Loss

I should also mention that there was nothing more frustrating online at the time than all the criticism of WCW for using rubber tipped barbed wire in this cage match. I think Joey Styles even had a segment at the beginning of an episode of ECW criticizing WCW for it. Flair also apparently loaded up on aspirin and Coca-Cola before the match to thin his blood, which I think is common practice, but that was the first time I'd heard that and was suitably freaked.

I think that was during the time that WCW was "G-rated", which made no sense since Scott Steiner said whatever he wanted. A line Flair had in the buildup to this match I personally loved was "We are going to give the people what they haven't had in ten years - and you know what I'm talking about." It didn't quite make sense, but it did suggest that the match was going to be different, and possibly more "real", than Flair vs Hogan typically was.

She is definitely the type to have a bachelorette party at a gay bar, be obnoxiously loud, and have dildo balloons on her head, yes.

A clash with Vicki Guerrero over marriage equality is inevitable, since every gay man has at least one friend or acquaintance like Vicki. There are no exceptions.

Cena, no doubt.

I LOVE the bridge into backslide pin as a nearfall near the end of a match, but I hate that the sequence always starts with a side headlock for the same reason.

I'm curious if anyone could speak to the experience of watching wrestling while also talking the whole time. Do you feel like you're missing anything? Do you miss the announcing? I don't think I could do it, but I'm glad that some people can.

Yet I never saw his ponytail fall completely out.

ESPN is a separate entity from the league itself though. I suppose it's in their best interests for current athletes to be stars, but are they as invested in that as the league itself?

I see that, but that's been the reality of wrestling for 18 years now. Wrestling has created new stars in the last 18 years. It's just that most of them happened closer to the beginning of that time period than the end.

He was also fresh off of signing a 20-year deal with the company. Until Shawn's heel turn, whatever Bret was doing *was* the main event, belt or not. There may have been other champions, but Bret was clearly The Man in the WWF by this point.

The biggest issue that keeps me from really getting involved in WWE again is that they purposely present a lot of people on their roster as losers and nobodies. They also openly push the idea that the wrestlers of the past were better than the wrestlers today, which even if it is true is completely counterproductive. I have no desire to watch that. There are plenty of wrestlers on the WWE roster who are over, but not in a way where they are threatening to upset the apple cart. Maybe wrestling fans have changed as much as wrestling itself, but I can't remember the last time I saw fans rally behind a midcarder and really force WWE's hand on pushing them. It sort of happened with Punk, but for the most part, everyone seems to know their role. It's one reason I'm not a fan of WWE building each Wrestlemania around nostalgia acts like the Undertaker, Rock and HHH. Right now, it works, but eventually it won't, and they don't even seem to be trying to groom anyone to be a star at that level. Will they ever protect anyone in booking as much as Undertaker again? Del Rio, Ziggler, Swagger and others all seem like part of this neverending merry go round of pushing someone just below star level and then stopping. Let's see someone get an HHH level push, or an Austin level push - a smart winning winner. After they're established as smart winning winners, they can help others get over as smart winning winners. Sadly, it doesn't seem to work that way. There are other things that bug me. Everyone has a painfully short memory, there's too much comedy, I think Money in the Bank devalues the value of the titles, etc. But I could live with those things if I felt like they were presenting the majority of their roster as people worth caring about, instead of getting jollies by humiliating them.

I'm happy that you've mentioned the stiffness in those matches, Chad. I'm not typically a mark for that type of thing, but there is a noticeable difference in how hard Flair and Steamboat are hitting each other compared to everyone else on the roster, and it's one of the strong points of the series.

I think Hogan/Piper was batted around as a possible Wrestlemania VI main event too, but otherwise, yes. No discussion of Hogan/Perfect that I recall.

They did their first taping on 12/29. Matches started airing in January. It never re-aired on KTVT in Dallas to the best of my knowledge, which is probably one reason it's more of a workrate promotion in '91, while being less angle-driven. Most of this footage is from the ESPN time slot and syndication of USWA Challenge. Kevin Von Erich ran TWF shows at the Sportatorium from September-December. None of that exists on tape. Not sure about the Atlanta part.

Owen prior to 1994 hasn't aged well at all based on yearbooks. He comes across as less of a wrestler and more of a gymnast. I'm a big fan from 1994-1996, though.

I think the schedule.

It may be worth pointing out that I can't remember too many good Scott Hall matches after he left the WWF. He had a rep as a good worker because Shawn carried him to a good series, and also because he understood how to lose and make the other guy look worse for winning. There may have been a few odds and ends things here and there, but by and large, he lived off the fumes of a couple of ladder matches with Shawn for a long time.

I thought they were a perfectly fine JTTS tag team in WCW, but I'm not really feeling the Godwinns.

It seems like Mideon should be another one.

Ah, I see it now.

If I recall correctly, Kevin Nash did the job to Rey to set an example for Bret Hart, as ridiculous as that sounds. I'll put over Rey, so how can you have a problem putting over anyone, basically. Bret put over Booker in a really good match earlier on the same show, which I'm surprised you didn't mention at all.

HHH used to mention him as someone who really "got it". I never thought WWE didn't recognize his talent. His plight can be traced back to the wellness violations.

It took Charles Wright forever to get over. They just kept repackaging him over and over. Even then, The Godfather had limited appeal. I don't hate him or anything. I think he was really effective as an opening match guy. But wow, he was bad in the ring for a very long time without ever getting better.

Oddly enough, I remembered it as a flag burning until I watched this.