KrisZ

I don't think Dusty had any desire to take a break. Super Booking Genius, and he loved calling the shots. My preference would have been for him to take a break from the *wrestling* and focus on the book, and building a team to run a national promotion. I don't know... perhaps at the time you cut in Turner, you also give Dusty a cut similar to what the Brothers did with Dana White. 5-10%... Dusty has a vested interesting in the group... get him out of the ring... turn him into the old Bill Watts role... and limit his "comebacks" to a single GAB Tour every two years in just tag matches underneath the double main events. "Retire" at Starcade 1986, GAB Comebacks for 1988, 1990, etc. If your goal is to get Starcade on PPV in 1987, then shoot for lauching a second PPV with the GAB in 1988 with Dusty's "special return" as one of the other selling points. Long term planning. Dusty was really quite suffocating as a wrestler by the middle of 1987... and it went on for more than a year and a half afte that. 1986 would have been a great send off for him: win the World Title at the Bash, and then line up a proper Final Match at Starcade. "It's a new era for new stars..." type of promo. Let Crockett give him the equiv of Commissioner back then. Can't be President of the NWA... but give him some other NWA related handle like Chairman of the Competition Committee or some such bullshit. Don't get him physically involved in matches, and have a nice running joke of heels wanting to smack him around but if they do they'll get suspended and "blacklisted" from the NWA (yes... use that term). Heels keep backing off from that one because (as JJ and Corny can explain) that would cost them their livelihood and they wouldn't be able to feed their kids, yadder, yadder. Then when someone actually does layout Dusty with a chair in 1988, it's a "Holy Shit" moment built up for a year and a half. My worry about Barry getting the title in 1987 is that it's a Career Peak and then a Career Dead End. What does Barry's career look like if he's instantly down at a non-World Title level. I think in those days there always was the risk of being Tommy Rich. I think even Savage never was in the WWF (in his first run) quite at the same level after his first World Title run. They flat out busted their ass to make the feud with Warrior work, and it did. But the Macho King gimmick was a far cry from his 1986-89 peak. His stuff with Flair had a shot, but they couldn't bring it off. It was a different era, and the World Title (in both promotions) was just an entirely different level. Very few people like Dusty could take a Cup of Coffee with it and *not* have it impact their careers where they looked lesser once they no longer held the belt. I'm not even sure that Kerry for the rest of 1984 and into 1985 was quite the same after he had fullfilled the Quest of the Von Erics going back more than a decade. Perhaps on a local level they could pawn off how Kerry got screwed in Japan, but if you're a national promotion... back then it was kind of hard to bury that this guy who won the title is now just one of the guys, especially when you're a face. That's not a problem as much with an older vet. But Barry at the time looked like he had a great future. I'm totally down with you on Ted. But I wouldn't have wasted my time buying the UWF and doing a UWF vs NWA feud. I simply would have picked off talent. Dusty had issues with some of them, which is too bad. Of course the Birds were out-of-control to some degree, but lordy they would have been a nice compliment to JCP (especially if Gordy took the time to get the knee done). Of course Ted being brought in would have been great, and like I said above, I would have put him with the Horsemen with Flair going face. Don't know if I would have gone face with Flair forever, but by 1987-88, the time was really ripe for him to go face. You just needed a strong World Champ level heel opposite him. Can't think of anyone better for that role than Ted. John A Four Horsemen with DiBiase, Doc, Tully, & Arn would've been nuts. Regarding the UWF roster there were some good pieces there that an invasion could've worked with guys like DiBiase, Doc, Birds, Gang, Gilbert, Taylor, Adams, Sting, Steiner, Iceman, Chavo, even Gary Young. Imagine the first War Games looking like this Team NWA (Dusty, Flair, Nikita, Arn, & Tully) vs. Team UWF (DiBiase, Doc, Freebirds) Then you would have Flair working babyface in this war with the story that the Horsemen thought he went soft hence losing the title and they lock up with DiBiase & Doc to form the new Horsemen. Flair & Luger then break off maybe hooking up with Sting & Windham to form another foursome to counter off that.

Meltz thinks Dancing With The Stars hurt the 1st hour rating and it did a big number.

In all fairness, Dusty should've taken a break from booking in 1987 because every booker gets burnt out after a long booking stint and with guys there like Dundee, Gilbert, Dillon, & Kevin Sullivan then Gary Hart coming in during 1988 they could've gotten somewhat fresher and Dusty could've focused only on wrestling. The thing was that Jim Crockett was married to Dusty professionally and I think even if Dusty wanted to take a break, Crockett would've made him stay. Barry Windham getting the title from Flair in 1987 could've worked as well but if I was in charge of JCP when the UWF was bought, DiBiase gets a long-term deal, then we do the UWF invasion setting up Flair/DiBiase at Starrcade title vs. title to determine the unified champion, DiBiase wins the title as the heel then we have a babyface Flair who would leave the Horsemen, Luger, Sting, Windham, Nikita challenging DiBiase for the title

3 biggest Dusty booking mistakes Luger not getting the strap at the 88 Bash Roadies not getting the tag straps at Starrcade 87 Completely obliterating the UWF after the buyout. Any one of these three could be #1 in my mind.

