BruiserBrody

Barry Windham Timeline WCW '91 Shoot Review This fits right in with the discussion of Flair's firing going on elsewhere. Hope you enjoy my career overview and review of Barry's shoot!

Breaking Kayfabe with Lanny Poffo http://culturecrossfire.com/wrestling/shoo...ws-lanny-poffo/ My review can be found above.My editor felt I gave away too much so here's the stories he deleted: (We're an upstart website so give a look around if you get a chance.)

http://www.documentingreality.com/forum/f1...estling-125542/ Brutal pro wrestling injury. Very gory.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe there was a story making the rounds at the time that Whipwreck was signed so they could get him to show them how to make the breakaway ring/platform that was used in ECW which was, apparently, Whipwreck's idea. Then again, outside of Kanyon being thrown off the Triple Cage through the breakaway platform, I don't remember WCW using the prop, so maybe that was untrue. Torch or WON at the time said they wanted a cruiser weight who the announcers could say had beaten Austin

Guest Booker Greg Gagne 1985 I should start by saying I’m a Greg Gagne apologist. The Greg hate stems from Gagne being a victim of circumstance. He was derided for being on top of a dying promotion that his Daddy owned and thus was an easy target to mock. His physique looked bad in the steroid era – but he was able to look legit in the late 70’s and early 80’s. I feel Greg was a real solid talent and could even cut a good promo every now and then. His much mocked megapush only stemmed from the fact that the AWA’s other top options after Hogan left all didn’t pan out for one reason or another: Martel (charisma deficit) Da Crusher (Nostalgia couldn’t hide his age forever) Road Warriors (Jumped ship for big money) Blackwell (Mounting injuries and obesity issues) Sgt Slaughter (skills eroding, one note gimmick and demanding a big guarantee to appear at shows). Snuka came in when the AWA was enjoying its last gasp of success – WrestleRock 86 in April – business dropped off almost right after the 20k+ attending a big name laden effort in the Metrodome (Brody, Rotondo, Windham, Race, Kamala and many others came in from out side of the AWA spectrum). Snuka had drug issues of course and was stuck in a somewhat tasteless racist feud with the talented vet Col Debeers. Snuka left mid-program (drugs???) and then came back months later and failed to re-ignite the heat that had been building. BTW – if you haven’t seen the Snuka/Debeers angle that started that feud – FIND IT NOW! An exhausted Snuka is about to finish off IIRC Larry Zybysko via a Superfly Splash in a No. 1 contender’s match – when Col Debeers trots out, knocks Snuka to the floor and pile drives him onto the concrete. Snuka bleeds like crazy and the fans are disgusted with Debeers – The Col. Is almost attacked by several of the front row patrons as he gloats over Snuka’s broken body. Fantastic stuff. Got off track there – my bad – Greg had one final thing go against him, his partner Jim Brunzell jumping ship to the WWF in the Summer of 85 left Greg without a go to option for working tags on top of the card and being a legit tag title contender. Brunzell leaving and Mr Saito being jailed ruined the AWA’s big plans for the mid- late 1985 timeline as Jim and Greg were to spend much of the time attempting to avenge Verne Gagne being assaulted by Saito and Bockwinkel during a big card on April 21, 1985. Brunzell was replaced on top when Sgt Slaughter – fresh off a hot WWF run – took Gagne into his boot camp and made him wear fatigues that exposed Greg’s belly button and a head band – “Rambo” Greg Gagne was born! Worse yet – when the AWA put the boot camp angle on a VHS release, they replaced the original music (IIRC Bruce Springstein’s “Glory Days”) with something that sounded vaguely porno worthy. ---- The premise for this “Guest Booker” is Greg Gagne is given the head booker spot of Pro Wrestling USA in late 1984– without the politics stopping the promotions from dissolving the group into oblivion. Gagne says Vince stole talent and angles from the other promotions. Verne tried to combine all the territorial promoters together to fend off McMahon’s assault. Greg says Vince bribed his way into established time slots and cut off the ability for others to expand and sustain their territories. Greg memory is bad as he thinks “The Crusher and Mad Dog in a cage” was planned for San Fran in 84 and Vince stole the TV and cut off the ability for AWA to run there. Greg then claims AWA nationally was getting “a 25 rating and a 60 share nationally” MALARKEY!!! Sean Oliver gently tries to call him on his tall tales. He then claims Vince bribed AWA local promoters with upwards of 250K to switch to the WWF brand. Greg says