KrisZ

Verne was already in Frisco, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, & Vegas so he had those in tact. He tried LA in 1969 and failed so he may have been gunshy about going there again but Vince already had LA first in early 1983 with Mike LeBell running the show.

Another key to the equation could've been Snuka who could've been the guy to get over in areas that Slaughter might have been as hot. As John said Hogan was the key to the AWA/Twin Cities invasion and they would've never gotten as big of a foothold against Verne without Hogan at that time.

Volkoff would've come off the Sheik run and I think Valentine would've been around as well plus you had Orndorff, Patera, Studd, & Ventura.

If it's 1985 I think it would be either Muraco or Bundy. If it's 1986 it's Savage.

Plus in the end Hogan would've been in the WWF anyway and probably would've been the guy to take the title off of whoever beat Slaughter.

Hogan had more appeal yeah and was more versatile gimmick wise as he really didn't have a gimmick other than a big muscled hero while Sarge had the military gimmick but like Dylan said he had the crossover with GI Joe plus he had other commercials in the era and he was a great talker so he could've carried the load. He may not have been as good looking as Hogan so Hollywood wasn't in his future but given the chance who knows how big he would've gotten. Regarding Hogan, I think he would've left AWA anyway hanging in Japan while working wherever in the US. I know that Crockett was wanting to use him at Starrcade so JCP could've been a destination but I wouldn't have counted out a return to Florida taking over for Dusty.

In working on the AWA project I've watched a good bit of Slaughter in 1985 and he was still at the top of his game when he came into the AWA cutting promos about how he was a victim of favoritism in his former job and couldn't get a world title shot because the promoter was scared he was bigger than the champion. I then started to think about it and let's say that Sheik beats Backlund for the title and they do the Slaughter turn still in February but they don't bring in Hogan and they let Sheik have another couple of months as champion beating Backlund in rematches before Slaughter was ready in March to take the title. We all know how awesome the Slaughter/Sheik matches were and if you add the title to the fray they would've been legendary instead of basically being forgotten treasures by the mainstream. The question is with Slaughter as champion would he have had the extended drawing power that he had in 1984 where he was outdrawing Hogan on occasion prompting some jealousy between the two and Vince having to pick a side. Slaughter moving on from Sheik to new feuds with the likes of Volkoff, Patera, Orndorff, Piper, whoever would have been very intriguing as Slaughter was way better as a worker than Hogan was at the time. Some food for thought.

The best part about the whole change is the huge Twitter links at the top of the page especially after all the bitching about Twitter.

Eddie Graham's mentor was Cowboy Luttrall who ran Florida for decades. Onita definitely was influenced by Memphis and their philosophy and also Eddie Gilbert who molded ECW in that image

This may be the greatest sponsored tweet ever

Yeah at that time Dusty was a polarizing figure as you really loved him or really hated him and watch those old Techwood shows especially 87-88 as there were weeks when Dusty would get heckled and then started cutting promos on the fans. I was one of the rare ones who loved Dusty & Flair together The thing about Dusty being the center of everything was important early on because he got every program over whenever he would get involved but it did wear thin eventually.

Barnett definitely has to be among the top of the list here as not only did he save the NWA in 1972 but when Ole Anderson ran him out 10 years later he sold his GCW stock to Vince kickstarting the expansion plan and then he was used to recruit new towns.

Iole & Cofield also do boxing stuff for Yahoo so they are going to stay for sure.

Mitchell was great at promos when he was able to let loose but that was about it. The deal with Jones was he was a pretty great babyface and really only worked as a heel for JCP once in 78-79 and 82-88. Paul was credible because of his wrestling talent and basically he became a manager after Sir Oliver Humperdink who was his manager left JCP in early 1983. Paul was good in his role as the foil for Valiant but once he graduated up to a bigger feud he wasn't as good. The very little i've seen of Heenan as an actual wrestler he was actually quite good. Never saw Albano in ring but i've always heard he kinda sucked. I'll use this as an excuse to post a link to Lord Alfred Hayes vs Bobby Heenan from AWA, awesome match that everyone should see if you haaven't allready. For what's billed as a "battle of the managers" they look better then all but the top tier talent around. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKASakc7_zY This is aas good a place as any to note that Lord Alfred hayes had a nice run as a heel-then-face manager in the AWA from the later 70's through the middle of 1980. He subsequently moved to Montreal and managed some heels there, including Billy Robinson. It's why you see Hayes at ringside for Robinson in some AWA Winnipeg matches, even though Robinson was a face in the rest of the AWA. Lord Alfred was very effective as a heel manager everywhere he went to such as AWA, Florida, JCP, Montreal, and the like and I thought he would've been an awesome replacement for Grand Wizard instead of Piper who was the actual replacement for a while. Alfred as the stereotypical English gentlemen while wearing a bad tuxedo was very fun. Alfred was actually Vince's liason in Montreal in 1983 before he joined WWF full time. Adnan was effective because he could work matches plus it was always easy to boo the Iraqi. Adnan's career is underrated as he was a gigantic draw in many different countries in the 70's and early 80's. He would sell out stadiums in South Africa and was a good draw in Hawaii as well. Regarding Ellering, he was at his best in GCW in 83-84 where he managed the original Legion of Doom but also Arn Anderson & Matt Borne cutting some great promos at the time using his great vocabulary and would take shots at wrestlers in a tone where they didn't know he was doing it. Ellering was essential to the Roadies believe me as they weren't as special in WWF without him. Sorta surprised that Percy Pringle wasn't mentioned here as much as he was pretty fun as a heel but Paul Bearer was as essential to the Undertaker's rise as anyone. A guy I really dug was Sonny King in his runs in GCW in 1982-83 and in Southeastern in 1984 as he was smooth and softspoken while doing a Kojak type gimmick being bald and sucking the lollipop but he was effective in getting over the Samoans, Moondogs, Ivan Koloff, & Iron Sheik in GCW since they weren't the best talkers. Also I thought Bruce Prichard was fun in Global managing the Cartel in 1991-92 especially coming off being Brother Love.

I wonder if it's Yahoo seeing that MMA is trending downward and they don't have to cover it as extensively anymore.

They were shifting Barrett over to Sheamus but Orton's injury wasn't as serious as they originally thought so those plans were nixed.

Active guys who weren't in the Rumble or in a match on the show Curt Hawkins JTG Mason Ryan Michael McGuillicutty Tyler Reks Heath Slater Jimmy Uso Johnny Curtis Ted DiBiase (injured recently) Trent Barretta Tyson Kidd Yoshi Tatsu Darren Young Derrick Bateman Titus O'Neill Percy Watson Believe me I think we got a mostly good selection this year because that list is uninspiring.

To give an example of Lawler booking, Nightmare Freddy & Jason during 1989 was all Lawler along with the emergence of Ronnie P. Gossett.

1988 because Lawler was becoming AWA champ so he was all over the place. They started mixing in guys like Embry in as well during the 90's.

What they did that was so smart was they split the booking every year where originally Jarrett & Lawler booked 6 months a piece then Dundee joined on and when he was around he would book. Tom Renesto booked a while in 1985 and you could tell the difference between the usual Memphis style which was when Lawler booked it was all entertainment angles with monster characters and the like while Jarrett used a more traditional style.

Meltz's obsession with Chael is rising up the creepy scale.

They should just do a Readers Awards and a Editors Awards

There is your sign that Punk has entered top guy territory in WWE because de-pushing your exes is a tradition.