Matt D

Has Heyman lost a meal ticket with Brock's retirement?

Hulu starts with the first show in January 08. It's a solid starting point.

WWECW ages great though! WWECW title is the best WWF TV Title ever.

I'm too lazy to make a Glacier joke

Not many people are capable to work an exciting 30 minute main event period. And I don't think he ever claimed he could (nor anyone else for that matter). I found Raven matches more enjoyable than most stuff on ECW, certainly more enjoyable 15 years later than overrated "technical" demonstrations of Eddie vs Dean, or nonsensical wankery a la RVD, or horrible boring brawls a la Duds. Way more fresh and more fun to watch. Yes there was ton of bullshit, but it was fun bullshit that worked. Just me (litteraly, since I'm probably alone to still enjoy Raven as much as I do). I bet I could name three thousand wrestlers better than Raven. If I was restricting myself to wrestlers just based on 90's work I could hit a thousand. Even if I were to give him extra points for his career - much of which was carried by Stevie and the other underlings - I don't see how he's a top three hundred U.S. talent for the 90's. I feel like his mic work in memphis in 93 and super fun announcing in GWF would... wait, what's the question?

I was watching a King Kong Bundy vs Tony Garea match from July 85 on All American Wrestling. Monsoon and Mean Gene are announcing. and Gene says that he just spotted Doctor Harold Duffelmeyer in the crowd, from Columbia University, and that his nickname is the Professor. And Gorilla says he's spotted at a lot of WWF shows. Was this some sort of inside joke?

And then The Big.

Levy is a guy who always put a lot of thought into his stuff and who generally loves wrestling. Really, the only thing I'd ever want to go back and watch in ECW, past Tracy Smothers and Tommy Rich and weird cameo appearances by guys like Jannetty, is all the non-match Raven stuff.

It was "WE ALL HATE YOU!" On paper everything about the Kane/ Cena angle works for me. Evil Bad guy does evil things to get good guy to snap, including fucking up his protege to the point where the protege eventually hates the good guy, add in a chick..etc..etc. But the execution has just been bad, besides Kane who's so good at making shitty stuff work. I actually haven't SEEN any of it. I've had a hard time catching Raw lately for some reason and I've just missed all of it, and let me tell you, on PAPER, reading about it, it's not so bad. Especially if we're under the assumption Eve is in cahoots with Kane now.

I just realized I used Meng twice. Not only am I screwing up the point of the note but I'm overusing Meng. I kind of want to do something else. I was looking at 85 NWA but it's almost too easy and other stuff, like Mid South just doesn't have the roster depth, while later WCW has TOO much. I could probably put together a great Pro Wrestling USA card though.

Everyone needs to go out of their way and listen to Regal announce this Ambrose match. I know it's mainly to further a story but it's great, great stuff. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSDVBMPUzsA

Fishing.

I feel like it was a year and a half in wwf for a lot of the guys. Arn's shoot is interesting when it comes to talking about Vince and salary.

That's mainly just the beginning of dusty getting there in 84, though.

You're both right! But seriously, anyone ever see a better Roma match than that?

Neither here nor there, but Savage is the one guy that I have a hard time grasping that he's dead. Maybe it's because he faded out of the spotlight so thoroughly that my last memories of him are really that one mysterious nitro appearance towards the end when he came out jacked, the voice-over he did for WWE Toys this past year, and, weirdly enough, a whole bunch of ICW including the cage match with Ron Garvin since I saw a lot over the span of a few days a few months before he died.

I feel like we've talked about Paul Roma SOMEWHERE here lately and also Tom Zenk's interviews. I came across this which feels a lot like Roma trying to do a Zenk interview. http://www.wrestleview.com/viewnews.php?id=1277909223 And then he said this: "I ran with Steamboat for a while. You know, his ego gets him into trouble, I think. I had a match with him at Madison Square Garden and we talked it over in the locker room. He said, 'OK. I'd like to do this.' I said, 'OK. I want to do this.' Then, after I let him do his thing, he turned around and tried to stiff me and not let me do what I needed to do so I took it over. I just physically did what I had to do to him. Because I was like, you want me to make you look good and you're not let me do my thing? So I'm gonna do my thing anyway because physically he can't handle me. If you want to get down, we'll get down." So, because it's a 91 MSG match, we have it on tape. I went to watch it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVRvH_fN-Ac is their only MSG match). The transition to Roma being on offense is an inverted atomic drop reversal on a 10-count punch followed by a clothesline with a big set up and then a shit ton of posing. And then Steamboat is obviously selling like crazy for him, with big facial expressions. Just a weird claim. Anyway, the match is pretty good and Roma's offense actually looks great. I do think we have to come up with a Monsoon rule: The better the match in the ring, the worse Monsoon is on commentary, and vice versa. All of this made me wonder. What is Paul Roma's best match? The Young Stallions had shitty matches with both Demolition and the Brainbusters which is MADDENING. Power and Glory has tags against the Rockers (and no matter what Naylor says, I don't think Summerslam 90 works for that) and there are singles matches at house shows that we have where he goes up against Jannetty, which I'd have to rewatch. Then there's the WCW run but I've seen very little Pretty Wonderful. On paper they should be pretty good though, right? Has anyone seen a Roma match better than the one above?

