Loss

I should start PayPaling people funds to come in and back me up when I make contentious statements about wrestling. Anyone willing to be bought?

I am considering signing some of you to high-dollar exclusive contracts. Make sure you're on your best behavior, because I am watching.

I thought it was bull for the longest time, but assuming Vince found out years later, that changes the initial conclusion. What is for sure is that something happened to the point where Vince won't make amends, which is unusual for a guy who is always willing to do business with enemies. It's quite telling that Lanny won't deny the rumors. It's likely that he doesn't know one way or the other, but it's doubtful anyone can negate those rumors seasoning Vince found out years later. All that really shows is that Vince believes it to be true.

This is a great time to mention that while working on the 2000 Yearbook list, I noticed some interesting numbers. The week after the phantom title change with HHH and Jericho in 2000, RAW ratings increased from a 6.3 to a 7.1, peaking at 7.4 for the HHH/Benoit vs Rock/Jericho main event. A couple of months later, when HHH and Jericho had their first televised match, they grew the audience from a 6.5 to a 7.7 in one quarter. The next two quarters lost viewers until Rock vs Kane brought them back at the end with an 8.0 quarter. My takeaway from that is that if WWE wanted Jericho to be a main event level draw, their best opportunity was to shoot him to the moon in April 2000. It's amazing looking back that Jericho was not really pushed at all prior to the HHH match, and him being pushed on top was immediately reflected in the numbers. Later Jericho pushes weren't unsuccessful, but I think the opportunity was lost after 2000 to make him a megastar who could succeed Austin, Rock and Foley. I don't think he needed to beat HHH at Fully Loaded necessarily, but dropping into an X-Pac feud after that match hurt him. Losing so many matches to Benoit during that time is a curious decision too.

Jericho and Rey are obviously the first names that come to mind. Daniel Bryan and Brian Pillman are the next ones. Pre-1991, I'd also say Bret Hart. I think it's going to be typically midcard workrate types that end up being named in this category, because if a big guy starts getting a crowd reaction, promoters are usually quick to act on that.

It doesn't bother you that he's performing an illegal move in plain sight of the referee with no repercussions?

Hey, just wanted to bump this to see if Trav ever completed this project. I'm starting to research 00s yearbooks and I'm on the prowl for 2003-2004 WON star ratings.

I never really looked at it that divisively. I never saw Savage and Sherri, for example, as two separate acts. Macho King Randy Savage and Sensational Queen Sherri was a singular act, and they each had a role within that. I think that's one of the things that made her so effective -- she immersed herself so much in whoever she was managing. I don't think that applies to every manager ever, and there are cases where managers doing their own thing does take away from the wrestler. Cornette and the Midnights, and the Undertaker and Paul Bearer, are really the only others I can think of immediately that fall into that category.

Why Funk #1? Just curious.

When I think of WCW, the towns where it seemed like they were always emanating from were Saginaw, Michigan and Fargo, North Dakota.

Louisiana promotion that I think may have been promoted by Grizzly Smith, but I'm not sure about the last part.

Barry Windham is a guy I've always thought had the most hidden TV gems of just about any wrestler ever. I seem to find new TV matches of his that I like pretty regularly to this day. I agree that his big show matches don't really spotlight him at his best, which is curious. I do think the matches selected will show that Windham was as good as just about anyone in the world, with the exception of a very select few, during the 80s. I don't think his output is as strong after the heel turn, but that's a reflection of JCP not running as many long, competitive matches as they had in the past. I also think the heel run is when Barry peaked as a "star". He was a great hand for a long time, but he didn't feel drastically behind Sting and Luger types as a star after the heel turn.

I don't want to step on shoe's recommendation on that one, but he agreed that the January match between the two is the key one. That's the one I'd recommend watching.

He wasn't. But even as late as doing the Horsemen DVD, he said he was "next in line", but that Flair leaving cost him his opportunity. It shows how much manipulation they did of Windham during that time to try to turn him against Flair.

This is the one dated 7/21/85 on the 4H set. http://facedl.com/fvideo.php?f=akiuaxoiwua...-ric-flair-arn- http://www.wwe.com/videos/tully-blanchard-...-match-26050095 (I'd watch this fast.)

I always hoped Sherri got a big payoff for the Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania. WM in particular was a long day at the office.

Sherri. It's easier to book her to get comeuppance since she's a trained worker and can take bumps.

It's something that we've discussed before on the board, and it's something that was recently mentioned again in Dave's bio of Kobashi, but his card placement and won/loss record is distracting for me sometimes, even when the work in the ring is great. I am a fan of slow climbs to the top, but I think the way Kobashi was booked in his early years is too extreme an example of that. You could argue that being true of most wrestling, so it's not a sharp criticism. It's just that I don't understand how exactly Kobashi managed to get the crowd to buy nearfalls in his singles matches against top wrestlers like Jumbo and Hansen as early 1990 despite his extended losing streak.

Just for the sake of thinking outside the box, it would be nice to see WWE (and more specifically Jim Ross) recognize the merits of sports other than football. It would be interesting to see how talent in baseball, basketball, tennis, swimming or hockey translates to wrestling.

Pulling random discs and watching things on various yearbooks. So far today, in addition to a few random promos and matches I've sort of half-watched, I've really focused on these three: * Ric Flair vs Bobby Eaton (NWA Main Event 01/07/90) * Stan Hansen vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 07/29/93) * Kenta Kobashi vs Akira Taue (AJPW 07/24/96) I liked Flair/Eaton more than ever. And if my thoughts on Hansen/Kobashi and Kobashi/Taue are any indication, I think rewatching is going to produce a completely different set of favorite matches than I ended up with the first time around. Hansen/Kobashi did less for me on a rewatch than I expected, considering that was my MOTY for 1993. Still a great match, but it was missing a wow factor for me to take it over the top.

Looking at a few random singles matches over the years, I've been really impressed at Marty's ability to get himself over in front of just about any WWF crowd, whether he's being pushed at the time or not. The three matches that stand out are Jannetty vs Hughes from All American in '93, Jannetty vs Skip from RAW in '95 and his comeback match against Kurt Angle in 2005. He seems like a guy who could have had a really strong singles run if he had his act even halfway together. Really excellent at working as an underdog and building to interesting/creative spots when working against bigger guys. It's also interesting that in the Skip match, he manages to get himself more over for one match than just about any babyface in the company. And in 2005, he got himself over with an audience that had no reason to care about him at all. I think the natural comparison is to Shawn Michaels, but I'd rather not go there for the purpose of this thread. That's a conversation you can have anywhere.

I'm not sure there is a definitive fourth. I think there is a case for a few guys, but I'm not sure it's definitive. Even Hogan crossed my mind.

It's a shitty move. They should just have everyone else stop doing it.