cawthon777

Anthony was TL Hopper, who spent his time outside of the ring working as a plumber.

I've yet to come across a WWF match he was involved in.

DDP's last TV match was in May against Bob Holly I think he was referring to Bossman.

May 93, just 4 weeks after WrestleMania. Bret Hart vs. Lex Luger and Mr. Perfect vs. Shawn Michaels. Hell yes it was worth it. The tickets were only $16 but they were reasonably close and I got to see a number of guys leave after the show (HBK and Razor left together which was odd since they were scheduled to fight at the following month's show in Baltimore ... Razor was still a heel at this point).

I don't believe the SMW guys like Tracey Smothers, Tony Anthony, etc showed up until the following year ... but 1995 did indeed blow like no other.

I wouldn't read into house show lineups too much. A lot can change between now and then. For instance, prior to WrestleMania, the main event for April's Raw show in Roanoke was Booker vs. Triple H. By the time of the show, it was changed to the Backlash 6-man tag. Mark Henry already started teaming with Mack at house shows. The main event for the September 13th Smackdown show in Roanoke is Kurt Angle vs. Brock for those that are interested. Hopefully they'll keep that as the headliner since I already bought tickets.

I used to have a ton of archived LAW shows (98-01) and interviews saved on my computer that I recorded with Real Player Plus. ...Then one day I goofed and deleted them all ... including the Bret Hart tribute show just days after he retired

It's been years since I've seen either but I do remember them being quality. Not sure if you guys know this or not but Flair was supposed to be Arn's partner for the Starrcade 90 match but he was "injured", and replaced with Windham, only to show up under the mask of the Black Scorpion in the main event.

I've had the same tape for about 3 years. You're right, it is quality stuff. It includes full matches from the 2nd day, from both the tag tournament as well as Flair vs. Windham for the world title. I also have the commercial master of the event. Although most of the tag matches are heavily clipped, at least more than one camera is used.

Initially I figured it was a work but they had me going for a minute or two - at least until Steiner and Stacy were standing on the ring apron and you could see the swerve coming a mile away.

Virginia Pride: Magnum TA (Virginia Beach) Shame: Tony Atlas (Roanoke) Maven (Charlottesville) Any others?

You can add Rick Rude, Tom Zenk, Brady Boone, John Nord, Barry Darsow, and Nikita Koloff to that list. They along with Perfect all went to the same high school. Might want to check this out: http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Arena/9...93/class_76.htm I'm fairly certain the LOD are from MN, if not they spent a considerable amount of time there before breaking into the biz. There's always the former governor of MN, Bob Backlund, as well as Scott Norton.

Greg Valentine was billed as being from Seattle.

I don't know exactly how long he was incarcerated but I assume, with how long it takes for a case to go to trial, it was around a year if not less. He was back in the WWF by September 96.

I don't really have any problems with Hogan-Bundy from a booking standpoint. From March 85 to the SNME in which Bundy jumped Hogan, Bundy dominated everyone he faced - save for Andre and Hogan in singles matches (which I don't believe were televised nationally). So you have the huge unbeatable Bundy, who already sent Hogan to the hospital once, against the world champion, who was still suffering rib injuries, in a steel cage match. Bundy would have to be favored by many due to his size and health advantages - even if he only held the title briefly. As far as who else would have been a credible top contender at that point... Since the Wrestling Classic wasn't THAT far in the past, it would have been easy to pull off Hogan vs. Piper in a blowoff. Maybe even involve Orndorff and Bob Orton Jr. as corner men and then have the Orndorff heel turn after if not during the match. Then have Piper make the save - but make it look like it was just Piper attacking Orndorff for a previous cheap shot rather than Piper coming to Hogan's aid. In the meantime, Orton is either knocked out or sent backstage - so the Piper / Orton relationship and Orton's reaction to the aftermath of the match can play out later on TV. Savage would have been a solid contender but, IMO, it was too soon to pair him off against Hogan on such a big stage. An IC title defense was probably best for his character at that point in order to put more heel heat on him against a sympathetic challenger. If not Steele then I would have used Tito Santana in a title rematch, with Tito getting a count-out win (two pinfall losses against Savage in such a short period of time would have killed the feud and Tito's heat). Don Muraco was too far down the totem pole but that's not to say the WWF couldn't have pulled it off. He gave Hogan a series of quality matches during the summer of 85, culminating in a steel cage match at MSG. With proper buildup, it would have given Muraco a much better spot on the card than a meaningless draw with Orndorff.

My best guess is that it was a local rookie. I've never heard of him but with a name like that I wouldn't be surprised if it was something they came up with on the spot and just threw a mask on him.

When have you known Vince to copy exact storylines from any other company? Talent, yes. Image, yes. But something like that would be a bit much - and WCW was already on their way to kicking the WWF's ass in regards to ratings. So using a 3-year old WCW storyline to try to beat WCW probably wouldn't have worked out too well. I think the WWF's version of Cactus was Gorilla Monsoon ... but of course that didn't have the lasting effect since Gorilla was in his 60s and hadn't wrestled in nearly 20 years.

Shortly after the 1995 Royal Rumble, he was busted in Hawaii for possession of controlled substances (steroids among other things) and he might have had a few illegal firearms in addition to that. He worked the 95 Rumble but hadn't been on TV for several months prior (August 94, I believe) so I'm not sure if he was under contract at the time.

The Giant was in the front row at The Great American Bash in 95. The camera stayed on him for a few seconds at a time and I believe he took a swipe at Jimmy Hart when Hart got too close to the ringside barrier. By the way they put him on camera, it was clear he was going to be pushed big the moment he got in the ring - I just didn't expect it would be against Hogan. He might have shown up once or twice afterwards and then he appeared at Bash at the Beach during The Main Event preshow, a few hours before Hogan fought Vader in the cage. After that PPV is when they really started hyping up the Dungeon of Doom, of which the Giant became a part. At Fall Brawl, he attacked Hogan after Wargames - when Hogan earned 5 minutes in the ring with Kevin Sullivan - and snapped his neck with a weak looking move. Then at Havoc, the two had their monster truck contest and world title match (which was the Giant's TV wrestling debut).

He was supposed to be pushed big but I don't know the details of what they had planned. I remember watching that show live (my first COTC) and thinking the segment was more stupid than funny (although, in retrospect - it's pretty damn funny). Me thinking it was stupid was simply because this 'nobody' was hyped up by Sting, put in the main event of a PPV, was made part of Wargames, had on a sparkling storm trooper's helmet, and talked like he was the devil.

Shouldn't there be some kind of *spoiler* warning to go with this thread?

Someone in the crowd filmed it so try looking around on the net.

WWF @ Yokohama, Japan - Yokohama Arena - May 7, 1994 WWF World Champion Bret Hart defeated Randy Savage with the Sharpshooter at 17:48; Savage played the heel for the match WWF @ Osaka, Japan - Osaka Castle Hall - May 9, 1994 WWF World Champion Bret Hart & Randy Savage defeated Owen Hart & Adam Bomb at 13:35 when Hart applied the Sharpshooter on Bomb That's it for the Japanese tour in regards to those two.

That wouldn't be a fair comparison, partially due to how the economy is right now, NY taxes, etc.

No, that was a previous segment done before the Survivor Series. I believe the police were involved and Austin kept saying "Arrest me! Arrest me!", knowing they wouldn't since the PPV was just weeks away.