Darth Pipes

I wouldn't count on seeing that on 24/7 nowadays.

Oh, that was the guy who gave Arn a good match? That guy did have a lot of talent.

Austin definitely makes sense. Especially now, when you know he's never going to wrestle again. Just how insane, annoying, and disrespectful are the fans in attendence going to be this year with Austin there.

I've heard McMahon dropped a shoot comment when Lawler said the RR the previous year ended in a tie and Vince said that wouldn't happen again. About the IC Championship...Razor Ramon would regain the IC title from Jeff Jarrett later that year. It was historic because after more than 15 years of the IC title, Ramon became the first three-time IC Champion. That should have been treated as a big deal, the problem was it happened at an untelevised house show. Jarrett would regain the title three days later, becoming the second three-time IC Champion. The info was mentioned on Superstars and Raw but it was a little-known title swap. HBK would become the three three-time champion later that year and Ramon would then win it for a fourth time.

Another very good show this week. -New National Champion announced in Wahoo McDaniel and the U.S. Tag Team title tournment is also announced. -Cornette is gold here once again and buries the hatchet with Baby Doll -Garvin calls out Jimmy Garvin and again says "he was a male dancer in San Fransisco." -Flair fights a tough match with a jobber. Flair always made good but I do sometimes question the logic of him, as the World Champion, making even jobbers look like gold. Jim Cornette wrote in his book how the WWF was portraying Hogan at this time as a dominant champion who won his matches in 7-8 minutes while Flair was losing his title to Dusty every night, only to have the decision reversed on a technicality. -The show ends in a short but awesome brawl involving the Horsemen. Quite frankly, everyone had something good to do on this show today. It's weird watching Magnum here because six weeks after this show, he's get in the car accident that ended his career and almost his life.

Not to mention Dusty Rhodes's "common man" gimmick of working multiple jobs and Doink being a clown. I remember IRS doing Bobby Heenan's taxes and declaring that Bobby only had to pay $200. Which Heenan noted at the Royal Rumble in a rant about Jameson. What's interesting is that prior jobs helped create future gimmicks. Ray Traylor was a former prison guard. Paul Bearer worked a summer as an actual pallbearer. Another thing that hurt the Royal Rumble in 95 is that two of the biggest wrestlers at that time, Owen Hart and Bob Backlund, were both eliminated by Bret Hart to further his feud with them.

True. But I have to admit I always found Sherri to be sexy as hell.

Very good Prime Time today, from New Year's Eve 1987. Gorilla and the Brain are back at Caesar's Palace, bickering as always. A few notes from the show... -Ted Dibiase appears as the special guest of Bobby Heenan. This would set up Dibiase buying Andre's contract shortly thereafter and lead to Hogan losing the title. -Features Jake Roberts vs HTM for the Intercontinental title. Really a glorified punchfest but still worth a view. We get The Bulldogs vs the Islanders were Heenan and company steal Mathilda. Watch as the Bulldogs fall on their butts going after her. -We get first mention of The Royale Rumble. Some interesting notes...The Killer Bees vs Demolition is announced for the card and we never get that match, unless it was the dark match. Monsoon calls the RR a "free gift to the fans of the WWF." More like Vince's second attempt to screw over Jim Crockett, who was holding the NWA's first real PPV that night. -We get footage of the Slammys, featuring some (but not all) of the kickass brawl between Jim Duggan and Harley Race. Also we're "treated" to a performance of Stand Back by Vincent Kennedy McMahon. -Gorilla makes a total falsehood twice during the show, stating that Jake Roberts is a former IC Chamipion trying to get his title back from HTM. -More on the Patera/Hayes vs Demoltion feud, one I don't remember at all.

How about his attitude in regards to Funk's injury? He's in no great rush to help him and seems bothered by the whole thing. It's pretty funny actually.

Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling 11/18/81 – One of wrestling’s most storied territories makes its debut on WWE 24/7 Classics. Follow great NWA action, beginning in November 1981, as Jake “The Snake” Roberts teams with Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat to battle the Super Destroyer and the Grappler. Other top stars featured include future WWE Hall of Famers Sgt. Slaughter and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. This is what I'm looking forward to. Mid-Atlantic kicked ***!

I think yesterday marked 10 years since the airing of Foley's WWF title victory. I can't believe it's been that long. That means it's been 10 years since the Fingerpoke of Doom and the last time WCW was ever a serious threat.