the concept was screwed from the start as Watts, Crockett, Verne, Jarrett etc had huge egos and all wanted Pro Wrestling USA to be in their vision. Vince would rent arenas in 3 year clips to block anyone from getting any shots. Greg regrets not suing Vince over that now. Jim Crockett tried to steal the AWA’s top babyface Jerry Blackwell at the very 1st PW USA card. Greg says Verne felt all southern promoters other than Jim Barnett were untrustworthy. Greg jumps head to 1988 and says the SuperClash PPV was suppose to be divided up by promotional lines and each territory was suppose to pay for their own talent. Then each promoter told their talent that Verne was in charge of pay offs – so Verne got all the heat when everyone was stiffed. Greg says in the Summer of 83, Vince came to Verne and offered to buy the AWA. Verne had partners including Wilbur Snyder and Dick the Bruiser among others who had to be bought out too and they refused. Vince then told Verne “I don’t negotiate!” and soon after Hogan jumped ship. Greg says Hogan vs Bockwinkel in a cage was planned for April 84 – and Hogan was going over for the belt. Greg says the fall of 83 saw Andre and Hogan have a confrontation during a battle royal (this is legit – I’ve seen it) and it was to lead to a series of Andre vs Hogan matches that February to set up Hogan’s big title win. Greg claims Hogan made 17 grand his last week of AWA matches. Greg claims Verne ran a PPV out of Milwaukee in 1983 – I assume he’s misremembering a close circuit event or something. Greg tells an amusing story of rookie Iron Shiek saying “Dropkicks urrr BULLSHIAT!!” So Verne takes him to the barn and KO’s Shieky Baby w/ a flying kick to the mush. Now we dive into the actual “Fantasy Booking”: Greg says he was against going to New York – he thinks the promotions should have run big shows in each of their core areas. Greg explains the difficulty of trying to appease all the promoters who each had their own booking styles. Some hot shotted – Dusty loved blood – AWA ran very few angles and dragged them out through the year etc Greg claims the AWA flopped in attendance every summer – says Hogan drew 260K in March and 60K in May in back to back trips to one particular arena to validate his point. Greg “drafts” Ted Dibiase, Dr Death Steve Williams, Butch Reed, and Kamala from Mid South – Terry Funk, Dory Funk , Slaughter, Tony Atlas and Harley Race from the indies – Kerry Von Erich, Jake Roberts, Freebirds and Jim Cornette from World Class – Rock and Roll Express, Savage and Lawler from Memphis Bockwinkel, Blackwell, Road Warriors, Brunzell, Greg Gagne, Baron Von Rasche and Billy Robinson from AWA – Flair, Magnum TA, Dusty, Ole, Arn, Tully, Nikita and Ivan from JCP “The Freebirds were a pain in the ass and drunk most of the time – missing shows left and right” Greg lets Sean Oliver pick the PW USA champ, so as to not show bias – he takes Ric Flair. Then Sean takes the RnR Express as tag champs. – Greg agrees w/ Flair and says the Andersons would have been his tag team pick. Greg says Cornette goes with the Andersons because the Midnight Express wouldn’t get over nationally. Greg switches the tag belts to Tully and Arn – who beat the RnR Express in August in this version of history. They are booking from Oct 84 to April 85 – which is a Supercard Oct – Tully/Arn vs RnR Express – Cornette gets Tully/Arn DQ’d Nov – Tully/Arn vs RnR Express (No DQ rule) – Ole runs in Dec – Tully/Arn/Ole vs RnR Express/Kerry Von Erich – later on they switch Kerry out for Dusty Greg decides to build to a Flair vs Bockwinkel – they ramble on for a good 15 mins trying to figure out how to build it – it’s sort of dull to watch – lots of ummm-ing and staring at the roster sheets. Oct – Flair vs Dibiase (1 hr draw)- Bockwinkel promo Nov- Flair vs Magnum TA – Bock pins Dibiase Dec Bock over Magnum Jan Flair over Billy Robinson Feb Flair over Greg Gagne March Flair over Kerry VE Apr Flair vs Bock – Tully/Arn/Ole vs Dusty/Road Warriors in a cage They go over and over the hows and whys as far as each month and match is booked – way too much rotating ideas and off shoots to transcribe. They run short of time and jump right to the April card: Flair vs Bock – 30 mins – Terry Funk costs Bock match Cage: Dusty/Roadies vs Ole/Tully/Arn – 12- 15 mins Good guys win Sgt Slaughter vs Snake Roberts (build to bootcamp match) 14-16 mins – Jake DQ’d Bruiser Brody Squash – 3-4 mins Gagne/Brunzell vs RnR Express (20 min draw) Kerry Von Erich Squash – 6 mins Dibiase vs Butch Reed—10-14 mins – Ted wins – Reed attacks after Rick Martel/Curt Henning vs Ivan/Nikita -- 8-12 mins – Curt eats pin 1st portion was fun – 2nd half was a bit tedious to watch – Oliver says it was almost 4 am when they finished taping, so if true, the guys were probably brain dead…

