TMC1982

These 2 things are not connected. Super Clash 1 in Sept 85 was the Super Card not a PPV I'm refering to the 1988 PPV (the first and only timet that the AWA got on PPV), which united the AWA with World Class and the Memphis group. I don't completely understand that these three promotions (they already had timeslot with ESPN), with their backs against the wall (in the face of the WWF and the NWA/WCW, who had Ted Turner backing them) didn't work better as a cohesive unit. But then again, egos and politics will always get in the way of good business sense.

Apparently, KO was no fan of the McMahon family vs. Shawn Michaels & "God" angle from several years back. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwsVu2w9hho&NR=1

I've heard various stories about Michael Eisner's later years (say, the mid-1990s to 2005, when he left Disney) as Disney's CEO. Basically, after Frank Wells (who was the president and COO of Disney around the same time that Eisner came into the picture) unexpectedly died in a helicopter crash in 1994, Eisner ultimately, became corrupted with too much power. I don't have much time to lay out the entire list of criticisms against Eisner, so I post the following link (relating to the announcement of Eisner being named to the Hollywood Walk of Fame): http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?...er+Walk+of+Fame Also, Walt Disney's nephew, Roy started a campaign to oust Eisner due to in Roy's eyes, micromanagement, failures with the ABC television network, timidity in the theme park business, turning the Walt Disney Company into a "rapacious, soul-less" company, and refusing to establish a clear succession plan, as well as a string of box-office movie failures starting in the year 2000. I haven't really closely examined what Eisner's successor, Bob Iger has been up to until a few days ago: How Bob Iger Unchained Disney USATODAY.com - 10 ways Bob Iger can boost Disney Disney: What Kind of Boss Will Bob Iger Be? Anyway, I've also stumbled across some folks on YouTube, whom have had it out for Igor since becoming the Disney CEO: Michael Eisner vs. Bob Iger Stoppit Bob Iger! Words of "Swiper No Swiping" come to mind Bob Iger: The Worst Disney Villain Pt. 1 Bob Iger: The Worst Disney Villain Pt. 2 Bob Iger: The Worst Disney Villain Pt. 2 B Bob Iger: The Worst Disney Villain Pt. 3 Bob Iger: The Worst Disney Villain Pt. 4

I would say that Shane was an essential part of the "essence" of ECW (he was an anchor of sorts if you ask me), much like Sabu (Shane on the verbal side and Sabu on the physical/athletic side). Guys like Tommy Dreamer were the "heart" of the promotion, since they were there during most of the ups and downs. Raven was also a key component of what made ECW from the pure storytelling standpoint (Shane/Taz/New Jack/Catcus Jack more so in the intense promos category). If anything, I would argue that Sandman could best be considered the closest thing to a "mascot" for ECW. Sandman had the whole blue color, anti-establishment look (i.e. wrestling in his ratty t-shirt, PJs, sneakers, etc.) with the cigarettes, bear, and cane.

I think that Shane Douglas could've fit in during the Attitude Era (where his ECW persona would've fit in easier). When Shane was in the WWF (he was actually there on two seperate occasions, in 1990-1991 and in 1995-1996), they were still in the gimmick-laden, kiddie friendly stage (hence, him becoming Dean Douglas).

Shane Douglas talks about this on the "Forever Hardcore" documentary. He claimed that prior to all of this, he had no personal relations with Dennis Coraluzzo, who went on Mike Tenay's radio show to tell people not to book Shane, that he was unreliable, he took pay from promoters and later, didn't show up, etc. Coraluzzo was later being very two-faced when he finally meets Shane face to face (being nice to him and the like).

John McCain in 2008. He was pretty much Bob Dole in 1996 redux: *Too old, but was essentially there because it was his turn *Didn't really let you know what he stood for clearly enough in contrast to Barack Obama *Was too (whether he liked it or not) associated with the oft criticized Bush/Cheney group *Had Sarah Palin (who was too much of a polarizing figure and didn't display a lot of depth foreign policy knowledge) as a running mate *Was too reluctant to attack Obama on his various associations (i.e. Wright, Resko, Ayres, etc.) *His temperment was put into question besides his age

You think them continuing the show was bigger than one of the biggest stars in the industry murdering his whole family? I thought the PPV continuing thing was really overblown. People were just pissed at Vince, and kind of latched on to this story to persecute him a little. I guess over anger out of letting such a great guy die on his watch. I mean, there have been plenty of examples of shows continuing in the face of a major in-show accident. Its a tough, judgment call. Its not as cut and dried as people make it out. I thought that it was just as if even more of a case of poor taste to have the Undertaker in the main event and win the World Title at Over the Edge '99.

