Darth Pipes

If it were originally censored, then that's fine. That's preserving the original television content. Otherwise, it's stupid. I never felt the Undertaker was being ignored during this title reign when I originally watched it but I see your point. He was an active participent in the Hart/Austin feud and was basically making guest appearence in it. He would have the storyline with Paul Bearer starting up and had a couple of big title matches over the next few months though.

Really enjoyed seeing Raw again. Damn, that Hart Foundation vs Austin storyline rocked. Throw in HBK (along with the Undertaker and LOD) and you just couldn't go wrong. In terms of story development, they were blowing WCW away. Nitro does not hold up well anymore. Their undercard was great but the main event picture was a joke. Bischoff admitted it on a recent Legends of Wrestling discussion that Scott Hall was pretty much the only one out of the group that could work. One thing that's annoyed me on 24/7 and I think it's been addressed here. On the previous Monday Night Raw, after Austin stuns Undertaker, he flips him off. They actually blurred the image of Austin giving Taker the finger. WTF?! This has been a trend with some of the 90s-era stuff. When they released the old DX videotape on DVD, they bleeped out all the language and stuff. They've pulled back the reigns on this stuff in the last few years. But there's absolutely no excuse to be censoring that stuff on 24/7. It's an on-demand channel which I'm sure is not viewed by a lot of kids. Absolutely stupid as far as I'm concerned.

That's going to be the next NWA Wrestling update. So it doesn't look like we'll get that big 2/7/86 Challenge Series card they were hying at the time. Too bad.

Flair explains it in his autobiography. Vince told him when he first came to the WWF if they didn't have any plans for him, he was free to leave the company. After Survivor Series and with Razor Ramon becoming a top heel, they didn't have any plans for Flair. WCW was interested in getting him back so Flair asked if he could go. Vince granted it, provided that he put over Hennig in a loser-leaves-the-WWF match.

Ric Flair vs Kerry Von Erich in a cage for the NWA World Championship. Christmas 1982. This is the match that started the famous Von Erich/Freebirds feud. Hayes was the second referee in the ring and his storyline plays out well. The problem with having two referees in a cage match is it interferes with the action in the ring and cuts down the space for both wrestlers to use. This was a pretty good match though was a great storyline to boot. Once again, Flair saves his title through crazy methods. It's amazing how they protected face wrestlers back then too. Von Erich is supposed to have a concussion after Terry Gordy slams the steel cage on his head yet still manages to pound Flair to the ground. But I enjoyed it though as Flair rarely gave a bad match.

Dusty Rhodes...the only man capable of dragging Flair below a three-star match on a consistent basis. Scott Keith says that's because Dusty insisted on working his own formula, instead of Flair just plugging another guy into his consistently winning formula for a good match. thats not from 85, thats actually starrcade 84 with fraiser as the ref and the money on the line. they did face again in 85, but that was the match with the "dusty finish" where it appeared dusty had won, but the original ref had seen arn anderson interfere and dqed flair on tv the next week That Starrcade 84 match was brutal. 15 minutes of rountine action with another incompetant referee that ends in a bull**** finish. Dusty couldn't even do a normal job on the biggest show of the year.

Dusty Rhodes...the only man capable of dragging Flair below a three-star match on a consistent basis. Scott Keith says that's because Dusty insisted on working his own formula, instead of Flair just plugging another guy into his consistently winning formula for a good match.

Yeah, I remember being annoyed that there was only one hour of wrestling on Monday nights. Thankfully, Nitro would force the WWF to change that. I know Hart and Hennig teamed up for some house shows in 1993.

You know I don't recall this either. Strange. I take it had to do with Heenan's relationship with Ric Flair. Although for a brief time in December of 1992, I had decided to watch wrestling. I think I stopped for four weeks. 2 or 3 other times I've done this but always went back to wrestling. I missed some of the last Prime Times. I remember being upset about Prime Time being done and being replaced by Raw but I think that worked out in the end. I remember all the changes in formats too. I can't remember though when they went from Monsoon and Heenan to the studio audience with McMahon and Heenan.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on which Austin is best. I have to admit though, I found the site of a little kid in the crowd to be wearing an Austin jersey to be distrubing. It just didn't seem right.

It's depressing to know that in the opening segment of Raw, 3/4 of the people involved (Pillman, Owen, and Bulldog) are dead. Just thinking the same thing. Within six years, they were all dead. The segment itself was pretty funny, with them all praying for Bret's recovery and for Austin to be helped. I've said it many times but I've always liked 1997 Austin better than 1998 Austin. Both were great but 97 Austin didn't play to the crowd. He didn't swill beer after matches. He was more heel than face and just a bad-***, nasty psycho.

Agreed... he was bumping pretty well for S.D. Jones in the match featured. Heenan took some sick bumps. It's not a surprise he hurt his neck. But he was a trooper.

It's interesting about Heenan. A few months ago they showed a card from November 22, 1984 and he beat Salvatore Belladimo at MSG clean. Checking out some of the matches results from 1984, they seemed to be matching Heenan up with the A-list jobbers. He had recently debuted in the WWF on September 22, 1984, so this was probably a way to establish him more in the crowd. He wrestled a lot when he was in the WWF.