Here's an oldie but a goodie!

This was suggested - if the mods disapprove please feel free to lock it: Timeline World Wrestling 1987 Honky Tonk Man;; Honky talks of doing vignettes in front of Graceland on a cold winter day. Honky liked the outside of the ring character building despite freezing his nuts off. Honky was stuck wrasslin Koko and SD Jones around the bottom of the card – he was ready to grab any brass ring offered Honky gets confused and talks about Survivor Series 86 as the start of the Hogan/Andre feud – clearly he is just remembering the build from the next year To show the popularity of wrestling at this point – in Jan 87 both JCP and WWF work Philly in the same night and JCP drew 11K fans to WWF’s 15K. No interaction between the workers or office as far as Honky recalls. Honky feels JCP had weak TV to build stars and lacked the merchandising power that Vince had to make stars and make money – thus JCP lost a lot more talent than WWF. Vince paid for Jim Neidhart’s legal fees after he was arrested for assaulting a stewardess. Jim then got pissed when Vince docked his pay to make up for the cash and destroyed furniture at a TV taping in rebuttal. Honky credits Finkel w/ being the guy watching the competition and helping Vince find talent to bring in. Honky had to work Pedro Morales – who Honky says was an old grump who was hard to work with Outback Jack came in and acted like he was bigger than Hogan and thus the Bulldogs and others ribbed him constantly Honky was mad that they spent a lot of money on live plants for the Flower Shop segments that could have went in his pocket instead Honky was happy to be working w/ Jake the Snake as it was a move up the card – he figured he’d job out and move back to low card status, but he’d make some $ in the interim Honky claims the guitar that he bonked Jake with was gimmicked - Honky says Jake’s “injury” was BS and the dust that flew out from the shot was from Jake’s nose… He then mocks Jake smoking crack – but “Oh Jake and I are friends now…” Honky then mocks Tully Blanchard for being a coke head. Honky says WWF was doing OK business in Detroit but the Silverdome seemed like a big leap – the WWF even ran a big Andre vs Hogan Battle Royal angle on SNME in Detroit a few weeks before WM 3 – not fearing burning out the area The guys didn’t get to enjoy the road as they had to work, sleep and move along - so places like Vegas were nothing special WM 3 was nothing special – WWF didn’t approve extra family members being there – the guys were coming off the road, were stinky and tired Honky didn’t watch Hogan vs Andre live as he was in the showers – Honky thought both guys were good workers and the match was fun Honky liked his match w/ Jake – Jake did anything he was asked – Alice Cooper was a problem though as he stalled a bit too long and Jimmy Hart was scared of the snake – Jake had to cling so hard to Jimmy that Jimmy ended up w/ a minor neck injury Honky says Uecker, Vanna White and Steve Allen “got it” while others avoided the workers Honky said he and Muraco and others didn’t watch Savage vs Steamboat – they played cards. Honky finds the modern locker room to be kind of goofy for watching the PPVs and TV so intently. Honky says when he worked Cyber Sunday – he snuck in the building – dressed alone , did his bit and left before the PPV ended. The agents didn’t even know Honky was in the building for the 1st few hours Honky felt Adonis vs Piper was fun – Adonis was a hell of a talent and thinks Piper should have lost a hair match 1st to build to a series Piper claimed to get electrocuted accidentally and claimed the electricity was stuck in his body and would walk around trembling from the shocks Hogan had a private locker room – but would come in to the boys locker room to take nasty dumps Neidhart called into Vince and told him he was going to miss some shows from “cat scratch fever” Patera’s 1st match back after Prison was so bad, they never aired it – Honky liked working him though as Honky was used to bumping for muscle heads Beefcake wanted to shave Honky’s hair during their feud - Honky wishes he had gone for the big pay day now Hillbilly Jim and Iron Shiek both made over 75K on the big rubber toy figures Honky puts over Butch Reed for being able to carry a crippled SS Graham – Honky says Reed went AWOL and led to Honky snagging the IC belt Dibiase got heat for being giving extra perks and money for his Million Dollar Man gimmick Honky feels David Schultz was goaded into slapping John Stossel – Honky cites Mr Fuji being in the background grinning as a sign that somebody knew something was going down Honky says Bockwinkel was a little too hands on in his agent role and had the displeasure of being the “pecker checker” during drug testing They blitz through the last 3 months – Survivor Series is given a sentence worth of time. Overall Honky was almost too jovial here – I was expecting more dirt being dropped. I would have liked more on Honky’s heel tactics and chicken$&it coward antics – probably also more on what it was like to be on top of the card suddenly and then holding the belt endlessly. The Survivor Series and shoving Miss Elizabeth on SNME should have warranted commentary as well IMO.

