Diamonddust

I don't think he was a teenager (If I remember right, it was at an autograph signing/show), and it was right after David had started with WCW. Although, I might be mistaken.

Before Cena changed it up, I almost expected a "wart-filled, stinky giant" line.

Big Show and Edge should be an interesting duo.

Rhodes came to Crockett in 1984/85. Windham and Rotunda didn't head to Crockett until around 1986/1987, when Florida was pretty much on its ass anyways. Rhodes, even with Crockett, had a financial stake in Florida until Crockett bought it in 1987. Windham and Rotondo were in JCP prior to the WWF run in late 1984/early 85, so yeah they went with Dusty What years were they there? Windham started in Florida around 1980, worked in Knoxville (Which Mulligan had an interest in as did Flair) before going back to Florida. His last Florida reign started in May of 1984, and he along with Rotondo was in the WWF later that year. I'm not saying he didn't work for Crockett in a one-off type of thing, but just looking at Windham's history, I don't see an extended period where he was with Crockett before '86.

That's what brings me to my question. Why so much bitterness towards Vince for going national and stealing up talent? It's not like Jim Crockett wasn't doing the exact same thing, he just operated (for a time) within the confines of the NWA. I mean he brought all the talent to his promotions and had a death-grip on the NWA title. I mean I watch WWE 24/7. If you watch those studio shows all of the top regional stars (that hadn't gone to WWF) were on Crockett's TV shows! And his titles had more prestige than any other local territories titles. And he started buying up promotions to go national too! And when he started doing stuff like Starrcade, didn't that really poke a huge hole in the territory system and really mess it up for a lot of regional fans? Becuase now they see all the top stars on Starrcade and the regional feel of pro-wrestling is gone with that show too. It wasn't just the WWF that was projecting that national image and forgetting about the territory system. Right? So why does everyone these days act like Vince was such a scumbag? Crockett did it too, just within the confines of the NWA. He was still an NWA member but he had all the top talent and the NWA title. McMahon and Crockett were not doing the exact same thing. What McMahon did that had people upset wasn't that he signed up the top regional stars, but that he would have them walk out of the territory with no notice and leave the various promoters in the lurch. Crockett signed up regional talent too, but he didn't have them walk out with no notice leaving a bunch of no-shows in their wake Crockett did buy up promotions, but McMahon never did. He just cherry picked the talent he wanted. Starrcadde was like JCP in that, at first, they were big regional deals, and stayed pretty much entirely in the Mid-Atlantic region, with the occasional venture to a neighboring state. Starrcade, and JCP in general, didn't try to go national until 1987, by which time the regional territories were dying out at a fast rate. There wasn't much of a territorial system to poke a hole in at that point. Both Vince and JCP tried to go national, but there really isn't a comparison in how the two went about it. Yeah... I think the only offer Vince made in regards to a promotion was the one he made to Verne Gagne and the AWA, and they basically told him to piss off.

Rhodes came to Crockett in 1984/85. Windham and Rotunda didn't head to Crockett until around 1986/1987, when Florida was pretty much on its ass anyways. Rhodes, even with Crockett, had a financial stake in Florida until Crockett bought it in 1987.

That's what brings me to my question. Why so much bitterness towards Vince for going national and stealing up talent? It's not like Jim Crockett wasn't doing the exact same thing, he just operated (for a time) within the confines of the NWA. I mean he brought all the talent to his promotions and had a death-grip on the NWA title. I mean I watch WWE 24/7. If you watch those studio shows all of the top regional stars (that hadn't gone to WWF) were on Crockett's TV shows! And his titles had more prestige than any other local territories titles. And he started buying up promotions to go national too! And when he started doing stuff like Starrcade, didn't that really poke a huge hole in the territory system and really mess it up for a lot of regional fans? Becuase now they see all the top stars on Starrcade and the regional feel of pro-wrestling is gone with that show too. It wasn't just the WWF that was projecting that national image and forgetting about the territory system. Right? So why does everyone these days act like Vince was such a scumbag? Crockett did it too, just within the confines of the NWA. He was still an NWA member but he had all the top talent and the NWA title. Also another question. The Television and US title that Crockett was promoting on TV with his champions, those weren't national titles were they? What I'm saying is they used to be regional titles of Crockett's promotion, but as JCP became national then so did they. Right? The animosity comes from the fact that Vince did it first and without regard to anyone else. He promoted in areas outside of his "territory", and that pissed off people to no end, especially considering the WWF at the time wasn't an NWA member. Crockett did it out of necessity and, as convoluted as it sounds, within the NWA system. He bought up the other remaining territories to at least keep some semblance of the old structure in place. Ole and Georgia Championship Wrestling, by virtue of TBS, was able to do tours into Ohio, West Virginia, and Michigan because the territory up there, which was run by The Sheik, was down on its ass. Those tours did very good business initially.

