Mad Dog

1985 also has that great Christmas episode with two awesome main events. You get Magnum TA defending the U.S. belt against Ole Anderson in a really good match and then you get Flair and Garvin chopping the absolute shit out of each other in a World Title match.

Anderson is good in a tag setting. As a singles wrestler he tends to be Mr. "I don't care if I only have 3 minutes, I'M GETTING ALL MY SHIT IN."

Completely disagree with Justin Gabriel. He has consistently good matches with a wide variety of guys. He's the perfect JTTS for the roster.

And you get this in 1986...

1985, just pick up when they get the World Championship Wrestling slot from the WWF. You'll see the Midnight Express and Rock N Roll Express enter the territory. The Challenge series over the summer is insanely fun and has a really good Blanchard/Taylor match. You'll get to see Nikita Koloff destroy jobbers every week and cut these incoherent and awesome promos. Just the promos every week from Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes and Tully Blanchard are good. You'll see Ole and Arn Anderson team up for the first time and the angle with them vs. Thunderbolt Patterson and Manny Fernandez will suck you in pretty quick. Ronnie Garvin, Magnum TA, the Barbarian and Buddy Landell are also main stays that year. You'll see the 4 Horsemen form as well.

I have a giant tote with thousands of DVDs in it. As far as matches and stuff go, I lost that capability years ago. I just dig through IVP or Wikipedia. I'm a mess with that and I've forgotten a ton about wrestling the last 4ish years.

I've really developed a new appreciation for Mean Gene rewatching Superstars and Championship Wrestling. I used to think of him as a shallow hype guy but he really adds a ton to the promos he's involved in. He always makes the guys seem more interesting or feeds them talking points that make their promos better. And he has a way of humanizing the guys he's with.

I always forget about him but Tully Blanchard is great too.

Nikita Koloff You didn't always understand him but holy shit if it didn't make you want to pay to see it.

What about David Von Erich? I know he was in the conversation a little down the road from this conversation. He did work heel in parts of the country as well. He seems like the kind of guy they would consider for the belt.

Benoit and Booker T TV title feud. DDP and Raven feud.

The current WWE roster really reminds me of WCW as 1998 progressed. All these interesting names in the mid-card and guys doing nothing. You start realizing there's a glass ceiling and those guys are just stuck. That's how I feel watching the WWE. Guys like Punk, DB, Cesaro, Barrett, PTP, Sheamus and Ziggler are stuck and just end up being fodder to the main eventers. I think to really fix the issue you need better booking and you need to get rid of the dead weight main eventers like Randy Orton that need uber protected because they can't stay over.

Only Morton sold the glass bottom boat if I remember correctly.

Yeah, kind of a technicality but he was there for one show.

DDP Konnan

I started rewatching NWA/WCW with them taking over the TBS slot on Saturday Nights in 1985. I immediately remembered why I don't care for Jimmy Valiant.

I always thought there was something wrong with me because I couldn't stand them as a tag team.

It took me until last year to really get the passion back for watching wrestling after the Benoit murders.

Randy Orton Universo 2000

Watching Graham's run a few years ago. It felt very extended transitional champion to me. He just kind of kept holding on to the belt is all.

I remember he was starting to do some stuff in the ring in 1998. I remember them absolutely beating the shit out of someone on Thunder and Rude gave them a DDT which was the first move I had seen him do in a long time.

Both WCW shows I went to in 98 and 99 were jam packed. I went to ECW in 2000 and they had the Newport Music Hall crammed with almost 1000 people for that show. I know TNA was doing reasonably well here when they were coming. I always thought Columbus was a strong market that just took a beating from shitty WWE shows in the early 00s.

I got as far as the Piper part and my brain just shut down. He reminds me of that NBC special on wrestling in the late 90s that had the Stunt Granny in it.

Oh wow, I forgot about KOTR and how awful that show was. Why does the WWE hate us?

Funny you should mention that HHH/HBK cell match. I've had more than a few people in Columbus tell me that was the match that got them to stop going to live WWE events.