Pro Wrestling

So I got my copy of this today and it is a MASSIVE book. It's going to take me a while to get through it but I have enjoyed all of the other books in the Hall of Fame series to one degree or another and this looks like a very impressive effort. I'll probably use this thread to keep track of my notes/comments as I'm reading rather than doing a big write up when I'm finished. Quick notables so far: The introduction is quite good in terms of establishing what a babyface/good guy is and establishing context for the book. I marked out for the Lanny Poffo quote about his match with Terry Funk at the Garden which is one of my all time favorite matches and I also t…

This has always been something I've found a bit problematic. I've just watched Uncensored 96 where Big Show beats Loch Ness in less than 5 minutes. I can think of examples in the past when people like One Man Gang, Uncle Elmer and Sid (vs. El Gigante) have had similar squashes. I know the practical reasons for this: either the guy is on his way out, as in the case of Loch Ness or Sid, or the guy is so fat that he can't go more than 5 minutes without getting blown up. But what is the KAYFABE LOGIC of such losses? I mean I can't think of anything that breaks the suspension of disbelief more than that. The worst examples are generally big men who are built to face…

Alright!! After two weeks of waiting the 3rd part of the 30 minute long Finlay vs. Timothy Thatcher MAT EPIC is finally posted. http://www.youtube.com/user/maninblack235 There are two alternate angles for the first 13 minutes or so (me on the stage, my buddy from the corner), and then the last 2 minutes are me. So watch and enjoy, comment here. I LOVED this match, so everybody watch it and comment about it here.

Was looking through the ratings history of WCW Nitro and noticed some strange things in terms of their numbers against when most say it was going down.. 1. Starrcade 97 / 1998 - Nitro was still pulling REALLY good numbers (higher than 97 on average) and they had a spike during the NWO split, so although it seemed they were making the NWO drag on and on, when looking at the ratings, you can see why they continued with it. High 4's, low 5's and even a 6 sneaks in in November. Heading to Starrcade, things looked good. They were trailing the WWF, but some weeks it was only by a few tenths and others a bit more, but still had nice numbers..so the Starrcade 1997 end di…

During the territory era, there were some guys -- for example, Terry Funk, Dick Murdoch, Abdullah the Butcher, or Kamala -- who would bounce around on short 3- or 6-month contracts never staying anywhere for too long. Most often these were guys who'd go on the tours in Japan. A guy like Dick Murdoch worked in practically every territory: WWF, Crockett / WCW, Florida, Central States, St. Louis, Portland, Mid-South, All Japan, New Japan, AWA, World Class, Georgia, Stampede, Smokey Mountain, Puerto Rico, Portland, hell he worked for Catch Wrestling in Germany. Here's what I wonder: why? It's clear that not all wrestlers in the 1980s felt the need to do this. There ar…

Brodus Clay cameo near the end:

We are more than 2/3 through the year. If you are using WON standards we are 3/4's through the relevant "voting" period. I honestly have no clue who my pick is for either of the "wrestler of the year" awards. LOU THESZ/RIC FLAIR AWARD contenders???? Um..Punk? Bryan? Cena? I guarantee you someone will try and make a case for Aries and while I think the guy has had a remarkable run given where he works, he has no record as a draw. No one in Japan stands out. Mexico? I don't know of anyone being red hot. I really see no strong pick for this award. MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER contenders.... Negro Casas, Finlay and Derrick King would be my top picks off…

I have heard so many times how a match was ruined or brought down, because the finish wasn't clean. Is it true the only good finish is a clean finish? I tend to think there are many great finishes that aren't clean. Was the first Hell in the Cell really ruined by Kane running in? How about that Inoki-Hansen match ending in a count out after Hansen Lariated Inoki to death? I'm just really tired of hearing about clean finishes being the only good finish. Am I wrong?

Vince is on a rampage after last week's rating. He also threatened all the production team that if he doesn't see results they'll all be fired. Gewirtz cannot be outright fired per his contract. He'd have to be bought out. Things are getting interesting. A real WCW vibe . also on RAW Punk seemed to have punched out a fan while escaping through the crowd. Right in front of Vince

OK, If anyone has heard the WWE NWO Legends of Wrestling show, its a great show, with one GLARING issue... Nash is very good in this and honest, but when discussing plans after the finger poke of doom, he mentions plans to have Goldberg run through the NWO before he hurt his arm breaking the windows in the limo.. One BIG issue, the fingerpoke was 1/4/99, the Goldberg incident was 12/23/99....He skips 11 months of WCW (which were HORRIBLE) in between with no explanation of what happened and why what their "plan" was never happened right after the fingerpoke...so it lost a ton of credibility to me after that. Anyone else see this?

Can someone tell me the following as I am just getting into this angle.. When was the original beginning of this (the first mention of it, like Hall on 5/27/96 Nitro)? What are some of the great stuff to check out so far? Has ANYONE been revealed yet on TV? Thanks!