Yeah, I was doing some reading on an article from last year about how Phoenix/Glendale officials made a pitch for Wrestlemania either for this year or 2010 (The article that had the bit about Gretzky wearing the Wrestlemania in Phoenix shirt). As for future locations, I do know that their criteria is doing it in an event/destination city with good transportation access (Much like Superbowl sites). This is from an article detailing how Orlando made the pitch to get WM24: (Source - http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/cust...0,188934.story) It is surprising they considered Atlantic City again due to the fact that they really don't have a good venue to host a major event like this. The new model, along with hosting the event in the major stadium, is also hosting possibly the Smackdown taping before Wrestlemania, the Hall of Fame Ceremony, and then the Raw the night after (Vegas and Phoenix/Glendale would have no problem doing this). East Rutherford, along with a lot of other Northeastern venues, has a major strike against it in that it will not have a roof. They will not run Wrestlemania in the end of March/beginning of April in the New York area in an outdoor setting. As a result, I do think that makes Indianapolis a favored choice in the future (Although the "destination city" requirement might hurt it - it still has experience hosting major sporting events, not to mention already hosting a Wrestlemania.

My Top 20 1. The Rock 2. Bobo Brazil 3. Booker T 4. The Junkyard Dog 5. Ernie Ladd 6. Ron Simmons 7. Abdullah the Butcher 8. Tony Atlas 9. Thunderbolt Patterson 10. D-Von Dudley 11. Iceman Parsons 12. Bearcat Brown 13. Kamala 14. Bad News Allen 15. Sweet Daddy Siki 16. Luther Lindsey 17. Butch Reed 18. Rocky Johnson 19. Sailor Art Thomas 20. Norvell Austin

I brought Vegas up because it has been in the hunt, at least for WWE officials. When articles detailed how Orlando got Wrestlemania, they mentioned how Vegas was in consideration as a host city. I agree with what you are saying about the arenas, but I think the WWE would be at least willing to consider running the show there in an arena smaller than the ones they have in the past. It's also why I listed Indy and Phoenix as the other two alternatives... I really think one of those three cities will be the host next year.

Well... the whole Mickey Rourke angle just had a little luster taken off of it... Sean Penn got the Oscar. Although, now that I think about it... Jericho should use this as cannon fodder during his promo tomorrow night.

Yeah... that's Ole 100%. He is also bitter that more "entertainment" style performers outdrew him (Jim Cornette tells a story in his shoot interviews about how Ole was always pissed that the Cornette/Baby Doll angle got a higher spot on cards than Ole did).

During a tag-match, when the heels make a blind tag and make a tagging noise behind the ref's back... the ref will let the switch stand. When the face even thinks about getting in the ring without the ref plainly seeing the tag, it's almost felony grade.

From the 1/10/92 edition of the Observer... a very interesting write-up concerning Lex Luger giving notice on his then current WCW deal and what it would mean to the WWE:

You also couldn't take Tony Atlas off the list.

Is this as Pistol Pez or Shaska Whatley? I'd consider Pez Whatley's career as a whole, Shaska Whatley included.

Anyone want to speculate on where Wrestlemania 26 will be held? I'm guessing one of the following cities: -Las Vegas, Nevada (They've apparently looked here when deciding on previous Wrestlemania sites over the past few years) -Glendale, Arizona (University of Phoenix Stadium would fit in with the current trend of running it out of major indoor stadiums) -Indianapolis, Indiana (See above... has benefit of already being a host city) -Atlanta, Georgia (I was almost certain they were going to run Wrestlemania 17 here... it's a shock they haven't done one here in the Georgia Dome considering the built-in Georgia wrestling history) -St. Louis, Missouri (Has a huge wrestling history + the dome)

I would also swap out guys like Ron Killings and Ahmed Johnson and put up for consideration guys like Teddy Long and Slick. (Even though they weren't active wrestlers, I would argue both have had bigger impacts, especially Teddy Long, than Killings or Johnson) Pez Whatley could also be up for discussion as well.

I'd put JYD above Abdullah, and Thunderbolt Patterson should be on the list as well.

A wrestling wedding angle will usually end in chaos.

I wouldn't consider '92 a low point by any stretch (At least creatively speaking). The first half of '92 was awesome.

-When a wrestler stops ramming the guy's head into the turnbuckle after the crowd reaches 10 on the count -When Bret Hart would call Summerslam "The Summerslam"

That's par for the course for Ole Anderson.

Here's a personal favorite of mine: Barry Windham and Arn Anderson vs. Doom - Street Fight - Starrcade '90 The double pin-ending (Even though the Horsemen had a good second advantage on the pin) and no blow-off to the feud (Doom would lose the belts to the Freebirds at the next PPV and then split) sucked, but the match was a great, bloody brawl (Anderson in particular).

I was also kind of surprised there was just passing mention of Ernie Ladd, considering he is a Hall of Fame member, and Watts was on the panel. Watts did talk about him some, but not as much as I thought he would have. They did bring up the fact Ladd was pretty much the first African American booker, but they didn't even discuss how Ladd was really one of the first African American heels as opposed to a non-threatening type babyface.