Loss

I think the margin would have been smaller in 2008. He may have gotten in, but I think it would be a tougher sell. If he was just now eligible, I think he'd be awfully contentious.

They stopped steroid testing in 1996, but they still reserved the option to drug test in certain cases.

No. Not even a good one.

Kurt was 35 years old, which is what made him eligible. It's 15 years experience or 35 years of age, whichever comes first.

I agree with this. Watching a great deal of his 90s stuff, he comes across as a guy who was technically really good, but didn't really know how to work a crowd. His heel turn in 1997 was tremendous and is an obvious exception, but I think even that is a little bit overrated. I do remember loving his WWE run at the end of his life, but I actually think Sean Waltman had a better 90s than him, much less guys like Liger, Benoit, Otani and even Ultimo Dragon and El Samurai.

Random question - I know Bruno signed a contract with WWE to do a few things outside the HOF, where he would apparently make the same money as the current headliners. What exactly has he done? Have I missed it?

I have never dreamed about PWO - and very rarely about wrestling - but I always enjoy the stories of those who do.

Post the YouTube videos here. Orange Jacket Guy vs Wal-Mart Shoppers in Handicap Match Wrestlemania-worthy entrance, with music included Battle Royal with a great post-match promo This is some of the most pathetic stuff I have ever seen. It seems to get worse every year. We Americans are disgusting sometimes. I feel for the employees who have to deal with this shit. People like to blame the people at the top for things like this - and they certainly do exploit low-income people with this garbage. But people who get out in this are soulless stupid fucks all the same.

I would reinstate him, but would insist on an apology. Don't hold your breath. Yes. He actually once failed a wellness exam after taking a legal over the counter supplement too.

If goodhelmet wanted to release the sets, I'd support that. I would just not be interested in serving as the guy who pours over match lists, existing footage and sentiment at the time to figure out what should go on. But if someone else wanted to take on that role, I would be supportive and think it was great.

I wasn't going to ban you, despite you PMing me to request that I do so. I had a feeling whatever anger was there would blow over, and you'd rescind your request. But you're not really leaving me with much choice, dude. I don't want you to get cancer or AIDS, but I do hope you have a happy, fulfilling life away from the wrestling. Bye.

I split off the Patterson/Stevens stuff that I'm still confused about. If you have additional stuff to mull over, please post it in that thread and not here. Leave this Tag Team Hall of Fame, please.

I'm all for spirited and even occasionally heated debates. But when it starts driving people away from the board and actually lowers the discourse instead of making it better, I'm not interested. Would you prefer more mod/admin intervention in cases like this, or should we continue our hands-off approach? Please post here. PM me your thoughts if you have a suggestion but don't want to be linked to it in front of everyone.

No, I don't take it as complaining at all. In fact, I think it's worth having a dialogue about if you feel strongly about it. I just wonder if there was anything appealing about wrestling by that point other than the in-ring. I welcome viewpoints of those who see it differently.

Another part of it is that wrestling angles and promos haven't been great in a long time. I'm not entirely sure the bloom wasn't already off the rose by the end of 2004, actually, but we'll see.

It says a lot that unifying the WWE and World titles after over a decade of them being separate isn't enough to carry a Wrestlemania main event. I understand them doing it at TLC, but that's something that should be a much bigger deal than it is, sadly.

Okay, who is doing this gimmick?

It's actually a hold if you want to get pedantic.

Jerry Lawler vs Terry Funk (Memphis 03/23/81) Pretty great brawl. Funk takes a few bumps to start, then they just get into a simple, bloody slugfest and create some great visuals. Funk gets a chair from Jimmy Hart and swipes Lawler’s leg to set up the spinning toehold, but Lawler makes a comeback of his own. Big heat and great punches. I would have liked to have seen at least one wrestling move thrown in somewhere - a vertical suplex or something - as my favorite brawls still remember that they are wrestling matches. But that’s a small quibble that doesn’t detract from the match too much.

Adrian Adonis & Jesse Ventura vs Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell (AWA 03/22/81) Much better than the last match. My socks aren’t threatening to be knocked off, but this was a satisfying match that got over the cage as something dangerous. Adonis does pull out some of his trademark bumps in the final minute or two of this, but his performance before that was nothing. Jesse did more to get the match over as something special in the body of this.