Well go take some Pepto if you can't handle it!

Do I look like Henry Winkler!?

http://www.tvguide.com/jumptheshark Check this out, the site is now basically, a glorified ad filled, promotion, for TV Guide (who purchased the site about two years ago). You can no longer read individual comments and votes about why classic and present TV shows "jumped the shark". At least there's http://www.archive.org to ease the resentment.

Verne Gagne was way too stuck in the past (only technical wrestlers like himself or Nick Bockwinkel should be the champ) to fully get behind Hogan. And that's one of the reasons why the AWA died because Verne Gagne always seemed too steps behind what Vince McMahon and to a certain extent, Ted Turner in WCW going into the '80s. So with Hogan gone, then AWA guys that were left behind ultimately started to use Verne's promotion as a glorified minor league for the WWF.

For instance (in my humble opinion): Ultimate Warrior - The problem with Warrior being "the guy" was number one, Hogan was still pretty visible (with his feud with Earthquake for instance) even though he presumably "passed the torch" to Warrior at WrestleMania VI. Number two, there really wasn't a whole lot of dimensions to Warrior's persona/character (beyond his typical cartoonish Warrior-shtick) like with Hogan or Randy Savage (or any other World Champions from that era). And number three, did Warrior really have a lot of credible contenders for his belt? He's main feud at the time, was with Rick Rude (who for most of his WWF run, wasn't really a true blue main event guy). Lex Luger circa 1991-1992 - He had to live with the fact that he never beat Ric Flair for the belt (because Flair had just left WCW due to issues with managment). Luger beat Barry Windham for the belt, even though, Windham was virtually no where to be found near the main event/World Title scene up until that point. Fans also hated the idea of having Luger turn heel (by having Harley Race come out and help him win the match) that same night. Luger also did it at what's widely considered to be one of the worst PPV's of all time, Great American Bash '91. Larry Zbyszko during the dying days of the AWA (when he came back after spending some time in the AWA) should be up on the list, because he purely became the champ out of neccessity (when Jerry Lawler left over a fiancial dispute with Verne Gange). By 1989-90, the AWA was made up of mostly no name jobbers/new comers, career mid carders, or guys way past there prime (a la Wahoo McDaniel). Zbyszko was primarily given the belt at that point (not only because he was the arguably the biggest heel on the roster) because he was Verne Gagne's son in law (he was the Triple H of that era ). If Verne couldn't make his own son the champ, then he might as well make his son-in-law the champ for security purposes. "Rugged" Ronnie Garvin - When he beat Ric Flair for the NWA title, ratings for "NWA World Championship Wrestling" went from the 4.0 range to about a 2.8 (the quickest drop off in NWA/Jim Crocket Promotions history). Flair said in his book that even though Garvin was the face in their Starrcade '87 match in Chicago, the fans turned on him because according to Flair, Garvin's persona came across as too "Southern". Keep in mind that this was Jim Crockett's attempt at turning his promotion into a national entity to compete with the World Wrestling Federation. Flair added that Dusty Rhodes (though having an otherwise "Southern" persona too) would've gotten over easier because he had much more charisma than Ronnie Garvin. Randy Savage circa 1988-1989 - As much of a mark I am for Randy Savage, I do agree that he seemed to be for the most part, "holding the water" until Hogan came back from filming "No Holds Barred". The fact that Hogan helped the Macho Man win the World Title in the first place also kind of hurts Savage's credibility. It was as if you needed Hogan's "blessing" (just as was the case with Warrior) in order to be accepted as babyface champion. Booker T during the dying days of WCW - The problem with Booker was that by that point, the WCW belt had been crapped upon so badly, that nobody really gave a damn anymore. Also, WCW took too long to push Booker in the main event scene (always relying on Hogan, Nash, Flair, Luger, Savage, Sting and the like). Plus, the fact that Booker likes to brag about being a "five time WCW Champion" gives little credence if you ask me, since by that point, it seemingly became coming practice to play hot potato (especially with Vince Russo around) with the belts. Bret Hart when he first won the World Title in WCW - Bret had already been booked terribly in WCW up until that point. When he finally won the belt, it was via a lousy Vince Russo booked tournament (I think DDP's wife, Kimberly was one of the competitors as well as Madusa). It didn't help matters that by the time that Bret won it, the belt was already scene as a joke (a la "The Fingerpoke of Doom"), and this was I believe, before David Arquette won it. Justin Credible and/or Mike Awesome in ECW Jeff Jarrett in WCW circa 2000 and/or during the early days of TNA Diesel (still supposedly, the worst drawing World Champion in WWF/WWE history) Rey Mysterio (at least, he was one of the worst booked champs in recent memory) Yokozuna - He hadn't been around long when he got the belt, and instead of being pushed as unstoppable, everytime a PPV came round, they pushed it as though he was holding it until Hogan/Luger/Bret/Undertaker beat him. JBL

