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Figured out the Lawler/Cole match the other day and the way it should've gone. Cole Miner's Glove Match. You get a play on words with the cole mine and you get a gimmick match. From there, the big finish is a second rope fistdrop with the glove. Easy and effective.

Bobo Brazil probably belongs on that list.

This announcement of Rock/Cena at WM 28 has me thinking. What's the furthest in advance a promotion hyped a match. Not building a feud, but a specific match with a date set in stone. (And no cheating with a gimmick match like the Royal Rumble.)

Sixteen years later, and he's still doing the same thing in TNA. I think it was more of WCW willing to acknowledge the outside wrestling world (esp. in view of working with NJPW and AAA) while WWE generally kept an isolated world view.

Kamala's a guy I've seen praised by others (Hulk Hogan) as being a guy who was good at protecting his opponent.

Off the top of my head... Johnny Valentine-Wahoo McDaniel Steamboat-Flair Tito Santana-Greg Valentine Sgt. Slaughter-Iron Sheik Dory Funk-Jack Brisco

Honestly, employers in general get away with a lot of shit anymore.

Some of my earliest memories of watching really good wrestling are watching the clashes in 1991-92. Off the top of my head I remember Rhodes/Windham vs Steamboat/Douglas, Steamboat/Rhodes vs Enforcers, Sting vs Rude, Cactus vs Van Hammer. When Van Hammer's music video came on I was trying to figure out what happened to the wrestling program!

Hennig definitely, he just looked like crap physically in WCW.

Sorry, double post.

Valiant jobbed to Uncle Elmer, didn't he? Looking back, Skinner was a good character. Balding Steve Keirn probably wouldn't work as a sex symbol. He needed a drastic makeover to get over as a heel and he was virtually unrecognizable. But he was still a solid worker.

It feels like the biggest problem isn't wrestlers living the lifestyle, but coming down from it.

My experience is that attendance always goes by tickets sold. I think a team generally wants to build higher attendance figures because that makes fans feel they need to buy tickets in advance to avoid getting burned by a sellout, and that builds upon itself.

And honestly, even drawing 78,000 for a wrestling show is still really f'n impressive. Has a non-WWE/Londos show ever topped 43,000 in the states?

Starrcade did two arenas in '85. I think the reason for doing three at Wrestlemania 2 is that they wanted to one-up Starrcade. There are elements of a good Wrestlemania card in there. If WWE ran Hogan/Bundy, Bulldogs/Dream Team, Funks/JYD-Santana and the battle royal among other matches at one arena (and scrapped Piper-Mr T), it would've been a much better card.

One of the real highlights is previously unaired backstage footage from Wrestlemania IX. Vince shows Luger how he wants his entrance to look. And of course they have a clip of Bret asking where all the girls are.

First live wrestling show I ever attended. Given the lack of video screens at the time and lack of VCR programming knowledge, it was YEARS before I saw what actually happened.

I think the praise for Tiger Mask/Dynamite Kid comes from the fact that the match came to the states (MSG, elsewhere?). Those two got exposure that the rest of the Japan juniors didn't get for years. For guys like Benoit, TM/DK was likely their FIRST look at the style, and that leaves a huge impression.

Sabu is really an interesting comp. Flashy, innovative, reckless, and his matches often don't hold up too well.

Couple interesting points watching the match. Someone on another board spotted Brian Hebner flashing the 'X' sign while Sting was making his entrance. When Bischoff came out, the way he shook Jeff's hand looked like he was trying to determine if the lights were on upstairs. Even before the debacle, the crowd was 100% dead. I'm sure the atmosphere helped Sting (or whoever) to say "fuck it."

Sunny will have the mark legitimately, Guerrero was two months older when inducted.

Sunny will have the mark legitimately, Guerrero was two months older when inducted.

I'm surprised WWE never inducted Tony Garea, despite him obviously being a very good talent for many years as well as being a long term road agent. Baron Mikel Scicluna is oft-criticized, but if you look back at MSG cards he wrestled as many matches there as anyone except Bruno Sammartino. If you were building a strict WWE Hall of Fame, he'd be a legitimate choice IMO.

They put Johnny Rodz in.

Likely the classic bury the wrestler to see how he copes. If Sheamus handles it well, they'll push him later.