MikeCampbell

According to Raven, the lawsuit was dismissed due to statute of limitations. He was told that had he filed the lawsuit two years earlier, he'd have a slam dunk case.

Raven is doing an appearance for my local Syracuse indy fed next, and has graciously agreed to do a Q&A session. I plan on asking about this, unless he's not allowed to legally comment on it.

I don't know what to tell you, John, except that I evidently had a sheltered childhood.

As a 27 year old adult who has read and heard plenty about the lifestyle during the '80's, not surprised at all. As a nineteen year old, mostly mark, who read Pure Dynamite and read that Bret Hart, who'd always been heralded as the hero and role model, yes, it took me by surprise.

I'm actually surprised that Stuart hasn't canned the AJPW page the way he did the NOAH page. It's going on three months of no updates.

I actually first lost respect for him when I read Pure Dynamite, and Billington's story about him, Bret, and JYD smoking crack all night. DK made no bones about his drugs, and JYD's issues were well known, but I was surprised (then) to hear about Bret partaking in it.

I've been wanting to check out some recent ROH and this was one of the matches that had been getting huge pimping, like codegreen said, glad to read this before dropping the $20.

Oh good, I thought I was the only one who had that sort of mindset. I don't care too much for wrestling at the moment, but, shit, that could change tomorrow.

I don't have the book in front of me. But I seem to recall his comments being along the lines of Leviathan always just went out there and squashed someone in short order. But he never felt like he was sat down and really taught how to wrestle.

The sheer amount of time and money to make the definitive complete Flair comp is staggering. Of course, if Will actually undertook this massive task, he could probably sell ten sets and retire for a couple of years.

TNA does the exact same thing when they sign name indy guys. Remember Senshi?

How funny would it be if Daniel Bryan's character was some sort of beach boy who always has the perfect tan? The bitching and complaining from the ROH zealots would be legen - wait for it - dary!

Given Todd's propensity for parrotting Meltzer, I'm guessing his reply to that (perfectly valid) criticism would be that you can't compre wrestling from the last decade to this one. It's two different eras.

My interest in wrestling is still present, but it's in a different form now. I much more enjoy things like shoot interviews and discussions about other aspects of the business. Before 1/4 I hadn't watched Raw since September, and before that it was probably April or May. Wrestling just doesn't hold my interest. I still try to keep up with the current happenings, thanks to the wonders of the interweb. But the current WWE and TNA products feature next to nothing that makes me want to go out of my way to watch. Factor in my recent fatherhood and things like my job and other non-wrestling related hobbies and wrestling just isn't high on my list of priorities anymore.

During the Guerrero/Ohtani match from Starrcade '95: Schivone: He's got until the count of five to break the hold. Heenan: He's a stranger to our country, I think he should get a bit longer than five. Schivone: How long, Brain? Heenan: 30 or 35. During the 1990 Royal Rumble after Warrior was eliminated and then ran back in and attacked the heels. Schivone: He's a wild man! Ventura: He's an idiot!

I think a case could be made for Foley doing it for the money and stardom. Foley doing the big bumps in Memphis and Texas early in his career always made him stand out. He could have been given a bigger push in both areas had the bookers been willing to do so. Unless you were Lawler, Dundee, or working a high profile program with them, then that wasn't gonna happen in Memphis and Embry's WCCW booking was pushing himself to the moon. When he came into WCW in '89, bumps like the Clash X dropkick from Mascaras quickly made Cactus Jack stand out from the rest of the JTTS crew in WCW. It was the same deal though, the bookers weren't willing to really do more with him.

Hayes told a story during the Legends roundtable discussion that during the Freebirds short lived WWF run, he showed up to TV absolutely hammered and wasn't even able to stand up on his own.

They breaking Heyman's jaw thing was due to legit heat from Heyman backing out of the scaffold match after it'd already been booked. I was thinking more along the lines of Lawler being just an overall stiff wrestler, the way Kevin Von Erich was.

On his first night in ECW, Paul flat out told D Von Dudley that if he didn't lay into JT Smith with a chair, then Paul wasn't going to be using him. So I can totally see Paul telling Dreamer that if Lawler's cane shot didn't look good then the angle was going to flop, and if the angle was successful then ECW would get a huge buyrate for their PPV blowoff and they'd all make a shitload of money. Outside of Bret talking about Lawler stiffing him with the scepter at King of the Ring and the crutches at Summerslam, I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about Lawler working stiff. I've only ever heard comments about his promos and how well he drew, has anyone ever talked about him being a stiff worker?

I really loved the MMA-like buildup videos showing Lesnar and Rocky both training for the match, along with the voice overs explaining what they did and why they did it. Straight out of Rocky IV (minus the alleged use of steroids).

That actually became a bit of a Dreamer staple. I believe the first time was the Harris Bros pulling him into the post, a few months later Brian Lee put a cinder block on his crotch and hit it with a pipe. The last time I remember seeing it was '99 when Storm did the same thing, only with a chair.

You're right, but the difference is in the presentation. ECW was presented as being an honest to goodness alternative to WWF and WCW. Before anyone asks, no, I never 'drank the kool-aid' so to speak, I never thought the Eliminators were really the best tag team in the world, and didn't think that the RVD/Lynn matches were legit MOTYC's. ECW was also able to, at times, make something out of the leftovers who'd run out of steam (Al Snow, Justin Credible, Shane Douglas). Not that they were super workers or anything, but they were able to adjust their characters and personalities and go on to return to the big leagues. ECW was a third-rate promotion that tried (and succeeded) in being something different. Vince's ECW was a third rate brand that was treated as a third rate brand.

FAVORITE WORKERS: Edge, CM Punk, Eddie Guerrero, Bryan Danielson, Chris Hero, Claudio Castagnoli, Samoa Joe, Alex Shelley, Shuji Kondo, SUWA. FAVORITE PROMOTIONS: WWE, ROH, CHIKARA, New Japan, All Japan, NOAH FAVORITE MATCHES: KENTA vs. SUWA, AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe, Hero vs. Claudio from CHIKARA, Danielson vs. Roderick Strong, Guerrero vs. Lesnar, BEST THING ABOUT THIS DECADE: The advent of DVDs and DVDRs making it more affordable for footage collectors to obtain footage. WORST THING ABOUT THIS DECADE: The staggering number of premature deaths in the business.

Actually, I was referring to the fact that WWE has always treated ECW as little more than a third rate brand. Anyone who manages to get over winds up being sent to Raw or SD (Punk and Bourne for instance). The yearly draft usually winds up with ECW getting the leftovers who've basically run out of steam on Raw or SD, Goldust, Regal, Shelton, Rosa Mendez, Zack Ryder. BTW, I'm not complaining about the name change at all. I think it's a good idea, since ECW was always more or less a developmental place with national TV.