PhilTLL

Yeah, this is one of two times a year I get to watch wrestling with more than one friend, so I just have my fingers crossed for something not boring and not embarrassing. Royal Rumble was perfectly enjoyable, so here's hoping.

Oh amen. It's easily the best composed and delivered of the half-show I've seen so far, and I can't imagine anyone topping it. Hilarious and touching and very detailed. Shouting out Candice, Finlay, etc. does a real service too--reminding us that the women's work and effort was outpacing the respect with which they were booked long before the "revolution". And bringing out a retired ring announcer to make sure your husband gets the biggest pop of the night is Most Valuable Spouse material, only topped by the Most Valuable Mom, genuinely inspirational ending for her daughters. Great stuff. Pantheon of great WWE HOF speeches, even. I can't remember off the top of my head--was it already known that she wrote the Glamarella storyline? Great tidbit. Anyway, she always struck me as a smart cookie, just based on her bearing, charisma, character touches, promos. So neither storyline writing nor great speechwriting should be too surprising in retrospect.

Morton: "...so finally one night I told him, 'Michael, just hit me as hard as you can, because your working punch is gonna put me in the hospital.' " That's the kind of quote that is, in itself, reason enough to have and watch the HOF ceremony. Delicious. And wrapping up by calling Robert the greatest person he's ever met was really sweet. (Some goon catcalling Marissa Rood is reason enough not to have it.)

Why does DDP sound like he's having an asthma attack? hhhhhhuuu...THE ANGLE I DID WITH SCOTT AND KEV hhhhhhuuu... For that matter, why did Bischoff? Did they all get bronchitis this weekend? Were they all getting high together backstage? (No, I'm thinking of stoned-ass Larry Zbyszko in California 2 years ago.) DDP remains awesome and hilarious and *real*.

Pre-debut internet hype, basically. Before he came out as a fat dancing dinosaur. Sheer ignorance. I was hoping for a John Tenta worker and instead got Junkyard Dog. Some amazing irony going on in a post where someone talks about ignorance and then compares Brodus Clay to Junkyard Dog. While hoping for John Tenta.

Not on tape seems to be correct, but... WWF @ Hartford, CT - Civic Center - March 16, 1986 Sivi Afi pinned Moondog Spot Jake Roberts pinned George Wells Iron Mike Sharpe pinned SD Jones King Tonga pinned Mr. X (sub. for Barry O) Davey Boy Smith defeated WWF Tag Team Champion Greg Valentine via disqualification The Dynamite Kid pinned WWF Tag Team Champion Brutus Beefcake Ricky Steamboat & Tito Santana defeated WWF IC Champion Randy Savage & Don Muraco WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan pinned Big John Studd; Hogan's ribs were taped after the assault he sustained from King Kong Bundy as part of Saturday Night's Main Event WWF @ Sacramento, CA - Arco Arena - March 20, 1987 (11,111; sell out) Paul Roma defeated Steve Lombardi The Iron Sheik defeated Nick Kiniski Outback Jack defeated Frenchy Martin Raymond Rougeau defeated Bob Orton Jr. Don Muraco fought Jacques Rougeau to a draw Blackjack Mulligan defeated Nikolai Volkoff via disqualification King Kong Bundy fought Kamala to a double count-out Ricky Steamboat, Tito Santana & Blackjack Mulligan defeated WWF IC Champion Randy Savage, Adrian Adonis & Butch Reed in an elimination match; Roddy Piper was to have been on Steamboat's team but did not appear

Why the finish is extra great: they had spent several weeks building the butterfly suplex as a finisher-level move for Regal...including in matches Larry had personally called on TV, of course. Smart, very smart. Really excellent stuff overall here.

Washington put Cornwallis in the abdominal stretch! I don't really understand how you could not like this promo. I think the reason Larry sounds 900% more convincing than Luger is because this is the sort of American apologetics you might actually hear from some dude at the golf course. "This country taxes the shit out of me and it's full of liberals, but by god, I won't have some pompous ass..." etc.

