Matt D

Didn't David Crockett say in the Flair interview that all the old guard NWA guys disliked Jim, Jr. and that it had been Crockett, Sr.'s son in law that had been the one to go along with the old man to the convention for years before he croaked?

I went just far enough to decide that people who thought he was in the the worst of all time discussion were pretty much idiots. http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/29870-honky-tonk-man/

I'm rolling with idiot savant these days.

Sorry Matt. It was so long ago I forgot who suggested it. It was a real fun experience of a match. It's ok. I was just messing with you. I'm glad you had fun with it.

Everyone needs to see the promo, btw. The match is on youtube.

You can sort of have your cake and eat it too when it comes to Gordy.

Doesn't Gordy with Hayes as a mouthpiece (of sorts) make more sense?

Can you write it off on your taxes?

I know what you mean, of course, but I initially saw that and thought "Yeah, they'd be a good #1 seed for a NIT" to the GOAT's March Madness.

A fine Missouri champ who would serve as a challenger to a younger NWA champ though.

Hell of a fun roster.

First one got a lot of praise, but a good chunk of it was "I DON'T BELIEVE THIS GUY I LIKE WON" sort of praise. I still think if you put the two matches together (opening stretch of the second, heat of the first, and some mishmash of the closing segments), you'd get one good match.

Also a comment on the sheer amount of effort you guys are putting into this, yes. I think there's some real merit in this with the research and what not that's been done. That said, we've been in sort of a weird state the last few weeks where instead of a broad range of stuff, we've had two major threads (art and star ratings) that have had a thousand posts each, the Cena discussion, and then almost everything else is this.

This thing is going to make everyone delay GOAT voting for two years.

I thought i deserved a better shout out for suggesting the Mil match. Wounded.

Flair wanted him to run to the next spot?

-Dave Meltzer from the 1983 Yearbook issue of the WON

You know what? I think Ultimately Lawler would do it. I think it did matter to him, and I think that was very clear in his career and decisions he made later. He'd have a run the length of Flair's early run and be very happy with that. It'd check off a box, would be something he'd have forever, would make him money in the short term, and he'd claim it, very, very happily, for the rest of his career. He'd paint the NWA title on the batmobile he bought when he was 60-something. Yeah, Lawler would do it.

I just get the sense that Flair doesn't get how this works. It's interesting, absolutely. I get the sense that Parv wishes we could have everyone's phones bugged. It's compelling and maybe important for historical reasons. It's just occasionally uncomfortable just like everything else to do with Flair. I think we all came in with low expectations of this podcast and it's been one of the best, but for reasons that aren't entirely above ground.

The Young Bucks are the first wrestlers for the internet troll age. I think they understand pro wrestling pretty well. They've leveraged that understanding into a deconstruction of the form that appeals heavily to people under a certain age. They know how to integrate every aspect of their act, including and especially social media, in their actual in-ring work, which is very impressive. In one regard, the sense that wrestling is about milking money from the marks, they are revolutionary. They're the first wrestlers of the kickstarter era. I'd actually liken them to Brody in a lot of ways, in how they are their own bosses for the most part, in how they refuse to follow any sort of convention and even push against it as part of their gimmick. I think that real life will catch up with them at some point. Their act, as it is now, is not sustainable, both for the speed in which culture changes and inverts these days and just in the fact that they're aging and starting to have more familial responsibilities. In a lot of ways that leads to an end of freedom and their entire existence as they are now, hinges on their freedom to break from form. I respect what they've accomplished. I'm way too old for that shit though.

Tennessee wrestling was Tennessee wrestling. That's true. I think where I fall on this was that he certainly wouldn't have a long run as champion. For starters, I'm not sure he'd be up to it. He was very comfortable in Memphis, with his TV show, with the loop, with everything else. It was one thing to go to Hawaii for a while. It'd be another to travel that heavy schedule. I think he'd probably make more money. Flair talks about how he made less than when he was just in Crockett, but considering he'd still bring in some from Memphis just from having a stake, the payoffs he'd get as champion around the country would probably be better. I don't even know if he'd get a small run though. I don't get the sense that Jerry Jarrett was particularly loved. Memphis couldn't bring the sort of pressure that Georgia or JCP or WCCW could to the table. Could he fulfill the role of champion? Sure. I don't doubt that. I just think that it's the least important issue on the table. I think if he did become champion it'd almost be more as a political move meant to spite someone than anything else. Ironically, if he became champion here, it'd almost be for the same reason, it feels.

Whoa there. Let's not kill any territories here.

I'm not even touching the second point. As for the first, If Dick Slater is in a nursing home and refuses to talk to Ric, maybe Ric shouldn't air that information publicly, including what town he is in.

The first fifteen minutes of Funk/Flair is brutal. Just one guy after the next brought up. It's, again, a talk that should have been private, but interspersed with these insanely funny (But very wrong) stories. I'm up to Funk vs the Dog while Flair is passed out in his tub with his clothes on.