Nick Bockwinkel vs Pat O’Connor (AWA 03/22/81) Cool to see Pat O’Connor, but too short to really amount to anything.

Bill Dundee & Dream Machine vs Dutch Mantell & Wayne Farris (Memphis 03/14/81) I like the previous match better, but this had some great moments. I love the roll around slugfests with Dundee and Farris. Dutch takes a really fun exaggerated bump off of the hiptoss. Dream Machine is also a pretty decent babyface, but he isn’t as over as Dundee. The heat isn’t bad for this, but doesn’t seem quite as strong as it should be because of that. Despite the good exchanges, the match layout is a bit abrupt and the crowd is a bit quiet, which is what keeps this from getting to the next level.

Bill Dundee & Tommy Rich vs Dutch Mantell & Austin Idol (Memphis 03/12/81) Excellent tag team match. Dundee is so great as a babyface, both in the showy outfoxing of the heels in the early stages, and also selling a heel attack like crazy. Dundee is every bit as good a babyface tag team worker as Ricky Morton. I loved the backbreaker/elbow drop combo from the Dutch/Idol tag team. Dundee and Rich win the tag titles in a surprise finish. As good as Dundee was, Dutch and Idol really held this together with a strong, coherent heel performance.

Bill Dundee vs Wayne Farris & Tojo Yamamoto (Memphis 03/07/81) Tommy Rich is Bill Dundee’s tag team partner and can’t make it to the studio today. This means Dundee will be defending the title on his own. Before the match, Russell suggests that Jimmy Hart postpone the match because no one will respect Hart’s charges as champions if they beat Dundee. Hart is amused at this proposition, but says no. Dream Machine comes out upset that he’s not in the title match, since he’s been so loyal to Jimmy for so long. Lance Russell is masterful at explaining all of this and setting up the match. Bill Dundee is a great babyface tag team worker, and this is a huge showcase for him. I love all of his matwork and comedy spots that the heels sell well, and he gets the psychology of this pitch perfect. He said earlier in the show he planned to wrestle not to win, but instead just to not lose, and that would be his strategy — stall and ride the clock to hit the 30-minute time limit. So you have him taking advantage of the rules when the heels start to build momentum by riding the ten-count, which is tremendous in how it’s executed, as he takes advantage of Farris being so overzealous to buy himself some time. I don’t think I’d be a fan of the opportunistic babyface working the system to protect themselves in most cases, as good wrestling babyfaces are more valiant than they are smart. But Dundee and Russell execute this so well that I would make an exception in this case. They trusted Dundee to pull off something pretty tough here, and he did a great job of it. It would be easy for him to seem heelish, or for the match to get boring, but he knows how to balance this. Bleeding is actually a great choice to keep him sympathetic even when he’s trying to use the rules to his advantage. I’m sure better stuff will follow, but I’m not sure I’ll see anything smarter than this. This is the most compelling presentation of 1981 at this point.

Adrian Adonis & Jesse Ventura vs Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell (AWA 03/01/81) So much of this match was just filling time. Not bad, just really bland. I don’t think Adonis and Ventura are aggressive enough to keep this much FIP work compelling for this long. If anything, this shows how reliant the tag formula is on really good heels. Here, the High Flyers were the better workers. The long break outside the ring after Gagne got the first hot tag was horribly timed and deflated the crowd. It was like the match started over after Gagne tagged in and they were working like it was a brand new match. Now if you chop off everything that came before that tag, from here on, the match gets better, but that’s half the match in the tank. Even then, some of the choices just don’t make sense to me in terms of building heat — little things like Adonis coming in and immediately going for a cover after Jesse held on to the ropes to avoid a dropkick, somewhat big things like Adonis not coming in for house afire to also feed Brunzell and really big things like the aforementioned timing of dead spots in the match. Even the second hot tag to Brunzell wasn't really built up enough. I think the nicest thing I can say about this is that Greg Gagne gave a pretty solid performance. I like FIP tag work where the babyface teases minor comebacks to let us know they are still in the game and keep the crowd involved, and he did that really effectively. What was the point in building to a THIRD hot tag with just a minute or two of match time left? Add on that I hate it when announcers don’t attempt to frame context at all and just call moves without giving any background on the participants or getting over the surrounding angle, which lowers this as an overall presentation. And a crappy no contest finish to boot. I wasn't a fan at all.