Just finished watching the new Tuesday Night Titans. The best segment had to be McMahon's interview of Joe Frazier. Frazier comes out with a chicken dressed as Roddy Piper. He seems pretty punch drunk here and Vince doesn't know what to do with them. We get footage of Roddy Piper with Bob Orton and Lou Dova as the Wrestlemania II news conference. Piper follows with another classic manic, coke-fueled rant on Mr. T. Seeing some of this stuff now made me realize how much Piper buried and humuiliated Mr. T during their various fuels. His dislike for T is evident and he always made him look bad, which is pretty damn funny. Other interesting segments is the TNT debut of Jake Roberts, in his usual creepy form. Although they never acknowledged the past back then, they at least have the smarts to say that Roberts experience is extensive. We even get a mention that Lord Alfred was a judo champion years ago. He actually used to wrestled under the name of Judo Al Hayes.

One of the great promos is Dusty Rhodes "Hard Times" one, which he gave after returning from a broken leg at the ands of the Horsemen. If I could find that, I'd link to it. Jake cut an awesome, super-creepy promo after slapping Elizabeth. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vpxeouoIiQ...feature=related My favorite Flair promo actually is one he cut in the weeks leading up to the original Starrcade. It's on the Flair DVD. He returned from having Bob Orton and Dick Slater break his neck and chased them both with a bat. Afterwards, he rips off his neck brace and cut an awesome, intense promo on them and Harley Race.

I think the most historically interesting show to air next month on 24/7 will be the infamous Black Saturday one. From the official site... “Black Saturday” (World Championship Wrestling 7/14/84) – Known as “Black Saturday” to millions of wrestling fans around the South, WWE programming replaces long-running World Championship Wrestling, and the stars of the NWA, on Ted Turner’s TBS. Relive the show’s debut as Vince McMahon introduces the Superstars of the WWE, including The Iron Sheik and Jesse “The Body” Ventura, to a whole new audience.

Bruno wasn't the greatest guy for Kowalski to work with. I have a match with Kowalski and Buddy Rogers from 1961 on tape and it's a high energy 11-minute brawl. Kowalski was also nearing the end of his career at that point. Ok, I was thinking that Kowalksi's age had something to do with what I saw, because I heard so much about him. Thanks for the input. It was definitely near the end of his career. Also, Kowalski was a vegetarian and that caused him to lose a lot of his muscle mass.

JR's comments reeked of politics. Plain and simple. Mero might not have become as big a star as he could have been but he was a pretty damn good wrestler. But his speaking out against the WWE and Foley's dislike of him for making more money is evident. Give me a break about Undertaker carrying Gonzales to great matches. Even Ric Flair wasn't capable of that. Speaking of Virgil and Hercules, only in the WWF will you see a black man fighting for his bosses' right to own a slave.

Can't disagree. I liked the Legends Roundtable but I think the problem with it was it was too unfocused. Usually they have a theme or cover a limited number of individuals in one show but they were going all over the place here, bouncing from guy to guy. Especially on the topic of legit tough guys, something wrestling has a lot of. I did enjoy all the conversation about Angle and Lesnar. Tazz and JR both brought up the fact that they were very alpha and that nearly led to a lot of fights between them. Finally got a chance to watch the Austin/Hart street fight again and it was great. I don't think I appreciated how good the Raw 1997 storylines were at the time. This particular episode was the night of stiff beatings. Austin never got a (televised) pinfall victory over Bret but this was pretty damn good. Piper was at his best on Tuesday Night Titans and was once again coked out of his mind. He was still the heel here but it's clear that the fans loved him at this point. Heel Piper was a lot more entertaining an edgier than Face Piper. You could tell beyond the coke-fueled rantings that he clearly hated Mr. T and he uttered a really politically incorrect line when he said that Mr. T "Is the only guy who wears more chains then his ancestors."

This never made the air. I remember that addition of Raw ending with Shawn staring at Bret in the wheelchair, who was ripping him on the mic. They never mentioned it again on Raw but I was the pictures in the Apter magazines a few months later with Bret taking the superkick and laying flat on his back.

Yeah, I'm starting to think the interview where Arn names the Four Horsemen doesn't exist on tape anymore. Very cool that we're up to that point.

I hope it's the Pillman/Liger match. They cut out Jesse's commentary on the Pillman DVD.

I remember that one. Austin never had a true blow-off with Bret. Although they did have that great street fight on Raw where Austin kicked the living crap out of him.

Watched the Monday Night Raw episode yesterday. Austin's post-WM13 interview was great.

I read once that Turner home video actually clipped a few minutes from the first Flair/Steamboat match. That is an inexcusable disgrace. First off, let me heavily recommend NWA World Championship Wrestling for December 21st, 1985. It features two big-time matches (rare for that era) with Magnum defending the U.S. title against Ole Anderson and Ric Flair defending the World title against Ron Garvin. Both are really good matches (going about twenty minutes) and are stiff as hell. The NWA produced a great show to end 1985. I'm looking forward to watching Raw with Bret's reunion with Owen and Bulldog. That's the only known time that Bret faces The Rock too. I can't wait for the Raw featuring the street fight with Austin and Bret. I didn't get a chance to tape that the first time and it is a memorable (albeit not as remembered) Raw moment. There was no decision but Austin beat the living crap out of Bret. I've always said that I liked 1997 Austin better than 1998 Austin. Both versions were great but 97 Austin was an out-and-out heel that the fans cheered. He didn't pander to them either with the beer and everything. 1997 was a damn good year creatively for the WWF.