He said that Flair should've never been world champ in one of the Matysik interviews. I can't remember which one. Plus his hatred of Bob Backlund is really annoying as well. His main talking point was that the heels were the draws not Backlund and he was nothing but a pawn for the heels. Regarding Flair as a draw, he was a heel world champion for the national version of JCP for 3 years give or take a couple of months and when they did take the strap off him it was for Dusty for one week and Ronnie Garvin who bombed for 2 months. Magnum's crash changed Dusty's plans and he never fully recovered as Nikita was great in his role but wouldn't have drawn like Magnum. Luger should've gotten the strap at the 88 Bash which arguably was Dusty's biggest mistake as the booker because Luger was red hot as a babyface and a world champ Luger defending against the Horsemen would've been fresh.

He thinks that Flair was nothing but a loser because he rarely won clean where Hogan won clean all the time and was a dominant champion. Flair wasn't a draw and was one of the main reasons why JCP went out of business.

Well Buck & Brody was close as they were tied up a lot together but the Brody hero worship is funny to me on 57talk interviews with Buck & Matysik. Cubeta saying that Flair should've never been world champion nearly made me fall out of my chair.

Cubeta annoys me more everytime I listen to one of his interviews. Quit trying to push your personal agendas on your guests.

That again proves that The Beautiful People is TNA's biggest draws.

Doc died the wrong week I guess.

Look back at the 85-86 era Bret, he looked like he had done drugs before some matches.

For those of you who haven't seen it, over at DVDVR I'm running the King of Memphis tournament that will start tomorrow. Details inside. http://board.deathvalleydriver.com/index.php?showtopic=51265

Yes this was the perfect week for a Doc obit as the 2nd WON was fairly small.

The best is listening to him tell the difference between what Mir said and what Marcus Davis said about Dan Hardy needing to die of AIDS on WOL last night.

Well the latest example of Dave trying to sugarcoat someone's stupidity is the whole Frank Mir situation saying that he wants Brock Lesnar to die in the octagon. Dave said that Mir was stupid but he was cutting a promo for entertainment purposes trying to build a match. Also regarding Ryder, let us not forget when he was with WCW during the Russo era how he was all up his ass.

It looks that way especially now that Impact is going to Mondays and the return of TUF soon.

When it comes to media being biased towards a subject name me someone who isn't biased at one thing. It comes with the territory these days.

And this goes back to the 80's look at the "Widowmaker" & "Red Rooster" as examples.

Completely agree on the season. Simply tying into the HBO thing: their focus on him led to nothing at 'tona. I don't think they're going to be following him through the entire Cup, are they? John Nah it was just Daytona since it is the big daddy race of NASCAR.

And Jimmie Johnson's average Daytona 500 finish from 2006-2009 is 27th. He won the title all four years. There is a long way to go.

They weren't at the level of 83-mid 86 but they still were drawing way more than 87 at the Sportatorium. They drew poorly on other shows outside of Dallas. Plus the crowd heat was on a totally different level than 87 and in some cases they were as hot as at least 85-86 especially in the Embry era. Regarding Kevin, he declined definitely from 87-on as his problems got bigger and he would go months at a time without even working Dallas.

Compared to 1987 they did gangbusters in those years. Watching the 1987 stuff for the 80's project makes you sad after watching the glory years because the Sportatorium was near empty. 1989 was a better business year than 1988 but 1988 was still a success.

I wonder when he thought WCCW died because they had a pretty damn successful 1988-89.

That goes to what I said earlier about how Hogan defended against all the heels to make them stronger which was very smart. He would go from Piper to Studd to Orndorff to Valentine to Beefcake to Ventura to Savage to Bundy to Funk to Sheiky to Volkoff to Muraco to Orton to Adonis thus making them all important as credible challengers for the title. More of that is needed today for sure. Plus you gotta look at the history of WWF was that for a long time they only ran a couple of big angles a year before they finally figured out that they needed feuds for the midcarders as well.

The Birds got kicked out of JCP 2 months before their WWF run because of the way they acted in the locker room which included pissing all over the walls. Hogan/Bundy was a semi-big deal but it never mainevented MSG, the Spectrum once, and never Toronto or Boston Garden so that's your 4 main markets at the time and only one main event. In fact during the month before WM II, Hogan did a lot of teaming up with JYD against the Funks and with Steamer against Muraco & Fuji which was interesting.