CodySave

It's always interesting to read Martin's RAW reports to see what a.) went completely over his head or b.) important parts of the show he completely missed. I picture him being so into typing his notes, that with his head down, he misses two-three major events in each broadcast.

I actually frequent a blog that covers many of the wrestling promotions in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and Illinois - even the really small indys. This dude's name is nowhere to be found on the entire site. There's some hilarious quotes in that article, but yeah, this is awful journalism. As someone who used to write for a newspaper, it frustrates me to see garbage like this that clearly wasn't researched at all, and if it was, not on reputable websites or sources.

Well, assuming it's the same guy, Dusty Wolfe was a wrestler for many terriotries during the 80s and was a regular WWF enhancement talent.

I have some friends who went to the wrestling show held the night before. I'll have to ask them if they made it to the Hall of Fame dinner and witnessed this nonsense.

How many acquisitions came out of this? I can only think of the Powers of Pain off the top of my head. Bossman, too, but I think you posed earlier that by this point he was already waiting to come in, but couldn't yet due to a no-compete clause. I had the same thought. The Bushwackers debuted in late-December but that probably doesn't count. Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard made it in early October. So it appears the Powers of Pain are the only ones around of that time period. What about Ron Garvin? Was he still part of the NWA at this time? Because he joined the WWF sometime in 1988, correct? Terry Taylor as well, but he doesn't sound like he was part of the NWA at this time.

Oh man, this thread is even go to get more fun because Kawada has his fan base who defend his strikes as harmless. I don't think the line "If you prefer watching wrestling where people are actually getting hit full force in the face, I think you should just watch MMA" always makes sense. Maybe some people who watch wrestling like hard hitting violence and prefer or like a lot the emotion manipulationg action inside a wrestling ring? Are they any more wrong for liking contact fighting in wrestling than the MMA/Boxing/Hockey/Kickboxing fan who likes thier violent fighting action? If those guys can have it, than why not pro wrestling? I think some people (not saying you CodySave) seem to be having trouble accepting the fact that they like violence and that wrestling no matter how you do it is always violent. It'd be interesting to see their take on hockey fights. Oh, I enjoy a good hockey fight as much as anyone. The difference is, pro wrestling by design = fake fighting designed to entertain fans by a.) looking real without being a real fight and/or b.) being an over-the-top stunt show and/or c.) being a comedy performance. MMA, hockey fights, fights in other sports = an actual fight between people that legitimately want to hit one another. I agree that there's always some violence in a wrestling match, but there's a huge difference between wrestlers who use shoot strikes in a pro wrestling match and a wrestlers who use worked punches during a match and accidently stiff one another a time or two.

From reading this, it sounds like you're saying that Kawada is a safer opponent than Dick Murdoch because Kawada kicks with full force, whereas Murdoch threw excellent-looking punches that barely contacted his opponent. And as a result of Murdoch not hitting his opponent's full blast with his strikes, he's not as a safe a wrestler as Kawada, who legitimately kicks people. And apparently Murdoch's matches can be completely unwatchable due to said punching style, whereas Kawada always puts out good matches due to actually hitting people. Err....what? If you prefer watching wrestling where people are actually getting hit full force in the face, I think you should just watch MMA.

Has there been any other news released about this incident? Was it really WWE's Ashley Massaro or has it been proven it was a different Ashley Massaro? I ask because I haven't seen WWE's Ashley Massaro on TV much lately.

So, if the meds and insurance paperwork written about at the beginning of the entry have been picked up by the friend and Tracy is too crazy or lazy to pick them up, why hasn't the friend simply taken them to Smothers if he really is that messed up? Not that I want to completely believe most of what his girlfriend wrote, but if the above is true and Tracy actually is in a capable enough mindset to realize he needs the items his friend has and he still hasn't made the effort to retrieve them, I can't feel too sorry for his lazyness. Unless he's so crazy/mentally unstable to handle such a task.

To be honest, it's always really bugged me that they let fans attend the Hall of Fame ceremony at all. Every year without fail, people in the audience manage to take away from the ceremony by chanting really stupidly or calling out names. I missed most of the ceremony and it doesn't appear that they are keeping a stream of it on the WWE site. Does anyone know another option of watching it besides getting the DVD in a couple month's?

I can't be the only one that really dislikes the Flair vs. Taylor series. The mathes themsleves aren't terrible, but they fit in oddly with most of the rest of the set.

Dean Malenko was my favorite wrestler when I was 12 years old. He is the reason I got on my friend's computer, got on the internet and did a search for "Japanese wrestling." Strange to think of it, but I owe much of my wrestling fandom post-youth to Dean Malenko.

I'm shocked Two-and-a-Half Men and American Gladiators made the list simply because they receive(d) consistently high ratings. You think some advertisers would take a chance just because of their high level of viewership. Besides, the subject matter on both isn't near as intense as Law & Order:SVU. Two-and-a-Half Men's biggest issue is that it features real life weirdo Charlie Sheen as the cool scumbag uncle with a bit of a heart. As far as Gladiators, is it perceived as a "redneck" show? Because, as far as violence goes, everything is presented in a pretty safe manner and the safety of the athletes is clearly a focus. I'm sure viewership demographics range across a number of age groups due to the unsual nature of the show. When it first debuted, it was a hot subject at my workplace and most of the people I work with are late 30s to mid 50s.

