by September, and feuding with Austin over the U.S. Title), and Dustin (feuding with the Stud Stable). Any other babyfaces (Badd, Pillman, Beefcake, Duggan) weren't anywhere close to his level. Rude being the masked man who jumped Hogan at the Clash would have worked. Rude could have headed to New Japan for the G1 and maybe a tour afterwards, to explain why he hadn't been around. Hogan/Rude headlining Starrcade is certainly better than Hogan/Beefcake, although not turning Brutus means that WCW needs to find something else to do him, and with Sullivan and Tenta. But, after Starrcade Hogan was programmed with Vader. Rude could feud with Savage, but Savage was programmed as Hogan's running buddy, just like Sting. So, I don't see a place for Rude.

Same here. A hot crowd can make things more exciting, but it's nothing close to a make or break aspect. There's thirteen pages dedicated to Brody in the microscope most of which are talking about how shitty a worker he really was. But, I don't that John or Will is going to deny that Brody matches could get the crowd hot.

That makes sense to a certain degree. But, where do you go from there as far as Hogan and Savage? What's the selling point for WrestleMania 5 if Hogan is already champion? It makes more sense to me to have DiBiase over Savage in the finals, a fresh Ted beats a worn down Macho Man. Then, Summerslam is a double main event of Savage/Ted, where Savage lifts the title, and a final blowoff to Hogan/Andre after the NBC and 'Mania matches. After that, you can lead into The Mega Powers exploding angle.

Forget him. No HOF has any credibility without Canada's greatest athlete!

I had to double take when I saw him. With the tights and a full head of dark hair, he looks like an AJ Styles clone.

The Liz angle, that they used as the backdrop for Savage vs. Flair, would never have seen the light of day for Hogan vs. Flair.

Tom himself said in his book that if Patterson wasn't right there, then he would have gone up to them in a totally different manner.

I casually mentioned to my wife last night that Billy Corgan wanted to buy TNA. Her reaction was "The Smashing Pumpkins guy? How can he afford it?" I replied "Maybe he was smart with his money." She slayed me with "If he's buying TNA, he's not that smart with his money!"

The Boston Garden and Spectrum shows from 2/6/88 both feature DiBiase with the title, and announced as the new WWF Champion.

Something that I just thought of: Does anyone know approximately when Bam Bam debuted with the WWF? The tried and true formula of Hogan vs. Monster Heel was already established, and Hogan and Bam Bam had been teaming up. Bam Bam turns on Hogan to set up a Mania match, but Bam Bam's knees put the kibosh on that (I'm too lazy to go through all the recaps, but I recall Loss posting that Bigelow's knees were in rough shape).

The Colony vs. Chuck Taylor and Icarus double mask vs. double hair match from 2009 is excellent.

Is Bobby Eaton still with Bill Dundee's daughter?

All this.

If there aren't any other takers, I can see WWE jumping on it, just for the tape library.

The Sandow thing just strikes me a huge slap in the face. He ruthlessly attacks an existing injury, and still loses to the one armed Supercena. Granted, the whole point of Sandow winning MITB was turning Cody babyface, but surely he could have gotten some mileage out of bragging that *HE* put Cena back on the shelf. Even if he only got a month or two with the title, it'd still have been a fresh title run.