Robert S

As I did not realize that there is more than one Bret Hart vs. Tiger Mask that made tape I quickly looked them up on cagematch and among the four singles matches they had, two were in fricking Dubai. That's wrestling trivia for you. Re: Tenryu & Misawa in mid-90ies WWF: Misawa would have struggled for sure, Tenryu would have done fine, I think.

I haven't seen that Matt Jackson spot, but how does it compare to HBK easily throwing out Vader and Yokozuna at the same time at Royal Rumble 96? (to turn this thread towards something we can all agree on: hating 1996 babyface Shawn Michaels)

If they want to start their own business, I heard Bo has an uncle who knows a thing or two about making money running a family business.

If you are talking about the match I am thinking of, that was a non-TV match that is only available on VHS (Wrestling Grudge Matches and problably some comp). In the long Highspots interview Flair did after leaving WWE, he talked about how he had no self-confidence at all after his last years in WCW, where he felt completely beaten down. (Consider that, Ric Flair being insecure, must have been a Wednesday.) I don't remember in detail what he said, but I think the gist of it was that when he joined WWF he just did what he was told as he felt that at this point he knew and could do nothing. I think it might have actually been this match that somewhat gave him back a bit of self esteem (again, that 10 hour or whatever interview was 15 or so years ago, so don't quote me on that). If you consider that mindset, it somewhat explains that part of the match.

When I read the description before looking at the picture (a racist hand sign involving three fingers), I expected him to use the Kühnen salute. But I suppose that is only a thing in countries where using the Hitler salute is a criminal offence.

It's not even (just) to draw among certain demographics, it's just common sense. The bigger the variety of the roster (small, tall, fat, muscular, skinny, young, old, black, white, latino, Asian ...), the more recognizable the indivuals are (which in the end should mean more money for your promotion, but hey, the brand is the star now). Anyone remember early 2000s OVW where (at least on upper body shots) everybody looked the same? That is a perfect example on how NOT to do that.

Mark Henry's chances as being The Guy were destroyed during that time when they tried to get him to quit by throwing all shit they could think of at him. Afterwards it took almost a decade before people (besides the super-hardcores) were willing to take him serious again. By the time Simmons got to the WWF, I think he was already broken down too much for more than a short run.

That's a good one. I almost wanted to say you forgot Foley, but Wikipedia says he was born in Indiana (quoting an IGN article). I quickly scanned through the first chapters of his bio and he does not mention that there. Actually, he mentions that both his parents were teaching in Setauket in 1964, a year before Mick Foley was born. So if he was born in Indiana, his family could not have stayed long there.

Don't forget that Kane burned Taker "to a crisp" at Royal Rumble. It was definitely by far the longest build-up of an Undertaker Wrestlemania match by the point in time, but if you consider the build-up good, well, YMMV.

In some of his highly heralded matches of his last years, he took a lot of real punishment and basically had one year to heal up afterwards (the third HHH match comes to mind, consider how his body looked, the stuff Taker took there did not have much to do with working anymore).

That's the same company (probably more like the same business) where the Terry Garvin school of self-defense was a thing.

The important question: does Brady have dick implants as well?

I don't want to say that Meltzer does not have his own opinions or that he is gullible, but there are lot of examples, where you read something Meltzer wrote (at least 20-30 years ago), and you can easily deduce who he was been talking to recently (Eddie Gilbert, Heyman, Konnan ...). He has native Japanese sources as well, so if you read an opinion of his on something Japanese wrestling related, you always read a bit what his sources think as well (Fumi Saito or whoever Meltzer was talking to 25 years ago).

Lot of times, Cornette is the embodiment of that famous "you're not wrong Walter, you're just an asshole" line from The Big Lebowski.

Also after 16+ years, I would expect he could get the US citizenship if he wants/needs to (I don't know the US citizenship laws, but European countries usually give you that option after at most 10 years living in a country legally, though Switzerland itself is actually one of the weirder cases regarding attaining citizenship (I heard some stories of colleagues who had to jump to several hoops to get there)), both Switzerland and the US allow dual citizenship, so there is not even a downside for him.

I am sure he has said a lot of negative things about Sable or Jackie Gayda over the years.

Are Cesaro and Sara del Rey still together? That could also have been a factor in his decision.

The no-cover thing was a staple for pre-96 (or maybe even pre-97) Undertaker. You rarely ever saw someone going for a pin. Usually it was hit your finisher - maybe hit the finisher one or two more times - pose - zombie sit-up. Maybe Jake was the template here, maybe it was just a coincidence, I don't know. Now the suspense: will Giant Gonzales or 95 King Kong Bundy be able to break the (negative) streak?

I take Fred Durst raping Behind Blue Eyes before I listen to another Bad Bunny song, that is for sure (to be honest, I hit fast forward about half a minute in once I realized that this was no rib but meant to be serious, or is he supposed to be a comedy act?). I realize that as a 40-year-old (Austrian) I am not the target audience of Bad Bunny, but for WWE viewers, I am well below the median age (which is something in the early 50ies, right?).

I don't know, 1991 was still snail-pace WWF with 4 PPVs a year and TV shows with 90% squash matches with an angle every couple of weeks. Back then - unless you were a big name coming in - it took some time until you got moved away from squashes. By that point the only non-squashes that made TV were two matches against Tugboat on Prime Time and on the MSG network and one against Snuka on the MSG network, i.e. nothing on syndication. So Taker was still very much in the introduction phase. Actually it is quite interesting that he already got put into a top program shortly after Mania (being married to Warrior on house shows from mid April until the end of August before switching to Sid for a month and settling with Duggan the rest of the year).

Same for me in Austria, but then looking at the current top 100 singles, I barely know any of the artists. But I don't think I even want to know them, to be perfectly honest.

The thing with Heyman that always gets me is that he was 5 years younger than me right now when ECW went under (and Cornette was an additional year younger when SMW closed shop).

Why did I expect the "good cause" to be something like America First Action?

Hmm... I thought that spot looked wonky, but when I did a quick rewind I only looked at Ripley (as (1) she is taller and (2) not as athletic). Somehow Corey Graves got a chuckle out of me with the "she should have turned left at Albuquerque" line when Bugs Bad Bunny went to the top rope. But then there was some real bad announcing tonight. Can we please finally cancel Lawler? His stuff was cringeworthy 20 years ago, but now? Jeez. I also laughed at the line that Danielson is reaching the end of the road while Riddle has his whole career in front of him. Riddle is 35, not 20. And somehow in the women's Rumble, of the two spots where someone nearly got injured (Ripley dumping Dakota Kai head first on the ring apron and Ember Moon shoot dropkicking Naomi into the face) neither involved Nia Jax nor Charlotte. Oh, and I counted to 15 (on the second ref) until Reigns somehow feigned standing up (they either should have done a dry-run or not have trusted Heyman being a handyman). Also shouldn't blatantly attacking a referee be a suspension or something like that?

It's never a good sign for your roster depth when you have to put three people twice on the poster.