Just watched: Larry Zbyszko KC Timeline WWWF 1980 LZ says McMahon’s were almost bankrupt in 79 (LOL) since Bruno quit. Backlund was a joke since he looked like Howdy Doody and all the heels were monsters and Backlund was tiny. MSG was losing money w/ Backlund as MSG was taking 50% of the house and the IRS took a hunk and Backlund couldn’t sellout MSG. The promoters were also pilfering funds from the houses and not giving the McMahon’s the full monty owed. Hulk Hogan went to Larry Z for advice “Your my hero Larry!”. He wanted help getting away from being Andre’s whipping boy. He told Hulk to leave WWWF and once Hulk did a star was born. Iron Shiek was crazy even in 80 – Larry says Shieky Baby is evidence for why Iran shouldn’t get nukes. LZ says Shieky would beat up groupies who wouldn’t put out. LZ says he avoided drinking and groupies since he worked in his home area and just went home. Bruno and Vince Sr “hated” each other. Politics. Larry knew that the 1st guy to work Bruno after his “retirement” would be a mega star, so he proposed to Bruno that he be the guy. Vince Sr just wanted Bruno back and figured he could ship Larry Z off ASAP and move Bruno onto a “real” heel. Larry got death threats after turning on Bruno. A shotgun blast went over his head one place – a cab was flipped another – he got stabbed in Albany Bruno wouldn’t work spot shows – so they were able to prolong the angle by feeding Larry the Putzkis and Strongbows of the world. Larry claims MSG was busy in August (uh huh) so Larry proposed Vince run Shea Stadium- Vince is not sure lil Larry can carry such a card Lou Albano bladed his cheek through to his mouth during a wild fit of blading. Then Capt Lou would pour after shave in his cuts to show off how tough he was. Larry says Albano would drunkenly cuss out the McMahons to their faces while they were taking Lou and the other top guys out for dinner. March was the 1st MSG match for Bruno/Larry - Larry says Bruno could pull off working well yet since Bruno had a limited moveset in his prime, so his decline wasn’t obvious. Larry and Bruno wouldn’t go on last so Larry could escape w/o a riot. Bruno intro’d Larry to Frank Sinatra and the Gambino mobsters Larry Z thinks Patera should have gotten Backlund’s spot since he had the Bruno body type Lou Thesz told LZ that “You’re the greatest heel I’ve ever seen”. Bockwinkel and Race put over Larry’s shtick too. Larry Z started a riot vs Putzki by giving him a low blow. Several old men were trampled in the mess trying to get to LZ. Rick McGraw, Buzz Sawyer and others were too crazy for Larry and their deaths didn’t surprise him. Larry did over 450 bench presses w/o roids – those guys did drugs meant for horses. Larry says WM 3 gave away 30,000 tickets – He and Bruno drew 46,000 in Shea and thousands were turned away. Larry says he had to shoot on Johnny Rodz since Rodz talked himself up so much. Rodz then in Spanish threatened to stab LZ – but ironically the guy who later stabbed Bruiser Brody, Jose Gonzalez warned LZ what Rodz was saying Ox Baker came in and bombed so Larry got an MSG title match vs Bob instead in July. Larry felt he should have won the belt and helped to sell the Shea show. Bruno convinced Larry to no show some house shows to try and force Vince Sr’s hand. Bruno and Vince Sr were using Jr and Larry as pawns in their feud, as Vince jr was put in charge of getting Larry back. LZ says Vince was literally crying on the phone at Larry and LZ thinks this is why he was never used in WWF. Larry Z goes back to work and demands and receives 10% of each house and he and Bruno are making record business at inflated prices so Larry claims to be pulling in almost 10K nightly. LZ then demands to be paid the same as Backlund and they give in to the deal. LZ says Inoki and Fujinami weren’t paid to be at Shea – they just wanted a tape of them in front of a big US crowd. Backlund got a tag match because Vince knew Bob wasn’t the draw. Larry says he was paid 25K for the Shea match. LZ says they had to put nets up over the ring to catch all the whiskey bottles being tossed at him – even after Shea LZ says the NJ guys who didn’t speak English were ribbed by the US guys into saying nasty things to US women by giving them false translations. Larry says by Fall Vince Sr was intent on jobbing Larry out to the regular WWWF guys and changed finishes. Bruno had planned for this and had Larry tell the promoters “Bruno never pinned me – how bad will Bruno look if ____ pins me???”

