Ricky Jackson

I'd forgotten about the Bret-Papa Shango feud, but yeah, that was Bret's immediate post-Summerslam direction. The feud even had a blow-off match of sorts on the last Fox SNME not long after Bret won the title. One would think Bret being programmed in this feud means the decision to switch the title to him was only finalized less than two weeks before the Saskatoon taping. Who knows, maybe it was all just a sudden whim on Vince's part, with Flair's injury providing the excuse to do a quick switch in front of a hot Canadian crowd, with the potential to create a "special moment" and maybe a new drawing card to boot if all went well. What I still don't get is why the title win over Flair was never televised, at least on Prime Time Wrestling like the previous Flair-Savage switch was. I can't recall the WWF even showing much in the way of clips from the match on TV, although they probably did at some point. You would think that if Vince truly wanted Bret to get over as world champ he would have given the match way more TV coverage than he did. As far as the "fighting champion" gimmick Bix mentioned goes, it definitely was a departure from the norm. Maybe Vince saw Bret as the new Backlund and booked him accordingly. The 92-96 period really was a time of booking experimentation. I wish I had more to contribute to the whole booking philosophy discussion right now, but I haven't seen any of the interviews, video packages, character profiles, etc. from this era since the day they aired, so I can't really remember any specifics in that regard. My memeory of the context of a lot of the matches from this era is pretty hazy at times.

I love Tito, but that story just makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Vince: "What should we do with Tito? I'm thinking of either making him our top guy or a jobber, I can't decide" Pat: "Jobber. Go with Bret" Vince: "I guess"

And of course, that angle also produced this awesome moment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ymZPM3W2W0

I really didn't need to have the image of the Sandman as a male stripper stuck in my head. Thanks Chuck Langerman.

The story behind Bret's first world title win has always intrigued me. At the time, for a teenager with no real knowledge of any insider stuff, the title change came totally out of nowhere. Bret had not been portrayed as a title contender on TV prior to the switch and no angles had been shot between the two. A non-televised world title change, in Saskatoon of all places, was so unusual in 1992 WWF, and really is an anomaly in WWF/E history in general. It was probably the most low-key world title switch since Graham-Sammartino in 77, and I can't think of anything comparable since (Diesel-Backlund was at least at MSG). Off the top of my head, the usual reasons for the sudden switch are: 1) Flair was leaving soon 2) With the feds breathing down his neck, Vince wanted a non-juiced (or at least less obviously so) main event babyface immediately/Some time between Summerslam and the day of the switch Vince decided upon a radical change in what type of wrestlers would be pushed to the top 3) Bret had "proven himself" as a main eventer with the big Summerslam show in London and the switch was set in motion after that 4) Flair was injured The Flair injury/equilibrium problem likely had something to do with it. After dropping the title on October 12, Flair wrestled Warrior four days later, but was then subbed out by Dibiase, Kamala, and Nailz on subsequent shows and did not wrestle again until November 19. According to Cawthon's site Flair hurt himself during a match with Warrior on October 8. The reason for the switch was likely a combination of all the options plus other stuff I'm forgetting or do not know about. The Flair injury may have speeded up the process, though. It was still a weird switch.

I once read/heard a similar story with the Warrior's name in the place of Hogan, basically in the role Crush eventually filled.

I think Bock travelling displays Verne's desire at this time for the AWA to eventually be, if all went well, almost a national promotion with a world title on the same level as the NWA. When did the AWA champion start working for Baba? With All-Japan, the Otto Wanz/European connection, and of course the Winnipeg/Canadian tradition, the AWA seems to have had a rather impressive international presence at their peak. Also, what is the real story about the rumoured CBS TV special that was supposedly planned for around 1983? I've seen it dismissed as something that has been exaggerated by Verne and Greg over the years, but it would have been interesting if Vince had been beaten to the punch on network TV by another promotion.

I love reading old results like these and noticing all the unusual teams and match ups. I had no idea Hogan and Santana were ever a short-term, main event combo. And Hogan and Dick the Bruiser are almost a dream team of different eras, like if Thesz and Flair had teamed up at some point. I also never realized just how much of a tag team territory the AWA was until reading these results.

Patera=Albano Arion=Blassie Duncum=Albano Mosca=Albano Adonis=Blassie Steele 83=Blassie Not 100% sure on Patera and Arion, but those guys managed them in their previous runs. Also not sure on 78 and 81 Steele, but I think it was either Albano or Blassie.

Not necessarily. Hall and Roberts have survived somehow, not to mention his brother and others with serious issues.

For me, it pretty much begins and ends with Sting vs Flair from Clash I. After that, if you don't count the War Games from 91 and 92, I guess his best matches were with Vader in 92/93. I'm hardly an expert on his career highlights, though.

That may be the most succinct description of the AWA's demise ever written.

I thought about that one too, but wikipedia says no. Before leaving for WWF, Garvin did drop the short-lived AWA TV title to Greg Gagne at Superclash III. However, he refused to do a clean job and instead lost the match (and belt, since it was technically "held up" at that point) by count out. Edit: Looking at it further, the AWA International TV title (the official name, and I'm guessing Canada was the only other country it was ever defended in) has to have been one of the lamer titles ever. Besides winning it back from Garvin by count out, Gagne won the title the first time in late 87 (and I remember the tournament to crown the first champ being this lengthy, months long deal) by DQ over Adrian Adonis. God, did anybody do clean frickin jobs for titles during the last 4 or 5 years of the AWA's existence? And then the title went inactive when Gagne retired in 89. The end.

