Ricky Jackson

I love Brown's Louis Riel graphic novel. A big reason is the circa-1930s newspaper strip art style he uses that is so right up my alley, and also the whole Canadian history aspect, but overall it's just an extremely well told story. I have a few other Brown books and remember liking most of his output. I was a big fan of the D & Q crew back in the day. I'm actually planning on reading Brown's last (I believe) work, Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus, very soon

Here's Larry Z vs Putski for all interested. Definitely one of the great surprises of my old Titans of Wrestling pod. And yes, Larry had a great 1980. Also some really good matches against Backlund from the Spectrum

Man, I completely erased Husky Harris from my brain and had to Google that. Whatever happened to Eli Cottonwood?

Thoughts on Tom King as a writer? He's one of the more acclaimed comic guys going. I've read two of his works and just started a third. Loved Vision from 2015, one of the best modern superhero comics I've read in the last few years. Followed that with Mister Miracle from 2017. I liked a lot of it but in the end felt the balance between personal metaphor and the character and his universe was too slanted towards the former for my liking, but maybe that's just me. Started Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow the other day and really like it so far. The art by Bilquis Evely is fantastic. Not sure when Supergirl started swearing so much but whatever. Anyway, just wanted to see what others think about King since he seems to be kinda divisive

Another big thing to remember about the Grunge phenomenon is that it fairly quickly expanded to become part of "Alternative", which included tons of non-Grunge acts like Smashing Pumpkins, Alanis Morissette, Nine Inch Nails, Green Day, which were HUGE in 95-97 (and beyond of course). As a high schooler in 92-95 me and my friends always used Alternative as the catch all term for the music and fashion, not Grunge

With hindsight you can say it was past its peak or the most memorable moments associated with it were in the early 90s, but from personal experience and looking back recently, Grunge was still pretty big in the culture in 95-96, with 97 being the year it really faded away. Fashion was very Grungy in those years for sure, and of course the music was still everywhere

And, of interest to all the historians out there, this is what the general public reads of course, I believe from the AP " When he purchased what was then the World Wrestling Federation from his father in 1982, wrestling matches took place at small venues and appeared on local cable channels. WWE matches are now held in professional sports stadiums and the company has a sizeable overseas following."

Let's not lose sight of the real issue here...The Thread Killer isnt European, he's Canadian

Off the top of my head, I think it was Sami's main roster debut where he accidentally hurt himself pre-match vs Cena, when Cena was doing the US title challenge gimmick

Think overdoing this gimmick permanently fucked up Stompers neck, or maybe his brain. Or both

I'm picturing HHH in a dark office getting off the phone with Vince, who just told him he was coming back, immediately making a call and simply saying "release more allegations" and then hanging up

I pretty much started collecting the mags as soon as I began watching wrestling regularly in the summer of 86. In fact I may have had an issue or two before I began watching the TV, since I was already an established newsstand hound due to my comic collecting. Collecting the mags was the only way for a kid in Calgary to follow the "NWA" (as Crockett was referred to in the mags) and other territories, besides Stampede and the AWA, which were on TV. I was also fascinated by the occasional history articles, especially ones about the greatness of Bruno Sammartino and Bob Backlund (who was never mentioned by WWF at that time and only a scant few of his matches made the CHV tapes). I collected mostly the Apter mags but also had plenty of other publications like Superstar Wrestling, Wrestling Eye, etc., and of course WWF Magazine. I kept collecting through the 90s but stopped around 1998 because they had become kinda outdated, and all the news and results being months behind became less acceptable with the rise of the internet. I did collect WOW for a bit, the mainstream shoot mag, but it wasn't the same

It's on Kindle for $6.55, or free with an unlimited subscription. Took a quick peek, looks like card by card reviews/impressions from 1987 until the end. I think the author is just a superfan and not a polished writer or historian, to give you an idea of the content. Might be worth it considering the low price

What's the title?

I really liked the initial run when the book was still X-Force. Once it became X-Statix I thought it slowly lost its appeal. The reboot from the last few years with the original creative team-The X-Cellent-is good although kinda stuck in first or second gear right now

Ha, I was wondering why Backlund was trending on Twitter without having died

Yeah, Martel and Callis had been working the Super Models gimmick on the Canadian indies earlier in the year

Not a singles match, but in 2013 during Bryan's ascendancy they had an awesome encounter as part of a gauntlet match on Raw

Yeah, the site upgrade a few months back eliminated a bunch of mobile features. No idea how easy it is to fix

I'll bump Ivan because he's been great in almost everything I've seen of him in the last decade or so. Be it a random TV squash, mid card MSG match vs Jules Strongbow from 83, or in major matches from the 70s, the guy was always awesome and seemingly unable to have a bad or dull match. Super underrated worker imo

Yeah, really wish we had 1972-75 Graham, when he was involved in hot matches and feuds in San Fran, AWA, and Florida. There is a little bit of AWA but nothing much. Agree that 76-78 WWWF Graham is special. Those MSG matches with Bruno and Dusty are magic. From what I've seen, 80s Graham is almost tragically sad, at least the Kung Fu stuff. At his peak though, a transcendent star with plenty of matches worth seeking out

I'll just say you can't go wrong diving into the 1980 Portland output of Rose, Martel, and Piper. All kinds of great matches, singles and tags, involving the three of them

No, I think at least one member of the team has to be not already in the HoF to qualify. Great write up on Lynch, @ethantyler

Maybe time for an avatar update FB

As a long time fan of this era, cool to see someone going through it for the first time. You picked a great time to start with the beginning of the awesome Bruno vs Larry feud. Lots of fun stuff through the year