flyonthewall2983

Pacino could absolutely play Flair, as in now. They have the same tan, dye Al's hair and give him some contact lenses and it could work. Voice could be tricky but he could pull of the "whoooo!" I'm sure.

Maybe it would be easier to let him go because of his "loose cannon" reputation, but give him some kind of non-compete clause instead of going right away to Atlanta.

My big thing is what would he have made about Montreal, and what if any thoughts he had about Bret going to WCW if he knew about it prior to his death. On one hand it would be hard to imagine him sticking around being happy to work for the people who screwed over a friend of his, but on the other it would probably be a stickier mess for him to defect than it was when WCW tried to hire Owen.

I knew the car accident was detrimental, but I didn't realize he went through nearly some of the same things Brutus Beefcake did with regards to facial surgery. It made watching those clips of his return to action a little more harrowing to watch. It's darkly funny in a way because I just saw the Piper A&E special, which while is very good some of the bullshit was so transparent. Especially framing his time in WCW as him being injured and fucked up all the time, as if these things weren't commonplace under Vince's watchful eye. On the other hand, this episode showed how much he worked hurt in WWF and honestly they should never let him have wrestled at all. His death was so sad, and it was so surreal and uncomfortable to watch Vince interview Melanie that night. It's still uncomfortable to watch, especially Vince's line of questioning. The remorse and maybe even anger in Ross' response to that segment is palpable. Seeing Cornette nearly in tears because it still hurts so much now. I could see how someone could see this kind of stuff as exploitative, but I think there is eagerness in cases like this, to really try and set the record straight as much as possible. This was an amazing episode, and if it's quality is to be topped this season we'll be in for quite a ride. Kim Wood was no doubt the MVP of those interviewed. At one point I told my dad (I've been watching episodes of this with him lately) "I love this guy!", I think just after he called Vince McMahon a whore.

Rob Van Dam is next

Tito Santana would have been better for it. At least it would have been better than the straight-up job he did for The Mountie later in the show.

Does it have Bobby Heenan screaming at Andre "I'm the fucking boss!"?

Dave Bautista has asked WWE not to induct him this year, as he won't make it due to prior commitments.

According to Twitter, stuff is already being uploaded on Peacock, and lots of WCW and ECW shows are already up. I guess it's pretty random, haven't checked it out myself yet but I will later today to see the progress.

Not quite a dunk but impressive to me

But he wasn't. He was a solid face from the time he returned in February of 93, until he was a tweener with Ricky Steamboat in April and May, and didn't go full heel until a month before the match with Hogan. This part of why their angle failed in 94 isn't really remarked upon, that Flair didn't add much heat to their program. And it didn't help that Hogan beat him every time.

Best thing about that match is Cena sitting out in the audience earlier in the show, and when he has his Clark Kent moment and leaves for backstage to the roar of the audience. But then it became Lucy and the football once the bell rang.

Someone on Twitter last night suggested that they could put stuff like the old territory footage or old episodes of WWF TV on their YouTube page.

I didn't get the impression from that article that at least the guy they talked to from Peacock has the "get over it" attitude. Losing the markers is a negative, but not a huge one IMHO. I'm a little more worried that all the old PPVs won't be ready until summer. Not so much for that alone, but I get the feeling that doesn't bode well for the older television shows too.

Royal Rumble 92 is a great match but the Hogan-Sid stuff took away a bit from Flair's moment.

Goldberg

How were the Von Erich sons as heels? I know David did some heel work outside of Texas and later Kerry did too, just curious how they came off? I haven't seen much of David's work outside of World Class, but from his promos I can imagine he'd work as like a younger version of Stan Hansen and Brody (or in a more contemporary sense, JBL).

I think there could be a case to be made to say that he changed wrestling as much as McMahon did, but history is written by the victors and all of that. The best things about WCW were things clearly gleaned from what his company started.

Someone compared Shawn and HHH acting out their drama to an old couple arguing over whether or not to put down their dog

Just in terms of big guys instead of just guys who were tall, Earthquake and Yokozuna were booked pretty well, at first anyway. Where they really went wrong and this has been well-covered enough, is Vader. But how much of that was Leon White's fault and how much the company's is hard to say. He just turned 40 and lost his sizzle from WCW. And yet despite that he had a good run in Japan after, which maybe speaks to how better they took care of him compared to Vince, Jr. (and Leon said aside from how he was used on-screen, McMahon treated him pretty great).

It's remarkable that at this stage in his life, Taker was having his best matches. The slow, plodding style he had in the 90's meant for the most part, mixed results. Even the matches with Mankind were more dependent on what amazing and dangerous things Foley did with his body, then the kind of ring chemistry we see here. Both this and the rematch bookend what is an incredible end-run for Shawn Michaels, who one would have thought and accepted that he was probably done in 1998. It's arguable that his 2nd run in the 2000's was as impactful as it was before that time. His abilities never seemed to have gone, even to that last match, you would have thought he could have gone another 5 years or so. After WCW was sold the entertainment value of pro wrestling for me as a whole brought diminishing returns, but it was matches like this that reeled me back in. The moments like that since have been few and far between, but to the real fans like most of us it is important to savor them to realize it was never a waste of time.

CWF @ Miami Beach December 21, 1977 @ Convention Hall in Miami Beach , Florida ( United States of America ) Rocky Johnson defeated Ric Flair

Jesse was good in WCW for me because more often than not he'd just call the action and not defend the heel's motives. He'd put over the excitement of the match than the heel/babyface dynamics, which could only help the product as a whole. Heenan could be like that too, especially in WCW. To me, those two are closer in styles than someone like Jerry Lawler when he first started announcing. All he did was cheer the heels and dismiss the babyfaces, until they put him with Jim Ross and more of the things that got him over on the mic in Memphis started showing up in his commentary finally, instead of the goofy "burger king" bad guy he was in the mid-90's. Didn't Jesse come up with the idea of an Iraqi sympathizer?