I'll only be willing to give "Dance Flick" the benefit of the doubt purely because Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer will have nothing to do with this.

"Dropping" the ball usually means there was a chance to do something pretty great in a lot of eyes, and then failing to do so or muffing it up. There was never a real chance to do Austin/Hogan at a WM since their two egos would make it impossible. The closest they could have gotten was WM 19, but I'm not sure if that should really be called dropping the ball. I think Benoit was also injured during most of the invasion if not all of it, so they had a lot of talent on both sides either not signed or injured. Angle and Austin joining the Alliance was pretty much the pits for that whole storyline. Instead of RVD being given the belt and running with it (after Tazz, Shane Douglas, Raven and company left), he had to sit through the likes of Mike Awesome and Justin Credible as World Champs during the last few years of the old ECW.

New Jack's promo against Rhyno: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3mokO4F2rY New Jack is one of those wrestlers, whom you legitimately believe lives and breaths his gimmick. This is why I love the original ECW, because the wrestlers were given carte blanche over their promos unlike WWE or WCW back in the day.

That's I kicked your leg out of your leg!

Also Hulk Hogan choking out Richard Belzer.

SNICK for those who don't recall, was the Saturday night block on Nickelodeon spanning from 1992-2004. It was a key component in what I would otherwise consider to be the "glory days"/golden age of Nickelodeon. SNICK went hand and hand with TGIF on ABC (both were essentially, weekend appointment TV if you were a kid growing up in the '90s). SNICK had shows such as (but not limited to) "Clarissa Explains it All", "Roundhouse", "Ren & Stimpy", "Are You Afraid of the Dark", "The Secret World of Alex Mack", "All That", "Space Cases", "The 100 Deeds of Eddie McDowd", "KaBlam!", "The Journey of Allen Strange", "Kenan & Kel", "The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo", etc. To me, SNICK started to go downhill when they got rid of the big orange couch (which around June of 1999). Believe it or not, the orange couch was the heart and soul of SNICK (and helped create SNICK's identity in the first place). Another thing that hurt the block in my estimation was when Nickelodeon started to drift away from the formula (besides the couch getting tossed aside). SNICK worked best when the block was made up of one live-action sitcom (e.g. "Clarissia..." and "Kenan & Kel"), one Nicktoon (e.g. "Ren & Stimpy" and "Rugrats"), one musical-comedy-variety show (e.g. "Roundhouse" and "All That"), and one wild card show (e.g. "Alex Mack", Space Cases", "Allen Strange", "Eddie McDowd", etc.). Things were only made worst, when Nickelodeon tried to take SNICK into a completely different direction, with the "SNICK House" concept (with Nick Cannon as the host). It seemed like Nickelodeon was trying to copy what MTV was doing at the time with "Total Request Live". What people seemed to forget was that the shows themselves are what made SNICK not celebrity guests or music videos. By the time that the SNICK House had run its course around the summer of 2001, it seemed apparent that Nickelodeon wasn't really trying anymore. There were basically, throwing shows around at random, with the SNICK name attached. At this point, they were using "elevator music" in the background with still photos and "talking bubbles" of the various SNICK stars. By the fall of 2002, SNICK introduced a segment called "The On Air Dare", in which the cast of "All That" would perform acts that resembled does seen on "Fear Factor". Once again (as with the case with the SNICK House), Nickelodeon seemed to be throwing stuff in the air to see if they would stick (instead of simply following the tried and true formula and essence of SNICK in the past). By the fall of 2004, Nick got rid of SNICK completely in favor of a second night of their TEENick block (which with in itself, resembles the SNICK House concept). The problem that I have with TEENick (not just because, the purist in me wishes that Nickelodeon had kept a hold of the SNICK brand) is that a lot of the shows on their schedule are already overexposed (like "iCarly" and "Drake & Josh" for example). Nickelodeon's programming has become awfully homogenized by this time (virtually every note worthy live-action show has to be a tween-oritened sitcom, like those on the Disney Channel at the moment).

