Loss

Vince told Cena to say what he said about Rock. Cena insisted on stopping because he was taking too much heat for it.

Totally agreed, and this happens regularly. Confidence in one's opinion shouldn't be mistaken for said opinion being immutable. It's happened to me plenty of times. People who can present new ways of looking at things we've all seen a million times are great.

They are interdependent, which is great. Gathering information allows us to argue opinions, which is (usually) fun.

It's important to remember that deep down, everyone thinks their opinions are right. Or else they wouldn't have them. They would have different ones instead. Arguing about the disagreement is the entire purpose of message boards. Otherwise, why are we even here?

I didn't think about what happened at all. I was too in shock that the whole family was dead. I figured we would all find out at some point. And we did.

I don't understand why you keep using JCP to defend his time in WCW. There's a disconnect that I'm just not getting. If WCW is the argument, let's talk about WCW. If JCP is the argument, let's talk about JCP. What am I missing?

I don't understand why you keep using JCP to defend his time in WCW. There's a disconnect that I'm just not getting. If WCW is the argument, let's talk about WCW. If JCP is the argument, let's talk about JCP. What am I missing?

Unless he gets a concussion and has trouble thinking on the fly as a result. Mental acumen and physical acumen cannot be mutually exclusive. Wisdom comes with age, but so do a whole host of other positives and negatives. And wrestling is not about theory, it's about execution. We're not great workers simply because we can think of great ideas for wrestlers during matches. There is a physical component to it that can't be dismissed.

I see what you are saying now, Jerry, but my concern with that is that it's too subjective. Turner would not have purchased JCP without Flair, yes. Then there would be no WCW. But we don't know what Ted Turner was basing that on. He could have been looking at Georgia Championship Wrestling television ratings in the early 80s when TBS was a fledgling network, or it could have just been something as simple as Ric Flair being the only wrestler under contract to JCP that he recognized. That is an anecdote and without knowing the reasoning behind it, it's hard to put too much stock into it. That doesn't mean it's not a positive for Flair. It just means it's not something I'd really use to emphasize his value. TBS executives also pushed things like the horrid mini-movies to sell PPVs, filling the roster with gimmick guys like Van Hammer, and editing home video releases down to two hours which hurt their merchandising appeal. I will agree that from 1989-1991, and from 1993-1996, Flair was the most over guy in the company. He was also the biggest star they had until 1994 when Hogan showed up. He was the only guy in a headline position for a long period of time who could ever show any positives at the gate or in terms of drawing television ratings, although those were inconsistent and short-lived. There were more misses than hits for him during that time, and he was a guy who could still draw in a hot angle, but not someone who was going to draw just on name. There's nothing wrong with that. It's hardly an insult to him. But most of Flair's success as a draw during that time period is relative to other numbers in WCW at the time - NOT relative to wrestling as a whole. This is going to sound like a backhanded compliment, but the small hardcore audience that followed WCW during that time was *so* emotionally attached to Flair that it was as much a negative as a positive. Any attempts to move on to something else (proven or not, WCW *needed* to experiment on top until they found something that had larger appeal to a bigger audience) were met with so much derision because WCW fans just did not want anyone other than Flair in that top spot. That's not entirely Flair. The ideas for pushing new people on top that they did attempt were pretty lackluster, and if they were going to piss off their base audience, they needed to come up with an alternative so good that they drew in enough fans to make the impact of it negligible. That's the biggest difference between the WWF and WCW during this time -- Vince didn't have anything to bring in a larger audience either, so he tried to appease the core WWF audience until something better came along. And while business dropped for the WWF during this time period, they weren't only alive because they were being propped up by a media company that would keep them alive when they couldn't turn a profit. But anyway, Flair's appeal was pretty much limited to diehards at that point, unless he happened to be in a feud with another big name that captured people and was well-built. His appeal was much more conditional on everything being *just* right than it was in the 1980s. It's hard to get too positive about anything anyone did in WCW during those years, because they just weren't good years. It is impossible to overstate how dysfunctional a wrestling promotion WCW was in its first five years.

