Diamonddust

There was a match he had with Triple H on Smackdown that really did a lot to help his career. It had a lot of near falls, and the crowd was hooked. It also helped that Rikishi was involved in that 10 man tag-team match in Dallas that featured The Radicalz, Kane, Triple H, Cactus Jack, The Rock, and Too Cool. I remember how jacked the crowd was because of the star power in the ring... still one of the best Raw matches I can recall.

I think he got over because he was an Elvis impersonator... that's instant heel heat right there. Some others - Rikishi (I know Too Cool has been mentioned, but there was a time where Rikishi had white hot heat) Al Snow in ECW - I know ECW is a bit different, but the whole "Head" angle was super hot. The New Age Outlaws - I know Road Dog had the charisma, but you have to think that the level of popularity the team had wasn't planned.

The next big thing on the horizon for the WCW program is the formation of the Horsemen. The next WCW show features a six man match with Tully and the Andersons teaming up. The next WCW show will be the first week of December, 1985. The Horsemen formed in January 1986. We'll also be getting the final piece of the puzzle in place soon - Tully Blanchard hiring J.J. Dillon as his manager.

LOL. Taker has no business in this thread. Even though Taker was already over, him squashing Jake Roberts like a bug did a lot for him in the long run.

Wait until the next Monday Night Wars episode... it's the Bret Hart/Sid cage match that changed pretty much everything in terms of direction.

Speaking of Jericho, I know it's not a match and all... but his debut in the WWE with The Rock did a lot to give him an instant rub. It was one of the better debuts the WWE ever did.

If the wrestling industry starting thinking like that all the time then they wouldn't be able to do half the shit that they do in the first place. There wouldn't be anything wrong with the proposed Flair angle, and the fans would've been into it in a big way over time. and in the end, as long as the FANS buy it, who gives a crap what Hunter and others think. Hunter and the rest of the McMahons.

Agreed... he's one of their most marketable stars and has great charisma. I must admit I was slowly becoming a fan of his during the hype for the match with Chuck back in May... and then I RAPIDLY became one after he dropped Chuck like a bad habit.

Agreed.

Is it just me or does anyone else think Rampage could be quite marketable as a pro-wrestler if he wanted?

Coming out to "Born in the USA" during an event in England is just freaking awesome. As is coming out to "London Calling".

Come on... Bart Gunn getting his ass handed to him by Butterbean was HIGHLY entertaining... and I'm not just saying that due to the fact I live an hour or so away from Butterbean's hometown of Jasper, Alabama.

Hogan over Andre... yes, Hogan was wildly over before this... but still... beating Andre the Giant at Wrestlemania III only increased the Hogan legend and made him look like a legitimate superman for bodyslamming Andre. Bret Hart over Mr. Perfect - The match really made Bret Hart as a singles wrestler due to Curt making him look like a million bucks. I'd also say the Dudleys/Hardys tables match at the 2000 Royal Rumble put both teams over as it ushered in the "Table, Ladders, and Chairs" era of the tag-team division and put both teams on the map in terms of mainstream wrestling fans.

Excellent question since that match has to be looked at as one of the most influential in terms of where the wrestling business went in the late 90's. If the fans didn't get completely behind Austin, things would have been drastically different.

The latter. It just made Austin appear more of a "I don't care about anything except the big belt" bad ass. Austin was already a main eventer so it was a complete sign of his attitude towards life in general. Plus "The Rock" ended up getting it so the belt definitely didn't suffer.

It's funny that they showed a little SMW clip before the most recent World Championship Wrestling show. I've always wondered if they'd ever start showing any Smokey Mountain footage on a regular basis.

Well, the way that promotion went... if someone looked at the Von Erichs wrong, they'd get instant heel heat with the crowd.

I don't think it was a matter of no options, but the way I've read it is that Flair wanted to drop the title to set up a title win at Starrcade '87. The only one foolish enough to agree to being a transitional champion was Garvin.

There was a contingency plan in place. I want to say Jerry Jarrett was going to be involved, but I can't be for certain.

I thought the "intelligent Jew businessman" compliment was referring to Fred Blassie.

Got my dates mixed up... I thought Magnum had crashed closer to Starrcade '87 as opposed to two months before '86. Scratch what I said about Garvin, but you are right - Magnum's crash caused a serious shift in the booking. Nikita Koloff was turned face and fought Flair at Starrcade '86. Then in '87, Flair basically didn't have any serious threat, and that's why they went with Garvin in a title swap everyone knew had no staying power... which lead to the push of Lex Luger before he was ready as many people have said.

Same here. I use Comcast, and I thought they were improving. August's updates were all on time compared to July (Which was horrible, and I know I missed content), but today things got eliminated while nothing was updated.

Plus he has to know that, regardless of what they do with him, he's going to be one of the most over performers on any show. At a point where the WWE is drastically low on star power, the name "Ric Flair" can still generate interest and thus provide him leverage in this situation.

This sounds like leverage on Flair's part to ensure he gets a good "going away" if he does decide to retire within the year. If he does retire at Wrestlemania, I can see something like inducting him in the Hall of Fame and then having his retirement match on the PPV - hopefully against the other main inductee - Ricky Steamboat (A man can dream, can't he?).

Magnum was slated to go over Flair right before the crash. Not sure if he would have won it that September like Ronnie Garvin (His replacement) did and then drop it at Starrcade that year or if they would have done the right thing and have Magnum win it at Starrcade. Magnum was popular enough to carry things, and he had been groomed to do so for a couple of years before the crash. If Magnum entered 1988 as World Champion, there wouldn't have been the need to rush a Lex Luger push.