artDDP

For whatever it's worth Ric Flair mentioned in his book that when he signed with the WWF he asked Vince if he was expecting him to start using steroids and Vince said it wasn't necessary because he was already established. I'm pretty sure that decision had more to do with the federal inquiry than Flair's legacy.

Really? Wow, I don't remember that match at all. I guess it makes sense because Nash went on to win the world title the next month and I don't remember what Goldberg did until his surprise return at the Megadeth concert.

The funniest part to me is when Bruno said on the Observer podcast that he never heard anyone tell anything bad about HHH, he only heard good things about him. Corporate as hell already. I've always heard that Triple H doesn't drink or use drugs, not even painkillers (all anabolic steroids were obtained with a prescription, of course). That could be the "good things" he'd heard about Triple H.

I read Chuck Zito's autobiography ten years ago and in it he mentions his time in WCW. There was a Nitro telecast where Bischoff and Hogan wanted a team of Hell's Angels to surround Hulk in the ring. Zito says Bischoff was warning them that the fans might throw things in the ring. Zito replied that if anyone throws anything at a Hell's Angel they will climb into the crowd and stab the person. Bischoff decided instead to just have them ride around the ring on bikes and then go backstage.

My dad died suddenly in 2010. Bruno was his all-time favorite wrestler as he grew up in the northeast during and was a teen during Bruno's reign. All I can think of is how thrilled my dad would be by this news. Hell, he'd probably have bought tickets to take my brother and I to the induction.

I remember this period of Nitro being pretty weird (at least to me) where one week the show would rock from top to bottom and then the next it would be painful to sit through. I'd often wonder if they rotated bookers week to week.

El-P, you're a brave man. Back at the time I was a teenager completely immersed in the business and the fact that it was seemingly so chaotic and anything could happen on live TV made it pretty compelling and kept me coming back even with the horrible booking. I've tried watching a lot of that stuff back and aside from a few highlights it hasn't held up well.

As a dumb 10-year old, I had always assumed that whoever he said it to would get beaten so badly that he could bully the person into cooking for him. Then I found out the meaning. The office clearly had no idea. They included it as an intro to Konnan's theme song on the WCW CD released that year.

That actually seems really interesting. I always wondered about those punches at WrestleMania XII.

I didn't think the Rumble match itself was bad. It seemed rushed due to the quick entrances and there were too many guys who just didn't seem credible at all in there. I thought there were plenty of cool spots and they are doing a good job trying to build Dolph Ziggler. I was surprised Billy Gunn didn't show up as one of the surprise entrants. I was a bit disappointed by the title match. Seemed to be the typical punch/kick match that typified the "Attitude" era. I'm surprised there wasn't a last-minute no-disqualification stipulation added just for good measure. Working the ribs and knee were nice touches. Punk was pretty blatant at calling spots during this. I did think Rock looked incredibly winded. By the way, Rock hooked up with George Farah, an International Federation of Bodybuilding (IFBB) "diet guru" recently. In pro bodybuilding, "guru" is code for drug dealer.

Wasn't the Zbyszko-McMahon issue over money and one of the two sides (or both) has held a grudge for over thirty years? I used to read Scott religiously back in high school and took pretty much everything he said seriously...before I knew better.

I second this. I like logging into a wrestling board and not having to sift through a few dozen threads each day full of teenagers pining for the "Attitude era".

I think Sting being inducted is a possibility. WWE treats him pretty favorably on a lot of their DVD sets.

I never understood why the belt went to Luger there. They gave Luger the temporary moment that they were supposed to give Sting at Starcade. It's like they were trying to chop themselves off at the knees. It was the night after SummerSlam 1997 and they didn't want the WWF to pop a good rating.

Almost immediately after the promotion began to focus on Hogan, Flair, and Piper again and Goldberg was feuding with Bam Bam Bigelow until an injury took him off TV. The sentiment at my school around this time was not very positive toward WCW for the finger poke and NWO reunion. I know Hogan-Flair MCMLXXVII at SuperBrawl wound up doing a pretty good buy rate but I'm not sure why because I think a lot of people turned off WCW pretty quickly after Hogan regained the title.

I agree that that is terribly pathetic. I wasn't aware of the match until Sek shared it with me and I was pretty repulsed by what I saw, knowing how JR has consistently kissed Triple H's ass ever since. It was amateurish and petty and would make me uncomfortable knowing that Hunter is considered very strongly to be the chief of the promotion soon. Vince McMahon has had his petty grievances with performers and usually exorcised them with embarrassing personae or losses but I don't recall him actively trying to injure someone he had a dispute with. Hunter and Ross would probably just laugh it off and say that it's how it's always been done in wrestling. I say fuck that, you're a publicly-traded multi-million dollar company and need to start behaving like it.

Just moments ago I saw that some cool videos, matches, and promos I'd bookmarked were no longer there. Stuff that used to turn up in a YouTube search is now gone, too. Is WWE going after copies of theme songs, too? I noticed a lot of those are gone, especially the obscure ones I forgot to copy to an MP3.

Heenan seems to have remained pretty consistent with his opinion on the ending of Goldberg's streak. I don't remember if he said anything prior to 2001.

Was watching the Rock-Triple H strap match from Fully Loaded 1999 on Netflix last night and this exchange had me almost falling off my chair: Triple H shoves timekeeper Mark Yeaton out of the way and grabs his chair to use it against the Rock. Jim Ross: "It's real easy to push around a defenseless timekeeper, isn't it, you big bully?" Jerry Lawler: "Yeaton's got a hammer."

I love this board for posts like this.

People who've never done it assume it's a low-skill minimum wage job only ex-cons can do.

I think it was Wade Keller who once defined a mid-carder as someone who is either working their way up the card with a possibility of being in the main event or someone who once was who is working their way down the card. To me the term applies to anyone who isn't a regular focus of the promotion. Scott Hall as Razor Ramon, for example.

What is this...I don't even...?

She might have had an outstanding warrant for failing to make a court date regarding the ticket. That's the only reason I can think of.

The last two pages are making my head spin. I'd forgotten how nonsensical WCW became in 1998.