I watched the RF Jesse Ventura Shoot... Jesse was a fan growing up and found it neat to wrestle the old farts like Mad Dog Vachon and Crusher when he broke in, since he was a mark for those guys. Broke in around age 24 – Ventura thought about the NFL, but his love of theater made him aim for wrestling. Eddie Sharkey trained him. Ventura says he became the 1st guy to go to AWA after being in Eddie’s camp since Sharkey and Verne had heat. Ted Oates taught Ventura how to survive on the road. Ventura didn’t like bumping so he learned to stall as much as possible. 1st match was vs Omar Atlas in Kanas City – last match was vs Tony Atlas in New York. Omar chose to win via DQ instead of pin so Ventura put him over in the WWF days when Omar was jobbing and Ventura commenting. Never made over 90 dollars a night his first six months. His 1st night in Portland he got 100 dollars. Don Owens put the PCW title on Ventura who only had 9 months experience – over Snuka. Jesse says he and Snuka worked together for almost 2 years. Ventura wasn’t allowed to promo – Bull Ramos did the talking for him. Ventura avoided hanging out w/ wrestlers and not drink since he was a SEAL and wanted to keep his wife and knew that bars would lead to sex. 1st gimmick was “Surfer” Jesse Ventura. Worked 63 straight nights for Owens in one clip. After a run in Hawaii, Jesse saved money and quit wrestling and was prepping to open a gym when Portland needed a sub on top for a show, so they called Jesse in to AWA studios to cut a promo on Buddy Rose to send to Portland and Verne heard Jesse promo and wanted Ventura to start in the AWA. Jesse told Verne he wouldn’t job on TV. Verne gave him “The Body” nickname. Jesse says Verne was a dictator and treated the talent like crap. Ventura made Adonis train and Adonis did the bumping. Adonis’ idol was Dr. Jerry Graham. Paul Ellering didn’t tell his family the biz was a work and Paul’s brother tried to hurt Ventura after an angle that saw Jesse injure Paul. Verne wasn’t a good tag wrestler in Jesse’s opinion since Verne wanted to call spots even when he wasn’t in the ring. Verne didn’t want to job to the East West Connection so they ran a no show angle and Jesse got the tag straps. Greg Gagne was an office guy and despite being a great worker, Gagne refused to train in the gym to look the part of the guy who was going over all these muscle heads. Hulk Hogan dislocated Ventura’s jaw accidently during a test of strength spot but Ventura puts Hogan over as working around the injury masterfully. John Studd and Ventura rode together in WWF and were concerned watching Vince take over the biz. Ventura ended up being one of the first guys to jump ship and saw other options dry up. Ventura said Verne shorted him on main event pay offs when houses went up, which made Jesse’s choice to leave easy. Steve Regal (Mr. Electricity) was told by Jesse he was jumping, so as a rib Regal screamed for “Vince HELP ME!” while giving up the shine in a tag match