Robert S

Considering WWF/WWE only, I suppose? cagematch has three non-Taker casket matches: Mideon & Viscera beating Triple H (Smackdown, 1999-09-21), Kane beating Triple H (Raw, 2002-10-28) & Daniel Bryan beating Kane (Smackdown, 2015-01-29). All five buried alive matches in WWF/WWE had Undertaker in them (though there are a bunch of non-WWF/WWE buried alive matches, the earliest one in the database from Mr. Corey's version of Memphis Wrestling involving Abyss, Doug Gilbert (as Freddie Krueger) and Bull Buchanan (as Lord Humongous) in 2003. The non-WWF/WWE promotion that first ran casket matches was W*ING, sadly non involving Doug Gilbert (that would have been a nice coincidence).

Don't remind me, a cousin of mine did not let her two precious boys getting vaccinated at all (incl. against measles; the comeback is a thing in central Europe as well). Not because she does not believe in vaccines, she just feels that other parents should take that (tiny) risk of vaccines so that her children can surf the herd immunity wave. To counter such egotistical stances, Italy a couple of years ago introduced mandatory vaccinations against something like 10 diseases (not all of them I would agree with, to be honest, vaccinating a child against chickenpox seems to be overkill and rubella as far as I know is only a serious disease if you are a pregnant woman, so vaccinating male children seems to be pretty pointless). The same way people are already working for years on fixing the "Year 2038 problem" (time stamps on Unix-like systems (incl. Linux) are relative to 1970-01-01, in lot of places times are stored in seconds since that time and usually a signed 32-bit integer is chosen for that task; in January 2038 that 32-bit integer will run over from its maximum to its minum value and if that happens that time variables jumps back to 1901-12-13).

A couple of months ago, I read the nice line that vaccines are a victim of their own success. When was the last time anyone in a first world country had to worry (or really even think) about polio, diphtheria or smallpox? Any why? Because those diseases were eradicated by vaccines. It's easier being stupid about something you have never experienced being really successful (most stuff children get vaccinated for are diseases no one here has actually seen as, well, the vaccination rate is high enough for herd immunity).

I am aware of Tenryu vs. Yokozuna in WAR, there is also a handheld of a 1994 match of them that ends in a double countout.

The Tenryu stuff in the US (at least the WWF stuff, to be honest I have not seen earlier US stuff of his and (1) I am not sure how much of 81 Mid Atlantic or 70ies Amarillo is even around and (2) that was so long before his prime that you cannot count that anyway) was not meant to be anything special. Those matches were photo ops to get a picture of him at Wrestlemania into Weekly Pro or whatever and nothing more. Tenryu had very good matches against early 90ies Randy Savage, I am sure he would be able to go with guys like Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels or the British Bulldog toning his style down a notch. Yokozuna is a guy he probably he would have done better against than anyone in WWF did. I would guess the biggest name around than he might have had problems getting much out him would have been Kevin Nash. That match-up probably would have stunk. Obviously still all is under the assumption that Tenryu would not have had a stereotypical evil Japanese gimmick (which he would have had).

As I did not realize that there is more than one Bret Hart vs. Tiger Mask that made tape I quickly looked them up on cagematch and among the four singles matches they had, two were in fricking Dubai. That's wrestling trivia for you. Re: Tenryu & Misawa in mid-90ies WWF: Misawa would have struggled for sure, Tenryu would have done fine, I think.

I haven't seen that Matt Jackson spot, but how does it compare to HBK easily throwing out Vader and Yokozuna at the same time at Royal Rumble 96? (to turn this thread towards something we can all agree on: hating 1996 babyface Shawn Michaels)

If they want to start their own business, I heard Bo has an uncle who knows a thing or two about making money running a family business.

If you are talking about the match I am thinking of, that was a non-TV match that is only available on VHS (Wrestling Grudge Matches and problably some comp). In the long Highspots interview Flair did after leaving WWE, he talked about how he had no self-confidence at all after his last years in WCW, where he felt completely beaten down. (Consider that, Ric Flair being insecure, must have been a Wednesday.) I don't remember in detail what he said, but I think the gist of it was that when he joined WWF he just did what he was told as he felt that at this point he knew and could do nothing. I think it might have actually been this match that somewhat gave him back a bit of self esteem (again, that 10 hour or whatever interview was 15 or so years ago, so don't quote me on that). If you consider that mindset, it somewhat explains that part of the match.

