Matt D

Oh crap, I'd have loved Valentine as a horseman, even if it was a few years too late. I can't get enough of suit-wearing Valentine from the top of the 80s.

For me, buying into that statement actually sort of makes MMA seem fairly haphazard and pointless.

The Bees were faces by August 88 right? The idea of a Face vs Face Bees/Stallions match at that point is just mortifying.

Warrior has to hold the record: getting fired after holding up the company for more $$$ on a PPV, then getting fired after the PPV. Amusingly enough, the opening to Superstars was still "warrior themed" for at least a month or two after that.

It's a bit of a numbers game too. There's 8 of them. The biggest faction in the WWE right now has three guys (and Serena) in it. I don't think there's been a WWE faction consisting of more than four guys in ages (spirit squad maybe, which again, were a numbers game), and even four is rare. They can just walk down the halls crushing mid-carders.

Taker used it early on off the ropes, but it was really more of a choke drop sort of thing. The one Sid does to Virgil in the lead up to WM 8 is almost completely one-handed without using the other hand to help lift/support. It's NUTS. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x40zf5_si...ale-wolfe_sport All the stories from Bruno's book make the "Don't touch the little guy!" comments more funny for some reason.

It's pretty astounding how over Sid was as a face right before Royal Rumble 92. There's a squash matched taped right the rumble where the crowd is just molten for him. Equally amazing is how little heat he got after the heel turn when they paired him with Harvey. He'd be putting jobbers on stretchers and putting Hogan bandannas on them and breaking Virgil's face and the fans were just sitting on their hands. I saw Sid in a casket match against Taker when I was 10 or so. Actually, I'm not sure if I saw it or if we decided to leave early to beat traffic. It's all a bit of a blur. Edit: This might be the squash I'm thinking of: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4f2c1_si...ike-casey_sport It was filmed before Rumble and aired the week after it. Funny cartoony Repo Man promo there too.

It bugs me on some level that there was never a payoff to Jake turning on Warrior. Does anyone know if Jake attacking the Savage/Liz wedding reception only to have Sid intervene was planned from the get go or was a last second changed after Warrior held Vince up for money?

Harts/Demolition at Summerslam 88 was an awesome match though. But I think I've made that argument enough this year. Anyway, I love the idea that they did a Tag Tournament for November Sweeps. That seems like such an crazy idea now.

I completely and utterly believe Dave not figuring out why Jake was over.

When you hit the post-Summerslam one, could you let me know what he thought of Harts/Demos? He had to hate the Brother Love segment though. I guess it didn't hurt in getting Duggan over but yeah.

Back to the fingerpoke of doom, I thought the whole rationale behind that at the time was that they were going to get some sort of show on NBC/ABC/CBS, one of them, and the suits at the network wanted the belt on Hogan. Nash, shortly thereafter, said (and hell if I know where. These aer ten year old memories) that he gave in to the pressure to book it that way because it was the only way for him to get the belt and be both a WCW and WWF champion, which is such a great weird kayfabe but not answer to that.

What about Superfly Sivi Afi? Surely he didn't get over as desired or is that too early.

I've seen enough stuff from that era to assume that the fans REALLY wanted the faces to get their hands on Davis. Is that inaccurate?

So I do an exercise bike here at home for maybe four nights a week for an hour at a time and I watch stuff on the laptop while I do that. And I've spent the last 9 months or so mostly filling that time with pure nostalgia. I've been watching everything I can find online and streaming from WWF from 89 or so on. (I started watching as a 9 year old as a kid in Fall 1990). There's a huge chunk of stuff on dailymotion. I just watch everything I can find in order: Superstars, PTW, the MSG shows, the SNMEs, the PPVs, from start to finish. I guess I've never entirely got over the Benoit stuff (yeah, I know. Boo hoo for me) so this is the most harmless stuff imaginable and I find it all really easy to enjoy. After years of just watching one random pimped match after another, it's nice to see things in context. There are only a couple of guys from the roster at that point that are really terrible and they're sort of worth watching because they're so bad. And there are tons of guys I'm happily surprised about even if it goes far against internet conventional wisdom or how I felt as a kid (when I only liked small, fast guys with lots of moves basically). I basically stopped watching as a kid for 5 years by 1993 or so, so all of that stuff is going to be new for me, more or less. I plan on going up to Mania XIV which should take me a few more years. At that point maybe I'll go back to Wrestling Classic and fill in the gap, or maybe there'll be more WCW out there or maybe I'll just get that Dangerous Alliance comp and relive the rest of my youth before looking for GWF season sets or something. I also watched most of last year's ECW on hulu and a few of the new Superstars. I enjoyed the heck out of ECW. I'll also watch any FCW episode which has Dusty announcing.

It's never Lupus.

I suppose I could see him coming in to give some rub to the Harts. They should really have Jim Neidhart in their corner already anyway, in the Bob Orton, Sr. Chavo Classic, Larry The Axe Hennig role. I think he'd be really effective, especially because he's not that tall. Nattie isn't exactly a great talker.

Forgive my lack of knowledge here (as I started getting into wrestling a little later; for instance I remember getting frustrated because GWF was preempted for the MLB Expansion draft with the Marlins and Rockies as a kid), but who was the Snowman that you mention at the end?

I'm not really participating in any WCW polls right now because while I'm watching a lot of wrestling lately, I'm totally avoiding the the second half of 1993 WCW through first half of 1994 WCW, because I've seen very little of it, as it was during a period where I wasn't really following wrestling and it's one of those things I've always saved for a time that I really need it (likewise reading The Big Sleep or playing Dragon Quest VI),you know, some great personal tragedy. If that makes any sense, BUT.. I did watch the Clash with the Wellington/Benoit vs Liger/Pillman match for the first time in a few years last month and found that match really disappointing. The spots/moves aren't even as interesting as the ones in the mess of a Silver Kings/Freebirds match later in the night and there's just no story at all to the match, or at least not one that I could pick up on. They just toss out moves and spots and it gets frustrating to watch after a while because it really never develops and given who was in there you really wish it would. For what it's worth, that whole Clash was a little frustrating from an announcing standpoint as Jesse and Ross hadn't really figured out how to click yet. Jesse would set Ross up with a line and Ross would just pause for a moment and then continue to call the action.

No...Jeff is a harder worker than Luger ever was. Jeff is More over than Luger ever was and Jeff actually loves the business as opposed to Luger. Who would deny to people he was even in the business. What are you basing all of that on? All three points you listed are debatable, with the third one being based in nothing I have ever read or heard. The man liked the money but plainly had no passion for the business and kindly name me three good matches he had with someone not named Flair. Only three matches? That's not even hard. Off the top of my head v. Steamboat GAB 89 That was running purely off memory. I have no doubt I could find several others with little effort. You know what match surprised the heck out of me? Lex v. Mean Mark from GAB 90.

I've never seen face Rick Rood/Rude and I can't easily imagine it. What was that like?

There's one ep of WCW SN with Jake Roberts on Color and it was just awesome. He brought a ton to the matches. I wish there was more of that out there.

It's interesting how different announcers dealt with Jesse's points. Whenever he'd point out a double standard, Vince would just stutter and say something.. "Well, I guess we just have to disagree." or "That's not it at all!" And then not back it up at all. Tony just got steamrolled by him when they were together at PPVs in the late 80s.

What was that about Sarge singing a rock song?

Only if they make you hate them AND make you want to pay to see their comeuppance.