I know AAW isn't Jacobs' promotion. I actually know quite a few of the guys who wrestle for AAW because they also wrestle for 3XW, the indy promotion in Des Moines. That being said, I don't know exactly who started AAW, but I'm pretty sure Danny Daniels was involved and I know, at least for storyline purposes, they've claimed that Tony Scarpone started the company.

Why can't people representing wrestling ever act in a reasonable manner in legal, TV and/or other "under scrutiny" situations? "I know what I'll do...I'll fake punch the Georgira senators, and then give them a real punch to show them the difference. Brilliant!"

NWA t-shirt's!! What I wouldn't give for the Magnum T.A. t-shirt. I also think it's hilarious that Baby Doll got her own shirt.

Here's my rankings following Disc 1, pending re-watching: 1. Junkyard Dog & Mr. Olympia vs. Ted Dibiase & Matt Borne (Loser Leaves Town) (10/27/82) 2. Midnight Express vs. Bill Watts & Stagger Lee (4/22/84) 3. Mr. Wrestling II & Magnum T.A. vs. Butch Reed & Jim Neidhart (Cage Match) (12/25/83) 4. Mr. Wrestling II and Magnum T.A. vs. Midnight Express (2/10/84) 5. Mr. Olympia vs. Chavo Guerrero (6/24/83) 6. Bob Roop vs Mike George (12/16/81) 7. Ted Dibiase vs. Hacksaw Duggan (Street Fight) (7/29/83) 8. Midnight Express vs. Rock N Roll Express (No DQ: Tag Titles vs. $50,000) (5/23/84) 9. Mr. Wrestling II & Junkyard Dog vs. Matt Borne & Ted Dibiase (2/16/83) 10. Butch Reed and Buddy Landel vs Rock N' Roll Express (3/28/84) 11. Stagger Lee & Mr. Olympia vs. Ted Dibiase & Matt Borne (12/18/82) 12. Bob Roop vs Ted Dibiase (4/2/82) 13. Junkyard Dog & Mr. Olympia vs. Ted Dibiase & Hacksaw Duggan (8/18/82) 14. Midnight Express vs Porkchop Cash and Bill Dundee (4/6/84) 15. Butch Reed vs. Iron Sheik (4/8/83) 16. Mr. Olympia vs. Paul Orndorff (2/3/82) 17. Mr. Olympia vs. Bob Roop (7/15/82) 18. Nick Bockwinkel vs Dusty Rhodes (5/20/83) 19. Buck Robley vs One Man Gang (Lumberjack match) (9/15/82) 20. Junkyard Dog vs. Nick Bockwinkel (6/11/82) I wouldn't be surprised if I moved the cage match back to the No. 2 spot.

I've heard of tournaments for cars and money, but this is a new one for me. Thanks for posting this Loss. This is great stuff and is really interesting to read in hindsight.

I honestly hadn't taken a look at the article yet, but definitely will just based on the fact that Michael Lewis wrote it, much less the fact that I'm interested in the subject matter itself. "The Blind Side" is an amazing book, just as good, if not better, than the more-popular "Moneyball" by Lewis in my opinion. Even my Mom loves "The Blind Side" and she could give a crap less about football.

WHAT Thank you for this. I honestly wasn't aware that this existed. This explains everything.

Personally, I've always wondered how a skinny black dude with a fro came up with "The Human Tornado" as his wrestling name.

Not to mention cheating to squeak out a win against an extremely green Maven, who couldn't defeat anybody in the WWE at that point. Jericho's undisputed title reign was one of the worst championship runs ever. It was booked so, so awful.

Gorilla and Johnny Polo were really good here, even with some awkwardness at times. I didn't even realize that Tony Chimel was already ring announcing for WWE/WWF in 1993.

Jesus, I had no idea this ever occurred. Claiming that Ricky Steamboat needs to have a restraining order put on him? Hah! The random women in the crowd claiming to to be sleeping with Steamboat and calling each other sluts is hilarious though. This is a fine example of late 90's-early 00's WCW, except this happened almost 10 years beforehand. This is really risque and out of place for U.S. wrestling at the time. And like Tim said above, all in front of the lead singer of Alabama for god sakes. I really enjoyed the campyness of this.

The opening angle is exactly what we need more of in wrestling - wrestlers dressed in suits (the heels with a lawyer) signing contracts in a professional boardroom. Makes the whole match feel like a deadly serious confrontation and that wrestling is serious business. Honestly, for example, John Cena and Randy Orton in suits in a situation like this wouldn't look awkward at all, in my opinion. It would have really played up how serious Cena is at getting back for the attacks on his Dad - especially if an extra "title vs ..." stip was thrown in. Cena's pretty much given up the "thug life" already, so he could easily transfer from the baggy shorts to a nice suit. As mentioned above, Kernodle's t-shirt is awesome and, yet, so simple. Actually, I think this is the first Kernodle match I've ever seen, and I'm impressed. Is this another case of lack of footage = lack of more discussion? Based on the little that I've seen, I'd think he'd be hyped more. The previous sentences apply to Jay Youngblood as well, and it's a shame he died young. The headlock work is fantastic in this match, and what really struck me is the "heel in peril" section with Kernodle in so long at the beginning of the match. Can't say I've seen that very much. Slaughter really can move remarkably well for a guy his size. This is just a fantastic match all around - from the opening angle, to the "Rocky" entrance for the heels, to the commentary, to the crowd, to the selling, to the headlocks and chops...even the cage is very smartly used. Every time someone is thrown into it, it means something.