Pro Wrestling

Saw this on Meanie's Facebook page: https://www.gofundme.com/84emh3cs (I'm only posting a GoFundMe link because that's apparently how this news broke and what the above quote is from.) For those of you who don't recognize the name, Dotson was the beefy security guy for the WWE in the '90s. We talked about him in this thread last year. A Raw Magazine piece on Jim Dotson, written by Kevin Kelly in February 1999: http://droptoehold.com/post/39681525289/wwe-security-dotson

El Hijo del Santo just made a post about this on Facebook an hour ago, that Lizmark has passed away. He was 66 years old. Official CMLL Twitter account confirms: https://twitter.com/CMLL_OFICIAL/status/677360516298178560

Juan Baños or better known as Lizmark passed away during the early morning hours of December 17th from respiratory failur at the age of 66. Lizmark which was a play off of the legendary German battleship "Bismarck" from World War II was also known as "El Geniecillo Azul" which is Spanish for "The Little Blue Genius." Baños was born in Oaxaca on December 18th, 1950 but he grew up in Acapulco where he became a local icon years later but before he got in the wrestling business he actually had a career in hotel management working at the Acapulco Hilton Hotel. The reason why he started wearing a mask to begin with was to hide his identity from his co-workers and clients. Lizma…

So, I'm watching Herodes on Eurosport in 1991 and the finish doesn't seem as though it went to plan. Any idea what's going on here?

Hi, I just finished the Bob Backlund book which I loved. It's highly recommended as it's one of the most detailed wrestling books I've read, plus it seems like it is a fairly honest account of his run. I didn't feel like I was being "worked" while I read it. The book isn't big on hyperbole, which I appreciated. I was wondering if the footage of him vs. Crusher Blackwell exists anywhere? I'm super interested in this as I'm a big Jerry Blackwell fan and would love to see him against Blackwell. I've looked on YouTube, Daily Motion, etc. and I can't find it. I'd also be interested if anyone has seen these matches and their thoughts on them. Thanks!

Im a little obsessed with this match, initially because of the sheer ego and stupidity on display. This is the tipping point for Hulkamania and given the layout of the match you can see the the absolute insanity and fear Hulk was operating with at the time, but Im convinced theres a good match in there somewhere how would you rebook this match?

Was there a reasoning for making Starrcade 89, 90, and 91 gimmick-driven ppvs (89 with the iron man tourney, 90 with the tag tourney, though that was only part of the ppv, and 91 with battlebowl)? Looking back, it seems like they were pushing Great American Bash to be more important during those years.

For this week's podcast, we're going to take a light-hearted look at the plotholes, unfinished angles, illogical storyline contradictions, and even angles that were finished that still left you dumbfounded, that were put together under Vince Russo's runs in WWF, WCW and TNA. So the question is, which specific Vinnie Ru plotholes or illogical angles left you scratching your head and pissed you off, and why? As always, the best contributions will be read on the show and you'll be credited accordingly. So which ones from his body of work bothered you the most, bro? EDIT - The show discussing Vince Russo's Unsolved Mysteries and taking your suggestions is now onli…

Anyone watching this show? I have been really digging it, we did Segunda Caida reviews here http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/search/label/Lucha%20Underground

"If Jim Crockett has stayed east of the mississippi, he'd still be in business today." Really? His financial troubles were more travel related than they were spending more than he was bringing in related?

I think Dave is the older twin.

Does any footage of the matches they had in Australia back in 09 or whenever exist? I'm listening to the Flair pod with Hulk right now and they talk about the bloodbaths they had on that tour and I now have a morbid curiosity to see one

What if, instead of announcing The Undertaker, DiBiase instead brought out, from Houston Texas...Mean Mark! And he comes out as, probably a gimmick hybrid of Taker's post BikerTaker through today/Biker Taker, with none of the "mystic, wrestling no selling zombie" traits of The Deadman through the years. Does he stay hot enough to be a Hogan challenger a year later? And does he stay hot enough to still be with the company all those years later, through the New Gen, Attitude, Brand Split and beyond? Or, despite his "locker room leader" status, does he move on at some point (be it WCW or ECW in the 1990s or TNA, ROH, or somewhere in the 2000s, based on no "special …

I've been watching these NWA World Championship Wrestling and one of the most profound things I saw was how good Tony Schiavone and David Crockett were as a commentary team. I know I'm only 19 and I deal with shitty commentary from the fed but am I the only one who appreciates these two as a commentary team?

