Matt D

Oh man, big business indian casino Tatanka would have been awesome.

Even then, they never REALLY indicated it wasn't Tito. It was just Tito with a new skill set (and a new finisher which actually was a HUGE boon to his typical match structure). He was still El Matador Tito Santana. Same with the Bulldog. He was still The British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith more often than not.

Davey Boy Smith eventually became The British Bulldog when he came back as a single. Jacques Rougeau became just The Mountie (then Jacques, because tag team members never have a last name even though everybody knows who they are). And don't forget the awful Freddie Joe Floyd which was a rib on Brisco, quite humiliating after years of being well known as Tracey Smothers. The Stalker is another historically terrible repackaging, but I think it went the other way around, as they first didn't say his name at all then introduced him as The Stalker Barry Windham since it was obvious, then of course Barry got all Blackjacked up. Barry really never fit in WWF after the US Express deal, he went from bad gimmick to bad gimmicks there. Glad he went back to WCW in 99. I think there's an alternate reality where Patterson talked Vince into using Widowmaker Barry Windham in the Zeus role in 1989 in a King's Court gimmick with Savage, Sherri, and heel Rockers as Sherri's knights. I wish I lived there.

It's also funny how they dropped guys names. It was jarring in 92-93 when someone would, upset, randomly call Perfect "Hennig." and after a couple of months, Kerry Von Erich was no longer a person but just "The Texas Tornado!"

It's interesting. To me, in a lot of ways, the myth of mid-south really overlooks everything that made 1984 work. I think the focus will be on Dibiase, on Duggan, on JYD, maybe Butch Reed and Ladd, maybe Magnum and Wrestling II, maybe Orndorff, Williams, Volkoff, Roberts, the Freebirds, and now that he's back in the fold MAYBE Terry Taylor. You could easily tell A story of Mid-South without the RnRs or the Midnights, without the attempts to remake JYD, without a whole lot of truth and it becomes a nicer neater story.

His shoot is really interesting actually. I heard it while stuck on a train marooned in the snow once. He mentions getting absurd levels of heat in texas to the point where they dialed things back, and I believe that. He has a certain athleticism that Adrian Street did not, but Street had the amazing wrestling and more of an uncomfortable physicality. Poffo was cowardly. Street was coy.

I was tuned out in 96, VERY tuned out. I scramblevision watched Bash at the Beach's main event because of the hype (which is underrated these days. people forget the ad campaign for that) but the only other memory I have of the year was being excited for the idea of Perfect wrestling again.

Obviously someone needs to start a kickstarter project to buy the rights to unseen footage we ALL want to see.

I think even with guys like Arn and Tully, they WERE rebranded. They were the Brainbusters. Heenan was stressed in their success. Tully in WWF wasn't Tully in NWA. It's slight and subtle, but you can tell that thre's a difference in how Vince even talks about them as an announcer. Now The Nasty Boys are just the Nasty Boys.

Honestly, the three words in the english language I never want to see together are "jeff gaylord update"

Could someone look into what Dave said in that interview (the one on Graham's site) about house show takes being cut? We haven't talked about that, right?

in the late 90s, early early 00s, during the boom, those WWF games were HUGE. Just huge social things amongst teenagers.

http://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/mehaffy40.htm Nothing earthshattering but it's actually a good sum up of a number of things we've covered here over the years.

it's not even Cole. It's Scott Stanford.

I always like the Nasty Boys go to the aquarium one. I think that was 95 though. Did that make it on?

6%

I hope it involves a MMA bear.

Gary Oldman. I can't explain it, but he could do it.

I have no idea what DREAM is, but I just watched a Doink promo I thought was awesome! At least I'm on the right board, title-wise, right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeNSBPi5e14...be&t=12m38s I will be AMAZED if I come across a WWF promo in 93 I dig more than this.

And then we'll start making WBF complaints!

I think 35% is pretty damn reasonable. Alternatively, I think as someone who is a pro wrestling fan and doesn't care a lick about MMA, stories matter to me only so far as they DIRECTLY affect what will happen in wrestling in the future.

That he couldnt talk about but was bracing for it mentally. WWE Network? Vince stepping down? MMA crap? If it's the same thing I heard about yesterday and was sworn to secrecy on, it's definitely not #1 or #2. #3 depends on your definition of "MMA crap." I can't really say more than that but it is big. (And if it's a separate story then this is going to be a big day) I think MMA crap would be defined as "anything that has to do with MMA with less than a 35% pro wrestling component."

I'm not sure if Punk learned anything in developmental but he's sure as hell a lot better now than he was in 2008. Watch the Punk vs Jericho matches vs this year and then the KOTR Punk vs Jericho (or ECW Punk vs Benjamin which is even worse) match from 08. They're trying to accomplish the same thing but there's a hell of a lot more restraint and nuance and common sense.

I never gave Hogan any credit as a kid. Never. I remember watching The UNREAL story of Professional Wrestling on A&E as a teenager and hearing one of the old timers say that he only knew three moves and probably shouted "Thank you!" at the TV. But I probably saw Hogan vs Giant RIGHT after the heel turn a few years after it happened and while I didn't love the match I did love Hogan's chickenshit heel performance. He was holding it in for years and you could tell.