w/ Jesse that night. Ventura said Backlund got the WWWF belt to spite Bruno. Tony Atlas was a great guy who played w/ Jesse’s son in the locker rooms. Jesse cut a deal w/ Lawler to work Memphis part time, Ventura never jobbed to Lawler as his kid got ill and Jesse had to leave. Jesse said he sent the belt back in the mail. Ventura wrestled the San Diego Chicken in a main event tag there teaming w/ Jimmy Hart vs Lawler and the Chicken. Jesse confirms he tried to unionize right before WM 2 after a prompting from Gene Upshaw. Vince almost fired him but Dick Embersol liked Jesse on SNME and went to bat for him. Plus Jesse got a SAG card from working in Hollywood and didn’t need a union anymore. Jesse thought of Hogan as a friend and didn’t know Hogan ratted him out till the video voice rights lawsuit in the 90’s. Hogan told Howard Stern that Ventura was a wife swapper, which ticked Jesse off. Ventura got paid for a round of main events in the WWF that he ended up missing since he suffered blood clots that for all intents and purposes ended his career. Jesse feels JR was jealous of how much money Ventura was making in WCW. Ventura didn’t want Bruno taken off commentary since Ventura could use him as foil. Jesse claims Bill Murray praised his SNME work during the Hillbilly wedding. Feels Bobby Heenan was jealous of Jesse being on the “A” team announcer team. JR was terrible as a partner – JR wouldn’t feed off Ventura’s lines. Jesse says John Studd was a good traveling mate as both were family men w/ military backgrounds. His favorite memory of “The Body Shop” was asking the Killer Bees “Did you drop any pollen while in Australia” which made the Bees freeze up to avoid laughing. Ventura doesn’t miss the business. Jesse leaving WWF was over a video game that Jesse was offered to be part of and Vince tried to veto it. Jesse gets a WWE check every four months thanks to suing Vince for royalties. Ventura’s biggest pay day was being ref at Summerslam 99. Jesse did it to stick it to WCW since Hogan did an angle mocking Jesse’s governor win. Ventura was paid an absurd amount of money for working with the XFL. Ventura claims he only used one cycle of testosterone a year and 1 cc of steroids a week. Says Dave Meltzer is “a little puke” Bill Watts as booker was a disaster who pushed house shows over TV and Watts didn’t like him since he was paid so much. Eric Bischoff didn’t warn Jesse that Hogan was coming in and Ventura ripped Hogan in the press and thus was benched ASAP once Hogan signed. Jesse feels having guys face to face every week hurts the business. Confrontations should be built to climax at PPV – not weekly yakking side by side. “You give me the money Linda spent and I’ll be President” Ventura lives 100 miles from civilization, has no electricity (solar power) and plans on vanishing forever soon, RF shows his talents as an interviewer by asking Jesse if he wants to be in the WWE HOF someday – Jesse had talked about his HOF speech earlier.

