Matt D

Yohe has posted results for LA in those years. They're likely buries somewhere on Classics. http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.ubbc...c;f=10;t=002319 I found the results for 65 if anyone's interested. and here's 66: http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.ubbc...ic;f=9;t=004886

Has Yohe or anyone else ever gone into more detail about Morales' LA main eventing in the mid 60s?

I rather liked Steamboat vs Rude from the 88 Rumble, but you could tell Rude wasn't quite there yet. It was still a pretty good performance though.

It was a fun interview. I loved the talk about payoffs. I think the Dolph thing is easily the most interesting, but the bs on the timing on when Lawler became an announcer is pretty fascinating. If he replaced anyone, it was Hennig. Hell his first year of Supertars was a three man team WITH Savage. While he worked some cards, he wasn't really a focused wrestler til he'd been in the company for almost six years with KOTR 93.

Stupid question: I know NYC is sort of bulletproof in some ways, but did the 73-75 recession affect WWWF business at all?

Neither here nor there but I wish someone else would watch the Buddy vs Stasiak matches since I liked Stan's stchick there and wonder if he has a bum rap. He is not a super worker but he wasn't trying to be either.

As a kid I felt the same way about Regal but especially Finlay, who I hated being in the mix in 98. I am about thirty minutes in. NWA in 86-88 is a bit of a blind spot for me so I am typing this on the blackberry as I listen. I honestly think Charles and Will have great chemistry. I will admit I get Tully's TV and US title runs in 85 a little confused, but to me the biggest element to him in that run (and later with 91 Austin so we will see if you get to that) was his vulnerability. One element of the TV belt is the possibility that the challenger always has a chance on TV and I love something like the Kernoodle match with Tully since you had the sense that Tully was just fighting to hang on. Austin in 91 was all about the ten minute time limit. Zenk as the "guy who hangs out with the guys with the skateboards" is hilarious. I am an hour in now. The only thing I would add around Arn/Eaton is that there was a real division for the tv title at the end of 90 to when Austin gets it. Arn/Taylor/Eaton/Zenk were really in the mix for a few months and it is a real highlight of that era I think. Granted, all of that hit as a sweet spot for me as a kid, just like the way Austin's weekly matches vs the world (from Arachnaman to the Yellow Dog) did. It seemed like he had two-three title defenses every weekend, between SN, Main Event, Pro, Worldwide, Power Hour. I think his ppv match with Dustin was a huge deal for Dustin too, even only as a challenger. It was his first really big singles match. They also used Austin to make Bagwell in that great angle with Paul E. The "looked like second rate Flair, wrestled like a second rate Arn" is a great talking point. Hour-twenty in. What is striking to me about Regal is that he was only in his mid-twenties there. He carried himself as much older and more seasoned. The Barbarian vs face Regal match is not as necessary to watch as the Windham one but it is a great novelty. Ok, I have to stop for now but I hit the Windham part. 93 Windham is the only time post Florida where I really think he works as an Ace. He had the NWA belt and I think he was super inspired by that right until the writing of the wall shows up with him losing to Flair. He has the Regal match, the Scorpio match, the Lone Wolf thing going on, a great sit down interview with Solie, these bullrope and bunkhouse matches with Dustin I WISH we had on tape. You know what his NWA title run is sort of like actually? It's like a TV title run on steroids. He has these matches with guys like Zenk and Johnny Gunn where he just has this "big deal" presence to him. Also, I think saying he didn't get over in the WWF in 89 and he has a terrible run is iffy at best. What do we have that made tape? The really even, really hard-worked Tito vs Windham PTW match that I like a lot. Past that, he didn't get to do squat because Vince didn't trust him after how he left during his first run. If he had stayed into 90 he might have been put into a more interesting spot or given a program (though i agree with the rumor debunking that he wasn't getting Hennig's spot vs Hogan). There just aren't a lot of matches. I wish we had some of those Koko matches on tape.

I don't think that amateur credentials count for anything in the WON HOF. Even with the pros? You didn't think Angle got in, in part, because he made the whole fraternity look look good and more legitimate?

Ok, I think the guy who hates Flair and Dusty is sort of an island unto himself. I think Flair has flaws but I still love him for being Flair.

Chris, I forget. Do you have a central place (blog, site, etc) that you keep this stuff?

Still top 5 though, baby! It is actually kind of surprising how thin the elite US tag teams are. I agree those were two other teams I would put in my Top 5. Tully & Arn have longevity issues and Fantastics while they were great with MX, I can't think of many other tag matches they had were great with different teams. I think those are easier arguments for the Rockers, but I would not begrudge anyone having those teams over the Rockers. So where do the High Flyers rate vs the Rockers now? I wish we had more (any) Hennig/Race, and more Valentine/Flair and more 70s Bock/Stevens.

Can I vote Arn?

Is Dusty still polarizing? I think most of us love him in our own way. We're a long way from 1987.

He decimated his leg!

Did they make any of those titles for him or were they preexisting?

Where did this comparison come from?

To be fair, Morton > Michaels but Jannetty > Gibson so much more that I should probably have voted Rockers. The math just isn't that simple though.

Can you tell from watching this that Wilkes doesn't have a tricep?

I'm going with Ricky and Robert. Shawn has a tendency of letting his ego get in the way of things (not often but enough) and Ricky realized more than anyone in the history of wrestling that the better you make your opponents look, the more it means when you get the advantage on them.

Did he ever get the chance to? Was he just content in his fiefdom? Were the bigger players just uninterested in him or did he just come along at the wrong time?

Can Knobbs fit through the door of a dive bar right now?

I contacted him through FB when I had to get a fact checked for what I wrote about Buddy in 79.

One reason why i never seriously get into these discussions is that I always lean towards the novelty stuff. With Hart, I swear the first thing that comes to mind isn't Memphis but him coming up with so many songs. With Koloff, I immediately wanted to know who he trained. With Wahoo, you hear so much about him teaching guys the ins and the outs of the business and serving as a mentor and helping guys get jobs later and what not. Hell, with Patera, I mentioned there'd be no Flair without Patera. I am useless to meaningful conversation here.

I realized I had never seen Royal Rumble 1988 so I'm watching that. I actually quite liked the Rude vs Steamboat match though i don't think Rude was 100% there yet. I was disappointed by Glamour Girls vs Jumping Bomb Angels but thought that the best performance in the match was EASILY Judy Martin.

To me a lot of Okerland is how much he actually "produced" the guys he was interviewing during those marathon sessions and whether people think that those local promos actually drew people in to shows in 1984-5-6-7 or so.