rainmakerrtv

If it is the same comp I have, you are in for a real treat. My favorite comps are the ones that tell a story, and that one does a good job telling the story as well as having a lot of hot matches.

Anybody know what happened with Tama's release? I remember thinking at the time that the Islanders were the team of the future, they were on such a hot streak. Instead, Tama gets swapped out for Sivi Afi, the Islanders fizzle out and we end up with King Haku.

Parv, I am not part of the his own success argument...but my whole point was that everything he's done is around something he grew up with and was familiar with....that isnt a "genius" to me....I think he gets too much credit for doing one thing incredible well and fucking up countless others with money..... A genius can be a damned fool outside their field of specialization.

I never figured Iron Sheik's cup of coffee in WWF in Summer of 1988. There didn't seem to be any role for him and he was in horrible shape.

Because his nickname was 'fabulous" ? Read the obit again. Especially the prt about who's doing the service. We were no selling it. Not entirely surprised Fulton became a man of the cloth, given the multiple mentions of his faith in the ROH shoot interview (not that it was annoying, just he did bring it up a few times).

Nah. Warrior, Johnny Ace. The guy I've never heard anything against was Bobby Eaton. Even Steamboat has a few guys who aren't big fans like Honky. But Eaton, I'm scratching my head and can't find one reference of a guy speaking badly about him. Johnny ace is pretty bad, and it's really varied how bad he is. Warrior, on the other hand, most people say that he was quiet and just kept to himself. Buzz Sawyer. Only person I ever heard of who liked him was Bobby Fulton, and I think they grew up together. I've frequently heard people run down Warrior, such as Dibiase, Snake and Bret Hart (in his book, at least, don't recall if he said anything about him in his shoots.) Only person I've heard say he was a good guy was Warlord, who frankly just seemed like a good ole boy who liked everyone.

Done.

Something about Bret seems to inspire brand loyalty, at least with me. He was my first favorite wrestler. Since then, I have seen a wide variety of wrestling ... better technicians, more consistent performers. But Bret remains in my Top 5 favorites list because , in spite of everything that has happened over the years, he remains My Guy, in the same way some sports fans have Their Team, no matter how much they might lose.

Sheamus = Irish Mick Foley ?

I thought the really telling thing with them was watching how the Commonwealth angle in Southwest played out. There was a short run in there where Luke was on his own, and he's actual a really exciting, violent brawler. And then Butch shows up...and he's not. At all. And they start teaming, and Luke starts working down to Butch's level. Really weird thing to find out about two guys I used to not be able to tell apart at all. As to the topic at hand..."really dislike" is probably too strong a term, but I was always very "meh" towards Bull Nakano. I honestly can't put my finger on why that is, but her work leaves me cold in ways that, say, Aja Kong's doesn't. You have to see the Sheepherders in Memphis. They were at their best there with Johnathan Boyd being really great. But wasn't that a completely different team? It wasn't Luke Williams and Butch Miller, it was Jonathan Boyd and Rip Morgan (and later Bigfoot ... I've seen some listings saying Bigfoot *was* Rip Morgan, but I distinctly remember Boyd saying he was a replacement for Rip. Can anyone get a definitive word on this?)

In my view the objective standards best set was All Japan, but my favorite was Memphis. Maybe what put Memphis over Mid South for me was that I was expecting Mid South to be great, but for some reason I wasn't expecting as much from Memphis so it was more of a pleasant surprise.

Re Murdoch's punches One thing to remember is not just that Murdoch had great punches but he had great worked punches. Funk would straight out pop people in the forehead. I remember JJ Dillon talking on a Bix podcast where he said something to the effect that he was always terrified watching those punches come in but they always had light contact. He knew just how to pull them and still make them look great.

goodhelmet's Four Horsemen set was a great source for me for filling in a lot of the cracks in the storylines from having previously just seen the commercial tape. Granted, it is pretty huge. Was there any particular storyline reason for the Barry Windham vs. Rick Steiner match?

I don't remember it as a heel run as such ... there was something that happened in a lumberjack match between Ted Dibiase and Hulk Hogan, right after the twin ref angle (although the commentary didn't reflect that). The Killer Bees were wearing their masks as lumberjacks and kept attacking Hogan, and I think the commentary team speculated if DiBiase had paid them off. It was never confirmed that it was actually the Killer Bees, and I figured at the time it would be revealed DiBiase hired two masked guys to impersonate the Bees, but nothing ever came of it afterwards.

Why was that? Did PPV make it redundant?

The Ninja had been introduced by Steamboat a few weeks earlier ("This man in black ... this man of the martial arts ... this NINJA!") to watch Steamboat's back. My favorite part of the big " reveal" was Missy Hyatt's statement of the bloody obvious : "That was Paul E. Dangerously and he was wearing a ninja outfit!" Thanks, Missy, for narrating the scene for the benefit of the viewing impaired.