Darth Pipes

I think they ditched it in 97 or 98...I remember one day they casually mentioned that the rule was eliminated. It was long overdue. It was always a very silly rule. Especially with the most violent wrestling matches.

Even Hogan knew that the crowd had turned against him. He played it that way too. This was the first real backlash against Hogan though it would take Vince until next year to realize that. Hogan has almost always acted like a total crybaby whenever he was eliminated from a battle royal. At RR 89, Bossman and Akeem both managed to throw him out, shortly after Hogan eliminated his friend Savage (though that might have been on accident. Him and Savage argued about it). He stayed at ringside until he pulled Bossman over the top ropes. He did something similar in a 1984 battle royal and of course, he had to be restrained from going after Andre after he was eliminated by the Giant during the SNME battle royal. At least Hogan had the excuse that he was feuding with Andre leading up to Wrestlemania. Although in the post-match conference, Hogan takes a shot at Andre, saying a real man doesn't eliminate another one from behind. Uh, Hulk...it's every man for himself. People can get eliminated in seconds in a battle royal and in many different ways. Deal with it. Hogan was yelling at Justice that they were supposed to be friends. Justice yelled at him rightly that it's every man for himself...especially when it's for the title. I can't remember how the 89 Rumble went but it's probably more hyporcracy for Hogan. Funny too how McMahon always put over Hogan as a role model yet when Hogan got eliminated from a battle royal, he acted like the biggest sore loser in the world.

Yeah, I remember seeing the Flair interview after the Rumble match. It was definitely live. Heenan had some other good Virgil jokes... Heenan: Don't forget, at one time Virgil held that Million Dollar Championship. Of course he stole it but he still had it." Monsoon: He did not! A few weeks after the Rumble, Side broke Virgil's nose (kayfabe) and Virgil was wearing a nose guard at WM. During his eight-man tag... Heenan: The first thing I'd do is I'd rip that ugly mask off of that ugly face and I'd break that ugly face one more ugly time! Monsoon: What a sadistic person you are, Brain! Another reason RR 92 is historic because it was the first PPV that Shawn Michales was a singles wrestler. The Jannetty angle was earlier in the month and this was, when you think about it, the official start of the Shawn Michaels era. I don't know if it was on the Royal Rumble or WM PPV but there's a brief segment where HBK is on the WWF Hotline and he's telling the person on it that he got tired of (Jannetty) and decided to toss him out the window. Funny.

I think I mentioned this earlier but I liked 97 Austin better than 98 Austin. 98 Austin played to the fans while 97 Austin was really a heel that the fans cheered. He was a lot more deranged too.

That's what I say. Just have the segment in three parts with a new part every week. Agreed on Flair/Race. It was a great match and it shows you what they can do when they don't have a referee interferring and breaking the momentum of the match. It's interesting to see Flair in the dominant face role with Race bumping like crazy for him.

Just watched the Race/Von Erich match and I highly recommend it. Stiff (they sounded like they were really tagging each other), bloody, and fast-paced, it was a very entertaining match that took place in Texas Stadium. Watching all these DVDs and 24/7 has made me a big Harley Race fan.

They made one quick note of Christian, and that as it. The Brood was used as an example of showing how an alliance can be started to feature one guy (In this instance, Gangrel), but it turns out one of the secondary players (Edge) becomes the mega-star. For a while, I didn't even think they'd cover The Freebirds, but I'm glad they did at the end. They were one of the ultimate factions and one of the more influential ones as well. I also can't believe the Dangerous Alliance wasn't brought up, especially since that was Steve Austin's first shot at being in a major faction. The Dangerous Alliance was completely overlooked. JR and Foley would have been the likely ones to bring them up. Maybe it was on the two hours that didn't make it to 24/7.

Came to post this exact thought. I guess it led to the Flairs vs. Windham and Hennig, but that just led to another nWo beatdown. So I guess you're right. EDIT: The angle ends with Flair turning heel and Hogan turning face. That's the final payoff. WCW Wuz Awesome. That Flair promo was awesome. About the only good thing to come out of the "Finger Poke of Doom" fiasco. The two interviews with Piper are interesting. The first one in 83 featured a typically coked-out-of-his-mind Piper. The second one, in 1997, had a lot of homoerotic undertones between the two.