What's the argument against Sting? Seems ridiculous to me that anyone would put Cena in there before him.

Why are we not talking about that main event? I think we need to talk about that main event. I thought it was a super smart match and was blessed by having JBL there on commentary. Punk had Cena scouted to the nth but Cena isn't human, he's (as JBL put it) the prototypical sports entertainer. That means herculean strength and comebacks. Punk wasn't just walking into Cena's shit like every other wrestler in the world but at the same time, Cena was able to power out of every big movement Punk was able to get going. To me the key moments were the power out of the Crossface and then, when Cena finally realized that they were at a stalemate, cutting out the bullshit for the fi…

Seriously, the formula is the SAME every fucking match. I appreciate that the FIP concept is the most popular way of laying out a tag team match, but it's become so fucking predictable in WWE that I switch off the TV or go and do something else when a tag team match is on. - Match beginning: after a short back and forth, face team briefly get the upper hand - Heel team takes control, isolates a member of the face team - Member of face team plays Ricky Morton, heel team make continuous tags - Ricky Morton builds momentum, lots of false hot tags - Ricky Morton hits a big move that evens the score, both legal men go for the tag - Heel legal man gets the tag, a…

Has anyone seen the youtube trailers for this yet? There's only two of them so far, but this already looks like a must see DVD.

Hey guys...love the board...kill way too many hours on here. We recently conducted an interesting two part interview with Downtown Bruno Lauer a/k/a Harvey Wippleman. He talks about his long career, coming up through the territories, his time in WWF as a manager and his current role backstage in WWE today. He also opened up about the tragic car accident that took the life of Joey Marella in 1994. Bruno was really open and talked about anything we threw his way in a lightning round style at the end. There is a lot of cool territory stuff in there for older fans as well. Hope you enjoy. http://placetobe.podbean.com/2012/08/23/ep...rview-part-one/ http://placetob…

Couple Questions I had been wondering about: 1. What was the original ending of Sin 2001 if Sid doesnt get hurt? Do they all turn on Sid and help Steiner, creating the Magnificent 7 at that show? That would make sense due to what happens the next night, but I was curious if anyone knew for sure.. 2. What was Eric Bischoff's plan if he had bought WCW in March? Was he gonna bring back Nash / Sting / Booker (he was back) / DDP / Goldberg / ?? to take on the Magnificent 7? If done right with good writers and a fresh take on it, could have worked..just curious of the original plan! 3. Was there a plan with the names of the PPV's in 2001 to lead to somethi…

Punk/Lawler was really good, with an angle that felt very Jim Crockett Promotions to close things out. The crowd ruined it, although they did pop for the Cena run-in. I think the problem is that they train their audience to view WWE as light-hearted comedy where the good guys always win and the bad guys are always emasculated. Then, when they try to do an actual wrestling angle, it doesn't get the response it deserves. It's hard to do stuff like this on top when the whole mood of the show swings in so many directions. There's no real overall coherence in whatever emotion it is they want people to feel when watching the show.

Liking wrestling doesn't require one to like all wrestling. People who like and dislike aspects of what they watch are still fans. Argue the points people make, not the "negativity".

What was the first TV date of the PW USA TV show? Was is 10-13-84 or 9-27-84? Thinking its 10/13/84 but there are promos on that show for Sept shows...dont understand! Thanks!

Anybody else catch this tonight? I thought the three way was good, Lesnar vs HHH was not good, and everything else was varying shades of okay. Not a show I regret purchasing, but not a show I'll remember in three weeks, either.

The CHIKARA tournament had me thinking. If you were to develop your dream six-man tag tournament. You could use any wrestlers you wanted, any era. Mix and match guys in their primes. Could be either famous pairings or guys who never teamed before. Figure on 16 teams total. Who would you put in?

This has to be one of Vince McMahon's most used idioms and I'm beginning to think that WWE's preferential hiring practises revolve around this concept - both figurative and literally. We all know that McMahon has a penchant for wrestlers with extraordinary physiques, but maybe that's just one part of the equation. See, I get the impression that WWE loves talent who are anything but, ordinary or those who keep up their persona in public, regardless of the modern wrestling scene where social networking media and reality is the "thing". The guys who live pretty quiet lives when not in front of the camera, are often the guys who don't receive decent pushes. I'd put…

I am hammered. What's everyone's favorite wrestling to watch while drunk? For me, it's ECW. Lots of violence, swearing and blood. Back in high school, my buddy!s and I would get all messed up then try and find ECW on my parent!s satellite system. It was the next best thing to getting laid. Now that I'm older, my favorite drunk wrestling is Attitde era WWF. Strictly for nostalgia reasons.

Only problem I have with the Punk angle is this is like his fourth or fifth turn now. He's approaching Big Show/Kane levels and will run a risk of damaging trust if he keeps doing it. Compare that with Cena and Orton who has been on top longer and only turned once or twice.