Ricky Jackson

Actually the correct answer is the cardboard cutout of Don Muraco.

Yeah, I've seen that one. It was in the 70s episode where they were discussing the supercards of the decade and the Shea Stadium shows were brought up. The 76 Shea show featured a closed circuit broadcast of the Ali/Inoki match following a live card that was headlined by the Sammartino/Hansen revenge match, with Andre vs boxer Chuck Wepner underneath. This reminds me of a question I wanted to ask. Does anybody know which territories other than New York did joint closed circuit-live card shows in conjuction with Ali/Inoki? I know San Fran was one and the AWA as well, but I can't think of any others off the top of my head. Bonus marks for those who can supply attendance figures Edit: after some quick research--GCW had a card in Atlanta with the ubiquitous 70s match of Jack Brisco vs Dory Funk Jr on top of the live card.

I've begun work on a project that may or may not ever see completion, but as part of it I've decided to research this strange encounter between wrestler and boxer from 1976. I've done some basic research so far, and I plan to sit down with a beer or two and watch the whole match soon http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xu7t5_muh...nio-inoki_sport (poor quality, but the only complete version of the match I could find online so far). Anyway, I would appreciate any opinions and insight on the story surrounding the match from the learned folk around here. I know the basic overview, but am far from an expert on the subject. Full credit will be given if this project is ever to see the light of day of course. Thanks

I remember watching this when it aired, but I don't recall it ever leading to anything, even a SNME match or MSG match, much less a proper feud. I could be wrong, 1990 was during one of my wrestling sabbaticals where I only caught a few things here and there. Edit: It was a house show feud that went around the horn from Jan-March. No TV matches but maybe a Coliseum video match somewhere, I'm not sure

I'm thinking he would have been paired up with the Grand Wizard again if he was still alive in 84. Albano was just a substitute choice I guess. Blassie seemed to be only managing foreign heels, and Piper managing him would have maybe been considered too illogical considering their feud in 83, even though it happened for Crockett (and yes I know their feud was acknowledged on a Piper's Pit and they "buried the hatchet").

How did Sexton Hardcastle do this time around?

Can't wait until Vince tries to "stick it" to the Dems with some lame ass, self-indulgent skit on Raw.

Could it be...

HHH for President in 2020!

This random episode of TNT from 1984 sounds a million times more interesting than any WWE TV in 2012.

This sounds like such a wonderfully strange match. (Coincidently, I took out a book from the library today called Wrestling`s 101 Strangest Matches)

"Ted DiBiase fucking with a stripper/Bitch pay me stacks, I'm the cocaine dealer" Lil B, "Jerry Rice" That one is for you, Jerry. Also, this is so great:

I`ve found it best to generally avoid WWE from September through December in recent years. Although this year I`ve avoided most everything since May. Things will pick up in the new year. I think. Maybe.

I think the beginning of the Attitude Era was a great time to be a wrestling fan, with an energy and enthusiasm in the air on a weekly basis that nothing has come remotely close to recapturing since. So much of the fun of the 97-98 years was watching wrestling change from the mostly stale cartoon it had become back into what it had once been, with the amped up violence and adult-oriented content. There was also the intrigue of kayfabe being broken and the new, faster paced, high spot ring style, as well as all the new stars emerging like Austin, the Rock, Foley, etc. You had three promotions, each with their own unique features. It was cool and it was really fun, beacuse all of my friends were into wrestling too, which is the last time I could say that. But with each passing year, for me anyway, it became less and less fun and more and more stupid (yeah, an oxymoron, but you know what I mean), and I began to rapidly lose interest, to the point I was all but done as a fan by the end of 2001. Today, it`s hard for me to watch wrestling from the Attitude Era because so much of the interest in it at the time was in the shock and surprise factor of the weekly TV, and removed from that context there doesn`t seem to be much weight to a lot of the content. I much prefer watching stuff from the 70s, 80s and early 90s. I know this doesn`t really answer the impact and effects question. I guess for fans like us who mostly romanticize the pre-Attitude Era days of wrestling, one could say the Attitude Era killed off the territory-style of wrestling we love. For Vince and the gang, the Attitude Era was the greatest thing that ever happened. For a lot of fans it was the era of wrestling that got them hooked in the first place and will always be fondly remembered. I think I`ll leave it to others to give serious debate to how it has impacted modern wrestling.

I forget where this was discussed recently, but I just watched the Punk doc from the DVD and it is really good. It tells an awesome story, as good as the best WWE docs.

Current WWE is just really, really BORING. I try to watch Raw, but God, 3 hours of endless twitter plugs and other "social media" shit and I tap out pretty quickly. I'm just not interested in what Vince is selling these days. I really like Bryan and Punk and Sheamus and a few others, but the overall presentation is banal and nothing really seems to matter on a week to week basis. Basically I'm just waiting for January to roll around for the build to Mania and see what happens then.

I would take the 80s, mainly because of the variety, the fact there is so much territory/Japan stuff from that decade I haven't seen yet, and the wrestling presented is more or less my ideal style. I have very fond memories of the 90s, but I rarely revisit much from that decade, and just don't have much interest to do so these days. I also love what is available from the 70s and watch more footage from that decade than I do the 90s.

Every time I read something like that I'm reminded of Max von Sydow's intellectual elitist character in Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters and his "What kind of human being watches professional wrestling?" (or something like that) quote.

And a lot of the Mid South stuff on YouTube has been purged lately due to claims by WWE.

OK, I admittedly don't know a lot about Murdoch (was he really a KKK member?) or the motivations of any of these guys for doing what they did, none of us do. Who knows why they jumped from territory to territory and country to country. People do things that don't seem to "make sense" to another person, but that doesn't mean what they do isn't logical to them. I think Murdoch was probably a guy who just liked his freedom and the ability to pick and choose his spots and wasn't tied down to any particular place.

I've always thought that some guys liked working in Japan, like Murdoch, Terry Funk, etc., while others for various reasons didn't, even with the promise of high pay. Basically like how some people love traveling and experiencing other cultures while others dislike being away from their familiar surroundings.

So who was the "top star" who told Vince the current product sucks balls prior to last Monday's show?

Jimmy Snuka took piledrivers on the floor from Ray Stevens in 82 and Col DeBeers in 86. Quite heated and violent stuff in the DeBeers clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOSiIICff6U

It's good, definitely in the mix with the best biography docs done by WWE, but hardly the best. I think I would go with either the Flair or Pillman bio as the best one. The recent Austin and Rock bios were better than Jericho's IMO.

Maybe seeing that poll was the last straw for Vince