From (after Game 6 of the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals on "The CBS Sports Spectacular") 1981-1989 (prior to the 1990 All-Star Game on NBC), there wasn't a single National Hockey League game that was nationally televised on broadcast, over-the-air television. Even so, from 1990-1994, only the All-Star Game on NBC and a selected number of Sunday afternoon games on ABC (which were basically, time buys from ESPN) marked the only occasions in which the NHL was on broadcast, national TV. In the mean time, after losing their network contract with NBC in 1975 (they're last legitimate network deal before the 1994-95 deal with FOX), the NHL had to piece together their "own network" with the help of the Hughes Television Network, in a syndication package known as "The NHL Network". After The NHL Network disbanded in I believe, 1979, the NHL's only national TV deals came via the USA Network, ESPN, and SportsChannel America respectively. The SportsChannel deal beginning in 1988 was pretty much a step down because even though they paid more in rights fees than ESPN, SportsChannel was only available in about 1/3 the amount of homes that ESPN was at the time. Even worse, SportsChannel America didn't have a whole lot of real programming beyond the NHL. One of the biggest mistakes ever made during the John Zeigler (who was the NHL Commissioner from 1975-1992) regime besides not fully capitalizing on Wayne Gretzky's prime/popularity via major national TV contracts was not capitalizing on the renewed interest in hockey in the United States post-Miracle on Ice. All that the NHL really did immediately after the 1980 Winter Olympics was get the sixth game of the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals on "The CBS Sports Spectacular" (as I had previously mentioned). The NHL pretty much shot themselves in the foot in 1994-95. They were coming off the heels of the New York Rangers' historic Stanley Cup victory, they had just received a major TV contract with FOX (who promised to advertise the hell out of the NHL), and they could've really filled in the void left by Major League Baseball when they went on strike. So what happens, the NHL has a lockout! They pretty much wound up blowing their big shot with FOX (it was rumored that FOX was willing to broadcast every single Stanley Cup Finals game). The next TV contract with ABC/ESPN, wound up getting them lost in the shuffle so to speak. ABC hardly promoted the game (the NHL seemed to expect their sister chanel ESPN to do much of the dirty work). Plus, it seemed quite evident that it would be only a matter of time before ESPN would deem hockey irrelevant once it seemed apparent that they didn't really need them anymore (which turned out to be the case once they got the NBA in 2002-03). The NHL sank even further into the abyss by going through another lockout, which canceled the entire season! When it was finally time to get back to work, all that they could muster was a revenue sharing deal with NBC (in which the NHL virtually has little power or say over) and a cable deal with an otherwise obscure (albeit still growing) channel known as OLN (now Versus).

Randy Savage: IV and V - Main events VI - Throwaway match with Sherri against Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire VII - Retirement match VIII - WWF title match IX - Commentator Brock Lesnar: XIX - Winning the WWE Championship from Kurt Angle in the main event XX - Facing Goldberg in a terrible match, with the fans chanting against both men the whole match Lex Luger: X - WWF title contender XI - opening against Jacob and Eli Blu Ultimate Warrior: VI - Winning the WWF Championship against Hulk Hogan VII - Winning a retirement match against Randy Savage VIII - Run in during the Hogan-Sid match. XII - Squash match against Triple H Roddy Piper: Main evented the first ever WrestleMania with Hogan, Paul Orndorff and Mr. T to A cheesy boxing match with Mr. T at WrestleMania 2 (the New York portion) to The six match on the WrestleMania III card against Adrian Adonis to A "Piper's Pit" segment with Morton Downey Jr. at WrestleMania V King Kong Bundy: He went from defeating SD Jones in a squash match, to wrestling Hulk Hogan in the main event, to wrestling midgets, to missing seven Manias, to losing to Undertaker in 6:30 minutes, to not appearing on another WM again. Paul Orndorff: Went from main eventing WrestleMania I to a forgetable opening match at WrestleMania 2. Chris Jericho: Jericho goes from main eventing XVIII to having a match in the dead center of XIX to having a match early on in XX. Andre the Giant: I: Wins the Bodyslam Challenge against Studd, the 2nd or 3rd main event. II: Wins the WWF/NFL Battle Royal. III: Loses to Hogan in the biggest match in wrestling history (at least at that point). IV: Double DQ with Hogan in quarterfinals of tournament. V: DQ loss to Jake. VI: Loses Tag Titles to Demolition. VII: Makes a brief appearance on crutches due to his failing health Booker T: XIX: World Title match vs. Triple H XX: Wins midcard Fatal Four Way Tag Match XXI: Wins pre-show Battle Royal XXII: Jobs to The Boogeyman in 3 minutes (in a Handicap Match!) Ted DiBiase: He reaches the finals in IV, then is third from the bottom against Brutus Beefcake at V, then a countout win and a countout loss in VI and VII respectively, and in Money Inc., a countout loss and a DQ win in VIII and IX respectively.