I can deal with it if it was always like that. I also understand the reasons for blurring the logo and changing the music. But I can't stand the idea of stuff being edited that doesn't need to be. When they release the Steve Austin DVD, they bleeped Terry Funk calling Jim Ross an Oakie ***hole and calling Pettingel's mother a whore, both of which originally aired in the syndicated show. It wasn't so much the fact that the language was bleeped out but the fact that Funk said the word "whore" very funny that annoyed me the most.

Stable. You're right. What about when they mentioned the Brood and made no mention of Christian?

Yeah, I thought that was a problem. There's some good stuff here but they don't stay focused on any one particular faction for long. Maybe it is the editing. JR said they shot about three hours of footage and it was edited down to a little over one hour. I would have loved to have seen this in three one-hour episodes. There's definitely some good stuff though... -While there is absolutely no arguing the success of the NWO and their impact on the business, I found myself agreeing with a lot of what he said. While the Horsemen made everyone look good while the NWO spent two years beating up everyone and making them look bad. It was egos run amok and ultimately the "me-me-me" attitude was a major factor in the fall of WCW. Too many guys had creative control and the inmates ended up running the asylum. Hogan was as successful as anyone and he couldn't stop playing politics. But at the same time, Flair knows better than anyone that wrestling is indeed a "me-me-me" business. There are no guarenteed contracts and guys have to do what they can to stay on top. Flair should know about this. The WWE wanted him to work as a goodwill ambassador after they gave him a great send-off but Flair opted to move away from contract security and go for the quick cash on the independant circuit. -Tazz's bringing up the Triple Threat. We see footage of Shane Douglas, Chris Candido, and Bam Bam Bigelow. But ECW fans know that the original Triple Threat was Douglas, Chris Benoit, and Dean Malenko. -Tazz also brings up the Varsity Club, which was a good choice and everyone seemed to like that group. I think JR would be a part of that faction today. -Foley brings up the Union. I was wondering if they would acknowledge it. There was something very funny about seeing McMahon walking to the ring with a 2X4. I had forgotten he was a part of that group. -JR hated The Spirit Squad but Flair and Foley liked them. -Speaking of Flair and Foley, it's something that those two aren't with the company anymore. Neither is the Rock. Not too many Attitude Era guys left although Flair never counted as one. -Bleeping out the language really annoys me. -I usually think of the Freebirds as more of a tag team but they were an excellent choice as a top faction. The Freebirds and the Hart Foundation didn't get enough time. -Mean Gene is getting up there in years. He was stumbling all over the place in the beginning. -My choice for worst faction...The Paul Jones Army.

JR told a funny story on his blog about when him and Gorilla used to work together, doing international broadcasts and so on. They would have to stop and start over because Monsoon would often go off on today's wrestling. He was an old-timer. I think the WWE really dropped the ball by misuing Steamboat when he came back. Vince was probably still bitter over him leaving in the first place. It worked out just as well. Steamboat went back to WCW and worked awesome angles with The Dangerous Alliance, Austin, Pillman, and Flair.

Yeah, not exactly Murderer's Row. But that was meant to put over how much of a fighting champion Bret Hart was. He wrestled everyone and he wrestled on television frequently, something the WWF Champion didn't do at the time. That was Bret Hart's gimmick, wrestling.

One thing I'm not looking forward to on the upcoming Raw shows is all the editing. I'm not talking about the blurring of logos but the beeping out of langue and Austin's hand gestures being blurred. That is absolutely inexcuseable for what is a On Demand Service that caters to an older audience. You can't even say ass anymore on WWE television.

That was another Heenan classic.

