Matt D

Two Duggan 84 observation: Watts was very capable in making Duggan look like a force of nature. I saw a 2 (jobbers) on 1 handicap match with him last night and it was slightly more interesting than the usual MONSTER vs enhancement talent handicap match. Just the way he was manhandling the guys with a bit more effort then you usually see in this made it all somehow more meaningful. Also, he was definitely more willing to a string of fast spots, well and successfully at this point, but only when the situation warranted.

I know it's a longshot but does any footage exist of the Johnny Valentine/Buddy Rogers team? Because that sounds amazing. Anyone know if it was a longtime thing or not. Wikipedia tells me they feuded with the Kangaroos a bit and had the WWWF US Tag belts for about a week in 1960.

I know I've seen them use it at least once or twice in the WWF but it sure as hell wasn't often and I absolutely can't give you dates.

Piper at Summerslam 90 is really interesting too, especially during the Warrior/Rude match when he just doesn't get whatever the hell Warrior's doing.

This isn't surprising. Sarge is in the argument for best bumpers of all time. Yeah but he was 43 at the time. As for Warrior, I think he was EXCELLENT at following direction. When he had someone good laying out his matches, his matches are good. It's pretty much that simple. You got as much out of him as you put in.

Gorilla/Bill Watts/Scott Levy would be the best team ever.

Almost all of the boot camp matches around WM VII are good too. The thing about Hogan matches in 90 and 91 is that they all had very very clear narratives. From the Genius SNME to the Undertaker matches at Survivor Series and SNMe. The story for the Slaughter match was that Slaughter was going to cheat and fight dirty and break the rules because he was the champ and he didn't care if he got DQed. So he was going to declare war, basically.

Re: Slaughter in 90-91. He worked his ASS off, no matter what you say about him. He was bumping like a madman in almost every outing. Like Hennig level bumping. And I think he was fairly over as a heel in the late summer of 90 vs Volkoff, who was astoundingly over as a face.

Am I allowed to prefer the cage match considering it's not Douglas in there? I have no idea why people don't like it. It's really well structured and pretty heated.

Heel Jarrett is actually a massive breath of fresh air after how stale face Jarrett had gotten.

I wish I had photoshop skills.

I feel like logic goes out the door when it comes to WWE summer booking.

What's the weirdest WCW Liger match on paper ever? Because I watched Liger vs Sweet Brown Sugar today and that has to take the cake no? Especially since Dusty was announcing with Chris Cruise, but it was Dusty pretending to be Santa, in a Santa Suit. I really do love WCW Prime.

There's so much else going on in that picture.

I freaking love Barry vs Tito from PTW in 89.

I just want to cannibalize some catchy terms here and you people are making it difficult with your logic.

What % of the fans are marks? Most everyone knows it's fake. John I think in 1999 or 2011 the term should generally means someone who doesn't follow the backstage elements of the business.

I think we all like semantics too much though, and no selling rants. Anyway, isn't the issue a mark/smark divide anyway? you have the people who watch the product (though they obviously don't believe it's real) and then the people who follow the backstage news. Though I think the rise of social media is what complicates that now.

There's hardcore, there's casual, and then there's oddball. I think we generally fall into that last class. The category I see as hardcore fans like Davey Richards a lot.

I don't care that it's not believable. 99% of wrestling offense is not believable. My issue with it is that it looks terrible and damages my enjoyment of the match I'm watching whenever Stan gets on offense with it. It's the cringeworthy minute of every MX match. I'm trying to figure out how that's not a believability issue. If they were more "real" looking, you'd like them more, and you'd be distracted less. I kind of like the idea that it's about them being aesthetically pleasing. If they were prettier and more artistic, you'd like them more. I don't know if that means they'd be more or less stylized though.

Believable strikes just aren't something I tend to care about. I care more about effective strikes or well-used strikes or meaningful strikes than believable ones. Wrestling is fantasy to me. What matters is consistency and coherence within the fictional universe. One way of gauging that (though not the only one) is whether or not the fans buy what's going on. That said, I'd would have to watch a bunch of Lane/Eaton MX stuff to see how I felt. I've seen a lot more Eaton/Condrey lately and a lot more solo Stan Lane stuff.

Re: Lane's kicks. I think they bought the kicks because people sold for them, too, no? And more than that they were presented by the announcers as something honestly dangerous. Wrestling is ultimately symbolic. If you train the audience to buy something, they will buy it. If you train them that something doesn't matter, then it won't matter despite being used in the best way imaginable with the best execution imaginable. Every point of evidence said that his kicks were dangerous save for maybe actually watching him kick someone. I've been loving the John Tatum/Rod Price Tags in Global. I know he had some runs with Jack Victory in Texas. I want to see that stuff.

Definitely...and I quite like the Lane/Eaton version. I think Bobby Eaton is the end-all, be-all for me on this. From what little I've seen of his team with Koko, to the more available stuff with both MX's, to his Dangerous Alliance stuff, he's just so solid. I think he defines tag wrestling for me because he's a guy that's never really stood out in singles. Stick him in a tag situation, and he's gold. I feel like there are a whole bunch of guys that we'd think more highly of now if tag teams were more prominent. Eaton just keeps trucking along too. In 92 he has Arn. In 93 he has Benoit. In 94 he has Keirn. In 95 he has Regal. He's got really good matches with each pairing.

http://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/85.htm He's all over this year. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xa3drt_mr...funk-pt-1_sport http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xa3fae_mr...funk-pt-2_sport This is one of those.. "wait, did this actually happen?" wwf matches. As for why he was there, you can sort of work it out here: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?show...=11633&st=0 I thought it was specifically talked about but I don't see it.

You can tell if he's a good wrestler or not since he can't fall back on token athletic spots and has to be more clever with his work?