July 31, 201312 yr comment_5554172 The Al Snow / Bossman angles were gold, and they are still talked about today fondly. The matches stunk which is a shame because they had a couple of blinding Hardcore outings earlier that year.
August 1, 201312 yr comment_5554348 As far as Bossman in 99 goes, I always figured that Vince always liked him, didn't have a problem with him leaving and going to WCW (besides the Boss copyright infringement ), and was willing to showcase him to stick it to WCW by showing that they wasted this guy. Yeah, Boss Man had quite a bit of respect within the company for drawing so big on house shows against Hogan a decade earlier. Vince was a big fan. I guess it is less of puzzling signing and more puzzling use. I remember suspending my belief as a smarky teen and saying "... but Bossman was so mad when Heenan was talking about his mom" during the Big Show angle. Ha. Ha! I remember being upset that they didn't explain how Rick Rude was able to get Jack Tunney's ban lifted when he returned as Shawn Michaels' insurance policy nearly 7 years later. My favorite was when Mr. Perfect returned and no mention of his loser-leaves-town match against Flair was ever brought up! Of course just because one LOSES a Loser Leaves Town match doesn't mean one can't turn around and BUY the said town some 8-9 years later! =
August 1, 201312 yr comment_5554354 Would have been hilarious in 2002 if Vince came on TV replayed the footage of that match and insisted Flair leaves the arena.
August 4, 201312 yr comment_5554755 Iron Sheik in WCW was pretty batshit. Of course this one: The marketing & booking of their involvement was piss poor but No Limit was HUGE at the time. If you're gonna bring in an outside celebrity music act on paper they weren't a bad choice.
August 7, 201312 yr comment_5555177 Loss - funny enough I'm reading the January 8th 1990 Observer and Meltzer mentions the Pat Tanaka story shortly after noting Gary Hart's firing. It seems like Tanaka would have been AS WELL AS Dragon Master rather than instead of him. Looking at the cards, Dragon Master was actually positioned in an upper midcard slot. He was having semi-main tag matches with Sawyer and doing things like jobbing to Sting in main events at house shows. He's got to be one of the most anomalous guys from that time-frame. I always point to Col. Mustafa being in the main event of Summerslam 91 as being some truly WTF shit, but I reckon Dragon Master in 90 is even more puzzling. I struggle to think of someone so utterly incongruous in a promotion. Adnan is weird to me. If someone told you in, let's say 1988 that Adnan Al Kassie was going to be in the main event of Summerslam in 91, that would be weirder to me than saying Mustafa would be. Slightly off topic but imagine if someone had told you at an NWA show in 1988 that referee Teddy Long vs. Sheepherders flag bearer Johnny Ace would be one of the featured feuds heading into the 2012 WrestleMania.
August 7, 201312 yr comment_5555265 I never figured Iron Sheik's cup of coffee in WWF in Summer of 1988. There didn't seem to be any role for him and he was in horrible shape.
August 7, 201312 yr comment_5555268 Slightly off topic but imagine if someone had told you at an NWA show in 1988 that referee Teddy Long vs. Sheepherders flag bearer Johnny Ace would be one of the featured feuds heading into the 2012 WrestleMania. Ace to me is weird in general. I don't want to quite go as far as to say most of his All Japan time left me with the feel of a guy cosplaying All Japan's idea of a "good wrestler", but he really did strike me as the least of all their regularly featured guys, a guy that just had a few big moves to run through and that was it. He wasn't outright bad, yet I can't remember ever thinking "Ace is the best guy in this match".
August 9, 201312 yr comment_5555533 Meng in 2001 for WWE was pretty odd IMO, he didn't hang around for long either. The only thing of note here was that he held a WCW title at the time of his debut... so much for time honored traditions.
August 12, 201312 yr comment_5556003 I always thought Tatanka on the SmackDown roster in 2006 was so strange. He left WWE in 1996, then... nothing. He might have done a couple spot shows, but for all intents and purposes he dropped off the grid completely. Then all of the sudden he's back under contract. And it wasn't like they were bringing him back for a nostalgia run, I don't think anyone was clamoring for the return of Tatanka. Just weird.
August 13, 201312 yr comment_5556054 Yeah, Tatanka's return was random as fuck. What did he do during those 10 lost years? Did he work WCW during the Nitro era? I don't remember.
August 21, 201312 yr comment_5557588 To me Sapphire is, was and always will be one of the most random things that ever happened in wrestling. So she's kinda up there in my book. Clarence Mason and Ahmed Johnson returning in Russo-era WCW was weird and random.
August 21, 201312 yr comment_5557645 To me Sapphire is, was and always will be one of the most random things that ever happened in wrestling. So she's kinda up there in my book. Clarence Mason and Ahmed Johnson returning in Russo-era WCW was weird and random. Holy Crap - I had forgot that cup-of-tea Clarence Mason was J. Biggs (manager of Chris "Champagne" Kanyon and Harlem Heat 2000).
August 21, 201312 yr comment_5557646 All the random returns in WCW: Iron Sheik (1989-1990), Kamala in 1995, Jacques Rougeau (1996-1997), Marty Jannetty (1998), Bertha Faye (1999-2000)...
August 21, 201312 yr comment_5557647 Rick Martel had a random-ish WCW comeback too but it wasn't bad. Had some ok matches but then got sidelined by an injury and I don't remember seeing him again in wrestling.
August 21, 201312 yr comment_5557694 Yea but signing a fat guy out of England who was old, hadn't wrestled in the States before and had pretty much been retired for years was a pretty odd signing.
August 21, 201312 yr comment_5557700 Yea but signing a fat guy out of England who was old, hadn't wrestled in the States before and had pretty much been retired for years was a pretty odd signing. I agree it was odd, but for the record, he hadn't been strictly retired for years. Sadly, he did die a couple after WCW though from cancer.
August 21, 201312 yr comment_5557747 Wasn't Loch Ness signed because WCW thought they were getting some Vader-esque super-monster for Hogan to slay? WCW not realizing that a UK monster is much, much different?
August 21, 201312 yr comment_5557749 A Haystacks vs Hogan match in London would have done big business if WCW could have got it on PPV or even live TV here. Would have got media interest as well. Haystacks didn't mean anything in the US. They should have just brought him in short term for a big UK match.
August 21, 201312 yr comment_5557751 Wasn't Loch Ness signed because WCW thought they were getting some Vader-esque super-monster for Hogan to slay? WCW not realizing that a UK monster is much, much different? To be fair, Haystacks was MASSIVE. Probably bigger than Vader in terms of height and weight. This is going back and few years and it is vague, but I seem to recall that it was Hogan himself and Kevin Sullivan who thought of bringing in Haystacks after they'd seen him against Andre in Canada back in the 1970s. I'm pretty sure he was semi- or actually fully retired in 1996.
August 21, 201312 yr comment_5557752 I'm pretty sure he was semi- or actually fully retired in 1996. Semi...
August 21, 201312 yr comment_5557753 What I'm wondering about is where or when Hogan or Sullivan could have possibly seen him. He worked stints for Stampede in the 70s and early 80s, as seen here: But I don't know of him ever working in US before the WCW run. I also don't know of Hogan working in Canada before he was WWF champ. Did Sullivan ever work for Stampede? Right now I'm inclined to believe that the line about Hogan and Sullivan is BS.
August 21, 201312 yr comment_5557767 Trying to find more information on this and his obit in The Independent has this: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/giant-ha...er-1188624.html Two years ago he was stricken with cancer just after signing a contract to revive his career in the US with his Hollywood friend Hulk Hogan. "Hollywood friend"??
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