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While there was no full on Orndorff style attack, Tugboat did go immediately after Hogan in both the Royal Rumble and the SNME Battle Royal preceding his becoming Typhoon, complete with harsh words between the two.

Kayfabe. Plenty of examples of Hogan being a dick as a person, I'm looking for examples of him being a dick as a babyface character.

Yeah, that grab assing at Summer Slam was way over the line. John His tendency to refer to Liz as "our manager". Excuse me, you may be teaming with Savage but since when is she your manager?

I think it's safe to say that every time one of Hogan's best friends turned on him, he had it coming. He didn't return Orndorff's calls, he was condescending to Andre in that whole trophy mess, he pawed Savage's woman and tried to take away the limelight during Savage's victory celebrations. It's a wonder he was able to get any friends at all after a certain point.

I've often read how Hogan was the worst "sportsman" of any babyface champion for his needlessly dickish behaviour in his matches. While I do recall him often whalloping the hell out of Sherri Martel, and Jesse Ventura complaining about his cheating in front of the ref early in a match and it being glossed over by the other commentary, I am having trouble remembering too many specific instances. The most notorious moment of the crowd turning on him would probably be the Royal Rumble, where he eliminated Sid Justice from the outside and the crowd booed him so intensely that they switched the boos and cheers in post production. Can anyone give any particularly egregious examples of dick behaviour by Hogan as a supposed babyface? I am of course talking about examples in matches and interviews, not backstage stuff.

ugh Anyone ever recall anybody ever defending the Hardyz?

Oh sure, I admitted I was going on a tangent, I knew what you meant ... he didn't "just KO" the guy, as you said. I was just waxing (pseudo-)eloquent on the Spider-Man fighting style.

Just a bit of a sidetrack, was just thinking about the significance of Wrestlemania III. While much is rightly made of the significance of it as the first supercard of it's time (national broadcast, clash of the titans main event, workrate classic in Savage vs. Steamboat, storyline capper in Piper vs. Adonis), I've been thinking recently of its significance as marking the end, or at least the beginning of the end, of the first half of the Hogan Rock 'n' Wrestling Era. One aspect of the card that is often forgotten is the significance of the Brutus Beefcake run-in during the Adonis/Piper match, marking Beefcake's babyface turn. It was an odd sort of passing of the torch from the outgoing Piper to Beefcake, who would parlay the rub he got from saving piper into his new Barber gimmick. Hard as it is to remember now, Beefcake was one of the most popular babyfaces of the second half and his turn could be seen as the point where the second level below-hogan babyfaces of the first half would be phased out or pushed down the card (Steamboat, JYD, Tito Santana, George "the Animal" Steele, to a lesser extend Hillbilly Jim), and the rise of the babyfaces of the second half (Beefcake, Jake The Snake, Hacksaw Duggan, later the Ultimate Warrior). Similarly, most of the old guard heels were gone or fading away (Big John Studd, King Kong Bundy, Muraco, Orndorff, Iron Sheik, Adonis), clearing the way for the heels of the second half who would be showing up over the next year or two or rising from the ranks (Rick Rude, Honky Tonk Man, Ted Dibiase, Mr. Perfect, Big Boss Man). The Hogan vs Andre match could be seen as the climax of the first half of the Hogan era. Hogan had spent the time since he won the belt in high profile feuds with usually monstrous heels (the notable exceptions being the sneaky Piper and the turncoat former best friend Orndorff). For the "biggest wrestling show ever", the main event was all of those feuds rolled into one : Hogan defending the belt against his former best friend, a huge "undefeated" legend backed by the devious Weasel. After that, for the next year Hogan would have runs with more monster heels (One Man Gang, Killer Khan, Bundy again) that never really caught the popular imagination, until Andre eventually came back and took his title. From then on, Hogan would go into a cycle of not having the title, taking some time off to make a movie, moving back into the spotlight to eclipse the current title holder, taking back the title, and then doing little with the title before losing it again. Similarly, Steamboat's victory over Savage was the capper of his WWF career, a glorious revenge victory that saw him win his only WWF gold. His title reign would be cut short and he would be gone after the next Wrestlemania. Piper and Adonis would both be gone after WM III (although Piper would return a couple of years later). In hindsight, there is an overall sense of the changing of the guard. Anyhow, just some thoughts.

Sorry to go off on a mild tangent, but here goes ... don't know about the Blob, but Spider-Man often took on huge guys much stronger than he was (Rhino, Ox, Juggernaut) by using the most likely little man vs big man strategy, what I call the Bugs Bunny defense : using speed, agility and cleverness to dodge around and tire out the bigger man until he gets mad enough to make a fatal mistake, then capitalize on it. And even when he beat the Juggernaut, it took a lucky break and he took an horrific beating doing it.

Although this particular match is not on it, which I would figure is because it had not been unearthed at the time that comp was made, given how incredibly thorough it is.

And my first nominees would be Dick Murdoch and Buddy Rose.

I am appalled that I did not catch that one before you did.

Normally, yes, but is seemed to come out consistently whenever he said the Narcissus/Narcissist . It made me think of Wallace Shawn trying to say his own name.

I know I am digging this one up, but ... I have been listening to old podcasts at work, and coincidentally was listening to this one at the same time in my watching rotation I am watching the keith_h Steiners comp and watched for the first time the 1991 WarGames. I was looking for it and did catch the "Are you ready?" "Yeah!" "Then let's go!" exchange between Sid and Rick Steiner before Rick reverses the whip to send Sid into a Scott Steiner clothesline that Rob N references in the podcast. Officially the first time I have caught somebody audibly calling a spot in a match.

Has there been a Funk show? That might be a way to kick out of the doldrums.

Add to this the fact that they gave the name Narcissus/Narcissist to a guy with a manager with a consistent and audible lisp.

Also, any way the old Death Of WCW shows could be uploaded on the new servers?

Bingo! "Where are you going, Johnny?"

Nice to know I was not the only one who did that.

Why is it I get the feeling the 1989 set will be 60 discs? Just an epic year all round.

Gotta say, I am particularly looking forward to the 2002-2004 period for the yearbooks ... they might well have been the wrestling dark ages, but they are something of a lost era for me, as due to employment issues I was not buying any tapes/DVDs.

And rightfully so, Mike Furnas was dreadful.