Flair was a draw in JCP. JCP is not WCW. They are two different promotions and shouldn't be treated as the same thing. Is your argument that Flair drew in JCP? Or is it that he drew in WCW? You most likely won't get any challenge on the first point. It's the second that's the point of contention.

There are plenty of positive things to say about Flair as a draw and a star. I don't think anyone would deny that. But yes, this is stretching.

I wonder if Flair thought he was signing up for a different kind of show. Nonetheless, he will take Piper's wife home and make a woman out of her.

This would have been really good if they would have stopped cutting promos and actually wrestled. I can't tell you how much I hate that. It doesn't have the violence you'd want from a cage match, but it also seems a little random since they didn't work a series that led to this first or anything. Lawler's pre-match interview talking about how he's supposed to take time off feels a little whiny - since when do babyfaces complain about their injuries? I had high hopes for this, but it didn't deliver. Lawler's stock has dropped for me since watching 1990 and 1991. I still think he's a great wrestler and is better at certain aspects of his game than all but a few in wrestling history. But I really hate that he takes so many nights off when he's capable of so much more. I don't see that desire to steal the show every night that I wish he had. Even Hogan has worked harder this year.

What a difference a year makes! Misawa and Kobashi have both improved as wrestlers, but more than that, they both have a much better idea of who they are. They have a match that is leaps and bounds better than the 1990 outing, and the biggest difference is the confidence both guys have that they're on the right track. Really good match with a hot crowd. It's not among the elite Misawa/Kobashi matches, but it's such a leap in match quality from the year before that it can't help but stand out.

Hogan with such an awesome interview. He is on a roll. This is a fantastic sit-down interview with Vince in a gym. They are really pushing that Hogan has been "reborn" as of late hard, and there's some truth to that. He vows revenge on Slaughter. The best Hogan is the Hogan that has been legitimately wronged and vows revenge. He showed that in the Earthquake feud and now he's showing it in the Slaughter feud. The worst Hogan is the one left with no storyline to really sink his teeth into, or working opposite a heel that hasn't really been allowed to get heat on him. Here, Slaughter had the last laugh at Mania, even though Hogan won the match, and Hogan looks better for it. For whatever reason, that lesson has had trouble sticking for him throughout his career.

Not a particularly good match, but Hogan gives another excellent performance. 1991 has been the best in-ring year he has had on a yearbook so far, and we still have more Slaughter matches and the Flair series to come. I don't think this really worked as a main event because it wasn't long or dramatic enough, but it was a perfectly fine match nonetheless. Hogan's chain wrestling always looks good when he dusts it off.

Really weird match that turned into a shoot for some reason. I never fully understood the story. Anyway, Kitao refuses to cooperate and knocks down the referee to get himself DQ'd. I'm disappointed that they edited him grabbing the house mic and saying wrestling was fake out of this, but I'm not surprised.

Ok, now you have crossed a line!

Agreed. Sid love is ironic, right?

Awful. Not even a good character. Sat around and did nothing while being surrounded by people who knew how to get heat. Was able to hide behind his inability to get over on his own by arguing that just sitting there while more talented people cut promos for him "fit his character".

I do think people like Rock, HHH, Undertaker and Jericho would be horribly exposed if they were around week-to-week these days, so I get that. It's not the part-timer thing that bugs me. It's that it plays into the perception that the past is better than the present, which true or not, makes me wonder why I should care about what happens now. It's also that the part-timers generally face each other instead of full-timers that could really benefit from the match. Why isn't it a priority of WWE to make their B-level PPVs more meaningful? Why would they think putting someone who isn't around every week over John Cena is a good idea? I think it would be a noble goal to make their roster so strong that they could run a loaded Mania without bringing in outside help. I think the talent is there. The portrayal is the problem.