That one was notorious. Even PWI mentioned it. They dubbed in Gorilla saying "What a creep Justice turned out to be!" Which he obviously never said on the original broadcast. As great at the 92 Royal Rumble was, think about the wrestlers who weren't in the match that year -Bret Hart -Hawk and Animal -The Mountie -Owen Hart -Jim Neihart -Earthquake -Typhoon Now, for several years the IC Champion was never in the Royal Rumble. They always had their own title defense on the card. So even if Bret was healthy for the Rumble (as I understand, the whole sickness thing was a work due to Bret re-negoiating his contract), he wouldn't have been in there anyway. But I would have loved to have seen Bret, Owen, and LOD in that Rumble match.

Yep, right after Austin beat the living crap out of Bret. Gorilla was involved in very few angles once he retired but he was definitely a bad***. It was cool that he was around long enough to interact with Austin. Glad he didn't end up getting stunned. I'd pay good money just to hear Gorilla and Heenan announce a match one more time.

I thought Heenan was still pretty good in WCW (though not up to his WWF days) but when the NWO invaded, everyone, including Heenan, became de facto good guys and Heenan's commentary was never the same after that. I hate missing Monsoon/Heenan commentary too. You don't watch Prime Time for the matches, let's just say that.

Heenan going off on Jameson was pretty funny too. He starts ragging on Jameson's suit and Monsoon said you do what you can in these hard times. Heenan asks why Jameson didn't go to school and better him and is now leeching off the government. "With my tax dollars. I paid almost $200 in taxes last year..." "Will you stop?!" "It's not supposed to go to benefit that scumbag!" Later on, The Genius slaps Jameson and Jameson says "he hitted me." This prompts Heenan to reply... "He didn't hit you hard enough, you're still breathing."

If I recall correctly, Shane Douglas actually was a teacher during his years in ECW. That's how the WWE came up with the whole Dean Douglas angle. Flair's the last one to talk about someone having financial/economic problems. With the way he spends money, it probably won't be long until he's wrestling in front of 400 people in a gym.

As I recall, this would be the last MSG card to air on MSG in years.

I saw this Rumble over my cousin's house during Jr. High and it's still my favorite to date. I was rooting for Sid (I know, I know), my cousin was rooting for Flair, and my best friend Hogan. Just an amazing hour of wrestling. -I was pissed when Hogan helped eliminate Sid and one of the best moments ever came after the Rumble where the crowd, for the first time on TV or PPV, really turned on Hogan and rightly so. -Flair's amazing performance also featured him bumping into old rivals. The staredown with Von Erich, the beatdown with Valentine where he is put in his own finisher, as well as wrestling old rivals Snuka and Slaughter. -Love the bit after kissing Piper's ass, Heenan yells "Why you no-good creep! You skirt-wearing freak! I take that back. It's not a kilt, it's a skirt!" -After Flair was the last one standing midway through, I absolutely knew it was going to be Piper who would come out. Flair's scream when Piper pokes him in the eyes is classic.

Tazz had been sadly out of place on these roundtables. Having him on the territory one and not having Lawler or even Mike Graham was absolutely ridiculous, and I like Tazz a lot. Yeah, Tazz hasn't belong on these last few ones. Territory one should have had Pattereson, Hayes, Dusty, Lawler, and Graham. 247/ has actually posted a July 1973 NWA title match with Harley Race up in Stampede Wrestling. Race's first reign lasted just under two months so it's pretty rare footage to have on tape. Stampede has had some gemes before. For Gorilla Monsoon's HOF profile, they showed him intelligent heel Gino Morella in 1960. That was pretty cool footage. You know, there might just be enough Harley Race match footage out there to make an awesome DVD after all.

Well, in 1999, the Rock wrestled with a shirt on because he had fatty cells removed from his pecs because he was juicing. Of course, ask him now and he denies he ever did steroids. Oh yeah, Austin is definitely responsible for the McMahon feud. McMahon acted like a face the first month or so after WM14 when the feud really got started but that just made the fans boo him more.

I had forgotten Neihart was an announcer until I saw him calling matches during MSG Classics. Talk about going in the opposite direction from Bret. He actually faced Flair in one of the Flair's first significant matches on Superstars and Flair won by submission. He kept attacking Neihart's knee. When the refs were helping Neihart back to the locker room, he was attacked by the Beverly Brothers and this set up the formation of The New Foundation with Owen Hart. I was always sorry to see that team not last longer.