What a pissy baby. Never mind the fact that he was also involved in one of the company's hottest programs at the time of this unrelated B-show main event with 1 week build--no no, the announcers didn't use his preferred verbiage, so it'a "wah wah wah! I want out! this company hates me!". Tony and Bobby sure didn't trash the match, they just didn't alter the tone and shtick they'd been using together for 3+ months. The wacky G-rated Disney Worldwide era was a company problem, not just a Mick Foley problem. This is excellent for what it is, and due to the short time allotted, it's one of the few TDM's (the only one?) I've ever seen that doesn't have the 30-second rest period between pinfall and 10-count. I wish they all didn't, because that always seemed like a drama and logic killer to me.

Yeah, I would agree that one of Cody's problems as a Rhodes is looking like the athlete of the day is supposed to look. Dustin did not, in his own way.

This match and several others make a pretty good case that Sags is the best/worst weapon user in wrestling history. He throws weapon shots like nobody ever taught him how to work them.

Also you could find a list of matches Tommy Gilbert refereed and take your pick from that.

WCWSN, 4/2/1994: Spring Stampede warmup matches are on the agenda. Ricky Steamboat prepares for his world title shot by facing the esteemed veteran Paul Diamond. Steve Austin hopes to get an edge on the Great Muta by taking on Colonel Parker's handpicked athletes from Japan, and this week he is challenged by a true puro legend..."Tanaka-san." I think those two must have shared a goddamn overnight bag back then.

How good is this? Flair, who has a reputation as being fairly pessimistic about his own matches, is so impressed immediately afterwards that he bends kayfabe a bit to address the TV audience as "everyone out there who was lucky enough to witness this." A-fucking-men.

Two of the alltime great Tommy Young moments are from Bash 89. 1. During Luger/Steamboat, Luger nags him about the count speed, saying "I want it faster!" So Tommy promptly fast-counts him when his complaining gets him flash-rolled-up. 2. Flair saves himself after multiple piledrivers by putting a foot in the ropes, and Tommy rebuffs Funk's complaint with "There it is! RIGHT THERE!"

Oh plenty of people dislike Bubba as a wrestler. Dude was a liberty taking sack of shit with younger talent and was still trying it in the recent WWE run until Big E fucked his world up one match. Bully Ray was (initially) a pretty great character, but he certainly didn't have any great matches with the gimmick. Ooh, was this on TV?

This was okay, but not on the level of the other TV matches you've hyped since Rumble, ha. By which I mean, keep doing that--it's actually gotten me watching again.

Reunion Christmas '84 for 20k, Cotton Bowl 5/85 for 26k, Starrcade '85 and '86 which each drew over 30k combined live and 30-40k in CCTV, Starrcade '87 which is listed as a million-dollar gate after CCTV, etc. Not off the top of my head, ha.

Just an aside, this is factually questionable. Cornette may never have appeared in front of 50,000 per se, but he certainly was on plenty of 10-30k cards. And if we want to start comparing the average nights in the respective company/years instead of the peak nights, Cornette looks even better.

"I've dealt with Terry Taylor in the past, I know how cocky he can be." - Bobby Heenan, WCW Saturday Night debut, 1/29/94

I don't know what production this is from, but here's one of the usual WWE voiceover guys saying it a few times. I would guess the Randy/Bob Orton joint appearances from the 2000s might have one of them saying it. McMahon says "third generation" within seconds of Rocky Maivia's debut at Survivor Series 1996. And at the finish.

In reality, he would be beaten half to death by most of the guys in the match.

WWE having gone to the "cities make bids" model, I would assume Toronto just hasn't been a dogged pursuer of Mania lately.

I don't know anyone who holds The Godfather in high esteem. I'm struggling to think of even one worthwhile match he had. Ba dum tchhhhh...

On TV, no, of course that's not true. But on World Championship Wrestling, I think it is--back to 12/28/85 against Garvin.