In the build to WM 1, Studd/Heenan repeatedly commented on how, due to the stips of the match, when Andre did not slam Studd, he would have to retire and head back to France. And then there was one of my most vivid wrestling memories as a kid, the ep of PTW where Andre made Heenan make wine.

Speaking as a child of that era: GI Joe was huge. And Slaughter was a pretty famous guy among kids. I never watched either GI Joe or pro wrestling back then, but even I knew exactly who the Sarge was. At times it seemed like you couldn't get through a single commercial break during any cartoon without an ad featuring Slaughter popping up. (But still, fame amongst six-year-olds isn't a compelling argument for becoming a national mainstream sensation like Hogan did.) I was a contrary 6-9 year old. I hated Hogan because everyone hated Hogan. I hated Gi Joe because EVERYONE loved GiJoe. For my age group it was a huge deal. I THOUGHT that he wasn't introduced into Gi Joe until 85 though.

I bet we'd all LOVE Mr. America right now.

In my mind, the Rock 'n' Wrestling stuff was really all about the Piper/Captain Lou/Lauper in ring angle. Hogan came in on promos after that and he was important because he was a guy you believed would appreciate/hang out with Lauper, and Sarge wouldn't be, but I feel like the Mr. T stuff just took it over the top. IT AMAZES me to go back and look at just how unpredictable Piper was then.

January, 1993 WCW Tougher than 91, definitely. I feel sort of obliged to use Benoit but i refuse to use Robbie V (though I was tempted to throw him or Erik Watts against Vader). I don't feel right using Prichard/Lane/Eaton or the RnRs but we'll see how desperate I get. Rude is out with an injury. I wanted to use face Jack/Barbarian but I really needed them as heels and for the interesting pairing below. Brad Armstrong vs Rip Rogers Tom Zenk/Johnny Gunn vs Scotty Flamingo/Vinnie Vegas (I like Tex/Shanghai more but I think Scotty/Vinnie would be a more interesting match) Steve Regal vs Chris Benoit Marcus Bagwell/Scorpio vs Pillman/Austin Dustin vs Orndorff Ricky Steamboat/Shane Douglas vs Cactus Jack/Barbarian Ron Simmons vs Barry Windham Sting vs Vader And what the hell. August 1995 WCW. SUPER HARD, but I know it fairly well. I ran out of faces for all the heels I wanted to use. Thus, Hogan & Hawk, which is just a fun Road Warriors combo. What I would give for Rip Rogers here. Also, a month or two earlier and I would have had the Lightning Express and Bagwell/Patriot for face teams. Marcus Bagwell vs Chris Kanyon (optional) Johnny B. Badd vs Craig Pittman Scott and Steve Armstrong vs Regal/Eaton Pillman vs Shark Meng and Bubba vs Bunk/Slater Randy Savage vs Arn Anderson Hogan & Hawk vs Kamala & Orndorff Sting vs Sabu Vader vs Flair

i kind of dread two months of HHH promos leading up to WM

According to Graham's site, Vader doesn't show up til Feb, so he didn't count. Gibson is injured at this point. And I felt like I had too many conventional tags in there and to be perfectly honest, I'd rather see Moondog Rex than Garvin/Hayes. I SUPPOSE I could be convinced to sub Garvin/Hayes in for Wallstreet/Irwin (I like 1981 Irwin way more than 1991 Irwin, after all) in the six man. I'd consider using Jack Victory/Rip Morgan or the State Patrol over the Freebirds I think (though probably not Pat Rose and Reno Riggins).

I'm not sure I'm up to the idea of taking this out of context. Instead, I think I'm just going to put together, let's say the best possible card from early 1991 WCW. All guys on the January, 1991 WCW cards, are possible. I THINK Eaton was still a heel here and Taylor was still a face but I'm going to deal with that the best way possible. Tim Horner, Ricky Morton, and Tommy Rich vs Michael Wallstreet, Moondog Rex, and Bill Irwin Brad Armstrong vs Dutch Mantell Pillman/Zenk vs Buddy Landell/Rip Rogers Norman vs Owen Hart Southern Boys vs Doom Bobby Eaton vs Terry Taylor Luger vs Barry Windham Steiners vs Sid/Arn Sting vs Flair I think that's the best I can do for January 1991. The six man is probably optional, or if this was a PPV, a dark match. I just like Moondog Rex and Bill Irwin a lot.