I see Obama like Cena as far as "crowd reactions" go, with a complete heel turn a distinct possibility in the future. W was like HHH, getting a huge push based on family connections, sometimes a face, but more comfortable as a heel, and he wore out his welcome with many fans/voters as top guy long before he stepped aside.

US Presidents as wrestling champions has potential. Depending on ones political views, there were a lot of heels (Hoover, Nixon, Bush II, etc) and faces (FDR, Lincoln, Obama). Some presidents (most, I guess) would have been heels in one "territory" (Lincoln in the South) and faces in another (Lincoln in the North), like Lawler in WWF and Memphis. Presidential races as feuds, speeches as promos, some guys having no charisma (Ford), some guys being a "poor draw" as president (Carter), etc.

92-96 really does look like a golden age of booking for WWF/E when comparing it to almost everything that has followed. Although there were exceptions, for the most part wins and losses mattered, titles were protected, feuds were built up and followed through---in short, they still booked PRO WRESTLING during this time. I've never really thought about it before, but the influence of "southern wrestling" guys like Cornette, Ross, Lawler, Watts, even Jerry Jarrett (my God, what would have happened, as was supposedly the plan, if Vince went to prison in 94 and Jarrett took over the day to day operations?) is obvious in retrospect. Too bad business tanked and, well, we all know what came next. (I LOVED WWF in 97 and 98, but looking back, Montreal was "the day the music died" for me as a fan, and it was all downhill from there) I haven't had the same emotional connection to wrestling since the late-90s, and probably never will again.

Boris Zhukov left the AWA for WWF while still one half of the tag champs in 87. In the same year, Sherri Martel was, I think, still technically AWA women's champ when she joined WWF. And wasn't Zbyszko still AWA champ when he joined WCW in 1990? I guess you could also say Hansen left in 86 while still AWA champ. Man, I never realized how many champions bolted on Verne in the final years until making this post. Edit: beaten to it on a few, and I forgot about Lawler, which makes it even worse.

Funny story about that one. Years ago I ordered the Pillman tribute tape from RF. That match was supposed to be on it, but instead a match between, I think, Austin and Scott Steiner from the same card was included in its place for some reason (anybody else have this "error tape"? I was burned by RF another time as well--the old "blank tape con") Anyway, the match is filled with snarky, "look how smart we are" comments from two dudes (I didn't know one was Feinstein at the time), including one of them saying "this has 15 minute draw written all over it" within the first few minutes of the match. Sure enough, the match ended in a draw. SO SMART!

This stance has definitely become Dave's Achilles Heel as a journalist. But he apparently has an agenda of some sort, so he's going to keep on it.

The whole thing was awesome, but that part really made me You truly are the master of the "what if all pop culture used wrestling booking?" scenario. Bravo.

It's a weird deal, because the only people I know that watch wrestling these days are friends of mine who, like myself and all of us on this board, have been watching off and on for years and are part of the 5% (or whatever the number might be) of fans for whom wrestling is more than just a casual interest. Ten years ago was a different story, as I knew tons of people who watched wrestling religiously who had no idea about the inner workings, shoot names of wrestlers, used insider terminology, etc.,--that is, those in the 95% bracket. Where are they now? Obviously there are millions of the 95% out there, as Raw still draws ratings that only a handful of cable shows can match. I meet up with former wrestling fans all the time. The story is always the same: they can talk about Austin, the Rock, Foley, Undertaker, Goldberg, Hogan, etc., but have little to no knowledge of anything that has happened in wrestling in the last 7-8 years. (It's always funny when I ask these former fans if they have ever watched TNA, which, besides saying "no", usually garners some variation of the response "What a stupid name") It seems like wrestling in 2011 is extremely uncool, almost like it was in the mid-90s, and that Raw's ratings should really be in the tank, but they are not, and millions still watch every week. It's one of life's great mysteries. I think that there is always a large group of closet wrestling fans out there just waiting for wrestling to be cool again so they can talk about it in public without ridicule. Until then, they will remain the silent majority.

Yeah, I wondered if that was correct. Sometimes it seems like the only thing Dave knows about college football is that the Rock played for Miami at some point. I know. I was expecting a twist ending or something...like the complete stranger Shawn asked how to tie a tie turned out to be Dwayne Johnson when he played for Miami back in 1989. And I know it's been asked before, but who is Chuck Langerman: Wrestling trivia master?

The only thing I could find was this result: A few things: The ten bell salute was obviously for Fritz Von Erich, not Chris Dory Funk Jr vs RVD is kinda random Dennis Stamp was booked and was involved (sorry, couldn't resist) Edit: Found these results: I wonder if there was a plan to bring them in as the bloodthirsty Sheepherders at some point. That would have been pretty cool actually.

It's funny how some of these threads go off on strange tangents that have nothing to do with the original topic. Anyway, for the sake of accuracy, Cawthon has September 15, 1996 as the Bushwhackers last date for WWF, in Nashville vs. the obscure team of Freddie Joe Floyd & Uncle Zebakiah (Dutch Mantel?). I couldn't find anything from 96 or 97 regarding them and Pillman interacting. Even though I hated them during the 90s, I have to tip my hat to the Bushwhackers for surviving long after most of the 80s cartoons were long gone.

Really? Talk about a clash of styles/philosophies/era's. Sort of like when Austin and Doink crossed paths at that Slammy Awards show.