Ricky Jackson

Robinson's backbreaker is one of my all time favorite moves.

One way you could set up the brackets is to begin with essentially 16 mini-tournaments--a 4 man WWF tournament, 4 man AWA tournament, 4 man Crockett tournament, etc., until you have a "Final 16", with each territory having one representative in the main tounament. This would guarantee no one or two territories dominate the whole tournament. If you want to get really ambitious, the individual territory tournaments could be made up of 16 guys as well ("The First 16") and we could have a 256 man mega-territory tournament! Of course, it would probably be tough to come up with 16 names for places like Central States, Stampede, etc. And I'll just say this: some of the absolute worst wrestling I've ever seen was a disc of 86-87 era Central States. I'm sure the area had better days, but that stuff was really shitty.

What's the exact timeframe, 80s or just early 80s?

A poll or vote of some sort would be more fun.

Harley owned a piece of both at one point and wrestled extensively for both as far as I know.

I think wrestlers and classic Hollywood stars is actually a better comparison than most. Many/most movie-goers paid to see Grant, Gable, Bogie--the Star being "themselves", being their persona, not necessarily because they wanted to see a good story. Same can be said of most wrestling fans, who paid to see the Star--Gorgeous George, Hogan, the Rock, Cena today, and were not terribly concerned about seeing a good match.

Historically, Canada can't be lumped together as one spot. Toronto and Montreal were major cities for wrestling at their peak, comparable to New York, St. Louis, Houston, etc. Vancouver was apparently a wrestling hotbed in the late-60s-early-70s. Winnipeg was a big town in the AWA. Stampede, despite what one thinks of its worth, existed for nearly 40 years as a promotion. The Maritimes also had a long wrestling history. But for the purposes of this tournament, outside of a few guys, I'm not sure how much the regulars around here know about Toronto and Montreal, let alone Vancouver and the Maritimes. I'm not sure what the best option is for your tournament regarding Canada.

This could be a fun idea. I'm sure some will wince at Stampede being on the list. St.Louis definitely needs a spot. As for other areas: LA and San Fran were major territories at their peak, but sadly little footage from their best years exists. Same thing with Toronto and Montreal, not to mention Vancouver, where any pre-80s footage at all seems to be extremely scarce. Continental/Alabama has its supporters I think. Detroit, Indianapolis, and NWF (Cleveland/Buffalo) are all but forgotten today, but each had periods of pretty significant success as far as I know, and the NWF produced this fun little piece of business Central States/KC...well, um, Harley owned it, and Slick started there...never mind.

The last segment on Raw tonight was dreadful. Just turn Cena heel already so he can get some new material, that shit tonight was so bad. Backlund's HoF speech could be interesting.

Yeah, I forgot about GLOW. It was on around midnight in my neck of the woods, but I rarely ever watched it. I remember a friend of mine being into it.

I was a backyard wrestler in the 90s.

I just want to say I think this board has hit a pretty good stride in the last month or so, especially with the wrestler analysis in the Microscope and the podcasts. Keep it up guys.

The match with Johnny Valentine can't be from 78. Valentine was paralyzed from the waist down in the same 1975 plane crash where Flair broke his back. That said, I'd like to see the match, as I like both guys.

OK Computer The Best of the York Foundation Pet Sounds Highlighting the WWF's obsession with animal gimmicks in the 80s. Forever Changes The endless gimmicks of Barry Darsow.

Maybe Savage was just unmotivated and didn't feel the need to go all out most of the time, like a lot of the WWF guys who came over to WCW during that period.

It was much more than the UWF purchase. Basically a bunch of frivolous spending--private jets, an office in Dallas, and all kinds of comps and big money being tossed around for a long time--that finally caught up with Crockett despite any financial success. Meltzer always tells the story of Crockett's lawyer or accountant informing him just after Bash 88 that he was essentially bankrupt.

As I've mentioned in the past, I grew up in Calgary in the 80s and didn't have access to JCP on TV. I'm told it was sometimes featured on Pro Wrestling Plus, but I don't remember it being on any of the episodes I watched at the time, but then again we are talking about 25 + year old memories here. Wrestling on TV in Calgary in the 80s was 1hr of Stampede followed by 1hr of WWF on Saturday afternoons after the cartoons on Ch.7. AWA was on TSN, but was constantly shifted around in different time slots and different days, which made it hard to follow. I collected the mags and knew all about JCP and all the major stars and angles but frustratingly could never see the shows. There were a few tapes out there (Lords of Ring or whatever the PWI tape with the Piper/Valentine dog collar match on it was called, and the 85 Bash being two I remember) but not much else. It wasn't until 92/93 that I was able to watch WCW on TV consistently and the tape selection got (relatively) better. Scoring a copy of Bash 89 for $5 from the bargin bin of a local video store when I was 15 or 16 is still a fond memory.

Masters of the moustache is definitely an overlooked aspect of wrestling history that warrants investigtion.

OK brain, as part of your initiation to this board you have to reveal the name. I'm guessing the Ultimate Warrior. As a 9 year old in 1986 my # 1 team was the Bulldogs. As a 35 year old in 2013 my # 1 team for the 80s is the Rockers. And yes, I'm a "WWF guy". I'll get around to watching a substantial amount of JCP someday and probably have a new # 1 by the time I'm 50.

I'll let the YouTube comments do the talking for this one:

I figure this can double as the Nash douchebag thread

Slaughter's bump was great, but don't forget Bossman's awkward elimination where he almost snaps his neck on the bottom rope.

Compared to a lot of other boards and wrestling hangouts on the internet, this place is a haven of politeness and understanding. I think the difference between here and some other places is that, yeah, a lot of otherwise conventional internet opinions are challenged (eg. the greatness of Michaels and Angle), and you need to back things up with something more than "Flair sux, Bret rulz u loser", you are dealing with people who watch more wrestling in a day than most do in a lifetime, so they can argue just about ANYTHING and back it up in a way that is well thought out and not just a bunch of swearing and ridicule. You can like whatever you like, but if you choose to make a post with a arguable statement of some sort ("Sting should be in the WON HoF") someone is going to step up and challenge it. Just don't take it personal.

Didn't he use it on Savage at Mania before Hogan stepped in with the chair? Yep, that's what I was going to say. What did he use to beat jobbers during his first few months in WWF?

Makes sense I suppose. My guess was Ryback would win the Rumble and beat Show at Mania, but that looks to be out the window now.