Loss

You would think, but Jim Ross is apparently pro gay marriage, believes Henry Louis Gates was a victim of racism and watches Bill Maher.

Special referee Bulldog Brown?

The old PWI almanacs had a line that Hogan was scheduled to appear at Starrcade.

Thanks. Compared to 2003, that list doesn't look too problematic. I was actually just telling Will the other day that from 2002 on, I see the US indies replacing the space currently occupied by WCW and ECW/SMW/Memphis combined on a yearbook. That's over 1/3rd of an average yearbook (~44 hours), so I think we can do a lot with that time. The challenge will be that because there were so many promotions in Japan, Japan might take up more space too. But I'm confident we can do it. The story of the indy boom is one that I think needs to be captured really well since this will likely be anyone's first attempt to even try, so we'll do what we have to do in order to make that work.

As bad as Russo's run was, the Sullivan run immediately after this was even worse. But then, the second Russo run was even worse than that. I think the mindset behind bringing Russo back, as bad of a decision as that was, was that Sullivan was even worse. Of course, they could have just gone in a completely different direction instead of choosing between two wrong ones, but that's WCW.

Did Greg have a New Japan tour during that time? That is strange for sure.

Ha! Not sure why this is so amusing to me, but I think the thread title is hysterical. I hope to work "If not _____, then who?" into random posts for years and years to come.

If not Jim Neidhart, then Who?

This is all making my head hurt. Let us return to the fundamental question: If not Race, then who? I'm sorry, I'm not sure what it is about this thread title that is SO hilarious to me, but I'm almost in tears as I type this.

I was tempted to start an "If Not Magnum, Then Who?" thread where we could debate who should have had a car accident. But I decided against it.

Weird, considering that Ole also hates Flair. Then again, Ole hates everyone except for maybe Buzz Sawyer.

By the way, for all the complaining we've done about Kiniski at Starrcade over the years, I've read stuff more recently that this was the idea. Kiniski would appear to be biased for Flair to give Race an out in Kansas City. While that may be true, my first instinct is to question that, only because I'm not sure Race or even KC as a town was strong enough to deserve that level of protection at that point. Anyone?

Do you think Fritz would go for David being a heel on something that would be available nationally through closed circuit TV? Jerry Lawler is an interesting option to think about since we're discussing hypothetical situations anyway. Possibly even Jumbo Tsuruta as Evil Foreigner, giving cred to the supercard concept and allowing them to bill it as a global event. I don't think Jumbo's name was going to mean anything in the US, but a wrestling card with global implications happening in Greensboro is an interesting selling point. Flair could have dropped the title on 6/8 in All Japan, two days before he dropped it to Race anyway.

He's responding to a point about Savage and Stephanie. He is not the one that keeps bringing it up. It feels wrong to turn the obsessed tag on him.

I think it had to be Race. The only other option I see is a heel Jack Brisco. The point was that Flair was beating a stalwart who represented the previous era. Brisco was a heel at that point, so it might have worked, but I think Race was the better option.

To me, the subsequent deaths of Benoit and Guerrero were a total rebuttal of that view of wrestling. I won't say the hypersmark outlook on wrestling doesn't exist anymore, but it's not as prevalent as it used to be. Plus, Punk has been a top guy for two years now and had a long world title run. He's not someone waiting on his shot. I don't see WWE trying to do anything resembling the WM XX moment ever again. And why would they?

My favorite brawls: El Dandy vs El Satanico (EMLL 12/14/90) Konnan, Perro Aguayo & Rayo de Jalisco Jr. vs Cien Caras, Mascara Ano 2000 & Sangre Chicana (CMLL 03/01/92) Satanico vs Pirata Morgan (AAA 11/26/93) El Hijo del Santo, Scorpio Jr & Bestia Salvaje vs Negro Casas, El Dandy & Hector Garza (CMLL 11/22/96) El Hijo del Santo, Scorpio Jr & Bestia Salvaje vs Negro Casas, El Dandy & Hector Garza (CMLL 11/29/96)

Do you know if the Larry Goodman reviews are archived anywhere except the Torch? I agree that they're great, but I could only find 2004 and a partial 2003 there. Also, I don't even really know enough about NWA Wildside to know what the usual suspects are in terms of good matches. Is there a good resource out there?

Same concept as the IWA Mid South thread. I honestly had no idea what type of promotion this was until I started researching it last night. I figured it was another serious ROH-style fed. If anything, it's so strong in the opposite direction that it makes IWA Mid South look like ROH. Seems very dark and awesome. From 2000-2003, what is the key stuff that needs to make a yearbook? I was able to do 2004 since the Torch Archives had a really, really good recap/review guy who caught every single Wildside show that year, although if someone wants to recommend something specific, I can cross-check to make sure I got it.

Thanks to soup, Bix and Trav for your help. I think we'll do a really good job of representing IWA-MS on the yearbooks. Any recommendations for 2004 beyond Necro/Klein?

Are there stories of Savage mapping out his matches with opponents other than Steamboat (and WM8 with Flair)? Did he do it regularly with everyone?

What show was Punk vs Hamrick on?

Hey, just bumping this to see if you'd be willing to help narrow this down to the essentials. I'm working on the 2000-2004 yearbooks all at the same time right now. Anything to avoid jumping into WWE TV ...