I remember reading an interview with McMahon in 95 or 96 where he said the cost of doing a live show was over $100,000 and that's why they didn't do many of them. I think it was in April or May of 1999 when USA picked up the tab to ensure that Raw was live every week. With the money the company was making at the time, it's not a surprise. I was at one of the last taped Raw shows that year.

He could do that with cemetaries filled with dead wrestlers I'm afraid.

I always questioned this story although I heard it straight from Taker's mouth on OTR. The reason being is HBK had a bad back. Why would he want to hold the title and not be able to wrestle? It doesn't make sense. His condition he had to lose the belt. You can tell in the match with Austin he was hurt. Yeah, he was all right the first few minutes but when he started bumping around, you could see how much pain he was in.

What I enjoyed was how Jesse just ripped apart Dusty and Sapphire. Funny and he just did not like them. They were hyping the Mike Tyson thing for a while. It had always been a dream match of sorts to have Hulk Hogan vs Mike Tyson. Then Douglas happened and that was the end of Tyson. Though of course, the WWE eventually worked with him eight years later.

Yes, I mean SNME. My bad. Sherri wasn't beautiful like Elizabeth was but she was sexy as hell.

Jesse looks awful on this show. You could see the fire of SNL was burning out at this point. Still, Hogan/Warrior vs Hennig/Genius is a good match that has an interesting moment toward the end of the match. Jake/Valentine is surprisngly not bad either.

Cornette did reference that. I think the broadcasting duties on the taped Raw were done after the fact.

Might be easily the least talented Royal Rumble roster of all-time.

The Jerry Lawlor HOF profile features his empty arena match between him and Terry Funk. It's been on 24/7 alone but good God, Funk was all kinds of awesome. Nonstop cursing and screaming throughout the segment (with an hysterical, hyperventilating voice), Funk was definitely a sports entertainer before the WWF started using that phrase. I remember during the ECW One Night Stand two years ago people were wondering if he had really injured his eye. I knew he hadn't...his been doing that "MY EYE! OH GOD, GET A DOCTOR!" rountine for 25 years.

Among the Shorties is the Colesium Home Video rematch from WMVI between Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire w/Elizabeth vs Randy Savage and Queen Sherri w/ Brother Love. Although not exactly a technical classic, it's a lot better and more entertaining than their WM encounter. A few notes... 1) Gorilla and Heenan are pure gold here. Gorilla especially. Here's an exchange between the two... Heenan: "Sherri has eyes for Brother Love." Monsoon: "She has eyes for anything wearing a pair of pants!" Also a fun one where Monsoon says Elizabeth is a "10" and when Heenan asks about Sapphire, Gorilla said she's a minus-three. Heenan says they finally agree on something then Gorilla asks if he meant looks or in-ring talent. 2) It's sad to think that all three women involved in this match (Elizabeth, Sherri, and Sapphire) are all dead. Something very ****ed up about that. Another interesting bit in the shorties is from the AWA in 1980. Lord Alfred vs Bobby Heenan.

Snuka was disgustingly juiced on this show. -The Mountie's promo and Gorilla talking about him was classic. He does acknowledge whom he used to be. Monsoon's reaction to Heenan smashing his gift was classic. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Also love the bit with George Steinbrenner in the audience cheering on Heenan and Perfect. The strangest thing might have been Lord Alfred constantly saying how baseball did an injustice by kicking him out. As a Giant fan, noticed Heenan talking about Phil Simms getting injured. This would lead to Hostedler taking over and the Giants winning the Super Bowl. Good times!

Yeah, I was hoping to see that New Year's special too. They should really air it next week. Fun banter from Gorilla and Heenan. I wish they had the Prime Time from 1989 where Heenan had to dress up as Santa and then he tells the kids Santa is a "swerve" and doesn't exist. This leads to Roddy Piper hitting the studio and beating him up (with comedic grunting) and getting fired from the show. I remember being pissed as a kid when he wasn't back. I miss the old Update segments and the ones used to hype PPV. Wish they could have shown more of Hennig/Von Erich. Von Erich was his usual coked out self during his brief promo.

There was a fun exchange between Monsoon and Heenan on that Prime Time episode... Heenan: "They've been treating me great. They had a sign at the hotel saying "Blue Eyes is back in town."" Monsoon: "That's Frank Sinatra, Brain." Heenan: "Who?" Monsoon "You keep talking like that, you might find yourself sleeping with the fishes." Heenan: "He's going to take me scuba diving?"

As Mankind once said, Ken Shamrock's interviews are the second leading cause of teen suicide.