Beast

I have to challenge the Inoki/Fujimami pick. Looking at Cagematch, they have nowhere close to 50 tag matches in the allotted period (88-92). There's probably 50 pure 2 vs. 2 tag matches sprinkled from 1979-1989, but the vast majority are 3 on 3. I feel like that kind of goes against the spirit of the tag team rule, but I'm not a big Japan guy so if everyone agrees that Inoki/Fujinami is legit, I don't have a problem. Just looking for a little discussion.

If Sting was gone, I was going to grab Steamboat, but alas. Luger & Sting works better for me so I'm happy. And now we get Savage/Steamboat 1989.

Didn't think he was going to fall to my 2nd pick - Waffled back and forth on the year, but 1988 Sting LowBlow is up

It would suck to lose anyone, but I think this is fair. 48 hours is a long time to not have checked in.

I'm guessing blehschmidt doesn't even know the draft started yet. He was on this afternoon and left without doing anything here. Hopefully once Round 1 is done everyone will get into a groove, but we probably just need to get in the habit of PM'ing whomever follows us unless we see them lurking in the forum.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I didn't even start watching until 1994 and then experienced this era through WWF Coliseum Videos and PPVs. Read about WCW and territories in the PWI Almanac and older issues I'd order from the back of current magazines. Didn't see any old WCW until Napster/Limewire and tape trading.

I'm inordinately fond of Luger's 1989 so I was happy to grab him quick. Knew him and the rest of the NWA 1989 guys wouldn't stick around for long. Can be babyface or heel, but his mid-year Steamboat feud is easily my highlight of the year for NWA. So far I'm happy at the variety of choices, especially with the recent 1992 guys. This is going to be great. And we haven't really touched Japan or Mexico much yet.

Sticking with the 1989 US extravaganza, I choose.... 1989 Lex Luger

I back that

*kicks the ground*

Happy Hogan is off the table so I don't have to choose him. Fairly certain my top pick will make it to me.....we will see.

I feel the year needs to be committed to when the drafting occurs. Drafting Randy Savage 1989 means Randy Savage is off the board for everyone else and it feels a little cheap to be able to say "I ended up with too many heels. I actually don't need "Macho King" anymore so I'm going to use the 1992 version of Savage".

I think a distinct number of matches is the answer for sure. But a little higher, maybe 50? That solidifies Power & Glory, Twin Towers, Enforcers, etc... gets rid of any makeshift teams I believe.

See, with Power & Glory, I feel like you should be able to draft a 1990 or 1991 version of them. Same with 1988 or 1989 version of The Twin Towers. If a team was together for over a year, that seems like a legit pick. If that makes everything too muddled, that's fine, but that feels like a different situation than The Megapowers, Megabucks, Mega Maniacs, Jim Duggan & Nikolai Volkoff, The Enforcers, etc...

Dibs on New York. (I'm in Connecticut)

I back 88-92 and say leave the rest for a future possible draft like 93-97. 5 years is a lot.

We will likely need a list of all possible team/group picks beforehand.

I'm in

This didn't end up going anywhere on here, but I also e-mailed Stu Saks himself and he responded with a nearly full list which I've placed in the first post. I thanked him for the memories and told him there's a fair bit of interest in those classic mags from fans like us and he said their long-range plans are to have a greater online presence, including the posting of older articles. Fingers crossed that eventually comes to fruition.

I'd put it at close to 4 stars. The storytelling is perfect. Tully & Arn come from the NWA to WWF as the dirtiest tag team in the game, whose bread and butter are double team spots. Bret & Neidhart were the WWF equivalent 3 years earlier. So when the two teams meet, the Hart Foundation show that despite now being babyfaces, they can pull that stuff as well as anyone. Even the finish makes sense in context. Looking back and seeing The Hart Foundation loses a non-title match on PPV with no followup seems silly, but that's really only because of the no followup. If this was the start of a fall program about Heenan trying to keep the Harts from getting an actual title shot but hook and crook, the finish wouldn't be so self-defeating. The Harts look stronger than the Busters here and the finish is tainted by double teaming behind the ref's back. Definitely not a burial of The Hart Foundation and the match was neck and neck with Rude/Warrior as being best on the card. I also love the Rockers 6-Man, but less for the actual match and more for the Rougeaus and Martel's heel schtick throughout.

Off the top of my head, HHH, Taker, Cena, and Reigns among others have all kicked out of the F5 since Brock's 2012 return. Multiple finisher kickouts are not my thing, but since WWE has established that great wrestlers kick out at least once, Joe and Braun both losing to one F5 makes them look weak. Braun recovered quick from losing to Reigns at Fastlane this year, but this loss (with no excuse for Braun to cling to) might be harder to recover from. Or maybe wins and losses don't mean anything anymore and he'll be in the main events of the next five network specials.

Happy to hear, hopefully things only get better. We're all pulling for you and everyone else on the island.

Oh OK, thanks for the info. So weird to think of a time when a star like Patterson could go back and forth between two major companies with no issue. But I guess this was while Vince Sr. was still overseeing the WWF?

In Dave's Heenan bio, he twice says he managed Pat Patterson. I may be way off here, but that's not correct, right? He says Heenan managed Stevens & Patterson in AWA after Heenan returned after Georgia, but Patterson was in WWF that entire time, I think. And then he says Heenan listed his top 5 workers managed as Flair, Stevens, Hennig, Patterson, Bockwinkel, but when Bockwinkel passed that story was told with Bockwinkel as #4 and no Patterson.