Get a grip! I'm not necessarily thinking strickly on the mainstream media, but rather in general or as a whole.

Does anybody know exactly why there's so much animosity between the two parties now a days? I know that Flair said on his WWE DVD that his fall out with Ole really began when he returned to WCW after spending about two and a half years in WWF/E. Ole, who at the time, was doing the booking (and I think, had taken over for Bill Watts after he left WCW) said the Flair's face, that he didn't believed that he no longer had much value to WCW (having just jobbed to Curt Hening on "Monday Night RAW"). Flair took great offense to that since ever since he abruptly left WCW (without ever really dropping the World Title in the ring), crowds at every show were chanting "We want Flair!" And then, I stumbled across this clip from a shoot interview with Ole: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pZX0PE0RqE Ole essentially, considers the idea of Flair taking the NWA title with him to WWF's TV shows a joke since by 1991, the NWA was pretty much, an "in-name only" type of organization. Honestly, I think that a large portion of Ole's bitterness stems from his hatred of Vince McMahon's successful national expansion. This pretty much made the regional wrestling promotion model (and the NWA by extension of this) obsolute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swVxYHUsQ5g

Sting's promo on "Impact" about how today's wrestlers don't respect those who came before them: Ricky Steamboat and Randy Savage's promos against each other prior to their famous WrestleMania III match also sticks out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7Jk6rgNivE Ric Flair's shoot (approximately 98% according to Flair) promo against Eric Bischoff the night he came back to WCW following a six month long exile also frequently stands out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et7KRoFs-F8 Other great "intense" promos off the top of my head include him (while wearing a neck brace) chasing after Dick Slater and Bob Orton with an baseball bat after they accepted Harley Race's bounty on Flair's head (leading up to their Starrcade '83 match), and Flair's promo against Vince McMahon on the final episode of "Nitro". Roddy Piper bottles himself to prove a point against the Sheepherders (a.k.a. the Bushwhackers): Hogan's promo the night he turned heel at Bash at the Beach '96 and founded the nWo: Joey Styles' worked shoot on "RAW" about his hatred of sports entertainment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuB57dkCZLY...feature=related Shane Douglas' promo the night that he threw down the NWA World Title: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waBUA6Vfxt8 Mick Foley's (as Catcus Jack) "anti-hardcore" promos in ECW: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA7ohppxBJI Paul Heyman's promo against Vince McMahon about how Vince stole ECW's ideas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vswZ73WETpc...feature=related Shawn Michaels' promo against Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan in Montreal on "RAW": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-IeavUJdUA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQWXYW3A1bw...feature=related I love the fact that Shawn could still turn the switch (even with his current "Born again Christian" image) and be an arrogant, obnoxious douchbag just like in the '90s.

I was reading some "FAQ" references to the National Wrestling Alliance, and how is gradually self-imploded and became a shell of itself: The NWA up until the late 1980s, was (along with the WWF and AWA) one of the most prominent wrestling organizations in America if not the entire world. I to would argue that the "real" NWA died when Jim Crockett sold his super territory to Ted Turner. Turner Broadcasting had the TV time, the money, the talent (e.g. Ric Flair, Sting, Lex Luger, Road Warriors, etc.), that the other NWA promotions didn't remotely come close to obtaining. Paul Heyman and Shane Douglas pissing all over the NWA belt, and giving rise to ECW didn't help matters from a credibility standpoint. By the late '90s, the NWA was all but forgotten with WWF, WCW, and ECW as the top promotions in America. The NWA is now simply a group of indy guys that walk around and beat their chest proclaiming "We're from the NWA!" The National Wrestling Alliance seems so, out of touch with the times that all that they have to so for themselves, is their past glory (which unfortunately, was intercepted and fused with World Championship Wrestling). The NWA for one thing, needs to figure out a way to get on TV. And that CoLours TV network or whatever the hell it's called doesn't count. It has to be on an outlet that most of the public has remotely heard of.