When I read the description before looking at the picture (a racist hand sign involving three fingers), I expected him to use the Kühnen salute. But I suppose that is only a thing in countries where using the Hitler salute is a criminal offence.

It's not even (just) to draw among certain demographics, it's just common sense. The bigger the variety of the roster (small, tall, fat, muscular, skinny, young, old, black, white, latino, Asian ...), the more recognizable the indivuals are (which in the end should mean more money for your promotion, but hey, the brand is the star now). Anyone remember early 2000s OVW where (at least on upper body shots) everybody looked the same? That is a perfect example on how NOT to do that.

Mark Henry's chances as being The Guy were destroyed during that time when they tried to get him to quit by throwing all shit they could think of at him. Afterwards it took almost a decade before people (besides the super-hardcores) were willing to take him serious again. By the time Simmons got to the WWF, I think he was already broken down too much for more than a short run.

That's a good one. I almost wanted to say you forgot Foley, but Wikipedia says he was born in Indiana (quoting an IGN article). I quickly scanned through the first chapters of his bio and he does not mention that there. Actually, he mentions that both his parents were teaching in Setauket in 1964, a year before Mick Foley was born. So if he was born in Indiana, his family could not have stayed long there.

Don't forget that Kane burned Taker "to a crisp" at Royal Rumble. It was definitely by far the longest build-up of an Undertaker Wrestlemania match by the point in time, but if you consider the build-up good, well, YMMV.

In some of his highly heralded matches of his last years, he took a lot of real punishment and basically had one year to heal up afterwards (the third HHH match comes to mind, consider how his body looked, the stuff Taker took there did not have much to do with working anymore).

That's the same company (probably more like the same business) where the Terry Garvin school of self-defense was a thing.

The important question: does Brady have dick implants as well?

I don't want to say that Meltzer does not have his own opinions or that he is gullible, but there are lot of examples, where you read something Meltzer wrote (at least 20-30 years ago), and you can easily deduce who he was been talking to recently (Eddie Gilbert, Heyman, Konnan ...). He has native Japanese sources as well, so if you read an opinion of his on something Japanese wrestling related, you always read a bit what his sources think as well (Fumi Saito or whoever Meltzer was talking to 25 years ago).

Lot of times, Cornette is the embodiment of that famous "you're not wrong Walter, you're just an asshole" line from The Big Lebowski.

Also after 16+ years, I would expect he could get the US citizenship if he wants/needs to (I don't know the US citizenship laws, but European countries usually give you that option after at most 10 years living in a country legally, though Switzerland itself is actually one of the weirder cases regarding attaining citizenship (I heard some stories of colleagues who had to jump to several hoops to get there)), both Switzerland and the US allow dual citizenship, so there is not even a downside for him.

I am sure he has said a lot of negative things about Sable or Jackie Gayda over the years.

Are Cesaro and Sara del Rey still together? That could also have been a factor in his decision.

The no-cover thing was a staple for pre-96 (or maybe even pre-97) Undertaker. You rarely ever saw someone going for a pin. Usually it was hit your finisher - maybe hit the finisher one or two more times - pose - zombie sit-up. Maybe Jake was the template here, maybe it was just a coincidence, I don't know. Now the suspense: will Giant Gonzales or 95 King Kong Bundy be able to break the (negative) streak?

I take Fred Durst raping Behind Blue Eyes before I listen to another Bad Bunny song, that is for sure (to be honest, I hit fast forward about half a minute in once I realized that this was no rib but meant to be serious, or is he supposed to be a comedy act?). I realize that as a 40-year-old (Austrian) I am not the target audience of Bad Bunny, but for WWE viewers, I am well below the median age (which is something in the early 50ies, right?).

I don't know, 1991 was still snail-pace WWF with 4 PPVs a year and TV shows with 90% squash matches with an angle every couple of weeks. Back then - unless you were a big name coming in - it took some time until you got moved away from squashes. By that point the only non-squashes that made TV were two matches against Tugboat on Prime Time and on the MSG network and one against Snuka on the MSG network, i.e. nothing on syndication. So Taker was still very much in the introduction phase. Actually it is quite interesting that he already got put into a top program shortly after Mania (being married to Warrior on house shows from mid April until the end of August before switching to Sid for a month and settling with Duggan the rest of the year).