I watch Timeline World Wrestling 1986 George Animal Steele... Steele asks if Sean wants Jim Myers or George Steele? Then playfully chokes him. Steele has near epic Ox Baker like eyebrows here. Steele starts w/ WM 1 and says he was still only wrestling 2-3 months out of the year and Vince wanted him to quit teaching and wrestle full time. Steele sounds more upset over losing his football coaching gig. Steele claims his face turn was impromptu and Vince called an audible while Steele was tearing a turnbuckle up in “anger” over Shieky Baby and Volkoff not tagging him in. Steele was unsure if he wanted to work face. Steele says Cousin Junior quit the WWF after 6 months by showing up in a suit, a limo and a big cigar and declaring “I live in the hills so I’ve already made more money then I will ever need”. Steele says he ribbed Dick Embersol by calling him “Dave” much to Dick’s annoyment…Steele rebelled against NBC wanting to script his matches. Steele says Capt Lou broke him into ribbing by taking him out to eat nightly in the late 60’s and covering Steele’s dinner tab. Then at the end of the summer Capt Lou reveals he hadn’t paid any tabs and Steele might be on some restaurants “S” lists. Steele thinks Adonis created the gay gimmick. Steele says working with Macho Man was difficult since Savage wanted to plan out matches – Steele was handed a lay out by Savage on paper of how their match would go. Steele threw the papers away. Steele would rib Savage by talking about how hot Liz was. Steele feels Tito should have stayed IC champ since Savage was going to be over either way. Steele says he cost Tito a long run w/ Savage by getting the Liz/Savage/Steele angle over so well. Steele says he resented stuff like “The Slammy’s” for goofing on the biz but he liked the theatrics nonetheless. Steele really liked Cyndi Lauper and blamed Dave Wolff for convincing her to pull back her promotional machine and allowing Madonna to become a star. Steele says he wasn’t paid royalties for the “Wrestling Album”. Mr. T had a attitude and didn’t respect the business or the wrestlers. Hogan protected T from the “heat”. Bundy got a big head from headlining WM 2 and Jay Strongbow ripped him and told him he wouldn’t last. Bam Bam Bigelow got a try out pre-WM 2 which would have been when he was plenty green. Steele says Bret Hart wasn’t a strong enough heel to get a run w/ Steamboat. Steele hated Damien (the Snake). Steele put the bag in his mouth during a match and later realized how gross that was. JYD smashed a jobber’s face into a wall who didn’t sell his powerslam properly. Steele wanted the blood to stay there to warn the other jobbers to sell. Vince was terrified that WM 2 would fall apart due to satellite issues. Steele says Moolah won a battle royal in MSG over the men in 84. I don’t recall that… Steele says he walked into a dark room at WM 2 and Ray Charles was in there alone. They were jovial. Steele laughs hard at this – although it sounds like a bogus tale to me. Steele says Bundy was in over his head at WM 2 and couldn’t carry Hulk the way Hogan needed to be. Raymond Rougeau was a great guy – Jacques was stuck up due to his families success. Adonis was let go for cocaine – not obesity. Thinks WWF pushed Steamboat too hard. Steele road with Haku and watched him body slam a drunk who challenged him. Steele claims Steamboat’s Komodo Dragon ate dogs and cats if left unguarded. Andre stiffed Studd because Studd ignored Andre’s wishes. Iron Shiek was tortured by Andre too. Steele says Andre loved him because Andre called for a slam spot and Steele chose to sell his back instead of doing the slam. Steele claims he was 1st choice to be King after Haku. (Steele was retired for a year by then) Hogan wanted Dan Spivey on top instead of Paul Orndorff in Summer 86 Steele says the Federette’s started because a hot woman from Detroit wanted to work w/ Steele vs Liz/Randy…Vince says she was too hot to waste on Steele Steele loved Kamala as a worker and put him over hard to help set up Kamala vs Hogan Steele says Curtis Iaukea was kicked out of his hotel once by a super fan, after helping Kamala hurt Steele Steele thinks SS Graham expected another World title run when he returned in late 86 WM 3 broke Steele’s heart because he was 14 miles from home and he didn’t wrestle. Steele finishes by implying he cheated on his wife a lot saying “Jim Myers was married, George Steele was not, when I was on the road, I was Steele”

