flyonthewall2983

The best alternate choice to Hogan would have been Luger but it would have had little shock value. Even still it would have been hard to buy him as the leader of any faction. One of my favorite things to ponder is if Dustin Rhodes never left WCW and where he could have fit into this. Being the "heir" of tradition the nWo was supposedly against, it could have been compelling to see him fight against them, possibly have the spot DDP had or share it with him (as I think they could have had good chemistry as a team), and start the inevitable ascension to one of the top guys in the company.

Flair coming in in '88 would have likely single-handedly opened up the WWF in the southern markets. Put him in a feud with Savage first (Hogan later) because I could imagine Savage more over with the Crockett audience than Hogan. Putting Heenan as the manager of the 4 Horsemen would be perfect, but what about the Heenan Family?

They even used that shot of the locker slamming in the promo package for Hogan/McMahon at WrestleMania 19.

The product waters itself down over the next few years, likely on the insistence of someone like Bret Hart, who's depended on much more. WCW still goes down, but WWF won't be in any position to claim a victory in the Monday Night War about it. Rock still becomes a top guy, maybe gets some decent TV and movie gigs, but doesn't become the biggest movie star in Hollywood. Austin most likely stays in an on-air position, and probably since he isn't working his ass off for the next 5 years, will be less likely to have the meltdown he had in 2002 when he "took his ball and went home".

Bad enough that a good deal of the angles were done in poor taste.

Maybe Tito Santana? They considered him for the top position before giving it to Bret in '92, and he was very popular nationwide still.

Honestly, at least as it concerns Prime Time I don't mind the blurring as much. Not as bad as when they were blurring Attitude Era stuff, where the scratch logo was pretty much on everything that wasn't nailed down.

Maybe, but it feels like WWF wasn't certain Savage would be a top guy until they paired him with Hogan as a team and saw how he did.

I watched a MSG match between Haku and Davey Boy Smith from October 1990. It might have been Davey Boy's first match back since leaving a few years before, and just after the bell rings Haku reaches over and they shake hands. It's not really noticed by Gorilla Monsoon and Alfred Hayes, but it certainly sticks out as being uncharacteristic during this time. I also heard about a match from around this time between Roddy Piper and Curt Hennig that was for a TV taping, where at the end Roddy stuck out his hand and they shook. Are there any other times where this has happened?

Is this just DVD or will there be a Blu-ray as well? They put more stuff in on their Blu releases, which I kind of dig.

Just out of curiosity, how big a deal did they make out of the slam on the syndicated shows after? It's possibly *the* WrestleMania moment, but it feels like at the time the bigger deal was about how Andre was dealt his first loss. I think making a heel champ would have been the best option in this scenario. Put a working machine like Dibiase on top, let guys like Savage and Steamboat get more shine with him on TV and house shows, give Hogan until the end of the year or however long he needs to recover. I got to say this is a good question.Andre had been slammed many times before (even by Hogan), but he must have been at his heaviest up until that point. I heard Hogan once describe how painful it was to get him up there (I think this was in an interview before he claimed Andre was 700 lbs, or the size of a small European sports car). I can only imagine how hard it is to lift something that size, with moving parts no less.

Yeah, just the regular amount of what he was doing. I was in attendance for his WCW return. The crowd, at least that surrounded me were pretty unimpressed with it. There was virtually no shock in it since it was pretty clear to everyone after Montreal he was headed south with Bret. To make it worse, he worked Mongo that night back and it sucked some of the momentum out of the show.

Mid-card guys until they get injured or fired.

I often wonder what would have happened if WCW had signed Bret in '92. Realistically he would have probably remained a dependable mid-card guy, but I further wonder what would have happened if WCW took a different tact than being "where the big boys play". If, for example, they managed to get not only Bret but Shawn as well. Essentially, leaving McMahon with Hogan and Savage, and depending more and more on the 80's guys.

Anyone have the gif of him smashing the TNA sign?

In a couple episodes of PTW that date from early 1987, the Superstars Of Wrestling stuff was unblurred.

AJ is the guest on today's WTF With Marc Maron

Bobby Heenan Nemesis: Hulk Hogan Archenemy: Gorilla Monsoon

One I'd like to see is Hogan/Savage vs. Jake/Berzerker, which I believe was a dark match. Hulk and Randy's body language as partners in early '92 would be very interesting to watch as I'm pretty sure they weren't getting along personally at this point. They probably spent a good 10-15 minutes in the ring at the Royal Rumble that year, and barely looked at each other.

I listen to podcasts on iTunes, and regularly skip over anything I find tiresome or annoying, and try to find a point where it gets interesting again. Amazingly not as hard as it sounds. The shtick is what it is, and I don't mind it. I can tell they genuinely like each other and that makes it less grinding for me. If they somehow had to force it on, then I'd probably tune it out.

Bruce Prichard Nemesis: Dave Meltzer Archenemy: The key to a more accurate Jim Cornette impression

Such an odd pairing, Flair with Hall, especially when it could have been either Arn or Barry.

Any chance that short-lived Confidential show gets on?