Johnny Sorrow

Apparently, Canadian Hospital food rules. And you have to LOVE Lawler eating the salad. You know he came up with that.

Hot fucking damn, brother. That was awesome. Thank you, man. I just want to add one thing. I remember the Apter mags doing a story to address why he turned heel in Mid-South, and explained his turning back to a babyface. Actually, II "himself" wrote a story for the mags explaining it. The story went that he turned heel to help Magnum become the man he needed to be. II was willing to throw away all the good will the fans had for him to give Magnum the challenge he needed, to defeat his mentor and then become a Champion. Of course, it never mentioned II staying a heel in other promotions, but the Apter mags really didn't cover those.

For those of usin the USA who don't have IPads...there's no mail subscription? Cause I'd really love to get actual copies of this. It looks great.

That shit aside, Coffey mentioned Magnum TA in his original post. Magnum TA was one of the coolest motherfuckers of all time in wrestling. He had just beat Wahoo for the US Belt when I first discovered NWA Wrestling. He immediately became one of my favorite wrestlers. He just came off so real. His promos were often a little shaky, but they never came off as phony. He was intense. And those 3 second jobber squashes he'd do on WordWide just MADE him. It was so much fun to watch him belly to belly some dude and pin him in seconds! Then when he'd face fellow stars it was always good to great. I can't think of a bad Magnum TA match, at least from Crockett. Flair, Arn, Nikita, Wahoo, The Midnight Express, Kamala and of course, Tully. When I think about "best match ever" lists...numbers 3 through whatever change constantly. But #2 will always be Lawler/ Dundee Loser Leaves Town Part One, and #1 will always be Magnum TA vs Tully Blanchard "I Quit" Cage Match Starrcade 1985. It's just simply the greatest match of all time. Everything about the lead up to it and then the match itself is just perfect. It's everything that Pro Wrestling should be. And Magnum TA was so amazing with every detail. He really would have ended up as "The Man" if not for the wreck.

As opposed to One Man Gang, who during his brief ECW run had a match with Sabu that is one of my personal top ten favorite matches, where he worked his ass off. Edit: Jerry, my point was that, at least to me, there's no difference between "in ring" and "matches". Matches take place in the ring and "technical skill" and "psychology" and every other aspect of a pro wrestling match all are a mixed whole when it comes to "judging" a pro wrestler. To me, you can't separate so called technical skill from personality and all the little tricks when it comes to talking about "Who's best."

Purple Hippo mushroom Ronco Oscar the Grouch this with Worf on a bagel.

What exactly is the difference between "in-ring" and "matches"? Bam Bam could do a cartwheel, sure.... but in what other way was he better than Ray Traylor?

Awesome, something cool to listen to when I get home from work tonight.

Nah, when he first debuted he was a lot whiter than he is now. And I recall the same story about him taking something to keep him lighter and him getting sick from it and all the other ways to stay that pale. Speaking of this, I love that during the Bryan/ Sheamus feud, Bryan was the "tan" guy. For years in the indys Bryan being the whitest guy alive was a running joke.

Ha, the first live CWA/Memphis card I went to was in Louisville where Lawler won the belt back from Bota, complete with fireball.

I'm wrapping up watching the Crane Memphis stuff. I just watched Tommy Gilbert vs. Larry Latham go for 15 minutes and it was fucking great. When it started, I was sorta half paying attention but a few minutes in I was riveted. And the last five minutes are killer. I've been on a Memphis marathon all night and it's been a blast. I've been re-reading Bret Hart's book again recently, and while it's probably one of the best wrestler bios ever..when he rags on Memphis for being "hokey" while Stampede was "realistic", I always roll my eyes. I'll grant you, I've only seen a handful of old Stampede and I've seen a ton of old Memphis, and Stampede was boring as fuck with a shitty announcer and Memphis is just awesome with the greatest announcer(s).

I can assure you, he did exist.

How in the world is Captain Lou Albano not in already? And I've read the thread, doesn't matter a bit. Albano was a huge star in WWWF/WWF. Of all of the legendary managers there back in the day, he was the one we all hated the most..then loved. He crossed over to mainstream. He deserves to be in.

By the way, that's brilliant and I'm ripping it off. I got my producer for WHATAMANOOVER! working on an audio mash-up of Kane and Costanza. And crowd aside, how cool was it that Punk was yelling "I'M the King of Memphis, Tennessee!!" ? You could totally tell that he was having a blast. And here we go. "KANE meets COSTANZA! WHATAMANOOVER! Fri nites at 11pm EST on http://www.tnt-radio.net/ It's a Pro Wrestling Radio/ Podcast hosted by Bryan Miller and Johnny Sorrow. Join us as we keep one eye on the current world of wrestling, and one eye on the classics. Like Robert Gibson if he was Doctor Who?"

By the way, that's brilliant and I'm ripping it off. I got my producer for WHATAMANOOVER! working on an audio mash-up of Kane and Costanza. And crowd aside, how cool was it that Punk was yelling "I'M the King of Memphis, Tennessee!!" ? You could totally tell that he was having a blast. Another missed announcer opportunity, I think. They mentioned Punk tweeting that he "did it for Andy Kaufman" when he kicked Lawler in the head, and when he sang Andy's song the only mention was Josh pointing out he was complaining about being disrespected but he was doing it himself now. (skip to about 0.52 to see the original version) It's not even just about Andy. I felt like Punk was channeling every old Memphis heel who would declare themselves "the New King". And let's face it, as awesome as it was that Lawler went on about beating Dundee and Dutch... no one in these crowds, or at least only a small percentage, have any idea what he's talking about.That being said, I personally don't give a shit. Everything about the Lawler/ Punk thing was aimed at guys like me so I'm happy.

By the way, that's brilliant and I'm ripping it off. I got my producer for WHATAMANOOVER! working on an audio mash-up of Kane and Costanza. And crowd aside, how cool was it that Punk was yelling "I'M the King of Memphis, Tennessee!!" ? You could totally tell that he was having a blast.

That'd be the same Jerry Lawler who would fight Frankenstein Monsters one week and Dutch Mantell the next?

So I guess I'm the only person alive who got that Cole was doing his best "Dr. Bob Hartley" when commentating with Kane tonight.

Man, that Cena/ Miz match was fucking fun.

edit: wrong thread

That is a punk move. Well, considering both of them are on the road all the time, Skype is a perfectly acceptable way to communicate. And at least she broke up with him before she got back together with her ex.

That's where the magazines came in to play. Most fans probably read them and were familiar with guys that way.

There is concept and there is execution. I don't see how you could begin to compare Gagne and RVD when it comes to concept. Let me put it this way, if Gagne was the most awkward wrestler in the world (which he's not) and RVD the smoothest, then what I've seen out of Gagne's basic understanding of how to work a coherent, meaningful match still utterly eclipses RVD. EDIT: Which isn't to say I COMPLETELY love CHEATING FACE Greg Gagne. Remember though. Greg Gagne really only "cheated" when he was facing a bad guy who deserved a little taste of his own medicine. I'm sure if we watched all the TV during the time of the AWA set, it'd be full of the bad guys cutting promos on the good guys and fucking them over in various other matches besides the big ones on the set. By the time the matches went down, the good guys were justified to throw the bad guys tactics back in their faces, and that's why the crowds went nuts. It's not as if the High Flyers cheated when they'd do a studio match against two job guys, I'd imagine. Edit: The AWA Set: So Fucking Great It's Invading Threads Everywhere!