I was into this feud as a 9 year old. I distinctly remember that they announced a Dick Murdoch vs Rick Steiner match for syndication and for whatever reason they canceled the match and added several non squash matches to the show to make up for it. (OMG vs Big Josh being the only one I recall)

Sort of surreal watching this as the commentary team talked up the fakeness of the moves and selling.

Shawn dressed like Zeb... Cena's promo was annoying as usual. "Against the odds!" is just so stale - especially since he always wins. At least Hogan was Superman while playing Superman - Cena is Superman cutting Rocky Balboa promos. I wonder if Lawler found it hard to try and act like Dutch Mantel was some untrained slub. He even has WWE matches under his belt. I don't get what Shawn in HHH's corner is suppose to add. Lesnar shouldn't be out manned as the heel. I'm hoping this means HHH loses and Shawn is there to give him the big hug and then HHH can put him on his shoulder as he marches into retirement while all the fans cry at seeing the longest running couple in WWE history have finally get to be together away from the stresses of the ring. Santino's facial when Henry's music hit was fantastic. Seeing Jericho vs Cesaro made me wish that was the WM match - with Jericho going for the belt and putting over the next big mid carder. :/ I love that for the 2nd time now Fandango got a "You can't wrestle" chant and silenced it with a hop to the top rope. Has Da Meltz said anything about what Plan A was for Punk vs Taker, had Bearer not died and given them the urn stealing angle?

Watched this on youtube a few months ago. Painfully bad.

Did they explain Bischoff's return to power on Nitro after the PPV?

Paul Bearer thought it was the real Taker too kayfabe wise until he saw Taker follow money over the urn on RAW.

RE: Baba - I've seen a lot of bad Baba matches after 1984. The AWA stuff - the Andre tags - The Road Warriors working half speed w/ Baba right after smashing Jumbo up at car crash speed, etc. I need to find some of this touted stuff.

Found a message board post from 5 or 6 years ago and it mentioned Loss telling a story about Ric Flair getting pulled over w/ a 14 year old girl who may have been drunk. Recall this Loss?

I do. I wouldn't call it a "push" though. He's another one I would have loved to see in WCW instead of being wasted in WWF. Miguel Perez vs Eddie, vs Rey, vs Juvy... I looked - appears to have made 3 TV shots. 2 matches. He did get a WWF mag write up though.

RE: Foreigners in WWF - How many remember Miguel Perez jr getting a babyface push in early 97 - in part because of Perez Sr's WWF past and part that he was "mad" at Savio for turning heel.

Mr Fuji Is it sacrilege to say Baba after 84??

IIRC they had JTTS matches on during the vignette-fest

Worst part is that they accidentally exposed that Jake's hood was see through as the refs were tying it on him.