So for this week's podcast we are returning to our booking committee format for a discussion re-booking the WWF from January 1995, in order to try and make something more out of what was the nadir of company history in the eyes of many, and we're looking to get some feedback on what you think needed to be done to make this company succeed during a period where popularity fell, and house show and PPV numbers sank to all time lows. On the premise that you can do whatever you want with the talent there and the talent incoming (but can't do anything outside the boundaries of what was possible in reality), how do you realign everything in 1995 to save the year from the depths…

During the fall of 1995/winter of 1996, when Bischoff was making a big deal out of Raw being "in the can" (if you were playing Uncle Eric's insider terminology drinking game, you'd take a shot), Vince and Jerry would overdub the Raw broadcast (or maybe do it live) from Stamford so that they could pepper in "current" references torn from the headlines. I guess the intent was to make it seem live-ish, even those those taped Raw's always sounded taped on account of the canned crowd heat. I just watched one were Vince brings up the shenanigans of a US Senator and Jerry talks about the weather. It seemed as though they would just sit in the booth with a USA Today and…

Their have been a lot of wrestlers we've been exposed too because of this service. Some of the standouts to me have been Jose Lothario The promotion is obviously behind him. in accordance they highlight his strengths like his punches, and his timing. The talent goes out and tries to have good matches with him. I've seen the exact opposite when he did some shots in WCCW and worked Hayes, and Jimmy Garvin. Those guys were about themselves and getting over . Lothario was a part timer there. So to see him in Houston is refreshing. Gino Hernandez Man what a natural. He had charisma. He had agressivness. He was a good bumper. He carried the heat. An awesome prom…

To me this deserves a thread because I feel like that if you consider all factors you can make the argument that the hottest current market for wrestling is the United Kingdom. I realize on that surface that is a crazy statement. There is no major native promotion in the UK, at least not in the traditional sense, and no one is running really large venues. Having said that when I think of promotions that have developed and cultivated a niche, expanded the scope of their product and done so with (largely) homegrown talent, the promotions that immediately come to mind are ICW, PCW and This Is Progress. Two of those three seem to sell out every event, and the third (PCW) j…

The PWHF is moving from New York to Witchita Falls, Texas according to Slam. As a guy who lives in Texas this sounds like a fun roadie when Steve Austin and Sgt. Slaughter go in 2016.

This was posted by the WXW company running in Germany. Some good UK and German names, and also includes Rhino to boot. Thought some people might be interested in having a look.

Hey folks, I'm new. I was born in the suburbs of Toronto in 1980 and grew up a Hulkamaniac. My exposure to WCW was limited and it wasn't until my late teens. during the attitude era, that I went hunting for NWA/WCW footage. Loved everything 80's from Crockett, and saw bits and pieces of early 1990's WCW, but was never intent on seeing more because of the Wrestlecrap.com, WWE DVD "histories" and Ric Flair's of the world making me believe that everything during the Frey/Watts/Bischoff era was the drizzlin' spits. But, over the past year, I went through it all, everything on WWE network for WCW between Sting winning the title in '90 to Hogan showing up in '94....…

They aired the main event of Tanahashi/Komatsu vs Harishima/Ken Ohka. Man alive the heat for this thing was off the charts. This was serious. If Tanahashi had brought the hatred this would have been a MOTYC. Ohka's work underneath was compelling. His facials in his selling was top notch. Tanahashi had good timing, and connected big time with the crowd to be that hated. Komatsu and him playing double air guitar was glorious. Harashima was great as a face. 4*

"You could make an argument that [stan Hansen] is the greatest opponent for both Inoki AND Baba" - Dylan, 2011, Wrestling Culture #2 My immediate thought here is that while you COULD make an argument, in both cases it's probably someone else. But then it got me thinkinig ... well who are the greatest opponents of each? For Baba, I think you can make arguments for: 1. The Destroyer 2. Jack Brisco 3. Billy Robinson 4. Dory Funk Jr. 5. Abdullah the Butcher 6. Harley Race 7. Bruno? For Inoki ... 1. The Destroyer 2. Dory Funk Jr. 3. Andre 4. Abdullah the Butcher 5. Billy Robinson? 6. Johnny Powers? 7. Riki Choshu? 8. Vader? …

Have a day off from work so I decided to check out Progress based on Shoe recommendations and the twitter hype of their latest show. I was going to watch the Strong Style Tourney but decided to abort it after two matches and go straight to the latest show. Big Daddy Walter vs. Rampage Brown I thought this was an odd choice as an opener but it was a good hoss style battle. My favorite moment was when the rope broke on an Irish whip from Walter. This created a neat organic moment that really got over the size of the competitors. The guys improvised well and utilized some spots based off the broken rope. Fun opener. **3/4 Shen Woo vs. Damon Moser vs. Jack SexS…

So I was reading through an old thread about "Guys who got away with being bad" and Don Muraco's name came up a few times but then someone would come in and jump to his defense and it got me thinking that Don Muraco might be the most divisive wrestler in history. It seems like people fall into the camp of "Don Muraco sucked and was lazy as shit" or "Don Muraco was fucking great and one of the best ever" and I'm not sure I can think of anyone else who elicits that type of response. Yea yea I know Cena is divisive but outside of the most hardcore "I hate everyone that doesn't wrestle 100 miles an hour and do 30 moves a match" types, he seems to at least get credited as …