March: #1 - Hulk Hogan & Genichiro Tenryu vs Legion of Doom (WWF/SWS Wrestlefest 03/30/91) ****1/4 #2 - Randy Savage vs Ultimate Warrior (WWF Wrestlemania VII 03/24/91) ****1/4 #3 - Naoki Sano vs Masakatsu Funaki (WWF/SWS Wrestlefest 03/30/91) **** #4 - Jushin Liger vs Akira Nogami (WCW/NJPW Starrcade in Tokyo 03/21/91) **** #5 - Jeff Jarrett vs Tom Pritchard (USWA Dallas Sportatorium 03/01/91) **** #6 - Jeff Jarrett vs Tom Pritchard (USWA Dallas Sportatorium 03/22/91) ***3/4 #7 - El Hijo del Santo vs Negro Casas (UWA 03/01/91) ***3/4 #8 - Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi (AJPW 03/23/91) ***3/4 #9 - Rick & Scott Steiner vs Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki (WCW/NJPW Starrcade in Tokyo 03/21/91) ***1/2 #10 - Steve Austin & Eric Embry vs Bill Dundee & Gary Young (USWA Dallas Sportatorium 03/08/91) ***1/2 #11 - Sting vs Larry Zbyszko (WCW Main Event 03/10/91) ***1/2 #12 - Ric Flair vs Tatsumi Fujinami (WCW/NJPW Starrcade in Tokyo 03/21/91) ***1/2 #13 - Jushin Liger vs Norio Honaga (NJPW 03/14/91) ***1/4 #14 - Tommy Rich vs Arn Anderson (WCW Saturday Night 03/30/91) ***1/4 #15 - Jeff Jarrett & Bill Dundee vs Eric Embry & Gary Young (USWA Dallas Sportatorium 03/01/91) *** #16 - Perro Aguayo, Villano I, Villano III & Villano IV vs El Brazo, Brazo de Oro, Brazo de Plata & Super Brazo (Hamada's UWF 03/09/91) *** #17 - Steve Austin vs Gary Young (USWA Dallas Sportatorium 03/15/91) *** #18 - The Rockers vs Haku & Barbarian (WWF Wrestlemania VII 03/24/91) *** #19 - Hulk Hogan vs Sgt Slaughter (WWF Wrestlemania VII 03/24/91) *** #20 - Jerry Lawler vs Terry Funk (TWA Winter Challenge II 03/02/91) #21 - Shawn Michaels vs Mr. Perfect (WWF World Tour 03/11/91) #22 - Rick & Scott Steiner vs Fabulous Freebirds (WCW Pro 03/09/91) #23 - Rick Martel vs Jake Roberts (WWF Wrestlemania VII 03/24/91) #24 - Jeff Jarrett vs Tom Pritchard (USWA Dallas Sportatorium 03/29/91) #25 - Sting vs Great Muta (WCW/NJPW Starrcade in Tokyo 03/21/91) #26 - Jumbo Tsuruta vs Cactus Jack (AJPW 03/26/91) #27 - Marty Jannetty vs Pat Tanaka (WWF MSG 03/15/91) #28 - Eric Embry vs Bill Dundee (USWA Dallas Sportatorium 03/29/91) #29 - Steve Austin vs Jeff Jarrett (USWA TV 03/09/91) Overall thoughts: Quite a lot of matches. I had a long break in the middle so it's hard to really talk about overall themes of the month, but 1991 is definitely a really strong in-ring year so far.

Irwin R. Schyster makes his first appearance. Jerry von Kramer rejoices. Deductions for charitable donations are not allowed. People only donate to charity out of greed anyway.

They show a clip from Prime Time Wrestling with Andre throwing Heenan in grapes! Only on Prime Time. Heenan says he and Andre have a great relationship. They did a breakup at WM the year before, I don't understand. Andre is out quickly and wants to show everyone how tight they are. Heenan offers a handshake and gets a death grip in return. The segment closes out with Andre standing on Heenan's hand.

Pretty awesome post-match angle from WM, as Slaughter throws a fireball on an unsuspecting Hogan as he's entering his dressing room. I have to say that I saw a great match wanting to come out of these two and I'm happy to see the feud continue. Hogan is having a really good year so far, and this feels very Memphis.